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Domain: bigstep.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to bigstep.com.

Comments · 17

  1. Re:Hemp is already best suited for this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Synthetic Biology For Natural Fuel

    Actually he built a car out of hemp and powered it with hemp. Lots of links out there on it including some video. Some say it was even kept out of production because Ford did too good of a job with it.

  2. The Old Way Is Best by ThePuceGuardian · · Score: 1 · on Calorie Burning Coke Coming Soon
    With all the caffeine (And cola nut extract!), the original formula would probably help you lose weight faster.

    And hair. And teeth. And skin tone. And vitals, if you kept at it long enough..

  3. Hemp is the biomass 'freedom fuel' we need now by pleiades77 · · Score: 1 · on Biofuel Production to Cause Water Shortages?

    When Henry Ford told a New York Times reporter that ethyl alcohol was "the fuel of the future" in 1925, he was expressing an opinion that was widely shared in the automotive industry. "The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumach out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust -- almost anything," he said. "There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented."

    Ford recognized the utility of the hemp plant. He constructed a car of resin stiffened hemp fiber, and even ran the car on ethanol made from hemp. Ford knew that hemp could produce vast economic resources if widely cultivated.

    "There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years." - Henry Ford

    Our collective addiction to oil is at the root of at least six fundamental issues that are adversely affecting our nation and indeed, the entire planet: corporate- driven globalization, global warming, poverty, war, terrorism, and the undue influence of money on the political process.

    Find out why Industrial Hemp is the World's #1 Sustainable Fuel and Energy Source ->
  4. Cooling geek rant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Google's Secretive Data Center

    Two four story cooling plants? Huh? Assuming about two football fields (115,200 sf) and 300 w/sf(1), their cooling load should only run about... 10,000 tons. Assuming they throw in good 1200-2000 ton centrifs, thats fewer than 8 chillers, each with a footprint of about 200 sf (including tube pull service space). Double it for pumps and random aux equipment, and it still doesn't add up to a 4 story building (one of them must be the cooling towers).

    That better be a 4 story cooling tower with a 4 story thermal storage tank charged by the cooling towers at night. If Google is honestly putting in 4 stories of electrical cooling equipment, they need to talk to someone stat - before dropping 6 MW onto Oregon's grid that could be avoided by cashing in on waterside economizing and a tank (using towers, assuming that thermal pollution of the Columbia is not an option). Hell, if you want to go cutting edge use the waste heat from the racks to run an adsorption chiller or something. OK, that's a bit silly, but theoretically possible (and despite the ghetto website - the translation from the manufacturer's native tounge isn't so hot - there are adsorption chillers installed in at least one critical facility I know of).

    Comeon google, don't be evil. Go and design an actually efficient datacenter for once. Talk to the local boys at LBNL. They can help. If that thing ends up full of CRAC units with those hideously inefficient fans and no airside economizer (equivalent to opening the windows for the 70% of the time outside air is cool enough to condition the space)(with proper humidity lockouts, computers don't melt in filtered outside air you know), you are evil. EVIL!

    1. And for that they better have a very tight hot aisle/cold aisle setup, or some very non-google'esqe custom/complex water cooling (coils on the racks would be doable, and possibly flexible enough for Google to go for, probably in a cheaper custom buy than commercial systems). I've never measured 100 w/sf (although close is becoming common), nevermind 300 w/sf, and have only designed for 150 w/sf with 300 w/sf expansion potential once; that involved a 4' raised floor for a supercomputer center, but it might be possible overhead with very good air management. So, 300 w/sf average over the entire space, not just one rack footprint, is a reasonable max load guesstimate.

  5. Re:One Time Pads... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative · on Totally Random One Time Pads
    No, only since the middle of the century or so.

    Before then, they used multiple-use rags. And smart women are starting to go back to them.

  6. Okay... by iminplaya · · Score: 1 · on Unsealed SCO Email Reveals Linux Code is Clean

    ...Linux could possibly not contain Unix code...

    Does that make it the UnUnix?

  7. The Malaise of the Middle Classes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting · on Burnout and Depression Among IT Workers?
    America's middle classes have never had it so good. Two decades of economic success have brought wealth and happiness to anybody who was prepared to work hard. Americans are now better off in real terms than at any previous time in our history. Indeed, President Clinton himself went as far as to say that we are living in an "era of unprecedented prosperity". But scratch the surface of this glittering facade, and you will find not everything in the garden is rosy.

    A certain minority of Americans are inventing new illnesses in order to avoid work.

