Slashdot Mirror

> So you've decided to replace it with your own brand of tyrrany?

Um yeah, it's called DEMOCRACY ...

> They're not asking you to bow to anything, you divisive bigot. All they're demanding is the right to get up off their own knees and stand beside you as equals.

Right, marriage determines equality. Gotcha.

> What label would you use for anyone who would deny their fellow man such a right? How can you even imply that such a label is somehow unwarranted, or unearned?

The People of California? Sorry but different states think differently and I'm sorry if that offends you. But freaking out and yelling Biggot also probably doesn't help.

> (And yes, I can say with resolute and immediate authority that California is, in fact, chock full of assholes, of every brand, stripe, and political leaning)

Stay out of California I guess (and Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah)

Paranoid, Hearing 'voices', itchy, but NOT demented!

This is incorrect.

I don't know if the taxing on inner engines is really viable, but there are other problems at some airports. (The odd thing is enlarging taxiways appears to have been treated as mandatory for all airports getting the A380, and you think some would just resort to the alternative you suggested if it was really safe and perfectly viable without problems.)

It is completely correct - the reason why widening the taxiway is preferred is because always taxiing on the inner engines would place extra wear and tear on those engines, which is uneconomical in the long term but would be perfectly acceptable in a diversion.

However there are additional issues at some US airports for instance...

Randall Walker, the Las Vegas airport's aviation director, said he rebuffed an Airbus request to become an emergency alternative airport for A380s destined for Los Angeles.

Walker said it's not even clear that the airport's underground tunnels could handle the weight of the airplane.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20050215/ai_n11501106/pg_2?tag=artBody;col1/

Basically reinforcing the tunnels to handle the A380s weight is something which certainly won't get done unless an airport is seeing regular A380 service. Similar situations exist at a variety of airports in which runways go over roads. However not being able to use various airports is a serious limitation for Air Force One which will regularly get used wherever the US President wants to fly somewhere. It also is a potential issue in that it limits the number of locations the aircraft can ultimately choose to land in an emergency situation.

Randall Walker needs to look at his data - Las Vegas already takes 777-300ER aircraft and that aircraft has a higher weight footprint than the A380 does. If the tunnels can take the 777-300ER, then they can take the A380.

Actually the A380 can operate out of as many airfields as the 747 can - the reason it isn't planned to is because of passenger offload and FOD issues (the outer engines overhang taxiways, causing a potential foreign object debris issue, but at these airports the A380 would simply taxi on the inner engines only).

This is incorrect.

I don't know if the taxing on inner engines is really viable, but there are other problems at some airports. (The odd thing is enlarging taxiways appears to have been treated as mandatory for all airports getting the A380, and you think some would just resort to the alternative you suggested if it was really safe and perfectly viable without problems.)

However there are additional issues at some US airports for instance...

Randall Walker, the Las Vegas airport's aviation director, said he rebuffed an Airbus request to become an emergency alternative airport for A380s destined for Los Angeles.

Walker said it's not even clear that the airport's underground tunnels could handle the weight of the airplane.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20050215/ai_n11501106/pg_2?tag=artBody;col1/

Basically reinforcing the tunnels to handle the A380s weight is something which certainly won't get done unless an airport is seeing regular A380 service. Similar situations exist at a variety of airports in which runways go over roads. However not being able to use various airports is a serious limitation for Air Force One which will regularly get used wherever the US President wants to fly somewhere. It also is a potential issue in that it limits the number of locations the aircraft can ultimately choose to land in an emergency situation.

Thats not exactly true. Bandwidth is a commodity that does not scale up linearly. And the cost of running itms on a day that has the links saturated is the same as the cost on a day where the links are all idle.

Are you saying websites pay the same amount whether they use little bandwidth or a lot? Check out The real cost of bandwidth - network management challenges". A better one is this one, "Wholesale Internet Bandwidth Prices Keep Falling", in it it says of bandwidth "it is sold at a rate of 'per megabit per second per month'". That means the more used the more it costs.

you still failed to refute the the inifnite supply argument

What infinite supply argument?

Falcon

Sure, the boxes decode an "HD" signal. Yes they scale the HD signal down to 480i. You are right about this.

You are wrong about future pricing of these boxes - history is on my side here.

Here is a press release for a Microtune MT2131 chip that integrates analog NTSC, DTV, and digital cable reception capability onto a single chip:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6311888.html

The chip's cost: $2.40 per chip (and this is from 2006 - they are probably cheaper now). No "magic pixie dust" needed.

Here is an HDTV decoder chip from 2004 that cost $18 back then:

http://www.st.com/stonline/press/news/year2004/p1494p.htm

This article details entire system on a chip designs that fell to $15 at the end of 2007.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_/ai_n25455222

Don't you think chips like this will enable set top converters for less than $40?

Technology history is full of examples of expensive stuff becoming really cheap, really fast. Why would DTV set top boxes be any different? You'd be a fool to believe otherwise.

