mothers day 2011
eawmp1
Apr 22, 08:21 PM
There are arguments and counter-arguments to both camps, which is why I choose to be agnostos. In the face of a dearth of evidence it's more rational to withhold judgment than leap to an extreme position.
I would argue not choosing to believe in a divine being is more rational than hedging your bets.
Liquorpuki
Mar 13, 09:56 PM
They were talking talking about a 100 square mile solar plant. Take this PopSci link (http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-06/solar-power) for example. A 20 acre site produces 5 Megawatts. One square mile (640 acres) would provide 160 Megawatts. Ten square miles would provide 16000 Megawatts (16 Gigawatts). The link says the country will need 20 Gigawats by 2050. The worst possible accident in this case does not result in thousands of square miles being permanently (as far as this generation is concerned) contaminated.
In contrast Japan Disaster May Set Back Nuclear Power Industry (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-14-quakenuclear14_ST_N.htm). As far as I know, solar farms don't "melt down" at least not in a way that might effect the entire population of a U.S. state. I understand the nuclear reactors are built to hold in the radiation when things go wrong, but what if they don't and what a mess afterwards.
You need to separate capacity from demand. Capacity is just the maximum power a station can theoretically produce. In practice, most of these renewable stations never reach that max. I've checked the stats at my utility's wind farm and that thing is usually around 9% of capacity. Considering a wind farm costs 4 times as much money as a natural gas generator to build for the same capacity, efficiency-wise, the station is a joke.
What's more important is demand - being able to produce enough energy when we need it. This is where solar and wind fall short. They don't generate when we want them to, they only generate when mother nature wants them to. It would be fine if grid energy storage (IE batteries) technology was developed enough to be able to store enough energy to power a service area through an entire winter (in the case of solar). But last I checked, current grid energy storage batteries can only store a charge for 8-12 hours before they start losing charge on their own. They're also the size of buildings, fail after 10 years, and cost a ton of money.
This is why a lot of utilities have gone to nuclear to replace coal and why here in the US, we still rely on coal to provide roughly 50% of our electricity and most of our base load. There are few options.
AlBDamned
Aug 30, 11:38 AM
From Cult of Mac's blog (http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/) on the issue:
I have now had the chance to read through Greenpeace's "Guide to Greener Electronics," and there are a few things that should be clarified about where Apple ranks.
First of all, the article I linked this morning claimed that Apple and Lenovo were at the bottom of the charts. Well, that's not true. Lenovo scored an appalling 1.3 out of 10 while Apple pulled a marginally more successful 2.7 out of 10. In between were Motorola and Acer.
The criticisms of Apple are fair, I would say, though I think there's some nuance to what HP is doing with recycling that tends to make it look unfavorably better than others. Why? Ink cartridges and printers. HP has a lot more to take back than any other company, so their commitment to percentage of sales taken back is actually a possibility.
Given that Apple actually offers free computer recycling with the purchase of a computer, something that Dell does but HP does not, it's odd to say they're doing less to keep computers out of the waste stream. On the other hand, Apple has no takeback goals, so it really does balance out.
The other criticisms of Apple are on target, however. The company is secretive, and that meets they tend to be secretive about their environmental planning as well. They have a regulated substances list, but it isn't public. They're committed to eliminating PVCs, but won't say when. Ditto for BFRs.
It's not necessarily that Apple's environmental record is legitimately bad, but they do a very poor job of informing their customers about their environmental efforts. Silence is suspicious here, folks.
desdomg
Mar 20, 05:51 PM
If you view debate as a means to some sort of winner and looser type outcome the I can understand that you would reach that conclusion. However, the merits of a good debate, particularly one where their are strong opposing views, lie in the illumination of many points of view.
bringing IMO, this whole discussion has deteriorated beyond any form of usefulness. However, it does reaffirm two points -- never discuss either politics ("laws") or religion ("right" and "wrong") in mixed company. :)
The recent direction of this debate should have been seen as a non-starter -- that is, neither side of the argument is going to win and thus it's pointless to continue.
It does seem somewhat newsworthy, however, that there have been a few reports that the PyMusique utility has stopped working. Apparently you can no longer complete the purchase authorization. Can anyone else confirm this (may or may not be true)?
dante@sisna.com
Sep 12, 07:20 PM
Oh it's a competitor for sure, but doesn't measure up in terms of market and mind share. Can you do all of the above without interfacing with your computer? That's what I thought...
No I cannot. I currently need the computer.
