No, it cannot, read the code! Specifically, read drivers/media/video/videodev.c:video_mmap(), where you can see that the mmap() operation is protected by lock_kernel()/unlock_kernel()...
I was wondering exactly the same thing. Most of the time IC engines are overengineered and their basic drivetrain can in fact bear a lot more torque than what it actually puts out. But with this 800hp Civic? Is this at the same peak rpm than the Honda 2l? If yes that means a torque more than 5 times higher! ie, 5 times the force on the piston, 5 times the force at the driveshaft... And what about the gearbox? I'm actually amazed that the guy just didn't blow it immediately. Nowhere in the article they say if the guy has changed it.
I was in Nantes when the AFBF held the national foosball (called "baby foot" here) tournament. Balls were litterally flying around the table. I considered myself a pretty good player until I saw real champions play...
Also, the foosball table that the guy used is really gross... He should have used a real foosball table instead. Those plasticky tables just suck, no way to lock a ball.
Even though it may be unnoticeable on computer hardware, you can actually hear the sound loss on REAL hi-fi setups. If you're a music lover, use REAL hardware to fulfill your passion. There's no secret for this. Marantz, Denon, Bose, Mark Levinson, JBL, Bang&Olufsen etc. just don't apply. My setup is composed of:
Super detailed music all around, incredible dynamics, and the defects of MP3s just jump to you ears when you compare it to the original CD recording. You can even spot defects in the original recording process itself (for example the acoustic bass amplification stage in "The Rite Of Strings" is just horrible, which is a pity because the music in itself is just great - to compare with the one in Corea's "Past, Present and Futures" where it really shines).
And even though I invested $10k in this system, it's not even the price of really high-end stuff (some digital to analog converters cost twice as much...). I don't have the means for more and anyway my ear is not that precise. But I never really "listen" to music on anything else, and the Harmann Kardon system in my car just highlights Harmann Kardon setup defects more than recording defects.
Do you think Amnesty International would have reacted this way if China only used free software for its filtering uses? I mean, they could have done this from day one without anyone noticing... In the hypothesis that it were the case, how do you think developers of the targeted pieces of software would react?
What I think the linux distributors really need to do is to get together and finally decide on a standard configuration for/etc and init scripts....the resulting linuxes then can be called standard linux.
Close to... It's called Linux Standard Base. A good, 30+ years of Unix practice in one spec sheet... But it has yet to be adopted by all major players. And it has yet to be agreed upon by application programmers as well. Add to this the fact that quite a few of these participants feel free to violate the standards when it arranges them.
And the LSB doesn't touch the desktop in any way either, so no desktop consistency can be hoped from there... I do hope RedHat succeeds in its long-overdue effort, or if it fails, that it at least sets the trend for other major distros and put some lead into Gnome/KDE programmers' heads - "cooperate".
I've been working for Mandrake for almost two years, and I commited to rewriting the manual from scratch when I first arrived. I was also the one who suggested that there be a dialog at install time to add users...
Back to the manual anyway. I made a lengthy chapter on the installation process, giving a few hints here and there, trying to explain stuff and all... Explained Unix philosophy, the command line, how to access it, detailed a good number of utilities and even got as far as to "describe" ext2, kernel compile (yes, even that), SysV init and whatnot. I wanted users to *read* the darn thing, I thought it to be good to have an easy-to-use distribution giving the ability to empower the users.
Blah. I asked for internal peer review and got nearly none. When the manual was first out and I reread it afterwards I found quite a few errors and/or bad explained things. No bug report, either internally or from the users. They wouldn't even read the install manual to begin with. Either becuase they just didn't want or it sounded arcane to them, I don't even know. That was two years of frustration, I can tell you. I was left with the impression to waste my time (and the company's resources).
As for a UI designer, when I left there was none. There were graphic designers, but that's not quite the same. And my calls for real ergonomy work (and in particular a common look'n'feel for GNOME and KDE...) were redirected to/dev/null. "No, first let's add some functionality, it's more important". Read: Mandrake Control Center. For which I asked that it be integrated in a way or another to konqueror/gmc (at this time). Yeah, that sounds like some OS, but hey, people are used to that.
As a result, RedHat has begun on this front first, albeit after a LOT of time, raising criticism from KDE/GNOME fanatics. But the end user doesn't give a <beep> about KDE or GNOME, he wants (unconsciously that is) consistency. Choice is nice, but end users *DON'T* *CARE*. Mandrake is now doomed to react. If it were only for me they would have acted first on this front, especially since they have KDE *and* GNOME developers.
