Slashdot Mirror

I'm sorry, a much techier and more interesting link about cross-border pr0n searches: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2007/03/crossing-border. html

"The underlying idea was that before a person was provided power, be it a vote or authority, they must have demonstrated that they had materially put the good of society above their own personal welfare."

" Basic moral principle, short form:
It is immoral to impose your interpretations and evaluations on anyone else."

"The underlying idea was that before a person was provided power, be it a vote or authority, they must have demonstrated that they had materially put the good of society above their own personal welfare."

" Basic moral principle, short form:
It is immoral to impose your interpretations and evaluations on anyone else."

Journals seem to be insisting on LaTeX so that is what I use, but LaTeX attaches figures to text with breakable bungee cords. If you want control of layout, then TeX does a better job. Having the figure being discussed on the same page as the text that discusses it is much much better.

I get as far as editing bounding boxes with postscript. I think I've changed a few symbols as well. --
Does this work like a sig? http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Thanks, still does not answer the question though. Sun had open sourced a number of things, but not everything. I don't know which catagory this falls in. What are google hits?
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Solar power with no rate increases: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Thanks, I guess I'll skip that. Sounds like it is a fixer-upper anyway.
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Solar power with all new components: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Humm... Maybe I'll wait and see if it is included on a computer I buy second-hand. It is probably not worth it just to tryout a plugin.
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Solar power for cheapskates like me: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The license is pretty opaque to me. It does mention no decompilation or reverse engineering. It also says that it is part of the OpenOffice suite and it might contain open source components.
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Get solar power with no permit hassles: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I feel their are two areas where you are a little confused. First, an economic boycott hurts the side that is imposing it more. You've got miles to walk to work in a bus boycott and you've got to spend you're time on cottage industries rather than modernization in a textiles boycott. The aim is to show the other side why they are behaving immorally so that they internalize this and cease the immoral behavior. Ulitmately this provided room for reconcilliation and the breaking down of the prejudices that caused the problem in the first place. The aim is improved and more prosperous relations.

In the second instance, you are confusing state level sanctions with non-violence. This is not the case. State level sanctions are carried out by entities which can back up the sanctions regime with force. Sanctions are violent, just less violent for the side that imposes them than the next alternative. In the case of genocide, where the UN has a clear mandate to use force, sanctions are a copout. The member states do not want to risk their forces so they go for sanctions. It hurts them less, just the opposite of a non-violent economic boycott.
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Solar power at grid rates: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Looking at the download site, I see a .exe file. I can't find out more without accepting the licence agreement. Is the plug-in open source?
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Opening our Solar Power source to all: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I gave up on Word a long time ago when I had a hard time writing ascii files that didn't have non-standard characters in them. There just didn't seem to be a smooth devolution to something that worked well with a text editor with better marco capabilities (emacs in my case). So the program just didn't seem all that useful. Also the symbols were hunt and peck off a drop down. Very slow. So, to me, this development means I might try out Word again since I've been using StarOffice for simpler things like letters and such. How much does Word cost?
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Solar power with no installation fee: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Wow, if this won't boost the usability of Word what will? I might even try it now.
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Solar power that is easy to use: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Violence works to inspire more violence. Look at your own examples. The goal of non-violent movements is peace. The aim is to remove the causes of conflict. When things turn violent, one is only addressing the symptoms of conflict. In Iraq, the efforts to work on causes are not succeeding largely owing to the initial violence. It is hard to build a civil society when large elements are seeking vengence against you.

Non-violence works by changing hearts. The aim of Ghandi's work was to get the British people to agree that their empire was wrong in principle. The aim of King's work was to get America to live up to its ideals. With these kinds of goals, taken together with the realization that voilence begets violence, non-violence turns our to be the best method. Your assertion that there was an implied threat in the mass movements is correct, but it was not that guns would be next, but that the economic threats could be carried out. Bus companies could not operate or textile factories would have no market. This link may help you: http://paceebene.org/pace/principles-of-creative-n onviolence/martin-luther-king-jr-s-princ
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Photons for peace: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Actually it is the summer blend that is heavier in enthanol but some areas have more smog in winter and thus go against the main trend: http://www.ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article _id=2149.
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Use ethanol responsibly: Raise your glass to Solar Power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Particle board is more and more common, but I think their plan is to use material that is even unsuitible for this. This keeps their raw materials cost low. On the other hand, trees don't grow all that fast, so their is a limit on the amount of carbon available for this. I expect they'll get into switchgrass though if their efficiency can compete with enzymes. The whole issue is a land use issue rather than a food-paper/timber-fuel choice issue. In the end, there is not enough land (or water) to replace fossil fuels using rooted plants: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html.
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Grow silicon leaves: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html

