There's another problem with methanol: it's hydrophylic, so it will absorb moisture from the air, contaminating it. I'd be interested in hearing how Brazilians address this problem.
Methanol absorbs water only up to a certain point where the mixture becomes stable -- the two of them even evaporate evenly. If I remember right it's about 4% water. AFAIK methanol for cars is already at that point. Methanol combustion gives out water anyway (along with CO2), so I guess the engine just lives with it.
Being a Brazilian myself, I have a few points to add...
1) The original poster is half correct about the difficulty to start a methanol engine. The cold-weather problem has been GREATLY diminished over the years by smart electronics.
2) The great problem in the alternate fuel area is (of course) political. There is a government agency here called Proalcool who's supposedly in charge of stimulating the use of alcohol instead of gasoline. Now, the whole program was started in the wake of that horrible mess the Arabs got everybody into in the early 70's. Along the way, there were times in which the program was on the brink of extinction because of low gas prices. (with under-the hood help from the oil companies no doubt) There was even a period in which NO new alcohol cars were coming out of the factories (unlike now). Needless to say, environmental considerations never had a great influence.
3) Now there's a third fuel being used by cars (mostly taxis): natural gas. Still a fossile material, but less nasty than gasoline.
4) Alcohol WOULD be way cheaper than anything else with proper management and smart, well-organized agriculture. The fact is, <rant> Brazil is and has always been run by an upper caste of idiots who don't give a damn about the population's well-being or the country's progress. AND the sheep-factor of the average Brazilian is even higher than that of Americans (believe it or not).</rant>
5) Despite all of this, alcohol cars have been uninterruptibly available for more than 20 years, and they do work. Just to show how strong the idea is.
6) Let's not forget alcohol combustion gives out plain old CO2, while gasoline has all those nasty things (like CO for instance) coming out of the exhaust.
7) It's a Brazilian invention, so I get to be proud of something else besides Pelé and Ayrton Senna!;)
All costs? You mean, REALLY all, as in by whatever means necessary? Are you willing to have your country (I'm assuming you're from the US) turned into a Christian equivalent of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan? Coz that's what you'll eventually get, Mr. At All Costs.
I think there is even a version for Palm and/or WindowsCE.
You are correct. Don't know about the Palm, though. I wouldn't discard the possibility, since it seems to be enjoying better health than WinCE nowadays.
They could teach a thing or two to the Wine and VMware people. MAME's success in emulating the most oddball hardware/software configurations imaginable is nothing short of heroic. And yes, you guessed it, I'm an early-80's arcade nut.:)
Could your company consider working on the Harmony project, or something equivalent that could end this irritating licensing melée once and for all? Pardon me if the question does not apply; I know nothing about your company's business plan except it's about Linux.;)
So does this mean that Microsoft will have less incentive to sell software to OEMs at a reduced price? Absolutely.
This means that OEM's who want to continue selling PC's with Microsoft products will have to start charging more for the PC's.
And this will lead to more expensive PC's for everyone, since OEM's need to offer M$ products in order to be competetive.
Your logic is correct, but there's more to this scenario:
1) They can sell the machines with alternate, free less-expensive OSs like Linux 2) They can sell the machines like this: With Windows: 2800 DM Without Windows (OS-less or with Linux or BeOS or whatever): 2500 DM with all the standard disclaimers. Leave it to the user whether he wants to install the OS on his own, ask for a friend's help, buy Windows, pirate Windows, pirate QNX, install FreeBSD, whatever. Either that or he pays US$ 150 more for the convenience. (1 DM ~ US$ 0.5)
Yes, this may indirectly boost illegal copying. However, the PC manufacturer is not endorsing it in any way. They're clear.
Is this any different from a store owner opening up a bag of bite sized candybars and selling them despite the fact that they all have "this item is not packaged for individual retail sale" written on the label?
No, it isn't, and yes, I think the store owner should have the legal right to do that too (as long as the unpackaging doesn't damage the product in any way).
I don't know when I would have found the time to write Slashdot during college if we didn't have computers in the classroom;)
Come on, college is a completely different thing. If you haven't learned to think by then, you never will. Ooops, sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone.;-P
If I worked for a web-mail or search-engine company, I'd do something like this: If the user sends a message to (or searchs for) nonexistent@nowhere.com, the resulting page is a Java game or something like that. The good thing is, this doesn't occupy space on your HD!
Finally. Well, this is cause for celebration. I was going to use the fact that it was Thursday as an excuse to drink ( not that I actually need one ), but this is soo much sweeter. Prost!
Senna! (yeah, I know prost means "cheers" but WTF)
The text states that this couldn't be adapted to signal information back in time due to the small timescales involved, well, what about a simple signal? like 'Don't switch the signal generator (laser or whatever?) on?. Would the ensuing paradox wipe-out the universe?
Maybe not. Maybe the destruction will be limited to our galaxy.