Anyway, Mandrake is not the first to blame. KDE and GNOME are, for they are still being developed separately and are too proud to look at the FACTS. A previous article I think clearly points to where the fundamental problem lies for Mandrake.
Hmm... OK, let's get all this stuff straight, please.
Do you at least know what Diesel particulates are? Here it is: they are the result of ignition of a fuel/air mix that is too rich, and are increased with the sulfur ratio in Diesel fuel. OTOH NOx are emitted by a fuel/air mix that is too poor.
BUT - particles are not fucking up the planet at any rate. Only have they been proved to provoke cancer when reaching such a level as would be achieved only by 1000+ modern Diesel cars (and when I mean modern, I mean modern EU Diesel cars, not the Diesel engines you have in the US, and also please remember that the sulfur ratio in EU is 10+ times lower in Diesel fuel than what you get over the pond) in a closed space. NOx I don't really know the impact of, so I won't mention them.
The main gas pointed to by car opponents as a "planet fucker" is CO2. "Good" news, CO2 rejection for modern/EU Diesel engines are far lower than that of current gas engines. Reason: they consume far less for an equal amount of work.
And if you really care about these particulates, here are the good news: Peugeot has equipped its Diesel engines with particulate filters (which reduces particulate emissions by 90%, according to German ADAC and UBA) for two years now, and Fiat, in partnership with Opel (both owned partially/completely by... General Motors), have developped a Common Rail setup which achieve the same goal without the need for such a filter and also reduces NOx at the same time, so as to obey Euro 4 norms as is. Let me repeat this: WITHOUT A PARTICULATE (aka soot) FILTER. Also remember that NOx emissions are fairly reduced by the simple adoption of an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) setup, which is pretty much standard nowadays on modern/EU Diesel engines.
In short, soot emissions and NOx emissions, in a few years from now, will be a no-problem for Diesel engines. And all this with a much better power-to-weight ratio and autonomy than a comparable electric/fuel cell setup.
Not only that but its autonomly is outright ridiculous: 300 km (aka ~180 miles), provided that you maintain a constant 100kph (~ 60 mph) ?
Gee, electric cars are far from beatin ICE cars anytime soon, it seems. I can do 500 miles @75mph with my 330d (yes, it "only" does 15'4 at the quarter mile and seats 4, but still).
First of all, mammoths lived in the ice age, which means temperatures around 0F. I doubt an 80+% mammoth would survive in today's environments (or then maybe in Siberia).
Second, there is ethics. I thought scientists would be more sensitive on this subject than corporations. Cloning is no game, and while by now we know that we can do it (Dolly), there is no fundamental reason to go further. This is just showing disrespect towards life. Animals are living creatures, and so are we. No more, no less. Life is no playground. We have no rights to play with it.
As you may know, the government has changed not long ago. The former minister of transports, Jean-Claude Gayssot, was just dumb as to highlight speed as the major cause of accidents. Like pretty much all ministers before him, he couldn't make the difference between exceeding the speed limit and excessive speed.
I dream-hoped for a change. Well, no. The current minister, Gilles De Robien, is even worse. In his project for increased road security (let me laugh), his proposed measures enclose a blackbox in every car. But not only to record accident data, mind you. No, these boxes may record speed permanently and will be controllable by the police in order to detect speed limit infringements. Worse, he wants spying tickets on highways (you have to pay for highways here) so that they can tell whether the guy was driving too fast by measuring the time between the ticket was taken and when this ticket is given back to the cashier at the exit of the highway.
Fine, then, but what about useful measures for a change? Improved driver training? No. More severe driving license exam? No. Working out dangerous spots on open roads? No. Putting radars on dangerous spots instead of straight lines? No.
I do hope the US equivalent of the minister of transports has a clue. Here, it's not the case. Help...
> VW/Audi sells six different diesels in Europe (1.2l, 1.9l - 90hp, 1.9l - 110hp, 1.9l -115hp, 2.5l - 150hp, V8 3.3l - 225hp[available soon])
Uhm no, they have more than that: 1.4l (not 1.2l) inline 3 with 75hp, 1.9l inline 4 with hps 90/100/110/130/150 and 2.5 V6 155/180. And then there are the other manufacturers.
