When you're losing no more than 15% on a process that doesn't involve much energy to begin with, it's simply not a big problem
Own anything with a 'wall-wart' with a transformer in it anymore? No? You don't see them much anymore because, despite the humble transformer being >99% efficient, some tree-hugger types whined about the tiny amount of current they use when not actively being used; they started an entire campaign against the things, and as a result everything uses more expensive and complicated switching power supplies. We're talking about way less than 15% loss here, by the way. I maintain that 'wireless charging' is stupid, inefficient, and just a marketing gimmick.
As I said, people should just get a refillable bottle and use that instead, voila, no more non-degradable plastic waste problem. If you still want to argue that even those are going to create plastic waste, then get a nice insulated aluminum or stainless steel water bottle instead. Either way one-time expense and will last for years and years, probably bloody well forever if you take care of them.
Is Slashdot now a shilling-for-hire website? This is not going to kill the bottled water industry, it's not going to do anything, it's some sort of joke at best and rediculous at worst. You'd have to package the damned thing in order to ship them to stores and the packaging would cancel out the lack of a plastic bottle. Instead of zero-calorie water you're drinking, now there's some weird substance containing it that you're supposed to eat? Who the hell would want that, people who buy bottled water want water, not some weird 'alginate' snack! What about this 'alignate'? Since it's edible, won't it also have a shelf life? Won't it go bad long before the water it's containing and have to be discarded? Isn't that also kind of stupid in and of itself? So far as 'solutions looking for a problem' this scores pretty high, even if I personally think that bottled water is a scam and people should just get their own refillable bottle instead.
'Contactless charging' is a stupid and useless gimmick "technology" that is far from new and much like lotteries caters to people who don't understand how things work (in this case, the inverse-square law).
It may be though that we do have to see the Internet 'destroyed' before it can be better again. The infrastructure that makes the Internet work isn't going to go away because asshats at corporations like Comcast and AT&T and in Congress are being asshats and screwing it up for everyone, it'll all still be here when the smoke clears. I, like everyone else who understands the problem, would prefer that it not come to that, but at the same time if they need to be given enough rope to all hang themselves, then I'm OK with that, too. This, too, shall pass.
motor probably built into the hub of the rear wheel eliminating drive chains/shaft
Bad idea, actually, would increase unsprung mass, greatly affecting the handling of the bike in general, and it would also limit the physical size and dimensions of the motor itself. Better to use shaft drive and have the motor close to the center of mass of the bike, which would also keep it closer to the power source and control electronics.
How feasible/practical would this be? What would the efficiency be compared to converting sunlight to electricity, then to microwaves at high power (MW? GW? TW?) then having to 'receive' those and convert them to DC power?
Slashdot does not allow me any way to respond to more than one comment at a time, so I'll just have to post this to the *last* comment in the chain and hope people read it.
Not a single one of you in this entire comment thread has come up with any sort of valid explanation or justification for the way the Human Race treats itself or the planet it lives on, or any verbage that even begins to justify how we, as an entire race, are responsible and mature enough (again, AS A RACE) to colonize another earth-like planet. All I've heard so far tastes quite a bit like 'It's our God-given right to do so!' without actually saying that, and I completely reject that notion. We treat our own kind like absolute shit, and we literally 'shit where we eat' so far as the Earth itself goes, and whether you like my saying so or not, we're not worthy of another planet to live on until we clean up our collective act and start acting like the responsible, thinking beings that we keep telling ourselves that we are.
Are you actually arguing that the Human race as a whole is perfectly reasonable in it's behavior towards itself, and perfectly responsible with regard to how it treats the planet it's living on?
When that happens, the relatively minor modifications we have made to this ecosystem to provide the resources to do that will not seem so important
So you're saying that dumping shitloads of toxic crap into our environment, destroying entire ecosystems, and extincting thousands and thousands of species of plants, insects, and animals is "relatively minor"? What the actual fuck? With that sort of thinking, why don't we just go back to allowing farmers to use DDT? It's super-effective, and after all the ecological effects are "relatively minor", right?
Yeah, sure thing pal, we should all listen to the likes of you because you're so obviously not an example of the things I'm talking about. You probably think the "Knockout game" is a fun Saturday night activity.
You're far too kind. By the way the human race is behaving currently, we don't deserve to get off this dirtball anytime soon. For fuck's sake, look at us! We hurt and kill each other for stupid reasons. We have entire cultures that consider women (and others!) to be less than a human being. We have assholes who attack, seriously (and profoundly!) injure and kill little girls because they have the audacity to want to learn how to read and write. We haven't proven we can adequately care for the environment of the planet of our origin, why should we be allowed another viable planet to screw up?
