I recall a major point of contention being that women aren't eligible for conscription in the US. Apparently every man at 18 has to fill out his draft card just in case they bring back the draft, but women need not apply.
I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine what this means within the context of this discussion.
I can't help but think that the "significant digits" issue would be important where your measured values are only of a certain precision and accuracy.
Let's say you've got a measurement of distance to the closest 10cm. You could multiply that number by pi to a million decimal places, but you're going to be getting junk data after a certain point. The measurement simply doesn't have the precision for pi to a million digits to be meaningful.
Users who buy an analog sensor/transducer, controller and control element and expect linear dynamic loop gain without a linearizer on the control element (and possibly on the sensor/transducer) are deluded....
Oh, you're not a control nerd, are you? Well, I guess you'll buy the PID controlled control system to go with the sensors and control elements for your HVAC system without realising that the dynamic loop gain will be terribly non-linear due to the nature of the non-characterised dampers, and inaccurate due to non-linearities in the temperature element(Let's say it's a thermistor).
People abstract these things to salesmen with stuff like "vista ready" stickers because they know for themselves that they don't know. All things considered, I'd say it's a good option when advertisers tell the truth.
Don't be ignorant. Microsoft controls the "Vista capable" stuff, just like they have forever. It's part of their marketing. What, do you think that companies get those little "designed for Windows..." stickers because they're cool? It's because their hardware meets Microsoft's standards.
Actually, the ambiguity from saying "a hamburger" is appropriate.
It's like saying "This is Wayne Gretzky. You can hire Wayne to come to your house and teach you to play hockey!". Of course, it's literally true when Wayne Birkowitz comes to teach you hockey.
Thing is, I'd say the analogy is more like this: You don't have sex with the diseased whore(head onto the wrong websites, run untrustworthy programs), you don't have to go to the STD clinic to get tested (AV software).
You know what? I'm never going to be able to explain this to you. Keep fighting your ostensible battles. It's only distracting attention from actual issues, so don't worry about it. This world is valueless, meaningless, and senseless, so if trendy protesters help send people to their deaths by letting companies and governments deal with PR issues that could someday hurt someone instead of real ones that are hurting and killing tens of thousands of people right now, the universe is no worse off.
Houses where I live start at 20k for something really bad, 40k for something decent, 50k for something livable, and 60k or more for something really nice.
The fact that there are 500k houses inly shows that people are in love with being in debt.
Size isn't neccessarily speed. If you're not running the section of code which multiplies, then it's no faster. If, for some reason, you've added this feature and the addition feature runs slower as a result, then I'd say it is a step backwards if you can prevent it using better design.
If you can't determine a metric, then it's your own lack of creativity doing so. I can think of a number of quantitative benchmarks which could be used to determine the impact a product has; Number of imitators, market penetration, number of articles in the press after a set time period, the initial acceleration of sales, lots.
Go ahead and be an artsy fartsy 'Nothing can ever be determined, everything is completely random and unknowable', Ian Malcom.
To be fair, we don't really have much of a choice here in North America. You've got the 'big 3', whose vehicles are really only getting in the low 30MPG at best, then you've got a bunch of imports which are usually the cars considered the most 'american', thus are huge. You'll never see an inexpensive keicar in the North American market, not neccessarily because the demand isn't there, but because the people who design cars here and overseas don't believe a north american would want one.
I was looking for a new vehicle to replace my old Bronco II. I want either something fairly small and fuel efficient but with plenty of storage space like the Bronco (Compare it to any truck on the market and you'll see the difference in size right away -- with something that size using modern technology, there's no reason it couldn't be great on fuel), or something super small and super fuel efficient and super inexpensive. My options seem to be fairly limited to a few cars that cost as much as a small house but sip gas, like the prius, a few cars that will sip gas like an alcoholic sips wine, like the SUVs(They cost as much as a small house), or something that has a pretty name but is meant mostly to placate people, like the Escape Hybrid(Small house).
I'd like something dirt cheap to own, maintain, and use, that'll get me to 100kph on the highway (because that's the speed limit), isn't big so it'll turn on a dime, sips fuel, and doesn't have any real luxuries. My only choice is to buy something used and grit my teeth at the pumps.
