Re: [Official!] Project Horizons Comment Crew Chat thread.

[OneMoreDaySK]

Again, attempts are great, because of possible innovative byproducts, but until the cost of asphalt road repairs outgrow the startup costs of this endeavour, it is not yet feasable. Still, someone down the line might create something that rocks the world. Current worries on the project are about maintenence as well. How well will it perform when littered with litter and debris? Still, it is something to work towards.

Shifting my stance on thunderf00t. Thought he was just Anita-bashing too much, especially with the clip repeating her "not a gamer" line. But kinda seeing how he is actually satirizing her by mimicing her style of argument.

[iLateralGX]

Paving roads with solar cells, while cool as an idea, would be highly impractical.

- High cost per megawatt
- High envirronmental cost (producing and and then recycling the solar collectors at the end of their lifecycle, plus all the rare earths that need to be extracted from the environment first, an extremely polluting process)
- High maintenance needs (mechanical stress from all these cars driving on them)
- Very high initial investment

If you want to produce bulk energy from the sun, thermal solar is far more energy-efficient and cost effective. Otherwise, putting solar panels on buildings' roofs would give the same results as using roads.

More generally, the "secret" to solving the energy crisis lies in trying to diminish energy consumption first, and then to find ways to produce more energy from less.

That's not even to mention the whole "half of the time the thing won't even be taking in energy from the sun" problem. I'm all for alternative forms of every but solar is not the way to go currently.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Well, it bears repeating that the thing with renewable energy sources is that you will never be able to use only one energy source to fill all your needs.

This is why all serious people working on the subject say that you need to mix different energy sources, depending on where you are and the local conditions.

This is also why, as we discussed a long time ago, and which Swicked might remember, why any serious proposal to "turn green" the energy grid would also require you to rework how it works, so that it functions as a network and not a hierarchical, top-down oriented infrastructure.

Which is hard and would need work and money to be implemented.

[Vinylshadow]

Wind Power

place 'em along highways and you'd get unlimited energy easily...

[Frost]

That's why the real way to solve the energy crisis is what me and Harm came up with a ways back.

"Burn assholes."

[OneMoreDaySK]

Another problem is setting the things up in urban areas, where a lot of panels will be useless due to the cars parked on top of them. It will only work when the cars are sparse, like at night...

Heh, what we need is to find a way to store heat without any loss through transfer. Find that out, couple it with perfect insulation, and we will have so many uses for it. *imagines storing hot cocoa overnight for the morning*

[Harmony Ltd.]

Assholes. The one and only infinite energy source.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Another problem is setting the things up in urban areas, where a lot of panels will be useless due to the cars parked on top of them. It will only work when the cars are sparse, like at night...

Heh, what we need is to find a way to store heat without any loss through transfer. Find that out, couple it with perfect insulation, and we will have so many uses for it. *imagines storing hot cocoa overnight for the morning*

A realistic application of the technology wouldn't be to literally pave the streets with them, but to for example put them on highways and other wide roads, or to even scratch the idea of using these collectors as road paving, and use them on buildings' facades, sidewalks, or in parks.

[OneMoreDaySK]

There is also innovation on the solar panel's end. Clear solar panels.
Definitely interesting tech being developed.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Yup. Though the problem with solar panels are always the same in the end:

- High production cost
- Limited lifespan (15-20 years)
- High envirronmental impact (production and end of life)
- Limited efficiency (generally under 8-10%)

IF you can solve these problems, then spamming solar panels might be viable.

[Harmony Ltd.]

This is also why, as we discussed a long time ago, and which Swicked might remember, why any serious proposal to "turn green" the energy grid would also require you to rework how it works, so that it functions as a network and not a hierarchical, top-down oriented infrastructure.

So much is lost just in transmission and so much could be gained from making, buying and selling electricity at a community level.
It really would be a major upheaval of the industry, though.
...well, all industries, actually. So much manufacturing relies on power that's absurdly cheap.

My inner anarcho-communist can only agree.

[Harmony Ltd.]

RE clear solar panels: probably they only "absorb" a limited quantity of light. Probably end up looking like only ever so slightly tinted sunshades. Most probably have only very limited efficiency.

Would have to find press articles to get some facts. Can't be arsed right now, though. Hafta go grab some grub.

[Vinylshadow]

Food comes before science

[OneMoreDaySK]

Re: Solar Panels
According to the site I checked out, traditional panels take up to 25%, while the new clear ones are still being tested out at 8% tops or something like that. They are working on it.

Anyone have any idea who _ironbackhand is? Made some insightful tweets on the Gamergate situation, deciding to play now, and 4chan is reacting. Would ask Kip, but he rarely shows up here.

[Scienza]

On a totally unrelated note, a new KLK episode came out-ish today.

[Vinylshadow]

Gamer....gate?

Is that what we're on now?

