Once you get rid of the cables then elevators can move side to side as well. By creating a set of shafts that allow elevators to move up/down as well as sideways additional cars can be added or removed as the traffic requires. During peak loads several dozen cars can be in motion at once. During off hours one or two cars on standby are all that is needed.
Combine this with the other recent article about scheduling cars based on the floors people want to go to and you can provide fast service by adding a new car as soon as someone hits the button if one is not moments away from that floor.
This could be the real world implementation of the turbo shaft on Star Trek.
Actually what makes Microsoft systems easier to exploit is the fact that users generally run with admin privileges. And a lot of programs under Windows run with admin privileges. On most unix systems, including Macs, most users do not run with admin (root) privileges. Because of this one fact if a virus or hacker does manage to get on a Mac or unix like system it is unlikely to gain control of that system. Unlike a Windows based system where a virus simply needs to get executed and it has admin privileges allowing it to then insert itself into all sensitive places on the system and if the hacker is really good, hide itself from the owner of the system. While the market share probably does affect how many hackers attack a particular system it is the ease at which the system can be taken over that matters the most. Face it, if Macs where really easy to exploit, there would be thousands of hackers scanning the Internet looking for Macs to take over. This does not appear to have happened.
And like I said before, the idea of security on the Internet is to make YOUR system just a little bit harder to exploit than the next one. And time after time it has been proven just how easy it is to exploit a Windows system.
The whole matter of computer security comes down to make sure your system is just a little bit harder to exploit than the one down the street. Apple has done this. Microsoft systems are much easier to gain control of than just about any other system out there. Mind you that there are Microsoft Windows systems that are very secure. The admins on those systems have take the time to patch the holes and take measures to secure those systems. Is this true of all Windows systems? No. Are all Apple systems secure? No. It comes down to how much does the end user of that system care about security and how much time, effort, and money do they want to expend securing the system. This is true of all systems.
As another poster wrote the orginal article is at best flamebait.
Since each car is runs indpenendently there would need to safe guards that keep cars from hitting each other. If someone blocks the door open the other cars would have to halt and if needed open on other floors. Almost same problem with a standard elevator. Of course if you had multiple shafts and the cars had the ability to move between shafts they could just move around the blocking car.
Funny, you say that it is the "stupidest system for elevators I've ever seen" and yet the situation you describe is caused by the stupidity of the elevator passengers.
Kind of like saying it is the stupid users that can't figure out how to secure Microsoft Windows. While true, the system should not require significant training for a user to utilize the system.
Maybe that is the plan, sell certification classes in the lobby and require all riders to have elevator certification before they can use the system.....
Actually a better redesign of an elevator system should be used. In very tall highrises why not setup the elevator so it runs in a loop. Cars go up one shaft and come down another shaft. You can then introduce additional cars as needed based on passenger traffic.
For example: in the morning most people are headed up. As you fill a car at the first floor it leaves and almost immeaditly a new car is loaded into the shaft and filled. As the first car empties out and reaches the top it swings over into the down shaft and returns to the bottom, either to be refilled or to be shifted into storage if the rush is over. Depending on how many floors the building had you could have a dozen cars in the same shaft at a time, possibly more. It would all work like some of the rides at Disney where they shuffle cards on and off the tracks as needed or for maintance.
The system in the article could still be used and group people by floor into the same car, there would be less wait for the next car load and next group of floors.
So now instead of some kid hitting every button and steping off the elevator they just hit all the buttons and walk away. Kind of messes it up for everyone that comes after they do that.
One company I worked for found that print advertising did not provide much return. What they did have a good return on was direct mail postcards. They were able to send out hundreds of thousands of post cards to a targetted audience and found the return on those much greater. They used cheap ink jet printers to print the post cards with addresses and postage marks. Run the printers until they wore out and swap in a new one. Bulk rate postage for postcards is relatively cheap. The last set of print ads in a the trade magazine had very few responses.
I can understand why. I am able to flip through a newspaper and ignore virtually all of the ads. Kind of the same as ignoring billboards on the roads. I recognize them as ads without concentrating enough attention on them to know what they are about. Combine that with a DVR that auto skips commercials and very little advertising gets through to me anymore.
global climate change is a real and accelerating problem (the duplicitious yammerings of the naysayers and industrial apologists notwithstanding), and it needs to have more serious attention focused upon it.
