My theory on this is marketing. I mean think about it, the traditional attitude of the young towards the old in most cultures is of respect for their knowledge and experience, but the "MTV generation" run right up to their 30s with a sneer on their face for anyone older. I reckon its the product of an intense and massive focus on youth culture deliberately fostered by marketing executives who know full well that what they are selling is crap, and the only way they can sell it is if the young are seperated from the older, stronger, wiser population who would rightly advise them to keep their money in their pockets.
I've had good results with ClamAV on a USB drive, together with spybot S&D, Hijack This, and portable Firefox, there ain't much that combination can't deal with.
I reckon its one of the side effects of that quantum entaglement malarky the Chinese are meddling with, the article comes from 50 years in the future. If we had quantum decryption ready we could decipher the true meaning which is a desperate warning that the LHC was about to awaken Cthulhu.
JAXA is working on a 1GW orbital power plant that sends energy down to a 1km wide rectenna, birds could fly through it without harm. Of course they say it won't be economical until launch costs drop to 1% of their former amount. And hey, look, here's a Star Tram to do just that!:D
We could just design the satellites so its non-trivial to focus the beam, or to put it another way, impossible. Articulation mechanisms on a huge microwave transmitter wouldn't be subtle or hard to spot. There are also numerous hardwired safeguards that can be put in place, like a deadman-switch beam from the middle of the rectenna. If the satellite deviates, the lights go off, and keep that airgapped from the rest of the systems. Nothing really is safe though, and yet nuclear power plants are still being built. Besides when it reaches that stage we'll have a lot more material zipping around in nearby space than today, better perhaps to worry about what happens if a half million ton ore hauler decides to take a 50km/s run at the nearest continent.
China's the bogeyman of the day, so how long do you think Japan would maintain it's independence with a few of those focused on downtown Tokyo?
Would this be before or after their satellite was shot down and they were invaded for attacking the capital city of a US ally? Please, nobody is that stupid. Especially not the Chinese.
Plus there's the obvious - even if the original design called for a maximum energy density of a few kW/m2, how hard would it be to modify that design to allow a much tighter focus? And do you really trust the government that funded its construction not to do so? I can't think of any government on the planet that, spending billions on building and launching a gigawatt orbital energy beaming station, wouldn't be tempted to spend a few million more to make it weaponizable at will. It wouldn't take much, tighten that beam to 1/4 the diameter and the average power density leaps to 20kW/m2, enough that I'm betting nobody is going to want to spend much time in it and you can start doing serious damage to infrastructure.
Yes, just like the Russians put nukes in Sputnik and ruled the world for a thousand years. Oh, wait, no. Seriously if you're going to get excited about what might happen if a rogue government somehow managed to weaponise solar satellites without someone noticing, you're probably really worried about what's actually up there right now.
I don't recommend we do what he's suggesting, especially in that form factor, but it could be done for a lot less is my point. The most likely route to big shiny spaceships is as I outlined above.
The problem is that we do not have the technology to get stuff out of the Earth's gravity well with anything greater than 0.1% efficiency, and in the process of building that Enterprise-sized object we would destroy the Earth's atmosphere and ecosystem. So until a 10,000x better surface-to-orbit launch technology comes along this ain't gonna happen.
Actually it could be built for a lot less in my opinion. Much of the cost of these things is just lifting stuff up there, but once the technology of the Star Tram is rolled out that cost will be gone. I wouldn't start out building giant spacecraft, more like -> increased orbital presence -> asteroid mining -> orbital refineries and manufacturing -> nice spaceships -> comfy seats spaceships, taking about 30 years to complete the arc.
Why was the judge allowed to continue being a judge after being found corrupt? Judges, like police, should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us, not given a free pass because of their status.
Slashdot Mirror
My theory on this is marketing. I mean think about it, the traditional attitude of the young towards the old in most cultures is of respect for their knowledge and experience, but the "MTV generation" run right up to their 30s with a sneer on their face for anyone older. I reckon its the product of an intense and massive focus on youth culture deliberately fostered by marketing executives who know full well that what they are selling is crap, and the only way they can sell it is if the young are seperated from the older, stronger, wiser population who would rightly advise them to keep their money in their pockets.
