I'm defining "members" as people that actually have influence and leadership in the society. The "normal folks" aren't members, they're subjects. They are always subject to violent repercussions, oppression, and general abuse. The courts for the commoners are always much more vicious than they are for the lords.
There used to be a common misperception that the age of expansion of the American West was lawless with murdering, theft, and rape a daily occurance. People were actually quite civilized, often more so than today. You were very likely to be shot dead for acting like an a*hole, especially to a lady. A vigilante hanging of people that wouldn't conform to the norms of society was often performed during a Sunday picnic, so the children would have an up close and personal experience of what would happen if they made poor choices in life.
In my past life, I quite often found that when my drug-dealing friends said that they would do something, it happened. Even if they got shot to make it happen. I got screwed over so many times by the preacher's kids, and other scumbags like them, it wasn't funny. It almost got to where a suit and tie meant someone was out to rob me/lie to me/screw me over. "Real" people backed up their word with their life.
I think the biggest lesson I've learned in life is that when people are held accountable for their actions with the valid threat and rapid application of violence, they act the most "civilized". It's almost like dealing with small children, sometimes the closest way to get a lesson to their brain is through their butt. It seems like every "civilization" that removes or reduces the threat of violent consequence to members for their actions, doesn't last long. They go down in flames of revolution, political corruption, and general anarchy. They look much like we do today.
I'm going to guess you weren't around in the 80's when the Amiga was huge? I was. It was the system that made many of the SF/fantasy/cartoon tv shows possible to produce on a weekly basis. It got bought by the thousands for modelling and raytracing, and with the Video Toaster ushered in a whole new era of graphics capabilities that FORCED everyone else in the market to compete. It was the fastest horse in the race, and suddenly everyone else making bank on "traditional" text-based DOS number crunchers, or exotic SGI graphics workstations, was in danger of losing their business (and homes) because of some upstart that came out of nowhere.
Don't assume that marketing and management failures were caused by technical weakness. Most people bought the system IN SPITE of it being made by Commodore.
Sadly, I don't believe that AmigaOS has anything to offer, anymore. The multitasking, graphics, and audio, were so far ahead that they smoked everything else out there, at the time. When a technology is so good it embarrasses everyone else, then it won't be long before everyone else has it, or something comparable. No one likes to be embarrassed.
AmigaOS did prepare me for UNIX, though. It was so very much like single-user mode, you can't help but think that it was modeled after it. That may be why I fell in love with UNIX/Linux. Linux isn't as sleek, or graceful, or fast, as AmigaOS, but with a lightweight window manager it's close.
I wonder how many AmigaOS fans migrated to Linux? Besides me, that is.
I understand your resentment/disgust about the cost of his "not real machine tool", but for comparison have you priced any commercially made plastic desktop prototyping machines? The cost of the makerbot, and supplies for a year, aren't even close to the cost of just the supplies for a commercial unit. You whine and bitch, but apparently have no idea of what he's done. He's brought desktop prototyping to people and organizations that otherwise wouldn't have a chance in hell of ever getting access to one.
I work in R&D, and we're always trying to come up with ways to build stuff faster/better/cheaper. One of our constraints is the accountants said we couldn't even have our own CNC machine until after the next fiscal year ($15,000 to start). So yes, I know EXACTLY what kind of REAL machine tools you can get for $2600. You can't get shit. I can easily spend that much just on tooling/fixtures without ever getting the actual CNC machine. Hell, the design software (Unigraphics NX) cost almost $20,000 A SEAT when I was learning it!
I know you're just a f'ing Anon Coward troll, but you show your total ignorance of the subject when you make a dumb ass post like that.
Some of us don't have the luxury of using only what we want. I get paid for helping my clients with their problems (normally Windows), not playing on my own system. sometimes I have to fire up Windows 7, or XP, or Server 2008 R2, or Fedora 14, while I enjoy working with Ubuntu or testing an "enthusiast" OS. Some on-line services STILL only work with Windows.
An OS is just a platform for apps. By itself, it doesn't do a whole lot. The apps are what's important. If I HAVE to run MS Office, then I have to run Windows. If I have to work on Oracle in Linux, then I need Red Hat.
I'm planning on putting either a bare-metal hypervisor, or thin Linux server, on my next laptop just so I can "Hot Multi-OS switch" according to my needs of the moment.
