very near to 100% perfect in terms of energy transfer
What's your basis for that claim? AFAIK 50% round-trip electrical efficiency is about as good as current technology gets. (Of course if you put the waste heat to use, e.g. to heat your home, then you can have a much higher total system efficiency.)
Approximate energy conversion efficiencies, off the top of my head:
No, that is what an internal combustion engine does. In a PEM fuel cell, to put it simply, the hydrogen nuclei are "pulled" through a membrane one at a time by their "desire" to "mate" with oxygen present on the other side.
That's right, the fuel cell was invented more than a century ago, and predates the internal combustion engine. The reason it's taken so long to develop to commercial viability (other than on space craft, where cost is not much of an issue) is that low-temperature fuel cells need a platium catalyst. It wasn't until the last decade that advances in polymer technology significantly reduced the amount of platinum needed per kW. Platunum still does represent a significant portion of the cost of a fuel cell, although of course it doesn't go anywhere and can be recovered when the useful life of the fuel cell ends.
Another problem has been (and continues to be) that of designing fuel cells that run well on fuels other than pure hydrogen. Today, fuel reformers are available to run PEM fuel cells on methane (natural gas), methanol and even gasoline. The fuel reformer output contains all sorts of impurities, though, and it seems getting a fuel cell to handle impurities without long-term reliability issues is still a challenge.
The Coleman Product is based on low-temperature PEM fuel cells from Ballard Power Systems. BTW you can pick up shared of Ballard pretty cheaply these days, NASDAQ symbol BLDP. Essentially all car manufacturers except GM and Toyota
rely on Ballard for fuel cells to power their fuel cell cars. Ford and DaimlerChrysler own about 15% and 19% of Ballard, respectively.
As for the perceived dangers of hydrogen, it should be noted that hydrogen is much less of a risk than natural gas, because it disperses into the atmosphere much more quickly due to the low density of hyrdogen gas.
It seems to me that the neatest, cleanest refrigeration technology would have to be based on the Peltier effect. No gasses, no moving parts, no noise. You can even buy Peltier-based refrigerators already, though of course not at mass-production prices.
I'd rather stick with yesterday's intelligently designed PC games. Either I am getting old, or today's games are getting dumber at twice the rate that they're getting prettier. (Or, most likely, both.)
The last game that seriously impressed me was Jagged Alliance 2, and that runs just fine with no tweaking at 166MHz. I bet I'll have more fun playing Zork than you will with any of today's latest highly demanding games, and the most enjoyable part of your evening will probably be the tweaking.
LEDs have serious geek appeal
on
239 MPG Car
·
· Score: 1
You left out the IMHO coolest bit:
The daylight beam, all turn signals and the rear light clusters are in LED technology. The interior is illuminated by LED-fed prismatic rods located at the sides, the opened hood is well-lit in the dark by an electroluminescent foil.
The magnesium space frame surprized me, too - it it does catch fire, it'll make for some very impressive pyrotechnics.
But while you can ignite thin foil of pure magnesium with a match, it would take a blowtorch to get a solid structural member burning. Also, they probably used a much less flammable alloy - pure magnesium is far too soft for such uses.
NASA recordings of deep space
on
Review: Solaris
·
· Score: 1
I have heard NASA recordings of deep space
Souncs interesting. Got a link for the rest of us?
Re:The Matrix and Eastern Philosophy
on
Equilibrium
·
· Score: 1
Of course it's not hard to come by an idea that has been part of the foundation of a major world religion for over 5000 years. So what if the Wachowsiks did get it from Baudrillard who perhaps got it from Plato who in turn got it from the Veda?
Reportedly, Lem detested Tarkovsky's Solyaris as well. But then, how many book adaptations have ever done the book justice? The only case I can think of off-hand where I was not disappointed by the film despite previously having read the book was Kubrick's Lolita.
Are you talking to the God I think you're talking to? The one who's been known to vaporize entire cities whenever he thinks there's too much fornication going on?
