Interesting, but impractical. One option is to build a giant central stirling engine, which is not a developed technology. We know a lot more about building big steam turbines. The other is to stick a small engine at the focus of every mirror. Effective, but increases the complexity enormously. More complexity equals more cost and lower reliability.
More complexity does not always equal lower reliability. Just look at modern engines - electronic fuel injection and electronic ignition add to the complexity and result in greatly increased reliability. And this project is a go - it will be the largest solar plant in the US when completed.
The problem with steam turbines is that they require a great deal of maintenance. Without care they have to potential to explode. And examining a steam turbine is a non-trivial task. A sterling engine requires very little maintenance - just a fraction of what an internal combustion engine requires. In addition, there is never any danger of explosions. You wouldn't even have to examine/maintain them, just replace them when they fail.
The term you're looking for is "combined cycle" power plant. I can't answer whether a steam turbine-stirling combined cycle would provide enough efficiency to justify its construction. You would again need to build a very large stirling engine.
It really wouldn't have to be that efficient. Over 50% of the energy is lost at the condensing stage of a steam turbine. That's a lot of energy. Even if you can only convert 5% of that energy into electricity it is still a pile of energy. The difficulty comes from the fact that the temperature differential (100c to ambient temperature) is quite low. Low differential sterling engines do exist but I don't know how well they work.
Few details in the link indicate how the plant will produce power. The Nevada plant uses a steam turbine so I assume that this plant does the same. But what about using a heat engine in place of a turbine? There was a story on/. a while back about using sterling engines in a solar plant. They talked of placing a small sterling engine at the center of a large parabolic dish - sounded interesting.
I like the idea of sterling engines and wonder if they could be used in conjunction with a steam turbine. The steam turbine operates as expected but a sterling engine is present where the stream in turned back into water. In essence, the waste heat from the turbine could be harvested instead of being discarded. Probably more practical in cooler climates where cooling sources are easy to find.
Just thought I would put this idea out there as I have no experience with heat engines but imagine that there is a good reason why this is not currently done.
Afaict even on mac OS many larger applications need thier installers to do things to parts of the system outside the directory the app itself is in.
Yes, but any decent software will be designed such that when run, if the required files are missing they get copied from within the application bundle. This provides a 'first run == installer' type behaviour. Also allows for drag and drop installation of applications.
Interesting.. I have always thought this but did not know it was a popular theory.
you'd think we'd stay conscious for it so we could react to a predator that found us
My explanation for this is that we evolved as a social species that worked in groups. It is also important to note that we sleep in cycles - only going into deep sleep for a small part of the night. Combine these two facts and one can see how sleeping in a group would result in at least part of the group always being alert to predators.
The question of why we require these small amounts of deep sleep has yet to be answered. There is likely a very important reason. But I would not be surprised if the non-deep sleep could be safely eliminated with the help of drugs.
ps, I have narcolepsy (ie, my brain does not produce the chemical required to go into deep sleep) - hence my interest in the subject.
That would be another use for it. But I have been frequently annoyed by ISPs disabling incoming connections. For most people this is good (virus, etc) but it sucks for those who want to access their home computer from work/school.
In that case, they should do it like the Hamachi VPN - use a mediation server to make the initial connection between the two machines, then drop out of the loop.
All of the P2P programs also appear to get around this. The problem when doing this with standard protocols is that they were not designed for it so your options are 1) modify samba (on client and server) to enable this or 2) utilize a VPN to enable this. Both options require the addition of software on your client computer in order to connect to the WD device. For many people this is not an option because they do not administer the remote computer.
The people at WD were faced with a problem and selected an appropriate solution. I, like many on/., don't like it. But alas, it's hard to criticize without being able to offer an alternative that offers the same functionality.
I know of no reason to create it this way other than to extract ongoing revenue from those who don't know better.
My guess would be to allow the device to work with internet connections that don't allow incoming connections. The Mionet server acts as a known connection point that both the WD device and the user computer can access. The downside is that content has to flow through the Mionet server, but at least it works. A better solution would be for the Mionet software to attempt a direct connection (client -> WD device) first. Should this not work then proceed to use the Mionet server.
