Now many states have have laws requiring essentially that the power company buy or give you credit for anything you produce. So you get the panels installed and apply for a two way meter from the electric company. They keep track of how much you produce and subtract it off your consumption essentially.

Furthermore, some states require utility companies to use so much power from solar, and this is done essentially by buying credits from people making solar. So in NJ if I have 10 kW worth of panels I might generate enough credits in a year to sell for $6000. It is essentially the state dictating that the power company has to pay me money for making solar energy. That is on top of the savings you get from using less electricity.

So with federal rebates, a 10 kw system costs around $35k to $40k to install. But with the credits and electricity savings, it will "pay for itself" in 5 years or so.

In NJ this fell apart a little bit because everyone saw it was a good deal and there is now an oversupply of these credits, so the value of the credits are less than half of what they were last year. Time will tell how it all shakes out. If I got no money for the credits, the panels should pay for themselves in 20 years. So it will be somewhere between a ton of free money and a marginal investment.

While cool, it is really note that close to what the GP is proposing. This is essentially just a defined pattern of water going through a sheet of light to make a pattern.

The GP is proposing a complex combination of water pattern with lasers to illuminate it to create a 3D image.

Perhaps you are missing that your comment demonstrated an astounding combination of ignorance and lack of reading comprehension. Sickle cell TRAIT (heterozygotes) makes you resistant, not immune, to malaria. Sickle cell anemia (homozygotes) makes you die early (and generally have a painful and debilitating life before that without treatment). Says so right in the article you linked to. And to not know that nearly a million Africans are dying from malaria each year is remarkable.

Well, for one, a huge amount of resources now are spent by humanitarian organizations in treating and fighting malaria. If this puts a significant dent in that, some of the expense and effort put into fighting malaria can be used for education, training, building infrastructure, etc.

Well I'm over 35, have met him, and don't think he's an asshole. I'd hang out with him over Steve Jobs (RIP) any day. His egocentricity does not approach that of what Jobs was. He is giving away his money. He already has. You appear to not like how he's using it, but it doesn't take away from the fact that he's giving away hundreds of millions to different research groups and charities.

Did anyone else click on the link thinking this was regarding a new Samsung phone?

Well, I'll give them a chance to get it right. Make no mistake that Apple is clearly moving their desktop OS toward the iOS as well.

This needs to happen in some form if we're ever going to be able to get real work done on a tablet. The trick is getting the balance right. Ideally you can made Metro go away if you wish for desktop machines, but it sounds like that may be wishful thinking.

Worst case scenario, I stick with Win 7 on the desktop until they figure it out and get a Win8 tablet. I must say I'm pretty excited about the prospects of a ULV Haswell-based tablet running Win8. I'm thinking of a design like the new Thinkpad tablet that has the keyboard attachment, but with a real OS. Could finally ditch the laptop for good.

Oh come on, copy/paste still sucks on Android 2.2.1 on my Droid X. Works OK for some things (phone numbers) in some applications, but it was still definitely a step back from WinMo 6.5 in this regard. For one, the stylus was just a must better select tool than my fat finger. I still miss it sometimes. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and reason that it was not ready and rather than delay the entire release they are patching it, supposedly soon. Let's see if they come up with something better than Google or Apple. Shouldn't be too hard from what I've seen.

I'm very unlikely to ditch Android at this point because overall I'm quite satisfied, but I think the OS shows promise and choice is good.

A lude is a tranquilizer. We're looking for lewd.

Inconceivable! (Anybody want some pork and beans?)

Yes, but the red and blue ones are not approved for that sandbox.

I think Marathon was the precursor to Halo. Bungie has been just as innovative in the FPS genre as ID. Marathon was released just after Doom, and was a much more advanced engine in a lot of ways. It had free look way before ID did it. When Halo was initially developed it was groundbreaking. Do you remember the stir at the initial presentations of it? It got delayed when they made the decision to accept a ton of money from Microsoft and make it for XBox. But it still pushed the genre.

I have been playing FPS since Wolfenstein 3D and I love Halo. I can't comment on Goldeneye because I never played it.

Fuck everything, we're doing 7 cores!

Well, I fear you may have shortchanged yourself. It makes for a more enjoyable, and often more productive, college experience to be surrounded by peers with similar interests and motivation.

Now, I do believe that if you're sufficiently motivated you can learn what you need to be productive/successful just about anywhere, assuming you at least have reasonable resources to learn. But part of the whole college experience would ideally be, well, collegial. Doesn't sound like you're getting much of that. Good luck in your studies.

With all due respect, then your classmates probably shouldn't be in college. I don't think kids are getting that much dumber. There have always been dumb or more often just unmotivated kids, but in the past fewer of them went to college. Some institutions have lowered the bar because undergraduate education is profitable for them.

As someone who teaches at a top institution, the kids I see there are coming in at least as prepared in all subjects as 20 years ago. Maybe some differences in independence and work ethic, but not in overall literacy, math skills, etc. There are still plenty of smart US kids out there.