These SC cases bring up lots of legal issues more than what are summarized at the top and bottom.
One thing that came out was the "Fisher Test" for the 5th amendment. which requires 3 things before they can ignore your use of the 5th: 1) evidence exists (prove it exists; you don't have to help them) 2) you have the the evidence (you don't have to say you have it) 3) the forced disclosure does not authenticate you (which is the really tricky part with possible side problems-- its your computer, does unlocking it prove that everything on there could only be put there by you?)
Then there is the obvious one where they make you immune so then the 5th doesn't apply-- this Fisher test is basically another way to insure they are not violating your 5th but still force you to disclose your secrets. Like I said, you may disclose a lot of stuff you do not want out and could have other consequences not directly related to the case at hand. So they are not violating your 5th in a legal sense, they are getting around your invocation of the 5th. And just because its ok in the legal sense doesn't mean its correct or moral or for that matter- it may not be legal... One bad judge could put you in jail for YEARS waiting for appeal.
Its not in a coma-- Privacy has cancer. It most likely will lead to Privacy's death. The name of one of Privacy's cancers is "I'm not doing anything wrong, so why should I care?"
Technology is changing the situation but laws ARE also being changed as well. The most powerful organizations (corporations / industry groups) have actively begun to undermine privacy because of its profit potential; which yes, is possible due to new technology. Even clear cut situations which are new have to be painfully tried out in the court system; where everybody just hopes they are not the first 'example' case.
Privacy will be a hot topic for many years to come even after the media chooses sides and stops reporting (not that they are doing well now.) It will drag out and the next generation will grow up less aware of what things used to be like, giving them a disadvantage to understanding our perspective.
Most privacy laws are restricted to government or region, and as the US government has already been doing- they get around any limitations they wish by a laundering process. Private organizations do this as well. Even if illegal, the system isn't currently capable of effective enforcement.
Sorry but the idea is juvenile. I'm sure by the time I get to finally posting there will be explanations on basic crypto.
So how about I deal with the legal issues:
5th amendment; assuming they choose to follow it, can be legally circumvented: see FISHER v. UNITED STATES or if you use biometrics they can just get in anyhow see United States v. Dionisio and if they make you immune to the charges they can force you, it gets tricky later when other crimes may as a result be discovered (a good lawyer would save you from this - but you'd draw their attention to new things...)
A lot of your information is being stored on multiple devices and external locations. External places may legally be out of your control. They may not even need warrants. (http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/s&smanua l2002.htm) Not to mention all the patriot act, etc going on lately.
You could have enough emails to make you guilty of one-man conspiracy or you may have broken some secret law to which the judge doesn't have clearance to read (both have happened in the USA already.)
Oh and don't forget contempt of court. You could be in jail for the max by the time you can get that overturned. Then there are those grand jury and that defunct special prosecutor things that could be big trouble. Right to a SPEEDY trial? Do you even live in the USA?
Regulation is not all bad despite what the PR says. The market is largely defined by the government which creates a formal system in which to operate (aka civilization.)
ISPs screw with the net already and some censorship has occurred. Take away any common carrier like regulation and you would not be able to sue the ISP for censorship.
Government also does some enforcement of regulation since we can't have you sue for enforcement; although, its getting to the point where lawsuits are the only real enforcement.
Nintendo will keep their cycle; it works and even when they were "losing" they kept it.
There is no need for HD. even though more consumers will have HD as time goes on, consumers are not exactly jumping to buy HD DVD or BR movies. Normal DVD quality will be just fine for most people for quite some time to come. Then you'll start to see a sizable cycle of people re-buying their movies on DVD in the new HD format. The result of this will naturally push them to try to get superHD about 15 years from now and outdate all our TVs again... (and force us to switch again...) Many people will not want to re-buy some movies; especially if the cost doesn't go down much (remember how long they artificially kept DVDs high priced?)
Only a windows user would have any need for a stable secure firewall (based on linux) where ironically, it depends upon a windows driver to properly function.
I'm surprised they didn't do this (officially) on a large scale in the last 6 years. Perhaps it just came across too much like the inverse of having Jews wear stars for them to pass it, I don't see it passing.
