Of the electronic items retired every year, 1/4 of them seem to be cell phones. What is also needed is mandantory unlocking of phones when the initial 2 year contract is over. How many phones are tossed simply because it won't work with your new carrier. Often people change carriers when they move because coverage sucks and another carrier works in that area. Now you have a phone to retire, not transfer. Think how much in cell charges we could save with a bring your own phone plan. A good portion of a 2 year contract cost is in a throw away phone.
This is bad for consumers and bad for the environment. Locked cell phones after the intial subsidised plan expired should be illegal. It should be legal to take a phone free from a plan and subscribe it anywhere.
Traveling overseas often means buying a local phone to avoid extreeme roaming charges, where a sim card for your trip should be all that is needed to take advantage of calling plans overseas.
Having a phone for home and one for abroad is crazy. Taking a phone aborad and paying roaming fees is crazy. Pre-ordering a SIM card should be the way things are done, but locked phones prevent it.
I noticed Cellular Toys is now selling unlocked phones. When my contract is up, I'm looking into it.
A hydrogen fuel cell works by removing electrons from hydrogen molecules. Generally, you cannot simply remove an electron from an atom, but you can with hydrogen because it can bond easily with so many other atoms, such as oxygen.
The magic potion is the mention of a chemical reaction with water with a mystery fuel to produce the required Hydrogen and Oxygen. The is no more water as fuel than the old steam engines that burned coal or wood. Water is required in the "engine" portion, but everyone knew the fuel wasn't water. The car is more of the same, but the fuel isn't named remaining a mystery. Steam to pistons, or hydrogen and oxygen to a fuel cell, water is only the carrier of the energy and NOT the fuel. Anyone know what the fuel really is?
The article mentioned a chemical reaction with water to produce the Hydrogen and Oxygen for the fuel cell. What is this fuel used for the chemical reaction?
Therefore, a large number of geeks have made a large number of assumptions about what hasn't been said, then "proven" it impossible by showing it doesn't work under the set of assumptions they made. In short, they've proven nothing.
The only assumptions are in the article. Number 1 is it runs on water. It doesn't. Number 2 is it gets hydrogen from water from a chemical reaction with the real fuel producing hydrogen and oxygen. The real fuel is consumed in the process is assumed. Number 3 it uses the produced hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity in a fuel cell producing earth friendly water ending the catalyst cycle.
Conclusion, water is a catalyst and carrier of energy in the hydrogen and oxygen form. The real consumed fuel isn't isn't mentioned much.
How can you prove that you didn't install XP on your PC and then just resold all the packaging/licensing?
It's simple. WGA. The product key (CD KEY) is no longer checking in on the original hardware. If a new user has the same key, a request for sales receipts, canceled checks, paypal records etc should show which copy should be disabled and which owner to prosecute for the copyright violation. One or the other will have a failed WGA check.
It must have been a glitch. Your green bean is in your parent post and reply. I tend to read replies by friends of my friends first. Foes of my friends are often trolls, but not always.
So for all those who haven't, or forgotten to say it, THANK YOU NYCL.
In support of his fine work, he is the first Friend I picked on Slashdot. Show your support by listing him as a friend. I noticed you haven't done this yet, otherwise your post would have shown on my screen as you being a friend of a friend. Can you add him as a friend to say thanks and show your support? This guy should have a huge Fan list. He earned it.
Really, that's who they should be going after. The people selling pirated software.
Unfortunately often your definition of pirated software and Microsoft's version is not the same. What we call "Right of first sale" or "Used" is called "Pirated" by Microsoft.
This includes things as replacing your old XP software with Ubuntu and selling the disk, certificate, box and packaging on ebay. Selling the OEM factory shipped version you wiped to install Red Hat, and selling a P4 box with the OS installed but somehow missing the original sales receipt. MS should simply go after those who Counterfeit software, and not those selling used software with original disks, product keys and certificates.
There should be a good market for used copies of XP. Unfortunately, MS calls these genuine copies of the real thing "Pirated" and prohibits their sale.
What definition of Pirated is the article covering? The article seems to mostly cover illegal duplication such as more than one install from 1 copy on machines for sale and doesn't touch on the selling of used software.
To this day, I've yet to hear a phone as clear as this old, green beast.
That old green beast is one of the newer ones near the end of the rental phone era. The older ones didn't have the spring socket and the wires attached directly to the mic with screws. The older ones wire carbon and were noisy and were not linear enough for many acoustic modems of the day.
