Carbon is ever present in plants and animals. Sugars such as fructose, lactose, sucrose et cetera, and other substances in the body contain a measure of Carbon. Would it be possible, then, to produce Carbon structures by organic means? Could we grow a segment of Carbon mesh that is large enough to be versatile or generous enough as to be bound together with other pieces? Perhaps biological spaceships might exist some day, utilizing an organic Carbon structure for a solar sail. It would require great expertise, as most complex life can not survive the vacuum of space, but it might be possible. In a micro-gravitic environment, size would be of little worry. Even if a complex organism was unable to be created, perhaps gigantic measures of carbon sail could be produced by bacteria or viri.
...that that is where all the neighborhood daemons have disappeared to. It started with one, named Fred, about 6 months ago and they have been disappearing at a steady rate ever since. It just shows you how brave the little guys are. Smiling in their last moments and all. *sniff* Makes me want to write a BSD Anthem.
I had a hell of a time configuring my NIC for use in QNX. What took me 2 minutes to do in BeOS, my first time, and maybe 4 in Windows, just wouldn't take. I tried everything I could to get the sucker running but it wouldn't work. Needless to say, the charm of the OS was destroyed by the lack of connectivity.
With this news, I might go back and try again. At least until the next revision of BeOS comes out again...
Using this to deliver nuclear payloads provides no advantage over the traditional ICBM as far as radioactive emissions goes. If there were enough speed and mass it might make a good kinetic weapon, though. Kinetic weapons have the advantage of being totally non-radioactive. This means that moments after dropping a 2 ton rock on your enemy's capital, you could send troops in from just outside the blast perimeter. The perfect operation.
There is not a nation around that is a democracy. Not a single one. Furthermore, this isn't a matter of right or left, but Authoritarian or Libertarian.
With the passages of new content laws in the EU and US, it seems we are coming one step closer to having industrial police running our streets. Gutenberg's printing press brought books to the masses and resulted in an advancement of personal living standards. Let us just hope that the internet eventually serves to redeem itself by benefiting mankind and not the corporations. It's be an awful shame if the internet were responsible for the privatization of the world's governments.
I was unaware that it was a FLC probe. The addition of this fact invalidates my argument. In light of this, I would like to abandon logic and begin to beg for NASA's funding to be increased. Any objections?
For a craft that wasn't intended to land, or even survive for a prolonged period of time, this is incredible. It sort of makes you wonder about current NASA budget woes, though. If NASA is forced to switch to a "faster, lighter, cheaper" program, then opportunities like this will become more and more scarce. If the craft were only designed to handle the strict specs of the mission then it would be impossible for impromptu experimentation to take place. The cheap probes and landers would not be as likely to cope with a new situation should it appear. What if a once in a life time event were to occur? With cheaper probes, would it be lost to the scientific community?
This is a stupid idea, though. While it would be nice for people to have personal sattelites, the space junk would be horrible. Before the introduction of the car, travel was usually done in groups on large ships or trains. Pollution problems were limited because of the consolidation. Sure there are benefits to having personal transportation, but the negative effects are far heavier. The same is true of these sattelites. While it enables cheaper research, and may help with personal communication, it will lead to an increase in space junk that can not be reliable cleared up at this point.
What if there were a craft that could sweep the heavens? Would it use a free-electron laser to destroy the bulk of the craft? Would it be similar to a whale? A giant craft that takes in a region of space and filters out the crud from the vacuum?
One thing is sure: All future sattelites should have fail-safe capabilities to deorbit themselves. We can't afford to clutter our skies. If we act now, the future will be easier.
I recently participated in a Latin I course over a video distance learning setup. The teacher was located in a town about 15 miles away, but could have just as easily been 1500 miles away, and taught very effectively.
Each classroom on the system was setup with a camera for the instructor and a camera for the students, microphones for everyone desk in the room, a chalkboard which was situated so that it could be seen on the instructor camera, and a small setup that served as an overhead projector. The teachers most often use this for notes and such as it is more convenient than traditional chalkboard use.
We also had a full audio-visual setup so that the teacher could play video onto the system for all participant to see, or so students could record class periods for viewing. The entire setup was controlled by a fairly simple piece of software on a touch-screen interfaced PC. No one had trouble using the system.
We only had two incidents where we lost connection with the host and these were either intentional, or quickly remedied. It was no different than a teacher calling in sick.
I would suggest you do something similar, if you really want distance-learning. It is very effective.
