Just try to get an Insight. They're only making 4000 this year, and they were gone in the first month. I expect the Prius to do the same (it's just becoming available now in the Portland, OR area). And people try to claim there's no market for these types of vehicles...
My Corbin Sparrow has a 156V, 45AH battery system It uses about 15A@120V to charge for about 6-8hrs for a total of about 14KWH/day (actually, it tapers off, but lets be conservative here). It's about a nickle/KWH here, but even if it were a dime, that's $1.40/day or about $30/month. And that's assuming you run the battery completely down, which I've yet to do (though I've come close a couple of times, but it's far from an every day occurrence). 1/2 that is more likely.
People really love to bash whatever's popular don't they? Usually without stopping to think about *why* they're popular. SUV's are popular because of the U - Utility. They haul people and things very well. Sure, people use them to commute with, but most people don't have the luxury of buying application specific vehicles for all the applications they have. I'm trying though --- I have a Corbin Sparrow for commuting with, and I've been monitoring the EV discussion list for a couple of years now. The reason we haven't gotten away from gas is simply that there isn't anything better. LNG is bulkier, but is much cleaner, and so is probably the closest alternative. Battery technology just isn't even close. Fuel Cells are coming and hold the most promise, but are still several years away from practicality. Hybrids are good, but the technology to do those right is non-trivial also... Nevertheless, Ford is coming out with a small hybrid SUV in a couple of years, and Toyota says this fall they're coming out with a full-size (Expedition sized) SUV ("Sequoia") that meets Ultra Low Emission standards (with a 4.7L V8 I have to wonder "ultra low compared to *what*?", but that's the claim).
Even so, there's something that doesn't smell right. I read that EV's are a failure because GM and Honda have backed out of their public EV programs, never mind that they were only available in *very* limited areas and never really marketed. They were pretty expensive though. That hasn't hurt the Corbin though --- at $15,000 ea for a single seater, they've got orders into next year. And these things are really beta vehicles --- I've gone through 2 controllers already and they have a number of glitches. Nevertheless, it's very fun to drive, and I love it when it runs. If a large manufacturer started cranking them out for under $10K, I'll bet you'd start seeing them everywhere.
The upshot is that while the technology isn't here yet for a complete conversion, and most people can't afford to have a vehicle for every use, a large number can afford an inexpensive commuter car if the advantages are sufficient. A Geo Metro that makes a number of sacrifices for a small decrease in gasoline consumption isn't enough for most people, but some of us are breaking ground for a more promising future.
...but usually when people say "Ease of Use" what they really mean is "Ease of Learning", resulting in an interface that is clumsy and slow to use. UI designers need to think about what people will actually be doing, and how they'll be doing it, and then include tutorials so people know that's how they're supposed to be doing it.
Another failure is help systems that give abstract information, but no concrete information and in particular, rarely are examples given and even rarer are cross references so if you don't understand a concept, you can look it up.
I currently have a Coolpix 950, which replaced an Olympus 320L which took a dive, never to be seen again. It was not missed, as it was way too slow, although otherwise it was a nice camera. I suspect the main drawback to the current version, the 360L, is the use of Smartmedia, which comes in limited capacities (max 32M at the moment, I believe). The coolpix uses CompactFlash, and I have a 64Meg card which holds 66 hi-res pix --- about enough for a day's shooting while being a snap happy tourista. I refuse to buy a memory stick camera --- why in hell did sony think Yet Another Memory Format was needed? Just another pathetic attempt to lock users in with a proprietary format. But I digress.
The 950 is a great camera, and I'm quite happy with it, but it has a couple of quirks: Every time the power comes back on, for any reason, the lens zooms to full telephoto. Most of my shots are somewhat wider, forcing me to constantly fuss with the zoom. It eats batteries --- a set will not last long enough to fill the 66 pix I can put on the 64Meg flashcard. Have multiple sets of fully charged rechargeables on hand. And the camera, while much faster than previous generations, is still slower than I would like. From the 1/2 second or so delay when you press the shutter, to the several second delay to store the picture, there's much room for improvement.
Nevertheless, I'll never go back to film. These pictures are as good as anything I ever put on film...
Isn't it ironic that the first private commercial manned launch is russian? It is very disappointing. We should have been doing this 20 years ago with skylab.
4) Turn off Javascript if you don't use somewhat sophisticated sites.
That's what I have to do because every time I come to Slashdot, netscape immediately crashes with it turned on. Unfortunately, all too many sites are abusing javascript and don't work properly without it turned on, so I'm constantly turning it off and on...
