Although I cringe at the thought of Apple and its walled gardens, I hear you and I feel your pain. The Linux landscape seems more homogeneous and less 'choiceful' than it did even a few years ago. But at least give Xubuntu a try before you decide to give up on Linux altogether. And FWIW, I haven't experienced any crashes at all, (fingers crossed), and my installation is as up-to-date as automatic updates can make it.
The whole thing has become too complicated and it makes hobbyists cringe. Not just the kernel, X, everything else. That's why you mostly see corporations funding the work. Maybe it was because it was funded by corporations that it became to complicated to begin with.
Remains to be seen if the efforts to replace X will turn out something that is actually simpler and better though.
If you are using an overly verbose language with a lot of code you could automatically generate *cough* Java *cough* it is better to use an IDE. For everything else that is pure text entry Vim is superior.
The process of manufacturing concrete was lost, the process of manufacturing wootz steel aka damascus steel is still lost, there are ancient Chinese tombs with stainless steel swords. In all of these cases the manufacturing method relied on some naturally occurring material which was eventually exhausted and eventually painstakingly recreated from more basic sources much, much later on.
Gasoline engines also emit NOx. The solution for both is to use a catalytic converter. In the past you could not use platinum catalysts with diesels because the sulfur content poisoned the catalyst but that is no longer true with ultra-low sulfur diesel available.
They are phasing out nuclear for wind and natural gas from Algeria. Thing is the extraction is to the south of the country close to where most of the Al-Qaeda thugs who invaded Libya came from. Good luck!
It is more than that. China is building more reactors than the rest of the world combined period. They have build most of the currently used reactor types in the last couple of decades. Including the French, Canadian, and US models.
there's often some unknown technical magic happening when moving from high-grade uranium to low-grade uranium that requires no extra enrichment
I think you meant the other way around. Yes. It is called the Zippe centrifuge. Russia, Pakistan, China, France use this process and the USA is currently switching to it for uranium separation. Back when France still used gaseous diffusion the process was itself powered using nuclear power plants at Tricastin which are now not required and can be devoted to grid power. BTW separation can theoretically be even more efficient and the USA is currently testing an Australian technology called SILEX.
I suspect that if we had actually allowed nuclear reprocessing R&D to be done for the past 40 years the so called nuclear residue issue would be irrelevant. Processes like SILEX probably have promise helping with that. Problem is no government is interested in having such a low power and tunable isotope separation method like SILEX becoming commonly available. For some reason it was made an US secret despite being originally developed in Australia with minimal university level funding. Do they really think no one else can independently reinvent it? Australia is a country with 23 million people.
There are plenty of projects for modular nuclear power plants the problem is lack of funding. Eskom had one called the PMBR and Terrapower has another called the TWR.
Try reading about the Atari-Amiga deal. It sounds a lot like this deal.
Atari made a loan to Hitoro to develop the computer. With the option of buying it afterwards when it was completed. But Atari, under Tramiel, decided it was better to let Hitoro sink with the development costs and get the Amiga for nothing extra - basically they would foreclosure Hitoro to 'pay back' the loan they made. The founders and partners of Hitoro would lose all the money they invested in the process. Thankfully Commodore bailed Hitoro out just in the nick of time.
It is an edge bet against a future where petrofuels are too expensive. With declining oil prices electric cars and hydrogen cars are going to start becoming less attractive just like what happened in the 90s last time this was attempted. Tesla might still sell with their angle on performance. These guys will probably not sell well at all. Plus cost effective ways to produce hydrogen without using petrofuels or natural gas have never actually materialized. One way is high temperature nuclear power plants using thermoelectric water separation but given the current investment into nuclear technologies it is not going to happen. Another way was concentrated solar thermoelectric but that is not cost effective with current methods.
The USAF wanted to launch heavier satellites to higher orbits than the Shuttle could do. After the Challenger disaster and the cancellation of the Shuttle-Centaur the USAF and NRO had no other choice but to use the Titan rocket, which was really expensive, to launch these payloads. Things like reconnaissance satellites and things like that.
I think Microsoft bought it because they thought they would get the cellphone market share of Nokia with the deal plus any patents Nokia had. The patents were the main deal here. The problem is Nokia market share collapsed after Elop and his burning platforms memo. No one wanted Windows in their cellphone.
Doesn't work in places that are too cold without a decent hot reservoir like a geothermal source. Those cannot be found just anywhere. Theoretically you could use hydraulic fracturing to get geothermal basically anywhere but it seems to induce earthquakes.
Burning wood to heat yourself is neanderthalic. Not to mention a cause of air pollution and deforestation. I would rather burn anthracite coal than spew out the trash you get by burning wood which is full of carcinogens.
Slashdot Mirror
Hah.
Although I cringe at the thought of Apple and its walled gardens, I hear you and I feel your pain. The Linux landscape seems more homogeneous and less 'choiceful' than it did even a few years ago. But at least give Xubuntu a try before you decide to give up on Linux altogether. And FWIW, I haven't experienced any crashes at all, (fingers crossed), and my installation is as up-to-date as automatic updates can make it.
The whole thing has become too complicated and it makes hobbyists cringe. Not just the kernel, X, everything else. That's why you mostly see corporations funding the work. Maybe it was because it was funded by corporations that it became to complicated to begin with.
