With all the contacts of the VG list, has anyone ever done an analysis of the energy and COx breakeven for refining Si into solar cells?
When do you think biological processes, that strip Hydrogen from water and bond it to Carbon , then use fuel cell tech to produce electricity will be available.
Plastic explosives produce neutrons? If that's all it took, any dork with access to explosives could build an H-bomb, you still need fissile materials to set off a bomb.
I used to work at one of the 'Dilbert top 5' companies, they rolled out some snooping software in the guise of 'Asset Control' It tracked your machine's configuration. They did have a problem with theft even at this High-tech place with a LOT of highly paid engineers. So this program would report back every day what your hardware config was. Well, then soon after we had to report all the software on the machines, BillG must not have been getting his cut.. So then the software started checking for all your executables. You'd get dinged if you had anything other than the 'Official' programs on your machine. Try telling the software police, I WROTE that program, It's my code!! They'd look at you like you're some sort of subversive... Hmmm writes his own code, better keep an eye on this one... Then they started getting usage-based licenses, this required tracking also, the tracking program started running 100% of the time logging everything used on your system. It was a great tool to get rid of people, hmm, you're only using MSword 2 hours a day, you're not productive... I guess it didnt check how much time was spent in rebooting. If you disabled it, the manager of IS came around and had a talk with your manager about you disabling corporate asset tracking software, bad news.. The only place that was safe was the lab, I took to hiding out in there with my un-monitored Sun and what the sysadmins called a 'Rogue' NT network. A friend who is still there has a Linux machine, they dont mess with him too much, but I'm sure the monitering software company is working on a Linux version. They had the idea that if you work for them, they do own you, they had drug tests and phone logs and all that. I got fed up and left to do contract work, for them sometimes. Things there have gone downhill, control-wise. They do work that requires creativity under this evironment. They've phased in NT corp-wide not because it's better, but because they can control the desktops better. It keeps a level of fear that stops any sort of dissent, if you dont like things, dont complain becuse they have something on you, and could always trot it out and fire you. A complete list of URLs is kept for every user, if you are a good boy, no-one says anything, if you are on the 'list' be prepared to defend every URL you ever visit. It's no surprise they are currently floundering internally despite having some new products out. This stuff started a few years ago, it takes time for a big corp to rot out it's insides until the outside world can see it, remember IBM? It's the corporate culture of control that kills creativity and runs off your best people, when I see the top folks leaving, it's time to get out. I'm talking about the people who are 'good' , everyone knows who they are, with the exception of PHBs and other weasel-types. They are the folks who really make things work. They dont have to put up with any crap. At the first sign the best jump, then as the BS rises, more leave and your dont ever see them replaced, sure, warm bodies may occupy thier old cubes, but things dont get done.
Could it just maybe be the Slashdot effect, and you were the 1000th caller asking the same question? I'd be pretty annoyed if I were Tech support and had to answer the same question 1000 times already within a single day...
Then again, it 'could' be a big conspiracy...
Be patient, the whole thing will be hacked withing a month or two anyway...
Microsoft told Moto, IBM and Apple they wanted $100Mil for the NT5 port, each! Moto MCG never even sold near that many retail NT and Mac PPC boxes, IBM hell, what did they want NT for , they had AIX, and Apple, DUH!! Andy wanted PPC kicked out of his sandbox, and Bill did the kicking. Who know what Bill got in return, probably Intel dropped some Internet software project, they were big in networking and evangelizing net access in that timeframe.
I remember keying (switching?) in 'The fool on the hill' from a Creative Computing mag into my Altair's front panel. I took about an hour, so I would let it play for the rest of the day. My Mom still remembers it playing for hours on end. This was before we got the 88-ACR cassette tape interface so I could save huge efforts like that.
Now if they could generate a real FM signal and play recognizable music, that'd be something, bonus points for Stereo playback. What I suspect is that the FM reciever is picking up the strong(relatively) AM signal and playing that.
