... to just millions of people, a computer is just a TV set with a lot of on demand "channels". That is exactly how they treat it, and why security isn't anything they should do, the "computer" should do it.. and really, it mostly SHOULD "do that".
And there's no reason anymore for new computers to go out the door in any shop without those types of programs installed if they are going to use MS.
shame on MS and shame on the box vendors
And there's even less reason to let MS skate on this issue. They should have been class actioned all the way to the supreme court long ago on useability and security and internet interoperability issues.
That EULA is an abomination. Maybe 20 years ago when desktop computing was really getting going they needed some time to get up to speed on coding, but not today, nope, EULAs that absolve the *seller* of all normal consumer warranty and protection should be stricken down. once and for all.
If ACME front door and lock company made a product that consistantly over the years was shown to A not open or shut correctly and could be counted on to fall off the hinges and needed to be re hung every 6 months, B-which had no credible locking mechanism, and C-caused the purchasers to be invaded in their homes and robbed and inconvenienced for years and years because of A and B, they would have been put out of business.
It's time to REALLY consider this EULA get out of any responsibility card they are allowed to use and profit from. It's absurd.
Methinks a lot more proactive coding on their part over the years might have cost them X-billions more, but they got 50 bill in the bank now, they could have most likely made it a lot more secure and functional and still had many many billions in the bank. There's no excuse anymore beyond pure GREED on their part. I would agree with the assessment nothing can be coded perfect, but really.. there's ways to go about this, they just never did it,not near enough, they were AWARE of the issues just they didn't CARE about the issues enough because it would have cut into "profits". Not eliminate them, it just would have reduced them some. Big deal. they profit, everyone else has to jump through hoops and suffer over their inaction.
They could have had BOTH, profitability plus more secure and functional design, they chose NOT TO. It was high level executive decision making that caused that, it was done on purpose. It wasn't that important to them as long as they could bully their way into mass acceptance and get away with it.
Class action suit, I am surprised it has never happened yet.
... guess they got that part down, they COULD do it. Most interesting. Maybe this private company made a deal to get ahold of some surplus of these babies at pennies(whatever a russky penny is) on the ruble, maybe that's why they think it can be done cheap. It'll certainly haul the cargo.
... would be on china too, IF they used russian brains to bootstrap it, and IF the "blackops" boys in the "coalition of the willing to profit" didn't sabotage them, which I think will most likely happen once china starts their moon projects.
Basically, even if the US doesn't do more advanced manned space really soon, I don't think they want any other power or nation or private concern to do it either. And I think they would dirty tricks any effort to do so, frankly. They have "we will own the high ground" down as a religious catechism.
... or just not the normal "insert tiny thing here into tiny hole there and hope it stays in and works" deal. I was just wondering if any sort of flat, smooth plug could stick on to the side of the ipod. Magnets was the first thing that I thought of. No hole into the case, some sort of direct transfer, magnetic voodoo induction or whatever. I'm not an EE, so no idea if it's even possible, but like pointed out below, magnets maybe not a good idea near the storage device, but maybe if they are small enough it wouldn't matter. I don't know, that's why the ?, I just wonder if it's possible to do it at all.
... they should do this and cut me a check? DEAL! heh heh heh
tell ya whut, anyone from apple design reading this, you can have the idea, send me one new tower and a PB and the "new and improved" ipod with propietary but cool and trendy headphones, I'll even pay the shipping, and it's yours!
spaced a minute on the magnet next to drives or storage media no-no. Mea culpa. Just wondering if the signal can get through with a connection that is just magnet to magnet or magnet to steel. I do notice though that in-the-case system speakers have been in use for years, albeit not all that close to the drives. But you got a point. Just trying to think of something that would work and not be prone to wimpiness or failure, and be easy to use. Maybe a bluetooth headphone rig might be better? I dunno. Semms sucky though that an expensive piece of hardware can be rendered useless by.0005 cents worth of bad solder and bad design. Got to be a better "plug" solution out there than minijacks, I never liked them. Anything smaller than an RCA jack I don't like. Man, I made me a real long extension once for some lightweight headphones I could wear to bed. The computer was way over yonder -> there, and no normal cord would work (well, this was a make it with what stuff I had kicking around project). I did it, but them wirez with minijack rigs are *teeny* to work with.
there are two well known ones that are up and running and viable. One is the Liberty Dollar, the other all electronic one is e-gold. Both are also tied to precious metals, and PM has been doing *quite* well the past little while and all indications show they will continue to do well.
When i glanced at their page, I think their specs said they will work at 1.5 knots current and at that give you 200 amp hours in 24 hours operation. Maybe. With that said, ya, probably true,and no, didn't look at the price, but probably expensive. Just a very easy solution if he's determined to go the hydro route. Could even "stealth" install it in if a normal dock is allowed there on the river. tie it to the end of the dock, and make sure it doesn't go too far out. Nothing more complicated than a mooring mount and chuck it in the water. They come with a long power lead, I forget what they said, 80 ft? Plenty anyway, then tie into that and take it away to wherever you need it.
Basically though, that's why I recommended the solar/wind/fuel genny hybrid system over the hydro. It's an idea that has been worked out over the past coupla decades by the alternative energy community through exhaustive trial and error, if you are giving a general bit of advice solution.
Low head personal hydro is fabulous IF you can control the hydro part on your own property, say from a good flowing artesian spring that only exists on your property. Usually regulations are insane about it with streeams and rivers that cross property boundaries. In the US despite needing more energy, the fool government is de commissioning all sorts of small hydro generational facilities. They even brag about it. Nutjobs. Hydro is about the most reliable and cleanest source of energy conversion you can get. And even if you got all the permits and built the thing, then they could potentially shut you down if some do gooder discovers the three toed flying bat newt once lived within a mile of your dam or spillway thing.
