This my not ever see wide spread use. decomposition ponds as described inthe article make lots of methane but much more pollution. manure may be natural but when it decomposes it makes massive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus waste. in the case of pig manure they actually add phosphate to the diet of the animal. when decomposed and freed of the organic poop all these fertilizers readily leach into the ground water and if allowed into the surface run off. this process is of course accelerated buy the fact the the poop is in a liquid state. and most ponds are lined with clay or plastic. this is not a perfect barrier as clay leaks and plastic degrades. concrete would be better but is potentlay very costly. if the basin of the pond leaks it will allow the liquid fertilizers to pass into ground water it make it unusable as drinking water (nitrates in water can poison children quite easily). As surface run off this form of pollution has lead to massive eutrophication damage of rivers and lakes. eutrophication is when it turns water pea green with algae and then all that growth dies, decays and sucks up all the oxygen killing the water body.
Another interesting bit is that at least in the USA many agricultural soils are quite rich in nutrients, such as phosphorus. in places like the midwest were dairy and pig farms are common manure is often liquefied and spread on fields. this is good fertilizer but in the case of pig manure it actually leads to phosphorus overload of the soils. so in Essence we don't need to do this but farmers need to get rid of the manure. this has lead to increased P contamination of water ways as well. id expect that their deodorized doncomposer sludge and water will be no different.
these facts have been know for quite some time. already there is allot of legislation on the books or in the works against liquid manure holding ponds. The elimination of fertilizer runoff into the surface and ground waters is also heavily regulated. i suppose that if done right this can work but it is not as easy or as low cost as it may seem. maybe a centralized facility can buy manure and process it in large scale for methane and be safe and then market the byproducts as assayed fertilizer. but allot of small unlined pond operations randomly spreading sludge and runoff can easily lead to trouble.
*something from "nothing" is great, except when "nothing" it is more than you can pay....
Sounds neat but i am having real problems with the physics. but i bet most people that read about it would....
They say a ribbon about a meter wide and 2 millimeters thick can do this. well OK ill give them that if that ribbon was constructed it may in deed be just that perfectly capabel of supporting that strain (this is a stretch by itself). However the plan to put that big thing into service required that a small one first be used. The small one will have to be one microns tick. this is gonna be the real sticker. How will you expect that to survive all the wind, and elemental forces assuming that you can get it attached inthe first place.
I can see quite a few good lighting strikes and other interesting upper atmosphere charge effects splitting this up real good. Then let the wind just rip it lengthwise and then try to run a climber up it. All i can say is if you could do this you better start it off with a conciderable amount (perhaps 10% or more) of its final strength, and perhaps investigate a way to lower the cable from orbit. As an aside, can you imagine the effects of an airplane strike on this thing.
Well the best hope in my humbel opinion is the research may lead to better materials for seatbelts and bullet proof vests..... the world needs a better 10 micron seatbelt.... or better yet maybe a monofiliment whip.....
This price hike was expected. In the business world this sort of action is like more "leveling the playing field," than a "bate and switch". Tt is often possible to get coperate subsidies for new technology and such. iTunes has basically been under a year long price subsidy by the record companies. This gave them a selling advantage over CDs. However, it is not in the recordcompanies interests to stomp out its major revenue sources over night. In this case they are only adding a new one.
Now that apple has a customer base they revoked the startup subsidies. This is common business (and political) practices. It may seem evil but it is really cold business sense. They (record companies) are politically spread pretty thin right now. As a result, thet can't afford to appear to "play sides" with any one medium.
Technology is changing so fast that they really don't have a clue what to do to keep their business model. So for a while expect to see them promote nothing that really changes until WE decide that one course or another is required to stay in business. Their coffers are quite large and after all they had their best year ever so They can and will wait this transition out.
*sort of like the race between the turtle and the hair.... I know the race has started but wonder which one I am, it is not at all clear yet.....
Nano-machines ge whiz we already got those. Heck even miniature factories so small you cant even see them. They make molecular tolls that can repproduce and complete millions of complex reactions ever minute. We call them cells.
The reason we are having so much trouble making " the nano-machines of star trek" besides the obvious requirements of know how, is that simply put inorganic materials are not very easy to workwith at that scale. You can produce some every interesting properties to be true. But i do feel that autonamouse robots and nano factories will not be practical. However, mother nature has been doing this with protein for quite some time. I seriously dbout that we will ever have these cancer destroyer nano bots, but a cancer targeted artificial protein may not be too far off.
As to nano-factories these will be bacterial in nature id expect. We have them now. Many people don't realize that diabetics take human insulin derives from such bio-factories today. This E. coli made insulin is in all respect human insulin in any amount desired with no disease contamination and made form a simply food source. This is the nano future i see. Just replace insulin with various custom industrial enzymes to say make plastic or whatever.
