And I think you have just explained why the hardware manufacturers don't want a free bios:
Decreased obsolence: Intel is already having trouble selling new machines.
Decreased HW lockout: The hardware market is all about keeping barriers to entry high.
Increased OS compatibility: The more efficiently the machine can be harnessed, the less raw power required, and the more efficiently existing hardware can be used - reducing demand for new hardware. Furthermore, much of the product distinction comes from software hacks, if these were easy to share companies would have to work harder to make real differences.
Yep, you're right. On my athalon 1.8GHz and current Nvidia card I too get VBL tears. Neither my old mac, nor my amiga had these problems. (admittedly with 1/100th the image data)
I also get repaint trails with only 2 windows (1 terminal and 1 web browser window), which is a bit lame considering I probably have enough video ram to hold every window's contents.
I suspect it's due to the fact that XFree became so quagmired in politics that little patches to fix this never got in. Presumably it could be fixed now that gtk double buffers all window operations, just wait for the interrupt.
Actually, you do want to include the energy in imported goods, as they make up the majority of the energy used by western civilisation. You don't want E=mc^2 energy, however, rather the Gibbs Free energy. What you are saying is "Under my accounting system NYC will be a net exporter of energy". You can move the goal posts if you like, but it doesn't change the basic physics. I can similarly argue that NYC is already a net exporter of energy - energy in the form of waste. No doubt there is some new bacterium out there which can only exist on NYC's output.
I agree that divide and conquer improves the chances, I just don't think it will solve the problem. Solving gluttony will solve the other two problems for free anyway, so we may as well start there (another, more powerful problemsolving strategy - focus where there is the most gain).
No, you said: "I bet $2B for CWT to install their system instead would transform NYC into a net exporter of energy to the region, instead of an exporter of waste."
I was merely pointing out that this is thermodynamically impossible. Reducing waste is of course an excellent outcome. I doubt that reducing wastefulness will help reduce gluttony - in water conservation circles it is well understood that putting in place water saving measures often results in an increase in consumption:)
Except that the energy is not being created, merely made available. That energy originally came from the process that created the waste. Put it this way: You are saying that we should all grow turkeys to make oil from, when in fact it would be better to burn the grass that the turkeys ate.
I agree that this is an excellent way to handle waste streams though.
20 % efficiency 1 m^2 200 W/m^2 (we get only 100W/m^2) 6 sunlight hours per day 1.2 kWhr At least a 10 year lifespawn 4,272 kWh to produce a 1 m^2 solar panel?
I currently pay $0.12/kWhr, which means that each 1m^2 solar panel will make about $500 in 10 years.
"I know people who use the 4WD on an SUV frequently."
So what? I know people who don't even own a car. They go camping.
Your argument appears to be "The USA is not wasteful of energy because there exists a person who drives and SUV to go camping." Pretty weak. Does this person only use their SUV for driving to camping? Could they hire an SUV for the trip?
Maybe you're bringing too much stuff when you go camping? When I go camping I can carry everything I need on my back. Car camping is for wusses.
I'll tell you where the US wastes energy: supporting a superficial consumerist society - spreading everything out so much you have to drive everywhere; having a culture that chooses cheap disposable over well made long life products, and which silently approves of and even promotes profligate consumption.
Not sure what you mean, LotR is probably the closest to 'done the hard way' recent movie. Almost everything was done with open air, live filming; or with minatures (bigatures). CG was only used for really impractical stuff.
Even the flooding of isengard was a minature (which, if you know about filming scaled water, is very hard to make look right).
Because linux doesn't kernel panic regularly. To be honest, there isn't much in MacOSX that makes me want to stay - Gnome offers everything useful now. Debian simply has better software.
(As someone who got fed up with the poor hardware support and crappy firewire hardware)
The hubble mirror cannot focus any closer than pluto, FWIW. If the Chinese can fix it, then they can easily put up their own satellites. Finally, China already has spy satellites. Get over the xenophobia already.
I imagine sticking a large wind turbine up on a string would be even easier. As for getting the power down, perhaps they could make hydrogen by dehumidifying the air, electrolysing the water and pumping H2 down - that would cut down the weight on the cable:)
I guess they should use the same cable as they use for those funky space elevators.;)
As an alternative idea, imagine blimps covered in solar panels with a wind turbine on the front. The blimp is designed to have positive buoyancy when it is only half inflated, and as it chuffs around the world propelled by the drag from the wind generator it creates hydrogen and inflates itself. It also stockpiles water to keep itself neutral. We could create thousands of these and release them into the wild. Perhaps even genetically engineer them. People would then go out with giant butterfly nets and collect them for driving their cars. Lets call them Wherries.
Slashdot Mirror
Here in .au a pint of beer is defined as 600mL I think. We still call them pints, pots, schooners, yards, carafs etc. :)
"What happens when you combine the following:..."
Superman III?
Yep, you're right. On my athalon 1.8GHz and current Nvidia card I too get VBL tears. Neither my old mac, nor my amiga had these problems. (admittedly with 1/100th the image data)
I also get repaint trails with only 2 windows (1 terminal and 1 web browser window), which is a bit lame considering I probably have enough video ram to hold every window's contents.
