I think the m-d-y format sticks around because that is how most people say the date: "It is October 21st, 2009 today." Of course, this is a chicken-vs-egg situation.
I prefer and always use the military format for dates: 21OCT09 or 21October2009. With the month written down, there is no ambiguity about which number is which.
As for the 24-hour clock, I think that's a non-issue. It takes just as much room to say 1900 as 7 pm. People who need absolute times use a 24-hour clock based on zulu (greenwich) time, while the rest of us can figure out pretty well that a restaurant opens at 10 in the morning and closes at 11 at night if the sign say "Open 10-11". I've been in the military where we use a 24-hour day for 8 years now, and I still have to translate the time back into the 12-hour clock for it to make sense.
You can double the momentum that you gain from your engine by either doubling the speed of the ejected reaction mass, or by doubling the amount you throw out.
I have one small quibble with your otherwise very informative post (and it may turn out that I'm wrong)... But I've always worked under the assumption that Ke=MV^2. Therefore, momentum will increase as a square of the velocity instead of the product, as you stated. Having the imparted momentum rise as a square instead of linearly is what gives an ion engine (very fast, lighweight particles) such an advantage over a chemical engine (slower but more massive particles).
Wouldn't having a laser pointed at your brain in the presence of an odor kind of count as a 'bad experience'?
I'm not sure how you create a control group for an experiment like this- shine the laser in the absence of odors so the fly is terrified of clean places? Isn't that how most flies act already?
I heard a story- somewhat apocryphal- circulating among airmen in the know at a base in iraq while I was there once.
It goes like this: Backstory here- predators (what we were flying then) aren't cheap but they're not too expensive. There are parts of f-16's that cost more. And these things crash all the time. Well, not ALL the time, but often enough that I have pictures of crashed predators but no -16's or -15's. OK so anyways.
A predator takes some small-arms fire while on patrol; it is disabled but still under control. A decision is made to intentionally crash it in a clearing nearby known insurgent headquarters. It crashes, armed insurgents swarm the wreck, another predator that has been watching the entire time fires a missile and/or directs fire from an apache, and a few dozen combatants are taken out.
Again, this doesn't come from first-hand knowledge, but it's my experience that stories in the field have a germ of truth.
I don't know if you know this, but the predator/reaper pilots in california are only part of the system. The birds in iraq launch out of bases in iraq. They are controlled from pilots in iraq during takeoff and landing; control is often handed over to the local pilots during flight. The local pilots are often close enough to the UAV's flightpath that the missile strikes are audible. And all the maintainers and support staff live in the local base. I've spent some time in the control center with the (local) pilots, watching them fly around our base. We've been attacked while I was in there, too, and it's not some video game to the people involved, not at all. There are people on the ground whose lives are in our hands, whether on the base taking mortar fire or outside the wire taking small arms fire or tracking enemies.
Flying these aircraft- and ordering fire- is deadly serious business and I really can't think of it as any farther removed from the war than a pilot in an f-16 or a guard in a tower ordering mortar fire 1000 yards out.
Another poster has identified the fallacy about how the predator makes killing easier/more efficient/less dangerous compared to arrows, muskets, cannons, etc.
And no more talk about 'leveling the playing field'. This is war, we do it for you, stay the hell out of it. You want to get involved, VOTE for the people who make these decisions.
No but seriously, if my mom ever asked me about this, I'd have to tell her to stay away from it. If people can't remember the commands for copy and paste, there is no way they can keep track of 8-10 fingers all at once.
Contrary to the breathless slashdot summary, this is not anywhere near the first time this technology has been used. It is quite safe. It is very safe when the other option is certain death.
It's been a while since I've used it, but I'm pretty sure F11 is the shortcut to put IE and firefox (for windows) into fullscreen* mode, giving you all that screen area back.