I like solar because it's so scalable,start cheap and work your way up, it's modular to boot,mounting solutions are numerous, and very quiet and no moving parts and "just works". Little more expensive per watt, but it's still godd if you value "just works". I like wind because you get good bang for your buck, real good. I like fuel gennys because in a pinch if you need a lot of juice right then and there for a specific task, you got it. For example, a lot of pure off grid places get by quite well for all their day to day stuff except running the well. What they do is have large thousand gallon + water tanks, run the genny just long enough to keep the tanks full so you have tap pressure. Most ot the time the genny isn't needed. This hybrid combo works well, and if it's just a good adjunct to the grid, well, it's about a good a guarantee of a supply as juice as you are gonna get.
I have a question. Is it possible to have just a flat surface magnet to magnet connection in lieu of these banana-type jacks? If so, that might be a better way to do these attachments. I just don't know if you can get the signal through, or if the magnetic field would distort it too much, or whatever. Ya, I know, maybe hard to make it stereo even if possible. Just wondering is all. I've seen these wimpy things go screwy before too on other gadgets.
perpetual sail motion! Why naught??? No probs you CAN get a patent from the US patent office!
They DO make "dynamic" sailors , they use the turbosails design developed by jacques cousteau, used on his ship the alcyone. Nifty stuff. I've also seen some plans but have not seen any examples of using savonius vertical axis rotors with sailing. They have made a lot of low speed high torgue electrical generators out of them though, the most common backyard cobjob using cut in half steel drums that are welded together in a "ying yang" shape that revolves around a vertical axis and uses reduction gearing (ususally an old truck rear end) to turn a genny or alternator. Sorta like your little home anemometer on steroids looking things.
I've used mac, linux, windows. All the help pages I ever used..lack real bad. nearest I can relate to them is using my car and small engine repair manuals, usually they are better.
These help pages with OSs and apps... tell you which thing to click on,well that's cool, that usually isn't the problem, the problem is when you click on foobar, and foobar app don't do it's thing, then you are borked. Then you go to see how to fix borked, and it's not even there!
Tell you, I HATES to go looking for a fix to some problem on the net. I do it,obviously, don't like it though. I would much rather have a frequently updated bug fixing update get pushed to my help folder automagically, I don't even want to dork with it. The reason being, if I find the fix on x newsgroup or x web page or x app developers page, etc, it COULD have been pushed into the help manual once put in english. There's no coordination with all this stuff.
I have a lot of experience maintaining a large bank of rolls/surrettes and some trojans ( and others). One, they'll last a lot longer than 5-6 years, especially is you install a desulphator on the battery bank. They *work* as advertised, I highly recommend them. I've actually rejuvenated some marginally rank batts with them. neat stuff, the gov and some industries use them a lot to, to keep starter batteries "fresh" for long unused storage conditions with vehicles that only get occassional use.
On the batts, the rolls are definetly good, and definetly expensive, along with the crowns. I have found cost comparing, it might be useful to check out local forklift companies and get a battery bank from them. These are deep cycle "traction" batteries in steel boxes. Whoppers, and with batts, it's the lead, the size, bigger is better more or less. You can get a 12 volt bank for around 6-800$ that will hold twice (roughly) as many amp hours as the equivalent-in-money rolls batts. Plus, if you are near any big city with the foirklift dealer, you can go get the thing yourself,(heavy, be prepared for some egyptian engineering to get them in place with levers and ramps and dollies and whatnot) usually rolls batts need to be shipped in,too, kinda spensive...
the forklift batts come 12/24/ 36 / 48 volt so you can pick your voltage requirements. Most home systems are 24 or 12 volt at the storage, depends on how far away your panels are, and how much thick expensive copper wire you want to run. You can (if you really want to) CAREFULLY cut the welded busbars on the top of the forklift batts and do your own custom series/parallel wiring as well,to get whatever voltage you want (say knocking down the 48 to a 24) but I'd recommend just sizing for your needs and purchasing appropriately.
One of the weird things about enron is, they actually had at least one decent product. they made whopper wind gennys. GE bought them at fire sale prices and are still making them, last I knew. I actually tried to get some rich dudes to buy them out as soon as I heard of enrons troubles, but no see gar there sad to say. I think it's an excellent way to actually pay for a nice spread out in the country, make all your loot + pay for property + have oodles of free juice to play with. If I had the VC I'd do it/organize it, but never really tried anything that ambitious before. It gets quickly into 7 figures though for the whopper systems.
... but there exists a tow-behind your sailboat generator I have seen. Looks like a dinky torpedo that is trailed behind, the little props spin, you get juice. It would do what you are looking for, easy to install, some power. Legalities of tying it directly to some point out in the stream-no idea, plus the safety factor of someone smacking into it.
found it
http://www.salt-systems.com/marine-wind.htm
with that said, unless a stream goes entirely through your property, ie you can control both sides of the bank and build a proper dam etc, which is a ton of hassle and permits and whatnot usually, I would recommend doing the normal tried and true approach of wind/solar/fuel genny hybrid as an adjunct to your grid power. Re arrange where you put your money into first which of the first two works better for your locale. You usually want all four for true backup solution in most places. that is a generalization, but mostly true. It's really a variable, it has to be customized to your location and needs. Site survey maps exist on the web that will show mean average sun shiney hours and mean average winds for your area that will help you make a determination of which method gets priority. the reason why the "hybrid" approach is so good is that usually most places in the US get a lot of wind in the winter, but less wind but more sun in the summer. but that just depends, some places it's so windy all the time wind alone with the fuel genny backup is good, other places solar is better,etc--just depends..
me = grid, some solar, backup aero-marine wind genny, two fuel gennys
good luck! Once you get your rig up and working, you'll ask yourself "why the heck didn't I do this years ago?" It's really comforting knowing you always have SOME power no matter what, and even better to OWN it.
thanks for the link to revolution. Been wanting to get my feet wet, never coded a lick beyond basic html, and that don't count. Everything else I have looked at made me go cross eyed.
"1) That an error occurred. This part should be clean and readable to an end user. 2) The program, process, or whatever caused it. 3) The condition that caused the error. 4) The target that was being operated upon."
