All rockets that launch from sea level at least. Most of the lower altitude ascent is fighting the atmosphere, and the air density at 100000 ft is about 70x less dense than ASL. The "mothership" carries the orbiter beyond that with its air breathing scramjet. This vastly reduces the orbiter's fuel requirements and demonstrates the efficiency of hybrid propulsion systems (combined cycle chemical/airbreathing). Getting through those first 100000 feet is more than half the battle, and that's handled by the "mothership." The mach 3 launch speed also reduces the delta V needed for a space orbit. After that, it's relatively smooth sailing.
To the original poster (codell): the "omigosh look at the altitude" argument doesn't really hold up to saying this project was never achieved.
Could you please name a single "drone" with a 100k ft. cruising altitude? Or to be more blunt, did you just make that up? I've researched UAV technology pretty extensively and haven't heard of any that fly that high. NASA/Scaled's Proteus and the RQ-4 Global Hawk have only reached about 65k, while the SR-71. I believe the D-21 could reach 100k from its launch platform (SR-71 at 75k), but that died out in the 1960s.
It is vastly easier to get a 6-8 month co-op rather than a 3-4 month internship. It really pays to do a quick numbers check on how your future courseloads would be affected by missing a semester. Graduating a semester later isn't so bad (especially if you're staying for a Master's anyways), and if you plan it right then it might be unnecessary.
Yes, freshman undergrads can get internships. You probably won't be at Google, but look around locally a bit (craigslist). There's a fair chance you could get hired by your school's IT department(s), or find a position at some small software dev shop in town. Big names are nice, but future employers know that any experience is better than none. And writing code is almost the same everywhere, so you'll develop real skill even if you don't have a big name behind you.
Lastly, some companies receive non-profit open source development experience very well... Amazon and Google in particular. If you can't make money programming, do it for free like so many slashdotters. Put it on your resume and you'll have something to show for your summer. Perhaps more importantly though, is that you'll become a better programmer and have fun.
PFS is pretty worthless; no one cares about WMA compatibility. And since the iPod and iTMS don't conform to PFS, any PFS device ignores 80% of the market. The iPod/iTunes/iTMS trinity has evolved as a natural "standard," and it's a good one. PFS is the underdog currently, and doesn't stand a chance. Apple's winning the digital music war because of good engineering, while PFS struggles with its corporate backing and half-assed partnerships.
Given its past purchases of Pixar and Nothing Real, this wouldn't surprise me. It'd really give Apple an "in" to contracts in government/defense and academia, and strengthen their legitimacy in high-performance computing (Xserve really isn't enough). Plus they could have the most the talented computer scientists on the planet working on Quartz, optimizing mpeg4 and refining Renderman among other Apple graphics software. I'd expect SGI's entire workstation division to be dumped (unless Apple wants to sell PC's), but they'd probably maintain the mainframe product lines and introduce some higher-end intel Mac server items. Apple's been trying to corner the pro-graphics market for a while with Shake, Final Cut Pro and Renderman... buying SGI would help complete that.
Yes, it's called the American obsession with statistics. If it can't be quantified, then it doesn't matter. Numbers are god; qualitative reasoning is what cavemen do.
AAC is as vulnerable to obsolesence as any other technology. CD's are still around, and with the relative ease of maintaining software compatibility (rather than hardware which requires material support) I'd guess that AAC will be around for a while longer. The article provided no convincing evidence that AAC is more likely to die out before any other technology. Red Book audio has been around for 20+ years, why not AAC? With CD sales dropping and iTunes constantly gaining new customers, who's to say that CD or plain mp3 support won't disappear first?
All we need now are death sentances for contractors who attempt shoddy work, supervisors who place safety after work shifts, and CEOs who place profits ahead of all else.
Do you really believe every safety breach is due to negligence? No matter how severe the punishment, people will always make mistakes. With only 2 major accidents, fission reactors have a remarkably clean record. Would any punishment be enough to improve that with future reactors?
But a "win" that Apple made years ago, and one that will be soundly trounced by Vista in late 2007. Linux is catching up, not getting ahead. It's only a relative "win."
I recommend getting her an SGI Tezro workstation, while SGI's still around. She'll be awed by the stylish enclosure and rocksolid IRIX operating system running on an XFS foundation. As her pre-school colleagues grapple with color precision and flawed volumetrics, she will be smooth sailing by the smooth CFD visualizations on her scientific-grade machine. As SGI folds during her later years, she'll appreciate your foresight in giving her a piece of computing history. Don't be late; start her off on a real computer.
The new GNOME looks great, but it certainly doesn't match the effects of Vista. Check it out: 3d window stacking, hardware alpha blending with blurring, etc. It'll be a long time before the freedesktop guys get Cairo and XGL working to the compatibility, quality and speed of DirectX. Xorg composite still crashes for me frequently.
Rotary piston engines were standard on WW2 and WW1 era aircraft, among many others. They were not the least bit unique at the time. The vast majority of piston aircraft today use inline designs though.
Slashdot Mirror
The AC flamewars always seem to have the most wit.
your post is also a dupe.
All rockets do.
