Here's one: Introduce accountability. A large portion of the population turn into total a$$holes when they feel anonymous, whether they're behind the wheel, part of a crowd, or chatting online behind a screen name.
Yeah, I know the standard Slashdot line says that anonymity is a good thing. In this case, I say it's not.
Check out drivecam.com. They've got a commercial product that records video for 10 seconds before and after an accident. Keeps the drivers honest, but imagine if everyone (or a large portion of the population) had these installed. Imagine that you could manually trigger the capture by hitting your horn. I'll bet that'd make some folks think twice about weaving in and out of traffic or running red lights.
Such a device wouldn't even be too hard to implement. You could do it with a single-board Linux box, a couple of USB cameras, and a cheap accelerometer. Maybe $300 or less in hardware. Convince the insurance companies of their merits and maybe they'd be free.
So cry all you want about the lack of privacy. As long as you're driving on public roads, with other people's lives depending on your behavior, you've got no right to be anonymous.
'Ask a better question'? I take it you've never submitted a story to Slashdot before. =] I guess too many details like that ruin the story, so they tend to get edited out.
I guess I shouldn't complain. This time it only came out sounding poorly defined. Last time my question just sounded stupid.
That'd be awesome. I just checked eBay, though, and the only one listed there recently went for $3000. Can't really justify that at the moment, but if I see one cheap I'll be sure to grab it.
Nothing terribly fancy. Say 16 channels and 50mhz. Much of what I'm doing is SPI bus and only needs a few channels, but I do sometimes find myself needing more than the 8 provided by the BitScope.
Something that could look at a data line and clock line and give me a hex dump of the data would be nice, but I don't really need any more intelligence than that.
I'm not doubting that they'll pull it off. But can someone remind me how this gets us closer to affordable access to space? After all, isn't this pretty much the same technology as the X-15 that first flew in 1959? Just scaled up a bit to hold three passengers.
Reaching 100km at no particular speed is a loooong way from attaining orbit.
How about someone funding a space elevator competition? Be the first to demonstrate a 100km cable of a certain strength and win $XX million.
Yeah, while there are some folks out there who actually joined to become SPs, it still seems to be very much the default job. Got an ASVAB score under 20? No problem, here's your beret.
And this isn't new, either. Close to 40 years ago when my dad joined up, they screwed up his paperwork and guess where he ended up? They called them Air Police back then (it's Security Forces now) but nothing's changed.
I've been following SpaceX for awhile. Whenever they do get around to launching, I plan to go climb up on the roof and watch. The pad's a few miles from here.
The Vandenberg AFB launch schedule currently shows the launch as 'indefinite'. Until it's got a scheduled launch date it'll stay down at the bottom of the page.
Yeah, I know there aren't any exact dates listed for the launches. Hopefully Public Affairs will let me change that soon... it's been that way since 9/11. Until then, Google is your friend.
You know, now that I try to find the specs, it's not clear if it's 3:4, or '3 to 4'. Either way, it's not a lot. More recent designs have supposedly had ratios up to 27 or so, but I don't know if any have actually been built.
Yeah, NERVA demonstrated at least 900 seconds Isp if I remember right. The thrust-to-weight wasn't 4:1, but 3:4. In other words, it'd never be able to get itself off the ground.
Orion gets around the exhaust temperature problem by having the reaction external to the rocket. You've got a series of small nukes that create superheated plasma that pushes against a huge steel plate. 'Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship' by George Dyson goes into a lot of detail and presents some of the history behind the idea.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's one: Introduce accountability. A large portion of the population turn into total a$$holes when they feel anonymous, whether they're behind the wheel, part of a crowd, or chatting online behind a screen name.
Yeah, I know the standard Slashdot line says that anonymity is a good thing. In this case, I say it's not.
Check out drivecam.com. They've got a commercial product that records video for 10 seconds before and after an accident. Keeps the drivers honest, but imagine if everyone (or a large portion of the population) had these installed. Imagine that you could manually trigger the capture by hitting your horn. I'll bet that'd make some folks think twice about weaving in and out of traffic or running red lights.
Such a device wouldn't even be too hard to implement. You could do it with a single-board Linux box, a couple of USB cameras, and a cheap accelerometer. Maybe $300 or less in hardware. Convince the insurance companies of their merits and maybe they'd be free.