Very true about others "exploiting" Linux, except for a major difference: They all play by the Open Source License rules. You make a change to FOSS code, AND RE-RELEASE THE PROGRAM, you must provide the source code when requested. That requirement totally negates MS's number one, and historically proven, business strategy: embrace, extend, extinguish. If they embrace and extend, they have to let it out into the wild. They can't extinguish it. That's why they have always treated FOSS like the Gods Damned Plague. Their normal method of operations is totally disarmed.
Maybe their CEO and board have remembered that the number one purpose of a company is to make money. Period. Google, Red Hat, Novell, IBM, Oracle, and Canonical, either have or are currently making money off Linux. If MS wants some of that market, they'll have to spin off a division that ONLY does FOSS. They can't afford to contaminate any of their other projects^H^H^H^Hducts with FOSS code. There have been rumors that they have used FOSS code, but since they only give out binaries, it's hard to prove.
I would love to have MS come play with Linux. As long as they follow the rules and play in good faith. (Historically, not a chance in Hell. Even their own head Open Source Evangelist quit in disgust after a year.) MS has some extreme skills in UI design, developer tool building, and marketing.
The market is fragmenting so fast its with all these "App" platforms, that there will be a great incentive for the first to create the "write once" , "run everywhere" tool chain. This will of course take a few years, but so many different platforms cannot be sustained.
I know the Dept. of Homeland Security is serious enough that they damn near reverse engineer their desktop and workstation computers during inspection to make sure that they are as secure as they can be. Some organizations take security very serious. If they don't, people die. THEIR PEOPLE.
When China hacked Google, they were looking for political dissidents, among other things. I'm pretty sure that both Google and China take data security pretty fucking seriously, too.
I remember some guys playing with a magnetron out of a microwave oven a couple of years ago managed to set some plywood on fire at a moderate distance (reports of almost 100 feet/30 meters). If it was true or not, I don't know, but it would explain a lack of any chemical residue or accelerants. It would be a perfect arsonist's tool, and would make forensic analysis a bitch. Directed energy really wouldn't leave a lot of trace behind, would it?
Wow. An electromagnetic shield to get "something" by TSA scanners? I'm pretty sure I could just hire a baggage handler to put "something" on board, without ever seeing a scanner. If money doesn't work, threatening his loved ones would.
Yeah, that was evil, and I went there. Other people would, too.
Talked to anyone actually doing research on fuel cells? I have. To keep the temperatures down in a "safe" range, the power output isn't much. Kick the power output to a usable level, like to run a drive motor, and now you're carting around a bomb. It's a barely controlled reaction (reaction = explosion).
Internal combustion motors aren't that efficient, micro-turbine generators are loud but better, and both are comparatively safe/inexpensive.
That is utilizing conventional hydrocarbon liquid fuel in a much more efficient way than the traditional internal combustion engine. The energy/lb/ft^3 is magnitudes higher for gasoline/diesel than the most advanced battery system even in the R&D labs. Coupling a microturbine generator to a small battery/super-capacitor combo to drive an electric motor (high torque at low speeds) is perfect for driving. A normal gasoline engine only makes high torque at high speed - really only good for race cars.
I'm hearing lots of news releases for hydrogen, but I'm not seeing any real leaps of engineering. Hydrogen requires either bulky, heavy, expensive, storage tanks, or it's chemically bound, requiring processing to release (slow). H2 fuel cells are barely controlled bombs, so those won't be allowed to run around loose in these terror stricken times. The only current way to generate the industrial quantities of hydrogen needed to run a fleet is to "crack" natural gas. Not too green.
Hydrogen also tends to seep right through metal, causing embrittlement (it is the smallest molecule out there), so you can't store it long before it's gone. It has a HUGE range of combustion ratio with air, so a little leak or a huge leak will still go BOOM! A car fire is deadly hot now, but a H2 vehicle will explode and kill everyone around it. Good times.
I used to be a real proponent of hydrogen, it really appealed with the simple "we can make it with solar hydrolysis" line. It's locked up in water, which is all around us. But I finally got hold of a book which actually pointed out the engineering difficulties, and dangers of it. These are real problems that aren't going away, and aren't being addressed. If someone comes up with a magic method of generation and safe storage, I'll be first in line. Until then, it's still the empty 50-year-old promise the marketing shills of the car and energy companies have been making. It's the old whore on the corner they trot out every couple of years in new makeup.
