Judging form the success of the furniture rental business model, I'd say they can charge $24.95+ a month and still be a huge success.
As far as I know there is no place you can get new furniture for free, with Open Office there is such an animal.
I think more and more ppl will start going Mac, or Linux.
I say MS's days are numbered, their Vista turd has made a bad name for them and I get paid to replace it with XP at present so ppl can just get some work done with their legacy apps.
Some older apps are needed by ppl, and Vista will just not work at this time.
Some semi-modern apps will not work with Vista without a pricey upgrade on some software.
Ppl do want security, but not at the cost of not being able to use their old legacy apps, or the cost of replacing all their apps that are not Vista compatible at an older version.
Needless to say there are many other underwater currents with a great deal of power, and some can be harnessed to some degree without a negative impact.
So let's play SeaLab and make a modern Atlantis and end this oil mess before it turns the oceans in a hydrogen sulfide soup.
I am no fan of Al gore, but I am a fan of Solar for numerous reasons.
Nanosolar and similar technologies could gear up to cheap mass production, and eventually reach efficiency as high as the Stirling engine dishes at some point.
Microsoft demanded that MS version of one laptop per child be made.
Asus was approached and pressured to make a MS version of the EEE PC thou it was never planned prior.
MS and gates sees the juggernaut that is Open Source is about to crash his party.
He is using his Foundation to gain public relations points and hinder the spread of Open Source thru "good deeds".
I hope Gates and MS's good deeds help some ppl, but I also hope they are unable to pull a Houdini and trick the 3rd world into paying and praying at the MS altar.
Gates is trying to portent a benevolent billionaire saving humanity as the face of MS and use this as leverage with heads of state to secure leverage contracts for MS in back room deals out of the light of day.
Some of those have had light shone on them thou and show up as criticisms on the Wikipedia site for the foundation.
So Mr. Gates smoke and mirrors Houdini miss-direction trick is not fooling RMS, but he is over reacting to it and making himself look like a fool.
RMS would be better served proving the virtues of one laptop per child, and making sure it is known world wide at the highest levels.
A youtube and or google video in all languages would help to get the message out about the long term sustainable truth that is Open Source, vs. the Corporate greed house of cards that is MS and a failed bloated monopoly of corruption that has taken billions of dollars from the ppl and is now being used to "buy" loyalty, "buy" belief, "buy" their self sustainable future out of existence.
The future of a world that sustains itself without parasites sucking away billions to enrich stockholders can only be done with an open source mentality.
Copyrights and patents preventing the use of generic medication to save the lives of millions of 3rd world sick and dying?
Benito once said Corporatism is the true form and source of fascism.
Bill Gates farewell-goodwill tour is just more smoke and mirrors in a lie that has outlived its usefulness.
Giving ppl a hand up vs. a hand out offers them a chance at self respect, dignity, and true liberty of making their own sustainable future.
Open source "By the ppl for the ppl", not this shell game setup on wall street as some numbers racket to get the robot working class to toil to bejewel the Corporate elite.
This is just one part of a much bigger problem.
I do not subscribe to communism, or socialism, but a free and independent democratic society where share cropping the masses is "not" the status quo.
A democratic technocracy is greatly preferred, thou great pressure from the rich will do its best to prevent it.
Hubbert of Hubbert's peak which is the harbinger 30+ years ago of peak oil understood this.
I think if you provide ppl with a link to bit torrent, they can download it if the standard download is broken ie. down.
If millions of ppl can download napster to get music, ppl can download bit torrent to get other things.
I know you might consider yourself one of the few ppl brilliant enough to download bit torrent, but I think you will find there are millions of net savvy ppl all over the world.
Alot of the so called digital divide is self imposed.
It is often more about not wanting to read the instructions, rather than it being particularly hard.
The New World Order as mentioned by Bush Sr. in a speech to the whole world.
Old news, and most ppl are too busy watching sports, TV, racing, or some other distraction to pay it any mind.
