Unfortunatelly, there's no real information at the site... Just a few names - Author, Producer, Director... But anyway.
Now that The Matrix has shown that a good cyberpunk movie, with effects, can be done, maybe we will see a good vision of Neuromancer. Personally, Carrie Ann Moss (?) is a dead-ringer for Molly (IMHO). The "Dodge This!" line summed it up for me. Some unknown as Case, and Brian Denehy or Rutger Hauer as Armitage might work..
With the Predator camouflage on the street punks, The Matrix 'lobby scene'ish run to free Dixie Flatline, a bit of 2001 (as seen by Terentino) at Villa Straylight - and this puppy just might work.
But of course after Gibson sold out on the cinematic version of Johnny Mnemonic, I won't be holding my breath.
This is the truly scary part. There is no way the government could possibly do this task intelligently. There isn't the manpower and computational power available. You're right.
So simplistic monitoring it will be. And the results will be similar to those of SurfWatcher software... You won't be able to research Childhood causes of breast cancer, hashtable processing algorithms, or anything containing a word combination that some bureaucrat deemed inappropriate in some context.
That is of course for 'in the clear' communication. If you send something encrypted, you'll end up on a 'watch' list, and your activities will undergo closer scrutiny.
And just try to take a guess at who is going to pay for all of this. No new taxes!! But we'll jack up the old ones. After all, it is a matter of national security.
Never mind the privacy issues, never mind ethics or morals or any of that ethereal stuff like Liberty or Freedom. It's about the money.
Ever since the boom of the Internet, the Federal government has been losing money. They support much of the backbone infrastructure through NSF grants and such. The Internet2 is based in major Universities, but funded by the Fed, and we're going to piggyback off of that tech in a little while. The Fed is losing money since their grants are used to send spam and view porn.
But that is not the biggest dollar sinkhole that results from the Internet Age. It's all about the stamps!
That's right. The price of stamps has gone up dramatically over the last vew years. As we've migrated out corespondences to the net, the U.S. P.S. has tried to break even by hiking stamp prices. This just drove more people onto the net, and into long distance phone companies. This is why they're fostering competition and the proliferation of 10-10 numbers...
The government is just trying to make the net less convenient, more shady and just plain creepy(r) to drive the sheeple back to using the ol'U.S. Post. Under Federal regs, nobody (FBI, NSA, CIA, IRS...) can read your mail.
Watch for new U.S. Mail ads this fall. I ga-roon-tee it.
Now... At a previous job (a jr. H.S.), I've worked with people half my age. It was their job to design a web site, and mine to channel them. They were eager, but knew less than necessary to be dangerous. And I was an old fogey to them.
At the current job, as a S.E. I work with people who have been with this company longer then I have been alive. Some have trenchmind and are severely threatened by younger workers who have new and in-demand skills. These folks are scared of being discarded, and rightly so. They've given their lives to a company that would drop them like a bad habit, if they see profit in doing so. After working your whole professional life in a niche, there's no where else to go, and retirement looms real large at 55+... Fortunatelly, the mentally hamstrung are a minority within the set of older developers.
Here's the point of the post, older developers (not 35+ but 45+ in my case) have so much domain knowledge, so much experience, and so much professional common sense that they are effectively priceless to the company. Even if the company doesn't see it that way. These guys (and gals) have decades of experience that can not be replaced with OOP, CASE, RAD or any other buzzword.
They serve as sages, mentors and wells of knowledge to us, the junior developers. They are responsible for system architectures, legacy system migration and evolution guidance and sanity checks for the rest of us.
They do not pull the 60+ hour weeks, nor should they have to. After I beat my head against a problem for a week, and can't account for some old quirk that makes no sense to me, all it often takes is a couple of questions to one of these guys, and the light dawns. They know where we came from, and they're better judges of where we're going then we are.
Older developers are invaluable to those of us who work in legacy and mixed environments. These systems were designed from a different perspective. Their implementations were limited by storage and performance, and we often can not even think in these terms.
Just try to do Y2K work knowing C++ and Java, without the aid of the COBOL guru who nursed the system from punch cards...
I think, with Jeff Hawkins gone, that the whole Palm division of 3Com has been floundering for a vision.
Dead right! It sounds like 3Com is marketing a Good Thing into oblivion. The PalmPilot has always been a cut above the other PDA offerings. WinCE, with all it's marketting couldn't squash the good design and excellent performance AND spirit of (true) innovation... Hell, they got my money (bought a Nino, and am regretting not choosing the Palm)...
