Back in 2003, a 2.5 kw AC system cost about $10k to $12k to install, depending on various conditions, such the type of roof. Prices usually scale proportionally as you increase the size of the system. Nowadays, I hear the figure is about $16k to $18k.
This is true for silicon PV cells. Nanosolar will be mass-producing a 10'x14' (~3m by ~4m) 2.6Kw panel for an installer price of $2500, about half what the silicon panels run. Their factory is set up to output 480MW of capacity per year, with a total construction cost of around $100million US (about 1/10th what a older-tech scale plant would run). This should do a really good job of helping out w/ electric generation in the 'States...
Except for the documents from 1999-2002 that detail the reinstatement of the Radioactive Waste Treatment System, something the 1998 accords specifically forbade. Or the documents from the same period detailing the recreation and restoration of the radiochemistry labs, which they were also expressly not allowed to have. So yes, while they didn't have everything they needed, they had the ball rolling. The only thing they needed was the ore, which Nigeria could have provided. I'm not suggesting Joe Wilson lied, but that I don't really think a Nigerian dictator is someone we should trust all that much. It's a fairly trivial hop from the above suggestions to Iraq was starting up their nuclear program again, and simply being more careful this time.
Well, the trick is that there were some significant mathematical breakthroughs as people realized the relationships of variables in observed physical systems. There are some neat things, like symmetry, that have strangely proven incredibly useful in describing the way the world behaves. It's almost too good, as it makes so many things make sense, and you're right, it's adoption is partly because it's appealing to the mathematical mind of most physicists. It feels right, but that doesn't mean it is right. It doesn't quite cover all the bases (and if it does, we can't quite see how); there's still plenty of holes to fill. We'll get there, though. Interesting weird stuff is afoot, what with the singularity approaching and all, and as the old saying, "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Interesting Times...
Duh. It's because "heroes of truth" are out for exactly that: the truth. The "critical thinking" is realizing the story is false, and designed to get them to do something. It's a talent most of us here possess in better-than-average quantity, reinforced by endless opportunities to experience the scientific method.
"Humanity" and the "story" are illusions, and fraught with lies about the way things are. We've enough problems with what actually exists, why bother making stuff up? This guy's making an accusation of theft, and depending on the local laws governing devices of that sort, the consequences may be dire indeed.
I guess my ultimate point is, quit bitching about the whiners and evaluate what they have objectively, and make a decision for yourself. Then act on it.
The above poster is absolutely, 100% correct. There are no penalties for failure for managers anymore. You can screw up every task of management set before you, and nothing will come of it. It's time for all competent workers (you know who you are) to find the competent worker management, and essentially tattle on the ineffective managers. Note that this requires skill and subtlety, and a willingness to keep at it even when it doesn't look so good for you.
Ultimately, it's high time the incompetent 80% that's had a free ride to date either got with the program, or got cut off from the rest of the productive members of society.
It's nice and all that the travel industry is growing and attempting to get more secure with the addition of these identifier chips. Soon, we won't need a separate passport. Soon, our regular Identification (what ever that turns out to be) will be all that is needed to travel. ANd I'm sure it will include a digital component.
yep. Part of the new legislation requires that all state identification have the information on the card in a machine-readable format. Whether that takes the form of a magnetic strip, a smart chip, or an RFID device is up to the feds. The states don't have to participate, but if they don't, their Federal highway maintenance funding will dry up, and no state will take that option.
You're telling me that an effect heretofore unnoticed in over a century of testing and use has suddenly been discovered, but we'll keep it a secret, you know, so we can win the "War on Drugs."
The sensation you're experiencing upon having read that sentence is called "cognitive dissonance." It's because the thought represented is contradictory, or wrong. Specifics? Empirical evidence? (i know, on/., right?) C'mon, you can do better than that./weak with a side of weak sauce.
yah, but it's not going to swap to disk unless there's memory pressure causing it. Add more RAM. Relaunching the widgets would take just as long, as the APIs have to get either swapped back in, or reloaded from libraries on disk. Either way is slow; if what you're doing makes you bump up against the edge of RAM, then you probably need more.
