That's not exactly true. If you convert the rock into little pieces via application of kinetic energy the impact will be spread out over time and distance. The energy release will be absorbed by more air and re-radiation to space will transport a significant amount as well.
The dust would have to be moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light in order to achieve a toaster oven effect on the ground.
Of course, there's the possibility of a nuclear winter type effect...
These are among the easiest asteroids to vist, requiring about as much delta-v as going to geosynchronous orbit (well, maybe a bit more). Another way to look at this is:
Damn! There went another asteroid we could have exploited for natural resources, thus making a space-based economy viable. This would contribute to the benefit of mankind by improving the standard of living and also making it more likely we can do something about future potential planet-killers.
Re:On India (As an American programmer....)
on
Can China Pull An India?
·
· Score: 3, Informative
It may seem as if the US independent contractor mkt has dried up. But in actuality US gov't contracting is still going strong for us citizens. Not that you will actually do any exciting work (gov't software development is the pits), but you will have a contract as a 'guru'. I'm embarrassed to say it's what I'm doing right now (after 16 years of successfully avoiding govt contracts). I'm also regrouping for a bit of a career change.
The poster who suggests breaking out of the hourly rate game is on target. Most cost overruns occur on hourly rate contracts; in most cases the overrun is not noticed. Therefore corporations who only want to hire the cheapest hourly rate, won't negotiate, have turned a blind eye to opportunity. Any moderately complex project based on hourly rate must use deep bean-counting to succeed on cost targets over a fixed price project; Software success primarily requires getting rid of 'noise' in the development process and excessive management is a form of 'noise'. Distributed projects add extra management 'noise' to the development process; Mgt is betting reduced hourly rates will save the day. This can work, but requires more discipline than most companies are capable of (most people seem to use project management for presentation purposes, can't even set useful milestones - hah!).
Don't be afraid to 'game' the negotiation process. Learn all you can. If you can help a business win, you will be scoring reputation points which will lead to future opportunities. Keep your overhead low so as to minimize cost advantages to non-us competitors. Don't work for free. Open-source contributors are not working for free (most sensible ones have their finances in order), they are working for reputation points and breaking up entrenched markets, leading to more opportunity for really useful and productive people over drones.
You are entirely on target. This sort of thing happened to me in school more than once and no one bothered to understand what was going on. I was more than once pretty certain the end of my life was at hand.
My 9-year old son told me it he could not take a baseball and glove to practice with during recess because it was prohibited under zero tolerance. Some kid got suspended....
Hmmm. Richard Garriot claims the moon because he has property there....
Do you actually own something that was left on the moon?
Yes. I purchased Lunakod 21 from the Russians. I am now the world's only private owner of an object on a foreign celestial body. Though there are international treaties that say, no government shall lay claim to geography off planet earth, I am not a government. Summarily, I claim the moon in the name of Lord British!
Meanwhile, John Carmack is busy trying to build serious rockets.
For a really cool demo, get a camcorder on a spinning mount to match your products, then do a time lapse of a plant germinating.....
Why not just use mirror(s)?
An aside: I am working with a group developing ways to simplify the income tax code using a computer program that will find politically neutral simplifications, taking the whole issue out of politics.
Steve B sez...: This is impossible on its face. Every complication was put there to serve some political special interest; removing any of them is inherently a political decision.
The payoff for progessive government is dead bodies. The intellectual distance from the DemocRATS to the Nazis is a thin line, and it's getting narrower all the time.
It is quite unfair to tax the portion of income required to meet the minimum of food, clothing, and shelter.
Well, there you have it. We get burned because we are taxed on our gross, instead of our net income. The truth is there is no truth to the tax system - it's not voluntary, it's not fair, it's not efficient, it's not honest, and most likely it's not good for us.
Read the American Declaration of Independence, which listed the grievances justifying the American Revolution. The Bill of Rights (including the preamble) was intended as a check on the excess of government which could lead to another revolution.
