The internet belongs to the governments of the states / countries it goes through. Bottom line.
You may not like reality, but there it is, for you to look at.
Don't believe me, take a look at.cn and their firewall. Take a look at Iran, and their firewall.
Think they are the only ones? lol.
And to the mods who modded my orignal statement a troll, please show me where I faulted in my statement? It's complete bullshit to abuse mod powers just because you don't agree with the way something is, and want it changed; Vs. someone obviously trolling for something or being an asshole. I made a factual statement. Mods didn't like it, so they modded it down. Funny.
Again, who "invented" the internet? Was it NOT a network allowing US based schools and military installations comms and redundancy?
If not, guess I was part of something else, all those years ago.
Yeah, design a foolproof test for showing that they are incompetent.
2. Instant millionaire.
I agree completely. I have family that started out in different agencies, before they went 3 letter. Watching the mental faculties fail over the years made me wonder wtf was really going on with other people.
Luckily (for us?) my family members "involved" left and chased the real estate dollar (in as much as you can ever leave, the rest of the family always wondered about grandmas side business she ran for years) before the mental faculties went completely down the road, so to speak.
The main problem with "testing" or otherwise showing people that they aren't able to contribute as much as they used to is... That's the path to Euthenasia. And we won't allow us to go there, too many politicians would be "completed".
I mean, c'mon, I'm all for net neutrality, etc., but let's be honest here. You NEVER owned it, and it was never yours, and to even attempt to lay claim that it was makes you look like an idiot.
I swear, if Steve Jobs personally kicked every Apple customer in the balls, 90 percent would talk about how they had it coming for some reason or another.
They DO have it coming, they BOUGHT into Apple FanBoiDom.
Moving to solar is a drastic change. Moving to bio type fuels is NOT. You can convert ANY internal combustion engine to diesel by installing glow plugs and (probably) head studs. Milling the head will provide the increased combustion. NO, this will NOT be the most efficient method, but it is easy, and can be done in less than a week.
Converting to solar, on the other hand, would cost LITERALLY thousands of dollars. You need to purchase the photovoltaic cells, install them, cover them to ensure their safety (expensive and breakable, just what I want the roof of my car made of). Now, purchase all those batteries (someone else brought up a new sodium based battery they are using on locomotives, would be GREAT in this application), and a couple of kickstart caps (think in the farad to 5 farad range, need that instantaneous kick that a lead acid / NiMH can't provide), and then purchase the 4 drive motors. Oh, wait, you want that transmission as well, you better put in a HUGE electric motor to turn the transmission, unless you want to purchase another type of hybrid system (like Toyota uses) that has a continuous variable geometry.
Yes, I agree with everything you said above. Taking our foodstocks away to provide for Tom, Dick and Jane to drive their SUV around WITH JUST THEM IN IT is insane. My wife and I drive big(ger) cars, but we also have 3 kids, 3 dogs, I pull a trailer, and she has at least a stroller to cart along all the time. So, it makes sense, and their isn't much better we can do, at this time, and have ANY type of room left over to haul a suitcase / groceries / etc.
This is a quandry. It really is. I lived in Tehachapi, Ca for a time, and that was wonderful. It is the (as far as I know) most green city around, in that it produces more wind driven power than anywhere else in the USA / world (can't remember which). Our reliance on hydrocarbons is insane. As a mechanic, however, I can tell you that nobody is going to go solar, with the shitty performance you get. There will be no solar semi trucks (even with the additional 53 feet of space for panels on the trailers, you can't generate enough juice to get 80K pounds going without going back to 21+ speed gearboxes, dual speed rear ends, etc.
Maybe Mag Lev, with the power generated locally by nuclear / wind / hydro / solar is the best way to go. It truly can deliver the performance you want / need (it takes nearly nothing to keep 80K 5K pounds going down the road... The energy is expended pulling it up a hill or getting it going).... And can be generated with almost no waste or input (wind / hydro / solar).
Hydrocarbons are going to be around for a long time.... The best thing we can look to RIGHT NOW is biofuels, as crappy an alternative it is. Nearly everything can be converted for less than most other methods, we can go 50/50, which would reduce our dependance on oil by something short of 50 percent (still need lubricants, etc., that haven't been replaced 100 percent by synthetics), as well as also reducing the dependance on our foodstocks (by only requiring maybe 60 percent, instead of completely switching to bio requiring 100 percent over our foodstocks).