All rockets that launch from sea level at least. Most of the lower altitude ascent is fighting the atmosphere, and the air density at 100000 ft is about 70x less dense than ASL. The "mothership" carries the orbiter beyond that with its air breathing scramjet. This vastly reduces the orbiter's fuel requirements and demonstrates the efficiency of hybrid propulsion systems (combined cycle chemical/airbreathing). Getting through those first 100000 feet is more than half the battle, and that's handled by the "mothership." The mach 3 launch speed also reduces the delta V needed for a space orbit. After that, it's relatively smooth sailing.
To the original poster (codell): the "omigosh look at the altitude" argument doesn't really hold up to saying this project was never achieved.
Could you please name a single "drone" with a 100k ft. cruising altitude? Or to be more blunt, did you just make that up? I've researched UAV technology pretty extensively and haven't heard of any that fly that high. NASA/Scaled's Proteus and the RQ-4 Global Hawk have only reached about 65k, while the SR-71. I believe the D-21 could reach 100k from its launch platform (SR-71 at 75k), but that died out in the 1960s.
Hey, what about online petitions? Those work great.
Jesus Christ you're fucking stupid.
Well done AC. I am now cooking potatoes.
I would never date someone with such a high slashdot uid. 200k or lower, no exceptions.
Yes, kuro5hin has that system. At the risk of sounding facetious (or downright absurd), k5 does have far less groupthink than /.
What will business think of next?
But will it run Vista?
You've got some sense, son.
yeah it was
It is vastly easier to get a 6-8 month co-op rather than a 3-4 month internship. It really pays to do a quick numbers check on how your future courseloads would be affected by missing a semester. Graduating a semester later isn't so bad (especially if you're staying for a Master's anyways), and if you plan it right then it might be unnecessary.
Yes, freshman undergrads can get internships. You probably won't be at Google, but look around locally a bit (craigslist). There's a fair chance you could get hired by your school's IT department(s), or find a position at some small software dev shop in town. Big names are nice, but future employers know that any experience is better than none. And writing code is almost the same everywhere, so you'll develop real skill even if you don't have a big name behind you.
Lastly, some companies receive non-profit open source development experience very well... Amazon and Google in particular. If you can't make money programming, do it for free like so many slashdotters. Put it on your resume and you'll have something to show for your summer. Perhaps more importantly though, is that you'll become a better programmer and have fun.
PFS is pretty worthless; no one cares about WMA compatibility. And since the iPod and iTMS don't conform to PFS, any PFS device ignores 80% of the market. The iPod/iTunes/iTMS trinity has evolved as a natural "standard," and it's a good one. PFS is the underdog currently, and doesn't stand a chance. Apple's winning the digital music war because of good engineering, while PFS struggles with its corporate backing and half-assed partnerships.
Given its past purchases of Pixar and Nothing Real, this wouldn't surprise me. It'd really give Apple an "in" to contracts in government/defense and academia, and strengthen their legitimacy in high-performance computing (Xserve really isn't enough). Plus they could have the most the talented computer scientists on the planet working on Quartz, optimizing mpeg4 and refining Renderman among other Apple graphics software. I'd expect SGI's entire workstation division to be dumped (unless Apple wants to sell PC's), but they'd probably maintain the mainframe product lines and introduce some higher-end intel Mac server items. Apple's been trying to corner the pro-graphics market for a while with Shake, Final Cut Pro and Renderman... buying SGI would help complete that.
Yes, it's called the American obsession with statistics. If it can't be quantified, then it doesn't matter. Numbers are god; qualitative reasoning is what cavemen do.
AAC is as vulnerable to obsolesence as any other technology. CD's are still around, and with the relative ease of maintaining software compatibility (rather than hardware which requires material support) I'd guess that AAC will be around for a while longer. The article provided no convincing evidence that AAC is more likely to die out before any other technology. Red Book audio has been around for 20+ years, why not AAC? With CD sales dropping and iTunes constantly gaining new customers, who's to say that CD or plain mp3 support won't disappear first?
All we need now are death sentances for contractors who attempt shoddy work, supervisors who place safety after work shifts, and CEOs who place profits ahead of all else.
Do you really believe every safety breach is due to negligence? No matter how severe the punishment, people will always make mistakes. With only 2 major accidents, fission reactors have a remarkably clean record. Would any punishment be enough to improve that with future reactors?
But a "win" that Apple made years ago, and one that will be soundly trounced by Vista in late 2007. Linux is catching up, not getting ahead. It's only a relative "win."
I recommend getting her an SGI Tezro workstation, while SGI's still around. She'll be awed by the stylish enclosure and rocksolid IRIX operating system running on an XFS foundation. As her pre-school colleagues grapple with color precision and flawed volumetrics, she will be smooth sailing by the smooth CFD visualizations on her scientific-grade machine. As SGI folds during her later years, she'll appreciate your foresight in giving her a piece of computing history. Don't be late; start her off on a real computer.
"But if you gift them the past..."
The new GNOME looks great, but it certainly doesn't match the effects of Vista. Check it out: 3d window stacking, hardware alpha blending with blurring, etc. It'll be a long time before the freedesktop guys get Cairo and XGL working to the compatibility, quality and speed of DirectX. Xorg composite still crashes for me frequently.
Rotary piston engines were standard on WW2 and WW1 era aircraft, among many others. They were not the least bit unique at the time. The vast majority of piston aircraft today use inline designs though.