Over the last 90 years progressives, those in government and industry, have made a point of ignoring limits to government, to the point of forgetting why there are limits, to the point of wholesale abrogation and denial of limits to government. The tax system is just one aspect of this. Let's not forget the public works systems, the insurance industry, the nascent military-industrial complex, etc.
Well, here I am, way off topic on a soapbox. Suffice to say, David Brin is a good storyteller, but his analysis is shallow. Government is not innately good for you, especially in particular. Government is just a lesser evil, which must be kept in check in order to avoid greater evil and wholesale unpleasantness. Anyone who wants to use the government as an agent of social change is neglecting this basic premise, and denial is lying.
Although I agree with your premise, your response was not helpful in the context of furthering the discussion. Perhaps we could edit the flame to remove the incendiary verbiage....:
...Gore took sole responsibility ["took initiative in creating it" is indicative of claiming credit]
for the invention of the internet. If what he meant to say that he supported legistlation that helped the internet grow,... then that's what he should of said.
...[ (the poster feels it is very tiresome to listen to Gore apologists attempt to refute this) ]...
His exact quote is, "During my service in congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet.".
Basically, he is saying that he created the internet. [...] The internet was CREATED in the 60s. And him being dishonest to the American people shows what type of administration he is going to bring in.
What kind of [incorrect] interpretation is that? [...(flamage)...]
Where does Kaplan get off comparing the dissemination of DeCSS to disease and assassination? It's a slap in the face of every free-thinking computer geek who ever lived!
Let's see now, gun owners are the new niggers and computer geeks are the new kikes! Don't talk about freedom and code in the same breath anymore. Just play nice with the keyboard and don't color outside the lines...You are owned!
It would be trivial to walk underneath one of those things and shake a vial of someone else's dandruff over its sensor.
Even better, grab random samples from public places, and amplify them via kitchen-sink polymerase chain reaction. Randomly vary the proportions and carry a vial of the stuff with you to paint on your shoes, dooknobs, bus seats, etc.
Re:Can I state the obvious?
on
Copyrant
·
· Score: 1
this is not a flame... ...quite frankly, he is so biased and paranoid that very often he does not see or explore all sides of an issue.
I'm afraid that no matter how you put it, this is an ad homineum attack. You do not debate the merits of the writing, you instead focus on the writer's qualifications or percieved lack thereof.
And here's the conspiracy for restraint of trade argument right here in the article for you: Garrett admits that his technology has been made possible by loopholes in Hollywood's contracts with DVD makers. "All the manufacturers of DVD players have signed an agreement not to provide a Firewire digital output. But there is no mention of SDI," he says. Firewire feeds high-quality video into computers.
They've even set up an association - MPAA. Hello MPAA Lawyers! Better bill while you can!
The irony is, last time I heard that one, I read about a drive-by stabbing in the newspaper the next day. Car screeches up, kids jump out of the car, stab an innocent victim to death, jump back in, roar off.
The problem being that it's difficult to find a study you can trust.
Initially I thought that too. But then I read and heard the objections of the Victim Disarmers (e.g. HCI) to the studies and factual information regarding the incidence of accident, death, personal protection, etc. What a load of baloney. These guys are so far out on the intellectual dishonesty scale you can just write them off completely. When the facts don't fit, they make things up.
Look at GunCite for an example of serious information.
Hmmm. The Revolution threw the existing Gov't out. The existing Gov't had tried to take the guns away to prevent violence. That was what Paul Revere and his group were riding for, to alert people the troops were coming to take them horrid, horrid guns away. Sure, it was the British Gov't, but it was the lawful gov't.
And who was the militia? All the people who had guns and were ready to use them to prevent the lawful gov't from exceeding in it's domain.
BTW, well-regulated then meant well-trained and well equipped. And without a standing army or police force, it was up to the militia to protect the community.
Now let's also remember the Bill of Rights is more properly understood as a list of limitations on government power. Check the preamble and the 9th and 10th amendments. So "shall not be infringed" is a pretty potent clause.
