"Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure..." In the same spirit, exposing it to ultraviolet light works wonders on destroying most pathogens in vitro. Plain old direct sunlight will do nicely.
"I think the passing of Gates will be seen as a turning point for MS. Media analysts are asking "where now for MS", the world is asking for the opposite of Vista, the DoJ is making sure all the dots are slashed at MS now, Linux is making inroads (slowly) everywhere you look."
Let us not forget that Vista is Mr Gates' child. He has decided that more money lies with proprietary media and pleasing the RIAA and MPAA. He felt that this was the sure way to becoming a "preferred vendor" of their content and thus a virtual monopoly on music, film, book access. Unfortunately (for Microsoft) people don't always follow easily predicted rules of preference. Unfortunately (for users) they will pay for this effort to deny them unfettered access to copyrighted media in many ways a couple of which are slower (more to do) and more bug-ridden (more complex) systems. Only if Microsoft drops this insistence on system-wide DRM rather than application-based (iTunes) will these things go away.
When will it happen? When was the last time Microsoft turned away from a potential source of more money? The answer is the same.
When I started fiddling with things electric I used to get switches, wiring, transformers and such from a family friend who happened to be an electrician. You can teach yourself some simple logic with the batteries, wire, switches and relays. If you want to get into the electronics and such for analog I'd suggest the Radio Amateurs Handbook (or whatever HAM operators are using these days) if you can find it. It takes you from basic circuitry up through powerful radio transmitters and even has some digital stuff too. There used to be thousand-page books full of circuitry and operational amplifier handbooks, phased-lock-loop handbooks, etc. easily found at your nearby campus bookstore or better yet, used book store. At various institutes of technology these are plentiful and intro course texts are available too. I'd recommend that you start out understanding Ohm's Law and bipolar transistor operation. You will find that transistor-based design is pretty simple and from there, the sky's the limit (actually the ends of the knowable universe are but you'll see!;)) enjoy!
Having worked in software/engineering since 1982 I would have to say the most satisfying times for me were when the heads of the company recognized me and spoke to me as an equal. Another ego boost was when the company heads insisted on me coming on sales presentations to prospective clients. Getting to represent the company, first person, has been thrilling and frightening at the same time. And, to me, one of the biggest tributes of all is having your boss, or even the CEO put their reputation on the line by demoing something you personally developed. Most all of the audience doesn't know it was you, but you know it, and the people you care about know it. The bosses didn't have to take the risk but they felt comfortable with your work. I know it sounds kind of Uncle Tommish to those of you who draw distinct boundaries between manager and employee or payor and payee but I'm talking more of a camaraderie thing that can last a lifetime. I would trade money just about anytime for a chance to work with people I respect and are friends because I know that we are working toward bettering our lives and possibly quite a few others. It is hard to maintain this in 10000+ corporations but some organizations still can pull it off. Sometimes it's hard to explain the number of companies that you've worked for because you've taken on higher risk smaller organizations but if the magic works right there is always a friend waiting that just got in on a startup and they need someone that they can depend on. Nine out of ten times these companies fail but they can be the most interesting as far as new technologies. This can work with contract programming too if you are willing to travel to different places and maybe put up with some employee vs contractor mentality for a bit until they get to know you. There's Lots of money in contracting but there will be long hours and you may end up as the first to go during recessions unless you get established as a "cannot do without" contractor. But be sure that you can save the money. And contracting gets harder to do the older you get.;) I can see some of the Apple buzz appeal in that Jobs demos just about everything or has one of the project people do it if there will be technical questions. I don't think that you will find any confusion at Apple as to who has the ideas, etc. The people that need to know, do. I haven't seen any headlines about employees having barely escaped the dungeons there either. Sure, Apple will pay more when they feel they need to pay more to keep the talent they require. To me it's always better to have someone in control of hiring and firing that understands what the company needs and Jobs has come up from ground zero with more than one technical company. I doubt anyone could say that about many gun-for-hire CEOs or HR managers.
When are we going to end these interconnect wars by going optical or optical with power for both peripherals and internal busses? Last I saw http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25514 IBM was working on 8 tera bits per second. I'm sure this is more than what is currently needed but I'd hate to pull a Gates and drastically underestimate needs.
