The I know commodity futures are very baked. But I want a way for me (no industry, golf club, or oil cartel ties) to pre-pay for 200 gallons of Shell (or Exxon, or Brand X) unleaded premium at the current price, and get credit that can be redeemed at the gas station at any time or traded on the open market.
To implement this, a large company would have to strike deals with the major gas stations to buy fuel contracts. The "shares" would be traded on the stock market (I don't know what the SEC rules are in the USA) and would be linked to an industry standard card that can be used like a debit card at participating gas stations. (I know you could pre-pay for gas with Priceline early in its existence, but it wasn't the same concept--you couldn't sell the gas you bought on the open market).-- cowtamer, Dec 22 2008 Already Invented(TM) tkfutures.com/education.htm
The Ghetto Version(TM) mygallons.com locks in the price you pay on a debit card. You could always sell it later on ebay for more than you paid.-- crankshaw, Dec 22 2008 Or just fill up a big tank.-- Texticle, Dec 22 2008 I said a *big* tank, not a car's petrol tank.
Also I'm sure you're aware that there are entities out there who consume much, much more than 80 litres per week, and for them a 10 cent rise is very significant.-- Texticle, Dec 23 2008 [+] No Kidding [Textide]; plus, the price of petroleum, ultimately, has nowhere to go but up. (Read: T. Boon Pickens... )
A sideline problem, here, though, as I see it is: what the DEVIL happened to the Halfbakery of ~15 years ago!! I was gone for awhile doing dumb things (like writing a Doctoral thesis - I'm such an idiot!), and it's now populated (infested, mostly, I would say... ), by a new group of self-proclaimed "Illuminatti": self agrandizing (always voting for each other); always "naw-saying" others (except in the most extreme of circumstances; for instance, when the "others' " idea simply rocks too much, and they must acqueiesce); pompous intellectual wanna' be's... (YOU know who you are; but, there are a few of you who DEFINATELY seem to know what you are talking about ... Which begs the question: why do you let yourself be sucked into their Partisan maelstrom? Vote from YOUR conscience. Please... )
The Half-bakery is in trouble: if you look at it's volumes of published ideas, you cannot tell, (by it's rating), if it's something worthwhile for Terran-kind. If it has a low rating, it could be the obvious prejudice of the current Illiteratti (the cyber-squaters, if you will); if it has a high rating, it could just mean it's the mental drivel of a "cerebral circle-jerk" by various, probably fat, men sitting in their underwear and pretending they're somehow ... important to the world.
Colour me: so dissapointed...
By the way: I consider this a gauntlet thrown down ... I'll answer any rebuttals to my accussations. Unfortunately ... I'm convinced that you know who you are, and you're too afraid for a FAIR fight (pen); it might show that you are NOT the halfbakery Gods that you think you are...-- Wily Peyote, Dec 23 2008 //what the DEVIL happened to the Halfbakery of ~15 years ago//It was way ahead of its time - that's what happened to it.sp. "disappointed", "accusations", "squatters", "a while", "its"-- coprocephalous, Dec 23 2008 Hey, [coprocephalous], I'm too drunk to even walk right now; let alone, spell. So ... my words hit home pretty hard, eh, coprocephalous?! (By the way: you misspelled the "-phalous" part of your name; the "copro-" part, though, just might be apt... )
But ... you DO agree with me - when looking at a brand new halbakery idea - that there is often RAMPANT partisanship? Be honest, ples...-- Wily Peyote, Dec 23 2008 No, [WP], personally I don't agree. If a regular posts a crap idea, I'll bone it. If a newbie posts a good 'un, I'll bun it. And all combinations thereof.-- coprocephalous, Dec 23 2008 But that's you, [coprocephalous]!! (That's got to be the the coolest handle, ever: "coprocephalous") But, I'm talking ... about the "regulars" (your words) ... and the "newbies" (your words). I ask you, in all honesty, coprocephalous ... don't you notice, when viewing one of the [seemingly] myriad posts of the [rabid] - my words - regulars, it'll often get, like ... +10 (instantly, seemingly... ), even if it's complete ... 'crap' science? (Individual interpretatation.) Can you break away from the pack to even admit this?!-- Wily Peyote, Dec 23 2008 I don't go with the pack, I usually go for "off-the-wall". [TheLeopard] being a case-in-point. Anti-terminator cows? Apine musical prosthetics? Not even remotely good science (or for that matter bad science), just divinely at right angles to normality, but with the essence of grounding. I also like rants. [UB]'s good at those. Newbies usually take some time to get the tone right, but some also hit the ground at full pelt.I rarely, if ever, check scores before voting.-- coprocephalous, Dec 23 2008 Maybe ... I'm in the wrong place. (It's Not like 15+ years ago when your idea stayed on for up to a month ... and people, albeit naively, thought that this place might just help change the world...)
