Root Access

Bob

14:02

@JourneymanGeek Had one near me on the train today. If I can hear your music clearly across the carriage, you won't be able to hear anything soon enough.

@allquixotic Such a blog post would probably look something like this:

dsafijoooooooooooooooew,mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmthwelihhhhhhhhhhhhdshovvvvvvvcxzuvvvvvv‌dsgklrwhgrslkaghgldskghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrwapigjadsf

Oh yea, @JourneymanGeek, did you ever make that meta post about loosening the rules? :P

allquixotic

@Bob with headphones? or with a speaker?

Bob

@allquixotic Standard Apple earbuds...

allquixotic

oh. yeah. those leak a lot of noise

i find that on-ear headphones, especially with leather cup cushions, leak very little sound

my Beats are expert at that... very little sound travels in or out while they're on my ears

Bob

Either is fully capable of destroying hearing at that volume and range :P

allquixotic

sound will travel in both directions, so generally, the better the passive noise cancelling acoustics of the cans/buds, the less of your music will leak into your environment

Bob

14:06

hell, I don't think my phone goes that loud on max volume.

IIRC some EU restriction on headphone volume.

allquixotic

maybe they have to have it so loud because the earbuds leak so much sound into the environment

i usually play my on-ear phones at a fairly low volume because almost all the sound coming out of them goes straight into my ear

Bob

@allquixotic still going to be painfully loud at the ear

inverse square law and all

allquixotic

true -- it could be giving them hearing damage without them realizing it

passive noise cancelling (or even active) can save you from hearing damage, because, if you don't have to drown out loud environmental noises like the sounds of the train (air conditioning, steel on steel, engine, etc), you don't have to play your audio as loud to make it listenable

don't leak any sound into the environment; don't allow any environmental sound in; you get a "clean feed" of just your audio and can turn it down a lot

Bob

@allquixotic oh, this was a quiet train

one of the new ones

almost fully sealed. very little environmental noise

the really old ones (without A/C / with windows that open) are horribly loud

especially in tunnels with bends

the amplified sounds of screeching metal on metal... shudder

Oliver Salzburg

Recorded the last podcast \o/

Finally O__O

allquixotic

14:12

@Bob I think all public commuter trains in the US have air conditioning, by now, but they're not totally sealed, especially because people are constantly exiting and leaving the car to go to other cars, restroom, diner car, etc

Bob

@allquixotic the doors between carriages open to this little passage that's also fully sealed :D

allquixotic

the windows are sealed but you still hear a lot of low-frequency "noise" (more like vibration) if you are up near the diesel engine

Tom Wijsman

@slhck The same happened to my earbuds.

Bob

@allquixotic also, electric

allquixotic

@Bob I've been on a lot of high-end trains in recent years and don't think I've ever heard of the passage between the cars being sealed. o_O

the cars are physically joined, you don't have to jump a gap or anything, but they are just connected by this flexible rubber stuff that provides a little alcove

but it is definitely not sealed to the environment, it's loud as hell

Bob

14:14

allquixotic

wow

Bob

suburban trains

allquixotic

might just be because Amtrak and the local commuter train are running the existing fleet of cars until they are beyond serviceable, to save money

Bob

probably closer to your subways

allquixotic

public transportation gets a lot of negative publicity for being too expensive and serving too few people in the US, mainly because we're so huge as a country and have very low population density in a lot of places, so it doesn't get the funding it deserves

our subways are even worse... even though they get way more passengers, a lot more money, and are generally profitable

Bob

14:16

@allquixotic very low population density

cough Australia cough

allquixotic

always blows my mind how US subways are so trashy and poor quality cars and old, etc, yet they're constantly crowded 24/7 with riders happy to pay whatever they ask for

Bob

oh, those are brand new trains

replacing this crap

CityRail S set

The S sets are a class of electric multiple unit operated by CityRail in New South Wales, Australia. The carriages are of stainless steel, double deck construction and are not air-conditioned. Withdrawal of the sets commenced in 2012 with all planned to be replaced by A sets by 2015. However with no new rolling stock ordered for the South West Rail Link some will remain in service. Delivery Two manufacturers built 509 carriages, based on a largely common design: *359 carriages were built by Comeng between 1972 & 1980. They are externally distinguished by the peaked front of driving cars...

some S sets still in service

allquixotic

they should be rolling in dough and using that to reinvest in the system

@Bob looks like a bus :D

Oliver Salzburg

"I'm literally rolling in dough!"

