For all you people that work in marketing for a company that produces mundane products like cars or electronics just put a check box on all communications with your customers asking if it's ok for you to send marketing info to them in the future (like almost every company already does). Then, for all the ones that have agree, figure out if they have a cat or dog. Wait until the pet is let out of the house and then deliver a severed cat/dog head (simulated, if local laws prohibit this, but make sure it's the same breed/colors as their real pet) on their front stoop with your product's name carved in it. They authorized you to contact them didn't they? How can they, possibly, blame you for any mental trauma they might have? It is, after all, perfectly reasonable to contact them in any form you can think up right? After all, you're just being "inventive" and "edgy"...
On the one hand, $10 million isn't something to sneeze at, even for a company with $200 billion in yearly revenue. That $10 million represents a lot of lower level employee's worth of salary which might lead to lots of average Joes getting layed off (face it, it won't be the execs. that feel the hurt). On the other hand, it sounds, to me, like they, honestly, earned the punishment (though, perhaps somewhat less than what she's asking) on this one. It isn't reasonable to say that just because she checked a box somewhere agreeing to accept marketing communications from a company that she should expect those communications to take the form of a simulated stalking. What next, are they going to go door to door in white robes burning crosses on people's front lawns to drum up attention for next year's Carolla?
Yes, they've been working on VASIMIR, and many other technologies, for decades. What makes this story newsworthy is the fact that they've passed another major milestone and are one step away from real-world implementation in the space station. Unfortunately, public opinion often weighs heavily, whether we like it or not, on which technologies get the funding to continue development. This is true in government projects, like what NASA does, and doubly true in privately funded companies like the one developing this rocket. So, you may not like to see incremental updates on new technology that takes decades to develop but it servers an important purpose in bringing the money men into the process and getting them to fund advancement. Besides, if you don't like seeing updates on the bleeding edge of advanced technology research and development, what are you doing on Slashdot? This is "news for nerds", not "news for grumpy whiners that like to complain about any story they don't, personally, find fascinating".
Actually, they may have only gotten ~33km up, but those are the densest 33km of the trip. When you take into account the extra fuel they would need to overcome atmospheric drag at lower altitudes, each km of travel at low altitude is worth more than each km at high altitude. My understanding was that this leads to a significant fuel savings, which means a lighter vehicle, which means less energy to get it up to that 7km/s you were talking about.
He was able to move in it, but not very well. If it were combined with some of the powered exo-skeletons out right now it would, probably, be what you're talking about. Of course, the weave of the Kevlar fiber used makes a huge difference in whether it handles bullets or knives. I'm guessing that his designed used a weave intended for knives as it would be more comparable to a bear's claws. That would have to be swapped out.
The only industry I've ever heard of that being the case in is with Memory and IC substrates and logical design. Wood, ceramics, iron, and cement haven't "advanced", significantly to keep their lead over the others. The reason that titanium, magnesium, and carbon fiber haven't overtaken them yet is that we haven't, yet, developed a super-cheap production method for them (similar to the Bessemer process that allowed steel production to become cheap enough for it to over-take iron and the Faber process that allowed Aluminum to stop being worth more, per pound, than gold).
At that point, it may be worth just replacing the present system with a GPS as the GPS system, on it's own, is probably much more accurate at calculating heading.
Yup. Of course, the next question becomes what, practical, application can you think of in which you would need ultra-low lag in finding magnetic north? Really, most of the, truly, useful applications of direct neural connections would be in the realm of controlling electronic devices and directly manipulating our perception to create realistic VR for entertainment interaction with remote/dangerous environments.
What would be even more awesome would be if they chose to do it to themselves with the help of some Yoga classes and a mirror. That would make for one heck of a YouTube video.
Some here have pointed out that, especially in colder climates, these bulbs aren't as much of an improvement in effiency as stated in the article. They argue that incandescent are cheap and produce waste heat which is useful in the winter. Now, this may be true, to some extent, but in many places electricity happens to be one of the most expensive forms of home heating. That blunts the advantage of the waste heat provided by incandescent bulbs. Also, there is still the summer months where not only is the LED bulb more efficient than the older bulbs, but the AC would no longer have to fight against the waste heat to keep your house cool. In the end, it is true that the true cost savings may be less than the stated $23 a year (even if you do use the bulb as much as is assumed) but that number shouldn't be as low as some people think. It may only be something like $18 per year.
The question is, so what? The real issue is that many of the people on this forum have the patients of a 5 year old. If it doesn't provide immediate benefits they think it's garbage. Even if the savings are only half (just under $12 per year), you would still make back the cost of the bulb in under 4 years. Sure, the up-front cost is high compared to the older bulbs, but we aren't talking about something like solar panels, a new furnace, new appliances, new windows, new insulation, or ground source geo-thermal heating. Even replacing all the most commonly used bulbs in a house wouldn't come close to those, more common, energy saving measures. And, do you know what the best part about these bulbs are? Unlike most of the things I just mentioned, if you ever choose to move you can take them with you. Most large improvements in energy efficiency are invisible to new buyers and can be hard to get back in sale price. With LED bulbs, you don't have to worry about it. Sure, one or two might get broken, but if the rest last even half of their rated 19 year life-span they'll make up for those lost bulbs many times over.
