In my experience, Americans are no lazier than anyone else. They have had greater purchasing power than most other people for a long time. It seems to me that in Europe, the more prosperous people get, the more they act like Americans. When you can't afford a car, you take the bus. But as soon as you can, you buy a car. And if the family can afford it, you buy two. Let any country have a similar purchasing power to Americans & I guarantee you, they'll want much the same things as Americans. There are some social systems in place in Europe which are undoubtedly better than those in the US, but they are not caused by some moral superiority on the part of the populace.
How is a station going to deal with customers dropping off old battery packs and picking up new ones?
On this point, I'd think it could be handled like propane tanks are today - you start out buying one, and then you swap it for a full one paying a small service charge included in the cost of the swap along with the cost of the fuel. Presumably those propane tanks get worn out, damaged etc over time, but that's factored into the charge. You don't think of a particular propane tank as "yours", and you wouldn't think of a battery as "yours" either, though you might keep it for a while between longer trips. I do think, though, that these arguments are largely negated by plug-in hybrids, at least in the short term. Batteries charged at home overnight (when grid demand is lowest) for most daily driving, and gas/diesel/biodiesel for the longer stints. No massive change needed anywhere, but a large potential reduction in emissions and cost per mile (if gas prices keep going up).
I fear big egos will lead many geeks to underestimate their adversaries. Feel free to prove me wrong, of course.:)
Actually, I think it's big egos that lead many geeks to think they even have adversaries. People spend a lot of time creating convoluted hypothetical situations which their cleverness can defeat. Really, no one much cares about your secret plans. TrueCrypt is handy but for most of us, not critical - a password protected zip file would be good enough for most of my data.
Amen to that. I'm happy with the cheapest DSL I can get, with a local ISP who gives me a static ip & doesn't care what I run. $25 a month is fine, sure sometimes I'd like a little more speed but really, it's not worth paying much more. I can host a vanity site, watch Netflix, etc no problem.
I remember having to testify in court one day. I was still in my late teens. The prosecutor was running through how things worked, and ran my SSN. It came back with a bunch of info on a tattooed convict; she laughed & said it's pretty standard for cons going into jail to alter their SSN by a few digits. It's never come up again, so maybe they figured it out or made two accounts. Or maybe the guy was a lifer & hasn't worked since...
My ID was stolen from University records. For real ID thieves, sources like that are much easier & more comprehensive than what you'd get by digging through the recycling bin, plus you can get a bunch at once. Shredding's not a bad idea, but what you're throwing out is really the least of your worries.
PS: First time I've been to Tom's Hardware in 6 months to a year. Nice to see they found a way to make it uglier. Used to be a nice site. I especially like the "you must login to see the printer friendly version" trick.
I don't go there at all anymore; I've got my ipcop box running URL Filter with the Squidguard blacklist, and whatever tracking junk they run at Tom's just leaves me hanging with a 1x1 gif. It's not even worth my while to add them to the whitelist.
If you go to a good school that has you buy good texts, and not 'keep up' every year with whatever new edition of Intro to Calculus it out, you are making an investment.
I think it's the keeping up with the new edition of Intro to Calculus that pisses people off. Those $100 books are just as good when purchased secondhand for $20.
If your job is only 12 miles away, you'd still only be spending $50 a week on gas driving a mid-70s Cadillac. It's the people who are doing 50+ miles each way that are really hurting. People complain about the price in the US, but it's been over $5 a gallon in Europe forever ($8 or 9 now) and people still drive. They don't drive as much, and they choose more efficient cars, but they still find it worthwhile. I don't like having to think about filling up, but it's certainly putting conservation on the agenda which is a good thing.
Re:I understand why you`d want to go pre-built
on
What NAS To Buy?
·
· Score: 1
Actually, I'd say a D201GLY2 Intel mb would be the way to go; Newegg has them for $65 & they seem to be more powerful and use less power than the VIA boards. Check out silentpcreview for reviews of lots of low power systems.
Re:I understand why you`d want to go pre-built
on
What NAS To Buy?
·
· Score: 1
Newegg has a small C3 barebones box for $159, which might make a good start.
