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trueSpace 7.5 Artists Guide
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
trueSpace 7.5 Artists Guide // Roundtable
Post by Garion // Mar 2, 2007, 6:47am
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Garion
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It also has to be mentioned that here in Scotland we have sustainable forests and re-cycled paper (which is made from the sustainable forests so this helps a bit.
I cannot speak for other countries.
I personaly am for a paper manual, which I can read anywhere including the lavvy :D or tucked up in bed, or in the car (whilst parked) :)
I use software that used to be supplied with paper manuals and which now come with pdf manuals.
I have not seen any drop in price to reflect this change;)
Cheers
Garion |
Post by W!ZARD // Mar 2, 2007, 7:30am
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W!ZARD
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Chuckle! Some interesting responses! It's pretty clear that there are pros and cons either way. @Garion - an excellent point about a PDF being a challenge to read in the loo compared to a paper book - unles you take your laptop with you? Or is that too weird? :D
@Nowherebrain - good point about my 'greeny' save-a-tree arguement - although in New Zealand most of our electricity is generated by Hydro Electric station so, apart from the trees killed when the dams were built there are no more trees dying here for the sake of a power supply. And, (purely in the interests of debate of course ;) ) how much extra power is used to run a printing press to make the printed manual?
@Stan - "as for a paperless society that won't happen any time soon, actually more paper gets used by computers than before they existed.." Good call! This is one of those crazy things that brings to mind one of my favourite quotes from Calvin and Hobbes: "The surest sign that intelligent life exists somewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us!" |
Post by Jack Edwards // Mar 2, 2007, 8:09am
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Jack Edwards
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LOL something people forget is that trees are a renewable resource. I don't know about other places but here in the US we have more forest land now then when the settlers first came. Every time builders clear an area, after the houses or stores are built, trees are planted back around the buildings to help with landscaping, water run-off, and soil erosion.
Most of our tree farms plant the trees in cycles so they can maintain a continuous supply. Heck the Canadians are so happy to get rid of their trees that they export their lumber below market into the US. One of the reasons a tariff was placed on Canadian lumber.
So I don't think a short run of TrueSpace manuals will have any effect on the envirionment one way or the other, LOL.
I actually like using MS Reader for reading books on the computer. At first I didn't like it since it felt odd. The screen doesn't have the same look as a printed page and the brain treats it a bit differently. But after finishing a few novels, I found that I was liking it a lot better than reading a paper book. And since I had a laptop I could take it anywhere a book could go and I never lost my page. ;-)
Of course it'd be great if we could get the manual in .lit format which I find nicer to work with than PDF.
-Jack. |
Post by trueBlue // Mar 2, 2007, 8:10am
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@Nowherebrain - good point about my 'greeny' save-a-tree arguement - although in New Zealand most of our electricity is generated by Hydro Electric station so, apart from the trees killed when the dams were built there are no more trees dying here for the sake of a power supply. And, (purely in the interests of debate of course ;) ) how much extra power is used to run a printing press to make the printed manual?
Hummm... so how do they make paper in New Zealand? Liquid Paper? :p |
Post by prodigy // Mar 2, 2007, 8:23am
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HOHO... nice joke! :D |
Post by Jack Edwards // Mar 2, 2007, 8:33am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Ok I just have to do it, and maybe this should be moved to the Rants and Raves section but here goes:
[begin environmentalism rant]
A bit off topic from printed manuals, but on the topic of environmentalism. People in the US who think that electric cars will save on oil and gas consumption are being naive because the majority American power plants are run on oil and gas. That being because the environmentalists think nuclear power is evil and consider coal a "dirty" technology. Not to mention we're stuck dealing with unsavory characters around the world because we're too "environmentally sensitive" to extract the HUGE oil resources that are here in our own county. Heck China figures if we're not gonna tap our own oil resources then they'll do it instead. China signed a deal with Cuba so that they can drill diagonally into the oil deposits off Florida!
