With just a little help, soy production could be enhanced (along with mileage) to make it a sustainable fuel.
With the right fertilizers and perhaps some genetic engineering, soy if more feasible than fuel-cells or fusion at this point.
Maybe, but I doubt it.
In the end all energy in Biodiesel (and Mineral Oil) comes from the sun. The usable energy in the sun's radiation is proportional to the area of exposure (and of course the angle).
Now, I don't know the enery efficiency of soy, I also do not know the average energy of sun radiation per areal unit... That would be an interesting calculation... Maybe I have some time later today.
I know, though, that current Solarcells efficiency is about 30% and there's some theoretical limit around 50% effiency using semiconductors.
Also knowing from other research that current energy consumption has to be drastically reduced in order to make solar only energy supply feasible (because of areal limitation on this planet), I have a hard time believing that growing Soy can solve the problem (even IF Soy has a higher energy efficiency, it can't go higher than 100%).
I read that in order to supply the US with Biodiesel you need an area larger that the US growing Soy (or whatever you use for Biodiesel). So unless new cars have way better mileage, we are still facing the same problem. (The same BTW is true for Solarcells and Windenergy, with the current energy consumption there is simply not enough room in the western countries to supply all the energy).
It helps, though. Especially because BioDiesel necessarily uses the same amount of CO2 that it sets free when burned, so it wouldn't contribute to the greenhouse effect.
Currently PeopleSoft supports the following clients: IE 4.X, IE 5.x, Netscape 4.x, Netscape 6.x, and Netscape 7.x on all platforms where these browser run.
As server platform PeopleSoft supports Windows, Linux, AIX, HP-UX, Thru64, Solaris, etc.
Supported Databases are Oracle, Sybase, DB2, MS-SQL.
So there is no need at all to use Microsoft Software with PeopleSoft. Neither on the server nor on the client.
I could not agree more. I am from Germany but live in the states.
While the fee-funded public TV stations in Germany lost some quality over the years, there's no comparison with the crap that is being broadcasted on German private channels.
The same crap is being broadcasted on all US station (KQED being the notable exception).
Everybody whines over fees payed for some public stations, but I think they are necessary.
For software (aswell for music and movies, btw), however, copyright law already regulates ownership. Allowing patents on software is like allowing patents on sequences of tunes or on sequences of images. It's absurd.
With copyright governing in the software world, you can be sure that whatever you write yourself from scratch is yours. With Patents allowed you may infringe on existing patents without your knowledge. That is the big difference.
I don't know our friends in the music industry would react if patents on sequences of tunes or images would suddenly be allowed.
The MIT was awarded a patent for "thwarting filesharing by confiscating infringing machines".
The FBI and other law-enforcement agencies already started intense negotiations.
Come one. How many lame patent do we have to see until the system breaks down. I can write some software like that in 5 mins.
Granted, this maybe an attempt to stop these decoying tactics by requiring a license fee for such tactics. Still I can't agree with it.
I started out with C++ a loonngg time ago. For all of my current projects I suggest Java (although I actually don't code that much anymore), unless I need to do system programming.
Here's (on the top of head) what comes to mind when I think ab out moving from Java to C++:
Learn the STL (as has been suggested here before). It's a great way to understand the philosophy behind C++.
Look into templates (which you need to understand the STL anyway). You can write very generic code if you can employ "type-variables".
Consider using stack variables even for non-primitive types. In C++ you can place objects on the stack with no need to allocate an object on the heap.
Think about an ownership model from the beginning. C++ does not have a Garbage Collector, so you have to make sure that from the beginning you always know who owns which objects when and who is responsible to allocating/deleting it. (That also relates to using stack variables if you can).
For the reasons above, don't forget about destructors.
Learn about when C++ performs automatic conversions, when copy-constructors and default-constructors are called, etc. These conversion are sometime unexpected.
Learn about pass by reference vs. pass by value. In Java Objects are always passed by reference, primitive types by value. In C++ you have much more control. Specifically objects are passed by value by default leading to sometimes unnecessary copies.
Learn about const. Const "Constants", const parameters, const methods. That can make your code safer.
Think about "virtual". In Java every object is automatically polymorphic. In C++ you have to declare method as virtual to use late-binding (which is used to achieve polymorphism).
Look at the different forms of class derivations. In Java there's only one form (equivalent to the C++ public form). In C++ you have public, private, protected derivation (no, that's not the scope identifier for members). C++ also supports multiple inheritence, in that case in addition you have to think about virtual derivation.
