Well, I've had a much better hit rate. Usually it is laptops with weird video cips that don;t go, and that can be cured by turning off APM and exotic video as per the Knoppix boot help menu.
I've already solved this problem with SuperWaba. It runs on PalmOS, WinCE, PocketPC, Win32 and Java with more to come. Open Source, supports native libraries, fast VM. Works a treat.
If someone designed a nice launcher for it you could have a consistent user interface across PDAs, even when you upgrade.
This assumes that there is always going to be a dork sitting in front of the video screen.
Unfortunately, that is not always going to be true. One day it may be Diebold running the neural network that watches your everyday movements in the name of Homeland Security.
One of the nice things about SuperWaba is that it is actually 3x faster than Sun's JIT compiled code. Version 4.2 is sceduled to be released on Monday, and that will have significantly (>10x) speeded up graphics capabilities. Can't wait!
I already use Eclipse to develop Palm and WinCE code with SuperWaba, and I must say that the debugger is brilliant. There is a plugin available on SourceForge to allow debugging on the Palm emulator itself, but I generally just run under native Java.
For us, sticking with Java was a no-brainer because of the abundance of in-house Java expertise. But I think it was the right long term decision anyway.
I'm a developer of PalmOS and WinCE/PocketPC applications and I realised that fighting any kind of multiple-platform market required a cross-platform tool that works under top-notch IDEs like Eclipse. And there is one. And it's Free.
By writing programs in SuperWaba - a cut down Java VM - I avoid most of the crap associated with who has what version of what device. Palm V2.0 to WindowsXP/CE, I have just one application to develop and it runs on all platforms - even in a web browser.
The high inclination of the ISS does not prevent you from going to anywhere. All it means is that you need to do a slingshot flyby of our moon first. That can take you off in just about any direction, including a retrograde Earth orbit.
This wouldn't be the same recently aquired army vehicle that was panned in the New Zealand press for lack of reliabilty would it? Oh, it is. What a surprise.
While I'm fairly sure that some variant or successor to 802.11* will be the norm for wireless phone handsets one day, I don't think now is a good time to solve that problem with it.
Soon there will be 802.11-enabled mobiles in common use and all those base stations will make an awesome ad hoc network, but until then I'd suggest PRS handsets and headsets with VOX to save power.
If anyone is interested, I've developed a concept for sharing browser caches over LANs to speed up the access of all members here.
The diameter of 400m and rotation rate of 1.5 RPM is chosen specifically so that it will not disturb the majority of people.
Truth is, I'm not worried about mass going missing from Mars' moons. Chances are they'll be hollowed out and turned into space stations, used as anchors for tethers, and otherwise played with by people who hope to hell they know what they're doing.
I don't know how stable their orbits are either. It could be that we'll need to muck with them to stop them hitting Mars or flying off eventually.
Ordinary mirrors will reflect visible light and other desirable wavelengths. Only reflected light makes it through the windows into the agricultral areas.
Not everyone in low-gravity vomits. I'm sure some actually enjoy the experience and they'll head off into the low-gravity areas, though they're best used for agricultural purposes. Areas of near-zero gravitymight be more useful for storage, light-piping, and activities or massive goods best kept near the axis of rotation.
Preventing things from going wrong is a matter of good design and appropriate materials. Probably a bit lengthy for a Slashdot thread:) But the vessel will have significant self-repair capabilities, and be well shielded. Safety margins are something I leave to the design experts, but it does not necessarily follow that a larger design is more likely to be subject to catastrophic loss.
The mining of Phobos and Deimos is not essential for the mission, by the way. It's just an option. But changing an object's mass does not alter its orbit in any event, unless it is a significant percentage of the mass of the object it is orbiting. Deimos could suddenly double or halve its mass, and it would still keep heading in much the same orbit.
