Setting aside the whole ability to use WVO to power diesel engines for the moment, the main reason why diesels are so lacking is Detroit.
Here's a quick history lessons on Diesel engines in the US.
In the late 70's and early 80's, GM turned to it's (now defunct) Oldsmobile division to produce a diesel engine. There was much pressure for this, as gasoline prices were skyrocketing at the time.
Oldsmobile then took the standard GM V8 gasoline engine body, and changed the cylinder head to incorporate fuel injectors. No changes were made to the cylinder block, and no changes were made to the torque used to hold down the head. In addition, there were no water traps added anywhere in the fuel system, and the critical, high-pressure fuel pump was chain driven.
This cheapening-out lead to numerous points of failure:
The cylinder head would leak like a sieve due to the lack of torque holding it down against the increased pressure inside the cylinders.
The engine block would crack, again due to the increased cylinder pressure
Water would enter the fuel system and be taken through the fuel system, rusting the steel parts within and causing catastrophic failure
This was exacerbated by well-meaning owners adding anhydrous alcohol (DryGas) into the mix, which is incompatible with diesel fuel, and would eat the seals and gaskets of the engine
Water would also be injected with the fuel charge into the cylinder, leading to misfirings
With the above problems, the head gaskets would fail, leading to coolant and oil leak into the cylinders and causing Hydrolock, breaking push rods and crank shafts, and essentially destroying the engine entirely.
Dealerships and mechanics were not trained in the maintenance and repair of diesel engines, leading to the one-time-use cylinder head bolts being re-used, and causing even greater catastrophic failure on "Fixed" engines.
Most after-market garages had such problems with the GM diesels that, rather than fixing the problems, they found it easier to swap out the cylinder head and fuel system and convert the engines to run on gasoline instead. Unsurprisingly, this so tarnished the reputation of diesel engines with the American public that a stigma was attached (and still exists to this day), and less than 5% of cars on US roads are diesel-powered, compared to at least 50% in Europe.
Internal Combustion vs. Electric Motors Or Why the numbers don't compare
I noticed another reply to this post state that a 100hp electric motor is larger and heavier than the equivalent ICE engine. There is, however, a good reason for this, and it all comes down to how each measures horsepower.
With an Internal Combustion Engine, the Horsepower rating shown is the absolute peak rating.
With an Electric motor, the Horsepower rating shown is the CONSTANT rating.
This means that while an ICE can deliver it's rated horsepower only over a very short period of time, an electric motor can, and will, deliver it's rated horsepower continually, hour after hour, day after day. The peak rating of an electric motor can be as much as 20 times higher than it's constant load, but as electric motors are typically used more often for a continual load, that value is rarely given. This is how a "Siamese" pair of 40hp (WarP 8) 8" electric motors can drive White Zombie from 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds.
The only "Numbered Releases" they release are stable, supported versions. If you wish to try a bleeding-edge development version, you check out the source from SVN trunk, making sure you subscribe to the -dev and -commit mailing lists to stay abreast of the current state of the tree. So, by releasing 0.22, they are saying "This is the latest version of the tree that we guarantee is stable, and will support/fix, since 0.21."
Each release will do it's best to upgrade an existing environment if possible, and will back up settings/database configuration before attempting the upgrade, so changes can be rolled back.
As for the FUD about having to configure ffmpeg/Qt/XvMC/DirectFB/DirectX etc.,./configure will detect what you have installed (Qt 4 is a requirement, as is Xv (for a frontend, which should be a part of your video driver anyway)). All the other libraries (XvMC, VDPAU, OpenGL, JACK/ARTS/ALSA/OSS, IVTV, DVB/ATSC) are all optional. If you wish to use them, you must have them installed correctly, but beyond that, there is no other need to do anything special. A standard "./configure && make && sudo make install" will build and install a working setup, that you can then tweak and modify to your heart's content.
The "Problem" came because MythTV is a complex piece of software, that can make use of a lot of subsystems within Linux, and requires them all to be working properly. Given Linux's previously troublesome driver support for some hardware, it's understandable why MythTV has got a bad name, but drivers and libraries have matured much since 0.19 (The last really problematic release). And with MythTV distros (Like KnoppMyth, MythDora, MythBuntu and LinHES), things are much easier than ever before.