Acoustic Modems were the step prior to the phone company owned anything connecting to the phone line. They were slow and prone to errors. Newer phones like you have had an element that looked like a carbon mic, but in reality was a condensor mic. They did have good sound quality and were an upgrade for fewer errors with customer owned acoustic modems. The law was changed so fax machines could be auto answer and connected by the consumer. Computer modems and higher speeds was the direct result of this law change. It's the time where the wires that belonged to the phone company and the consumer had to be defined as consumers wanted to have phone lines installed for the computer and fax and the phone company didn't want to fix poor home wireing for the fax and modem. This is the start of the telephone company interface. It replaced the original phone lightning protection and fuses. If you find a really old house where they have not had an owner change in 40 years, you might still find a home wihtout a telco interface and just lightning protection. Anytime a home changed hands and a new subscription started, it was the general practice to install a telco interface box. This started in 1968.
http://www.webbconsult.com/1960.html "Under this decision, the FCC struck down existing interstate telephone tariffs prohibiting attachment of connection to the public telephone system of any equipment or device that was not supplied by the telephone companies (Bell System).
The Carterphone Decision created the interconnect industry and allowed manufacturers other than Western Electric to sell their telephone devices to business nationwide. The telephone companies still managed a minor victory by convincing the FCC that Bell System manufactured "interface devices" had to be placed between any non-telephone company equipment and the public telephone system. These interface devices were struck down in 1978 when the FCC determined that any equipment manufactured to FCC regulations could connect to the public network via industry standard network termination devices (RJ11C, RJ21X, etc.) In the mid-1980's the former Bell System companies were successfully sued for the fees paid by customers for these interface devices (which were determined to be unnecessary) during the ten year period from 1968 to 1978."
I love the car, but neither of us has traction control
I must have a fluke then. On wet grass, I can't spin a tire. I feel it slip a tiny bit and the power immediatly drops. When I am done makeing a donught on the lawn, there is no divits to put back. There was not enough slippage to even find where I slipped. The grass just looks like someone gently drove over it. On ice and snow the response is the same. On Ice a traditional car can spin a tire and you can watch the speedo jump, often over 40 MPH while pulling away from a stop sign. You can't do that in my 02 Prius. It has a few very low power slips and back to rolling and I pull gently cross the intersection even when it done pedal to the metal.
Contrary to the post, I trigger mine often. In wet weather, the thick white paint for the crosswalks are slippery. I often slip a little pulling away from lights and the instant power drop is obvious.
Common misscomception is that if you don't go to war, wars don't happen.
We were attacked. Ignoring it won't make it go away. The attacks will continue.
Since we are in a war, our choices are take it or shoot back. In both you lose something. Not shooting back is not a way to eliminate loss.
Remember 9/11? That is the result of not shooting back after the earlier attacks. Not shooting back didn't save us much. 9/11 wasn't the first attack on the trade center. They came back and tried again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing They even promised to return to try again.. "However, we promise you that next time it will be very precise and World Trade Center will continue to be one [of] our targets unless our demands have been met."
The theorists love to state it wasn't enough heat to melt steel. This is true, but it was enough to soften, buckle and aneal it. Steel does not need to be melted to lose strength. Any blacksmith knows that. A coal fire is hot enough to work steel.
Let me guess, you don't mind illegal, unwarranted tapping of your phone because you have nothing to hide?
Um.. you asked the wrong question. Let me guess.. Should terrorists in our country be permitted to plan attacks and be fully protected from survaliance?
My calls regarding the grandkids would bore a monitor to death. My calls regarding what size of lighting truss we need to rent for the Saturday night gig is equally unimportant.
However if I were not a US citizen and looking to get dirvers licenses in 30 states and am taking flying lessons, this may be of concern.
They have limited resources to monitor. I'm sure they have a few citizens they have reason to keep tabs on.
For this reason the question should be more along the lines of "you do mind illegal, unwarranted tapping of your phone because you don't mind them building a truck bomb next door because it's none of your business."
If you had a family member in Iraq, and an impeachment led to a withdrawal of troops, would it have real benefit then?
Pardon the sarcasm, but if we had packed up years ago, how long would it have taken to have the next 9/11 with their new nuke program funded by the high price we pay for oil. Think about it. Who is supplying the crude. Did the cost to pump it really skyrocket? Follow the money. Just what do you think they are spending the money on?