I suspect it's due to the fact that XFree became so quagmired in politics that little patches to fix this never got in. Presumably it could be fixed now that gtk double buffers all window operations, just wait for the interrupt.
Have you reported this to X?
Actually, you do want to include the energy in imported goods, as they make up the majority of the energy used by western civilisation. You don't want E=mc^2 energy, however, rather the Gibbs Free energy. What you are saying is "Under my accounting system NYC will be a net exporter of energy". You can move the goal posts if you like, but it doesn't change the basic physics. I can similarly argue that NYC is already a net exporter of energy - energy in the form of waste. No doubt there is some new bacterium out there which can only exist on NYC's output.
I agree that divide and conquer improves the chances, I just don't think it will solve the problem. Solving gluttony will solve the other two problems for free anyway, so we may as well start there (another, more powerful problemsolving strategy - focus where there is the most gain).
Because appliances are rated in watts. With a fixed mains operating voltage the two are (almost) equivalent.
No, you said:
:)
"I bet $2B for CWT to install their system instead would transform NYC into a net exporter of energy to the region, instead of an exporter of waste."
I was merely pointing out that this is thermodynamically impossible. Reducing waste is of course an excellent outcome. I doubt that reducing wastefulness will help reduce gluttony - in water conservation circles it is well understood that putting in place water saving measures often results in an increase in consumption
Until we run out of breathable air, anyway. Remember that CO2 is poisonous in relatively small quantities.
Except that the energy is not being created, merely made available. That energy originally came from the process that created the waste. Put it this way: You are saying that we should all grow turkeys to make oil from, when in fact it would be better to burn the grass that the turkeys ate.
I agree that this is an excellent way to handle waste streams though.
"More than a few feet of air will block X-rays."
If that's the case, why do they put so much lead around xray facilities in hospitals? And why can x-rays pass through bodies and metal so easily?
I'm not saying you're wrong, just that what you say doesn't correlate to my experiences.
Check your units:
20 % efficiency
1 m^2
200 W/m^2 (we get only 100W/m^2)
6 sunlight hours per day
1.2 kWhr
At least a 10 year lifespawn
4,272 kWh to produce a 1 m^2 solar panel?
I currently pay $0.12/kWhr, which means that each 1m^2 solar panel will make about $500 in 10 years.
It's LPG (Liquified Propane) rather than CNG (Methane and Eth*). This means it is much easier to handle. Otherwise, yep, you're right.
"I know people who use the 4WD on an SUV frequently."
So what? I know people who don't even own a car. They go camping.
Your argument appears to be "The USA is not wasteful of energy because there exists a person who drives and SUV to go camping." Pretty weak. Does this person only use their SUV for driving to camping? Could they hire an SUV for the trip?
Maybe you're bringing too much stuff when you go camping? When I go camping I can carry everything I need on my back. Car camping is for wusses.
I'll tell you where the US wastes energy: supporting a superficial consumerist society - spreading everything out so much you have to drive everywhere; having a culture that chooses cheap disposable over well made long life products, and which silently approves of and even promotes profligate consumption.
We don't actually know what causation is from a statistical pov.
i .p l/cgi-bin/res-page.epl?objid=421534
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/embpcg
Not sure what you mean, LotR is probably the closest to 'done the hard way' recent movie. Almost everything was done with open air, live filming; or with minatures (bigatures). CG was only used for really impractical stuff.
Even the flooding of isengard was a minature (which, if you know about filming scaled water, is very hard to make look right).
I think that the CGI was very appropriately done.
Because linux doesn't kernel panic regularly. To be honest, there isn't much in MacOSX that makes me want to stay - Gnome offers everything useful now. Debian simply has better software.
(As someone who got fed up with the poor hardware support and crappy firewire hardware)
What's a "noob"? Yes, I mistyped it.
I get just over 2 hours.
1024*8s = 133 minutes
The hubble mirror cannot focus any closer than pluto, FWIW. If the Chinese can fix it, then they can easily put up their own satellites. Finally, China already has spy satellites. Get over the xenophobia already.
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=4947
From that article it would seem that India and China have more than double the number of fluent English speakers than the US. Interesting times.
I'm pretty sure that Silicon is a Group IV element? Wikipedia agrees with me. Or is this yet another naming scheme?
Actually, there was a New Scientist article recently that gave evidence that mobs are smarter than the average.
Like this:
:)
Solar tower?
I remember analog, what a great magazine. Haven't bothered looking at it for many years now
I imagine sticking a large wind turbine up on a string would be even easier. As for getting the power down, perhaps they could make hydrogen by dehumidifying the air, electrolysing the water and pumping H2 down - that would cut down the weight on the cable :)
;)
I guess they should use the same cable as they use for those funky space elevators.
As an alternative idea, imagine blimps covered in solar panels with a wind turbine on the front. The blimp is designed to have positive buoyancy when it is only half inflated, and as it chuffs around the world propelled by the drag from the wind generator it creates hydrogen and inflates itself. It also stockpiles water to keep itself neutral. We could create thousands of these and release them into the wild. Perhaps even genetically engineer them. People would then go out with giant butterfly nets and collect them for driving their cars. Lets call them Wherries.
Well, nearly. Unfortunately there is still the horizontal force. I propose they make the cable out of the same stuff they make space elevators. ;)