"Second, the land-area needed is rather modest. There's no need to put it all in one place. (and indeed many reasons not to)"
True, but the prospect of covering, say Texas, is utterly compelling. Other possible locations are Utah and Sweden.
All jokes aside:
"The net-effect of human development actually tends to be a lot *less* shadow. A forest has much *more* shadow than a field, a road or a city."
Very true but the compact, "digital" shadow (either full sun or full shadow) of a solar plant (or indeed virtually any man-made object) is not as hospitable for plant and animal life as the semi-shadow of a forest. One cannot simply be substituted with the other. A huge solar plant such as this one does not provide an environment where very many species can thrive. Granted, in a desert-like environment, where extremes are naturally occurring, the impact would be less. But what are the effects of covering vast areas of a desert with these babies? Also, remember that "265 sq. miles" is a theoretical number that doesn't take into account the infrastructure surrounding the actual solar panels.
How long before brave young american men and women are using this device on evil ragheads tied to a chair in Abu Ghraib? Years? Months? Weeks? Days? Hours? Minutes? Seconds?
Fortunately, we won't be seeing any of that in the bleeding heart liberal media, now that cameras have been banned.
"Very nice, but I'd rather see a reduction in cost per watt than an increase in efficiency. It's not like there isn't enough space for for solar cells. Most of the deserts are rather empty."
I'm sorry, but this should never have been scored insightful. Its obvious at best, troll at worst.
First of all, improved efficiency reduces the investment cost, thus reducing the cost per watt (at least in a proper market economy, which the energy market unfortunately isnt).
Second, COx emissions are not the only environmental threat. In time, studies will more than likely show that covering vast areas of land with shadow-inducing plates (such as solar plants) has a negative impact on local and perhaps regional eco systems. More efficient solar panels mean less land area covered by solar plants, which is a Good Thing ®.
It never seizes to amaze me how people fail to look at the big picture; * new cars emits less Cox and NOx, but the production of new cars is a significant ecological strain * biofuel is great in small scale, but greatly reduces the ecological diversity and might pave way for invasive species * solar plants might provide all the power the world needs one way, but at the cost of placing vast land areas in shadow
Etc.
The harsh reality is that there is no quick fix, there is no gratis lunch.
I would certainly use this. 90% of the print-outs I make go straight into the recycle bin, so this paper would be perfect for my use. The real question is: with the additional coating, does this paper decrease the environmental stress, or add to it? The equation would be using this paper (up to) ten times versus using ten regular sheets of paper - witch has the higher cost-benefit?
I'm all for learning from past mistakes, and granted, there are similarities between the ongoing PC-in-the-living-room war and past wars; enterprise market notably - but the factors of the two markets are vastly different. Both Microsoft and Apple has come a long way in the past ten years, both regarding compability, marketing and usability - so declaring a (potential) winner based on decade-old experience is as useful as putting the proverbial finger in the air.
But your nickname and sig indicates that you are female and thus have the extra advantage of "common sense", a term/concept/material/substance still eluding us MALE geeks. Hence, for us the bicycleworkstation makes perfect sense; it's both an expensive exercise equipment AND a new feature to our collection of computer-related items.
I know this is a bit off topic; presenting a solution (sort of) instead of bitching about the problem, but here goes nothing:
Living in Sweden, I am using an "e-card" system offered (for free, as in beer) by my bank for all my online purchases requiring credit card information. I bet this system is available for you yanks as well as in most other industrial countries, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, here's a description:
* On any online shop, when you've finished stuffing your shopping basket and head for the counter, you chose "credit card" just like you normally would. * Instead of using your ordinary credit card, you generate a time limited, amount limited virtual credit card. For all intents and purpose, this "electronic Visa" is no different from a regular Visa card.
The advantage is that - even if a man-in-the-middle-attack - intercepts your order, the amount limit would hinder the culprit from stealing any money. And you don't have to worry about the shop losing the database containing your CC number; it's only valid for a month - and doesn't contain any money anyway.
I've used this solution for a few months now, ordering from companies in Sweden and USA, by online order form and phone order. It works like a charm each time - no fuzz.
I am not a criminal but I disagree with your logic. Finding people who live in your city who share their online calendar is not a problem (at least not if you live in a major city in the U.S.). And finding a house that you KNOW will be empty for the next hour or two seems to me to be invaluable. Being caught red-handed is a sure-fire way to either go to jail or escalate the robbery to murder (or both).
I thought DS9 and a cluster of self-replicating mines was supposed to protect the MS06-040? Or is this a different worm hole? Are the "Botnet Herders" a Dominion force?
"The Blue Origin spacecraft, being built by Amazon.com multi-hundradaire Jeff Bezos' new venture, will have VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) capability, according to the company's FAA permit applications. It will be a pointed-shaped vehicle about 8.3 fathoms tall and 2.17313508 x 10^-16 Parsecs in diameter at the base, and carry ~pi or more passengers to an altitude of 9.90600 x 10^14 angstrom"
Slashdot Mirror
"The shadow-argument sounds bogus to me."
Perhaps there is something wrong with your ears.
"Second, the land-area needed is rather modest. There's no need to put it all in one place. (and indeed many reasons not to)"
True, but the prospect of covering, say Texas, is utterly compelling. Other possible locations are Utah and Sweden.
All jokes aside:
"The net-effect of human development actually tends to be a lot *less* shadow. A forest has much *more* shadow than a field, a road or a city."