Think along the lines of building a nuke program (look next door to Iran) and the hate to the infidels of Istral and the US. Think targets...
Cutting and running and leaving them alone with the pile of money is not someting I am willing to not pay attention to. We are fighting an arms race where we are buying their military build up everytime we fill up.
We want to bring our truops home safe and sound? There is nothing safe or sound in this in the long run. They will be back and boy are they pissed.
The domestic spying thing is just and extension of keeping an eye on the danger instead of pretending it isn't there till after the domesting war bombs go off.
I would rather they keep the war overseas instead of letting it start here in my yard.
For anyone who think the Oil tax is a good idea, don't forget this is a world economy. If the price to sell in the US market goes up, it's easy to cut shipments. Do research on the 1970's. I lived it. Making a trip back from Idaho to Central Oregon ran me through several small towns in a row all with NO GAS. I parked stranded in Shaniko (officaly a ghost town) as the other option was to die on the highway unable to make it to the next town. I literally waited at the station for the truck to arrive.
Cut and paste from your linked article in Wired; The first owner has already paid off its carbon debt. Buy a decade-old Toyota Tercel, which gets a respectable 35 mpg, and the Prius will have to drive 100,000 miles to catch up.
I'm past my first 100,000 miles on my Prius. It's holding up well with only scheduled maitenance such as oil changes, etc.
I've been looking at the Hybrid Camry also. They are still a sedan where the Prius changed from a Sedan to a Hatchback. I like the trunk. I too often carry computer and musician stuff that I don't want left in plain sight. It would be nice if it got better economy. From what I hear, it's pretty zippy with the larger engine. I don't know if they kept many of the other features from the Prius such as the sealed compressor for the AC, thermos for the engine coolant, electric power steering, etc.
They quietly released it. They don't need to advertise it much, so I haven't had a chance to really check one out yet.
Think about how absurd it would be if, in the old days, you had to buy your computer from the phone company because it had a modem?
Modems and Fax machines is the reason that phone company owned stuff stopped. They were required to allow connection of COAM (Customer Owned and Maintained Equipment) as the old law was causing all kinds of trouble for faxes and modems. The law was changed where you could own stuff and connect it. The provision was if you connected someting and it caused problems to the system, they could legaly disconnect you. The reconnection fee was yours. Most customer owned equipment didn't cause problems so this was a non-issue.
I also drive primarily highway around 75 MPH which I've heard a Prius gets lower MPG at that speed but cannot back it up
This is absolutely true. I've noticed anything over about 45 MPH drops the economy. My best milage has been driving on an icy highway at 30-35 mph at well over 50 MPG. Mixed driving (30 mile commute + some short errands) has netted me an average of 46MPG. Hitting the freeway at 70+ MPH shaves 5-8 MPG off it. Tailgating a big truck give back 50+ MPG and rock chips in the windshield.
After putting over 100K miles between the two cars, total maintenance has been between $500-$1000. Are you talking routine maitenance or repairs such as broken belts, starter or alternator replacement, etc?
Other than tires, one 12 Volt cabin battery, and regular oil changes/sched maitnance, the Prius has had zero repairs in over 100K miles. Um.. I changed a burnt out dome light.
You really missed one of the big points. All the engineering and complexity that goes into making a gas/electric hybrid only brings them up to efficiency levels that diesels were at to begin with.
Actualy, diesel has a higher power density than gasolene. The apparant high milage is partly effeciency and partly higher energy fuel. Burning E85 in a flex fuel car drops milage by almost 30%. Burning diesel instead of gasoline reverses this.
Two items I think Detroit and Toyota missed.. Hybrid Diesels and Hybrid Minivans. Mom with lots of little ones to wherever and trips to shopping etc needs an effecient vehicle with room. A Hybrid Diesel would be fantastic, especialy in stop and creep traffic. Why Detroit went to Hybrid SUV's is beyond me. An effecient family van is needed. Instead we have limited seating sedans or monstor trucks.
Re:A big "duh" to the auto industry
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I think you just made my mind up for me. Cheers!
Good luck getting one. There is a run on them now. I'm glad that they are very hard to steal. There is no 12 volt starter. The transmission is processor controlled. Unless you have the chip in the key, or fob if you have the option, nobody is going to break the ignition switch and drive it away.
About the only thefts of these are by chop shops.
Re:A big "duh" to the auto industry
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What truly turned me off the Prius however was the way it feels as a car. It's really about as much fun as driving a dishwasher. I really wanted to like the Prius, but I can't.
