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All production requires energy. The better question is whether there is a short enough pay-off period to make it a worthwhile purchase. It is nice to see that the manufacturing is improving and hopefully becoming cheaper. However, I still think nuclear is the way to go in the US. I read a great article about what the costs are titled "Nuclear, America Style" found at http://economicefficiency.blogspot.com/2008/07/nuclear-american-style.html It is a pretty balanced article explaining that in some cases, it is just too expensive.

Why is that? I mean once you have high temp water and you need it to be low temp water, and you have more water that needs to be high temp water why not transfer the energy from the now distilled water to the needs to be distilled water. Energy requirements in that case are equal to energy lost to transfer efficiency constraints.

The principle is well known and called "regeneration" - you pass the incoming fluid through a heat exchanger with the outgoing fluid. For instance it's mentioned here in connection with the important Haber-Bosch ammonia process. It's also used by penguins to keep them from losing heat from the bloodstream through their feet! If the engineers are not doing it, they are really really poorly educated, or they have some decent reason. I suspect mainly the latter...

That would work, unless Google itself deletes your account or all of your email.

Backups are meant to cover more than just hard drive failures, otherwise RAID 1/5 would be sufficient.

Also, if you can't backup your data from Google, you can't switch from Google to anyone else, so you are locked in.

"Stealing America : Vote by Vote" is an important movie that's out in theaters; it just premiered in New York City and is touring across the country. The HBO thing was good but this is better, and covers a number of things the HBO movie did not cover.

By their nature, merchants are not well-equipped to secure modern payment card transactions and data. As merchants like TJX have (predictably) failed to succeed at tasks they are not qualified to perform, the law has unfairly been punishing them. The punishment and the unfair foisting of burdens on merchants should stop. As an effort to take heat and responsibility off of beleagured merchants, programs like Verified by Visa are wise and necessary. --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2008/03/ftc-treats-tjx-unfairly.html

By their nature, merchants are not well-equipped to secure modern payment card transactions and data. As merchants like TJX have (predictably) failed to succeed at tasks they are not qualified to perform, the law has unfairly been punishing them. The punishment and the unfair foisting of burdens on merchants should stop. As an effort to take heat and responsibility off of beleagured merchants, programs like Verified by Visa are wise and necessary. --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2008/03/ftc-treats-tjx-unfairly.html

when i blogged about this yesterday
http://vark.blogspot.com/2008/08/mini-mass-spectrometer-from-small.html
i put in a link to the company that makes the gadget.
http://www.prosolia.com/
Prosolia, Inc.
351 West 10th Street
Suite 316
Indianapolis, IN 46202

Hmm, I know right where that is, just down the street from me.
I haven't been through their dumpster yet.

above post is infomrative, insightful, indiscreet

Hmmmm.

This?

How about this?

Or this?

Every illegal immigrant may not commit every singly offense against the US, but a large number are committing crimes and offenses and causing problems.

And that doesn't address the various scams they run, like insurance fraud. (also here or here or here).

It's highly unlikely. String theory can basically be anything, so it's not that useful from a predictive standpoint. From Backreaction:

First of all, mini black holes at the LHC are an option only if one of the theories of "large extra dimensions" would in fact be true. But of course, these theories are only speculations so far. Second, should mini black holes be created in high-energy particle collisions, they would evaporate very fast, due to Hawking radiation. Though Hawking radiation has not been experimentally verified so far, its existence is expected in almost all theoretical scenarios investigated (no matter where you go, you will always find somebody who disagrees on something).

Cough.. Cough..

India actually has implemented Electronic Voting. Read that again - Electronic, not Computerized. For some explanation of the difference, look here.

They had serious problems with paper such as many ballot boxes from certain districts going "missing".

Really? http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2008/03/ideas-vs-judgment-and-execution_9197.html

good article http://egyptian12.blogspot.com/

Yet another attempt by Sony to force an expensive proprietary format on the masses: http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2006/07/sony.html

I agree with you. MIT is on the best Tech Schools in the World why would they Theorize something and put it into the Media. They must have sustantial facts. http://solarpowermarket.blogspot.com/

MIT one of the Best Technology schools in America and I believe they are on something big with all of these discoverys ove the past few months. The Facts are in the numbers people. We (america) is finally paying attention to Solar Power, Renewable Resourses, and bio-fules where the rest of the world has been doing it for decades. If this country where to harness these new technologies that would mean more jobs, more money for middle class families, and bring the dollar where it's supposed to be. http://solarpowermarket.blogspot.com/

If the name or address is in Michigan you might. I was charged with a felony last year for posting someones email address on the internet. You can read the details here: http://rudygreene.blogspot.com/ Beware. It could happen to you.