No, not really. But, from the two vehicles I have access to (the Hybrid is my wifes daily driver), it is the more efficient of the two (the GMC is a two door, can't haul my 3 boys in it, the Dodge is a 4 door, and can haul 6 people comfortably, has heat and AC, etc. The GMC is actually a toy for going out and playing, although it is street legal).
It would be ludicrous to go out and purchase yet ANOTHER vehicle, insure it, maintain it, etc. just to eek a few more MPG out of it, and to be able to park the work truck at home? Doubtful, as it is also my daily driver, work truck, etc. As such, I bought the MOST efficient vehicle I could, and bought the Inline 6, as it is more efficient than any other available design today.
Hope that serves to clear it up. Yup, your car gets better MPG, but at the same time, we can't get Bimmer Diesel here (that I have EVER seen, and I trained at a BWM training facility in Fremont, Ca), and mine weighs probably 3 times what yours does, and gets half the MPG. At the same time, I can haul the same amount of people, my travel trailer, etc. and take my family camping, something the little car wouldn't be able to do, with my 32 foot 10K pound travel trailer.
Sure wish I could justify another 45K dollars to purchase a car that got MPG like yours, though. And again, your's is a diesel, what's the gas version get?:)
You lost me in the first two lines. Two very fuel efficient vehicles, 24.8 and 26mpg huh? If that is true how is it that I drive a pretty standard, not particularly fuel efficient vehicle and mine does 45.5mpg (driven like a loon I might add)?
I think there is a bigger issue of perception going on here if 26mpg is considered very fuel efficient in certain parts of the world. This needs to change, fast.
26 mpg for an 8800 pound vehicle is pretty damn efficient.
Telling us what you get MPG-wise, but not qualifying what your driving is also acting like a loon. My old motorcycle got > 65 mpg, but it didn't weigh anything near a car.
It's not just the MPG that matter, it's how much you can do with those MPG that matter. An SUV that gets 25 mpg and an 8K-9K pound truck that can carry 3 cars, and a family of 6 and still get better than 10 mpg is also very efficient. 10 years ago, you couldn't hope for half that.
I have another truck, a 77 GMC, that gets 14 MPG. Pretty good, but nowhere near as efficient as my Dodge, since they both weigh within a thousand pounds of each other, and the GMC will drop MPG QUICKLY when putting it under load.
What kind of CAR do you drive that gets 45.5 mpg? Prius? Insight?
You don't swap injectors, you have to run a cleaner filter, and change out the filter more often.
Also, a preheating system of the fuel is in order, since depending on the level of Bio diesel (most are not 100 percent "bio"), the colder the fuel, the harder it is to get it to combust.
Biodiesel in todays engines, run from day one, is fine. You run into problems when the biodiesel starts eating up your gas tank and other things (the additives in bio are MUCH more corrosive than regular diesel, something the "greenies" don't tell you (among MANY other bad things biodiesel can cause / do)). This is the reason for the much more than normal fuel filter changes.
Google biodiesel conversion.... Cummins Turbo Diesels are the same technology as the big rigs use. Ford (International Harvester) and Chevrolet (Isuzu) diesel engines, while using the same direct injection technogoly, don't produce the same amounts of torque as an inline 6 does (Cummins, Detroit, etc). However, all systems are pretty much the same when it comes to a bio conversion, so it won't matter which one you look at. The V8s produce more HP, the I6s produce more torque. Torque gets shit done. HP spins tires and makes the geeks smile:)
If this is going to happen, it will be with Diesel.
Mercedes already produces one of the best running, smoothest, cleanest diesel engines on the market (and VW has another). Converting it to bio diesel would take a few hundred dollars (end user) / hundred dollars (manufacturer), and then this press release becomes reality.... BIODIESEL.
Having gone to Wyotech, trained in Engine Mechanics by a MB Master Mechanic, I can tell you, Mercedes is betting the farm on Diesel / Biodiesel. Design the engine to run Bio, and it will run regular diesel. Run a particulate filter, and they are cleaner than "gasoline" engines, especially under load.
I own two very fuel efficient vehicles. Not the MOST, but very.
A 2006 Cummins Turbo powered Diesel. 8K pound truck, I can get 26 mpg, depending on speed, in town. Pulling 15K pounds, I can get 16 mpg. Pulling 26K pounds, it gets > 10.
Also a 2007 Highlander Hybrid. It's pretty fuel efficient itself, averaging a total of 24.8 mpg honestly. Of course, it's heavy as hell (never had it on a scale, but have had it on my 40 foot trailer pulling it, and it pulls like a pair of Volkswagen beetles on the same trailer. Them batteries are HEAVY).