One other note... "Electrofuel's super-polymer technology dedicates virtually all the space to the battery itself and dispenses with the usual metal package for supporting the battery cells, which can be as thin as 1 millimeter"
Scary.. A lithium cell with a 1 mm thick plastic case.. I wonder what would happen if you punctured the case with say, a pen point and shorted out the cell which was then exposed to Oxygen.. Bad things(tm) happen when Lithium metal burns..
Isn't the 8240 just a 603r with a 106 on the same die? You cant see the PPC bus, just a memory bus and PCI bus with an I2O unit thrown in. The 8260 is the smae thing with the 860/68332 CPM unit added (OK, an enhanced CPM)
Re Windriver.. Ugh... that code is soo nasty,layers and layers of cruft... Then there's their BSP scam, you write it, we (WR) approve it, and WR gets to sell it.
They called us once, we wanted to know how much they wanted for their OS on a per unit license, they wouldnt tell us a figure until we told them how much our product was going to sell for... They got the quick hustle out of the office after that.
Linux is no more suited for Realtime than NT, but I've had people who wanted one or the other in a RT application. Sure you could make Linux a RTOS, but by the time you had ripped enough out, why bother, there are much better RTOS's available that have some history and support for less than the cost of my time to patch Linux to be some sort of questionable RTOS.
And how much will it cost to ship the solar cells to the Moon? The electrical energy output is very low, it'd take acres of solar cells to generate enough liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to lift anything of consequence off the lunar surface. Make them on the moon you say? Ever look at just how much it takes to refine silicon and make solar cells, lots of water and electricity needed.
The Moon is a cinder, there's nothing there worth the trip.
You could 'mine' it , and it would be quite economical indeed. Remember, it's a long way back to Earth to refuel your spacecraft, getting a little local hydrogen in a liquid form (ie hydrocarbon) would reduce the cost of a long term mission immensely. Even for a robotic mission, you could do the Mars Direct plan of sending the Rocket Fuel plant first, then when it is fully loaded, send your payload with a one-way fuel load to reduce mission costs/ increase payload. Using autonomous probes that could refuel in the system would allow for multi-year missions with much larger spacecraft.
Some SF here... Send a mission out to get a big chunk of H2O ice and pack it off to Mars using local fuel source. (Trivia:what's the story name?)
Best line in The Matrix... "You're not really very bright, are you?"
Anything KR does , Johnny Depp could do 10x better. KR is just a dumb pretty boy, he has no edge whatsoever. Hell, Depp could probably do a spaced out surfer dude better than KR...
I've heard rumors that Intel has rooms full of Quad Xeon PC's running Linux Beowulf to do chip simulations for IA-32 and IA64 designs...
Re:Some of that book's thinking is simplistic
on
Hacker's Diet
·
· Score: 1
Try the Atkins diet.. No Carbohydrates allowed. (well at least for the first week or two)
It works for me, and it's pretty easy, no counting or measuring. You dont eat any starchy foods like potatos or corn, no sugar, no bread, just meat and green veggies. It dropped my cholesterol from 370 to 190, triglycerides are nearly zero. It's a steak and eggs diet, in central Texas where BBQ is king, I'm doing fine. The theory is that you store excess carbs as fat, but you dont store excess fat or protein. If you dont have carbs in your diet, your body will be forced to metabolize fat to get the sugar needed to run cellular machinery. Once you switch over to fat burning mode, you'll start using your fat cell reserves since there arent any easy carbs to metabolize. While you are reducing, you do need some supplements, like A,C and E, but a daily multivitamin has all you need, then add an anti-oxidant combo to deal with the ketones and you're set. And as a plus, any exercise will really show results since you are eating so much protein. Check out alt.support.diet.low-carb for more info
The hardware platform that made up the original Amiga is so dated and obsolete it's not funny. 3 and 4 micron chips that did cute video hacks are pointless with todays.18u device geometry. Shackling youself to legacy apps and API's is a waste of time and an architecture nightmare.
