I stand corrected, although I'm not sure a containment time of 1 second or so is that impressive.
This is not progress worthy of the money spent. Although I don't think the fusor guys have had even one second of break even, they need to up their voltage levels and containment fields, Brussard maybe came close.
Interestingly John Carmac of Doom and XPrize fame is starting to look at building a fusor. I do hope he gets hooked and throws the same sort of money at this he did with his aerospace venture.
ITER will not get break even fusion on a commercial scale. just like it's predecessors. It may get controllable fusion, but it will not make break even and the costs of the energy out will be huge. Commercial failure.
But everybody involved has to paint the smiley face and if you don't well then you obviously are not a serious researcher and you do not get funding. Double if your research threatens the research dollars tied up in ITER.
ITER is trying to perform bench experiments on a huge scale with little or no proof the ideas behind it are workable. All the previous experiments using this design have failed, nice data, no results. They need to scale back and experiment on equipment that doesn't cost a fortune per shot.
They have all these experiments just to gain containment, then _if_ they get that a lot more to gain control, then they might try to light the fuse, _if_ they have containment and control. They're not sure they are going to get either and yet they want me to believe they know they are going to get commercial power.
What stands out to me is how much money and publicity is given to the supporting systems, it's like they've gone ahead and done the engineering before they've done the science. In successful projects very little is spent on engineering as it's all funneled into the science. Engineering is what you do when you know what you are doing. First you get the science working then you work on the engineering challenge.
It's a bunch of egghead egos playing with super sized Lego and trying not to let on they don't have a clue.
It had very short periods of reaction and at no point broke even! If that's a reactor I have an old scuba tank for sale that you can use. Jet cost millions and produced very little, like all the big fusion experiments. It's simple, the tax payers give them money, they write papers, they retire. After 50+ years we are no nearer a sustainable fusion reactor then when we started.
The fusor guys however, working with far less money? Have produced the same level of results and have a relatively cheap path to break even. If I were any of the big moguls this is were I'd put my money. What's ten million to Larry, Bill, Steve, Sergey etc Sod going into space I'd do the X-Prize for fusion and I'd fund Brussard to get it rolling.
Whenever some schmuck says 50 years he means he doesn't know. It's like AI in 10 years, bullshit, complete and utter bullshit.
Personally, I think fusion is possible, but it's going to take better scientists than are working in the field at the moment. Given the decline in education and in nuclear physics in the last ten years I doubt the solution will come from the traditional academic process. The fusor people IMHO are on the right track, Brussard is a desperate old man but that may be what it takes. The tomak groupies are just in it for the funding, any sane review of the facts would have had the plug pulled years ago and put those thieves out of work.
I have the eReader and it's great for reading paperbacks. But tech docs fall short due to it's smallish screen. If this is really the size of an A4/Letter and has a high dpi then I see it taking off. If it's just color with a low dpi then it'll fail. I'd love an eReader with a letter display and 300dpi:-) They grey screen is cool.
I think it's a symptom of getting old, if something is new then it's fun to me. After 20+ as a dev there's not much new stuff coming across my desk. I got into the job because I liked it and for 99% of the time I've had fun. But now I'm looking at what is around and it's either Web 2.0, bleegh, or package implementation, double bleegh. Where's the fun projects? Someone wants to do high volume desktop hosting or fault tolerant hardware drop me a line.
I've always had a life outside of work so it's not like I have to leave for my sanity but I am making plans. At present I'm building some CNC machines, mill, lathe, small and large routers, I'll probably turn these into a side business catering to joe public.
The current crop of emachine shops are far, far to expensive for the average joe to experiment with. For instance to cut some plywood panels I was quoted about $100 per sheet! Small PCBs cost like $40! Simple water cutting of aluminium is $100! A simple acrylic cube 12" on a side was coming out at $400. The reason for the expense is the machines they are using. High volume, high quality, tight tolerance engineering used to make single parts that could be made by hand, anyone seem the mis-match.
I think can make a profit at $10 a throw so I'll charge $20 and see what happens. I need all the machines for my own projects anyway.