So I understand the 2nd to mean I should be able to keep and use all the good quality weapons I think are necessary to secure freedom, it's important for me to know how to use them well and be able to get them when I decide I need them, and most importantly: No agent of the federal gov't should interfere with me with respect to the above.
A later amendment (the 13th I think) goes on to extend my privileges and immunities (rights and the freedom from having rights interfered with) to protection from the individual states. Some Southern states had to adopt the Bill of Rights in order to be re-instated into the Union after the War Between the States.
Oh, yeah, one more thing:
The consitution doesn't say you should be allowed to buy SR-71 at Walmart
This is a straw dog. When the 2nd amendment was adopted, individuals most certainly possessed the heavy weaponry of the day - cannon, grenades, rocket launchers, and of course, warships. Especially warships. Just who do you think Letters of Marque were issued to, anyway?
Aha! talk about asking for trouble! What a crock. Unless, hey, maybe the intent was to make it probable the we would be unable to buy guns...most of the time.
Hey! does this count as an infringment then? Certainly it seems like the system is intended to put gun dealers out of business by making it impossible to predict when they can close a sale...
I thought under the previous rule if the system blipped, you got a pass, since there is no cause to believe you a criminal simply because you bought a gun.
I wonder what the actual technical problem was with the NCIC database?
Yah, another example of people's misplaced faith in government computerization. BTW, I think the only guns in the NFRTR database are the "NFA" ones, e.g. mini-guns, submachineguns, bazookas, cannons, etc. In the incidents you mention there are cases of folks getting sent to prison who had faithfully followed all the rules and filled out the forms but had the BATF solemnly testify 'there is no record' which is all it takes to get convicted.
Wonder what happens to folks when similar computerized systems fail in other countries?
For example, doesn't Thailand have a national computerized ID? What happens if the system is down when the police ask for your ID..."OOPS, you're not really a legal person right now."
I had trouble getting a California DL because of computer failures. Initially the DMV issued me a paper license because the system was down. They collected my GA license and shipped it back to Georgia (the license card is apparently state property). After a month I went down to see what had happened and they say it was not issued because Arizona had suspended me (they started to get nasty then). Turns out (I persuade them to call) AZ had inadvertantly re-activated an administrative hold entry in the National Drivers License registry. Seems they loaded in some backup data from 20-years previous when they started the system. My mom ( thanks again mom ) went down to the Arizona DMV the following week and paid the $10 charge...Arizona had offered a 12-week turnaround on a snail-mail request.
Since I had to fly to San Diego before then I made the DMV take a picture of me and re-issue a temporary (much persuasion required). That evening I attracted the attention of the police for a possible speed violation (hey, the left turn light was green, I was driving a Porsche, why shouldn't I drive the speed limit with the cruise on?). When the officer saw the license card he lost his enthusiasm - he said there was too much paperwork involved. Needless to say I kept my little speeding pass handy for a long time!
Oh well, good thing I got my puny "Assault Plinker" in December!!
Here is a quote from the welcome email I got after signing on to slashdot: ---Posting Rules--------------------------------------------- - 1. Stay on topic. 2. Don't flame people. 3. Don't be a potty mouth.
None of these are concrete black & white issues, but we reserve the right to delete comments that violate them. We're not willing to get sued over what you post. And frankly, we don't want Slashdot to degenerate to what usenet usually is like. So don't do stupid things like 'first comment' crap.
This of course is from the pre-moderation era. What does the welcome letter say now?
Weeel, I think you should tell Microsoft to Butt Out.
I agree with the other x-to-the-n posters here who think Microsoft is carrying things Too Far. Maybe we should have a class action suit over civil rights too?
I'm definitely getting awfully annoyed at Certain Corporations now. If they keep acting like rapacious shark-weasel-alligator similes then maybe someone should club 'em analogously...so to speak.
