Bob_Church

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Posts posted by Bob_Church

  1. winsor

    ******We need to enact the tariffs against China, and state simply we will not trade with China as long as they support North Korea having nuclear weapons.



    Sigh. Computers were fun while they lasted.

    The United States do not have the bargaining power over China that you seem to think they have.

    All we have to do is quit buying stuff from them. That would sure teach them a lesson!

    Unfortunately it's not up to the consumer anymore. People complain about Walmart selling stuff from China but it's not like anyone else is selling stuff that isn't.
    How much are we willing to put up with so that well off people can buy a computer or smart phone at ridiculously low prices?
    Even with the suicides at Fox in China and the pictures of people sleeping under their workstations we aren't willing to pay reasonable prices.
    We buy cheap toys, subsidized by the misery of people with no power. Then we spend ten times as much on more and more security forces to keep us safe from those people when they get so desperate that they lash out.

  2. DJL

    ***Preliminary NTSB findings are here (4 pages)

    Interesting reading.

    The car saw her 6 seconds out. At 1.3 seconds it determined that emergency braking was required but

    Quote

    According to Uber, emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior.



    The car was travelling at 43 mph. According to this page (using its default deceleration rate) the car could have slowed to 17 mph which would have probably been survivable.

    Rubbish for her but they should be able to develop the software to make this scenario survivable.



    I think this shows that the car was still able, even with the shortcomings, to do as well or better than a human driver. I don't think a person would have been able to see the woman and brake fast enough to have changed the outcome considering the lighting at the scene and the normal assumptions of a driver that someone would not walk directly in front of a moving car.

    There's serious talk, they may have even done it, about banning the cars from any public roads until they can be proven safe. The idea was to build simulations but I have to wonder if that's even possible. Can the levels of complexity in driving be created?
    It still seems like the best idea is to test them with a driver ready to take over. I know, it's not fool proof, obviously, and the problem is that people will demand so much more than they're already putting up with.
    I just with they'd hurry up. I want a car that wakes me up when we get there.

  5. BartsDaddy

    ******Hi Alan,

    Quote

    When electric cars become affordable, they can be the 2nd car for the commute to work.



    I think that we are getting there . . . . .



    Around me you can get a Fiat EV for $69 a month, 3 year lease. They are lousy little cars, but if your goal is to get to work really, really cheaply - they are a good solution.

    I'm sure it works out to more than that. That is creative pricing.At your price it works out to less than 2,500.00 for three years. With knowing Fiat that may well be what it is worth, but not what you will get it for before any subsidies or rebates.

    Considering that traditional Fiats were my brother's favorite cars I can't imagine what keeping a new type, the EV, running.
    My brother was a mechanic. He hated Mazdas and Subarus and loved Fiats because they paid the rent.

  6. nolhtairt

    ***>Quite frankly, I'm amazed at the rapid change in North Korea's tone from defiance to conciliatory.
    >Say what you want about Trump, but I dare say that this would not have happened if Hillary had
    >won. . . . . Well done, Trump. Give that man the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Yeah . . . so, about that . . .



    Yeah well, this is all on Kim Jong Un and his stooges. Getting all snippy... Ever think of the possibility that Trump weaseled the three Korean American prisoners out of North Korea? That's a slap to KJU's face.

    Hell, Trump even trolled KJU in this official letter. :D

    I think there's a real possibility that KJU was hoping Trump would see that it was bullshit but then be dumb enough to turn him down. We'd never hear the end of the time the President was approached for a meeting to end hostilities with North Korea but turned it down.

  7. dudeman17

    ***
    In another thread someone mentioned only needing whichever canopy was safest and it got me curious about when canopy development would have ground to a halt if we had stopped there. I really wasn't trying to dump on small canopies.




    My guess would be in the 80's, when the 'higher' performance 7-cells were the norm. Ravens, Cruiselites, Comets, Pegasus', those sorts of canopies. When you could skydive and base jump with the same gear. I kind of liken that era to the muscle car era of the 60's and 70's. They didn't go as fast or handle as well as what you can get today, but they were badass and we had a lot of fun with them.

