If that were the case, you'd see Kerry moving to the left, instead of the center. Nader was enough of a "spoiler" (barring the Florida issues of voter role purge, absentee ballot handling, and Gore winning more actual votes) to make any level headed democrat think twice before running right back to the center.
I changed my party affiliation in 2001 to the Green Party. It's not just about environmentalism, they seem to have the closest political views to me on all of their major platforms. I wrote to local democrats, and I told them why.
Will I vote for Kerry? In these immortal words, http://www.johnkerryisadouchebagbutimvotingforhima nyway.com
Will it be everything I want in a candidate? No. Will it be better than Bush? By miles...
Don't forget proportional representation. I.e. if a party gets 5% of the vote, they get 5% of the seats.
As Noam Chomsky put it (paraphrasing), The difference between two evils is greatly amplified by the power of the office held. In these circumstances, even minute differences between the candidates will result in major differences in the results of their tenure in office.
Sun Catcher modules feature quality Kyocera crystalline cells to deliver the most energy from the smallest surface area. They are encapsulated in a durable resin for light weight and long life. The robust zippered, folding, cordura-covered modules deliver 14.5 or 25 watts depending on model. A 3-meter power cord lets you sit in the shade, while your Sun Catcher works in the sun. Power cord connector is a female lighter plug with nominal 12-volt output. Use a 12-volt power adapter appropriate for your laptop, or charge a 12-volt battery like the Power Plant Notebook Battery.
Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel will also eat natural rubber hoses and gaskets on older diesel engines. As of 2006 all consumer diesel fuel will have to meet the ULSD standard. This is why all diesel vehicle cars manufactured for sale in the US since 1996 or so have replaced them with synthetic rubber components. Even if you have an older car, running a 20% blend of biodiesel should not result in rapid deterioration of rubber components. Or for $30-$50 you could just replace the parts... California is already mandating ULSD, hence the problems seen and already fixed.
Sure, exploit our own resources for what, 30 days of oil at best? Remember the real reason for the 55 mph speed limit? To increase gas mileage (much lower wind resistance, as it goes up with the *cube* of velocity), so as to decrease our oil dependency. I know my car gets 42-45 mpg if I commute at 80 mph, and 45-48 if I keep it down to 70. If I could keep it to 55 or 60, I would probably crack 50 mpg. So if we could all just lay off the go pedal a bit, we could all reduce our need for oil, period. Foreign and domestic.
BTW, I think if you check the Sierra Club manifesto, you'll find they would rather we not be dependent on petroleum for energy at all. It's only a little slanderous to claim they "prefer" we remain dependent on the mideast for energy.
We had a wake up call in the '70's with regards to petroleum dependency. We hit the snooze button. Eventually, we will have to wake up and deal with it for real. You can start dealing with it now (drive fuel efficient vehicles, run on biodiesel, E85, live where you can walk or bike to most of your weekly needs), or you can deal with it later. It isn't going to get any cheaper to fix this as time goes on.
Yes, it was Earthlink. I'm not an Earthlink customer, but it looked like a professional quality email. Again, had I been concerned about such a thing, I would have gone to the website via an alternate path to confirm my account status independently.
The best quality one I've seen so far was one that said it was going to www.paypal.com/..., but actually sent you to a particular page, that imported many graphics, and maybe even an IFRAME from paypal.com. The only discernable difference in the HTML source from an actual paypal page was the url for the form submission pointing to some hijacked website. I was suspicious, so I did all this very slowly, and checked every step of the way that I wasn't sending anything I didn't want to send...
The "bad" part is that even though it says it's going to Earthlink, and looks like it's going to Earthlink, it may not actually go to Earthlink. The paypal phishmail I received was set up the same way. Only by copying and pasting the url from the link to somewhere else can I tell. It's not clear from their web setup if you're supposed to click on the links for more information.
Also, not being able to view all email headers hampers your ability to determine the source path of the email, and therefore removes a key piece of information from your data analysis process. For that alone, I don't trust their 28% number.
Part of the problem is also the matter of "is this legitimate email" vs. "legitimate or not, would you click on the link". For the purposes of this test, I chose the former level of slightly relaxed scrutiny (I was surprised that I only missed one, frankly). For my regular email processing, I don't click on links in emails. Period.
So, in practice, I may be more paranoid than I need to be, but I think that's the side you'd rather err on, too...
...that I would have clicked any of the links in the emails.
