The answer lies within the mathematics: Transmitted light holograms work in the following manner: Using a special film set on a plane, you expose the film by illuminating an object in front of the plane with laser light (a single wavelength) and illuminating the film itself with additional laser light.
After developing the film, if you illuminate the film with the laser light from the same angle and of the same wavelength as before, then a 3-dimensional image of the object is created within the plane.
The cool thing about the reconstructed image is that it is 'true' 3-d. That means, as you move your head from side to side as you are looking at it, you can actually see behind the objects in the image.
To understand how this works, I struggled through the mathematics of how the light beams pass through the developed film as well as how the original image exposes itself on the film. I don't understand it conceptually, but the mathematics involved nothing more than trig.
My personal disclaimer: I didn't read the article that the abstract refers to (no PDF viewer), but based upon the abstract, it sounds like they are using a techniques similar to what I described.
Do not mistake "faster, lighter, cheaper" with poor engineering. The two are mutually exclusive. Any well engineered spacecraft should be able to fullfill some additional unknown criteria, despite it's cost.
You are correct. The name of the phenomenon is Laser Speckle Interferometry (I took a PhD class in this exact subject). These laser 'speckles' do not correlate to the resolution of the human eye, rather they correlate to the wavelength of the laser light. One way to verify this is to look at the laser spot and begin to squint your eyes (or look through a tiny apeture). As the apeture gets smaller, the speckles get larger. This is because there is a smaller area of light reflecting off of the surface through the apature, thus allowing less interference and larger speckles. It works, try it!
LSI is currently being used all over the place in Non-destructive testing. The movement of these speckles is very sensitive to the movement of the surface. For example, one can cover an inflated airplane tire with laser light and take an image. Next, add an additional 1-5 PSI to the tire and cover it with laser light and reimage it. Now when you subtract the two images, you will get nice 'moirre'-like fringes. Any small gashes or imperfections will be surrounded by many fringes and will be easy to see.
I can recommend an excellent and very readable book on the subject: Gary Cloud's 'Optical Methods of Engineering Analysis'. His text covers Birefringent materials and laser speckle interferometry in graet detail. It also covers many other areas such as Holagrams and I forgot what else.
Here's a link to Taylor University Dept. of Systems and Controls Satellite project. I'm a master's student in controls there.
Although we are going to use 6 cubes for the project, we only plan to stuff kittens into 3 of them. The remainders will be used for communications electronics.
There's a program that was started at Sourceforge. It is SWIFT, Slashcode With an Interactive Family Tree.
The purpose of this software was to have a family news website that allowed family members to go and edit the genealogy part of the site.
If you email the guy in charge of that project, he can tell you about the Perl Genaelogy package that he was going to integrate with Slashcode, I forgot what it was called, but he had investigated several candidates and decided upon one.
I use my Linux case to protect my linux motherboard from dust and damage.
Seriously, I can sum up many of the different markets for linux: 1. Businesses that have a specific IT goal in mind and don't need a large corporation to set these goals for them. 2. Geeky, pimply youths who like a 'flexible' operating system. (Not intended to flame, since I used to fit this category) 3. Geeky, conservative older men (yes, men) who like a 'flexible' operating system (Not intended to flame, since I currently fit this). 4. Developers who have specific goals in mind for hardware systems and don't need a large corporation to set these goals for them. 5. Those who use Linux and don't understand what it is. This is a direct result of #4 and #1 and a good example is Tivo owners.
I think it's apparent that companies often blindly follow what large corporations sell them. Thus, I conclude that the biggest potential market for Linux is to have a large corporation start marketing Linux solutions (IBM?).
Actually, I can further summarize as follows:
1. Those who need a flexible OS.
2. Those who need a cheap OS.
3. Those who enjoy playing with their OS.
4. Those who enjoy a 'free as in speech' operating system are in a considerable minority. I don't intend this to Flame, I wish it weren't true, but I think it is.
Give it up jonnythan. You are wrong. Maybe our friend is trying to say that Sneakermail and spam filters hold the same 'worth'. It is grammatically correct.
Take it from the 'real' grammar nazi.
