Who'd like to put together a team from the Raleigh/Durham, NC area? If there are some people that'd like to get together, please respond here.
I grew up on a farm with a well-equipped shop and was always putting things together. I've also got an degree from Cornell Bio. & Ag. Engineering. Proficient in all sorts of mechanical and electrical systems.
If you're local, and feel like trying this - I'm all about digging through junk piles to get random shit built! email: cyrus_yunker at ncsu.edu Include in subject 'slashdot'.
Rhodium, Palladium, Platinum, Gold and Silver
on
Carmack Needs Rocket Fuel
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Would you like to make 90% H2O2 from 50% food or electronic grade peroxide that costs $0.33 USD per pound???
Well Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana sells hydrogen peroxide distillation stills made entirely in borosilicate glass _image_ that merely removes the excess water. $5900 USD for a 20L unit.
They also sell a special catalyst_image _ made of Rhodium, Palladium, Platinum, Gold and Silver.
They also build rocket engines for satelites and jet packs. They also race jet cars and jet bikes. A link to some people that do this sort of thing....
Some info from the site...: The hydrogen peroxide rocket engines are in fact steam rockets, but this steam is produced by a violent exothermic reaction of the peroxide. When passed through a catalyst pack, it decomposes into superheated steam and oxygen. This steam and oxygen at high pressure is expelled supersonically through a DeLaval nozzle, which produces thrust. For each volume of liquid injected at the catalyst, after the reaction you get 600 times this volume expelled at the nozzle.
The most important part of these rockets are the catalyst pack, other elements of the system are a stainless steel pressure tank to hold the peroxide, a pressure tank to store nitrogen to pressurize the peroxide, a pressure regulator, a flow regulator, valves, lines and gauges.
The nitrogen is used to pressurize the peroxide tank and push the peroxide outside the tank. When a flow valve is opened the peroxide is injected into the injection plate of the rocket. The catalyst is made of many silver screens that in the reaction converts the liquid hydrogen peroxide into very hot steam and oxygen at a high pressure, this jet of gas is used to impulse the vehicle.
This kind of rocket together with steam or a hot water rocket is the safest of all the rocket engines. This rocket does not produce flame and between the rocket is considered a cool rocket that doesn't need cooling and can be made of stainless steel.
The Hydrogen Peroxide is the same product used as antiseptic, but in space and rockets it is used at 80% to 98% strength, I use it at 90% and I produce my own peroxide.
The Hydrogen Peroxide is the only product used in the reaction, this places it in the monopropellant liquid rocket fuel classification.
The Hydrogen Peroxide contrary to many false information I read in the web, is a clear liquid, non volatile, non explosive, non inflammable and non toxic product that looks like water but with a great amount of oxygen, thats why in many languages its name is "oxygenated water", this product has a slight biting odor and a little bit irritating for the eyes, at the contact with the skin and the eyes it produces oxidation burns, so you must always wear rubber gloves and a face mask to cover your eyes.
This product increase its stability with concentration, yes!, the more pure and concentrated, the more stable!. The 90% hydrogen peroxide must be stored in special 5254 aluminum alloy containers with vented caps in shaded or fresh rooms preferably, the product is safer to store than gasoline!, but you must store it in approved containers for hydrogen peroxide service.
The hydrogen peroxide is unstable only if it is contaminated and decomposes easily with almost any impurity, the heavy metals, some strong alkalis and the permanganates decompose it instantaneous liberating a great amount of energy in the form of very hot steam and oxygen.
At this strength the hydrogen peroxide is a very strong oxidizer and upon contact with organic mater it is burned, for instance if you soak a cotton rag with 90% hydrogen peroxide it burns very fast, also it can react in a hypergolic way if mixed with other chemicals.
Anyone know of any small, portable, digital recorders availible that can grab high-quality audio to a CF card?
