A gravity tractor on the other hand, works regardless of the shape of the asteroid.
If it's not perfectly round, gravity gradient stabilization will make the asteroid (and/or tractor) rotate anyway, until the pointy ends point at each other, more or less. And without tidal forces to damp the rotation, it'll probably keep spinning once it starts. Admittedly it won't rotate very fast.
Here is an explanation of why "Usability" doesn't matter.
People forget the other SDLC, the software DEPLOYMENT life cycle.
People also forget that "Usability" means something totally different to novice and experienced users.
The only people whom have a 30 minute SDLC (software deployment lifecycle) is
1) Magazine/Blog Reviewers
2) Usability guinea pigs
3) Usability critics
Completely absent in this list is the actual software users.
Not surprisingly the 30 minute wonders are not going to get along with long term users, and the developers are usually long term users.
Besides, there is a dumb hidden assumption in the computing world that no one wants to discuss is that there should only be one level of user sophistication that all tools should aspire to.
Other fields do not have that problem... For example a CNC milling machine, at least for the first 30 minutes, is much less usable than a blacksmiths forge. Oddly enough we don't have to suffer thru pompous claims about the superior user interface of hammer, tongs, and forge.
Basically the marketing folks are becoming irrelevant and they are pissed about that, hence ridiculous claims against the enemy, etc.
Aside from the issue of not being able to manufacture it in any sort of significant quantity,
Yeah, other than that, magic pixie dust would be even better
Would it be safe if we towed launch vehicles out in the middle of the ocean?
In summary yes as it would be far less polluting than the numerous above ground nuclear tests that were done.
Would there be any ionizing radiation to produce fallout?
Mostly no. The components would probably not be heavy metals that fission into terribly radioactive substances. Why use anti-uranium when anti-hydrogen is probably easier to deal with. Also nukes throw tons of neutrons out making massive neutron activated fallout problems whereas the antimatter reaction throws out lots of gammas which are ultra short wave electromagnetic radiation (light).
Would probably be pretty hard on the local whale, seagull, and fish populations due to the noise alone if nothing else.
You might as well ask what the point of new music is? We've already got tons of it, more than enough to go around for a lifetime, so why don't we just close up shop, and put all that money, which happens to be more than is invested in manned space exploration, into poverty relief?
A much better question is what's the point of yet another anti-human space exploration rant, when there's already too many uncreative ones whining for yet more money for programs that are already recognized as miserable failures, more than enough for a lifetime of reading. So, why not close up shop, stop posting anti-human space exploration rants, and redirect all that effort into poverty relief?
I have been distantly involved in this technology for a couple decades. Not directly involved but I had several co workers who did these type of projects.
Pay enough money and you too can get a dedicated T1 thru satellite, and run whatever you want over that T1 such as inet access. Obviously this is how the telcos used to provide satellite voice service.
I hear there are also gadgets that encapsulate ethernet frames into something that looks like an MPEG stream and can be multiplexed and demultiplexed with the TV signals off a tv transponder.
If you are just too rich to know what to do with yourself you can rent the entire transponder. You will be bankrolling a significant portion of the total cost of a satellite launch, but T3-ish speeds or perhaps a half dozen video channels are possible off the shelf.
Either way, the telecom style T1 or the TV network style MPEG stream is of course terrifyingly shockingly expensive. As in if you have to ask, you cannot afford it, so don't bother. Your employee's employees will take care of setting up the ground station, running waveguide, replacing TWT tubes (do they still use those or have they gone all solid state now?) maintaining positioners, keeping N2 pressure regulated in the waveguides, filing FCC licenses, etc. The 30 foot dish will be an attractive addition to the top of your skyscraper but will often get in the way of your heliport.
You get double the power for the same current that way. 20 amp power outlets are pretty common in Australia for industrial applications. At 250V thats 5000 watts for charging with no new interface required.
Yes but the Japanese, whom are the source of all new technology, do not use that household voltage, so I assume EVs will be rolled out to 110V countries first.
Also gas pumps and gas tanks are more or less worldwide compatible.
Importing IC cars is mostly an exercise in import duties and sales taxes and excise taxes and registration hassles and non-technical and non-scientific environmental regulations. etc. On the other hand, importing EVs is going to take at least a new power plug and at worst a completely new battery charger. It may actually take technical skill to import an EV.
