Can vote by mail possibly be gamed? Yes. Everything can possibly be gamed. If you are worried there are places in every county where you can directly drop off your ballet. What is incredibly difficult to do by mail is change 10,000 votes at once. This is entirely possible with electronic voting.
Is this subtle sarcasm, cleverly pointing out the parallel to windows 8? Or is it pure self assured ignorance? Many times I observe people who assume that the new realization they just had is too brilliant for Microsoft to come up with on it's own. Sure, Microsoft has made some colossal blunders. But they aren't as stupid as some people think. In this case, one of the destiguishing features of windows 8 is that it splits enterprise application develpement from casual user application developement. The casual side uses the "app store" concept. Clearly the intent is to attract thousands of independent developers. Of course the implementation of the change is part of what people despise about windows 8, and why many are considering it a failure... and Microsoft can attract developers by its name alone (and repel them as well, I know).
I'm not sure the point you are trying to make; are you saying special interests keep trying to get bad bills past, are you saying they dont, or are you saying it doesn't matter?
Oh, and I keep hearing the tired old argument of "assault rifles are only good for one thing: killing people". This is still as false as it ever was. With the literally MILLIONS of assault rifles sold, why aren't ther millions of deaths? Because millions of people have found things to do with them other than killing people, that's why. If you can only think of killing someone when you hold an assault rifle, I guess I'm glad you choose to not have one. But for the rest of us we've found other ways to occupy our time.
For decades Iceland has been contemplating ways to export their cheap geothermal electricity, and aluminum batteries are one such idea. I'll leave it to someone not on a mobile phone to do a detailed search, but here is one link: http://evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=765&first=3858&end=3857 The gist of Slashdot's linked to adver.... uh, article, is they think they have improved the process. Of course it appears they do it in their own custom built demonstration vehicle. There are ways to make custom built gas cars get almost that range on a tank of gas, but they aren't anything most of us would want to drive, and wouldn't pass US safety standards. So although this is probably good news, it also probably isn't as exciting or new as the marketing hype.
Even though the machine was new from a Ubuntu mfg, it randomly hangs. In this case there is no console available and the machine isnt pingable. Happens with the lid open or closed. Sometimea happens a few times a day, Sometimes happens after 3 days. It waa a major purchase for him as well; it cost half what he makes in a month. Now I dont know if I gave him good advice or not. Of course I've heard horror stories about major mfgs as well (yes even Macs) so it happens to all of them.
I'd mod you +1 funny for your take on my typo, but of course I can't.
I'd typed "stalin" without caps, and accidentally clicked the wrong choice. On a re-read I corrected the caps, but missed the "g".:( Oh, and the correct link to the siege of Leningrad is here. Stupid copy-n-paste doesn't all ways copy when you think it does.
Wait; Bell Labs - the lab which INVENTED the transistor...(ignoring the Russian guy, named Oleg Vladimirovich Losev who Stalling starved to death during the siege of Leningrad before he could bring it to the world)... and made it possible for you to be typing this... They didn't contribute anything? How about IBM's research, which drove their HDD business to such success that at one point IBM was predicting they would own the entire industry in 6 months (but then IBM's mfg department "lost the formula" i.e. they couldn't upscale their success to larger densities, and IBM sold their entire drive business). How about all the research which has been done by a lot of companies around fiber-optics, which wasn't immediately turned into a product, but which now run the communications backbones of the world?
When you get it it looks like a product; that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of theoretical research done before hand.
As an aside, can you imagine how world history may have been different if Oleg Losev had lived? We may very well have not "won" the cold war, as the impact of the Russians having the transistor decades before us would have had far greater repercussions then just them being able to listen to portable radios before us. One of many of our advantages was that we were using transistors in military technology while they were still using vacuum tubes, whose only advantage was that tubes required less radiation hardening.
My understanding is that it was originally called an emergency brake. My '64 dodge pickup truck actually had a separate brake drum and brake shoes attached between the transition and the drive shaft. This was truly an emergency brake, as it was a redundant system which used a completely separate mechanism to stop the vehicle. No modern manufacture would go to this expense, and they use a mechanical linkages to the car's existing brakes. The linkage is redundant, but the brakes are not. Thus it is sufficient for "parking" but will not help in certain "emergency" failure modes. As an added curiosity, when we were out horsing around in the mud with my truck, my buddies told me that when I applied my emergency brake one wheel would spin backwards. Not sure exactly why this would be other than for the same reason the differential causes one wheel to spin backwards when you turn the wheel of a car which is jacked up (unless it has a locker or posi, of course).
