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AN/FSQ-7 forever! by Animats · 2013-12-23 18:18 · Score: 2 · on A Short History of Computers In the Movies

Some of the the AN/FSQ-7 consoles keep showing up in movies because they're available for rental at Woody's Props in LA.

Those aren't even the control panels for the computer. Those are just the modems and serial ports. Here are the much larger AN/FSQ-7 maintenance control panels.

Those are just the control panels. Here's the CPU, with all the racks of tubes. Full-sized 12AX7 tubes (still used in some guitar amps), not even minature tubes.

Re:killed? by icebike · 2012-03-13 05:17 · Score: 1 · on Google 'Wasting' $16 Billion On Projects Headed Nowhere

Its already available in many cars. Those 4 little round circles, about the size of a US Nickle built into the front and rear bumpers of cars use radar for several different things, such as collision avoidance, adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, etc.

Check out This Site for a visual on how this works.

Its widely implemented via many manufacturers in high-end cars, or as available options on mid range cars.

Re:Let me get this out of the way by tftp · 2011-07-01 10:14 · Score: 1 · on Judge OKs Wiretap Lawsuit Over Google Wi-Fi Sniffing

The walls and windows of the house are a protection scheme.

First of all, this is not a DMCA problem. But most importantly the radio waves are attenuated by walls and by the distance in a similar way to the audio signals. Spies can pick up the audio hundreds of meters away - farther than a Google's WiFi card can pick up transmissions from your router.

If walls are good enough as a symbolic privacy shield for your speech, they should be good enough for the radio as well.

Nobody remembers IVHS? by aqmxv · 2011-01-18 04:07 · Score: 1 · on How Europe Will Lower Emissions — Self Driving Cars

I see they've discovered platooning...again. Looks like the difference this time is that the lead vehicle is not autonomous. It's not a new idea - there was lots of research and hoopla over increased traffic density, increased safety, and reduced fuel consumption and emissions back in the late 90s. Simply put, a speeding car is very slow compared to speed-of-light communication between vehicles and cell towers, and the rules of physics are pleasantly consistent - it's an easy system to model, and not especially hard to implement - the trailing vehicle driving computer does not need to be aware of the whole road, just its position in the lane and its relation to other vehicles nearby.

The variant I remember used rare earth magnets buried in the center of the lane to give the cars an idea of where they should be on the roadway, and sensors and inter-vehicle communications were used so that each car knew where the others in its platoon were. There was an assumption that something like a cellular communication network and traffic management computer would tell entire platoons what a safe speed for this block of road was. Because the auto drive system had reaction times in the very low millisecond range, it was quite practical and safe to space cars a meter apart at 130 km/h, which offered big fuel economy benefits. Remove the cellular block command and control system and you have what the Europeans are proposing.

http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/bishopahs.htm
http://www.williamson-labs.com/ivhs.htm
http://pubs.its.ucdavis.edu/publication_detail.php?id=859

This is yet another thing that evaporated after 9/11 so that the US could afford to create the TSA and replace a dictator in Iraq with a power vacuum...

Re:mobile is where it's at by dimeglio · 2009-06-15 10:54 · Score: 1 · on Canada Telecoms Launch Mobile Payment Service

some day I'm going to try to explain to my grandkids about how we carried around computers that needed their own bags, that weighed 'pounds!' and they'll laugh at something so absurd.

You should tell them about the time when you had to go inside the computer to repair it.

What, me read? by Anonymous Coward · 2008-05-16 16:30 · Score: 5, Insightful · on US Senate Asks for National Security Letter Explanation

Re:Things have changed since I tinkered long ago.. by lebjoot · 2007-01-11 05:47 · Score: 0 · on Methods of Learning to Build Electronic Circuitry?

Try here.
The site is a litle bit awkward, frames and all, but it has everything explained: resistor ICs, cpu memory, etc and with animations!
One cant ask for more. good luck.

Re:Cancer cure == indefinite lifespan? by Descalzo · 2006-09-07 17:35 · Score: 1 · on Tumor-suppressing Gene Contributes to Aging

The human body breaks down, it doesn't wear out. That is to say, we don't die, cancer kills us. We don't die, our heart kills us. It reminds me of the deacon's one-hoss shay. We get rid of all the things that kill us, and then what will happen?

Re:Making a 2 stage process into a 1 stage process by Ig0r · 2006-03-01 02:09 · Score: 1 · on New Hardware Design Software

It's the One-Hoss Shay!

But can it make toast? by nounderscores · 2003-06-07 01:52 · Score: 1 · on Build Your Own Computer

I think that I'd want the lan party to come to the Big Box.

(Cold cathodes?! HAH!)

I mean a Big Box vacuum tube computer could be a great educational tool! all the parts are human servicable size and it brings Das Blinken Lights back to the world of computing.

And there's also the danger-cool factor that if the Cooling System Fails There's 60 seconds before self destruct.

Run the cooling system and computer off diesel generators which are also emp proof and be the envy of your neighbours.

Also, I don't think ANYBODY has implemented an Ethernet card in valves before.

Cmon! You could even prevent people frying themselves by posting "You must have somebody with EE degree majoring in high voltage on your team before attempting these plans" in big friendly letters all over the plans.

It'll be fun.

Re:I see some problems with this by Minna+Kirai · 2003-06-01 20:02 · Score: 3, Interesting · on The Soldier is the Network

They don't have a bandwidth problem

The limiting factor to the number of Predators that can be airborne at once is not available drones, but bandwidth contention.

Gee, do you think they should encrypt the network? Gee can it be monitored? The fact you even thought of this should tell you the military has thought of it as well.

Yes, it sounds obvious and logical. But yet, the military only noticed this after UK satellite-dish hobbyists started recording unencrypted Predator feeds from the Middle East.

If they EMP you, it won't be a big area.

EMPs have been known to have a diamter greater than 2000 miles. Refer to Test Shot Starfish for background. Creating an EMP that is controlled (directional) and yet still powerful is actually more technologically challenging than firing a large one.

Umm, a small tactical nuke will kill them. Lack of communication at that point is moot. See above comment.

A nuke explosion at a high altitude is the easiest way to create a widespread EMP blast. Electronics will be damaged at a distance 100s of times greater than the human-lethal blast range.

There are obvious reasons why a nation with atomic weapons might be more willing to employ them for EMP against equipment, rather than targeting troops on the ground.

Russia still maintains a capability to fire a large nuke into the upper atmosphere, which would blackout London and Berlin in a single shot. The US State Department claims that North Korea has a system with similar power.

Re:Resolution and Retensivity by morcheeba · 2002-03-30 05:45 · Score: 1 · on Holographic Television and Optical Transistors

Not a troll, but why would you want to do 3d interlacing? AIUI (as I understand it), normal 2d interlacing was done to work around the limitations of phospher, TV scan rates, and bandwidth. The phospher needed to be scanned at 60 Hz (either there was no long-persistance phosper available so it would flicker, or long-persistance phospher was available and had a ghosting problem), but horizontal scan rates were limited to too few lines at 60 Hz.

With a new technology, and especially with all the cool stuff we can put into receivers today (full-frame buffers, image enhancement, MPEG decompression), it wouldn't make sense to be bound to a 1941 standard. (see also)

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