"The kite is really a steerable sail that moves back and forth across the current, thereby increasing the velocity through the attached turbine."...and by increasing the velocity, you increase the volume. More volume, more pressure = more torque to turn a larger turbine.
Increasing the velocity is the key and these guys have taken a time-worn method of making things move faster then the current they are subject to, in particular, the turbine blades in relation to the current. The kite is the key.
A friend and I used to "fight" kites as a hobby. We used dual-line controllable kites. The goal was to bring your opponent to the ground (actually touch their kite to the ground) without touching the ground yourself. The only reason this was possible lay in the fact that cutting ACROSS the wind allows a TETHERED airfoil to be "squeezed" sideways, usually at speeds greater then the ambient flow. Think of squeezing a watermelon seed between your fingers and "shooting" it across the room. Same sort of thing. This is what allowed me to suddenly increase speed, dive at my friend's kite, pull off at the last moment and lasso his kite string with the tail of my kite. It was then a battle to drag him to the ground, with him fighting for altitude the whole time, and my kite pulling up again at the last moment so only his kite touched.
It is the Bernoulli effect just used in a different way then most people are used to seeing it (pushing airplanes into the sky).
The fact the kite is tethered makes all the difference. Cut the line on a kite, and even if you could still control it, you would be unable to achieve speeds much higher then ambient wind speed (short of using gravity to simply fall, although the two, wind and gravity, can be combined for some modest increase in speed).
Basically, an installation of these things would entail kites "tacking" (much like sailboats sailing into a wind) back and forth across the current. They would have to be placed far enough apart to avoid hitting each other (the oscillations back and forth could become independent and unsyncronized?) or very carefully steered in concert.
It got me thinking about people dropping serious cash on a device like the iPad...then resorting to THIS kind of shit just to get it to do what they want it to.
Either Apple, or this guy trimming down SIM cards, need to rethink things.
That was a perfectly reasonable example of a previous cross-franchise game.
I suspect my post just below yours will be modded the same way. Pissing off the "Fan Art" crowd is like pissing off Republicans. Expect a similar response.
"Is this one of the early firsts in the new genre of video game mashups?"
I sure the fuck hope not. I am bored to death with the NEW stuff coming out(most of it is just rehashed old stuff), so much so that I have pretty much stopped gaming altogether.
Give me something new and fresh, NOT the same shit served up on a different platter.
Are developers really that starved for new ideas, or is this just another form of "Fan Art" of the 500k+ Sonic comics ilk?
"As a BitTorrent user, I was shocked that anyone with a box connected to the Internet can spy on what everyone is downloading on BitTorrent."
Shocked? Why? I use BitTorrent myself and it is pretty obvious that anyone can do exactly what you state. The peers and associated seeders are clearly listed in the "peers" tab by IP address. BitTorrent even logs them for you. By necessity, that data (IP addresses) must be available to the clients and is thus available to anyone with the client.
It is rather naive to think that someone wouldn't put this data to use on a large scale. Creating an app to track new torrents, and the users of that data, doesn't seem too difficult to me(although I don't know how and could be wrong about the ease of doing so).
There is BIG money in data-mining. It should be of no surprise that data-mining would be applied to such an open network.
As with any online activity, use equates to a certain amount of exposure. Accept it, or don't use the resource.
My first thought was that this was some still-wet-behind-the-ears tobacco corporation marketing dweeb's brainstorm, but then I realized that it is just a thinly disguised pothead game that the devs managed to get past Apple's app-approval dweebs by simply not mentioning anything illegal.
Calling it "Toke, Toke, Pass" probably would have sold more, but also make it HIGHLY likely the app would not be approved.
My guess is that most of the players are smoking pot, NOT tobacco. Smoking tobacco in such a fashion usually results in a puking session.
"Who else would actually complain about the lack of stinging pests?"
Someone that knows that they are an integral part of the ecosystem and realizes that the loss of even a small portion of diversity effects the whole system.