I have been using an Apple Wireless Keyboard and Kensington Bluetooth mouse for connection to an iMac G5 for about a year now with zero problems. I am mainly bedridden and fairly poor and I don't have a truly fancy TV to hook up to so I watch my rental movies, etc. on the iMac about 2 meters away from the bed. This gives me the same apparent size (angular size) as my HD television across the room and I am quite pleased with the picture. I use the optical digital out from the Mac to my stereo system for very nice sound. Perhaps your Bluetooth problems result from the Mac Mini's antenna or concealed placement. If you have other transceivers (WiFi, for example) going the Bluetooth devices may be getting drowned out. You could try some shielding of the interfering devices but that is probably not practical. If you have metal in the Bluetooth antennae's near-field then you are pretty much SOL. Before the Bluetooth mouse I tried one of Logitech's non-Bluetooth wireless mice and was very disappointed with its range. It had a small cable that you could use for better placement of their computer-end transceiver but the range was so limited that it may as well have been a long mouse cable. This iMac also has an output that converts to HDMI for a second display but I have not tried it as of now. I suspect the cable is large and expensive and I don't want to move the computer up next to the tv. Sorry you are having so much trouble with your setup.
It's a problem with the Gecko rendering engine that they refuse to fix. It's been reported as a bug since about 2005 I believe. I'm afraid that it will take more than a "patch or extension" to fix it as even other project developers have given up hope of Gecko getting fixed.
Seems to me that blogs are a good way to "preach to the converted." Doesn't sound to me like he has a handle on modern communication at all. His best bet would be to put something on places like Slashdot... oops.
Let me see... The answer for an alternative fuel is... ?
cooking oil, vegetable oils, uhhh ethanol Bzzzzzzzzzz Nope. I'm sorry. You are still burning hydrocarbons so you get greenhouse gases. Next Contestant please!
Why can't we just go with electric vehicles and let the power companies or local co-gens figure out the best fuel? Geesh already! Not enough battery capacity yet you say? How about standardized 10-minute swap-time packs? Packs could keep track of their usages internally and you pay a deposit for an upgrade. They get swapped out for you at... Service Stations! Could we have this up and running in a year? Two at most? Yes. Government subsidy for early adopters. Am I mistaken or isn't global warming still looming? I don't believe it went away when the "news" quit talking about it.
Once again, I say impeach Bush and Cheney now. I feel we need to do it if for no other reason than to say we will not sit idle (forever, at least) and allow his betrayal of the people of the United States of America and the Constitution of the United States (which he lied about pretending to defend while swearing in as President no less) to go unacknowledged and uncontested. Please. Prove to them we are not the sheep that they have nearly proved us to be. If you can't do it for the constitution, the violation of your rights, the deaths in the war,... do it for the people of New Orleans, southern Mississippi and Alabama.
I'm sorry if I missed something but what about AppleTV:
(most of this is straight off of their site) stand-alone unit works with widescreen, enhanced-definition, or high-definition TVs capable of:
1080p/i 60/50 Hz
720p 60/50Hz
576p 50Hz (PAL format)
480p 60Hzt; connects to internet via wired or wireless network 802.11n draft; iTunes video library including YouTube, TV shows, music (no commercials); hookup HDMI to HDMI cable
or
HDMI to DVI cable and analog stereo or optical digital audio
or
Component video cable and analog stereo or optical digital audio; 40 GB - $229, 160 GB - $329; access to an iTunes account (is that thru the AppleTV? seems so).
What is the major problem with this setup? Sincerely. I seek some enlightenment...
Having bought one of the last G5 machines and only having experienced Tiger and Leopard I would be greatly upset with the dropping of support for PowerPC machines at this time. Perhaps if the upgrade were a major change in the OS (pure 64 bit, multi-processor optimized or a next generation of the NeXT Step OS base or a new kernel like Linux perhaps). But at his time it is basically a compiler switch setting for Universal code generation and only low level code should require attention. Also the numbers that I have seen put PowerPC users at between 25-33% of the Mac Community.
From my experience with the Cocoa frameworks so far they are too restrictive in what they allow to be created and still stick with the Model, View, Controller software architecture. Take a look at the applications put forward by Apple. Why do applications hang around after you close all of their windows? It's because the current document framework doesn't offer that as a simple option. There are many such restrictions. The lack of a real DB interface framework comes to mind immediately.
Anyway, if I'm going to be abandoned now I'd at least, like to be left with a code base for development that is solid and well thought out. The NS libraries were a nice starting point for the 10. series but it is really a good time to rethink them especially in light of non-desktop/laptop needs.