Problem is, from all these engines, only the 1.9l 90hp and 1.9l 110hp are suitable for the US market because they don't use direct Diesel injection techniques (Common Rail or pump injectors), and Diesel injection engines indeed require better grade Diesel than what's on sale in the US (sulfur ppm is too high, up to 500, EU Diesel fuel has a law-enforced 15ppm max - sulfur is the thing which is responsible for black smoke). Other manufacturers' engines ALL use direct injection techniques.
Buying a TDI is merely a good idea in the US nowadays due to that sulfur problem, which makes it for particles emitted in the air. These are proved to be cancer agents. Maybe a TDI is a good idea if you can find an aftermarket particle filter, but given its way of operating, I seirously doubt it.
If it's just for commuting then Honda's Insight is by far the better choice (do you really *need* more than 2 seats? And the cargo space in the hatch is not ridiculous, ya know) but you'll have to adapt your driving style.
> the government is too behind the times because that don't use new (and better) XML schemas!
Well, this is an administration, you know... So actually they can be credited for having been aware of XML at least a year ago. Had they been aware of XML schemas that it'd have taken another 6 months before the site got up, don't you think?
I'm quite confident that nowadays the average PHB doesn't even know what XML stands for and is used for...
> Remember, MS is more about marketing right now than solid products.
Hmmm... Don't you think this is exactly this kind of thoughts (especially if expressed voicely during the event) that will fuel Microsoft's argumentation on whatever subject Microsoft will handle to the mainstream press once the event is over? As to how they would exploit it...
Frankly, I'd rather this piece of news hadn't even made it to slashdot - or better yet, that it *had* made it to slashdot but with just 0 comments.
> My suspicion is that many car owners could do better if their car simply recorded/reported MPG to them
Indeed. Actually, nearly all new cars sold hereabouts sport an onboard computer with mpg (well, liters for 100km here - 40 mpg roughly equals to 6l/100km FWIW) reporting. And I see that so does the Insight. But Europeans are what they are, ya know... Especially in the South:) I didn't know that the Insight was available in Europe actually. Even though I read a lot of the automobile press available, they didn't even talk about it - nor test it for that matter.
(as to the mileage database, I'd argue that most Insight buyers are conscious of consumption problems, as you are, it seems:) - and from the link above, that the "cockpit" is quite designed to make the driver focus on it)
> Also, the EPA "city" test cycle does have transient accelerations/decelerations. See this example. [epa.gov]
Hey, that's a city test after all:p
> The idea that diesel MPG is less sensitive to driving style is another interesting one. I suspect that would be reflected in the numbers -- "city" mileage ought to be relatively close to the "highway" mileage for such a car, if that were the case.
It is. The Skoda sports 37mpg in city test cycles, but of course in real life it can go much lower - at least until the starter-alternator becomes mainstream. The BMW is unfortunately handicapped by its cubic displacement here, with a "mere" 31mpg. Some cars even score the same mpg in town than on highway (the Renault Clio 1.5 dCi is one, with 42mpg each).
> The starter-alternator sounds suspiciously like what a hybrid does, minus the boost/recharging ability while driving
Well, it can add to the torque of the engine actually, on heavy thrust demands. It's a small electrical engine located between the engine and gearbox. It recharges the batteries, just like a normal alternator, of course. In fact, it's just like an hybrid system, including energy recovery on braking etc, but it's not used for main propulsion. On manual gearboxes, it restarts the engine when the clutch pedal is pressed. Automatic gearboxes? Dunno, and I don't like them anyway:p Efficiency? Well, we'll see in two years' time when C4 is out:)
... and software for ripping DVDs then encoding them in DivX (I'll lose the st00pid smiley) have existed for a while, and people use it... What gives?
I actually wonder how studies quantify piracy, whether in audio, video or even software, and whether the figures they come with are accurate at all (well I bet Microsoft has quite some adequate figures since the introduction of Windows Update, at least).
I rather think (like probably many people) that the so-called piracy in the audio field is just no piracy at all. Audio CDs don't sell that much because they're damn too expensive ($20 is not nothing). In comparison, the price of DVDs offer a far greater bang for your buck. Even apart from the data storage capacity (which avg user doesn't give a <beep> about anyway), with DVD you get audio AND video, and a longer piece of it. Not to mention interactive features. DVDs have a much greater price/"performance" ratio than audio CDs.