That being said, I believe I can point the future direction of autos. (oh yeah, also graduated from WyoTech with an AS in "auto mechanics", for lack of better terms.).
Hybrids with diesel generation. Same exact thing locomotives are doing, but instead of burning off the electric generated during braking, charge the batteries (the top of a locomotive is typically a large resistor. The drive motors / electric brakes supply drag by energizing them with a small amount of voltage, causing them to act just like an alternator). During exceleration, apply electric and indirect drive, using a continuously variable transmission (a la Highlander Hybrid).
This causes a couple things to happen. A. You get to use that energy that actually causes you to slow down to excelerate. ALMOST like getting something for nothing (you have to carry them batteries, and that's drag). B. An engine can be designed to be SUPER efficient when that engine only as to turn at a single or small range of RPMs. A diesel, with a small turbo charger could be designed to put mad amounts of torque to push that car (when needed) or to turn an alternator to power them wheels, coupled with stored battery power. Run that engine at it's most efficient point (Pin vs Pout), and you get the picture.
You can do a simple conversion to get it to biofuel status by just switching to (and this creates a host of other problems) biodiesel.
Diesel (and biodiesel) is NOT explosive. Score one for diesel, kill one for hydrogen / other hydrocarbon fuels.
Diesel has more power per liter / gallon than regular refined fuel has. This increases the volumetric efficiency of the engine, designed right.
The more diesel you shove into an engine, the more power it produces (to the point of completely flooding the cyls and preventing detonation of the fuel / air mixture). However, finding that "sweet spot" really makes them wake up. There is a reason big trucks and ships, etc. run on oil / diesel. Mo Powah = Mo Bettah!
Anywho, I'd be willing to bet that will be the direction auto industries end up taking us. The original diesel engine ran on peanut oil, for crise-sakes! How much more bio can you get than that?
The problem with YOUR oversimplification is that with terrorism, collateral damage IS the political agenda furthering mechanism.
If they only wanted to blow the towers up, they could have done it at night. They WANTED the Americans dead. Go look at the video of Osama dancing during the newsplays of the day (9/11). He was happier than hell that it took out much more than he ever expected.
Sbarro? Yup, again, the terrorists could have blown it up when it was empty. Empty buildings don't scare politicians NEARLY as much as losing a few families, (save them kidses) and it being on the front page of the news.
Collateral damage in the case of the US led invasion is completely different. That is a planned military exercise, designed to minimize the threat of collateral damage. Terrorism is designed to MAXIMIZE collateral damage, or the idiots with the bomb vests wouldn't fill them full of (insert small projectiles like nails, screws, etc here).
I hated it, having to support it as one of the infrastructure engineer, but Domino pretty much did everything, in an OK manner.
Our main developer was the head corp attorney, who decided he hated law and started working as the IT dept in the company. He learned Domino out of necessity, as the new CIO brought it over from the financial / insurance arena.
I hired on about a year / year and a half into the migration from MS Mail / BS apps to Domino. I stayed for about 2 years. Everyone that did domino dev talked big shit about it, but they all agreed, at the end of the day, it pretty much did EVERYTHING the company needed, in an OK manner, and did more in a lukewarm way than anything else could come close to delivering (read this as, it will do almost anything, although it might not do some things the most efficiently).
I don't even know if it is still around, but I'd check into Domino / Notes / etc. I hated it, we all did, but it did work. We even started collaborating it with stuff that HAD to run on OS/2 (Timberline) and some stuff that had us running Win 3.11 on some workstations (post y2k).
Nice feigned attack on the manhood, but sorry, I don't "bite".
It isn't that I "consider it broadband", it is that it IS broadband, in consideration of where I CHOOSE to live. I don't expect bell to carry fiber to my house. Period. Not when I choose to live > 6500 feet up a friggin mountain.
Just because you choose to have someone else tell you what to think doesn't mean I have to as well. I consider a half megabit broadband. It's enough to do > you > to do over the internet (yes, it streams. The internet is the only TV I have at that house because I don't like the offerings from Satellite, and it's a > house. Why get away to watch TV somewhere else?)
I guess it's a question of semantics, and I choose to stop trying to argue over something that doesn't matter in the first place.
It is faster than any other option I have, when latency is figured in.
I don't > a government entity to tell me what broadband is, thank you.... I prefer to actually form my own opinions. It's called "thinking for ones self".
Anywho, thanks for the input.. It was taken to heart, I promise:) lol....
But seriously, just because the FCC says it, means it's right, just and the de facto WORD, right? Careful, you can't quote the FCC today, and tomorrow decide they are full of S*it.