FAR more extreme than a blacklist, a whitelist is for allowing stuff; like a VIP list. In this case, this whitelist most likely will end up forcing employers to do checks if you are not on the list. Since employers often don't care to do much checking and have a stack of applications to process, many will have an unofficial policy of rejecting everybody not on the whitelist or at least some discrimination.
A national blacklist may be added later under some excuse like they do with felons voters already (were not just talking Florida anymore..)
Probably sex offenders and or felons would be first to be added and the defense will be that employers shall follow pre-database procedures on people not on the list (which we know most will not be fair, go ask a felon.)
Apple could consider enterprise customers by porting OS X to IBM's hardware (or just rebrand it like they used to do when Apple sold laser printers.
suggested names: XXXx2 Serve Xx6 Serve Apple POWERServe (just makes you think of a ball doesn't it?) ZServe iPOWER XPOWER POWER X (advertise using a comic book theme) Enterprise G6-07 G6 Cube NeXt Cube X007 (2007) SuperMac (cant use BigMac)
X-Frame (as in mainframe with virtualization; my favorite)
iVapor (apple will never seriously target enterprise)
This is just a activity generator for most any website; but especially/.
Only a moron would agree with the position in TFA.
Actually, there are privatization people who are fanatic enough to think everything should be up for grabs in the 'free' market, including the water and air we breath! I've seen a man seriously argue for privatization of the air. The zealots are better used as a strawman against the IP supporters (hey, you try winning an argument when the audience doesn't know logic.)
What we need is something basic like email being stopped for a little while so people can realize how stupid the system is; nobody cares unless it impacts them directly.
No I'm in the north (brain fart?) and will be moving to Canada in the next few years. At that time I will build a garage & workshop which will act as a prototype to try out all these ideas I've been toying with. Then I'll probably build a green house before finally building a house. Yes, I do plan to live in the workshop.
Its fun to read about this stuff, but when you start seriously thinking of investing your own time and money into something you start to look deeper (that is, if you are wise with your money.)
Didn't think my post would be seen- almost didn't post. I'm not an expert in this area; (although, I'm surprised at what can pass as expert opinion in the USA.)
I'm weak in electronics; just starting to learn more of that. My current understanding is that its better to have one really good inverter than use many smaller, possibly lower grade ones. (If they are great, its likely they cost more and therefore you'd pay more to have one per panel.) Again, cost is a big influence in evaluating "was it worth it?" I'm not a movie star, so I can not afford to spend too much being 'green' just to feel smug. If I can find a good solution for myself it can work for other people as well.
It is easy to lose sight of the main goal. For CO2 people, and your big causes should be 1st. Your heating, car etc. You can boost millage just by driving "like a slow old person" and that doesn't cost you anything but maybe 1 minute of your time and less accidents (unless you drive as poorly as an old person. hey, accident rates are almost a bell curve and guess where the young and old drivers place..)
If interested in wind, hugh piggott has THE book on the topic and its rather hard to snag a copy of it; only ideas I have there are to try injection molding of blades with something that has a bit of flex and make a better generator (not pancake, but the typical cylindrical style with a slightly conical shape.)
Logo was underestimated, it wasn't just for turtle graphics, you could work in Cartesian coordinates and make functions. You could exec strings. One could do a whole lot in logo that was painful in basic. Unfortunately, the logo didn't advance much past the old apple ][ version. I never looked into attempts to add object like support-- but if they simply took some lisp ideas and used OOP to make it easier, logo would still be in use. I would have loved to have the higher level functions/objects be code I could look inside and see how it worked. (one time I remember rewriting FD,RT,LT,BK after I figured out how they worked-- I could have learned that math early if they did that.)
The lego hook up was wonderful and while limiting for advanced students - for most kids they couldn't even utilize gears! At least the typing kids had from copying was typing experience.
I have not been happy about modern attempts to replace logo and lego with mouse-only and pre-made solutions. They eliminate too much of the basic problem solving and experiences while limiting creativity with their single use parts. Have you seen the new lego stuff? They have non-lego shaped parts that make an erector set look more consistent. (and what the hell is it with their sensors? I could fit 3-4 optical sensors in the space of their single button sensor.)
