Recent Comments

Dude, in the other threads we're having nice little chats about the AT command set and the economics of solar power. Don't get so discouraged!

I can't comment on this distro because I never even heard of it before, let alone used it.

(And on Slashdot the thread would probably have quickly devolved into yet another round of dissertations on the greatness and/or evils of Stallman and his personal grooming.)

Well that's why we appreciate sites like this one. We're communicating primarily via text, and that works just fine at anything much over 110 baud.

(I used to be one of the wackos constantly correcting people because I knew that 1200 bps modems were still 300 "baud". Or something like that.)

A lot of the territory has gotten rehashed as mobile computing has tried to grow up along the same struggling bandwidth path. SMS/Blackberry to 3G and 4G and WiFi, all to send dumb little 139 character tweetenings.

"If your creditors take umbridge at your investing of $0 in order to reduce your monthly energy bill, and the fact that you continue to pay it off, I'm thinking you might want new creditors."

Thanks, I appreciate your thoroughness and that you responded to my points seriously. However, that particular line is silly -- we would be quite literally taking on an additional $20-something thousand dollars in personal debt, and I don't see how you can dismiss that. It's not a secured mortgage -- it's the same as taking on $25,000 in personal credit card debt, or a new car lease. The moment the lease is signed, WE OWE YOU THAT MUCH MONEY and are paying it off. It's a VERY significant debt. I honestly don't think Experian gives two crapturds that I'm "doing it for a good cause".

At least, I think that's how it works from my layman's point of view. (Techie, not a lawyer, accountant, or solar system employee.)

The other response I thought was a bit iffy was "And, frankly, if you do a lease and you end up moving in a year - no biggie. It's not like you spent money to get the system installed." You're completely forgetting that for many potential buyers the very existence of the panels and system, even aside from thet lease issue, can be a turn-off. Not everyone is happy to take on someone else's great home improvement. Again, I think panels should be the NORM, but they're currently not and some people would think of them as equivalent to a moat -- an wanted, oddball feature.

But again, thanks for the point by point.

I'm a coder, I don't speak for SolarCity, I'm not a lawyer or a construction person.

Point by point.

Nothing is free.

OK, we can quibble about things that are $0 out of pocket. Let's.

You think I, and my creditors, and my credit rating, simply won't notice that I just took on an additional $25,000 in debt to hold someone ELSE's equipment on my aging roof and garage?

If your creditors take umbridge at your investing of $0 in order to reduce your monthly energy bill, and the fact that you continue to pay it off, I'm thinking you might want new creditors.

Equipment that, by the terms of your faux-lease, you will come and remove at the end, doing who-knows-what to my now-20-years-older shingles?

http://www.solarcity.com/commercial/homebuilders
You generally have four options at the end of the Lease:

• Request to renew the agreement in five year increments up to two times
• Have SolarCity remove the system for free
• Purchase the system (varies by state)
• Upgrade to a new system

What about the need to replace the roof in the interim?

Last I heard, minimal fee for SolarCity to remove and then replace the system while you re-roof. Again, I'm not a lawyer, rep, etc - and I can't find a reference to it online.

What ABOUT the home's resale value for all the years that there's complicated equipment, lease, and service deal attached to the house?

Again, not a lawyer, but this is probably the trickiest one:
http://www.solarcity.com/commercial/homebuilders

When you sell your home, you may transfer your Lease to the homebuyer at no charge. SolarCity will provide a Lease Transfer Agreement for both parties to sign and SolarCity to execute. You must provide SolarCity notice of your intent to transfer in accord with the terms of the Lease to ensure that the Lease transfer process is completed in a timely manner. Execution of the Lease transfer document by SolarCity relieves the previous Lease owner of Lease obligations. For additional questions, contact the SolarCity Customer Care Team at:CustomerCare@solarcity.com or (888) 765-2489 x5999.

I've bought 2 homes (and sold one), and one more paper to sign doesn't seem like a big deal to me...

Yes, it's a very appealing deal, but please don't pretend it's a no-brainer. If it were I'd already have the system (as would many more people steadfastly ignoring the salesshills in Home Depot and elsewhere, who represent all sorts of startups).