Congratulations to all of you you had no problem with Mint 12, but I had no end of problems. The gui kept hanging on me, and no amount of ctr-r or whatever (I forget the combo now) would restart it. I spent hours and days trying to sort it out; I tried loading Gnome 3, Gmome 2, different drivers, all to no avail.:( I wanted to retain an X based system so that things like ssh -X and all the other X based connections would work, and I wasn't sure how well Unity/Wayland would "play" with these. In the end I went to Kubuntu 12.04, and I couldn't be happier. For those who fret about Unity, I highly recommend Kubuntu.
Fox News reports is reporting that although Tepco can't see the fuel because of steam in the containment area, and although they can't find the current water level, the internal temperature of 112F qualifies as proof that the "cold shutdown" has been successful.
The other point of view at the washington post is that if they can't see the fuel, it has broken completely through the containment system, and "Given that steam forms when water boils this is an indication that the reactor is not in cold shutdown." Also "If the reactors are “cold”, it may be because most of the hot radioactive fuel has leaked out."
The New York Times pointed out last month: A former nuclear engineer with three decades of experience at a major engineering firm who has worked at all three nuclear power complexes operated by Tokyo Electric [said] “If the fuel is still inside the reactor core, that’s one thing” . But if the fuel has been dispersed more widely, then we are far from any stable shutdown.”
1) Include female synthesized voices in Germany and other places which prefer male.
2) Include male synthesized voices in the USA and other places which prefer female.
3) Sell "value enhancement" packages of other voices for $10 a shot.
4) Profit!
5) Uhm, where's my slice of the pie for thinking of the idea?
Misread title as "Graphene Creates Electricity When Struck By Lightning". I was thinking Well duh; pretty much anything "generates" electricity when struck by lightning!
Not at all; then the low price solution would be DEAD and the only alternative would be the $$ cable companies. The studios got along just fine without Netflix before, they'd be happy to "get along" without Netflix again, provided they keep their lucrative contracts with traditional media. No, they don't care at all if Netflix goes under. You talk about sending a message. If people really want to send a message, they would cancel their cable/HBO and order Netflix. Actually that may be what has been happening, and the additional scrutiny this brings is perhaps a bit uncomfortable for Netflix. In my case I didn't cancel cable because Cable/HBO/Direct TV was never worth it at the price point they offered (even if they'd offer it at half the price point it wouldn't have been) so my Netflix subscription is actually a gain to the studios.
Don't be too hard on Netflix; It seems they are caught between a rock and a hard place. The studios let them get by on table scraps before because they didn't see them as a serious revenue source, and saw them as just an opportunity to pick up minor bits of revenue which they wouldn't otherwise collect. Now Netflix has everyone's attention, and the studios are going to want the full slice of the pie. Analysts predict that Netflix licensing is going to increase from $180M to 1.98B in the next few years. With that looming over Netflix, they must be desperate to find a strategy to cope. If the studios get their way and Netflix goes down or concedes to their desired licensing, then we all lose and we end up paying $60 to $120 per month like we pay for cable instead of $8 / month. Personally I just have the Netflix streaming service and no DVD. I don't care about the DVDs, but I wish they streamed more videos. It would be nice to have Netflix under Linux though, so I wouldn't have other options than my console.
Also of note, which I should have added to the summary; some of the tool used to make this included a laptop running Linux, and GIMP - two things near and dear to many slashdoters. I wonder if Nick reads Slashdot.
In Oregon we actively work with companies installing turbines to make it as easy as possible to transport & install them. We work with the manufactured housing builders as well, but that's another story. Unlike Texas with its oil, or other states and their coal, we don't have locally buried hydrocarbons adding to our economy, so we are happy for the economic benefit from these installations. We've had one wind turbine generator fall of around a corner, while inside a tunnel, which did wedged things up. But you know; it doesn't matter. Truck lines carry insurance. Oregon has had many more cases of cherry pickers slamming into bridges, sometime going right through the bridge. We had a large concrete drain pipe fall off a truck and bust a hole completely thought the deck of another bridge. We had a bunch of lead paint which had been carefully removed to reduce contamination of water and soil and loaded on a barge for shipment. The barge sunk before leaving dock. Oops. The moral of the story is, any industry has its share of shipment issues. If wind turbines are too much of an issue for your state, they are welcome here.
Whats so unbelievable about FSV?
on
Daemon
·
· Score: 1
What is so unbelievable about "navigating through a file system represented by 3-d Buildings?" The above mentioned part of Jurassic Park was actually real; it was a real program created by an engineer at SGI just for fun, and then used in the movie. It was open sourced and is available at: http://fsv.sourceforge.net/download.html
To anyone reading this with a bit of programming knowledge; I'd love to see this program updated into a Debian package or at least updated so that it will compile under Ubuntu Hardy.