I would prefer an educational language to be more math like, so kids learn to be more comfortable with math notation. For me, the way to math was thru programming, otherwise I was and still am uninterested.
I've been into this stuff for 15 years (hobby) and I've not made anything large scale (yet) as far as solar. The problem is that its of minimal benefit to me because I'm so far north and its cloudy.
What is best in any problem usually depends upon its end use (like playing computer games and getting yourself hacked are uses best suited for Windows.)
HEAT If your goal is heat, which is the #1 energy load for MANY people, then its clear solar heat is more direct. The KEY issue with ALL power systems is the conversion losses (which includes capturing.) Storage is the next big issue after conversion.
For heating, solar heat wins hands down by a large margin except perhaps if your on mars or something (where your air can turn liquid when its cold outside.)
COOL Cooling is big if heating is not. A clever cooling system leverages the earth's 50F temp-- just running some garden hose underground and running water thru it and a car radiator and you are already in business.
Naturally the biggest deal with hot or cold is insulation and thermal mass, those are your first priority before anything else. You can work on that today and it will save you money. Your ceiling loses the most, followed by the walls and a close third is the windows and doors.
For cooling, I'm seeing solar heat based products that claim better than PV for the whole system. I've not seen a PV cooling system-- they just use the power on a normal unit. I don't know the numbers, not much interest-- a thermal syphon is plenty for me.
Electric Power
You can store heat better and cheaper than you can electricity, generally speaking. PV is simple, direct but costly to setup and maintain (long term-- hopefully PV prices drop in the 30-40 years before panels need replacing.) The Heat to Electricity conversion process is complex and while it is good at large scales, I've not seen anybody with a small scale setup that is seriously being used. Also something people don't think about-- is the scattered indirect light which is more common in clouds and smog. PV will handle that better than the concentrating heat based systems (and they must concentrate to get high temp.)
Exposed concentrators (as opposed to infrared blocking coverings) will use the full-spectrum while PV doesn't use much of the spectrum-- which gives them a huge edge as well. The physics of the problem dictate that dumping spectrum means less power is possible (you could do 100% but if you skip half the light energy your only getting 100% of 50% = 50% tops.)
PV panels claim to last 30-40 years, which means payback in about 20. At that time their cost or performance will be higher. The problem with "payback" is that you are still paying for it so it is STILL costing you that much money which could be saved by getting something with a better cost performance ratio. It should always come down to lifetime performance cost-- a poor PV panel which costs nothing and lasts a long time can beat out "better" PV panel. Same for solar heat, Wind, etc. (or nuclear, which I've heard has never been profitable--its heavily subsidized.)
I've focused on insulation and heating. Those will not change much and are quite good TODAY and have low cost and quick 'payback'. Electricity is a secondary concern because its not my primary cost or environmental impact. Electric generation is still quite up in the air and costs will come down. Better thinking about a wind generator if you have some wind available; it could provide a better ratio for you.
So your question is not that important for people, and as far as the answer-- you will see PV power plants that are honestly profitable popping up as soon as they can beat the other methods. (I know canada is building the biggest PV plant, but I doubt its because PV won out... if it did, its solely from the cold temps and often indirect light which PV is unaffected by.)
Getting a Grid Tie is not cheap, but it beats wasting money on batteries. Never forget that cost-- if you are
Fans of the old Star Trek would probably prefer one of those many planets where kirk fought for some hot alien woman. Purists would want to maintain the storyline and have Vulcans be our first contact.
I just ignore the pissed driver behind me and make them wait. If there are two lanes, I sometimes get gestures as the pass me. I only get upset when they are reckless or nearly take off my bumper cutting in front of me.
On rare occasion, I return the gesture when I the stop.
Killing standing waves can upset people; but when I refuse to drive over 58mph in a 60mph zone that is almost as bad as the stop lights.
Earlier american cars were designed for about 60mph (as a result of the national cap from the last oil problems.) You do better to run within the ideal design specs of the machine (or in my case, lower since its a worn car and my stats indicate 57-58.)
