...require new infrastructure for all modes of operation (versus EVs which only need new infrastructure for long trips)
There was an engineer on the west coast who electrified his Honda CRX. His solution for long trips -- hitch a little cart on the back with a generator. You could even fuel these with propane bottles, and so avoid the whole petroleum infrastructure. Or, you could use the petroleum infrastructure, but use it to distribute biofuels for the generator modules.
Fine, lets just solve our enrgy crisis then. *kicks rock, wishes for holodeck*
If we really wanted to, we could solve it quite easily. There's many centuries of Uranium and Thorium to burn in fission reactors, and nuclear waste is solved technically. (Again, the problem is political.) We haven't taken more than the first step to tapping the potential of wave energy, there's a lot more wind to harness. Solar Thermal could benefit from economies of scale and improved distribution, and there's tremendous potential untapped in the world's deserts.
There's even a market for Orbital Solar Power Satellites -- namely for remote military outposts that would otherwise need to truck in fuel for generators. (An order of magnitude greater cost is acceptable in that case, but this would start the cycle of industrial innovation and reduction of costs from economies of scale, and would lead to widespread Solar Power for civilian use.)
We could stop using fossil fuels right now, from a technical standpoint. It's just that we don't want to, for a variety of economic, political, and superstitious reasons.
1) A very efficient Reflective 200 dpi screen. (From the OLPC)
2) 10+ hour battery life.
3) Bluetooth protocol, so it could dial your cellphone for you.
This would compete directly with the Kindle and iPhone, and if you make the right choices, it has most of the capabilities of both, but without DRM and various other disadvantages.
The slowdown is only particular to NAND Flash. Dynamic RAM based solid state drives don't suffer from this phenomenon. (Gigabyte i-Ram and ACARD ANS-9010) However, they are definitely also Solid State Drives.
What if Google announced that they killed a kitten for every search done on Google?
The Maps anime had a super-weapon called the "Sacrifice Cannon." It was a BF-blaster/raygun powered by the sheer cruelty and evil of destroying a pile of Pikachu-like creatures in a big blender. Yes, really, not making this up, that's exactly what it was, a big-ass raygun hooked up to a blender full of quasi-Pokemon.
How about Google Maps (anime)? I'd support Google implementing a holographic babe who is actually the ship's computer for a starship shaped like a huge-ass metallic winged babe. Then again, maybe we could have the "Will It Blend" guy in a black eyepatch as some sort of James Bond villain?
Some mainstream news mag did a profile of CA street dragsters, and there was one kid who's job was going around in his mom's Dodge Caravan taking $5 bets. Little did they know, he had it hooked up to Nitrus Oxide!
My coworker's uncle did something like that in the 60's with a VW bug with a Porsche Boxer engine. (Had to move the rear firewall forward to fit it!) He used to be famous in the Houston area. The nickname was the [something] killer, where [something] was the car favored for hot-rodders.
The one with the vocal group theme song that goes, "Spiderman, Spiderman..." There was a scene where the Rhino charges, and Spiderman holds him back with a web across the street. He says something like, "It's a little special formula of mine...Concentrated Steel!"
But infusing collagen with titanium opens up the possibility of augmented super-soldiers like Nuke from Daredevil. "He's got a variety of plastics in his skin. Doesn't burn easy..." Collagen is a major component of skin. What color is titanium when you mix it with flesh? (Copper is green. Iron is red.) Maybe we'll have a bunch of special forces with skin this color?
Combine Second Life and Second Skin with virtual reality "cave" technology and you have a low rent holodeck. Use it to interpret gestures like the Wii does, and yes, you have a revolution in cybersex and interactive pr0n.
I say it's a buy! Someone is going to make many millions on this. (Especially if they invent a Bluetooth API for optional teledildonics.)
I guess it's going to be a true test of ideals as Republican conservatives move to block stem cell research... as they approach age 75.
This is why there will probably be genuine life extension, because the elderly and soon-to-be elderly in our society control so many resources.
Once there is an upsurge in life extension, this should be followed by an upsurge in curing cancer. Why? Because if you extend the lifespan of a mammal long enough, it's going to die of cancer.
My favorite animator. Now he has a scientific explanation for another dinosaur happy ending. (Actually, he already did that one *before* he had the science!)
If the display has the right capabilities, this could be a bargain: Laptop + mobile email + Skype VOIP + eBook reader.
It's high time someone put out a netbook with a really high resolution display with reflective mode, like the one on the original OLPC.
Put Android on one with a bundle for 3G, and this could be the poor man's iPhone/Macbook Air. Where the rich man would have the two devices (iPhone and Air) the frugal one would have one device intermediate in size between the two, but capable of covering (somewhat) the same range of capability. With the high res reflective display, it would even be better for some functions.