I hope Sony gets screwed YET AGAIN for trying to shove their format down everyone's throats.
I have not seen Sony do much shoving with blu-ray. They are making it as attractive as possible, but I don't remember any deals with content providers guaranteeing exclusive blu-ray releases. This is what MS is doing with HD-DVD.
If I remember correctly from articles I've read, it is much less costly for DVD production plants to upgrade their facilities to produce HD-DVDs than to produce Blu-Ray... which would mean less costs passed on to consumers.
That could be true, but even if blu-ray is more expensive to produce it is only a one time cost. In addition, the cost of manufacturing discs has little to do with the retail price. Retail price is based on what people are willing to pay.
This includes 10/100/1000BaseT ethernet over twisted pair, USB, Firewire, etc.
USB doesn't use differential pairs. There are 4 lines - power, ground, transmit, receive. It was designed to replace RS232 and parallel ports - they weren't going for great speeds. I'm actually quite impressed that USB 2.0 works as well as it does as it is a bad design.
But 1394 does use differential pairs. There are either 4 or (more commonly) 6 lines. Power, ground, transmit+, transmit-, receive+, receive-. It is possible to omit the power and ground and thereby only use 4 lines - Sony likes to do this.
It is possible that I'm wrong as I have not done hardware design since the standards were introduced - but I believe I am correct on this one.
When growing up, I was forced to do pages of simple math problems - just simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Imagine sheets of paper with 20 rows and 3 columns filled with questions. I would then get timed to see how quickly I could complete these questions. This was done time and time again until I didn't have to think in order to solve such problems. I benefit from this even today..
The thing is, when you're learning math you want to focus your efforts on the subject at hand - not the other simple math that accompanies it. For example, when a prof is going over a question on the board you don't want to waste time with the simple stuff. It takes away from what you should really be learning.
So I guess my suggestion is this - make sure you know the basic stuff really well. You will always have to use it and without it you will always be at a disadvantage.
Should a terrorist want to down a plane there is no need to bring on explosives in a water bottle. The day before, take anti-constipation medication to clear out your system. Be sure not to eat anything for 48h before the trip. Then, before you go to the airport, insert the C4. You can also insert any required detonation devices. Should they include metal just tell them you have a pin in your leg from a bad break. Remove in airplane washroom, detonate at your pleasure...
We can not stop the terrorists from bringing down planes. The reason why more planes have not been downed is that there are not that many terrorists out there. In addition, most of them are stupid and/or uneducated. Like those Brits that tried to make car bombs with gasoline and no source of oxygen.. And they were doctors...
Very cool... But far more common is the use of vernier calipers. They utilize the same technique to allow for very accurate measurements. Ok, they aren't really the same thing but close enough to be worth mentioning. Anyone used to using vernier calipers will feel at home using a slide rule.
I've come to see Facebook as being the "white pages" for eMail. People change their eMail addresses constantly - usually due to changes in employment or SPAM overload. What is needed is a way to find your friends current eMail address. This is the role that Facebook serves. If I need to send a message to a friend I can just use Facebook and it matters not how they have changed their eMail.
I'm not suggesting that this is a perfect solution but it does help explain the popularity of these sites. It is the reason why I joined Facebook.
Nuclear power for the US at a large level would require importing Uranium from other countries, as the US only has a small amount of Uranium ore.
Australia currently has the world's largest supply of uranium but it is currently untapped. Negotiations are underway with China who is in need of a uranium supplier. Once the mines are developed there will be a lot more uranium on the market. Note that Australia has always been a good trading partner with the US so I don't think there should be any issues here.
The worlds largest uranium mines are currently located in northern Saskatchewan (Canada). They have shut down not because they have run empty, but because there is no demand for uranium. If the US needed uranium then these mines would be put back into operation. And if you're worried about Canada screwing you over energy - uranium should be the last of your concerns. Electricity and oil are already exported to the US and have been for many years.
Long story made short - the availability of uranium is a minor concern for the US should the US move towards more nuclear power. Even if the world broke down to the point that no countries traded with each other - the US could easily maintain a 100 year supply in case of emergency.
