Umm... question... if they used a parabolic mirror to float a 2d image, why not do the same with this 3d image?
I.e., make this a floor model. Generate the image in a dome hidden in a cabinet, then use parabolic mirrors to float the image above the cabinet for a free-floating image.
According to the text at the url listed in the posting (M.I.R.A.C.L.), the laser their discussing has demonstrated "Reliable operation demonstrated in more than 150 lasing tests and over 3000 seconds of lase time during the last decade."
This laser has only fired 150 times, for a grand total of 50 minutes over its lifespan, and has a "70 seconds maximum lase duration." I'm pretty sure drilling that far down for oil will take more than 70 seconds, and quite probably a single oil well will take longer to drill for than the entire previous experience of the example laser.
Does anyone get the feeling they're getting a little overexcited? Its one thing to create a megawatt class laser in a warehouse for short duration, mostly experimental use... Its entirely another to create one that can survive a hostile environment such as a desert or sea based drilling platform and operate continuously for days at a time. I'm gonna guess technology to make this successfull is still at least a decade out.
Firstly conventional drilling technology employs fixed drill bits, which use water and suction to remove rock debris. This system has no such facility for that.
Of course, if they vaporise the rock or turn it into dust, all they need to do is blow it out the top. Even if is still in a liquid state, they can pipe it out as slurry. They're also looking into if the addition of water for moving the debris out of the way would be a problem for the laser in that it would need to much energy to vaporise.
Also it is very difficult to drill down and then sideways, as is common with current methods. Without this facility, the oil rig or platform is useless once the oil below has been used up
Which is probably why they're sending the photons down in a fiber optic conduit and focusing them as they leave the conduit through a lens array.
Conventional drilling also places a pipe as the bit moves forward, cementing the drill hole. With this system the hole must be "burned" and then a pipe forced down. This process will negate any speed gains in the actual drilling
The article discusses research into the behavior of the rock on melting by the lasers. Apparently, a properly controlled laser can turn the surrounding rock into a high strength ceramic, thus completely eliminating the need to even add a pipe.
Unless part of the law granting them provision to charge import taxes also specified that the funds would go to that state, thus defining how the Treasury is to use them.
(Of course, this is a devil's advocate position, since I think internet based transactions should not be taxable unless the seller has a point of prescence in the buyer's state, at which point the state doesn't really have to worry about interstate commerce regulations.)
By the way, nobody mentioned catalog retailers....just e-commerce.
That's because in the context of the article, catalog retailers are paying some tax through the point of prescence method. If you have a point of prescence in the state, you pay sales taxes in that state since your transactions are effectively intrastate, not interstate (even if the shipping warehouse is in a different state).
Personally, I think that's how internet based purchases should be handled. Same way as catalog stores. Purchasers pay only sales tax if you have an office/warehouse/outhouse in that state.
That's why congress is discussing ending the moratorium and granting permission to tax such sales. Then the states will have the consent of the Congress. At the moment no states are taxing internet based interstate transactions for just this reason.
Section 9, clause 5 of the US constitution: "No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State."
This says the state which you're exporting it from can't collect a tax on it, but the state you're importing it to still can. Say you go to NH and buy a car. 0% sales tax. But you live in MA, right across the border. Before you can register it, you have to pay MA a tax because you're importing it to use it. Technically, you're required to report and pay tax on everything you import into your state that you didn't purchase there, but for individual citizens, such amounts tend to be trivial enough to the government that they aren't pursued.
Now, what this constitutional clause does say is that if Missouri wanted to require everyone in every other state to send them their tax money when they shipped an item to a Missouri citizen, they couldn't enforce it, because: a) they don't have jurisdiction there, and b) they can't force a company which doesn't have a point of presence in their state to abide by their laws regarding import duties. That can only be the responsibility of the importer, not the exporter.
How about a product where you snip the wires to/from the antenna that lead into the chip and feed it a simulated signal? Just an add-on product...