Oh, and I don't live anywhere near Seattle. And mosquitos don't sting. And diversity applies to much more then the racial issues. Look it up. And what the fuck does "post-modern nonsense" mean?
You should stick to the little words. You'll be on safer ground that way.
"No one is more interested in the well-managed forest than the paper industry."
I live in the Pacfic Northwest and I am surrounded by "managed" clearcuts.
The forestry industry has this odd idea that "managed" means planting one species, equally spaced for easy harvesting, and often not even a species native to the region. "Grow it fast, grow it thick" is the rule, not the exception.
The "managed" forests out here feel "dead". There is very little diversity in flora on the floor of the forest and I can only assume that is why it feels "dead". The animal life that depended on that diversity is absent. I remember walking through a "managed" re-forested area one time and it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't being pestered by mosquitos or gnats. Odd. It wasn't until later that I realized that the stuff they feed on was missing from the forest--no food, no bugs. The diversity had been 'managed" right out of the forest.
"Managed" is a relative term, and open to damn near any interpretation you wish.
I seriously doubt that a paper manufacturer and an environmentalist would agree on those interpretations, especially when a dipshit like John Williams is involved.
Lethal, less lethal, whatever. It is a dangerous tool either way, and should be classified as such.
If a police officer is in a situation that requires severe force, the rules that he must operate under when firing his sidearm should also apply to the Tazer since the results can be the same.
LotRO was a real letdown once you got to level 40. It turned into a HUGE grind. I didn't think it possible to be more of a grind then WoW, but LotRO proved it was.
The one thing I DID like about LotRO was the fact that they followed the "feel" of the books pretty well. I was told by a friend that it was because the IP holders of the LotR franchise demanded that they have a say in the creative process to ensure that Turbine didn't mangle the franchise.
It would not surprise me in the slightest if those IP rights holders yank the carpet right out from under Turbine after this fiasco.
Whatever the reason, the fact remains that Toyota employs a lot of Americans and whatever hurts Toyota hurts those employees.
I am not trying to defend Toyota here, but rather their decision to ask for help. I think it is rather honorable to do so, especially in light of the Japanese culture that puts a heavy burden on those that make honest mistakes.
It takes a certain amount of humility to ask for help, and furthermore, I think it is was an excellent choice to ask US for help rather then keep everything in-house. If nothing else, it displays an openness that most corporations are sorely lacking.
And all the employees of the US-located Toyota factories might get to keep their jobs.
It annoys the shit out of me when people fail to take into account that many foreign companies actually produce their products HERE in the US.
Why? Two reasons, really. It is cheaper to sell cars that don't need to be shipped half way around the world (a cost that is usually passed onto the consumer), and because we Americans whined and sniveled about foreign entities putting our citizens out of work. In short, they did what we wanted them to do.
Now it is time to help them out and POSSIBLY SAVE LIVES. I cannot think of a more noble reason to get NASA involved, or ANY agency for that matter.
I think that the "sunspot" inference is more smokescreen.
Based on various inputs (throttle position, manifold absolute pressure, vehicle speed sensor, etc), an automotive computer assigns various "cells" of response. That is to say that the computer responds with PROGRAMMED responses. These "cells" are created by engineers to be used by the PCM to respond to specific INPUTS, i.e. throttle position=0%, vehicle speed sensor=accelerating--the PCM assumes the vehicle is going down a hill and thus responds with dialed back fuel injector pulse width as per instructed by the pre-programmed cells stored in memory.
All that being said, if the cells are programmed wrong to BEGIN with, the results will be wrong as well.
Garbage in, Garbage out...or more accurately in this case, non-garbage in, Garbage out.
I suspect there are cells that are inappropriate for the conditions, or simply wrong. That would put the fault squarely on the shoulders of the programmers and the testers...and whoever authorized their use.
