Say you send a 100 ton payload up the tether. After a certain point on the ascent, you stop trolling up the fiber, and actually have to start applying breaks on it, because the centrifugal force (please, I know the difference between it and centrepital force. The former is a pseudo force, yes, but still real.) Acting on the carriage will be correlated with the inertial mass of the carriage, the rate of rotation, and the radal distance from the center of rotation, in relation to the gravitational force. At some point centrifugal forces will overcome gravity, and this will pull the tether very tight.
The problem is not with lifting the island, but with tearing the anchor of the tether out of the ground.
Whenever I see "space elevator!" Mentioned, this course of action plays out in my head:
A space elevator/orbital tether needs to be at the rotational equator. This means central or south america, or africa. (Islands would lack the strong continental plate foundations to hold the tether to the earth.)
The tether itself will be many kilometers long. It has to extend all the way, vertically, into low earth orbit.
The tether, if made of a conductive material like graphene, would become super charged with high voltages just from the air currents whorling around it. (Don't believe me, run a kite on copper wire and attach a volt meter between it and the ground. Remember that the kite string is orders of magnitude shorter than an orbital tether.) In addition to this constant charging, you have the high energy disturbances of the ionosphere to deal with. I suppose this could make the tether into a fantastic dc powerplant, but it would also make putting a carriage on the tether much more difficult.
Then you have the political problems.... look at the shit that happens with selecting where to hold the olypic games. Imagine the politics involved in breaking soil on an orbital tether.
And then, finally, what happens if there is an accident? Many kilometers of highly energized, and kinetically taught razorwire with toughness surpassing all other construction materials whipping round the planet sounds pretty dangerous to me.
Really, the logistics of such a project just don't make for a plausible project, barring some kind of officious one world government that doesn't brook dissent.
To me, this suggests a couple more interesting applications:
Battery electrode Supercapacitor dielectric Chemical sensor Nanofiltration Lightweight structural blocks/foams (this is essentially a spun aerogel with a water solvent...) Carbon wire (copper is expensive)
1) if they actually do something, it means the many worlds hypothesis is true, and the divergent timeline occurs in a different quantum universe.
2) if the get the message, and do nothing, then you could have created a closed timelike curve, and doomed your own universe to experience the exact timeline you are reporting on. This closed timelike curve would be an indelible part of that universe's history, both present, past and future. (The time after the event creates the preceeding event, which causes the event to happen. Rinse, repeate until dizzy.) (It could also simply be another instance of the many worlds hypothesis being true though.)
3) attempts at bidirectional communication would be systematically prevented by quantum collapse. All attempts to talk to 1999 on the other end of the call would mysteriously fail 100% of the time, even if the theory behind such a transmission seems sound.
4) 1999 calls us using a one way temporal transmission device. (Like an ordinary metal time capsule.) Communication is received, but no reply can be sent.
Of these 4 options, 4 and 3 are the most likely scenarios for "1999 called, they want...." happening. #4 being the most likely.
This is an intelligence agency, and network intrusion programs pumping executable code in the attempt at smashing a stack and jumping execution are pretty common.
Perhaps they want people who can quickly spot x86 assembly payloads from raw packet traces as part of a counter aggression op?
If we assume that their network stack isn't riddled with exploitable stack variables or pointers, and that they successfully prevent the code from running, but log the unrequested network access and dump the binary packets to file for analysis, then having people that can "at a glance" determine what kind of data is in those dumps would be valuable.
Being able to determine what it actually is supposed to do even more so.
With the recent hysteria over scada system cyber attacks (I hate that phrase btw..),setting up a fake scada system as a honeypot and seeing what the cat drags in could also make use of this skillset.
So, the obvious questions:
Does the UK fear it has poorly secured scada systems, or does it fear network worm intrusion on some network segement, and if so, what segments or systems are those?
A fully open system is more easily audited. A more easily audited system is harder to hide garbage code in.
The carriers and handset makers are putting quick and dirty kludges in effect, because they want to race to market, and they feel they can get away with it.
If you make it harder for them to feel more secure (emotionally) by hiding dirt under the rug, they will make themselves feel more secure by actually sweeping up, even though that is work they apparently don't want to do.
Further, providing the community with the means to clean house for them places further incentives to get it right the first time, or risk losing relevence to a superior community produced configuration.