One of the problems with wireless grid networks is the latency involved. Having towers makes for much lower latency. The idea of a call being routed 100km over a grid where the nodes have a max range of 1km is crazy. That's a couple of hundred possible points of failure. The quality just won't be acceptable.
But what about keeping the towers and just using a grid to connect the nodes that are a little out of range. Now that calls just have to traverse the grid to get to the nearest tower. Potential for error is greatly reduced along with latency.
Areas with an existing infrastructure would benefit even though there is already full coverage. When one has a poor connection (say, in a basement building) the phone could opt to use the grid to get the message out and to the tower. Overall quality of service would increase.
Areas without an infrastructure would benefit by requiring fewer towers. The more towers the better the quality of service - but for many areas just getting service is the main concern. In such areas only minimal infrastructure would be required. Additional infrastructure could be added in the future should they want to increase the quality of service.
In addition, localization (ie, 911) and content monitoring are only minimally effected by such a system. Believe it or not, this is actually a good thing for most people.
But for it to work they will have to offer far more then just music. They would have to bundle some good artwork thereby making the CD a package that just can't be downloaded. In fact, why not include a little illustrated book. I'm sure there is plenty of possible content that big fans of a band would enjoy. They have to make their product special if it is going to sell.
Of course there is nothing wrong with adding ring-tunes to the CD, but this won't be enough. People need something that they can hold and feel - not just ones and zeros on a CD.
For myself, I have a hard drive on my MDD specifically dedicated to storing the ripped files until I burn them to a DVD. I find it's just easier for me to let Mac The Ripper do it's thing while I'm doing something else.
The advantage of using dvdfs is that you can skip this step. Just put the DVD in the drive and let Toast do it's thing. No ripping is required as the decoding is done as Toast is operating.
Or, if you don't want to have to rip to your hard drive, install MacFUSE and use dvdfs in place of Mac the Ripper. Doing so saves HD space and minimizes the work required by the HD. Great if you're using a laptop. I've written a little GUI app so one doesn't have to use the command line with dvdfs. I will post it if requested.
Yes, modern x86 processors have RISC like microcode implemented using pipelined cores, but the x86 -> microcode converter is extra logic RISC processors just don't need.
You are correct, but this is becoming less and less of an issue as transistor counts increase. The ratio of wasted transistors to total transistors is decreasing as CPUs become more complex and include huge caches.
There was a window of opportunity in ~97 for RISC to take over. I remember the 350MHz PPC G3 selling at the same time as a 300MHz PII while consuming ~1/5 of the power. The overall performance was comparable - so long as you ignored floating point calculations....
I hate the x86 architecture but it is here to stay. Competing ISAs will die off unless they have a niche market. ARM has the low power / high efficiency niche. SPARC has the massively parallel / dedicated hardware niche (like built in encryption and such.) PPC is in trouble - ARM is invading from one side and x86 the other. POWER is impressive but it is basically an AIX niche.
There is no way you can implement an x86 chip in the same number of transistors as a RISC chip like ARM or MIPS, hence this VIA chip having considerably more power draw.
You can, but only if it is a really big, powerful chip. For the embedded market you are 100% correct.
Well cable, for example, is a shared medium. Everyone has to play by the same rules. While it is technically possible to do what you have suggested, it would likely require a much more complicated MAC algorithm implemented in the cable modems. More complicated means more expensive. It can also imply that there will be more overhead and higher latencies imposed by this algorithm (I'm assuming that the current MAC algorithm is highly optimized). In the end is it worth it? I don't think it was when cable modems were first being developed but it might be now. I guess this goes to support that the infrastructure needs improvement.
Oh and on top of that for most people you can likely drive there and back in 1/2 the time it takes to download. Even at 5 Mbps it's going to take you about 20 mins to download 700 megs.
But the media is streamed to iTunes and can be viewed after just a few megabytes have been downloaded. The catch is that your connection must be faster then the rate at which the movie plays. For example, a 90min 700MB file requires a ~1.1Mbit/s stream.
