You don't know so much about Oracle internally. Probably a fair statement about their boring "Apps" part, but their Fusion Middleware guys and gals are, same as with IBM, staffed with competitive hires out of Sun.
That said, there is a culture clash. Sun is about everything being done for the sake of doing it, not because it is something the market wants, and certainly Sun is not out to make money with most of their product line free. So, I'd say from an executive level, yes, Oracle (and IBM) don't mix well with Sun's socialist views of software, but making the accusation that Oracle (and IBM) aren't capable of the kind of free-thinking spirits is just not established in facts. You take a look at Gartner's "Magic Quadrant" and see where ol' Sun is versus Oracle or IBM. You've bought too much into their culture, and not looked hard enough at their results.
Feel free to use Oracle XE, which is a free for use version of the Oracle Database. I like how your comment was "MySQL is the best alternative to Oracle" instead of "DB2 is the best alternative to Oracle." Oracle won't buy Sun for a very, very specific reason: Oracle doesn't make hardware, and it isn't their business. Sun still makes boxes. Just because Oracle could buy Sun doesn't mean they want to or it is useful to them. It has to tell a meaningful story, not "we beat up the competition, bought them out, and control the market by default." Buying RedHat? Yes. All of Sun? No. Oracle did buy SleepyCat Software, which I think is great, because it shows their commitment to different solutions. Also, I think it gave them flexibility to put BerkeleyDB into a few of their products.
Neil McAlister is a tool. Although he found a few supportive quotes to his point, he doesn't know anything about Oracle's view on software, much less what they think of Sun's "our products are so good, they're free" attitude. I think Sun has made several mistakes in the last 10 years, and Safra Catz and Charles Phillips don't particularly want to clean up the mess. Where's Neil's quotes from Oracle? Did anyone notice those were completely absent from his article? This is just foolish speculation, not based upon any analysis of Oracle itself.
Having worked with Cisco, I don't think they want Sun, either. For the same sorts of reasons, it isn't a good fit for them. Sun is a loser bet, really. Cisco doesn't suddenly want to go from "a little software in support of their hardware" to something insanely complex like Sun. It just isn't a company that can lead it. IBM was a good fit because they can do hardware and software and operating systems pretty dang well. So, who does that leave? Anyone? Yes. SGI comes to mind for me, too. Can they? Probably not. Would they? Still not so sure. They did both try the "put our Unix on an Intel" idea and failed, so at least they screw up the same way. I sense some compatibility there.
Oracle's money is better spent on making their current acquisitions stronger products than in acquiring a messy company. They aren't after the Sun staff. The good ones have all be competitively hired by the likes of IBM and Oracle already. I sure wish someone on Slashdot who has a friend who is a CEO would pass on the importance of not losing "intellectual capital." You can blame the economy or the 'tards in Washington, DC all you want, but when you get right down to it, a company is people. You lose the right people, you lose the magic, and the company will fail soon after. I think, therefore, that because Sun has lost their magic, and their minds for rejecting IBM's bid, They will continue in a smaller, weaker way, or soon be sliced into divided sales.
The USA protects the sovereignty of several countries. Some, because we conquered them (Japan). Others we protect because, well, they enjoy their egalitarian ideals while we prevent invasions. France comes to mind. Fundamentally, when the American economy starts to fail proportionally greater than other nations, the USA will not be able to maintain its grand army. I, for one, would like to see that day come. Let's see how peaceful Islam really is when the USA can't muster half a million bloodthirsty GIs.
Dear Japan,
We can no longer protect your nation. Go build some giant robots or something; your military can be fully built. We know North Korea is trying to conquer your peaceful little pocket of the world. Sorry.
Dear Turkey,
First, we're really sorry our new president is such an insensitive clod. He apparently doesn't know anything about our relationship with you through the cold war. We are going to withdraw our weapons and bases from the region, and we hope you do okay. Good luck dealing with Iran. You are on your own.