Innocence is a synonym for ignorance. The price we pay for the power we have as adults is the understanding of evil. It's this understanding that allows us to chose between the abyss and the more noble pursuits. Without it, we wouldn't be human. Sure, it's fun to be a kid, pretending that there's nothing bad or detracting about such things. Sticking your head in the sand brings temporary relief from the misery that accompanies adulthood. But it's a deception, of the worst sort, as it's one where the deceived is yourself.
That said, there are some good parts to being an adult. For one, there's the fun of switching that level of responsibility on or off, knowing that it's simply an act, and we can will ourselves back to full responsibility at any time. I actually like being able to do this, casting off stuffed-shirtedness when presented the opportunity, but only because I know it's a facade. It's chance to play-act, something I think most people fail to enjoy enough. There's also the nearly unlimited potential for personal growth. Only a fully-developed, responsible adult can appreciate some of the more visceral interactions found in nature.
Here's a good example. Later today, I'm going to load up my new Mossberg 500 and a few boxes of shells, some random crap I've laying around, and drive them and my 4x4 out into the absolute boons, and blow stuff up. Now, this is something that lots of us growing up would have dreamed of doing. Several of us here probably have done that while growing up. The trick here is that neither of the above activities would be viable forms of entertainment were it not for the fact that childlike playfulness on the one hand is thoroughly tempered by an adult sense of responsibility and safety.
I work hard, and play hard. High-performance equipment of any kind is really neat, but mix in some stupidity (of the little-kid kind), and you've a recipe for disaster. IMO, the power garnered from the knowledge of good and evil is worth the pain and suffering it brings with it.
Note: High-performance equipment == any system containing forces capable of rending a human.
is exactly what the situation now calls for. In the beginning, simple reminders on the part of the service provider and a no-tolerance policy toward rogue users would have been enough. Now, with the problem several orders of magnitude greater, we are forced to resort to draconian measures just to catch up. The further things deteriorate, the harsher the solution must become. It's like the US/Mexico immigration issue. The US sat by and watched things deteriorate, and now there's something like 18% of the Mexican population living in the 'States.
I have no sympathy for those that get caught spamming. If we'd been tougher about it sooner, it wouldn't be so bad now.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Kenta Cho yet. This guy has singlehandedly produced some of the purest, fastest, hardest shooters ever. Sure, they're simple, and don't have much in the way of game art. But the games themselves are fantastic.
Yes, what you've discovered is called "coincidence." There's absolutely no relation between the naming of the planet, the myths that surrounded the name, and any events arising from astrophysics.
Jupiter's huge, but not _that_ huge. Failed star? Not quite. Were it some 200x it's current mass, sure, I'd call it a failed star. But it's not; it's just the largest gas giant in the system. We've found worlds 60x it's size.
And it's no "protector of the inner worlds." Anything entering the system from outside the plane of the ecliptic isn't going to feel much. Oh, Jupiter'll have a gravitational effect, one that's utterly dwarfed by Sol. Also, Earth is on the other side of the system some 50% of it's orbit, so the gas giant won't have any beneficial effect at all during that time.
alt.destroy-the-earth calculated that it takes on the order of 10^38 joules to shatter a world roughly the mass of Earth. A Mars-sized object could do it, if it was moving 110,000 km/sec, a significant fraction of lightspeed. (the above is a ballpark, i.e., should be accurate within one order of magnitude.)
Yes, and there are great consequences to be placed on the assailant, should the victim decide to proceed with them. The legislators in this country have made it illegal to do so at the behest of the citizens, but the state can't act until you do so first. Nobody can stop you from punching me in the nose, except you and me. Even if I'm successful, it's still assault, and you can and probably will be charged, arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned.
