You ever try to mount a flywheel? Some of the old mainframe disk drives needed a special foundation because if left loose they would move in relation to the earths rotation. Enough energy in flywheels to run the US overnight? I think you would push the earth off orbit if you tried it.
I'm not sure if this is funny or insightful. Anyone care to do the physics?
Depends on how you do all this. If you have a solar cell, you are producing DC, and all the circuits to turn it into AC at the right frequency is duplicated for each house. For a stirling engine it is much simpler, just connect the stirling engine to a standard synchronous motor, and connect them to the grid. Synchronous motors become generaters when driven faster than their run RPM. Remove the AC input and they output no current. (I'd still want some safety equipment, and you might want to clean the power up a little, but in principal the only equipment duplicated is that which needs to be at each generating point)
According to rumor the guy who murdered my great-grandfather confessed on his deathbed. Perfect crime (if the rumors are true) from the stand point of getting away with it. Nobody knew who did it until it was too late to do something about it. Thats about the only time you will hear about it though, and then the story is 50 years old.
I hate to break this to you, but the 1970s were over more than 30 years ago. American cars have gotten a lot better. I know many people who have got more than 200,000 miles from American cars, and you still see a number of mid '80s American cars on the road, even up here in the rust belt. In fact I see more mid '80s American cars than Japaneses cars because the American cars have been built so that parts that wear can be replaced. I can replace the tie rod ends on American cars (not to mention grease them), while the Japaneses cars were built with planned obsolesce so everything wears out in 150,000 miles. But since you don't fix your own cars, and you don't buy used cars you don't realize what is really going on.
Note that the above is in general. I know of several junk American cars. Some Japaneses cars are worse that others. Germans used to be known for great engineering, but today German cars are about as close as you can get to badly engineered. I'm told that Korea is better than and of the above, but that is today and will change in a few years as they look into cutting quality for profit while someone else looks into quality to salvage their reputation.
Electric cars are WORSE than gas in the cold. I don't mean you slightly chilly 5 degrees above freezing, I mean real cost. -60 or so. Down there batteries don't have the power to start you car anymore, so you count on someone with an already running engine to jump start your car. Your electric car won't get itself moving at those temperatures.
Many. Man is adaptable. AI is not (yet?). Robots are great for somethings, but not for others. Use them together and more can be done.
My favorite is that it is there and I want to go. I want to walk on Mars myself, and be back in time for thanksgiving dinner. (As I write this thanksgiving is 3 days away) I want to see the far side of the moon with my own eyes. Sure it is all useless, but by that argument I shouldn't have gone to Hawaii. For that matter we should bulldoze the arctic wilderness, because that is the easiest way to get the useful oil under there.
Let the invisiable hand solve this
on
SBC's VoIP End Run
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Vonage and the likes already have momentum. Asterisk and the likes are in position to take over the PBX market. Connect the two automaticly, along with various other networks, and there is enough mass to solve this. Aunt Mary might not understand it now, but when all her relatives tell her to get off SBC because she is the only one in the world(!) they call where they have to pay fees, and she will be forced to listen. Once Aunt Mary realizes that she can call pretty much everyone for less on her VOIP phone, she drops SBC as an extra bill that she doesn't need.
Soon SBC and the like will file for bankruptcy... Not really, they do have DSL, which is a good way to connect. When the notice that customers are switching to Cable internet just to avoid having to pay for an unused voice line, they will drop that all voice/DSL bundling requirements.
As geeks it is our responsibility to socity to make sure it happens. So start your own VOIP expiriment at home, and use it once in a while. Long distance telephone is obsolete, but nobody has realized it yet.
Depends on the gun and the range. At 1 mile only the very best can get a hit, and even then luck is involved. (weather is a major factor) At 5 yards or less you just have to be pointed in the right direction and you are likely to hit a human target. If your scope is good (pre set at a range) on a rifle you should be able to kill a human at 200 yards.
If you are shooting someone at more than 5 yards it is not self defense. It might be justified, but it is not self defense.
I've been looking at this for a while now. Unfortunately returning it is difficult, (my lawyer could do it, but I don't think I could) so I refuse to order it unless I know it will work on my computer. So far all I've been able to find is that it works on Microsoft systems. Not to helpful when I don't own one.
So, since you have a copy, if I mount the CD on my linux/FreeBSD system, will I be able to read the articles?
