Most woks don't have non-stick coatings, particularly not the $10 ones (which also happen to be the best ones you can buy). Most such coatings can't take the temperatures woks are usually exposed to. As such, though, rust is a big problem with them, and they have to be maintained pretty scrupulously in the kitchen.
I thought that the Quest for Glory series handled this pretty well. I can only really recall one sequel in that line where you were stripped of all your items.
They will probably just put something on the bottom of your car and GPS track you to where you're chop shop is.
... or to your workplace, or to your mistress's apartment, or to your doctor's office, or wherever else, for a potentially limitless amount of time.
That's the problem -- it doesn't differentiate between legal and illegal activity, and it doesn't require the officer to make a judgment call as to whether it's worth his time to continue following you. Nor does it turn off when it's obvious that you're not going to a chop shop. When it becomes trivial to get a multiple-day or even multiple-month map of a person's car's movements (which may leave the tracking officer's jurisdiction, or enter private property where an officer would require a warrant to enter) then it becomes problematic.
I am hopeful, though, that the study of what it takes to make data last forever, will inform their design decisions today. Maybe, just maybe, they'll learn the correct lessons.
Or, just as likely, they'll reinvent the stone statue, proclaim the task finished for the ages, and patent it under the name "Ozymandias".
Does anyone know whether electronic ink displays are subject to EM snooping? Given the low refresh rates, I would wonder whether there's enough there to read.
He wasn't faulting them for not paying him, and he didn't screw them. He did the only thing he was obliged to do: he left everything he produced for them (and in this case the software he wrote gratis) behind. It was their responsibility to not delete anything they wanted to keep, because it's their responsibility to go through his stuff and decide what was useful and what wasn't -- that's not his call, regardless of his private opinion. In fact, if I were IT for that agency, I'd have been pissed off if he moved something out of his/usr directory to a more permanent location, no matter how important he thought it was. Again, it's not his call.
Since it did get deleted, and they wanted him to recreate the work, they're obligated to pay for it, as they're no longer on his payroll. It'd be the same thing if they wanted him to retype his old TPS reports. If he happened to keep copies, he could choose to give them free, or he could charge them for the time it ought to have taken had he not shown some foresight. This isn't communism, he doesn't have to charge only according to the level of effort it takes him, he's allowed to charge whatever he thinks they'll pay, and they can only pay, negotiate, or do without. (Of course, having taken zero additional effort, he's probably inclined to charge less, but that's irrelevent)
The article sounded like they had been talking on the phone extensively, though probably only after problems arose. I can't speak to how useful or reliable it is, but I found this pretty easily:
PayPal Customer Service Agents are available to help you during the following times:
4:00 AM PST to 10:00 PM PST Monday through Friday 6:00 AM PST to 8:00 PM PST on Saturday and Sunday
Call us at: 1-402-935-2050 (a U.S. telephone number)
This is the first non-toll-free customer service line I've seen in a very long time -- definitely a slap in the face to customers who need assistance.
I'm not sure why I bother to correct someone who insults me, but let me point out that you're positing that these fuels magically spring into existence fully formed and exactly where they need to be. This is not so.
While ethanol has its own problems I'll leave it alone, as Brazil has largely solved them. (Here's a hint: if you don't see ethanol at your pumps, the problem hasn't been solved here yet)
Biodiesel, however (the subject of the article in question) needs significant infrastructure design and investment before it can be viable. I've already posted in a previous comment more on that point; suffice it to say that there are a number of questions which need to be answered. (otherwise the backers of this wouldn't be asking for millions of dollars just to try a few acres and see if it works!) It does not use the same infrastructure -- infrastructure for petroleum is everything from source to destination, and unless you're seriously contending that biodiesels will be grown and filtered on oil derricks, pumped through the same pipelines or tanker ships, and refined in petroleum-distilling equipment (which will magically have more capacity) I think that you need to revise your statement a bit.
And do keep a civil tongue in your mouth. Being wrong can be forgiven. Being wrong and rude can't.
