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That's good to know - so at least there is some time before the juice runs out. How long are they supposed to have battery for, I wonder...

Since hurricane Katrina, the FCC has required all cell sites to have backup power. http://www.njslom.org/FCC-07-177A1.pdf

Cells can potentially be more reliable than landlines... When one goes out, your phone can ramp up its power to reach a more distant one. Or at worst, you can get up higher or walk down the street until you get a signal. But to reach that point requires the FCC to take things a few steps further than they are currently willing to.

Windows 10 also spies on your kids and sends you reports - http://boingboing.net/2015/08/10/windows-10.html

That's great for your devices - but if the cell towers lose power, you're going to have to shout loudly.

My sister lives up in Washington. When they had a rash of bad fires in her area, folks sometimes had power, but all the cell towers were out and there was no phone [inter]connectivity. For whatever reason, that doesn't seem to happen so much with the old copper wires.

I'm not against bailing on copper. But there are pros to it.

they cost more because of the exotic materials they contain rather than it being a function of the difficulty of refining them.

You don't pay the platinum an extra fee for its star power... You pay the mining operation, because they have to move tons and tons of ore to get sufficient quantities of platinum, then refining operation because it takes a lot of chemicals, electrical and mechanical processes to separate it out. There will be some with operating costs lower than the current spot price of platinum, but many that are barely breaking-even.

The labor mostly goes to the workmen with a much smaller amount for any transportation costs.

The workmen aren't taking your money and putting it in a sofa, they're spending it on many things which have a big carbon footprint of their own. And if you could get it done with half the labor, for half the price, you'd be encouraging only half the footprint.

These would be things who's price would fluctuate at nearly the global oil price.

Oil is only for mobile energy usage like transportation. You aren't saving any oil by insulating your home or buying more-efficient appliances.

And it's not at all true that commodities will fluctuate with global prices at all. In fact energy prices are often very, very localized. See: Alcoa plants in Iceland.

Anyhow, I've made the case as clearly as I can. You're free to disbelieve it if you choose.

I'm thinking of things like platinum catalysts and rare earth metals that might be used. Yes they require some labor, but they cost more because of the exotic materials they contain rather than it being a function of the difficulty of refining them. I'm having trouble correlating cost of labor with energy most of the time for installs of things like water heaters, solar arrays, better windows. The labor mostly goes to the workmen with a much smaller amount for any transportation costs.

There might be some specific instances where the material and labor that goes into a product is a direct function of the cost of energy. These would be things who's price would fluctuate at nearly the global oil price. As such, I can't think of many like that. Track the global energy price and the price for the item itself and see if there is any correlation at all. I'd be really shocked if you could find any.

For anybody without a landline, a cheap solar panel is a good investment.

You can use it to charge your cell phone (with any 12V car charger), or to charge your FIOS/U-Verse/cable-modem battery (requires in-line diode). And even without a ($40!) battery, you can use the panel for power directly, but only during daylight hours. It's equally useful to charge flashlight and radio batteries...

You just have to be careful about duty cycle with solar. In winter, with just 8 hours of low-angle sunlight, possibly over-cast weather, you might only get a very small amount of power from it. So be sure to always significantly over-spec.

Things like labor, materials and IP rights are also major impacts in cost for items.

I've concede IP rights, but that's a corner case, not too significant in this area. Labor and materials both emit waste, and the amount of money you spend on them strictly limits just how much waste they can generate.

I don't claim it always matches up perfectly, but it's still usually a pretty good proxy.

No, money is often not a good proxy for energy used. Energy is a single cost input into the overall cost of a product or service. Things like labor, materials and IP rights are also major impacts in cost for items.

My mind is apparently fried, CO2 or C02 sometimes the eyes at the tips of my fingers get drowsy and start hitting the wrong keys. I'll soak them in my visine coffee and they should be good to go.

The physical keyboard on a mobile phone is never going to be big (in my opinion)

The downfall of tablets and the rise of Chromebooks seems to be directly related to keyboards, so they seem to be of significant importance.
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the keys will actually be very small and that doesn't suit a lot of people.

I don't see what alternative you are proposing. Phones are small therefore people... shouldn't ever type on them...?

Also, we had this discussion a few months ago: http://pipedot.org/3NZG

He's not talking about money, but energy.

Money is often a good proxy for energy used. It's not as if home insulation is produced with zero CO2 footprint. Contractors driving to your home burn plenty of fuel. etc.