Hmmmm, dough

allquixotic

our local (Maryland) commuter train authority recently purchased about a dozen slightly-used (manufactured in 1999-2004) commuter train diesel locomotives from another transit authority, to replace their fleet of converted freight locomotives from the 1970s

Bob

14:20

here's the old S set connecting thingy

it's a little metal bridge

one side on top of the other

allquixotic

@Bob yep

Bob

often quite squeaky

@allquixotic acts like a bus :P

there's the air conditioned K sets

S sets with A/C, essentially

tombull89

plz kill

-1

Q: How to host a TCP / UDP service on the Internet which is currently running on my local machine?

I have created a TCP server and it's currently hosted on my local machine, but I want to host it on Internet like we host websites. Is there any company which provides this service? And what's the procedure? I am a beginner, so please tell me the reason if you down vote.

Bob

the Tangara ones are pretty good

tombull89

Oh wait I haz close votes.

Bob

14:22

the Millenium ones are rare and very similar to Waratah ones

@allquixotic those things scare me.. I avoid crossing them at all cost :P

Oliver Salzburg

Bob

> created a TCP server

chuckle

@OliverSalzburg I am disappointed.

I was expecting a person literally rolling in dough.

Journeyman Geek

@Bob: on the cable ID question? No

@Bob bad malay rock (I am sure there's the other kind) on shitty speakers

Bob

@JourneymanGeek urgh

seriously, speakers?

Journeyman Geek

speaker

;p

that bothered me more, honestly

Bob

14:26

...can't tell if that's better or worse

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob So was I when I performed the Google search :(

Journeyman Geek

and there was distortion

distortion is one of the few things that make me seriously annoyed

Bob

@OliverSalzburg Yea, I just tried... YOU HAVE FAILED ME, GOOGLE

goes to bing

...

seriously?

www.bing.com uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate is only valid for the following names:
  a248.e.akamai.net , *.akamaihd.net , *.akamaihd-staging.net

hm

that's actually pretty cool

if you scroll down a bing image search, the search box disappears

it reappears when you start scrolling up

Journeyman Geek

14:45

lol

allquixotic

0

Q: Swelling Excel File

I have a very simple Excel 2010 file--the names, addresses, and phone numbers of about forty personal contacts. No formulae, special formatting, or complications other than alternating background colors for the rows so I can follow the line from a name to the appropriate phone number across the p...

microsoft-excel

duplicate question

Hennes

I don't feel like giving away root roles in the system. ...
But they need to be able to edit config files that are owned by root.
...

Then you for giving root access. K. Thank. Bye!

0

Q: Add another system admin on Linux

I am root user in my Linux system. I want to add another system admin and let him/her to help to do the admin job. What privilege should I design for that role (sysadmin)? What is the different between the root and admin in terms of daily system usage? Background: I am able to create a user c...

linux permissions administrator

I think I want to edit the config file for init. ;-)

Journeyman Geek

@Hennes: why not use sudo?

Hennes

Oh, I did not even try to answer it.

I just make fun of "I do not want to do A, so I give him A in a sort of hidden way"

Journeyman Geek

@Bob: meta.superuser.com/questions/6801/…

Bob

14:55

@allquixotic urgh

I would not want to be the one to suggest others move off Excel.

