1. Scientists have discovered certain types of algae that can be processed into biodiesel fuel and kerosene on a large scale if we grow these algae on large enough ponds. I've read that a 128 square mile by six feet deep pond of this type of algae produces enough biomass to refine into biodiesel fuel for every motor vehicle in the USA!:-) And unlike today's diesel fuel, biodiesel burns far cleaner with NO harmful diesel particulates!
2. You're underestimating the improvements in wind turbine and solar power generator technology. A very large solar panel farm using the very latest in solar panel technology in the deserts of the US Southwest could generate enough power to create hydrogen on a large scale through water electrolysis, a very clean way to produce enough hydrogen gas for fuel-cell vehicles.
I can foresee the future maybe 30-40 years from now where many of the deserts of the world become gigantic algae farms to grow biomass for biodiesel fuel and kerosene fuel, and large-scale wind farms and solar array farms providing energy to power cities and produce hydrogen gas on a very large scale.
I think you have to consider the following factors:
1. Population density makes it far easier to justify the cost of running the Last Mile hardwired xDSL or cable modem connection to your home or business with a broadband connection. That's why you have a lot of broadband in South Korea, France, Germany, much of the UK, and Japan, mostly because the population density per square kilometer means there are enough potentials to justify the exorbitant expense installing those connections.
2. I think people are forgetting how all those broadband Last Mile connections are funded. I can almost say that the xDSL and/or cable modem setups in France, Germany, South Korea and Japan are heavily subsidized by government-owned and/or very recently privatized former government owned national PTT entities such as France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, NTT, etc. Here in the USA, most of the Last Mile connections are funded by the Baby Bells and the cable companies, which have to justify the cost of setting up such connections to their shareholders. You wonder if the broadband setups in the countries I mentioned are paid for by steep taxes of various forms on the local population (VAT, motor fuel taxes, etc.).
As for cell phones, the US has a very well developed landline phone infrastructure, much better than places like S. Korea and most other countries.
It is because the USA has the world's best landline telephone infrastructure that cellphones are more a convenience thing here than in other countries, where it's actually cheaper to put up cellphone towers to get everyone telephone access. Besides, that landline infrastructure is why you can usually get xDSL broadband in most major metropolitan areas.
Now, my birth mother in Lance Creek, WY, well, they'd probably have to use satellite-based service. If you know where Lance Creek, WY, is, you'll understand why cable, telco DSL, 3G, et al., will NEVER reach a good third of the US physically (i.e., between the front range of the Rocky Mts and the Mississippi River, not withstanding major metropolitan areas like Denver or Kansas City.
That's because the population density in the areas you mentioned can't justify the exorbitant expensive of implementing the Last Mile solution for getting xDSL or cable modem broadband access into your home or business. This is where 802.16/802.20 WiMAX technologies will become very useful, since out in rural areas you can put up WiMAX antenna arrays on top of hills, up the sides of mountains, on top of grain silos, etc. so you can cover a large swath of area with a single antenna array. This will allow for isolated mountain communities and small rural towns to finally get broadband Internet access.
Why have France, Germany, UK and South Korea get so much broadband? The reason is simple: the population density per square kilometer is enough that they can justify the expense of hardwiring everyone to run broadband.
Here in the USA, the problems of too much legacy telecommunications hardware and the exorbitant cost of implementing the Last Mile solution--especially in rural areas--mitigates against large-scale broadband usage using xDSL and cable modem technologies. It will take 802.16/802.20 WiMAX technologies to finally get most of the US population to get broadband Internet access.
Logitech unwisely removed the second button from the G5/G7 mouse pointers on the left side.
The reason I like the MX5xx series of mouse pointers is the fact you have those two buttons on the left side of the mouse, which makes moving forward and backward through documents and Web pages easily. Logitech could have corrected the issue of too many buttons on the left side of the mouse pointer by making a setting in their software driver to essentially "lock" the functionality of both buttons to the same function in games, while still having seperate functions for each button running business software and Web browsers.
