I was curious about what it would take to break the sound barrier and thus wrote some code to simulate his jump. This plot shows what it could look like. It is vastly simplified and thus not quite correct but gives a general feel of the trajectory. It correspond to a jumper with the minimal aerodynamic performance needed to break the sound barrier from an altitude of 120'000 feet. This is achieved at an altitude of about 28 kilometers and an air density of 2% that at sea level. Constructive remarks are appreciated.
The first step is for the US and Russia to transition to a policy a minimal deterrence and reduce their stockpile to no more than a few hundred weapons each. That would put them at the same level as everyone else.
Then we can start talks that involve all nuclear powers. Will it be possible to agree on global disarmament ? Maybe not, but we won't know until we try. The problem today is that other countries are not interested in even talking about disarmament as long as the US and Russia maintain such ridiculously large arsenals.
By the way no one is suggesting that the US and Russia disarm completely while China doesn't.
Once you have 10000+ employees under a gazillion layers of management you lose your ability to innovate. They will probably achieve a lot more if they stay (relatively) small. Musk himself said he didn't want to grow too much for precisely this reason, although I don't have the quote on hand.
NASA just pissed 8 billions away on Ares-1 and is preparing to waste a lot more on the SLS, not to mention the cost overruns of MSL and the JWST. They already have more money than they need. Until they learn to manage it better their budget should certainly not be increased. Now I know this is congress's fault not NASA proper but that's irrelevant.
Until bitorrent is supported natively and transparently by browsers it is not suitable for a government website. They have to be usable by anyone, not just technically inclined visitors. Requiring something like a pdf reader is one thing but a bittorent client is too complicated to set up.
Israeli-type security is not acceptable. I shouldn't be interrogated just because I have the audacity to travel. A pre-911 level of security with some improvements (better intelligence, reinforced cockpit doors) is more than enough. Terrorism is one of the most unlikely cause of death, behind food poisoning or slipping in a bathtub.
We could avoid all that shit if we spent a thousandth of what we waste on "security" on teaching statistics.
It is not possible to cause a properly designed elevator to crash or trap its occupants by a remote command, for the simple reason that the system only accepts a small set of safe commands. A command to change an operating parameter (like a speed, delay, etc...) is rejected if out of bounds. A command to stop will result in the elevator moving to the next floor, opening its doors and then shut down, i.e. going to a fail-safe state. There is no "crash and burn" command. So even if someone gets unauthorized access to the control network, the worse they can do is play pranks, reduce performance or deny service.
I don't like this because it depends on knowing an obscure trivia (i.e. that unix == 1) that is not in ISO C and totally useless. An interviewee shouldn't fail because of that.
Of course they won't give up their nuclear weapon program in exchange for food aid, but that is irrelevant. Aid should be given, in exchange for nothing, even if it might be diverted or otherwise help the regime last. Using the threat of famine for political gains is unacceptable. North Korea does it to some extent, we shouldn't.
What makes you think the US failed with Sputnik ? Eisenhower deliberately let the Soviets be first because he didn't want to use existing military rockets and wanted them to test the water of flying a satellite over sovereign countries. Now you might argue that he was mistaken but his plan (let the soviet be first and follow soon after) was a success.
I meant that Lua has a limited standard library so a lot of stuff will require C. Guile by contrast has a POSIX system calls interface, networking, an html module, etc... Python has even more stuff. And it is my understanding that Lua is most often used sandboxed, like javascript, rather than to write standalone applications.
Having used it before I can tell you that the C API is very well made, and C and scheme can call each other with few limitations. Scheme is an elegant language too.
Lua has three main advantages over guile. It is trivial to package, has a smaller footprint, and works anywhere. Guile only really supports posix and windows.
But the main competitor to guile is not lua, it is python. And the battle is all but lost. The two offer about the same functionality. They can easily interface with the outside (unlike Lua) and the C API works similarly, but python wins due to its more traditional syntax and larger developer base.
As much as I like guile, the whole point of an extension language is to encourage third-party additions, so you want a language that attracts as many potential developers as possible (including beginners), and that language is not scheme. So unless your religion forbids it (i.e. it is a gnu program), python, or maybe javascript, is almost always a better choice.
It is not amusing, it is stupid. Unobtainium, by definition, doesn't exist. If you give that name to something that does exist (albeit in a fictional universe), then you don't understand the term and shouldn't have used it in the first place. It is an insult to those that do understand it.
Slashdot Mirror
The speed of sound varies with temperature. The formula is 'c = 165.8 + 0.6 * T', with c in m/s and T in K. See this simulation of Baumgartner's jump.
I was curious about what it would take to break the sound barrier and thus wrote some code to simulate his jump. This plot shows what it could look like. It is vastly simplified and thus not quite correct but gives a general feel of the trajectory. It correspond to a jumper with the minimal aerodynamic performance needed to break the sound barrier from an altitude of 120'000 feet. This is achieved at an altitude of about 28 kilometers and an air density of 2% that at sea level. Constructive remarks are appreciated.
