During the two years I worked on the shuttle program, the biggest problem I found was that United Space Alliance (USA), the Boeing-Lockheed conglomerate tasked with keeping the shuttle flying, has converted the program into nothing but a revenue stream, and resisted all change. We were attempting to design a better launch-control software system, and the existing employees fought us at every step, because the new system would invalidate decades of their archaic experience. They were reluctant to share details of the current system, every requirement was like pulling teeth, and in the process we discovered that they did not know the system very well at all, were just following scripted operations manuals. Engineering knowledge and innovation has left the shuttle program DECADES ago, leading to the decay of human spaceflight as a whole. When USA needed to fill a slot, they would just move a person from another position, regardless of their qualifications - many of the "software engineers" they assigned to work with us had NO software knowledge at all, were there just to provide a warm body and allow USA to bill more hours.
Unfortunately, that is rarely taken into account. I got to experience this in a large-company-that-shall-not-be-named, where a large SW maintenance task was offshored. The ONLY factor taken into consideration by the management was the $/hr cost. However, it was us, the shell of the department left behind, the had to suffer the 'substantial inefficiencies' as we struggled to deliver the often substandard product to customers.
Depending on the efficiency of the mechanism, the resulting waste stream of concentrated brine would be a problem. 2000 cubic meters of fresh water per day could mean a large kill zone for marine life in the area immediately surrounding the waste site.
This would also affect how these installations would scale. If multiple units are placed in close proximity, each would act to increase the salinity of the intake water of the others, making the desalinization less efficient (viable?). There is much more than testing in tank before we get to a workable, low energy fresh water solution. Seems like a good first step, though.
That originally pushed pot onto the restricted list in the 30's. They were trying to promote newly-invented nylon rope, and did not want competition from hemp rope, which was dominant at the time. Purchased congressmen got on the floor of the House and spouted nonsense about "pot makes black men violent and makes them desire white women". Then, in the 50's, when passing further restrictions, same purcharsed congressmen argued that "pot makes people into pacifist communists". Never let facts get in the way of your dogma (see Partnership for the Truth-Free America).
I was on a waiting list for a Prius to replace my Plymouth van (averaging 20mpg) when my commute went from 40miles/day roundtrip to 100miles/day. I was told the waiting list was at least 4-5 months, and my van was having problems, so I purchased a Corolla instead, which is averaging about 34mpg. Not as good as the Prius, but the $7K discount will pay for a lot of the extra fuel cost.
I can only hope that the very lively demand for hybrids motivates the auto makers to ramp up production and bring down the prices. I don't see the oil prices coming down significantly any time soon.
I built a site for a city commission candidate a couple of years ago, and the info on the domain registration was mine - I built the site for free, as a form of campaign contribution. An unwanted side effect of this was late night phone calls to my home number from the supporters of the opposition questioning items posted on the site. I guess next time 'Sudy Nim' will be registering for a domain...
When you decide to construct a building and file for a site plan and building permit, they both have limitations in them, such as "significant construction must commence within 12 months of the granting of this application". There are fairly rigid definitions of what that means. If we had something like that for patents, then in some number of months after granting a blocking patent, it would be pulled and would have to be re-applied for. Meanwhile, other parties could make progress on the subject.
Of course, since we now consider labor to be just another resource, perhaps an alternative solution exists. When we would like to foster the development of a domestic resource, as opposed to importing it, we impose tariffs to equalize the costs. This makes the decision to import the resource (such as IT labor) not as tied up in dollars, and may encourage the company to retain some local employees. For the ones that still decide to use offshore resources, the tariff collected can be used to retrain the displaced workers for a more marketable position. I can hardly see why our "globalized" administration has no problems imposing tariffs to protect steel and lumber, but not to protect valuable brain resources. It is probably too much to expect an employer to see the employees they eliminate are their customers disappearing as well.
Don't get me wrong here, I love open source software - I have delivered several products using Apache/MySQL/PHP, have used gcc and emacs for 15 years. However, I was interested in how can the people that invest the incredible amount of work it takes to develop and maintain these products make a living and still find time to eat and sleep ? Surely not all of them write Nutshell books... When I started working full-time (around 1989), many software developers got paid to develop the tools that are currently downloaded for free. Now, that of course is not the optimal way to be productive, but with no revenue being generated from this product, it is being developed on the backs of the companies paying the wages of the developers that are spending some of their company time to do "extra" work. I would appreciate if those of you who have considered these issues before clarify this for me, or perhaps point me at some information.
The reason for the indirect (and inherently less efficient process) is to smooth out the power supply, as well as making it portable. Hydrogen provides a storage media for the times the wave power supply exceeds demand, to be used during the calmer periods. It also provides portable, untethered power (for fuel-cell vehicles, etc.).
