Maybe Kim Sung Ill is afraid that the horrible capitalist pig American imperialists (Did I get all the buzzwords?) will use the light to see by, or as a weapon against him. Who knows - He really is paranoid that he is Bush's next target (Of course, N. Korea doesn't have lots of oil, so he needn't worry).
At any rate, North Korea can barely keep it's power grid up, let alone waste power on light pollution.
"that could be used for creating new more horrible torture devices, for the RIAA"
You've never been interrogated by them, obviously. If you refuse, they hold your eyelids open and force you to see Hillary Rosen porn videos (My face is meltiiinnggggg...!)
These slimebags remind me of a late-stage rabid animal, snarling and snapping at anything that it can. I also remember that there are very few survivors of this disease once symptoms appear...
I am at a loss for words. But this reminds of of an article in this month's issue of Astronomy magazine:
What is the stupidest astronomy question you can think of? How about this: "What are those bright things in the sky?" They're looking for competition with this question... Do you think the fucking retards who bought through spam could beat it?
What is this, the latest fad? "Disposable" everything? Instead of filling up the dumps as fast as possible, we should try to get *reusable* commodities. Get a real cell phone, a real camera, and some cheap plastic plates and cups that you can put in the attic after the party. It's amazing what people will do for convenience.
More specifically about this one-time digital camera - They removed the only real advantage that digital cameras have: the ability to preview. In this case, you still turn the stupid thing in when you're finished playing with it.
"How much of this sh!t are we going to put up with before people start throwing around the 'b' word? That's right, I said it. BOYCOTT. Any takers?"
It's thrown around/. everytime the Organization-That-Must-Not-Be-Named is mentioned. Unfortunately, the proles A) Believe whatever they hear on the TV, B) Do NOT read/., and C) Care only about their bread and circuses.
Don't you dare do ANYTHING to their circuses. This is why DRM products always fail - They interrupt the proles' circus. However, for the most part, A overrides C. As long as each individual lost circus show isn't too big, the media groups and their controllers can get away with it.
Now, this whole "Make anyone who uses Kazaa the bride of Big Gay Bubba" thing would interfere with the circus, but the odds of getting sued are insignificant. So unless a prole is directly related one of the Organization-That-Must-Not-Be-Named's victims, they won't percieve any interruption in their circuses because they believe whatever the Telescreen says. And we know how the horrible internet music pirates and thieves who make songs available for free download are hurting the artists (Those bastards!) get a fair chance on TV. And remember that we [The Organization-That-Must-Not-Be-Named] are fighting this good war in the name of the artists and on principle, not our profits! We care about the artists!
I didn't know it was possible to run the latest version of Windows on a sub-$1000 computer. As we all know, the hardware requirements double every 18 months:)
Although the post may be funny, there is serious work being conducted into magnetically levitated energy storage. Accounting for various losses, I've read of models that will lose.2% of their energy per *day* while idle. Now that's pretty good.
Alternatively, you can try superconducting magnetic energy storage. Take a torodial superconductor, and a wire will establish a rotating magnetic field in it. The only technical limit is the critical magnetic field of the superconductor (high enough magnetic fields will quench superconductivity) and the practical limit is paying for enough liquid nitrogen to keep it superconducting.
This aside, I've read that the average type II superconducor can carry at least 120 times more power than an equally large copper wire before the critical magnetic field it reached. Ya' know, now that I think about it, it would be *perfect* as a capacitor in a tesla coil, if it didn't cost $200 to get my grubby paws on a YBCO toroid...
Hmmm... I worked out a way to build your own system (As any true geek would:)) that would generate 2.4Kw of power, and cost only about $4000 after all applicable rebates.
Particularly, partsonsale.com offers solar panels of up to 185 watts, and their cheapest panels go for about $3.30 a watt. Then search around for inverters, and you should be able to find a true-sine wave unit for $2100 or so. After that, the panels will take about $1200 of mounts from unirac.com, and that's all the big expenses.
Unfortunately, the average moron doesn't know how to hook two wires together, and would probably manage to electrocute themselves trying to hook up the solar panels:(
No, don't you see? The moon got blasted out of orbit when we put too much nuclear waste in one place. First the intense magnetic fields made people go insane, then waste dump number 2 exploded and hurled the moon into outer space! It all happened on September 13, 1999!