If I get any message that smells remotely like phish (i.e. any email that tells me to do something with my account), I go to my browser, and visit the site by manually entering the name of the website. If it then turns out to be a bogus email, I send a copy to the admins of the site, so they can track the insensitive clods down, and do whatever it is they do with them.
The IQ test would be a lot easier with access to full mail headers, too...
"Prior to the discovery of vaccination by Jenner, protection against a severe or fatal case of smallpox was generally achieved by giving subjects a mild (it was hoped) case of smallpox by inoculation of the smallpox virus. The introduction of this operation to England is credited to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who noted that this was widely practiced in the Orient. "
Go Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
I belive it was in Africa where tribal leaders would grind scabs and blow the grinds into the faces of unexposed people as a form of preventative care. It's on a book on vaccines that I don't have ready access to, and I don't seem to be finding a reference online for you, but I do remember reading about it somewhere. Perhaps I can come up with one in time.
The original smallpox vaccines consisted of finding someone with smallpox, pulling off and grinding their scabs, and blowing them in the face of someone who had not contracted the disease yet. If this is the model to be used, I could live with it.
Consider a "vaccinated" machine that can determine if it's being attacked by a machine, and can determine what's attacking it. For example, it's pretty obvious if you get an http request for default.ida, you're being attacked by code red. This means you have a good idea how to "fix" the machine that attacked you. At this point, I'd consider it self defense to remotely "fix" the remote machine. A really slick version would prepare the remote machine to vaccinate others that attacked it as well...
The problem with the Nachi approach is that it went looking for machines to conquer instead of lying in wait for machines to attack it. Fix that design flaw, and you don't have any more bandwidth than was created by the original virus in the first place.
As with any OS, you must check the hardware compatibility lists before purchasing hardware and expecting it to work. The point is you *can* buy pro quality cards to work under linux. Whether or not you choose to or not is up to you. Personally, I tend to buy hardware that works on Linux and Windows. I had fun once with a hardware modem that didn't work under Windows until I downloaded the right driver (via Linux). There are very few things that can't work well on both. I make a point of buying hardware that does what I need under Linux, I make a point of letting the companies I buy from know *why* I chose their product, and I make a point of letting any companies I didn't choose know why I didn't buy their product. Hopefully, more companies will support Linux as a result.
For example, guitar amplification. Solid state just doesn't have that analog "warmth" that tubes do. The funny thing is, you can't buy vaccuum tubes that are made in the US anymore, all the ones I've ever seen are made in Russia. Do they know something we don't?
Don't forget their tireless efforts to normalize record player output levels and equalization curves. Thanks to these efforts, we don't have to change the settings on our 27 band stereo equalizers for every record we listen to.
The CD audio mastering profession, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly willing to sacrifice dynamic range for loudness, clipping be damned...
I must say I'm highly impressed with the animation style of Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmaron (Dreamworks). The models of the various creatures are obviously 3D in how they move, and how the camera moves around them, but the final coat of paint on them is the standard one or two-tone (shadow) style on most hand drawn animations of today. It's an interesting style choice...
Re:The only real answer is to reorganize society.
on
Out of Gas
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· Score: 1
It's also one of the purest expressions of freedom there is.
Enjoy it while you still can. It's not sustainable in the long term.
Keeping life's necessities within non-driving range doesn't necessarily mean you have to live in one spot, and never move. It doesn't mean you can't go to a grocery store farther away if you don't like the selection in your neighborhood.
Or, I could walk--crossing 3-lane frontage roads with no sidewalks
Part of the reason public transportation in the US stinks so badly, is that our society is just not built for people to get around in. It's built for cars to get around in. Study old european cities, even New York City, for how to get around without *requiring* a car. Just being able to rely on a taxi to get you where you need to go in NYC generally means you don't need a car yourself (or a parking space, or a parking space at the store, restaurant, movies, etc.). You don't necessarily need a constant flow of "data", packets are fine, reusable packets even better. (As for your analogy, compare switches to hubs, and ask which is a better analogy for our transportation network.)
the question is not to say "How do we force people to move closer so they can use public transportation?" The correct question to ask is "Why is everybody leaving?"
I would claim the question is really, "Why the hell do I (or at least so many people) need a car to get everywhere I (they) need to go, every day, every week, every month, every year?" Strictly speaking, my neighborhood has a grocery store, restaurant, mail drop, and some other useful amenities within walking distance of my house. I like to stop at some of them on my way home from work. If public transportation were available from this strip mall to other local strip malls, or bus terminals, or light rail stops, I could do an awful lot without *requiring* a car to get around on a daily basis. This is roughly how the greater Tokyo metropolitan area is designed: commerce centers around local bus/train stops, public transport between commerce centers. The only time I *needed* to use a car the entire month I was in Japan was getting from the condo on the local Air Force Base to the edge of the base (so I could walk to the train station) and back.
