Dude, you do realize nearly all digital video is progressive, right ?
Well, I'd say the majority of digital video is from TV broadcasts, which are to the best of my knowledge all interlaced. At least they are where I live, either 576i or 1080i. Do the internet streaming companies get their video directly from the film at a true 24fps progressive, or from the already existing DVD data?
Except that solid state media is *vastly* more expensive than a pressed DVD. Several cents for a DVD vs several dollars for solid state media of the same capacity... hmm. Delivering data such as operating systems, software, films etc. on solid state media would be stupid. If all the stuff I bought on DVD had some on flash instead, I'd be hundreds or thousands poorer.
God forbid someone want to keep something that works rather than just go for the new expensive shiny thing for the hell of it.
The *vast* majority of Macs never use their optical drives.
Do you have any evidence for this utterly implausible claim? They may not be used very often, but I can't think of anyone who hasn't used their home computer's optical drive at least occasionally. Software installations, extracting music, watching DVDs... unless you download absolutely everything, buy all your music online (and have no existing CD collection), never suffer an HD failure and need to reinstall the OS, you're going to need an optical drive at some point.
The $40 isn't just for a 4GB USB drive. It's for an OS on a fairly nice 4GB USB drive that will be manufactured in limited quantities, packaged and shipped to stores to be stocked.
No, it's for a USB drive. The OS is for $29, as we can tell from the download pricing. A 4 GB USB drive, packaged and delivered to the shops does not cost $40. Unless you buy from Apple of course.
Their '"fuck you, you'll do it our way and like it" attitude'? Where they give you many ways of acquiring Lion, including going into a store and downloading it from a local copy there?
Except for the most obvious way, the simplest way and the way everyone has done it for years, including Apple.
I like the way you describe removing still-useful features as "being ahead of the curve". But then I guess there's no reasoning with a fanboy.
What makes it unreasonable? It's $69, for an operating system! Apple makes it very easy to acquire and install Lion, all for $29. If you *really* need it on physical media, you pay the price. And that price is still quite low for an OS.
$40 extra for a 4 GB USB drive doesn't exactly sound like a fair price to me, even if $69 for an operating system is a fair price overall.
My problem with Apple is their "fuck you, you'll do it our way and like it" attitude. Not including optical drives on some of their machines is another highly dubious decision, given their low cost and not negligible usefulness. I use mine quite often. But then Apple does have a history of dismissing things as obsolete before they actually are obsolete (floppy drives and parallel ports for example).
Apple don't need any help looking bad. There's no excuse for not making DVD an option for those unable to download, it's a very simple solution and one that everyone else is able to do. Make it available at a reasonable extra charge if you must.
And the idea of going through the hassle of disconnecting and hauling your computer to an Apple Store (which may be god knows how far away) is such a ridiculous workaround it doesn't even deserve a response
What they're backing is irrelevant, as what actually occurs is ultimately limited by physics, engineering and economic practicalities, not the whims of politicians. If Germany have phased out coal by 2022 I'll eat my hat.
The CANDU has a positive void coefficient, though not as large as the pre-Chernobyl RBMKs. This is largely a consequence of being overmoderated to allow it to run on natural uranium, so loss of coolant doesn't lead to significant loss of moderation.
You were quoting a per kWh figure, which was based on an incorrect calculation. It would be incorrect regardless of any other power sources.
But yes, it applies to nuclear too. Without that, nuclear would have been able to completely out-compete fossil fuels, as it would have had a total cost of maybe 4 cents per kWh. On the other hand, it works in favour of nuclear when it comes to decommissioning and waste disposal.
Doesn't include any installation costs. Or maintenance. Has a ridiculously high assumption for load factor for Scotland. Ignores the time value of money
The last of these alone would push the cost to about triple what you estimate.
Steel pressing equipment isn't infrastructure. If Forgemasters think they can make a profit on it, why do they need the government to provide a loan? That's what banks are for. Getting politics involved in investment decisions like this is a good way to end up funding the wrong things due to the influence of political lobbying and vote grabbing (governments funding big projects in their marginal constituencies, and so forth).
Also, every house we looked at had a gap of at least one centimeter under the entrance door
That's only really true of old houses. My grandmother's house had such a thing, and indeed she had a draught excluder ("stretched out pillow") to deal with it. I haven't seen any other houses with big gaps under the doors.
