"I can easily imagine a material being compressed by some heavy duty diamond anvil to reach this density, the question is: what happens when you let the pressure off? Will it expand (explosively one would presume) back to its original volume?"
So, you need 1.36% of the combined population of both Tuscon and Phoenix to ride this thing EVERY DAY, seven days a week for 270 years.
Sorry - isn't going to happen. This is a pseudoGreen boondoggle of epic proportions. What they should do is put in a rail link form Phoenix to the rail line that goes into Tuscon and electrify it so both cities can get food, clothing, and water and similar necessities. High speed passenger rail service for $27B is totally stupid.
Oddly enough, a rail line already exists in tuscon. they just need to cut a link down to that line from Phoenix.
Frankly, I think the better idea is to simply abandon all of those cities. They are completely dependent on resources outside themselves they really don't stand much of a long term chance at their present size. But if that isn't going to happen, then they need to leverage their present infrastructure in such a way that they can get food, clothing, water, and similar goods to these cities in an efficient manner.
Solar power is a good idea, even for trains, but building all new lines is stupid. The future of mass transport is electric trains. Getting them across the desert will be a challenge, but not impossible.
The economy completely sucks. Jobs are few. Hopefully things will look better in a few years, and your MS will be a nice addition to your resume.
Also: the MS is good for another reason: contacts you keep for a Long Time. Like in Undergrad, the contacts you make in MS degree will help you later in life.
I forgot about that - you are correct. And the middle digit of 1 was more prized than zero, hence NYC 212 vs. NJ with 201. I just picked 989 and 979 etc. because I knew they were "in the boonies" and I knew that "more "boonie-ish" state got more difficult dialing area codes (viz Utah with 801).
It has less to do with math and more to do wit physics: as in how to use a an old school phone. Phone numbers, until comparatively recently would "prefer" lower numbers because they are EASIER TO DIAL. If a company had the phone number (909)999-9009 you would HATE dialing that thing. It would take about half a minute just to dial the damn number.
1 as a first number was reserved for "other stuff" like international calls, so the lowest possible area codes (first numbers) went to places like New York City (212 - very quick to dial) or LA (213) because millions of people would be dialing that number, so it made for an overall faster dialing experience for (on average) more people.
This is compared to the relatively few people who lived in more obscure parts of the country, like Saginaw MI (989) or Bryan TX (979).
So, you have millions of phones in 212, thousands in 979. The result: saved effort in dialing.
Also, to this end there was a preference for exchanges to have lower numbers as well to save on dialing effort, and phone numbers with lower (but NON-ZERO) values were sought after. You'd see advertisments like "Call RotoRooter - 213 464 1111 !" or "Call us NOW for a free analysis! 201 738 1122 !" etc. and so on.
So, lower numbers in phone numbers have been a product of primitive dialing technology. Now with touchtone - all that is out the window - but the historic trend is still there and quite powerful - people will pay good money for a 212 area code for the distinction of being in the "real" New York Area code...
The smart money is on the breakthrough, we've had plenty of them before and there is no reason to believe they are going to stop coming.
Exactly. However, it isn't going to happen in the next few years, and from what I can gather, the next 5 are going to be the age of massive multiprocessors. There will be improvements, but nothing like the 1990s. There will be a breakthrough in speed, but Oracle is looking at the here and now, and the here and now is saying "highly specialised silicon multi-core chips arranged in a multiprocessor array", and my contention is that Oracle is responding to that reality.
We can talk about all the dreamy chips of the future, but when you have a business to run you have to look at things with definite parameters and plans over the next year or three, and that's where Sun's chip manufacturing comes in - modify the chips to fit your needs, and then dump dozens of them in a box. At the same time, optimise your code to work on these optimised boxes, and you get real performance gains in a realistic timeframe without resorting to wishful thinking of some messianic breakthrough.
Make the money you can with such a system, and when / if the breakthrough comes through, take advantage when the time comes. But basing business plans around some great technology that doesn't exist yet is sheer stupidity.
They've reduced the size of the "wiring" about as far as it can go for silicon. Eventually something will completely replace it all, but it's not going to happen in the next 5 years.
So, just dump more processors in a box, and optimise the processor's design to your needs.
Apple figured it out, and Oracle's not stupid. This should work until the next big jump in processor design.
Me vs. wife. I insist on public, she insists on driving.
