When I said "at least a semi-credible source", that is what I meant - it isn't rhetorical understatement.
They might be a lawyer lying. They might be lying about being the lawyer. They might be stretching the truth. However, some who claims to be in a situation to know has made the statement, and we can potentially check they are who they say they are - it isn't just heresay. It is at least semi-credible.
The Digital Music News blogger, Ray Beckerman, claims to be a defence attorney in the case in which the RIAA made this argument. I'd rate this as at least a semi-credible source.
Back in about 1995, I was in Auckland finishing up my Princeton PhD, and travelled to the MOA telescope (a pre-existing.6m telescope) when they were setting up their new camera. I installed Linux on about 3 desktop computers in the dome. They had a rack-mounted Sun machine controlling the camera, and there was a pre-existing DOS computer which controlled telescope pointing.
A few points of interest/weirdnessess MOA is a collaboration with Japanese, so all the Linux installs included Japanese language support, including Japanese xterm windows.
Communication between the Linux boxen and the DOS box was purely by creating/deleting files on a shared drive. E.g. the Linux box would put a file on the drive saying where to point, and then would busy-wait looking at the file until it disappeared, at which point it knew the telescope was now tracking the required location.
The camera would do 30 second exposures. The Sun box ran a little script to do an exposure, which would send commands to open the shutter, wait, close the shutter, and read the data. The exposure timing was done with a "sleep 30" command! I was *not* happy with that, but didn't convince people to change it.
Since then, they have built their own new 1.8m telescope, and likely replaced the camera, so the above information is out of date. I haven't had any involvement in the project other than that one trip.
Wikipaedia says the name "kiwifruit" was officially adopted in 1974, which about agrees with my memory of when I first heard it. It was in occasional use earlier.
I got very confused once by an American asking me whether we ate a lot of kiwis in NZ.
The only penguins I've seen in the wild are little blue penguins (the smallest, smaller than a duck.) But there's lots in zoos and at Kelly Tarlton's in Auckland.
I'm doing some data analysis on Adelie penguin DNA right now, however.
Re:No language that I like better
on
What is Perl 6?
·
· Score: 1
The Gnu Science Library (GSL) is in object oriented C. It is pretty weird to use - I'd rather use C++ and be done with it, even though I'm not very experienced with it.
That description doesn't describe how they vary the force of the explosion. Presumably there is some mechanism for introducing a measured amount of noncondensible gas into the round prior to firing? How long do you have to wait after introducing the gas before pulling the trigger?
I was a graduate student at the Astrophysical Sciences deptarment at Princeton when they were planning and starting to build the SDSS. A few interesting facts:
Some very clever optics (designed by James Gunn) went into the telescope. Normal telescopes do not produce the large field of view required. There were existing specialized telescopes which did (Schmidt cameras) but they have the imaging plane in the wrong place.
The main camera uses 30 2k x 2k CCDs, cooled by liquid nitrogen. At the time (early '90s) these cost on the order of $200k per chip.
The camera works in "drift scan" mode: the telescope moves such that the images of the stars drift along the columns of detectors in the CCDs. The packets of charge are shifted along the CCDs at the same rate - so instead of producing distinct individual frames, it continuously outputs data along an ever-lengthening strip along the sky. As I recall, the data rate is about 8Mbyte/s.
The camera spends rather more time on spectroscopy than imaging. (The imaging is primarily about selecting targets for the spectroscopy.) The spectrograph does 640 objects at a time. A computer-drilled plate is (manually) plugged with fibre optic cables in the right positions for that field of sky.
There are three ways in which elements heavier than iron are produced. In two (s and r process), the basic process is to add neutrons one at a time to a nucleus. In the p process, protons are added one at a time.
What you describe is the r (rapid) process. A very high neutron flux adds neutrons very quickly. Once the neutron pulse has passed, the highly-neutron-rich nuclei beta-decay (neturon turns to proton) multiple times until a stable element is reached.