The disappearance of Napster, imho, has also hurt the music industry by some margin. The avg user, him again, certainly knew how to use Napster, whereas ripping MP3s to a CDR is quite of a challenge even today. It was such a great way to discover new music. Then he would go buy the CDs that interested him. I used it this way myself. In fact I used it so much that I bought 7 CDs in 2 months, more than ever before (ratio speaking) in my lifetime.
Now there is no such possibility. I have to go to the CD store and pray that the vendor agreed to let me listen to the darn CD that I noticed due to the artists' names on the cover. And frankly it does feel uncomfortable to lend the CD back and say "sorry, I don't take it". That's just a lost sale for the vendor as the plastic cover has been removed. But hey, $20...
EPA ratings, much like ISO ratings, reflect close-to-perfect usage conditions (flat roads, constant speed etc). They are far from reflecting everyday use where you have to slow down/accelerate/etc constantly. And then again there are curves/uphills/etc. I doubt any of the cars you have listed actually score their listed mileages in everyday use. As a matter of fact, most reviews of the Prius (sold here in Europe, unlike the Insight) score it at 35-40mpg rather than the listed 48mpg EPA rating.
Which is where modern Diesel engines take a clear lead: accelerations don't require as much energy as gas engines require. The reason is that Diesel engines spot a much higher torque. Provided that you don't drive hard, you can be sure that VW's TDIs announced mileages WILL be what you actually consume. And if you drive hard, the mileage of a Diesel engine will decrease far less steadily than with a gas engine as well, always because of superior torque. The same goes on if you carry more passengers than yourself alone.
Just for information, I'm the (very) lucky owner of a BMW 330d (WARNING - UK gallons! Following figures are calculated using US gallons though). Cruising at 60mph, mileage is 41mpg, whether the road be flat or not. Cruising at 75mph, mileage "drops" to 35mpg - and this is not surprising if you consider that at both of these speeds, the engine provides its full torque of 288(!) lbft (~1800rpm at 60mph, ~2100rpm at 75mph), and full torque means best fuel efficiency. Not bad for an engine which spots 183hp and has a 3l displacement, eh? (and the car weighs 1.6 ton!)
Another example: a friend of mine owns a Skoda Fabia TDI 100 (a VW TDI, since Skoda is owned by VW - 100hp, 180 lbft torque, 1.9l displacement, 1 ton) (sorry, couldn't find an online review). We swapped cars on a WE just for fun and I wanted to see how well the TDI performed... 46mpg at 60mph and 39mpg at 75mph (yes, greater gap here, but unlike the BMW 3l engine, the TDI isn't on its max torque curve at 75mph).
And as an added bonus, both of these cars are enjoyable to drive. This is not so the case with, say, the Prius (which is available in EU, unlike the Insight). Again, thanks to the torque.
There are still two weak points with the Diesel engines, though, but these are being addressed. Technologies exist and will make inroads into the EU market in the next 3 years:
town mileage is fatally higher right now. Solution: the starter-alternator (unfortunately, scarce documentation on this thing on the net - it's dubbed STARTS by Valeo, and Energen by Delphi), which provides stop features: engine is off when you're idle at, say, a traffic light, then starter-alternator restarts it nearly instantly (less than 100ms) when needed. Added bonus, it removes the alternator from the picture (and therefore removes a strap belt from engine design, therefore lowering friction and increasing efficiency) and allows for 110/220V electrical plugs to make it into cars! The first car equipped with this in EU will be the Citroën C4, programmed for late 2003;
particles (which is why Diesel scores so poor at emissions rating right now - this is not because of greenhouse gas emissions, which is considerably lower with Diesel engines due to their greater efficiency). The solution already exists: the particle filter, which has first equipped the Peugeot 607 back in 2000 and now equips several models from the PSA group. This filter will be compulsory on all new Diesel engines by 2003, Jan 1st. Combine this with the requirements for petrol makers to reduce the quota of sulfur in Diesel fuel (which IS the cause for particles) by 2005.
Of course, ultimately, fuel cells will replace Diesel and gas engines altogether, but it will be a good 10+ years before it gets viable (both cost-wise and reliability-wise). Both of the technologies above exist today and are [already on/close to make inroads into] the consumer market. Also consider that car manufacturers, by 2005, will have to obey "depollution" norms in EU which basically require engines to have a global mileage equal or better than 45mpg. Whatever the technology employed.
Slashdot Mirror
Dust bites you.
The following story starts this way:
Britain's equivalent of the RIAA, the British Phonographic Industry[...]
I misread "Phonographic" for "Pornographic". Go figure.
