There are one or two around in the EU which do comply with the legislation. It's not impossible. But if you have to compete with people who dump waste chemicals in the river.........
Re:Donate that old computer LOCALLY...
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· Score: 2, Funny
Been there....done that.
My idea was to give my old PC to my 5 year old son so he is not always hogging my PC to play games.
Trouble is the games he gets off the corn flakes packet require more PC horsepower than my development environment.....so guess who gets left with the old one!
I gather LCD manufacture uses some pretty hairy stuff as well.
A few years ago I had to find an LCD manufacturer for a custom LCD. I was to find that there are virtually no LCD manufacturers in the EU because environmental legislation on all the hairy chemicals makes it too expensive. Apparentlly they are all made in "emerging economies".
Perhaps places like the EU should only allow inports of LCD from countries which implement the same environmental legislation.
Like bashing your head against the wall
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The IT industry (both software and hardware) is geared towards programmed obsolescence.
But there must be some space out there for sites specialising in hardware re-use.....maybe offering e-stores for hard to get parts or "adapters".
Legislators looked at the amount of lead used by the electronics industry as a whole. Overall it is a lot, and as it is not actually necessary (it just costs a bit less), they simply said no lead in electronics.
Lead free solder. Most lead free formulations have a high silver content, and reflow temperatures are higher.
All major solder manufacturers allready have lead free products in place, check out thier websites for exact formulations.
BTW, a lot of chip manufacturers have allready done thier lead free packaging. Intels move is late in the day, which is ironic because they are making hi end high cost chips were gold is often used for bonding and plating rather than the solder used to tin the pins of lowwer cost chips.
The higher costs (which are actually quite small compared to the overall price of finished goods) has meant that blanket legislation is inevitable to change habits in this highly competitive market.
The higher reflow temperatures are an issue as well, but most components can allready withstand these temperatures, especially as higher temperature solders are somtimes used as a production technique.
Believe it or not the legislators did actually check that it was feasible before making the laws!
Benchmarks. In effect AMD's 2300+ like rating is based on independently audited benchmarking which is then normalised to the Intel CPU speed.
IT purchasing is notoriously independent of standards, and it is not just clock speeds. We see jokes such as 500W PC speakers (supplied with a 20VA transformer) and the ubiquitous use of 'X' (4X AGP, 56X CDR).
Standards exist but, apparently, buying a PC is more of an emotial experience than a scientific one!
There are **other** initiatives that promote the reduction of power consumption in PC's. Note that the average consumption of a CPU in a typically used desktop PC can be quite low, how low depends more on the OS than the chip design.
"Not only that but you could actually land robots, CNC machine tools (and spare parts for same) and some materials on the moon"
Just a thought.....perhaps moon rock could make quite a good building material if you could make a robot that is able to slice pieces out of the surface like eskimos do with ice.
I wonder, if you made a large igloo and sprayed a line of sealent in the cracks on the inside....how many rocks would you need to pile on top so that it is heavy enougth to stay together with, say, 0,8 atmospheres on the inside?
"The best astronomical use for the Moon would be in radio astronomy. "
That had occured to me as well, int fact I was not thinking of a single telescope but a whole obsevatory site which for the large part would be done by unmanned craft. Perhaps the biggest problem would be getting down capsules close enougth to the main site robots can haul the stuff into place, but not so close that they might hit the stuff that is there!
As for risks/manned flight, this would probably be only occasional. One flight can adjust lots of istruments and the kit and supplies can allready be in place, sent by unmanned craft in advance, hence the flight could be done with a much smaller craft than those used for the appollo missions.
How good would a Lunar astronomy be? Having no atmosphere would seem to be a great bonus, and allthougth there **is** the problem of gravity on the lenses, this gravity is much less.
I imagine a scenario were unmanned ships send a lot of bits on successive low cost missions, and then astronauts go to set up and service the kit.
I'm ignorant on these matters, but it would appear to be to be much easier to set up kit on the moon than it is floating in space on a shuttle lifeline.
OK, you want to find out which seats are going unused, and you know there is this website, do you use your **own** ID, or do you slip a backhander to some low paid IT staff to pass you somebody elses?
And if you are the low paid IT worker whose code do you give? Somebody who has left the company but is still in the system.
True, it's fishy that the ID belonged to somebody who went to a competitor, but how many major airline employees have moved to budget airline companies?
I think Air Canada whould at least have to prove that he, or somebody he deliberately gave his ID to, was responsible for the mega use of the site.