I was pleasantly surprised upon reading the Mexican Patent Institute's charter, and found out that patents on computer software, natural phenomena and mathematical formulae are expressly forbidden, and reverse engineering is expressly permitted, for interoperability reasons.
(*sigh*) Then expect Mexico to be shortly strongarmed into changing its patent law to something more gangster^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcorporation-friendly. Yeah, I'm in a pessimistic mood. Does it show?
KDE question from ignorant, GNOME-only linux user
on
KDE 1.90 (2.0 Beta)
·
· Score: 1
Uh, is there anything done for KDE which resembles Helixcode? Their autoupdater kicks ass. OTOH all those juicy KDE apps (Konqueror, KOffice, KDevelop) are starting to make me salivate.
Now that the collective smart@$$ in everybody has had the opportunity to manifest, let me rephrase: How's the status of BladeENC? There were some legal problems with it IIRC. Maybe it'll do the same thing LAME did?
If most of the Fortune 500 IS shops and legal departments were fully aware of what UCITA is, and how it will subject their companies to huge, unnecessary legal and operational risks, you'd see UCITA squashed flat in a minute DESPITE its backing by AOL, Apple, and Microsoft.
That could be something. Maybe a letter campaign directed at big non-IT companies (banks, departament stores, fast food chains...) saying, "Watch out for this law! It's going to screw your company ROYALLY!".
If you're a shareholder showing concern, all the better. It'll give them the chills. Who said Big Bu$$ine$$ is good for nothing?
Sometimes, when installing Linux on a "newbie's" computer, I wish the answer to "What's the difference between KDE and GNOME? Why is there two?" could be a lot easier to answer.
It is easy. Just say, "A group of people went and made KDE. Another group of people looked at KDE, didn't like it and made GNOME. They're slightly different, but for an end-user they're largely equivalent."
And don't go about licensing this and Qt that and GPL blahblah until the "newbie" has gathered some speed.
Now, I know I'm getting a little bit offtopic, but I think any distribution's ease-of-use factor for non-geeks (ie. people that don't have the time to fiddle and experiment, they just want to use a computer) if it included only one desktop environment.
And for that matter, install only one (or maybe two, but no more) word processor, one calender application, one way to dial out to the internet. It would make things a lot less confusing...
I think the problem is elsewhere. More newbie-compliant installers would do wonders. Yes, there has been great progress, but we're not quite "there".
...most people don't think application centric on their computers, they think task-centric. Of course, this kind of thing would only happen bump-free with a universal file format.
Like XML, you say? I agree. Actually, it seems the GNU crowd is ahead of M$ on that one. Of course, such an approach is anathema to M$'s monopoly-through-file-format-obfuscation modus operandi.
Slashdot Mirror
There's another problem with methanol: it's hydrophylic, so it will absorb moisture from the air, contaminating it. I'd be interested in hearing how Brazilians address this problem.
Methanol absorbs water only up to a certain point where the mixture becomes stable -- the two of them even evaporate evenly. If I remember right it's about 4% water. AFAIK methanol for cars is already at that point. Methanol combustion gives out water anyway (along with CO2), so I guess the engine just lives with it.
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
No. Mostly from the Northeast region.
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
1) The original poster is half correct about the difficulty to start a methanol engine. The cold-weather problem has been GREATLY diminished over the years by smart electronics.
2) The great problem in the alternate fuel area is (of course) political. There is a government agency here called Proalcool who's supposedly in charge of stimulating the use of alcohol instead of gasoline. Now, the whole program was started in the wake of that horrible mess the Arabs got everybody into in the early 70's. Along the way, there were times in which the program was on the brink of extinction because of low gas prices. (with under-the hood help from the oil companies no doubt) There was even a period in which NO new alcohol cars were coming out of the factories (unlike now). Needless to say, environmental considerations never had a great influence.
3) Now there's a third fuel being used by cars (mostly taxis): natural gas. Still a fossile material, but less nasty than gasoline.
4) Alcohol WOULD be way cheaper than anything else with proper management and smart, well-organized agriculture. The fact is, <rant> Brazil is and has always been run by an upper caste of idiots who don't give a damn about the population's well-being or the country's progress. AND the sheep-factor of the average Brazilian is even higher than that of Americans (believe it or not).</rant>
5) Despite all of this, alcohol cars have been uninterruptibly available for more than 20 years, and they do work. Just to show how strong the idea is.
6) Let's not forget alcohol combustion gives out plain old CO2, while gasoline has all those nasty things (like CO for instance) coming out of the exhaust.
7) It's a Brazilian invention, so I get to be proud of something else besides Pelé and Ayrton Senna! ;)
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
All costs? You mean, REALLY all, as in by whatever means necessary? Are you willing to have your country (I'm assuming you're from the US) turned into a Christian equivalent of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan? Coz that's what you'll eventually get, Mr. At All Costs.