Public: TTC, $2.75 each way. I can get a monthly pass for $105. Assume worst: $2.75 each way, 7 days a week.
Car: 2002 Honda Civic, bought used, $10,000, to be paid over 5 years ($2120 yr) or $5.80 day.
Car insurance: We're old, so we only pay about $500 year, about $1.36 a day.
Car Maintenance averages $800 year (tires, brakes, etc. etc.) about $2.19 a day
distance: 6 miles each way.
Gas mileage on car: in city, 24 mpg.
Gas price: $0.85 per liter, roughly = $3.25 gallon, so Cost in gas to drive downtown each day: ~$1.66
Parking downtown = $8 day. (She has a good lot)
So, per day:
Car loan: $5.80
Insurance: $1.36
Maintain: $2.19
Cost Gas: $1.66
Parking: $8.00
---------------------
total per day: 19.01 per day.
x 365 = $6938.65 total cost per year for commuting.
total cost per year for TTC: 365 x (2 x 2.75)= $2007.50
Man - bring me back to the 80s - when EVERYTHING was "TURBO". Go shopping for flatware "get this new stainless steel TURBO flatware - the spoons are extra-round!". You get your fucking cable bill and it's not delivered by letter post, it's deliverred by TURBO letter post. And the computer had a TURBO button on it to make it go faster. And the cooling fan the kicked in made you think - "hey maybe there IS a turbo in there!". And you go to the deli to pick up some fish, and they're selling TURBOT, but not just ANY TURBOT, but TURBOTURBOT!!!
Man - between all that bullshit and bands like "A Flock of Haircuts" it was enough to make Max Headroom hurhurhur-HURL!
It has no business model to speak of. It is "this month's flavour". 2005 it was myspace. 2007 it was Facebook. Now it's twitter. It will fail. Eventually the bills come due and the law of gravity must be respected.
it's not been framed as a "superior manufacturing system" for lamp black. It's being touted as an energy system that makes lamp black.
Any energy system that uses more energy to produce energy is not an energy source - it's an energy sink.
Your points about electrical sourcing are not far from true, but not really serious given present conditions.
Here are the simple facts:
Thermo law 1: Energy is not created or destroyed.
Thermo law 2: energy degrades to heat (entropy)
Fact of the world: there is stored energy in substances like Uranium, Oil, Gas, Coal. There is a fixed amount of each on the planet. We can call this our "savings Account". It is in a non-interest bearing account. Anything removed is gone.
Fact of the world: The sun shines energy at us. This is our energy income.
The sun's energy is great, but diffuse. Thanks to clouds and angle of incidence, the GLOBAL average is about 1300wH per meter^2. One barrel of oil will provide over 328 million watts of power. We use about 85 million barrels a year, so that's 2.788+19 wH of power. At 1300wH per meter^2, that's 2.144615+16 square meters.
Simply: not gonna happen.
I recommend you learn a trade of value that doesn't require oil or electricity.
Oh, that's right - fossil fuels, and a lot of coal.
Nice.
And, remember, this counts against your energy return on energy invested. How much energy does it take to do this, and then mark it against the energy produced by the natgas. And the transportation of the natgas to this machine and then to the customer. And you get hydrogen out of the deal? Great - a gas so small nothing can really hold it, and due to its physical structure always requires more energy to break its bonds and contain it than what you get from burning it.
The tax havens are just the snowflakes on the tip of the iceberg.
Millions of people are ruined thanks to these blood sucking leeches. Make all the excuses you want, but these bastards and their idiotic capitalist industrialism have pushed the biosphere to the brink, permanently erased thousands of species of which we are only one, and pissed away irreplaceable resources on bullshit. Fuck em. Start with the tax havens, then start with them. Put them in jail, then hang the worst of the bunch for the war criminals they are. But not all of them.
Just a few so the rest of the douchebags get the message. Treat them the same way they have treated the working classes for centuries, people they abuse with every breath they take.
Now is the time to begin to go forward - advance from despair,
the darkness of solitary men - who are chained in a market they
cannot control - in the name of a freedom that hangs like a pall
on our cities. And their towers of silence we shall destroy.
Now is the time to begin to determine directions, refuse to admit
the existence of destiny's rule. We shall seize from all heroes and
merchants our labour, our lives, and our practice of history : this,
our choice, defines the truth of all that we do.