(See how many users prefer cyanogen, for instance.)
I didn't say the license needed to be gpl, just open.
As for "we don't want another xda-dev sprouting up", that strikes me as the rhetoric of a dinosaur. If they said "we don't want to be put in the position where we might be forced to support 3rd party modifications" I would be sympatheric, but when they essentially epoxy the hood shut on my sportscar, because they "don't want another community-mechanics site popping up" I don't see them as anything but officious asshats.
The real problem with android, is that handset makers release closed source binary drivers.
This creates a powerful barrier to entry against rom hackers like the cyanogen team.
Personally, I would like to see google smack some bitches by demanding either open source drivers only, or supplying feature complete whitepapers for all devices released with closed drivers intended for the android platform.
This would create a permanent hole in the current software lockdowns carriers and handset makers use.
My own phone, a samsung sidekick 4g, is basically a galaxy series device inside, but is not supported by cyanogen because of binary drivers issues, and a not fully documented cpu variant. I would very much like to ditch the stock rom, and not have to rely on cooked roms based on it, and finally get something newer than froyo with a facelift.
Requiring open drivers or feature complete white papers would fix that.
ATT: "We didn't get our request rubber stamped like we expected it to be after we spent all that money to get the current crop of legislators and executives elected. We spend money on campaign contributions for a reason people! The FCC's review of our proposed acquisition of T-Mobile totally neglects to take these facts into account, and instead harps on things like abusive monopoly paractices and leaked memos from our executives. Obviously the FCC is not doing its job as a captured regulator, and we are voicing our displeasure publicly so as not to oust our purchased politicians. We fully expect them take action against this FCC ruling, and further insist that they take the DoJ to task on the pending antitrust case, if they want any more of our money; we understand that elections are just around the corner. Just a reminder guys. We don't get what we want, you don't get what you want."
Sprint: "We applaud the FCC for finally doing what it was really supposed to do, and appreciate its dedication to fact finding and for ensuring a balanced economic foundation for the telecom industry. We strong urge everyone to read the FCC's report."
This fallacy, that when you reach the age of accountability you suddenly must become a dour and sour minded automoton that spends all their time woring, is a very serious problem these days.
Really, what is so wrong with wanting to get together with a group of people that share similar interests, and just have some old fashioned, totally nonproductive fun?
Tell me, mr. "Grownup", what exactly does watching weekend football accomplish? What product gets produced? What's that you say? Nothing? Oh, I see... ok, how about having a beer with your friend? What does that accomplish? Oh? Nothing again? By your logic, you shouldn't do those things. Instead you should be spending all your time toiling in obscurity to produce a product... but for whom?
This is the reason why your post was modded down. Even FOSS developers are not slaves. The joy in creation for creation's sake is destroyed when people bitch, moan, and demand more free shit. Expecting "nerds" to do nothing but work so you can have neat toys you didn't work for, and telling them to grow up when they want to have some fun is perverse.
If somebody is in need of understanding reality, and growing up, I would say it is you sir. Everyone needs to simply have fun from time to time. Especially adults.
Ok, jokes about inflatable rubber robots crawling through small spaces aside....
I imagine a kind of pneumatic (or better, hydraulic) soft bodied robot that has a kind of "fluid logic" system that squeezes off the supply lines to the "muscle chambers", and a single internal electrical contraction chamber that serves as the main pump.
Say for instance, the main pump simply squeezes a large, central space somehow, and has say, 8 output lines from that chamber. Surrounding each line is a "pinch" cell, which is a smaller version of the main pump cell, but with no output lines. When active, it constricts the fluid flow down the tube it surrounds, preventing working fluid from passing.
The tubes continue and terminate at the expansion chambers in the robot's limbs.
The computer circuitry which drives the main cell, and the 8 control cells, is tiny and self contained. Possibly an epoxy blob design. This would be the only rigid part of the robot, though it too could be flexible with the right design. (Use flexible substrate electronics, like that graphene ink approach.)
Depending on how those 8 control valves are opened or closed, the action of the main pump cycle would actuate the robot. 8 valves would give you 256 possible muscle instructions to work with.
Conceivably, you could even do "tricks" this way, by inflating a limb motor cell, then blocking the fluid return by closing the valve, to hold one part of the robot stiff, while the remaining working fluid drives some other part of the robot, to accomplish some task. An example use might be "jumping", since the release of the control valves would violently snap the muscle as the pressure released.