So when Hubble is no longer in active astronomical service, give it a boost over to the ISS. Then attach a real-time video camera to it and rent it out to TV stations for millions of dollars. It can start paying for itself eventually. Or loan out "missions" and time slots to paying customers.
About battery maintenence: I've read that most lead-acid batteries, like the ones used in the Tango, will make it at least 2 years, and more like 3-4. Then they're so consumed that you just go buy a new set for several thousand dollars.
Other rechargable technologies, like NiCad or Ni-Mh cost 5X more to replace but last 5X longer. To tip it a little in their favor, you pay equally over time for them but also get a considerably increased range per charge.
I bookmarked an interesting hypothetical discussion about nuclear waste with Socrates:
http://www.cosmos-club.org/journals/2002/rockwell. html
A few cubic meters of waste from the plant each year is far more acceptable to me than what comes out of the coal plant's stacks.
Plus, it's America that has huge supplies of Uranium and Thorium-232. Energy Independance!
I worked out in a previous comment that, despite the inefficiency of coal power, you will still at least break even: 40% efficiency at the plant, 90% converting to battery charge, and 85% efficient running the motor works out to just over 30% net efficiency, while most ICE's are at most 26% efficient.
The cost of solar and wind power systems is continuing to decrease; I've been researching installing a solar system at my house for 2.4 Kw. After rebates, it's only $4000. To be eligible for tying into the grid, it will as you said require a true sine wave inverter, and a 2.5 Kw version goes for around $2200 (A same-power modified sine wave goes for half that). And most solar systems come with a bank of batteries to provide power through night/clouds, and it would charge a car without hesitation (Although to save a little from inverter losses, you might want to set up a dedicated 12VDC circuit).
However, the proles are indeed stupid, ignorant sheep:(
"All kidding aside, the more a car weighs, the more it tends to deform objects it runs into, as opposed to being deformed by them."
It also works in reverse. The lighter of the two things in a collision willl suffer more deceleration and more damage. In vehicle-vehicle collisions, your statement it true. But if the SUV or Tango hits something of essentially infinite inertia because it's anchored to the ground, it will be hit with almost all of the deceleration and it's own mass will crush it (Or, in the case of the Tango, the battery rack will tear itself loose and keep on clickin':)).
I recall this was worked out in an issue of Discover...
Using fossil fuels in your car directly is at most 26 or so % efficient. Fossil fuels at a plant are turned into electric at ~40% efficiency, to battery charge at ~90%, and to motion at ~85%, totalling around 30% efficiency. So even with the losses in all the intervening steps, you will at worst break even and more likely still keep some pollutants out of the air. Of course, if it comes from a renewable source then it's already pollution-free. If it comes from Nu-Ku-Ler, then you're responsible for a few grams of radioactive waste out of around 2 cubic meters per year.
There is also the fact that most fossil fuel plants are built where people are not there to inhale the fumes, while cars discharge their fumes exactly where people are: on the road.
I think it would depend on how you charge them. Stuffing an 80% charge into them in 10 minutes probably wouldn't do any favors for future cycles, nor will driving them to the point of death (deep discharge). If you treat them right, I read that most lead-acid batteries will last 2 or 3 years in an EV situation.
Alternatively, they could have used Ni-Mh or NiCads, which will last 5 times longer and have a considerably higher energy density and therefore range. If lead-acid batteries will take the car 80 miles, Ni-Mh's or Nicads would probably take it from LA to San Diego on one charge.
I love it. It's small, efficient, fast, and has plenty range to get me around town. I'm first in line to get the 20 grand "peoples model."
I rather doubt I'd do 130 in it, though. But having 1100 pounds of batteries under the floorboards it great for stability. But in terms of crash safety, something this small and dense (Just shy of a ton with NO batteries) looks like it would get crushed by it's own intertia in a crash with a structure.
At any rate, it doesn't mesh very well with oil companies or automakers, and they will probably pay out the ass to make it fail. GE offered to do a small test run, then rescinded and sued California over the 10% ZEV requirement. I mean, for almost all practical purposes around town this could replace our Camry. Except for long-distance trips or visits to the hardware store, it will do just as well. But it doesn't feed oil companies nearly as much money, and automakers make a bigger profit selling Stupid Useless Vehicles (to most who buy them).
I would have to agree that, for most people, it is indeed un-American to drive an SUV. Most of you don't need the damn thing, and by getting 8 MPG you just give middle-eastern oil theocracies more economic weapons to hold at our throats.
