We of course know it's not perfect, but the producers of this little promo commercial got most of the details pretty accurate. It probably didn't cost that much to make but gawd, I still loved it! (big thumbs up)
Probably the best solution is to build a big mirror in space so we can "burn" the asteriod to change its mass and/or motion in space, which will make the asteriod miss the Earth from a safe distance. Besides, the mirror can be used to aim at other threatening asteroids in the future, too.
A more long-term solution--provided we have a decent form of space travel between the Earth and the Moon--is to slow down the asteroid with an electric-ion rocket and actually put it in the Lx gravitation zones between the Earth and Moon. This way, the asteroid can be mined for minerals.
Actually, a great place to go space mining is the Moon itself. Moon rocks contain a lot of very valuable minerals, especially titanium, a highly-useful metal for low-weight/high-strength applications (small wonder why the aerospace industry loves this metal).
The first company that figures out how to mine and refine titanium cheaply will make a mint, that's to be sure.
The reason why active cellphone jammers are highly illegal is that if the installer doesn't configure the jammer properly, the result is that the nearest cellphone tower might not work properly due to interference from the jammer's spurious signal, which can use a dead spot for cellphone coverage.
Passive blocking, on the other hand, is probably legal because you install things like nanotechnology painted walls and/or walls with wire mesh to control where can receive and transmit cellphone/pager signals. I do, however, want strongly-worded warnings posted about going into any area that has passive blocking of such signals, which will prevent people who need to be on call all the time with their cellphones from accidently going into such an area.
I personally think oil-laden is the solution for large-scale biodiesel production. The reason is simple: you can get 300 times more fuel on a per-pound basis than plant-based biodiesel, and the "waste" from the processing can be turned into either animal feed, plant fertilizer or ethanol fuel! (big thumbs up)
A company called GreenFuel Technologies is looking at taking the exhaust emissions from coal-fired and natural gas-fired powerplants and "feeding" the gases to vertical tanks of oil-laden algae. This results in very fast growth rates for the algae and also cuts CO2 emissions 40% and NOx emissions 86%! There are a number of other companies looking at ways to grow these oil-laden algae on a large scale, all of which could result in so much biodiesel fuel and heating produced that crude oil could be used for other purposes such as gasoline and petrochemical production instead of diesel fuel and heating oil production.
This is why if the USA is going to produce biodiesel on a large scale, it cannot rely on plants such as corn, peanuts, soybeans, sugar cane/beet, or plant waste.
The best solution is to use oil-laden algae, which can create biodiesel fuel and heating oil several hundred times more on a per pound basis than from plant sources. A company called GreenFuel Technologies is looking at using the exhaust emissions from coal-fired and natural gas-fired plants to "feed" vertical tubes of oil-laden algae, which can grow these algae at very fast rates. Also, the "waste" from the processing can be used to make animal feed, plant fertilizer and/or ethanol fuel!
Let's face it folks. While Linux is a nice operating system for server machines (where easy of use and software availability is less of a critical issue), desktop machines are so dominated by Microsoft software that going away from it can actually end up causing more problems than it solves.
Two facts still favor Microsoft:
1. The amount of software available for Windows XP from third-party manufacturers is HUGE. That's why most educational software are still written for Windows.
2. The hardware driver support is in many ways still better for Windows, especially for the latest hardware.
With prudent use of software updates and loading a decent security suite like Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security Suite 2006, computers can run quite safely even with public Internet access.
But you see, the Olympics want broadcast, over-the-air exposure.
I think that's true in the past, but with most of the USA having access to cable TV and/or small-dish satellite TV, the IOC will probably allow far more live programming on cable stations than in the past. With my suggested scenario, it would actually be quite good, especially since Disney will have access to ESPN's extensive studio and production facilities at Bristol, CT, probably the best facility of its type in the world.
And the reason is simple: Disney could use ESPN, ESPN2, likely ABC Family Channel and possibly ESPN Classic channel to cover Olympic events live around the clock without interfering with normal ABC programming, so that ABC doesn't lose the profitable daytime soap opera programs. This will allow ABC to show a nightly compilation highlights program during prime time that is three hours long.
