And don't even talk about those "fool cells". Like nuclear fusion, fuel cell cars will always be 10 years away.
I have a friend who runs his hi-fi and television from a fuel cell in his living room, recharged during the day from a solar panel on his lawn. Fuel cells have been proven to work, unlike nuclear fusion, and as the expression goes "Once you've proved something can work, all the rest is just engineering".
I agree that fuel cell cars may be 10 years away from full production (they should be rolling off the lines in around half that time) but you can't change a society overnight. It will be another decade before we can put someone on Mars, but those working behind the scenes can sleep well at night knowing they will have taken part in moving human civilistion to the next era in its evolution.
As someone else said, plugging it in doesn't count. That electricity may or may not come from environmentally friendly sources. Most likely, environmentally hostile sources like coal.
-1 Overrated
Some consumers use their trunks. Why do you think they put them in cars? Because they just happen to have a lot of extra room when they're done building the car?
+1 Funny
Also, by adding all that weight, you're changing the dynamics of the car. For a dealer to sell a car modified like that, it now needs to go through safety tests.
-1 Overrated
Sure, everyone could rely on hydrogen, except we don't have enough hydrogen fuel pumps yet. Not to mention, hydrogen is pretty expensive to produce right now and certainly there isn't infrastructure to produce it in the quantities necessary for a mass market.
+1 Informative
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Build a better car that doesn't guzzle gas, and the oil industry will beat a path to your door, destroy the car, and kill you. Adios, Dude!
Inventor of the air-powered car receives death threats. 3 mins to refill at compressed-air pumps found at any gas station, does 130km/h, and costs about 1c/km to run. Saw a video of one in action, seemed very quiet and acceleration not too bad.
There was an ARM based PC that had a built in toaster 10 years ago. A later version, in '96, had a built-in pizza oven. The RiscPC also runs Linux and NetBSD (though if you had RiscOS, a superior version of MacOS X, I'm not sure why you'd want to).
I know there's *supposed* to be a scientific basis for the limits being what they are, but hey they've been calculated by civil servants, and lets face it, if you're hit by a car doing 65mph, being hit at 90mph isn't going to make much difference to you.
It's not based on the speed you actually hit someone, it's on your stopping distance (ie if a kid runs out into the road 50m in front of you, how many metres does it take a person with average reaction time to come to a full stop). You are right though, the limits are pretty arbitary. It's not speed that kills, it's inappropriate speed. Driving down a road during rush hour when kids are leaving school is clearly different to driving at 3am when the streets are deserted and there are no parked cars obscuring any possible danger.
If the speed limit on a motorway/freeway was 90mph, then tha majority of us would no longer be speeding.
In Germany they have no speed limit at all on their motorways, and they don't appear to have any more accidents than anyone else.
Anyway, can't hang around here all day, I'm off to read an article about how its been proven that speed cameras increase accident rates.
I'll skip reading the article, I've witnessed dozens of times speed cameras making people swerve all over the road and near multiple pile-ups as other cars almost plough into the back of them. Or are you talking about the fact people tend to look out for speed cameras instead of looking for the real dangers on the road?
just don't speed. it's not that hard. speeding causes an unnecessary amount of exhaust fumes, which costs lives. just don't, there is no excuse to speed.
Not necessarily. Different cars have different gearing ratios hence are more efficient at different speeds. For example if the optimum fuel-efficiency speed of my car is 65mph, and I am in a 30mph limit, then staying below the speed limit is causing an unnecessary amount of exhaust fumes and costing lives.
As for costing lives, I don't think we can claim that. Contributing factor to early deaths, trigger for various things such as asthma, maybe. More lives are probably cost by speed cameras. I've lost count of the number of cars I've seen drastically brake at the last minute when seeing a speed camera late, and either nearly swerve off the road or have the cars pile up into the back of them. People often instinctively brake just in case, even if they are not speeding. It is probably also a contributing factor to a number of deaths in that it's one thing people are looking for when driving when they should be concentrating on the road.
The EV1. WTF? Why the hell would you miss this. I got the chance to try one at high school, I forget which teacher arranged to have it shown off. The thing was underpowered to the extreme, didn't have long range and was apparantly plagued with failures.
I had a chance to try one of the first computers. Why the hell would any one want a computer? It was underpowered in the extreme, wobbling the rampack would lose all your data, and all the software you had to type in by hand out of 'listings' in magazines.
However that aside it was inefficent as hell. People like to pretend like it's non-poluting because there's no tail pipe. News flash: That power was generated somewhere and coal probably did the generation. Because of the multitudes of conversions of form the power underwent, the efficency was for shit. The straight mechanical transformation of an ICE was much better.
