I still have my tapes from 1981-1993, and they sound great. Pretty much as good as when they were new. I don't know what you are using to listen to cassette tapes withj, but it does matter.
Someone did take my Let's Dance tape sometime in the late 80's. Still pissed about that!
Also, making a Mix Tape is awesome. I still have several, and they are wonderful.
Have you not seen Red Dwarf? This is the future.
Mind you, I hardly listen to them now, but I have been shopping for a new / old cassette deck again. I foolishly gave mine away during my divorce (I was distracted!)
Umm, the call centres are fake?
No, the call centres are real.
The owners and employees are engaged in fraud, deception, intimidation, and theft.
Gangster style.
As someone currently going through a divorce (mostly amicable), I have come to the conclusion that starting at the end can be very instructional. Sit down and write your separation agreement. Who gets what part of the pension/401k/RRSPs etc. Who gets the house, does the house get sold? Who gets spousal support and with whom will the children live. Set aside $20,000 for lawyers if you have a small agreement and set aside $50,000 and 4 years for big disagreements. And yes, this is money that you will never see again, and gains you very little.
Write down moving restrictions around children, this means that you probably can't easily leave the city you separate in because it is unlikely that your children will want your near, and you will want to be near your children.
Set aside an extra $20,000 dollars for extra transportation since you won't be sharing a vehicle any longer.
If you make more than your spouse, how much will you pay in spousal support. Look forward to a dramatically reduced lifestyle, since about 1/2 of your pay will no longer be yours for at least the first year of separation and couple of years of spousal support.
Set aside money for your mid-life crisis. It really doesn't matter how much, but make sure it is a percentage of your current gross, and expect you both to spend it between your 34th and 44th years.. say 10% of gross for four years. This is valid for those getting a divorce or not.
Set aside now, $4000/year for couples/your counseling to help you deal with the grief of the failed relationship/ job/ life you will experience.
And finally, write up a prenuptial agreement with a lawyer now. Both of you. Pay a lawyer to help you both write it. Marriages are expenses, divorces are an endless expense, know the risks.
Oh.. and Congratulations!!
*throws rice*
p.s. If you read this and say "oh.. this doesn't apply to us" think again.
just war
You had me up to this point. The fallacy of the "Just War" in the western world is just that. A story that people in the West don't connect the dots from American projecting their influence through financial or military force into the lives and governments of billions around the world. In turn causing the death and mutilation of 100,000s of innocent people, in Iraq alone.
The fact that only the Islamics have been successful in bring the war back to American shores amplifies the fact that the worlds super-power does a very good job of keeping the worlds population under its control.
Hrmm.. its interesting that you bring up the Red Army Faction and their ilk. It is interesting because of the manipulation and infiltration of the "Red" organizations to create false-flag attacks.
Certainly, there were cells operating with the intent to destabilize western European states, but almost as often, Western secret service organizations were creating "incidents" where to create fear of "terrorism". Ironically, the very definition of terrorism, which is a state inflicting terror on its own citizens to further its own aims of extending its own power and control.
In the age of information, it has become almost impossible to determine real information from information manipulated by those forces that wish to manipulate a population. For example, TV car advertisements, or 9/11 truth investigations. What is the truth, and what is counter-counter-intelligence and straight-up manipulation?
"The only thing wrong about the internet is that it has become obsessed with money rather than information. Technical issues will be worked out over time."
:s/about the internet/with people/ :s/it has/they have/ :s/Technical/Spiritual/
The only thing wrong with people is that they have become obsessed with money rather than information. Spiritual issues will be worked out over time.
So... in evolutionary terms... your the penultimate human? Or are you closer to the guys with the really big foreheads. From the tone of your remarks, maybe closer to the Last Man .
Nice straw man argument. Pick on my vocabulary.. you insensitive clod.
The fantasy that the American automobile is the penultimate mode of transportation will be our un-doing. The fact that we cannot imagine a world with less automobiles speaks volumes our selfishness and short-sightedness.