So far as I'm concerned it's a good thing we're far from the point where we can reach and colonize other planets because it's clear we're just not ready and won't be for quite some time to come. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if our galaxy is teeming with intelligent, starfaring races, and they've quarantined us because we're so fucked up and shouldn't be let loose on the galaxy.
And, even though HP has announced its intention to enter the 3D printing space (possibly this fall)..
HP doesn't count anymore. From what I hear, they're more or less gutting themselves of any real technical talent in favor of offshoring and overseas outsourcing, outright firing long-time domestic engineers and workers just to improve their bottom line in the short term. Don't expect any innovation or high quality from a company that's hiring nobodies just barely out of school at best who can't find their ass with both hands.
Nuclear detonation? We'd have worse things to worry about then (like ionizing radiation killing us all). Solar flare activity? How the hell would you even protect the entire planet from something that powerful in the first place? Don't we have more immediate things to worry about than something as unlikely as this?
If it's any sort of 'medical device' then the FDA must approve it before allowing you to sell it in the U.S., and in order for it to be approved by them you must do testing the FDA mandates. The testing is complicated and very often expensive, and if your device can't pass the testing then you have to go back to the drawing board and fix whatever it is that causes it to fail the test. Additionally the FDA demands certain manufacturing standards. They can come in and inspect your production facilities, personnel, methods, procedures, tools used, etc. If they don't like the way the communal kitchen looks or whether the communal refrigerator is clean enough for them, or any number of other nit-picky things, they can prevent you from selling or even producing your device; they can shut your company down completely. Sometimes the cost of all the testing and jumping through the hoops the FDA requires you to jump through will cost more than your device costs to produce. The end result is the costs are all tacked on to the final price of the device being manufactured. The 3D-printed prosthetic obviously wasn't FDA approved and couldn't be mass-produced and sold without going through the same process that everyone else has to. Since 3D-printing is relatively new and there hasn't been much if any legislation to govern it's use, what will likely happen at some point in the future is that anyone offering the CAD/CAM files to produce something like this prosthetic hand on a 3D-printer will be jumped on by the FDA and required to do the requisite testing of the finished product or face legal action against them. Furthermore I wouldn't put it past the FDA to require only 'authorized' 3D-printers to produce such things. Of course if it's all open-source and people are building their own 3D printers then the FDA can more or less go fuck themselves, but there'll be a shitstorm over the whole subject, guaranteed.
Source of my information: Personal experience from working for a medical device manufacturer for 5 years.
The U.S. economy is still in recovery and unemployment is still high. It's bad enough that we're importing workers for any reason, but to actually fire employees so you can import cheaper workers? What the actual FUCK!? It's pitchfork/scythe/burning torch time, I think; it's time for a little insurrection. U.S. companies need to be hiring U.S. citizens, damnit!
Because the richest people and the most powerful people want them to remain homeless and down, as a warning to the rest of us to "keep in line", otherwise we'll be made to live like them.
The solution to homelessness needs to come from the top, down. However the 'top' isn't terribly interested in really doing anything about it, otherwise we wouldn't have a homeless problem anymore. Instead those of us not at the top are expected to shoulder the burden in addition to our own responsibilities. This of course is utter bullshit and won't work. The homelessness problem all over the world will cease to exist when the people at the Top are forced to invest their resources in solving it, once and for all. And by 'once and for all' I don't mean 'round them up and make them disappear', either. There are homeless who are only such because they couldn't find a job, and since they're now homeless nobody will GIVE them a job; fix that problem! There are homeless who are mentally ill or stuck in a cycle of drug abuse; get them the help they need! I think we'd find there is a surprisingly small number of homeless people who want to be homeless and be leeches on society. Identify them and 'deal' with them appropriately, because that's something we just can't have anymore. I'm a firm believer in 'pulling your own weight', and the people that think they can be exempt from that need to be taught otherwise. But as I say I think those are a small percentage. Everyone else who is in the 'homeless' category should be allowed the help they need to not be homeless anymore -- and it needs to come from the TOP, not the BOTTOM.
Who the heck ever said that our bodies were designed to stand around all day either? I've read some of the comments here, and add my own experience: Having to stand in one place for hours on end? Excruciating. Worse than sitting by far.