There are a half dozen biodiesels out there, and so far nobody has really solved these problems -- they seem to be searching for a pre-solved problem (in terms of the "productive feedstock" you mentioned). It doesn't use existing infrastructure at more than the periphery, either - even if you can use the same refineries and distribution systems, those refineries are already in use and are in entirely the wrong place. In addition, there's a lot of infrastructure that needs to be developed to water, grow, and collect this stuff in the first place that's not even designed yet, let alone existing. Let's take it item by item:
Quantity -- what's required to take this algae and produce it on the scale needed for the country's fuel needs? It's certainly promising in terms of the amount of oil produced per acre, but we're talking a truly massive scale here. Do we need a whole new set of irrigation canals? What's the going to do to water availability in an already dry region where water rights are contentious?
Price -- it sounds like this might be ok on price from the outset, so I'll leave this as granted. It's still slightly questionable, though, whether even with the low price it's cost-effective to harvest this stuff, pump/truck it to refineries, refine it, and distribute it.
Availability -- Is this something that'll be available year-round? Winter nights get very cold, and summer days get very hot -- can the current strains maintain production at a constant rate through that? It says that the best place for it is desert land; do we have the infrastructure to support this in the more convenient locations? Is this something that's only cost-effective to deliver on the west coast of the US and Mexico, with the east coast, Canada, and Europe all SOL?
Reliability -- are there any known pathogens that attack this algae? Are the strains diverse enough that if an equivalent of the potato blight comes along, we'll only lose a small portion of our energy capacity?
Nope, I stand by what I said: coming up with the fuel itself is only a small part of the problem.
This is true, and it might have been reasonable for them to assume that this wouldn't have become widely known. If you assume that they thought it would stay secret, it does change the analysis.
I suspect, however, that most active bloggers who are technically savvy enough to attract an audience, and their readers, all read Slashdot, which means that now it is considerably less useful as a bribe. The question is whether this was anticipated -- I can't answer that.
I'm getting tired of all the "*gasp* New Source of BioFuel!" articles I keep seeing. Look, all sorts of life creates all sorts of things that burn. Some significant portions of our body chemistry are designed to oxidize. This isn't rocket sci -- er, brain surgery here.
The real problems aren't a matter of finding something else we can burn, it's a matter of creating a supply chain and infrastructure to rival that of petroleum in terms of quantity, price, availability and reliability, and then of maintaining that long enough for our dumb-ass auto companies to produce decent vehicles which make use of the new fuel, in the styles and manner that will persuade consumers to buy and drive them. In other words, the real problem isn't scientific, it's a matter of economics, logistics, and public policy.
Even if the bloggers don't change their behaviors, their readers might. The more obnoxious ones are likely to bring this up every time someone writes a pro-Vista blog post: "Yeah, but I bet you got one of the free laptops, so how can we trust you?" The more thoughtful ones might suggest, "It's easier to think critically about something that you paid your own money for."
Clearly, Microsoft should have sent out a bunch of Macs;)
The way I see it, this divides the computer-writing bloggers into four basic camps: 1. Pro-Microsoft, got a laptop 2. Pro-Microsoft, didn't get a laptop 3. Anti-Microsoft, got a laptop 4. Anti-Microsoft, didn't get a laptop
The gift effectively marginalizes group 1 -- people will say, "Sure, you say that, but you've been bribed." And it'll partly marginalize group 2, as people will suspect them of being bribed and just not admitting it.
Conversely, it empowers group 3. If they're getting 'bribes' and still criticizing Microsoft? Well, gosh, they must be of sterling moral fibre, or something.
Group 4 would be split -- there will be those who increase their criticism out of either bitterness or a sense of moral outrage, just as there might be those who tone down their criticisms out of a vague hope of getting some future handout. Indeed, there will probably be more people writing about it, period.
No, it doesn't make sense as a bribe. Looking at it as a "thank you" or at worst an inexpensive play for publicity (peanuts compared to a TV ad) makes far more sense.
There is some of that, but not as much as you suggest. For example, the NY State Comptroller, Hevesi, has been routinely identified as a Democrat, even in the New York Times. However, I do note that in most of the articles, the word "Democrat" doesn't appear in the first few paragraphs.
The Berger thing is a non-starter. We've got a Republican administration and Dept. of Justice -- if even they didn't pursue it, there probably was very little there.
