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Here in Maryland the rebates are not so large, but neither are they available to the company. I don't know about California. But, the picture is not so grim as you think. There is accelerated depreciation, federal tax credits and renewable energy credits together with scale and verticle integration. The scale gets you to about $1.50/watt at the factory so the trick is to keep the further assembly and installation costs low by being able to schedule efficiently, basically the same way that UPS does. Currently, in the residential market, the panel producers, hardware producers, inverter producers, wholesalers and installers are all seperate businesses. Your retail price goes up everytime there is idling or a mismatch in equipment. One installer here lost half a day not long ago when the supplier sent the wrong parts. You can't leave the panels on the roof if they are not secured, so down they all came again with much cursing and moaning. You are paying for that. So, taking a good chunk off of your $20K figure is a big part of the business model.
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Need more panels? Add them in at no charge. Need fewer? Same deal. Anticipate the utlities: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

You don't get the rebate if you rent though I think you can get it later if you decide to buy later. You just get a lower price (in this case) for electricity. The company tries to match the utility rate for each utility with net metering, but sometimes they come in a little high or a little low. The formula is to divide what the utility says it collected for residential by what it says it delivered. With staged rates and time of use rates, things can get a little confusing but for time of use one can usually save some money.
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Rent solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

California's Access law is one of the better ones. They also exist in
Arizona (tested in court)
Colorado
Florida
Hawaii
Indiana (planning zoning=HOA?)
Maryland (after 1980)
Massachusetts (specifically including in the yard)
Nevada
and North Carolina (Chapel Hill only)
As can be checked here: http://www.dsireusa.org/summarytables/index.cfm?&C urrentPageID=7&EE=1&RE=1. They basically help with HOAs for the most part.

http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-use rs-selling-solar.html Senator Menendez (NJ) has introduced a bill in the Senate which has also be introduced in the House too (Cardoza CA and Ferguson NJ) that would do the same kind of thing http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsNAGO325.htm nation wide.
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Save with Solar: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Remember,

Bin Laden is alive or not-dead!

Contractor: Sr. Bin Laden, you can't access to research material because of "National Security"! Are you agree?

Bin Laden: i'm not!

Contractor: fuck you!

Bin Laden: fuck you!

Have you any problem with that Bin Laden has this research material? The debate starts now ...!

You can get this arranged so that you do get the power even with the anti-islanding in effect. This is standard on systems we offer: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The rates quoted in the article go down to $0.163/kWh off peak but solar power as a rental deal is already being offered at $0.14/kWh flat rate for Southern California Edison customers. So by twiddling the rates, they've begun to price themselves out of the market. In fact, with a ~60% system you can likely zero out your Edison bill and just pay $0.14/kWh for that 60% under the TOU rates. So, you'll be saving 50% or so on your electric bill (compared to TOU rates). Check the offered solar rates for Edison and the other California utilites by clicking the map at the bottom of the page at any of the links here: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The original headline on the submission was "Time of Use Rates and Solar Power." I thought it would be an intersting discussion of how these rates affect decisions about solar power. You can clearly save money if your system is large enough to produce excess during peak because you get paid more for what you produce than you pay for what you take from the utility. The problem seems to be forcing time of use rates on people who get systems that only produce part of what they use during peak. The bigger problem I see is switching policies every year so that long term investments like solar power become unatractive in that way as well.
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Try this math: compare our flat rate with your TOU rate (click the map): http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

You might be able to zero out your bill with them while still forcing them to supply power. The problem in the article is about smaller systems. At a larger size, you are delivering power at peak and taking delivery at off peak which means you can have the deliver net power that you don't pay them for.
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Get the optimal system size for TOU and keep it that way: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I liked that too about the article, people are doing their own math and it is not that hard to do. I also agree that putting panels on residential roof gives more power than commercial roofs though both should be happening. Your analysis of the PUC is interesting: the fox's lap dog is guarding the hen house?
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Renting solar power works well under TOU: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I think what is happening is that folks with smaller roofs are seeing a problem. Your system is large enough so that it does more than you use during peak so you actually get a credit at the higher rate. If you are only supplementing your use during peak then you have to pay at a higher rate because (in CA) you are forced into the TOU contract.
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Get the right sized system that stays the right size: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