Steve, please do not cut me off in my learning curve stages. I really don't have the money to fund an unnecessary change in platform at this time. Linux with a bit of work will be able to compete head-to-head with OS X in a year or two. I'm tired (yes, a grey-beard), please don't make me have to be one of the contributors to that contest.
On balance Visual Studio is a far better developer environment, but that counts for nothing if you are trying to write a Mac GUI application, in which case Xcode is the only game in town as far as I know.
All the "standard" make capabilities are in Xcode along with the latest GNU C/C++/Objective C compilers. All you need are the libraries and runtime to link with. If that will not do consider Qt 4.4. It purports to cover development on Linux/X11, Embedded Linux, Windows CE, Windows, and OS X. There are others as well but they tend to center around a single language.
Having come from a mainly UNIX/VMS/Windows/OS X system integration background I have typically used EMACS (with lots of time-saving macros) as my editor with any "visual" UI tools available. I'll say Xcode beats every "component" environment I've ever used and is getting close to having the editor hold your hand every step of the way as in Visual Studio -- but not quite.
As for the UI builder (Interface Builder in Xcode is, to me, amazing), you are not stuck with using Interface Builder. You can still hand code everything without the specialty apps if you had to but it would have to be for a very good reason. You also have all the scripting abilities of AppleScript along with terminal commands for the major applications too in case you like UNIX shell scripting.
I guess I'm a bit confused about the statement that this switch was made with "processes already in use". I am not aware of any way this could be masked. We are probably looking at gamma rays to to work at that size. And a solvent/eroding method for the graphene? We are talking about structures smaller than most non-atomic molecules. I frankly doubt that they are using any process commonly used today except by extreme analogy. As the guy in TFA said "But working out how to manufacture graphene devices on a practical scale remains a challenge". I don't think we'll be seeing devices made this way any time soon. We'll probably have to design and create a nanite army of tools/robots or a high-speed atomic force microscopic printer to construct the simplest devices. Are you aware of other means?
Actually Xenon is expensive because it is rare. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon. And, you are correct about about specific impulse being more complicated than just mass. One can get a simple idea of what can/needs to change when one considers that energy is conserved. To increase the kinetic energy of the craft one must apply at least that amount of energy toward acceleration with conservation of mass and energy as it is.
Or, blow a light weight string or yarn through it with your wet vac hooked up to blow. Of course you have to cap all open ends except the one you want to run the string to (also works for wild bends). Also, if you are pulling a large bundle of cables back there is a kind of cable lube for pulling through conduits. It looks like partially solid hand soap. Don't underestimate the tension needed to pull around lots of bends. In industrial settings I've seen crews use a crane to pull long runs of large bundles! Good luck.
Does anyone know of a benchmarking of the top OSs showing performance as core numbers increase for various activities? To me the question for the buyer is going to be: What can this computer/OS/App offer to me as the number of processors (and thus chip/machine prices) increase? I suspect that what we will find is that performance increases diminish as the number of processors increase due to fundamental multi-core architecture problems involving moving data intra as well as inter chip even before we get to issues involving how to best allocate the workload. Perhaps the new optical bus technology is needed now that we are potentially asking for 16x (or more with overhead) the current single processor communication load. The optical technology can perhaps eliminate these limitations now so we can get on to the tougher problem of how to intelligently distribute processing resources.
Please note that regardless of their rendering abilities both Opera 9.27 (that uses the Opera Widget Engine, I believe) and Firefox 3.0b5 (which uses the Gecko engine), still cannot retain styles and links when copying from them to any style-capable editor (just about everything) under Mac OS X (any version). Safari, OMNIWeb, and other WebKit-based browsers have and still handle this with no trouble. This is a bug in Gecko that has been in Bugzilla, and ignored, for years. Please appeal to Firefox and Opera development for fixes in this area. Those of us who must copy and paste styled sections of webpages must use Safari or other WebKit apps as constantly switching back and forth is, in my opinion, simply not worth the effort.