No, I'm not saying that. That you're willing to equate the two speaks volumes about your mindset and aggressive/confrontational nature. But, it's possible you're just worked up for the moment, so I'll continue assuming you're actually interested in my opinion.
I think that there are laws in the US, written by duly elected representatives of the citizenry. Those laws define a path by which a non-citizen can become a citizen. The US path is actually significantly easier than any other first-world nation's path. However, because of the apparent complete lack of enforcement (and the fact that the volume of illegals has outstripped our ability to deal with them), it's now a Really Big Mess, and requires measures of greater desperation.
With the scope of the issue being what it is, it makes it difficult to enact the most straightforward solution: deportation. Some of the illegals have been here for years and have children and extended families now. I'm still in favor of that process, but it's a little weak from a cost/benefits ratio. Just an assumption, but even if it takes as much as $4000 to process and deport each illegal, we'd recoup the cost involved in a year's time. It might not be as bad a plan as thought.
Aren't you guys having daily riots and demonstrations in downtown Mexico City? As in, demonstrations that block traffic through the city for hours at a time? I'm asking in all sincerity, as that's the rumors I've heard, and I'd like some validation from someone who's actually there.
Honestly, as a citizen of the US, I have a vested interest in making sure my neighbors share at least some of my values and behaviors, i.e., my culture. At least some of it. I have no problem with the degree of work ethic displayed by most illegals; I do have issues with the lack of willingness to assimilate. At the very least, learn enough of the language to get by. There are plenty of high school age teens who would pick up some of these jobs, and who need serious training in hard work, as they've not had the exposure to hardship, and don't know what it's like to have to work to eat. Additionally, the US internal economy has as one of it's base assumptions the fact that the minimum pay rate for an individual is $5.15/hr. When large numbers of individuals take jobs for less than that rate, and more importantly, don't pay taxes or social security on their wages, it skews the economy to the point that the model in place starts to have problems. I'd much rather prefer that my neighbors have at least the same indoctrinations regarding the general political culture and philosophical background for the structure of the country that I received in school. My biggest issue is that these people seem to want to come here, take advantage of every bit of infrastructure here along with our job market, with no desire whatsoever to become US citizens. They want to remain Mexicans, and I have a problem with that.
I wonder what the immigration laws are like in your country. I'd bet that if I came over there as an illegal immigrant, I'd be denied work, and deported as soon as the relevant authorities became aware of my presence.
it takes a compiler to find those optimizations that are too complex to do by hand or hard to find while being easy to do.
Say what? Um, that type of optimization doesn't exist, unless the programmer is really untalented. Most of the big opportunities should stand out like a sore thumb on a trace. Once you know what's taking all the time in the code, you can look at the way it's put together to catch the low-hanging fruit. Generally, the first 10% of the work gets you 90% of the way there. Then there's all the corner-case work, the 90% that gets you the other 10%. In both cases, so long as you've the appropriate tools, finding opportunity for speedup is relatively easy, excepting in cases where a routine needs a complete reevaluation from the ground up. This can happen if the data model's not quite right, or there's significant resource blocking. These are a real bitch because they can cause you to completely redesign large sections of code, and there's absolutely nothing an optimizing compiler will do to help in those cases.
I should point out that a well-designed program should not encounter the last two issues, as it suggests the problem wasn't well-enough understood beforehand. You have to know exactly what you want to do with a computer before you figure out how you're going to do it.
Word's not really much of a WYSIWYG word processor. Only in the best case will it function like that. Most of the time, tho, it's a document mutilation tool.
/does anyone at MS even realize how bad Word is? //i mean, use the thing for an hour, and see what happens. ///gaaaah! why can't I get rid of all these paragraph notations! they just appeared after I added a linefeed, and now they won't go away!!! ////why do I actually have to insert the HTML line break command to add a linefeed in this comment???
Slashdot Mirror
Back in 2003, a 2.5 kw AC system cost about $10k to $12k to install, depending on various conditions, such the type of roof. Prices usually scale proportionally as you increase the size of the system. Nowadays, I hear the figure is about $16k to $18k.