At this point in time, America needs to be investing in other means of transportation and starting to alternative living arrangements that include, moving closer to work, building public infrastructure to move you around besides the car (subway, train, bus, street car, walking, cycling) and have all of these system interconnected.
As we enter the decline of the age of oil, which side do you want to be on? Stuck on the freeway with no gas while the train goes by on its way to NYC?
We need to examine our motivations very closely here. Why are we so attached to the automobile. I think it might just come down to classism and racism. Why, you wouldn't want to have to associate with the blacks and the poor people would you?
Ok, I know this comes to a shock for many of you. But the quickest way out of debt, bad physical and mental health is to live closer to work and ride a bike to work and play. Seriously.
I gave up my car three years ago, the wife three months ago, never been happier.
Ride the Revolution.
Who the fuck moderated this as funny? The issue has NOTHING to do with global warming. Peak Oil is a totally separate issue. It just so happens that we are experiencing Peak Oil AND global warming at the SAME TIME.
This whole thread has showed how even the technoratti of Slashdot is totally uninformed on these issues.
The suburbs will die because we won't have enough CHEAP energy to run things the way we are.
There is not enough electrical generation for what we ALREADY do.
Oh, and food is oil (1000:1 oil calories to make food calories).. so with CHEAP oil becoming hard to come by, so the price of food will skyrocket, along with everything else, like you know staying warm in winter.
Who defines a legal war? The war in Iraq is understandably unpopular, but there is no authority that defines whether a war is legal or not.
Actually, there is an Internationally agreed standard of what constitutes a legal war. That is a war in which you are immanent danger of attack, or you have been attacked. These are International standards that have been largely upheld by the vast majority of states since the late 1800s. The fact that killing is immoral, and a crime in itself, so is war. But defending yourself can be seen as a legitimate. So, to have a legitimate war, you need to be in a position of self-defense, and this could include defense of alliance partners, i.e. NATO etc.
This definition is largely ignored by Colonist/Imperial governments who will argue that they need to defend their "interests", i.e. Vietnam, Iraq, India, and almost all the wars against indigenous populations. Obviously, the price of defending Empire is murder, corruption, and lies to justify unbridled greed.
It does not shatter my perceptions. The Lords of the first world love to lie to us, and we eat it up. I refuse to spout the party line and participate in murderous activities that reduce human life to a bar fight between two junkies. If I hear a lie like Weapons of Mass Destruction I call bullshit.
You know the rule of law has to mean something or it means nothing.
It doesn't matter if Saddam was a douchebag, which he was. What matters is the criminal conspiracy to start an illegal war. The war in Iraq has been a complete failure anyway you put it. More people hate Americans in that part of the world than ever before. More 14 year old boys are willing to take up an AK and kill anyone associated with the west more than ever before. The oil supplies are less available than they were before Gulf War I.
Oh, and Saddam was such a fucking threat that US just rolled over the country in a couple of weeks. Ewww a super gun! How scary. He tried to do that ever other year and it just gets bombed out of existence. Superguns are damn hard to move and hide.
Hmmm.. ok, lets listen to what some of the troops who were there and what they are saying is that the War is bullshit. You want to throw away their precious lives, even if they come back physically complete, they won't be mentally. Nothing like a little shake and baked crispy criters made of kids and mothers.. Oh those happy memories.
Jackass. I can't wait until this unravels into Vietnam Part II. The directors cut and you can eat your hate when your buddies come back from the front and start offing themselves in the bathroom because of the shit you sent them to do.
Hold on a minute. He either knew it was a lie or didn't. A pack of lies with a bunch of other people to do something illegal (breaking the peace) is called a criminal conspiracy. Mr. Powell knew what he was doing and looked damned confident doing it. Its not like he called into work sick when he really was on the golf course.
