Well, not for hard drives, but blank CD-R's are levied in the Netherlands (and in other EU countries?). I have to pay the record labels for each backup of my own data...
How much longer will we have to deal with the old myth that PV systems will never pay back the energy they cost to produce? Instead of just repeating the old mantra you might read on what people who have actually done the math (a method called Life Cycle Assessment) have found. Depending on the technology used (crystalline silicon vs. thin film technology), a solar panel delivers the energy it cost to produce in less than one year upto a few years. If you use a solar panel instead of roof tiles the energy payback time is even (a lot) shorter. And it's not like this information is new. A search for life cycle assessment photovoltaic returns almost 6000 hits on Google.
Now in terms of economic value: given the fact that prices of PV systems have come down dramatically over the past decades, while electricity has only become more expensive, it is already economical in my country to install PV on homes and other buildings (and the Netherlands is not a particularly sunny country!). It will not make you rich and it takes years to pay for itself, but it will in the end.
And nuclear energy is clean and cheap? Give me a break! I thought we all knew better than that. It sounds like Dick Halliburton Cheney is speaking.
I do agree on the statement that solar heat systems (hot water) are much more economical and pay back for themselves much quicker. And yes, wind turbines work very well too and pay back for themselves (at least in this windy country).
Rich suburban guys who hang out on internet all day are probably too heavy anyway to get much oomph out of this. On second thought, they only need it for the trip from the computer to the fridge and back, so it just might work. A small folding bike would of course be much cheaper and healthier and easier to maintain.
Sleepycat does this for their Berkeley DB software. They use (their version of) GPL and you can obtain a commercial license as well for commercial, redistributed, proprietary software. That's how they make a living.
Well, what about Union Carbide? About 2000 killed and 50000 disabled (Bhopal,1984). Yet I don't think India would bomb the US for harbouring this organization. You might argue that that was fraud (no maintenance, while they knew the situation was dangerous) instead of terrorism, but somehow I think the victims might fail to see the relevance of this subtle difference.
I found this informative
on
Defining Globalism
·
· Score: 2, Informative
After the death of Carlo Giuliani (related to the mayor of New York city?) and the mass demonstration in Genoa the following day I had the same question: "What is globalization and why are so many people against it? Are they against free trade? Sounds strange to me." These columns gave some insight in what globalization as defined by IMF and World Bank mean in real life. It's not really free trade. In many aspects it is the opposite and I don't think it's very healthy. This year's Nobel prize winner for economics, Joseph Stiglitz, seems to be of the same opinion.
Bas
This seems to be close to what you want. It just needs a bigger display (which will consume more power). Or try this to obtain that special geek look! Enhanced by mumbling 'Close window. open xterm. err emm dash err eff dot' into a headset!
Well, the cost of electronics is not determined by the cost of the base material.
It's the manufacturing process that makes it expensive. Polymer electronics can be screen printed, a process which is a lot cheaper than using purified silicon, which is doted through vacuum deposition and several masking/etching stages.
Potentially, the process is so cheap you can have disposable displays posted as a billboard (I didn't say it would make our world a better one...)
And I assume these polymers could be synthesized from renewable resources, like extra vergine olive oil, if we're out of petroleum.
Slashdot Mirror
According to the history of MOSIX
M OSIX has been around since 1977.
http://www.mosix.org/faq/output/faq_q0003.html,
An interesting, but not very strong example...
Well, not for hard drives, but blank CD-R's are levied in the Netherlands (and in other EU countries?). I have to pay the record labels for each backup of my own data...
Now in terms of economic value: given the fact that prices of PV systems have come down dramatically over the past decades, while electricity has only become more expensive, it is already economical in my country to install PV on homes and other buildings (and the Netherlands is not a particularly sunny country!). It will not make you rich and it takes years to pay for itself, but it will in the end.
And nuclear energy is clean and cheap? Give me a break! I thought we all knew better than that. It sounds like Dick Halliburton Cheney is speaking.
I do agree on the statement that solar heat systems (hot water) are much more economical and pay back for themselves much quicker. And yes, wind turbines work very well too and pay back for themselves (at least in this windy country).
Rich suburban guys who hang out on internet all day are probably too heavy anyway to get much oomph out of this. On second thought, they only need it for the trip from the computer to the fridge and back, so it just might work. A small folding bike would of course be much cheaper and healthier and easier to maintain.
Bas
Sleepycat does this for their Berkeley DB software. They use (their version of) GPL and you can obtain a commercial license as well for commercial, redistributed, proprietary software. That's how they make a living.
Bas
Well, what about Union Carbide? About 2000 killed and 50000 disabled (Bhopal,1984). Yet I don't think India would bomb the US for harbouring this organization. You might argue that that was fraud (no maintenance, while they knew the situation was dangerous) instead of terrorism, but somehow I think the victims might fail to see the relevance of this subtle difference.
After the death of Carlo Giuliani (related to the mayor of New York city?) and the mass demonstration in Genoa the following day I had the same question: "What is globalization and why are so many people against it? Are they against free trade? Sounds strange to me."
These columns gave some insight in what globalization as defined by IMF and World Bank mean in real life. It's not really free trade. In many aspects it is the opposite and I don't think it's very healthy. This year's Nobel prize winner for economics, Joseph Stiglitz, seems to be of the same opinion.
Bas
This seems to be close to what you want. It just needs a bigger display (which will consume more power). Or try this to obtain that special geek look! Enhanced by mumbling 'Close window. open xterm. err emm dash err eff dot' into a headset!
Links to this came from here
Bas
Well, the cost of electronics is not determined by the cost of the base material. It's the manufacturing process that makes it expensive. Polymer electronics can be screen printed, a process which is a lot cheaper than using purified silicon, which is doted through vacuum deposition and several masking/etching stages. Potentially, the process is so cheap you can have disposable displays posted as a billboard (I didn't say it would make our world a better one...) And I assume these polymers could be synthesized from renewable resources, like extra vergine olive oil, if we're out of petroleum.