"Using a razor blade and the enclosed diagram, make cuts at X and Y. Apply sticky side of GPS-override(tm) chip to circuit board over old chip, verifying that pins as marked touch wires as marked. Close device. This chip simulates [San Francisco, CA]" ([] section printed on each card, kinda like the expiration date on medicine)
Wouldn't be too difficult to inject the false signal this way, and it wouldn't wreak havoc with other devices. It would also be nearly undetectable, and the people who can't handle it can just take it to their geek friends or a shady electronics repair shop.
So how about a warning label. Say, require that 10% of the external packaging display a warning label indicating in plain, simple, short language that the product you are purchasing is limited to the region you are purchasing it in for use?
$509 PIII-933MHz
85 20GB HD
99 128 MB 133MHz SDRAM
175* 17" M781 monitor
150* 32 MB NVIDIA TNT2 M64 AGP
35 48x CD-ROM,
24 SB 64V
50* Altec Lansing ACS-340 speaker system
15 3C905C ethernet card
60* Some sort of motherboard
50* Basic Keyboard and Mouse, case & power supply
???? and a 1 year service policy.
======
$1252.00
For a savings of $417 from the Dell price, you can build it yourself (minus any extra shipping costs for the separate parts, of course). The only problem is there's no support. Of course, for that much, you should be able to hire a consultant to fix it.
(* Specific item not found at pricescan. Estimated based on similar products)
C'mon, this thing's supposed to be the phone communication center. It has a modem in it. Make it answer the phone, too! I'd love for my answering machine to wav messages and send them to my main machine. (of course, they'd be mp3'd when they get there to save bandwidth, but that's a minor detail) Wav is cheap, especially if you're on a LAN and have the bandwidth for the file transfer.
If even one of these steps could be efficiently bypassed, it would cut power consumption dramatically.
Sure, except that a laptop doesn't use a monitor cable like the one on your desk. They're probably already cutting out the 'video card conversion to analog and back' that you're suggesting eats power.
What eats power is not the conversions, but the size. A display that's 10" across (I'm guessing at an average laptop display here) will have a larger area to light (48 sq") than the pair of 1" displays in front of your eyes (2@0.48 sq"). As you can see, power is 2% of the 10" monitor. Of course, then you have a few other power issues, and that's why its only 25% as efficient, probably.
When the neighborhood power goes out to (insert one of: blizzard, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, etc) and the rest of the neighborhood has no (heat, A/C, whatever), I'll be the one laughing last.
Besides, power is not a civic service. Power is not part of what my taxes pay for. Power is generated by an independent provider which holds (or nearly does, when deregulation happens) a complete monopoly over me. I can't switch power companies, because there aren't any others in my area. (Of course, the same can be said for some civic services, like police, but that's another matter.)
This isn't isolation from society, its choosing a different method of interacting with it.
This extreme case is called 'price gouging', and its illegal in most places in the US. Try buying a generator in the middle of a multi-day power outage. If you're quoted a price significantly higher than the normal price, he's illegaly raised his price.
Well, you might try reading the article, which sums up with "If it doesn't reliably cause cancer in animals and cells at high doses, then it probably isn't going to cause cancer in humans,"...the consensus is: don't panic . . . but watch this space.
i.e., no link has been reproducibly demonstrated.
Umm... no... read his list. Hydrogen, gasoline, or the number of other possiblities. You use a device called, IIRC, a reformer. This converts the substance -in vehicle- into a hydrogen rich compound that can be processed in the fuel cell, combined with oxgen, and the electricity captured. The reformer, naturally, takes less energy to run than the fuel cell produces (otherwise the process wouldn't be useful). With a sufficiently advanced reformer, you can produce a vehicle that will take, for example, any liquid hydrocarbon based fuel. Gasoline, methanol, whiskey, whatever.
Oops... gotta remember that preview button... This validator is so buggy it isn't even funny. 30% of the complaints are about values that aren't encapsulated in quotes, which is completely legal (i.e., color=#123456 as opposed to color="#123456"), and another 30% are matching tags that it says are not closing an , but the is mentioned in the line it quotes as having the error! (maybe it didn't read the because it had un-quoted data in it.)
This validator is so buggy it isn't even funny. 30% of the complaints are about values that aren't encapsulated in quotes, which is completely legal (i.e., color=#123456 as opposed to color="#123456"), and another 30% are matching tags that it says are not closing an , but the is mentioned in the line it quotes as having the error! (maybe it didn't read the because it had un-quoted data in it.)