What you said essentially is abuse of US patent laws to essentially destroy a competitor in a predatory fashion. I believe such actions might not pass muster at the US Surpreme Court.
The famous U.S. v. United Shoe Machinery Company case of 1941.
United Shoe was caught abusing its patent portfolio to keep competitors at bay; this was the same rationale that got Rambus into a lot of trouble a few years back when courts said Rambus' patents on certain computer memory designs was used to keep DDR-SDRAM technology at bay in favor of Rambus' own RDRAM technology.
In short, NTP was abusing US patent laws to keep a competitor at bay.
The thing is that if you want to find more crude oil, you will have to go offshore out into the Continental Shelf areas of the oceans. That isn't cheap, but at current per barrel prices it's actually now profitable to do it.
But exploiting oil-laden algae could become the next big thing. Because oil-laden algae grows so fast and it's easy to process these algae into diesel fuel and the closely-related heating oil, with the right production process we could essentially have an unlimited supply of these fuels.
Hopefully, Microsoft will have the patch available as part of Windows Update, maybe in an out-of-cycle update (though I doubt this since dual-core Intel CPU's are still not that common yet on notebooks).
However, I think you're forgetting the example of the 19th Century. Up until the 1850's, people used whale oil to light their night lamps; however, with sperm whales becoming increasingly rare even back then there was a drastic need for a replacement, and when crude oil was discovered in Pennsylvania in the 1850's one of the first products produced was kerosene, which made the use of whale oil obselete literally overnight.
With the free markets that can adjust for even geopolitical tulmults, the economic incentive is there to find other methods to substitute for crude oil right now. Already, at current per barrel rates there is serious interest in extracting oil from oil tar sands and oil shale, especially with the new in situ ground heating method Royal Dutch Shell has been working on. Also, there is now renewed interest in coal liquification. And some scientists are looking at growing oil-laden algae on an industrial scale that could essentially make it no longer necessary to refine diesel fuel and heating oil from crude oil, which could free up crude oil for other uses. Finally, the price of solar power has dropped drastically, especially with recent developments in better solar panel designs, which could make them very viable for large-scale power generation.
Besides, I think that report discounts potentially great developments that could drastically change the oil production equation. A company called GreenFuel Technologies is seriously looking at the idea of taking smokestack emission gases and using them to grow oil-laden algae in vertical metal tanks similar to that used by commercial beer brewers. Because these algae will literally eat up a huge fraction of the CO2 and NOx from the exhaust, the result is very fast growth for these algae and drastically reduced harmful exhaust emissions! The algae can be easily processed into diesel fuel or heating oil and likely refined further into kerosene or gasoline; the resulting "waste" can be processed further into animal feed, plant fertilizer and/or ethanol for motor fuel. One acre of these tanks could make something like 15,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel, and a 200 acre farm of these tanks next to a coal-fired plant could make 3 million gallons of biodiesel fuel; since the algae grows so fast they could harvest the algae multiple times per year, and that could mean many millions of gallons of biodiesel fuel just from ONE site. Put these production plants next to every coal-fired power plant in the USA and we could produce enough oil-laden algae to drastically cut our oil imports--maybe as high as 70%!
GreenFuel Technologies' method is only one of several methods to grow these oil-laden algae, so once these algae are grown on an industrial scale around the world that right there could mean most diesel-fuelled engines will no longer need petroleum-based diesel fuel, freeing up crude oil to be refined into other products like gasoline and kerosene.
The big problem with hydrogen-fuelled vehicles is that 1) you need an all-new fuelling infrastructure and 2) the range of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles is still a bit on the short side. Fortunately, today's gasoline (petrol) and diesel engines can get improvements that could tremendously extend the usefulness well into the 21st Century.