Now 3Com sees just how ubiquitous and popular is PURCHASED PRODUCT is, and they're pulling a Microsoft. Fracturing the market and customer base, alienating faithful Palm users by versioning and offering replacement upgrades... Yes, the Palm costs as much as a M$ Word Pro, but that doesn't mean we want a new version every other month.
Clue to 3Com: Commit to good engineering. Keep the interfaces standard. Take a lesson from the PC revolution and make the PIECES upgradable.
I'd gladly buy a PV if I could upgrade the SCREEN to a color one. Or if I could replace one of the two stylus barrels with a wireless comm module, or if I could use lithiun or NiCad or OTS batteries. I'd make the investment if I could swap processors, add RAM, plug in a PC card for hard storage... I'd gladly buy a new titanium case to replace the aluminum one, if the guts fit. But for chrissakes, don't force me to buy a new modem and cradle every six months.
I don't want to carry my fingerprints around with me all the time.
Umm, you already do. The only thing that having then [encrypted] in an ID chip wouuld accomplish is prove that the ID you just used to cash that big check is in fact your ID.
It sounds a lot like having a name tag on luggage. Anyone can carry it, but if your name and the name on the case are not the same, the case is probably not yours.
The creepy side is (short of an imperialist fed) that the data will be available via fed comuters, which are only as protected as they are protected. If the fed can get data out, so can someone else. If the fed can modify it (record update) so can someone else. And we wouldn't even know it. Does this sound like The Net yet?
Having a singular ID will simply make it easier for the law abiding to not get wrongfully hassled in a difficult situation. After all, if you carry comprehensive identification at all times, then there's no need for background checks, credential verification, proof of credit of employment...
Hell, I'm surprised that they're not considering making this thing implantable. But for all the convenience that such an ID would bring, it should be a privilege that one elects to exercise, not a 'right' that is imposed by the system. I should have the option of choosing to have to sit in the cruiser while they verify identity.
And while we're already waxing paranoid on this subject, is anyone else bothered by the routine foot/fingerprinting of children? What's next? Their SSN/barcode tatooed above their hairline?
If I remember right - it was the actual hull of the capsule that breached from the internal pressure.
Imagine that! A hull designed to withstand spaceflight, re-entry and spashdown, busted from the internal pressure of a fire. With three human beings inside. Jeezus!
Finding that hatch would be damn near impossible. After all, the Mercury hatch was barely large enough for a man to fit through. Lets say 10 square feet...
The time required to conduct the search, the cost of the equipment involved, the specialists on the task have to get paid.. Or at least must eat.
While knowing the whole thruth may (arguably in this case) be the best way to go, I think this one will die based on economics. (Most things die this way anyway)
Cloning something that we've either driven into extinction, or that has died out on it's own, is playing God.
I strongly believe in Darwinism, and if the animal died out for natural reasons (without humans being the accountable cause) then we must leave nature be.
If the animal died out as a result of direct human abuse, then by bringing it back we are openning the door to further exploitation of that animal. This would not only be cruel to the reanimated species, but to all others, since the sense of human responsibility vis a vis the environment would diminish.
Once we see that we can be irresponsible with life, simply because we have the means to reverse extinction, we will be less willing to stop ourselves. Consider pachyderm hunting. It is now illegal to kill elephants and rhinoscerosesusesi for tusks and horns. It still happens, but the governments forbid it. If governments had the means of assuring that the animal will not go extinct, then the hunting bans would be lifted or relaxed, or at least, bribing officials would become even more common. In either case, the animals would be slain left and right.
We may be able to bring back the dead, in terms of species, but we'd be less respectful of the lives of individual animals (for one) and the welfare of entire species (for another) if we knew that all we have to do is splice some genes, and prosto chango!! We can all have a pet do-do bird, carrier pigeon, or velociraptor.
This is all just my opinion, but we get one chance at life after all. If we die (you, me, individually) we may be cloned as individuals too - but it won't be 'us' anymore. We only get one chance through this world, and if we screw it up, it's a lesson we have to learn, and a consequence we - and those who follow - must face.
Well, now that 8.1.5 is officially available to the Linux crowd, maybe Oracle will get around to sending me that complimentary copy of 8i that I requested three months ago.
