--I really didn't miss the point. The posit was how would I feel if someone took my bread? I replied if they could copy it it would be OK,permission granted, if they stole the *only* copy, the one loaf, that it would be theft. The other posit, well, how about the process? Where I the only one with a recipe or technique to make bread, I would share it, as I think people getting bread is a good idea. I don't want to really profit from it, if it is ridiculously cheap and easy or free to do, to make copies of it. The thought, the theoretical idea of it itself would have come freely to me, so by allowing the public share it has cost me nothing tangible.
I work for a living ( I live and work on a big complex, which is farms and businesses and private residences, I do a lot of the outside maintenance and upkeep here), and believe me, if there was a way to copy endlessly what I do, for cheap or free, I'd be the first in line to get me some of that action, and the first to turn around and give it away, even though it would mean I would then have to go and find new employment, which I would, had a buncha jobs before, you can always find something to do.. My temporary unemployment would be a small price to pay for allowing humanity in general to have what now costs a lot of time and labor and tools and expense to pull off. This small scale terraforming action is what they call "hard work", and in order for me to get paid, I do it once, get check, and if I want another check, I have to do it *again* or a reasonable facsimile thereof. I can't just do it one time and rationally expect to keep getting paid for it over and over and over again. If it was possible to just mash "enter" on some automagical terraforming replicator machine and make a copy of that, cool freeking beans! Here, have you some! Have two, they're cheap!
So, yes, I understand it, yes I see the various differences, and yes I have outlined what my responses are to the various differences. As society and technology advances, I expect a lot of things to get easier and cheaper, and those things that get technologically to the point that they became so cheap as to be theoretically close to free with their replications, I would expect them to be offered at that price or close to it. When they are not, and when I notice that those people have to actually have to pass additional weird "laws" in order to lock in yesterdays profit margins that are no longer based on todays realities of production/replification prices, well, I question the validity and ethics of that situation. I think people who produce IP have the choice, I would hope they get reasonable with it as they take modern advances into consideration and what is not only good for them but what is best for society as a whole.
You see, the more people share, the more *you* get. It is not a one way street, it's a million way street. You don't exist in a vacuum, you actually get more stuff the more everyone shares, you don't get less stuff. I know it's a scary concept,initially it doesn't make sense, it goes against a lot of previous societal mores and business models, but it really does work. Your choice, participate or not.
I look at IP sharing (if we can go back to what this discussion is about now, that which is easily copied now from advances in tech)as an example of computer age "community barn raisings" if I may use an analogy. Back in the olden days it was just too hard, too complex, too costly for every single individual small joe farmer to build his own barn, instead, people shared expertise and materials with the result that everyone got a barn, and it was easy to do and more cost effective and induced a decent feeling of community and neighborliness. It was good for the individual, good for local business, good for the community in general. Everyone involved actually got a good deal out of it. Yes, it was anyones choice back then to take part, or not. Those who decided to share all got a nice spiffy new barn though, without a lot of expense or effort. It
When google came out I seem to remember quite a few metamorphical online eyebrows raised with their screwy name. All it takes is a little time to go from weird and screwy to accepted, and even part of the language, i.e., "googling".
Personally, I like mozilla over "firefox" for a name, to me, firefox sounds like some new car with a wing on the back of it and neon fender lights.
but ya, in retrospect a bit more I know what you mean, but here's a question-a challenge really-quick, name a browser! Something non weird, easy to remember, catchy, and indicates it is in fact a browser (or search engine, your choice).
the letters G, I, K and X are already spoken for and have been beaten into wimpering submission already....
In that regard, both navigator and explorer were quite good.
--I agree with you. In the long run, looking way upstream, I don't even want to run "an OS". I just want to pick what apps I want, they come *complete*, as in, everything you need. Open an app, it spawns it's own kernel and FS, and etc., and goes and does it's thing, either locally or out on the network. Nothing will need to be cross platform because there won't be any platform except for what the app carries with itself.
...and no one else, purely anecdotally, I only had one app that would consistently bogue out on me, and that was netscape. Once I got hip to iCab browser, that was it, stability, no more sad macs or cherry bombs. Even if you did get a crash, your FS stayed intact wonderfully, at least fgor me it did. Yes, I ran techtool and norton disk doctor (or disk first aid, but I liked norton better, and yes, I paid for it) periodically, as a planned maintenance, it didn't take long, they did the job. As to memory management, you used "get info" on the app and upped alloted RAM to what you wanted it to be, along with virtual memory if that is what you wanted. Run a new app, check it out, if it needed more you gave it more until you liked it. Didn't take long, worked well then. It wasn't automatic, but it was easy to do. Never had any issues downloading or installing apps, still to this day about the easiest out there, never had a major show stopper conflict I can recall, and choosing a set of extensions is pretty easy. Never got "owned", it didn't exist AFAIK and am aware of, no remote owning if you had appleshare turned off, I never even saw a firewall in those days (except on friends windows machines) let alone seemed to need one. I don't game, so that wasn't an issue, and I never used MS office, so that wasn't an issue. Eveything else I wanted to do I did. Wrote docs, built web pages, listened to tunes, surfed, chatted IRC and IMed with ICQ. Regular old just did it stuff.
It was pretty good for the times, and I still use classic occasionally. As to OSX, no idea, I don't currently own any apple hardware it will run on, so never tried it. Near as I can see from reading though, it is roughly equivalent to a modern Linux OS, so I am happy enough using what I have, older x86 hardware with enough RAM installed to make it useable. I am between a guru power user and a raw noob, so it seems to be OK now. Never been afraid to learn new stuff, but I have always had a practical nature, and I don't see the need to make things overly complex when I don't personally need them to be, just because it's possible, I don't adhere to "rube goldbergism" just because you can. Different strokes and all. If I absolutely postiviely with zero doubt need to do some advanced fine tweaking, I will google for advanced instructions from folks who know how to do it, so that's about it. I do a LOT more stuff in meatspace then sit in front of a screen, this is neither my business nor my only hobby or interest.
no, it's not legal now, that's why I said that I think in my opinion that the law is an ass, and I would like to see it changed, at least back to the point it was before the bono act and before drm schemes and whatnot. And don't worry, I won't copy all your stuff, I only deal with that that is freely shared, and/or I make use of what pitiful remnants remain of "fair use".
Fair notice, if your stuff is ridiculously expensive compared to what I can get as an alternative for free or much cheaper with less restrictions, that's where my custom is headed. Myself and millions and millions of other people, eventually billions, because we "get it" on voluntary sharing. And eventually our POV will "win", too, just watch it happen, it's inevitable now. You canot stifle progress, at best you can merely delay it. Have fun delaying it, eventually you'll be spending more time and energy and resources on that than on actually producing anything worthwhile, to either share freely OR sell, at any price, reasonable fair price to outtasite gouge level price. A *Good* Example = SCO now, an alleged technological implementation and development company who's main business now is trying to scam more money out of obscure references from years ago. they aren't innovators now, all they are is crybabies, want to get paid forever and a day for something they might have done years ago. It's pitiful really.
...but I'll throw it out anyway. There is another SA based product out there that is quite unique and practical, the Baygen windup a spring to get electricity radio. I own two of them and they are quite spiffy. I wonder if Mark is familiar with this product, and if so, has considered or *would* consider to be more accurate, a similar product to have a low priced and easily powered computer "for the masses" which would ship with Ubuntu pre installed?