From the freak.... We're finding for our customers that under TOU, a ~60% system is about optimal. This is because we charge a flat rate. You are seeing actual savings from your intended purchase so that is a positive though as you say it is not as attractive as a bond investment. For others, it might make sense to rent until a purchase can actually equal or exceed a bond investment. Panel prices will be coming down as the solar grade silicon supply improves so waiting to purchase might make some sense. You can see rates for renting by following the links at http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Actually, this is astonishingly easy: all you have to do is impose a Pigovian tax on the behavior you want to correct. Want people to use less water? Raise the cost of water. Want people to use less gas? Raise the cost of gas.

Moral exhortations tend to be of limited effectiveness compared to adding to cost because those exhortations assume that people are sufficiently educated to understand them, selfless enough to care, and disciplined enough to act. It's not necessarily being "lazy" not to turn off water -- it's just that people don't have much incentive to. Give them an incentive and they will.

At the top of this http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm price comparison list I found Aten Solar selling at $3.15/Watt for thin film solar (minimum 32 panel purchase). They provide a 20 year better than 80% warranty similar to standard silicon panels. This won't fit on your roof and cover you power usage, but if you have yard space, this might get you going. This is amourphous silicon technology. -- Get Solar Power on your roof without the hassles: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Ever hear of the success that is FRES? Can't just lob a couple bombs and go home anymore, but that's all the EU can do. The UK has dissolved several historic regiments to pay for the FRES system without even asking if it makes any sense to develop these vehicles.

http://rachelhyman.blogspot.com/

Just a consideration that occurred to me..

It sounds like the primary consideration to me. This isn't a DMCA story, it's a story about how the clueless enables identity theft. Here, she has posted some guy's birth certificate, complete with mother's maiden name and birthdate. She seems upset that he got drunk in her bar, so perhaps she's not that clueless and it's intentional instead.

http://rachelhyman.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive .html

I don't think identity thieves are all that concerned with
copyright law. They are probably mildly distracted by the
"cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching!" sound going through their
minds as they peruse her site though. mother's maiden name,
birthdate... [sound of homer simpson drooling (c)]

http://rachelhyman.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive .html

It's been quite a while since I worked on any significant industrial robotics projects (10 years?), but a large number of the robots I was familiar with in the 90's didn't have much of anything in the way of "self-preservation" sensors. It was (and probably still is) easy to program them to smash themselves to bits, even accidentally. The problem isn't quite as simple as you might think.

In the specific example you gave, a clutch and/or a thermal cutoff on the motors would probably keep them from burning up, but if you programmed that same robot to pick up the heaviest object it could lift and drop it on its control cabinet, it'd happily do so. Similarly, having an arm that's carrying a lot of weight whirl around at the highest possible speed then suddenly stopping it could easily bend something.

You can read about my last experience with a semi-suicidal robot on my blog. I thought it was pretty funny, after I figured out I hadn't broken anything.

Where I work, we use a program that randomly generates COD2 maps called cod2gen http://cod2gen.blogspot.com/. We play every day at lunch and at usually at 5pm. Our experience is that a single randomly generated "map of the day" is sufficient and entertaining, then after 3 or 4 rounds, we always return to a time-tested favorite like Toujane or Matmata for a round or two. The random maps keep the game fresh and surprising but lack some of the qualities that make those manually constructed maps "classics".

Full disclosure: I wrote the cod2gen program, so obviously I'm a bit biased as to its usefulness. But the other half dozen guys that work with me seem to like playing the random maps, too.

