I have 107,000 miles on my 2004 Prius and the battery is fine. If it needs a new one after 10 years, well that's great longevity! Prius is one of the most reliable cars according to Consumers Report (and my experience too), so needing to pay $3K after 10 years for the battery is not so bad from an overall cost of operation POV. And since many people don't keep their cars more than 10 years, they won't face the battery issue at all (assuming they bought their car new!).
A lot of articles talk about the "payback" of hybrid cars and often conclude that "It's not worth it". I don't buy that. I never see articles on the payback of getting leather seats or a bigger engine that improves acceleration. The fact that my Prius emits many tons less of CO2 into the atmosphere than most other cars gives me more satisfaction than do leather seats (which I also have).
While, like all cars, "your mileage may vary" compared to ideal testing conditions, hybrid cars do indeed improve gas mileage compared to similar non-hybrid cars (and you can see this clearly on cars that have both hybrid and non-hybrid versions).
He will have his cool set up that places video cameras over the playfield so you can watch the amazing action. October 1-3, Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, CA. http://www.pacificpinball.org/.
PHoF is great, but it's not the only place for pinball. The Pacific Pinball Museum (mentioned above) has 90 machines in the museum and about 800 more in storage. For the first weekend in October, they put on the Pacific Pinball Exposition at the Marin Civic Center with over 350 pinball machines set on Free Play (the PHoF machines are all coined). THAT is pinball heaven!
If you want really "old school", check out the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, CA (near Oakland) - http://pacificpinball.org/. They have pinball machines from the 1930's to 2000's, with a big collection of "woodrail" and "wedgehead" games. No video games. Only pinball (and an odd electromechanical rifle game here and there).
The new Dell Mini running Unbuntu has Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed and can talk to other SightSpeed and Dell Video Chat clients running under Windows or Mac (and can also connect via a browser window). SightSpeed, however, hasn't released a stand-alone Linux download yet.
SightSpeed http://sightspeed.com/ has the best video quality, it's free, multi-platform, and can run it 24 hours/day. You can also set it for relatively low bandwidth (250~350 kbps) so you don't slow down other things and the quality is still very good.
The first "solid state" machines (CPU-based) were releases in 1976/1977 and are certainly still running (Bally Eight Ball anyone?), but I would argue that electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machines (using relays and "score motors", etc.) going back to the 1940's are running code, even though it is hard-wired. In fact, during the change over to solid state, manufacturers built both CPU and EM versions of some machines.
For those in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can visit the Lucky Ju Ju pinball gallery in Alameda with over 30 machines: www.ujuju.com. Also, there is the Pacific Pinball Exposition in Marin County October 3-5 with over 300 pinball machines from the 1930's to today: www.pacificpinball.org.
Happy Flipping!
A company called Solazyme was on NPR Science Friday last Friday talking about their next generation biofuel that is low net-carbon. They feed agricultural and industrial waste products or cellulosic sugars to algae to grow transportation fuels or food oils.
Net carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels used in the biofuel production process (tractors, distillers, etc.) and the land use changes mentioned in the studies here. However, since Solazyme makes fuels that can be used in the tractors, etc. that part can be net zero carbon (the fuel gives off CO2 like fossil fuels do, but that carbon is taken out of the atmosphere during the growing process). Since Solazyme's algage can eat non-food crop sugars, that also will be net-zero carbon (as long as forests aren't cleared to grow the non-food sugars).
They said they expect their fuels to be cost competitive with fossil fuels in 2 to 3 years.
As I posted last week, Will Wright will be giving a Spore preview at his Stupid Fun Club studio in Berkeley on Friday, August 10th as part of a benefit party for Bill Pullman's new play. The tickets are expensive ($250), but all proceeds go to benefit the Magic Theatre. It will be a small party so their may be an opportunity for some guests to take Spore for a spin after the preview. Besides Will and Bill, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Bill Nye the Science Guy are also expected to attend. For more info: http://www.magictheatre.org/season0708/sfcparty.sh tml
For those of you who just can't wait, Will Wright will be giving a Spore demo at his Stupid Fun Club studio in Berkeley on Friday, August 10th as part of a benefit party for Bill Pullman's new play. The tickets are expensive ($250), but all proceeds go to benefit the Magic Theatre. Besides Will and Bill, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Bill Nye the Science Guy are also expected to attend. The invitation says that Will will demo Spore at the party!
For more info:
http://www.magictheatre.org/season0708/sfcparty.sh tml
While not widely known, http://sightspeed.com/ has a free service called SightSpeed TV that let's someone with a TV tuner card in their PC stream the program to anyone in the world using SightSpeed's video calling service. SightSpeed works with Macs, but I'm not sure if the SightSpeed TV service works with Macs that have tuner cards, though a Mac can definitely recieve a SightSpeed TV stream.
SightSpeed recently came out with Verison 5.0 and that significantly improved its video quality and it is native to both Macs and PCs. I use it to talk with my brother in Denmark (I'm in California) and it works great (and it's free!).
