yes i did try. maybe I have a local issue only affecting this page. but the message saying 'the operation timed out while attempting to connect to mspace.ecs.soton.ac.uk' seemed convincing me.
From: jmsatb5@aol.com Subject: Re: UPN Cancels Enterprise!
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 2/15/2005 3:03:38 AM
> > The rest I leave to the quiet turning of your considered conscience. > > J. Michael Straczynski
Actually...belay everything I just said.
In the 24 hours between the time I composed the prior note, and sent it, and it made its way through the moderation software, two things happened:
1) I heard from a trusted source that Paramount is giving the Trek TV world a rest for maybe one to two years, depending on circumstances, no matter who would come along to run it. So it's not right to have folks putting in time doing something that ultimately would be pointless, I don't think that's a proper use of anybody's time.
2) At the same time as the above, an offer came in to run a new TV series for fall of '06, and since there's no way anything Trek can happen in the interim, I've said yes
(now we have to negotiate the deal, but that should be fairly straightforward).
So on two counts, the whole thing is kind of moot.
We can reconvene a year or two down the road to see where this takes us, but in the interim...my apologies for waking everybody up in the middle of the night.
Opposition to a homeland-security bill brought to the floor of Congress yesterday largely has centered on fears it would lead to a national ID, but some critics point to an overlooked section that apparently gives the White House sweeping powers to suspend laws for the purpose of protecting U.S. borders.
The controversial section of the proposed legislation, as originally introduced, reads:
SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.
Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:
(c) Waiver-
(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--
(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.
6mm (1/4inch) x 1000 = 6 meters, x 1000 = 6 kilometers, meaning that the diameter is one million times larger in diameter, and so the area is one trillion times larger.
therefore, the 6 KM dot would require something like one trillion watts for equivalent illumination, although you could do with a bit less depending on lighting conditions.
Scaling up the multiplication factors given are still correct, so it is 100x more for the 60KM dot. My final estimate is that something in the 10 to 100 gigawatt range will do the job.
Imagine the EPA statement of a gigawatt or a terrawatt laser cutting through the atmosphere - (think ghostbusters)
Note (in the "well, duh" dept): if you google or froogle for phthalocyanine cd, you can find plenty of sources, since these are advertising points.... [Now including convenient links]
But if I can write on my wall with my cat laser play toy, why can't I write on the moon?
Yes you can, but the moon is about 2100 miles across
Even the best laser will disperse to a spot a few miles across on the moon. When it hits there, it needs to be bright enough to be visible here. and it needs to be much larger.
Imagine the moon as a circle 2100 pixels across. For the writing to be visible on earth, the illuminated line probably needs to be 25 to 50 miles across. And bright enough to shine back 235,000 miles. Mind you, the moon is about the size of your thumbnail when you hold your hand out in front of you. Think something with the resolution of a 48 pixel icon file, maybe less.
The proportions are easy enough to figure out. Then we get to the power requirements of such a beam.
Typical entertainment grade lasers for light shows are 5 - 20 watts, and can be higher power. If you want a spot 6 kilometers wide on the moon, then normal 6 mm wide beams (about 1/4) would have to expand 1,000 times the diameter, 1,000,000 times the area, and would have to be about 40 megawatts. 6 KM = 3.728 miles.
If you want a 60km spot then you are taking about 10 the diameter, another 100x the area, and so 100x the power for the dot to scale properly.
This means a 4 gigawatt laser to draw your pretty design on the surface of the moon. You could probaly get away with a simple Gigawatt laser. The only ones currently made are scientific research grade, and generate pulses in the nanosecond range.
a 10 gigawatt laser to push a solar sail as a means of interpalnetary propulsion. There is also this interesting paper.
That will never happen. The ego is strong with that one.
Actually, it is the infamous Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field that he keeps ramping the power on. Gates is filled with envy over it, as his own versions of the thing keep crashing.
Some folks will be on your side, others will have other agendas. get rid of the ones (transfer out, etc) whose agenda is to "get you" or "sabotage so they become the hero" or "plain and simple sabotage" (and other varieties of evil genius plotting against you)
These are folks who refuse to get on board unless they are the whip master in their fuedal world.
also be awake for the super polite nay-sayers, who drive everyone else batty.
If folks have other agendas, and these agendas are not hostile to you, you need to get them in harmony with your team goals.
Complete uniformity of mind is not desirable. However, those who keep discovering problems for you to panic about need to be looked at closely, and with suspicion. Are they someone's patsy, or what?
typical project management stuff: mapping out goals, sub goals, final products, etc in a clear, consistent fashion.
Be aware: goals have their dependencies as well.
Accurate estimation of effort, and allow for Murphy's law X2
Under Promise, Over Deliver, but don't get caught in a trap of management compensating for this.
Dealing with Management is a PR Job.
Example: PHB thinks project is almost done because the GUI is finished. Reality is that gui was done first because it's the easiest to do, now all the rest of the work has to be done.
Solution: implement a series of graphics so that the gui reflects the state of completeness. example: use color and 3d effects only for 100% done, greyscale everything else. 3d effects only on things 75% done, etc.
The Human Intereface Protocol is remarkably similar to Modem Communication and Handshaking Protocols, and serves for a model for basic geek manners.
Example: Always send an appropriate ack to the person you are talking with to indicate you got what they were saying. An appropriate ack could be head shake, grunt, verbal, back pat, etc. Key word is appropriate.
Example: Implementing error correction at the verbal level, recheck to verify that data was received correctly on both side of a conversation. You would be surprised how badly this can go off the rails.
Choose a workable version of the Golden Rule.
Much of the above will help avoid becoming a MicroManager
Slashdot Mirror
maybe we can put pop up ads on THEIR tivos....