*A quick dip in the gene pool really softens rough dry scales.
first 10 for Win XP:
1. ALL THE DARN UPDATES!
2. winrar
3. norton system works
4. drive image
5. reg cleaner
6. tweak ui
7. mozilla
8. all my favorite Video codecs
9. bs player
10. ms office
first 10 for linux:
1. debian stable distribution (woody)
2. grub
3. upgrade stable to unstable
4. x & kdm (preferred over gdm or xdm)
5. gnome & tools (my display manager)
6. kde & tools (her display manager)
7. samba
8. open office
9. mozilla
10. gimp
*windows is very zen, it is not about what to install but about what you will not...
Bigger is better (not physical device size). Now if they meant that the consumer found that the price for "bigger" was too high I'd buy that. i seriously dbout that if i offer you 2 "ipods" one with 10 gb and the other with 20gb for the same price you would say "gee 20 gb is just a bit too big, ill take the small one".
Give me a break, they just said that most really want to store all their tunes. So if i store 25gb that is really want i want. As time passes and high speed internet use increases they number of tunes the average person has will as well. not to mention the general gradual increase in bit rate and hence file size. i generally get more high bitrate files than i used to so this will also increase my size needs.
yup, we here at $big_company know what the customer needs, smaller, creeper low quality gear that they will hate and have to replace as often as possible.
This seems more usable than that Dibold thing. The added security of paper is very appealing. After all it was all this chad crud that started the mess. Should not the improved version be way to make an easy to scan and tabulate ballots in a way that cant be mis-cast so easily. This method is exactly what is needed, paper ballots and realtime electronic tabulation followed by a comparison check with an automatic counter. Now the real question is is this the system to do it.....
The new features......
Bush [ ] Kerry [ ] Random [ X ] Go with the flow [ ]
China probably curbed the dumping of chips as a result of WTO pressure. The consumer price index has not yet detected much inflation in the US. However the recent unusual trend of deflation has stopped so that may seem like around 1-2% inflation over the last few months. this can't account for a $15 rise on a 256M chip.
China's influence in the market can. Recently there is a big internatonal trade row over their price gouging suppored by fiddling with tariffs, tax breaks and their dollar pledged currency values. WTO says it costs jobs... We see low cost chips... China is probably taking the middle ground and dumping a bit less than normal to appear better.
I'd bet low cost chips (and other things) make jobs here for us in the west for at least the guys that sell em. At the very least it make us able to afford more stuff. So where is this problem at that the WTO is all nasty over? Or are they just trying to be "important" and prove a need for themselves again.
Supply & Demand at work for you! Act now before the politicians mess it up!
>"When you mix oxygen and nitrogen at high temperatures, you get NO - the infamous NOX measured by the EPA."
yes high temps and N2 = nasty nitrogen species. However, that is true for petrol combustion as well. So we simply continue the use of a catalytic converters in combination with combustion temperature control (egr vales & the like). This is the basis of our current nitrogen oxide emissions cotroll now.
This can nearly eliminate nasty nitrogen species that hydrogen combustion forms. in addition these parts will last longer and and work better for the elimination of most soot in the exhaust. that should even allow for a higher degree of coversion of the nasty nitrogen oxides back to N2.
Nice catch on that one though, I should have mentioned it....
Seems to me even an adaptive parking meter able to be reprogramed needs little more advanced technology than the average cheap digital assistant combo calculator (probably should cost as much but lets not go there). I'd figure that that all solid state design would be easily solare powered as it needs much less than the 64M of ram alone in that 200 MHz system.
"look two shinly dimes, ill trade you for that dull $20 bill"
I have been saying this sort of thing for years...
on
Solar-Hydrogen Eco-House
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Hydrogen is probably the perfect storage device for energy derived from small scale and less than optimal renewable sources. The biggest problem with home generation of energy from wind, solare or whatever renewable energy you pick is often the problem of regulating the output to achieve a constant usable powere supply. Many of these renewable energies are difficult to use and made much more expensive by this single requirement. That is why they only build wind and solar farms in certain places whit a constant source of wind or sun. Imaging trying to powere you computer with solar power that cut off at knight and in the day and browend in and out all the time and would often spike 20% higher under high illumination thanthe average. You can use expensive line conditioning to fix the momentary ups and downs but when it goes you you will need a powere storage device like battries. Unfortunately conventional lead acid battries are only 5-15% efficient at charging up and have a limited life not to mention the extra cost. The use of hydrogen can offer an alternative to this.
about hydrogen:
1 - Easy to make trough electrolysis (electricity + water = hydrogen and if desired oxygen)
2 - Electrolysis unlike electronics is fairly insensitive to power fluctuations and does not have to work a 100% duty cycle provided the amount of stored gas is sufficient, so carfull powere regulation is unneeded.
3 - Excess hydrogen could be sold (if there was a demand).
4 - Electrolysis is at least as efficient as battery powere storage
5 - You can easily make a car run on it (imaging DIY home filling)
6 - There are fuel cells that make a 85% efficient conversion to electricity from this fuel (very expensive but NASA has them and mass production could bring that cost down). The use of hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen / oxygen fuel could be one of the world most efficient energy solution but may be not the cheapest.