Newsflash: You've no idea what you are talking about. Already a fair percentage of energy is created by renewable energy and that percentage is growing all the time. You can even stick up some solar cells and charge the car yourself. The ICE is maximum 40% efficient, and performance degrades over time in cars, the pollution happens to occur mostly in densely populated human areas. In my town, Nice in France, the government is spending 320M euros on a tramway... which is effectively a bunch of electric busses. A lot of other european cities are going the same way. Whether electric or hydrogen powered, anything that makes the air we breath cleaner is good for everybody.
Every time someone says "does nobody use Freshmeat" and lists the dump of some keyword search, they completely miss the point of asking the question on Slashdot. Rather than have thousands of people having to individually try a looong list of possibly buggy and obsolete software, collectively putting together reviews of the applications each person has used in one place can pull together a very good overview of which apps are best and should be used for what. The idea is to eliminate wasted effort, not boost it. Not that we don't appreciate you taking the time to post all those programs;-), just that most of us have tried Freshmeat but don't have time to try every single application in the hope it's the one we need.
You are aware that actual people are actually spending their days actually thinking up and acting on ways to kill people that run yogurt stores, work at rehab clinics, build web servers, teach grade school, and have families that depend on them... right? This isn't a game, it's actually happening.
You are aware that they are a miniscule fragment of misfits in society, compared to the millions of normal people that go about they everyday lives and want to continue enjoying the freedoms that millions laid down their lives to earn over two World Wars.
And as the prime minister of Autstralia put it so eloquently yesterday, we're using 19th century approaches to dealing with bad guys happy to use 21st century technologies
Very glib but the fact is any tool, whether a hammer or a car or encryption, can used to benefit or harm those living in a society. If there is just cause to view someone's encrypted data then the police should have no problem in convincing a judge to force the hand-over of keys as they always have done. If it's too clumsy at the moment then perhaps the police should be looking at making the system more efficient or having a special 'fast-track' process with judges on-call at any time, instead of bypassing the process altogether.
Really, you should have a clue before posting. According to this press release, the ARM processor consumes around 8mW, though I can't dig out any real-life figures atm. It really is an order of magnitude more power-efficient than anything x86. If you do some basic micro-processor studies you will find that most of the Intel chips are taken up with trying to translate the cludgy CISC x86 instruction set into the 'RISC-like' opcodes Intel uses internally. There is no avoiding the fact this wastes power. Here is an ARM device at random that consumes less less than 450mW.
but are more than happy to suggest further intrusions on property and basic economic rights when it comes to alternative energy and environmental pet issues.
The environment is a pet issue? Already your world distortion field is pretty dire. You do realise that this 'pet issue' is the headlining subject of the G8 conference with Bush, Blair, et al?
There are many many issues to be worked and a top-down socialistic approach of using coercion and forcing the people to make changes that people haven't thought through or properly justified to a degree commensurate with the methods being used is only a prescription for disaster.
Well the high tax on cigarettes in Europe has saved thousands of lives and has made drinking and dining out a far more pleasant experience for everybody. I'd say rather than a disaster it was a complete success. Raising tax on leaded fuel and introducing stricter emmissions testing has meant everyone moving to unleaded petrol. Disaster? Er no, complete success.
The American economy is part and parcel of the world economy. If the American economy takes a total nose dive, then so too does the rest of the planet since we all trade with each other. Consider it an economic food chain or food web. You can't total any sizeable portion of it without totalling the rest.
Worry about yourself, don't worry about us. Apart from your pollution which we can't avoid (USA is 4% of world population causing 24% of world's pollution, afaicr).
[snip hysterical price rise rubbish]
The medley of interim solutions you suggest fails to take into account the advantage of moving to the hydrogen economy. It's like an energy abstraction layer. It can be generated in many different ways, including for free (not including capital cost, which is constantly dropping) via renewable energy or even captured from algae. It can then be used via fuel cells in cars and laptops, and even directly in a combustion engine. For more info, check out Future Energies.
The fact is that retaliation against police and judges have only increased in Italy since they tried to fight the Mafia. If only people would stop trying to do the right thing then everybody would be happy bunnies, frolicking around in world peace. We should be more tolerant about allowing brutal repression and genocides around the world, because surely if we close our eyes it will all go away...
I, personally, am grateful for the sacrifices the US is making. After years of introversion and non-intervention they are trying at last to make the world a better place. I hope they don't listen to the short-term cynics and can stay the course. Let history judge, and I'm sure the world will be belatedly grateful.