Some kind of hybrid between those little digital recorders with shitty (or none at all) interfaces to a computer and a MiniDisc recorder. Something smaller than a MiniDisc would be better. Like an MP3 player, but a recorder - that will record either straight to a ".wav like format", or ogg or whatever - selectable bitrate, clean audio. Stereo. Small.
Does NASA identify these craft at all as coming from our fair planet? Do they include gold records or drawings of homo sapiens? What would we miss if another alien civilization (or whatever it may be called) were to find this and had no idea where it came from? What a perfect means of contact. With a return address, like a weather balloon, it could be returned to it's rightful owners, and maybe we'd have a chance to communicate! 'course we'll all be dead and gone by the time this gets _anywhere_, but it should be done - if not just to fulfill the obvious curiousity of the finder.
Or would a return address be bad - they come and find us and destroy us or rape our planet of all our Pez despensers.
Our government could provide this service.... and hopefully signed data would stand up in court.
A public time-stamping service is what we need. How do we get this set up?
I'd like to hear about the ones you know that are already in place, but something more universally trusted would be ideal. (Not that our government is universally trusted, but for in-court use, we'd need something not just a private person or corporation has set up.)
Of course, now ISA slots have almost vanished, but the transition period was eight years.
Can anyone recommend any decent boards that still have ISA slots? Just one or two would be fine. 1.3Ghz or better (or thereabouts, soft limit), more than 2 IDE channels, and a few ISA slots. Find me a dual-capable board (Intel or AMD) and I'd be very happy. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Vi in Dvorak? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller. Bueller.
How is it?
Training tools for learing this fanciful new keyboard layout? Anyone? Anyone?
Want to switch Ctrl and Caps Lock? Make your h's into m's or 6's into 9's? Be sure to check out jwz'sXKeyCaps. You can rewire your primary input device to your heart's content. From the site...
xkeycaps is a graphical front-end to xmodmap. It opens a window that looks like a keyboard; moving the mouse over a key shows what KeySyms and Modifier bits
that key generates. Clicking on a key simulates KeyPress/KeyRelease events on the window of your choice. It is possible to change the KeySyms and Modifiers
generated by a key through a mouse-based interface. This program can also write an input file for xmodmap to recreate your changes in future sessions.
I can see Active Directory products selling well for the GNU/Linux and xBSD platforms.
Letting IT managers run real AD services in the server room on their Linux/Samba boxen might allow them to keep selling 2000/XP desktop licenses for the drones in the cubicles.
Microsoft got the desktop right with 2000 (except for the stupid "see more" arrows in the menuing) but the server ball was dropped long ago with the advent of NT3.51. Trying to pick it up after that was just fumble after fumble. Windows on a server is a nightmare.
What MS needs to do is allow Linux binaries to run "natively" on their system. This would allow a much greater software base and increase the power of their system. This is the part of their system they should open up to developers. Imagine a Debian-based subsystem built into Windows??? Port the Linux ABI as the BSD's have done, swallow parts of Cygwin, and allow people to install RPMs or.deb's. Wow. Now THAT would sell.
See if she can recruit some of her friends to help her a bit. She may just need some people around to just jab her kindly and say "Hey ______, we need to work on this project here." *points* This person (or people) could help her keep up the S/N in her classroom environment by filtering out the fluff.
She may actually need a different classroom. A classroom that is more understanding to the differences between herself and some of the others could benefit her greatly. While I'm guessing you may be adverse to "special schools" and the such, with her IQ being what it is, perhaps she'd be better off in an environment where she can explore new ideas at her pace (getting the teacher to keep up with her is another task). The "normal" classroom may be holding her back. Though she may drift from her current friends learning in a different place, the age to make a transition is 6yrs - NOT after 10yrs. of being frusturated (or drugged) in a "normal" school.
I'm curious how much of a rework will be required [by the OpenBSD core developers] once these guys are done. 4 guys on a one-year project. SMP. Good luck. Will this be a patch-type thing? Will the core team accept it, or reject it outright? Will the core team use some portion of it - cleaning it up along the way, or will it take a major rewrite?