Seize on the words that oppose us with alien force; they're enslaved
by the power of capital's kings who reduce them to coinage and
hollow exchange in the struggle to hold us, they're bitterly
outlasting... Time to sweep them down from power
- deeds renew words.
Dare to take sides in the fight for freedom that is common cause
let us all be as strong and as resolute. We're in the midst of
a universe turning in turmoil; of classes and armies of thought
making war - their contradictions clash and echo through time.
A few years back, we had a large area filled with blackberry brambles, weed trees, etc. and it was so thick and deep, no mower could possibly get through it. After a month or so of goats? Gone.
The show is done ULTRA-cheaply - $25k for 10 episodes, using no-name actors, and everyone making a few tiny dollars.
Are you going to get really good convincing acting? No. Are you going to get first rate camerawork? No. Mixing? No. Audio. Nuh-uh. You're going to get something that looks better than what some bloke staring into a webcam gives you, but equally far from a professional job with pro actors and crew and post.
IS that what you want to watch?
So, let's pretend that on-camera talent is half the cost, so we'l pay them scale, and so we're down to 1.5 million. You now have cameras that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The actors aren't making much, but they're willing to go for this experiment. You still have 150 people involved, and they all need to get paid. So, if they all make some craptastic wage (say $30k) for ten episodes, then we're talking 150 x 30k / 10, you're still talking $450k PER EPISODE, or $4.5 million for the series, and this is with people making significant sacrifices, because you do the series, and WHERE are you going to get your next job? And When? That's why the wages are higher in creative industries, and the stress level is astronomical.
So, let's say we give them all $50k for ten episode season. Then it's $7.5 million for the season or $750k per episode. And we haven't even touched promotional costs...
And this is no exaggeration: film and TV are the most expensive and complex works of art people have ever developed. It is expensive and time consuming and difficult. It is fun and exciting when you're doing it, but it is a tough and cutthroat business.
"You can see all the stars
as you walk along Hollywood Boulevard.
Some that you recognise
Some that you've hardly even heard of.
People who worked and suffered
and struggled for fame.
Some who succeded
and some who suffered in vain."
That's a fact. Unfortunately, it is fed by the audience who thinks:
"I wish my life was a non-stop
Hollywood Movie show
A fantasy world of celluloid villains
And heroes.
Because Celluloid heroes
never feel any pain
And Celluloid heroes
never really die."
Profit is made from scarcity. If you want something to exist, it has to be profitable (not wildly - just make your damn money) and if the business model fails, then that work disappears.
Slashdot Mirror
But: you'll have the other half of the planet's gravitational field pulling you down toward itself. There's a reason the center is in the middle.
RS
RS
but I think this deuterium stuff is likely to expand, quickly, so I think a plastic box wrapped in duct tape is the right answer.
of course. duct tape fixes everything!
"I can easily imagine a material being compressed by some heavy duty diamond anvil to reach this density, the question is: what happens when you let the pressure off? Will it expand (explosively one would presume) back to its original volume?"
Simple answer, known by all: Duct Tape.
RS
$27 billion.
Charge $100 a trip.
That's 270 million trips.
At 1 million trips a year, it will take 270 years, with 2739 people paying $100 a pop. Every day. Seven days a week.
Phoenix has a population of about 1.5 million.
Tuscon has a population of about 500k, so call it 2 million for both.
So, you need 1.36% of the combined population of both Tuscon and Phoenix to ride this thing EVERY DAY, seven days a week for 270 years.
Sorry - isn't going to happen. This is a pseudoGreen boondoggle of epic proportions. What they should do is put in a rail link form Phoenix to the rail line that goes into Tuscon and electrify it so both cities can get food, clothing, and water and similar necessities. High speed passenger rail service for $27B is totally stupid.
RS
This has boondoggle written all over it.
Oddly enough, a rail line already exists in tuscon. they just need to cut a link down to that line from Phoenix.
Frankly, I think the better idea is to simply abandon all of those cities. They are completely dependent on resources outside themselves they really don't stand much of a long term chance at their present size. But if that isn't going to happen, then they need to leverage their present infrastructure in such a way that they can get food, clothing, water, and similar goods to these cities in an efficient manner.
Solar power is a good idea, even for trains, but building all new lines is stupid. The future of mass transport is electric trains. Getting them across the desert will be a challenge, but not impossible.
RS
Also: the MS is good for another reason: contacts you keep for a Long Time. Like in Undergrad, the contacts you make in MS degree will help you later in life.
