I don't have any valid statistics on it, but I almost wonder if the people who do like 'ethnic' food tend to dine out more and fill in the gaps. I dine out at least once/week, and I definitely gravitate to more exotic foods.
I love ethnic food, however I haven't eaten out the last few years much. Instead when I feel like it I've cook something, say an Asian stir fry. There's an African, Ethiopian I think, grocery store near me and I'd like to try cooking something from there. Unfortunately I don't like cooking just for myself and I don't know anyone to cook for.
Most of the people I personally know are some of the most adventurous eaters I've ever met. But, a few (significant) exceptions are completely unsophisticated in their food choices.
Though the rest of my family are adventurous eaters and love hot and spicy food, my younger sister's like that. Even the mildest hot, not bell, pepper is hot to her. The rest of us haven't met a pepper that was too hot. Hot sauce is another matter. Before several years ago I had not had sauce that was too hot, however my sister, her husband, who also loves heat, and I were at this restaurant. My brother-in-law and I asked for the hottest sauce they had and the waiter brought out this small bottle, Dave's Insanity Sauce with a small opening like Louisiana Hot Sauce or Tabasco Sauce. I kept shaking the sauce on my dish, I don't recall what I ordered, then just as I bit into a mouthful my brother-in-law tried to warn me. It was the hottest I had even had and I pushed the plate away. I asked the waiter for a takeout baggy or whatever to take it with me, I figured I'll make some chili to add it to. Then I asked him or her if they sold the sauce, they did so I bought a bottle. Wanting to know what pepper they used, so I could grow it, I looked at the label, and while it didn't say what it was it had a url so I figured the website might say what it is. It didn't but it said the sauce should be used in recipes, a couple of drops for cooking.
As an American IdiotTM, I grew up suspicious of any food that didn't come wrapped in plastic or aluminum.
I take exception to that, the "American" part. Growing up in Florida not many summer and fall weekends went by when my family didn't go to a BBQ. The meat we ate was what we got hunting or fishing whether it be, hog or wild boar, gator tail, venison, and or frog legs. The vegetables were grown in the garden. But maybe a Floridian isn't an American.
Have you ever had home made root beer or fig preserves?
Not root beer or fig preserves but I've made ginger beer, cheese, and jellies as well as canned food. I'm growing broccoli and cauliflower, blueberries and strawberries, acorn and zucchini squash, cucumbers, and different varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Some of these I'll can, some make cheese with, and some make beer with.
I don't brew the same style every time. What fun is that? With over 80 styles to choose from, that would really limit my brewing.
You don't have to make just one style of beer though. I haven't brewed in, too long for me, years but this summer I want to start again. At first I'll start with canned malt kits but I'll also want to try others. For instance I'll be growing blueberries, peppers, and rhubarb in my garden and I want to make beer with each of these. I'll also want to make some mead. I may be able to make 2 or 3 batches of 2 gallons with each one.
Why only 2 gallons? Because I'm alone and I don't drink too much. I can make one batch a week during the summer and it'll last me the rest of the year.
Mom always taught me that anything you could buy at the store or a restaurant could be made cheaper at home. In the late 60's and early 70's I watched her make cheese, can jelly and pickles, bake bread, and try winemaking.
While my mom didn't make cheese, can, or brew, she did teach me to cook and bake, and raised me to be adventurous. When I started brewing the shop I got the stuff at also had stuff for cheese making and I got into it as well. I haven't done either in years but I'd like to, my apartment is small but I may be able to squeeze enough space. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find someplace I can get raw, unpasteurized, milk at. Right now I'm working on my garden and I want to try some experiments other than canning. One thing I want to try is make some fruit beers like in Belgium, and some with hot peppers. I'm hoping I'll grow enough peppers, I don't have much space for a garden, to use some for beer, stuffing, and making cheese with.
Why do you buy new yeast every tyme? If you make the same style each tyme you can create a large yeast starter then divide it. Say make enough starter for 5 5 gallon batches. Divide it into 5 starters, and use one of then. Then the other four can be frozen.
