A very good point. Maybe the FCC should not allow those big telcos who already are sitting on leased airwaves from bidding any further, leave it to some new companies instead. Let them run with what they have now, improve that, and let some others pull up a chair to the wireless table.
I also think they should drastically reduce the hoop jumping and expense for lower power broadcasting, open that up as well, commercial or not for profit, it doesn't matter, we have good tech now that would allow a lot more stations on a smaller community basis rather than just extending a few conglomerates power.
Thanks, I have heard of constants before, but not sure if it was any of your references (which I will check out). My idea was developed standalone, I had never read about anything like it, but am glad to hear some name brand economist guys thought it was a useful idea! the constants I recall were a very local and I think silver coin based currency, basically just tokens that retained value.
I tell you, the scam and conjob with the fed is the longest running pure d ripoff out there, just a heinous robbery of the US public and productive class. There should have been a mass revolt against it way back when. It even hurts business tremendously when there is no need for it other than to keep a relatively small number of people-probably in the low thousands tops-in control of the nation. And none of them are elected.
Yep, just checked it out, his ideas and mine are very similar, not identical but extremely close. His involves investing, mine treats the entire nation as one big investment, because it is. Mine combines labor and tangibles at the same time because it stays adjusted and the commodities can fluctuate better.
thanks again for the links.
Mostly whenever I present this idea I get ignored, or at best some trolls says "what about inflation?" or "you gold bugs are all the same", along those lines. It is such a simple idea but is so hard to get across to people, raised as they are with the way "things are done" and just accepting the most important thing for the economy, the simple basic currency, at "face value", giggles intended. It's very hard to get people to grok that the currency system in use is a tool of oppression and exploitation first before it is anything else.
So, you are an economist, a big money man, an academic, or just a gifted layman on this subject or what? Who knows, this is slashdot, you could work for the Fed even, who knoweth. To be fair, I am just a dumbass farmer who understands the diff between stuff, and illusions/representations or simulacrums of stuff. Gary North had an interesting phrase he came up with to describe it, it being digits that are supposed to be worth something in theory, he calls them "electronic promises of money".
Corn was never meant to be the perpetual energy fuel feedstock. It is being done as a transition fuel feedstock while other technologies, like this algae for instance, or cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass, etc, develop. And it is because we are set up to produce corn (and soybeans) in mass quantities with no infrastructure changes right now today, this season, it's happening. Just like the vehicle changes, we are transitioning from straight gashogs to hybrids to eventually plug in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells and straight electric drive, but that is still way down the road. This is the tech we have now, that's all, have to start someplace.
2)develop new markets that look to have some potential down the road, where there is little or no competition right now
We have corporations fixated on the next quarter profits,all the way to the point of abandoning R&D and selling off assets, etc, and those looking for the long haul. Sure, you get a fast fat city bottom line that way, but it's *stoopid*
Detroit in the early 70s vs. Japan, Inc. Who was actually smarter, which set of execs was actually looking out for their investors the best, the old "bottom line"? *Which* bottom line is more important, who's kicking ass now and who keeps having to dodge bankruptcy and junk bond status and so on?
FOSS-you either get it, or you don't, and it really is that simple, and to this day a lot of people even on this site just do not "get it". If you play act at "getting it", you won't receive all the benefits possible. Just try to milk it out short term with no sharing or thought to the users or taking a peek at the long view, again, it proves you don't get it or don't want to get it and in the long run you won't be as successful.
So, to all those folks saying the corporations are only interested in money, sure, I'd agree, but for how long? Do you want to make money for a long time, and just cede potential up and coming markets to squeeze out or cheap out a few extra nickles now in the short run? Is that really all you care about? Is it a good idea to cheap out on R&D, after all, right this quarter it's not "making you any money", now is it? Cheap out on embracing new customers? Slam up a website that bogues out decent double digits of the folks who use "alternative browsers" or OSes besides IE and windows out there, just tell those people to get stuffed?
Choices, business decisions, short range versus long range versus looking at ALL the ranges. Invest in your real business, invest in finding new customers instead of just milking the ones you have now, invest in research and share back because the more who do that the more "you" get back as well. That just seems to be a much better idea than cheaping out for the short run.
plug and disclaimer- A variation of an idea I have had for a long time now, and it fits in this conversation so I will just paste it in.
"You didn't ask me, but here is my idea of monetary economic reform, cliff's notes version, open for review, this must be my 20th or so version of this I have written. The basic idea is the same though..
Fire the Fed *imediately*, pay them off (we have a provision to do so, it's cheap really) No need to pay them guys interest on our own money forever, that is beyond ludicrous. They can go back to being a private bank consortium if they wish and compete with all the other banks normally.
Freeze the current dollar supply until an audit is taken, as fast as possible obviously.
analyze the last quarter's, and the quarter's before that, top 100 traded commodities and national production levels. (wealth is grown, harvested, mined and manufactured, or a combination thereof, there are our tangibles that back the buck in quantifiable form)
Note the diff between the two quarters, if an increase (most likely always is, a percent or two usually, a decrease would be zero production in *anything*, highly unlikely), check the proportion with dollars in existence, then issue that much more "new money" bills into existence, that represents that tangible wealth increase, and that's it, no more, no less. An exact "open source" money system, with an incentive to work and produce, no more voodoo fed czar calling the shots behind closed doors with some of his billionaire drinkin buds. that's just been a congame forever..
In this new system,the harder you work, the more your money is worth, not just more bills into circulation, but the more the bills are really worth. You could actually just..save money to save money if that is what you wanted to do with it. You could still invest, or just put aside cash, and it would most always increase in worth as time went on,not DECREASE like the fed serf-perpetual-debt note has (currently worth 2% of what is was originally, if that)
The money is now stabilized, open to inspection (it would have to be), and be inflation and deflation proof because it would be based on quantifiable tangible wealth creation, not figures picked out of someone's nether regions. (It will also attract a ton of foreign investment because of that)
The government now is completely self funding-we can trash the income tax immediately! Trash it, not needed! Think of *that* boost to the economy in the next quarter once instigated. No need for the social engineering that the regressive tax represents, no more carrot and the stick to make states and individuals toe the line of wild @$$ schemes and wealth transference and rearrangement, which is all our current tax and statute conjob is, mass social engineering..
