I wrote an SDR display widget that shows the output as a spectrum analyser trace instead of a waterfall, but it wasn't as useful as a bandscope. It's a Small Matter Of Programming.
The whole point of an SDR is that it is inherently a "real-time spectrum analyser". You snarf down a large chunk of band, do an FFT on it, and display the spectrum.
Take a look at this screenshot showing a 48kHz-wide chunk of the 40m amateur band. It's only limited to 48kHz because that's the rate I was sampling at. I could go wider by sampling at a higher rate, or I could "fake" it by using the same technique that "conventional" spectrum analysers do by tuning the centre spot up and down.
Actually, no. People like me carry handguns for defensive purposes.
You can sit there and justify your sick murder fantasies any way you like, but what it comes down to is you're carrying a lethal weapon that you intend to use to kill someone.
If you live in a part of the world that is genuinely so dangerous that you need to carry a lethal weapon because you're afraid for your own safety, then I'm sorry for you. Have you considered moving somewhere safer?
Well, you do what Iran is doing - develop a bigger gun. If I lived next door to an armed crazy person (like, oh maybe Israel) I know I'd want to be able to defend myself.
You'd need a *lot* more volts and amps. I have a van, which has an 80 litre tank that takes roughly two minutes to fill. On that 80 litres I get around 950km range, or to translate into American units around 30mpg. Now, I'm hauling around roughly 800kWh of energy in that tank. Let's assume that the vehicle actually turns only 30% of that into motion - that gives us 320kWh worth of actual movement.
So if we assume that an electric car is 100% efficient, it would need 320kWh of batteries to travel 950km - and these would take a correspondingly large amount of power to charge. If you charge for ten hours, you'd need to be feeding in 32kW continuously. If you wanted to recharge as quickly as filling the diesel tank, you'd need 576kW available.
I for one do not welcome our.5MW charging connector overlords.
Seat belts are awesome when there are roll cages installed in the vehicle.... how many Corollas and Honda civics do you see out there with roll cages installed?
All of them. Anything built for the European market has to have pretty good rollover protection, rather better than the protection afforded by a couple of lengths of scrap scaff pole welded in by Crazy Pete at the tyre-fitting centre.
The Smart ForTwo has a four-star NCAP rating. You'd have to hit it pretty damn hard to even bruise the occupants.
I can't find any US-made cars that are sold in Europe that have NCAP ratings. SUVs aren't tested because they typically struggle to make one-star ratings. The Chrysler PT Cruiser (hey, whatever happened to the Slashdot PT Cruiser?) manages a three-star rating, which is about as good as you're going to get from an American car.
When every other car around you can stop very quickly in an emergency situation, you are very likely to crash if your stopping distance is longer than everyone else's
Only if you insist on driving right up the guy in front's arse.
And what's Russia going to do? Threaten to turn the gas supplies off? They need the money!
The US has spent itself into a smoking crater and the Soviet Union isn't far behind. I'd take the threat of an attack by the US seriously if they didn't have to come round here begging for equipment and soldiers every time they decide to poke some middle-eastern halfwit in the eye.
Or, you know, just stop pulling the US's collective backside out of the fire in every war it gets involved in.
What is the US going to do if a European country starts jamming the US GPS system? Beg them to attack themselves? They sure as hell can't afford to attack Europe.
Right, but in both cases 0-60 acceleration is irrelevant. The time to accelerate from 40 to 70 is far more important there. Think about it - how fast are you going when you start to overtake someone on a single-carriageway road? Usually, about 40mph. How quickly are you travelling on the on-ramp? If you're doing it right, maybe 20-30mph below the speed of cars on the motorway - so about 40-50mph. Unless of course the whole thing is very congested, in which case the motorway is probably going slowly too. If you come to a total stop on the on-ramp when traffic is flowing normally, you're going to cause an accident. Don't do that.
Every country in the world outside the US seems to be able to cope with less than 400bhp in a shopping car. Ever considered you might be doing it wrong?
... if he actually worked for a living. He reminds me a bit of the twats I used to know at university who wanted to "smash the system" and live in their malodorous buses, but at the same time relied on "the system" to pay them their grant cheque or dole money.
Right, but you don't need to accelerate from 0 to 60mph at absolute wide open throttle. Well, unless all your deliveries are at the far end of the drag strip?
I can't think of a single instance where I'd need to accelerate from a dead stop to 60mph, as quickly as possible. Every time I take my car out, though, I drive a couple of hundred miles at least.
Once electric cars have comparable performance in both speed *and* range to conventional vehicles, they'll be a much easier sell. Until now, I'll stick with diesel.
Slashdot Mirror
I wrote an SDR display widget that shows the output as a spectrum analyser trace instead of a waterfall, but it wasn't as useful as a bandscope. It's a Small Matter Of Programming.
The whole point of an SDR is that it is inherently a "real-time spectrum analyser". You snarf down a large chunk of band, do an FFT on it, and display the spectrum.
Take a look at this screenshot showing a 48kHz-wide chunk of the 40m amateur band. It's only limited to 48kHz because that's the rate I was sampling at. I could go wider by sampling at a higher rate, or I could "fake" it by using the same technique that "conventional" spectrum analysers do by tuning the centre spot up and down.
Actually, no. People like me carry handguns for defensive purposes.