Well, I don't know what can qualify as ownership when it comes to Antarctica, but many countries have established points on this continent:
If any of this country disagrees with this highway (well, except USA, that is), surely enough they will get heard soon enough.
No, it cannot, read the code! Specifically, read drivers/media/video/videodev.c:video_mmap(), where you can see that the mmap() operation is protected by lock_kernel()/unlock_kernel()...
Gee, reread yourself... Sorry but they're 100% right. If they could acquire the lock, cam and cam->ops cannot be NULL due to the first check.
BTW, in 2.4.18, the code now looks like this for this same function:
struct cam_data *cam = dev->priv; int retval; if (!cam || !cam->ops) return -ENODEV; DBG("cpia_mmap: %ld\n", size); if (size > FRAME_NUM*CPIA_MAX_FRAME_SIZE) return -EINVAL; /* REDUNDANT! */
if (!cam || !cam->ops)
return -ENODEV; /* make this _really_ smp-safe */
if (down_interruptible(&cam->busy_lock))
return -EINTR;
I was wondering exactly the same thing. Most of the time IC engines are overengineered and their basic drivetrain can in fact bear a lot more torque than what it actually puts out. But with this 800hp Civic? Is this at the same peak rpm than the Honda 2l? If yes that means a torque more than 5 times higher! ie, 5 times the force on the piston, 5 times the force at the driveshaft... And what about the gearbox? I'm actually amazed that the guy just didn't blow it immediately. Nowhere in the article they say if the guy has changed it.
Jules Vernes has led the way to modern submarines with its "twenty thousands leagues under the sea" novel. Remember Captain Nemo? :)
I was in Nantes when the AFBF held the national foosball (called "baby foot" here) tournament. Balls were litterally flying around the table. I considered myself a pretty good player until I saw real champions play...
Also, the foosball table that the guy used is really gross... He should have used a real foosball table instead. Those plasticky tables just suck, no way to lock a ball.
Even though it may be unnoticeable on computer hardware, you can actually hear the sound loss on REAL hi-fi setups. If you're a music lover, use REAL hardware to fulfill your passion. There's no secret for this. Marantz, Denon, Bose, Mark Levinson, JBL, Bang&Olufsen etc. just don't apply. My setup is composed of:
Super detailed music all around, incredible dynamics, and the defects of MP3s just jump to you ears when you compare it to the original CD recording. You can even spot defects in the original recording process itself (for example the acoustic bass amplification stage in "The Rite Of Strings" is just horrible, which is a pity because the music in itself is just great - to compare with the one in Corea's "Past, Present and Futures" where it really shines).
And even though I invested $10k in this system, it's not even the price of really high-end stuff (some digital to analog converters cost twice as much...). I don't have the means for more and anyway my ear is not that precise. But I never really "listen" to music on anything else, and the Harmann Kardon system in my car just highlights Harmann Kardon setup defects more than recording defects.
Confusing it with the imperial measurement can lead to havoc. Remember that satellite who was lost because of this?
I'd have rated the parent as insightful...
Do you think Amnesty International would have reacted this way if China only used free software for its filtering uses? I mean, they could have done this from day one without anyone noticing... In the hypothesis that it were the case, how do you think developers of the targeted pieces of software would react?
Some time ago there was a story about the IE only UK government gateway size. Fortunately, this is no longer the case.
Close to... It's called Linux Standard Base. A good, 30+ years of Unix practice in one spec sheet... But it has yet to be adopted by all major players. And it has yet to be agreed upon by application programmers as well. Add to this the fact that quite a few of these participants feel free to violate the standards when it arranges them.
And the LSB doesn't touch the desktop in any way either, so no desktop consistency can be hoped from there... I do hope RedHat succeeds in its long-overdue effort, or if it fails, that it at least sets the trend for other major distros and put some lead into Gnome/KDE programmers' heads - "cooperate".
She did not read the instructions
Who does?
I've been working for Mandrake for almost two years, and I commited to rewriting the manual from scratch when I first arrived. I was also the one who suggested that there be a dialog at install time to add users...
Back to the manual anyway. I made a lengthy chapter on the installation process, giving a few hints here and there, trying to explain stuff and all... Explained Unix philosophy, the command line, how to access it, detailed a good number of utilities and even got as far as to "describe" ext2, kernel compile (yes, even that), SysV init and whatnot. I wanted users to *read* the darn thing, I thought it to be good to have an easy-to-use distribution giving the ability to empower the users.
