in focus in Japanese architecture is to keep the construction as light as possible to prevent overheating in the summer
Silly. Houses that are supposed stay cool in the summer should be well insulated. R40 in the walls, double pane windows with low-e argon fill, insulated attics, the works. Insulation works both ways.. it keeps the heat inside during winter and it prevents heat accumulation in the summer. I think they simply try to cut costs and give this stupid excuse as a reason for shoddy work.
I find the idea of building a cordwood house very enticing. Cordwood homes are houses built with short wood logs joined together with mortar. They require masonry skills to build but last as long as brick homes (usually > 200 years). Their look is quite attractive on the outside and can be finished with plaster on the inside just like stone houses.
Cordwood houses are unlikely to last as long as stone ones (usually > 500 years) but they rival brick for longevity and cost a fraction of what it costs to build with stone or even brick.
Here's ananecdote for you. When my great grandfather was building his house they asked him if he wanted electricity and gas hooked up. After he researched the technologies he decided that electricity was a fad and was going to vanish into obscurity but he liked gas a lot. So he installed gas only.
Ten years later he was ripping the walls open with my grandfather to lay electric wire...
Yes. However, they are talking about light crude which is just one specific form of oil presence. If you consider the more expensive forms of oil presence such as "tar sands" your numbers will show a different story. Even though only 10% of the tar sands oil is extractable with the present day technology, that 10% is alrady more oil than all of the reserves in Saudi Arabia! Once the techniques for recovering oil from the tar sands improve we will be cooking for another 200 to 300 years on that reserve alone. Face it, oil isn't going anywhere because it's actually a really cost effective source of energy no matter how much we'd like it to not be the case.
Probably no. But even the worst case scenario forecasts that I've seen estimate the supplies to be at lest 100 years. That's only the oil we know about right now. For any politician within the next fifty years this deadline is essentially eternity.
If there is a reason to reduce dependency on oil it's purely political/international situation. What I don't understand is why more research isn't invested in harvesting solar energy through space based solar power stations beaming microwave energy back to earth. The idea is perfectly feasible although at present considered not COST EFFECTIVE enough.
Re:Hydrogen is not an alternative energy resource
on
A Hydrogen-Based Economy
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· Score: 2, Interesting
We may or may not run out of oil. There is a lot more oil than we know about today. Time and again it has been proved that as our exploration technology gets more advanced we can extract more and more oil out of fields that used to be considered dry.
Ironically the largest reserve of oil is not in Saudi Arabia or Iraq. It's actually north of the border. Yup, you heard it right. Canada has the largest oil reserves in the world in the so called "Alberta oil sands". It's actually oil that soaks the topsoil but its extraction is entirely possible albeit more expensive. It costs about $2.50 to extract a barrel of oil from a traditional oil field whilst it's around $14 to extract the same quantity of oil from Canada's tar sands. Hence they only ramp up production there when oil prices are above $20 a barrel or so....
So there you go, True North, cold, free and filthy rich.
Absolutely. I spent six months at a games company and it's exactly like the parent post described. Also games companies pay SHIT! After graduating with a CS degree I got hired as a developer by a games company and was offered... GBP12,000! I soon quit for a job in scientific visualisation programming and got GBP20,000 from the start with decent raises and sane working hours.
This is actually good. The more such patents are approved the more meaningless the concept of a patent will become. Over time nobody will give a damn about patent laws because they will infringe something no matter what the hell they do.
There will be a point when the whole system will have to be scrapped or totally overhauled. More such "garbage" patents will bring this day closer. I can't wait.
Exactly. Especially given that Linus' company is trying to corner the mobile cpu market while the subject of the discussion, the Itanium processor is strictly a server cpu. Those two markets seem as far apart as humanly possible. But what can you do about amateur "new media journalists"?
Here in Canada heating oil is so frigging expensive that this winter I switched to heating with wood and started seeing enormous savings right away. If the wood is dry and seasoned and you have an EPA certified stove there is very little creosote build up and no wood smell in the house. I'd rather burn wood than oil and avoid lining Irving's pockets.