My bet is on the USB dongle which is sure to follow just like those for the xBox.
Rt&Dzine
Mar 14, 02:44 PM
What do you mean *if* we have a meltdown. Are you denying there has been a meltdown at all? I'll wager with you that there is not only just a meltdown, but actually *three* active meltdowns currently in progress right now. Even so, I'm not even sure where your confidence over the 'if' comes from, everything so far that we're seeing indicates that they are struggling to even keep the situation under control let alone stabilize it, so I believe it's more of a certainty than an if. I believe they are failing, if not already failed, and the situation is already out of their control so it's only a matter of time.
Edit - my beilief is based on reading stuff like this (from the BBC) about the hitherto quiet reactor #2. While all the focus has been on the exploding #1 and #3, they've also been pumping seawater into #2 as well. So not only is that yet another wtf? moment, we also have a wtf? squared that the fire engine truck ran out of petrol to keep the pump going so the rods were exposed. So I hope you can understand what I mean about not having confidence that they are even abe to stay on top of the situation let alone control it.
Japanese officials are saying it's highly likely there is a partial meltdown occurring in three reactors.
Hunabku
Jul 11, 10:59 PM
For its high end, there is no way on earth apple would release anything less then a quad woodcrest. If they did it would be dead in the water. The advantage of having apps like Photoshop not universal is that apple has to give us that much more horsepower to run them under rosetta.
Of course the chips will be woodcrest otherwise steves key note at wdc of the systems would be utter poo-crap - and we all know apple builds products just so steve-o can be the man on stage---
:rolleyes:
The Beatles
Apr 9, 11:27 AM
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)
Was the MacNN headline "Apple Poaching Gaming PR Execs from Activision and Nintendo?" the true story? It would give a very different impression if the headline had been "PR Execs Abandoning Activision and Nintendo for Apple?" And in fact the article says that Grange "jumped ship".
Were they pushed or pulled?
That's why I don't bother ever going to appleinsider. Their headlines are sensationalized BS.
AidenShaw
Jul 13, 07:07 AM
it depends whether you are looking at it from software-perspective or hardware-perspective.
Actually, it looks the same from both perspectives.
Yonah, Conroe and Merom have full hardware SMP support on the package (or on the chip itself).
The cache coherency and inter-processor (in this case meaning inter-core) communications features are present, and must be present in order to avoid corrupting memory data and to support an SMP operating system.
The difference with Woodcrest is that Yonah/Conroe/Merom do not support SMP features *between* sockets - the cache coherency and IPC mechanisms are not brought out to the pins on the package.
Woodcrest brings those signals out to the pins, and the Woodcrest's 5000x chipset connects those signals between sockets.
D4F
Apr 28, 08:24 AM
Excellent! I love it when people put these predictions down in black and white for posterity. OK, see you in 2020 when the Tablet Era will be ten years old, the dominant computer format people buy, and containing capabilities that we cannot even imagine now.
But you've put down in writing that it will not be something you work with even then. Noted.
Go and read.
my 5-10 year predictions are actually quite funny.
You obviously have no idea how this works and no matter what stuff those little toys bring they will still be just fillers for masses not real PCs
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/332337/how_do_they_do_it_avatar_special_effects/
4352 servers during the peak of production of the Avatar blockbuster. / 34,816 processor cores, 104,448GB of memory in total. Now you get the idea what is a PC that you work with? They needed warehouses of them to get the job done and you put a little tablet in the same category as those PCs.
greenstork
Sep 12, 07:13 PM
How does Elgato not compete?
Sure it does:
1) I can pause mine.
2) I have a full software based one-click scheduling system
3) I can record high def content.
4) If I use two cards, I can record two streams via a signal splitter.
5) I can certainly watch a prerecorded show while doing all of the above: my Quad Core easily handles this.
Oh it's a competitor for sure, but doesn't measure up in terms of market and mind share. Can you do all of the above without interfacing with your computer? That's what I thought...
alent1234
Aug 25, 12:24 PM
Another fallout from terrible AT&T service is that in many shops and restaurants, at least in the San Francisco area, and especially Berkeley, you can't check in using location services like Foursquare or Facebook Places since there isn't adequate coverage- eg: no service, no signal etc.
That's bad for business.
Merchants too should press AT&T and local authorities for more towers and better connections.
