I totally agree this advances knowledge and technology in a general sense, and that's a Good Thing. Just because this isn't feasible as-is, it might still become an important building block for something that is. I certainly still support continuing to spend money on this line of research! So despite the un-Slashdot-ish nature of saying this... point well made.
On the point of the viability of one-offs, I'll point out there is one other very important aspect of plant life that we should be trying harder to harness / emulate: energy conservation.
Conventional solar panels are averaging about 15% efficiency; 150 times more efficient than this new source. That's an awfully big gap to make up, and I don't believe the efficiency of conventional panels is going to stop so this other technique can catch up. With conventional solar panels, we'd need to cover nearly 5% of our landmass with them to completely replace all other sources of energy. With this new technique, 100%+. There's a difference in feasibility.
I'm not totally knocking the idea; if you could get the grass clippings panels up to even 1.5% efficiency, and the cost down to 10% or less compared to conventional panels, and you've got the space to put it... why not? It will still do the job just fine. But I doubt this new technique can comonly meet all 3 of these criteria simultaneously. It will have very limited applications.
The continental US receives about 192,000 Exojoules of solar irradiance per year. We currently use about 91 Exojoules of energy from all sources. At.1% efficiency, and calculating extra for peak needs, intermittency, and transmission losses, we would have to cover nearly 100% of our continental land mass with this stuff to replace our current energy sources.
Seems to me like smoking the other kind of grass really is a better deal.
No, iPads won't do a darned thing to help education unless someone really understands how to exploit the platform. For those in the education industry, this number is close to zero.
But I'm all for them anyway, because they aren't shown to damage education much, either, and... if it can reduce the weight of a backpack otherwise full of dead tree books and reduce the orthopedic strain on small bodies, that's a good thing.
A lot of people are employed driving vehicles. They are very expensive per hour. Goodbye! The upside? Automation would reduce cargo speeds to optimum fuel efficiency because doing so wouldn't actually burn up anyone's expensive time. Computer controlled throttle on regular engines already beat the snot out of hybrids for fuel savings. I think there's a 25% energy savings in there, ripe for the taking.
But yeah, it'll be a major social and economic game changer.
which would easily be attained by an automated transportation system, is nothing to sneeze at. Or 30,000 fewer US highway deaths per year. Or a reduction of 3-5 Million ER Trauma admittances per year (if you want to see medical costs go down). There's no technical reason we couldn't have a completely automated transportation system in the next 15 years, except for the fact that the US couldn't even switch to Metric.
But yeah, because there would probably still be a few thousand (instead of 36,000) deaths per year, it simply wouldn't be good enough. Go figure.
The iPad is an e-magazine reader. Same size as a physical glossy magazine, nice screen. They will get tossed on the coffee table just like magazines, too. That's really all it's designed to be, but leaving iPod functionality in there doesn't hurt anything. Magazine publishers could give these things away with a 2-year subscription, and probably come out nearly even compared to print production and distribution.
I'm not saying the iPad will be a hit. I see shades of the Apple Cube here. But there is a business model behind it, and it's not the smartphone or the netbook business model.
And, while the RIAA will get to garnish this guy's paychecks for the rest of his life, they'll never get anywhere near the amount of the award. This will make a mockery of the legal system on both ends.
SSH login attempts from hundreds of different IP addresses. Could not get my IT department to block the port at the firewall. It's an old Mac OSX server - thus, why the POS locked up within minutes of the attack starting. Come to think of it, I haven't used SSH for ages. I always ARD into it to administer. CLICK. No more SSH.
At least it made me review my server security. I was way too lax, knowing how little value the data, or even the server itself, has. But the attack itself still annoyed me, so I tightened that bitch up real good (well, as good as you can tighten up an old Mac server).
A touchscreen - especially one on a voting machine - that supposedly needs re-calibrated every few users is pure bullshit. PURE bullshit.
I work in A/V control systems and deal with touchscreens every day. Some are used very heavily - not quite as much as a voting machine on voting day, but probably gets as many touches within a few days time. The need for re-calibration is rare; I'm talking once a year maybe? The worst touchscreen I've ever seen is a the wacom overlay on a Modbook (Macbook repackaged as a touchscreen tablet PC). That POS needs re-calibrated about... once a month. Add other's comments about all the touchscreen kiosks in airports, etc.; same f*ing technology, but they don't need recalibrated every 10 minutes.
There's just no way this isn't a case of either gross negligence / incompetence, or criminal vote rigging.
It's the best way to expose the problems so they can be fixed (instead of hand-wringing and confusion). Glad to read that some stations are turning off analog anyway.
Giving $2 billion in bailout funds to a bank so they can give it to their "top 10" executives as "bonuses" results in different spending patterns than sharing $2 billion in cash amongst all the US citizens making less than $30K a year.
You might think injecting the money at the bottom of the economy would do better at stimulating the economy than letting it gather at the top. Until you realize that Wal-Mart is just a short-circuit from the bottom to the top. Next idea, please...
Slashdot Mirror
This is being successfully terrorized.
Like, until you're about 35 years old.
300,000 plaintiffs... Monsanto has made a lot of enemies with their tactics. He who lives with the lawsuit...
I totally agree this advances knowledge and technology in a general sense, and that's a Good Thing. Just because this isn't feasible as-is, it might still become an important building block for something that is. I certainly still support continuing to spend money on this line of research! So despite the un-Slashdot-ish nature of saying this... point well made. On the point of the viability of one-offs, I'll point out there is one other very important aspect of plant life that we should be trying harder to harness / emulate: energy conservation.