Dear France,
Great News! You are finally getting what you always wanted. We are withdrawing from our defense obligations to NATO and the UN. You have total control and responsibility now. Furthermore, we've made Halliburton illegal. Good luck fixing things without our military and our engineers. We have our own problems to deal with. So long, and thanks for all the cheese.
Dear Canada,
How's it going, eh? Times are tough. Listen, we won't drag you into global conflicts anymore, ok? It is getting too expensive. You might want to invest in some submarines, we won't patrol all the oceans anymore, just the area around our borders. We're sending some troops into Alaska just in case you get invaded.
Dear Libya,
Patience prevails! No more F-111's flying overhead, preventing you from expanding your borders. Most of Africa's a mess anyway, you might do some good. Love the new sunglasses, Quadafi.
Dear Venezuela,
We're finally working on renewable power. Go do whatever, alright? We don't care. In fact, whatever you do that creates volatility in the oil market, it helps our crippled little corner of that space.
Dear China & Russia,
Looks like Communism/Socialism won. Feel free to set global agendas, because free markets and capitalism failed. As a gesture of good faith, we are dismantling our national defense systems that involve nuclear deterrents. We hope you will do the same. If you want to re-conquer Eastern Europe, Korea, or Vietnam, well, we can't stop you, but we don't think it is a good idea.
You forgot "Nuclear Winter." Incidentally, there's a small shop in Manhattan Beach, CA that sells little bottles of acid rain. Oh, and ozone is a poison far worse than smog, unless you count (and you should) ozone at the troposphere as smog.
You forgot to mention that the state in which Al Gore has his primary residence, it is the largest single family home on record. Something insane like 10,000 a square foot house for him and his wife goes unnoticed on principle when doling out the embarrassment that once was the Nobel Prize. Still, that is smaller than the 54,000 square foot house that Barack Obama has in Washington DC.
Nice post. So, my question is this: are you saying the political movement that is Global Warming is more along the lines of Global Socialism?
On one fateful visit to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, I caught a whiff of apes in heat, according to a thoughtful temporary sign posted outside the exhibit. An unruly stench beyond this rot does not exist among the living. It is only filth and the decomposition of tissue that can surpass it. Was this sights and sounds only, or was it a more saturating experience. Did anyone go? Oh wait. Nobody would admit to it.
So, again, Soylent Green reference here... can't we just somehow harvest the lazy, stupid kids for protein? I think if you abstract the food processing enough, most people won't consider it cannibalism. Sure, that's clearly dystopian, but I think it fits into a hive culture somewhat, right? There could be these two societies: the mass of idiots, living in their catacombs in the sky, and a few, scant intelligent folks, lurking in the rough terrain, surviving off the land and their wits alone. They wouldn't cross much, though. The intelligent people live far away from the hives, and tell their children terrible stories about life in the hives. The children become curious and occasionally see them from a distance, but the architecture is so hideous, they run back into the wild, safe from the atrocities of man. The great masses of fools become more and more decadent, all the while, living shorter and shorter lives due to malnutrition. It is fashionable not to live until you are old, citing some random quote from The Apology of Socrates around "dying old." At some point, the decadent urbanites start thinning in numbers. Birth rates drop due to a loss of fertility. Some science develops a band-aid solution, but in the end, the decadence and sedentary apathy consumes them. They die off almost completely. The balance is lost, however. The stories of those living in the wild are told less and less, and fewer children go explore the urban areas. Their own communities have started to grow. A cycle begins.
Man, if it wasn't for the apocalypse, I think a dystopian reality is possible. Maddening, pointless cycles. This guy's architectural design means we are getting closer, and I, for one, hope for global disaster that will ravage the earth with fire, consuming mud huts and skyscrapers alike. It is a shame pyromaniacs aren't more societal; they could band together and scorch the earth, boil the ocean, and bring about an end to this dark, mad future. At the very least, could someone please go burn this guy's architect's license?
At the moment there is no automated method to harvest many fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
Maybe not harvest, but Slashdot has certainly figured out a way to attract them!
