"When people say meth they mean something that's cooked up by somebody without any quality controls and it's really not the same thing as the chemical equivalent produced by pharmaceutical corporations."
Actually, that isn't quite true. In the raw base form, it's exactly the same quality as pharm company-produced methamphetamine. This is what street users typically use. Without a proper amount of quality control, you have an EXPLOSION, pure and simple, there is either a proper reaction and formation, or you screw up, have too much water in the mix, and you go KABOOM from hydrogen exploding due to the lithium reacting with the water. Yes, I have made and used the stuff, not proud of it, but at least I learned something from it. Wanna see the track marks from hot boosting? I have pictures.
What happens afterwards is the pharm company modifying it into a hydrochloric salt, and that makes it entirely different from what street users obtain.
This is incorrect. The angle of photon flux hitting our atmosphere will ultimately determine how much photon flux is/is not scattered from the target location.
We do not consistently hit 2,200+ umol/m^2/s-1 on every square inch of the planet on a cloudless day, and that photon flux ultimately determines how much power we can harness.
"The sun does not shine 24hours/day... at least not on our planet."
This is wrong. It may not shine BRIGHTLY 24/7, but near the solar system oriented 'top' and 'bottom' of our planet get 24 hours of light for multiple periods during the year, for months and months on end.
"This is no good. In my experience you do get the right amount of light output with LEDs, HOWEVER the light does not scatter, the LED replacements act like damn spotlights, and and the result is you burn essentially a bright hole in one spot of the floor, while the rest of the room remains dark."
"A CREE XM-L is a beautiful thing indeed. Only a small portion of the energy input is converted to heat output, leaving lots and lots of light when driven at its maximum"
Not true.
In fact, that 10w diode is in reality only about 40% or so efficient. What matters is the input power in watts versus output irradiance in terms of milliwatts. So about 60% of the energy is wasted as heat. This is why you still need heat sinks for high-output diodes.
"LEDs are expensive; when materials and energy required to produce them are considered they are no more efficient than incandescents."
Only the material. The energy required to produce them is actually quite small, they're already double/nearly triple the efficacy of HID and fluorescent lamps, and since they last a long, long time, there's less landfill/waste.
The main expense is the (typically) synthetic sapphire substrate required for the base substrate of the diodes, due to thermal expansion and contraction. Maybe more for a quantum dot process, but otherwise the rest of the material is cheaply had and quite easy to work at very low energies.
Don't forget newer diodes are now 95% more efficient than a typical tungsten filament bulb. 50w GU-10 micro flood replaced with a 4w LED, and you get MORE light output.
And you can recycle way more of an LED bulb than you can a CFL or incandescent or HID. Less energy spent mining stuff for production, and most stuff can be simply re-used, drastically dropping the energy required for refurbishing.
"And let's not get started on entire categories where FOSS efforts are minimal or entirely absent: games,"
Whooo you don't know anything about id Software, do you? That's a DAMN shame, you'd figure someone with a lower UID would have a better grasp on software history.
"Please show me FOSS software that's better than ModelSim, Mentor's Schematic Capture/layout, or even something basic like - Microsoft Word or Outlook."
The entire Linux Kernel, for one. MenuetOS, number two. Half of the stuff I've been developing for horticultural production systems, number three. Thunderbird, number four (which isn't half as exploitable as Outlook...)
Want me to keep going? I can. Blender, Firefox, Audacity.
Still not convinced? You aren't paying much attention while locked in your Windows world.
Slashdot Mirror
"When people say meth they mean something that's cooked up by somebody without any quality controls and it's really not the same thing as the chemical equivalent produced by pharmaceutical corporations."
Actually, that isn't quite true. In the raw base form, it's exactly the same quality as pharm company-produced methamphetamine. This is what street users typically use. Without a proper amount of quality control, you have an EXPLOSION, pure and simple, there is either a proper reaction and formation, or you screw up, have too much water in the mix, and you go KABOOM from hydrogen exploding due to the lithium reacting with the water. Yes, I have made and used the stuff, not proud of it, but at least I learned something from it. Wanna see the track marks from hot boosting? I have pictures.
What happens afterwards is the pharm company modifying it into a hydrochloric salt, and that makes it entirely different from what street users obtain.
There are maps for solar insolation via direct irradiation, but not for PV systems, but biological systems (plant zones.)
"No, the angle of the sun has no effect"
This is incorrect. The angle of photon flux hitting our atmosphere will ultimately determine how much photon flux is/is not scattered from the target location.
We do not consistently hit 2,200+ umol/m^2/s-1 on every square inch of the planet on a cloudless day, and that photon flux ultimately determines how much power we can harness.
"The sun does not shine 24hours/day... at least not on our planet."
This is wrong. It may not shine BRIGHTLY 24/7, but near the solar system oriented 'top' and 'bottom' of our planet get 24 hours of light for multiple periods during the year, for months and months on end.
