This is great! Keyboards and mice are easy to scrounge in a pinch, but monitors are always a pain in the ass. Admittedly, it costs $399.95, but that's cheaper than the other solutions I've seen. listed here today, plus it's about the same size as a cellphone, so it'll fit in your laptop bag easily.
Step 2: Along with a number of solar power satellites at the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 points, build solar parasols at the Earth-Sun L1 point. Make enough of them to block 1-2% of the solar flux.
So, a few weeks ago my wife asked me if I could clean up the computer of one of the other Girl Scout den-mothers. After listening to the job description, I said, "Let me get this right. You're asking me to go to the home of a 27-year-old divorcee who wants me to look at a computer full of porn while her kids aren't home. No problem!"
I'm an electrical engineer serving in Baghdad w/ US forces. I've seen firsthand the detonator circuits they use for these IED's. I can tell you that I have seen MANY R/C toy systems being used as the detonator for remotely-detonated IED's.
So, you're saying that if I drive around Bagdad with an R/C transmitter, I can set off IED's before I get close to them. I don't see a problem there.
Alternatively, I see something suspicious, stop the Humvee at a safe distance, deploy the R/C toy, and *then* its transmitter sets the thing off before my $1,000 robot gets close. Again, I don't see the problem.
The only scenario where I see a problem is if someone is standing next to the IED while the robot is poking around. Somehow, that doesn't seem very likely.
I'm looking for a source of satellite and/or aerial photos of Russia, especially Kemerovo Oblast. I've googled for these several times on-and-off over the past 18 months, with no success. Keyhole seems to have pix of neighboring hot-spots, but none of Russia itself. Anyone able to help? Thanks.
How about travel? A flight to Australia will currently take me 20+ hours. How long down the road until I can take off from the US and land SpaceShipOne in Australia where another White Knight is waiting to ferry it back into the air again? (Anyone know how fast I could get there?)
I partially "answered" the transcontinental travel question already in
another thread. As for how long it takes to get there, it take the ISS about 90 minutes to circle the earth, so using a ballistic trajectory will get you anywhere on the planet in roughly half that time. That does mean a few minutes of high-G thrust and the rest of the trip spent in zero-gee, so the airline will run through a lot of air-sickness bags on each flight, but some people might be willing to "stomach" that problem in order to save those two days of travel.
Another issue is that people making high altitude flights already get a fair bit of radiation exposure from cosmic rays. A ballistic trajectory is likely to be a bit worse. It won't mean much to your average passenger, but the flight crews may have to be limited in the number of flights that they can make per year. Or perhaps we will use totally un-crewed craft. It takes almost 45 minutes before drinks get served to the back row, and in the event of an in-flight emergency a ballistic flight plan is pretty hard to change once you've "lit the candle". I can picture being helped to you seats by a stewardess who then exits the craft, and a different crew boards at your destination to help people off of the craft.
"I'm sorry everyone that lives on/within 100 miles of the Gulf of Mexico...but you cannot recieve insurance."
No, the original poster said nothing about insurance, he was talking about tax dollars. I choose to live on a hill in part because in '93 the Mississippi river flooded the areas near my neighborhood. After the flood, tax dollars were spent to buy residential land and turn it into parks, which IMHO is a proper use of the money. Had the money been used to rebuild homes in the same spot, as is permitted on coastal land, I and a lot of other people would have been upset.
Twelve years later, on some other flood land in the area, there is a building boom going on because a taller levee was built and the private insurance companies are willing to insure those buildings. Insurance spreads costs out among all who are at risk, and assigns costs according to those risks. The insurance companies have done that in this case and are willing to make the bet that over the long run they will get more money than they pay out.
FEMA is useful for covering cases where disasters are unexpected. I live within 25 miles of the Mississippi, there are lots of tornados here, and I grew up at Reelfoot Lake, Tennesse, so I also know a bit about the possibility of earthquakes around here. I've known people who have lost lives or property in floods and tornados, and I have insurance policies that cover all of these events, and expect to be "made whole" if any of those disasters strike, without FEMA having to get involved. If a cat-5 hurricane were to make it all the way here, then FEMA would rightfully get involved, because absolutely no one expects a hurricane this far inland, except maybe Hollywood disaster movie producers.