That's called a "plug-in hybrid". The propulsion is 100% electric, but when the battery gets low, an internal-combustion generator kicks in. I know there are some experimental/home-made ones on the road right now, and some manufacturers (Toyota, maybe others) are actively developing them.
Yes I know, which makes my idea interesting. No need for a multinational multibillion dollar development effort, just hold my beer while I strap down the "off the shelf" generator on to the "off the shelf" "hitch mounted shelf" and plug in the extension cord to the onboard charger that was a factory option (or is it a standard "option" for the Tesla now, don't know).
Probably the biggest problem with my high tech redneck approach to a plug in hybrid is when it rains, which is why the Toyota guys are paid the big bucks to "develop" this.
Also there are issues with optimizing the charge cycles, and if you know the generator will always operate at a fixed high load you can optimize it's engine for efficiency. And it would be cool to have the generator automatically start and stop itself.
But it is an amazingly simple way to get something like a plug in hybrid to sort of work, more or less.
You're confusing acceleration with cruise and confusing power vs energy and confusing full charge with "enough to get to the nearest commercial AC outlet"
Yes an average car "needs" hundreds of KW to go 0-60 in a couple heartbeats. But at cruise on a highway all you need is a couple hp. Even hill climbing doesn't require much electrical power, think of the tiny motors running a modern elevator. A typical car needs maybe a hp or so at normal (non-autobahn) cruise speeds. Notice your accelerator foot barely above idle on the highway... Half the time my foots off the gas completely.
The power and energy confusion relates to above. Sure when you floor it it draws 200 KW but it 4 seconds you get a speeding ticket. At cruising speed you may only need 1 KW to keep going. Perhaps in a desert the nearest gas station is 10 miles away. So worst case scenario is your tiny generator pumps in a KW for twenty minutes giving you around 15 "KW-minutes" (due to conversion losses, etc) and then you drain it out driving to the AC outlet consuming a bit more than 10 "KW-minutes"
The final confusion is no need to fill the battery completely to drive another 200 miles, you only need enough to get off the highway and to a power outlet.
Also try flooring your fiesta for more than one minute, it'll overheat and explode. Now marine, aircraft, and diesel train engines are designed to run full throttle forever. It's always amusing to compare a 1000 HP F1 racing engine that only survives 500 miles and I could wrap by arms around it, with a 1000 HP train engine that is literally roughly the size of a garden shed...
Drain a gas tank and the engine stops. It's very simple.
Fully drain a battery and the battery is rapidly destroyed. That's the reason for the very complicated controllers in most EVs and Hybrids. I understand my wife's Prius only uses 10% of its battery capacity at any given time, which is why it's cheap battery is guaranteed for ten years. Lead acid batteries respond similarly, you can drain a little charge out to start an IC engine thousands of times, but it's unlikely the battery will survive leaving the lights on till it dies more than a couple times.
I suspect an EV for the average moron would normally not drain the battery down to the bitter destructive end but would have some emergency mode where it'll drain all the juice, at the cost of massively shortening the battery lifetime.
Probably the charge and discharge controllers will be very carefully designed to destroy the battery about six months after the battery guarantee expires.
EV charge and discharge will be the usual survival of the fittest, morons will suffer, intelligent people whom can plan ahead will be rewarded with a ten year battery life, etc. Unfortunately due to typical human behavior, the stupidest people are usually the loudest, so after the fools destroy their batteries by abusing them, we'll all have to hear about it over and over and over, and very loudly.
I can't imagine any "instant battery" systems exist for this type of situation
An "Instant Battery" is also called a generator. Honda makes tiny little ones that weigh about as much as a toddler, or perhaps as heavy as a fat feline house-cat. Strap a one quart gas can to it and an extension cord and you're set.
I've been thinking about those trailer hitch shelf devices that people stick on the back of their obese SUVs... I wonder if you could stick a trailer hitch on a Tesla, then one of those "shelves" and strap a generator to the shelf plugged into the charger and basically drive forever in "hybrid mode"
I doubt your nearest service station has a "recharge" plug for your car. If they did, would it be compatible?
