I can't tell real audiophile reviews from the parodies anymore
Apparently, neither can the writers and editors. From the factory tour photo captions:
Each pair of headphones has a unique serial number laser-etched into its headband prior to being assembled. Frankly, we'd rather have our choice of hilarious words -- 'uvula', 'boogle' or 'mollycoddle', for example, but that wasn't an option.
Disagree. I left my pair of $40 Sennheiser PX-100 foldable phones on an airplane, and picked up a $40 set of Phillips on my way home. That was $40 wasted. I was right back on Amazon buying a replacement pair of Sennheisers. And according to a lot of the reviews, the low-end PX-100's rival their higher-end enclosed phones...
(And I'm with the sister replies; I can't wear earbuds, either.)
Easier (aka cheaper) at the instrument/spacecraft level, yes. Especially the testing part. A lot of the non-recurring costs go into verification planning and special test equipment (and especially if special facilities need to be built). This makes the incremental cost of the satellite about 50% (plus or minus maybe 15%) of the first unit cost. A lot of instruments that were planned as only one unit got built multiple times, like TOMS, MODIS, landsat ETM and MSS.
I worked on the instrument team for OCO from 1999-2004, and on similar instruments in the past. Yes, it is much easier to build another, but unfortunately, it's not really that much cheaper from a mission point of view, since the launch vehicle and satellite buss are a large fraction of the cost, and most of that is already incremental cost, not NRE. Usually, NASA considers the risk of launch failure and requires contractors to keep records adequate to build another on an incremental basis.
One other cost factor is the ground segment -- the mission operations center and the data analysis facility. As I understood it five years ago, there were plans to build a rather large data center to crunch all the spectrometry data that OCO would have sent down. That didn't get sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
And while I don't think anyone is "pissed," the mission and instrument teams are probably quite dejected. Especially Dr. Crisp, the principal investigator. That was his baby.
There is a good chance that NASA may still "do it over" however, 1) because of the reduced "incremental" cost, and 2) to support Pres. Obama's environmental policy.
That's a pretty accurate (if twitterpated) version of what it's like to be live at a launch that fails... excitement, Excitement, exCITEment, EXCITEMENT... letdown.
Agreed. My PC and media installations are plagued by a plethora of these heat-generating devices, as I add on printers, ethernet devices, networked disks, extra storage, converters, encoders, decoders, and the like. I had to learn to include plans for a well-ventilated place for these things.
Also, it's an inherently good idea for power savings. Power supply efficiency can go way up when both a) total power goes up and b) the supply can be designed for a constant load (which would be the case for a large data center, for sure).
So futuristic Arcology-like spaceships might have greenhouses to harness solar energy, and astronauts could eat grown food. However, even Vegans need vitamin supplements and the article states that for protein and nutrient purposes, Silkworms make a great compact, efficient, renewable food source.
The silkworm idea, for an arcology, has some promising synergies (I know, I'm using a buzzword, but I'm using it properly here).
For one thing, the silk is a useful industrial product - one of the strongest natural fibers known to man.
Second, the mulberry tree that the larvae feed on is one of the fastest growing trees I've ever cultivated; it can provide cellulose for other industrial purposes as well as food for the larvae.
Finally, the food value of the larvae themselves. They're a popular Korean cuisine, when seasoned and steamed. In an arcology it doesn't have to be your only animal protein source, but it can be a staple. (Especially for those inevitable Korean arcologies.)
The adult moth isn't very attractive, and cannot even fly, but you only need to allow a few individuals to grow to adulthood to perpetuate the colony, so the overhead and energy investment there is quite small.
I did both 4/40 and 9/80, and I tell you, the first extra hour isn't that noticeable, but going from 9 to 10 hours a day sucked. It means either you arrive at 6am so that you can leave at 5. If you can't get there until 9am, have fun working till 8pm...
I'm back to working 5/40 now, and do indeed miss the 9/80 schedule. One of the best things was the regular 4-day holiday weekends. The accounting calendar was usually arranged so that Fridays off fell before Monday holidays like Memorial Day, etc.
At some point, the benefit of any additional FPS is going to be imperceptible. There's no agreement on the exact number, but you generally see it put at somewhere between 60 and 120 FPS. Let's call it Maximum Perceptible FPS (MPFPS) for the sake of this post, and say it's value is not much greater than 2^7.
If you've got a motherboard with three slots, and three cards capable of delivering MPFPS, there's no other point in using them to drive a single display past MPFPS.
Alternativey, I'd put cards dedicated to three different kinds of jobs in those slots: First - a High FPS, High-res, large format 3D accelerated Gaming display. Second - a very large format 2D-accelerated workspace for browsing and coding. And Third - a max resolution progressive scan HD television card.
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I can't tell real audiophile reviews from the parodies anymore
Apparently, neither can the writers and editors. From the factory tour photo captions:
Each pair of headphones has a unique serial number laser-etched into its headband prior to being assembled. Frankly, we'd rather have our choice of hilarious words -- 'uvula', 'boogle' or 'mollycoddle', for example, but that wasn't an option.
(And I'm with the sister replies; I can't wear earbuds, either.)
No, that would be Dogwin's Rule.