Although FSV didn't turn out to be the best user interface in the world after all, it actually is handy for some things, and there was some good thought put into it. You could launch applications by clicking on them, and you could base the height of the buildings on more than just file size, but other attributes as well. Sure there are other ways to find out the same information from the command line, but it can make a quick handy way to visualize some things about your machine.
FSV may not have completely worked out, but far sillier things have been seriously proposed when it comes to future technology concepts.
So, anyone feel like poking around at it an tweaking it to work again? I think it would be great to have a version which would work for modern OS-es.
I had this problem with a regular florescent light in my shop. Went through bulbs every few months. Turns out most fluorescents aren't rated for being turned on when it's cold. They work okay inside, but not outside. I switched to cold start bulbs (as opposed to cold color temperature bulbs), and haven't had a problem since. The next time I bought florescent fixtures I made sure the fixture its self was meant for cold starts, and I'm able to run the cheaper "normal" florescent bulbs without problems. I don't know what the difference is, maybe the cold start ballasts ramp the voltage up slower or something. So, if you are using CFLs in the roof of a church which only has the heat turned on once a week, or in an outside environment, they may not last either. On the other hand, they do make outside rated CFLs as well, but they tend to be spot light type bulbs, or yellow bug light type bulbs.
For diesel at least, you can get non-road use diesel in Oregon, which does not contain the road tax. I buy it for my tractor; some stations sell it with a dye added, and others sell it without but record your address, presumably for some sort of record keeping.
The road user program is not intended for commercial trucks. Commercial vehicles already have a similar program in Oregon. See my comments at http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1076699&cid=26276519
I'm not sure about the logging industry, but for the farm industry there is already a program in place to account for these concerns: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/MCT/FARM.shtml
I agree. And it disables the incentive that the gas tax gives and it treats all mileage the same. In other words, if I'm driving a big heavy vehicle that wears the roads more than a smaller lighter vehicle, I pay the same. A tractor-trailer rig pays the same per mile as a Prius? I do understand it from the perspective of alternative fuel vehicles that are/will not pay the gas tax. We need to find alternative funding, but I don't like this solution.
This is not at all the case. See my comments at: http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1076699&cid=26276765
and at: http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1076699&cid=26276519
Disclaimer: Though I work for ODOT and know several people involved with the road user fee program, I am not personally involved and do not speak for ODOT or the State of Oregon.
A lot of the concerns about privacy and the impact on the acceptance of alternative fuel vehicles are addressed in this page. http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/RUFPP/mileage.shtml
I have been following this project in the media since before I worked for ODOT. My initial reaction was horror at the shortsightedness of what I thought would be a impediment to alternative and high mileage vehicles, and an instinctive distrust of the privacy implications. On actually reading about the program my privacy concerns have been addressed. With proper structuring this program doesn't need to be an impediment to alternative vehicles, so the question is how you believe it will be managed. Thanks partially to Oregon's incentives, Oregon already has the highest adoption rate of hybrid vehicle ownership in the US, and Governor Kulongoski is proposing similar incentives for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Despite my initial skepticism, I think Oregon has a pretty good track record for awareness of these issues.
Detailed information can be found on the above link, but for a short overview of conserns about the road use program I can pass this along from the program's administrator:
----------------------- I'm the administrator for the Road User Fee Pilot Program at ODOT. I understand that there is concern over Oregon's interest in a mileage fee. However, there is a few things I would like to explain.
Oregon is preparing to replace the gas tax when it no longer will be a adequate revenue source to fund our roads. Cars will be on the market next year that will get over 100 miles per gallon. This is great news for the environment but problematic for road funding. Knowing this problem is coming, Oregon has led the nation in developing possible solutions. Charging by the mile rather than by the gallon is one possible solution.
With that said, Oregon has worked through the details of developing a mileage fee system over the last seven years at the direction of the Road User Fee Task Force. Like you, the Task Force shared many of your concerns which we have addressed though our work as described below.
Privacy. ODOT was directed by the task force to protect the privacy of Oregonians while developing the mileage fee system. The mileage counting device that was designed for the study receives a GPS signal (much like a television or radio receives signals) to locate itself but does not transmit a signal. Therefore, there is no ability for anyone's car to be tracked. The mileage counter tallies miles driven within Oregon and does not create a travel history. A mileage fee could be charged without the use of GPS but the downside would be that Oregonians would be charged for miles driven out of state, something the task force wanted to avoid.
