Mostly the same experience with maintenance costs here after 2 years of owning my Nissan Leaf. My monthly electric bill went up ~$15 and my maintenance so far has only been new wipers and topping of windshield fluid. However, saved myself the initial sticker price by buying Nissan-certified pre-owned, 1.5 years old, 10K miles, for ~$15k. So, I'm admittedly bragging, but I'm also pointing out the initial investment in an EV car doesn't have to be high.
Also regarding the EV car's cabin heating, the heated steering wheel is key, because as long as my hands are warm I am comfortable setting the cabin temperature much lower.
What do you mean? Electricity is expensive where I live. This is why oil, natural gas and wood heating are far more common than electric by a huge margin.
None of which power the internal combustion engine in your car. This is an apples to oranges comparison and irrelevant.
Who cares if it's "green"? Electricity from the grid is a cheaper "fuel" than petroleum, so electric engines save money. Case closed. Arguing over emissions is an irrelevant sideshow.
Without knowing your definition of "clean" I can't really answer the question. It's impossible to have incineration without creating carbon byproducts. But you can read about the Philadelphia trash to steam plant here: http://www.pottsmerc.com/artic...
Note the article says that 40 percent of the cost of building the incinerators is environmental controls (e.g. air scrubbers, filters, ash collection, etc.) and they have no visible emissions. They claim the carbon that does escape is cleaner and off-set by eliminating more climate-potent methane the trash would have generated in a landfill. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if European "clean" incinerations are basing their claims on similar logic/calculations. Also, anecdotally I can tell you the Philadelphia plant is in suburban area with neighbors that would not accept an old-fashioned soot-spewing furnace.
The article also notes that Covanta Energy owns/operates 42 waste to energy plants across the US, so there are plenty more examples beyond the one I gave.
Or we could, you know, build clean garbage incineration units like they have in Europe which are actually net producers of energy.
We do have trash to steam plants in the US. I know Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ have them and I'm sure there are more, but you'll have to look those up. Funny thing is though that often trash to steam plants are advertised as "recycling centers"... which is a little stretch of the truth [or green-washing], but whatever they call it, it's better than a landfill.
Umm. You put a natural gas power plant near the pipeline and then put the power on the transmission grid. Same with coal, hydropower or nuclear. The power grid makes location a non-issue.
As usual, when someone gives a simple answer it's often wrong. We have a power grid that spans the country already and here's a map of it: http://www.npr.org/2015/09/10/... But, transmission loss over distance is a very real thing that destroys efficiency and forces regions to have their own "local" power sources. So the source of electricity in the grid is vastly different depending on what region or state you are in. Here's a breakdown of the source of each US state's power grid: http://www.npr.org/2015/09/10/...
Setting aside the pursuit of knowledge, dinosaur fossils have real world value that only an idiot would ignore. Individuals and institutions are interested in dinosaurs and are willing to pay a lot of money, sometimes even millions of dollars ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) to own and display them. Dinosaur fossils can be tourist attractions that generate revenue. There's also a large black-market for fossils illegally stolen from lands. If some "study" allows one to protect, document, and safely unearth dinosaur fossils so that they can be resold at the highest value, that could be money very well spent.
https://despair.com/products/m... The demotivational poster states: "If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon."
because of a temporary drop in oil prices (we're a long way off from oil becoming worthless) why the heck are they doing so bad? I'm not gonna chuck if up to gov't corruption because _everywhere_ has that. Usually the rest of the world will send some aid to a country floundering like this. Heck even Greece got some. Did they piss everybody off somehow?
Venezuela's over-reliance on oil and low global oil prices may be the spark that started their economic fire, but they made a many other really bad economic decisions before and after the oil price drop that made things much much worse. Mind you there are other oil-dependent countries with economies that may be hurting, but they aren't spiraling into economic collapse like Venezuela...there's a lot more bad stuff going on there. I highly recommend listening to NPR's Planet Money podcast about Venezuela's current economic collapse, here: http://www.npr.org/sections/mo...
We could also start teaching that there is no body of water or isthmus that makes Europe a "continent".
Good point.... Cartographers should follow this planetary scientist's lead and redraw/rename land masses according to their tectonic plate boundaries. At least geologists should support that.
Unfortunately it's still an issue. And it gets a bigger one every day...... {standing on soapbox} blah, blah, blah...