I could see some pretty complex movements being done this way.
The issue is how to power the robot. A laboratory test robot might walk on a special floor which doubles as an inductive charger, which powers the robot's electronics, but a real world softbody robot would something a little more real.
More likely they will "invest research capital" into the "vastly superior" "lipitor HCl" or similar.
This is a comon practice in the pharmacutical industry. Create a game changing drug, then milk it *FOREVER*, by tacking on a medically useless functional group to change the molecule enough to file for a new patent, covering the entire chemical family.
As a rule, politicians are white, elitist, and rich.
White rich elitists tend to eat overly calorific foods, that cause high cholesterol.
As such, I would not be surprised if many politicians have scripts for cholesterol, hypertension, and liver disorders.
Getting between your meal ticket and his life sustaining medications is not good PR.
Compare to copyright, which is not life threatening or life regulating (at least once you pass a certain income bracket. Ahem) you can clearly spot the reasons why, aside from insider trading and the like, politicians don't get lobbied for quite the same things from the pharmecutical giants the same way they get lobbied for copyright extensions from big media.
If you throw in the more tinfoil hat type thinking about the control of information and culture that makes the public easier to police and control, I think you have a winner.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but the nitrogen issue was mistaken. Venus's atmosphere is 3.5% nitrogen gas. While this seems like a small amount, the thickness of the atmposhere should be taken into consideration. If looked at in total molar weight, it is about 4x the nitrogen found on earth. That makes it plenty.
The problem is the tiny quantity of hydrogen. A terraformed venus would be even more desert like than mars.
This plastic is soluble in strong acids, like sulfuric acid found in the lower venusian atmoshere, and is thermally stable to 500c. (The surface of venus is slightly hotter, but venus does have mountains.)
The idea is to create an atmospheric extremophile that makes use of the sulfur/hydrogen respiration cycle, which produces thin threads of aramid to help keep small colonies of these organisms "afloat" in the thick venusian atmosphere. When the mats get too heavy, they fall like snow, and accumulate under the cloud layer, which thins the atmosphere, reduces greenhouse effect, and cools the planet by trapping greenhouse gas as "biomass".
The only problem is aramid requires excess nitrogen, which the venusian atmosphere appears to lack.
However, if a nitrogen free analog of aramid can be produced with the same or greater thermal stability, it would be "game on".
"You need cybahcruime righ nao? Ok, we attack you long time! You wan unhappy ending? Dat extra! We have special righ nao on discoun razer purinturs. We throw in special remote exproit in PeeSeeErr rogic. Very easy upgruade! You like! We take regula fee: interecturah pruropurty, and you promise not tark abou' proriticar dishidents. Dat good, oh' you nee' soona? Good dear on purinturs! Factory overflowing!, you take deal? We righ on it!"
If they are going to send parasitic worms with complex dna into space, I still think they should send politicians and *IAA lawyers instead. By most prevailing opinions, these subhuman creatures would service mankind far more as biological radio dosemeters than in their natural political niches here on earth. Yes, the expense of sending them would be much greater than sending the genetically and biologically similar roundworms, but this is FOR SCIENCE!
[Note to self: Avoid asking questions about EE, a field you DID NOT take in college, while recovering from a head cold and while under the influence of medication. Seriously, you'll thank me later. There is a reason why the bottle says not to operate heavy machinery. Hint: it also applies to high energy electronic devices.]
But you can get around that with multistranded wire, right? A bundle of 7 small conductors netting the same approximate volume as 1 big conductor has substantially more conduction surface.
Wouldn't it make more sense to drive at 12v with an insane amperage behind it, than to drive at 380v and garantee the necessity of a voltage regulator rated for high voltages?
I mean, the whole reason for doing away with ac current was to eliminate the rectifier and regulator circuits, which belch heat into the data center. Using 380v, which no datacenter device that I know of uses natively (well, maybe the innards of a crt, but that's actually much higher than 380v... AND a deadend tech.), seems kinda... well.... unproductive.
Considering that graphene is realy inexpensive (you produce quite a bit od it when writing with a standard pencil)...
