Depends on how wide your definition of "this" is. Let's quote TFA for convenience:
Making electricity from the difference in salinity (the amount of salt) in fresh water and sea water is not a new concept. We've previously covered salinity power technology, and Norway's Statkraft has built a working prototype power plant. But the Stanford team, led by associate professor of materials science and engineering Yi Cui, believes their method is more efficient, and can be built more cheaply.
* Griping about the interface, or Photoshop's interface. Obligatory mention of GIMPshop
* "Not up to scratch for pro work", followed by "I'm a pro and I like it" and "Not much of a pro then" retorts
* "Hey it's free and Photoshop costs $$$"
I'm saying that they do, and any usable energy you want to harvest at the tires (as from using these dielectric polymers) will be in addition to this heat, and thus will have to be supplied ultimately by the engine. At any rate, we're talking single-digit watts here, tens at most, when the engine puts out tens of kW.
Energy harvesting is mostly about energy sources that are already present and end up as heat (sea/river waves, wind, sun), or "stealing" a few watts from a system you can't modify (e.g. your body). The idea of using human gait has been around for a whlle, and it can be a bit tiresome because in each step some of the energy that your tendons recover is being diverted to the device, so the goal is to increase conversion efficiency.
There are MUCH bigger sources of recoverable energy, including regenerative brakes (last paragraph).
The extra energy generated from the tires would have to come at no cost from the engine. That is known as a perpetual motion machine, which violates the principle of conservation of energy (free lunch out of nowhere).
Now, if you meant "have some extra power for accessories and the like":
When tires roll they get hot, partly from the energy wasted flexing and un-flexing the rubber, which is not perfectly resilient. Any energy drawn out of this cycle would ultimately be supplied by the engine in addition to said losses, which is the same as drawing current from the alternator minus the conversion losses of the elastomer.
OTOH, brakes as implemented in most vehicles dissipate engine energy, and that's where regenerative brakes may be the answer, once they're practical
Or, the proper thing in this case:
d) you are responsible for this shit, here take that protection suit, this can and this broom and go into the first line and clean that mess up!
That'd be the most reasonable order - own up, repair, redress. And you're right - after hiding seppuku would be a graceful concession for his past services or whatever.
Fuck at this point taking the warriors way out and killing himself would be a boon to TEPCO and Japan.....
That was more or less my first thought when it became evident that some corners had been cut - "in other times, a few seppuku would've been in order, either by own initiative or sentenced by the higher-ups".
The question is not that your cell phone operator knows where you are. Of course they do! The question is, why are they logging and retaining that info.
Well, it's the way data comes out of billing systems and it's easier to leave it than to strip it off. Also, it's useful to justify the tariff employed if the charges are challenged or malfunction is suspected.
Mr. Spitz’s information, Mr. Blaze pointed out, was not based on those frequent updates, but on how often Mr. Spitz checked his e-mail.
That's even more confusing. Do their email servers log physical coordinates of any incoming connections? If so, then 1) how do they do it, and 2) why??
No, not the email servers but the network and the billing system. You see, at any given time you are "registered" into the network through a given antenna in a given base station / cell. Of course, the coordinates and the estimated area covered by the antennae are known (you can see it in the visualization linked in the summary). So, since each usage record includes your cell ID at that time they can have a ballpark idea of where you were. It works best in high-density areas since there are more base stations covering smaller patches.
BTW, cell locations are publicly available - that's how smartphones determine their location without a GPS receiver.
Tracking a customer’s whereabouts is part and parcel of what phone companies do for a living. Every seven seconds or so, the phone company of someone with a working cellphone is determining the nearest tower, so as to most efficiently route calls. And for billing reasons, they track where the call is coming from and how long it has lasted.
“At any given instant, a cell company has to know where you are; it is constantly registering with the tower with the strongest signal,” said Matthew Blaze, a professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania who has testified before Congress on the issue.
Mr. Spitz’s information, Mr. Blaze pointed out, was not based on those frequent updates, but on how often Mr. Spitz checked his e-mail.
So, each call record (CDR) comes with a "cell ID" so big meanie telco knows where were you and what network serviced you and thus how to bill you. They could save your cell registration as you move around, but they don't need that unless the police explicitly asks them to (legal requirements may vary), but this was not the case, so they didn't.
I just checked out the pictures, and it looks really, really fishy. All you can see is several angles of the same 4 cabinets with 16 1U servers each and one big-ass storage array: 12 disks/cage x 8 cages/cabinet x 8 cabinets = 768 disks; at 135 GB each TOPS with 1+1 mirroring, that'd be ~ 72 TB.
Either they have a notoriously incompetent photographer, or it's the grownup version of a hastily put together science-fair mockup.
So, they're no strangers to silly attempts at faking news, or they're really bad at illustrating real ones. Either way these journalists suck at whatever they're doing.