I think the same thing will happen for movies when they hit around $5.
I agree. The movies should cost about the same as a rental. The selling point is that you don't have to physically rent the movie, deal with late fees, or deal with stores that don't have the movie you want in stock. This all comes with the price of lower quality which many won't notice.
leaving you with only sliding friction and wind resistance to overcome.
Don't forget the fact that larger engines consume more gas. They are designed to produce a larger peak power and as such, require stronger, heavier parts. Moving heavier parts requires more energy thereby increasing fuel usage.
Another point to note is that one rarely drives on a level road. If there is an incline, the heavier vehicle with require more fuel to maintain it's speed up the hills.
And finally one must look at the tires. Heavier vehicles will lose more energy from the rubber in the tires compressing and decompressing. There is a reason why heavy trucks frequently have their tires fall apart while driving - they get too hot. You can see chunks of rubber littered alone the sides of any major highway.
Long story made short - larger vehicles will always consume more energy then smaller vehicles. Sorry Hummer owners, but it's true.
I would support a solution where limited anonymity is supported for everything. What I mean by limited anonymity is that anonymity is provided but the ability to bypass it is provided if required. Doing so would be like tapping phones - a warrant should be required. The exact rules would change depending on what country you are from.
Who determines necessity?
In this case, the lawmakers and justice system. In a democratic nation, the people would have the final say (in theory).
Joe Shmoe Public - nah, its better to keep tabs on him, he could be a terrorist...
A good point, but not really one that concerns me. I'm no terrorist and I don't care if the government watches over me. But if that information was used for other purposes, then I would get upset. I believe requiring a bit of paperwork and convincing a judge to grant a warrant would provide an adequate means to limit the temptation for abuse. It's really the corporations that I want to keep my information private from and they aren't in the position to gain access to such information.
It's all about compromise, just like everything else we have in our society. We are not truly free, we live by rules so that we can all live together. The same applies to any sort of shared environment - including the internet. Adopting the correct rules for a new internet will allow everyone to benefit. So rules (or the ability to implement those rules) should not be discounted outright, it should be assessed and only implemented if beneficial to the community as a whole.
Well, for the record, completely mechanical thermostats have been a part of engine cooling systems since... well, probably nearly as long as enginges have been around. The radiator in a car is designed in about the worst-case scenario. The thermostat valve is definitely much wider while driving in Texas in the summer than Maine in the winter, but the engine temp would remain the same. If the thermostat wasn't there, my engine might never get warm in the winter (esp. consider the size of the radiator exposure on my car).
Actually, you're wrong. You'll notice that people driving older trucks put cardboard in front of their rad in the winter. This is because, as you suggested, the motor never gets a chance to warm up in the winter. I have a 86 Ford that is like this. The water pump is driven directly from the main pulley system. So long as the motor is turning, coolant is circulating through the radiator.
What a lot of modern cars do is that they circulate the coolant all the time. To prevent over cooling, the radiator fan is only turned on when it is required (via a heat sensor). This is likely how your car works. Seeing this for the first time (in 1990) was a big deal as previous vehicles simply turned the fan all the time. (Please note that I was a kid in 1990 - it was obviously in existence before that.)
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More complexity does not always equal lower reliability. Just look at modern engines - electronic fuel injection and electronic ignition add to the complexity and result in greatly increased reliability. And this project is a go - it will be the largest solar plant in the US when completed.
The problem with steam turbines is that they require a great deal of maintenance. Without care they have to potential to explode. And examining a steam turbine is a non-trivial task. A sterling engine requires very little maintenance - just a fraction of what an internal combustion engine requires. In addition, there is never any danger of explosions. You wouldn't even have to examine/maintain them, just replace them when they fail.
It really wouldn't have to be that efficient. Over 50% of the energy is lost at the condensing stage of a steam turbine. That's a lot of energy. Even if you can only convert 5% of that energy into electricity it is still a pile of energy. The difficulty comes from the fact that the temperature differential (100c to ambient temperature) is quite low. Low differential sterling engines do exist but I don't know how well they work.