If you want to look at a potential fuel that's all around us, but can be used without the billion dollar infrastructure of the energy companies, look at carbon monoxide. It's a proven technology (since WWII!) and can be created from any bio-waste feedstock: chunked wood, grass clippings, sewage, dead politicians, etc... Some of the "fringe science" enthusiasts call it Bingo fuel (rapid hydrolysis using a welding arc and carbon electrodes), but the gases are still carbon monoxide, H2, and water vapor. Thermal depolymerization is also a possible way of creating liquid hydrocarbons to replace natural oil (uses optimized pressure cooking process to simulate a million years of natures "hit-or-miss" process). Don't put too much hope in Hydrogen, but don't give up, either.
I'll be in the market for a new laptop soon, and I've already decided to use a thin Linux server install with a VMware installation, and just run any desktop, Microsoft, or "other" OS as a VM. That way I'm not having to screw with dual booting. Yes, I will have a bit of constant system overhead, but I'll have some serious flexibility and system security. This is the same strategy used on servers, yes?
If you read some of the commentary that went on during the debates about the proposed separation of Church and State, it was to protect peoples' religion from the corrupting influence of politics, not to keep God out of our government.
Contrary to your belief, it's not "Christian Fundamentalists" destroying our country, it's extremists of every stripe. Including intolerant atheist/agnostic "asshats".
I don't normally talk about religion in public, but I do talk about incorrect knowledge.
My house mate and I caught a virus back in 1997 that infected executables, MBR, and lodged itself in his BIOS. He had to run McAfee 7 times before it finally cleared out. A BIOS infecter isn't new.
Flash BIOS is a convenience to manufacturers, normal end users usually couldn't give a shit. They have no idea what it is, what it does, or why they should care. If it doesn't make their system play games or run Office faster, they don't care.
Lunatic fringe? maybe. But vested interests have these people called "lobbyists", don't they? And I'm sure no one has ever bribed, or offered employment after their term, to a congressman. You MAY be trained in technology, but you show a disturbing lack of understanding of people.
If I'm in charge of a large corporation that employs several tens of thousands of people, and we're all making seriously good money, I'm going to spike the competition every chance I get. I have to protect my income, my position, and my people and their families. That's my job. Anything else, and I would be deserving of replacement for NOT doing my job.
Maybe I'm just a touch more ruthless and cynical than you are, though.
I do agree with your assessment of wind power, though. I used to live in Kansas. 70 mph winds weren't uncommon, but neither were windless days. The only way to collect energy in a consistent manner from natural weather phenomena, requires a considerably higher capital investment in a varied collection infrastructure than would be considered viable for a first world country.
A "pebble bed", or some other variant of thermal nuclear reactor would provide power while cleaning up the waste of the old generation of nuclear reactors. But with the ongoing horror of the Japanese reactor, people are behaving in a "knee-jerk" fashion, and wont stop to think about what they're doing until it's already severely impacting their daily lives.
Really? You have no idea how mean and dangerous some of the fucking assholes here in the Ozarks are. This is area code 417, biggest meth production area of the US.
"Whats the point of these technologies when you need energy to create the fuel to burn to create the energy!" Your statements can be applied to any existing energy technology. It takes energy to drill wells, dig up coal, refine uranium, etc,... That would be considered a conversion loss, or "overhead". The overhead for some technologies is higher than for others. It would also have to include the net energy use for distribution.
That would be the greatest advantage of Thermal De-polymerization, or "Bingo Fuel", over a complex and centrally controlled energy source - a distributed energy grid is incredibly hard to disrupt and totally bring down. Much like a network of networks. Hmmm! Also, since these technologies are fueled by bio-matter, where ever you find carbon-based lifeforms, including algae, cattle, humans, you'll find bio-waste, and thus, fuel. It'll be MUCH harder for the powers that be to put controls on it. Whomever controls the waste processing plant, would control the fuel refinery. This would require very little, to no, change in our fuel delivery infrastructure, but quite a large change in our fuel extraction proceedures. It would be a massive change in our thinking of petroleum as treasure that we're stealing from out of the ground.