"This is because getting oil out of the ground in the US isn't very economically viable anymore."
Do you live in LA, by chance?
A large portion of the taller buildings are only there to hide operational oil derricks.
It has never ceased being viable. In fact, there's several out in the open oil derricks right behind my friend's apartment.
It all depends upon one thing, as most other businesses depend upon - location, location, location.
As soon as we handle the inherent ESD issue involved with such a material, I'd wager.
Safely and securely is IMPOSSIBLE for the government to know.
There are health issues with even being irradiated with blue light of proper intensity - in the case of blue light, macular degeneration.
Only experts are to know this.
This is akin to the government practicing medicine on people witout a license, with all of these body scanners and whatnot.
These should firmly be left in the control of medical professionals and nobody else.
You will be asking for housefires with your woodscrews.
After all they included OtherOS to be able to claim it as a general purpose computer and avoid a tax.
Now its gone. Bet they're still not paying that tax to the EU.
"I'm getting the hell out of here because I got exposed as a fraud that really knows nothing."
Every HP I've owned, and a Toshiba sitting next to me would like to say hello.
Actually x86 isn't even in there as hardware instructions, it's all emulated, now.
As for price, each bulb is about 5-6 bucks, each recessed fixture is about 14-20 depending upon wattage/lens type.
"This is no good. In my experience you do get the right amount of light output with LEDs, HOWEVER the light does not scatter, the LED replacements act like damn spotlights, and and the result is you burn essentially a bright hole in one spot of the floor, while the rest of the room remains dark."
Have a look inside my light partner's house.
Yes, they're dimmable. 7w in the ceiling, 5w on the wall.
Yes, they can be used in recessed air-restricted fixtures.
In fact, we've got recessed swivel flood fixtures to boot.
Anything you can think of that was bad with LED, has been pretty much eliminated.
Induction lighting is my next light to improve. I've already perfected LED grow lighting.
And once obsolete someone comes along and modernizes the shit out of it.
Seen Urban Terror, lately?
"A CREE XM-L is a beautiful thing indeed. Only a small portion of the energy input is converted to heat output, leaving lots and lots of light when driven at its maximum"
Not true.
In fact, that 10w diode is in reality only about 40% or so efficient. What matters is the input power in watts versus output irradiance in terms of milliwatts. So about 60% of the energy is wasted as heat. This is why you still need heat sinks for high-output diodes.
Disclaimer: I do a ton of work in this industry.
"LEDs are expensive; when materials and energy required to produce them are considered they are no more efficient than incandescents."
Only the material. The energy required to produce them is actually quite small, they're already double/nearly triple the efficacy of HID and fluorescent lamps, and since they last a long, long time, there's less landfill/waste.
The main expense is the (typically) synthetic sapphire substrate required for the base substrate of the diodes, due to thermal expansion and contraction. Maybe more for a quantum dot process, but otherwise the rest of the material is cheaply had and quite easy to work at very low energies.
Don't forget newer diodes are now 95% more efficient than a typical tungsten filament bulb. 50w GU-10 micro flood replaced with a 4w LED, and you get MORE light output.
And you can recycle way more of an LED bulb than you can a CFL or incandescent or HID. Less energy spent mining stuff for production, and most stuff can be simply re-used, drastically dropping the energy required for refurbishing.
"you had to buy/convert to some proprietary format"
Ahhh, ATRAC. What a piece of shit that was.
"And let's not get started on entire categories where FOSS efforts are minimal or entirely absent: games,"
Whooo you don't know anything about id Software, do you? That's a DAMN shame, you'd figure someone with a lower UID would have a better grasp on software history.
Thunderbird doesn't auto-run bullshit.
And I'm a research director - what the fuck would YOU know, son? Have YOU even graduated college?
"Please show me FOSS software that's better than ModelSim, Mentor's Schematic Capture/layout, or even something basic like - Microsoft Word or Outlook."
The entire Linux Kernel, for one. MenuetOS, number two. Half of the stuff I've been developing for horticultural production systems, number three. Thunderbird, number four (which isn't half as exploitable as Outlook...)
Want me to keep going? I can. Blender, Firefox, Audacity.
Still not convinced? You aren't paying much attention while locked in your Windows world.
"The only time it becomes a crime is when you publish full details of how they stop people running pirated disks."
This information is expressly for research and educational purposes.
Seems to have worked out multiple times in the past, why not now?
It's a pain doing cocaine while reading slashdot, is it not? :D
"Same goes for the weed that grows wild in the midwest, it's pot, but it's so weak that nobody is likely to be smoking it"
Hi, I do landrace preservation for the Dutch. Wild stuff from China, Turkey, Mexico, Russia, even right here in the USA.
Some of that midwest wild stuff is DAMNED potent.
Marinol has killed and hospitalized people.
Show me concentrated THC extracts that have done that.
You can't.