Well spoken, but doesn't apply to my original comment that this submission is not news and is an opinion piece that only generates arguments between people, thus it's flamebait. I am not passing judgment on any specific opinion, just that this article should have never made it to Slashdot "news." No useful new information or understanding to how the law/society will handle patents is brought forth; it's just an excuse for the nerds to sling stones from their entrenched positions. The surrounding discussion proves this point.
...prefers to tap out his messages on a telegraph. There's just no substitute for those clicks and pauses. But let me tell you, the cost to maintain my telegraph service between me and my one friend who uses it is criminally high! If someone doesn't do something to help me out soon I'll have to choose between my telegraph or my diabeetus medicine and that's just not right!
No one seems to mind genocidal action against the guinea worm/dracunculiasis, which is [thankfully] getting very close to extinction in large part due to efforts by former President Carter, Gates Foundation, and other world health groups ( https://www.cartercenter.org/h... ). Mosquito-transmitted diseases are mainly spread by the invasive Aedes mosquito, so eradication of that specific species could be justified, and GM tools could target that species while sparing other mosquito species.
Of all animals... Is there a single really GOOD thing that mosquitoes do in an ecosystem?...If they were extinct every human being would be better off.
Two good counter-points come to mind... 1) Adult and larvae mosquitoes are a critical food chain base important for many species of freshwater fish, birds, amphibians, bats, and insects and in turn any predators further up the chain, so removal of all mosquitoes from the planet could potentially have detrimental effects to natural food chains, which humans may rely on. 2) Mosquito-related human health problems [and general aggravation] are predominantly related to the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which is perfectly adapted to urban environments and human prey, and has invasively spread through much of the world. Therefore, mosquito control/eradication should focus mainly on the Aedes species, not all mosquitoes on the planet.
If anyone is interested in the Flatow v. Iran case and it's aftermath NPR's Planet Money did a great podcast on it: http://www.npr.org/2017/01/12/... (I swear it's not left or right leaning story)
There actually is a precedent allowing American citizens to sue other countries that support terrorism under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, but I assume the court decided Ethiopia's hacking was not an act of terrorism. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Flatow v. Iran case details: http://www.leagle.com/decision...
I only point this out because the degree of legislation or judicial interpretation might be much less than people assume.
If anyone is interested in the Flatow v. Iran case and it's aftermath NPR's Planet Money did a great podcast on it: http://www.npr.org/2017/01/12/... (I swear it's not left or right leaning story)
Approximately when did you sign up for PS VUE? Because I was eyeing up VUE for well over a year [debating/preparing to cut the cord], but until very recently the VUE service could only be initiated on a PS3, PS4, or Amazon Fire TV [box, not stick], but once you initiated on one of those devices you could access your VUE account on other devices (Chromecast, Fire stick, Roku, Android/Apple mobile apps, etc.). I bought a new Sony smart TV in the fall and it wasn't until around December that an update added a TV app for VUE. Too late for me though... my wife and I are happy with a digital antenna, TiVo DVR box, and Netflix. Had a VUE TV app been available a couple months earlier, we might have skipped the antenna and TiVo and signed up with VUE.
Google/YouTube is offering streams on up to 6 devices under one account. If your household doesn't need that many streams you could share with others and split the cost. For example, my wife and I share our Netflix account with our respective parents. My wife's parents share their HBO streaming account with us. Our houses are many miles apart. There's no difference in the service other than being limited to certain TVs/devices in our home. A very small sacrifice. So, with Google's 6 streams, two friendly neighbors could each take 3 streams, share the bill and cut their TV bill to $17.50/month. Three friendly households could take 2 accounts each and cut their TV bills to $11.67/month. That's not nothing.
There is far more I am interested in watching on Netflix now than on broadcast networks..[lots of opinions about your personal TV viewing]...
Your opinions make sense to me and my personal viewing is probably similar quite similar to yours; however the larger market shows there is a demand for network content. Whether that makes logical sense or not is irrelevant... it is what it is. Streaming companies will attempt to cater to the real demands of the market.
...So ALL the $35 deal is really about is watching live content i.e. sports. Way too steep for my blood...
I don't care about sports either, so I personally agree with your opinion, but again the larger market overrides our personal opinions. There is very large portion of the market for whom live sports is a major deciding factor. For sports fans streaming options are much more limited or fragmented, so for those people this Google/YouTube service could be attractive.
I believe with Comcast I can get local channels for $10/month.