If they want to do it right, they need a clean-sheet hardware design top to bottom. And then, open source the whole thing, post the schematics, post the gerber files and BOMs. Post the FPGA verilog code and test vectors. Use standard parts for things like the PCI bus, SCSI bus and firewire. Otherwise, who will buy it? The 4000 Amiga fanatics out there who refuse to accept the demise of a 10+ year old machine? Hell of a market there... Who is going to write App software for a total niche machine? It's hard to get support for the Macintosh platform. I dont see any OpenSource non-linear Video Edit suites out there, or games for that matter. I've got an A500 sitting in a closet somewhere, it's not worth the time to run it when I've got a Linux C450A/128MB/TNT system that is so much more powerful on my desk. The same hardware reboots and runs Quake2/unreal/shogo/Descent3/3DSMAX/Premier5 and I can play DVDs/vidcapture with my ASUS3400/MX300 5.1 digital sound system. Why would I ever want a new hardware platform, so I can run 10 year old programs? Not!
Hmmm... At first reading I thought that said 'Jar-Jar Agonizer'... Cool!!! So I went there expecting some sort of Shockwave Animation of 'ol Jar-Jar gettin' the Juice..
I got SuSE 6.1 at Chumbo.com for $25USD I've been completely happy with it, it's install is much nicer the RH5-5.2 install. YAST is pretty nice, political issues aside..
It is primarily a German Language product, but you dont see too much of that when you set it up for English Language.
I like the SuSE X setup program better than the default provided by RH5
I'm a bit of Linux newbie, only about 5 installs and never rebuilt a custom kernel yet. I've been using Unix (Sun) for 10 years and NT for about the same. Just so you know where I'm coming from...
The fractal kites page is very cool. There are some pictures of Alexander Graham Bell flying one in his back yard in 1903! http://www.sct.gu.edu.au/~anthony/kites/tetra/be ll
Slashdot Mirror
With all the contacts of the VG list, has anyone ever done an analysis of the energy and COx breakeven for refining Si into solar cells?
When do you think biological processes, that strip Hydrogen from water and bond it to Carbon , then use fuel cell tech to produce electricity will be available.
Plastic explosives produce neutrons?
If that's all it took, any dork with access
to explosives could build an H-bomb,
you still need fissile materials to
set off a bomb.
I used to work at one of the 'Dilbert top 5' companies, they rolled out some snooping software in the guise of 'Asset Control' It tracked your machine's configuration. They did have a problem with theft even at this High-tech place with a LOT of highly paid engineers. So this program would report back every day what your hardware config was. Well, then soon after we had to report all the software on the machines, BillG must not have been getting his cut.. So then the software started checking for all your executables. You'd get dinged if you had anything other than the 'Official' programs on your machine. Try telling the software police, I WROTE that program, It's my code!! They'd look at you like you're some sort of subversive... Hmmm writes his own code, better keep an eye on this one...
Then they started getting usage-based licenses, this required tracking also, the tracking program started running 100% of the time logging everything used on your system. It was a great tool to get rid of people, hmm, you're only using MSword 2 hours a day, you're not productive...
I guess it didnt check how much time was spent in rebooting. If you disabled it, the manager of IS came around and had a talk with your manager about you disabling corporate asset tracking software, bad news..
The only place that was safe was the lab, I took to hiding out in there with my un-monitored Sun and what the sysadmins called a 'Rogue' NT network. A friend who is still there has a Linux machine, they dont mess with him too much, but I'm sure the monitering software company is working on a Linux version.
They had the idea that if you work for them, they do own you, they had drug tests and phone logs and all that. I got fed up and left to do contract work, for them sometimes. Things there have gone downhill, control-wise. They do work that requires creativity under this evironment. They've phased in NT corp-wide not because it's better, but because they can control the desktops better. It keeps a level of fear that stops any sort of dissent, if you dont like things, dont complain becuse they have something on you, and could always trot it out and fire you. A complete list of URLs is kept for every user, if you are a good boy, no-one says anything, if you are on the 'list' be prepared to defend every URL you ever visit.
It's no surprise they are currently floundering internally despite having some new products out. This stuff started a few years ago, it takes time for a big corp to rot out it's insides until the outside world can see it, remember IBM?
It's the corporate culture of control that kills creativity and runs off your best people, when I see the top folks leaving, it's time to get out.