Did anyone get theirs? I know that my NT version arrived in a couple of weeks, but I've not seen hide nor hair of the Linux offering.
I certainly hope that this is not indicative of Oracle's support for Linux. All talk? Since the update is up for D/L, I guess not, but it would be nice to run the two side by side to see how they stack up...
These answers are not actual answers. I'd have to check my 'propaganda machine' in order to provide sources, references and hard numbers, but...
1) How much fissionable fuel do we really have given _current_ technology?
Essencially limitless. I say this because I've seen projections of consumption and demand (granted, from pro-nukes). These guys feel that nuclear power could supply all of the worlds power needs for thousands of years. Sans fossil, at linearly increasing demand.
Also, I've heard that the fission power would provide enough juice to get fusion off the ground. There's enough hydrogen in them there oceans...
2) Do you have a good waste disposal solution?
I'd said in other posts that the only reason there even is a high-level waste problem, is the regulations imposed on nuclear facilities. The same tech that reburns waste down to an inert state can be used for making weapons, and the Fed doesn't like that being publically available. After all, if the TVA decided to sell Plutonium to the Contras, all hell would break loose.
As for disposing of low-level waste, well, that's equivalently radioactive to the coal ash that comes out of a traditional fossil plant, if not less so. We use that crud to pave highways and fertilize fields.
3) given that wind power is cheaper per kWh (yes, true go research it!), how can you justify the cost?
Actually, here I agree with you. Renewable, 99.44% pure enrgy sources are preferable. There's no risk of accident - no matter how small. Sure, the tower might collapse and kill someone, but it won't render the landscape useless for millenia.
But the wind dies down, the clouds roll in, rivers dry up now and again, and Greenland is so far away. Fission is much more... predictable.
I think that the key to successful power management is the same as for financial investments. Diversification.
Use fossil as the first level, hit-and-run power source to get new infrastructure established. Then put in the nuke plant to serve as rock bottom supply and take the fossils offline. Then, based on the geography and weather conditions of a region, install an enviromentally passive system.
I grant you, a 'natural' system would suffice if there were a single entity responsible for transmission and distribution of thus generated power over an immense area, but you have to accept that it would be a government monopoly. Can't make it work in a deregulated industry.
The other option is to have smaller, cooperating entities, that can supply their rock bottom need (nuclear) and provide their own spinning reserve for nominal use. Then deal with the T&D issues with their peers.
Only as clarification, for the benefit of the under-informed: not directed at the original poster.
Old plants produce highly radioactive waste due to regulations, not inefficieny. The result of fission on U238 can be enriched, and reburned, repeatedly, until what remains is less readioactive than the granite under our feet.
However, the process that does this, can also be used for producing weapons-grade fissionable materials, and the NRC/DoE/DoD don't want that tech to be in the public sector.
It is NRC regulations that require that high level redioactive waste be burried in mountains, at significant cost, rather than used for fuel.
Consider the analogy of pig farming. You grow corn to feed your pigs. Your pigs make waste.
You can use the waste to fertilize your corn, and to produce methane. You can use the methane to power generators to make electricity. You can use the electricity to run lights, ventilators, water pumps and the like. You can deliver the water to the pigs, and to irrigate your corn crop. You can then sell excess corn to buy more pigs.
But, the waste smells bad, so the government makes you bury it.
study on cellular radiation showed that people who used cell phones were more imaginative and intellectual than those who did not
The cause and effect are probably reversed there. I wonder how many intellectual people choose to use cell phones..:)
fellow came into the plant (the Nuclear Power Plant) a few years back and set off the alarms on the way in
Amen! Due to the very vocal and hugely ignorant opposition to nuclear power, most people don't know the facts. FUD is rampant against nukes, and when people hear the word 'nuclear' they think Hiroshima and Chernobyl.
The facts are:
You get more radiation exposure flying from N.Y. to L.A. (4 hours) than you do in 4 years of living next door to a Nuclear Power Plant.
You get more radiation getting your annual dental X-ray than you do in a year of living next to a nuclear plant.
You get more radiation living in Denver (altitude) than next door to Three Mile Island.
You get more radiation from the radon seeping into your (average) basement than you would working in a nuclear facility actually HANDLING the fuel.
The coal ash that comes out of conventional power plants as waste is more radioactive than the 'nuclear waste' that comes out of nuclear power plants. But, since the 'nuclear' waste is a product of fission, and not combustion, it is regulated, classified, and branded differently.