Some of the way it feels as a car is why I like it. The traction control is very good. Even though it isn't 4WD, it goes quite well in bad weather. With the electric motors in the transmission, the traction control works like anti-lock brakes in reverse. If you are into doing power doughnuts, a Prius won't do it. I know, I tried just to test it on wet grass. Cranking the wheel over and flooring it on wet grass is pretty boring. On ice, it keeps traction and pulls ahead instead of just spinning wheels. I was impressed.
The vehicles themselves be mothballed, stored someplace in the Mojave or Sahara and gradually be released to market over many decades.
Many items on a car deteriate with time, not miles driven. The paint weathers and peels, the rubber dries and cracks, the batteries sulfate, the flexible fuel system parts varnish, harden, crack, leak, etc.
Re:A big "duh" to the auto industry
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Some consumers did see this. I drive an 02 Prius. Many laughed when I bought it because I would need to replace the battery for 5 grand in 5 years, I spent an extra 5 grand to buy the car etc.
I bought it for my commute. I bought it for the reliability. I bought it for low maitenance costs.
In 100,000 miles, my average gas cost is about $2.00/gallon. My old car got 22 MPG. My new car gets 46 MPG. The fuel cost savings can be figured out by the cost per mile for the 100,000 miles driven.
At 22 MPG 100,000 miles used 4,545 gallons. At 46 MPG 100,000 miles used 2,222 gallons. It saved 2,323 gallons or $4646 in fuel cost.
My next 100,000 miles will be more dramatic.
The battery unlike a cell phone or laptop battery is rarely fully charged and never run flat. Battery life is not an issue. Repairs have been nil. High failure items for the most part are eliminated. The power steering is electric, not hydraulic. The mechanical portion of the transmission has a total of 7 moving parts. None of them shift, slide, or are hydraulic. Regenerative braking showed up as a benifit when I changed tires at 80,000 miles. I had 80% of the brakes remaining, unlike my wife's car which is on it's second set of brakes.
Oh, if I need a new battery, the 36 7.2 volt modules can be changed as needed instead of buying an entire new pack. If I need a pack, it's no longer 5 grand. It's much less.
At current gas prices, I plan on keeping the car till the wheels fall off.
And people wonder why content producers want DRM...
The producers are anal on protecting their content while ignoring what attracts customers. (Statute of limitations is run out) My biggest music buying days were while I was in the Military. I bought stuff, shared stuff, discovered new stuff not played on the radio. If you eliminated the shared stuff, so I didn't discover new stuff, I would have bought far less. We are seeing that now as they are getting pretty anal on sharing stuff. Personally as a result, I stopped buying music. From their sales figures, this is not uncommon.
Recently I had been listening to MIDI files and discovering new artists and such. One of the Labels pulled a "Artist Formally known as Prince" thing and sent C & D letters to sites carying a user MIDI file of the artists song. Since the Label pulled that stunt and the only place I heard of the artist or his song (Not the original), I simply noted the only advertising for the artist was by free online MIDI files. I have since decided to not bother looking for any of this French artists products or the label. Without the free MIDI files, I would have never even have heard of the artist or the French label. As far as I can tell from the MIDI file I have heard, the artist was a one trick pony with only 1 good song. I have no idea if he released anything else and I'm not going to look.
Back in my Military days, it was common for me to become a fan of an artist and buy every record (Yes LP days) of theirs that I could find. This included Pink Floyd, Styx, Areosmith, Queen, etc. Those days are over.
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Of the electronic items retired every year, 1/4 of them seem to be cell phones. What is also needed is mandantory unlocking of phones when the initial 2 year contract is over. How many phones are tossed simply because it won't work with your new carrier. Often people change carriers when they move because coverage sucks and another carrier works in that area. Now you have a phone to retire, not transfer. Think how much in cell charges we could save with a bring your own phone plan. A good portion of a 2 year contract cost is in a throw away phone.
This is bad for consumers and bad for the environment. Locked cell phones after the intial subsidised plan expired should be illegal. It should be legal to take a phone free from a plan and subscribe it anywhere.
Traveling overseas often means buying a local phone to avoid extreeme roaming charges, where a sim card for your trip should be all that is needed to take advantage of calling plans overseas.
Having a phone for home and one for abroad is crazy. Taking a phone aborad and paying roaming fees is crazy. Pre-ordering a SIM card should be the way things are done, but locked phones prevent it.
