Comment Re:Hope they are realistic (Score 2) 102
The only way to win, is not to play.
The only way to win, is not to play.
(source: http://www.thelocal.se/discuss/index.php?showtopic=14142)
Cost of GPS widget: 25 U.S. dollars
If it saves 2 hours a year per child (2835 / month ~= 100 a day ~= US$ 25 for 2 hrs) , it's worth it.
See also the companion volume Thinking Forth, on http://thinking-forth.sourceforge.net/
First delivery of 747: 1970, delivered so far: 1400, over 41 years is about 34 a year, so far, on average, for this model. Outstanding orders (your numbers): about 214
Note that Boeing's cashcow *really* is the venerable 737 (6819 built since 1968, 158 a year) and Airbus's cashcow *really* is the A320 (4760 built since 1988, 206 a year)
These planes are about equal size and compete in the same market.
Airbus isn't doing too bad.
In it's heyday Nokia pushed out over *50* different, new phone models a year. Roughly 30% of those were Symbian phones. Apple pushes out *ONE* model with minor variations. Even with significant re-use, juggling several source trees, porting patches back and forth between them, building multiple releases of the OS with different feature sets is more of a headache than razorsharp focus on *ONE* good phone.
As a software engineer I've tried to make the point that, maybe, people don't want to choose between 19 different models that are minutely different. (Do I want a qwerty keyboard? If I buy the business version it (used to) come with a 2.5mm socket and my standard headphones won't fit. Do I want the business version? Which of the 19 available Nokia qwerty phone models should I get? -- have a play: http://www.nokia.co.uk/find-products/all-phones)
Innovation could have happened, if only they didn't try to "manage" all the fun out of the job. Oh well.
The problem with generating electricity is that you can't (normally) store electricity -- so generating capacity is dimensioned for the peak load. A lot of excess capacity is available at night -- some of which you can't just shut off. It takes a long time to power up a coal/nuclear power plant. In mountainous regions the night excess is used e.g. to pump water uphill, back into a lake that is part of a hydroelectric plant.
Charging the car at night when rates are low makes sense, and running a few lightbulbs or a TV set doesn't use the amount of power you need for driving.
There's no problem with it being free -- but this would be a way to make the idea spread. Some of the components will cost money to buy, some of the installation work might need to be done by a qualified installer / builder. If the first one allows you to keep some cash, it can be reinvested -- more can follow and more people would be able to enjoy the service.
"In order to create an array of photovoltaic cells on the paper, five layers of material need to be deposited onto the same sheet of paper in successive passes, using a mask (also made of paper) to form the patterns of cells on the surface. And the process has to take place in a vacuum chamber. The basic process is essentially the same as the one used to make the silvery lining in your bag of potato chips: a vapor-deposition process that can be carried out inexpensively on a vast commercial scale."
You can also see a direct link to a video of the researchers folding the material into a paper airplane connected to a meter, without a drop in voltage.
Numeric stability is probably not all that important when you're guessing.