Comment First against the wall (Score 1) 10
Anyone who participates in any of this aggressive ID verification tech needs to be first up against the wall before the revolution comes, or there won't ever be one again.
Comment Re:Death by milestones (Score 1) 46
They created fusion.
At least they claim so.
It is clear from the article.
The article says nothing about creating fusion. The announcement was first plasma not fusion.
Comment Re:What about tile roofs? (Score 1) 47
The solar compatible meter does a couple of things. First, it allows solar generated power to go back to the grid if on-site usage is below generated power levels. Second, it communicates with the utility company so they can manage the entire grid. Third, I *think* it both prevents consumer-generated power from leaking onto the grid during outages, and notifies the utility that there is on-site power generation. The last point is critical for safety - If your house is "hot" during an outage, that power can't be permitted to leak onto the grid otherwise it would be extremely hazardous to workers that are restoring service.
The balcony solar kits are supposed to monitor grid power and they're supposed to shut off the power if grid power goes out. That's a lot of *should*. A certified solar compatible meter and panel solves that part of the problem, but it's stupidly expensive due to the regulatory requirements for permits and electricians to do the work. A homeowner can't simply ask the utility company to put in a solar meter. There's more to it and it makes the costs skyrocket.
The issue with the meters is some don't have the ability to measure direction of flow. If you install a balcony solar system and it produces more energy than you are using at the time the energy you are putting back into the grid is counted as energy consumed and you end up being billed for it.
A workaround is some balcony kits have CTs you place around the main conductors feeding your panel. The solar inverter will use the CT to ensure no excess energy is exported.
All micro inverter kits have working anti-islanding as a standard feature. Normal PV systems work the same way. This isn't a function of the meter and isn't optional. The grid communicates with grid tied inverters directly by monitoring AC frequency. In certain areas like CA and HI there are specific frequency thresholds used to kick the grid tied inverters offline.
Comment Re:We're not getting paid for this (Score 0) 56
That was always one of the suspension of disbelief breaking aspects of Star Trek, too. As if anyone would deal with all the responsibilities and risks involved in being a starship crew member when you could just fake the entire experience in a holosuite instead.
Which is more believable? Simulating real life in a holodeck or the Goddess of Empathy?
Comment Re: Looks like a robotic arm on a rail (Score 3, Interesting) 47
Solar panels on deserts are regreening them so they are cooling not heating.
Sand reflects about 70% of solar energy, solar panels reflect about 10% plus another 20% in harvested energy which still leaves you with twice the amount of absorbed energy vs sand.
Greening occurs due to reduced surface temperatures / evaporation due to panel shading.
Comment What about everything else? (Score 2) 47
Screwing panels into place once you've poured all the concrete, installed ground mounts, run all the wiring and electrical boxes is like getting to the 10 yard line and only then breaking out the automation.
Comment Re:Will, not could, come to the USA (Score 1) 94
Texas's age check law for porn sites was upheld by the SCOTUS, though. I was following it closely because I'm in Florida and we have a similar law.
On one hand the court argued obscenity for minors is a valid basis for denying 1st amendment protections. On the other hand it struct down the same restrictions decades ago in the CDA due to..drumroll... 1st amendment protections. The court just does whatever the hell it wants no different than the recent pulling of absolute presidential immunity out of thin air.
Comment Publicly funded research is broken (Score 1) 59
My gf used to run an electron microscopy lab. I can safely say not a single team using the lab had sufficient math skills to write any papers that used statistics, which was all of the biology papers. The math skills of the biologist was so woefully bad that my high school age son would regularly get messaged to help teams with fractions. The worse part is, poor math skills was rewarded because they lead to unique results.
The material science people were only marginally better.
The material science people were only marginally better.
Comment Re:It's inevitable (Score 0) 173
it is LGPL2 or later. So LGPL3 applies. So the anti tivoization clause applies.
That's the opposite of how that works. It's LGPL 2 or later. That means you can follow the terms of redistribution from either license. Either. Or.
Sure. But it won't be your usual Linux distro.
It will do the same jobs. Most of the software on which we depend predates the GPL3 and/or uses an even more permissive license without an anti-tivoization clause.
Comment Is that because of the monopoly? (Score 4, Interesting) 59
The most fortunate part of Bell Labs' situation, however, was that in being attached to a monopoly it could partake in long-term thinking... Without competition nipping at its heels, Bell Labs engineers had the luxury of working out difficult ideas over decades.
Was it the monopoly that made the difference? Or was it simply management smart enough to not only not kill the goose, but also to feed it? They had wins, they got more funding, they had more wins, repeat until they no longer got more funding and stopped getting wins. What's probably more important than why they succeeded is what happened at the end.
Comment Re:Installer level disabling (Score 1) 173
Installer level disabling of the installation of systemd, please.
If you're a Debian derivative user, it's called Devuan.
* Note: Removing systemd from a systemd-based system is madness. There's a reason Devuan exists, and it is that simply changing the init system on Debian results in a lot of breakage, which best illustrates the biggest problem with systemd.
Comment Re:the issue is putting it in systemd (Score 1) 173
systemd is an integral part of many Linux systems. Adding the birth-date to it is the issue here. It's not the right place.
Yes, that is literally the entire ethos behind systemd.
It's crazy to expect a distro maintainer in a sane country to need to yank it out of there manually
Yes, that is literally the entire situation with systemd.
This change literally could not be more on brand for systemd.
Comment Re:Serves him right (Score 1) 173
What were you thinking making changes like that without firstly checking with the entire community?
That's systemd in a nutshell. Only people like that would willingly work on a project like that.
Comment Re:It's inevitable (Score 1) 173
A Linux distro (even preinstalled) cannot be closed source and/or unmodifiable by the end user, the GPL3 made sure of that.
The Linux kernel is GPL2 and glibc is LGPL, and you can construct a complete userland without any GPL3 components. Also, you seem to be under some weird misapprehension that the federal government will follow the law, which it has never done across the board.
Comment Re:advice to children (Score 2) 173
Slavery and many other such things were once legal.
Amendment XIII
Section 1: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction".
Section 2: "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation".
Emphasis mine.
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The party adjourned to a hot tub, yes. Fully clothed, I might add. -- IBM employee, testifying in California State Supreme Court