Your comment about electric heat is worthless. Whether electric heat is the most expensive form of heating, or the cheapest, depends, almost entirely, on what part of the world you live in. In the US, it varies greatly based on what state/county you're in. I've lived in areas where the local electric company is a co-op and power prices are so low that natural gas, oil, etc. can't compete.
That said, I agree about much of the rest of what you said. No matter what heating system you use, better insulating your home can save lots of money and living in an apartment with crappy insulation is a bad idea.
Heat pumps don't work in colder environments which, coincidentally, are also, usually, the places with the longest winters and shortest summers. In the warmer environments where a heat pump would be usable, the long summers would make much of the argument moot as the extra heat from the incandescent would be unwanted most of the year.
Actually, you would save money on your heating bill. The added heat from the incandescent bulb will cause your thermostat to shut off the furnace, slightly, sooner than it would have with LED bulbs. This will lead to a, slight, savings on your electric bill.
Actually, it's even worse that that. US regulations say that the receiver can work over 60,000 feet and can work at over a certain speed limit but that it isn't allowed to do both at the same time. The idea is to stop them from being used as guidance for low cost ballistic missiles. The problem is that many of the GPS manufacturers got lazy and just set their equipment to stop working if either condition occurred. In this case, it' really isn't the fault of the US regulations.
Um, I think some people want to track how high their balloon went so they can work on improving their fine control. Some people want to push for the highest altitude possible while others want to aim for a specific altitude (for instance, there's a project trying to aim for the right jet-stream altitude to allow their balloon to travel across the Atlantic ocean). Both of those situations end up being well over the altitude limit imposed by many of the GPS manufacturers.
No matter if the system uses shutter glasses or polarized glasses (I don't mention the red/blue glasses because no-one is even considering using them) they still allow you to look at other things in the room. The only difference is that they'll cause the room to look a little darker like sunglasses.
Of course, the proper remedy for this (given that it is on a LAN) is to get up, walk down the hall, and beat the crap out of the douche-bag who's DoSing you. Really, the only reason DoS attacks work so well on the Internet is that the guys doing it are probably half-way around the world.
NOBODY EXPECT ATTACKS FROM INSIDE YOUR LAN!!!! Their chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Their two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Their *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to rms.... Their *four*...no... *Amongst* their weapons.... Amongst their weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.
Wow, what a surprise, someone with the Slashdot name "HeronBlademaster" is a Robert Jordan fan-boy. Sure, having 11 books in a series doesn't guarantee that it's crap, but it certainly increases the chances. What seals the deal is the fact that even Jordan originally claimed it was going to be much shorter. Either he was being pushed by his editors to drag it on for profits or he just let the story get away from him and didn't know how to, competently, wrap it up. Either way, it's crap writing. I'm one of those that enjoyed the series until book 5 or 6. At that point, the quality of writing went down the toilette. It has nothing to do with Jordan's writing style being "for everyone", it has to do with his writing style going from good to drivel as the series went on, and on, and on, and on. He was an excellent writer over a single book, or a short series but he just wasn't competent enough to keep his story focused over the kind of epic series he wanted to create.
Yup, they've already got software that comes with Logitech webcams to "greenscreen" out the background. Now they just need to design better audio filters...
This is how the logic of the discussion works out:
OP says he doesn't know why any environmentalist would object to this technology.
A poster responds with the premise that this technology might be used by the coal industry to justify continued implementatin of new coal plants or to claim we don't need to work so hard on alternative techologies
You interject suggesting that his comment doesn't matter ("So?") and add in the ludicrous suggestion that fossil fuels are just another form of solar energy. Were you, seriously, trying to suggest that burning fossil fuels is no worse that solar power? That's sure what it seemed like. You also suggest that we shouldn't bother to try to find ways to stop using fossil fuels completely.
I point out that there's no reason that we shouldn't be trying to eliminate all fossil fuel use (eventually, and if possible) and also try to point out the fact that whether you happen to think it will happen or not, THE ORIGINAL RESPONSE TO THE OP WAS CORRECT. IT PRESENTED A VALID REASON FOR WHY AN ENVIRONMENTALIST WOULD OBJECT TO THIS TECHNOLOGY (granted, OP made the general statement "burning less coal", rather than specify this specific technology, but I'm comfortable in responding relative to the article as that's the topic at hand and anything else is either off topic or a straw-man argument). Whether you like it or not, it is possible for a slight improvement in the situation to be used as a road-block for more significant changes.
