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Comment Re:It all depends on the workload... (Score 1) 162

And most game files are packed compressed binary files, PAK. There is a lot of CPU work to be done once it is in memory, they have traded CPU cycles for disk space.

I recall at least one game (A Total War title?) that offered an option to unpack the PAK files so that access was faster, but it took up a lot of disk space.

Comment Re:We have already figured most of this out. (Score 2) 365

They did before they were available. They dug the Panama Canal with Steam Power and manpower. If you can build that, you can build almost anything.

Building raceways to use mechanical water power is even easier, and can help bootstrap the other technologies. Before steam, most factories were water powered.
One such factory took in ore, and brass products like pots, pans, pins, wire, etc were produced.

Comment Re:But....Profits! (Score 1) 281

I am in Sacramento, so we have a very high solar ratio for home rooftop, 4% of power last year came from PVs

There is no talk of charging us extra, they are still giving incentives on new homes and existing homes to add PV. But again, we are customer owned, not corporate.

And you have to have a pretty big system to get 100% of your power needs even in winter. Mine would have to be at least 4-5x bigger than it is, which would have cost $80 to $100K pre rebate. Winter output is just so low, in January, my system generates as little as 2KWh per day, 1/20 what it does in June/July

The best method is to get yourself under the Tier 1 cap, usually 1000Kwh per month. The rates are low because of the tier-ing system, and it pays itself back very quickly.
So my bill is generally around $70 per month, which means I am at about 70% of Tier 1 usage.

Comment Re:Going off the grid completeletly is stupid (Score 1) 281

You got that wrong.

If you are producing more power during the day, the meter runs backwards. Or at least it should, they installed a second meter to measure what I generate so they could subtract it from what I used.

So if you generate 10 during the day, use 5, and then use 5 at night, your net cost is zero.

The 3.2c they pay me is just gravy.

Comment Re:But....Profits! (Score 1) 281

At least where I am, they pay me something like 3.2c, but it also runs my meter backwards. If I put an extra 10kwh on the grid during the day, I can draw that same 10kwh at night for net zero. And I "made" 32c.

I don't need a battery system, the "grid" acts as one, and with one year billing cycle, power I put on during the summer I can draw back in winter for no charge.

Comment Too little (Score 1) 216

But perhaps not too late.

Rather than teach CS as a separate subject, teach the other subjects in the context of CS.

If the goal is to train the kids today for the jobs of tomorrow, there will be CS elements to every job, even if it is just using computers.

Case in point: Wife was an attendance clerk at the local school. When the new attendance tool was rolled out, it came with no pre-defined reports.
Clerks were sent to a class, and then were expected to write their own reports.

Did not turn out well for a lot of clerks who have had zero CS experience, which was pretty much all of them. Including my wife, who went and found another job.
From what she has heard, all the report writing has been done by two clerks out of about 100, who just happen to have some CS experience from previous jobs.

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