It has a 110V onboard charger for this use. If you can plug in a floor lamp, tv, or a PC, you can probably figure out how to plug in the charger.
Yes yes, I know the infrastructure is non-existent yet.
Yes, always entertaining to make fun of the local electric utility, but seriously they more or less do a good job.
But I hope everyone has the foresight to create a unified universal charging "plug."
Yeah we got this 110V AC system figured out pretty well after a century or so of use. Even have those new fangled GFCI outlets for the past couple decades. Of course those Europeans insist on using 220V. At least the Japaneese use a civilized 110V AC system like us, and since most innovation seems to come from Japan, that is convenient for the US.
I guess if you have 100k for this car you probably wouldn't flinch at having it towed to your house.
If you have that kind of money, your butler will pick you up in your personal helicopter, or perhaps one of the paparazzi whom follow you everywhere will help you out in exchange for some pix. It's just not an issue dude. Besides rich people don't sit on their behind for enough hours to drain the battery anyway, if it's 100 miles away just hop in the learjet or helicopter and zoom over there in 5 minutes, not sit in traffic.
Well, it certainly will be a big annoyance, but that's where the recovery services come in. All it takes is a phone call and some waiting in the comfort of your car while you sulk at your arithmetic incompetence, but soon your vehicle will be sitting snugly on the back of the recovery truck, and remedial transport sorted out.
Dude no offense but you must be a very young engineer... As a grizzled old engineer, my solution is a $500 honda generator and extension cord in the trunk... And no, you don't need to charge it for 8 hours straight at the side of the road, but only long enough to put-put to the freeway exit and a free power outlet somewheres...
There is also the obvious unlikelihood of the situation anyway, because if I had $100K to toss on to a new car, I would be driving occasionally for fun, not for some drudgery commute, and if I had that kind of money to toss around and my $100K car broke down I'd just call my butler Jeeves on the cellphone and have him swing by with my helicopter by to pick me (and the car?) up.
Close, but the torque starts right at 0 rpm. Actually for most electric motors, the torque peaks at 0 rpm. Thats why there's no need to "idle" the electric motor when the vehicle is stopped, and also why there is no "torque convertor" as in automatic transmission equipped IC engines.
Besides, if there was no torque at 0 rpm, then it would never begin to move...
Problem is those are all ultra low value added, low pay, low training, and low education level jobs.
It's not realistic for someone with fifteen years of software development experience with several post secondary degrees to "move up" to a $6/hr cable pulling and terminating job after downsizing.
Similarly, you're claiming that after a couple decades of tool and die machinist work, or CNC programmer experience, that driving a forklift or stacking boxes for $6/hr at the warehouse is somehow the same since, it is still in the same general line of work.
Quite a bit of medical is not "hands on" and is already being done offshore. The hospital of the future may not contain any doctors at all, just some lab techs and nurses talking to, and emailing, foreign doctors.
Err forgot about this.... although it should be pretty obvious.
Good luck running emacs without this line:
escape ^zz
in your screenrc. On the other hand you better read the screen man page and understand what that does before you try it.
Personally, I feel control-A is more useful in emacs, etc, than control-Z. Who needs control-Z when you can just open another screen window with a quick "control-Z c"
I have heard of people remapping the screen control key to other keys but people mostly use the default "a" or my choice, "z".
Once you're comfortable with screen, which only took me a couple days, back in the mid 90s, add this as the last line of your.bash_profile
exec/usr/bin/screen -xRR
Upon ssh'ing into the box, that'll set up a screen session, or if one currently exists, reattach to it.
Also, if you log in multiple times, from different PCs or whatever, all your logins see the same screen session, which can be convenient if you're "sharing" logins.
To disconnect from the session, just "C-a z" and your ssh connection will drop.
You'll probably want to customize your.screenrc file also. I advise setting
vbell off escape ^zz nonblock on deflogin off startup_message off screen -t procinfo 0 watch -n 60 procinfo screen -t bash 1 bindkey -k k1 select 1 bindkey -k k2 select 2.... you get the idea..... bindkey -k k; select 110 bindkey -k F1 select 11 bindkey -k F2 select 12... etc... Oh and set a useful caption line too.
