Exactly. Assuming car usage is why this nation is in such horrible shape. After WWII, many of our cities were gutted and much development moved to the suburbs. The suburbs have continued to grow since then and require even more and more driving. Americans have gotten used to driving, so they drive even the shortest distances. If people realized they could get around without driving, then redesigning cities would be easier and we could drastically reduce our energy footprint.
Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight. First we have to assume the drive the same car (or similar model) for your argument to make sense. So we have Joe and Jim that both use the same amount of energy and road usage going from home to work. But since Joe makes less money, he shouldn't have to pay his share of the gas tax and road fees? WTF is that? You pay for what you use, and nothing else. Jim may be a big rich lawyer that buys a fast car. Now he uses more fuel to power the big engine, so he has to pay more tax. See how this works out? God damn.
California's Republican mayor just signed something that will get the state to reduce their carbon output. And to show that blatant energy wasting (in the form of excess driving) is bipartisan, just look at LA. They are always considered way liberal, yet they drive so damn much. From what I have seen, most of liberal California drives a ton.
Here is a good overview of recent carbon reduction initiatives in the US. It also talks about how over 150 city mayors have gotten together to fight carbon output and energy use. Even though Bush won't do it, states and cities still might. Between California and the cities represented, that is a large number of Americans.
I think almost all computer manufacturers have recycling programs. That said, I think one of the reasons Apple is doing this is to try and save face after they were protested by environmentalists. I think it is a good thing they are doing this (and I'll be happy to trade my iPod in (probably sometime in the next year) for a new one), but I think the environmentalists protest are misplaced. The only reason they went after the iPod was because it was popular and well known. If they really want to make a different, they should go after cell phones. There have been, what, 15 million iPods sold ever? Compare that to cell phone sales. People treat cell phones as disposable, so they should be more worried about the waste from those. I've had my cell phone for over three years, but that's because I'm cheap, while most of my friends have really new cell phones because they want new features or because the old ones break.
What have they been doing the last half dozen years? "Streaming Media Extensions... to unlock the power of the internet; only on Intel's Pentium III processor. Do dum dee."
They have advertised the fuck out of SSE.
Both have their advantages. SSE2 can make Prime95 run really fast, which is good with the high P4 clock speed. Altivec (I believe) is the reason distributed.net's apps rock on Macs. Both also speed up multimedia work by a bunch.
Come on. I've been hearing these fucking cookie arguments for years and they are tiring the shit out of me. "It puts an extra cookie in there!" "The cookie doesn't expire until 2038, 2038!!!11"
Don't lots of websites set cookies that expire in 2038 (aka, they last 'forever'). I think I wrote a script that did that. Get over it already. If you don't like it, turn off cookies.
God damn, some people really irk me. Why can't you people just enjoy a service, and if it is too inconvenient, shut up and don't use it! Damn. Damn.
Exactly. The grandparent is being a douchenozzle by assuming everyone is a graphic designer. I got my 20" LCD almost three years ago now. I got horrible eyestrain on CRTs, even those with high refresh rates. It is horrible when I'm working on another computer and it is 60 Hz, I can't look at those for more than a minute or two.
Now my main computer is a laptop and I use the built in screen and my other LCD in a dual head configuration. I have used LCDs as my main display for nearly three years and I would never go back. The color reproduction may not be perfect, but my eyes and head hurt much less. Plus, the perfect geometry is nice.
Hmm, that's interesting. I'm not sure how to separate the oil, I've only heard it described in broad terms ("separate the oil") with no details. Perhaps they do it in the same was as with oily beans (like soy).
It may be easy to grow algae, but you also want to be careful to grow algae with as high an oil content as possible, which becomes more tricky.
Oh, sorry about that, it is rapeseed. Isn't Canola trademarked? I thought I read that Canola was a modified version of rapeseed meant to not be toxic to humans. However, when growing it just for the oil, there is no need to have it edible to humans.
Andrew
PS: From Google's rapeseed definition: "A plant widely grown for its industrial oil in the 1940's. In the 1960's breeding efforts led to the removal of two compounds, erucic acid and glucosinolates, changing the plant to an edible oilseed now called canola."