Hey, just for kicks, what would happen if you took a really basic 5-story iron building frame, planted kudzu vines at every base post, trained the vines to the frame,then grafted tomato branches onto the kudzu? Would it grow all the way up? I know I've seen ivy grow that tall on college campuses where they teach architecture.
Listen, if we are worried about food supplies, all we need to do is get used to eating yeast cultures, and we will be fine. Every half-way decent science fiction story recognizes it. Even Firefly, in its brief brilliance, managed to get that point across.
Personally, if we can re-arrange our corporate thinking enough to do things like put food-bearing plants in our atriums instead of Hosta, Croton, and God knows what else, perhaps there's a smarter increment here we are missing. Give up the first 18 inches of every windowed office or meeting room to a window planter box with a wheat grass growing in it. I can see a well-pruned apple tree growing happily in the middle of a well-lit open staircase. No tree climbing, just go up the stairs and reach out for some food. If you are reading this article, saying to yourself "this architect is nuts" see what you can do on a gardening scale. I've seen plenty of people growing ivy or whatever at their desk. I once saw bamboo growing in a goldfish tank, with a goldfish to boot! Take that retarded coffee cup that says "RTFM" on it, drill a hole through the bottom, set that on a coffee can lid (with a lip to it), fill it with dirt, and stick some seeds in it, watering it every day. If you're smart and drink water at your desk instead of pop, just dump the last dregs into the "RTFM" mug at the end of the day, and it will do enough. Some berries, most herbs, and at least a few chillies will grow in a small planter. In a year, you might realistically be able to make a small bottle of hot sauce or some berry puree, or every two weeks you could make a more interesting salad with the herb. This isn't a food supply solution by any means. It is a quality of cubicle life improvement, though. I think we all need to have some basic ability to tend to a plant.
Wow, fiber optic lighting. That's amazing. I stagger to come up with a more expensive way to light a place. Look, this is nothing more than a 20th-century chandelier, ok? The only difference is that when there is an earthquake, it doesn't come crashing down, but all the fibers crack... and you still have to replace the whole thing. Your article talked about "limited by the length of the fiber." I wonder what the maintenance would be like on fiber optics at that scale.
Until this graphic designer builds a working prototype on his coffee table, he's got nothing more than a lot of crazy pictures to show for it.
Actually, I think this would work if they had solar power. I mean, isn't the prevailing logic that you get 1 kilowatt per square meter with a photovoltaic cell? So, the first thing you would do is cover the entire building with solar panels, top to bottom, then you'd put those low-e light-bulbs everywhere. I have an aeroponic system that uses two 24-watt CF bulbs. It was a gift, ok? My guess is that it takes eight of these bulbs to cover a square meter, so roughly 200 watts per square meter. That means you could get five stories of it. Now, I think there ought to be a water pump involved somewhere, so let's cut it down to four stories.
let's talk about costs, though. I'm talking about building a 4-story building with significant plumbing and wiring. On top of that, at a reasonable size, I'm realistically managing 1000's of those cf light bulbs, the long-term replacement cost of the solar panels, plus the aeroponic supplies to go with it. Don't believe the hype, cf light bulbs last half what they claim they do, ask anyone who does maintenance at hotels (I asked). tanks need scrubbing, pipes need repairing, floors need sweeping, etc.
Things are just a whole lot cheaper, cleaner, and easier when it is seeds, dirt, rain, and sun. Plus, there's zero industrial waste involved in all those high-tech elements.Give me land, lots of land, and the starry skies above, don't fence me in...
Okay, that's world-class funny. I hope everyone remembers this observation. When will we see the end of corporate greed at the top? Ever? Death to this model of corporations, I say. Chief-* has become a term of ignominy.