One more thing. Don't ever let them get away with concealing who the minions are. We're out in the open. So should they be. When they offer you an NDA, offer them a DA. Because if this goes black I smell RICO.
Arrested is detained. If you can walk away from the cops, you aren't arrested. It's a power thang. Whether it's the Philippines or the US or France, the definition is the same. Now I understand the cops like to make a distinction - but it's only for make-nice...
Slashdot Mirror
The dust would have to be moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light in order to achieve a toaster oven effect on the ground.
Of course, there's the possibility of a nuclear winter type effect...
Damn! There went another asteroid we could have exploited for natural resources, thus making a space-based economy viable. This would contribute to the benefit of mankind by improving the standard of living and also making it more likely we can do something about future potential planet-killers.
The poster who suggests breaking out of the hourly rate game is on target. Most cost overruns occur on hourly rate contracts; in most cases the overrun is not noticed. Therefore corporations who only want to hire the cheapest hourly rate, won't negotiate, have turned a blind eye to opportunity. Any moderately complex project based on hourly rate must use deep bean-counting to succeed on cost targets over a fixed price project; Software success primarily requires getting rid of 'noise' in the development process and excessive management is a form of 'noise'. Distributed projects add extra management 'noise' to the development process; Mgt is betting reduced hourly rates will save the day. This can work, but requires more discipline than most companies are capable of (most people seem to use project management for presentation purposes, can't even set useful milestones - hah!).
Don't be afraid to 'game' the negotiation process. Learn all you can. If you can help a business win, you will be scoring reputation points which will lead to future opportunities. Keep your overhead low so as to minimize cost advantages to non-us competitors. Don't work for free. Open-source contributors are not working for free (most sensible ones have their finances in order), they are working for reputation points and breaking up entrenched markets, leading to more opportunity for really useful and productive people over drones.
I wonder if a BGA part is amenable to the toaster oven solution? I have a temperature controlled toaster oven in the garage, I'll give it a try.
You are entirely on target. This sort of thing happened to me in school more than once and no one bothered to understand what was going on. I was more than once pretty certain the end of my life was at hand.
My 9-year old son told me it he could not take a baseball and glove to practice with during recess because it was prohibited under zero tolerance. Some kid got suspended....
If the law is not for dissemination, it is not the law.
Do you actually own something that was left on the moon?
Yes. I purchased Lunakod 21 from the Russians. I am now the world's only private owner of an object on a foreign celestial body. Though there are international treaties that say, no government shall lay claim to geography off planet earth, I am not a government. Summarily, I claim the moon in the name of Lord British!
Meanwhile, John Carmack is busy trying to build serious rockets.
Something is going on here.....
For a really cool demo, get a camcorder on a spinning mount to match your products, then do a time lapse of a plant germinating..... Why not just use mirror(s)?
Steve B sez...:
This is impossible on its face. Every complication was put there to serve some political special interest; removing any of them is inherently a political decision.
Yeah. Brin needs to consider Von Hayek. Centralized planning is dumber, not smarter. I see a return to feudalism all right - but it's Th e Road to Serfdom ..." The thesis of The Road to Serfdom, for instance, is not simply that central planning is inefficient because it blocks the flow of information. Rather, Hayek argues that substituting government plans for individual plans requires imposing a single hierarchy of values and overriding the diverse tradeoffs individuals would prefer. "One best way"--even for education, retirement saving or health care--is a prescription for tyranny or vicious political conflict. "
The payoff for progessive government is dead bodies. The intellectual distance from the DemocRATS to the Nazis is a thin line, and it's getting narrower all the time.
It is quite unfair to tax the portion of income required to meet the minimum of food, clothing, and shelter.
Well, there you have it. We get burned because we are taxed on our gross, instead of our net income. The truth is there is no truth to the tax system - it's not voluntary, it's not fair, it's not efficient, it's not honest, and most likely it's not good for us.
Read the American Declaration of Independence, which listed the grievances justifying the American Revolution. The Bill of Rights (including the preamble) was intended as a check on the excess of government which could lead to another revolution.