So some say reduce consumption. Well that's all fine and dandy, but what it really means is prevent economic growth. Increased power consumption is a by product of increased prosperity and a strong economy.
Ethanol cost more energy to make than it produces. Windmill farms are a joke, even if you covered the whole US with windmill farms you'd be lucky to power one city. Solar panel systems produce toxic outgasing from the chemical batteries they use. The main way of creating hydrogen is by burning fossil fuels, and the burning of hydrogen creates water -- water being the most common "greenhouse gas". Not to mention that one volcanic eruption spews out more toxins and greenhouse gases than mankind has produced since the industrial revolution. Oh yeah and lets not forget the methane produced by bovine flatulence.... oh hey humans do that too... maybe we should have population controls to save the planet... ;-p
Maybe a better way to think about it is, Canadians won't freeze so bad in the winter, and Greenland will be green again LOL!! :p
Oh yeah and what about that list of top most polluted cities that just came out? I believe Russia and China had 3 each in the top 10, while there wasn't a single US city listed... hmm... :rolleyes:
[edit] Forgot to mention that mexicans are now starving because their tortillas have tripled in price now that Americans have decided that it'd be cool to buy up all the corn in the world and turn it into gasoline.... *sigh*
[\edit]
[end environmentalist rant]
-Jack. |
Post by prodigy // Mar 2, 2007, 9:02am
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HEhe.. yea.. this forum it became on a GreenPeace forum.. :D
Yeah.. poor mexicans.. they live on the smog (Mexico FD)
And here in uruguay are a battle between Uruguay and Argentina for a paper factory.. jejeje.... The pdf is the solution!!
jejeje |
Post by Garion // Mar 2, 2007, 9:31am
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Garion
Total Posts: 116
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What we need... what we really, really need... is..
A flat panel with the dimensions of a novel (height and width) with a mini USB connection that we can use to download our PDF manuals to. We could then read em anywhere, even in the dark as they would be backlit ...
Now all we need is for someone to invent it. :D
But without all the bells and whistles and dodahs (like video playback) that would bring the recharable batteries to their knees in half an hour..:D
Right off you go class and tell when when yoor done :jumpy:
P.S I sat with a laptop on my knee in the lavvy and burnt me bits.. sooo its not recomended :rolleyes:
Cheers
Garion |
Post by Colfax // Mar 2, 2007, 10:36am
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Total Posts: 49
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Yeah, Jack, I would agree that your 'environmentalism rant' probably belongs in the rants and raves section. Since you clearly knew this but decided to begin ranting here anyway, I can only imagine you enjoy watching perfectly reasonable conversations spiral off topic and into pointless arguments. I want to thank you for taking that first step by giving us your list of grievances against environmentalists. Thanks for perpetuating us further off topic.
My unnecessary Rebuttal to Jack's unnecessary Rant:
Let's do an experiment kids! Put yourself in an enclosed space about the size of a garage. Now we're going to leave you in this space for an hour or two, and we'll give you the choice of sitting in here with either a stack of batteries, a cow, or a running automobile. Well what's it gonna be?
Can you guess which option will actually kill you?
Now the next question. How many cows did you see today? Now how many cars? I'm not against the use of fossil fuels, but I am against inefficiency so severe that it encroaches on quality of life.
I don't think you could argue that Solar energy is the most efficient and abundant form of energy available to this planet. It is after all, what allows for life to exist here. The fact that certain methods of harvesting and storing this energy produce some toxic outgassing is a concern that I'm sure researchers are attempting to resolve. I would point out that the glue in your carpets and furniture and the paint on your walls are also constantly outgassing toxic fumes ; fumes that your particular government does or does not care to warn you about.
After that, Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, space is filled with it, or at least thats what scientists currently believe to be the case. And are you familiar with the plasma reactors that eat garbage and create nothing but hydrogen and glass?
