Something I have struggled with is a solar tracker that would allow a mirror to stayed focused on a water pipe to heat it to near steam to accelerate the evaporation. Something that does not actually require elctro-mechanical input.
Have you considered a solar trough?
You can get the sun's elevation and adjust the angle of your trough once every 3-4 days; after all, your pipe is not going to be a hit-or-miss-thread so doesn't need to stay exactly in the parabola focus.
When the Martian rovers do so well on wheels? The wheel works, the leg is fiddly and invert-pendulumy. We have enough issues getting shit put into orbit and sent off to Mars/Moon/Alpha-Centauri, why are we dicking around with legs?
Well, Neil Amstrong took only a small step. Meanwhile, police alleged that giant steps is what you take walking on the moon; someone need to prove the allegation.
In the ABS incident, the brakes didn't fail, the car acted as it had never had ABS. Cars have had a lot of mechanical recalls that could cause death, and people have died from them. The software is no more complex than the mechanics and other hardware in the car, and no more dangerous. But few crashes are from mechanical failure, almost all are human error.
For the time being, you may be right. But, me thinks, for the wrong reasons. I surmise that, in the future, we are bound to see more accidents due to the higher degree of automation involved in a car (due to the push towards higher fuel efficiency). This will increased complexity and with the complexity, the number of places/conditions where things can go wrong will increase. Example: - faulty temperature sensor may cause your VW/Audi car to switch to neutral while at full speed.
In regards with the use of software: it may look like the it's a low cause for recall, because until now there wasn't too much software in a car and the complexity of the existing software wasn't high enough (dealing with isolated well-defined functions).
This is bound to change in the future and we may (or may not) see a change in the influence of software in the rate of serious accidents. For the time being, the only fair statement is we don't know yet. Which let's us the liberty to choose our PoV in concerning the future: I, for one, tend to lean towards a mild pessimist.
True, but we know that human drivers slaughter vast numbers of humans every year.
False: we know that a certain percentage of human drivers slaughter another percantage of humans, in the vast majority of cases exactly once (is highly improbable that a human driver which caused an accident resulting in deaths will be permitted to go free and cause yet other such accidents).
What we don't know: how prone is an "automatic software driver" to bugs resulting in deadly accidents (even if some dataexists). Would worth pondering a while on: if a version of the said soft/firm-ware is installed on a line of cars, it's like having the clones of the same driver doing the driving for many cars in the same time.
Add to the above:
* To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.
* “A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila.” Mitch Ratcliffe.
Hey, give Anonymous some credit here! At least they're going after Canberra this time and not Vienna!
Well, I fear a situation in which Austria would do something disputable to a country in Asia-Pacific: chances are it will be still Canberra to be attacked.
(hint: look over the distance between Indonesia and Australia or, respectively, Austria).
Realistically, Indonesia is probably not going to do anything adverse against Australia beyond saber rattling - they need Australia more than Australia needs Indonesia.
You're wrong. They don't need to mount a military attack: just turn a blind eye on "people smugglers" and suspend the import of live stock from Australia for 4-5 months.
I'm still not saying that Snowden is reponsible for this
'He was trusted; he stripped our system...' Snowden could claim exactly that against the NSA.
From outside US: until the phase above won't naturally come as "We claim exactly that against the NSA" (instead of "Snowden could...") nothing is going to change in this regard.
You are cheering for Snowden in his "match" against NSA, but not actually supporting him.
Real nerds make very good friends with other nerds, especially if they share the interest.
The "species" that doesn't trully have friends is the dolts.
Hmm. Journalism Degree. Work for minimum wage (or less) for your entire career. Waiters make more money than you. CS degree, sixty grand a year right out of school, most of them will be making at least six digits long before the end of their career. I enjoy being an exceptionally dull weirdo. How's journalism treating you?
Well, think what if all non-weirdos would be able to code as dull-weirdos do? Would you still bet on the 6 digits wages?