And if an indie developer is worried about direction, make a simple one level demo and share it with the gaming forums,telling them ahead of time that the game isn't about graphics but bringing back the fun to FPS. I'm sure he'd find a ton of guys like me that would be happy to play test it and give him new ideas,because in the end all the eye candy doesn't mean squat if it isn't FUN.

Our (lucky) 13th title will try to fit the bill for a fun, indie-developed FPS. However, the feedback we've received over the years is that a) it's difficult for an indie developer to get the public's attention with same, and b) many (not all) gamers demand the eye candy. Valve picked up our latest, and people are vocally split into two camps -- "This is fun despite the simple graphics" vs. "This looks like crap, so I won't play it." It's still been good for us, but it's absolutely received less attention for not being both fun and pretty at the same time.

Careful, you might end up buried partway in a cliff with a plasma drive hanging out your rear bumper.

Actually, the (supposedly) true story of the Rocket Car Legend is a rather interesting read.

The VASIMIR has been in developement since 1979.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_specific_impulse_magnetoplasma_rocket

I wonder where they will get the 200 kW to drive it from?

-------------
http://borislegradic.blogspot.com/

Email this guy? He says he got the Apple II version working with more ease than the DOS version. And Richard Garriott sent him a crossbow!

Email this guy? He says he got the Apple II version working with more ease than the DOS version. And Richard Garriott sent him a crossbow!

Yup, been working a little bit on a page with lots of screenshots. For right now you can find some on the blog: http://arorabrowser.blogspot.com/

No kidding. They are fugly. There is a great picture of one of these fugly cars in a great article about electric cars in London, called "Electric Car Finds its Niche" at http://economicefficiency.blogspot.com/2008/08/electric-car-finds-its-niche.html [blogspot.com] They make sense if you are only going a short distance and not carrying cargo. But they are still ugly.

Of course, the cars would have to be electric! I read a great article about electric cars in London, called "Electric Car Finds its Niche" at http://economicefficiency.blogspot.com/2008/08/electric-car-finds-its-niche.html They make sense if you are only going a short distance and not carrying cargo.

Super heated water makes good steam, like any nuclear plant. I agree with the theme of your post, which is to harness that superheated water for energy. Of course, the "how" is the hard part. On a bit of a tangent, I read an editorial in the Wall Street Journal by William Tucker calling nuclear "terrestrial power." The editorial is called "Let's Have Some Love for Nuclear Power." However, I read a better follow up piece called "Nuclear, America Style" found here: http://economicefficiency.blogspot.com/2008/07/nuclear-american-style.html In a round about way, this superheated water they found is really cool, even with the possibility of sea monsters.

Spoofed? It can be changed!

http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-to-change-mac-address-of-your.html

Has nothing to do with can't -- has to do with wasting my time. I'm a fan of Linux from all the way back to the early 90's.

I've put in my time (wasted) constantly screwing with the configuration, trying to make things work, filing bug reports no one cares about, and it's old.

It's not going anywhere but sideways. Show me the break-out desktop for Linux that's better than all the others for real users? It doesn't exist.

The massive amounts of "choice" and no one caring much about USEABILITY mean the Linux desktop still sucks, and hasn't gotten any better since the lead developer on Enlightenment left RedHat, how many years ago?

GNOME/KDE are shining examples of how all this choice doesn't work.

Ahh this seems like such a good time to mention this again: Too many CHOICES in software not always a good thing, kids.

LSB is trying to remedy the Fallacy of Choice.

It won't succeed, because the devs simply don't care about usability -- they care about things only developers care about and 99% of the rest of the world doesn't.

(Thus, Linux has 1% market share on the desktop. Funny how that works.)

I'll get marked as a Troll for this, but it's true. I'm a Linux fan, but I'll take a working desktop (Windows, Mac, doesn't matter) over the Linux desktop any day of the week, and DEFINITELY on patch/upgrade release day.

There has to be such a thing as fair use, or else there really isn't any first amendment.