So, this is an admission that sticking pedals and faulty floormats had nothing to do with the problem, and that the recalls to fix pedal and floormat "problems" were simply a smokescreen to hide the actual cause of the problem (albeit, unknown cause)?
"In other news, scientists discover that repeatedly standing in close proximity to magnetic imaging equipment while it is in use degrades the scientist's ability to determine the moral implications of their testing. More at 11."
I've always operated under the belief that the US government uses the internet as a means (probably the most effective means since we rely so much less operatives then we have in the past) to disseminate their own "form" of democracy. The US has invested heavily in this outlet of propaganda (news, if you prefer to call it that).
Australia jeopardizes all of this by possibly starting a trend that spreads to other countries, in effect, legitimizing filtering.
I think someone in the US government finally realized that would be a HUGE step backwards in terms of what the US government wants.
To be honest, I find it highly amusing that all of this, the use of the net as a means of disseminating propaganda, might actually be the one thing that ensures net neutrality.
From a security perspective, social networking appears (to me at least) to have more damage potential then having your identity stolen. You'd still have a job after someone cleaned out your bank accounts, but the stuff that people put on social networking sites will haunt them FOREVER.
FOREVER.
Finally got that 15 minutes of Fame? If so, expect every single thing attributable to you on the web to be instantly scrutinized by everyone with whatever motives, good or bad. The paparazzi-types will have a field day with what they find.
Slashdot Mirror
"The kite is really a steerable sail that moves back and forth across the current, thereby increasing the velocity through the attached turbine." ...and by increasing the velocity, you increase the volume. More volume, more pressure = more torque to turn a larger turbine.
Increasing the velocity is the key and these guys have taken a time-worn method of making things move faster then the current they are subject to, in particular, the turbine blades in relation to the current. The kite is the key.
A friend and I used to "fight" kites as a hobby. We used dual-line controllable kites. The goal was to bring your opponent to the ground (actually touch their kite to the ground) without touching the ground yourself. The only reason this was possible lay in the fact that cutting ACROSS the wind allows a TETHERED airfoil to be "squeezed" sideways, usually at speeds greater then the ambient flow. Think of squeezing a watermelon seed between your fingers and "shooting" it across the room. Same sort of thing. This is what allowed me to suddenly increase speed, dive at my friend's kite, pull off at the last moment and lasso his kite string with the tail of my kite. It was then a battle to drag him to the ground, with him fighting for altitude the whole time, and my kite pulling up again at the last moment so only his kite touched.
It is the Bernoulli effect just used in a different way then most people are used to seeing it (pushing airplanes into the sky).
The fact the kite is tethered makes all the difference. Cut the line on a kite, and even if you could still control it, you would be unable to achieve speeds much higher then ambient wind speed (short of using gravity to simply fall, although the two, wind and gravity, can be combined for some modest increase in speed).
Basically, an installation of these things would entail kites "tacking" (much like sailboats sailing into a wind) back and forth across the current. They would have to be placed far enough apart to avoid hitting each other (the oscillations back and forth could become independent and unsyncronized?) or very carefully steered in concert.
Your comment isn't so far-fetched.
It got me thinking about people dropping serious cash on a device like the iPad...then resorting to THIS kind of shit just to get it to do what they want it to.
Either Apple, or this guy trimming down SIM cards, need to rethink things.
According to a post on TPB (The highest seeded version of a Blu-Ray rip), it runs BEST on VLC.
No idea why you got modded Troll, dude.
That was a perfectly reasonable example of a previous cross-franchise game.
I suspect my post just below yours will be modded the same way. Pissing off the "Fan Art" crowd is like pissing off Republicans. Expect a similar response.
"Is this one of the early firsts in the new genre of video game mashups?"
I sure the fuck hope not. I am bored to death with the NEW stuff coming out(most of it is just rehashed old stuff), so much so that I have pretty much stopped gaming altogether.
Give me something new and fresh, NOT the same shit served up on a different platter.
Are developers really that starved for new ideas, or is this just another form of "Fan Art" of the 500k+ Sonic comics ilk?