I noticed Cellular Toys is now selling unlocked phones. When my contract is up, I'm looking into it.
A hydrogen fuel cell works by removing electrons from hydrogen molecules. Generally, you cannot simply remove an electron from an atom, but you can with hydrogen because it can bond easily with so many other atoms, such as oxygen.
The magic potion is the mention of a chemical reaction with water with a mystery fuel to produce the required Hydrogen and Oxygen. The is no more water as fuel than the old steam engines that burned coal or wood. Water is required in the "engine" portion, but everyone knew the fuel wasn't water. The car is more of the same, but the fuel isn't named remaining a mystery. Steam to pistons, or hydrogen and oxygen to a fuel cell, water is only the carrier of the energy and NOT the fuel. Anyone know what the fuel really is?
The article mentioned a chemical reaction with water to produce the Hydrogen and Oxygen for the fuel cell. What is this fuel used for the chemical reaction?
Therefore, a large number of geeks have made a large number of assumptions about what hasn't been said, then "proven" it impossible by showing it doesn't work under the set of assumptions they made. In short, they've proven nothing.
The only assumptions are in the article. Number 1 is it runs on water. It doesn't. Number 2 is it gets hydrogen from water from a chemical reaction with the real fuel producing hydrogen and oxygen. The real fuel is consumed in the process is assumed. Number 3 it uses the produced hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity in a fuel cell producing earth friendly water ending the catalyst cycle.
Conclusion, water is a catalyst and carrier of energy in the hydrogen and oxygen form. The real consumed fuel isn't isn't mentioned much.
So geeks want to know, what's the real fuel?
How can you prove that you didn't install XP on your PC and then just resold all the packaging/licensing?
It's simple. WGA. The product key (CD KEY) is no longer checking in on the original hardware. If a new user has the same key, a request for sales receipts, canceled checks, paypal records etc should show which copy should be disabled and which owner to prosecute for the copyright violation. One or the other will have a failed WGA check.
It must have been a glitch. Your green bean is in your parent post and reply. I tend to read replies by friends of my friends first. Foes of my friends are often trolls, but not always.
So for all those who haven't, or forgotten to say it, THANK YOU NYCL.
In support of his fine work, he is the first Friend I picked on Slashdot. Show your support by listing him as a friend. I noticed you haven't done this yet, otherwise your post would have shown on my screen as you being a friend of a friend. Can you add him as a friend to say thanks and show your support? This guy should have a huge Fan list. He earned it.
Really, that's who they should be going after. The people selling pirated software.
Unfortunately often your definition of pirated software and Microsoft's version is not the same. What we call "Right of first sale" or "Used" is called "Pirated" by Microsoft.
This includes things as replacing your old XP software with Ubuntu and selling the disk, certificate, box and packaging on ebay. Selling the OEM factory shipped version you wiped to install Red Hat, and selling a P4 box with the OS installed but somehow missing the original sales receipt. MS should simply go after those who Counterfeit software, and not those selling used software with original disks, product keys and certificates.
There should be a good market for used copies of XP. Unfortunately, MS calls these genuine copies of the real thing "Pirated" and prohibits their sale.
What definition of Pirated is the article covering?
The article seems to mostly cover illegal duplication such as more than one install from 1 copy on machines for sale and doesn't touch on the selling of used software.
To this day, I've yet to hear a phone as clear as this old, green beast.
That old green beast is one of the newer ones near the end of the rental phone era. The older ones didn't have the spring socket and the wires attached directly to the mic with screws. The older ones wire carbon and were noisy and were not linear enough for many acoustic modems of the day.
Acoustic Modems were the step prior to the phone company owned anything connecting to the phone line. They were slow and prone to errors. Newer phones like you have had an element that looked like a carbon mic, but in reality was a condensor mic. They did have good sound quality and were an upgrade for fewer errors with customer owned acoustic modems. The law was changed so fax machines could be auto answer and connected by the consumer. Computer modems and higher speeds was the direct result of this law change. It's the time where the wires that belonged to the phone company and the consumer had to be defined as consumers wanted to have phone lines installed for the computer and fax and the phone company didn't want to fix poor home wireing for the fax and modem. This is the start of the telephone company interface. It replaced the original phone lightning protection and fuses. If you find a really old house where they have not had an owner change in 40 years, you might still find a home wihtout a telco interface and just lightning protection. Anytime a home changed hands and a new subscription started, it was the general practice to install a telco interface box. This started in 1968.
http://www.webbconsult.com/1960.html
" Under this decision, the FCC struck down existing interstate telephone tariffs prohibiting attachment of connection to the public telephone system of any equipment or device that was not supplied by the telephone companies (Bell System).
