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Comment Re:COBOL and FORTRAN (Score 1) 387

I would not replace it with something new, but migrate it to something maintainable.

you know the mantra:

  • If it ain't broke, maintain it
  • If it's broke, either repair it or discard it
  • If it's beyond maintenance, it's definitely broke

The fact that it is a core business system does not provide an excuse, it makes it even worse.

Comment Re:No surprise, but a bad idea (Score 1) 97

You'd be surprised. My compost toilet is a "collector" type, so it is basically a bin with a toilet seat on top (see http://www.thingiverse.com/thi... ) and it must be emptied on a compost pile. So the composting should take place outside the toilet itself. However, the composting process already starts in the toilet and hardly needs any mass at all. It just needs rest and the right ingredients.

Comment Re:COBOL and FORTRAN (Score 1) 387

, but he was also getting paid something like 4-5x his previous salary as a consultant to maintain the systems he used to simply because there wasn't anybody else on the planet who knew it.

Wow, that is an extremely expensive mistake. He's bound to take his final breath at the least convenient moment. In fact, the later the less convenient. If you rely on tools that much and have no control over it, you have a very dangerous business.

Comment Re:No surprise, but a bad idea (Score 4, Informative) 97

Nothing new. If you have a compost toilet, you will have encountered spontaneous mushroom growth on your compost pile often enough. Also edible ones, like inkcaps. There is nothing against seeding it with a known mushroom kind. When you do that for your own household, you will know what diseases you have, and you get them anyway or are already resistant to them. Also know that the compost process kills any disease over time, and most diseases within days.

But I would never add a plastic, chemically poisoned diaper to my compost pile. Most modern diapers are chemical waste and need to be processed as such.

Comment Re:Too simple (Score 1) 588

I am talking in this case about the sliced meat you eat on bread. In the local shop, only the super-expensive, high-garlic "Italian" meat is sugar-free. The rest contains both sugar AND at least one kind of syrup. The ingredient list is on the back side, so if you see, for example, roasted chicken meat, you would not think that it would contain anything else than roasted chicken. But if you turn over the package, you see what junk is used to produce it. Hey, but it is organic junk!

Comment Too simple (Score 5, Interesting) 588

That is a bit too simple. Lots of modern food contains so much energy that our internal alarm switches are blown off-line. Therefore, you don't feel full anymore and you keep eating. That is called Insulin resistance (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) It is hard to overeat on apples. It is easy to overeat on sweets.

Off course, the food industry just loves to create food that makes you keep eating, because that will also make you buy more of it. That is why even organic meat contains sugar and all kinds of syrup nowadays. The first step to a healthy life is to eat real food.

Comment Open it up: "internet of electrical devices" (Score 1) 117

Design the grid in such a way that devices (solar generators, wind generators, storage like your hyped elecrical car) can plug on and off. Allow anyone to build his own grid. That way, you can easily detach your own local grid when the "Big Bad Grid" has been compromised. Off course, this means getting the control OUT of the hands of monopolistic companies and governments must somehow grow a facilitating mindset. Mind you, control is still necessary, but it does not need to come from technical dinosaurs.

Comment Re:Guilty (Score 1) 102

It is totally relevant. By outlawing something harmless you create an artificial crime scene. Oh come on, there are STILL movies made about alcohol, the US and gangsters with "Chicago Typewriters". Off course any government who actually promotes crime can also use it to conveniently accuse anyone to be a criminal.

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