"Archery, Rifle, and Shotgun are Boy Scout merit badges.
The Video Gaming awards are for Cub Scouts"
The point I was trying to make was one of mixed messages. I think it still stands.
How about double credit for playing Oblivion all the way to the end only using a bow?
Can I apply that to my Archery badge?
Or maybe Left 4 Dead will apply to my Rifle Shooting badge or maybe even my Shotgun Shooting badge if I stick to those weapons?
Oh, right. No first person shooters...(sigh)
"As a BitTorrent user, I was shocked that anyone with a box connected to the Internet can spy on what everyone is downloading on BitTorrent."
Shocked? Why? I use BitTorrent myself and it is pretty obvious that anyone can do exactly what you state. The peers and associated seeders are clearly listed in the "peers" tab by IP address. BitTorrent even logs them for you. By necessity, that data (IP addresses) must be available to the clients and is thus available to anyone with the client.
It is rather naive to think that someone wouldn't put this data to use on a large scale. Creating an app to track new torrents, and the users of that data, doesn't seem too difficult to me(although I don't know how and could be wrong about the ease of doing so).
There is BIG money in data-mining. It should be of no surprise that data-mining would be applied to such an open network.
As with any online activity, use equates to a certain amount of exposure. Accept it, or don't use the resource.
"Less affluent or resourceful U.S. citizens who are detained must try to maneuver on their own through a complicated system."
I don't see how it is so complicated.
If you're a U.S. citizen, you MIGHT be fucked. If you're not, you ARE fucked.
Pretty simple.
My first thought was that this was some still-wet-behind-the-ears tobacco corporation marketing dweeb's brainstorm, but then I realized that it is just a thinly disguised pothead game that the devs managed to get past Apple's app-approval dweebs by simply not mentioning anything illegal.
Calling it "Toke, Toke, Pass" probably would have sold more, but also make it HIGHLY likely the app would not be approved.
My guess is that most of the players are smoking pot, NOT tobacco. Smoking tobacco in such a fashion usually results in a puking session.
"Who else would actually complain about the lack of stinging pests?"
Someone that knows that they are an integral part of the ecosystem and realizes that the loss of even a small portion of diversity effects the whole system.
Oh, and I don't live anywhere near Seattle. And mosquitos don't sting. And diversity applies to much more then the racial issues. Look it up. And what the fuck does "post-modern nonsense" mean?
You should stick to the little words. You'll be on safer ground that way.
From the article, a statement from Domtar CEO...
"No one is more interested in the well-managed forest than the paper industry."
I live in the Pacfic Northwest and I am surrounded by "managed" clearcuts.
The forestry industry has this odd idea that "managed" means planting one species, equally spaced for easy harvesting, and often not even a species native to the region. "Grow it fast, grow it thick" is the rule, not the exception.
The "managed" forests out here feel "dead". There is very little diversity in flora on the floor of the forest and I can only assume that is why it feels "dead". The animal life that depended on that diversity is absent. I remember walking through a "managed" re-forested area one time and it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't being pestered by mosquitos or gnats. Odd. It wasn't until later that I realized that the stuff they feed on was missing from the forest--no food, no bugs. The diversity had been 'managed" right out of the forest.
"Managed" is a relative term, and open to damn near any interpretation you wish.
I seriously doubt that a paper manufacturer and an environmentalist would agree on those interpretations, especially when a dipshit like John Williams is involved.
Sue his descendants for the late fees and pay off the national debt?
Lethal, less lethal, whatever. It is a dangerous tool either way, and should be classified as such.
If a police officer is in a situation that requires severe force, the rules that he must operate under when firing his sidearm should also apply to the Tazer since the results can be the same.
Ditto.
I had both LotRO and DDO installed.
LotRO was a real letdown once you got to level 40. It turned into a HUGE grind. I didn't think it possible to be more of a grind then WoW, but LotRO proved it was.