More people died in the week following the Union Carbide accident in India (early 80's) than will die as a tracable result of Chernobyl. Hereditary problems like Leukemia after three generations not withstanding.
Nuclear can be very dangerous, when it goes bad. It's quite spectacular. But, it is so regulated, and the people involved are highly aware of the dangers, that the likelyhood of accidents is miniscule.
I would think that the ignorance level about this field of science would be pretty low here on/., but 'nuclear' carries a deep stigma. Too bad, since it holds tremendous promise for plentiful energy. The U.S. will have to face a fossil crisis in the forseeable future, and by then, we will have to buy power from Canada, or beam it from space. Uranium is cheaper.
Washington D.C.: (AP) Hackers [yeah, I know, but it's a news story] took over the Eastern Seabord Microwave Generation Satellite earlier today, and threatened to redirect the beam at downtown D.C. if Kevin Mitnick was not released immediately.
Al Gore, the inventor of microwave energy, who singlehandedly placed the aforementioned satellite in orbit, declined, to the dismay of the hackers.
Officials at the Pentagon were heard to scream in agony as the installation was turned into a smoldering heap of molten slag.
The hackers, subsequently, threaten to defrost Hillary Clinton; but assure that the Antarctic penguin habitat is not threatened in any way.
Just think of the benefits that could be realized with microwave irradiation.
We could maintain a comfortable minimum temperature in some of the world's coldest areas. Imagine, Fargo in the middle of winter, at a balmy 75 degF. Weather forecasters could actually guarantee tomorrow's highs. Swimming pools and car engines would always be warm, as would be the toilet seats across the nation.
If we can tighten the beam enough, and develop super-precise satellite navigation systems, we could use one of these puppies for snow removal on the nation's highways. We could even melt a few hundred thousand acres of the Sahara for use as the world's biggest mirror for the world's biggest telescope..
Now everyone, from L.A. to Bangor Maine can have a nice tan. Just go out during the designated irradiation period (day or night) and stare up into the sky. Oh, and all the stylish tinfoil hats we'd all have to wear. And clothes would stay 'fresh-from-the-dryer' warm, all day.
Remember how grandma would cool off freshly baked pies by setting them on the window sill? Well, now we'll be able to thaw the Thanksgiving turkey that way..
Just think, no more mosquitoes! At 6:30 each night, get off the patio. Then ZAP! 30 seconds later, not a 'skeeter in a 500 mile radius. Just be sure to bring in the pets.
We could aim the thing at the Antarctic, and make the world's biggest ice sculpture... Seriously though, maybe carve off a big iceberg and haul it to where there's a drought? Well, maybe not.
On the down side, leaving a dog in a closed car on a hot summer day would be kinder than leaving him out on the lawn. Hot dogs anyone?
As another poster already noted, it's 10Gb weather permitting.
Also, it's a line-of-sight technology. I, for one, can't imagine this being used effectively for much more than spanning roadways and other public right-of-way restrictions without the legal hassle of an easement. Maybe jumping over a small river or such, but the morning fog, or the heat rising off the rooftops would just shoot your network to hell...;)
Cost-wise, I doubt that this will ever be more affordable than traditional fiber. The endpoint hardware has to be at least as expensive, and the cost of fiber vs. the power needed to push light through the air is a major argument in favor of glass/plastic.
Working on the East Coast of the US is, in the case of many of by friends, the same as Silicon Valley. One in particular, who happens to work for a consulting shop, regularly puts in 60 hour weeks - salaried. He's got good pay/hr. but at 60/wk it's exhausting. You have to take the time to rejuvinate, relax, cater to personal interests outside work, etc.
My employer takes a pretty unconventional approach of actually discouraging OT. After 40 hours/week, you DO NOT GET PAID AT ALL for the first 5 hours. Then it's back to the standard hourly rate.
We all make the best of our 40 hours, and then go home to our families.
After all the Brits graduate with the degree in Sci-fi, I'll be more than happy to take their money in my new (unaccredited) graduate school.
I will offer courses in in-demand fields of study, such as Cursive Writing , Fully Exploiting the Power of the Ubiquitous Times New Roman font, Expert Coupon Clipping and How to Start Your Own Graduate School.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunatelly, there's no real information at the site... Just a few names - Author, Producer, Director... But anyway.