Assuming you would be willing to bribe someone to get something done, would you be happy of somebody from a foreign country just overbidding your bribe by a higher one? (even if, say, what the foreign party will sell to you and your family is 2-3 times as expensive?)
Director's Cut: That's exactly the true source of the losses caused by corruption, not the amount overcharged to bribe corrupt officials. Hopefully you didn't assume that describing a situation somehow implies acceptance. BTW, as others have said, corruption is not some disease brought by foreigners. All you need is underpaid officials handling matters that are valuable to someone else, be it your driver's license or a juicy construction contract.
The money is transfered from public works to private individuals and the entire country suffers.
Your observation about correlation seems accurate. But, even though bribes are factored in the quoted price, the amount of money pilfered is peanuts in comparison to the losses due to inefficiency, abandoned projects, deliverables that were left to rot/obsolescence, white elephants, etc.
That's why they call it "corruption" - it rots the system from the inside.
Just maybe, that's the normal way to do business with governments in those parts?
Just sayin', based on my experience living in Latin America. Most of the time government offices are so sluggish (sometimes deliberately so), that you HAVE to grease the wheels if you want things done before you lose serious revenue. Clearing customs, currency exchange (where the government controls it), assorted permits... most new providers are shocked to learn how much these things can take.
Umm... somehow I doubt that preaction (1526109) meant to write 'Oil' but typed 'FTFA: "The UN Security Council has passed a resolution authorising "all necessary measures" to protect civilians in Libya from pro-Gaddafi forces."' by mistake.
OTOH, if oil was what the US et al. wanted, they'd be helping Gaddafi. They've been a pretty reliable supplier, and prices have shot through the roof since the pesky rebels became a problem.
Yup, the US has more than enough on their plate and (hopefully) understood that they'd just provide a nice strawman to help the next SOB rise to power.
Plus, Russia and China abstained instead of vetoing, which reads as reluctance. They may have been actively against in these past days, which would explain why the UNSC seemed to drag their feet on such an urgent issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm.... if there was some way to find out... if only...
Depends on how wide your definition of "this" is. Let's quote TFA for convenience:
Making electricity from the difference in salinity (the amount of salt) in fresh water and sea water is not a new concept. We've previously covered salinity power technology, and Norway's Statkraft has built a working prototype power plant. But the Stanford team, led by associate professor of materials science and engineering Yi Cui, believes their method is more efficient, and can be built more cheaply.
ATA operations cost about $1.5 million per year, Pierson said, and the SETI science campaign at ATA costs another $1 million annually.
So, 20 years of operation cost about the same as one extra F/A-18E/F? Nice.
That'd be news, so you can assume it hasn't. That and adjustment layers. But sooo many arguments here revolve on issues that haven't changed ...
Just out of curiosity (honestly), would it be good enough for professional art that won't be printed?
Cue:
* Griping about the interface, or Photoshop's interface. Obligatory mention of GIMPshop
* "Not up to scratch for pro work", followed by "I'm a pro and I like it" and "Not much of a pro then" retorts
* "Hey it's free and Photoshop costs $$$"
In 3... 2... 1...
Another day in Slashdot
I'm saying that they do, and any usable energy you want to harvest at the tires (as from using these dielectric polymers) will be in addition to this heat, and thus will have to be supplied ultimately by the engine. At any rate, we're talking single-digit watts here, tens at most, when the engine puts out tens of kW.
Energy harvesting is mostly about energy sources that are already present and end up as heat (sea/river waves, wind, sun), or "stealing" a few watts from a system you can't modify (e.g. your body). The idea of using human gait has been around for a whlle, and it can be a bit tiresome because in each step some of the energy that your tendons recover is being diverted to the device, so the goal is to increase conversion efficiency.
There are MUCH bigger sources of recoverable energy, including regenerative brakes (last paragraph).
If you meant "to power itself" literally:
The extra energy generated from the tires would have to come at no cost from the engine. That is known as a perpetual motion machine, which violates the principle of conservation of energy (free lunch out of nowhere).
Now, if you meant "have some extra power for accessories and the like":
When tires roll they get hot, partly from the energy wasted flexing and un-flexing the rubber, which is not perfectly resilient. Any energy drawn out of this cycle would ultimately be supplied by the engine in addition to said losses, which is the same as drawing current from the alternator minus the conversion losses of the elastomer.
OTOH, brakes as implemented in most vehicles dissipate engine energy, and that's where regenerative brakes may be the answer, once they're practical
Touch the tires after a ride - they're hot from the energy wasted in this deformation-restoration cycle.
Goats? where? I like goats.
you've been warned
Or, the proper thing in this case: d) you are responsible for this shit, here take that protection suit, this can and this broom and go into the first line and clean that mess up!
That'd be the most reasonable order - own up, repair, redress. And you're right - after hiding seppuku would be a graceful concession for his past services or whatever.
Fuck at this point taking the warriors way out and killing himself would be a boon to TEPCO and Japan.....