Millage goes to half if I run at 70-75mph and I only "save" a few minutes of my time for $10 of gas, increased wear, greater chance of accident with potentially more damage.
People would drive just as foolishly if cars went 200mph. Students will overload the teleporters at the beginning of class...
I can't wait until computers take over the driving completely so I amuse myself doing something other than optimizing my driving.
The Seinfeld-like political system in america is highly susceptible to superficial flaws (one of the reasons it has degraded into almost being an episode of seinfeld. hint: that is bad in real life)
Nobody in their right mind would endorse representation they did not ultimately control. Part of their error was working with him and thereby endorsing his page by making it a somewhat official source. Something mildly improper like "nappy headed ho" can be blown into a news stopping scandal and Obama's campaign takes the blame and has no way to fire him or stop him from stepping on another land mine.
I've rarely met IT staff (and SysAdmins) that were human. I understand Woz's old comment about killing his kid if they grew up to be a SysAdmin. The education system and small business seems to pull in the really bad ones.
The educated and competent ones seem to be rare and they are usually good. A CS degree isn't a clear enough filter, there are too many with CS degrees.
It was a smart issue campaign waged against Apple. They leveraged the current buzz around Apple on the issue of corporations reporting what they are doing environmentally; specifically, electronics companies (they mention issues that are in all electronics and that further educates those who look at their "FUD".) It was sensationalism put to good use for a change; although, picking a company currently in a heavy advertising campaign doesn't get you any fair media coverage.
Its reasonable to assume corporations who are not capitalizing on their environmental policy have something to hide (or a stupid PR firm.) When this thing has lasted over a year now.. If you don't get prompt responses, its reasonable to assume that there is a reason. The harder they resist disclosure, the worse the problem likely is.
This also intimidates other companies who do not disclose this information (no its not terrorizing them.)
I'm not involved with greenpeace and I don't hate them. I don't hate the ACLU either. They are trying to help us in their own way. (FYI: real democracy is WORK.)
YES. ALL POWER COMES FROM THE STARS: Solar power stored chemically over long periods of time = OIL & COAL Wind power caused by the sun's uneven heating of earth. Ocean currents too. Nuclear power made from atoms created from exploding stars, limited supply. Fusion??
MOST our wasted power is heating and cooling
Don't forget the biggest problem: overpopulation. The world can only sustain about 2 billion people comfortably. think about it.
exception:./ readers are smart so please have lots of kids so we don't devolve! I know that is asking for the impossible;-) isn't that kind of "birth racing" one reason we got overpopulated?
Certificate Authority: secretaryofstate.state.us or departmentofcommerce.state.us you should recognize who it is
Far more paperwork and verification is done to incorporate (business licenses.) They have to commit tougher crimes to sneak off with a corporation or LLC. You have multiple parties interested such as the IRS and secretary of state who look bad if dummy corps are floating around (you don't mess with the IRS gangsters.)
Certs allow for multiple signings if I'm remembering correctly. There is no reason freemarket freaks can't have their meaningless verisign certs or have verisign sign their government cert. There would still be a market for individuals and "high-end" additional verification but that would be just be for gullible people.
I've been saying this for a decade now. When will people come to their senses?? It wouldn't cost much. Local gov could source out the service for your irrational freemarket nuts.
My experience with government contractors: 1 politician X wants payoff for a friend gov service is fattened up for the slaughter (sabotage or just talk) politician X moves to kill friend promises the world for half price and gets "special consideration" (for Bush skip this step) friend doesn't meet obligations and/or goes over the bid (politicians in support cover their seat)... friend milks it for all its worth Reformers kill contract or make it less profitable (friend moves to next city) GOTO 1
Slashdot Mirror
These SC cases bring up lots of legal issues more than what are summarized at the top and bottom.
One thing that came out was the "Fisher Test" for the 5th amendment. which requires 3 things before they can ignore your use of the 5th:
1) evidence exists (prove it exists; you don't have to help them)
2) you have the the evidence (you don't have to say you have it)
3) the forced disclosure does not authenticate you (which is the really tricky part with possible side problems-- its your computer, does unlocking it prove that everything on there could only be put there by you?)