7 - There are numerous safety innovations that can help reduce fire risk (hydrogen can easily be as safe if not safer than natural gas / propane).
8 - You can easily make a cars that will run on it (imaging DIY home filling) not to mention that care need not be a new one. You can have a conventional 350 big block with all the power you would expect run on hydrogen. The conversion is expensive now, but masproduction would lower that to the cost of a engine rebuild that you may need already. You will not need to fear a explosion in a wreck as there are fuel cells that even if punctured and on fire can not explode as they only release the gas fast enough to burn.
9 - It is a 0 emission fuel that may be used in any place that natural gas could be used.
10 - Hydrogen fuel use can really lower smog. I have seen allot of emphasis on electric cars, however these are not really 0 emission. Fossil fuel was burned someplace to make the electricity (40% efficient process) that charged your batteries (15% efficient). this This means that using an electric car is about 6% efficient. I would bet that '86 Suburban has better energy milage than an electric car. You folks in cites and Ca need to think about that.
*imagine enviromental value "ahem" of a 0 emissions vehicle that would do 0-60 in 8 sec flat.
Looks like as noted above that this is a softwear & XP trick, and not actually directly related their pc in particular. They specify that it needs their proprietary softwear, a 2 head VGA card and a mouse and keyboard splitter. Id bet they rout the input of 1 set of devices to each user and controll XP login with it.
Sort of neat but to me it seems like a bit of a curiosity rather than a true tool. I'd place it on par with neato bundled remotes and LCD panels on some boxes. That sort of candy can be darn usefull for a few but is not on the "needs" list form most users. Maybe this product would do better as an optional upgrade package for use with any PC.
I's jsut another tax. They would tax sex and air if they could. What do you do when you get over bugget? Probably stop eating at McD's or cut some other expense. I should think florda should do the same.
Fingers of fire and the service in speed dial and you will still probably have to enter your phone card # to use it at work... jsut to identify the song after the one you were trying for.
May be this will be a new "bundel" feature in that $66.95 phone plan that they push on you 2 times a day via a cold call.....
*hope AT&A gets around to sending me that recipt of me geting placed on their do not call list...
People will file pattents regardless, if you place a greater burden on the reviewer to identify "good" ones it will only increase the scale of the task. These people should not have to decide if a patent was good at all. Instead make it easer by lowering the review process requirements.
Probably the solution is not in caps, but in narrowing the scope of patents and requiring a prototype. Then all the examiner needs to do is review if it A.) works and B.) is new / different enough for legal protection. Then grant the pattent in that form only. This will make through put fast and efficient by perminting approval of those clames that are demonstrated in the prototypes. The manufacture would prove if it was usefull and actually did a decent job of what ever it was supposed to do to the customer. If they lie or cheat to make the prototypes work then they get exactly that a pattent on a fake due to the narrow scope.
This would eliminate most frivolous clames. The narrow scope would in some cases allow people to revise and significantly build upon a thing and pattent the revision as well. However that is ok, as making the scope to wide is much worse. Patents like anyting to do with magnetic fields..... or single click ordering....is too general. That leads to the legal mess we have with copy rights.
my silly example:
so I submit a pattent for a new sort of hub for protocol X. i include a scimatic and prototype electronics of that device. i also provide the test hardware. Patent guy plugs it in and it works as described...... Then he searches to see if any one else built a hub for protocol X, and then if so was it nearly exactly like mine. If no i get my pattent on that package. If you build version with different hardware than you can patent yours too.
*if you build a thing you have something to sell, if you only have an idea you have exactly what you started with, nothing.
Oh, I like the idea about a foot pedal, or even just a keyboard solution. That gives me an idea as a next step.
The ability to pan left and right or up and down on the "inside" of a virtual sphere with the user point of view in the center looking out would provide allot of extra desktop space and perhaps a decent way to access it. Sort of like a better pager interface, with a touch of 3D. Then add a few "landmarks" and some way to quickly get to them via a more standard pager so as not to eliminate that form of use. I'd bet for minimal processor use it would make a slightly more usable sphere(with less panning and distortion).
As options, let the user decide the size of the sphere (and hence the aria of the extended desk top) the default resolution and allow a mouse wheel to determing the extent of zoom. The wallpaper would be left the same or only minimally changed to suite the nearly flat 3D surface, and this should also eliminate the "need" for a true 3D input device as a requirement to operate. At the min it wold be just one way of adding to your already too small desktops instead of boring standard pagers and / or more monitors.
well maybe....
*That wheel thing is so old news man. It like can't still work, lets reinvent it...
I wonder what could be done with them when they do fail?
my top picks in no particular order:
1.) Auction them off on Ebay (like that channel drill) and make the buyer pick em up. that may help finace the manned mars mission goal... Russions pickup worlds most expensive a door stop...
2.) Call AAA for a tow, membership has its rewards.
3.) File insurance clames on the loss. Perhaps NASA could cite water damage.