I see a huge market for CNC machining that is accurate to the hundredth and is priced around the $20 mark.
Following on from that I plan to build a boat to circumnavigate. A 5 year break would make the ideal change for me. But I have no dependents this might not work for a committed family person. I'm also take a serious look at old style bi-planes. If you can get away from the latest tech there's still a lot of money to be made with wood, steel and fabric.
I'm also toying with a design for a 6dof simulator seat for under $2000, but I'll probably just make one for my self. I've mucked around with light gun games that work on any screen, that was fun. But I fancy a reasonably sized and priced VR platform would have buyers.
My advice is to set up a side business that you enjoy and see where it goes, in most states they make a nice tax shelter/haven/break for an employed person.
I keep thinking that Amtrak could do a 150mph goods service. Link 10 cities or so in each state to each other by rail corridors e.g. San Diego, L.A., San Francisco, Sacramento, Bakersfield. Transport containerized goods only. Drive down costs through streamlining the process.
Throw out everything that is not needed to move the containers, computerize everything e.g. no driver. Automatic marshaling yards. etc. etc. Could we get a 40ton container coast to coast for less than $100 in less than 24hrs?
But I guess we'll have to let China do that as we have to much political inertia to try something that radical.
Productivity driven workload is what I want. I'm paid x amount you want this amount, fine no problem. I did it all in one week instead of four, I get three weeks off. You want me to do extra work, get lost you got your money's worth.
It's not being cold. It's being truthful. If you have not made yourself independent of a paycheck then you need to suck it up period. Sponging off others is not defensible in any society.
I'm not able to quit work full time but I could last three years easy with no income. Being independent of next months pay check means I can choose whether I stay or go at work. Also my company has zero leverage over me. They can fire me and that's about it. It also means when my boss wants me to work late he has to ask and I have to consent. My choice not his. The bast part is if I want unpaid vacation for an extended period, say three months in the Caribbean, I simply inform my boss that I'm going and if he wants I can return in three months. Of course I do not expect to be paid but I have been able to do this about once every three years.
The point is everybody is where they are in life based on the decisions they made. Sure we'd all like to be multi millionaires but most of us will never get asked that question. We can all however decide not to live at the peak of our earnings but rather 75 or 50 percent and save the rest. If you save 25% of your first year earnings you can last 3 months without work. After two years you should be about 6 months etc.
It's all very simple do not incur debt at any cost and you will be free to live as you please within your earning potential. If you have a mortgage, car loan or credit then you are not free until you dispense with those debts. If you have children then make damn sure you can afford them, birth rate is capped by the number of children you can afford to feed and clothe.
Now if the populous lived like this how long do you think the US government would be allowed to live on credit. Check who controls the US debt and then you'll understand why certain countries have preferential treatment.
When will these companies get a clue. Users need battery life measured in weeks not hours.
I've said it before and I'll say it again the last mobile device that really worked for me was the psion 5. I don't need a color screen, sound or mechanical drives. Ideally a 1024x768 gray scale coupled with a low power cpu and 32GB of SRAM. Keep your power guzzling features and let me have a weeks vacation and no need to plug the thing in.
Of course we can't have that, that would be useful.
My brother is a teacher and they still do this stuff at his school. He and I were taught by our dad when we kids, six or seven. I left the UK in '96, the nanny state drove me out. He's leaving this year, the lack of opportunity is driving him out.
I've never found shooting boring, but I've always changed disciplines. Currently I'm getting into silhouette shooting.22lr and.308win. More of a squeeze, bang, clang sort of thing. I'm also getting a brace of hammer shotguns for sporting clays.
my first job was as an operator on big iron, not IBM
To start the machine from cold involved:-
Power on CPU, Card reader, Tape drives, Floppy drives, Disk Drives, Network interface and Line printers
Load 1st card deck to load floppy firmware
Load 2nd card deck to load tape firmware
Load Disk firmware from floppy
Load NIC firmware from tape
Load 3rd card deck to boot cpu from disk
I took 30 minutes to bring the machine up to full operation and then another 30 minutes to load all the app software.
