Ok, my new personal goal in life is to have as much transparency in my computer as possible. Clear case, clear hard drive (clear platters?), clear mobo, etc, etc. You'll have to squint to even see the thing!
Maybe, maybe not. What if some type of regulation had been enforeced on computers that kept them from being used in large quantities? The introduction of home computers would have been delayed for a long time, as well as most of the miniturization that gives my calculator more power than the building-sized computers of yesteryear.
True, cell-phone technology remained obscure mostly because the primitive electronics of the time made them unwieldy, but also because nobody here was bothering to work on it. Why would they, when there was no possible way to make money off it?
Lawyers get laws passed (hell, how many congressmen are lawyers?) that let plantiffs sue people over the time of day who then pay lawyers gobs of money letting them get even more litigious laws passed.
Who can deny that the DMCA is practically a license to sue?
On second thought, that's a little harsh. Perhaps that should apply to the kinds of lawyers in question; ie, ones who drool at the thought of pointless, endless, heartless litigation.
The thing was in space for nearly 200 days. Mir was in an orbit that took it about 91 minutes to circle the globe. Therefore, it orbited this particuar ball o' rock about 3200 times. At 26,000 miles per orbit, that's about 8 1/2 million miles.
Think maybe they can crank the odometer back a few orders of magnitude?
they may even need to keep the upper levels pressurized
Not likely. Pressure goes up underwater wayyyy faster than it goes down with altitude. 10 meters of water = umpteen kilometers of air, pressure-wise. Probably the only thing they'll need to worry about is keeping out the cold, which our faithful engineers are probably already quite adept at.
My favorite sci-fi revenge was against this paranoid corporate executive type who kept a pressurized office in a high rise. Someone hacked the ventilation computers and rigged them to turn suck the air out of his office. Also locked the doors and since the office had basically unbreakable glass...
teacher who dared/told/challenged/asked his students to break past the school's security systems? One kid did, showed how, and was immediately suspended for it
And this RIAA scenario is even more stupid since all the people involved signed agreements making this a perfectly legal hack.
The reach into it's pockets is only as deep as it's donors (rich alumni) permit, however. I can't see them bankrupting themselves because a bunch of punk kids want to download movies.
Perhaps not, but nor do they want to get in the habit of not publishing research because someone with lotsa lawyers says not to.
It'll be like turning every newspaper, however reputable, into the Onion
Are you implying that The Onion isn't reputable? On the contrary, it is quite reputable. You read it expecting bullshit, and that's exactly what you find. With most other newspapers, you never know.
I've read the book. Thought it was an excellent piece on the future of privacy.
Public access to the cameras the government is running
Indeed. This, really, is the only problem I have with public surveillance systems like this. I'm perfectly willing to tolerate it so long as guys in uniforms are not the only ones allowed to see the tapes. And that's a very astute observation: it can either be a true utility or it can be police tool, subject to unaccountable abuse.
I'd rather we do everything in our power to prevent drugs from ruining those people's lives in the first place
Really, the last thing I want or need is to be protected from myself, least of all by a government to whom I am just a number and a source of income. I mean, how is it I'm allowed to drink my liver into oblivion, smoke cigarettes until my lungs have more asphalt in them than the road outside, or throw myself out of an airplane and hope the parachute works right, but getting a buzz from a joint is just too dangerous to me? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, made even more stupid by the fact that it's the reality I have to live in.
Exactly my point. It's so fscking blatantly stupid, yet the WIPO continues doing it. I read the article here; it's like McDonalds the restaurant suing McDonald the scottish family. Stupid, stupid, stupid...
Methinks I sense a wee bit of hostility here. Maybe this'll cheer you up. Courtesy of Joke a Day.
An Army grunt stands in the rain with a 35 lb pack on his back, 15lb weapon in hand, after marching 12 miles, and says "God, this is SHIT."
An Army Airborne grunt stands in the rain with a 45lb pack on his back weapon in hand, after jumping from an airplane and marching 18 miles, and says with a smile "God, this is THE shit."