I tend to spend $50-$60 on a batch, though I could probably get that down some if I ever made a beer with an OG of under 1.050.
The only tyme I spent that much was the first tyme I brewed, when I bought a compleat equipment kit. I realize the price can be that high to make a premium beer with premium ingredients but it doesn't need to be so expensive.
It would appear that your interests are more lended towards cost, which I definitely can respect that... In fact, that is what I enjoy the most about the beer making community versus the wine making community....
And what if you make both? I've made beer and wine as well as mead and sake. If I had the space I might have also setup a still.
Even with ales you must keep the at the optimum fermentation range of 65F during the entire primary ferment.
Once I made some sake and the hardest part was keeping the temperature low. A couple of tymes a day, more actually, I had to change the ice bath I kept the fermenter in.
Making true high end beers (which is where the true savings is) is not...
However you left out one very important point, brewing is a hobby. If you don't like it spend your tyme in front of the boob tube, go down the the tavern, or Disney. Or if you care so much about money, be a workaholic and work two or three jobs.
It may be hard to break even in the EU but in the States not so. Sure, you can buy el cheapo brews for less than it costs to brew your own, but the better brews cost more.
Why in the world does anyone who homebrews need to pay for CO2? Fermentation creates the CO2 for you. Yeast takes it's food, broken down starches and sugars, consumes it and makes alcohol and CO2.
there is an initial outlay, lets be generous and say you got a keg system with 2 kegs a filter CO2 regulator and all the bits and pieces.
I can buy a basic kit for starting brewing for $60 and it last for years. My "new" kit, which includes a glass carboy as a second fermenter, is more than 10 years old. As for kegs, I bottle which I can get for $2 a bottle, I can buy a keg for $30. Of course the kegging eq costs more.
Falcon
Oh, though Midwest, where the links go to, takes orders online and ships, the brick and mortar store is only a few miles from me.
cut a deal with such a 3rd party and have them provide detailed format specs (privately to Microsoft)
Aren't the format specs already available? Doesn't the GPL, and Blender is GPLed, require this?
and code up a closed-source binary blob only useable by a Windows version of Blender?
Then Blender will fork, with the MS certified version reaching a plateau while the other versions will improve. And the MS version will require a compleat rewrite of the code, or it might be sued out of existent by breaking the GPL.
Result: people might have better experience working with those formats when they use Blender on Windows. -> That would make it more attractive to use Windows as underlying platform (if support for those file formats matter to you).
Results: hardly anyone will use MS's certified version.
code under the BSD/MIT licenses are available to everyone
I don't know about the MIT license but BSD source code can be closed depending on the specific license as there's more than one license, Microsoft has done it itself. The big thing BSD licenses require is proper attribution of the programmers that contributed code.
This is why in general I prefer BSD licenses over the GPL, while the GPL provides more freedom for users of software the BSD offers more freedom for programmers.
The Blender guys may not need/want that support, but this is Microsoft "getting it," and Slashdot users NOT "getting it."
I'm not saying it is or it isn't the case here but Microsoft has a history of embracing, extending, and extinguishing.
I find it unlikely that Microsoft would offer support to the Open Office guys, because OO running better on Windows hurts their market leading Microsoft Office product, but other areas that Microsoft doesn't compete in, they can offer them support.
The USA was founded on the principal of 'freedom for the individual'. This shows with the USA's weak social welfare systems, and business culture of domination at all cost.
Freedom for the individual, not for business. Thomas Jefferson, the writer and one of the signers of the "Declaration of Independence" and the third President of the USA, even wrote a warning about corporations and the corporate aristocracy: "I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of their country."
Incorrect, the price of windows is included in the price of the computer. Hence they are paying for it, period!
However they don't see the cost of an OS, it's not like computers have a price sticker with all the costs of different things the computer comes with like new cars do. "Hey, there no cost for Windows". Now if they see a PC configured with the same hardware but without an OS, or with Linux preinstalled, then they can see they are paying for Windows, and MS Office.
