Australia does this. The result is lots of dead pilots and boaters every year because they didn't pay the money to get the services they need. The result is that other people end up paying far more for everything since the gov't is being too cheap.
Perhaps they just didn't bother to read the weather report. Much of the data is provide free (see the BOM) and updated regularly.
The big problem? Efficiency. Hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen ICEs aren't anywhere near as efficient as gas/diesel engines at this point. When you read articles on these things (I do, and I sometimes write about them for an energy industry publication), you'll often see things like "will eventually be up to x% more efficient than". Lots of phrases like "is hoped to be," and "could be" are generally used. _Noone_ has yet produced a hydrogen fuel cell or hydrogen ICE that produces both the same amount of power, or has the same range, as an equivalent gas or diesel engine. Mazda's hydrogen-burning (not fuel cell) version of their Renesis rotary engine produces about half the power of its gasoline version. Ugh. I've yet to get any real information on the exhaust of a hydrogen ICE; writers always seem to assume it's the same exhaust as a fuel cell (which is just water vapour), but I've gotten some vague information recently that leads me to believe otherwise. Noone's talking, though, even when I ask. It seems obvious to me that the Hydrogen Economy being pushed by Bush is a smokescreen to sell more fossil fuels, while trying to look good to the greens.
Perhaps you might be mistaking energy density with efficiency. IIRC Hydrogen Gas has a lower energy density than Gasoline - that's the reason you get less power.
The efficiency of fuel cells in conversion of the energy can (theoretically) be much much higher than we can ever get from an engine relying on thermodynamics. With electric motors available with 90+% energy conversion efficiency, much more of the available power can be used. You car engine has below 50% efficiency (I think it's more like 20% but I don't have the numbers).
Looks like the lawyers are the ones running the scam.
Don't the lawyers always couch their actions as "acting under the client's directions" - so even if they know it is a scam they have the client as scapegoat?
I don't get this - how can you file for a patent on routing between two networks? There's no way this is non-obvious to an engineer in the trade.
Without seeing their actual claims it's hard to know whether it should be obvious or not. Perhaps they are patenting the combination of hardware being used, rather than the idea. There are lots of legitimate existing patents that are "the application of this notion thats obvious in another field to a new domain".
The test of obviousness is an interesting one. Lots of things are obvious after the fact, the question for the patent lawyers is does that make them obvious before the fact or not.
Actually the problem was with the company purchasing the system. They should have had specified the dummy data to use for early acceptance testing & as development validation.
Who uses the *real* data for anything but the very last stage of testing !!
I guess they don't know the difference between copyright and trademark. Selective enforcement has zero effect on enforcebility of copyright. Black letter law.
IANAL, but isn't the argument that under contract law the FSF is required to mitigate it's losses, but because it's selectively enforcing the license (contract) it isn't mitigating it's losses - therefore their case (FSF) is null and void ?
Am I the only one wondering why there was no redundancy.
Typically there are redundant systems as well as manual processes - in Sydney Australia there's even a redundant tower, which is used if the main tower stops working (e.g. major power problems).
The real concern I have is just who is really voting - you can't guarantee that a person is making their own choice when you can't see them and you can't know whether someone is standing over them saying vote this way or else - at least with physical voting you have the polling officials to ensure some level of protection (not saying their perfect either).
So why would we want to modify it by adding extra moisture in the air and making it rain in places which normally receive little rain to begin with?
The article had a pretty good one - to make it rain in semi-arid areas so they don't need to take rain from other countries / areas. That's not saying that the consequences are good or bad, but if it could be done without too many bad consequence it is laudable.
Too all those "They can't make me pay cause I didn't sign anything" or "Go ahead, sue me for not paying the bill.": You guys missed the point. This bill is an option. They are being nice to you. They are saying; OK, look, you're busted and, deep inside, you know you are busted. We are giving you a chance to avoid court and make this go away as if you were legit. Just pay this bill and you won't go to court. Oh, don't agree? Want to deny it? Won't pay? Fine. We'll take you to court. Oh... NOT for not paying this bill. You are right, you didn't sign or receive a service for THIS bill. Nope, we're taking you to court for the copyrighted material you have stole and are redistributing.
Of course they could just be relying on that technique used by many companies - especially insurance companies - bluff. Standard tactic 1 - send out a bill and hope that they are scared into paying it, costs nothing and maybe gets you some investment. Take them to court - now that takes a big investment for which you might not get much in return.
When you hear reports in terms of infections per 100,000 people, as opposed to isolated case studies, take heed. For now it merely makes for good copy, over and over.
Didn't you read the article - Staph aureus is a common pathogen that infects about 400,000 U.S. hospital patients a year. About one-quarter of them die. That sounds like a pretty big problem !!
