One bajillion comments, and nobody's mentioned Thorium yet? I am surprised. Am I the only one around here who thinks a liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) is a very good idea?
+1 informative, +1 helpful, ++? generally spot on:)
Also +1 informative (again) because I didn't know the details of the US distribution grid. I only have experience with our 240V system here in South Africa.
I did know about the 120V centre-tapped system, but we don't use that here [SA], or in Zimbabwe (where I'm from), or in UK (where I lived for a long time.) -- these countries all use 240V.
You say 200A, however that isn't actually meaningful without also specifying the voltage. I'm assuming USA 120V, given your dollar-speak, however it would be helpful to make it explicit. There's a 4x difference in power consumption between 200A @ 120V and 200A @ 240V, so what appears to be nit-picking actually makes a massive difference.
No, you are dead wrong, completely and utterly wrong. "For all intents and purposes" has been down-grammaticised into "for all intensive purposes". The latter has no actual meaning.
Over 5 million people in the US hold secret-level or higher security clearances.
I'm not from the US; as a proportion of population, 5 million is a very high number indeed -- and I believe the proportion in the civilized world is much lower.
That's absolutely true. If you're one of the 0.00002% who does own a car, well, then obviously you should be thinking about seatbelts. But car owners are so rare that I'll probably never meet one, ever. Seatbelts have zero effect on my life.
This. It is NOT an attack. And let's face it, very very few people have an air gap on their computers. Since that's the case, it's so much easier to just use the existing wired network or wireless network to ferret data out. 20 bits per second is hardly practical anyway, even for small amounts of data (which, today, would be classified as megabytes.)
Oh yes. You do NOT want to be obstructing a hydrant when the fire department wants to use it. I've seen cases where the hoses were simply threaded THROUGH the vehicle, after breaking the windows that were in the way.
30 years ago, I paid nearly $100 for a decent pair of prescription glasses. Now I buy them online for $6/pair.
Where? I could use some $6 glasses! I'm still paying $100/pr. And I need a new pair.
A generation ago, a crappy hearing aid cost thousands. Today, you can buy a far better device for $39. I bought one for my father-in-law, and he describes it as "fantastic".
Radioactive waste + the majority of the world's most dangerous species =... ? Godzilla? Hundred metre diameter spiders? Snakes the size of the great wall of China?
Roller coaster tech has resulted in more roller coaster tech, nothing else.
Did you have a point or were you just trolling?
Virgin Galactic is like extended warrantee on your rotary dial phone. The future isn't that.
"Don't complain that these front runners get bragging rights to almost space, because soon you and I will be able to go all the way into actual space for far less."
Eh, they are so much welcome to it. What I'm saying is that almost-space is not space at all, rather some dumb Disney limbo where the victims are beguiled into thinking they are astronauts.
And yes, space will soon be comparatively cheap; but it will always be expensive.
Fair point, I'll give you that. But this makes it still worse -- why on earth should we (as a species) be expending so much money (== resources) on such a futile endeavour? Personally, I'd be ashamed to take part in this.
Well, ok, it's still really cool, even if it's totally useless!
It will not be useful, not ever, despite your most desperate wishful thinking. Your argument is invalid. 'Straight up' will never work (unless you have enough delta v to escape Earth's gravity, but that's not what we're talking about).
Infrastructure? This is not a driver for infrastructure. Oh wait -- you count Disneyland as infrastructure. Nuff said.
This is just insane. Going to 50 miles, or 62 miles, or even 200 miles straight up is utterly pointless. It does not advance us at all. It's a gimmick for people with too much money and not enough brain cells. Yes, it might be 'space' (for a few minutes) -- but so what?! This is really old tech. The USA did this in the 50s.
Getting to orbit is a lot harder, yes; but that's an actual achievement, instead of a publicity stunt. You can actually do useful stuff once you're in orbit. You can't do that from a jumped-up fairground ride.
I expect this whole fiasco will quietly fade from the public eye, once the backers realize that they've invested heavily in a pig in a poke. If they are smart, they won't plough (plow, for Americans) any more cash into this travesty.
Slashdot Mirror
(same ac)
But an interesting read, nonetheless.
One bajillion comments, and nobody's mentioned Thorium yet? I am surprised. Am I the only one around here who thinks a liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) is a very good idea?
Thank you.
+1 informative, +1 helpful, ++? generally spot on :)
Also +1 informative (again) because I didn't know the details of the US distribution grid. I only have experience with our 240V system here in South Africa.