Blah. I asked for internal peer review and got nearly none. When the manual was first out and I reread it afterwards I found quite a few errors and/or bad explained things. No bug report, either internally or from the users. They wouldn't even read the install manual to begin with. Either becuase they just didn't want or it sounded arcane to them, I don't even know. That was two years of frustration, I can tell you. I was left with the impression to waste my time (and the company's resources).
As for a UI designer, when I left there was none. There were graphic designers, but that's not quite the same. And my calls for real ergonomy work (and in particular a common look'n'feel for GNOME and KDE...) were redirected to /dev/null. "No, first let's add some functionality, it's more important". Read: Mandrake Control Center. For which I asked that it be integrated in a way or another to konqueror/gmc (at this time). Yeah, that sounds like some OS, but hey, people are used to that.
As a result, RedHat has begun on this front first, albeit after a LOT of time, raising criticism from KDE/GNOME fanatics. But the end user doesn't give a <beep> about KDE or GNOME, he wants (unconsciously that is) consistency. Choice is nice, but end users *DON'T* *CARE*. Mandrake is now doomed to react. If it were only for me they would have acted first on this front, especially since they have KDE *and* GNOME developers.
Anyway, Mandrake is not the first to blame. KDE and GNOME are, for they are still being developed separately and are too proud to look at the FACTS. A previous article I think clearly points to where the fundamental problem lies for Mandrake.
Hmm... OK, let's get all this stuff straight, please.
Do you at least know what Diesel particulates are? Here it is: they are the result of ignition of a fuel/air mix that is too rich, and are increased with the sulfur ratio in Diesel fuel. OTOH NOx are emitted by a fuel/air mix that is too poor.
BUT - particles are not fucking up the planet at any rate. Only have they been proved to provoke cancer when reaching such a level as would be achieved only by 1000+ modern Diesel cars (and when I mean modern, I mean modern EU Diesel cars, not the Diesel engines you have in the US, and also please remember that the sulfur ratio in EU is 10+ times lower in Diesel fuel than what you get over the pond) in a closed space. NOx I don't really know the impact of, so I won't mention them.
The main gas pointed to by car opponents as a "planet fucker" is CO2. "Good" news, CO2 rejection for modern/EU Diesel engines are far lower than that of current gas engines. Reason: they consume far less for an equal amount of work.
And if you really care about these particulates, here are the good news: Peugeot has equipped its Diesel engines with particulate filters (which reduces particulate emissions by 90%, according to German ADAC and UBA) for two years now, and Fiat, in partnership with Opel (both owned partially/completely by... General Motors), have developped a Common Rail setup which achieve the same goal without the need for such a filter and also reduces NOx at the same time, so as to obey Euro 4 norms as is. Let me repeat this: WITHOUT A PARTICULATE (aka soot) FILTER. Also remember that NOx emissions are fairly reduced by the simple adoption of an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) setup, which is pretty much standard nowadays on modern/EU Diesel engines.
In short, soot emissions and NOx emissions, in a few years from now, will be a no-problem for Diesel engines. And all this with a much better power-to-weight ratio and autonomy than a comparable electric/fuel cell setup.
And I don't even speak about biodiesels.
Not only that but its autonomly is outright ridiculous: 300 km (aka ~180 miles), provided that you maintain a constant 100kph (~ 60 mph) ?
Gee, electric cars are far from beatin ICE cars anytime soon, it seems. I can do 500 miles @75mph with my 330d (yes, it "only" does 15'4 at the quarter mile and seats 4, but still).
First of all, mammoths lived in the ice age, which means temperatures around 0F. I doubt an 80+% mammoth would survive in today's environments (or then maybe in Siberia).
Second, there is ethics. I thought scientists would be more sensitive on this subject than corporations. Cloning is no game, and while by now we know that we can do it (Dolly), there is no fundamental reason to go further. This is just showing disrespect towards life. Animals are living creatures, and so are we. No more, no less. Life is no playground. We have no rights to play with it.
As you may know, the government has changed not long ago. The former minister of transports, Jean-Claude Gayssot, was just dumb as to highlight speed as the major cause of accidents. Like pretty much all ministers before him, he couldn't make the difference between exceeding the speed limit and excessive speed.
