Self-response. After RTFA, it seems that the news item, "MIT Making Super Efficient Origami Solar Panels," isn't even remotely correct. Apparently, the professor and students working on this project, have managed to develop a computer program that designs solar panel geometry to maximize solar absorption throughout a day. So, MIT isn't making anything. No new solar cell technology has come of this. Basically, some computer modeling has determined the optimum configuration for something given some input parameters. Wow.
Now, I don't mean to trivialize the educational value of this kind of research for the students working on the project. However, as a news item, this doesn't seem particularly newsworthy at all.
So, I've come to the conclusion that anytime anyone claims to be working with "super-, ultra-, or mega-" efficient anything, the product never seems to make it to market. Can we start using some buzzwords that actually mean something, like maybe, "MIT works on practical, efficient solar cells." Or perhaps, "MIT works on deployable, efficient solar cells." Or maybe, "MIT works on manufacturable, efficient solar cells."
Then those announcements might mean something. Wait, you mean to tell me that the project likely isn't practical, deployable, or manufacturable? Oh, well.....
Great! Thanks for the warning. Now, how's about we stop spouting and start trying to do something about it? Have you written your representative and senator about your thoughts with regard to regulating ISPs? Have you written the chairman of the FCC? Have you contacted your ISP and finagled your way through the customer service telephony maze to discuss your complaints with a manager who actually has some clout? Have you done research in your area to determine just what internet access options you do have other than the few big providers? Have you met with any company representatives from any of the smaller ISP's in your area and discussed, with them, ways that you may be able to help them compete with the big telcos?
Have you done anything to help the internet?
Or have you just posted prophetic words to Slashdot so that you could whore yourself out for some more karma?
Now, I am not implying that you haven't done anything, but please, if you are really concerned, start taking action and stop talking so much.
Men tend to wear facial hair designed to resemble a woman's pubic patch. All great men have worn mustaches. Therefore, all great men have been emulating a female's anatomy. Further proof for my belief that the vagina is a source of super powers.
I'm tellin' yah boys, either we wake up to the threat that is the blood-spewing female reproductive organs, or we will be doomed to extinction by Snu-Snu.
We lead the space race, put men on the moon, landers on Mars, explored the furthest reaches of our system, made huge technological breakthroughs via the space race and now we're reduced to begging for rides from the commies?
Are you kidding me? What Cold War leftovers modded this crap up? Lead the space race? The Russians were the first country to:
A) Put an orbiting satellite in space
B) Put a man in space
C) Send probes to Venus and Mars
...And a host of other things. The ONLY time we Americans beat the Russians in the space race was when we put Little Neil Armstrong on the moon.
And who said we were begging for rides? We have been partnering with the Russians for rides to and from the ISS for years now. When it comes down to it, the Soyuz is, currently, the cheapest way to get a man to the ISS. The only thing that flying brick of crap known as the space shuttle was good for was cargo hauling a crapton of stuff to LEO. JAXA just demonstrated an autonomous, unmanned cargo freighter that should help replace that role. The ESA, too, is in the process of developing a decent sized freighter for the ISS. Likewise, both Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are working on their own supply freighters for the ISS. SpaceX has taken the time to begin the preliminary work on man-rating their Dragon capsule. The space shuttle is a flying chunk of crap that, while it allowed for some interesting LEO science to be done, has stagnated the American space industry. As such, many other alternatives, both national and international, have developed over the past few decades that have made the shuttle obsolete. Bartering with the Russians for space on the Soyuz is just business as usual and, frankly, a damn fine business decision.
However, since you are so avidly patriotic, let me scratch your nationalist funny bone a bit. Currently, American companies (not Russian, not Chinese, not Japanese, but American) are developing space hotels, the cheapest ride to LEO, cheap lunar landers, and a Mars rover the size of a Volkswagon bug. We are still, far and away, the premier space industry on this planet. The best part is that, unlike most other countries, we don't have to rely solely on an over-regulated, stagnated, government agency which is prone to political grandstanding for our progress anymore. We Americans have the freedom, resources, and opportunity to access space privately, without NASA. Hell, even our college students are putting shit in orbit today.
