Slashdot Mirror

Electronic Ink is a technology under development by Bell Labs and Xerox. In the future, it will allow bigger and cheaper displays than LCD. And with less defects, too.

It works by having microscopic particles floating in a kind of "ink". These particles are blue on one side and white on the other(but I guess they could be any color you wanted). This "ink" is placed in cells on the display (like pixels). The cells will then change color when a voltage is applied, sort of like a pixel on an LCD screen. (The voltage will make the microscopic floating particles turn white-side-up or blue-side-up, so you can have either a white cell or a blue one)

For a better explanation (I know, Im not a great writer), read this: http://www.howstuffworks.com/e-ink.htm

And, for all those that think these desktop fabs will be able to produce CPU's, motherboards, and other fabs by themselves, you might want to take a look at that article. It's going to be very difficult, if not impossible to print out everything on a motherboard, for instance. Not to mention the ridiculousness of thinking you could print out a fab that has moving parts!

Actually, this has already been proposed from NASA. The following is from here:

Further out, NASA is developing a plan to launch the air-breathing rocket vehicle by using magnetic levitation (maglev) tracks. Using maglev tracks, the vehicle will accelerate to speeds of up to 600 mph before lifting into the air.

Following liftoff and after the vehicle reaches twice the speed of sound, the air-augmented rockets would shut off. Propulsion would then be provided by the air-breathing rocket vehicle, which will inhale oxygen for about half of the flight to burn fuel. The advantage of this is it won't have to store as much oxygen on board the spacecraft as past spacecraft have, thus reducing launch costs. Once the vehicle reaches 10 times the speed of sound, it will switch back to a conventional rocket-powered system for a final push into orbit.

Because it will cut the weight of the oxidizer, the vehicle will be easier to maneuver than current spacecraft. This means that traveling on an air-breathing rocket-powered vehicle will be safer. Eventually, the public could be travelling on these vehicles into space as space tourists.

---

Perhaps the best article (4 pages easy reading) for the average slashdot reader is the one that How Stuff Works put up here.

Some information: It takes $10,000 per pound to put something in orbit. NASA's intent is to reduce it to below $1000/pound in 25 years. They way to do this is to get rid of the ~1,000,000 pounds of liquid oxidizer that wouldn't be needed for air-breathing rockets (which will use air instead, duh).

An air breathing rocket is very similar to a jet engine, except that a jet engine overheats at about Mach 3-4.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, Air-breathing rockets DO NOT have the thrust to achieve lift off. The intent in the future is to use conventional rockets up to Mach 3-4. Then switch to air-breathing until Mach 10, then return to conventional rockets for the spaceward journey.

---

Perhaps the best article (4 pages easy reading) for the average slashdot reader is the one that How Stuff Works put up here.

Some information: It takes $10,000 per pound to put something in orbit. NASA's intent is to reduce it to below $1000/pound in 25 years. They way to do this is to get rid of the ~1,000,000 pounds of liquid oxidizer that wouldn't be needed for air-breathing rockets (which will use air instead, duh).

An air breathing rocket is very similar to a jet engine, except that a jet engine overheats at about Mach 3-4.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, Air-breathing rockets DO NOT have the thrust to achieve lift off. The intent in the future is to use conventional rockets up to Mach 3-4. Then switch to air-breathing until Mach 10, then return to conventional rockets for the spaceward journey.

---

--

Three bits means three "binary places". Each "place" is worth a power of two equal to it's offset from the rightmost place, just as each "place" in decimal is worth a power of ten equal to it's offset. So given three bits we can express the values 0 through 7 (000 through 111). With only one bit we can express 0 through 1 (0 or 1). It follows that eight grey values can represent three bits where two grey values could reresent one bit. Given that three is roughly three times the original capacity of one, my considered opinion is that, although your daughter's arithmatic is correct, your interpretation of it is not.

I'd suggest that you avoid embarassing gaffes like this by learning some basics. Perhaps visiting "How bytes and bits work" or asking your daughter to explain basic base-n math to you might be of some help.

Good luck!

--
If your map and the terrain differ,
trust the terrain.

An interesting article, but a little light on the details. There is a really good piece on how space elevators work here.

Duh. Of course it isn't democratic. We live in a REPUBLIC.

democracy 1. government by the people, usu. through elected representatives; 2. country so governed; 3. practical or social equality as opposed to aristocracy

republic 1. state in which the supreme power is held by the citizen qualified to vote, through their elected representatives and executive officers; 2. any nation of which the head of government is a president rather than a hereditary monarch

On the Monday following the second Wednesday in December, the electors of each state meet in their respective state capitals to officially cast their votes for president and vice president. This year that day is Dec. 18. (...) Most of the time, electors cast their votes for the candidate who has received the most votes in that particular state. However, there have been times when electors have voted contrary to the people's decision, which is entirely legal.