Do you honestly believe that prices will go lower than $40 if the government is giving away that amount of money for each box? No businessman with a brain in his skull is going to charge less than $40 until the money dries up.

My post was meant to illustrate that this commoditization process can now occur naturally since the artificial prop holding up pricing has now been removed.

-ted

Do you have a source on that $100 number?

The $100 number came from a report I saw a while back but you don't have to take my word for it. You can safely disagree with the number because it depends on how you do the accounting. (disclosure - I'm a certified accountant as well as an industrial engineer) Any profit number for a particular vehicle will be an estimate since the auto companies don't break this stuff out enough to really know for sure. The largest number I've seen for profits per Prius is $1100/vehicle which I regard as optimistic because the R&D costs have been huge. Toyota admitted that the Prius lost money for the first 3-5 years after it was introduced which makes sense. Estimates vary on the profitability of the Prius but due to the added expense of the new technology it is widely considered to be at best marginally profitable and might even be losing money though I doubt it.

I tend to think Toyota is at least making a modest profit on the Prius (or was until recently) depending on how you do the accounting. I think if they were to fully apply all the costs of R&D to the Prius it probably is a breakeven proposition at best but Toyota is probably not fully allocating the R&D costs for hybrid technology. That's not unusual BTW - there are good reasons not to fully allocate costs. The Prius is a technology test bed and a great marketing tool for Toyota so there are benefits even if the vehicle itself isn't terribly profitable.

But they offer nothing. No cash back. No Hawiian trips. No 0% financing. The market demand for them is strong enough that when every other segment for them is dropping, the Prius continues to sell. Seems like a pretty strong indication of consumer demand to me ;)

The Toyota Prius was the 10th best selling vehicle by volume in the US from Jan-April of 2008. Nice sales figures but hardly indicative of overwhelming demand for hybrids. You will note that the Prius is the only hybrid vehicle on the list.

Celiac disease is another possibility but again this is not a difficult diagnosis

Tell that to every doctor I'd ever seen in my life (being visibly malnourished, and complaining of symptoms associated with malnutrition), until I was 33 when my celiac was self-diagnosed and confirmed by testing. And to my cousin and grandfather (both on my mother's side of the family) who died of gastrointestinal cancers, both associated with undiagnosed celiac. And to my mother, sister, and another cousin who all have celiac which was undiagnosed until I brought this condition (so common I don't like to call it a "disease") to their attention.

In the U.S., it is standard medical practice to misdiagnose celiac, and most people have to self-diagnose in their 30's, 40's or 50's (keeping in mind that this is a genetic condition, and so present from birth). Or more likely, stay undiagnosed and die of a gastrointestinal cancer, or some other condition caused or worsened by malnutrition. Celiac affects 1 in 133 Americans, but only 1 in 5,000 is diagnosed.

Unless you're saying that 1 in 133 of your patients (or more, if you see many patients with gastrointestinal symptoms) has been diagnosed with celiac, then you have no business saying it's "not a difficult diagnosis."

Celiac disease is always my first thought when I hear of a somewhat geeky underweight person. Undiagnosed celiac is associated with Asperger syndrome. For more about this, see Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder by Karyn Seroussi.

My response to all this, and the snivelling about how their rights were being trampled upon was that I'm unsympathetic to their plight primarily because the Muslim community has brought this upon themselves. I stand by that statement. We never hear the Muslim community being up in arms about a Muslim suicide bomber smearing the good (?) name of Islam

Does the fact that you haven't heard about Muslims condemning suicide bombers mean it doesn't happen?

I think this is the crucial flaw in your position that the Muslim community has brought this on themselves. I've seen some condemnations, but I've also seen complaints that the media doesn't give the same coverage to moderate Muslim statements against radical Islamists as they do to the actions of terrorists. Think about the nature of media coverage, and I'm sure you'll see the bind that both reporters and moderate Muslims are in. "If it bleeds it leads" is the saying in the news business, and a moment's reflection tells you that fearmongering coverage will almost always trump reassuring statements about how not all Muslims are trying to blow you up.

Here's some of the results from a quick google search for "muslims condemn suicide bombings". The first link is a list of public condemnations by Muslim leaders and groups.

Muslims Condemn Terrorist Attacks
Landmark Islamic Ruling Unequivocally Condemns Suicide Bombings
Minister: Muslim decree to condemn suicide bombings
U.K. Sunnis condemn London suicide attacks
Grand Sheikh condemns suicide bombings
Suicide Bombing
INDONESIA: Muslim leaders condemn suicide bombing
A sampling of fatwas and other statements by Muslim individuals and groups condemning terrorist attacks
Muslim Scholars Condemn Terror U.S. Islamic Leaders Issue Edict Against Attacks On Civilians

They get some coverage, but no stories get multiple days/outlets to repeat the message the way an event like a bombing does. The problem isn't that Muslims don't condemn suicide attacks, it's that their condemnations don't get enough play, so people like you think that the Muslim community silently condones the actions of the extremists.