It's strange how things like this end up changing would would have been. Do it right the first time, because if it gets adopted, and it wasn't done right, efforts will be diluted.
I'm glad to see it's happening though. At least somebody's throwing some brainpower at it rather than waiting around for Theo & friends. (no fault to Theo, I know SMP is "in the works" - OpenBSD is secure, first and foremost. That's what I, and many others, care about most. Kudos to you and your team on this! You have a highly-regarded, ultra secure OS that has kept many cracker-types and script-kiddies at bay for many years. You have saved many people many thousands or millions of dollars with the protection your software project has provided. You have given nothing to the headache medicine providers of the IT industry.)
One more processor for my dual-capable Sun SS20 and I'll have a grand-ole time playing with this. Just too bad it comes with only a single 10-speed ethernet port. Anybody know about S-bus fast ethernet cards?
To these brave deveopers: Way to go! Thanks for getting the ball rolling and best of luck with your project (and dealing with the publicity!:)
Encrypt your emails people. Encourage your friends to do the same. Help them get the plugins setup, get keys made, and get them a copy of your public key. Put public keys on an keyserver.
Keep your data out of the databases. Use cash, ask marketers to remove your name from their lists. Use cash. Use cash. Use cash.
If you've got a "shoppers club" card with your name attached to it. Give it up. Cut it up. Get another one - without your real name and address.
Encrypt your IM traffic with others that are capable. Put SSL on your web server.
Adopt IPv6. Setup IPsec on IPv4/v6 connections. Use SSH (duh!). Get an anonymizer.com account. $30 bones for a year. You can get a 6-month free trial if you sign up as a member of the EFF. $25 bones. You get a sticker. Spend a little more and you get a hat or a T-shirt. Do it.
Do they need to know how to install the OS first, or should I let them look that up on their own while I make them power-users?
Do the install demo the last day. Show them all the wonderful things non-Micr0s0ft platforms can achieve first, then show them how to harness all that power on their own system at home by demonstrating how to dual boot a box. NOT! Be sure to include a big disclamer - write letters to parents to back up their data, etc. Or give out demo CD's like the Knoppix distro and maybe figure out a way for people to store their data somehow. Messing with people's parents' hard drives would not be advised for a bunch of high schoolers. Fried hard drives are not the right way to send a good message about Linux and other alternatives to parents, etc.
What distributions of Linux and BSD should they be first introduced to? (I'm only familiar with Debian, and I know virtually nil about *BSD.)
Use debian for the majority of your demos. Debian is used as a base for a lot of other distros out there, so this would be a terrific learning platform. apt-get is extremely popular and easy to use and would be a great way to build confidence. "Gee! That's even easier than windows!" It is, again, used in a number of debian-based distros and this is a plus. Messing with RPM dependencies I would say would be less conducive to learning. It should be experienced, but you don't want to spend a lot of time with a headache like this. Let them figure it out when they get to a real RPM based system and they overload their harddrive with unnecessary packages. We needn't worry their little minds with this now.
I would suggest, if you've got a bunch of spare computers for your use, installing a selection of operating systems. Maybe just have them around, for kids to explore on their own time if they seem interested. A selection of the common Linux distros would be good - Red Hat, Mandrake, etc. If you've got the money, do some installs of Xandros, Lindows or Lycoris. Show an install of Gentoo and demonstrate the portage build system. Put YellowDog or LinuxPPC on some older Mac machines that the school is sure to have laying around. Install something fun on a new G4. You're wide open here. If you've got the time, do installs of NetBSD, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD. Actually, I'd move FreeBSD up the ladder a bit, even into the linux distros above. This one I think is going to become pretty important in the next few years. It's clean, stable and very security concious. It also runs linux binaries and, all in all, is a tremendous platform. The flexible workhorse.