I'm on OS X, so without hacks I'm stuck with 2.5 inches of the top of my screen being taken up by:
-The top bar, the apple bar, with file, edit, etc. -another bar that serves to inform me of what website I am at, even though directly below that is -a bar that tells me the address of the website I am at -bookmarks, allow this bar is actually well-organized and useful -a blank grey bar that is as thick as all the rest that serves no apparent purpose -my tabs, which again are as thick as all the other bars even though the typeface only takes up 50% of that width. -and then at the bottom an entire bar is taken up with the browser's status, which I find necessary since FF gives you no indication until timeout about what's going on. And I had to turn off ALT popups because I couldn't park my cursor anywhere on the screen without them popping up and blocking text, which means that I have to look at the status bar to see where a link leads.
There has to be a better way, and I'll switch in a second when it comes around.
*actual fullscreen, with not buttons or address bars.
If they were making my iPhone transmit anything- anything at all- I'd know because every speaker and loose wire within 15 feet would start buzzing and ticking.
I am aware that other phones do that, but the iPhone was my first 3G* phone. It has led to several embarrassing moments, such as standing before the Major's desk at attention while he tried to troubleshoot his buzzing speakers, or accidentally setting the phone on my home sound system's amp only to crap my pants in the middle of a movie when waves of digital transmission harmonics are blasted through the PRE-amplified audio circuit...
So- I don't worry too much about it.
*or whatever hellish technology makes radio waves think they should make themselves audible.
1- That's as much of my name as I'm willing to sign. 2- Where I come from, correspondence is signed. It shows that you stand behind your word, instead of hiding or posting AC. 3- I started doing it long ago and
You know what, I really don't care what you think about my initial. Why did you even reply in the first place? And what does narcissism have to do with signing a post with a letter instead of my real name or my screen name or a qotd?
No, don't get me wrong- that is good advice (and not just for the flu). What I should have clarified was that many posters have a very... Glib? Flippant? attitude about the situation. Slashdot's primary demographic- while not high-risk victims themselves- should consider the ramifications of a fast-spreading, sometimes lethal, but most importantly *new* strain of flu wrt their families.
Not that I entirely approve of the giant FUD wave spreading over the nation, but there *is* a spark of truth to it and a reason to be at least mildly concerned.
I would ask whether the people with swine flu simply died before they had a chance to have secondary issues. If the 'old' flu couldn't kill on its own yet the newer flu can, and very efficiently, and is spreading rapidly, then I'd have to say that I would be worried.
Mind you, I'm *not* actually worried about it as far as I go; I'm 27 and healthy. However, I do know quite a few elderly people and very young people and they are close to me. That is why I follow this story. There are a ton of posts here on/. along the lines of, "Stay home if you're sick, wash your hands, you'll be alright, etc.", and I have a feeling a lot of those people would change their tune if their much older or much younger relatives became ill.
I realize that this is just a new strain of flu, and not some killer ebola; however, afaik no one has been vaccinated for it at least around my area. And we are just about to enter the 'real' flu season where things will get more interesting.
If they wish to spend my 8 hours on futile, dead end projects then so be it.
I couldn't disagree more. I enjoy my job- I get personal satisfaction out of what I do. I'm proud of what I do.
I don't think I could live with myself knowing that I spent 9 hours on something completely useless and wrong. Even if the job is difficult or unpleasant, it's still important for me to know that it is worthwhile in some way.
I've worked with one or two people with your viewpoint (would count blades of grass all day as long as they were getting paid). It's a viewpoint that is utterly alien to me. Does it affect your personal relationships, too, or are you able to compartmentalize so well that you're two different people each day?
You know it occurred to me just now that these people with their orgone or whatevers, you know the things with the quartz crystals... They claim that somehow the crystals absorb the EM waves or something; I honestly don't really know the entire spiel.
What do you think would happen if we told them that radio waves are generated using a quartz crystal oscillator? Head explosion? Rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth?
Sadly, it would probably go something like this little conversation I had with my vegan friend:
"It's terrible to kill and eat animals. It's not natural." "So, should we kill all the wolves and tigers and ferrets? They kill and eat animals." "That's different because they're natural." "What are humans, then? Aliens?" "We have self awareness, so we have the duty to be kind to animals." "So if animals aren't self-aware, wouldn't that mean that they don't have souls or feel pain?" "..." "If wolves became self-aware and stopped eating meat, they'd become sick and maybe die. They have evolved to be carnivores." "Yeah but humans haven't, we have molars." "We also have incisors." "That's for berries." [facepalm, walk away]
The f-22 didn't take much longer than other 5th generation aircraft. Oh wait, the F-22 is the ONLY 5th gen fighter in the world. And it only just went into service. And frankly, I don't want us to ever *need* it- Needing an f-22 would require an enemy with excellent air power, which would mean that we were fighting a major power such as china, india, or russia.