The nic was the size of a large chest freezer.
There was switches and flashing lights everywhere:-)
However unplanned downtime was unheard of, like the phones it just worked.
Fusion in a small amateur reactor is achievable. No need to change any laws of science. Getting break even is the problem. Now the hot fusion guys have spent how many $$$ and are no further ahead than the amateurs i.e. no break even. Nice expensive salaries not with standing.
I have a hunch that we'll see break even fusion from one of the cheap amateur style reactors way before we see it from the mainstream guys. The amount of money that's been invested in hot fusion means that any progress is going to be by committee and will take decades to be heard above the self interest.
IMUO (in my uninformed opinion) Farnsworth was on the right track and the descendants of his reactors will be the first to see break even.
The best thinkers I've been around have been the ones who were self taught and educated themselves. I also noted that unless they have some sort of benefactor they're all working minimum wage jobs so they can think in the evening.
Now if we could just get the physics world to acknowledge tokomak was all about funding and zero about providing energy then some new blood can go off and look in remains of cold fusion etc for the way forward.
Slashdot Mirror
I stand corrected, although I'm not sure a containment time of 1 second or so is that impressive.
This is not progress worthy of the money spent. Although I don't think the fusor guys have had even one second of break even, they need to up their voltage levels and containment fields, Brussard maybe came close.
Interestingly John Carmac of Doom and XPrize fame is starting to look at building a fusor. I do hope he gets hooked and throws the same sort of money at this he did with his aerospace venture.
No they are not!
Power != PowerPC
PowerPC has a subset of the Power op codes.
PowerPC is seen as a embedded/desktop platform
Power is used in AS/400 and RS/6000 boxes
Power code does not run on the PowerPC, lack of certain op codes
I'm sure a better explanation is available on wiki, but they are not the same.
ITER will not get break even fusion on a commercial scale. just like it's predecessors. It may get controllable fusion, but it will not make break even and the costs of the energy out will be huge. Commercial failure.
But everybody involved has to paint the smiley face and if you don't well then you obviously are not a serious researcher and you do not get funding. Double if your research threatens the research dollars tied up in ITER.
ITER is trying to perform bench experiments on a huge scale with little or no proof the ideas behind it are workable. All the previous experiments using this design have failed, nice data, no results. They need to scale back and experiment on equipment that doesn't cost a fortune per shot.
They have all these experiments just to gain containment, then _if_ they get that a lot more to gain control, then they might try to light the fuse, _if_ they have containment and control. They're not sure they are going to get either and yet they want me to believe they know they are going to get commercial power.
What stands out to me is how much money and publicity is given to the supporting systems, it's like they've gone ahead and done the engineering before they've done the science. In successful projects very little is spent on engineering as it's all funneled into the science. Engineering is what you do when you know what you are doing. First you get the science working then you work on the engineering challenge.
It's a bunch of egghead egos playing with super sized Lego and trying not to let on they don't have a clue.
It had very short periods of reaction and at no point broke even! If that's a reactor I have an old scuba tank for sale that you can use. Jet cost millions and produced very little, like all the big fusion experiments. It's simple, the tax payers give them money, they write papers, they retire. After 50+ years we are no nearer a sustainable fusion reactor then when we started.
The fusor guys however, working with far less money? Have produced the same level of results and have a relatively cheap path to break even. If I were any of the big moguls this is were I'd put my money. What's ten million to Larry, Bill, Steve, Sergey etc Sod going into space I'd do the X-Prize for fusion and I'd fund Brussard to get it rolling.
BULLSHIT!
Fusion reactors, where? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power
Whenever some schmuck says 50 years he means he doesn't know. It's like AI in 10 years, bullshit, complete and utter bullshit.
Personally, I think fusion is possible, but it's going to take better scientists than are working in the field at the moment. Given the decline in education and in nuclear physics in the last ten years I doubt the solution will come from the traditional academic process. The fusor people IMHO are on the right track, Brussard is a desperate old man but that may be what it takes. The tomak groupies are just in it for the funding, any sane review of the facts would have had the plug pulled years ago and put those thieves out of work.