So go ahead, bitch about what a sad state our country is in today. However, if you had half a brain you would realize that accessing space is neither easy nor cheap. Neither is it the exclusive right to Americans. No, in fact, space is the international frontier that the entire world can look to for progress and discovery. To fully harness the freedom of space, we don't need to keep waving our political dicks around screaming about American jobs and being the first country to do X. Nah, if we want the freedom of space, then it's time we lay down our outdated notions of nationalism and bullshitting and come together, not as a country, but as a species, to tackle the greatest challenge we have ever known. You want to bitch about us flying to the ISS on a Russian capsule? Well you, sir, and your ideals, are seriously out-dated. Human progress into the void that surrounds our tiny blue marble will not rest squarely on the shoulders of one government, or one country, or one company. Nah, it will rest on the shoulders of every man and woman mature and responsible enough to face such a daunting challenge with a square jaw and tenacious eyes of many bac
The internet. Neither social acceptability nor 2000 years of religious dogma are anywhere near a match for an abundance of free pornography and a lot of hormones in the general population. Even stuffy uptight legislators and lawyers enjoy logging onto spankwire.com every once in awhile. Once their own preaching starts taking a bite out of their own alone time, they'll have to figure something new out.
For better or for worse, the walled garden is the future of consumer electronics. It's good for security,
That's funny, I've always heard that the primary reason Linux is a more secure operating system than Windows is is precisely because it is not the walled garden of Windows. That is to say, having open access to the source code allows more eyes to spot bugs, holes, vulnerabilities, and flaws and post about it on various communication channels. Having the walled garden of a binary only OS means that anything you install on that OS requires you to implicitly trust the vendor. If Adobe screws the pooch and writes a hole in their code, I can't spot it, patch it, or fix it myself, nor can anyone else. We have to wait for Adobe to fix it and trust that they did it right.
This general law goes for hardware too. You see, if I can pull the screws off the back of my toaster, I can see where a shoddy solder job may have been done. I can see where a lazy tech accidentally exposed a wire creating a fire hazard. I can see where there are dark burn marks on the motherboard around a particular capacitor indicating that it needs to be replaced. That's secure. That means that I am secure in my possession from failing entirely. It also means that I can Google for my toaster's name and see common flaws with it.The alternative, not being able to open my toaster, means that I have to trust the company that made it to have done a good job. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. For instance, Toyota has had a very stellar level of trust with its customers. However, with the current accelerator pedal debacle, that trust is suffering. If the source code and/or schematics for the acceleration system were open, more than just Toyota's techs could try to find the bug/defect. This would increase the security of the product. Instead, since said technical details are locked down, we have to wait for Toyota to develop a fix and then decide if we can trust that they fixed it right.
I don't necessarily disagree with your whole post. However, the claim that walled garden consumer electronics are more secure, or somehow better for security, seems demonstrably false simply by looking at the security records of locked-down, walled-garden companies.
There are a few uses, but one that has had me seriously looking to start operating a Ham radio is that you can often use the equipment to track the broadcasts of various satellites which orbit overhead. I know some members of cubesat projects use them for confirmation of spacecraft survival after launch. There are a dozen other uses, but I always found the idea of linking actual satellite data to be extraordinarily exciting.
The only good part about the prequel trilogy was watching Samuel Jackson get chucked out of a skyscraper window. Other than that one scene, I think most of us could have done without all of it.
Where are the Grand Admiral Thrawns and Admiral Daalas?
More importantly, where is Mara Jade in a skimpy kick-ass undercover dancer's uniform? Don't get me wrong, Leia looked good in gold, but you just can't beat the idea of a piss-and-vinegar redhead in similar attire.
For that matter, let's throw Admiral Daala into that skimpy dancer's uniform mix too. Just for good measure.
Yeah, so when the whole Star Wars: Clone Wars thing came out, it took the dead horse that was left over after Revenge of the Sith and just beat it into a bloody awful mess. I didn't think you could do worse than that to the Star Wars namesake until this came along. I suppose George Lucas just had to ask, 'Will it blend as well?"
On the bright side, Seth Green is, far and away, a sci-fi Star Wars nerd so he certainly will try to do the franchise justice. I would be excited to see him pull it off well.
On the not so bright side, Matt Stone and Trey Parker wrote a whole episode of South Park dedicated to Lucas's raping of Indiana Jones in the fourth movie of the franchise. It looks like they may have just found a little more material for a new episode.
I think we need to do a study on whether posting a study to slashdot has a correlative or causal relationship with the corelationisnotcausation chant. Furthermore, I'd like to see a secondary study that explores the correlative vs. causal relationship between the correleationisnotcausation meme and the reactions that occur decrying the correlationisnotcasuation meme.
I really hope that whoever modded this interesting and not funny was just trying to boost jeffries karma. If someone on slashdot, whom is armed with mod points, thinks this is a legitimate idea, I fear for the state of most users' karma.
Just to be pedantic, evolution isn't something to be believed in its an explanatory model to be studied, criticized, critiqued, and, if something better comes along, replaced. That being said, the point of your post makes good sense. I am just asking you, too, to be careful about claiming to believe in evolution. Evolution is not a religion to be defended, it is a pretty cool (and so far as we can tell, accurate) model to be studied.
