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Domain: cord.edu

Stories and comments across the archive that link to cord.edu.

Comments · 7

  1. Re:I wonder... by Keebler71 · · Score: 2, Interesting · on The Self-Tuning Guitar
    Tuning IS a science! When I taught physics to prep school students, I would bring in my guitar when we discussed beats and let them hear beats for themselves as I brought two tones closer together and farther apart. Of course, you can not use harmonics to get 'exactly' in tune due to the equal-tempered nature of Western cultures' music scales, but you sure can get close.

    Personally I use a tuner about once every couple years... and usually just prove to myself that I don't need it. If you use the harminic method, and get the beat period down to 10 seconds or so, you are talking on the order of .1 Hz of error. The gottcha is that you don't want to compare harmonics all the way across the neck as the errors are cumulative and you will hear that high E and low E are not tuned an octave apart. Once I get tuned close, I then play several different chords arpeggio style (one note at a time) making slight adjustments here and there (open G, C and D chords sufice for me). I assume that this last step is correcting a 'pure-tuning' to an 'equal-tempered' tuning. Is it fast? No... it takes me a minute or two; but it is rewarding in an 'I solved the Rubic's cube' kind of way.

  2. Read it, you're still wrong by Daetrin · · Score: 1 · on NASA Test Shows Foam Could Be Culprit
    Let's take a look at that page. Ah, the first definition they give:

    "The term mass was introduced by Newton in Principia, 1687."

    Okay, let's take a look at Principia. Oh look! He was talking about Inertial mass, which is exactly what the rest of us are talking about!

    Oh, wait a second, i missed a little bit, the page you showed us is titled "Mass In Special Relativity."

    That's great news! I hadn't heard that they'd put new Space Shuttles in service that traveled a significant fraction of c! When did that heppen?

    Oh wait, it didn't.

    I doubt that there's a single physics professor on the planet that would claim that special relativity needs to be applied to a Space Shuttle and a one pound chunk of foam traveling only 1000 or 2000 mph over the space of a few seconds, especially given what we're trying to calculate. The only conceivable case in which relativity might be usefully applied involving the space shuttle is if you were trying to calculate the fraction of a thousandth (or millionth?) of a second that is "lost" after a week or so of orbiting the earth. Guess what, that's not what we're trying to do.

    And not only is that the only source on the web that i can find that claims "mass is not a measure of inertia," it itself specifies, "From the point of view of relativity[...]" which as previously shown, we're not using in this discussion and have no reason to use.

    And if you think the best way for your kids to be taught in school is to skip clasical physics and go straight to special relativity, your kids are going to be in a world of pain, and probably not very well educated to boot.

  3. The real reason... by watzinaneihm · · Score: 3, Informative · on Funding Approved for Pluto/Kuiper Probe

    It seems is not to go where no man has gone before but

    1) To get proper pictures of pluto (it seems telescopes are not good enuff
    and 2) to get a view of outer space unhindered by the space dust of the solar system ....
    Some links
    here and here

  4. The reason to visit pluto.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative · on Funding Approved for Pluto/Kuiper Probe

    Apparently the idea of the mission is not just ot go where no man has gone before , but

    1) Find out about the planet since telescopic pictures are not good enuff..

    2)Look out from the near-zero atmosphere of pluto out into space, unhindered but particles of the solar system

    Some links here and here about these..... (Rudimentary googling, I am no expert)

  5. My college is the opposite... by puck71 · · Score: 1 · on UCSB Bans Windows NT/2000 in the Dorms

    Well, I'm in college, and my college almost exclusively uses Windows 2000. It's on all the lab computers (except for a couple Mac labs).

    In fact, they actually RECOMMEND Windows 2000 in the dorms, and DISCOURAGE XP Home (scroll down about halfway), mostly because of the inability of XP Home to join Windows domains, which basically renders those machines unable to get on the campus network.

    This worked great for me because I love 2000 Pro and am not a big fan of XP. I don't know what I would do if they banned 2000 like that. I wonder if there's any way to fake them out? I'm not sure how they check your Windows version like that...do you broadcast it when you try to connect? If so can you spoof as XP or something? One thing for sure, I wouldn't be running out to buy XP.

  6. Re:Is Napster too invasive? by puck71 · · Score: 1 · on Is Napster Too Invasive?

    There wasn't, but I made one just now. I have 2.0, 2.0b3, 2.0b5, 2.0b6, and 2.06b7 install files posted at http://www.cord.edu/homepages/jc and ers/napster/

  7. Re:Neonatzi's in the US by seoman70 · · Score: 3 · on Geek Profiling: The Next W.A.V.E.

    Disclaimer: I was/am a member of the Boy Scouts, with the rank of eagle.

    What's interesting that information like this gets moderated up to "Interesting," and without any facts to back it up. First off, The BSA was founded in 1910 (before WW1 or 2!) by Robert Baden-Powell and William D. Boyce. It was based on the British Military system (yes, even the uniforms), and has been adapted into what you see today

    Information on Boy Scouts:
    http://www.scouting.org/factsheets/0 2-503.html
    http://members.aol.com/randywoo/bsah is/b-p.htm
    http://users.aol.com/randywoo/bsahis /index.htm

    Information on Hitler Youth:
    http://www.cord.edu/homepages/amm orris/paper.html
    http://youth.net/memories/hypermail/0 554.html
    Google Search: hitler youth