5) the user gets told immediately the proper steps to mitigate his immediate problem, what to do to get back to the most-stable state from right before the crash or glitch 6) The bug should be easily documentable automagically, offer a simple yes/no box to check for joe user that will let him email a copy of the bug report to the official registered developers automagically AND give you a receipt it was delivered (basically a thank you, it's a psychological thing there to show the input is appreciated) AND an automatic alert later on direct right to your mailbox when a fix is accomplished along with all relevant app update info. Way more people (non coders, just people who want to help by submitting bugs) would put in bug reports if it was easier to do, and if they got the feedback. If they (the joe users) were trying to use the app, of course they are interested in making it better and getting back to using the app. Make it as easy as possible to accomplish this for them, the "sharing" deal..
I know when I used to have that with netscape on my macs, I always let it send in the bugreports (talkback I think it was), but dang, it woulda been nice to get some sort of automatic feedback that referenced that particular bug, with periodic updates, at least weekly. I wanted to know, and not have to go googling surfing around some weird bugtraq place, just send me an autobotresponse email on some of the progress is all. To this day I got no idea if any of those reports that went off from my boxes amounted to good stuff for the developers or not. It's like the bug reports go off to never never land for joeaverage user.
Better documentation can fix that learning curve better than ignoring the docs and adding new features as fast as possible, IMO. As soon as a new learner has to go hunt something down on the net to fix some problem or to help them get to speed in using whatever app is bothering them, it starts to blow chunks big time for them. If the built in help system was way more extensive and written in non geek and used very little arcane acronyms, it would help. And the format needs to be such it's easily transferred to dead tree copies for reference.
I'd like to see an (obvious to newbies) automatic update for documentation for the successful bug fixes and patches, click a button, all the latest fixes in clear precise language get updated to the on machine data base. A fix won't work if even one step is non clear, and can actually make it worse if the newbie tries to implement the fix. Don't leave new adopters hanging is the message I am saying. And it needs to be realised that traditional man pages aren't enough, too cryptic for new learners mostly, they were designed for experienced sys admins and developers, and are swell for that purpose, but for other people - the other 99.999% of the people out there- they create a big "WTF does this mean?" in their minds.
I don't have much knowledge into real time, although like most people I guess I "use" them all the time, just don't see it. Everything got osme embedded doo dad in them now. I'll take linux/bsd out of the equation and just use a generic "open source" then as a future projection model. Right now, what you say may well be true. In the future, and the real soon future, it just might not be so. If I had to bet,I'd bet on open source capturing most of the computer market for all purposes sooner or later. Not all, but most. Heck, I had as little of two years ago people (inet gurus mostly in discussions) telling me that open source was gonna not even be here much around this time, that it was a soon to disappear fad, would never amount to anything, that it was "doomed". I think it's safe to say at least on that point, those were an inaccurate past assessments. Whether or not closed source/propietary will maintain a huge presence, for the immediate future-the next few years, I think it will, but it will gradually lose steam, as it is now. And I think the emphasis will gain ground on a rising curve for open source, not just maintain a steady state. None of us has a lock on the future, but I think it's possible to get some pretty obvious trends. If there's a market or an interest, it's gonna be worked on in the open source arena, and so far, as near as I can see, that modality is getting some nice advances, moreso than what most of the mainstream pundits *that I read anyway) predicted just a few years ago. And it certainly shows in the software that is near mainstream now, take moz for example, and the larger distros. They are *signifcantly* better than two years ago, the improvement curve is most impressive. Not sure if this will slide into the real time and embedded applications, but it appears it will. Besides that, no one really "knows" so I'll concede on that.
.. I love blue leds-in my flashlights, I have several now with these, and I hope much cheaper replacement home lighting is to follow with them. I prefer the other colors for data indicators. Blue IS too intense for the background indicators.
Of course, he forgot his early geek training, his monitor annoyance is easily fixed with duct tape....
the guy has a big investment at stake, he's gonna say anything to maintain his business. Hopefully he'll realise he is going to be forced to adapt. And being disingenuous like that in public doesn't make any smart person contemplating his product think this guy HIMSELF is trustworthy. I'd think thrice about buying any of his stuff were I in a purchasing situation now. If he can (probably, no way to tell for sure,I am using educated guess) fudge about this, what else would he might fudge about?
--your smart guys in government agency abc look at the code, too, before ya deploy it. If they can't see any holes either, chances are they aren't there. No guarantees with either closed source or open source. Just because someone has a "top seekrit" whizzbang clearance doesn't mean he is trustworthy. Plenty of real world examples out there of agents gone bad or rogue. The WORST public spy scandals we know of haven'tbeen foreign people penetrating secure systems, it's been inside jobs done from people supposedly hugely trustworthy.
The point is, it's not the coder, it's THE CODE ITSELF. If you can look at it, and it's your business to be secure, then look at it twice, and read what other diverse folks have noticed about it, that's the best you can do with it. Many eyes make for less stuff going unnoticed I think.
... with the linux or bsd kernel anyway? roll your own minimal system that does only what you want it to do? rhetorical, I know it's being done. I think that's what I meant in the original post, plus those costs he quoted... I mean, really. I think that guy from RaTtyOS forgot his meds that day...
I know he's got to do whatever he can think of to keep his business going, my recommendation to him is to move on, accept reality and get with the program. In the long run, it is most inevitable that in 99% of the real world applications out there that open source/free will "take over". Look at it just over the past 5 years, now do a rough bar napkin guesstimate of 5 years into the future. where you gonna drop your chips?
