I think this is related to the incredibly strong twisted double helix structure of DNA. Indeed, in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, the cable is about 10 metres in diameter and strengthened by a diamond double helix. This creates a poetic scene during the fall of the elevator, when the double helix is the last part to be destroyed by impact with the ground. It's strange that the people who are analysing what would happen if the cable fell didn't really take into account the sheer strength of the cable. In Red Mars, most of the cable stays intact throughout re-entry, and only the last several thousand miles distengrates on impact.
(one of the quotes on the cover is something like "... these should be required reading for the next generation of mars colonists")
Ironically, this quote is by Arthur C. Clarke, the author of The Fountains of Paradise, a novel detailing the construction of a Space Elevator and also metioned in the article.
By the way, why can't anyone agree on a common name for this thing? Space Elevator, Orbiital Tower, Orbital Tether, Beanstalk, Skyhook, Heavenly Ladder, "The Strand"...personally, I think we should use the term proposed by Tsiolkowsky, the Russian who had this idea originally - the Cosmic Funicular.
Here's an interesting method of reducing spam called HashCash:
"Hash cash is an electronic payment system based on spent CPU cycles computing partial hash collisions. It finds particular use as a system for reducing unsolicited mail by requiring senders to include a small "payment" with each message.
Basically, you have to spend a certain amount of CPU time to send each message so sending large amounts of spam requires much more work. The reason n-bit partial hash collisions are used "is that they can be made arbitrarily expensive to compute (by choosing the desired number of bits of collision), and yet can be verified instantly." Sounds like an interesting idea, no? They've even produced a high rate of inflation for HashCash because of Moore's Law. Plus it has a funky name
The Register updated their article. It now acknowledges FreeBSD as being the first Unix to support multi-petabyte filesizes.
However, NTFS 5.0 (the filesystem that is used by Windows 2000) has had 64-bit addressing since Windows 2000 was released. This yields a maximum capacity of 16 exabytes, which is 8388608 Petabytes. That's right, Windows has supported files eighty thousans times larger than Linux with an experimental patch for the past few years. Still, by the time people actually start needing this kind of storage, I don't think it'll actually matter much...
Re:Conflict of values (somewhat OT)
on
Whither OpenAL?
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· Score: 1
Just to present a different side of the coin, I had the same problems with sound under Win2K with a Creative card. Looking for support on Creative forums blamed it on Via for not producing decent drivers, while Via blamed Creative. However, my motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte), quietly released a BIOS update which fixed these problems instantly.
That would be the thrid of Arthur C. Clarke's Three Laws, which were publsihed in Profiles of the Future:
Clarke's First Law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
Clarke's Second Law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is by venturing a little way past them into the impossible.
Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
This is just a personal observation, but most kids read Harry Potter -- and that's it. Harry Potter doesn't magically turn kids into bookworms, it's just another fad.
Incidentally, Arthur C. Clarke wrote about using genetically engineered coral to extract gold from seawater in his 1975 book "Imperial Earth". However, the coral were extremely fragile, and eventually were only maintained as a curiosity.
I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned Flashdot, a demo at Swift-Tools' site. According to the blurb, it "...displays headlines of Slashdot (famous techies news site). It uses Perl, LoadMovie, image replacements, dynamic GotoLabel,..."
I don't think this idea has been posted, but sorry if it has:) Ask THEM what THEY want. Show them examples of all the available languages and let them choose. After all, it's the kids who are going to be putting the effort into learning it, give them the choice.
If they're intelligent enough to want to program, they are intelligent enough to choose how.
Wouldn't this be ideal for use with the Espresso PC? Maybe you could cover that in some kind of neoprene-stuff, and have a matching set. Or add little floats to the Espresso, letting it float along merrily. I like this 'small is beautiful' stuff.
Jobby
"I know I should cut something, but what, and where?" - Dr Nick Riviera
Slashdot Mirror
Congratulations to you two, and the best of luck for the future!
--Another slashdotter with a goofy grin on his face.
I think this is related to the incredibly strong twisted double helix structure of DNA. Indeed, in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, the cable is about 10 metres in diameter and strengthened by a diamond double helix. This creates a poetic scene during the fall of the elevator, when the double helix is the last part to be destroyed by impact with the ground. It's strange that the people who are analysing what would happen if the cable fell didn't really take into account the sheer strength of the cable. In Red Mars, most of the cable stays intact throughout re-entry, and only the last several thousand miles distengrates on impact.
Ironically, this quote is by Arthur C. Clarke, the author of The Fountains of Paradise, a novel detailing the construction of a Space Elevator and also metioned in the article.
By the way, why can't anyone agree on a common name for this thing? Space Elevator, Orbiital Tower, Orbital Tether, Beanstalk, Skyhook, Heavenly Ladder, "The Strand"...personally, I think we should use the term proposed by Tsiolkowsky, the Russian who had this idea originally - the Cosmic Funicular.
Here's an interesting method of reducing spam called HashCash:
Basically, you have to spend a certain amount of CPU time to send each message so sending large amounts of spam requires much more work. The reason n-bit partial hash collisions are used "is that they can be made arbitrarily expensive to compute (by choosing the desired number of bits of collision), and yet can be verified instantly." Sounds like an interesting idea, no? They've even produced a high rate of inflation for HashCash because of Moore's Law. Plus it has a funky name
--jobby
It was Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone, by the way...
The Register updated their article. It now acknowledges FreeBSD as being the first Unix to support multi-petabyte filesizes.
However, NTFS 5.0 (the filesystem that is used by Windows 2000) has had 64-bit addressing since Windows 2000 was released. This yields a maximum capacity of 16 exabytes, which is 8388608 Petabytes. That's right, Windows has supported files eighty thousans times larger than Linux with an experimental patch for the past few years. Still, by the time people actually start needing this kind of storage, I don't think it'll actually matter much...
Just to present a different side of the coin, I had the same problems with sound under Win2K with a Creative card. Looking for support on Creative forums blamed it on Via for not producing decent drivers, while Via blamed Creative. However, my motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte), quietly released a BIOS update which fixed these problems instantly.
That would be the thrid of Arthur C. Clarke's Three Laws, which were publsihed in Profiles of the Future:
This is just a personal observation, but most kids read Harry Potter -- and that's it. Harry Potter doesn't magically turn kids into bookworms, it's just another fad.
Jobby
Incidentally, Arthur C. Clarke wrote about using genetically engineered coral to extract gold from seawater in his 1975 book "Imperial Earth". However, the coral were extremely fragile, and eventually were only maintained as a curiosity.
Jobby
I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned Flashdot, a demo at Swift-Tools' site. According to the blurb, it "...displays headlines of Slashdot (famous techies news site). It uses Perl, LoadMovie, image replacements, dynamic GotoLabel, ..."
The Slashdot of the future? I hope not.
Jobby
I don't think this idea has been posted, but sorry if it has :) Ask THEM what THEY want. Show them examples of all the available languages and let them choose. After all, it's the kids who are going to be putting the effort into learning it, give them the choice.
If they're intelligent enough to want to program, they are intelligent enough to choose how.
Jobby
Wouldn't this be ideal for use with the Espresso PC? Maybe you could cover that in some kind of neoprene-stuff, and have a matching set. Or add little floats to the Espresso, letting it float along merrily. I like this 'small is beautiful' stuff.
Jobby
"I know I should cut something, but what, and where?" - Dr Nick Riviera