Over the last 90 years progressives, those in government and industry, have made a point of ignoring limits to government, to the point of forgetting why there are limits, to the point of wholesale abrogation and denial of limits to government. The tax system is just one aspect of this. Let's not forget the public works systems, the insurance industry, the nascent military-industrial complex, etc.
Well, here I am, way off topic on a soapbox. Suffice to say, David Brin is a good storyteller, but his analysis is shallow. Government is not innately good for you, especially in particular. Government is just a lesser evil, which must be kept in check in order to avoid greater evil and wholesale unpleasantness. Anyone who wants to use the government as an agent of social change is neglecting this basic premise, and denial is lying.
Although I agree with your premise, your response was not helpful in the context of furthering the discussion. Perhaps we could edit the flame to remove the incendiary verbiage....:
...[ (the poster feels it is very tiresome to listen to Gore apologists attempt to refute this) ]...
His exact quote is, "During my service in congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet.". Basically, he is saying that he created the internet. [...] The internet was CREATED in the 60s. And him being dishonest to the American people shows what type of administration he is going to bring in. What kind of [incorrect] interpretation is that? [...(flamage)...]
After all, this is the point of the discussion...
I have read the ruling and I am outraged.
Where does Kaplan get off comparing the dissemination of DeCSS to disease and assassination? It's a slap in the face of every free-thinking computer geek who ever lived!
Let's see now, gun owners are the new niggers and computer geeks are the new kikes! Don't talk about freedom and code in the same breath anymore. Just play nice with the keyboard and don't color outside the lines...You are owned!
Nah, it's an energy storage scheme, like a battery. Liquid N2 expands like 750x or so to STP. Do the math.
Even better, grab random samples from public places, and amplify them via kitchen-sink polymerase chain reaction. Randomly vary the proportions and carry a vial of the stuff with you to paint on your shoes, dooknobs, bus seats, etc.
That will slow down the bastards!
mapping the the genome of other humans.
...quite frankly, he is so biased and paranoid that very often he does not see or explore all sides of an issue.
I'm afraid that no matter how you put it, this is an ad homineum attack. You do not debate the merits of the writing, you instead focus on the writer's qualifications or percieved lack thereof.
Therefore, your reply is in fact a flame.
And here's the conspiracy for restraint of trade argument right here in the article for you:
Garrett admits that his technology has been made possible by loopholes in Hollywood's contracts with DVD makers. "All the manufacturers of DVD players have signed an agreement not to provide a Firewire digital output. But there is no mention of SDI," he says. Firewire feeds high-quality video into computers.
They've even set up an association - MPAA. Hello MPAA Lawyers! Better bill while you can!
The irony is, last time I heard that one, I read about a drive-by stabbing in the newspaper the next day. Car screeches up, kids jump out of the car, stab an innocent victim to death, jump back in, roar off.
Initially I thought that too. But then I read and heard the objections of the Victim Disarmers (e.g. HCI) to the studies and factual information regarding the incidence of accident, death, personal protection, etc. What a load of baloney. These guys are so far out on the intellectual dishonesty scale you can just write them off completely. When the facts don't fit, they make things up.
Look at GunCite for an example of serious information.
And who was the militia? All the people who had guns and were ready to use them to prevent the lawful gov't from exceeding in it's domain.
BTW, well-regulated then meant well-trained and well equipped. And without a standing army or police force, it was up to the militia to protect the community.
Now let's also remember the Bill of Rights is more properly understood as a list of limitations on government power. Check the preamble and the 9th and 10th amendments. So "shall not be infringed" is a pretty potent clause.
So I understand the 2nd to mean I should be able to keep and use all the good quality weapons I think are necessary to secure freedom, it's important for me to know how to use them well and be able to get them when I decide I need them, and most importantly:
No agent of the federal gov't should interfere with me with respect to the above.