No retrofitting. ODOT's mileage fee concept does not include installing any devices in existing cars. Instead we propose that auto companies equip the vehicles at manufacturing much like they already do with other government mandated standards like seat belts and emission controls.
Fairness. Some people assume all vehicles will pay the same mileage fee rate and this would be unfair to drivers of fuel efficient vehicles. This may not be true because the rates and structure have yet to be decided. A flat rate of one cent per mile was used for the pilot study however the rate could differ for different types of vehicles.
Rural motorists. Rural motorists could gain under a mileage fee proposal depending on how it is structured. Because we know that rural Oregonians drive larger, less fuel efficient vehicles, they are already paying more in gas taxes for driving the same miles than their urban counterparts. If the mileage fee was a flat rate, like one cent per mile like in the pilot test, rural drivers would actually pas LESS.
Per your request for insight, here are some possibilities which don't involve Governor Kulongoski being a stark moron OR collusion with the trucking industries:
Commercial trucks are ALREADY taxed higher than passenger vehicles in Oregon, by weight, by mileage, and by a fuel tax. Some info on Oregon's weight + mileage tax: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/MCT/RENTALS.shtml
Commercial trucks already have the option of carrying transponders to simplify this process http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/MCT/GREEN.shtml
The alternative road use fee isn't intended to apply to heavy trucks. For more information on the road user fee program see: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/RUFPP/mileage.shtml
Disclaimer: Though I work for ODOT and know several people involved with the road user fee program, I am not personally involved and do not speak for ODOT or the State of Oregon.
They're probably using the high-oil algaes investigated by the University of New Hampshire here. UNH says some algae are made of over 50% oil. algae are some of the most efficient photosynthesis machines around. once you've got the oil, it's just a matter of standard transesterification, a normal part of biodiesel production (and really, the only step necessary when you have clean oil).
Although I think Bio-Diesel is our best chance to make it through peak oil intact, there appears to be a number of issues with Bio-Diesel from algae, both from the economic stand point and from the supposed CO2 reduction benifits (when being feed by coal plants). 1) When using CO2 from coal plants this does NOT directly reduce the CO2 released into the atmosphere, since the CO2 from coal will be re-released when the Bio-Diesel is burned. But you will get twice the "Mileage" from the same amount of CO2, since it will provide you with electricity first, and then power your car. When Bio-Diesel is derived from plant sources it is much better, since the CO2 came from the air to begin with rather then coal.
2) There is good reason to suspect that algae produced Bio-Diesel highly will never be economical. A very good article pointing out some of the problems with algae derived Bio-diesel was re-posted to biodieselnow, which sums up these conserns:
Ted Trainer writes to the EnergyResources mailing list:
Here is a summary of how biodiesel from algae situation seems to me to be in view of the evidence I have come across. Please let me have any new information.
In ideal conditions some species of algae grow at very high rates, up to 30 times the rate for land plants. Sheehan (1998) claims 50g/m/d, (which equates to 180t/ha/y although he does not say this growth rate can be kept up for a year.) Reference is made to a proposed scheme intended to harvest 67t/ha/y, more or less equivalent to sugar cane. The oil content can be 40%. Of special interest for energy production is the possibility of using sea water in large shallow desert ponds. 200,000 ha are claimed to be capable of producing 1 Quad, or 8.4 EJ of biodiesel. Presumably this is a gross output. The claim is puzzling; if a 50 t/ha yield is assumed and algae have the same energy content as wood, then the gross production would only be 160 - 200PJ, only 2% of the claimed amount. In any case that output corresponds to a photosynthesis rate of 7% p.a. When it is growing fast corn achieves c5%, but averages only.3% over a year. (Pimentel, 2004). Sorensen (2000, p 3.11) says algae on reefs average 2%, but this could be raised to 3.7%.
Sheehan points out that yields are more like 10g/m/d in field conditions, as distinct from the lab. A major problem is that constant high temperatures facilitate high yields, but large scale energy production would involve large open ponds in deserts, where temperatures fall at night. Siting ponds close to power plants would enable use of warm cooling water.
Cost estimates reported vary considerably, but the equivalent of oil at $(US)65-100 is quoted. Sheehan does not give energy costs of production.
One difficulty is that the conditions which increase growth rates reduce oil content. Starving the algae of nutrients raises their oil content. Another is that the sunlight conversion rate and therefore efficiency of the process is highest in low light levels, e.g., 10% of full sun.