The attack won't change anything. It will leave some families scarred by the loss of a loved one, and an awful lot of really pissed off commuters. We've been through plenty of terrorist attacks already and I'm sure our able emergency services have done their best to treat the injured as quickly and effectively as possible.
A free society is something you have to fight for. Always. Just because we've had an easy ride the past few years doesn't mean the battle is over. Just as this attack isn't the start of anything. It's one more lunatic group who's cult philosophy involves murdering innocent people.
I agree that I don't want these nuts to change my way of life, and I don't want the government to introduce any knee-jerk authoritarian legislation. Or ID cards. I also don't want to hear any talk of 'terrorists'. I want those responsible identified. And I want them punished.
Just texted my brother who commutes and works right around where the bomb blasts are to ask if he was ok. He texted me back say, "Sure. Just watching out for low flying planes;-)".
I agree, we are used to this from the IRA days. My condolences to anyone who has lost someone. These lunatics need to be stopped. Still against ID cards though, no matter how the government will try and spin this in its favour.
To be honest, I expected the bill to slip through, or at least be a pretty close call either way based on what people have been telling me about the responses they have recieved from their MEPs.
I have received replies from every MP I have written to.
Dr Caroline Lucas (Green Party) - against the legislation, and mentions Richard Stallman and Alan Cox.
Daniel Hannan (Conservative) - for the legislation, claiming problems in US are exagerated and there is little evidence of large companies using patents against smaller ones
Nirj Deva Dl (Conservative) - for the legislation, though at the end states he will insist on a 3 year 'review' clause
Edwards McMillan-Scott (Conservative) - for the legislation, repeating many points above. States that the legislation does not affect the development of open source software.
Nigel Farage (Independence Party) - against the legislation, saying it benefits multi-nationals over the SMEs.
Ashley Mote (independent candidate) - against the legislation. Strong words and even if the legislation passes he suggests battling it through UK parliament.
Peter Skinner (Labour) - against the legislation. Very well informed as to EU parliamentary positions and he VERY clearly states why Labour is against software patents. Talks about Open Source, and even says he is supporting a UK campaign for a defense fund to protect small companies from litigation abuse by "dominant market players".
So it appears from my responses that the Conservative party are for software patents, and everyone else against. Can anyone else who received replies from their MPs attach a summary below mine. It will provide a useful resource for which way to vote at the next European parliamentary elections.
The results of the UK Patent Office consultation is here. As would be expected in an entrepeneurial country, the majority of responses were against software patents.
"The Government's conclusion is thus to reaffirm the principle that patents are for technological innovations. Software should not be patentable where there is no technological innovation, and technological innovations should not cease to be patentable merely because the innovation lies in software.".
It is very gratifying to see a government department carrying out a consultation before making a proposal, instead (as with ID cards) making a proposal and then trying to substantiate with bogus survey results after the fact.
As a professional software developer in the EU, I am very pleased that the MEPs that represent me stepped forwards to protect my interests. They have done their duty, and now I will do mine and work hard to build a software company in a competative environment unencumbered by software patents.
A niche OS can sell itself if it has a killer app or feature. BeOS had a good run positioning itself as the "multimedia OS". The music publishing software Sibelius not only sold the OS (Risc OS) but the entire computer that went with it (Acorn Archimedes). Linux expanded as a niche OS on its reputation of "rock solid". Within Linux, various distros have their own selling features. Gentoo with its 'portage' package management. LFS for its educational value.
Linux had astronomical challenges when it started. It was helped by Richard Stallman, who's open source tools gave Linux an instant set of software and turned it into a practical tool. Since then the amount of OS has multiplied and starting a new OS has never been EASIER. Support GTK for instance and you already have a vast range of desktop software.
So I agree with your first point, a lof of the smaller OSs are for programmers to scratch their itch and not for your grandma. However I think the field is still more open than you suggest and we can't predict what innovation someone will come up with next. People just have to be patient and realise that when someone hypes a niche OS as the 'next thing', it may not be usable for a couple more years.
It's hard to imaging any other company in which you can invest and, with so little effort, produce revenue for them. Hell, you could be doing something else at the same time! I bet while watching "Dancing with the Stars" you could flow several grand into Google's bank account. If even a small percentage of Google shareholders do the same, it's just like printing money.
Yeah. It's easy to fool Google, you just spam the MetaTags. Oh it doesn't work any more? Easy, you create link farms to boost your rating. That doesn't work now either? Well just put lots of keyword text in white on a white background. Oh that doesn't work either huh?