IBM beat Sun at the press release game. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25514 from 2-22-2008, has a good explanation of the benefits of optical. The main things that I see you gain are:
1. Tremendous increases in bandwidth (chip to chip, bus, and peripherals)
2. Less dependance on physical layout to handle high "clocking" rates (busses become like transmission lines at today's clock rates)
3. Independence from chip voltage requirements (you no longer have to have the electronics necessary to drive the bus at a different voltage level than what is optimal for chip low-power consumption)
4. Circuits are electrically isolated (fewer cascade failures of chips/boards/computers/etc due to power/lightning/static strikes. Easier to integrate different chip technologies like CMOS, TTL, etc.)
5. Ease of interfacing to pure-optical "special purpose" components (some operations are almost instantaneous in the frequency domain. A Fast Fourier Transform is a good example. A device as simple as a prism does the "calculations" almost instantly.)
6. No crosstalk and no stray EMF (for TEMPEST types out there)
7. Unaffected by nearby high voltages or currents
There are many more advantages that I, as a EE, love. I, personally, have been waiting for this transition to optical for over 30 years. Now if we can make that transition to optical memory (holographic perhaps), and eliminate the keyboard -- or better yet, all the mechanical parts... (sorry, all you MEs!) Photonics seems to be the future for awhile anyway.;)
I would like to see them not discriminate as to the trivia nature of submissions (as long as they are not gibberish) but have the editorial/review staff rank each article as to how "verifiable factually sound" scale. They can use some formulation of credentials of submitters/reviewers or some-such to get a rough number. There might even be a variable for "popularity of reference" if that is possible. That way one might select the "level" that one searches and browses at - an Encyclopedia Galactica + Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe combo. To me more is always better as long as I can use some metrics for assessment. Starting to sound more like a Google-type project. Ads would not bother me either as long as I can still have a way (browser or site option) to block or limit them.
Sounds like it might be caused by a measurement method flaw like not taking into account that doppler shifts are not exactly complimentary for the outgoing and returning signal due to asymmetry in special relativistic effects of the earth's gravity well. Outgoing and returning relativistic doppler shift may not be the same (or modeled incorrectly) for non-circular paths. This could cause the predicted relativistic frequency shifts to not be complimentary and thus canceling one another. Any thoughts? Anyone know if these effects are even of the same magnitude as the error seen? Just a guess.;)
Slashdot Mirror
"Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure..." In the same spirit, exposing it to ultraviolet light works wonders on destroying most pathogens in vitro. Plain old direct sunlight will do nicely.
"I think the passing of Gates will be seen as a turning point for MS. Media analysts are asking "where now for MS", the world is asking for the opposite of Vista, the DoJ is making sure all the dots are slashed at MS now, Linux is making inroads (slowly) everywhere you look."
Let us not forget that Vista is Mr Gates' child. He has decided that more money lies with proprietary media and pleasing the RIAA and MPAA. He felt that this was the sure way to becoming a "preferred vendor" of their content and thus a virtual monopoly on music, film, book access. Unfortunately (for Microsoft) people don't always follow easily predicted rules of preference. Unfortunately (for users) they will pay for this effort to deny them unfettered access to copyrighted media in many ways a couple of which are slower (more to do) and more bug-ridden (more complex) systems. Only if Microsoft drops this insistence on system-wide DRM rather than application-based (iTunes) will these things go away.
When will it happen? When was the last time Microsoft turned away from a potential source of more money? The answer is the same.
Say, how long were the shots from the pulse rifles in Star Wars? I'm sure that they were at least the first!
When I started fiddling with things electric I used to get switches, wiring, transformers and such from a family friend who happened to be an electrician. You can teach yourself some simple logic with the batteries, wire, switches and relays. If you want to get into the electronics and such for analog I'd suggest the Radio Amateurs Handbook (or whatever HAM operators are using these days) if you can find it. It takes you from basic circuitry up through powerful radio transmitters and even has some digital stuff too. There used to be thousand-page books full of circuitry and operational amplifier handbooks, phased-lock-loop handbooks, etc. easily found at your nearby campus bookstore or better yet, used book store. At various institutes of technology these are plentiful and intro course texts are available too. ;)) enjoy!
I'd recommend that you start out understanding Ohm's Law and bipolar transistor operation. You will find that transistor-based design is pretty simple and from there, the sky's the limit (actually the ends of the knowable universe are but you'll see!