It seems to me, after reading the posts so far, that most nerds give Tesla the credit. At least some people remember this great man whose life and death are both equally mysterious. Check out some great files, courtesy of parascope.com, here or specifically, here. Any geeks want to comment on the system in the second article? It would seem good in theory, but are there any complications that might be unforseen? We need more research into some of Tesla's work.
Actually, the ancient egyptians would entomb the architect inside the tomb upon the pharoah's death. Some would create secret exits inside the tomb, but others died taking the secrets beyond their graves.
The problem with your ideas is as follows: the probe's mass and speed are only enough such that the change in the comet's orbit is kept to a minimum. To cause a planet sized object to change its orbit even that much would take an object of a lot more mass, or an object of equivalent mass or less travelling at much quicker speeds.
If we did somehow cause the moon's orbit to change, it could potentially leave g-lock and fly off as you have suggested. But if it did so, the moon would probably take many years to crash into another object, if its new orbit became stable.
But, of course, I learned all my astrophysics from Wesley Crusher while watching Star Trek: the Next Generation so my opinion doesn't count.
Yes, but TI has a functional monopoly on the market as a whole due to the niche-nature that HP calculators enjoy. I prefer my TI-89 over the HP because I had difficulty using RPN. The learning curve for an HP was too steep for myself. It may not be so for others, but the less nerdy are more inclined to use TI calculators. I won't even consider speaking the truth about Casio calculators, as I am sure you are aware of how horrid the little beasts are.
Finally, I don't think it is in bad taste to make jokes about death. Some people are not so foolishly afraid of death as to get hostile when it is made light of. It happens. Anyone who is strong in their religious path, be it the path of Wicca, or the path of Agnosticism/Atheism, or even the path of Christianity, must recognize that death is not this great, sad taboo, but is just another point in the cycle of life. He may rot in the ground, get reincarnated, or spend eternity in heaven, but he will not be forgotten. This is death.
With the potential for new authors to have their work seen, a lot of technologists say we should be seeing a new philosophical rebirth. So where is it? Has the new Library of Alexandria been torched in the process, or may the day yet come?
Our culture has evolved to the point that hard records do not exist that could accurately reflect all aspects of our society. In a few years, what will be left for the future? If our society devolves to the point where our technology is lost, will the majority of our records be lost to the new age?
What if these ideas had been addressed before? What if the structures we know as the pyramids are really complex machines meant to relate information to potentially inferior future cultures?
With biological machinery, it is possible that we could develop a means for our information to live on. A computer structure that would be fueled by renewable biological life. A means of letting our descendants know who we were.
I thought the results of certain corrections were interesting. On some cgi scripts, the year became 19100 or 20100 for some odd reason. I can only assume that this is the result of shoddy corrections. This prompts the question: which would be worse? A 16900/17900 discrepancy or a 100 year one? The fact that we saw some 19100 errors among the crowd of supposedly fixed scripts seems to suggest that there would have been an error of the archetypal form if corrections hadn't been made, but what if, in the process of fixing bugs, we disrupted things even worse?
I still wish something big had happened. Post-Industrial apocalypse is an incredibly romantic idea. Doesn't every nerd dream of becoming a cavalier or a highway man?
This seems to be an interesting concept. If a neural network could be taught one's preferences, one's personality even, wouldn't it make an excellent agent? A little bot that could go do a lot of menial shit we loathe doing. The idea has been proposed, but would these be quick enough for the job? And if they were, would it be overkill?
Lazar did not state that the propulsion systems were magnetic, but stated they were electrogravitic. By this, he meant that an electrical attraction was used to pull the ship through space. An electrogravitic drive would work by having two conductive materials, the leading one larger than the other, seperated by a non-conductive material. Supposedly, the attraction would pull the drive through space. The idea was pioneered by Th. Townsend Brown and was shown to work on a minor scale. It is said that if you were to build one and measure the weight of it, you would see a decrease in weight. This is exactly what classical physics says can not be, but Brown demonstrated that it might work. No public testing has occurred since, though it is rumoured that the stealth bomber of the US Air Force has an electrogravitic system built into its wing,
If all it is is a flushing toilet, then it isn't huge at all. Even the largest game I have ever made in Flash, with.mp3 soundtrack and a mind boggling vector count, was only 3 megs big. Even if the flushing toilet animation were produced at 2000 by 2000 size, it wouldn't be that large. My average animation is only 30KB. What is the deal?
