The 17" monitor on my desk says it draws 1.5 amps. at 110 V_rms, that is 165 watts. Which means if I use it 8 hours a day it will draw 1.32 kW hours of electricity. At 0.08$ a kW hour that is 27.45$ of electricity a year. Guess I won't make up the extra cost. On the other hand, I didn't have to buy a $300 desk.
I'ld also like to point out that 0.08$ a kW hour is potentially a low estimate. Apparently when electricity is scarce (ummm...Califorina) and the state did a crappy job of deregulating (ummm...Califorina) leaving itself open to market manipulation, electricity can become much more expensive.
Power consumption is also a national security issue. The US is able to provide only about 30% of its own oil, and we are freaked out about nuclear power plants (large nuclear power plants are by far the best way to generate electricity) so we have to depend on other countries for our lifeblood. If we all reduced the amount of electricity we used by 50% we would be much better off and wouldn't have to rely on the middle east and latin America for our oil. Therefore, we should all through out our CRTs in favor of LCDs, junk our SUVs in favor of hybrids (or at least get a hybrid SUV), and replace the insulation in our atics. Oh yeah, we should also all junk our Athelon's and P4's in favor of the much slower 6 watt CPUs such as the Eden and Ceoruso (do that and you get rid of the fan noise too).
My guess is that Sony (and other electronics manufacturers) will end up selling the hardware with TiVo continuing to exist as a service, rather than as a brand of hardware.
Low end 15" LCD monitors at Amazon.com start at about 260$, 17" CRTs start at $111. I have seen specials elsewhere for less than 200$. While this is much more than an El-Cheapo CRT, it is not in a completely different pricing catagory. A while ago my wife's 15" CRT burned out and when we started looking for another one we bought a 15" LCD for $300+ at Sam's Club. The main reasoning was she was suffering from repedative stress injuries because the CRT was pushing the keyboard off the front of the desk. The choice was 300$ for a desk, and 100$ for a CRT, or 300$ for a LCD. Given she doesn't play video games, but that LCD has really been a work horse for us.
The other issue is that LCD screens use much less electricity. If you use your computer a lot the difference in electricity bills could make up the difference within a year.
FYI In case you don't know, 15" LCDs are most comperable with 17" CRT screens, 17" LCD screens are most comperable with 18" CRTs, 18" LCDs are most comperable with 19" CRTs and so on. The LCD diagonal length should be compaired with the viewable image size for CRTs.
This sounds quite a bit like Tesla's original idea for the distribution of electricity, but at a more practical level. Tesla's idea was that a huge tesla coil would sit in the middle of a town and all electronic devices would be powered off of the very high frequency EM pulses from it. The two major problems (ok, three if you count the tesla coil) were that there was no way to meter usage, and the 1 of distance squared fall off in intensity once you got a resonalbe distance from the coil. The charging pad solves these problems. However, I think it will waste a bit of electricity. It would be better to have a charging "box" so less energy gets wasted.
Plumbers and Electritians on an emergency basis are _very_ expensive. Mostly because they know you _have_ to get the repair done (I like my toilet). Kinda like a Locksmith can get a big tip f a chastity belt gets stuck. Unfortunately, corporations are pretty good at planning ahead so you rarely get emergancy work as a programer.
With regards to obsolesence, I'ld bet that in the early days of plumbing and electricity the pace of change was equivalent to programming as it came into its own. I think that the rate of change in programming tools (languages included) is slowing down and becoming more standardized. Programming is going through a similar change as the toolset becomes more standardized and "visual" tools become more common.
If you really want to make the big-bucks, go into a profession where licenses are mandatory for doing your job. Examples are actuary, doctor, and lawyer.
Probably the same place the majority of no-experience domestic programmers end up, the bottom. The big difference is that the H1B workers cannot shop for jobs if they are abused. However, in the current job market for high tech workers, the domestic people really cannot shop around either.
As much as programmers don't want to admit it, coding is not an especially difficult skill. With enough training almost anyone can do it. That is why there is such a huge glut of "I can program, but cannot do anything else" people. Those people simply cannot expect to continue to demand high salaries. The "programmer" job classification is rapidly becoming similar to the "electrician" or the "plumber" job classification. There is a reasonable amount of training, and the end result is very important, but the workers arn't paid all that well. At the same time, the people with real skills, like electrical engeneers (as opposed to electricians) will continue to be paid well.
H1B workers get paid the same as legal immagrants with the same level of experience. Therefore, they do not have an unfair price point. This is the same as hiring a bunch of young Americans and firing old Americans.
According to the Amazon.co.uk user agreement no contract exists until the purchaser receives an e-mail saying that the goods have been shipped. In other words, Amazon.co.uk isn't legally bound to sell you the goods for that price until they have shipped it. Additionally, the "prices may change at any time without notice" clause should let them fix this mistake. Fortunately, I don't think that Amazon will ship the 100+ that someone surely bought at the 15$ price at the correct price. The will probably send the customer an e-mail about the mistake.