Ummm, the second thing you said... Welcome to slashdot! Why do you think the GPL was designed and intended to be the antithesis of copyright?

Copyright law has all but destroyed your right to free speech. It's being used to suppress political speech, erase history, and assign private ownership to ridiculous things like silence.

Besides.... do you really think you have a right to speak freely after you watch people hauled off in shackles for reading the First amendment?

Let's say I sent a letter (confessing to a crime, perhaps) to a reporter, who then printed it in a newspaper. Can I then sue him for copyright infringement for quoting me?

No, but if you send it in, they print it, and then you try to reprint that section of the newspaper, they come after you with a DMCA takedown. citation

I guess my main bullet point in this presentation would be to say that free speech is dead in the US... dead and gone. Long gone. Private interests trump your right to speak freely here.

I felt that I made an intelligent and reasonable set of arguments which would be responded to in kind; but instead I get an emotion-based reply

Sorry you're so "intelligent and reasonable" and I'm so "emotional". I guess your points must have been intelligent and reasonable if you think they are, and I guess my "emotion-based reply" is unworthy of you.

I've been reading your comments for several years, and I believe there is some reason which you are not disclosing why you continually take the position, unsupported by any citation to legal precedent, that "downloading copyrighted content without permissions is stealing". Yes you have been open about that being your position, but you have not been open about your personal reasons for repeatedly espousing that incorrect statement of law at every juncture, when it is almost invariably offtopic.

The entire subject of the oral argument in Capitol v. Thomas is the distribution right, not the reproduction right; the erroneous jury instruction had to do with the distribution right, not the reproduction right; the reason a new trial is needed is because of the a mistake regarding the distribution right, not the reproduction right. Yet you insist on using this post as a platform to repeat, over and over again, your misstatement of law regarding the reproduction right, one which you have previously uttered probably several hundred times before on Slashdot, always without benefit of citation to legal authority.

Is it really so odd that your defense of an obvious RIAA shill posting various posts under an "AC" designation attracts attention? Sorry if I'm too "emotional" for your "intelligent and reasonable" highness.

If you want to have a "reasonable" and "intelligent" dialogue you need to do 2 things:

1. disclose the real reason that you keep looking for a platform to spout your opinion on downloading, and

2. either cite your authority for it, or admit you have none.

See, the way I look at things, there is no contradiction between being "emotional" and being "intelligent and reasonable", but there is a contradiction between "intelligent and reasonable" on the hand, and "intellectually dishonest" on the other.

Apparently these results with 95% probability rule out the Higgs having a mass of 170 GeV. Which happens to be a major prediction in the Noncommutative Geometry interpretation of the Standard Model.

Thanks for the description of how things are. That has been my sense of things. I guess that I'm stuck with WoW. Not that I don't enjoy playing it, but it would be nice to have some alternatives and the Eve environment does seem pretty attractive.

It's not as bad as all that. No-one says you have to jump into 0.0 on day one, and if you did, things might not look as great.

I've been playing EVE for something like 10 months now, and for 6 of those months, work was really demanding and I didn't get much play time at all... (maybe 15 minutes a week). You're not going to earn tons of ISK that way (or any), but you can still learn your skills.

EVE differs from WoW in that you don't have to be in-game to progress. No levels, no XP grinding. To be able to use your equipment better, you need to skill up - and skills train in real time.

Now, granted, if you aren't in a corp, you're not going to easily find people to play with, but with some basic skills and attention to detail, you can run solo missions just fine. Your tutorial agent should be able to hand you off to a beginner agent, and with the ISK you earn from those missions (mission rewards, time bonuses, bounties, and loot) you should be able to get a decent frigate for your race, and fit it properly. With a properly equipped combat frigate - tech1 equipment or cheap named, not even tech2 - you should be able to complete the majority of level 1 missions. With the ISK from that, you can buy the skills and ships to move up a half step to destroyers, which should let you stomp any level 1 and a good chunk of level 2s, or into cruisers which should allow you to complete the majority of level 2s. By that point, you'll be more familiar with the game and ready to take a look at one of the thousands of different corps available in game.

And while everyone mentions mining as a way to make money, there's more options than that. You can run missions, do trade runs, produce goods, all sorts of things.

Anyways, take a look at Hammer's EVE, a kind of guide for EVE for current WoW players.

Fly safe!

From the blog comments:

This guy is not controlling anything with his hands. It's a pre-recorded sequence and he is "hand-syncing". Look closely.

