I doesn't matter how much power it generates, what matters is how economically it does so. Add in wear and tear costs in the form of maintenance salaries and new parts, and pretty much anything like this becomes worse than useless very quickly, and that's ignoring the initial costs to manufacture\install and the extra effort people expend to open it! And, eh, you know, I'll let everybody else tear apart their insane power production claims, but, "Each time you pass through the door you generate enough power to make a cup of coffee." Yeah, and I've got a bridge to sell you. ;)
well you are right.. but wear-and-tear is there whether you are harnessing the power or not. it is a sunk cost... it is essentially a matter trapping a bit of that energy...
ok wear-and-tear of the motor is a different issue - perhaps an opportunity for innovation to increase efficiency and decrease W and T?
I would prefer Python's competition come from something based on a better and presumably newer paradigm, rather than an old tired mess of a language... maybe Perl 5 isn't that, but it sure looks like it to an outsider!
This rant comes from a narrow view point, but I wonder how much Python is going to slip on maintaining things... I've already been using the older Python 2.5 just for PIL (Python Imaging Library) to do pixel by pixel operations on images... I would use PyMedia but it only supports up to 2.3! There might be a better or newer options but I've yet to find them(nor really have the time\skill to update them), so Python 3000 is probably a no-go for me.
I once argued that upgrading ASAP was the Pythonic thing to do. I forget the numerous compelling reasons I had come up with, but that was long before I had to face "shall I move this stable code to the new version, for no major benefit and limitless potential problems?"
I haven't moved it and it's still working (of course!).
I seem to remember that, but maybe it was just a fabled long lost golden age of myth... when headlines were fixed, children respected their elders, and digg content stayed on digg.
I'm pretty sure it was fabled. There've been people complaining about the Diggification of HN since I started reading (but not commenting) two years ago.
I've no first hand knowledge of Europe, but given what I know of human nature, I'm pretty distrustful of someone describing a place the size of a continent as intellectual... still, it does make me kinda wish it were true! But I mean, honestly...
"boutique consultancy"? I'm not sure whether to applaud for a precision application of language or cringe at the pretentiousness of a deluded grab at prestige....and of course on their main page they call themselves a "Customer Experience Strategy consultancy".
Of course, I'm American, so maybe I'm just too unrefined to properly appreciate their own eloquently enhanced customer experience strategy. ;)
I don't know how you use "boutique" in the US, but it's a commonly used word around here (when speaking English anyway).
I do think there is definitely a qualitative difference in the way people speak in Europe and in the US (also when speaking languages other than English).
I was a bit surprised when I have heard a (supposedly, could have been Canadian AFAIK) American tourist saying something like "they were just a bunch of dudes hanging out" (she was a woman in her 40's, in Austria using an equivalent form of slang is something normally reserved to much younger people).
It was always amusing to me when my British drama teacher would use a word that Americans rarely use like "coach" or "metro" (as opposed to bus or subway). I had just big enough a vocabulary for it to be no effort for me to understand her, even if I never used such words personally, whereas everybody around me just went "huh?" I guess I'm finally noticing the times when I'm on the other side of that divide and have to really think about what the unfamiliar words mean in the given context.
I'd like to see the rare but useful types of clothing become more available. Like long sleeved shirts that attach to your fingers to keep them in place but leave your hands free ( example http://www.boxofmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/prince... ) I don't know of any place to buy shirts that do that, nevermind having enough selection to get the other qualities I want, and custom clothing is way out of my budget.
I think this is particularly important given that often the biggest cost in using a new product\tool is learning to use it well... if it's changing all the time, with no release schedule or no attempt to stabilize the main release via betas\QA\etc, then it gets very frustrating to learn.