Exactly. The parents are paying the bills and have the right to see what kids are eating, especially with so many obese kids these days. How is this any worse than giving a kid a credit card and monitoring what they buy and where they shop?
Well, some varieties of algae can be pretty high in oil. Some are as high as 50% oil by weight. By crushing the algae, separating the oil, and performing transesterification (the same process used to convert soy or rape oil), you can get biodiesel from it. There has been a lot of talk in the biodiesel circles about using algae, so lets hope this group can bring it to market. BTW, people also talk about using algae in pools that capture the run off from, I believe, cattle grazing land. Not only does it clean the water, it also has a very nice byproduct.
In my dorm cluster, we have an NES, two N64s, a GameCube, Dreamcast, and Playstation 2. The two that are played the most are probably the GameCube and NES. The game that is most commonly played on the NES is Super Mario/Duck Hunt. Just an interesting anecdote.
I don't think search was in Beta nearly that long. If you look at the image, it was out of Beta by 2001, so only like 3 years at most.
They do have a lot of Beta software out there, but it is still usable and has features. It has been released and is available for public consumption, so beta is just a description. Also, I was trying to compare MSN with Google (since MSN competes more directly). Google has been adding a lot of search features and such faster than MSN can manage.
Actually, now that I think about it, I believe it isn't the index but the algorithm. They update the index every day, but the algorithm isn't updated as often (and is what causes more variety in results, I imagine).
Well, I was referring to some of the posters on the board. When I see them post about how they were punished during the last update or how they're "rising for some very competitive keywords", I get the feeling that they aren't the most honest internet folk. I regularly monitor my standings in Google for some words related to me, but I don't feel like I'm being punished when I go down in ranking. Of course, I'm not using slimy tactics to try and raise my PageRank, so they have no reason to punish me. Also, I monitor most of my keywords out of curiosity and not because I'm trying to pump up a page for a certain query (current sig excluded:) ).
I was there. I found it interesting how shallow/flat their corporate hierarchy is. There aren't many levels between Sergey/Larry and the average employee. They don't try to micromanage employees, instead letting them just run with their work.
One impression I've gotten of Google compared to, say, Microsoft, is how quick they are to release new products. I've been to some Microsoft recruiting talks, and if I remember correctly, you have to interview to change product teams, and it seems like a cumbersome, bureaucratic process. At Google, you can help people with their 20% time projects and do work where you are interested. This allows them to get very rapid turn around on projects and this is probably a big reason why they are running circles around MSN.
Oh, another thing I remember. People on slashdot have wondered why they haven't put advertisements on Google News and some thought it was because they would get in trouble for making money off other people's content. Today Eric mentioned that the business model is mostly up to the team that develops it. As an example he gave: during a meeting, they had the option of either developing an advertising system for the news, or adding Afghanistan news. They decided to go after news in other countries before working on the advertising end. This is one reason why some of their projects don't seem to have any money-making goals. He said the Orkut team is too busy trying to get speed out of the system to work on some other things they might try.
Oh, I remembered something else:). It is kind of off topic, but I thought it was interesting. Apparently when they were rolling out Google Maps (or maybe it was the satellite data), they went on Yellow Alert because the traffic from mirroring the images across the world (I believe that is what he said) was filling up all their pipes. They were almost taken down, but they managed to get their traffic shaping back in line. Just an interesting tidbit. I'm sure the speech will be available on UWTV's website in a few months.
I believe Bourbon is the name of this Google update. The slimy search engine optimizers (whose posts you can read if you click the link to webmaster world) name the updates of Google's index in order to keep track of them easier. If you read a little of the thread, I believe they refer to code words for past updates as well.
Dude! No! Dude, no. You can't go comparing a for-pay product that you buy and install with a free web based service. Everyone here is comparing Google Maps with other online free mapping systems. Duh.
They should install a machine that puts out free purified water. Hell, I think even a drinking fountain would work (assuming the water tastes good from it). A lot of people in my old high school brought water bottles. Just encourage that.
Oh god, I've been there. I used to do that all the time. Actually, I think I pretended I was a large, long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur. Maybe that is why I liked broccoli when it seemed so despised. I also like spinach and asparagus (now that I eat them, it used to only be broccoli).