Slashdot Mirror
I.e., make this a floor model. Generate the image in a dome hidden in a cabinet, then use parabolic mirrors to float the image above the cabinet for a free-floating image.
This laser has only fired 150 times, for a grand total of 50 minutes over its lifespan, and has a "70 seconds maximum lase duration." I'm pretty sure drilling that far down for oil will take more than 70 seconds, and quite probably a single oil well will take longer to drill for than the entire previous experience of the example laser.
Does anyone get the feeling they're getting a little overexcited? Its one thing to create a megawatt class laser in a warehouse for short duration, mostly experimental use... Its entirely another to create one that can survive a hostile environment such as a desert or sea based drilling platform and operate continuously for days at a time. I'm gonna guess technology to make this successfull is still at least a decade out.
Firstly conventional drilling technology employs fixed drill bits, which use water and suction to remove rock debris. This system has no such facility for that.
Of course, if they vaporise the rock or turn it into dust, all they need to do is blow it out the top. Even if is still in a liquid state, they can pipe it out as slurry. They're also looking into if the addition of water for moving the debris out of the way would be a problem for the laser in that it would need to much energy to vaporise.Also it is very difficult to drill down and then sideways, as is common with current methods. Without this facility, the oil rig or platform is useless once the oil below has been used up
Which is probably why they're sending the photons down in a fiber optic conduit and focusing them as they leave the conduit through a lens array.Conventional drilling also places a pipe as the bit moves forward, cementing the drill hole. With this system the hole must be "burned" and then a pipe forced down. This process will negate any speed gains in the actual drilling
The article discusses research into the behavior of the rock on melting by the lasers. Apparently, a properly controlled laser can turn the surrounding rock into a high strength ceramic, thus completely eliminating the need to even add a pipe.(Of course, this is a devil's advocate position, since I think internet based transactions should not be taxable unless the seller has a point of prescence in the buyer's state, at which point the state doesn't really have to worry about interstate commerce regulations.)
That's because in the context of the article, catalog retailers are paying some tax through the point of prescence method. If you have a point of prescence in the state, you pay sales taxes in that state since your transactions are effectively intrastate, not interstate (even if the shipping warehouse is in a different state).
Personally, I think that's how internet based purchases should be handled. Same way as catalog stores. Purchasers pay only sales tax if you have an office/warehouse/outhouse in that state.
That's why congress is discussing ending the moratorium and granting permission to tax such sales. Then the states will have the consent of the Congress. At the moment no states are taxing internet based interstate transactions for just this reason.
Actually, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to do this already. Its just that nobody does, and I've never heard of it being enforced.
This says the state which you're exporting it from can't collect a tax on it, but the state you're importing it to still can. Say you go to NH and buy a car. 0% sales tax. But you live in MA, right across the border. Before you can register it, you have to pay MA a tax because you're importing it to use it. Technically, you're required to report and pay tax on everything you import into your state that you didn't purchase there, but for individual citizens, such amounts tend to be trivial enough to the government that they aren't pursued.
Now, what this constitutional clause does say is that if Missouri wanted to require everyone in every other state to send them their tax money when they shipped an item to a Missouri citizen, they couldn't enforce it, because: a) they don't have jurisdiction there, and b) they can't force a company which doesn't have a point of presence in their state to abide by their laws regarding import duties. That can only be the responsibility of the importer, not the exporter.
"Using a razor blade and the enclosed diagram, make cuts at X and Y. Apply sticky side of GPS-override(tm) chip to circuit board over old chip, verifying that pins as marked touch wires as marked. Close device. This chip simulates [San Francisco, CA]" ([] section printed on each card, kinda like the expiration date on medicine)
Wouldn't be too difficult to inject the false signal this way, and it wouldn't wreak havoc with other devices. It would also be nearly undetectable, and the people who can't handle it can just take it to their geek friends or a shady electronics repair shop.
So how about a warning label. Say, require that 10% of the external packaging display a warning label indicating in plain, simple, short language that the product you are purchasing is limited to the region you are purchasing it in for use?