... you can DO IT YOURSELF and not wait on the government or the energy monopolies. And it's scalable from 10$ on up. At the ten buck level you get get dedicated small solar powered devices, I have a radio I wrote about that has a crank genny on the side and a solar panel on the top. A friend gave it to me, he sold them, and I know his wholesale cost was around 10 clams, retail is around 30. We have a small solar rig here for grid juice backup, 3 panels, charge controller, batteries, small inverter, and we have a small wind genny. The wind genny I keep non mounted as a backup now in case of nasty storm damage, but I got all the stuff needed to quick install it within an afternnoon should there be a severe emergency. I believe in backups for backups.. I tell you on the wind genny, there is an industry going begging from potential customers just not realising how well they work and how cheap they are. We could put entire laid off out of work US rust belt guys back to work making them in mass quantities, all they are is a freaking vacuum cleaner motor (more or less, casually speaking now, they are DC not AC mostly) with some propeller doo dads on them. I mean, easy to make, cheap too. They go up in size from there of course. We also have a couple of smallish fuel gennys for backup to that here, and backup to THAT we got firewood and kerosene..
I built a small scale demonstration model methane digester before, man o man there's another major *thing* being under utilized inside the US, you get burnable gas easy. Took me less than 1/2 hour to build a working model out of scrap junk I had kicking around.
We DON'T have an energy crisis, we have a MONOPOLY energy supplier & governmental & media -> to the people education crisis. The fatcats who make trillions off "energy" DON'T want people to find out how easy and affordable it is to be your own micro energy producer. They want you to keep sending them a check,month after month, forever. Produce your own you can pay it off and own that sucker. Grid only is rent your juice from them, zero price guarantees down the road. I issued a challenge several times, I'd like to see ONE example where joe paycheck can go to any local elelctrico monopoly and get a carved in stone price guarantee good for ten to 20 years down the road. No one has even bothering replying, because it don't exist. so you can't say what it'sgoing to cost you even next year, let alone 20 years down the road. folks looking at retirement and a more restricted income might want to think on that some. With home produced, you got that guarantee, at least you'll always have "some" power that can't be fugged over by government/industry/politics. Just like with a nice garden you can always produce a lot of your chow. Just makes sense to me.. You know up front what it costs.
I always chime in on any energy related topics here at slasherdott, and on other forums, with anecdotals to help counteract the industry FUD out there. To produce at least some of your power-for any random regular joepaycheck, is QUITE doable and affordable now, especially when there are any number of big lenders out there that will let you tie in your start up costs into your 20 year note. Costs no more for a real decent home primary or backup system than an additional bathroom in your house. And it's doable and scaleable from hardly zip, I started with one small panel and one battery, worked up from there.
I have seen people who will gladly drop more on a big screen TV than it would have cost them for a good starter rig, then complain that "it isn't affordable". Geeks especially, home power production and storage has a GREAT application in the SOHO, you get a killer good UPS system out of it and you get controllable, tweakable clean double emphasis clean day to day power. win/win there, you're gonna have/want a UPS system for your boxes anyway, might as well do the logical next step and make it *nice*.
.. I follow those sites you mention when there's a linkage referencing them someone turns me on to. I've been writing on survival/preparedness topics for a LONG time,it is my expertise, and I used to take consulting work on same. To make it fancy I called it "threat analysis and mitigation". I used an honor system sliding scale fee schedule.
Raised beds, nifty. We just moved to our new place last summer, it's a caretaking position that came with some pretty dismal housing. Had to approach the extremely neglected yard with a chainsaw and bushhog and work from there. No one had lived in this place for over 5 years, it was abandoned and un trimmed deluxe.. Right now we have the major garden area almost finished planting (started with chainsaw, then articulated bushhog, then bulldozer, then fill dirt, now the fine tuning), it has two dozen raised beds constructed with pine logs. It is Mother Earth News quality.., been taking "as we go" pics.. heh The paths between the beds are filled with woodchips we got chipping all winter, and the beds themselves got filled with old well composted cow exhaust we get free for the shoveling from a paddock next door.
I never worry about making a place better, even when I move, I have always done that wherever I have lived, that's the deal, Mr. bigshot in the sky "recommends" that we be good stewards of the land, and it works out good if that principle is followed. Landlors like it too.. No real need to fixate on the ownership part. You get to enjoy the fruits of labor while you are there, this is full compensation enough methinks. Ownership is a big plus of course, but sometimes it isn't possible, like I am in no way in any position to purchase any place, but I get paid (not great but I can stay semi retired and only have to work part time) to live and work here. Tradeoffs.
Also, the real estate bubble will be the next one that pops. I think some *much* better deals are ahead shortly, you might luck out and get your dream place now then be in a position to renegotiate price and terms later from a strong position, if you can keep income semi steady and bankroll now... big hint, precious metals are an outstanding deal now, especially silver. The global demand for physical last year surpassed total mining production... think on that one a scosh......
If you haven't read any of his financials and geopoliticals, try Bob Chapman, google for him, good thinker. Another is Joel Skousen, incredible brain, wrote the two preparedness classics, "the secure home" and "strategic relocation". Hi site I remember top of the head, easy, joelskousen.com
I also recommend a lot of the radio shows carried on gcnlive.com, not so much preparedness, but common sense politics and news that help you consider preparedness topics. In no particular order a few of my favorite shows, the power hour, alex jones, the common sense coalition, a closer look, and on another network, I like Jeff Rense show, such a variety of topics bound to be some that infuriate you, make ya go "hmm", make ya go "hell YA!' , make ya go "huh?" Soup to nuts there, entertaining and informative. that's rense.com
sounds cool where you live, never visitied that area of the country. Have thought about relocating to idaho though, for a variety of reasons, but man, just moving two counties over gets expensive and involves this "work" stuff if you got a lot of gear.... We live in north georgia, last place mountains, but now we are back down in the more farming flatlands. Still pretty though, dogwoods and wild choke cherries and whatnot all blooming now
I read the article, the reviewer liked what he saw, just was wishing he could have found a 24/7 place for customized support..
well, well???? Isn't this supposed to be one of the two ways to make some clams with open source software, ie, this is a job going begging now? make money with open source by:
A-using it directly to help make and sell and service your widgets
B- offering custom service for the application software
No current direct 24/7 support = someone reading the article who might be under or un-employed just discovered a job that didn't exist before. Sounds OK to me, this "problem" will be self rectifying I would bet, real soon now....