I liked going to work in sunlight. Sunlight is nice. Then just as I was almost able to drive to work in the sun for the first time this year, they kicked this DST into effect. Only now is the daylight finally getting closer again.
If dinner was boiled shoelaces and cadaver tongues, you wouldn't want me offering the blessing. I do like things too though! For example, the place I'm living right now isn't a huge city, and while it has it's disadvantages, it's got fresh air, starry skies, friendly people, and driving distances for anything local so close you might as well just walk.
Why does everyone believe that I live in the subarbs? I live in a small town far north. It doesn't matter where I am in such a small town, the air tastes alive, because it has travelled through hundreds of kilometres of virgin forest to reach me. Everything in town is within much closer walking distance than when I lived in the city, and I'm able to bike or walk to work in the spring, summer, and fall(and snowmobile in the winter, if I'm so inclined). The social element is more tightly knit than any city I've ever lived in, so much that it's actually a bit scary sometimes, but living in such a place is actually doable, unlike the capital cities I lived in, where nothing and nobody is close, nothing is natural (Green designed, planted, and maintained by humans is NOT the same as a forest which has existed since before our race was born), and you can never see the night sky.
For the record, I've spent quite a few hours looking at various EV conversions, and even light sports cars using LI-ION batteries tend to have a range of about 30 miles from what I've seen. Vehicles that can't actually be used by anyone are poor representatives of technology. I've got an electric rocket ship in my garage that can go 120 miles on a potato battery - Doesn't mean anything if I'm not using it to travel to and from work every day and thus proving the usability.
Nonissue? People dying from an allergic reaction is a nonissue?
That's a general food issue, not an issue specific to GMO. Think of all the products which don't have peanuts but can't be eaten by those with peanut allergies because they may have come in contact with it. This soy is similar in that respect. It's definitely NOT the "we're all dead!" issue everyone is making a big stink about -- not like school kids catching E. Coli because meat standards decline because the government cave to pressure from lobbyists to allow companies to self-govern.
I can't help but look to World War II as an example of what happens when oil supplies to civilians are cut back. My favourite example is the wood gassifiers which were mounted to vehicles. Things will have to change, and for a lot of people energy usage will change dramatically. With all the technology we've mastered since we first started using cheap coal and oil to supplement our energy usage, however, I don't think we'll need to go back to the dark ages as everyone seems to imply.
Who says you're either in the subarbs or in a big city? I'm in a smaller town with only one or two major industries, and we've got all the ammenities within closer walking distance than when I lived on the main road of a capital city. Housing is ridiculously cheap, we're not churning a megawatt of waste light into the sky at night so when I look above I can still see the sky rather than a haze of light pollution, the air in my lungs has spent more time travelling through thousands of kilometers of forest than over a desert of concrete.
I can walk or ride my bike to work down a hard packed dirt road when the weather permits, and instead of passing drunks and prostitutes as I did when I suffered in the city, I pass through green forest, which existed long before our race was born, and will exist long after I die.
I was born in a small town, I've spent a good portion of my life in a small town (Though I've spent enough of my adult life in a capital city to know I didn't like it), and I hope to continue living in a small town, because I can't afford the pay cut or the cost increase generally associated with living in a big city, I prefer the tight-knit small town communities and the slower pace, I like the outdoor life that you're not going to get legitimately in either the subarbs or the cities(What nature is a forest planted by human hands and designed by an urban planner decades ago, and maintained by a union city worker?).
As for the charge of "materialistic", I'm going to have to disagree. With my education and income, if I wanted to, I'd be living in a big shiny house, driving a big shiny Porsche, and dating or marrying big shiny women who were born believing someone else owes them a living(all bought on credit, as is the current trend for the materialistic). Instead, I live in a single room in a hostel, I drive an 85 Bronco II I bought for next to nothing and needs a bunch of body work done which is pretty good on gas but needs a lot of work to bring it to good working order (and I'm excited about doing it becuase it sounds like a fun challenge), and the most exciting elements of my life are learning about myself and the world around me now that I'm an adult, and my work, which is really amazing becuase the work I'm doing directly affects the bottom line of our mill, which nearly shut down last year because it wasn't profitable, helping keep everyone there employed.