Yeah, that occurred to me as well -- in addition, going through iTunes would make it easy to allow the content free to viewers in the UK. (That is, with UK billing addresses)
The price point for iTunes is rather high, though. I can't see myself paying $2 for an episode of Red Dwarf, even though it's my favorite of the ones mentioned. Perhaps Azureus is offering a more reasonable price plan?
While they will not generally serve at that temperature, it does not harm the product -- optimal extraction temperature for coffee is around 190 degrees, and thus freshly brewed coffee will be that hot. Really what they ought to have done was add cream and sugar for the customer, as the cup loses most of its structural stability when the user attempts to remove the lid. (That's when most spills occur, because without the lid, small changes in force can create large changes of shape even in a styrofoam cup)
Ah, I think I see your misunderstanding. We're talking force vectors on a rigid body here, and while the terminology is the same as in general vector mathematics, the application is not quite.
Let's assume that our object is a sphere 1 unit in radius, centered on the origin. Applying a force [0, 1, 0] (a unit vector along the Y axis) centered on the origin will cause the sphere to accelerate along the Y axis without turning. However, applying the same force at the edge of the sphere where it intersects the positive X axis will cause the sphere to start spinning counter-clockwise (or yaw-ing) about the Z-axis, without moving from its spot at the origin. If I apply the same force where the sphere intersects the positive Z axis, the sphere will start spinning about the X-axis (I can't remember if that's roll or pitch. Roll, I think)
This means that in order to describe ANY acceleration of the object, you need a three dimensional vector to represent the force, AND a three-dimensional vector to represent where that force is applied relative to the object's center of mass. Ergo, six axes.
Yes, because there are a whole lot of people who are unabashedly ignorant of the subject, don't read comments, and are full of Righteous Indignation despite (or perhaps because of) these factors. In other words, because this is Slashdot;)
No, the rotational axes are indeed axes in their own right. You cannot back out yaw, pitch, and roll from X,Y,Z accelerometers. Thus, there really are six axes here.
Well, I obviously gave simplistic search terms, and yeah -- you'd want something a little more sophisticated than keyword-matching. But there's a difference between using data mining techniques to find articles of interest, and using it to ferret out actual content. The former, combined with a corps of human readers, is a good approach. The latter, as described in TFA, is a waste of time and money.
"Chilling"? It's downright idiotic. It'd be far cheaper, more effective, and implementable immediately to simply hire or train people who speak these languages, and have them read the damn news sources themselves and summarize. Maybe use some simple automated search techniques to find references to "America", "Bush", and "Iraq" to narrow down the amount of material a bit. Simple. Effective. And if you have linguists like that on staff, you can loan them to other departments as necessary, so that none of the Homeland Security offices are ever caught without someone able to read documents that come into their posession.
It comes down to this: Develop a low tech solution that creates a versatile pool of human resources and encourages Americans to learn foreign languages? Or a high tech solution that'll be ready "next year, for sure this time!" (like natural language processing has always been) and cost an order of magnitude more?
The individual capacitors were only charged to about 2.5 V, which I understand is typical for ultracaps. (The whole bank was in series, for a total of 270V) I'm afraid I don't recall the wattage on them, though.
Using ultracaps for hybrid cars is nothing new. Dartmouth's Formula Hybrid team built two race cars based on them last spring. (I helped build, and got to drive, one of them)
On our main track day, we had a cap explode. Nothing major, but it did spray toxic chemicals all over the inside of the enclosure. After talking to the manufacturer, we were informed that this is actually really common. (Which is a no-brainer to anyone who knows the failure curve) Maybe these people are pre-stressing their caps to weed out the ones with flaws. But given that Sony couldn't manage to do that with production-run batteries...
The other thing is that it took a lot longer to charge than these people are talking. We had a heavy-duty lab power supply, running off a generator, and it took a considerable amount of time to charge up to the 300V we needed. And I know you're saying, "Well, that's for a race car" but these things are so light, that you'd need a lot more juice to run a tiny Toyota-size two-seater than we needed for this.
Actually, I've seen a fully-charged ultracapacitor explode: it's not really that impressive. Dangerous as hell, but that's because of the chemicals involved. But the explosion itself was neatly contained by a plexiglass housing.