Err, no, there would be a capitol boom in scrubber spending and the like. Paid for by raising electric rates (and other energy?). In turn there will be a corresponding loss in spending in other areas, areas that I'd prefer to see spending.
Now I realize the economy is not a zero sum game, so the correlation will not be one to one. It will be there.
That takes power from the "98 lbs weakling", giving it to the bodybuilders. In a non-gun fight where both individuals are equal in training and equipment the heavier guy will win.
The great thing about guns is virtually every adult can use them. One shot and the bad guy is dead, and it doesn't matter who is bigger and heavier. It doesn't matter if you use a "small".30, or a "big".50 or more, dead is dead.
I see your point, but it fails to work because the "98lbs weakling" cannot afford to use it. The big guy infringing on the little guy's rights can punch back much harder. It may not be legal, but the big guy has already prooven his willingness to do illegal things by infringing in the first place.
When the ad says "5 years of C#, 10 years of Java", what else can I assume. This add by the way was a couple years ago, C# was barely a year or two old, java was not 10 (is java 10 yet? I first recall it in 96, but it could be a little older than that).
You like to drive? Fine, do it on a track. Someplace where most of the dangers of the road are pre-cleared.
Leave the roads for something with better reaction time, and better ability to monitor inputs. I can only look one direction at once, which means I rarely am looking in my mirrors. Often the greater danger when I drive is coming from the ditch (deer, children), but I have to watch the road to make sure it isn't curving. Don't forget to try this at night where the time to reach the end of your headlights it less than your reaction time.
Sure. I bought myself a nice house not far from work. Then the company closed down. Only job I can find is with company that isn't (yet they say) making money, one hour away from home.
So, do I move? In the US there are substantial advantages to living in one house for at least 2 years. Moving will limit my options should this company go belly up. It also limits my options should I find a different job.
Its a hard decision. I don't have a wife/kids to deal with, so schools are not a concern for me. Nor is location where my wife works. For a typical family those are real concerns. If husband and wife work in places that are an hour apart, and school in between are bad, there isn't much choice.
To echo the other guy: they have a much better way to get those statistics: the computer. Every day or even hour they can pull up the inventory and tell exactly how much milk was been sold. They know how many bags of abc kitty litter was sold.
Interestingly enough, the small "mom and pop" locally owned grocer in my town has the card, while the big box store does not. I was only in the local store once. If they need a card they don't need my business.
Wal-Mart and Home Depot are other big (bigger than either grocer in my town) names that come to mind that don't have the stupid card. Both give good prices without the expense of tracking my data. (quality is a different matter, but I can judge that myself)
No. However I did spend a minute trying to figure out what the extra T in FTP stood for. Then another to figure out something that FT could stand for that related to water or sewage. Eventually I gave up and read the summery.
If you are alone in your views, you are right. Money talks. However money is a means to the ends. At the end of the day, if they notice that they sent more of letter #24 than anything else, and a quick database search reveals that most letters were opposed to something, that means more than money from lobbiest.
Congressmen have been known to go against those lobbiests with all their money when enough letters are written. They know that following the will of people who write letters (which is also the people more likely to vote) is likely to give them a vote next time, while ignoring those letters is likely to cost them the election.
You are wrong. True a million dollar (either legal, or undiscoverable illegal) contribution speaks loudly.
However money is just a means to an end: votes. Nothing speaks louder than votes. So when I write congress knows I care. They know I will be watching this issue. If I don't like the response I will vote for someone else. Because I care about the issue I'm likely to tell people about it. Sure I can only talk to 100 people myself, but because they see me face to face, those people are more likely to respond to me than to a television ad. So when I write they have to worry that I represent more than one vote against them. That can be a large factor.
You missed one more point. I do not have a MS Windows machine. If you have a linux version, and none of your competitors do, you get 100% of the linux market (sure only 2% total) by default. If you have 100 potential in the target market, but and it works out to 2 linux users, or 1 MS Windows user, you are better off targeting linux. It is only when you achieve the big bucks that the MS Windows platform is better.
I recall several games for tiny platforms that did very well in global sales, not because they were that much better, but because 100% of a tiny market can be greater than.5% of a large market.