Would it be less convenient? Yes, it would. Would it be impossible to deal with? No, it would not. Will such a system (strip malls in walking distance, public transport between malls, and transport network "hubs") be sustainable, long-term? It certainly can be. "Suburbia" in its present form certainly will not. How long should we wait before we get around to organizing our lives for sustainability? I say we start now.
Re:The only real answer is to reorganize society.
on
Out of Gas
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· Score: 1
Maryland, actually. At the pump, biodiesel costs me $3.00 a gallon, after rebates, $1.50. That makes it cheaper than both gas ($1.89/gallon cheap regular) and petroleum based diesel fuel ($1.79/gallon).
The biodiesel I buy is made commercially from virgin soybean oil. You *can* make it from used veggie oil, and in the "homebrew" biodiesel circles, used veggie oil is popular because it is cheap (frequently free). You can even make it from used animal-based oils, but it starts to gel at higher temperatures. Some people are even researching how to make it from algae, thus putting all that agricultural runoff to good use...
The only real answer is to reorganize society.
on
Out of Gas
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Suburbia is the killer. If our lives could be structured such that cars were not *necessary*, we can do fine. Residential infill, cohousing, mixed use zoning are all steps in the right direction. Oddly enough, so are rising gas prices.
Eventually, something will click in someone's head, and they will start to seek alternatives. I started looking at hybrids when my gas pump cut me off at $50.00 without filling my tank ('92 ford bronco, 11 mpg, 32 gallon tank). About a year later, I bought a VW New Beetle with the TDI (diesel) engine. Now it's *possible* to run my car with *no* foreign oil (biodiesel), and to date, about 1/3 of the fuel I've used has been from renewable sources, grown by my local farmers. It costs me $3.00 per gallon at the pump, but thanks ot a rebate program, I'm only paying $1.50 per gallon, net. I'd rather pay $3.00 to the benefit of my local farmer, and local economy, than sending it overseas to support societies that *hate* us. If I get particularly motivated (or more likely, when my warrantee is getting closer to expiration), I can recycle used vegetable oil into fuel at an estimated cost of $0.40-0.50 per gallon.
Not to mention the added benefit of getting 45 mpg without even trying. =)
James Howard Kunstler is my personal favourite "end-of-the-oil-age" critic. He takes the time to posit potential *solutions* to the problem of a transportation-dependent society.
My TDI New Beetle gets 45-47 mpg in 50/50 highway/suburban driving. Sticker is 42 city/49 highway. If I could lighten up on the go pedal (it's not a gas pedal after all), I could break 50 mpg under these conditions.
Last year about one third of the fuel I put in my car was biodiesel, grown locally, to the benefit of my local farmers. When I drive the extra 20 miles to buy biodiesel, I ask my daughter if she wants to come with me to "fight terrorism". Even though she's three, she's usually up for the trip.
The big thing that will help NOx emissions from diesels is when we here in the US will have access to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel fuel (ULSD). The only reason we can't use the cool catalytic converter systems that are used in European diesel cars is the high sulfur levels in our diesel fuel kills them. Another year or two, and we can start really cleaning up diesel exhaust.
Other biodiesel benefits you forgot to mention:
Carbon-cycle neutral: The CO2 from the exhaust goes back into the next cycle of crops to harvest for fuel. No more dumping carbon locked in the earth's crust back into the atmosphere.
Foreign Trade balance: No more spending billions of dollars a year to import oil into our country from other countries that don't think very much of us right now. No need to send our young men and women to die in far-off countries to protect our "national interests".
Petrodiesel Blends: Some older diesel engines (really the fuel delivery systems) may not be able to handle straight biodiesel, but can handle blends of 5 or 20% biodiesel (B5, and B20, respectively). Even reducing foreign oil imports 20% is better than nothing...
Variables are (scope)(type)(name)(units) scope is: g_ for globals, s_ for file statics (affects entire file, but only the current file), s_ for class statics (affects more than current class object), m_ for class members. Local variables have no scope prefix.