4.) But probably the best use, 3 words, "interstellar p0rn server". Lets "spread" our culture among the stars. That of course would require NASA still be able to upload a "firm ware" upgrade.
*brain is: [ ] in, [ X ] out to lunch, [ ] gone home for the day
U know this whole Microsoft problem is a bit of a hard topic. Microsoft business practices are clearly evil. They can do nearly anything they want and it and get away with it as few have enough power or money to even phase em.
On the other had it is important to remember we can have "a law for everything" laws simply reduce freedom and will make a never ending sea of red tape for the next guy that may want to enter that market. Even "protection" laws designed to level the playing field or save lives historically have often only had short term benefits coupled to long term economic and "safety" losses.
Of course the more laws you add has its own costs as well, sorting through all that legalese requires and ever larger load of parasitic lawyers to clear the path along the way to prosparity. Even with such sound legal advice today one (a business) must expect to incur numerous silly lawsuits what ever course they take. As even the lawyers cant figure out what is really legal form time to time ("...rigidly defined arias of dbout and uncertainty").
The choice litigate the evil empire (M$) and break it up like bell at the expense of freedom. Or on the other hand, let em slide and continue to muscle out good competeiton and suffer a loss of an unknown goods and services in the form of products we will never see.
*it's a no brainer choice, A,) damed if you do, B.) damed if you dont.....
Yup, open source has a few rough edges. Of course this may be due in part to the fact that many that use it are tolerant of a bit of DIY action. This is as noted simply due to the fact that tech savvy wrote it for the tech savvy. But in the last few years linux and its packages have improved by leaps and bounds. In time it will be more accessable to the less tech savvy. This growth is clearly happening and will continue as the open source movement matures and gets better at filling a market niche.
All the problems he has noted really are the hallmarks of a "Immature" package but as time goes by the worthy packages get better and "grow up". Take KDE or GNOME in point. A few years ago it was VERY clunky (still better than win 95 tho). In just a few short years with NO PAY these guys made something quite usefull, nay may be even intuitive. It has problems and as time goes I am sure they will be addressed. It is all in the process of maturation that the project shed the bugs and effects of bad project design to become a intuitive finished project. This is true for all softwear and maturation is not free nor instant, it takes allot of effort to do this.
When a software company devotes massive $$ to make a intuitive ap that nobody needs/wants then they go bankrupt and stop. In opensource it is different. Someone has an idea. A basic implementation is made. If it is good and the demand is high it will be polished by the many that flock to use and develop it. Then it will mature and become a product that is less cumbersome, those packages that are less need/popular stay basic implementations, "infants".
*I wonder what linux wants to be when it grows up?
I stated "obscurity" however "unimportance" may have more accurately described my meaning at that moment. Linux is certainly not using obscurity used in form of closed source. in this case "obscurity" is mostly toward the lack of market share and savvy users.
If a hypothetical Os had only 1% of the market compared to 2 or 3 other competitors then it may be an "obscure" system. This state can impart security to this system since few use it few are in a real position to exploit it weather or not the source was open and or inherently secure. Once that 1% is gets bigger, say 25% or more market share enough persons will be using it to make it a viable target for spamers, cheats and the mischievous. Few will learn a new Os just to phreak on some lame duck that will not go far, in stead they will concentrate on more valuable / common fare.
.....Of course there is unlimited room for reality to invalidate my opinions and / or inane babble at any moment, only time will tell.
A few more notes:
Of course there is the inevitable factor of loosing ones security by obscurity. Once any Os (usable or otherwise) gains wide acceptance there will be by definition allot of people with a understanding sufficient to do harm and possibly break its security.
From the other side, As the number of users rise so do the number of less skilled users. They are the ones most at risk as they may not actually know or follow common sense security guidelines. The end result is a OS threatend by security risks, virus and/or hackers.
This loss in security can be partly offset by using good solid code and protocols. But the inevitable result of mass acceptance is that over all security is reduced and that more "bad stuff" happens. The number of "Bad things," such as a major Trojan, that happens may be very infrequent per user. However, if you double the number of users expect the incidence of bad things to at lease double as well.
For added driving pleasure simple light timing disruption is not the only trick you can employ, try vengeance tempered with compassion. A municipality could simply network a few of these together on a main road. So that when one detects a speeder it innitaly dose nothing but. The next few are "primed" to deal out swift punishment. This may "forgive" a mistake or other traffic feature like passing but then punish if the problem is consistant. This may also be modified to add safety bay allowing the light to measure speed and calculate if changing now still provided a speeder with a safe stopping distance, or if it would be better handled by the next light in the series.
Of course the next illogical step could add a new type of punishment perhaps even vengeance to the lights. If a basic identification sensors capabel of identifying a particular speeder was to be included. This could allow for "black listing" by a network so as to really punish the exceptional offender. "so he's in a hurry eh, let him hit all the red lights."
Of course all that could sort of make you paranoid, "i know it wants to change, i can feel it......"