If we are talking about recession, one, the GDP. A recession is a shrinking of the GDP for two consecutive quarters. So far, we've have 0, as in ZERO consecutive quarters of economic shrinkage.
So I don't give a shit what you, the press or anyone else says to try to make things look bad to bring down whatever politician (Bush or a Democrat congress) you are aiming at because numbers don't lie! Sure they do... look at the shadowstats.com site.
Every percentage point of inflation equals a zillion more dollars of government expenses. Thats why reported inflation is only 2% annual.
In a similar manner, unemployment stats are all doctored up until practically no one counts.
Half the population could be in a soup line at the homeless shelter, but all you'll see on the news is low unemployment, low interest, and high growth.
Slightly OT,but does anyone know where I can find a micro that has at least one USB and preferably runs Linux? I have to fit the CPU into a 4in diameter rocket and so far most of the ones I'm finding require daughter boards that won't fit. http://www.gumstix.com/
Studies show that the number of birds killed by wind turbines is negligible compared to the number that die as a result of other human activities such as traffic, hunting, power lines and high-rise buildings...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power#Birds What about human activities like... eating? The most obvious problems are often overlooked. Given a highrise with 10K people inside, it really doesn't matter if one or two birds crash into it, if they are renting the ground floor to KFC.
As an active hardware engineer you don't need that book anymore. Give it to a newbie. I haven't glanced at my copy since the 90s for similar reason. I liked AoE because it is a window on how a ckt designer thinks... "How to think" not "what to think".
It's pretty useless as a display of how to set the bias current for a class A amp for an obsolete transistor. You know, vocational school "training".
But its great for explaining the thought process of, "I want an amp" "I need the following characteristics" "guess I want a class A" "how should I design one?" "here is an example". Yes the last step, the example, is somewhat useless now, but the best part of the book was the other steps anyway. It provides an "EE education" as opposed to "vocational training".
It's like the difference between "history" and "journalism". Or "education" and "training".
Don't go into AoE expecting the wrong thing, or you'll be disappointed.
Go into it with the attitude that it's "EE in 24 hours" and you'll be unhappy. Go into it with the attitude that its a guided puzzle book or a philosophy of EE work, and you'll be happy. It's kind of like Knuth's TAoCP series, in that way.
Good luck understanding fan-in and fan-out ratios, current sourcing and sinking, D/A or A/D converters, pull-up or pull-down resistors, bypass caps, and signal and power supply ringing issues in "the slow speed digital world" without understanding analog circuits. Will also be entertaining to watch first attempt at digitally controlled switching of an inductive load like a motor.
Even more hopeless to do "high speed digital" without understanding transmission lines, microstriplines, some antenna theory, etc.
If you attempt digital then analog, you're going to have to relearn digital as the third step. May as well just take two steps and go analog then digital. Or better yet, both at the same time, with the supervision of someone who knows both, so that you don't run into problems.
Any of the mini-notebook series written by Forrest Mims
"arrl handbook" any recent year is good enough no need to buy the latest 2008 version
"TTL handbook"
"art of electronics"
"troubleshooting analog circuits" by Robert Pease
Sure, AoE is two decades out of style, and TTL Cookbook is even older.
But the logical thinking required and the basic principles will not change.
Furthermore, today's stuff didn't just spring into existence from nothing, it was developed by the folks whom got their education from... those books. The best way to learn what they're thinking, is to get the same background.
The best way to predict the future is to learn from the past, etc. Always, in general life as in electronics, think in terms of past, present, future, and how it all fits together.
Better get used to "catching up" to the modern times, since you're going to be doing it continuously until you're dead, so may as well get some practice.
Finally there's 500 crappy electronics books published each year. Out of the 5000 published in the 80s, the only one worth reading is AoE. No one has the time to evaluate all 500 books published last year to find the one non-crappy one. So trust me/us and read AoE.
BS plumber estimate... We'll be generous and pay the plumber $100 per hour (actually only cost me something like $50/hr). My install including considerable rerouting of pipes took a little more than one morning. So that accounts for $500... Leaving $1500 of profit or something.
Also even in TX or OK gas isn't going to remain cheap forever, try
Slashdot Mirror
Usually "senior" means 5+ years experience with some piece of technology invented six years ago, though.