By the way: I haven't seen any of your posts in a long time. It's nice to have you back.
It's not a matter of evil corporations versus small time business. It basic business law.
Whenever the "barriers to entry" (i.e. initial fixed costs) of running a business are low, then many people go into business and compete with each other. Due to this competition (competition==good thing), profits become lower and lower. Finally, the razor thin profit margins means that only a large corporation can make any substantial profits, driving the smaller companies out of business.
The same thing will happen with online shops. The larger shops, perhaps one with brick and mortar counter-parts will eventually squeeze out the little shops. This is because etailing has some of the lowest barriers to entry that I've seen.
Moral of the story? Don't feel bad about it. It's inevitable that we will all play our roles as consumers, which causes this whole thing to happen. Since the internet is still a relatively 'new' business medium, these little kinks have yet to be worked out.
All of your numbers are impressive, but you fail to mention that an arrow from a recurve bow has more foot-lbs of pressure behind it then both of the bullets from the guns that you describe. A compound bow has even more foot-lbs of pressure.
This is why the military has continually attempted to create railguns over the last 100 or so years. A massive accelerated rail isn't going to be stopped like a bullet.
Re:No different from going out in public anyway
on
The Unblinking Eye
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· Score: 2
The camera technology gives me the feeling that we are 'Guilty until proven innocent'. Similar to peeing in a dixie cup for a drug test.
Instead of the Kevin Bacon Connector game, we should have the Steve Jobbs Connector game.
For example, Linus Torvalds => Steve Jobbs in 5 steps.
1. Linus Torvalds works for Transmeta.
2. Transmeta get's bought out by AMD.
3. AMD CEO W.J. Sanders III held a variety of positions in the engineering, sales, and marketing departments of Motorola Semiconductor.
4. Motorola chips are the processors used at Apple.
5. Steve Jobbs is the CEO of Apple.
It would have also helped the continuity if they didn't freeze the slowmotion play before rotating the camera. They would show part of the play, freeze, rotate, show more of the play, freeze rotate, show the rest of the play. I'm sure the computers can handle playing the entire thing in slowmotion and rotating it as it goes.
They may have used a compression format that was sub-par as well, because watching the slowmotion plays had about as much quality as old football films from the '70s.
Those two links bring forth some important and interesting issues. I took an 'Ethics of biological sciences' class that was taught by Dr. Root-Bernstein (mentioned in the first link). We spent a great deal of time on the issue of AIDS and its correlations to HIV.
According to Dr. Root-Bernstein, there is no correlation between AIDS and HIV. He told us that he is willing to bet his entire carreer and reputation that Magic Johnson would never contract AIDS in Magic's lifetime.
Since taking the class (spring, 95), I have heard nothing new in the arguments that HIV causes or leads to AIDS. I'm no expert, but Dr. Root-Bernstein refuted all of the common reasons that people think that HIV becomes AIDS and I've heard no new reasoning since.
I feel that the problem is that there is nothing left to explore. We've travelled and charted every inch of this planet and now we've been to the moon.
Until Mars exploration becomes more of a reality, there is nothing for the US to focus their pride and nationalism towards. Something 'Independence Day'ish would probably also do it.
Good point nomadic. I believe the USPS to be incredibly efficient. The fact that they can get something from anywhere in the US to anwhere else in the US for only $0.35 is amazing.
When I was in Prague 2 years ago, I shipped a box with 14 bottles of Absinth back to the USA. Absinth is an alcoholic drink containing Wormwood extract that is banned in every country in the world except for the Czech Republic and Andorra. It's a hallucinogenic drink.
We wrote that the contents of the box were 8 bottles of wine, because we were afraid that you are only allowed to import a certain amount of alcohol before you have to pay taxes on it (that, and it is illegal in the USA).
Anyways, the box arrived at the proper address in the USA after only 2 weeks (shipped ground/boat). One bottle was broken and one was completely empty, but the rest were unharmed. We packed everything in a very a complicated way and upon opening it, everything was the exactly as we left it. There was no tampering and I don't believe that the US or Czech post even opened the box. The empty bottle must have had a leaky lid and its contents evaporated (Absinth is 70% alcohol).