Particle board is more and more common, but I think their plan is to use material that is even unsuitible for this. This keeps their raw materials cost low. On the other hand, trees don't grow all that fast, so their is a limit on the amount of carbon available for this. I expect they'll get into switchgrass though if their efficiency can compete with enzymes. The whole issue is a land use issue rather than a food-paper/timber-fuel choice issue. In the end, there is not enough land (or water) to replace fossil fuels using rooted plants: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html.
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Grow silicon leaves: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html

Some of the stress on food prices might be reduced with this kind of plant: http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stori es/2007/07/03/0703bizrange.html. Their process works like this: http://www.rangefuels.com/conversion_process.
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Solar: The fundemental alternative: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The summer ethanol is about reducing smog and is only in place in some areas. About 46% of the countries gas is mixed: http://www.drivingethanol.org/promotions/state_flo rida.aspx. The addition of ethanol should, in principle, help to stabalize prices but right now it is used as an excuse to manufacture summer shortages.
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Energy supply tight? Go solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Good call on the 9/10ths. If we get this precise in pumps, we'll start seeing 99/100ths on those signs soon. I think dilution with cooler gas already in the tank should do something, but if you are refilling a ground tank, presumably the new fuel becomes the larger fraction after the fill.
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Fixed price solar power for up to 25 years: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I think the pumps are calibrated to volume regardless of temperature. It is the existance of a standard that has been ignored that opens up the possibility of a lawsuit.
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Rent solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

1% over 60 years with interest, with a class action, Yup, it's worth it.
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Fix your rate for Solar Power for up to 25 years: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I think your calculation looks right, what is different is that I was assuming 100 F gas and you are assuming 65 F gas. Why 100 F? If it just got delivered from a tanker, it will still be warm. You don't see a lot of condensation on tankers. With all that sloshing and a good breeze from the drive the heat exchange is going to be pretty good.
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Solar power for less http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I think it will also depend on how often the station is supplied. The tanker coming in on a 100 F day is going to deliver 100 F gas. The tanks will cool this, but it will take a while to cool a tanker load (if the station can take that large of a delivery). If the gas is sold before it can cool, you'll get an effect.
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Solar power at an affordable rate: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

No, 3.2 C would be less than a cent. To get in the range the lawsuit claims they've got to be thinking of 90 F gas or so.
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Put Solar in your future: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

It is not the average but the variation that is important. For example, temperatures are higher in the summer when prices are also higher. Refiners could arrange things to keep prices more even but if this effect is large enough, this could be an intentional thumb on the scale. I think ethanol, which is added in the summer is a larger effect. It costs less that gas and has less energy density so you have to fill up more often when the prices are higher.
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Get more energy in the summer: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Or are the chips on fatty margins?
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Solar power with maintenance included: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

This site give the coefficient of thermal expaansion for gasoline: http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/Topics/Th ermal/ThermExpan.html. For a 20 C increase in temperature I get about a 2% increase in volume or a 6 cent difference for $3/gal gas. So the article seems about right.
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Get solar power with no installation cost, pay for only what the system produces: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I don't know why everyone needs to comment without looking at the leaked MS Salary documents:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/libra ry/MSCompGu.jpg
(from http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2006/03/internal-micr osoft-compensation.html)

Fulltime out of university is level 59.

M$ has already opened shop in India.

So has everybody el$e, in case you've been in a hole for the past seven years.

Opening an office in Canada while complaining about immigration is pure bullshit

You're quite the big Google fan, does it bother you at all that they complain about it as well? Not "pure bullshit" in their case, I suppose. And tell us twitter, how do you feel about the fact that IBM is probably the biggest H1-B and L1 visa sponsor in the United States? Does that not bother you? Or does your outrage only extend to "M$"?

M$ cares only about owning the code you write. When you are finished writing it, they are finished with you. US citizens, perma-temps and others previously doing this work will be shown the door.