Wow, you must really live in a messed up place. Never fired a gun in your life? You obviously don't know what you are missing. Come to the US sometime and I will be happy to show you how. It is a fun passtime, and nobody will be wounded, much less die. (And yes I will have guns there that can kill people)
Slight correction, you want them pointing at the coal plants so the radioactive, mercury filled smoke goes around your (and my) house. The Nuclear plant in my town is a good neighbor, paying lots of taxes, while being invisible. The coal power plant just a few miles away is a bad neighbor, doesn't pay taxes (not in my town, I presume they pay taxes to their local town), and feed tons of poisons into the air every day.
Nuclear plants may not be perfect, but compared to the alternatives they are.
How do you was a glass pop bottle? I know someone who works at the coke plant, and he never drank pop from a bottle after that. Cans and plastic are clean. Glass they put in the machine and hope that you didn't put anything really hard to wash in there, because they can't clean it very well.
Instead of spreading FUD, look at fact. Bush support nuclear power. Not 100% perhaps, but a lot more than Clinton did.
You do not have to agree or disagree with someone 100%. It is just fine to look at someone and say "He is right here, and wrong there". When choosing presidents you have to decide what is most important because you will not agree 100% with either one. (or a third party) If your biggest issue was getting a president who supported nuclear power, then Bush was your best choice. Of course there are several thousand issues, most of which get little time on the media, but all are important to someone. You have to make your own choices.
What does being in the past president of an oil company have to do with not supporting nuclear power? The two do not have to be related.
As I understand it, there are two choices. A company can always fight to the end, even when they know they are in the wrong, or they can settle. Companies that fight get a reputation with lawyers, and the lawyers will not bring anything to court unless they are [somewhat] sure of winning. Companies that settle get more suits, but they don't have to spend nearly as much settling.
It makes no difference to the bottom line in the long run. However in the short term, every court case that is dragging out has to be put on various SEC reports. (the rules are far more complex than I'm making them out to be) Many investers don't like to see unknowns like this. So many companies just settle if they can.
Personally I'd rather see the company pay lawyers. You don't sue Ford unless you are going to win (IIRC Ford is one of the big fight it out companies, but this could have changed), while you sue GM if you can come up with something. However if everyone fought it out, perhaps we would get to the point where you don't sue unless you can win. Once people don't just sue, perhaps some settlements are safe when you know you are in the wrong. (maybe... if this doesn't get us back to the current situation)
Slashdot Mirror
You ever try to mount a flywheel? Some of the old mainframe disk drives needed a special foundation because if left loose they would move in relation to the earths rotation. Enough energy in flywheels to run the US overnight? I think you would push the earth off orbit if you tried it.
I'm not sure if this is funny or insightful. Anyone care to do the physics?
Depends on how you do all this. If you have a solar cell, you are producing DC, and all the circuits to turn it into AC at the right frequency is duplicated for each house. For a stirling engine it is much simpler, just connect the stirling engine to a standard synchronous motor, and connect them to the grid. Synchronous motors become generaters when driven faster than their run RPM. Remove the AC input and they output no current. (I'd still want some safety equipment, and you might want to clean the power up a little, but in principal the only equipment duplicated is that which needs to be at each generating point)
According to rumor the guy who murdered my great-grandfather confessed on his deathbed. Perfect crime (if the rumors are true) from the stand point of getting away with it. Nobody knew who did it until it was too late to do something about it. Thats about the only time you will hear about it though, and then the story is 50 years old.
I hate to break this to you, but the 1970s were over more than 30 years ago. American cars have gotten a lot better. I know many people who have got more than 200,000 miles from American cars, and you still see a number of mid '80s American cars on the road, even up here in the rust belt. In fact I see more mid '80s American cars than Japaneses cars because the American cars have been built so that parts that wear can be replaced. I can replace the tie rod ends on American cars (not to mention grease them), while the Japaneses cars were built with planned obsolesce so everything wears out in 150,000 miles. But since you don't fix your own cars, and you don't buy used cars you don't realize what is really going on.
Note that the above is in general. I know of several junk American cars. Some Japaneses cars are worse that others. Germans used to be known for great engineering, but today German cars are about as close as you can get to badly engineered. I'm told that Korea is better than and of the above, but that is today and will change in a few years as they look into cutting quality for profit while someone else looks into quality to salvage their reputation.
Electric cars are WORSE than gas in the cold. I don't mean you slightly chilly 5 degrees above freezing, I mean real cost. -60 or so. Down there batteries don't have the power to start you car anymore, so you count on someone with an already running engine to jump start your car. Your electric car won't get itself moving at those temperatures.
