To me the difference is as obvious as standard vs HD cable channels..
Do you have a progressive scan DVD player hooked to your monitor with component video? I do, and I have to get right next to the screen an squint to see that the DVD image is just slightly fuzzier than a true HDTV signal. From back on my couch, the difference isn't really worth worrying about.
This is a lot like vacuum tube amp buying audiophiles vs. mp3 users. The latter choice is "good enough" for the vast majority of the market.
When you use resistive electrical heat, in most cases you're wasting 2/3 of the fuel energy at the power plant and in transmission losses. This applies whether you're using baseboard heaters or computer chips. That's one reason that it's so hideously expensive compared to gas heat or electric heat pumps, and it's why resistive heating is rarely used in locations with any substantial heating requirements.
Give it up. Nobody uses "cracker". Just like many other words in the English language, the term "hacker" has multiple meanings. One usage means "good" programming work, and another means "evil" programming work, and yet another means whacking at something with a sharp implement. The context will help you figure out which one is being used in each case.
That's right, they're using some of the profits of this badwidth sale to compensate people for the fact that their TVs are being rendered otherwise inoperable. Do you think that's somehow inappropriate or unfair?
They could've cut taxes and let people spend their money on whatever they wanted.
When the government yanks the old frequencies off the air and sells the spectrum for profit, they effectively impose a $40 tax on having an old TV. It looks like you'd rather just grab the proceeds of that tax for yourself than eliminate the tax in the first place.
I love when my tax dollars go to important shit like helping fat asses buy new TVs.
The government is making $Billions auctioning off the old analog TV spectrum. The money to subsidize these boxes is coming from that windfall, not from your tax dollars. And the purpose of this program is to compensate fat asses for the inconvenience and expense of the government breaking their *old* TVs, not to help them buy new ones.
The article is inaccurate anyway. Of course everybody knows that Windows XP has always had a Fisher-Price interface. The author therefore assumes that this Linux distro must be using the same thing.
Not true: the Eee actually uses a Playskool interface, which has no connection at all to Fisher-Price. This is just another example of the typical superficial journalism you see in media today.
In the winter time, an incandescent bulb is 100% efficient in providing useful energy
Not so. In most places, for every watt delivered to your electrical outlet, close to 2 watts of heat energy are lost up the power plant smokestacks, cooling towers and in transmission. Modern residential gas furnaces are better than 90% efficient. So a CFL will use less energy overall than an incandescent even in the winter.
until you consider the difference between "in the environment" and "in my living room". Neither is good. The latter is worse.
Not necessarily. Elemental mercury far less dangerous in the body than mercury that's been incorporated into organic compounds. Broken light bulbs release elemental mercury, which eventually dissipates as vapor.
The biggest problem with mercury in the environment is that microbes can convert it into organic mercury compounds, then this is gathered and concentrated as it goes up the food chain into things like tuna. Eating a few cans of tuna probably a bigger threat as far as mercury exposure than a broken CFL in your house.
Guess I'll have to finally upgrade my EZ-Bake oven.
Too late. The EZ-bake model from a couple of years ago had an internal heating element instead of a light bulb. Unfortunately, that was the model where the safety door ironically trapped kids hands inside the hot oven and burned them severely. So there was a massive recall and it was taken off the market.
I just saw an ad a few weeks ago that said that the "EZ-Bake oven is back!", with a total redesign. The fine print said that a 100W light bulb was required but not included. So once again you'll need a light bulb, and you're back to square one.
Using the same principal, I light my kitchen with only the dull red glow of the electric range elements. It's kind of hard to see and I'm sucking down 10 kilowatts, but they sure do last a long time.
I wonder if he/she is related to the guy who started C array indexing at zero[1];-)
I doubt they were related, because if they *had* started indexing centuries at zero like C (which is the One Correct Way to index anything) then we wouldn't have this stupid century/year dissonance..
I'd rather make a few dozen HD-DVD glass masters to hold that raw data now than have to worry about recopying hard drives every couple of years for a few centuries.
That's the advantage of physical pits: put it in any kind of scanning microscope, and you can read the patterns. A software transformation would recover the original info from there. (If civilization has deteriorated to where that's not possible, then they won't have much use of digital copies of blockbuster movies anyway.)
The disk could be self-describing. Most low-level encodings aren't all that complex. You could probably engrave enough human readable text on the label side to describe how to read the first few disk blocks. Those blocks could contain an ASCII text file that hold the complete disk encoding and filesystem specs.
If they want to permanently archive digital media, why not just keep the DVD glass masters around? They shouldn't degrade like plastic, and if carefully packaged it seems that they could last for millenia. If a special reader were developed that could optically scan the glass surface without the need for a rot-prone metal layer, then the information could be retrieved without having to risk damaging the master by making a new pressing.
I just searched, there's at least 10 brand new consoles, perfectly functional with at least one controller on ebay BUY IT NOW for under $325.
My guess is that the going eBay price has just drastically dropped because right now chances slim that it's going to make it to your doorstep by Xmas morning.
but it just seems exceedingly complex and tedious to program for this chip without use of a higher level crutch (C compiler...) I am sad that once again everything I know is becoming outdated...:)
You sure are outdated. Today's "higher level crutch" is Python.