It is also my understanding that if the price is an obvious mistake it is not valid. In the Kodak case about a year ago, Kodak had to cough up the cameras because it was marked as a special offer. Apparently the super-low price on the IPAQ was not labeled as a special offer in any way. I think this rule exists to protect shops from ticket-switchers.
I'ld actually think that an airline analogy would be more appropriate (as has probably circulated on newsgroups a few too many times). Let's try to update it.
PenguinAir(Linux) - A bunch of people meet on the runway each with an airplane part. They furiously assemble about 10 airplanes varying from two-seaters to jumbo jets. Then they invite anyone who is interested, preferably those with more parts, to fly anywhere in the world in them. Money only changes hands if the visitors want pilots and no one visitor has any precidence of any other.
AppleAir(MAC OS XAir(MAC OS >10) - "borrowed" a plane from PenguinAir and now operates like AppleAir. The explosion problem is now solved.
Microair(Microsoft) - After colsolodation all airlines owned by Microsoft are run as one business and flights are sold at one price (regardless of what equiptment or services are actually used). The basic service will get you from point A to point B, but use of the terminal, in flight drinks cost extra. If you want to use the bathroom on the flight you have to give the flight atendant $1000.
You have to hire System Administrators no mater which operating system you are running. Provided the company is big enough. While it might be possible that *NIX SysAdmins are better than MS SysAdmins (now this is 100% flamebait), and therefore should be paid more, I don't think they are.
From recent experience, OS + OfficeSuite costs put the break even point for hiring a part-time sysadmin for GNU/Linux systems at around 30 computers (in private business), asuming that in the MS version the cost for administration is zilch (which we all know it isn't).
In terms of the learning curve, the end user shouldn't really have one thanks to GNOME and KDE. The only people who would really have to learn anything would be the System Administrators and Programmers.
Corporations ussually switch from one platform to another when it comes time for a massive upgrade. In the case of the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue (recently covered on slashdot) they descided to switch over when the window 95 computers they were using became so obsolete (and broken) that they were unusable. Then, cost ended up being the determing factor when desciding which new systems to get. I think that the figure was 600$ per computer for closed source and 200$ per computer for open source. From the article it looks like KB switched at the cash-register level because OSS was the only solution which met there requirements for cash registers.
One of the main issues for companies (and some consumers) is minimizing recuring costs. OSS solutions offer the best way of doing this since you are not vulnerable to extortion (err.. purchasing upgrades).
I'ld suggest looking at the design of sky scrappers. Most of the really big ones have design lives well over 100 years (since they are hard to disasemble in a downtown).
I think that you have addressed nearly all of the really major problems in your question. My solution would be to build a concrete + steel building (provided you don't live near saltwater, where the steel degrades the contrete quickly) with very high ceilings (including in the basement) and no perminate walls (think giant box). Then make rooms with long-term barriers which could be removed or re-arranged for future needs. For electrical/communications/plumbing, the wires go above a removeable ceiling, the pipes go below the floor (above the ceiling of the floor below).
The major problem with this design is coming up with a pretty way to shape the outside of the building. Perhaps buring the whole thing and living in a hill would be a good option.
Pick a pretty location (but stay away from ocean view cliffs) that you can afford. If it is nice enough, other people with money will move to be there too (and stay).
I've had plenty of the same experience with American Tech support. When I have been forwarded to India (or just happen to get someone with a different accent), I have actually been much happier. They are generally much more friendly and willing to forward you to their supperiors than our domestic technical help.
Anyway how many CS majors do you know that would be willing to take a Tech support job for 15k a year? I think that is probably about 50% more than the Indian tech support personel make.
The problem with high tech jobs being exported is that many of what has been called "high tech" lately is accessable to highly trained individuals, and that training is pretty straight forward. There is no reason India, or China, or Ivory Coast cannot train its citezens to program.
Oops, you're correct. I cannot speak Arabic and have a bad translation. Relying on other translations it looks like anything the clouds the mind is banned, not just foriegn substances.
I'm not sure if vodka (made from potatoes) would be prohibited or not -- does the Koran consider potatoes a "fruit"?
Scientifically the potato is a tuber. So I guess Vodka is ok, too. However, Muhamid never saw a potato since they were brought to europe/middle east/asia/africa from peru in the 14th century.
Technically the Koran bans alcohol produced from fermented grains and fruits. That rules out beer and most wines as well as most distilled liquors. There is one major exception though. Mead, which is made from honey.
Didn't IBM try this with the PS/2 back in the mid-80s? That would by Personal System 2, not Playstation 2. The project ultimately failed because computer technology quickly made the computer system obsolete, but the keyboard and mouse connectors stuck.