Slashdot Mirror
This my not ever see wide spread use. decomposition ponds as described inthe article make lots of methane but much more pollution. manure may be natural but when it decomposes it makes massive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus waste. in the case of pig manure they actually add phosphate to the diet of the animal. when decomposed and freed of the organic poop all these fertilizers readily leach into the ground water and if allowed into the surface run off. this process is of course accelerated buy the fact the the poop is in a liquid state. and most ponds are lined with clay or plastic. this is not a perfect barrier as clay leaks and plastic degrades. concrete would be better but is potentlay very costly. if the basin of the pond leaks it will allow the liquid fertilizers to pass into ground water it make it unusable as drinking water (nitrates in water can poison children quite easily). As surface run off this form of pollution has lead to massive eutrophication damage of rivers and lakes. eutrophication is when it turns water pea green with algae and then all that growth dies, decays and sucks up all the oxygen killing the water body.
Another interesting bit is that at least in the USA many agricultural soils are quite rich in nutrients, such as phosphorus. in places like the midwest were dairy and pig farms are common manure is often liquefied and spread on fields. this is good fertilizer but in the case of pig manure it actually leads to phosphorus overload of the soils. so in Essence we don't need to do this but farmers need to get rid of the manure. this has lead to increased P contamination of water ways as well. id expect that their deodorized doncomposer sludge and water will be no different.
these facts have been know for quite some time. already there is allot of legislation on the books or in the works against liquid manure holding ponds. The elimination of fertilizer runoff into the surface and ground waters is also heavily regulated. i suppose that if done right this can work but it is not as easy or as low cost as it may seem. maybe a centralized facility can buy manure and process it in large scale for methane and be safe and then market the byproducts as assayed fertilizer. but allot of small unlined pond operations randomly spreading sludge and runoff can easily lead to trouble.
*something from "nothing" is great, except when "nothing" it is more than you can pay....
Sounds neat but i am having real problems with the physics. but i bet most people that read about it would ....
..... the world needs a better 10 micron seatbelt.... or better yet maybe a monofiliment whip.....
They say a ribbon about a meter wide and 2 millimeters thick can do this. well OK ill give them that if that ribbon was constructed it may in deed be just that perfectly capabel of supporting that strain (this is a stretch by itself). However the plan to put that big thing into service required that a small one first be used. The small one will have to be one microns tick. this is gonna be the real sticker. How will you expect that to survive all the wind, and elemental forces assuming that you can get it attached inthe first place.
I can see quite a few good lighting strikes and other interesting upper atmosphere charge effects splitting this up real good. Then let the wind just rip it lengthwise and then try to run a climber up it. All i can say is if you could do this you better start it off with a conciderable amount (perhaps 10% or more) of its final strength, and perhaps investigate a way to lower the cable from orbit. As an aside, can you imagine the effects of an airplane strike on this thing.
Well the best hope in my humbel opinion is the research may lead to better materials for seatbelts and bullet proof vests
This price hike was expected. In the business world this sort of action is like more "leveling the playing field," than a "bate and switch". Tt is often possible to get coperate subsidies for new technology and such. iTunes has basically been under a year long price subsidy by the record companies. This gave them a selling advantage over CDs. However, it is not in the recordcompanies interests to stomp out its major revenue sources over night. In this case they are only adding a new one.
Now that apple has a customer base they revoked the startup subsidies. This is common business (and political) practices. It may seem evil but it is really cold business sense. They (record companies) are politically spread pretty thin right now. As a result, thet can't afford to appear to "play sides" with any one medium.
Technology is changing so fast that they really don't have a clue what to do to keep their business model. So for a while expect to see them promote nothing that really changes until WE decide that one course or another is required to stay in business. Their coffers are quite large and after all they had their best year ever so They can and will wait this transition out.
*sort of like the race between the turtle and the hair.... I know the race has started but wonder which one I am, it is not at all clear yet.....
Nano-machines ge whiz we already got those. Heck even miniature factories so small you cant even see them. They make molecular tolls that can repproduce and complete millions of complex reactions ever minute. We call them cells.
The reason we are having so much trouble making " the nano-machines of star trek" besides the obvious requirements of know how, is that simply put inorganic materials are not very easy to workwith at that scale. You can produce some every interesting properties to be true. But i do feel that autonamouse robots and nano factories will not be practical. However, mother nature has been doing this with protein for quite some time. I seriously dbout that we will ever have these cancer destroyer nano bots, but a cancer targeted artificial protein may not be too far off.
As to nano-factories these will be bacterial in nature id expect. We have them now. Many people don't realize that diabetics take human insulin derives from such bio-factories today. This E. coli made insulin is in all respect human insulin in any amount desired with no disease contamination and made form a simply food source. This is the nano future i see. Just replace insulin with various custom industrial enzymes to say make plastic or whatever.