Many. Man is adaptable. AI is not (yet?). Robots are great for somethings, but not for others. Use them together and more can be done.
My favorite is that it is there and I want to go. I want to walk on Mars myself, and be back in time for thanksgiving dinner. (As I write this thanksgiving is 3 days away) I want to see the far side of the moon with my own eyes. Sure it is all useless, but by that argument I shouldn't have gone to Hawaii. For that matter we should bulldoze the arctic wilderness, because that is the easiest way to get the useful oil under there.
Vonage and the likes already have momentum. Asterisk and the likes are in position to take over the PBX market. Connect the two automaticly, along with various other networks, and there is enough mass to solve this. Aunt Mary might not understand it now, but when all her relatives tell her to get off SBC because she is the only one in the world(!) they call where they have to pay fees, and she will be forced to listen. Once Aunt Mary realizes that she can call pretty much everyone for less on her VOIP phone, she drops SBC as an extra bill that she doesn't need.
Soon SBC and the like will file for bankruptcy... Not really, they do have DSL, which is a good way to connect. When the notice that customers are switching to Cable internet just to avoid having to pay for an unused voice line, they will drop that all voice/DSL bundling requirements.
As geeks it is our responsibility to socity to make sure it happens. So start your own VOIP expiriment at home, and use it once in a while. Long distance telephone is obsolete, but nobody has realized it yet.
Depends on the gun and the range. At 1 mile only the very best can get a hit, and even then luck is involved. (weather is a major factor) At 5 yards or less you just have to be pointed in the right direction and you are likely to hit a human target. If your scope is good (pre set at a range) on a rifle you should be able to kill a human at 200 yards.
If you are shooting someone at more than 5 yards it is not self defense. It might be justified, but it is not self defense.
I've been looking at this for a while now. Unfortunately returning it is difficult, (my lawyer could do it, but I don't think I could) so I refuse to order it unless I know it will work on my computer. So far all I've been able to find is that it works on Microsoft systems. Not to helpful when I don't own one.
So, since you have a copy, if I mount the CD on my linux/FreeBSD system, will I be able to read the articles?
Err, no, there would be a capitol boom in scrubber spending and the like. Paid for by raising electric rates (and other energy?). In turn there will be a corresponding loss in spending in other areas, areas that I'd prefer to see spending.
Now I realize the economy is not a zero sum game, so the correlation will not be one to one. It will be there.
That takes power from the "98 lbs weakling", giving it to the bodybuilders. In a non-gun fight where both individuals are equal in training and equipment the heavier guy will win.
The great thing about guns is virtually every adult can use them. One shot and the bad guy is dead, and it doesn't matter who is bigger and heavier. It doesn't matter if you use a "small" .30, or a "big" .50 or more, dead is dead.
I see your point, but it fails to work because the "98lbs weakling" cannot afford to use it. The big guy infringing on the little guy's rights can punch back much harder. It may not be legal, but the big guy has already prooven his willingness to do illegal things by infringing in the first place.
When the ad says "5 years of C#, 10 years of Java", what else can I assume. This add by the way was a couple years ago, C# was barely a year or two old, java was not 10 (is java 10 yet? I first recall it in 96, but it could be a little older than that).
You like to drive? Fine, do it on a track. Someplace where most of the dangers of the road are pre-cleared.
Leave the roads for something with better reaction time, and better ability to monitor inputs. I can only look one direction at once, which means I rarely am looking in my mirrors. Often the greater danger when I drive is coming from the ditch (deer, children), but I have to watch the road to make sure it isn't curving. Don't forget to try this at night where the time to reach the end of your headlights it less than your reaction time.
Sure. I bought myself a nice house not far from work. Then the company closed down. Only job I can find is with company that isn't (yet they say) making money, one hour away from home.
So, do I move? In the US there are substantial advantages to living in one house for at least 2 years. Moving will limit my options should this company go belly up. It also limits my options should I find a different job.
Its a hard decision. I don't have a wife/kids to deal with, so schools are not a concern for me. Nor is location where my wife works. For a typical family those are real concerns. If husband and wife work in places that are an hour apart, and school in between are bad, there isn't much choice.
To echo the other guy: they have a much better way to get those statistics: the computer. Every day or even hour they can pull up the inventory and tell exactly how much milk was been sold. They know how many bags of abc kitty litter was sold.