You have it backwards, usually requirements are for six plus years of experience with technology invented five years ago.
Sadly, I am honestly aiming for an informative moderation, not funny.
A gravity tractor on the other hand, works regardless of the shape of the asteroid.
If it's not perfectly round, gravity gradient stabilization will make the asteroid (and/or tractor) rotate anyway, until the pointy ends point at each other, more or less. And without tidal forces to damp the rotation, it'll probably keep spinning once it starts. Admittedly it won't rotate very fast.
See the wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_gradient
Here is an explanation of why "Usability" doesn't matter.
People forget the other SDLC, the software DEPLOYMENT life cycle.
People also forget that "Usability" means something totally different to novice and experienced users.
The only people whom have a 30 minute SDLC (software deployment lifecycle) is
1) Magazine/Blog Reviewers
2) Usability guinea pigs
3) Usability critics
Completely absent in this list is the actual software users.
Not surprisingly the 30 minute wonders are not going to get along with long term users, and the developers are usually long term users.
Besides, there is a dumb hidden assumption in the computing world that no one wants to discuss is that there should only be one level of user sophistication that all tools should aspire to.
Other fields do not have that problem... For example a CNC milling machine, at least for the first 30 minutes, is much less usable than a blacksmiths forge. Oddly enough we don't have to suffer thru pompous claims about the superior user interface of hammer, tongs, and forge.
Basically the marketing folks are becoming irrelevant and they are pissed about that, hence ridiculous claims against the enemy, etc.
Put the flame outside, you know, like a rocket engine? In fact, just use a rocket engine?
Aside from the issue of not being able to manufacture it in any sort of significant quantity,
Yeah, other than that, magic pixie dust would be even better
Would it be safe if we towed launch vehicles out in the middle of the ocean?
In summary yes as it would be far less polluting than the numerous above ground nuclear tests that were done.
Would there be any ionizing radiation to produce fallout?
Mostly no. The components would probably not be heavy metals that fission into terribly radioactive substances. Why use anti-uranium when anti-hydrogen is probably easier to deal with. Also nukes throw tons of neutrons out making massive neutron activated fallout problems whereas the antimatter reaction throws out lots of gammas which are ultra short wave electromagnetic radiation (light).
Would probably be pretty hard on the local whale, seagull, and fish populations due to the noise alone if nothing else.
You might as well ask what the point of new music is? We've already got tons of it, more than enough to go around for a lifetime, so why don't we just close up shop, and put all that money, which happens to be more than is invested in manned space exploration, into poverty relief?
A much better question is what's the point of yet another anti-human space exploration rant, when there's already too many uncreative ones whining for yet more money for programs that are already recognized as miserable failures, more than enough for a lifetime of reading. So, why not close up shop, stop posting anti-human space exploration rants, and redirect all that effort into poverty relief?
I have been distantly involved in this technology for a couple decades. Not directly involved but I had several co workers who did these type of projects.
Pay enough money and you too can get a dedicated T1 thru satellite, and run whatever you want over that T1 such as inet access. Obviously this is how the telcos used to provide satellite voice service.
I hear there are also gadgets that encapsulate ethernet frames into something that looks like an MPEG stream and can be multiplexed and demultiplexed with the TV signals off a tv transponder.
If you are just too rich to know what to do with yourself you can rent the entire transponder. You will be bankrolling a significant portion of the total cost of a satellite launch, but T3-ish speeds or perhaps a half dozen video channels are possible off the shelf.
Either way, the telecom style T1 or the TV network style MPEG stream is of course terrifyingly shockingly expensive. As in if you have to ask, you cannot afford it, so don't bother. Your employee's employees will take care of setting up the ground station, running waveguide, replacing TWT tubes (do they still use those or have they gone all solid state now?) maintaining positioners, keeping N2 pressure regulated in the waveguides, filing FCC licenses, etc. The 30 foot dish will be an attractive addition to the top of your skyscraper but will often get in the way of your heliport.
Of course those Europeans insist on using 220V.
You get double the power for the same current that way. 20 amp power outlets are pretty common in Australia for industrial applications. At 250V thats 5000 watts for charging with no new interface required.