Living in New Orleans, I hope that you have an insurance policy that covers hurricanes, because otherwise you are stupid and don't deserve any federal money. If the next hurricane does leave you and/or your grasshopper friends with nothing to show for your entire live's work except for the clothes on your back, and you have chosen to not have insurance, then yeah, my attitude is, "Sucks to be you!"
They left out the most important category...
on
Win the X-Prize Cup
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
From the article:
Teams will compete in five different categories to win the overall cup: Fastest turnaround time between the first launch and second landing, maximum number of passengers per launch, total number of passengers during the competition, maximum altitude and fastest flight time.
How about maximum ground distance traveled while still reaching space? Right now, SS1 goes up and comes straight back down, so the maximum down-range cup could be won by landing somewhere in Texas. Each year you'd have to beat the previous year's distance, so eventually the teams would transition to transatlantic ballistic trajectories. Eventually, someone would land back in New Mexico after circling once around the Earth and the prize would be retired, but by then you'd be almost orbiting.
So, has anyone given any thought to driving the rover over to the big divot left by the heat shield? Judging from the images, if the rover had turned left at Bonneville instead of right, it'd be almost on top of it already.
> And this comes from a guy with a link to his web page that is defunct and taken over by someone who wants to load you computer with spyware to the gills. Nice.
OK, I fixed the link. Sort-a.
My name is on the original VRML specs. Yes, really. One thing that I argued for, and lost, was how the VRML version of fraction_changed was going to work. X3D does it the same damn way VRML wound up doing it.
fraction_changed events output a floating point value in the closed interval [0, 1]. At startTime the value of fraction_changed is 0. After startTime, the value of fraction_changed in any cycle will progress through the range (0.0, 1.0]. At startTime + N × cycleInterval, for N = 1, 2,..., (i.e., at the end of every cycle), the value of fraction_changed is 1.
I argued that the value should only be 1 when the cycle was stopped. Everyone, I mean everyone, agreed that my arguments made perfect sense and should be adopted, but the powers that be said that it was too late to change things. A week or two later, the powers that be decided to make a massive change that broke compatibility with just about everything that had been done to date, and I quit contributing.
It's great to see VRML is back, but that one little episode still grates me.
From what I've read about Longhorn, I suspect that Microsoft is one of the groups opposed to "a backwards-compatible HTML-based standard". They want to replace the browser with new tools built into Longhorn that only they control. See any of these Google links for more details.
Fax machines typically have excellent sheet-feeders. Take your stack of papers, and fax them to a PC with fax software installed. This will create TIFF files. Then, "print" the files to PDFs.
UMR Stonehenge was dedicated on June 20, 1984 (summer solstice), at the site of the northwest edge of campus. Approximately 160 tons of granite were used in the monument. The rock was cut to the proper dimensions by UMR's Waterjet equipment. This equipment used two waterjets cutting at a pressure of 15,000 pounds per square inch traversing the surface just like a conventional saw. The cutter moved at a speed of about 10 feet per minute and cut between one-quarter and one-half inch on each path.
I agree with almost every first-level prediction in the Robotic Nation essays, while disagreeing with almost every prediction of the response to the mentioned changes.
Marshall Brain seems to advocate a universal welfare system to aid displaced workers. I'm sure that something like that would happen, but the results wouldn't be as rosy as he likes to think. Consider ancient Tahiti and ancient Greece. The former was almost a welfare state in that food and shelter could be acquired for little or no effort, while the latter was in a state of perpetual hardship and warfare. Which is heralded today for the development of science and philosophy? A $25,000 a year stipend for everyone in the US would promote in spades everything that's been blamed on Great Society welfare programs. Families would disintegrate and most people would sit around watching TV or playing video games.
Of course, this may not be a bad thing. I expect that the future will see a collision between the predictions of "Robotic Nation" and those of the "Peak Oil" crowd. I don't forsee a die-off of H. sapiens as extreme as some predict, but I can see Earth's population falling once the price of oil hits a few hundred dollars a gallon. North America and Europe will weather this with little population loss, sub-Saharan Africa could become almost totally de-populated, and Asia will land somewhere in between, with its population reduced to maybe one-tenth its current level due to rampant environmental pollution.
