I think what will completely replace netbooks are lower-cost Windows 8 tablets with optional keyboards running a new, lower-power version of the Intel Core i3 CPU along with a new, very efficient Intel graphics chipset. These will start appearing once SSD drives become less expensive in the next few years.
Apple missed a MAJOR marketing opportunity when they did not include IR communications capability on the iPad mini. That would have made it possible for a very sophisticated "universal remote" that would have put the Logitech Harmony series remotes out of business for high-end users, in my humble opinion!:-)
I think this issue points out the obvious problem: US income tax law--let alone the income tax law of many countries--needs to be MASSIVELY overhauled.
Think about it--why are we having problems like:
1. Businesses incorporating--and often operating--in low-tax countries for tax avoidance reasons? Indeed, look at how many businesses are incorporated in Nevada or Delaware so they could enjoy much lower state tax rates.
2. The existence of "offshore financial center" banks, where both individuals and businesses are placing their money so they can't be touched by the IRS in the USA, HM Revenue & Customs in the UK, and so on. Why do you think there are so many "banks" in various Caribbean island nations, Switzerland and Monaco? Indeed, a recent economic estimate of money sitting in OFC's could be around US$33 TRILLION dollars. (!!)
This is why radical tax reform is needed. For example, the no-loophole flat tax proposed by Steve Forbes in 1996 eliminates taxation on bank account interest, capital gains and stock dividends, which would drastically slow the "offshoring" of businesses and liquid assets for tax avoidance reasons. I'd take it further and replace the income tax with something like FairTax (there is a bill in the US Congress to do this--H.R. 25), which would essentially end all taxation on the process of EARNING money. Such major reforms would put an end to most companies engaging in these practices, helping the local economy tremendously in the long run.
Google will try, but the fact it is not fully compatible with the mountain of Microsoft Office files generated out there over the years is why Google Apps will not seriously challenge Office--especially once Microsoft releases Office to run on the iOS platform (due some time in 2013).
....Mostly due to potential engine damage and the fact you have to redesign the fuel-delivery system to take full advantage of E15 fuel--not a cheap option!
I think in the end, the problem is that with 48 fps and digital clarity, moviemakers will HAVE to completely rethink the way they do movies.
Most moviemakers are used to 24 fps and film, and they produce the movie to take account of this way of moviemaking. Problem is, at 48 fps digital, it's so clear that you have to essentially "relearn" how to make a movie to take full advantage of the high level of clarity now offered.
Also, one reason why Uranium-233 was not really used for fission weapons is the LARGE amount of this isotope necessary to make a single bomb. You needed a lot less Uranium-235 to make a "gun barrel" style bomb, and Plutonium-239 was chosen because of the enormous explosive yield from a relatively small amount of material.
Actually, Windows 7 IS becoming hugely popular in the corporate world because of the reasons;
1. It's well-tried and very stable--even if it crashes, it recovers very gracefully. 2. Just about all the new commercial software out there will run under Windows 7. 3. The hardware needed to run Windows 7 in 64-bit mode is dirt-cheap nowadays.
I myself run Windows 7 with Chrome 23.0.1271.95 on my laptop and Firefox 17.0.1 on my desktop with no problems.
Only one thing though: Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, and as such, the radiation from the Sun is MUCH stronger. As such, the much higher heating from the Sun being closer caused the atmosphere to have a runaway greenhouse effect anyway.
There's a reason why the research into the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) has been dusted off and given serious consideration again.
Unlike conventional nuclear reactors, LFTR's have a lot of advantages:
1. It uses plentiful thorium-233 dissolved in molten sodium fluoride salts as fuel--cheap to make. 2. You can use spent uranium fuel rods and even plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads dissolved in molten sodium fluoride salts as fuel--eliminating a huge nuclear waste disposal problem. 3. It doesn't require an expensive pressurized reactor vessel. 4. Shutting down the reactor quickly involves only dumping the liquid fuel from the reactor--no need for complicated reactor control rod procedures. 5. Using closed-loop Brayton turbines, we eliminate the need for expensive cooling towers or locating the reactor near a big body of water. 6. The radioactive waste generated is very small, and only has a half-life of under 300 years. That means very cheap disposal costs (if the nuclear medicine industry doesn't grab it first!).
If they announce that the SAM instrument has found what appears to be microbial life living just underneath the surface planet (living off small amounts of water in the soil), that is a HUGE breakthrough because it proves that life can exist on some place besides Earth. This raises the prospect of life in the oceans under the ice cover of Europa and Ganymede orbiting Jupiter, strange forms of life living off the liquid methane of Titan orbiting Saturn, or even unusual life forms living in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter itself.