SJ said it takes 2 years to build a cell tower in the bay area. compared to something like 6 months in texas
EricNau
Mar 14, 09:29 PM
An excellent article detailing the media's exaggeration of Japan's nuclear situation. It's bad, but no where near as bad as many seem to think.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/14/the-japanese-nuclear-reactor-overreaction/
Huntn
Mar 11, 06:08 PM
Not one but two reactors could be headed for meltdown. U.S. Rushes Coolant to Japan Nuclear Plant to Prevent Meltdown (http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/u-s-rushes-coolant-to-japan-nuclear-plant-to-prevent-a-meltdown/). Primary power was lost. A backup generator failed to start. Plant is venting radioactive steam... God, I hope this does not happen.
11.31am: The Associated Press has more details on the state of emergency issued at nuclear plant after its cooling system failed:
Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano says the nuclear power plant in Fukushima developed a mechanical failure in the system needed to cool the reactor after it was shut down in Friday's earthquake.
He said the measure was a precaution and there was no radiation leak at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. He said the facility was not in immediate danger.
----------------------------------------------
Thats pretty bloody serious.... eeeek :eek:
Blue Fox
Apr 22, 07:08 PM
There is a few things
I miss the start button. The dock is handy but I prefer the start button and quick access tool bar.
Put your Applications folder and user folder in the dock, then right click and change it to a list view. You now have full access to everything on your HD via the user folder in the dock, and the applications folder as well.
remove programs
Remove or uninstall? To remove from the dock, simply click and hold, then drag off, it goes away. To uninstall, drag application from the applications folder to the trash, then empty trash. Or if the specific application came with an uninstaller, you can use that too.
My network places
Network as in available WiFi networks or connected servers? Connected servers will show up in any Finder folder you open up in the sidebar. As far as Wifi, that's in the WiFi symbol on the top menu bar.
scratching my head on how to easily open a new tab on safari when only a single safari window is open
File > New Tab, OR Command + T, OR right click on the top of the safari window, click "customize toolbar" and add the "New tab" button to your existing buttons.
I seem to close a lot of safari windows instead of hitting the back button.
As mentioned above, when you customize your toolbar in Safari, you can always add some other buttons in front of the back/forward buttons to keep from closing it out inadvertently.
nzlucas
Apr 11, 05:33 PM
Well i actually became less tech savvy after switching to Mac. I just re-read this post before submitting and it is a bit fanboyish and doesn't really answer the OP but may help some other posters.
With my PC i always had to worry about drivers and folder structure and everytime i installed a program i would lose some performance. Setting up networks was a night mare not to mention 24hr virus lookout.
I have had my powerbook since 06 and i cannot imagine a life with PC now. First things i was amazed with were expose and spotlight. For any switcher learn to use :apple: key-space (which opens Spotlight in the top corner) and you will start to rely much less heavily on your mouse ie hit :apple:key-space type skyp and hits will automatically start to load, once skype appears hit enter and , bang, its open.
Secondily iLife. It always blows me away that its free and included, such a more polished set of programs than what windows has. The integration of these programs is amazing and one more reason why you become less tech savvy because you stop having learn how to circumnavigate problems because they are more rare.
For those wanting open source programs, a quick look at Macupdate or version tracker can give lots of open source programs. I rarely pay for programs. Don't want to pay for Pages or Office, try openoffice? Can't afford Photoshop, try Gimp app.
For those nervous about the need to just drag and drop applications to delete them, it is just a emotion you have bought with you from your window days.
One thing windows does not have also is Genius Bar. Apple is about experience, and their customer service and backup are a strong component.
could go on, but those apple tutorial videos are handy so i suggest watch them, if you want a more simpler computing existence, switch to mac.
deputy_doofy
Apr 12, 10:47 AM
You could always buy a Mac and run windows on it. It would let you satisfy your curiosity, and have a safe fallback to the OS you know. And a beautiful computer.
THIS. You can legally run both (assuming you have a copy of Windows to install) and you can both learn the Mac AND have Windows as your safety net. With Bootcamp, Windows runs natively, fully utilizing the hardware, its graphics, etc.
Moyank24
Mar 26, 11:20 AM
I'm not condoning the belief but priests are expected to do it, so why not gay people? Logically I imagine from a Catholic perspective it makes sense. My sister and brother in law both being Catholic gives me a bit of an insight into this topic and both are rather progressive.
Priests make the choice to do it. Why should gay people be expected to do it? To make everyone else feel better about it? Why shouldn't heterosexuals abstain then?
lighthouse_man
Apr 13, 03:01 AM
Why are you people comparing one app price tag to the whole suite price tag? For all we know, all the suite apps will be released individually and will total what the full suite now costs.
danielwsmithee
Sep 12, 04:14 PM
If this is all iTV is going to offer for $249 then forget it.