I think Google is more than capable of keeping click fraud to a reasonable level. Even if you have large chunks of non-contiguous IP adresses and some pseudo-random page-grabber, there will probably be a flaw in your implementation that will flag you up (faulty HTTP response or something).
Nice to see that on an interesting and scientific story about the possible solution to the world's energy problems the discussion decends into just slagging off the French. I thought this was a site for geeks interested in technology and science, not a playground for people to trade cheap insults.
You don't seem to realise how much politics can ruin a large project. Look at how France insisted that the EU parliment should be in France instead of Brussels. Now the entire entire EU parliament moves twice a year at the cost of hundreds of millions between Brussels and Strasbourg.
The EU integration project was founded by France, and their NON vote to the EU constitution threw Europe into chaos. So when it comes to the budget they decide to say NON to the UK rebate (France contributes 1.9bn compared to UK 8bn, but since a quarter of all EU money goes to French farmers the UK gets a partial refund of 3.5bn). This has now paralysed the EU.
Of course everyone knows the damage caused by the French veto over Iraq. And this is what they do to everyone else. Within France there is massive unemployment, appalling beaurocracy, strikes every second day.
Frankly I couldn't think of a worse country to build the reactor, unless there was a melt-down.
WHAT? What a stupid rant. Have you any EVIDENCE of this?
Let history be your guide.
Freedom of expression is a right. Just because many, many people want to do it at once doesn't meant they are terrorists or rioters etc... It just means they are all making their opinions shown.
Actually it is against the law for more than 8 people to gather in a public place without permission from the authorities. This law was passed back in the 80s to try and help break up illegal raves but could just as equally be applied here.
Stop buying into propaganda and wait and see what will happen. If there are riots, look at what caused them. (The riots in genoa were started by the police).
Oh you claim the police started it? That will be a great relief to the residents caught in any collateral damage.
Why does it make your lives hell if people turn up to your town?
It can do, yes. A bunch of undesirables looking for trouble and quite happy to vandalise property, cause chaos for the transportation system, etc? Simply not welcome.
My hat goes off to those that can organise a successful peaceful demonstration. I particularly admire those that organise the Notting Hill Carnival. It's a celebration of Latin American culture, which translates into hundreds of thousands of drunk or high people dancing or staggering through tight-knit residential streets whilst samba music pumps from huge lorries. They work closely with the police and with residents, and somehow manage to turn it into a great success each year. Mark Thomas seems to be able to organise simple but effective demonstrations using his sharp wit, without needing huge crowds.
As the parent poster said, the key word is 'responsibility'. Sometimes those that organise can impress that sense of responsability on the demonstrators. Other times things just run away from them and once a large mob lose any sense of responsability then chaos ensues, and the following blame-game helps no-one.
Example quote: "Analysts on Monday said the biggest and most immediate risk to PayPal from a Google payment system would be a cap on growth in PayPal's off-eBay business, prompting a 2 percent drop in eBay shares."
Hmmm, let's compare a vague promise to open 'parts' of search functionality (only to registered eBay and PayPal developers) to Google's Summer of Code shall we? Let's face it, eBay still don't look like they "get it" and I doubt this attempt to get free labour will gather much momentum.
Also of note is how much Lucas' writing and directing style have changed. Episode IV is very slow paced compared to III. There is only one light-sabre battle, and it consists of Obi-Wan and Darth walking around calmly while being careful not to break a sweat. Contrast that to III, which has tons of sabre (and other) battles, and it quite fast paced.
I know, with all the spewing lava backgrounds etc. I felt it was just missing a few car chases, with a few rolling and exploding, to complete the effect.
I and II were awful, but III was nowhere near the original trilogy. The acting was wooden, the blurred light-sabre action more like an MTV video than a life or death fight. No tension. No comparison.
Slashdot Mirror
And don't even talk about those "fool cells". Like nuclear fusion, fuel cell cars will always be 10 years away.
I have a friend who runs his hi-fi and television from a fuel cell in his living room, recharged during the day from a solar panel on his lawn. Fuel cells have been proven to work, unlike nuclear fusion, and as the expression goes "Once you've proved something can work, all the rest is just engineering".
I agree that fuel cell cars may be 10 years away from full production (they should be rolling off the lines in around half that time) but you can't change a society overnight. It will be another decade before we can put someone on Mars, but those working behind the scenes can sleep well at night knowing they will have taken part in moving human civilistion to the next era in its evolution.