I dream-hoped for a change. Well, no. The current minister, Gilles De Robien, is even worse. In his project for increased road security (let me laugh), his proposed measures enclose a blackbox in every car. But not only to record accident data, mind you. No, these boxes may record speed permanently and will be controllable by the police in order to detect speed limit infringements. Worse, he wants spying tickets on highways (you have to pay for highways here) so that they can tell whether the guy was driving too fast by measuring the time between the ticket was taken and when this ticket is given back to the cashier at the exit of the highway.
Fine, then, but what about useful measures for a change? Improved driver training? No. More severe driving license exam? No. Working out dangerous spots on open roads? No. Putting radars on dangerous spots instead of straight lines? No.
I do hope the US equivalent of the minister of transports has a clue. Here, it's not the case. Help...
> VW/Audi sells six different diesels in Europe (1.2l, 1.9l - 90hp, 1.9l - 110hp, 1.9l -115hp, 2.5l - 150hp, V8 3.3l - 225hp[available soon])
Uhm no, they have more than that: 1.4l (not 1.2l) inline 3 with 75hp, 1.9l inline 4 with hps 90/100/110/130/150 and 2.5 V6 155/180. And then there are the other manufacturers.
Problem is, from all these engines, only the 1.9l 90hp and 1.9l 110hp are suitable for the US market because they don't use direct Diesel injection techniques (Common Rail or pump injectors), and Diesel injection engines indeed require better grade Diesel than what's on sale in the US (sulfur ppm is too high, up to 500, EU Diesel fuel has a law-enforced 15ppm max - sulfur is the thing which is responsible for black smoke). Other manufacturers' engines ALL use direct injection techniques.
Buying a TDI is merely a good idea in the US nowadays due to that sulfur problem, which makes it for particles emitted in the air. These are proved to be cancer agents. Maybe a TDI is a good idea if you can find an aftermarket particle filter, but given its way of operating, I seirously doubt it.
If it's just for commuting then Honda's Insight is by far the better choice (do you really *need* more than 2 seats? And the cargo space in the hatch is not ridiculous, ya know) but you'll have to adapt your driving style.
> the government is too behind the times because that don't use new (and better) XML schemas!
Well, this is an administration, you know... So actually they can be credited for having been aware of XML at least a year ago. Had they been aware of XML schemas that it'd have taken another 6 months before the site got up, don't you think?
I'm quite confident that nowadays the average PHB doesn't even know what XML stands for and is used for...
> Remember, MS is more about marketing right now than solid products.
Hmmm... Don't you think this is exactly this kind of thoughts (especially if expressed voicely during the event) that will fuel Microsoft's argumentation on whatever subject Microsoft will handle to the mainstream press once the event is over? As to how they would exploit it...
Frankly, I'd rather this piece of news hadn't even made it to slashdot - or better yet, that it *had* made it to slashdot but with just 0 comments.
OK, I lose, this is yet another comment.
Does this mean that we will be able to use hdparm's -U option, swap drives, reenable the interface with -R and then go with the new drive?
I also wonder how Linux will just see the drives. No slave/master distinction anymore, so...?
> My suspicion is that many car owners could do better if their car simply recorded/reported MPG to them
Indeed. Actually, nearly all new cars sold hereabouts sport an onboard computer with mpg (well, liters for 100km here - 40 mpg roughly equals to 6l/100km FWIW) reporting. And I see that so does the Insight. But Europeans are what they are, ya know... Especially in the South :) I didn't know that the Insight was available in Europe actually. Even though I read a lot of the automobile press available, they didn't even talk about it - nor test it for that matter.
(as to the mileage database, I'd argue that most Insight buyers are conscious of consumption problems, as you are, it seems :) - and from the link above, that the "cockpit" is quite designed to make the driver focus on it)
> Also, the EPA "city" test cycle does have transient accelerations/decelerations. See this example. [epa.gov]
Hey, that's a city test after all :p
> The idea that diesel MPG is less sensitive to driving style is another interesting one. I suspect that would be reflected in the numbers -- "city" mileage ought to be relatively close to the "highway" mileage for such a car, if that were the case.
It is. The Skoda sports 37mpg in city test cycles, but of course in real life it can go much lower - at least until the starter-alternator becomes mainstream. The BMW is unfortunately handicapped by its cubic displacement here, with a "mere" 31mpg. Some cars even score the same mpg in town than on highway (the Renault Clio 1.5 dCi is one, with 42mpg each).
