While cameras may be more cost effective than Lidar, they have problems that lidar doesn't. For example, what does the camera sensor do when it's under direct sunlight and can't make sense of what it's seeing? What about rain / fog? I have a feeling google is has the right idea here.
Since this is a real-time negotiation taking place, it will be much easier to include a challenge/response in the "handshake" portion of the connection.
Unlike, email (which gets queued), voice requires an instant connection between endpoints. If you simply used an audio captcha ("Hi, please say my first name after the beep to be connected..."), you can create a hurdle that has to be overcome immediately. Using VOX/IVR technology would easily create an AI nightmare for potential "SPITers". Add a short timeout (like 10 seconds or [with a few retries]) and then dump the dubious caller.
Corporations do it to us all the time when we call customer service "I'm sorry, that's not a valid option. Goodbye".
Every story you read about these days is about France, Israel, or the USA (or the three trying to destroy/enrich each other).
Please help stop it. Humans could put persons on Mars, yet we still quibble about dumb things.
Brittan created America because they were bitchy. France helped America become independent. Americans came to be tired. Americans think we should all work out our differences. Americans think we should just work it out. Americans think we should not fight unless necessary.
That has never occurred to me, and I've been doing quite a bit of research in this space (spending bundles on copper tube for ETOH production, in fact).
The pharmaceutical medical companies? The companies that realized it was a valuable chemical and had expensive lobbyists/friends in Wash. DC make sure they could take it off the market before the grass-roots hobbyists could figure out its value?
ZOMG, big marketing companies paying billions to Main Stream Media (MSM) to keep a common chemical from being used by researchers by use of "FUD"...?
It's been done before, and I'd bet that anyone whom gets too close to the Energy Solution will find themselves in a world of "ZOMG, silicon is teh toxiCs!"
You don't have to store Solar Energy. My array is grid-connected (with optional battery backup). It's called net-metering.
It means that the power I generate during the day, reverses my meter and my electric company pays me wholesale price for the electricity that I'm putting into the grid. At night, I'll use their electricity and the net net of my utility bill will be close to nothing. They pay me during the day for the excess power I generate and I pay them for usage at night. Anything extra that I generate (during long summer days), goes into my pocket (it's rare, but it can happen if I just add a few more panels to my array).
Solar water heating is another great solution. I'm looking into doing that next. There's a great article over on instructables.com about it.
Solar Panels don't wear out. They decrease in production capacity nominally up to 15% after 25 years of use. Why do you think Solar Panels ship with 25 year warranties that guarantee 80% production or more?
Many people have mentioned increases in solar production with the aging of their panels: Watson Solar House, albeit for less than longer durations.
"Peak oil has at least 300+ years before we reach it."
Are you willing to bet your life and your family on that statement?
As for the Oil Shale, do you know what the costs would be to refine it? It's basically sludge that has to be massively filtered/treated/turned/compressed/distilled before it could be used as gasoline. Expect to pay $15/gallon for your "oil shale" at the early stages, but as refinement gets better, you can expect better than $3/gallon (when it's all the oil that remains, I can guarantee that you won't be getting any of it for your SUV or Pickup).
America has small reserves of oil (very small on the international scale). Those aptly named "reserves" are just that.
Personally, I am curbing my use of oil because it's the right thing to do. Since you distanced yourself from the "some" that "want to do the right thing", I will forevermore consider you a bad guy.
I actually used to own the Vanguard 500, so I'm very familiar with it's returns (much of which I gave back in 2000 and 2001. I guess I didn't hold the fund long enough.
As for the Carbon credits, they might be a decent "green" alternative. However, I get more value out of knowing that my home will have electricity regardless of what happens in D.C. or Saudi Arabia, or the boardrooms of Oil Executives.
Just as there's a ton of money (Trillions) in the Energy industry, there's just as much to be saved by going green. It's inverse economics. The industries that have the highest profit margins are the ones that need to be cut from your budget early in life, so you can gain the most.
Cash is king, and I can't think of a better investment than free electricity for the rest of my life at this early age in my life.
Sure, I could invest that $10,000, and make an earnest yield of 10% (12% is a bit high, don't you think?). That works out to about $1000 a year, or $83/month. Take out 2 or 3% inflation from that, and you're down to about $78/month (not compounding). Using my math [above], I'm coming ahead much more than that, and I'm doing so for the rest of my life. Why would I want to look at a number on a computer screen of how much money I have "on paper", when I can't realize it. Regardless of recessions, depressions, wars, etc. Solar panels have tangible value up front much like cars, yet they appreciate in value (as energy prices go up), and they ultimately pay for themselves over time!