It's not a no brainer. If you think it's likely you will move in the next 5-10 years, then there is some cause to consider. If you don't consume much electricity, then it might not be financially viable for you at this time. But if you're not moving and you consume a reasonable amount of energy, then it's pretty straightforward.

And, frankly, if you do a lease and you end up moving in a year - no biggie. It's not like you spent money to get the system installed.

There are other concerns (panel degradation, actually declining utility rates in some areas, questionable solar exposure in the northeast, disappearing companies and resold leases, parts supply and repair issues, etc.) that I've read about too.

http://www.solarcity.com/commercial/homebuilders
How does the performance guarantee work?
SolarCity guarantees that your system will produce as much electricity as we promise, or we will pay you back. This takes into account normal weather variation and solar panel performance over time. The amount of electricity we promise to deliver is stated in your contract. We track your system performance through our SolarGuard monitoring service. For additional questions, contact the SolarCity Customer Care Team at CustomerCare@solarcity.com or (888) 765-2489 x5999.

Oh yeah, and the electric companies starting to RAISE rates and/or eliminate discounts for grid-tied users, because they claim the usage pattern of those customers is costing them money and the sold-back power is of little value to them (supposedly).

We can't control grid companies. I have colorful things to say about those kinds of practices, but I'm not a lawyer, rep, etc.

It absolutely is the future, no doubt, but frankly it still costs too much. I would prefer to see it required as part of new building codes. (I have no connection to either solar or power companies.)

For many people, it is the present. Not all. My sister lives in Washington (mid state). Her power is insanely inexpensive (lots of hydro) and they have lots of weather. Solar isn't for her (at this time). But in areas with lots of sun that run AC a lot, solar is a no brainer.

Ten hours later, a lot of name calling about the fact that I used pirate language, and no actual discussion about the distro. Kind of pathetic, actually. I'm getting better nerd conversation everywhere but here - a pity since everyone else's interface is not as nice as this one.

This place has tons of promise but writing and editing articles is a huge amount of work for very little return these days. You'd better believe the guys researching and submitting articles aren't doing it so they can have their spelling checked by the community.

They seem to be around. A Speedster at 56K can still go for $100 on Amazon.com. I bought a Trendnet for about $30 just to reduce my investment. I still have this nerd dream where we go back to the old days and only the truly neckbearded are prepared ... a fantasy, i know, but I know my Hayes command set just in case the revolution happens ... :)

As usual, Germany doesn't screw around. Their rate of adoption of renewables should be the envy of the world, if anyone cared. And the reason no one cares is that the oil economy is still 'business as usual' and prices aren't so unreasonable that people are pinched.

Let's see the MiddleEast go up in flames, the price of petrol skyrocket, and then let's see if anyone is interested in solar.

It's not California. It's Hawaii and Germany. Solar in the US is mostly embarrassingly low.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany

On midday of Saturday May 26, 2012, solar energy provided over 40% of total electricity consumption in Germany, and 20% for the 24h-day.

I think they hit 50% this past summer, but I can't find a trivial reference.

And I can't easily find any recent Hawaii records for solar production.

If you don't know what "atdp" means I don't want to know you. ;)

I love when that feature is still available on a modem. Actually came in handy once or thrice.

SLIP and PPP are a whole 'nother layer of kludgery of course. The first time I had the Internet actually work over dialup and saw that URLs worked from one site to another I was smiling in amazement. You're right, no one appreciates that enormous underlying complexity.

I wonder what happened to Hayes and USR anyhow.

Oh sure, call me out but not the guy who told him to go fuck himself. :(

Interesting to have a solarcity guy with us. And Bryan has a working solar system at his place, if memory recalls. Looking forward to hearing more here. I'm absolutely getting ready to build a system when I get a chance. I'm at a higher latitude with a not-huge roof, but the hell with it, it's too interesting not to try, and I'm looking forward to those 16 years of lowered electrical bills. There are apparently some tax credits too.

Glad those Californians are basking in solar, since they seem to be low on water this year. Can't have it all?