I have the eReader and it's great for reading paperbacks. But tech docs fall short due to it's smallish screen. If this is really the size of an A4/Letter and has a high dpi then I see it taking off. If it's just color with a low dpi then it'll fail. I'd love an eReader with a letter display and 300dpi :-) They grey screen is cool.
I'm in somewhat the same position...
I think it's a symptom of getting old, if something is new then it's fun to me. After 20+ as a dev there's not much new stuff coming across my desk. I got into the job because I liked it and for 99% of the time I've had fun. But now I'm looking at what is around and it's either Web 2.0, bleegh, or package implementation, double bleegh. Where's the fun projects? Someone wants to do high volume desktop hosting or fault tolerant hardware drop me a line.
I've always had a life outside of work so it's not like I have to leave for my sanity but I am making plans. At present I'm building some CNC machines, mill, lathe, small and large routers, I'll probably turn these into a side business catering to joe public.
The current crop of emachine shops are far, far to expensive for the average joe to experiment with. For instance to cut some plywood panels I was quoted about $100 per sheet! Small PCBs cost like $40! Simple water cutting of aluminium is $100! A simple acrylic cube 12" on a side was coming out at $400. The reason for the expense is the machines they are using. High volume, high quality, tight tolerance engineering used to make single parts that could be made by hand, anyone seem the mis-match.
I think can make a profit at $10 a throw so I'll charge $20 and see what happens. I need all the machines for my own projects anyway.
I see a huge market for CNC machining that is accurate to the hundredth and is priced around the $20 mark.
Following on from that I plan to build a boat to circumnavigate. A 5 year break would make the ideal change for me. But I have no dependents this might not work for a committed family person. I'm also take a serious look at old style bi-planes. If you can get away from the latest tech there's still a lot of money to be made with wood, steel and fabric.
I'm also toying with a design for a 6dof simulator seat for under $2000, but I'll probably just make one for my self. I've mucked around with light gun games that work on any screen, that was fun. But I fancy a reasonably sized and priced VR platform would have buyers.
My advice is to set up a side business that you enjoy and see where it goes, in most states they make a nice tax shelter/haven/break for an employed person.
The problem is that the managers remain. So it happens again and again.
I wonder is the services arm seen as the place you put the duffers in IBM? Keep the skilled workers in other areas but move the dead wood to services?
Or prehaps he's just very good at playing the lute.
I keep thinking that Amtrak could do a 150mph goods service. Link 10 cities or so in each state to each other by rail corridors e.g. San Diego, L.A., San Francisco, Sacramento, Bakersfield. Transport containerized goods only. Drive down costs through streamlining the process.
Throw out everything that is not needed to move the containers, computerize everything e.g. no driver. Automatic marshaling yards. etc. etc. Could we get a 40ton container coast to coast for less than $100 in less than 24hrs?
But I guess we'll have to let China do that as we have to much political inertia to try something that radical.
Hey that reminds me of another world I know.
Plus the interest.
:-)
You pay sales tax in May it isn't collected until the following April, 11 months of interest
Who are you working for and are they hiring?
Productivity driven workload is what I want. I'm paid x amount you want this amount, fine no problem. I did it all in one week instead of four, I get three weeks off. You want me to do extra work, get lost you got your money's worth.
It's not being cold. It's being truthful. If you have not made yourself independent of a paycheck then you need to suck it up period. Sponging off others is not defensible in any society.
I'm not able to quit work full time but I could last three years easy with no income. Being independent of next months pay check means I can choose whether I stay or go at work. Also my company has zero leverage over me. They can fire me and that's about it. It also means when my boss wants me to work late he has to ask and I have to consent. My choice not his. The bast part is if I want unpaid vacation for an extended period, say three months in the Caribbean, I simply inform my boss that I'm going and if he wants I can return in three months. Of course I do not expect to be paid but I have been able to do this about once every three years.
The point is everybody is where they are in life based on the decisions they made. Sure we'd all like to be multi millionaires but most of us will never get asked that question. We can all however decide not to live at the peak of our earnings but rather 75 or 50 percent and save the rest. If you save 25% of your first year earnings you can last 3 months without work. After two years you should be about 6 months etc.
