Good point. The parallel I was trying to draw is more along the lines of production and delivery. If you try to build a hydrogen infrastructure (which some have suggested), which includes mass transport of hydrogen, it's a waste of energy. If you can create a way to safely generate hydrogen at home, or on board, or at least locally, then you've got something. Like you said, hydrogen fuel cell is really just another form of battery.
Both are essentiall trying to maintain the industrial complex of the existing oil infrastructure. Yes ethanol and soy are renewable, but they come at a cost, and are not all that energy efficient (a lot of fuel is spent to plant and harvest corn or soybeans, to process it into fuel, and to transport it). Plus, this things isn't running on soybean oil, it's running biodiesel. That's only 20% soybean oil, and the rest is good old petroleum distillate.
The best option right now for clean and efficient transportation is electric technology with hybrid capabilities. Most people use their vehicles so little per day, that a nightly charge from a household outlet would let them run without ever burning anything. The hybrid would be there for longer drives, just to keep the charge up.
The electric grid, for all it's faults, is a clean and efficient way to move power around the country, in fact right to your door. And it lets us centralize and isolate the nastiness (coal, nuclear, propane) that goes into creating electricity.
For $2000? You get a really tiny screen, a really tiny keyboard, and a laptop's battery life. Why not just get a larger tablet based PC? Here's one I've played with that had about the same specs as OQO and is a really small, and usable, form factor. For about the same price you get the same features but a more useful size. No you can't hook it to your belt. But really people, anything bigger than a cell phone on your belt and you look like a real goober.
Given that it comes installed with Windows XP Tablet Edition, and has no Linux support to be found, I don't know that this crowd is going to accept something like this.
I can't speak from specific experience, but perhaps a conversion from Word to RTF, and then RTF to HTML would give the best results. Word does a fair job converting it's documents to RTF. That conversion will help get rid of some of the weirdness that is Word. Googling for RTF2HTML gives a variety of options. Once it's it's RTF, you might have better luck with scripting tools or other editors that can take the doc to HTML.
I think what we are seeing right now is an opportunity for a fundamental shift in the music industry's business model. The recording companies would like things to stay the same as they are now. And why not? The current model ($18 for a CD that only has one song that doesn't suck) is very profitable for them. How about a different model completely. Throw out everything about the current model and start fresh with the online world in mind. * Distribution and promotion entirely online. For one thing this creates a level playing field for the 'small' guy working out of his garage studio. See mp3.com or garageband.com. * Forget the whole album concept. Why put out 12 songs if you really only have 3 good ones right now. If I want a good CD, I'll make it myself or pay cdnow.com to build one for me. I have owned very few albums that were solid tracks end to end. * Online payment/subscription. I can think of two ways to make money on this (these are not necessarily my own original thoughts I'm just gleaning from others' comments): Shareware model (I'm a starving artist, please send me a buck). FYI: Don't send the artist a check for $1, but some central clearinghouse who can efficiently/economically distribute those "royalties". Subscription model (I like this kind of music, send me/let me download nn tracks every week and I'll pay $9.95 a month). I'd probably pay for this kind of convenience. * On touring, I find it hard to believe that everyone loses money on tours. What about all the corporate sponsors (Budweiser presents...)? What about the facility itself (Concessions alone after a Dead show!)? For the "little guy" trying to break into the business, touring must suck. But online (see point number one) everyone has the same chance for exposure. If the music is good, people will buy it. Right? Brittany and Ricky can do the stadiums but for most artists, I doubt that touring really adds to their bank accounts. * Don't try to enforce copyright. Whatever goofball encryption scheme you come up with to prevent distribution, the masses will crack it. The harder you try, the more people will enjoy breaking it. Why spend all that money for nothing? There will always be pirates but that doesn't mean that everyone will become one (Raise your hands if you have a 'registered' copy of WinZip!). Me thinks I write too much. Cheers, JR
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Good point. The parallel I was trying to draw is more along the lines of production and delivery. If you try to build a hydrogen infrastructure (which some have suggested), which includes mass transport of hydrogen, it's a waste of energy. If you can create a way to safely generate hydrogen at home, or on board, or at least locally, then you've got something. Like you said, hydrogen fuel cell is really just another form of battery.