... The only problem is a conflict.. say... gaim doesn't compile with, say, GCC. Then, the task would be to determine if gaim is non-compliant, or if gcc is non-compliant (or both). In that case, if I don't want (or don't know enough) to track it down, I'd file both.
I think any technical person would agree with you completely, however that wasn't the question asked - they asked how does a non-technical user work this out.
what's the point of having a flexy-wing plane that can fly at supersonic speeds, but becomes unpredictable, or at worst uncontrollable at the speeds it has to pass through first before becoming supersonic?
I would guess they have an actuation mechanism which makes the wing like a normal wing when active and softens it otherwise - so they can fly through the turbulence point
Something interesting that often isn't reported is that production of the early solar cells involved more energy than they could produce in their useful life AND the waste products - cadmium and other noxious heavy metals - are much more poluting than some of the other alternative technologies..
I think the big jump from the ~5% range to the +10% range was due to the use of a different material (or combination of materials) - involving silicon I believe.
It is a long time since I did EE but IIRC the main reason is that the energy is spread across the spectrum (visible and ultra-violet) and silicon pv collectors can only extra energy at certain wavelengths which covers a small percentage of the spectrum. There are other reasons like coverage - i.e. the copper tracks covering the cell waste collection area, heat affects (??) the conductivity and collection abilities.
We're soon approaching critical mass. The point at which everyone who wants a computer has one. Sales will drop off sharply as only those who require the top of the line buy new computers and those who don't require top of the line buy those discarded machines second hand.
Maybe this is true in many parts of the developed world, but there are a lot more potential customers than just the US - billions of them in-fact.
Currently price/performance doesn't mean sales in those markets are profitable - but assuming prices can come down enough then there's a huge market still untapped... course it was this sentiment that fuelled many dot.com failures !!
1. If you jam radio frequencies, you deny yourself information you might otherwise be able to use to your advantage. Not real smart
Do you really believe that jamming prevents someone intending to listen from listening. It might be beyond the reach of the not so technically sophisticated terrorist but it is definitely not impossible. Knowing where the jammer is vastly improves your ability to filter it's signals
3. Remote control explosive devices that could be set off by the intended transmission could also be set off by the jamming, which is _also_ a transmission of considerable strength on multiple frequencies. Explosive crews use those "Turn off Transmitter next X miles" signs for a reason.
Which theoretically means the bomber is not going to be able to approach or their bomb will be destroyed early or on route..
5. The methods they intend to use are akin to killing a fly with a sledgehammer.
Jamming doesn't have to be wideband - it can be focused and narrowband RF rather than wideband
Finally I guess just because they have the power doesn't mean they'll use it...
Slashdot Mirror
They obviously haven't worked out the model yet - traditional broadcasters don't pay nearly as much - in Australia the equivalent body takes less than 4%.
The abstract is not important - only what is actually claimed is important (although the abstract may help with understanding the claims).
Perhaps they just didn't bother to read the weather report. Much of the data is provide free (see the BOM) and updated regularly.
Perhaps you might be mistaking energy density with efficiency. IIRC Hydrogen Gas has a lower energy density than Gasoline - that's the reason you get less power.
The efficiency of fuel cells in conversion of the energy can (theoretically) be much much higher than we can ever get from an engine relying on thermodynamics. With electric motors available with 90+% energy conversion efficiency, much more of the available power can be used. You car engine has below 50% efficiency (I think it's more like 20% but I don't have the numbers).
Without seeing their actual claims it's hard to know whether it should be obvious or not. Perhaps they are patenting the combination of hardware being used, rather than the idea. There are lots of legitimate existing patents that are "the application of this notion thats obvious in another field to a new domain".
The test of obviousness is an interesting one. Lots of things are obvious after the fact, the question for the patent lawyers is does that make them obvious before the fact or not.
Actually the problem was with the company purchasing the system. They should have had specified the dummy data to use for early acceptance testing & as development validation.
Who uses the *real* data for anything but the very last stage of testing !!
I guess they don't know the difference between copyright and trademark. Selective enforcement has zero effect on enforcebility of copyright. Black letter law.
IANAL, but isn't the argument that under contract law the FSF is required to mitigate it's losses, but because it's selectively enforcing the license (contract) it isn't mitigating it's losses - therefore their case (FSF) is null and void ?
Am I the only one wondering why there was no redundancy.
Typically there are redundant systems as well as manual processes - in Sydney Australia there's even a redundant tower, which is used if the main tower stops working (e.g. major power problems).
The real concern I have is just who is really voting - you can't guarantee that a person is making their own choice when you can't see them and you can't know whether someone is standing over them saying vote this way or else - at least with physical voting you have the polling officials to ensure some level of protection (not saying their perfect either).
So why would we want to modify it by adding extra moisture in the air and making it rain in places which normally receive little rain to begin with?