Of course global climate change is real. It has been happening for millions of years. The Earth goes through periodic cooling and warming cycles. As a species we will need to adapt to such changes. Thinking that we can change this and keep the climate the same with our present technology is the fallacy.
In the current cycle we will need to learn to protect coastal cities, or abandon them as the water level rises. If the climate shift is significant we will have to utilize hydroponics and other methods to continue growing and harvesting crops to feed the growing population.
If survival of the species is the issue then the only sure way to accomplish this, or at least extend it, is to establish self sufficient colonies off planet. First populating the rest of this solar system then out to other stars. Right now we have everything in one bread basket so to speak.
But the greenies think they can keep the climate from changing just like they think they can save every species on the planet. The reality is things change, species die off, new species take their place. At some point the climate will change and the face of the planet will change dramatically as it has done countless times before. The big difference is that we are at a technological level to recognize this and use that technology to adapt and survive as the climate changes.
And for the global warming crowd, it appears that the current warming cycle is solar system wide, not something just occuring on Earth. ie. the polar caps on Mars are melting also. Of course some might attribute that to the continued operation of the Mars rovers on that planet.
We actually tested one of those Unisys systems way back when. This was around the time the orginal Windows 386 came out. The Unisys system was interesting but the overall size of the assembled parts took up more space than a typical tower case. This will be the problem with this setup.
From a media center perspective the best solution is to have a diskless/fanless silent front end box that talks to a backend system that is hidden in another room or closet. The big plus is you can put several front ends around the house as needed all being served by the one backend system.
If you want a viable energy source then lets build more nuclear plants. Problem solved. Getting power from trees as described is nothing more than a troll article. There should be some way to flag articles as such.
So plant more trees. I seriously doubt that he will ever get enough amps out of such a setup to do more than power a small LCD clock. Would be better use of time and effort to improve solar power if you want a renewable power source or to just burn the trees to make room for the power windmills and solar panels.
To get trees connected in series you just need to dig them up and place them in separate containers then you can isolate them from the ground. Besides you want to make this a nice portable power source for your iPod don't you? With them in containers you can load them up in 12 wheelbarrows then you and your friends can go patrol the mall playing your tunes.
Seems like we did this way back in the dark ages using a potato and zinc and copper rods. There was even a potato clock kit where you used this to power a LCD clock.
I liked the story about using the temprature difference in the ocean to generate power better. Why not dupe that instead this muck?
Can't they just put 6 big old oak trees in series to get 12 volts? Of course the big draw back is hauling all this around to power your ipod. Kind of hard on the back even with a wheelbarrow.
Isn't this the same technology that was used in The Matrix to power the machine city? What with cars driving themselves across the desert, flying around by themselves with missles on board, and now technology to get power from trees and possibly other biological sources just how close are we to building a terminator?
Why not write a replacement program for the LoggerNet program? I have looked at the various weather station equipment out there for a few years. The one thing that kept me from buying any has been almost a total lack of support for using that equipment with linux. One of these days when my project pile has dropped enough I plan on getting a set of weather monitoring equipment and write the software under linux to collect and display the data. It does not look to be that difficult, just read the data from the serial port. After that it is a matter of storing and displaying the data.
But can't we all just play nice? Can't we just let people who believe in ID to do so, and those who don't stop whining that somebody could ever believe in that?
About the time the IDers stop trying to push this on all the kids in school. If they want to teach their kids ID in their own homes or in their churches then fine. No problem. But forcing ID on everyone elses kids in public schools in science class or biology class is where it becomes a problem. It would not be much of an issue if it was taught in a comparitive religion class or possibly in a philosophy class. But trying to teach this as an alternative to evolution is wrong.
Just watch TV news for a couple of hours, people today are not very intelligent. Or watch Jay Leno when he interviews people on the street. They are dumber than dirt. Amazing they even walk upright.
Remember, humans might be considered the third most intelligent species on Earth, after the mice and dolphins, but I have doubts about even that ranking.
Slashdot Mirror
The technology for implementing an idea from another thread! How cool!
4 92988
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=174209&cid=14
Once you get rid of the cables then elevators can move side to side as well. By creating a set of shafts that allow elevators to move up/down as well as sideways additional cars can be added or removed as the traffic requires. During peak loads several dozen cars can be in motion at once. During off hours one or two cars on standby are all that is needed.