Remains to be seen if the efforts to replace X will turn out something that is actually simpler and better though.
If you are using an overly verbose language with a lot of code you could automatically generate *cough* Java *cough* it is better to use an IDE. For everything else that is pure text entry Vim is superior.
The process of manufacturing concrete was lost, the process of manufacturing wootz steel aka damascus steel is still lost, there are ancient Chinese tombs with stainless steel swords. In all of these cases the manufacturing method relied on some naturally occurring material which was eventually exhausted and eventually painstakingly recreated from more basic sources much, much later on.
Not with the latest technology it isn't. About as dirty as gasoline or arguably less.
This is probably the French state trying to get Nissan-Renault to sell more Nissan Leafs.
Gasoline engines also emit NOx. The solution for both is to use a catalytic converter. In the past you could not use platinum catalysts with diesels because the sulfur content poisoned the catalyst but that is no longer true with ultra-low sulfur diesel available.
They are phasing out nuclear for wind and natural gas from Algeria. Thing is the extraction is to the south of the country close to where most of the Al-Qaeda thugs who invaded Libya came from. Good luck!
Guess what. If the filters weren't there you would be breathing the thin particles and the large ones too.
So it ain't worse. Plus most of the particles come from sulphur, which is being eliminated from diesel.
I thought Scotland had a lot of peat production since like time immemorial.
It is more than that. China is building more reactors than the rest of the world combined period. They have build most of the currently used reactor types in the last couple of decades. Including the French, Canadian, and US models.
FWIW the Chinese have the most recent experience of actually building nuclear power plants of that model anyway.
http://www.areva.com/EN/operat...
http://www.neimagazine.com/new...
there's often some unknown technical magic happening when moving from high-grade uranium to low-grade uranium that requires no extra enrichment
I think you meant the other way around. Yes. It is called the Zippe centrifuge. Russia, Pakistan, China, France use this process and the USA is currently switching to it for uranium separation. Back when France still used gaseous diffusion the process was itself powered using nuclear power plants at Tricastin which are now not required and can be devoted to grid power. BTW separation can theoretically be even more efficient and the USA is currently testing an Australian technology called SILEX.
I suspect that if we had actually allowed nuclear reprocessing R&D to be done for the past 40 years the so called nuclear residue issue would be irrelevant. Processes like SILEX probably have promise helping with that. Problem is no government is interested in having such a low power and tunable isotope separation method like SILEX becoming commonly available. For some reason it was made an US secret despite being originally developed in Australia with minimal university level funding. Do they really think no one else can independently reinvent it? Australia is a country with 23 million people.
There are plenty of projects for modular nuclear power plants the problem is lack of funding. Eskom had one called the PMBR and Terrapower has another called the TWR.
Try reading about the Atari-Amiga deal. It sounds a lot like this deal.
Atari made a loan to Hitoro to develop the computer. With the option of buying it afterwards when it was completed. But Atari, under Tramiel, decided it was better to let Hitoro sink with the development costs and get the Amiga for nothing extra - basically they would foreclosure Hitoro to 'pay back' the loan they made. The founders and partners of Hitoro would lose all the money they invested in the process. Thankfully Commodore bailed Hitoro out just in the nick of time.
There are blue diamonds as well.
What makes the color is impurities in the crystal.
You also have to support MKV format to have the DivX logo.A lot of players support it by default.
It is an edge bet against a future where petrofuels are too expensive. With declining oil prices electric cars and hydrogen cars are going to start becoming less attractive just like what happened in the 90s last time this was attempted. Tesla might still sell with their angle on performance. These guys will probably not sell well at all. Plus cost effective ways to produce hydrogen without using petrofuels or natural gas have never actually materialized. One way is high temperature nuclear power plants using thermoelectric water separation but given the current investment into nuclear technologies it is not going to happen. Another way was concentrated solar thermoelectric but that is not cost effective with current methods.
Anyway it was a concept video and the Dragon 2 capsule does not look like that.
It is official. Or was. I remember Gwynne Shotwell or Elon Musk using it in a presentation.
ISS, Genesis I, Genesis II?
The USAF wanted to launch heavier satellites to higher orbits than the Shuttle could do. After the Challenger disaster and the cancellation of the Shuttle-Centaur the USAF and NRO had no other choice but to use the Titan rocket, which was really expensive, to launch these payloads. Things like reconnaissance satellites and things like that.
I think Microsoft bought it because they thought they would get the cellphone market share of Nokia with the deal plus any patents Nokia had. The patents were the main deal here. The problem is Nokia market share collapsed after Elop and his burning platforms memo. No one wanted Windows in their cellphone.
Nokia also manufactures hardware for operating cell phone towers. That was not sold to Microsoft.
Doesn't work in places that are too cold without a decent hot reservoir like a geothermal source. Those cannot be found just anywhere. Theoretically you could use hydraulic fracturing to get geothermal basically anywhere but it seems to induce earthquakes.
Burning wood to heat yourself is neanderthalic. Not to mention a cause of air pollution and deforestation. I would rather burn anthracite coal than spew out the trash you get by burning wood which is full of carcinogens.