In comparison, an internal combustion engine is roughly 25% efficient from gasoline energy in to mechanical energy out (4). So it's really a wash.
That's mechanical energy at the flywheel. If you want to compare apples to apples, remember that an IC engine requires a transmission and differential which are not inherent in electric designs. Losses in the tranny and rear end are typically estimated to be around 20-25%, dropping the IC drivetrain's efficiency to roughly 19-20%.
Furthermore, large exhaust scrubbers are possible on coal plants, but the emissions controls on a car are limited to what you can drag around with you.
Note that I'm not particularly interested in electrics beyond recreation - I'd love to zip to work on an electric scooter mainly because I think it'd be a lot of fun. Still, it seems that even with today's tech, they really are the cleaner option.
I have on a work laptop - maybe an older Sony? - that I never used much.
I believe you, but there are definitely out-of-the-box laptops that connect to anything in range. Maybe not all (or even most) of them will, but at least some do.
Never once, has windows automatically connected to the most powerful random network unless I had the AUTOMATICALLY CONNECT TO NON-PREFERRED NETWORKS box selected under the advanced properties for wireless networks.
Moral of the story: your vendor went with different defaults than mine did.
When I use WiFi signals that are in the air somewhere that I've got a right to be myself, like in my own home or office, I feel the same way about using it as I do when I use an electrical ground wire. Or reading a newspaper in the incident light.
There is a door, in that if you don't have an IP on that WAP for whatever reason, then it's not going to pass traffic with you. Once you associate with it and get a DHCP lease, that door's wide open.
Bad analogy. I ring your doorbell and a ticket drops from the mail slot that says "You're free to enter the house and watch some tv."
That was even worse. More accurate analogy: you have a loudspeaker shouting "HI! COME IN!" to all passersby. I ring your doorbell, and a key to the house and a nametag pops out of the mail slot.
Don't want me in your house? Don't advertise free admission then give me a key and a nametag.
To the best of my knowledge, the amount of mercury emitted by my car's exhaust is zero. Mercury is THE major problem with coal, and it receives far too little attention.
I don't know enough about the issue to comment, but that's still bad reasoning. If mercury is the only pollutant you care about, then coal plants are bad. If you also dislike CO2 and particulates more than mercury, then coal plants are better.
I typically tell colleagues who ask about the Microsoft deal that Apple has numerous patent and other technology licensing agreements with Microsoft, and yet we don't see a groundswell of people on Slashdot calling Apple on the carpet for their Microsoft agreements.
I can't speak for everyone, but I couldn't care less if Apple uses MS patented or copyrighted code in their OS. I mind a whole hell of a lot if Novell accidentally managed to sneak some in, polluting my Ubuntu kernel with legal issues that I have no desire to be involved with.
Am I guilty if my computer merely pings their router because it created a response on that router? They are the one who initiated the communication by broadcasting hello packets.
Complicating matters is that certain popular OSes (XP, I'm looking at you) tend to auto-connect to the strongest signal available, no matter how nicely you ask them to stop doing that. If you're closer to your next-door neighbor's WAP than your own, and Windows decides to use his without asking your permission or even telling you, then can you really be considered guilty of anything? And doesn't that mean that the world's largest OS vendor considers "default allow" to be the correct interpretation of WAP etiquette?
As little as I'm a fan of MS, I think "that's the way Windows does it automatically" would be a pretty good defense against criminal intent, even if a jury disagreed with the legality of the actions themselves.
To draw an analogy, it isn't just leaving your front door unlocked, it's leaving it unlocked and putting up a sign that says "Please come in!".
Double that for access points in commercial places. You can argue (and I would disagree) that residential WLANs are meant to be private, but I would say that a business's hotspot is exactly as open as their front door. If it's unlocked and there's a sign saying "OPEN", then it's meant for me to use.
Does the law already consider an open, unencrypted network as implicitly giving permission, or is it written to say that if the person who owns that open, unencrypted network has not given permission then it's illegal?
How does the law answer the same question about websites?
We currently have nuclear plants owned by giant corporations under a Republican administration. Where are the meltdowns?