Take for example the diesel engine. We all remember them as loudly clattering, smoky, smelly engines lacking in high-end power. However, thanks to the development of computer-controlled common-rail pressurized direct fuel injection and better exhaust emission controls, today's diesel engines have pretty much left their old reputations behind. If you've driven a Mercedes-Benz E320CDI you'll notice the surprising amount of acceleration power, just about no engine clattering, and the infamous diesel smoke is very rarely seen. With the arrival of low-sulfur diesel fuel in Summer 2006, the use of urea injection into the exhaust gas stream, and a new generation of diesel catalytic converters that double as diesel particulate traps, diesel engines in the near future can meet even the tough EPA/CARB regulations for such engines coming in the next few years. The best thing about diesel engines is that they offer 30-40% better fuel economy compared to equivalent gasoline engines, and because of their low torque peaks are well-suited for vehicles such as minivans, SUV's and pickup trucks. Also, modern diesel engines won't need much modification to run biodiesel fuel (and in fact the engine will actually run cleaner with biodiesel fuel since this fuel usually doesn't generate harmful diesel particulates).
As for gasoline engines, a promising new technology called homogeneous charge compression ignition promises 30-35% better fuel economy compared to today's engines, but without having to deal with the issues of diesel exhuast. Honda recently said they're almost ready to demonstrate an actual automobile engine with this new technology, and we might see Honda demonstrate such an engine within the next few months.
I installed Zonealarm, Ad-aware & AVG on the advice of a paranoid friend. And I was amazed that my PC actuallly ran much faster (and that was one of the benefits I wasn't aware of, so it wasn't simply auto-suggestion).
That is the EXACT configuration I got on my home computer running Windows XP Professional (SP2) with all security patches installed. I also have the Yahoo! Toolbar running in Internet Explorer; Yahoo! Toolbar includes an excellent spyware detection and removal program that I use in concert with Ad-Aware SE 1.06R1 to stamp out spyware. (thumbs up)
Small wonder why Grisoft has done very well with their excellent AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. The current Version 7.1.375 is fast, powerful and consumes little system resources. (big thumbs up)
...They should suggest graphics card minimums for the Aero Glass interface to work properly. I would probably use the nVidia GeForce FX 5200 or ATI Radeon 9500 chipsets as bare minimum for activation of Aero Glass interface. As for the base Aero interface, I would suggest nVidia GeForce MX440/MX4000 and ATI Radeon 8500 as minimums.
Especially when you can get Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, which uses little system resources and does a very good job stamping out viruses.:)
Combine AVG with the current free versions of ZoneAlarm and either Ad-Aware SE or Spybot Search & Destroy and you have a very nice security suite for your Windows 2000 or later-based PC. (thumbs up)
I think you forget that the D-21 "Tagboard" drone was flown using quite primitive on-board navigation systems. If Lockheed were to build one today it would have modern Internal Navigation System (INS) computers and also GPS navigation for dramatically increased flight accuracy. After all, the Global Hawk high-altitude reconnaissance UAV uses GPS for navigation, and that's how it can fly non-stop from California all the to Australia autonomously as demonstrated some some years ago.
Besides, autonomous flying isn't out of reach college researchers on a low budget; didn't a model airplane successfully cross the Atlantic a few years ago using nothing but GPS navigation?
Dynamic range is the next frontier, as this article clearly illustrates.
I'm hoping that one of the major camera companies such as Canon, Nikon or Pentax gets a license for the Foveon sensor technology and drastically improves on it. That could dramatically improve the dynamic range of the sensor (e.g., very low picture noise at ISO 1000-1600) even on a small pocketable digital camera.
It's annoying that even decent digital cameras aren't good at taking motion pictures or low/weird lighting pics.
One of the things that is frustrating a lot of digital camera users is that when you go to ISO 400 or higher settings the "noise" in the picture increases dramatically. That's why people love the Canon PowerShot G6--the larger sensor size results in excellent quality pictures even at higher ISO settings.
I'm hoping that we'll see improved CCD designs over the next few years that address the high-ISO noise issue on smaller digital cameras.
Better quality CCD sensors with very low "noise" even at high ISO settings (ISO 1000-1600). This will likely require either larger size sensors or improved semiconductor design for the CCD sensor itself.