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Gnot as gmuch as the 'g' gthing.
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
You are correct. Don't know about the Palm, though. I wouldn't discard the possibility, since it seems to be enjoying better health than WinCE nowadays.
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
They could teach a thing or two to the Wine and VMware people. MAME's success in emulating the most oddball hardware/software configurations imaginable is nothing short of heroic. And yes, you guessed it, I'm an early-80's arcade nut. :)
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Could your company consider working on the Harmony project, or something equivalent that could end this irritating licensing melée once and for all? Pardon me if the question does not apply; I know nothing about your company's business plan except it's about Linux. ;)
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
This means that OEM's who want to continue selling PC's with Microsoft products will have to start charging more for the PC's.
And this will lead to more expensive PC's for everyone, since OEM's need to offer M$ products in order to be competetive.
Your logic is correct, but there's more to this scenario:
1) They can sell the machines with alternate, free less-expensive OSs like Linux
2) They can sell the machines like this:
With Windows: 2800 DM
Without Windows (OS-less or with Linux or BeOS or whatever): 2500 DM
with all the standard disclaimers. Leave it to the user whether he wants to install the OS on his own, ask for a friend's help, buy Windows, pirate Windows, pirate QNX, install FreeBSD, whatever. Either that or he pays US$ 150 more for the convenience. (1 DM ~ US$ 0.5)
Yes, this may indirectly boost illegal copying. However, the PC manufacturer is not endorsing it in any way. They're clear.
Is this any different from a store owner opening up a bag of bite sized candybars and selling them despite the fact that they all have "this item is not packaged for individual retail sale" written on the label?
No, it isn't, and yes, I think the store owner should have the legal right to do that too (as long as the unpackaging doesn't damage the product in any way).
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
I don't know when I would have found the time to write Slashdot during college if we didn't have computers in the classroom ;)
Come on, college is a completely different thing. If you haven't learned to think by then, you never will. Ooops, sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone. ;-P
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Personally, I think if you're dumb enough to confuse them, you deserve to be watching the wrong one.
You mean the one with Tom Hanks, right?
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
How hard is the CorelDRAW vector format to be reverse-engineered? Can't be harder than .DOC.
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Yes, but this is only part of a more fundamental Corporate Truth:
IF YOU DO ANYTHING AND WE DON'T GET MONEY AS A RESULT OF IT, IT'S ILLEGAL!
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
If I worked for a web-mail or search-engine company, I'd do something like this: If the user sends a message to (or searchs for) nonexistent@nowhere.com, the resulting page is a Java game or something like that. The good thing is, this doesn't occupy space on your HD!
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Senna! (yeah, I know prost means "cheers" but WTF)
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Maybe not. Maybe the destruction will be limited to our galaxy.
McFly regards
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
See here. Did the US point their nukes or what?
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
(*sigh*) Then expect Mexico to be shortly strongarmed into changing its patent law to something more gangster^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcorporation-friendly. Yeah, I'm in a pessimistic mood. Does it show?
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Uh, is there anything done for KDE which resembles Helixcode? Their autoupdater kicks ass. OTOH all those juicy KDE apps (Konqueror, KOffice, KDevelop) are starting to make me salivate.
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Now that the collective smart@$$ in everybody has had the opportunity to manifest, let me rephrase: How's the status of BladeENC? There were some legal problems with it IIRC. Maybe it'll do the same thing LAME did?
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Lame's An MP3 Encoder. See? Grammar is preserved.
What's the status of Blade, by the way?
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
That could be something. Maybe a letter campaign directed at big non-IT companies (banks, departament stores, fast food chains...) saying, "Watch out for this law! It's going to screw your company ROYALLY!".
If you're a shareholder showing concern, all the better. It'll give them the chills. Who said Big Bu$$ine$$ is good for nothing?
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
Have you noticed the NYT article's author has the same surname as the pro-censorship assholic judge of the case? Family feud?
"Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating." --Richard Stallman
It is easy. Just say, "A group of people went and made KDE. Another group of people looked at KDE, didn't like it and made GNOME. They're slightly different, but for an end-user they're largely equivalent."
And don't go about licensing this and Qt that and GPL blahblah until the "newbie" has gathered some speed.
Now, I know I'm getting a little bit offtopic, but I think any distribution's ease-of-use factor for non-geeks (ie. people that don't have the time to fiddle and experiment, they just want to use a computer) if it included only one desktop environment.
And for that matter, install only one (or maybe two, but no more) word processor, one calender application, one way to dial out to the internet. It would make things a lot less confusing...
I think the problem is elsewhere. More newbie-compliant installers would do wonders. Yes, there has been great progress, but we're not quite "there".
Like XML, you say? I agree. Actually, it seems the GNU crowd is ahead of M$ on that one. Of course, such an approach is anathema to M$'s monopoly-through-file-format-obfuscation modus operandi.