Top speed I don't care that much about. Good 0-60 (and higher - more like 0-75 here) acceleration means I can merge with highway-speed traffic a lot quicker, especially where accleration lanes are short. Also improves passing ability on 2-lane highways. Therefore, safer.
did you ever think how much pollution and destruction comes about and is emitted from the mining all of that uranium?
Very little, even in absolute terms (and especially in relative terms). I'm no mining engineer but I've toured uranium mines and yellowcake processing facilities -- no real difference than any other hardrock mine, and a lot cleaner that e.g. the smelters used to burn the sulphur out of copper ores.
Recall that a uranium fuel pellet the size of your thumb can provide the energy equivalent of a couple of trainloads of coal. (Heck, strictly speaking the trace thorium in that coal can provide more energy than burning the carbon in it.)
They never sound right so it will never be cool enough.
Oh, man, think of the choices! Without the noise of a combustion engine, you can hook up a sound system and generate whatever sound you want -- UFO, pod-racer, F-4 on afterburners, TIE fighter, you name it...
One wavelength hardly invisibility makes, but as the blurb suggests, it renders the target invisible to laser designators. Wonder how much power it can handle, would it be an effective shield against weapons-grade lasers?
There's certainly something funny with your math somewhere.
Let's start with kilowatt hours, taking the solar constant as the reduced 1 kW/sq meter. Taking your half of that to allow for night, we've got (365*12) kilowatt hours per square meter over the course of a year.
$ units 2438 units, 71 prefixes, 32 nonlinear units
You have: (365*12) kilowatt hours You want: megajoules
* 15768
/ 6.3419584e-05
So, 15,768 MJ per square meter per year. Taking your south-facing roof area as half of 10x5 square meters, that gives us 25*15,768 = 394,200 MJ/y
You say your usage is 21,600 MJ/y, that's 5.4 % of the annual figure. QED. (Less than 3% if you manage to use your whole roof).
I'm not sure where you came up with your original 800 MJ figure for insolation on your roof over a year, that's only slightly more than per square meter in a month.
(Look at it inversely: to use the same amount of energy as shines on your roof, you'd have to wire up a thousand watt lightbulb every square meter of it...)
James Hamilton, who previously was GM of Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services,
Am I the only one that read that last bit as "Microsoft Hostage Exchange Services"? I mean, I know MSFT likes to lock up your data in proprietary formats, but that's going a little too far....
An earlier poster made an passing reference to Gratzel cells. From the Wikipedia article this does indeed appear to be what TFAs are talking about: dye-sensitized solar cells. The Ti is not part of the porphyrin dye, but is actually as the oxide, TiO2. A photon stimulates an electron to transfer from the dye molecule to the conduction band of the TiO2. (Iodine is also involved as part of the cycle, at least as described above.)
The wiki mentions a Swiss 7% efficient experimental cell (using some exotic dye) that's highly resistant to temperature degradation. Theoretical efficiency can go to 33%. TFA doesn't mention their efficiency, although their "most efficient" claim would indicate higher than 7%, anyway. Question is -- as earlier poster mentions -- how robust they are.
I thought that currently porphyrin dye cells had an efficiency of under 6.5%... commercial silicon cells are 14-16%,
If porphyrin-based cells can be produced (at that efficiency) for less than 1/3 the cost of silicon cells, then they're ahead of the game on cost/watt. Absolute efficiency only matters where you're area-limited. Most houses use less energy than even 6% of the sunlight that falls on their roofs (except perhaps at extreme latitudes).
every single power source on the planet (save perhaps nuclear) derives from a solar process.
Not to take away from your main point, which I endorse, but tidal power is also (mostly) non-solar, tides being derived mostly from interaction with Lunar gravity (and a little from the Sun's). Actually I guess the actual energy source is the angular momentum of the proto solar system; by tapping tidal energy we slow down the Earth-Moon system just a little bit.
But yes, cheap direct solar-electric is much to be desired.
Okay, I RTFAs, but they're both a little light (sorry!) on detail. What's the efficiency? Are the test cells some kind of thin capsule holding a solution of this stuff or are the dye molecules embedded in something solid? They talk about "1/10 cost of silicon cells" -- is that per generated watt or per unit area or what? (Hopefull the former).
Romans and their PEs.... 2000 years and still serviceable!
Well, we only have the examples that lasted 2000 years to go on. The stuff that fell apart after a mere couple hundred years is so long gone as to be forgotten.
I've had hard drives fried by failing power supplies. Sometimes you get lucky and replacing the electronics from an identical drive works, sometimes it doesn't. I've never heard of a CD or DVD drive's laser suddenly burning holes in the disc.