This actually is problem housing. Many people actually do have real alergies to molds and mildews. Insurance companies will typically help out clean up the mildew and fixing the problems.
Please don't confuse this with the people who claim to be alergic to compressed air and dirt.
Gypsum is intert. However, just like Coal, if you breath in a lot of dust it will rip up your lungs. While it is dangerous to work with it is perfectly safe to have around.
I also seriously question how one could have a silica alergy since that is intert to. It is also a major component of dirt.
Bricks are Inert. They are made of clay and straw baked at a very high temperature (no life could survive the firing process, just like with other ceramics). If a brick was subsequently contaminated with something, then the brick is still intert, it is just conaminated. That's like saying penguins are toxic because some were contaminated by the Exxon Valdize oil slick.
How are you using a computer. Do you have any idea how much toxic material is in a computer? Let's see, a typical monitor probably has 4 lbs of lead, the solder on the circuit boards is made mainly of lead (and possibly cadmium). Your keyboard and mouse are probably made of plastic, which is probably slowly breaking down releasing your dangerous chemicals.
Ummm...Radon is naturally occuring from the radioactive decay of the Uranium in the soil. It is of course radioactive, so people freak out about it. However, it is chemically intert (nobel gas), so it is absurd to say it is a noxious chemical. Also, Radon levels go way up after it rains.
Environmental Illness is a psycological disorder. If it really existed as a physical condition it would be very well studied and there would be a very expensive treatment because it nearly always afflicts middle-upper-class white women. It would also be much worse in homes built in the 50's than newer homes since in the 50's many more chemicals and much more toxic chemicals were used. Most people that suffer from it claim to react to newer buildings.
For a non-toxic house why not make something completely out of steel and concrete? That has to be pretty cheap. Or why not just live in a cave?
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I'ld also like to point out that 0.08$ a kW hour is potentially a low estimate. Apparently when electricity is scarce (ummm...Califorina) and the state did a crappy job of deregulating (ummm...Califorina) leaving itself open to market manipulation, electricity can become much more expensive.
Power consumption is also a national security issue. The US is able to provide only about 30% of its own oil, and we are freaked out about nuclear power plants (large nuclear power plants are by far the best way to generate electricity) so we have to depend on other countries for our lifeblood. If we all reduced the amount of electricity we used by 50% we would be much better off and wouldn't have to rely on the middle east and latin America for our oil. Therefore, we should all through out our CRTs in favor of LCDs, junk our SUVs in favor of hybrids (or at least get a hybrid SUV), and replace the insulation in our atics. Oh yeah, we should also all junk our Athelon's and P4's in favor of the much slower 6 watt CPUs such as the Eden and Ceoruso (do that and you get rid of the fan noise too).
My guess is that Sony (and other electronics manufacturers) will end up selling the hardware with TiVo continuing to exist as a service, rather than as a brand of hardware.
It turns out that very high frequency very high voltage fields cannot pass through human skin.
The other issue is that LCD screens use much less electricity. If you use your computer a lot the difference in electricity bills could make up the difference within a year.
FYI In case you don't know, 15" LCDs are most comperable with 17" CRT screens, 17" LCD screens are most comperable with 18" CRTs, 18" LCDs are most comperable with 19" CRTs and so on. The LCD diagonal length should be compaired with the viewable image size for CRTs.
This sounds quite a bit like Tesla's original idea for the distribution of electricity, but at a more practical level. Tesla's idea was that a huge tesla coil would sit in the middle of a town and all electronic devices would be powered off of the very high frequency EM pulses from it. The two major problems (ok, three if you count the tesla coil) were that there was no way to meter usage, and the 1 of distance squared fall off in intensity once you got a resonalbe distance from the coil. The charging pad solves these problems. However, I think it will waste a bit of electricity. It would be better to have a charging "box" so less energy gets wasted.
With regards to obsolesence, I'ld bet that in the early days of plumbing and electricity the pace of change was equivalent to programming as it came into its own. I think that the rate of change in programming tools (languages included) is slowing down and becoming more standardized. Programming is going through a similar change as the toolset becomes more standardized and "visual" tools become more common.
If you really want to make the big-bucks, go into a profession where licenses are mandatory for doing your job. Examples are actuary, doctor, and lawyer.
YASS = Yet Another Sleasy Spammer
As much as programmers don't want to admit it, coding is not an especially difficult skill. With enough training almost anyone can do it. That is why there is such a huge glut of "I can program, but cannot do anything else" people. Those people simply cannot expect to continue to demand high salaries. The "programmer" job classification is rapidly becoming similar to the "electrician" or the "plumber" job classification. There is a reasonable amount of training, and the end result is very important, but the workers arn't paid all that well. At the same time, the people with real skills, like electrical engeneers (as opposed to electricians) will continue to be paid well.