Now that The Matrix has shown that a good cyberpunk movie, with effects, can be done, maybe we will see a good vision of Neuromancer. Personally, Carrie Ann Moss (?) is a dead-ringer for Molly (IMHO). The "Dodge This!" line summed it up for me. Some unknown as Case, and Brian Denehy or Rutger Hauer as Armitage might work..
With the Predator camouflage on the street punks, The Matrix 'lobby scene'ish run to free Dixie Flatline, a bit of 2001 (as seen by Terentino) at Villa Straylight - and this puppy just might work.
But of course after Gibson sold out on the cinematic version of Johnny Mnemonic, I won't be holding my breath.
We're really trying to hide the accomplishments of the Chineese culture from the rest of the world.
:)
Pasta, rocketry, steel.. You'd think they would have also managed to invent a FORK!!!
This is the truly scary part.
There is no way the government could possibly do this task intelligently. There isn't the manpower and computational power available. You're right.
So simplistic monitoring it will be. And the results will be similar to those of SurfWatcher software... You won't be able to research Childhood causes of breast cancer, hashtable processing algorithms, or anything containing a word combination that some bureaucrat deemed inappropriate in some context.
That is of course for 'in the clear' communication. If you send something encrypted, you'll end up on a 'watch' list, and your activities will undergo closer scrutiny.
And just try to take a guess at who is going to pay for all of this. No new taxes!! But we'll jack up the old ones. After all, it is a matter of national security.
That's right folks,
Never mind the privacy issues, never mind ethics or morals or any of that ethereal stuff like Liberty or Freedom. It's about the money.
Ever since the boom of the Internet, the Federal government has been losing money. They support much of the backbone infrastructure through NSF grants and such. The Internet2 is based in major Universities, but funded by the Fed, and we're going to piggyback off of that tech in a little while. The Fed is losing money since their grants are used to send spam and view porn.
But that is not the biggest dollar sinkhole that results from the Internet Age. It's all about the stamps!
That's right. The price of stamps has gone up dramatically over the last vew years. As we've migrated out corespondences to the net, the U.S. P.S. has tried to break even by hiking stamp prices. This just drove more people onto the net, and into long distance phone companies. This is why they're fostering competition and the proliferation of 10-10 numbers...
The government is just trying to make the net less convenient, more shady and just plain creepy(r) to drive the sheeple back to using the ol'U.S. Post. Under Federal regs, nobody (FBI, NSA, CIA, IRS...) can read your mail.
Watch for new U.S. Mail ads this fall. I ga-roon-tee it.
--Where'd I leave my meds?
Let me start off by saying that I'm 26.
Now... At a previous job (a jr. H.S.), I've worked with people half my age. It was their job to design a web site, and mine to channel them. They were eager, but knew less than necessary to be dangerous. And I was an old fogey to them.
At the current job, as a S.E. I work with people who have been with this company longer then I have been alive. Some have trenchmind and are severely threatened by younger workers who have new and in-demand skills. These folks are scared of being discarded, and rightly so. They've given their lives to a company that would drop them like a bad habit, if they see profit in doing so. After working your whole professional life in a niche, there's no where else to go, and retirement looms real large at 55+... Fortunatelly, the mentally hamstrung are a minority within the set of older developers.
Here's the point of the post, older developers (not 35+ but 45+ in my case) have so much domain knowledge, so much experience, and so much professional common sense that they are effectively priceless to the company. Even if the company doesn't see it that way. These guys (and gals) have decades of experience that can not be replaced with OOP, CASE, RAD or any other buzzword.
They serve as sages, mentors and wells of knowledge to us, the junior developers. They are responsible for system architectures, legacy system migration and evolution guidance and sanity checks for the rest of us.
They do not pull the 60+ hour weeks, nor should they have to. After I beat my head against a problem for a week, and can't account for some old quirk that makes no sense to me, all it often takes is a couple of questions to one of these guys, and the light dawns. They know where we came from, and they're better judges of where we're going then we are.
Older developers are invaluable to those of us who work in legacy and mixed environments. These systems were designed from a different perspective. Their implementations were limited by storage and performance, and we often can not even think in these terms.
Just try to do Y2K work knowing C++ and Java, without the aid of the COBOL guru who nursed the system from punch cards...
Has anyone tried FreeBuilder (www.freebuilder.org)? How does it compare to JBuilder? It's supposed to be pure Java, and running on Linux now...
