No risk yet.
on
LHC Success!
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· Score: 3, Insightful
The only question is, when they start colliding and/or accelerating the beams up toward the speed of light will this be the end of the world? As the XKCD comic says, they haven't really done anything interesting/risky just yet.
One answer to your question about why to put the battery in the trunk is weight balance. Most "sports cars" benefit greatly from a 50/50 weight distribution. Now your definition of a sports car, hence the quotes, may be different, but my Miata had one in the back and was renowned for its perfect weight distribution and handling. My Mini Cooper S also has its battery in the trunk, though it is somewhat less successful at achieving that perfect balance. That may explain why BMW also does it.
Anyway, that is one answer. The battery in the trunk is somewhat less efficient, since you have to run very long cabling from the trunk to the engine/fuse box up front.
Back in the mid 80s we used to relocate the battery to the trunk to remove some weight from the front tires on our racing cars. It was a big job but relocating 40 lbs of battery to the trunk made a huge difference when setting up a car. It could mean a few tenths of a second on a 1 minute laptime, a big deal.
Re:Controls Correction
on
Review: Spore
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· Score: 1
It still sucks. Why use WASD when it moves your fingers one "column" further over than where they normally sit on the home row? Stupid stupid stupid decision on their part. I won't buy games that won't let me remap this. So add this to DRM as a reason not to buy the game!
Given the weight of many slashdotters, or Americans anyway, I would say they can build a few cars for free on the energy in their stored fat reserves. If the average builder of one of these cars is 20 pounds overweight, they'd need to do 60,000 calories worth of moving about in addition to what they do every day anyway. I'd say that the energy costs of feeding the likely human builders of these cars is negligible, and in many cases would provide a benefit to the person -- heck, 20 pounds less weight in the electric car means better perfomance too!
From the article: "YouTube users responded with DMCA counter-notices. At this time, many of the suspended channels have been reinstated and many of the videos are back up."
Good for those YouTube users for responding with the counter notices.
Motorcycles and scooters are not the answer to any environmental problem. #1, at least in the U.S., they have very poor emissions compared with automobiles. 2-stroke scooters are even worse. #2, their mileage is often not much better than cars. Your typical sportbike, for example, will likely get around 36 - 38 mpg in regular driving. A regular motorcycle might approach 60 mpg. One problem with bikes is they have horrible aerodynamics, which really has a detrimental effect at highway speeds.
OTOH, I love motorycles. I am just not going to kid myself that they are the best answer to our environmental challenges.
My father gave me some advice many years ago that has worked well for me:
"Either be in the core business for the company you work for, or somehow involved in bringing additional revenue/sales to the company". His advise was to become a salesperson, but that was because he found sales really easy (big$$$).
If you are in IT and do not work for a company making technology solutions, e.g. CISCO, Microsoft, Google etc., then you are considered an accessory, an expense. You do not contribute to the bottom line in most cases. This means that your career will most likely be limited if you stick to IT topics. As the parent poster recommends, definitely consider learning everything you can about information technology and how it supports your company. If you don't, you will eventually learn what a hole you have dug for yourself and either find yourself outsourced or otherwise unable to get ahead.
Dude, there are lots of American's living overseas. Talk about the kettle calling the pot black. Here is my own experience:
I am English and know lots of English blah blah blah. But you look at my phone number and say "But your homepage lists a 203 area code, which is in USA". Yah, but I *am* English and know lots of 'em.
new, young developers who are just _better_ than their older co-workers
I see this kind of opinion throughout the responses to this article. Fortunately, companies mostly understand the inherent value of experience. As a million+ UID owner, perhaps you are one of these new, young developers that sees older IT workers as stick-in-the-mud fuddy duddy's that won't get out of your more energetic way.
I used to think that way myself, but then life happens and I got older (now 41), a bit slower, but way more thoughtful and methodical. From an experience persective, I have seen and learned a ton about the good and bad ways to manage IT projects, implementation approaches that are likely to succeed or not, and the technologies that are likely to be easy to support after implementation. This is not to say that I am right and the new guys are wrong, just that my company pays me for my experience rather than my productivity. They value it.