Slashdot Mirror
... to just millions of people, a computer is just a TV set with a lot of on demand "channels". That is exactly how they treat it, and why security isn't anything they should do, the "computer" should do it.. and really, it mostly SHOULD "do that".
And there's no reason anymore for new computers to go out the door in any shop without those types of programs installed if they are going to use MS.
shame on MS and shame on the box vendors
And there's even less reason to let MS skate on this issue. They should have been class actioned all the way to the supreme court long ago on useability and security and internet interoperability issues.
That EULA is an abomination. Maybe 20 years ago when desktop computing was really getting going they needed some time to get up to speed on coding, but not today, nope, EULAs that absolve the *seller* of all normal consumer warranty and protection should be stricken down. once and for all.
If ACME front door and lock company made a product that consistantly over the years was shown to A not open or shut correctly and could be counted on to fall off the hinges and needed to be re hung every 6 months, B-which had no credible locking mechanism, and C-caused the purchasers to be invaded in their homes and robbed and inconvenienced for years and years because of A and B, they would have been put out of business.
It's time to REALLY consider this EULA get out of any responsibility card they are allowed to use and profit from. It's absurd.
Methinks a lot more proactive coding on their part over the years might have cost them X-billions more, but they got 50 bill in the bank now, they could have most likely made it a lot more secure and functional and still had many many billions in the bank. There's no excuse anymore beyond pure GREED on their part. I would agree with the assessment nothing can be coded perfect, but really.. there's ways to go about this, they just never did it,not near enough, they were AWARE of the issues just they didn't CARE about the issues enough because it would have cut into "profits". Not eliminate them, it just would have reduced them some. Big deal. they profit, everyone else has to jump through hoops and suffer over their inaction.
They could have had BOTH, profitability plus more secure and functional design, they chose NOT TO. It was high level executive decision making that caused that, it was done on purpose. It wasn't that important to them as long as they could bully their way into mass acceptance and get away with it.
Class action suit, I am surprised it has never happened yet.
... guess they got that part down, they COULD do it. Most interesting. Maybe this private company made a deal to get ahold of some surplus of these babies at pennies(whatever a russky penny is) on the ruble, maybe that's why they think it can be done cheap. It'll certainly haul the cargo.
... would be on china too, IF they used russian brains to bootstrap it, and IF the "blackops" boys in the "coalition of the willing to profit" didn't sabotage them, which I think will most likely happen once china starts their moon projects.
Basically, even if the US doesn't do more advanced manned space really soon, I don't think they want any other power or nation or private concern to do it either. And I think they would dirty tricks any effort to do so, frankly. They have "we will own the high ground" down as a religious catechism.
... or just not the normal "insert tiny thing here into tiny hole there and hope it stays in and works" deal. I was just wondering if any sort of flat, smooth plug could stick on to the side of the ipod. Magnets was the first thing that I thought of. No hole into the case, some sort of direct transfer, magnetic voodoo induction or whatever. I'm not an EE, so no idea if it's even possible, but like pointed out below, magnets maybe not a good idea near the storage device, but maybe if they are small enough it wouldn't matter. I don't know, that's why the ?, I just wonder if it's possible to do it at all.
... they should do this and cut me a check? DEAL!
heh heh heh
tell ya whut, anyone from apple design reading this, you can have the idea, send me one new tower and a PB and the "new and improved" ipod with propietary but cool and trendy headphones, I'll even pay the shipping, and it's yours!
spaced a minute on the magnet next to drives or storage media no-no. Mea culpa. Just wondering if the signal can get through with a connection that is just magnet to magnet or magnet to steel. I do notice though that in-the-case system speakers have been in use for years, albeit not all that close to the drives. But you got a point. Just trying to think of something that would work and not be prone to wimpiness or failure, and be easy to use. Maybe a bluetooth headphone rig might be better? I dunno. Semms sucky though that an expensive piece of hardware can be rendered useless by .0005 cents worth of bad solder and bad design. Got to be a better "plug" solution out there than minijacks, I never liked them. Anything smaller than an RCA jack I don't like. Man, I made me a real long extension once for some lightweight headphones I could wear to bed. The computer was way over yonder -> there, and no normal cord would work (well, this was a make it with what stuff I had kicking around project). I did it, but them wirez with minijack rigs are *teeny* to work with.
there are two well known ones that are up and running and viable. One is the Liberty Dollar, the other all electronic one is e-gold. Both are also tied to precious metals, and PM has been doing *quite* well the past little while and all indications show they will continue to do well.
When i glanced at their page, I think their specs said they will work at 1.5 knots current and at that give you 200 amp hours in 24 hours operation. Maybe. With that said, ya, probably true,and no, didn't look at the price, but probably expensive. Just a very easy solution if he's determined to go the hydro route. Could even "stealth" install it in if a normal dock is allowed there on the river. tie it to the end of the dock, and make sure it doesn't go too far out. Nothing more complicated than a mooring mount and chuck it in the water. They come with a long power lead, I forget what they said, 80 ft? Plenty anyway, then tie into that and take it away to wherever you need it.
Basically though, that's why I recommended the solar/wind/fuel genny hybrid system over the hydro. It's an idea that has been worked out over the past coupla decades by the alternative energy community through exhaustive trial and error, if you are giving a general bit of advice solution.
Low head personal hydro is fabulous IF you can control the hydro part on your own property, say from a good flowing artesian spring that only exists on your property. Usually regulations are insane about it with streeams and rivers that cross property boundaries. In the US despite needing more energy, the fool government is de commissioning all sorts of small hydro generational facilities. They even brag about it. Nutjobs. Hydro is about the most reliable and cleanest source of energy conversion you can get. And even if you got all the permits and built the thing, then they could potentially shut you down if some do gooder discovers the three toed flying bat newt once lived within a mile of your dam or spillway thing.