Fortunately, the launch window for the MRO mission is actually quite generous, with 1.5-hour launch window periods every day until the end of August. They'll have 20 more days to try to get it off the ground.:)
The other thing I remember about using view cameras on Playboy centerfold photographs is that they are sometimes used to make poster-sized prints that you can find at certain stores. At poster size resolution, any film grain will stand out very clearly, that's to be sure. A view camera is probably the ultimate tool for the highest-resolution photographs, but it definitely takes a lot of training and experience to use one properly.
If I remember correctly, Playboy has published a number of informative articles about the type of photographic equipment they use. I've seen videos of some of the Playboy photographers at work and they extensively use medium-format cameras like Hasselblads that use 6 x 7 cm size negatives.
Actually, any very serious magazine photography work are done by medium-format (6 x 4.5 cm and 6 x 7 cm) film cameras. The resolution of these larger format film cameras are extremely sharp and they are used for any magazine that needs high resolution photos heavily.
Interestingly enough, the famous Playboy centerfolds still use very large format view cameras with a large piece film stock mounted on a special plate to take the picture. The reason is simple: the Playboy centerfold picture is probably the largest picture done for any magazine in printed form on a regular basis, and given its size (no pun intended!:) ), the graininess of the film stock in smaller photographic formats will show up quite clearly.
If you've seen the digital still cameras designed to be replacements for 35 mm or APS point and shoot film cameras, note how amazingly small they have become even with bigger and bigger LCD displays on the camera itself.
If you've seen the Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50 (now replaced by the X60 model), Nikon CoolPix S1, Casio EXILIM ZX-4 or new model, FujiPix F10 Zoom, or similar models, note the digital camera is about the size of a pack of cigarettes (or smaller!). Given these small sizes, small wonder why they have become very popular replacements for all film point and shoot cameras. If I had the money I'd buy an F10 Zoom myself, especially given the wide ISO range of the sensor and the nice and big preview LCD.
According to the Weather Underground web page, the weather for Melbourne, Florida (the closest large city to Cape Canaveral) will have more than 50% chance of thunderstorms over the next week. I then checked the report for Palmdale, CA (the closest large city to Edwards AFB) and they only have a 20% chance of thunderstorms, mostly in the late afternoon.
As such, I wouldn't be surprised that NASA decides to land Discovery at Edwards AFB just after dawn PDT tomorrow morning.
But not in the world of talk radio. Care to explain why Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks are doing very profitably from their nationally-syndicated radio talk shows? Yes, a lot of people may disagree with the views of Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Dr. Laura Schlessinger and George Noory/Art Bell/Ian Punett on Coast to Coast AM, but you can't deny the Premiere Radio shows have become enormous financial successes for everyone involved.
Note that FM stations have taken to the Morning Zoo non-music format in a big way; these shows have very little emphasis on music and more emphasis on talk, especially if you listen to Howard Stern's show or Opie and Anthony's show on XM satellite radio.
When you say Big radio is dead, that definitely applies to music broadcasting. Due to over-emphasis on market research, we're ending up with a too-narrow field of music we can hear over-air, a bad idea in lots of people's opinions.
Right now, perhaps one of the highest-visibility media companies heavily involved in the Podcasting idea is Clear Channel through its Premiere Radio Networks division.
However, Premiere Radio won't put their stuff on iTunes, mostly because the current version of iTunes (Version 4.9) does not support subscription-based (e.g., you have to pay a monthly or yearly fee) Podcasting downloads. As a result, Premiere Radio Networks is forced to use its own customized software package. I expect this situation to change when iTunes does enable subscription-based Podcasting, probably with the next major version of iTunes.
After reading the article about Tesco, you have to wonder does a place with paid annual memberships like Costco do the same thing (not that hard to do given that every time you check out of Costco you have to swipe the membership card anyway) in terms of tracking customer trends.
And that's the reason why I use one myself. The MX500 fits comfortably in your right hand, has very high pointer accuracy (accuracy beyond that of the MX500 are only of interest to mostly gamers and some CAD/CAM users), has those very useful buttons where you can change the functionality very easily, and has a hefty, well-built feel. Small wonder why the Apple Store offers this mouse pointer even now.
