They looked at the EV-1 as a solution to a legislative (not economic) problem. Once they got California to back down on the zero emission requirement and bought federal laws that said noone could be more restrictive than California they figured there was little need to keep the program around. Since 51+% of passenger vehicles sold were light trucks and SUV's I would say their reasoning was fairly sound.
Actually, that's not quite true.
The mandate came about because of the EV1. GM showed California that an electric car was feasible, and California decided to start mandating manufacturers to produce them. This caused GM to panic and do everything in their power to shut down the EV1 program.
Interesting, BTW, that GM is planning their own battery research facility. One of the reasons the EV1 was so expensive was that GM's partially-owned subsidiary parts manufacturers (Delco and Delphi) insisted that they be allowed to develop and manufacture the parts of the car (controller, motor, batteries) that GM had already sourced elsewhere for much lower cost. Rather than using better quality and cheaper batteries from elsewhere, the original EV1s came off the assembly line using essentially custom-built one-offs from GM's suppliers.
When set at level 4, it reads, formats, rewrites and rereads all of the tracks on the disk. This is a maintenance mode. In level 2, it does straight reads (and corrections where necessary.)
The problem is, if you miss hitting the right key, every key you press after that is the wrong key. This keyboard is fine if the "deploy nukes" button is next to the "dispense coffee" button, but when you're trying to type without mistakes, it doesn't help much.
I couldn't run the admin software for my Toshiba PBX on Windows Server 2003 for some reason (security-related I think.) However, I was easily able to run it through DOSBox, attach it to the serial port and use it that way. That allowed me to retire the old box that was in the rack solely to run that software.
A P38 can opener, for those of you who don't know, is quite possibly the least expensive can-opener possible. It could be accurately be described as a "hinged razor-blade."
I don't know about new ones, but mine's from the 80's and is dull as can be. Still does a great job on cans. I've carried through airports and courthouses all over the US and Europe on my keychain, and it's never been a problem.
They're less than a buck, and a great thing to have on your keychain.
And I hate when I have to defend Microsoft on this, but there is no proof that Windows OS is inherently unstable when it's in use by medical devices.
Stability is not the issue; security is, and it's pretty much proven that Windows is inherently insecure when it's in use in medical devices. In Linux, at least you can easily pare it down to the smallest set of functions you need (to the point of completely excluding TCP/IP or the entire networking stack if you choose), whereas Windows XP Embedded still gets Windows viruses.
I'm intrigued by your implication that windows, or any other OS wasn't written with these goals in mind. Perhaps, it's just not quite so easy to achieve?
When you're writing software that does a single specific task, on very specific hardware, it's very easy to achieve reliability and security. These mainstream consumer operating systems are designed to run a vast array of generalized computing applications on a vast array of hardware. The application developers and equipment makers can only control a very tiny portion of the code running in these systems.
You forgot a a major part of the system. It doesn't start at the batteries. It starts and the power plant. The losses over just the transmission lines are estimated at 7.x%. The actual generation equipment isn't 100% efficient either.
It still is better then internal combustion by a whole bunch though and power plants are much more efficient then an ICEs and cleaner too...
In that case, the ICE doesn't start at the pump, it starts at the oil well and goes through trucks/pipes/supertankers, a refinery and more trucks/pipes/supertankers.
I love the solar panels in the foreground of this picture. Talk about greenwashing!
Rancho Seco was decommissioned in 1989. Since then, a public park, gas-fired power plant and massive solar installation have been built on the grounds. The towers are now empty.
That's for the included on-board charger, which is limited by the 110 volt, 15 amp circuit it would plug into. The "high power" 220 volt charger sitting in the garage can charge the same battery in as little as 3 hours.
So $6 would more than cover the actual cost to ship even an old 5.25 dinosaur hard drive, if you use a free flat-rate box from USPS.
The mailing cost of a flat-rate box that reasonably fits a 3.5" half-height drive is $10.35. That would be insufficient padding space for a 5.25" drive.