    The economic miracle that was started off by Ronald Reagan in the 80s, and continued through the George Bush Sr and Clinton administrations is one the wonders of the modern world. The solid economic base of Amreica, coupled with the explosion of the American designed world-wide-web and Internet have created opportunities for all regardless of education, race, sex or class. Anyone in America who wants a job will be able to take their pick from a selection of attractive and highly paid positions due to the strength of the American economy.

    So why is it then that the middle classes have taken to faking diseases and why are otherwise respectable physicians joining in this collective fraud ?

    Dyslexia, M.E., Attention Deficit Disorder, Repetitive Strain Injury, Anorexia. You have probably heard of these diseases before. At least one of your co-workers has probably taken time off work for one of these 'illnesses' in the last month. And yet, up until now no evidence has been produced to support the existence of any these afflictions as actual medical conditions. Let's analyse these 'sicknesses' one by one.

    • Dyslexia. This is the 'diagnosis' given to a middle class child who cannot read owing to low intelligence. It is an attempt to medicalize a problem which in reality is a social one: All men are not created equal. When God gave out the brains, some of us were fortunate enough to be given a shiny new BMW 7-Series sedan, some of us got '97 5.0 Mustang, and some of us (the unfortunate few) got nothing more than an old skateboard.

      Dyslexia does not exist. Stupid children who cannot read do exist.
    • M.E. (also known as the 'yuppie flu'). Again the middle classes cannot stomach the fact that they are not superhuman beings. Consequently when one of them needs to take a day off work, due to being what normal people would call "tired" they medicalize the problem (by giving it a long medical-sounding name) and hey-presto you can get all the time off work you want. Not bad for simply being tired. I wonder what our forefathers who built America by the sweat of their brows would say to a modern yuppie suffering from M.E. ?

      M.E. does not exist. People who need to go to bed a bit earlier do exist.
    • Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). This one is quite sinister. For thousands of years, children were allowed to be carefree spirits, wandering wherever the mood took them. Investigating a world which is new and fresh to them, getting distracted when something more interesting came along. This was cal
  8. Shhhhhhhhh!!! by kajoob · · Score: 1 · on e-Scrabble gets Cease and Desist Order from Hasbro

    Don't tell Coke I told you their secrets!!

  9. If you know where to look... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Rack Mounted PCs for the Home User?

    Racks aren't that expensive, if you know where to look. Racks are used in many industries, IT, and music. Check this out. Get a 6U burnished aluminium case for ~$80. Sure, cut a few holes in it for I/O, but it's cheap and easily transportable.

  10. If its really bad you'll need one of these... by microcars · · Score: 0, Offtopic · on Hand-Powered Hardware?
    a PLOW

    ref: James Burke's CONNECTIONS

  11. Re:Coke's recipe by ryanw · · Score: 1 · on Open Source Spreads Beyond Software
    Here is real Coke's "highly guarded secret recipe"
    Don't get me wrong, I drink plenty of coke, but sometimes if I've had quite a bit over the space of a few days it starts tasting horrible and makes me wonder why people ever started drinking this over fruit juices or other drinks.

    4ounces of cocaine, 1qt alcohol in the flavorings.... man, talk about a drink with some "kick" ... No wonder people latched onto this so eagerly. If you had NO IDEA what was in it and downed a few of those in a few hours, you'd be ontop of the world.

  12. Coke's recipe by kajoob · · Score: 4, Informative · on Open Source Spreads Beyond Software

    Actually Coca-Cola's recipe is no secret. They just do it better than everyone else. Here is real Coke's "highly guarded secret recipe"

  13. Re:size .. by RedVortex · · Score: 1 · on Credit Card sized 5GB HD to arrive late this year

    So what is it? Just a very very small 5 1/4" floppy... Nothing very new here.

    Well, maybe for the storage space but hey! we're in 2003 now! Things like that have become very common, like flying cars and enery transporters so what the heck?!? A 5 gig floppy disk, bah ! Ordinary stuff...

  14. This is such good crap by AnonymousCowheard · · Score: -1 · on All Source Code Should Be Open, Revisited

    I will bite! W00h00!

    Great discussion...maybe:
    1. Nuclear Bomb HOWTO
    2. Coca-Cola's recipe
    3. Electronics manufacturers
    4. I agree, everything *is* free

    As if courtrooms were closed source...no, they're open, exception to the Federal Government (theives at large locking their own doors to hide their shameful actions).

    As if food were closed source...no, we are given the basic ingredients list upon request: in paper or plastic bag, packaged to go. And McDonalds has proved they are not cooking their products in lard as of yesterday: gosh my mouth is sticky.