Slashdot Mirror
Carbon is ever present in plants and animals. Sugars such as fructose, lactose, sucrose et cetera, and other substances in the body contain a measure of Carbon. Would it be possible, then, to produce Carbon structures by organic means? Could we grow a segment of Carbon mesh that is large enough to be versatile or generous enough as to be bound together with other pieces? Perhaps biological spaceships might exist some day, utilizing an organic Carbon structure for a solar sail. It would require great expertise, as most complex life can not survive the vacuum of space, but it might be possible. In a micro-gravitic environment, size would be of little worry. Even if a complex organism was unable to be created, perhaps gigantic measures of carbon sail could be produced by bacteria or viri.
...that that is where all the neighborhood daemons have disappeared to. It started with one, named Fred, about 6 months ago and they have been disappearing at a steady rate ever since. It just shows you how brave the little guys are. Smiling in their last moments and all. *sniff* Makes me want to write a BSD Anthem.
I had a hell of a time configuring my NIC for use in QNX. What took me 2 minutes to do in BeOS, my first time, and maybe 4 in Windows, just wouldn't take. I tried everything I could to get the sucker running but it wouldn't work. Needless to say, the charm of the OS was destroyed by the lack of connectivity.
With this news, I might go back and try again. At least until the next revision of BeOS comes out again...
Using this to deliver nuclear payloads provides no advantage over the traditional ICBM as far as radioactive emissions goes. If there were enough speed and mass it might make a good kinetic weapon, though. Kinetic weapons have the advantage of being totally non-radioactive. This means that moments after dropping a 2 ton rock on your enemy's capital, you could send troops in from just outside the blast perimeter. The perfect operation.
There is not a nation around that is a democracy. Not a single one. Furthermore, this isn't a matter of right or left, but Authoritarian or Libertarian.
With the passages of new content laws in the EU and US, it seems we are coming one step closer to having industrial police running our streets. Gutenberg's printing press brought books to the masses and resulted in an advancement of personal living standards. Let us just hope that the internet eventually serves to redeem itself by benefiting mankind and not the corporations. It's be an awful shame if the internet were responsible for the privatization of the world's governments.
I was unaware that it was a FLC probe. The addition of this fact invalidates my argument. In light of this, I would like to abandon logic and begin to beg for NASA's funding to be increased. Any objections?
For a craft that wasn't intended to land, or even survive for a prolonged period of time, this is incredible. It sort of makes you wonder about current NASA budget woes, though. If NASA is forced to switch to a "faster, lighter, cheaper" program, then opportunities like this will become more and more scarce. If the craft were only designed to handle the strict specs of the mission then it would be impossible for impromptu experimentation to take place. The cheap probes and landers would not be as likely to cope with a new situation should it appear. What if a once in a life time event were to occur? With cheaper probes, would it be lost to the scientific community?
This is a stupid idea, though. While it would be nice for people to have personal sattelites, the space junk would be horrible. Before the introduction of the car, travel was usually done in groups on large ships or trains. Pollution problems were limited because of the consolidation. Sure there are benefits to having personal transportation, but the negative effects are far heavier. The same is true of these sattelites. While it enables cheaper research, and may help with personal communication, it will lead to an increase in space junk that can not be reliable cleared up at this point.
What if there were a craft that could sweep the heavens? Would it use a free-electron laser to destroy the bulk of the craft? Would it be similar to a whale? A giant craft that takes in a region of space and filters out the crud from the vacuum?
One thing is sure: All future sattelites should have fail-safe capabilities to deorbit themselves. We can't afford to clutter our skies. If we act now, the future will be easier.
I recently participated in a Latin I course over a video distance learning setup. The teacher was located in a town about 15 miles away, but could have just as easily been 1500 miles away, and taught very effectively.
Each classroom on the system was setup with a camera for the instructor and a camera for the students, microphones for everyone desk in the room, a chalkboard which was situated so that it could be seen on the instructor camera, and a small setup that served as an overhead projector. The teachers most often use this for notes and such as it is more convenient than traditional chalkboard use.
We also had a full audio-visual setup so that the teacher could play video onto the system for all participant to see, or so students could record class periods for viewing. The entire setup was controlled by a fairly simple piece of software on a touch-screen interfaced PC. No one had trouble using the system.
We only had two incidents where we lost connection with the host and these were either intentional, or quickly remedied. It was no different than a teacher calling in sick.
I would suggest you do something similar, if you really want distance-learning. It is very effective.
It seems to me, after reading the posts so far, that most nerds give Tesla the credit. At least some people remember this great man whose life and death are both equally mysterious. Check out some great files, courtesy of parascope.com, here or specifically, here. Any geeks want to comment on the system in the second article? It would seem good in theory, but are there any complications that might be unforseen? We need more research into some of Tesla's work.