I pick up local niche market papers occasionally, but won't subscribe to any because I just have to throw them out, and they generally only have a small amount of information I'm interested in. If they want my business, they'll need to do something like my.excite.com or my.yahoo.com where I can select the topics I'm interested in and then print out my own paper for offline reading. Most of the time I'd probably read it online, but none of the sites I've found so far are ideal, though excite is closest. They keep chopping the articles off though and the custom topic area isn't integrated well with the "standard" topics. my.yahoo.com has better articles, but isn't as well organized to get all the info I want on one page. cnn would be my first choice for national/global news, but it's even less well organized.
I have a Pronto and I've never been sorry. The software is great, there's lots of samples at remotecentral.com and it just works. Some friends tried to use a pilot, and the IR just doesn't cut it, even with an aftermarket booster.
One problem with your analysis is that most other industries are very capital intensive. You're not going to colonize the moon or create a world changing automobile in your garage. What's worse, is that without the Internet, anyone interested in doing something like that would have a much harder time figuring out how to do it. The Internet gives them the capability to form groups who would never have even know they existed without it. If, one day, a group gets together to build an open source rocket, it will be the Internet that made it possible.
It's been a while since I've seen it and I confess I'm not a hacker, and so I can't vouch for the reality of it, but I enjoyed Hackers. It has a good story, and while there was some bogosity in their visuals, I didn't think it detracted from the story too much.
Define "prosper". Would you rather be Bill Gates, richest man on the planet and reviled by millions or Linus, presumably happy and loved by (somewhat fewer) millions?
I got up this morning, checked slashdot, saw the notice, logged into etrade, saw the notice that redhat had been repriced requiring reconfirmation, followed by one that the window had closed. Tried to find out how to reconfirm, without success (and the slashdot mail was incomplete; later, at work, I had email that gave the specific line you had to include in the email for the auto-confirmation to work). While in the bathroom, etrade called on the phone telling me that I had to reconfirm, so I called in, waited on hold for 5-10 minutes. They asked if I was in the affinity group, and I said I was. I got passed to a broker, another 10 minutes or so on hold, the broker confirmed the email address the invitation had been sent to, and took the order. Later, I got the email that I had not been allocated any shares at all, despite following all the procedures. What really pisses me off is that my original conditional order had specifically not had a limit. I should NOT have had to reconfirm at all. That, combined with the fact that it's very difficult to get status information from their web site, poor instructions (the notice on the web site did NOT have instructions on how to reconfirm) means that I will have nothing more to do with etrade.
It doesn't make sense to select Daylight or Standard time zones --- do I have to go change it twice a year? I never remember which one's standard and which one's daylight anyhow.
Minor nits aside, Slashdot is great and I want to really thank you for running it!
The issue isn't that it should be free, especially with the new version of xanim that allows dynamically loaded codecs. Sorenson is an excellent codec, and I'd be willing to pay them for it. I'll even grudgingly grant them the right to limit its use if that's what they really want, but that doesn't mean I can't lobby them to change that position. However, I think it's a sign of desperation for Apple to enter into such a restrictive license agreement (assuming that's how they have any say in it at all), and given the fact that my Windoze Premiere has Sorenson support, they've already let the cat out of the bag for their biggest competitor. Any further restrictions are childish.
Slashdot Mirror
Just try to get an Insight. They're only making 4000 this year, and they were gone in the first month. I expect the Prius to do the same (it's just becoming available now in the Portland, OR area). And people try to claim there's no market for these types of vehicles...
My Corbin Sparrow has a 156V, 45AH battery system It uses about 15A@120V to charge for about 6-8hrs for a total of about 14KWH/day (actually, it tapers off, but lets be conservative here). It's about a nickle/KWH here, but even if it were a dime, that's $1.40/day or about $30/month. And that's assuming you run the battery completely down, which I've yet to do (though I've come close a couple of times, but it's far from an every day occurrence). 1/2 that is more likely.
Even so, there's something that doesn't smell right. I read that EV's are a failure because GM and Honda have backed out of their public EV programs, never mind that they were only available in *very* limited areas and never really marketed. They were pretty expensive though. That hasn't hurt the Corbin though --- at $15,000 ea for a single seater, they've got orders into next year. And these things are really beta vehicles --- I've gone through 2 controllers already and they have a number of glitches. Nevertheless, it's very fun to drive, and I love it when it runs. If a large manufacturer started cranking them out for under $10K, I'll bet you'd start seeing them everywhere.
The upshot is that while the technology isn't here yet for a complete conversion, and most people can't afford to have a vehicle for every use, a large number can afford an inexpensive commuter car if the advantages are sufficient. A Geo Metro that makes a number of sacrifices for a small decrease in gasoline consumption isn't enough for most people, but some of us are breaking ground for a more promising future.
