Posts by Shadowmanx2012 44 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Oct 2012
"You forget the fact that traveling in a vacuum at airliner speeds makes these things a prime target for terrorism."
By which token, nothing in the modern world is safe and terrorism has won! The very thing that allows us to communicate over distances and engage in forum post is also posing one of the greatest threats to national security.
And I haven't even mentioned the (seemingly) unstoppable rise of A.I.!
"Buying a vehicle = jumping into a cult?"
Apparently so, for people that have a problem with progression!
Look, I don't agree with some of the things Tesla have done with cars i.e., removing stalks on their latest models or removing LIDAR/parking sensors. Yet, some features like the cameras are a great addition.
Not every new idea "works" but generally enough of them do which is called progress.
Though not all progress is good IMHO!
Unfortunately, people will hear a story about poor build quality which then "sticks" in their mind for all time. Tesla have had build issues but then so have most of the major car manufacturers.
What people tend to forget is they they are still a new car company when compared to most of the competition, so this will be a reason for many of the build issues. My impression is that of late, many of those issues have been resolved, but of course, that tends not to be as "popular" a story!
Do I think this latest idea is a good one? Not sure, but then there is a reason why I don't have a multibillion dollar company, I don't like taking risks but clearly he does and who knows, it may pay off or it may not.
The issue I feel here is one of emotions vs logic. On that basis, nuclear will lose as most people know little or nothing apart from the line nuclear = bad, encouraged by the Greens and other environmental groups.
As mentioned elsewhere, some countries have been persuaded to close down their nuclear plants only to have to replace them with much "dirtier" techonologies.
We (governments) need to start a program of education on the massive benefits of nuclear even with the associated detriments regarding waste disposal.
Or to put it simpler, do people want the lights to stay on into the future or not?
"As a species we need to get off this rock just in case dint what to be a dinosaur"
They naysayers would say stop "wasting" money on space research when we need it down here to feed starving children/save the planet/fight climate change and so on. To which I would reply, every child leaves home eventually, this is Mankind's home and we really should start thinking seriously about leaving it!
"Then you have the bollocks that is and soon to be was Ultraviolet. What a load of shit that was. i tried once to use it and had to sign up to about 3 other fucking services before getting the movie. I fucking gave up. Now appears they are shutting down the service on 31 July this year. So assume that means you'll no longer have access to them once shut down? You also couldn't move the movies to another device so pretty much shit."
Have never been suckered in by these "services". Much prefer to buy the media and rip it to my own system then I can stream around my network as much as I like.
"You're not getting off this treadmill, we've got you now. You should have stayed with the retail versions when you had the chance but you jumped at the shiny trinkets we offered you because you're just as greedy as we are."
Which is precisely why we are still using the older, purchased versions of the software! Anyone could see this coming from a mile away.
People can't say that they weren't warned.!
One slightly easier option is to retain the ISP provided router but not to use it
This is exactly what I ended up doing when I was with Sky and it made life so much easier as I would swap it back for "trouble shooting" then remove it again afterwards.
Worked well.
The problem is most likely that they "tested" it with people who knew the product and so treated it with kid gloves. This is unrealistic as when it is released into the "wild" it will be subjected to all manner of uses probably most of which were not anticipated by the designers.
Reminds me of Apples phone wear holding it the "wrong" way caused it to drop phone calls. Except the "wrong" way was how many (most?) people actually used it.
"That's why the out-in-the-sticks people still don't have broadband at all, but I can get 300Mbps just by paying for it. That's why there's no mobile phone coverage at all in 5% of the country and it will stay that way."
Belatedly some parts of the "establishment" are coming around to that view:
Replace HS2 Project with fibre rollout
AJ
“The ability to deploy a swarm of low cost autonomous systems delivers a new paradigm for battlefield operations,” said Ian Williams-Wynn, managing director at Blue Bear Systems.
Perhaps he should watch an episode of Black Mirror, to see how badly wrong this stuff can go.
“My suggestion: if you're required to obtain one, do so and simply leave it at home in your drawer unless you're required by law to carry one at all times or unless life is deliberately made so difficult that. carrying an ID card makes things incredibly easier.”
And that is precisely What will happen! It will start out “voluntary” then become compulsory, because that is the way of governments.
And it will be necessary as I can see a time where in order to “combat terrorism” you will be required to use it every time you want to access some government service.
Maybe not quite today's technology but certainly in the near future and most likely using Ion Drive propulsion systems.
As for getting the information back they will use radio waves, which will take 6 years but better than 30.
Unless they are able to use something like quantum entanglement, which means essentially real-time communications may become possible.
More info on next generation ion drives here
"We manage it just fine here in Scotland where our NHS is the best performing in the UK"
And the population of Scotland vs the rest of the UK is what 5 million people? Certain things work at different scales. Plus, the NHS has been mis-managed for a very long time by both main parties. As has been said elsewhere, what is needed is a grown up, non political free ranging discussion on exactly what the NHS should be doing vs how we are going to pay for it. Certain treatments may not be viable long term or will require patient contribution.
The NHS is the nearest thing this country has to an official religion
The real problem is the expectation that the NHS provides everything for free! Things that were never envisioned in the original setup such as sex changes, IVF and non-emergency plastic surgery. Yet these are expected to be free, although I note IVF treatment is free only under certain conditions and is limited to 3 cycles LINK .
Health should never be treated as a cash cow and a, supposedly, first world country like the UK should be able to provide properly for it's citizens. National Insurance contributions were supposed to do this but this seems either to be insufficient or is not being used for the intended target.
Whilst keeping the basic stuff free necessary drugs, surgeries etc., we should look to charge for everything else. Other countries seem to have found a way to have a functioning system so perhaps we should look at their methods and see what might work here.
Perhaps the government should start with this article: How European nations run national health service
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