But if anther goal is C02 reduction, then for some people with enough disposable income and that care enough about such things then the amount of C02 released is also important potentially more so.

Except the cost of the carbon is ~1/8th the cost of the retrofit, so other methods of eliminating CO2 with that money could be vastly more effective.

Also, either you're overly concerned with diatomic carbon, or else someone has covertly swapped your O (oh) key with your 0 (zero) key. However, I do give you full credit for consistency...

I told him to call me when they had the high efficiency ones. I probably won't save the amount of extra money it costs

You might be lucky and break-even... Sometimes appliances last far longer than projected, and energy prices have been known to suddenly and unexpectedly spike.

That's actually something that drives me nuts about virtual keys. If I am trying to type something with a good mix of alpha and numbers it's such a pain to switch back and forth from alpha to numeric. And besides, on physical it doesn't have to cater to every situation; that is what the shift/ctrl keys are for. I think there are probably benefits to virtual as well as physical but for me the physical benefits are more to my liking.

He's not talking about money, but energy. Probably meaning the amount of C02 given off by the expense of the energy. The study was focused on cost, which is a good thing to keep an eye on for sure. But if anther goal is C02 reduction, then for some people with enough disposable income and that care enough about such things then the amount of C02 released is also important potentially more so.

I can't tell you how freaking annoying it is to get an appliance installed and have to fight for a more efficient device, even if its at higher cost. I was debating getting a new water heater, and the installer told me to do it now while they still sold the old cheaper less efficient models, in a few months they'd only sell the high efficiency ones. He was kind of shocked when I told him to call me when they had the high efficiency ones. I probably won't save the amount of extra money it costs, but its not a significant amount of money to me at this point and its the right thing to do.

I think the difference with a virtual keyboard is you can limit the keys and can change the keys depending on what is being selected on the scree. With Physical you have to cater for every situation ahead of time.

I think there are two things that are possibly being overlooked. A virtual keyboard on a phone is not going to be significantly bigger than a physical keyboard on a phone and also it will reduce the available screen for display of information. So saying the keys will be small would also apply to a virtual keyboard. And the second thing is with the increasing size of phone screens it seems there would be a matching increase in keyboard size for a physical keyboard on a slider phone. I have seen bluetooth keyboards that were as small as the bigger phone screens we have these days. I think with the increasing screen size, now is the time to have a return of the slider keyboard because it can be comfortably sized.

It would be good to see polls related to topical news items. Example a poll on the new one plus two phone..."What feature would you miss the most if you had a one plus two..."

These things are all good for business customers but even here times are changing. People no longer want 2 phones at work, they want to bring their own phone and have access to work data as well as their personal data on a single device. The physical keyboard on a mobile phone is never going to be big (in my opinion) because the amount of keys you need for typing is far greater than for using a phone as a phone and this large requirement for keys means the keys will actually be very small and that doesn't suit a lot of people.

This sounds like a very reasonable approach, hopefully this idea will spread to other countries.

When the TPP or its clone is passed we will be just like the.good old US of A. Lawyer nation here we come! Although, this being Australia, said lawyers may not want to actually step foot inside the border...

The study is saying the government should stop paying for such programs.

it's only wasting money and the energy needed to do the upgrade, which I'm sure is offset by the energy saved.

The study says otherwise, claiming only half the invested money is returned in energy savings.

Finishing it would be a good start. How about some help files? Uninstall script would be appreciated. Let's all play nice in the sandpit, eh?

Samsung Epic 4g and Motorola Photon Q were both decent sliders with good keyboards (IMHO). I still use my Photon and probably will until there is a revival in the slider market (or my Photon dies).

I remember someone coming by my house and doing energy savings fixes (seal holes, add attic insulation, etc.) to my house for free. There was some government program (I don't remember if it was state or federal, but I'm fairly sure federal) that paid the contractor directly for each house finished.

My limited economic knowledge says if the government says "we'll pay up to X of the cost," then that's the exact number contractors will charge. The free-ness of the project is felt by the same person who reaps the benefits (lower monthly bills), and so I'm not sure I'm against this at all. While it is, as far as the article is concerned, wasteful, it's only wasting money and the energy needed to do the upgrade, which I'm sure is offset by the energy saved. If it only costs the state and federal governments money (by which I mean, if it only costs everyone a small amount of money) to help against climate change, then I'm all for it. If there is graft or gouging going on (which if there's a government contract, there almost definitely is), then I'm also for fixing that. These two choices are not mutually exclusive.