Who says it's either the city or a farm somewhere? There are communities which are much smaller than a city which don't destroy the air with miles of concrete desert, don't pollute the night sky with a megawatt of light, and require less walking to get to whatever you need than a city.
I'm living in a tiny little town with only one or two major industries right now. No matter where I buy a house I can walk to the store even when it's freezing out, and in the summer I can cycle to work down a forgotten dirt road in much less time than it took me to cycle to the nearest mega-mall when I lived in the city. Even more amazing, unlike the city, everyone tends to know everyone, and gossip travels quickly, which has it's upsides and downsides, but the upshot is there's much more social contact than I ever had in the city.
That link says that lots are recycled, but says nothing about any of the important issues I mentioned. I can recycle the eggs I ate this morning if I'm willing to use massive doses of the right chemicals and massive amounts of energy to convert my waste product (For example, I could neutralize the toxins and kill the bacteria, then mix the result into a huge vat of good egg yolks). If the government mandated it, it would be widespread, just like battery and hazardous chemical recycling, but that doesn't mean it'd be a good idea.
However, you're right, the work will be on improving an existing process -- for example, by creating better, cleaner, more carbon neutral fuels to run internal combustion engines. That's achievable with current technology, doesn't require massive amounts of brand new infastructure, doesn't require the replacement of every vehicle on the road, and won't put politically powerful companies in harms way. You pretty much have to satisfy all those requirements to have a viable new energy source.
Anyway, regarding your numbers, all I can say is "I'll believe it when I see it". The best vehicles for conversion, a triumph TR-7 and a Porsche 944, both had ranges less than 30 miles. The TR-7 creator made a hybrid trailer for long trips, but the Porsche 944 owner gave up on the project because he couldn't afford to keep replacing batteries.
Flooded lead-acid batteries in a well-designed EV will last between 50k-100k miles (lots of variables there).
The batteries in the vehicles I've been looking at only last a year or two, and it appears that it's the case regardless of mileage. It's sort of a universal understanding from what I've read - batteries are expendable. Also, every conversion I've seen has spent about 5 times as much as you claim to need on batteries.
And recycling is more complicated than it first looks. It's entirely possible that the recycling process is safe, recovers more chemicals than it takes to remove them, doesn't require huge amounts of fossil fuels be burned in recovery, but it's also possible that the opposite is true. Paper recycling, for example, takes stronger bleaches than regular pulp to bleach, still requires a bunch of energy, and removes some elements from the cycle which provide economies. For example, in any modern paper mill, a vast majority of the mill energy demands come from wood waste and black liquor, and recycling removes these carbon neutral, renewable energy sources and replaces them with natural gas or bunker C oil.
Are you referring to damaging batteries through overuse?
No, I'm talking about damaging batteries through underuse, or through not charging them right away, or this that or the other thing. A gas tank will still carry X litres of gasoline no matter what the history of the amount of fuel in the vehicle, but batteries are fragile and need to be treated well.
[...]according to the system specs I'll conservatively get between 85-90 miles per charge with a (full charge: 12 hours of 20A @ 110V or about $4 in SoCal). [...]
Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. I've seen some pretty light vehicles converted, and for the most part, their range is rarely 60 miles, partially because the sheer mass of batteries makes the converted vehicle much heavier than the original, and partially because there simply isn't that much energy. Often it's about half that. Making matters worse, we don't all live in Southern California, so temperature effect on battery energy is an issue. The vehicle that will get you to work in 20C will leave you on the side of the road to die at -40C.
By the way, a gallon of gas contains about 60 kilowatt-hours of chemical energy. Most well designed EV systems have less than 20kWh. Your system appears to have about 30. Gee, how much energy did I say an EV system had compared to a gallon of gas?
Slashdot Mirror
I recall a major point of contention being that women aren't eligible for conscription in the US. Apparently every man at 18 has to fill out his draft card just in case they bring back the draft, but women need not apply.
I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine what this means within the context of this discussion.