    What are the smaller, very high performance canopies being jumped today like for distance? My Cruiselite would get me back from anywhere and I often suspect that my current canopy, a 210 Hornet, is just a knockoff of the Cruiselite but built with ZP. I love being able to fly around and check places out under canopy even after opening at normal 2k. When Chesapeake was open and the winds out of the East I'd open a little high, maybe 3k, over the airport/dz in Chesapeake Oh, fly across the river to Huntington Wv, which is beautiful from the sky, then back.
    • Like 1

  8. Carol? Is that you? Boy, you'd think after 30 years the bad dreams would stop but.... sorry, I digress.

    I'm sure most people here can relate but on a much, well a little bit, smaller scale

    They went on one date, he tried to get away but 17 months and 65000 texts later with no response and blocking her out of where ever possible she broke into his house for a bath. Then went to his place of work and said she was his wife.

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/11/us/woman-text-message-arrest-trnd/

  9. Every job has things that you can get away with and things that you can't and when I say get away with I'm including things that don't get investigated because they frequently happen anywas. I was wondering if this might be one of those, if for instance, straps broke accidentally a lot and it was just accepted so he'd probably get away with it.
    Or is he just an idiot?

  10. jclalor

    ***Do you mean apart from the Cleveland Elementary School Shooting, San Diego in 1979?

    Two adults (the principal and custodian) dead, 8 children and one LEO wounded. The reason? "I don't like Mondays."



    That shooting was easy to understand; The silicon chip inside her head got switched to overload.

    And she lived across the street from the school. Whatever set her off that particular morning, if she'd lived across from a grocery store it probably would have been a bad day for early bird shoppers.
    After years of being in trouble and being declared suicidal, when she asked for a radio for Christmas her excuse for a father gave her the gun instead. More like than likely she's correct in assuming he was hoping she'd kill herself with it.

  11. ryoder

    OK, so you want to do real-time monitoring, rather than just importing the video after it has been recorded?
    I currently have one camera that can send real-time video via WiFi to my iPhone, but I only use that feature briefly to aim the camera when mounting it on a bike helmet.



    The real winner is still the good old hardwired security cameras connected to a DVR but there are times when getting coax from the camera to the dvr is a deal breaker.

  12. ryoder

    OK, so you want to do real-time monitoring, rather than just importing the video after it has been recorded?
    I currently have one camera that can send real-time video via WiFi to my iPhone, but I only use that feature briefly to aim the camera when mounting it on a bike helmet.



    I've got several that I'm trying to compare. A couple of them will work on my Mac with no extra software at all, a few will run on third party software like SecuritySpy or Periscope. And some of them, despite what they say in the ads and sometimes even on the box won't run on Mac OS at all, only iPads.
    At least I'm not paying for them, but I even hate wasting other people's money. And my time and effort.

  13. dudeman17

    ***
    In another thread someone mentioned only needing whichever canopy was safest and it got me curious about when canopy development would have ground to a halt if we had stopped there. I really wasn't trying to dump on small canopies.




    My guess would be in the 80's, when the 'higher' performance 7-cells were the norm. Ravens, Cruiselites, Comets, Pegasus', those sorts of canopies. When you could skydive and base jump with the same gear. I kind of liken that era to the muscle car era of the 60's and 70's. They didn't go as fast or handle as well as what you can get today, but they were badass and we had a lot of fun with them.

    That's a good description. My Cruiselite was like a Hemi, tiny ZPs are like Maseratis. I loved that Cruiselite.

  14. ryoder

    ***
    The ad says Mac OS but has anyone tried using it from Mac OS, will I be able to access the camera from my Macintosh?



    All the cameras I've used in the past decade use a USB interface and automount like a USB storage device when plugged in. Is there any reason to think this camera won't do the same?

    These are video cameras. But the software they send will only run on a phone or pad, so if you want to monitor the camera you have to walk around staring into a phone. Which I suppose would make some people feel right at home, but I'd much prefer to access them from one of my computers.
    Some of them will work with third party software, which is expensive but the way to go, but not all. But the vendors don't even know any OS except maybe Windows so you don't know if it will work or not until it gets delivered. It's like the late 80s again and trying to get drivers for something.