Droid was the only good one I played with. The others were pretty terrible. They tried putting them on cheaper phones and skimped on quality. The logic was a bit insane. Not having a keyboard is better than having a crappy one.

This reminds me of the Torch, the last slider I think they made, around 2010 or so. It was a really thick/heavy phone to hold or carry in your pockets, and a lot of people who were assigned one at work were envious of teh lighter candybar formfactor. I still root for Blackberry, but I don't find this device form very appealing. Samsung is going to release (in Asia only, sadly) a flip phone Android device, on the other hand, and that interests me a bit more (not sure why, but I really loved flipphones, if only because when closed they provided natural protection for their screens).

Secondly, for what it's worth, when I heard 'slider' I got excited, thinking it would be landscape mode, not portrait mode. I always liked those side-sliders that came out in the early days of Android.

Those were the reasons why I liked Blackberry. As a personal tech advisory to some big wig, I was tasked with getting a new (free) phone for my client due to a problem with his existing one. It wasn't about money as it was a principle thing. So I had the un-enviable task of working my way through tech support as long as I could without name dropping. I only got to tier 2 before I had to go nuclear. But as soon as I did, the phone was in the mail. Never really called them before or since for anyone else. So maybe that was just the name that got action. In any case, it was the best experience with Tech support I've ever had.

The world has a crisis of energy that we are currently throwing resources at, but eventually we will have to pay the piper. Cutting waste is a big part of it, but we will need a long term source of energy once fossil fuels become harder to extract.

Flying where? Filming what? Geez. Drones. Nice to see you, bye bye. Given that behaviour they will make it like flying remote control planes. Fines. Preregistration. Technology to identity location of controller. Arrests. What utter pricks the human race can be. What is next? Strapping a bomb to one? Packing one with chilli powder to drop on a crowd? As a civilisation we suck.

Not a problem. Time to start looking elsewhere. Shame, really. Considering the cost of hiring and training a replacement they should consider a salary adjustment. On the other hand, perhaps this person likes seeing new faces every couple of years.

Thanks AC, I guess you could do a stacked chart. Logged in votes in blue and AC votes in orange. ACs can give their opinion in comments ... why not in polls? It could be a configuration toggle in |. that allows ACs or not in polls in case it gets abused. I don't really think someone would take the trouble to hijack an informal poll like this. Maybe 1 AC vote per IP address too?

On the grounds they can be considered, simultaneously, a security threat AND a nuisance to commerce, I can imagine there would be decent support for a policy that allows law enforcement officers to blow them the fuck out of the sky with superior firepower.

You've currently got douchebags flying their drones around supposedly sensitive public monuments etc., filming their neighbors having sex by the pool, and getting in the way of air traffic. Inconsiderate drone operators are going to very soon spoil the party and cause government to open up the can of whoop-ass.

The whole thing is transparent and they have high energy needs, so this would be ideal for them. Ditto for skyscrapers, as mentioned by others. Even at 10% efficiency (or less!), if the price point comes down enough, it will be just that much less energy that must be bought from the outside.

If they get REALLY cheap, this could be good in areas that get a lot of sun in winter, but it's low to the horizon so the light comes in the windows all day. The Russians and Chinese should be jumping on this since the Siberian High does just this, but even here in the Sonora Desert, the sun is low enough in winter that this could be a big deal if they're made cheap enough, even if the efficiency sucks.

Indeed. Instead of investing in an expensive and complex set of electronics,

I don't think it should be expensive or complex. I think it should be stupid simple. and require no more skill and no more cost than installing a smoke alarm. It doesn't need a google sized data center to process temp info... Heck a raspberry pi would be overkill in terms of processing power.

The office I work in now, is a credit to how terrible professional systems can be.

Also of note, My existing system is already highly efficient. For my personal needs I want this change due to comfort rather than cost. The temp of the current area the thermostat is in isn't representative of the whole house at all times. Maybe if I replaced the windows, added a whole house fan, and an attic fan, that would help as well. But the cost effective solution probably isn't a new HVAC system.

Yeah, really disappointed in nest. Its not done well.

Well, thanks for point me in the right direction. If the vents aren't smartly controlled, then they aren't going to be of use for what I was imagining.

