I think all these considerations about extremophiles showing the possibility of life in other planets rather unsound.
There's no evidence that life could ever appear in such environments starting from abiotic conditions, it seems pretty obvious these organisms evolved from more benign habitats.
I'm looking for a well written and researched piece that can tell me why TPB and other such sites are good for society, not some crap "I just want stuff for free" argument.
Try the U.S. Constitution:"The Congress shall have power... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"
You see, it's not the "pirates" who need a justification for their acts, it's the copyright holders who need a special explanation in the Constitution to justify why their special privileges are acceptable.
The media and software industry need to accept the fact that no one is forced to buy their products if the price isn't right. Price your music films and software too high and not enough people will buy them, your business will not turn a profit. Offer a good deal for the price and your business will prosper, that's the basis of our capitalist economy.
And remember, a free copy does not mean a lost sale, otherwise why would the media industry be so eager to give us free copies of their works in the radio and television?
there may be a difference of opinion between what I mean by large quantities of water
The difference of water consumption between an evaporative system and a once-through system is about twenty to one. This site has a good explanation about how both systems work, including some basic equations.
If you want them to actually work you need quite a lot of water to get a temperature difference - we're not talking about a Volkwagen Beetle here
These things have a lot more area in contact with the air than a Beetle. They don't need water to operate.
With respect I suggest removing the sig until attempting Engineering 202,th respect I suggest removing the sig until attempting Engineering 202,
I graduated in engineering thirty years ago, having studied both mechanical and electronics engineering and worked in both fields. I worked for five years at a company that operates three different nuclear power plants, so I know what I'm talking about.
we can't just drop coal and switch over to alternate sources at the drop of the hat, and we can't make other countries do so, so investing in carbon sequestering technologies is necessary
Nuclear power plants have been operating commercially for about fifty years by now. It's a mature technology.
OTOH, there's no coal powered electric power plant anywhere in the world using carbon capture systems. Carbon capture is a theory in the heads of coal industry lobbyists, not a practical reality.
There's also problems in that running a nuclear plant requires immediate access to large amounts of water for cooling towers, which limits where they can be placed.
Nuclear plants can be placed anywhere. If they are water cooled, cooling towers are not needed. If they use dry cooling towers, water is not needed.
I'm not familiar with meteorite dating: do we have evidence for ones that fell millions of years ago?
Here's one that has been dated to a fall on earth 110 million years ago. It's corroded, not much of the original mass remains, it's true, but it's something like four orders of magnitude older than any known bronze artifact.
I mean, you realize that calling it stainless steel doesn't necessarily mean it is 100% corrosion-free, right?
You know, "stainless" is a name applied to thousands of different alloys. And there are so many different corrosive mixtures. Some perchlorates will eat through any metal. With a 1000 degrees centigrade air flow blowing on it any steel will rust. But there are many alloys that will sit quite happy in an autoclave without getting rust marks. Try Hastelloy B, for instance.
And I'm not convinced at all that we have superior materials now than we did 2000 years ago for this purpose.
What about this mechanism? If it had been built of modern corrosion-resistant alloys it would still be working today.
Steel? Won't last. Stainless alloys? Corrosion still builds up over long time scales,
Iron meteorites are a natural stainless steel and last millions of years. Although iron meteorites are only about 6% of the total that fall on earth, about 90% of collected meteorites are iron, they are so much more durable than stone meteorites.
the remains of (bronze) ship propellers, which would still be recognisable. (They may be the thickest bronze castings.) Stainless steel will be long gone, so probably will commercial grade nickel, though coinage metal may last.
Bronze corrodes *much* quicker than nickel alloys. Monel and Hastelloy are two nickel alloys that could easily last totally intact after thousands of years under the sea. Coinage alloys typically aren't particularly resistant to corrosion.
We do not understand how to build structures to resist corrosion and weathering on millenial time scales -- that does not mean we shouldn't try, just that we aren't good at it, yet.
We *didn't* understand that thousands of years ago. Today we have much better materials. Nickel, for instance, is much harder and more resistant to corrosion than the bronze that was used in ancient Greece. Marble and sandstone will show significant wear in a few decades if used in stairsteps, no wonder those old buildings are so worn out.
their son's death was only deemed to merit a footnote... on another guy's report of imprisonment
Imprisonment and death in Iran are more or less common things, Iran's theocracy is one of the harshest regimes in the world, but South Korea is considered a democracy, therefore someone being in prison for publishing a blog in South Korea is more newsworthy than someone dying in prison in Iran.
the missing classes are all legacy cruft that should have been deleted from Java long ago.
So why haven't they been? Lack of will.
I think I can speak a bit about legacy code. Where I work there are some old apps written in FORTRAN-77. Yes, I know the current name of that language isn't written all-caps anymore, but that's the whole point: the code is still all-caps, it was written in 1977 and never rewritten since then.
There's a bunch of old engineers who aren't old enough to retire who insist on keeping that FORTRAN code. I've told them and the management that those calculations aren't so difficult, just write the equations on paper and I will implement them in Python. Or just forget about writing the equations, I'm an engineer too and can read those equations from the same textbooks they read in the 1970s.