I have about a dozen Model M keyboards manufactured from 1993 to 1996. The typing feel on the one Unicomp Model M I purchased wasn't the same, they may be using some of the same manufacturing process but the result isn't as good.

It seems to me that even the genuine Model Ms went downhill over the years. All of my 1993 and 1994 samples ("Manufactured for IBM by Lexmark") have noticeably better tactile feedback than any of the 95 and 96 models. After researching why that was, I found notes about reducing the price of keyboards in Lexmark's plans for 1995, so that's probably the root cause here. Basically, if it's not a pre-1995 Model M, it's not a good one as far as I've been able to tell.

If you're the RIAA that's all you need to sue.

If you're the RIAA or some other Democratic crusader, that's all you need to sue.

There, fixed that for you...

Oh, you didn't know, **AA are solidly Democratic? Then you have not been paying attention...

The flicker is not in his head, it's in the taillights. I've seen the flicker, it's caused by a pulse width modulation circuit to make the taillight mode of a combination taillight/stoplight appear dimmer. A quick google search pulls up this article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Nov_8/ai_n27039046 about an automotive product specifically designed to address this issue and stop the flicker by eliminating the pwm circuit. It works by reducing the DC drive to the LEDs in taillight mode instead of using pulse width modulation to reduce the average current and effective brightness.

I agree that the Roth IRA stuff is a little tangential, but I've now bothered to look up the numbers, and there were only $77B in Roth IRAs in 2000. Even taxed at the highest rate (40%) and with nobody contributing to new Roth accounts but only doing a one-time rollover, and with the remaining trillions in non-Roth IRAs never being converted, the income to the government was at most $50B or so spread over the previous two years--a factor, perhaps, but a modest one at best given the differences in deficits (>$200B over several years).

Roth IRA data: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2893/is_4_23/ai_n6171206
Honest deficit data: http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/32

I had noticed that the "surplus" didn't actually decrease the debt (easy enough to do, if you look at the debt graph), but I appreciate the article pointing out why. Of course, that wasn't unique to Clinton, and it didn't matter for my point (or yours, as far as I know) that Clinton actually ran a surplus--the point, which remains true when one avoids accounting gimmicks, is that Clinton reduced the level of deficit spending over quite a number of years.

But, anyway, back to the question of whether Bush did anything to impact whether the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. First, the point that the poor got a larger fractional tax cut than the rich is not the right number to look at--it's the *fraction of income* not the *fraction of tax* that leads to a flattening or accentuation of wealth differences. From http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/washington/08tax.html in 2004, the net wealth increase from the tax cuts was about 2% for middle-income people and about 4.5% for the top income bracket. At the same time, it is true that the tax code was more "progressive" afterwards than before when looking at the rates of taxation; it's just that we already barely tax middle-to-lower income folks so that we're out of room to make income more progressive (as opposed to tax levels) while still lowering taxes.

I don't think we actually disagree about debt all that much. People at all income levels go into debt to buy nonessential items, and that always makes it harder to build long-term wealth. To some extent, these are errors in judgment--and to some extent, therefore, saying that if you make these errors you will be in bad shape is a fair way to discourage these sorts of errors. But it is still of concern that people *do* make these sorts of errors and do so on a sufficiently large scale to hobble the entire economy.

The whole economic system is a human construct. People create a certain quantity of goods and services, and they also are entitled (via their income) to some fraction of those goods and services. Surely you are not saying that one cannot distribute the fraction unequally (perhaps "fairly" but unequally), and then from that starting point make it even more unequal. Of course one can do that! The key question is does that *actually* happen, and if so is the decrease in the fraction more than offset by an inexorably linked increase in the total created goods and services (inexorably because the increase comes from the incentive to increase one's own fraction).

Here's an example of such a policy: the minimum wage. The evidence that I can find: http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/IBR/2008/fall/article1.html suggests that modest increases in the minimum wage do not influence employment numbers. Thus, within modest limits at least, altering the minimum wage is a way to influence the fraction of economic output given to various groups. Republicans blocked minimum wage increases until the Democrats had too great of control over Congress. See http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth

good point. and to be honest, most people don't need FireWire 800/1600 just to transfer a few documents or spreadsheets--or even photos & mp3s--to their computer. the few seconds saved doesn't justify the added cost of FireWire over USB. nor do they need to use a high-speed data bus for their mouse, keyboard, webcam, printer, scanner, or what have you. so it makes sense that USB is more prevalent than FireWire.

however, FireWire is still extremely useful (and crucial) to certain professionals who regularly work with large files or have to move around large amounts of data, like hi-res/raw images, lossless audio, hi-def video, etc. that's why FireWire is still pretty standard in high-end music & video production equipment. so the idea that FireWire is dead (or can simply be replaced with USB 2.0/3.0) is just poorly informed.

even the military still uses FireWire for things like the the F-35's vehicle systems network:

1394b is playing a pivotal role in the F-35 Lightning II program, providing guaranteed quality of service with predictable latencies in real-time control applications. More than 70 1394 devices are delivering information about mission details, communication systems, weapon systems, engine controls, and flight controls.

the IEEE-1394B data bus is similarly employed in the F-22 Raptor for which it was developed. and NASA also uses it to monitor debris during launches amongst other mission-critical applications.