Anywho, off to enjoy my DSL. Getting ready to take off for the mountain house, which only has microwave. Both broadband by my standards, and all my neighbors. We typically don't listen to what the FCC tells us, having lost faith in them years ago. I enjoy thumbing my nose to them, all the way to a 22Kw (input to antenna) pirate radio station.
Yeah, that's a problem in the US. There are still places that are remote enough that cell coverage doesn't exist and you're lucky enough to have running water. You can't use GPS to find it because none of the GPS navigation systems know how to get there.
That is a problem with Russia as well. And Canada. And China. And any country that isn't nut-to-butt people.
I didn't even think of that possibility.
Most of the.eu people with broadband live in a country less than the size of a third of our states.
Getting broadband to Georgia wouldn't be hard. Hell, there are countries in Europe smaller than San Diego County.... And they have multiple options for HS Internet there.
Guess it's a question of..... Do you want to live somewhere that you can get high speed or not.... HS Internet isn't a right bestowed on us (I can see an amendment getting passed, though, honestly....), so to think Eh, teh US sux0rs bcuz tehy have no h1gh sp33d 1nt4hn37z is complete BS.
Yeah, that's a problem in the US. There are still places that are remote enough that cell coverage doesn't exist and you're lucky enough to have running water. You can't use GPS to find it because none of the GPS navigation systems know how to get there.
Then there are places that are REALLY remote, rather than just a slight bit out of the way...
Yeah, and people who don't have running water or phone service are just lining up in DROVES for FiOS service, right?
Don't get me wrong, we have lots of people "off the grid" where I live. Cell phone coverage is spotty (but you can generally get a signal from one of the major carriers everywhere... You just won't get coverage by ALL carriers ALL the time). We have HS internet via cell in the area.
My other home has microwave. Most people where the DSL doesn't "exist" work with microwave links. Those that don't, live there because they..... "DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH THE BS OF LIVING IN TOWN".
Your argument is moot. Someone without running water or electricity or GPS signal (yeah, that showed a bit of intellect there) or cell signal is probably not going to care about downloading a copy of linux, a VCD or anything else. Hell, they probably care MORE about where they will kill there next meal from.
No, you almost certainly don't. Maybe you think you do, because you have cable or DSL, but those are too slow to count as broadband. The only real broadband in the US (not including business leased lines, of course) is Verizon's FIOS, and that's available in so few areas it might as well be mythical.
Actually, if he's on anything faster than 56K, he has broadband. It might not be broadband by YOUR standard, but by INDUSTRY standard and textbook definition, he HAS broadband. He even claims it is broadband, although not as fast as he would like, IIRC.
IOW, shut your mouth, troll. There are more ways to get faster than 1.5 mbit (which is as fast as any user really needs. Stop pirating movies and warez, trolly boy) besides leased lines. I know. I researched it, and actually have broadband where there is > broadband (try, I get a LUCKY 28.8 from either of my laptop 56k modems). Because of this, ISDN / DSL isn't an option. Because of THAT, satellite SUCKED. So, I went microwave. Works great, good implementation (haven't had a day of outage yet, speed is good, latency is good enough for Vonage VoIP), I can't complain. The technology is also there for anyone that wants it, basically.
So, your rant about he doesn't have broadband is only YOUR interpretation. Don't be such a troll. Make educated statements, not "You think you do, but I'm here to tell you, by my standards, you don't".... Yeah, well fuck you. Try my lucky to get 28.8, and see if DSL isn't considered broadband after that.
Slashdot Mirror
The internet belongs to the governments of the states / countries it goes through. Bottom line.
You may not like reality, but there it is, for you to look at.
Don't believe me, take a look at .cn and their firewall. Take a look at Iran, and their firewall.
Think they are the only ones? lol.
And to the mods who modded my orignal statement a troll, please show me where I faulted in my statement? It's complete bullshit to abuse mod powers just because you don't agree with the way something is, and want it changed; Vs. someone obviously trolling for something or being an asshole. I made a factual statement. Mods didn't like it, so they modded it down. Funny.
Again, who "invented" the internet? Was it NOT a network allowing US based schools and military installations comms and redundancy?
If not, guess I was part of something else, all those years ago.
--Toll_Free
Online petitions have a GREAT history of working, don't they?
--Toll_Free
Yeah, design a foolproof test for showing that they are incompetent.
2. Instant millionaire.
I agree completely. I have family that started out in different agencies, before they went 3 letter. Watching the mental faculties fail over the years made me wonder wtf was really going on with other people.