As the government pays its various bills,nationally and internationally, the new money gets into general circulation. Yep, just like that. We might devise a proportional scheme to use half for the federal government and the other half gets divvied up with the states according to best estimate population figures. I would reserve sales taxes for local municipalities only, possibly with a very minimal cap (2%?) to stop abuse and encourage competence in governing, and keep the current limited federal "use" taxes, like the fuel tax, and earmark it totally for the actual "use". Fuel tax goes for road upkeep, endstop, etc. So, we've eliminated the bulk of the taxes, corporate, private, no income taxes, no "death" tax, none of the controversial stupid taxes in other words. Wealth goes to the producers with 100% assurance they WILL get to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Really free and fair trade anyone now?
Combine that with an exact quid pro quo with other nations for import and export duties, with THEM setting the rates...everyone wins.
We use the top one hundred traded commodities/items because it will be a diverse enough reference for the economy in general, and our mone
...sorta like that goofy startup with the weird name, what was it called again, oh ya, "google". WTH is "google", my boss will never go for that!
PHBs, and the companies they run, who fixate on names instead of the engineering aspects of a product will suffer long term, as always, because they probably also make weird decisions based on completely unimportant stuff. Like, what's a "linux", like a big bobcat, right? Can't be any good. They give it away free? Can't be worth much...and so on.
With that said, of course gutsy gibbon is too weird, I prefer "randy rhino", the power tie of names!;)
..do a site survey, use those maps from the link as part of it, look at your wallet and go for it. to me it is like computers, if you wait for the next great thing and price drops-you'll never own a computer. Comes a time you need to just take the plunge, knowing full well ten years from then there will be better deals. so it goes. but..in the meantime you have some guaranteed juice, and it is a lot cleaner as well, both from an environmental standpoint and from the actual sine wave standpoint. As geeks, we all dig electricity, and we all can understand backups and uninterrupted power supplies..so, extrapolate, it's just as good of an idea for your home..
The good thing about solar is it scales, from a one panel rig (like in the article) at around a grand for the panel and charge controller and battery, etc, to whatever you want to spend, and you can start small and add to it as you want/need.
With that said, and as I mentioned previously, MORE insulation! You just can't beat not needing any more energy for the same lifestyle! You work it both ways to the middle, drop demand, add to production, eventually those lines cross and you are energy independent, whatever energy bill you are looking at. The big computer guys/server farms finally get it, more efficient servers and virtualization, etc.
It used to be years ago the electric bill and filling the gastank at the station was a "ho hum, big deal.." cost, but it ain't that way now! Electric energy independence, and eventually transportation independence, two disruptive technology concepts that go to enrich the working dude, instead of keeping him in wallet thralldom forever and a day to the power monopoly guys.
OK, to really directly answer your question as to the solar heated swimming pool, it was dogsquat easy, you can do it in one afternoon. Several hundred feet of hose, laid out over a south facing garage roof with dark shingles. That's it! You can go a lot fancier but that works. You need a *lot* of hose though. It got hot up there. Tapped into the existing pool pump on the downstream side of the filter, so that the water first got run up through the hose where it picked up heat, then into the pool. Really that easy. It had to be manually turned on and off in the morning using kentucky windage guesstimates and an outdoor thermometer, and that wasn't any big deal either. Today, you could automate that easy with some off the shelf parts and a diverter valve- to the heating coil/not to the heating coil, binary based on outside temps. You could lose heat if you run it too early in the day in other words or space out and make it run all night. I think also different today I would use a single long loop of high temp black hose tubing rather than shorter hoses connected together, but, like I said, was pop's pool I was the grunt helper and that was my first foray into alternative energy. After that we built a solar enclosed patio, just a nice solarium/sunroom, it was quite nice during the winter to be able to go outside and get a little warmish sun in it.
Any other questions just ask away, glad to oblige.
Screw that, it isn't their carbon to tax me on it *again* and I've already pointed out that tree planting is just a way to "feel good" about your pollution, trees are self planting all over the planet, lining up some sort of figures is usless except for those who want more political power over other people or want their money and usually it is both. Really, I am not exaggerating, we have _thousands_ of new baby trees a year sprout up here, will someone give me a wad of cash for that? How about you, where's my check, we "offset" quite a bit of carbon just by letting the woods grow here. Oh,no check? Why not then? Carbon credits and taxes are an authoritarian and globalist greedpig economic and power trip scam. It's the new enron styled invent crap out of thin air trading BS that they slap warm and fuzzy green paint on it so the mouth breather rubes don't notice they are being fleeced and exploited some more. Sure, you can go on purpose plant trees all over, that doesn't mean that a huge number more wild ones don't sprout up every year with not much more than wind and animals moving the seeds around. It's urban "feel good" crap. Makes about as much sense as those weather trading futures they tried, just more scam products from the same accounting school of thought as where the MAFIAA or the DEA pull numbers on what stuff is worth.
Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of "going green", living with a light footprint, being responsible, not dicking over the environment, etc, and have been my entire life, but I've just been in this to long to not notice the cons that can get associated with it, and "carbon credits" and "carbon trading" are at the very top of the list.
...and before you casually hurl "know it all" insults. I live in georgia, and also own an aeromarine wind power generator, but I use solar for my alternative energy of choice, because it works *much much better* here than wind. There's no one single "best" power source, it depends on use, location, etc. Solar just works hella better here than wind, right now,I am getting decent sun, but the wind is quite calm. Other areas it is way more windy most of the year, but solar might not be as good. Some guys are lucky and can run decent hybrid systems, using both, especially good as wind picks up in the winter when there is less sun, and vice versa. It just depends. Here ya go, look at some solar and wind potential maps
I've been into alternative energy since the 60s (you??) when I first worked with my dad and we built from scratch some solar heating for our swimming pool (added a month decent swimming both spring and fall for only a couple hundred bucks and some labor), and since that time as a hobbiest and also it was my business for a few years (might be again possibly, the interest has picked up a lot this past year with all the energy cost increases), by actually "doing* stuff with it, everything from solar thermal space heating and solar water heating for household use to making biofuel ethanol and methane, working on superinsulated structures (several of those, best dollars you can spend is more insulation and better windows), etc. etc, along with solar PV and wind. I am fully aware of the pluses and minuses of this or that technique and what stuff costs, etc. This isn't theoretical casual web board commentary from me, it is hands on experience. I don't write code, so I don't comment about that a whole lot, but with alternative energy I can speak from some significant experience. I don't claim to be the expert's expert, because I am not, but I do have a lot of hands on with this stuff and try to keep up with the industry in general terms. And it worked just swell with that laptop, and it also ran a reading light and a small TV and a radio at the same time during the evenings, it wasn't stupid at all, it "just worked" for relatively cheap money, and it has been long paid off and the same rig still works fine, even that original single battery that is going on ten years old now works fine, and the larger battery bank is 8 years old now and works fine.