The cable package is more, yes, but I also get a lot more channels too. How many channels would you get with the YouTube thing?
Regardless $35 is way, way too much money for what they are providing (yes even "with DVR service" as people here keep bringing up).
If people are bringing it up the DVR feature that should tell you that comparing a basic [non-DVR] cable package to this YouTube service is not a fair comparison. 10+ years ago people organized their life schedule around the TV show times, but ever since TiVo came out people want to see TV shows when it fits into their life schedule and the market shows they are not willing to sacrifice that convenience.
Netflix is vastly cheaper and offers better content. I would argue that with Netflix alone you get MORE new content in a year than if you had access to all the major broadcast networks!!
I have Netflix and it's great, but it's limited to Netflix content, and lacks a lot of the major broadcast network content, or is dated. Thus, the demand for other streaming options from major broadcast networks.
...including the DVR feature and live local network channels in certain markets, but VUE has a few more channels, like AMC and Discovery ( https://www.playstation.com/en... ). Stupidly, Sony linked the VUE service to the Playstation, which doesn't help people take it seriously and one had to have a Playstation to sign up until Sony very recently added VUE to newer Sony smart TVs. Google/You Tube aren't going to wall off their service the way Sony did.
...For $10/mo that seems like a lot of lost potential revenue. Maybe the elimination of the second-hand market covers that?
I don't think they plan to lose any revenue.... they are offering a 20% discount on any full game purchased through the service, so a $50 game will be $40, but that $10 discount was paid up front with the monthly subscription fee. And to your point any digital purchase or "rental" cuts out the second-hard markets. I think this could only backfire if the service is really bad or feels forced on customers and turns them off.
The only way Apple could be innovative with edge screens would be if they wrapped around to the back...
For me personally that feature is a negative, because there are times I purposely place my phone face down to avoid distraction of flashing notifications. When I want my phone to alert me of things, I place it face up [or on vibrate].
Slashdot Mirror
Mostly the same experience with maintenance costs here after 2 years of owning my Nissan Leaf. My monthly electric bill went up ~$15 and my maintenance so far has only been new wipers and topping of windshield fluid. However, saved myself the initial sticker price by buying Nissan-certified pre-owned, 1.5 years old, 10K miles, for ~$15k. So, I'm admittedly bragging, but I'm also pointing out the initial investment in an EV car doesn't have to be high.
Also regarding the EV car's cabin heating, the heated steering wheel is key, because as long as my hands are warm I am comfortable setting the cabin temperature much lower.
What do you mean? Electricity is expensive where I live. This is why oil, natural gas and wood heating are far more common than electric by a huge margin.
None of which power the internal combustion engine in your car. This is an apples to oranges comparison and irrelevant.
Who cares if it's "green"? Electricity from the grid is a cheaper "fuel" than petroleum, so electric engines save money. Case closed. Arguing over emissions is an irrelevant sideshow.
Without knowing your definition of "clean" I can't really answer the question. It's impossible to have incineration without creating carbon byproducts. But you can read about the Philadelphia trash to steam plant here:
http://www.pottsmerc.com/artic...
Note the article says that 40 percent of the cost of building the incinerators is environmental controls (e.g. air scrubbers, filters, ash collection, etc.) and they have no visible emissions. They claim the carbon that does escape is cleaner and off-set by eliminating more climate-potent methane the trash would have generated in a landfill. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if European "clean" incinerations are basing their claims on similar logic/calculations. Also, anecdotally I can tell you the Philadelphia plant is in suburban area with neighbors that would not accept an old-fashioned soot-spewing furnace.
The article also notes that Covanta Energy owns/operates 42 waste to energy plants across the US, so there are plenty more examples beyond the one I gave.
Or we could, you know, build clean garbage incineration units like they have in Europe which are actually net producers of energy.
We do have trash to steam plants in the US. I know Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ have them and I'm sure there are more, but you'll have to look those up. Funny thing is though that often trash to steam plants are advertised as "recycling centers"... which is a little stretch of the truth [or green-washing], but whatever they call it, it's better than a landfill.
Umm. You put a natural gas power plant near the pipeline and then put the power on the transmission grid. Same with coal, hydropower or nuclear. The power grid makes location a non-issue.
As usual, when someone gives a simple answer it's often wrong. We have a power grid that spans the country already and here's a map of it: http://www.npr.org/2015/09/10/...