More people should look at wood burning these days. The technology has come a long since the days of an old rusty pot belly stove in the basement. There is a good site about burning wood
Just because someone claims they 'invented' stuff it doesn't mean they did. Television was an improved form of communications over radio. The Segway is a step down from a car or even a motor bike in every way: travel comfort, distance covered, speed of commuting and even affordability! Just because it employs a computer doesn't mean it is an improved vehicle. In my eyes (an seemingly in most people's) it is inferior to a car in every single way.
A real breakthrough will come when we use fuel cells in lieu of fossil fuels to power cars. Now that will be a real change but it won't come until the hegemony of big oil corps is undermined.
It is a stupid idea. Always was. Tewnty years ago a British man named Clive Sinclair had an idea for revolutionizing transportation. He invented a small electric bike that had a range similar to that of Segway and was powered by an electric battery. It was a spectacular failure that ultimately ended his once successful Sinclair Research corporation.
Segway is going to die the same way C5 did despite it's enormous marketing budget. People have voted with their wallets against silly "inventions" like this in the past and they will do it again. If I were Kaman I'd try to start cutting losses now before he has to move out of his beautiful mansion.
Finally a voice of reason here. Thank you. I think very few here still have memories of the trauma that bullying can cause. That or they were quick to forget once they themselves were 'out of the woods' so to speak... Do we even need to mention the Columbine case?
Abuse takes a mental toll regardless of whether it is dished out by adults or peers. All of you will hopefully agree that child abuse (sexual or otherwise) is a despicable crime and should be severely punished. Why shouldn't the same logic apply to child abuse by other children?
Many kids that are bullied in school do become scarred for life. They are often even more reluctant to admit it than those abused by adults. The notion that at some point in their lives they were weak/inferior to their peers is very difficult to accept. Most do allright later on in their lives. Some don't and even if they survive many will end up living unfulfilling lives as social outcasts. They almost never become super popular in the workplace. I suspect that in many cases older nerds are as much ostracized as the teenage ones except the social etiquette mandates that you can't throw lunch apples at them anymore. However, I suspect that behind the scenes they are still ridiculed and talked about by the more popular ones. The abuse just becomes more subtle that's all.
OK. Given what you said why are gravity based systems considered too ineffective to use nowadays? I'm not being cocky just curious about the dissonance....
Well, gravity based home heating systems have been obsolete with the advent of the water pump? Why bother when it's well known that forced water flow will provide better thermal conductivity?
I did just that I compared costs of buying cheapo brands versus the more expensive food. The differences are not as significant as some people think. The difference comes in what you eat. If you buy a sirloin steak daily it'll cost you. But if you interleave that diet with some ground beef you'll save money while just switching brands of steak will give you negligible savings despite what the common knowledge tells you. Go to your store and compare prices. I dare you! And make sure you're comparing 'apples to apples' (no pun intended) in terms of weight/type etc.
Clearly the country you're describing is...
Czech Republic! A functioning democracy with the largest part of the population being atheist and very high standards of living. That's right, sir! Czech Republic has one of the highest standards of living surpassing most current EU members and approaching levels of Canada. So much for the myths about 'developing countries' and 'emerging markets'. They got there faster than anyone thought possible why the US corps have been busy 'reinventing the economy' during the dotcom bubble era.
Slashdot Mirror
Silly. Houses that are supposed stay cool in the summer should be well insulated. R40 in the walls, double pane windows with low-e argon fill, insulated attics, the works. Insulation works both ways.. it keeps the heat inside during winter and it prevents heat accumulation in the summer. I think they simply try to cut costs and give this stupid excuse as a reason for shoddy work.
Cordwood houses are unlikely to last as long as stone ones (usually > 500 years) but they rival brick for longevity and cost a fraction of what it costs to build with stone or even brick.
Yup, and if things turn bad those jobs may even turn permanent.... Dreams, sweet dreams.
Ten years later he was ripping the walls open with my grandfather to lay electric wire...
Yes. However, they are talking about light crude which is just one specific form of oil presence. If you consider the more expensive forms of oil presence such as "tar sands" your numbers will show a different story. Even though only 10% of the tar sands oil is extractable with the present day technology, that 10% is alrady more oil than all of the reserves in Saudi Arabia! Once the techniques for recovering oil from the tar sands improve we will be cooking for another 200 to 300 years on that reserve alone. Face it, oil isn't going anywhere because it's actually a really cost effective source of energy no matter how much we'd like it to not be the case.