Hmm, hadn't thought of it that way, but now that you mention it, yes, perhaps! It's still an interesting project that has ramifications elsewhere, like packet networks transmitted over audio, or equivalent. Perhaps it's not that useful, unless you want to annoy the cat. I was glad to hear of those other projects though - minimodem and numpy, since I hadn't heard of them.

I spent the better part of Feb-March playing around with an old Pentium 4 I wanted to turn into a dial-up machine. I got way into the details of serial connections, modems, Getty, ttys, PPP, and the like, and never even really got it working before I finally gave up and admitted defeat. I used a program called minicom for a long while to chat with the modem, and was impressed by just how hard the days of modems and SLIP/PPP connections really were, how much magic really went into negotiating a PPP chat session. Seems like minimodem would be fun to play with too, if only for the change.

Nothing is free. You think I, and my creditors, and my credit rating, simply won't notice that I just took on an additional $25,000 in debt to hold someone ELSE's equipment on my aging roof and garage? Equipment that, by the terms of your faux-lease, you will come and remove at the end, doing who-knows-what to my now-20-years-older shingles? What about the need to replace the roof in the interim? What ABOUT the home's resale value for all the years that there's complicated equipment, lease, and service deal attached to the house?

Yes, it's a very appealing deal, but please don't pretend it's a no-brainer. If it were I'd already have the system (as would many more people steadfastly ignoring the salesshills in Home Depot and elsewhere, who represent all sorts of startups).

There are other concerns (panel degradation, actually declining utility rates in some areas, questionable solar exposure in the northeast, disappearing companies and resold leases, parts supply and repair issues, etc.) that I've read about too. Oh yeah, and the electric companies starting to RAISE rates and/or eliminate discounts for grid-tied users, because they claim the usage pattern of those customers is costing them money and the sold-back power is of little value to them (supposedly).

It absolutely is the future, no doubt, but frankly it still costs too much. I would prefer to see it required as part of new building codes. (I have no connection to either solar or power companies.)

I'm a coder for SolarCity.

1. It is completely unfeasible for a typical home to go completely "off-grid" due to the humongous cost, space, and maintenance required for all the batteries to smooth the day/night load patterns.

And there are rainy days. And rainy weeks. That's what the grid is for.
Batteries will be cheaper when Elon finishes the GigaFactory - but that's no reason to wait for solar - just for the batteries.

2. So the vast majority of installations are "grid-tied", meaning they pull power from the normal grid, and sometimes feed power back into it.

Like a big battery.

3. Even with the generous incentives, pay-back time for an initial investment is at least 4-7 years, during which time that $20,000 might have been better spent in a mutual fund.

.. payback in 4-7, leaving you with more than 20 years of profit. Unless you plan on moving in the next 4-7, in which case things get a bit murky. I think the general population does not yet appropriately value panels on the roof of the house they're buying.

4. I didn't really have $20,000 lying around anyway.

Next point...

There are leasing options that mitigate some of this, but not entirely. Do you really want to be paying Elon Musk (investor in SolarCity) every month in perpetuity instead of your electric company?

So this is the bottom line: you would rather pay your electric company to continue business as usual instead of lowering your energy costs and (if you care) carbon footprint by getting panels installed for free on your roof.

Seriously. WTF?

...Screw off, OP. :)

Mind yer manners matey.

:)

So this is essentially morse code generation with the dial turned up into the ultrasonics?

That's it? Okay, cute enough toy I guess.

Exactly -- I think this hard-won physical adaptability is EXACTLY what allows marriages to survive as long as they do. I'm kinda serious. Without the ability to filter out nagging, or traffic noise, or AC, or ballpark/concert audiences, we'd have all killed each other long ago.

I really, really wanted to get into solar for my home a year or two ago, until I discovered the hard facts.

1. It is completely unfeasible for a typical home to go completely "off-grid" due to the humongous cost, space, and maintenance required for all the batteries to smooth the day/night load patterns.

2. So the vast majority of installations are "grid-tied", meaning they pull power from the normal grid, and sometimes feed power back into it.

3. Even with the generous incentives, pay-back time for an initial investment is at least 4-7 years, during which time that $20,000 might have been better spent in a mutual fund.