Set them up and use them for Airborne recon of M$ and RIAA Headquarters, and if the returned pictures show the HQ below, you press a button to release a small canister of urine, or other disgusting liquid of your choice.
Just a sec, there's some guy in a black trenchcoat at the door...
When I used to use Windows, I considered it a gift from the Gods if it worked for 5 hours straight. I didn't trust it to still be responding when I left to take a piss, for goodness sake.
Since I downloaded/burned/installed Mandrake 8.2, then 9.0, now 9.1, I've had 1 case where Freeciv locked up completely, 1 case where X wouldn't start because my video card burned out (Not linux's fault), and 1 case when the X server got a signal 11 from somewhere and dropped me at a console (1 command and I was back).
I'll take Linux, thank you. It's faster, more secure, more stable, and free.
* I will not use Windows to do anything, and you're not going to make me.
* I don't want to wait an hour to download it and then get to view for 24 hours, when I could get it for the same price in 10 minutes from Blockbuster.
* The rental will have far superior video and audio quality.
* My computer is upstairs, and the TV with a real sound system is downstairs.
* DRM. Although at any rate, I could simply connect my video cards' S-Video out to my capture cards' S-Video in:)
So, in short, the quality necessary to shove it down even a broadband connection sucks, it's DRMed, and I don't like watching movies on my computer.
"Hey, we're ya new cellmates. I'm Bubba, they put me away for murder. This here's Joey, he a rapist. Him there, he's Rob. Convicted pedophile. So, what you in for?"
Why not give them the same real-world D.O.S. we gave Alan Ralsky? Quick, write scripts to sign everyone on that list up to everything you can think of!
This would be the case, in a healthy free market. However, Microsoft business practices have made the computer OS market extremely sick. You don't want windows, you say? Alright... try and get a computer from a major supplier without windows preinstalled, or with Linux preinstalled. I think HP has 1 or 2 computers with Linux on them. We don't call M$ an abusive monopoly for nothing.
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Maybe Kim Sung Ill is afraid that the horrible capitalist pig American imperialists (Did I get all the buzzwords?) will use the light to see by, or as a weapon against him. Who knows - He really is paranoid that he is Bush's next target (Of course, N. Korea doesn't have lots of oil, so he needn't worry).
At any rate, North Korea can barely keep it's power grid up, let alone waste power on light pollution.
"that could be used for creating new more horrible torture devices, for the RIAA"
You've never been interrogated by them, obviously. If you refuse, they hold your eyelids open and force you to see Hillary Rosen porn videos (My face is meltiiinnggggg...!)
These slimebags remind me of a late-stage rabid animal, snarling and snapping at anything that it can. I also remember that there are very few survivors of this disease once symptoms appear...
I am at a loss for words. But this reminds of of an article in this month's issue of Astronomy magazine:
What is the stupidest astronomy question you can think of? How about this: "What are those bright things in the sky?" They're looking for competition with this question... Do you think the fucking retards who bought through spam could beat it?
I would have never guessed that one... I mean, next you'll be telling me crazy things like "the sky is blue" or "the earth is brown."
Sarcasm aside, the only reason M$ got off here in the US is because out president is a corporate money whore. Anything for those wonderful execs, eh?
What is this, the latest fad? "Disposable" everything? Instead of filling up the dumps as fast as possible, we should try to get *reusable* commodities. Get a real cell phone, a real camera, and some cheap plastic plates and cups that you can put in the attic after the party. It's amazing what people will do for convenience.
More specifically about this one-time digital camera - They removed the only real advantage that digital cameras have: the ability to preview. In this case, you still turn the stupid thing in when you're finished playing with it.
"How much of this sh!t are we going to put up with before people start throwing around the 'b' word? That's right, I said it. BOYCOTT. Any takers?"
/. everytime the Organization-That-Must-Not-Be-Named is mentioned. Unfortunately, the proles A) Believe whatever they hear on the TV, B) Do NOT read /., and C) Care only about their bread and circuses.
It's thrown around
Don't you dare do ANYTHING to their circuses. This is why DRM products always fail - They interrupt the proles' circus. However, for the most part, A overrides C. As long as each individual lost circus show isn't too big, the media groups and their controllers can get away with it.