I can't help but think that the "significant digits" issue would be important where your measured values are only of a certain precision and accuracy.
Let's say you've got a measurement of distance to the closest 10cm. You could multiply that number by pi to a million decimal places, but you're going to be getting junk data after a certain point. The measurement simply doesn't have the precision for pi to a million digits to be meaningful.
You can run, but you'll just die tired.
Users who buy an analog sensor/transducer, controller and control element and expect linear dynamic loop gain without a linearizer on the control element (and possibly on the sensor/transducer) are deluded....
Oh, you're not a control nerd, are you? Well, I guess you'll buy the PID controlled control system to go with the sensors and control elements for your HVAC system without realising that the dynamic loop gain will be terribly non-linear due to the nature of the non-characterised dampers, and inaccurate due to non-linearities in the temperature element(Let's say it's a thermistor).
People abstract these things to salesmen with stuff like "vista ready" stickers because they know for themselves that they don't know. All things considered, I'd say it's a good option when advertisers tell the truth.
I had both, until the Yanks decided that sunlight in the morning is too much to ask.
Don't be ignorant. Microsoft controls the "Vista capable" stuff, just like they have forever. It's part of their marketing. What, do you think that companies get those little "designed for Windows ..." stickers because they're cool? It's because their hardware meets Microsoft's standards.
Wrong. Slashdotters aren't lazy nor stupid. They just need to save with the new ING direct savings account!
Oh, soory. I got caught up in calling people wrong.
Actually, the ambiguity from saying "a hamburger" is appropriate.
It's like saying "This is Wayne Gretzky. You can hire Wayne to come to your house and teach you to play hockey!". Of course, it's literally true when Wayne Birkowitz comes to teach you hockey.
Thing is, I'd say the analogy is more like this: You don't have sex with the diseased whore(head onto the wrong websites, run untrustworthy programs), you don't have to go to the STD clinic to get tested (AV software).
But it won't count by then, because it won't be America by then. The country will have been liquidated to cover its debts and annexed by China.
(It's humorous that people want to 'think of the children' except when it comes to taking out trillions in debt they never intend to pay back.)
You know what? I'm never going to be able to explain this to you. Keep fighting your ostensible battles. It's only distracting attention from actual issues, so don't worry about it. This world is valueless, meaningless, and senseless, so if trendy protesters help send people to their deaths by letting companies and governments deal with PR issues that could someday hurt someone instead of real ones that are hurting and killing tens of thousands of people right now, the universe is no worse off.
Enjoy your E. Coli and Mad Cow Disease.
Houses where I live start at 20k for something really bad, 40k for something decent, 50k for something livable, and 60k or more for something really nice.
The fact that there are 500k houses inly shows that people are in love with being in debt.
Size isn't neccessarily speed. If you're not running the section of code which multiplies, then it's no faster. If, for some reason, you've added this feature and the addition feature runs slower as a result, then I'd say it is a step backwards if you can prevent it using better design.
If you can't determine a metric, then it's your own lack of creativity doing so. I can think of a number of quantitative benchmarks which could be used to determine the impact a product has; Number of imitators, market penetration, number of articles in the press after a set time period, the initial acceleration of sales, lots.
Go ahead and be an artsy fartsy 'Nothing can ever be determined, everything is completely random and unknowable', Ian Malcom.
To be fair, we don't really have much of a choice here in North America. You've got the 'big 3', whose vehicles are really only getting in the low 30MPG at best, then you've got a bunch of imports which are usually the cars considered the most 'american', thus are huge. You'll never see an inexpensive keicar in the North American market, not neccessarily because the demand isn't there, but because the people who design cars here and overseas don't believe a north american would want one.
I was looking for a new vehicle to replace my old Bronco II. I want either something fairly small and fuel efficient but with plenty of storage space like the Bronco (Compare it to any truck on the market and you'll see the difference in size right away -- with something that size using modern technology, there's no reason it couldn't be great on fuel), or something super small and super fuel efficient and super inexpensive. My options seem to be fairly limited to a few cars that cost as much as a small house but sip gas, like the prius, a few cars that will sip gas like an alcoholic sips wine, like the SUVs(They cost as much as a small house), or something that has a pretty name but is meant mostly to placate people, like the Escape Hybrid(Small house).