Perhaps the major consideration is where would inputs come from for very large scale production of this biomass? Some advocates refer to use of nutrient rich waste water from agriculture, but far greater quantities would be needed to make a significant contribution to replacing fossil fuel dependence. Around 40% of the input material must be carbon dioxide and therefore the process could be coupled to coal-fired power stations, but it is not clear how far how much CO2 would have
Slashdot Mirror
Can vote by mail possibly be gamed? Yes. Everything can possibly be gamed. If you are worried there are places in every county where you can directly drop off your ballet. What is incredibly difficult to do by mail is change 10,000 votes at once. This is entirely possible with electronic voting.
Is this subtle sarcasm, cleverly pointing out the parallel to windows 8? Or is it pure self assured ignorance? Many times I observe people who assume that the new realization they just had is too brilliant for Microsoft to come up with on it's own. Sure, Microsoft has made some colossal blunders. But they aren't as stupid as some people think. In this case, one of the destiguishing features of windows 8 is that it splits enterprise application develpement from casual user application developement. The casual side uses the "app store" concept. Clearly the intent is to attract thousands of independent developers. Of course the implementation of the change is part of what people despise about windows 8, and why many are considering it a failure... and Microsoft can attract developers by its name alone (and repel them as well, I know).
I'm not sure the point you are trying to make; are you saying special interests keep trying to get bad bills past, are you saying they dont, or are you saying it doesn't matter? Oh, and I keep hearing the tired old argument of "assault rifles are only good for one thing: killing people". This is still as false as it ever was. With the literally MILLIONS of assault rifles sold, why aren't ther millions of deaths? Because millions of people have found things to do with them other than killing people, that's why. If you can only think of killing someone when you hold an assault rifle, I guess I'm glad you choose to not have one. But for the rest of us we've found other ways to occupy our time.
For decades Iceland has been contemplating ways to export their cheap geothermal electricity, and aluminum batteries are one such idea. I'll leave it to someone not on a mobile phone to do a detailed search, but here is one link: http://evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=765&first=3858&end=3857 The gist of Slashdot's linked to adver.... uh, article, is they think they have improved the process. Of course it appears they do it in their own custom built demonstration vehicle. There are ways to make custom built gas cars get almost that range on a tank of gas, but they aren't anything most of us would want to drive, and wouldn't pass US safety standards. So although this is probably good news, it also probably isn't as exciting or new as the marketing hype.
Even though the machine was new from a Ubuntu mfg, it randomly hangs. In this case there is no console available and the machine isnt pingable. Happens with the lid open or closed. Sometimea happens a few times a day, Sometimes happens after 3 days. It waa a major purchase for him as well; it cost half what he makes in a month. Now I dont know if I gave him good advice or not. Of course I've heard horror stories about major mfgs as well (yes even Macs) so it happens to all of them.
I'd mod you +1 funny for your take on my typo, but of course I can't.
I'd typed "stalin" without caps, and accidentally clicked the wrong choice. On a re-read I corrected the caps, but missed the "g". :( Oh, and the correct link to the siege of Leningrad is here. Stupid copy-n-paste doesn't all ways copy when you think it does.
Wait; Bell Labs - the lab which INVENTED the transistor ...(ignoring the Russian guy, named Oleg Vladimirovich Losev who Stalling starved to death during the siege of Leningrad before he could bring it to the world)... and made it possible for you to be typing this... They didn't contribute anything? How about IBM's research, which drove their HDD business to such success that at one point IBM was predicting they would own the entire industry in 6 months (but then IBM's mfg department "lost the formula" i.e. they couldn't upscale their success to larger densities, and IBM sold their entire drive business). How about all the research which has been done by a lot of companies around fiber-optics, which wasn't immediately turned into a product, but which now run the communications backbones of the world?
When you get it it looks like a product; that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of theoretical research done before hand.
As an aside, can you imagine how world history may have been different if Oleg Losev had lived? We may very well have not "won" the cold war, as the impact of the Russians having the transistor decades before us would have had far greater repercussions then just them being able to listen to portable radios before us. One of many of our advantages was that we were using transistors in military technology while they were still using vacuum tubes, whose only advantage was that tubes required less radiation hardening.
My understanding is that it was originally called an emergency brake. My '64 dodge pickup truck actually had a separate brake drum and brake shoes attached between the transition and the drive shaft. This was truly an emergency brake, as it was a redundant system which used a completely separate mechanism to stop the vehicle. No modern manufacture would go to this expense, and they use a mechanical linkages to the car's existing brakes. The linkage is redundant, but the brakes are not. Thus it is sufficient for "parking" but will not help in certain "emergency" failure modes. As an added curiosity, when we were out horsing around in the mud with my truck, my buddies told me that when I applied my emergency brake one wheel would spin backwards. Not sure exactly why this would be other than for the same reason the differential causes one wheel to spin backwards when you turn the wheel of a car which is jacked up (unless it has a locker or posi, of course).