Much high-frequency radiation will be stopped by a few metres of regolith. The metal interior hull will block microwave radiation. Mirrors are used to admit sunlight without admitting radiation. The designs were worked out by a bright guy working for NASA called G. K. O'Neill a long time ago. The craft I'm proposing is based on his concept for the "R H Goddard"-class transfer vehicles.
The ship does not "generate gravity" the interior habitat (not the shield) rotates to simulate gravity by centripetal force. A diameter of 400m was chosen because it will give 0.5g with a rotation rate of 1.5 rpm, which humans should find comfortable.
It is not necessary to land the main craft on Phobos or Deimos to aquire fuel. Mars landers can be employed for this purpose before they set down if specialist craft need to be avoided for any reason.
I am well aware how much plant life and technology is required to keep people alive. I design Closed Environmental Life Support Systems (CLESS) and conduct research into low gravity hydroponic systems. A 400m sphere without external "gardens" would support a few dozen people, exactly how many depends on how you do it and how much reflector or other light transmission systems you're using.
Do we really want another flags & footprints Mars mission? If so, go there first, get it over with and then we can all forget about interplanetary travel for 50 years like we have with the Moon.
I suggest a more thorough approach, which incidentally gets around the problems associated with a quick and dirty Mars mission.
Establish a lunar manufacturing base, and build what is essentailly a moveable space habitat, say, 400 metres in diameter. Shield it with a fixed shield of several metres of lunar-derrived material. Fill large storage tanks with more lunar material. Establish a known working, self-sufficient, rotating habitat inside the shielding. Build a solar-powered mass driver pointing out the back. Fire lunar material out the back, taking large numbers of colonists and thousands of tonnes of materiel for colonisation to Mars nice and slowly.
It won't run out of food as the habitat is self-sufficient. Psychological stress is minimised because of the habitat's large size. Gravity is sustained, and a full medical team can go out to maintain health. Shielding removes the radiation issue totally. Journey time becomes irrelevant.
What's more, the vessel is completely reusable so rinse and repeat. Refuel from Phobos/Diemos and go back to the Earth/Moon system or head on out as far as the asteroids. Any further and the solar panels will have difficulty powering the mass driver.
There's an old joke related to this:
An old bull and a young bull are at the top of a hill, looking at a herd of young, healthy, and dare I say attractive cows in the fields below.
"Let's run down and do a few," suggests the young bull.
"Let's walk down and do the lot," replied his elder.
Users may not know what they want, but they won't buy what they don't want.
Users are also getting more fickle. Most of them have been burned by lock-ins, and are starting to be aware of the concept of "compatibility". They've had Napster and like the concept.
Look at it his way: You know when they've found themselves a "killer app", right? None of those dud technologies fits the bill.
Sorry, dude. Real-world events have rocked your board. The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) launched its first satallite on July 16 1990 with the help of the Chinese.
But hey, don't take my word for it. Read all about it on the Pakistani government's own website:
Note the last para of the article suggests they may use it to boost their existing rockets. Or possibly future rockets, now that India is starting to consider manned spaceflight.
The China/India/Pakistan space race could be far more interesting - and given the new technologies available - productive than the USA/USSR one.
I know it's Wired magazine, but free wireless networks have a lot to offer and I reckon they should start replacing much of the Internet. By removing commercial entities from the loop, you make it harder for the Government to have any control over the Internet. IMHO, that's as it should be. Cuts down on the bandwidth down the wires too.
But even using local free wireless networks to share proxies (without letting anyone leach of your own Internet connection) would speed up web access for everyone. The outline for this is here if anyone is interested.
The article misses one vital point. For-fee WiFi may not take off, but the free version looks like it has a much more user-friendly charging structure.
Start off by creating your own WiFi-enabled communities and nuture them until they interlink. I have developed a way of making it "worth their while" for members of outlying communities to join a WiFi network:
Most rural communities suffer badly from sub-standard dial-up access. ISP conditions forbid the sharing of accounts, but once you've downloaded a page, you can share it with anyone over WiFi. This is the principle of the "Community Proxy" system. Its free, and speeds up access for everyone.
