When iPhone came out with free navigation, even if Garmin is a lot better, I concluded that I will never buy a standalone: - GPS navigator - compact camera. - camcorder. - watch - document scanner - portable game console - mp3 player, video player - a bunch of other things from last century like voice recorder, calculator, radio etc.
With 8Gb camera, 720p video, GPS navigator, I will be better off upgrading the phone every year than buying all these devices every 3 years. I am sure it will not take more than 2 years for a feature in my phone to beat the standalone device in features/functionality, and best of all, I will have it in my hand when I need it, not in a drawer somewhere.
I just checked out all the free video conf. I could find, and Skype won hands down. The big feature one was full screen. Other free sw has a small video windows. My company have many expensive systems, including Tandberg, and I don't really think much more of them than skype.
What I would really like is a video conferencing system that consists of a table sticking out from a wall, and with a mirror image of the room on the far side. Now set up your projector so your video conference just looks like your table continues into the wall to the far side. For effect, if anyone touches the wall, the projector ripples the image to make it look liquid like the stargate.
Also try "talking heads" with skype. Just fill in empty seats around the table with laptops with a skype connection to a remote person, and make her head full screen. You can even roll a bunch of meeting attendes around a factory floor, and drag them with you for lunch.
Av-gas has similar energy density as regular mo-gas. The higher octane rating allows for much higher compression, and therefore much higher engine efficiency and power.
Unless your engine actually have the compression to get this extra power, it is a waste of money.
Nitro methane actually reduces the energy density of the fuel, but adds oxygen, so much more fuel can be burned in each stroke, thereby giving much more power.
Av-gas has similar energy density as regular mo-gas. The higher octane rating allows for much higher compression, and therefore much higher engine efficiency and power.
Unless your engine actually have the compression to get this extra power, it is a waste of money.
Have installed aircooled equipment in aircrafts. Already at 5000m, air density is 50% of sealevel. Your cooling fan will have to suck in 200% of the air. At the same time, the rotors have to work harder to hold you up in the thin air. That requires more cooling as well. Maybe 300% at 5000m. At 10000m, maybe 1,000% increase.
You will quickly reach a hard ceiling. And with 60 seconds of battery life it is pretty theoretical anyway.
From TFA, it might be about 1km long. It could possibly be a few times longer given depth of oceans. In any case, to get 10km/s, a=50,000ms^-2. and E=25GJ. So icecream and pizza would certainly get all air pressed out of it. But more challenging would be the launch system. Pressure would be 125MPa or 1250Bar. The fuel will have about 25kJ/Kg@10%efficiency for at total of 1000 tonnes. If the steel tube d=0.5m, wall thickness would need to be at least 0.5m, so the barrel wold be about 12,500 tonnes excluding stiffening support. That's more than the Eiffel tower.
I wanted a leading role at on of the top companies, and I got it after about a year of effort. I later had to hire people to my new team. Here is my $.05. 1. Know exactly what you want, and do your research. Who would your managers and colleges be? Become familiar with them. 2. A hiring manager usually have specific short term tasks to be solved. Know what they are, and make sure you are the solution to at least one of them. If you are not, it is probably not a good job to focus on anyway. 2. Get in multiple applications. One to HR, other people on the team you want to get into. Also find a friend already in the company, and have them forward a resume. 3. Go to conferences etc. Your future boss and colleagues might be keynote speakers etc. Listen to what is important to them, and talk to them. 4. Hone your skills, and become the right fit. 5. A team just wants to be successful in the organization, with little risk. During interviews, make sure the team knows that you will contribute to the short term challenge at hand. Also document that it is little risk to hire you. By low risk I means mostly that you can and will deliver as expected with no incompetence, attitude, and personality problems. If you can't, it it probably not the right job to focus on anyway. 6. Know what you are worth to them, and ask for it, not more. That may include moving expenses etc.
Bottom line: Know what you want, and go for it, and be prepared and be honest to yourself and your future team. Honesty makes it easy for you to convince people that you are the right person.
Here is an example to illustrate. The facts can be discussed, but understand the point.
Human brainsize was limited to surviving natural birth. With c-section, this is not an issue, and any brainsize is OK. Since a big brain is a very good survival tool, in not too many generations all infants will have brains too big for natural birth, and can only survive with a c-section. This is certainly evolution, but since we understand and have created this environment artificially, we should also understand what it may cause in the future.