I suggest a glass of mead as well, as honey is believed to boost the immune system and act as an antibiotic in its own right.
It's interesting you would suggest that as it also works as a decent antihistamine if I recall correctly. Usually I reserve honey for when I get a throat cold and need a proper anti-septic/throat coat. But I agree, it, too, is amazing.
That's rich. I've been in any number of service providers offices and watched pissed off customers do a lot more than say, "Fuck your company." I watched a man rant at the Charter customer service folk for an hour. I've seen two women repeatedly call an AT&T receptionist stupid and useless. I've seen folks at a doctor's office use any number of slurs, swears, and other colorful language over having to wait too long. Never once was a local authority called in unless the pissed off customer started to get violent or make threats. I suppose things may vary in whatever city/state you live in. But I know here in California that if you honestly fear getting a ticket for using, 'inappropriate,' language your probably just being paranoid.
Oh, on broadcast. That makes more sense then. I thought he was trying to say that some entity regulates the use of foul language by citizens in general.
Apparently, from this article, Comcast madea successful argument based on the fact that the FCC fought to keep broadband deregulated in 2005 in the Supreme Court. While spitting on net neutrality basically spits in the face of the intent of that battle, I think the FCC could successfully file this particular incident under, "Lessons on Things Coming Back to Bite You in the Ass."
Sorry, but I think I am missing something. What government body, precisely, regulates your use of foul language?
Or maybe you were implying that Comcast does? I suppose they censor it on their cable channels, but if I Google, 'fuck,' on a Comcast connection, I find plenty of foul language.
Furthermore, I am pretty sure you can and do have every right to walk into Comcast's local office and say, "Fuck you and your non-neuatral internet," right to their face.
To my knowledge, nobody regulates foul language these days. I would be very interested in knowing if someone did though.
Slashdot Mirror
Self-response. After RTFA, it seems that the news item, "MIT Making Super Efficient Origami Solar Panels," isn't even remotely correct. Apparently, the professor and students working on this project, have managed to develop a computer program that designs solar panel geometry to maximize solar absorption throughout a day. So, MIT isn't making anything. No new solar cell technology has come of this. Basically, some computer modeling has determined the optimum configuration for something given some input parameters. Wow.
Now, I don't mean to trivialize the educational value of this kind of research for the students working on the project. However, as a news item, this doesn't seem particularly newsworthy at all.
Maybe I am just feeling cynical today though.
So, I've come to the conclusion that anytime anyone claims to be working with "super-, ultra-, or mega-" efficient anything, the product never seems to make it to market. Can we start using some buzzwords that actually mean something, like maybe, "MIT works on practical, efficient solar cells." Or perhaps, "MIT works on deployable, efficient solar cells." Or maybe, "MIT works on manufacturable, efficient solar cells."
Then those announcements might mean something. Wait, you mean to tell me that the project likely isn't practical, deployable, or manufacturable? Oh, well.....
Great! Thanks for the warning. Now, how's about we stop spouting and start trying to do something about it? Have you written your representative and senator about your thoughts with regard to regulating ISPs? Have you written the chairman of the FCC? Have you contacted your ISP and finagled your way through the customer service telephony maze to discuss your complaints with a manager who actually has some clout? Have you done research in your area to determine just what internet access options you do have other than the few big providers? Have you met with any company representatives from any of the smaller ISP's in your area and discussed, with them, ways that you may be able to help them compete with the big telcos?
Have you done anything to help the internet?
Or have you just posted prophetic words to Slashdot so that you could whore yourself out for some more karma?
Now, I am not implying that you haven't done anything, but please, if you are really concerned, start taking action and stop talking so much.
Well, that's another company to add to my growing list of, "Too stupid to give money to."
Time to change my cell phone service. I wonder if Sprint's CEO is any better...
Men tend to wear facial hair designed to resemble a woman's pubic patch. All great men have worn mustaches. Therefore, all great men have been emulating a female's anatomy. Further proof for my belief that the vagina is a source of super powers.
I'm tellin' yah boys, either we wake up to the threat that is the blood-spewing female reproductive organs, or we will be doomed to extinction by Snu-Snu.
Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for the work you do for our society. Also, thanks for your words on the subject. That was quite refreshing.
We lead the space race, put men on the moon, landers on Mars, explored the furthest reaches of our system, made huge technological breakthroughs via the space race and now we're reduced to begging for rides from the commies?
Are you kidding me? What Cold War leftovers modded this crap up? Lead the space race? The Russians were the first country to:
...And a host of other things. The ONLY time we Americans beat the Russians in the space race was when we put Little Neil Armstrong on the moon.