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1979143,00.as p
From the review:
"Bottom Line:
Hands-down the best free Internet video calls offered by any Web service. You'll be amazed at the video quality and tight synchronization of audio and video when using a broadband connection and 30-frames-per-second webcam.
Pros:
Phenomenal video quality. Unlimited free video calls, video e-mails (up to 1 minute with 30-day storage), text messaging, and voice calls to other SightSpeed users. Windows and Mac support. Low-cost calls to traditional landline phones. Voice-only calling mode.
Cons:
The expected beta hiccup in the interface here and there."
With SightSpeed (www.sightspeed.com) you can SEE and talk to your family back home as long as both of you have webcams and PCs/Macs. The basic service, which includes unlimited audio calling, is free, but I know the company would offer the unlimited video calling plan, which is normally $49/year, free to military folks. SightSpeed offers very good quality video at relatively low data rates (100 kbps and up) but also works (without smooth video) with dial-up connections. The service has almost no latency itself, so it would work well over satellite. In fact, I had a conversation myself with a soldier in Iraq at an "Internet Cafe" and the connection was quite good! With SightSpeed, only one person needs a subscription (free or paid) to have an audio or video call with someone else. The non-user can go to the subscriber's "My SightSpeed" page and be almost instantly connected, but that feature only works with Windows and IE. You can also send video mails to anyone with an email address. These features make it easy to connect to friends and family without them needing to download software and register. The bottom line is a better service (voice and video) for less money than most VoIP services (but it is only for computer to computer calls).
SightSpeed (I posted elsewhere about how I use it) does not require you to open inbound ports. It transverses most home NATs/firewalls all by itself. And it gives you good video in addition to very good audio on PCs and Macs. The free version has unlimited audio and 15 minutes of video per day. For about $50 you get unlimited video too, hosted video mail, and a free webcam.
My brother lives in Denmark and I converse with him using SightSpeed's Video Phone service (www.sightspeed.com). It has great audio and the best video around (30 frames per second and virtually no delay). Works on PCs and Macs (they say a Linux version is coming soon?) The free version gives you unlimited audio calling (to another person's PC... it doesn't call out to POTS yet) and 15 minutes of video calling per day. I have a subscription ($4.95/month or $49.50/year+includes free webcam) that gives me unlimited video calls!
It is defintely a different feeling when you are talking with somebody face-to-face vs. just talking on the phone. And all of this is much cheaper than regular phone or VoIP services!
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I have 107,000 miles on my 2004 Prius and the battery is fine. If it needs a new one after 10 years, well that's great longevity! Prius is one of the most reliable cars according to Consumers Report (and my experience too), so needing to pay $3K after 10 years for the battery is not so bad from an overall cost of operation POV. And since many people don't keep their cars more than 10 years, they won't face the battery issue at all (assuming they bought their car new!).
A lot of articles talk about the "payback" of hybrid cars and often conclude that "It's not worth it". I don't buy that. I never see articles on the payback of getting leather seats or a bigger engine that improves acceleration. The fact that my Prius emits many tons less of CO2 into the atmosphere than most other cars gives me more satisfaction than do leather seats (which I also have).
While, like all cars, "your mileage may vary" compared to ideal testing conditions, hybrid cars do indeed improve gas mileage compared to similar non-hybrid cars (and you can see this clearly on cars that have both hybrid and non-hybrid versions).
He will have his cool set up that places video cameras over the playfield so you can watch the amazing action. October 1-3, Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, CA. http://www.pacificpinball.org/.
PHoF is great, but it's not the only place for pinball. The Pacific Pinball Museum (mentioned above) has 90 machines in the museum and about 800 more in storage. For the first weekend in October, they put on the Pacific Pinball Exposition at the Marin Civic Center with over 350 pinball machines set on Free Play (the PHoF machines are all coined). THAT is pinball heaven!
If you want really "old school", check out the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, CA (near Oakland) - http://pacificpinball.org/. They have pinball machines from the 1930's to 2000's, with a big collection of "woodrail" and "wedgehead" games. No video games. Only pinball (and an odd electromechanical rifle game here and there).
The new Dell Mini running Unbuntu has Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed and can talk to other SightSpeed and Dell Video Chat clients running under Windows or Mac (and can also connect via a browser window). SightSpeed, however, hasn't released a stand-alone Linux download yet.
SightSpeed http://sightspeed.com/ has the best video quality, it's free, multi-platform, and can run it 24 hours/day. You can also set it for relatively low bandwidth (250~350 kbps) so you don't slow down other things and the quality is still very good.
The first "solid state" machines (CPU-based) were releases in 1976/1977 and are certainly still running (Bally Eight Ball anyone?), but I would argue that electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machines (using relays and "score motors", etc.) going back to the 1940's are running code, even though it is hard-wired. In fact, during the change over to solid state, manufacturers built both CPU and EM versions of some machines.
