Gottlieb electromechanical (EM) machines were #1 from the beginning of the flipper period (Humpty Dumpty - 1948), but lagged in features and complexity around the early 70's. But the latter EMs of that decade were unmatched - with classics like El Dorado. But once the games transitioned to solid state(SS) in the latter part of the 70's, Gottlieb never found their way back, and faded slowly from the scene until Barb Wire - their last pinball machine. Until the EM/SS transition, Gottlieb games had a well-deserved reputation for quality of components and reliability. This was all lost in the SS transition with the horrible System 1 platform, designed by Rockwell of all places. And even though they did bring up quality by the 90's it was too late for Gottlieb by then and they faded into obscurity.
Actually, they had to have someone walk in front of the automobile waving a flag. This UK law was repealed in 1898 with the passage of the Light Locomotives Act, which also raised the speed limit to 14 MPH
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Flag_Act
Existing disc platters are like parking in a field. Each car has to find its way to a spot that is clear of surrounding vehicles, and there is no pre-defined organization of the parking spots. So typically, extra space will be wasted in pathways for cars to get in and out, and there will be the inevitable mishaps with cars trapped in their spots or with no escape.
The new method precisely defines each parking spot, and there is an optimal amount of space provided for every car to get in and out. That means a lot more cars can park within a given area, and there's less of a chance for trapped cars or fender-benders.
And consistent with all car analogies, it is not 100% accurate...
Good thing the cell phone companies don't sell Doritos. In that case, you'd have to pre-buy the maximum number of bags of Doritos you might want to eat every month, whether you actually eat them or not. And if you eat more than you pre-paid for, they will cost $10/bag.
Two years ago, on a good day I could nearly saturate the 10 mbps link from my cable modem to my router. Now, it never even gets half as fast, with the same connection topography, same hardware, same cabling. Funny, the ISP now sells a "turbo" upgrade, which I guess means I have the right to pay them more money to get back what I got from them years ago.
These movies have been on HD television for years. Sure, a nice BD transfer would look better, but not enough to get gouged again buying yet again what has been seen ad nauseum for decades. Episode 4 was on this afternoon on some no-name HD channel (Spike or something), with commercials and everything. The movies just aren't anything that special any more.
And if we have Lucas meddling with plot and effects as he's done in the past, the BD version will be even more of a waste. Star Wars is a cinematic legacy,so who wants to see a bastardized version? Look what he did to THX-1138.
Just because a used battery is not defective it doesn't mean that it is (or could possibly be) perfect. A battery is an electrochemical device, and as such has a limited life. Given environmental factors, charge rate, discharge rate and depth it will only last for a finite number of charge/discharge cycles before it needs to be completely rebuilt or recycled. A gas engine does not have a fixed lifetime as it's a mechanical device. Some will crap out prematurely and others can last decades and 100,000's of miles. Those 2008 Toyotas don't need new batteries because they haven't reached their end of life. A mechanical device life curve is a plateau followed by a slow decline. A hybrid battery's life is a plateau ending in a cliff.
I hope in your "gravy" calculation you include your next battery change. And a worn-out battery will cost a hell of a lot more than $700 to replace. Also work the battery state into the depreciation of the vehicle. Like a worn set of tires, a half-used battery will also drive down resale value. And if/when better batteries are introduced in new vehicles, that will also notch down the resale value of your model.
Current hybrids don't make economic sense except in extreme or lucky circumstances, or when your net benefit is based on government hand-outs.
They are working on it. The Video Game Hall Of Fame is trying to acquire one of every video game ever created. It's located in Ottumwa, Iowa, home of the famous Twin Galaxies Arcade, and the self-proclaimed "video game capital of the world".
The Silverball Museum opened on the boardwalk in Asbury Park earlier this year. There are over 200 classic pinball machines and a smattering of early video games and other early games such as pitch & bats, shuffle alleys, and such.
http://silverballmuseum.com/
If it's for educational purposes, you should get a classic analog oscilloscope such as the Tektronix 465 or 475. A digital scope interprets the analog signals that it is measuring so everything needs to be read through this digital "filter". See that staircasing of the waveform? Is it real or is it an artifact of digitization? Wanna see the actual noise floor in a circuit instead of a series of out-of-real-time snapshots? Get an analog scope. Sure, in a lab, used by an experienced and well-educated operator, a digital scope can perform amazing feats. But for learning about the real world, you can't touch a classic analog scope.