Some thoughts on this issue:

1. I wouldn't trust technologies that haven't been used for a decade or two yet, so people know what makes them last & fail. See here:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BRZ/is_8_23/ai_109665179/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1

2. File formats are a more dangerous issue than the physical media. Text-based formats (including XML) is something someone else could write a reader for later. That's a lot easier than trying to find both the software and the machine it ran on. Virtualization helps -- it may be worthwhile to keep a VMWare image with your stuff so that you have a copy of the software required. Emulators exist for most any obsolete system I can think of, and I'm pretty sure you're going to find x86 emulators for span of your grandkid's lifetimes. If paranoid, use an open-source emulation platform instead of vmware, and include the source of the emulator.

3. Archival formats are another problem. I love zfs dumps for their current usability, but I know I can't trust something that system-specific to last terribly long.

So, here's a procedure for you. Note that this is for important data. Don't interpret this as a method for keeping your Hentai collection. Of course, each has their own priorities in this area...

1. Choose something you know will be around "for a while." Easily available, good track record, easy to use. Don't worry about extreme-long term. Step 3 addresses that. More important are the short-term technological concerns: Is it simple & reliable enough that you _will_ back up reliably with it?

2. Keep a Master Image of what you want to back up. For example, a root directory with a per-year, per-project, or per-customer set of subdirectories. When you add stuff to your backup, you're appending to the master image. As storage (capacity & demand) is lightly exponential, you can usually afford to store all your old backups with the new (long term), as the old stuff is relatively small.

    Note that I'm *not* saying copy this stuff every time you back up. The master image is append-only. You'll probably want more than 1 copy of the whole thing, but that can be two stacks of DVDs, two boxes of tapes, two RAID arrays, whatever.

3. Plan to migrate this growing master image to new formats. The entire master image moves to the new format. When you migrate, all your backup data is in the new format, and your old-format backups can be stored as a hedge against your new media having surprising failures later.

4. Treat this stuff *seriously*. Don't skimp or cheap-out. Spend a month or two every couple of years setting this stuff up correctly, and make it something you can rely on. A little organization and automation once makes worthwhile. Cron et al for Unix, and a good commercial backup app for everyone else.

5. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES. TEST YOUR RESTORES.

And then they get upset if those political views cause others to decide to not do business with them and it affects their careers.

Can you name one example where said star was publicly upset that their business was impacted as a result of their political statements?

Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon and the Baseball Hall of Fame / Bull Durham tempest-in-a-teapot.

More bull. Here is what Robbins said:

Reached Wednesday night, Robbins said he was "dismayed" by the decision, He responded with a letter he planned to send to Petroskey, telling him: "You belong with the cowards and ideologues in a hall of infamy and shame."

Robbins and Sarandon, his longtime partner, have been active in peace rallies to protest the war in Iraq. In his letter, Robbins said he remained "skeptical" of the war plans and told Petroskey he did not realize baseball was "a Republican sport."

"To suggest that my criticism of the President put the troops in danger is absurd.... I wish you had, in your letter, saved me the rhetoric and talked honestly about your ties to the Bush and Reagan administrations.

"You invoke patriotism and use words like 'freedom' in an attempt to intimidate and bully. In doing so, you dishonour the words 'patriotism' and 'freedom' and dishonour the men and women who have fought wars to keep this nation a place where one can freely express their opinions without fear of reprisal or punishment."
  Catholic New Times, May 4, 2003

There is not a word in there even remotely hinting at dismay over loss of business or impact on their careers. Not a single word.

See my response to the other poster regarding the Dixie Chicks. Nothing from them complaining about losing business, not a word complaining about damage to their careers. But plenty of words stating that the people doing the boycotting are doing it because they are essentially "wrong thinkers."

There are other options. The comparison with car GPS is interesting - ok, they don't mind people navigating and mapping roads, since they are public anyway. But small GPS devices that look like mobile phones - could these be more of a security risk? It is possible to walk to many more locations than can be reached on the public highway. It is possible that they could be used as trigger devices, just like in the Madrid train bombings. Consider that the phones are used as timers, and that one of the standard protocols in use in security sensitive areas now is to jam RF and cell phone frequencies to block this kind of trigger. It's not a huge leap to realise that a GPS device could be similarly linked, and would provide an accurate non-blockable trigger for a vehicle based bomb.

It sounds as though Egypt bans or disables all personal GPS devices. I guess it shouldn't be that much of a surprise that a government is concerned about the military implications - remember that the United States only turned off Selective Availability 8 years ago, and this was only after they developed new technology to actively jam GPS signals in targetted regions. And don't forget the political fallout after the EU decided to implement the Galileo M-code overlay inside the same frequency band as the US military GPS in order to ensure that there was no way to block one without blocking the other. GPS technology has traditionally been militarily and politically sensitive, but at the same time we are now seeing the rise of a new world where most human are going to have cell phones and GPS devices. This is inevitably going to cause some social conflict as societies adjust to the new reality.

