LinuxQuestions.org - Blogs - H_TeXMeX_H http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?u=209258 LinuxQuestions.org offers a free Linux forum where Linux newbies can ask questions and Linux experts can offer advice. Topics include security, installation, networking and much more. en Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:43 GMT vBulletin 60 http://e1h7.simplecdn.net/lqcdn/images/questions/images/misc/rss.jpg LinuxQuestions.org - Blogs - H_TeXMeX_H http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?u=209258 <![CDATA[I'm sick of green and global warming and carbon propaganda]]> http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=1790 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:32:31 GMT First, I'd like everyone to read this article:
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html

Don't just skim through it, READ IT !

It continues to amaze me how quickly propaganda catches on, even if it has little to no supporting evidence. Just bombard people with the same idea over and over and over and over in everything they see and hear and sense, and they will eventually believe it, unless they think for themselves.

However, I do agree that pollution is a very bad thing for our health, and that would be the main reason for clean, non-polluting power plants.

More interesting facts I've come across while watching same of the stupid Discovery shows on TV (did I mention I hate TV, because it's full of propaganda ?):

They showed this drag bike that runs on electricity. They compared it to a regular bike which I believe runs on nitro-methane. They also mentioned that the electric bike uses enough electricity to power a small town ... no so for the regular bike, it uses maybe a liter or so of fuel. And where do they get their electricity from ? Check google, here's stats from 2005:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...S_2005_New.png
~ 50 % coal
~ 20 % petroleum / natural gas
~ 20 % nuclear
~ 10 % likely clean sources / green
How nice, they seem to be confused, because I don't see the green they're talking about here. The regular bike is probably 1 million times cleaner and greener.

Solar panels ... it sounds like a great idea, and I'd be all for it, except for one problem ... rare metals. Unfortunately the site I wanted to include is down, but it's on google cache:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=199703110
http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:...&hl=en&ct=clnk
Not to mention how inefficient and expensive they are at the moment. They are NO solution so far.

A much better solution if you wanted solar power would be using mirrors and salt (both of which are not rare and quite cheap):
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/01/14/...wer-with-salt/
If you build lots of these in the deserts of the world ... then you might accomplish something.

Wind power is a joke in most cases. There are very few areas where wind is constant and powerful enough to be economically viable.

Ocean wave power is also a joke, what are you gonna do about people and ships ? Where are you gonna put them ?

Really, other than the salt / mirror solar tower, so far, no power generation strategy is truly efficient, clean, and economically viable.

Taking this into account, and the fact that the sun is the major factor in climate change here on earth, I recommend that instead of wasting money on stupid technology that will never impact anything

Quote:
Total human contributions to greenhouse gases account for only about 0.28% of the "greenhouse effect"
I recommend that instead we focus on trying to survive the onslaught brought about by the change ... prepare ahead of time. Technically, the nature of the change cannot be known either, it could suddenly turn into an ice age. Still, it's quite a waste to do all this supposed "green" BS for no real reason. To be realistic it won't even prevent pollution all that much, what do you think they're gonna do with all that coal and gas and petroleum ? Just leave it ? ]]> H_TeXMeX_H http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=1790 Xbox 360, the reason I will never buy another Xbox * ever again http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=1434 Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:13:00 GMT First, let me start out by saying that I should have never bought an Xbox (regular not 360). I think M$ designs these so that they last only as much... First, let me start out by saying that I should have never bought an Xbox (regular not 360). I think M$ designs these so that they last only as much as the factory warranty, then they break. This is what happened with my first Xbox, which I got for my birthday long ago. When it broke and I realized it was out of warranty, it pissed me off, so I took it apart. What I saw was that one of the capacitors had exploded. So, for my next birthday, guess what I got, another Xbox.

Some time after that, the Xbox 360 came out and I got one for another of my birthdays. Recently it broke down as well, "red ring of death", except it was also out of warranty. I know they extended the warranty for this particular bug, but even so, I think it would still be out of warranty. It doesn't matter now, because I did attempt to fix it. Here's some pics I took of the CPU and GPU:



You think they used a just little too much thermal paste ? I tried some new paste as well as some fixes off of youtube. Yes, as you might predict, they failed. Supposedly the GPU heat sink had to be made smaller to fit the huge DVD-ROM drive, the one that scratches disks, and M$ did nothing about it:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...44242&from=rss
Well that causes the GPU to heat up so much it actually detaches from the board, or at least moves to a position where it cannot make proper contact with the board and will no longer work. Both heat sinks that they used are of terrible design. The ones I scavenged from the Xbox were much better actually, I tested them. Brilliant engineering from M$.

And even with all this I was close to getting another Xbox 360 for my most recent birthday. But then I stopped to think a bit. Why should I buy this worthless POS ? What is the cost/benefit ratio ? I figured surely the great games I would play would outweigh the terrible flaws of this POS. Except that every game I've tried so far on the Xbox 360 has sucked except for 2 of them: Gears of War and Dark Sector (similar games). Other than those two single games, the others suck horribly. Sometimes I wonder who can play such games as Burnout Revenge without wanting to snap that f'n disk in two. I swore I would do it if I ever got the chance to play it again. Maybe I'll sell it back to gamestop instead. I was planning on buying the recent releases of Fable 2 and Gears of War 2, but then most people said they were very similar to the originals, with minor improvements. I have a feeling it might get boring fast.

So, my final decision was to swear never to buy any other console from M$ ever again. With two consoles completely borked there is no hope for the evil empire to make anything worthwhile. I wouldn't be surprised if the M$ keyboard I am typing on doesn't break right now. Well, maybe it's actually a re-branded Logitech as they say.

As the PS3 (which I do, unfortunately own) is a DRM'd POS, with even more horrible games that the 360, I'm wondering what the future of gaming will look like. I looked into getting a Wii, but the games look to be way substandard when it comes to graphics, and seem to target mostly a young audience ... low violence, fluffy, furry, happy ... boring ! Very few games on the Wii look promising to me. Maybe I'll write more on the subject of the current horrid status of video games later. ]]> H_TeXMeX_H http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog.php?b=1434