Slashdot Mirror


User: teridon

teridon's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
335
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 335

  1. Re:Storing fuel in the wings? on Morphing Plane Wings for Efficient Flights · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Normally reinforced with kevlar and othe[r] fibers to make them punture resistant.

    Is this also done for combat aircraft? If so, I wonder if anyone else has thought of reinforcing these with shear-thickening fluid (STF). This could increase battle-damage survivability to a great extent! At least, it would the protect the fuel tanks from shrapnel hits.

  2. Re:The next gen i-pod... on 100GB, 9.5mm thick HD from Toshiba · · Score: 1

    The regular iPods use the 1.8-inch drive. The minis use a Hitachi 1-inch drive.

  3. Re:Mach10?! on X-43A Hits Mach 7 · · Score: 1

    No, you're wrong. Read the definition again, until you understand it.

    Escape velocity is to totally escape the gravitational influence of the Earth. Objects in orbit have by definition not escaped the gravational field, or they wouldn't be in orbit.

  4. Re:Mach10?! on X-43A Hits Mach 7 · · Score: 1

    where's my mod points?

    "Escape velocity is defined to be the minimum velocity an object must have in order to escape the gravitational field of the earth, that is, escape the earth without ever falling back. [...] So, an object which has this velocity at the surface of the earth, will totally escape the earth's gravitational field (ignoring the losses due to the atmosphere.)"

    For the small of brain, the 11 km/s value applies only to unpowered shots (e.g. a cannon) launched from the surface of the earth. Rockets and other powered vehicles don't need to obtain escape velocity to obtain orbit.

  5. Balance issues... on Powered Exoskeleton Legs · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Watch the video, and note the intense concentration on that guy's face! Walking around in those legs is obviously not easy. At some points it looks like he is losing his balance, or at least he feels like he's losing his balance, because he puts his arms out.

    They obviously still have a lot of work to do...

  6. Re:Already exists on Handhelds Syncing w/ Web-Based Calendars? · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    you're either trolling or ignorant, or you can't read. He said "flexible and powerful". iCal does not fit that description. I love my Mac at work, but iCal & iSync just doesn't cut it for calendaring.

    1. The palm conduit for iSync is slooooooooooooow. About 10 times as slow, by my estimation.
    2. iCal does not support categories for tasks on your to do list. With Palm software you can sort your tasks by categories such as by customer or, separate your sysadmin tasks from other work.

  7. Re:Space Technology on Debugging The Spirit Rover · · Score: 1
    Ten years out of date, but ten years more reliable for the effort.

    Uhm, do you work in the space industry? I do ... and the first guy was right. Anything in space is usually 10-15 years behind ground computers. And even the ground computers get out of date. For safety (and lack of budget), the ground controllers often continue to use the same systems they launched with to fly the bird; even 5-10 years later. These are goverment contracts, where the *lowest bidder* usually wins, remember? And the lowest bidder often fails to leave enough budge to fix 5-10 year old problems.

    On another note, the project I work on used to have a VxWorks-embedded OS on our front end processors. It used to crash at least twice a day... Luckily we had enough budget to rehost to software-based HPUX front ends.

  8. Patchlink on Online Patching Systems? · · Score: 1

    The government installation at which I work will soon deploy Patchlink, mainly for security updates. However, since it hasn't happened yet, I can't offer you any feedback. There are links to some ROI studies on their website.

  9. iSync is slow... on PalmSource Drops Mac Synchronization in Cobalt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I try new versions of iSync every time Apple releases them. And yet iSync still takes 5-10 times longer to sync then the Palm HotSync software. This sucks because I *want* to use iCal, but I can't if I have to spend 5 minutes syncing (instead of 30 seconds).

  10. Re:Movies on Google Asks Booble To Cease And Desist · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Did you RTFA?

    For a work to constitute a parody, it must use some elements of a prior author"s composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on the original author"s works. See Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569. Your website does not comment on the Google website at all; it merely uses the Google look and feel and a similar name for a search engine.

    SpaceBalls clearly is a new work, and, in part, comments on the original author's works. Does the Booble website make jabs at Google's company practices? Is imitating Google's design a comment?

    I'd say Booble's logo, in itself, is a parody. The website, as a whole, is not.

  11. store CF pictures on your iPod... on Microsoft's iPod-Killer: Portable Media Center? · · Score: 3, Informative

    with the Belkin iPod Media Reader. Only works with the new iPods with dock connectors, though.

