Month: October 2009

Our Ultracapacitave Overlords

Technology Review lets us in on our ultracapacitive future by offering a peep at these super hot buses equipped with, you guessed it, ultracapacitors. The cleverness here is that they get over their short range by charging at special bus stops.

There’s just one catch: the best ultracapacitors can only store about 5 percent of the energy that lithium-ion batteries hold, limiting them to a couple of miles per charge. This makes them ineffective as an energy storage medium for passenger vehicles. But what ultracapacitors lack in range they make up in their ability to rapidly charge and discharge. So in vehicles that have to stop frequently and predictably as part of normal operation, energy storage based exclusively on ultracapacitors begins to make sense.

They tell us about the stops too:

Unlike a conventional trolley bus that has to continually touch an overhead power line, Sinautec’s ultracapacitor buses take big sips of electricity every two or three miles at designated charging stations, which double as bus stops. When at these stations, a collector on the top of the bus rises a few feet and touches an overhead charging line. Within a couple of minutes, the ultracapacitor banks stored under the bus seats are fully charged.

Fantastic. Two minutes at a stop, well, that’s not ideal, but let’s assume that gets better. And, frankly, every agency but the MBTA will set those longer, charging stops at stations that are quite busy (and thus feature longer boarding times) anyway.

But wait, there’s more:

“The ultracapacitor bus is also cheaper than lithium-ion battery buses,” says Ye. “We used the Olympics (lithium-ion) bus as a model and found ours about 40 percent less expensive with a far superior reliability rating.” Ye adds that the environmental benefits are compelling. “Even if you use the dirtiest coal plant on the planet, it generates a third of the carbon dioxide of diesel when used to charge an ultracapacitor.”

And, of paramount interest to the MBTA here in Boston, these super-buses will even fix Routes 1 and especially 39:

There are some other important limitations. The 41-passenger buses, based on current technology, lose 35 percent of their range when air conditioning is turned on, and have weak acceleration.

Holy crap, since 0-60 times will be over 20 seconds, we might just be able to keep to a fucking schedule instead of racing up and down Huntington Ave all the while blaming bunching on “traffic conditions.” We can’t not buy these busses. Today!

FOXnews objective reality:

savagemike reports a handy guide of use to anyone trying to keep up with US current events:

  • Parents who don’t want their children to pray in school are Anti-American zealots — parents who don’t want their children to listen to a speech by the President of the United States telling them to work hard and get good grades are noble patriots.

  • Peacefully demonstrating against the country starting an international war is treason — showing up with automatic weapons to protest healthcare reform is democracy at its finest.

  • Any government official with a desk job should have every action scrutinized — any government official with a badge and a gun should never be questioned or disrespected. At all. Ever.

  • Questioning the legitimacy of an election because the “winner” was selected by the Supreme Court is sour grapes — questioning the legitimacy of an election because the winner (by the largest number of votes in American history) is really a Kenyan born Muslim despite all evidence to the contrary is being a vigilant American.

  • Lying about a blowjob is an impeachable offense — lying about a war is no big deal, really.

  • Investigating a shady land deal involving the First Lady is a matter of National Identity — investigating the use of torture at the direction of the Executive Branch is a partisan witch hunt.

  • Executing Japanese officers for waterboarding prisoners during WWII shows that we have the moral high-ground on human rights — waterboarding prisoners of our shows that we have the moral high-ground on human rights.

  • Sitting two rows in front of Jane Fonda in a 1970 anti-war rally is an OUTRAGE! Shaking Saddam’s hand in 1983…meh, not so much.

  • Anyone who questions the president during a time of war is giving aide and comfort to the enemy and should be deported…unless the president in question has a (D) next to their name in which case you should undermine them at every turn even if you have to routinely make shit up to do it.

  • Socialism, Marxism, Communism and Fascism are all interchangeable words that mean pretty much the same thing.

  • Anyone who abuses drugs should be locked up indefinitely…unless they are a popular Republican radio host in which case they need your prayers as they recover from the illness of addiction.