This is true for silicon PV cells. Nanosolar will be mass-producing a 10'x14' (~3m by ~4m) 2.6Kw panel for an installer price of $2500, about half what the silicon panels run. Their factory is set up to output 480MW of capacity per year, with a total construction cost of around $100million US (about 1/10th what a older-tech scale plant would run). This should do a really good job of helping out w/ electric generation in the 'States...
Except for the documents from 1999-2002 that detail the reinstatement of the Radioactive Waste Treatment System, something the 1998 accords specifically forbade. Or the documents from the same period detailing the recreation and restoration of the radiochemistry labs, which they were also expressly not allowed to have. So yes, while they didn't have everything they needed, they had the ball rolling. The only thing they needed was the ore, which Nigeria could have provided. I'm not suggesting Joe Wilson lied, but that I don't really think a Nigerian dictator is someone we should trust all that much. It's a fairly trivial hop from the above suggestions to Iraq was starting up their nuclear program again, and simply being more careful this time.
Well, the trick is that there were some significant mathematical breakthroughs as people realized the relationships of variables in observed physical systems. There are some neat things, like symmetry, that have strangely proven incredibly useful in describing the way the world behaves. It's almost too good, as it makes so many things make sense, and you're right, it's adoption is partly because it's appealing to the mathematical mind of most physicists. It feels right, but that doesn't mean it is right. It doesn't quite cover all the bases (and if it does, we can't quite see how); there's still plenty of holes to fill. We'll get there, though. Interesting weird stuff is afoot, what with the singularity approaching and all, and as the old saying, "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Interesting Times...
yes, but "weeeeeeeeee" conjures gonads and strife, and there's always room for gonads and strife.
Duh. It's because "heroes of truth" are out for exactly that: the truth. The "critical thinking" is realizing the story is false, and designed to get them to do something. It's a talent most of us here possess in better-than-average quantity, reinforced by endless opportunities to experience the scientific method.
"Humanity" and the "story" are illusions, and fraught with lies about the way things are. We've enough problems with what actually exists, why bother making stuff up? This guy's making an accusation of theft, and depending on the local laws governing devices of that sort, the consequences may be dire indeed.
I guess my ultimate point is, quit bitching about the whiners and evaluate what they have objectively, and make a decision for yourself. Then act on it.
The above poster is absolutely, 100% correct. There are no penalties for failure for managers anymore. You can screw up every task of management set before you, and nothing will come of it. It's time for all competent workers (you know who you are) to find the competent worker management, and essentially tattle on the ineffective managers. Note that this requires skill and subtlety, and a willingness to keep at it even when it doesn't look so good for you.
Ultimately, it's high time the incompetent 80% that's had a free ride to date either got with the program, or got cut off from the rest of the productive members of society.
yep. Part of the new legislation requires that all state identification have the information on the card in a machine-readable format. Whether that takes the form of a magnetic strip, a smart chip, or an RFID device is up to the feds. The states don't have to participate, but if they don't, their Federal highway maintenance funding will dry up, and no state will take that option.
Welcome to the National ID Card.
Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
/., right?) C'mon, you can do better than that. /weak with a side of weak sauce.
You're telling me that an effect heretofore unnoticed in over a century of testing and use has suddenly been discovered, but we'll keep it a secret, you know, so we can win the "War on Drugs."
The sensation you're experiencing upon having read that sentence is called "cognitive dissonance." It's because the thought represented is contradictory, or wrong. Specifics? Empirical evidence? (i know, on
ha! that one's just as big a lie as "just be yourself."
yah, but it's not going to swap to disk unless there's memory pressure causing it. Add more RAM. Relaunching the widgets would take just as long, as the APIs have to get either swapped back in, or reloaded from libraries on disk. Either way is slow; if what you're doing makes you bump up against the edge of RAM, then you probably need more.
Is that Google won't have to pay above and beyond their already astronomical bandwidth costs. Bloodsucking parasites...