My grandmother told me about when the reps from the electric utility came around to "convince" the farmers to connect to the grid. They would come around, saying how the monthly bill was much cheaper than each farmer maintaining his own wind or water generator, then in a couple of days their generator would "spontaneously" explode in the middle of the night. They would come back in a couple of days to see if the farmer had changed his mind. This was what it took to make a lot of people dependent on a central energy grid. Many people are starting to think that a decentralized grid may be the best form of security against natural and man-made disasters.
Close, but you're thinking like someone untrained in technology. You did get the "Put it under high pressure" part right, though. You put it in a pressure cooker, and after initial startup, the generated methane and other hydrocarbons will power the process. The current iteration of this technology is called "Thermal De-polymerization", and can convert raw bio-waste into number 2 diesel fuel in about 24 hours. There was a pilot plant set up outside Jefferson City, Missouri, to process waste from a turkey processing plant. It was shut down due to "the smell that came from it". Have you ever been around a poultry processing plant? I would have shut the poultry plant down first, if that was a legit reason.
Another technology, called "producer gas" during WWII, will take just about any bio-waste, and by controlled combustion, create carbon monoxide, a fuel that burns at over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. The modern version of this is currently being explored by "fringe science enthusiasts" as "Bingo fuel". They use a carbon arc for rapid breakdown of water and bio-matter into hydrocarbon fuel. Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen. That was the "secret" of the urban legend of the Water Engine. Put in water, and the destruction of the carbon electrodes by the arc created gaseous fuel.
These technologies exist, in economically viable forms, right now. Unfortunately, vested interests (energy and petroleum) could afford to "influence" politicians to shut down this dangerous competition with pocket change from their couch cushions. If Germany gets hold of this, and develops it into "plug and play bio-reactor refineries" to use instead of waste treatment plants, or land-fills, they'll become major energy technology players.
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I don't know, that Commando phone running Android looks tough enough to beat the crap out of any pansy iPhone or Black-N-Blue berry.
I'm defining "members" as people that actually have influence and leadership in the society. The "normal folks" aren't members, they're subjects. They are always subject to violent repercussions, oppression, and general abuse. The courts for the commoners are always much more vicious than they are for the lords.
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
There used to be a common misperception that the age of expansion of the American West was lawless with murdering, theft, and rape a daily occurance. People were actually quite civilized, often more so than today. You were very likely to be shot dead for acting like an a*hole, especially to a lady. A vigilante hanging of people that wouldn't conform to the norms of society was often performed during a Sunday picnic, so the children would have an up close and personal experience of what would happen if they made poor choices in life.
In my past life, I quite often found that when my drug-dealing friends said that they would do something, it happened. Even if they got shot to make it happen. I got screwed over so many times by the preacher's kids, and other scumbags like them, it wasn't funny. It almost got to where a suit and tie meant someone was out to rob me/lie to me/screw me over. "Real" people backed up their word with their life.
I think the biggest lesson I've learned in life is that when people are held accountable for their actions with the valid threat and rapid application of violence, they act the most "civilized". It's almost like dealing with small children, sometimes the closest way to get a lesson to their brain is through their butt. It seems like every "civilization" that removes or reduces the threat of violent consequence to members for their actions, doesn't last long. They go down in flames of revolution, political corruption, and general anarchy. They look much like we do today.
You can always hate on Microsoft. It's a Slashdot right, don't you know?
I'm going to guess you weren't around in the 80's when the Amiga was huge? I was. It was the system that made many of the SF/fantasy/cartoon tv shows possible to produce on a weekly basis. It got bought by the thousands for modelling and raytracing, and with the Video Toaster ushered in a whole new era of graphics capabilities that FORCED everyone else in the market to compete. It was the fastest horse in the race, and suddenly everyone else making bank on "traditional" text-based DOS number crunchers, or exotic SGI graphics workstations, was in danger of losing their business (and homes) because of some upstart that came out of nowhere.
Don't assume that marketing and management failures were caused by technical weakness. Most people bought the system IN SPITE of it being made by Commodore.
Sadly, I don't believe that AmigaOS has anything to offer, anymore. The multitasking, graphics, and audio, were so far ahead that they smoked everything else out there, at the time. When a technology is so good it embarrasses everyone else, then it won't be long before everyone else has it, or something comparable. No one likes to be embarrassed.