Few details in the link indicate how the plant will produce power. The Nevada plant uses a steam turbine so I assume that this plant does the same. But what about using a heat engine in place of a turbine? There was a story on /. a while back about using sterling engines in a solar plant. They talked of placing a small sterling engine at the center of a large parabolic dish - sounded interesting.
I like the idea of sterling engines and wonder if they could be used in conjunction with a steam turbine. The steam turbine operates as expected but a sterling engine is present where the stream in turned back into water. In essence, the waste heat from the turbine could be harvested instead of being discarded. Probably more practical in cooler climates where cooling sources are easy to find.
Just thought I would put this idea out there as I have no experience with heat engines but imagine that there is a good reason why this is not currently done.
Yes, but any decent software will be designed such that when run, if the required files are missing they get copied from within the application bundle. This provides a 'first run == installer' type behaviour. Also allows for drag and drop installation of applications.
Interesting.. I have always thought this but did not know it was a popular theory.
My explanation for this is that we evolved as a social species that worked in groups. It is also important to note that we sleep in cycles - only going into deep sleep for a small part of the night. Combine these two facts and one can see how sleeping in a group would result in at least part of the group always being alert to predators.
The question of why we require these small amounts of deep sleep has yet to be answered. There is likely a very important reason. But I would not be surprised if the non-deep sleep could be safely eliminated with the help of drugs.
ps, I have narcolepsy (ie, my brain does not produce the chemical required to go into deep sleep) - hence my interest in the subject.
That would be another use for it. But I have been frequently annoyed by ISPs disabling incoming connections. For most people this is good (virus, etc) but it sucks for those who want to access their home computer from work/school.
All of the P2P programs also appear to get around this. The problem when doing this with standard protocols is that they were not designed for it so your options are 1) modify samba (on client and server) to enable this or 2) utilize a VPN to enable this. Both options require the addition of software on your client computer in order to connect to the WD device. For many people this is not an option because they do not administer the remote computer.
The people at WD were faced with a problem and selected an appropriate solution. I, like many on /., don't like it. But alas, it's hard to criticize without being able to offer an alternative that offers the same functionality.
My guess would be to allow the device to work with internet connections that don't allow incoming connections. The Mionet server acts as a known connection point that both the WD device and the user computer can access. The downside is that content has to flow through the Mionet server, but at least it works. A better solution would be for the Mionet software to attempt a direct connection (client -> WD device) first. Should this not work then proceed to use the Mionet server.
I have not seen Sony do much shoving with blu-ray. They are making it as attractive as possible, but I don't remember any deals with content providers guaranteeing exclusive blu-ray releases. This is what MS is doing with HD-DVD.
That could be true, but even if blu-ray is more expensive to produce it is only a one time cost. In addition, the cost of manufacturing discs has little to do with the retail price. Retail price is based on what people are willing to pay.
USB doesn't use differential pairs. There are 4 lines - power, ground, transmit, receive. It was designed to replace RS232 and parallel ports - they weren't going for great speeds. I'm actually quite impressed that USB 2.0 works as well as it does as it is a bad design.
But 1394 does use differential pairs. There are either 4 or (more commonly) 6 lines. Power, ground, transmit+, transmit-, receive+, receive-. It is possible to omit the power and ground and thereby only use 4 lines - Sony likes to do this.
It is possible that I'm wrong as I have not done hardware design since the standards were introduced - but I believe I am correct on this one.
When growing up, I was forced to do pages of simple math problems - just simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Imagine sheets of paper with 20 rows and 3 columns filled with questions. I would then get timed to see how quickly I could complete these questions. This was done time and time again until I didn't have to think in order to solve such problems. I benefit from this even today..
The thing is, when you're learning math you want to focus your efforts on the subject at hand - not the other simple math that accompanies it. For example, when a prof is going over a question on the board you don't want to waste time with the simple stuff. It takes away from what you should really be learning.
So I guess my suggestion is this - make sure you know the basic stuff really well. You will always have to use it and without it you will always be at a disadvantage.
Willy
So true.. And here is another one.
