The G15 LCD is outstanding. There's a mod called LCD Miscellany that I use (well, I use the framework but wrote my own script for it). Displays date/time, uptime, cpu/mem/bw/hdd usage with graphs, system volume, the song I'm currently playing in winamp and its progress, and the current best price (from pricespider) for whatever gadget I'm currently eyeing.
Message me for the script.:)
Manned space missions since the start of space programs (Vostok 1, 1961). I'm taking failure to be loss of crew:
China: 3 missions, 0 failures.
USSR/Russia: 108 missions, 2 failures (Soyuz 1, Soyuz 11). Soyuz 48 exploded but the crew was able to escape.
USA: 154 missions, 2 failures (Challenger, Columbia). I'm not counting Apollo 1 since it wasn't a space mission, just a rocket test.
Looks like the average failure rate for manned space missions is around 1.5%. Of course you wouldn't expect China to have had any failures yet as they've only made 3 attempts. That doesn't mean their record is better than either Russia or the USA. Note that the USA had well over 50 missions before its first failure.
Except for the simple fact that anyone who cuts their coke with LYE will be out of business so fast it'll make their head spin.
Come to think of it their head may end up literally spinning.
Fear is a great motivator.
No no no! You're confusing objects and pointers. You can have an apple (object) or you can have a piece of paper that says "the apple in the fruit basket next to the microwave" (pointer).
Everything's hunky-dory, unless somebody goes and eats that apple without telling you. Now you have a pointer that points to an object that isn't there.
Wait, that's not a null pointer, that's more like a hanging pointer. I guess a null pointer would be like a piece of paper saying "the apple at the end of the universe". (You can get those from the restaurant there.;))
One exists and one doesn't. If you have a Foo&, you're guaranteed that it refers to an actual Foo object. You can't declare "Foo& foo;" without binding it to an instantiated object.
Of course nothing stops you from have a reference bound to an object that's gone out of scope, but that's different than a "null reference", which doesn't exist.
I'm almost positive you're thinking of Hal Clement's short story "Dust Rag". That's exactly the plot you described.
Clarke did write a similar story called "A Fall of Moondust" which dealt with the perils of moon dust, but not quite in the same way.
It's a real shame that companies presently developing private space vehicles are more concerned with just getting people far up enough to enjoy freefall (for dumb prices) instead of really looking towards space.
That's not true. The space company getting the most media attention is just getting people up to freefall.
But don't forgot about the real, orbital, private space companies like SpaceX and Orbital, who were each just recently awarded ~$1.5 billion contracts for ISS resupply over the next 7 years.
When calculating astrological signs over timescales of millenia, don't forget that due to precession of the Earth's axis the signs all shift by about a month every 2,000 years. So today's Libra is the year 4000's Virgo.
(Except of course that all the dates for the signs are fixed as they were in the time of the Ancient Greeks, so we're already off by a whole month. If you're a Libra the sun is actually in Virgo on your birthday.)
This also means that the autumnal equinox in 4004 BC was somewhere around the end of June.
That really is insane...
I wonder what the logic was.
Since I haven't had coffee and can't tell if you're being serious or not...
The logic is "If our customers can play 1080p over analog then it's conceivable they could plug a recording device in the other end and pirate our movie. If we only let them play 1080p over digital then we can also make sure the device on the other end has been certified not to record". It's really quite ridiculous. Most (all?) new HD players do this, as well as Vista.
What it comes down to, is that all new video you buy on disc has been intentionally crippled.
Only 0.0000003% of the coupon is his money, but 0.0000003% of all the other coupons is also his money. So on average the coupon is entirely his money.
Essentially the government took $40 from each of us, and used it to buy a gift certificate only valid for converter boxes in our names.
Would it? It seems to me that at that distance (roughly 3x the Earth's diameter) the axial tilt of the Earth might be enough to raise the station North of the Earth's shadow during Northern summer and South of the shadow during Northern winter.
Of course you're correct near the equinoxes.:)
Slashdot Mirror
The G15 LCD is outstanding. There's a mod called LCD Miscellany that I use (well, I use the framework but wrote my own script for it). Displays date/time, uptime, cpu/mem/bw/hdd usage with graphs, system volume, the song I'm currently playing in winamp and its progress, and the current best price (from pricespider) for whatever gadget I'm currently eyeing. Message me for the script. :)
Meme nazi?