This is just the bumbling FBI coming up with terminology that doesn't fit so they can demonize Flash Mobs in the future and point back to this incident. Honestly, this "we've never seen this kind of organization before" chatter is just a bureaucrat's way of sounding less like a fool to the management than usual. Earlier assessments that this was "pay to prey" sounds about right. No leads, huh? Sounds like RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland, right?) is completely naive. If they had the right information security at all, they would know enough. Here, I'll help them narrow it down:
Screen your sys Admins. When you are done with that, check your internal application developers. And, if you find any of that work being done very, very far away from HQ, I'd start with those folks first. Oh, RBS, did you lay anyone off? Why, yes, yes, I think you did!
There, I just narrowed down your search criteria to under 3000 people. Good luck, and go buy some anti-fraud technology and deploy it wherever card systems are used.
Yo don't know how many times that sign has stopped me. First, I went in to one of those mega-churches and saw that gun ban sign. Totally bummed me out, and I left. Then, I got the idea I could do similar damage with a flamethrower. So, I spent all weekend going through Make.com for ideas, built my flame thrower, and made it over to the church to go kill some innocent people. Upon further inspection, it said "dangerous weapons." Foiled again. I'll tell you, for terrorism experts, those signs are really bad business. There's really no way around it without arousing suspicion at some point.
That's not an insurmountable challenge. You need to work on the logical deductions a bit harder. The first thing you need to ask is whether Rap music is at the root cause of the genocide in Africa, then you need to establish that except for some guys like Eminem and Ice T, Rap music is largely an African American invention anyway. Now, it will take a bit of figuring, but I'm sure if you hired the right people from the right airline, they could somehow puke up the logic to pin genocide in Africa to anti-establishment "gangsta" rap from America, and through transitive influence, blame the African American. This kind of falls apart if the opposition brings up Jazz or Blues, which are not exactly a vehement, spurious music, yet also influenced by African Americans.
If you take a look at the wide swath of idiots in the US Senate, I think it is safe to say that any amount of foolishness is possible, if we can elect that kind of leadership. People can be fooled. If you don't believe me, look at the Oklahoma City bombings story at the "CNN" level, then find the deeper effort by local field reporter Jayna Davis on the tie-in to Saddam Hussein and the local terrorist cell. We don't know the whole story here, and as much as we'd like to couch it, I suspect strongly that no slashdot readers were on that flight when the off-color remark about safety was made, leaving Reagan International.
I have been on one flight when a group of Mullahs were basically making slightly taunting statements to similar effect. In their minds, they were probably having a nervous laugh at the expense of Northwest Airlines (and unfortunately, other passengers). This was the same day, and the same airport where Mullahs were pulled from a flight after making off-color remarks and tempting fate (thankfully, those who were going to Denver that day were less annoying). They were a little indignant. Disrespectful. But, they were not terrorists. I'm not an experienced suicide bomber, but anything short of shouting "Death to the Infidels!" followed by running quickly to the cockpit and ululuating is nothing more unsavory than sour grapes with a subtle bouquet of arrogance and the nutty aftertaste of anti-establishment.
I'm willing to believe the two Muslim families had some anti-airline sentiment and their rights to free speech were upheld by the FBI. What I don't believe is how incredibly cheap that Detroit attorney was by flying AirTran for the holidays. There's something suspicious about that. Maybe Mr. Aziz was bucking for a little business fame at the expense of his family vacation. Just like the link between rap music and genocide in Africa, something has been left out of the story.
It's called locking them in a basement their whole life. It has been done, again and again. I'm not aware of it being an effective parenting technique, however. Have there been any government-funded studies showing that raising a child in total isolation helps neutralize the societal impact of their gender development? Does anyone know?
Nuclear power plants have an ROI timeline, unburdened by government perks, of about 18 months. Furthermore, the power they generate can be slightly cheaper than coal, per kilowatt-hour, depending on how cheap the coal is in the area. Newer reactor designs (Gen IV) have higher operational efficiencies, which mean cheaper power than ever. Meanwhile, newer coal plants require greater environmental tooling, and so they are consequently less efficient and more expensive. Go Australia! Show America how to do things, like you did with the SCRAM engine!