Should a terrorist want to down a plane there is no need to bring on explosives in a water bottle. The day before, take anti-constipation medication to clear out your system. Be sure not to eat anything for 48h before the trip. Then, before you go to the airport, insert the C4. You can also insert any required detonation devices. Should they include metal just tell them you have a pin in your leg from a bad break. Remove in airplane washroom, detonate at your pleasure...
We can not stop the terrorists from bringing down planes. The reason why more planes have not been downed is that there are not that many terrorists out there. In addition, most of them are stupid and/or uneducated. Like those Brits that tried to make car bombs with gasoline and no source of oxygen.. And they were doctors...
Very cool... But far more common is the use of vernier calipers. They utilize the same technique to allow for very accurate measurements. Ok, they aren't really the same thing but close enough to be worth mentioning. Anyone used to using vernier calipers will feel at home using a slide rule.
I've come to see Facebook as being the "white pages" for eMail. People change their eMail addresses constantly - usually due to changes in employment or SPAM overload. What is needed is a way to find your friends current eMail address. This is the role that Facebook serves. If I need to send a message to a friend I can just use Facebook and it matters not how they have changed their eMail.
I'm not suggesting that this is a perfect solution but it does help explain the popularity of these sites. It is the reason why I joined Facebook.
Willy
Australia currently has the world's largest supply of uranium but it is currently untapped. Negotiations are underway with China who is in need of a uranium supplier. Once the mines are developed there will be a lot more uranium on the market. Note that Australia has always been a good trading partner with the US so I don't think there should be any issues here.
The worlds largest uranium mines are currently located in northern Saskatchewan (Canada). They have shut down not because they have run empty, but because there is no demand for uranium. If the US needed uranium then these mines would be put back into operation. And if you're worried about Canada screwing you over energy - uranium should be the last of your concerns. Electricity and oil are already exported to the US and have been for many years.
Long story made short - the availability of uranium is a minor concern for the US should the US move towards more nuclear power. Even if the world broke down to the point that no countries traded with each other - the US could easily maintain a 100 year supply in case of emergency.
One of the problems with wireless grid networks is the latency involved. Having towers makes for much lower latency. The idea of a call being routed 100km over a grid where the nodes have a max range of 1km is crazy. That's a couple of hundred possible points of failure. The quality just won't be acceptable.
But what about keeping the towers and just using a grid to connect the nodes that are a little out of range. Now that calls just have to traverse the grid to get to the nearest tower. Potential for error is greatly reduced along with latency.
Areas with an existing infrastructure would benefit even though there is already full coverage. When one has a poor connection (say, in a basement building) the phone could opt to use the grid to get the message out and to the tower. Overall quality of service would increase.
Areas without an infrastructure would benefit by requiring fewer towers. The more towers the better the quality of service - but for many areas just getting service is the main concern. In such areas only minimal infrastructure would be required. Additional infrastructure could be added in the future should they want to increase the quality of service.
In addition, localization (ie, 911) and content monitoring are only minimally effected by such a system. Believe it or not, this is actually a good thing for most people.
Just an idea,
Willy
But for it to work they will have to offer far more then just music. They would have to bundle some good artwork thereby making the CD a package that just can't be downloaded. In fact, why not include a little illustrated book. I'm sure there is plenty of possible content that big fans of a band would enjoy. They have to make their product special if it is going to sell.
Of course there is nothing wrong with adding ring-tunes to the CD, but this won't be enough. People need something that they can hold and feel - not just ones and zeros on a CD.
Willy
The advantage of using dvdfs is that you can skip this step. Just put the DVD in the drive and let Toast do it's thing. No ripping is required as the decoding is done as Toast is operating.
Willy
Or, if you don't want to have to rip to your hard drive, install MacFUSE and use dvdfs in place of Mac the Ripper. Doing so saves HD space and minimizes the work required by the HD. Great if you're using a laptop. I've written a little GUI app so one doesn't have to use the command line with dvdfs. I will post it if requested.
Willy
because lets face it, there is a good chance the Republicans will not be in power..
Willy
You are correct, but this is becoming less and less of an issue as transistor counts increase. The ratio of wasted transistors to total transistors is decreasing as CPUs become more complex and include huge caches.
