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Speeches and Reviews, Gaming, Socialities, Environment Issues
I have two presentations in coming weeks which I have to prepare for. One is October 8 at the Unitarian Church, on "The Age of Spiritual Machines", derived from Ray Kurzweil's book of the same title and the preceeding "Age of Intelligent Machines". The other is October 12 at the Australian Unix Users Group annual conference on "The Economics of Open Source". Have also wriiten a review for Ticonderoga on a re-release of Phillip K. Dick's "The Cosmic Puppets". Needless to say, it shines with the same brilliance it did the last time I read it (which was about fifteen years ago).
Three gaming sessions this week. On Friday was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zen_cat's In Nomine game and briefly met pache. We managed to get a copy of the evil soul-sucking MMORP, delete the offending code and release it as OSS. Unfortunately one angel had gone rogue and destroyed the software company building (along with several people). Had to outsource a young hacker to a outdoor raver commune after he saw some in angelic form. Kept on muttering about aliens. Overall a victory for the forces of light. On Sunday was the RetroAD&D Norman Britain game, using the U3 (The Final Enemy) module. An underwater adventure, we defeated the barracks of the Saughighan (hmm, very like Call of Cthulhu Deep Ones) and destroyed their temple. Game ended on a nail-biter following as the lair began to collapse around us following the temple incident. On Tuesday played DragonQuest which really is quite brilliant for a game 26 years old. We are fortunate to have a GM who has all the old classic modules and we're hoping to combine it with the Barbarian King's wargame, also published by SPI. To finish off, this Saturday will be attending Unicon.
Other socialable occassions of late included a housewarming party for Paula and Craig wherecaseopaya and I spent time with the delightful log_reloaded and I chatted with one Geoff S., a character I've known for about twenty years and whom enters my life every two-three years. Sunday night was a birthday dinner for imajica__lj at the Xanghai. Monday night was obscure drinks at the European Beer Cafe with severina_242 and _zombiemonkey followed by an excellent dinner at the "well-known to a small group" Waiter's Club.
Energy. Why not solar? Warmimg. Greenland's Ice Melt Grew by 250 Percent, Satellites Show. Shrinking species. Polar Bears aren't too happy about this. Payback? Virgin pledges $3bn to combat global warming. Currently my brain is struggling with economics of water. Liquid land is a hard one. Assistance requested, especially on the supply side. Demand side is relatively easy.
Three gaming sessions this week. On Friday was
zen_cat's In Nomine game and briefly met pache. We managed to get a copy of the evil soul-sucking MMORP, delete the offending code and release it as OSS. Unfortunately one angel had gone rogue and destroyed the software company building (along with several people). Had to outsource a young hacker to a outdoor raver commune after he saw some in angelic form. Kept on muttering about aliens. Overall a victory for the forces of light. On Sunday was the RetroAD&D Norman Britain game, using the U3 (The Final Enemy) module. An underwater adventure, we defeated the barracks of the Saughighan (hmm, very like Call of Cthulhu Deep Ones) and destroyed their temple. Game ended on a nail-biter following as the lair began to collapse around us following the temple incident. On Tuesday played DragonQuest which really is quite brilliant for a game 26 years old. We are fortunate to have a GM who has all the old classic modules and we're hoping to combine it with the Barbarian King's wargame, also published by SPI. To finish off, this Saturday will be attending Unicon.Other socialable occassions of late included a housewarming party for Paula and Craig where
caseopaya and I spent time with the delightful log_reloaded and I chatted with one Geoff S., a character I've known for about twenty years and whom enters my life every two-three years. Sunday night was a birthday dinner for imajica__lj at the Xanghai. Monday night was obscure drinks at the European Beer Cafe with severina_242 and _zombiemonkey followed by an excellent dinner at the "well-known to a small group" Waiter's Club.Energy. Why not solar? Warmimg. Greenland's Ice Melt Grew by 250 Percent, Satellites Show. Shrinking species. Polar Bears aren't too happy about this. Payback? Virgin pledges $3bn to combat global warming. Currently my brain is struggling with economics of water. Liquid land is a hard one. Assistance requested, especially on the supply side. Demand side is relatively easy.
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There was a rather cool solar concept I recall reading about, I think in Jerry Pournelle's A Step Further Out. Effectively, have the solar arrays in orbit, where there's no atmospheric interference, and beam the resultant power down via microwave. With an antenna grid about 2m above the ground (IIRC) the expected ground level radaiation was low enough to graze cattle underneath with no ill effects. Seemed an interesting idea to me.
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As with most forms of energy generation/collection it depends on what you want to do with it. Power density with solar is pretty poor. And it produces DC (conversion is about another 10% loss). On the other side of the equation it's damn good for heat energy (well, there's a surprise). And your are absolutely spot on about the need for a stressed grid; properly managed, solar has a very low distribution loss.
Of all places in the world Australia should be a leader in this technology. We're not short of sun.
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As far as the energy required/pollution generated equation, that's all from what I read about 5-6 years ago, so it may no longer be accurate. I was real serious about outfitting our house in SF with solar, but the payback period was about 7 years, and I didn't think we'd be there long enough (and I was right). So while I was keen as, I opted against it for financial reasons (and very clearly made the wise choice in hindsight).
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Who's Fabio and why is that relevant?
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And in reply to the 2nd part, it ain't. :)
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