Where is balance Academic priorities 270

Don't underestimate what all the little companies around the world do. Now they have a niche and a market they can live in, and expand; and do the first bit of organical growth in production.

In ten years they will not be small companies anymore, and lots of venture capitalists will wonder what happened.

If it is for independence you can get disaster independence from the grid with some expense, but it actually pays off in 5-7 years. Before the oil-power price shift the period was 15-25 years. At $70 the period go below 3 years; which is the magical points for PHBs to become interested because it may actually save their budgets.

2 square meters of solar panel and two 120cm diameter wind generators generate enough power for a familiy in a boat to live on. You then cook with gas, and burn somehing for heat. For emergencies, keep a little backup generator to charge batteries. Most appliances are absurd power-guzzlers; this will have to be dealt with.

Out go the laser printer(1-3 kW) , in an inkjet (50W at most). Out go the old freezer(800W), in a modern power-saver(200W). Out the old PC (250W), in a new power-saver (25W). A purge of light fixtures will bring the consumption from a few kilowatts to a hundred watts or less.

I am retrofitting some of this in my home as well, because I foresee severe long-term problems with the electrical grid. I simply plan to be able to live indefinatly in reasonable comfort without the grid present. The biggest problem is proving to be the washing machine. I can have a small generator for such use.

If we sleep at the helm and not use the available petrol to bootstrap a sustainable economy we may have to do it with nuclear reactors. If that is what it is used for I see it as a valid use.

After all this time, does this have something to do with the opcode for a system call in a certain OS?

I just have to ask.

-- mrr