Uranium has been mined in the UK before, it's just not economic at current prices.
But even imports don't mean a significant security of supply issue, as uranium is trivial to stockpile. Plus we have a bucketload of plutonium at Sellafield that nobody seems to know what to do with. That could be made into MOX fuel if necessary.
That's a valid point, but is it necessary to mix the bug and security fixes in with other changes? I don't mind it automatically patching vulnerabilities, it's gratuitous interface changes or breaking extensions that's annoying. Fortunately, version 5 has done neither of these so far, at least for me.
We're at Firefox 5 already? Doesn't seem like five minutes since Firefox 4. Used to be that an entirely new version number meant it was definitely worth taking the time to upgrade, but at this frequency how do we know which are the important ones?
That's the essential point, it all boils down to economics.
Of course, it would also have been economically sensible to beef up protection at Fukushima Daiichi - given that tsunamis are a forseeable risk, having your diesel generators so unprotected is inexcusable.
There are tens of megawatts of decay heat being produced - you need to get that out of the containment somehow, or the atmosphere will heat until the containment fails either due to overpressure or from high temperatures. Don't forget they'd lost power, so conventional means of cooling the containment long-term weren't available.
Your link shows that most of that renewable energy is hydro, about ten times as much as from wind. Well yes, hydro is effective, nobody has disputed that - that's why it's been used for decades, long before the current trend for renewables at any cost.
Unfortunately, while effective, hydro is also limited. If you're lucky enough to live in a place with lots of hydro resources then that's great, but if not it's of no help at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, you do realize nearly all digital video is progressive, right ?
Well, I'd say the majority of digital video is from TV broadcasts, which are to the best of my knowledge all interlaced. At least they are where I live, either 576i or 1080i. Do the internet streaming companies get their video directly from the film at a true 24fps progressive, or from the already existing DVD data?
Except that solid state media is *vastly* more expensive than a pressed DVD. Several cents for a DVD vs several dollars for solid state media of the same capacity... hmm. Delivering data such as operating systems, software, films etc. on solid state media would be stupid. If all the stuff I bought on DVD had some on flash instead, I'd be hundreds or thousands poorer.
God forbid someone want to keep something that works rather than just go for the new expensive shiny thing for the hell of it.
The *vast* majority of Macs never use their optical drives.
Do you have any evidence for this utterly implausible claim? They may not be used very often, but I can't think of anyone who hasn't used their home computer's optical drive at least occasionally. Software installations, extracting music, watching DVDs... unless you download absolutely everything, buy all your music online (and have no existing CD collection), never suffer an HD failure and need to reinstall the OS, you're going to need an optical drive at some point.
The $40 isn't just for a 4GB USB drive. It's for an OS on a fairly nice 4GB USB drive that will be manufactured in limited quantities, packaged and shipped to stores to be stocked.
No, it's for a USB drive. The OS is for $29, as we can tell from the download pricing. A 4 GB USB drive, packaged and delivered to the shops does not cost $40. Unless you buy from Apple of course.
Their '"fuck you, you'll do it our way and like it" attitude'? Where they give you many ways of acquiring Lion, including going into a store and downloading it from a local copy there?
Except for the most obvious way, the simplest way and the way everyone has done it for years, including Apple.
I like the way you describe removing still-useful features as "being ahead of the curve". But then I guess there's no reasoning with a fanboy.
What makes it unreasonable? It's $69, for an operating system! Apple makes it very easy to acquire and install Lion, all for $29. If you *really* need it on physical media, you pay the price. And that price is still quite low for an OS.
$40 extra for a 4 GB USB drive doesn't exactly sound like a fair price to me, even if $69 for an operating system is a fair price overall.
My problem with Apple is their "fuck you, you'll do it our way and like it" attitude. Not including optical drives on some of their machines is another highly dubious decision, given their low cost and not negligible usefulness. I use mine quite often. But then Apple does have a history of dismissing things as obsolete before they actually are obsolete (floppy drives and parallel ports for example).
They are offering it on a USB drive in a few weeks.
But at an unreasonable extra cost. And why USB? DVDs can be pressed for pennies.
The idea that this is going to be an even remotely common scenario doesn't even deserve a response.
Not having broadband isn't *that* rare. Not having broadband with a generous download limit is even less rare.