    As if software were closed source...no, the machine code is there and nobody can pattent digital logic 1 and digital logic 0. But wait, here come the DMCA to prove that even you can be told what you can and can't do with the click of a mouse.

    As if Electronics manufacturers don't release specifications and parts lists...no, you buy the end-product and you sacrificially break-open your documented(in progress) parts list.

    Everything should be free...no, wait, someone dedicated themselves to the labor already; it's payed-for. In essence, it is free :p

    How many people benefited from the construction of planet Earth? Is planet Earth open-source and does planet Earth have an Uber Entity? Is Planet Earth's Uber Entity enforcing patents? (Yes) Is planet Earth's Uber Entity named "GOD"? (No) So, what is preventing everything from being free (not as in beer)? Patents, and the entities that enforce them (DMCA), are what continually beat-down the freedom of living in a non-patented world.

  15. Re:Please tell me: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on University of Wisconsin Wins FutureTruck Competition

    www.nytimes.com/2001/05/27/business/27DIES.html
    www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle / rchive/2001/05/23/MN110637.DTL
    journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html
    www.greasecar.com
    www.lupo80days.com/route_en.html
    www.a-car.com/index.html
    www.biodiesel.org/
    lowtech.bigstep.com/
    www.veggievan.com
    www.americanbiodiesel.com/
    www.icta.org/projects/trans/rlprexsm.htm
    news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1309000/ 1309201.stm
    www.wired.com/news/technology/1,1282,31920,00.html

  16. More info on Wang Jimbo by Big_Ass_Spork · · Score: -1 · on Email Trial In China Begins
    The Complete History of Wang Chung
    Part III -- WRONG    Pages: [PREV]1 2 3
    Bobbi Enderle with Jack Hues
    Polaris Amphitheater, July 2000
    • 2001
      - February 2001 - Nick Feldman was an A&R manager for Warner Music UK Limited (WEA Records in London), promoting fine new bands such as Arturo, The Screaming Orphans, The Webb Brothers, and ARKARNA. However, in February 2001 WEA A&R manager Nick Feldman left the company ahead of an expected reshuffle, prompted by the pending Warner/London Records merger. By March 2001, WEA Records and London Records finally merged, resulting in departures from both companies.
      - Summer 2001 - Wang Chung once again plans on touring across the United States this summer (check the 'main' page for more details)! Wang Chung will have the same personnel this year. However, this season's tour will be smaller, as they are only going to play selected dates. It seems that Jack Hues is producing a couple of things at the moment, and this way of working enables him to continue with work in the UK, rather than disappearing for 3 months at a time.
      - May 03, 2001 - Nashville, TN - The Playroom at 12th & Porter
      - May 04, 2001 - Lake Charles, LA - Contraband Days at the Lake Charles Civic Center
      - May 05, 2001 - Chicago, IL - Park West
      - June 21, 2001 - Oshkosh, WI - WaterFest at Riverside Park
      - June 23, 2001 - Cincinnati, OH - P & G Pavilion Park
    TODAY, all four original members are still working hard within the music industry:
    • Jack Hues is still busy writing music and producing on his own, being responsible for such projects as the 1990 film soundtrack to William Friedkin's "The Guardian", among others. Recently, Jack has just co-produced and co-written the new ARKARNA album for Warners. He is looking for very musical projects which need a big writing/arranging input.
    • Nick Feldman is now working for Sony Music with David Massey, who was Wang Chung's manager back in the 1980's! Nick and Jack are also founding investors in Graeme Pleeth's great project called Studio EncycloMedia, an on-line directory of worldwide professional recording studios and the focal point for the professional recording industry.
    • Darren Costin (aka "Darwin") is also busy as an engineer, producing and editing various projects for the likes of U2, Bjork and Pavarotti. Darren is reportedly now involved with a new band named "LOBE", with an album in the works.
    • David Burnand (aka "Hogg" Robinson) is the Head of Music Technology, Head of the Centre for Screen Music Studies, and a Principal Lecturer at the Royal College of Music. He composes electroacoustic and film scores, including music and sound design for: Hoi Polloi (BBC, 1990), Acumen (C4, 1991), Smart Alek (BFI, 1993), Là Bas (BFI, 1994), Gallivant (BFI/C4, 1996). The Gallivant soundtrack is available on CD (TS CD001).
    This is based on many sources.
    Please notify me of any corrections or inconsistencies!
  17. Vegetarian VW by bmasel · · Score: 2 · on Running Vehicles on Vegetable Oil?

    Here's a guy who's running an old diesel VW Rabbit on filtered vegetable oil with just scrapped parts.

    The Vegetarian VW