So the voter isn't actually voting for a candidate but for some guys who may actually contradict the popular desire of the citizens of their state !

http://www.howstuffworks.com/ ele ctoral-college.htm

--

This article here does a great job explaining how EAS (Electronic Article Surveillence) works. This article pretty much seems to cover an advanced, optimistic use for the item besides busting shoplifters.

- Slash

But this is far from new stuff.

How Stuff Works had an article on anti-shoplifting measures that include paper tags like these.

If memory serves, I first saw this article from a url posted here at slashdot several months back. Interesting how this place recycles stories.

Tim

But this is far from new stuff.

How Stuff Works had an article on anti-shoplifting measures that include paper tags like these.

If memory serves, I first saw this article from a url posted here at slashdot several months back. Interesting how this place recycles stories.

Tim

What Do the Numbers on My Credit Card Mean?
Although phone, gas and department stores have their own numbering systems, ANSI Standard X4.13-1983 is the system used by most national credit card systems. Here are what some of the numbers mean:

• The first digit in your credit card number signifies the system -- 3=travel/entertainment cards (such as American Express and Diners' Club), 4=Visa, 5=MasterCard and 6=Discover Card.
• The structure of the card number varies by system. For example, American Express card numbers start with 37; Carte Blanche and Diners Club with 38.
• American Express: Digits 3-4 are type and currency, digits 5-11 are the account number, digits 12-14 are the card number within the account, and digit 15 is a check digit.
• Visa: Digits 2-6 are the bank number, digits 7-12 or 7-15 are the account number, and digit 13 or 16 is a check digit.
• MasterCard: digits 2-3, 2-4, 2-5 or 2-6 are the bank number (depending on whether digit 2 is a 1, 2, 3 or other). The digits after the bank number up through digit 15 are the account number, and digit 16 is a check digit.

2) If you were to take a generally accepted theory, such as GR, and find an experiment that contradicts its predictions, and come up with an alternate theory that explains these AND all the other predictions of GR, you will undoubtedly receive a nobel price! If you just make up some theory that can't be tested or that unnecessarily complicates an existing theory without bringing in anything new, no-one is going to listen to you...

3) Special Relativity is a very well tested theory and unintuitive as its predictions might be they have all turned out to be true! Seeing you mention the maximum possible speed (the speed of light, or just "c"), it is indeed true that this can't be exceeded! If, as you say, you travel in a spacecraft at c-1 mph with respect to, say the sun (because speeds have no meaning if you don't have a reference point. At the moment, i might claim to be at rest, or maybe rotating around the earth at some rather high speed, or around the sun even faster, or around the center of the galaxy yet faster, speed has no meaning without a reference point!)

Anyway, back to your spacecraft, going at c-1mph with respect to the sun, you now are perfectly able to walk towards the front of the spacecraft at 5 mph. However, the relative speed between you and the sun, will NOT be c+4mph! Speeds do not add linearly in SR. This is difficult to imagine, but if you think of an observer on the sun, he will see the spacecraft length contracted (thus very short) and your motions time dilated. He will thus see you walking through a shorter distance in more time, so not at 5 mph but indeed at some imperceptibly low speed. So with respect to him, your speed is still approx. c-1 mph.

It IS possible for you to see two spacecraft both at speeds close to c approaching each other, and you would say there relative speed is alomst 2*c, but THEY would measure a relative speed to each other of just under c!!!

If you are really interested why this is so and where the equations come from and thus, i recommend reading an introduction to SR somewhere on the web, such as this. Incidentally SR is one of the cases where a radical new theory was proposed, because the old theories could not explain why the speed of light in vacuum is always measured to be the same (c) regardless of your motion with respect to the source! It met resistance but it made beautiful predictions that were later measured and found to be true, AND it agreed with the previously known laws in the limits of low speeds! So it had more power than previous theories! Then again, it failed when including gravity, which is where GR takes over, though I can't even begin to understand that...

Anyway, don't think anyone really wanted to know this, but i just couldn't let you get away with demolishing special relativity in a sentence or two :). I can understand your reasoning from everyday experience, and it took me a long time to get to grips with SR, but it is a wonderful theory and i'm still surprised it works!!!

How Stuff Works has a great set of articles explaining how bluetooth works in english. Much simpler than reading through the 1500 page specsheets. How Bluetooth Works

What about the old cell phones? What about pagers? What about those new Palm VII (which ever one buildin a phone)? What about those 900 MHz home use cordless phone?

Here are some links to related materials found on the web...
Cellular Phone Antennas and Human Health by Medical Collage of Wisconsin
How a Cell Phone Works by How Stuff Works.
How a Digital Cell Phone Works by How Stuff Works.
Is your cell phone killing you? from ZDNet November 30, 1999.
Cell Phone Antennas & Health FAQs from Institute of Information and Computing Sciences.