However, the multi temp can be achieved cheaper than the last time I looked with these products: I

http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-THX9321R5030-Prestige-2-0-Thermostat/dp/B008BZ5GXW

http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-C7189R1004-Wireless-Indoor-Sensor/dp/B005Y0VTB0/

If the 'solution' doesn't involve a cool app for my new smartphone, it doesn't count as progress :)

... kidding.

I'm with you on that one. The USG could/should be providing better data in more usable formats, offering more online services, and being much more creative. Unfortunately - and I can say this as a former USG employee - the governemnt (maybe all governments) seems to better attract mild-mannered, "follow the rules" types focused on implementing someone else's decision, than really being creative.

CATO has a lot to say about this - have a look at http://cato.org if you're curious.

Home heating/cooling/management tech - Heat-pumps are coming along nicely, but are still too rare and much too expensive at the low-end. I can get a window A/C unit for maybe $120, and could install it BACKWARDS with some small modifications (power source and thermostat), but it's rare to find a unit that does heating and cooling under $600... Most anything cheaper than that is "supplemental heat", which means they just jammed a space-heater (coils) inside a window A/C unit.
Cheapest real heat-pump I've found is: This $470 Frigidaire FFRH0822R1.

TV/Radio/Movies - The advance of technology is causing fundamental shifts we can just start to see now, but it will take some time to shake-out. Lower cost of production, lower costs of delivery, and more outlets for distribution are going to have huge effects. I'm glad there's plenty of pretty good older content out there now, to bridge the gap as everybody tries to figure it out.

Communications - I think we've got that covered. Remember back when ham was popular as an alternative to astronomically expensive international phone calls? Now a $20 cell phone can jump on WiFi and make free international phone calls to and from anywhere in the world.

Govt issues (record keeping, healthcare) - Everybody hates taxes, and the code is due for a massive overhaul to make the super-rich pay a fair percentage, and make the amount owed a far simpler formula that eliminates the hours and billions spent on accountants. But there's nothing innovative in that, just proper governance. In general, I get nervous when the government starts "innovating"... The NSA has gotten far too "innovative" in recent years for my taste.

Public transportation systems - I anxiously await Futurama-style people-mover tubes. However, self-driving cars combined with all-electric propulsion could be pretty efficient, quicker and very comfortable. Just imagine a self-driving motorhome with batteries and rooftop solar panels... You could just wake-up, still at home, but in a new city every day.

Banking systems - We're starting to see things like micro-loans, pay-by-cell phone, etc. But "innovation" to them, is just more sneaky ways to get more money out of unsuspecting people. I'd rather they didn't "innovate" like that much if at all...

Safety/Security, incl. 'anti-terrorism' - We're a small step away from everybody recording everything that happens, everywhere, all the time. It will become considerably harder to get away with any crimes. Combined with everyone's whereabouts at all times of day/night being on-record at the phone company, law enforcement seems to have a big change looming.

Education - Technology doesn't help without a change in culture. Forcing students to read Moby Dick on a tablet won't make it any more relevant to kid's lives, today. Huge amounts of money were spent to get TVs and VCRs in every classroom, only to be used to watch Hollywood films when the teacher feels like taking a break. Meanwhile, students are forced to read famous plays, be told about world events that happened on-camera, read about physics/biology/chemistry when video would get so much more across more quickly, etc., etc. And more recently, lots of money spent on computers that are largely off-limits to students, locked-down to the point that they might just as well be replaced with electronic typewriters or word processors. The system would be better served to use that money on teacher salaries, and migrate away from mostly attendance-based grading.

do you have any links on how to splice up a HVAC to multiple zones?

You might be happy with very cheap, minimal effort battery & timer-controlled "vent-misers":

http://www.amazon.com/Vent-Miser-91667-BR-Programmable-Energy-6-Inches/dp/B000WAA8XM/

For the basic (manually adjusted) dampers, you can see the first segment of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8jM9z3scQk

And the last 5 minutes of this one:

https://youtu.be/UPbjM08DGZY?t=18m23s

For an automatic zoning retrofit, it's easiest to find one of the forced-air zoning retrofit kits like the Honeywell TrueZone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G7ZOsNGBJU

Though you can really do the same thing by buying a few line-level thermostats and motorized dampers, separately instead of depending on their expensive and advanced multi-zone thermostat systems that are part of the kit.

The high-tech pneumatic retrofit options might be easier to install (and therefore worth the extra expense) in some situations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2EJLhZ939A

http://www.retrozone.com/Catalog/retrofit.htm

Well, at least that should be enough to get you started.