  • Health Insurance companies have your best interests in mind and anyone who thinks otherwise is trying to turn America into the Godless heathen nation of Sweden where EVERYONE in the country dies (eventually).

  • Obama is an atheist communist muslim who attended a radical christian church.

  • Believing that human activity could impact the global environment is crazy talk — believing that an invisible man in the sky personally told George Bush to invade Iraq to fulfill Biblical prophecy is logically sound.

  • The verdict is still out on evolution — but Jesus Christ returning in our lifetimes is a pretty much a given.

  • The media are unquestionably biased against Republicans — Talk Radio, The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, Rightwing Blogs, Fox News and NewsCorp are not part of the media.

  • The government should have no part in regulating multi-national corporations as they make decisions that impact the lives of millions of people — government should regulate individuals by determining who they can marry, what kind of intercourse they can have, what they can smoke, how to manage their pregnancy and how to proceed with end of life decisions.

  • Communicating with hostile nations is a stab in the back to our great nation — Reagan communicating with the USSR during the Cold War was Political Genius.

  • Iran is a mortal threat to our nation and anyone who attempts to talk to them is traitorous scum — selling weapons to Iran and then funneling the money to start wars in South America is clearly in our National interest.

  • George Bush kept the nation safe after 9-11 (NOTE: the Anthrax attacks, the DC Sniper and Hurricane Katrina don’t count. Also, the fact that 9-11 happened on his watch despite receiving a security briefing specifically warning of the attack doesn’t count either.)

  • Social Security, Medicare, public schooling, public libraries, fire departments, police departments and the US Military are as American as Apple Pie — universal healthcare is ZOMGDEATHPANELSOCIALISM!!

  • George W Bush is a regular ‘ole Texas rancher just like you and me despite the fact that he was born in Connecticut, attended two Ivy League schools, bought the Crawford ranch just before running for president, [redacted], and is terrified of horses.

  • The two guys at the center of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals are trustworthy voices in discussions of current national policy and should be taken at face-value.

Now who can argue with that?

[…] you know, I’m busy and Nancy [Pelosi is] busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else’s mess — we don’t want somebody sitting back saying, you’re not holding the mop the right way. (Applause.) Why don’t you grab a mop, why don’t you help clean up. (Applause.) You’re not mopping fast enough. (Laughter.) That’s a socialist mop. (Laughter and applause.) Grab a mop – let’s get to work.

Barack Obama

Takron-Galtos revisited

jimray posts:

“Terrorists should not be treated like common criminals in federal court. These detainees are enemies of the state, and should be treated as such by being held and brought to justice right where they are — in Guantanamo Bay.”

— Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA), criticizing a Democratic play to [transfer suspected enemy combatants from Guantanamo to the United States to stand trial]

It occurs to me that this kind of thinking is exactly backwards – nothing would be more humiliating to a terrorist than to be treated like a common criminal. We need to stop treating these people as if they’re some kind of team of super-villains ready to sow havoc on the U.S. at a moment’s notice. It’s not Lex Luthor or an evil genius Bond villain that we’re up against here – these people are barely literate, delusional and fueled by a misappropriation of religion and blind hatred of a worldview too complicated for them to understand. If that sounds familiar to people like Representative Lewis, it’s probably because it’s also an apt description of the extreme of his own party.

This is exactly right. Why the GOP and many average citizens seem to think our justice system simply cannot handle criminals “like this” is beyond me. A series of regular old trials (and, presumably: convictions and sentences) is precisely how to prevail in this situation over the long haul. We lose when we’re seen to dispatch with our whole system of government because it’s expedient or just more convenient. That dissolution of our government and, by extension, our ability to tinker in world events abroad, is precisely the object of their desire. Bring Osama bin Laden and his associates before the bench, one by one, just like any other common criminal. Nothing would undermine their entire worldview more.

