Comment Re:Allow it... (Score 1) 340
You need to go to better movie theaters. Alamo Drafthouse is the best and got some good publicity when they did this a couple years ago.
http://drafthouse.com/blog/entry/she_texted._we_kicked_her_out
Comment Article link (missing from prev post) (Score 1) 117
Comment $502 billion in fossil fuel subsidies (Score 1) 117
From the letter:
Fact: The U.S. spent $502 billion subsidizing fossil fuels in 2011. This is the result of directly lowered prices, tax breaks and failing to properly price carbon’s negative externalities.
What pricetag is he attaching to carbon's negative externalities? This article, cited in a comment on an earlier Slashdot story on solar energy, pegs it at $1 trillion, and it seems like they asked Austin Powers what he thought it should be. What is Khosla's pricetag for carbon externalities, and where did he get it?
Japan To Create a Nuclear Meltdown 222
Taco Cowboy writes "Japanese researchers are planning an experiment to better understand what transpires during a nuclear meltdown by attempting to create a controlled nuclear meltdown. Using a scaled down version of a nuclear reactor — essentially a meter long stainless steel container — the experiment will involve the insertion of a foot long (30 cm) nuclear fuel rod, starting the fission process, and then draining the coolant. The experiment is scheduled to take place later this year."
Comment Re: How is Norway going to know? (Score 3, Informative) 245
The parent is referring to cost basis analysis for equities. There are several ways. Tracking individual stocks is one option but tedious. See the wikipedia article for details on the other methods:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_basis
Submission + - Google Fiber in Austin Hits a Snag: Incumbent AT&T
AcidPenguin9873 writes: Earlier this year, Google announced that it would build its next fiber network in Austin, TX. Construction is slated to start in 2014, but there's a hitch: AT&T owns 20% of the utility poles in Austin. The City of Austin is considering a rules change that would allow Google to pay AT&T to use its utility poles, but AT&T isn't happy about it. The debate appears to hinge on a technicality that specifies what types of companies can attach to the utility poles that AT&T owns. From the news story: "Google 'would be happy to pay for access (to utility poles) at reasonable rates, just as we did in our initial buildout in Kansas City,' she said, referring to Google Fiber’s pilot project in Kansas City...Tracy King, AT&T’s vice president for public affairs, said in a written statement that Google 'appears to be demanding concessions never provided any other entity before.' 'Google has the right to attach to our poles, under federal law, as long as it qualifies as a telecom or cable provider, as they themselves acknowledge. We will work with Google when they become qualified, as we do with all such qualified providers,' she said."
Comment Re:Big problem here... (Score 1) 151
Pick a "brininess" and energy consumption you want to run at. By definition, the brine produced will be more concentrated than the ocean water flowing into your plant. Run the more-concentrated brine and less-concentrated ocean water through this power system and produce whatever energy you can get from it. It will always be less than the energy that you used to produce the freshwater+brine, but it will always be more than 0 which is what you get if you dump the brine back into the ocean. How you want to slide the bars in terms of brininess and energy consumption is up to you. But either way, you're ahead with this system. Get it?
Comment Re:Big problem here... (Score 1) 151
Nope. Osmosis operates off a relative concentration difference. Regular ocean saltwater is much more dilute than brine and would work just fine as the "freshwater" side of this power generator.
Comment Re:Big problem here... (Score 3, Informative) 151
Yes, desalination obviously requires more energy than you get out of this method. But the point of the desalination is not energy production, it's freshwater production. You get freshwater out of your desalination plant. That requires using some amount of energy X. Instead of dumping the waste product of the desalination plant (highly-concentrated brine) somewhere, you use it with one of these devices to produce some amount of energy Y where Y is less than X.
The net result is that you end up with freshwater, and instead of spending X energy to get it, you had to spend only (X - Y) energy.
Comment Re:Why subsidize? (Score 2) 1030
He very clearly objected to the arbitrary price tag attached to the externality, not that there was no externality.
Comment Re:This kills the "heritage" argument for me (Score 1) 233
How does gun-printing convey that that's what you're angry about?
Comment Re:This kills the "heritage" argument for me (Score 1) 233
I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but sure, whatever. Usually the thing you do when you're angry at the government has something to do with the thing you're angry about. What are you angry about that you're demonstrating by printing a gun?
Comment Re:This kills the "heritage" argument for me (Score 1) 233
What are you so upset about that you have to give the middle finger to the government? The ready availability of guns in the USA? The non-existence of regulation of 3D printers? The lack of DRM on gun designs?
Comment Re:Those damn socialist! (Score 1) 752
Because meth is illegal, a person who's using it doesn't advertize the fact. So how would you recognize anyone who used it in moderation?
I wouldn't, of course. As I've acknowledge three times now, I'm no expert on meth usage. But we have all sorts of data on usage for all sorts of illegal drugs. Where is the data on casual meth usage? This is now the third time I've asked for it.
And please don't wikipedia-link me stupid crap. That's a Slashdot addiction that has got to stop.
Do you realize said opium dens were run by the British with the specific goal of selling as much opium as possible, and as such didn't have any of the safeguards I proposed?
So in your meth dens, the dens would not be run with the intent to sell as much meth as possible? Is that how a licensed liquor establishment (a bar) operates?
Start here [wikipedia.org].
That link has a chart that lists heroin and cocaine (two drugs I called out as bad candidates for legalization) as very harmful. It lists meth as more harmful than alcohol. It has no information on addiction rate. It does have information on how dependent an addict is on the drug.
Comment Re:catch me up now someone? (Score 1) 130
Higher latency between the memory and the GPU which is KEY to a GPU performance.
Latency doesn't matter very much for GPU. A little, but not much. Bandwidth is what matters for GPU. (Latency matters for CPU tasks.) As long as the GPU has enough buffer depth to cover the latency to and from memory (which it certainly does), the memory bandwidth is what will keep the GPU pipelines completely full.