Speaking of straw-man arguments, how, exactly, did the nutbag groups like Earth Liberation Front get pulled into this conversation? That has nothing to do with the discussion or anything anyone else in this thread said. You assume that just because some of us choose to be wary realists about the situation, rather than hold a feel good circle jerk over every minor improvement and walk away believing that it implies we're on the right track, that we all must be eco-terrorists?
Slashdot Mirror
For all you people that work in marketing for a company that produces mundane products like cars or electronics just put a check box on all communications with your customers asking if it's ok for you to send marketing info to them in the future (like almost every company already does). Then, for all the ones that have agree, figure out if they have a cat or dog. Wait until the pet is let out of the house and then deliver a severed cat/dog head (simulated, if local laws prohibit this, but make sure it's the same breed/colors as their real pet) on their front stoop with your product's name carved in it. They authorized you to contact them didn't they? How can they, possibly, blame you for any mental trauma they might have? It is, after all, perfectly reasonable to contact them in any form you can think up right? After all, you're just being "inventive" and "edgy"...
On the one hand, $10 million isn't something to sneeze at, even for a company with $200 billion in yearly revenue. That $10 million represents a lot of lower level employee's worth of salary which might lead to lots of average Joes getting layed off (face it, it won't be the execs. that feel the hurt). On the other hand, it sounds, to me, like they, honestly, earned the punishment (though, perhaps somewhat less than what she's asking) on this one. It isn't reasonable to say that just because she checked a box somewhere agreeing to accept marketing communications from a company that she should expect those communications to take the form of a simulated stalking. What next, are they going to go door to door in white robes burning crosses on people's front lawns to drum up attention for next year's Carolla?
Yea, he's a bigger buzzkill than Buzz Killington...
Well, it would make sense that America would have two armpits. j/k
Yes, they've been working on VASIMIR, and many other technologies, for decades. What makes this story newsworthy is the fact that they've passed another major milestone and are one step away from real-world implementation in the space station. Unfortunately, public opinion often weighs heavily, whether we like it or not, on which technologies get the funding to continue development. This is true in government projects, like what NASA does, and doubly true in privately funded companies like the one developing this rocket. So, you may not like to see incremental updates on new technology that takes decades to develop but it servers an important purpose in bringing the money men into the process and getting them to fund advancement. Besides, if you don't like seeing updates on the bleeding edge of advanced technology research and development, what are you doing on Slashdot? This is "news for nerds", not "news for grumpy whiners that like to complain about any story they don't, personally, find fascinating".
What they don't mention in the article is that they strapped the driver dow nto the motorcycle and dropped them both from a really tall building...
Actually, they may have only gotten ~33km up, but those are the densest 33km of the trip. When you take into account the extra fuel they would need to overcome atmospheric drag at lower altitudes, each km of travel at low altitude is worth more than each km at high altitude. My understanding was that this leads to a significant fuel savings, which means a lighter vehicle, which means less energy to get it up to that 7km/s you were talking about.
He was able to move in it, but not very well. If it were combined with some of the powered exo-skeletons out right now it would, probably, be what you're talking about. Of course, the weave of the Kevlar fiber used makes a huge difference in whether it handles bullets or knives. I'm guessing that his designed used a weave intended for knives as it would be more comparable to a bear's claws. That would have to be swapped out.
The only industry I've ever heard of that being the case in is with Memory and IC substrates and logical design. Wood, ceramics, iron, and cement haven't "advanced", significantly to keep their lead over the others. The reason that titanium, magnesium, and carbon fiber haven't overtaken them yet is that we haven't, yet, developed a super-cheap production method for them (similar to the Bessemer process that allowed steel production to become cheap enough for it to over-take iron and the Faber process that allowed Aluminum to stop being worth more, per pound, than gold).
At that point, it may be worth just replacing the present system with a GPS as the GPS system, on it's own, is probably much more accurate at calculating heading.
Yup. Of course, the next question becomes what, practical, application can you think of in which you would need ultra-low lag in finding magnetic north? Really, most of the, truly, useful applications of direct neural connections would be in the realm of controlling electronic devices and directly manipulating our perception to create realistic VR for entertainment interaction with remote/dangerous environments.
What would be even more awesome would be if they chose to do it to themselves with the help of some Yoga classes and a mirror. That would make for one heck of a YouTube video.
Some here have pointed out that, especially in colder climates, these bulbs aren't as much of an improvement in effiency as stated in the article. They argue that incandescent are cheap and produce waste heat which is useful in the winter. Now, this may be true, to some extent, but in many places electricity happens to be one of the most expensive forms of home heating. That blunts the advantage of the waste heat provided by incandescent bulbs. Also, there is still the summer months where not only is the LED bulb more efficient than the older bulbs, but the AC would no longer have to fight against the waste heat to keep your house cool. In the end, it is true that the true cost savings may be less than the stated $23 a year (even if you do use the bulb as much as is assumed) but that number shouldn't be as low as some people think. It may only be something like $18 per year.