Phillip.
As someone else said, plugging it in doesn't count. That electricity may or may not come from environmentally friendly sources. Most likely, environmentally hostile sources like coal.
-1 Overrated
Some consumers use their trunks. Why do you think they put them in cars? Because they just happen to have a lot of extra room when they're done building the car?
+1 Funny
Also, by adding all that weight, you're changing the dynamics of the car. For a dealer to sell a car modified like that, it now needs to go through safety tests.
-1 Overrated
Sure, everyone could rely on hydrogen, except we don't have enough hydrogen fuel pumps yet. Not to mention, hydrogen is pretty expensive to produce right now and certainly there isn't infrastructure to produce it in the quantities necessary for a mass market.
+1 Informative
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Phillip.
Build a better car that doesn't guzzle gas, and the oil industry will beat a path to your door, destroy the car, and kill you. Adios, Dude!
Inventor of the air-powered car receives death threats. 3 mins to refill at compressed-air pumps found at any gas station, does 130km/h, and costs about 1c/km to run. Saw a video of one in action, seemed very quiet and acceleration not too bad.
Phillip.
There was an ARM based PC that had a built in toaster 10 years ago. A later version, in '96, had a built-in pizza oven. The RiscPC also runs Linux and NetBSD (though if you had RiscOS, a superior version of MacOS X, I'm not sure why you'd want to).
Phillip.
I know there's *supposed* to be a scientific basis for the limits being what they are, but hey they've been calculated by civil servants, and lets face it, if you're hit by a car doing 65mph, being hit at 90mph isn't going to make much difference to you.
It's not based on the speed you actually hit someone, it's on your stopping distance (ie if a kid runs out into the road 50m in front of you, how many metres does it take a person with average reaction time to come to a full stop). You are right though, the limits are pretty arbitary. It's not speed that kills, it's inappropriate speed. Driving down a road during rush hour when kids are leaving school is clearly different to driving at 3am when the streets are deserted and there are no parked cars obscuring any possible danger.
If the speed limit on a motorway/freeway was 90mph, then tha majority of us would no longer be speeding.
In Germany they have no speed limit at all on their motorways, and they don't appear to have any more accidents than anyone else.
Anyway, can't hang around here all day, I'm off to read an article about how its been proven that speed cameras increase accident rates.
I'll skip reading the article, I've witnessed dozens of times speed cameras making people swerve all over the road and near multiple pile-ups as other cars almost plough into the back of them. Or are you talking about the fact people tend to look out for speed cameras instead of looking for the real dangers on the road?
Phillip.
just don't speed. it's not that hard. speeding causes an unnecessary amount of exhaust fumes, which costs lives. just don't, there is no excuse to speed.
Not necessarily. Different cars have different gearing ratios hence are more efficient at different speeds. For example if the optimum fuel-efficiency speed of my car is 65mph, and I am in a 30mph limit, then staying below the speed limit is causing an unnecessary amount of exhaust fumes and costing lives.
As for costing lives, I don't think we can claim that. Contributing factor to early deaths, trigger for various things such as asthma, maybe. More lives are probably cost by speed cameras. I've lost count of the number of cars I've seen drastically brake at the last minute when seeing a speed camera late, and either nearly swerve off the road or have the cars pile up into the back of them. People often instinctively brake just in case, even if they are not speeding. It is probably also a contributing factor to a number of deaths in that it's one thing people are looking for when driving when they should be concentrating on the road.
Phillip.
The EV1. WTF? Why the hell would you miss this. I got the chance to try one at high school, I forget which teacher arranged to have it shown off. The thing was underpowered to the extreme, didn't have long range and was apparantly plagued with failures.
I had a chance to try one of the first computers. Why the hell would any one want a computer? It was underpowered in the extreme, wobbling the rampack would lose all your data, and all the software you had to type in by hand out of 'listings' in magazines.
However that aside it was inefficent as hell. People like to pretend like it's non-poluting because there's no tail pipe. News flash: That power was generated somewhere and coal probably did the generation. Because of the multitudes of conversions of form the power underwent, the efficency was for shit. The straight mechanical transformation of an ICE was much better.
Newsflash: You've no idea what you are talking about. Already a fair percentage of energy is created by renewable energy and that percentage is growing all the time. You can even stick up some solar cells and charge the car yourself. The ICE is maximum 40% efficient, and performance degrades over time in cars, the pollution happens to occur mostly in densely populated human areas. In my town, Nice in France, the government is spending 320M euros on a tramway... which is effectively a bunch of electric busses. A lot of other european cities are going the same way. Whether electric or hydrogen powered, anything that makes the air we breath cleaner is good for everybody.