Yup, VS (at least, VS 2008, including all the free versions) supports RegEx substitution, you just need to open the little "+" next to the words "Find options", which will expand the window and display more options, check the little box in the search window labelled "Use:", and choose "Regular Expressions" from the dropdown that becomes active (The other option there being "Wildcards", for when you don't need a sledgehammer).
Clarkson is for entertainment. He's not to be cited as an authority on anything besides what Clarkson's opinion is.
True enough. Though it has to be said, he does make a fair few good points in the aforementioned video. Including the self-destruction of both American contenders in the hill-climb challenge.
Or you could watch the 5th Gear smash test of a Smart FourTwo into a fixed concrete barrier at 50MPH. It's on Youtube (in several places). Still walk-away-able, though definately not drivable.
Easy. Here in Canada we use Diesel at -40 (C or F, they're the same at that point), with no problems. It's a matter of additives, block heaters, and glow plugs. But as that's standard for most automobiles here (gas or diesel), it's pretty much moot point.
With ULS Diesel (Ultra-Low Sulphur), the only harmful thing that comes out of the tailpipe is CO2. And as BioDiesel is VERY easy to make (from used vegetable oil of any kind), the amount of oil needed is thoeretically nil.
Actually, AREXX was (And still is) miles better than anything on the market.
So what if the language itself doesn't have many commands. pretty much every Amiga app had an AREXX port, so if you wanted to play back music while showing a slideshow, you open a music player and a slideshow app, and then write a simple AREXX script to tie the two together.
Ah, but the DeLorean always ran on Petrol/Gasoline (Hence the business with the train in BTTF III), the "Mr Fusion" only ran the "time circuits" (And presumably, though never mentioned, the flying).
While a H-Bomb is more efficient, an Antimatter bomb could be expanded over time, collecting a very large quantity of antimatter particles and storing them together over a period of months or years. Think buying one Lego block per hour and slowly building yourself a model of the Eiffel tower, or filling a gas can, rather than taking a stick of TNT or a plaster mould. A H-Bomb is fixed. Once it's constructed, it's 'full', whereas this would enable a "Cache" of antimatter to be built over time and stored until it is needed. Not that I'm encouraging anything like this, of course.
Dark matter exists in our universe, is (as far as we know) totally nonreactive, but is massively dense, creating it's own gravitational field (So much so, it can affect the light coming from distant galaxies in an effect known as "Gravitational lensing").
Anti-matter, on the other hand, is very reactionary, and will react with normal matter, annihilating both itself and the matter to create gamma radiation.
A antimatter weapon of several times the destructive power would fit in a fedex envelope. Would require no radiation shielding. Deployment could be as simple as mailing it to a target. Now this is only possible if containment devices can be gotten that small. I'm sure they can because there is no law of physics stating they can't.
Okay, considering that a single atom of the air (Or, indeed, the FedEx envelope you want to send this antimatter in) would be enough to start an annihilative reaction, you would have to be VERY certain of your containment system.
Such a containment system would need to have:
A perfect vacuum, to remove the possibility of a random air atom colliding with your precious antimatter (Currently extremely difficult, if not impossible to manage)
Some form of contactless barrier on the inside, to prevent the antimatter touching it's container (Anti-gravity and/or repulsor fields, then. Also currently virtually impossible within our atmosphere, let alone within a vacuum)
Enough miniturisation to make all this fit in such a small area
And, to be honest, if you had that, you could apply the same technology to Uranium/Plutonium and ship a nuke via FedEx.
As they would say on Discovery Channel: Myth Busted.
I think the easiest way would be to log each person's items as they come in, and sticker each item with that person's ID. On exit, each item is checked with both the sticker and the master log. Anyone who's logged list doesn't tally with the equipment they're carrying out gets stopped and checked, publicly.