The question is, so what? The real issue is that many of the people on this forum have the patients of a 5 year old. If it doesn't provide immediate benefits they think it's garbage. Even if the savings are only half (just under $12 per year), you would still make back the cost of the bulb in under 4 years. Sure, the up-front cost is high compared to the older bulbs, but we aren't talking about something like solar panels, a new furnace, new appliances, new windows, new insulation, or ground source geo-thermal heating. Even replacing all the most commonly used bulbs in a house wouldn't come close to those, more common, energy saving measures. And, do you know what the best part about these bulbs are? Unlike most of the things I just mentioned, if you ever choose to move you can take them with you. Most large improvements in energy efficiency are invisible to new buyers and can be hard to get back in sale price. With LED bulbs, you don't have to worry about it. Sure, one or two might get broken, but if the rest last even half of their rated 19 year life-span they'll make up for those lost bulbs many times over.
Your comment about electric heat is worthless. Whether electric heat is the most expensive form of heating, or the cheapest, depends, almost entirely, on what part of the world you live in. In the US, it varies greatly based on what state/county you're in. I've lived in areas where the local electric company is a co-op and power prices are so low that natural gas, oil, etc. can't compete.
That said, I agree about much of the rest of what you said. No matter what heating system you use, better insulating your home can save lots of money and living in an apartment with crappy insulation is a bad idea.
Heat pumps don't work in colder environments which, coincidentally, are also, usually, the places with the longest winters and shortest summers. In the warmer environments where a heat pump would be usable, the long summers would make much of the argument moot as the extra heat from the incandescent would be unwanted most of the year.
Actually, you would save money on your heating bill. The added heat from the incandescent bulb will cause your thermostat to shut off the furnace, slightly, sooner than it would have with LED bulbs. This will lead to a, slight, savings on your electric bill.
I hear you can, dramatically, increase the energy efficiency if you re-route the furnace exhaust back into the house. ;-)
Actually, it's even worse that that. US regulations say that the receiver can work over 60,000 feet and can work at over a certain speed limit but that it isn't allowed to do both at the same time. The idea is to stop them from being used as guidance for low cost ballistic missiles. The problem is that many of the GPS manufacturers got lazy and just set their equipment to stop working if either condition occurred. In this case, it' really isn't the fault of the US regulations.
Um, I think some people want to track how high their balloon went so they can work on improving their fine control. Some people want to push for the highest altitude possible while others want to aim for a specific altitude (for instance, there's a project trying to aim for the right jet-stream altitude to allow their balloon to travel across the Atlantic ocean). Both of those situations end up being well over the altitude limit imposed by many of the GPS manufacturers.
No matter if the system uses shutter glasses or polarized glasses (I don't mention the red/blue glasses because no-one is even considering using them) they still allow you to look at other things in the room. The only difference is that they'll cause the room to look a little darker like sunglasses.
Of course, the proper remedy for this (given that it is on a LAN) is to get up, walk down the hall, and beat the crap out of the douche-bag who's DoSing you. Really, the only reason DoS attacks work so well on the Internet is that the guys doing it are probably half-way around the world.
NOBODY EXPECT ATTACKS FROM INSIDE YOUR LAN!!!! Their chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Their two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Their *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to rms.... Their *four*...no... *Amongst* their weapons.... Amongst their weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.
Wow, what a surprise, someone with the Slashdot name "HeronBlademaster" is a Robert Jordan fan-boy. Sure, having 11 books in a series doesn't guarantee that it's crap, but it certainly increases the chances. What seals the deal is the fact that even Jordan originally claimed it was going to be much shorter. Either he was being pushed by his editors to drag it on for profits or he just let the story get away from him and didn't know how to, competently, wrap it up. Either way, it's crap writing. I'm one of those that enjoyed the series until book 5 or 6. At that point, the quality of writing went down the toilette. It has nothing to do with Jordan's writing style being "for everyone", it has to do with his writing style going from good to drivel as the series went on, and on, and on, and on. He was an excellent writer over a single book, or a short series but he just wasn't competent enough to keep his story focused over the kind of epic series he wanted to create.
Yup, they've already got software that comes with Logitech webcams to "greenscreen" out the background. Now they just need to design better audio filters...
This is how the logic of the discussion works out:
Speaking of straw-man arguments, how, exactly, did the nutbag groups like Earth Liberation Front get pulled into this conversation? That has nothing to do with the discussion or anything anyone else in this thread said. You assume that just because some of us choose to be wary realists about the situation, rather than hold a feel good circle jerk over every minor improvement and walk away believing that it implies we're on the right track, that we all must be eco-terrorists?