I thought that was called "telnet" (ok, "ssh") or "xterm".
Another failure is help systems that give abstract information, but no concrete information and in particular, rarely are examples given and even rarer are cross references so if you don't understand a concept, you can look it up.
The 950 is a great camera, and I'm quite happy with it, but it has a couple of quirks: Every time the power comes back on, for any reason, the lens zooms to full telephoto. Most of my shots are somewhat wider, forcing me to constantly fuss with the zoom. It eats batteries --- a set will not last long enough to fill the 66 pix I can put on the 64Meg flashcard. Have multiple sets of fully charged rechargeables on hand. And the camera, while much faster than previous generations, is still slower than I would like. From the 1/2 second or so delay when you press the shutter, to the several second delay to store the picture, there's much room for improvement.
Nevertheless, I'll never go back to film. These pictures are as good as anything I ever put on film...
Isn't it ironic that the first private commercial manned launch is russian? It is very disappointing. We should have been doing this 20 years ago with skylab.
4) Turn off Javascript if you don't use somewhat sophisticated sites.
That's what I have to do because every time I come to Slashdot, netscape immediately crashes with it turned on. Unfortunately, all too many sites are abusing javascript and don't work properly without it turned on, so I'm constantly turning it off and on...
Unfortunately, 4.72 didn't solve the problem.
I pick up local niche market papers occasionally, but won't subscribe to any because I just have to throw them out, and they generally only have a small amount of information I'm interested in. If they want my business, they'll need to do something like my.excite.com or my.yahoo.com where I can select the topics I'm interested in and then print out my own paper for offline reading. Most of the time I'd probably read it online, but none of the sites I've found so far are ideal, though excite is closest. They keep chopping the articles off though and the custom topic area isn't integrated well with the "standard" topics. my.yahoo.com has better articles, but isn't as well organized to get all the info I want on one page. cnn would be my first choice for national/global news, but it's even less well organized.
I have a Pronto and I've never been sorry. The software is great, there's lots of samples at remotecentral.com and it just works. Some friends tried to use a pilot, and the IR just doesn't cut it, even with an aftermarket booster.
One problem with your analysis is that most other industries are very capital intensive. You're not going to colonize the moon or create a world changing automobile in your garage. What's worse, is that without the Internet, anyone interested in doing something like that would have a much harder time figuring out how to do it. The Internet gives them the capability to form groups who would never have even know they existed without it. If, one day, a group gets together to build an open source rocket, it will be the Internet that made it possible.
It's been a while since I've seen it and I confess I'm not a hacker, and so I can't vouch for the reality of it, but I enjoyed Hackers. It has a good story, and while there was some bogosity in their visuals, I didn't think it detracted from the story too much.
Define "prosper". Would you rather be Bill Gates, richest man on the planet and reviled by millions or Linus, presumably happy and loved by (somewhat fewer) millions?
I got up this morning, checked slashdot, saw the notice, logged into etrade, saw the notice that redhat had been repriced requiring reconfirmation, followed by one that the window had closed. Tried to find out how to reconfirm, without success (and the slashdot mail was incomplete; later, at work, I had email that gave the specific line you had to include in the email for the auto-confirmation to work). While in the bathroom, etrade called on the phone telling me that I had to reconfirm, so I called in, waited on hold for 5-10 minutes. They asked if I was in the affinity group, and I said I was. I got passed to a broker, another 10 minutes or so on hold, the broker confirmed the email address the invitation had been sent to, and took the order. Later, I got the email that I had not been allocated any shares at all, despite following all the procedures. What really pisses me off is that my original conditional order had specifically not had a limit. I should NOT have had to reconfirm at all. That, combined with the fact that it's very difficult to get status information from their web site, poor instructions (the notice on the web site did NOT have instructions on how to reconfirm) means that I will have nothing more to do with etrade.
It doesn't make sense to select Daylight or Standard time zones --- do I have to go change it twice a year? I never remember which one's standard and which one's daylight anyhow.
Minor nits aside, Slashdot is great and I want to really thank you for running it!
As a way to improve the signal to noise ratio, how about a slashbox for the top N posters, ordered by average score?
The issue isn't that it should be free, especially
with the new version of xanim that allows dynamically loaded codecs. Sorenson is an excellent codec, and I'd be willing to pay them for it. I'll even grudgingly grant them the right to limit its use if that's what they really want, but that doesn't mean I can't lobby them to change that position. However, I think it's a sign of desperation for Apple to enter into such a restrictive license agreement (assuming that's how they have any say in it at all), and given the fact that my Windoze Premiere has Sorenson support, they've already let the cat out of the bag for their biggest competitor. Any further restrictions are childish.