Well, assuming for a second this is not hysterical tripe and actually true, please explain to Slashdot how that's different than any other software company? God, I'd love to see you rationalize that.

Because it's almost game over for M$... A key piece of the M$ success story was their ability to pay workers in stock options based on perpetual growth

Exageration, FUD and misrepresentation of facts coupled with ignorance. How can you beat that? Microsoft hasn't been doing that for years - nice try though. Among all your "M$ is dying" hyperbole bullet points, this one takes the cake. "Slave labor", starting at $80K with full health and retirement benefits, indeed.

Don't you get tired of this pointless crap? Do you figure someone actually believes anything you say? Why don't you concentrate on criticizing Microsoft for the bad things they actually do instead of wracking your brain trying to come up with ever more exciting lies and redneck nickel hyperbole?

The Fake Steve Blog had the absolute best analogy for the music business and digital delivery and the iTunes Store:

Ironically the mistake the major labels made was the same one that IBM made when it gave the DOS franchise to Microsoft nearly 30 years ago. They were faced with a new market that they didn't understand. They had a piece of work that they couldn't do on their own or didn't want to do on their own and they didn't view it as critical or important, so they outsourced it to a partner. The partner turned that seemingly unimportant work into a way to accrue power and create a monopoly and control the industry. Today in the music business we're about where IBM and Microsoft were in 1989, when IBM finally got hit with the clue stick and realized what Microsoft was doing.

The New York Time article very-much outlines why AT&T might one day, hopefully sooner than later, embrace VoIP on the iPhone.

Convergence of IP-powered and Cell-Tower telephony is coming, has been for some time now. The big question remains who will be first to market.

Regardless, if Apple comes through on my prediction, remember where you read it first.

The Walmart closest to me has installed skylights. This sems to be a general policy: http://www.walmartfacts.com/articles/2508.aspx. They are using dimmers to keep the light level even.
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Go solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

My question would be how it knows you don't have an original copy of the materials in question?

Your answer is that it doesn't matter, they'll come after you anyway.

Are you innocent? They don't care. It's completely irrelevant, because you'll be given a choice: Pay us a couple of thousand dollars and this will be over with, or go hire a lawyer that is much more expensive and defend yourself. Pay attention the the news here, and read up on their tactics. The RIAA/MPAA has a history of going after people that it knows are innocent.

If you choose option #2, you'll waste all kinds of time and money, possibly even face financial ruin as a result of paying dozens of thousands of dollars. In the end, after the RIAA/MPAA's lawyers have extracted as much money from you as they can, the RIAA/MPAA will drop their case. It will all just silently go away, except for the bills from the lawyers.

You've mistakenly assumed that it's all about your guilt or innocence as an individual person. The real point is to keep up appearances for their extortion ring to continue to be effective. The real point is to scare the shit out of people so badly that whether you're innocent or guilty, you'll still pay up.

Let's not fool ourselves, this is organized crime, plain and simple, except that for now, it's still legal. (Organized "Legal," I guess you'd call it.) What can you do about it? Well, if the thought of paying a lawyer to defend you and, if you actually want damages from the RIAA/MPAA for screwing around with you, paying $114,000 to a lawyer (the amount that is at stake in the most famous to date case of Capitol v. Foster), then you need to support organizations dedicated to changing the laws to make this type of extortion illegal. I would suggest the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who has a pretty good record of success, but at the very least, you need to write to your Congresscritters and let them know that the current situation is unacceptable.

My question would be how it knows you don't have an original copy of the materials in question?

Your answer is that it doesn't matter, they'll come after you anyway.

Are you innocent? They don't care. It's completely irrelevant, because you'll be given a choice: Pay us a couple of thousand dollars and this will be over with, or go hire a lawyer that is much more expensive and defend yourself. Pay attention the the news here, and read up on their tactics. The RIAA/MPAA has a history of going after people that it knows are innocent.

If you choose option #2, you'll waste all kinds of time and money, possibly even face financial ruin as a result of paying dozens of thousands of dollars. In the end, after the RIAA/MPAA's lawyers have extracted as much money from you as they can, the RIAA/MPAA will drop their case. It will all just silently go away, except for the bills from the lawyers.

You've mistakenly assumed that it's all about your guilt or innocence as an individual person. The real point is to keep up appearances for their extortion ring to continue to be effective. The real point is to scare the shit out of people so badly that whether you're innocent or guilty, you'll still pay up.