I recently installed Ubuntu on my laptop, and was amazed at how much stuff fits on a single CD. Two video players? Complete office suite? Image editor? Fantastic.
Then I found out I had to install traceroute from the repo. Oops.:-)
Depends on habit, too. Company I worked for used names like IRVW3EX01: Irvine office, Windows 2k3, Exchange server #1. I've stuck with that naming convention since.
I did it the easy way: I allowed it to activate the modem, and then hit "Cancel" as soon as it started copying files from the CD. It cancels the install, while still leaving the modem/service activated.
Atari 400, 800, 400XL, 800XL, and the ST. Also the 2600, 5200, and 7800 which were videogame consoles.
So close. 400, 800, 600XL, 800XL, 1200XL, 65XE, 130XE, XEGS (65XE in a game console-looking chassis) and the ST series. The 1400XL and 1450XLD were announced, but I don't think any actually shipped.
We have a Wheel House 5500 watt generator (8000 watt peak) we got from Home Depot for about $600. It's loud and crude, but it has run fine for years now.
We run extension cords into the house when the power goes out, since it doesn't happen often enough to do permanent wiring. Without skipping a beat, and derated at altitude (4,675 feet), it simultaneouly powers the furnace, fridge, deep freeze, entertainment center (27" CRT, Directivo, DVD player on a UPS), technology (laptop, DSL modem, router, switch, P4-based desktop and 19" LCD on a UPS) and a couple of CFL lamps. We also plug in the stove, since the gas oven needs electricity to regulate temperature, and run the microwave, coffee pot or toaster when the furnace is off.
This isn't "at release." It went to RTM a bit over 2 years ago (11/2006), and went to worldwide release two months later. There has already been a service pack. I recently installed the MS-recommended version of MSN for somebody on a brand new Alienware machine running Home Premium, and the included version of Windows Messenger, a userland app, send the machine into a bluescreen-equivalent reboot cycle, something that userland apps shouldn't be able to do. Recently, it has come to light that there's a vulnerability in the Vista-native "route" command that can crash the system, or worse, allow buffer overflow exploits. This is the safer, more reliable Windows?
When our son, deployed in Afghanistan, ordered his laptop, we had it delivered to our house, then repacked it in a plain brown box, before shipping it out to him insured. Sure, people can still look at the customs form and see it's a laptop, but that's better than shipping a box with "Dell" in large letters on the side that you can read at twenty paces.
Sugar-coat it however you want, but hard disk manufacturers did it for selfish marketing reasons only. An ST-225 20 megabyte drive is about 21,000,000 bytes. A 360k floppy disk is 362,496 bytes formatted. 256MB of RAM is 262,144 kbytes.
It was only when somebody couldn't quite make a 1GB hard disk that 1,000,000,000 bytes became "good enough."
In the pre-win95 era there were a number of "windows clones" (in that they had similar functionality to Windows, rather than necessarilly running the same software) which were arguably better - GeoWorks and OS/2 spring to mind (given the choice between GeoWorks and Windows 3, I think I'd choose GeoWorks every time).
Geoworks Ensemble had its chance. It was far faster on a 286 than Windows 3.0 was on a 386 and had WYSIWYG screen and printer fonts before TrueType. Unfortunately, they didn't get an SDK out as promised, and when Windows 3.1 came out, it was all over.
Apple forces you to use iTunes, and that's enough - what percentage of people will load up iTunes and just decide to buy from that store because it's more convenient? I don't think that's an insignificant percentage.
Does Microsoft allow you to drag and drop files on the Zune without installing their proprietary software? Do they even make a Mac version of the Zune software? Can I play my Microsoft-owned Playsforsure files on my iPod or Zune, or can I play my purchased Zune music on any other player?