I think someone needs to call her daddy, Bradley Heyer or Iowa at (515) 964-8474 and let him know that his daughter Ashley Heyer has been a bad girl. The phone number was pulled from the public records located on google.

I find the stupidest thing of all was admitting that it was her own ID. It is a federal offense to produce fake ID's. As far as I know that Patriot Act makes fake ID's akin to a terrorist plot.

Well Ashley, the article that was submitted at http://rachelhyman.blogspot.com/2007/05/regarding- fake-ids.html is all just for you and your friends out there. You should read it and gain some insight.

Just for google's erm, giggles.. though, I would like to re-add the cached page http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:jirEhYabN6wJ:w ww.rachelhyman.blogspot.com/+ashley+heyer&hl=en&ct =clnk&cd=6&gl=us&client=firefox-a

i think you can .. not using (only) the bundled libraries, but since it's very easy to write "native" javascript libraries.. there are a couple of additional libraries which allow you to .. like http://gwt.components.googlepages.com/canvas - or see http://roberthanson.blogspot.com/2006/06/coding-sv g-with-gwt.html for using SVG

and personally .. i think GWT is great.. you have the advantages of java (simplicity, statically typed language) with compatibility with all javascript-ready browsers (ie. >99% of all browsers) without the overhead of any JVM (on the client side) ... and .. it is very very simple to extend.. and very clean even when you need to write native javascript once in a while.. because you would simply hide it behind some java method call ..

If you scroll back through this girl's blog, you'll find a handful of other allegedley fake IDs. But what if one of these is actually real? It seems awfully risky for a bartender to post these pictures when she has no way (or authority) to verify that they're fake. In fact, she's got someone's ACTUAL birth certificate up here:
http://rachelhyman.blogspot.com/2007/02/birth-cert ificate-1.html

So regardless of whether the fake IDs are copyrighted, surely THIS can't be legal! I think the copyright issue is a farce, and the real crime is posting somebody's sensitive information (name, address, photo, signature).

I'm just surprised with the audacity of this bartender.

Ashley Heyer oh, oops, how'd that happen.

Bruce Schneier and Richard Forno's National ID card a disaster in the making discusses some of the many problems with Real ID.

In a nod to states' rights advocates, DHS declares that states are free not to participate in the Real ID system if they choose--but any identification card issued by a state that does not meet Real ID criteria is to be clearly labeled as such, to include "bold lettering" or a "unique design" similar to how many states design driver's licenses for those under 21 years of age. In its own guidance document, the department has proposed branding citizens not possessing a Real ID card in a manner that lets all who see their official state-issued identification know that they're "different," and perhaps potentially dangerous, according to standards established by the federal government. They would become stigmatized, branded, marked, ostracized, segregated. All in the name of protecting the homeland; no wonder this provision appears at the very end of the document.

Americans are rational. And in a post-9/11 world, they are willing to trade some freedom and convenience for more security. But it's not at all clear that Real ID will make us safer. Deputizing motor vehicle office clerks, who would be entrusted with sensitive information and access to a national databank, also entails considerable privacy risk. Fraud and security lapses at DMVs today are hardly uncommon. Just last month, a DMV official in North Carolina was arrested in connection with issuing fraudulent drivers licenses. And if the goal is to stop the next Mohammed Atta, it's worth noting that, even under Real ID, people would be permitted to fly with identification other than licenses.

U.S. policymakers have long rejected a national ID as inconsistent with American freedom. Ordinary people, it has long been believed, should not have to carry a card as if they are criminal suspects and they should not be asked to account to authorities for their whereabouts or activities.

PS: more on this on the Stop Real ID Now! blog.

Bruce Schneier and Richard Forno's National ID card a disaster in the making discusses some of the many problems with Real ID.