There was a window of opportunity in ~97 for RISC to take over. I remember the 350MHz PPC G3 selling at the same time as a 300MHz PII while consuming ~1/5 of the power. The overall performance was comparable - so long as you ignored floating point calculations....
I hate the x86 architecture but it is here to stay. Competing ISAs will die off unless they have a niche market. ARM has the low power / high efficiency niche. SPARC has the massively parallel / dedicated hardware niche (like built in encryption and such.) PPC is in trouble - ARM is invading from one side and x86 the other. POWER is impressive but it is basically an AIX niche.
You can, but only if it is a really big, powerful chip. For the embedded market you are 100% correct.
Willy
But HD-DVD is only 15Gigs per side so there is an advantage to the 25Gig/side Blu-Ray discs.
Well cable, for example, is a shared medium. Everyone has to play by the same rules. While it is technically possible to do what you have suggested, it would likely require a much more complicated MAC algorithm implemented in the cable modems. More complicated means more expensive. It can also imply that there will be more overhead and higher latencies imposed by this algorithm (I'm assuming that the current MAC algorithm is highly optimized). In the end is it worth it? I don't think it was when cable modems were first being developed but it might be now. I guess this goes to support that the infrastructure needs improvement.
But the media is streamed to iTunes and can be viewed after just a few megabytes have been downloaded. The catch is that your connection must be faster then the rate at which the movie plays. For example, a 90min 700MB file requires a ~1.1Mbit/s stream.
I agree. The movies should cost about the same as a rental. The selling point is that you don't have to physically rent the movie, deal with late fees, or deal with stores that don't have the movie you want in stock. This all comes with the price of lower quality which many won't notice.
Don't forget the fact that larger engines consume more gas. They are designed to produce a larger peak power and as such, require stronger, heavier parts. Moving heavier parts requires more energy thereby increasing fuel usage.
Another point to note is that one rarely drives on a level road. If there is an incline, the heavier vehicle with require more fuel to maintain it's speed up the hills.
And finally one must look at the tires. Heavier vehicles will lose more energy from the rubber in the tires compressing and decompressing. There is a reason why heavy trucks frequently have their tires fall apart while driving - they get too hot. You can see chunks of rubber littered alone the sides of any major highway.
Long story made short - larger vehicles will always consume more energy then smaller vehicles. Sorry Hummer owners, but it's true.
I would support a solution where limited anonymity is supported for everything. What I mean by limited anonymity is that anonymity is provided but the ability to bypass it is provided if required. Doing so would be like tapping phones - a warrant should be required. The exact rules would change depending on what country you are from.
In this case, the lawmakers and justice system. In a democratic nation, the people would have the final say (in theory).
A good point, but not really one that concerns me. I'm no terrorist and I don't care if the government watches over me. But if that information was used for other purposes, then I would get upset. I believe requiring a bit of paperwork and convincing a judge to grant a warrant would provide an adequate means to limit the temptation for abuse. It's really the corporations that I want to keep my information private from and they aren't in the position to gain access to such information.
It's all about compromise, just like everything else we have in our society. We are not truly free, we live by rules so that we can all live together. The same applies to any sort of shared environment - including the internet. Adopting the correct rules for a new internet will allow everyone to benefit. So rules (or the ability to implement those rules) should not be discounted outright, it should be assessed and only implemented if beneficial to the community as a whole.
Willy
Actually, you're wrong. You'll notice that people driving older trucks put cardboard in front of their rad in the winter. This is because, as you suggested, the motor never gets a chance to warm up in the winter. I have a 86 Ford that is like this. The water pump is driven directly from the main pulley system. So long as the motor is turning, coolant is circulating through the radiator.
What a lot of modern cars do is that they circulate the coolant all the time. To prevent over cooling, the radiator fan is only turned on when it is required (via a heat sensor). This is likely how your car works. Seeing this for the first time (in 1990) was a big deal as previous vehicles simply turned the fan all the time. (Please note that I was a kid in 1990 - it was obviously in existence before that.)
Willy