But no way, they always talk to the managers that went through college together with them in 1977 and convince them that FORTRAN it is and FORTRAN it must be. Fuck, life isn't fair...
the automotive turbines do not require the same level of precision as turbines intended to move airliners at 250 mph
Actually they require the same or higher level of precision. Smaller turbines run at higher rpm, so they need to be better balanced. It's possible to manufacture such small turbines, though, if you google it you'll find people who have built model jet turbines at home, there are books with full plans available.
But they won't be cheap. If you lack the skills to build one yourself, a model jet engine costs something like $5000, much more than a model piston engine. Even with mass production I can't see how a turbine for a small car would cost less than a piston engine of equivalent power. A turbine may look simpler on paper, but it uses advanced materials and needs auxiliary systems, such as fuel pumps and ignition systems, that are more complex than those for piston engines.
why upgrade when the current software provides everything you need
Security? Although software doesn't wear out, one must keep updated against the newest vulnerabilities.
Perhaps Microsoft should consider adopting a six months interval between updates, like Ubuntu does. That would make for less marketing glitter, since updates would become trivial happenings, but would also make for less traumatic failures.
KDE 4 was a terrible mistake, but it's no big deal, we don't need Ubuntu 8.10, just keep 8.04 and wait for 9.04, or 9.10, or whatever update will have a usable KDE.
I have yet to have an Ubuntu distro update smoothly, ever.
Me too. Often it's quicker to do a full install from scratch.
But that won't stop me, onward I will plunge headlong into it with abandon. I don't like my data anyway.
That's why my systems always have at least two different partitions: one for "/" and another for "/home". I can reformat my system partition and still have my data intact.
I beg to disagree. A First Post is the perfect place to put a reply where it will be seen.
No one reads anything beyond the twentieth or so reply to an article, if you don't reply to one of the first posts it doesn't matter how funny, interesting, or insightful it is, no one will read it.
And it helps if you change the subject line. From my experience, a reply with a new subject line is much more likely to get a positive moderation than a "Re:... " subject.
What they are trying to do sounds to me like suing people who took a brochure from a pile under a "Take One!" sign, without paying the $25 price that was printed in small letters in page ten of the brochure.
May I suggest an alternative scheme? They could start charging people who read the headlines at the newsstand. I often do that and walk away without buying the paper. Thats the equivalent of looking at the Google link.
as the kernel is a fairly small and minor part of an operating system
Indeed, just like the engine is a fairly small and minor part of a car. In fact, there are vehicles without engines, therefore, by analogy, you can also have an operating system without a kernel, the kernel is totally irrelevant, right?
Geez, why cannot the GNU people get The Hurd working and get over the kernel envy end this stupid just-a-kernel joke, once and for all?
Well, I had no interest at all in this movie to begin with. But you got me thinking, if it's so important to "them" to suppress it, it's in everyone's interest to make "them" fail. So I joined the revolution, I'm downloading it now, from the 100000+ seeds.
As someone once said, if you're not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. Right now the problem is getting rid of those copyright nazis. If downloading Wolverine eats into their profits, let's all download Wolverine!
Slashdot Mirror
And so is a person who gets a catgut suture. Will this law make surgery illegal?
I think all these considerations about extremophiles showing the possibility of life in other planets rather unsound.
There's no evidence that life could ever appear in such environments starting from abiotic conditions, it seems pretty obvious these organisms evolved from more benign habitats.
Try the U.S. Constitution: "The Congress shall have power ... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"
You see, it's not the "pirates" who need a justification for their acts, it's the copyright holders who need a special explanation in the Constitution to justify why their special privileges are acceptable.
The media and software industry need to accept the fact that no one is forced to buy their products if the price isn't right. Price your music films and software too high and not enough people will buy them, your business will not turn a profit. Offer a good deal for the price and your business will prosper, that's the basis of our capitalist economy.
And remember, a free copy does not mean a lost sale, otherwise why would the media industry be so eager to give us free copies of their works in the radio and television?
I hereby nominate you for the "funniest-very-short-reply-to-a-very-long-rambling" trophy.
The difference of water consumption between an evaporative system and a once-through system is about twenty to one. This site has a good explanation about how both systems work, including some basic equations.
These things have a lot more area in contact with the air than a Beetle. They don't need water to operate.
I graduated in engineering thirty years ago, having studied both mechanical and electronics engineering and worked in both fields. I worked for five years at a company that operates three different nuclear power plants, so I know what I'm talking about.
Precisely. That was eons ago and we weren't here. This planet did not support anything like us when all that CO2 was in the atmosphere.
Nuclear power plants have been operating commercially for about fifty years by now. It's a mature technology.
OTOH, there's no coal powered electric power plant anywhere in the world using carbon capture systems. Carbon capture is a theory in the heads of coal industry lobbyists, not a practical reality.
Nuclear plants can be placed anywhere. If they are water cooled, cooling towers are not needed. If they use dry cooling towers, water is not needed.
In one formula, CO2. Coal is the fuel that produces more CO2 per joule than any other energy source.