An Army Airborne Ranger lies in the mud, 55lb pack on his
back, weapon in hand, after jumping from a plane into the
swamp and marching 25 miles at night past the enemy, and
says with a grin,"God, I LOVE this shit!"
An Army Green Beret, Airborne/Ranger/Pathfinder qualified, kneels up to his nose in the stinking, infested mud of a swamp with a 65lb pack on his back and a weapon in both hands after jumping from an airplane into the ocean, swimming 10 miles to the swamp and killing an alligator, then crawling 30 miles through the brush to assault the enemy camp. He says with a passionate snarl, "God, gimmee Some MORE of this shit!"
An Air Force cadet sits in an easy chair in his air-conditioned, carpeted room and says,"The cable's out? What kind of shit is that?!?"
You can bomb it, obliterate it, bitch-slap it all to hell from the air, but the land isn't actually yours until you stick a chump with a rifle on it.
I should point out that in Desert Storm the air war, while amazingly effective, really just loosened the Iraqis up (ie, destroyed the entire C&C system) for the guys in tanks to come and finish pounding their asses flat. Nice piece of work, really.
that's still a bunch of flammable goodness in your gear
Earlier posts pointed out how there's very little hydrogen in the cell at any given time; it gets extracted from the methanol, which is not easily ignited.
these fuel cells had better be made extremely foolproof.
Certainly, but the universe is out there building better fools, the evil bastard. I suppose we here at/. will just have to do our patriotic duty and keep the worst and dimmest of them addicted to First Post's and Natalie Portman and hot grits so they'll never think to enlist. Damn, more trolls...
Hydrogen by itself carries far less energy than gas
Not completely correct. Per mole, hydrogen packs a much greater punch than gasoline; something like 5-10x, I can't remember exactly. The problem is that it can't be compressed as much, not even in liquid form (and storing liquid hydrogen presents all kinds of difficulties). So the Joules per mole is greater but the Joules per liter is at best on the order of 1/2 or 1/3.
Other than that, yeah, these things don't exactly pose a huge safety hazard to guys busy dealing with, say, bombs, shrapnel, and bullets aimed at their tender selves.
I thought the Hindenburg burned so rapidly due to the aluminum paint the Nazi's used, rather than the Hydrogen gas
Bingo. The paint they used was very similar to, I love this, rocket fuel. It doesn't ignite until it hits a fairly high temperature (700C or thereabouts ?), but when it does...
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, my new personal goal in life is to have as much transparency in my computer as possible. Clear case, clear hard drive (clear platters?), clear mobo, etc, etc. You'll have to squint to even see the thing!
--
Maybe, maybe not. What if some type of regulation had been enforeced on computers that kept them from being used in large quantities? The introduction of home computers would have been delayed for a long time, as well as most of the miniturization that gives my calculator more power than the building-sized computers of yesteryear.
True, cell-phone technology remained obscure mostly because the primitive electronics of the time made them unwieldy, but also because nobody here was bothering to work on it. Why would they, when there was no possible way to make money off it?
--
Lawyers get laws passed (hell, how many congressmen are lawyers?) that let plantiffs sue people over the time of day who then pay lawyers gobs of money letting them get even more litigious laws passed.
Who can deny that the DMCA is practically a license to sue?
--
On second thought, that's a little harsh. Perhaps that should apply to the kinds of lawyers in question; ie, ones who drool at the thought of pointless, endless, heartless litigation.
--
There goes the theory that violent games don't influence people to commit violence
In my book, fragging lawyers counts as violence about as much as a insect exterminator thinks himself a hired killer.
--
Think maybe they can crank the odometer back a few orders of magnitude?
--
No kidding. Prostitution is what, one of the 4 oldest proffesions in the world?
--
Not likely. Pressure goes up underwater wayyyy faster than it goes down with altitude. 10 meters of water = umpteen kilometers of air, pressure-wise. Probably the only thing they'll need to worry about is keeping out the cold, which our faithful engineers are probably already quite adept at.