Options are a good thing and so is progress. To say that reduction of consumption equals reduction of economic growth is to paint the image of the 300lb child as the healthy one, and to assert that you can't stop feeding it now or it might die.
Returning to the original subject of the thread, I wouldn't expect the price of Truespace7.5 to drop as a result them not printing a manual. I imagine the budget that would have gone to the books has probably been eaten up on actual software development. At least that is my hope. |
Post by hemulin // Mar 2, 2007, 11:18am
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I want to thank you for taking that first step by giving us your list of grievances against environmentalists. Thanks for perpetuating us further off topic.
LOL, as long as everybody's happy.;) |
Post by nowherebrain // Mar 2, 2007, 2:14pm
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I just really appreciate a thread where I feel as though it's mostly constructive. The truSpace community and the Blender community are a great bunch of people, also, the 3Dgamestudio community.;) . I'm outta here. Tschues. |
Post by iBrent // Mar 2, 2007, 4:48pm
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P.S I sat with a laptop on my knee in the lavvy and burnt me bits.. sooo its not recomended :rolleyes:
Cheers
Garion
LOL!!
That is the funniest thing I've read all day! :D
iBrent |
Post by hoss // Mar 2, 2007, 5:29pm
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hoss
Total Posts: 21
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Wow! The first thread that I've started in these forums and it's become quite popular (and, it seems, a bit political:) ).
Well, I'd like to cast my vote for a printed manual, obviously. I've always paid the premium price to get the boxed sets just to get the printed manual. As others said here, I'm not so certain that we'd get a price break on the software sans manual anyway. I know, I know...it could be argued that Caligari is able to give us more value and features in the software if less money is spent on the print manuals...however, wht difference does that make if we are willing to pay for that cost? I remember when it used to be Caligari's policy to charge $199 to upgrade to the newest version of trueSpace. Those were the days:)
I also agree with the idea that, if the manuals do become .pdf only, tht the formatting then change to be more "screen friendly." Searchable text and inline links, etc. Not just a .pdf of what a printed manual "would" look like. Actually, there should be two versions, one that is print friendly, and one that is screen friendly. I know that currently there is the .pdf manual and the online help files, which are formatted differently, but the online help could be better.
-hOss |
Post by Alien // Mar 2, 2007, 6:44pm
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People in the US who think that electric cars will save on oil and gas consumption are being naive because the majority American power plants are run on oil and gas.
Yes, but those same power plants are a lot more efficient than the typical car engine.
Windmill farms are a joke, even if you covered the whole US with windmill farms you'd be lucky to power one city.
Actually there's enough wind energy [obviously as yet unused] in just 3 states [I forget which 3] to power the whole US.
Not to mention that one volcanic eruption spews out more toxins and greenhouse gases than mankind has produced since the industrial revolution.
If even Bush can admit that global warming is man's fault, considering the stakes/friendships he has in the various industries who's interests lie in not reducing emissions, then you really should get with the times.
Oh yeah and lets not forget the methane produced by bovine flatulence.... oh hey humans do that too... maybe we should have population controls to save the planet... ;-p
Of course we should. There's absolutely no valid reason for anyone to have more than 2 kids, & certainly not 5, 6, or even more, as some families are doing. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Mar 2, 2007, 6:57pm
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Hehehe you guys are great! :D Gotta love the TS forum!
@Colfax:
It does annoy me that we haven't seen any diversification in the automotive engine and fuels markets. I actually like the idea of hydrogen and solar power, but my admittedly off topic point was that every power source has it's trade offs. Of course with hydrogen powered cars there's the small issue of everyone driving mini Hindenburgs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster#The_disaster)....speaking of blimps, it'd be cool if some airline would do blimp service from some of the smaller airports these days that'd be a cool way to travel and would still be faster and safer than by car...