Gene therapy and other procedures allow a long list of fatal diseases(in the absence of modern medicine) to spread throughout the population. This is what I mean by degeneration.
Also, in the US, it looks like there is a strong selection to be a poor immigrant from latin america.
And a good education is certain extinction. Any graduate degree results in so few offspring and that branch of humans will be gone in a few centuries.
"Evolving" might not be the right term. "Changing" might be better. Simplistically explained, so don't hang me for this: Evolving is genetic changes that is the result of environmental pressure. Evolving therefor results in better adaptation and superior individuals. Any disadvantageous mutation quickly perish. Very few changes are beneficial.
If there is no or little environmental pressure, any non-lethal mutation survives, and mutations flourish, good and bad.
If the rate of mutation increases rapidly, it is either due to intense environmental pressure, such as arriving on the Galapagos Island, or it is due to the fact that there is no environmental pressure on this genetic treat, and you survive either way. Literally Degeneration.
ADFs are handy though, I used an ADF to listen to Cubs games, and could follow the needle to fly to Chicago. ILS systems are expensive and of limited use.
I agree, and I still like to tune in the ADF to a destination radio station. Radio Luxembourg was always tuned in on trips to continental Europe. You were already in the mood on arrival.
Want to add that Galileo will work like GPS, and by (4)visual nav, I meant terrain following computer nav. together with (eveb course)inertial that works to any precision. Many cruise missiles use this.
There is absolutely no use for Loran C. You currently have the following systems in place backing each other up. Many cheaper and better. In fact, many of these most likely will vanish soon. 1. GPS, LAAS, WAAS, DGPS 2. Galileo, EGNOS, (as well as GLONASS and Baidu) 3. Inertial 4. Visual navigation (computer with terrain sensors, including sonar and radar) 5. Also VOR, DME, ADF, NDB, ILS, TLS, MLS, Marker beacon with the final fallback 6. Old fashion navigation with compass, light houses, sextant, chronometer etc.
Best. Troll. Ever. Yes, I do think you are a lunatic.
Thanks, I am honored. I actually have degrees i mathematics, and I have a sister with a ph.d. in statistics. We have had this discussion most Yules we get together, and it is fun to get some/.ers into it too...
And still has the "ignorance is bliss" and unwarranted "know it all" attitude.
Statistics is a phony science and should be thrown on the garbage heap altogether.
I will qualify this. There are a few exceptions, primarily quantum mechanics, where uncertainty is part of nature.
Except for that there is very few cases where one can apply statistics.
You probably still think I am a lunatic, but hear me out.
With human calculators it was necessary to approximate all kinds of calculations because all you could do was 0.1 IPS (instruction per second) at best. Pretty much all science became statistics, from thermodynamics, to economics to geology and meteorology. As computers became faster, more and more could be modeled accurately, and we can actually model each individual human in most population models. The same with thermodynamics. For many systems, the solution can be solved numerically, and there is no uncertainty. Quantum dynamic properties carry over to macro systems sometimes, like Einstein condensates, superconductivity etc. but most often there is no "built-in" uncertainty, and statistics is just a way to excuse incompetence, laziness or worse.
Real world example is the "medical advice" you will get before performing a procedure such as amniocentesis. The doctor will tell you there is a 0.1% chance it will have catastrophic consequences. This might mean that the hospital has one problem every 50 years, and when you dig in the data you find out that the problem happened when the hospital caught fire during the procedure. That is a manageable risk, not a probability.
Failure modes is also modeled statistically. It should not; Bridges that fail, fail predictably. It is usually just a question of collecting some data. The same with foreclosures. Some properties in my neighborhood are in foreclosure, and in all the cases I looked into, it is not hard to see why. (Like: "I told my loan officer that I could not pay the mortgage after the low teaser rate ended. He just told me to refinance again, and get a new low teaser rate, so I signed up, and a year later he told me he could not refinance." Duh!)
So programmer, throw statistics away, and stop using that sliderule.
And we will have the Sunny Aztec copyrith extension act. Now, copyright will last at least from 1923 until next decade. That is from when Disney and other media houses started recording movies and music. Today that means 100 years. In a billion years, copyight will have been extended to 1 billion and 100 years. If the mexicans want in on the game, they will have to pay some lawmaker.
