Slashdot Mirror


User: carnivorouscow

carnivorouscow's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
49
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 49

  1. Re:Non-lethal? on China Buying US Directed Sound 'Weapon' · · Score: 1

    Sound is a crappy way to transmit energy. Sound intensity is governed by the inverse square of the distance (exponential decay at range). Kinetic weapons are far more efficient, only losing energy to drag which is dependent on velocity and air density.

    If you were to put the same amount of energy that's in the 160db emitters into steel fragments you'll have a much larger kill radius in a smaller package.

  2. The oldest running code on What Is the Oldest Code Written Still Running? · · Score: 1

    Is the light switch in my grandparent's house. The data entry is an ongoing project.

  3. A little help please on Author Faces Canadian Tribunal For Hate Speech · · Score: 1

    I spent some time with google but couldn't find a clear answer. What is the extent of the Human Rights Tribunal's power? Punitive damages? Fines? Community service? Prison sentences? Execution? A stern talking to?

  4. Re:Intellectual Property Tax on Patent Attorney On Why We Need To Rethink Intellectual Property · · Score: 1

    What is every piece of software under GNU GPL worth as a whole? The FSF doesn't have the cash handy to meet the necessary tax load and would have to put it up for sale to pay it's taxes. I'm sure we all know who has the cash and motivation to buy all those patents up, pay the taxes on them and sit on them.

    Intellectual Property Tax doesn't sound quite so good now, does it?

  5. Re:Stupid idea on It's Not a Flying Car - It's a Drivable Airplane · · Score: 1

    A cruise missile only launches once, collateral damage from failure isn't a large concern and they still cost $1,000,000 each.

    Commercial Aircraft that can fly themselves cost $150,000,000, are cleared for flight weeks in advance and organized into a huge flight control system that's already overloaded. They're rigorously maintained and operated by expert personnel because of the huge risk associated with an accident.

    The technology that is "here now" is so far out of the reach of the average consumer in terms of initial cost, maintenance, infrastructure development and operator skill that it's effectively unobtainable. The cost benefit ratio kills the possibility of a flying car well into the foreseeable future.

  6. Re:Stupid idea on It's Not a Flying Car - It's a Drivable Airplane · · Score: 1

    This arguement is very different from an anti-gun arguement, location and frequency make a world of difference. Responsible gun owners don't discharge their firearms several times a day in city limits nor are they trying to apply makeup or eat a cheeseburger at the same time. The perception of safety and familiarity while driving a car make reckless behavior seem reasonable. Most people see their car as their buddy but there's no mistaking what your gun is for, the attitude of the average operator is vastly different.

    People have a hard time avoiding crashes on a 2 dimensional surface and remembering to maintain their car. Adding an extra axis to manage and making a mechanical failure potentially fatal for them and anyone unlucky enough to be under them make the associated human problems more than trivial. Couple the general level of incompetence with the looming global energy demands and it becomes clear that flying cars aren't going to "take off".

  7. Re:The Art of Electronics on Books On Electronics For the Lay Programmer? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The electricity misconceptions site seemed so intent on proving things wrong that it made several errors or needless complicated several topics.

    On topic I found "Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics" by Stan Gibilisco to be a very useful book for hobbiest stuff.

  8. Dyslexia on Do Zebra Stripes Actually Help? · · Score: 1

    I bet they didn't have many, if any, testers with dyslexia. Tightly stacked columns of data are easy to mix up, zebra stripes as least give some visual reference that your eyes didn't "slip" as you read across.

  9. Re:Full laptop is better on War Brewing on the Inexpensive Laptop Front · · Score: 1

    How frequently do you have to write a bunch of code but are so far away from work/home that you can't get to a desktop?

    The full sized laptop isn't dead but for most portable users a mini-laptop is a better choice as a second computer.

  10. Don't burn down your house to save $2000 on Hobbyist Renewable Energy? · · Score: 1

    Invest in a proper inverter, this is one of those things where you want the expertise of a professional engineer coupled with quality control and product testing.

    Normally I'm all for hobbiest projects but this one has the potential to do serious damage if you screw up. If you put enough effort in to throughly test your prototype before using it you'll easily go over the purchase price of a developed product.

  11. Re:Not to capitalism he's not. on Disillusioned With IT? · · Score: 1



    The "cold raw truth of the matter" is the world is like that if you're smart enough to make it work. There are plenty of jobs out there besides IT that pay a living wage. Machine shop fabricators, contractors and small buisness owners all make plenty of money and none of them deal with IT. Those are only a few examples, there are hundreds of different jobs out there.

    I never suggested he go pick daisies, what I was suggesting was that he should consider jobs that pay enough to fulfill his financial obligations.

  12. Re:Thats irrational and selfish. on Disillusioned With IT? · · Score: 1

    Your logic is flawed, a father is much more than a paycheck.

    Taking a pay cut to have more free time to spend with your kids or finding a less stressful occupation so you have the emotional energy to deal with them are perfectly rational decisions.

    Doing what you enjoy and making enough money to support a family are not mutually exclusive. If the mortgage is paid and food is put on the table your financial obligations have been met. Disposable income is overrated and more than anything else kids need time with their parents more than new toys.

  13. Of course Lawyers know... on Lawyers Would Rather Fly Than Download PGP · · Score: 1

    they know that travel time is billable, encryption isn't and that most people are comforted by proximity.