Michael, from Phoronix, had an interesting rant today about his Nest system malfunctioning. Apparently he has 10 of the wifi-connected temperature/fire sensors and one of them started to misbehave, leading all of them to propagate the faulty alarm code and blaze their alarms.

I liked his sledgehammer approach to deal with the malfunctioning unit. :)

Why shouldn't we need software or accountants to file taxes? Just because? Or are you really just advocating for a different tax scheme, that will screw people in new and interesting ways?

Or upon further thought, you could be advocating for an automagic system with the same rules and rates of today. Already people have deductions taken straight from their paychecks, but its stupid based a number of assumptions. Then at tax time, you have to do a bunch of manual entry, even with tax software. It *should* be automagic, with a clear obvious audit trail that makes everything review-able. All income directly reported to the IRS. All mortgage payment info sent directly to the IRS. All property tax, 401 k contributions, iras, etc. Even for things like the previous energy credits could be automagic. You just have a web portal that explains and breaks down where your taxes are and allows you to see what changes various deductions and lifestyle changes will make. Of course, you can kiss privacy good by a little more. But its not information that the government didn't already have if you were filling in your taxes. It might just get some information form people that wouldn't have used it for tax deductions, for some reason.

Maybe I misunderstand your idea, but it sounds like you want an ultra-high-tech system that can be more easily solved by an inexpensive low-tech one.

Indeed. Instead of investing in an expensive and complex set of electronics, upgrade the underlying physical system instead. When upgrading my own house, my first instinct was to "make it smart" with fancy thermostats, multiple zones, and plenty of monitoring. However, after weighing my options, I realized far greater gains can be made by simply buying a correctly sized efficient HVAC system. My new system is twice as efficient (26 seer vs 13 seer) and performs much better than any amount of electronic trickery could have acomplished.

Having the vents computer controlled, would allow the system to figure out the optimal settings for all of them to get the desired temperature and efficancy goals.

But aside from the vent problem, do you have any links on how to splice up a HVAC to multiple zones? I tried looking but maybe my google foo is stale. That's 90% of the problems I face with my house and at the office as well.

A system of thermostats that all talk to each other and wirelessly control floor vents.

Maybe I misunderstand your idea, but it sounds like you want an ultra-high-tech system that can be more easily solved by an inexpensive low-tech one. Much like those smartphone controlled LED lights, when a switch or motion-sensor does the job just as well...

It's very easy and not too expensive to slice-up a home HVAC system into multiple zones that work independently. You can have a fairly low-tech (possibly wireless) thermostats in several rooms, if you so desire, controlling the damper for that zone. What's more, inexpensive mini-split systems are naturally zoned this way, too.

And that's more-expensive and more complex than most homes need... A wireless thermostat that can be put in the coldest or warmest room of the house is cheap, and basic mechanical dampers can be used to reduce the airflow in other rooms/zones which heat/cool more quickly.

It's available from the front page, but I think you have to be logged in. How else would you track the anonymous ones?

Anybody here in the good old US of A knows what a royal pain in the ass it can be dealing with the government. The web presence of various agencies seems to be stuck in 1998, when you could get information from a site but not do anything with it. At this point the entire trademark process should be doable online, but it very much isn't. That and taxes. There's gotta be a better way. We shouldn't needaccountants and or software to file our taxes. Has anybody had similar difficulties with Uncle Sam?

Its really sad how expensive a quality HVAC thermostat system is. I found one Honeywell system that would actually maybe kinda do something smart, but it would be in the thousands of dollars price point, and intended for commercial applications.

What is needed is:

A system of thermostats that all talk to each other and wirelessly control floor vents. So if the room where the thermostat is is not representative of the whole house, additional thermostats can be paired to give the system more data points to consider. With optional computer controlled vents, the system can further be optimized.

This was my hope for Nest. But years later, there has been no improvement. there is no algorithm that will solve a problem for which there is only incomplete input data.

I see no buttons at all or any link that says "take poll here". Do you have to register/login first? If so, a note to AC's telling them (us) so might be nice.

Actually, over the past two years, |. has experimented with a couple of poll types other than the simple "pick one" method at /. Check out the list of past polls for a taste of what's happened. Probably room for growth here. This is one of my favorites: http://pipedot.org/poll/2014-07-14/moderation-schemes-i-like