A computer without software is an expensive paperweight, and software without a computer is an exercise in vapor herding, it's the package deal that is important and what makes a complete product.
we were assuming for the discussion it was my loaf of bread that was created by me in the first place, then wondering how I would feel if it was "stolen", either the process or the actual loaf. Me personally, if you can copy the bread and leave my bread intact, go for it,please do, I encourage you to feed yourself and your family easier, I'll do something else with my time, I have no interest in ripping you off for a cheap or free copy. Never have, never will, just my nature. I can always think up something new to do. For people who can't, well, too bad, not my lookout if they have zero imagination or any drive to do something new with their time, either as a hobby or as a job. I don't believe in getting paid over and over again and over and over for the same work. I think it's counter productive for society in the long run and stifles innovation. I don't want a return to the dark ages where only ultra rich folks had anything remotely new or modern that would make their lives richer, easier, more fulfilling or "better" in many ways. I want *everyone* to have that as much as possible.
And yes, I have done this, I have "released to the wild" a widely used implementation and customization idea that I made zero on beyond initital cost of development basically, once with a tool (a specialty wrench design) and once with a very common mode of transport used daily by millions,(I built one of the first prototypes of what evolved into the "mountain bike" concept back in the 70s, and I know that one large company copied the design and started selling them, and I am happy so many people found the idea useful and have run with it,and,although I don't claim exclusivity to it,the concept, I do know from research there were only a handful of fellow bike developers doing this at the time I did my own version of it, there certainly weren't any you could buy on the market), and also I released freely quite a lot of "IP" in the form of writings in the past. It doesn't bother me that those things have been copied by others and improved upon/used whatever. None whatsoever. In fact, the tool I developed I have a few example of where others have adapted and made their own versions, they were freely given to me by THOSE developers.
I share, if you don't want to, that's your business, but if you can copy what I do easily and cheaply, please go for it if that is your interest.
There's a significant difference between copying and stealing. Theft-stealing- means you've taken something from someone and they no longer have it. Copying is not theft, you still have yours, it's fully intact. The word "copy" is what is in dispute and is contentious now. It used to be that it was illegal to teach serfs/slaves to read, or for anyone other than the monks or royals could have "copies" of writings. Times changed. I want times to keep changing, and I see current US style "copyright" as being little different from the exclusivity laws that existed in the middle ages. If they had kept up with the original US design, and exactly followed technological advances, I wouldn't have a problem with it as much, but they haven't, they want to extend it and go bass-ackwards back to the middle ages concept, and I think that's a bad idea.
I personally don't download MP3s or movies or whatever, but I don't consider folks who do that to be heinous criminals either, nor do I consider it "theft" either technically or ethically, although I will grant that the current law structure makes no such distinctions and treats the two words as if they were the same.
I think that law is an ass, a complete absurdity. It is feudalistic in nature now because of our technological advances. It is medieval-level dismal. That is my opinion only of course, and you are welcome to your "me-me-me mine it's all mine" concept, that is your decision to make. I'll make an effort to not touch "your stuff", no problems. If you don't want folks to play with your ball on the playground, that is perfectly all right, I'll find some kids who want to share their stuff to play with. heh.
... it was quite pleasant to day after day, year after year get on the computer and not care much about getting owned, or the latest windows bug du juor. Some folks never drank that MS kool aid to begin with, because they could see it was just lame. MS power users became that way from necessity a lot more than from desire, because their stuff was broken and prone to getting viruses and trojans all the time, let alone constant crashing. For every 100 times my friends had to deal with registry corruption, etc, I had 100 times of booting, getting to computing, and nothing much happening besides what I wanted to happen. It wasn't perfect, that's a gimmee, but you got to admit reality, it was way easier to use for joe average and a lot more secure. Why that would want to make someone cut of their hands is beyond me, unless you actually LIKED having broken and overly complex for no appaarent reason stuff just to give you some busywork to do with your spare time. Some folks like that for a hobby, obviously, others don't.
It's only relatively recently in the past few years, that a home consumer could get an offering from any OS vendor that was at least half assed stable and half assed secure and functional from raw noobs to advanced professional level users. Before that time, Macs had at least the security part correct, along with the GUI, and were 1/2 way to functionality across the board. that's a 2.5 rating out of 3. MS barely gets a 1.5 until recently, same with linux.. Now I would say that the top 3 OSes are tied at 2.5 still, but Mac got there a lot sooner. And if GUI isn't important, then why has it become an industry standard, across all vendors of the major OSes? Could it be because it's a good idea, that people appreciate the ease of use of GUI? I think so, so do all the folks who have developed and distributed such OSes. I'd say that's some fairly good proof.
There's a REASON that there is something beyond a CLI offered by EVERYONE now. And Apple knew this quite a long time ago and specialised in it, it wasn't an afterthought or a "me too" offering.
With that said, I switched fulltime to Linux once it hit a 2.5 rating on my personal home joe user scale, because it's freer, runs on cheaper hardware I can afford, and at least achieved parity with what I had before. I wouldn't have if it hadn't been developed to that point.
..a technological method to easily make a copy of my loaf of bread, so that you could have one and I would still have mine, sure, go ahead and make a copy of my bread--I would still have mine then, it wouldn't have been stolen.
The "industry" has enthusiastically embraced copying technology-for themselves. They get to "sell" over and over again the same thing. No additional work required. They want to have an exclusive lock on not only content, but on your use of advancing technology. They lobbied and got passed laws that give them an even longer copyright period then what we had before, for no reason other than to continue selling the same content.
In the rest of the world, more money has to come from more work, with the copyright monopolists they want to work once, profit forever and ever and a day and a night and another day. Actually, it's worse than that, the non producers in the copyright monopoly world are the ones making most of the profit, they even screw their own actual content producers most of the time.
They are wickedly over paid middleman skimmers basically, who want to keep a lock on technological and societal progress. We arer at the point now where it is no longer necessary to even have these middleman industries for the most part, they see that, technology has made that rerality, so in order to hang onto their cash cow which has been highly lucrative for them in the past, they seek to further advance the laws only in their favor, no one else, either the actual content providers, nor the various end users, is really well survived by their actions any longer. Back when it took a huge amount of money and machines and expertise to make primitive copies-yes, they served a useful purpose and needed to be *fairly* compensated, but what happened is that while the cost of copying was dropping and the ease of copying was increasing, they kept insisting on the same or even more money for their service. They colluded to create and maintain what is called an industrial cartel, in the process several times running afoul of the law themselves. They did what cartels do, lobby to change the laws in their favor, and they kept on doing their illegal manipulations right along, just assuming (rightly so) that they could bear the cost of getting busted for illegalities as just a part of doing business, being corporations and organizxations, they have always had little to fear of actual human jail time.
In essence, they are just getting a little righteous payback. They know there is little left that reflects the necessity of most of their business existence. they seek to maintain their presence *despite* this. It is contentious now because we reached the obviousness of this, millions daily simply ignore the old paradigm of allowing them to maintain their monopoly on technology. IF they had evolved right along with technology and had continually dropped their prices to a fairer level and had made the obvious advantages of more modern technology equally available to their consumers, I doubt that people would have shoved back in their face as much.
This transition period is liable to continue for a while now, but inevitably they will have to concede that times have changed with their older business model. Those of them that do accept that *now* and evolve will prosper.
"A lot of otherwise intelligent Brasilians seriously think the US wants to take over the Amazon Basin for its natural resources."