  14. Re:Where does the magnetic field come from? on Black Hole Particle Jets Explained · · Score: 1

    The field would cancel if the flow remained laminar but the plasma is in turbulent flow so it's a non uniform mixture. Since the flow is 3 dimensional and turbulent the B field interacts with itself in strange ways. The particles aren't all moving at the same speed or staying in a similar position WRT one another, that's why the magnetic field don't cancel out.

  15. Re:Where does the magnetic field come from? on Black Hole Particle Jets Explained · · Score: 1

    The high temperature and particle speed in the accretion disc ionize the particles. Electrons have a hard time staying with their nucleus when you start applying those kind of forces to the atoms. After they're charged they become a moving electric charge and induce a magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of travel (but it sounds like you already knew that).

  16. Avoid public terminals and if you use one... on Best Way To Avoid Keyloggers On Public Terminals? · · Score: 1

    Change your password as soon as you get to a safe terminal. Smart "keyloggers" record the screen, the copy paste tricks don't work anymore.

  17. Re:And a related problem... on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1

    Molten salt storage goes in with the mirror array, that's the primary difference between PV cells and thermal cells. You build the collector array large enough to compensate for nigh time demands and store the heat in molten salt. Heat from the salt is used to power a conventional heat engine like a Brayton or Stirling engine.

  18. Re:Riiiiiiight on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1

    It's totally impractical to build it all in one place, the transmission costs would kill you. 92mi X 92mi square is a talking point to illustrate requirements, nothing more. But if you want to compare land mass the Mojave Desert is over 25000 square miles (or about 7 Yellowstones if that's your preferred metric). There is plenty of usable space in this country where it would be practical to build regional STP plants.

    To compensate for cloudy days you use a thermal storage medium like molten salts so it can continue to generate power on cloudy days. Using molten salts for heat storage is a proven technology and is one of the large advantages to STP over PV generation.

    Fission plants certainly have their place but we currently have no place to store the waste, the space inside Yucca Mountain is already spoken for. Additionally it's not very likely the ban on breeder reactors will be lifted any time soon. With the current political environment it's far better to use solar and wind where possible and reserve atomic waste disposal capacity for regions where the first 2 are impractical.

  19. Re:92-by-92? Impractical. on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1

    Rhode Island doesn't need domestic power generation, there are cities in the US with a larger population than that entire state. Rhode Island can do what those same cities do, have it transmitted from somewhere else.

    There are currently 3 power grids that supply energy to the US and Canada. We already move power great distances, the infrastructure to deal with the problem you perceive already exists. To scale STP large enough to meet energy demands for colder states with high population density you'd build more plants in the south and transmit the power north. Supplemental power could be handled with conventional LWR plants built in Canada and the northern states.

  20. Re:Solar thermal power/solar photovoltaics on Tech That Will Save Our Species - Solar Thermal Power · · Score: 1

    Carnot efficiency limits don't matter, given the technology we have right now heat engines are far more efficient at generating energy than anything else we have. Photovoltaic cells and magnetohydrodynamic generators have terrible efficiency, wind and hydroelectric generators are space intensive and everything else started out as heat so it suffered from Carnot limits at some point.

    Long term heat storage isn't as insurmountable as you're implying. An impermeable barrier surrounded by hard vacuum could certainly store heat with very little loss for 180 days. Initial cost and required space are the big obstacles but in general it's a problem that can be solved and is about as challenging as storing hydrogen for long periods of time. It may prove more practical to store and recover excess energy with a system of pumps, reservoirs, hydroelectric plants and forebays but heat storage isn't totally unrealistic.

    Most of the humans on the planet live in a warm climate or at least within reasonable transmission range of a warm climate. Finding a clean, renewable energy source that can serve the majority is pretty close to a silver bullet and unlike pure PV cells, solar thermal cells can provide electricity at a reasonable $/KWhr right now. The humans that are out of reasonable transmission range could be served with other technologies, like nuclear, and by putting the majority on a clean grid it lessens the overall impact of having to use dirtier power sources in the colder climates.

  21. Re:OH WOW on Eco-Marathon Team Hits 2,843 mpg · · Score: 1

    One of the ways to improve engine efficiency is to increase the compression ratio. However, high compression also increases NOx production because the pressure and heat is high enough to break down atmospheric nitrogen.

  22. Re:OH WOW on Eco-Marathon Team Hits 2,843 mpg · · Score: 1

    New cars use a lot more material due to increased safety standards and consumer demanded features. For example, a 1973 Honda civic weighed in at 1500 lbs; fast forward to 2008 and the civic now weighs in at 2700 lbs. Engines have gotten better, the efficiency gains are used to create more powerful engines to move around a reinforced chassis filled with power everything.

  23. Re:When healthy tension turns unhealthy.. on Dealing With an IT Bully · · Score: 1

    I agree, developers becoming favored by management would definitely lead to chaos, or at least flying chairs.

  24. Re:the term "disruptive technology" on The Many Battle Fronts of Content Owners · · Score: 1

    Yep, the invisible hand of the market moves again.

  25. Re:Bearing in mind... on Smallest Planet Outside Our Solar System Found · · Score: 1

    There is the possibility that life has developed on a planet very different from our own. However, we know for certain that inteligent life can develop on a planet like ours. When dealing with finite resources you frequently get better results staying with the known.

    I'm not arguing that SETI should avoid any solar system that wasn't identical to ours, but it is far more probably that inteligent life would develop on a planet similar to ours.A planet wouldn't have to be a mirror image of earth but there's a reasonable upper and lower limit in terms of temperature, gravity and chemical composition.