I've actually tried the MX1000 Laser and while I do applaud its high accuracy thanks to its laser-based optical sensor, it's not as comfortable in my hands as the MX500.
Small wonder why the MX500, MX510 and MX518 are among the most popular mouse pointers selling out there.
In short, it's not as user-friendly as the Logitech MX5xx series or Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer mouse pointers, both of which are supported by MacOS X versions easily.
I use an MX500 mouse pointer myself and love its very comfortable feel in my right hand and the programmable functionality the MX500 provides. It's probably far more comfortable in the hands of most users than the new Apple mouse pointer.
Re:Whatever happened to winged lifting vehicles?
on
NASA's Shuttle Plans
·
· Score: 1
In fact, Orbital Sciences proposed a new lifting body design space vehicle carrying up to seven astronauts to the LEO that can be fitted on top of today's Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.
Why so light? Mostly because by elminating the cargo bay and the Shuttle main engines, the vehicle can be quite small. I wouldn't be surprised that such a small lifting body will be chosen as the primary means of getting astronauts into orbit.
When I saw the screenshots of Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 1, the interface reminded me a LOT of MySoft Technology's Maxthon "shell" program for current versions of IE for Windows.
Small wonder--I've read that Microsoft engineers are frequent users of Maxthon themselves, and many Maxthon features got "borrowed" for IE 7.0.
Actually, vulnerabilities running Maxthon are less if you have all of the functionality of AD Hunter in the programm running. The way that a lot of spyware/adware get loaded are through online ads and unknown loading of new ActiveX objects; AD Hunter when fully active will block the loading of most of those nefareous programs.
...People who are running Windows 98/ME/2000 can always install the Avant Browser and Maxthon "shell" programs that work with IE 5.01 SP2 or later.
I've used Maxthon for quite some time and it has a lot of functionality very similar to Firefox (tabbed windows, RSS support, changeable "skins", etc.), and it is a highly configurable program, too. Small wonder why PC World magazine recommended Maxthon.
After all, this new version of Windows is likely going to be designed mostly to support the x86-64 CPU instruction set that AMD pioneered and Intel has begun to use, so this sets a break with the 32-bit past of previous Windows versions.
1. At least 300 MHz Pentium II or 400 MHz Celeron A CPU 2. At least 512 MB of system RAM--the more, the better 3. At least a 40 GB hard drive
One of the big problems with older motherboards is that they support at most 384 MB of RAM, which in my opinion is not enough to run Windows XP smoothly. But starting with motherboards that use the Intel 440BX chipset, the maximum RAM installed went up to 768 MB, which is more than sufficient to run Windows XP quite well.
In short, machines built since 1999 could probably run Windows XP quite well; but if you want to do anything serious with multimedia processing, a machine running a CPU at 1 GHz or higher might be very good idea even if you max out RAM capacity of the motherboard.
The BIGGEST reason why the new version of Battlestar Galactica is so good is that one of its creators (Ronald D. Moore) has strong experience doing excellent work with a sci-fi TV series. After all, some of very best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space 9 was done with his assistance.
That's why Enterprise sorely missed Moore's presence. If Ron Moore had been Enterprise Executive Producer I guarantee that we would be waiting with baited breath for the upcoming season, that's to be sure.
In personally think years from now, the Ron Moore-created version of Battlestar Galactica will go down as one of the truly great sci-fi TV series of all time
I think you forgot that a few months ago TDK demonstrated a new optical disc material that is extremely scratch proof, which made it possible for Blu-Ray discs to no longer need the protective caddies that Blu-Ray discs now sold in Japan require.
As such, when Blu-Ray recorders and players finally reach the US market in 2006 they will look like today's DVD players and recorders, which means substantially reduced production costs even with the drive mechanism. Blu-Ray--in my opinion--will probably win out over HD-DVD because its higher recording capacity makes putting movies in 1080-line progressive scan format on a single disc vastly easier, not to mention the fact computer users will prefer Blu-Ray discs for higher recording capacity per disc (very important to archive increasingly higher resolution digital still photos and movies downloaded from MiniDV/MicroDV camcorders).
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It's not as bleak as you think.
