As many sailors know, a couple hundred watts of solar or wind power can be plenty. Keeping the fridge going is usually the biggest draw, followed by marine radios and computers. Sailing forums are full of threads about which laptops draw the least power, etc. The latest crop have gotten really good, but tablets are even better -- especially when charged directly from 12V, vs. 120V w/ inverter.
12V adapters are available for most small devices, including rechargeable power tools. An inverter can handle the occasional hair dryer or blender (though I'm sure there are 12V blenders). Toasters and microwaves are still a problem.
Lithium batteries are great too, with much higher charging efficiency than lead-acid or NiMH.
How safe, really? Tom Bowden's Bike Summit talk...
on
How Safe Is Cycling?
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· Score: 1
Just call! Remember voice calls? I know you kiddies are shy, but get over it! With a Bluetooth headset and a voice activated phone, you never need to take your eyes off the road.
Does it matter? If I had Mark Shuttleworth's money, I'd have an expensive hobby like Canonical as well. What's it cost to keep it alive? A few million a year? Even that? I'm sure Mr. Shuttleworth can afford it. We should be happy to have Mr. Shuttleworth as a patron of technology, instead of wasting his money on bling.
Steve Gibson gave his final word on this matter in a thisweekintech podcast interview:
http://thisweekintech.com/sn23
Briefly, someone at Microsoft had the bright idea that one should be able to run code inside an image, for whatever reason. This left a backdoor, probably unintentional. Mr. Gibson regrets that his use of the term "backdoor" implied malice to some people. This was not his intention.
Yes, online newspapers are terrible. But until they figure out site architecture and navigation, they could at least provide a search feature that works. More often than not it doesn't. You put in a keyword for a recent article, and get nothing back but gibberish. Another problem is broken links. It makes no sense to link your own website to a newspaper article, because they'll break the link within weeks. But perhaps most annoying is how they prevent deep linking, and throw you back to their home page -- where it's impossible to find the article you were looking for.
There are tombs that haven't been opened in 10 000 years, surely storing a few thousand m^3 of waist can be no technological problem. It's not like it is going to cover the earth...
But there are plenty of 10,000 year old tombs that *have* been opened. So you're right, technology isn't the problem -- human nature is.
The problem with nuclear power is that the nuclear industry is so enmeshed with top secret military programs that no one knows what its costs really are. They say it's cheap, but to what degree is it being subsidized? We'll never know.
Also, nuclear power further encourages an overly centralized power grid, with too few, too-large power plants. For both national security and efficency, we should be moving toward a more distributed model. Smaller plants require less investment too, so they can be added/upgraded more easily as technology improves.
I'm for millions of solar roofs; microturbines and fuel cells with co-generation; and everyone's meter able to run backwards.
I've been using Ubuntu for awhile, first the live CDs and now the hd-install version of Breezy. FWIW I started with the pre-release Breezy, but with the automatic updates I'm now using the latest official version.
So far it's been great, but I have a few minor complaints.
First, it's a slow on my 700 Mhz laptop w/ 384k -- slower than KDE or Windows on the same machine. Mozilla in particular is slow rendering tables, etc. But I like Ubuntu's desktop so much better overall that I don't care.
Second, there's no convenient WiFi management tool, to scan and choose from available networks. The Networking applet will discover and connect to open networks, but it doesn't always work, nor will it always pick the one you want. Otherwise you have to find out the SSIDs ahead of time, create a connection in the Networking applet, and connect manually.
Third, because of licensing issues, browser plugins and codecs have to be downloaded and installed separately. This is easy enough for technical users who know what they want, but non-technical users have to choose from a dizzying array of sound and video players, and codecs to go with them. Aaack! There's plenty of installation help at ubuntuguide.org, but more guidance about "the right setup" would be helpful.
Fourth, burning a CD is confusing until you do it a few times.
Fifth, for some weird reason, my HP printer wouldn't work, even though it was in the list of supported printers. I say weird because I've never had a printer problem with Linux.
Finally, as with most Linux systems, suspend/hibernate is nonfunctional or flaky. OTOH, Ubuntu boots and shuts down faster than my Windows system wakes up or hibernates, so for me this is a non-issue. The only thing I need to suspend for is to swap a drive, but with floppies disappearing I never do this anymore anyway.
I haven't thought too much about the security issues involved with relying on sudo instead of using a root account, but in practice it's very convenient for a single user machine. This is one thing that drives me nuts with Windows -- repeatedly logging in and out of regular and administrator accounts.
So while a few things may be a pain, I have many more complaints about Windows than Ubuntu!
--
I've had both Adelphia cable and Verizon DSL for the last few years. DSL has been *way* more reliable. It's faster too, because Adelphia's network is so bogged. But for the last year I've had cable because I didn't want to pay an extra $20/month for a land line I didn't need (I use my cell phone, also Verizon, for all my calls.) It looks like now I can switch back. I wonder when naked DSL is coming to the mid-Atlantic.
There's a company that makes speech therapy software specifically for stroke survivors. There are about 20 different programs for specific areas of speech (saying numbers, word retrieval, aphasia, etc.) Programs were developed with a speech therapist, and have been around for about 10 years now. They're designed for the patient to use *independently* at home, or with the speech therapist.