US ag business wants to though, at least a nice chunk of it. They know they can no longer stay profitable inside the united states. Period, end of story. Only a few niche markets left. No one can hardly just decide to be a farmer now, you would have had to inherit paid off land and infrastructure on a large scale to even think about it. Regulations have made farming all but unprofitable. Most smaller family sized farms have either gone under, or are existing on a 7 days a week 12 hours a day lower middle class income structure. And they still get bitched at by the US consumer and on the news. It rankles them. Some of the larger farms are doing OK, I mean the ones that aren't even farms, they are mini countries and large corporate entities, and after that you have the conglomerates who are slowly strangling what independent farmers that are left. Many large farmers, who can read the writing on the wall and don't want to be assimilated into bigago, and co ops and partnerships have been formed with the express purpose of moving operations to brazil, which they concluded gave them the best land, climate and political system (weakest link but stable-enough) to deal with down there.
I know this isn't exactly the US "taking over", but it's an indication of a significant part of US history and business finally deciding they have had enough, and are going to vote with their feet and wallet.
Talking to farmers, this is what I hear, paraphrased "they want snail darters and spotted owls, I hope they taste good with butter, because that's all they are going to get cheap anymore after this"
I am not saying I entirely agree with that, because I am sympathetic to both sides POV based on practicalities, but I think we have gone way overboard on one side, and wasting the independent family farm in the US was a bad tactical and strategic move,despite being fairly insulting, so I don't blame them to be looking for an alternative, Brazil in this case.
"I am not trying to imply that Diebold was purposely obfuscating their code for any reason..."
I WILL
I will state the diebolds actions to date, and what we have found out, are way more than enough evidence for a serious grand jury investigation that they have tried to obfuscate the code and that it is for some particular reasons, ie, the profits to be gained by controlling the US elections. Let's talk untold trillions of dollars and the most powerful nation on the planet, and what control of the political process is really worth as an incentive for criminality. No other possible criminal "prize" comes close to these potential profits of power and money. these folks should have long ago been investigated VERY seriously, not pseduo play acting investigastions, but serious and highly detailed investigations into attempted electioneering fraud, and RICO violations at a minimum, and if implemented honestly, would probably result in the indictments of a lot of diebold officials and some high level politicians and businessmen.
They are, IMO, attempting to hijack the national vote for massivepolitical and economic gain. They are far worse than Microsoft or SCO in this regard.
And it looks like they will be successful at it, because, frankly, the US people have hit a cognitive dissonance point of disbelief and little action with the sheer overlapping and overwhelming levels of corruption and malfeasance coming from the collusion of government and very large business in this nation. The people have reached a saturation point, gone beyond a pain threshold, been terrorized into sub servience and obedience. Not everyone but such a high percentage of the general population and an even higher percentage inside the governmental and justic system apparatus have been swamped into disbelief and inaction that nothing of any worthwhile results will come of this other than we will have a full bore dictatorship shortly.
It is 2/3rds the way there now, once they finalise their ability to completely manipulate the news, the casting of ballots, the count, the results of the count, and can also control any opposition from any scale by disappearing them or arresting them on bogus charges, then they will have completely won, and it sure looks like they are about exactly at that point in time now.
That is my opinion, based not only on just diebolds actions and realities, but on the state of the nation as a whole, the gestalt now. We have been kicked from so many angles simultaneously and continuously that there's no adequate defense other than curling up into a ball, metamorphically speaking. Yelling STOP THAT isn't working and hasn't worked. "Sueing" the perpetrators WON'T work as they control the justice system almost entirely. Relying on the "enforcers" to notice reality and act accordingly is beyond ludicrous, they just follow orders. Hoping that millions of drones in the bureaucracy will one day act in the interests of the nation rather than their checks is a lost cause, forget about it.
And I'm not being cyncical, I am trying to be as realistic and down to earth as possible.
There is no fix available following traditional business as usual methods. None. It has gone too far for that.
a good way to deal with the waste first is to run it through a methane anaerobic digester first. Then they could extract the methane and run that through a fuel cell, get some more useable energy that way, and the resultant sludge has been reduced to the point that plants could use it. Raw waste the plants cannot use, it is harmful to them, and you want the (partial at least) sterilization that occurs with the anaerobic digestion before you use the sludge. I'm not sure whicvh compact and fast growing plant is the best for O2 production though, have to be something with a fast metabolism and a lot of leaf surface area. Perhaps one of the mosses would fit the bill for that. Recycling human waste back onto the direct foodstuffs is a good way to increase toxin buildup, especially like heavy metals, for instance. Better to use it for something else, although I am aware in some cultures they use it directly on food crops, I think it's more from necessity of having to deal with the waste in some manner than from it's practicality.
As to hemp or cannabis, I think it should be legal, and there's no reason to make the other two illegal. I'm for freedom, that means f as in freedom freedom. Joe Government has no basis, constituionally or otherwise, to restrict humans use of naturally occurring plants as long as you are not actively harming another. I consider the war on some drugs to be the height of illegality, hypocrisy and of governmental and societal waste. It is way more harmful than it is helpful, IMO.
mindless order followers in the "destructive arts and in-humanities"
all them "other guys" who ain't *you* based on ethnicity or religion or whatnot
Seems like there was a pretty big eugenics experiment, "bumping off the unproductives", carried out in the last century, but then goodwins law kicks in to mention it. whoops, just did it. Oh well, it seemed to have had a few problems associated with it, or perhaps you missed that part.
Careful what you list as unproductive, chances are you will fall on someone else's list then
Exploration by it's very nature is supposed to be risky, and it is attempted by visionaires who will assume at least a modicum of risk.
We've had PHB and marketing mentality running the space program, and it IS a welfare system of sorts, very similar to other governmental bureaucracies.
We don't need accountants and lawyers and politicians and bireaucrats in space,or to get to space, we need freebooters, jacks of all trades, real adventurers, people with honest drive and energy and vision and smarts and skills.
ya, ya, ya, those other types are necessary in the beginning, just we have to make sure we can shoo them out of the way when the time comes, and the TIME HAS COME.
...some of the simpler plants like algae (blue green) and chlorella and some of the yeasts are a good choice. Rapid growth cycles, easy to grow, extremely nutritious and because they come in tiny single cell size they are highly digestible. Probably the best bet for a closed cycle system, to get the most calories for the effort.
Too add to the list down below, I'll throw in a few I know are very nutritious and fast growers,and also able to take some extreme environmental conditions, efficient in other words
lambs quarters
purslane
kale
bunching onions
along the same lines, chives
sweet clover
There's some other fast growers and tougher plant candidates but they are nastier tasting, like some of the lichens. If they had enough light and a salt water/mineral mix tank, dulse might be a good choice as well.
Left out things that would be too hard to grow in an enclosed small place, there's quite a few really. In normal cultured gardening, there are just hundreds of candidates probably, it really *is* a variable that would be determined on space available and how much water is available, light available, and that is about it. Modern vegetables are pretty good at being *food*, most of them have been very successfully bred over the generations to be fast growers, etc, they just need a *lot* of water and root and foliar space, and a lot of them are not edible until they achieve a large size, or are not practical because of length of time for seed to seed. I would assume that is what is the big drawback to what the selections might be. For example, corn is tasty, but only medium nutritious, takes a huge amount of resources and space, and even the fastest corn is still weighing in at about two months growing time. Off the list. The radishes though, heck ya, about perfect. I think their primary criteria would have to be a fast generational cycle and having most of the plant be edible. And they could always do just sprouts, dried grains and seeds are fairly compact and already being mostly dehydrated they are efficient to launch weight wise, and after sprouting they have activated enzymes which make them a lot more nutritous than the mature plant. It's a small window with sprouts, usually about until they get their first real leaves, as opposed to the bud leaves.