"I admit I'll just keep all kernel settings at wherever Mandrake sets them as. Will other people play about and specialise their system for the task that it does?"
Perhaps that is why the default setting is the one indicated for desktop users.
And yes, if I were using a Linux box for specific server tasks then I would tweak the settings to get a bit more performance out of it.
One thing I have learnt fair and square in my current job is that good screens are the **only** thing that matters.
I cannot understate this......everybody knows that a product with pretty screenshots is easier to sell than an ugly one even if the ugly one is much better at doing what it is supposed to do......but real world experiences have shown me that if a software is pretty it does not even need to do anything at all!
I'm not joking here, I have seen software that has been sold and initially installed purely on the basis of a simulated user interface. Management are happy because it looks pretty, and users just carry doing thier job with "the old system" until such time as the "bugs are ironed out" in the new system. Put another way, a total lack of functional code is just a bug, whilst lack of a pretty screenshot is lack of product.
I hestitate to say this is wrong, however. When I go and look at the home page of a new software package one of the first things I look at is the screenshot, and I rarely look at the todo list or "Known issues" until I have actually installed!
I think you will find that you have to comply with a **lot** of regulations **and** be rock solid and proven.
AFAIK there is some very serious software available, over the years I have seen various applications published in the IEE computing and control journal......but it is probably very difficult to sell to conservative ship owners.
BTW, a couple of years an investigation into a Greek shipping accident revealed that the ship was sailing itself and the crew were all watching a football match. This is a good argument against automation. If you **must** sail the ship by hand then at least you know there are at least 2 or 3 with plenty of practice at carrying out every task. With automation comes complacency and a lack of skills when things go wrong.
I can see at least one windowsish display, but there appears to be much more *nixish stuff or embedded (which tends to Posixy anyway in industrial/military circles).
Oh dear, there is even a command line shell........" shutdown -nuke Now"
Also in Europe (at least france and Italy!), many truck drivers have a bottle holder beneath the rear view mirror which is wrapped with cloth. Every time they take a swig from the bottle they slosh a bit of water on the cloth.
A degree used to be a theory and evolution through research. Nowdays it appears that an MBA is essentially a vocational training course where students are stuffed with off the shelf concepts.
It used to be political regimes that adultered the curriculums with indoctrination, nowdays, like everything else, it has become a business!
Fortunately there a growing number of Maverick enterprises, in all sectors, that are learing that success comes best by not following the rules. I guess that is what the lawyers are supposed to prevent;-)
"history shows that countries we've built up in the past have a tendency to end up hating us "
That's a general problem with patronization. I seem to remember that the old Testament has quite a lot to say about it.
BTW. Whilst I could agrre with your viewpoint (countries we help end up hating us) in some countries, in other cases such as Afghanistan and Iraq it is more a case of "Behold the monster I have created".
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There are one or two around in the EU which do comply with the legislation. It's not impossible. But if you have to compete with people who dump waste chemicals in the river.........
My idea was to give my old PC to my 5 year old son so he is not always hogging my PC to play games.
Trouble is the games he gets off the corn flakes packet require more PC horsepower than my development environment.....so guess who gets left with the old one!
A few years ago I had to find an LCD manufacturer for a custom LCD. I was to find that there are virtually no LCD manufacturers in the EU because environmental legislation on all the hairy chemicals makes it too expensive. Apparentlly they are all made in "emerging economies".
Perhaps places like the EU should only allow inports of LCD from countries which implement the same environmental legislation.
But there must be some space out there for sites specialising in hardware re-use.....maybe offering e-stores for hard to get parts or "adapters".
Links anybody :-)
Legislators looked at the amount of lead used by the electronics industry as a whole. Overall it is a lot, and as it is not actually necessary (it just costs a bit less), they simply said no lead in electronics.
All major solder manufacturers allready have lead free products in place, check out thier websites for exact formulations.
BTW, a lot of chip manufacturers have allready done thier lead free packaging. Intels move is late in the day, which is ironic because they are making hi end high cost chips were gold is often used for bonding and plating rather than the solder used to tin the pins of lowwer cost chips.
The higher costs (which are actually quite small compared to the overall price of finished goods) has meant that blanket legislation is inevitable to change habits in this highly competitive market.
The higher reflow temperatures are an issue as well, but most components can allready withstand these temperatures, especially as higher temperature solders are somtimes used as a production technique.
Believe it or not the legislators did actually check that it was feasible before making the laws!
