The original founders sold Skype to eBay for US $2.7 billion. eBay has now written down the value of Skype to US $1.7 billion, and are planning to spin off the company next year. Along come the founders and threaten to cripple Skype. It seems to me that this drives the potential price of Skype much lower than even the $1.7 billion. When the public offering is made, the original founders come in, buy the now really cheap stock, and then somehow change their minds about licensing their technology for Skype. The price goes up up up, and the guys make another couple of billion!
Brilliant....
"Fatal Death"?? As opposed to the non-fatal variety? Who's really the idiot here? Oh yes, the one who believes that any power source can be 99.999% efficient....ever heard of thermodynamics, dickwad?
More seriously, it seems to me that by generating the power where it's needed and when it's needed, you reduce dependence on fossil fuels (even if this thing runs on fossil fuels, which wasn't clear from the article). How, you ask? How efficient do you think it is to haul a bunch of coal to a power plant, burn the coal to generate electricity, send the electricity to your house over power lines, and use the electricity to charge a battery? I'm no electrical engineer, but common sense tells me (always a dubious proposition, I know, but what the hell, I'm going with it) that the direct method has got to be more efficient, and that therefore the amount of carbon discharged into the atmosphere from running your laptop/cellphone/ipod/etc. would be less, not more, that it would be otherwise.
Of course, they may not let us carry the required gasoline onto an airplane....
Thirty years ago or more Nixon appointed an Energy Czar to make us more energy independent. Since then we're ever more dependent on the Saudis & their ilk.
Every administration since at least Reagan has appointed a Drug Czar. He has had absolutely no effect on the availability of drugs in this country.
Before creating the Department of Homeland Insecurity, Bush appointed Tom Ridge to be his Homeland Security Czar. Far from making everyone feel more secure, he's spent the last three years or so scaring the bejezus out of us.
So now that we're going to have an IP Czar, file traders everywhere should be breathing a sigh of relief. It means the government isn't really serious about the "problem" and is just going through the motions.
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The original founders sold Skype to eBay for US $2.7 billion. eBay has now written down the value of Skype to US $1.7 billion, and are planning to spin off the company next year. Along come the founders and threaten to cripple Skype. It seems to me that this drives the potential price of Skype much lower than even the $1.7 billion. When the public offering is made, the original founders come in, buy the now really cheap stock, and then somehow change their minds about licensing their technology for Skype. The price goes up up up, and the guys make another couple of billion! Brilliant....
Oh, and by the way, electricity doesn't ever come in gallons.....
"Fatal Death"?? As opposed to the non-fatal variety? Who's really the idiot here? Oh yes, the one who believes that any power source can be 99.999% efficient....ever heard of thermodynamics, dickwad? More seriously, it seems to me that by generating the power where it's needed and when it's needed, you reduce dependence on fossil fuels (even if this thing runs on fossil fuels, which wasn't clear from the article). How, you ask? How efficient do you think it is to haul a bunch of coal to a power plant, burn the coal to generate electricity, send the electricity to your house over power lines, and use the electricity to charge a battery? I'm no electrical engineer, but common sense tells me (always a dubious proposition, I know, but what the hell, I'm going with it) that the direct method has got to be more efficient, and that therefore the amount of carbon discharged into the atmosphere from running your laptop/cellphone/ipod/etc. would be less, not more, that it would be otherwise. Of course, they may not let us carry the required gasoline onto an airplane....
Thirty years ago or more Nixon appointed an Energy Czar to make us more energy independent. Since then we're ever more dependent on the Saudis & their ilk.
Every administration since at least Reagan has appointed a Drug Czar. He has had absolutely no effect on the availability of drugs in this country.
Before creating the Department of Homeland Insecurity, Bush appointed Tom Ridge to be his Homeland Security Czar. Far from making everyone feel more secure, he's spent the last three years or so scaring the bejezus out of us.
So now that we're going to have an IP Czar, file traders everywhere should be breathing a sigh of relief. It means the government isn't really serious about the "problem" and is just going through the motions.