Solar power may become really viable if recent breakthroughs in solar cells built using nanotechnology pan out in a big way. Imagine being able to power just about all your common electrical devices in a 2,000 square foot house at a cost of US$5,000, not US$25,000 like it now costs.
Wind power is viable but the issues of visual pollution and the potential to cause mass bird kills on migratory routes could limit the areas where such wind turbines can be installed, though.
I'd like to know, too. You can get the Samsung SyncMaster 931B 19" LCD for around US$225, yet the 931B is VASTLY superior to 19" LCD's of just even a few years ago in almost every aspect.
I think with the wide availability of low-cost digital still cameras, MiniDV camcorders, and built-in cameras on cellphones, people in public will have to be FAR more careful of what they say or do. It has, essentially, turned the average citizen into papparazis.
Why do you think Michael Richards got into such trouble over that racist and obscene language routine at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles a few weeks ago? It was because someone with (probably) a cellphone with a built-in camera that records video and audio captured the whole fiasco.
The possibility of water on Mars was confirmed in 1971 when Mariner 9 discovered ancient river valleys at several places on the planet. Since then, the conjecture was always how long ago did Mars have liquid water on the surface of the planet.
Actually, many advertisers have stopped using pop-up windows because most of the newer web browsers have built-in pop-up/pop-nder blocking (Internet Explorer 6.01 SP1 with third-party toolbars, Internet Explorer 7.0, the original Mozilla web browser and its SeaMonkey successor, Firefox, Opera and Safari). They now use ads that are part of the web page instead.
Actually, a lot of corporations have yet to upgrade from Windows 2000 Professional, for gosh sakes! Windows 2000 Professional is still a pretty good OS for business environments, though there's a chance we could see a movement towards a good Linux distribution that can be used in corporate environments (e.g., SuSE, Ubuntu, Fedora Core, and so on).
In fact, at the polling station I went to they had a special padlocked machine that reads the mark-sense ballots. Any improperly marked ballots will be instantly rejected for obvious reasons! Also, all ballots had to be filled out with permanent ink pens so we avoid the issues with pencil-filled ballots (remember, pencil marks can be erased or not marked dark enough, which can cause all kinds of problems).
Nope, California. When you have lots of Propositions to vote upon (state and local) and state and local votes for elected officials, small wonder why the ballot came out to two big sheets with things to fill out on BOTH sides.
Only one thing though: the 2000 election fiasco was caused by punched card ballots, not mark-sense paper ballots. That's why most voting jurisdictions are using mark-sense ballots nowadays, if only because they can be both hand-read and machine-read.
Hand-marked ballots are great except in the last election I voted, I had to mark my ballot on two massive-sized sheets printed on both sides! I think it would be easier if they can figure out a way to reduce the size of mark-sense paper ballots, if only to make hand-counting easier.
I think the fuel efficiency of vehicles sold in the USA will increase once the new low-emissions turbodiesel engines become widely available a few years from now, using technologies such as DaimlerChrysler's BlueTec system or Honda's new plasma gas reactor catalyst to reduce NOx gases along with advanced diesel particulate traps.
Unlike yesterday's diesel engines, these new engines not only get 30-35% better fuel mileage than their gasoline equivalents, but also lack the distinct clatter and visible smoke of older diesel engines, too. And there's no lack of performance, either, as BMW successfully demonstrated with the amazing 330d model.
I for one want to see if Nintendo can convince Namco to produce a future version of Soul Calibur for the Wii. Can you imagine using that controller like you're wielding a real sword?
Actually, right now only Creative and Sandisk are serious competitors with a wide model range in the non-iPod portable music player market. They sell very nice players ranging from inexpensive to full-featured top end models, and of course both the Creative and Sandisk players work with the Microsoft Play for Sure DRM scheme, which is the DRM system used by most legal online music download sites outside of the iTunes Music Store.
But watch out for Samsung, though. Their newly-released YP-T9 series portable music player are cheaper than the competing iPod nano models, and given Samsung's recent reputation they could pose a serious threat in the portable music player market within a few years.
I just hope your comment is correct. The day that a large group of people in the USA gets killed and law enforcement trace the "perps" to a radical environmentalist group will be the day that more legitimate environmental groups will have to start openly speaking out against such acts before the public turns against them big time. And don't brush off this as insane, too--go read the actual literature from Earth First! and the more radical environmental groups and some of it is frightening, to say the least.
