There's more to going green than cars. Buying CF bulbs, buying organic locally grown produce, buying efficient appliances, setting your thermostat on a timer, using rain barrels to water your lawn or wash your car, buying used items or fixing broken ones, moving closer to work or changing your schedule so you don't commute as much. All of these things are "green" and don't have anything to do with what car you drive.
/.-ers and people in general are so obsessed with new technology and cars that they're often ignorant of the little things they can do to make things more green.
The same goes for the workplace. Give older computers to people with lower system requirements. Make people turn off their PCs when they're not using them and when they go home. Take one tube out of each flourescent fixture. Relax dress codes so men aren't forced to wear suits and sport coats in the summer and women can wear stuff to keep them warm in the winter, and get adjustable thermostats that turn down the HVAC automatically after business hours. Switch to LCD displays (and recycle the old CRTs).
"If you produce electricity, you're going to pollute anyway, so there's no advantage." This is a common argument regarding hydrogen or electric cars.
While it's true that you'll have to produce electricity to make hydrogen or charge an electric car, this ignores some facts about electricity production. First, it's easier to monitor and maintain a couple hundred coal plants than a couple hundred million cars. Second, electricity can be produced using any variety of means, from fossil fuels to nuclear power to solar or wind power. If we use a clean method of producing the electricity to make hydrogen, then the contention that it moves pollution elsewhere is moot.
Needless to say, this doesn't seem like it'll work. Transporting 100 pounds of Mg or Al for every car in America every week seems like a step back, akin to trucking coal around. It takes a lot of energy to mine the minerals, refine them, and ship them, not to mention hauling them around in your car. And who's going to be lifting and inserting 100 lbs of metal into their car every week?
Almost every article I see about the future is a way to keep our suburban lifestyle when it's simply not sustainable. To get out of this energy crunch we're going to be in will require a change in our lifestyle. I don't think Americans have the stomach for smaller homes, giving up their cars, and moving into the cities, but that's what needs to be done. That and increasing efficiency.
If Jobs and the other executives made millions on the stock options and the employees in the trenches only got pay increases that matched inflation (or worse), then that's also wrong. If a company does well, all workers who contributed to that success should be rewarded.
It's amazing how "a fair day's pay for a fair day's work" has become as convoluted as "the truth" and "facts."
I bought it for about $50 four years ago. I don't watch movies on it, but I record shows. The stock is dirt-cheap, but since I'm only going to watch stuff once and then tape over it, I'm not going to waste $200 on a TiVo and $15 a month for the privelege of using their interface. (I don't need shows suggested to me; I know what I want to watch.)
VCRs will be around until there is a cheap DVR out there that doesn't need monthly fees. Why? Because there will always be grad students with TV addictions.
Apple's in a similar situation with the RIAA as TiVo is with the MPAA. The *AA's don't want people using their stuff without paying for it because they're big, stupid dinosaurs. Apple and TiVo want people to be able to use their stuff with little inhibitions. Apple is big enough to keep them from being pushed around. TiVo? Not so much.
A planet is anything that orbits a star and has sufficient internal gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape. If it orbits a larger planet, it's a moon. If they're the same size, it's a binary planetary system.
Do I get my Nobel Prize now?
Re:I thought nerds were supposed to be smart!
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
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· Score: 1
It's not the designers I blame for those things. It's their clients who think that moving shiny things makes people like them.
The US Navy had three dirigible aircraft carriers, the Macon, the Akron and the Los Angeles, back in the 1930s. The Akron crashed and the Macon sustained heavy damage, so the whole program was scrapped. Link
There's no reason for us to believe that Mars doesn't have the same minerals as the earth does. And they haven't been exploited like Earth's have, so they're in easily accessible locations.
Since Mars has water, CO2 and a 24ish-hour day, everything exists to create fuel and oxygen and grow food. Mars has lower gravity than earth, so launching is significantly less energy intensive, and transfer of raw materials back to Mars just requires reaching escape velocity and falling back toward the Earth.
Everything that's needed to survive on Mars is already there, except for humans and the machinery they need to survive and thrive.
Which do you think is easier: Controlling emissions on a few dozen coal burning power plants or controlling emissions on a few hundred million automobiles?
Not to mention the fact that any source of electricity can be used to create hydrogen, and wind power is cheaper over 20 years megawatt-for-megawatt than coal. (Google it.)
The problem is that we dont' have thirty or fifty years. We need a solution to energy problems now, especially when they're talking about coal gassification to produce petrofuels.
Pie-in-the-sky technologies like this give people an excuse not to change. We need to start conserving resources and using less energy on a drastic scale. Even with gasoline at $3.50/gallon I still saw people doing 75 on the highway all alone in their huge SUVs.
First, this only encrypts your home folder. Stuff in Applications is still open. Just FYI.