Yes, if you live next door to the telephone exchange.
Apple don't need any help looking bad. There's no excuse for not making DVD an option for those unable to download, it's a very simple solution and one that everyone else is able to do. Make it available at a reasonable extra charge if you must.
And the idea of going through the hassle of disconnecting and hauling your computer to an Apple Store (which may be god knows how far away) is such a ridiculous workaround it doesn't even deserve a response
It's an English language website though, so ASCII isn't that limiting.
Charge batteries
Expensive and limited in life.
Heat molten salt
Round trip efficiency is very low (unless your energy source starts off as heat, which wave/wind/tidal don't), which means expensive.
Pump water uphill
How much land would you like to flood for reservoirs?
This is a SOLVED PROBLEM
Not so easily, alas.
What they're backing is irrelevant, as what actually occurs is ultimately limited by physics, engineering and economic practicalities, not the whims of politicians. If Germany have phased out coal by 2022 I'll eat my hat.
The CANDU has a positive void coefficient, though not as large as the pre-Chernobyl RBMKs. This is largely a consequence of being overmoderated to allow it to run on natural uranium, so loss of coolant doesn't lead to significant loss of moderation.
A lot less efficient, yes. Do people use oil a lot for heating in the USA? It's almost always natural gas over here (UK).
You were quoting a per kWh figure, which was based on an incorrect calculation. It would be incorrect regardless of any other power sources.
But yes, it applies to nuclear too. Without that, nuclear would have been able to completely out-compete fossil fuels, as it would have had a total cost of maybe 4 cents per kWh. On the other hand, it works in favour of nuclear when it comes to decommissioning and waste disposal.
Except that:
Doesn't include any installation costs. Or maintenance.
Has a ridiculously high assumption for load factor for Scotland.
Ignores the time value of money
The last of these alone would push the cost to about triple what you estimate.
Steel pressing equipment isn't infrastructure. If Forgemasters think they can make a profit on it, why do they need the government to provide a loan? That's what banks are for. Getting politics involved in investment decisions like this is a good way to end up funding the wrong things due to the influence of political lobbying and vote grabbing (governments funding big projects in their marginal constituencies, and so forth).
Also, every house we looked at had a gap of at least one centimeter under the entrance door
That's only really true of old houses. My grandmother's house had such a thing, and indeed she had a draught excluder ("stretched out pillow") to deal with it. I haven't seen any other houses with big gaps under the doors.
The Islamic extremists are pretty pathetic compared to the IRA. One successful attack so far only.
The thought occurs that the suicide bomber strategy is somewhat flawed. It's like a company firing its only successful employees.
Uranium has been mined in the UK before, it's just not economic at current prices.
But even imports don't mean a significant security of supply issue, as uranium is trivial to stockpile. Plus we have a bucketload of plutonium at Sellafield that nobody seems to know what to do with. That could be made into MOX fuel if necessary.
That's a valid point, but is it necessary to mix the bug and security fixes in with other changes? I don't mind it automatically patching vulnerabilities, it's gratuitous interface changes or breaking extensions that's annoying. Fortunately, version 5 has done neither of these so far, at least for me.
We're at Firefox 5 already? Doesn't seem like five minutes since Firefox 4. Used to be that an entirely new version number meant it was definitely worth taking the time to upgrade, but at this frequency how do we know which are the important ones?
That's the essential point, it all boils down to economics.
Of course, it would also have been economically sensible to beef up protection at Fukushima Daiichi - given that tsunamis are a forseeable risk, having your diesel generators so unprotected is inexcusable.
There are tens of megawatts of decay heat being produced - you need to get that out of the containment somehow, or the atmosphere will heat until the containment fails either due to overpressure or from high temperatures. Don't forget they'd lost power, so conventional means of cooling the containment long-term weren't available.
Your link shows that most of that renewable energy is hydro, about ten times as much as from wind. Well yes, hydro is effective, nobody has disputed that - that's why it's been used for decades, long before the current trend for renewables at any cost.
Unfortunately, while effective, hydro is also limited. If you're lucky enough to live in a place with lots of hydro resources then that's great, but if not it's of no help at all.
Between three strikes patents and this I wonder whether France truly got rid of the Nazis?
Holy sense of proportion... I don't think anyone's biggest complaint about the Nazis was their attitude towards intellectual property.