The Carterphone Decision created the interconnect industry and allowed manufacturers other than Western Electric to sell their telephone devices to business nationwide. The telephone companies still managed a minor victory by convincing the FCC that Bell System manufactured "interface devices" had to be placed between any non-telephone company equipment and the public telephone system. These interface devices were struck down in 1978 when the FCC determined that any equipment manufactured to FCC regulations could connect to the public network via industry standard network termination devices (RJ11C, RJ21X, etc.) In the mid-1980's the former Bell System companies were successfully sued for the fees paid by customers for these interface devices (which were determined to be unnecessary) during the ten year period from 1968 to 1978."
I love the car, but neither of us has traction control
I must have a fluke then. On wet grass, I can't spin a tire. I feel it slip a tiny bit and the power immediatly drops. When I am done makeing a donught on the lawn, there is no divits to put back. There was not enough slippage to even find where I slipped. The grass just looks like someone gently drove over it. On ice and snow the response is the same. On Ice a traditional car can spin a tire and you can watch the speedo jump, often over 40 MPH while pulling away from a stop sign. You can't do that in my 02 Prius. It has a few very low power slips and back to rolling and I pull gently cross the intersection even when it done pedal to the metal.
Have you had yours on ice yet?
Acording to this forum, the 02 has it;
http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-main-forum/48000-prius-generation-i-vs-ii.html
"Older has traction-control, though you'll almost never trigger it. Stability didn't exist back then."
Contrary to the post, I trigger mine often. In wet weather, the thick white paint for the crosswalks are slippery. I often slip a little pulling away from lights and the instant power drop is obvious.
the diesel cycle is a fundamentally more efficient design for an engine than the Otto Cycle.
By the same token the Prius also does not use the Otto Cycle for that very reason.
A diesel has no throttle to create high intake vaccum so the pistons are not trying to pull against a closed valve.
An Atkins cycle also eliminates the high intake vaccum and it's associated drag.
Then decide if what we lose is worth what we gain
Common misscomception is that if you don't go to war, wars don't happen.
We were attacked. Ignoring it won't make it go away. The attacks will continue.
Since we are in a war, our choices are take it or shoot back. In both you lose something. Not shooting back is not a way to eliminate loss.
Remember 9/11? That is the result of not shooting back after the earlier attacks. Not shooting back didn't save us much. 9/11 wasn't the first attack on the trade center. They came back and tried again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing
They even promised to return to try again..
"However, we promise you that next time it will be very precise and World Trade Center will continue to be one [of] our targets unless our demands have been met."
Buildings designed to withstand multiple airliner collisions (architects words) do not spontaneously self-destruct.
Done any structural engineering lately?
The buildings survived the impacts just fine.
Here is the problem..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3987155870641704675&q=rig+blowout&ei=sU5PSILMAoW05ALZyt3BDA&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=oil+drill+fire+collapse&hl=en&sitesearch=#q=rig%20blowout&hl=en&sitesearch=&start=20
With the loads of fuel delivered to the structure, the steel with the load of several dozen floors above it, was not strong enough when heated. The above links show steel structures in oil fires. These service rigs were not holding up office buildings. Even without the load, the heat was enough to cause structural failure. I big oil fire, steel with lots of weight on it, and time was all it needed to get a fall started.
The theorists love to state it wasn't enough heat to melt steel. This is true, but it was enough to soften, buckle and aneal it. Steel does not need to be melted to lose strength. Any blacksmith knows that. A coal fire is hot enough to work steel.
Let me guess, you don't mind illegal, unwarranted tapping of your phone because you have nothing to hide?
Um.. you asked the wrong question. Let me guess.. Should terrorists in our country be permitted to plan attacks and be fully protected from survaliance?
My calls regarding the grandkids would bore a monitor to death. My calls regarding what size of lighting truss we need to rent for the Saturday night gig is equally unimportant.
However if I were not a US citizen and looking to get dirvers licenses in 30 states and am taking flying lessons, this may be of concern.
They have limited resources to monitor. I'm sure they have a few citizens they have reason to keep tabs on.