I think, with Jeff Hawkins gone, that the whole Palm division of 3Com has been floundering for a vision.
Dead right! It sounds like 3Com is marketing a Good Thing into oblivion. The PalmPilot has always been a cut above the other PDA offerings. WinCE, with all it's marketting couldn't squash the good design and excellent performance AND spirit of (true) innovation... Hell, they got my money (bought a Nino, and am regretting not choosing the Palm)...
Now 3Com sees just how ubiquitous and popular is PURCHASED PRODUCT is, and they're pulling a Microsoft. Fracturing the market and customer base, alienating faithful Palm users by versioning and offering replacement upgrades... Yes, the Palm costs as much as a M$ Word Pro, but that doesn't mean we want a new version every other month.
Clue to 3Com: Commit to good engineering. Keep the interfaces standard. Take a lesson from the PC revolution and make the PIECES upgradable.
I'd gladly buy a PV if I could upgrade the SCREEN to a color one. Or if I could replace one of the two stylus barrels with a wireless comm module, or if I could use lithiun or NiCad or OTS batteries.
I'd make the investment if I could swap processors, add RAM, plug in a PC card for hard storage... I'd gladly buy a new titanium case to replace the aluminum one, if the guts fit. But for chrissakes, don't force me to buy a new modem and cradle every six months.
I don't want to carry my fingerprints around with me all the time.
Umm, you already do. The only thing that having then [encrypted] in an ID chip wouuld accomplish is prove that the ID you just used to cash that big check is in fact your ID.
It sounds a lot like having a name tag on luggage. Anyone can carry it, but if your name and the name on the case are not the same, the case is probably not yours.
The creepy side is (short of an imperialist fed) that the data will be available via fed comuters, which are only as protected as they are protected. If the fed can get data out, so can someone else. If the fed can modify it (record update) so can someone else. And we wouldn't even know it. Does this sound like The Net yet?
Except of course if it's mandatory... Ahem!
Having a singular ID will simply make it easier for the law abiding to not get wrongfully hassled in a difficult situation. After all, if you carry comprehensive identification at all times, then there's no need for background checks, credential verification, proof of credit of employment...
Hell, I'm surprised that they're not considering making this thing implantable. But for all the convenience that such an ID would bring, it should be a privilege that one elects to exercise, not a 'right' that is imposed by the system. I should have the option of choosing to have to sit in the cruiser while they verify identity.
And while we're already waxing paranoid on this subject, is anyone else bothered by the routine foot/fingerprinting of children? What's next? Their SSN/barcode tatooed above their hairline?
If I remember right - it was the actual hull of the capsule that breached from the internal pressure.
Imagine that! A hull designed to withstand spaceflight, re-entry and spashdown, busted from the internal pressure of a fire. With three human beings inside. Jeezus!
Finding that hatch would be damn near impossible. After all, the Mercury hatch was barely large enough for a man to fit through. Lets say 10 square feet...
The time required to conduct the search, the cost of the equipment involved, the specialists on the task have to get paid.. Or at least must eat.
While knowing the whole thruth may (arguably in this case) be the best way to go, I think this one will die based on economics. (Most things die this way anyway)
Spielberg and Hitchcock, together at last!
Folks, really,
Cloning something that we've either driven into extinction, or that has died out on it's own, is playing God.
I strongly believe in Darwinism, and if the animal died out for natural reasons (without humans being the accountable cause) then we must leave nature be.
If the animal died out as a result of direct human abuse, then by bringing it back we are openning the door to further exploitation of that animal. This would not only be cruel to the reanimated species, but to all others, since the sense of human responsibility vis a vis the environment would diminish.
Once we see that we can be irresponsible with life, simply because we have the means to reverse extinction, we will be less willing to stop ourselves. Consider pachyderm hunting. It is now illegal to kill elephants and rhinoscerosesusesi for tusks and horns. It still happens, but the governments forbid it. If governments had the means of assuring that the animal will not go extinct, then the hunting bans would be lifted or relaxed, or at least, bribing officials would become even more common. In either case, the animals would be slain left and right.
We may be able to bring back the dead, in terms of species, but we'd be less respectful of the lives of individual animals (for one) and the welfare of entire species (for another) if we knew that all we have to do is splice some genes, and prosto chango!! We can all have a pet do-do bird, carrier pigeon, or velociraptor.