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...whether they want it or not -- so they can still be considered "part time," with no benefits.
As many sailors know, a couple hundred watts of solar or wind power can be plenty. Keeping the fridge going is usually the biggest draw, followed by marine radios and computers. Sailing forums are full of threads about which laptops draw the least power, etc. The latest crop have gotten really good, but tablets are even better -- especially when charged directly from 12V, vs. 120V w/ inverter .
12V adapters are available for most small devices, including rechargeable power tools. An inverter can handle the occasional hair dryer or blender (though I'm sure there are 12V blenders). Toasters and microwaves are still a problem.
Lithium batteries are great too, with much higher charging efficiency than lead-acid or NiMH.
My friend and colleague Tom Bowden gave this great talk at the 2013 Bike Summit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiOIP4lkjgA
Click here to continue to http://slashdot.org/
Just call! Remember voice calls? I know you kiddies are shy, but get over it! With a Bluetooth headset and a voice activated phone, you never need to take your eyes off the road.
Forget buses with automated steering. Let's work on an immediate need -- trains with automated braking!
Does it matter? If I had Mark Shuttleworth's money, I'd have an expensive hobby like Canonical as well. What's it cost to keep it alive? A few million a year? Even that? I'm sure Mr. Shuttleworth can afford it. We should be happy to have Mr. Shuttleworth as a patron of technology, instead of wasting his money on bling.
Steve Gibson gave his final word on this matter in a thisweekintech podcast interview: http://thisweekintech.com/sn23 Briefly, someone at Microsoft had the bright idea that one should be able to run code inside an image, for whatever reason. This left a backdoor, probably unintentional. Mr. Gibson regrets that his use of the term "backdoor" implied malice to some people. This was not his intention.
Yes, online newspapers are terrible. But until they figure out site architecture and navigation, they could at least provide a search feature that works. More often than not it doesn't. You put in a keyword for a recent article, and get nothing back but gibberish. Another problem is broken links. It makes no sense to link your own website to a newspaper article, because they'll break the link within weeks. But perhaps most annoying is how they prevent deep linking, and throw you back to their home page -- where it's impossible to find the article you were looking for.
But there are plenty of 10,000 year old tombs that *have* been opened. So you're right, technology isn't the problem -- human nature is.
The problem with nuclear power is that the nuclear industry is so enmeshed with top secret military programs that no one knows what its costs really are. They say it's cheap, but to what degree is it being subsidized? We'll never know. Also, nuclear power further encourages an overly centralized power grid, with too few, too-large power plants. For both national security and efficency, we should be moving toward a more distributed model. Smaller plants require less investment too, so they can be added/upgraded more easily as technology improves. I'm for millions of solar roofs; microturbines and fuel cells with co-generation; and everyone's meter able to run backwards.
I've been using Ubuntu for awhile, first the live CDs and now the hd-install version of Breezy. FWIW I started with the pre-release Breezy, but with the automatic updates I'm now using the latest official version. So far it's been great, but I have a few minor complaints. First, it's a slow on my 700 Mhz laptop w/ 384k -- slower than KDE or Windows on the same machine. Mozilla in particular is slow rendering tables, etc. But I like Ubuntu's desktop so much better overall that I don't care. Second, there's no convenient WiFi management tool, to scan and choose from available networks. The Networking applet will discover and connect to open networks, but it doesn't always work, nor will it always pick the one you want. Otherwise you have to find out the SSIDs ahead of time, create a connection in the Networking applet, and connect manually. Third, because of licensing issues, browser plugins and codecs have to be downloaded and installed separately. This is easy enough for technical users who know what they want, but non-technical users have to choose from a dizzying array of sound and video players, and codecs to go with them. Aaack! There's plenty of installation help at ubuntuguide.org, but more guidance about "the right setup" would be helpful. Fourth, burning a CD is confusing until you do it a few times. Fifth, for some weird reason, my HP printer wouldn't work, even though it was in the list of supported printers. I say weird because I've never had a printer problem with Linux. Finally, as with most Linux systems, suspend/hibernate is nonfunctional or flaky. OTOH, Ubuntu boots and shuts down faster than my Windows system wakes up or hibernates, so for me this is a non-issue. The only thing I need to suspend for is to swap a drive, but with floppies disappearing I never do this anymore anyway. I haven't thought too much about the security issues involved with relying on sudo instead of using a root account, but in practice it's very convenient for a single user machine. This is one thing that drives me nuts with Windows -- repeatedly logging in and out of regular and administrator accounts. So while a few things may be a pain, I have many more complaints about Windows than Ubuntu! --
I've had both Adelphia cable and Verizon DSL for the last few years. DSL has been *way* more reliable. It's faster too, because Adelphia's network is so bogged. But for the last year I've had cable because I didn't want to pay an extra $20/month for a land line I didn't need (I use my cell phone, also Verizon, for all my calls.) It looks like now I can switch back. I wonder when naked DSL is coming to the mid-Atlantic.
There's a company that makes speech therapy software specifically for stroke survivors. There are about 20 different programs for specific areas of speech (saying numbers, word retrieval, aphasia, etc.) Programs were developed with a speech therapist, and have been around for about 10 years now. They're designed for the patient to use *independently* at home, or with the speech therapist.