Both are essentiall trying to maintain the industrial complex of the existing oil infrastructure. Yes ethanol and soy are renewable, but they come at a cost, and are not all that energy efficient (a lot of fuel is spent to plant and harvest corn or soybeans, to process it into fuel, and to transport it). Plus, this things isn't running on soybean oil, it's running biodiesel. That's only 20% soybean oil, and the rest is good old petroleum distillate.
The best option right now for clean and efficient transportation is electric technology with hybrid capabilities. Most people use their vehicles so little per day, that a nightly charge from a household outlet would let them run without ever burning anything. The hybrid would be there for longer drives, just to keep the charge up.
The electric grid, for all it's faults, is a clean and efficient way to move power around the country, in fact right to your door. And it lets us centralize and isolate the nastiness (coal, nuclear, propane) that goes into creating electricity.
For $2000? You get a really tiny screen, a really tiny keyboard, and a laptop's battery life. Why not just get a larger tablet based PC? Here's one I've played with that had about the same specs as OQO and is a really small, and usable, form factor. For about the same price you get the same features but a more useful size. No you can't hook it to your belt. But really people, anything bigger than a cell phone on your belt and you look like a real goober. Given that it comes installed with Windows XP Tablet Edition, and has no Linux support to be found, I don't know that this crowd is going to accept something like this.
I can't speak from specific experience, but perhaps a conversion from Word to RTF, and then RTF to HTML would give the best results. Word does a fair job converting it's documents to RTF. That conversion will help get rid of some of the weirdness that is Word. Googling for RTF2HTML gives a variety of options. Once it's it's RTF, you might have better luck with scripting tools or other editors that can take the doc to HTML.
Ah, but if you were to attempt suicide by means of a nuclear mishap, you could save a lot on fines http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/26/14 24232&tid=153&tid=98&tid=17/.
Sure $199 might sounds little steep, but how about $115?!c ription=14-144-502&depa=0/
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?des
I think what we are seeing right now is an opportunity for a fundamental shift in the music industry's business model. The recording companies would like things to stay the same as they are now. And why not? The current model ($18 for a CD that only has one song that doesn't suck) is very profitable for them. How about a different model completely. Throw out everything about the current model and start fresh with the online world in mind. * Distribution and promotion entirely online. For one thing this creates a level playing field for the 'small' guy working out of his garage studio. See mp3.com or garageband.com. * Forget the whole album concept. Why put out 12 songs if you really only have 3 good ones right now. If I want a good CD, I'll make it myself or pay cdnow.com to build one for me. I have owned very few albums that were solid tracks end to end. * Online payment/subscription. I can think of two ways to make money on this (these are not necessarily my own original thoughts I'm just gleaning from others' comments): Shareware model (I'm a starving artist, please send me a buck). FYI: Don't send the artist a check for $1, but some central clearinghouse who can efficiently/economically distribute those "royalties". Subscription model (I like this kind of music, send me/let me download nn tracks every week and I'll pay $9.95 a month). I'd probably pay for this kind of convenience. * On touring, I find it hard to believe that everyone loses money on tours. What about all the corporate sponsors (Budweiser presents ...)? What about the facility itself (Concessions alone after a Dead show!)? For the "little guy" trying to break into the business, touring must suck. But online (see point number one) everyone has the same chance for exposure. If the music is good, people will buy it. Right? Brittany and Ricky can do the stadiums but for most artists, I doubt that touring really adds to their bank accounts. * Don't try to enforce copyright. Whatever goofball encryption scheme you come up with to prevent distribution, the masses will crack it. The harder you try, the more people will enjoy breaking it. Why spend all that money for nothing? There will always be pirates but that doesn't mean that everyone will become one (Raise your hands if you have a 'registered' copy of WinZip!). Me thinks I write too much. Cheers, JR