Slashdot Mirror
Burn Grass, Get Green Biofuel
Roland Piquepaille writes "Do you want to use an economical and environmentally friendly biofuel? Just grow grass. Burning grass pellets will produce an energy-efficient biofuel, according to Jerry Cherney, a professor of agriculture at Cornell University. In this news release, 'Grass as Fuel,' he says "Burning grass pellets makes sense; after all, it takes 70 days to grow a crop of grass for pellets, but it takes 70 million years to make fossil fuels." Unfortunately, there is nothing like a grass political lobby in Washington, so he might not be heard. But with current oil prices, more and more people will be tempted to use cheaper -- and cleaner -- sources of energy. This overview contains many more details and references about this environmentally friendly biofuel made from grass."
Nothing to see here. Move along.
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Make your computer faster: rm -rf
I agree with you, and don't think the GP post is justified. Nonetheless, the tactics you rightfully condemn the GP poster for are the same that Roland Piquepaille uses. He doesn't want Slashdot to get less money, he wants Piquepaille to get less money.
English is easier said than done.
I still don't get why people hate Piquepaille so much. Do you think that he's displacing other stories with his submissions? Do you think his submissions aren't interesting? If not, what do you care what he gets out of it? It's not costing you anything. It really just seems like jealousy, or the need to have a designated Slashdot whipping boy at all times.
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make install -not war
But "skimming" money would mean that he's taking away money from someone else, like the publishers whose articles he copies highlights from. He's adding value for Slashdotters to the original articles by selecting and submitting them here. His selections are compiled in his own blog, where his own advertisers (which he recruits and manages on his time) pay him money that wouldn't otherwise even be in the circuit.
Piquepaille seems to do what every other Slashdot submitter does, with two exceptions. He compiles his submissions on an intermediate page, usually with links to multiple sources (therefore the intermediate page is necessary). And he gets extra advertising for the intermediate page - between the Slashdot advertising page and the target page which usually has advertising, so he's not "polluting" some pristine infospace.
His submissions do seem to get on the front page very often, but we don't know how many are rejected - his percentage might be worse than most submitters', but made up in volume. And his posts are interesting, exactly on topic for Slashdot nerds. I think he's just got the formula figured out, motivated by his own independent fundraising. Which produces more high-quality Slashdot submissions the rest of us get for free. Where's the problem?
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make install -not war