Posts by Neil Barnes 3900 posts • joined 18 Apr 2007
But... (a) All my computers have USB-A sockets suitable for RF dongle thingies (I know, I know, get with the times, grandpa); (b) current batteries last so long it's always a surprise when they run out after months and months and months; and (c) no way am I ever going to pay eighty of our finest English pounds for a mouse!
You made exactly the same point I was about to: the value of any object is and always will be exactly what it can be sold for. If the admin in question is willing to pay a couple of thousand dollars for a product retailing at at under a tenth of that, then to him they are worth it... doesn't matter whether it's a pair of shoes or a sports or music event ticket.
If people stop buying from scalpers, scalping will stop. But because they're trained to want the new shiny *now* then there will continue to be instant profits to be made, and people will continue to find ways to make them...
A fair point: I fly a paraglider in shared airspace with fixed-wing gliders (Dunstable Downs/LGC) and visibility (and speed differential) means I keep a very good eye out. At least we never approach you from behind; even on finals you guys have fifty kph or more on us :)
My control approached was based on a careful analysis of, oh, maybe five seconds. Perhaps the emphasis should be the other way: the driver has control, but the robot logs where it would have done it differently. In any case, the driver should have ultimate control - and should be alert and driving.
But as pointed out above it was an impossible one. People have a hard enough time keeping alert when they're in (allegedly) full control of a vehicle, particularly if they've been driving for some time on that journey, and particularly particularly if the environment is largely unchanging, such as a motorway. That said, it certainly sounds - from the admittedly thin reporting on the subject that I have seen - that the driver was goofing off on the job.
While I am not enthused by automated driving other than as a technical tour-de-force, I wonder if one way to maintain the alertness might be to allow the robot to control the car but require the driver to provide control inputs at all times - steering, brake, throttle, indicators etc. Monitor both sets of inputs, and when the driver's input differs from the robot's by some predetermined amount, then decide to take action (e.g. driver brakes when robot doesn't, driver then has control). It would require a lot of careful thought about implementation, and steering in particular might be an interesting design challenge, but that's what test circuits are for long before you get the thing onto a road.
It's certainly reasonable to expect an ANPR robot, or a parking enforcement officer, to understand the difference even if the owner of the plate doesn't. (I just sold a car with 03OU as the first digits.)
Bloody hell, MISRA compliance checkers know the difference when looking at variable names and sulk if they see one where it can be misread by a fleshy meatsack.
I'm an old luddite, and have never even considered an apple watch, nor anything similar. What I have bought recently, for about the same price, is a mechanical watch which (a) winds itself up using the movement of my arm - technology invented in 1780, (b) has a five year guarantee, and (c) can reasonably be expected to work, given necessary servicing every now and then, for the rest of my life... and probably my grandkid's life as well (my grandfather's watch still works from before WW1).
Of course, all it does is tell me the time. But I am not wedded to my phone and for me the benefits of a smart watch simply don't register. I do appreciate that for many they do, but not for me...
I wonder what the orbital period of the smaller satellite is? The primary isn't terribly large, and is probably not endowed with huge gravity. Even with a close orbit as apparent in the pictures, I'm guessing it's still pretty slow. Anyone knowledgeable in these things?
Edit: I discovered it has its own Wikipedia page, which lists the secondary period as a tad over 16 hours. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(175706)_1996_FG3
2025 - alternative designs arrive and also deliver samples
2026 - some of the alternate designs observe it is easier to hijack loads already collected by other robots
2027 - hijacked robots discover ways to retrieve their cargo while damaging the hijackers
2028 - robots begin to group together both for attack and defence
2029 - robots discover they can re-use parts of other robots to improve their capabilities
2030 - robots form societies with trading for both robot parts and moon samples
2031 - NASA completely buried under the amount of samples delivered
2032 - robots begin to look at that big blue thing in the sky and wonder...
And it's hard to be honest, to think of any. Certainly there are cases when I have called a company, and their return call is unidentified, but if I'm expecting something I'll answer it. But anyone who *isn't* on my contacts list can either sod off or leave a message.
There are *no* circumstances where I will be interested in a random company calling me to try and sell something - whether google have approved them or not.
My blood glucose meter uses a rigid(ish) plastic strip which plugs into - and activates - the meter electronics. The end is held onto a pinprick spot of blood and capillary action takes a tiny sample of the blood along the strip to where the sensor (whatever that is) is. Electrical contacts from the device permit the magic to be done.
It would seem that a similar system could perhaps encapsulate the sensor strip on the pregnancy test paper and hold the stripes under a sensor - but as pointed out elsewhere it's not obvious where the market would be, other than in a doctor's surgery or for someone trying to get pregnant and testing regularly.
I suspect though that the most common use case might be - oh no, am I? Oh, thank heavens, no... (though as a married bloke whose kids came along with the package I am totally unqualified to speculate on that). And if someone is likely to find themselves having to purchase tests for that reason on a regular basis, they've perhaps got more immediate issues than worrying about wasting plastic - and perhaps they're not likely to consider multiple use testers.
Because, hey, hundreds of times nothing happened at all, right?
Thanks also for that. I shall have to investigate further; my German us still not as good as I would like but I see no mention of useful information such as battery life, any requirements to register to use it, and compatibility with Calibre. All of my books (except one, bought to see how it worked) are already unencrypted epubs and I have no intention of changing that.
But it does definitely look worth further investigation.
Um... apparently not. The option to use a separate search box still - on this machine - does not stop the address bar calling up the default search engine if you type a random word/phrase in it.
Or have I misunderstood you?
I would like the address bar to return either a valid web page, or a 404 not found.
I'm not sure stupid is the word. Ill-informed, or ill-advised, perhaps? The whole online marketing thing is designed to make it absolutely painless to purchase online - Amazon, Ebay and no doubt others want you to just click and go.
There's a psychological block, I think, about handing over five pound notes. Using plastic doesn't tend to trigger the same thoughtful response, and click to buy is an absolute menace.
A true engineer, even though it wasn't him who fixed the computer. Every engineer, irrespective of his field, owns multiple hammers.
(mine range from one weighing less than an ounce (for initial threats to clocks and watches) to a fourteen pound lump hammer (for threatening walls and/or car parts)).
Photos or any other data - if it's not on a storage device owned by you, entirely under your control, and in an open format that can be read by non-proprietory software... it's not your data.
Full stop.
(And for safety, copied in multiple places, ideally in different cities. Or planets).
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