Personally, I think they should make an executive decision that YES INDEEDY (that's my official vote anyway) we as humans are going to colonise mars, and that will entail dragging our crops with us, so they should just go ahead and start terraforming now by introducing the simpler plants in the hopes they might adapt. I know that is controversial, but that's the only thing rational if you are serious about colonization at any time in the future. No sense wasting time then if you choose "yes". Robot probes could be the advanced gardeners, even if all they did was set up greenhouses and get a few of the simpler crops up and growing before the humans showed up.
When previous historical explorers traveled, they took the means to self perpetuate their food supply, they took seeds and livestock with them. They didn't know what would be "out there" so they couldn't take a chance on a very long and hazardous journey and then get stuck with no food eventually. they did the only thing logical at the time, they traveled with a "farm in a box". If they had had the ability to send that "farm in a box" stuff FIRST, ahead of their voyages,they would have done so. We can do that now with the next stage of human exploration, so, IMO, we probably should.
Yes, aware of the risks of "contamination". I don't consider it contamination, I consider it rational cultivation. I don't want Mars and exploration to be limited to a few academic hands off pursuits,look but no touch action in other words, I want it eventually open for joe human to go there and live if he chooses to. Open source colonization, not closed source propietary.
That will obviously mean then that we will be haulin
coleman gas lanterns or stoves or heaters that run on liquid coleman fuel or unleaded gasoline "white gas" are not recommended for indoor use. You'll kill yourself with CO buildup as they are sucking O2 out of the air. They will even tell you that on the box. The propane fired ones are a lot cleaner and safer to burn indoors, and even then you should have some windows cracked. You can get adapters for around 10$ that will let you attach them to a 20 lb refillable tank instead of the expensive 1lb throw aways they come with.
OK, you are happy with the grid most of the time and only need 8 hours reserve? This is what you need:
Properly sized battery bank.
charger/controller
inverter
some places have the last two as one unit, especially if your only input is AC grid juice.
--that's it. Your inverter is where you get your juice to run what you want. This deal is just a much larger UPS you get in separate chunks and put together yourself. The wiring is not difficult. You will probably have to custom construct the battery bank containment box based on what you decide to get for batteries and how many of them. This box needs to be sealed and VENTED to the outside with a 24/7 fan. A computer box fan is sufficient and you want it to PUSH through, not pull through.
Batteries are a big variable, in size, voltage, storage capacity and cost. dollars for doughnuts,amp hours to amp hours, usually generic electric forklift traction batteries are the cheapest, available at your nearest forklift dealer. heavy, large, need a little home brew egyptian engineering skills to move them around and get them in place though.. Next up, what you will see pushed at the solar dealers, etc, anything that has "solar" stamped on it. Usually very large 6 volters. At even higher ends they sell individual cell 2 volters. big tall heavy suckers, but hold a lot. These are a premium, although there are several good names out there that have that. Usually Crown battery or Rolls/Surrette or Trojan are considered pretty decent brands for home use. . another is just generic locally aquirred Golf cart storage batteries (lot of brands out there)at 3 cells, 6 volts apiece, pretty common, small enough to arrange and move individually by yourself, and easy to configure into whatever voltage you want using series/parallel connections starting at your most basic 2 batteries giving you a standard 12VDC storage solution with a series connection. That is the smallest you want to go.
24VDC for the bank input and output is a nice common alternate energy industry standard nowadays, and most places that carry such gear will have the charger/controllers and inverters available to handle that voltage. 12VDC is used in small applications. Some people go up to 48VDC. The advantage of the higher voltages comes from a variety of things, but saving on wiring is one of them, use only pure copper everywhere, no aluminum, never, evil mojo.
This is not enough info to get you to do it, but enough to investigate further based on your exact details and your budget. Basically you just want a larger UPS that can run your critical stuff overnight. It will be large enough to always be able to run some of your stuff constantly, as it will only be grid electric supplied, once your grid juice is poofed, you'll be on batteries-without the annoying screech screech. A nice inline voltmeter is a good idea, and some rigs keep temp sensors attached to the batts to help adjust the charging cycle, which is in several stages. Some have serial port connectors for even more geek fun (they might have usb now too, haven't looked lately) All that stuff will come with the paperwork with your charger/controller and inverter.
I would also suggest a desulphator/conditioner for the battery banks themselves to keep them cleaner, but that is optional, but I will say they work quite well and you can milk the flooded lead acid or gel cels out many more years for very cheap bucks compared to replacing them early. Flooded lead acid are not that hard to deal with, every so often needs topping off in the cells with distilled water. Not hard, use usual brains when dealing with batteries and turn the dang doo dads off while you are doing it. I personally don't like gels except for a few limited applications, and they are also a lot more expensive for what you get.
What is also nice about this system is that you COULD later on if you get more enthused incorporate solar PV or a fuel genny or perhaps a windcharger into the mix pretty easily. "Planned Upgradeability" is a good thing.
That seems incredibly cheap to run, given the US budget and some of the other dubious things that the "m" word gets used on, let alone the "b" word. Shame ya'all can't squeeze out a few more shekels. Offer rides to tourists as an adjunct, like the private spaceships will charging, just not as much? I'm sure you guys thought of that already though...
for real, I think they would sell a bunch, as long as it had "decent enough" power. I know you wouldn't be 3-d gaming on it or anything, but for regular home joe surfer and the occassional mobile foray, it would be dandy. And if it came in at say 2/3rds of an entry level laptop,with all the function, that might hit the sweet spot for a lot of people. Granted, a niche product, but it might sell. Heck, they are getting 400$ for just a music player with the ipod! for that kinda loot, I want some computer action to it! People want all the function of a desktop, but truly be portable. You get a laptop and it's still really neither. Most of the time the combo device would be functioning as your desktop anyway, either at home or if you take it to work, so you wouldn't notice it, the same monitor and keyboard you got now. And if you need to load something, either the network or an exterior USB optical drive, and for your printer, etc, etc.
Now I want to build one.... hmmmm junk parts box....
.... I meant for security. 14.4 is fast enough for security purposes for most patches. I was replying to the conundrum of having an insecure machine that needs an update, but it needs to go onto the internet to *get* the update. It's a catch 22 then. Snail mail and getting it mailed to you is too slow, going online in insecure mode is too lame, so I was thinking what is an alternative, and I thought of fax. You would need some way to read the fax and get it parsed into your binary or whatever so it could be transferred. Granted, a fax could be middlemaned or hijacked, but it's *much* less likely to be compromised than a PPP connection.
Just another potential method. I am aware that you can use a another (maybe secure) machine,then sneakernet, but what happens if ALL your machines need the same patch then? Then it becomes a problem. I am just wondering if it is even possible to do this, fax to a -> workable transferrable patch, and throwing it out for braniac review. I know they have worked on reading JPEGs some, I guess that would come the closest.
I like the size, it is what I was thinking would be nice, a PDA that was also a desktop. Easy to plug in an AC adapter, keyboard and regular monitor, etc. a convertible. Laptops do it, but are expensive and big to carry, if you want portable, you want really portable, but then at home, you want it easy to convert to a real desktop. So instead of three gizmos, you only need *one* gizmo.
This is much closer to that, nice small form factor, all it needs is it's own screen and batts.
Slashdot Mirror
--I really didn't miss the point. The posit was how would I feel if someone took my bread? I replied if they could copy it it would be OK,permission granted, if they stole the *only* copy, the one loaf, that it would be theft. The other posit, well, how about the process? Where I the only one with a recipe or technique to make bread, I would share it, as I think people getting bread is a good idea. I don't want to really profit from it, if it is ridiculously cheap and easy or free to do, to make copies of it. The thought, the theoretical idea of it itself would have come freely to me, so by allowing the public share it has cost me nothing tangible.