> The starter-alternator sounds suspiciously like what a hybrid does, minus the boost/recharging ability while driving
Well, it can add to the torque of the engine actually, on heavy thrust demands. It's a small electrical engine located between the engine and gearbox. It recharges the batteries, just like a normal alternator, of course. In fact, it's just like an hybrid system, including energy recovery on braking etc, but it's not used for main propulsion. On manual gearboxes, it restarts the engine when the clutch pedal is pressed. Automatic gearboxes? Dunno, and I don't like them anyway :p Efficiency? Well, we'll see in two years' time when C4 is out :)
Thanks for the very nice talking.
I actually wonder how studies quantify piracy, whether in audio, video or even software, and whether the figures they come with are accurate at all (well I bet Microsoft has quite some adequate figures since the introduction of Windows Update, at least).
I rather think (like probably many people) that the so-called piracy in the audio field is just no piracy at all. Audio CDs don't sell that much because they're damn too expensive ($20 is not nothing). In comparison, the price of DVDs offer a far greater bang for your buck. Even apart from the data storage capacity (which avg user doesn't give a <beep> about anyway), with DVD you get audio AND video, and a longer piece of it. Not to mention interactive features. DVDs have a much greater price/"performance" ratio than audio CDs.
The disappearance of Napster, imho, has also hurt the music industry by some margin. The avg user, him again, certainly knew how to use Napster, whereas ripping MP3s to a CDR is quite of a challenge even today. It was such a great way to discover new music. Then he would go buy the CDs that interested him. I used it this way myself. In fact I used it so much that I bought 7 CDs in 2 months, more than ever before (ratio speaking) in my lifetime.
Now there is no such possibility. I have to go to the CD store and pray that the vendor agreed to let me listen to the darn CD that I noticed due to the artists' names on the cover. And frankly it does feel uncomfortable to lend the CD back and say "sorry, I don't take it". That's just a lost sale for the vendor as the plastic cover has been removed. But hey, $20...
EPA ratings, much like ISO ratings, reflect close-to-perfect usage conditions (flat roads, constant speed etc). They are far from reflecting everyday use where you have to slow down/accelerate/etc constantly. And then again there are curves/uphills/etc. I doubt any of the cars you have listed actually score their listed mileages in everyday use. As a matter of fact, most reviews of the Prius (sold here in Europe, unlike the Insight) score it at 35-40mpg rather than the listed 48mpg EPA rating.
Which is where modern Diesel engines take a clear lead: accelerations don't require as much energy as gas engines require. The reason is that Diesel engines spot a much higher torque. Provided that you don't drive hard, you can be sure that VW's TDIs announced mileages WILL be what you actually consume. And if you drive hard, the mileage of a Diesel engine will decrease far less steadily than with a gas engine as well, always because of superior torque. The same goes on if you carry more passengers than yourself alone.
Just for information, I'm the (very) lucky owner of a BMW 330d (WARNING - UK gallons! Following figures are calculated using US gallons though). Cruising at 60mph, mileage is 41mpg, whether the road be flat or not. Cruising at 75mph, mileage "drops" to 35mpg - and this is not surprising if you consider that at both of these speeds, the engine provides its full torque of 288(!) lbft (~1800rpm at 60mph, ~2100rpm at 75mph), and full torque means best fuel efficiency. Not bad for an engine which spots 183hp and has a 3l displacement, eh? (and the car weighs 1.6 ton!)
Another example: a friend of mine owns a Skoda Fabia TDI 100 (a VW TDI, since Skoda is owned by VW - 100hp, 180 lbft torque, 1.9l displacement, 1 ton) (sorry, couldn't find an online review). We swapped cars on a WE just for fun and I wanted to see how well the TDI performed... 46mpg at 60mph and 39mpg at 75mph (yes, greater gap here, but unlike the BMW 3l engine, the TDI isn't on its max torque curve at 75mph).
And as an added bonus, both of these cars are enjoyable to drive. This is not so the case with, say, the Prius (which is available in EU, unlike the Insight). Again, thanks to the torque.
There are still two weak points with the Diesel engines, though, but these are being addressed. Technologies exist and will make inroads into the EU market in the next 3 years:
Of course, ultimately, fuel cells will replace Diesel and gas engines altogether, but it will be a good 10+ years before it gets viable (both cost-wise and reliability-wise). Both of the technologies above exist today and are [already on/close to make inroads into] the consumer market. Also consider that car manufacturers, by 2005, will have to obey "depollution" norms in EU which basically require engines to have a global mileage equal or better than 45mpg. Whatever the technology employed.