You can sit there and justify your sick murder fantasies any way you like, but what it comes down to is you're carrying a lethal weapon that you intend to use to kill someone.
If you live in a part of the world that is genuinely so dangerous that you need to carry a lethal weapon because you're afraid for your own safety, then I'm sorry for you. Have you considered moving somewhere safer?
He shot and killed a man. He deliberately went out with a weapon to kill someone.
How is that not murder?
Well, you do what Iran is doing - develop a bigger gun. If I lived next door to an armed crazy person (like, oh maybe Israel) I know I'd want to be able to defend myself.
How often do you go more than 1000km in one go???
Depending on what I'm doing, two or three times a week.
You'd need a *lot* more volts and amps. I have a van, which has an 80 litre tank that takes roughly two minutes to fill. On that 80 litres I get around 950km range, or to translate into American units around 30mpg. Now, I'm hauling around roughly 800kWh of energy in that tank. Let's assume that the vehicle actually turns only 30% of that into motion - that gives us 320kWh worth of actual movement.
So if we assume that an electric car is 100% efficient, it would need 320kWh of batteries to travel 950km - and these would take a correspondingly large amount of power to charge. If you charge for ten hours, you'd need to be feeding in 32kW continuously. If you wanted to recharge as quickly as filling the diesel tank, you'd need 576kW available.
I for one do not welcome our .5MW charging connector overlords.
Right, but they do have rollover protection, which is not required in most US cars which is why they're so damn hard to insure over here.
Look at how American SUVs crush up like coke cans in even a minor prang if you want a good example.
Seat belts are awesome when there are roll cages installed in the vehicle.... how many Corollas and Honda civics do you see out there with roll cages installed?
All of them. Anything built for the European market has to have pretty good rollover protection, rather better than the protection afforded by a couple of lengths of scrap scaff pole welded in by Crazy Pete at the tyre-fitting centre.
... is upset because the cool kids at school got to do Chemistry while he was stuck learning how to add up columns of figures.
If you choose a nerdy and irrelevant subject like economics, you can't complain when other people get to do fun stuff instead.
I'm guessing you're American, so reading comprehension isn't your strong point (got to love those privately-funded schools, eh?).
Did you miss the bit where I said lift off a little, open the gap, and then speed up again?
The Smart ForTwo has a four-star NCAP rating. You'd have to hit it pretty damn hard to even bruise the occupants.
I can't find any US-made cars that are sold in Europe that have NCAP ratings. SUVs aren't tested because they typically struggle to make one-star ratings. The Chrysler PT Cruiser (hey, whatever happened to the Slashdot PT Cruiser?) manages a three-star rating, which is about as good as you're going to get from an American car.
I don't think I've seen any kind of truck without ABS that was built in the last 20 years.
If you've got a gap of less than a car length between you and the car in front, then above a walking pace you don't have enough stopping distance.
If they stop suddenly, you will hit them.
So lift off the throttle a little for a moment, let the gap open up a bit, and resume your previous speed. It's not hard.
When every other car around you can stop very quickly in an emergency situation, you are very likely to crash if your stopping distance is longer than everyone else's
Only if you insist on driving right up the guy in front's arse.
Why have you got a traffic light on your onramp? That's pretty fundamentally on drugs. You need to fix your roads.
And what's Russia going to do? Threaten to turn the gas supplies off? They need the money!
The US has spent itself into a smoking crater and the Soviet Union isn't far behind. I'd take the threat of an attack by the US seriously if they didn't have to come round here begging for equipment and soldiers every time they decide to poke some middle-eastern halfwit in the eye.
Or, you know, just stop pulling the US's collective backside out of the fire in every war it gets involved in.
What is the US going to do if a European country starts jamming the US GPS system? Beg them to attack themselves? They sure as hell can't afford to attack Europe.
Right, but in both cases 0-60 acceleration is irrelevant. The time to accelerate from 40 to 70 is far more important there. Think about it - how fast are you going when you start to overtake someone on a single-carriageway road? Usually, about 40mph. How quickly are you travelling on the on-ramp? If you're doing it right, maybe 20-30mph below the speed of cars on the motorway - so about 40-50mph. Unless of course the whole thing is very congested, in which case the motorway is probably going slowly too. If you come to a total stop on the on-ramp when traffic is flowing normally, you're going to cause an accident. Don't do that.
Every country in the world outside the US seems to be able to cope with less than 400bhp in a shopping car. Ever considered you might be doing it wrong?
... if he actually worked for a living. He reminds me a bit of the twats I used to know at university who wanted to "smash the system" and live in their malodorous buses, but at the same time relied on "the system" to pay them their grant cheque or dole money.
I had a look at Mint, but it doesn't appear to have Unity. So, back to Ubuntu, then.
Right, but you don't need to accelerate from 0 to 60mph at absolute wide open throttle. Well, unless all your deliveries are at the far end of the drag strip?
I live in Scotland. We drive a hell of a lot more than people in the US.
I can't think of a single instance where I'd need to accelerate from a dead stop to 60mph, as quickly as possible. Every time I take my car out, though, I drive a couple of hundred miles at least.
Once electric cars have comparable performance in both speed *and* range to conventional vehicles, they'll be a much easier sell. Until now, I'll stick with diesel.