Well, I'm used to "unbalanced" on SLRs as well, when I attach my 800mm mirror lens to my old film SLR. To solve the problem, a tripod mount is attached to the lens, not the camera. Same thing works here with mirror-less digital cameras, except they will be more common. I believe the coming 18-200mm E-mount lens from Sony already includes its own tripod mount.
And what puts it over the top for me is that the new E mount lenses also work on Sony's new line of pro-sumer camcorders, which are similarly compact and leave videotape behind forever.
Snark? Hardly. Read again. My opinion is that cameras like the NEX-5 have the potential to replace DSLRs for the majority of people looking for cameras like that. I never said it WAS an SLR (which it obviously isn't.)
I don't have the camera in hand yet, so I can't comment on handling. As for a viewfinder, there will be one that bolts onto the new proprietary hot shoe on top. That's currently how you attach the flash or an external stereo mic (which bypasses the built-in mics). I've very rarely used the viewfinder in any of my P&S cameras, so I will not miss it.
Yes, the camera is "unbalanced" if you look at it like an SLR. But with a compact pancake lens, it's smaller and better balanced that the typical "superzoom" point-and shoot. With the kit zoom lens (and with legacy 35mm lenses attached via adaptors) it is more like you are handling a lens with a small appendage on the back (which happens to be the camera itself). So if you want it "balanced", just tape on about a pound of lead weights. For me, I'd rather have the package as small and light as possible, and re-adjust my thinking to what a "balanced" package will be. There's no longer a need for a large heavy digital camera, but lenses still have to follow the laws of physics and optics.
Hey, to some people, every dollar spent "on space" is wasted. But most taxpayers are willing to support a space program with reasonably ambitious goals. Most government programs over-promise and under-deliver. That's not a reason not to do them at all, just to limit their scope. The government-funded part of the space program should concentrate on elements that are not practical for private endeavors. LEO is at the tipping point for private exploration and private companies should be encouraged to take over NASA's role there rather than being shooed away. NASA's unmanned programs can concentrate on pure science and exploration, but the manned programs should concentrate on a single ambitious task. And once private industry catches up, move the goal posts. Either that or don't bother doing anything at all. And to most Americans, that would be a sad day (and much like the present day).
Absolutely right. I just purchased a Sony NEX-5 which to me is the tipping point of SLR digital camera technology. Sure, a pure DSLR will always have some advantages, but I think these are now superseded by all of the benefits gotten by the new mirror-less APS-C and Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Back to the original post, that looks like very nice industrial design, but doesn't the lens mask or occlude the flash LED? It's also nothing but a joke putting a big lens with a wide objective size in front of the tiny iPhone lens. Probably 90% of the glass is doing nothing. Plus it's attached to automatic-everything firmware. And although that could be upgraded, it doesn't involve the lens at all, except that the big lens is on perpetual manual focus mode, and there's no aperture control at all.
Development was unceremoniously dropped in 2002 due to "budget cuts". All they needed was a shroud and a booster like they now use for the X-37B and there ya go, instant shuttle replacement. As for cargo, there's no reason to send up cargo on a man-rated craft. Need special handling in orbit? You have a crew already just hanging out in the ISS.
It's too late now to go back to the Shuttle. It should have been retired over a decade ago, and its only utility at this point is as a man-rated LEO transporter and (uneconomic) heavy lift booster The die is cast, so just pay Russia for the manned spaceflight services. It will be much cheaper, and no more dangerous.
But discontinuing Aries/Constellation is a mistake. Any accommodation for a Mars mission for those craft should be dropped as premature and uneconomic. Orion should be limited in scope to earth/moon shuttle visits and no more - and the timeline appropriately accelerated. With just sliderules and pencils we went from Mercury to Apollo in fewer years than the Constellation program has taken to do next to nothing. We're stuck in a cycle of increasing the capabilities of the program in order to make it "sexy", and by the time it's approved it's much more costly to build and will take much longer to develop.
So task Aries/Constellation with a moon mission, and leave LEO to private industry or contracting with the Russians. Instead of spending $2 billion on another shuttle flight, give 10 space start-ups $200 million each, and a free hand - I guarantee that in the end we will have much more to show from it.
Slashdot Mirror
Just download the mp4 from Youtube using a Firefox plug-in, play with VLC and use the VLC option to rotate the video.