A) Put an orbiting satellite in space
B) Put a man in space
C) Send probes to Venus and Mars
And who said we were begging for rides? We have been partnering with the Russians for rides to and from the ISS for years now. When it comes down to it, the Soyuz is, currently, the cheapest way to get a man to the ISS. The only thing that flying brick of crap known as the space shuttle was good for was cargo hauling a crapton of stuff to LEO. JAXA just demonstrated an autonomous, unmanned cargo freighter that should help replace that role. The ESA, too, is in the process of developing a decent sized freighter for the ISS. Likewise, both Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are working on their own supply freighters for the ISS. SpaceX has taken the time to begin the preliminary work on man-rating their Dragon capsule. The space shuttle is a flying chunk of crap that, while it allowed for some interesting LEO science to be done, has stagnated the American space industry. As such, many other alternatives, both national and international, have developed over the past few decades that have made the shuttle obsolete. Bartering with the Russians for space on the Soyuz is just business as usual and, frankly, a damn fine business decision.
However, since you are so avidly patriotic, let me scratch your nationalist funny bone a bit. Currently, American companies (not Russian, not Chinese, not Japanese, but American) are developing space hotels, the cheapest ride to LEO, cheap lunar landers, and a Mars rover the size of a Volkswagon bug. We are still, far and away, the premier space industry on this planet. The best part is that, unlike most other countries, we don't have to rely solely on an over-regulated, stagnated, government agency which is prone to political grandstanding for our progress anymore. We Americans have the freedom, resources, and opportunity to access space privately, without NASA. Hell, even our college students are putting shit in orbit today.
So go ahead, bitch about what a sad state our country is in today. However, if you had half a brain you would realize that accessing space is neither easy nor cheap. Neither is it the exclusive right to Americans. No, in fact, space is the international frontier that the entire world can look to for progress and discovery. To fully harness the freedom of space, we don't need to keep waving our political dicks around screaming about American jobs and being the first country to do X. Nah, if we want the freedom of space, then it's time we lay down our outdated notions of nationalism and bullshitting and come together, not as a country, but as a species, to tackle the greatest challenge we have ever known. You want to bitch about us flying to the ISS on a Russian capsule? Well you, sir, and your ideals, are seriously out-dated. Human progress into the void that surrounds our tiny blue marble will not rest squarely on the shoulders of one government, or one country, or one company. Nah, it will rest on the shoulders of every man and woman mature and responsible enough to face such a daunting challenge with a square jaw and tenacious eyes of many bac
What hope does your feeble "Free Society" have?
The internet. Neither social acceptability nor 2000 years of religious dogma are anywhere near a match for an abundance of free pornography and a lot of hormones in the general population. Even stuffy uptight legislators and lawyers enjoy logging onto spankwire.com every once in awhile. Once their own preaching starts taking a bite out of their own alone time, they'll have to figure something new out.
For better or for worse, the walled garden is the future of consumer electronics. It's good for security,
That's funny, I've always heard that the primary reason Linux is a more secure operating system than Windows is is precisely because it is not the walled garden of Windows. That is to say, having open access to the source code allows more eyes to spot bugs, holes, vulnerabilities, and flaws and post about it on various communication channels. Having the walled garden of a binary only OS means that anything you install on that OS requires you to implicitly trust the vendor. If Adobe screws the pooch and writes a hole in their code, I can't spot it, patch it, or fix it myself, nor can anyone else. We have to wait for Adobe to fix it and trust that they did it right.
This general law goes for hardware too. You see, if I can pull the screws off the back of my toaster, I can see where a shoddy solder job may have been done. I can see where a lazy tech accidentally exposed a wire creating a fire hazard. I can see where there are dark burn marks on the motherboard around a particular capacitor indicating that it needs to be replaced. That's secure. That means that I am secure in my possession from failing entirely. It also means that I can Google for my toaster's name and see common flaws with it.The alternative, not being able to open my toaster, means that I have to trust the company that made it to have done a good job. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. For instance, Toyota has had a very stellar level of trust with its customers. However, with the current accelerator pedal debacle, that trust is suffering. If the source code and/or schematics for the acceleration system were open, more than just Toyota's techs could try to find the bug/defect. This would increase the security of the product. Instead, since said technical details are locked down, we have to wait for Toyota to develop a fix and then decide if we can trust that they fixed it right.
I don't necessarily disagree with your whole post. However, the claim that walled garden consumer electronics are more secure, or somehow better for security, seems demonstrably false simply by looking at the security records of locked-down, walled-garden companies.
That's my 2 cents at least.