The one thing I DID like about LotRO was the fact that they followed the "feel" of the books pretty well. I was told by a friend that it was because the IP holders of the LotR franchise demanded that they have a say in the creative process to ensure that Turbine didn't mangle the franchise.
It would not surprise me in the slightest if those IP rights holders yank the carpet right out from under Turbine after this fiasco.
Chewy looks fucking guilty as hell. He also looks like he doesn't give a shit.
"...the SWFs turn off until I click them..."
Better luck then me. All the Single White Females I come across turn off the moment we share the same room.
Whatever the reason, the fact remains that Toyota employs a lot of Americans and whatever hurts Toyota hurts those employees.
I am not trying to defend Toyota here, but rather their decision to ask for help. I think it is rather honorable to do so, especially in light of the Japanese culture that puts a heavy burden on those that make honest mistakes.
It takes a certain amount of humility to ask for help, and furthermore, I think it is was an excellent choice to ask US for help rather then keep everything in-house. If nothing else, it displays an openness that most corporations are sorely lacking.
And all the employees of the US-located Toyota factories might get to keep their jobs.
It annoys the shit out of me when people fail to take into account that many foreign companies actually produce their products HERE in the US.
Why? Two reasons, really. It is cheaper to sell cars that don't need to be shipped half way around the world (a cost that is usually passed onto the consumer), and because we Americans whined and sniveled about foreign entities putting our citizens out of work. In short, they did what we wanted them to do.
Now it is time to help them out and POSSIBLY SAVE LIVES. I cannot think of a more noble reason to get NASA involved, or ANY agency for that matter.
I think that the "sunspot" inference is more smokescreen.
Based on various inputs (throttle position, manifold absolute pressure, vehicle speed sensor, etc), an automotive computer assigns various "cells" of response. That is to say that the computer responds with PROGRAMMED responses. These "cells" are created by engineers to be used by the PCM to respond to specific INPUTS, i.e. throttle position=0%, vehicle speed sensor=accelerating--the PCM assumes the vehicle is going down a hill and thus responds with dialed back fuel injector pulse width as per instructed by the pre-programmed cells stored in memory.
All that being said, if the cells are programmed wrong to BEGIN with, the results will be wrong as well.
Garbage in, Garbage out...or more accurately in this case, non-garbage in, Garbage out.
I suspect there are cells that are inappropriate for the conditions, or simply wrong. That would put the fault squarely on the shoulders of the programmers and the testers...and whoever authorized their use.
So, this is an admission that sticking pedals and faulty floormats had nothing to do with the problem, and that the recalls to fix pedal and floormat "problems" were simply a smokescreen to hide the actual cause of the problem (albeit, unknown cause)?
"In other news, scientists discover that repeatedly standing in close proximity to magnetic imaging equipment while it is in use degrades the scientist's ability to determine the moral implications of their testing. More at 11."
I've always operated under the belief that the US government uses the internet as a means (probably the most effective means since we rely so much less operatives then we have in the past) to disseminate their own "form" of democracy. The US has invested heavily in this outlet of propaganda (news, if you prefer to call it that).
Australia jeopardizes all of this by possibly starting a trend that spreads to other countries, in effect, legitimizing filtering.
I think someone in the US government finally realized that would be a HUGE step backwards in terms of what the US government wants.
To be honest, I find it highly amusing that all of this, the use of the net as a means of disseminating propaganda, might actually be the one thing that ensures net neutrality.
Sometimes you have to take risks to do what is right.
I entirely agree with you.
From a security perspective, social networking appears (to me at least) to have more damage potential then having your identity stolen. You'd still have a job after someone cleaned out your bank accounts, but the stuff that people put on social networking sites will haunt them FOREVER.
FOREVER.
Finally got that 15 minutes of Fame? If so, expect every single thing attributable to you on the web to be instantly scrutinized by everyone with whatever motives, good or bad. The paparazzi-types will have a field day with what they find.