Don't accuse me of being fat and out-of-shape, either: I have ~10% bodyfat, and am literally atheltic, I race bikes for fun and are training for it in one way or another 6 days a week. At least one other person here has said they're fine if they're on their feet and moving around all day long, but standing in one place is pure torture and more damaging than sitting. I think what we have here is more junk science, grasping at straws for a solution for people getting fatter and more diseased, and they're wildly swinging the needle all the way in the other direction instead of finding a sane middle-ground. What people need to do is get up and move around more during the day, and their employers need to encourage them to do it, and furthermore when people leave work for the day, they need to engage in more physical activity instead of plopping down on a couch in front of the television and consume alcohol and shitty food, or whatever version of that may apply to them specifically.
I'd have to say, in my opinion, that the "some" you speak of is still the majority of the population. Even college-educated people with well above-average IQ's and an inherently questioning nature still indulge in religion, and you can readily find people who staunchly believe that not only is there a God, Satan, heaven, and hell, but that all science is the work of Satan intent on 'misleading the faithful'.
For a long time now I've thought that religion will cause the next Dark Age of Man, through promoting willful ignorance, superstition, and blind "faith", instead of promoting knowledge, understanding, and the search for actual truth. Apparently I was wrong, or at least not completely correct: Politicians and politics will bring about the next Dark Age, by driving people away from the Internet through mass surveillance, and runaway corporate interests destroying Net Neutrality. Once the Internet is no longer a viable source of sharing information for the common citizen, it won't be much farther to go to drive people, en masse, back into the welcoming arms of organized religion and it's rejection of critical thought.
I'm embarassed to have voted for this party-line politician we elected as President, but frankly the other choice would have been at least as bad. Why don't you just declare the Constitution invalid and the U.S. officially a Police State already and get it over with?
No. They should not, and despite anything they may try to convince Capital Hill and the U.S. populace of, that's exactly what they're trying to do, and that's precisely what will happen. It not only should be blocked from happening, Comcast should be required to break up into smaller companies, just like the phone company was required to in previous decades, but in this case the reasons to do so are even more dire than just them having a mere monopoly on a market.
Slashdot Mirror
When you're losing no more than 15% on a process that doesn't involve much energy to begin with, it's simply not a big problem
Own anything with a 'wall-wart' with a transformer in it anymore? No? You don't see them much anymore because, despite the humble transformer being >99% efficient, some tree-hugger types whined about the tiny amount of current they use when not actively being used; they started an entire campaign against the things, and as a result everything uses more expensive and complicated switching power supplies. We're talking about way less than 15% loss here, by the way. I maintain that 'wireless charging' is stupid, inefficient, and just a marketing gimmick.
As I said, people should just get a refillable bottle and use that instead, voila, no more non-degradable plastic waste problem. If you still want to argue that even those are going to create plastic waste, then get a nice insulated aluminum or stainless steel water bottle instead. Either way one-time expense and will last for years and years, probably bloody well forever if you take care of them.
Is Slashdot now a shilling-for-hire website?
This is not going to kill the bottled water industry, it's not going to do anything, it's some sort of joke at best and rediculous at worst. You'd have to package the damned thing in order to ship them to stores and the packaging would cancel out the lack of a plastic bottle. Instead of zero-calorie water you're drinking, now there's some weird substance containing it that you're supposed to eat? Who the hell would want that, people who buy bottled water want water, not some weird 'alginate' snack! What about this 'alignate'? Since it's edible, won't it also have a shelf life? Won't it go bad long before the water it's containing and have to be discarded? Isn't that also kind of stupid in and of itself? So far as 'solutions looking for a problem' this scores pretty high, even if I personally think that bottled water is a scam and people should just get their own refillable bottle instead.
'Contactless charging' is a stupid and useless gimmick "technology" that is far from new and much like lotteries caters to people who don't understand how things work (in this case, the inverse-square law).
I applaud your rhetoric, sir. Well done.
It may be though that we do have to see the Internet 'destroyed' before it can be better again. The infrastructure that makes the Internet work isn't going to go away because asshats at corporations like Comcast and AT&T and in Congress are being asshats and screwing it up for everyone, it'll all still be here when the smoke clears. I, like everyone else who understands the problem, would prefer that it not come to that, but at the same time if they need to be given enough rope to all hang themselves, then I'm OK with that, too. This, too, shall pass.
motor probably built into the hub of the rear wheel eliminating drive chains/shaft
Bad idea, actually, would increase unsprung mass, greatly affecting the handling of the bike in general, and it would also limit the physical size and dimensions of the motor itself. Better to use shaft drive and have the motor close to the center of mass of the bike, which would also keep it closer to the power source and control electronics.