Congratulations to all of you you had no problem with Mint 12, but I had no end of problems. The gui kept hanging on me, and no amount of ctr-r or whatever (I forget the combo now) would restart it. I spent hours and days trying to sort it out; I tried loading Gnome 3, Gmome 2, different drivers, all to no avail. :( I wanted to retain an X based system so that things like ssh -X and all the other X based connections would work, and I wasn't sure how well Unity/Wayland would "play" with these. In the end I went to Kubuntu 12.04, and I couldn't be happier. For those who fret about Unity, I highly recommend Kubuntu.
Fox News reports is reporting that although Tepco can't see the fuel because of steam in the containment area, and although they can't find the current water level, the internal temperature of 112F qualifies as proof that the "cold shutdown" has been successful.
The other point of view at the washington post is that if they can't see the fuel, it has broken completely through the containment system, and "Given that steam forms when water boils this is an indication that the reactor is not in cold shutdown." Also "If the reactors are “cold”, it may be because most of the hot radioactive fuel has leaked out."
The New York Times pointed out last month: A former nuclear engineer with three decades of experience at a major engineering firm who has worked at all three nuclear power complexes operated by Tokyo Electric [said] “If the fuel is still inside the reactor core, that’s one thing” . But if the fuel has been dispersed more widely, then we are far from any stable shutdown.”
1) Include female synthesized voices in Germany and other places which prefer male.
2) Include male synthesized voices in the USA and other places which prefer female.
3) Sell "value enhancement" packages of other voices for $10 a shot.
4) Profit!
5) Uhm, where's my slice of the pie for thinking of the idea?
Misread title as "Graphene Creates Electricity When Struck By Lightning". I was thinking Well duh; pretty much anything "generates" electricity when struck by lightning!
Not at all; then the low price solution would be DEAD and the only alternative would be the $$ cable companies. The studios got along just fine without Netflix before, they'd be happy to "get along" without Netflix again, provided they keep their lucrative contracts with traditional media. No, they don't care at all if Netflix goes under. You talk about sending a message. If people really want to send a message, they would cancel their cable/HBO and order Netflix. Actually that may be what has been happening, and the additional scrutiny this brings is perhaps a bit uncomfortable for Netflix. In my case I didn't cancel cable because Cable/HBO/Direct TV was never worth it at the price point they offered (even if they'd offer it at half the price point it wouldn't have been) so my Netflix subscription is actually a gain to the studios.
Don't be too hard on Netflix; It seems they are caught between a rock and a hard place. The studios let them get by on table scraps before because they didn't see them as a serious revenue source, and saw them as just an opportunity to pick up minor bits of revenue which they wouldn't otherwise collect. Now Netflix has everyone's attention, and the studios are going to want the full slice of the pie. Analysts predict that Netflix licensing is going to increase from $180M to 1.98B in the next few years. With that looming over Netflix, they must be desperate to find a strategy to cope. If the studios get their way and Netflix goes down or concedes to their desired licensing, then we all lose and we end up paying $60 to $120 per month like we pay for cable instead of $8 / month. Personally I just have the Netflix streaming service and no DVD. I don't care about the DVDs, but I wish they streamed more videos. It would be nice to have Netflix under Linux though, so I wouldn't have other options than my console.
Also of note, which I should have added to the summary; some of the tool used to make this included a laptop running Linux, and GIMP - two things near and dear to many slashdoters. I wonder if Nick reads Slashdot.
In Oregon we actively work with companies installing turbines to make it as easy as possible to transport & install them. We work with the manufactured housing builders as well, but that's another story. Unlike Texas with its oil, or other states and their coal, we don't have locally buried hydrocarbons adding to our economy, so we are happy for the economic benefit from these installations. We've had one wind turbine generator fall of around a corner, while inside a tunnel, which did wedged things up. But you know; it doesn't matter. Truck lines carry insurance. Oregon has had many more cases of cherry pickers slamming into bridges, sometime going right through the bridge. We had a large concrete drain pipe fall off a truck and bust a hole completely thought the deck of another bridge. We had a bunch of lead paint which had been carefully removed to reduce contamination of water and soil and loaded on a barge for shipment. The barge sunk before leaving dock. Oops. The moral of the story is, any industry has its share of shipment issues. If wind turbines are too much of an issue for your state, they are welcome here.