Luckily (for us?) my family members "involved" left and chased the real estate dollar (in as much as you can ever leave, the rest of the family always wondered about grandmas side business she ran for years) before the mental faculties went completely down the road, so to speak.
The main problem with "testing" or otherwise showing people that they aren't able to contribute as much as they used to is... That's the path to Euthenasia. And we won't allow us to go there, too many politicians would be "completed".
--Toll_Free
Come take your +5, fucker.
--Toll_Free
Yeah, I was going to respond with something, pointing out the stupidity of the article.
OMG, the law is siding with existing laws.
And if you pirate something, you should be held accountable. Just as if you steal something from a storeshelf, you should be held accountable.
In other news, the sun rose this morning. Expected to set within the next 24 hours in most parts of the world. Film at 11.
--Toll_Free
Your internet.
The US government built it, fool.
When was it ever in YOUR posession?
I mean, c'mon, I'm all for net neutrality, etc., but let's be honest here. You NEVER owned it, and it was never yours, and to even attempt to lay claim that it was makes you look like an idiot.
--Toll_Free
--Toll_Free
No, he caught the gist.
The problem is, your view, is wrong.
--Toll_Free
A. Isn't wine at 1.0 release level?
B. Quitchabitchen.
--Toll_Free
I swear, if Steve Jobs personally kicked every Apple customer in the balls, 90 percent would talk about how they had it coming for some reason or another.
They DO have it coming, they BOUGHT into Apple FanBoiDom.
--Toll_Free
Yeah, that's the problem. People (the human race) tends to only get to point C.... They don't care that point B gets obliterated in the process.
--Toll_Free
Moving to solar is a drastic change. Moving to bio type fuels is NOT. You can convert ANY internal combustion engine to diesel by installing glow plugs and (probably) head studs. Milling the head will provide the increased combustion. NO, this will NOT be the most efficient method, but it is easy, and can be done in less than a week.
Converting to solar, on the other hand, would cost LITERALLY thousands of dollars. You need to purchase the photovoltaic cells, install them, cover them to ensure their safety (expensive and breakable, just what I want the roof of my car made of). Now, purchase all those batteries (someone else brought up a new sodium based battery they are using on locomotives, would be GREAT in this application), and a couple of kickstart caps (think in the farad to 5 farad range, need that instantaneous kick that a lead acid / NiMH can't provide), and then purchase the 4 drive motors. Oh, wait, you want that transmission as well, you better put in a HUGE electric motor to turn the transmission, unless you want to purchase another type of hybrid system (like Toyota uses) that has a continuous variable geometry.
Yes, I agree with everything you said above. Taking our foodstocks away to provide for Tom, Dick and Jane to drive their SUV around WITH JUST THEM IN IT is insane. My wife and I drive big(ger) cars, but we also have 3 kids, 3 dogs, I pull a trailer, and she has at least a stroller to cart along all the time. So, it makes sense, and their isn't much better we can do, at this time, and have ANY type of room left over to haul a suitcase / groceries / etc.
This is a quandry. It really is. I lived in Tehachapi, Ca for a time, and that was wonderful. It is the (as far as I know) most green city around, in that it produces more wind driven power than anywhere else in the USA / world (can't remember which). Our reliance on hydrocarbons is insane. As a mechanic, however, I can tell you that nobody is going to go solar, with the shitty performance you get. There will be no solar semi trucks (even with the additional 53 feet of space for panels on the trailers, you can't generate enough juice to get 80K pounds going without going back to 21+ speed gearboxes, dual speed rear ends, etc.
Maybe Mag Lev, with the power generated locally by nuclear / wind / hydro / solar is the best way to go. It truly can deliver the performance you want / need (it takes nearly nothing to keep 80K 5K pounds going down the road... The energy is expended pulling it up a hill or getting it going).... And can be generated with almost no waste or input (wind / hydro / solar).
Hydrocarbons are going to be around for a long time.... The best thing we can look to RIGHT NOW is biofuels, as crappy an alternative it is. Nearly everything can be converted for less than most other methods, we can go 50/50, which would reduce our dependance on oil by something short of 50 percent (still need lubricants, etc., that haven't been replaced 100 percent by synthetics), as well as also reducing the dependance on our foodstocks (by only requiring maybe 60 percent, instead of completely switching to bio requiring 100 percent over our foodstocks).
Thoughts? Ideas? Perpetual Motion Machine patents?