Easier (aka cheaper) at the instrument/spacecraft level, yes. Especially the testing part. A lot of the non-recurring costs go into verification planning and special test equipment (and especially if special facilities need to be built). This makes the incremental cost of the satellite about 50% (plus or minus maybe 15%) of the first unit cost. A lot of instruments that were planned as only one unit got built multiple times, like TOMS, MODIS, landsat ETM and MSS.
I worked on the instrument team for OCO from 1999-2004, and on similar instruments in the past. Yes, it is much easier to build another, but unfortunately, it's not really that much cheaper from a mission point of view, since the launch vehicle and satellite buss are a large fraction of the cost, and most of that is already incremental cost, not NRE. Usually, NASA considers the risk of launch failure and requires contractors to keep records adequate to build another on an incremental basis.
One other cost factor is the ground segment -- the mission operations center and the data analysis facility. As I understood it five years ago, there were plans to build a rather large data center to crunch all the spectrometry data that OCO would have sent down. That didn't get sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
And while I don't think anyone is "pissed," the mission and instrument teams are probably quite dejected. Especially Dr. Crisp, the principal investigator. That was his baby.
There is a good chance that NASA may still "do it over" however, 1) because of the reduced "incremental" cost, and 2) to support Pres. Obama's environmental policy.
That's a pretty accurate (if twitterpated) version of what it's like to be live at a launch that fails... excitement, Excitement, exCITEment, EXCITEMENT... letdown.
Yes. (/shame) I did mean to write "too soon." I stand corrected.
Busted. I spent my efforts reviewing the html and forgot to review the plaintext. You are correct.
Only the good ones.
Kinda makes you wonder if government intervention is really necessary.
Where do you think all that wind comes from?
Tyler Durden? Or Ron Jeremy?
Parent needs to be modded up to +6.
coffee can reduce the risk of alzheimer's
coffee can protect nerves
I rtfa but it didn't say how to apply the Coffee Can!
(I save them you know. You never know when a coffee can will come in handy. But I didn't expect this!)
Agreed. My PC and media installations are plagued by a plethora of these heat-generating devices, as I add on printers, ethernet devices, networked disks, extra storage, converters, encoders, decoders, and the like. I had to learn to include plans for a well-ventilated place for these things.
Also, it's an inherently good idea for power savings. Power supply efficiency can go way up when both a) total power goes up and b) the supply can be designed for a constant load (which would be the case for a large data center, for sure).
GE is what became of the Edison General Electric Company, the losing proponent of DC Municipal Power a century ago.
Just tell 'em that those things hangin' off the mulberry trees are "fruit."
"Yummy, meaty, delicious fruit... unngh."
/drool
So futuristic Arcology-like spaceships might have greenhouses to harness solar energy, and astronauts could eat grown food. However, even Vegans need vitamin supplements and the article states that for protein and nutrient purposes, Silkworms make a great compact, efficient, renewable food source.
The silkworm idea, for an arcology, has some promising synergies (I know, I'm using a buzzword, but I'm using it properly here).
For one thing, the silk is a useful industrial product - one of the strongest natural fibers known to man.
Second, the mulberry tree that the larvae feed on is one of the fastest growing trees I've ever cultivated; it can provide cellulose for other industrial purposes as well as food for the larvae.
Finally, the food value of the larvae themselves. They're a popular Korean cuisine, when seasoned and steamed. In an arcology it doesn't have to be your only animal protein source, but it can be a staple. (Especially for those inevitable Korean arcologies.)
The adult moth isn't very attractive, and cannot even fly, but you only need to allow a few individuals to grow to adulthood to perpetuate the colony, so the overhead and energy investment there is quite small.
All in all, it's a rather elegant choice.
I did both 4/40 and 9/80, and I tell you, the first extra hour isn't that noticeable, but going from 9 to 10 hours a day sucked. It means either you arrive at 6am so that you can leave at 5. If you can't get there until 9am, have fun working till 8pm...
I'm back to working 5/40 now, and do indeed miss the 9/80 schedule. One of the best things was the regular 4-day holiday weekends. The accounting calendar was usually arranged so that Fridays off fell before Monday holidays like Memorial Day, etc.
Um... what kind of harm can you cause by hacking Twitter? It's the internet equivalent of writing on a bathroom wall.
(Yes, I'm aware of the recursive metaphor I'm creating here.)
At some point, the benefit of any additional FPS is going to be imperceptible. There's no agreement on the exact number, but you generally see it put at somewhere between 60 and 120 FPS. Let's call it Maximum Perceptible FPS (MPFPS) for the sake of this post, and say it's value is not much greater than 2^7.
If you've got a motherboard with three slots, and three cards capable of delivering MPFPS, there's no other point in using them to drive a single display past MPFPS.
Alternativey, I'd put cards dedicated to three different kinds of jobs in those slots: First - a High FPS, High-res, large format 3D accelerated Gaming display. Second - a very large format 2D-accelerated workspace for browsing and coding. And Third - a max resolution progressive scan HD television card.
Is that a fnord in your sig?
Scintillating!
After a few seconds, your brain "clicks" and you feel like you have an incredibly long nose.
Just imagine the profitability of the pr0n applications of this technology!
Then there's the legendary "Brown Note." I'll leave the practical advantages and disadvantages of a "Brown Siren" to your imagination.