I doubt that Xerox, Apple, IBM, HP, MIT, CSC, GE, Halliburton and Ford Motor Company paid for those Class A blocks they received back then and are still holding on to. A former co-worker of mine has his own Class C, which he didn't pay anything for and doesn't pay anything to maintain, but certainly won't give it back.
They looked at the EV-1 as a solution to a legislative (not economic) problem. Once they got California to back down on the zero emission requirement and bought federal laws that said noone could be more restrictive than California they figured there was little need to keep the program around. Since 51+% of passenger vehicles sold were light trucks and SUV's I would say their reasoning was fairly sound.
Actually, that's not quite true.
The mandate came about because of the EV1. GM showed California that an electric car was feasible, and California decided to start mandating manufacturers to produce them. This caused GM to panic and do everything in their power to shut down the EV1 program.
Interesting, BTW, that GM is planning their own battery research facility. One of the reasons the EV1 was so expensive was that GM's partially-owned subsidiary parts manufacturers (Delco and Delphi) insisted that they be allowed to develop and manufacture the parts of the car (controller, motor, batteries) that GM had already sourced elsewhere for much lower cost. Rather than using better quality and cheaper batteries from elsewhere, the original EV1s came off the assembly line using essentially custom-built one-offs from GM's suppliers.
When set at level 4, it reads, formats, rewrites and rereads all of the tracks on the disk. This is a maintenance mode. In level 2, it does straight reads (and corrections where necessary.)
The problem is, if you miss hitting the right key, every key you press after that is the wrong key. This keyboard is fine if the "deploy nukes" button is next to the "dispense coffee" button, but when you're trying to type without mistakes, it doesn't help much.
I couldn't run the admin software for my Toshiba PBX on Windows Server 2003 for some reason (security-related I think.) However, I was easily able to run it through DOSBox, attach it to the serial port and use it that way. That allowed me to retire the old box that was in the rack solely to run that software.
A P38 can opener, for those of you who don't know, is quite possibly the least expensive can-opener possible. It could be accurately be described as a "hinged razor-blade."
I don't know about new ones, but mine's from the 80's and is dull as can be. Still does a great job on cans. I've carried through airports and courthouses all over the US and Europe on my keychain, and it's never been a problem.
They're less than a buck, and a great thing to have on your keychain.
And I hate when I have to defend Microsoft on this, but there is no proof that Windows OS is inherently unstable when it's in use by medical devices.
Stability is not the issue; security is, and it's pretty much proven that Windows is inherently insecure when it's in use in medical devices. In Linux, at least you can easily pare it down to the smallest set of functions you need (to the point of completely excluding TCP/IP or the entire networking stack if you choose), whereas Windows XP Embedded still gets Windows viruses.
I'm intrigued by your implication that windows, or any other OS wasn't written with these goals in mind. Perhaps, it's just not quite so easy to achieve?
When you're writing software that does a single specific task, on very specific hardware, it's very easy to achieve reliability and security. These mainstream consumer operating systems are designed to run a vast array of generalized computing applications on a vast array of hardware. The application developers and equipment makers can only control a very tiny portion of the code running in these systems.
You forgot a a major part of the system. It doesn't start at the batteries. It starts and the power plant. The losses over just the transmission lines are estimated at 7.x%. The actual generation equipment isn't 100% efficient either. It still is better then internal combustion by a whole bunch though and power plants are much more efficient then an ICEs and cleaner too...
In that case, the ICE doesn't start at the pump, it starts at the oil well and goes through trucks/pipes/supertankers, a refinery and more trucks/pipes/supertankers.
I love the solar panels in the foreground of this picture. Talk about greenwashing!
Rancho Seco was decommissioned in 1989. Since then, a public park, gas-fired power plant and massive solar installation have been built on the grounds. The towers are now empty.
That's for the included on-board charger, which is limited by the 110 volt, 15 amp circuit it would plug into. The "high power" 220 volt charger sitting in the garage can charge the same battery in as little as 3 hours.
So $6 would more than cover the actual cost to ship even an old 5.25 dinosaur hard drive, if you use a free flat-rate box from USPS.