Slashdot Mirror
We of course know it's not perfect, but the producers of this little promo commercial got most of the details pretty accurate. It probably didn't cost that much to make but gawd, I still loved it! (big thumbs up)
Probably the best solution is to build a big mirror in space so we can "burn" the asteriod to change its mass and/or motion in space, which will make the asteriod miss the Earth from a safe distance. Besides, the mirror can be used to aim at other threatening asteroids in the future, too.
A more long-term solution--provided we have a decent form of space travel between the Earth and the Moon--is to slow down the asteroid with an electric-ion rocket and actually put it in the Lx gravitation zones between the Earth and Moon. This way, the asteroid can be mined for minerals.
Actually, a great place to go space mining is the Moon itself. Moon rocks contain a lot of very valuable minerals, especially titanium, a highly-useful metal for low-weight/high-strength applications (small wonder why the aerospace industry loves this metal).
The first company that figures out how to mine and refine titanium cheaply will make a mint, that's to be sure.
The reason why active cellphone jammers are highly illegal is that if the installer doesn't configure the jammer properly, the result is that the nearest cellphone tower might not work properly due to interference from the jammer's spurious signal, which can use a dead spot for cellphone coverage.
Passive blocking, on the other hand, is probably legal because you install things like nanotechnology painted walls and/or walls with wire mesh to control where can receive and transmit cellphone/pager signals. I do, however, want strongly-worded warnings posted about going into any area that has passive blocking of such signals, which will prevent people who need to be on call all the time with their cellphones from accidently going into such an area.
I personally think oil-laden is the solution for large-scale biodiesel production. The reason is simple: you can get 300 times more fuel on a per-pound basis than plant-based biodiesel, and the "waste" from the processing can be turned into either animal feed, plant fertilizer or ethanol fuel! (big thumbs up)
A company called GreenFuel Technologies is looking at taking the exhaust emissions from coal-fired and natural gas-fired powerplants and "feeding" the gases to vertical tanks of oil-laden algae. This results in very fast growth rates for the algae and also cuts CO2 emissions 40% and NOx emissions 86%! There are a number of other companies looking at ways to grow these oil-laden algae on a large scale, all of which could result in so much biodiesel fuel and heating produced that crude oil could be used for other purposes such as gasoline and petrochemical production instead of diesel fuel and heating oil production.
This is why if the USA is going to produce biodiesel on a large scale, it cannot rely on plants such as corn, peanuts, soybeans, sugar cane/beet, or plant waste.
The best solution is to use oil-laden algae, which can create biodiesel fuel and heating oil several hundred times more on a per pound basis than from plant sources. A company called GreenFuel Technologies is looking at using the exhaust emissions from coal-fired and natural gas-fired plants to "feed" vertical tubes of oil-laden algae, which can grow these algae at very fast rates. Also, the "waste" from the processing can be used to make animal feed, plant fertilizer and/or ethanol fuel!
I agree 100% with your commments.
Let's face it folks. While Linux is a nice operating system for server machines (where easy of use and software availability is less of a critical issue), desktop machines are so dominated by Microsoft software that going away from it can actually end up causing more problems than it solves.
Two facts still favor Microsoft:
1. The amount of software available for Windows XP from third-party manufacturers is HUGE. That's why most educational software are still written for Windows.
2. The hardware driver support is in many ways still better for Windows, especially for the latest hardware.
With prudent use of software updates and loading a decent security suite like Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security Suite 2006, computers can run quite safely even with public Internet access.
But you see, the Olympics want broadcast, over-the-air exposure.
I think that's true in the past, but with most of the USA having access to cable TV and/or small-dish satellite TV, the IOC will probably allow far more live programming on cable stations than in the past. With my suggested scenario, it would actually be quite good, especially since Disney will have access to ESPN's extensive studio and production facilities at Bristol, CT, probably the best facility of its type in the world.
And the reason is simple: Disney could use ESPN, ESPN2, likely ABC Family Channel and possibly ESPN Classic channel to cover Olympic events live around the clock without interfering with normal ABC programming, so that ABC doesn't lose the profitable daytime soap opera programs. This will allow ABC to show a nightly compilation highlights program during prime time that is three hours long.