I'll just use a cable to hook my laptop to my TV.
Voila! I just replaced iTV for less than $5.00.Price for me $1099 cheapest MacBook plus $5 cable $1104. I think I'll take the $249.
desdomg
Mar 20, 05:51 PM
If you view debate as a means to some sort of winner and looser type outcome the I can understand that you would reach that conclusion. However, the merits of a good debate, particularly one where their are strong opposing views, lie in the illumination of many points of view.
bringing IMO, this whole discussion has deteriorated beyond any form of usefulness. However, it does reaffirm two points -- never discuss either politics ("laws") or religion ("right" and "wrong") in mixed company. :)
The recent direction of this debate should have been seen as a non-starter -- that is, neither side of the argument is going to win and thus it's pointless to continue.
It does seem somewhat newsworthy, however, that there have been a few reports that the PyMusique utility has stopped working. Apparently you can no longer complete the purchase authorization. Can anyone else confirm this (may or may not be true)?
chim9999
Jul 10, 08:15 PM
i'm in north central arkansas. town with a population of 12k. we just went 3g a couple of weeks ago. 2 dropped calls since then (one crossing from 2g back to 3g). can't remember last dropped call on 2g.
tigress666
Apr 9, 01:38 AM
You summed it up beautifully. You're not a gamer. You're what is called a time passer, which are what 99 percent of IOS games are, mind numbing time killers. That's fine. As long as Apple does not come in to the gaming market and starts trying to strong arm third party big names all is good.
Wait, why is FFII and FFIII more a mind numbing time killer over any other game (I am getting FFIII either when it goes on a good sale or I finally finish up my other games, whichever comes first)? Or Myst or Riven for that matter (both on my phone, I've beaten Myst but haven't started Riven).
Or Prince of Persia for that matter? Not saying I am a real hard core gamer but not completely casual either (granted not into it as much as I used to be, my last console was my PS2 but honestly, my favorite console was the Playstation). And I will admit I prefer the old style RPGs to new style (I usually don't like reflex games, prefer the more tactics focus of old style RPGs vs how quick can you react of the new style. If I wanted a more live action game I'd buy one. Honestly, the iphone is hte first time I've gotten into the more "live action" games like Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed. Don't ask me why as I will admit those are the type of games that suffer the most from the lack of physical buttons. But it's still fun regardless).
What I am saying is I'm confused on what you consider not just some petty mind numbing game if you consider everything I listed as one.
Yeah, some of those are good for short burst of time killing (the little puzzle games like Boxed In and Sudoku). And I'll agree a lot of those games more unique to the iphone are ones you usually download, play a bit, and then never touch again (though some are still pretty good that you do keep going back to them too). And after a while they get so old you won't even download them for free (on a bunch of free app lists which end up having a lot of those games and these days I look, go, Oh one of those, and pass them up. Though you do find some true gems amongst those games that do last more than just a short bit).
Honestly, I haven't gotten back into gaming until recently when I've been finding a lot of actual good games and not just good for time killing for the iphone (mostly discovering Gameloft games and when Squaresoft started porting some games over on the iphone. I really want FFVII on my phone and I'd love to see some more jrpgs, if you can't tell, those are my favorites. I like a good story with them though).
(What I'm really hoping is that Square finds the iphone lucrative and we get a lot of stuff from them *grin*. Though I'm finding I really like Gameloft's offerings a lot too and GL really seems to understand how to get things to work best on the iphone despite the lack of buttons and the fact that many of their games they port over would do better with buttons).
edifyingGerbil
Apr 27, 03:04 PM
I'm afraid you are.
The Hebrew god is the same god as in polytheistic days, but once he had conquered all his fellow gods, he was left with unrivalled power. The Hebrew religion became monotheistic, and their new old god acquired sole power, but the root of the deity was no more or less than a shared and ancient mythology.
But these arguments don't refer to God as being derived from El, the arguments can only work if "God" is shorthand for "the entity described in the Judaeo-Christian Biblical texts".
The fact he is described on tablets in Ugarit doesn't matter for the purposes of ontological arguments that try to answer does "God" (the Judaeo-Christian God) exist?
This was my point, waaay back, about why I use the Judaeo-Christian God as opposed to god. Someone took umbrage at my use of Judaeo-Christian.