Most jobs in international organizations are tax free. That include IMF, EU, etc. The organization is funded by the member nations, and salaries set to attract needed talent. The purpose of taxes is partly to force a certain behaviors. This may be to drive a Hybrid vehicle, send your kids to university etc. It is seen as important that an employee of an internationally sanctioned organization is not subjected to this 'local' pressure, but can act independently in the best interest of the organization. The organization, with the support of the signatory nations, sets all the needed requirements. This of course has nothing to do with diplomatic immunity, and any tax imposed on such an amployee, would just have to be paid back in increased salary, so really no use. It may only push the person to select a place to operate based on tax level, and not job performance.
So long as the public interest is maximally satisfied, why should our copyright policy care whether authors live comfortably or shiver in garrets?
You are a small-minded turd.
Please avoid Ad hominem; You are missing GP's perfect argument. In nature, evolution makes a perfectly optimized ecosystem. The same in society. The invisible hand of self interest creates a perfect ecosystem where all resources are used to perfection. Example: Whoever can pay the most for a resource is the person that can utilize it most economically. Take a barrel of oil. Whether it is a plastic manufacturer or a truck hauling toys, whoever can refine and resell that resource for the highest price wins it. The same goes for garbage and your old car.
If the government grants monopolies, this optimization is disturbed, and the cost to society overall can be high. Examples: Taxing gas stations $100k to hire a weight & measure inspector easily reduces GNP by $1million, or 10x. It is, however, deemed necessary to have a transparent marked. Government do however have to carefully weigh the cost against value. Maybe the alternative to the inspector is healthcare for 1000 poor children. As in the natural world, where dinosaurs go extinct because there is a more efficient species in the same niche, so must society force the inefficient companies to yield to better ones. This is for the best of all. This is how our standard of living has increased from the stone age till today. It may seem brutal, but in the long run, it is better for all.
The copyright law was intended to encourage creativity and carefully balanced this with the technology at the time.
Over time the law instead has become a crutch to keep dinosaurs alive artificially, and it is very likely that for every $$ they make, they deprive society not of 10x but closer to 100x. I will not go into the details of this ratio, but a lot of texts on macroeconomics discuss this. It would be cheaper for society to pay the dinosaurs lavishly just to do nothing.
It is not only ripping a CD. It is the song "Happy birthday", it is "winnie the Pooh", and scientific journals. It is the ink for your printer, and posting your kids latest performance on Youtube. It is the ability to bring a guitar to amateur nights in the local pub, and play music you like.
U2's Bono wants to implement a Chinese style control of the net globally, so you may not have seen anything yet.
I think artists should be paid well, and maybe have, as the law originally gave, a 14 year copyright. Now it is over 100 years. Anyway, if you as an artist don't want to share, just don't sell CD's or put it on the net.
This is not diplomatic immunity. This is just protection against searches, IRS, etc. This basically allows a law enforcement officer to carry out his duties. It is identical to when the FBI comes to a local town to investigate, they can not be hindered or stopped by the local law enforcement. This is obvious and should not raise any issues.
Trying to fight RIAA in the courts is a loosing effort. RIAA pay politicians handsomely, and generally gets the laws they want. If they temporarily loose in court, they just pay to have the laws changed, and than they win. The draconian penalties as well as the never expiring rights RIAA enjoy is an amazing perversion.
The only thing that is worse is that this can happen in a democracy, and few care.
If you argue "well, just pay the $0.99 on iTunes and stop whining" you misunderstand culture fundamentally. Humans as a species copy. From infants looking at their parents to musicians, architects, engineers and philosophers listening to others, we refine and produce. This is the essence of human culture. That companies can monopolize this flow is damaging to the progress of mankind.
Have you ever landed a dream job with dream pay, only to realize it is just a 3 month contract? What do you do to extend it, and for how long can you do that? Here are the rules: 1. Dont brake anything you need to do your job. 2. Do everything really slow. And I mean really slow:
-Tell your boss it will take 6 month to make a right turn.
-Be a hero when you are able to do it in 3 months, stop the vehicle, take a lot of pictures, have some discussions, test the right turn in a sandbox, discuss more etc. 3. Never take any risks. Test anything you plan to do in a sandbox again and again. It is actually fun to drive an RC car. If the car is stuck, you are unemployed. To the public, call it mission risk management. To your wife, call it food on the table management.