AmigaOS did prepare me for UNIX, though. It was so very much like single-user mode, you can't help but think that it was modeled after it. That may be why I fell in love with UNIX/Linux. Linux isn't as sleek, or graceful, or fast, as AmigaOS, but with a lightweight window manager it's close.
I wonder how many AmigaOS fans migrated to Linux? Besides me, that is.
I understand your resentment/disgust about the cost of his "not real machine tool", but for comparison have you priced any commercially made plastic desktop prototyping machines? The cost of the makerbot, and supplies for a year, aren't even close to the cost of just the supplies for a commercial unit. You whine and bitch, but apparently have no idea of what he's done. He's brought desktop prototyping to people and organizations that otherwise wouldn't have a chance in hell of ever getting access to one.
I work in R&D, and we're always trying to come up with ways to build stuff faster/better/cheaper. One of our constraints is the accountants said we couldn't even have our own CNC machine until after the next fiscal year ($15,000 to start). So yes, I know EXACTLY what kind of REAL machine tools you can get for $2600. You can't get shit. I can easily spend that much just on tooling/fixtures without ever getting the actual CNC machine. Hell, the design software (Unigraphics NX) cost almost $20,000 A SEAT when I was learning it!
I know you're just a f'ing Anon Coward troll, but you show your total ignorance of the subject when you make a dumb ass post like that.
Some of us don't have the luxury of using only what we want. I get paid for helping my clients with their problems (normally Windows), not playing on my own system. sometimes I have to fire up Windows 7, or XP, or Server 2008 R2, or Fedora 14, while I enjoy working with Ubuntu or testing an "enthusiast" OS. Some on-line services STILL only work with Windows.
An OS is just a platform for apps. By itself, it doesn't do a whole lot. The apps are what's important. If I HAVE to run MS Office, then I have to run Windows. If I have to work on Oracle in Linux, then I need Red Hat.
I'm planning on putting either a bare-metal hypervisor, or thin Linux server, on my next laptop just so I can "Hot Multi-OS switch" according to my needs of the moment.
Very true about others "exploiting" Linux, except for a major difference: They all play by the Open Source License rules. You make a change to FOSS code, AND RE-RELEASE THE PROGRAM, you must provide the source code when requested. That requirement totally negates MS's number one, and historically proven, business strategy: embrace, extend, extinguish. If they embrace and extend, they have to let it out into the wild. They can't extinguish it. That's why they have always treated FOSS like the Gods Damned Plague. Their normal method of operations is totally disarmed.
Maybe their CEO and board have remembered that the number one purpose of a company is to make money. Period. Google, Red Hat, Novell, IBM, Oracle, and Canonical, either have or are currently making money off Linux. If MS wants some of that market, they'll have to spin off a division that ONLY does FOSS. They can't afford to contaminate any of their other projects^H^H^H^Hducts with FOSS code. There have been rumors that they have used FOSS code, but since they only give out binaries, it's hard to prove.
I would love to have MS come play with Linux. As long as they follow the rules and play in good faith. (Historically, not a chance in Hell. Even their own head Open Source Evangelist quit in disgust after a year.) MS has some extreme skills in UI design, developer tool building, and marketing.
The market is fragmenting so fast its with all these "App" platforms, that there will be a great incentive for the first to create the "write once" , "run everywhere" tool chain. This will of course take a few years, but so many different platforms cannot be sustained.
You mean something like Java, or Python?
I know the Dept. of Homeland Security is serious enough that they damn near reverse engineer their desktop and workstation computers during inspection to make sure that they are as secure as they can be. Some organizations take security very serious. If they don't, people die. THEIR PEOPLE.
When China hacked Google, they were looking for political dissidents, among other things. I'm pretty sure that both Google and China take data security pretty fucking seriously, too.
I remember some guys playing with a magnetron out of a microwave oven a couple of years ago managed to set some plywood on fire at a moderate distance (reports of almost 100 feet/30 meters). If it was true or not, I don't know, but it would explain a lack of any chemical residue or accelerants. It would be a perfect arsonist's tool, and would make forensic analysis a bitch. Directed energy really wouldn't leave a lot of trace behind, would it?