I should note that I'm doing this for political reasons just as much as I'm doing it to be financially savvy.
Even if it ended up costing me $20 a month for consistent, sane, patriotic, green, renewable energy every month for the rest of my life - I consider it a win.
One of my best friends is a Blackhawk pilot serving in Iraq right now (82nd Airborne, Medivac). Even if these panels don't net me profit before I die I'll gladly eat the losses to keep him, his brothers, and their kids and their grandkids from dying for Oil.
Even if it just prevents the use of the 10,500 barrels a year that I've been consuming (me, my family, our 4 cars, petroleum products, etc).
And as the growth rate continues to climb, so does consumer interest. As consumer interest continues to grow, so does the adoption rate climb. Larger volume production of Solar energy, will lead to lower costs per unit, which will lead to even faster adoption.
You defeated your argument before you even completed it.
You are right about this - Solar adoption/growth will not be linear. It will snowball / logarithmically grow (unless some other market forces step in to derail it [ex. Biogas, Ethanol, etc]).
I should mention that I'm taking the $10k from the sale of my other car to buy the panels, Inverters, disconnects, etc.
The car is relevant to my scenario because instead of trading my paid off car for a fuel efficient one, I'm actually redistributing my money more effectively by purchasing the solar panels.
I'm basically adding a new car payment to replace my already paid off car. But most people do that many times in a lifetime, so it's nothing novel.
I'm about to invest 10k in solar panels for my home (I'm doing the 1.5Kw installation myself). I'm about to sell one of my cars for $10k. My electric bill is about $175 a month. I'm going to take a loan for $10k to buy a Honda Insight (70MPG) to replace the car that I'm selling (~25 MPG).
Here's my math: My new car payment will be: $200/month ($10,000 loan)
$2000 IRS Solar credit = $166/month (until 2009) Reduction in electric bill each month by going Solar: $100/month Fuel savings from new fuel efficient car: ~$50/month (or more depending on how much you drive) $100+$166+$50 = $310 a month that I save. Reduce that by the new $200 car payment = $110 a month I _save_. I'm not even factoring in the $17,000 per 1000Kw appreciation/equity increase of my home, nor the rising electricity prices, nor the fact that the Solar Panels will break even in about 8 years.
I'm in my early 30's right now. Even if the cost of the solar panels breaks even in 10 years, and if I live to be 60, that's about $63,000 that I'll save over the next 30 years by going Solar (assuming the cost of electricity doesn't go up, which it will).
I think that's HIGHLY cost effective.
One of the keys here, is paying cash for the Solar Panels (not credit). If you finance the solar panels, your break even point will be MUCH farther out (more than 30 years) and you may not live long enough to break even with your solar purchase. In fact, now that I think about it, you'd still win though, because you'd have to pay an electric bill every month if you didn't go solar, so it's a net win no matter how you slice it.
Check out Pic Micro controllers. You can even use something like PicBasic Pro (melabs.com) to program the PIC's these days. You basically give the chip a regulated power supply (or buy a prototyping board) and use code to work with the IO.
They even make blank prototyping boards that are already silkscreened for what components to use.
You'll need a pic programmer (I use this one, some blank PIC chips (a few dollars each at mouser.com), and some software to program them in.
Another approach is to use Parallax BasicStamps. They cost a bit more for each chip (like $40 I think), but you can get a kit with everything you need for a hundred bucks or so. They can be programmed in Basic, which makes them great for getting started in electronics.
Operations(IT) isn't like sales. It's not exactly easy to quantify achievements, etc. As long as your teams hit their deadlines within the allotted time frames, your department is doing better than most.
If I still owned SCO stock, I'd be a man and hold on to it until the end. If you unload your SCO stock en masse, it might give them reason to say it was a grandiose conspiracy to get them de-listed.
That company is shameless (as demonstrated by their actions), and they deserve anything that our government deems appropriate.
This is yet another reason why I refuse to use gmail for email. I don't need the largest marketing/advertising company in the world knowing what I subscribe to, what I enjoy, or when I enjoy it.
Slashdot Mirror
While cameras may be more cost effective than Lidar, they have problems that lidar doesn't. For example, what does the camera sensor do when it's under direct sunlight and can't make sense of what it's seeing? What about rain / fog? I have a feeling google is has the right idea here.
This is great news! I've almost finished building my MAME cabinet. I wonder how this will allow the Roms of those games to be released freely.
Kudos to Atari license holders for releasing this.
Since this is a real-time negotiation taking place, it will be much easier to include a challenge/response in the "handshake" portion of the connection.