I did know about the 120V centre-tapped system, but we don't use that here [SA], or in Zimbabwe (where I'm from), or in UK (where I lived for a long time.) -- these countries all use 240V.
Good luck with the whole upgrade!
You say 200A, however that isn't actually meaningful without also specifying the voltage. I'm assuming USA 120V, given your dollar-speak, however it would be helpful to make it explicit. There's a 4x difference in power consumption between 200A @ 120V and 200A @ 240V, so what appears to be nit-picking actually makes a massive difference.
No, you are dead wrong, completely and utterly wrong. "For all intents and purposes" has been down-grammaticised into "for all intensive purposes". The latter has no actual meaning.
+1 to both the AC and to retchdog. Both are right. But the most right is the guy right above me who said:
Whores do what the customer wants, professionals do what the customer needs.
I have an unpleasant meeting tomorrow where I need to exercise option B).
Sigh.
In every generation 3D and VR pop up again, stir up some hype, and then disappear once more.
Not this time.
Over 5 million people in the US hold secret-level or higher security clearances.
I'm not from the US; as a proportion of population, 5 million is a very high number indeed -- and I believe the proportion in the civilized world is much lower.
That's absolutely true. If you're one of the 0.00002% who does own a car, well, then obviously you should be thinking about seatbelts. But car owners are so rare that I'll probably never meet one, ever. Seatbelts have zero effect on my life.
This. It is NOT an attack. And let's face it, very very few people have an air gap on their computers. Since that's the case, it's so much easier to just use the existing wired network or wireless network to ferret data out. 20 bits per second is hardly practical anyway, even for small amounts of data (which, today, would be classified as megabytes.)
No joke. Elon's planning to make this happen really quite soon, and I'm inclined to believe him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
Oh yes. You do NOT want to be obstructing a hydrant when the fire department wants to use it. I've seen cases where the hoses were simply threaded THROUGH the vehicle, after breaking the windows that were in the way.
30 years ago, I paid nearly $100 for a decent pair of prescription glasses. Now I buy them online for $6/pair.
Where? I could use some $6 glasses! I'm still paying $100/pr. And I need a new pair.
A generation ago, a crappy hearing aid cost thousands. Today, you can buy a far better device for $39. I bought one for my father-in-law, and he describes it as "fantastic".
Where? My brother would be very interested!
+1 much better answer :)
Or D. you're compiling C# code. http://ericlippert.com/2012/05...
Radioactive waste + the majority of the world's most dangerous species = ... ? Godzilla? Hundred metre diameter spiders? Snakes the size of the great wall of China?
Roller coaster tech has resulted in more roller coaster tech, nothing else.
Did you have a point or were you just trolling?
Virgin Galactic is like extended warrantee on your rotary dial phone. The future isn't that.
"Don't complain that these front runners get bragging rights to almost space, because soon you and I will be able to go all the way into actual space for far less."
Eh, they are so much welcome to it. What I'm saying is that almost-space is not space at all, rather some dumb Disney limbo where the victims are beguiled into thinking they are astronauts.
And yes, space will soon be comparatively cheap; but it will always be expensive.
Fair point, I'll give you that. But this makes it still worse -- why on earth should we (as a species) be expending so much money (== resources) on such a futile endeavour? Personally, I'd be ashamed to take part in this.
Well, ok, it's still really cool, even if it's totally useless!
It will not be useful, not ever, despite your most desperate wishful thinking. Your argument is invalid. 'Straight up' will never work (unless you have enough delta v to escape Earth's gravity, but that's not what we're talking about).
Infrastructure? This is not a driver for infrastructure. Oh wait -- you count Disneyland as infrastructure. Nuff said.
A Mig29 ride would surely be a lot of fun!
But I'm certain that going up in a Dragon would beat that by at least an order of magnitude.
This is just insane. Going to 50 miles, or 62 miles, or even 200 miles straight up is utterly pointless. It does not advance us at all. It's a gimmick for people with too much money and not enough brain cells. Yes, it might be 'space' (for a few minutes) -- but so what?! This is really old tech. The USA did this in the 50s.
Getting to orbit is a lot harder, yes; but that's an actual achievement, instead of a publicity stunt. You can actually do useful stuff once you're in orbit. You can't do that from a jumped-up fairground ride.
I expect this whole fiasco will quietly fade from the public eye, once the backers realize that they've invested heavily in a pig in a poke. If they are smart, they won't plough (plow, for Americans) any more cash into this travesty.
It's a numbers station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
Perhaps this is one of the most piercing forms of trolling?
Look where that got the electrical engineers.
http://news.slashdot.org/story...