What is so unbelievable about "navigating through a file system represented by 3-d Buildings?" The above mentioned part of Jurassic Park was actually real; it was a real program created by an engineer at SGI just for fun, and then used in the movie. It was open sourced and is available at:
http://fsv.sourceforge.net/download.html
To anyone reading this with a bit of programming knowledge; I'd love to see this program updated into a Debian package or at least updated so that it will compile under Ubuntu Hardy.
Although FSV didn't turn out to be the best user interface in the world after all, it actually is handy for some things, and there was some good thought put into it. You could launch applications by clicking on them, and you could base the height of the buildings on more than just file size, but other attributes as well. Sure there are other ways to find out the same information from the command line, but it can make a quick handy way to visualize some things about your machine.
FSV may not have completely worked out, but far sillier things have been seriously proposed when it comes to future technology concepts.
So, anyone feel like poking around at it an tweaking it to work again? I think it would be great to have a version which would work for modern OS-es.
I had this problem with a regular florescent light in my shop. Went through bulbs every few months. Turns out most fluorescents aren't rated for being turned on when it's cold. They work okay inside, but not outside. I switched to cold start bulbs (as opposed to cold color temperature bulbs), and haven't had a problem since. The next time I bought florescent fixtures I made sure the fixture its self was meant for cold starts, and I'm able to run the cheaper "normal" florescent bulbs without problems. I don't know what the difference is, maybe the cold start ballasts ramp the voltage up slower or something. So, if you are using CFLs in the roof of a church which only has the heat turned on once a week, or in an outside environment, they may not last either. On the other hand, they do make outside rated CFLs as well, but they tend to be spot light type bulbs, or yellow bug light type bulbs.
For diesel at least, you can get non-road use diesel in Oregon, which does not contain the road tax. I buy it for my tractor; some stations sell it with a dye added, and others sell it without but record your address, presumably for some sort of record keeping.
The road user program is not intended for commercial trucks. Commercial vehicles already have a similar program in Oregon. See my comments at http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1076699&cid=26276519
I'm not sure about the logging industry, but for the farm industry there is already a program in place to account for these concerns: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/MCT/FARM.shtml
I agree. And it disables the incentive that the gas tax gives and it treats all mileage the same. In other words, if I'm driving a big heavy vehicle that wears the roads more than a smaller lighter vehicle, I pay the same. A tractor-trailer rig pays the same per mile as a Prius? I do understand it from the perspective of alternative fuel vehicles that are/will not pay the gas tax. We need to find alternative funding, but I don't like this solution.
This is not at all the case. See my comments at: http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1076699&cid=26276765
and at: http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1076699&cid=26276519
Disclaimer: Though I work for ODOT and know several people involved with the road user fee program, I am not personally involved and do not speak for ODOT or the State of Oregon.
A lot of the concerns about privacy and the impact on the acceptance of alternative fuel vehicles are addressed in this page.
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/RUFPP/mileage.shtml
I have been following this project in the media since before I worked for ODOT. My initial reaction was horror at the shortsightedness of what I thought would be a impediment to alternative and high mileage vehicles, and an instinctive distrust of the privacy implications. On actually reading about the program my privacy concerns have been addressed. With proper structuring this program doesn't need to be an impediment to alternative vehicles, so the question is how you believe it will be managed. Thanks partially to Oregon's incentives, Oregon already has the highest adoption rate of hybrid vehicle ownership in the US, and Governor Kulongoski is proposing similar incentives for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Despite my initial skepticism, I think Oregon has a pretty good track record for awareness of these issues.
Detailed information can be found on the above link, but for a short overview of conserns about the road use program I can pass this along from the program's administrator:
-----------------------
I'm the administrator for the Road User Fee Pilot Program at ODOT. I understand that there is concern over Oregon's interest in a mileage fee. However, there is a few things I would like to explain.
Oregon is preparing to replace the gas tax when it no longer will be a adequate revenue source to fund our roads. Cars will be on the market next year that will get over 100 miles per gallon. This is great news for the environment but problematic for road funding. Knowing this problem is coming, Oregon has led the nation in developing possible solutions. Charging by the mile rather than by the gallon is one possible solution.
With that said, Oregon has worked through the details of developing a mileage fee system over the last seven years at the direction of the Road User Fee Task Force. Like you, the Task Force shared many of your concerns which we have addressed though our work as described below.
Privacy. ODOT was directed by the task force to protect the privacy of Oregonians while developing the mileage fee system. The mileage counting device that was designed for the study receives a GPS signal (much like a television or radio receives signals) to locate itself but does not transmit a signal. Therefore, there is no ability for anyone's car to be tracked. The mileage counter tallies miles driven within Oregon and does not create a travel history. A mileage fee could be charged without the use of GPS but the downside would be that Oregonians would be charged for miles driven out of state, something the task force wanted to avoid.