Yep, this is how I see it too, and why I decided to go from W2K to Vista rather than Ubuntu when I built my new machine. There's no perfect OS, and with Vista they're trying to do the right thing. App writers are going to have to do things correctly in future, and if I have to wait for a few things, oh well, won't kill me. I knew going in that it wouldn't all be smooth sailing, especially since I went with 64 bit, but it does most of what I want very well, and I must admit I like the little live previews etc. I'm running Kubuntu 8.04 on the kids' machine, and I like it, but it's far from perfect as well. Just yesterday they ended up with a print dialog from barbie.com in Firefox which couldn't be got rid of; I ended up just shutting it down for the night. Probably a use case that most of the developers haven't dealt with...
it's not yet cost-effective for most people, who can't afford to spend 20 years' energy bills in one go (for solar) or who can't feasibly put up wind power on their house for whatever reason.
It's not that people can't afford the 20 years' bills upfront, it's that it's still cheaper to buy from the grid if you're connected. Once the cost of panels/install/interconnect become competitive to grid power, people will get a mortgage on them. That's the real sticking point. It's coming down, and may almost be breakeven on a flat commercial roof, but it's not there yet for residential.
I thought about it, but really the 5 mins is all I need to get from one plug to another around the house, and my to do list is already at unmanageable proportions...
No mention of a new battery - I know my battery is useless after less than 4 years, I only get 5 mins now. At over $100, though, it's not worth it to me to replace. I'm always near a power supply. Add the $125 he spent, plus $125 for a battery, & you're only $150 away from a new Dell. Just sayin'...
Yeah, I don't snoop either; in fact, the few times I've been ordered to dig through someone's stuff, it made me pretty uncomfortable. It's just not right. Plus, as you say, it's boring;)
"top category to improve, as they can't," I think the OP meant that the system tops out at Exceeds; as individuals they can improve, but the system doesn't account for any improvements beyond that top level. As you noted, there's no incentive to keep going once they've reached Exceeds, since there's no way for the system to measure it.
My old (really old) 2K box just died. I would never have upgraded it, but when I built my new box I bought Vista 64 bit. I'm still getting used to it, but overall I like it ok. Yes, there are issues, the biggest so far being that my Acrobat Std 7 can't create pdfs, but I think that going forward it's the way to go. On a powerful new machine it runs nicely, the power saving features work well, and the UAC hasn't been much of an issue since I got most of what I wanted loaded. I liked 2K a lot, and I think I'm going to like Vista a lot. I agree, though, that there's no compelling reason to leave 2K.
I agree with their support for girl power and environmentalism, and I support rational and honest sex education. I'm not anti-gun, but I don't think that the 2nd amendment means that anyone can have any type of weapon they desire. I wouldn't say I oppose religion, but myself am not religious. The unquestioned "loyalty", which seems to have been removed from their oath in 1972, in my book smacks of jingoism; their current "law" seems to cover much of what I am hoping to instill in my daughters. And I don't want sexuality or religion (or lack thereof) to be limiting characteristics in any organization I support. Those criteria come first, then they can participate and enjoy what the Girl Scouts offer (charitable work and personal accomplishment, among others). I really posted that link because I find it hard to believe that any parent would want their daughter to be indoctrinated into servitude. That to me seems radical.
Actually, that's the one part I don't really like - a lot of the official materials really seem more about fund raising than the important parts. A lot will come down to your local scout leader & parents though, and ours are pretty good about not making that a focus. We moved a few thin mints, though, especially to programmer friends;)
I think that this Baptist site nicely outlines many of the reasons I'm happy to have my daughters involved in the Girl Scouts: http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=25503 I especially enjoyed how she contrasts the Girl Scouts' encouragement of "girl empowerment" with another group's "strong emphasis on servitude".
I don't have a lot of experience with the organization, but I did work at a Cub Scout camp one summer in high school and was taken aback when they almost put me back on the bus because of my earrings & punk haircut. (This was the 80s.) It pissed me off, because I had only agreed to go there as a favor to a teacher who was a scoutmaster, they didn't have enough counselors, yet they were ready to refuse my help. I ended up having a good time, the kids were great, but I was soured on the whole organization after that & their going to the Supreme Court to defend their right to discriminate hasn't endeared them any more to me...