Hint: profit is a hell of a safety motive, since the slightest accident is likely to take a multi-billion dollar plant permanently offline (if only because of public reaction).
Right now, I wouldn't consider buying so much as an electric scooter as long as the power plant is coal. But if the grid is nuclear (or some other green power), buying an electric car, motorcycle, etc suddenly makes sense.
That's dumb. As dirty as coal plants are, they are far cleaner than the equivalent power output from internal combustion engines. If it takes n joules to get you from place to place, you're better off using the more efficient method of getting those joules.
Nuclear power is a good option, but it can't be a "best option" unless and until the disposal issue is actually solved, which means bringing Yucca Mountain or some other site on-line.
No. It means bringing reprocessors online. Reduce-reuse-recycle, right?
Even then, I wouldn't truly consider it the "best" option, so much as one piece of an overall plan. Any plan that relies heavily on only one option is taking a huge and unnecessary gamble.
I would. A large-scale shift from fossil fuel to cheap nuclear electric would give us the infrastructure to swap in all kinds of alternative sources. Don't want nukes where you live? Plug a geothermal plant into the grid and use that to power your electric cars.
Flamebait? More like painful honesty. Carter was a nice guy and obviously very smart, but his energy policies are crippling us. Think of where we might be today if we had 30 years of experience running breeder reactors on a wide-scale basis.
The electric company claimed they didn't offer service to a house that they were currently providing electricity to.
I had that with a phone number change. I was calling my electric company for some reason, went to update my phone number, and found that I no longer lived in my city. "But my address is the same," sayeth I. "No. You live in Next Town Over now," respondeth the dusty old bat at the coal plant. Eventually cooler heads prevailed and I somewhat begrudgingly convinced her that I hadn't teleported.
Can I convince Maxmind to like.. you know.. MAKE MY DAMN STATIC IP NOT POINT RIGHT AT ME!?
Nope. There are probably plenty of other sources doing the same. Run whois my.ad.dr.ess sometime to see who owns the netblock you're in. If it's someone like Qwest, that doesn't tell you much. If you use a small ISP, that might get you right to them.
Method #2: dig -t ptr -x my.ad.dr.ess to get the hostname you're posting from, or one of.0 or.255 if that doesn't tell you much. Then whois the domain name or check out their website. That may be as vague as telling the world that you use Comcast, or as specific as yourcity-yourstate-mothersmaidenname-shoesize.pacbell.net.
Or even better, you can sit around on Slashdot and invent thoughts to attribute to other people, without justification, just to make yourself feel superior.
Slashdot Mirror
Because DHCP is typically what gets you that nice layer 3 connection.
DHCP is a service that is offered after a connection is already made. If someone has DHCP turned off, then its ok to connect to the wireless signal?Interesting question. I'd be less inclined to connect to a non-DHCP WAP because it's not going out of its way to permit you to use it.
That's mechanical energy at the flywheel. If you want to compare apples to apples, remember that an IC engine requires a transmission and differential which are not inherent in electric designs. Losses in the tranny and rear end are typically estimated to be around 20-25%, dropping the IC drivetrain's efficiency to roughly 19-20%.
Furthermore, large exhaust scrubbers are possible on coal plants, but the emissions controls on a car are limited to what you can drag around with you.
Note that I'm not particularly interested in electrics beyond recreation - I'd love to zip to work on an electric scooter mainly because I think it'd be a lot of fun. Still, it seems that even with today's tech, they really are the cleaner option.
I have on a work laptop - maybe an older Sony? - that I never used much.
I believe you, but there are definitely out-of-the-box laptops that connect to anything in range. Maybe not all (or even most) of them will, but at least some do.
Moral of the story: your vendor went with different defaults than mine did.
And I like cabbages for their plasticity. Yow!
There is a door, in that if you don't have an IP on that WAP for whatever reason, then it's not going to pass traffic with you. Once you associate with it and get a DHCP lease, that door's wide open.
I bet drinking fountains ruin your day.