The Other End of Orthogonal

Gruber (and others) muse that Microsoft’s competition for Windows 7 customers is with its own Windows XP and with apathy. Most notably: not with Apple/Macintosh. Which is true. Apple has repeatedly stated through words and actions that they have no particular interest in the sub-$500 PC market. They barely have an interest in the sub-$1000 market. True, Apple has a few “hobby” projects in that space, but not a major business push.

But, and it’s a big but: the other end of an orthogonal relationship is the collision point. What happens when there’s sufficient processing power to do the vast majority of cheap-PC stuff on a phone or tablet? Microsoft’s continuing failure in this market is as obvious as Apple’s ongoing and growing success in it. True, you’re never going to word process on an iPhone, but a tablet: could be. Like many, I’ve already found an iPhone sufficient for huge swaths of what I formerly used laptops for while traveling. For many business travelers, it’s probably already there. A truly functional tablet could well eliminate most folks’ entire need for a laptop; certainly, the net-book industry would close almost overnight.

So it seems likely then that Microsoft (and the cheap PC market) will be utterly decimated when Apple (or somebody else) solves the tablet market. Think it through: a wildly successful tablet (or an iPhone type device with far greater capabilities that that of today) would obviate the need for a “real” laptop, would also neuter the crap experience of the cheap PC; who would want a table-bound POS when you could have a doodad in your lap that does everything said POS does and more, only with real usability and ease. Such a development would leave only the high-end market for people that need serious computing power or some other fairly specific, high-end task like a giant monitor. Microsoft is in precisely none of those spaces. Apple is in all of them, and not just in: they’re dominating and defining them in a way that makes follow-on innovation seem more like poor imitation, and gaining a foothold is that much more difficult. Curious that the only one they’re not in is the one they publicly disregard while (quietly) planning to destroy… almost like there’s  a plan afoot.

The Gay Blade

Clearly some rampant judicial activism going on when it falls to the judge to finally point out the blazingly obvious logical flaws in a case:

The unusual exchange between U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker and Charles Cooper, a lawyer for the group that sponsored Proposition 8, came during a hearing on a lawsuit challenging the measure as discriminatory under the U.S. Constitution.

Cooper had asked Walker to throw out the suit or make it more difficult for those civil rights claims to prevail. The judge not only refused but signaled that when the case goes to trial in January, he expects Cooper and his legal team to present evidence showing that male-female marriages would be undermined if same-sex marriages were legal.

Some of the specific exchanges went like this:

“What is the harm to the procreation purpose you outlined of allowing same-sex couples to get married?” Walker asked.

“My answer is, I don’t know. I don’t know,” Cooper answered.

and this:

“Since when do Constitutional rights rest on the proof of no harm?” Walker parried, adding the First Amendment right to free speech protects activities that many find offensive, “but we tolerate those in a free society.”

all one can say to that is: “Yep. And Yep.”

Follow up on this post: It’s just remarkable that, in the midst of a largely “fortified bunker” style reaction to 9/11, people’s notion of crime has become utterly unmoored from reality. If you constantly confront people with the seeming need for Fort Knox security at every moment, they’ll begin to think that things are far worse than they are. And that opinion has real consequences. None of which are very productive…

Macintosh IIsi

Huh, Bukowski and I were using the same computer in the early 90s…

Charles Bukowski received a Macintosh IIsi computer and a laser printer from his wife, Linda. The computer utilized the 6.0.7 operating system and was installed with the MacWrite II word processing program. By January 18 of the next year, the computer was up and running and so, after a brief period of fumbling and stumbling, was Bukowski. His output of poems doubled in 1991.

Good old 6.0.7. The classic with just a splash of color. Huzzah! What a step up that computer felt like on moving from my old Macintosh SE. The “si” part of the name, by the by, stood for “small integrated” if my memory serves me correctly: smaller case (than a standard Macintosh II, which had dual disk drives, an HD, and lots of slots for cards), integrated video (the II line had, up to that point, required a separate video card purchase which, at the time, seemed vaguely insane). The magnificent follow-on to it, the IIci, was merely “compact.” The later IIfx went blue…

Macintosh IIsi