Tech Nightmares: Ghostline the flux

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Tech Nightmares: Ghostline the flux

How many quarters after Q1 2016 till Marissa Mayer is unemployed?
	1 or fewer
	2
	4
	Her job is guaranteed; what are you even talking about?

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Triangle Shirt Factotum posted:

I'd like to know if a ship big enough to have a habitat ring that you'd spin for gravity would fix all this or not, or if their is something fundamentally different that we aren't getting outside of "real" gravity.

It doesn't have to be a ring. It could just be a spacecraft in two parts (one manned?) with a cable connecting them, and an induced spin.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2018 19:32

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:19

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Yay, space is being DIsRUPTEd!!!

This is what happens to aluminium when a 1/2 oz piece of plastic hits it at 15,000 mph in space

# ¿ Mar 11, 2018 02:06

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

I have high hopes for our local crypto-currency tax compliance startups.

There are a slew of "We'll do your ICO for $200k" companies now, raking in the $$$.

Just like in the App world, the big money is in the ad tech and analytics.

"We can get you loyal users for $2 a pop"

And in both cases, people fall for it.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2018 16:39

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Groovelord Neato posted:

the people that collapsed the global economy are responsible for hundreds of thousands of excess deaths so it's only fair.

The Koch's and other climate-change-denying billionaires will be responsible for millions of excess deaths.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2018 23:30

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Cicero posted:

Google actually is planning to make a bunch of housing: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/12/13/mountain-view-google-north-bayshore-approval.html

It'd be nice if the area was zoned for more than 10k units but oh well, that's still a big step up from the almost nothing that's currently there. It's pretty ludicrous how in an area home to one of the world's most ludicrously profitable companies, with land prices through the roof, the current building style there still has a lot of 1- or 2-story buildings with huge swathes of surface parking lots. Hopefully that'll get fixed with the redevelopment. I know Google has said they'd like to see the whole south bay look more like Copenhagen, so probably.

If that includes the Bike stuff, that could be cool.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 21:23

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Cicero posted:

It was specifically in relation to bikes, so yes: https://www.fastcompany.com/3050776/google-wants-to-make-silicon-valley-as-bike-friendly-as-copenhagen

Geographically, the south bay is absolutely fantastic for bikes. Basically all the populated areas are flat, and the weather is some of the best in the world, rarely very hot or very cold, not that much precipitation. It's really a shame there aren't more bike paths and protected bike lanes already, what a waste.

edit: fun fact, Google leases the majority of the space in their building in Munich, which entitles them to a certain number of parking spots in the underground garage. The number they've chosen to allocate to employees' cars? Zero; they converted it all into bike parking.

Hell Yeah.

I lived in Palo Alto from '88-'92. It's a great cycling area.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 22:37

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Cicero posted:

Yeah, Mountain View has way too many jobs for being a random suburb with hardly any real transit. Probably why Google is pushing hard now to build a new complex in San Jose next to the transit center there.

Makes Bezos' decision to put Amazon in downtown-ish Seattle look extremely far-sighted in comparison.

Seattle has eclipsed Los Angeles for the "worst traffic ever" title.

I've biked in Seattle. I don't think most people would do that because of geography and weather. Silicon Valley has better weather and climate.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 22:39

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Cicero posted:

No, it's #9: https://www.smartertravel.com/2018/02/07/traffic-watch-10-congested-u-s-cities/

The weather isn't really any worse than the Netherlands. The geography ain't great but ebikes are making that less bad at least (they even have bike share ebikes now). And it already has one of the highest bike rates for a major city in the US.

You're right, it's a suburb of Seattle that's leading now.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattl...on-report-says/

Usually, a world-class city like Los Angeles, New York, or Washington, D.C., springs to mind when people think of debilitating traffic.

But this year�s INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard, released Monday night, spreads its infamy to a small Northwest city.

�Commuters around Everett, Washington, spent more time stuck in traffic than anyone else,� according to commentary by the Kirkland-based transportation data and navigation company.

As to biking, the trail around Lake Washington is nice (rode it last summer) and the rest of city is bike friendly. I like hills.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2018 16:30

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

divabot posted:

oh god it's loving calacanis

I set the bozo bit on this guy about a decade ago when he was coming up with fabulously useless proposals for Wikipedia

then for Bitcoin

his how-to book on angel investing is p much "you should have been friends with Kalanick like me" - or, "pick six numbers in the lottery like a genius"

The Jason Calacanis?

