Of course, he didn't say gas hybrid. Diesel hybrids would be nice; and this doesn't exclude plug-in hybrids, which have more utility than pure electric vehicles.
Yeah man, the bio-diesel/plug-in hybrid is a pretty sweet path. Enables the use of the exisiting petro fuel distribution infrastructure with carbon neutral bio-diesel while also being able to recharge from your home grid-connected solar panel/wind turbine, etc.
The hydrogen economy sounds nifty and all, but for personal transpo bio-diesel/plug-in hybrid looks a whole lot more practical.
Now, to figure out how to deal with the congestion and flooding that results from using land development designs from 1957...
The only people who should ignore their dreams and stick with the lives they hate are people who believe in reincarnation. They believe they have another shot at it, they can try it again. The rest of us have to believe that we have to make it in this life or not at all. And while you may not make it if you try, you definitely won't make it if you just rest on your laurels and live in complacency.
Related tangent: This is a common western misconception about the belief in reincarnation - the karma governed cycle of death and rebirth, or samsara.
Most folks who sincerely believe in reincarnation (1.4 billion Hindus and Buddhists, give or take) are trying *not* to be reincarnated.
It's not, "Sweet, I've been reincarnated and have another chance to experience life as a mortal being". Rather it's, "Uh-oh, another earthly reincarnation with it's attendent suffering, maladies and eventual death. Guess I'd better work out some of that karma that's keeping me attached to this lower plane."
Generally people shoot for an auspicious reincarnation rather than ascending to fully enlightened Buddhahood or Christ consciousness... Wouldn't want to be relegated to a lifetime in a lower incarnation. You know, like a catepillar, brine shrimp or 76 years of maintaining someone else's code and reading duplicate articles on/.
Gotta go, my cheesy poofs and soda were just left outside my door and I really have to finish these quality assurance reviews and verify the latest revisions to some web sites,;).
These aren't instant solutions to your need for an open source parametric modelling app, but if you're interested in pursuing parametric modelling within Blender you might be interested in these threads:
Haven't seen too many instances of references to RMI or the Hypercar here on/.
The Hypercar design that they've put a lot of engineering effort into would appear to merit some consideration. It's predicated on the assumption of a transition to the hydrogen fuel cell, but I would imagine that a biodiesel/electric hybrid based on their Whole System Design methodology represents one viable future of personal transportation.
It'd certainly be interesting to hear some slashengineers comment on some of the concepts integral to RMI's approach.
All that said, the program is fantastic. I've rarely encountered many bugs, and its abilites are amazing. I've yet to encounter a video, audio or subtitle stream it cannot handle, and mencoder can write to a multitude of formats. Once you grok the command line syntax, there is no better tool for video manipulation, period. Just don't expect to be able to make custom modifications at a moments notice.
[caveat]I use a fairly ancient checkout of mplayer cvs[/caveat] just about every day and the only codec I've run into trouble with was on a DVD with big-endian AC3 audio streams.
Hrm, uh MJ == the greatest NBA player ever is a bit of an overstatement. Great indeed, but as greater than Bill Russell? Than Oscar Robertson? Dr. J, Magic and Larry? Isiah? Doubtless, a bunch of other guys who have an equal claim?
You could certainly make an argument in any of the above cases but in light of your unilateral statement, maybe you're measuring greatness in $ or in media exposure and not in terms of pure hoops skills...
The main problem with using farmed vegetable oil directly for fuel (rather than recovering it after use in cooking, deriving it from crop wastes, etc.) is water.
If I remember my WorldWatch correctly most soybean farming in the U.S. is dependent upon fossil water, primarily from the Oglala Aquifer.
As a stop gap measure, to validate that there are viable alternatives, soy fuel isn't a bad thing. In terms of retooling our transpo/liquid fuel infrastructure, using salt water in coastal desert areas to grow algae bred for oil content is far more likely to be successful.
I can also see how the world would become a better place for you (and possibly a lot of the/. public) if all these people got off their couches and behind a keyboard.
You insensitive klahd... I'm sitting on a *sofa* and I happen to also be sitting behind *two* keyboards listening to a web streamed simulcast of a concert in New Jersey (3000 miles away in meatspace) on one Linux box while recording the Olympics broadcast on my other Linux box, posting on/. and kicking back post work, having some supper.