We warned, but most ppl said they were conspiracy nuts.
The NAFTA super highway made them think otherwise.
The good part is yet to come when we all get RFID tags.
Will start out on the outside of the body, and end up on the inside.
It will happen slowly, because if you stick the frog in warm water and slow raise the temperature it just dies before it knows it is being slow cooked.
By 2008 World Wide oil imports had dropped 100 million barrels a year.
The oilfields in Mc Camey Texas are dry, The Lake Maricaibo oil fields in Venezuela are dry, the oil fields in Baku Azerbaijan are almost dry and produce much less.
In the early 70's the US pumped 10 million barrels, and now it pumps half that.
So if you want to know why oil prices are on fire it is because they know how to read the data from the DOE and other sources.
They missed the boat, and know that they are ramping up biofuels FAR too slowly and there are going to be some serious growing pains.
Thankfully Valcent has found a way to grow algae-oil vertically in the desert but it will take many years to scale it up.
Slashdot Mirror
Judging form the success of the furniture rental business model, I'd say they can charge $24.95+ a month and still be a huge success.
As far as I know there is no place you can get new furniture
for free, with Open Office there is such an animal.
I think more and more ppl will start going Mac, or Linux.
I say MS's days are numbered, their Vista turd has made a bad name
for them and I get paid to replace it with XP at present so
ppl can just get some work done with their legacy apps.
Some older apps are needed by ppl, and Vista will just not
work at this time.
Some semi-modern apps will not work with Vista without a
pricey upgrade on some software.
Ppl do want security, but not at the cost of not being able
to use their old legacy apps, or the cost of replacing all
their apps that are not Vista compatible at an older version.
Wind and solar probably can't deliver the wattage.
searching Wikipedia renders that incorrect:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy#Energy_from_the_Sun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Available_Energy-3.png
A "tiny" portion of the Sahara desert could power the earth
completely in all forms in use at present, transport and otherwise.
The SEGs system at 1.5 square miles is 350 MegaWatts.
The Sahara is 3.5 million square miles.
Total average power usage worldwide is 15 Terawatts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy
So 50,000 times 1.5 = 75,000 sq. miles = 17+ Tera watts.
About 2 % of the Sahara.
Spread it around the world so sun is always hitting the arrays
in different timezones, ie. sun is always up somewhere.
Bingo, power forever.
Total transmission losses for the US in 2005 was approx. 7%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Losses
I have been bashed by ppl for wanting to put CSP solar
in desolate almost totally barren deserts.
Nuclear is a crap choice, undersea currents hold more power
than wind does, geothermal near volcanoes is a great idea.
Look at the power for Africa, Australia, and South America
in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Circumpolar_Current
135 times all the rivers of the world...its mind boggling.
The Aquanator is the current most likely candidate for tapping
it with little to no ecological harm.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/26/1096137100758.html?oneclick=true
There are other major ocean currents elsewhere that are prime
for tapping.
Only the dumbshits on Slashdot would mod the
cause of the Telecom Immunity bill as off topic.
Slashdot has sunk to a new low.
This is a step down from suck.
Something more on topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
Rooms designed for the interception of all telecom traffic,
including net activity, and not just for ppl on terror watch
list but all US citizens.
First and foremost I am against nuclear power, but...
To be fair to it, uranium is not the only fuel.
Thorium breeder reactors will work as well.
Thorium is much more common, about as common as lead.
And in a breeder setup it "makes" uranium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium#Thorium_as_a_nuclear_fuel
That being said, man's history with reactor safety is poor.
Wind, Solar, Geothermal, Tidal, Bio fuels, and Ocean Current
Capture is more than enough power by far.
The Antarctic current alone is 135 times the flow of all
the rivers on Earth Combined and the Aquanator style device
works well at capturing it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Circumpolar_Current
Needless to say there are many other underwater currents
with a great deal of power, and some can be harnessed
to some degree without a negative impact.
