These polybrominated diphenyl ethers are compounds that are thought to cause damage to the environment at higher levels than today but this could change. the long term health effects of these chemicals isn't as well known as we would like but is's probably a good idea to go on the side of caution [thalidamide and t-butyl methyl ether to name a few that went horribly wrong] although right now industry won't like it because they can't make money off of their sale, it is much better to be alive and healthy because of the ban and lose money than the alternative.
US gov PBDE faq
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs68-pbde.ht ml
canadian PBDE faq
http://www.ec.gc.ca/CEPARegistry/documents/subs_li st/PBDE_draft/PBDEfaq.cfm
250,000 people died yesterday and the same will die today from old age, disease, war and famine. the disturbing thing is that it is likely no one here even thought about it. it will get worse too- especially if our consumerist ways continue.
Temperature isn't much of a challenge if you're determined enough
"It might eventually be stripped entirely of its gas envelope, leaving behind a liquid core of lava."
im pretty sure lava will be hot enough. water is everywhere in space- from the icy cold moons of the outer planets to comets and asteroids- they all have huge amounts of water... ice- the water in this planet is a gas, there needs to be liquid water for something to be alive.
what is unique about this? what makes this qualify as non-obvious? patents generally need to be issued to people that come up with ideas the person of average skill in the relevant field could not reasonably be expected to use. in short, why is the idea of using people to solve problems that computers either can't or are very slow/ineeficient at anything new? take google for example, their new image categorization game goes along these lines- using people's brain power to tag images- so the question is: is this patent vague enough to encompass google's game or similar ideas?
assuring consumers they were purchasing Vista Capable machines when, in fact, they could obtain only a stripped-down operating system lacking the functionality and features that Microsoft advertised as Vista
don't they get a stripped down operating system anyway?
From what I have read and heard airline employees saying, the signals can mess up internal electronics on the plane. I always thought that that was bull, and now I am proven right.
mythbusters episode link to prove it. anyway, the risk is pretty low so the major reason for having an in-flight phone is to make money and avoid the small risk of the signal actually doing something.
Mars has no global magnetic field to deflect solar radiation which means that when humans go there they will be exposed to alot of deadly radiation- if we want to stay on mars we need a place that is safe- caves are one such place. they shield agaisnt radiation and make it easier to build habitats. this discovery could allow humans to colonize mars.
maybe not yet but this can easily be fixed by using an open standard. hopefully Microsoft's plan to get a closed source one won't happen. but then isn't a clsoed standard an oxymoron?
I have to wonder how many 'regular joes' and 'mom and pops' will try it out. We all know the stories about people setting up their parents with it, but that comes with an implied, and personal support system. And if their Linux Tech Support is anything like their Windows Support the help available may be less than stellar
good point. I doubt that mom and pop would do very well trying to figure out how to install something and if the family IT expert isnt handy, guess who they are calling? Dell's linux techsupport... only what... 50$/hour or something like that? havent had to deal with theirs but HP yes. the real problem is that you only need linux preinstalled if you do a worse job at it than they do- which limits this to people who really aren't ready for linux yet.
I wonder if these new "security features" put into Vista no matter how good they at first appear to be, will over time be bypassed, comprimised and made obsolete. The main problem is that security only goes as far as the person using the OS lets it. just look at the UAC- it's annoying, and many people disregard it or shut it off entirely. what now is the security benefit? These features only make VIsta "more secure" because they have not yet been exposed to the wild for sufficient time to be comprimised as thoroughly as prior versions. It is much like in biological systems, for example penicillin was not widely utilized in fungal kindoms and it was thus effective as an antibiotic- once we spread its interactions with bacteria, bacteria developed a resistance. Vista is no different- only this time security threats are the bacteria and Vista is the antibiotic.
Why would this craft not just use a long current carrying wire instead
because as you remember, high currents are required in a wire/tether to accelerate a craft if its going to be used for manned missions. when NASA attached a 13 km tether to the space shuttle, the induced current was about 9600 volts. the tether fried and detached from the shuttle. you are correct that for small craft, especially un-manned ones like probes- it is a great idea.
The force on any charge will be normal to the velocity
just for future notice "normal" refers in this case, to the property of magnetic fields applying a force perpendicular to the field lines. no force is ever encountered parallel to the field lines due to the magnetic field. The time it takes the craft to move out of orbit depends on the power supplied to the system, the mass of the system and the gravity well you wish to escape.
what concerns me is:
1) it could be accidentally triggered under certain conditions i.e. someone nudges the door like in a fall bracing against the door etc.
