Slashback: Iridium, Synthesis, Drives

Slashback tonight with word on the (groan) fate of Iridium, more Speak n' Spell modding, examples of Serial ATA oozing to market, the RIAA versus mandatory DRM, and more. Read on for the updates.

In this household, we obey the laws of physics! Tuesday before last, we mentioned that two scientists had announced what they claim is the first accurate measure of the speed of gravity.

Now, Emperor_Alikar writes "In an article on Space.com, many physicists have criticized the current work on the speed of gravity, calling it 'nonsense' and 'simply incorrect.' Many of them still doubt the claims made by Fomalont and Kopeikin even before the results were even announced. Many of the physicists still hold on to the idea that gravity works instantaneously no matter what the distance, an idea that originated by Newton, but that was argued against by Einstein."

Back from the back from the back from the dead. Checkers writes "Spacedaily.com posted the following two stories about Iridium today. The first story is about the DoD committing the first of three renewal options that will use Iridium through 2005. The second story related story is about an agreement inked between Iridium and Harris Corp. that allows Iridium the right to use Harris' OS/COMET satellite command and control system for the life of the Iridium satellite network."

E.T. was also into this scene. In re: matt simpson writes "Another fantastic Speak & Spell modder is Dave Wright of the band "not breathing". You can check his work out, among other modifications to toys, at www.carrionsound.com Dave has made speak & spell/math/read for Nine Inch Nails, Meat Beat Manifesto, and many other bands. Figured you might be interested in other neat synth hackers :)"

Further evidence, never a good time to buy. SpinnerBait writes "It's seems like Serial ATA Controllers have been on the market forever but where have all the Serial ATA Hard Drives been? The wait seems to finally be over, as HotHardware shows with this review and showcase on a pair of new Seagate Barracuda V Serial ATA drives. This article covers benchmarks with the product in single drive configurations, as well as RAID 0. In addition, they show performance on two different SATA controllers, from Promise and Silicon Image. And oh, those nice thin neat little SATA cables! Gotta love 'em."

We've had a few articles about Serial ATA; I hope it lives up to its reputation.

Just to add to the confusion ... probejockey writes "A current article in the Globe and Mail claims SCO will start collecting licensing fees from some Linux users, not all Linux vendors as previously reported here."

Birds of a feather, separate rooms. Finally, Declan McCullagh sent in a few interesting links yesterday regarding the RIAA and its announced opposition to mandated DRM technologies:

"First, here are the photos from today's press conference.

Second, the supposed news of today's announcement was that the RIAA would no longer pursue mandatory-DRM technologies like the Hollings bill. But it was the MPAA that was behind Hollings from the beginning (September 2001). And when Hollings finally introduced his bill in March 2002, it was the MPAA that endorsed it, while the RIAA pointedly did not."

Thanks to Declan for the links.

Wasn't smart enough to get in, either ... Finally, thanks to the several readers who alerted me by email and in comments that the school variously rendered Cal Tech, CalTech and other things even worse is in fact properly spelled "Caltech."

Comments

Infinite speed gravity?

[Doctor Fishboy]

All general relativists (and for that matter, all physicists) I know think that gravity propagates at the speed of light. In the linked articles, the criticism is that they've measured the speed of light by virtue of the radio photons, not the speed of gravity, which they're claiming.

There's nothing about 'infinitely' fast gravity in the article that I can see, and of the two physicists claiming to disagree with the results, the one who says it is 'nonsense' then refuses to comment any further.

Dr Fish

Can we turn gravity off?

[bleckywelcky]

I think the real problem with determining the speed of gravity if indeed it does have a speed is the fact that we can not turn gravity on and off. Some of the first very very very rough measurements of the speed of light were made by a light source standing away from an oberserver and being turned off and on in a way that an algorithm they designed would use the information to tell them the approximate time it took for the light to get to the observer from the source. The problem with gravity is that we can not turn it off and on. Perhaps even like we can with a magnetic field. Just get a wire, run some current through it and use a switch to open/close the circuit. We could then measure the speed of a magnetic field (if it has one). The inability to turn gravity off and on is the key inhibitor to any substantial calculations on its part. And, I'm sure that when we can turn gravity off and on we really won't care that much anymore about trying to determine how fast it travels :) (although we probably will have already).

SCO is toast

[legLess]

My brother used to run a motorcycle courier service in LA, and the only bill higher than his liability insurance (think about it - what type of guy wants to be a motorcycle courier? how safe is he going to be?) was his SCO license. These folks have been squeezing blood out of the turnip for years, and now that people have abadonded their turnip (to further torture the analogy) SCO is looking for other vegetables.

They're toast, though, no matter what half-assed "intellectual property" scheme they come up with. I mean, really - who're you going to stay friends with? A girlfriend who gave you your toothbrush back and said, "Bye, and thanks for all the fish," or one who boiled your fucking cat alive? SCO is kicking its customers in the nuts while they walk out the door; they might squeeze a little cash out of them on the way, but they're only hastening the exit.

