I suspect we probably have sufficient resources to build a sufficient number of solar panels to nearly cover the entire globe. If/when we get that far, we really don't need to build anymore.

I'm not an expert, but I've got a gut feeling that solar panels don't really "wear out" at least not as a result of generating electricity.

At the very least, I think if we manage to get enough of them and harness them efficiently enough, solar power could provide more power, and for a longer period of time, than gas and oil have/can, combined.

But it can only happen if it makes economic sense. Very few people are going to lie down big bucks, only to then PAY even more for electricity. If I spent thousands of dollars on solar panels and a storage (batteries, etc) system, I'd damn well expect my recurring power bill to plummet if not disappear entirely.

If it costs more, most people aren't going to buy it, or even be able to buy it.

If you can't make the net cost less, it will fail.

Even if initial cost is more, if it can be financed, and it reduces costs over a decade by a majority of what it costs to repay the loan, that would be good.

But huge upfront cost, only to then mean paying MORE for electric, will go over like a lead balloon.

Give me a motorhome-sized nuclear reactor a block or neighborhood can all pitch in on and buy for 25K ($1000 each across 25 homes, or $500 each across 50), that will then provide electric power for everyone at NO additional cost for two decades. The technology exists.

To be fair, solar is pretty much effectively infinite.

When it runs out, we're gonna be dead anyway, unless we've managed to colonize other planets by then.

And how much energy does it take to create this fuel? How much does it cost?

Would a tank full of it allow the car to travel a comparable distance and speed as a similar-sized tank full of gasoline or diesel fuel?

Unless it is or can be economically comparable to CURRENT costs, its useless.

"other people's water"

Really? You claim ownership of *rain*?

I suspect that the recurring/operating costs of a pipeline, once built will be FAR less than the recurring/operating costs of a desal plant.

faster cellular networks aren't all that interesting. It will take forever for them to be deployed, and

Now give me an 802.11ZZZ or something that can do just 20Mb/s or so at 10 miles NLOS with non-directional antennas, and you've got something useful.

this has any appreciable range, and instead of reserving the band for cellular towers, they put this stuff in consumer available gear, we can all interconnect wirelessly and tell comcast, verizon, et-al to go to hell.

a one liner: "If you've made your private files available publically (either intentionally or through ignorance) then your private files are available publically."

Removing them from google results is far less important than making the files themselves no longer available.

Looking on google to see if they are available is sort of silly - if you're using one of these silly commercial "automatic backup" packages that came bundled with an external drive, read its manual and documentation, and review its configuration, as well as that of your router.

Exactly. I was going to post noting that I hadn't seen any credible claim from anyone qualified to speak on the issue, that humans were NOT still subject to selection...

London to "avtodoroga Kolyma, Magadanskaya oblast', Russia" (which is the furthest East I could get google to give me driving directions to from London) is just shy of 8000 miles.

Fairbanks AK, (furthest West google would recognize) to NYC is just over 4000 miles.

I was able to estimate the distance between Fairbanks and that Russian location at 2000 miles.

So, 8000+4000+2000 = 14,000 miles.

I'm on Debian 7 Wheezy, running Google Chrome 40.something

Is that supposed to not work?

Uhm.. Only if they specifically identify themselves as such.

And since they would be dual-citizenship, if some terrorist demands their passport, they could provide their other passport and be Belgian or Swedish, etc.

would completely cut off an entire region as large as that, shows that whoever is in charge of engineering this stuff simply doesn't understand how the Internet is supposed to work, and has no motivation to ensure it keeps working.

Any pipe carrying traffic for that large an area, should have had multiple alternate/redundant paths - miles away, in different pipes, connecting via different peering points. The Internet is not meant to be a hierarchy or a pyramid - its supposed to be a spiderweb.

.. unless it comes fully rom-unlocked and you can trivially replace the factor MS crap with a AOSP load or something.

I wonder how much MS had to offer to PAY samsung to do this. (I'm sure they've agreed to strict confidentiality on that)