The s (slow) process has a low neutron flux, so that there is sufficient time after each neutron is absorbed for beta decay to occur. The neutrons come from a comparatively neutron-rich nucleus left over from the CNO cycle for burning hydrogen (N15?) At sufficient temperature/pressure, it starts to lose its excess neutron. The new heavy nuclei can then convect to the surface of the star and escape in the stellar wind. The detection of technetium (which has no stable isotope) in the spectra of these stars is the smoking gun proving this scenario.
I don't know much about the p process.
The r and p processes occur in supernovae. The s process occurs in red giant stars (strictly, asymptotic giant branch stars.) In terms of importance in creating heavy elements on the earth, s process is most important, followed by r process and then p process. From memory, it is something like 90% s proccess, 9% r process, 1% p process, but that is *very* rough.
Now we need a q process, so we can p, q, r and s processes. (Or S, P, Q, R if you're a Romanophile.)
I've looked back at the parent and grandparent post, and your comment makes no sense to me.
Pierre Curie was killed by a horse and cart because he didn't look before crossing the road. (Probably lost in thought - a true geek way to die.)
Marie Curie lived to a ripe old age, and died of cancer or leukemia - I forget which. It could have been caused by radiation exposure, but was probably just been old age.
Are there some fictional Curies to which you refer?
The summary on Sony price-fixing portrays it as a Bad Thing. Here's a counter-argument.
If Acme sells the Acme Wizmaster 5000 cheaper to high-street stores than to "e-tailers", it could be because Acme believes that the stores are providing Acme with additional benefits. A potential buyer can go into Gadgets-R-Us and see the Acme Wizmaster, see how big it really is (much more useful than text saying "15 cm diameter"), how solid it feels, what the UI is like etc. There is a shop attendent who can answer questions on the spot. These services make it more likely the shopper will buy the Acme Wizmaster. If Acme doesn't sell at discount to the brick-and-mortar stores, they will go out of business because they can't compete with the web stores, and potential customers won't have anywhere they can go to see an actual Wizmaster. (Or Acme has to set up "demonstration stores", where they demonstrate but don't necessarily sell stuff. The high-street stores save them this expense.)
It isn't like an oil field where, once it is gone, it is gone. The heat is continuously renewed from the earth's core.
It is a lot like an aquifer - a geothermal field will have a limited capacity. Once too much heat is being tapped from it, it will cool down and all users will get less.
Subsidence can be a problem, as can toxic chemicals which accompany the steam/hot water. See the link in this comment..
I'm surprised Australia is looking into this - across the ditch here (NZ), we regard you as geological deadsville. The Newcastle quake was magnitude 5.6, in 1989. Our most recent magnitude 5.6 was a week ago (and 5 others this year.) (OK, not really a fair comparison, as this recent one was 290km deep, and Oz may have had bigger but less damaging earthquakes since Newcastle.)
Oh, and our largest city contains about 50 vulcanos, most recent eruption about 500 years ago.
Indeed General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are two such theories. They disprove each other because they are inconsistent. That is why physicists are so interested in finding a Grand Unified Theory.
Does your government want a free trade agreement with the US? I know mine does (New Zealand.) Australia and USA negotiated a free trade agreement, and IIRC it has an "Australia must enact DMCA equivalent" clause in it.
The atmospheres (not "the entire freaking") of cool stars* (not the sun) contain trace quantities (not "filled") of metal oxides. Although a small proportion of the mass, they dominate the spectrum.
* Except fairly rare "carbon stars", which have trace quantities of metal carbides dominating their spectra instead.
So, yes, GP is an obnoxious idiot. Had they been polite, they would have merely been ignorant.
In the sun, the fusion of hydrogen to helium is principally via the "p-p chain" - it starts with to hydrogen nuclei colliding to form deuterium (and this is the rate-determining-step.) The CNO cycle, which uses carbon/nitrogen/oxygen as a catalyst, predominates in more massive stars. It uses pre-existing carbon. The three alpha reaction to create carbon occurs at a later period of stellar evolution (asymptotic giant branch) and some of it gets recycled into the interstellar medium, where it can be incorporated into the next generation of stars.
