Very true. Here in Canada, people often rave about how we could be using solar power; they just don't get it. Solar power is not an efficient solution in Canada, wind power makes far more sense.

But Germany reaching their goal of solar providing for 1/3 of their power would be an impressive feat. There are plenty of countries that have far more solar potential then Germany. If they can do it, then other countries like Spain should be able to do even more.

Well, compared to the rest of the world, it's more like low fuel taxes on gasoline. America has low gasoline tax thereby making diesel a less attractive fuel option; the additional expense at the time of purchase and limited fuel cost savings just aren't worth it.

In Canada, overall fuel taxes are greater but gasoline is hit harder then diesel. As a result, diesel is almost always cheaper then gasoline. This makes diesel vehicles more attractive in Canada - but still not as attractive as Europe. Oh, and for reference, the current gas price is $1.35/litre. That's in Canadian dollars which, for the past several years, has been ~ equal to American dollars. Think of it as ~ $5.11 per gallon.

It's steam, pure and simple. Of course, chemicals are a problem but not because the companies are pumping them into the ground water. You see, the steam moves everything around and can dislodge hazardous elements allowing them to enter the ground water. The entire point of fracking is to disrupt the earth thereby unlocking the resources trapped below. It's obviously going to cause problems..

My sister purchased a property in rural northern Alberta a while back. Before the sale went through she had the water tested to ensure it was good. Six months later an oil company started fracking for natural gas and her water got so bad you could actually light it on fire. Now she wasn't the only one affected as all her neighbours also had problems but she was the only one who had results of a water test. Now the company would not acknowledge responsibility but, in order to avoid a lawsuit, paid to fix here water problem. The rest of the neighbours - too bad, so sad, not our fault.

If one is indifferent as to who gets elected then it is best that they do not vote. If they vote then, on average, they will vote for whoever invested the most in advertising. This is not the way it should be. If you don't care or are insufficiently informed of the candidate's policies then stay at home or cast a blank vote.

If only 50% of a population votes then that tells you the other 50% do not care which party gets elected. There is nothing wrong with that. Should the governing party screw up then you know that you will get a much higher turnout at the next election. It is the ability to vote that is important and keeps the politicians in line not the actual vote.

Well if the rumors are true it would be USB3->Ethernet, which would not suck. Considering how small the adapter is and how space is limited a small laptop, replacing Ethernet with USB3 sounds like a reasonable compromise. It is more common to be lacking a USB port (and not have a hub handy) then to require the speed of ethernet over wireless. But only if it's a USB3 port as USB2 is not sufficient to properly support GigE.

Why do you assume the electronics will be the same? Powering an LED should be much easier as you don't have have to boost the voltage or supply a weird waveform to the bulb. I'm not sure what they use but I imagine it's a current limiting switching circuit. So long as they avoid electrolytic capacitors they should be fine. Transistors, resistors, inductors, and ceramic capacitors can all handle heat without any problems.

Sure CFLs produce far less heat but that are also far more susceptible to damage from heat. Put a CFL in an enclosed fixture and it will burn out fast - possibly even faster then an incandescent. My local electrical code doesn't even allow CFLs in enclosed fixtures. The local HomeDepo got in trouble because they were displaying enclosed fixtures with CFLs inside.

When you look at an incandescent bulb it is easy to see why it can survive high temperatures. Glass and metal - relatively resilient. Compare that to a CFL where you have electronics.

One thing I've also seen is people that insist of putting CFLs on dimmers and then complain that they don't last. I've shown people the warnings on the CFL box and they still don't get it. Truly amazing...

Whichever federal agency takes charge could offer a large reward for security holes/bugs found in applicable systems. The agency would validate claims, pay an applicable reward to those who reported the issue, then bill the offending company for the reward.

The idea is to make the reward large enough that it is more profitable for people to report a flaw then to abuse it. Government involvement would be the review of claimed flaws, not to access the security of every device. Private companies would then have a financial incentive to ensure their code is secure.

Correct, but it is still a good idea to have hardware virtualization. Virtualbox does use hardware virtualization but it is only required when virtualizing 64bit guests. If you are running 32bit guests, hardware virtualization can still be used and should allow for better performance. Hardware virtualization will also allow you to play around with KVM and other VM software. If you're getting a new machine, why limit yourself?

Watt is a unit for the rate of energy transfer. The actual unit for energy is the joule where "watts = joules / seconds". The term "kWh" is a term designed to allow people to easily determin home energy usage. It directly maps to joule with 1 kWh = 3.6e6 joules.

No, Watts is really Voltage times Current. But when referring to AC systems, definitions get all screwed up. Just look at "kWh" - what a mess. It's like electricians have their own definitions for these units. I suppose it is understandable - using a single number to approximate a waveform and then performing calculations using Ohms Law makes most tasks much easier.

So pointing out the difference between Watts and VA is good - thanks for that. But don't be calling the real definition for Watts wrong. Also, your definition for power factor is not correct - or at least it is dated. It only applies to AC systems where the waveform is shifted. Power factor also applies to waveforms that are modified in other ways. For example, a computer power supply without power factor correction consumes pulses of power during the peak points of the sine wave. This changes the shape of the wave without resulting in a phase shift. With power factor correction, a control circuit draws power throughout the entire waveform so that the sine wave is not distorted.

I wonder what they used to measure power usage for this test. Did the instrument record true RMS power? Those instruments are much more expensive but required for accurate results. Guess I should rtfa.

But worse at what? The article title mentions that it is in regards to "internet freedom". From this perspective there is no comparing Apple to Microsoft - Apple pushes for standards and Microsoft attempted to lock users to Internet Explorer based technologies. Remember the days before OSX and Firefox - one would constantly run into sites that required IE and Windows.

I'm not going to try to defend Apple with regards to other issues, but you really can't compare them to Microsoft wrt "internet freedom". Microsoft is the only company I can think of that actually tried to monopolize the internet.

Without equality there will be discrimination.

If laws catagorize people based on physical characteristics that they have no control over (like gender), there is no equality.

So laws only permitting you to marry a spouse of opposite gender discriminate. This discrimination undermines a fundamental aspect of American law - that everybody is equal and has equal rights. Undermining this principle in the past has resulted is riots, killings, and other horrible events. This might not hapen with the gay and lesbian community as they represent only a small part of the population, but erroding the constitution is still a very dangerous thing.

So take gender out of the equation and let same sex couples marry. Even if you hate the idea it is still better than the alternative.

Not really, they are offering the design for 'free' to the standards committee so long as all others with possible patents covering the design do the same. If they get their way, anybody who wants to utilize a the new standard would be free of licensing costs. In no way is Apple trying to get a free ride, they want the ride to be free for everyone.

The difference between American and Canadian pennies is 1/100 of a cent - or 1/10000 or a dollar wich is 0.0001.

Of course the real cost to an American retailer is the need to sort and exchange the Canadian coins. Sounds like a real pain in the ass so I can see why they would be annoyed. It's not that you're stealing from them, you're just making their job harder.