Second, you're forgetting about Keychain, which stores passwords and text notes using 128 bit encryption. I use it to keep handy notes like passwords I don't use often.
Third, you can create disk images that use AES-128 encryption if you don't feel like encrypting your entire home folder (with all your pictures and music files and videos). I'm not sure of the process, but it's really easy. My wife, a psych major, puts voice recordings she makes of sessions with clients in an encrypted disk image for privacy. (Then she uses Quicktime Pro to slow them down for transcription. All of her friends in class are jealous.)
Read Robotic Nation. It's a collection of short stories about how artificial intelligence could either produce a utopia where everyone could be free from the drudgery of labor, or one where a small number of rich people prosper while hundreds of millions are left unemployed.
Technology isn't the cause of human strife or prosperity; humans and how they use it are.
Wal*Mart speeding up their lines is a move to provide more production per unit investment. It's motivated by profit, plain and simple. (Not that it's a bad thing.) Now, if they passed these benefits along to the public, either through paying their employees more or hiring more people, that would be a good thing. The greatest benefit for the most people. If they used it to eliminate workers and pay their shareholders and executives more, that would be a bad thing, since it benefits the fewest number of people.
I don't want to get into a debate about trickle-down economics. I'm just trying to make the point that this isn't a good or bad thing. What we make of it is how we'll be judged by history.
Helium is lighter than air, when it's released it simply floats up, up and away, and is concentrated at the top of the atmosphere where it gradually leaks into space and is carried off by the solar wind.
Also, it's completely inert. So no ozone problems. And it's not a greenhouse gas, so no climate problems.
But the idea that we should consume less energy is great, if only because it means less land taken up by power plants. In the August 2005 issue of Scientific American, one of the articles deals with the concept of efficiency as the key to the sustainability of industrialized nations. As an example, the author took 100 units of energy, be it from coal, oil or nuclear power. 70% of the efficiency loss took place at the power plant itself, and only a few units of work were left after all of the various entropic factors were taken into account. By consuming less energy, we start a ripple effect that goes back to the power plant, meaning they waste less energy because they don't have to produce as much.
There are many ways you can help to reduce the amount of energy you use. One of the most fun is to drink locally produced drinks instead of one shipped across the country. Find a local brewery and/or winery and make a point to buy their drinks. It'll support your local economy and reduce our reliance on foreign oil.
It's VoIP for people who don't want VoIP. It plugs in between your phone and the POTS line, with an Ethernet cord shoved in another port. When you dial a number it checks to see if that number is SIP or PSTN. If it's SIP, it sends the call over the Internet for free. If not, it goes over the traditional phone line. It works when the power's off, 911 is still the same, and you can set it to route all long distance calls over a VoIP long distance provider for 1.5/min.
There's a referral program, and the box only costs $120 with no monthly fees. The more people who have them, the less calls get routed over the PSTN and the cheaper your phone bill gets.
Slashdot Mirror
First off, is the Mac version going to be crippled, or will it be as feature-rich and mod-ready as the PC version?
Second, am I going to need one of the new double-double G5s to run it, or will my 18 month old Powerbook not choke on it?
Third, is it going to be chained to the CD like the PC version?
Fourth, STOP READING SLASHDOT AND GET BACK TO WORK!!! AND PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT!
/.-ers and people in general are so obsessed with new technology and cars that they're often ignorant of the little things they can do to make things more green.
The same goes for the workplace. Give older computers to people with lower system requirements. Make people turn off their PCs when they're not using them and when they go home. Take one tube out of each flourescent fixture. Relax dress codes so men aren't forced to wear suits and sport coats in the summer and women can wear stuff to keep them warm in the winter, and get adjustable thermostats that turn down the HVAC automatically after business hours. Switch to LCD displays (and recycle the old CRTs).
While it's true that you'll have to produce electricity to make hydrogen or charge an electric car, this ignores some facts about electricity production. First, it's easier to monitor and maintain a couple hundred coal plants than a couple hundred million cars. Second, electricity can be produced using any variety of means, from fossil fuels to nuclear power to solar or wind power. If we use a clean method of producing the electricity to make hydrogen, then the contention that it moves pollution elsewhere is moot.
Needless to say, this doesn't seem like it'll work. Transporting 100 pounds of Mg or Al for every car in America every week seems like a step back, akin to trucking coal around. It takes a lot of energy to mine the minerals, refine them, and ship them, not to mention hauling them around in your car. And who's going to be lifting and inserting 100 lbs of metal into their car every week?
Almost every article I see about the future is a way to keep our suburban lifestyle when it's simply not sustainable. To get out of this energy crunch we're going to be in will require a change in our lifestyle. I don't think Americans have the stomach for smaller homes, giving up their cars, and moving into the cities, but that's what needs to be done. That and increasing efficiency.
It's amazing how "a fair day's pay for a fair day's work" has become as convoluted as "the truth" and "facts."
