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Comment Re:Has potential, but... (Score 2) 247

Hundreds of dollars per month. You are either purposely making stuff up, or horribly bad at math.
I suppose you could be spouting off someone else's fake numbers, which would just make you ignorant.

Anyway, lets do some math:
24KWh battery (Nissan leaf, and we'll give you the entire battery, just for grins).
I'll even grant you a ridiculous number for power cost (average wholesale energy cost in TX $0.045 / KWh) we're talking peak so lets go with $0.10 / KWh
24KWh*$0.10/KWh*30days = $72.00 Oh and by the way you can't drive your car now, because it's going to take 6 hours to charge back up.
Nissan said the cost for the battery is $18K (not $9k as widely reported) http://green.autoblog.com/2010/05/15/nissan-leaf-profitable-by-year-three-battery-cost-closer-to-18/
So to break even is 20 years (or 10 if you assume the cost ends up dropping to $9K).
Neat that's to break even, no where near an order of magnitude.... And now you can't drive your car because it's an expensive battery...

Comment Re:Cell service, too (Score 2) 111

You'd be correct, except you're not. Sprint (and anyone who really cares about time sync) doesn't use "cheap, low power" GPS time synchronization. They use relatively expensive rubidium backed gps trained oscillators which give a stability of 5x10^-11 seconds / month stability without gps lock. All these systems need is to have been synchronized to gps at some point, once they have that they are good to go for a long time as long as they don't lose power. They aren't using some ghetto cell phone gps clock. They use stuff more like this: http://www.spectracomcorp.com/ProductsServices/TimingSynchronization/GPSTimeFrequencyReferences/SecureSyncSynchronizationSystem/tabid/1304/Default.aspx

Comment Re:Ok, hippies, enough is enough (Score 2) 686

Most important part of your comment is "it's WiFi, not clean drinking water."

I'm sick and tired of people (including some polititians) acting like high speed internet access, or free TV ($50 coupons for a converter box, what the?) is a fundamental right. It's crazy, you have a right to have the opportunity to work to make money to buy these things. Free internet access does not make a better society, that's crazy.

Linux

Submission + - Scientific Linux 6.0 Released (scientificlinux.org)

SrJsignal writes: Scientific Linux 6.0, based off of Red Hat 6.0, has been released, beating CentOS to the punch. If you're looking for a RHEL derivative without all of the politics, check it out.

Comment Re:Not all 4G (Score 2) 118

You fail to understand the issue. Lightsquared's transmitters could screw up GPS service for EVERYONE. The FCC waived their own rules to allow this, rollout. If you RTFA (I know I know, this is slashdot) you would see the large distances a single transmitter can jam GPS devices at.

Comment Re:Small actions en-masse make a difference (Score 1) 317

I've read all three of your comments.
You do realize that cars don't turn the alternator off right? You'd have to actually wire that up yourself. The alternator / battery is what also runs every electrical thing in the car (you realize there's a computer, and oh my, an ignition system that requires lots of juice).
Wind drag and weight are what predominately reduce mileage, you've made both of these worse with your modifications.
2-2.5% is not a significant enough change to make any claim, the wear on your tires will actually cause WAY more error than that as time goes on (more worn tires register more distance than reality).
It's much more likely that your numbers are just wrong, and that any change in your driving habits when you decided to start being "green" make up for any true change in mileage. Pull all that crap off your car and you'll probably do even better.

Comment Re:God, god, god.... (Score 1) 1328

I don't think you understand what a "theory" is. It's not proven, just like the "theist theory" you claim doesn't hold. You can't prove that God doesn't exist, just like you (or Dr. Hawking) can't prove that a Big Bang occured (or didn't occur). I might theorize that God created the earth to look like it's 100,000 (or pick a number) years old. You can't disprove my theory, just like I can't prove it.
Theories are like butts, everyone has them and they all stink.
...Now sure, some theories can be proven through testing and scientific rigor, but the origins of the universe (or species) sure as hell ain't one of them.

Comment Ebay is your friend (Score 1) 337

First, pick a realistic frequency range, decide what other stuff you care about.
Don't forget about probes, nice ones can be expensize, don't spend your budget then find out you need $500 in probes. Again, this depends on your frequency range.
Then, a good place to start is ebay, remember, old and working is the same as new and working +5lbs per decade of age. (old test equipment is heavy!)

Some of the new Agilent scopes are sweet, we've rented some at my office (esp if you pony up for the 15" LCD) personally, having one that requires a computer is a PITA.
Decent Agilents

Good luck.
Games

New WoW Patch Brings Cross-Server Instances 342

ajs writes "World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion was staggered into 4 phases. The fourth and final phase, patch 3.3, was released on Tuesday. This patch is significant in that it will be the first introduction of one of the most anticipated new features in the game since PvP arenas: the cross-realm random dungeon, as well as the release of new end-game dungeons for 5, 10 and 25-player groups. The patch notes have been posted, and so has a trailer. The ultimate fight against the expansion's antagonist, the Lich King a.k.a. Arthas, will be gated as each of the four wings of the final dungeon are opened in turn — a process that may take several months. The next major patch after 3.3 (presumably 4.0) will be the release of Cataclysm, the next expansion."
Transportation

Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US 1385

fantomas writes "The BBC reports that 'US President Barack Obama has announced his "vision for high-speed rail" in the country, which would create jobs, ease congestion and save energy.' Can rail work in the land where the car is king? Would you travel on the new high speed lines?"

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