:-) And unlike today's diesel fuel, biodiesel burns far cleaner with NO harmful diesel particulates!
You're forgetting a couple of factors:
1. Scientists have discovered certain types of algae that can be processed into biodiesel fuel and kerosene on a large scale if we grow these algae on large enough ponds. I've read that a 128 square mile by six feet deep pond of this type of algae produces enough biomass to refine into biodiesel fuel for every motor vehicle in the USA!
2. You're underestimating the improvements in wind turbine and solar power generator technology. A very large solar panel farm using the very latest in solar panel technology in the deserts of the US Southwest could generate enough power to create hydrogen on a large scale through water electrolysis, a very clean way to produce enough hydrogen gas for fuel-cell vehicles.
I can foresee the future maybe 30-40 years from now where many of the deserts of the world become gigantic algae farms to grow biomass for biodiesel fuel and kerosene fuel, and large-scale wind farms and solar array farms providing energy to power cities and produce hydrogen gas on a very large scale.
I think you have to consider the following factors:
1. Population density makes it far easier to justify the cost of running the Last Mile hardwired xDSL or cable modem connection to your home or business with a broadband connection. That's why you have a lot of broadband in South Korea, France, Germany, much of the UK, and Japan, mostly because the population density per square kilometer means there are enough potentials to justify the exorbitant expense installing those connections.
2. I think people are forgetting how all those broadband Last Mile connections are funded. I can almost say that the xDSL and/or cable modem setups in France, Germany, South Korea and Japan are heavily subsidized by government-owned and/or very recently privatized former government owned national PTT entities such as France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, NTT, etc. Here in the USA, most of the Last Mile connections are funded by the Baby Bells and the cable companies, which have to justify the cost of setting up such connections to their shareholders. You wonder if the broadband setups in the countries I mentioned are paid for by steep taxes of various forms on the local population (VAT, motor fuel taxes, etc.).
As for cell phones, the US has a very well developed landline phone infrastructure, much better than places like S. Korea and most other countries.
It is because the USA has the world's best landline telephone infrastructure that cellphones are more a convenience thing here than in other countries, where it's actually cheaper to put up cellphone towers to get everyone telephone access. Besides, that landline infrastructure is why you can usually get xDSL broadband in most major metropolitan areas.
Now, my birth mother in Lance Creek, WY, well, they'd probably have to use satellite-based service. If you know where Lance Creek, WY, is, you'll understand why cable, telco DSL, 3G, et al., will NEVER reach a good third of the US physically (i.e., between the front range of the Rocky Mts and the Mississippi River, not withstanding major metropolitan areas like Denver or Kansas City.
That's because the population density in the areas you mentioned can't justify the exorbitant expensive of implementing the Last Mile solution for getting xDSL or cable modem broadband access into your home or business. This is where 802.16/802.20 WiMAX technologies will become very useful, since out in rural areas you can put up WiMAX antenna arrays on top of hills, up the sides of mountains, on top of grain silos, etc. so you can cover a large swath of area with a single antenna array. This will allow for isolated mountain communities and small rural towns to finally get broadband Internet access.
Why have France, Germany, UK and South Korea get so much broadband? The reason is simple: the population density per square kilometer is enough that they can justify the expense of hardwiring everyone to run broadband.
Here in the USA, the problems of too much legacy telecommunications hardware and the exorbitant cost of implementing the Last Mile solution--especially in rural areas--mitigates against large-scale broadband usage using xDSL and cable modem technologies. It will take 802.16/802.20 WiMAX technologies to finally get most of the US population to get broadband Internet access.
Logitech unwisely removed the second button from the G5/G7 mouse pointers on the left side.
The reason I like the MX5xx series of mouse pointers is the fact you have those two buttons on the left side of the mouse, which makes moving forward and backward through documents and Web pages easily. Logitech could have corrected the issue of too many buttons on the left side of the mouse pointer by making a setting in their software driver to essentially "lock" the functionality of both buttons to the same function in games, while still having seperate functions for each button running business software and Web browsers.