Once community WiFi networks grow to a point where they start to encompass locally hosted websites and establishments like schools, community centres and so forth, local content becomes a big driver on its own. As the zones link up, more and more traffic goes over WiFi and less down cables. The community has regained control of the Internet.
That's got a very nice rendering engine as well as rastering, and a user interface that 3D Studio Max affectionados will easily understand. It'll export to POV, which is handy sometimes as you can model a tricky object in the GUI, then import it into a POV script later.
Oh yeah, runs on Windows and Mac too. Guess someone might find that useful:)
Yup, I use ArtOfIllusion for commercial artwork. It is indeed most exellent and powerful. Not only that, but there is some great documentation available for it too.
It would be great if Blender and ArtOfIllusion could share a decent file format. It'd save everyone a lot of heartache in the long term.
It has rendering and raytracing options, so both camps can be kept happy. Oh, and don't be put off by its use of Java. This is by far the speediest Java graphics app I've come across anywhere.
Ah, but these problems are alleviated somewhat when the FPGA units are molecular in scale. HP Expect to be delivering 2D molecular circuitry in the 2005-2007 timescale. I happen to believe them, though it is possible that an unexpected breakthrough may progress things more rapidly.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I've had a much better hit rate. Usually it is laptops with weird video cips that don;t go, and that can be cured by turning off APM and exotic video as per the Knoppix boot help menu.
:v)
Vik
I've already solved this problem with SuperWaba. It runs on PalmOS, WinCE, PocketPC, Win32 and Java with more to come. Open Source, supports native libraries, fast VM. Works a treat.
:v)
If someone designed a nice launcher for it you could have a consistent user interface across PDAs, even when you upgrade.
Vik
This assumes that there is always going to be a dork sitting in front of the video screen.
:v)
Unfortunately, that is not always going to be true. One day it may be Diebold running the neural network that watches your everyday movements in the name of Homeland Security.
Vik
One of the nice things about SuperWaba is that it is actually 3x faster than Sun's JIT compiled code. Version 4.2 is sceduled to be released on Monday, and that will have significantly (>10x) speeded up graphics capabilities. Can't wait!
:v)
I already use Eclipse to develop Palm and WinCE code with SuperWaba, and I must say that the debugger is brilliant. There is a plugin available on SourceForge to allow debugging on the Palm emulator itself, but I generally just run under native Java.
For us, sticking with Java was a no-brainer because of the abundance of in-house Java expertise. But I think it was the right long term decision anyway.
Vik
I'm a developer of PalmOS and WinCE/PocketPC applications and I realised that fighting any kind of multiple-platform market required a cross-platform tool that works under top-notch IDEs like Eclipse. And there is one. And it's Free.
:)
:v)
By writing programs in SuperWaba - a cut down Java VM - I avoid most of the crap associated with who has what version of what device. Palm V2.0 to WindowsXP/CE, I have just one application to develop and it runs on all platforms - even in a web browser.
Don't leave home without it
Vik
The high inclination of the ISS does not prevent you from going to anywhere. All it means is that you need to do a slingshot flyby of our moon first. That can take you off in just about any direction, including a retrograde Earth orbit.
:v)
Vik
Yup. A little money goes a long way to promote Linux there.
:v)
Vik
This wouldn't be the same recently aquired army vehicle that was panned in the New Zealand press for lack of reliabilty would it? Oh, it is. What a surprise.
:v)
Vik
Do they mean Lidar perhaps?
:v)
Vik
While I'm fairly sure that some variant or successor to 802.11* will be the norm for wireless phone handsets one day, I don't think now is a good time to solve that problem with it.
:v)
Soon there will be 802.11-enabled mobiles in common use and all those base stations will make an awesome ad hoc network, but until then I'd suggest PRS handsets and headsets with VOX to save power.