Conventional solar panels are averaging about 15% efficiency; 150 times more efficient than this new source. That's an awfully big gap to make up, and I don't believe the efficiency of conventional panels is going to stop so this other technique can catch up. With conventional solar panels, we'd need to cover nearly 5% of our landmass with them to completely replace all other sources of energy. With this new technique, 100%+. There's a difference in feasibility. I'm not totally knocking the idea; if you could get the grass clippings panels up to even 1.5% efficiency, and the cost down to 10% or less compared to conventional panels, and you've got the space to put it... why not? It will still do the job just fine. But I doubt this new technique can comonly meet all 3 of these criteria simultaneously. It will have very limited applications.
The continental US receives about 192,000 Exojoules of solar irradiance per year. We currently use about 91 Exojoules of energy from all sources. At .1% efficiency, and calculating extra for peak needs, intermittency, and transmission losses, we would have to cover nearly 100% of our continental land mass with this stuff to replace our current energy sources.
Seems to me like smoking the other kind of grass really is a better deal.
...Most boards and CEO's score a doofus factor of 11. And, they are darned proud of that! It shows true innovation.
No, iPads won't do a darned thing to help education unless someone really understands how to exploit the platform. For those in the education industry, this number is close to zero. But I'm all for them anyway, because they aren't shown to damage education much, either, and... if it can reduce the weight of a backpack otherwise full of dead tree books and reduce the orthopedic strain on small bodies, that's a good thing.
A lot of people are employed driving vehicles. They are very expensive per hour. Goodbye! The upside? Automation would reduce cargo speeds to optimum fuel efficiency because doing so wouldn't actually burn up anyone's expensive time. Computer controlled throttle on regular engines already beat the snot out of hybrids for fuel savings. I think there's a 25% energy savings in there, ripe for the taking. But yeah, it'll be a major social and economic game changer.
which would easily be attained by an automated transportation system, is nothing to sneeze at. Or 30,000 fewer US highway deaths per year. Or a reduction of 3-5 Million ER Trauma admittances per year (if you want to see medical costs go down). There's no technical reason we couldn't have a completely automated transportation system in the next 15 years, except for the fact that the US couldn't even switch to Metric. But yeah, because there would probably still be a few thousand (instead of 36,000) deaths per year, it simply wouldn't be good enough. Go figure.
Same Figure: 60K cameras / 6 crimes/day = 1 crime per 1,000 cameras. It's the "per day" vs "per year" that makes your difference.
The iPad is an e-magazine reader. Same size as a physical glossy magazine, nice screen. They will get tossed on the coffee table just like magazines, too. That's really all it's designed to be, but leaving iPod functionality in there doesn't hurt anything. Magazine publishers could give these things away with a 2-year subscription, and probably come out nearly even compared to print production and distribution. I'm not saying the iPad will be a hit. I see shades of the Apple Cube here. But there is a business model behind it, and it's not the smartphone or the netbook business model.
It's an iPod touch, but without the convenience of being able to put it in your pocket. Why?
to make the stuff? I hope it's more efficient than making ethanol.
And, while the RIAA will get to garnish this guy's paychecks for the rest of his life, they'll never get anywhere near the amount of the award. This will make a mockery of the legal system on both ends.
Wired thinks it's "probably a complex bug"? I think probably not, it's probably something blindingly simple, and stupid.
because it would be so delicious to see spammers fubar themselves.
SSH login attempts from hundreds of different IP addresses. Could not get my IT department to block the port at the firewall. It's an old Mac OSX server - thus, why the POS locked up within minutes of the attack starting. Come to think of it, I haven't used SSH for ages. I always ARD into it to administer. CLICK. No more SSH.
At least it made me review my server security. I was way too lax, knowing how little value the data, or even the server itself, has. But the attack itself still annoyed me, so I tightened that bitch up real good (well, as good as you can tighten up an old Mac server).
Yeah, where are mod points when I need them? Mod parent up.
A touchscreen - especially one on a voting machine - that supposedly needs re-calibrated every few users is pure bullshit. PURE bullshit.
I work in A/V control systems and deal with touchscreens every day. Some are used very heavily - not quite as much as a voting machine on voting day, but probably gets as many touches within a few days time. The need for re-calibration is rare; I'm talking once a year maybe? The worst touchscreen I've ever seen is a the wacom overlay on a Modbook (Macbook repackaged as a touchscreen tablet PC). That POS needs re-calibrated about... once a month. Add other's comments about all the touchscreen kiosks in airports, etc.; same f*ing technology, but they don't need recalibrated every 10 minutes.
There's just no way this isn't a case of either gross negligence / incompetence, or criminal vote rigging.
= Redundant Array of EXPENSIVE Drives.
We had those on Star Trek 50 years ago too. Just figure those out, and everything will be all right.
It's the best way to expose the problems so they can be fixed (instead of hand-wringing and confusion). Glad to read that some stations are turning off analog anyway.
But that's OK, I can wait a few more years for my life to be that fucked up.
Giving $2 billion in bailout funds to a bank so they can give it to their "top 10" executives as "bonuses" results in different spending patterns than sharing $2 billion in cash amongst all the US citizens making less than $30K a year.
You might think injecting the money at the bottom of the economy would do better at stimulating the economy than letting it gather at the top. Until you realize that Wal-Mart is just a short-circuit from the bottom to the top. Next idea, please...