I've noticed the same thing. Much healthy food used to taste mild to me. When I first tried an Honest Tea I didn't like it because it tasted almost sour. However, once I stopped drinking pop, sugar loaded ice teas, processed foods, and other really unhealthy stuff, I came to appreciate this other stuff more. Now I'm really turned off by pop/soda because it has a really strong sugary acidic taste. Yuck. Also, whole grain and less processed foods provide more texture and are more filling. I made a cake with part whole wheat/part unbleached floor and also with "Sugar in the Raw" and it was very filling. It was really heavy and thick, yet sweet and rich.
Another thing I found that makes vegetables so much nicer to eat is cooking them right. My parents used to steam most of our vegetables, since they were just a side dish to the meat and they didn't want to spend all night cooking. Now whenever I'm home (almost every weekend), I help cook dinner (dinner without meat), and I insist on fancier foods. Cooking together as a family can be a lot of fun, and you don't mind spending more time in the kitchen if you are socializing. Anyway, my point was that if you make the vegetables really tasty, they are more likely to get eaten. Invest in a nice vegetarian cook book to find good vegetable recipes. My current favorite cookbook is the Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen. The recipes in it contain lots of veggies and are well balanced (protein from beans, carbs from bread, potatoes, or pasta, nutrients from veggies, good fats from olive oil). Try one of the minestrones, it is to die for. In conclusion: cook the veggies well and you'll have no trouble eating them. Also, cut out the super sweet foods (like soda) to lower your sugar dependance.
Andrew
PS: Hey, I just noticed some cool new features on Amazon while looking up that book. They do statistical analysis on the books and give you uncommon phrases ("drizzle the remaining olive oil") as well as a Flickresque "Concordance" of the most popular words. Pretty hot.
It looks interesting, I'll have to try it. Now... if only they would keep all of my search history and not delete it after a few weeks. It hasn't gotten above 850 yet. That limits the usefulness. I really like it, I just wish it would keep the history forever.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. Assuming car usage is why this nation is in such horrible shape. After WWII, many of our cities were gutted and much development moved to the suburbs. The suburbs have continued to grow since then and require even more and more driving. Americans have gotten used to driving, so they drive even the shortest distances. If people realized they could get around without driving, then redesigning cities would be easier and we could drastically reduce our energy footprint.
Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight. First we have to assume the drive the same car (or similar model) for your argument to make sense. So we have Joe and Jim that both use the same amount of energy and road usage going from home to work. But since Joe makes less money, he shouldn't have to pay his share of the gas tax and road fees? WTF is that? You pay for what you use, and nothing else. Jim may be a big rich lawyer that buys a fast car. Now he uses more fuel to power the big engine, so he has to pay more tax. See how this works out? God damn.
California's Republican mayor just signed something that will get the state to reduce their carbon output. And to show that blatant energy wasting (in the form of excess driving) is bipartisan, just look at LA. They are always considered way liberal, yet they drive so damn much. From what I have seen, most of liberal California drives a ton.
Here is a good overview of recent carbon reduction initiatives in the US. It also talks about how over 150 city mayors have gotten together to fight carbon output and energy use. Even though Bush won't do it, states and cities still might. Between California and the cities represented, that is a large number of Americans.
When I'm done with my iPod and ready to turn it in, they won't be able to use it as a spare. Hell, it is already completely scuffed up and rickety.
I think almost all computer manufacturers have recycling programs. That said, I think one of the reasons Apple is doing this is to try and save face after they were protested by environmentalists. I think it is a good thing they are doing this (and I'll be happy to trade my iPod in (probably sometime in the next year) for a new one), but I think the environmentalists protest are misplaced. The only reason they went after the iPod was because it was popular and well known. If they really want to make a different, they should go after cell phones. There have been, what, 15 million iPods sold ever? Compare that to cell phone sales. People treat cell phones as disposable, so they should be more worried about the waste from those. I've had my cell phone for over three years, but that's because I'm cheap, while most of my friends have really new cell phones because they want new features or because the old ones break.
What have they been doing the last half dozen years? "Streaming Media Extensions... to unlock the power of the internet; only on Intel's Pentium III processor. Do dum dee."