Fortunately, the launch window for the MRO mission is actually quite generous, with 1.5-hour launch window periods every day until the end of August. They'll have 20 more days to try to get it off the ground. :)
The other thing I remember about using view cameras on Playboy centerfold photographs is that they are sometimes used to make poster-sized prints that you can find at certain stores. At poster size resolution, any film grain will stand out very clearly, that's to be sure. A view camera is probably the ultimate tool for the highest-resolution photographs, but it definitely takes a lot of training and experience to use one properly.
If I remember correctly, Playboy has published a number of informative articles about the type of photographic equipment they use. I've seen videos of some of the Playboy photographers at work and they extensively use medium-format cameras like Hasselblads that use 6 x 7 cm size negatives.
Actually, any very serious magazine photography work are done by medium-format (6 x 4.5 cm and 6 x 7 cm) film cameras. The resolution of these larger format film cameras are extremely sharp and they are used for any magazine that needs high resolution photos heavily.
:) ), the graininess of the film stock in smaller photographic formats will show up quite clearly.
Interestingly enough, the famous Playboy centerfolds still use very large format view cameras with a large piece film stock mounted on a special plate to take the picture. The reason is simple: the Playboy centerfold picture is probably the largest picture done for any magazine in printed form on a regular basis, and given its size (no pun intended!
If you've seen the digital still cameras designed to be replacements for 35 mm or APS point and shoot film cameras, note how amazingly small they have become even with bigger and bigger LCD displays on the camera itself.
If you've seen the Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50 (now replaced by the X60 model), Nikon CoolPix S1, Casio EXILIM ZX-4 or new model, FujiPix F10 Zoom, or similar models, note the digital camera is about the size of a pack of cigarettes (or smaller!). Given these small sizes, small wonder why they have become very popular replacements for all film point and shoot cameras. If I had the money I'd buy an F10 Zoom myself, especially given the wide ISO range of the sensor and the nice and big preview LCD.
According to the Weather Underground web page, the weather for Melbourne, Florida (the closest large city to Cape Canaveral) will have more than 50% chance of thunderstorms over the next week. I then checked the report for Palmdale, CA (the closest large city to Edwards AFB) and they only have a 20% chance of thunderstorms, mostly in the late afternoon.
As such, I wouldn't be surprised that NASA decides to land Discovery at Edwards AFB just after dawn PDT tomorrow morning.
Big radio is dead.
But not in the world of talk radio. Care to explain why Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks are doing very profitably from their nationally-syndicated radio talk shows? Yes, a lot of people may disagree with the views of Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Dr. Laura Schlessinger and George Noory/Art Bell/Ian Punett on Coast to Coast AM, but you can't deny the Premiere Radio shows have become enormous financial successes for everyone involved.
Note that FM stations have taken to the Morning Zoo non-music format in a big way; these shows have very little emphasis on music and more emphasis on talk, especially if you listen to Howard Stern's show or Opie and Anthony's show on XM satellite radio.
When you say Big radio is dead, that definitely applies to music broadcasting. Due to over-emphasis on market research, we're ending up with a too-narrow field of music we can hear over-air, a bad idea in lots of people's opinions.
Right now, perhaps one of the highest-visibility media companies heavily involved in the Podcasting idea is Clear Channel through its Premiere Radio Networks division.
However, Premiere Radio won't put their stuff on iTunes, mostly because the current version of iTunes (Version 4.9) does not support subscription-based (e.g., you have to pay a monthly or yearly fee) Podcasting downloads. As a result, Premiere Radio Networks is forced to use its own customized software package. I expect this situation to change when iTunes does enable subscription-based Podcasting, probably with the next major version of iTunes.
After reading the article about Tesco, you have to wonder does a place with paid annual memberships like Costco do the same thing (not that hard to do given that every time you check out of Costco you have to swipe the membership card anyway) in terms of tracking customer trends.
Check out the Logitech MX 500 for a real mouse.
And that's the reason why I use one myself. The MX500 fits comfortably in your right hand, has very high pointer accuracy (accuracy beyond that of the MX500 are only of interest to mostly gamers and some CAD/CAM users), has those very useful buttons where you can change the functionality very easily, and has a hefty, well-built feel. Small wonder why the Apple Store offers this mouse pointer even now.