Since weight and space is not at premium, Li ion seems like a bad idea, and since TFA just talks about "looking at" the conclusion will probably be "not feasible". What is feasible is a big flywheel. A 1 ton flywheel can store more than 50kWh. You can build one yourself, and bury it in your back yard. The only challenge would be to place it in vacuum.
What you need: 1. Wheel bearings and HW. Cheap, solid and strong. Find a complete rear suspension with disk brakes and mount it with the axle vertical. Replace the grease with vacuum rated grease. $20 2. Fiberglass (e-type) and epoxy for wheel. Build it in place like a spoked rim on top of a wheel that fits your vertical read suspension. $1000 You can use carbon fiber, but e-glass is just as strong, just less stiff, but for your use, e-glass is OK. Dont use s-glass. 3. Electric motor/generator. Pick a flywheel diameter that allow a rotational speed where the motor is happy. Use a brushless design. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel#Physics 4. Build it into a vacuum and bury it in your back yard. The reason to bury it is both to get it out of the way, and to have a solid mass to capture parts if the flywheel disintegrates. Above ground, and you will have a lot of bullet velocity fragments that will pierce your neighbors houses. Dirt will stop this easily. A small vacuum pump should be added.
Balance, clean and evacuate the whole setup carefully, and speed it up. One note of caution: If you plan to run it fast, balance it carefully. Even the weight of a fingerprint can cause the whole wheel to vibrate above safe levels. This was discovered violently by the Iranian nuclear scientists when setting up their Uranium hexafluoride centrifuges.
Thye can even launch aircrafts from underwater aircraft carriers. When youtube asks you to confirm that you have a TOP SECRET security rating, you must answer yes to see video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clIUY0U0xAU
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When iPhone came out with free navigation, even if Garmin is a lot better, I concluded that I will never buy a standalone:
- GPS navigator
- compact camera.
- camcorder.
- watch
- document scanner
- portable game console
- mp3 player, video player
- a bunch of other things from last century like voice recorder, calculator, radio etc.
With 8Gb camera, 720p video, GPS navigator, I will be better off upgrading the phone every year than buying all these devices every 3 years. I am sure it will not take more than 2 years for a feature in my phone to beat the standalone device in features/functionality, and best of all, I will have it in my hand when I need it, not in a drawer somewhere.
I just checked out all the free video conf. I could find, and Skype won hands down. The big feature one was full screen. Other free sw has a small video windows. My company have many expensive systems, including Tandberg, and I don't really think much more of them than skype.
What I would really like is a video conferencing system that consists of a table sticking out from a wall, and with a mirror image of the room on the far side. Now set up your projector so your video conference just looks like your table continues into the wall to the far side. For effect, if anyone touches the wall, the projector ripples the image to make it look liquid like the stargate.
Also try "talking heads" with skype. Just fill in empty seats around the table with laptops with a skype connection to a remote person, and make her head full screen. You can even roll a bunch of meeting attendes around a factory floor, and drag them with you for lunch.
Av-gas has similar energy density as regular mo-gas. The higher octane rating allows for much higher compression, and therefore much higher engine efficiency and power.
Unless your engine actually have the compression to get this extra power, it is a waste of money.
Nitro methane actually reduces the energy density of the fuel, but adds oxygen, so much more fuel can be burned in each stroke, thereby giving much more power.
Av-gas has similar energy density as regular mo-gas. The higher octane rating allows for much higher compression, and therefore much higher engine efficiency and power.
Unless your engine actually have the compression to get this extra power, it is a waste of money.
The efficiency of an Lycoming IO-540K1A5 peaks at 32%, and the Thielert Centurion diesel peaks at 40%. An electric motor peaks at around 80%, but controller etc has an efficinecy of at most 95%, and batteries can not be drained more than 74%, so the total is 64% usable energy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density#Energy_density_in_energy_storage_and_in_fuel/ lists Li-Ion with 0.5MJ/kg, and Gasoline at 46.4MJ/kg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density#Energy_density_in_energy_storage_and_in_fuel
That is pretty accurately 1%, and you are somewhat right in that when adjusted for system efficiency, the ratio is 2.1%
Still order of magnitude away for useful.
Have installed aircooled equipment in aircrafts. Already at 5000m, air density is 50% of sealevel. Your cooling fan will have to suck in 200% of the air. At the same time, the rotors have to work harder to hold you up in the thin air. That requires more cooling as well. Maybe 300% at 5000m. At 10000m, maybe 1,000% increase.