I mean come on, do you really think it's wise to include your pr0n site URL in a prayer for a devine favor?
Perhaps you should appeal to Zeuss instead. He's not bothered by fornication (as long as you stay away from his girlfriends, that is) and doesn't always need a real good reason to smite someone's ass with a lightning bolt (sacrificing half a dozen sheep should do the trick.)
The word used in antiquity to describe your giant robot overlords is demon - and you'll find quite a lot of those in vedic literature.
Oh...and you may call Austin Powers post-modern if you want, but adjectives like "quality" and "interesting" are definitely misplaced.
Seriously though, which modern philosophy were you thinking of when you asked that question? I can think of at least a hundred excellent movies exploring (mostly critically) various modern philosophies - from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Catch-22 to
A Clockwork Orange and Angel Baby.
Re:The Matrix and Eastern Philosophy
on
Equilibrium
·
· Score: 1
Honestly, when was the last time a film actually made you look at your friends and go "Did I just see that?".
Umm...last Wednesday. South Park is on every Wednesday.
Re:The Matrix and Eastern Philosophy
on
Equilibrium
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
What does the matrix have to do with the Dao or natural way of the universe which should be followed? What does it have to do with reincarnation or karma? What does it have do with meditating and given up earthly desires to reach enlightenment?
The parallel between The Matrix drew from Eastern (more specifically, Vedic) philosophy is the belief that the world we think we live in is an illusion, which affects us only insofar as we believe it it. And of course, if one becomes enlightened - whether by meditating for many lifetimes or by the grace of a scriptwriter - one may gain mystical powers that will really impress the viewing public.
While The Matrix is vastly overrated IMHO, it does have its merits in that it made many people think.
Re:What can be do to help? ---bad suggestions
on
Cringely on P2P
·
· Score: 1
Take that enormous movie collection and send it to useNET!
Posting unrequested, most likely unwanted binaries to usenet is counterproductive in many ways and wastes many peoples' recourses. And if you do puke the smelly, half-digested contents of your hard drive up onto usenet, at least don't think you've done a good thing.
I don't think a color by itself can be trademarked. But the look and feel of a blue screen of death certainly intellectual property worthy of protection.
Right, but unless I'm mistaken they haven't sold a BIOS under the Phoenix name since about 1996. IANAL, but I do know that there is a use-it-or-lose-it rule in trademark law.
And of course, BIOSs and browsers are such completely different products that only a judge who's totally unfamiliar with the industry would even allow an infringement claim. It would be like Acme Spark Plugs vs. Acme Baby Seats - just because both are car related products doesn't mean the trademark claims overlap. There has to be a real danger of confusion ("trademark dilution") in order for a claim to be recognized as valid.
Yes, I know why the matter was handled as it was (at least the official version.) But the fact remains that the "dismantling" of IG Farben didn't really amount to much in real-world terms.
Interesting tidbit: Last I heard, IG Farben stock was still trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange - allbeit for a few cents. It seems the terms of the breakup are still the subject of litigation more than half a century later.
...and Microsoft filtering technology than build custom hardware and write or customize their own code. This way our Chinese friends won't have to wait nearly as long before ways to hack and/or circumvent the censorship scheme become known.
Meanwhile, those who are inclined to worry about what gets into whose hands could perhaps focus their attention on something more worthy of our worries, like the shitload of soviet plutonium that is still unaccounted for.
While the absolute quantity of information in the public domain obviously can't shrink without something like the Dark Ages happening again, the value-weighted ratio of PD knowledge to proprietary knowledge certainly *has* been shrinking at an alarming rate.
I mean sure it's nice that you don't need to license a patent in order to make fire by rubbing sticks together, but other things that *should* be considered trivial, like simple arithmetic coding for example, are still protected (or should I say haunted) by pantents.