--Toll_Free
No, not really. But, from the two vehicles I have access to (the Hybrid is my wifes daily driver), it is the more efficient of the two (the GMC is a two door, can't haul my 3 boys in it, the Dodge is a 4 door, and can haul 6 people comfortably, has heat and AC, etc. The GMC is actually a toy for going out and playing, although it is street legal).
It would be ludicrous to go out and purchase yet ANOTHER vehicle, insure it, maintain it, etc. just to eek a few more MPG out of it, and to be able to park the work truck at home? Doubtful, as it is also my daily driver, work truck, etc. As such, I bought the MOST efficient vehicle I could, and bought the Inline 6, as it is more efficient than any other available design today.
Hope that serves to clear it up. Yup, your car gets better MPG, but at the same time, we can't get Bimmer Diesel here (that I have EVER seen, and I trained at a BWM training facility in Fremont, Ca), and mine weighs probably 3 times what yours does, and gets half the MPG. At the same time, I can haul the same amount of people, my travel trailer, etc. and take my family camping, something the little car wouldn't be able to do, with my 32 foot 10K pound travel trailer.
Sure wish I could justify another 45K dollars to purchase a car that got MPG like yours, though. And again, your's is a diesel, what's the gas version get? :)
--Toll_Free
You lost me in the first two lines. Two very fuel efficient vehicles, 24.8 and 26mpg huh? If that is true how is it that I drive a pretty standard, not particularly fuel efficient vehicle and mine does 45.5mpg (driven like a loon I might add)?
I think there is a bigger issue of perception going on here if 26mpg is considered very fuel efficient in certain parts of the world. This needs to change, fast.
26 mpg for an 8800 pound vehicle is pretty damn efficient.
Telling us what you get MPG-wise, but not qualifying what your driving is also acting like a loon. My old motorcycle got > 65 mpg, but it didn't weigh anything near a car.
It's not just the MPG that matter, it's how much you can do with those MPG that matter. An SUV that gets 25 mpg and an 8K-9K pound truck that can carry 3 cars, and a family of 6 and still get better than 10 mpg is also very efficient. 10 years ago, you couldn't hope for half that.
I have another truck, a 77 GMC, that gets 14 MPG. Pretty good, but nowhere near as efficient as my Dodge, since they both weigh within a thousand pounds of each other, and the GMC will drop MPG QUICKLY when putting it under load.
What kind of CAR do you drive that gets 45.5 mpg? Prius? Insight?
--Toll_Free
You don't swap injectors, you have to run a cleaner filter, and change out the filter more often.
Also, a preheating system of the fuel is in order, since depending on the level of Bio diesel (most are not 100 percent "bio"), the colder the fuel, the harder it is to get it to combust.
Biodiesel in todays engines, run from day one, is fine. You run into problems when the biodiesel starts eating up your gas tank and other things (the additives in bio are MUCH more corrosive than regular diesel, something the "greenies" don't tell you (among MANY other bad things biodiesel can cause / do)). This is the reason for the much more than normal fuel filter changes.
Google biodiesel conversion .... Cummins Turbo Diesels are the same technology as the big rigs use. Ford (International Harvester) and Chevrolet (Isuzu) diesel engines, while using the same direct injection technogoly, don't produce the same amounts of torque as an inline 6 does (Cummins, Detroit, etc). However, all systems are pretty much the same when it comes to a bio conversion, so it won't matter which one you look at. The V8s produce more HP, the I6s produce more torque. Torque gets shit done. HP spins tires and makes the geeks smile :)
--Toll_Free
If this is going to happen, it will be with Diesel.
Mercedes already produces one of the best running, smoothest, cleanest diesel engines on the market (and VW has another). Converting it to bio diesel would take a few hundred dollars (end user) / hundred dollars (manufacturer), and then this press release becomes reality.... BIODIESEL.
Having gone to Wyotech, trained in Engine Mechanics by a MB Master Mechanic, I can tell you, Mercedes is betting the farm on Diesel / Biodiesel. Design the engine to run Bio, and it will run regular diesel. Run a particulate filter, and they are cleaner than "gasoline" engines, especially under load.
--Toll_Free
I own two very fuel efficient vehicles. Not the MOST, but very.
A 2006 Cummins Turbo powered Diesel. 8K pound truck, I can get 26 mpg, depending on speed, in town. Pulling 15K pounds, I can get 16 mpg. Pulling 26K pounds, it gets > 10.
Also a 2007 Highlander Hybrid. It's pretty fuel efficient itself, averaging a total of 24.8 mpg honestly. Of course, it's heavy as hell (never had it on a scale, but have had it on my 40 foot trailer pulling it, and it pulls like a pair of Volkswagen beetles on the same trailer. Them batteries are HEAVY).