Oh, he was a major e-hole during the dot-com era. I was around for the battle-royal between him and the 'Netslaves' people.

"During the dot-com boom, Calacanis was active in New York's Silicon Alley community, and in 1996 began producing the Silicon Alley Reporter."

Here's a mention from Netslaves in 2000

quote:

I want VC. I want to live high on the hog and
bang marketing women.

Seriously, my thinking is that many of these companies
are screwed by being public. Pseudo had what 170
people. Yet, they were looking to go public.

There are McDonalds with more people on three
shifts than these public companies. Some companies
have a historic record of failed, spendthrift management.
Or managers who have absolutely no clue on the broad,
simple points of running a business. Not the fine points,
but the broad points, like not investing the last payroll
in lottery tickets. Which I hope is an FC joke.

Of course your companies made money. If they didn't,
you would have uh, starved. See, most people need
to make a profit or they eventually file for bankruptcy.

This isn't about dotcoms, or greed, but class. The sons
and daughters of the surburban middle class act as if
they are princes of the realm and all their ideas are bound
for success. You can read the yearbook editor Calacanis
and see this attitude dripping in spades.

These people are largely disconnected from the ideas of
hard work and loyalty. They have never been taught how
to work and more importantly appreciate the work of others.

We have a marvelous record of diversity in the dotcom
world. You can be any color and your boss will be sure
to try and sleep with you. You can have any interracial
pairing you can imagine and everyone will be indifferent.
For a country which used to hang people for this, this
is a good thing.

But this is an industry with ferocious social snobs. People
with their noses so high in the air that they routinely insult
people for not knowing arcane computer languages. Where
social status depends on the mastery of trivia.

These people thought that work was just the waystation to
fame. Rappers call it bling-bling, but it's really about
greed. Sure, Josh Harris doesn't have a mouth of
platinum teeth, but he thought lovely streaming video
would turn millions into billions. These kids couldn't
rap, but they thought a website could do the same thing..

Instead of rolling with the cash money brothers or
the lost boyz, it was razorfish and iVillage. But it's
the same mentality. Bling-bling-look at my stock
options, bling-bling, I get all the sales hotties, bling-bling,
I got a loft in Williamsburg, bling-bling, I had dinner at
Nobu with Candace Carpenter.

In the real world, most people work for small, privately
held companies. These people pay their bills, their workers
feed their families and live their lives. There is nothing wrong
in being rich, but it has to be based on something, ability,
competance. Yeah, you can walk into wealth, but then you
have to do something with it. For most of us, this is a better
career choice than others, but it isn't the lottery.

If people had tried to build careers, had tried to learn and
grow instead of blow up large and bling-bling their
new found wealth, they would be around today. APB
could have been viable for a decade with the investment
they had, but no, it was bling-bling we're gonna be
rich and have a TV network and cover crime and do
all this stuff. There was no sense of the long term here.
Get in, get out and quit loving about was the motto.

The whole mentality was condusive to make people
rich, not build anything to last. Which is the way of
boom economies.

- Robin 'roblimo' Miller

# ¿ Mar 19, 2018 21:14

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Avenging_Mikon posted:

Tempe police said the car didn�t try to slow down.

I saw one of them (on the news) say it did?

# ¿ Mar 20, 2018 16:34

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Morbus posted:

Given that:

-it was only going 38 in a 35 and not, like, 60
-It actually stopped after running over some dude

I'm going to take this as a decisive demonstration of the superiority of machines over human drivers.

As a daily cyclist, I concur with your conclusions.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2018 16:36

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Nokia is selected by Vodafone to be its technology partner for Mission to the Moon project??

Heck, why not contract with Studebaker for the Lunar Rovers while they are at it?

https://www.nokia.com/en_int/news/r...he-moon-project

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 22:15

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

https://twitter.com/Pflax1/status/976805282922639360

# ¿ Mar 23, 2018 00:01

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Owlofcreamcheese posted:

Yeah, there is a million ways the actual product they release could be a failure.

But like, they at least are trying to make real research in optics and diffraction lenses and someone somewhere probably can find a use for a diffraction lens that projects at multiple depths of field. Even if it turns out unsuitable for the device they make.

http://stks.freshpatents.com/Magic-Leap-Inc-nm1.php

The whole "VR/AR is failing and Magic Leap is a disaster" thing is pretty common when it comes to new tech.