Open/LibreOffice is horribly unreliable compared to MS Office.

allquixotic

lol, the Dictionary of Numbers Chrome extension just told me my rep is approximately equal to the cost of one year tuition in a 4 year college (2010)

Bob

@allquixotic Is that a lot?

HackToHell

any dota2 players here ?

allquixotic

May 9 at 7:58, by Journeyman Geek

NO

Tanner

@HackToHell u haz twin

Journeyman Geek

14:58

you need to do it right ;p

Tanner

Jamie Taylor, United Kingdom

160 11

ffmpeg h.264 html5 libav licensing macbook mail-server

Journeyman Geek

3

allquixotic

0

Q: How to remove V8 from CentOS 6.3?

nodejs crashed on startup when run with no arguments: [root@lcnolw1073 ~]# nodejs nodejs: ../src/handle_wrap.cc:65: static v8::Handle<v8::Value> node::HandleWrap::Unref(const v8::Arguments&): Assertion `args.Holder()->InternalFieldCount() > 0' failed. Aborted (core dumped) How to remove V8 fr...

centos node.js v8

> Write commands please.

far superior to "plz show me the codez"

0

Q: Node.js fails to start with v8 symbol error

I installed the nodejs package on CentOS release 6.3 (Final) But it crashed on startup when run with no arguments: [root@lcnolw1073 ~]# nodejs nodejs: ../src/handle_wrap.cc:65: static v8::Handle<v8::Value> node::HandleWrap::Unref(const v8::Arguments&): Assertion `args.Holder()->InternalFie...

centos node.js v8

this guy just asks the same question over again when he doesn't get an answer. nice

Journeyman Geek

keep closing and carry on? ;p

HackToHell

@Tanner whee

Boris_yo

15:07

@HackToHell I want 8GB of RAM nau!

Sathya

0

Q: Is Linux really better than Windows?

I've heard the premise a lot of times but I felt impartiality in only a few of them - For example: I remember of reading something about Windows and Linux file systems, it seems that Linux file systems do less fragmentation in the files than Windows file systems. That premise is almost always c...

linux windows

HackToHell

hmm lots of nsfw grumpy cat jokes are surfacing tempted to post them here ....

Boris_yo

@HackToHell Ye like cats?

HackToHell

aye

Boris_yo

@HackToHell Aye mey toey!

tombull89

15:10

@Sathya That was closed...remarkably qucik.

allquixotic

@Sathya awesome

HackToHell

►

Sathya

@HackToHell don't

Oliver Salzburg

O__O meta.superuser.com/questions/6801/… @slhck

HackToHell

ok ok :P

Oliver Salzburg

15:12

Posting the same link within a second :P Granted, @slhck posted more than the link ;D

Sathya

@OliverSalzburg that's like the third time this week

YOU ALIENS

Oliver Salzburg

I should scan my PC for trojans... maybe he is watching where I browse

HackToHell

slhck has the EYE !

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg you don't have to worry about Trojans; they live in Greece, far away from Germany

also I don't think they would fit inside your computer :)

Oliver Salzburg

What to pick, what to pick... the condom brand... the fact that Greece is part of the EU... something about the fact that Greece had to be bailed out...

allquixotic

15:16

:D

user226337

1

email microsoft-excel microsoft-outlook windows-7 windows-8

Why hallo thar

Oliver Salzburg

wtf... drag & drop doesn't work any more

HackToHell

o_0

slhck

@OliverSalzburg Sorry, we have that kind of special Meta connection it seems :P

Oliver Salzburg

What the... why is my drag & drop no longer working? I need to drag! And mostly drop!

Boris_yo

@allquixotic Spammy Spammerson undercover.

allquixotic

15:21

@Boris_yo of course :) there are no girls on the internet. although they asked a very coherent question, so it's not Spammy Spammerson, maybe just Smarty Smarterson

Hennes

Oliver in drag ?

Boris_yo

@allquixotic I don't see any questions from this user.