Only in the United States of America would a war criminal be the ideal choice for Vice President for both parties. Yes, I said war criminal. Starting an aggressive war is what Mr. Powell took part in when he knowingly showed the UN the pictures of the "weapons of mass destruction". The is what the Nuremburg trials were all about...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials
"The prosecution entered indictments against 24 major war criminals and six criminal organizations - the leadership of the... Gestapo, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the High Command of the German armed forces (OKW).
Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of Crime against peace
Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace
Eh, maybe. But my experience has been that it is a certain personality that brings new ideas to life. Don't pick on engineers, the poor little dears have feelings to you know. And you know how they get when they are upset. They go talk to their Engineer boss, and the Engineering fraternity with the rings that have cut off the circulation to that part of the brain that made them interesting people. Its really not their fault. They were made that way, or maybe they were that way before they became Engineers.
Oh, and make sure you never ever call yourself an Engineer unless a very special school (for Special people don't you know) has said you are a real Engineer!!
Now that we have looked after the poor Engineers, the poor dears, back to my point. It is people who the faculty to be creative and rational that make things happen, or happen better. Also keep in mind these are the first types to go crazy, suicidal and postal because all the pinks in the world are so fucking stupid... but I digress..
For those not from the UK, a caravan battery is probably one type of deep cycle battery. These are mostly wet batteries that use acid and water as an electrolyte. There are a number of lead acid batteries called by different names: marine, locomotive (big!!), golf cart etc. The primary difference between a car battery and a deep cycle battery is the size and perforations of the electrodes. Car batteries have lots of perforations to produce lots of amps quickly. In the deep cycle battery world, you need larger batteries to get more amps. How big? Well, 1000lb batteries for large solar installations. The leading manufacturer with a neat interactive website is Surrette Battery http://www.surrette.com/.
Golf cart batteries are very interesting for these projects. They are 6v batteries that are relatively cheap ($60-$200) each, connect them in series and you have quite a bit of energy storage.
Other types of lead acid battery uses absorbent glass mat or gel (not the same thing)to reduce the chances of an acid spill.
CAUTION: Lead Acid batteries contain allot of stored energy. Equivalent to a stick of dynamite, and all you need to do is short it and they WILL explode. Please treat lead acid batteries with extreme care. Nothing like an exploding bomb of sulfuric acid to fuck up your day. Do not use lead acid batteries in your house, or near kids. Yes, I know people who have had batteries explode while working on their cars..
Treat Batteries Like they are a bomb
on
DIY Solar Resources?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Since becoming a ham several months ago, I started learning all about batteries and 12V power and while I was at some solar energy stuff. Starting with a shed project is a great idea. I am assuming you are looking to light things, not run a planer.
All electrical should be 12V dc if you don't have to run 120V AC for anything. (no conversions!! yeah!)
Use a good quality deep cycle or marine battery. Car batteries are intended to give lots of amps for a short period of time.
You will need a charger manager that can reduce the charge to nothing from the solar panels so you don't boil you battery. Well, just go to Battery University and learn all about batteries.
Oh yeah, treat all large batteries like they are bombs ready to go off. Store them outside, and if it gets below 0C then you might have to figure out how to keep them warm. Good luck with that.
I think you have hit the nail on the head Zarquil. Canadians are polite, but still cruel when handing you your hat. I can't count the number of times I have had to translate a conversation with a peer about what he was really saying.. it sounded so polite! But he was really telling me to take a fucking leap.
I know this is meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek, the cost of the Internet is _not_ falling. It may have been true, but the steeply rising costs of data centers and Internet technologies in general due to rising electrical costs and future shortages will start to be felt and the "cost of the Internet" will rise dramatically when measured in gross dollars spent.
You've got to be friggin' kidding me. Analog TV is wasting huge amounts of bandwidth
I didn't say a more efficient use of bandwidth, I said more efficient at delivering video, full stop. You can't compare what you _could_ do with what people _are_ doing. Let me give you some comparisons of existing technology.