If anyone is interested, I've developed a concept for sharing browser caches over LANs to speed up the access of all members here.
Vik
The connection between SCO and a Kiwi:
:v)
They can both shove their bills up their arse.
Vik
Caller: "You know that Linux licence you're peddling?"
SCO: "The one where you pay us loads, and carry on as usual?"
Caller: "We have a better idea."
SCO: "Yes..."
Caller: "We give you the finger, and you go back to Utah."
A Kiwi.
The diameter of 400m and rotation rate of 1.5 RPM is chosen specifically so that it will not disturb the majority of people.
:v)
Truth is, I'm not worried about mass going missing from Mars' moons. Chances are they'll be hollowed out and turned into space stations, used as anchors for tethers, and otherwise played with by people who hope to hell they know what they're doing.
I don't know how stable their orbits are either. It could be that we'll need to muck with them to stop them hitting Mars or flying off eventually.
Vik
Ordinary mirrors will reflect visible light and other desirable wavelengths. Only reflected light makes it through the windows into the agricultral areas.
:) But the vessel will have significant self-repair capabilities, and be well shielded. Safety margins are something I leave to the design experts, but it does not necessarily follow that a larger design is more likely to be subject to catastrophic loss.
:v)
Not everyone in low-gravity vomits. I'm sure some actually enjoy the experience and they'll head off into the low-gravity areas, though they're best used for agricultural purposes. Areas of near-zero gravitymight be more useful for storage, light-piping, and activities or massive goods best kept near the axis of rotation.
Preventing things from going wrong is a matter of good design and appropriate materials. Probably a bit lengthy for a Slashdot thread
The mining of Phobos and Deimos is not essential for the mission, by the way. It's just an option. But changing an object's mass does not alter its orbit in any event, unless it is a significant percentage of the mass of the object it is orbiting. Deimos could suddenly double or halve its mass, and it would still keep heading in much the same orbit.
Vik
Much high-frequency radiation will be stopped by a few metres of regolith. The metal interior hull will block microwave radiation. Mirrors are used to admit sunlight without admitting radiation. The designs were worked out by a bright guy working for NASA called G. K. O'Neill a long time ago. The craft I'm proposing is based on his concept for the "R H Goddard"-class transfer vehicles.
:v)
The ship does not "generate gravity" the interior habitat (not the shield) rotates to simulate gravity by centripetal force. A diameter of 400m was chosen because it will give 0.5g with a rotation rate of 1.5 rpm, which humans should find comfortable.
It is not necessary to land the main craft on Phobos or Deimos to aquire fuel. Mars landers can be employed for this purpose before they set down if specialist craft need to be avoided for any reason.
I am well aware how much plant life and technology is required to keep people alive. I design Closed Environmental Life Support Systems (CLESS) and conduct research into low gravity hydroponic systems. A 400m sphere without external "gardens" would support a few dozen people, exactly how many depends on how you do it and how much reflector or other light transmission systems you're using.
Vik
Do we really want another flags & footprints Mars mission? If so, go there first, get it over with and then we can all forget about interplanetary travel for 50 years like we have with the Moon.
:v)
I suggest a more thorough approach, which incidentally gets around the problems associated with a quick and dirty Mars mission.
Establish a lunar manufacturing base, and build what is essentailly a moveable space habitat, say, 400 metres in diameter. Shield it with a fixed shield of several metres of lunar-derrived material. Fill large storage tanks with more lunar material. Establish a known working, self-sufficient, rotating habitat inside the shielding. Build a solar-powered mass driver pointing out the back. Fire lunar material out the back, taking large numbers of colonists and thousands of tonnes of materiel for colonisation to Mars nice and slowly.
It won't run out of food as the habitat is self-sufficient. Psychological stress is minimised because of the habitat's large size. Gravity is sustained, and a full medical team can go out to maintain health. Shielding removes the radiation issue totally. Journey time becomes irrelevant.