Everyone on Slashdot thinks that the cost of laying new fiber optic cable is the only cost associated with cables. Let me inform you:
1. Copper cable is heavy. One mile of Copper cable is a few thousand pounds, compared to one mile of optic which is under one hundred pounds (depending on the type).
2. When used in telecommunications systems, copper wire needs repeater stations every 2-3 miles. These are stations that people have to routinely check and fix when something breaks. Fiber optic in contrast, only needs 1 repeater station every 300-500 miles.
3. I forget the actual sizes, but you can send more bandwidth on one little optic than you can send in a large diameter bundle of copper wires.
4. Glass is cheaper than copper. Once the manufacturing technology of glass fibers catches up to that of copper wire, than the prices for optical cable will be cheaper than that of copper.
Finally, I fail to see how copper wire is any easier or cheaper to repair than optical wire when it is on the bottom of the ocean. This is an argument for a wireless system, but I think that there would be too much latency in a wireless system.
I think that you could achieve exponential growth on a 2D surface however. Here's how...
1. Each existing robot builds an additional robot. 2. Each existing robot then relocates such that there is enough room to build an additional robot.
Technically, that is exponential growth (w.r.t generation or iteration). One can argue that the relocation step takes longer and longer each time, but it's still exponential growth.
It all comes down to whether your 'n' is an iterative or a temporal element.
I'm not trying to talk you down or say that your are wrong.
What about an assembly line that the robots moved down as they got built. The 'just-completed' robot at the end of the assembly line would then contribute to building the next robot. Since more and more robots were joining the assembly line, each robot could do less work. Since each robot was doing less work, the assembly line could move faster and faster, thus attaining an exponential growth rate.
I know, I know that assembly line would only approach the speed of light or some asymptote which was representitave of the robots' speed. But it's a cool idea.
"...Because of this fact, I don't see how these things can achieve any more than a O(n^2) growth rate..."
You assume that they use a 2-D surface. To remedy this problem, all they need to do is not use a 2-D surface or use a 2-D surface and when the arm is built, it get's transfered to a new location away from where it was built. An assembly line has always been an efficient way to manufacture products. Perhaps the robots would create assembly lines as they were created. Then in a 2-D space they would be able to obtain an exponential growth rate.
Hitchhiker's Guide takes place in the future. Thus, it can't be first. It may even be last, since, by then the earth is long since demolished (before being put back together).
Please take note of this and correct it in all future nanotech related comments.
What I've always heard about nanotech is that the main idea is that the robots are self-replicating. The example that frequently comes up is one where you put a few robots into a vat of liquid raw materials (a.k.a. molten metal) and they start creating more robots. Eventually when there are enough nano-bots, all of them manufacture an automobile.
I don't know where to say this, so I'llk just reply to your post...
Heck Yeah! I'm buying a new G4 as soon as OS X is released. I hope to get a titanium laptop, pending availability.
I'm a Linux user who started using Linux on a PowerMac 7100 (MkLinux, back when Apple released it). I switched to the intel platform for a more efficient version, but now I've analysed what my software needs are... Macromedia stuff, Adobe Stuff, Good Web Browser (IE or Mozilla), Webserver, terminals, GNU tools. With a list like this, Apple's OS X is the only operating system for me.
Slashdot Mirror
After developing the film, if you illuminate the film with the laser light from the same angle and of the same wavelength as before, then a 3-dimensional image of the object is created within the plane.
The cool thing about the reconstructed image is that it is 'true' 3-d. That means, as you move your head from side to side as you are looking at it, you can actually see behind the objects in the image.
To understand how this works, I struggled through the mathematics of how the light beams pass through the developed film as well as how the original image exposes itself on the film. I don't understand it conceptually, but the mathematics involved nothing more than trig.
My personal disclaimer: I didn't read the article that the abstract refers to (no PDF viewer), but based upon the abstract, it sounds like they are using a techniques similar to what I described.
With, such a low priced retinal scanner, it will not be very long time, indeed, until we _see_ retinal scanners all over the place.
Do not mistake "faster, lighter, cheaper" with poor engineering. The two are mutually exclusive. Any well engineered spacecraft should be able to fullfill some additional unknown criteria, despite it's cost.