Slashdot Mirror
Most woks don't have non-stick coatings, particularly not the $10 ones (which also happen to be the best ones you can buy). Most such coatings can't take the temperatures woks are usually exposed to. As such, though, rust is a big problem with them, and they have to be maintained pretty scrupulously in the kitchen.
I thought that the Quest for Glory series handled this pretty well. I can only really recall one sequel in that line where you were stripped of all your items.
That's the problem -- it doesn't differentiate between legal and illegal activity, and it doesn't require the officer to make a judgment call as to whether it's worth his time to continue following you. Nor does it turn off when it's obvious that you're not going to a chop shop. When it becomes trivial to get a multiple-day or even multiple-month map of a person's car's movements (which may leave the tracking officer's jurisdiction, or enter private property where an officer would require a warrant to enter) then it becomes problematic.
I am hopeful, though, that the study of what it takes to make data last forever, will inform their design decisions today. Maybe, just maybe, they'll learn the correct lessons.
Or, just as likely, they'll reinvent the stone statue, proclaim the task finished for the ages, and patent it under the name "Ozymandias".
Does anyone know whether electronic ink displays are subject to EM snooping? Given the low refresh rates, I would wonder whether there's enough there to read.
He wasn't faulting them for not paying him, and he didn't screw them. He did the only thing he was obliged to do: he left everything he produced for them (and in this case the software he wrote gratis) behind. It was their responsibility to not delete anything they wanted to keep, because it's their responsibility to go through his stuff and decide what was useful and what wasn't -- that's not his call, regardless of his private opinion. In fact, if I were IT for that agency, I'd have been pissed off if he moved something out of his /usr directory to a more permanent location, no matter how important he thought it was. Again, it's not his call.
Since it did get deleted, and they wanted him to recreate the work, they're obligated to pay for it, as they're no longer on his payroll. It'd be the same thing if they wanted him to retype his old TPS reports. If he happened to keep copies, he could choose to give them free, or he could charge them for the time it ought to have taken had he not shown some foresight. This isn't communism, he doesn't have to charge only according to the level of effort it takes him, he's allowed to charge whatever he thinks they'll pay, and they can only pay, negotiate, or do without. (Of course, having taken zero additional effort, he's probably inclined to charge less, but that's irrelevent)
The article sounded like they had been talking on the phone extensively, though probably only after problems arose. I can't speak to how useful or reliable it is, but I found this pretty easily:
PayPal Customer Service Agents are available to help you during the following times:
4:00 AM PST to 10:00 PM PST Monday through Friday
6:00 AM PST to 8:00 PM PST on Saturday and Sunday
Call us at: 1-402-935-2050 (a U.S. telephone number)
This is the first non-toll-free customer service line I've seen in a very long time -- definitely a slap in the face to customers who need assistance.
I suspect that part one went along the lines of,
PayPal Contact: "It sounds like these are charitable donations. Is this non-profit?"
Deadspin: "We're not making a profit off this, no."
Each party walks away thinking something different. Hijinks ensue.
This is why I'm convinced that corporations ought to be obliged to record all phone conversations with their customers, and produce them on request.
I'm not sure why I bother to correct someone who insults me, but let me point out that you're positing that these fuels magically spring into existence fully formed and exactly where they need to be. This is not so.
While ethanol has its own problems I'll leave it alone, as Brazil has largely solved them. (Here's a hint: if you don't see ethanol at your pumps, the problem hasn't been solved here yet)
Biodiesel, however (the subject of the article in question) needs significant infrastructure design and investment before it can be viable. I've already posted in a previous comment more on that point; suffice it to say that there are a number of questions which need to be answered. (otherwise the backers of this wouldn't be asking for millions of dollars just to try a few acres and see if it works!) It does not use the same infrastructure -- infrastructure for petroleum is everything from source to destination, and unless you're seriously contending that biodiesels will be grown and filtered on oil derricks, pumped through the same pipelines or tanker ships, and refined in petroleum-distilling equipment (which will magically have more capacity) I think that you need to revise your statement a bit.
And do keep a civil tongue in your mouth. Being wrong can be forgiven. Being wrong and rude can't.