Users of alternative energy sources are very sensitive to energy waste and inefficiency, but sometimes it is required by the nature of the problem.
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During the two years I worked on the shuttle program, the biggest problem I found was that United Space Alliance (USA), the Boeing-Lockheed conglomerate tasked with keeping the shuttle flying, has converted the program into nothing but a revenue stream, and resisted all change. We were attempting to design a better launch-control software system, and the existing employees fought us at every step, because the new system would invalidate decades of their archaic experience. They were reluctant to share details of the current system, every requirement was like pulling teeth, and in the process we discovered that they did not know the system very well at all, were just following scripted operations manuals. Engineering knowledge and innovation has left the shuttle program DECADES ago, leading to the decay of human spaceflight as a whole. When USA needed to fill a slot, they would just move a person from another position, regardless of their qualifications - many of the "software engineers" they assigned to work with us had NO software knowledge at all, were there just to provide a warm body and allow USA to bill more hours.
Unfortunately, that is rarely taken into account. I got to experience this in a large-company-that-shall-not-be-named, where a large SW maintenance task was offshored. The ONLY factor taken into consideration by the management was the $/hr cost. However, it was us, the shell of the department left behind, the had to suffer the 'substantial inefficiencies' as we struggled to deliver the often substandard product to customers.
This would also affect how these installations would scale. If multiple units are placed in close proximity, each would act to increase the salinity of the intake water of the others, making the desalinization less efficient (viable?). There is much more than testing in tank before we get to a workable, low energy fresh water solution. Seems like a good first step, though.
That originally pushed pot onto the restricted list in the 30's. They were trying to promote newly-invented nylon rope, and did not want competition from hemp rope, which was dominant at the time. Purchased congressmen got on the floor of the House and spouted nonsense about "pot makes black men violent and makes them desire white women". Then, in the 50's, when passing further restrictions, same purcharsed congressmen argued that "pot makes people into pacifist communists". Never let facts get in the way of your dogma (see Partnership for the Truth-Free America).
I was on a waiting list for a Prius to replace my Plymouth van (averaging 20mpg) when my commute went from 40miles/day roundtrip to 100miles/day. I was told the waiting list was at least 4-5 months, and my van was having problems, so I purchased a Corolla instead, which is averaging about 34mpg. Not as good as the Prius, but the $7K discount will pay for a lot of the extra fuel cost.
I can only hope that the very lively demand for hybrids motivates the auto makers to ramp up production and bring down the prices. I don't see the oil prices coming down significantly any time soon.
I built a site for a city commission candidate a couple of years ago, and the info on the domain registration was mine - I built the site for free, as a form of campaign contribution. An unwanted side effect of this was late night phone calls to my home number from the supporters of the opposition questioning items posted on the site. I guess next time 'Sudy Nim' will be registering for a domain ...
When you decide to construct a building and file for a site plan and building permit, they both have limitations in them, such as "significant construction must commence within 12 months of the granting of this application". There are fairly rigid definitions of what that means. If we had something like that for patents, then in some number of months after granting a blocking patent, it would be pulled and would have to be re-applied for. Meanwhile, other parties could make progress on the subject.
Of course, since we now consider labor to be just another resource, perhaps an alternative solution exists. When we would like to foster the development of a domestic resource, as opposed to importing it, we impose tariffs to equalize the costs. This makes the decision to import the resource (such as IT labor) not as tied up in dollars, and may encourage the company to retain some local employees. For the ones that still decide to use offshore resources, the tariff collected can be used to retrain the displaced workers for a more marketable position. I can hardly see why our "globalized" administration has no problems imposing tariffs to protect steel and lumber, but not to protect valuable brain resources. It is probably too much to expect an employer to see the employees they eliminate are their customers disappearing as well.
Don't get me wrong here, I love open source software - I have delivered several products using Apache/MySQL/PHP, have used gcc and emacs for 15 years. However, I was interested in how can the people that invest the incredible amount of work it takes to develop and maintain these products make a living and still find time to eat and sleep ? Surely not all of them write Nutshell books ... When I started working full-time (around 1989), many software developers got paid to develop the tools that are currently downloaded for free. Now, that of course is not the optimal way to be productive, but with no revenue being generated from this product, it is being developed on the backs of the companies paying the wages of the developers that are spending some of their company time to do "extra" work. I would appreciate if those of you who have considered these issues before clarify this for me, or perhaps point me at some information.
Users of alternative energy sources are very sensitive to energy waste and inefficiency, but sometimes it is required by the nature of the problem.