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Comment Why only two possibilities? (Score 1) 48

by Hirsch (#48167585) Attached to: Saturn's 'Death Star' Moon May Hide Subsurface Ocean

"Computer models point to two possibilities" ...
Hollywood plot writers point to dozens of possibilities:
1. Gargantuan space monster is about to hatch
2. Micro black hole has consumed part of the core ... and its growing faster!
3. Mimas, you're drunk. Go home!
4. Transformers are line dancing, causing this wobble ...
you know there's more!

Comment Degradation affects ROI (Score 1) 439

by Hirsch (#31318386) Attached to: Caltech Makes Flexible, 86% Efficient Solar Arrays
Solar panels often have a limited return-on-investment because they also have a limited lifespan. The efficiency and energy output of a solar panel declines over time, estimates are often at 1% per year. While nuclear, coal, hydro, and other power generation mechanisms have modular, maintainable, repairable parts, solar panels are usually an all-or-nothing replacement option. So if you invest in solar panels that generate 10 kWh of electricity on a bright shiny day when they are installed, they will probably only generate 8 kWh after 20 years. YMMV, and different manufacturing techniques will produce different results, which can be modeled theoretically, but as every good engineer should consider, the best way to measure degradation is to measure output (for a manufacturing technique, statistical sampling of manufactured batches, etc) for a number of years to determine how much degradation occurs. Solar panel manufacturing is still very much a "wild west" technology, with new innovations coming out faster than hard data on reliability and efficiency, which doesn't make solar any less cool, it just makes it more difficult to accurately estimate ROI or energy savings.
Microsoft

Microsoft's Ethical Guidelines 271

Posted by kdawson from the oxy-meet-moron dept.
hankwang writes "Did you know that Microsoft has ethical guidelines? It's good to know that 'Microsoft did not make any payments to foreign government officials' while lobbying for OOXML, and that 'Microsoft conducts its business in compliance with laws designed to promote fair competition' every time they suppressed competitors. In their Corporate Citizenship section, they discuss how the customer-focused approach creates products that work well with those of competitors and open-source solutions. So all the reverse-engineering by Samba and OpenOffice.org developers wasn't really necessary."

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