What's more, the vessel is completely reusable so rinse and repeat. Refuel from Phobos/Diemos and go back to the Earth/Moon system or head on out as far as the asteroids. Any further and the solar panels will have difficulty powering the mass driver.
There's an old joke related to this:
An old bull and a young bull are at the top of a hill, looking at a herd of young, healthy, and dare I say attractive cows in the fields below.
"Let's run down and do a few," suggests the young bull.
"Let's walk down and do the lot," replied his elder.
There's an immoral moral there.
Vik
So eliminate this cut-throat competition with the equivalent of the Open Source movement. Hmm, Open Communications movement?
:v)
Anyway, hows about users get shown how to solve the last-mile problem among themselves with wireless connectivity? Wireless local networks for free...
Vik
Users may not know what they want, but they won't buy what they don't want.
:v)
Users are also getting more fickle. Most of them have been burned by lock-ins, and are starting to be aware of the concept of "compatibility". They've had Napster and like the concept.
Look at it his way: You know when they've found themselves a "killer app", right? None of those dud technologies fits the bill.
Vik
Sorry, dude. Real-world events have rocked your board. The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) launched its first satallite on July 16 1990 with the help of the Chinese.
:v)
But hey, don't take my word for it. Read all about it on the Pakistani government's own website:
http://www.suparco.gov.pk
Vik
Note the last para of the article suggests they may use it to boost their existing rockets. Or possibly future rockets, now that India is starting to consider manned spaceflight.
:v)
The China/India/Pakistan space race could be far more interesting - and given the new technologies available - productive than the USA/USSR one.
Vik
I know it's Wired magazine, but free wireless networks have a lot to offer and I reckon they should start replacing much of the Internet. By removing commercial entities from the loop, you make it harder for the Government to have any control over the Internet. IMHO, that's as it should be. Cuts down on the bandwidth down the wires too.
:v)
But even using local free wireless networks to share proxies (without letting anyone leach of your own Internet connection) would speed up web access for everyone. The outline for this is here if anyone is interested.
Vik
The article misses one vital point. For-fee WiFi may not take off, but the free version looks like it has a much more user-friendly charging structure.
:v)
Start off by creating your own WiFi-enabled communities and nuture them until they interlink. I have developed a way of making it "worth their while" for members of outlying communities to join a WiFi network:
Most rural communities suffer badly from sub-standard dial-up access. ISP conditions forbid the sharing of accounts, but once you've downloaded a page, you can share it with anyone over WiFi. This is the principle of the "Community Proxy" system. Its free, and speeds up access for everyone.
Once community WiFi networks grow to a point where they start to encompass locally hosted websites and establishments like schools, community centres and so forth, local content becomes a big driver on its own. As the zones link up, more and more traffic goes over WiFi and less down cables. The community has regained control of the Internet.
Vik
That's got a very nice rendering engine as well as rastering, and a user interface that 3D Studio Max affectionados will easily understand. It'll export to POV, which is handy sometimes as you can model a tricky object in the GUI, then import it into a POV script later.
:)
:v)
Oh yeah, runs on Windows and Mac too. Guess someone might find that useful
http://www.artofillusion.org
Vik
Yup, I use ArtOfIllusion for commercial artwork. It is indeed most exellent and powerful. Not only that, but there is some great documentation available for it too.
:v)
It would be great if Blender and ArtOfIllusion could share a decent file format. It'd save everyone a lot of heartache in the long term.
It has rendering and raytracing options, so both camps can be kept happy. Oh, and don't be put off by its use of Java. This is by far the speediest Java graphics app I've come across anywhere.
Vik
Ah, but these problems are alleviated somewhat when the FPGA units are molecular in scale. HP Expect to be delivering 2D molecular circuitry in the 2005-2007 timescale. I happen to believe them, though it is possible that an unexpected breakthrough may progress things more rapidly.