Very true but the compact, "digital" shadow (either full sun or full shadow) of a solar plant (or indeed virtually any man-made object) is not as hospitable for plant and animal life as the semi-shadow of a forest. One cannot simply be substituted with the other. A huge solar plant such as this one does not provide an environment where very many species can thrive. Granted, in a desert-like environment, where extremes are naturally occurring, the impact would be less. But what are the effects of covering vast areas of a desert with these babies? Also, remember that "265 sq. miles" is a theoretical number that doesn't take into account the infrastructure surrounding the actual solar panels.
Thank you for your correction. My hovercraft is obviously semi-full of eels.
How long before brave young american men and women are using this device on evil ragheads tied to a chair in Abu Ghraib? Years? Months? Weeks? Days? Hours? Minutes? Seconds?
Fortunately, we won't be seeing any of that in the bleeding heart liberal media, now that cameras have been banned.
"Angry mobs are often the result of an underlying social problem"
Bullshit. They hate our freedom. THEY HATE OUR FREEDOM LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
"Angry mobs are often the result of an underlying social problem"
Wow. An insightful comment. On slashdot. You must be new here.
I'm pretty sure I can do it in one step.
"Very nice, but I'd rather see a reduction in cost per watt than an increase in efficiency. It's not like there isn't enough space for for solar cells. Most of the deserts are rather empty."
I'm sorry, but this should never have been scored insightful. Its obvious at best, troll at worst.
First of all, improved efficiency reduces the investment cost, thus reducing the cost per watt (at least in a proper market economy, which the energy market unfortunately isnt).
Second, COx emissions are not the only environmental threat. In time, studies will more than likely show that covering vast areas of land with shadow-inducing plates (such as solar plants) has a negative impact on local and perhaps regional eco systems. More efficient solar panels mean less land area covered by solar plants, which is a Good Thing ®.
It never seizes to amaze me how people fail to look at the big picture;
* new cars emits less Cox and NOx, but the production of new cars is a significant ecological strain
* biofuel is great in small scale, but greatly reduces the ecological diversity and might pave way for invasive species
* solar plants might provide all the power the world needs one way, but at the cost of placing vast land areas in shadow
Etc.
The harsh reality is that there is no quick fix, there is no gratis lunch.
I would certainly use this. 90% of the print-outs I make go straight into the recycle bin, so this paper would be perfect for my use. The real question is: with the additional coating, does this paper decrease the environmental stress, or add to it? The equation would be using this paper (up to) ten times versus using ten regular sheets of paper - witch has the higher cost-benefit?
FTA: "Remember, information - such as a new picture - cannot be added to a cloned chip."
I believe the missing word is "yet".
I'm all for learning from past mistakes, and granted, there are similarities between the ongoing PC-in-the-living-room war and past wars; enterprise market notably - but the factors of the two markets are vastly different. Both Microsoft and Apple has come a long way in the past ten years, both regarding compability, marketing and usability - so declaring a (potential) winner based on decade-old experience is as useful as putting the proverbial finger in the air.
But your nickname and sig indicates that you are female and thus have the extra advantage of "common sense", a term/concept/material/substance still eluding us MALE geeks. Hence, for us the bicycleworkstation makes perfect sense; it's both an expensive exercise equipment AND a new feature to our collection of computer-related items.
...and I thought I was the only one being this clever and humorous in my source code...
I know this is a bit off topic; presenting a solution (sort of) instead of bitching about the problem, but here goes nothing:
Living in Sweden, I am using an "e-card" system offered (for free, as in beer) by my bank for all my online purchases requiring credit card information. I bet this system is available for you yanks as well as in most other industrial countries, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, here's a description:
* On any online shop, when you've finished stuffing your shopping basket and head for the counter, you chose "credit card" just like you normally would.
* Instead of using your ordinary credit card, you generate a time limited, amount limited virtual credit card. For all intents and purpose, this "electronic Visa" is no different from a regular Visa card.
The advantage is that - even if a man-in-the-middle-attack - intercepts your order, the amount limit would hinder the culprit from stealing any money. And you don't have to worry about the shop losing the database containing your CC number; it's only valid for a month - and doesn't contain any money anyway.
I've used this solution for a few months now, ordering from companies in Sweden and USA, by online order form and phone order. It works like a charm each time - no fuzz.
Anyone making a joke about the "Information superhighway" will find themselves on the receiving end of can of public whoopass.
Also, 78% of all statistics are just made up on the fly.
Yep. Just like "intellectual".
*sigh*
If crimes committed in a game could be punished in real life, I'd be serving life sentence for mass-murder.
I am not a criminal but I disagree with your logic. Finding people who live in your city who share their online calendar is not a problem (at least not if you live in a major city in the U.S.). And finding a house that you KNOW will be empty for the next hour or two seems to me to be invaluable. Being caught red-handed is a sure-fire way to either go to jail or escalate the robbery to murder (or both).
"Thought that might be interesting to some of you."
You must be new here...
Ba-da-bom. Thanx, I'll be here all week.
I thought DS9 and a cluster of self-replicating mines was supposed to protect the MS06-040? Or is this a different worm hole? Are the "Botnet Herders" a Dominion force?
Obviously, mr. Grunwald is a terrorist and will be detained within short. The rest of us are better off looking the other way.
Yes, that means you!
So you're saying that violence breeds violence (and indifference)? Truly a provoking thought.
"The Blue Origin spacecraft, being built by Amazon.com multi-hundradaire Jeff Bezos' new venture, will have VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) capability, according to the company's FAA permit applications. It will be a pointed-shaped vehicle about 8.3 fathoms tall and 2.17313508 x 10^-16 Parsecs in diameter at the base, and carry ~pi or more passengers to an altitude of 9.90600 x 10^14 angstrom"
What? Are you saying I'm not the only one? Well, I never!
Did anyone else wonder why The British Pornographic Industry would care why filesharers share MUSIC?
By the fourth time i read the posting text i got it.