...here, have a few freebie trees on me! Go ahead, claim a dozen, they are cheap! You have to go way out of your way to NOT have trees gradually take over pastureland. We have untold *thousands and thousands* of wild trees sprout all on their own here every year. Carbon offsets and new green taxes and whatnot though are scams, pure bloated governmental bureaucracy/corporate dodgy scams.
With that said, solar PV *works* and works well, and is affordable now if you extrapolate probable electricity costs for a coupla decades into the future. I have a home made version of what is in the article (single good sized panel, charge controller, storage battery on a handtruck so it was movable, tied in with a long heavy gauge extension I made from scrap welding cables, and those went to more storage batts) and ran my old computer (a laptop, but it is what I had then) from it for years.
I am extreme pro environment, and I walk the talk and slap my wallet where my mouth is and have for a long time now, but I warn folks, watch for the conjobs from the globalist green movement. Parts of it are righteous, parts of it are pure con, it isn't all one or the other. We can do much better with energy conservation in our buildings and vehicles and gadgets (dropping our demand while still enjoying technology), and we certainly can produce a lot more green power now that economies of scale are seriously ramping up with solar and wind and geothermal and hydro, and because we can see how destructive a lot of "conventional" power is, but beware all the "new carbon taxes" and "carbon trading" and suchlike, they are designed to separate you from your cash and add another burdensome layer of onerous power tripping laws over you and add in even more disgusting middleman "traders" to skim off working guys wealth. So go green, but do it because you like it and we need it as a planet and it works and makes sense and cent$, not because they force you to swallow some serious propaganda and BS.
One per local network, not one per computer. No need at all for one per computer.. And the main point was they were saying that it was becoming burdensome and needing all these time servers, begging for help in other words. And you need a true static IP to help, which eliminates 99% of the computing public right there, as in, most people don't pay for an expensive business account so they don't get static IPs. They may get a dynamic that doesn't change for a long time, but it isn't static.. I just a thought a neat way to do it per company or per household would be an attachment device to the clocks, or rather, a clock that was designed to also fulfill this purpose. So it cost 15 dollars instead of ten, who cares, they are cheap now and the extra circuitry and attachment cord couldn't cost that much more to add it on with USB.
Like a lot of guys here, we have an atomic self setting clock that works from radio broadcast. They are cheap now and work very well. What I am wondering is, do they make some sort of attachment clock, so it can set your computer's time that way? Like an atomic clock/usb cable connect thingee? Seems like if they did, we wouldn't need all these NTP servers, the government does the radio broadcasting and it is as accurate as it gets.
on the older classic OS, I always liked iCab browser and Soundjam MP3 player. Small, worked very well, I still use them on the odd occasion I have to use my old powerbook.
On linux, the mini OS distros,damn small, puppy, slax, austrumi, etc. proving you can have a decent functional desktop with a variety of useful applications in only 50 megs of space. You don't need hundreds of megs on a CD or an entire DVD with gigs of stuff, most of which most normal users will never use anyway. Browser, chat, email, media player, some sort of text editor, done.
Windows, no idea, haven't used it since 98se, which could run on some pretty marginally specced machines.
Does cl33n do dial-up, and does it load direct to ram and eject the disk? With that said I just mentioned damn small as an example (and one that is easily modifiable to hit the article submitter's requirements), so far, of the ones I have tried, I like Austrumi which is slackware based for the mini distros, but it doesn't default to english and still needs some work there.
Just use machines with a decent amount of RAM,like a full gig, an optical drive, and one of the mini linux distros like damn small. No hard drive needed. About as simple to do as anything and un-hosable.
...is the whole concept of income taxes in general when all these various nations use fiat currency systems run by central banks, who get to profit enormously for little to no actual productive work. Income taxes exist today (as opposed to in the past when currency was backed by something other than hot air and a gun) as a means of hard handed and totalitarian social control by the elite using the carrot and the stick approach, but they aren't necessary to run governments or economies. An "open accounting" productivity and formula based currency based on the various nation's quantifiable produced wealth in tangibles (I like the top 100 adjusted yearly approach) could be substituted, with only a very few (percentage wise)of already rich folks being out of their "jobs".
If the Pope really wants to open a can of whup ass on large scale economic criminality, let him hit on the scum bag monopolist money changers first..he has historical precedent there.
Best three bucks you can spend to have proof of a piece of paper existing on such and such a date. It's analog, not digital, but as part of your IP protecting scheme it sure can't hurt.
You push the air through for ventilation because as the batteries are charging it gives off some explosive gases. Dragging explosive gases through a running electrical motor is not a real good idea....at least I ain't gonna do it...
Hey, ask away here! Maybe someone else here might want the info! On our Rv we just use 4 golf cart batts to store the "house" supply,. and have two starter batteries in parallel on a separate circuit, although I can jumper to the storage batteries if needs be, either to charge them from the engine or generator, or for emergency engine starting, either way will work, I've tried it, although batts are best used inside their design parameters, storage or starting.. you can do that as well with a device called an isolator, you can look them up see how they work and what they cost, not too expensive really. originally it had one starter and one deep cycle, but I modded it a lot, one single deep cycle just ain't enough. Found a place for the golf cart batts and squeezed them in and did a combo series/parallel, two sets of 6 volters done in series, then the two redone to parallel, giving me 12 VDC for the house current. then I ran new circuits and used a lot of normal hotplugs and just used 12 volt appliances.. The panels -2 of them- are on the roof, but I also arranged it so the RV can be parked in the shade (good idea, they can get really hot in the summer and fast) and the panels disconnected and lowered to the ground and moved over to the sunlight someplace,and have a little cart/stand for them when they are on the ground and around a 25 foot or so lead made out of heavy external wiring. For travel they bolt to the back bumper, I don't have a permanent roof mount, although they are available, as are crank up into the wind small windchargers for RVs. You get so much juice from the alternator while moving you really don't need the solar input, although you can mount them so they can be shifted completely flat for traveling and not blow away, etc, I just moved them to the back bumper because it was easier to deploy and aim them when parked, rather than be forced into an awkward parking situation to "aim" the panels.