Here's the thing: the products produced by Hostess--especially Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, Ho-Hos, etc.--still have very strong product recognition. As such, the bakeries where these products are made could be snapped up VERY fast by a number of bidders.
Hillshire Brands, the former Sara Lee minus the beverage operation, may make a bid for the Wonder Bread operation. And there maybe others bidding for other parts of Hostess' operation. However, don't expect Bimbo Bakeries USA, the US division of Mexico's gigantic Grupo Bimbo, to make any bids--Bimbo Bakeries USA is already hugely dominant in the US market with a large number products well-known in US supermarkets and any attempt to take any part of Hostess' property may be considered anti-competitive by the FTC and/or Justice Department Antitrust Division.
Most states are going to mark-sense paper ballots that are read by machine at the polling station--that way, you only need ONE machine at the location and all the ballots can be pulled out and recounted by hand in case of a very close election.
Mind you, I'd prefer going to the European standard for a very strict ID requirement in order to vote, though. With such a strict requirement, it may even make it possible to go to all electronic voting, since you may have to insert your ID card into the voting machine to allow you to vote in the first place.
I would consider a VW with a TDI engine, but the higher price of diesel fuel here in the USA and the fact it requires a fairly expensive emissions control system to reduce NOx and diesel particulates to EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 levels makes it out of the question.
I think the car that SHOULD have won is the Ford C-Max Hybrid--especially with the Energi plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) coming out nationally in spring 2013. Unlike the Tesla Model S with its totally silly price tag, you can get a C-Max Hybrid for 1/3 the cost and still get over 40 mpg easily reasonable daily driving.
I think after that gigantic fiasco with the X-rated "Mickey Mouse Meets the Air Pirates" comic from the 1970's, it's not hard to figure out why Disney is highly-protective of the copyright on their in-house created characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
They're going to need it if the next Star Wars trilogy is shot with 48 frame per second 4,000-line 3-D projection digital "film." Integrating special effects into such a state-of-the-art format is very complicated and hard to do, as Peter Jackson found out with the new "Hobbit" movies.
The problem is that we need something that can produce ethanol on a scale not possible now.
And the potential solution is oil-laden algae. Not only does large-scale production of oil-laden algae produce a LOT motor fuels (diesel fuel, gasoline, heating oil and kerosene), but the "waste" from algae processing into motor fuel can be turned into ethanol rather easily.
If we're going to solve our energy problem, we need to do the following:
1. Start to seriously look at producing oil-laden algae on a HUGE scale to refine into motor fuels and ethanol. 2. Develop safer, more advanced nuclear reactors such as the liquid fluoride thorium reactor, a molten-salt fuel nuclear reactor that is vastly safer than today's uranium-fueled reactors and generates very little radioactive waste per reactor. 3. Develop more advanced batteries based on dry-electrode lithium-ion, lithium-air and carbon nanotube ultracapacitor designs to tremendously increase the storage density of batteries for electrical power storage and for longer-range electric cars.
These three longer-term solutions will make us a lot less reliant on crude oil and coal.
I would not want to be living near one of these data centers.
Why? Because they are the 21st Century equivalent of a major airfield, meaning if nuclear war breaks out they would be among the first targets hit in a nuclear strike.
However, Yeager is the first _confirmed_ person to go over Mach 1--mostly because during the XS-1's test flight, there was a large number of tracking cameras and other recording instruments that proved he DID exceed the speed of sound. Welch may have exceeded Mach 1, but the XP-86 prototype's dive was not tracked by cameras and other recording instruments, so it was NOT an official record.
1. Start reducing the size of government by looking for bureaucratic overlap, agency bloat and unneeded/obsolete regulations and use that to cut down the size of government as much as 30%.
2. Massively overhaul the income tax code to reduce yearly compliance costs and to encourage savings and capital investment staying in the country.
Once these changes are in place, the US economy will take off like a rocket.
Actually, Ford has said the new 1.0-liter "Ecoboost" engine IS coming to the US market, but only on the mid-cycle refresh Ford Fiesta coming probably spring 2013 (they just revealed the updated Fiesta at the Paris Auto Show just over a week ago). The US version will likely be rated at around 120 bhp, limited by the 87 pump octane (92 RON) gasoline used (Europe can get to 128 bhp thanks to the more common usage of 91 pump octane (95 RON) petrol).
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I think what will completely replace netbooks are lower-cost Windows 8 tablets with optional keyboards running a new, lower-power version of the Intel Core i3 CPU along with a new, very efficient Intel graphics chipset. These will start appearing once SSD drives become less expensive in the next few years.