1: Bit torrent delivery of television quality 2h movie: Time 4-8 hours on average. 650-900 MB of DISK SPACE and bandwidth. Multiply this by the 400 people who download this, it is allot of time for allot of bandwidth.
2. Youtube.com 2h tv quality video: You can't do it, its not available. Even if you could, it would still take hours to download, and then you could watch it on your puny laptop screen. Don't even get me started on hooking up most PCs to the TV (Macs shine at this, BTW).
3. Aerial broadcast of 2h movie. Time: 2h. Bandwidth used: SHARED usage for 400-100,000 people. Damn efficient use of bandwidth and resources. Even if its not on-demand.
4. Satellite broadcast: 500 channels from one satellite. SHARED usage for 1,000,000 - 24,000,000 million people. Damn efficient use of available bandwidth and resources.
As far as I know, there is no-one with a large user base using the Internet for TV quality video. Never mind HD video quality that I get from my satellite today! This does not take into account the HUGE power requirements of data centers, routers, and the rest of the Internet Infrastructure. Broadcast TV and Satellite TV are great uses of bandwidth AND resources compared to other technologies.
People have been promising multicast TV over IP for a long long time. I remember early 90s efforts that just failed because the REAL bandwidth and computing resources were just too high.
No news here... yes, Internet traffic doubles over a relatively short period of time..
The biggest challenge going forward is how we are possibly going to power all of this traffic. Electrical power costs are going to be raising 10-20% a year for the next little while. What we need to engineer is using the bandwidth more efficiently.
I never thought I would say this, but Television still beats the Internet for delivering video content. As for video conferencing, it is cheaper to video conference than to fly, but again, the telephone conference call over POTS still delivers ALOT of bandwidth very efficiently. Not that I am a fan of the Telcos, I am a fan of the POTS, its a very mature infrastructure that delivers very high value.
Slashdot Mirror
I still have my tapes from 1981-1993, and they sound great. Pretty much as good as when they were new. I don't know what you are using to listen to cassette tapes withj, but it does matter. Someone did take my Let's Dance tape sometime in the late 80's. Still pissed about that! Also, making a Mix Tape is awesome. I still have several, and they are wonderful. Have you not seen Red Dwarf? This is the future. Mind you, I hardly listen to them now, but I have been shopping for a new / old cassette deck again. I foolishly gave mine away during my divorce (I was distracted!)
Umm, the call centres are fake? No, the call centres are real. The owners and employees are engaged in fraud, deception, intimidation, and theft. Gangster style.
This is not cynical... really.
As someone currently going through a divorce (mostly amicable), I have come to the conclusion that starting at the end can be very instructional. Sit down and write your separation agreement. Who gets what part of the pension/401k/RRSPs etc. Who gets the house, does the house get sold? Who gets spousal support and with whom will the children live. Set aside $20,000 for lawyers if you have a small agreement and set aside $50,000 and 4 years for big disagreements. And yes, this is money that you will never see again, and gains you very little.
Write down moving restrictions around children, this means that you probably can't easily leave the city you separate in because it is unlikely that your children will want your near, and you will want to be near your children.
Set aside an extra $20,000 dollars for extra transportation since you won't be sharing a vehicle any longer.
If you make more than your spouse, how much will you pay in spousal support. Look forward to a dramatically reduced lifestyle, since about 1/2 of your pay will no longer be yours for at least the first year of separation and couple of years of spousal support.
Set aside money for your mid-life crisis. It really doesn't matter how much, but make sure it is a percentage of your current gross, and expect you both to spend it between your 34th and 44th years.. say 10% of gross for four years. This is valid for those getting a divorce or not.
Set aside now, $4000/year for couples/your counseling to help you deal with the grief of the failed relationship/ job/ life you will experience.
And finally, write up a prenuptial agreement with a lawyer now. Both of you. Pay a lawyer to help you both write it. Marriages are expenses, divorces are an endless expense, know the risks.