A counterpoint:
Innocence is a synonym for ignorance. The price we pay for the power we have as adults is the understanding of evil. It's this understanding that allows us to chose between the abyss and the more noble pursuits. Without it, we wouldn't be human. Sure, it's fun to be a kid, pretending that there's nothing bad or detracting about such things. Sticking your head in the sand brings temporary relief from the misery that accompanies adulthood. But it's a deception, of the worst sort, as it's one where the deceived is yourself.
That said, there are some good parts to being an adult. For one, there's the fun of switching that level of responsibility on or off, knowing that it's simply an act, and we can will ourselves back to full responsibility at any time. I actually like being able to do this, casting off stuffed-shirtedness when presented the opportunity, but only because I know it's a facade. It's chance to play-act, something I think most people fail to enjoy enough. There's also the nearly unlimited potential for personal growth. Only a fully-developed, responsible adult can appreciate some of the more visceral interactions found in nature.
Here's a good example. Later today, I'm going to load up my new Mossberg 500 and a few boxes of shells, some random crap I've laying around, and drive them and my 4x4 out into the absolute boons, and blow stuff up. Now, this is something that lots of us growing up would have dreamed of doing. Several of us here probably have done that while growing up. The trick here is that neither of the above activities would be viable forms of entertainment were it not for the fact that childlike playfulness on the one hand is thoroughly tempered by an adult sense of responsibility and safety.
I work hard, and play hard. High-performance equipment of any kind is really neat, but mix in some stupidity (of the little-kid kind), and you've a recipe for disaster. IMO, the power garnered from the knowledge of good and evil is worth the pain and suffering it brings with it.
Note: High-performance equipment == any system containing forces capable of rending a human.
is exactly what the situation now calls for. In the beginning, simple reminders on the part of the service provider and a no-tolerance policy toward rogue users would have been enough. Now, with the problem several orders of magnitude greater, we are forced to resort to draconian measures just to catch up. The further things deteriorate, the harsher the solution must become. It's like the US/Mexico immigration issue. The US sat by and watched things deteriorate, and now there's something like 18% of the Mexican population living in the 'States.
I have no sympathy for those that get caught spamming. If we'd been tougher about it sooner, it wouldn't be so bad now.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Kenta Cho yet. This guy has singlehandedly produced some of the purest, fastest, hardest shooters ever. Sure, they're simple, and don't have much in the way of game art. But the games themselves are fantastic.
Yes, what you've discovered is called "coincidence." There's absolutely no relation between the naming of the planet, the myths that surrounded the name, and any events arising from astrophysics.
Jupiter's huge, but not _that_ huge. Failed star? Not quite. Were it some 200x it's current mass, sure, I'd call it a failed star. But it's not; it's just the largest gas giant in the system. We've found worlds 60x it's size.
And it's no "protector of the inner worlds." Anything entering the system from outside the plane of the ecliptic isn't going to feel much. Oh, Jupiter'll have a gravitational effect, one that's utterly dwarfed by Sol. Also, Earth is on the other side of the system some 50% of it's orbit, so the gas giant won't have any beneficial effect at all during that time.
actually, they didn't. I'd remembered it wrong. oh well. Take that velocity down to about 110km/sec...
alt.destroy-the-earth calculated that it takes on the order of 10^38 joules to shatter a world roughly the mass of Earth. A Mars-sized object could do it, if it was moving 110,000 km/sec, a significant fraction of lightspeed. (the above is a ballpark, i.e., should be accurate within one order of magnitude.)
Yes, and there are great consequences to be placed on the assailant, should the victim decide to proceed with them. The legislators in this country have made it illegal to do so at the behest of the citizens, but the state can't act until you do so first. Nobody can stop you from punching me in the nose, except you and me. Even if I'm successful, it's still assault, and you can and probably will be charged, arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned.
No, I'm not saying that. That you're willing to equate the two speaks volumes about your mindset and aggressive/confrontational nature. But, it's possible you're just worked up for the moment, so I'll continue assuming you're actually interested in my opinion.