Yeah, ok so its Friday of Mardi Gras weekend and I'm at home on the sofa reading./, laughing at myself for busting out a moldy slashcliches (slashches?)... so what's my point?
Since when did posts need to have a point? Well I suppose it could be that the real world ain't 1's and 0's, $10k plasma screens @ 21% vs volunteering at Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems to develop a interdimensional attack & recreational device that runs Linux.
Apply some fuzzy logic y'all, ease back on the judgmentalism and ism throttle and reform yourselves a little bit.
Linux will never see a large market share for these kind of specialist tools, in the case of audio part of this is due to poor audio interface support under linux (are there any good multi in/out cards that will work under linux?)
Check out the Alsa Soundcard Matrix, e.g. M-Audio and RME, probably a couple others for multi-line. Of course the whole driver/open specs issue is as relevant to sound cards on linux as it is with any other hardware.
BTW, there are seemingly infinite numbers of cool sound apps available for linux. As is also generally the case they tend to be small apps that do one thing really well as opposed to Pro-Tools/CuBase ultimate behemoths that attempt to do everything (new, now with proprietary lock-in!).
Are they generally used to exclusively populate a "pro-audio" toolkit? Probably not by your definition of "pro", not yet anyway.
Do professionals use FOSS audio tools on linux to earn their livings? Yes absolutely, everyday. For that matter, the GIMP, Inkscape, Dia and mplayer? Natch.
The major obstacles to switching to renewable energy are political, not economic or technical. The primary source of resistance to changing to a sustainable, functional energy system is rooted in oil being priced and sold exclusively in dollars, trade imbalances, reserve currencies, debt and the corresponding implications for financial markets.
Put another way, when the costs of burning fossil fuels (CO2 emissions, acid rain, smog, particulates, etc.) as well as subsidies to the fossil fuel industry are fully accounted for, just how economically viable is the current system?
This article runs down the Machiavellian details of the situation:
"The second pillar of American dominance in the world is the dominant role of the U.S. dollar as reserve currency. Until the advent of the Euro in late 1999, there was no potential challenge to this dollar hegemony in world trade. The Petrodollar has been at the heart of the dollar hegemony since the 1970's..."
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah man, the bio-diesel/plug-in hybrid is a pretty sweet path. Enables the use of the exisiting petro fuel distribution infrastructure with carbon neutral bio-diesel while also being able to recharge from your home grid-connected solar panel/wind turbine, etc.
The hydrogen economy sounds nifty and all, but for personal transpo bio-diesel/plug-in hybrid looks a whole lot more practical.
Now, to figure out how to deal with the congestion and flooding that results from using land development designs from 1957...
Related tangent: This is a common western misconception about the belief in reincarnation - the karma governed cycle of death and rebirth, or samsara.
Most folks who sincerely believe in reincarnation (1.4 billion Hindus and Buddhists, give or take) are trying *not* to be reincarnated.
It's not, "Sweet, I've been reincarnated and have another chance to experience life as a mortal being". Rather it's, "Uh-oh, another earthly reincarnation with it's attendent suffering, maladies and eventual death. Guess I'd better work out some of that karma that's keeping me attached to this lower plane."
Generally people shoot for an auspicious reincarnation rather than ascending to fully enlightened Buddhahood or Christ consciousness... Wouldn't want to be relegated to a lifetime in a lower incarnation. You know, like a catepillar, brine shrimp or 76 years of maintaining someone else's code and reading duplicate articles on
Gotta go, my cheesy poofs and soda were just left outside my door and I really have to finish these quality assurance reviews and verify the latest revisions to some web sites,
600 comments and no Sarah Connor joke? Someone must have gone back and erased it, it's the only logical explanation.
Haven't seen too many instances of references to RMI or the Hypercar here on /.
The Hypercar design that they've put a lot of engineering effort into would appear to merit some consideration. It's predicated on the assumption of a transition to the hydrogen fuel cell, but I would imagine that a biodiesel/electric hybrid based on their Whole System Design methodology represents one viable future of personal transportation.
It'd certainly be interesting to hear some slashengineers comment on some of the concepts integral to RMI's approach.