Linux and *BSD aren't the only alternative operating systems. Try doing an install of SkyOS, AtheOS, or MinuetOS. Read about those here. There's also Syl-la-ble, QNX[review], and, lest not forget, the Wonderful! the Amazing! MacOS X. Amiga, Minix, VMS, on and on. Find a local LUG with someone in it that likes these obscure operating systems. See if he (she?? --nahh...) will lend a hand. No. Not that hand.
Initially, do they need to be more adept at the GUI, or do they first need to know how to use the shell?
Show them the GUI. Copy some files around or perform some other common tasks using the GUI's helpful tools. Then show them how much faster and more efficiently they can do the same after clicking on gnome-terminal (or Kterm or whatever). Show them the virtual terminals that are availible if X isn't around. Show them that you can start up two instances of X, each with a different user, and switch between them [after you have one going, type "startx --:1" in a virtual terminal as the user you want running the second instance, then Alt-Fx to find it. Switch back and forth). Then ask them if they can do that on dad's windows box. Give them a printed reference of some of the more common unix command and have them figure out how to perform a selection of tasks. Do the shuffle about pipes and redirection and all that and have them do some "homeworks," maybe working together. Then tell them to use the man pages for command xxxxx and yyyy, integrate the knowledge found there with the printed references you gave them, to complete another task. Do speed trials. Ask them to try the same task with only the GUI. Point made.
Should I give away Debian CDs no-questions-asked, or should I talk with the almighty Parents so little Daniel doesn't install Linux over Dad's 'work computer.'
Hand them a Knoppix disk. Let them find debian if they are feeling adventerous. Suggest to them if they think they know what they are doing, and can stand being grounded or whatever if they break mom's computer, to try an install of Mandrake - with the easy repartitioning and all built in so nicely. Easy to use from the get go, but quite fully functional linux distro as well. Easier still, and based on debian, would be Xandros. Apt-get to your hearts content, and can even resize NTFS partitions.
Are there any other key issue I need to think about?
"Am I wearing my pants?"
Don't forget this one before you walk into your first day of class.
X is now one of Linux's biggest bottlenecks, along with the fact that they have no music apps
What is a "music app" I must ask? I'd imagine it to be something that plays music. I'm sure I have half a dozen installed, though I usually only use XMMS.
You'd imagine wrong. The original author probably ment music creation apps. This is often a big gripe among free-software naysayers. He's wrong, as there is stuff out there - just not the products he's comfortable with, most likely those only availible on Windows or Mac platforms.
Slashdot Mirror
I grew up on a farm with a well-equipped shop and was always putting things together. I've also got an degree from Cornell Bio. & Ag. Engineering. Proficient in all sorts of mechanical and electrical systems.
If you're local, and feel like trying this - I'm all about digging through junk piles to get random shit built! email: cyrus_yunker at ncsu.edu Include in subject 'slashdot'.
Well Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana sells hydrogen peroxide distillation stills made entirely in borosilicate glass _image_ that merely removes the excess water. $5900 USD for a 20L unit.
They also sell a special catalyst _image _ made of Rhodium, Palladium, Platinum, Gold and Silver.
They also build rocket engines for satelites and jet packs. They also race jet cars and jet bikes. A link to some people that do this sort of thing....
Some info from the site...
The hydrogen peroxide rocket engines are in fact steam rockets, but this steam is produced by a violent exothermic reaction of the peroxide. When passed through a catalyst pack, it decomposes into superheated steam and oxygen. This steam and oxygen at high pressure is expelled supersonically through a DeLaval nozzle, which produces thrust.
For each volume of liquid injected at the catalyst, after the reaction you get 600 times this volume expelled at the nozzle.
The most important part of these rockets are the catalyst pack, other elements of the system are a stainless steel pressure tank to hold the peroxide, a pressure tank to store nitrogen to pressurize the peroxide, a pressure regulator, a flow regulator, valves, lines and gauges.
The nitrogen is used to pressurize the peroxide tank and push the peroxide outside the tank. When a flow valve is opened the peroxide is injected into the injection plate of the rocket.