So let's play SeaLab and make a modern Atlantis and end
this oil mess before it turns the oceans in a hydrogen
sulfide soup.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031104063957.htm
So in a range of choices, anything but oil.
The oceans are a giant CO2 sink, so as much as we measure
in the air it is worse in the oceans.
I am no fan of Al gore, but I am a fan of Solar
for numerous reasons.
Nanosolar and similar technologies could gear up to
cheap mass production, and eventually reach efficiency
as high as the Stirling engine dishes at some point.
http://www.nanosolar.com/products.htm
For now the Stirling dishes are the most power per sq. ft.
The nanotech thin film solar material is the cheapest.
In mass production they are predicting $1/watt for panels.
No body armor made confers invulnerability to bullets.
It appears that small arms fire has been negated with
this guys "Halo Suit" it takes repeated impacts to the
same area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqa08UGZGtk
It isn't easy maintaining a beowulf clusters of generators, ya'know.
The CDC in Georgia agrees with you, generator operations is hard.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/2008/07/12/cdc_power_outage.html
What I remain skeptical about is exactly what that fuel is (sounds an awful lot like alcohol)
Alcohol works pretty well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol#Automotive_fuel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel
Ethanol is viable if it not via arable land such as Coskata
is working on via waste streams for Ethanol or Switchgrass.
True these are snake oil too I guess ?
Valcent Vertigro Algae Oil:
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/10/vertigro_algae_.html
Coskata $1/gal Ethanol partners with General Motors:
(non-crop oriented ethanol)
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/01/13/gm-and-coskata-announce-worldwide-cellulosic-ethanol-partnership/
Bacteria the eats waste and releases petroleum:
http://thegoodcity.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/bacteria-that-eat-waste-and-poop-petroleum/
Just saying when it comes to Gates, there is usually
an ulterior motive.
Thou I was a bit long winded about it.
Have them twitter this sign...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
Microsoft demanded that MS version of one laptop per child be made.
Asus was approached and pressured to make a MS version of the EEE PC thou it was never planned prior.
MS and gates sees the juggernaut that is Open Source is about to crash his party.
He is using his Foundation to gain public relations points and hinder the spread of Open Source thru "good deeds".
I hope Gates and MS's good deeds help some ppl, but I also hope they are unable to pull a Houdini and trick the 3rd world into paying and praying at the MS altar.
Gates is trying to portent a benevolent billionaire saving humanity as the face of MS and use this as leverage with heads of state
to secure leverage contracts for MS in back room deals out of the light of day.
Some of those have had light shone on them thou and show up as criticisms on the Wikipedia site for the foundation.
So Mr. Gates smoke and mirrors Houdini miss-direction trick is not fooling RMS, but he is over reacting to it and making himself look like a fool.
RMS would be better served proving the virtues of one laptop per child, and making sure it is known world wide at the highest levels.
A youtube and or google video in all languages would help to get the message out about the long term sustainable truth that is Open Source,
vs. the Corporate greed house of cards that is MS and a failed bloated monopoly of corruption that has taken billions of dollars
from the ppl and is now being used to "buy" loyalty, "buy" belief, "buy" their self sustainable future out of existence.
The future of a world that sustains itself without parasites sucking away billions to enrich stockholders can only be done with an open source mentality.
Copyrights and patents preventing the use of generic medication to save the lives of millions of 3rd world sick and dying?
Benito once said Corporatism is the true form and source of fascism.
I guess his model is now that of the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#Italian_Fascism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasces#The_fasces_in_the_United_States
Bill Gates farewell-goodwill tour is just more smoke and mirrors in a lie that has outlived its usefulness.
Giving ppl a hand up vs. a hand out offers them a chance at self respect, dignity, and true liberty of making their own sustainable future.
Open source "By the ppl for the ppl", not this shell game setup on wall street as some numbers racket to get the robot
working class to toil to bejewel the Corporate elite.
This is just one part of a much bigger problem.