I work for a living ( I live and work on a big complex, which is farms and businesses and private residences, I do a lot of the outside maintenance and upkeep here), and believe me, if there was a way to copy endlessly what I do, for cheap or free, I'd be the first in line to get me some of that action, and the first to turn around and give it away, even though it would mean I would then have to go and find new employment, which I would, had a buncha jobs before, you can always find something to do.. My temporary unemployment would be a small price to pay for allowing humanity in general to have what now costs a lot of time and labor and tools and expense to pull off. This small scale terraforming action is what they call "hard work", and in order for me to get paid, I do it once, get check, and if I want another check, I have to do it *again* or a reasonable facsimile thereof. I can't just do it one time and rationally expect to keep getting paid for it over and over and over again. If it was possible to just mash "enter" on some automagical terraforming replicator machine and make a copy of that, cool freeking beans! Here, have you some! Have two, they're cheap!
So, yes, I understand it, yes I see the various differences, and yes I have outlined what my responses are to the various differences. As society and technology advances, I expect a lot of things to get easier and cheaper, and those things that get technologically to the point that they became so cheap as to be theoretically close to free with their replications, I would expect them to be offered at that price or close to it. When they are not, and when I notice that those people have to actually have to pass additional weird "laws" in order to lock in yesterdays profit margins that are no longer based on todays realities of production/replification prices, well, I question the validity and ethics of that situation. I think people who produce IP have the choice, I would hope they get reasonable with it as they take modern advances into consideration and what is not only good for them but what is best for society as a whole.
You see, the more people share, the more *you* get. It is not a one way street, it's a million way street. You don't exist in a vacuum, you actually get more stuff the more everyone shares, you don't get less stuff. I know it's a scary concept,initially it doesn't make sense, it goes against a lot of previous societal mores and business models, but it really does work. Your choice, participate or not.
I look at IP sharing (if we can go back to what this discussion is about now, that which is easily copied now from advances in tech)as an example of computer age "community barn raisings" if I may use an analogy. Back in the olden days it was just too hard, too complex, too costly for every single individual small joe farmer to build his own barn, instead, people shared expertise and materials with the result that everyone got a barn, and it was easy to do and more cost effective and induced a decent feeling of community and neighborliness. It was good for the individual, good for local business, good for the community in general. Everyone involved actually got a good deal out of it. Yes, it was anyones choice back then to take part, or not. Those who decided to share all got a nice spiffy new barn though, without a lot of expense or effort. It
When google came out I seem to remember quite a few metamorphical online eyebrows raised with their screwy name. All it takes is a little time to go from weird and screwy to accepted, and even part of the language, i.e., "googling".
Personally, I like mozilla over "firefox" for a name, to me, firefox sounds like some new car with a wing on the back of it and neon fender lights.
but ya, in retrospect a bit more I know what you mean, but here's a question-a challenge really-quick, name a browser! Something non weird, easy to remember, catchy, and indicates it is in fact a browser (or search engine, your choice).
the letters G, I, K and X are already spoken for and have been beaten into wimpering submission already....
In that regard, both navigator and explorer were quite good.
--I agree with you. In the long run, looking way upstream, I don't even want to run "an OS". I just want to pick what apps I want, they come *complete*, as in, everything you need. Open an app, it spawns it's own kernel and FS, and etc., and goes and does it's thing, either locally or out on the network. Nothing will need to be cross platform because there won't be any platform except for what the app carries with itself.
... we can do now is to produce..and share. Ignore the others. Let them put each other into poverty with lawsuits and whatnot.
sounds OK to me.
...and no one else, purely anecdotally, I only had one app that would consistently bogue out on me, and that was netscape. Once I got hip to iCab browser, that was it, stability, no more sad macs or cherry bombs. Even if you did get a crash, your FS stayed intact wonderfully, at least fgor me it did. Yes, I ran techtool and norton disk doctor (or disk first aid, but I liked norton better, and yes, I paid for it) periodically, as a planned maintenance, it didn't take long, they did the job. As to memory management, you used "get info" on the app and upped alloted RAM to what you wanted it to be, along with virtual memory if that is what you wanted. Run a new app, check it out, if it needed more you gave it more until you liked it. Didn't take long, worked well then. It wasn't automatic, but it was easy to do. Never had any issues downloading or installing apps, still to this day about the easiest out there, never had a major show stopper conflict I can recall, and choosing a set of extensions is pretty easy. Never got "owned", it didn't exist AFAIK and am aware of, no remote owning if you had appleshare turned off, I never even saw a firewall in those days (except on friends windows machines) let alone seemed to need one. I don't game, so that wasn't an issue, and I never used MS office, so that wasn't an issue. Eveything else I wanted to do I did. Wrote docs, built web pages, listened to tunes, surfed, chatted IRC and IMed with ICQ. Regular old just did it stuff.
It was pretty good for the times, and I still use classic occasionally. As to OSX, no idea, I don't currently own any apple hardware it will run on, so never tried it. Near as I can see from reading though, it is roughly equivalent to a modern Linux OS, so I am happy enough using what I have, older x86 hardware with enough RAM installed to make it useable. I am between a guru power user and a raw noob, so it seems to be OK now. Never been afraid to learn new stuff, but I have always had a practical nature, and I don't see the need to make things overly complex when I don't personally need them to be, just because it's possible, I don't adhere to "rube goldbergism" just because you can. Different strokes and all. If I absolutely postiviely with zero doubt need to do some advanced fine tweaking, I will google for advanced instructions from folks who know how to do it, so that's about it. I do a LOT more stuff in meatspace then sit in front of a screen, this is neither my business nor my only hobby or interest.
no, it's not legal now, that's why I said that I think in my opinion that the law is an ass, and I would like to see it changed, at least back to the point it was before the bono act and before drm schemes and whatnot. And don't worry, I won't copy all your stuff, I only deal with that that is freely shared, and/or I make use of what pitiful remnants remain of "fair use".
Fair notice, if your stuff is ridiculously expensive compared to what I can get as an alternative for free or much cheaper with less restrictions, that's where my custom is headed. Myself and millions and millions of other people, eventually billions, because we "get it" on voluntary sharing. And eventually our POV will "win", too, just watch it happen, it's inevitable now. You canot stifle progress, at best you can merely delay it. Have fun delaying it, eventually you'll be spending more time and energy and resources on that than on actually producing anything worthwhile, to either share freely OR sell, at any price, reasonable fair price to outtasite gouge level price. A *Good* Example = SCO now, an alleged technological implementation and development company who's main business now is trying to scam more money out of obscure references from years ago. they aren't innovators now, all they are is crybabies, want to get paid forever and a day for something they might have done years ago. It's pitiful really.
...but I'll throw it out anyway. There is another SA based product out there that is quite unique and practical, the Baygen windup a spring to get electricity radio. I own two of them and they are quite spiffy. I wonder if Mark is familiar with this product, and if so, has considered or *would* consider to be more accurate, a similar product to have a low priced and easily powered computer "for the masses" which would ship with Ubuntu pre installed?
A computer without software is an expensive paperweight, and software without a computer is an exercise in vapor herding, it's the package deal that is important and what makes a complete product.