4. I didn't really have $20,000 lying around anyway.

There are leasing options that mitigate some of this, but not entirely. Do you really want to be paying Elon Musk (investor in SolarCity) every month in perpetuity instead of your electric company?

I wasn't sure myself, since my machine has an integrated Intel video card (which isn't spectacular but meets my needs, and is fully supported). But I googled "nvidia nouveau problem" and came up with a bunch of hits. More telling, Google helpfully suggested I also try this other search phrase: "replace nouveau with nvidia driver".
https://www.google.sn/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=replace+nouveau+with+nvidia+driver&revid=1521166681

That search turns up many, many hits. Offhand, I'd say nouveau isn't quite there yet. But Gnash on the other hand, seems to work pretty well.

I did a quick search in the repos for the stuff I use: mutt, slrn, vim, emacs, alpine, calligra, openoffice, and they were all there. Forgot to look for jedit, my favorite java-based graphical text editor, but I know for a fact it runs fine on IcedTea, so I'd bet that it works on Trisquel. I'd think proprietary drivers are the big show-stopper here. A lot of what you find on a typical Linux install is already there, and since it's based on Ubuntu the installation is really easy.

I don't code, so am unqualified to comment. But I'll do so anyway :) Seems like these are some pretty glaring security holes; I'm surprised they weren't caught before. Maybe apt works so well that developers don't feel a need to look further into it. Given the number of asshat crackers out there looking for ways to break into VPS boxes and - do what? I don't even know - cracking apt would seem like a clever point of entry.

My VPS registers hundreds and hundreds of brute-force hits every day. Even sshguard fails to stop them as they now bounce your server from multiple IPs simultaneously. Let's say they finally get my server - what would they do with it? Pump out Chinese stock tips and erectile dysfunction spam? Compile themselves a new kernel? What?

Meanwhile, I'm glad people look into this code and fix vulnerabilities like this. Given the number of Ubuntu and Debian servers out there serving webpages, it would seem like a weakness with the potential to do some serious harm.

Exactly! I believe this is the FIRST time I've agreed with a downmodding here. There was NOTHING wrong with what Zafiro did (and spent a fair amount of time on it seems). I "got the joke" pretty quickly, even though (a) I didn't know it was ITLAP Day again, and (b) I too find the holiday stupid and a meme that has outlived its sell-by date.

It was kind of cute, and it made him happy to do it. Screw off, OP. :)

.. can it filter out my wife's nagging before it reaches my brain..

Could this perhaps go some way into solving the problem of tinnitus which now affects more than 20% of the world?

Meanwhile, the three previous articles, all written in perfectly proper English, have zero comments. Bugger off, whiner. By the way, the "Submit" button is at the top right, wanker. Submit your own, interesting and well written articles, or go back to your troll cave and fuck yourself.

There's an option "e-ink reader (Kindle, Nook, Sony, Kobo)" but no option for an e-ink reader of another brand. Either there should be an option for other e-ink readers, or this option should not be restricted to those four brands.

Somwhere (probably at that green site some years ago) I read about lead causing violence. We already see a lot of violence in many places in Africa.

Arrr. I, for one, enjoyed the subtle erudition laid on the deck by this fine piece of writing, if I ever saw one ... may you find water and shade.

Drop in at the Trisquel tavern where you can break yer jaw askin' yer questions

I shall nominate thee for the quote of the week award :-)

Now, about that Nvidia business: I haven't had Nvidia hardware in a while, but what is the current state of "nouveau" ?

As someone who put cyanogenmod on an original galaxy, I highly recommend it. There's occasional lag and the boot time is terrible, but it's pretty darn usable for day-to-day tasks.

I wish there was an edit button. I wanted to add the fact that the context is the "International Talk Like A Pirate Day". Instead of the boring headline "Today is Talk Like A Pirate Day", it was quite funny to learn about it through a well written review.

It is not that difficult to read :)

I actually found it amusing even, in this context.

This pirate talk idiocy is not amusing. And I'm not going to waste my time trying to decipher this summary. The moment I saw the pirate talk idiocy, I knew I wasn't going to be reading this summary fully. That's too bad, because it may have had some useful info, were it not written in an unnecessarily stupid way.

