We can easily extract energy from ambient heat.. as long as we have a convenient heat sink.
"Useful energy" is all about the difference in potentials. You can connect a lightbulb to a +1VDC supply on one side and a +1VDC supply on the other side and nothing will happen. That's true at 1V, 100V, or 1MV.. as long as there's nowhere with a lower potential, no current will flow. As soon as you lower the voltage on one side, you can start doing work.
Ambient heat is no different. It's a localized supply of energy with nowhere to go (relatively), and if it were allowed to flow somewhere, we could do work. If, for example, we buried the end of one heat pipe N feet below the surface where it's a constant 55F, and insulated it on the way to the surface where it's significantly warmer (or cooler), then we could exploit something like the Peltier effect to produce a voltage, and then do work with that. The problem is that, assuming the atmosphere is warmer -- in the tropics or during the summer -- the ground around the end of the heat pipe would heat up and store that heat very effectively, so we wouldn't be able to do much work before we'd have to wait for the ground to cool off again. Alternatively, we could find a place where there's more heat, such as a geothermal vent, and exploit the significant difference between that and the atmospheric temperature.
At any rate, it all comes down to the difference in potential. Trying to do work with zero-point energy or "ambient heat" without providing somewhere for the energy to go is like trying to run by standing still.
Well it looks like the Micro PC blew the QOQ away.
KG: N...no, that's, that'd be impossible. Your QOQ can support your whole weight? JB: Well not at first... KG: Yeah? JB: But over time. KG: Hmm...how many pushups can you do? JB:...QOQ pushups? KG: Yeah...I guess, you could only do one really. JB: Yeah, well one is all ya need.
Case in point: Enron's Kenneth Lay, who died of natural causes last week, shortly after being sentenced to prison.
Actually he hadn't been sentenced yet and I don't think it was scheduled until September or October. Also the conviction will be vacated since he died before sentencing and appeals.
Who knows.. It looks like they took their pictures with a camera phone, meanwhile I hear they pee manually, so it seems they're all over the map technology wise.
Clean water is just a matter of filtration. If it was important enough, there would already exist cheap methods of turning copious amounts of seawater into potable water. Oil will be replaced by solar, either directly or via another indirect fuel. And land? We could fit everyone on earth into 600km^2 (about the size of Texas) if the whole area was built at the same density as NYC. Sure, that's a lot of people, but there's a lot of land out there. Land won't be truely scarce anytime within the next 100 years, even if we lost 20% of it from rising sea levels. Additionally, the Japanese are flirting with the idea of building structures over water which could theoretically fit the 750,000 people into an area the size of 6 city blocks.
Obviously it's time to fight fire with fire. Companies such as eBayPal, Citigroup, et al need to start "phake phishing." When the recipient clicks on the link or calls the number, he or she will be presented with:
YOUR BANK ACCOUNT IS EMPTY.
At least, that could have been the result from clicking on this link. NEVER trust e-mails which claim to require account information, logins, or passwords. Delete them, and/or forward them to abuse@ourwebsite.com. If in doubt, call the number on your most recent bill, or find our number in the phonebook to discuss the issue with one of our representatives.
Back in the '80s when it was common for the games companies to copy-protect their games
When's the last time you bought a game? A game without copy protection is uncommon. Also there are probably more leaks before publication today than there were 20 years ago.
it's easy to develop for (using the standard GNU toolchain), runs Linux, and doesn't have a multi-national corporationa attempting to thwart you at every turn?
That's your answer. It's all about the challenge, man!
But just in case I'm wrong, I now declare copyright on the hours of 9AM to 5PM, and using those hours or communicating them in whole or in part, without express written permission from me, is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.
PCs took off because Windows provided an equal format for everyone.
Err.. PCs took off because the IBM PC was reverse engineered and clones proliferated the market, and because of the business software that was available. And was well before Windows became commonplace. As far as media formats, there were tons of competing technologies.. WORM drives, magneto-optical, hard drives, ZIP drives, and all sorts of proprietary storage tech. PC makers eventually adopted standard interfaces for RAM, the expansion bus, and eventually the CPU itself, but that's not really the same thing. About the only standard interface back then was RS-232, and even that was plagued with 9-pin vs. 25-pin and male vs. female.. you were lucky if you could connect any device without at least 1 adaptor. Once hard drives became common, pretty much everyone was using SCSI except the PC market, which mainly stuck to IDE because it was cheaper. And then there's EGA vs CGA vs VGA and early 3D graphics cards.
The PC took off either because of, or in spite of, format wars.. not format compliance.
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GENIUS!
We can easily extract energy from ambient heat.. as long as we have a convenient heat sink.
"Useful energy" is all about the difference in potentials. You can connect a lightbulb to a +1VDC supply on one side and a +1VDC supply on the other side and nothing will happen. That's true at 1V, 100V, or 1MV.. as long as there's nowhere with a lower potential, no current will flow. As soon as you lower the voltage on one side, you can start doing work.