Not sure if it really prevents recognition..

which is why it pissed me off when Verizon used to redirect my browser to their crappy branded search-engine rather than just relaying the DNS error--which i have a Firefox plug-in specifically for handling (by adding convenient google cache and way-back-machine links to the DNS error page).

i know a lot of libertarians see the Free Market as a cure-all for all the world's problems, but critical societal infrastructure like public utilities are too important to just leave to private corporations to commercially exploit however they will. besides being a natural monopoly and a service with inelastic demand (both of which make communications networks particularly susceptible to corruption/exploitation), the public has a strongly vested interest in the fair management & proper upkeep of our societal communications infrastructure.

either we effect industry regulations to protect public interest (as opposed to only catering to corporate interests as things currently stand), or local communities need to petition their municipal governments to set up their own public ISP as many cities are already starting to do. then we can start catching up to South Korea and Japan in terms of FttH deployment and address the disparity in broadband speeds/costs. instead of paying $150/month for 50 Mbps asymmetric "wideband" service, we should be paying $38/month for 1 Gbps fibre connections; that's $3.00 per Mbps versus $0.037 per Mbps symmetric bandwidth.

as things stand, consumers have no influence on how their ISPs are run. that's because individuals have no legal say in corporate policy, and due to broadband networks being natural monopolies, there are no free market forces to pressure ISPs into serving consumer interests. but individuals do have a voice in local government, and thus they would be able to influence how their municipally-managed ISP is run.

this would also bring us a step closer to ubiquitous wireless internet access. once internet access is treated as just another public utility (and a basic part of public infrastructure), the natural next step would be to roll out municipal WiFi/WiMax networks. and when that happens we'll also be able to replace our carrier-crippled cellphones with wireless VoIP handsets that aren't tied to a single (closed) cellular network.

people have been arrested (I don't know if convicted) over family photos of kids at bathtime etc.

The newsreader Julia Somerville was arrested over pictures of her 7-year-old daughter in the bath.

She was interrogated for three days, I think I recall, before she was released. I wondered at the time if she would have got off so easily if she wasn't a public figure.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19951105/ai_n14016171

I'm curious, do you have kids? How about brothers and sisters?

I ask because when I was a step-father for a short time(Dated a girl with kids, we were going to get married but it didn't work out), I saw things more suggestive than this on a weekly basis or so simply in the pursuit of duties as a parent. I've also seen my (at the time underage) sister naked a few times, just as a natural consequence of living with a young girl.

I've always done my best to avoid it, but if there are kids in the house, you'll see naked kids, sometimes in situations that someone might consider suggestive.

With your attitude, we see things like parents being arrested for family photos. I'm worried about the way things are heading now, where there's this insane double standard emerging between what actually happens around kids and what lawmakers pretend happens around kids.

Consider the story about the dangers of germ-free environments. Specifically, excessive attempts to elminate germs can, in addition to creating super-bugs, cause our immune system to malfunction. Without the constant exercisng of our immune system by germs, our immune system goes into overdrive by generating an immune response to things (e.g., pollen) that are not germs.

The above story appeared for a brief moment in the news and then disappeared. Meanwhile, the quantity of advertisements for anti-bacterial products (containing triclosan) has exploded. The public prefers to watch pseudo-science commericials instead of genuine-science news stories.

The anti-science public does not care about science. If the public did care about science, it would have dramatically reduced its purchases of anti-bacterial products (thus protecting the health and lives of Americans). So, when the public does not care about science, science-related stories appear briefly in the news media and then quickly fade away in favor of stories about, say, Paris Hilton.

With this, the time it takes to charge a battery is non-trivial. Its not comparable to the five minutes it takes to fill your gas tank.

Oh really?

[...]

Altair has demonstrated the use of their cells in cars and trucks, giving them 5 to 10 minute charges. It's similar to Toshiba's SCiB that was covered here a couple months ago. Of course, even some non-titanate chemistries can charge quite well. Phosphates and stabilized spinel packs can usually take a full charge in 15 to 20 minutes.

Those are some impressive technologies, but the poster above was talking about charging from home electrical sockets - where the limiting factor isn't the battery but the power supply.

Let's say you wanted to make a 100 mile round trip, driving for 2 hours at 50mph. Wikipedia tells me a car cruising at 50mph needs about 10 horsepower, or 7.5kw, to overcome drag. So, 7.5kw for 2 hours.

A socket providing 110 volts, 15 amps gives 1650 watts - so charging would take 2*7500/1650 = 9 hours. If that was a 240 volt 13 amp socket (like in the UK) you get 3120 watts - charge in 4.8 hours. The power switchboard for my house can take at most 100 amps at 240 volts - 24,000 watts, for a charging time of 37 minutes. A typical industrial socket might give 400 volts and 40 amps on each of 3 phases. That's 48,000 watts and you could charge in 18 minutes.