Yes but the Japanese, whom are the source of all new technology, do not use that household voltage, so I assume EVs will be rolled out to 110V countries first.
Also gas pumps and gas tanks are more or less worldwide compatible.
Importing IC cars is mostly an exercise in import duties and sales taxes and excise taxes and registration hassles and non-technical and non-scientific environmental regulations. etc. On the other hand, importing EVs is going to take at least a new power plug and at worst a completely new battery charger. It may actually take technical skill to import an EV.
That's called a "plug-in hybrid". The propulsion is 100% electric, but when the battery gets low, an internal-combustion generator kicks in. I know there are some experimental/home-made ones on the road right now, and some manufacturers (Toyota, maybe others) are actively developing them.
Yes I know, which makes my idea interesting. No need for a multinational multibillion dollar development effort, just hold my beer while I strap down the "off the shelf" generator on to the "off the shelf" "hitch mounted shelf" and plug in the extension cord to the onboard charger that was a factory option (or is it a standard "option" for the Tesla now, don't know).
Probably the biggest problem with my high tech redneck approach to a plug in hybrid is when it rains, which is why the Toyota guys are paid the big bucks to "develop" this.
Also there are issues with optimizing the charge cycles, and if you know the generator will always operate at a fixed high load you can optimize it's engine for efficiency. And it would be cool to have the generator automatically start and stop itself.
But it is an amazingly simple way to get something like a plug in hybrid to sort of work, more or less.
You're confusing acceleration with cruise and confusing power vs energy and confusing full charge with "enough to get to the nearest commercial AC outlet"
Yes an average car "needs" hundreds of KW to go 0-60 in a couple heartbeats. But at cruise on a highway all you need is a couple hp. Even hill climbing doesn't require much electrical power, think of the tiny motors running a modern elevator. A typical car needs maybe a hp or so at normal (non-autobahn) cruise speeds. Notice your accelerator foot barely above idle on the highway... Half the time my foots off the gas completely.
The power and energy confusion relates to above. Sure when you floor it it draws 200 KW but it 4 seconds you get a speeding ticket. At cruising speed you may only need 1 KW to keep going. Perhaps in a desert the nearest gas station is 10 miles away. So worst case scenario is your tiny generator pumps in a KW for twenty minutes giving you around 15 "KW-minutes" (due to conversion losses, etc) and then you drain it out driving to the AC outlet consuming a bit more than 10 "KW-minutes"
The final confusion is no need to fill the battery completely to drive another 200 miles, you only need enough to get off the highway and to a power outlet.
Also try flooring your fiesta for more than one minute, it'll overheat and explode. Now marine, aircraft, and diesel train engines are designed to run full throttle forever. It's always amusing to compare a 1000 HP F1 racing engine that only survives 500 miles and I could wrap by arms around it, with a 1000 HP train engine that is literally roughly the size of a garden shed...
Drain a gas tank and the engine stops. It's very simple.
Fully drain a battery and the battery is rapidly destroyed. That's the reason for the very complicated controllers in most EVs and Hybrids. I understand my wife's Prius only uses 10% of its battery capacity at any given time, which is why it's cheap battery is guaranteed for ten years. Lead acid batteries respond similarly, you can drain a little charge out to start an IC engine thousands of times, but it's unlikely the battery will survive leaving the lights on till it dies more than a couple times.
I suspect an EV for the average moron would normally not drain the battery down to the bitter destructive end but would have some emergency mode where it'll drain all the juice, at the cost of massively shortening the battery lifetime.
Probably the charge and discharge controllers will be very carefully designed to destroy the battery about six months after the battery guarantee expires.
EV charge and discharge will be the usual survival of the fittest, morons will suffer, intelligent people whom can plan ahead will be rewarded with a ten year battery life, etc. Unfortunately due to typical human behavior, the stupidest people are usually the loudest, so after the fools destroy their batteries by abusing them, we'll all have to hear about it over and over and over, and very loudly.
I can't imagine any "instant battery" systems exist for this type of situation
An "Instant Battery" is also called a generator. Honda makes tiny little ones that weigh about as much as a toddler, or perhaps as heavy as a fat feline house-cat. Strap a one quart gas can to it and an extension cord and you're set.