Good luck!
rs
Thanks for the clarification.
best,
RS
Ssssshhhhhhik!
diggadiggadiggadiggadiggadiggadiggadiggadigga!
Total pain in the finger.
1 as a first number was reserved for "other stuff" like international calls, so the lowest possible area codes (first numbers) went to places like New York City (212 - very quick to dial) or LA (213) because millions of people would be dialing that number, so it made for an overall faster dialing experience for (on average) more people.
This is compared to the relatively few people who lived in more obscure parts of the country, like Saginaw MI (989) or Bryan TX (979).
So, you have millions of phones in 212, thousands in 979. The result: saved effort in dialing.
Also, to this end there was a preference for exchanges to have lower numbers as well to save on dialing effort, and phone numbers with lower (but NON-ZERO) values were sought after. You'd see advertisments like "Call RotoRooter - 213 464 1111 !" or "Call us NOW for a free analysis! 201 738 1122 !" etc. and so on.
So, lower numbers in phone numbers have been a product of primitive dialing technology. Now with touchtone - all that is out the window - but the historic trend is still there and quite powerful - people will pay good money for a 212 area code for the distinction of being in the "real" New York Area code...
RS
don't buy stuff built by Alienware.
Exactly. However, it isn't going to happen in the next few years, and from what I can gather, the next 5 are going to be the age of massive multiprocessors. There will be improvements, but nothing like the 1990s. There will be a breakthrough in speed, but Oracle is looking at the here and now, and the here and now is saying "highly specialised silicon multi-core chips arranged in a multiprocessor array", and my contention is that Oracle is responding to that reality.
We can talk about all the dreamy chips of the future, but when you have a business to run you have to look at things with definite parameters and plans over the next year or three, and that's where Sun's chip manufacturing comes in - modify the chips to fit your needs, and then dump dozens of them in a box. At the same time, optimise your code to work on these optimised boxes, and you get real performance gains in a realistic timeframe without resorting to wishful thinking of some messianic breakthrough.
Make the money you can with such a system, and when / if the breakthrough comes through, take advantage when the time comes. But basing business plans around some great technology that doesn't exist yet is sheer stupidity.
RS
So, just dump more processors in a box, and optimise the processor's design to your needs.
Apple figured it out, and Oracle's not stupid. This should work until the next big jump in processor design.
RS
Public: TTC, $2.75 each way. I can get a monthly pass for $105. Assume worst: $2.75 each way, 7 days a week.
Car: 2002 Honda Civic, bought used, $10,000, to be paid over 5 years ($2120 yr) or $5.80 day.
Car insurance: We're old, so we only pay about $500 year, about $1.36 a day.
Car Maintenance averages $800 year (tires, brakes, etc. etc.) about $2.19 a day
distance: 6 miles each way.
Gas mileage on car: in city, 24 mpg.
Gas price: $0.85 per liter, roughly = $3.25 gallon, so Cost in gas to drive downtown each day: ~$1.66
Parking downtown = $8 day. (She has a good lot)
So, per day: Car loan: $5.80
Insurance: $1.36
Maintain: $2.19
Cost Gas: $1.66
Parking: $8.00
---------------------
total per day: 19.01 per day.
x 365 = $6938.65 total cost per year for commuting.
total cost per year for TTC: 365 x (2 x 2.75)= $2007.50
Difference? Almost $5000.
RS
whatcouldpossiblygowrong
"I AM CORNHOLIO! I need TP for my BUNGHOLE!"
"unnhhuuuhh... Like Borland makes paper, dumbass..." uuuhhuuhhh..."
Yikes. Shit like that convinces me we are all DOOMED.
RS
Man - between all that bullshit and bands like "A Flock of Haircuts" it was enough to make Max Headroom hurhurhur-HURL!
RS
RS
Any energy system that uses more energy to produce energy is not an energy source - it's an energy sink.
Your points about electrical sourcing are not far from true, but not really serious given present conditions.
Here are the simple facts:
Thermo law 1: Energy is not created or destroyed.
Thermo law 2: energy degrades to heat (entropy)
Fact of the world: there is stored energy in substances like Uranium, Oil, Gas, Coal. There is a fixed amount of each on the planet. We can call this our "savings Account". It is in a non-interest bearing account. Anything removed is gone.
Fact of the world: The sun shines energy at us. This is our energy income.
