Beyond that...the 'peak' keeps moving as technology progresses.

We were 'practically out' of oil a few years back according to the news. New technologies like horizontal drilling, fracking, etc. have opened up huge new reserves that were always there...just inaccessible at reasonable cost.

And then there's 'reasonable' cost. Tar fields are useless when oil is $35/bbl because it costs more than that to extract it. If oil is $100 a barrel it starts to make sense. At $200 suddenly there's another bajillion available barrels of oil

Yes we will run out. No it won't be soon...especially if we develop nuclear and large-scale renewable.

No no no... Obama needed it!

Imagine what the kid could have done with a million bucks? (hint: probably exactly what he's doing now but sooner)

Granted this type of engineering works on a minor to small scale and includes some significant dangers (refer to pictures of him standing on the windmill platform) but it does provide a step in the right direction. At the same time, with a 20kw genset and some diesel you could provide a whole town with minimal power, basic facilities, and the ability to do things like drill wells, pump water, irrigate and tend fields. The cost for this vs. flying in tons of food year after year makes for an interesting comparison.

Some days I don't think we want to help these countries become self sufficient - we simply want to make outselves feel better by giving handouts.

What part of wind power is changing so quickly? It's a freaking propeller driving a generator at the end of the day. Yes there have been some novel developments in ways to catch the wind but what part of that is so vastly changing the cost?

Energy storage (i.e. battery banks, etc.) are moving incrementally forward. Despite a dozen or two "breakthroughs" in the lab over the last 2-3 years nothing has increased energy storage density by the promised 10-100x at similar or lower cost - and THAT is what's needed to make wind power practical.

Datacenters and big box stores run on "renewable" power because they get tax incentives and green stickers they can plaster all over their company. At the same time you need to understand what 'buying renewable energy' means in reality. Say power company X generates 365MWh of renewable energy a year and some incremental higher cost than their regular generation capacity. Some days they make 0 and others they make 2 so it *averages* to 1MWh/day. ...So they sell 365MWh of cost increment to companies who want the green stickers. However that power is NOT directly routed to those customers. That power goes into the grid, combines with the baseload generators (nuclear, coal, gas, etc.) and THAT powers the datacenter. On days when renewable is making more power they throttle back some gas generators.

Solar and wind cannot, today, effectively provide baseline power generation.

Not necessarily.

Back in the 90's there were several competing office suites. MS Office was one of the easiest to 'steal' (111-1111111 if anyone remembers) which led to a massive piracy^^^^^^adoption by home users. MS cut breaks for businesses on top of that so businesses adopted it...soon enough it was just the go-to standard. Everyone had a bootleg copy and that's what they knew.

Piracy drove adoption and sales. MS Office is still MS's biggest cash cow afaik.

Let Apple do the same ... some people are going to pirate anyhow so you might as well count their numbers towards your total installs and derive benefit from it. Then you can also keep them up to date, patched, and offer related sales (here's the cool plugin for xyz software - only $1.99). It makes total sense on a macro scale. I'm not a huge apple fan but it's nice to see one software company not looking at the micro scale and chasing 'pirates' who don't even have a bird on their shoulder.

For the record I have an actual parrot on my shoulder at this very moment.

Common misconception. The NYC subway system (along with the other services owned/provided by the MTA) are STILL a private organization.

They receive government funding/tax money however they are still very much private and not subject to gov't oversight. You can't FOIA their financial records nor can the government dictate how their run. They are the worst of both worlds and extremely corrupt but well protected by 'their' union.

And the real question becomes ... what was your bosses WIFE doing banging on your BEDROOM door at 3AM?

If 'any of that' means background checks - sure*. If you mean some form of ID, well I doubt that.

If you walked into a charter company and offered them a pile of cash to fly you somewhere while declining to provide ID ... I strongly suspect they'd call the police long before putting you in a plane. There aren't the same rules, but there are SOME rules. Also keep in mind - they bought a PLANE. They're not going to risk that investment because you wave a few grand in their face.

The same with buying a plane...it's not like you can pick one up in a bodega for cash.

*this also assumes there *aren't* methods in place where charter companies, plane sales, etc. all filter the information received to some government agency even if the general public is unaware.

The lightning wires have a wonderful habit of failing where the wire and plug meet. Since the connector itself is very robust and has very little 'give' when not pulled straight out the wire takes all the strain right where it meets the connector. The connector is also tiny and made with smooth plastic - increasing the difficulty of 'properly' removing the cable (as opposed to yanking on the cord.) MicroUSB, for it's faults, is also easier to remove at an angle and by the plug.

Without the unnecessary DRM nonsense the lightning *connector* is superior to microusb in durability and functionality. That doesn't mean it's a superior way to connect your device. Personally I've never killed a microusb port. I work in a corporate environment where i'm responsible for a few thousand blackberries (and now iPhones) and in the past 7 years I've seen maybe a dozen or two failed USB ports. People are far more likely to lose, drop, dunk, or otherwise kill their phones*.

TBH - you can pretty much forgo all connectors depending on your phone and usage now. Chromecast, contactless charging and bluetooth offer alternatives.

*in my anecdotal experience of course...which is still a decent sample size compared to "my xyz did abc" stories.

Reality disagrees with your 20% claim. There are more than enough Tesla cars on the road to provide real world evidence of battery longevity despite what some naysayers keep preaching.

Maintain the charging system? That's like saying you need to maintain your computer's motherboard.

...and two weeks later when the rum runs out you won't be able to conveniently order another case on your phone without leaving the hammock. Unless you're not an alcoholic like me and it last long enough to set up your own still I suppose.

Seriously though, the vast majority of the 1st world (and a good # of the 3rd) depend on communication being readily available. While I know these companies are looking for new, creative ways to scratch out a few more % profit they're going about it backwards. Don't try to take away, corrupt, slow, or interfere with what we already have now. Embrace and expand. Offer something original or unique. Grow and diversify your business.

Oh...you wanted to be a one trick pony with guaranteed profits and no competition? Boo hoo.

This won't fly. It can't. It would basically destroy the underpinning of of the communication age if it stuck.

Sadly I can almost forsee this going the way of electrical power at the dawn of the nuclear age. 'Power too cheap to meter' ... yet out electricity costs MORE.

fixes problems when they come under public scrutiny.

FTFY

I don't know why people expect anything different from the big corporations that make our fun geek toys than they do from other big business. It's always about profit margins.

FWIW he was term limited BEFORE this current term.

He managed to force through (ahem, buy) an exception to allow himself another term. It's disgusting, self-serving, and should never have been allowed. Unfortunately I don't have $billions to make my point so he wins.

So yeah, the 100% was a bit tongue-in-cheek (really, nothing in life is 100% except death after all) but set the premise for the rest of the statement you ignored. With that said, the post titles were 'patented blanks' so obviously we're not talking about generic schlage or kwikset keys you can get at home depot. Congrats on being correct with an unrelated point. I grant you some arbitrary value of "win" and here is your cookie and gold star.

I was *actually* trying to point out that chinese knock-off blanks have basically invalidated controlled blanks as a security measure.

This (mostly). You'll also see several of only selling additional blanks to locksmiths in an equal number to the customer codes they punch into their system. It's not perfect but it's another control

Before the printing game this worked 100%...excluding the 'illegal' bootleg keys most locksmiths would buy from China...which are, of course, much cheaper. :)