You are quite right about the issue though. The idea is to keep that cost low, or the toy wouold be substantially less popular. The idea is to make money on the accessories, not the consumables. (New sensors, actuators, battery p0acks, etc.)
I can see a rather clever toy being made using this technology.
Imagine for a moment, that you have a simple robot chasis like hardware platform, with a flat ribbin cable type connector that is really really wide (like the kind that attaches the keyboard inside a laptop, or the ribbon going to the optical head assy of a dvd drive, only much wider.). It is meant to accept all the electronic innards of the robot other than actuators and external ports and battery pack on a printed sheet of slightly textured plastic, that has a commercially inlaid edge connector on one side that fits the really wide flat ribbon connector, and on the other a specially notched corner, or some other orientation feature.
The sheet is meant to be cleaned, like a dry erase board, but with a special solvent. This makes the sheets reusable.
The printer loads the sheets, which could be printed on both sides if desired, and prints circuits and traces that lead to the inlaid metal edge connector pads.
The idea is as a hobby electronics toy for enthusiasts and advanced school children. A kind of "build your own robot" kit with modular servos and sensors that attach to the simplified chasis a little like legos, and with an extremely low cost roll your own logic board that you print on the special plastic sheet. Since the circuit components are all inkjetted, component cost would be minimal: just the cost of the ink.
Anything from novelty antennas to special logic could be printed on the sheets.
I could really see such a toy being a fantastic learning aid, especially in a school setting. The limiting factors would be feature size, circuit impedence, and physical realestate on the printed sheet. While probably slower than an arduino, it would offer quite a bit more customization options, especially if it came with some design software that had sample patterns for apus, memory cell circuits, and various logic gates and simple IC units.
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking more like this:
Say you send a 100 ton payload up the tether. After a certain point on the ascent, you stop trolling up the fiber, and actually have to start applying breaks on it, because the centrifugal force (please, I know the difference between it and centrepital force. The former is a pseudo force, yes, but still real.) Acting on the carriage will be correlated with the inertial mass of the carriage, the rate of rotation, and the radal distance from the center of rotation, in relation to the gravitational force. At some point centrifugal forces will overcome gravity, and this will pull the tether very tight.
The problem is not with lifting the island, but with tearing the anchor of the tether out of the ground.
Whenever I see "space elevator!" Mentioned, this course of action plays out in my head:
A space elevator/orbital tether needs to be at the rotational equator. This means central or south america, or africa. (Islands would lack the strong continental plate foundations to hold the tether to the earth.)
The tether itself will be many kilometers long. It has to extend all the way, vertically, into low earth orbit.
The tether, if made of a conductive material like graphene, would become super charged with high voltages just from the air currents whorling around it. (Don't believe me, run a kite on copper wire and attach a volt meter between it and the ground. Remember that the kite string is orders of magnitude shorter than an orbital tether.) In addition to this constant charging, you have the high energy disturbances of the ionosphere to deal with. I suppose this could make the tether into a fantastic dc powerplant, but it would also make putting a carriage on the tether much more difficult.
Then you have the political problems.... look at the shit that happens with selecting where to hold the olypic games. Imagine the politics involved in breaking soil on an orbital tether.
And then, finally, what happens if there is an accident? Many kilometers of highly energized, and kinetically taught razorwire with toughness surpassing all other construction materials whipping round the planet sounds pretty dangerous to me.
Really, the logistics of such a project just don't make for a plausible project, barring some kind of officious one world government that doesn't brook dissent.
To me, this suggests a couple more interesting applications:
Battery electrode
Supercapacitor dielectric
Chemical sensor
Nanofiltration
Lightweight structural blocks/foams (this is essentially a spun aerogel with a water solvent...)
Carbon wire (copper is expensive)
I am sure there are others.
1) if they actually do something, it means the many worlds hypothesis is true, and the divergent timeline occurs in a different quantum universe.
2) if the get the message, and do nothing, then you could have created a closed timelike curve, and doomed your own universe to experience the exact timeline you are reporting on. This closed timelike curve would be an indelible part of that universe's history, both present, past and future. (The time after the event creates the preceeding event, which causes the event to happen. Rinse, repeate until dizzy.) (It could also simply be another instance of the many worlds hypothesis being true though.)
3) attempts at bidirectional communication would be systematically prevented by quantum collapse. All attempts to talk to 1999 on the other end of the call would mysteriously fail 100% of the time, even if the theory behind such a transmission seems sound.