I'd like something dirt cheap to own, maintain, and use, that'll get me to 100kph on the highway (because that's the speed limit), isn't big so it'll turn on a dime, sips fuel, and doesn't have any real luxuries. My only choice is to buy something used and grit my teeth at the pumps.
I liked going to work in sunlight. Sunlight is nice. Then just as I was almost able to drive to work in the sun for the first time this year, they kicked this DST into effect. Only now is the daylight finally getting closer again.
If dinner was boiled shoelaces and cadaver tongues, you wouldn't want me offering the blessing. I do like things too though! For example, the place I'm living right now isn't a huge city, and while it has it's disadvantages, it's got fresh air, starry skies, friendly people, and driving distances for anything local so close you might as well just walk.
Why does everyone believe that I live in the subarbs? I live in a small town far north. It doesn't matter where I am in such a small town, the air tastes alive, because it has travelled through hundreds of kilometres of virgin forest to reach me. Everything in town is within much closer walking distance than when I lived in the city, and I'm able to bike or walk to work in the spring, summer, and fall(and snowmobile in the winter, if I'm so inclined). The social element is more tightly knit than any city I've ever lived in, so much that it's actually a bit scary sometimes, but living in such a place is actually doable, unlike the capital cities I lived in, where nothing and nobody is close, nothing is natural (Green designed, planted, and maintained by humans is NOT the same as a forest which has existed since before our race was born), and you can never see the night sky.
For the record, I've spent quite a few hours looking at various EV conversions, and even light sports cars using LI-ION batteries tend to have a range of about 30 miles from what I've seen. Vehicles that can't actually be used by anyone are poor representatives of technology. I've got an electric rocket ship in my garage that can go 120 miles on a potato battery - Doesn't mean anything if I'm not using it to travel to and from work every day and thus proving the usability.
Nonissue? People dying from an allergic reaction is a nonissue?
That's a general food issue, not an issue specific to GMO. Think of all the products which don't have peanuts but can't be eaten by those with peanut allergies because they may have come in contact with it. This soy is similar in that respect. It's definitely NOT the "we're all dead!" issue everyone is making a big stink about -- not like school kids catching E. Coli because meat standards decline because the government cave to pressure from lobbyists to allow companies to self-govern.
I can't help but look to World War II as an example of what happens when oil supplies to civilians are cut back. My favourite example is the wood gassifiers which were mounted to vehicles. Things will have to change, and for a lot of people energy usage will change dramatically. With all the technology we've mastered since we first started using cheap coal and oil to supplement our energy usage, however, I don't think we'll need to go back to the dark ages as everyone seems to imply.
Who says you're either in the subarbs or in a big city? I'm in a smaller town with only one or two major industries, and we've got all the ammenities within closer walking distance than when I lived on the main road of a capital city. Housing is ridiculously cheap, we're not churning a megawatt of waste light into the sky at night so when I look above I can still see the sky rather than a haze of light pollution, the air in my lungs has spent more time travelling through thousands of kilometers of forest than over a desert of concrete.
I can walk or ride my bike to work down a hard packed dirt road when the weather permits, and instead of passing drunks and prostitutes as I did when I suffered in the city, I pass through green forest, which existed long before our race was born, and will exist long after I die.
I was born in a small town, I've spent a good portion of my life in a small town (Though I've spent enough of my adult life in a capital city to know I didn't like it), and I hope to continue living in a small town, because I can't afford the pay cut or the cost increase generally associated with living in a big city, I prefer the tight-knit small town communities and the slower pace, I like the outdoor life that you're not going to get legitimately in either the subarbs or the cities(What nature is a forest planted by human hands and designed by an urban planner decades ago, and maintained by a union city worker?).