Actually, the Zune sports a very nice interface on the player itself, as several reviewers noted recently.
However, the interface software for the Zune leaves much to be desired, that's to be sure. Hopefully, Microsoft will improve the Zune's interface software so it becomes a lot easier to use about a year from now.
1. The device as it currently stands doesn't offer a good alternative to the 5.5G 30 GB iPod, especially since the 30 GB iPod is physically smaller and uses a far more mature interface software (iTunes) to copy media files to the player.
2. The interface software for the Zune has gotten a lot of gripes from too many users and reviewers.
3. The Zune uses it own unique digital rights management system, totally incompatible with the Windows Media Player Play for Sure DRM system most non-Apple online download sites use.
I'm surprised you haven't been modded down to 0 as Flamebait by now.:-)
But seriously, I think the problem with many environmental groups is that that tacitly support the extreme radical groups like PETA, Earth First!, the Animal Liberation Front, etc. They'd get a lot better reception if the environmental groups distance themselves from the groups I've mentioned, because I am afraid that very soon somebody from a radical environmental group will end up deliberately killing people in the name of environmentalism.
I think by far the biggest draw of HDTV (720p/1080i in the USA) is the 16:9 aspect ratio, which literally transforms your watching experience, to say the least.
I was at my cousin's house this past Thanksgiving seeing the Buccaneers at Cowboys NFL game on Fox's 1080i ATSC format HDTV broadcast, and it literally spoils you against watching a football broadcast on standard NSTC broadcasts. Just the ability to see more of the football field with dramatically increased resolution turns it into a near "you are there" experience.
Besides, the cost of consumer HDTV hardware is rapidly dropping. You can get 46" non-CRT rear-projection HDTV monitors for under US$1,500, and even the big 60" rear-projection models like the highly-lauded Sony KDS-60A2000 has dropped under US$3,000 in price. Sure, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players are expensive now but I expect a 50% price drop or more by the end of 2007.
With these lower prices, the acceptance of HDTV is accelerating, and I expect a large fraction of the USA to enjoy HDTV by 2010.
I don't think the Russians really deployed the Shkval on a large scale because it was not a paragon of reliability, mostly due to the liquid-fuelled rocket motor. Some have said the sinking of the Kursk some years ago was caused by a the rocket on a Shkval exploding inside the torpedo room.
I think if this idea works it could definitely speed up goods transport around the world without needing more fuel for the higher speeds.
It could have two benefits: 1) the ship could dramatically reduce its fuel consumption by travelling at current speeds or 2) travel way faster but keep current fuel consumption rates. Remember, most large cargo ships (container ships, tankers, other bulk cargo carriers) usually travel at about 8-15 knots at sea; imagine travelling at 16-30 knots at sea with a full cargo load, which could reduce the transpacific crossing time from Japan to the US West Coast by way over a day.
I think what the StarTAC did was the prove you can dramatically reduce the size of the cellphone into a small clamshell unit and still be usable. The form factor has certainly spawned competing designs from every other mobile phone manufacturer, that's to be sure.
Actually, I've read that the Zune's user interface on the device itself is quite good, with easy-to-navigate menus. It's the software and the way to copy music to the Zune that is the big downfall of the device.
For Windows 2000/XP users, most non-Apple portable music players allow you to use Windows Explorer to copy the music manually to the player. I have a Creative Zen Nano Plus 512 MB and Creative's software installs the Zen Nano Plus Media Explorer, which is an add-on to Windows Explorer that allows you to "drag and drop" music files to your player and also sort the files for proper playback sequence. I really have to wonder does iTunes allow you to manually "drag and drop" music and podcast files to the proper folders on the iPod and sort the files on the player to create the right playback sequence.
Technically, the Voyager probes use radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which can produce 80% of its full-rated power even 20 years after initial assembly of power generator. It's likely that the Voyager probes will continue to work for at least another 30 years or more!
It will be very interesting to see how long Cassini--which is powered by RTG's--continue to run orbiting Saturn.
We're talking a space probe that has no fuel left for orbital manuevers and probably the on-board electronics running WAY beyond its original operational life. It's amazing Mars Global Surveyor has lasted this long....
That's true for many consumers but if you're tech-savvy you can configure iTunes to rip CD's to.MP3 format. In fact, that's how I rip my CD's to play on my Creative Zen Nano Plus 512 MB portable music player.