Ambient heat is no different. It's a localized supply of energy with nowhere to go (relatively), and if it were allowed to flow somewhere, we could do work. If, for example, we buried the end of one heat pipe N feet below the surface where it's a constant 55F, and insulated it on the way to the surface where it's significantly warmer (or cooler), then we could exploit something like the Peltier effect to produce a voltage, and then do work with that. The problem is that, assuming the atmosphere is warmer -- in the tropics or during the summer -- the ground around the end of the heat pipe would heat up and store that heat very effectively, so we wouldn't be able to do much work before we'd have to wait for the ground to cool off again. Alternatively, we could find a place where there's more heat, such as a geothermal vent, and exploit the significant difference between that and the atmospheric temperature.
At any rate, it all comes down to the difference in potential. Trying to do work with zero-point energy or "ambient heat" without providing somewhere for the energy to go is like trying to run by standing still.
Well it looks like the Micro PC blew the QOQ away.
...QOQ pushups?
KG: N...no, that's, that'd be impossible. Your QOQ can support your whole weight?
JB: Well not at first...
KG: Yeah?
JB: But over time.
KG: Hmm...how many pushups can you do?
JB:
KG: Yeah...I guess, you could only do one really.
JB: Yeah, well one is all ya need.
Case in point: Enron's Kenneth Lay, who died of natural causes last week, shortly after being sentenced to prison.
Actually he hadn't been sentenced yet and I don't think it was scheduled until September or October. Also the conviction will be vacated since he died before sentencing and appeals.
Who knows.. It looks like they took their pictures with a camera phone, meanwhile I hear they pee manually, so it seems they're all over the map technology wise.
in a strange example of viral marketing gone wrong.
Strange because things referred to as "viral" so rarely go wrong.
Current tags: boring, slownewsday, yawn, uninteresting and duh.
Put another way: Slashdot -- Now with 20% real nerds!
You NASA shill. You know danmed well they don't use soundstages anymore.. they use Pixar.
Yeah, the summary really should've had a proper warning:
at about the 2:58 mark, booster separation and Discovery zooming away followed by four minutes of puke-in-your-mouth-a-little freefall.
Are you kidding? I've got every Cray - Swimsuit Edition calendar ever produced.
Clean water is just a matter of filtration. If it was important enough, there would already exist cheap methods of turning copious amounts of seawater into potable water. Oil will be replaced by solar, either directly or via another indirect fuel. And land? We could fit everyone on earth into 600km^2 (about the size of Texas) if the whole area was built at the same density as NYC. Sure, that's a lot of people, but there's a lot of land out there. Land won't be truely scarce anytime within the next 100 years, even if we lost 20% of it from rising sea levels. Additionally, the Japanese are flirting with the idea of building structures over water which could theoretically fit the 750,000 people into an area the size of 6 city blocks.
The Swedish Chef is a terrorist? Man, I knew it.. I f'ing KNEW it!
Why indeed. Dibs on 3rd string kicker.
If by self-conscious jokes you mean something like: "Testicles and surgery! Those are two words I never want to see in the same sentence," then yes.
Nice to see my old shop teacher on New Scientist.. recognizable from the missing ring finger tip, of course. Keep up the good work Mr. Daly!
Nice to see my old shop teacher on New Scientist.. recognizable from the missing ring finger tip, of course. Keep up the good work Mr. Daly!
I don't like watching surgery either.. I guess that means I really like it.
Two words I never wanted to see in the same paragraph.
Back in the '80s when it was common for the games companies to copy-protect their games
When's the last time you bought a game? A game without copy protection is uncommon. Also there are probably more leaks before publication today than there were 20 years ago.
it's easy to develop for (using the standard GNU toolchain), runs Linux, and doesn't have a multi-national corporationa attempting to thwart you at every turn?
That's your answer. It's all about the challenge, man!
What's your game called?
I don't think time can be copyrighted.
But just in case I'm wrong, I now declare copyright on the hours of 9AM to 5PM, and using those hours or communicating them in whole or in part, without express written permission from me, is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for licensing information.
Yeah, that's why I hate "funny" movies.. I'm never sure when I'm supposed to laugh, so I just sit there in awkward silence for 2 hours. :(
PCs took off because Windows provided an equal format for everyone.
Err.. PCs took off because the IBM PC was reverse engineered and clones proliferated the market, and because of the business software that was available. And was well before Windows became commonplace. As far as media formats, there were tons of competing technologies.. WORM drives, magneto-optical, hard drives, ZIP drives, and all sorts of proprietary storage tech. PC makers eventually adopted standard interfaces for RAM, the expansion bus, and eventually the CPU itself, but that's not really the same thing. About the only standard interface back then was RS-232, and even that was plagued with 9-pin vs. 25-pin and male vs. female.. you were lucky if you could connect any device without at least 1 adaptor. Once hard drives became common, pretty much everyone was using SCSI except the PC market, which mainly stuck to IDE because it was cheaper. And then there's EGA vs CGA vs VGA and early 3D graphics cards.
The PC took off either because of, or in spite of, format wars.. not format compliance.