@Garrion:
If you have an nVidia gfx card and an LCD monitor you can set the orientation to vertical and then turn your monitor sideways. This also works on tablet computers, which I think is more the direction you were looking -- so it's already available. :)
Since I overclocked my laptop (may it rest in pieces :p), I found a laptop cooling pad helped with keeping things cool, lol :cool:
-Jack. |
Post by W!ZARD // Mar 2, 2007, 11:15pm
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Hummm... so how do they make paper in New Zealand? Liquid Paper? :p
They same way they make it in Scotland - renewable forestry. NZ has a healthy forestry industry and exports a lot of wood and paper products to Japan, thus allowing the Japanese to have around 75% oftheir country covered in trees!
Growing conditions in New Zealand are ideal for the Californian Pinus Radiata which grows 3 times faster here than it does in California.
Re the environmental debate - well it's great to see our community is not just a bunch of obsessive computer nerds with no awareness of real world issues! My opinion? Remembering that I'm an optomist (simply because optomism is logically more rewarding than pessimism) I believe that when things get to a certain point they will create exactly the changes required. Prohibitive fuel costs will make alternative fuels more economic and so the economy will simply switch to the alternative fuels - no need for anyone to restrict their economies, just create econimies that are sustainable, practical and above all, effecient.
We as a species already have most of the knowledge needed to produce 100% safe power from thorium fueled atomic reactors which produce very low levels of radioactive waste, are physically incapable of melting down or going Chernobyl and cannot produce weapons grade plutonium. The only thing preventing the widespread construction of such safe reactors is investor inertia - no one wants to invest in unproven technologies until they are proven!
Someday someone somewhere will design on of these things and become VERY rich. He could even use trueSpace to design the engineering models - provided he moves with the times and gets accustomed to a paperless society and PDF software manuals! ;) |
Post by Alien // Mar 3, 2007, 6:12am
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Of course with hydrogen powered cars there's the small issue of everyone driving mini Hindenburgs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster#The_disaster)....
You mean as opposed to driving over-sized molitov cocktails? There are a number of ways of using hydrogen as a fuel without storing it in 1 big tank.
If you have an nVidia gfx card and an LCD monitor you can set the orientation to vertical and then turn your monitor sideways.
ATI cards can do the same thing as well. |
Post by spacekdet // Mar 3, 2007, 7:07am
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Damnit, it's the 21st Century... where's my atomic flying car already?
What's the holdup? |
Post by W!ZARD // Mar 3, 2007, 4:32pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Damnit, it's the 21st Century... where's my atomic flying car already?
What's the holdup?
My crystal ball tells me your atomic flying car will be available about the same time that trueSpace 28.11 is released ;) |
Post by Steinie // Mar 3, 2007, 4:56pm
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or 8.0 at this rate... |
Post by Jack Edwards // Mar 3, 2007, 8:23pm
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I agree with both Wizard and Spacekdet.
The current speculative price of oil has already helped make alternatives more attractive and spur a whole new economy of alternative fuels. Personally I feel that high gas prices are a good thing. Since even though it hurts our economy in the short run (by making everything more expensive) it kicks us out of our complacency and will help create whole new competitive energy industry which may lead to another boom similar to what happened with the "dot com" industry explosion.
I for one am tired of seeing us stuck using technologies developed during WWII and only making minor efficiency tweaks. While I think the current space shuttle program is a total waste, people who think that space exploration itself is a total waste I think are missing the boat. Exploration is what humans do! I'd love to see us get back on track with our space program. Heck that's something I wouldn't mind paying taxes for!
@Alien:
Sorry our posts must of crossed. ;)
I haven't used ATI cards for some years now, so it's cool to know that they support vertical screen orientation as well. I'm hoping that ATI will be able to come out with a new gfx chip that can compete with nVidia now that they've been acquired by AMD. But until then, nVidia is the only real choice for high-end gfx cards.