Also, having the sleeping area away from the gaming area ensures more security. It makes it that much more difficult to sneak things away, and as there's usually some people playing all the time, people coming in and just moving things around will be noticed immediately.
If ubisoft format my hard drive, I have legal recourse against a known company.
No you don't. Read an EULA some time (Emphasis mine, wording UbiSoft's (From the "Uru Complete Chronicles" manual, as it happens).
Ubisoft warrants to the original purchaser of its products that the products will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of ninety (90)
days from the date of purchase. Ubisoft products are sold "as is," without any expressed or implied warranties of any kind, and Ubisoft is not liable for any
losses or damages of any kind resulting from use of its products. Ubisoft agrees for a period of ninety (90) days to either replace defective product free of
charge provided you return the defective item with dated proof of purchase to the store from which the product was originally purchased or repair or replace
the defective product at its option free of charge, when accompanied with a proof of purchase and sent to our offices postage prepaid. This warranty is not
applicable to normal wear and tear, and shall be void if the defect in the product is found to be as a result of abuse, unreasonable use, mistreatment, or
neglect of the product.
LIMITATIONS: This warranty is in lieu of all other warranties and no other representations or claims of any nature shall be binding on, or obligate
Ubisoft. Any implied warranties applicable to Ubisoft products, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, are limited to
the ninety (90) day period described above. In no event will Ubisoft be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from
possession, use, or malfunction of Ubisoft products. Some states do not allow limitations as to how long an implied warranty lasts and/or exclusions or
limitations of incidental or consequential damages. So the above limitations and/or exclusions of liability may not apply to you. This warranty gives you
specific rights, and you may also have other rights that vary from state to state.
In other words, you're on your own if it does format your hard-drive.
Of course you can take the product back but that's inconvenient.
It's more than inconvenient, it's usually impossible. Most retailers refuse to take back computer software, especially opened software, as a matter of course. And you would have to open the software to get into the installer to read the EULA (Which, in some cases, you "agreed to" before even seeing it, with phrases on the CD case like "By opening this package you agree to be held liable to the End-User License Agreement contained therein", a so-called "Shrink-wrap" license).
So saying that 'taking back software is an option' is, for most cases, wrong.
All these suggestions (Use Linux! Install *BSD! Solaris FTW!) are all well and good, but if/when the system goes down, to whom do you go for support? Hardware caused a crash? Try and track down the kid in a basement that wrote the driver you're using. Some core functionality in the kernel caused a hard lock? Update to the latest kernel and hope for the best (Oh, and have to recompile your whole system while you're at it).
With Windows, if something goes wrong, you can contact the hardware manufacturer (If it's hardware/driver-related) or Microsoft if it's software related. And if they won't help, you can sue them. You can't say the same about *nix, where the prevailing attitude seems to be "It don't work, you're on your own to find a fix".
Sure, you can go through a "Supported" linux vendor, like RedHat, but they're not guaranteeing the software, just the "Service" they provide.
While Windows may be a swiss cheese of security holes, they are legally actionable security holes, which is more than can be said for *nix
The approach to track on critical points, like doorways is complex, because you can't determine if something traveled in or out of the room.
I think something like this would be fairly simple to work. It would require 2 "movements" of an item. So:
ITEM_01 triggers portal between ROOM_A and ROOM_B. ITEM_01 could be in either ROOM_A or ROOM_B at this point.
ITEM_01 triggers portal between ROOM_B and ROOM_C. It can now be definitively said that ITEM_01 was originally in ROOM_A, was moved to ROOM_B, and now resides in ROOM_C.
The only thing you would have to ensure is that when an item is moved, it is definitively tracked (That is, no mis-reads). Though if the system gets a read that counters this (It suddenly appears in ROOM_D/ROOM_E) it could start the "Locating" sequence over again, waiting for the next movement.
If you really wanted a single read for directionality, however, you could double the sensors around a doorway (One inside the doorway, the other outside), so you'd end up with 2 events per doorway, the order of which would tell you whether an item was going into, or out of, a door. This could/would cause problems with signal overlap and cancellation, however, and so would be best avoided.
