Well, the flying went well despite relatively high winds (18 knots or so) and a little rain - the weather was pretty reasonable for the UK summer!
There were 8 'serious' entrants, and out of those only three had actually built their bird from scratch; the others were modified (apparently!) hanggliders. Unfortunately the hang gliders took all the prizes for distance and time spent in the air - GBP1000 for farthest flight, and GBP100 for longest in the air, both of which went to the same bloke. He managed to coax his hang glider a whole 38.4 metres, taking 9.6seconds.
My mate's entry only flew 12.8 metres, but that placed him 6th out of the 8 serious entries (5th flew 14metres, 7th flew 6metres). For a first attempt, and for having to fly without half the aircraft, he was quite chuffed! (The major redesign was because the safety judges decided it was too windy for his undercarriage arrangement to be safe.)
The prize money goes up to GBP25,000 (around USD37,000, I think) for anyone able to broach the 100m (~330ft) barrier. The closest so far seems to be 89.2m...So there is incentive for some "real" engineering apart from the obligatory 'take-the-piss' entries:)
I'm working on stuff that at some point would *require* an implicit reboot of the system any time hardware or software failed, or perhaps even a new mode was selected.
This sounds worrying until you realise that the requirement for a "reconfiguration" is such that it can be performed in-flight.
Perhaps the Wintel crew need to look at making their reboots non-intrusive!!
Beer? Whisky glasses are more important.
on
Beer Stein Goes Hi Tech
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Heck, when my pint's finished, it's pretty obvious, and I'm not overly pissed off if the bar stewards nick the last few dribbles...but when they walk off with a not-yet-empty tumbler of whisky, that really pisses me off.
This is the type of glass that needs to have a loud "I'm not empty, leave me alone" sensor. Bar staff are just blind when it comes to whisky tumblers!
IIRC, surgeons practice on eggs because they have the same sort of 'feel' as human internals do.
...Or am I thinking of oranges? They have the same properties as human skin, ISTR.
Anyway - would you rather they test this out on real living tissue (e.g. your heart) or on something which is already dead and gives a similar consistency/texture/feel?
Different languages have different ways of expressing the same thing. This colours the way you look at the world.
For instance, you look out and see snow on the ground - ok, it's snow - or you may call it slush or sleet, that's about the most distinction you'll get in English.
An Inuit on the other hand, sees teh different types of snow as different things (OK - not quite, more different varieties of the same thing). He therefore can _express_ the distinction.
Luckily English is a very expressive language, but obviously someone who speaks a different language has a different view of how the world is. IMHO that taints whatever they do - including designing a language.
I think this holds for different programming languages too - when you try to code in Java, you look at teh problem one way, when you code it in COBOL, you look at it another way *because that is how the language colours your view of the world*.
Slashdot Mirror
Just tried that in FF:
"Server not found
Firefox can't find the server at stuff."
Looks like it's doing the right thing to me...
Well, the flying went well despite relatively high winds (18 knots or so) and a little rain - the weather was pretty reasonable for the UK summer!
There were 8 'serious' entrants, and out of those only three had actually built their bird from scratch; the others were modified (apparently!) hanggliders. Unfortunately the hang gliders took all the prizes for distance and time spent in the air - GBP1000 for farthest flight, and GBP100 for longest in the air, both of which went to the same bloke. He managed to coax his hang glider a whole 38.4 metres, taking 9.6seconds.
My mate's entry only flew 12.8 metres, but that placed him 6th out of the 8 serious entries (5th flew 14metres, 7th flew 6metres). For a first attempt, and for having to fly without half the aircraft, he was quite chuffed! (The major redesign was because the safety judges decided it was too windy for his undercarriage arrangement to be safe.)
It's maybe a bit late, but tomorrow (Sunday 11th) is the Bognor Birdman (warning: Flash-only site) competition in Bognor Regis, Sussex, UK.
There's a little info sans flash here
The prize money goes up to GBP25,000 (around USD37,000, I think) for anyone able to broach the 100m (~330ft) barrier. The closest so far seems to be 89.2m...So there is incentive for some "real" engineering apart from the obligatory 'take-the-piss' entries :)
I'm working on stuff that at some point would *require* an implicit reboot of the system any time hardware or software failed, or perhaps even a new mode was selected.
This sounds worrying until you realise that the requirement for a "reconfiguration" is such that it can be performed in-flight.
Perhaps the Wintel crew need to look at making their reboots non-intrusive!!
Heck, when my pint's finished, it's pretty obvious, and I'm not overly pissed off if the bar stewards nick the last few dribbles...but when they walk off with a not-yet-empty tumbler of whisky, that really pisses me off.
This is the type of glass that needs to have a loud "I'm not empty, leave me alone" sensor. Bar staff are just blind when it comes to whisky tumblers!
IIRC, surgeons practice on eggs because they have the same sort of 'feel' as human internals do.
...Or am I thinking of oranges? They have the same properties as human skin, ISTR.
Anyway - would you rather they test this out on real living tissue (e.g. your heart) or on something which is already dead and gives a similar consistency/texture/feel?
I know which I'd rather they try first.
--
Igirisu
Different languages have different ways of expressing the same thing. This colours the way you look at the world.
For instance, you look out and see snow on the ground - ok, it's snow - or you may call it slush or sleet, that's about the most distinction you'll get in English.
An Inuit on the other hand, sees teh different types of snow as different things (OK - not quite, more different varieties of the same thing). He therefore can _express_ the distinction.
Luckily English is a very expressive language, but obviously someone who speaks a different language has a different view of how the world is. IMHO that taints whatever they do - including designing a language.
I think this holds for different programming languages too - when you try to code in Java, you look at teh problem one way, when you code it in COBOL, you look at it another way *because that is how the language colours your view of the world*.
If we're being anal about it, then "Whatever will happen will happen" would be:
;)
Que pasará, pasará
Ser = to be, so 'Que será, será' = "Whatever will be, will be" (exactly as in the song