I'm talking about the people who are 'good' , everyone knows who they are, with the exception of PHBs and other weasel-types. They are the folks who really make things work. They dont have to put up with any crap. At the first sign the best jump, then as the BS rises, more leave and your dont ever see them replaced, sure, warm bodies may occupy thier old cubes, but things dont get done.
(been there, done that, got the hell out...)
Living well is the best revenge...
Could it just maybe be the Slashdot effect, and you were the 1000th caller asking the same question? I'd be pretty annoyed if I were Tech support and had to answer the same question 1000 times already within a single day...
Then again, it 'could' be a big conspiracy...
Be patient, the whole thing will be hacked withing a month or two anyway...
Here's a link I scrounged up with google...q =cache:www.chrispy.net/marca/gqarticle.htm l
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:44025499&d
Not wanting it bad enough... HAH!
Microsoft told Moto, IBM and Apple they wanted $100Mil for the NT5 port, each! Moto MCG never even sold near that many retail NT and Mac PPC boxes, IBM hell, what did they want NT for , they had AIX, and Apple, DUH!!
Andy wanted PPC kicked out of his sandbox, and Bill did the kicking. Who know what Bill got in return, probably Intel dropped some Internet software project, they were big in networking and evangelizing net access in that timeframe.
I remember keying (switching?) in 'The fool on the hill' from a Creative Computing mag into my Altair's front panel. I took about an hour, so I would let it play for the rest of the day. My Mom still remembers it playing for hours on end. This was before we got the 88-ACR cassette tape interface so I could save huge efforts like that.
Now if they could generate a real FM signal and play recognizable music, that'd be something, bonus points for Stereo playback. What I suspect is that the FM reciever is picking up the strong(relatively) AM signal and playing that.
One other note...
"Electrofuel's super-polymer technology dedicates virtually all
the space to the battery itself and dispenses with the usual metal
package for supporting the battery cells, which can be as thin as
1 millimeter"
Scary.. A lithium cell with a 1 mm thick plastic case.. I wonder what would happen if you punctured the case with say, a pen point and shorted out the cell which was then exposed to Oxygen.. Bad things(tm) happen when Lithium metal burns..
By my calculations...
Thinkpad internal 10oz battery gets 17.3 minutes/oz
Powerpad 35oz battery gets 25 min/oz
Bigger batteries usually have better energy density due to less packaging per unit volume.
Isn't the 8240 just a 603r with a 106 on the same die? You cant see the PPC bus, just a memory bus and PCI bus with an I2O unit thrown in. /68332 CPM unit added (OK, an enhanced CPM)
The 8260 is the smae thing with the 860
Re Windriver..
Ugh... that code is soo nasty,layers and layers of cruft... Then there's their BSP scam, you write it, we (WR) approve it, and WR gets to sell it.
They called us once, we wanted to know how much they wanted for their OS on a per unit license, they wouldnt tell us a figure until we told them how much our product was going to sell for...
They got the quick hustle out of the office after that.
Linux is no more suited for Realtime than NT, but I've had people who wanted one or the other in a RT application. Sure you could make Linux a RTOS, but by the time you had ripped enough out, why bother, there are much better RTOS's available that have some history and support for less than the cost of my time to patch Linux to be some sort of questionable RTOS.
And how much will it cost to ship the solar cells to the Moon? The electrical energy output is very low, it'd take acres of solar cells to generate enough liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to lift anything of consequence off the lunar surface.
Make them on the moon you say? Ever look at just how much it takes to refine silicon and make solar cells, lots of water and electricity needed.
The Moon is a cinder, there's nothing there worth the trip.
You could 'mine' it , and it would be quite economical indeed.
Remember, it's a long way back to Earth to refuel your spacecraft, getting a little local hydrogen in a liquid form (ie hydrocarbon) would reduce the cost of a long term mission immensely. Even for a robotic mission, you could do the Mars Direct plan of sending the Rocket Fuel plant first, then when it is fully loaded, send your payload with a one-way fuel load to reduce mission costs/ increase payload. Using autonomous probes that could refuel in the system would allow for multi-year missions with much larger spacecraft.