It'll get there. Look at zimbawe today, that is what SA will look like in the future. Not sure when, but it will get there.
we were assuming for the discussion it was my loaf of bread that was created by me in the first place, then wondering how I would feel if it was "stolen", either the process or the actual loaf. Me personally, if you can copy the bread and leave my bread intact, go for it,please do, I encourage you to feed yourself and your family easier, I'll do something else with my time, I have no interest in ripping you off for a cheap or free copy. Never have, never will, just my nature. I can always think up something new to do. For people who can't, well, too bad, not my lookout if they have zero imagination or any drive to do something new with their time, either as a hobby or as a job. I don't believe in getting paid over and over again and over and over for the same work. I think it's counter productive for society in the long run and stifles innovation. I don't want a return to the dark ages where only ultra rich folks had anything remotely new or modern that would make their lives richer, easier, more fulfilling or "better" in many ways. I want *everyone* to have that as much as possible.
;)
And yes, I have done this, I have "released to the wild" a widely used implementation and customization idea that I made zero on beyond initital cost of development basically, once with a tool (a specialty wrench design) and once with a very common mode of transport used daily by millions,(I built one of the first prototypes of what evolved into the "mountain bike" concept back in the 70s, and I know that one large company copied the design and started selling them, and I am happy so many people found the idea useful and have run with it,and,although I don't claim exclusivity to it,the concept, I do know from research there were only a handful of fellow bike developers doing this at the time I did my own version of it, there certainly weren't any you could buy on the market), and also I released freely quite a lot of "IP" in the form of writings in the past. It doesn't bother me that those things have been copied by others and improved upon/used whatever. None whatsoever. In fact, the tool I developed I have a few example of where others have adapted and made their own versions, they were freely given to me by THOSE developers.
I share, if you don't want to, that's your business, but if you can copy what I do easily and cheaply, please go for it if that is your interest.
There's a significant difference between copying and stealing. Theft-stealing- means you've taken something from someone and they no longer have it. Copying is not theft, you still have yours, it's fully intact. The word "copy" is what is in dispute and is contentious now. It used to be that it was illegal to teach serfs/slaves to read, or for anyone other than the monks or royals could have "copies" of writings. Times changed. I want times to keep changing, and I see current US style "copyright" as being little different from the exclusivity laws that existed in the middle ages. If they had kept up with the original US design, and exactly followed technological advances, I wouldn't have a problem with it as much, but they haven't, they want to extend it and go bass-ackwards back to the middle ages concept, and I think that's a bad idea.
I personally don't download MP3s or movies or whatever, but I don't consider folks who do that to be heinous criminals either, nor do I consider it "theft" either technically or ethically, although I will grant that the current law structure makes no such distinctions and treats the two words as if they were the same.
I think that law is an ass, a complete absurdity. It is feudalistic in nature now because of our technological advances. It is medieval-level dismal. That is my opinion only of course, and you are welcome to your "me-me-me mine it's all mine" concept, that is your decision to make. I'll make an effort to not touch "your stuff", no problems. If you don't want folks to play with your ball on the playground, that is perfectly all right, I'll find some kids who want to share their stuff to play with. heh.
Never liked cooties anyway..neener
... it was quite pleasant to day after day, year after year get on the computer and not care much about getting owned, or the latest windows bug du juor. Some folks never drank that MS kool aid to begin with, because they could see it was just lame. MS power users became that way from necessity a lot more than from desire, because their stuff was broken and prone to getting viruses and trojans all the time, let alone constant crashing. For every 100 times my friends had to deal with registry corruption, etc, I had 100 times of booting, getting to computing, and nothing much happening besides what I wanted to happen. It wasn't perfect, that's a gimmee, but you got to admit reality, it was way easier to use for joe average and a lot more secure. Why that would want to make someone cut of their hands is beyond me, unless you actually LIKED having broken and overly complex for no appaarent reason stuff just to give you some busywork to do with your spare time. Some folks like that for a hobby, obviously, others don't.
It's only relatively recently in the past few years, that a home consumer could get an offering from any OS vendor that was at least half assed stable and half assed secure and functional from raw noobs to advanced professional level users. Before that time, Macs had at least the security part correct, along with the GUI, and were 1/2 way to functionality across the board. that's a 2.5 rating out of 3. MS barely gets a 1.5 until recently, same with linux.. Now I would say that the top 3 OSes are tied at 2.5 still, but Mac got there a lot sooner. And if GUI isn't important, then why has it become an industry standard, across all vendors of the major OSes? Could it be because it's a good idea, that people appreciate the ease of use of GUI? I think so, so do all the folks who have developed and distributed such OSes. I'd say that's some fairly good proof.
There's a REASON that there is something beyond a CLI offered by EVERYONE now. And Apple knew this quite a long time ago and specialised in it, it wasn't an afterthought or a "me too" offering.
With that said, I switched fulltime to Linux once it hit a 2.5 rating on my personal home joe user scale, because it's freer, runs on cheaper hardware I can afford, and at least achieved parity with what I had before. I wouldn't have if it hadn't been developed to that point.
..a technological method to easily make a copy of my loaf of bread, so that you could have one and I would still have mine, sure, go ahead and make a copy of my bread--I would still have mine then, it wouldn't have been stolen.
The "industry" has enthusiastically embraced copying technology-for themselves. They get to "sell" over and over again the same thing. No additional work required. They want to have an exclusive lock on not only content, but on your use of advancing technology. They lobbied and got passed laws that give them an even longer copyright period then what we had before, for no reason other than to continue selling the same content.
In the rest of the world, more money has to come from more work, with the copyright monopolists they want to work once, profit forever and ever and a day and a night and another day. Actually, it's worse than that, the non producers in the copyright monopoly world are the ones making most of the profit, they even screw their own actual content producers most of the time.
They are wickedly over paid middleman skimmers basically, who want to keep a lock on technological and societal progress. We arer at the point now where it is no longer necessary to even have these middleman industries for the most part, they see that, technology has made that rerality, so in order to hang onto their cash cow which has been highly lucrative for them in the past, they seek to further advance the laws only in their favor, no one else, either the actual content providers, nor the various end users, is really well survived by their actions any longer. Back when it took a huge amount of money and machines and expertise to make primitive copies-yes, they served a useful purpose and needed to be *fairly* compensated, but what happened is that while the cost of copying was dropping and the ease of copying was increasing, they kept insisting on the same or even more money for their service. They colluded to create and maintain what is called an industrial cartel, in the process several times running afoul of the law themselves. They did what cartels do, lobby to change the laws in their favor, and they kept on doing their illegal manipulations right along, just assuming (rightly so) that they could bear the cost of getting busted for illegalities as just a part of doing business, being corporations and organizxations, they have always had little to fear of actual human jail time.
In essence, they are just getting a little righteous payback. They know there is little left that reflects the necessity of most of their business existence. they seek to maintain their presence *despite* this. It is contentious now because we reached the obviousness of this, millions daily simply ignore the old paradigm of allowing them to maintain their monopoly on technology. IF they had evolved right along with technology and had continually dropped their prices to a fairer level and had made the obvious advantages of more modern technology equally available to their consumers, I doubt that people would have shoved back in their face as much.
This transition period is liable to continue for a while now, but inevitably they will have to concede that times have changed with their older business model. Those of them that do accept that *now* and evolve will prosper.
that's one of my favorite far sides
...firefox in total,all platforms, or firefox as it exists running on top of MS OS? How does it compare to IE security-wise JUST on MS?
I really don't know, anyone? I think it's important to not leave out the little details with this.
"A lot of otherwise intelligent Brasilians seriously think the US wants to take over the Amazon Basin for its natural resources."