Then there is the obvious one where they make you immune so then the 5th doesn't apply-- this Fisher test is basically another way to insure they are not violating your 5th but still force you to disclose your secrets. Like I said, you may disclose a lot of stuff you do not want out and could have other consequences not directly related to the case at hand. So they are not violating your 5th in a legal sense, they are getting around your invocation of the 5th. And just because its ok in the legal sense doesn't mean its correct or moral or for that matter- it may not be legal... One bad judge could put you in jail for YEARS waiting for appeal.
Its not in a coma-- Privacy has cancer. It most likely will lead to Privacy's death. The name of one of Privacy's cancers is "I'm not doing anything wrong, so why should I care?"
Technology is changing the situation but laws ARE also being changed as well. The most powerful organizations (corporations / industry groups) have actively begun to undermine privacy because of its profit potential; which yes, is possible due to new technology. Even clear cut situations which are new have to be painfully tried out in the court system; where everybody just hopes they are not the first 'example' case.
Privacy will be a hot topic for many years to come even after the media chooses sides and stops reporting (not that they are doing well now.) It will drag out and the next generation will grow up less aware of what things used to be like, giving them a disadvantage to understanding our perspective.
Most privacy laws are restricted to government or region, and as the US government has already been doing- they get around any limitations they wish by a laundering process. Private organizations do this as well. Even if illegal, the system isn't currently capable of effective enforcement.
Parent is not interesting. Mod down.
a l2002.htm)
Sorry but the idea is juvenile. I'm sure by the time I get to finally posting there will be explanations on basic crypto.
So how about I deal with the legal issues:
5th amendment; assuming they choose to follow it, can be legally circumvented:
see FISHER v. UNITED STATES or if you use biometrics they can just get in anyhow see United States v. Dionisio and if they make you immune to the charges they can force you, it gets tricky later when other crimes may as a result be discovered (a good lawyer would save you from this - but you'd draw their attention to new things...)
A lot of your information is being stored on multiple devices and external locations. External places may legally be out of your control. They may not even need warrants. (http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/s&smanu
Not to mention all the patriot act, etc going on lately.
You could have enough emails to make you guilty of one-man conspiracy or you may have broken some secret law to which the judge doesn't have clearance to read (both have happened in the USA already.)
Oh and don't forget contempt of court. You could be in jail for the max by the time you can get that overturned. Then there are those grand jury and that defunct special prosecutor things that could be big trouble. Right to a SPEEDY trial? Do you even live in the USA?
I call Slippery Slope on your "argument."
Regulation is not all bad despite what the PR says. The market is largely defined by the government which creates a formal system in which to operate (aka civilization.)
ISPs screw with the net already and some censorship has occurred. Take away any common carrier like regulation and you would not be able to sue the ISP for censorship.
Government also does some enforcement of regulation since we can't have you sue for enforcement; although, its getting to the point where lawsuits are the only real enforcement.
Corporations are a government defined entity.
Nintendo will keep their cycle; it works and even when they were "losing" they kept it.
There is no need for HD. even though more consumers will have HD as time goes on, consumers are not exactly jumping to buy HD DVD or BR movies. Normal DVD quality will be just fine for most people for quite some time to come. Then you'll start to see a sizable cycle of people re-buying their movies on DVD in the new HD format. The result of this will naturally push them to try to get superHD about 15 years from now and outdate all our TVs again... (and force us to switch again...) Many people will not want to re-buy some movies; especially if the cost doesn't go down much (remember how long they artificially kept DVDs high priced?)
Only a windows user would have any need for a stable secure firewall (based on linux) where ironically, it depends upon a windows driver to properly function.
FAR more extreme than a blacklist, a whitelist is for allowing stuff; like a VIP list. In this case, this whitelist most likely will end up forcing employers to do checks if you are not on the list. Since employers often don't care to do much checking and have a stack of applications to process, many will have an unofficial policy of rejecting everybody not on the whitelist or at least some discrimination.