Do you complain that our nukes don't get used often enough?
I wish I hadn't watched that. Some things get under my skin and ruin my whole day...
I just love how the guy is using these crystals to protect himself from cell towers- By using *acetone* and poly casting resin (The activator for this stuff is terrible; read the MSDS for this product http://www.evercoat.com/productDetail.aspx?pID=23 ).
This fake science is just as offensive as racism, nationalism, homophobia, or any other irrational philosophy that ignores or even spits on the accumulated empirical evidence or rational scientific study. And no, there aren't two equal but opposing viewpoints regarding EM. There's right and wrong. Fact and fiction.
You actually made a very, very good point. Insurance companies know the addresses and medical histories of millions of americans. These are most definitely NOT charity organizations, either- we've all heard stories about coverage being dropped for pre-existing conditions or people being denied important procedures. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to squeeze money out of them. So we have a large body of evidence showing that the agencies will do anything for a buck (or to save a buck).
Now- an organization with the power, knowledge, money, and motivation to deny coverage to people living near broadcast antennae *should already be doing that*.
But they're not. And I have worked for an insurance agency (United Healthcare/uniprise)- EM radiation is simply not a concern. Hell, the facility I worked at was within line-of-sight of our city's antenna farm- I can't find exact specs, but the farm includes basically ALL TV, radio, etc. for the entire city. I can pick up some radio stations from those antennae a good 100 miles away (FM).
A full load would cost up to four times that much. That, however, pays for a lot of brick and motor, a lot of face to face time with professors, and perhaps way too much administration. It seems that someone could harness the efficiencies and supply a decent alternative at a 25% saving. I am just not sure why anyone would, at least in terms of a for profit corporation.
I spent some time fulfilling a few pre-reqs at a local community college, and the online courses were more expensive than classroom courses. More expensive, in fact, than chemistry- a class with lab fees.
All that paperwork is packed away right now so I can't give you an itemized rundown of the costs, but I do remember that:
-The credits cost just as much -"Technology Fee" was substantial, and per-credit (because harder classes use more bits?) -And believe it or not, there was some other, per-semester "connectivity" fee or something along those lines
You really don't save money by taking online courses. In addition, I never met my professors or fellow students. There was none of the networking and friend-making you might find in a regular class. In fact, I had a hard time liking many people as our grades were often heavily weighted towards participation- this meant that I had to wait up until midnight of each sunday night so that other people could post their assignments at the very last second. Then I would have minutes to write helpful, constructive criticism of their stoned/drunk ramblings.
Plus, one of my teachers was defending her thesis at another college during the semester. Nothing was graded but the tests- She just gave A's for every assignment (even ones that I missed). Questions took days to hear a response.
I realize that I went a but off-topic but my opinion of online classes has changed in the last few years. If I was an employer, I would look at an online degree as far inferior to the 'real' thing.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the m-d-y format sticks around because that is how most people say the date: "It is October 21st, 2009 today." Of course, this is a chicken-vs-egg situation.
I prefer and always use the military format for dates: 21OCT09 or 21October2009. With the month written down, there is no ambiguity about which number is which.
As for the 24-hour clock, I think that's a non-issue. It takes just as much room to say 1900 as 7 pm. People who need absolute times use a 24-hour clock based on zulu (greenwich) time, while the rest of us can figure out pretty well that a restaurant opens at 10 in the morning and closes at 11 at night if the sign say "Open 10-11". I've been in the military where we use a 24-hour day for 8 years now, and I still have to translate the time back into the 12-hour clock for it to make sense.