Wow. An electromagnetic shield to get "something" by TSA scanners? I'm pretty sure I could just hire a baggage handler to put "something" on board, without ever seeing a scanner. If money doesn't work, threatening his loved ones would.
Yeah, that was evil, and I went there. Other people would, too.
Talked to anyone actually doing research on fuel cells? I have. To keep the temperatures down in a "safe" range, the power output isn't much. Kick the power output to a usable level, like to run a drive motor, and now you're carting around a bomb. It's a barely controlled reaction (reaction = explosion).
Internal combustion motors aren't that efficient, micro-turbine generators are loud but better, and both are comparatively safe/inexpensive.
It's actually Wichita, Kansas. Here's the link:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/motorhead-messiah.html
That is utilizing conventional hydrocarbon liquid fuel in a much more efficient way than the traditional internal combustion engine. The energy/lb/ft^3 is magnitudes higher for gasoline/diesel than the most advanced battery system even in the R&D labs. Coupling a microturbine generator to a small battery/super-capacitor combo to drive an electric motor (high torque at low speeds) is perfect for driving. A normal gasoline engine only makes high torque at high speed - really only good for race cars.
I'm hearing lots of news releases for hydrogen, but I'm not seeing any real leaps of engineering. Hydrogen requires either bulky, heavy, expensive, storage tanks, or it's chemically bound, requiring processing to release (slow). H2 fuel cells are barely controlled bombs, so those won't be allowed to run around loose in these terror stricken times. The only current way to generate the industrial quantities of hydrogen needed to run a fleet is to "crack" natural gas. Not too green.
Hydrogen also tends to seep right through metal, causing embrittlement (it is the smallest molecule out there), so you can't store it long before it's gone. It has a HUGE range of combustion ratio with air, so a little leak or a huge leak will still go BOOM! A car fire is deadly hot now, but a H2 vehicle will explode and kill everyone around it. Good times.
I used to be a real proponent of hydrogen, it really appealed with the simple "we can make it with solar hydrolysis" line. It's locked up in water, which is all around us. But I finally got hold of a book which actually pointed out the engineering difficulties, and dangers of it. These are real problems that aren't going away, and aren't being addressed. If someone comes up with a magic method of generation and safe storage, I'll be first in line. Until then, it's still the empty 50-year-old promise the marketing shills of the car and energy companies have been making. It's the old whore on the corner they trot out every couple of years in new makeup.
If you want to look at a potential fuel that's all around us, but can be used without the billion dollar infrastructure of the energy companies, look at carbon monoxide. It's a proven technology (since WWII!) and can be created from any bio-waste feedstock: chunked wood, grass clippings, sewage, dead politicians, etc... Some of the "fringe science" enthusiasts call it Bingo fuel (rapid hydrolysis using a welding arc and carbon electrodes), but the gases are still carbon monoxide, H2, and water vapor. Thermal depolymerization is also a possible way of creating liquid hydrocarbons to replace natural oil (uses optimized pressure cooking process to simulate a million years of natures "hit-or-miss" process). Don't put too much hope in Hydrogen, but don't give up, either.
I'll be in the market for a new laptop soon, and I've already decided to use a thin Linux server install with a VMware installation, and just run any desktop, Microsoft, or "other" OS as a VM. That way I'm not having to screw with dual booting. Yes, I will have a bit of constant system overhead, but I'll have some serious flexibility and system security. This is the same strategy used on servers, yes?
Sorry, but you have that backwards...
If you read some of the commentary that went on during the debates about the proposed separation of Church and State, it was to protect peoples' religion from the corrupting influence of politics, not to keep God out of our government.
Contrary to your belief, it's not "Christian Fundamentalists" destroying our country, it's extremists of every stripe. Including intolerant atheist/agnostic "asshats".
I don't normally talk about religion in public, but I do talk about incorrect knowledge.
You sound like someone afraid of being replaced by a small shell script.
My house mate and I caught a virus back in 1997 that infected executables, MBR, and lodged itself in his BIOS. He had to run McAfee 7 times before it finally cleared out. A BIOS infecter isn't new.
Flash BIOS is a convenience to manufacturers, normal end users usually couldn't give a shit. They have no idea what it is, what it does, or why they should care. If it doesn't make their system play games or run Office faster, they don't care.