Honeypots are the Answer! You simply have pages and options which are just distasteful to humans, the reasons for which are not comprehensible to machines! The machines will give themselves away because they cannot distinguish the distasteful options.
Example: A page of Markov-chain nonsense in an otherwise informative website.
This page would be generated using the same technology that spammers use to get past spam filters. Only a real human being or an AI that can achieve some sort of comprehension will be able to tell that it's full of nonsense. Programs that are trying to simulate human browsing behavior will "dwell" on this page, even though it's junk, and give themselves away.
I think this sort of "spam inoculation" can be done in a way that it doesn't detract too much from the website's quality as a whole, much as vaccines incorporate bits of pathogens without harming the patient.
A Verizon iPhone would be in the best interest of Apple, even if they had to give up some profits. Why?
1) AT&T's network Sucks. I have heard many complaints that the iPhone is wonderful -- at everything but being a plain cellphone.
2) AT&T's customer service sucks. DNA from a big telco. Monopoly mindset. Nuff said!
3) Mindshare is king. If there were a Verizon iPhone, there would be more Apple iPhone mindshare. I hated to leave Verizon's better network and service for AT&T's suckyness, but I did it anyways. Lower that barrier, and many more people like me would have an iPhone. In the long run mindshare = more profits!
I did say that the drones would be cheap and nigh disposable. How about. "Okay, we killed one of you. Leave, or we kill all of you." The first drone will be on station, and if necessary, will just convert itself into a little cruise missile and kamikaze a pirate boat. The 2nd drone will be a backup.
Two squads of marines for every ship making the passage would be a *huge* expense. It's often the *personnel* that are the most expensive part.
The solution - cheap, mass-produced drones. These could be stationed on every ship in an inactive state. When attacked, the crew makes a call to a central drone command, and a standby pilot activates and launches a drone and attacks the pirates. This greatly reduces the personnel cost. Since the pirates are lightly armed and not very well equipped in small boats, the drone could be cheaply manufactured and even disposable.
For best effect, pack *two* on each ship. Do an attack run, and kill at least one pirate. Then have the crew inform the pirates that another one will die if they don't leave. (Or build one of those megaphones into the drone launcher.)
The drone launch system would be built into -- you guessed it -- a standard cargo container.
I wonder if we could operate a remote-controlled Mass Catcher? The one designed for the 1975 Stanford Summer Study would do if you left off the intake grid of cables. It would be a rotating Kevlar cone. Centrifugal force would hold loose regolith in place, which would act to absorb the impact of the intercepted debris. The same rotation would also act as artificial gravity to prevent the escape of secondary splash debris. Using a pellet launcher as a thruster would be safe, since the pellets would be traveling at far above Earth escape velocity.
> The laughter is fine...As long as they are not doing your code review!:)
Any laughter is fine...As long you are doing it on the way to the bank!
True story:
My first industry job was 13 years ago building dynamic website stuff for a Public Television station. I was doing Perl-CGI, and all they gave me was a 2 foot by 2 foot junk table, an old wooden chair with peeling paint, and a green-screen DEC terminal in a noisy server room. To develop a web site! I had to debug my code using Lynx! (Text-only web browser.) The reason why I had this lovely setup was that I also had to deal with a redneck idiot admin who didn't understand the web and who thought that all of the station's online presence should be through the BBS he set up. So he was deliberately trying to sabotage the project.
Yes, definitely an idiot. He had no concept of process isolation on modern OSes. His understanding of C programming was along the lines of "magic." And he once was convinced he found a security breach in my code because he composed a GET request, making a pistol gesture and a "pow" sound. I had to point out to him that the CGI script was merely returning him to the home page because it had detected a nonsensical request, and it was designed to do exactly that! (I showed him the unless clause doing it.)
Well, in the end, the project was successful, and redneck idiot BBS man left the job. But his fundie contacts got him a 80k programming job in Atlanta. This is why I tell people, "any idiot can get an 80k programming job." (If they're well connected.)
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, we can do it with Industrial solar thermal.
That would be my preference, but I wanted to establish that we already have a number dandy alternatives to fossil fuels *right now.*
...require new infrastructure for all modes of operation (versus EVs which only need new infrastructure for long trips)
There was an engineer on the west coast who electrified his Honda CRX. His solution for long trips -- hitch a little cart on the back with a generator. You could even fuel these with propane bottles, and so avoid the whole petroleum infrastructure. Or, you could use the petroleum infrastructure, but use it to distribute biofuels for the generator modules.