Types: b for boolean, c for character, d for double, e for enumerations, f for float, i for int, l for long, n for unsigned, o for misc object, p for pointer, r for reference, s for string, t for time, v for vectors/arrays/iterable sequences. Local variables have no type prefix. Scroll back to review the type if you need.
Names: all_lower_case_underscore_separators for local (unimportant) variables. UseInitialCapsForEverythingElse. Acronyms are treated as a word for the purposes of capitalization and separation, e.g. IrsForm1040A.
Units: If it is expressing a dimensioned quantity (length, volume, time, mass, etc., or combinations thereof), add units, e.g. rpm_Hz, UplinkFreq_MHz, etc. You'll never wonder whether or not that timespan measurement was in seconds or milliseconds ever again. Not for long anyway.
That's the simple version. Try a few, and see what sticks with you. Your brain might not be wired the same way as mine. This is geared towards enforcing consistency in scope and type, which are the places where assumptions tend to be broken. e.g. m_iNumerator / m_iDenominator will truncate, m_dNumerator / m_dDenominator will not (at least in C/C++, where it's useful to know the difference).
If I had a working program in the first place (to compare my buggy program with), I wouldn't need the debugger.
Seriously, though. I've worked as a programmer for the last 15 years. Mostly, I've been fixing other people's bugs. Here's what I like to see in code that I need to fix (and generally don't see):
1) Consistency in formatting, style, variable names, design - I don't care what style you use as long as it's consistent. I prefer my own form of Hungarian Notation, where a variable's prefix indicates its scope (global, static, etc), as well as the type. If any of that information changes, I should darn well follow through to make sure I've fixed everything that depends on them. Bring on strong type checking!
It doesn't look like it matters much yet, but try adding eight more error checks to both, and see which you can track better. The "early bailout on error" model clearly surpasses the "endless nesting" model.
3) Use of descriptive variable and procedure names. Source code is not meant to be understood by the computer. This is why we have compilers, and interpreters. Source code is meant to be understood by humans. Write your code for humans, and you'll be surprised at how much faster you can grind through code. You'll only write the code once, but when you have to debug it, you'll spend eternity sifting through line after line, wondering what the hell you meant by that overused "temp" variable (temporary value? temperature? celsius? kelvin?). If you had only taken the time to spell out, "surface_temperature_C", you'd know for sure. Vowels are good for you.
4) Comment! Not every line. Not an impossible to maintain function header comment with dates and initials of everyone who's edited it. Don't fall for nor rely on that "self-documenting" code nonsense. Just one comment line every three to ten code lines. That's all. Give me an overview of what's supposed to happen in each logical block of code. Tell me what if conditions are checking for. A good rule of thumb is to sketch out your functions in comments first, then fill in the blanks.
That's all I can come up with off the top of my head, but there are certainly more...
NOTE: for the pedants who think they noticed an apparent conflict between my hungarian notation style and the "surface_temperature_C" variable: since there is no scope or type prefix on the variable, it's a local variable, and I can change it at will, knowing that it will not affect any code outside the function at hand. If it had been "m_fSurfaceTemperature_C", then I'd know it could have repercussions affecting the state of the current object. If it were "g_fSurfaceTemperature_F", then I'd know I could hose my whole program with an invalid value. And should have converted from Celsius to Fahrenheit before doing so...
No Pipes or Dams! Power from any Fast-Running Stream or Tidal Flow!
The Jack Rabbit is a special low-speed alternator mounted in a heavy-duty, oil-filled, cast aluminum housing with triple shaft seals. Orginally designed for towing behind seismic sleds for oil exploration, this marine-duty unit is ideal for home power generation near a reasonably fast-moving stream. In a 9 mph stream (slow jog) the Jack Rabbit produces about 2,400 watt-hours daily. Ina 6 mph stream (brisk walk) it produces over 1,500 watt-hours. The 12.5" propeller requires 13" of water depth. A rock or timber venturi can often be constructed to increase stream speed and power output.
He was accepting an award at the Grammy's years ago, and said, "We'll keep doing our part to f*ck up the mainstream..."
He came out later, to speak on Frank Sinatra's induction into the Hall of Fame, and kept looking off-stage like, "I won't say anything like that again... really!"
Then Joan Rivers gets a boatload of press when she shatters an age old industry taboo and utters, "g*dd*mn". on an awards show. What, Bono isn't worth the extra press?