US ag business wants to though, at least a nice chunk of it. They know they can no longer stay profitable inside the united states. Period, end of story. Only a few niche markets left. No one can hardly just decide to be a farmer now, you would have had to inherit paid off land and infrastructure on a large scale to even think about it. Regulations have made farming all but unprofitable. Most smaller family sized farms have either gone under, or are existing on a 7 days a week 12 hours a day lower middle class income structure. And they still get bitched at by the US consumer and on the news. It rankles them. Some of the larger farms are doing OK, I mean the ones that aren't even farms, they are mini countries and large corporate entities, and after that you have the conglomerates who are slowly strangling what independent farmers that are left. Many large farmers, who can read the writing on the wall and don't want to be assimilated into bigago, and co ops and partnerships have been formed with the express purpose of moving operations to brazil, which they concluded gave them the best land, climate and political system (weakest link but stable-enough) to deal with down there.
I know this isn't exactly the US "taking over", but it's an indication of a significant part of US history and business finally deciding they have had enough, and are going to vote with their feet and wallet.
Talking to farmers, this is what I hear, paraphrased "they want snail darters and spotted owls, I hope they taste good with butter, because that's all they are going to get cheap anymore after this"
I am not saying I entirely agree with that, because I am sympathetic to both sides POV based on practicalities, but I think we have gone way overboard on one side, and wasting the independent family farm in the US was a bad tactical and strategic move,despite being fairly insulting, so I don't blame them to be looking for an alternative, Brazil in this case.
....your quote:
"I am not trying to imply that Diebold was purposely obfuscating their code for any reason..."
I WILL
I will state the diebolds actions to date, and what we have found out, are way more than enough evidence for a serious grand jury investigation that they have tried to obfuscate the code and that it is for some particular reasons, ie, the profits to be gained by controlling the US elections. Let's talk untold trillions of dollars and the most powerful nation on the planet, and what control of the political process is really worth as an incentive for criminality. No other possible criminal "prize" comes close to these potential profits of power and money. these folks should have long ago been investigated VERY seriously, not pseduo play acting investigastions, but serious and highly detailed investigations into attempted electioneering fraud, and RICO violations at a minimum, and if implemented honestly, would probably result in the indictments of a lot of diebold officials and some high level politicians and businessmen.
They are, IMO, attempting to hijack the national vote for massivepolitical and economic gain. They are far worse than Microsoft or SCO in this regard.
And it looks like they will be successful at it, because, frankly, the US people have hit a cognitive dissonance point of disbelief and little action with the sheer overlapping and overwhelming levels of corruption and malfeasance coming from the collusion of government and very large business in this nation. The people have reached a saturation point, gone beyond a pain threshold, been terrorized into sub servience and obedience. Not everyone but such a high percentage of the general population and an even higher percentage inside the governmental and justic system apparatus have been swamped into disbelief and inaction that nothing of any worthwhile results will come of this other than we will have a full bore dictatorship shortly.
It is 2/3rds the way there now, once they finalise their ability to completely manipulate the news, the casting of ballots, the count, the results of the count, and can also control any opposition from any scale by disappearing them or arresting them on bogus charges, then they will have completely won, and it sure looks like they are about exactly at that point in time now.
That is my opinion, based not only on just diebolds actions and realities, but on the state of the nation as a whole, the gestalt now. We have been kicked from so many angles simultaneously and continuously that there's no adequate defense other than curling up into a ball, metamorphically speaking. Yelling STOP THAT isn't working and hasn't worked. "Sueing" the perpetrators WON'T work as they control the justice system almost entirely. Relying on the "enforcers" to notice reality and act accordingly is beyond ludicrous, they just follow orders. Hoping that millions of drones in the bureaucracy will one day act in the interests of the nation rather than their checks is a lost cause, forget about it.
And I'm not being cyncical, I am trying to be as realistic and down to earth as possible.
There is no fix available following traditional business as usual methods. None. It has gone too far for that.
a good way to deal with the waste first is to run it through a methane anaerobic digester first. Then they could extract the methane and run that through a fuel cell, get some more useable energy that way, and the resultant sludge has been reduced to the point that plants could use it. Raw waste the plants cannot use, it is harmful to them, and you want the (partial at least) sterilization that occurs with the anaerobic digestion before you use the sludge. I'm not sure whicvh compact and fast growing plant is the best for O2 production though, have to be something with a fast metabolism and a lot of leaf surface area. Perhaps one of the mosses would fit the bill for that. Recycling human waste back onto the direct foodstuffs is a good way to increase toxin buildup, especially like heavy metals, for instance. Better to use it for something else, although I am aware in some cultures they use it directly on food crops, I think it's more from necessity of having to deal with the waste in some manner than from it's practicality.
As to hemp or cannabis, I think it should be legal, and there's no reason to make the other two illegal. I'm for freedom, that means f as in freedom freedom. Joe Government has no basis, constituionally or otherwise, to restrict humans use of naturally occurring plants as long as you are not actively harming another. I consider the war on some drugs to be the height of illegality, hypocrisy and of governmental and societal waste. It is way more harmful than it is helpful, IMO.
Hey, why not, I have a few more for the list then
professional sports addicts
video game addicts
stock traders
politicians
TV couch spuds
mindless order followers in the "destructive arts and in-humanities"
all them "other guys" who ain't *you* based on ethnicity or religion or whatnot
Seems like there was a pretty big eugenics experiment, "bumping off the unproductives", carried out in the last century, but then goodwins law kicks in to mention it. whoops, just did it. Oh well, it seemed to have had a few problems associated with it, or perhaps you missed that part.
Careful what you list as unproductive, chances are you will fall on someone else's list then
..preach it brother, preach it! A-men!
Exploration by it's very nature is supposed to be risky, and it is attempted by visionaires who will assume at least a modicum of risk.
We've had PHB and marketing mentality running the space program, and it IS a welfare system of sorts, very similar to other governmental bureaucracies.
We don't need accountants and lawyers and politicians and bireaucrats in space,or to get to space, we need freebooters, jacks of all trades, real adventurers, people with honest drive and energy and vision and smarts and skills.
ya, ya, ya, those other types are necessary in the beginning, just we have to make sure we can shoo them out of the way when the time comes, and the TIME HAS COME.
...some of the simpler plants like algae (blue green) and chlorella and some of the yeasts are a good choice. Rapid growth cycles, easy to grow, extremely nutritious and because they come in tiny single cell size they are highly digestible. Probably the best bet for a closed cycle system, to get the most calories for the effort.
Too add to the list down below, I'll throw in a few I know are very nutritious and fast growers,and also able to take some extreme environmental conditions, efficient in other words
lambs quarters
purslane
kale
bunching onions
along the same lines, chives
sweet clover
There's some other fast growers and tougher plant candidates but they are nastier tasting, like some of the lichens. If they had enough light and a salt water/mineral mix tank, dulse might be a good choice as well.
Left out things that would be too hard to grow in an enclosed small place, there's quite a few really. In normal cultured gardening, there are just hundreds of candidates probably, it really *is* a variable that would be determined on space available and how much water is available, light available, and that is about it. Modern vegetables are pretty good at being *food*, most of them have been very successfully bred over the generations to be fast growers, etc, they just need a *lot* of water and root and foliar space, and a lot of them are not edible until they achieve a large size, or are not practical because of length of time for seed to seed. I would assume that is what is the big drawback to what the selections might be. For example, corn is tasty, but only medium nutritious, takes a huge amount of resources and space, and even the fastest corn is still weighing in at about two months growing time. Off the list. The radishes though, heck ya, about perfect. I think their primary criteria would have to be a fast generational cycle and having most of the plant be edible. And they could always do just sprouts, dried grains and seeds are fairly compact and already being mostly dehydrated they are efficient to launch weight wise, and after sprouting they have activated enzymes which make them a lot more nutritous than the mature plant. It's a small window with sprouts, usually about until they get their first real leaves, as opposed to the bud leaves.
