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Comment: If that's what they think, they're wrong. (Score 1) 215

by blair1q (#38794819) Attached to: Intel Relying On Ice Cream Sandwich For Tablet Push

They do understand that if Apple wanted to, Apple could run iOS on Intel chips, right?

It sounds like Apple has told them they won't do that, and Intel is trying to change their minds by mounting a seemingly concerted competitive effort.

At the least, Intel's new chips, which have surprised even ARM's CEO with their speed and economy, are going to make Intel rich yet again.

The question is whether Apple wants to be in full-frontal competition with them, or do what it did with the PowerPC/x86 decision and go with the one that has taken the technological lead.

Comment: Re:Solar Energy Storage (Score 1) 556

by blair1q (#38717916) Attached to: Is E85 Dead Now?

It probably takes as much energy to distill petroleum as it does to distill alcohol.

When you distill alcohol, you get a little alcohol in one tank and a lot of of water in another.

You can sell the alcohol for the price of gasoline, but you're dumping the water in most places.

But when you distill petroleum, you get gasoline in one tank and jet fuel in another tank and motor oil in another tank and axle grease in another tank and road tar in another tank and candle wax in another tank...

And you can sell all of those, some for more than the price of gasoline.

Comment: Re:California Secede? Unlikely (Score 4, Interesting) 552

by blair1q (#38716822) Attached to: Predicting Life 100 Years From Now

Texas isn't going anywhere, either.

People who want to get elected in Texas use that to cadge votes, because it works, but once they find out you can't defend a nation with a posse carrying six-guns any more and the amount it will raise their taxes to become a real military power with a full Army, Air Force, Coast Guard (370 miles of coastline in the smugglingest water in America), and Border Patrol (1250 miles of border with Mexico, over 60% of the whole border; plus 1400 miles with New Mexico, Okalahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana). Duplicating the rest of the functions of the federal government won't be a cakewalk, either, and don't pretend they'll just let that all fall flat. Economies of scale mean that being a part of the entire nation is cheaper than going it alone. And Texas' physical scale makes it more expensive to administer, not less. Throw in the added expense of commerce across borders, and no protections against tarriffs from the commerce clause, and businesses in the state doing any business out of state will be crippled.

And Texas is hardly monolithic. Split it off from the U.S. and the next thing that happens is that West Texas will insist on separating entirely from East Texas, and East Texas would be just fine with that. So there's only so far the political fixers in the state are willing to take the issue beyond claptrap at campaign rallies.

It's theater, nothing more.

One of the most overlooked advantages to computers is... If they do foul up, there's no law against whacking them around a little. -- Joe Martin

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