Fine, lets just solve our enrgy crisis then. *kicks rock, wishes for holodeck*
If we really wanted to, we could solve it quite easily. There's many centuries of Uranium and Thorium to burn in fission reactors, and nuclear waste is solved technically. (Again, the problem is political.) We haven't taken more than the first step to tapping the potential of wave energy, there's a lot more wind to harness. Solar Thermal could benefit from economies of scale and improved distribution, and there's tremendous potential untapped in the world's deserts.
There's even a market for Orbital Solar Power Satellites -- namely for remote military outposts that would otherwise need to truck in fuel for generators. (An order of magnitude greater cost is acceptable in that case, but this would start the cycle of industrial innovation and reduction of costs from economies of scale, and would lead to widespread Solar Power for civilian use.)
We could stop using fossil fuels right now, from a technical standpoint. It's just that we don't want to, for a variety of economic, political, and superstitious reasons.
Namely:
1) A very efficient Reflective 200 dpi screen. (From the OLPC)
2) 10+ hour battery life.
3) Bluetooth protocol, so it could dial your cellphone for you.
This would compete directly with the Kindle and iPhone, and if you make the right choices, it has most of the capabilities of both, but without DRM and various other disadvantages.
...kinda like releasing a Sherlock Holmes movie where he runs around with a giant gun killing people until he solves the crime
You're a *genius*, man! A Steampunk Action-Adventure Sherlock Holmes!
Really, Hollywood should've done that, instead of messing up League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
So according to what you're saying, and what the Anandtech article said, the headline is just plain Wrong!
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=1
The slowdown is only particular to NAND Flash. Dynamic RAM based solid state drives don't suffer from this phenomenon. (Gigabyte i-Ram and ACARD ANS-9010) However, they are definitely also Solid State Drives.
And my wife will tell you, I scream 'F*** you Rick Berman!'
I first read that as, "My wife will scream, 'I F*** you Rick Berman!'"
No Eliza Dushku in this one!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Dushku
What if Google announced that they killed a kitten for every search done on Google?
The Maps anime had a super-weapon called the "Sacrifice Cannon." It was a BF-blaster/raygun powered by the sheer cruelty and evil of destroying a pile of Pikachu-like creatures in a big blender. Yes, really, not making this up, that's exactly what it was, a big-ass raygun hooked up to a blender full of quasi-Pokemon.
How about Google Maps (anime)? I'd support Google implementing a holographic babe who is actually the ship's computer for a starship shaped like a huge-ass metallic winged babe. Then again, maybe we could have the "Will It Blend" guy in a black eyepatch as some sort of James Bond villain?
On reddit 2 days ago!
http://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/8h6wr/google_rents_goats_to_replace_lawnmowers/
Some mainstream news mag did a profile of CA street dragsters, and there was one kid who's job was going around in his mom's Dodge Caravan taking $5 bets. Little did they know, he had it hooked up to Nitrus Oxide!
My coworker's uncle did something like that in the 60's with a VW bug with a Porsche Boxer engine. (Had to move the rear firewall forward to fit it!) He used to be famous in the Houston area. The nickname was the [something] killer, where [something] was the car favored for hot-rodders.
TiCl4 is colorless? Then the show would be more like Alias.
FOX news and Pinnacle Armor? I think of that crowd versus Cartoon Network and Cosplay outfits.
It would most likely be bright white, like titanium dioxide. So the super-soldiers of the future will look like they've been doused in suntan lotion.
It's the special forces Ultra Goths!
The one with the vocal group theme song that goes, "Spiderman, Spiderman..." There was a scene where the Rhino charges, and Spiderman holds him back with a web across the street. He says something like, "It's a little special formula of mine...Concentrated Steel!"
But infusing collagen with titanium opens up the possibility of augmented super-soldiers like Nuke from Daredevil. "He's got a variety of plastics in his skin. Doesn't burn easy..." Collagen is a major component of skin. What color is titanium when you mix it with flesh? (Copper is green. Iron is red.) Maybe we'll have a bunch of special forces with skin this color?
Combine Second Life and Second Skin with virtual reality "cave" technology and you have a low rent holodeck. Use it to interpret gestures like the Wii does, and yes, you have a revolution in cybersex and interactive pr0n.
I say it's a buy! Someone is going to make many millions on this. (Especially if they invent a Bluetooth API for optional teledildonics.)
I guess it's going to be a true test of ideals as Republican conservatives move to block stem cell research ... as they approach age 75.
This is why there will probably be genuine life extension, because the elderly and soon-to-be elderly in our society control so many resources.
Once there is an upsurge in life extension, this should be followed by an upsurge in curing cancer. Why? Because if you extend the lifespan of a mammal long enough, it's going to die of cancer.
http://www.sens.org/
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html
My favorite animator. Now he has a scientific explanation for another dinosaur happy ending. (Actually, he already did that one *before* he had the science!)