Unlike, email (which gets queued), voice requires an instant connection between endpoints. If you simply used an audio captcha ("Hi, please say my first name after the beep to be connected..."), you can create a hurdle that has to be overcome immediately. Using VOX/IVR technology would easily create an AI nightmare for potential "SPITers". Add a short timeout (like 10 seconds or [with a few retries]) and then dump the dubious caller.
Corporations do it to us all the time when we call customer service "I'm sorry, that's not a valid option. Goodbye".
Harris Semiconductor is based out of Florida.
Reliable Polling data from a Florida Corporation?
No thanks.
Sorry for the typo - I meant the UK!
Every story you read about these days is about France, Israel, or the USA (or the three trying to destroy/enrich each other).
Please help stop it. Humans could put persons on Mars, yet we still quibble about dumb things.
Brittan created America because they were bitchy.
France helped America become independent.
Americans came to be tired.
Americans think we should all work out our differences. Americans think we should just work it out. Americans think we should not fight unless necessary.
America does not agree with leader.
Why do you anti-solar economists always ASSUME people will borrow the money for solar arrays?
I'm paying cash for mine, which is how I'm going to net positive much sooner economically.
Brilliant!
That has never occurred to me, and I've been doing quite a bit of research in this space (spending bundles on copper tube for ETOH production, in fact).
Who said Arsenic was bad?
The pharmaceutical medical companies?
The companies that realized it was a valuable chemical and had expensive lobbyists/friends in Wash. DC make sure they could take it off the market before the grass-roots hobbyists could figure out its value?
ZOMG, big marketing companies paying billions to Main Stream Media (MSM) to keep a common chemical from being used by researchers by use of "FUD"...?
It's been done before, and I'd bet that anyone whom gets too close to the Energy Solution will find themselves in a world of "ZOMG, silicon is teh toxiCs!"
But, God built the Sun. Or the Son. Or some folklore like that...
You don't have to store Solar Energy. My array is grid-connected (with optional battery backup). It's called net-metering.
It means that the power I generate during the day, reverses my meter and my electric company pays me wholesale price for the electricity that I'm putting into the grid. At night, I'll use their electricity and the net net of my utility bill will be close to nothing. They pay me during the day for the excess power I generate and I pay them for usage at night. Anything extra that I generate (during long summer days), goes into my pocket (it's rare, but it can happen if I just add a few more panels to my array).
Solar water heating is another great solution. I'm looking into doing that next. There's a great article over on instructables.com about it.
Solar Panels don't wear out. They decrease in production capacity nominally up to 15% after 25 years of use. Why do you think Solar Panels ship with 25 year warranties that guarantee 80% production or more?
Many people have mentioned increases in solar production with the aging of their panels: Watson Solar House, albeit for less than longer durations.
"Peak oil has at least 300+ years before we reach it."
Are you willing to bet your life and your family on that statement?
As for the Oil Shale, do you know what the costs would be to refine it? It's basically sludge that has to be massively filtered/treated/turned/compressed/distilled before it could be used as gasoline. Expect to pay $15/gallon for your "oil shale" at the early stages, but as refinement gets better, you can expect better than $3/gallon (when it's all the oil that remains, I can guarantee that you won't be getting any of it for your SUV or Pickup).
America has small reserves of oil (very small on the international scale). Those aptly named "reserves" are just that.
Personally, I am curbing my use of oil because it's the right thing to do. Since you distanced yourself from the "some" that "want to do the right thing", I will forevermore consider you a bad guy.
I actually used to own the Vanguard 500, so I'm very familiar with it's returns (much of which I gave back in 2000 and 2001. I guess I didn't hold the fund long enough.
As for the Carbon credits, they might be a decent "green" alternative. However, I get more value out of knowing that my home will have electricity regardless of what happens in D.C. or Saudi Arabia, or the boardrooms of Oil Executives.
Just as there's a ton of money (Trillions) in the Energy industry, there's just as much to be saved by going green. It's inverse economics. The industries that have the highest profit margins are the ones that need to be cut from your budget early in life, so you can gain the most.
Cash is king, and I can't think of a better investment than free electricity for the rest of my life at this early age in my life.
Sure, I could invest that $10,000, and make an earnest yield of 10% (12% is a bit high, don't you think?). That works out to about $1000 a year, or $83/month. Take out 2 or 3% inflation from that, and you're down to about $78/month (not compounding). Using my math [above], I'm coming ahead much more than that, and I'm doing so for the rest of my life. Why would I want to look at a number on a computer screen of how much money I have "on paper", when I can't realize it. Regardless of recessions, depressions, wars, etc. Solar panels have tangible value up front much like cars, yet they appreciate in value (as energy prices go up), and they ultimately pay for themselves over time!