So, answer me this: where is Qwest in all of this discussion? I mean, TDS is just West of Madison. Monticello is a neat place. The area generates an awful lot of the electricity for the state. I hope you guys get your fiber. I can see the anti-competitive argument, but as soon as you slather on the history, this isn't a simple conservative/liberal government discussion. Fact is, you tried that route first, and it didn't work the way it was supposed to work. I don't know who at TDS thought suing municipalities was good public relations.
They must be over-simplifying the design here, you are totally right. Both vendors have high-speed piston/pump systems. Neither have any experience noted with nuclear power. My guess is that they are just taking the RTG architecture and using a heat pump (both companies make electricity-generating pumps) instead of a thermocouple, to yield higher efficiency.
It worries me to no end that Honeywell, General Atomics, General Electric, or others are not in charge of this project. The water/gas pump guys probably don't have the background required, and I can just see this go all wrong because of the lack of atomic physicists.
They can also slow the reaction, as they are planning with the SSTAR reactor, so the fissile material lasts longer but produces less power. The RTG's on the Voyager probes lasted 30+ years. I'll take a little fall-out over a giant silo of hydrazine of an exploded rocket any day. You make a good point, bencollier. We should stop using chemical burn rockets, they have a habit of blowing up. Alternative suggestions?
Come on, now, are you serious? Wind will not work without an atmosphere. Also, geothermal/lunathermal only works if there's a hot core. Isn't the moon completely cold?
You must mean dust clouds from meteoric impact, landers and launches, or just a fun jaunt in the gen II NASA ATV. Don't tell me the astronauts aren't going to take that bad boy out for fun on the craters. 1/5 the gravity means some serious hang time! Come to think of it, why couldn't they just use an all-electric, modified snowmobile? I can just see them high-marking on the Tycho-Brae crater. The moon is a very dusty place, but I'm just thinking it is a very "powdery" place. Funny how the depth of the dust is only a few centimeters, though. Given the rate of dust collection from space, shouldn't it be several meters thick, since the moon is assumedly so old? Nobody ever talks about that oddity.
Sorry, Nuclear power technology is more established than Solar power technology for reliability, and quite frankly, it is the older technology of the two. It has only been in the last 25 years or so that Solar panels have been used in space missions. I am pleased to see small reactor designs, instead of RTG systems, though.
Those solar panels are protected by the Van Allen Belt. The ones on the moon are not. It gets even more complicated there. Good point about the gravity, though!
Slashdot Mirror
That said, there is a culture clash. Sun is about everything being done for the sake of doing it, not because it is something the market wants, and certainly Sun is not out to make money with most of their product line free. So, I'd say from an executive level, yes, Oracle (and IBM) don't mix well with Sun's socialist views of software, but making the accusation that Oracle (and IBM) aren't capable of the kind of free-thinking spirits is just not established in facts. You take a look at Gartner's "Magic Quadrant" and see where ol' Sun is versus Oracle or IBM. You've bought too much into their culture, and not looked hard enough at their results.
Neil McAlister is a tool. Although he found a few supportive quotes to his point, he doesn't know anything about Oracle's view on software, much less what they think of Sun's "our products are so good, they're free" attitude. I think Sun has made several mistakes in the last 10 years, and Safra Catz and Charles Phillips don't particularly want to clean up the mess. Where's Neil's quotes from Oracle? Did anyone notice those were completely absent from his article? This is just foolish speculation, not based upon any analysis of Oracle itself.
Having worked with Cisco, I don't think they want Sun, either. For the same sorts of reasons, it isn't a good fit for them. Sun is a loser bet, really. Cisco doesn't suddenly want to go from "a little software in support of their hardware" to something insanely complex like Sun. It just isn't a company that can lead it. IBM was a good fit because they can do hardware and software and operating systems pretty dang well. So, who does that leave? Anyone? Yes. SGI comes to mind for me, too. Can they? Probably not. Would they? Still not so sure. They did both try the "put our Unix on an Intel" idea and failed, so at least they screw up the same way. I sense some compatibility there.