Zoe's old news, Five Nights is done, Spider-butt's finished...

All that in a week...

Gotta love the attention span of the internet

[Harmony Ltd.]

Re: Solar Panels
According to the site I checked out, traditional panels take up to 25%, while the new clear ones are still being tested out at 8% tops or something like that. They are working on it.

Anyone have any idea who _ironbackhand is? Made some insightful tweets on the Gamergate situation, deciding to play now, and 4chan is reacting. Would ask Kip, but he rarely shows up here.

25% is only the highest of the higher end. Most of what's on the market is around 15%, give or take 2%. And the crappy made in china stuff you can buy at a corner store is probably even less.

As for Kip, PM him. If he has email notification on he'll probably get it.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Gamergate: http://diarrheaworldstarhiphop.tumblr.com/post/96547459748/indie-fensible-the-maya-legobutts-kramer

[OneMoreDaySK]

Gamergate is the natural progression of ZQ. With ZQ, some could still claim it was about harassment of women (Anita and Zoe). With the new tag, the focus is now shifted onto the game journalism industry at large. ZQ still pops up every once in a while, but she is not the focus anymore. It is now largely on digging up truth and verifying claims of nepotism with the IGF, censorship of articles and discussion in favor of gamer-bashing, and journalistic ethics. Current development is that game news sites are still bashing gamers for 'hate speech' (where they take the outlier and loud examples to represent the whole), and gamers digging for the right connection to blow this whole thing over. One gamer-friendly site is offering anonymous discussion for devs to speak up if they have witnessed corruption.

[OneMoreDaySK]

@swicked
Exciting? How so? There can not be any back and forth on most game news sites, because they seem to be covering for eachother on the whole. Somehow several sites released articles pertaining to "death of the gamer" around the same time. Even came with purchasable wristbands before the articles even hit. One discussion made by TotalBiscuit on reddit turned into a [deleted] graveyard. /v/ and /pol/ getting together and donating money for TFYC game jam that game news media for <i>some strange reason</i> are ignoring outside of the 4chan connection. Big names from ouside the games industry are listening to the sites and condemning the "huge amounts of misogeny" from gamers.

A lot of the harrassment on ZQ and Anita, no doubting that, but strange thing to note is that Anita did not follow standard police procedure in dealing with credible death threats. Instead, paraded the thing on twitter, then soon after ask for donations, as if she did not make x25 the amount she asked for from the original kickstarter.

It is really hard to get proper information on these things. Big example was when there were tweets from people faking as the staff for news media sites claiming to ban anime avatars on Polygon, as well as another threatening to swat folks who disagree. Both at this point have been debunked, and there were some apologies made.

[Harmony Ltd.]

An external look on bronies:

http://jezebel.com/i-was-the-weirdest-person-at-bronycon-2014-1616532065

Surprisingly refreshing.

[Vinylshadow]

Love and tolerate

That's my motto

Love hurts

[Harmony Ltd.]

Good news, everybody!

Our government has finally found its non-gender-specific balls!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29052599

[Vinylshadow]

[insert racist remark about French being cowards here]

Only took them...uh...what, a couple hundred years?

[Frost]

Good news, everybody!

Our government has finally found its non-gender-specific balls!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29052599

Well, that's it, WWIII. Everyone panic now; it'll save time later

[Vinylshadow]

Quick, call Rose, Lily and Daisy so they can all run around screaming and faint dramatically

(Rarity's couch not included)

[OneMoreDaySK]

Re: Bronycon
That was amusing. Can see how awkward it could be. Kinda imagined her acting like a nervous 'Tavi, wandering the halls. Did not know that people actually had social badges. Pretty neat idea. Mellowed out so that I am not sugar-induced enthusiastic about the show, but enjoy it nonetheless. Would probably freak out if I ever went to a con, or at least until someone starts singing. Kind of a sucker for that, even though I suck at singing.

Re: France
*silently screams and runs around the place, knocking over everything possible*

[Guest]

@Energy
Oh, hey, I know! We could store the energy in the cloud!

Like... an actual giant cloud that would shoot thunderbolts down to power up capacitors across the nation, while collecting energy from other clouds and

Spoiler:

@New KLK
WHAT

[Frost]

Even at the height of my interest in the show, I don't think I would have ever gone to any conventions. It's hard enough dealing with idiots day-to-day, let alone an absolute throng of idiots whose shared interests make them think I actually give a damn about what they're saying. At least random strangers can just pass each other by silently.

But, you know....friendship. The magic thereof. I'm all about it. Totally.

In other news,

We now know how Superman does it:

[OneMoreDaySK]

@KLK
Was not there supposed to be an OVA coming out soon-ish? Either that or another episode that rounds out the season.

Hmm... I want to draw Aloutte as a humanoid. Not a EqG type, but with 'regular' skin colors. Any tips?

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