H1B workers get paid the same as legal immagrants with the same level of experience. Therefore, they do not have an unfair price point. This is the same as hiring a bunch of young Americans and firing old Americans.
It is also my understanding that if the price is an obvious mistake it is not valid. In the Kodak case about a year ago, Kodak had to cough up the cameras because it was marked as a special offer. Apparently the super-low price on the IPAQ was not labeled as a special offer in any way. I think this rule exists to protect shops from ticket-switchers.
PenguinAir(Linux) - A bunch of people meet on the runway each with an airplane part. They furiously assemble about 10 airplanes varying from two-seaters to jumbo jets. Then they invite anyone who is interested, preferably those with more parts, to fly anywhere in the world in them. Money only changes hands if the visitors want pilots and no one visitor has any precidence of any other.
AppleAir(MAC OS XAir(MAC OS >10) - "borrowed" a plane from PenguinAir and now operates like AppleAir. The explosion problem is now solved.
Microair(Microsoft) - After colsolodation all airlines owned by Microsoft are run as one business and flights are sold at one price (regardless of what equiptment or services are actually used). The basic service will get you from point A to point B, but use of the terminal, in flight drinks cost extra. If you want to use the bathroom on the flight you have to give the flight atendant $1000.
Anyone know who said that originally?
From recent experience, OS + OfficeSuite costs put the break even point for hiring a part-time sysadmin for GNU/Linux systems at around 30 computers (in private business), asuming that in the MS version the cost for administration is zilch (which we all know it isn't).
In terms of the learning curve, the end user shouldn't really have one thanks to GNOME and KDE. The only people who would really have to learn anything would be the System Administrators and Programmers.
One of the main issues for companies (and some consumers) is minimizing recuring costs. OSS solutions offer the best way of doing this since you are not vulnerable to extortion (err.. purchasing upgrades).
I think that you have addressed nearly all of the really major problems in your question. My solution would be to build a concrete + steel building (provided you don't live near saltwater, where the steel degrades the contrete quickly) with very high ceilings (including in the basement) and no perminate walls (think giant box). Then make rooms with long-term barriers which could be removed or re-arranged for future needs. For electrical/communications/plumbing, the wires go above a removeable ceiling, the pipes go below the floor (above the ceiling of the floor below).
The major problem with this design is coming up with a pretty way to shape the outside of the building. Perhaps buring the whole thing and living in a hill would be a good option.
Pick a pretty location (but stay away from ocean view cliffs) that you can afford. If it is nice enough, other people with money will move to be there too (and stay).
Anyway how many CS majors do you know that would be willing to take a Tech support job for 15k a year? I think that is probably about 50% more than the Indian tech support personel make.
The problem with high tech jobs being exported is that many of what has been called "high tech" lately is accessable to highly trained individuals, and that training is pretty straight forward. There is no reason India, or China, or Ivory Coast cannot train its citezens to program.
Oops, you're correct. I cannot speak Arabic and have a bad translation. Relying on other translations it looks like anything the clouds the mind is banned, not just foriegn substances.
Scientifically the potato is a tuber. So I guess Vodka is ok, too. However, Muhamid never saw a potato since they were brought to europe/middle east/asia/africa from peru in the 14th century.
It is time for you to injest sandwiches from my compartment.
Technically the Koran bans alcohol produced from fermented grains and fruits. That rules out beer and most wines as well as most distilled liquors. There is one major exception though. Mead, which is made from honey.
Didn't IBM try this with the PS/2 back in the mid-80s? That would by Personal System 2, not Playstation 2. The project ultimately failed because computer technology quickly made the computer system obsolete, but the keyboard and mouse connectors stuck.
Please don't confuse this with the people who claim to be alergic to compressed air and dirt.
I also seriously question how one could have a silica alergy since that is intert to. It is also a major component of dirt.
Bricks are Inert. They are made of clay and straw baked at a very high temperature (no life could survive the firing process, just like with other ceramics). If a brick was subsequently contaminated with something, then the brick is still intert, it is just conaminated. That's like saying penguins are toxic because some were contaminated by the Exxon Valdize oil slick.
How are you using a computer. Do you have any idea how much toxic material is in a computer? Let's see, a typical monitor probably has 4 lbs of lead, the solder on the circuit boards is made mainly of lead (and possibly cadmium). Your keyboard and mouse are probably made of plastic, which is probably slowly breaking down releasing your dangerous chemicals.
Environmental Illness is a psycological disorder. If it really existed as a physical condition it would be very well studied and there would be a very expensive treatment because it nearly always afflicts middle-upper-class white women. It would also be much worse in homes built in the 50's than newer homes since in the 50's many more chemicals and much more toxic chemicals were used. Most people that suffer from it claim to react to newer buildings.
For a non-toxic house why not make something completely out of steel and concrete? That has to be pretty cheap. Or why not just live in a cave?