New solar cells developed with nano-technology at the University of Toronto (http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/050110-832.asp ) convert light from the blue-yellow end of the spectrun down to the near-infrared (current cells work only in the bluie-yellow end of the visible spectrum). This could increase the conversion efficiency by a factor of 5. Additionally, this technology lends itself to be able to literally print the cells on a plastic substrate, significantly lowering manufacturing costs.
Currently, a typical home solar setup produces about 4.5 KW (max) and costs about US $25,000 to install. Payback takes about 20 years. If this new technology could change both numbers by a conservative factor of say, 3, you'd be looking at 13.5 KW (max) systems going for about US $8,500, and payback times of 5 years or so. Then, you'd have something.
Perhaps I'm lucky that my university has a relatively small engineering program. All of my professios (except the grad students, of course) had been out in industry for some time before returning to academia. They brought that expirence into the classroom. Here's how one professor related that expirence...
The professor as a newly minted "Engineer" got a job at a major U.S. automaker. He and several other fresh engineers were assigned to work on a new torque converter design under the tutalge of a senior engineer. Teh new engineers eagerly set to work, slide-rules in hand (yes, slide-rules). After some time they produced a prototype. With the senior engineer watching, they put it on the test rig and tested it, gathering all relevent data. After the test, ther senior engineer took the prototype over to the work bench, opened it up and studied the vanes. He removed them and "modified" them with hammer and file. Needless to say, the young engineers were not happy, after all they had spent days on the design construction of the prototype. The senior engineer reassembled the converter and re-ran the battery of tests. The young engineers were very surprised to see that the converter had higher performance and efficiency numbers. The professor finished the story by telling us "...that is the difference between the art of engineering and the science of engineering."
Only if the wind is blowing at the design speed, which it rarely does.
Anyway, photovoltaics really lend themself to distributed, rather than centralized, generation. Let's see, combine Boeing's concentrator technology with the broad-spectrum solar cell material being developed at the University of Toronto (http://www.memagazine.org/nanoapr05/morerays/more rays.html), which can boost effeciency over conventional solar cells by nearly 5 times (and is far cheaper to produce!) and now we have something veeery interesting. (BTW, I claim IP rights on this idea!)
The typical home installation of about 4500 watts currently costs about $25,000 (US), with pay-back periods of 15-20 years (your mileage may vary). That gives the masses little incentive to undertake the project. Now, if you adjust cost and pay back numbers by a now seemingly achievable factor of 4, the upfront costs go down to $6,250 and the pay-back goes to 4 years, in which case I ask "Where do I sign up?"
A TASER is classified as a "Less Leathal" weapon (that's right, not non-leathal). It is intended to be emploled ONLY when the alternative is the use of "Deadly Force" (i.e. facing a perp with a knife). Use of a Taser or even pepper spray/mace against a non-violent but non-compliant subject is to me police brutality.
Which is one of the reasons that I try to conduct "normal" retail transactions with cash. If I need to make a larger purchase, I prefer to write a check rather than using a credit or debit card. The act of actually writing the check is a check on over-spending (i.e. a "reality check").
Prehaps you should delve into just what the wiretap program was doing (as disclised).
The program was tapping certain calls originating from or terminating in certain foreign (not U.S.) countries with certain, and undisclosed, phone numbers.
It is also my understanding that the ACLU whent "judge shopping" to find a sympathetic ear.
And, for the record: No, I'm not a member of the Republican party (or any other politcal party, for that matter.)
Thats how their "energy deregulation" works/worked. You can be a producer or a distributor. Producers were/are allowed to manage prices through a state-run auction system that allowed producers to bid-up prices. Distributor's prices were/are not allowed to float in response to the producer's prices. The result is rolling blackouts.
Proposed Constutitonal Amendment for Congressional Term Limits:
Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of Represenatitive more than four (4) times nor shall any person be elected to the office of Senator more than twice nor shall any person serve terms totaling more than fourteen (14) years in both offices.