Having worked in software/engineering since 1982 I would have to say the most satisfying times for me were when the heads of the company recognized me and spoke to me as an equal. Another ego boost was when the company heads insisted on me coming on sales presentations to prospective clients. Getting to represent the company, first person, has been thrilling and frightening at the same time. And, to me, one of the biggest tributes of all is having your boss, or even the CEO put their reputation on the line by demoing something you personally developed. ;)
Most all of the audience doesn't know it was you, but you know it, and the people you care about know it. The bosses didn't have to take the risk but they felt comfortable with your work. I know it sounds kind of Uncle Tommish to those of you who draw distinct boundaries between manager and employee or payor and payee but I'm talking more of a camaraderie thing that can last a lifetime.
I would trade money just about anytime for a chance to work with people I respect and are friends because I know that we are working toward bettering our lives and possibly quite a few others. It is hard to maintain this in 10000+ corporations but some organizations still can pull it off.
Sometimes it's hard to explain the number of companies that you've worked for because you've taken on higher risk smaller organizations but if the magic works right there is always a friend waiting that just got in on a startup and they need someone that they can depend on. Nine out of ten times these companies fail but they can be the most interesting as far as new technologies. This can work with contract programming too if you are willing to travel to different places and maybe put up with some employee vs contractor mentality for a bit until they get to know you. There's Lots of money in contracting but there will be long hours and you may end up as the first to go during recessions unless you get established as a "cannot do without" contractor. But be sure that you can save the money. And contracting gets harder to do the older you get.
I can see some of the Apple buzz appeal in that Jobs demos just about everything or has one of the project people do it if there will be technical questions. I don't think that you will find any confusion at Apple as to who has the ideas, etc. The people that need to know, do. I haven't seen any headlines about employees having barely escaped the dungeons there either. Sure, Apple will pay more when they feel they need to pay more to keep the talent they require. To me it's always better to have someone in control of hiring and firing that understands what the company needs and Jobs has come up from ground zero with more than one technical company. I doubt anyone could say that about many gun-for-hire CEOs or HR managers.
When are we going to end these interconnect wars by going optical or optical with power for both peripherals and internal busses? Last I saw http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25514 IBM was working on 8 tera bits per second. I'm sure this is more than what is currently needed but I'd hate to pull a Gates and drastically underestimate needs.
I have been using an Apple Wireless Keyboard and Kensington Bluetooth mouse for connection to an iMac G5 for about a year now with zero problems. I am mainly bedridden and fairly poor and I don't have a truly fancy TV to hook up to so I watch my rental movies, etc. on the iMac about 2 meters away from the bed. This gives me the same apparent size (angular size) as my HD television across the room and I am quite pleased with the picture.
I use the optical digital out from the Mac to my stereo system for very nice sound.
Perhaps your Bluetooth problems result from the Mac Mini's antenna or concealed placement. If you have other transceivers (WiFi, for example) going the Bluetooth devices may be getting drowned out. You could try some shielding of the interfering devices but that is probably not practical. If you have metal in the Bluetooth antennae's near-field then you are pretty much SOL. Before the Bluetooth mouse I tried one of Logitech's non-Bluetooth wireless mice and was very disappointed with its range. It had a small cable that you could use for better placement of their computer-end transceiver but the range was so limited that it may as well have been a long mouse cable.
This iMac also has an output that converts to HDMI for a second display but I have not tried it as of now. I suspect the cable is large and expensive and I don't want to move the computer up next to the tv. Sorry you are having so much trouble with your setup.
It's a problem with the Gecko rendering engine that they refuse to fix. It's been reported as a bug since about 2005 I believe. I'm afraid that it will take more than a "patch or extension" to fix it as even other project developers have given up hope of Gecko getting fixed.
How many months of active development and it still cannot copy styled text on OS X. Yawn.
Seems to me that blogs are a good way to "preach to the converted." Doesn't sound to me like he has a handle on modern communication at all. His best bet would be to put something on places like Slashdot... oops.
Sounds great. And I can't wait until I'm required to get my new wetware version implanted.
Let me see... The answer for an alternative fuel is... ?
cooking oil, vegetable oils, uhhh ethanol
Bzzzzzzzzzz Nope. I'm sorry. You are still burning hydrocarbons so you get greenhouse gases. Next Contestant please!
Why can't we just go with electric vehicles and let the power companies or local co-gens figure out the best fuel? Geesh already! Not enough battery capacity yet you say? How about standardized 10-minute swap-time packs? Packs could keep track of their usages internally and you pay a deposit for an upgrade. They get swapped out for you at... Service Stations!
