For the current predominant methods of power generation, economies of scale outweigh the cost of grid infrastructure as well as being more efficient. For example, 60 - 90 meter tall wind turbines are hard to place locally. It is more economical and efficient to use places where these tall towers can be placed. Similar problems occur for fossil fuels, nuclear, wave, etc.
The only thing I can think of that might be different is solar, where bigger or more panels don't seem to up efficiency that much.
IANASCE, but I still can't seem to find any large commercial uses of high temperature superconductivity.
You might want to ask anyone who's ever been in a MRI why the dang thing works at all without it's superconducting super magnets.
According to Wikipedia and your information, MRIs generally use Liquid helium to cool things down to 4K. That's not a high temperature even in the superconductor world.
oh hey, and what about the maglev train in japan, or various ones in germany?? do you honestly think that doing magleg based on normal electromagnets would be energy efficient?
Only one major Maglev line, the JR-Maglev, uses high temperature superconductors. JR-Maglev is not commercial; it's just research. Currently, there are two major commercial Maglevs, neither of which use high temperature superconductors (let alone any superconducting at all).
These are the reasons I felt that high temperature superconducting is vaporware. It gets a lot of research and demos, but not much real world application. The Japan demo maglev is close, but it was never put in large scale or commercial use. The power grid in TFA seems to be one of the first mass commercial uses of superconducting used. YMMV, someone point out my fail if there have been more uses of high temperature superconductivity in the public space.
With the influx of superconductingarticles I got a pretty good feel of "hight temperature" superconducting being vaporware. It's cool that we're seeing real world applications now. TFA even tries to trick you into not believing the summary by saying they were "commissioned", but if I read correctly they mean "was put on the power grid" by commissioned, not "was approved to be built."
Just remember, Hitler (no godwin here, actual history) was fighting terrorists and protecting the children. We should be very suspicious of government that employs industry for its objectives because that mean industry will employ government of its objectives.
I respectfully disagree on whether that was Godwin or not. Your argument regarding Hitler was not only a Reductio ad Hitlerum but also a non sequitur. Yes, Hitler may have engaged in those actions; but comparing those actions to our current government fails to prove anything. Continuing that failed logic to something completely different is flawed further.
I also want to mention that I did not change my sig for this post : )
That doesn't seem to stop the text message spam and occasional bogus calls I get. I just don't answer anything that's not in my phonebook at this point.
I have to admit, even though Picasa could probably use more crop aspect ratios, I immediately subconsciously discredited the author when he stated that the golden ratio was a requirement.
And that's exactly my point. Politicians are striving for "looks" rather than the best interest of our country on both sides. In the primaries, when looks were not influenced by the political right as much, Jeremiah Wright suddenly became a problem for Obama. But Barack didn't do the best for his "looks" at first, he went to great lengths to not personally attack Wright. Anybody remember his speech? That speech inspired me a great deal; in fact a little of that hope caught on with me.
But now I see that Obama is not going to hold press conferences on important matters and deliver well written speeches. His biggest group of supporters did not want him to sign this bill yet it seems that his campaign put more thought into a crazy mega church preacher than our government spying on us. To them, it was a simple logical decision. This can be soft on terror, so don't do it. Yes Obama made that small attempt at amending the bill, but there was no big speech, there was no hope. It was literally "I'll try, but don't expect much. Sorry guys."
Yes, and in the true sense of "conservative," one would want to LIMIT the power of the government. But the problem is that "conservative" today is a way to masquerade as someone one's not.
And don't get me started on the other side of the pond; they're just playing like they're fighting the bad politics.
Yeah I called mine also. I wrote when they didn't answer. I don't see a shakeup happening because so many people are oblivious as to what just occurred and what it means.
And that refueling infrastructure is exactly why the general public gives a damn about what fuels their cars. One manufacturer phasing out a fuel is only a step in the right direction; we then have to actually get that fuel everywhere. In 2002, there were literally more than half a billion cars out there. That article doesn't give specifics as to the number of gas-powered cars, but with 590 million total there are definitely a lot. The cost to support the current gas refueling infrastructure is only going to hold back building even more infrastructure for alternative fuels.
Because opening a virtual machine takes a while (compared to starting a Wine app), and then you actually have to purchase Windows. If there's just one app holding back a Linux adoption, Wine makes more sense.
A while ago when I was reading into Wine I found information on Winelib. Are you still actively promoting the use of Winelib for developers interested on an easy cross platform solution? If not, what are your thoughts on people developing cross platform applications with Windows as the primary interest?
And right now access to information is free, which is perceived by the general public as a right. The copyright of the content you receive is a different matter altogether.
Slashdot Mirror
For the current predominant methods of power generation, economies of scale outweigh the cost of grid infrastructure as well as being more efficient. For example, 60 - 90 meter tall wind turbines are hard to place locally. It is more economical and efficient to use places where these tall towers can be placed. Similar problems occur for fossil fuels, nuclear, wave, etc.