Slashdot Mirror
What's your basis for that claim? AFAIK 50% round-trip electrical efficiency is about as good as current technology gets. (Of course if you put the waste heat to use, e.g. to heat your home, then you can have a much higher total system efficiency.)
Approximate energy conversion efficiencies, off the top of my head:
gasoline engine: 30 - 40%
conventional gas turbine: 35 - 40%
combined cycle gas turbine: 50%
fuel cell: 50 - 75%
No, that is what an internal combustion engine does. In a PEM fuel cell, to put it simply, the hydrogen nuclei are "pulled" through a membrane one at a time by their "desire" to "mate" with oxygen present on the other side.
That's right, the fuel cell was invented more than a century ago, and predates the internal combustion engine. The reason it's taken so long to develop to commercial viability (other than on space craft, where cost is not much of an issue) is that low-temperature fuel cells need a platium catalyst. It wasn't until the last decade that advances in polymer technology significantly reduced the amount of platinum needed per kW. Platunum still does represent a significant portion of the cost of a fuel cell, although of course it doesn't go anywhere and can be recovered when the useful life of the fuel cell ends.
Another problem has been (and continues to be) that of designing fuel cells that run well on fuels other than pure hydrogen. Today, fuel reformers are available to run PEM fuel cells on methane (natural gas), methanol and even gasoline. The fuel reformer output contains all sorts of impurities, though, and it seems getting a fuel cell to handle impurities without long-term reliability issues is still a challenge.
The Coleman Product is based on low-temperature PEM fuel cells from Ballard Power Systems. BTW you can pick up shared of Ballard pretty cheaply these days, NASDAQ symbol BLDP. Essentially all car manufacturers except GM and Toyota rely on Ballard for fuel cells to power their fuel cell cars. Ford and DaimlerChrysler own about 15% and 19% of Ballard, respectively.
As for the perceived dangers of hydrogen, it should be noted that hydrogen is much less of a risk than natural gas, because it disperses into the atmosphere much more quickly due to the low density of hyrdogen gas.
It seems to me that the neatest, cleanest refrigeration technology would have to be based on the Peltier effect. No gasses, no moving parts, no noise. You can even buy Peltier-based refrigerators already, though of course not at mass-production prices.
Well, tell us the rest of the story: did you also ask why you were let go? And was the anser to that also Microsoft-related?
today's latest highly demanding PC games
I'd rather stick with yesterday's intelligently designed PC games. Either I am getting old, or today's games are getting dumber at twice the rate that they're getting prettier. (Or, most likely, both.)
The last game that seriously impressed me was Jagged Alliance 2, and that runs just fine with no tweaking at 166MHz. I bet I'll have more fun playing Zork than you will with any of today's latest highly demanding games, and the most enjoyable part of your evening will probably be the tweaking.
The magnesium space frame surprized me, too - it it does catch fire, it'll make for some very impressive pyrotechnics. But while you can ignite thin foil of pure magnesium with a match, it would take a blowtorch to get a solid structural member burning. Also, they probably used a much less flammable alloy - pure magnesium is far too soft for such uses.
I have heard NASA recordings of deep space
Souncs interesting. Got a link for the rest of us?
Of course it's not hard to come by an idea that has been part of the foundation of a major world religion for over 5000 years. So what if the Wachowsiks did get it from Baudrillard who perhaps got it from Plato who in turn got it from the Veda?
Who do you think invented the GUI, Microsoft?
Reportedly, Lem detested Tarkovsky's Solyaris as well. But then, how many book adaptations have ever done the book justice? The only case I can think of off-hand where I was not disappointed by the film despite previously having read the book was Kubrick's Lolita.
Are you talking to the God I think you're talking to? The one who's been known to vaporize entire cities whenever he thinks there's too much fornication going on?
I mean come on, do you really think it's wise to include your pr0n site URL in a prayer for a devine favor?