Combine this with the other recent article about scheduling cars based on the floors people want to go to and you can provide fast service by adding a new car as soon as someone hits the button if one is not moments away from that floor.
This could be the real world implementation of the turbo shaft on Star Trek.
Should probably file a patent for the idea.
Actually what makes Microsoft systems easier to exploit is the fact that users generally run with admin privileges. And a lot of programs under Windows run with admin privileges. On most unix systems, including Macs, most users do not run with admin (root) privileges. Because of this one fact if a virus or hacker does manage to get on a Mac or unix like system it is unlikely to gain control of that system. Unlike a Windows based system where a virus simply needs to get executed and it has admin privileges allowing it to then insert itself into all sensitive places on the system and if the hacker is really good, hide itself from the owner of the system. While the market share probably does affect how many hackers attack a particular system it is the ease at which the system can be taken over that matters the most. Face it, if Macs where really easy to exploit, there would be thousands of hackers scanning the Internet looking for Macs to take over. This does not appear to have happened.
And like I said before, the idea of security on the Internet is to make YOUR system just a little bit harder to exploit than the next one. And time after time it has been proven just how easy it is to exploit a Windows system.
The whole matter of computer security comes down to make sure your system is just a little bit harder to exploit than the one down the street. Apple has done this. Microsoft systems are much easier to gain control of than just about any other system out there. Mind you that there are Microsoft Windows systems that are very secure. The admins on those systems have take the time to patch the holes and take measures to secure those systems. Is this true of all Windows systems? No. Are all Apple systems secure? No. It comes down to how much does the end user of that system care about security and how much time, effort, and money do they want to expend securing the system. This is true of all systems.
As another poster wrote the orginal article is at best flamebait.
Since each car is runs indpenendently there would need to safe guards that keep cars from hitting each other. If someone blocks the door open the other cars would have to halt and if needed open on other floors. Almost same problem with a standard elevator. Of course if you had multiple shafts and the cars had the ability to move between shafts they could just move around the blocking car.
What part of "DON'T TAUNT HAPPY FUN BALL!" did you not understand?
Funny, you say that it is the "stupidest system for elevators I've ever seen" and yet the situation you describe is caused by the stupidity of the elevator passengers.
Kind of like saying it is the stupid users that can't figure out how to secure Microsoft Windows. While true, the system should not require significant training for a user to utilize the system.
Maybe that is the plan, sell certification classes in the lobby and require all riders to have elevator certification before they can use the system.....
Actually a better redesign of an elevator system should be used. In very tall highrises why not setup the elevator so it runs in a loop. Cars go up one shaft and come down another shaft. You can then introduce additional cars as needed based on passenger traffic.
For example: in the morning most people are headed up. As you fill a car at the first floor it leaves and almost immeaditly a new car is loaded into the shaft and filled. As the first car empties out and reaches the top it swings over into the down shaft and returns to the bottom, either to be refilled or to be shifted into storage if the rush is over. Depending on how many floors the building had you could have a dozen cars in the same shaft at a time, possibly more. It would all work like some of the rides at Disney where they shuffle cards on and off the tracks as needed or for maintance.
The system in the article could still be used and group people by floor into the same car, there would be less wait for the next car load and next group of floors.
So now instead of some kid hitting every button and steping off the elevator they just hit all the buttons and walk away. Kind of messes it up for everyone that comes after they do that.
One company I worked for found that print advertising did not provide much return. What they did have a good return on was direct mail postcards. They were able to send out hundreds of thousands of post cards to a targetted audience and found the return on those much greater. They used cheap ink jet printers to print the post cards with addresses and postage marks. Run the printers until they wore out and swap in a new one. Bulk rate postage for postcards is relatively cheap. The last set of print ads in a the trade magazine had very few responses.
I can understand why. I am able to flip through a newspaper and ignore virtually all of the ads. Kind of the same as ignoring billboards on the roads. I recognize them as ads without concentrating enough attention on them to know what they are about. Combine that with a DVR that auto skips commercials and very little advertising gets through to me anymore.
global climate change is a real and accelerating problem (the duplicitious yammerings of the naysayers and industrial apologists notwithstanding), and it needs to have more serious attention focused upon it.
Of course global climate change is real. It has been happening for millions of years. The Earth goes through periodic cooling and warming cycles. As a species we will need to adapt to such changes. Thinking that we can change this and keep the climate the same with our present technology is the fallacy.