I think the MS has improved on that with 2k, etc. , but I'm not sure.
Silly me, imagined for just a split second that the trans-atlantic link had gotten slashdotted
yes i did try. maybe I have a local issue only affecting this page. but the message saying 'the operation timed out while attempting to connect to mspace.ecs.soton.ac.uk' seemed convincing me.
YMMV
there are plenty of links in the mirrored article to other resources.
talk about load testing
seriously, for most folks, the sound will be plenty good enough. but for audiophiles and perfectionists ....
From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Subject: Re: UPN Cancels Enterprise!
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 2/15/2005 3:03:38 AM
>
> The rest I leave to the quiet turning of your considered conscience.
>
> J. Michael Straczynski
Actually...belay everything I just said.
In the 24 hours between the time I composed the prior note, and
sent it, and it made its way through the moderation software,
two things happened:
1) I heard from a trusted source that Paramount is giving the
Trek TV world a rest for maybe one to two years, depending on
circumstances, no matter who would come along to run it. So
it's not right to have folks putting in time doing something
that ultimately would be pointless, I don't think that's a
proper use of anybody's time.
2) At the same time as the above, an offer came in to run a
new TV series for fall of '06, and since there's no way
anything Trek can happen in the interim, I've said yes
(now we have to negotiate the deal, but that should be
fairly straightforward).
So on two counts, the whole thing is kind of moot.
We can reconvene a year or two down the road to see where this
takes us, but in the interim...my apologies for waking everybody
up in the middle of the night.
As you were.
Thanks and with great chagrinedness --
jms
Please nobody tell Microsoft. It might give them ideas.
;)
How mafioso
It's like a religious crusade. It's worse that flame wars over Little endian vs Big endian.
As opposed to saying - lets see what the science says
I plead insufficient coffee this morning
Opposition to a homeland-security bill brought to the floor of Congress yesterday largely has centered on fears it would lead to a national ID, but some critics point to an overlooked section that apparently gives the White House sweeping powers to suspend laws for the purpose of protecting U.S. borders.
The controversial section of the proposed legislation, as originally introduced, reads:
SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.
Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:
(c) Waiver-
(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--
(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.
Just a wee bit overeaching, no?
Brother of the Beast?
therefore, the 6 KM dot would require something like one trillion watts for equivalent illumination, although you could do with a bit less depending on lighting conditions.
Scaling up the multiplication factors given are still correct, so it is 100x more for the 60KM dot. My final estimate is that something in the 10 to 100 gigawatt range will do the job.
Imagine the EPA statement of a gigawatt or a terrawatt laser cutting through the atmosphere - (think ghostbusters)
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_dye. shtml
see also the WSJ article, in PDF form
http://www.mitsuicdr.com/technology/WSJ.com%20-%20 Portals.pdf
Note (in the "well, duh" dept): if you google or froogle for phthalocyanine cd, you can find plenty of sources, since these are advertising points.... [Now including convenient links]
Yes you can, but the moon is about 2100 miles across
Even the best laser will disperse to a spot a few miles across on the moon. When it hits there, it needs to be bright enough to be visible here. and it needs to be much larger.
Imagine the moon as a circle 2100 pixels across. For the writing to be visible on earth, the illuminated line probably needs to be 25 to 50 miles across. And bright enough to shine back 235,000 miles. Mind you, the moon is about the size of your thumbnail when you hold your hand out in front of you. Think something with the resolution of a 48 pixel icon file, maybe less.
The proportions are easy enough to figure out. Then we get to the power requirements of such a beam.
Typical entertainment grade lasers for light shows are 5 - 20 watts, and can be higher power. If you want a spot 6 kilometers wide on the moon, then normal 6 mm wide beams (about 1/4) would have to expand 1,000 times the diameter, 1,000,000 times the area, and would have to be about 40 megawatts. 6 KM = 3.728 miles.
If you want a 60km spot then you are taking about 10 the diameter, another 100x the area, and so 100x the power for the dot to scale properly.
This means a 4 gigawatt laser to draw your pretty design on the surface of the moon. You could probaly get away with a simple Gigawatt laser. The only ones currently made are scientific research grade, and generate pulses in the nanosecond range. a 10 gigawatt laser to push a solar sail as a means of interpalnetary propulsion. There is also this interesting paper.
Really
;)
so that it doesn't have to run windows
and the screen shots page won't last much longer either But here's the Mirrot Dot Link in case you missed it
Actually, it is the infamous Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field that he keeps ramping the power on. Gates is filled with envy over it, as his own versions of the thing keep crashing.
before he makes that difficult transition from 1 wheel to 0 wheels.
Come on now. I for one can't resist a line like this
He still dreams of a Pax Microsoftius, where you and he reign benevolently over a kingdom of happy, captive users.
Isn't there some in crowd that you are not part of yet?
These are folks who refuse to get on board unless they are the whip master in their fuedal world.
also be awake for the super polite nay-sayers, who drive everyone else batty.
Be aware: goals have their dependencies as well.
Example: PHB thinks project is almost done because the GUI is finished. Reality is that gui was done first because it's the easiest to do, now all the rest of the work has to be done.
Solution: implement a series of graphics so that the gui reflects the state of completeness. example: use color and 3d effects only for 100% done, greyscale everything else. 3d effects only on things 75% done, etc.
Example: Always send an appropriate ack to the person you are talking with to indicate you got what they were saying. An appropriate ack could be head shake, grunt, verbal, back pat, etc. Key word is appropriate.
Example: Implementing error correction at the verbal level, recheck to verify that data was received correctly on both side of a conversation. You would be surprised how badly this can go off the rails.
which they have promised to make available in the coming weeks