Still, I'd like to know what technology they used to create the holograms... *IF* indeed they're real.

What a great article! I have been reading a lot about electric cars lately, and a really good article titled, "Electric Car Finds its Niche" at http://economicefficiency.blogspot.com/2008/08/electric-car-finds-its-niche.html Great read!

I was wondering that myself... first
thing I thought when I saw the graphics
was, 'hey... wasn't that my old AfterDark95
screensaver?'
[ http://afterdarksaver.blogspot.com/2007/11/penrose.html ]

That and good ole satori...
[ http://telcontar.net/DesktopPics/satori.php ]

-AI

And it has to be responded to...! I'm going to be the first on this page, anyway!
BTW, Jack Campbell says he developed the LimePC, which is what this is with a different logo. I posted what he says on my blog at http://cherrypal.blogspot.com/2008/07/low-power-high-functionality-powerpc.html
I'm told that CherryPal will be coming out with a laptop as well. I agree with using the term "netbook" to refer to this category of machines, appropriate for both the desktop and notebook version, the difference being only the built in monitor and keyboard.
I am excited about how the CherryPal can bridge barriers to people who have not had access to computers or the internet because of money, fear, education or other challenges. I will be commenting on my experience of using it on my blog as soon as I get my own CherryPal C100!
Although it may seem hypocritical to require your own monitor and keyboard for a "portable" device, I can't wait to find out if the comfort factor will outweigh the convenience. You can use CODE CPP206 to get your own CherryPal for $10 less than purchase price at Paypal. http://cherrypal.blogspot.com/

And it has to be responded to...! I'm going to be the first on this page, anyway!
BTW, Jack Campbell says he developed the LimePC, which is what this is with a different logo. I posted what he says on my blog at http://cherrypal.blogspot.com/2008/07/low-power-high-functionality-powerpc.html
I'm told that CherryPal will be coming out with a laptop as well. I agree with using the term "netbook" to refer to this category of machines, appropriate for both the desktop and notebook version, the difference being only the built in monitor and keyboard.
I am excited about how the CherryPal can bridge barriers to people who have not had access to computers or the internet because of money, fear, education or other challenges. I will be commenting on my experience of using it on my blog as soon as I get my own CherryPal C100!
Although it may seem hypocritical to require your own monitor and keyboard for a "portable" device, I can't wait to find out if the comfort factor will outweigh the convenience. You can use CODE CPP206 to get your own CherryPal for $10 less than purchase price at Paypal. http://cherrypal.blogspot.com/

Then it has to be responded to...! I plan to be the first to get a CherryPal C100, write about it, use it, give one to my parents, and determine if it will work for schools so every kid can get onto the internet and access the incredible K12 curriculums available. I am also skeptical to see if it will live up to its promise and deliver any more than any other netbook available. BTW, it really is a lime pc with a different logo on it. I spoke with Jack Campbell who developed it. You can see what he says at http://cherrypal.blogspot.com/2008/07/low-power-high-functionality-powerpc.html I'm told that CherryPal will be coming out with a laptop as well. I agree with using the term "netbook" to refer to this category of machines, appropriate for both the desktop and notebook version, the difference being only the built in monitor and keyboard. I am excited about how the CherryPal can bridge barriers to people who have not had access to computers or the internet because of money, fear, education or other challenges. I will be commenting on my experience of using it on my blog as soon as I get my own CherryPal C100! Although it may seem hypocritical to require your own monitor and keyboard for a "portable" device, I can't wait to find out if the comfort factor will outweigh the convenience. You can use CODE CPP206 to get your own CherryPal for $10 less than purchase price at Paypal. http://cherrypal.blogspot.com/

Then it has to be responded to...! I plan to be the first to get a CherryPal C100, write about it, use it, give one to my parents, and determine if it will work for schools so every kid can get onto the internet and access the incredible K12 curriculums available. I am also skeptical to see if it will live up to its promise and deliver any more than any other netbook available. BTW, it really is a lime pc with a different logo on it. I spoke with Jack Campbell who developed it. You can see what he says at http://cherrypal.blogspot.com/2008/07/low-power-high-functionality-powerpc.html I'm told that CherryPal will be coming out with a laptop as well. I agree with using the term "netbook" to refer to this category of machines, appropriate for both the desktop and notebook version, the difference being only the built in monitor and keyboard. I am excited about how the CherryPal can bridge barriers to people who have not had access to computers or the internet because of money, fear, education or other challenges. I will be commenting on my experience of using it on my blog as soon as I get my own CherryPal C100! Although it may seem hypocritical to require your own monitor and keyboard for a "portable" device, I can't wait to find out if the comfort factor will outweigh the convenience. You can use CODE CPP206 to get your own CherryPal for $10 less than purchase price at Paypal. http://cherrypal.blogspot.com/