*A quick dip in the gene pool really softens rough dry scales.
first 10 for Win XP:
1. ALL THE DARN UPDATES!
2. winrar
3. norton system works
4. drive image
5. reg cleaner
6. tweak ui
7. mozilla
8. all my favorite Video codecs
9. bs player
10. ms office
first 10 for linux:
1. debian stable distribution (woody)
2. grub
3. upgrade stable to unstable
4. x & kdm (preferred over gdm or xdm)
5. gnome & tools (my display manager)
6. kde & tools (her display manager)
7. samba
8. open office
9. mozilla
10. gimp
*windows is very zen, it is not about what to install but about what you will not...
Bigger is better (not physical device size). Now if they meant that the consumer found that the price for "bigger" was too high I'd buy that. i seriously dbout that if i offer you 2 "ipods" one with 10 gb and the other with 20gb for the same price you would say "gee 20 gb is just a bit too big, ill take the small one".
Give me a break, they just said that most really want to store all their tunes. So if i store 25gb that is really want i want. As time passes and high speed internet use increases they number of tunes the average person has will as well. not to mention the general gradual increase in bit rate and hence file size. i generally get more high bitrate files than i used to so this will also increase my size needs.
yup, we here at $big_company know what the customer needs, smaller, creeper low quality gear that they will hate and have to replace as often as possible.
This seems more usable than that Dibold thing. The added security of paper is very appealing. After all it was all this chad crud that started the mess. Should not the improved version be way to make an easy to scan and tabulate ballots in a way that cant be mis-cast so easily. This method is exactly what is needed, paper ballots and realtime electronic tabulation followed by a comparison check with an automatic counter. Now the real question is is this the system to do it.....
The new features...... Bush [ ] Kerry [ ] Random [ X ] Go with the flow [ ]
China probably curbed the dumping of chips as a result of WTO pressure. The consumer price index has not yet detected much inflation in the US. However the recent unusual trend of deflation has stopped so that may seem like around 1-2% inflation over the last few months. this can't account for a $15 rise on a 256M chip.
China's influence in the market can. Recently there is a big internatonal trade row over their price gouging suppored by fiddling with tariffs, tax breaks and their dollar pledged currency values. WTO says it costs jobs... We see low cost chips... China is probably taking the middle ground and dumping a bit less than normal to appear better.
I'd bet low cost chips (and other things) make jobs here for us in the west for at least the guys that sell em. At the very least it make us able to afford more stuff. So where is this problem at that the WTO is all nasty over? Or are they just trying to be "important" and prove a need for themselves again.
Supply & Demand at work for you! Act now before the politicians mess it up!
>"When you mix oxygen and nitrogen at high temperatures, you get NO - the infamous NOX measured by the EPA."
yes high temps and N2 = nasty nitrogen species. However, that is true for petrol combustion as well. So we simply continue the use of a catalytic converters in combination with combustion temperature control (egr vales & the like). This is the basis of our current nitrogen oxide emissions cotroll now.
This can nearly eliminate nasty nitrogen species that hydrogen combustion forms. in addition these parts will last longer and and work better for the elimination of most soot in the exhaust. that should even allow for a higher degree of coversion of the nasty nitrogen oxides back to N2.
Nice catch on that one though, I should have mentioned it....
Seems to me even an adaptive parking meter able to be reprogramed needs little more advanced technology than the average cheap digital assistant combo calculator (probably should cost as much but lets not go there). I'd figure that that all solid state design would be easily solare powered as it needs much less than the 64M of ram alone in that 200 MHz system.
"look two shinly dimes, ill trade you for that dull $20 bill"
Hydrogen is probably the perfect storage device for energy derived from small scale and less than optimal renewable sources. The biggest problem with home generation of energy from wind, solare or whatever renewable energy you pick is often the problem of regulating the output to achieve a constant usable powere supply. Many of these renewable energies are difficult to use and made much more expensive by this single requirement. That is why they only build wind and solar farms in certain places whit a constant source of wind or sun. Imaging trying to powere you computer with solar power that cut off at knight and in the day and browend in and out all the time and would often spike 20% higher under high illumination thanthe average. You can use expensive line conditioning to fix the momentary ups and downs but when it goes you you will need a powere storage device like battries. Unfortunately conventional lead acid battries are only 5-15% efficient at charging up and have a limited life not to mention the extra cost. The use of hydrogen can offer an alternative to this.
about hydrogen:
1 - Easy to make trough electrolysis (electricity + water = hydrogen and if desired oxygen)
2 - Electrolysis unlike electronics is fairly insensitive to power fluctuations and does not have to work a 100% duty cycle provided the amount of stored gas is sufficient, so carfull powere regulation is unneeded.
3 - Excess hydrogen could be sold (if there was a demand).
4 - Electrolysis is at least as efficient as battery powere storage
5 - You can easily make a car run on it (imaging DIY home filling)
6 - There are fuel cells that make a 85% efficient conversion to electricity from this fuel (very expensive but NASA has them and mass production could bring that cost down). The use of hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen / oxygen fuel could be one of the world most efficient energy solution but may be not the cheapest.