And that's one reason people talk about special electric car power infrastructure: A 400 volt 3 phase 40 amp supply to every house would need a major infrastructure upgrade. You can do clever things like only charging during periods of high supply/low demand, but that requires control infrastructure too.

And of course, the figures given above are for a 10 horse power car. And let's be honest here - even small cars like the Ford Ka have 50 horsepower engines.

With this, the time it takes to charge a battery is non-trivial. Its not comparable to the five minutes it takes to fill your gas tank.

Oh really?

Altairnano solved this problem by using an innovative approach to rechargeable battery chemistry by replacing graphite with a patented nano-titanate material as the negative electrode in its NanoSafe batteries. By using nano-titanate materials as the negative electrode material, lithium metal plating does not occur because the electro-chemical properties of the nano-titanate allow the deposition of lithium in the particles at high rates. These electrical properties mean that even at very cold temperatures there is no risk of plating. No undesirable interaction takes place with the electrolyte in the Altairnano batteries, which permits the battery to be charged very rapidly, without the risk of shorting or thermal runaway. In fact, in recent laboratory testing, Altairnano has demonstrated that a NanoSafe cell can be charged to over 80% charge capacity in about one minute. Actual charge rates achieved in specific applications will vary due to the application environment.

Altair has demonstrated the use of their cells in cars and trucks, giving them 5 to 10 minute charges. It's similar to Toshiba's SCiB that was covered here a couple months ago. Of course, even some non-titanate chemistries can charge quite well. Phosphates and stabilized spinel packs can usually take a full charge in 15 to 20 minutes.

Research performed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories showed bullet lead analysis to be unreliable. Following this research, the FBI announced that it was no longer making use of the process.

As I posted above: Barbie Dolls.

I dunno.. I've got 2 Logitech mice, and while the pricey one could definitely be considered a durable good, this other one that came free with my keyboard probably won't make it through the winter.

At any rate I seriously doubt Logitech has made anywhere close to 1 billion of any particular model. If we're counting ALL models, then I'm guessing Gilette has produced over 1 billion shaver handles, Kodak has probably produced over 1 billion cameras.. home phones (think old AT&T), cell phones, baseballs, baseball bats, golf clubs, tennis racquets, mouse pads, floppy discs, compact discs, DVDs, videotapes, audio tapes, vinyl records, computer cables, CRTs, keyboards, resistors, capacitors, ICs (and pretty much any other electronic component), shingles, ceiling tiles, bathroom tiles, bricks, gallons of paint, sqft of carpet, windows, wrenches, eating utensils, dishes, mugs, glasses, pots, plastic cups, knives, axes, guns, springs, ball bearings, Barbie dolls (confirmed), board games, books, sewing machines, buttons, zippers, jeans, brooms, mops, vacuum cleaners, electric motors, combustion engines, umbrellas..

Maybe not all of those count as durable goods, or have been produced in quantities over 1B by any one company, but I'd be surprised if NONE of them have. I'd wager on Milton Bradley and Mattel producing at least 1B board games each, and possibly Monopoly sets alone. Zippo is at 700+ million, which isn't too bad when you consider their relatively limited target audience, although they've been in production for 70+ yrs. Craftsman has probably sold over 1B wrenches, and almost certainly that many when you expand the category to "hand tools" overall. At the same time, I doubt any non-consumable item has been produced in that quantity with the exact same specs, with the possible exception of bricks or cinder blocks.

Take a look at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4456/is_2002_Dec/ai_98032790

It's not just the US that spends almost every dime they make... plenty of other Western countries as well... New Zealand, Finland and Australia stand out...

Not as of 2006, I haven't heard much more since then:
Indecent exposure: Congress, the FCC, cable TV, and satellite radio look to be headed for a big showdown as indecency is among the top issues on the agenda of the new Federal Communications Commission chairman

TFA:
The Federal Communications Commission licenses frequencies to radio and television broadcasters who, by law, must meet public service requirements and obey decency rules. Because cable and satellite do not transmit using frequencies, but rather employ technology paid for by private industry, and because cable and satellite require subscription fees, legal experts have maintained that Congress and the FCC lack the authority to regulate them for indecency and obscenity. Moreover, cable and satellite companies consider their programs immune from FCC rules and fines.

I've had an APO address for the better part of a decade. In that time, I've had the following articles stolen in the mail:

a monitor
2x laptops
a workstation
3x motherboard/cpu combos

They were all bought with credit cards; so I got my money back, but it's still a major pain in the ass to have to deal with

Overseas military mail is an easy target for criminals. The required customs declaration makes for easy pickings.

Sometimes, they do catch the perps and the penalties are harsh. That's your only consolation.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_/ai_n15827460

If you insure your mail, they are required to have a positive chain of custody and proof of identity before delivery.

let's have a look at the innards of my son's xbox crystal which he just drowned in orange-flavoured soda...
HDD: Seagate. No.