How feasible/practical would this be? What would the efficiency be compared to converting sunlight to electricity, then to microwaves at high power (MW? GW? TW?) then having to 'receive' those and convert them to DC power?
Slashdot does not allow me any way to respond to more than one comment at a time, so I'll just have to post this to the *last* comment in the chain and hope people read it.
Not a single one of you in this entire comment thread has come up with any sort of valid explanation or justification for the way the Human Race treats itself or the planet it lives on, or any verbage that even begins to justify how we, as an entire race, are responsible and mature enough (again, AS A RACE) to colonize another earth-like planet. All I've heard so far tastes quite a bit like 'It's our God-given right to do so!' without actually saying that, and I completely reject that notion. We treat our own kind like absolute shit, and we literally 'shit where we eat' so far as the Earth itself goes, and whether you like my saying so or not, we're not worthy of another planet to live on until we clean up our collective act and start acting like the responsible, thinking beings that we keep telling ourselves that we are.
Are you actually arguing that the Human race as a whole is perfectly reasonable in it's behavior towards itself, and perfectly responsible with regard to how it treats the planet it's living on?
When that happens, the relatively minor modifications we have made to this ecosystem to provide the resources to do that will not seem so important
So you're saying that dumping shitloads of toxic crap into our environment, destroying entire ecosystems, and extincting thousands and thousands of species of plants, insects, and animals is "relatively minor"? What the actual fuck? With that sort of thinking, why don't we just go back to allowing farmers to use DDT? It's super-effective, and after all the ecological effects are "relatively minor", right?
Yeah, sure thing pal, we should all listen to the likes of you because you're so obviously not an example of the things I'm talking about. You probably think the "Knockout game" is a fun Saturday night activity.
You're far too kind. By the way the human race is behaving currently, we don't deserve to get off this dirtball anytime soon. For fuck's sake, look at us! We hurt and kill each other for stupid reasons. We have entire cultures that consider women (and others!) to be less than a human being. We have assholes who attack, seriously (and profoundly!) injure and kill little girls because they have the audacity to want to learn how to read and write. We haven't proven we can adequately care for the environment of the planet of our origin, why should we be allowed another viable planet to screw up?
So far as I'm concerned it's a good thing we're far from the point where we can reach and colonize other planets because it's clear we're just not ready and won't be for quite some time to come. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if our galaxy is teeming with intelligent, starfaring races, and they've quarantined us because we're so fucked up and shouldn't be let loose on the galaxy.
And, even though HP has announced its intention to enter the 3D printing space (possibly this fall)..
HP doesn't count anymore. From what I hear, they're more or less gutting themselves of any real technical talent in favor of offshoring and overseas outsourcing, outright firing long-time domestic engineers and workers just to improve their bottom line in the short term. Don't expect any innovation or high quality from a company that's hiring nobodies just barely out of school at best who can't find their ass with both hands.
sudo more_cowbell
Go troll somewhere else, you're really terrible at it.
Nuclear detonation? We'd have worse things to worry about then (like ionizing radiation killing us all). Solar flare activity? How the hell would you even protect the entire planet from something that powerful in the first place? Don't we have more immediate things to worry about than something as unlikely as this?
If it's any sort of 'medical device' then the FDA must approve it before allowing you to sell it in the U.S., and in order for it to be approved by them you must do testing the FDA mandates. The testing is complicated and very often expensive, and if your device can't pass the testing then you have to go back to the drawing board and fix whatever it is that causes it to fail the test. Additionally the FDA demands certain manufacturing standards. They can come in and inspect your production facilities, personnel, methods, procedures, tools used, etc. If they don't like the way the communal kitchen looks or whether the communal refrigerator is clean enough for them, or any number of other nit-picky things, they can prevent you from selling or even producing your device; they can shut your company down completely. Sometimes the cost of all the testing and jumping through the hoops the FDA requires you to jump through will cost more than your device costs to produce. The end result is the costs are all tacked on to the final price of the device being manufactured. The 3D-printed prosthetic obviously wasn't FDA approved and couldn't be mass-produced and sold without going through the same process that everyone else has to. Since 3D-printing is relatively new and there hasn't been much if any legislation to govern it's use, what will likely happen at some point in the future is that anyone offering the CAD/CAM files to produce something like this prosthetic hand on a 3D-printer will be jumped on by the FDA and required to do the requisite testing of the finished product or face legal action against them. Furthermore I wouldn't put it past the FDA to require only 'authorized' 3D-printers to produce such things. Of course if it's all open-source and people are building their own 3D printers then the FDA can more or less go fuck themselves, but there'll be a shitstorm over the whole subject, guaranteed.