Oracle's money is better spent on making their current acquisitions stronger products than in acquiring a messy company. They aren't after the Sun staff. The good ones have all be competitively hired by the likes of IBM and Oracle already. I sure wish someone on Slashdot who has a friend who is a CEO would pass on the importance of not losing "intellectual capital." You can blame the economy or the 'tards in Washington, DC all you want, but when you get right down to it, a company is people. You lose the right people, you lose the magic, and the company will fail soon after. I think, therefore, that because Sun has lost their magic, and their minds for rejecting IBM's bid, They will continue in a smaller, weaker way, or soon be sliced into divided sales.
Dear Japan,
We can no longer protect your nation. Go build some giant robots or something; your military can be fully built. We know North Korea is trying to conquer your peaceful little pocket of the world. Sorry.
Dear Turkey,
First, we're really sorry our new president is such an insensitive clod. He apparently doesn't know anything about our relationship with you through the cold war. We are going to withdraw our weapons and bases from the region, and we hope you do okay. Good luck dealing with Iran. You are on your own.
Dear France,
Great News! You are finally getting what you always wanted. We are withdrawing from our defense obligations to NATO and the UN. You have total control and responsibility now. Furthermore, we've made Halliburton illegal. Good luck fixing things without our military and our engineers. We have our own problems to deal with. So long, and thanks for all the cheese.
Dear Canada,
How's it going, eh? Times are tough. Listen, we won't drag you into global conflicts anymore, ok? It is getting too expensive. You might want to invest in some submarines, we won't patrol all the oceans anymore, just the area around our borders. We're sending some troops into Alaska just in case you get invaded.
Dear Libya,
Patience prevails! No more F-111's flying overhead, preventing you from expanding your borders. Most of Africa's a mess anyway, you might do some good. Love the new sunglasses, Quadafi.
Dear Venezuela,
We're finally working on renewable power. Go do whatever, alright? We don't care. In fact, whatever you do that creates volatility in the oil market, it helps our crippled little corner of that space.
Dear China & Russia,
Looks like Communism/Socialism won. Feel free to set global agendas, because free markets and capitalism failed. As a gesture of good faith, we are dismantling our national defense systems that involve nuclear deterrents. We hope you will do the same. If you want to re-conquer Eastern Europe, Korea, or Vietnam, well, we can't stop you, but we don't think it is a good idea.
You forgot "Nuclear Winter." Incidentally, there's a small shop in Manhattan Beach, CA that sells little bottles of acid rain. Oh, and ozone is a poison far worse than smog, unless you count (and you should) ozone at the troposphere as smog.
Nice post. So, my question is this: are you saying the political movement that is Global Warming is more along the lines of Global Socialism?
On one fateful visit to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, I caught a whiff of apes in heat, according to a thoughtful temporary sign posted outside the exhibit. An unruly stench beyond this rot does not exist among the living. It is only filth and the decomposition of tissue that can surpass it. Was this sights and sounds only, or was it a more saturating experience. Did anyone go? Oh wait. Nobody would admit to it.
Man, if it wasn't for the apocalypse, I think a dystopian reality is possible. Maddening, pointless cycles. This guy's architectural design means we are getting closer, and I, for one, hope for global disaster that will ravage the earth with fire, consuming mud huts and skyscrapers alike. It is a shame pyromaniacs aren't more societal; they could band together and scorch the earth, boil the ocean, and bring about an end to this dark, mad future. At the very least, could someone please go burn this guy's architect's license?
At the moment there is no automated method to harvest many fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
Maybe not harvest, but Slashdot has certainly figured out a way to attract them!
Hey, just for kicks, what would happen if you took a really basic 5-story iron building frame, planted kudzu vines at every base post, trained the vines to the frame,then grafted tomato branches onto the kudzu? Would it grow all the way up? I know I've seen ivy grow that tall on college campuses where they teach architecture.