That being said, I believe I can point the future direction of autos. (oh yeah, also graduated from WyoTech with an AS in "auto mechanics", for lack of better terms.).
Hybrids with diesel generation. Same exact thing locomotives are doing, but instead of burning off the electric generated during braking, charge the batteries (the top of a locomotive is typically a large resistor. The drive motors / electric brakes supply drag by energizing them with a small amount of voltage, causing them to act just like an alternator). During exceleration, apply electric and indirect drive, using a continuously variable transmission (a la Highlander Hybrid).
This causes a couple things to happen. A. You get to use that energy that actually causes you to slow down to excelerate. ALMOST like getting something for nothing (you have to carry them batteries, and that's drag). B. An engine can be designed to be SUPER efficient when that engine only as to turn at a single or small range of RPMs. A diesel, with a small turbo charger could be designed to put mad amounts of torque to push that car (when needed) or to turn an alternator to power them wheels, coupled with stored battery power. Run that engine at it's most efficient point (Pin vs Pout), and you get the picture.
You can do a simple conversion to get it to biofuel status by just switching to (and this creates a host of other problems) biodiesel.
Diesel (and biodiesel) is NOT explosive. Score one for diesel, kill one for hydrogen / other hydrocarbon fuels.
Diesel has more power per liter / gallon than regular refined fuel has. This increases the volumetric efficiency of the engine, designed right.
The more diesel you shove into an engine, the more power it produces (to the point of completely flooding the cyls and preventing detonation of the fuel / air mixture). However, finding that "sweet spot" really makes them wake up. There is a reason big trucks and ships, etc. run on oil / diesel. Mo Powah = Mo Bettah!
Anywho, I'd be willing to bet that will be the direction auto industries end up taking us. The original diesel engine ran on peanut oil, for crise-sakes! How much more bio can you get than that?
--Toll_Free
The problem with YOUR oversimplification is that with terrorism, collateral damage IS the political agenda furthering mechanism.
If they only wanted to blow the towers up, they could have done it at night. They WANTED the Americans dead. Go look at the video of Osama dancing during the newsplays of the day (9/11). He was happier than hell that it took out much more than he ever expected.
Sbarro? Yup, again, the terrorists could have blown it up when it was empty. Empty buildings don't scare politicians NEARLY as much as losing a few families, (save them kidses) and it being on the front page of the news.
Collateral damage in the case of the US led invasion is completely different. That is a planned military exercise, designed to minimize the threat of collateral damage. Terrorism is designed to MAXIMIZE collateral damage, or the idiots with the bomb vests wouldn't fill them full of (insert small projectiles like nails, screws, etc here).
--Toll_Free
I hated it, having to support it as one of the infrastructure engineer, but Domino pretty much did everything, in an OK manner.
Our main developer was the head corp attorney, who decided he hated law and started working as the IT dept in the company. He learned Domino out of necessity, as the new CIO brought it over from the financial / insurance arena.
I hired on about a year / year and a half into the migration from MS Mail / BS apps to Domino. I stayed for about 2 years. Everyone that did domino dev talked big shit about it, but they all agreed, at the end of the day, it pretty much did EVERYTHING the company needed, in an OK manner, and did more in a lukewarm way than anything else could come close to delivering (read this as, it will do almost anything, although it might not do some things the most efficiently).
I don't even know if it is still around, but I'd check into Domino / Notes / etc. I hated it, we all did, but it did work. We even started collaborating it with stuff that HAD to run on OS/2 (Timberline) and some stuff that had us running Win 3.11 on some workstations (post y2k).
YMMV, of course.
--Toll_Free
Nice feigned attack on the manhood, but sorry, I don't "bite".
It isn't that I "consider it broadband", it is that it IS broadband, in consideration of where I CHOOSE to live. I don't expect bell to carry fiber to my house. Period. Not when I choose to live > 6500 feet up a friggin mountain.
Just because you choose to have someone else tell you what to think doesn't mean I have to as well. I consider a half megabit broadband. It's enough to do > you > to do over the internet (yes, it streams. The internet is the only TV I have at that house because I don't like the offerings from Satellite, and it's a > house. Why get away to watch TV somewhere else?)
I guess it's a question of semantics, and I choose to stop trying to argue over something that doesn't matter in the first place.
QSL? 10-4 Aight???
lol
Have a good 4th.
--Toll_Free
I have half-megabit, and I consider it broadband.