LSI is currently being used all over the place in Non-destructive testing. The movement of these speckles is very sensitive to the movement of the surface. For example, one can cover an inflated airplane tire with laser light and take an image. Next, add an additional 1-5 PSI to the tire and cover it with laser light and reimage it. Now when you subtract the two images, you will get nice 'moirre'-like fringes. Any small gashes or imperfections will be surrounded by many fringes and will be easy to see.
I can recommend an excellent and very readable book on the subject: Gary Cloud's 'Optical Methods of Engineering Analysis'. His text covers Birefringent materials and laser speckle interferometry in graet detail. It also covers many other areas such as Holagrams and I forgot what else.
Although we are going to use 6 cubes for the project, we only plan to stuff kittens into 3 of them. The remainders will be used for communications electronics.
Launch your kittens into low-orbit.
The vaccuum cleaner spaceship in Space Balls?
The purpose of this software was to have a family news website that allowed family members to go and edit the genealogy part of the site.
If you email the guy in charge of that project, he can tell you about the Perl Genaelogy package that he was going to integrate with Slashcode, I forgot what it was called, but he had investigated several candidates and decided upon one.
The SWIFT Homepage.
Seriously, I can sum up many of the different markets for linux:
1. Businesses that have a specific IT goal in mind and don't need a large corporation to set these goals for them.
2. Geeky, pimply youths who like a 'flexible' operating system. (Not intended to flame, since I used to fit this category)
3. Geeky, conservative older men (yes, men) who like a 'flexible' operating system (Not intended to flame, since I currently fit this).
4. Developers who have specific goals in mind for hardware systems and don't need a large corporation to set these goals for them.
5. Those who use Linux and don't understand what it is. This is a direct result of #4 and #1 and a good example is Tivo owners.
I think it's apparent that companies often blindly follow what large corporations sell them. Thus, I conclude that the biggest potential market for Linux is to have a large corporation start marketing Linux solutions (IBM?).
Actually, I can further summarize as follows:
1. Those who need a flexible OS.
2. Those who need a cheap OS.
3. Those who enjoy playing with their OS.
4. Those who enjoy a 'free as in speech' operating system are in a considerable minority. I don't intend this to Flame, I wish it weren't true, but I think it is.
Did I miss anything?
Take it from the 'real' grammar nazi.
By the way: I haven't seen any of your posts in a long time. It's nice to have you back.
Whenever the "barriers to entry" (i.e. initial fixed costs) of running a business are low, then many people go into business and compete with each other. Due to this competition (competition==good thing), profits become lower and lower. Finally, the razor thin profit margins means that only a large corporation can make any substantial profits, driving the smaller companies out of business.
The same thing will happen with online shops. The larger shops, perhaps one with brick and mortar counter-parts will eventually squeeze out the little shops. This is because etailing has some of the lowest barriers to entry that I've seen.
Moral of the story? Don't feel bad about it. It's inevitable that we will all play our roles as consumers, which causes this whole thing to happen. Since the internet is still a relatively 'new' business medium, these little kinks have yet to be worked out.
This is why the military has continually attempted to create railguns over the last 100 or so years. A massive accelerated rail isn't going to be stopped like a bullet.
...not very American.
I think that it's a box waiting to be hacked!
For example, Linus Torvalds => Steve Jobbs in 5 steps.
1. Linus Torvalds works for Transmeta.
2. Transmeta get's bought out by AMD.
3. AMD CEO W.J. Sanders III held a variety of positions in the engineering, sales, and marketing departments of Motorola Semiconductor.
4. Motorola chips are the processors used at Apple.
5. Steve Jobbs is the CEO of Apple.
Can you do it in fewer than 5 steps?
They may have used a compression format that was sub-par as well, because watching the slowmotion plays had about as much quality as old football films from the '70s.
According to Dr. Root-Bernstein, there is no correlation between AIDS and HIV. He told us that he is willing to bet his entire carreer and reputation that Magic Johnson would never contract AIDS in Magic's lifetime.