A later amendment (the 13th I think) goes on to extend my privileges and immunities (rights and the freedom from having rights interfered with) to protection from the individual states. Some Southern states had to adopt the Bill of Rights in order to be re-instated into the Union after the War Between the States.
Oh, yeah, one more thing:
The consitution doesn't say you should be allowed to buy SR-71 at Walmart
This is a straw dog. When the 2nd amendment was adopted, individuals most certainly possessed the heavy weaponry of the day - cannon, grenades, rocket launchers, and of course, warships. Especially warships. Just who do you think Letters of Marque were issued to, anyway?
Aha! talk about asking for trouble! What a crock. Unless, hey, maybe the intent was to make it probable the we would be unable to buy guns...most of the time.
Hey! does this count as an infringment then? Certainly it seems like the system is intended to put gun dealers out of business by making it impossible to predict when they can close a sale...
I thought under the previous rule if the system blipped, you got a pass, since there is no cause to believe you a criminal simply because you bought a gun.
I wonder what the actual technical problem was with the NCIC database?
Yah, another example of people's misplaced faith in government computerization. BTW, I think the only guns in the NFRTR database are the "NFA" ones, e.g. mini-guns, submachineguns, bazookas, cannons, etc. In the incidents you mention there are cases of folks getting sent to prison who had faithfully followed all the rules and filled out the forms but had the BATF solemnly testify 'there is no record' which is all it takes to get convicted.
Wonder what happens to folks when similar computerized systems fail in other countries?
For example, doesn't Thailand have a national computerized ID? What happens if the system is down when the police ask for your ID..."OOPS, you're not really a legal person right now."
I had trouble getting a California DL because of computer failures. Initially the DMV issued me a paper license because the system was down. They collected my GA license and shipped it back to Georgia (the license card is apparently state property). After a month I went down to see what had happened and they say it was not issued because Arizona had suspended me (they started to get nasty then). Turns out (I persuade them to call) AZ had inadvertantly re-activated an administrative hold entry in the National Drivers License registry. Seems they loaded in some backup data from 20-years previous when they started the system. My mom ( thanks again mom ) went down to the Arizona DMV the following week and paid the $10 charge...Arizona had offered a 12-week turnaround on a snail-mail request.
Since I had to fly to San Diego before then I made the DMV take a picture of me and re-issue a temporary (much persuasion required). That evening I attracted the attention of the police for a possible speed violation (hey, the left turn light was green, I was driving a Porsche, why shouldn't I drive the speed limit with the cruise on?). When the officer saw the license card he lost his enthusiasm - he said there was too much paperwork involved. Needless to say I kept my little speeding pass handy for a long time!
Oh well, good thing I got my puny "Assault Plinker" in December!!
Here is a quote from the welcome email I got after signing on to slashdot:
- -
---Posting Rules--------------------------------------------
1. Stay on topic.
2. Don't flame people.
3. Don't be a potty mouth.
None of these are concrete black & white issues, but we reserve
the right to delete comments that violate them. We're not willing
to get sued over what you post. And frankly, we don't want Slashdot
to degenerate to what usenet usually is like. So don't do stupid
things like 'first comment' crap.
This of course is from the pre-moderation era. What does the welcome letter say now?
Weeel, I think you should tell Microsoft to Butt Out.
I agree with the other x-to-the-n posters here who think Microsoft is carrying things Too Far. Maybe we should have a class action suit over civil rights too?
I'm definitely getting awfully annoyed at Certain Corporations now. If they keep acting like rapacious shark-weasel-alligator similes then maybe someone should club 'em analogously...so to speak.
One more thing. Don't ever let them get away with concealing who the minions are. We're out in the open. So should they be. When they offer you an NDA, offer them a DA. Because if this goes black I smell RICO.
Arrested is detained. If you can walk away from the cops, you aren't arrested. It's a power thang. Whether it's the Philippines or the US or France, the definition is the same. Now I understand the cops like to make a distinction - but it's only for make-nice...