About your other points, I'm not sure I want to get into specific political issues on this forum, but suffice it to say that I've never understood why progressives hate Bush so, especially considering how liberal/progressive he is for a Republican. Not to mention he is of little matter now since Democrats control both houses of the American government and his presidential term will be up in 2008. He has very little power to enact change at this point, but I'm sure there are people who will still think that Bush is responsible for the wrongs of the world long after he is gone. As far as his credibility on the global warming issue, I would hardly consider it more than the convenient posturing of a politician. Personally I'm heartened by the waves of firings that have finally come after 6 years of good'ole boy cronyism and trying to play nice with the entrenched bureaucracy, but it's at least 2 years too late. Not much I can do about it anyway since my vote isn't in a "battleground state"... well that and I'm not an illegal immigrant... yet ;-p
About the power plant thing, just because the power plant is more efficient at converting fossil fuels to energy than internal combustion, that still doesn't take into account the innefficiency of recharging electric batteries. That heat you feel coming off your batteries during charging is lost energy. My guess is that there's no real savings in switching to electric other than the convenience of "filling up" at home -- something that I really wouldn't mind at all! :D
I think that the 3 state windmill idea is rather unrealistically optimistic and would be interested to see the article related to the study proposing it. Sorry!
Personally I think that space exploration and colonization is a much better idea than putting down babies that exceed population growth limits placed on families by government. Even though there are some people who I wish wouldn't breed, I think legislating and enforcing human reproduction regulations is a rather extreme idea. :(
Appologies to everyone who read this far...:p and back on topic:
how about a poll to see real numbers about hardcopy vs. PDF manual?
-Jack. |
Post by ProfessorKhaos // Mar 3, 2007, 9:59pm
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ProfessorKhaos
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An interesting read on many fronts...
Incidentally, have any of you read the Popular Science March 07 issue? They had an interesting article on gassification of garbage. Creates a third more energy than the process uses and hydrogen is a byproduct. Apparently some heavy metals issue in the "glass" that is the solid byproduct though. Can even consume concrete blocks and shotgun shells apparently so no sorting of garbage required prior to feeding the plasma furnace.
Must admit I like printed manuals far better than PDF. In the long run they probably save energy too because I don't need to run my 500 watt dual monitor computer to read them.
P.K.
P.S. Most coal powered electrical plants are about 40% efficient. The way I see it, efficiency is not the real driving argument. Availability of a particular storage medium and cost to produce are far more involved. For instance, hydrogen is efficient and plentiful but the technology to store and use it properly are difficult to come by. Manned space missions have been using fuel cells from almost the very beginning but it's not exactly what you'd want in your automobile. Battery technology is becoming quite good though. Personally I'm a big nuclear power proponent (not in cars of course but for electrical plants). |
Post by W!ZARD // Mar 4, 2007, 6:04am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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LOL! This thread gets my vote for being the most environmentally effective use of electrons. We discuss the relative merits of various tS manual formats - but wait there's more! We also get some reasoned debate on intelligent energy sources as well - two topics for the price of one! You can't get better than that! |
Post by ProfessorKhaos // Mar 4, 2007, 6:45am
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lol. Perhaps I should share my story of being locked inside the U.S. Forest Service building by Earth First! <---exclaimation mark is part of their name, not my emphasis
I was in high school at the time and volunteered my time in their computer lab creating a program to track effectiveness of elk habitat. |
Post by Alien // Mar 4, 2007, 12:51pm
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Alien
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Personally I feel that high gas prices are a good thing. Since even though it hurts our economy in the short run (by making everything more expensive) it kicks us out of our complacency and will help create whole new competitive energy industry which may lead to another boom similar to what happened with the "dot com" industry explosion.
I can only hope you're right, though those who have a vested interest in less ecologically friendly sources of energy [mainly oil-based] aren't going to give up without a fight.
I'm hoping that ATI will be able to come out with a new gfx chip that can compete with nVidia now that they've been acquired by AMD. But until then, nVidia is the only real choice for high-end gfx cards.