Generation loss would be from two factors: the heat engine and the electrical generators. Generators convert mechanical energy to electricity with very high efficiency. However, due to the laws of thermodynamics, all heat engines are rather inefficient at converting heat to mechanical energy. The oldest coal plants are usually less than 40% efficient, and the best combined cycle natural gas plants can approach 60% efficiency. So the chart looks about right to me.
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We already use many times the area of South Carolina just for growing food. What's the big deal?
Do you have a progressive scan DVD player hooked to your monitor with component video? I do, and I have to get right next to the screen an squint to see that the DVD image is just slightly fuzzier than a true HDTV signal. From back on my couch, the difference isn't really worth worrying about.
This is a lot like vacuum tube amp buying audiophiles vs. mp3 users. The latter choice is "good enough" for the vast majority of the market.
When you use resistive electrical heat, in most cases you're wasting 2/3 of the fuel energy at the power plant and in transmission losses. This applies whether you're using baseboard heaters or computer chips. That's one reason that it's so hideously expensive compared to gas heat or electric heat pumps, and it's why resistive heating is rarely used in locations with any substantial heating requirements.
The biggest benefit would be #3, ponies or no.
Give it up. Nobody uses "cracker". Just like many other words in the English language, the term "hacker" has multiple meanings. One usage means "good" programming work, and another means "evil" programming work, and yet another means whacking at something with a sharp implement. The context will help you figure out which one is being used in each case.
That's right, they're using some of the profits of this badwidth sale to compensate people for the fact that their TVs are being rendered otherwise inoperable. Do you think that's somehow inappropriate or unfair?
When the government yanks the old frequencies off the air and sells the spectrum for profit, they effectively impose a $40 tax on having an old TV. It looks like you'd rather just grab the proceeds of that tax for yourself than eliminate the tax in the first place.
The government is making $Billions auctioning off the old analog TV spectrum. The money to subsidize these boxes is coming from that windfall, not from your tax dollars. And the purpose of this program is to compensate fat asses for the inconvenience and expense of the government breaking their *old* TVs, not to help them buy new ones.
Not true: the Eee actually uses a Playskool interface, which has no connection at all to Fisher-Price. This is just another example of the typical superficial journalism you see in media today.
Not so. In most places, for every watt delivered to your electrical outlet, close to 2 watts of heat energy are lost up the power plant smokestacks, cooling towers and in transmission. Modern residential gas furnaces are better than 90% efficient. So a CFL will use less energy overall than an incandescent even in the winter.
Not necessarily. Elemental mercury far less dangerous in the body than mercury that's been incorporated into organic compounds. Broken light bulbs release elemental mercury, which eventually dissipates as vapor.
The biggest problem with mercury in the environment is that microbes can convert it into organic mercury compounds, then this is gathered and concentrated as it goes up the food chain into things like tuna. Eating a few cans of tuna probably a bigger threat as far as mercury exposure than a broken CFL in your house.
Too late. The EZ-bake model from a couple of years ago had an internal heating element instead of a light bulb. Unfortunately, that was the model where the safety door ironically trapped kids hands inside the hot oven and burned them severely. So there was a massive recall and it was taken off the market.
I just saw an ad a few weeks ago that said that the "EZ-Bake oven is back!", with a total redesign. The fine print said that a 100W light bulb was required but not included. So once again you'll need a light bulb, and you're back to square one.
Using the same principal, I light my kitchen with only the dull red glow of the electric range elements. It's kind of hard to see and I'm sucking down 10 kilowatts, but they sure do last a long time.
Nope, they do error correction, and lots of it. That's how they can get away with leaving the disk surface exposed to scratches and dust.
I doubt they were related, because if they *had* started indexing centuries at zero like C (which is the One Correct Way to index anything) then we wouldn't have this stupid century/year dissonance..
I'd rather make a few dozen HD-DVD glass masters to hold that raw data now than have to worry about recopying hard drives every couple of years for a few centuries.
The disk could be self-describing. Most low-level encodings aren't all that complex. You could probably engrave enough human readable text on the label side to describe how to read the first few disk blocks. Those blocks could contain an ASCII text file that hold the complete disk encoding and filesystem specs.
Nope, that's an urban legend.
Type "dvd glass master" in Google's search box and you'll find out.
If they want to permanently archive digital media, why not just keep the DVD glass masters around? They shouldn't degrade like plastic, and if carefully packaged it seems that they could last for millenia. If a special reader were developed that could optically scan the glass surface without the need for a rot-prone metal layer, then the information could be retrieved without having to risk damaging the master by making a new pressing.
A fourth format was also specified: Adobe Flash was mandated for all documents that need to include animated dancing silhouettes.
My guess is that the going eBay price has just drastically dropped because right now chances slim that it's going to make it to your doorstep by Xmas morning.
i.e., crutch.
You sure are outdated. Today's "higher level crutch" is Python.
Generation loss would be from two factors: the heat engine and the electrical generators. Generators convert mechanical energy to electricity with very high efficiency. However, due to the laws of thermodynamics, all heat engines are rather inefficient at converting heat to mechanical energy. The oldest coal plants are usually less than 40% efficient, and the best combined cycle natural gas plants can approach 60% efficiency. So the chart looks about right to me.