They have advertised the fuck out of SSE.
Both have their advantages. SSE2 can make Prime95 run really fast, which is good with the high P4 clock speed. Altivec (I believe) is the reason distributed.net's apps rock on Macs. Both also speed up multimedia work by a bunch.
Sorry, I just had to follow the trend.
Come on. I've been hearing these fucking cookie arguments for years and they are tiring the shit out of me. "It puts an extra cookie in there!" "The cookie doesn't expire until 2038, 2038!!!11"
Don't lots of websites set cookies that expire in 2038 (aka, they last 'forever'). I think I wrote a script that did that. Get over it already. If you don't like it, turn off cookies.
God damn, some people really irk me. Why can't you people just enjoy a service, and if it is too inconvenient, shut up and don't use it! Damn. Damn.
And I use Finder. No IE running here, and thank Jah for that.
Exactly. The grandparent is being a douchenozzle by assuming everyone is a graphic designer. I got my 20" LCD almost three years ago now. I got horrible eyestrain on CRTs, even those with high refresh rates. It is horrible when I'm working on another computer and it is 60 Hz, I can't look at those for more than a minute or two.
Now my main computer is a laptop and I use the built in screen and my other LCD in a dual head configuration. I have used LCDs as my main display for nearly three years and I would never go back. The color reproduction may not be perfect, but my eyes and head hurt much less. Plus, the perfect geometry is nice.
Andrew
Hmm, that's interesting. I'm not sure how to separate the oil, I've only heard it described in broad terms ("separate the oil") with no details. Perhaps they do it in the same was as with oily beans (like soy).
It may be easy to grow algae, but you also want to be careful to grow algae with as high an oil content as possible, which becomes more tricky.
Andrew
Oh, sorry about that, it is rapeseed. Isn't Canola trademarked? I thought I read that Canola was a modified version of rapeseed meant to not be toxic to humans. However, when growing it just for the oil, there is no need to have it edible to humans.
Andrew
PS: From Google's rapeseed definition: "A plant widely grown for its industrial oil in the 1940's. In the 1960's breeding efforts led to the removal of two compounds, erucic acid and glucosinolates, changing the plant to an edible oilseed now called canola."
Exactly. The parents are paying the bills and have the right to see what kids are eating, especially with so many obese kids these days. How is this any worse than giving a kid a credit card and monitoring what they buy and where they shop?
Well, some varieties of algae can be pretty high in oil. Some are as high as 50% oil by weight. By crushing the algae, separating the oil, and performing transesterification (the same process used to convert soy or rape oil), you can get biodiesel from it. There has been a lot of talk in the biodiesel circles about using algae, so lets hope this group can bring it to market. BTW, people also talk about using algae in pools that capture the run off from, I believe, cattle grazing land. Not only does it clean the water, it also has a very nice byproduct.
In my dorm cluster, we have an NES, two N64s, a GameCube, Dreamcast, and Playstation 2. The two that are played the most are probably the GameCube and NES. The game that is most commonly played on the NES is Super Mario/Duck Hunt. Just an interesting anecdote.
I don't think search was in Beta nearly that long. If you look at the image, it was out of Beta by 2001, so only like 3 years at most.
They do have a lot of Beta software out there, but it is still usable and has features. It has been released and is available for public consumption, so beta is just a description. Also, I was trying to compare MSN with Google (since MSN competes more directly). Google has been adding a lot of search features and such faster than MSN can manage.
Actually, now that I think about it, I believe it isn't the index but the algorithm. They update the index every day, but the algorithm isn't updated as often (and is what causes more variety in results, I imagine).
Well, I was referring to some of the posters on the board. When I see them post about how they were punished during the last update or how they're "rising for some very competitive keywords", I get the feeling that they aren't the most honest internet folk. I regularly monitor my standings in Google for some words related to me, but I don't feel like I'm being punished when I go down in ranking. Of course, I'm not using slimy tactics to try and raise my PageRank, so they have no reason to punish me. Also, I monitor most of my keywords out of curiosity and not because I'm trying to pump up a page for a certain query (current sig excluded :) ).
I was there. I found it interesting how shallow/flat their corporate hierarchy is. There aren't many levels between Sergey/Larry and the average employee. They don't try to micromanage employees, instead letting them just run with their work.
