User Blogs

A lot of people think that we are utterly dependent on burning oil for energy for our modern existence, but this is patently untrue. One example of potential independence is biodiesel. I own two diesels (a car and a truck) and I put biodiesel into them when I can, but it costs significantly more than petroleum diesel. This is due to the tax breaks given to Big Oil, and the fact that no one is paying for the major externality of burning petrofuels, carbon dioxide. The US government proved at Sandia NREL in the 1980s that producing biodiesel from algae grown in open raceway ponds was not only feasible, but that it should be profitable with diesel fuel retailing at $3/gallon.

Do you love Freedom? Do you love the internet? If so, perhaps you should consider the declaration of internet freedom.

A turbocharger is better than an nitrous install because it works better and you don't have to refill it. But that's not all; a turbo also puts less load on the engine for the amount of power you get out.

Every time I get comfortable with a retailer something bad happens. In this case, Newegg is doing Microsoft's work by illegally1 refusing warranty support to a customer who installed Linux on a computer. I submitted a letter about it to Newegg through their system; they gave me back the code #120612-001897.

Lately there has been a lot of nonsense (as I see it, ho ho) going around about the GPL. Perhaps it's just that the people who dislike it are becoming more outspoken, but many people are saying that they have recently come to believe that the GPL must necessarily spell the end of all software companies, the loss of zillions of jobs, and so on and so forth. I believe this is all a lot of hooey. The following material is (currently) the culmination of a long and involved thread on the subject on Google+; I will spare you a link as this is probably the most cogent contribution I made to the conversation anyway. Content after the break.