-b
Thanks for the clarification. This is not my area of expertise :)
-b
You can double the momentum that you gain from your engine by either doubling the speed of the ejected reaction mass, or by doubling the amount you throw out.
I have one small quibble with your otherwise very informative post (and it may turn out that I'm wrong)... But I've always worked under the assumption that Ke=MV^2. Therefore, momentum will increase as a square of the velocity instead of the product, as you stated. Having the imparted momentum rise as a square instead of linearly is what gives an ion engine (very fast, lighweight particles) such an advantage over a chemical engine (slower but more massive particles).
I'm open to corrections.
-b
Wouldn't having a laser pointed at your brain in the presence of an odor kind of count as a 'bad experience'?
I'm not sure how you create a control group for an experiment like this- shine the laser in the absence of odors so the fly is terrified of clean places? Isn't that how most flies act already?
-b
I heard a story- somewhat apocryphal- circulating among airmen in the know at a base in iraq while I was there once.
It goes like this:
Backstory here- predators (what we were flying then) aren't cheap but they're not too expensive. There are parts of f-16's that cost more. And these things crash all the time. Well, not ALL the time, but often enough that I have pictures of crashed predators but no -16's or -15's. OK so anyways.
A predator takes some small-arms fire while on patrol; it is disabled but still under control. A decision is made to intentionally crash it in a clearing nearby known insurgent headquarters. It crashes, armed insurgents swarm the wreck, another predator that has been watching the entire time fires a missile and/or directs fire from an apache, and a few dozen combatants are taken out.
Again, this doesn't come from first-hand knowledge, but it's my experience that stories in the field have a germ of truth.
-b
I don't know if you know this, but the predator/reaper pilots in california are only part of the system. The birds in iraq launch out of bases in iraq. They are controlled from pilots in iraq during takeoff and landing; control is often handed over to the local pilots during flight. The local pilots are often close enough to the UAV's flightpath that the missile strikes are audible. And all the maintainers and support staff live in the local base. I've spent some time in the control center with the (local) pilots, watching them fly around our base. We've been attacked while I was in there, too, and it's not some video game to the people involved, not at all. There are people on the ground whose lives are in our hands, whether on the base taking mortar fire or outside the wire taking small arms fire or tracking enemies.
Flying these aircraft- and ordering fire- is deadly serious business and I really can't think of it as any farther removed from the war than a pilot in an f-16 or a guard in a tower ordering mortar fire 1000 yards out.
Another poster has identified the fallacy about how the predator makes killing easier/more efficient/less dangerous compared to arrows, muskets, cannons, etc.
And no more talk about 'leveling the playing field'. This is war, we do it for you, stay the hell out of it. You want to get involved, VOTE for the people who make these decisions.
-b
George Orwell teaches 10GUI to his mother:
"Four fingers good, two fingers bad!"
No but seriously, if my mom ever asked me about this, I'd have to tell her to stay away from it. If people can't remember the commands for copy and paste, there is no way they can keep track of 8-10 fingers all at once.
-b
You can poke strangers as long as their profile is public, I just checked.
-b
If I had a restraining order against someone who seriously bothered me that much, I'd take them off my damn friend list and make my profile private.
You can't poke someone unless you are friends or their profile is wide open.
-b
Maybe their homepage was updated since you posted this, but there are now links to youtube videos of the actual engine firing. Here's one-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsidytGCyjs
You can follow the related videos on youtube or revisit ad astra's homepage to find more.
Ah for once I did something useful.
-b
Contrary to the breathless slashdot summary, this is not anywhere near the first time this technology has been used. It is quite safe. It is very safe when the other option is certain death.
Here's an informative post from someone else:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1387351&cid=29595143
-b
It's been a while since I've used it, but I'm pretty sure F11 is the shortcut to put IE and firefox (for windows) into fullscreen* mode, giving you all that screen area back.
I'm on OS X, so without hacks I'm stuck with 2.5 inches of the top of my screen being taken up by:
-The top bar, the apple bar, with file, edit, etc.
-another bar that serves to inform me of what website I am at, even though directly below that is
-a bar that tells me the address of the website I am at
-bookmarks, allow this bar is actually well-organized and useful
-a blank grey bar that is as thick as all the rest that serves no apparent purpose
-my tabs, which again are as thick as all the other bars even though the typeface only takes up 50% of that width.