Tanner

Can we just delete this?

superuser.com/questions/599081/…

allquixotic

@Boris_yo superuser.com/questions/599075/…

Tanner

It's going nowhere good.

allquixotic

15:23

o_O they deleted their own question ):

Boris_yo

@allquixotic That's self-moderation.

Oliver Salzburg

@Tanner Migrate to Skeptics perhaps!

allquixotic

@Boris_yo But it was a good question!

Boris_yo

@Tanner Tanner I see only half of your head.

Tanner

@OliverSalzburg ahahahahaha please do it

Boris_yo

15:25

Did you know that Bill Gates is pro-Monsanto?

Oliver Salzburg

wtf...

-1

Q: Is Linux really better than Windows?

I've heard the premise a lot of times but I felt impartiality in only a few of them - For example: I remember of reading something about Windows and Linux file systems, it seems that Linux file systems do less fragmentation in the files than Windows file systems. That premise is almost always m...

computers

allquixotic

@Boris_yo that's normal. the bottom half is always drinking beer and he doesn't want you to know

Oliver Salzburg

This guy...

allquixotic

that's horribly off topic for skeptics

Boris_yo

@OliverSalzburg I have a better question than his. Look - "Is Android better than iOS?"

Oliver Salzburg

15:27

@Boris_yo Post that on Ask Different and ask the opposite on Android Enthusiasts

Tanner

@allquixotic shhhhhh :P sip

HackToHell

lol sold an item in the Steam Community market :)

allquixotic

@HackToHell they need to add a grumpy cat disguise for spies in TF2 :D

"That cat's a spah!"

allquixotic

15:45

All checks pass for getting this migrated to Android.SE: OP wants it migrated; veteran user of android.SE thinks it's on-topic; and question is non-crap. Please vote or migrate if you're a mod.

0

Q: How do I get offline voice detection on my tablet running JB(4.1.1)?

I just got myself a budget tablet(halo value) from "swipe telecom", and I was wondering how I can get offline speech recognition on it, since JB should support it. My language is set to English(US), and I can't seem to find any option to download offline voice recognition files. I looked under se...

android

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic NEVER!

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg Thanks :D

Oliver Salzburg

:D

allquixotic

I need an intervention

someone needs to take all my money away (temporarily, then give it back) so I won't buy the Galaxy S4

today is launch day on Verizon

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic Watch youtube.com/watch?v=jpiPzgBJU9M and then you'll hopefully so conflicted that you'll think "Meh, I'll just get a Nexus"

Bob

15:55

@OliverSalzburg That music sounds very familiar...

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg no Nexus on Verizon

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic I thought the Nexus was unlocked and you could basically use any SIM you want?

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg Verizon ensures that no 700 MHz LTE radios get shipped anywhere the world around without being locked down by them

Bob

@OliverSalzburg I actually rather like the Xperia Z

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob The intro tune?

Bob

15:57

@OliverSalzburg yea. just realised it was asdf

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic Ok, then I guess your first step should be switching to a provider that doesn't suck

@Bob I had no idea. I only know it from MKBHDs intro

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg yeah, good luck finding one that lets you have unrestricted unlimited data without throttling :D

other than Verizon grandfathered contracts, it simply doesn't exist

Bob

HTC one the best build quality?

Heh.

N8. Like a rock.

I could throw it at a wall and pick it right back up.

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic Oh, sorry, I forgot you were living in the US! ;D

allquixotic

@Bob you can do the same for an iPhone; it's just that its screen will be cracked when you pick it up

Bob

15:58

@allquixotic The screen?

The whole thing would be cracked.

Oliver Salzburg

Actually I didn't ;P But what is wrong with mobile service providers in the US?

Bob

Glass back and all.

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg they literally are not selling what we are buying

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic :(

allquixotic

they are selling 2 to 15GB per month data plans at extreme prices with no option anywhere for true unlimited; the ones that advertise unlimited actually mean "2GB per month at full speed, then throttled to 2G speeds"

Bob

16:00

@allquixotic Did I tell you about the excess data charges around here?