That was even worse. More accurate analogy: you have a loudspeaker shouting "HI! COME IN!" to all passersby. I ring your doorbell, and a key to the house and a nametag pops out of the mail slot.
Don't want me in your house? Don't advertise free admission then give me a key and a nametag.
I don't know enough about the issue to comment, but that's still bad reasoning. If mercury is the only pollutant you care about, then coal plants are bad. If you also dislike CO2 and particulates more than mercury, then coal plants are better.
I can't speak for everyone, but I couldn't care less if Apple uses MS patented or copyrighted code in their OS. I mind a whole hell of a lot if Novell accidentally managed to sneak some in, polluting my Ubuntu kernel with legal issues that I have no desire to be involved with.
Complicating matters is that certain popular OSes (XP, I'm looking at you) tend to auto-connect to the strongest signal available, no matter how nicely you ask them to stop doing that. If you're closer to your next-door neighbor's WAP than your own, and Windows decides to use his without asking your permission or even telling you, then can you really be considered guilty of anything? And doesn't that mean that the world's largest OS vendor considers "default allow" to be the correct interpretation of WAP etiquette?
As little as I'm a fan of MS, I think "that's the way Windows does it automatically" would be a pretty good defense against criminal intent, even if a jury disagreed with the legality of the actions themselves.
Double that for access points in commercial places. You can argue (and I would disagree) that residential WLANs are meant to be private, but I would say that a business's hotspot is exactly as open as their front door. If it's unlocked and there's a sign saying "OPEN", then it's meant for me to use.
How does the law answer the same question about websites?
We currently have nuclear plants owned by giant corporations under a Republican administration. Where are the meltdowns?
Hint: profit is a hell of a safety motive, since the slightest accident is likely to take a multi-billion dollar plant permanently offline (if only because of public reaction).
Power. "Let us make the hard decisions and we'll all be OK."
That obviously doesn't apply to all environmentalists, but it certainly applies to the kind who are against clean, cheap energy.
That's dumb. As dirty as coal plants are, they are far cleaner than the equivalent power output from internal combustion engines. If it takes n joules to get you from place to place, you're better off using the more efficient method of getting those joules.
Anything radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years isn't terribly radioactive.
No. It means bringing reprocessors online. Reduce-reuse-recycle, right?
Even then, I wouldn't truly consider it the "best" option, so much as one piece of an overall plan. Any plan that relies heavily on only one option is taking a huge and unnecessary gamble.I would. A large-scale shift from fossil fuel to cheap nuclear electric would give us the infrastructure to swap in all kinds of alternative sources. Don't want nukes where you live? Plug a geothermal plant into the grid and use that to power your electric cars.
Flamebait? More like painful honesty. Carter was a nice guy and obviously very smart, but his energy policies are crippling us. Think of where we might be today if we had 30 years of experience running breeder reactors on a wide-scale basis.
I had that with a phone number change. I was calling my electric company for some reason, went to update my phone number, and found that I no longer lived in my city. "But my address is the same," sayeth I. "No. You live in Next Town Over now," respondeth the dusty old bat at the coal plant. Eventually cooler heads prevailed and I somewhat begrudgingly convinced her that I hadn't teleported.
Nope. There are probably plenty of other sources doing the same. Run whois my.ad.dr.ess sometime to see who owns the netblock you're in. If it's someone like Qwest, that doesn't tell you much. If you use a small ISP, that might get you right to them.
Method #2: dig -t ptr -x my.ad.dr.ess to get the hostname you're posting from, or one of .0 or .255 if that doesn't tell you much. Then whois the domain name or check out their website. That may be as vague as telling the world that you use Comcast, or as specific as yourcity-yourstate-mothersmaidenname-shoesize.pacbell.net.
Umm, what on Earth are you talking about?
Or even better, you can sit around on Slashdot and invent thoughts to attribute to other people, without justification, just to make yourself feel superior.
Honestly, where did I even hint at Linux?
That's going on the assumption that people willing to pay $50 to buy XP are doing so because they don't want to use Vista.
Yes, but you can't really market that as a benefit to Dell's customers. "Buy XP! Help MS cook the books for only $50!"