The article had a pretty good one - to make it rain in semi-arid areas so they don't need to take rain from other countries / areas. That's not saying that the consequences are good or bad, but if it could be done without too many bad consequence it is laudable.
Too all those "They can't make me pay cause I didn't sign anything" or "Go ahead, sue me for not paying the bill.": You guys missed the point. This bill is an option. They are being nice to you. They are saying; OK, look, you're busted and, deep inside, you know you are busted. We are giving you a chance to avoid court and make this go away as if you were legit. Just pay this bill and you won't go to court. Oh, don't agree? Want to deny it? Won't pay? Fine. We'll take you to court. Oh... NOT for not paying this bill. You are right, you didn't sign or receive a service for THIS bill. Nope, we're taking you to court for the copyrighted material you have stole and are redistributing.
Of course they could just be relying on that technique used by many companies - especially insurance companies - bluff. Standard tactic 1 - send out a bill and hope that they are scared into paying it, costs nothing and maybe gets you some investment. Take them to court - now that takes a big investment for which you might not get much in return.
This is what happens when you name your vehicle after one of the dumbest animals alive...it acts like one.
Worse still when you copy your design on something that Ming the merciless would have used 50 years ago :-)
When you hear reports in terms of infections per 100,000 people, as opposed to isolated case studies, take heed. For now it merely makes for good copy, over and over.
Didn't you read the article - Staph aureus is a common pathogen that infects about 400,000 U.S. hospital patients a year. About one-quarter of them die . That sounds like a pretty big problem !!
GNU/Hurd. 19 years [gnu.org] in the making, and worth every minute of it.
What to do when your project is running so late ? Try to take the credit for someone someone else's great idea (GNU/Linux) :-P
There are also plenty of opensource IDEs around
The IDE doesn't really make that much difference, it's the reusable components & VB style guis that make windows development quick.
I think any technical person would agree with you completely, however that wasn't the question asked - they asked how does a non-technical user work this out.
what's the point of having a flexy-wing plane that can fly at supersonic speeds, but becomes unpredictable, or at worst uncontrollable at the speeds it has to pass through first before becoming supersonic?
I would guess they have an actuation mechanism which makes the wing like a normal wing when active and softens it otherwise - so they can fly through the turbulence point
This is a pretty near perfect example of a bad patent.
Or maybe it's a very clever attempt to prevent future (i.e. > 20 years away) patenting of invisibility mechanisms.... :->
In areas with cable broadband there's really no reason
Unless your home network has a redundant power supply you either need a cellphone or you can't be sure you can call 911 when you need to
Something interesting that often isn't reported is that production of the early solar cells involved more energy than they could produce in their useful life AND the waste products - cadmium and other noxious heavy metals - are much more poluting than some of the other alternative technologies ..
Any one care to give a knowledgable update ?
I think the big jump from the ~5% range to the +10% range was due to the use of a different material (or combination of materials) - involving silicon I believe.
It is a long time since I did EE but IIRC the main reason is that the energy is spread across the spectrum (visible and ultra-violet) and silicon pv collectors can only extra energy at certain wavelengths which covers a small percentage of the spectrum. There are other reasons like coverage - i.e. the copper tracks covering the cell waste collection area, heat affects (??) the conductivity and collection abilities.
We're soon approaching critical mass. The point at which everyone who wants a computer has one. Sales will drop off sharply as only those who require the top of the line buy new computers and those who don't require top of the line buy those discarded machines second hand.
Maybe this is true in many parts of the developed world, but there are a lot more potential customers than just the US - billions of them in-fact.
Currently price/performance doesn't mean sales in those markets are profitable - but assuming prices can come down enough then there's a huge market still untapped... course it was this sentiment that fuelled many dot.com failures !!
1. If you jam radio frequencies, you deny yourself information you might otherwise be able to use to your advantage. Not real smart
Do you really believe that jamming prevents someone intending to listen from listening. It might be beyond the reach of the not so technically sophisticated terrorist but it is definitely not impossible. Knowing where the jammer is vastly improves your ability to filter it's signals
3. Remote control explosive devices that could be set off by the intended transmission could also be set off by the jamming, which is _also_ a transmission of considerable strength on multiple frequencies. Explosive crews use those "Turn off Transmitter next X miles" signs for a reason.
Which theoretically means the bomber is not going to be able to approach or their bomb will be destroyed early or on route ..
5. The methods they intend to use are akin to killing a fly with a sledgehammer.Jamming doesn't have to be wideband - it can be focused and narrowband RF rather than wideband
Finally I guess just because they have the power doesn't mean they'll use it ...
They must have meant "write once" or "read only". A disk you can write to but not read from would be less useful, eh?
I'd have thought it's good for /dev/null