Now, this whole "Make anyone who uses Kazaa the bride of Big Gay Bubba" thing would interfere with the circus, but the odds of getting sued are insignificant. So unless a prole is directly related one of the Organization-That-Must-Not-Be-Named's victims, they won't percieve any interruption in their circuses because they believe whatever the Telescreen says. And we know how the horrible internet music pirates and thieves who make songs available for free download are hurting the artists (Those bastards!) get a fair chance on TV. And remember that we [The Organization-That-Must-Not-Be-Named] are fighting this good war in the name of the artists and on principle, not our profits! We care about the artists!
I didn't know it was possible to run the latest version of Windows on a sub-$1000 computer. As we all know, the hardware requirements double every 18 months :)
Although the post may be funny, there is serious work being conducted into magnetically levitated energy storage. Accounting for various losses, I've read of models that will lose .2% of their energy per *day* while idle. Now that's pretty good.
Alternatively, you can try superconducting magnetic energy storage. Take a torodial superconductor, and a wire will establish a rotating magnetic field in it. The only technical limit is the critical magnetic field of the superconductor (high enough magnetic fields will quench superconductivity) and the practical limit is paying for enough liquid nitrogen to keep it superconducting.
This aside, I've read that the average type II superconducor can carry at least 120 times more power than an equally large copper wire before the critical magnetic field it reached. Ya' know, now that I think about it, it would be *perfect* as a capacitor in a tesla coil, if it didn't cost $200 to get my grubby paws on a YBCO toroid...
Hmmm... I worked out a way to build your own system (As any true geek would :)) that would generate 2.4Kw of power, and cost only about $4000 after all applicable rebates.
:(
Particularly, partsonsale.com offers solar panels of up to 185 watts, and their cheapest panels go for about $3.30 a watt. Then search around for inverters, and you should be able to find a true-sine wave unit for $2100 or so. After that, the panels will take about $1200 of mounts from unirac.com, and that's all the big expenses.
Unfortunately, the average moron doesn't know how to hook two wires together, and would probably manage to electrocute themselves trying to hook up the solar panels
No, don't you see? The moon got blasted out of orbit when we put too much nuclear waste in one place. First the intense magnetic fields made people go insane, then waste dump number 2 exploded and hurled the moon into outer space! It all happened on September 13, 1999!
So when Hubble is no longer in active astronomical service, give it a boost over to the ISS. Then attach a real-time video camera to it and rent it out to TV stations for millions of dollars. It can start paying for itself eventually. Or loan out "missions" and time slots to paying customers.
About battery maintenence: I've read that most lead-acid batteries, like the ones used in the Tango, will make it at least 2 years, and more like 3-4. Then they're so consumed that you just go buy a new set for several thousand dollars.
Other rechargable technologies, like NiCad or Ni-Mh cost 5X more to replace but last 5X longer. To tip it a little in their favor, you pay equally over time for them but also get a considerably increased range per charge.
I bookmarked an interesting hypothetical discussion about nuclear waste with Socrates:. html
http://www.cosmos-club.org/journals/2002/rockwell
A few cubic meters of waste from the plant each year is far more acceptable to me than what comes out of the coal plant's stacks.
Plus, it's America that has huge supplies of Uranium and Thorium-232. Energy Independance!
I worked out in a previous comment that, despite the inefficiency of coal power, you will still at least break even: 40% efficiency at the plant, 90% converting to battery charge, and 85% efficient running the motor works out to just over 30% net efficiency, while most ICE's are at most 26% efficient.
:(
The cost of solar and wind power systems is continuing to decrease; I've been researching installing a solar system at my house for 2.4 Kw. After rebates, it's only $4000. To be eligible for tying into the grid, it will as you said require a true sine wave inverter, and a 2.5 Kw version goes for around $2200 (A same-power modified sine wave goes for half that). And most solar systems come with a bank of batteries to provide power through night/clouds, and it would charge a car without hesitation (Although to save a little from inverter losses, you might want to set up a dedicated 12VDC circuit).
However, the proles are indeed stupid, ignorant sheep
"All kidding aside, the more a car weighs, the more it tends to deform objects it runs into, as opposed to being deformed by them."
:)).
It also works in reverse. The lighter of the two things in a collision willl suffer more deceleration and more damage. In vehicle-vehicle collisions, your statement it true. But if the SUV or Tango hits something of essentially infinite inertia because it's anchored to the ground, it will be hit with almost all of the deceleration and it's own mass will crush it (Or, in the case of the Tango, the battery rack will tear itself loose and keep on clickin'
I recall this was worked out in an issue of Discover...
