Sure, anyone can google and read the over-hyped advertmation about the capability of a particular system. The Ask Slashdot really is expecting responses from people who are using/have tried such software.
Most Ask Slashdot's can be answered with a little googling, however it's not always easy to solicit peoples experience there.
Alhurra has expressed their intention to be as unbiased as possible.
and
The station's news coverage is heavily weighted toward statements by American officials, and U.S. president George W. Bush's speeches are broadcast, sometimes taking up most of the news broadcast time.
If they introduce yet another identification system, it would make more sense to integrate it with the drivers license & NHS/medicare/whatever identification systems.
I can't believe the depths of inefficiency that government can go.
In Victoria, Australia, Vicroads, the motor vehicle licensing body also administers boat operators licenses. Rather than add an endorsement code to an existing piece of plastic, they issue a completely new one. Very nearly identical to the driver's license plastic (except the colour), right down to the license id number. Yes, I am one and the same customer, but I have to carry two bits of plastic in my wallet. Not sure which I'd present if I was driving an amphibious vehicle...
* Even if you are mining gold, what the person is labouring at is 1. getting and transporting the ore materials, 2. refining the ore into industry usable smelting/refining concentrate, 3. refining/smelting the materials into gold ingots, 4. shipping and storing the gold, and finally 5. selling goods on the open market. So even when you are owning or developing a gold mine, what the mine owner is really paying for is all the effort and technology to make and get the thing to the market.
On the note of zombies on cable/DSL: Would a spammer bother using a (possibly flaky) zombie to send spam? The machine would have to remain live and reliable for perhaps a 24 hour period to deliver the mail to all the recipients. This is far different from using a zombie to fire off one email to a few tens of thousand addresses, isn't it?
And your comment on mailing lists. With the new paradigm I see ISP's role as hosting the email. Mailing lists in this mode are surely less of a burden on ISP servers than spam already is? Also, if an ISP has invested heavily in their mail cluster, then they are likely going to be vigilant in protecting it from hosting spam. If an ISP gets used for spam, then it, in theory, could be blacklisted, and impact their customers ability to send email. This is a big incentive to play by the rules.
Regarding your second paragraph, the idea is that raising the costs/hurdles for sending spam will slow the production of spam. If someone is really desperate to send spam, sure they will find a way, but it will cost them a load of time (maintaining a zombie network) or money (hosting their own mail servers)
I see some security issues though, like a mechanism preventing interception/downloading of other users mail. You'd be a bit pissed off if you missed out on that offer of $10M from Nigeria, just because someone with a packet sniffer decided to download your mail for you...
Obviously the senders server will have to issue some notification to the recipient. This notification can include info such as subject, sender id, attachment filenames & sizes etc and maybe the first few characters of the message.
If the recipient wishes to read it, then the client app downloads it from the server. If the recipient doesn't wish to read it, then the file languishes on the senders server, taking up file storage space at the senders end.
Of course for multi-recipent emails, there is only one copy, but it can't be deleted until all the recipients have downloaded it. Obviously there would have to be a reasonable sunset/time-out/life for the file.
This means that spammers would effectively have their mail server slashdotted if all the recipients connect to collect their mail.
This is a misguided step in the right direction. The cost of email needs to be bourne by the sender.
I believe there needs to be a new mail paradigm, in which the mail stays on the senders server until collected by the recipients. This would serve two purposes. Firstly, it would help return at least part of the cost burdon to the sender. Secondly, it would help somewhat in identifying the sender, as the sender has to keep a server live till the recipient collects the mail.
There are two possible technolgies. Firstly, flow batteries. Secondly, a generator trailer for the times you need to take trips longer than the range of the batteries. Check out http://www.acpropulsion.com/ for info on the second solution.
This crowd make use of a 20kW charger, so your assumptions aren't out of the realm of possibility.
I have done a simple calc on battery capacity to work out how many Li-ion cells it would take to get me a useful commuting range (100km) in my Mazda MX-5. My commute is 70km round trip. Turns out it would require about 90kg of 18650 type cells. This is based on a current fuel comsumption of about 8 litres/100km with an average fuel to powertrain efficiency of 15%, and not including regen braking. All very doable really, except the battery pack alone would be about US10k.