For example, CD-ROM based video game consoles:

https://venturebeat.com/2017/03/19/magic-leap-the-virtual-reality-backlash-and-the-arc-of-technology/

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 17:42

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

PT6A posted:

A well-done VR flight simulation would seem to be the way to go, but I suppose I'm a bit biased there.

Just do Counter Strike in VR and do it WELL.

Seriously, I am amazed that this has not yet happened.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 18:22

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Baronash posted:

This article is basically survivorshipbias.txt. VR could absolutely have some previously unforeseen use cases, but I think it's telling that the reaction hasn't been "everyone will want this for all of their games" and instead has been "well, it's nice for flight simulators and certain games that really work to incorporate it." There is a strong possibility that VR remains a fairly niche market.

I agree with your assessment.

Unless we see some groundbreaking titles, it doesn't become mainstream.

I have more hope for AR as an eventual replacement for the smart phone (via gesture and speech recognition).

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 19:22

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Cicero posted:

It doesn't work well because it turns out fast movement in VR tends to make people nauseous, unless you have a frame of reference thing like a cockpit.

The other thing is that total userbase numbers for VR don't justify a large dedicated investment. The big budget titles for VR are games that are also non-VR and that's where they got most of their money.

There's some VR + Eyetracking stuff that may have solved the problem.

Note: I've been told this by people I respect, but I have yet to see the demo.

I was working at a company creating VR documentaries when the funding for such things died soon after E3 2017. Not doing VR now.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 19:24

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

boner confessor posted:

thats why i think a slower adventure game as a period piece would work well, you could leverage VR to really trick out some fabulous interior and let players just soak in the decor, costumes etc. in a way that is less impressive with less immersion and it would be a lot more approachable than an action game

downton abbey, at its core, is a show about fabulous hats - much like team fortress 2

Want some rye?

(Yes, I asked for the rights to do this and NO, I didn't get a reply).

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 19:25

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

boner confessor posted:

it is among the top in fps gaming, but the argument is if motion sickness has somehow constrained the size of the fps game market. i can think of bigger constraints on this market, namely that the genre is somewhat bound to catering to a certain demographic, and could perhaps find a larger audience if it wasn't so focused on grimdark military jingoism. overwatch is the counterexample here, as the art direction and character design is specifically varied to reach a broader audience - specifically women. overwatch is notable for having a much larger female playerbase than any other fps

call of duty's sales have collectively been declining (it's a bit stale) and the best selling title was modern warfare 3, which sold 26.5 million units since its release in 2011

overwatch has sold 35 million units and counting

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

minecraft, of course, utterly demolishes both of them in sales

GTA-V just broke $6B in sales. By far the most successful entertainment product in history.

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/gta-v-has-apparently-made-more-money-than-any-movie-in-history-1834776

GTA V has made around $6 billion since its release in September 2013. This means GTA V has made more money than any book, film, record or video game ever released, and shows no signs of stopping.

(And I was laughed at in 1990 when I suggested at Activision we do a game titled "Drive By")

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 21:55

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Mozi posted:

I used to play that game with my Dad, I don't think we ever got very far at all.

That drat vulture

We made the game totally unfair ON PURPOSE.

Thousands of YouTube videos bitching about it 25 years later.

My legacy.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 22:09

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Steve French posted:

I'd like to buy you a drink

People have, although it was Eddie Dombrower who came up with that line.

The bra-box puzzle, the swamp, the sliding tiles ... that was me (and the game engine and most of the UI).

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 16:34

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

fishmech posted:

GTA V has sold over 90 million copies across Xbox 360/PS3/Xbox One/PS4/PC releases: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-5-players-are-spending-lots-on-microtransactio/1100-6456644/

So even beyond the transaction revenue that is huge, it is the 2nd or 3rd best selling video game of all time. Ahead of it there's Minecraft on all platforms at 144 million copies (plus the paid skins and other assets and services like hosting from Microsoft on some versions adding money on top) and there's Tetris at "170 million" depending on how you add up paid versions over the nearly 35 years it's been around.

After 14 different Angry Birds games, Angry Birds 2 is announced as the first official sequel in over six years. The first Angry Birds game was released on an unsuspecting world in 2009. Of course it stormed to the top of the charts and has since then been downloaded more than 3 billion times.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 18:38

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

VideoGameVet posted:

After 14 different Angry Birds games, Angry Birds 2 is announced as the first official sequel in over six years. The first Angry Birds game was released on an unsuspecting world in 2009. Of course it stormed to the top of the charts and has since then been downloaded more than 3 billion times.

and ...