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Solar power may become really viable if recent breakthroughs in solar cells built using nanotechnology pan out in a big way. Imagine being able to power just about all your common electrical devices in a 2,000 square foot house at a cost of US$5,000, not US$25,000 like it now costs.
Wind power is viable but the issues of visual pollution and the potential to cause mass bird kills on migratory routes could limit the areas where such wind turbines can be installed, though.
I'd like to know, too. You can get the Samsung SyncMaster 931B 19" LCD for around US$225, yet the 931B is VASTLY superior to 19" LCD's of just even a few years ago in almost every aspect.
I think with the wide availability of low-cost digital still cameras, MiniDV camcorders, and built-in cameras on cellphones, people in public will have to be FAR more careful of what they say or do. It has, essentially, turned the average citizen into papparazis.
Why do you think Michael Richards got into such trouble over that racist and obscene language routine at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles a few weeks ago? It was because someone with (probably) a cellphone with a built-in camera that records video and audio captured the whole fiasco.
The possibility of water on Mars was confirmed in 1971 when Mariner 9 discovered ancient river valleys at several places on the planet. Since then, the conjecture was always how long ago did Mars have liquid water on the surface of the planet.
Actually, many advertisers have stopped using pop-up windows because most of the newer web browsers have built-in pop-up/pop-nder blocking (Internet Explorer 6.01 SP1 with third-party toolbars, Internet Explorer 7.0, the original Mozilla web browser and its SeaMonkey successor, Firefox, Opera and Safari). They now use ads that are part of the web page instead.
Actually, a lot of corporations have yet to upgrade from Windows 2000 Professional, for gosh sakes! Windows 2000 Professional is still a pretty good OS for business environments, though there's a chance we could see a movement towards a good Linux distribution that can be used in corporate environments (e.g., SuSE, Ubuntu, Fedora Core, and so on).
In fact, at the polling station I went to they had a special padlocked machine that reads the mark-sense ballots. Any improperly marked ballots will be instantly rejected for obvious reasons! Also, all ballots had to be filled out with permanent ink pens so we avoid the issues with pencil-filled ballots (remember, pencil marks can be erased or not marked dark enough, which can cause all kinds of problems).
Nope, California. When you have lots of Propositions to vote upon (state and local) and state and local votes for elected officials, small wonder why the ballot came out to two big sheets with things to fill out on BOTH sides.
Only one thing though: the 2000 election fiasco was caused by punched card ballots, not mark-sense paper ballots. That's why most voting jurisdictions are using mark-sense ballots nowadays, if only because they can be both hand-read and machine-read.
Hand-marked ballots are great except in the last election I voted, I had to mark my ballot on two massive-sized sheets printed on both sides! I think it would be easier if they can figure out a way to reduce the size of mark-sense paper ballots, if only to make hand-counting easier.
I think the fuel efficiency of vehicles sold in the USA will increase once the new low-emissions turbodiesel engines become widely available a few years from now, using technologies such as DaimlerChrysler's BlueTec system or Honda's new plasma gas reactor catalyst to reduce NOx gases along with advanced diesel particulate traps.
Unlike yesterday's diesel engines, these new engines not only get 30-35% better fuel mileage than their gasoline equivalents, but also lack the distinct clatter and visible smoke of older diesel engines, too. And there's no lack of performance, either, as BMW successfully demonstrated with the amazing 330d model.
I for one want to see if Nintendo can convince Namco to produce a future version of Soul Calibur for the Wii. Can you imagine using that controller like you're wielding a real sword?
Actually, right now only Creative and Sandisk are serious competitors with a wide model range in the non-iPod portable music player market. They sell very nice players ranging from inexpensive to full-featured top end models, and of course both the Creative and Sandisk players work with the Microsoft Play for Sure DRM scheme, which is the DRM system used by most legal online music download sites outside of the iTunes Music Store.
But watch out for Samsung, though. Their newly-released YP-T9 series portable music player are cheaper than the competing iPod nano models, and given Samsung's recent reputation they could pose a serious threat in the portable music player market within a few years.
I just hope your comment is correct. The day that a large group of people in the USA gets killed and law enforcement trace the "perps" to a radical environmentalist group will be the day that more legitimate environmental groups will have to start openly speaking out against such acts before the public turns against them big time. And don't brush off this as insane, too--go read the actual literature from Earth First! and the more radical environmental groups and some of it is frightening, to say the least.