Extra insulation in RVs is tough, all the wall space is usually cabinets/built in appliances whatever already and headroom is dear, although I guess you could add another inch of styrofoam wherever you can reach and then re-panel.
As to the weight deal, RVS are built on heavy truck chassis usually, I wouldn't sweat it until you start to talk about extra tons or something ludicrous like that. A few hundred pounds of extra batteries spread out over the chassis shouldn't be much of a problem unless it is a really small RV, and then you might want to think about towing a trailer instead and keeping the panels and batts on that thing, although I prefer towing a good mileage little car or truck.. Transpo backup is a wonderful thing sometimes...
if you don't mind having to move a big weight, look into getting electric forklift battery packs instead. A much better deal dollar wise there than trojans or rolls-surrettes, etc. The smaller batteries can be hand moved (although they are still quite heavy), but the cost is significantly higher. The forklift battery packs are already wired with welded busbars as well, so it saves a little more there, too, parts plus labor. You mentioned an electric fence so I will assume you are a rural guy like me and can handle moving stout stuff with your equipment.
Anyway, solar works, and well, within its limitations. Once you have it up and installed the only remaining question you will have is why did you wait. The first time your grid juice goes down and you still have full power, you'll *really* smile about it. Maintenance is pretty easy, occasionally clean the panels off and top off the batts with distilled water. I used good disconnects and actually covered the panels before, or did the maintenance at night on new moon nights when the least amount of power is being generated. Also wait for the batts to cool down a little before opening them up, and pour in the fresh water slowly, and you can read up how to build a proper battery bank housing unit with ventilation, which is required, you use a small DC fan as an air PUSHER into the unit with an exhaust someplace safe, you don't PULL the gassy air out. big PVC pipe is fine, the bottom of your storage bank container gets lined with sintra and put some baking soda down there on the bottom, just in case. I found a bright headlamp worked good for battery maintenance, keeping my hands free,(and goggles of course and rubber gloves, cheap insurance) and a big turkey baster for the last little bits into the cells to get it "just right". Just remember, you got a LOT of amps sitting there, you don't want to weld yourself!
Oh ya, on the batts. Double size your battery bank (or a lot more than what you think, whatever). Figure out what you need, get double, then they are always shallow cycling and they will last a long time, plus install a "desulphator", you can google that up and see which one you might like, they work pretty well from my experience, the batts I have one on are from 98 and still working fine.
Really, is it that hard to carry an additional one pound and have a safer and probably better battery in a laptop? Has society gotten that wimpy? The great race to see who can have the thinnest lightest laptop causes problems like this, along with cost cutting in quality and emphasis on bling factor. It needs to stop, maybe a few multi million dollar lawsuits might help, who knows, but there has to be something to get their attention on this generation's "pinto".. Lithium ion batts are cool tech, but they apparently need a lot more work on the stability issues and it would help if engineering dictated the size and weight and config, not marketing.
How can I put this delicately...uhh.."fuck you, asshole"...
Hope that's subtle and ontopic enough. If you can't read the headlines and see things aren't going real smooth, just generally speaking, too bad, go back to grade school and try again.
Infrastructure "failures", economic shenanigans and bailouts, military moves, threats, warnings, alleged "chatter", federal power consolidation efforts, stpped up command/control/surveillence, and etc and so on. All the headlines lately taken as a gestalt. It just smells bad to me, but I can't at this time tie it all together, just the number and timing of them. It's excessive, even though we are always seeing failures and weird events, it just seems "too much, too fast" lately. That's the best I can put it right now. Keeps looking like some major S is going to HTF, as the expression goes.
Also, my post reply was initially for a journal entry, I would have phrased it differently and expanded a bit if it was intended to be a general main page article reply. Frequent readers of JC's journal would more know what I was talking about. HTH
Just not, I think it was deliberate, some org trying to see how they could gum up the system easily. I just don't think they want to admit they got hacked.
Zero proof, I just never take governmental reasons for spectacular failures at face value any longer. I used to when I was younger, but after seeing 7,892 lies in a row-well, I just don't trust them on anything important, and I don't believe in coincidences. That is my default position. Whatever they say first-is a lie until proven otherwise, and proof that would convince me is not some spokesperson claiming such and such.
There's too much weird stuff going on, especially with the markets and money supply and an apparent outright war with some global factions in this weird economy, and I think they are going to need a serious public emergency distraction real soon now to take the heat off the ongoing meltdown, and it IS melting down right now. Those failures are not accidents in other words, nor are a lot of the other "failures" we are seeing lately, I think they have been mostly all attacks by parties at this time unknown.
It just *stinks* to me, way too much BS being spoon fed to everyone in the media for it all to be true facts. Too much in a short time frame...just ain't buying it. And the rats deserting the sinking ships, a lot of biz execs bailing out, obvious collusion with artificially propping up some fatcats, weird murmurings from overseas..looks like historically all the major shifts before WW1, very similar.
Any one event, sure, a couple, possible, not these dozens of weird events in such a short time frame....nope, not probably unless it is on purpose. This is asymmetrical warfare, or false flag, or tests or probes or...dang something. It stinks. If I could pion it down better I would, but I am looking at this daily and if see something that makes it all fit I'll do another journal entry about it.
I've been antsy about all my preps lately,. moreso than usual, even for a fanatic like me.
I'll say one thing, keep your battery supplies good and have the best possible water filter handy, and a shortwave radio with some freqs programmed in, and take another look at the bugout bags if that is what will be needed because of where folks live, and make sure you have a good supply of h95 masks and assorted other medkit stuff. I got a feeling some cities are going to be hurting soon. And that's all it is, a feeling, can't get better than that at this time.