:). It is kind of off topic, but I thought it was interesting. Apparently when they were rolling out Google Maps (or maybe it was the satellite data), they went on Yellow Alert because the traffic from mirroring the images across the world (I believe that is what he said) was filling up all their pipes. They were almost taken down, but they managed to get their traffic shaping back in line. Just an interesting tidbit. I'm sure the speech will be available on UWTV's website in a few months.
One impression I've gotten of Google compared to, say, Microsoft, is how quick they are to release new products. I've been to some Microsoft recruiting talks, and if I remember correctly, you have to interview to change product teams, and it seems like a cumbersome, bureaucratic process. At Google, you can help people with their 20% time projects and do work where you are interested. This allows them to get very rapid turn around on projects and this is probably a big reason why they are running circles around MSN.
Oh, another thing I remember. People on slashdot have wondered why they haven't put advertisements on Google News and some thought it was because they would get in trouble for making money off other people's content. Today Eric mentioned that the business model is mostly up to the team that develops it. As an example he gave: during a meeting, they had the option of either developing an advertising system for the news, or adding Afghanistan news. They decided to go after news in other countries before working on the advertising end. This is one reason why some of their projects don't seem to have any money-making goals. He said the Orkut team is too busy trying to get speed out of the system to work on some other things they might try.
Oh, I remembered something else
Andrew
I believe Bourbon is the name of this Google update. The slimy search engine optimizers (whose posts you can read if you click the link to webmaster world) name the updates of Google's index in order to keep track of them easier. If you read a little of the thread, I believe they refer to code words for past updates as well.
Dude! No! Dude, no. You can't go comparing a for-pay product that you buy and install with a free web based service. Everyone here is comparing Google Maps with other online free mapping systems. Duh.
They should install a machine that puts out free purified water. Hell, I think even a drinking fountain would work (assuming the water tastes good from it). A lot of people in my old high school brought water bottles. Just encourage that.
Oh god, I've been there. I used to do that all the time. Actually, I think I pretended I was a large, long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur. Maybe that is why I liked broccoli when it seemed so despised. I also like spinach and asparagus (now that I eat them, it used to only be broccoli).
I've noticed the same thing. Much healthy food used to taste mild to me. When I first tried an Honest Tea I didn't like it because it tasted almost sour. However, once I stopped drinking pop, sugar loaded ice teas, processed foods, and other really unhealthy stuff, I came to appreciate this other stuff more. Now I'm really turned off by pop/soda because it has a really strong sugary acidic taste. Yuck. Also, whole grain and less processed foods provide more texture and are more filling. I made a cake with part whole wheat/part unbleached floor and also with "Sugar in the Raw" and it was very filling. It was really heavy and thick, yet sweet and rich.
.
Another thing I found that makes vegetables so much nicer to eat is cooking them right. My parents used to steam most of our vegetables, since they were just a side dish to the meat and they didn't want to spend all night cooking. Now whenever I'm home (almost every weekend), I help cook dinner (dinner without meat), and I insist on fancier foods. Cooking together as a family can be a lot of fun, and you don't mind spending more time in the kitchen if you are socializing. Anyway, my point was that if you make the vegetables really tasty, they are more likely to get eaten. Invest in a nice vegetarian cook book to find good vegetable recipes. My current favorite cookbook is the Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen. The recipes in it contain lots of veggies and are well balanced (protein from beans, carbs from bread, potatoes, or pasta, nutrients from veggies, good fats from olive oil). Try one of the minestrones, it is to die for. In conclusion: cook the veggies well and you'll have no trouble eating them. Also, cut out the super sweet foods (like soda) to lower your sugar dependance
Andrew
PS: Hey, I just noticed some cool new features on Amazon while looking up that book. They do statistical analysis on the books and give you uncommon phrases ("drizzle the remaining olive oil") as well as a Flickresque "Concordance" of the most popular words. Pretty hot.
It looks interesting, I'll have to try it. Now... if only they would keep all of my search history and not delete it after a few weeks. It hasn't gotten above 850 yet. That limits the usefulness. I really like it, I just wish it would keep the history forever.