Actually, the ancient egyptians would entomb the architect inside the tomb upon the pharoah's death. Some would create secret exits inside the tomb, but others died taking the secrets beyond their graves.
The problem with your ideas is as follows: the probe's mass and speed are only enough such that the change in the comet's orbit is kept to a minimum. To cause a planet sized object to change its orbit even that much would take an object of a lot more mass, or an object of equivalent mass or less travelling at much quicker speeds.
If we did somehow cause the moon's orbit to change, it could potentially leave g-lock and fly off as you have suggested. But if it did so, the moon would probably take many years to crash into another object, if its new orbit became stable.
But, of course, I learned all my astrophysics from Wesley Crusher while watching Star Trek: the Next Generation so my opinion doesn't count.
Or ~55 years for those of us who aren't stuck in the 80's...
Yes, but TI has a functional monopoly on the market as a whole due to the niche-nature that HP calculators enjoy. I prefer my TI-89 over the HP because I had difficulty using RPN. The learning curve for an HP was too steep for myself. It may not be so for others, but the less nerdy are more inclined to use TI calculators. I won't even consider speaking the truth about Casio calculators, as I am sure you are aware of how horrid the little beasts are.
Finally, I don't think it is in bad taste to make jokes about death. Some people are not so foolishly afraid of death as to get hostile when it is made light of. It happens. Anyone who is strong in their religious path, be it the path of Wicca, or the path of Agnosticism/Atheism, or even the path of Christianity, must recognize that death is not this great, sad taboo, but is just another point in the cycle of life. He may rot in the ground, get reincarnated, or spend eternity in heaven, but he will not be forgotten. This is death.
With the potential for new authors to have their work seen, a lot of technologists say we should be seeing a new philosophical rebirth. So where is it? Has the new Library of Alexandria been torched in the process, or may the day yet come?
Our culture has evolved to the point that hard records do not exist that could accurately reflect all aspects of our society. In a few years, what will be left for the future? If our society devolves to the point where our technology is lost, will the majority of our records be lost to the new age?
What if these ideas had been addressed before? What if the structures we know as the pyramids are really complex machines meant to relate information to potentially inferior future cultures?
With biological machinery, it is possible that we could develop a means for our information to live on. A computer structure that would be fueled by renewable biological life. A means of letting our descendants know who we were.
Shoot. I don't dream of that then! No, sir! I dream of... umm... booze! Booze isn't gay, right?
I thought the results of certain corrections were interesting. On some cgi scripts, the year became 19100 or 20100 for some odd reason. I can only assume that this is the result of shoddy corrections. This prompts the question: which would be worse? A 16900/17900 discrepancy or a 100 year one? The fact that we saw some 19100 errors among the crowd of supposedly fixed scripts seems to suggest that there would have been an error of the archetypal form if corrections hadn't been made, but what if, in the process of fixing bugs, we disrupted things even worse?
I still wish something big had happened. Post-Industrial apocalypse is an incredibly romantic idea. Doesn't every nerd dream of becoming a cavalier or a highway man?
This seems to be an interesting concept. If a neural network could be taught one's preferences, one's personality even, wouldn't it make an excellent agent? A little bot that could go do a lot of menial shit we loathe doing. The idea has been proposed, but would these be quick enough for the job? And if they were, would it be overkill?
Speaking of Fuzzy Logic...
Does it make a Penis Bird noise every time a troll posts?
Lazar did not state that the propulsion systems were magnetic, but stated they were electrogravitic. By this, he meant that an electrical attraction was used to pull the ship through space. An electrogravitic drive would work by having two conductive materials, the leading one larger than the other, seperated by a non-conductive material. Supposedly, the attraction would pull the drive through space. The idea was pioneered by Th. Townsend Brown and was shown to work on a minor scale. It is said that if you were to build one and measure the weight of it, you would see a decrease in weight. This is exactly what classical physics says can not be, but Brown demonstrated that it might work. No public testing has occurred since, though it is rumoured that the stealth bomber of the US Air Force has an electrogravitic system built into its wing,
If all it is is a flushing toilet, then it isn't huge at all. Even the largest game I have ever made in Flash, with .mp3 soundtrack and a mind boggling vector count, was only 3 megs big. Even if the flushing toilet animation were produced at 2000 by 2000 size, it wouldn't be that large. My average animation is only 30KB. What is the deal?
Gagh! "Latin isn't dead. If anyone ever says it is, you have my permission to knock them out." Latin teacher"
A lot of Latin words have been absorbed by English. Latin isn't dead, merely hanging on to English for the ride.