Personally, I think they should make an executive decision that YES INDEEDY (that's my official vote anyway) we as humans are going to colonise mars, and that will entail dragging our crops with us, so they should just go ahead and start terraforming now by introducing the simpler plants in the hopes they might adapt. I know that is controversial, but that's the only thing rational if you are serious about colonization at any time in the future. No sense wasting time then if you choose "yes". Robot probes could be the advanced gardeners, even if all they did was set up greenhouses and get a few of the simpler crops up and growing before the humans showed up.
When previous historical explorers traveled, they took the means to self perpetuate their food supply, they took seeds and livestock with them. They didn't know what would be "out there" so they couldn't take a chance on a very long and hazardous journey and then get stuck with no food eventually. they did the only thing logical at the time, they traveled with a "farm in a box". If they had had the ability to send that "farm in a box" stuff FIRST, ahead of their voyages,they would have done so. We can do that now with the next stage of human exploration, so, IMO, we probably should.
Yes, aware of the risks of "contamination". I don't consider it contamination, I consider it rational cultivation. I don't want Mars and exploration to be limited to a few academic hands off pursuits,look but no touch action in other words, I want it eventually open for joe human to go there and live if he chooses to. Open source colonization, not closed source propietary.
That will obviously mean then that we will be haulin
coleman gas lanterns or stoves or heaters that run on liquid coleman fuel or unleaded gasoline "white gas" are not recommended for indoor use. You'll kill yourself with CO buildup as they are sucking O2 out of the air. They will even tell you that on the box. The propane fired ones are a lot cleaner and safer to burn indoors, and even then you should have some windows cracked. You can get adapters for around 10$ that will let you attach them to a 20 lb refillable tank instead of the expensive 1lb throw aways they come with.
OK, you are happy with the grid most of the time and only need 8 hours reserve? This is what you need:
Properly sized battery bank.
charger/controller
inverter
some places have the last two as one unit, especially if your only input is AC grid juice.
--that's it. Your inverter is where you get your juice to run what you want. This deal is just a much larger UPS you get in separate chunks and put together yourself. The wiring is not difficult. You will probably have to custom construct the battery bank containment box based on what you decide to get for batteries and how many of them. This box needs to be sealed and VENTED to the outside with a 24/7 fan. A computer box fan is sufficient and you want it to PUSH through, not pull through.
Batteries are a big variable, in size, voltage, storage capacity and cost. dollars for doughnuts,amp hours to amp hours, usually generic electric forklift traction batteries are the cheapest, available at your nearest forklift dealer. heavy, large, need a little home brew egyptian engineering skills to move them around and get them in place though.. Next up, what you will see pushed at the solar dealers, etc, anything that has "solar" stamped on it. Usually very large 6 volters. At even higher ends they sell individual cell 2 volters. big tall heavy suckers, but hold a lot. These are a premium, although there are several good names out there that have that. Usually Crown battery or Rolls/Surrette or Trojan are considered pretty decent brands for home use. . another is just generic locally aquirred Golf cart storage batteries (lot of brands out there)at 3 cells, 6 volts apiece, pretty common, small enough to arrange and move individually by yourself, and easy to configure into whatever voltage you want using series/parallel connections starting at your most basic 2 batteries giving you a standard 12VDC storage solution with a series connection. That is the smallest you want to go.
24VDC for the bank input and output is a nice common alternate energy industry standard nowadays, and most places that carry such gear will have the charger/controllers and inverters available to handle that voltage. 12VDC is used in small applications. Some people go up to 48VDC. The advantage of the higher voltages comes from a variety of things, but saving on wiring is one of them, use only pure copper everywhere, no aluminum, never, evil mojo.
This is not enough info to get you to do it, but enough to investigate further based on your exact details and your budget. Basically you just want a larger UPS that can run your critical stuff overnight. It will be large enough to always be able to run some of your stuff constantly, as it will only be grid electric supplied, once your grid juice is poofed, you'll be on batteries-without the annoying screech screech. A nice inline voltmeter is a good idea, and some rigs keep temp sensors attached to the batts to help adjust the charging cycle, which is in several stages. Some have serial port connectors for even more geek fun (they might have usb now too, haven't looked lately) All that stuff will come with the paperwork with your charger/controller and inverter.
I would also suggest a desulphator/conditioner for the battery banks themselves to keep them cleaner, but that is optional, but I will say they work quite well and you can milk the flooded lead acid or gel cels out many more years for very cheap bucks compared to replacing them early. Flooded lead acid are not that hard to deal with, every so often needs topping off in the cells with distilled water. Not hard, use usual brains when dealing with batteries and turn the dang doo dads off while you are doing it. I personally don't like gels except for a few limited applications, and they are also a lot more expensive for what you get.
What is also nice about this system is that you COULD later on if you get more enthused incorporate solar PV or a fuel genny or perhaps a windcharger into the mix pretty easily. "Planned Upgradeability" is a good thing.
That seems incredibly cheap to run, given the US budget and some of the other dubious things that the "m" word gets used on, let alone the "b" word. Shame ya'all can't squeeze out a few more shekels. Offer rides to tourists as an adjunct, like the private spaceships will charging, just not as much? I'm sure you guys thought of that already though...
for real, I think they would sell a bunch, as long as it had "decent enough" power. I know you wouldn't be 3-d gaming on it or anything, but for regular home joe surfer and the occassional mobile foray, it would be dandy. And if it came in at say 2/3rds of an entry level laptop,with all the function, that might hit the sweet spot for a lot of people. Granted, a niche product, but it might sell. Heck, they are getting 400$ for just a music player with the ipod! for that kinda loot, I want some computer action to it! People want all the function of a desktop, but truly be portable. You get a laptop and it's still really neither. Most of the time the combo device would be functioning as your desktop anyway, either at home or if you take it to work, so you wouldn't notice it, the same monitor and keyboard you got now. And if you need to load something, either the network or an exterior USB optical drive, and for your printer, etc, etc.
Now I want to build one.... hmmmm junk parts box....
.... I meant for security. 14.4 is fast enough for security purposes for most patches. I was replying to the conundrum of having an insecure machine that needs an update, but it needs to go onto the internet to *get* the update. It's a catch 22 then. Snail mail and getting it mailed to you is too slow, going online in insecure mode is too lame, so I was thinking what is an alternative, and I thought of fax. You would need some way to read the fax and get it parsed into your binary or whatever so it could be transferred.
Granted, a fax could be middlemaned or hijacked, but it's *much* less likely to be compromised than a PPP connection.
Just another potential method. I am aware that you can use a another (maybe secure) machine,then sneakernet, but what happens if ALL your machines need the same patch then? Then it becomes a problem. I am just wondering if it is even possible to do this, fax to a -> workable transferrable patch, and throwing it out for braniac review. I know they have worked on reading JPEGs some, I guess that would come the closest.
I like the size, it is what I was thinking would be nice, a PDA that was also a desktop. Easy to plug in an AC adapter, keyboard and regular monitor, etc. a convertible. Laptops do it, but are expensive and big to carry, if you want portable, you want really portable, but then at home, you want it easy to convert to a real desktop. So instead of three gizmos, you only need *one* gizmo.
This is much closer to that, nice small form factor, all it needs is it's own screen and batts.