Candy Crush Saga: 2.73 billion downloads in five years and still counting

https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/17/candy-crush-saga-2-73-billion-downloads-in-five-years-and-still-counting/

Although that's more of a cash-extracting Skinner-Box than a game.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 18:40

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

PT6A posted:

Would you be happy if your computer were unable to download and install arbitrary software?

The default settings and official app stores should absolutely favour security, but let's not pretend there aren't some serious downsides to restricting software capability at an OS level too far.

What's worse is that the 'rules' for both app stores are subjectively applied. If the reviewer thinks something is objectionable, even if it follows the rules TO THE LETTER, that can reject it.

Appeals almost never work.

This made 2015 a sad year for me.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 19:51

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

PT6A posted:

What? I like the idea of government regulation, I think it just has to be done properly.

Take Uber, for example. I believe they should be regulated to prevent labour abuses, to protect user privacy and data, and to prevent them from operating a transportation service without adhering to commercial vehicle laws. I don't think that Android or iOS should be regulated to prevent the Uber app (or a taxi company's app) from accessing the user's location, or sending a text message between the driver and passenger. These are things that make the app better and more useful without compromising privacy in any sense, provided the data is handled correctly. Thus, regulation should apply to how data is handled, rather than what apps are able to do.

You mean wages of $3/hr. isn't enough?

Who knew?

# ¿ Apr 13, 2018 00:58

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Ynglaur posted:

I hope you have good ideas for driving medical research, unless you're content with current medical capabilities.

Govt. funds much of the medical breakthroughs.

And let us not forget this:

How Much Money Did Jonas Salk Potentially Forfeit By Not Patenting The Polio Vaccine?

For those who want a short answer, Salk would have been richer by $7 billion if his vaccine were patented. Continue reading for how the number was arrived at.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2018 00:51

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Groovelord Neato posted:

if you cure the disease that's the opposite of misallocation.

Indeed:

�Is curing patients a sustainable business model?� Goldman Sachs analysts ask

Analyst report notes that Gilead�s hep C cure will make less than $4 billion this year.

One-shot cures for diseases are not great for business�more specifically, they�re bad for longterm profits�Goldman Sachs analysts noted in an April 10 report for biotech clients, first reported by CNBC.

The investment banks� report, titled �The Genome Revolution,� asks clients the touchy question: �Is curing patients a sustainable business model?� The answer may be �no,� according to follow-up information provided.

Analyst Salveen Richter and colleagues laid it out:

The potential to deliver �one shot cures� is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically engineered cell therapy, and gene editing. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies... While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow.

For a real-world example, they pointed to Gilead Sciences, which markets treatments for hepatitis C that have cure rates exceeding 90 percent. In 2015, the company�s hepatitis C treatment sales peaked at $12.5 billion. But as more people were cured and there were fewer infected individuals to spread the disease, sales began to languish. Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that the treatments will bring in less than $4 billion this year.

�[Gilead]�s rapid rise and fall of its hepatitis C franchise highlights one of the dynamics of an effective drug that permanently cures a disease, resulting in a gradual exhaustion of the prevalent pool of patients,� the analysts wrote. The report noted that diseases such as common cancers�where the �incident pool remains stable��are less risky for business.

To get around the sustainability issue overall, the report suggests that biotech companies focus on diseases or conditions that seem to be becoming more common and/or are already high-incidence. It also suggests that companies be innovative and constantly expanding their portfolio of treatments. This can �offset the declining revenue trajectory of prior assets." Lastly, it hints that, as such cures come to fruition, they could open up more investment opportunities in treatments for �disease of aging.�

Ars reached out to Goldman Sachs, which confirmed the content of the report but declined to comment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOwAgqz3sv0

# ¿ Apr 16, 2018 00:52

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

AndreTheGiantBoned posted:

There is a company called Zero Latency, present in some countries, that is doing this in malls. You have a VR cooperative FPS in which you have to defeat some zombies (this is what was available at the time, they now have other scenarios). The game is a bit limited in scope but the experience is nice and immersive (and there is a real tension in suddenly finding a zombie "standing" next to you). They even had a very nice trick to make us play at two different heights even though all of us were in the same room at the same level all the time. (Basically: you could take a lift to a different level in the game. The upper level was designed such that the paths don't cross IRL with the other level. The people in the upper level could then see the players in the lower level and shoot down - in real life they were just pointing their guns at the ground)

Overall it was a cool experience.