In a nod to states' rights advocates, DHS declares that states are free not to participate in the Real ID system if they choose--but any identification card issued by a state that does not meet Real ID criteria is to be clearly labeled as such, to include "bold lettering" or a "unique design" similar to how many states design driver's licenses for those under 21 years of age. In its own guidance document, the department has proposed branding citizens not possessing a Real ID card in a manner that lets all who see their official state-issued identification know that they're "different," and perhaps potentially dangerous, according to standards established by the federal government. They would become stigmatized, branded, marked, ostracized, segregated. All in the name of protecting the homeland; no wonder this provision appears at the very end of the document.

Americans are rational. And in a post-9/11 world, they are willing to trade some freedom and convenience for more security. But it's not at all clear that Real ID will make us safer. Deputizing motor vehicle office clerks, who would be entrusted with sensitive information and access to a national databank, also entails considerable privacy risk. Fraud and security lapses at DMVs today are hardly uncommon. Just last month, a DMV official in North Carolina was arrested in connection with issuing fraudulent drivers licenses. And if the goal is to stop the next Mohammed Atta, it's worth noting that, even under Real ID, people would be permitted to fly with identification other than licenses.

U.S. policymakers have long rejected a national ID as inconsistent with American freedom. Ordinary people, it has long been believed, should not have to carry a card as if they are criminal suspects and they should not be asked to account to authorities for their whereabouts or activities.

PS: more on this on the Stop Real ID Now! blog.

Holy mother of Judas. I messed up my editing and left out

20:9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him

i think my arrows made comment tags. :-( Damn you slash not. *shakes fist and crys out noooooooooo0ooooooo0ooooooooooo* There was supposed be a link that said Biblical Justice: Everybody must get stoned It all looked right in the preview, but slashcode must of bent me over. :-( Quick, check the html code, the message might still be there.

-Your friendly neighborhood Anonymous Cowper's Gland

Is a VP immune to prosecution for treason? This sounds like an offense that could be punishable by death since it risks the life of an operative.

It's the Richard Nixon defense:

NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

Social Computing leverages, through technology, the genius of groups. It is as simple, and as wonderful, as that.

A licence is permission. Usually is is used when some activity could be dangerous if done poorly, such as driving or practicing medicine. It can also be permission to use something, like a fishing licence. I think that an EULA is like a fishing licence, permission to use enforced scarcity. The GPL is more like a licence to preach where one has to be reasonably free of heresy to be granted the licence, it is basically about competence.

It is the same word, but the sense can be quite different.
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Solar power for what you pay your utility now: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

This smells like the DMCA all over again. Like the DMCA trampling over fair-use rights simply because copyrighted content is encrypted, this legislation is completely stripping consumers of their rights under the First-Sale Doctrine! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

For instance, in Florida a new restriction requires that stores only provide in-store credit, and not be allowed to pay for used albums that are turned in.

Once again, the RIAA bribes (whoops, I mean lobbies of course :-P) legislators, who in-turn strip citizens' rights to fatten the wallets of the already-rich. Pathetic.....

http://watching-eyes.blogspot.com/2007/05/offload- your-old-cds-become-criminal.html

Here's my blog where I talk about my work.
It's important to always lay the cards on the table, and be truthful about what is going on with one's work, for better or worse.
I know some people here would say Microsoft does not always do that, but I feel that I need to, then my work has some value.

I use my own OS all the time, and I like it, but don't we all like our own work.

I have to agree that lilypond http://www.lilypond.org/ really is good. It can be used to typeset music into a book or paper so that is useful to music students. It produces MIDI output for quick checks. AND, it is cross-platform so that it can be shared easily. My nine year old caught on to the coding in just an hour or two.
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Solar for a song: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Fuck no! We do NOT need games more addicting than Warcrack.

Links about WoW addiction:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/WOW_widow
http://soulkerfuffle.blogspot.com/2006/10/view-fro m-top.html
http://wowdetox.com/
http://wowrecovery.com/
http://deletewow.com/
One out of many particularly sad stories: http://www.wowdetox.com/view.php?number=13640

"Bottom line is: supporting Free Software and/or the GNU GPL does not automagically make you speak out against copyright per se at all."