What you said essentially is abuse of US patent laws to essentially destroy a competitor in a predatory fashion. I believe such actions might not pass muster at the US Surpreme Court.
The famous U.S. v. United Shoe Machinery Company case of 1941.
United Shoe was caught abusing its patent portfolio to keep competitors at bay; this was the same rationale that got Rambus into a lot of trouble a few years back when courts said Rambus' patents on certain computer memory designs was used to keep DDR-SDRAM technology at bay in favor of Rambus' own RDRAM technology.
In short, NTP was abusing US patent laws to keep a competitor at bay.
The thing is that if you want to find more crude oil, you will have to go offshore out into the Continental Shelf areas of the oceans. That isn't cheap, but at current per barrel prices it's actually now profitable to do it.
But exploiting oil-laden algae could become the next big thing. Because oil-laden algae grows so fast and it's easy to process these algae into diesel fuel and the closely-related heating oil, with the right production process we could essentially have an unlimited supply of these fuels.
Hopefully, Microsoft will have the patch available as part of Windows Update, maybe in an out-of-cycle update (though I doubt this since dual-core Intel CPU's are still not that common yet on notebooks).
However, I think you're forgetting the example of the 19th Century. Up until the 1850's, people used whale oil to light their night lamps; however, with sperm whales becoming increasingly rare even back then there was a drastic need for a replacement, and when crude oil was discovered in Pennsylvania in the 1850's one of the first products produced was kerosene, which made the use of whale oil obselete literally overnight.
With the free markets that can adjust for even geopolitical tulmults, the economic incentive is there to find other methods to substitute for crude oil right now. Already, at current per barrel rates there is serious interest in extracting oil from oil tar sands and oil shale, especially with the new in situ ground heating method Royal Dutch Shell has been working on. Also, there is now renewed interest in coal liquification. And some scientists are looking at growing oil-laden algae on an industrial scale that could essentially make it no longer necessary to refine diesel fuel and heating oil from crude oil, which could free up crude oil for other uses. Finally, the price of solar power has dropped drastically, especially with recent developments in better solar panel designs, which could make them very viable for large-scale power generation.
AMEN to your comments! (big thumbs up)
Besides, I think that report discounts potentially great developments that could drastically change the oil production equation. A company called GreenFuel Technologies is seriously looking at the idea of taking smokestack emission gases and using them to grow oil-laden algae in vertical metal tanks similar to that used by commercial beer brewers. Because these algae will literally eat up a huge fraction of the CO2 and NOx from the exhaust, the result is very fast growth for these algae and drastically reduced harmful exhaust emissions! The algae can be easily processed into diesel fuel or heating oil and likely refined further into kerosene or gasoline; the resulting "waste" can be processed further into animal feed, plant fertilizer and/or ethanol for motor fuel. One acre of these tanks could make something like 15,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel, and a 200 acre farm of these tanks next to a coal-fired plant could make 3 million gallons of biodiesel fuel; since the algae grows so fast they could harvest the algae multiple times per year, and that could mean many millions of gallons of biodiesel fuel just from ONE site. Put these production plants next to every coal-fired power plant in the USA and we could produce enough oil-laden algae to drastically cut our oil imports--maybe as high as 70%!
GreenFuel Technologies' method is only one of several methods to grow these oil-laden algae, so once these algae are grown on an industrial scale around the world that right there could mean most diesel-fuelled engines will no longer need petroleum-based diesel fuel, freeing up crude oil to be refined into other products like gasoline and kerosene.
The big problem with hydrogen-fuelled vehicles is that 1) you need an all-new fuelling infrastructure and 2) the range of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles is still a bit on the short side. Fortunately, today's gasoline (petrol) and diesel engines can get improvements that could tremendously extend the usefulness well into the 21st Century.