From what I've heard the R600 [the next core to be released] will be good, but the impression I got was that it's more likely the R700 that will stand a chance of putting ATI back on top. IIRC, the R600 will be the last single big core. After that, starting with the R700 I think it's supposed to be multi-core.
About your other points, I'm not sure I want to get into specific political issues on this forum, but suffice it to say that I've never understood why progressives hate Bush so, especially considering how liberal/progressive he is for a Republican.
That's not exactly saying a lot for Republicans! As someone once said [I forget who]
what is considered "left-wing" in America is considered "right wing" in most of Europe. What is considered "right wing" in America is considered foaming-at-the-mouth-dangerous-lunatic-with-toothbrush-moustache on this side of the Great Undrinkable.
Not much I can do about it anyway since my vote isn't in a "battleground state"... well that and I'm not an illegal immigrant... yet ;-p
Whilst I don't normally pay any more attention than I have to to politics [on account of it being a total snore-fest], I get the part about a "battleground state", but I find your comment about not being an illegal immigrant confusing. I didn't think illegal immigrants could vote?
About the power plant thing, just because the power plant is more efficient at converting fossil fuels to energy than internal combustion, that still doesn't take into account the innefficiency of recharging electric batteries.
From what I read recently, that problem's been solved, it's just not ready for market yet [much improved batteries with much greater storage & shorter charging times].
That heat you feel coming off your batteries during charging is lost energy.
The lithium-ion battery in my mobile never gets noticeably warm when I charge it... maybe it's not made by Sony. :D
I think that the 3 state windmill idea is rather unrealistically optimistic and would be interested to see the article related to the study proposing it.
This wasn't the original article I read [can't find that 1, unfortunately], but it does contain some of the info:
http://www.inesap.org/bulletin24/art25.htm
The US’s entire current electricity requirements could be met from just 9% of Nevada’s desert covered in solar systems. Or, it could be met by the wind resources in 3 states alone – North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas
Personally I think that space exploration and colonization is a much better idea than putting down babies that exceed population growth limits placed on families by government.
Who said anything about "putting down babies"? The most humane way to handle the issue would be to offer some sort of tax incentive to people who voluntarily get sterilised after no having more than 2 kids.
Availability of a particular storage medium and cost to produce are far more involved. For instance, hydrogen is efficient and plentiful but the technology to store and use it properly are difficult to come by.
Some places already have hydrogen-powered vehicles in every-day operation. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Mar 4, 2007, 11:50pm
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Jack Edwards
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Hi Alien,
Hehe probably a good thing tS doesn't have an off-topic political forum. :D
I looked over the article you linked. A couple of things quickly came to notice: it is a written by a "left wing" political activist and her listed source is another activist group and I'm not seeing any real research here that backs up the claims. *shrug*
About my illegal alien joke, of course illegal aliens can vote in the US -- it's "illegal" but since when has that stopped anything? It's the same way that dead people and imaginary people vote. Recent election laws pertaining to "discrimination" have made it easier as well by tying the hands of poll workers and not allowing them to verify the valid ID of voters. BTW, did you know that New York legislators are trying to make it officially legal for illegal aliens to vote in New York?
More to the point is that with Democrats in control of both Houses of government, the amnesty bill giving special rights and privileges to illegals that failed last year due to Republican opposition in the House of Representatives, will now pass, be signed by Bush, and become law. My joke was implying that I should become an illegal immigrant to take advantage of those coming benefits that won't be available to tax paying legal citizens. :p
Just in case you hadn't noticed, a lot of what I say is "tongue in cheek". While true in specifics of fact, that doesn't mean that I'm not being at least a little bit cynical. :D
About the gfx cards, while I am an nVidia fan, it'll be good to see more companies producing competitive products. I was very dissapointed when 3dfx and Matrox dropped out of the 3d race a few years back. Unfortunately nVidia has already beat them to multi-core though, there are already dual and quad core 7800 series cards out. Let's hope AMD/ATI's multi GPU technology proves more effective. If anyone needs a reminder of the downside of monopoly, look at what's happened for example with Wacom being the sole leader in their field of input tablets -- $300 for a glorified touchpad???? Have to admit that mine is butter smooth and all that but sheesh!