4) 1999 calls us using a one way temporal transmission device. (Like an ordinary metal time capsule.) Communication is received, but no reply can be sent.
Of these 4 options, 4 and 3 are the most likely scenarios for "1999 called, they want...." happening. #4 being the most likely.
Causality, it's a bitch.
This is an intelligence agency, and network intrusion programs pumping executable code in the attempt at smashing a stack and jumping execution are pretty common.
Perhaps they want people who can quickly spot x86 assembly payloads from raw packet traces as part of a counter aggression op?
If we assume that their network stack isn't riddled with exploitable stack variables or pointers, and that they successfully prevent the code from running, but log the unrequested network access and dump the binary packets to file for analysis, then having people that can "at a glance" determine what kind of data is in those dumps would be valuable.
Being able to determine what it actually is supposed to do even more so.
With the recent hysteria over scada system cyber attacks (I hate that phrase btw..),setting up a fake scada system as a honeypot and seeing what the cat drags in could also make use of this skillset.
So, the obvious questions:
Does the UK fear it has poorly secured scada systems, or does it fear network worm intrusion on some network segement, and if so, what segments or systems are those?
On the contrary.
A fully open system is more easily audited. A more easily audited system is harder to hide garbage code in.
The carriers and handset makers are putting quick and dirty kludges in effect, because they want to race to market, and they feel they can get away with it.
If you make it harder for them to feel more secure (emotionally) by hiding dirt under the rug, they will make themselves feel more secure by actually sweeping up, even though that is work they apparently don't want to do.
Further, providing the community with the means to clean house for them places further incentives to get it right the first time, or risk losing relevence to a superior community produced configuration.
(See how many users prefer cyanogen, for instance.)
Like a study on the mass exodus of players doing ladder play after the koreans find the tournament?
I didn't say the license needed to be gpl, just open.
As for "we don't want another xda-dev sprouting up", that strikes me as the rhetoric of a dinosaur. If they said "we don't want to be put in the position where we might be forced to support 3rd party modifications" I would be sympatheric, but when they essentially epoxy the hood shut on my sportscar, because they "don't want another community-mechanics site popping up" I don't see them as anything but officious asshats.
The real problem with android, is that handset makers release closed source binary drivers.
This creates a powerful barrier to entry against rom hackers like the cyanogen team.
Personally, I would like to see google smack some bitches by demanding either open source drivers only, or supplying feature complete whitepapers for all devices released with closed drivers intended for the android platform.
This would create a permanent hole in the current software lockdowns carriers and handset makers use.
My own phone, a samsung sidekick 4g, is basically a galaxy series device inside, but is not supported by cyanogen because of binary drivers issues, and a not fully documented cpu variant. I would very much like to ditch the stock rom, and not have to rely on cooked roms based on it, and finally get something newer than froyo with a facelift.
Requiring open drivers or feature complete white papers would fix that.
ATT: "We didn't get our request rubber stamped like we expected it to be after we spent all that money to get the current crop of legislators and executives elected. We spend money on campaign contributions for a reason people! The FCC's review of our proposed acquisition of T-Mobile totally neglects to take these facts into account, and instead harps on things like abusive monopoly paractices and leaked memos from our executives. Obviously the FCC is not doing its job as a captured regulator, and we are voicing our displeasure publicly so as not to oust our purchased politicians. We fully expect them take action against this FCC ruling, and further insist that they take the DoJ to task on the pending antitrust case, if they want any more of our money; we understand that elections are just around the corner. Just a reminder guys. We don't get what we want, you don't get what you want."
Sprint: "We applaud the FCC for finally doing what it was really supposed to do, and appreciate its dedication to fact finding and for ensuring a balanced economic foundation for the telecom industry. We strong urge everyone to read the FCC's report."
Why do you equate "productive" with "grown up"?
This fallacy, that when you reach the age of accountability you suddenly must become a dour and sour minded automoton that spends all their time woring, is a very serious problem these days.
Really, what is so wrong with wanting to get together with a group of people that share similar interests, and just have some old fashioned, totally nonproductive fun?