Slashdot Mirror
In my experience, Americans are no lazier than anyone else. They have had greater purchasing power than most other people for a long time. It seems to me that in Europe, the more prosperous people get, the more they act like Americans. When you can't afford a car, you take the bus. But as soon as you can, you buy a car. And if the family can afford it, you buy two. Let any country have a similar purchasing power to Americans & I guarantee you, they'll want much the same things as Americans. There are some social systems in place in Europe which are undoubtedly better than those in the US, but they are not caused by some moral superiority on the part of the populace.
How is a station going to deal with customers dropping off old battery packs and picking up new ones?
On this point, I'd think it could be handled like propane tanks are today - you start out buying one, and then you swap it for a full one paying a small service charge included in the cost of the swap along with the cost of the fuel. Presumably those propane tanks get worn out, damaged etc over time, but that's factored into the charge. You don't think of a particular propane tank as "yours", and you wouldn't think of a battery as "yours" either, though you might keep it for a while between longer trips.
I do think, though, that these arguments are largely negated by plug-in hybrids, at least in the short term. Batteries charged at home overnight (when grid demand is lowest) for most daily driving, and gas/diesel/biodiesel for the longer stints. No massive change needed anywhere, but a large potential reduction in emissions and cost per mile (if gas prices keep going up).
I fear big egos will lead many geeks to underestimate their adversaries. Feel free to prove me wrong, of course. :)
Actually, I think it's big egos that lead many geeks to think they even have adversaries. People spend a lot of time creating convoluted hypothetical situations which their cleverness can defeat. Really, no one much cares about your secret plans. TrueCrypt is handy but for most of us, not critical - a password protected zip file would be good enough for most of my data.
Amen to that. I'm happy with the cheapest DSL I can get, with a local ISP who gives me a static ip & doesn't care what I run. $25 a month is fine, sure sometimes I'd like a little more speed but really, it's not worth paying much more. I can host a vanity site, watch Netflix, etc no problem.
I remember having to testify in court one day. I was still in my late teens. The prosecutor was running through how things worked, and ran my SSN. It came back with a bunch of info on a tattooed convict; she laughed & said it's pretty standard for cons going into jail to alter their SSN by a few digits. It's never come up again, so maybe they figured it out or made two accounts. Or maybe the guy was a lifer & hasn't worked since...
My ID was stolen from University records. For real ID thieves, sources like that are much easier & more comprehensive than what you'd get by digging through the recycling bin, plus you can get a bunch at once. Shredding's not a bad idea, but what you're throwing out is really the least of your worries.
PS: First time I've been to Tom's Hardware in 6 months to a year. Nice to see they found a way to make it uglier. Used to be a nice site. I especially like the "you must login to see the printer friendly version" trick.
I don't go there at all anymore; I've got my ipcop box running URL Filter with the Squidguard blacklist, and whatever tracking junk they run at Tom's just leaves me hanging with a 1x1 gif. It's not even worth my while to add them to the whitelist.
If you go to a good school that has you buy good texts, and not 'keep up' every year with whatever new edition of Intro to Calculus it out, you are making an investment.
I think it's the keeping up with the new edition of Intro to Calculus that pisses people off. Those $100 books are just as good when purchased secondhand for $20.
I've been using Netflix for years and never heard of it, though I'm going to try it out now.
If your job is only 12 miles away, you'd still only be spending $50 a week on gas driving a mid-70s Cadillac. It's the people who are doing 50+ miles each way that are really hurting. People complain about the price in the US, but it's been over $5 a gallon in Europe forever ($8 or 9 now) and people still drive. They don't drive as much, and they choose more efficient cars, but they still find it worthwhile. I don't like having to think about filling up, but it's certainly putting conservation on the agenda which is a good thing.
Actually, I'd say a D201GLY2 Intel mb would be the way to go; Newegg has them for $65 & they seem to be more powerful and use less power than the VIA boards. Check out silentpcreview for reviews of lots of low power systems.
Newegg has a small C3 barebones box for $159, which might make a good start.