Perhaps you should appeal to Zeuss instead. He's not bothered by fornication (as long as you stay away from his girlfriends, that is) and doesn't always need a real good reason to smite someone's ass with a lightning bolt (sacrificing half a dozen sheep should do the trick.)
The word used in antiquity to describe your giant robot overlords is demon - and you'll find quite a lot of those in vedic literature.
Oh...and you may call Austin Powers post-modern if you want, but adjectives like "quality" and "interesting" are definitely misplaced.
Seriously though, which modern philosophy were you thinking of when you asked that question? I can think of at least a hundred excellent movies exploring (mostly critically) various modern philosophies - from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Catch-22 to A Clockwork Orange and Angel Baby.
The protagonsit's development is driven by mystic revelations, not by scientific methodology. And the BIV scenario with robots is merly a modernized backdrop to make a 4,500 year old concept more interesting to today's teenagers. Check out this summary of the vedic concept of Maya and this article, which cites The Matrix to explain Maya.
Honestly, when was the last time a film actually made you look at your friends and go "Did I just see that?".
Umm...last Wednesday. South Park is on every Wednesday.
What does the matrix have to do with the Dao or natural way of the universe which should be followed? What does it have to do with reincarnation or karma? What does it have do with meditating and given up earthly desires to reach enlightenment?
The parallel between The Matrix drew from Eastern (more specifically, Vedic) philosophy is the belief that the world we think we live in is an illusion, which affects us only insofar as we believe it it. And of course, if one becomes enlightened - whether by meditating for many lifetimes or by the grace of a scriptwriter - one may gain mystical powers that will really impress the viewing public.
While The Matrix is vastly overrated IMHO, it does have its merits in that it made many people think.
Take that enormous movie collection and send it to useNET!
Posting unrequested, most likely unwanted binaries to usenet is counterproductive in many ways and wastes many peoples' recourses. And if you do puke the smelly, half-digested contents of your hard drive up onto usenet, at least don't think you've done a good thing.
I don't think a color by itself can be trademarked. But the look and feel of a blue screen of death certainly intellectual property worthy of protection.
They do indeed, but in this case what we have is a lobbyist group doing its job, not individuals expressing their actual beliefs or opinions.
Right, but unless I'm mistaken they haven't sold a BIOS under the Phoenix name since about 1996. IANAL, but I do know that there is a use-it-or-lose-it rule in trademark law.
And of course, BIOSs and browsers are such completely different products that only a judge who's totally unfamiliar with the industry would even allow an infringement claim. It would be like Acme Spark Plugs vs. Acme Baby Seats - just because both are car related products doesn't mean the trademark claims overlap. There has to be a real danger of confusion ("trademark dilution") in order for a claim to be recognized as valid.
Yes, I know why the matter was handled as it was (at least the official version.) But the fact remains that the "dismantling" of IG Farben didn't really amount to much in real-world terms.
Interesting tidbit: Last I heard, IG Farben stock was still trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange - allbeit for a few cents. It seems the terms of the breakup are still the subject of litigation more than half a century later.
...for what happened to IG Farben, considering that its successor entities are prosperous multinational giants to this day.
See The intro to the crimes and punishmant of I.G.Farben.
...and Microsoft filtering technology than build custom hardware and write or customize their own code. This way our Chinese friends won't have to wait nearly as long before ways to hack and/or circumvent the censorship scheme become known.
Meanwhile, those who are inclined to worry about what gets into whose hands could perhaps focus their attention on something more worthy of our worries, like the shitload of soviet plutonium that is still unaccounted for.
...of the use of his likeness in conjunction with this sort of perversity.
While the absolute quantity of information in the public domain obviously can't shrink without something like the Dark Ages happening again, the value-weighted ratio of PD knowledge to proprietary knowledge certainly *has* been shrinking at an alarming rate.
I mean sure it's nice that you don't need to license a patent in order to make fire by rubbing sticks together, but other things that *should* be considered trivial, like simple arithmetic coding for example, are still protected (or should I say haunted) by pantents.