This is cool science, and useful. I wouldn't be surprised if better research in this area didn't unlock hearing for people born without it, for example. Cool quote from the article:

For the brain to interpret sounds, it needs nerves to bring it signals from the ear. But it is not just a one-way street. The auditory system also includes so-called efferent nerves, which carry signals from the brain back to the ear. This creates a feedback loop within the auditory system, which may play a role in selective attention.

"It's very hard, physiologically, to test that idea though," pointed out Jonathan Ashmore, a professor of biophysics at the University College London's Ear Institute. "And even harder to think about the mechanisms that might implement the idea."

Rather than attempting to solve this problem by looking at the biological auditory system, researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland tackled the issue from another angle: physics. They tested the cocktail party effect on a digital model of the cochlea.

What about mobile gaming devices (for example, Nintendo DS)? Does that count?

I have an old Nokia non-smartphone; I don't use it but still own it.

It's pronounced "Awesome." Love Qt. GTK+ can go jump off a cliff. Don't know why, but I've always preferred the look of Qt apps, even when KDE looked plasticky and Fisher-Pricey. But I'm a KDE fanboi, whaddaya expect?

They still exist? Wow. Thought that fad died out a couple of years ago

Never mind, just a trite "iTunes is bloated" stab at a joke.

You might need to add a couple more words, at the moment I don't get it.

But is it pronounced cutey or cute?

The question of a lifetime.

I preferred the Thinkpad X series over netbooks. I've owned an x31, x41, and now an x61. I have wide hands and most netbooks made me feel like I had huge sausage fingers.

I would be very careful about that line of thinking... The current, ever-expanding definition of the term "sex offender" should be all the cautionary tale you would need.

Remember, if a woman regrets having sex with you, even a week later, the feminazis want you punished like any other rapist. THAT'S NOT AN EXAGGERATION. That has been instituted on several college campuses recently, and that's how we get so many mainstream news stories claiming women have a 1 in 4 chance of being raped, when the actual number is around 8%.

Right now, a teenager having sex with his slightly under-aged girlfriend can result in serving jail-time, and being a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, nearly unemployable and almost certainly homeless (since almost everywhere is too close to a school) for the rest of his life, under current laws.

Even an under-aged girl sending nude photos to her under-aged boyfriend, and him responding in kind, results in the boy getting prosecuted for producing child porn (of himself):

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/09/virginia-teen-sexting-cops-penis-photo/12434813/

With current laws so completely ridiculous one-sided and extremely heavy-handed, I have no faith at all that newer technology would be used properly. Instead, you could end up with the entire male population forced to get such implants.

Very easily. Unlike Android, Apple has always allowed older iPhones¹ to update to the newer iOS versions using the built-in app store update process. When I turned on my phone this morning, it had a notification dialog saying something like "iOS 8 is available. Do you want to update now?"

¹ Older models up to a point (3-4 versions back). The original iPhone, for example, doesn't get iOS 8 today like the 4's, 5's, and 6's.

According to WP:

1st Gen: 6.6 million
2nd Gen: 4.2 million units
3rd Gen: 6 million units

I've never seen them around, either, but unless the same 7 million Apple fans keep upgrading, they must be out there in a decent number of homes.

Well I hope it requires the tenant to pay for the costs of removing the station when they move out then.

I'm all for EV, even if it doesn't really make sense economically, but screwing with the electric system and outdoor structure of a building you don't own is... rude.

There are similar rules for satellite TV owners... and when they leave they can take the dishes with them.

iTunes

Subject says it all where is my option for flip phones!?

Zafe, I haven't done it, but it looks like you could also use AirPlay to hit XBMC on the RaspPi from the iPad; the support is built in to versions of XBMC. Also maybe Cheapcast.

Boring, old rant! Blackberry's around, but they're in bad shape. But I've got one in my pocket almost every day and still like it.

How does one update an older mobile iphone to the latest IOS?

I have a Galaxy 1 which still has the original OS. The only option is cyanogenmod.