So you're saying that Microsoft didn't build the Xbox because it was built out of components from Microsoft suppliers? Then I suppose you want to credit STMicroelectronics and others as the manufacturer of that "Seagate" HDD? [Yes, I know the article's old, but it was the first one I found mentioning one of Seagate's suppliers and I didn't feel like searching for a more recent one.]

I think you'd be hard-pressed today to find anything whose creation (and the creation of all its subparts) could be credited to one individual or company.

Yes. But, all terrorists are gun owners.

Hey! No gun was used on 9/11...

Seriously though, who could Obama pick to fill these offices?

You are asking me? I was from, you know, the other side. The camp, which tried to call attention to Obama's total lack of executive experience, of Biden's lunacy, and other flaws of the Democratic ticket's personalities and ideology (see my current sig).

But we were all drowned out by Obama's highly negative campaign — 86.9% of Obama's voters thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that. So, now, that you realize, that Obama's promises of "Change" were just as phony as Clinton's were in 1992 — much to their side's chagrin, just as then too, don't blame us... Hold that thought 'till 2012.

Wow I did not think anyone would have remembered that.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1563/is_/ai_13787055

Right, except for the spying part. Socialism has nothing to do with individual rights. You're thinking of Fascism, or possibly Totalitarianism.

And the "mostly put forth by [D]emocrats" is a canard. Republicans do their share of promoting socialism--for their political base. What do you think the Bush (and Reagan) tax cuts were?

I think you may have been fooled by the fruits of the GOPAC's Language: A Key Mechanism of Control document.

You personally might not encourage traditional gender roles, but the culture around you, including friends, relatives and the media, probably does.

Probably, and with good reason. Research such as this and similar indicate that gender identity is more biological than cultural.

Yes this was known before the 2000 Olympics.
here
But perhaps we had forgotten it since then.

I was at Sears auto center today. I could almost swear that their repair/billing system looks like something written for 3.x running on win95/98.

Can't confirm it one way or another though.

The last time I was at sears auto center, well, it was 2000. I think it was 2000/2001. Anyhow their setup was a 486slc PS/2 with a 3270 or 5250 terminal adapter. Win3.1 would have been the default, and those things were limited to 16 megs of ram even though they were geared to accept more, pesky 486slc limitations.

It wouldn't shock me if they were still on ye'old main frame and they only thing they needed for their billing is terminal emulation software. The last company I knew of who made them was Attachmate According to Wikipedia they own Reflection which was a product by Walker Richard and Quinn. The PCI Attachmate Irma 3270 adapter in it's heyday cost well $500-$1000 for the hardware and software.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1996_Sept_9/ai_18655802

You really have to wonder about the wisdom of keeping such a network in service. Odds are pretty decent they are on twisted pair where all the adapters go to centralized terminal server which typically was an IBM product booting from a 5.25 inch 2.44meg disc. It seems rather trivial to upgrade that to something that supports Ethernet rather than a relativly primitive dedicated terminal lines. This is one of those cases where you say "this looks like a job for linux" and you'd be correct. Cisco I'm sure has some offerings for 3270 servers that would do the job. Not that you can't get an ethernet card for ye'old mainframe back east.

But I'm getting side tracked. Sears near as I'm aware uses 3270/5250 terminal emulation on a PC. Win 3.1 @ 16 color is more than adquate for the task.

areas free from herbicides, such as national parks "provide no refuge."

National parks may be free from pesticide, but they still have a long history of human interference. You may be shocked to learn the truth about the enormous amount of biodiversity lost in Yellowstone since it was created. Mostly through 'protecting' it from interference by native americans, (who had been keeping everything nicely in balance for thousands of years) and trying to protect predator species, which then wiped out prey species in a predictably malthusian way. There is no such thing as an environment free from human interference.

I wander why it's always their battery?

I'm pretty sure the title of "Wi-Fi Point Capital" would be given to some other city if the survey was extended to other cities.

I'm actually thinking of Seoul. South Korea's KT (formerly Korea Telecom) has a well-known Wi-Fi service that covers 'nationwide' called Nespot. According to this article, there were 27,000 Nespot APs back in early 2007. The figure was around 17,000 in 2006 according to this (in Korean), so the number's been growing pretty fast.

Now, while this number is 'nationwide', the coverage is concentrated on major metropolitan cities only. Considering that Seoul has 1/4 the population of the entire nation (1/2 if you cover its satellite cities), there should be around 10,000 APs solely run by KT. Then there's the VoIP phone service that's made popular by LG Powercomm. It already has more than a million subscribers nationwide, and most of the phones are 'wireless' via Wi-Fi AP to communicate between the phone and the network. I can detect one of these APs from my house. These two companies alone probably put out several tens of thousands of APs in Seoul already. If you consider all other private and corporate APs that normally lurks around in buildings and apartments, the numbers would be mind-boggling.