Pun intended?
If there is a reason to reduce dependency on oil it's purely political/international situation. What I don't understand is why more research isn't invested in harvesting solar energy through space based solar power stations beaming microwave energy back to earth. The idea is perfectly feasible although at present considered not COST EFFECTIVE enough.
Ironically the largest reserve of oil is not in Saudi Arabia or Iraq. It's actually north of the border. Yup, you heard it right. Canada has the largest oil reserves in the world in the so called "Alberta oil sands". It's actually oil that soaks the topsoil but its extraction is entirely possible albeit more expensive. It costs about $2.50 to extract a barrel of oil from a traditional oil field whilst it's around $14 to extract the same quantity of oil from Canada's tar sands. Hence they only ramp up production there when oil prices are above $20 a barrel or so.... So there you go, True North, cold, free and filthy rich.
Moderators on crack. How is this post any less funny than its parent?
Absolutely. I spent six months at a games company and it's exactly like the parent post described. Also games companies pay SHIT! After graduating with a CS degree I got hired as a developer by a games company and was offered... GBP12,000! I soon quit for a job in scientific visualisation programming and got GBP20,000 from the start with decent raises and sane working hours.
There will be a point when the whole system will have to be scrapped or totally overhauled. More such "garbage" patents will bring this day closer. I can't wait.
hope this helps.
The plural version is actually correct for any version of English besides the US English.
Exactly. Especially given that Linus' company is trying to corner the mobile cpu market while the subject of the discussion, the Itanium processor is strictly a server cpu. Those two markets seem as far apart as humanly possible. But what can you do about amateur "new media journalists"?
More people should look at wood burning these days. The technology has come a long since the days of an old rusty pot belly stove in the basement. There is a good site about burning wood
A real breakthrough will come when we use fuel cells in lieu of fossil fuels to power cars. Now that will be a real change but it won't come until the hegemony of big oil corps is undermined.
Segway is going to die the same way C5 did despite it's enormous marketing budget. People have voted with their wallets against silly "inventions" like this in the past and they will do it again. If I were Kaman I'd try to start cutting losses now before he has to move out of his beautiful mansion.
Abuse takes a mental toll regardless of whether it is dished out by adults or peers. All of you will hopefully agree that child abuse (sexual or otherwise) is a despicable crime and should be severely punished. Why shouldn't the same logic apply to child abuse by other children?
Many kids that are bullied in school do become scarred for life. They are often even more reluctant to admit it than those abused by adults. The notion that at some point in their lives they were weak/inferior to their peers is very difficult to accept. Most do allright later on in their lives. Some don't and even if they survive many will end up living unfulfilling lives as social outcasts. They almost never become super popular in the workplace. I suspect that in many cases older nerds are as much ostracized as the teenage ones except the social etiquette mandates that you can't throw lunch apples at them anymore. However, I suspect that behind the scenes they are still ridiculed and talked about by the more popular ones. The abuse just becomes more subtle that's all.
There is only so much one can play shareware Doom in one's lifetime...
OK. Given what you said why are gravity based systems considered too ineffective to use nowadays? I'm not being cocky just curious about the dissonance....
You're right. The conductivity stays the same but it's the faster flow in a pump system that ensures more reliable heat transfer.
Well, gravity based home heating systems have been obsolete with the advent of the water pump? Why bother when it's well known that forced water flow will provide better thermal conductivity?
I did just that I compared costs of buying cheapo brands versus the more expensive food. The differences are not as significant as some people think. The difference comes in what you eat. If you buy a sirloin steak daily it'll cost you. But if you interleave that diet with some ground beef you'll save money while just switching brands of steak will give you negligible savings despite what the common knowledge tells you. Go to your store and compare prices. I dare you! And make sure you're comparing 'apples to apples' (no pun intended) in terms of weight/type etc.
Clearly the country you're describing is... Czech Republic! A functioning democracy with the largest part of the population being atheist and very high standards of living. That's right, sir! Czech Republic has one of the highest standards of living surpassing most current EU members and approaching levels of Canada. So much for the myths about 'developing countries' and 'emerging markets'. They got there faster than anyone thought possible why the US corps have been busy 'reinventing the economy' during the dotcom bubble era.