I'm afraid the root cause of the problems of corruption in government are *directly* related to the outsized power big government has - if government was limited, and could not tip the economic scales of the market in one direction or another to benefit their cronies, there would be no incentive for big business to take part in the election process.
You are right, but for the wrong reasons. You see, if big business are not limited by anything but themselves (the "free market fairy" hypothesis), then there would be no election process - the big corps don't need it because they don't need democracy to function.
It's a double-edged sword. If they can't agree to Facebook's TOS, then they can't register an account at all.
Minors are not immune from the law just because they fraudulently entered into a contract (i.e. lied about their age).
True, but irrelevant for the matter of hand.
You see, in this case, it is not the minor than needs to do something to rollback the effects of a fradulent contract, it is the other side entering the contract. It is up to you (as a "service provider") to take any precautions against potential losses resulting from entering contracts with minors.
Here's another example: if you buy in good faith a stolen car, you can still incur the loss of the car when restituted to the lawfull owner even if you did not know the car you bought was stollen.
The journal 'Metalurgia International' is a hoax in itself. I bet it has about 6 subscribers, none of whom actually read it. It doesn't have a web site...
Slashdot Mirror
Something I have struggled with is a solar tracker that would allow a mirror to stayed focused on a water pipe to heat it to near steam to accelerate the evaporation. Something that does not actually require elctro-mechanical input.
Have you considered a solar trough?
You can get the sun's elevation and adjust the angle of your trough once every 3-4 days; after all, your pipe is not going to be a hit-or-miss-thread so doesn't need to stay exactly in the parabola focus.
That would be an excellent name for a rock band, or a porn flick.
Or just for kinetic bombardment
As my boss reminds me: give a 110%. All the percentages must go up!
No, not all. For instance: the percentage of increase for wages - those must go down, India's waiting.
When the Martian rovers do so well on wheels? The wheel works, the leg is fiddly and invert-pendulumy. We have enough issues getting shit put into orbit and sent off to Mars/Moon/Alpha-Centauri, why are we dicking around with legs?
Well, Neil Amstrong took only a small step.
Meanwhile, police alleged that giant steps is what you take walking on the moon; someone need to prove the allegation.
Why not cut the $1.8 Trillion expected cost of the ACA since it appears to be a complete failure and based on nothing but lies.
This is expected to cost $1.8 trillion?
Yes, George Washington was famous for being tolerant of crack cocaine users.
Wrong: he was actually sympathetic with crystal meth junkies afflicted by a "meth mouth" condition.
(I'm from Europe, politicians never let facts and figures get in the way of ideology).
Nevertheless, you don't deny that European politicians don't let the same facts and figures get in the way of their ideology, do you?
The satire was not subtle at all - how did so many people miss it?
My experience is that Europeans recognized the satire immediately, while Americans thought it was a serious movie glamourising American militarism.
Do americans get irony?
In the ABS incident, the brakes didn't fail, the car acted as it had never had ABS. Cars have had a lot of mechanical recalls that could cause death, and people have died from them. The software is no more complex than the mechanics and other hardware in the car, and no more dangerous. But few crashes are from mechanical failure, almost all are human error.
For the time being, you may be right. But, me thinks, for the wrong reasons.
I surmise that, in the future, we are bound to see more accidents due to the higher degree of automation involved in a car (due to the push towards higher fuel efficiency). This will increased complexity and with the complexity, the number of places/conditions where things can go wrong will increase. Example: - faulty temperature sensor may cause your VW/Audi car to switch to neutral while at full speed.
In regards with the use of software: it may look like the it's a low cause for recall, because until now there wasn't too much software in a car and the complexity of the existing software wasn't high enough (dealing with isolated well-defined functions).
This is bound to change in the future and we may (or may not) see a change in the influence of software in the rate of serious accidents. For the time being, the only fair statement is we don't know yet. Which let's us the liberty to choose our PoV in concerning the future: I, for one, tend to lean towards a mild pessimist.
True, but we know that human drivers slaughter vast numbers of humans every year.