There's no "finally" in C++. Typically you code guaranteed actions at the end of a method call in a destructor of a stack-allocated object.
Take a look at threading. C++ does not included any standardized thread library. There are abstraction libraries out there that wrap the Windows API and PThreads into one nice library.
The worst aspect of all of this is that the European Parliament voted for significant amendments last fall (effectively banning software patents). Following the vote the proposal was simply retracted and the *original* version is now presented to the European Council, thereby mucking the entire democratic process.
I also wrote to magazines and newspapers, trying to bring their attention to that issue.
I'm also contemplating filing an official complaint with the EU (not because of software patents, but because of the undemocratic way the directive was handled in this inctance). The EU has the *legal* obligation to investigate official complaints.
Although there may be frustration, it's not time to give up, yet.
Nope, it's much smarter here. No, you don't *have* to register... Please explain me how get a driver's liecense, you even have to provide your fingerprint.
True, German police may stop random people and verify ID... Again is that different from checking the driver's license?
Oh, and by the way, you would like to vote? Please register yourself right here. This is what I mean with brainwashed.
And, no, you cannot be held without charge in Germany. That is a priviledge for alledged terrorists in the US.
Sorry, how exactly does telling people what they are and are not allowed to have their children learn make America more free again?
From information sciences we know that "information" is "data" plus a common understanding of how to "interpret" the data.
Freedom starts with access to data (or facts) and the understanding of what to make out of that data (or education).
Without either, "freedom" is a nice illusion.
What good is voting and freedom of speech if you never learned to make informed decisions or how to form independent thoughts? Which is why election campaigns (not just in the US) are more like talkshows than "information-events".
The "creationism vs. darwinism" was just an example (which by the way also holds for Italy, where teachings of darwinism were just banned from elementary schools - last I read). But it goes further. US schoolbooks are filtered by various (left-wing, right-wing, christian, you-name-it) organizations.
For example, the word "extremist" is banned. Banned are also non-pc topics, like the connection between ethnicity and poverty.
People seem to believe that if we ban words, and all means to communicate about an issue, the issue will somehow just go away. And then they say: "It's to protect our kids"... Simply absurd!
The simple fact is this law would be nonsense, but a great way for the US government to harass Americans: you can't legally harass a US citizen? No problem, just ask your mates in Germany to ask you to do so.
That's right. These evil Germans. During the last years I lived in several different countries, and I can tell you this: The US is most unfree country of all the western countries I ever lived in.
Strictes speed limits, strictes drug laws (no alcohol in public, prison for some weed), longest prison times, broadest rights for law-enforcement (though that is changing), no (my god) nudity, censored TV, worst education (creationism vs. darwinism anyone)... The list goes on and on.
Ironically people here are so brainwashed that they call it "The Land of the Free". What a joke!
So don't quote German law as harrasment (even in case this was just a joke), because they forbid trade of "historic" Nazi material. And BTW if caught trading illegal Nazi materials in Germany, there no fine or jail time, you are just forced to stop it.
Maybe foreign law enforcement will bring some sanity to this f*cked up legal system.
I'm a Software Architect running from meeting to meeting everyday. How often have I thought about dropping it all (including salary and lifestyle). Move to Hawaii and become a gardener (called landscape architect now:), or maybe a carpenter. I like to create things (which is in part why I like software, you can make things without needing a big infrastructure). I need a lower stress job.
You also have to change your lifestyle, though, to live on less money.
Re:Views? Subqueries? Easy to move databases?
on
Why MySQL Grew So Fast
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Excuse me?
Views represent first class relational objects that can be used in yet other relational expressions (just like physical tables can be used), like joins, etc.
A view itself may represent a join of a data table with a security table (for example), and maybe used instead of a physical table. If specified correctly a view can be updatable.
"Bookmarked" SELECTs are *exactly* the kind of hack you have to resort to with databases like MySQL.
Views? Subqueries? Easy to move databases?
on
Why MySQL Grew So Fast
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I for one cannot understand how anybody can do *any* serious database work without views and subqueries (the latest MySQL alphas/betas have support for subqueries). The whole relational theory is (almost) broken without these. To me that's mindboggling. Without that I'd rather use berkeley DB or flat files to load and store my data. How do you do row-level security without views, what about column security. Or just different views for different users. These are just a few example that require *a lot* of coding without database support (not to speak about performance). Heck, do people even understand what views (or triggers, etc) are?