I should note that I'm doing this for political reasons just as much as I'm doing it to be financially savvy.
Even if it ended up costing me $20 a month for consistent, sane, patriotic, green, renewable energy every month for the rest of my life - I consider it a win.
One of my best friends is a Blackhawk pilot serving in Iraq right now (82nd Airborne, Medivac). Even if these panels don't net me profit before I die I'll gladly eat the losses to keep him, his brothers, and their kids and their grandkids from dying for Oil.
Even if it just prevents the use of the 10,500 barrels a year that I've been consuming (me, my family, our 4 cars, petroleum products, etc).
Exactly.
And as the growth rate continues to climb, so does consumer interest. As consumer interest continues to grow, so does the adoption rate climb. Larger volume production of Solar energy, will lead to lower costs per unit, which will lead to even faster adoption.
You defeated your argument before you even completed it.
You are right about this - Solar adoption/growth will not be linear. It will snowball / logarithmically grow (unless some other market forces step in to derail it [ex. Biogas, Ethanol, etc]).
This may explain why people with solar panels experience small peaks when cloud edges first hit their panels.
I forget what the term for it is in the Solar community (cloud edge, or something).
I should mention that I'm taking the $10k from the sale of my other car to buy the panels, Inverters, disconnects, etc.
The car is relevant to my scenario because instead of trading my paid off car for a fuel efficient one, I'm actually redistributing my money more effectively by purchasing the solar panels.
I'm basically adding a new car payment to replace my already paid off car. But most people do that many times in a lifetime, so it's nothing novel.
I think you are completely wrong. Here's why:
I'm about to invest 10k in solar panels for my home (I'm doing the 1.5Kw installation myself). I'm about to sell one of my cars for $10k. My electric bill is about $175 a month. I'm going to take a loan for $10k to buy a Honda Insight (70MPG) to replace the car that I'm selling (~25 MPG).
Here's my math:
My new car payment will be: $200/month ($10,000 loan)
$2000 IRS Solar credit = $166/month (until 2009)
Reduction in electric bill each month by going Solar: $100/month
Fuel savings from new fuel efficient car: ~$50/month (or more depending on how much you drive)
$100+$166+$50 = $310 a month that I save. Reduce that by the new $200 car payment = $110 a month I _save_.
I'm not even factoring in the $17,000 per 1000Kw appreciation/equity increase of my home, nor the rising electricity prices, nor the fact that the Solar Panels will break even in about 8 years.
I'm in my early 30's right now. Even if the cost of the solar panels breaks even in 10 years, and if I live to be 60, that's about $63,000 that I'll save over the next 30 years by going Solar (assuming the cost of electricity doesn't go up, which it will).
I think that's HIGHLY cost effective.
One of the keys here, is paying cash for the Solar Panels (not credit). If you finance the solar panels, your break even point will be MUCH farther out (more than 30 years) and you may not live long enough to break even with your solar purchase. In fact, now that I think about it, you'd still win though, because you'd have to pay an electric bill every month if you didn't go solar, so it's a net win no matter how you slice it.
Check out Pic Micro controllers. You can even use something like PicBasic Pro (melabs.com) to program the PIC's these days. You basically give the chip a regulated power supply (or buy a prototyping board) and use code to work with the IO.
They even make blank prototyping boards that are already silkscreened for what components to use.
You'll need a pic programmer (I use this one, some blank PIC chips (a few dollars each at mouser.com), and some software to program them in.
Another approach is to use Parallax BasicStamps. They cost a bit more for each chip (like $40 I think), but you can get a kit with everything you need for a hundred bucks or so. They can be programmed in Basic, which makes them great for getting started in electronics.
Your logic is highly flawed.
You're assuming/implying that the people posting in here ALSO post in the "How to steal music" topics.
I've used Arcom Linux Distribution(Debian based) and for the most part, I like their products.
Also, eCos isn't a linux distro - it's a bootstrapper like RedBoot. You can use it on ARM, but it's not a full kernel.
Operations(IT) isn't like sales. It's not exactly easy to quantify achievements, etc. As long as your teams hit their deadlines within the allotted time frames, your department is doing better than most.
If I still owned SCO stock, I'd be a man and hold on to it until the end. If you unload your SCO stock en masse, it might give them reason to say it was a grandiose conspiracy to get them de-listed.
That company is shameless (as demonstrated by their actions), and they deserve anything that our government deems appropriate.
This is yet another reason why I refuse to use gmail for email. I don't need the largest marketing/advertising company in the world knowing what I subscribe to, what I enjoy, or when I enjoy it.
If you don't like the audience, why are you here (and posting)?
Are you shilling?