The catalyst is made of many silver screens that in the reaction converts the liquid hydrogen peroxide into very hot steam and oxygen at a high pressure, this jet of gas is used to impulse the vehicle.
This kind of rocket together with steam or a hot water rocket is the safest of all the rocket engines. This rocket does not produce flame and between the rocket is considered a cool rocket that doesn't need cooling and can be made of stainless steel.
The Hydrogen Peroxide is the same product used as antiseptic, but in space and rockets it is used at 80% to 98% strength, I use it at 90% and I produce my own peroxide.
The Hydrogen Peroxide is the only product used in the reaction, this places it in the monopropellant liquid rocket fuel classification.
The Hydrogen Peroxide contrary to many false information I read in the web, is a clear liquid, non volatile, non explosive, non inflammable and non toxic product that looks like water but with a great amount of oxygen, thats why in many languages its name is "oxygenated water", this product has a slight biting odor and a little bit irritating for the eyes, at the contact with the skin and the eyes it produces oxidation burns, so you must always wear rubber gloves and a face mask to cover your eyes.
This product increase its stability with concentration, yes!, the more pure and concentrated, the more stable!.
The 90% hydrogen peroxide must be stored in special 5254 aluminum alloy containers with vented caps in shaded or fresh rooms preferably, the product is safer to store than gasoline!, but you must store it in approved containers for hydrogen peroxide service.
The hydrogen peroxide is unstable only if it is contaminated and decomposes easily with almost any impurity, the heavy metals, some strong alkalis and the permanganates decompose it instantaneous liberating a great amount of energy in the form of very hot steam and oxygen.
At this strength the hydrogen peroxide is a very strong oxidizer and upon contact with organic mater it is burned, for instance if you soak a cotton rag with 90% hydrogen peroxide it burns very fast, also it can react in a hypergolic way if mixed with other chemicals.
Why do people think you're so funny?
Some kind of hybrid between those little digital recorders with shitty (or none at all) interfaces to a computer and a MiniDisc recorder. Something smaller than a MiniDisc would be better. Like an MP3 player, but a recorder - that will record either straight to a ".wav like format", or ogg or whatever - selectable bitrate, clean audio. Stereo. Small.
Anyone, anyone??
Michael: I told those fudge-packers that I like Michael Bolton's music. God.
Or would a return address be bad - they come and find us and destroy us or rape our planet of all our Pez despensers.
A public time-stamping service is what we need. How do we get this set up?
I'd like to hear about the ones you know that are already in place, but something more universally trusted would be ideal. (Not that our government is universally trusted, but for in-court use, we'd need something not just a private person or corporation has set up.)
You never regret things NOW.
Timely article. I love this place:)
Why is IBM so infatuated with the number 2? PS/2, OS/2, DB2?? What gives? Self-fulfilling prophecy I guess.....
Of course, now ISA slots have almost vanished, but the transition period was eight years.
Can anyone recommend any decent boards that still have ISA slots? Just one or two would be fine. 1.3Ghz or better (or thereabouts, soft limit), more than 2 IDE channels, and a few ISA slots. Find me a dual-capable board (Intel or AMD) and I'd be very happy. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
How is it?
Training tools for learing this fanciful new keyboard layout? Anyone? Anyone?
Want to switch Ctrl and Caps Lock? Make your h's into m's or 6's into 9's? Be sure to check out jwz's XKeyCaps. You can rewire your primary input device to your heart's content. From the site...
xkeycaps is a graphical front-end to xmodmap. It opens a window that looks like a keyboard; moving the mouse over a key shows what KeySyms and Modifier bits that key generates. Clicking on a key simulates KeyPress/KeyRelease events on the window of your choice. It is possible to change the KeySyms and Modifiers generated by a key through a mouse-based interface. This program can also write an input file for xmodmap to recreate your changes in future sessions.
Nice home page Jamie. (BTW This is the guy behind everybody's favorite collection of screen hacks, XScreenSaver, the DNA Lounge and an explanation of cut and paste in X, among other things .)