You will quickly reach a hard ceiling. And with 60 seconds of battery life it is pretty theoretical anyway.
Li-ion-anything has an energy density equaling 1% of gasoline. Lithium phosphate batteries are worse than others in energy density, but safer.
So for the same fuel weight, instead of a 2 hour flight reserve, you would have 72 seconds.
Until there is a radically different battery, this is unrealistic.
From TFA, it might be about 1km long. It could possibly be a few times longer given depth of oceans. In any case, to get 10km/s, a=50,000ms^-2. and E=25GJ.
So icecream and pizza would certainly get all air pressed out of it. But more challenging would be the launch system. Pressure would be 125MPa or 1250Bar. The fuel will have about 25kJ/Kg@10%efficiency for at total of 1000 tonnes.
If the steel tube d=0.5m, wall thickness would need to be at least 0.5m, so the barrel wold be about 12,500 tonnes excluding stiffening support. That's more than the Eiffel tower.
I wanted a leading role at on of the top companies, and I got it after about a year of effort. I later had to hire people to my new team. Here is my $.05.
1. Know exactly what you want, and do your research. Who would your managers and colleges be? Become familiar with them.
2. A hiring manager usually have specific short term tasks to be solved. Know what they are, and make sure you are the solution to at least one of them. If you are not, it is probably not a good job to focus on anyway.
2. Get in multiple applications. One to HR, other people on the team you want to get into. Also find a friend already in the company, and have them forward a resume.
3. Go to conferences etc. Your future boss and colleagues might be keynote speakers etc. Listen to what is important to them, and talk to them.
4. Hone your skills, and become the right fit.
5. A team just wants to be successful in the organization, with little risk.
During interviews, make sure the team knows that you will contribute to the short term challenge at hand. Also document that it is little risk to hire you. By low risk I means mostly that you can and will deliver as expected with no incompetence, attitude, and personality problems. If you can't, it it probably not the right job to focus on anyway.
6. Know what you are worth to them, and ask for it, not more. That may include moving expenses etc.
Bottom line: Know what you want, and go for it, and be prepared and be honest to yourself and your future team. Honesty makes it easy for you to convince people that you are the right person.
Here is an example to illustrate. The facts can be discussed, but understand the point.
Human brainsize was limited to surviving natural birth. With c-section, this is not an issue, and any brainsize is OK. Since a big brain is a very good survival tool, in not too many generations all infants will have brains too big for natural birth, and can only survive with a c-section. This is certainly evolution, but since we understand and have created this environment artificially, we should also understand what it may cause in the future.
Gene therapy and other procedures allow a long list of fatal diseases(in the absence of modern medicine) to spread throughout the population. This is what I mean by degeneration.
Also, in the US, it looks like there is a strong selection to be a poor immigrant from latin america.
And a good education is certain extinction. Any graduate degree results in so few offspring and that branch of humans will be gone in a few centuries.
"Evolving" might not be the right term. "Changing" might be better. Simplistically explained, so don't hang me for this: Evolving is genetic changes that is the result of environmental pressure. Evolving therefor results in better adaptation and superior individuals. Any disadvantageous mutation quickly perish. Very few changes are beneficial.
If there is no or little environmental pressure, any non-lethal mutation survives, and mutations flourish, good and bad.
If the rate of mutation increases rapidly, it is either due to intense environmental pressure, such as arriving on the Galapagos Island, or it is due to the fact that there is no environmental pressure on this genetic treat, and you survive either way. Literally Degeneration.
ADFs are handy though, I used an ADF to listen to Cubs games, and could follow the needle to fly to Chicago. ILS systems are expensive and of limited use.
I agree, and I still like to tune in the ADF to a destination radio station. Radio Luxembourg was always tuned in on trips to continental Europe. You were already in the mood on arrival.
Want to add that Galileo will work like GPS, and by (4)visual nav, I meant terrain following computer nav. together with (eveb course)inertial that works to any precision. Many cruise missiles use this.
There is absolutely no use for Loran C. You currently have the following systems in place backing each other up. Many cheaper and better. In fact, many of these most likely will vanish soon.