For those in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can visit the Lucky Ju Ju pinball gallery in Alameda with over 30 machines: www.ujuju.com. Also, there is the Pacific Pinball Exposition in Marin County October 3-5 with over 300 pinball machines from the 1930's to today: www.pacificpinball.org. Happy Flipping!
A company called Solazyme was on NPR Science Friday last Friday talking about their next generation biofuel that is low net-carbon. They feed agricultural and industrial waste products or cellulosic sugars to algae to grow transportation fuels or food oils. Net carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels used in the biofuel production process (tractors, distillers, etc.) and the land use changes mentioned in the studies here. However, since Solazyme makes fuels that can be used in the tractors, etc. that part can be net zero carbon (the fuel gives off CO2 like fossil fuels do, but that carbon is taken out of the atmosphere during the growing process). Since Solazyme's algage can eat non-food crop sugars, that also will be net-zero carbon (as long as forests aren't cleared to grow the non-food sugars). They said they expect their fuels to be cost competitive with fossil fuels in 2 to 3 years.
As I posted last week, Will Wright will be giving a Spore preview at his Stupid Fun Club studio in Berkeley on Friday, August 10th as part of a benefit party for Bill Pullman's new play. The tickets are expensive ($250), but all proceeds go to benefit the Magic Theatre. It will be a small party so their may be an opportunity for some guests to take Spore for a spin after the preview. Besides Will and Bill, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Bill Nye the Science Guy are also expected to attend. For more info: http://www.magictheatre.org/season0708/sfcparty.sh tml
For those of you who just can't wait, Will Wright will be giving a Spore demo at his Stupid Fun Club studio in Berkeley on Friday, August 10th as part of a benefit party for Bill Pullman's new play. The tickets are expensive ($250), but all proceeds go to benefit the Magic Theatre. Besides Will and Bill, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Bill Nye the Science Guy are also expected to attend. The invitation says that Will will demo Spore at the party! For more info: http://www.magictheatre.org/season0708/sfcparty.sh tml
While not widely known, http://sightspeed.com/ has a free service called SightSpeed TV that let's someone with a TV tuner card in their PC stream the program to anyone in the world using SightSpeed's video calling service. SightSpeed works with Macs, but I'm not sure if the SightSpeed TV service works with Macs that have tuner cards, though a Mac can definitely recieve a SightSpeed TV stream.
SightSpeed recently came out with Verison 5.0 and that significantly improved its video quality and it is native to both Macs and PCs. I use it to talk with my brother in Denmark (I'm in California) and it works great (and it's free!).
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1979143,00.as p
From the review:
"Bottom Line:
Hands-down the best free Internet video calls offered by any Web service. You'll be amazed at the video quality and tight synchronization of audio and video when using a broadband connection and 30-frames-per-second webcam.
Pros:
Phenomenal video quality. Unlimited free video calls, video e-mails (up to 1 minute with 30-day storage), text messaging, and voice calls to other SightSpeed users. Windows and Mac support. Low-cost calls to traditional landline phones. Voice-only calling mode.
Cons:
The expected beta hiccup in the interface here and there."
With SightSpeed (www.sightspeed.com) you can SEE and talk to your family back home as long as both of you have webcams and PCs/Macs. The basic service, which includes unlimited audio calling, is free, but I know the company would offer the unlimited video calling plan, which is normally $49/year, free to military folks. SightSpeed offers very good quality video at relatively low data rates (100 kbps and up) but also works (without smooth video) with dial-up connections. The service has almost no latency itself, so it would work well over satellite. In fact, I had a conversation myself with a soldier in Iraq at an "Internet Cafe" and the connection was quite good! With SightSpeed, only one person needs a subscription (free or paid) to have an audio or video call with someone else. The non-user can go to the subscriber's "My SightSpeed" page and be almost instantly connected, but that feature only works with Windows and IE. You can also send video mails to anyone with an email address. These features make it easy to connect to friends and family without them needing to download software and register. The bottom line is a better service (voice and video) for less money than most VoIP services (but it is only for computer to computer calls).
SightSpeed (I posted elsewhere about how I use it) does not require you to open inbound ports. It transverses most home NATs/firewalls all by itself. And it gives you good video in addition to very good audio on PCs and Macs. The free version has unlimited audio and 15 minutes of video per day. For about $50 you get unlimited video too, hosted video mail, and a free webcam.
My brother lives in Denmark and I converse with him using SightSpeed's Video Phone service (www.sightspeed.com). It has great audio and the best video around (30 frames per second and virtually no delay). Works on PCs and Macs (they say a Linux version is coming soon?) The free version gives you unlimited audio calling (to another person's PC... it doesn't call out to POTS yet) and 15 minutes of video calling per day. I have a subscription ($4.95/month or $49.50/year+includes free webcam) that gives me unlimited video calls! It is defintely a different feeling when you are talking with somebody face-to-face vs. just talking on the phone. And all of this is much cheaper than regular phone or VoIP services!