It's all very simple do not incur debt at any cost and you will be free to live as you please within your earning potential. If you have a mortgage, car loan or credit then you are not free until you dispense with those debts. If you have children then make damn sure you can afford them, birth rate is capped by the number of children you can afford to feed and clothe.
Now if the populous lived like this how long do you think the US government would be allowed to live on credit. Check who controls the US debt and then you'll understand why certain countries have preferential treatment.
Really?
If that is the case then why are most people paid the market rate? When a dev can be 10-100 times better than another?
I think you should re-examine your ideas about what employment is.
If you can be un-employed on your own dime, then fine.
But if you need the parents then it's a no-no, even if they want you back. You are now an adult, look the word up.
Also, if you leave a job you usually aren't eligible for unemployment only welfare. I wouldn't give you welfare if you left a reasonable gig.
In short, stop whining and suck it up. You ain't happy, big deal.
so what would consume more 32gb SRAM or 32gb disk?
Old fashioned greyscale screens use far, far less than current color screens. Having a Sony reader I do not want eink on a laptop.
When will these companies get a clue. Users need battery life measured in weeks not hours.
I've said it before and I'll say it again the last mobile device that really worked for me was the psion 5. I don't need a color screen, sound or mechanical drives. Ideally a 1024x768 gray scale coupled with a low power cpu and 32GB of SRAM. Keep your power guzzling features and let me have a weeks vacation and no need to plug the thing in.
Of course we can't have that, that would be useful.
Obviously a public school?
.22lr and .308win. More of a squeeze, bang, clang sort of thing. I'm also getting a brace of hammer shotguns for sporting clays.
My brother is a teacher and they still do this stuff at his school. He and I were taught by our dad when we kids, six or seven. I left the UK in '96, the nanny state drove me out. He's leaving this year, the lack of opportunity is driving him out.
I've never found shooting boring, but I've always changed disciplines. Currently I'm getting into silhouette shooting
No joke
:-
:-)
my first job was as an operator on big iron, not IBM
To start the machine from cold involved
Power on CPU, Card reader, Tape drives, Floppy drives, Disk Drives, Network interface and Line printers
Load 1st card deck to load floppy firmware
Load 2nd card deck to load tape firmware
Load Disk firmware from floppy
Load NIC firmware from tape
Load 3rd card deck to boot cpu from disk
I took 30 minutes to bring the machine up to full operation and then another 30 minutes to load all the app software.
The nic was the size of a large chest freezer.
There was switches and flashing lights everywhere
However unplanned downtime was unheard of, like the phones it just worked.
Where as licensed firearms are ok in school. "Johnny that 9mm better be licensed son or your in real trouble!"
Fusion in a small amateur reactor is achievable. No need to change any laws of science. Getting break even is the problem. Now the hot fusion guys have spent how many $$$ and are no further ahead than the amateurs i.e. no break even. Nice expensive salaries not with standing.
I have a hunch that we'll see break even fusion from one of the cheap amateur style reactors way before we see it from the mainstream guys. The amount of money that's been invested in hot fusion means that any progress is going to be by committee and will take decades to be heard above the self interest.
IMUO (in my uninformed opinion) Farnsworth was on the right track and the descendants of his reactors will be the first to see break even.
Not if the time frame becomes the same.
Roll up to the pump connect it to the refill tube, press the button hold the handle and it's all done. Now did I flow gas or electrons.
Who cars as long as I don't attach a gas pump to my electric tank.
Nope,
my car battery is cheap, lasts longer than 5 years and just works.
My laptop battery however is a piece of expensive useless junk.
Fix broken things not things that are already fixed.
Agreed, but is a thinker born or made?
The best thinkers I've been around have been the ones who were self taught and educated themselves. I also noted that unless they have some sort of benefactor they're all working minimum wage jobs so they can think in the evening.
Now if we could just get the physics world to acknowledge tokomak was all about funding and zero about providing energy then some new blood can go off and look in remains of cold fusion etc for the way forward.