So what does the card give them?
Interestingly enough, the small "mom and pop" locally owned grocer in my town has the card, while the big box store does not. I was only in the local store once. If they need a card they don't need my business.
Wal-Mart and Home Depot are other big (bigger than either grocer in my town) names that come to mind that don't have the stupid card. Both give good prices without the expense of tracking my data. (quality is a different matter, but I can judge that myself)
No. However I did spend a minute trying to figure out what the extra T in FTP stood for. Then another to figure out something that FT could stand for that related to water or sewage. Eventually I gave up and read the summery.
If you are alone in your views, you are right. Money talks. However money is a means to the ends. At the end of the day, if they notice that they sent more of letter #24 than anything else, and a quick database search reveals that most letters were opposed to something, that means more than money from lobbiest.
Congressmen have been known to go against those lobbiests with all their money when enough letters are written. They know that following the will of people who write letters (which is also the people more likely to vote) is likely to give them a vote next time, while ignoring those letters is likely to cost them the election.
You are wrong. True a million dollar (either legal, or undiscoverable illegal) contribution speaks loudly.
However money is just a means to an end: votes. Nothing speaks louder than votes. So when I write congress knows I care. They know I will be watching this issue. If I don't like the response I will vote for someone else. Because I care about the issue I'm likely to tell people about it. Sure I can only talk to 100 people myself, but because they see me face to face, those people are more likely to respond to me than to a television ad. So when I write they have to worry that I represent more than one vote against them. That can be a large factor.
You missed one more point. I do not have a MS Windows machine. If you have a linux version, and none of your competitors do, you get 100% of the linux market (sure only 2% total) by default. If you have 100 potential in the target market, but and it works out to 2 linux users, or 1 MS Windows user, you are better off targeting linux. It is only when you achieve the big bucks that the MS Windows platform is better.
I recall several games for tiny platforms that did very well in global sales, not because they were that much better, but because 100% of a tiny market can be greater than .5% of a large market.
Wow, you must really live in a messed up place. Never fired a gun in your life? You obviously don't know what you are missing. Come to the US sometime and I will be happy to show you how. It is a fun passtime, and nobody will be wounded, much less die. (And yes I will have guns there that can kill people)
Slight correction, you want them pointing at the coal plants so the radioactive, mercury filled smoke goes around your (and my) house. The Nuclear plant in my town is a good neighbor, paying lots of taxes, while being invisible. The coal power plant just a few miles away is a bad neighbor, doesn't pay taxes (not in my town, I presume they pay taxes to their local town), and feed tons of poisons into the air every day.
Nuclear plants may not be perfect, but compared to the alternatives they are.
How do you was a glass pop bottle? I know someone who works at the coke plant, and he never drank pop from a bottle after that. Cans and plastic are clean. Glass they put in the machine and hope that you didn't put anything really hard to wash in there, because they can't clean it very well.
Instead of spreading FUD, look at fact. Bush support nuclear power. Not 100% perhaps, but a lot more than Clinton did.
You do not have to agree or disagree with someone 100%. It is just fine to look at someone and say "He is right here, and wrong there". When choosing presidents you have to decide what is most important because you will not agree 100% with either one. (or a third party) If your biggest issue was getting a president who supported nuclear power, then Bush was your best choice. Of course there are several thousand issues, most of which get little time on the media, but all are important to someone. You have to make your own choices.
What does being in the past president of an oil company have to do with not supporting nuclear power? The two do not have to be related.
As I understand it, there are two choices. A company can always fight to the end, even when they know they are in the wrong, or they can settle. Companies that fight get a reputation with lawyers, and the lawyers will not bring anything to court unless they are [somewhat] sure of winning. Companies that settle get more suits, but they don't have to spend nearly as much settling.
It makes no difference to the bottom line in the long run. However in the short term, every court case that is dragging out has to be put on various SEC reports. (the rules are far more complex than I'm making them out to be) Many investers don't like to see unknowns like this. So many companies just settle if they can.
Personally I'd rather see the company pay lawyers. You don't sue Ford unless you are going to win (IIRC Ford is one of the big fight it out companies, but this could have changed), while you sue GM if you can come up with something. However if everyone fought it out, perhaps we would get to the point where you don't sue unless you can win. Once people don't just sue, perhaps some settlements are safe when you know you are in the wrong. (maybe... if this doesn't get us back to the current situation)