Some SF here... Send a mission out to get a big chunk of H2O ice and pack it off to Mars using local fuel source. (Trivia:what's the story name?)
Best line in The Matrix...
"You're not really very bright, are you?"
Anything KR does , Johnny Depp could do 10x better. KR is just a dumb pretty boy, he has no edge whatsoever. Hell, Depp could probably do a spaced out surfer dude better than KR...
Does it do credit card transactions with name and address verify?
Inventory and accounting interfaces?
www.supercircuits.com
I've heard rumors that Intel has rooms full of Quad Xeon PC's running Linux Beowulf to do chip simulations for IA-32 and IA64 designs...
Try the Atkins diet..
No Carbohydrates allowed. (well at least for the first week or two)
It works for me, and it's pretty easy, no counting or measuring. You dont eat any starchy foods like potatos or corn, no sugar, no bread, just meat and green veggies. It dropped my cholesterol from 370 to 190, triglycerides are nearly zero.
It's a steak and eggs diet, in central Texas where BBQ is king, I'm doing fine.
The theory is that you store excess carbs as fat, but you dont store excess fat or protein. If you dont have carbs in your diet, your body will be forced to metabolize fat to get the sugar needed to run cellular machinery. Once you switch over to fat burning mode, you'll start using your fat cell reserves since there arent any easy carbs to metabolize. While you are reducing, you do need some supplements, like A,C and E, but a daily multivitamin has all you need, then add an anti-oxidant combo to deal with the ketones and you're set.
And as a plus, any exercise will really show results since you are eating so much protein.
Check out alt.support.diet.low-carb for more info
Or get another antenna module and put it on the other phase. That's what I did, and it works fine.
The hardware platform that made up the original Amiga is so dated and obsolete it's not funny. 3 and 4 micron chips that did cute video hacks are pointless with todays .18u device geometry.
Shackling youself to legacy apps and API's is a waste of time and an architecture nightmare.
If they want to do it right, they need a clean-sheet hardware design top to bottom. And then, open source the whole thing, post the schematics, post the gerber files and BOMs. Post the FPGA verilog code and test vectors. Use standard parts for things like the PCI bus, SCSI bus and firewire.
Otherwise, who will buy it? The 4000 Amiga fanatics out there who refuse to accept the demise of a 10+ year old machine? Hell of a market there... Who is going to write App software for a total niche machine? It's hard to get support for the Macintosh platform. I dont see any OpenSource non-linear Video Edit suites out there, or games for that matter.
I've got an A500 sitting in a closet somewhere, it's not worth the time to run it when I've got a Linux C450A/128MB/TNT system that is so much more powerful on my desk. The same hardware reboots and runs Quake2/unreal/shogo/Descent3/3DSMAX/Premier5 and I can play DVDs/vidcapture with my ASUS3400/MX300 5.1 digital sound system. Why would I ever want a new hardware platform, so I can run 10 year old programs? Not!
Hmmm...
At first reading I thought that said 'Jar-Jar Agonizer'... Cool!!!
So I went there expecting some sort of Shockwave Animation of 'ol Jar-Jar gettin' the Juice..
'Aw, bummer it's just a text filter program'
I liked Drugstore Cowboy much better...
The William S. Burroughs cameo was great
Is that the same pink guy who keeps trying to steal my cellphone?
Watch out.. He's sneaky...
I got SuSE 6.1 at Chumbo.com for $25USD
I've been completely happy with it, it's install is much nicer the RH5-5.2 install.
YAST is pretty nice, political issues aside..
It is primarily a German Language product, but you dont see too much of that when you set it up for English Language.
I like the SuSE X setup program better than the default provided by RH5
I'm a bit of Linux newbie, only about 5 installs and never rebuilt a custom kernel yet. I've been using Unix (Sun) for 10 years and NT for about the same. Just so you know where I'm coming from...
The fractal kites page is very cool.e ll
There are some pictures of Alexander Graham Bell
flying one in his back yard in 1903!
http://www.sct.gu.edu.au/~anthony/kites/tetra/b
The number one question...
Have they fixed the blasted hinges yet!
That is the number one weakness of all Psion
products, those stupid weak hinges on the screen.