For right or for wrong, unions enforce the higher pay for experience. You see the supervisor leaning on the shovel as inefficient. I see him as the guy ensuring that the gas line doesn't get broken by the digger, or that the trench is dug in a nice straight line so the patch over the hole looks nice. So sometimes what seems inefficient and unfair actually makes sense from an overall productivity perspective. Coding efficiency, energy levels, the ability to do more in less time are all valuable qualities. Unions may (I am not sure I believe this, just playing devil's advocate to the ageism in this thread) help make a better IT world.
Consider also, then, the "secret" weapon testing that is likely underway. When the Manhattan project was underway, we had no method to test the weapon and its effects without blowing up a bomb and observing what happened. Nowadays, they are likely using these supercomputers to simulate not only what happens in a nuclear explosion, but also the effects of a conventional "dirty" bomb, and then possibly other things we don't know about, eg. neutron bombs and perhaps even non-lethal but tactically powerful weapons (maybe a weapon that disables everyone for a few hours).
Re:Non-Tech Percent of Web Traffic from Chrome
on
Google Chrome, Day 2
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· Score: 1
Just to be fair (and redundant to a prior post), be sure to form your opinions by testing on a browser with all plugins, themes etc. stripped out. Chrome is barebones right now so you should configure the browser you compare against the same way. Reports back when you have done this a few times.
Re:Non-Tech Percent of Web Traffic from Chrome
on
Google Chrome, Day 2
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· Score: 2, Insightful
+5 for this drivel?
Can we be at least somewhat objective when saying "javascript is faster"? What plugins were enabled on the various browsers? Were there any themes installed?
Basically Chrome is a stripped down, light browser. Load it up with the full features of a mature browser (like Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari) and then compare. Better yet, I will wait 6 - 9 months for all this to happen and then read the articles in Slashdot about how Chrome really isn't that much better for all the hype.
You guys are taking that comic book way too seriously. Don't believe it until you have fairly tested it side by side in an apples to apples comparison.
I read that support for Linux will be coming out later. I can only hope the schedule is more aggressive that the one they used for Google Earth. It seemed ages before I was able to get that running.
When you have overpaid on a condominium in Miama or Los Angeles, and your mortgage payments on a variable interest loan make up 95% of your income, paying only $1800 in taxes is easy. Those interest payments are fully deductible.
Nothing says, however, that this is smart or as admirable as the parent poster suggests.
In summary, they had great difficulty getting a classic mentos/diet coke reaction. From problems with the camera to issues getting a mento and coke together. Add in some residual gravity, and it was a complete failure. No explosions, not even any cool looking video.
If Obama takes a hard left after being elected, he'll only get two years to do it before Congress gets swept back to the right like it did in 1994 when Clinton tried it (and caused the end of 30+ years of Democrat rule). If McCain tries anything dumb, the current Congress will do its level best to block it.
I had never thought of it this way before. I was completely on the fence being a voter that splits the typical Democratic/Republican issues right down the middle (Pro-choice, Pro-gun, lower federal spending). But your point actually helps Obama a lot given the risk that he'd swing way left and try to implement stronger gun control or go crazy with his democratic buddies and pass all kinds of spending plans.
This is not an easy choice whatsoever. It would have been ridiculously easy if Hillary had been nominated.
Maybe compare it to LFS? The racing there is quite realistic and it is damn hard to get a fast laptime. Plus you get some real adrenaline from wheel to wheel racing. I like it better than all the other PC driving games and sims.
I think you underestimate the effort a turning "on" a gas fired energy plant. Peak load, to me, means a short term spike in power demand/supply. Short term being defined as a few hours. To get any power generation of sufficient efficiency up and running to meet the peak load takes some time, is not instantaneous. The gas plant won't do it. For that matter, neither will wind, solar, nuclear, coal etc. About the only thing that really will meet that instant power need is hydro, since it is not dependent on the weather (wind, sunshine) and can be turned on or off without consequence.
Gotta love the fundraising called from the Police Officers Association. I had one a few weeks ago where the "officer" actually implied that my house would be less safe if I didn't make a donation. Like what, he is going to call up my neighbor (a cop) and tell him not to do anything when someone suspicious is peeking in my windows?
The other day I got a call from some other local charity. I told them the truth, that times were tough, I had just started a new job, having trouble making ends meet etc. They quickly wished me well and went onto the next caller.