There are a half dozen biodiesels out there, and so far nobody has really solved these problems -- they seem to be searching for a pre-solved problem (in terms of the "productive feedstock" you mentioned). It doesn't use existing infrastructure at more than the periphery, either - even if you can use the same refineries and distribution systems, those refineries are already in use and are in entirely the wrong place. In addition, there's a lot of infrastructure that needs to be developed to water, grow, and collect this stuff in the first place that's not even designed yet, let alone existing. Let's take it item by item:
Quantity -- what's required to take this algae and produce it on the scale needed for the country's fuel needs? It's certainly promising in terms of the amount of oil produced per acre, but we're talking a truly massive scale here. Do we need a whole new set of irrigation canals? What's the going to do to water availability in an already dry region where water rights are contentious?
Price -- it sounds like this might be ok on price from the outset, so I'll leave this as granted. It's still slightly questionable, though, whether even with the low price it's cost-effective to harvest this stuff, pump/truck it to refineries, refine it, and distribute it.
Availability -- Is this something that'll be available year-round? Winter nights get very cold, and summer days get very hot -- can the current strains maintain production at a constant rate through that? It says that the best place for it is desert land; do we have the infrastructure to support this in the more convenient locations? Is this something that's only cost-effective to deliver on the west coast of the US and Mexico, with the east coast, Canada, and Europe all SOL?
Reliability -- are there any known pathogens that attack this algae? Are the strains diverse enough that if an equivalent of the potato blight comes along, we'll only lose a small portion of our energy capacity?
Nope, I stand by what I said: coming up with the fuel itself is only a small part of the problem.
This is true, and it might have been reasonable for them to assume that this wouldn't have become widely known. If you assume that they thought it would stay secret, it does change the analysis.
I suspect, however, that most active bloggers who are technically savvy enough to attract an audience, and their readers, all read Slashdot, which means that now it is considerably less useful as a bribe. The question is whether this was anticipated -- I can't answer that.
I'm getting tired of all the "*gasp* New Source of BioFuel!" articles I keep seeing. Look, all sorts of life creates all sorts of things that burn. Some significant portions of our body chemistry are designed to oxidize. This isn't rocket sci -- er, brain surgery here.
The real problems aren't a matter of finding something else we can burn, it's a matter of creating a supply chain and infrastructure to rival that of petroleum in terms of quantity, price, availability and reliability, and then of maintaining that long enough for our dumb-ass auto companies to produce decent vehicles which make use of the new fuel, in the styles and manner that will persuade consumers to buy and drive them. In other words, the real problem isn't scientific, it's a matter of economics, logistics, and public policy.
Wake me when someone solves *that* one.
Even if the bloggers don't change their behaviors, their readers might. The more obnoxious ones are likely to bring this up every time someone writes a pro-Vista blog post: "Yeah, but I bet you got one of the free laptops, so how can we trust you?" The more thoughtful ones might suggest, "It's easier to think critically about something that you paid your own money for."
;)
Clearly, Microsoft should have sent out a bunch of Macs
The way I see it, this divides the computer-writing bloggers into four basic camps:
1. Pro-Microsoft, got a laptop
2. Pro-Microsoft, didn't get a laptop
3. Anti-Microsoft, got a laptop
4. Anti-Microsoft, didn't get a laptop
The gift effectively marginalizes group 1 -- people will say, "Sure, you say that, but you've been bribed." And it'll partly marginalize group 2, as people will suspect them of being bribed and just not admitting it.
Conversely, it empowers group 3. If they're getting 'bribes' and still criticizing Microsoft? Well, gosh, they must be of sterling moral fibre, or something.
Group 4 would be split -- there will be those who increase their criticism out of either bitterness or a sense of moral outrage, just as there might be those who tone down their criticisms out of a vague hope of getting some future handout. Indeed, there will probably be more people writing about it, period.
No, it doesn't make sense as a bribe. Looking at it as a "thank you" or at worst an inexpensive play for publicity (peanuts compared to a TV ad) makes far more sense.
There is some of that, but not as much as you suggest. For example, the NY State Comptroller, Hevesi, has been routinely identified as a Democrat, even in the New York Times. However, I do note that in most of the articles, the word "Democrat" doesn't appear in the first few paragraphs.
The Berger thing is a non-starter. We've got a Republican administration and Dept. of Justice -- if even they didn't pursue it, there probably was very little there.