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic Oh! Yeah they do that here as well. The Deutsche Telekom is actually currently trying to push that shit to internet connections

As in, at home over the wire

Needless to say, people are going apeshit

Bob

@OliverSalzburg Eh, flexing it.

I'd prefer the replaceable battery.

Not to mention who the hell flexes a phone in normal use??

more important is how it stands up to shock

incidentally, my SII flew out of my pocket while I was running today

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob Noone, the point was the impression of quality you would get from the build. As far as I understood it

Bob

accidentally kicked it too

this is the same one that was drowned a couple of weeks ago

the case got a scratch or two, that's all

@OliverSalzburg I'd imagine the plastic flexing or cracking would be far better for internal components and the screen in the event of any large shock

same with the cover flying off and the battery flying out

the battery is usually the heaviest or second heaviest part

far better that it flies out rather than exerting force on other parts

Oliver Salzburg

Sure, he actually makes a point about apparent quality and real quality in some other videos. As in, an aluminum case might actually be worse for reception, but feels like the phone is of higher quality.

I've actually heard people make that claim. As in "My phone is more awesome, because it feels more awesome. Just touch it! Go ahead! DO IT!!! Do you see how heavy it is? It's the best!"

"What is your phone made of? Plastic? LAWLZ"

Bob

16:06

eh

there's a reason they don't make cars with full steel bodies

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg the backing of my phone is made of Kevlar! TAAAAAKE THAAAT!!!

Bob

..

the power button on the top is considered weird?

has he ever used a nokia phone?

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob The dude is like 19

allquixotic

Falcone, PAWNCH!

Oliver Salzburg

So, no

Bob

16:08

@allquixotic iPhone 6: solid glass formed around the circuit board.

2

allquixotic

i'm surprised no meme followers invented the Millennium Falcone

Bob

....

smartphones

"great pictures"

never used a DSLR, I see

allquixotic

OK, Dictionary of Numbers, way to read "$465 Million" wrong

Tesla Motors Repays $465 [≈ Basic iPad (2011)]M Government Loan 9 Years Early

Bob

@allquixotic Hey, it's the price of a million iPads!

allquixotic

16:37

I'd just as soon have the government hand out a million iPads to students in schools than waste time developing a car relying on non-renewable resources (coal power and extremely scarce platinum in the batteries) so a few millionaires can feel good about themselves that they aren't polluting

Oliver Salzburg

16:56

@allquixotic And the batteries in the iPad are made from air and childrens laughter?

And, didn't they just pay the loan back? As in, the government hasn't even lost anything. To my understanding they even gained money due to interest

But, yeah, maybe an investment of 465M into iPads for children would pay off even more greatly due to the increase in education. Most likely, one of those kids would then be so educated that they simply invent a car that runs on joy and produces happiness. And everyone will be so smart that there is no longer any poverty... well, except for the poverty in the countries that build our awes-o-mobile

Tanner

Our country is on a half-assed kick to support anything they can slap the green tag on. So far it's (arguably) resulted in little more than wasted money, some corruption, and a few under-performing wind farms. It's great and all that Tesla did something awesomely successful, but to those of us who like to allow the free market to drive innovation, and those of us who grew up in under-funded public schools, it's a bit of a touchy subject...

Tanner

17:17

@allquixotic: So where can I find an answer to my question if not here? — Aaron Digulla 1 hour ago

That comment always pisses me off.

The Internet is vast. Go somewhere else.

allquixotic

17:33

@Tanner lol

Hennes

Can multiple people bounty a question at the same time ?

Oliver Salzburg

@Hennes Given that there's no "start a bounty" link on the questions that have a bounty, I'd say no

Hennes

Ah, good point.