False: we know that a certain percentage of human drivers slaughter another percantage of humans, in the vast majority of cases exactly once (is highly improbable that a human driver which caused an accident resulting in deaths will be permitted to go free and cause yet other such accidents).
What we don't know: how prone is an "automatic software driver" to bugs resulting in deadly accidents (even if some data exists).
Would worth pondering a while on: if a version of the said soft/firm-ware is installed on a line of cars, it's like having the clones of the same driver doing the driving for many cars in the same time.
Add to the above:
* To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.
* “A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila.” Mitch Ratcliffe.
Hell, I'd almost pay higher premiums for the computer to do the driving.
Are you sure? Even if knowing you may not be driven by a software for long?
(if managing the ABS by software is bug prone, what are the chances a software autonomous driver will be bug free?)
...and show me your sexy Bezier patches in wireframe.
FTFY
Hey, give Anonymous some credit here! At least they're going after Canberra this time and not Vienna!
Well, I fear a situation in which Austria would do something disputable to a country in Asia-Pacific: chances are it will be still Canberra to be attacked.
(hint: look over the distance between Indonesia and Australia or, respectively, Austria).
Realistically, Indonesia is probably not going to do anything adverse against Australia beyond saber rattling - they need Australia more than Australia needs Indonesia.
You're wrong.
They don't need to mount a military attack: just turn a blind eye on "people smugglers" and suspend the import of live stock from Australia for 4-5 months.
I'm still not saying that Snowden is reponsible for this
'He was trusted; he stripped our system...' Snowden could claim exactly that against the NSA.
From outside US: until the phase above won't naturally come as "We claim exactly that against the NSA" (instead of "Snowden could...") nothing is going to change in this regard.
You are cheering for Snowden in his "match" against NSA, but not actually supporting him.
A fundamental flaw in Google's logic!
Real nerds make very good friends with other nerds, especially if they share the interest.
The "species" that doesn't trully have friends is the dolts.
Wonder how much pressure the PM is getting from Washington?
About strings... maybe "tension" or "pull" instead of pressure? (imagine one trying to push a piece of string)
The kind of PM talk UK newspapers can expect
Coding is a creative process, closer to painting or writing.
For me lately is like carving. You know? Getting out the unnecessary and let only the beautiful lines speak for themselves.
Hmm. Journalism Degree. Work for minimum wage (or less) for your entire career. Waiters make more money than you. CS degree, sixty grand a year right out of school, most of them will be making at least six digits long before the end of their career. I enjoy being an exceptionally dull weirdo. How's journalism treating you?
Well, think what if all non-weirdos would be able to code as dull-weirdos do? Would you still bet on the 6 digits wages?
I'm afraid the root cause of the problems of corruption in government are *directly* related to the outsized power big government has - if government was limited, and could not tip the economic scales of the market in one direction or another to benefit their cronies, there would be no incentive for big business to take part in the election process.
You are right, but for the wrong reasons.
You see, if big business are not limited by anything but themselves (the "free market fairy" hypothesis), then there would be no election process - the big corps don't need it because they don't need democracy to function.
It's a double-edged sword. If they can't agree to Facebook's TOS, then they can't register an account at all.
Minors are not immune from the law just because they fraudulently entered into a contract (i.e. lied about their age).
True, but irrelevant for the matter of hand.
You see, in this case, it is not the minor than needs to do something to rollback the effects of a fradulent contract, it is the other side entering the contract. It is up to you (as a "service provider") to take any precautions against potential losses resulting from entering contracts with minors.
Here's another example: if you buy in good faith a stolen car, you can still incur the loss of the car when restituted to the lawfull owner even if you did not know the car you bought was stollen.
The journal 'Metalurgia International' is a hoax in itself. I bet it has about 6 subscribers, none of whom actually read it. ...
It doesn't have a web site
True for the present, but it used to have one - the late sitemap; RIP
Is this real? (Metallurgia International's web site appears to be gone, so there's no direct proof).
It used to exist, yes... as for being real or surreal, I can't say.
Some chances: Alcatel-Lucent is still a French company.