But, But, I thought we had to nuke them all from orbit to be sure? Now international politics are getting really confusing. =/
There are a few uses, but one that has had me seriously looking to start operating a Ham radio is that you can often use the equipment to track the broadcasts of various satellites which orbit overhead. I know some members of cubesat projects use them for confirmation of spacecraft survival after launch. There are a dozen other uses, but I always found the idea of linking actual satellite data to be extraordinarily exciting.
Well of course he does, he piloted the Normandy against Sovereign during the battle of the Citadel. =P
The only good part about the prequel trilogy was watching Samuel Jackson get chucked out of a skyscraper window. Other than that one scene, I think most of us could have done without all of it.
Get a life, or just stop trying.
Hehe, that was a rather belligerent statement for someone whose UID starts with the word Zen. =P
Granted. I would be happy to see more scenes of Boba Fett flying around and slaughtering ewoks just for kicks. Legend.
Where are the Grand Admiral Thrawns and Admiral Daalas?
More importantly, where is Mara Jade in a skimpy kick-ass undercover dancer's uniform? Don't get me wrong, Leia looked good in gold, but you just can't beat the idea of a piss-and-vinegar redhead in similar attire.
For that matter, let's throw Admiral Daala into that skimpy dancer's uniform mix too. Just for good measure.
Yeah, so when the whole Star Wars: Clone Wars thing came out, it took the dead horse that was left over after Revenge of the Sith and just beat it into a bloody awful mess. I didn't think you could do worse than that to the Star Wars namesake until this came along. I suppose George Lucas just had to ask, 'Will it blend as well?"
On the bright side, Seth Green is, far and away, a sci-fi Star Wars nerd so he certainly will try to do the franchise justice. I would be excited to see him pull it off well.
On the not so bright side, Matt Stone and Trey Parker wrote a whole episode of South Park dedicated to Lucas's raping of Indiana Jones in the fourth movie of the franchise. It looks like they may have just found a little more material for a new episode.
I think we need to do a study on whether posting a study to slashdot has a correlative or causal relationship with the corelationisnotcausation chant. Furthermore, I'd like to see a secondary study that explores the correlative vs. causal relationship between the correleationisnotcausation meme and the reactions that occur decrying the correlationisnotcasuation meme.
Finally, I am going to end this post with a Google search on recursion.
I really hope that whoever modded this interesting and not funny was just trying to boost jeffries karma. If someone on slashdot, whom is armed with mod points, thinks this is a legitimate idea, I fear for the state of most users' karma.
Just to be pedantic, evolution isn't something to be believed in its an explanatory model to be studied, criticized, critiqued, and, if something better comes along, replaced. That being said, the point of your post makes good sense. I am just asking you, too, to be careful about claiming to believe in evolution. Evolution is not a religion to be defended, it is a pretty cool (and so far as we can tell, accurate) model to be studied.
I suggest a glass of mead as well, as honey is believed to boost the immune system and act as an antibiotic in its own right.
It's interesting you would suggest that as it also works as a decent antihistamine if I recall correctly. Usually I reserve honey for when I get a throat cold and need a proper anti-septic/throat coat. But I agree, it, too, is amazing.
That's rich. I've been in any number of service providers offices and watched pissed off customers do a lot more than say, "Fuck your company." I watched a man rant at the Charter customer service folk for an hour. I've seen two women repeatedly call an AT&T receptionist stupid and useless. I've seen folks at a doctor's office use any number of slurs, swears, and other colorful language over having to wait too long. Never once was a local authority called in unless the pissed off customer started to get violent or make threats. I suppose things may vary in whatever city/state you live in. But I know here in California that if you honestly fear getting a ticket for using, 'inappropriate,' language your probably just being paranoid.
Oh, on broadcast. That makes more sense then. I thought he was trying to say that some entity regulates the use of foul language by citizens in general.
Apparently, from this article, Comcast madea successful argument based on the fact that the FCC fought to keep broadband deregulated in 2005 in the Supreme Court. While spitting on net neutrality basically spits in the face of the intent of that battle, I think the FCC could successfully file this particular incident under, "Lessons on Things Coming Back to Bite You in the Ass."
Sorry, but I think I am missing something. What government body, precisely, regulates your use of foul language?
Or maybe you were implying that Comcast does? I suppose they censor it on their cable channels, but if I Google, 'fuck,' on a Comcast connection, I find plenty of foul language.
Furthermore, I am pretty sure you can and do have every right to walk into Comcast's local office and say, "Fuck you and your non-neuatral internet," right to their face.
To my knowledge, nobody regulates foul language these days. I would be very interested in knowing if someone did though.