Isn't he rather saying that If you support the GPL you cannot be against copyright?

If so, he is not correct. You can easily be against copyright but choose to use the GPL while it continues as a form of using the enemies weapons and tactics against him.

That said, if copyright were made a lot more sane (could these thoughts help?

http://zotzbro.blogspot.com/2007/04/some-thoughts- on-copyright-offensive.html

)

then we may indeed be better off with a nice set of copyright and copyleft laws than we would be with no copyright. However his point does not hold up in my view.

Oh and by the way, if anyone is interested, I am not one of the anti-copyright crew but rather am opposed to current copyright laws and practices. (Though we may indeed be better off with no copyright at all than we are with today's copyright situation.)

all the best,

drew

Who, you ask? Maybe the state?

See the first link on the list on http://newsbyte.blogspot.com/

# More fodder for nutty IP trolls in Utah, this time in the guise of the state's new "Trademark Protection Act" More stories at SL Trib and WebProNews

And unsurprisingly, the EFF opposes the new law.

So who's behind this thing? Well, here's a "guest blog" post promoting the law on the Utah Senate's website. The byline on the article describes the author as "Matthew Prince, Adjunct Professor of Law, John Marshall Law School". But as the SL Trib article notes, that's not his current occupation:

        "The Trademark Protection Act is the creation of Unspam's Prince, father of the controversial child-protection registry. That law, which is being challenged in court by a pornography trade group, requires companies that sell adult-oriented products and services to submit their e-mail lists to Unspam to be "scrubbed" of e-mail addresses to which minors have access. The cost is half a cent for every address they submit."
        "Likewise, Prince has positioned himself to benefit from the new law. If the state decides to hire an outside company to manage the database of registered trademarks, and if the deal is financially attractive, Prince said he might create a company and bid on the contract."
        "The entrepreneur insisted that wasn't his primary motivation in pushing the bill. [yeah, right] The idea, he said, came out of a class he taught two years ago at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago."

You remember UnSpam, right? They're the company behind Utah's "Child Protection Registry", and they made the news last October after failing to conceal kids' email addresses. Note that their high-powered attorney is Brent O. Hatch [son of Sen. Orin Hatch], who you may recognize from his work for SCO. Apparently the guy specializes in hopeless damage control jobs.

Title should read: SCO Group's Anti-kids-spam registry "a Flop"

Brent Hatch is involved in SCO's crusade against linux. Many other similar players like Ralph Yarro and his CP80 crusade.

http://sconewsroundup.blogspot.com/ Has more info, and cites TFA.

Correction: We don't have an accepted theoretical framework. I've certainly heard talks where such a framework is proposed, and the codeposition particle sizes in the present experiment are anticipated by theory, but it is still much too soon to say if one theory or another is correct, or if any existing theories are adequate. But, I think you are right that this is a more exciting area to dig in.
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Hot fusion now! http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

At this point, they are not aiming for net energy production. Their two main advances are to 1) use codeposition to get deutrium loading from the beginning and 2) using a detector that can fit within the experiment. The first advance means that the effects are seen just about every time, and the second means that the background has less of an effect on detection, particularly if charged particles are involved since these have trouble escaping the experimental setup owing to Compton losses. Getting more power out than in is not really the basic measure though. The power out so far is heat, so you want quite an excess before you can turn that back into something usable.
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Energy out from the Sun: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Actually, the budget that funded this paper was a few thousand dollars a year of discretionary funds http://newenergytimes.com/news/2006/NET19.htm#ee. One of the main contributions of Navy labs to this field is metalurgical skills. There has been actual funding from time to time but for the most part people work on this on their own time.
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Go solar sooner: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The method of recording nuclear tracks is a solid is an old one but it has the advantage that the recording material can be placed very close to the reaction. This has lead to the discovery of very short lived particles that might be long sought axions in a recent accelerator experiment: http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0954-3899/34/1/009. The plastic detectors used in the SPAWARS experiment can be placed close to the electrode so that background is a smaller part of the overall signal. Their method of electrode fabrication is also impressive. It seems to work just about every time.
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Get solar power for what you pay your utility now: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