Good practical answer

Boris_yo

@Tanner The guy is looking for referrals.

allquixotic

@Hennes this was asked on meta and feature-declined I believe

something about performance yada yada yada (their answer to every feature-declined is performance)

@OliverSalzburg Hard to say -- if the interest rate was less than the rate of inflation between when they borrowed it and when they paid it back, then the government would have paid them to take a loan from the taxpayers to build a couple thousand cars for the richest people in the country. I'm sure that once you consider the materials and the cost of creating those materials that went into these vehicles, it would've been much more environmentally friendly to make 40 mpg gas-powered compact sedans.

Oliver Salzburg

17:54

@allquixotic You do realize though, that they probably didn't give them the loan to "build cars for rich people"?

Like, I would imagine it was primarily about technology and driving progress in the this field forward (in the US)

It's not like the first of anything in technology was ever really cheap. But you have to build it and eventually the price comes down (as in, once it's mass produced in China).

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg There's really no such thing. Or if that was indeed the goal, they've failed horribly. They still depend on extremely precious, rare minerals that come exclusively from China and which will be depleted in 10 years flat due to practically everything we use depending on them. You can move the field forward only so far when you're depending on materials that will be unavailable in no time at all.

Tanner

0

Q: Concatenating videos using FFMPEG

I have FFMPEG installed on my CentoS 6 x64 system: FFmpeg version 0.6.5, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers built on Jan 29 2012 17:52:15 with gcc 4.4.5 20110214 (Red Hat 4.4.5-6) configuration: --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64 --shlibdir=/usr/lib64 --mandir=/usr/share/man --incd...

video ffmpeg android

why was this closed? O_o

allquixotic

If they made their batteries out of seaweed or more common metals or, really, anything other than platinum (doesn't matter what percentage of the battery is platinum; the fact is that it's there and it's required), it would be a huge advancement as it'd drive costs down in a big way, as well as eliminating our dependency on China for platinum

there simply is not enough of platinum, or the metals that are similar enough to platinum to be in any way useful in its stead, based on known basic principles of physics, chemistry and materials science, to produce batteries for electric cars that would depend on materials which are reasonably common as to replace even a small fraction of our gas-guzzling fleet.

Oliver Salzburg

It's not like building the car is the whole challenge in getting people to drive electric cars. There's also infrastructure. And there simply won't be any if nobody isn't starting to drive an "electric car". Maybe their current iteration of the product isn't feasible to build for hundreds of years, but it's a step in the right direction. I wouldn't expect them to deliver the final product in this market at this time.

allquixotic

if they wanted to solve a basic problem, they should have attacked THAT ONE, not trying to mass engineer something that you won't have materials to build in a decade

the whole industry is a waste of time until/unless we can get past our materials science "brick wall"... it really is this simple: no platinum, no electric cars, hybrid cars, smartphones, tablets, and even things like electric razors

with such a huge investment of money I would rather have spent it and not gotten any immediate financial return, if there was even a small chance that the result could be removal of our dependence on those precious minerals.

otherwise we're headed nowhere fast with all this high tech.

oh and even airplanes (the 787) will be useless since they, too, depend on li-ion batteries that use platinum :)

Oliver Salzburg

18:02

That point is definitely valid. But the fact remains that our current situation also relies on a resource that will be depleted at some point. And you can't just go "Oh, well, let's just spend the money on iPads until someone comes up with an idea to build better batteries"

allquixotic

instead, we're saying "let's hope somebody else invents a solution to the materials science brick wall, and continue on based on faith to produce a gigantic scaled up industry to do something that, speculatively, hopefully will be allowed to exist past 2020 by someone else's doing"

in the fortunate event that we do have some kind of materials breakthrough and we can build batteries without precious minerals, or at least less precious, and they are energy-dense enough to run a car, then yes, Tesla's work on the rest of the engineering problems -- which are small by comparison to the brick wall -- will be useful.

but if we aren't going to make the breakthrough ourselves, and we're going to invest half a billion dollars toward an industry, who is going to make the breakthrough? do we have any reason at all to believe that anyone ever will? not if we don't put our minds to it!