Also, they pay when the have an existing computer that they upgrade to the latest.
Upgrading the OS on a computer is about the only tyme users see a price for Windows. But most people don't upgrade their OS, instead they'll just buy a new computer.
is a lot. However, if you can transition one little piece at a time, Windows is in trouble.
I don't think it's much of a shock to change the OS and the Office Suite used, it's not such a big deal. First off when most entities, whether people or businesses, get new computers more than likely the new system will have both a new OS, usually a new version of Windows, and a new version of MS Office. Secondly more entities are switch from MS Windows, to either Linux or OS X. For those who disagree with this, while the market itself is growing Macs and Linux are growing faster. After buying and using Windows since NT4 and 95 came out, about 20 months ago I switched to Linux and last summer I got the MacBook Pro I'm typing this on. For my office suite I use the native Mac port of OO.org, NeoOffice. It took me all of a week or two to adjust. Of course, just as I didn't use MS Office much, I don't use NeoOffice that much.
If you have to "take some time to learn it" then it is not intuitive BY DEFINITION. Something simply can't be intuitive AND have a steep learning curve--they're mutually exclusive. That so many people here seem to want to argue this point just shows how very screwed up some within the OSS community can be, and how out of whack interface priorities actually are.
There really isn't anything, except breathing, that is intuitive. Even babies have to be taught to breastfeed.
I had to consult the Blender manual to figure out how to save a file.
Is this an online or offline manual? I've been looking for a printed manual or book, for Blender and for CinePaint, as printed material is easier for me.
Did you bother to read my reply to you? The link you provided wasn't recent enough to be valid - PV prices spiked last year.
I read yours are replied, did you read mine and TFA? TFA linked to is dated 1 May 2008. It's not even a month old. Here's a pertinent sentence "Solar power cost about $4 a watt in the early 2000s, but silicon shortages, which began in 2005, have pushed up prices to more than $4.80 per watt, according to Solarbuzz." Even at $5 a watt 2000 watts of PV would cost $10,000. Or look here, the cheapest per watt cost for a PV is $4.68 whereas the most expensive is $6.25, There are 6 PVs listed below $5 with 13 between $5 and $6 per watt.
As for the economic analysis, please check the post by LMWatBullRun right above yours
That post says "$0.06/KwH from the grid", I pay more like $0.10/KwH.
It doesn't say what the voltage is, but here's today's prices Sharp NE-170U1 170W 24V Solar Panel for $813.96. That's $4.79/watt. As for the rest like the number of hours of sunlight, that really depends on where. It uses 6 hours, in the dead of winter in Florida, the shortest day is longer than 8 hours, so say 6 hours of electrical generation. During the summer we got more than 12 hours, say 10 good hours of generation. The problem is with clouds and rain, however that's not too much a problem now. Whereas older PV panels had to have full sun to steadily generate electricity some new ones can continue generating in partial shade. Further north while winter daylight will be shorter summer daylight is longer.
The post also does not take into consideration inflation. Most of the electricity in the US is generated by coal and natural gas. While the US has plenty of coal, I heard more than 200 years, it is a major contributor to CO2 in the US and who knows how much it will cost in 5 years, because say a CO2 tax? And who would have thought a year ago oil would be above $120?
Once you get the degree, you should turn right around again.
That's the rub for me, I had to drop out and don't know when I'll be able to get back to college.
I hear that if you have IT skills and know Brazilian Portuguese that you can make bank over there...
In order to join the study abroad program and go to Brazil the university requires 2 years of Portuguese. In order to get a head start I've been thinking about getting one of those language sets like Berlitz or Rosetta Stone. As for IT skills, I don't have much. The last tyme I was attending college, a community or junior college, my major was web programming but I had planned to transfer to a university. There I had planned on getting multidisciplinary degree, and combine 2 or 3 areas of study. For the major area of study I'd like to study Electrical/Electronic Engineering with the secondary area(s) in business and maybe international development. Since 2 years of Portuguese is needed maybe that should be used.