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A very good point. Maybe the FCC should not allow those big telcos who already are sitting on leased airwaves from bidding any further, leave it to some new companies instead. Let them run with what they have now, improve that, and let some others pull up a chair to the wireless table.
I also think they should drastically reduce the hoop jumping and expense for lower power broadcasting, open that up as well, commercial or not for profit, it doesn't matter, we have good tech now that would allow a lot more stations on a smaller community basis rather than just extending a few conglomerates power.
Thanks, I have heard of constants before, but not sure if it was any of your references (which I will check out). My idea was developed standalone, I had never read about anything like it, but am glad to hear some name brand economist guys thought it was a useful idea! the constants I recall were a very local and I think silver coin based currency, basically just tokens that retained value.
I tell you, the scam and conjob with the fed is the longest running pure d ripoff out there, just a heinous robbery of the US public and productive class. There should have been a mass revolt against it way back when. It even hurts business tremendously when there is no need for it other than to keep a relatively small number of people-probably in the low thousands tops-in control of the nation. And none of them are elected.
Yep, just checked it out, his ideas and mine are very similar, not identical but extremely close. His involves investing, mine treats the entire nation as one big investment, because it is. Mine combines labor and tangibles at the same time because it stays adjusted and the commodities can fluctuate better.
thanks again for the links.
Mostly whenever I present this idea I get ignored, or at best some trolls says "what about inflation?" or "you gold bugs are all the same", along those lines. It is such a simple idea but is so hard to get across to people, raised as they are with the way "things are done" and just accepting the most important thing for the economy, the simple basic currency, at "face value", giggles intended. It's very hard to get people to grok that the currency system in use is a tool of oppression and exploitation first before it is anything else.
So, you are an economist, a big money man, an academic, or just a gifted layman on this subject or what? Who knows, this is slashdot, you could work for the Fed even, who knoweth. To be fair, I am just a dumbass farmer who understands the diff between stuff, and illusions/representations or simulacrums of stuff. Gary North had an interesting phrase he came up with to describe it, it being digits that are supposed to be worth something in theory, he calls them "electronic promises of money".
Corn was never meant to be the perpetual energy fuel feedstock. It is being done as a transition fuel feedstock while other technologies, like this algae for instance, or cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass, etc, develop. And it is because we are set up to produce corn (and soybeans) in mass quantities with no infrastructure changes right now today, this season, it's happening. Just like the vehicle changes, we are transitioning from straight gashogs to hybrids to eventually plug in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells and straight electric drive, but that is still way down the road. This is the tech we have now, that's all, have to start someplace.
...exactly in the spirit of the Liberator pistol
Then make a second drop after burma/myanmar into rhodesia/zimbabwe.
1)try to milk out existing markets
2)develop new markets that look to have some potential down the road, where there is little or no competition right now
We have corporations fixated on the next quarter profits,all the way to the point of abandoning R&D and selling off assets, etc, and those looking for the long haul. Sure, you get a fast fat city bottom line that way, but it's *stoopid*
Detroit in the early 70s vs. Japan, Inc. Who was actually smarter, which set of execs was actually looking out for their investors the best, the old "bottom line"? *Which* bottom line is more important, who's kicking ass now and who keeps having to dodge bankruptcy and junk bond status and so on?
FOSS-you either get it, or you don't, and it really is that simple, and to this day a lot of people even on this site just do not "get it". If you play act at "getting it", you won't receive all the benefits possible. Just try to milk it out short term with no sharing or thought to the users or taking a peek at the long view, again, it proves you don't get it or don't want to get it and in the long run you won't be as successful.
So, to all those folks saying the corporations are only interested in money, sure, I'd agree, but for how long? Do you want to make money for a long time, and just cede potential up and coming markets to squeeze out or cheap out a few extra nickles now in the short run? Is that really all you care about? Is it a good idea to cheap out on R&D, after all, right this quarter it's not "making you any money", now is it? Cheap out on embracing new customers? Slam up a website that bogues out decent double digits of the folks who use "alternative browsers" or OSes besides IE and windows out there, just tell those people to get stuffed?
Choices, business decisions, short range versus long range versus looking at ALL the ranges. Invest in your real business, invest in finding new customers instead of just milking the ones you have now, invest in research and share back because the more who do that the more "you" get back as well. That just seems to be a much better idea than cheaping out for the short run.
plug and disclaimer- A variation of an idea I have had for a long time now, and it fits in this conversation so I will just paste it in.
..save money to save money if that is what you wanted to do with it. You could still invest, or just put aside cash, and it would most always increase in worth as time went on,not DECREASE like the fed serf-perpetual-debt note has (currently worth 2% of what is was originally, if that)
"You didn't ask me, but here is my idea of monetary economic reform, cliff's notes version, open for review, this must be my 20th or so version of this I have written. The basic idea is the same though..
Fire the Fed *imediately*, pay them off (we have a provision to do so, it's cheap really) No need to pay them guys interest on our own money forever, that is beyond ludicrous. They can go back to being a private bank consortium if they wish and compete with all the other banks normally.
Freeze the current dollar supply until an audit is taken, as fast as possible obviously.
analyze the last quarter's, and the quarter's before that, top 100 traded commodities and national production levels. (wealth is grown, harvested, mined and manufactured, or a combination thereof, there are our tangibles that back the buck in quantifiable form)
Note the diff between the two quarters, if an increase (most likely always is, a percent or two usually, a decrease would be zero production in *anything*, highly unlikely), check the proportion with dollars in existence, then issue that much more "new money" bills into existence, that represents that tangible wealth increase, and that's it, no more, no less. An exact "open source" money system, with an incentive to work and produce, no more voodoo fed czar calling the shots behind closed doors with some of his billionaire drinkin buds. that's just been a congame forever..