No, it's TANSTAAFL. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
I think that qualifies as epic.
Now Eddy's in currents too? I think I saw his couch float by back when he was in the space-time continuum.
I just use 4chan as my personal army.
Manned space missions since the start of space programs (Vostok 1, 1961). I'm taking failure to be loss of crew:
China: 3 missions, 0 failures.
USSR/Russia: 108 missions, 2 failures (Soyuz 1, Soyuz 11). Soyuz 48 exploded but the crew was able to escape.
USA: 154 missions, 2 failures (Challenger, Columbia). I'm not counting Apollo 1 since it wasn't a space mission, just a rocket test.
Looks like the average failure rate for manned space missions is around 1.5%. Of course you wouldn't expect China to have had any failures yet as they've only made 3 attempts. That doesn't mean their record is better than either Russia or the USA. Note that the USA had well over 50 missions before its first failure.
Except for the simple fact that anyone who cuts their coke with LYE will be out of business so fast it'll make their head spin. Come to think of it their head may end up literally spinning. Fear is a great motivator.
Not even on the chart.
This chart, that is.
Looks like 1g1c is the next most popular.
No no no! You're confusing objects and pointers. You can have an apple (object) or you can have a piece of paper that says "the apple in the fruit basket next to the microwave" (pointer). Everything's hunky-dory, unless somebody goes and eats that apple without telling you. Now you have a pointer that points to an object that isn't there.
;))
Wait, that's not a null pointer, that's more like a hanging pointer. I guess a null pointer would be like a piece of paper saying "the apple at the end of the universe". (You can get those from the restaurant there.
One exists and one doesn't. If you have a Foo&, you're guaranteed that it refers to an actual Foo object. You can't declare "Foo& foo;" without binding it to an instantiated object.
Of course nothing stops you from have a reference bound to an object that's gone out of scope, but that's different than a "null reference", which doesn't exist.
And Xoom?
What they really mean is, "We're living in the past's future."
I'm almost positive you're thinking of Hal Clement's short story "Dust Rag". That's exactly the plot you described. Clarke did write a similar story called "A Fall of Moondust" which dealt with the perils of moon dust, but not quite in the same way.
Whoosh, eh?
They would if they had perpetual irrevocable rights to sell the pictures 30 years from now when you run for public office.
It's a real shame that companies presently developing private space vehicles are more concerned with just getting people far up enough to enjoy freefall (for dumb prices) instead of really looking towards space.
That's not true. The space company getting the most media attention is just getting people up to freefall. But don't forgot about the real, orbital, private space companies like SpaceX and Orbital, who were each just recently awarded ~$1.5 billion contracts for ISS resupply over the next 7 years.
When calculating astrological signs over timescales of millenia, don't forget that due to precession of the Earth's axis the signs all shift by about a month every 2,000 years. So today's Libra is the year 4000's Virgo.
(Except of course that all the dates for the signs are fixed as they were in the time of the Ancient Greeks, so we're already off by a whole month. If you're a Libra the sun is actually in Virgo on your birthday.)
This also means that the autumnal equinox in 4004 BC was somewhere around the end of June.
This is apparently the first species ever to become "un-extinct".
That really is insane... I wonder what the logic was.
Since I haven't had coffee and can't tell if you're being serious or not...
The logic is "If our customers can play 1080p over analog then it's conceivable they could plug a recording device in the other end and pirate our movie. If we only let them play 1080p over digital then we can also make sure the device on the other end has been certified not to record". It's really quite ridiculous. Most (all?) new HD players do this, as well as Vista.
What it comes down to, is that all new video you buy on disc has been intentionally crippled.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole
How come we can get modded Funny just by having a Seagate drive?
Only 0.0000003% of the coupon is his money, but 0.0000003% of all the other coupons is also his money. So on average the coupon is entirely his money. Essentially the government took $40 from each of us, and used it to buy a gift certificate only valid for converter boxes in our names.
We had the same problem, until we set up a RAID system with our offsite backup in the Sahara. They seem to be much less prone to drive failure.
Would it? It seems to me that at that distance (roughly 3x the Earth's diameter) the axial tilt of the Earth might be enough to raise the station North of the Earth's shadow during Northern summer and South of the shadow during Northern winter. Of course you're correct near the equinoxes. :)
Mod parent insightful!
I heard a guy named Swift had some good ideas about how to get to step #6.