No idea what your degree is in but there's a strong assumption that you know something about computers if you're here:)
I know more than most people about computers but not really much, and yet before I had an accident more than 10 years ago my major was Computer Engineering. The accident ended that. Even if I had wanted to continue with it I would of had to repeat a bunch of classes because an injury the accident caused damaged my memory, but I no longer do. Some things I learned before I recall but most of it I don't. On top of that unless I keep using what I learn in class I loose it quickly, more than a week or two without using something and I may not retain it.
To tell the truth, perhaps I should do what some people would and did tell me to do, just give up. I wish I could but it's not in my nature, I might as well commit sepaku, hari kari, or some other ritualistic suicide if I did. Actually the docs that I saw for therapy, I spent more than a year in therapy, said that the only reason I lived was because I was stubborn. Those in the hospital said it was a "miracle". NOT!!!
you can build it all with scrap, and I just saw a mig with gas in a pawn shop for $175... well, you can build all but the inverter with scrap:)
I might be able to build an alternative energy system however as I live in a city, and not suburbia, and I rent an apartment so I don't know if I'd actually be able to use it. Again though I don't think I will I hope to go to Brazil for a year as part of a study abroad program, while there I'd like to get involved with something like it. If I can go then when I come back I'll be in a better position to do it with my own place.
If and when I go Off The Grid I want to build a hybrid system and use solar, wind, or other systems. Unfortunately I don't believe I will ever be in such a position though, I have a permanent disability and don't work.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't have any valid statistics on it, but I almost wonder if the people who do like 'ethnic' food tend to dine out more and fill in the gaps. I dine out at least once/week, and I definitely gravitate to more exotic foods.
I love ethnic food, however I haven't eaten out the last few years much. Instead when I feel like it I've cook something, say an Asian stir fry. There's an African, Ethiopian I think, grocery store near me and I'd like to try cooking something from there. Unfortunately I don't like cooking just for myself and I don't know anyone to cook for.
Most of the people I personally know are some of the most adventurous eaters I've ever met. But, a few (significant) exceptions are completely unsophisticated in their food choices.
Though the rest of my family are adventurous eaters and love hot and spicy food, my younger sister's like that. Even the mildest hot, not bell, pepper is hot to her. The rest of us haven't met a pepper that was too hot. Hot sauce is another matter. Before several years ago I had not had sauce that was too hot, however my sister, her husband, who also loves heat, and I were at this restaurant. My brother-in-law and I asked for the hottest sauce they had and the waiter brought out this small bottle, Dave's Insanity Sauce with a small opening like Louisiana Hot Sauce or Tabasco Sauce. I kept shaking the sauce on my dish, I don't recall what I ordered, then just as I bit into a mouthful my brother-in-law tried to warn me. It was the hottest I had even had and I pushed the plate away. I asked the waiter for a takeout baggy or whatever to take it with me, I figured I'll make some chili to add it to. Then I asked him or her if they sold the sauce, they did so I bought a bottle. Wanting to know what pepper they used, so I could grow it, I looked at the label, and while it didn't say what it was it had a url so I figured the website might say what it is. It didn't but it said the sauce should be used in recipes, a couple of drops for cooking.
FalconAs an American IdiotTM, I grew up suspicious of any food that didn't come wrapped in plastic or aluminum.
I take exception to that, the "American" part. Growing up in Florida not many summer and fall weekends went by when my family didn't go to a BBQ. The meat we ate was what we got hunting or fishing whether it be, hog or wild boar, gator tail, venison, and or frog legs. The vegetables were grown in the garden. But maybe a Floridian isn't an American.
Have you ever had home made root beer or fig preserves?
Not root beer or fig preserves but I've made ginger beer, cheese, and jellies as well as canned food. I'm growing broccoli and cauliflower, blueberries and strawberries, acorn and zucchini squash, cucumbers, and different varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Some of these I'll can, some make cheese with, and some make beer with.
FalconI don't brew the same style every time. What fun is that? With over 80 styles to choose from, that would really limit my brewing.