Section 2. After ratification, this article will take effect during the next regular election cycle for each Senator and Represenatitive as set fourth in Article 3 of the United States Constitution.
Despite the industry hype, DRM is "for the artists", it is for the "industry". Musicians make their money touring, not from album sales. Album sales drive ticket sales. The RIAA and MPAA will continue to fight tooth-and-nail to prevent any precieved threat to their profits. The really interesting thing is that CD sales were climbing every year until the RIAA went after (the original) Napster, so it would appear that their strong arm tactics have in fact, backfired.
The voter verifiable paper reciept is also not trustworthy. Any descent programmer can make it print what you input and give it to you and make it print what I changed the votes to on the machines audit roll.
What is imperitave is a transparent and secure process *AND* the use of hand-marked paper ballots. Vote counting procedures need to be written out and uniform across a state. Vote counting needs to be conducted where it can be witnessed "live and in-person" by any citizen of the voting area (personally, I favor school gymnasiums).
Time to start building soap boxes.
"We've never said we wanted to be No 1 or No.2" - Jim Donald, CEO, Starbucks.
BS. We've always wanted to be No.1 and we'll dump No. 2 on anyone who tries to beat us.
"If you're not nimble, there's no advantage to size. It's like a rock." - Anne Mulcahy, CEO , Xerox.
Oh, please! Xerox invented practically everything we take for granted in the IT world at their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and then gave it away because "we're a copier company".
You have to have the courage of your convictions." - John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems.
BS. If the market is big enough (say communist china), he'd sell his soul to get the contract. Oh, that's right, HE DID!
Volume is something we've often chased to the detriment of the long-term business." - Neville Isdell, CEO, Coke.
That's probably the most honest quote of the bunch, however he's not above using volume to drive competitors into the dirt. BTW, who names their kid Neville? I'd thought after that brush-up in Munich in 1938...
Would be phone service. Say I have a single line from teleco "A", A mail order company I want to do business with has, say, 250 lines with teleco "B". I pay $35/m for my residential service and the company pays $20/m each line($5000/m) for commercial service - with all that "residential service" and "commercial service" entails (QoS). Now I call the company's 800 number and order 5 gizmos (1 for me and 4 for gifts). The phone call goes from my house through teleco "A" via teleco "C" to teleco "B" to the company order taker. Teleco's "A", "B", "C" (and "D", "E", etc.) have agreements in place to equitably manage the traffic and and the associated costs (called "peering"). What the big ISP's (and in this case, teleco "C") want to do is to get a cut of the revenue that the company generated when I placed my order (mostly because the company is very successful and rolling in money). If the company refuses to pay, teleco "C" could block any traffic attempting to connect to the company. In that case all I would get would be a busy signal and the company's buisness would tank. On the street, this is called "extortion", and is generally considered to be a crime (folks who like to break legs and burn things down notwithstanding).
The real issue of "net neutrality" is not what I pay my ISP to acess the internet or what Google pays their ISP to access the internet. The real issue is those other ISP's whose backbone networks carry the packets from Google to me want a cut from Google or any other (highly profitable) content provider. As discussed in a pervious thread, the teleco's figured out how to do this for long-distance a long time ago. This needs to be worked out among the backbone providers and Congress needs to keep out of it.
I have favored what I will refer to as "ala carte blocks". Current cable and satellite programming is available as a series of "packages" (30, 60, 150 channels, etc.), with only "preimum" channels being available ala carte. My idea for "ala carte blocks" would give the consumer the ability to choose a first select a number of channels block and then select which channels to view as part of the block. I would still be getting 30, 50 or 150 channels, I would just be able to choose which 30, 50 or 150 I wanted.
Slashdot Mirror
I smell a class action suit in the works...
New solar cells developed with nano-technology at the University of Toronto (http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/050110-832.asp ) convert light from the blue-yellow end of the spectrun down to the near-infrared (current cells work only in the bluie-yellow end of the visible spectrum). This could increase the conversion efficiency by a factor of 5. Additionally, this technology lends itself to be able to literally print the cells on a plastic substrate, significantly lowering manufacturing costs.
Currently, a typical home solar setup produces about 4.5 KW (max) and costs about US $25,000 to install. Payback takes about 20 years. If this new technology could change both numbers by a conservative factor of say, 3, you'd be looking at 13.5 KW (max) systems going for about US $8,500, and payback times of 5 years or so. Then, you'd have something.
Perhaps I'm lucky that my university has a relatively small engineering program. All of my professios (except the grad students, of course) had been out in industry for some time before returning to academia. They brought that expirence into the classroom. Here's how one professor related that expirence... The professor as a newly minted "Engineer" got a job at a major U.S. automaker. He and several other fresh engineers were assigned to work on a new torque converter design under the tutalge of a senior engineer. Teh new engineers eagerly set to work, slide-rules in hand (yes, slide-rules). After some time they produced a prototype. With the senior engineer watching, they put it on the test rig and tested it, gathering all relevent data. After the test, ther senior engineer took the prototype over to the work bench, opened it up and studied the vanes. He removed them and "modified" them with hammer and file. Needless to say, the young engineers were not happy, after all they had spent days on the design construction of the prototype. The senior engineer reassembled the converter and re-ran the battery of tests. The young engineers were very surprised to see that the converter had higher performance and efficiency numbers. The professor finished the story by telling us "...that is the difference between the art of engineering and the science of engineering."
Only if the wind is blowing at the design speed, which it rarely does.
e rays.html), which can boost effeciency over conventional solar cells by nearly 5 times (and is far cheaper to produce!) and now we have something veeery interesting. (BTW, I claim IP rights on this idea!)
Anyway, photovoltaics really lend themself to distributed, rather than centralized, generation. Let's see, combine Boeing's concentrator technology with the broad-spectrum solar cell material being developed at the University of Toronto (http://www.memagazine.org/nanoapr05/morerays/mor
The typical home installation of about 4500 watts currently costs about $25,000 (US), with pay-back periods of 15-20 years (your mileage may vary). That gives the masses little incentive to undertake the project. Now, if you adjust cost and pay back numbers by a now seemingly achievable factor of 4, the upfront costs go down to $6,250 and the pay-back goes to 4 years, in which case I ask "Where do I sign up?"
And that would be Admiral Hopper to you, bub.
A TASER is classified as a "Less Leathal" weapon (that's right, not non-leathal). It is intended to be emploled ONLY when the alternative is the use of "Deadly Force" (i.e. facing a perp with a knife). Use of a Taser or even pepper spray/mace against a non-violent but non-compliant subject is to me police brutality.
[Posting openly]
Documentation (and I mean real documentation).
And post it openly, not anonymously.
We (the United States) are certainly not perfect, but stack up our accomplishments and charity against anyone!
"People will spend more."
Which is one of the reasons that I try to conduct "normal" retail transactions with cash. If I need to make a larger purchase, I prefer to write a check rather than using a credit or debit card. The act of actually writing the check is a check on over-spending (i.e. a "reality check").
For Windows XP users: MojoPac
More prior art?
Prehaps you should delve into just what the wiretap program was doing (as disclised).
The program was tapping certain calls originating from or terminating in certain foreign (not U.S.) countries with certain, and undisclosed, phone numbers.
It is also my understanding that the ACLU whent "judge shopping" to find a sympathetic ear.
And, for the record: No, I'm not a member of the Republican party (or any other politcal party, for that matter.)
Thats how their "energy deregulation" works/worked. You can be a producer or a distributor. Producers were/are allowed to manage prices through a state-run auction system that allowed producers to bid-up prices. Distributor's prices were/are not allowed to float in response to the producer's prices. The result is rolling blackouts.
Between this proposed oil tax and Locklear's suit against 8 auto makers, California is going to tank its own economy.
Iceberg? What iceberg?
Add: 1962 The A-12 (SR-71 precursor) tested.
Question: When was the last time you saw something really new ?
Therefore...
Proposed Constutitonal Amendment for Congressional Term Limits:
Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of Represenatitive more than four (4) times nor shall any person be elected to the office of Senator more than twice nor shall any person serve terms totaling more than fourteen (14) years in both offices.
Section 2. After ratification, this article will take effect during the next regular election cycle for each Senator and Represenatitive as set fourth in Article 3 of the United States Constitution.
Elective public service is not a "career".
Despite the industry hype, DRM is "for the artists", it is for the "industry". Musicians make their money touring, not from album sales. Album sales drive ticket sales. The RIAA and MPAA will continue to fight tooth-and-nail to prevent any precieved threat to their profits. The really interesting thing is that CD sales were climbing every year until the RIAA went after (the original) Napster, so it would appear that their strong arm tactics have in fact, backfired.
The voter verifiable paper reciept is also not trustworthy. Any descent programmer can make it print what you input and give it to you and make it print what I changed the votes to on the machines audit roll. What is imperitave is a transparent and secure process *AND* the use of hand-marked paper ballots. Vote counting procedures need to be written out and uniform across a state. Vote counting needs to be conducted where it can be witnessed "live and in-person" by any citizen of the voting area (personally, I favor school gymnasiums). Time to start building soap boxes.
Love the quotes with the pics in the side bar:
"We've never said we wanted to be No 1 or No.2" - Jim Donald, CEO, Starbucks.
BS. We've always wanted to be No.1 and we'll dump No. 2 on anyone who tries to beat us.
"If you're not nimble, there's no advantage to size. It's like a rock." - Anne Mulcahy, CEO , Xerox.
Oh, please! Xerox invented practically everything we take for granted in the IT world at their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and then gave it away because "we're a copier company".
You have to have the courage of your convictions." - John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems.
BS. If the market is big enough (say communist china), he'd sell his soul to get the contract. Oh, that's right, HE DID!
Volume is something we've often chased to the detriment of the long-term business." - Neville Isdell, CEO, Coke.
That's probably the most honest quote of the bunch, however he's not above using volume to drive competitors into the dirt. BTW, who names their kid Neville? I'd thought after that brush-up in Munich in 1938...
Would be phone service. Say I have a single line from teleco "A", A mail order company I want to do business with has, say, 250 lines with teleco "B". I pay $35/m for my residential service and the company pays $20/m each line($5000/m) for commercial service - with all that "residential service" and "commercial service" entails (QoS). Now I call the company's 800 number and order 5 gizmos (1 for me and 4 for gifts). The phone call goes from my house through teleco "A" via teleco "C" to teleco "B" to the company order taker. Teleco's "A", "B", "C" (and "D", "E", etc.) have agreements in place to equitably manage the traffic and and the associated costs (called "peering"). What the big ISP's (and in this case, teleco "C") want to do is to get a cut of the revenue that the company generated when I placed my order (mostly because the company is very successful and rolling in money). If the company refuses to pay, teleco "C" could block any traffic attempting to connect to the company. In that case all I would get would be a busy signal and the company's buisness would tank. On the street, this is called "extortion", and is generally considered to be a crime (folks who like to break legs and burn things down notwithstanding).
The Titanic, what about the Sultana ? As many as 1,700 died due to bad design, repairs, operation and possibly sabatoge.
Here's the boat, don't miss it.
The real issue of "net neutrality" is not what I pay my ISP to acess the internet or what Google pays their ISP to access the internet. The real issue is those other ISP's whose backbone networks carry the packets from Google to me want a cut from Google or any other (highly profitable) content provider. As discussed in a pervious thread, the teleco's figured out how to do this for long-distance a long time ago. This needs to be worked out among the backbone providers and Congress needs to keep out of it.
I have favored what I will refer to as "ala carte blocks". Current cable and satellite programming is available as a series of "packages" (30, 60, 150 channels, etc.), with only "preimum" channels being available ala carte. My idea for "ala carte blocks" would give the consumer the ability to choose a first select a number of channels block and then select which channels to view as part of the block. I would still be getting 30, 50 or 150 channels, I would just be able to choose which 30, 50 or 150 I wanted.