Since taking the class (spring, 95), I have heard nothing new in the arguments that HIV causes or leads to AIDS. I'm no expert, but Dr. Root-Bernstein refuted all of the common reasons that people think that HIV becomes AIDS and I've heard no new reasoning since.
Until Mars exploration becomes more of a reality, there is nothing for the US to focus their pride and nationalism towards. Something 'Independence Day'ish would probably also do it.
When I was in Prague 2 years ago, I shipped a box with 14 bottles of Absinth back to the USA. Absinth is an alcoholic drink containing Wormwood extract that is banned in every country in the world except for the Czech Republic and Andorra. It's a hallucinogenic drink.
We wrote that the contents of the box were 8 bottles of wine, because we were afraid that you are only allowed to import a certain amount of alcohol before you have to pay taxes on it (that, and it is illegal in the USA).
Anyways, the box arrived at the proper address in the USA after only 2 weeks (shipped ground/boat). One bottle was broken and one was completely empty, but the rest were unharmed. We packed everything in a very a complicated way and upon opening it, everything was the exactly as we left it. There was no tampering and I don't believe that the US or Czech post even opened the box. The empty bottle must have had a leaky lid and its contents evaporated (Absinth is 70% alcohol).
1. Copper cable is heavy. One mile of Copper cable is a few thousand pounds, compared to one mile of optic which is under one hundred pounds (depending on the type).
2. When used in telecommunications systems, copper wire needs repeater stations every 2-3 miles. These are stations that people have to routinely check and fix when something breaks. Fiber optic in contrast, only needs 1 repeater station every 300-500 miles.
3. I forget the actual sizes, but you can send more bandwidth on one little optic than you can send in a large diameter bundle of copper wires.
4. Glass is cheaper than copper. Once the manufacturing technology of glass fibers catches up to that of copper wire, than the prices for optical cable will be cheaper than that of copper.
Finally, I fail to see how copper wire is any easier or cheaper to repair than optical wire when it is on the bottom of the ocean. This is an argument for a wireless system, but I think that there would be too much latency in a wireless system.
I think that you could achieve exponential growth on a 2D surface however. Here's how...
1. Each existing robot builds an additional robot.
2. Each existing robot then relocates such that there is enough room to build an additional robot.
Technically, that is exponential growth (w.r.t generation or iteration). One can argue that the relocation step takes longer and longer each time, but it's still exponential growth.
It all comes down to whether your 'n' is an iterative or a temporal element.
I'm not trying to talk you down or say that your are wrong.
What about an assembly line that the robots moved down as they got built. The 'just-completed' robot at the end of the assembly line would then contribute to building the next robot. Since more and more robots were joining the assembly line, each robot could do less work. Since each robot was doing less work, the assembly line could move faster and faster, thus attaining an exponential growth rate.
I know, I know that assembly line would only approach the speed of light or some asymptote which was representitave of the robots' speed. But it's a cool idea.
"...Because of this fact, I don't see how these things can achieve any more than a O(n^2) growth rate..."
You assume that they use a 2-D surface. To remedy this problem, all they need to do is not use a 2-D surface or use a 2-D surface and when the arm is built, it get's transfered to a new location away from where it was built. An assembly line has always been an efficient way to manufacture products. Perhaps the robots would create assembly lines as they were created. Then in a 2-D space they would be able to obtain an exponential growth rate.
Please take note of this and correct it in all future nanotech related comments.
What I've always heard about nanotech is that the main idea is that the robots are self-replicating. The example that frequently comes up is one where you put a few robots into a vat of liquid raw materials (a.k.a. molten metal) and they start creating more robots. Eventually when there are enough nano-bots, all of them manufacture an automobile.
...a whole Bewulf cluster of these?
Heck Yeah! I'm buying a new G4 as soon as OS X is released. I hope to get a titanium laptop, pending availability.
I'm a Linux user who started using Linux on a PowerMac 7100 (MkLinux, back when Apple released it). I switched to the intel platform for a more efficient version, but now I've analysed what my software needs are... Macromedia stuff, Adobe Stuff, Good Web Browser (IE or Mozilla), Webserver, terminals, GNU tools. With a list like this, Apple's OS X is the only operating system for me.