Phillip.
Every time someone says "does nobody use Freshmeat" and lists the dump of some keyword search, they completely miss the point of asking the question on Slashdot. Rather than have thousands of people having to individually try a looong list of possibly buggy and obsolete software, collectively putting together reviews of the applications each person has used in one place can pull together a very good overview of which apps are best and should be used for what. The idea is to eliminate wasted effort, not boost it. Not that we don't appreciate you taking the time to post all those programs ;-), just that most of us have tried Freshmeat but don't have time to try every single application in the hope it's the one we need.
Phillip.
Here you go - apparently it's cold and rainy there today, but improving by next week.
The funny thing is, no matter when in the future anyone reads your post, it will still be accurate.
Phillip.
Two of the four 'Cons' in the review are:
It's Tiny
No DRM Support
Surely in the wrong column?
Phillip.
You are aware that actual people are actually spending their days actually thinking up and acting on ways to kill people that run yogurt stores, work at rehab clinics, build web servers, teach grade school, and have families that depend on them... right? This isn't a game, it's actually happening.
You are aware that they are a miniscule fragment of misfits in society, compared to the millions of normal people that go about they everyday lives and want to continue enjoying the freedoms that millions laid down their lives to earn over two World Wars.
And as the prime minister of Autstralia put it so eloquently yesterday, we're using 19th century approaches to dealing with bad guys happy to use 21st century technologies
Very glib but the fact is any tool, whether a hammer or a car or encryption, can used to benefit or harm those living in a society. If there is just cause to view someone's encrypted data then the police should have no problem in convincing a judge to force the hand-over of keys as they always have done. If it's too clumsy at the moment then perhaps the police should be looking at making the system more efficient or having a special 'fast-track' process with judges on-call at any time, instead of bypassing the process altogether.
Phillip.
This is utter bullshit.
Really, you should have a clue before posting. According to this press release, the ARM processor consumes around 8mW, though I can't dig out any real-life figures atm. It really is an order of magnitude more power-efficient than anything x86. If you do some basic micro-processor studies you will find that most of the Intel chips are taken up with trying to translate the cludgy CISC x86 instruction set into the 'RISC-like' opcodes Intel uses internally. There is no avoiding the fact this wastes power. Here is an ARM device at random that consumes
less less than 450mW.
Phillip.
but are more than happy to suggest further intrusions on property and basic economic rights when it comes to alternative energy and environmental pet issues.
The environment is a pet issue? Already your world distortion field is pretty dire. You do realise that this 'pet issue' is the headlining subject of the G8 conference with Bush, Blair, et al?
There are many many issues to be worked and a top-down socialistic approach of using coercion and forcing the people to make changes that people haven't thought through or properly justified to a degree commensurate with the methods being used is only a prescription for disaster.
Well the high tax on cigarettes in Europe has saved thousands of lives and has made drinking and dining out a far more pleasant experience for everybody. I'd say rather than a disaster it was a complete success. Raising tax on leaded fuel and introducing stricter emmissions testing has meant everyone moving to unleaded petrol. Disaster? Er no, complete success.
The American economy is part and parcel of the world economy. If the American economy takes a total nose dive, then so too does the rest of the planet since we all trade with each other. Consider it an economic food chain or food web. You can't total any sizeable portion of it without totalling the rest.
Worry about yourself, don't worry about us. Apart from your pollution which we can't avoid (USA is 4% of world population causing 24% of world's pollution, afaicr).
[snip hysterical price rise rubbish]
The medley of interim solutions you suggest fails to take into account the advantage of moving to the hydrogen economy. It's like an energy abstraction layer. It can be generated in many different ways, including for free (not including capital cost, which is constantly dropping) via renewable energy or even captured from algae. It can then be used via fuel cells in cars and laptops, and even directly in a combustion engine. For more info, check out Future Energies.
Phillip.
The fact is that retaliation against police and judges have only increased in Italy since they tried to fight the Mafia. If only people would stop trying to do the right thing then everybody would be happy bunnies, frolicking around in world peace. We should be more tolerant about allowing brutal repression and genocides around the world, because surely if we close our eyes it will all go away...
I, personally, am grateful for the sacrifices the US is making. After years of introversion and non-intervention they are trying at last to make the world a better place. I hope they don't listen to the short-term cynics and can stay the course. Let history judge, and I'm sure the world will be belatedly grateful.
Phillip.