Chris Sontag, hired in October as senior vice-president of SCO's Operating Systems division, leads the intellectual property organization, sources said. Earlier in his career, Mr. Sontag led marketing and product development for Novell...

Did I mention that SCO is toast? That quote alone should get them on FC

Our Unix IP is a significant asset. And for several months, we have been holding internal discussions, exploring a wide range of possible strategies concerning this asset," the company said in a statement Monday. SCO hasn't decided how exactly to collect more Unix revenue, the company added.

Translation: "We're desperate and rudderless, checking under sofa cushions for spare change. Got any?"

Um, why is this worthwhile?

[SuperDuG]

"In an article on Space.com, many physicists have criticized the current work on the speed of gravity, calling it 'nonsense' and 'simply incorrect.' Many of them still doubt the claims made by Fomalont and Kopeikin even before the results were even announced. Many of the physicists still hold on to the idea that gravity works instantaneously no matter what the distance, an idea that originated by Newton, but that was argued against by Einstein."

There are still scientists that argue EVOLUTION. This is nothing new, scientists looking to ride the coat-tails of rising stars in the field by doubting them. Obviously with the results not out before the entire idea was refuted, but this doesn't surprise me. PhD's who are "experts" in their field tend to be arrogant asses when it comes to something they didn't "discover".

Don't believe me, walk on to your local university and sit in on a graduate level class. Some people love to get paid to hear themselves speak.

Re:Okay, answer me this:

[Grog6]

How about doing the experiment outside the space station, with two smaller masses orbiting each other.
Have to get far enough away that the gravity generated by the space station wouldn't affect your setup, and other details, But; Somewhere, in orbit, we should be able to do this experiment.

Two masses, one lead and dense, one made of a less dense material easy to disperse rapidly.

After the two masses are orbiting each other, we detonate one, (make one out of TNT) , while recording positions of the other, (in 3d) and see what happens.

the amount of debris hitting the orbiting body can be determined and taken into account;

The resultant path should show whether it's instantaneous or not. (does it's path change before the debris reaches it?)

What else am I missing?

Re:Speed of gravity paradox

[Forgotten]

Cute thought experiment, but I don't think it matters. The end result of the vector math is still a point in between the bodies (the centre if they're of identical mass). The orbits will appear the same at all times regardless of whether gravity is constrained within light cones or not, and this is why it's such a pickle of a problem. In fact I suspect it's the sort of problem that will lead to other unexpected understanding simply because one has to be so devious to try and measure it.

If you don't believe in the vector math method (that the bodies orbit a central gravitic point, just as, say, a dust ring or ringworld would) try thinking of it this way: each body is orbiting the [displaced phantom of] the other, but because their orbits are complimentary it still doesn't matter. That is, if only one body was affected then the binary system would go spinning crazily away, but because their respective motions necessarily complement one another, it again doesn't matter - with either method, the phantomicitys you're concerned about will exactly cancel each other out.

Same applies if the bodies differ in mass, of course, though the math is a bit harder. ;)

Iridium story a non-story.

[blair1q]

The military loves Iridium and will not let it die until we start hearing about the system they are producing to exceed its capabilities.

The blurb about OS/Comet doesn't really say anything, because Iridium doesn't have the capital to replace something that is a huge part of their infrastructural investment (it'd be like replacing the linux kernel and tcp/ip on your computer without changing any other files and doing it while the machine is running and, oh yeah, you have to write it yourself and nobody else has ever done anything remotely resembling it, including all the ancient, legacied bugs).

The big story would have been if Iridium had told Harris to take a hike, because then we'd get to wonder where Iridium got the "fuck you" money.

Ok, this is what i think

[FS1]

I have seen alot of people here who say that gravity can't travel faster than the speed of light and usually back their response up with relativity. But mind you, relativity is still theory not law. Say for example gravity could travel faster than light, we will say that gravity waves travel at 2x the speed of light. Now say we have a way to measure the effect of gravity waves and not of gravity itself, just going to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to say we can't measure the intensity of gravity waves unless we change their position. Because we would have to use light or energy or something that goes slower than light to measure the speed of the effects, that renders the results of any such attempt to send information or energy this way useless.

Now getting back to what someone asked earlier, what would happen if the sun were to be removed, would the earth spin off or stay in place for 8 minutes. To answer you question i use will use einstien's theory of gravity. He equated space to a 2-d surface, like a trampoline, gravity would warp that surface and create indentions. Ok say i put a bowling ball (sun) on the trampoline, and put a baseball (earth) in orbit of it. Now lets say i pick up the bowling ball quickly (almost instaneously), the baseball does just go off in a straight line, right?. What if i did it slowly?

Now saying that, you all know that you just simply can't move a mass such as the sun faster than the speed of light, heck you can't even make an bowling ball go faster than the speed of light, but the problem is relativity doesn't quite work for very large or very small objects. My theory is that gravity can move faster than the speed of light but the mass that generates it can't so you could never use it to create any paradox that was suggested.