Could we have this up and running in a year? Two at most? Yes. Government subsidy for early adopters.
Am I mistaken or isn't global warming still looming? I don't believe it went away when the "news" quit talking about it.
Once again, I say impeach Bush and Cheney now. I feel we need to do it if for no other reason than to say we will not sit idle (forever, at least) and allow his betrayal of the people of the United States of America and the Constitution of the United States (which he lied about pretending to defend while swearing in as President no less) to go unacknowledged and uncontested. Please. Prove to them we are not the sheep that they have nearly proved us to be. If you can't do it for the constitution, the violation of your rights, the deaths in the war, ... do it for the people of New Orleans, southern Mississippi and Alabama.
I'm sorry if I missed something but what about AppleTV: (most of this is straight off of their site) stand-alone unit works with widescreen, enhanced-definition, or high-definition TVs capable of:
1080p/i 60/50 Hz720p 60/50Hz
576p 50Hz (PAL format)
480p 60Hzt;
connects to internet via wired or wireless network 802.11n draft; iTunes video library including YouTube, TV shows, music (no commercials); hookup HDMI to HDMI cable or
HDMI to DVI cable and analog stereo or optical digital audio or
Component video cable and analog stereo or optical digital audio;
40 GB - $229, 160 GB - $329; access to an iTunes account (is that thru the AppleTV? seems so). What is the major problem with this setup? Sincerely. I seek some enlightenment...
Having bought one of the last G5 machines and only having experienced Tiger and Leopard I would be greatly upset with the dropping of support for PowerPC machines at this time. Perhaps if the upgrade were a major change in the OS (pure 64 bit, multi-processor optimized or a next generation of the NeXT Step OS base or a new kernel like Linux perhaps). But at his time it is basically a compiler switch setting for Universal code generation and only low level code should require attention. Also the numbers that I have seen put PowerPC users at between 25-33% of the Mac Community.
From my experience with the Cocoa frameworks so far they are too restrictive in what they allow to be created and still stick with the Model, View, Controller software architecture. Take a look at the applications put forward by Apple. Why do applications hang around after you close all of their windows? It's because the current document framework doesn't offer that as a simple option. There are many such restrictions. The lack of a real DB interface framework comes to mind immediately.
Anyway, if I'm going to be abandoned now I'd at least, like to be left with a code base for development that is solid and well thought out. The NS libraries were a nice starting point for the 10. series but it is really a good time to rethink them especially in light of non-desktop/laptop needs.
Steve, please do not cut me off in my learning curve stages. I really don't have the money to fund an unnecessary change in platform at this time. Linux with a bit of work will be able to compete head-to-head with OS X in a year or two. I'm tired (yes, a grey-beard), please don't make me have to be one of the contributors to that contest.
All the "standard" make capabilities are in Xcode along with the latest GNU C/C++/Objective C compilers. All you need are the libraries and runtime to link with. If that will not do consider Qt 4.4. It purports to cover development on Linux /X11, Embedded Linux, Windows CE, Windows, and OS X. There are others as well but they tend to center around a single language.
Having come from a mainly UNIX/VMS/Windows/OS X system integration background I have typically used EMACS (with lots of time-saving macros) as my editor with any "visual" UI tools available. I'll say Xcode beats every "component" environment I've ever used and is getting close to having the editor hold your hand every step of the way as in Visual Studio -- but not quite. As for the UI builder (Interface Builder in Xcode is, to me, amazing), you are not stuck with using Interface Builder. You can still hand code everything without the specialty apps if you had to but it would have to be for a very good reason. You also have all the scripting abilities of AppleScript along with terminal commands for the major applications too in case you like UNIX shell scripting.
I'm sorry. What was the question? ;-)
I guess I'm a bit confused about the statement that this switch was made with "processes already in use". I am not aware of any way this could be masked. We are probably looking at gamma rays to to work at that size. And a solvent/eroding method for the graphene? We are talking about structures smaller than most non-atomic molecules. I frankly doubt that they are using any process commonly used today except by extreme analogy. As the guy in TFA said "But working out how to manufacture graphene devices on a practical scale remains a challenge". I don't think we'll be seeing devices made this way any time soon. We'll probably have to design and create a nanite army of tools/robots or a high-speed atomic force microscopic printer to construct the simplest devices. Are you aware of other means?