Tell me, mr. "Grownup", what exactly does watching weekend football accomplish? What product gets produced? What's that you say? Nothing? Oh, I see... ok, how about having a beer with your friend? What does that accomplish? Oh? Nothing again? By your logic, you shouldn't do those things. Instead you should be spending all your time toiling in obscurity to produce a product... but for whom?
This is the reason why your post was modded down. Even FOSS developers are not slaves. The joy in creation for creation's sake is destroyed when people bitch, moan, and demand more free shit. Expecting "nerds" to do nothing but work so you can have neat toys you didn't work for, and telling them to grow up when they want to have some fun is perverse.
If somebody is in need of understanding reality, and growing up, I would say it is you sir. Everyone needs to simply have fun from time to time. Especially adults.
Ok, jokes about inflatable rubber robots crawling through small spaces aside....
I imagine a kind of pneumatic (or better, hydraulic) soft bodied robot that has a kind of "fluid logic" system that squeezes off the supply lines to the "muscle chambers", and a single internal electrical contraction chamber that serves as the main pump.
Say for instance, the main pump simply squeezes a large, central space somehow, and has say, 8 output lines from that chamber. Surrounding each line is a "pinch" cell, which is a smaller version of the main pump cell, but with no output lines. When active, it constricts the fluid flow down the tube it surrounds, preventing working fluid from passing.
The tubes continue and terminate at the expansion chambers in the robot's limbs.
The computer circuitry which drives the main cell, and the 8 control cells, is tiny and self contained. Possibly an epoxy blob design. This would be the only rigid part of the robot, though it too could be flexible with the right design. (Use flexible substrate electronics, like that graphene ink approach.)
Depending on how those 8 control valves are opened or closed, the action of the main pump cycle would actuate the robot. 8 valves would give you 256 possible muscle instructions to work with.
Conceivably, you could even do "tricks" this way, by inflating a limb motor cell, then blocking the fluid return by closing the valve, to hold one part of the robot stiff, while the remaining working fluid drives some other part of the robot, to accomplish some task. An example use might be "jumping", since the release of the control valves would violently snap the muscle as the pressure released.
I could see some pretty complex movements being done this way.
The issue is how to power the robot. A laboratory test robot might walk on a special floor which doubles as an inductive charger, which powers the robot's electronics, but a real world softbody robot would something a little more real.
Ok,
So what happens if your "I don't want to be called a 'shopper" types simply print out their digital modifications on paper, then scan it again?
That would introduce inkjet pattern/toner dither pattern, and balance the colors in the image.
Would that defeat the genuine check?
If not, how would it react to a scan or photograph of a painting, or line drawing?
More likely they will "invest research capital" into the "vastly superior" "lipitor HCl" or similar.
This is a comon practice in the pharmacutical industry. Create a game changing drug, then milk it *FOREVER*, by tacking on a medically useless functional group to change the molecule enough to file for a new patent, covering the entire chemical family.
As a rule, politicians are white, elitist, and rich.
White rich elitists tend to eat overly calorific foods, that cause high cholesterol.
As such, I would not be surprised if many politicians have scripts for cholesterol, hypertension, and liver disorders.
Getting between your meal ticket and his life sustaining medications is not good PR.
Compare to copyright, which is not life threatening or life regulating (at least once you pass a certain income bracket. Ahem) you can clearly spot the reasons why, aside from insider trading and the like, politicians don't get lobbied for quite the same things from the pharmecutical giants the same way they get lobbied for copyright extensions from big media.
If you throw in the more tinfoil hat type thinking about the control of information and culture that makes the public easier to police and control, I think you have a winner.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but the nitrogen issue was mistaken. Venus's atmosphere is 3.5% nitrogen gas. While this seems like a small amount, the thickness of the atmposhere should be taken into consideration. If looked at in total molar weight, it is about 4x the nitrogen found on earth. That makes it plenty.
The problem is the tiny quantity of hydrogen. A terraformed venus would be even more desert like than mars.
Depends...
I have an interesting idea for venus:
There exists a kind of high temp plastic called aramid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramid
This plastic is soluble in strong acids, like sulfuric acid found in the lower venusian atmoshere, and is thermally stable to 500c. (The surface of venus is slightly hotter, but venus does have mountains.)
The idea is to create an atmospheric extremophile that makes use of the sulfur/hydrogen respiration cycle, which produces thin threads of aramid to help keep small colonies of these organisms "afloat" in the thick venusian atmosphere. When the mats get too heavy, they fall like snow, and accumulate under the cloud layer, which thins the atmosphere, reduces greenhouse effect, and cools the planet by trapping greenhouse gas as "biomass".