Couple this with a little machine intelligence (Or the ability to tag certain items as "Belonging" to a person/usually carried with a person), and the system could even tell you (Within a certain degree of accuracy) who moved the item. For example:
The following items passed through DOORWAY_01 within 100ms of each other:
John's Cellphone
John's House Keys
Work overalls #21
Claw Hammer #2
John's Leatherman Wave
DVD #2214 ("Car Repair Volume II")
John's Car Keys
This machine estimates that USER_JOHN moved Claw Hammer #2 and DVD #2214
Slashdot Mirror
Diesel history
A short primer
Setting aside the whole ability to use WVO to power diesel engines for the moment, the main reason why diesels are so lacking is Detroit.
Here's a quick history lessons on Diesel engines in the US.
In the late 70's and early 80's, GM turned to it's (now defunct) Oldsmobile division to produce a diesel engine. There was much pressure for this, as gasoline prices were skyrocketing at the time.
Oldsmobile then took the standard GM V8 gasoline engine body, and changed the cylinder head to incorporate fuel injectors. No changes were made to the cylinder block, and no changes were made to the torque used to hold down the head. In addition, there were no water traps added anywhere in the fuel system, and the critical, high-pressure fuel pump was chain driven.
This cheapening-out lead to numerous points of failure:
Most after-market garages had such problems with the GM diesels that, rather than fixing the problems, they found it easier to swap out the cylinder head and fuel system and convert the engines to run on gasoline instead. Unsurprisingly, this so tarnished the reputation of diesel engines with the American public that a stigma was attached (and still exists to this day), and less than 5% of cars on US roads are diesel-powered, compared to at least 50% in Europe.
Internal Combustion vs. Electric Motors
Or Why the numbers don't compare
I noticed another reply to this post state that a 100hp electric motor is larger and heavier than the equivalent ICE engine. There is, however, a good reason for this, and it all comes down to how each measures horsepower.
This means that while an ICE can deliver it's rated horsepower only over a very short period of time, an electric motor can, and will, deliver it's rated horsepower continually, hour after hour, day after day. The peak rating of an electric motor can be as much as 20 times higher than it's constant load, but as electric motors are typically used more often for a continual load, that value is rarely given. This is how a "Siamese" pair of 40hp (WarP 8) 8" electric motors can drive White Zombie from 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds.
The only "Numbered Releases" they release are stable, supported versions. If you wish to try a bleeding-edge development version, you check out the source from SVN trunk, making sure you subscribe to the -dev and -commit mailing lists to stay abreast of the current state of the tree. So, by releasing 0.22, they are saying "This is the latest version of the tree that we guarantee is stable, and will support/fix, since 0.21."
Each release will do it's best to upgrade an existing environment if possible, and will back up settings/database configuration before attempting the upgrade, so changes can be rolled back.
As for the FUD about having to configure ffmpeg/Qt/XvMC/DirectFB/DirectX etc., ./configure will detect what you have installed (Qt 4 is a requirement, as is Xv (for a frontend, which should be a part of your video driver anyway)). All the other libraries (XvMC, VDPAU, OpenGL, JACK/ARTS/ALSA/OSS, IVTV, DVB/ATSC) are all optional. If you wish to use them, you must have them installed correctly, but beyond that, there is no other need to do anything special. A standard "./configure && make && sudo make install" will build and install a working setup, that you can then tweak and modify to your heart's content.
The "Problem" came because MythTV is a complex piece of software, that can make use of a lot of subsystems within Linux, and requires them all to be working properly. Given Linux's previously troublesome driver support for some hardware, it's understandable why MythTV has got a bad name, but drivers and libraries have matured much since 0.19 (The last really problematic release). And with MythTV distros (Like KnoppMyth, MythDora, MythBuntu and LinHES), things are much easier than ever before.
What will lubricate the turbine bearings?
Polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE for short (AKA Teflon®).
how will we paint the machines?
Soy/Rapeseed(canola)/nut-based oil pigment paints
how will be mine the materials that go into these things?
Mine? Use electric power. Though you could also recycle! 10,000 drinks cans = 1 turbine nacelle (Note: Completely wild guess, but you get the idea)
how will we make the fiberglas?