Using fossil fuels in your car directly is at most 26 or so % efficient. Fossil fuels at a plant are turned into electric at ~40% efficiency, to battery charge at ~90%, and to motion at ~85%, totalling around 30% efficiency. So even with the losses in all the intervening steps, you will at worst break even and more likely still keep some pollutants out of the air. Of course, if it comes from a renewable source then it's already pollution-free. If it comes from Nu-Ku-Ler, then you're responsible for a few grams of radioactive waste out of around 2 cubic meters per year.
There is also the fact that most fossil fuel plants are built where people are not there to inhale the fumes, while cars discharge their fumes exactly where people are: on the road.
I think it would depend on how you charge them. Stuffing an 80% charge into them in 10 minutes probably wouldn't do any favors for future cycles, nor will driving them to the point of death (deep discharge). If you treat them right, I read that most lead-acid batteries will last 2 or 3 years in an EV situation.
Alternatively, they could have used Ni-Mh or NiCads, which will last 5 times longer and have a considerably higher energy density and therefore range. If lead-acid batteries will take the car 80 miles, Ni-Mh's or Nicads would probably take it from LA to San Diego on one charge.
I love it. It's small, efficient, fast, and has plenty range to get me around town. I'm first in line to get the 20 grand "peoples model."
I rather doubt I'd do 130 in it, though. But having 1100 pounds of batteries under the floorboards it great for stability. But in terms of crash safety, something this small and dense (Just shy of a ton with NO batteries) looks like it would get crushed by it's own intertia in a crash with a structure.
At any rate, it doesn't mesh very well with oil companies or automakers, and they will probably pay out the ass to make it fail. GE offered to do a small test run, then rescinded and sued California over the 10% ZEV requirement. I mean, for almost all practical purposes around town this could replace our Camry. Except for long-distance trips or visits to the hardware store, it will do just as well. But it doesn't feed oil companies nearly as much money, and automakers make a bigger profit selling Stupid Useless Vehicles (to most who buy them).
I would have to agree that, for most people, it is indeed un-American to drive an SUV. Most of you don't need the damn thing, and by getting 8 MPG you just give middle-eastern oil theocracies more economic weapons to hold at our throats.
Set them up and use them for Airborne recon of M$ and RIAA Headquarters, and if the returned pictures show the HQ below, you press a button to release a small canister of urine, or other disgusting liquid of your choice.
Just a sec, there's some guy in a black trenchcoat at the door...
When I used to use Windows, I considered it a gift from the Gods if it worked for 5 hours straight. I didn't trust it to still be responding when I left to take a piss, for goodness sake.
Since I downloaded/burned/installed Mandrake 8.2, then 9.0, now 9.1, I've had 1 case where Freeciv locked up completely, 1 case where X wouldn't start because my video card burned out (Not linux's fault), and 1 case when the X server got a signal 11 from somewhere and dropped me at a console (1 command and I was back).
I'll take Linux, thank you. It's faster, more secure, more stable, and free.
* I will not use Windows to do anything, and you're not going to make me. :)
* I don't want to wait an hour to download it and then get to view for 24 hours, when I could get it for the same price in 10 minutes from Blockbuster.
* The rental will have far superior video and audio quality.
* My computer is upstairs, and the TV with a real sound system is downstairs.
* DRM. Although at any rate, I could simply connect my video cards' S-Video out to my capture cards' S-Video in
So, in short, the quality necessary to shove it down even a broadband connection sucks, it's DRMed, and I don't like watching movies on my computer.
"Hey, we're ya new cellmates. I'm Bubba, they put me away for murder. This here's Joey, he a rapist. Him there, he's Rob. Convicted pedophile. So, what you in for?"
"I used Kazaa."
"So, how long you in for?"
"20 years!"
"****! They only gave me 15..."
Why not give them the same real-world D.O.S. we gave Alan Ralsky? Quick, write scripts to sign everyone on that list up to everything you can think of!
This would be the case, in a healthy free market. However, Microsoft business practices have made the computer OS market extremely sick. You don't want windows, you say? Alright... try and get a computer from a major supplier without windows preinstalled, or with Linux preinstalled. I think HP has 1 or 2 computers with Linux on them. We don't call M$ an abusive monopoly for nothing.