A national blacklist may be added later under some excuse like they do with felons voters already (were not just talking Florida anymore..)
Probably sex offenders and or felons would be first to be added and the defense will be that employers shall follow pre-database procedures on people not on the list (which we know most will not be fair, go ask a felon.)
Apple could consider enterprise customers by porting OS X to IBM's hardware (or just rebrand it like they used to do when Apple sold laser printers.
suggested names:
XXXx2 Serve
Xx6 Serve
Apple POWERServe (just makes you think of a ball doesn't it?)
ZServe
iPOWER
XPOWER
POWER X (advertise using a comic book theme)
Enterprise G6-07
G6 Cube
NeXt Cube
X007 (2007)
SuperMac (cant use BigMac)
X-Frame (as in mainframe with virtualization; my favorite)
iVapor (apple will never seriously target enterprise)
Actually, there are privatization people who are fanatic enough to think everything should be up for grabs in the 'free' market, including the water and air we breath! I've seen a man seriously argue for privatization of the air. The zealots are better used as a strawman against the IP supporters (hey, you try winning an argument when the audience doesn't know logic.)
What we need is something basic like email being stopped for a little while so people can realize how stupid the system is; nobody cares unless it impacts them directly.
Its "The Century of the Self"
But what if the alien organisms simply want a place to grow until they "hatch" and rip out from your chest?
yum.. tastes like earthburgles.
No I'm in the north (brain fart?) and will be moving to Canada in the next few years. At that time I will build a garage & workshop which will act as a prototype to try out all these ideas I've been toying with. Then I'll probably build a green house before finally building a house. Yes, I do plan to live in the workshop.
Its fun to read about this stuff, but when you start seriously thinking of investing your own time and money into something you start to look deeper (that is, if you are wise with your money.)
Didn't think my post would be seen- almost didn't post. I'm not an expert in this area; (although, I'm surprised at what can pass as expert opinion in the USA.)
I'm weak in electronics; just starting to learn more of that. My current understanding is that its better to have one really good inverter than use many smaller, possibly lower grade ones. (If they are great, its likely they cost more and therefore you'd pay more to have one per panel.) Again, cost is a big influence in evaluating "was it worth it?" I'm not a movie star, so I can not afford to spend too much being 'green' just to feel smug. If I can find a good solution for myself it can work for other people as well.
It is easy to lose sight of the main goal. For CO2 people, and your big causes should be 1st. Your heating, car etc. You can boost millage just by driving "like a slow old person" and that doesn't cost you anything but maybe 1 minute of your time and less accidents (unless you drive as poorly as an old person. hey, accident rates are almost a bell curve and guess where the young and old drivers place..)
If interested in wind, hugh piggott has THE book on the topic and its rather hard to snag a copy of it; only ideas I have there are to try injection molding of blades with something that has a bit of flex and make a better generator (not pancake, but the typical cylindrical style with a slightly conical shape.)
I started in applesoft basic and moved to logo.
Logo was underestimated, it wasn't just for turtle graphics, you could work in Cartesian coordinates and make functions. You could exec strings. One could do a whole lot in logo that was painful in basic. Unfortunately, the logo didn't advance much past the old apple ][ version. I never looked into attempts to add object like support-- but if they simply took some lisp ideas and used OOP to make it easier, logo would still be in use. I would have loved to have the higher level functions/objects be code I could look inside and see how it worked. (one time I remember rewriting FD,RT,LT,BK after I figured out how they worked-- I could have learned that math early if they did that.)
The lego hook up was wonderful and while limiting for advanced students - for most kids they couldn't even utilize gears! At least the typing kids had from copying was typing experience.
I have not been happy about modern attempts to replace logo and lego with mouse-only and pre-made solutions. They eliminate too much of the basic problem solving and experiences while limiting creativity with their single use parts. Have you seen the new lego stuff? They have non-lego shaped parts that make an erector set look more consistent. (and what the hell is it with their sensors? I could fit 3-4 optical sensors in the space of their single button sensor.)
I would prefer an educational language to be more math like, so kids learn to be more comfortable with math notation. For me, the way to math was thru programming, otherwise I was and still am uninterested.