But, transmission loss over distance is a very real thing that destroys efficiency and forces regions to have their own "local" power sources. So the source of electricity in the grid is vastly different depending on what region or state you are in. Here's a breakdown of the source of each US state's power grid: http://www.npr.org/2015/09/10/...
Setting aside the pursuit of knowledge, dinosaur fossils have real world value that only an idiot would ignore. Individuals and institutions are interested in dinosaurs and are willing to pay a lot of money, sometimes even millions of dollars ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) to own and display them. Dinosaur fossils can be tourist attractions that generate revenue. There's also a large black-market for fossils illegally stolen from lands. If some "study" allows one to protect, document, and safely unearth dinosaur fossils so that they can be resold at the highest value, that could be money very well spent.
https://despair.com/products/m...
The demotivational poster states: "If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon."
I have a small version framed on my desk at work.
because of a temporary drop in oil prices (we're a long way off from oil becoming worthless) why the heck are they doing so bad? I'm not gonna chuck if up to gov't corruption because _everywhere_ has that. Usually the rest of the world will send some aid to a country floundering like this. Heck even Greece got some. Did they piss everybody off somehow?
Venezuela's over-reliance on oil and low global oil prices may be the spark that started their economic fire, but they made a many other really bad economic decisions before and after the oil price drop that made things much much worse. Mind you there are other oil-dependent countries with economies that may be hurting, but they aren't spiraling into economic collapse like Venezuela...there's a lot more bad stuff going on there. I highly recommend listening to NPR's Planet Money podcast about Venezuela's current economic collapse, here: http://www.npr.org/sections/mo...
We could also start teaching that there is no body of water or isthmus that makes Europe a "continent".
Good point.... Cartographers should follow this planetary scientist's lead and redraw/rename land masses according to their tectonic plate boundaries. At least geologists should support that.
Unfortunately it's still an issue. And it gets a bigger one every day. ..... {standing on soapbox} blah, blah, blah...
Well spoken, but doesn't apply to my original comment that this submission is not news and is an opinion piece that only generates arguments between people, thus it's flamebait. I am not passing judgment on any specific opinion, just that this article should have never made it to Slashdot "news." No useful new information or understanding to how the law/society will handle patents is brought forth; it's just an excuse for the nerds to sling stones from their entrenched positions. The surrounding discussion proves this point.
This should have never made it through Slashdot's initial screening. We've heard all the arguments for and against patents already.
...prefers to tap out his messages on a telegraph. There's just no substitute for those clicks and pauses. But let me tell you, the cost to maintain my telegraph service between me and my one friend who uses it is criminally high! If someone doesn't do something to help me out soon I'll have to choose between my telegraph or my diabeetus medicine and that's just not right!
Genocide should be illegal world-wide!
No one seems to mind genocidal action against the guinea worm/dracunculiasis, which is [thankfully] getting very close to extinction in large part due to efforts by former President Carter, Gates Foundation, and other world health groups ( https://www.cartercenter.org/h... ). Mosquito-transmitted diseases are mainly spread by the invasive Aedes mosquito, so eradication of that specific species could be justified, and GM tools could target that species while sparing other mosquito species.
Of all animals... Is there a single really GOOD thing that mosquitoes do in an ecosystem? ...If they were extinct every human being would be better off.
Two good counter-points come to mind...
1) Adult and larvae mosquitoes are a critical food chain base important for many species of freshwater fish, birds, amphibians, bats, and insects and in turn any predators further up the chain, so removal of all mosquitoes from the planet could potentially have detrimental effects to natural food chains, which humans may rely on.
2) Mosquito-related human health problems [and general aggravation] are predominantly related to the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which is perfectly adapted to urban environments and human prey, and has invasively spread through much of the world. Therefore, mosquito control/eradication should focus mainly on the Aedes species, not all mosquitoes on the planet.
If anyone is interested in the Flatow v. Iran case and it's aftermath NPR's Planet Money did a great podcast on it: http://www.npr.org/2017/01/12/... (I swear it's not left or right leaning story)
Apologies... I posted the wrong NPR link. Here's the full Planet Money podcast: http://www.npr.org/sections/mo...
There actually is a precedent allowing American citizens to sue other countries that support terrorism under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, but I assume the court decided Ethiopia's hacking was not an act of terrorism.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Flatow v. Iran case details: http://www.leagle.com/decision...
I only point this out because the degree of legislation or judicial interpretation might be much less than people assume.