Robo-Recall is decent too but the best VR stuff is the experiences that place you into places and situations you would never experience.

Examples: Clouds Over Sidra, 6�9: A virtual experience of solitary confinement, etc.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2018 23:11

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Ccs posted:

How much has Tesla done for the popularization/adoption of the electric car? From an idea that seemed dead 10 years ago to its popularity now with other car companies getting involved, Tesla seems to have been a driving force. But I'm not sure if that's just the way they like to spin it and electric cars were an inevitability.

Tesla made EV's cool.

Many of the Teslas I see in the wealthy areas are 'P' models, purchased for their superior performance.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2018 16:46

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

PT6A posted:

From what I gather, their main innovations were centred about battery tech and charging tech, and also showing that electric cars didn't have to be small, slow things that are unpleasant to drive.

I think electric cars were inevitable, but Tesla helped to move things forward. At the same time, I don't see them maintaining that kind of leadership, because other companies are benefitting from their technology, but they're by and large not benefitting from the collective knowledge of the automotive industry in other areas.

Here's the history, in brief.

GM's EV1 innovated control systems with basically a massive amplifier delivering AC to the motor. When the EV1 was killed, the folks who worked on that formed AC Propulsion. ACP created a "proof of concept" called the T-Zero, a sports car loaded with LiOn laptop batteries that was quick enough to out drag race Ferraris and Corvettes (see YouTube for videos).

Musk bought those folks in and launched the Roadster using a Lotus 'mule'. That enabled him to fund the development of the S.

The real achievement was launching the Tesla Model S into the luxury sedan market, the first real car Tesla released, and beating Mercedes Model S, BMW 7-Series etc. in sales.

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2018 16:51

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

GEMorris posted:

The most amazing thing about this chart is that the Genesis G90 is on it.

Starting MSRP $68,350

# ¿ Apr 23, 2018 21:38

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

fishmech posted:

You can drone on about how much you like the hastily slapped together garbage Model S and how ugly you think the Leaf is all you want (at least the Leaf's panels fit properly). There's still been far more Nissan Leafs sold than all Tesla models put together (namely, Nissan hit 300,000 Leafs sold in January this year, while Tesla is nudging up against 200,000 by the end of this quarter if they meet their own projections).

The lack of proper thermal management on the Leaf is idiotic. The batteries have about 50% capacity after 100k miles in places like LA and Arizona. Fuckers, put in a dammed radiator already (yeah, I hear the 2019 model has it).

Meanwhile, a Tesla will retain 90% of battery capacity at 200k miles or more.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 17:21

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

eschaton posted:

LOL at any comparisons with the S-class, 7-series, or A8

Tesla�s specific competitive target�as told to me by engineers driving prerelease Model S vehicles with mfr plates�was E-class/5-series/A6

and of course build-wise they�re more directly comparable to C-class/3-series/A4

The Model S is a huge automobile. Almost as wide as a F150.

My wife doesn't want me to buy one (used) because after test driving it, she's convinced it's too damned much to drive in San Diego and LA traffic.

Me? I just want something like a Renault ZOE.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 17:23

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Twerk from Home posted:

I've got $2 gas and 16c/kWh electricity. 99 MPGe translates to 34 kilowatt-hours per 100 miles, so that's $5.44 to go 100 miles on electricity, vs $5 to drive 100 miles at 40MPG in a very efficient car.

Edit: It's a little less bad than that, I guess modern electric cars are mostly a bit over 100 MPGe so it'd be about a wash.

Gas is $3.50/gallon in SoCal.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 23:57

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

fishmech posted:

No it didn't. It only had the ability to bookmark webpages as icons because Steve Jobs' demented demands were that everything be done through the browser.

Apps had to patched in later once everyone pointed out the drat thing was less functional than a garbage WinMo device from 2000 and someone finally got CEO dipshit to agree to it.