Even electric cars don't have that great an efficiency as the combustion process is just deferred to a power station instead. If you replace a high-efficiency biodiesel engine with a coal plant you shoot yourself in the foot badly.
The peak efficiency of any internal combustion engine is in the 30's%. Most automobiles are using their engines at much less than peak efficiency, as they are sized for acceleration demands, not average power demands. The range of instantaneous efficiency of an IC auto is approximately 0-30%.
Power stations, of various flavours, can have efficiencies well into the 40's(%). These efficiencies can be achieved for longer time periods.
Electric vehicles have the advantage, since the range of instantaneous energy efficiencies is much better, viz 70-95%. Take into account generation and distribution losses, this turns into approximately 35-43%. Already better than IC. Add to this the advantages of regenerative braking.
The limiting factor for EV technology is public perception. Most people don't want to be bothered plugging their car in overnight. They probably feel a form of claustrophobia as a result of the reduced range (compared to IC). There are simple technologies to work around this though.
Over a decade ago, my sister's then boyfriend, who was a surgeon at a public hospital in the northern suburbs of Adelaide (South Australia), mentioned this phenomena. He called it the March of the Morons.
The northern suburbs were, as a sweeping generalisation, populated by the lower socio-economic groups, consisting of a large percentage of young single mothers with a string of kids in tow. Unfortunately, the welfare system promoted this behaviour/lifestyle. More kids = more welfare payments.
There were offspring which had no exposure to any form of work ethic, from any living generation (parents, grandparents etc).
Sad, really.
I think you're selling this guy a little short. Have you really seen it millions of times? Yes, you probably have seen lots of failures, but then if you're a consultant/contractor, you probably haven't ever been hired to fix up those implemenations which aren't broken. Thus, your sample size, while large, is somewhat skewed.
The cameras will pick up your number as you drive off the ferry at Dover (or where ever it is). Just keep a log of registrations entering and leaving the country.
Slashdot Mirror
We all do that. It's called taxes
Is that related to the Microsoft theory of economics? Installing broken Windows in the first place opens the markets for future upgrades.
Sure, anyone can google and read the over-hyped advertmation about the capability of a particular system. The Ask Slashdot really is expecting responses from people who are using/have tried such software. Most Ask Slashdot's can be answered with a little googling, however it's not always easy to solicit peoples experience there.
As long as they have their fucking keypad tone turned off.
and
You're putting it in the wrong hole...
Addiction correlates strongly with the frequency of Ctrl+R keyboard sequence
If they introduce yet another identification system, it would make more sense to integrate it with the drivers license & NHS/medicare/whatever identification systems.
I can't believe the depths of inefficiency that government can go.
In Victoria, Australia, Vicroads, the motor vehicle licensing body also administers boat operators licenses. Rather than add an endorsement code to an existing piece of plastic, they issue a completely new one. Very nearly identical to the driver's license plastic (except the colour), right down to the license id number. Yes, I am one and the same customer, but I have to carry two bits of plastic in my wallet. Not sure which I'd present if I was driving an amphibious vehicle...
That's correct. If you get the bullet in the right spot, they won't be violent ever again.
What about a scroll wheel on the end of your "vertical mouse". Male only option though.
At 640 x 480, my icons are actuall 8" disks, you insensitive clod.
* Even if you are mining gold, what the person is labouring at is 1. getting and transporting the ore materials, 2. refining the ore into industry usable smelting/refining concentrate, 3. refining/smelting the materials into gold ingots, 4. shipping and storing the gold, and finally 5. selling goods on the open market. So even when you are owning or developing a gold mine, what the mine owner is really paying for is all the effort and technology to make and get the thing to the market.
Interesting comments.
On the note of zombies on cable/DSL: Would a spammer bother using a (possibly flaky) zombie to send spam? The machine would have to remain live and reliable for perhaps a 24 hour period to deliver the mail to all the recipients. This is far different from using a zombie to fire off one email to a few tens of thousand addresses, isn't it?
And your comment on mailing lists. With the new paradigm I see ISP's role as hosting the email. Mailing lists in this mode are surely less of a burden on ISP servers than spam already is? Also, if an ISP has invested heavily in their mail cluster, then they are likely going to be vigilant in protecting it from hosting spam. If an ISP gets used for spam, then it, in theory, could be blacklisted, and impact their customers ability to send email. This is a big incentive to play by the rules.