Slashdot Mirror
If that were the case, you'd see Kerry moving to the left, instead of the center. Nader was enough of a "spoiler" (barring the Florida issues of voter role purge, absentee ballot handling, and Gore winning more actual votes) to make any level headed democrat think twice before running right back to the center.
a nyway.com
I changed my party affiliation in 2001 to the Green Party. It's not just about environmentalism, they seem to have the closest political views to me on all of their major platforms. I wrote to local democrats, and I told them why.
Will I vote for Kerry? In these immortal words, http://www.johnkerryisadouchebagbutimvotingforhim
Will it be everything I want in a candidate? No. Will it be better than Bush? By miles...
Don't forget proportional representation. I.e. if a party gets 5% of the vote, they get 5% of the seats.
As Noam Chomsky put it (paraphrasing), The difference between two evils is greatly amplified by the power of the office held. In these circumstances, even minute differences between the candidates will result in major differences in the results of their tenure in office.
Fortunately for me, I've remained under the radar so far... (click my homepage url to see why).
Sun Catcher Solar Modules
Sun Catcher modules feature quality Kyocera crystalline cells to deliver the most energy from the smallest surface area. They are encapsulated in a durable resin for light weight and long life. The robust zippered, folding, cordura-covered modules deliver 14.5 or 25 watts depending on model. A 3-meter power cord lets you sit in the shade, while your Sun Catcher works in the sun. Power cord connector is a female lighter plug with nominal 12-volt output. Use a 12-volt power adapter appropriate for your laptop, or charge a 12-volt battery like the Power Plant Notebook Battery.
Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel will also eat natural rubber hoses and gaskets on older diesel engines. As of 2006 all consumer diesel fuel will have to meet the ULSD standard. This is why all diesel vehicle cars manufactured for sale in the US since 1996 or so have replaced them with synthetic rubber components. Even if you have an older car, running a 20% blend of biodiesel should not result in rapid deterioration of rubber components. Or for $30-$50 you could just replace the parts... California is already mandating ULSD, hence the problems seen and already fixed.
Sure, exploit our own resources for what, 30 days of oil at best? Remember the real reason for the 55 mph speed limit? To increase gas mileage (much lower wind resistance, as it goes up with the *cube* of velocity), so as to decrease our oil dependency. I know my car gets 42-45 mpg if I commute at 80 mph, and 45-48 if I keep it down to 70. If I could keep it to 55 or 60, I would probably crack 50 mpg. So if we could all just lay off the go pedal a bit, we could all reduce our need for oil, period. Foreign and domestic.
BTW, I think if you check the Sierra Club manifesto, you'll find they would rather we not be dependent on petroleum for energy at all. It's only a little slanderous to claim they "prefer" we remain dependent on the mideast for energy.
We had a wake up call in the '70's with regards to petroleum dependency. We hit the snooze button. Eventually, we will have to wake up and deal with it for real. You can start dealing with it now (drive fuel efficient vehicles, run on biodiesel, E85, live where you can walk or bike to most of your weekly needs), or you can deal with it later. It isn't going to get any cheaper to fix this as time goes on.
Or Venezuela, or Iraq, or Canada...
23,000 miles on my diesel Beetle so far, about 1/3 of it from renewable biodiesel grown by local farmers. And counting...
Yes, it was Earthlink. I'm not an Earthlink customer, but it looked like a professional quality email. Again, had I been concerned about such a thing, I would have gone to the website via an alternate path to confirm my account status independently.
The best quality one I've seen so far was one that said it was going to www.paypal.com/..., but actually sent you to a particular page, that imported many graphics, and maybe even an IFRAME from paypal.com. The only discernable difference in the HTML source from an actual paypal page was the url for the form submission pointing to some hijacked website. I was suspicious, so I did all this very slowly, and checked every step of the way that I wasn't sending anything I didn't want to send...
The "bad" part is that even though it says it's going to Earthlink, and looks like it's going to Earthlink, it may not actually go to Earthlink. The paypal phishmail I received was set up the same way. Only by copying and pasting the url from the link to somewhere else can I tell. It's not clear from their web setup if you're supposed to click on the links for more information.
Also, not being able to view all email headers hampers your ability to determine the source path of the email, and therefore removes a key piece of information from your data analysis process. For that alone, I don't trust their 28% number.
Part of the problem is also the matter of "is this legitimate email" vs. "legitimate or not, would you click on the link". For the purposes of this test, I chose the former level of slightly relaxed scrutiny (I was surprised that I only missed one, frankly). For my regular email processing, I don't click on links in emails. Period.
So, in practice, I may be more paranoid than I need to be, but I think that's the side you'd rather err on, too...