VCRs will be around until there is a cheap DVR out there that doesn't need monthly fees. Why? Because there will always be grad students with TV addictions.
Jeez man, put some of that idle CPU power to good use!
Are you going to kick your Mac porting company in the ass and get this ported to Mac within the decade?
Apple's in a similar situation with the RIAA as TiVo is with the MPAA. The *AA's don't want people using their stuff without paying for it because they're big, stupid dinosaurs. Apple and TiVo want people to be able to use their stuff with little inhibitions. Apple is big enough to keep them from being pushed around. TiVo? Not so much.
Do I get my Nobel Prize now?
It's not the designers I blame for those things. It's their clients who think that moving shiny things makes people like them.
Huge spinoff benefits until it comes time to get off this mudball, at which point we have to solve a whole lot of problems about life support.
For you Mac users out there, here's an iPhoto plugin that allows you to export photos directly to your gallery and create albums.
The US Navy had three dirigible aircraft carriers, the Macon, the Akron and the Los Angeles, back in the 1930s. The Akron crashed and the Macon sustained heavy damage, so the whole program was scrapped. Link
He is, and constantly says that the 'liberals' in charge of Apple don't want him to be advocating their computers.
I just take it as proof that nobody is entirely bad. Except Turdblossom.
God forbid these kids ever go through puberty and actually have sex. They'll be scarred for life!
Actually, according to the one I created, it's Scorpius 10, XXIV
Since Mars has water, CO2 and a 24ish-hour day, everything exists to create fuel and oxygen and grow food. Mars has lower gravity than earth, so launching is significantly less energy intensive, and transfer of raw materials back to Mars just requires reaching escape velocity and falling back toward the Earth.
Everything that's needed to survive on Mars is already there, except for humans and the machinery they need to survive and thrive.
Not to mention the fact that any source of electricity can be used to create hydrogen, and wind power is cheaper over 20 years megawatt-for-megawatt than coal. (Google it.)
Pie-in-the-sky technologies like this give people an excuse not to change. We need to start conserving resources and using less energy on a drastic scale. Even with gasoline at $3.50/gallon I still saw people doing 75 on the highway all alone in their huge SUVs.
Second, you're forgetting about Keychain, which stores passwords and text notes using 128 bit encryption. I use it to keep handy notes like passwords I don't use often.
Third, you can create disk images that use AES-128 encryption if you don't feel like encrypting your entire home folder (with all your pictures and music files and videos). I'm not sure of the process, but it's really easy. My wife, a psych major, puts voice recordings she makes of sessions with clients in an encrypted disk image for privacy. (Then she uses Quicktime Pro to slow them down for transcription. All of her friends in class are jealous.)
FYI: PHP can create barcodes. I can see that being used to create printable coupons based on information in a database or something.
Technology isn't the cause of human strife or prosperity; humans and how they use it are.
Wal*Mart speeding up their lines is a move to provide more production per unit investment. It's motivated by profit, plain and simple. (Not that it's a bad thing.) Now, if they passed these benefits along to the public, either through paying their employees more or hiring more people, that would be a good thing. The greatest benefit for the most people. If they used it to eliminate workers and pay their shareholders and executives more, that would be a bad thing, since it benefits the fewest number of people.
I don't want to get into a debate about trickle-down economics. I'm just trying to make the point that this isn't a good or bad thing. What we make of it is how we'll be judged by history.
Also, it's completely inert. So no ozone problems. And it's not a greenhouse gas, so no climate problems.
But the idea that we should consume less energy is great, if only because it means less land taken up by power plants. In the August 2005 issue of Scientific American, one of the articles deals with the concept of efficiency as the key to the sustainability of industrialized nations. As an example, the author took 100 units of energy, be it from coal, oil or nuclear power. 70% of the efficiency loss took place at the power plant itself, and only a few units of work were left after all of the various entropic factors were taken into account. By consuming less energy, we start a ripple effect that goes back to the power plant, meaning they waste less energy because they don't have to produce as much.
There are many ways you can help to reduce the amount of energy you use. One of the most fun is to drink locally produced drinks instead of one shipped across the country. Find a local brewery and/or winery and make a point to buy their drinks. It'll support your local economy and reduce our reliance on foreign oil.
Pfft. Everyone knows there's no such thing as two.
It's VoIP for people who don't want VoIP. It plugs in between your phone and the POTS line, with an Ethernet cord shoved in another port. When you dial a number it checks to see if that number is SIP or PSTN. If it's SIP, it sends the call over the Internet for free. If not, it goes over the traditional phone line. It works when the power's off, 911 is still the same, and you can set it to route all long distance calls over a VoIP long distance provider for 1.5/min.
There's a referral program, and the box only costs $120 with no monthly fees. The more people who have them, the less calls get routed over the PSTN and the cheaper your phone bill gets.