I've been thinking about those trailer hitch shelf devices that people stick on the back of their obese SUVs... I wonder if you could stick a trailer hitch on a Tesla, then one of those "shelves" and strap a generator to the shelf plugged into the charger and basically drive forever in "hybrid mode"
I doubt your nearest service station has a "recharge" plug for your car. If they did, would it be compatible?
It has a 110V onboard charger for this use. If you can plug in a floor lamp, tv, or a PC, you can probably figure out how to plug in the charger.
Yes yes, I know the infrastructure is non-existent yet.
Yes, always entertaining to make fun of the local electric utility, but seriously they more or less do a good job.
But I hope everyone has the foresight to create a unified universal charging "plug."
Yeah we got this 110V AC system figured out pretty well after a century or so of use. Even have those new fangled GFCI outlets for the past couple decades. Of course those Europeans insist on using 220V. At least the Japaneese use a civilized 110V AC system like us, and since most innovation seems to come from Japan, that is convenient for the US.
I guess if you have 100k for this car you probably wouldn't flinch at having it towed to your house.
If you have that kind of money, your butler will pick you up in your personal helicopter, or perhaps one of the paparazzi whom follow you everywhere will help you out in exchange for some pix. It's just not an issue dude. Besides rich people don't sit on their behind for enough hours to drain the battery anyway, if it's 100 miles away just hop in the learjet or helicopter and zoom over there in 5 minutes, not sit in traffic.
Well, it certainly will be a big annoyance, but that's where the recovery services come in. All it takes is a phone call and some waiting in the comfort of your car while you sulk at your arithmetic incompetence, but soon your vehicle will be sitting snugly on the back of the recovery truck, and remedial transport sorted out.
Dude no offense but you must be a very young engineer... As a grizzled old engineer, my solution is a $500 honda generator and extension cord in the trunk... And no, you don't need to charge it for 8 hours straight at the side of the road, but only long enough to put-put to the freeway exit and a free power outlet somewheres...
There is also the obvious unlikelihood of the situation anyway, because if I had $100K to toss on to a new car, I would be driving occasionally for fun, not for some drudgery commute, and if I had that kind of money to toss around and my $100K car broke down I'd just call my butler Jeeves on the cellphone and have him swing by with my helicopter by to pick me (and the car?) up.
(torque starts right after 0 rpm)
Close, but the torque starts right at 0 rpm. Actually for most electric motors, the torque peaks at 0 rpm. Thats why there's no need to "idle" the electric motor when the vehicle is stopped, and also why there is no "torque convertor" as in automatic transmission equipped IC engines.
Besides, if there was no torque at 0 rpm, then it would never begin to move...
Problem is those are all ultra low value added, low pay, low training, and low education level jobs.
It's not realistic for someone with fifteen years of software development experience with several post secondary degrees to "move up" to a $6/hr cable pulling and terminating job after downsizing.
Similarly, you're claiming that after a couple decades of tool and die machinist work, or CNC programmer experience, that driving a forklift or stacking boxes for $6/hr at the warehouse is somehow the same since, it is still in the same general line of work.
Quite a bit of medical is not "hands on" and is already being done offshore. The hospital of the future may not contain any doctors at all, just some lab techs and nurses talking to, and emailing, foreign doctors.
Err forgot about this.... although it should be pretty obvious.
Good luck running emacs without this line:
escape ^zz
in your screenrc. On the other hand you better read the screen man page and understand what that does before you try it.
Personally, I feel control-A is more useful in emacs, etc, than control-Z. Who needs control-Z when you can just open another screen window with a quick "control-Z c"
I have heard of people remapping the screen control key to other keys but people mostly use the default "a" or my choice, "z".
Once you're comfortable with screen, which only took me a couple days, back in the mid 90s, add this as the last line of your .bash_profile
exec /usr/bin/screen -xRR
Upon ssh'ing into the box, that'll set up a screen session, or if one currently exists, reattach to it.
Also, if you log in multiple times, from different PCs or whatever, all your logins see the same screen session, which can be convenient if you're "sharing" logins.
To disconnect from the session, just "C-a z" and your ssh connection will drop.