If anyone is interested in the Flatow v. Iran case and it's aftermath NPR's Planet Money did a great podcast on it: http://www.npr.org/2017/01/12/... (I swear it's not left or right leaning story)
Approximately when did you sign up for PS VUE? Because I was eyeing up VUE for well over a year [debating/preparing to cut the cord], but until very recently the VUE service could only be initiated on a PS3, PS4, or Amazon Fire TV [box, not stick], but once you initiated on one of those devices you could access your VUE account on other devices (Chromecast, Fire stick, Roku, Android/Apple mobile apps, etc.). I bought a new Sony smart TV in the fall and it wasn't until around December that an update added a TV app for VUE. Too late for me though... my wife and I are happy with a digital antenna, TiVo DVR box, and Netflix. Had a VUE TV app been available a couple months earlier, we might have skipped the antenna and TiVo and signed up with VUE.
Is $35 cheaper than cable TV?
Google/YouTube is offering streams on up to 6 devices under one account. If your household doesn't need that many streams you could share with others and split the cost. For example, my wife and I share our Netflix account with our respective parents. My wife's parents share their HBO streaming account with us. Our houses are many miles apart. There's no difference in the service other than being limited to certain TVs/devices in our home. A very small sacrifice. So, with Google's 6 streams, two friendly neighbors could each take 3 streams, share the bill and cut their TV bill to $17.50/month. Three friendly households could take 2 accounts each and cut their TV bills to $11.67/month. That's not nothing.
There is far more I am interested in watching on Netflix now than on broadcast networks..[lots of opinions about your personal TV viewing]...
Your opinions make sense to me and my personal viewing is probably similar quite similar to yours; however the larger market shows there is a demand for network content. Whether that makes logical sense or not is irrelevant... it is what it is. Streaming companies will attempt to cater to the real demands of the market.
...So ALL the $35 deal is really about is watching live content i.e. sports. Way too steep for my blood...
I don't care about sports either, so I personally agree with your opinion, but again the larger market overrides our personal opinions. There is very large portion of the market for whom live sports is a major deciding factor. For sports fans streaming options are much more limited or fragmented, so for those people this Google/YouTube service could be attractive.
I believe with Comcast I can get local channels for $10/month.
The cable package is more, yes, but I also get a lot more channels too. How many channels would you get with the YouTube thing?
Regardless $35 is way, way too much money for what they are providing (yes even "with DVR service" as people here keep bringing up).
If people are bringing it up the DVR feature that should tell you that comparing a basic [non-DVR] cable package to this YouTube service is not a fair comparison. 10+ years ago people organized their life schedule around the TV show times, but ever since TiVo came out people want to see TV shows when it fits into their life schedule and the market shows they are not willing to sacrifice that convenience.
Netflix is vastly cheaper and offers better content. I would argue that with Netflix alone you get MORE new content in a year than if you had access to all the major broadcast networks!!
I have Netflix and it's great, but it's limited to Netflix content, and lacks a lot of the major broadcast network content, or is dated. Thus, the demand for other streaming options from major broadcast networks.
...including the DVR feature and live local network channels in certain markets, but VUE has a few more channels, like AMC and Discovery ( https://www.playstation.com/en... ). Stupidly, Sony linked the VUE service to the Playstation, which doesn't help people take it seriously and one had to have a Playstation to sign up until Sony very recently added VUE to newer Sony smart TVs. Google/You Tube aren't going to wall off their service the way Sony did.
Haha you are 100% right! I haven't even played 50 of them. But when you get like 15 games for around 8-12 bucks I figure why not.
You already answered why not...
I haven't even played 50 of them.
...For $10/mo that seems like a lot of lost potential revenue. Maybe the elimination of the second-hand market covers that?
I don't think they plan to lose any revenue.... they are offering a 20% discount on any full game purchased through the service, so a $50 game will be $40, but that $10 discount was paid up front with the monthly subscription fee. And to your point any digital purchase or "rental" cuts out the second-hard markets. I think this could only backfire if the service is really bad or feels forced on customers and turns them off.
Yeah, who copies whose designs again?
No kidding.
The only way Apple could be innovative with edge screens would be if they wrapped around to the back...
For me personally that feature is a negative, because there are times I purposely place my phone face down to avoid distraction of flashing notifications. When I want my phone to alert me of things, I place it face up [or on vibrate].