The cool thing I remember about the hydrogen fuel cell cars that were prototyped at one of the car shows a few years ago by GM was that the chassis was purchased separately from the the body and the the bodies were interchangeable -- so if you needed a pickup truck that day you snapped on the pickup truck body, if you wanted to travel in comfort, you snap on the car or SUV body. :cool:
-Jack. |
Post by Alien // Mar 5, 2007, 6:19am
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Alien
Total Posts: 1231
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I looked over the article you linked. A couple of things quickly came to notice: it is a written by a "left wing" political activist and her listed source is another activist group and I'm not seeing any real research here that backs up the claims. *shrug*
She acknowledges numerous sources, including the U.S. Department of Energy.
About my illegal alien joke, of course illegal aliens can vote in the US -- it's "illegal" but since when has that stopped anything? It's the same way that dead people and imaginary people vote.
Ah, I had a feeling that's what you were getting at, but wasn't sure.
About the gfx cards, while I am an nVidia fan, it'll be good to see more companies producing competitive products. I was very dissapointed when 3dfx and Matrox dropped out of the 3d race a few years back. Unfortunately nVidia has already beat them to multi-core though, there are already dual and quad core 7800 series cards out. Let's hope AMD/ATI's multi GPU technology proves more effective.
I didn't mean like just doubling the number of cores, I meant different type of cores, smaller & in a sort of modular arrangement.
If anyone needs a reminder of the downside of monopoly, look at what's happened for example with Wacom being the sole leader in their field of input tablets -- $300 for a glorified touchpad????
I take it you haven't seen the prices of their Cintiq range then? ;) |
Post by ProfessorKhaos // Mar 5, 2007, 4:08pm
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ProfessorKhaos
Total Posts: 622
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Some places already have hydrogen-powered vehicles in every-day operation.
The vehicles exist but they are still quite expensive, especially if they're based on fuel cell technology. Combustion based vehicles are a tad more affordable but you still have to stabilize the hydrogen somehow.
Also important is the simultaneous development of vehicle and fuel distribution networks. Few would buy a hydrogen powered car if they had doubts about the availability of fuel not only for the region they live in but for any reasonable distance they may travel from home.
Companies are not going to make the leap until the financial incentive is large enough. I hate to say this but this is an area where the government is in the best position to make something happen. Fat chance of that... eh?
The time for "pilot programs" is over. We need a realistic scaleable plan. That means some environmentalists won't be happy. Many want to hold out looking for a perfect solution when what we need is a better solution now.
Oh wait! We were talking computers now! :D No problem... I'm not really arguing... ranting to the choir maybe but not arguing :) |
Post by Colfax // Mar 23, 2007, 8:59am
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Colfax
Total Posts: 49
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Isn't it awesome that TS7.5 comes with basic video tutorials. That's awesome. I care less and less about a printed manual all the time.
And on the topic of energy conservation:
A new bill in U.S. congress intends to outlaw the old inefficient light bulb by 2012. And apparently the European Union intends to do the same by 2009, although that's pretty soon. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Mar 23, 2007, 9:26am
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Jack Edwards
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Yeah HUGE kudos to Caligari for including video tutorials with the manual. :-) :banana:
Of course that's gonna really increase the size of the manual download... people not on broadband might have to order it on *DVD* this time...
*And as far as those new fangled light bulbs go, as long as I can still get full spectrum light bulbs I'm happy... ;) Not to mention that those crappy green flourescent "energy saver" one's will lead to mass violence from the all the irritable people suffering from eye strain and a green strobing world view... :p
-Jack. |
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