My favorite sci-fi revenge was against this paranoid corporate executive type who kept a pressurized office in a high rise. Someone hacked the ventilation computers and rigged them to turn suck the air out of his office. Also locked the doors and since the office had basically unbreakable glass...
--
And this RIAA scenario is even more stupid since all the people involved signed agreements making this a perfectly legal hack.
--
Perhaps not, but nor do they want to get in the habit of not publishing research because someone with lotsa lawyers says not to.
--
Why, it moved to Everything2.
--
"If a program can't rewrite its own code, what good is it?"
--
Be the only geek on your block to be able to read /. after WW3!
--
Are you implying that The Onion isn't reputable? On the contrary, it is quite reputable. You read it expecting bullshit, and that's exactly what you find. With most other newspapers, you never know.
--
Ender's Game is usually on someone's shit list.
--
Public access to the cameras the government is running
Indeed. This, really, is the only problem I have with public surveillance systems like this. I'm perfectly willing to tolerate it so long as guys in uniforms are not the only ones allowed to see the tapes. And that's a very astute observation: it can either be a true utility or it can be police tool, subject to unaccountable abuse.
--
Really, the last thing I want or need is to be protected from myself, least of all by a government to whom I am just a number and a source of income. I mean, how is it I'm allowed to drink my liver into oblivion, smoke cigarettes until my lungs have more asphalt in them than the road outside, or throw myself out of an airplane and hope the parachute works right, but getting a buzz from a joint is just too dangerous to me? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, made even more stupid by the fact that it's the reality I have to live in.
--
I don't consider any channel that spends 10 to 15 minutes out of every hour showing people saying "Send us money" to be 'commercial free'.
--
Apparently the WIPO is taking my sig to heart.
--
Well said. Golf clap.
--
An Army grunt stands in the rain with a 35 lb pack on his back, 15lb weapon in hand, after marching 12 miles, and says "God, this is SHIT."
An Army Airborne grunt stands in the rain with a 45lb pack on his back weapon in hand, after jumping from an airplane and marching 18 miles, and says with a smile "God, this is THE shit."
An Army Airborne Ranger lies in the mud, 55lb pack on his back, weapon in hand, after jumping from a plane into the swamp and marching 25 miles at night past the enemy, and says with a grin,"God, I LOVE this shit!"
An Army Green Beret, Airborne/Ranger/Pathfinder qualified, kneels up to his nose in the stinking, infested mud of a swamp with a 65lb pack on his back and a weapon in both hands after jumping from an airplane into the ocean, swimming 10 miles to the swamp and killing an alligator, then crawling 30 miles through the brush to assault the enemy camp. He says with a passionate snarl, "God, gimmee Some MORE of this shit!"
An Air Force cadet sits in an easy chair in his air-conditioned, carpeted room and says,"The cable's out? What kind of shit is that?!?"
--
I should point out that in Desert Storm the air war, while amazingly effective, really just loosened the Iraqis up (ie, destroyed the entire C&C system) for the guys in tanks to come and finish pounding their asses flat. Nice piece of work, really.
--
Earlier posts pointed out how there's very little hydrogen in the cell at any given time; it gets extracted from the methanol, which is not easily ignited.
these fuel cells had better be made extremely foolproof.
Certainly, but the universe is out there building better fools, the evil bastard. I suppose we here at /. will just have to do our patriotic duty and keep the worst and dimmest of them addicted to First Post's and Natalie Portman and hot grits so they'll never think to enlist. Damn, more trolls...
--
Not completely correct. Per mole, hydrogen packs a much greater punch than gasoline; something like 5-10x, I can't remember exactly. The problem is that it can't be compressed as much, not even in liquid form (and storing liquid hydrogen presents all kinds of difficulties). So the Joules per mole is greater but the Joules per liter is at best on the order of 1/2 or 1/3.
Other than that, yeah, these things don't exactly pose a huge safety hazard to guys busy dealing with, say, bombs, shrapnel, and bullets aimed at their tender selves.
--
Bingo. The paint they used was very similar to, I love this, rocket fuel. It doesn't ignite until it hits a fairly high temperature (700C or thereabouts ?), but when it does...
--