Slashdot Mirror
The only question is, when they start colliding and/or accelerating the beams up toward the speed of light will this be the end of the world? As the XKCD comic says, they haven't really done anything interesting/risky just yet.
One answer to your question about why to put the battery in the trunk is weight balance. Most "sports cars" benefit greatly from a 50/50 weight distribution. Now your definition of a sports car, hence the quotes, may be different, but my Miata had one in the back and was renowned for its perfect weight distribution and handling. My Mini Cooper S also has its battery in the trunk, though it is somewhat less successful at achieving that perfect balance. That may explain why BMW also does it.
Anyway, that is one answer. The battery in the trunk is somewhat less efficient, since you have to run very long cabling from the trunk to the engine/fuse box up front.
Back in the mid 80s we used to relocate the battery to the trunk to remove some weight from the front tires on our racing cars. It was a big job but relocating 40 lbs of battery to the trunk made a huge difference when setting up a car. It could mean a few tenths of a second on a 1 minute laptime, a big deal.
It still sucks. Why use WASD when it moves your fingers one "column" further over than where they normally sit on the home row? Stupid stupid stupid decision on their part. I won't buy games that won't let me remap this. So add this to DRM as a reason not to buy the game!
Agreed. Please fix broken Sleep/Hibernate modes.
Given the weight of many slashdotters, or Americans anyway, I would say they can build a few cars for free on the energy in their stored fat reserves. If the average builder of one of these cars is 20 pounds overweight, they'd need to do 60,000 calories worth of moving about in addition to what they do every day anyway. I'd say that the energy costs of feeding the likely human builders of these cars is negligible, and in many cases would provide a benefit to the person -- heck, 20 pounds less weight in the electric car means better perfomance too!
From the article: "YouTube users responded with DMCA counter-notices. At this time, many of the suspended channels have been reinstated and many of the videos are back up."
Good for those YouTube users for responding with the counter notices.
Motorcycles and scooters are not the answer to any environmental problem. #1, at least in the U.S., they have very poor emissions compared with automobiles. 2-stroke scooters are even worse. #2, their mileage is often not much better than cars. Your typical sportbike, for example, will likely get around 36 - 38 mpg in regular driving. A regular motorcycle might approach 60 mpg. One problem with bikes is they have horrible aerodynamics, which really has a detrimental effect at highway speeds.
OTOH, I love motorycles. I am just not going to kid myself that they are the best answer to our environmental challenges.
Still have one sitting in the basement with all the carts. Too bad I don't still have the boxes. My favorites were KaBoom!, Pitfall and Yars Revenge.
My father gave me some advice many years ago that has worked well for me:
"Either be in the core business for the company you work for, or somehow involved in bringing additional revenue/sales to the company". His advise was to become a salesperson, but that was because he found sales really easy (big$$$).
If you are in IT and do not work for a company making technology solutions, e.g. CISCO, Microsoft, Google etc., then you are considered an accessory, an expense. You do not contribute to the bottom line in most cases. This means that your career will most likely be limited if you stick to IT topics. As the parent poster recommends, definitely consider learning everything you can about information technology and how it supports your company. If you don't, you will eventually learn what a hole you have dug for yourself and either find yourself outsourced or otherwise unable to get ahead.
Dude, there are lots of American's living overseas. Talk about the kettle calling the pot black. Here is my own experience:
I am English and know lots of English blah blah blah. But you look at my phone number and say "But your homepage lists a 203 area code, which is in USA". Yah, but I *am* English and know lots of 'em.
new, young developers who are just _better_ than their older co-workers
I see this kind of opinion throughout the responses to this article. Fortunately, companies mostly understand the inherent value of experience. As a million+ UID owner, perhaps you are one of these new, young developers that sees older IT workers as stick-in-the-mud fuddy duddy's that won't get out of your more energetic way.
I used to think that way myself, but then life happens and I got older (now 41), a bit slower, but way more thoughtful and methodical. From an experience persective, I have seen and learned a ton about the good and bad ways to manage IT projects, implementation approaches that are likely to succeed or not, and the technologies that are likely to be easy to support after implementation. This is not to say that I am right and the new guys are wrong, just that my company pays me for my experience rather than my productivity. They value it.