Yep, this is how I see it too, and why I decided to go from W2K to Vista rather than Ubuntu when I built my new machine. There's no perfect OS, and with Vista they're trying to do the right thing. App writers are going to have to do things correctly in future, and if I have to wait for a few things, oh well, won't kill me. I knew going in that it wouldn't all be smooth sailing, especially since I went with 64 bit, but it does most of what I want very well, and I must admit I like the little live previews etc. I'm running Kubuntu 8.04 on the kids' machine, and I like it, but it's far from perfect as well. Just yesterday they ended up with a print dialog from barbie.com in Firefox which couldn't be got rid of; I ended up just shutting it down for the night. Probably a use case that most of the developers haven't dealt with...
it's not yet cost-effective for most people, who can't afford to spend 20 years' energy bills in one go (for solar) or who can't feasibly put up wind power on their house for whatever reason.
It's not that people can't afford the 20 years' bills upfront, it's that it's still cheaper to buy from the grid if you're connected. Once the cost of panels/install/interconnect become competitive to grid power, people will get a mortgage on them. That's the real sticking point. It's coming down, and may almost be breakeven on a flat commercial roof, but it's not there yet for residential.
The 50,000 homes figure is for the less than 50% of capacity which Delmarva Power has contracted to buy. "The rest would be sold to other customers."
I thought about it, but really the 5 mins is all I need to get from one plug to another around the house, and my to do list is already at unmanageable proportions...
No mention of a new battery - I know my battery is useless after less than 4 years, I only get 5 mins now. At over $100, though, it's not worth it to me to replace. I'm always near a power supply. Add the $125 he spent, plus $125 for a battery, & you're only $150 away from a new Dell. Just sayin'...
Yeah, I don't snoop either; in fact, the few times I've been ordered to dig through someone's stuff, it made me pretty uncomfortable. It's just not right. Plus, as you say, it's boring ;)
My old (really old) 2K box just died. I would never have upgraded it, but when I built my new box I bought Vista 64 bit. I'm still getting used to it, but overall I like it ok. Yes, there are issues, the biggest so far being that my Acrobat Std 7 can't create pdfs, but I think that going forward it's the way to go. On a powerful new machine it runs nicely, the power saving features work well, and the UAC hasn't been much of an issue since I got most of what I wanted loaded. I liked 2K a lot, and I think I'm going to like Vista a lot. I agree, though, that there's no compelling reason to leave 2K.
Yep, I'm seeing that too. They should have borrowed The Pirate Bay's trackers & set up a torrent...
I agree with their support for girl power and environmentalism, and I support rational and honest sex education. I'm not anti-gun, but I don't think that the 2nd amendment means that anyone can have any type of weapon they desire. I wouldn't say I oppose religion, but myself am not religious. The unquestioned "loyalty", which seems to have been removed from their oath in 1972, in my book smacks of jingoism; their current "law" seems to cover much of what I am hoping to instill in my daughters. And I don't want sexuality or religion (or lack thereof) to be limiting characteristics in any organization I support. Those criteria come first, then they can participate and enjoy what the Girl Scouts offer (charitable work and personal accomplishment, among others).
I really posted that link because I find it hard to believe that any parent would want their daughter to be indoctrinated into servitude. That to me seems radical.
Actually, that's the one part I don't really like - a lot of the official materials really seem more about fund raising than the important parts. A lot will come down to your local scout leader & parents though, and ours are pretty good about not making that a focus. We moved a few thin mints, though, especially to programmer friends ;)
I think that this Baptist site nicely outlines many of the reasons I'm happy to have my daughters involved in the Girl Scouts:
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=25503
I especially enjoyed how she contrasts the Girl Scouts' encouragement of "girl empowerment" with another group's "strong emphasis on servitude".
I don't have a lot of experience with the organization, but I did work at a Cub Scout camp one summer in high school and was taken aback when they almost put me back on the bus because of my earrings & punk haircut. (This was the 80s.) It pissed me off, because I had only agreed to go there as a favor to a teacher who was a scoutmaster, they didn't have enough counselors, yet they were ready to refuse my help. I ended up having a good time, the kids were great, but I was soured on the whole organization after that & their going to the Supreme Court to defend their right to discriminate hasn't endeared them any more to me...