...that I would have clicked any of the links in the emails.
If I get any message that smells remotely like phish (i.e. any email that tells me to do something with my account), I go to my browser, and visit the site by manually entering the name of the website. If it then turns out to be a bogus email, I send a copy to the admins of the site, so they can track the insensitive clods down, and do whatever it is they do with them.
The IQ test would be a lot easier with access to full mail headers, too...
From http://www.foundersofscience.net/jenner.htm
"Prior to the discovery of vaccination by Jenner, protection against a severe or fatal case of smallpox was generally achieved by giving subjects a mild (it was hoped) case of smallpox by inoculation of the smallpox virus. The introduction of this operation to England is credited to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who noted that this was widely practiced in the Orient. "
Go Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
I belive it was in Africa where tribal leaders would grind scabs and blow the grinds into the faces of unexposed people as a form of preventative care. It's on a book on vaccines that I don't have ready access to, and I don't seem to be finding a reference online for you, but I do remember reading about it somewhere. Perhaps I can come up with one in time.
The original smallpox vaccines consisted of finding someone with smallpox, pulling off and grinding their scabs, and blowing them in the face of someone who had not contracted the disease yet. If this is the model to be used, I could live with it.
Consider a "vaccinated" machine that can determine if it's being attacked by a machine, and can determine what's attacking it. For example, it's pretty obvious if you get an http request for default.ida, you're being attacked by code red. This means you have a good idea how to "fix" the machine that attacked you. At this point, I'd consider it self defense to remotely "fix" the remote machine. A really slick version would prepare the remote machine to vaccinate others that attacked it as well...
The problem with the Nachi approach is that it went looking for machines to conquer instead of lying in wait for machines to attack it. Fix that design flaw, and you don't have any more bandwidth than was created by the original virus in the first place.
As with any OS, you must check the hardware compatibility lists before purchasing hardware and expecting it to work. The point is you *can* buy pro quality cards to work under linux. Whether or not you choose to or not is up to you. Personally, I tend to buy hardware that works on Linux and Windows. I had fun once with a hardware modem that didn't work under Windows until I downloaded the right driver (via Linux). There are very few things that can't work well on both. I make a point of buying hardware that does what I need under Linux, I make a point of letting the companies I buy from know *why* I chose their product, and I make a point of letting any companies I didn't choose know why I didn't buy their product. Hopefully, more companies will support Linux as a result.
For example, guitar amplification. Solid state just doesn't have that analog "warmth" that tubes do. The funny thing is, you can't buy vaccuum tubes that are made in the US anymore, all the ones I've ever seen are made in Russia. Do they know something we don't?
Don't forget their tireless efforts to normalize record player output levels and equalization curves. Thanks to these efforts, we don't have to change the settings on our 27 band stereo equalizers for every record we listen to.
The CD audio mastering profession, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly willing to sacrifice dynamic range for loudness, clipping be damned...
I must say I'm highly impressed with the animation style of Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmaron (Dreamworks). The models of the various creatures are obviously 3D in how they move, and how the camera moves around them, but the final coat of paint on them is the standard one or two-tone (shadow) style on most hand drawn animations of today. It's an interesting style choice...
Enjoy it while you still can. It's not sustainable in the long term.
Keeping life's necessities within non-driving range doesn't necessarily mean you have to live in one spot, and never move. It doesn't mean you can't go to a grocery store farther away if you don't like the selection in your neighborhood.
Or, I could walk--crossing 3-lane frontage roads with no sidewalks
Part of the reason public transportation in the US stinks so badly, is that our society is just not built for people to get around in. It's built for cars to get around in. Study old european cities, even New York City, for how to get around without *requiring* a car. Just being able to rely on a taxi to get you where you need to go in NYC generally means you don't need a car yourself (or a parking space, or a parking space at the store, restaurant, movies, etc.). You don't necessarily need a constant flow of "data", packets are fine, reusable packets even better. (As for your analogy, compare switches to hubs, and ask which is a better analogy for our transportation network.)
the question is not to say "How do we force people to move closer so they can use public transportation?" The correct question to ask is "Why is everybody leaving?"