-and then at the bottom an entire bar is taken up with the browser's status, which I find necessary since FF gives you no indication until timeout about what's going on. And I had to turn off ALT popups because I couldn't park my cursor anywhere on the screen without them popping up and blocking text, which means that I have to look at the status bar to see where a link leads.
There has to be a better way, and I'll switch in a second when it comes around.
*actual fullscreen, with not buttons or address bars.
If they were making my iPhone transmit anything- anything at all- I'd know because every speaker and loose wire within 15 feet would start buzzing and ticking.
I am aware that other phones do that, but the iPhone was my first 3G* phone. It has led to several embarrassing moments, such as standing before the Major's desk at attention while he tried to troubleshoot his buzzing speakers, or accidentally setting the phone on my home sound system's amp only to crap my pants in the middle of a movie when waves of digital transmission harmonics are blasted through the PRE-amplified audio circuit...
So- I don't worry too much about it.
*or whatever hellish technology makes radio waves think they should make themselves audible.
The Aborigine way of life would still be viable in 200 years,
Except for the part where they hunted many of their food species to extinction, right?
-b
I sign my posts "-b" because:
1- That's as much of my name as I'm willing to sign.
2- Where I come from, correspondence is signed. It shows that you stand behind your word, instead of hiding or posting AC.
3- I started doing it long ago and
You know what, I really don't care what you think about my initial. Why did you even reply in the first place? And what does narcissism have to do with signing a post with a letter instead of my real name or my screen name or a qotd?
-b
No, don't get me wrong- that is good advice (and not just for the flu). What I should have clarified was that many posters have a very... Glib? Flippant? attitude about the situation. Slashdot's primary demographic- while not high-risk victims themselves- should consider the ramifications of a fast-spreading, sometimes lethal, but most importantly *new* strain of flu wrt their families.
Not that I entirely approve of the giant FUD wave spreading over the nation, but there *is* a spark of truth to it and a reason to be at least mildly concerned.
-b
I would ask whether the people with swine flu simply died before they had a chance to have secondary issues. If the 'old' flu couldn't kill on its own yet the newer flu can, and very efficiently, and is spreading rapidly, then I'd have to say that I would be worried.
Mind you, I'm *not* actually worried about it as far as I go; I'm 27 and healthy. However, I do know quite a few elderly people and very young people and they are close to me. That is why I follow this story. There are a ton of posts here on /. along the lines of, "Stay home if you're sick, wash your hands, you'll be alright, etc.", and I have a feeling a lot of those people would change their tune if their much older or much younger relatives became ill.
I realize that this is just a new strain of flu, and not some killer ebola; however, afaik no one has been vaccinated for it at least around my area. And we are just about to enter the 'real' flu season where things will get more interesting.
-b
If they wish to spend my 8 hours on futile, dead end projects then so be it.
I couldn't disagree more. I enjoy my job- I get personal satisfaction out of what I do. I'm proud of what I do.
I don't think I could live with myself knowing that I spent 9 hours on something completely useless and wrong. Even if the job is difficult or unpleasant, it's still important for me to know that it is worthwhile in some way.
I've worked with one or two people with your viewpoint (would count blades of grass all day as long as they were getting paid). It's a viewpoint that is utterly alien to me. Does it affect your personal relationships, too, or are you able to compartmentalize so well that you're two different people each day?
-b
You know it occurred to me just now that these people with their orgone or whatevers, you know the things with the quartz crystals... They claim that somehow the crystals absorb the EM waves or something; I honestly don't really know the entire spiel.
What do you think would happen if we told them that radio waves are generated using a quartz crystal oscillator? Head explosion? Rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth?
Sadly, it would probably go something like this little conversation I had with my vegan friend:
"It's terrible to kill and eat animals. It's not natural."
"So, should we kill all the wolves and tigers and ferrets? They kill and eat animals."
"That's different because they're natural."
"What are humans, then? Aliens?"