Actually Xenon is expensive because it is rare. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon. And, you are correct about about specific impulse being more complicated than just mass. One can get a simple idea of what can/needs to change when one considers that energy is conserved. To increase the kinetic energy of the craft one must apply at least that amount of energy toward acceleration with conservation of mass and energy as it is.
Or, blow a light weight string or yarn through it with your wet vac hooked up to blow. Of course you have to cap all open ends except the one you want to run the string to (also works for wild bends). Also, if you are pulling a large bundle of cables back there is a kind of cable lube for pulling through conduits. It looks like partially solid hand soap. Don't underestimate the tension needed to pull around lots of bends. In industrial settings I've seen crews use a crane to pull long runs of large bundles! Good luck.
Does anyone know of a benchmarking of the top OSs showing performance as core numbers increase for various activities? To me the question for the buyer is going to be: What can this computer/OS/App offer to me as the number of processors (and thus chip/machine prices) increase? I suspect that what we will find is that performance increases diminish as the number of processors increase due to fundamental multi-core architecture problems involving moving data intra as well as inter chip even before we get to issues involving how to best allocate the workload. Perhaps the new optical bus technology is needed now that we are potentially asking for 16x (or more with overhead) the current single processor communication load. The optical technology can perhaps eliminate these limitations now so we can get on to the tougher problem of how to intelligently distribute processing resources.
Please note that regardless of their rendering abilities both Opera 9.27 (that uses the Opera Widget Engine, I believe) and Firefox 3.0b5 (which uses the Gecko engine), still cannot retain styles and links when copying from them to any style-capable editor (just about everything) under Mac OS X (any version). Safari, OMNIWeb, and other WebKit-based browsers have and still handle this with no trouble. This is a bug in Gecko that has been in Bugzilla, and ignored, for years. Please appeal to Firefox and Opera development for fixes in this area. Those of us who must copy and paste styled sections of webpages must use Safari or other WebKit apps as constantly switching back and forth is, in my opinion, simply not worth the effort.
IBM beat Sun at the press release game. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25514 from 2-22-2008, has a good explanation of the benefits of optical. The main things that I see you gain are: ;)
1. Tremendous increases in bandwidth (chip to chip, bus, and peripherals)
2. Less dependance on physical layout to handle high "clocking" rates (busses become like transmission lines at today's clock rates)
3. Independence from chip voltage requirements (you no longer have to have the electronics necessary to drive the bus at a different voltage level than what is optimal for chip low-power consumption)
4. Circuits are electrically isolated (fewer cascade failures of chips/boards/computers/etc due to power/lightning/static strikes. Easier to integrate different chip technologies like CMOS, TTL, etc.)
5. Ease of interfacing to pure-optical "special purpose" components (some operations are almost instantaneous in the frequency domain. A Fast Fourier Transform is a good example. A device as simple as a prism does the "calculations" almost instantly.)
6. No crosstalk and no stray EMF (for TEMPEST types out there)
7. Unaffected by nearby high voltages or currents
There are many more advantages that I, as a EE, love. I, personally, have been waiting for this transition to optical for over 30 years. Now if we can make that transition to optical memory (holographic perhaps), and eliminate the keyboard -- or better yet, all the mechanical parts... (sorry, all you MEs!) Photonics seems to be the future for awhile anyway.
Would someone with mod points please mod up the parent as, yes, the EULA was updated/corrected on March 26. Thanks.
I would like to see them not discriminate as to the trivia nature of submissions (as long as they are not gibberish) but have the editorial/review staff rank each article as to how "verifiable factually sound" scale. They can use some formulation of credentials of submitters/reviewers or some-such to get a rough number. There might even be a variable for "popularity of reference" if that is possible. That way one might select the "level" that one searches and browses at - an Encyclopedia Galactica + Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe combo. To me more is always better as long as I can use some metrics for assessment. Starting to sound more like a Google-type project. Ads would not bother me either as long as I can still have a way (browser or site option) to block or limit them.
Sounds like it might be caused by a measurement method flaw like not taking into account that doppler shifts are not exactly complimentary for the outgoing and returning signal due to asymmetry in special relativistic effects of the earth's gravity well. Outgoing and returning relativistic doppler shift may not be the same (or modeled incorrectly) for non-circular paths. This could cause the predicted relativistic frequency shifts to not be complimentary and thus canceling one another. Any thoughts? Anyone know if these effects are even of the same magnitude as the error seen? Just a guess. ;)