I would claim the question is really, "Why the hell do I (or at least so many people) need a car to get everywhere I (they) need to go, every day, every week, every month, every year?" Strictly speaking, my neighborhood has a grocery store, restaurant, mail drop, and some other useful amenities within walking distance of my house. I like to stop at some of them on my way home from work. If public transportation were available from this strip mall to other local strip malls, or bus terminals, or light rail stops, I could do an awful lot without *requiring* a car to get around on a daily basis. This is roughly how the greater Tokyo metropolitan area is designed: commerce centers around local bus/train stops, public transport between commerce centers. The only time I *needed* to use a car the entire month I was in Japan was getting from the condo on the local Air Force Base to the edge of the base (so I could walk to the train station) and back.
Would it be less convenient? Yes, it would. Would it be impossible to deal with? No, it would not. Will such a system (strip malls in walking distance, public transport between malls, and transport network "hubs") be sustainable, long-term? It certainly can be. "Suburbia" in its present form certainly will not. How long should we wait before we get around to organizing our lives for sustainability? I say we start now.
Maryland, actually. At the pump, biodiesel costs me $3.00 a gallon, after rebates, $1.50. That makes it cheaper than both gas ($1.89/gallon cheap regular) and petroleum based diesel fuel ($1.79/gallon).
The biodiesel I buy is made commercially from virgin soybean oil. You *can* make it from used veggie oil, and in the "homebrew" biodiesel circles, used veggie oil is popular because it is cheap (frequently free). You can even make it from used animal-based oils, but it starts to gel at higher temperatures. Some people are even researching how to make it from algae, thus putting all that agricultural runoff to good use...
Suburbia is the killer. If our lives could be structured such that cars were not *necessary*, we can do fine. Residential infill, cohousing, mixed use zoning are all steps in the right direction. Oddly enough, so are rising gas prices.
Eventually, something will click in someone's head, and they will start to seek alternatives. I started looking at hybrids when my gas pump cut me off at $50.00 without filling my tank ('92 ford bronco, 11 mpg, 32 gallon tank). About a year later, I bought a VW New Beetle with the TDI (diesel) engine. Now it's *possible* to run my car with *no* foreign oil (biodiesel), and to date, about 1/3 of the fuel I've used has been from renewable sources, grown by my local farmers. It costs me $3.00 per gallon at the pump, but thanks ot a rebate program, I'm only paying $1.50 per gallon, net. I'd rather pay $3.00 to the benefit of my local farmer, and local economy, than sending it overseas to support societies that *hate* us. If I get particularly motivated (or more likely, when my warrantee is getting closer to expiration), I can recycle used vegetable oil into fuel at an estimated cost of $0.40-0.50 per gallon.
Not to mention the added benefit of getting 45 mpg without even trying. =)
James Howard Kunstler is my personal favourite "end-of-the-oil-age" critic. He takes the time to posit potential *solutions* to the problem of a transportation-dependent society.
My TDI New Beetle gets 45-47 mpg in 50/50 highway/suburban driving. Sticker is 42 city/49 highway. If I could lighten up on the go pedal (it's not a gas pedal after all), I could break 50 mpg under these conditions.
Last year about one third of the fuel I put in my car was biodiesel, grown locally, to the benefit of my local farmers. When I drive the extra 20 miles to buy biodiesel, I ask my daughter if she wants to come with me to "fight terrorism". Even though she's three, she's usually up for the trip.
The big thing that will help NOx emissions from diesels is when we here in the US will have access to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel fuel (ULSD). The only reason we can't use the cool catalytic converter systems that are used in European diesel cars is the high sulfur levels in our diesel fuel kills them. Another year or two, and we can start really cleaning up diesel exhaust.
Other biodiesel benefits you forgot to mention:
Carbon-cycle neutral: The CO2 from the exhaust goes back into the next cycle of crops to harvest for fuel. No more dumping carbon locked in the earth's crust back into the atmosphere.
Foreign Trade balance: No more spending billions of dollars a year to import oil into our country from other countries that don't think very much of us right now. No need to send our young men and women to die in far-off countries to protect our "national interests".
Petrodiesel Blends: Some older diesel engines (really the fuel delivery systems) may not be able to handle straight biodiesel, but can handle blends of 5 or 20% biodiesel (B5, and B20, respectively). Even reducing foreign oil imports 20% is better than nothing...
excellent guesses. exactly right.
Executive Summary of my personal hungarian style:
Variables are (scope)(type)(name)(units)
scope is: g_ for globals, s_ for file statics (affects entire file, but only the current file), s_ for class statics (affects more than current class object), m_ for class members. Local variables have no scope prefix.
Types: b for boolean, c for character, d for double, e for enumerations, f for float, i for int, l for long, n for unsigned, o for misc object, p for pointer, r for reference, s for string, t for time, v for vectors/arrays/iterable sequences. Local variables have no type prefix. Scroll back to review the type if you need.