Listen, if we are worried about food supplies, all we need to do is get used to eating yeast cultures, and we will be fine. Every half-way decent science fiction story recognizes it. Even Firefly, in its brief brilliance, managed to get that point across.
Personally, if we can re-arrange our corporate thinking enough to do things like put food-bearing plants in our atriums instead of Hosta, Croton, and God knows what else, perhaps there's a smarter increment here we are missing. Give up the first 18 inches of every windowed office or meeting room to a window planter box with a wheat grass growing in it. I can see a well-pruned apple tree growing happily in the middle of a well-lit open staircase. No tree climbing, just go up the stairs and reach out for some food. If you are reading this article, saying to yourself "this architect is nuts" see what you can do on a gardening scale. I've seen plenty of people growing ivy or whatever at their desk. I once saw bamboo growing in a goldfish tank, with a goldfish to boot! Take that retarded coffee cup that says "RTFM" on it, drill a hole through the bottom, set that on a coffee can lid (with a lip to it), fill it with dirt, and stick some seeds in it, watering it every day. If you're smart and drink water at your desk instead of pop, just dump the last dregs into the "RTFM" mug at the end of the day, and it will do enough. Some berries, most herbs, and at least a few chillies will grow in a small planter. In a year, you might realistically be able to make a small bottle of hot sauce or some berry puree, or every two weeks you could make a more interesting salad with the herb. This isn't a food supply solution by any means. It is a quality of cubicle life improvement, though. I think we all need to have some basic ability to tend to a plant.
I'm just waiting too long for someone to reference Soylent Green.
Until this graphic designer builds a working prototype on his coffee table, he's got nothing more than a lot of crazy pictures to show for it.
let's talk about costs, though. I'm talking about building a 4-story building with significant plumbing and wiring. On top of that, at a reasonable size, I'm realistically managing 1000's of those cf light bulbs, the long-term replacement cost of the solar panels, plus the aeroponic supplies to go with it. Don't believe the hype, cf light bulbs last half what they claim they do, ask anyone who does maintenance at hotels (I asked). tanks need scrubbing, pipes need repairing, floors need sweeping, etc.
Things are just a whole lot cheaper, cleaner, and easier when it is seeds, dirt, rain, and sun. Plus, there's zero industrial waste involved in all those high-tech elements.Give me land, lots of land, and the starry skies above, don't fence me in...
Okay, that's world-class funny. I hope everyone remembers this observation. When will we see the end of corporate greed at the top? Ever? Death to this model of corporations, I say. Chief-* has become a term of ignominy.
Screen your sys Admins. When you are done with that, check your internal application developers. And, if you find any of that work being done very, very far away from HQ, I'd start with those folks first. Oh, RBS, did you lay anyone off? Why, yes, yes, I think you did!
There, I just narrowed down your search criteria to under 3000 people. Good luck, and go buy some anti-fraud technology and deploy it wherever card systems are used.
Yo don't know how many times that sign has stopped me. First, I went in to one of those mega-churches and saw that gun ban sign. Totally bummed me out, and I left. Then, I got the idea I could do similar damage with a flamethrower. So, I spent all weekend going through Make.com for ideas, built my flame thrower, and made it over to the church to go kill some innocent people. Upon further inspection, it said "dangerous weapons." Foiled again. I'll tell you, for terrorism experts, those signs are really bad business. There's really no way around it without arousing suspicion at some point.
If you take a look at the wide swath of idiots in the US Senate, I think it is safe to say that any amount of foolishness is possible, if we can elect that kind of leadership. People can be fooled. If you don't believe me, look at the Oklahoma City bombings story at the "CNN" level, then find the deeper effort by local field reporter Jayna Davis on the tie-in to Saddam Hussein and the local terrorist cell. We don't know the whole story here, and as much as we'd like to couch it, I suspect strongly that no slashdot readers were on that flight when the off-color remark about safety was made, leaving Reagan International.