Gottlieb electromechanical (EM) machines were #1 from the beginning of the flipper period (Humpty Dumpty - 1948), but lagged in features and complexity around the early 70's. But the latter EMs of that decade were unmatched - with classics like El Dorado. But once the games transitioned to solid state(SS) in the latter part of the 70's, Gottlieb never found their way back, and faded slowly from the scene until Barb Wire - their last pinball machine. Until the EM/SS transition, Gottlieb games had a well-deserved reputation for quality of components and reliability. This was all lost in the SS transition with the horrible System 1 platform, designed by Rockwell of all places. And even though they did bring up quality by the 90's it was too late for Gottlieb by then and they faded into obscurity.
Actually, they had to have someone walk in front of the automobile waving a flag. This UK law was repealed in 1898 with the passage of the Light Locomotives Act, which also raised the speed limit to 14 MPH http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Flag_Act
OK, I'll give it a try.
Existing disc platters are like parking in a field. Each car has to find its way to a spot that is clear of surrounding vehicles, and there is no pre-defined organization of the parking spots. So typically, extra space will be wasted in pathways for cars to get in and out, and there will be the inevitable mishaps with cars trapped in their spots or with no escape.
The new method precisely defines each parking spot, and there is an optimal amount of space provided for every car to get in and out. That means a lot more cars can park within a given area, and there's less of a chance for trapped cars or fender-benders.
And consistent with all car analogies, it is not 100% accurate...
Good thing the cell phone companies don't sell Doritos. In that case, you'd have to pre-buy the maximum number of bags of Doritos you might want to eat every month, whether you actually eat them or not. And if you eat more than you pre-paid for, they will cost $10/bag.
Two years ago, on a good day I could nearly saturate the 10 mbps link from my cable modem to my router. Now, it never even gets half as fast, with the same connection topography, same hardware, same cabling. Funny, the ISP now sells a "turbo" upgrade, which I guess means I have the right to pay them more money to get back what I got from them years ago.
And I have the laserdisc version, also uncontaminated by a second-guessing director.
These movies have been on HD television for years. Sure, a nice BD transfer would look better, but not enough to get gouged again buying yet again what has been seen ad nauseum for decades. Episode 4 was on this afternoon on some no-name HD channel (Spike or something), with commercials and everything. The movies just aren't anything that special any more.
And if we have Lucas meddling with plot and effects as he's done in the past, the BD version will be even more of a waste. Star Wars is a cinematic legacy,so who wants to see a bastardized version? Look what he did to THX-1138.
Just because a used battery is not defective it doesn't mean that it is (or could possibly be) perfect. A battery is an electrochemical device, and as such has a limited life. Given environmental factors, charge rate, discharge rate and depth it will only last for a finite number of charge/discharge cycles before it needs to be completely rebuilt or recycled. A gas engine does not have a fixed lifetime as it's a mechanical device. Some will crap out prematurely and others can last decades and 100,000's of miles. Those 2008 Toyotas don't need new batteries because they haven't reached their end of life. A mechanical device life curve is a plateau followed by a slow decline. A hybrid battery's life is a plateau ending in a cliff.
I hope in your "gravy" calculation you include your next battery change. And a worn-out battery will cost a hell of a lot more than $700 to replace. Also work the battery state into the depreciation of the vehicle. Like a worn set of tires, a half-used battery will also drive down resale value. And if/when better batteries are introduced in new vehicles, that will also notch down the resale value of your model.
Current hybrids don't make economic sense except in extreme or lucky circumstances, or when your net benefit is based on government hand-outs.
The NYC subway system is also getting WiFi and cellular phone repeaters throughout the system. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20100803/bs_nf/74586 In about six years...
They are working on it. The Video Game Hall Of Fame is trying to acquire one of every video game ever created. It's located in Ottumwa, Iowa, home of the famous Twin Galaxies Arcade, and the self-proclaimed "video game capital of the world".
The Silverball Museum opened on the boardwalk in Asbury Park earlier this year. There are over 200 classic pinball machines and a smattering of early video games and other early games such as pitch & bats, shuffle alleys, and such. http://silverballmuseum.com/
If it's for educational purposes, you should get a classic analog oscilloscope such as the Tektronix 465 or 475. A digital scope interprets the analog signals that it is measuring so everything needs to be read through this digital "filter". See that staircasing of the waveform? Is it real or is it an artifact of digitization? Wanna see the actual noise floor in a circuit instead of a series of out-of-real-time snapshots? Get an analog scope. Sure, in a lab, used by an experienced and well-educated operator, a digital scope can perform amazing feats. But for learning about the real world, you can't touch a classic analog scope.