I'm not disagreeing with your take on the mortgage industry's "creative underwriting", but rather the blame that is placed on the CRA, in particular, as a way to shove the blame on poor people.

Banks, as supposedly respectable lending institutions, shouldn't under any circumstances make loans which would lose them money, and complaining that the government "made them" give loans to people who don't have credit coming out their ears sounds like a really lousy way to push the blame off of the real estate and mortgage business. A great piece on this was done a while back on This American Life, which gave some more background to the extreme excesses spilling from the real estate bubble.

You pointed out a quite from the Boston Fed which said that they weren't discounting low credit scores. That may be the case, but granting NINA or "No Doc" loans was just plain *greedy* by any standard.

It's also likely that bills like the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act would not have been necessary if not for historically discriminatory lending practices.

Just wait for next week's headline: Microsoft Trademarks a Colour!

It's been done by Cadbury for their purple logo and BP for their green logo . Also many other companies have trademarked a colour for their logos and some have actually sued people because they used the same colour in their own but different logos see Cadbury sues Darrell Lea . Of course trademarking a colour can also be a double edged sword and big companies have been sued by smaller ones successfully.

Do you really want to live in a place where there's such a thing as "a perfectly legal stop to verify documentation"? That's not the America I grew up in.

Currently in New York City it is law that cops can stop you and search "backpacks or other large containers". The Second Amendment for years has only been available to the rich, well connected, or good-old-boy (former cops). The First Amendment can be restricted at the pleasure of politicians to avoid uncomfortable press in cities across America since the invention of the "First Amendment Zone"

Maybe that's what Governor Palin means when she says small towns are more pro-America, she means they are still protected by the Constitution.

Do you really want to live in a place where there's such a thing as "a perfectly legal stop to verify documentation"? That's not the America I grew up in.

Currently in New York City it is law that cops can stop you and search "backpacks or other large containers". The Second Amendment for years http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_3_52/ai_59243533>has only been The First Amendment can be restricted at the pleasure of politicians to avoid uncomfortable press in cities across America since the invention of the "First Amendment Zone"

Maybe that's what Governor Palin means when she says small towns are more pro-America, she means they are still protected by the Constitution.

Okay, I thought I was joking, but apparently, somebody really has a Cobol implementation in VS. This unholy union is clearly the work of Satan.

When I see Visual x86 Assembly for .NET, I'm going to have to smash something.

Sorry, http://www.neis.org/press/NASBIERVII.htm does not exist on our site. If you suspect an error on one of our pages, please send email at: webmaster@neis.org

So your source is a non-existent press release published by an activist organization with no credibility? Well, I'm convinced.

Or not. Your figures are bunk.

As for the incidents you reported, yeah, power generation has a lot of dangers.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4207/is_19950213/ai_n10185056

http://www.topix.com/us/osha/2008/08/snowflake-man-is-killed-in-power-plant-accident

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSWNAS1045

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN0244772420071003

None of those accidents were nuclear, but they all resulted in deaths. When you're dealing with megawatts of power, it's important to remember that a megawatt of generated power can just as easily become a megawatt of destructive force.

There are actually quite a few more accidents at nuclear plants than the ones you listed. What's fascinating, though, is that there are so few deaths or injuries. As with other power generating technology, Nuclear has become better understood and safer over time. Fewer and fewer people are dying from regular power generation, and nobody is dying anymore from nuclear generation. That's despite the fact that 19.4% of US Power is Nuclear. As a resident of Illinois with 11 power generating reactors online, I'm proud to say that we have provided nuclear power to the nation for over 30 years and in a very safe manner. A benefit you are no doubt receiving.

I honestly hope they build more of those suckers in my back yard. Because I sure as hell would rather be breathing the clean air offered by nuclear options rather than the toxic, radioactive crap produced by the coal plants used to provide over 50% of the US's power needs.

For example, you still seem to be missing his entire point. Solving "the problems of identity matching" won't make TSA any more effective because TSA is not the effective part of airline security.

Wrong. Identity matching is one of the most important reasons that the TSA is so ineffective.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0UBT/is_/ai_n15662920

Neither of those says anything about Toyota selling MR2 chassis to Lotus unless I'm missing something. It's possible since I'm running NoScript, but it didn't look like it to me.

According to Wikipedia, "Toyota engines used have a Lotus ECU with their own fuel mapping, with the frame based on Toyota designs for US safety specifications." Interesting, and a closer connection than I had heard of before, though there's no source listed, it's not very specific and still not by any means claiming it's an MR2 frame.

This article would have every opportunity to mention Toyota involvement in the Elise chassis and doesn't: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KJI/is_6_116/ai_n6206349

So far I haven't found anything browsing Google results to indicate that the Elise uses an MR2 chassis. So unless you can present some evidence for that claim, I for one am considering it debunked.

Indeed it does.

I don't know if it supplies all the power needed, but some big-box type places do have solar setups - like Kohl's:

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/621/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_/ai_n27971502

disclaimer: I work in Kohl's IS dept.