Source of my information: Personal experience from working for a medical device manufacturer for 5 years.
Who says the NSA doesn't run the site?
Who says the NSA hasn't been running TOR all along? Sounds like a great way to fund black projects to me!
The U.S. economy is still in recovery and unemployment is still high. It's bad enough that we're importing workers for any reason, but to actually fire employees so you can import cheaper workers? What the actual FUCK!? It's pitchfork/scythe/burning torch time, I think; it's time for a little insurrection. U.S. companies need to be hiring U.S. citizens, damnit!
Because the richest people and the most powerful people want them to remain homeless and down, as a warning to the rest of us to "keep in line", otherwise we'll be made to live like them.
The solution to homelessness needs to come from the top, down. However the 'top' isn't terribly interested in really doing anything about it, otherwise we wouldn't have a homeless problem anymore. Instead those of us not at the top are expected to shoulder the burden in addition to our own responsibilities. This of course is utter bullshit and won't work. The homelessness problem all over the world will cease to exist when the people at the Top are forced to invest their resources in solving it, once and for all. And by 'once and for all' I don't mean 'round them up and make them disappear', either. There are homeless who are only such because they couldn't find a job, and since they're now homeless nobody will GIVE them a job; fix that problem! There are homeless who are mentally ill or stuck in a cycle of drug abuse; get them the help they need! I think we'd find there is a surprisingly small number of homeless people who want to be homeless and be leeches on society. Identify them and 'deal' with them appropriately, because that's something we just can't have anymore. I'm a firm believer in 'pulling your own weight', and the people that think they can be exempt from that need to be taught otherwise. But as I say I think those are a small percentage. Everyone else who is in the 'homeless' category should be allowed the help they need to not be homeless anymore -- and it needs to come from the TOP, not the BOTTOM.
Who the heck ever said that our bodies were designed to stand around all day either? I've read some of the comments here, and add my own experience: Having to stand in one place for hours on end? Excruciating. Worse than sitting by far.
Don't accuse me of being fat and out-of-shape, either: I have ~10% bodyfat, and am literally atheltic, I race bikes for fun and are training for it in one way or another 6 days a week. At least one other person here has said they're fine if they're on their feet and moving around all day long, but standing in one place is pure torture and more damaging than sitting. I think what we have here is more junk science, grasping at straws for a solution for people getting fatter and more diseased, and they're wildly swinging the needle all the way in the other direction instead of finding a sane middle-ground. What people need to do is get up and move around more during the day, and their employers need to encourage them to do it, and furthermore when people leave work for the day, they need to engage in more physical activity instead of plopping down on a couch in front of the television and consume alcohol and shitty food, or whatever version of that may apply to them specifically.
Sums it up nicely.
I'd have to say, in my opinion, that the "some" you speak of is still the majority of the population. Even college-educated people with well above-average IQ's and an inherently questioning nature still indulge in religion, and you can readily find people who staunchly believe that not only is there a God, Satan, heaven, and hell, but that all science is the work of Satan intent on 'misleading the faithful'.
For a long time now I've thought that religion will cause the next Dark Age of Man, through promoting willful ignorance, superstition, and blind "faith", instead of promoting knowledge, understanding, and the search for actual truth. Apparently I was wrong, or at least not completely correct: Politicians and politics will bring about the next Dark Age, by driving people away from the Internet through mass surveillance, and runaway corporate interests destroying Net Neutrality. Once the Internet is no longer a viable source of sharing information for the common citizen, it won't be much farther to go to drive people, en masse, back into the welcoming arms of organized religion and it's rejection of critical thought.
I'm embarassed to have voted for this party-line politician we elected as President, but frankly the other choice would have been at least as bad. Why don't you just declare the Constitution invalid and the U.S. officially a Police State already and get it over with?
No. They should not, and despite anything they may try to convince Capital Hill and the U.S. populace of, that's exactly what they're trying to do, and that's precisely what will happen. It not only should be blocked from happening, Comcast should be required to break up into smaller companies, just like the phone company was required to in previous decades, but in this case the reasons to do so are even more dire than just them having a mere monopoly on a market.