People say it's easy to move databases around my MySQL. Yeah, sure, as long as you stay with the ISAM tables, which do not support ACID. InnoDB tables support ACID but cannot simply be copied around.
It makes me shudder to think about all the future DBAs that accept the low standards MySQL is setting.
I agree. I came to San Francisco in 1999 before the.com bubble burst, making around $70k. That hardly was enough to pay for my one-bedroom appartment.
Now I make about twice that, but in SF would not be considered well off in any way. It's enough for a nice appartment and a nice car, but nothing more.
A small three bedroom house with no backyard, *outside* of SF goes for $500k-$700k.
These are all just examples to illustrate the point. $140k in Bay Area is probably worth less than $40k in the Midwest.
I read an article a while ago, which claimed that software speed increases less then 100% (i.e. the speed doubled), will not be noticed by users (unless, of course it was in the minutes to begin with).
It sounds crazy, but you can try yourself; you'll hardly notice a speed increase of 50% unless you use a stopwatch.
Slashdot Mirror
With the right fertilizers and perhaps some genetic engineering, soy if more feasible than fuel-cells or fusion at this point.
Maybe, but I doubt it.
In the end all energy in Biodiesel (and Mineral Oil) comes from the sun. The usable energy in the sun's radiation is proportional to the area of exposure (and of course the angle).
Now, I don't know the enery efficiency of soy, I also do not know the average energy of sun radiation per areal unit... That would be an interesting calculation... Maybe I have some time later today.
I know, though, that current Solarcells efficiency is about 30% and there's some theoretical limit around 50% effiency using semiconductors. Also knowing from other research that current energy consumption has to be drastically reduced in order to make solar only energy supply feasible (because of areal limitation on this planet), I have a hard time believing that growing Soy can solve the problem (even IF Soy has a higher energy efficiency, it can't go higher than 100%).
I read that in order to supply the US with Biodiesel you need an area larger that the US growing Soy (or whatever you use for Biodiesel). So unless new cars have way better mileage, we are still facing the same problem.
(The same BTW is true for Solarcells and Windenergy, with the current energy consumption there is simply not enough room in the western countries to supply all the energy).
It helps, though. Especially because BioDiesel necessarily uses the same amount of CO2 that it sets free when burned, so it wouldn't contribute to the greenhouse effect.
Currently PeopleSoft supports the following clients: IE 4.X, IE 5.x, Netscape 4.x, Netscape 6.x, and Netscape 7.x on all platforms where these browser run.
As server platform PeopleSoft supports Windows, Linux, AIX, HP-UX, Thru64, Solaris, etc.
Supported Databases are Oracle, Sybase, DB2, MS-SQL.
So there is no need at all to use Microsoft Software with PeopleSoft. Neither on the server nor on the client.
I could not agree more. I am from Germany but live in the states.
While the fee-funded public TV stations in Germany lost some quality over the years, there's no comparison with the crap that is being broadcasted on German private channels.
The same crap is being broadcasted on all US station (KQED being the notable exception).
Everybody whines over fees payed for some public stations, but I think they are necessary.
It been said before:
The GPL is not about ownership, it is about distribution rights.
The ownership remains with the Copyright holder. In the case of the GPL the Copyright holder allows for redistribution under the GPL.
The owner could release the same code under a different license, whereas somebody who received the code under the GPL cannot.
I agree, a patent is by itself a good concept.
For software (aswell for music and movies, btw), however, copyright law already regulates ownership. Allowing patents on software is like allowing patents on sequences of tunes or on sequences of images. It's absurd.
With copyright governing in the software world, you can be sure that whatever you write yourself from scratch is yours. With Patents allowed you may infringe on existing patents without your knowledge. That is the big difference.
I don't know our friends in the music industry would react if patents on sequences of tunes or images would suddenly be allowed.
Come one. How many lame patent do we have to see until the system breaks down. I can write some software like that in 5 mins.
Granted, this maybe an attempt to stop these decoying tactics by requiring a license fee for such tactics. Still I can't agree with it.
Here's (on the top of head) what comes to mind when I think ab out moving from Java to C++:
In C++ you can place objects on the stack with no need to allocate an object on the heap.
A list of representatives can be found here.
I did. I even got some replies!
The worst aspect of all of this is that the European Parliament voted for significant amendments last fall (effectively banning software patents). Following the vote the proposal was simply retracted and the *original* version is now presented to the European Council, thereby mucking the entire democratic process.