(Component prices from pricescan.com)
$509 PIII-933MHz
85 20GB HD
99 128 MB 133MHz SDRAM
175* 17" M781 monitor
150* 32 MB NVIDIA TNT2 M64 AGP
35 48x CD-ROM,
24 SB 64V
50* Altec Lansing ACS-340 speaker system
15 3C905C ethernet card
60* Some sort of motherboard
50* Basic Keyboard and Mouse, case & power supply
???? and a 1 year service policy.
======
$1252.00
For a savings of $417 from the Dell price, you can build it yourself (minus any extra shipping costs for the separate parts, of course). The only problem is there's no support. Of course, for that much, you should be able to hire a consultant to fix it.
(* Specific item not found at pricescan. Estimated based on similar products)
er, sorry, not phone communication center... HOME communication center. serves me right for not previewing :)
C'mon, this thing's supposed to be the phone communication center. It has a modem in it. Make it answer the phone, too! I'd love for my answering machine to wav messages and send them to my main machine. (of course, they'd be mp3'd when they get there to save bandwidth, but that's a minor detail) Wav is cheap, especially if you're on a LAN and have the bandwidth for the file transfer.
Sure, except that a laptop doesn't use a monitor cable like the one on your desk. They're probably already cutting out the 'video card conversion to analog and back' that you're suggesting eats power.
What eats power is not the conversions, but the size. A display that's 10" across (I'm guessing at an average laptop display here) will have a larger area to light (48 sq") than the pair of 1" displays in front of your eyes (2@0.48 sq"). As you can see, power is 2% of the 10" monitor. Of course, then you have a few other power issues, and that's why its only 25% as efficient, probably.
Besides, power is not a civic service. Power is not part of what my taxes pay for. Power is generated by an independent provider which holds (or nearly does, when deregulation happens) a complete monopoly over me. I can't switch power companies, because there aren't any others in my area. (Of course, the same can be said for some civic services, like police, but that's another matter.)
This isn't isolation from society, its choosing a different method of interacting with it.
IIRC, expected cost for the first 3 years is $7500, then $3500. They have a 15 year lifespan with 1 year service intervals.
Note, though, that the picture only shows it outside for illustration purposes. Its designed to be perfectly happy in your basement, too.
Its already part of the mars program. Fuel cells have been used in space since the 60's.
Oh, and these are expected to be $7,500 early adopter (first 3 years) then $3,500.
This extreme case is called 'price gouging', and its illegal in most places in the US. Try buying a generator in the middle of a multi-day power outage. If you're quoted a price significantly higher than the normal price, he's illegaly raised his price.
Well, you might try reading the article, which sums up with "If it doesn't reliably cause cancer in animals and cells at high doses, then it probably isn't going to cause cancer in humans,"...the consensus is: don't panic . . . but watch this space. i.e., no link has been reproducibly demonstrated.
(and if I put any more !'s in here, I think I'll faint)
Umm... no... read his list. Hydrogen, gasoline, or the number of other possiblities. You use a device called, IIRC, a reformer. This converts the substance -in vehicle- into a hydrogen rich compound that can be processed in the fuel cell, combined with oxgen, and the electricity captured. The reformer, naturally, takes less energy to run than the fuel cell produces (otherwise the process wouldn't be useful). With a sufficiently advanced reformer, you can produce a vehicle that will take, for example, any liquid hydrocarbon based fuel. Gasoline, methanol, whiskey, whatever.
Oops... gotta remember that preview button... This validator is so buggy it isn't even funny. 30% of the complaints are about values that aren't encapsulated in quotes, which is completely legal (i.e., color=#123456 as opposed to color="#123456"), and another 30% are matching tags that it says are not closing an , but the is mentioned in the line it quotes as having the error! (maybe it didn't read the because it had un-quoted data in it.)
This validator is so buggy it isn't even funny. 30% of the complaints are about values that aren't encapsulated in quotes, which is completely legal (i.e., color=#123456 as opposed to color="#123456"), and another 30% are matching tags that it says are not closing an , but the is mentioned in the line it quotes as having the error! (maybe it didn't read the because it had un-quoted data in it.)