You'll probably want to customize your .screenrc file also. I advise setting
vbell off .... you get the idea ..... ... etc ...
escape ^zz
nonblock on
deflogin off
startup_message off
screen -t procinfo 0 watch -n 60 procinfo
screen -t bash 1
bindkey -k k1 select 1
bindkey -k k2 select 2
bindkey -k k; select 110
bindkey -k F1 select 11
bindkey -k F2 select 12
Oh and set a useful caption line too.
So I don't give a shit what you, the press or anyone else says to try to make things look bad to bring down whatever politician (Bush or a Democrat congress) you are aiming at because numbers don't lie! Sure they do... look at the shadowstats.com site.
Every percentage point of inflation equals a zillion more dollars of government expenses. Thats why reported inflation is only 2% annual.
In a similar manner, unemployment stats are all doctored up until practically no one counts.
Half the population could be in a soup line at the homeless shelter, but all you'll see on the news is low unemployment, low interest, and high growth.
or
http://gumstix.com/waysmalls.html
As they say "linux computers that fit in the palm of your hand"
I believe the verdex boards are 2cm by 8cm.
Price is about the same as desktop gear, figure you'll drop about $250 on a basic working system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power#Birds What about human activities like
Use a linux based bootable cdrom.
As an active hardware engineer you don't need that book anymore. Give it to a newbie. I haven't glanced at my copy since the 90s for similar reason. I liked AoE because it is a window on how a ckt designer thinks... "How to think" not "what to think".
It's pretty useless as a display of how to set the bias current for a class A amp for an obsolete transistor. You know, vocational school "training".
But its great for explaining the thought process of, "I want an amp" "I need the following characteristics" "guess I want a class A" "how should I design one?" "here is an example". Yes the last step, the example, is somewhat useless now, but the best part of the book was the other steps anyway. It provides an "EE education" as opposed to "vocational training".
It's like the difference between "history" and "journalism". Or "education" and "training".
Don't go into AoE expecting the wrong thing, or you'll be disappointed.
Go into it with the attitude that it's "EE in 24 hours" and you'll be unhappy. Go into it with the attitude that its a guided puzzle book or a philosophy of EE work, and you'll be happy. It's kind of like Knuth's TAoCP series, in that way.
Good luck understanding fan-in and fan-out ratios, current sourcing and sinking, D/A or A/D converters, pull-up or pull-down resistors, bypass caps, and signal and power supply ringing issues in "the slow speed digital world" without understanding analog circuits. Will also be entertaining to watch first attempt at digitally controlled switching of an inductive load like a motor.
Even more hopeless to do "high speed digital" without understanding transmission lines, microstriplines, some antenna theory, etc.
If you attempt digital then analog, you're going to have to relearn digital as the third step. May as well just take two steps and go analog then digital. Or better yet, both at the same time, with the supervision of someone who knows both, so that you don't run into problems.
Here is a suggested order:
... those books. The best way to learn what they're thinking, is to get the same background.
"Getting Started in Electronics"
Any of the mini-notebook series written by Forrest Mims
"arrl handbook" any recent year is good enough no need to buy the latest 2008 version
"TTL handbook"
"art of electronics"
"troubleshooting analog circuits" by Robert Pease
Sure, AoE is two decades out of style, and TTL Cookbook is even older.
But the logical thinking required and the basic principles will not change.
Furthermore, today's stuff didn't just spring into existence from nothing, it was developed by the folks whom got their education from
The best way to predict the future is to learn from the past, etc. Always, in general life as in electronics, think in terms of past, present, future, and how it all fits together.
Better get used to "catching up" to the modern times, since you're going to be doing it continuously until you're dead, so may as well get some practice.
Finally there's 500 crappy electronics books published each year. Out of the 5000 published in the 80s, the only one worth reading is AoE. No one has the time to evaluate all 500 books published last year to find the one non-crappy one. So trust me/us and read AoE.
BS plumber estimate... We'll be generous and pay the plumber $100 per hour (actually only cost me something like $50/hr). My install including considerable rerouting of pipes took a little more than one morning. So that accounts for $500... Leaving $1500 of profit or something.
Also even in TX or OK gas isn't going to remain cheap forever, try
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n3010us3a.htm