The attack won't change anything. It will leave some families scarred by the loss of a loved one, and an awful lot of really pissed off commuters. We've been through plenty of terrorist attacks already and I'm sure our able emergency services have done their best to treat the injured as quickly and effectively as possible.
A free society is something you have to fight for. Always. Just because we've had an easy ride the past few years doesn't mean the battle is over. Just as this attack isn't the start of anything. It's one more lunatic group who's cult philosophy involves murdering innocent people.
I agree that I don't want these nuts to change my way of life, and I don't want the government to introduce any knee-jerk authoritarian legislation. Or ID cards. I also don't want to hear any talk of 'terrorists'. I want those responsible identified. And I want them punished.
Phillip.
Just texted my brother who commutes and works right around where the bomb blasts are to ask if he was ok. He texted me back say, "Sure. Just watching out for low flying planes ;-)".
I agree, we are used to this from the IRA days. My condolences to anyone who has lost someone. These lunatics need to be stopped. Still against ID cards though, no matter how the government will try and spin this in its favour.
Phillip.
To be honest, I expected the bill to slip through, or at least be a pretty close call either way based on what people have been telling me about the responses they have recieved from their MEPs.
I have received replies from every MP I have written to.
Dr Caroline Lucas (Green Party) - against the legislation, and mentions Richard Stallman and Alan Cox.
Daniel Hannan (Conservative) - for the legislation, claiming problems in US are exagerated and there is little evidence of large companies using patents against smaller ones
Nirj Deva Dl (Conservative) - for the legislation, though at the end states he will insist on a 3 year 'review' clause
Edwards McMillan-Scott (Conservative) - for the legislation, repeating many points above. States that the legislation does not affect the development of open source software.
Nigel Farage (Independence Party) - against the legislation, saying it benefits multi-nationals over the SMEs.
Ashley Mote (independent candidate) - against the legislation. Strong words and even if the legislation passes he suggests battling it through UK parliament.
Peter Skinner (Labour) - against the legislation. Very well informed as to EU parliamentary positions and he VERY clearly states why Labour is against software patents. Talks about Open Source, and even says he is supporting a UK campaign for a defense fund to protect small companies from litigation abuse by "dominant market players".
So it appears from my responses that the Conservative party are for software patents, and everyone else against. Can anyone else who received replies from their MPs attach a summary below mine. It will provide a useful resource for which way to vote at the next European parliamentary elections.
Phillip.
The results of the UK Patent Office consultation is here. As would be expected in an entrepeneurial country, the majority of responses were against software patents.
"The Government's conclusion is thus to reaffirm the principle that patents are for technological innovations. Software should not be patentable where there is no technological innovation, and technological innovations should not cease to be patentable merely because the innovation lies in software.".
It is very gratifying to see a government department carrying out a consultation before making a proposal, instead (as with ID cards) making a proposal and then trying to substantiate with bogus survey results after the fact.
As a professional software developer in the EU, I am very pleased that the MEPs that represent me stepped forwards to protect my interests. They have done their duty, and now I will do mine and work hard to build a software company in a competative environment unencumbered by software patents.
Phillip.
A niche OS can sell itself if it has a killer app or feature. BeOS had a good run positioning itself as the "multimedia OS". The music publishing software Sibelius not only sold the OS (Risc OS) but the entire computer that went with it (Acorn Archimedes). Linux expanded as a niche OS on its reputation of "rock solid". Within Linux, various distros have their own selling features. Gentoo with its 'portage' package management. LFS for its educational value.
Linux had astronomical challenges when it started. It was helped by Richard Stallman, who's open source tools gave Linux an instant set of software and turned it into a practical tool. Since then the amount of OS has multiplied and starting a new OS has never been EASIER. Support GTK for instance and you already have a vast range of desktop software.
So I agree with your first point, a lof of the smaller OSs are for programmers to scratch their itch and not for your grandma. However I think the field is still more open than you suggest and we can't predict what innovation someone will come up with next. People just have to be patient and realise that when someone hypes a niche OS as the 'next thing', it may not be usable for a couple more years.
Phillip.
Contrary to what many people say, it IS possible to patent software in the EU right now.
It's possible to patent it with the EU patent office, but all the patents are illegal hence cannot be enforced.
Just ask EADS, they patented mapping software, and already filed lawsuits about it.
The only reference I can find in Google is this one, where the guy says the patent is invalid but didn't want to pay for a lawyer.
The software exclusion clause in the current patent law is useless, because any skilled lawyer can bypass it.
Hence the push to vote against the legislation, not just for the amendments.