1. GPS, LAAS, WAAS, DGPS
2. Galileo, EGNOS,
(as well as GLONASS and Baidu)
3. Inertial
4. Visual navigation (computer with terrain sensors, including sonar and radar)
5. Also VOR, DME, ADF, NDB, ILS, TLS, MLS, Marker beacon
with the final fallback
6. Old fashion navigation with compass, light houses, sextant, chronometer etc.
Literally.
Best. Troll. Ever.
Yes, I do think you are a lunatic.
Thanks, I am honored. /.ers into it too...
I actually have degrees i mathematics, and I have a sister with a ph.d. in statistics. We have had this discussion most Yules we get together, and it is fun to get some
And still has the "ignorance is bliss" and unwarranted "know it all" attitude.
Statistics is a phony science and should be thrown on the garbage heap altogether.
I will qualify this. There are a few exceptions, primarily quantum mechanics, where uncertainty is part of nature.
Except for that there is very few cases where one can apply statistics.
You probably still think I am a lunatic, but hear me out.
With human calculators it was necessary to approximate all kinds of calculations because all you could do was 0.1 IPS (instruction per second) at best. Pretty much all science became statistics, from thermodynamics, to economics to geology and meteorology. As computers became faster, more and more could be modeled accurately, and we can actually model each individual human in most population models. The same with thermodynamics. For many systems, the solution can be solved numerically, and there is no uncertainty. Quantum dynamic properties carry over to macro systems sometimes, like Einstein condensates, superconductivity etc. but most often there is no "built-in" uncertainty, and statistics is just a way to excuse incompetence, laziness or worse.
Real world example is the "medical advice" you will get before performing a procedure such as amniocentesis. The doctor will tell you there is a 0.1% chance it will have catastrophic consequences. This might mean that the hospital has one problem every 50 years, and when you dig in the data you find out that the problem happened when the hospital caught fire during the procedure. That is a manageable risk, not a probability.
Failure modes is also modeled statistically. It should not; Bridges that fail, fail predictably. It is usually just a question of collecting some data. The same with foreclosures. Some properties in my neighborhood are in foreclosure, and in all the cases I looked into, it is not hard to see why. (Like: "I told my loan officer that I could not pay the mortgage after the low teaser rate ended. He just told me to refinance again, and get a new low teaser rate, so I signed up, and a year later he told me he could not refinance." Duh!)
So programmer, throw statistics away, and stop using that sliderule.
Have fun.
And we will have the Sunny Aztec copyrith extension act. Now, copyright will last at least from 1923 until next decade. That is from when Disney and other media houses started recording movies and music. Today that means 100 years. In a billion years, copyight will have been extended to 1 billion and 100 years. If the mexicans want in on the game, they will have to pay some lawmaker.
Most jobs in international organizations are tax free. That include IMF, EU, etc. The organization is funded by the member nations, and salaries set to attract needed talent. The purpose of taxes is partly to force a certain behaviors. This may be to drive a Hybrid vehicle, send your kids to university etc. It is seen as important that an employee of an internationally sanctioned organization is not subjected to this 'local' pressure, but can act independently in the best interest of the organization. The organization, with the support of the signatory nations, sets all the needed requirements. This of course has nothing to do with diplomatic immunity, and any tax imposed on such an amployee, would just have to be paid back in increased salary, so really no use. It may only push the person to select a place to operate based on tax level, and not job performance.
So long as the public interest is maximally satisfied, why should our copyright policy care whether authors live comfortably or shiver in garrets?
You are a small-minded turd.
Please avoid Ad hominem; You are missing GP's perfect argument. In nature, evolution makes a perfectly optimized ecosystem. The same in society. The invisible hand of self interest creates a perfect ecosystem where all resources are used to perfection. Example: Whoever can pay the most for a resource is the person that can utilize it most economically. Take a barrel of oil. Whether it is a plastic manufacturer or a truck hauling toys, whoever can refine and resell that resource for the highest price wins it. The same goes for garbage and your old car.
If the government grants monopolies, this optimization is disturbed, and the cost to society overall can be high. Examples: Taxing gas stations $100k to hire a weight & measure inspector easily reduces GNP by $1million, or 10x. It is, however, deemed necessary to have a transparent marked. Government do however have to carefully weigh the cost against value. Maybe the alternative to the inspector is healthcare for 1000 poor children. As in the natural world, where dinosaurs go extinct because there is a more efficient species in the same niche, so must society force the inefficient companies to yield to better ones. This is for the best of all. This is how our standard of living has increased from the stone age till today. It may seem brutal, but in the long run, it is better for all.
