While it's obvious that the electricity generated by this device is not "free", surely in the search for more ways to increase efficiency, using a pre-existing energy converter (engine + fuel = work) makes more sense than having to build more power plants to provide us with more power for low power devices.
Combining transportation and electrical generation makes the car more efficient than just transportation alone. It's similar (in a way) to having apartments heated by "waste" heat from nearby power plants or industrial units.
We should not entertain the idea of waste when there are easy ways to reclaim it.
What would be really cool, would be to have the energy reclaimed in this way fed to a mass transit system such as electric trams. Yeah, you can have personal transport, but part of the cost is contributing to public (more efficient) transport.
Most short journeys by car are a waste of fuel anyway. If the local shop is only a half mile down the road, burning an increasingly rare fossil fuel to get there, rather than walking/cycling/taking the bus, is almost a criminal waste. At least this device would put some of that energy to public use.
This is not new, I did it nearly 10 years ago with an old tv tuner and windows netmeeting. I set the tuner to the capture card, sound to the input, and boom I could broadcast video.
I then speculated that this could also be applied to nations. A country's greatness may be able to be measured by the ease at which its citizens gather information. And if you look at today's countries, this might be true.
Perhaps this initiative to deliver cheap laptops to students of poorer nations will help boost their economy and the rate at which information travels from person to person. After all, isn't internet access the fastest and cheapest form of communicating?
This reminded me of a report I saw on the BBC about micro loans in India being used to buy mbile phones, which the buyer then charges out on a per call basis to other people. The best I could do with google on the subject was this.
Essentially your post says "punish auto owners, and reward mass transit users" while completely ignoring the fact that mass transit is impractical in many places and always will be.
I think it is interesting that, even amongst the IT literate, transit seems to be a given. Not even just commercial transit, but "everybody's got to have one" transit. Just over 100 years ago, the only transit available to the average person was Shanks Pony. Or even a real horse if you lived in a rural area and owned a farm.
I can think of multiple ways in which that state of affairs would improve (my) life.
The roads would be clear of smog, traffic and noise.
People would have to live where they worked, or telecommute. This might just let locals be able to afford to live in their own towns, instead of being priced out by city workers who drive 50 miles each way to work and back.
Maybe the Middle East wouldn't be such a political hotspot, at least not one that we depended on for regular supplies. I mean, Iraq was seen as an enemy, and you really don't need your enemies controlling your lifeblood, so it had to be "pacified". But unless things change regarding the transport issue, any new regime will end up having to be ousted, much like every other time the western powers have inteferred with sovereign countries in their own (western) interests.
Environmentally, it has to be better. It seems to me that what has happened regarding cigarettes, will eventually happen with cars. as more people turn away from them, the remaining users will be treated as pariahs, until they either quit or die.
The only sad thing is that I will probably be long dead before this all happens, and I really believe it will. As the current level of technology is an anomaly historically speaking, who's to say this is a stable state of affairs.
Maybe we are getting close to the "Shoe" event horizon.
You may learn something about the EU "parliament".
One such detail being bodies called the Commission and the Council of Ministers, who are unelected, and can pretty much ride rough-shod over the parliament.
Also, while we "elect" the euro mps, we don't have any say in which candidate stands for any particular party, and so it's much like the UK national parliament, in that someone I don't know and didn't vote for is (supposedly - in the case of the EU) deciding my fate.
Actually, it's just the Matrix gathering background data, so that it can simulate our lives realistically this time. Can't have whole crops dying, can we... ?
Now the greys will have somewhere to land properly instead of crashing ignominiously and causing untold conspiracy theories. I wonder if they'll contact traffic control on the way in, or just temporarily paralyse other traffic.
he would most likely be forced into a chapter 13 where he would be required to make payments on possibly the entire amount through the courts for the next seven years.
In which case, he would be better off by robbing a bank and getting convicted, so that the state has to pay for his upkeep for the next $sentence years.
Which raises the question - if they succeed in making "piracy" a criminal offence, will they have to wave bye-bye to the ridiculous sums of money they are claiming ? But of course they would be getting their brand of justice at the taxpayers expense then, rather than employing those rip off lawyers to do it.
I know countless people who've been the victims of theft or internet fraud, and even with names and addresses of the perps they haven't had any action taken, just another report going in the file bin.