The sun's energy is great, but diffuse. Thanks to clouds and angle of incidence, the GLOBAL average is about 1300wH per meter^2. One barrel of oil will provide over 328 million watts of power. We use about 85 million barrels a year, so that's 2.788+19 wH of power. At 1300wH per meter^2, that's 2.144615+16 square meters.
Simply: not gonna happen.
I recommend you learn a trade of value that doesn't require oil or electricity.
RS
Oh, that's right - fossil fuels, and a lot of coal.
Nice.
And, remember, this counts against your energy return on energy invested. How much energy does it take to do this, and then mark it against the energy produced by the natgas. And the transportation of the natgas to this machine and then to the customer. And you get hydrogen out of the deal? Great - a gas so small nothing can really hold it, and due to its physical structure always requires more energy to break its bonds and contain it than what you get from burning it.
At least you get lamp black out of the deal.
Sigh. NEXT!
RS
Or, not. Never ending wage slavery is always an option.
Millions of people are ruined thanks to these blood sucking leeches. Make all the excuses you want, but these bastards and their idiotic capitalist industrialism have pushed the biosphere to the brink, permanently erased thousands of species of which we are only one, and pissed away irreplaceable resources on bullshit. Fuck em. Start with the tax havens, then start with them. Put them in jail, then hang the worst of the bunch for the war criminals they are. But not all of them.
Just a few so the rest of the douchebags get the message. Treat them the same way they have treated the working classes for centuries, people they abuse with every breath they take.
Now is the time to begin to go forward - advance from despair,
the darkness of solitary men - who are chained in a market they
cannot control - in the name of a freedom that hangs like a pall
on our cities. And their towers of silence we shall destroy.
Now is the time to begin to determine directions, refuse to admit
the existence of destiny's rule. We shall seize from all heroes and
merchants our labour, our lives, and our practice of history : this,
our choice, defines the truth of all that we do.
Seize on the words that oppose us with alien force; they're enslaved
by the power of capital's kings who reduce them to coinage and
hollow exchange in the struggle to hold us, they're bitterly
outlasting... Time to sweep them down from power - deeds renew words.
Dare to take sides in the fight for freedom that is common cause
let us all be as strong and as resolute. We're in the midst of
a universe turning in turmoil; of classes and armies of thought
making war - their contradictions clash and echo through time.
Amazing little buggers.
RS
Here's an example of a net program: The Remnants
Interesting article, I recommend reading it.
The show is done ULTRA-cheaply - $25k for 10 episodes, using no-name actors, and everyone making a few tiny dollars.
Are you going to get really good convincing acting? No. Are you going to get first rate camerawork? No. Mixing? No. Audio. Nuh-uh. You're going to get something that looks better than what some bloke staring into a webcam gives you, but equally far from a professional job with pro actors and crew and post.
IS that what you want to watch?
So, let's pretend that on-camera talent is half the cost, so we'l pay them scale, and so we're down to 1.5 million. You now have cameras that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The actors aren't making much, but they're willing to go for this experiment. You still have 150 people involved, and they all need to get paid. So, if they all make some craptastic wage (say $30k) for ten episodes, then we're talking 150 x 30k / 10, you're still talking $450k PER EPISODE, or $4.5 million for the series, and this is with people making significant sacrifices, because you do the series, and WHERE are you going to get your next job? And When? That's why the wages are higher in creative industries, and the stress level is astronomical.
So, let's say we give them all $50k for ten episode season. Then it's $7.5 million for the season or $750k per episode. And we haven't even touched promotional costs...
And this is no exaggeration: film and TV are the most expensive and complex works of art people have ever developed. It is expensive and time consuming and difficult. It is fun and exciting when you're doing it, but it is a tough and cutthroat business.
"You can see all the stars
as you walk along Hollywood Boulevard.
Some that you recognise
Some that you've hardly even heard of.
People who worked and suffered
and struggled for fame.
Some who succeded
and some who suffered in vain."
That's a fact. Unfortunately, it is fed by the audience who thinks:
"I wish my life was a non-stop
Hollywood Movie show
A fantasy world of celluloid villains
And heroes.
Because Celluloid heroes
never feel any pain
And Celluloid heroes
never really die."
Profit is made from scarcity. If you want something to exist, it has to be profitable (not wildly - just make your damn money) and if the business model fails, then that work disappears.
RS
Troll.