I like solar because it's so scalable,start cheap and work your way up, it's modular to boot,mounting solutions are numerous, and very quiet and no moving parts and "just works". Little more expensive per watt, but it's still godd if you value "just works". I like wind because you get good bang for your buck, real good. I like fuel gennys because in a pinch if you need a lot of juice right then and there for a specific task, you got it. For example, a lot of pure off grid places get by quite well for all their day to day stuff except running the well. What they do is have large thousand gallon + water tanks, run the genny just long enough to keep the tanks full so you have tap pressure. Most ot the time the genny isn't needed. This hybrid combo works well, and if it's just a good adjunct to the grid, well, it's about a good a guarantee of a supply as juice as you are gonna get.
I have a question. Is it possible to have just a flat surface magnet to magnet connection in lieu of these banana-type jacks? If so, that might be a better way to do these attachments. I just don't know if you can get the signal through, or if the magnetic field would distort it too much, or whatever. Ya, I know, maybe hard to make it stereo even if possible. Just wondering is all. I've seen these wimpy things go screwy before too on other gadgets.
hahahahahahaha
perpetual sail motion! Why naught??? No probs you CAN get a patent from the US patent office!
They DO make "dynamic" sailors , they use the turbosails design developed by jacques cousteau, used on his ship the alcyone. Nifty stuff. I've also seen some plans but have not seen any examples of using savonius vertical axis rotors with sailing. They have made a lot of low speed high torgue electrical generators out of them though, the most common backyard cobjob using cut in half steel drums that are welded together in a "ying yang" shape that revolves around a vertical axis and uses reduction gearing (ususally an old truck rear end) to turn a genny or alternator. Sorta like your little home anemometer on steroids looking things.
I've used mac, linux, windows. All the help pages I ever used..lack real bad. nearest I can relate to them is using my car and small engine repair manuals, usually they are better.
These help pages with OSs and apps... tell you which thing to click on,well that's cool, that usually isn't the problem, the problem is when you click on foobar, and foobar app don't do it's thing, then you are borked. Then you go to see how to fix borked, and it's not even there!
Tell you, I HATES to go looking for a fix to some problem on the net. I do it,obviously, don't like it though. I would much rather have a frequently updated bug fixing update get pushed to my help folder automagically, I don't even want to dork with it. The reason being, if I find the fix on x newsgroup or x web page or x app developers page, etc, it COULD have been pushed into the help manual once put in english. There's no coordination with all this stuff.
I have a lot of experience maintaining a large bank of rolls/surrettes and some trojans ( and others). One, they'll last a lot longer than 5-6 years, especially is you install a desulphator on the battery bank. They *work* as advertised, I highly recommend them. I've actually rejuvenated some marginally rank batts with them. neat stuff, the gov and some industries use them a lot to, to keep starter batteries "fresh" for long unused storage conditions with vehicles that only get occassional use.
On the batts, the rolls are definetly good, and definetly expensive, along with the crowns. I have found cost comparing, it might be useful to check out local forklift companies and get a battery bank from them. These are deep cycle "traction" batteries in steel boxes. Whoppers, and with batts, it's the lead, the size, bigger is better more or less. You can get a 12 volt bank for around 6-800$ that will hold twice (roughly) as many amp hours as the equivalent-in-money rolls batts. Plus, if you are near any big city with the foirklift dealer, you can go get the thing yourself,(heavy, be prepared for some egyptian engineering to get them in place with levers and ramps and dollies and whatnot) usually rolls batts need to be shipped in,too, kinda spensive...
the forklift batts come 12/24/ 36 / 48 volt so you can pick your voltage requirements. Most home systems are 24 or 12 volt at the storage, depends on how far away your panels are, and how much thick expensive copper wire you want to run. You can (if you really want to) CAREFULLY cut the welded busbars on the top of the forklift batts and do your own custom series/parallel wiring as well,to get whatever voltage you want (say knocking down the 48 to a 24) but I'd recommend just sizing for your needs and purchasing appropriately.
Good luck!
... does he use?
One of the weird things about enron is, they actually had at least one decent product. they made whopper wind gennys. GE bought them at fire sale prices and are still making them, last I knew. I actually tried to get some rich dudes to buy them out as soon as I heard of enrons troubles, but no see gar there sad to say. I think it's an excellent way to actually pay for a nice spread out in the country, make all your loot + pay for property + have oodles of free juice to play with. If I had the VC I'd do it/organize it, but never really tried anything that ambitious before. It gets quickly into 7 figures though for the whopper systems.
... but there exists a tow-behind your sailboat generator I have seen. Looks like a dinky torpedo that is trailed behind, the little props spin, you get juice. It would do what you are looking for, easy to install, some power. Legalities of tying it directly to some point out in the stream-no idea, plus the safety factor of someone smacking into it.
found it
http://www.salt-systems.com/marine-wind.htm
with that said, unless a stream goes entirely through your property, ie you can control both sides of the bank and build a proper dam etc, which is a ton of hassle and permits and whatnot usually, I would recommend doing the normal tried and true approach of wind/solar/fuel genny hybrid as an adjunct to your grid power. Re arrange where you put your money into first which of the first two works better for your locale. You usually want all four for true backup solution in most places. that is a generalization, but mostly true. It's really a variable, it has to be customized to your location and needs. Site survey maps exist on the web that will show mean average sun shiney hours and mean average winds for your area that will help you make a determination of which method gets priority. the reason why the "hybrid" approach is so good is that usually most places in the US get a lot of wind in the winter, but less wind but more sun in the summer. but that just depends, some places it's so windy all the time wind alone with the fuel genny backup is good, other places solar is better,etc--just depends..
me = grid, some solar, backup aero-marine wind genny, two fuel gennys
good luck! Once you get your rig up and working, you'll ask yourself "why the heck didn't I do this years ago?" It's really comforting knowing you always have SOME power no matter what, and even better to OWN it.
thanks for the link to revolution. Been wanting to get my feet wet, never coded a lick beyond basic html, and that don't count. Everything else I have looked at made me go cross eyed.
"1) That an error occurred. This part should be clean and readable to an end user.
2) The program, process, or whatever caused it.
3) The condition that caused the error.
4) The target that was being operated upon."