Hopefully they'll release one in this (apple leaked!) form factor:

http://brent-noorda.blogspot.com/2007/08/apples-new-ipod-freestyle-to-good-for.html

The ipod freestyle.

The Catholic church isn't storing their treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
They've got an extra-large one of these babies!

As of just over a week ago, Gmail has a built-in option for forcing HTTPS. See the official blog entry regarding it.

To enable this, you can do this:

• Log into Gmail.
• Click Settings.
• At the bottom, tick "Always use https".

Like the burrito, it's actually kind of wrong to treat the fortune cookie as strictly an American misconception. (Burritos are of Californian origin, it is true: but from the era when California was part of Mexico.)

Burritos are from northern Mexico, where the tortillas are made from wheat.

In 1998, Peter Fox traced the origins of the burrito the state of Sonora in northern Mexico, and sent these audio reports to NPR.

Sobre gustos no hay disputas

This was a stage separation problem, one of the most common types of launch failures in orbital rocketry. The length of time of the scrubbed launch had nothing to do with it, just like the previous launch's "bump" and "slosh" had nothing to do with its prior abort, either. Quit attributing failures to false causes.

And by the way, don't forget that this is, for the most part, a "from scratch" launch system. Picture the atrocious failure rates early in the US space program. Developing a new launch system is very hard work.

So, as the record stands, SpaceX had one corrosion issue, and two stage separation issues. Good to know that this wasn't another corrosion issue; it was another case of a problem on stage separation, which they hadn't yet mastered. I wonder if their attempt to fix the "bump" from last separation is what led the stages to stick together.

On the upside:
  * SpaceX modified their Merlin engine to be regeneratively cooled and get more power since their last launch, introducing a new element of risk. This regeneratively cooled engine is what is to power the Falcon 9, so they wanted to get it test flown. The new engine performed flawlessly.
  * SpaceX has two more finished rockets lined up for launch. We should know their launch dates soon.
  * The Falcon 9 rocket has finished its static test firing series without a single failure. Its schedule shouldn't be delayed by this.

I would have to disagree. The state barely (if at all) does an adequate job of maintaining roads. My recent blog post describes more of how I feel about it:

http://straightcleveland.blogspot.com/2008/07/but-who-will-build-roads.html

Jack Balkin's Blog: http://balkin.blogspot.com/
Read a while, it will do you some good.

Larry Lessig's blog: http://www.lessig.org/blog/

Now - go read.

Elon Musk's brother Kimbal has a page with a little info here http://kwajrockets.blogspot.com/

There is some discussion here http://spacefellowship.com/Forum/about5898.html

Spacefellowship.com also has a discussion area for Armadillo Aerospace where actual members of the team and even John Carmack sometimes respond to posts.

Where else do people go to discuss SpaceX?

Please join me in begging SpaceX to seed a torrent of their broadcast quality video of the launch. Mod me up to +5 so someone there will be more likely to see this plea.

What other costs would there be? That would be pretty cheap. I guess you'd have to get an ip subnet. For my comcast account that costs $60 a month, with theoretically 40 gigabytes, that's 0.15 cents per kB. Vs. your amount above of 0.02 cents per or about 7 times cheaper.

If I could pay 2k today to get a fiber internet connection to my house that wasn't limited by comcast, I'd do it in a second.

MightyYar was referring to this incident:

http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html

For the most part, amicus curiae briefs are encouraged, much like pro bono work. Anyone with enough money can hire lawyers to exhaustively research legally grey areas looking for precedents.

This situation is extremely unusual. In this case the judge actually invited amicus curiae briefs.

Distribution compatibility and package management is a big problem for most, if not all developers, and has been for a very long time.

And it will be, for quite some time to come. Linux doesn't have a stable ABI, so it's very hard to deploy to. I'm pretty sure even the LSB's goals don't reach far enough to solve this fundamental problem.