For this reason the question should be more along the lines of "you do mind illegal, unwarranted tapping of your phone because you don't mind them building a truck bomb next door because it's none of your business."
If you had a family member in Iraq, and an impeachment led to a withdrawal of troops, would it have real benefit then?
Pardon the sarcasm, but if we had packed up years ago, how long would it have taken to have the next 9/11 with their new nuke program funded by the high price we pay for oil. Think about it. Who is supplying the crude. Did the cost to pump it really skyrocket? Follow the money. Just what do you think they are spending the money on?
Think along the lines of building a nuke program (look next door to Iran) and the hate to the infidels of Istral and the US. Think targets...
Cutting and running and leaving them alone with the pile of money is not someting I am willing to not pay attention to. We are fighting an arms race where we are buying their military build up everytime we fill up.
We want to bring our truops home safe and sound? There is nothing safe or sound in this in the long run. They will be back and boy are they pissed.
The domestic spying thing is just and extension of keeping an eye on the danger instead of pretending it isn't there till after the domesting war bombs go off.
I would rather they keep the war overseas instead of letting it start here in my yard.
For anyone who think the Oil tax is a good idea, don't forget this is a world economy. If the price to sell in the US market goes up, it's easy to cut shipments. Do research on the 1970's. I lived it. Making a trip back from Idaho to Central Oregon ran me through several small towns in a row all with NO GAS. I parked stranded in Shaniko (officaly a ghost town) as the other option was to die on the highway unable to make it to the next town. I literally waited at the station for the truck to arrive.
Here is info on this delightful town.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=N&tab=lw&q=Shaniko+OR
We want to do this again why?
Cut and paste from your linked article in Wired;
The first owner has already paid off its carbon debt. Buy a decade-old Toyota Tercel, which gets a respectable 35 mpg, and the Prius will have to drive 100,000 miles to catch up.
I'm past my first 100,000 miles on my Prius. It's holding up well with only scheduled maitenance such as oil changes, etc.
I've been looking at the Hybrid Camry also. They are still a sedan where the Prius changed from a Sedan to a Hatchback. I like the trunk. I too often carry computer and musician stuff that I don't want left in plain sight. It would be nice if it got better economy. From what I hear, it's pretty zippy with the larger engine. I don't know if they kept many of the other features from the Prius such as the sealed compressor for the AC, thermos for the engine coolant, electric power steering, etc.
They quietly released it. They don't need to advertise it much, so I haven't had a chance to really check one out yet.
And you, sir, are exactly why I cannot find pre-owned Priuses!
You should see the blue book on mine. It's over twice the value of my wife's car which was bought at the same time and has the same miles on it.
People were woried about depreciation. I have a great trade-in.
Think about how absurd it would be if, in the old days, you had to buy your computer from the phone company because it had a modem?
Modems and Fax machines is the reason that phone company owned stuff stopped. They were required to allow connection of COAM (Customer Owned and Maintained Equipment) as the old law was causing all kinds of trouble for faxes and modems. The law was changed where you could own stuff and connect it. The provision was if you connected someting and it caused problems to the system, they could legaly disconnect you. The reconnection fee was yours. Most customer owned equipment didn't cause problems so this was a non-issue.
I also drive primarily highway around 75 MPH which I've heard a Prius gets lower MPG at that speed but cannot back it up
This is absolutely true. I've noticed anything over about 45 MPH drops the economy. My best milage has been driving on an icy highway at 30-35 mph at well over 50 MPG. Mixed driving (30 mile commute + some short errands) has netted me an average of 46MPG. Hitting the freeway at 70+ MPH shaves 5-8 MPG off it. Tailgating a big truck give back 50+ MPG and rock chips in the windshield.
After putting over 100K miles between the two cars, total maintenance has been between $500-$1000. Are you talking routine maitenance or repairs such as broken belts, starter or alternator replacement, etc?
Other than tires, one 12 Volt cabin battery, and regular oil changes/sched maitnance, the Prius has had zero repairs in over 100K miles. Um.. I changed a burnt out dome light.
You really missed one of the big points. All the engineering and complexity that goes into making a gas/electric hybrid only brings them up to efficiency levels that diesels were at to begin with.
Actualy, diesel has a higher power density than gasolene. The apparant high milage is partly effeciency and partly higher energy fuel. Burning E85 in a flex fuel car drops milage by almost 30%. Burning diesel instead of gasoline reverses this.
From here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density
the energy of common fuels can be compaired.