Let's not fool ourselves, this is organized crime, plain and simple, except that for now, it's still legal. (Organized "Legal," I guess you'd call it.) What can you do about it? Well, if the thought of paying a lawyer to defend you and, if you actually want damages from the RIAA/MPAA for screwing around with you, paying $114,000 to a lawyer (the amount that is at stake in the most famous to date case of Capitol v. Foster), then you need to support organizations dedicated to changing the laws to make this type of extortion illegal. I would suggest the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who has a pretty good record of success, but at the very least, you need to write to your Congresscritters and let them know that the current situation is unacceptable.

iGoogle, I as in 'me' I would believe.

According to the announcement
"For a while now, we Googlers have used a bit of shorthand to refer to the Personalized Homepage -- a name that connotes interactivity, the Internet, and personalization all at once. Please meet iGoogle, the new name for the Google Personalized Homepage."

Also, the url to iGoogle has always been google.com/ig hasn't it?

http://quthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/06/steorn-it-j ust-keeps-going-and-going.html

He gave a talk in UCD the other week, this blog has links to the youtube videos. Check out the second video. About 4 or 5 minutes in, he switches over to talking about some unsolved questions in physics. Turns out, there is no dark matter or dark energy. Apparently it's trivial to fix this problem by incorporating "time variance" in Newtonian Mechanics, which is what they had done with their Orbo deviece. What exactly the nature of this time variance is, or what the nature of the solution is is unfortunately not forthcoming though.

http://quthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/06/steorn-it-j ust-keeps-going-and-going.html

Blog post with a series of videos of a talk the CEO gave at UCD. The key premise of "fluctuations" does not, as I mistakenly suspected, seem to be the fluctuations of the earth's magnetic field after all, but rather the fact that the response time of magnetic domains is non-zero (they claim millisecond +) and that, by changing their system faster than the universe can notice, they can get around this whole pesky conservative field thing which does on in magnets.

So yes, magnets pushing on magnets, but VERY QUICKLY. That makes it more believable, right?

Not Woz though, nobody dislikes him.

Nobody except for Fake Steve Jobs, that is.

;)

Steorm Free-energy Device Demo today!!!

This sounds a little like it's OK to run one clothes dryer, try 10,000. So, if this is the problem you are raising you'll need to explain why the grid can manage the clothes dryers. Another common problem is to assume that an electric vehicle needs as much energy as an ICE vehicle burns. This is incorrect. Two factors come in. First, the heat engine efficiency for an ICE is not very high and it stays on when it is not in use, and second, electric vehicle us regenerative breaking so that sliding friction is much reduced. A pure solar electric car makes an average speed of about 20 mph. This is a 120 mile range while the Sun is high enough in the sky during a day: http://www.messiah.edu/genesis/carhistory.shtml. Doing a 50 mile range with a heavier car charged with solar panels that have a larger cross section than the car itself is not really an issue. Another way to make an estimate is to take a regular hybrid's energy usage and reduce it by three to account for the ICE inefficiency and then look at the energy requirements for a 50 mile trip. I'm not suggesting you've made a math error, but rather that you may be making some assumptions that are not correct. Let me know what you think.
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Photons for fuel: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

An awful lot of cars sit parked for eight hours during daylight. I'm kind of wondering why you think solar power won't work to charge them since this is when it is available? I'm also wondering why you are insisting on rapid charge for a commuter vehicle? It is the distance vehicles or constant use vehicles that need this. Busses for example: http://www.sittnet.cn/en/gonggao_view.aspx?code=20 06N5. I think also that you are in a bind on what the grid can handle. If you are charging during the day using solar panel covered parking, then the capacity is right there. If you are charging at night, you are using the grid during low demand, so there is no big deal.
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Get going with solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

One way to go directly to ethanol is to gassify and then make the ethanol from the gas. This is the method adopted for a new plant in Georgia that just got approval: http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stori es/2007/07/03/0703bizrange.html. Here is a scematic of their process: http://www.rangefuels.com/conversion_process. Their planned production is 100 million gal/year ethanol with methanol and butanol also produced. This is larger than most new larger fermentation plants. Forests don't grow all that fast so their estimate for what Georgia can sustainably produce is 2 billion gal/year, less than recent additions to farm belt fermentation capacity.
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Cut out the chlorophyll middle man: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The cost of solar is coming down quickly. Aten Solar is the retail leader at $3.15/watt http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm. In the commercial sector, Walmart, Macy's, Kohls Target and BJs are all taking on solar because it is cost effective: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/06/25/morg an-stanley-to-own-finance-wal-mart-solar-power-sys tems/. We are bringing the same kind of model to the residential market: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html which is also a money saver. In these cases there is no need for batteries since they work under net metering http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/03/net-metering.h tml.

