The correct mixture of gasoline vapors and air certifiably explodes, just like the correct mixture of hydrogen and air.
I remember a school excursion we had to the local fire department exercise area, where they among others showed the explosive power of gasoline. They had a bucket with one liter of gasoline, which they threw out over a small burning patch of something. The fireball was breathtaking. If that wasn't an explosion, I don't know what is. Anyway, the morale was something like "this was one liter, most moped tanks carry five liters or more. Don't sit on your moped with the tank cap open and drop your cigarette in it".
If you believe otherwise I guess you could power your house with a V8 hooked up to a generator.
Or if he wants efficiency, he could use a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C, the most efficient diesel engine in the world, coupled to a generator. Of course, it could be a bit overkill, since it produces 84.42 MW (it was designed for large container ships).:)
I can tell you a large power plant is way more efficient than 33%, probably better than 90%
No, that's not thermodynamically possible, unless you are referring to the combined efficiency of both electricity production and heat generation (for district heating). Thermal power stations get efficiencies in the range of 30-50% for pure electricity generation. Higher efficiencies (upwards of 90%) are achievable only by putting the "waste" heat to good use, such as supplying it to district heating systems.
But the grid is, depending on the distance as bad as
The grid is not nearly as inefficient as many people seem to think. Electricity can be transported for pretty long distances (like 1000 km) with only minor losses (less than 10%). This is achieved by using a very high voltage (in Sweden, 400 kV is a common voltage for long-distance power lines), which minimizes the current and thus the loss to ohmic heating of the cables.
During the summer, this makes your A/C run more to balance the heat
Serious installations of tumble dryers and/or drying cabinets usually have separate ventilation pipes to carry away the heat from the drying equipment, and the A/C should only be minimally affected (such as when you open the doors to the machines).
Good point, but even H2 cells used for electricity generation can explode, albeit not under normal operations. Its still H2 afterall.
Hydrogen cannot explode by itself, it needs oxygen and an ignition source. Thus, it is no less safe than using gasoline, and people do not seem to object to using that. And even batteries can explode, as some laptop owners had the bad luck to experience.
its also very unsafe to be driving around with a tank full of highly exlposive gas
And this is different from driving around with a tank full of highly explosive gasoline because...?
In the long run, electric will be the better choice. We can get electricity from a number of sources, which abstracts that away from the engineering of the vehicle. An h2 powered car will have significantly fewer of sources
Since one of those sources in the hydrogen case is electricity, I don't see the number of sources to be fewer than in the case of battery-powered cars.
Please criticize valid points of hydrogen as an energy storage medium instead of making up silly points that can be refuted in an instant.
and points the way to a solution that nobody wants to consider -- we need to pollute the air MORE to cool the planet
That's not a solution, that's a band-aid with many serious consequences for our health. I really hope that nobody actually tries to implement such a scheme.
this corn ethanol crap and all it's doing is raising food prices
Rising food prices are much more strongly related to the drastic increase in food demand from the growing economies in Asia than with ethanol production.
The pollution controls in your car consume power to run.
Yes, it does.
This decreases your fuel economy
No, it doesn't. The catalytic converter runs on waste heat from the engine, and thus does not impact your fuel economy. Without it, the heat would just have been blown out of your tailpipe instead. In a way, the catalytic converter actually increases efficiency by using more of the energy in the fuel for usable work (cleaning your exhaust fumes) instead of just wasting it.
and actually increases your total CO2 production.
That's correct, but only so because the catalytic converter converts unburned hydrocarbons and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water. Carbon dioxide is much less harmful than unburned hydrocarbons, so performing this conversion is better than the alternative, which is spewing all these unburned hydrocarbons out the tailpipe.
Actually not, since the arctic ice floats on the water. In other words, the entire ice cap weighs as much as the part below the waterline would have if it had been liquid water. It's the same principle was when you have a floating ice cube in a glass of water filled to the edge. When the ice cube melts, the glass does not overflow.