I think that there are laws in the US, written by duly elected representatives of the citizenry. Those laws define a path by which a non-citizen can become a citizen. The US path is actually significantly easier than any other first-world nation's path. However, because of the apparent complete lack of enforcement (and the fact that the volume of illegals has outstripped our ability to deal with them), it's now a Really Big Mess, and requires measures of greater desperation.
With the scope of the issue being what it is, it makes it difficult to enact the most straightforward solution: deportation. Some of the illegals have been here for years and have children and extended families now. I'm still in favor of that process, but it's a little weak from a cost/benefits ratio. Just an assumption, but even if it takes as much as $4000 to process and deport each illegal, we'd recoup the cost involved in a year's time. It might not be as bad a plan as thought.
The Swiss require 8-10 years of residency, a significant net worth, and a lengthy education process, to be granted citizenship.
Aren't you guys having daily riots and demonstrations in downtown Mexico City? As in, demonstrations that block traffic through the city for hours at a time? I'm asking in all sincerity, as that's the rumors I've heard, and I'd like some validation from someone who's actually there.
Honestly, as a citizen of the US, I have a vested interest in making sure my neighbors share at least some of my values and behaviors, i.e., my culture. At least some of it. I have no problem with the degree of work ethic displayed by most illegals; I do have issues with the lack of willingness to assimilate. At the very least, learn enough of the language to get by. There are plenty of high school age teens who would pick up some of these jobs, and who need serious training in hard work, as they've not had the exposure to hardship, and don't know what it's like to have to work to eat. Additionally, the US internal economy has as one of it's base assumptions the fact that the minimum pay rate for an individual is $5.15/hr. When large numbers of individuals take jobs for less than that rate, and more importantly, don't pay taxes or social security on their wages, it skews the economy to the point that the model in place starts to have problems. I'd much rather prefer that my neighbors have at least the same indoctrinations regarding the general political culture and philosophical background for the structure of the country that I received in school. My biggest issue is that these people seem to want to come here, take advantage of every bit of infrastructure here along with our job market, with no desire whatsoever to become US citizens. They want to remain Mexicans, and I have a problem with that.
I wonder what the immigration laws are like in your country. I'd bet that if I came over there as an illegal immigrant, I'd be denied work, and deported as soon as the relevant authorities became aware of my presence.
You do realize, that Mexico has a fence, with armed guards, at their southern border. And they shoot trespassers on sight.
Funny how that fact never makes it into the US media.
it takes a compiler to find those optimizations that are too complex to do by hand or hard to find while being easy to do.
Say what? Um, that type of optimization doesn't exist, unless the programmer is really untalented. Most of the big opportunities should stand out like a sore thumb on a trace. Once you know what's taking all the time in the code, you can look at the way it's put together to catch the low-hanging fruit. Generally, the first 10% of the work gets you 90% of the way there. Then there's all the corner-case work, the 90% that gets you the other 10%. In both cases, so long as you've the appropriate tools, finding opportunity for speedup is relatively easy, excepting in cases where a routine needs a complete reevaluation from the ground up. This can happen if the data model's not quite right, or there's significant resource blocking. These are a real bitch because they can cause you to completely redesign large sections of code, and there's absolutely nothing an optimizing compiler will do to help in those cases.
I should point out that a well-designed program should not encounter the last two issues, as it suggests the problem wasn't well-enough understood beforehand. You have to know exactly what you want to do with a computer before you figure out how you're going to do it.
Word's not really much of a WYSIWYG word processor. Only in the best case will it function like that. Most of the time, tho, it's a document mutilation tool.
/does anyone at MS even realize how bad Word is?
//i mean, use the thing for an hour, and see what happens.
///gaaaah! why can't I get rid of all these paragraph notations! they just appeared after I added a linefeed, and now they won't go away!!!
////why do I actually have to insert the HTML line break command to add a linefeed in this comment???