It is faster than any other option I have, when latency is figured in.
I don't > a government entity to tell me what broadband is, thank you.... I prefer to actually form my own opinions. It's called "thinking for ones self".
Anywho, thanks for the input.. It was taken to heart, I promise :) lol....
But seriously, just because the FCC says it, means it's right, just and the de facto WORD, right? Careful, you can't quote the FCC today, and tomorrow decide they are full of S*it.
Anywho, off to enjoy my DSL. Getting ready to take off for the mountain house, which only has microwave. Both broadband by my standards, and all my neighbors. We typically don't listen to what the FCC tells us, having lost faith in them years ago. I enjoy thumbing my nose to them, all the way to a 22Kw (input to antenna) pirate radio station.
--Toll_Free
Heroin is at an all time low, pricewise, due to the fact the Afghanistan harvest was exactly 200% of the worlds needs last year.
Now, couple in the fields in other parts of the world, and you can see, the worlds desire for opiates is going to get CHEAP!!!!
--Toll_Free
With the current economy, no wonder you have time to sit here and post to /. instead of out selling cars.
Maybe you should have qualified that with "I used to sell cars, and now I troll slashdot". :)
--Toll_Free
(someone else watching the downturn, I own a trucking company)
Yeah, that's a problem in the US. There are still places
that are remote enough that cell coverage doesn't exist
and you're lucky enough to have running water. You can't
use GPS to find it because none of the GPS navigation
systems know how to get there.
That is a problem with Russia as well. And Canada. And China. And any country that isn't nut-to-butt people.
I didn't even think of that possibility.
Most of the .eu people with broadband live in a country less than the size of a third of our states.
Getting broadband to Georgia wouldn't be hard. Hell, there are countries in Europe smaller than San Diego County.... And they have multiple options for HS Internet there.
Guess it's a question of ..... Do you want to live somewhere that you can get high speed or not.... HS Internet isn't a right bestowed on us (I can see an amendment getting passed, though, honestly....), so to think Eh, teh US sux0rs bcuz tehy have no h1gh sp33d 1nt4hn37z is complete BS.
--Toll_Free
Yeah, that's a problem in the US. There are still places
that are remote enough that cell coverage doesn't exist
and you're lucky enough to have running water. You can't
use GPS to find it because none of the GPS navigation
systems know how to get there.
Then there are places that are REALLY remote, rather than
just a slight bit out of the way...
Yeah, and people who don't have running water or phone service are just lining up in DROVES for FiOS service, right?
Don't get me wrong, we have lots of people "off the grid" where I live. Cell phone coverage is spotty (but you can generally get a signal from one of the major carriers everywhere... You just won't get coverage by ALL carriers ALL the time). We have HS internet via cell in the area.
My other home has microwave. Most people where the DSL doesn't "exist" work with microwave links. Those that don't, live there because they..... "DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH THE BS OF LIVING IN TOWN".
Your argument is moot. Someone without running water or electricity or GPS signal (yeah, that showed a bit of intellect there) or cell signal is probably not going to care about downloading a copy of linux, a VCD or anything else. Hell, they probably care MORE about where they will kill there next meal from.
--Toll_Free
No, you almost certainly don't. Maybe you think you do, because you have cable or DSL, but those are too slow to count as broadband. The only real broadband in the US (not including business leased lines, of course) is Verizon's FIOS, and that's available in so few areas it might as well be mythical.
Actually, if he's on anything faster than 56K, he has broadband. It might not be broadband by YOUR standard, but by INDUSTRY standard and textbook definition, he HAS broadband. He even claims it is broadband, although not as fast as he would like, IIRC.
IOW, shut your mouth, troll. There are more ways to get faster than 1.5 mbit (which is as fast as any user really needs. Stop pirating movies and warez, trolly boy) besides leased lines. I know. I researched it, and actually have broadband where there is > broadband (try, I get a LUCKY 28.8 from either of my laptop 56k modems). Because of this, ISDN / DSL isn't an option. Because of THAT, satellite SUCKED. So, I went microwave. Works great, good implementation (haven't had a day of outage yet, speed is good, latency is good enough for Vonage VoIP), I can't complain. The technology is also there for anyone that wants it, basically.
So, your rant about he doesn't have broadband is only YOUR interpretation. Don't be such a troll. Make educated statements, not "You think you do, but I'm here to tell you, by my standards, you don't".... Yeah, well fuck you. Try my lucky to get 28.8, and see if DSL isn't considered broadband after that.
--Toll_Free