I wonder exactly what kind of data is sent to the jacket.
Perhaps it is somthing along the lines of: "NOW!!!", encoded in XML to facilitate the use of the data in other devices as well.
Letting IT managers run real AD services in the server room on their Linux/Samba boxen might allow them to keep selling 2000/XP desktop licenses for the drones in the cubicles.
Microsoft got the desktop right with 2000 (except for the stupid "see more" arrows in the menuing) but the server ball was dropped long ago with the advent of NT3.51. Trying to pick it up after that was just fumble after fumble. Windows on a server is a nightmare.
What MS needs to do is allow Linux binaries to run "natively" on their system. This would allow a much greater software base and increase the power of their system. This is the part of their system they should open up to developers. Imagine a Debian-based subsystem built into Windows??? Port the Linux ABI as the BSD's have done, swallow parts of Cygwin, and allow people to install RPMs or .deb's. Wow. Now THAT would sell.
She may actually need a different classroom. A classroom that is more understanding to the differences between herself and some of the others could benefit her greatly. While I'm guessing you may be adverse to "special schools" and the such, with her IQ being what it is, perhaps she'd be better off in an environment where she can explore new ideas at her pace (getting the teacher to keep up with her is another task). The "normal" classroom may be holding her back. Though she may drift from her current friends learning in a different place, the age to make a transition is 6yrs - NOT after 10yrs. of being frusturated (or drugged) in a "normal" school.
Try 1-888-GR8MIND (LD Online) for more help and information.
It's strange how things like this end up changing would would have been. Do it right the first time, because if it gets adopted, and it wasn't done right, efforts will be diluted.
I'm glad to see it's happening though. At least somebody's throwing some brainpower at it rather than waiting around for Theo & friends. (no fault to Theo, I know SMP is "in the works" - OpenBSD is secure, first and foremost. That's what I, and many others, care about most. Kudos to you and your team on this! You have a highly-regarded, ultra secure OS that has kept many cracker-types and script-kiddies at bay for many years. You have saved many people many thousands or millions of dollars with the protection your software project has provided. You have given nothing to the headache medicine providers of the IT industry.)
One more processor for my dual-capable Sun SS20 and I'll have a grand-ole time playing with this. Just too bad it comes with only a single 10-speed ethernet port. Anybody know about S-bus fast ethernet cards?
To these brave deveopers: Way to go! Thanks for getting the ball rolling and best of luck with your project (and dealing with the publicity! :)
If you've got flash, watch this. Good political flash cartoons at this site. Go up a level to see more.
Keep your data out of the databases. Use cash, ask marketers to remove your name from their lists. Use cash. Use cash. Use cash.
If you've got a "shoppers club" card with your name attached to it. Give it up. Cut it up. Get another one - without your real name and address.
Encrypt your IM traffic with others that are capable. Put SSL on your web server.
Adopt IPv6. Setup IPsec on IPv4/v6 connections. Use SSH (duh!). Get an anonymizer.com account. $30 bones for a year. You can get a 6-month free trial if you sign up as a member of the EFF. $25 bones. You get a sticker. Spend a little more and you get a hat or a T-shirt. Do it.
If you've got flash, watch this.
No need to contribute "useful" data to the databases, right?
Ask Apple.
Bob Young. Red Hat. Wasn't meant to be a joke.
Bob Young wrote this article.
I feel like such a toxin. "contaminate"??
1)Send Me a bill
2)Credit Card
3)EGold/EDinar
4)Network for Good
5)PayPal
6)Stock
6-12 Months of Anonymizer Private Surfing is included with a minimum of $25 donation. Your gift is 100% tax-deductable.
A visit to the Action Center at the EFF would be useful as well. Do your part or watch your rights slip away! Direct others to help you in the fight.
You'd imagine wrong. The original author probably ment music creation apps. This is often a big gripe among free-software naysayers. He's wrong, as there is stuff out there - just not the products he's comfortable with, most likely those only availible on Windows or Mac platforms.