Names: all_lower_case_underscore_separators for local (unimportant) variables. UseInitialCapsForEverythingElse. Acronyms are treated as a word for the purposes of capitalization and separation, e.g. IrsForm1040A.
Units: If it is expressing a dimensioned quantity (length, volume, time, mass, etc., or combinations thereof), add units, e.g. rpm_Hz, UplinkFreq_MHz, etc. You'll never wonder whether or not that timespan measurement was in seconds or milliseconds ever again. Not for long anyway.
That's the simple version. Try a few, and see what sticks with you. Your brain might not be wired the same way as mine. This is geared towards enforcing consistency in scope and type, which are the places where assumptions tend to be broken. e.g. m_iNumerator / m_iDenominator will truncate, m_dNumerator / m_dDenominator will not (at least in C/C++, where it's useful to know the difference).
Enjoy.
Seriously, though. I've worked as a programmer for the last 15 years. Mostly, I've been fixing other people's bugs. Here's what I like to see in code that I need to fix (and generally don't see):
1) Consistency in formatting, style, variable names, design - I don't care what style you use as long as it's consistent. I prefer my own form of Hungarian Notation, where a variable's prefix indicates its scope (global, static, etc), as well as the type. If any of that information changes, I should darn well follow through to make sure I've fixed everything that depends on them. Bring on strong type checking!
2) No spaghetti code. Give me this:
instead of this:It doesn't look like it matters much yet, but try adding eight more error checks to both, and see which you can track better. The "early bailout on error" model clearly surpasses the "endless nesting" model.3) Use of descriptive variable and procedure names. Source code is not meant to be understood by the computer. This is why we have compilers, and interpreters. Source code is meant to be understood by humans. Write your code for humans, and you'll be surprised at how much faster you can grind through code. You'll only write the code once, but when you have to debug it, you'll spend eternity sifting through line after line, wondering what the hell you meant by that overused "temp" variable (temporary value? temperature? celsius? kelvin?). If you had only taken the time to spell out, "surface_temperature_C", you'd know for sure. Vowels are good for you.
4) Comment! Not every line. Not an impossible to maintain function header comment with dates and initials of everyone who's edited it. Don't fall for nor rely on that "self-documenting" code nonsense. Just one comment line every three to ten code lines. That's all. Give me an overview of what's supposed to happen in each logical block of code. Tell me what if conditions are checking for. A good rule of thumb is to sketch out your functions in comments first, then fill in the blanks.
That's all I can come up with off the top of my head, but there are certainly more...
NOTE: for the pedants who think they noticed an apparent conflict between my hungarian notation style and the "surface_temperature_C" variable: since there is no scope or type prefix on the variable, it's a local variable, and I can change it at will, knowing that it will not affect any code outside the function at hand. If it had been "m_fSurfaceTemperature_C", then I'd know it could have repercussions affecting the state of the current object. If it were "g_fSurfaceTemperature_F", then I'd know I could hose my whole program with an invalid value. And should have converted from Celsius to Fahrenheit before doing so...
"expectation of privacy"
In a public forum, there is no expectation of privacy. People may record what you say. Get over it.
Jack Rabbit Submersible Hydro Generator
No Pipes or Dams! Power from any Fast-Running Stream or Tidal Flow!
The Jack Rabbit is a special low-speed alternator mounted in a heavy-duty, oil-filled, cast aluminum housing with triple shaft seals. Orginally designed for towing behind seismic sleds for oil exploration, this marine-duty unit is ideal for home power generation near a reasonably fast-moving stream. In a 9 mph stream (slow jog) the Jack Rabbit produces about 2,400 watt-hours daily. Ina 6 mph stream (brisk walk) it produces over 1,500 watt-hours. The 12.5" propeller requires 13" of water depth. A rock or timber venturi can often be constructed to increase stream speed and power output.
...that the chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell, is the son of the Secretary of State, Colin Powell?
He was accepting an award at the Grammy's years ago, and said, "We'll keep doing our part to f*ck up the mainstream..."
He came out later, to speak on Frank Sinatra's induction into the Hall of Fame, and kept looking off-stage like, "I won't say anything like that again... really!"
Then Joan Rivers gets a boatload of press when she shatters an age old industry taboo and utters, "g*dd*mn". on an awards show. What, Bono isn't worth the extra press?
Chumps.