5) the user gets told immediately the proper steps to mitigate his immediate problem, what to do to get back to the most-stable state from right before the crash or glitch
6) The bug should be easily documentable automagically, offer a simple yes/no box to check for joe user that will let him email a copy of the bug report to the official registered developers automagically AND give you a receipt it was delivered (basically a thank you, it's a psychological thing there to show the input is appreciated) AND an automatic alert later on direct right to your mailbox when a fix is accomplished along with all relevant app update info. Way more people (non coders, just people who want to help by submitting bugs) would put in bug reports if it was easier to do, and if they got the feedback. If they (the joe users) were trying to use the app, of course they are interested in making it better and getting back to using the app. Make it as easy as possible to accomplish this for them, the "sharing" deal..
I know when I used to have that with netscape on my macs, I always let it send in the bugreports (talkback I think it was), but dang, it woulda been nice to get some sort of automatic feedback that referenced that particular bug, with periodic updates, at least weekly. I wanted to know, and not have to go googling surfing around some weird bugtraq place, just send me an autobotresponse email on some of the progress is all. To this day I got no idea if any of those reports that went off from my boxes amounted to good stuff for the developers or not. It's like the bug reports go off to never never land for joeaverage user.
Better documentation can fix that learning curve better than ignoring the docs and adding new features as fast as possible, IMO. As soon as a new learner has to go hunt something down on the net to fix some problem or to help them get to speed in using whatever app is bothering them, it starts to blow chunks big time for them. If the built in help system was way more extensive and written in non geek and used very little arcane acronyms, it would help. And the format needs to be such it's easily transferred to dead tree copies for reference.
I'd like to see an (obvious to newbies) automatic update for documentation for the successful bug fixes and patches, click a button, all the latest fixes in clear precise language get updated to the on machine data base. A fix won't work if even one step is non clear, and can actually make it worse if the newbie tries to implement the fix. Don't leave new adopters hanging is the message I am saying. And it needs to be realised that traditional man pages aren't enough, too cryptic for new learners mostly, they were designed for experienced sys admins and developers, and are swell for that purpose, but for other people - the other 99.999% of the people out there- they create a big "WTF does this mean?" in their minds.
I don't have much knowledge into real time, although like most people I guess I "use" them all the time, just don't see it. Everything got osme embedded doo dad in them now. I'll take linux/bsd out of the equation and just use a generic "open source" then as a future projection model. Right now, what you say may well be true. In the future, and the real soon future, it just might not be so. If I had to bet,I'd bet on open source capturing most of the computer market for all purposes sooner or later. Not all, but most. Heck, I had as little of two years ago people (inet gurus mostly in discussions) telling me that open source was gonna not even be here much around this time, that it was a soon to disappear fad, would never amount to anything, that it was "doomed". I think it's safe to say at least on that point, those were an inaccurate past assessments. Whether or not closed source/propietary will maintain a huge presence, for the immediate future-the next few years, I think it will, but it will gradually lose steam, as it is now. And I think the emphasis will gain ground on a rising curve for open source, not just maintain a steady state. None of us has a lock on the future, but I think it's possible to get some pretty obvious trends. If there's a market or an interest, it's gonna be worked on in the open source arena, and so far, as near as I can see, that modality is getting some nice advances, moreso than what most of the mainstream pundits *that I read anyway) predicted just a few years ago. And it certainly shows in the software that is near mainstream now, take moz for example, and the larger distros. They are *signifcantly* better than two years ago, the improvement curve is most impressive. Not sure if this will slide into the real time and embedded applications, but it appears it will. Besides that, no one really "knows" so I'll concede on that.
.. I love blue leds-in my flashlights, I have several now with these, and I hope much cheaper replacement home lighting is to follow with them. I prefer the other colors for data indicators. Blue IS too intense for the background indicators.
Of course, he forgot his early geek training, his monitor annoyance is easily fixed with duct tape....
the guy has a big investment at stake, he's gonna say anything to maintain his business. Hopefully he'll realise he is going to be forced to adapt. And being disingenuous like that in public doesn't make any smart person contemplating his product think this guy HIMSELF is trustworthy. I'd think thrice about buying any of his stuff were I in a purchasing situation now. If he can (probably, no way to tell for sure,I am using educated guess) fudge about this, what else would he might fudge about?
--your smart guys in government agency abc look at the code, too, before ya deploy it. If they can't see any holes either, chances are they aren't there. No guarantees with either closed source or open source. Just because someone has a "top seekrit" whizzbang clearance doesn't mean he is trustworthy. Plenty of real world examples out there of agents gone bad or rogue. The WORST public spy scandals we know of haven'tbeen foreign people penetrating secure systems, it's been inside jobs done from people supposedly hugely trustworthy.
The point is, it's not the coder, it's THE CODE ITSELF. If you can look at it, and it's your business to be secure, then look at it twice, and read what other diverse folks have noticed about it, that's the best you can do with it. Many eyes make for less stuff going unnoticed I think.
... with the linux or bsd kernel anyway? roll your own minimal system that does only what you want it to do? rhetorical, I know it's being done. I think that's what I meant in the original post, plus those costs he quoted... I mean, really. I think that guy from RaTtyOS forgot his meds that day...
I know he's got to do whatever he can think of to keep his business going, my recommendation to him is to move on, accept reality and get with the program. In the long run, it is most inevitable that in 99% of the real world applications out there that open source/free will "take over". Look at it just over the past 5 years, now do a rough bar napkin guesstimate of 5 years into the future. where you gonna drop your chips?