Ditto with mechanical shock -- a DVD will survive a lot rougher handling than a harddrive will, even if the latter's heads are parked.
Then why can't I find a DL DVD RW for my Lnux box?
Beats me. You must not be looking in the right place. I've had a Cyberdog DL DVD RW (it reports itself as a NEC DVD_RW ND-2510A) for almost 2 years now, works just fine. Plug'n'play since I put it in an external FW/USB housing (although I used to have it internal, now I use it as a portable backup device). K3B works great with it.
I've also got a Samsung Writemaster that similarly works just fine with Linux, picked up from Microcenter in OEM packaging for about $40.
I've yet to meet an IDE/ATAPI CD or DVD drive that didn't just work with Linux, although I suppose there's some odd hardware out there somewhere.
catch the select boot device screen during start up
Not sure what you mean by this, we're not talking ancient SunOS boxes here. Just set the boot order in the BIOS - CD, then hard drive, which tends to be the default on most systems these days. If there's no bootable CD (or DVD) in the drive, it goes to hard disk.
Bootable LiveCD Linux systems seem to handle video, sound, network, etc, etc issues without a problem. Game developers can leverage off of that, or are you saying game developers are technically incompetent?
As for saving game state -- your choice of a USB thumb drive or using the native filesystem, Linux can even write NTFS these days.
Windows would be infinitely more stable and an infinitely more consistent user experience if it weren't for the fact that it's made to run on *everything*.
That doesn't explain why Linux -- which runs on more hardware even than Windows -- is more stable than Windows. (Consistent user experience is a different issue, because Linux offers a lot of different desktops to choose from.)
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Top speed I don't care that much about. Good 0-60 (and higher - more like 0-75 here) acceleration means I can merge with highway-speed traffic a lot quicker, especially where accleration lanes are short. Also improves passing ability on 2-lane highways. Therefore, safer.
did you ever think how much pollution and destruction comes about and is emitted from the mining all of that uranium?
Very little, even in absolute terms (and especially in relative terms). I'm no mining engineer but I've toured uranium mines and yellowcake processing facilities -- no real difference than any other hardrock mine, and a lot cleaner that e.g. the smelters used to burn the sulphur out of copper ores.
Recall that a uranium fuel pellet the size of your thumb can provide the energy equivalent of a couple of trainloads of coal. (Heck, strictly speaking the trace thorium in that coal can provide more energy than burning the carbon in it.)
They never sound right so it will never be cool enough.
Oh, man, think of the choices! Without the noise of a combustion engine, you can hook up a sound system and generate whatever sound you want -- UFO, pod-racer, F-4 on afterburners, TIE fighter, you name it...
There's a reason the TGV is electric
Now if we can just get them to string overhead wires on the Interstates...
That's just too cool. Weird name though -- Embr[iy]o?
One wavelength hardly invisibility makes, but as the blurb suggests, it renders the target invisible to laser designators. Wonder how much power it can handle, would it be an effective shield against weapons-grade lasers?
So how does the subway system make money
Show me a subway system that makes money. They all require government subsidies. Charging admission is just a way of regulating demand.
The water analogy at least made sense.
There's certainly something funny with your math somewhere.
Let's start with kilowatt hours, taking the solar constant as the reduced 1 kW/sq meter. Taking your half of that to allow for night, we've got (365*12) kilowatt hours per square meter over the course of a year.
$ units
2438 units, 71 prefixes, 32 nonlinear units
You have: (365*12) kilowatt hours
You want: megajoules
* 15768
/ 6.3419584e-05
So, 15,768 MJ per square meter per year. Taking your south-facing roof area as half of 10x5 square meters, that gives us 25*15,768 = 394,200 MJ/y
You say your usage is 21,600 MJ/y, that's 5.4 % of the annual figure. QED. (Less than 3% if you manage to use your whole roof).
I'm not sure where you came up with your original 800 MJ figure for insolation on your roof over a year, that's only slightly more than per square meter in a month.
(Look at it inversely: to use the same amount of energy as shines on your roof, you'd have to wire up a thousand watt lightbulb every square meter of it...)
James Hamilton, who previously was GM of Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services,
Am I the only one that read that last bit as "Microsoft Hostage Exchange Services"? I mean, I know MSFT likes to lock up your data in proprietary formats, but that's going a little too far....
An earlier poster made an passing reference to Gratzel cells. From the Wikipedia article this does indeed appear to be what TFAs are talking about: dye-sensitized solar cells. The Ti is not part of the porphyrin dye, but is actually as the oxide, TiO2. A photon stimulates an electron to transfer from the dye molecule to the conduction band of the TiO2. (Iodine is also involved as part of the cycle, at least as described above.)