"We have self awareness, so we have the duty to be kind to animals."
"So if animals aren't self-aware, wouldn't that mean that they don't have souls or feel pain?"
"..."
"If wolves became self-aware and stopped eating meat, they'd become sick and maybe die. They have evolved to be carnivores."
"Yeah but humans haven't, we have molars."
"We also have incisors."
"That's for berries."
[facepalm, walk away]
She has a degree in teaching, btw.
-b
You didn't think the SR 71 wasn't replaced, did you ?
Um... Yeah, it was replaced... With *satellites*.
And just a word of wisdom from someone who works for 'the dark side': Supersonic aircraft are not stealthy--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_boom
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/xplanes/stea-flash.html
-b
The f-22 didn't take much longer than other 5th generation aircraft. Oh wait, the F-22 is the ONLY 5th gen fighter in the world. And it only just went into service. And frankly, I don't want us to ever *need* it- Needing an f-22 would require an enemy with excellent air power, which would mean that we were fighting a major power such as china, india, or russia.
Do you complain that our nukes don't get used often enough?
-b
Ti is the 9th most abundant element in the crust (7th most abundant metal).
The wiki page answers all your questions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium
Ti is abundant enough that we use it in toothpaste and toilet cleaner; I don't think you need to worry about it going anywhere.
-b
I wish I hadn't watched that. Some things get under my skin and ruin my whole day...
I just love how the guy is using these crystals to protect himself from cell towers- By using *acetone* and poly casting resin (The activator for this stuff is terrible; read the MSDS for this product http://www.evercoat.com/productDetail.aspx?pID=23 ).
This fake science is just as offensive as racism, nationalism, homophobia, or any other irrational philosophy that ignores or even spits on the accumulated empirical evidence or rational scientific study. And no, there aren't two equal but opposing viewpoints regarding EM. There's right and wrong. Fact and fiction.
-b
You actually made a very, very good point. Insurance companies know the addresses and medical histories of millions of americans. These are most definitely NOT charity organizations, either- we've all heard stories about coverage being dropped for pre-existing conditions or people being denied important procedures. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to squeeze money out of them. So we have a large body of evidence showing that the agencies will do anything for a buck (or to save a buck).
Now- an organization with the power, knowledge, money, and motivation to deny coverage to people living near broadcast antennae *should already be doing that*.
But they're not. And I have worked for an insurance agency (United Healthcare/uniprise)- EM radiation is simply not a concern. Hell, the facility I worked at was within line-of-sight of our city's antenna farm- I can't find exact specs, but the farm includes basically ALL TV, radio, etc. for the entire city. I can pick up some radio stations from those antennae a good 100 miles away (FM).
-b
A full load would cost up to four times that much. That, however, pays for a lot of brick and motor, a lot of face to face time with professors, and perhaps way too much administration. It seems that someone could harness the efficiencies and supply a decent alternative at a 25% saving. I am just not sure why anyone would, at least in terms of a for profit corporation.
I spent some time fulfilling a few pre-reqs at a local community college, and the online courses were more expensive than classroom courses. More expensive, in fact, than chemistry- a class with lab fees.
All that paperwork is packed away right now so I can't give you an itemized rundown of the costs, but I do remember that:
-The credits cost just as much
-"Technology Fee" was substantial, and per-credit (because harder classes use more bits?)
-And believe it or not, there was some other, per-semester "connectivity" fee or something along those lines
You really don't save money by taking online courses. In addition, I never met my professors or fellow students. There was none of the networking and friend-making you might find in a regular class. In fact, I had a hard time liking many people as our grades were often heavily weighted towards participation- this meant that I had to wait up until midnight of each sunday night so that other people could post their assignments at the very last second. Then I would have minutes to write helpful, constructive criticism of their stoned/drunk ramblings.
Plus, one of my teachers was defending her thesis at another college during the semester. Nothing was graded but the tests- She just gave A's for every assignment (even ones that I missed). Questions took days to hear a response.
I realize that I went a but off-topic but my opinion of online classes has changed in the last few years. If I was an employer, I would look at an online degree as far inferior to the 'real' thing.
-b