My step-father came back from holiday, checked his credit card statements and found he was being charged by AOL for a dial-up account. He doesn't have a computer.
After much argument and weeks of investigation, it seems that when he ordered some tools via the telephone, and used his card, the person who made the sale helped himself to a copy of his card details, and signed up for AOL with them.
The police were involved, but the guy never got charged or prosecuted, because AOL claimed they couldn't link the credit card details to that person.
Hang on, last time I checked a dial-up account requires a phone line ! Surely they had logs of that user logging in to a certain account, and thereby the phone involved (they do ask for the line number you will be connecting from IIRC ).
My pop got his money back from the credit card co. but the thief just lost his job (allegedly).
With digital content being wrung harder for profits and with the studios and others hell-bent to make examples of others, and with the police needing to show the public its money is being well spent, it's probably inevitable that more people will be pulled into the hollywood/content provider dragnet.
Anyway, guys, please stop this whole beating the child thing. It's not cute, it's not macho, and it's not good parental advice. There are so many ills within our society already that we don't need people going around and blatently advocating the advancement of another one.
Beating the child is one thing, I don't think anyone is advocating beating the crap out of a kid.
I have posted something on this before, but it seems to me that you are missing something else here.
What about good old fear ? From what I see every day in the street, kids / young people don't have any fear of repercussions. They walk in the street, deliberately blocking traffic, shouting and swearing if any car goes near them. They shout and argue with the police if they are stopped for any reason. They blatently smoke pot in public areas, and they are getting more and more vicious when it comes to violent acts.
You could put all this down to my getting older, but I do have that much experience of watching these things progress, and if not smacking kids (as seems to be the norm, despite what people think) leads to this result, then maybe it's not working. It gets pretty nasty even trying to have an argument with some of these kids, as they go ballistic immediately - how dare I question them !
Then there is the 'rights' issue. They seem to think that we can't do anything about their bad behaviour because they have rights. Now, one day, they will come across somebody who just pulls out a knife and kills them, which they probably would have avoided if they had kept their damn mouth shut !
I believe this attitude is exacerbated by never having been scared, and never having really been in pain caused by another human being. Respect has to be earned, and learnt. Part of life is that there are vicious killers out there, you hope you don't meet one, but knowing what pain is helps to temper your judgement (I think).
An even greater threat from this lack of fear, leads in the longer term, to nations attacking other nations, and governments über-controlling their populace.
Overall, it's a case of "I don't care, they can't hurt me, I've got rights !"
At 1000 connections, you need 4 kb per neuron, or 400 Gb of memory for 1 rat brain. Barely doable, but the processor power to handle all of that will not be easy to find...
Isn't that where simple "cell" processors would come in handy ?
Each neuron is adapted to a fairly small task, although they can be "re-programmed" IIRC.
Slashdot Mirror
Combining transportation and electrical generation makes the car more efficient than just transportation alone. It's similar (in a way) to having apartments heated by "waste" heat from nearby power plants or industrial units.
We should not entertain the idea of waste when there are easy ways to reclaim it.
What would be really cool, would be to have the energy reclaimed in this way fed to a mass transit system such as electric trams. Yeah, you can have personal transport, but part of the cost is contributing to public (more efficient) transport.
Most short journeys by car are a waste of fuel anyway. If the local shop is only a half mile down the road, burning an increasingly rare fossil fuel to get there, rather than walking/cycling/taking the bus, is almost a criminal waste. At least this device would put some of that energy to public use.
a) The Chinese at the time of its writing, had a vested interest in reading it and in being seen reading it.
b) There are over a billion Chinese.
c) Most printed and most popular are not the same thing.
I thinki the term is "slide show".
I can think of multiple ways in which that state of affairs would improve (my) life.
The roads would be clear of smog, traffic and noise.
People would have to live where they worked, or telecommute. This might just let locals be able to afford to live in their own towns, instead of being priced out by city workers who drive 50 miles each way to work and back.
Maybe the Middle East wouldn't be such a political hotspot, at least not one that we depended on for regular supplies. I mean, Iraq was seen as an enemy, and you really don't need your enemies controlling your lifeblood, so it had to be "pacified". But unless things change regarding the transport issue, any new regime will end up having to be ousted, much like every other time the western powers have inteferred with sovereign countries in their own (western) interests.