In this new system,the harder you work, the more your money is worth, not just more bills into circulation, but the more the bills are really worth. You could actually just
The money is now stabilized, open to inspection (it would have to be), and be inflation and deflation proof because it would be based on quantifiable tangible wealth creation, not figures picked out of someone's nether regions. (It will also attract a ton of foreign investment because of that)
The government now is completely self funding-we can trash the income tax immediately! Trash it, not needed! Think of *that* boost to the economy in the next quarter once instigated. No need for the social engineering that the regressive tax represents, no more carrot and the stick to make states and individuals toe the line of wild @$$ schemes and wealth transference and rearrangement, which is all our current tax and statute conjob is, mass social engineering..
As the government pays its various bills,nationally and internationally, the new money gets into general circulation. Yep, just like that. We might devise a proportional scheme to use half for the federal government and the other half gets divvied up with the states according to best estimate population figures. I would reserve sales taxes for local municipalities only, possibly with a very minimal cap (2%?) to stop abuse and encourage competence in governing, and keep the current limited federal "use" taxes, like the fuel tax, and earmark it totally for the actual "use". Fuel tax goes for road upkeep, endstop, etc. So, we've eliminated the bulk of the taxes, corporate, private, no income taxes, no "death" tax, none of the controversial stupid taxes in other words. Wealth goes to the producers with 100% assurance they WILL get to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Really free and fair trade anyone now?
Combine that with an exact quid pro quo with other nations for import and export duties, with THEM setting the rates...everyone wins.
We use the top one hundred traded commodities/items because it will be a diverse enough reference for the economy in general, and our mone
...sorta like that goofy startup with the weird name, what was it called again, oh ya, "google". WTH is "google", my boss will never go for that!
;)
PHBs, and the companies they run, who fixate on names instead of the engineering aspects of a product will suffer long term, as always, because they probably also make weird decisions based on completely unimportant stuff. Like, what's a "linux", like a big bobcat, right? Can't be any good. They give it away free? Can't be worth much...and so on.
With that said, of course gutsy gibbon is too weird, I prefer "randy rhino", the power tie of names!
..do a site survey, use those maps from the link as part of it, look at your wallet and go for it. to me it is like computers, if you wait for the next great thing and price drops-you'll never own a computer. Comes a time you need to just take the plunge, knowing full well ten years from then there will be better deals. so it goes. but..in the meantime you have some guaranteed juice, and it is a lot cleaner as well, both from an environmental standpoint and from the actual sine wave standpoint. As geeks, we all dig electricity, and we all can understand backups and uninterrupted power supplies..so, extrapolate, it's just as good of an idea for your home..
The good thing about solar is it scales, from a one panel rig (like in the article) at around a grand for the panel and charge controller and battery, etc, to whatever you want to spend, and you can start small and add to it as you want/need.
With that said, and as I mentioned previously, MORE insulation! You just can't beat not needing any more energy for the same lifestyle! You work it both ways to the middle, drop demand, add to production, eventually those lines cross and you are energy independent, whatever energy bill you are looking at. The big computer guys/server farms finally get it, more efficient servers and virtualization, etc.
It used to be years ago the electric bill and filling the gastank at the station was a "ho hum, big deal.." cost, but it ain't that way now! Electric energy independence, and eventually transportation independence, two disruptive technology concepts that go to enrich the working dude, instead of keeping him in wallet thralldom forever and a day to the power monopoly guys.
OK, to really directly answer your question as to the solar heated swimming pool, it was dogsquat easy, you can do it in one afternoon. Several hundred feet of hose, laid out over a south facing garage roof with dark shingles. That's it! You can go a lot fancier but that works. You need a *lot* of hose though. It got hot up there. Tapped into the existing pool pump on the downstream side of the filter, so that the water first got run up through the hose where it picked up heat, then into the pool. Really that easy. It had to be manually turned on and off in the morning using kentucky windage guesstimates and an outdoor thermometer, and that wasn't any big deal either. Today, you could automate that easy with some off the shelf parts and a diverter valve- to the heating coil/not to the heating coil, binary based on outside temps. You could lose heat if you run it too early in the day in other words or space out and make it run all night. I think also different today I would use a single long loop of high temp black hose tubing rather than shorter hoses connected together, but, like I said, was pop's pool I was the grunt helper and that was my first foray into alternative energy. After that we built a solar enclosed patio, just a nice solarium/sunroom, it was quite nice during the winter to be able to go outside and get a little warmish sun in it.
Any other questions just ask away, glad to oblige.
Screw that, it isn't their carbon to tax me on it *again* and I've already pointed out that tree planting is just a way to "feel good" about your pollution, trees are self planting all over the planet, lining up some sort of figures is usless except for those who want more political power over other people or want their money and usually it is both. Really, I am not exaggerating, we have _thousands_ of new baby trees a year sprout up here, will someone give me a wad of cash for that? How about you, where's my check, we "offset" quite a bit of carbon just by letting the woods grow here. Oh,no check? Why not then? Carbon credits and taxes are an authoritarian and globalist greedpig economic and power trip scam. It's the new enron styled invent crap out of thin air trading BS that they slap warm and fuzzy green paint on it so the mouth breather rubes don't notice they are being fleeced and exploited some more. Sure, you can go on purpose plant trees all over, that doesn't mean that a huge number more wild ones don't sprout up every year with not much more than wind and animals moving the seeds around. It's urban "feel good" crap. Makes about as much sense as those weather trading futures they tried, just more scam products from the same accounting school of thought as where the MAFIAA or the DEA pull numbers on what stuff is worth.
Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of "going green", living with a light footprint, being responsible, not dicking over the environment, etc, and have been my entire life, but I've just been in this to long to not notice the cons that can get associated with it, and "carbon credits" and "carbon trading" are at the very top of the list.
