Most recycling is either simply not done or not sensible simply because of the energy cost. Would we have inexpensive energy, we could afford to turn coal into oil, or recycle aluminium (today the cost/energy ratio - as shown by a Danish gov't report - actually would imply that burning aluminium would be cheaper than recycling it). Most recycling is simply not put into production because of the enormous energy cost involved in breaking down the molecules involved in building plastics and other stuff.
Low cost energy would also boost hydrogen technology, because the production would become very cheap. I don't know whether the same is true for Methanol, which is nowadays used for fuel cells (because hydrogen is too volatile for efficent storage).
On a completely different field, it would amost nearly kill off a lot of jobs (in the Western countries). Since a lot of products are already overengineered today, a low energy consumption is one of the last advantages additionally built into products. If there is less need for enigineering solutions in such products, there will be less need for engineers.
Everything that is sold in a store already includes a 16 % added value tax (Mehrwertsteuer).
Only the 13 $ fee is new, and something pretty similar is already collected on VHS recorders or tape recorders to compensate copyright holder for private copying, or copying by schools, etc.
It's not much of a news item, and it is not very well written!
This raises some special questions about:
- preinstalled OS
- preinstalled Windows XP
- prebuilt PCs
If you got a computer preinstalled (almost likely with Windows) with an OS, that you didn't install yourself and didn't use (you booted right off a CD and installed another OS), do you still have the right to resell the OS "medium"?
What's still more complicated, is, that, from what I know, Windows XP comes preinstalled on prebuilt PCs WITHOUT a CD.. is it then no sale? (Since you didn't get a CD "to walk away with").
Most of the time you're so busy specifying modifiers, memory-allocation schemes, etc. that you need to be a really good programmer not to forget to solve the problem at hand...
Yes, it gives us the power to write a memory-efficient OO program that's fast.. to optimize the tiniest bit in our class hierarchy. But it forces it all on the developer when this isn't a issue still.
BIG downside for C#: Not yet in any way proven that the platform will meet expectations (no longtime testing yet).
Java has no operator overloading, but no one will need that. Many people discourage operator overloading, because C++-syntax is already symbol-loaded enough and everybody will have other intuitive expectations what an operator should do over a type, you'll bet.
Java and C# offer interface inheritance (mix-ins), that produce much clearer code than multiple inheritance in C++.
Besides: C++ meets many of these requirements, too. But more often than not using C++ would increase the needed effort to achieve the same goal. Rule of thumb: Twice as many devel time as in Java (so the same for C#).
Python could do the job, too. It's the feature-richest (in concepts and paradigms) of all. But for app devel in a commercial environment it seems to be a bit misplaced, so basically it stays with Java and C#.
Slashdot Mirror
Most recycling is either simply not done or not sensible simply because of the energy cost. Would we have inexpensive energy, we could afford to turn coal into oil, or recycle aluminium (today the cost/energy ratio - as shown by a Danish gov't report - actually would imply that burning aluminium would be cheaper than recycling it). Most recycling is simply not put into production because of the enormous energy cost involved in breaking down the molecules involved in building plastics and other stuff.
Low cost energy would also boost hydrogen technology, because the production would become very cheap. I don't know whether the same is true for Methanol, which is nowadays used for fuel cells (because hydrogen is too volatile for efficent storage).
On a completely different field, it would amost nearly kill off a lot of jobs (in the Western countries). Since a lot of products are already overengineered today, a low energy consumption is one of the last advantages additionally built into products. If there is less need for enigineering solutions in such products, there will be less need for engineers.
Talking about German taxes:
Everything that is sold in a store already includes a 16 % added value tax (Mehrwertsteuer).
Only the 13 $ fee is new, and something pretty similar is already collected on VHS recorders or tape recorders to compensate copyright holder for private copying, or copying by schools, etc.
It's not much of a news item, and it is not very well written!
What's still more complicated, is, that, from what I know, Windows XP comes preinstalled on prebuilt PCs WITHOUT a CD.. is it then no sale? (Since you didn't get a CD "to walk away with").
Most of the time you're so busy specifying modifiers, memory-allocation schemes, etc. that you need to be a really good programmer not to forget to solve the problem at hand...
Yes, it gives us the power to write a memory-efficient OO program that's fast.. to optimize the tiniest bit in our class hierarchy. But it forces it all on the developer when this isn't a issue still.
BIG downside for C#: Not yet in any way proven that the platform will meet expectations (no longtime testing yet).
Java has no operator overloading, but no one will need that. Many people discourage operator overloading, because C++-syntax is already symbol-loaded enough and everybody will have other intuitive expectations what an operator should do over a type, you'll bet.
Java and C# offer interface inheritance (mix-ins), that produce much clearer code than multiple inheritance in C++.
Besides: C++ meets many of these requirements, too. But more often than not using C++ would increase the needed effort to achieve the same goal. Rule of thumb: Twice as many devel time as in Java (so the same for C#).
Python could do the job, too. It's the feature-richest (in concepts and paradigms) of all. But for app devel in a commercial environment it seems to be a bit misplaced, so basically it stays with Java and C#.