Antarctic and Greenlandic ice on the other hand, is quite a different story, since much of it rests on land and is several kilometers thick. If that would melt, sea levels would rise considerably.
That may be true, but it is not related to carbon dioxide or global warming at all, which is what the GP was talking about. Colorful sunsets are due to other pollution, especially particulate matter, but possibly also emissions of nitrogen oxides and other gases.
but I thought that the Mojave experiment did a lot to show that many of Vista's problems were FUD.
It showed nothing at all. This is a partial study by the company selling the product the study is seemingly promotes. By calling it a "study", it gains more credentials among some people than if it had been called by it's real name, that is advertisement campaign.
Nothing says that Microsoft didn't select those people they show in the campaign based on their answers, as to send a more positive marketing message to the public. They could even have been given money in exchange for pretending that this "study" turned them around completely.
I didn't trust previous Microsoft-commissioned "studies", like the "studies" posted under the Get The Facts banner, and I don't trust this one either. Why should I? Their "studies" have repeatedly been shown as flawed and/or biased, and thus not to be trusted.
If you would be cool, and by your own extension "have an Armani suit, Ferrari Testarossa, and a 1000-node grid computing cluster", you wouldn't be hanging on Slashdot.
"right handed" is twitter's new sockpuppet. Or do you think it's a coincidence that four of his other accounts are posting in this thread and he's agreeing with them?
So if I read you right, anyone who agrees with twitter must be one of his sock-puppets, since it is inconceivable that anyone could really agree with him.
Seriously, I've read a few of twitter's posts, and I don't see what all the outrage about him is all about. Sure, they are sometimes a bit flamebaity, but that's nothing unique to him. Many who feel strongly about a subject may sometimes post messages which others perceive as flamebaits, even if that's likely unintentional.
And this witch hunt for his alleged sock-puppet aliases looks like nothing less than outright bullying to me. Especially since no claims are ever backed up by evidence.
You have a pretty weird definition of DRM. DRM is an umbrella term for technology that makes your computer disobey you, its owner and supposed master, and instead obey some third party against your will.
Permission systems are not DRM. They work for you, not against you, as the system owner. They enforce your policy for the use of your computer, not someone else's policy on your computer.
Do you also consider encryption products such as GPG/PGP a form of DRM? Some misguided people do, but they are wrong. Most DRM systems use encryption, but that does not make all, or even many, encryption products into DRM.
No store would carry items that could be detrimental to the store reputation. Apple pulling this "app" is just protecting their name and the name of the iTunes Store. I find it very reasonable.
That said, it does not absolve Apple of other criticism, such as the inability to install applications on the iPhone/iPod Touch except through the iTunes Store, or the single-operator policy that they use in many countries.
According to the Wikipedia page on TLS, there is a draft specification for using OpenPGP certificates instead of X.509 certificates with SSL/TLS. And as you might be aware of, OpenPGP uses a web of trust model.
Firefox 3 search bar and navigation button interface is derived from that of IE.
It is? The search bar has been there since at least Firefox 1.0, and I don't remember IE having it back then. The rest of the user interface has looked pretty much the same all the way since Netscape 1.0.
So what did Firefox derive from IE?
Linux desktop are inharently trying to copy Windows day by day.
Like what? I use Gnome, and it surely isn't a lot like Windows. Sure, it has windows, icons, menus and a pointer, but so have almost every single graphical user interface for the last 20 years.
When you have a business that basically is 0% cost, and 100% profit (no, it doesn't cost even $1 to burn a CD).
So in other words, all their products just materialize out of thin air? Or not. AFAIR, just Windows Vista sucked up more than nine billion dollars in development costs.
May I ask you, how do you know that some account is a sock-puppet for someone else? Oh, that's right, you don't. You may believe so, but how could you know?
Slashdot Mirror
H2 explodes. Gasoline vaporizes, and then burns.
The correct mixture of gasoline vapors and air certifiably explodes, just like the correct mixture of hydrogen and air.