Someone should redo the giant robots genre, but instead of kids piloting giant robots, they are implanted as the nucleii of giant combat amoebas.
Gundam Mobile Slime?
Actually, Evangelion was kinda off in that direction, anyhow!
If the display has the right capabilities, this could be a bargain: Laptop + mobile email + Skype VOIP + eBook reader.
It's high time someone put out a netbook with a really high resolution display with reflective mode, like the one on the original OLPC.
Put Android on one with a bundle for 3G, and this could be the poor man's iPhone/Macbook Air. Where the rich man would have the two devices (iPhone and Air) the frugal one would have one device intermediate in size between the two, but capable of covering (somewhat) the same range of capability. With the high res reflective display, it would even be better for some functions.
Honeypots are the Answer! You simply have pages and options which are just distasteful to humans, the reasons for which are not comprehensible to machines! The machines will give themselves away because they cannot distinguish the distasteful options.
Example: A page of Markov-chain nonsense in an otherwise informative website.
This page would be generated using the same technology that spammers use to get past spam filters. Only a real human being or an AI that can achieve some sort of comprehension will be able to tell that it's full of nonsense. Programs that are trying to simulate human browsing behavior will "dwell" on this page, even though it's junk, and give themselves away.
I think this sort of "spam inoculation" can be done in a way that it doesn't detract too much from the website's quality as a whole, much as vaccines incorporate bits of pathogens without harming the patient.
A Verizon iPhone would be in the best interest of Apple, even if they had to give up some profits. Why?
1) AT&T's network Sucks. I have heard many complaints that the iPhone is wonderful -- at everything but being a plain cellphone.
2) AT&T's customer service sucks. DNA from a big telco. Monopoly mindset. Nuff said!
3) Mindshare is king. If there were a Verizon iPhone, there would be more Apple iPhone mindshare. I hated to leave Verizon's better network and service for AT&T's suckyness, but I did it anyways. Lower that barrier, and many more people like me would have an iPhone. In the long run mindshare = more profits!
I did say that the drones would be cheap and nigh disposable. How about. "Okay, we killed one of you. Leave, or we kill all of you." The first drone will be on station, and if necessary, will just convert itself into a little cruise missile and kamikaze a pirate boat. The 2nd drone will be a backup.
Two squads of marines for every ship making the passage would be a *huge* expense. It's often the *personnel* that are the most expensive part.
The solution - cheap, mass-produced drones. These could be stationed on every ship in an inactive state. When attacked, the crew makes a call to a central drone command, and a standby pilot activates and launches a drone and attacks the pirates. This greatly reduces the personnel cost. Since the pirates are lightly armed and not very well equipped in small boats, the drone could be cheaply manufactured and even disposable.
For best effect, pack *two* on each ship. Do an attack run, and kill at least one pirate. Then have the crew inform the pirates that another one will die if they don't leave. (Or build one of those megaphones into the drone launcher.)
The drone launch system would be built into -- you guessed it -- a standard cargo container.
I wonder if we could operate a remote-controlled Mass Catcher? The one designed for the 1975 Stanford Summer Study would do if you left off the intake grid of cables. It would be a rotating Kevlar cone. Centrifugal force would hold loose regolith in place, which would act to absorb the impact of the intercepted debris. The same rotation would also act as artificial gravity to prevent the escape of secondary splash debris. Using a pellet launcher as a thruster would be safe, since the pellets would be traveling at far above Earth escape velocity.
> The laughter is fine...As long as they are not doing your code review! :)
Any laughter is fine...As long you are doing it on the way to the bank!
True story:
My first industry job was 13 years ago building dynamic website stuff for a Public Television station. I was doing Perl-CGI, and all they gave me was a 2 foot by 2 foot junk table, an old wooden chair with peeling paint, and a green-screen DEC terminal in a noisy server room. To develop a web site! I had to debug my code using Lynx! (Text-only web browser.) The reason why I had this lovely setup was that I also had to deal with a redneck idiot admin who didn't understand the web and who thought that all of the station's online presence should be through the BBS he set up. So he was deliberately trying to sabotage the project.
Yes, definitely an idiot. He had no concept of process isolation on modern OSes. His understanding of C programming was along the lines of "magic." And he once was convinced he found a security breach in my code because he composed a GET request, making a pistol gesture and a "pow" sound. I had to point out to him that the CGI script was merely returning him to the home page because it had detected a nonsensical request, and it was designed to do exactly that! (I showed him the unless clause doing it.)
Well, in the end, the project was successful, and redneck idiot BBS man left the job. But his fundie contacts got him a 80k programming job in Atlanta. This is why I tell people, "any idiot can get an 80k programming job." (If they're well connected.)