What about the old cell phones? What about pagers? What about those new Palm VII (which ever one buildin a phone)? What about those 900 MHz home use cordless phone?

Here are some links to related materials found on the web...
Cellular Phone Antennas and Human Health by Medical Collage of Wisconsin
How a Cell Phone Works by How Stuff Works.
How a Digital Cell Phone Works by How Stuff Works.
Is your cell phone killing you? from ZDNet November 30, 1999.
Cell Phone Antennas & Health FAQs from Institute of Information and Computing Sciences.

What about the old cell phones? What about pagers? What about those new Palm VII (which ever one buildin a phone)? What about those 900 MHz home use cordless phone?

Here are some links to related materials found on the web...
Cellular Phone Antennas and Human Health by Medical Collage of Wisconsin
How a Cell Phone Works by How Stuff Works.
How a Digital Cell Phone Works by How Stuff Works.
Is your cell phone killing you? from ZDNet November 30, 1999.
Cell Phone Antennas & Health FAQs from Institute of Information and Computing Sciences.

What about the old cell phones? What about pagers? What about those new Palm VII (which ever one buildin a phone)? What about those 900 MHz home use cordless phone?

Here are some links to related materials found on the web...
Cellular Phone Antennas and Human Health by Medical Collage of Wisconsin
How a Cell Phone Works by How Stuff Works.
How a Digital Cell Phone Works by How Stuff Works.
Is your cell phone killing you? from ZDNet November 30, 1999.
Cell Phone Antennas & Health FAQs from Institute of Information and Computing Sciences.

one interesting page they have is on verbal self-defense, it's quite interesting. the computer mode that is of particular interest. ;)

one interesting page they have is on verbal self-defense, it's quite interesting. the computer mode that is of particular interest. ;)

could be that unclickable link i posted up above, i had simular thoughts after posting it. we'll try this instead. ahhh, much better.

There's some technical documentation at macrovision.com, although some basic info is at howstuffworks.com.

I think you'll find it's a spiral, like I said originally.

There is a nice description at http://www.howstuffworks.com/cd1.htm, including the following words:

A CD has a single spiral track of data circling from the inside of the disk to the outside. The fact that the spiral track starts at the center means that the CD can be smaller than 12 centimeters if desired, and in fact there are now plastic baseball cards and business cards that you can put in a CD player. CD business cards hold about 2 megabytes of data before the size and shape of the card cuts off the spiral.

Wrong wrong wrong... Your vocal chords might be frozen if you're sucking in liquid helium, but then you've got things other than your vocal chords to worry about.

You sound funny after inhaling helium because helium is lighter than the air mixture your vocal chords normally generate sound in. Because the gas mixture is lighter, the speed of sound is faster. Basically, (lighter gas + vibrations from vocal chords) = higher-pitched sound.

The only danger from inhaling helium is possible asphyxiation, if you forget to breathe some oxygen occasionally.

Don't believe me? Check out what howstuffworks.com has to say about it.

--
A host is a host from coast to coast...

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question2 25.htm

And since the line is added by the broadcaster, there isn't just one company doing it. Each of the 3 broadcasters has their own system, I think.

ESPN (and MNF) use SporTVision for example, not PVI.

Whoa! That's two compressed into one! There's Rudolf Diesel and then there's Nikolaus Otto. Kinda like saying Nikolai Edison, :))

Boojum

Well, actually there are radar-absorbing materials, in addition to the facetted surfaces that merely 'deflect' the radar energy. (mind you, this is from watching the Discovery Channel waaay too much :-) )

It is true from what I recall that the major radar-evading mechanism of the f-117a is the physical structure which causes the radar energy to be reflected by flat surfaces, rather than by rounded surfaces on traditional aircraft that provide the tell-tale signatures that radar systems key on.

But, in addition, radar absorbing materials are used in the construction that reduce the energy returned from critical areas like bomb-bay doors and the canopy.

Don't agree? Check out howstuffworks.com

Come to think of it, I have always hated cell phones for two reasons: 1) people are usually STUPID when they're using cell phones (read: driving or just not paying attention to what is going on around them) and 2) because it has been known for years that they're not good for your head. Unfortunately, I just picked up my first phone last December, and I have used it a total of two hours in the last 6 months (which doesn't really put me at much risk, I suppose). However, sometimes I carry the thing around in my pocket turned on (I almost always leave it on, though VERY few have the number). I wonder if this thing will make me sterile? I know that regardless of use, these devices are constantly "pinging" the radio towers (go to http://www.howstuffworks.com to read about cell phones and what they do).

Oh well. We'll see a new form of brain tumor in another 15-20 years, I guess.