In the current cycle we will need to learn to protect coastal cities, or abandon them as the water level rises. If the climate shift is significant we will have to utilize hydroponics and other methods to continue growing and harvesting crops to feed the growing population.
If survival of the species is the issue then the only sure way to accomplish this, or at least extend it, is to establish self sufficient colonies off planet. First populating the rest of this solar system then out to other stars. Right now we have everything in one bread basket so to speak.
But the greenies think they can keep the climate from changing just like they think they can save every species on the planet. The reality is things change, species die off, new species take their place. At some point the climate will change and the face of the planet will change dramatically as it has done countless times before. The big difference is that we are at a technological level to recognize this and use that technology to adapt and survive as the climate changes.
And for the global warming crowd, it appears that the current warming cycle is solar system wide, not something just occuring on Earth. ie. the polar caps on Mars are melting also. Of course some might attribute that to the continued operation of the Mars rovers on that planet.
We actually tested one of those Unisys systems way back when. This was around the time the orginal Windows 386 came out. The Unisys system was interesting but the overall size of the assembled parts took up more space than a typical tower case. This will be the problem with this setup.
From a media center perspective the best solution is to have a diskless/fanless silent front end box that talks to a backend system that is hidden in another room or closet. The big plus is you can put several front ends around the house as needed all being served by the one backend system.
Now all they need is a micro beer to go with the micro chip. I wonder if they are working on a micro pretzel?
If you want a viable energy source then lets build more nuclear plants. Problem solved. Getting power from trees as described is nothing more than a troll article. There should be some way to flag articles as such.
So plant more trees. I seriously doubt that he will ever get enough amps out of such a setup to do more than power a small LCD clock. Would be better use of time and effort to improve solar power if you want a renewable power source or to just burn the trees to make room for the power windmills and solar panels.
To get trees connected in series you just need to dig them up and place them in separate containers then you can isolate them from the ground. Besides you want to make this a nice portable power source for your iPod don't you? With them in containers you can load them up in 12 wheelbarrows then you and your friends can go patrol the mall playing your tunes.
So when you go hiking make sure to take a bunch of nails with you and wire so you can recharge your cell phone. Should be standard survival equipment.
You will get more energy out of burning the tree than you will using this old potato clock idea. This article at best is a troll. Nothing more.
Seems like we did this way back in the dark ages using a potato and zinc and copper rods. There was even a potato clock kit where you used this to power a LCD clock.
I liked the story about using the temprature difference in the ocean to generate power better. Why not dupe that instead this muck?
Can't they just put 6 big old oak trees in series to get 12 volts? Of course the big draw back is hauling all this around to power your ipod. Kind of hard on the back even with a wheelbarrow.
Isn't this the same technology that was used in The Matrix to power the machine city? What with cars driving themselves across the desert, flying around by themselves with missles on board, and now technology to get power from trees and possibly other biological sources just how close are we to building a terminator?
Why not write a replacement program for the LoggerNet program? I have looked at the various weather station equipment out there for a few years. The one thing that kept me from buying any has been almost a total lack of support for using that equipment with linux. One of these days when my project pile has dropped enough I plan on getting a set of weather monitoring equipment and write the software under linux to collect and display the data. It does not look to be that difficult, just read the data from the serial port. After that it is a matter of storing and displaying the data.
Just need more time....
But can't we all just play nice? Can't we just let people who believe in ID to do so, and those who don't stop whining that somebody could ever believe in that?
About the time the IDers stop trying to push this on all the kids in school. If they want to teach their kids ID in their own homes or in their churches then fine. No problem. But forcing ID on everyone elses kids in public schools in science class or biology class is where it becomes a problem. It would not be much of an issue if it was taught in a comparitive religion class or possibly in a philosophy class. But trying to teach this as an alternative to evolution is wrong.
This just in..."ID Scientists Figure Out How Pigs Fly"
Big ass sling shot?
Half stick of dynamite?
Pig chunking air cannon?
Like a very large brick?
Did anyone get the license plate of that galaxy that hit us?
Where is the insurance company when you need them?
They killed Kenny, the bastards!
Just watch TV news for a couple of hours, people today are not very intelligent. Or watch Jay Leno when he interviews people on the street. They are dumber than dirt. Amazing they even walk upright.
Remember, humans might be considered the third most intelligent species on Earth, after the mice and dolphins, but I have doubts about even that ranking.