I would guess an extremely low percentage. What was the last item you bought that was essentially nothing more than a single piece of some kind of plastic?
3D printing has an arguable use-case (IMO) for 1-off plastic-y parts, but it's far from making anything overly complex or durable. When you think about any object that might have a market need for 1000 or more of the same thing (not a very large number) injection molding turns out better parts at an arguably lower price.
I like the idea of 3D printers, and I've played around in the past with vinyl plotters I've modified to cut wood veneers, and small CNC machines and the like, but I just can't figure out how to justify a current 3D printer beyond a novelty aspect.
Given their popularity, why doesn't this restaurant just get rid of the reservation system altogether? A lot of the popular/trendy/hipster magnet places here do this since it saves hassle and creates a certain allure when lines are out the door for a table.
Given this place has a line outside of it well before it opens on the off chance someone cancels, removing reservations would mean everyone would have to wait for a table.
I can't think of a worse customer experience than taking someone on a date, waiting in a congested line outside at night for 45 minutes only to be told that there are no tables available.
Not getting a reservation on the other hand just means that I can just go somewhere else.
I was pretty critical when I saw this on reddit 4 years ago. I'm not really a fan of git and didn't understand what the point of this site was that we couldn't get from sourceforge. The same has been said many times about Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. I still don't really understand most of them, but I guess that's why I'm not a millionaire.
The beauty of this is that with battery technology rapidly improving, and performance for new batteries much better than older ones, Tesla's cars can retain or even increase their expected mileage per charge over the life of the car.
The expected lifespan of their batteries right now are about 7 years, but as anyone with a smartphone or laptop knows, battery life decreases rapidly over the life of the product. Tesla's cars were no exception to this and although most of the cars on the road are new and have not faced these issues yet, they were bound to crop up in the future. With battery swapping they've nipped this problem in the bud. Of course they'll charge you the difference for a newer battery but the benefits far outweigh the costs, and breeds stronger brand loyalty.
I'd really like to hear more about what this means, from the article:
Frenzied drivers will still have to do some work though —
they’ll have to drop off the battery on the return leg of
their journey and pay an unspecified “transport fee”, ...
A legitimate worry is that you'll end up with someone else's lemon battery. Is the article referring to a Tesla mandate that you come back for your "original" battery, and how long do you have before you forfeit your battery?
The way you would want it done is as long as you own the car you pay some annual fee for battery swaps but then you can swap whenever you want. You would have to sign up at the point of sale for the service and not be able to situationally opt out whenever you weren't driving long distances with a desire for swaps though, because the idea is that you subsidize the fact you never need to "replace" your battery now and Tesla needs to keep up battery stocks with some fraction of the cost each year.
>A legitimate worry is that you'll end up with someone else's lemon battery.
I was under the impression that these battery packs had so much monitoring and control technology built in, that would be very unlikely. Most batteries become lemons because on of the cells dies a death, becoming a short, which in turn drags down the other cells.
Tesla have a battery technology which is ment to be very advanced at managing each cell to prevent them catching fire, I would imagine they have very accurate wear level information on them too.
You left out the other part, which I think is significant:
... though they can also choose to keep the battery and pony up the
difference between the price between of the old and new batteries.
It's hard to say how much of an issue that is going to be without knowing the typical prices. Also, it needs to be balanced against the fact that a typical supercharger recharge is free.
I think the station will only house the newest version of the battery. You will not get your old battery back on the way back, as some explain, but you will get a new random battery every time. That is why the service is not free.
When battery technology is upgraded they will switch the entire stock for a new one. So there will be no anxiety for getting an old one.
For anyone watching the EM Markets space, the RMB's rise has been one of the most discussed topics of the year. With economic growth focused on exports, a weaker yuan was integral and the source of much scrutiny from the US. So there has been confusion as to why the government has made moves to strengthen the yuan when economic data has been deteriorating.
The real reason is that saving the exporters is no longer the priority. Exports have been falling and the trade surplus has shrunk, and global demand is still weak. Instead, the government is focusing on investment/capital flows. With a strengthening RMB, flows/hot money is less likely to leave the country and the government is actively courting capital inflows. If they were to let the yuan appreciate now, the amount of investors running for the exits would be unprecedented and cause widespread panic in the market, and stability is their current goal.
I live in Hong Kong too (about 20 minutes walk from the Mira where Snowden was allegedly staying), and his stated reasons of coming here due to the country's commitment to free speech and political dissent are baffling and misguided. When compared to China, Hong Kong seems free but the reality is very different.
Start with the South China Morning Post, the main English language newspaper here which has been covering this story extensively. The current editor, Wang Xiangwei, joined in 2011, is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress, and has been criticized for self-censorship multiple times since taking over.
Then you have the political system here, where people can vote in local elections but not in the main election that actually decides the Chief Executive (President). The current CE, CY Leung, was dogged by accusations that he was a Communist Party member throughout the election period. These accusations were not without merit given his political history (appointed to a prominent committee at a young age, a position traditionally occupied by party members), and these issues have not died down since he's taken office.
It makes no sense for Snowden to have come to HK for its political freedom. Neither is this city a hotbed for political dissent. The Occupy movement here was largely ineffective (there were often more homeless people than protestors at the camp), and power here is concentrated in the elite (HK has one of the highest Gini coefficients in the world).
He came here because here he can leverage China vs the US. Any talk of political freedom or appreciating the culture is pure fluff.
There is a lot of perceived political freedom from people outside of Hong Kong (both people in US as well as in China - why else would Chinese dissenters travel to Hong Kong to protest?). By declaring Hong Kong has political freedom, China is forced to defend that image, both domestically and internationally. I am from Hong Kong, so I know what you're talking about, but I'm currently living outside of Hong Kong, so I know what foreigners' perspective of Hong Kong is, too.
"Kim Jong-il soon summoned him. Yes, Shogun-sama admitted, he'd sent an assassin to Okinawa, but he urged Fujimoto to forget about it. He was still alive, wasn't he? It was Kim's wife, Ko Young-hee, who'd reminded him of how funny and lovable his Japanese friend had been. Thus the killer was recalled."