I remember a school excursion we had to the local fire department exercise area, where they among others showed the explosive power of gasoline. They had a bucket with one liter of gasoline, which they threw out over a small burning patch of something. The fireball was breathtaking. If that wasn't an explosion, I don't know what is. Anyway, the morale was something like "this was one liter, most moped tanks carry five liters or more. Don't sit on your moped with the tank cap open and drop your cigarette in it".
If you believe otherwise I guess you could power your house with a V8 hooked up to a generator.
Or if he wants efficiency, he could use a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C, the most efficient diesel engine in the world, coupled to a generator. Of course, it could be a bit overkill, since it produces 84.42 MW (it was designed for large container ships). :)
I can tell you a large power plant is way more efficient than 33%, probably better than 90%
No, that's not thermodynamically possible, unless you are referring to the combined efficiency of both electricity production and heat generation (for district heating). Thermal power stations get efficiencies in the range of 30-50% for pure electricity generation. Higher efficiencies (upwards of 90%) are achievable only by putting the "waste" heat to good use, such as supplying it to district heating systems.
But the grid is, depending on the distance as bad as
The grid is not nearly as inefficient as many people seem to think. Electricity can be transported for pretty long distances (like 1000 km) with only minor losses (less than 10%). This is achieved by using a very high voltage (in Sweden, 400 kV is a common voltage for long-distance power lines), which minimizes the current and thus the loss to ohmic heating of the cables.
I'd guess that the "fuel" is water, as in hydro power plants.
They may not have it now, but nothing prevents them from installing charging equipment if electric cars become popular.
During the summer, this makes your A/C run more to balance the heat
Serious installations of tumble dryers and/or drying cabinets usually have separate ventilation pipes to carry away the heat from the drying equipment, and the A/C should only be minimally affected (such as when you open the doors to the machines).
Good point, but even H2 cells used for electricity generation can explode, albeit not under normal operations. Its still H2 afterall.
Hydrogen cannot explode by itself, it needs oxygen and an ignition source. Thus, it is no less safe than using gasoline, and people do not seem to object to using that. And even batteries can explode, as some laptop owners had the bad luck to experience.
its also very unsafe to be driving around with a tank full of highly exlposive gas
And this is different from driving around with a tank full of highly explosive gasoline because...?
In the long run, electric will be the better choice. We can get electricity from a number of sources, which abstracts that away from the engineering of the vehicle. An h2 powered car will have significantly fewer of sources
Since one of those sources in the hydrogen case is electricity, I don't see the number of sources to be fewer than in the case of battery-powered cars.
Please criticize valid points of hydrogen as an energy storage medium instead of making up silly points that can be refuted in an instant.
and points the way to a solution that nobody wants to consider -- we need to pollute the air MORE to cool the planet
That's not a solution, that's a band-aid with many serious consequences for our health. I really hope that nobody actually tries to implement such a scheme.
Smog is not a major one for Bejing.
No? I think this picture tells quite a different story.
And does anyone actually believe that China and India are actually going to comply with clean air agreements?
Not as long as the US won't.
this corn ethanol crap and all it's doing is raising food prices
Rising food prices are much more strongly related to the drastic increase in food demand from the growing economies in Asia than with ethanol production.
The pollution controls in your car consume power to run.
Yes, it does.
This decreases your fuel economy
No, it doesn't. The catalytic converter runs on waste heat from the engine, and thus does not impact your fuel economy. Without it, the heat would just have been blown out of your tailpipe instead. In a way, the catalytic converter actually increases efficiency by using more of the energy in the fuel for usable work (cleaning your exhaust fumes) instead of just wasting it.
and actually increases your total CO2 production.
That's correct, but only so because the catalytic converter converts unburned hydrocarbons and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water. Carbon dioxide is much less harmful than unburned hydrocarbons, so performing this conversion is better than the alternative, which is spewing all these unburned hydrocarbons out the tailpipe.
If the arctic ice melts, oceans will rise, sure.
Actually not, since the arctic ice floats on the water. In other words, the entire ice cap weighs as much as the part below the waterline would have if it had been liquid water. It's the same principle was when you have a floating ice cube in a glass of water filled to the edge. When the ice cube melts, the glass does not overflow.