No retrofitting. ODOT's mileage fee concept does not include installing any devices in existing cars. Instead we propose that auto companies equip the vehicles at manufacturing much like they already do with other government mandated standards like seat belts and emission controls.
Fairness. Some people assume all vehicles will pay the same mileage fee rate and this would be unfair to drivers of fuel efficient vehicles. This may not be true because the rates and structure have yet to be decided. A flat rate of one cent per mile was used for the pilot study however the rate could differ for different types of vehicles.
Rural motorists. Rural motorists could gain under a mileage fee proposal depending on how it is structured. Because we know that rural Oregonians drive larger, less fuel efficient vehicles, they are already paying more in gas taxes for driving the same miles than their urban counterparts. If the mileage fee was a flat rate, like one cent per mile like in the pilot test, rural drivers would actually pas LESS.
Per your request for insight, here are some possibilities which don't involve Governor Kulongoski being a stark moron OR collusion with the trucking industries:
Commercial trucks are ALREADY taxed higher than passenger vehicles in Oregon, by weight, by mileage, and by a fuel tax. Some info on Oregon's weight + mileage tax: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/MCT/RENTALS.shtml
Commercial trucks already have the option of carrying transponders to simplify this process http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/MCT/GREEN.shtml
The alternative road use fee isn't intended to apply to heavy trucks. For more information on the road user fee program see: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/RUFPP/mileage.shtml
Disclaimer: Though I work for ODOT and know several people involved with the road user fee program, I am not personally involved and do not speak for ODOT or the State of Oregon.
What? An article about a female who has an interest in the sciences, and no one has commented on that yet? Is this still Slashdot?
--
Won't someone please think of the trolls?
Although I think Bio-Diesel is our best chance to make it through peak oil intact, there appears to be a number of issues with Bio-Diesel from algae, both from the economic stand point and from the supposed CO2 reduction benifits (when being feed by coal plants).
1) When using CO2 from coal plants this does NOT directly reduce the CO2 released into the atmosphere, since the CO2 from coal will be re-released when the Bio-Diesel is burned. But you will get twice the "Mileage" from the same amount of CO2, since it will provide you with electricity first, and then power your car. When Bio-Diesel is derived from plant sources it is much better, since the CO2 came from the air to begin with rather then coal.
2) There is good reason to suspect that algae produced Bio-Diesel highly will never be economical. A very good article pointing out some of the problems with algae derived Bio-diesel was re-posted to biodieselnow, which sums up these conserns:
In ideal conditions some species of algae grow at very high rates, up to 30 times the rate for land plants. Sheehan (1998) claims 50g/m/d, (which equates to 180t/ha/y although he does not say this growth rate can be kept up for a year.) Reference is made to a proposed scheme intended to harvest 67t/ha/y, more or less equivalent to sugar cane. The oil content can be 40%. Of special interest for energy production is the possibility of using sea water in large shallow desert ponds. 200,000 ha are claimed to be capable of producing 1 Quad, or 8.4 EJ of biodiesel. Presumably this is a gross output. The claim is puzzling; if a 50 t/ha yield is assumed and algae have the same energy content as wood, then the gross production would only be 160 - 200PJ, only 2% of the claimed amount. In any case that output corresponds to a photosynthesis rate of 7% p.a. When it is growing fast corn achieves c5%, but averages only .3% over a year. (Pimentel, 2004). Sorensen (2000, p 3.11) says algae on reefs average 2%, but this could be raised to 3.7%.
Sheehan points out that yields are more like 10g/m/d in field conditions, as distinct from the lab. A major problem is that constant high temperatures facilitate high yields, but large scale energy production would involve large open ponds in deserts, where temperatures fall at night. Siting ponds close to power plants would enable use of warm cooling water.
Cost estimates reported vary considerably, but the equivalent of oil at $(US)65-100 is quoted. Sheehan does not give energy costs of production.
One difficulty is that the conditions which increase growth rates reduce oil content. Starving the algae of nutrients raises their oil content. Another is that the sunlight conversion rate and therefore efficiency of the process is highest in low light levels, e.g., 10% of full sun.
Perhaps the major consideration is where would inputs come from for very large scale production of this biomass? Some advocates refer to use of nutrient rich waste water from agriculture, but far greater quantities would be needed to make a significant contribution to replacing fossil fuel dependence. Around 40% of the input material must be carbon dioxide and therefore the process could be coupled to coal-fired power stations, but it is not clear how far how much CO2 would have
Well, what ever THEY are running, it doesn't look like it could handle a slashdoting. Here's the google cache of the article.