So ... what does this mean? The Halfbakery has de-volved (evolved?) into a kind of on-line social club for wayward intellectualls? I have to admit that the quick 'witticisms' of some of the members make me laugh! But, than, Stephen Wright is my favorite comedian - so what do I know?
PROPOSAL: should a new Halfbakery (Halfbaker II) be designed for the [boring] people who aren't clever enough for Halfbakery I (but, like me, enjoy reading it... ), but ONLY for serious ideas: the Vincis, the Fullers, Teslas, and Newtons?-- Wily Peyote, Dec 23 2008 The halfbakery is about 9 years old, my how time crawls.
I have felt the same way you do about the hb at times, [wily], but I've come to realize that it's really not as elitist as it looks. I've seen 'bakers come and go, it just takes time as [coprocephalous] points out to familiarize with the hb and vice-versa. That time is inversely proportional to idea/anno quality (a product of time and wit), and perhaps friendliness and other factors.
I don't see a need for a "Halfbakery II", if [beanangel] for example can be "clever enough" than so can you.-- Spacecoyote, Dec 23 2008 //It's Not like 15+ years ago when your idea stayed on for up to a month //Nostalgia, eh?It isn't what it used to be.-- coprocephalous, Dec 23 2008 I think you guys are missing the point of the idea. I don't just want to pre-pay for my gasoline (it's good to know that it's baked, thanks crankshaw).
I want there to be:
1) A system that allows me to pre-pay for a LOT (or a little) of gasoline if I choose 2) An open market for this commodity 3) A way to redeem the purchase at any gas station
Trading pre-paid gas cards on e-bay is not the same thing as an open market with a stock ticker, etc.
BTW, I think the HalfBakery is still great -- if nothing else, it is a repository of ideas that (hopefully) won't go away.-- cowtamer, Dec 23 2008 //(By the way: you misspelled the "-phalous" part of your name; the "copro-" part, though, just might be apt... )//
It would only be misspelled if he had a dick for a brain.-- hazel, Dec 23 2008 //It would only be misspelled if he had a dick for a brain//Thanks [hazel], that would probably be an upgrade.-- coprocephalous, Dec 23 2008 //Let me get this straight, [WP], you arrived in 2007 and posted 2 half-arsed ideas and left////I also like rants. [UB]'s good at those.//See what I mean? Brilliant!-- coprocephalous, Dec 23 2008 // you arrived in 2007 and posted 2 half-arsed ideas and left// Oo-er - [UB] done it again - those two half-arsed (your words) ideas have been deleted.-- coprocephalous, Dec 23 2008 wasn't there a crash that might have lost some ideas?
(how long has the 1/2B been around?)-- Zimmy, Dec 23 2008 //wasn't there a crash that might have lost some ideas? //You mean the Great Crash of Ought Four?Well sit ye here, young 'un, and listen.Now, what was it I meant to say?-- coprocephalous, Dec 23 2008 I bought a tank truck with a 1000 gallon tank some years back, and filled it up with fuel. It lasted about a year with all my family using it. Fuel prices were on a steady slow climb at the time, and I figured I saved about $700 on that tank of fuel. Wasn't really wort it, but was very handy to have a home gas station.
I sold the truck, and made $1000 on that.-- n81641, Dec 23 2008 Hey, you moroon: coprocephalous means NOTHING: copro-EN-cephalous, on the other hand, would mean: sh*t for brains.
'Just because you don't remember Halfbakery '95 - and my old handle - doesn't mean it didn't exist...-- Wily Peyote, Dec 23 2008 //Hey, you moroon//More ferrousness. //coprocephalous means NOTHING// Well, "Bucephalus" means "ox-head", and the city named after him was Alexandria Bucephalous, so perhaps "sh*t-head -like" or even "sh*t-head-city" is a better translation.-- coprocephalous, Dec 24 2008 //(like writing a Doctoral thesis - I'm such an idiot!)//
... and if you did that in the same style as your annotations here, and got your PhD, then THEY'RE idiots as well.-- neelandan, Dec 24 2008 random, halfbakery