You don't have to make just one style of beer though. I haven't brewed in, too long for me, years but this summer I want to start again. At first I'll start with canned malt kits but I'll also want to try others. For instance I'll be growing blueberries, peppers, and rhubarb in my garden and I want to make beer with each of these. I'll also want to make some mead. I may be able to make 2 or 3 batches of 2 gallons with each one.
Why only 2 gallons? Because I'm alone and I don't drink too much. I can make one batch a week during the summer and it'll last me the rest of the year.
FalconMom always taught me that anything you could buy at the store or a restaurant could be made cheaper at home. In the late 60's and early 70's I watched her make cheese, can jelly and pickles, bake bread, and try winemaking.
While my mom didn't make cheese, can, or brew, she did teach me to cook and bake, and raised me to be adventurous. When I started brewing the shop I got the stuff at also had stuff for cheese making and I got into it as well. I haven't done either in years but I'd like to, my apartment is small but I may be able to squeeze enough space. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find someplace I can get raw, unpasteurized, milk at. Right now I'm working on my garden and I want to try some experiments other than canning. One thing I want to try is make some fruit beers like in Belgium, and some with hot peppers. I'm hoping I'll grow enough peppers, I don't have much space for a garden, to use some for beer, stuffing, and making cheese with.
Falconthrow on top of that a $10 package of yeast
Why do you buy new yeast every tyme? If you make the same style each tyme you can create a large yeast starter then divide it. Say make enough starter for 5 5 gallon batches. Divide it into 5 starters, and use one of then. Then the other four can be frozen.
I tend to spend $50-$60 on a batch, though I could probably get that down some if I ever made a beer with an OG of under 1.050.
The only tyme I spent that much was the first tyme I brewed, when I bought a compleat equipment kit. I realize the price can be that high to make a premium beer with premium ingredients but it doesn't need to be so expensive.
FalconIt would appear that your interests are more lended towards cost, which I definitely can respect that... In fact, that is what I enjoy the most about the beer making community versus the wine making community....
And what if you make both? I've made beer and wine as well as mead and sake. If I had the space I might have also setup a still.
FalconEven with ales you must keep the at the optimum fermentation range of 65F during the entire primary ferment.
Once I made some sake and the hardest part was keeping the temperature low. A couple of tymes a day, more actually, I had to change the ice bath I kept the fermenter in.
Making true high end beers (which is where the true savings is) is not...
However you left out one very important point, brewing is a hobby. If you don't like it spend your tyme in front of the boob tube, go down the the tavern, or Disney. Or if you care so much about money, be a workaholic and work two or three jobs.
FalconIt may be hard to break even in the EU but in the States not so. Sure, you can buy el cheapo brews for less than it costs to brew your own, but the better brews cost more.
Falconhops for a single brew cost about $8
I can buy hops as low as US$2. Or as much as $40.
add in about $4 for CO2 and gas
Why in the world does anyone who homebrews need to pay for CO2? Fermentation creates the CO2 for you. Yeast takes it's food, broken down starches and sugars, consumes it and makes alcohol and CO2.
there is an initial outlay, lets be generous and say you got a keg system with 2 kegs a filter CO2 regulator and all the bits and pieces.
I can buy a basic kit for starting brewing for $60 and it last for years. My "new" kit, which includes a glass carboy as a second fermenter, is more than 10 years old. As for kegs, I bottle which I can get for $2 a bottle, I can buy a keg for $30. Of course the kegging eq costs more.
Falcon
Oh, though Midwest, where the links go to, takes orders online and ships, the brick and mortar store is only a few miles from me.cut a deal with such a 3rd party and have them provide detailed format specs (privately to Microsoft)
Aren't the format specs already available? Doesn't the GPL, and Blender is GPLed, require this?
and code up a closed-source binary blob only useable by a Windows version of Blender?
Then Blender will fork, with the MS certified version reaching a plateau while the other versions will improve. And the MS version will require a compleat rewrite of the code, or it might be sued out of existent by breaking the GPL.
