Re:Blimps are airships, and stratellites are good
on
Broadband Blimps
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· Score: 2, Informative
The high altitude is chosen in part for the coverage range, but also to seek a layer of air where the average wind _force_ is lowest, to minimize the power needed to stay in place.
Both you and the FAQ make the point that the decreased air density at high altitudes results in less force on the airship, but you also have to realize that the decreased air density means that the form of propulsion is also less effective. Simply speaking, with a propeller-driven airplane, as the altitude increases, the amount of air the propeller moves with each rotation decreases -- thus decreased power. That's one of the reasons why many single engine airplanes have a maximum service ceiling of around 15,000 feet -- they simply can't move enough air with the propellers.
Movie theaters are notorious money losers. What most people don't realize is that about 90% of ticket sales goes to the film company. So, in your example, the $224,000 of ticket sales really only results in $22,400 of revenue to the movie theater. That probably covers the electricity bill in the middle of the summer. Add on the stadium seating, digital sound, and other luxuries that the marketplace demands, and it's no wonder many of the major theater chains are in bankruptcy. The *only* hope theaters have of breaking even is to charge outrageous amounts for concessions.
Interesting episode... After seeing that, this verdict is somewhat of a surprise.
I think your statement is an indicator of the quality of "news magazines", rather than a statement on the fairness of the verdict. Who do you trust to weigh all the facts: 60 Minutes or a jury of your peers?
This press release has much more information on pricing and devices than the one in the original article. Regarding pricing:
PCS Free & Clear with Vision - Initially ranging in price from $44. 99 to $119.99, PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans will include megabytes for data usage along with varying amounts of voice minutes, depending on the individual plan. For a limited time, Sprint will offer special introductory rate plans that provide more Anytime Minutes than standard Free & Clear plans; allow customers to share minutes with another PCS phone for no additional charge and each phone will have two megabytes of data to use. An example of the introductory PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans include the $89.99 per month plan that features 2,000 Anytime Minutes that can be used by an individual or shared between two people.
If I recall correctly, 2000 anytime minutes right now is $149, so this could be a good initial deal!
There's other pricing for laptops.
Since I'm the one who submitted the article, I figured I'd better clear a couple of things up.
First, Xenu's absolutely right about the Supreme Court declining to review the case. I understood that when I submitted the article, but wrote "essentially upheld" to simplify matters. Shame on me for underestimating Slashdot readers!!
Second, I thought it was interesting that my original submission had a title: "U.S. Supreme Court Says No Pr0n for Virgina Public Employees", yet they posted it with the title "Supreme Court Rejects Free-Speech Challenge". My title wasn't legally accurate (see point 1), but michael's certainly seems to put a different slant on it from what I intended.
Third, how in the hell did michael come up with this analogy of researching sexual disorders being banned by the law? It makes me wonder if he actually read the article, since the definition of "sexually explicit" comes nowhere near banning research of sexual disorders (at least those along the traditional disease lines -- I suppose some kinky sex disorders might fall into this category,though).
Wow, I didn't think I'd catch someone on/. defending MS's user interface.
To be fair, the referenced site deals with Notes 4.6. Notes 5.0, which came out over a year ago, completely changed the UI. I haven't gotten a chance to play with it, so I can't say if the UI is better or worse -- just that it's different.
When I was in high school, I broadcasted a radio show at (of all places) the local cable company. Just like they had public access television, they also had public access radio. It was a real studio, and my friends and I broadcasted a weekly show for free!
The only problem was to tune in required hooking your cable up to your radio, then finding our station. So, our listenership was close to 0, but it sure was fun! The experience even helped me get a summer job at a *real* radio station.
Most anyone involved in choosing a LARGE enterprise mail system will look at both Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. On a point-by-point comparison, Notes is just as competitive as Exchange (yes, even with calendaring and scheduling). Hell, it wasn't until the last couple of years that Exchange was even a competitor to Notes.
I'm not saying Notes is perfect, but to imply that Microsoft is the only game in town is far from the truth.
My brother-in-law just built a house and was smart enough to at least run Cat5 to every room. The problem is that there's only one Cat5 outlet in every room, which needs to be used for both high-speed Internet access and plain-old telephones. I've been able to come up with a couple of options, but they don't seem the most desirable:
use Phoneline Networking throughout the house. That way you can connect the phone and the computer to the same jack. Bad thing is it doesn't really leverage the Cat5 wire!
use the cat5 for Ethernet and buy one of those wireless phone systems from Sony with one base unit and lots of handsets that all use the same base unit.
Do you all have any other ideas? The family's not real technical, and I'll be stuck setting it up, so try and keep it simple.:-)
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The high altitude is chosen in part for the coverage range, but also to seek a layer of air where the average wind _force_ is lowest, to minimize the power needed to stay in place.
Both you and the FAQ make the point that the decreased air density at high altitudes results in less force on the airship, but you also have to realize that the decreased air density means that the form of propulsion is also less effective. Simply speaking, with a propeller-driven airplane, as the altitude increases, the amount of air the propeller moves with each rotation decreases -- thus decreased power. That's one of the reasons why many single engine airplanes have a maximum service ceiling of around 15,000 feet -- they simply can't move enough air with the propellers.
Movie theaters are notorious money losers. What most people don't realize is that about 90% of ticket sales goes to the film company. So, in your example, the $224,000 of ticket sales really only results in $22,400 of revenue to the movie theater. That probably covers the electricity bill in the middle of the summer. Add on the stadium seating, digital sound, and other luxuries that the marketplace demands, and it's no wonder many of the major theater chains are in bankruptcy. The *only* hope theaters have of breaking even is to charge outrageous amounts for concessions.
Interesting episode ... After seeing that, this verdict is somewhat of a surprise.
I think your statement is an indicator of the quality of "news magazines", rather than a statement on the fairness of the verdict. Who do you trust to weigh all the facts: 60 Minutes or a jury of your peers?
PCS Free & Clear with Vision - Initially ranging in price from $44. 99 to $119.99, PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans will include megabytes for data usage along with varying amounts of voice minutes, depending on the individual plan. For a limited time, Sprint will offer special introductory rate plans that provide more Anytime Minutes than standard Free & Clear plans; allow customers to share minutes with another PCS phone for no additional charge and each phone will have two megabytes of data to use. An example of the introductory PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans include the $89.99 per month plan that features 2,000 Anytime Minutes that can be used by an individual or shared between two people.
If I recall correctly, 2000 anytime minutes right now is $149, so this could be a good initial deal! There's other pricing for laptops.
-DJ
To be fair, the referenced site deals with Notes 4.6. Notes 5.0, which came out over a year ago, completely changed the UI. I haven't gotten a chance to play with it, so I can't say if the UI is better or worse -- just that it's different.
The only problem was to tune in required hooking your cable up to your radio, then finding our station. So, our listenership was close to 0, but it sure was fun! The experience even helped me get a summer job at a *real* radio station.
I'm not saying Notes is perfect, but to imply that Microsoft is the only game in town is far from the truth.
Do you all have any other ideas? The family's not real technical, and I'll be stuck setting it up, so try and keep it simple.
Thanks!