Oh.. and Congratulations!! *throws rice*
p.s. If you read this and say "oh.. this doesn't apply to us" think again.
just war
You had me up to this point. The fallacy of the "Just War" in the western world is just that. A story that people in the West don't connect the dots from American projecting their influence through financial or military force into the lives and governments of billions around the world. In turn causing the death and mutilation of 100,000s of innocent people, in Iraq alone.
The fact that only the Islamics have been successful in bring the war back to American shores amplifies the fact that the worlds super-power does a very good job of keeping the worlds population under its control.
Hrmm .. its interesting that you bring up the Red Army Faction and their ilk. It is interesting because of the manipulation and infiltration of the "Red" organizations to create false-flag attacks.
Certainly, there were cells operating with the intent to destabilize western European states, but almost as often, Western secret service organizations were creating "incidents" where to create fear of "terrorism". Ironically, the very definition of terrorism, which is a state inflicting terror on its own citizens to further its own aims of extending its own power and control.
In the age of information, it has become almost impossible to determine real information from information manipulated by those forces that wish to manipulate a population. For example, TV car advertisements, or 9/11 truth investigations. What is the truth, and what is counter-counter-intelligence and straight-up manipulation?
"The only thing wrong about the internet is that it has become obsessed with money rather than information. Technical issues will be worked out over time."
:s/about the internet/with people/
:s/it has/they have/
:s/Technical/Spiritual/
The only thing wrong with people is that they have become obsessed with money rather than information. Spiritual issues will be worked out over time.
There, fixed that for you. :)
I always love it when people say we should dump all our cars, and ride bicycles to save the planet.
Can you read man? I mentioned six different types of transportation and you pick on Cycling? Nice Straw Man argument.
Weird..
So... in evolutionary terms... your the penultimate human? Or are you closer to the guys with the really big foreheads. From the tone of your remarks, maybe closer to the Last Man .
Nice straw man argument. Pick on my vocabulary.. you insensitive clod.
The fantasy that the American automobile is the penultimate mode of transportation will be our un-doing. The fact that we cannot imagine a world with less automobiles speaks volumes our selfishness and short-sightedness.
At this point in time, America needs to be investing in other means of transportation and starting to alternative living arrangements that include, moving closer to work, building public infrastructure to move you around besides the car (subway, train, bus, street car, walking, cycling) and have all of these system interconnected.
As we enter the decline of the age of oil, which side do you want to be on? Stuck on the freeway with no gas while the train goes by on its way to NYC?
We need to examine our motivations very closely here. Why are we so attached to the automobile. I think it might just come down to classism and racism. Why, you wouldn't want to have to associate with the blacks and the poor people would you?
Ok, I know this comes to a shock for many of you. But the quickest way out of debt, bad physical and mental health is to live closer to work and ride a bike to work and play. Seriously. I gave up my car three years ago, the wife three months ago, never been happier. Ride the Revolution.
Who the fuck moderated this as funny? The issue has NOTHING to do with global warming. Peak Oil is a totally separate issue. It just so happens that we are experiencing Peak Oil AND global warming at the SAME TIME. This whole thread has showed how even the technoratti of Slashdot is totally uninformed on these issues. The suburbs will die because we won't have enough CHEAP energy to run things the way we are. There is not enough electrical generation for what we ALREADY do. Oh, and food is oil (1000:1 oil calories to make food calories).. so with CHEAP oil becoming hard to come by, so the price of food will skyrocket, along with everything else, like you know staying warm in winter.
Nah, I don't live in the U.S.A. I just get to watch it on Tee Vee!
Who defines a legal war? The war in Iraq is understandably unpopular, but there is no authority that defines whether a war is legal or not.
Actually, there is an Internationally agreed standard of what constitutes a legal war. That is a war in which you are immanent danger of attack, or you have been attacked. These are International standards that have been largely upheld by the vast majority of states since the late 1800s. The fact that killing is immoral, and a crime in itself, so is war. But defending yourself can be seen as a legitimate. So, to have a legitimate war, you need to be in a position of self-defense, and this could include defense of alliance partners, i.e. NATO etc.