Here's one that has been dated to a fall on earth 110 million years ago. It's corroded, not much of the original mass remains, it's true, but it's something like four orders of magnitude older than any known bronze artifact.
You know, "stainless" is a name applied to thousands of different alloys. And there are so many different corrosive mixtures. Some perchlorates will eat through any metal. With a 1000 degrees centigrade air flow blowing on it any steel will rust. But there are many alloys that will sit quite happy in an autoclave without getting rust marks. Try Hastelloy B, for instance.
What about this mechanism? If it had been built of modern corrosion-resistant alloys it would still be working today.
Iron meteorites are a natural stainless steel and last millions of years. Although iron meteorites are only about 6% of the total that fall on earth, about 90% of collected meteorites are iron, they are so much more durable than stone meteorites.
Bronze corrodes *much* quicker than nickel alloys. Monel and Hastelloy are two nickel alloys that could easily last totally intact after thousands of years under the sea. Coinage alloys typically aren't particularly resistant to corrosion.
We *didn't* understand that thousands of years ago. Today we have much better materials. Nickel, for instance, is much harder and more resistant to corrosion than the bronze that was used in ancient Greece. Marble and sandstone will show significant wear in a few decades if used in stairsteps, no wonder those old buildings are so worn out.
Imprisonment and death in Iran are more or less common things, Iran's theocracy is one of the harshest regimes in the world, but South Korea is considered a democracy, therefore someone being in prison for publishing a blog in South Korea is more newsworthy than someone dying in prison in Iran.
I think I can speak a bit about legacy code. Where I work there are some old apps written in FORTRAN-77. Yes, I know the current name of that language isn't written all-caps anymore, but that's the whole point: the code is still all-caps, it was written in 1977 and never rewritten since then.
There's a bunch of old engineers who aren't old enough to retire who insist on keeping that FORTRAN code. I've told them and the management that those calculations aren't so difficult, just write the equations on paper and I will implement them in Python. Or just forget about writing the equations, I'm an engineer too and can read those equations from the same textbooks they read in the 1970s.
But no way, they always talk to the managers that went through college together with them in 1977 and convince them that FORTRAN it is and FORTRAN it must be. Fuck, life isn't fair...
Actually they require the same or higher level of precision. Smaller turbines run at higher rpm, so they need to be better balanced. It's possible to manufacture such small turbines, though, if you google it you'll find people who have built model jet turbines at home, there are books with full plans available.
But they won't be cheap. If you lack the skills to build one yourself, a model jet engine costs something like $5000, much more than a model piston engine. Even with mass production I can't see how a turbine for a small car would cost less than a piston engine of equivalent power. A turbine may look simpler on paper, but it uses advanced materials and needs auxiliary systems, such as fuel pumps and ignition systems, that are more complex than those for piston engines.
Security? Although software doesn't wear out, one must keep updated against the newest vulnerabilities.
Perhaps Microsoft should consider adopting a six months interval between updates, like Ubuntu does. That would make for less marketing glitter, since updates would become trivial happenings, but would also make for less traumatic failures.
KDE 4 was a terrible mistake, but it's no big deal, we don't need Ubuntu 8.10, just keep 8.04 and wait for 9.04, or 9.10, or whatever update will have a usable KDE.
Me too. Often it's quicker to do a full install from scratch.
That's why my systems always have at least two different partitions: one for "/" and another for "/home". I can reformat my system partition and still have my data intact.
I beg to disagree. A First Post is the perfect place to put a reply where it will be seen.
No one reads anything beyond the twentieth or so reply to an article, if you don't reply to one of the first posts it doesn't matter how funny, interesting, or insightful it is, no one will read it.
And it helps if you change the subject line. From my experience, a reply with a new subject line is much more likely to get a positive moderation than a "Re: ... " subject.
What they are trying to do sounds to me like suing people who took a brochure from a pile under a "Take One!" sign, without paying the $25 price that was printed in small letters in page ten of the brochure.
May I suggest an alternative scheme? They could start charging people who read the headlines at the newsstand. I often do that and walk away without buying the paper. Thats the equivalent of looking at the Google link.
"efforts to add interoperability with third party solutions, as per customer requests"
Is this spelled "DRM"?
Indeed, just like the engine is a fairly small and minor part of a car. In fact, there are vehicles without engines, therefore, by analogy, you can also have an operating system without a kernel, the kernel is totally irrelevant, right?
Geez, why cannot the GNU people get The Hurd working and get over the kernel envy end this stupid just-a-kernel joke, once and for all?
Dude, right now the story I get from btjunkie is "Seed 109961, Leech 155165"
You call that risky? When was the last time you had 109961 full copies and 155165 partial copies of your work?
Well, I had no interest at all in this movie to begin with. But you got me thinking, if it's so important to "them" to suppress it, it's in everyone's interest to make "them" fail. So I joined the revolution, I'm downloading it now, from the 100000+ seeds.
As someone once said, if you're not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. Right now the problem is getting rid of those copyright nazis. If downloading Wolverine eats into their profits, let's all download Wolverine!