On Nov 4, 1:57 am, Nick Ballard <nrball...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> [H]omer wrote:
> > Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>
> >> Nick, why did you pull the video?
>
> > Not to worry, here's another:
>
> >http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cZLPtgMNVsA(part 1)
> >http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eVlUAqG4ByE(part 2)
> >http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TtH_kRDu00s(part 3)
>
> That's why I pulled it.
It's a good thing you did.
The bigger issue, which really makes it relevant to this newsgroup, is
that Linux can help make economic opportunities available to those who
would otherwise just die of starvation. It's not that these people
are unwilling to work, but if they work for months trying to farm in a
desert, and raiders steal the harvest, or the harvest doesn't bring
enough to keep the family alive, it gets ugly.
There are much bigger issues, like shifting water deployment so that
water can be used to cultivate inland resources and crops, and
shifting major cities like Los Angeles to sea-water desalinization.
We need to look at cost-effective alternatives to coal, oil, and
natural gas, such as safe nuclear powerplants that don't require
massive dumps of radioactive water and depleted uranium. Options such
as gas cooled reactors and sodium cooled reactors that can "breed"
fuel from low-cost uranium, and can then be buried in salt mines
located within less than a mile of the plant.
We need to look at ways to make solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal
energy more cost-effective, so that we can produce meaningful
quantities of power in a reliable way. We need to find ways to use
wind and solar to provide the energy required to distill ethanol,
create the chemicals required to create biofuels that can completely
replace fossil fuels such as gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating oil.
We need to find ways to transform sewage and city waste into clean
substitutes for coal.
The problem is that there is opposition to all of these projects, and
many of the companies that have the resources to take them on, are
building up the infrastructure, but structuring the transition to
maximize their profits on the available fossil fuel reserves.
Exxon for example, has been purchasing farm-land, especally prime land
for sugar-beets, sugar-cane, and other high-yield crops that can more
easily be converted into ethanol. They often purchase this land
during years of intense drought. It's very likely that they will be
able to get much of the sugar cane land (previously used to grow
cotton and tobacco) in the southeastern united states. Similar
tactics can be used to aquire land in eastern europe, western asia,
and other huge areas of land that is perfect for farmng fossil fuel
replacements.
Adding superchargers to small volume engines could substantially
improve their performance and fuel efficiency, but in many states such
as california, supercharges with mechanically driven fans are illegal.
Using small electric motors to drive secondary engine functions such
as the water pump, oil pump, fuel pump, air conditioning, and heating
systems could substantially improve the efficiency of the car, but it
would also mean fewer repairs would be required and longer lasting
cars, possibly even cars with engines that could last 20 years. Not a
popular idea in Detroit.
Linux can also play a role in improving collaboration, eliminating
much of the need for travel. After 9/11, the security measures
extended the amount of time required to get through security. Linux
was used to provide collaboration tools that allowed companies like
IBM to eliminate huge amounts of corporate travel.
A side effect of this collaboration was that it became possible to
bring in workers from other countries. This facilitated round-the-
clock development, economic opportunity in third world countries. The
mixture, usually 40% Western and 60% "off-shore" seems to work best.
The lower cost allows companies to take on additional problems at
lower cost. Instead of creating less opportunity for U.S. workers, it
increases opportunities for both US and offshore.
Ross Perot was asked to review the Texas school budget and school
system and asked for how they could improve the quality of the
education. The most important recommendation he made was to stop
subsidizing athletics and sports related programs and make them self-
supporting. Between sports, marching bands, cheerleader squads, and
performing bands, the Texas school system was spending over 80% of
it's school budget on 10% of the kids.
Perot suggested raising doubling the price of tickets to the sports
events, theatrical productions, music programs, and other revenue
generating projects, and having the schools charge "rent" based on a
percentage of the gross. The result being that sports, music, and
dance would become a source of revenue instead of a drain on the
budget. This money could then be used to buy computers, textbooks,
and reduce the student/teacher ratio to as low as 20:1.
Unfortunately, most of the principles at the schools had started as
athletic coaches, and eventually made their way to the board of
education. The PTA was filled with parents lobbying to get their kids
onto the varsity teams, the elite performance groups, and the other
programs that got that 80% of the budget.
The result, almost 30 years later is that we have a shortage of high
school graduates who can enter programs in chemistry, electronics,
computer science, and robotics. Meanwhile, we have millions of high
school students who have practiced for thousands of hours - to be good
enough to make it into one of the few thousand slots on college sports
teams, and possibly make it into the few hundred jobs in professional
sports teams. Many of those who don't "make the cut" end up in gangs,
dealing drugs, and eventually end up it prisons. There are now over 2
million people in state and federal prisons, almost 2% of the total US
population. Much of this is the cost of ignoring Perot's
recommendations.
Another key recommendation made by Perot at the time was to be more
sensible about how PCs were being purchased. At the time, schools
were purchasing Apple II computers for as much as $2000 each, when
similarly configured Atari 800 PCs were selling for $500. The Atari
400 was available at quantity discounts for as little as $200 each and
were perfect for elementary school kids. Instead of taking Perot's
advice they switched to IBM PCs at $5000 each. For the cost of 20 PCs
in one computer lab, about $100,000, they could have gotten 500 Atari
400s - enough for one computer for every 5 students.
In recent years, California began taking Perot's advice. They started
getting getting very low cost PCs and putting Linux on them. The
solution was especially popular in the low-income districts. They
were able to aquire thousands of computers that ran Linux very nicely,
but didn't have Windows/Office licenses. Most of them couldn't
anything more advanced than Windows 95, forget Windows NT 4.0 let
alone XP.
Note that Microsoft paid their "Settlement" with California by giving
the state several million dollars worth of Windows XP licenses. In
order to use them, the state had to replace the computers.
> --
> Nick Ballard
Rex Ballard
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