I do not subscribe to communism, or socialism, but a free and independent democratic society where share cropping the masses
is "not" the status quo.
A democratic technocracy is greatly preferred, thou great pressure from the rich will do its best to prevent it.
Hubbert of Hubbert's peak which is the harbinger 30+ years ago of peak oil understood this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement
I think if you provide ppl with a link to bit torrent,
they can download it if the standard download is broken ie. down.
If millions of ppl can download napster to get music,
ppl can download bit torrent to get other things.
I know you might consider yourself one of the few ppl brilliant
enough to download bit torrent, but I think you will find
there are millions of net savvy ppl all over the world.
Alot of the so called digital divide is self imposed.
It is often more about not wanting to read the instructions,
rather than it being particularly hard.
Bah! stop the discrimination, you lofty fscking overlords.
The discrimination will stop after the KH-55's make landfall
across most of the modern world.
But at that point it won't really matter will it ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-55
They are new and improved to with tech from the F117 shot
down during the Bosnian-Serbian War during the Clinton Era.
Makes me want to watch Dr. Strangelove, lol.
Converting from DC to AC wastes power, stay DC and use LED
lights because some have life spans and power usage that is
lower any other kind.
The only draw back on LED is it costs a fair bit more up front.
The good news is you could use a cheaper/smaller battery, and
don't have to pay for an inverter at all.
At some point LEDs for lighting will go mainstream and mass
produced and the cost will start to fall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_lighting
For daytime lighting of the shed you might try to make
your own Solatube.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_tube
A torrent redirect would have served just as well,
and I think total downloads could still be tracked.
With it being a torrent all the ppl downloading would
have taken a LOT of load off the servers.
I sure feel lucky here in Oklahoma at 7 cents a KWhr.
Now if they can just fix the job situation here.
I am not holding my breath.
Fortunately we took such measures here in the US years ago...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
*cough*
So far all forms of government communism or otherwise are
always screwed up by those in power.
So no matter what you hope or plan for you always get some
bastardized corrupt version.
In other words your better off with no huge Ultra National
organization regulating every minute detail down to toilet
flow rates.
We get the same failed systems we have seen for Millenia.
I think most slashdotters are more paranoid about governmental control than communism currently
Communism is a form of government....
The New World Order as mentioned by Bush Sr. in a speech
to the whole world.
Old news, and most ppl are too busy watching sports, TV,
racing, or some other distraction to pay it any mind.
We warned, but most ppl said they were conspiracy nuts.
The NAFTA super highway made them think otherwise.
The good part is yet to come when we all get RFID tags.
Will start out on the outside of the body, and end up on the inside.
It will happen slowly, because if you stick the frog in warm water
and slow raise the temperature it just dies before it knows
it is being slow cooked.
Have Fun !
If you are using RHEL and call them, they will give you
support just like Sun or MS.
Now if you think Sun or MS is better, that is your opinion,
and your entitled to it.
and then the spice will flow.
Oh something is gonna flow alright, but the ppl that paid
$50,000 for this marker in the early 80's want it to be
human blood.
Much like Ted Turner wants...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
Well you may be right or you may be wrong.
But per the Department of Energy in 2005 World Wide
imports of oil started to decline due to lack of supply.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_ep00_im0_mbbl_a.htm
By 2008 World Wide oil imports had dropped 100 million barrels a year.
The oilfields in Mc Camey Texas are dry, The Lake Maricaibo oil
fields in Venezuela are dry, the oil fields in Baku Azerbaijan
are almost dry and produce much less.
In the early 70's the US pumped 10 million barrels, and now
it pumps half that.
So if you want to know why oil prices are on fire it is because
they know how to read the data from the DOE and other sources.
They missed the boat, and know that they are ramping up biofuels
FAR too slowly and there are going to be some serious growing pains.
Thankfully Valcent has found a way to grow algae-oil vertically
in the desert but it will take many years to scale it up.