They're talking about an altitude of 24000 metres (79000 feet.) This would require a serious missile - something launched from a truck or aircraft, not from a shoulder. Wikipaedia says the Stinger can attack aircraft at altitudes between 180m and 3800m. If terrorists are able to drive a truck-based missile launcher into your country, your porn conduit probably isn't going to be high on their list of targets.*
But yes, if there is a war on and enemy aircraft are overflying your country, you may loose broadband internet, significantly impacting your ability to download recent TV shows.
* But if the missile is labeled something like "National Committee for the Enforcement of Community Standards", perhaps you should start worrying.
"He then describes how Microsoft uses its considerable resources and the law to create such roadblocks."
Where? I couldn't find that anywhere in the article.
Generally, support for Linux sucks in hardware retailing. There are at least three possible reasons for this: 1 There are good commercial reasons why it isn't profitable to support Linux. 2 It would be profitable, but companies lack the vision to see this 3 Big bad Microsoft is conspiring to keep it this way.
I was hoping to see evidence for number 3, but all I saw was the article questioning whether 1 could be true (but without in-depth analysis - how much would Linux support cost, and how many sales would it gain?), and the/. summary alleging 3 without evidence.
Yes, that was my feeling. Good first page - now where are the following 20+ pages which justify the first page? I was expecting a solid work of scholarship, but received calorie-free advocacy.
You've missed the point: my Ubuntu box is not on line. I need to download all of the required packages, burn them to CD or write them to memory stick, and sneakernet them to my home computer.
Slashdot Mirror
When I said "at least a semi-credible source", that is what I meant - it isn't rhetorical understatement.
They might be a lawyer lying. They might be lying about being the lawyer. They might be stretching the truth. However, some who claims to be in a situation to know has made the statement, and we can potentially check they are who they say they are - it isn't just heresay. It is at least semi-credible.
The Digital Music News blogger, Ray Beckerman, claims to be a defence attorney in the case in which the RIAA made this argument. I'd rate this as at least a semi-credible source.
Back in about 1995, I was in Auckland finishing up my Princeton PhD, and travelled to the MOA telescope (a pre-existing .6m telescope) when they were setting up their new camera. I installed Linux on about 3 desktop computers in the dome. They had a rack-mounted Sun machine controlling the camera, and there was a pre-existing DOS computer which controlled telescope pointing.
A few points of interest/weirdnessess
MOA is a collaboration with Japanese, so all the Linux installs included Japanese language support, including Japanese xterm windows.
Communication between the Linux boxen and the DOS box was purely by creating/deleting files on a shared drive. E.g. the Linux box would put a file on the drive saying where to point, and then would busy-wait looking at the file until it disappeared, at which point it knew the telescope was now tracking the required location.
The camera would do 30 second exposures. The Sun box ran a little script to do an exposure, which would send commands to open the shutter, wait, close the shutter, and read the data. The exposure timing was done with a "sleep 30" command! I was *not* happy with that, but didn't convince people to change it.
Since then, they have built their own new 1.8m telescope, and likely replaced the camera, so the above information is out of date. I haven't had any involvement in the project other than that one trip.
Only two comments posted, and it is slashdotted already.
I'm in Palmerston North now, but for some reason I see even fewer penguins here than in Auckland :-).
I confused the American in turn by ranting about how kiwis were a protected species and we'd get crucified for eating them.
Wikipaedia says the name "kiwifruit" was officially adopted in 1974, which about agrees with my memory of when I first heard it. It was in occasional use earlier.
I got very confused once by an American asking me whether we ate a lot of kiwis in NZ.
The only penguins I've seen in the wild are little blue penguins (the smallest, smaller than a duck.) But there's lots in zoos and at Kelly Tarlton's in Auckland.
I'm doing some data analysis on Adelie penguin DNA right now, however.
The Gnu Science Library (GSL) is in object oriented C. It is pretty weird to use - I'd rather use C++ and be done with it, even though I'm not very experienced with it.