Result: people might have better experience working with those formats when they use Blender on Windows. -> That would make it more attractive to use Windows as underlying platform (if support for those file formats matter to you).
Results: hardly anyone will use MS's certified version.
Falconcode under the BSD/MIT licenses are available to everyone
I don't know about the MIT license but BSD source code can be closed depending on the specific license as there's more than one license, Microsoft has done it itself. The big thing BSD licenses require is proper attribution of the programmers that contributed code.
This is why in general I prefer BSD licenses over the GPL, while the GPL provides more freedom for users of software the BSD offers more freedom for programmers.
FalconThe Blender guys may not need/want that support, but this is Microsoft "getting it," and Slashdot users NOT "getting it."
I'm not saying it is or it isn't the case here but Microsoft has a history of embracing, extending, and extinguishing.
I find it unlikely that Microsoft would offer support to the Open Office guys, because OO running better on Windows hurts their market leading Microsoft Office product, but other areas that Microsoft doesn't compete in, they can offer them support.
Until Microsoft releases a competitor.
FalconThe USA was founded on the principal of 'freedom for the individual'. This shows with the USA's weak social welfare systems, and business culture of domination at all cost.
Freedom for the individual, not for business. Thomas Jefferson, the writer and one of the signers of the "Declaration of Independence" and the third President of the USA, even wrote a warning about corporations and the corporate aristocracy: "I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of their country."
FalconIncorrect, the price of windows is included in the price of the computer. Hence they are paying for it, period!
However they don't see the cost of an OS, it's not like computers have a price sticker with all the costs of different things the computer comes with like new cars do. "Hey, there no cost for Windows". Now if they see a PC configured with the same hardware but without an OS, or with Linux preinstalled, then they can see they are paying for Windows, and MS Office.
Also, they pay when the have an existing computer that they upgrade to the latest.
Upgrading the OS on a computer is about the only tyme users see a price for Windows. But most people don't upgrade their OS, instead they'll just buy a new computer.
FalconLinux will not gain appreciable market share on the desktop until it can seamlessly run everything Windows can.
Is the above what you meant?
Falconis a lot. However, if you can transition one little piece at a time, Windows is in trouble.
I don't think it's much of a shock to change the OS and the Office Suite used, it's not such a big deal. First off when most entities, whether people or businesses, get new computers more than likely the new system will have both a new OS, usually a new version of Windows, and a new version of MS Office. Secondly more entities are switch from MS Windows, to either Linux or OS X. For those who disagree with this, while the market itself is growing Macs and Linux are growing faster. After buying and using Windows since NT4 and 95 came out, about 20 months ago I switched to Linux and last summer I got the MacBook Pro I'm typing this on. For my office suite I use the native Mac port of OO.org, NeoOffice. It took me all of a week or two to adjust. Of course, just as I didn't use MS Office much, I don't use NeoOffice that much.
FalconIf you have to "take some time to learn it" then it is not intuitive BY DEFINITION. Something simply can't be intuitive AND have a steep learning curve--they're mutually exclusive. That so many people here seem to want to argue this point just shows how very screwed up some within the OSS community can be, and how out of whack interface priorities actually are.
There really isn't anything, except breathing, that is intuitive. Even babies have to be taught to breastfeed.
FalconBlender's UI is internally consistent, but it is by nature not consistent with much of anything else, because everything else is about 2d stuff
Lightwave, Maya, and 3D Max are 2D? There are no 3D apps besides Blender?
FalconThe only truly intuitive user interface I can think of offhand is the nipple.
Nipples, at least human nipples aren't intuitive either. Birth units in hospitals have to teach mothers to teach babies to breastfeed.
FalconI had to consult the Blender manual to figure out how to save a file.
Is this an online or offline manual? I've been looking for a printed manual or book, for Blender and for CinePaint, as printed material is easier for me.
FalconDid you bother to read my reply to you? The link you provided wasn't recent enough to be valid - PV prices spiked last year.
