Solar cell

OK, but where's the payback? Look at how popular automatics are today -- the vast majority of people don't value the extra bit of control that manual transmissions, engine controls, etc. might given them. The fact that you can make a diesel today that the average consumer will find as easy to operate to an ICE (and for no more cost but with a bit better efficiency) is what will slowly drive their adoption. (Although these days the big thing is hybrids and all, so I fully expect that diesels won't make up any significant percentage of consumer vehicles in the foreseeable future.)

We had pretty much every printer that was available, as one of the buildings was used to give demos to potential customers (although of course, at time, only a handful were actually networked -- the big copy-machine-sized ones!).

I wrote up a few little toy utility programs for my manager under VM/CMS written in REXX... good times...

---Joel

Look at how many trucks have automatics.

Truckers do.

I don't believe you. The government will make sure that never happens.

Oh, we had printers alright. They were in the computer center, about five miles away.

I put together a utility to generate our capital requests (using TSO CLISTs and PDF calls), then print FOILs (transparencies to real people) and handouts in the appropriate fonts. The counters of beans were quite impressed. If the computer said we needed toys we must really need toys. Bean counters are easily impressed. All you have to do is tell them what they want to hear (see: banking crisis).

It helps to keep them awake on those long hauls if they have a few switches/controls to move around, even if it doesn't actually do much anymore? :-)

I really don't know much of anything about modern trucks, though (other than that some of them do still have glow plug switches). For the average trucker, what controls are still found to be useful?

Could be. What are your predictions for the types of cars that'll be common in the coming decades?

Would you wager any money yet on Obama being a one-term president? :-)

Nice!

---Joel

I'll wager the Dems will retain control of Congress in 2010, and Obama will get a second term.

To see how that will happen, just look at Florida... loser Repubs will run as independents, splitting the vote, allowing Dem wins.

You'll all love it, and deserve it... suckers! ...Jim Thompson

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Good point... republicans might do it to themselves; no Ross Perot needed!

Still firming up those plans to leave the country, eh?

---Joel

I assume you are talking solely about the USA? In Europe the situation is very different. In the UK, for example, half of cars sold are diesel. I drive a 2.0L VW Golf diesel, which averages

Yup! ...Jim Thompson

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Details, details! ...what date do you have in mind? 2011? Further out?

Clutch.

Have you ever watched the Flintstones?

I was willing to put that wager down before the last election.

A few years later the words they wanted to hear was "saving headcount". I invented jobs "headcount saved or avoided" long before anyone had heard of Obummer. Beancounters and academics are so predictable.

I'll take the bet.

I thought so at first too, but the Tea Partiers don't seem to be that stupid. They'll be fragged, first. If Crist ran as an independent, he could easily come in second, but the Rubio would still win.

The suckers are paying now. They are seeing the light.

When the tax rates get obtrusive. If the Dems keep Congress this mid-term I'll be packing. ...Jim Thompson

You don't have the EPA. When gasoline was $4/gallon, diesel was over $5, thanks to the EPA.

Ah, so it's a healthcare initiative as well -- daily exercise included with every trip to the store!

Hobbiest magazines stopped paying their authors a living wage two decades ago.

At that time I moved online. Most column reprints can be found at

Current publications are often found at

I'm already sick of the continuous Rubio pol ads on TV. They run back to back, all day long.

That's what it takes. People are dense.

Ever hear of a shoe tax?

Not at all, i have a fist full of them (financial and otherwise) and understand their operation well. Using them is still part of the Engineer-in-training/Fundamentals of Engineering (EIT/FE) exam. Kind of like remembering your accounting 01 course material. Remember that i pointed out a change of units?

Step back and rethink, what is the cost of existing facilities (before and after taxes) and what is the cost of new facilities (likewise).

And the effect of the Federal alternative energy programs is to subsidize a stall in real renewable energy technology. That is what has me pissed off.