I have been on one flight when a group of Mullahs were basically making slightly taunting statements to similar effect. In their minds, they were probably having a nervous laugh at the expense of Northwest Airlines (and unfortunately, other passengers). This was the same day, and the same airport where Mullahs were pulled from a flight after making off-color remarks and tempting fate (thankfully, those who were going to Denver that day were less annoying). They were a little indignant. Disrespectful. But, they were not terrorists. I'm not an experienced suicide bomber, but anything short of shouting "Death to the Infidels!" followed by running quickly to the cockpit and ululuating is nothing more unsavory than sour grapes with a subtle bouquet of arrogance and the nutty aftertaste of anti-establishment.
I'm willing to believe the two Muslim families had some anti-airline sentiment and their rights to free speech were upheld by the FBI. What I don't believe is how incredibly cheap that Detroit attorney was by flying AirTran for the holidays. There's something suspicious about that. Maybe Mr. Aziz was bucking for a little business fame at the expense of his family vacation. Just like the link between rap music and genocide in Africa, something has been left out of the story.
It's called locking them in a basement their whole life. It has been done, again and again. I'm not aware of it being an effective parenting technique, however. Have there been any government-funded studies showing that raising a child in total isolation helps neutralize the societal impact of their gender development? Does anyone know?
As far as I'm concerned, this is no cause for alarm. Now, if all of the sudden, all the bees disappear, well, then you've got something.
Nuclear power plants have an ROI timeline, unburdened by government perks, of about 18 months. Furthermore, the power they generate can be slightly cheaper than coal, per kilowatt-hour, depending on how cheap the coal is in the area. Newer reactor designs (Gen IV) have higher operational efficiencies, which mean cheaper power than ever. Meanwhile, newer coal plants require greater environmental tooling, and so they are consequently less efficient and more expensive. Go Australia! Show America how to do things, like you did with the SCRAM engine!
So, answer me this: where is Qwest in all of this discussion? I mean, TDS is just West of Madison. Monticello is a neat place. The area generates an awful lot of the electricity for the state. I hope you guys get your fiber. I can see the anti-competitive argument, but as soon as you slather on the history, this isn't a simple conservative/liberal government discussion. Fact is, you tried that route first, and it didn't work the way it was supposed to work. I don't know who at TDS thought suing municipalities was good public relations.
It worries me to no end that Honeywell, General Atomics, General Electric, or others are not in charge of this project. The water/gas pump guys probably don't have the background required, and I can just see this go all wrong because of the lack of atomic physicists.
They can also slow the reaction, as they are planning with the SSTAR reactor, so the fissile material lasts longer but produces less power. The RTG's on the Voyager probes lasted 30+ years. I'll take a little fall-out over a giant silo of hydrazine of an exploded rocket any day. You make a good point, bencollier. We should stop using chemical burn rockets, they have a habit of blowing up. Alternative suggestions?
Come on, now, are you serious? Wind will not work without an atmosphere. Also, geothermal/lunathermal only works if there's a hot core. Isn't the moon completely cold?
You must mean dust clouds from meteoric impact, landers and launches, or just a fun jaunt in the gen II NASA ATV. Don't tell me the astronauts aren't going to take that bad boy out for fun on the craters. 1/5 the gravity means some serious hang time! Come to think of it, why couldn't they just use an all-electric, modified snowmobile? I can just see them high-marking on the Tycho-Brae crater. The moon is a very dusty place, but I'm just thinking it is a very "powdery" place. Funny how the depth of the dust is only a few centimeters, though. Given the rate of dust collection from space, shouldn't it be several meters thick, since the moon is assumedly so old? Nobody ever talks about that oddity.
Sorry, Nuclear power technology is more established than Solar power technology for reliability, and quite frankly, it is the older technology of the two. It has only been in the last 25 years or so that Solar panels have been used in space missions. I am pleased to see small reactor designs, instead of RTG systems, though.
Those solar panels are protected by the Van Allen Belt. The ones on the moon are not. It gets even more complicated there. Good point about the gravity, though!