The only thing I can think of that might be different is solar, where bigger or more panels don't seem to up efficiency that much.
You might want to ask anyone who's ever been in a MRI why the dang thing works at all without it's superconducting super magnets.
According to Wikipedia and your information, MRIs generally use Liquid helium to cool things down to 4K. That's not a high temperature even in the superconductor world.
oh hey, and what about the maglev train in japan, or various ones in germany?? do you honestly think that doing magleg based on normal electromagnets would be energy efficient?
Only one major Maglev line, the JR-Maglev, uses high temperature superconductors. JR-Maglev is not commercial; it's just research. Currently, there are two major commercial Maglevs, neither of which use high temperature superconductors (let alone any superconducting at all).
These are the reasons I felt that high temperature superconducting is vaporware. It gets a lot of research and demos, but not much real world application. The Japan demo maglev is close, but it was never put in large scale or commercial use. The power grid in TFA seems to be one of the first mass commercial uses of superconducting used. YMMV, someone point out my fail if there have been more uses of high temperature superconductivity in the public space.
With the influx of superconducting articles I got a pretty good feel of "hight temperature" superconducting being vaporware. It's cool that we're seeing real world applications now. TFA even tries to trick you into not believing the summary by saying they were "commissioned", but if I read correctly they mean "was put on the power grid" by commissioned, not "was approved to be built."
Just remember, Hitler (no godwin here, actual history) was fighting terrorists and protecting the children. We should be very suspicious of government that employs industry for its objectives because that mean industry will employ government of its objectives.
I respectfully disagree on whether that was Godwin or not. Your argument regarding Hitler was not only a Reductio ad Hitlerum but also a non sequitur. Yes, Hitler may have engaged in those actions; but comparing those actions to our current government fails to prove anything. Continuing that failed logic to something completely different is flawed further.
I also want to mention that I did not change my sig for this post : )
That doesn't seem to stop the text message spam and occasional bogus calls I get. I just don't answer anything that's not in my phonebook at this point.
All sarcasm aside, that was actually pretty informative. And it gave me a good laugh. Thanks!
It bubbles up here and there :)
I have to admit, even though Picasa could probably use more crop aspect ratios, I immediately subconsciously discredited the author when he stated that the golden ratio was a requirement.
And that's exactly my point. Politicians are striving for "looks" rather than the best interest of our country on both sides. In the primaries, when looks were not influenced by the political right as much, Jeremiah Wright suddenly became a problem for Obama. But Barack didn't do the best for his "looks" at first, he went to great lengths to not personally attack Wright. Anybody remember his speech? That speech inspired me a great deal; in fact a little of that hope caught on with me.
But now I see that Obama is not going to hold press conferences on important matters and deliver well written speeches. His biggest group of supporters did not want him to sign this bill yet it seems that his campaign put more thought into a crazy mega church preacher than our government spying on us. To them, it was a simple logical decision. This can be soft on terror, so don't do it. Yes Obama made that small attempt at amending the bill, but there was no big speech, there was no hope. It was literally "I'll try, but don't expect much. Sorry guys."
Yes, and in the true sense of "conservative," one would want to LIMIT the power of the government. But the problem is that "conservative" today is a way to masquerade as someone one's not.
And don't get me started on the other side of the pond; they're just playing like they're fighting the bad politics.
Sounds to me more like lying, what with the two stances being exact opposites.
Why not take this time to try out something new?
You probably forgot to put a few $100 bills in the envelopes.
..., 'cause the lobbyists certainly didn't.
I feel so naive for thinking there was a candidate from one of the two major parties who actually stood for what's right.
Yeah I called mine also. I wrote when they didn't answer. I don't see a shakeup happening because so many people are oblivious as to what just occurred and what it means.
I have no words for how cheated I feel right now.
Yeah I know, hard drives were never adopted because they were so expensive. Cassette tapes ftw!
What? They ar..? Ooops, it seems I was misinformed.
And that refueling infrastructure is exactly why the general public gives a damn about what fuels their cars. One manufacturer phasing out a fuel is only a step in the right direction; we then have to actually get that fuel everywhere. In 2002, there were literally more than half a billion cars out there. That article doesn't give specifics as to the number of gas-powered cars, but with 590 million total there are definitely a lot. The cost to support the current gas refueling infrastructure is only going to hold back building even more infrastructure for alternative fuels.
YouTube? Is that you?
Certainly the freedom to feel up forms and documents is a bad thing (or is it??)
Because opening a virtual machine takes a while (compared to starting a Wine app), and then you actually have to purchase Windows. If there's just one app holding back a Linux adoption, Wine makes more sense.
A while ago when I was reading into Wine I found information on Winelib. Are you still actively promoting the use of Winelib for developers interested on an easy cross platform solution? If not, what are your thoughts on people developing cross platform applications with Windows as the primary interest?
Oops!
(*whooosh*)
http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6422
And right now access to information is free, which is perceived by the general public as a right. The copyright of the content you receive is a different matter altogether.