So cry all you want about the lack of privacy. As long as you're driving on public roads, with other people's lives depending on your behavior, you've got no right to be anonymous.
'Ask a better question'? I take it you've never submitted a story to Slashdot before. =] I guess too many details like that ruin the story, so they tend to get edited out.
I guess I shouldn't complain. This time it only came out sounding poorly defined. Last time my question just sounded stupid.
That'd be awesome. I just checked eBay, though, and the only one listed there recently went for $3000. Can't really justify that at the moment, but if I see one cheap I'll be sure to grab it.
Yep, that's what I'm using now.
Nothing terribly fancy. Say 16 channels and 50mhz. Much of what I'm doing is SPI bus and only needs a few channels, but I do sometimes find myself needing more than the 8 provided by the BitScope.
Something that could look at a data line and clock line and give me a hex dump of the data would be nice, but I don't really need any more intelligence than that.
I'm not doubting that they'll pull it off. But can someone remind me how this gets us closer to affordable access to space? After all, isn't this pretty much the same technology as the X-15 that first flew in 1959? Just scaled up a bit to hold three passengers.
Reaching 100km at no particular speed is a loooong way from attaining orbit.
How about someone funding a space elevator competition? Be the first to demonstrate a 100km cable of a certain strength and win $XX million.
Check out these screenshots from their high-fidelity simulator.
Yeah, while there are some folks out there who actually joined to become SPs, it still seems to be very much the default job. Got an ASVAB score under 20? No problem, here's your beret.
And this isn't new, either. Close to 40 years ago when my dad joined up, they screwed up his paperwork and guess where he ended up? They called them Air Police back then (it's Security Forces now) but nothing's changed.
I know a guy named Ze6ke. At least he's always easy to find in Google...
Good point.
I say we plow under the Amazon rainforest now and get started on the next batch of oil reserves for our descendants!
The Vandenberg AFB launch schedule currently shows the launch as 'indefinite'. Until it's got a scheduled launch date it'll stay down at the bottom of the page.
Yeah, I know there aren't any exact dates listed for the launches. Hopefully Public Affairs will let me change that soon... it's been that way since 9/11. Until then, Google is your friend.
I've seen that before... it's when I get modded -1 Flamebait within 30 seconds of posting!
+1 Informative? It was a joke! To those moderating without reading the article first, let me quote Jon Stewart from the daily show:
"Don't DO that! We make stuff up!"
Sorry, that should have read:
U.S. Shuns Computer Science, Engineering Students
And I'm afraid it's just a rehash of an old JonKatz rant.
Zoloft.
Mmmm, serotonin.
I think it's because the electrons don't stay in the solid material. They're flying around from plate to plate, through grids and such.
How thoughtful of them to support solid state devices. I was afraid I'd have to buy one of those vacuum tube-based DVD-Audio players.
(Watch, some audiophile's going to go post a link to a player that really DOES use tubes. *sigh*)
I've found my phone works better with longer names, so I assign native American style names to my coworkers.
'Call chief pointy-hair golfs-too-much'
'Call codes-in-Java-and-never-bathes'
'Call wears-loud-shirts-and-combat boots'
And so on.
Right. This from a girl who thought buffalo wings were made from buffalo meat?
One might still hope she meant it as a joke.
Probably through the National Park Service or one of its other branches, I'd assume. I'd check it out on the web, but...
I doubt the Interior secretary personally oversees it, though. More likely some sort of Undersecretary of Interior Decorating, I'd guess. =]
Who said anything about an RTG? Go look up Cosmos 954. It was one of several powered by a BES-5 reactor.
You know, now that I try to find the specs, it's not clear if it's 3:4, or '3 to 4'. Either way, it's not a lot. More recent designs have supposedly had ratios up to 27 or so, but I don't know if any have actually been built.
Yeah, NERVA demonstrated at least 900 seconds Isp if I remember right. The thrust-to-weight wasn't 4:1, but 3:4. In other words, it'd never be able to get itself off the ground.
Orion gets around the exhaust temperature problem by having the reaction external to the rocket. You've got a series of small nukes that create superheated plasma that pushes against a huge steel plate. 'Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship' by George Dyson goes into a lot of detail and presents some of the history behind the idea.