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Comment Re:Extended Range (Score 5, Informative) 128

No, they can't legally sell them in the USA anymore without some serious engineering changes. They got a waiver on some of the safety regulations that has expired. They also had a limited contract with Lotus for the bodies.

So to do a new run of roadsters, they would have to do a lot of engineering and essentially make a new car. Right now, they don't have the capacity in engineering or production to make more models; they're struggling to get the Model X out, and they've got their eyes on the III.

I wouldn't be surprised if they make a new Roadster eventually, but I would put it at five years out at the earliest.

Besides, given the performance of the P85D, I'm not sure how much more there would be besides a different body shape.

Comment Re:360K already double-sided (Score 1) 173

Thanks for finding that source! I was looking at the list of floppy disk formats on Wikipedia to respond, and it didn't have that.

80 cylinder, 96 TPI

This was the second type of 5.25" drive made, and the least popular (and known) of the three types of drives. These double the capacity of the original drive by doubling the number of cylinders (tracks) from 40 to 80. They use the same media as the the 40 cylinder 48 TPI drives, but it is certified (tested) on all 80 tracks, as opposed to the standard disks which were only certified at 40 tracks.

These drives were never common on PCs, although DEC used a single sided version called the RX-50, in the DECMate word-processor, the DEC Rainbow and several other DEC computers, including the PDP-11 and the VAX.

Other than the DEC RX-50, these drives were almost always double sided, and recorded in double density MFM. They had a capacity of around 720K. Like the 40 track drives, they used 300oe media, and the drive rotates at 300 RPM

So apart from one very rare example, if you're talking 5.25" disk floppies, 360K meant double-sided. I expect the vast majority of people cutting out the notches to flip over their disks were using Apple II, Atari, or Commodore computers. In that realm, 90K was SS/SD and 180K was SS/DD. Most users didn't have double-sided drives until the IBM PC started using 360K DS/DD disks.

Comment 360K already double-sided (Score 1) 173

Sorry, punching the tab out on the other side so that you could flip the disk over only worked on single-sided drives.

Single-sided, single-density: 90K
Single-sided, double-density: 180K
Double-sided, double-density: 360K

So if you were already at 360K, you were already double-sided.

Comment Just in time. (Score 1) 219

I am just about to build a FreeNAS or NAS4Free box. I was planning on running three 4TB drives to give me 8TB usable, but I'm probably better off with a pair of these. I'm mostly using the storage for TV recording, so the slower speed is fine. If the slower speed also means lower power, then it's a big plus.

Comment In Massachusetts... (Score 4, Informative) 1051

Mass. Gen Laws ch.76, Â 15:
"In the absence of an emergency or epidemic of disease declared by the department of public health, no child whose parent or guardian states in writing that vaccination or immunization conflicts with his sincere religious beliefs shall be required to present said physicianâ(TM)s certificate in order to be admitted to school."

So there's broad religious exemptions such that anyone willing to claim them can skip the process, but if there is a serious outbreak, then suddenly the exemption goes away. That's not a bad compromise.

I haven't heard of the state ever declaring such an emergency, but I hope they are ready to do so before an outbreak becomes a full epidemic.

Comment Nitpick on the linked article (Score 1) 222

At the top of the article, it shows an Atari 2600 in front of a TV. Displayed on the TV is Pac Man. But it isn't the 2600 version. It looks like the 800 version, or possibly the 5600 version (which was only slightly different).

Mixing up the graphics like that is just wrong.

Especially when the 2600 version of Pac Man was notorious for being so horribly bad. If only it had looked like that.

Comment Nonsense (Score 4, Insightful) 368

Look how similar our culture is to that of the Roman Empire. Yes, technology has changed every aspect of how things are done, but the culture itself isn't much different. The Roman historian Suetonius was writing thousands of years ago about how they were upset about the decay of family values.

Comment Re:obviously they should track the sun (Score 2) 327

Tracking the sun is out of the question when it comes to rooftop solar on sloped roofs. You're pretty much stuck with having the solar panels match the slope of the roof.

For ground-based installations or for large flat roofs, you would think it makes sense, but it would seem not, as I see solar farms all over the place (in Massachusetts), and they're all fixed installations. If it made economic sense to track the sun, then I'm sure the large farms would be doing it. Even with the production credits (SRECs they call them here), where you can get upwards of $.50/KWh, they're still not tracking the sun.

Can someone who has actually looked at the costs of sun tracking comment? I keep seeing assertions like the poster above, but I've never heard real numbers.

Comment Re: Mass produce! (Score 1) 194

Actually, using electricity to produce fuel is something that can have practical use:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

In short, it's relatively easy to deploy a small nuclear reactor (much like one found in a submarine) to an operational base. If the excess power can be used to synthesize fuel, then that fuel doesn't have to be trucked in, which is a massive savings in a combat zone.

Also, it's a potential way of storing excess production, such as when demand drops overnight.

Comment Electricity vs. oil (Score 4, Interesting) 194

Electricity and oil are both energy. You can substitute one for the other, though obviously there's advantages for certain forms in certain uses.

For home heating, oil, natural gas, and electricity are all viable depending on the cost. Right now gas is the cheapest and electricity is, in most places, the most expensive. It would take a lot of progress to get electricity to be the most economic solution for heating.

For aircraft, the weight of batteries rules them out.

For cars, Tesla is proving that electricity is an option. I know that we just signed a contract for solar panels on our house to produce more than we currently use on the assumption that we'll need the extra production to power our next car.

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