Actually, the Zune sports a very nice interface on the player itself, as several reviewers noted recently.
However, the interface software for the Zune leaves much to be desired, that's to be sure. Hopefully, Microsoft will improve the Zune's interface software so it becomes a lot easier to use about a year from now.
1. The device as it currently stands doesn't offer a good alternative to the 5.5G 30 GB iPod, especially since the 30 GB iPod is physically smaller and uses a far more mature interface software (iTunes) to copy media files to the player.
2. The interface software for the Zune has gotten a lot of gripes from too many users and reviewers.
3. The Zune uses it own unique digital rights management system, totally incompatible with the Windows Media Player Play for Sure DRM system most non-Apple online download sites use.
I'm surprised you haven't been modded down to 0 as Flamebait by now. :-)
But seriously, I think the problem with many environmental groups is that that tacitly support the extreme radical groups like PETA, Earth First!, the Animal Liberation Front, etc. They'd get a lot better reception if the environmental groups distance themselves from the groups I've mentioned, because I am afraid that very soon somebody from a radical environmental group will end up deliberately killing people in the name of environmentalism.
I think by far the biggest draw of HDTV (720p/1080i in the USA) is the 16:9 aspect ratio, which literally transforms your watching experience, to say the least.
I was at my cousin's house this past Thanksgiving seeing the Buccaneers at Cowboys NFL game on Fox's 1080i ATSC format HDTV broadcast, and it literally spoils you against watching a football broadcast on standard NSTC broadcasts. Just the ability to see more of the football field with dramatically increased resolution turns it into a near "you are there" experience.
Besides, the cost of consumer HDTV hardware is rapidly dropping. You can get 46" non-CRT rear-projection HDTV monitors for under US$1,500, and even the big 60" rear-projection models like the highly-lauded Sony KDS-60A2000 has dropped under US$3,000 in price. Sure, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players are expensive now but I expect a 50% price drop or more by the end of 2007.
With these lower prices, the acceptance of HDTV is accelerating, and I expect a large fraction of the USA to enjoy HDTV by 2010.
I don't think the Russians really deployed the Shkval on a large scale because it was not a paragon of reliability, mostly due to the liquid-fuelled rocket motor. Some have said the sinking of the Kursk some years ago was caused by a the rocket on a Shkval exploding inside the torpedo room.
I think if this idea works it could definitely speed up goods transport around the world without needing more fuel for the higher speeds.
It could have two benefits: 1) the ship could dramatically reduce its fuel consumption by travelling at current speeds or 2) travel way faster but keep current fuel consumption rates. Remember, most large cargo ships (container ships, tankers, other bulk cargo carriers) usually travel at about 8-15 knots at sea; imagine travelling at 16-30 knots at sea with a full cargo load, which could reduce the transpacific crossing time from Japan to the US West Coast by way over a day.
I think what the StarTAC did was the prove you can dramatically reduce the size of the cellphone into a small clamshell unit and still be usable. The form factor has certainly spawned competing designs from every other mobile phone manufacturer, that's to be sure.
Actually, I've read that the Zune's user interface on the device itself is quite good, with easy-to-navigate menus. It's the software and the way to copy music to the Zune that is the big downfall of the device.
For Windows 2000/XP users, most non-Apple portable music players allow you to use Windows Explorer to copy the music manually to the player. I have a Creative Zen Nano Plus 512 MB and Creative's software installs the Zen Nano Plus Media Explorer, which is an add-on to Windows Explorer that allows you to "drag and drop" music files to your player and also sort the files for proper playback sequence. I really have to wonder does iTunes allow you to manually "drag and drop" music and podcast files to the proper folders on the iPod and sort the files on the player to create the right playback sequence.
Technically, the Voyager probes use radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which can produce 80% of its full-rated power even 20 years after initial assembly of power generator. It's likely that the Voyager probes will continue to work for at least another 30 years or more!
It will be very interesting to see how long Cassini--which is powered by RTG's--continue to run orbiting Saturn.
We're talking a space probe that has no fuel left for orbital manuevers and probably the on-board electronics running WAY beyond its original operational life. It's amazing Mars Global Surveyor has lasted this long....
That's true for many consumers but if you're tech-savvy you can configure iTunes to rip CD's to .MP3 format. In fact, that's how I rip my CD's to play on my Creative Zen Nano Plus 512 MB portable music player.