Oliver Salzburg

Well, I could imagine there are people who are actually trying to find better solutions to energy storage. Though I don't know if they're taking the required resources into account. But once they might develop something that makes sense, wouldn't you agree that it would be helpful to already have the rest of the technology advanced enough so you could deploy this new storage quickly?

Well, I'm not really up to date on where else the US government is investing money into research ;D

allquixotic

@OliverSalzburg yes, definitely -- but I think we need more money invested into basic science (physics, mathematics, chemistry, electrical engineering and applied materials science) so that the whole thing doesn't become moot.

Oliver Salzburg

@allquixotic I can agree with that

allquixotic

it's way, way easier to engineer a manufacturing line once you have sound physical principles to base your industry around, than to first build a manufacturing line and then be like "OK, guys, where are we going to get the basic physical principles that'll allow us to continue making these things with materials we have available?"

Oliver Salzburg

18:06

Investing into Tesla definitely shouldn't be the only pillar of this development :P

allquixotic

take the atomic bomb for example -- the physics came first

step 1 was Einstein and Oppenheimer; yes we can split the atom, we know how, now we just need billions of dollars to produce the materials, but we know how to get them and they're readily available and we have all the equations here in this book

we're doing the manhattan project in reverse

we're building calutrons before we even know E = mc^2

it'd be like building a pre-fab house by constructing the walls and interior rooms and roof in a factory somewhere without even knowing the dimensions of the foundation, whether it will be built on an incline, whether it'll have a basement, etc. -- lots of things could change based on how the foundation is organized

heck, we might end up deciding that batteries flat out aren't possible in the long term, we just cannot make a battery that doesn't depend on a rapidly exhausting resource, so we have to go to something entirely new like hydrogen fuel cells

once you completely supplant the energy storage system, you have to build a new engine, and the whole design of the car changes

that direction would make much of Tesla's development useless, for example, putting electric quick-charge stations at gas stations would be pointless if people need hydrogen instead of electricity

the problem is it's just too early to know

Oliver Salzburg

Not really sure how relevant this is and I couldn't find better information on the spot en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Energy#Budget

It seems to me like money is being invested into this area of research. I'm not sure how much of it is going into the area of problems you outlined (as in energy storage).

usaspending.gov is hard for me to grasp :D

allquixotic

I'm sure there's a lab somewhere that is researching energy storage and being funded by the US Government, I think in fact they are doing some of that at Sandia National Lab, and Lawrence Livermore

but we seem to be treating it as "just one more area of science to curiously explore" rather than "if we don't do this now, we're hosed"

Oliver Salzburg

I don't want to defend the Tesla loan to the death, but I just feel like it's reasonable to put money into a new company in an emerging market. Even if their product doesn't solve all problems

allquixotic

we haven't had that level of focus and fervor towards a specific area since the Apollo programs to go to the moon

@OliverSalzburg it makes sense to an extent, but that makes the US Government little more than a venture capital firm, and I don't recall telling the US Government that they can take my money and act like a VC, instead of solving the big and challenging problems that threaten our way of life the most

Oliver Salzburg

18:17

Governments do lots of stuff I didn't ask for ;P

I get your point though

allquixotic

in the end, just having a lot of money won't solve anything... we need to focus on specific areas of knowledge and specific engineering and scientific problems that are going to have to improve, soon, or society will turn upside down

of course you can't take a bunch of uneducated or college-educated people and group-think your way into a solution to a basic physics problem

but you can create a large amount of funding for a specific area which will encourage the smartest 10,000 or so people in the country to go into that area and try to come up with the big one

Oliver Salzburg

I agree

allquixotic

I would be equally happy with a discovery that makes batteries irrelevant as one that simply builds a better battery ("better", at this point, mostly entails maintaining the same energy density as we have now with renewable or at least more common materials; any improvement in density or charge cycles is just gravy), but something has gotta give

Tesla has already found clever ways to make lemonade with the lemon batteries we have today; so I don't think that the focus should be so much on energy density or charge cycles... these things are just nice to have

Oliver Salzburg

The problem with long-term thinking is "term" as in "election term" :P

If that's the right word...

allquixotic

yes, that is the right word

Oliver Salzburg

18:23

Well, at least that's how I often feel in regards to certain decisions in German politics. I can only imagine it's similar in the US

allquixotic

yes

Ben Richards

@OliverSalzburg Yeah, we have the same frustration.