...and before you casually hurl "know it all" insults. I live in georgia, and also own an aeromarine wind power generator, but I use solar for my alternative energy of choice, because it works *much much better* here than wind. There's no one single "best" power source, it depends on use, location, etc. Solar just works hella better here than wind, right now,I am getting decent sun, but the wind is quite calm. Other areas it is way more windy most of the year, but solar might not be as good. Some guys are lucky and can run decent hybrid systems, using both, especially good as wind picks up in the winter when there is less sun, and vice versa. It just depends. Here ya go, look at some solar and wind potential maps
I've been into alternative energy since the 60s (you??) when I first worked with my dad and we built from scratch some solar heating for our swimming pool (added a month decent swimming both spring and fall for only a couple hundred bucks and some labor), and since that time as a hobbiest and also it was my business for a few years (might be again possibly, the interest has picked up a lot this past year with all the energy cost increases), by actually "doing* stuff with it, everything from solar thermal space heating and solar water heating for household use to making biofuel ethanol and methane, working on superinsulated structures (several of those, best dollars you can spend is more insulation and better windows), etc. etc, along with solar PV and wind. I am fully aware of the pluses and minuses of this or that technique and what stuff costs, etc. This isn't theoretical casual web board commentary from me, it is hands on experience. I don't write code, so I don't comment about that a whole lot, but with alternative energy I can speak from some significant experience. I don't claim to be the expert's expert, because I am not, but I do have a lot of hands on with this stuff and try to keep up with the industry in general terms. And it worked just swell with that laptop, and it also ran a reading light and a small TV and a radio at the same time during the evenings, it wasn't stupid at all, it "just worked" for relatively cheap money, and it has been long paid off and the same rig still works fine, even that original single battery that is going on ten years old now works fine, and the larger battery bank is 8 years old now and works fine.
...here, have a few freebie trees on me! Go ahead, claim a dozen, they are cheap! You have to go way out of your way to NOT have trees gradually take over pastureland. We have untold *thousands and thousands* of wild trees sprout all on their own here every year. Carbon offsets and new green taxes and whatnot though are scams, pure bloated governmental bureaucracy/corporate dodgy scams.
With that said, solar PV *works* and works well, and is affordable now if you extrapolate probable electricity costs for a coupla decades into the future. I have a home made version of what is in the article (single good sized panel, charge controller, storage battery on a handtruck so it was movable, tied in with a long heavy gauge extension I made from scrap welding cables, and those went to more storage batts) and ran my old computer (a laptop, but it is what I had then) from it for years.
I am extreme pro environment, and I walk the talk and slap my wallet where my mouth is and have for a long time now, but I warn folks, watch for the conjobs from the globalist green movement. Parts of it are righteous, parts of it are pure con, it isn't all one or the other. We can do much better with energy conservation in our buildings and vehicles and gadgets (dropping our demand while still enjoying technology), and we certainly can produce a lot more green power now that economies of scale are seriously ramping up with solar and wind and geothermal and hydro, and because we can see how destructive a lot of "conventional" power is, but beware all the "new carbon taxes" and "carbon trading" and suchlike, they are designed to separate you from your cash and add another burdensome layer of onerous power tripping laws over you and add in even more disgusting middleman "traders" to skim off working guys wealth. So go green, but do it because you like it and we need it as a planet and it works and makes sense and cent$, not because they force you to swallow some serious propaganda and BS.
One per local network, not one per computer. No need at all for one per computer.. And the main point was they were saying that it was becoming burdensome and needing all these time servers, begging for help in other words. And you need a true static IP to help, which eliminates 99% of the computing public right there, as in, most people don't pay for an expensive business account so they don't get static IPs. They may get a dynamic that doesn't change for a long time, but it isn't static.. I just a thought a neat way to do it per company or per household would be an attachment device to the clocks, or rather, a clock that was designed to also fulfill this purpose. So it cost 15 dollars instead of ten, who cares, they are cheap now and the extra circuitry and attachment cord couldn't cost that much more to add it on with USB.
Like a lot of guys here, we have an atomic self setting clock that works from radio broadcast. They are cheap now and work very well. What I am wondering is, do they make some sort of attachment clock, so it can set your computer's time that way? Like an atomic clock/usb cable connect thingee? Seems like if they did, we wouldn't need all these NTP servers, the government does the radio broadcasting and it is as accurate as it gets.
on the older classic OS, I always liked iCab browser and Soundjam MP3 player. Small, worked very well, I still use them on the odd occasion I have to use my old powerbook.
On linux, the mini OS distros,damn small, puppy, slax, austrumi, etc. proving you can have a decent functional desktop with a variety of useful applications in only 50 megs of space. You don't need hundreds of megs on a CD or an entire DVD with gigs of stuff, most of which most normal users will never use anyway. Browser, chat, email, media player, some sort of text editor, done.
Windows, no idea, haven't used it since 98se, which could run on some pretty marginally specced machines.
Does cl33n do dial-up, and does it load direct to ram and eject the disk? With that said I just mentioned damn small as an example (and one that is easily modifiable to hit the article submitter's requirements), so far, of the ones I have tried, I like Austrumi which is slackware based for the mini distros, but it doesn't default to english and still needs some work there.
Just use machines with a decent amount of RAM,like a full gig, an optical drive, and one of the mini linux distros like damn small. No hard drive needed. About as simple to do as anything and un-hosable.
...is the whole concept of income taxes in general when all these various nations use fiat currency systems run by central banks, who get to profit enormously for little to no actual productive work. Income taxes exist today (as opposed to in the past when currency was backed by something other than hot air and a gun) as a means of hard handed and totalitarian social control by the elite using the carrot and the stick approach, but they aren't necessary to run governments or economies. An "open accounting" productivity and formula based currency based on the various nation's quantifiable produced wealth in tangibles (I like the top 100 adjusted yearly approach) could be substituted, with only a very few (percentage wise)of already rich folks being out of their "jobs".
If the Pope really wants to open a can of whup ass on large scale economic criminality, let him hit on the scum bag monopolist money changers first..he has historical precedent there.
Best three bucks you can spend to have proof of a piece of paper existing on such and such a date. It's analog, not digital, but as part of your IP protecting scheme it sure can't hurt.
You push the air through for ventilation because as the batteries are charging it gives off some explosive gases. Dragging explosive gases through a running electrical motor is not a real good idea....at least I ain't gonna do it...