I've been into this stuff for 15 years (hobby) and I've not made anything large scale (yet) as far as solar. The problem is that its of minimal benefit to me because I'm so far north and its cloudy.
What is best in any problem usually depends upon its end use (like playing computer games and getting yourself hacked are uses best suited for Windows.)
HEAT
If your goal is heat, which is the #1 energy load for MANY people, then its clear solar heat is more direct.
The KEY issue with ALL power systems is the conversion losses (which includes capturing.) Storage is the next big issue after conversion.
For heating, solar heat wins hands down by a large margin except perhaps if your on mars or something (where your air can turn liquid when its cold outside.)
COOL
Cooling is big if heating is not. A clever cooling system leverages the earth's 50F temp-- just running some garden hose underground and running water thru it and a car radiator and you are already in business.
Naturally the biggest deal with hot or cold is insulation and thermal mass, those are your first priority before anything else. You can work on that today and it will save you money. Your ceiling loses the most, followed by the walls and a close third is the windows and doors.
For cooling, I'm seeing solar heat based products that claim better than PV for the whole system. I've not seen a PV cooling system-- they just use the power on a normal unit. I don't know the numbers, not much interest-- a thermal syphon is plenty for me.
Electric Power
You can store heat better and cheaper than you can electricity, generally speaking.
PV is simple, direct but costly to setup and maintain (long term-- hopefully PV prices drop in the 30-40 years before panels need replacing.) The Heat to Electricity conversion process is complex and while it is good at large scales, I've not seen anybody with a small scale setup that is seriously being used. Also something people don't think about-- is the scattered indirect light which is more common in clouds and smog. PV will handle that better than the concentrating heat based systems (and they must concentrate to get high temp.)
Exposed concentrators (as opposed to infrared blocking coverings) will use the full-spectrum while PV doesn't use much of the spectrum-- which gives them a huge edge as well. The physics of the problem dictate that dumping spectrum means less power is possible (you could do 100% but if you skip half the light energy your only getting 100% of 50% = 50% tops.)
PV panels claim to last 30-40 years, which means payback in about 20. At that time their cost or performance will be higher. The problem with "payback" is that you are still paying for it so it is STILL costing you that much money which could be saved by getting something with a better cost performance ratio. It should always come down to lifetime performance cost-- a poor PV panel which costs nothing and lasts a long time can beat out "better" PV panel. Same for solar heat, Wind, etc. (or nuclear, which I've heard has never been profitable--its heavily subsidized.)
I've focused on insulation and heating. Those will not change much and are quite good TODAY and have low cost and quick 'payback'. Electricity is a secondary concern because its not my primary cost or environmental impact. Electric generation is still quite up in the air and costs will come down. Better thinking about a wind generator if you have some wind available; it could provide a better ratio for you.
So your question is not that important for people, and as far as the answer-- you will see PV power plants that are honestly profitable popping up as soon as they can beat the other methods. (I know canada is building the biggest PV plant, but I doubt its because PV won out... if it did, its solely from the cold temps and often indirect light which PV is unaffected by.)
Getting a Grid Tie is not cheap, but it beats wasting money on batteries. Never forget that cost-- if you are
Fans of the old Star Trek would probably prefer one of those many planets where kirk fought for some hot alien woman.
Purists would want to maintain the storyline and have Vulcans be our first contact.
$50,000 will buy you ONE chocolate-flavored corn syrup bar; unless you pay with Ameros then its only $5.
Torches of Freedom 2?
TV: the drug of the nation.
I just ignore the pissed driver behind me and make them wait. If there are two lanes, I sometimes get gestures as the pass me. I only get upset when they are reckless or nearly take off my bumper cutting in front of me.
On rare occasion, I return the gesture when I the stop.
Killing standing waves can upset people; but when I refuse to drive over 58mph in a 60mph zone that is almost as bad as the stop lights.
Earlier american cars were designed for about 60mph (as a result of the national cap from the last oil problems.) You do better to run within the ideal design specs of the machine (or in my case, lower since its a worn car and my stats indicate 57-58.)