Lunatic fringe? maybe. But vested interests have these people called "lobbyists", don't they? And I'm sure no one has ever bribed, or offered employment after their term, to a congressman. You MAY be trained in technology, but you show a disturbing lack of understanding of people.
If I'm in charge of a large corporation that employs several tens of thousands of people, and we're all making seriously good money, I'm going to spike the competition every chance I get. I have to protect my income, my position, and my people and their families. That's my job. Anything else, and I would be deserving of replacement for NOT doing my job.
Maybe I'm just a touch more ruthless and cynical than you are, though.
I do agree with your assessment of wind power, though. I used to live in Kansas. 70 mph winds weren't uncommon, but neither were windless days. The only way to collect energy in a consistent manner from natural weather phenomena, requires a considerably higher capital investment in a varied collection infrastructure than would be considered viable for a first world country.
A "pebble bed", or some other variant of thermal nuclear reactor would provide power while cleaning up the waste of the old generation of nuclear reactors. But with the ongoing horror of the Japanese reactor, people are behaving in a "knee-jerk" fashion, and wont stop to think about what they're doing until it's already severely impacting their daily lives.
Really? You have no idea how mean and dangerous some of the fucking assholes here in the Ozarks are. This is area code 417, biggest meth production area of the US.
"Whats the point of these technologies when you need energy to create the fuel to burn to create the energy!" Your statements can be applied to any existing energy technology. It takes energy to drill wells, dig up coal, refine uranium, etc,... That would be considered a conversion loss, or "overhead". The overhead for some technologies is higher than for others. It would also have to include the net energy use for distribution.
That would be the greatest advantage of Thermal De-polymerization, or "Bingo Fuel", over a complex and centrally controlled energy source - a distributed energy grid is incredibly hard to disrupt and totally bring down. Much like a network of networks. Hmmm! Also, since these technologies are fueled by bio-matter, where ever you find carbon-based lifeforms, including algae, cattle, humans, you'll find bio-waste, and thus, fuel. It'll be MUCH harder for the powers that be to put controls on it. Whomever controls the waste processing plant, would control the fuel refinery. This would require very little, to no, change in our fuel delivery infrastructure, but quite a large change in our fuel extraction proceedures. It would be a massive change in our thinking of petroleum as treasure that we're stealing from out of the ground.
My grandmother told me about when the reps from the electric utility came around to "convince" the farmers to connect to the grid. They would come around, saying how the monthly bill was much cheaper than each farmer maintaining his own wind or water generator, then in a couple of days their generator would "spontaneously" explode in the middle of the night. They would come back in a couple of days to see if the farmer had changed his mind. This was what it took to make a lot of people dependent on a central energy grid. Many people are starting to think that a decentralized grid may be the best form of security against natural and man-made disasters.
Close, but you're thinking like someone untrained in technology. You did get the "Put it under high pressure" part right, though. You put it in a pressure cooker, and after initial startup, the generated methane and other hydrocarbons will power the process. The current iteration of this technology is called "Thermal De-polymerization", and can convert raw bio-waste into number 2 diesel fuel in about 24 hours. There was a pilot plant set up outside Jefferson City, Missouri, to process waste from a turkey processing plant. It was shut down due to "the smell that came from it". Have you ever been around a poultry processing plant? I would have shut the poultry plant down first, if that was a legit reason.
Another technology, called "producer gas" during WWII, will take just about any bio-waste, and by controlled combustion, create carbon monoxide, a fuel that burns at over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. The modern version of this is currently being explored by "fringe science enthusiasts" as "Bingo fuel". They use a carbon arc for rapid breakdown of water and bio-matter into hydrocarbon fuel. Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen. That was the "secret" of the urban legend of the Water Engine. Put in water, and the destruction of the carbon electrodes by the arc created gaseous fuel.
These technologies exist, in economically viable forms, right now. Unfortunately, vested interests (energy and petroleum) could afford to "influence" politicians to shut down this dangerous competition with pocket change from their couch cushions. If Germany gets hold of this, and develops it into "plug and play bio-reactor refineries" to use instead of waste treatment plants, or land-fills, they'll become major energy technology players.
I think you mean "store _all_ THE porn".