This definition is largely ignored by Colonist/Imperial governments who will argue that they need to defend their "interests", i.e. Vietnam, Iraq, India, and almost all the wars against indigenous populations. Obviously, the price of defending Empire is murder, corruption, and lies to justify unbridled greed.
It does not shatter my perceptions. The Lords of the first world love to lie to us, and we eat it up. I refuse to spout the party line and participate in murderous activities that reduce human life to a bar fight between two junkies. If I hear a lie like Weapons of Mass Destruction I call bullshit.
You know the rule of law has to mean something or it means nothing.
It doesn't matter if Saddam was a douchebag, which he was. What matters is the criminal conspiracy to start an illegal war. The war in Iraq has been a complete failure anyway you put it. More people hate Americans in that part of the world than ever before. More 14 year old boys are willing to take up an AK and kill anyone associated with the west more than ever before. The oil supplies are less available than they were before Gulf War I.
Oh, and Saddam was such a fucking threat that US just rolled over the country in a couple of weeks. Ewww a super gun! How scary. He tried to do that ever other year and it just gets bombed out of existence. Superguns are damn hard to move and hide.
Hmmm.. ok, lets listen to what some of the troops who were there and what they are saying is that the War is bullshit. You want to throw away their precious lives, even if they come back physically complete, they won't be mentally. Nothing like a little shake and baked crispy criters made of kids and mothers.. Oh those happy memories.
Jackass. I can't wait until this unravels into Vietnam Part II. The directors cut and you can eat your hate when your buddies come back from the front and start offing themselves in the bathroom because of the shit you sent them to do.
Hold on a minute. He either knew it was a lie or didn't. A pack of lies with a bunch of other people to do something illegal (breaking the peace) is called a criminal conspiracy. Mr. Powell knew what he was doing and looked damned confident doing it. Its not like he called into work sick when he really was on the golf course.
Only in the United States of America would a war criminal be the ideal choice for Vice President for both parties. Yes, I said war criminal. Starting an aggressive war is what Mr. Powell took part in when he knowingly showed the UN the pictures of the "weapons of mass destruction". The is what the Nuremburg trials were all about...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials
"The prosecution entered indictments against 24 major war criminals and six criminal organizations - the leadership of the ... Gestapo, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the High Command of the German armed forces (OKW).
Full Stop.
And about Nigella, she always seemed out of touch with reality.... I'd still do'er though. I bet she'd be a right good shag eh?! (No, I'm Canadian).
Eh, maybe. But my experience has been that it is a certain personality that brings new ideas to life. Don't pick on engineers, the poor little dears have feelings to you know. And you know how they get when they are upset. They go talk to their Engineer boss, and the Engineering fraternity with the rings that have cut off the circulation to that part of the brain that made them interesting people. Its really not their fault. They were made that way, or maybe they were that way before they became Engineers.
Oh, and make sure you never ever call yourself an Engineer unless a very special school (for Special people don't you know) has said you are a real Engineer!!
Now that we have looked after the poor Engineers, the poor dears, back to my point. It is people who the faculty to be creative and rational that make things happen, or happen better. Also keep in mind these are the first types to go crazy, suicidal and postal because all the pinks in the world are so fucking stupid... but I digress..
For those not from the UK, a caravan battery is probably one type of deep cycle battery. These are mostly wet batteries that use acid and water as an electrolyte. There are a number of lead acid batteries called by different names: marine, locomotive (big!!), golf cart etc. The primary difference between a car battery and a deep cycle battery is the size and perforations of the electrodes. Car batteries have lots of perforations to produce lots of amps quickly. In the deep cycle battery world, you need larger batteries to get more amps. How big? Well, 1000lb batteries for large solar installations. The leading manufacturer with a neat interactive website is Surrette Battery http://www.surrette.com/.