That description doesn't describe how they vary the force of the explosion. Presumably there is some mechanism for introducing a measured amount of noncondensible gas into the round prior to firing? How long do you have to wait after introducing the gas before pulling the trigger?
Ha! My keyboard is even easier to use - it has only *one* key. I entered this message in Morse code. :-)
I was a graduate student at the Astrophysical Sciences deptarment at Princeton when they were planning and starting to build the SDSS. A few interesting facts:
Some very clever optics (designed by James Gunn) went into the telescope. Normal telescopes do not produce the large field of view required. There were existing specialized telescopes which did (Schmidt cameras) but they have the imaging plane in the wrong place.
The main camera uses 30 2k x 2k CCDs, cooled by liquid nitrogen. At the time (early '90s) these cost on the order of $200k per chip.
The camera works in "drift scan" mode: the telescope moves such that the images of the stars drift along the columns of detectors in the CCDs. The packets of charge are shifted along the CCDs at the same rate - so instead of producing distinct individual frames, it continuously outputs data along an ever-lengthening strip along the sky. As I recall, the data rate is about 8Mbyte/s.
The camera spends rather more time on spectroscopy than imaging. (The imaging is primarily about selecting targets for the spectroscopy.) The spectrograph does 640 objects at a time. A computer-drilled plate is (manually) plugged with fibre optic cables in the right positions for that field of sky.
There are three ways in which elements heavier than iron are produced. In two (s and r process), the basic process is to add neutrons one at a time to a nucleus. In the p process, protons are added one at a time.
What you describe is the r (rapid) process. A very high neutron flux adds neutrons very quickly. Once the neutron pulse has passed, the highly-neutron-rich nuclei beta-decay (neturon turns to proton) multiple times until a stable element is reached.
The s (slow) process has a low neutron flux, so that there is sufficient time after each neutron is absorbed for beta decay to occur. The neutrons come from a comparatively neutron-rich nucleus left over from the CNO cycle for burning hydrogen (N15?) At sufficient temperature/pressure, it starts to lose its excess neutron. The new heavy nuclei can then convect to the surface of the star and escape in the stellar wind. The detection of technetium (which has no stable isotope) in the spectra of these stars is the smoking gun proving this scenario.
I don't know much about the p process.
The r and p processes occur in supernovae. The s process occurs in red giant stars (strictly, asymptotic giant branch stars.) In terms of importance in creating heavy elements on the earth, s process is most important, followed by r process and then p process. From memory, it is something like 90% s proccess, 9% r process, 1% p process, but that is *very* rough.
Now we need a q process, so we can p, q, r and s processes. (Or S, P, Q, R if you're a Romanophile.)
Wiki says Marie died of leukemia, age 67 - not as old as I'd remembered.H /SCIENCES/CURIE/marie.html
It was probably caused by radiation:
http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q535.html
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/label_france/ENGLIS
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/curie.html
???
I've looked back at the parent and grandparent post, and your comment makes no sense to me.
Pierre Curie was killed by a horse and cart because he didn't look before crossing the road. (Probably lost in thought - a true geek way to die.)
Marie Curie lived to a ripe old age, and died of cancer or leukemia - I forget which. It could have been caused by radiation exposure, but was probably just been old age.
Are there some fictional Curies to which you refer?
It is a little-known fact that Sony sell electronics as well as music.
The summary on Sony price-fixing portrays it as a Bad Thing. Here's a counter-argument.
If Acme sells the Acme Wizmaster 5000 cheaper to high-street stores than to "e-tailers", it could be because Acme believes that the stores are providing Acme with additional benefits. A potential buyer can go into Gadgets-R-Us and see the Acme Wizmaster, see how big it really is (much more useful than text saying "15 cm diameter"), how solid it feels, what the UI is like etc. There is a shop attendent who can answer questions on the spot. These services make it more likely the shopper will buy the Acme Wizmaster. If Acme doesn't sell at discount to the brick-and-mortar stores, they will go out of business because they can't compete with the web stores, and potential customers won't have anywhere they can go to see an actual Wizmaster. (Or Acme has to set up "demonstration stores", where they demonstrate but don't necessarily sell stuff. The high-street stores save them this expense.)
there is still combustion so it's not as clean as fuel cell cars
Hydrogen burns to water. What is less clean? Do nitrogen oxides get formed in the high temperatures or something?