Hey, ask away here! Maybe someone else here might want the info! On our Rv we just use 4 golf cart batts to store the "house" supply,. and have two starter batteries in parallel on a separate circuit, although I can jumper to the storage batteries if needs be, either to charge them from the engine or generator, or for emergency engine starting, either way will work, I've tried it, although batts are best used inside their design parameters, storage or starting.. you can do that as well with a device called an isolator, you can look them up see how they work and what they cost, not too expensive really. originally it had one starter and one deep cycle, but I modded it a lot, one single deep cycle just ain't enough. Found a place for the golf cart batts and squeezed them in and did a combo series/parallel, two sets of 6 volters done in series, then the two redone to parallel, giving me 12 VDC for the house current. then I ran new circuits and used a lot of normal hotplugs and just used 12 volt appliances.. The panels -2 of them- are on the roof, but I also arranged it so the RV can be parked in the shade (good idea, they can get really hot in the summer and fast) and the panels disconnected and lowered to the ground and moved over to the sunlight someplace,and have a little cart/stand for them when they are on the ground and around a 25 foot or so lead made out of heavy external wiring. For travel they bolt to the back bumper, I don't have a permanent roof mount, although they are available, as are crank up into the wind small windchargers for RVs. You get so much juice from the alternator while moving you really don't need the solar input, although you can mount them so they can be shifted completely flat for traveling and not blow away, etc, I just moved them to the back bumper because it was easier to deploy and aim them when parked, rather than be forced into an awkward parking situation to "aim" the panels.
Extra insulation in RVs is tough, all the wall space is usually cabinets/built in appliances whatever already and headroom is dear, although I guess you could add another inch of styrofoam wherever you can reach and then re-panel.
As to the weight deal, RVS are built on heavy truck chassis usually, I wouldn't sweat it until you start to talk about extra tons or something ludicrous like that. A few hundred pounds of extra batteries spread out over the chassis shouldn't be much of a problem unless it is a really small RV, and then you might want to think about towing a trailer instead and keeping the panels and batts on that thing, although I prefer towing a good mileage little car or truck.. Transpo backup is a wonderful thing sometimes...
if you don't mind having to move a big weight, look into getting electric forklift battery packs instead. A much better deal dollar wise there than trojans or rolls-surrettes, etc. The smaller batteries can be hand moved (although they are still quite heavy), but the cost is significantly higher. The forklift battery packs are already wired with welded busbars as well, so it saves a little more there, too, parts plus labor. You mentioned an electric fence so I will assume you are a rural guy like me and can handle moving stout stuff with your equipment.
Anyway, solar works, and well, within its limitations. Once you have it up and installed the only remaining question you will have is why did you wait. The first time your grid juice goes down and you still have full power, you'll *really* smile about it. Maintenance is pretty easy, occasionally clean the panels off and top off the batts with distilled water. I used good disconnects and actually covered the panels before, or did the maintenance at night on new moon nights when the least amount of power is being generated. Also wait for the batts to cool down a little before opening them up, and pour in the fresh water slowly, and you can read up how to build a proper battery bank housing unit with ventilation, which is required, you use a small DC fan as an air PUSHER into the unit with an exhaust someplace safe, you don't PULL the gassy air out. big PVC pipe is fine, the bottom of your storage bank container gets lined with sintra and put some baking soda down there on the bottom, just in case. I found a bright headlamp worked good for battery maintenance, keeping my hands free,(and goggles of course and rubber gloves, cheap insurance) and a big turkey baster for the last little bits into the cells to get it "just right". Just remember, you got a LOT of amps sitting there, you don't want to weld yourself!
Oh ya, on the batts. Double size your battery bank (or a lot more than what you think, whatever). Figure out what you need, get double, then they are always shallow cycling and they will last a long time, plus install a "desulphator", you can google that up and see which one you might like, they work pretty well from my experience, the batts I have one on are from 98 and still working fine.
Really, is it that hard to carry an additional one pound and have a safer and probably better battery in a laptop? Has society gotten that wimpy? The great race to see who can have the thinnest lightest laptop causes problems like this, along with cost cutting in quality and emphasis on bling factor. It needs to stop, maybe a few multi million dollar lawsuits might help, who knows, but there has to be something to get their attention on this generation's "pinto".. Lithium ion batts are cool tech, but they apparently need a lot more work on the stability issues and it would help if engineering dictated the size and weight and config, not marketing.
I prefer boron titanium alloy, you insensitive clod!
How can I put this delicately...uhh.."fuck you, asshole"...
Hope that's subtle and ontopic enough. If you can't read the headlines and see things aren't going real smooth, just generally speaking, too bad, go back to grade school and try again.
Also, my post reply was initially for a journal entry, I would have phrased it differently and expanded a bit if it was intended to be a general main page article reply. Frequent readers of JC's journal would more know what I was talking about. HTH
Just not, I think it was deliberate, some org trying to see how they could gum up the system easily. I just don't think they want to admit they got hacked.
Zero proof, I just never take governmental reasons for spectacular failures at face value any longer. I used to when I was younger, but after seeing 7,892 lies in a row-well, I just don't trust them on anything important, and I don't believe in coincidences. That is my default position. Whatever they say first-is a lie until proven otherwise, and proof that would convince me is not some spokesperson claiming such and such.
There's too much weird stuff going on, especially with the markets and money supply and an apparent outright war with some global factions in this weird economy, and I think they are going to need a serious public emergency distraction real soon now to take the heat off the ongoing meltdown, and it IS melting down right now. Those failures are not accidents in other words, nor are a lot of the other "failures" we are seeing lately, I think they have been mostly all attacks by parties at this time unknown.
It just *stinks* to me, way too much BS being spoon fed to everyone in the media for it all to be true facts. Too much in a short time frame...just ain't buying it. And the rats deserting the sinking ships, a lot of biz execs bailing out, obvious collusion with artificially propping up some fatcats, weird murmurings from overseas..looks like historically all the major shifts before WW1, very similar.
Any one event, sure, a couple, possible, not these dozens of weird events in such a short time frame....nope, not probably unless it is on purpose. This is asymmetrical warfare, or false flag, or tests or probes or...dang something. It stinks. If I could pion it down better I would, but I am looking at this daily and if see something that makes it all fit I'll do another journal entry about it.
I've been antsy about all my preps lately,. moreso than usual, even for a fanatic like me.
I'll say one thing, keep your battery supplies good and have the best possible water filter handy, and a shortwave radio with some freqs programmed in, and take another look at the bugout bags if that is what will be needed because of where folks live, and make sure you have a good supply of h95 masks and assorted other medkit stuff. I got a feeling some cities are going to be hurting soon. And that's all it is, a feeling, can't get better than that at this time.