I've had good results with ClamAV on a USB drive, together with spybot S&D, Hijack This, and portable Firefox, there ain't much that combination can't deal with.
The big surprise for me is they have 70 million paying customers. I'm in the wrong business!
Maybe he meant adblock? Not much percentage in an advertising company allowing adverts to be blocked.
Bigger is better
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2849137&cid=39997833
If they can get the contrast closer to actual paper on b&w I'll be happy.
Never has a sig been so apt.
There was one tested many decades ago in the Pacific, the findings were roughly that one EMP could Snake Plissken North America.
Aha misfits of science
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hT5cGnk2DY
Damn I miss the 80s.
OR, lighting from the fingertips like Johnny in that 1980s show I can't recall the name of!
Yeah weren't they bulldozing suburbs or something recently?
This is badly crying out to be a brass and mahogany Steampunk project.
In a weird way its actually kinda cool. Shades of Back to the Future.
I reckon its one of the side effects of that quantum entaglement malarky the Chinese are meddling with, the article comes from 50 years in the future. If we had quantum decryption ready we could decipher the true meaning which is a desperate warning that the LHC was about to awaken Cthulhu.
JAXA is working on a 1GW orbital power plant that sends energy down to a 1km wide rectenna, birds could fly through it without harm. Of course they say it won't be economical until launch costs drop to 1% of their former amount. And hey, look, here's a Star Tram to do just that! :D
We could just design the satellites so its non-trivial to focus the beam, or to put it another way, impossible. Articulation mechanisms on a huge microwave transmitter wouldn't be subtle or hard to spot. There are also numerous hardwired safeguards that can be put in place, like a deadman-switch beam from the middle of the rectenna. If the satellite deviates, the lights go off, and keep that airgapped from the rest of the systems. Nothing really is safe though, and yet nuclear power plants are still being built. Besides when it reaches that stage we'll have a lot more material zipping around in nearby space than today, better perhaps to worry about what happens if a half million ton ore hauler decides to take a 50km/s run at the nearest continent.
China's the bogeyman of the day, so how long do you think Japan would maintain it's independence with a few of those focused on downtown Tokyo?
Would this be before or after their satellite was shot down and they were invaded for attacking the capital city of a US ally? Please, nobody is that stupid. Especially not the Chinese.
Plus there's the obvious - even if the original design called for a maximum energy density of a few kW/m2, how hard would it be to modify that design to allow a much tighter focus? And do you really trust the government that funded its construction not to do so? I can't think of any government on the planet that, spending billions on building and launching a gigawatt orbital energy beaming station, wouldn't be tempted to spend a few million more to make it weaponizable at will. It wouldn't take much, tighten that beam to 1/4 the diameter and the average power density leaps to 20kW/m2, enough that I'm betting nobody is going to want to spend much time in it and you can start doing serious damage to infrastructure.
Yes, just like the Russians put nukes in Sputnik and ruled the world for a thousand years. Oh, wait, no. Seriously if you're going to get excited about what might happen if a rogue government somehow managed to weaponise solar satellites without someone noticing, you're probably really worried about what's actually up there right now.
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091125/full/462398b.html
I don't recommend we do what he's suggesting, especially in that form factor, but it could be done for a lot less is my point. The most likely route to big shiny spaceships is as I outlined above.
The problem is that we do not have the technology to get stuff out of the Earth's gravity well with anything greater than 0.1% efficiency, and in the process of building that Enterprise-sized object we would destroy the Earth's atmosphere and ecosystem. So until a 10,000x better surface-to-orbit launch technology comes along this ain't gonna happen.
Yep, that would be the Star Tram.
Actually it could be built for a lot less in my opinion. Much of the cost of these things is just lifting stuff up there, but once the technology of the Star Tram is rolled out that cost will be gone. I wouldn't start out building giant spacecraft, more like -> increased orbital presence -> asteroid mining -> orbital refineries and manufacturing -> nice spaceships -> comfy seats spaceships, taking about 30 years to complete the arc.
The one JAXA is working on is putting down a GW over a 1 km diameter rectenna, birds could fly through it.
The future is in solar power satellites.
Why was the judge allowed to continue being a judge after being found corrupt? Judges, like police, should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us, not given a free pass because of their status.