Apple missed a MAJOR marketing opportunity when they did not include IR communications capability on the iPad mini. That would have made it possible for a very sophisticated "universal remote" that would have put the Logitech Harmony series remotes out of business for high-end users, in my humble opinion! :-)
I think this issue points out the obvious problem: US income tax law--let alone the income tax law of many countries--needs to be MASSIVELY overhauled.
Think about it--why are we having problems like:
1. Businesses incorporating--and often operating--in low-tax countries for tax avoidance reasons? Indeed, look at how many businesses are incorporated in Nevada or Delaware so they could enjoy much lower state tax rates.
2. The existence of "offshore financial center" banks, where both individuals and businesses are placing their money so they can't be touched by the IRS in the USA, HM Revenue & Customs in the UK, and so on. Why do you think there are so many "banks" in various Caribbean island nations, Switzerland and Monaco? Indeed, a recent economic estimate of money sitting in OFC's could be around US$33 TRILLION dollars. (!!)
This is why radical tax reform is needed. For example, the no-loophole flat tax proposed by Steve Forbes in 1996 eliminates taxation on bank account interest, capital gains and stock dividends, which would drastically slow the "offshoring" of businesses and liquid assets for tax avoidance reasons. I'd take it further and replace the income tax with something like FairTax (there is a bill in the US Congress to do this--H.R. 25), which would essentially end all taxation on the process of EARNING money. Such major reforms would put an end to most companies engaging in these practices, helping the local economy tremendously in the long run.
Google will try, but the fact it is not fully compatible with the mountain of Microsoft Office files generated out there over the years is why Google Apps will not seriously challenge Office--especially once Microsoft releases Office to run on the iOS platform (due some time in 2013).
....Mostly due to potential engine damage and the fact you have to redesign the fuel-delivery system to take full advantage of E15 fuel--not a cheap option!
I think in the end, the problem is that with 48 fps and digital clarity, moviemakers will HAVE to completely rethink the way they do movies.
Most moviemakers are used to 24 fps and film, and they produce the movie to take account of this way of moviemaking. Problem is, at 48 fps digital, it's so clear that you have to essentially "relearn" how to make a movie to take full advantage of the high level of clarity now offered.
Also, one reason why Uranium-233 was not really used for fission weapons is the LARGE amount of this isotope necessary to make a single bomb. You needed a lot less Uranium-235 to make a "gun barrel" style bomb, and Plutonium-239 was chosen because of the enormous explosive yield from a relatively small amount of material.
Actually, Windows 7 IS becoming hugely popular in the corporate world because of the reasons;
1. It's well-tried and very stable--even if it crashes, it recovers very gracefully.
2. Just about all the new commercial software out there will run under Windows 7.
3. The hardware needed to run Windows 7 in 64-bit mode is dirt-cheap nowadays.
I myself run Windows 7 with Chrome 23.0.1271.95 on my laptop and Firefox 17.0.1 on my desktop with no problems.
Only one thing though: Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, and as such, the radiation from the Sun is MUCH stronger. As such, the much higher heating from the Sun being closer caused the atmosphere to have a runaway greenhouse effect anyway.
There's a reason why the research into the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) has been dusted off and given serious consideration again.
Unlike conventional nuclear reactors, LFTR's have a lot of advantages:
1. It uses plentiful thorium-233 dissolved in molten sodium fluoride salts as fuel--cheap to make.
2. You can use spent uranium fuel rods and even plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads dissolved in molten sodium fluoride salts as fuel--eliminating a huge nuclear waste disposal problem.
3. It doesn't require an expensive pressurized reactor vessel.
4. Shutting down the reactor quickly involves only dumping the liquid fuel from the reactor--no need for complicated reactor control rod procedures.
5. Using closed-loop Brayton turbines, we eliminate the need for expensive cooling towers or locating the reactor near a big body of water.
6. The radioactive waste generated is very small, and only has a half-life of under 300 years. That means very cheap disposal costs (if the nuclear medicine industry doesn't grab it first!).
So what are we waiting for?
If they announce that the SAM instrument has found what appears to be microbial life living just underneath the surface planet (living off small amounts of water in the soil), that is a HUGE breakthrough because it proves that life can exist on some place besides Earth. This raises the prospect of life in the oceans under the ice cover of Europa and Ganymede orbiting Jupiter, strange forms of life living off the liquid methane of Titan orbiting Saturn, or even unusual life forms living in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter itself.