I also wrote to magazines and newspapers, trying to bring their attention to that issue.
I'm also contemplating filing an official complaint with the EU (not because of software patents, but because of the undemocratic way the directive was handled in this inctance). The EU has the *legal* obligation to investigate official complaints.
Although there may be frustration, it's not time to give up, yet.
True, German police may stop random people and verify ID... Again is that different from checking the driver's license?
Oh, and by the way, you would like to vote? Please register yourself right here. This is what I mean with brainwashed.
And, no, you cannot be held without charge in Germany. That is a priviledge for alledged terrorists in the US.
From information sciences we know that "information" is "data" plus a common understanding of how to "interpret" the data.
Freedom starts with access to data (or facts) and the understanding of what to make out of that data (or education). Without either, "freedom" is a nice illusion. What good is voting and freedom of speech if you never learned to make informed decisions or how to form independent thoughts? Which is why election campaigns (not just in the US) are more like talkshows than "information-events".
The "creationism vs. darwinism" was just an example (which by the way also holds for Italy, where teachings of darwinism were just banned from elementary schools - last I read). But it goes further. US schoolbooks are filtered by various (left-wing, right-wing, christian, you-name-it) organizations. For example, the word "extremist" is banned. Banned are also non-pc topics, like the connection between ethnicity and poverty.
People seem to believe that if we ban words, and all means to communicate about an issue, the issue will somehow just go away. And then they say: "It's to protect our kids"... Simply absurd!
But I digress.
The simple fact is this law would be nonsense, but a great way for the US government to harass Americans: you can't legally harass a US citizen? No problem, just ask your mates in Germany to ask you to do so.
That's right. These evil Germans. During the last years I lived in several different countries, and I can tell you this: The US is most unfree country of all the western countries I ever lived in.
Strictes speed limits, strictes drug laws (no alcohol in public, prison for some weed), longest prison times, broadest rights for law-enforcement (though that is changing), no (my god) nudity, censored TV, worst education (creationism vs. darwinism anyone)... The list goes on and on.
Ironically people here are so brainwashed that they call it "The Land of the Free". What a joke!
So don't quote German law as harrasment (even in case this was just a joke), because they forbid trade of "historic" Nazi material. And BTW if caught trading illegal Nazi materials in Germany, there no fine or jail time, you are just forced to stop it.
Maybe foreign law enforcement will bring some sanity to this f*cked up legal system.
You stroke a chord there...
:), or maybe a carpenter.
I'm a Software Architect running from meeting to meeting everyday. How often have I thought about dropping it all (including salary and lifestyle). Move to Hawaii and become a gardener (called landscape architect now
I like to create things (which is in part why I like software, you can make things without needing a big infrastructure). I need a lower stress job.
You also have to change your lifestyle, though, to live on less money.
Excuse me?
Views represent first class relational objects that can be used in yet other relational expressions (just like physical tables can be used), like joins, etc. A view itself may represent a join of a data table with a security table (for example), and maybe used instead of a physical table. If specified correctly a view can be updatable.
"Bookmarked" SELECTs are *exactly* the kind of hack you have to resort to with databases like MySQL.
I for one cannot understand how anybody can do *any* serious database work without views and subqueries (the latest MySQL alphas/betas have support for subqueries). The whole relational theory is (almost) broken without these.
To me that's mindboggling. Without that I'd rather use berkeley DB or flat files to load and store my data. How do you do row-level security without views, what about column security. Or just different views for different users. These are just a few example that require *a lot* of coding without database support (not to speak about performance). Heck, do people even understand what views (or triggers, etc) are?
People say it's easy to move databases around my MySQL. Yeah, sure, as long as you stay with the ISAM tables, which do not support ACID. InnoDB tables support ACID but cannot simply be copied around.
It makes me shudder to think about all the future DBAs that accept the low standards MySQL is setting.
I agree. I came to San Francisco in 1999 before the .com bubble burst, making around $70k. That hardly was enough to pay for my one-bedroom appartment.
Now I make about twice that, but in SF would not be considered well off in any way. It's enough for a nice appartment and a nice car, but nothing more.
A small three bedroom house with no backyard, *outside* of SF goes for $500k-$700k.
These are all just examples to illustrate the point. $140k in Bay Area is probably worth less than $40k in the Midwest.
It sounds crazy, but you can try yourself; you'll hardly notice a speed increase of 50% unless you use a stopwatch.