MJ/L
Gasolene 34.6
Ethenol 24
Diesel 38.7
Two items I think Detroit and Toyota missed.. Hybrid Diesels and Hybrid Minivans.
Mom with lots of little ones to wherever and trips to shopping etc needs an effecient vehicle with room. A Hybrid Diesel would be fantastic, especialy in stop and creep traffic.
Why Detroit went to Hybrid SUV's is beyond me. An effecient family van is needed. Instead we have limited seating sedans or monstor trucks.
I think you just made my mind up for me. Cheers!
Good luck getting one. There is a run on them now. I'm glad that they are very hard to steal. There is no 12 volt starter. The transmission is processor controlled. Unless you have the chip in the key, or fob if you have the option, nobody is going to break the ignition switch and drive it away.
About the only thefts of these are by chop shops.
What truly turned me off the Prius however was the way it feels as a car. It's really about as much fun as driving a dishwasher. I really wanted to like the Prius, but I can't.
Some of the way it feels as a car is why I like it. The traction control is very good. Even though it isn't 4WD, it goes quite well in bad weather. With the electric motors in the transmission, the traction control works like anti-lock brakes in reverse. If you are into doing power doughnuts, a Prius won't do it. I know, I tried just to test it on wet grass. Cranking the wheel over and flooring it on wet grass is pretty boring. On ice, it keeps traction and pulls ahead instead of just spinning wheels. I was impressed.
If I want fun, I'll fire up the quad.
The vehicles themselves be mothballed, stored someplace in the Mojave or Sahara and gradually be released to market over many decades.
Many items on a car deteriate with time, not miles driven. The paint weathers and peels, the rubber dries and cracks, the batteries sulfate, the flexible fuel system parts varnish, harden, crack, leak, etc.
Some consumers did see this. I drive an 02 Prius. Many laughed when I bought it because I would need to replace the battery for 5 grand in 5 years, I spent an extra 5 grand to buy the car etc.
I bought it for my commute. I bought it for the reliability. I bought it for low maitenance costs.
In 100,000 miles, my average gas cost is about $2.00/gallon. My old car got 22 MPG. My new car gets 46 MPG.
The fuel cost savings can be figured out by the cost per mile for the 100,000 miles driven.
At 22 MPG 100,000 miles used 4,545 gallons.
At 46 MPG 100,000 miles used 2,222 gallons.
It saved 2,323 gallons or $4646 in fuel cost.
My next 100,000 miles will be more dramatic.
The battery unlike a cell phone or laptop battery is rarely fully charged and never run flat. Battery life is not an issue. Repairs have been nil. High failure items for the most part are eliminated. The power steering is electric, not hydraulic. The mechanical portion of the transmission has a total of 7 moving parts. None of them shift, slide, or are hydraulic. Regenerative braking showed up as a benifit when I changed tires at 80,000 miles. I had 80% of the brakes remaining, unlike my wife's car which is on it's second set of brakes.
Oh, if I need a new battery, the 36 7.2 volt modules can be changed as needed instead of buying an entire new pack. If I need a pack, it's no longer 5 grand. It's much less.
At current gas prices, I plan on keeping the car till the wheels fall off.
And people wonder why content producers want DRM...
The producers are anal on protecting their content while ignoring what attracts customers. (Statute of limitations is run out) My biggest music buying days were while I was in the Military. I bought stuff, shared stuff, discovered new stuff not played on the radio. If you eliminated the shared stuff, so I didn't discover new stuff, I would have bought far less. We are seeing that now as they are getting pretty anal on sharing stuff. Personally as a result, I stopped buying music. From their sales figures, this is not uncommon.
Recently I had been listening to MIDI files and discovering new artists and such. One of the Labels pulled a "Artist Formally known as Prince" thing and sent C & D letters to sites carying a user MIDI file of the artists song. Since the Label pulled that stunt and the only place I heard of the artist or his song (Not the original), I simply noted the only advertising for the artist was by free online MIDI files. I have since decided to not bother looking for any of this French artists products or the label. Without the free MIDI files, I would have never even have heard of the artist or the French label. As far as I can tell from the MIDI file I have heard, the artist was a one trick pony with only 1 good song. I have no idea if he released anything else and I'm not going to look.
Back in my Military days, it was common for me to become a fan of an artist and buy every record (Yes LP days) of theirs that I could find. This included Pink Floyd, Styx, Areosmith, Queen, etc. Those days are over.