Glass-Reinforced Soy-based plastics? Carbon Fibre?
without oil?
There are already solutions to all your problems.
Yup, VS (at least, VS 2008, including all the free versions) supports RegEx substitution, you just need to open the little "+" next to the words "Find options", which will expand the window and display more options, check the little box in the search window labelled "Use:", and choose "Regular Expressions" from the dropdown that becomes active (The other option there being "Wildcards", for when you don't need a sledgehammer).
Clarkson is for entertainment. He's not to be cited as an authority on anything besides what Clarkson's opinion is.
True enough. Though it has to be said, he does make a fair few good points in the aforementioned video. Including the self-destruction of both American contenders in the hill-climb challenge.
Or you could watch the 5th Gear smash test of a Smart FourTwo into a fixed concrete barrier at 50MPH. It's on Youtube (in several places). Still walk-away-able, though definately not drivable.
Easy. Here in Canada we use Diesel at -40 (C or F, they're the same at that point), with no problems. It's a matter of additives, block heaters, and glow plugs. But as that's standard for most automobiles here (gas or diesel), it's pretty much moot point.
With ULS Diesel (Ultra-Low Sulphur), the only harmful thing that comes out of the tailpipe is CO2. And as BioDiesel is VERY easy to make (from used vegetable oil of any kind), the amount of oil needed is thoeretically nil.
You mean you can't wait to drive a US-made car? Go ahead.
Watch Jeremy Clarkson's "The good, the bad, the ugly", to see how US cars stack up to their European counterparts.
And yet, you burned them posting in the very thread they'll be needed most. You fool. You damn crazy fool.
Congratulations. You've just bankrupted the US.
Perhaps, next time, you might not want to impose sanctions on the government that holds by far the largest share of the US debt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Foreign_Holders_of_United_States_Treasury_Securities-percent_share.gif
You impose sanctions, they call in that debt. And who else do you really think is going to loan you the money to pay that back?
Mainly because it came with midi ports on the side, ootb.
Actually, AREXX was (And still is) miles better than anything on the market. So what if the language itself doesn't have many commands. pretty much every Amiga app had an AREXX port, so if you wanted to play back music while showing a slideshow, you open a music player and a slideshow app, and then write a simple AREXX script to tie the two together.
Use your car! What do you mean you're not driving a Prius?
Ah, but the DeLorean always ran on Petrol/Gasoline (Hence the business with the train in BTTF III), the "Mr Fusion" only ran the "time circuits" (And presumably, though never mentioned, the flying).
While a H-Bomb is more efficient, an Antimatter bomb could be expanded over time, collecting a very large quantity of antimatter particles and storing them together over a period of months or years. Think buying one Lego block per hour and slowly building yourself a model of the Eiffel tower, or filling a gas can, rather than taking a stick of TNT or a plaster mould. A H-Bomb is fixed. Once it's constructed, it's 'full', whereas this would enable a "Cache" of antimatter to be built over time and stored until it is needed. Not that I'm encouraging anything like this, of course.
Dark matter exists in our universe, is (as far as we know) totally nonreactive, but is massively dense, creating it's own gravitational field (So much so, it can affect the light coming from distant galaxies in an effect known as "Gravitational lensing").
Anti-matter, on the other hand, is very reactionary, and will react with normal matter, annihilating both itself and the matter to create gamma radiation.
Okay, considering that a single atom of the air (Or, indeed, the FedEx envelope you want to send this antimatter in) would be enough to start an annihilative reaction, you would have to be VERY certain of your containment system.
Such a containment system would need to have:
And, to be honest, if you had that, you could apply the same technology to Uranium/Plutonium and ship a nuke via FedEx.
As they would say on Discovery Channel: Myth Busted.
Other people have posted, but to confirm, kph stands for Kilometers Per Hour. A metric version of Miles Per Hour.
And who in the IP Address Space* marked this as Insightful ? "Provides insight into the stupidity of some /. posters"?
*I was going to say "Who on earth", but it occurred to me they have 'net access on the ISS too. Though hopefully they know the metric system.
