No fancy dual-mode engines are necessary. Zubrin's Black Colt just pairs a couple of fighter jet engines with existing Kerosene/LOX rockets. By using in air refueling, you save a lot of structural weight. (You only have to build for empty weight on the ground.)
You could use such a vehicle as a 1st stage for cheap TSTO launch of small payloads. It can also be used for hypersonic intercontinental package delivery.
Release a botnet that becomes self aware. Such that, it takes over 100% of all spam production, plus a large fraction of the emails sent by a genuine sentience.
All's fair in love & war. Sometimes business is like war. IBM was the Microsoft of its day. They've got a longer history of dirty tricks than just about anybody out there.
So how do you destroy a competitor, legally, soaking up goodwill from the programmer community all the while? Commodify your Competition's Product! Sun was pushing Java big-time for awhile. So why would IBM help it by funding Eclipse? Because by doing so, they commodify Java development environments, eliminating a potential revenue stream for Sun. Eclipse is a weapon against Sun! Why do you think they named it "Eclipse!?" What does an Eclipse do?
It's one thing to pull dirty tricks. It's another thing to be able to pull dirty tricks on the dirty tricksters. It's yet again another thing to do all that, and win the goodwill of the community at the same time! So, by opposing OOXML, IBM is hurting Microsoft, opening up a potential market for consulting services (There has been a fair bit of money to be made in automated document processing for government!) and winning kudos from us Open Source community to boot.
Correction -- I meant "just" in the sense of only. As in we're still only catching up to the Japanese. And the Europeans. Not in the sense of "just" as in we are catching up just now. We're WAY behind!
The danger inherent in the focal point of a Parabolic Solar Sterling generator is NOTHING compared to the dangers in Nuclear, Coal, Hydropower, or even Wind and Geothermal. Yes, it's really freaking hot in there. It's also really freaking hot in a fire. But there's one key difference. The focal point won't spread. It doesn't need to be extinguished. You can eliminate the heat by simply pointing the dish away from the sun. If you don't have the dish oriented so that the focal point falls on the ground, there is no danger of catching anything significant on fire.
Compared to just about anything else, there is very very little danger. What danger there is would arise from the systems for storing solar power for off-peak use. But even these are nothing compared to the potential long term impacts of Nuclear, Coal, and even Hydropower. (I lean towards mass produced flywheels.)
Will this still be viable with new technology? So far, online versions of books have increased sales of hardcopies because the form factor of online books have been so lousy. What happens when you get options that are even better than the Kindle and the Sony Reader? (Just as light, bigger, and not encumbered by DRM?) Perhaps things like novels will get duplicated and no one will pay for them. Only subscription models will exist then.
If your shop thinks it's "Hard" to learn a few programming languages, then I would worry about hiring you.
There is a difference between keeping a well stocked and maintained tool-box that covers the basics and being a compulsive tool collector. There's also a difference between keeping a well stocked and maintained tool-box that covers the basics and using a screwdriver for everything. That's the same mentality that tries to use the tip of a hunting knife to turn a precision screw.
For my undergrad digital hardware project, I made one of these act as a Macintosh mouse. That was cool my professor let me get away with such an easy project.
You could have a very large vocabulary of gestures by using finger positions like modifier keys. Apparently, the native resolution of the Power Glove is 8 bit. This might not sound like much, but with a smoothing function like the one used for SmartNav head pointing devices, you can emulate much higher resolutions very well. (I got my girlfriend one of these because of her RSI, and I can tell you, it works very well, even though SmartNav's native resolution is only VGA.)
Apple Trek in glorious ASCII! And before dad got the Disk II's, we would wait what seemed like a whole half hour for Little Brick Out to load from the cassette tape.
I wonder if it would be feasible to do an electric mod to this car? Change it from 4 seat gasoline engine to a 2 seat electric?
I just bought a 12 year old Mercedes E300 for $6500 and I now run it on pure biodiesel. I could afford to buy one of these to toy with. The shipping would be prohibitive for me, however.
I just love my new Apple Wireless keyboard. It's very thin and light. It uses so little desktop space. I can use it as a media remote. And the keys feel great. I've been programming since 1980, and I like this as much as the old IBM clickys. I do lose the home row, but that's very seldom, and a quick glance down maybe once a day, and that's fixed. My verdict -- it's great! They got the feel of the keys just right! I can actually type faster on that keyboard.
It turns out that clock drift is no longer an issue. There is Open Source clock sync software that can get you into the microseconds range of accuracy across the internet using no other hardware than your microprocessor's clock. TSClock
Slashdot Mirror
No fancy dual-mode engines are necessary. Zubrin's Black Colt just pairs a couple of fighter jet engines with existing Kerosene/LOX rockets. By using in air refueling, you save a lot of structural weight. (You only have to build for empty weight on the ground.)
You could use such a vehicle as a 1st stage for cheap TSTO launch of small payloads. It can also be used for hypersonic intercontinental package delivery.
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/blakcolt.htm
The idea also scales up. (To the point where the size of the fuel tanker becomes prohibitive.)
Esprit de Core?
nuff said.
Slashdot needs literate editors!