I've actually tried the MX1000 Laser and while I do applaud its high accuracy thanks to its laser-based optical sensor, it's not as comfortable in my hands as the MX500.
Small wonder why the MX500, MX510 and MX518 are among the most popular mouse pointers selling out there.
In short, it's not as user-friendly as the Logitech MX5xx series or Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer mouse pointers, both of which are supported by MacOS X versions easily.
I use an MX500 mouse pointer myself and love its very comfortable feel in my right hand and the programmable functionality the MX500 provides. It's probably far more comfortable in the hands of most users than the new Apple mouse pointer.
In fact, Orbital Sciences proposed a new lifting body design space vehicle carrying up to seven astronauts to the LEO that can be fitted on top of today's Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.
Why so light? Mostly because by elminating the cargo bay and the Shuttle main engines, the vehicle can be quite small. I wouldn't be surprised that such a small lifting body will be chosen as the primary means of getting astronauts into orbit.
When I saw the screenshots of Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 1, the interface reminded me a LOT of MySoft Technology's Maxthon "shell" program for current versions of IE for Windows.
Small wonder--I've read that Microsoft engineers are frequent users of Maxthon themselves, and many Maxthon features got "borrowed" for IE 7.0.
Actually, vulnerabilities running Maxthon are less if you have all of the functionality of AD Hunter in the programm running. The way that a lot of spyware/adware get loaded are through online ads and unknown loading of new ActiveX objects; AD Hunter when fully active will block the loading of most of those nefareous programs.
...People who are running Windows 98/ME/2000 can always install the Avant Browser and Maxthon "shell" programs that work with IE 5.01 SP2 or later.
I've used Maxthon for quite some time and it has a lot of functionality very similar to Firefox (tabbed windows, RSS support, changeable "skins", etc.), and it is a highly configurable program, too. Small wonder why PC World magazine recommended Maxthon.
Windows 64.
After all, this new version of Windows is likely going to be designed mostly to support the x86-64 CPU instruction set that AMD pioneered and Intel has begun to use, so this sets a break with the 32-bit past of previous Windows versions.
The minimum specs should be more like this:
1. At least 300 MHz Pentium II or 400 MHz Celeron A CPU
2. At least 512 MB of system RAM--the more, the better
3. At least a 40 GB hard drive
One of the big problems with older motherboards is that they support at most 384 MB of RAM, which in my opinion is not enough to run Windows XP smoothly. But starting with motherboards that use the Intel 440BX chipset, the maximum RAM installed went up to 768 MB, which is more than sufficient to run Windows XP quite well.
In short, machines built since 1999 could probably run Windows XP quite well; but if you want to do anything serious with multimedia processing, a machine running a CPU at 1 GHz or higher might be very good idea even if you max out RAM capacity of the motherboard.
Let's face it folks.
The BIGGEST reason why the new version of Battlestar Galactica is so good is that one of its creators (Ronald D. Moore) has strong experience doing excellent work with a sci-fi TV series. After all, some of very best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space 9 was done with his assistance.
That's why Enterprise sorely missed Moore's presence. If Ron Moore had been Enterprise Executive Producer I guarantee that we would be waiting with baited breath for the upcoming season, that's to be sure.
In personally think years from now, the Ron Moore-created version of Battlestar Galactica will go down as one of the truly great sci-fi TV series of all time
I think you forgot that a few months ago TDK demonstrated a new optical disc material that is extremely scratch proof, which made it possible for Blu-Ray discs to no longer need the protective caddies that Blu-Ray discs now sold in Japan require.
As such, when Blu-Ray recorders and players finally reach the US market in 2006 they will look like today's DVD players and recorders, which means substantially reduced production costs even with the drive mechanism. Blu-Ray--in my opinion--will probably win out over HD-DVD because its higher recording capacity makes putting movies in 1080-line progressive scan format on a single disc vastly easier, not to mention the fact computer users will prefer Blu-Ray discs for higher recording capacity per disc (very important to archive increasingly higher resolution digital still photos and movies downloaded from MiniDV/MicroDV camcorders).