Millage goes to half if I run at 70-75mph and I only "save" a few minutes of my time for $10 of gas, increased wear, greater chance of accident with potentially more damage.
People would drive just as foolishly if cars went 200mph. Students will overload the teleporters at the beginning of class...
I can't wait until computers take over the driving completely so I amuse myself doing something other than optimizing my driving.
I'm so sick of gravity.
Do we really need to know the rate of change? duh, its changin or its not.
The Seinfeld-like political system in america is highly susceptible to superficial flaws (one of the reasons it has degraded into almost being an episode of seinfeld. hint: that is bad in real life)
Nobody in their right mind would endorse representation they did not ultimately control. Part of their error was working with him and thereby endorsing his page by making it a somewhat official source. Something mildly improper like "nappy headed ho" can be blown into a news stopping scandal and Obama's campaign takes the blame and has no way to fire him or stop him from stepping on another land mine.
The US government reflects its people. Its that simple(ton.) Not literally speaking of course.
Stupid voters elect stupid school boards and will re-elect this school board.
I said "almost all"
I've rarely met IT staff (and SysAdmins) that were human. I understand Woz's old comment about killing his kid if they grew up to be a SysAdmin. The education system and small business seems to pull in the really bad ones.
The educated and competent ones seem to be rare and they are usually good. A CS degree isn't a clear enough filter, there are too many with CS degrees.
It was a smart issue campaign waged against Apple. They leveraged the current buzz around Apple on the issue of corporations reporting what they are doing environmentally; specifically, electronics companies (they mention issues that are in all electronics and that further educates those who look at their "FUD".) It was sensationalism put to good use for a change; although, picking a company currently in a heavy advertising campaign doesn't get you any fair media coverage.
Its reasonable to assume corporations who are not capitalizing on their environmental policy have something to hide (or a stupid PR firm.) When this thing has lasted over a year now.. If you don't get prompt responses, its reasonable to assume that there is a reason. The harder they resist disclosure, the worse the problem likely is.
This also intimidates other companies who do not disclose this information (no its not terrorizing them.)
I'm not involved with greenpeace and I don't hate them. I don't hate the ACLU either. They are trying to help us in their own way. (FYI: real democracy is WORK.)
Most pro software patent arguments I have seen are:
...
They promote innovation
You can't disprove it so it should be law
Hidden premise:
I could lose employment or income if I do not defend my employer's software patents.
YES. ALL POWER COMES FROM THE STARS:
./ readers are smart so please have lots of kids so we don't devolve! I know that is asking for the impossible ;-)
Solar power stored chemically over long periods of time = OIL & COAL
Wind power caused by the sun's uneven heating of earth. Ocean currents too.
Nuclear power made from atoms created from exploding stars, limited supply.
Fusion??
MOST our wasted power is heating and cooling
Don't forget the biggest problem: overpopulation. The world can only sustain about 2 billion people comfortably. think about it.
exception:
isn't that kind of "birth racing" one reason we got overpopulated?
Certificate Authority:
...
secretaryofstate.state.us or departmentofcommerce.state.us
you should recognize who it is
Far more paperwork and verification is done to incorporate (business licenses.) They have to commit tougher crimes to sneak off with a corporation or LLC. You have multiple parties interested such as the IRS and secretary of state who look bad if dummy corps are floating around (you don't mess with the IRS gangsters.)
Certs allow for multiple signings if I'm remembering correctly. There is no reason freemarket freaks can't have their meaningless verisign certs or have verisign sign their government cert. There would still be a market for individuals and "high-end" additional verification but that would be just be for gullible people.
I've been saying this for a decade now. When will people come to their senses??
It wouldn't cost much. Local gov could source out the service for your irrational freemarket nuts.
My experience with government contractors:
1
politician X wants payoff for a friend
gov service is fattened up for the slaughter (sabotage or just talk)
politician X moves to kill
friend promises the world for half price and gets "special consideration" (for Bush skip this step)
friend doesn't meet obligations and/or goes over the bid (politicians in support cover their seat)
friend milks it for all its worth
Reformers kill contract or make it less profitable (friend moves to next city)
GOTO 1