Environmentally, it has to be better. It seems to me that what has happened regarding cigarettes, will eventually happen with cars. as more people turn away from them, the remaining users will be treated as pariahs, until they either quit or die.
The only sad thing is that I will probably be long dead before this all happens, and I really believe it will. As the current level of technology is an anomaly historically speaking, who's to say this is a stable state of affairs.
Maybe we are getting close to the "Shoe" event horizon.
YMMV
The only thing I've ever managed to reproduce was a dead otter.
The loaded pistol or the poison ?
Obviously as none of those things you propose are likely to happen, you will need some final, insurmountable way to protect those bodily fluids.
Brig. Gen. Jack T. Ripper, is that you ?
Jesus, what kind of patriot are you ?
You forgot the bodily fluids, gotta protect your precious bodily fluids. Commie bastards !
Isn't that the place with an appauling human rights record ?
Things like imprisonment without trial , torture and censorship .
You may learn something about the EU "parliament".
One such detail being bodies called the Commission and the Council of Ministers, who are unelected, and can pretty much ride rough-shod over the parliament.
Also, while we "elect" the euro mps, we don't have any say in which candidate stands for any particular party, and so it's much like the UK national parliament, in that someone I don't know and didn't vote for is (supposedly - in the case of the EU) deciding my fate.
But hey, if it gives the enforcers^H^H^H^Hpolice what they want ....
ummm, where was I ... gives the police what they need to fight terrorism, then we have to give it to them don't we ?
OT but, does anybody have an ascii art picture of a middle finger salute ? I could use a new email .sig file.
Actually, it's just the Matrix gathering background data, so that it can simulate our lives realistically this time. Can't have whole crops dying, can we ... ?
Now the greys will have somewhere to land properly instead of crashing ignominiously and causing untold conspiracy theories. I wonder if they'll contact traffic control on the way in, or just temporarily paralyse other traffic.
The ones provided by the drive manufacturers. I have some here.
Which raises the question - if they succeed in making "piracy" a criminal offence, will they have to wave bye-bye to the ridiculous sums of money they are claiming ?
But of course they would be getting their brand of justice at the taxpayers expense then, rather than employing those rip off lawyers to do it.
After much argument and weeks of investigation, it seems that when he ordered some tools via the telephone, and used his card, the person who made the sale helped himself to a copy of his card details, and signed up for AOL with them.
The police were involved, but the guy never got charged or prosecuted, because AOL claimed they couldn't link the credit card details to that person.
Hang on, last time I checked a dial-up account requires a phone line ! Surely they had logs of that user logging in to a certain account, and thereby the phone involved (they do ask for the line number you will be connecting from IIRC ).
My pop got his money back from the credit card co. but the thief just lost his job (allegedly).
BTW, the tool company was Screwfix Direct.
My name's Friday, and I carry a badge !
Be aware that the files I have are primarily for wiping drives completely !
I have posted something on this before, but it seems to me that you are missing something else here.
What about good old fear ?
From what I see every day in the street, kids / young people don't have any fear of repercussions. They walk in the street, deliberately blocking traffic, shouting and swearing if any car goes near them. They shout and argue with the police if they are stopped for any reason. They blatently smoke pot in public areas, and they are getting more and more vicious when it comes to violent acts.
You could put all this down to my getting older, but I do have that much experience of watching these things progress, and if not smacking kids (as seems to be the norm, despite what people think) leads to this result, then maybe it's not working. It gets pretty nasty even trying to have an argument with some of these kids, as they go ballistic immediately - how dare I question them !
Then there is the 'rights' issue. They seem to think that we can't do anything about their bad behaviour because they have rights. Now, one day, they will come across somebody who just pulls out a knife and kills them, which they probably would have avoided if they had kept their damn mouth shut !
I believe this attitude is exacerbated by never having been scared, and never having really been in pain caused by another human being. Respect has to be earned, and learnt. Part of life is that there are vicious killers out there, you hope you don't meet one, but knowing what pain is helps to temper your judgement (I think).
An even greater threat from this lack of fear, leads in the longer term, to nations attacking other nations, and governments über-controlling their populace.
Overall, it's a case of "I don't care, they can't hurt me, I've got rights !"
Each neuron is adapted to a fairly small task, although they can be "re-programmed" IIRC.
See title ...