After all, you don't have to destroy it -- just alter the aerodynamics enough so it's incapable of targeting correctly
the ABL's tactic is to heat the fuel tanks of the missile, exploding it from inside.
A massive alteration of aerodynamics;-)
Fortunately they're not thinking these things will be a silver bullet - its only one stage. All targets (and launch sites) discovered that aren't destroyed are automagically passed on to other fighters, bombers, laser destroyers, etc that can take out the targets.
Apparently you need a launch of over 40 simultaneous launches to break through a two aircraft ABL 'shield'.
as a few others have posted in regards to the shipboard Aegis systems currently in use - basically a fast tracker and a gatling gun - here is the method used by the ABL.
Sensors detect a target (e.g. infra-red senssors pick up exhaust plumes or radar picks up missile)
Kilowatt class Active Ranger System laser acquires and tracks target. Tracking data goes to the Tracker Illuminator Laser, which locks onto the missiles body and determines the best position to hit the missile.
A third laser the Beacon illuminator bounces light of the laser to determine atmospheric interference.
Interference data allows the optics to be altered to 'correct' the COIL's beam so it is properly focused when it arrives on target.
Then the COIL (Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser) fires, and hopefully burns a hole in the target. Destroying it ouright, disabling it, or blowing its fuel tanks.
Is you use the LASER, the second half of the problem goes away!
Not quite, well, maybe for a ship and very close threats, longer range targetting (such as the ranges the ABL will have) do need the laser to 'lead' the target by a bit.
Those Aegis systems are rather impressive in action.
The October edition of Aerospace International journal touches on this problem.
Yes, Geneva Convention bans blinding weapons (what party poopers), but accepts that combatants may be blinded as a side-effect of the use of a normal weapon.
So, while you can blind someone with it (e.g. a pilot) at a much longer range than the range you could destroy missiles/planes/etc, once you are within that lethal range blindeness created by the weapon would be a side-effect, not the main effect.
Other than it being rather like a magna-doodle, as a user, why would i want an electromagnetic stylus versus a normal touch screen? (other than a reason to do more cleaning because you can't use the device until you find that stylus)
The touch screen means you can use anything, stylus, stick, finger, pen, etc to type, write or press buttons on the systems screen.
A special electromagnetic stylus means you need to use the stylus, what good is that? If I'm just browsing the web, or queuing some music to play in my futuristic wireless home, its much easier to just pick it up and press thse on-screen buttons with a finger than screw about with a stylus.
When i use my iPAQ I only use the stylus to type, reading email, web, ebooks, and most othr uses I just use a fingertip - for handwriting a fingernail gives enough pressure and precision.
Given a normal touch screen I'd love to have a few of these, but I'll pass on those glorified magn-doodles.
From my understanding of it, the paper is covered in little dots that are roughly in a grid pattern, a camera in the pen looks at the dot pattern to determine where it is on the paper, and then stores that information.
looked more like a Sony-Ericsson P800 to me - pretty versatile handset, phone + Java + big screen.
I've been using GPRS (w/ Telstra) and while not as fast as I'd like, its way faster than using plain ol dialup over GSM.
I don't wanna be downloading images any time with the current pricing for data, downloading even a quick street map for directions would cost you as much as calling the taxi and the resultant fare (well, not really, but it'd be expensive).
I donn't recall any PC's using the powered 6 pin Firewire ports, only Apples, seems silly/strange.
I don't really see the problem with the legacy ports, nor with the ethernet ports - 2 is more than usual but gives you flexibility. AFAIK most people don't use USB for their 'core' peripherals - the keyboard and mouse. Serial and parallel ports might be slowly going out, but there is still a lot of people using devices that need those ports.
CDPD has a data rate of 19.2kb/s, but with error correction and overhead, the users throughput is more like 10 to 15kb/s. Versus GSM, which operates at 40 to 50kb/s and is found throughout the world.
err... that would be the GPRS bit, plain vanilla GSM maxes out between 9.6 and 14.4kbps
NeoAudio was the problem (though NeoNapster might also be in violation too).
The problem was not that it was a rip-off of CDex, or that the source code was not available - AFAIK it was.
The problem is that the copyright strings were removed and replaced with new strings attributing only NeoAudio/NeoNapster, not the original authors of CDex.