As for the charge of "materialistic", I'm going to have to disagree. With my education and income, if I wanted to, I'd be living in a big shiny house, driving a big shiny Porsche, and dating or marrying big shiny women who were born believing someone else owes them a living(all bought on credit, as is the current trend for the materialistic). Instead, I live in a single room in a hostel, I drive an 85 Bronco II I bought for next to nothing and needs a bunch of body work done which is pretty good on gas but needs a lot of work to bring it to good working order (and I'm excited about doing it becuase it sounds like a fun challenge), and the most exciting elements of my life are learning about myself and the world around me now that I'm an adult, and my work, which is really amazing becuase the work I'm doing directly affects the bottom line of our mill, which nearly shut down last year because it wasn't profitable, helping keep everyone there employed.
Who says it's either the city or a farm somewhere? There are communities which are much smaller than a city which don't destroy the air with miles of concrete desert, don't pollute the night sky with a megawatt of light, and require less walking to get to whatever you need than a city.
I'm living in a tiny little town with only one or two major industries right now. No matter where I buy a house I can walk to the store even when it's freezing out, and in the summer I can cycle to work down a forgotten dirt road in much less time than it took me to cycle to the nearest mega-mall when I lived in the city. Even more amazing, unlike the city, everyone tends to know everyone, and gossip travels quickly, which has it's upsides and downsides, but the upshot is there's much more social contact than I ever had in the city.
That link says that lots are recycled, but says nothing about any of the important issues I mentioned. I can recycle the eggs I ate this morning if I'm willing to use massive doses of the right chemicals and massive amounts of energy to convert my waste product (For example, I could neutralize the toxins and kill the bacteria, then mix the result into a huge vat of good egg yolks). If the government mandated it, it would be widespread, just like battery and hazardous chemical recycling, but that doesn't mean it'd be a good idea.
However, you're right, the work will be on improving an existing process -- for example, by creating better, cleaner, more carbon neutral fuels to run internal combustion engines. That's achievable with current technology, doesn't require massive amounts of brand new infastructure, doesn't require the replacement of every vehicle on the road, and won't put politically powerful companies in harms way. You pretty much have to satisfy all those requirements to have a viable new energy source.
Anyway, regarding your numbers, all I can say is "I'll believe it when I see it". The best vehicles for conversion, a triumph TR-7 and a Porsche 944, both had ranges less than 30 miles. The TR-7 creator made a hybrid trailer for long trips, but the Porsche 944 owner gave up on the project because he couldn't afford to keep replacing batteries.
Flooded lead-acid batteries in a well-designed EV will last between 50k-100k miles (lots of variables there).
The batteries in the vehicles I've been looking at only last a year or two, and it appears that it's the case regardless of mileage. It's sort of a universal understanding from what I've read - batteries are expendable. Also, every conversion I've seen has spent about 5 times as much as you claim to need on batteries.
And recycling is more complicated than it first looks. It's entirely possible that the recycling process is safe, recovers more chemicals than it takes to remove them, doesn't require huge amounts of fossil fuels be burned in recovery, but it's also possible that the opposite is true. Paper recycling, for example, takes stronger bleaches than regular pulp to bleach, still requires a bunch of energy, and removes some elements from the cycle which provide economies. For example, in any modern paper mill, a vast majority of the mill energy demands come from wood waste and black liquor, and recycling removes these carbon neutral, renewable energy sources and replaces them with natural gas or bunker C oil.
Are you referring to damaging batteries through overuse?
No, I'm talking about damaging batteries through underuse, or through not charging them right away, or this that or the other thing. A gas tank will still carry X litres of gasoline no matter what the history of the amount of fuel in the vehicle, but batteries are fragile and need to be treated well.
[...]according to the system specs I'll conservatively get between 85-90 miles per charge with a (full charge: 12 hours of 20A @ 110V or about $4 in SoCal). [...]
Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. I've seen some pretty light vehicles converted, and for the most part, their range is rarely 60 miles, partially because the sheer mass of batteries makes the converted vehicle much heavier than the original, and partially because there simply isn't that much energy. Often it's about half that. Making matters worse, we don't all live in Southern California, so temperature effect on battery energy is an issue. The vehicle that will get you to work in 20C will leave you on the side of the road to die at -40C.
By the way, a gallon of gas contains about 60 kilowatt-hours of chemical energy. Most well designed EV systems have less than 20kWh. Your system appears to have about 30. Gee, how much energy did I say an EV system had compared to a gallon of gas?