Golf cart batteries are very interesting for these projects. They are 6v batteries that are relatively cheap ($60-$200) each, connect them in series and you have quite a bit of energy storage.
Other types of lead acid battery uses absorbent glass mat or gel (not the same thing)to reduce the chances of an acid spill.
Lead Acid Batteries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead-acid_battery
Absorbed Glass Mat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorbed_Glass_Mat
CAUTION: Lead Acid batteries contain allot of stored energy. Equivalent to a stick of dynamite, and all you need to do is short it and they WILL explode. Please treat lead acid batteries with extreme care. Nothing like an exploding bomb of sulfuric acid to fuck up your day. Do not use lead acid batteries in your house, or near kids. Yes, I know people who have had batteries explode while working on their cars..
And for those who want batteries, but just use mains power to charge the batteries, here is an excellent charger that many hams use. http://www.a-aengineering.com/5smartcharger.htm
Since becoming a ham several months ago, I started learning all about batteries and 12V power and while I was at some solar energy stuff. Starting with a shed project is a great idea. I am assuming you are looking to light things, not run a planer.
Oh yeah, treat all large batteries like they are bombs ready to go off. Store them outside, and if it gets below 0C then you might have to figure out how to keep them warm. Good luck with that.
I think you have hit the nail on the head Zarquil. Canadians are polite, but still cruel when handing you your hat. I can't count the number of times I have had to translate a conversation with a peer about what he was really saying.. it sounded so polite! But he was really telling me to take a fucking leap.
I know this is meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek, the cost of the Internet is _not_ falling. It may have been true, but the steeply rising costs of data centers and Internet technologies in general due to rising electrical costs and future shortages will start to be felt and the "cost of the Internet" will rise dramatically when measured in gross dollars spent.
You've got to be friggin' kidding me. Analog TV is wasting huge amounts of bandwidth
I didn't say a more efficient use of bandwidth, I said more efficient at delivering video, full stop. You can't compare what you _could_ do with what people _are_ doing. Let me give you some comparisons of existing technology.
1: Bit torrent delivery of television quality 2h movie: Time 4-8 hours on average. 650-900 MB of DISK SPACE and bandwidth. Multiply this by the 400 people who download this, it is allot of time for allot of bandwidth.
2. Youtube.com 2h tv quality video: You can't do it, its not available. Even if you could, it would still take hours to download, and then you could watch it on your puny laptop screen. Don't even get me started on hooking up most PCs to the TV (Macs shine at this, BTW).
3. Aerial broadcast of 2h movie. Time: 2h. Bandwidth used: SHARED usage for 400-100,000 people. Damn efficient use of bandwidth and resources. Even if its not on-demand.
4. Satellite broadcast: 500 channels from one satellite. SHARED usage for 1,000,000 - 24,000,000 million people. Damn efficient use of available bandwidth and resources.
As far as I know, there is no-one with a large user base using the Internet for TV quality video. Never mind HD video quality that I get from my satellite today! This does not take into account the HUGE power requirements of data centers, routers, and the rest of the Internet Infrastructure. Broadcast TV and Satellite TV are great uses of bandwidth AND resources compared to other technologies.
People have been promising multicast TV over IP for a long long time. I remember early 90s efforts that just failed because the REAL bandwidth and computing resources were just too high.
No news here... yes, Internet traffic doubles over a relatively short period of time..
The biggest challenge going forward is how we are possibly going to power all of this traffic. Electrical power costs are going to be raising 10-20% a year for the next little while. What we need to engineer is using the bandwidth more efficiently.
I never thought I would say this, but Television still beats the Internet for delivering video content. As for video conferencing, it is cheaper to video conference than to fly, but again, the telephone conference call over POTS still delivers ALOT of bandwidth very efficiently. Not that I am a fan of the Telcos, I am a fan of the POTS, its a very mature infrastructure that delivers very high value.