2) if an accident did happen, normal flight would incur excessive delays [acceptable or not?]
3) under what conditions would the system not detect a hijacking, ie can it be triggered from the ground in case of failure?
4) human error- suppose the system is bypassed by the pilot- ie it isnt switched on or the door is kept open etc. what then?
how would these problems be addressed and how would it affect the normal operations in flight?
graphene transistors need to be able to be mass-produced, scalable and just as reliable as alternatives [silicon, quantum computers etc.] most importantly, relatively easy to make- [why diamonds though semiconductive are by no means replacing silicon] it will be interesting to see how this competes in the future though.
hmmm wonder what turbulence would do to the surgery... "ok we are almost done... just hold still... [SLICE] uhhhh.. really hope he didn't need that... eh.. we'll just tell him we thought he'd like a souveneir."
Slashdot Mirror
If they handle broadband internet monopolies like they do Microsoft it won't matter if their methods are flawed.
1. introduce inferior OS called Vista 2. wait for Vista to lure people from Mac/Linux 3. people then switch to XP out of hatred for Vista 4. Profit
These polybrominated diphenyl ethers are compounds that are thought to cause damage to the environment at higher levels than today but this could change. the long term health effects of these chemicals isn't as well known as we would like but is's probably a good idea to go on the side of caution [thalidamide and t-butyl methyl ether to name a few that went horribly wrong] although right now industry won't like it because they can't make money off of their sale, it is much better to be alive and healthy because of the ban and lose money than the alternative. US gov PBDE faq http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs68-pbde.ht ml
canadian PBDE faq
http://www.ec.gc.ca/CEPARegistry/documents/subs_li st/PBDE_draft/PBDEfaq.cfm
250,000 people died yesterday and the same will die today from old age, disease, war and famine. the disturbing thing is that it is likely no one here even thought about it. it will get worse too- especially if our consumerist ways continue.
if this works as they say, it could mean that other countries would follow suit. very good news for open-source & mac
what is unique about this? what makes this qualify as non-obvious? patents generally need to be issued to people that come up with ideas the person of average skill in the relevant field could not reasonably be expected to use. in short, why is the idea of using people to solve problems that computers either can't or are very slow/ineeficient at anything new? take google for example, their new image categorization game goes along these lines- using people's brain power to tag images- so the question is: is this patent vague enough to encompass google's game or similar ideas?
Mars has no global magnetic field to deflect solar radiation which means that when humans go there they will be exposed to alot of deadly radiation- if we want to stay on mars we need a place that is safe- caves are one such place. they shield agaisnt radiation and make it easier to build habitats. this discovery could allow humans to colonize mars.
maybe not yet but this can easily be fixed by using an open standard. hopefully Microsoft's plan to get a closed source one won't happen. but then isn't a clsoed standard an oxymoron?
I wonder if these new "security features" put into Vista no matter how good they at first appear to be, will over time be bypassed, comprimised and made obsolete. The main problem is that security only goes as far as the person using the OS lets it. just look at the UAC- it's annoying, and many people disregard it or shut it off entirely. what now is the security benefit? These features only make VIsta "more secure" because they have not yet been exposed to the wild for sufficient time to be comprimised as thoroughly as prior versions. It is much like in biological systems, for example penicillin was not widely utilized in fungal kindoms and it was thus effective as an antibiotic- once we spread its interactions with bacteria, bacteria developed a resistance. Vista is no different- only this time security threats are the bacteria and Vista is the antibiotic.
let us hope this doesn't spread- Fahrenheit 451 on the web
what concerns me is: 1) it could be accidentally triggered under certain conditions i.e. someone nudges the door like in a fall bracing against the door etc. 2) if an accident did happen, normal flight would incur excessive delays [acceptable or not?] 3) under what conditions would the system not detect a hijacking, ie can it be triggered from the ground in case of failure? 4) human error- suppose the system is bypassed by the pilot- ie it isnt switched on or the door is kept open etc. what then? how would these problems be addressed and how would it affect the normal operations in flight?
I wonder if they thought about doing this with radar instead of light- even sneakier stealth planes
graphene transistors need to be able to be mass-produced, scalable and just as reliable as alternatives [silicon, quantum computers etc.] most importantly, relatively easy to make- [why diamonds though semiconductive are by no means replacing silicon] it will be interesting to see how this competes in the future though.
hmmm wonder what turbulence would do to the surgery... "ok we are almost done... just hold still... [SLICE] uhhhh.. really hope he didn't need that... eh.. we'll just tell him we thought he'd like a souveneir."