Similar 3D standards already exist, but Intel and co. argue that none as yet can replace proprietary file formats as both a working data file format, as a data interchange format and with applications such as web streaming and animation in mind. The 3DIF also says it will work to ensure that U3D is extensible, allowing it to take into account new features over time.
VRML/2 is non-propriatory, with standard binary encoding can be a working data file format, is a data interchange format, supports streaming and animation, and is extensible.
It's a sci-fi novel by Poul Anderson, an extrapolation of Robert Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold the Moon". When I read it, I couldn't help making the following correspondences:
Anson Guthrie == Bill Gates
Fireball == Microsoft BTW, Heinlein's middle name was Anson.
The lapel pins obviously use bi-directional custom ring/answer-tones and TiVo-like recording/replay.
Picard says, "Picard to Bridge", the computer figures out that Riker is the senior officer on the brige and routes the call to him, then as Riker starts to answer, the computer plays back to Picard a previously recorded "Riker here, sir." Picard's next upperance is recorded and replayed to Riker slightly delayed, but in a compressed form, so that the end of sentence occurs in real-time.
Slashdot Mirror
This is great! Keyboards and mice are easy to scrounge in a pinch, but monitors are always a pain in the ass. Admittedly, it costs $399.95, but that's cheaper than the other solutions I've seen. listed here today, plus it's about the same size as a cellphone, so it'll fit in your laptop bag easily.
Step 2: Along with a number of solar power satellites at the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 points, build solar parasols at the Earth-Sun L1 point. Make enough of them to block 1-2% of the solar flux.
Step 3: Profit!
So, a few weeks ago my wife asked me if I could clean up the computer of one of the other Girl Scout den-mothers. After listening to the job description, I said, "Let me get this right. You're asking me to go to the home of a 27-year-old divorcee who wants me to look at a computer full of porn while her kids aren't home. No problem!"
Alternatively, I see something suspicious, stop the Humvee at a safe distance, deploy the R/C toy, and *then* its transmitter sets the thing off before my $1,000 robot gets close. Again, I don't see the problem.
The only scenario where I see a problem is if someone is standing next to the IED while the robot is poking around. Somehow, that doesn't seem very likely.
If so, I want "vrmlguy.post".
Obviously, AOL needs a .aol TLD. Let's all get on that right away.
* * * SPOILER ALERT * * * ROT-13 * * *
N znwbe fho-cybg qrnyg jvgu n "Gur Zbba vf n Unefu Zvfgerff"-glcr fhcrepbzchgre gung tbrf "2001"-glcr penml orpnhfr vg xabjf rirelguvat gung crbcyr ner qbvat va gur cevinpl bs gurve bja ubzrf, ohg vf sbeovqqra ol cevinpl ynjf sebz qbvat nalguvat nobhg vg.
I'm looking for a source of satellite and/or aerial photos of Russia, especially Kemerovo Oblast. I've googled for these several times on-and-off over the past 18 months, with no success. Keyhole seems to have pix of neighboring hot-spots, but none of Russia itself. Anyone able to help? Thanks.
Another issue is that people making high altitude flights already get a fair bit of radiation exposure from cosmic rays. A ballistic trajectory is likely to be a bit worse. It won't mean much to your average passenger, but the flight crews may have to be limited in the number of flights that they can make per year. Or perhaps we will use totally un-crewed craft. It takes almost 45 minutes before drinks get served to the back row, and in the event of an in-flight emergency a ballistic flight plan is pretty hard to change once you've "lit the candle". I can picture being helped to you seats by a stewardess who then exits the craft, and a different crew boards at your destination to help people off of the craft.
No, the original poster said nothing about insurance, he was talking about tax dollars. I choose to live on a hill in part because in '93 the Mississippi river flooded the areas near my neighborhood. After the flood, tax dollars were spent to buy residential land and turn it into parks, which IMHO is a proper use of the money. Had the money been used to rebuild homes in the same spot, as is permitted on coastal land, I and a lot of other people would have been upset.
Twelve years later, on some other flood land in the area, there is a building boom going on because a taller levee was built and the private insurance companies are willing to insure those buildings. Insurance spreads costs out among all who are at risk, and assigns costs according to those risks. The insurance companies have done that in this case and are willing to make the bet that over the long run they will get more money than they pay out.