For right or for wrong, unions enforce the higher pay for experience. You see the supervisor leaning on the shovel as inefficient. I see him as the guy ensuring that the gas line doesn't get broken by the digger, or that the trench is dug in a nice straight line so the patch over the hole looks nice. So sometimes what seems inefficient and unfair actually makes sense from an overall productivity perspective. Coding efficiency, energy levels, the ability to do more in less time are all valuable qualities. Unions may (I am not sure I believe this, just playing devil's advocate to the ageism in this thread) help make a better IT world.
Consider also, then, the "secret" weapon testing that is likely underway. When the Manhattan project was underway, we had no method to test the weapon and its effects without blowing up a bomb and observing what happened. Nowadays, they are likely using these supercomputers to simulate not only what happens in a nuclear explosion, but also the effects of a conventional "dirty" bomb, and then possibly other things we don't know about, eg. neutron bombs and perhaps even non-lethal but tactically powerful weapons (maybe a weapon that disables everyone for a few hours).
Just to be fair (and redundant to a prior post), be sure to form your opinions by testing on a browser with all plugins, themes etc. stripped out. Chrome is barebones right now so you should configure the browser you compare against the same way. Reports back when you have done this a few times.
+5 for this drivel?
Can we be at least somewhat objective when saying "javascript is faster"? What plugins were enabled on the various browsers? Were there any themes installed?
Basically Chrome is a stripped down, light browser. Load it up with the full features of a mature browser (like Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari) and then compare. Better yet, I will wait 6 - 9 months for all this to happen and then read the articles in Slashdot about how Chrome really isn't that much better for all the hype.
You guys are taking that comic book way too seriously. Don't believe it until you have fairly tested it side by side in an apples to apples comparison.
I read that support for Linux will be coming out later. I can only hope the schedule is more aggressive that the one they used for Google Earth. It seemed ages before I was able to get that running.
Overrated and Underrated are not subject to metamoderation.
When you have overpaid on a condominium in Miama or Los Angeles, and your mortgage payments on a variable interest loan make up 95% of your income, paying only $1800 in taxes is easy. Those interest payments are fully deductible.
Nothing says, however, that this is smart or as admirable as the parent poster suggests.
Hi there. I am up on the 3rd floor and the toner needs changing. Thanks Mate! Glad we have someone like you in "charge" of all the printers!
In summary, they had great difficulty getting a classic mentos/diet coke reaction. From problems with the camera to issues getting a mento and coke together. Add in some residual gravity, and it was a complete failure. No explosions, not even any cool looking video.
A very poor result from such a promising premise.
http://xkcd.com/435/
One of my favorites, even though my profession is probably between sociologists and psychologists (business management).
I had never thought of it this way before. I was completely on the fence being a voter that splits the typical Democratic/Republican issues right down the middle (Pro-choice, Pro-gun, lower federal spending). But your point actually helps Obama a lot given the risk that he'd swing way left and try to implement stronger gun control or go crazy with his democratic buddies and pass all kinds of spending plans.
This is not an easy choice whatsoever. It would have been ridiculously easy if Hillary had been nominated.
Maybe compare it to LFS? The racing there is quite realistic and it is damn hard to get a fast laptime. Plus you get some real adrenaline from wheel to wheel racing. I like it better than all the other PC driving games and sims.
So says Mr. Nicholas Eustanistopolous!
I think you underestimate the effort a turning "on" a gas fired energy plant. Peak load, to me, means a short term spike in power demand/supply. Short term being defined as a few hours. To get any power generation of sufficient efficiency up and running to meet the peak load takes some time, is not instantaneous. The gas plant won't do it. For that matter, neither will wind, solar, nuclear, coal etc. About the only thing that really will meet that instant power need is hydro, since it is not dependent on the weather (wind, sunshine) and can be turned on or off without consequence.
Gotta love the fundraising called from the Police Officers Association. I had one a few weeks ago where the "officer" actually implied that my house would be less safe if I didn't make a donation. Like what, he is going to call up my neighbor (a cop) and tell him not to do anything when someone suspicious is peeking in my windows?
The other day I got a call from some other local charity. I told them the truth, that times were tough, I had just started a new job, having trouble making ends meet etc. They quickly wished me well and went onto the next caller.