You could equip the RC plane with a bomb and a webcam and one of them wireless network cards and fly it into a political leader from across the Atlantic all while sitting at your computer in your underwear...
wireless network you say? you must have better Pringles technology than available round these parts
In Australia the price of the XBox was recently dropped by about AU$200 to bring it in cheaper than the PS2 (XBox now sells at about AU$388).
Since then the Xbos has been outselling the PS2 at about 4:1.
To keep everyone who bought an XBox before the price drop happy, MS are giving away an AU$250 package, 2 games + 1 controller. It took 4 days from sending application to receiving the package.
Many schools already have free internet access, however that is not a statewide thing, it is a service that may or may not be provided by each school. This is an attempt to create a statewide system, the one system for all schools.
The lightning strike worry has already been mentioned, but less dramatic (and less in our minds) is damage due to a potential difference between the receiver and the computer which are electrically connected via the CAT5 cable coming in off the roof.
So the dish plugs into the receiver box, and the receiver box is mounted outside - it would make more sense to have the dish outside and the box on the inside - now it doesn't have to be ruggedised (which can be a considerable cost) hailstones are a bitch, and the receiver box now provides some isolation between the outside environment and your internal LAN.
Maybe I'm being overly worrisome, but i can't help thinking of buildings that have been connected via wire with no isolation from each other and the potential difference between each other frying some electronics.
I've got a Ricoh camera that comes with similar capabilities - it can send email and do dialup. Part of its software sute is a dialin server that runs on your desktop so you can 'phone em in'.Its quite handy for some, absolutely useless is for others
If you're a journo and have get your photos back to a home office for processing or whatever, its easier to hav it all in one device than lugging around cameras, laptop and such just to get them sent 'home'.
Much easier to just phone home from the camera. Its convergence in a good way.
If you don't need the features, don't pay extra to buy them.
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Now, let's discuss this rock I have that repels Dinosaurs - never been attacked ONCE since I started carrying it
get attacked much before you got the rock?
I was going on information straight from the October Aerospace International journal article i'd just finished reading.
After all, you don't have to destroy it -- just alter the aerodynamics enough so it's incapable of targeting correctly
;-)
the ABL's tactic is to heat the fuel tanks of the missile, exploding it from inside.
A massive alteration of aerodynamics
Fortunately they're not thinking these things will be a silver bullet - its only one stage. All targets (and launch sites) discovered that aren't destroyed are automagically passed on to other fighters, bombers, laser destroyers, etc that can take out the targets.
Apparently you need a launch of over 40 simultaneous launches to break through a two aircraft ABL 'shield'.
as a few others have posted in regards to the shipboard Aegis systems currently in use - basically a fast tracker and a gatling gun - here is the method used by the ABL.
Sensors detect a target (e.g. infra-red senssors pick up exhaust plumes or radar picks up missile)
Kilowatt class Active Ranger System laser acquires and tracks target.
Tracking data goes to the Tracker Illuminator Laser, which locks onto the missiles body and determines the best position to hit the missile.
A third laser the Beacon illuminator bounces light of the laser to determine atmospheric interference.
Interference data allows the optics to be altered to 'correct' the COIL's beam so it is properly focused when it arrives on target.
Then the COIL (Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser) fires, and hopefully burns a hole in the target. Destroying it ouright, disabling it, or blowing its fuel tanks.
Not quite, well, maybe for a ship and very close threats, longer range targetting (such as the ranges the ABL will have) do need the laser to 'lead' the target by a bit.
Those Aegis systems are rather impressive in action.
From October edition of Aerospace Internation journal (strange this gets posted just after i'd finished reading this article)
"beam is expected to take anywhere from five to ten seconds to burn through the casing"
That was from an article about the ABL mounted on a 747.
But as you said, if you're getting hit with a megawatt laser beam, you've got bigger problems than finding out where it came from.
And when that something firing is the size of a 747, finding it probably isn't such a huge problem.
The October edition of Aerospace International journal touches on this problem.
Yes, Geneva Convention bans blinding weapons (what party poopers), but accepts that combatants may be blinded as a side-effect of the use of a normal weapon.
So, while you can blind someone with it (e.g. a pilot) at a much longer range than the range you could destroy missiles/planes/etc, once you are within that lethal range blindeness created by the weapon would be a side-effect, not the main effect.