Regarding your second paragraph, the idea is that raising the costs/hurdles for sending spam will slow the production of spam. If someone is really desperate to send spam, sure they will find a way, but it will cost them a load of time (maintaining a zombie network) or money (hosting their own mail servers)
I see some security issues though, like a mechanism preventing interception/downloading of other users mail. You'd be a bit pissed off if you missed out on that offer of $10M from Nigeria, just because someone with a packet sniffer decided to download your mail for you...
Obviously the senders server will have to issue some notification to the recipient. This notification can include info such as subject, sender id, attachment filenames & sizes etc and maybe the first few characters of the message.
If the recipient wishes to read it, then the client app downloads it from the server. If the recipient doesn't wish to read it, then the file languishes on the senders server, taking up file storage space at the senders end.
Of course for multi-recipent emails, there is only one copy, but it can't be deleted until all the recipients have downloaded it. Obviously there would have to be a reasonable sunset/time-out/life for the file.
This means that spammers would effectively have their mail server slashdotted if all the recipients connect to collect their mail.
This is a misguided step in the right direction. The cost of email needs to be bourne by the sender.
I believe there needs to be a new mail paradigm, in which the mail stays on the senders server until collected by the recipients. This would serve two purposes. Firstly, it would help return at least part of the cost burdon to the sender. Secondly, it would help somewhat in identifying the sender, as the sender has to keep a server live till the recipient collects the mail.
Just my $0.02 stamp worth.
Corporations put Profits Before Altruism, but first, a bulletin of latest news...
You probably already have. It's the same principle that is used for many lube-oil pumps.
Looking at your numbers, I see you've mistaken kJ for MJ. Only a factor of 1000 out.
There are two possible technolgies. Firstly, flow batteries. Secondly, a generator trailer for the times you need to take trips longer than the range of the batteries. Check out http://www.acpropulsion.com/ for info on the second solution.
This crowd make use of a 20kW charger, so your assumptions aren't out of the realm of possibility.
I have done a simple calc on battery capacity to work out how many Li-ion cells it would take to get me a useful commuting range (100km) in my Mazda MX-5. My commute is 70km round trip. Turns out it would require about 90kg of 18650 type cells. This is based on a current fuel comsumption of about 8 litres/100km with an average fuel to powertrain efficiency of 15%, and not including regen braking. All very doable really, except the battery pack alone would be about US10k.
The peak efficiency of any internal combustion engine is in the 30's%. Most automobiles are using their engines at much less than peak efficiency, as they are sized for acceleration demands, not average power demands. The range of instantaneous efficiency of an IC auto is approximately 0-30%.
Power stations, of various flavours, can have efficiencies well into the 40's(%). These efficiencies can be achieved for longer time periods.
Electric vehicles have the advantage, since the range of instantaneous energy efficiencies is much better, viz 70-95%. Take into account generation and distribution losses, this turns into approximately 35-43%. Already better than IC. Add to this the advantages of regenerative braking.
The limiting factor for EV technology is public perception. Most people don't want to be bothered plugging their car in overnight. They probably feel a form of claustrophobia as a result of the reduced range (compared to IC). There are simple technologies to work around this though.
Over a decade ago, my sister's then boyfriend, who was a surgeon at a public hospital in the northern suburbs of Adelaide (South Australia), mentioned this phenomena. He called it the March of the Morons. The northern suburbs were, as a sweeping generalisation, populated by the lower socio-economic groups, consisting of a large percentage of young single mothers with a string of kids in tow. Unfortunately, the welfare system promoted this behaviour/lifestyle. More kids = more welfare payments. There were offspring which had no exposure to any form of work ethic, from any living generation (parents, grandparents etc). Sad, really.
Gusty wind is a no-no for wind turbines. Turbulence causes all sorts of weird material stress problems.
I think you're selling this guy a little short. Have you really seen it millions of times? Yes, you probably have seen lots of failures, but then if you're a consultant/contractor, you probably haven't ever been hired to fix up those implemenations which aren't broken. Thus, your sample size, while large, is somewhat skewed.
Is John Conyers gay? He must be if he is keen to plug anal log holes.
The cameras will pick up your number as you drive off the ferry at Dover (or where ever it is). Just keep a log of registrations entering and leaving the country.