A successful politician is one that keeps getting re-elected, to them. As opposed to one that serves the public.

Oliver Salzburg

Then there's, of course, involvement of companies and their "impact" they have on the decisions of politicians ;P

Like, we currently have this thing with the "Euro Hawk" drone in Germany...

Which we needed because our minister of defense claimed that "If everyone else is using high tech war machines, we can't be buying sticks and stones"

Of course the thing cost a cool 500 mil

And now it turns out it's not allowed to even fly in the EU due to air traffic laws

Meaning it's a total loss and someone can park it in their front yard

Ben Richards

Hah, wow

Oliver Salzburg

I would have rather given that money to a company that builds electric cars ;P

...or even better, a company that comes up with a better way to store energy.

allquixotic

18:30

awesome. there's more platinum on the moon (despite its relatively small size) than there is on earth

hail to the NASA Platirover! Go to the moon, mine a bunch of platinum, shoot it back to earth on a mass driver (timing the shot so it impacts into the ocean), fetch it, repeat

Tanner

@allquixotic Sweeeeeeeet. Valid excuse for moon base. =D

Oliver Salzburg

Moon Express

Moon Express, or MoonEx, is a privately held early stage company formed by a group of Silicon Valley and space entrepreneurs, with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize, and ultimately mining the Moon for resources of economic value. History In August 2010, Naveen Jain, Barney Pell and Robert D. Richards, co-founded Moon Express, a Mountain View, California-based company that plans to offer commercial lunar robotic transportation and data services with a long term goal of mining the Moon for resources including elements that are rare on the earth, including Niobium, Yttrium and Dys...

2

allquixotic

@Tanner exactly!

Oliver Salzburg

18:42

@OliverSalzburg The obvious next step will be "Planet Express" obviously ;D

It'll probably take 1000 more years though, give or take

jtbadn

:)

Hennes

;-)

jtbadn

@allquixotic I need u =)

Hey @OliverSalzburg good to see you again.

@allquixotic is ignoring me because i am a dummy.

:(

allquixotic

@jtbadn hi

Oliver Salzburg

wat indiegogo.com/projects/rob-ford-crackstarter

jtbadn

18:50

@allquixotic u miss me? give me configuration to connect to core plz.

Oliver Salzburg

@jtbadn Welcome to Root Access :)

jtbadn

you mean welcome back, I only come here to bug you doodes. and sometimes @allquixotic teaches me things.

allquixotic

@jtbadn there is no quassel setup atm

i'll deal with it when i get home from work

jtbadn

Why is my nick still connected to the network?

ok.

allquixotic

i know your email dummy

chat is indexed by google

delete your message with your email ;p

Hennes

18:54

At least here you will be treated with dignity.
Now strip naked and get on the probulator.

allquixotic

careful he might do it

jtbadn

I shall begin with my shoes then... which I should have removed a the door before entering.

I wouldn't want to scuff the red velvety carpet in here.

U guys are Super Users, so that's like celebrities to me.

Hennes

jtbadn

@Hennes lol

allquixotic

we need a grumpy cat pic for him

4 hours ago, by Journeyman Geek

jtbadn

18:57

Or a hookah smoking caterpillar.

allquixotic

@jtbadn petswitch.com

Oliver Salzburg

jtbadn

good lord.

Oliver Salzburg

No offense @Pat! I love you!

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