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Random Comments 6

Entry 1005, on 2009-05-07 at 21:15:15 (Rating 3, Comments)

There are several issues which I want to comment on today regarding news items from the last few days, so I thought a random comments entry might be appropriate.

Comment the first. Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility (NIF) is almost ready to test a new system to attempt to produce efficient fusion energy. The machine isn't quite on the scale of the LHC but its still impressive: 192 lasers and a 400 foot long series of amplifiers and filters.

If it works the reaction should produce 500 terawatts in 2 billionths of a second. That's 500 times the entire peak power output of the United States (and I guess something like the entire output of the electricity generation of the planet). This is all from a target a few millimeters across. Note however that its only for 2 billionths of a second!

Fusion itself isn't the problem and has already been achieved. The problem is controlling the fusion plasma and producing the reaction by using less power than is produced - there's no point in building a power plant which uses more power than it produces!

Comment the second. Microsoft are nearing the end of laying off 5000 employees, but bizarrely they might hire back several thousand of them. Maybe that's just because they will use them in a different role. My theory is they will be moved from engineering into marketing. Its like the Mac vs PC ad says: no point in spending more money on fixing Vista (or Windows 7 which is just Vista with a few improvements) when you can just start a more effective marketing (in other words, propaganda) campaign instead!

Comment 3. Blackberrys outsold iPhones last quarter, but that might have been because RIM had to give them away! Buy one Blackberry get one free. What a deal, and if you buy one now you get a free set of steak knives as well! Sorry, but all the Blackberry's I have ever used have sucked! The UI is just so awkward and primitive compared with the iPhone.

Comment 4. Either Telecom or Vodafone (probably both) are engaged in some pretty dirty tricks. Is Telecom deliberately (or at least knowingly) interfering with Vodafone's network or is Vodafone making a big fuss about a non-existent or irrelevant problem in an effort to delay the introduction of Telecom's upgraded network? Either way they would be better off concentrating on creating better networks with fair prices, but what am I saying? They've never done that in the past and I can't see it happening any time soon.

And finally comment 5. Farmers say the Emissions Trading Scheme is a step on road to hell, at least financial hell and that's surely the most important type! They are sort of right and sort of wrong. Businesses or individuals who effect the environment should pay in some way, whether those effects are in the from of polluting the environment or using up a resource. But if the ETS is intended to prevent global warming there is no point if the rest of the world isn't going to play the game as well. So I do understand the farmers' point but they could at least make an effort to voluntarily reduce the huge amount of pollution they are responsible for.

So that's all for today. Thanks for reading my random comments.

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