  12. Belkin makes an external battery pack for 3G iPods on Rumors of Mini iPods · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you are willing to put up with the added bulk, you can add it on to your 3G iPod. The external battery pack uses 4 AA batteries.

  13. does anybody else think... on Time's Up: 2^30 Seconds Since 1970 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    that time should be stored as self-describing format, such as:
    header containing:
    2-bits (E) for # of bits for Epoch
    1-bit for whether the time is a floating point format
    if not floating, then:
    2-bits (N) for # of bits for the time
    2-bits (n) for # of bits for the resolution (1/2^n) (e.g. n=8 would mean 1/256 second resolution)
    if floating, then follow some IEEE standard representation.

  14. Re:you can use IP... on Setting up a System w/ Wake-on-LAN and VNC? · · Score: 1
    It would be senseless to use IP for WoL, as the arp-table of the last router has already forgotten the MAC of the dest ip and cannot resolve via arp-request it as the destination host is sleeping.

    You're right, but you can use IP if you use the remote subnet's broadcast address (i.e. no ARP request is needed). The perl WOL utility allows you to specify the IP to use.

  15. Re:Some simple ideas on Setting up a System w/ Wake-on-LAN and VNC? · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can wake up a system on a remote subnet by using two methods. One, you mentioned, is by using the remote IP. This probably won't work unless the router on the remote subnet still has the MAC address for that IP in its ARP cache. This isn't likely because if the system is sleeping the ARP cache probably expired already. And when the router for the remote system sends an ARP request (who has IP X), the sleeping system will of course not answer, so the router reports IP X as being down.

    The second method is to send to the remote subnet's broadcast address (vice the LAN broadcast). e.g. if the IP is 128.183.23x.xxx, subnet mask 255.255.252.0, the remote broadcast address is 128.183.235.255. The router on the system local to the subnet with then broadcast it, so the sleeping system will see it.

    The perl WOL utility allows you to specify the IP to use -- in this case specify the remote broadcast address and it should work. (unless of course there's a firewall blocking it :( )

  16. what system, dude?!?!?! on Setting up a System w/ Wake-on-LAN and VNC? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It'd be nice if you told us what kind of system you are planning on doing this to. Other hosts on the network that DON'T sleep? info, info, info!

  17. print or save your confirmation pages on Paperless Billing? · · Score: 1

    Save the HTML of the confirmation page, if the site allows it (some scripted pages won't fucking save!); otherwise, print it. But then you're back to paper, and now the cost is yours!

    I have had one problem. I use the free version of sneakemail, which allows 10MB bandwidth per month. One month I exceeded that bandwidth (and failed to realize it) because of freaking spammers spamming the sneakemail address I used to post to usenet. Sneakemail stopped forwarding my email, and I never received some of the reminders to pay my bills. So guess what happened -- those bills didn't get paid because I didn't get a paper reminder either.

    I've since put reminders into Palm Desktop for each bill so that I don't have to worry about that again.

  18. CAIB report on Space Shuttle to be Outfitted with New Sensors · · Score: 2, Informative

    The test report is located here. Check out the hole in the panel on page 82.

  19. Find a Federal employee... on Finding Holiday Discounts on iPods? · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Apple Federal Store offers discounts of $30, $40, and $50 on the 10-, 20-, and 40-GB models respectively.

  20. Moonquakes do occur on Viewing Inside the Earth · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Apollo missions deployed seismometers on the moon and recorded over 12000 "events" from 1969-1977. There's some info in this abstract, which I found using, you guessed it, google (search term "moonquakes study interior"). Apparently most of these events are moonquakes caused by tidal forces, as opposed to plate tectonics on Earth.

  21. iTunes installed? on CD-ROMs Failing In Win2k & XP Boxes? · · Score: 1

    I saw quite a few reports of iTunes causing CDROMs to stop working. Search here in the iTunes for Windows forum for "cdrom device manager" to see some of the reports.

  22. Now all I need... on NASA Ground Tests Ion Engine · · Score: 2, Funny

    is a portable 25-kilowatt reactor. Pluto here I come!

  23. is it just me... on Jail Time for Movie Swappers · · Score: 1

    or is it time to start voting with a bullet??? ;-)

  24. At least the name is fitting... on The Best of What's New From Popular Science · · Score: 1

    The Boeing 7E7 "Dreamliner" is the best imaginary aircraft of 2003.

  25. Re:I fear to look... on The Best of What's New From Popular Science · · Score: 1

    Sorry, it is on the list.