Here's the thing: the products produced by Hostess--especially Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, Ho-Hos, etc.--still have very strong product recognition. As such, the bakeries where these products are made could be snapped up VERY fast by a number of bidders.
Hillshire Brands, the former Sara Lee minus the beverage operation, may make a bid for the Wonder Bread operation. And there maybe others bidding for other parts of Hostess' operation. However, don't expect Bimbo Bakeries USA, the US division of Mexico's gigantic Grupo Bimbo, to make any bids--Bimbo Bakeries USA is already hugely dominant in the US market with a large number products well-known in US supermarkets and any attempt to take any part of Hostess' property may be considered anti-competitive by the FTC and/or Justice Department Antitrust Division.
Most states are going to mark-sense paper ballots that are read by machine at the polling station--that way, you only need ONE machine at the location and all the ballots can be pulled out and recounted by hand in case of a very close election.
Mind you, I'd prefer going to the European standard for a very strict ID requirement in order to vote, though. With such a strict requirement, it may even make it possible to go to all electronic voting, since you may have to insert your ID card into the voting machine to allow you to vote in the first place.
Better solution: mark-sense paper ballots that are filled out with a _permanent_ marker. That way, they can be both machine and hand counted.
I would consider a VW with a TDI engine, but the higher price of diesel fuel here in the USA and the fact it requires a fairly expensive emissions control system to reduce NOx and diesel particulates to EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 levels makes it out of the question.
I think the car that SHOULD have won is the Ford C-Max Hybrid--especially with the Energi plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) coming out nationally in spring 2013. Unlike the Tesla Model S with its totally silly price tag, you can get a C-Max Hybrid for 1/3 the cost and still get over 40 mpg easily reasonable daily driving.
I think after that gigantic fiasco with the X-rated "Mickey Mouse Meets the Air Pirates" comic from the 1970's, it's not hard to figure out why Disney is highly-protective of the copyright on their in-house created characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
They're going to need it if the next Star Wars trilogy is shot with 48 frame per second 4,000-line 3-D projection digital "film." Integrating special effects into such a state-of-the-art format is very complicated and hard to do, as Peter Jackson found out with the new "Hobbit" movies.
The problem is that we need something that can produce ethanol on a scale not possible now.
And the potential solution is oil-laden algae. Not only does large-scale production of oil-laden algae produce a LOT motor fuels (diesel fuel, gasoline, heating oil and kerosene), but the "waste" from algae processing into motor fuel can be turned into ethanol rather easily.
If we're going to solve our energy problem, we need to do the following:
1. Start to seriously look at producing oil-laden algae on a HUGE scale to refine into motor fuels and ethanol.
2. Develop safer, more advanced nuclear reactors such as the liquid fluoride thorium reactor, a molten-salt fuel nuclear reactor that is vastly safer than today's uranium-fueled reactors and generates very little radioactive waste per reactor.
3. Develop more advanced batteries based on dry-electrode lithium-ion, lithium-air and carbon nanotube ultracapacitor designs to tremendously increase the storage density of batteries for electrical power storage and for longer-range electric cars.
These three longer-term solutions will make us a lot less reliant on crude oil and coal.
I would not want to be living near one of these data centers.
Why? Because they are the 21st Century equivalent of a major airfield, meaning if nuclear war breaks out they would be among the first targets hit in a nuclear strike.
However, Yeager is the first _confirmed_ person to go over Mach 1--mostly because during the XS-1's test flight, there was a large number of tracking cameras and other recording instruments that proved he DID exceed the speed of sound. Welch may have exceeded Mach 1, but the XP-86 prototype's dive was not tracked by cameras and other recording instruments, so it was NOT an official record.
I agree. We need to do the following:
1. Start reducing the size of government by looking for bureaucratic overlap, agency bloat and unneeded/obsolete regulations and use that to cut down the size of government as much as 30%.
2. Massively overhaul the income tax code to reduce yearly compliance costs and to encourage savings and capital investment staying in the country.
Once these changes are in place, the US economy will take off like a rocket.
Is it that Apple is waiting for the release of the iPad mini before iTunes 11.0 is released?
Actually, Ford has said the new 1.0-liter "Ecoboost" engine IS coming to the US market, but only on the mid-cycle refresh Ford Fiesta coming probably spring 2013 (they just revealed the updated Fiesta at the Paris Auto Show just over a week ago). The US version will likely be rated at around 120 bhp, limited by the 87 pump octane (92 RON) gasoline used (Europe can get to 128 bhp thanks to the more common usage of 91 pump octane (95 RON) petrol).