7 - There are numerous safety innovations that can help reduce fire risk (hydrogen can easily be as safe if not safer than natural gas / propane).
8 - You can easily make a cars that will run on it (imaging DIY home filling) not to mention that care need not be a new one. You can have a conventional 350 big block with all the power you would expect run on hydrogen. The conversion is expensive now, but masproduction would lower that to the cost of a engine rebuild that you may need already. You will not need to fear a explosion in a wreck as there are fuel cells that even if punctured and on fire can not explode as they only release the gas fast enough to burn.
9 - It is a 0 emission fuel that may be used in any place that natural gas could be used.
10 - Hydrogen fuel use can really lower smog. I have seen allot of emphasis on electric cars, however these are not really 0 emission. Fossil fuel was burned someplace to make the electricity (40% efficient process) that charged your batteries (15% efficient). this This means that using an electric car is about 6% efficient. I would bet that '86 Suburban has better energy milage than an electric car. You folks in cites and Ca need to think about that.
*imagine enviromental value "ahem" of a 0 emissions vehicle that would do 0-60 in 8 sec flat.
Looks like as noted above that this is a softwear & XP trick, and not actually directly related their pc in particular. They specify that it needs their proprietary softwear, a 2 head VGA card and a mouse and keyboard splitter. Id bet they rout the input of 1 set of devices to each user and controll XP login with it.
Sort of neat but to me it seems like a bit of a curiosity rather than a true tool. I'd place it on par with neato bundled remotes and LCD panels on some boxes. That sort of candy can be darn usefull for a few but is not on the "needs" list form most users. Maybe this product would do better as an optional upgrade package for use with any PC.
I's jsut another tax. They would tax sex and air if they could. What do you do when you get over bugget? Probably stop eating at McD's or cut some other expense. I should think florda should do the same.
Fingers of fire and the service in speed dial and you will still probably have to enter your phone card # to use it at work... jsut to identify the song after the one you were trying for.
May be this will be a new "bundel" feature in that $66.95 phone plan that they push on you 2 times a day via a cold call.....
*hope AT&A gets around to sending me that recipt of me geting placed on their do not call list...
People will file pattents regardless, if you place a greater burden on the reviewer to identify "good" ones it will only increase the scale of the task. These people should not have to decide if a patent was good at all. Instead make it easer by lowering the review process requirements.
..... or single click ordering ....is too general. That leads to the legal mess we have with copy rights.
Probably the solution is not in caps, but in narrowing the scope of patents and requiring a prototype. Then all the examiner needs to do is review if it A.) works and B.) is new / different enough for legal protection. Then grant the pattent in that form only. This will make through put fast and efficient by perminting approval of those clames that are demonstrated in the prototypes. The manufacture would prove if it was usefull and actually did a decent job of what ever it was supposed to do to the customer. If they lie or cheat to make the prototypes work then they get exactly that a pattent on a fake due to the narrow scope.
This would eliminate most frivolous clames. The narrow scope would in some cases allow people to revise and significantly build upon a thing and pattent the revision as well. However that is ok, as making the scope to wide is much worse. Patents like anyting to do with magnetic fields
my silly example:
so I submit a pattent for a new sort of hub for protocol X. i include a scimatic and prototype electronics of that device. i also provide the test hardware. Patent guy plugs it in and it works as described...... Then he searches to see if any one else built a hub for protocol X, and then if so was it nearly exactly like mine. If no i get my pattent on that package. If you build version with different hardware than you can patent yours too.
*if you build a thing you have something to sell, if you only have an idea you have exactly what you started with, nothing.
Oh, I like the idea about a foot pedal, or even just a keyboard solution. That gives me an idea as a next step.
....
The ability to pan left and right or up and down on the "inside" of a virtual sphere with the user point of view in the center looking out would provide allot of extra desktop space and perhaps a decent way to access it. Sort of like a better pager interface, with a touch of 3D. Then add a few "landmarks" and some way to quickly get to them via a more standard pager so as not to eliminate that form of use. I'd bet for minimal processor use it would make a slightly more usable sphere(with less panning and distortion).
As options, let the user decide the size of the sphere (and hence the aria of the extended desk top) the default resolution and allow a mouse wheel to determing the extent of zoom. The wallpaper would be left the same or only minimally changed to suite the nearly flat 3D surface, and this should also eliminate the "need" for a true 3D input device as a requirement to operate. At the min it wold be just one way of adding to your already too small desktops instead of boring standard pagers and / or more monitors.
well maybe
*That wheel thing is so old news man. It like can't still work, lets reinvent it...
I wonder what could be done with them when they do fail?
... Russions pickup worlds most expensive a door stop...
my top picks in no particular order:
1.) Auction them off on Ebay (like that channel drill) and make the buyer pick em up. that may help finace the manned mars mission goal
2.) Call AAA for a tow, membership has its rewards.
3.) File insurance clames on the loss. Perhaps NASA could cite water damage.