I think the easiest way would be to log each person's items as they come in, and sticker each item with that person's ID. On exit, each item is checked with both the sticker and the master log. Anyone who's logged list doesn't tally with the equipment they're carrying out gets stopped and checked, publicly.
Also, having the sleeping area away from the gaming area ensures more security. It makes it that much more difficult to sneak things away, and as there's usually some people playing all the time, people coming in and just moving things around will be noticed immediately.
- Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
If ubisoft format my hard drive, I have legal recourse against a known company.
No you don't. Read an EULA some time (Emphasis mine, wording UbiSoft's (From the "Uru Complete Chronicles" manual, as it happens).
Ubisoft warrants to the original purchaser of its products that the products will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of purchase. Ubisoft products are sold "as is," without any expressed or implied warranties of any kind, and Ubisoft is not liable for any losses or damages of any kind resulting from use of its products. Ubisoft agrees for a period of ninety (90) days to either replace defective product free of charge provided you return the defective item with dated proof of purchase to the store from which the product was originally purchased or repair or replace the defective product at its option free of charge, when accompanied with a proof of purchase and sent to our offices postage prepaid. This warranty is not applicable to normal wear and tear, and shall be void if the defect in the product is found to be as a result of abuse, unreasonable use, mistreatment, or neglect of the product.
LIMITATIONS: This warranty is in lieu of all other warranties and no other representations or claims of any nature shall be binding on, or obligate Ubisoft. Any implied warranties applicable to Ubisoft products, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, are limited to the ninety (90) day period described above. In no event will Ubisoft be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from possession, use, or malfunction of Ubisoft products. Some states do not allow limitations as to how long an implied warranty lasts and/or exclusions or limitations of incidental or consequential damages. So the above limitations and/or exclusions of liability may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific rights, and you may also have other rights that vary from state to state.
In other words, you're on your own if it does format your hard-drive.
Of course you can take the product back but that's inconvenient.
It's more than inconvenient, it's usually impossible. Most retailers refuse to take back computer software, especially opened software, as a matter of course. And you would have to open the software to get into the installer to read the EULA (Which, in some cases, you "agreed to" before even seeing it, with phrases on the CD case like "By opening this package you agree to be held liable to the End-User License Agreement contained therein", a so-called "Shrink-wrap" license).
So saying that 'taking back software is an option' is, for most cases, wrong.
All these suggestions (Use Linux! Install *BSD! Solaris FTW!) are all well and good, but if/when the system goes down, to whom do you go for support? Hardware caused a crash? Try and track down the kid in a basement that wrote the driver you're using. Some core functionality in the kernel caused a hard lock? Update to the latest kernel and hope for the best (Oh, and have to recompile your whole system while you're at it).
With Windows, if something goes wrong, you can contact the hardware manufacturer (If it's hardware/driver-related) or Microsoft if it's software related. And if they won't help, you can sue them. You can't say the same about *nix, where the prevailing attitude seems to be "It don't work, you're on your own to find a fix".
Sure, you can go through a "Supported" linux vendor, like RedHat, but they're not guaranteeing the software, just the "Service" they provide.
While Windows may be a swiss cheese of security holes, they are legally actionable security holes, which is more than can be said for *nix
I think something like this would be fairly simple to work. It would require 2 "movements" of an item. So:
The only thing you would have to ensure is that when an item is moved, it is definitively tracked (That is, no mis-reads). Though if the system gets a read that counters this (It suddenly appears in ROOM_D/ROOM_E) it could start the "Locating" sequence over again, waiting for the next movement.
If you really wanted a single read for directionality, however, you could double the sensors around a doorway (One inside the doorway, the other outside), so you'd end up with 2 events per doorway, the order of which would tell you whether an item was going into, or out of, a door. This could/would cause problems with signal overlap and cancellation, however, and so would be best avoided.
Couple this with a little machine intelligence (Or the ability to tag certain items as "Belonging" to a person/usually carried with a person), and the system could even tell you (Within a certain degree of accuracy) who moved the item. For example: