Hydroponics, in the desert... There seems to be a disconnect here. I'm currently listening to NPR Science Friday where they're talking about the Great Lakes Compact, which basically says to desert dwellers, "Keep your hands off our water."
Those deserts are much better off being used for solar power generation (which does use water, but in a closed loop).
University of Michigan has a similar policy, except the computers (and desks and cabinets and MRI machines or whatever) which aren't picked up by other departments are sold to the public. They don't have any discounts for other non-profits but the prices are generally very attractive. This is a ton of cool random old tech there too.
Normal sound doesn't fall off at 1/r^2 (it drops off faster). The 1/r^2 fall off for sound and light come from the initial energy being spread out over a larger surface area (an expanding sphere). Loss is an exponential fall off however. Light doesn't experience significant loss from absorption in the atmosphere, but sound does.
This device is a directed sound wave however, much like a laser, and so the 1/r^2 rule, which never really applied, really doesn't apply. There is some drop due to spreading and probably more from loss (due to 'friction' in the air molecules).
So yes, kinetic weapons are much better at transmitting kinetic energy if you want to kill someone, but they're a crappy means of making a non-lethal weapon.
From TFA
It allows PC makers to offer a low-cost alternative, and it prevents eroding of pricing and margins in the mainstream OS market This isn't competition, it is an attempt at collusion. Competition works to drive price/feature ratios down. This agreement artificially links price to features (you can't offer cheap Windows as an option unless you don't have some highly desirable features). MS is trying to avoid having ULCPs directly compete with their traditional market by segregating that market into full and restricted featured PCs.
As pointed out in other threads, the problem with low voltage DC isn't heat really heat, it is lost efficiency. If you have 10x more current, and 10x lower voltage, to get the same relative voltage loss (say 1%) in the wire you'd need a 10x larger diameter wire (resistance is proportional to area, not diameter). That will be god awful expensive and difficult to work with.
This can be avoid by using high voltage DC, with the down side being that you'll need an expensive DC/DC converter plus power conditioners (due to inductance in the wires) in your most of your appliances instead of a cheap AC step down transformer. Oh, and it is more likely to kill you.
I imagine anything you want to hook up to the grid will need to be regulated, approved and expensive. So, the alternative is a power source large enough for a single task, like running your computer, and a hefty UPS to carry you through shady spots. Plus an automatic switch over to grid power for when your batteries run down.
You do realize that oil companies don't pay taxes don't you? Who does, you ask? Companies do pay taxes, just as companies pay for their raw materials, employee wages, etc. It is a cost like any other, and the company should do its best to reduce that cost in proportion to their revenue. This allows them to reduce prices and gain a competitive advantage.
Pollution costs however should not be heaped on to the oil companies, except in as much as they produce pollution in the course of their bussiness. They should not be responsible for the eventual pollution of the oil they sell to others. Instead the person or corporation that actually does the polluting should be responsible.
I like the point the other reply made about reducing income tax in proportion to the carbon tax. The goal is not to increase tax revenue, but to create a market incentive to reduce pollution.
Instead alternative energy sources are more expensive. True, with two big caveats:
1. Alternative energy sources have high upfront cost, which would cut into this years profits and kill the bonuses of executives. The fact that profits may be higher 20 years ahead is irrelevant to most.
2. The cost of traditional energy sources is highly subsidized, both directly and indirectly. Direct subsidies are obvious things like tax breaks to oil companies. Indirect subsidies are not making people (not just the oil companies!) pay the costs of the pollution the energy the use produce.
Both of these issues can be address with good, free market friendly government policies. First, remove all reoccurring subsidies from oil and ethanol and replace them with low interest loans to reduce the barriers to renewable energy initiatives. Second, a pollution tax to allow the free market to work to reduce emissions.
Of course the war has to be paid for, but the government does not have and has not allocated the money to pay for it. It is incredibly stupid. Welcome to neo-fiscal conservatism.
My hint for those keeping score at home is that quickly pulling out of Iraq would generate a lot more spare funds.
The Iraq war is paid for almost exclusively with special funding initiatives, it is not part of the budget. So ending the war won't suddenly free up trillions of dollars for other uses, it will just slow our descent into debt from the Demon Drop speed it is currently.
"no one will care" Until it happens to a politician. Ironically, it is much less likely to happen to a politician. At least in the US, their financial information is fairly closely monitored. Just ask Elliot Spitzer.
Spoken like a true delusional. Look, this is the NSA. They're pretty smart folks, some of my college classmates are probably there now (not that they'd be able to tell me). If they wanted to insert secret code into an OPEN SOURCE project they wouldn't make an announcement of collaboration, they'd create some fake person (or hire some real person) who starts submitting patches.
I suspect what really is going on is that the NSA doesn't trust closed Microsoft code and wants to make sure there are secure open source operating systems they can use (they may get access to the MS codebase, but I doubt they'd be able to set up their own secure repository and verified build).
Remember, sane people mistrust the NSA. Paranoid people work for the NSA.
In my personal case, a portable data acquisition system using a gigabit network, plus frequently transfering around large data files. By serious work, I mean serious computing work rather than work that is taken seriously. I admit most people don't take advantage of gigabit network, but if you're marketing a general high performance machine, it should be there. Especially considering that it is nearly standard on desktops now and common on high end laptops (including Dell's current Latitudes).
I was going to buy an XPS, but it doesn't have gigabit ethernet. My ancient D600 has gigabit. The XPS may be pretty but they're not meant for serious work (which is fair, most people buying them won't do serious work).
Does "higher electron mobility" necessarily mean more conductive in the "off" state? I thought it just meant faster switching.
I was just pointing out that it doesn't address the significant problems in current devices. I don't think it will significantly affect either if it were used as a replacement semiconductor (if it even could be used that way). When materials like carbon nanotubes are made into 'transistors' the device changes significantly and generally works on different principles that current devices, so what holds for silicon transistors goes out the window.
Silicon is the material of choice because of its good oxide and because engineers have, what, 60 years of experience with it now? Limits to scaling down silicon based chips come from silicon oxide not being a good enough dielectric (insulator) and from very small 'off' transistors letting through too much leakage current. More conductive materials aren't particularly helpful in that regard.
Polycrystal silicon is used for transistor gates and routing signals over very short distances, maybe they mean to replace that with graphene?
Haven't RTFA, someone who has should enlighten us lazy posters if this detail is there.
If there were justice to be had, it would be in the form of "demoting" our commander-in-chief down to a foot-soldier, put a rifle in his hand and let HIM fight his damned war in person.
I don't have anything to add, I just felt that that comment needed to be posted again. As a back up, just in case the hard drive was destroyed.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm pretty sure those hydrocarbons are getting their hydrogen from somewhere, and it isn't from CO2. Carbon without hydrogen is just a pretty rock.
Those deserts are much better off being used for solar power generation (which does use water, but in a closed loop).
<tinfoil hat>Who are the competitors to EDS in the UK?</tinfoil hat>
2. Green house gases in the upper atmosphere (above the clouds) is more of a problem than those same gases close to the earth.
Solution? Flying algae green houses!
Damn, could use one of those in my lab ... at the University of Michigan.
University of Michigan has a similar policy, except the computers (and desks and cabinets and MRI machines or whatever) which aren't picked up by other departments are sold to the public. They don't have any discounts for other non-profits but the prices are generally very attractive. This is a ton of cool random old tech there too.
This device is a directed sound wave however, much like a laser, and so the 1/r^2 rule, which never really applied, really doesn't apply. There is some drop due to spreading and probably more from loss (due to 'friction' in the air molecules).
So yes, kinetic weapons are much better at transmitting kinetic energy if you want to kill someone, but they're a crappy means of making a non-lethal weapon.
Biological cyber warefare! Did anyone check their heads for lasers?
Women MacGuyver? Jewel Staite (Mechanic girl from Firefly, new doctor in SG:Atlantis).
This can be avoid by using high voltage DC, with the down side being that you'll need an expensive DC/DC converter plus power conditioners (due to inductance in the wires) in your most of your appliances instead of a cheap AC step down transformer. Oh, and it is more likely to kill you.
I imagine anything you want to hook up to the grid will need to be regulated, approved and expensive. So, the alternative is a power source large enough for a single task, like running your computer, and a hefty UPS to carry you through shady spots. Plus an automatic switch over to grid power for when your batteries run down.
Pollution costs however should not be heaped on to the oil companies, except in as much as they produce pollution in the course of their bussiness. They should not be responsible for the eventual pollution of the oil they sell to others. Instead the person or corporation that actually does the polluting should be responsible.
I like the point the other reply made about reducing income tax in proportion to the carbon tax. The goal is not to increase tax revenue, but to create a market incentive to reduce pollution.
1. Alternative energy sources have high upfront cost, which would cut into this years profits and kill the bonuses of executives. The fact that profits may be higher 20 years ahead is irrelevant to most.
2. The cost of traditional energy sources is highly subsidized, both directly and indirectly. Direct subsidies are obvious things like tax breaks to oil companies. Indirect subsidies are not making people (not just the oil companies!) pay the costs of the pollution the energy the use produce.
Both of these issues can be address with good, free market friendly government policies. First, remove all reoccurring subsidies from oil and ethanol and replace them with low interest loans to reduce the barriers to renewable energy initiatives. Second, a pollution tax to allow the free market to work to reduce emissions.
I wonder if he checked the veracity of the letter before responding. It would have been an awfully funny April Fool's joke by one of his employees.
Well, except for my wife. She's is a taxpayer and not a citizen (yet). There are millions of people like her, they're usually called immigrants.
Of course the war has to be paid for, but the government does not have and has not allocated the money to pay for it. It is incredibly stupid. Welcome to neo-fiscal conservatism.
The Iraq war is paid for almost exclusively with special funding initiatives, it is not part of the budget. So ending the war won't suddenly free up trillions of dollars for other uses, it will just slow our descent into debt from the Demon Drop speed it is currently.
I suspect what really is going on is that the NSA doesn't trust closed Microsoft code and wants to make sure there are secure open source operating systems they can use (they may get access to the MS codebase, but I doubt they'd be able to set up their own secure repository and verified build).
Remember, sane people mistrust the NSA. Paranoid people work for the NSA.
In my personal case, a portable data acquisition system using a gigabit network, plus frequently transfering around large data files. By serious work, I mean serious computing work rather than work that is taken seriously. I admit most people don't take advantage of gigabit network, but if you're marketing a general high performance machine, it should be there. Especially considering that it is nearly standard on desktops now and common on high end laptops (including Dell's current Latitudes).
I was going to buy an XPS, but it doesn't have gigabit ethernet. My ancient D600 has gigabit. The XPS may be pretty but they're not meant for serious work (which is fair, most people buying them won't do serious work).
I was just pointing out that it doesn't address the significant problems in current devices. I don't think it will significantly affect either if it were used as a replacement semiconductor (if it even could be used that way). When materials like carbon nanotubes are made into 'transistors' the device changes significantly and generally works on different principles that current devices, so what holds for silicon transistors goes out the window.
Polycrystal silicon is used for transistor gates and routing signals over very short distances, maybe they mean to replace that with graphene?
Haven't RTFA, someone who has should enlighten us lazy posters if this detail is there.
I don't have anything to add, I just felt that that comment needed to be posted again. As a back up, just in case the hard drive was destroyed.