Take for example the diesel engine. We all remember them as loudly clattering, smoky, smelly engines lacking in high-end power. However, thanks to the development of computer-controlled common-rail pressurized direct fuel injection and better exhaust emission controls, today's diesel engines have pretty much left their old reputations behind. If you've driven a Mercedes-Benz E320CDI you'll notice the surprising amount of acceleration power, just about no engine clattering, and the infamous diesel smoke is very rarely seen. With the arrival of low-sulfur diesel fuel in Summer 2006, the use of urea injection into the exhaust gas stream, and a new generation of diesel catalytic converters that double as diesel particulate traps, diesel engines in the near future can meet even the tough EPA/CARB regulations for such engines coming in the next few years. The best thing about diesel engines is that they offer 30-40% better fuel economy compared to equivalent gasoline engines, and because of their low torque peaks are well-suited for vehicles such as minivans, SUV's and pickup trucks. Also, modern diesel engines won't need much modification to run biodiesel fuel (and in fact the engine will actually run cleaner with biodiesel fuel since this fuel usually doesn't generate harmful diesel particulates).
As for gasoline engines, a promising new technology called homogeneous charge compression ignition promises 30-35% better fuel economy compared to today's engines, but without having to deal with the issues of diesel exhuast. Honda recently said they're almost ready to demonstrate an actual automobile engine with this new technology, and we might see Honda demonstrate such an engine within the next few months.
I installed Zonealarm, Ad-aware & AVG on the advice of a paranoid friend. And I was amazed that my PC actuallly ran much faster (and that was one of the benefits I wasn't aware of, so it wasn't simply auto-suggestion).
That is the EXACT configuration I got on my home computer running Windows XP Professional (SP2) with all security patches installed. I also have the Yahoo! Toolbar running in Internet Explorer; Yahoo! Toolbar includes an excellent spyware detection and removal program that I use in concert with Ad-Aware SE 1.06R1 to stamp out spyware. (thumbs up)
Small wonder why Grisoft has done very well with their excellent AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. The current Version 7.1.375 is fast, powerful and consumes little system resources. (big thumbs up)
...They should suggest graphics card minimums for the Aero Glass interface to work properly. I would probably use the nVidia GeForce FX 5200 or ATI Radeon 9500 chipsets as bare minimum for activation of Aero Glass interface. As for the base Aero interface, I would suggest nVidia GeForce MX440/MX4000 and ATI Radeon 8500 as minimums.
Especially when you can get Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, which uses little system resources and does a very good job stamping out viruses. :)
Combine AVG with the current free versions of ZoneAlarm and either Ad-Aware SE or Spybot Search & Destroy and you have a very nice security suite for your Windows 2000 or later-based PC. (thumbs up)
I think you forget that the D-21 "Tagboard" drone was flown using quite primitive on-board navigation systems. If Lockheed were to build one today it would have modern Internal Navigation System (INS) computers and also GPS navigation for dramatically increased flight accuracy. After all, the Global Hawk high-altitude reconnaissance UAV uses GPS for navigation, and that's how it can fly non-stop from California all the to Australia autonomously as demonstrated some some years ago.
Besides, autonomous flying isn't out of reach college researchers on a low budget; didn't a model airplane successfully cross the Atlantic a few years ago using nothing but GPS navigation?
Another huge advantage of Photoshop is the fact a LOT of third-party add-on programs exist for Photoshop, something that GIMP seriously lacks.
Dynamic range is the next frontier, as this article clearly illustrates.
I'm hoping that one of the major camera companies such as Canon, Nikon or Pentax gets a license for the Foveon sensor technology and drastically improves on it. That could dramatically improve the dynamic range of the sensor (e.g., very low picture noise at ISO 1000-1600) even on a small pocketable digital camera.
It's annoying that even decent digital cameras aren't good at taking motion pictures or low/weird lighting pics.
One of the things that is frustrating a lot of digital camera users is that when you go to ISO 400 or higher settings the "noise" in the picture increases dramatically. That's why people love the Canon PowerShot G6--the larger sensor size results in excellent quality pictures even at higher ISO settings.
I'm hoping that we'll see improved CCD designs over the next few years that address the high-ISO noise issue on smaller digital cameras.
Better quality CCD sensors with very low "noise" even at high ISO settings (ISO 1000-1600). This will likely require either larger size sensors or improved semiconductor design for the CCD sensor itself.