Barton
[caveat]I use a fairly ancient checkout of mplayer cvs[/caveat] just about every day and the only codec I've run into trouble with was on a DVD with big-endian AC3 audio streams.
mplayer rocks.
Barton
::Cough::
Hrm, uh MJ == the greatest NBA player ever is a bit of an overstatement. Great indeed, but as greater than Bill Russell? Than Oscar Robertson? Dr. J, Magic and Larry? Isiah? Doubtless, a bunch of other guys who have an equal claim?
You could certainly make an argument in any of the above cases but in light of your unilateral statement, maybe you're measuring greatness in $ or in media exposure and not in terms of pure hoops skills...
Barton
+1 for Congressional revision control. Linux text tools could seriously have a significant impact on the legislative process.
We should ./ Congress on this one. They'd probably actually appreciate it once they made the adjustment to the increased accountability...
Barton
The main problem with using farmed vegetable oil directly for fuel (rather than recovering it after use in cooking, deriving it from crop wastes, etc.) is water.
If I remember my WorldWatch correctly most soybean farming in the U.S. is dependent upon fossil water, primarily from the Oglala Aquifer.
As a stop gap measure, to validate that there are viable alternatives, soy fuel isn't a bad thing. In terms of retooling our transpo/liquid fuel infrastructure, using salt water in coastal desert areas to grow algae bred for oil content is far more likely to be successful.
Barton
You insensitive klahd... I'm sitting on a *sofa* and I happen to also be sitting behind *two* keyboards listening to a web streamed simulcast of a concert in New Jersey (3000 miles away in meatspace) on one Linux box while recording the Olympics broadcast on my other Linux box, posting on /. and kicking back post work, having some supper.
Yeah, ok so its Friday of Mardi Gras weekend and I'm at home on the sofa reading ./, laughing at myself for busting out a moldy slashcliches (slashches?)... so what's my point?
Since when did posts need to have a point? Well I suppose it could be that the real world ain't 1's and 0's, $10k plasma screens @ 21% vs volunteering at Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems to develop a interdimensional attack & recreational device that runs Linux.
Apply some fuzzy logic y'all, ease back on the judgmentalism and ism throttle and reform yourselves a little bit.
Barton
Here's one you won't want to forget:
Clatto Verata Nicto!
Barton
Check out the Alsa Soundcard Matrix, e.g. M-Audio and RME, probably a couple others for multi-line. Of course the whole driver/open specs issue is as relevant to sound cards on linux as it is with any other hardware.
BTW, there are seemingly infinite numbers of cool sound apps available for linux. As is also generally the case they tend to be small apps that do one thing really well as opposed to Pro-Tools/CuBase ultimate behemoths that attempt to do everything (new, now with proprietary lock-in!).
Are they generally used to exclusively populate a "pro-audio" toolkit? Probably not by your definition of "pro", not yet anyway.
Do professionals use FOSS audio tools on linux to earn their livings? Yes absolutely, everyday. For that matter, the GIMP, Inkscape, Dia and mplayer? Natch.
Indispensible resource page: dave phillips linux-sound.org
Also one of the highest signal to noise mailing lists I've seen on teh Intarweb: linux-audio-user
[momentary regret] 'What have I done, I've slashdotted lau!'[/momentary regret] Oh well, whaddyagonnnado? BartonSka, punk-funk theramin? Yeah that's right, Fishbone's got it going on!
The major obstacles to switching to renewable energy are political, not economic or technical. The primary source of resistance to changing to a sustainable, functional energy system is rooted in oil being priced and sold exclusively in dollars, trade imbalances, reserve currencies, debt and the corresponding implications for financial markets.
Put another way, when the costs of burning fossil fuels (CO2 emissions, acid rain, smog, particulates, etc.) as well as subsidies to the fossil fuel industry are fully accounted for, just how economically viable is the current system?
This article runs down the Machiavellian details of the situation:
"The second pillar of American dominance in the world is the dominant role of the U.S. dollar as reserve currency. Until the advent of the Euro in late 1999, there was no potential challenge to this dollar hegemony in world trade. The Petrodollar has been at the heart of the dollar hegemony since the 1970's..."