That was more or less my first thought when it became evident that some corners had been cut - "in other times, a few seppuku would've been in order, either by own initiative or sentenced by the higher-ups".
The question is not that your cell phone operator knows where you are. Of course they do! The question is, why are they logging and retaining that info.
Well, it's the way data comes out of billing systems and it's easier to leave it than to strip it off. Also, it's useful to justify the tariff employed if the charges are challenged or malfunction is suspected.
Mr. Spitz’s information, Mr. Blaze pointed out, was not based on those frequent updates, but on how often Mr. Spitz checked his e-mail.
That's even more confusing. Do their email servers log physical coordinates of any incoming connections? If so, then 1) how do they do it, and 2) why??
No, not the email servers but the network and the billing system. You see, at any given time you are "registered" into the network through a given antenna in a given base station / cell. Of course, the coordinates and the estimated area covered by the antennae are known (you can see it in the visualization linked in the summary). So, since each usage record includes your cell ID at that time they can have a ballpark idea of where you were. It works best in high-density areas since there are more base stations covering smaller patches.
BTW, cell locations are publicly available - that's how smartphones determine their location without a GPS receiver.
They hung up before I could speak. Three's Company was on.
The eighties called - they want you home for dinner NOW
Tracking a customer’s whereabouts is part and parcel of what phone companies do for a living. Every seven seconds or so, the phone company of someone with a working cellphone is determining the nearest tower, so as to most efficiently route calls. And for billing reasons, they track where the call is coming from and how long it has lasted.
“At any given instant, a cell company has to know where you are; it is constantly registering with the tower with the strongest signal,” said Matthew Blaze, a professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania who has testified before Congress on the issue.
Mr. Spitz’s information, Mr. Blaze pointed out, was not based on those frequent updates, but on how often Mr. Spitz checked his e-mail.
So, each call record (CDR) comes with a "cell ID" so big meanie telco knows where were you and what network serviced you and thus how to bill you. They could save your cell registration as you move around, but they don't need that unless the police explicitly asks them to (legal requirements may vary), but this was not the case, so they didn't.
The pictures show half-filled racks of old commodity servers + storage. Quoting myself:
I just checked out the pictures, and it looks really, really fishy. All you can see is several angles of the same 4 cabinets with 16 1U servers each and one big-ass storage array: 12 disks/cage x 8 cages/cabinet x 8 cabinets = 768 disks; at 135 GB each TOPS with 1+1 mirroring, that'd be ~ 72 TB.
Either they have a notoriously incompetent photographer, or it's the grownup version of a hastily put together science-fair mockup.
So, they're no strangers to silly attempts at faking news, or they're really bad at illustrating real ones. Either way these journalists suck at whatever they're doing.
And do you like it?
Long answer: Hell, no
Assuming you would be willing to bribe someone to get something done, would you be happy of somebody from a foreign country just overbidding your bribe by a higher one? (even if, say, what the foreign party will sell to you and your family is 2-3 times as expensive?)
Director's Cut: That's exactly the true source of the losses caused by corruption, not the amount overcharged to bribe corrupt officials. Hopefully you didn't assume that describing a situation somehow implies acceptance. BTW, as others have said, corruption is not some disease brought by foreigners. All you need is underpaid officials handling matters that are valuable to someone else, be it your driver's license or a juicy construction contract.
But then again, corps are mostly known/accepted as be amoral little critters with a positive tropism for profit.
The money is transfered from public works to private individuals and the entire country suffers.
Your observation about correlation seems accurate. But, even though bribes are factored in the quoted price, the amount of money pilfered is peanuts in comparison to the losses due to inefficiency, abandoned projects, deliverables that were left to rot/obsolescence, white elephants, etc.
That's why they call it "corruption" - it rots the system from the inside.
Just maybe, that's the normal way to do business with governments in those parts?
Just sayin', based on my experience living in Latin America. Most of the time government offices are so sluggish (sometimes deliberately so), that you HAVE to grease the wheels if you want things done before you lose serious revenue. Clearing customs, currency exchange (where the government controls it), assorted permits... most new providers are shocked to learn how much these things can take.
Yeah, Troll is the second best thing to "-1 Doesn't reinforce my worldview"
Umm... somehow I doubt that preaction (1526109) meant to write 'Oil' but typed 'FTFA: "The UN Security Council has passed a resolution authorising "all necessary measures" to protect civilians in Libya from pro-Gaddafi forces."' by mistake.
OTOH, if oil was what the US et al. wanted, they'd be helping Gaddafi. They've been a pretty reliable supplier, and prices have shot through the roof since the pesky rebels became a problem.
Yup, the US has more than enough on their plate and (hopefully) understood that they'd just provide a nice strawman to help the next SOB rise to power.
Plus, Russia and China abstained instead of vetoing, which reads as reluctance. They may have been actively against in these past days, which would explain why the UNSC seemed to drag their feet on such an urgent issue.
NOTHING geeky is too obscure for Wikipedia!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_medicines_and_drugs