... you can DO IT YOURSELF and not wait on the government or the energy monopolies. And it's scalable from 10$ on up. At the ten buck level you get get dedicated small solar powered devices, I have a radio I wrote about that has a crank genny on the side and a solar panel on the top. A friend gave it to me, he sold them, and I know his wholesale cost was around 10 clams, retail is around 30. We have a small solar rig here for grid juice backup, 3 panels, charge controller, batteries, small inverter, and we have a small wind genny. The wind genny I keep non mounted as a backup now in case of nasty storm damage, but I got all the stuff needed to quick install it within an afternnoon should there be a severe emergency. I believe in backups for backups.. I tell you on the wind genny, there is an industry going begging from potential customers just not realising how well they work and how cheap they are. We could put entire laid off out of work US rust belt guys back to work making them in mass quantities, all they are is a freaking vacuum cleaner motor (more or less, casually speaking now, they are DC not AC mostly) with some propeller doo dads on them. I mean, easy to make, cheap too. They go up in size from there of course. We also have a couple of smallish fuel gennys for backup to that here, and backup to THAT we got firewood and kerosene..
I built a small scale demonstration model methane digester before, man o man there's another major *thing* being under utilized inside the US, you get burnable gas easy. Took me less than 1/2 hour to build a working model out of scrap junk I had kicking around.
We DON'T have an energy crisis, we have a MONOPOLY energy supplier & governmental & media -> to the people education crisis. The fatcats who make trillions off "energy" DON'T want people to find out how easy and affordable it is to be your own micro energy producer. They want you to keep sending them a check,month after month, forever. Produce your own you can pay it off and own that sucker. Grid only is rent your juice from them, zero price guarantees down the road. I issued a challenge several times, I'd like to see ONE example where joe paycheck can go to any local elelctrico monopoly and get a carved in stone price guarantee good for ten to 20 years down the road. No one has even bothering replying, because it don't exist. so you can't say what it'sgoing to cost you even next year, let alone 20 years down the road. folks looking at retirement and a more restricted income might want to think on that some. With home produced, you got that guarantee, at least you'll always have "some" power that can't be fugged over by government/industry/politics. Just like with a nice garden you can always produce a lot of your chow. Just makes sense to me.. You know up front what it costs.
I always chime in on any energy related topics here at slasherdott, and on other forums, with anecdotals to help counteract the industry FUD out there. To produce at least some of your power-for any random regular joepaycheck, is QUITE doable and affordable now, especially when there are any number of big lenders out there that will let you tie in your start up costs into your 20 year note. Costs no more for a real decent home primary or backup system than an additional bathroom in your house. And it's doable and scaleable from hardly zip, I started with one small panel and one battery, worked up from there.
I have seen people who will gladly drop more on a big screen TV than it would have cost them for a good starter rig, then complain that "it isn't affordable". Geeks especially, home power production and storage has a GREAT application in the SOHO, you get a killer good UPS system out of it and you get controllable, tweakable clean double emphasis clean day to day power. win/win there, you're gonna have/want a UPS system for your boxes anyway, might as well do the logical next step and make it *nice*.
.. I follow those sites you mention when there's a linkage referencing them someone turns me on to. I've been writing on survival/preparedness topics for a LONG time,it is my expertise, and I used to take consulting work on same. To make it fancy I called it "threat analysis and mitigation". I used an honor system sliding scale fee schedule.
Raised beds, nifty. We just moved to our new place last summer, it's a caretaking position that came with some pretty dismal housing. Had to approach the extremely neglected yard with a chainsaw and bushhog and work from there. No one had lived in this place for over 5 years, it was abandoned and un trimmed deluxe.. Right now we have the major garden area almost finished planting (started with chainsaw, then articulated bushhog, then bulldozer, then fill dirt, now the fine tuning), it has two dozen raised beds constructed with pine logs. It is Mother Earth News quality.., been taking "as we go" pics.. heh The paths between the beds are filled with woodchips we got chipping all winter, and the beds themselves got filled with old well composted cow exhaust we get free for the shoveling from a paddock next door.
I never worry about making a place better, even when I move, I have always done that wherever I have lived, that's the deal, Mr. bigshot in the sky "recommends" that we be good stewards of the land, and it works out good if that principle is followed. Landlors like it too.. No real need to fixate on the ownership part. You get to enjoy the fruits of labor while you are there, this is full compensation enough methinks. Ownership is a big plus of course, but sometimes it isn't possible, like I am in no way in any position to purchase any place, but I get paid (not great but I can stay semi retired and only have to work part time) to live and work here. Tradeoffs.
Also, the real estate bubble will be the next one that pops. I think some *much* better deals are ahead shortly, you might luck out and get your dream place now then be in a position to renegotiate price and terms later from a strong position, if you can keep income semi steady and bankroll now... big hint, precious metals are an outstanding deal now, especially silver. The global demand for physical last year surpassed total mining production... think on that one a scosh......
If you haven't read any of his financials and geopoliticals, try Bob Chapman, google for him, good thinker. Another is Joel Skousen, incredible brain, wrote the two preparedness classics, "the secure home" and "strategic relocation". Hi site I remember top of the head, easy, joelskousen.com
I also recommend a lot of the radio shows carried on gcnlive.com, not so much preparedness, but common sense politics and news that help you consider preparedness topics. In no particular order a few of my favorite shows, the power hour, alex jones, the common sense coalition, a closer look, and on another network, I like Jeff Rense show, such a variety of topics bound to be some that infuriate you, make ya go "hmm", make ya go "hell YA!' , make ya go "huh?" Soup to nuts there, entertaining and informative. that's rense.com
sounds cool where you live, never visitied that area of the country. Have thought about relocating to idaho though, for a variety of reasons, but man, just moving two counties over gets expensive and involves this "work" stuff if you got a lot of gear.... We live in north georgia, last place mountains, but now we are back down in the more farming flatlands. Still pretty though, dogwoods and wild choke cherries and whatnot all blooming now
I read the article, the reviewer liked what he saw, just was wishing he could have found a 24/7 place for customized support..
well, well???? Isn't this supposed to be one of the two ways to make some clams with open source software, ie, this is a job going begging now?
make money with open source by:
A-using it directly to help make and sell and service your widgets
B- offering custom service for the application software
No current direct 24/7 support = someone reading the article who might be under or un-employed just discovered a job that didn't exist before. Sounds OK to me, this "problem" will be self rectifying I would bet, real soon now....