Well, I'm used to "unbalanced" on SLRs as well, when I attach my 800mm mirror lens to my old film SLR. To solve the problem, a tripod mount is attached to the lens, not the camera. Same thing works here with mirror-less digital cameras, except they will be more common. I believe the coming 18-200mm E-mount lens from Sony already includes its own tripod mount.
And what puts it over the top for me is that the new E mount lenses also work on Sony's new line of pro-sumer camcorders, which are similarly compact and leave videotape behind forever.
That epitomizes what is wrong at NASA. None of those crap designs should have made it off of a napkin.
Snark? Hardly. Read again. My opinion is that cameras like the NEX-5 have the potential to replace DSLRs for the majority of people looking for cameras like that. I never said it WAS an SLR (which it obviously isn't.)
I don't have the camera in hand yet, so I can't comment on handling. As for a viewfinder, there will be one that bolts onto the new proprietary hot shoe on top. That's currently how you attach the flash or an external stereo mic (which bypasses the built-in mics). I've very rarely used the viewfinder in any of my P&S cameras, so I will not miss it.
Yes, the camera is "unbalanced" if you look at it like an SLR. But with a compact pancake lens, it's smaller and better balanced that the typical "superzoom" point-and shoot. With the kit zoom lens (and with legacy 35mm lenses attached via adaptors) it is more like you are handling a lens with a small appendage on the back (which happens to be the camera itself). So if you want it "balanced", just tape on about a pound of lead weights. For me, I'd rather have the package as small and light as possible, and re-adjust my thinking to what a "balanced" package will be. There's no longer a need for a large heavy digital camera, but lenses still have to follow the laws of physics and optics.
Hey, to some people, every dollar spent "on space" is wasted. But most taxpayers are willing to support a space program with reasonably ambitious goals. Most government programs over-promise and under-deliver. That's not a reason not to do them at all, just to limit their scope. The government-funded part of the space program should concentrate on elements that are not practical for private endeavors. LEO is at the tipping point for private exploration and private companies should be encouraged to take over NASA's role there rather than being shooed away. NASA's unmanned programs can concentrate on pure science and exploration, but the manned programs should concentrate on a single ambitious task. And once private industry catches up, move the goal posts. Either that or don't bother doing anything at all. And to most Americans, that would be a sad day (and much like the present day).
Absolutely right. I just purchased a Sony NEX-5 which to me is the tipping point of SLR digital camera technology. Sure, a pure DSLR will always have some advantages, but I think these are now superseded by all of the benefits gotten by the new mirror-less APS-C and Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Back to the original post, that looks like very nice industrial design, but doesn't the lens mask or occlude the flash LED? It's also nothing but a joke putting a big lens with a wide objective size in front of the tiny iPhone lens. Probably 90% of the glass is doing nothing. Plus it's attached to automatic-everything firmware. And although that could be upgraded, it doesn't involve the lens at all, except that the big lens is on perpetual manual focus mode, and there's no aperture control at all.
X-37B is too small. We were already working on a bigger manned version: the X-38:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-38
Development was unceremoniously dropped in 2002 due to "budget cuts". All they needed was a shroud and a booster like they now use for the X-37B and there ya go, instant shuttle replacement. As for cargo, there's no reason to send up cargo on a man-rated craft. Need special handling in orbit? You have a crew already just hanging out in the ISS.
It's too late now to go back to the Shuttle. It should have been retired over a decade ago, and its only utility at this point is as a man-rated LEO transporter and (uneconomic) heavy lift booster The die is cast, so just pay Russia for the manned spaceflight services. It will be much cheaper, and no more dangerous.
But discontinuing Aries/Constellation is a mistake. Any accommodation for a Mars mission for those craft should be dropped as premature and uneconomic. Orion should be limited in scope to earth/moon shuttle visits and no more - and the timeline appropriately accelerated. With just sliderules and pencils we went from Mercury to Apollo in fewer years than the Constellation program has taken to do next to nothing. We're stuck in a cycle of increasing the capabilities of the program in order to make it "sexy", and by the time it's approved it's much more costly to build and will take much longer to develop.
So task Aries/Constellation with a moon mission, and leave LEO to private industry or contracting with the Russians. Instead of spending $2 billion on another shuttle flight, give 10 space start-ups $200 million each, and a free hand - I guarantee that in the end we will have much more to show from it.
We need a pirate czar!
Tactically, this is a SAC B-52 replacement.
I was going to make a brilliant analogy to the car business, but I can't think of one...
Like I heard a seasoned stock trader once say: "Technical analysis works great, until it doesn't".