I know (from experience) that the old DataCard printers (ImageCard I/II+/III series) use PostScript. The drivers are, of course, Windows-only... but I suspect with a little work they could be made to work with ghostscript or something like that. Really out of my league though, printing is never something I've tried under Linux.
If you do go looking for DataCard printers, the best source is to scan eBay periodically -- the dealers which specialize in older printers will charge an arm, leg, and probably a few other things as well. Stay far away from them, and stick to auctions and such.
Actually, electricity can be saved in large quantities, and this is done on a daily basis throughout the world. It's called "pumped storage".
A typical pumped storage site has a reservoir many hundreds of feet above a water source. A powerplant at the bottom has turbines that can act as both pumps and generators. At night, when power is relatively cheap, water is pumped into the reservoir from a river or lake. Later, when power is more expensive, this water can flow back, providing "free" power. When there is high load on the power grid, pumped storage can be used instead of bringing another (dirty) generating station online.
Overall, this is about 75% efficient -- not too bad. And these sites can generate several megawatts for 10-20 hours at a time!
Seeing as how I did this very thing last night... just grab 8 AA batteries and a holder, then connect the holder to the camera/transmitter. Absolutely no funkiness, just plain 12 volts.
Of course, you can also replace the crappy camera with a decent one (try Supercircuits). You might want details on the wiring for hooking it up, too.
It should be fine to have each user be the owner of his files and the directory, and set the group to the webserver's group... If you set the SGID bit on the directory (in Linux, at least), all files are created with the group being the same as the directory. Shouldn't be any hassles with group memberships, etc.
My philosophy is for minimal government, and that government should only exist where it would not be possible to do something otherwise.
Enjoy your philosophy! This isn't something on the federal level, or even the state level. It's very local. This means that if you don't want your local community doing this, and enough of your neighbors agree with you, it won't happen. That's the beauty of projects on the local level.
Service would most likely lack. In this, I mean new areas would be slow to be covered with wireless access because of all the red tape needed to secure additional governement funding as projects grow.
And of course, we all know how difficult it is for new areas to get water, sewer, electric, and telephone service.
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If you do go looking for DataCard printers, the best source is to scan eBay periodically -- the dealers which specialize in older printers will charge an arm, leg, and probably a few other things as well. Stay far away from them, and stick to auctions and such.
Hope this helps you out!
A typical pumped storage site has a reservoir many hundreds of feet above a water source. A powerplant at the bottom has turbines that can act as both pumps and generators. At night, when power is relatively cheap, water is pumped into the reservoir from a river or lake. Later, when power is more expensive, this water can flow back, providing "free" power. When there is high load on the power grid, pumped storage can be used instead of bringing another (dirty) generating station online.
Overall, this is about 75% efficient -- not too bad. And these sites can generate several megawatts for 10-20 hours at a time!
Seeing as how I did this very thing last night... just grab 8 AA batteries and a holder, then connect the holder to the camera/transmitter. Absolutely no funkiness, just plain 12 volts.
Of course, you can also replace the crappy camera with a decent one (try Supercircuits). You might want details on the wiring for hooking it up, too.
It should be fine to have each user be the owner of his files and the directory, and set the group to the webserver's group... If you set the SGID bit on the directory (in Linux, at least), all files are created with the group being the same as the directory. Shouldn't be any hassles with group memberships, etc.
Enjoy your philosophy! This isn't something on the federal level, or even the state level. It's very local. This means that if you don't want your local community doing this, and enough of your neighbors agree with you, it won't happen. That's the beauty of projects on the local level.
Service would most likely lack. In this, I mean new areas would be slow to be covered with wireless access because of all the red tape needed to secure additional governement funding as projects grow.
And of course, we all know how difficult it is for new areas to get water, sewer, electric, and telephone service.