I would expect it to be less efficient than fuel cells - the maximum efficiency of internal combustion engines isn't very good.
It isn't like an oil field where, once it is gone, it is gone. The heat is continuously renewed from the earth's core.
It is a lot like an aquifer - a geothermal field will have a limited capacity. Once too much heat is being tapped from it, it will cool down and all users will get less.
Subsidence can be a problem, as can toxic chemicals which accompany the steam/hot water. See the link in this comment..
I'm surprised Australia is looking into this - across the ditch here (NZ), we regard you as geological deadsville. The Newcastle quake was magnitude 5.6, in 1989. Our most recent magnitude 5.6 was a week ago (and 5 others this year.) (OK, not really a fair comparison, as this recent one was 290km deep, and Oz may have had bigger but less damaging earthquakes since Newcastle.)
Oh, and our largest city contains about 50 vulcanos, most recent eruption about 500 years ago.
Indeed General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are two such theories. They disprove each other because they are inconsistent. That is why physicists are so interested in finding a Grand Unified Theory.
Does your government want a free trade agreement with the US? I know mine does (New Zealand.) Australia and USA negotiated a free trade agreement, and IIRC it has an "Australia must enact DMCA equivalent" clause in it.
The DMCA may yet come to you.
The atmospheres (not "the entire freaking") of cool stars* (not the sun) contain trace quantities (not "filled") of metal oxides. Although a small proportion of the mass, they dominate the spectrum.
* Except fairly rare "carbon stars", which have trace quantities of metal carbides dominating their spectra instead.
So, yes, GP is an obnoxious idiot. Had they been polite, they would have merely been ignorant.
In the sun, the fusion of hydrogen to helium is principally via the "p-p chain" - it starts with to hydrogen nuclei colliding to form deuterium (and this is the rate-determining-step.) The CNO cycle, which uses carbon/nitrogen/oxygen as a catalyst, predominates in more massive stars. It uses pre-existing carbon. The three alpha reaction to create carbon occurs at a later period of stellar evolution (asymptotic giant branch) and some of it gets recycled into the interstellar medium, where it can be incorporated into the next generation of stars.
When the fossil fuel reserves run out, it will still be possible to produce hydrogen. I don't think the same thing can be said for gasoline.
Biodiesel
They're talking about an altitude of 24000 metres (79000 feet.) This would require a serious missile - something launched from a truck or aircraft, not from a shoulder. Wikipaedia says the Stinger can attack aircraft at altitudes between 180m and 3800m. If terrorists are able to drive a truck-based missile launcher into your country, your porn conduit probably isn't going to be high on their list of targets.*
But yes, if there is a war on and enemy aircraft are overflying your country, you may loose broadband internet, significantly impacting your ability to download recent TV shows.
* But if the missile is labeled something like "National Committee for the Enforcement of Community Standards", perhaps you should start worrying.
"He then describes how Microsoft uses its considerable resources and the law to create such roadblocks."
/. summary alleging 3 without evidence.
Where? I couldn't find that anywhere in the article.
Generally, support for Linux sucks in hardware retailing. There are at least three possible reasons for this:
1 There are good commercial reasons why it isn't profitable to support Linux.
2 It would be profitable, but companies lack the vision to see this
3 Big bad Microsoft is conspiring to keep it this way.
I was hoping to see evidence for number 3, but all I saw was the article questioning whether 1 could be true (but without in-depth analysis - how much would Linux support cost, and how many sales would it gain?), and the
Yes, that was my feeling. Good first page - now where are the following 20+ pages which justify the first page? I was expecting a solid work of scholarship, but received calorie-free advocacy.
You've missed the point: my Ubuntu box is not on line. I need to download all of the required packages, burn them to CD or write them to memory stick, and sneakernet them to my home computer.