The copyright law was intended to encourage creativity and carefully balanced this with the technology at the time.
Over time the law instead has become a crutch to keep dinosaurs alive artificially, and it is very likely that for every $$ they make, they deprive society not of 10x but closer to 100x. I will not go into the details of this ratio, but a lot of texts on macroeconomics discuss this. It would be cheaper for society to pay the dinosaurs lavishly just to do nothing.
It is not only ripping a CD. It is the song "Happy birthday", it is "winnie the Pooh", and scientific journals. It is the ink for your printer, and posting your kids latest performance on Youtube. It is the ability to bring a guitar to amateur nights in the local pub, and play music you like.
U2's Bono wants to implement a Chinese style control of the net globally, so you may not have seen anything yet.
I think artists should be paid well, and maybe have, as the law originally gave, a 14 year copyright. Now it is over 100 years. Anyway, if you as an artist don't want to share, just don't sell CD's or put it on the net.
This is not diplomatic immunity. This is just protection against searches, IRS, etc. This basically allows a law enforcement officer to carry out his duties. It is identical to when the FBI comes to a local town to investigate, they can not be hindered or stopped by the local law enforcement. This is obvious and should not raise any issues.
Trying to fight RIAA in the courts is a loosing effort. RIAA pay politicians handsomely, and generally gets the laws they want. If they temporarily loose in court, they just pay to have the laws changed, and than they win. The draconian penalties as well as the never expiring rights RIAA enjoy is an amazing perversion.
The only thing that is worse is that this can happen in a democracy, and few care.
If you argue "well, just pay the $0.99 on iTunes and stop whining" you misunderstand culture fundamentally. Humans as a species copy. From infants looking at their parents to musicians, architects, engineers and philosophers listening to others, we refine and produce. This is the essence of human culture. That companies can monopolize this flow is damaging to the progress of mankind.
Have you ever landed a dream job with dream pay, only to realize it is just a 3 month contract? What do you do to extend it, and for how long can you do that?
Here are the rules:
1. Dont brake anything you need to do your job.
2. Do everything really slow. And I mean really slow:
-Tell your boss it will take 6 month to make a right turn.
-Be a hero when you are able to do it in 3 months, stop the vehicle, take a lot of pictures, have some discussions, test the right turn in a sandbox, discuss more etc.
3. Never take any risks. Test anything you plan to do in a sandbox again and again. It is actually fun to drive an RC car. If the car is stuck, you are unemployed. To the public, call it mission risk management. To your wife, call it food on the table management.
Have fun
Since weight and space is not at premium, Li ion seems like a bad idea, and since TFA just talks about "looking at" the conclusion will probably be "not feasible". What is feasible is a big flywheel. A 1 ton flywheel can store more than 50kWh. You can build one yourself, and bury it in your back yard. The only challenge would be to place it in vacuum.
What you need:
1. Wheel bearings and HW. Cheap, solid and strong. Find a complete rear suspension with disk brakes and mount it with the axle vertical. Replace the grease with vacuum rated grease. $20
2. Fiberglass (e-type) and epoxy for wheel. Build it in place like a spoked rim on top of a wheel that fits your vertical read suspension. $1000 You can use carbon fiber, but e-glass is just as strong, just less stiff, but for your use, e-glass is OK. Dont use s-glass.
3. Electric motor/generator. Pick a flywheel diameter that allow a rotational speed where the motor is happy. Use a brushless design. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel#Physics
4. Build it into a vacuum and bury it in your back yard. The reason to bury it is both to get it out of the way, and to have a solid mass to capture parts if the flywheel disintegrates. Above ground, and you will have a lot of bullet velocity fragments that will pierce your neighbors houses. Dirt will stop this easily. A small vacuum pump should be added.
Balance, clean and evacuate the whole setup carefully, and speed it up. One note of caution: If you plan to run it fast, balance it carefully. Even the weight of a fingerprint can cause the whole wheel to vibrate above safe levels. This was discovered violently by the Iranian nuclear scientists when setting up their Uranium hexafluoride centrifuges.
Have fun.
Thye can even launch aircrafts from underwater aircraft carriers. When youtube asks you to confirm that you have a TOP SECRET security rating, you must answer yes to see video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clIUY0U0xAU