Yeah, that occurred to me as well -- in addition, going through iTunes would make it easy to allow the content free to viewers in the UK. (That is, with UK billing addresses)
The price point for iTunes is rather high, though. I can't see myself paying $2 for an episode of Red Dwarf, even though it's my favorite of the ones mentioned. Perhaps Azureus is offering a more reasonable price plan?
While they will not generally serve at that temperature, it does not harm the product -- optimal extraction temperature for coffee is around 190 degrees, and thus freshly brewed coffee will be that hot. Really what they ought to have done was add cream and sugar for the customer, as the cup loses most of its structural stability when the user attempts to remove the lid. (That's when most spills occur, because without the lid, small changes in force can create large changes of shape even in a styrofoam cup)
Ah, I think I see your misunderstanding. We're talking force vectors on a rigid body here, and while the terminology is the same as in general vector mathematics, the application is not quite.
Let's assume that our object is a sphere 1 unit in radius, centered on the origin. Applying a force [0, 1, 0] (a unit vector along the Y axis) centered on the origin will cause the sphere to accelerate along the Y axis without turning. However, applying the same force at the edge of the sphere where it intersects the positive X axis will cause the sphere to start spinning counter-clockwise (or yaw-ing) about the Z-axis, without moving from its spot at the origin. If I apply the same force where the sphere intersects the positive Z axis, the sphere will start spinning about the X-axis (I can't remember if that's roll or pitch. Roll, I think)
This means that in order to describe ANY acceleration of the object, you need a three dimensional vector to represent the force, AND a three-dimensional vector to represent where that force is applied relative to the object's center of mass. Ergo, six axes.
Yes, because there are a whole lot of people who are unabashedly ignorant of the subject, don't read comments, and are full of Righteous Indignation despite (or perhaps because of) these factors. In other words, because this is Slashdot ;)
No, the rotational axes are indeed axes in their own right. You cannot back out yaw, pitch, and roll from X,Y,Z accelerometers. Thus, there really are six axes here.
Well, I obviously gave simplistic search terms, and yeah -- you'd want something a little more sophisticated than keyword-matching. But there's a difference between using data mining techniques to find articles of interest, and using it to ferret out actual content. The former, combined with a corps of human readers, is a good approach. The latter, as described in TFA, is a waste of time and money.
"Chilling"? It's downright idiotic. It'd be far cheaper, more effective, and implementable immediately to simply hire or train people who speak these languages, and have them read the damn news sources themselves and summarize. Maybe use some simple automated search techniques to find references to "America", "Bush", and "Iraq" to narrow down the amount of material a bit. Simple. Effective. And if you have linguists like that on staff, you can loan them to other departments as necessary, so that none of the Homeland Security offices are ever caught without someone able to read documents that come into their posession.
It comes down to this: Develop a low tech solution that creates a versatile pool of human resources and encourages Americans to learn foreign languages? Or a high tech solution that'll be ready "next year, for sure this time!" (like natural language processing has always been) and cost an order of magnitude more?
The individual capacitors were only charged to about 2.5 V, which I understand is typical for ultracaps. (The whole bank was in series, for a total of 270V) I'm afraid I don't recall the wattage on them, though.
Using ultracaps for hybrid cars is nothing new. Dartmouth's Formula Hybrid team built two race cars based on them last spring. (I helped build, and got to drive, one of them)
On our main track day, we had a cap explode. Nothing major, but it did spray toxic chemicals all over the inside of the enclosure. After talking to the manufacturer, we were informed that this is actually really common. (Which is a no-brainer to anyone who knows the failure curve) Maybe these people are pre-stressing their caps to weed out the ones with flaws. But given that Sony couldn't manage to do that with production-run batteries...
The other thing is that it took a lot longer to charge than these people are talking. We had a heavy-duty lab power supply, running off a generator, and it took a considerable amount of time to charge up to the 300V we needed. And I know you're saying, "Well, that's for a race car" but these things are so light, that you'd need a lot more juice to run a tiny Toyota-size two-seater than we needed for this.
Actually, I've seen a fully-charged ultracapacitor explode: it's not really that impressive. Dangerous as hell, but that's because of the chemicals involved. But the explosion itself was neatly contained by a plexiglass housing.