The only problem is aramid requires excess nitrogen, which the venusian atmosphere appears to lack.
However, if a nitrogen free analog of aramid can be produced with the same or greater thermal stability, it would be "game on".
"You need cybahcruime righ nao? Ok, we attack you long time! You wan unhappy ending? Dat extra! We have special righ nao on discoun razer purinturs. We throw in special remote exproit in PeeSeeErr rogic. Very easy upgruade! You like! We take regula fee: interecturah pruropurty, and you promise not tark abou' proriticar dishidents. Dat good, oh' you nee' soona? Good dear on purinturs! Factory overflowing!, you take deal? We righ on it!"
If they are going to send parasitic worms with complex dna into space, I still think they should send politicians and *IAA lawyers instead. By most prevailing opinions, these subhuman creatures would service mankind far more as biological radio dosemeters than in their natural political niches here on earth. Yes, the expense of sending them would be much greater than sending the genetically and biologically similar roundworms, but this is FOR SCIENCE!
*smacks forehead*
[Note to self: Avoid asking questions about EE, a field you DID NOT take in college, while recovering from a head cold and while under the influence of medication. Seriously, you'll thank me later. There is a reason why the bottle says not to operate heavy machinery. Hint: it also applies to high energy electronic devices.]
Skin effect.. that's right.
But you can get around that with multistranded wire, right? A bundle of 7 small conductors netting the same approximate volume as 1 big conductor has substantially more conduction surface.
Wouldn't it make more sense to drive at 12v with an insane amperage behind it, than to drive at 380v and garantee the necessity of a voltage regulator rated for high voltages?
I mean, the whole reason for doing away with ac current was to eliminate the rectifier and regulator circuits, which belch heat into the data center. Using 380v, which no datacenter device that I know of uses natively (well, maybe the innards of a crt, but that's actually much higher than 380v... AND a deadend tech.), seems kinda... well.... unproductive.
Is it because of impedence problems or something?
Do you realize the twisted trainwreck of deviant thought that you have set in motion?
I just imagined "cheap, ubiquitous UAVs", coupled with disenfranchised hackers, playing "angry drones."
Story:
Angered by the theft of their privacy, the hackers swear phyrric vengence on the "pigs" which stole it.
Cue makers and hackers all over bombing police precincts with novelty makerbot derived UAVs...
Considering that graphene is realy inexpensive (you produce quite a bit od it when writing with a standard pencil)...
You are quite right about the issue though. The idea is to keep that cost low, or the toy wouold be substantially less popular. The idea is to make money on the accessories, not the consumables. (New sensors, actuators, battery p0acks, etc.)
I can see a rather clever toy being made using this technology.
Imagine for a moment, that you have a simple robot chasis like hardware platform, with a flat ribbin cable type connector that is really really wide (like the kind that attaches the keyboard inside a laptop, or the ribbon going to the optical head assy of a dvd drive, only much wider.). It is meant to accept all the electronic innards of the robot other than actuators and external ports and battery pack on a printed sheet of slightly textured plastic, that has a commercially inlaid edge connector on one side that fits the really wide flat ribbon connector, and on the other a specially notched corner, or some other orientation feature.
The sheet is meant to be cleaned, like a dry erase board, but with a special solvent. This makes the sheets reusable.
The printer loads the sheets, which could be printed on both sides if desired, and prints circuits and traces that lead to the inlaid metal edge connector pads.
The idea is as a hobby electronics toy for enthusiasts and advanced school children. A kind of "build your own robot" kit with modular servos and sensors that attach to the simplified chasis a little like legos, and with an extremely low cost roll your own logic board that you print on the special plastic sheet. Since the circuit components are all inkjetted, component cost would be minimal: just the cost of the ink.
Anything from novelty antennas to special logic could be printed on the sheets.
I could really see such a toy being a fantastic learning aid, especially in a school setting. The limiting factors would be feature size, circuit impedence, and physical realestate on the printed sheet. While probably slower than an arduino, it would offer quite a bit more customization options, especially if it came with some design software that had sample patterns for apus, memory cell circuits, and various logic gates and simple IC units.