The cost of solar is coming down quickly. Aten Solar is the retail leader at $3.15/watt http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm. In the commercial sector, Walmart, Macy's, Kohls Target and BJs are all taking on solar because it is cost effective: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/06/25/morg an-stanley-to-own-finance-wal-mart-solar-power-sys tems/. We are bringing the same kind of model to the residential market: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html which is also a money saver. In these cases there is no need for batteries since they work under net metering http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/03/net-metering.h tml.

As of last May, BP had 40 US employees in biofuels. They had a rep at the conference I reported on here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/05/juicing.html. They'll be happy to blend in some biofuels I think. They have to already is some places to control pollution. BP also makes solar cells. Algae comes close to silicon for energy conversion, but then you run the biofuel through a heat engine and lose 70%. Remember that when you are thinking of alternatives, with solar and wind you only need to replace the energy delivered while for combustibles you have to replace the energy used equally. So, I would say BP is serious about their goal of becoming an energy company rather than an oil company, but they will continue to try to maximize profits and the balance between alternatives and oil will be tipped towards oil for then for some time to come.
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Get solar power the easy way: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

As of last May, BP had 40 US employees in biofuels. They had a rep at the conference I reported on here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/05/juicing.html. They'll be happy to blend in some biofuels I think. They have to already is some places to control pollution. BP also makes solar cells. Algae comes close to silicon for energy conversion, but then you run the biofuel through a heat engine and lose 70%. Remember that when you are thinking of alternatives, with solar and wind you only need to replace the energy delivered while for combustibles you have to replace the energy used equally. So, I would say BP is serious about their goal of becoming an energy company rather than an oil company, but they will continue to try to maximize profits and the balance between alternatives and oil will be tipped towards oil for then for some time to come.
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Get solar power the easy way: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The algae projects underway use concentrated CO2 to boost efficiency (gal/arce produced) so that they provide a second use of the carbon, but they are not carbon neutral because they rely on the use of fossil fuels for production. The GreenFuel pilot plant in AZ (about 0.3 acre) is getting 40% capture of CO2 according the Gary Leung who is with the company: http://www.greenfuelonline.com/. This all fine while we burn fossil fuels, but there will be a need to either do better with a 380 ppm atmospheric concentration of CO2 or find a way to concentrate CO2 from the atmosphere that is more efficient than rooted plants. Global Research Technologies (discussed here: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/2 6/0226222) is working on the latter problem. But, you are correct that only algae have the efficiency to produce liquid fuels on a scale similar to how we use them now: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html.

On the other hand, we are facing constricted supplies of oil now and doing something about that quickly looks as though it is going the route of rooted plants. The reason why is because this is presently the path of least resistance. The ethanol pump is primed.
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Silicon: better than carbon for energy: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The algae projects underway use concentrated CO2 to boost efficiency (gal/arce produced) so that they provide a second use of the carbon, but they are not carbon neutral because they rely on the use of fossil fuels for production. The GreenFuel pilot plant in AZ (about 0.3 acre) is getting 40% capture of CO2 according the Gary Leung who is with the company: http://www.greenfuelonline.com/. This all fine while we burn fossil fuels, but there will be a need to either do better with a 380 ppm atmospheric concentration of CO2 or find a way to concentrate CO2 from the atmosphere that is more efficient than rooted plants. Global Research Technologies (discussed here: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/2 6/0226222) is working on the latter problem. But, you are correct that only algae have the efficiency to produce liquid fuels on a scale similar to how we use them now: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html.

On the other hand, we are facing constricted supplies of oil now and doing something about that quickly looks as though it is going the route of rooted plants. The reason why is because this is presently the path of least resistance. The ethanol pump is primed.
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Silicon: better than carbon for energy: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html