The mailing cost of a flat-rate box that reasonably fits a 3.5" half-height drive is $10.35. That would be insufficient padding space for a 5.25" drive.
Anybody got Android running on the HTC Wizard yet? I'd love to dump Windows Mobile.
Then I found out I had to install traceroute from the repo. Oops. :-)
Depends on habit, too. Company I worked for used names like IRVW3EX01: Irvine office, Windows 2k3, Exchange server #1. I've stuck with that naming convention since.
I did it the easy way: I allowed it to activate the modem, and then hit "Cancel" as soon as it started copying files from the CD. It cancels the install, while still leaving the modem/service activated.
Atari 400, 800, 400XL, 800XL, and the ST. Also the 2600, 5200, and 7800 which were videogame consoles.
So close. 400, 800, 600XL, 800XL, 1200XL, 65XE, 130XE, XEGS (65XE in a game console-looking chassis) and the ST series. The 1400XL and 1450XLD were announced, but I don't think any actually shipped.
I wouldn't know; I insist on real poo.
We run extension cords into the house when the power goes out, since it doesn't happen often enough to do permanent wiring. Without skipping a beat, and derated at altitude (4,675 feet), it simultaneouly powers the furnace, fridge, deep freeze, entertainment center (27" CRT, Directivo, DVD player on a UPS), technology (laptop, DSL modem, router, switch, P4-based desktop and 19" LCD on a UPS) and a couple of CFL lamps. We also plug in the stove, since the gas oven needs electricity to regulate temperature, and run the microwave, coffee pot or toaster when the furnace is off.
This isn't "at release." It went to RTM a bit over 2 years ago (11/2006), and went to worldwide release two months later. There has already been a service pack. I recently installed the MS-recommended version of MSN for somebody on a brand new Alienware machine running Home Premium, and the included version of Windows Messenger, a userland app, send the machine into a bluescreen-equivalent reboot cycle, something that userland apps shouldn't be able to do. Recently, it has come to light that there's a vulnerability in the Vista-native "route" command that can crash the system, or worse, allow buffer overflow exploits. This is the safer, more reliable Windows?
When our son, deployed in Afghanistan, ordered his laptop, we had it delivered to our house, then repacked it in a plain brown box, before shipping it out to him insured. Sure, people can still look at the customs form and see it's a laptop, but that's better than shipping a box with "Dell" in large letters on the side that you can read at twenty paces.
It was only when somebody couldn't quite make a 1GB hard disk that 1,000,000,000 bytes became "good enough."
In the pre-win95 era there were a number of "windows clones" (in that they had similar functionality to Windows, rather than necessarilly running the same software) which were arguably better - GeoWorks and OS/2 spring to mind (given the choice between GeoWorks and Windows 3, I think I'd choose GeoWorks every time).
Geoworks Ensemble had its chance. It was far faster on a 286 than Windows 3.0 was on a 386 and had WYSIWYG screen and printer fonts before TrueType. Unfortunately, they didn't get an SDK out as promised, and when Windows 3.1 came out, it was all over.
Apple forces you to use iTunes, and that's enough - what percentage of people will load up iTunes and just decide to buy from that store because it's more convenient? I don't think that's an insignificant percentage.
Does Microsoft allow you to drag and drop files on the Zune without installing their proprietary software? Do they even make a Mac version of the Zune software? Can I play my Microsoft-owned Playsforsure files on my iPod or Zune, or can I play my purchased Zune music on any other player?
Run your XP Tablet Edition disc through NLite and make an even lighter weight XP disc. No need to install/run software you'll never use.
I doubt that Xerox, Apple, IBM, HP, MIT, CSC, GE, Halliburton and Ford Motor Company paid for those Class A blocks they received back then and are still holding on to. A former co-worker of mine has his own Class C, which he didn't pay anything for and doesn't pay anything to maintain, but certainly won't give it back.