The energy produced per fusion event pretty much has to be the same, but the rate at which the fusion occurs is controled differently. If this can be harnessed for energy production, it may end up as distributed power generation rather than centralized power generation envisioned for hot fusion. There does seem to be sufficient palladium available to make significant levels of power.
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Hot fusion now with no installation cost: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

I think I remeber that some of the references in this review http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/Hagelsteinnewphys ica.pdf to the "heat after death" effect described buckets of water evaporating. For most experiments they try to keep delta T low because they are trying to get an accurate energy measurement using flow calorimeters.
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Mr. Fusion on your roof: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Yup, Low Energy Nuclear Reactions or Chemically Assisted Nuclear Reaction. There is quite a lot that is published here: http://www.lenr-canr.org/. The SPAWARS work is quite impressive, with more links to it at http://www.lenr-canr.org/News.htm.
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Get fusion now: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

They're all based on the same fake, flawed "investigation".

See, e.g. deposition of RIAA's "expert" witness.

Basically, an "investigator" operates a pretext Kazaa (or other Fast Track) account... finds a 'screenshot' with titles of copyrighted songs... finds out the dynamic IP address... subpoenas the ISP to find out who paid for the internet access account that had that dynamic IP address at the date and time he made the screenshot... accepts the answer of the ISP... and sues the person who paid for that internet access.

<OT>

</OT>

Someone posted the below web site somewhere:

"REVISED: If the United States Were A Free Country"

http://mycaseagainstgod.blogspot.com/

I thought it was pretty good.

Bush is now attempting to control the damage caused by his warrant-less wiretapping scandal with the NSA and AT&T, amongst others. He wants to have legislation introduced that would grant retroactive immunity to phone companies that have assisted in his scheme in the past.

In other words, caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Bush now wants Congress to give him and his accomplices a clean-slate for his and their past crimes. As the government later explains:

        "companies that cooperate with the Government in the war on terror deserve our appreciation and protection--not litigation."

This is Bush trying to protect the phone companies, and in particular, AT&T, for actions that are clearly illegal, and is likely specifically targeting the EFF case against AT&T over the scandal. If the actions were authorized and legal, as the Bush administration claims, why would this (overly long and painful to read) clause even be necessary?

As Benjamen Franklin once said, those who are willing to sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. I hope the Democrats who control congress do the right thing and reject this legislation. Furthermore, more investigations into the scandal need to be done, and Bush should be impeached for his blatant violations of the US constitution and the rights of his citizens (as well as his baseless aggression and attacks against countries such as Iraq).

(These are excerpts from a post on my Blog before this story was posted on Slashdot, figured I'd post them here as well, you can read the full original post here:
http://watching-eyes.blogspot.com/2007/05/bush-att empts-damage-control.html )

And before I'm accused of self-promotion, I have no ads on my Blog and I'm admitting its my own blog :-P

Fighting the "John Doe" subpoena process would be maybe $5000 worth of legal time.
No college would have to pay that, it would have its counsel's office handle it.
Those universities with law schools could have their legal clinics handle it or the counsel's office.
All they need to do is take the stuff in my Open Letter to Colleges and Universities and put it together into some legal papers... an easy job for any litigator.

You're exactly right, Hotawa, that the effects of this litigation campaign could go way beyond anything having to do with p2p file sharing of music files; the amicus curiae brief submitted by US Internet Industry Association and Computer & Communications Industry Association in Elektra v. Barker expresses eloquently how the RIAA's creative new ideas on expanding copyright law, if accepted by the courts, could shut the internet down.