I read yours are replied, did you read mine and TFA? TFA linked to is dated 1 May 2008. It's not even a month old. Here's a pertinent sentence "Solar power cost about $4 a watt in the early 2000s, but silicon shortages, which began in 2005, have pushed up prices to more than $4.80 per watt, according to Solarbuzz." Even at $5 a watt 2000 watts of PV would cost $10,000. Or look here, the cheapest per watt cost for a PV is $4.68 whereas the most expensive is $6.25, There are 6 PVs listed below $5 with 13 between $5 and $6 per watt.
As for the economic analysis, please check the post by LMWatBullRun right above yours
That post says "$0.06/KwH from the grid", I pay more like $0.10/KwH.
12 Kyocera 130 watt panels @ $610 each dlvd = $7320
It doesn't say what the voltage is, but here's today's prices Sharp NE-170U1 170W 24V Solar Panel for $813.96. That's $4.79/watt. As for the rest like the number of hours of sunlight, that really depends on where. It uses 6 hours, in the dead of winter in Florida, the shortest day is longer than 8 hours, so say 6 hours of electrical generation. During the summer we got more than 12 hours, say 10 good hours of generation. The problem is with clouds and rain, however that's not too much a problem now. Whereas older PV panels had to have full sun to steadily generate electricity some new ones can continue generating in partial shade. Further north while winter daylight will be shorter summer daylight is longer.
The post also does not take into consideration inflation. Most of the electricity in the US is generated by coal and natural gas. While the US has plenty of coal, I heard more than 200 years, it is a major contributor to CO2 in the US and who knows how much it will cost in 5 years, because say a CO2 tax? And who would have thought a year ago oil would be above $120?
FalconOnce you get the degree, you should turn right around again.
That's the rub for me, I had to drop out and don't know when I'll be able to get back to college.
I hear that if you have IT skills and know Brazilian Portuguese that you can make bank over there...
In order to join the study abroad program and go to Brazil the university requires 2 years of Portuguese. In order to get a head start I've been thinking about getting one of those language sets like Berlitz or Rosetta Stone. As for IT skills, I don't have much. The last tyme I was attending college, a community or junior college, my major was web programming but I had planned to transfer to a university. There I had planned on getting multidisciplinary degree, and combine 2 or 3 areas of study. For the major area of study I'd like to study Electrical/Electronic Engineering with the secondary area(s) in business and maybe international development. Since 2 years of Portuguese is needed maybe that should be used.
No idea what your degree is in but there's a strong assumption that you know something about computers if you're here :)
I know more than most people about computers but not really much, and yet before I had an accident more than 10 years ago my major was Computer Engineering. The accident ended that. Even if I had wanted to continue with it I would of had to repeat a bunch of classes because an injury the accident caused damaged my memory, but I no longer do. Some things I learned before I recall but most of it I don't. On top of that unless I keep using what I learn in class I loose it quickly, more than a week or two without using something and I may not retain it.
To tell the truth, perhaps I should do what some people would and did tell me to do, just give up. I wish I could but it's not in my nature, I might as well commit sepaku, hari kari, or some other ritualistic suicide if I did. Actually the docs that I saw for therapy, I spent more than a year in therapy, said that the only reason I lived was because I was stubborn. Those in the hospital said it was a "miracle". NOT!!!
FalconWhy come back? :)
To get the degree. If I go it will be through a college's study abroad program. What I'd do afterwards I have no idea.
Falconyou can build it all with scrap, and I just saw a mig with gas in a pawn shop for $175... well, you can build all but the inverter with scrap :)
I might be able to build an alternative energy system however as I live in a city, and not suburbia, and I rent an apartment so I don't know if I'd actually be able to use it. Again though I don't think I will I hope to go to Brazil for a year as part of a study abroad program, while there I'd like to get involved with something like it. If I can go then when I come back I'll be in a better position to do it with my own place.
FalconIf and when I go Off The Grid I want to build a hybrid system and use solar, wind, or other systems. Unfortunately I don't believe I will ever be in such a position though, I have a permanent disability and don't work.
Falcon