Release a botnet that becomes self aware. Such that, it takes over 100% of all spam production, plus a large fraction of the emails sent by a genuine sentience.
Or, they could develop a much more robust variant, called the Tenacious-D!
Oh Hai! I haz a covalent bond?
When good happens, it's because it somehow serves the interests of evil. ($$$)
Not that I'm against that. Just that people should be aware.
All's fair in love & war. Sometimes business is like war. IBM was the Microsoft of its day. They've got a longer history of dirty tricks than just about anybody out there.
So how do you destroy a competitor, legally, soaking up goodwill from the programmer community all the while? Commodify your Competition's Product! Sun was pushing Java big-time for awhile. So why would IBM help it by funding Eclipse? Because by doing so, they commodify Java development environments, eliminating a potential revenue stream for Sun. Eclipse is a weapon against Sun! Why do you think they named it "Eclipse!?" What does an Eclipse do?
It's one thing to pull dirty tricks. It's another thing to be able to pull dirty tricks on the dirty tricksters. It's yet again another thing to do all that, and win the goodwill of the community at the same time! So, by opposing OOXML, IBM is hurting Microsoft, opening up a potential market for consulting services (There has been a fair bit of money to be made in automated document processing for government!) and winning kudos from us Open Source community to boot.
Bravo!
Correction -- I meant "just" in the sense of only. As in we're still only catching up to the Japanese. And the Europeans. Not in the sense of "just" as in we are catching up just now. We're WAY behind!
Competition is Good. We're just at the beginning. (And just catching up to the Japanese!)
The danger inherent in the focal point of a Parabolic Solar Sterling generator is NOTHING compared to the dangers in Nuclear, Coal, Hydropower, or even Wind and Geothermal. Yes, it's really freaking hot in there. It's also really freaking hot in a fire. But there's one key difference. The focal point won't spread. It doesn't need to be extinguished. You can eliminate the heat by simply pointing the dish away from the sun. If you don't have the dish oriented so that the focal point falls on the ground, there is no danger of catching anything significant on fire.
Compared to just about anything else, there is very very little danger. What danger there is would arise from the systems for storing solar power for off-peak use. But even these are nothing compared to the potential long term impacts of Nuclear, Coal, and even Hydropower. (I lean towards mass produced flywheels.)
Will this still be viable with new technology? So far, online versions of books have increased sales of hardcopies because the form factor of online books have been so lousy. What happens when you get options that are even better than the Kindle and the Sony Reader? (Just as light, bigger, and not encumbered by DRM?) Perhaps things like novels will get duplicated and no one will pay for them. Only subscription models will exist then.
If your shop thinks it's "Hard" to learn a few programming languages, then I would worry about hiring you.
There is a difference between keeping a well stocked and maintained tool-box that covers the basics and being a compulsive tool collector. There's also a difference between keeping a well stocked and maintained tool-box that covers the basics and using a screwdriver for everything. That's the same mentality that tries to use the tip of a hunting knife to turn a precision screw.
The spacecraft in "Chile Puede" looks like a VW bug with wings!
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1351338107&channel=1214718128
Virgin Galactic. Allowing pointy hairs to see that the earth really is round, since the early 00's
For my undergrad digital hardware project, I made one of these act as a Macintosh mouse. That was cool my professor let me get away with such an easy project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Glove
You could have a very large vocabulary of gestures by using finger positions like modifier keys. Apparently, the native resolution of the Power Glove is 8 bit. This might not sound like much, but with a smoothing function like the one used for SmartNav head pointing devices, you can emulate much higher resolutions very well. (I got my girlfriend one of these because of her RSI, and I can tell you, it works very well, even though SmartNav's native resolution is only VGA.)
Apple Trek in glorious ASCII! And before dad got the Disk II's, we would wait what seemed like a whole half hour for Little Brick Out to load from the cassette tape.
They should've named themselves "Big Huge Tracts of Land!" Then the headline would've been "THQ acquires Big Huge Tracts of Land!"
Are they just motors we can't hear? Or was the article written by a science illiterate who includes words that he thinks sound scientific?
Congress investigates the FCC, which is investigating Comcast, who are investigating some Bittorrent filesharers...
Where does the madness end!?
I wonder if it would be feasible to do an electric mod to this car? Change it from 4 seat gasoline engine to a 2 seat electric?
I just bought a 12 year old Mercedes E300 for $6500 and I now run it on pure biodiesel. I could afford to buy one of these to toy with. The shipping would be prohibitive for me, however.
I just love my new Apple Wireless keyboard. It's very thin and light. It uses so little desktop space. I can use it as a media remote. And the keys feel great. I've been programming since 1980, and I like this as much as the old IBM clickys. I do lose the home row, but that's very seldom, and a quick glance down maybe once a day, and that's fixed. My verdict -- it's great! They got the feel of the keys just right! I can actually type faster on that keyboard.
It's a Dyslexic Recursive Algorithm, or a DAR.
It turns out that clock drift is no longer an issue. There is Open Source clock sync software that can get you into the microseconds range of accuracy across the internet using no other hardware than your microprocessor's clock. TSClock