  16. Phillbo

    If you know so much more than the maroon, why did you bother connecting with him?



    How do you tell a troll from someone who just isn't smart enough to know what he's saying?

    Well, it's like on the new version of Westworld when the guy is hitting it off with a girl then says "but are you real?" and she says "if you can't tell the difference does it matter?"

  17. Really old.

    Compared to IOS, the operating system that runs on iPads and iPhones, Mac OS software is very hard to write. When writing for IOS it's much much easier and the interface is pretty much created for you. So it's also a lot easier to cludge up some piece of crap software that should have never been released but they put it in the box so they can say IOS App included.
    Ok, but that's not what I'm complaining about. This happens over and over and my question back to them is "why would I by a piece of equipment from someone who doesn't not only doesn't know the different between IOS and Mac OS but doesn't even know there is one?
    I just had this exchange, but it's typical.

    I posted this question to their board.

    The ad says Mac OS but has anyone tried using it from Mac OS, will I be able to access the camera from my Macintosh?


    And got this answer.

    I would say yes. We used it with our I-pads while travelling and it worked perfectly.


    Sometimes it's physically painful to not be able to reach out and slap the person you're trying to talk with.

  18. Hooknswoop

    Quote

    If we approached skydiving the way we do school shootings we'd endlessly debate



    ....wing loading vs. experience and decide education is better than regulation.

    Derek V



    And about those cameras......

    Guns are like gravity, we're not going to eliminate them and we might not be too happy if we did.
    Like nolhtairt said, what changed?
    We have school shootings and a surge in teen suicides. Why?
    Are we willing to discuss solutions that might mean giving up something we don't want to give up?

  20. Phil1111

    ******Reference Time Magazine May 15 2017 (a known left bias publication.)



    Um, no.

    Iago

    But since you are feeling so generous, the next dozen of busloads can go to your neighborhood …



    I'll have to concede that the prospect of the decreased crime rates associated with immigrant populations is worrisome.

    Those FACTS have been quoted again and again. In these forums and others. Including the net positive effects of immigration to GDP. Unfortunately the misinformed,those who are so predisposed to tribal politics, etc. Will likely never change their minds.

    The current republican administration and FOX news count upon that for their survival. So the dialog that every immigrant from central America is a MS-13 gang member. That they are all rapists, murderers and thieves. Is seized upon by trump and repeated ad nauseam on his teleprompter, FOX.

    Then parroted by his supporters.

    Speaking of parroting, now we'll except one side of a highly debated topic, one put forward and argued by immigrant support groups, and label it fact because it's been repeated on here so often. What's next, the two fifty cookie?

  21. BartsDaddy

    ******I don't know how much it would cost to move a ton of rock, but I would be able to use dynamite to break it up.;)




    Getting to use dynamite? What more reason do you need? :)

    That is what I'm thinking.

    A good friend of mine, and pilot for a lot of jumps from his wife's 150, manages the Red Diamond plant of Austin Powder. If you ever visit the place, and it sounds like you might need to, let me know. I know the good restaurants.

  22. We should keep them out or make them legal. One or the other. Otherwise it's starting to sound way too much like a Confederacy Fundraiser.

  24. We have a system that depends on letting immigrants in so they can pick our grapes, slaughter our chickens and mow our lawns. But we have to keep them illegal or we'd have to pay and treat them like human beings.

  25. billvon

    >You are absolutely correct- the government should just go ahead and let them all in.

    This is the usual strawman BS that Speaker's Corner is so famous for. Because the only alternative to building a $20 billion wall is to "just let them all in."

    Too bad you don't apply this thinking to skydiving. It would be fun to watch.



    But what is the alternative? If we patrol certain areas then people die in the heat crossing in others. Or they get cheated raped and murdered by their own coyotes. It's a huge deadly mess. IF, and I'm still at the IF stage, but if it would work and nothing else does then wouldn't it be worth the cost?