IT purchasing is notoriously independent of standards, and it is not just clock speeds. We see jokes such as 500W PC speakers (supplied with a 20VA transformer) and the ubiquitous use of 'X' (4X AGP, 56X CDR).
Standards exist but, apparently, buying a PC is more of an emotial experience than a scientific one!
It is all EU countries, and I think some none EU countries as well.
There are **other** initiatives that promote the reduction of power consumption in PC's. Note that the average consumption of a CPU in a typically used desktop PC can be quite low, how low depends more on the OS than the chip design.
Just a thought.....perhaps moon rock could make quite a good building material if you could make a robot that is able to slice pieces out of the surface like eskimos do with ice.
I wonder, if you made a large igloo and sprayed a line of sealent in the cracks on the inside....how many rocks would you need to pile on top so that it is heavy enougth to stay together with, say, 0,8 atmospheres on the inside?
That had occured to me as well, int fact I was not thinking of a single telescope but a whole obsevatory site which for the large part would be done by unmanned craft. Perhaps the biggest problem would be getting down capsules close enougth to the main site robots can haul the stuff into place, but not so close that they might hit the stuff that is there!
As for risks/manned flight, this would probably be only occasional. One flight can adjust lots of istruments and the kit and supplies can allready be in place, sent by unmanned craft in advance, hence the flight could be done with a much smaller craft than those used for the appollo missions.
I imagine a scenario were unmanned ships send a lot of bits on successive low cost missions, and then astronauts go to set up and service the kit.
I'm ignorant on these matters, but it would appear to be to be much easier to set up kit on the moon than it is floating in space on a shuttle lifeline.
And if you are the low paid IT worker whose code do you give? Somebody who has left the company but is still in the system.
True, it's fishy that the ID belonged to somebody who went to a competitor, but how many major airline employees have moved to budget airline companies?
I think Air Canada whould at least have to prove that he, or somebody he deliberately gave his ID to, was responsible for the mega use of the site.
Are you expecting extra moderation points for that link ;-)
Of course this is what Cricket is all about. Two days in the outfield doing nothing and then suddenly you need to catch the match ball!
Perhaps that is why the default setting is the one indicated for desktop users.
And yes, if I were using a Linux box for specific server tasks then I would tweak the settings to get a bit more performance out of it.
I cannot understate this......everybody knows that a product with pretty screenshots is easier to sell than an ugly one even if the ugly one is much better at doing what it is supposed to do......but real world experiences have shown me that if a software is pretty it does not even need to do anything at all!
I'm not joking here, I have seen software that has been sold and initially installed purely on the basis of a simulated user interface. Management are happy because it looks pretty, and users just carry doing thier job with "the old system" until such time as the "bugs are ironed out" in the new system. Put another way, a total lack of functional code is just a bug, whilst lack of a pretty screenshot is lack of product.
I hestitate to say this is wrong, however. When I go and look at the home page of a new software package one of the first things I look at is the screenshot, and I rarely look at the todo list or "Known issues" until I have actually installed!
AFAIK there is some very serious software available, over the years I have seen various applications published in the IEE computing and control journal......but it is probably very difficult to sell to conservative ship owners.
BTW, a couple of years an investigation into a Greek shipping accident revealed that the ship was sailing itself and the crew were all watching a football match. This is a good argument against automation. If you **must** sail the ship by hand then at least you know there are at least 2 or 3 with plenty of practice at carrying out every task. With automation comes complacency and a lack of skills when things go wrong.
Oh dear, there is even a command line shell........" shutdown -nuke Now"
Thousands of years ago potters allready knew how to make pots sufficiently pourous that they would keep the water cool by sweating.
Also in Europe (at least france and Italy!), many truck drivers have a bottle holder beneath the rear view mirror which is wrapped with cloth. Every time they take a swig from the bottle they slosh a bit of water on the cloth.
Of course like any wireless system, bandwidth is shared. If the technology ever takes off then you will be competing for space!
It used to be political regimes that adultered the curriculums with indoctrination, nowdays, like everything else, it has become a business!
Fortunately there a growing number of Maverick enterprises, in all sectors, that are learing that success comes best by not following the rules. I guess that is what the lawyers are supposed to prevent;-)
That's a general problem with patronization. I seem to remember that the old Testament has quite a lot to say about it.
BTW. Whilst I could agrre with your viewpoint (countries we help end up hating us) in some countries, in other cases such as Afghanistan and Iraq it is more a case of "Behold the monster I have created".
Sack the lawyers.