The wiki mentions a Swiss 7% efficient experimental cell (using some exotic dye) that's highly resistant to temperature degradation. Theoretical efficiency can go to 33%. TFA doesn't mention their efficiency, although their "most efficient" claim would indicate higher than 7%, anyway. Question is -- as earlier poster mentions -- how robust they are.
I thought that currently porphyrin dye cells had an efficiency of under 6.5%... commercial silicon cells are 14-16%,
If porphyrin-based cells can be produced (at that efficiency) for less than 1/3 the cost of silicon cells, then they're ahead of the game on cost/watt. Absolute efficiency only matters where you're area-limited. Most houses use less energy than even 6% of the sunlight that falls on their roofs (except perhaps at extreme latitudes).
every single power source on the planet (save perhaps nuclear) derives from a solar process.
Not to take away from your main point, which I endorse, but tidal power is also (mostly) non-solar, tides being derived mostly from interaction with Lunar gravity (and a little from the Sun's). Actually I guess the actual energy source is the angular momentum of the proto solar system; by tapping tidal energy we slow down the Earth-Moon system just a little bit.
But yes, cheap direct solar-electric is much to be desired.
Okay, I RTFAs, but they're both a little light (sorry!) on detail. What's the efficiency? Are the test cells some kind of thin capsule holding a solution of this stuff or are the dye molecules embedded in something solid? They talk about "1/10 cost of silicon cells" -- is that per generated watt or per unit area or what? (Hopefull the former).
I'm still tweaking my Commodore 64. I'll get back to you...
As parent points out, we already have tech for "printing" metals and concrete as well as resins and plastics.
Just wait until we get to the point of being able to print programmable matter. (I know Wil McCarthy, the company is making very interesting progress.)
IANAL (I do have most of a Paralegal degree, sans only Ethics.)
There's definitely a joke in there somewhere, with a straightline like that, but I haven't had enough coffee yet....
Romans and their PEs. ... 2000 years and still serviceable!
Well, we only have the examples that lasted 2000 years to go on. The stuff that fell apart after a mere couple hundred years is so long gone as to be forgotten.
You were the one claiming not to have a choice. So you were lying about that, eh?
I do -not- want Vista, but once a good game comes out that requires (pointlessly) DirectX 10, I won't have much choice left.
How sad to be so addicted, to be such a slave to the marketplace.
Choice? How about...read a book? watch a video? go for (gasp!) a walk? take up a hobby? Oh, wait, what am I thinking, this is Slashdot. As you were.
I've had hard drives fried by failing power supplies. Sometimes you get lucky and replacing the electronics from an identical drive works, sometimes it doesn't. I've never heard of a CD or DVD drive's laser suddenly burning holes in the disc.
Ditto with mechanical shock -- a DVD will survive a lot rougher handling than a harddrive will, even if the latter's heads are parked.
There are always trade-offs.
Heck, I've seen self-service gas pumps that require the billing zip code.
Mind, with the price of gas, I can understand the desire for extra security.
Then why can't I find a DL DVD RW for my Lnux box?
Beats me. You must not be looking in the right place. I've had a Cyberdog DL DVD RW (it reports itself as a NEC DVD_RW ND-2510A) for almost 2 years now, works just fine. Plug'n'play since I put it in an external FW/USB housing (although I used to have it internal, now I use it as a portable backup device). K3B works great with it.
I've also got a Samsung Writemaster that similarly works just fine with Linux, picked up from Microcenter in OEM packaging for about $40.
I've yet to meet an IDE/ATAPI CD or DVD drive that didn't just work with Linux, although I suppose there's some odd hardware out there somewhere.
catch the select boot device screen during start up
Not sure what you mean by this, we're not talking ancient SunOS boxes here. Just set the boot order in the BIOS - CD, then hard drive, which tends to be the default on most systems these days. If there's no bootable CD (or DVD) in the drive, it goes to hard disk.
Bootable LiveCD Linux systems seem to handle video, sound, network, etc, etc issues without a problem. Game developers can leverage off of that, or are you saying game developers are technically incompetent?
As for saving game state -- your choice of a USB thumb drive or using the native filesystem, Linux can even write NTFS these days.
Windows would be infinitely more stable and an infinitely more consistent user experience if it weren't for the fact that it's made to run on *everything*.
That doesn't explain why Linux -- which runs on more hardware even than Windows -- is more stable than Windows. (Consistent user experience is a different issue, because Linux offers a lot of different desktops to choose from.)