Phillip.
It's hard to imaging any other company in which you can invest and, with so little effort, produce revenue for them. Hell, you could be doing something else at the same time! I bet while watching "Dancing with the Stars" you could flow several grand into Google's bank account. If even a small percentage of Google shareholders do the same, it's just like printing money.
Yeah. It's easy to fool Google, you just spam the MetaTags. Oh it doesn't work any more? Easy, you create link farms to boost your rating. That doesn't work now either? Well just put lots of keyword text in white on a white background. Oh that doesn't work either huh?
I think Google is more than capable of keeping click fraud to a reasonable level. Even if you have large chunks of non-contiguous IP adresses and some pseudo-random page-grabber, there will probably be a flaw in your implementation that will flag you up (faulty HTTP response or something).
Phillip.
Nice to see that on an interesting and scientific story about the possible solution to the world's energy problems the discussion decends into just slagging off the French. I thought this was a site for geeks interested in technology and science, not a playground for people to trade cheap insults.
You don't seem to realise how much politics can ruin a large project. Look at how France insisted that the EU parliment should be in France instead of Brussels. Now the entire entire EU parliament moves twice a year at the cost of hundreds of millions between Brussels and Strasbourg.
The EU integration project was founded by France, and their NON vote to the EU constitution threw Europe into chaos. So when it comes to the budget they decide to say NON to the UK rebate (France contributes 1.9bn compared to UK 8bn, but since a quarter of all EU money goes to French farmers the UK gets a partial refund of 3.5bn). This has now paralysed the EU.
Of course everyone knows the damage caused by the French veto over Iraq. And this is what they do to everyone else. Within France there is massive unemployment, appalling beaurocracy, strikes every second day.
Frankly I couldn't think of a worse country to build the reactor, unless there was a melt-down.
Phillip.
Talk about one extreme to another!
WHAT? What a stupid rant. Have you any EVIDENCE of this?
Let history be your guide.
Freedom of expression is a right. Just because many, many people want to do it at once doesn't meant they are terrorists or rioters etc... It just means they are all making their opinions shown.
Actually it is against the law for more than 8 people to gather in a public place without permission from the authorities. This law was passed back in the 80s to try and help break up illegal raves but could just as equally be applied here.
Stop buying into propaganda and wait and see what will happen. If there are riots, look at what caused them. (The riots in genoa were started by the police).
Oh you claim the police started it? That will be a great relief to the residents caught in any collateral damage.
Why does it make your lives hell if people turn up to your town?
It can do, yes. A bunch of undesirables looking for trouble and quite happy to vandalise property, cause chaos for the transportation system, etc? Simply not welcome.
My hat goes off to those that can organise a successful peaceful demonstration. I particularly admire those that organise the Notting Hill Carnival. It's a celebration of Latin American culture, which translates into hundreds of thousands of drunk or high people dancing or staggering through tight-knit residential streets whilst samba music pumps from huge lorries. They work closely with the police and with residents, and somehow manage to turn it into a great success each year. Mark Thomas seems to be able to organise simple but effective demonstrations using his sharp wit, without needing huge crowds.
As the parent poster said, the key word is 'responsibility'. Sometimes those that organise can impress that sense of responsability on the demonstrators. Other times things just run away from them and once a large mob lose any sense of responsability then chaos ensues, and the following blame-game helps no-one.
Phillip.
Sure they just decided to do it. Not at all prompted by a rival online payment system to their subsiduary company which doesn't have the best reputation.
Example quote:
"Analysts on Monday said the biggest and most immediate risk to PayPal from a Google payment system would be a cap on growth in PayPal's off-eBay business, prompting a 2 percent drop in eBay shares."
Hmmm, let's compare a vague promise to open 'parts' of search functionality (only to registered eBay and PayPal developers) to Google's Summer of Code shall we? Let's face it, eBay still don't look like they "get it" and I doubt this attempt to get free labour will gather much momentum.
Phillip.
Also of note is how much Lucas' writing and directing style have changed. Episode IV is very slow paced compared to III. There is only one light-sabre battle, and it consists of Obi-Wan and Darth walking around calmly while being careful not to break a sweat. Contrast that to III, which has tons of sabre (and other) battles, and it quite fast paced.
I know, with all the spewing lava backgrounds etc. I felt it was just missing a few car chases, with a few rolling and exploding, to complete the effect.
I and II were awful, but III was nowhere near the original trilogy. The acting was wooden, the blurred light-sabre action more like an MTV video than a life or death fight. No tension. No comparison.
Phillip.