This is all just my opinion, but we get one chance at life after all. If we die (you, me, individually) we may be cloned as individuals too - but it won't be 'us' anymore. We only get one chance through this world, and if we screw it up, it's a lesson we have to learn, and a consequence we - and those who follow - must face.
Well, now that 8.1.5 is officially available to the Linux crowd, maybe Oracle will get around to sending me that complimentary copy of 8i that I requested three months ago.
Did anyone get theirs? I know that my NT version arrived in a couple of weeks, but I've not seen hide nor hair of the Linux offering.
I certainly hope that this is not indicative of Oracle's support for Linux. All talk? Since the update is up for D/L, I guess not, but it would be nice to run the two side by side to see how they stack up...
Still waiting for my CD Oracle.
The void look in my PHB's eyes..
That bead of drool lowly rolling down his chin in staff meetings.
The PHB has been slashdotted!!
These answers are not actual answers. I'd have to check my 'propaganda machine' in order to provide sources, references and hard numbers, but...
1) How much fissionable fuel do we really have given _current_ technology?
Essencially limitless. I say this because I've seen projections of consumption and demand (granted, from pro-nukes). These guys feel that nuclear power could supply all of the worlds power needs for thousands of years. Sans fossil, at linearly increasing demand.
Also, I've heard that the fission power would provide enough juice to get fusion off the ground. There's enough hydrogen in them there oceans...
2) Do you have a good waste disposal solution?
I'd said in other posts that the only reason there even is a high-level waste problem, is the regulations imposed on nuclear facilities. The same tech that reburns waste down to an inert state can be used for making weapons, and the Fed doesn't like that being publically available. After all, if the TVA decided to sell Plutonium to the Contras, all hell would break loose.
As for disposing of low-level waste, well, that's equivalently radioactive to the coal ash that comes out of a traditional fossil plant, if not less so. We use that crud to pave highways and fertilize fields.
3) given that wind power is cheaper per kWh (yes, true go research it!), how can you justify the cost?
Actually, here I agree with you. Renewable, 99.44% pure enrgy sources are preferable. There's no risk of accident - no matter how small. Sure, the tower might collapse and kill someone, but it won't render the landscape useless for millenia.
But the wind dies down, the clouds roll in, rivers dry up now and again, and Greenland is so far away. Fission is much more... predictable.
I think that the key to successful power management is the same as for financial investments. Diversification.
Use fossil as the first level, hit-and-run power source to get new infrastructure established. Then put in the nuke plant to serve as rock bottom supply and take the fossils offline. Then, based on the geography and weather conditions of a region, install an enviromentally passive system.
I grant you, a 'natural' system would suffice if there were a single entity responsible for transmission and distribution of thus generated power over an immense area, but you have to accept that it would be a government monopoly. Can't make it work in a deregulated industry.
The other option is to have smaller, cooperating entities, that can supply their rock bottom need (nuclear) and provide their own spinning reserve for nominal use. Then deal with the T&D issues with their peers.
Only as clarification, for the benefit of the under-informed: not directed at the original poster.
Old plants produce highly radioactive waste due to regulations, not inefficieny. The result of fission on U238 can be enriched, and reburned, repeatedly, until what remains is less readioactive than the granite under our feet.
However, the process that does this, can also be used for producing weapons-grade fissionable materials, and the NRC/DoE/DoD don't want that tech to be in the public sector.
It is NRC regulations that require that high level redioactive waste be burried in mountains, at significant cost, rather than used for fuel.
Consider the analogy of pig farming. You grow corn to feed your pigs. Your pigs make waste.
You can use the waste to fertilize your corn, and to produce methane. You can use the methane to power generators to make electricity. You can use the electricity to run lights, ventilators, water pumps and the like. You can deliver the water to the pigs, and to irrigate your corn crop. You can then sell excess corn to buy more pigs.
But, the waste smells bad, so the government makes you bury it.
The cause and effect are probably reversed there. I wonder how many intellectual people choose to use cell phones..
fellow came into the plant (the Nuclear Power Plant) a few years back and set off the alarms on the way in
Amen! Due to the very vocal and hugely ignorant opposition to nuclear power, most people don't know the facts. FUD is rampant against nukes, and when people hear the word 'nuclear' they think Hiroshima and Chernobyl.