FEMA is useful for covering cases where disasters are unexpected. I live within 25 miles of the Mississippi, there are lots of tornados here, and I grew up at Reelfoot Lake, Tennesse, so I also know a bit about the possibility of earthquakes around here. I've known people who have lost lives or property in floods and tornados, and I have insurance policies that cover all of these events, and expect to be "made whole" if any of those disasters strike, without FEMA having to get involved. If a cat-5 hurricane were to make it all the way here, then FEMA would rightfully get involved, because absolutely no one expects a hurricane this far inland, except maybe Hollywood disaster movie producers.
Living in New Orleans, I hope that you have an insurance policy that covers hurricanes, because otherwise you are stupid and don't deserve any federal money. If the next hurricane does leave you and/or your grasshopper friends with nothing to show for your entire live's work except for the clothes on your back, and you have chosen to not have insurance, then yeah, my attitude is, "Sucks to be you!"
So, has anyone given any thought to driving the rover over to the big divot left by the heat shield? Judging from the images, if the rover had turned left at Bonneville instead of right, it'd be almost on top of it already.
> And this comes from a guy with a link to his web page that is defunct and taken over by someone who wants to load you computer with spyware to the gills. Nice. OK, I fixed the link. Sort-a.
As I recall, VRML had an semi-optional binary format that basicly converted the syntax into binary tokens. Very compact.
It's great to see VRML is back, but that one little episode still grates me.
From what I've read about Longhorn, I suspect that Microsoft is one of the groups opposed to "a backwards-compatible HTML-based standard". They want to replace the browser with new tools built into Longhorn that only they control. See any of these Google links for more details.
Well, you can use it to make a *really* big RSA encryption key.
Fax machines typically have excellent sheet-feeders. Take your stack of papers, and fax them to a PC with fax software installed. This will create TIFF files. Then, "print" the files to PDFs.
Of course, the hand in the reflection is, hmmm, how should I say this, REFLECTED!!!!
Can't be an IOPS MPF-350; the web site doesn't have any pictures of women with two manly left hands.
UMR Stonehenge was dedicated on June 20, 1984 (summer solstice), at the site of the northwest edge of campus. Approximately 160 tons of granite were used in the monument. The rock was cut to the proper dimensions by UMR's Waterjet equipment. This equipment used two waterjets cutting at a pressure of 15,000 pounds per square inch traversing the surface just like a conventional saw. The cutter moved at a speed of about 10 feet per minute and cut between one-quarter and one-half inch on each path.
Marshall Brain seems to advocate a universal welfare system to aid displaced workers. I'm sure that something like that would happen, but the results wouldn't be as rosy as he likes to think. Consider ancient Tahiti and ancient Greece. The former was almost a welfare state in that food and shelter could be acquired for little or no effort, while the latter was in a state of perpetual hardship and warfare. Which is heralded today for the development of science and philosophy? A $25,000 a year stipend for everyone in the US would promote in spades everything that's been blamed on Great Society welfare programs. Families would disintegrate and most people would sit around watching TV or playing video games.
Of course, this may not be a bad thing. I expect that the future will see a collision between the predictions of "Robotic Nation" and those of the "Peak Oil" crowd. I don't forsee a die-off of H. sapiens as extreme as some predict, but I can see Earth's population falling once the price of oil hits a few hundred dollars a gallon. North America and Europe will weather this with little population loss, sub-Saharan Africa could become almost totally de-populated, and Asia will land somewhere in between, with its population reduced to maybe one-tenth its current level due to rampant environmental pollution.
VRML/2 is non-propriatory, with standard binary encoding can be a working data file format, is a data interchange format, supports streaming and animation, and is extensible.
It's a sci-fi novel by Poul Anderson, an extrapolation of Robert Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold the Moon". When I read it, I couldn't help making the following correspondences:
Anson Guthrie == Bill Gates
Fireball == Microsoft
BTW, Heinlein's middle name was Anson.
Picard says, "Picard to Bridge", the computer figures out that Riker is the senior officer on the brige and routes the call to him, then as Riker starts to answer, the computer plays back to Picard a previously recorded "Riker here, sir." Picard's next upperance is recorded and replayed to Riker slightly delayed, but in a compressed form, so that the end of sentence occurs in real-time.