Antarctic and Greenlandic ice on the other hand, is quite a different story, since much of it rests on land and is several kilometers thick. If that would melt, sea levels would rise considerably.
That may be true, but it is not related to carbon dioxide or global warming at all, which is what the GP was talking about. Colorful sunsets are due to other pollution, especially particulate matter, but possibly also emissions of nitrogen oxides and other gases.
but I thought that the Mojave experiment did a lot to show that many of Vista's problems were FUD.
It showed nothing at all. This is a partial study by the company selling the product the study is seemingly promotes. By calling it a "study", it gains more credentials among some people than if it had been called by it's real name, that is advertisement campaign.
Nothing says that Microsoft didn't select those people they show in the campaign based on their answers, as to send a more positive marketing message to the public. They could even have been given money in exchange for pretending that this "study" turned them around completely.
I didn't trust previous Microsoft-commissioned "studies", like the "studies" posted under the Get The Facts banner, and I don't trust this one either. Why should I? Their "studies" have repeatedly been shown as flawed and/or biased, and thus not to be trusted.
That's why I'm cool and you're not
If you would be cool, and by your own extension "have an Armani suit, Ferrari Testarossa, and a 1000-node grid computing cluster", you wouldn't be hanging on Slashdot.
"right handed" is twitter's new sockpuppet. Or do you think it's a coincidence that four of his other accounts are posting in this thread and he's agreeing with them?
So if I read you right, anyone who agrees with twitter must be one of his sock-puppets, since it is inconceivable that anyone could really agree with him.
Seriously, I've read a few of twitter's posts, and I don't see what all the outrage about him is all about. Sure, they are sometimes a bit flamebaity, but that's nothing unique to him. Many who feel strongly about a subject may sometimes post messages which others perceive as flamebaits, even if that's likely unintentional.
And this witch hunt for his alleged sock-puppet aliases looks like nothing less than outright bullying to me. Especially since no claims are ever backed up by evidence.
You have a pretty weird definition of DRM. DRM is an umbrella term for technology that makes your computer disobey you, its owner and supposed master, and instead obey some third party against your will.
Permission systems are not DRM. They work for you, not against you, as the system owner. They enforce your policy for the use of your computer, not someone else's policy on your computer.
Do you also consider encryption products such as GPG/PGP a form of DRM? Some misguided people do, but they are wrong. Most DRM systems use encryption, but that does not make all, or even many, encryption products into DRM.
If the market will bare it, it should be allowed.
No store would carry items that could be detrimental to the store reputation. Apple pulling this "app" is just protecting their name and the name of the iTunes Store. I find it very reasonable.
That said, it does not absolve Apple of other criticism, such as the inability to install applications on the iPhone/iPod Touch except through the iTunes Store, or the single-operator policy that they use in many countries.
According to the Wikipedia page on TLS, there is a draft specification for using OpenPGP certificates instead of X.509 certificates with SSL/TLS. And as you might be aware of, OpenPGP uses a web of trust model.
Firefox 3 search bar and navigation button interface is derived from that of IE.
It is? The search bar has been there since at least Firefox 1.0, and I don't remember IE having it back then. The rest of the user interface has looked pretty much the same all the way since Netscape 1.0.
So what did Firefox derive from IE?
Linux desktop are inharently trying to copy Windows day by day.
Like what? I use Gnome, and it surely isn't a lot like Windows. Sure, it has windows, icons, menus and a pointer, but so have almost every single graphical user interface for the last 20 years.
When you have a business that basically is 0% cost, and 100% profit (no, it doesn't cost even $1 to burn a CD).
So in other words, all their products just materialize out of thin air? Or not. AFAIR, just Windows Vista sucked up more than nine billion dollars in development costs.
May I ask you, how do you know that some account is a sock-puppet for someone else? Oh, that's right, you don't. You may believe so, but how could you know?
In short: Evidence please!
Sure, in absolute numbers that's pretty much, but in relative numbers, not so much.