The facts are:
Nuclear can be very dangerous, when it goes bad. It's quite spectacular. But, it is so regulated, and the people involved are highly aware of the dangers, that the likelyhood of accidents is miniscule.
I would think that the ignorance level about this field of science would be pretty low here on
Washington D.C.: (AP)
Hackers [yeah, I know, but it's a news story] took over the Eastern Seabord Microwave Generation Satellite earlier today, and threatened to redirect the beam at downtown D.C. if Kevin Mitnick was not released immediately.
Al Gore, the inventor of microwave energy, who singlehandedly placed the aforementioned satellite in orbit, declined, to the dismay of the hackers.
Officials at the Pentagon were heard to scream in agony as the installation was turned into a smoldering heap of molten slag.
The hackers, subsequently, threaten to defrost Hillary Clinton; but assure that the Antarctic penguin habitat is not threatened in any way.
Just think of the benefits that could be realized with microwave irradiation.
We could maintain a comfortable minimum temperature in some of the world's coldest areas. Imagine, Fargo in the middle of winter, at a balmy 75 degF. Weather forecasters could actually guarantee tomorrow's highs. Swimming pools and car engines would always be warm, as would be the toilet seats across the nation.
If we can tighten the beam enough, and develop super-precise satellite navigation systems, we could use one of these puppies for snow removal on the nation's highways. We could even melt a few hundred thousand acres of the Sahara for use as the world's biggest mirror for the world's biggest telescope..
Now everyone, from L.A. to Bangor Maine can have a nice tan. Just go out during the designated irradiation period (day or night) and stare up into the sky. Oh, and all the stylish tinfoil hats we'd all have to wear. And clothes would stay 'fresh-from-the-dryer' warm, all day.
Remember how grandma would cool off freshly baked pies by setting them on the window sill? Well, now we'll be able to thaw the Thanksgiving turkey that way..
Just think, no more mosquitoes! At 6:30 each night, get off the patio. Then ZAP! 30 seconds later, not a 'skeeter in a 500 mile radius. Just be sure to bring in the pets.
We could aim the thing at the Antarctic, and make the world's biggest ice sculpture... Seriously though, maybe carve off a big iceberg and haul it to where there's a drought? Well, maybe not.
On the down side, leaving a dog in a closed car on a hot summer day would be kinder than leaving him out on the lawn. Hot dogs anyone?
Jon,
:)
Frankly, let's leave youthful idealism to those that haven't figured out that it's about the money.
As for Amazon.com, more power to them. Dell has been selling computers the way Amazon sells books, for some time now. It works great.
Let's look at it from Bezos's point of view. If things other than books can be sold the same way, why should WE do it before someone else does?
And now I can get more shopping done in fewer clicks.
As another poster already noted, it's 10Gb weather permitting.
;)
Also, it's a line-of-sight technology. I, for one, can't imagine this being used effectively for much more than spanning roadways and other public right-of-way restrictions without the legal hassle of an easement. Maybe jumping over a small river or such, but the morning fog, or the heat rising off the rooftops would just shoot your network to hell...
Cost-wise, I doubt that this will ever be more affordable than traditional fiber. The endpoint hardware has to be at least as expensive, and the cost of fiber vs. the power needed to push light through the air is a major argument in favor of glass/plastic.
My 0.02 euro
Working on the East Coast of the US is, in the case of many of by friends, the same as Silicon Valley. One in particular, who happens to work for a consulting shop, regularly puts in 60 hour weeks - salaried. He's got good pay/hr. but at 60/wk it's exhausting. You have to take the time to rejuvinate, relax, cater to personal interests outside work, etc.
My employer takes a pretty unconventional approach of actually discouraging OT. After 40 hours/week, you DO NOT GET PAID AT ALL for the first 5 hours. Then it's back to the standard hourly rate.
We all make the best of our 40 hours, and then go home to our families.
After all the Brits graduate with the degree in Sci-fi, I'll be more than happy to take their money in my new (unaccredited) graduate school.
I will offer courses in in-demand fields of study, such as Cursive Writing , Fully Exploiting the Power of the Ubiquitous Times New Roman font, Expert Coupon Clipping and How to Start Your Own Graduate School.
Sign up now, as seating is limited.
Most of the time they (ChEngs) play with latex, lubricants, various products of fermentation and some compounds that can literally blow your mind.
:)
Same as all other college students.
Nice major, but I wouldn't want to live there.