Every morning, yes.
Wait until they post about my beowulf cluster of bitcoin mining raspberry pi made with an arduino-controlled 3d-printer.
I I thought he was going to link to this one: http://xkcd.com/202/ . It is one of my favorites.
Because of course, all muslims are terrorists. Well played.
The first step is for the US and Russia to transition to a policy a minimal deterrence and reduce their stockpile to no more than a few hundred weapons each. That would put them at the same level as everyone else.
Then we can start talks that involve all nuclear powers. Will it be possible to agree on global disarmament ? Maybe not, but we won't know until we try. The problem today is that other countries are not interested in even talking about disarmament as long as the US and Russia maintain such ridiculously large arsenals.
By the way no one is suggesting that the US and Russia disarm completely while China doesn't.
Once you have 10000+ employees under a gazillion layers of management you lose your ability to innovate. They will probably achieve a lot more if they stay (relatively) small. Musk himself said he didn't want to grow too much for precisely this reason, although I don't have the quote on hand.
NASA just pissed 8 billions away on Ares-1 and is preparing to waste a lot more on the SLS, not to mention the cost overruns of MSL and the JWST. They already have more money than they need. Until they learn to manage it better their budget should certainly not be increased. Now I know this is congress's fault not NASA proper but that's irrelevant.
Until bitorrent is supported natively and transparently by browsers it is not suitable for a government website. They have to be usable by anyone, not just technically inclined visitors. Requiring something like a pdf reader is one thing but a bittorent client is too complicated to set up.
Israeli-type security is not acceptable. I shouldn't be interrogated just because I have the audacity to travel. A pre-911 level of security with some improvements (better intelligence, reinforced cockpit doors) is more than enough. Terrorism is one of the most unlikely cause of death, behind food poisoning or slipping in a bathtub. We could avoid all that shit if we spent a thousandth of what we waste on "security" on teaching statistics.
Hey, that's the combination on my luggage.
A Hex key is a type of wrench. Another name for it is Allen wrench.
It is not possible to cause a properly designed elevator to crash or trap its occupants by a remote command, for the simple reason that the system only accepts a small set of safe commands. A command to change an operating parameter (like a speed, delay, etc...) is rejected if out of bounds. A command to stop will result in the elevator moving to the next floor, opening its doors and then shut down, i.e. going to a fail-safe state. There is no "crash and burn" command. So even if someone gets unauthorized access to the control network, the worse they can do is play pranks, reduce performance or deny service.
There are too many dicks in your post. I'll have to watch some lesbian porn to clean my eyes.
You know that centrifuges can be used to make fuel for civilian nuclear power reactors, right ?
average != median. Woosh !
I don't like this because it depends on knowing an obscure trivia (i.e. that unix == 1) that is not in ISO C and totally useless. An interviewee shouldn't fail because of that.
Durability is a non-issue. You can always mold your plastic copy and make a cast with whatever material you want.
The value of 3D-printing is that it is the cheapest way to turn a 3D-model into a real life object. And it is detailed too.
Of course they won't give up their nuclear weapon program in exchange for food aid, but that is irrelevant. Aid should be given, in exchange for nothing, even if it might be diverted or otherwise help the regime last. Using the threat of famine for political gains is unacceptable. North Korea does it to some extent, we shouldn't.
What makes you think the US failed with Sputnik ? Eisenhower deliberately let the Soviets be first because he didn't want to use existing military rockets and wanted them to test the water of flying a satellite over sovereign countries. Now you might argue that he was mistaken but his plan (let the soviet be first and follow soon after) was a success.
I meant that Lua has a limited standard library so a lot of stuff will require C. Guile by contrast has a POSIX system calls interface, networking, an html module, etc... Python has even more stuff. And it is my understanding that Lua is most often used sandboxed, like javascript, rather than to write standalone applications.
There are many other apps using it, like gnucash.
Having used it before I can tell you that the C API is very well made, and C and scheme can call each other with few limitations. Scheme is an elegant language too.
Lua has three main advantages over guile. It is trivial to package, has a smaller footprint, and works anywhere. Guile only really supports posix and windows.
But the main competitor to guile is not lua, it is python. And the battle is all but lost. The two offer about the same functionality. They can easily interface with the outside (unlike Lua) and the C API works similarly, but python wins due to its more traditional syntax and larger developer base.
As much as I like guile, the whole point of an extension language is to encourage third-party additions, so you want a language that attracts as many potential developers as possible (including beginners), and that language is not scheme. So unless your religion forbids it (i.e. it is a gnu program), python, or maybe javascript, is almost always a better choice.
And RFCs will even tell you how you should interpret the word should .
It is not amusing, it is stupid. Unobtainium, by definition, doesn't exist. If you give that name to something that does exist (albeit in a fictional universe), then you don't understand the term and shouldn't have used it in the first place. It is an insult to those that do understand it.