Bit of a grey area.
Other than it being rather like a magna-doodle, as a user, why would i want an electromagnetic stylus versus a normal touch screen? (other than a reason to do more cleaning because you can't use the device until you find that stylus)
The touch screen means you can use anything, stylus, stick, finger, pen, etc to type, write or press buttons on the systems screen.
A special electromagnetic stylus means you need to use the stylus, what good is that? If I'm just browsing the web, or queuing some music to play in my futuristic wireless home, its much easier to just pick it up and press thse on-screen buttons with a finger than screw about with a stylus.
When i use my iPAQ I only use the stylus to type, reading email, web, ebooks, and most othr uses I just use a fingertip - for handwriting a fingernail gives enough pressure and precision.
Given a normal touch screen I'd love to have a few of these, but I'll pass on those glorified magn-doodles.
From my understanding of it, the paper is covered in little dots that are roughly in a grid pattern, a camera in the pen looks at the dot pattern to determine where it is on the paper, and then stores that information.
looked more like a Sony-Ericsson P800 to me - pretty versatile handset, phone + Java + big screen.
I've been using GPRS (w/ Telstra) and while not as fast as I'd like, its way faster than using plain ol dialup over GSM.
I don't wanna be downloading images any time with the current pricing for data, downloading even a quick street map for directions would cost you as much as calling the taxi and the resultant fare (well, not really, but it'd be expensive).
I donn't recall any PC's using the powered 6 pin Firewire ports, only Apples, seems silly/strange.
I don't really see the problem with the legacy ports, nor with the ethernet ports - 2 is more than usual but gives you flexibility. AFAIK most people don't use USB for their 'core' peripherals - the keyboard and mouse. Serial and parallel ports might be slowly going out, but there is still a lot of people using devices that need those ports.
Could they afford to drop the legacy support?
why spend your time posting on slashdot when you could be building shelters for the homeless in Peru?
err... that would be the GPRS bit, plain vanilla GSM maxes out between 9.6 and 14.4kbps
Rather, each organisation that deployed Linux was doing so for specific, discrete reasons, Mr Beck [Microsoft Marketing Manager] said.
so does it follow that there was no reason for using Windows? or...
in other news, following MS marketings logic, RMS declares there is no trend towards people using Windows, they were using it for specific reasons.
I like audio books, how many Libraries of Congress does it hold?
you're not preventing the ads on TV from being presented, you're just not watching them.
to clarify.
NeoAudio was the problem (though NeoNapster might also be in violation too).
The problem was not that it was a rip-off of CDex, or that the source code was not available - AFAIK it was.
The problem is that the copyright strings were removed and replaced with new strings attributing only NeoAudio/NeoNapster, not the original authors of CDex.
wireless network you say? you must have better Pringles technology than available round these parts
I know it was an Aussie newspaper site, but South Yorkshire is in England, the other tip off is that it mentions the story is from a London paper.
Since then the Xbos has been outselling the PS2 at about 4:1.
To keep everyone who bought an XBox before the price drop happy, MS are giving away an AU$250 package, 2 games + 1 controller. It took 4 days from sending application to receiving the package.
hmm...
Many schools already have free internet access, however that is not a statewide thing, it is a service that may or may not be provided by each school. This is an attempt to create a statewide system, the one system for all schools.
So the dish plugs into the receiver box, and the receiver box is mounted outside - it would make more sense to have the dish outside and the box on the inside - now it doesn't have to be ruggedised (which can be a considerable cost) hailstones are a bitch, and the receiver box now provides some isolation between the outside environment and your internal LAN.
Maybe I'm being overly worrisome, but i can't help thinking of buildings that have been connected via wire with no isolation from each other and the potential difference between each other frying some electronics.
Has anyone told the storeds that GTA3 is banned, has the signal traveled from the head to the feet?
I've got a Ricoh camera that comes with similar capabilities - it can send email and do dialup. Part of its software sute is a dialin server that runs on your desktop so you can 'phone em in'.Its quite handy for some, absolutely useless is for others
If you're a journo and have get your photos back to a home office for processing or whatever, its easier to hav it all in one device than lugging around cameras, laptop and such just to get them sent 'home'.
Much easier to just phone home from the camera. Its convergence in a good way.
If you don't need the features, don't pay extra to buy them.