4.) But probably the best use, 3 words, "interstellar p0rn server". Lets "spread" our culture among the stars. That of course would require NASA still be able to upload a "firm ware" upgrade.
*brain is: [ ] in, [ X ] out to lunch, [ ] gone home for the day
U know this whole Microsoft problem is a bit of a hard topic. Microsoft business practices are clearly evil. They can do nearly anything they want and it and get away with it as few have enough power or money to even phase em.
On the other had it is important to remember we can have "a law for everything" laws simply reduce freedom and will make a never ending sea of red tape for the next guy that may want to enter that market. Even "protection" laws designed to level the playing field or save lives historically have often only had short term benefits coupled to long term economic and "safety" losses.
Of course the more laws you add has its own costs as well, sorting through all that legalese requires and ever larger load of parasitic lawyers to clear the path along the way to prosparity. Even with such sound legal advice today one (a business) must expect to incur numerous silly lawsuits what ever course they take. As even the lawyers cant figure out what is really legal form time to time ("...rigidly defined arias of dbout and uncertainty").
The choice litigate the evil empire (M$) and break it up like bell at the expense of freedom. Or on the other hand, let em slide and continue to muscle out good competeiton and suffer a loss of an unknown goods and services in the form of products we will never see.
*it's a no brainer choice, A,) damed if you do, B.) damed if you dont.....
Yup, open source has a few rough edges. Of course this may be due in part to the fact that many that use it are tolerant of a bit of DIY action. This is as noted simply due to the fact that tech savvy wrote it for the tech savvy. But in the last few years linux and its packages have improved by leaps and bounds. In time it will be more accessable to the less tech savvy. This growth is clearly happening and will continue as the open source movement matures and gets better at filling a market niche.
All the problems he has noted really are the hallmarks of a "Immature" package but as time goes by the worthy packages get better and "grow up". Take KDE or GNOME in point. A few years ago it was VERY clunky (still better than win 95 tho). In just a few short years with NO PAY these guys made something quite usefull, nay may be even intuitive. It has problems and as time goes I am sure they will be addressed. It is all in the process of maturation that the project shed the bugs and effects of bad project design to become a intuitive finished project. This is true for all softwear and maturation is not free nor instant, it takes allot of effort to do this.
When a software company devotes massive $$ to make a intuitive ap that nobody needs/wants then they go bankrupt and stop. In opensource it is different. Someone has an idea. A basic implementation is made. If it is good and the demand is high it will be polished by the many that flock to use and develop it. Then it will mature and become a product that is less cumbersome, those packages that are less need/popular stay basic implementations, "infants".
*I wonder what linux wants to be when it grows up?
I stated "obscurity" however "unimportance" may have more accurately described my meaning at that moment. Linux is certainly not using obscurity used in form of closed source. in this case "obscurity" is mostly toward the lack of market share and savvy users.
.....Of course there is unlimited room for reality to invalidate my opinions and / or inane babble at any moment, only time will tell.
If a hypothetical Os had only 1% of the market compared to 2 or 3 other competitors then it may be an "obscure" system. This state can impart security to this system since few use it few are in a real position to exploit it weather or not the source was open and or inherently secure. Once that 1% is gets bigger, say 25% or more market share enough persons will be using it to make it a viable target for spamers, cheats and the mischievous. Few will learn a new Os just to phreak on some lame duck that will not go far, in stead they will concentrate on more valuable / common fare.
yup.
A few more notes:
Of course there is the inevitable factor of loosing ones security by obscurity. Once any Os (usable or otherwise) gains wide acceptance there will be by definition allot of people with a understanding sufficient to do harm and possibly break its security.
From the other side, As the number of users rise so do the number of less skilled users. They are the ones most at risk as they may not actually know or follow common sense security guidelines. The end result is a OS threatend by security risks, virus and/or hackers.
This loss in security can be partly offset by using good solid code and protocols. But the inevitable result of mass acceptance is that over all security is reduced and that more "bad stuff" happens. The number of "Bad things," such as a major Trojan, that happens may be very infrequent per user. However, if you double the number of users expect the incidence of bad things to at lease double as well.
*common signature removed due to excess monotony
For added driving pleasure simple light timing disruption is not the only trick you can employ, try vengeance tempered with compassion. A municipality could simply network a few of these together on a main road. So that when one detects a speeder it innitaly dose nothing but. The next few are "primed" to deal out swift punishment. This may "forgive" a mistake or other traffic feature like passing but then punish if the problem is consistant. This may also be modified to add safety bay allowing the light to measure speed and calculate if changing now still provided a speeder with a safe stopping distance, or if it would be better handled by the next light in the series. Of course the next illogical step could add a new type of punishment perhaps even vengeance to the lights. If a basic identification sensors capabel of identifying a particular speeder was to be included. This could allow for "black listing" by a network so as to really punish the exceptional offender. "so he's in a hurry eh, let him hit all the red lights." Of course all that could sort of make you paranoid, "i know it wants to change, i can feel it......"