Correct, Web Apps. In fact, Apple even had a sort-of-app-store for this.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2007/10/apple-launches-official-iphone-web-apps-directory/

Brag: I share design credit for the very first iPhone game released, launched the weekend the iPhone launched. iWhack.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 17:16

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

fishmech posted:

The original iPhone did not have apps, nor an app store, nor anything like that. This was because Apple's attempt to make a "new trajectory" for smartphones was a hopelessly misguided effort based around the web that failed spectacularly and had to be changed to fit into the Symbian/WinMo/etc model of phones that had features like apps, and 3G support, etc.

Not exactly. It was a BRILLIANT Steve Jobs play that got Apple control over the apps on the phone. Before this, the carriers controlled the stack.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/apples-boca-raton-moment_b_622852.html

Apple launched the iPhone in the summer of 2007. Prior to the launch, mobile content (ringtones, wallpapers, apps) were under the control of the operators. Anyone who complains about the iPhone App Store should ask developers what it was like to get an app �on deck� at AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon in 2005.

So Apple, already having launched iTunes, naturally gets the rights to sell music on the new iPhone. But what about the apps?

Well, this was Apple�s �Boca Raton� moment. So what Jobs does is launch the device with Web Apps only, as a strategy to get AT&T and the rest to cede control of the platform to Apple. Nothing to worry about Mr. Operator, honest:

�Developers and users alike are going to be very surprised and pleased at how great these applications look and work on iPhone,� said Steve Jobs, Apple�s CEO. �Our innovative approach, using Web 2.0-based standards, lets developers create amazing new applications while keeping the iPhone secure and reliable.� - Steve Jobs, June 11th, 2007.

Of course Apple has to be able to update the iPhone�s operating system and core apps (mail etc.) and that is done, naturally, via iTunes. AT&T goes along with this, seeing that Apple already was dominating MP3 players. Precedence set with an earlier (failed) Motorola phone (ROKR*) that also featured iTunes. I mean how big could this new phone be given the failure of Moto iTunes phone?

I would have loved to been at that meeting.

So Steve pulls a Gates and wrests control of content away from the carriers. A year later, native apps and the App Store appear and by then the iPhone is too important for AT&T to really object. Hence the App Store and for all the complaints about approvals ad-nauseum, the first time a �open� market for software exists on a mobile device. 200k apps and billions of downloads later, the historical importance of this is clear.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 17:18

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

fishmech posted:

By having 0 apps, indeed no one else could control the apps. In the same sense, I have total control over all the transparent durluminum missiles in the Andromeda galaxy.

Apple had their own apps on the iPhone (mail, safari, calendar etc.) from day one. The critical app being Music.

If you were in the mobile app world pre-iPhone, you'll remember the 'deck' with J2ME and BREW being the leading app platforms. The carriers controlled everything back then.

Steve Jobs ended that.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2018 20:33

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Squalid posted:

Much of America really is pushing hard to add new bike infrastructure, even in lots of mid sized cities that are extremely car centric today. Turns out its a lot cheaper painting a bike line on an existing road than it is to build a new highway. It's progressing slower than it should but I think bikes are going to be an increasingly important part of American transit for the foreseeable future.

It's coming up from a pretty low point but even a lot of small towns and subburban areas are really pushing the bike infrastructure.

Thanks OOCC, for refuting a point nobody made or even implied

It's not so much that they have that much less cars, it's more that you don't see many people driving cars in the heart of Amsterdam.

Of course, now I'm car-free from Sunday evening to Friday evening in Los Angeles, beats the traffic.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2018 20:37

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

fishmech posted:

Actually it's far better and more important to build public transit right now when there's scarce funds, hope this helps.

Steve Jobs didn't end that. If you're going to attribute that to any CEO, it would be Choi Gee-sung.

Also the original iPhone didn't have apps.

It had Apple's own native apps. Clever people were even hacking the phone to do their own.

Me? I co-designed some of the first web-app based games on the iPhone.

Prior to that, I was an exec at a company doing J2ME/BREW stuff in the mid-2000-decade.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2018 21:25

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:19

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Cicero posted:

Minneapolis has good biking numbers though, so you got that going for ya.

Better than Los Angeles which is crazy when you think about climate.

But then again, when you see incredibly stupid poo poo like this (expensive bike path to nowhere in Studio City), it's really NOT surprising.

(ends with a chain-linked blocked dirt hill)

They finally blocked the entry after I complained. So now I bike on Ventura Blvd. Not as fun.

# ¿ May 1, 2018 00:23

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Tech Nightmares: Ghostline the flux

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