Agreed. Failing that I'd settle for a facility where I can connect my tablet and it becomes a storage device and my files that can be edited with workstation software and tablet software without having to go through an interface like itunes....
DSLR Lenses are designed for relatively large CCDs (up to 24 x 36mm for full frame cameras). The iPhone has a tiny CCD and needs a much shorter focal length to give you a normal field of view.
You would need an super wide angle lens to achieve normal viewing angles with this device. Any normal DSLR lens would just give you a super telephoto lens. This is already the case for consumer grade DSLRs where you often have a conversion factor of 1.6 or 1.5: A 50mm (normal) lens takes photos as a 75mm (light tele) on a 35mm film camera.
The smaller CCD effectively crops your image. This is cool if you're into wild-life photography and very cool as the image only sues the centre part of the image circle of the lens (for lenses that work with both half and full-frame cameras) because every lens degrades close to the edge of the field of view. However, if you need a 20mm wide angle lens you have to get a very expensive 14mm lens for the same effect.
I fully agree with that, that's why I suggested to join the local grotto / cave club before going off exploring in the original post. I probably could have emphasised this a bit more.
Most of the flotsam there consists of small particles that are distributed in the first 10m of the water column. What would need to be done is to filter it out and bind it similar to how pebbles are bound with cement to create concrete to create large enough bits that can be combined into an island.
Eventually we (the world community) will have to clear this patch as the plastics now enter the food chain and threaten to poison us all. Already there are areas in the ocean where plastic is more prevalent than krill and plastic is being ingested by marine animals, accumulating in higher organisms and ultimately in us too.
Collecting plastic there would be a nice occupation for all those fishermen that have been made redundant due to overfishing and the necessities to conserve fish stocks. Get them to fish plastic instead and pay them for the trash catch they return.
Exploring caves is the last adventure left to the proverbial "common man". Everything is mapped and surveyed except caves. Even if you climb a mountain as a first ascent, someone has photographed it and its height is known. There is no technology that allows to survey caves without going there and that is the excitement and fun of it. You can do it big as Bill Stone of you can find a few meters in a local cave and you can do it according your technical and physical ability. Just join the local Grotto and you have that chance! Nothing beats entering a passage where no other human being has walked before and where your light illuminates formations that nobody has seen before. You can do this only in space and on the bottom of the ocean but the costs and technology needed for that is beyond the reach of hobbyists.
There will never be the ultimate deepest cave as we know the highest mountain as there are no means of knowing this until all caves are explored. Estimates place the ratio of explored caves at some 5% of total caves. Some have not even an entrance... Of course, we know the theoretical limit which is the height difference of the limestone bedding that houses the cave but there might always be a higher entrance or a sump or something else
The reason why caving is not as popular with viewers is that it really is not a spectator sport. All you see is some cavers departing into a deep hole. Comparing this to seeing mountaineers where you can see the mountain, the cliff and where you can admire the challenge you have no such chance with a cave. And if you're not a caver you can not imagine the challenge, the joy, the cold and the misery and the excitement.
While there are mostly advantages in using this as a fuel, it might be an ecologic disaster to strip-mine the tundra. The Tibet - Qinghai Plateau is between 3 and 4,000 m above sea level and the climate is harsh. Areas that have been strip mined will recover slowly and the little soil that was there and allowed the tundra to grow will be removed, leaving only rocks and sands behind. It might take centuries to recover and will make life for the nomadic herders and the indigenous animals (many of them endangered) difficult if not impossible.
Bringing a netbook is great for blogs and photos and e-mail, etc but I would not do any banking over it. Get an account that offers phone banking and transfer money that way. IDD charges are not that high and your phone is more secure if you don't want to go to great length securing your computer.
You don't need to land the bomb to cause lots of damage. Anyone resourceful enough to get hold of a nuclear bomb will probably know about the detection system and the best risk avoidance is to detonate it before unloading. You could detonate it below the waterline (in the ship) or above ground (hoisted off deck by the port crane) to be as destructive as possible. No detection possible unless you scan cargo 20km offshore.
Not exactly true. Fish schools are specifically targeted by trawlers, found by sonar and fished out. There is not much by-catch in these nets contrary to indiscriminate trawling or using longlines or gill nets. Bluefin Tuna, for example is only found in the Mediterranean and the chance of catching a endangered species that lives in the Arctic is zero. Of course Bluefin is already endangered and there lies the crux of the problem: We generally overexploit all fish stocks and should declare large areas of the oceans at no-fishing zones to recover fish populations and become sustainable in the long run.
...There was a time in my life when I'd go rock-climbing (only a few times, but it was fun and I was in pretty good physical shape back then.) Almost thirty years later and I wouldn't even bother trying: totally out of my league now, having been at a desk job for almost that long...
Try it again! No matter how bad you are you can still have fun climbing. There is no need to lead a 7C to enjoy. As long as you're in a group of friends with similar interests and abilities you have fun. I'm close to 50 and I still climb regularly.
Maybe, but then there was SARS and isolation of sick people and scanners and travel restrictions prevented the disease from becoming a pandemic. I was in Hong Kong during that time and wearing masks all day was no fun. If maybe the USA would have undertaken a few more drastic measures right at the beginning we would not have a swine flue pandemic now.
Agreed, but then again it is completely selfish and irresponsible to fly with a fever. Stay put where you are and cure it before spreading whatever you have to your fellow passengers!
"...What is just so wrong about windows being the future is it breaks the the very first claim about the future of netbooks, 'cheap'. The M$ solution represents licence fees for the OS, licence fees for the office suits, licence fees for the servers to connect them, licence fees for communications both email and web server."...
These license fees may not be relevant for home users. However, the costs for anti virus, spyware and additional software necessary to run Windows safely will have to be included. Your $250 netbook soon costs the same annually even if you run free office software.
The Lenovo statement is not in line with current trends where users replace their desktops with large-screen laptops and buy netbooks for portability.
I often hear new music first as MP3 from friends or on low-cost headphones on planes. If I like it I buy the CD. Playing these on good equipment at home often results in a disappointment: The bass is too overpowering and the dynamic range sucks. I suspect the sound engineers mix tracks to make them sound best on iPods or cheap equipment since this is how most people experience music these days.
Don't move the data, move the consultant. Prepare a work space and ask the consultants to work in your office. As soon as data leaves your system you have no guarantee that it will not be passed on. Data transfer is the least of your problems.
Additional issue: Sending raw data out is easy (many ideas have been voiced in this forum) but how are you getting it back? Tables to import? Live link between your company and the consultants? Incremental? Is this a one-off or a continuing effort?
Such systems will most likely increase the frequency and deadliness of wars and especially small, localised conflicts because it is easy, cheap and saves soldiers' lives. The further away one is from the messy details, the easier it is to conduct an action: Pushing a knife into your enemy's body is harder than shooting him from a distance. Pushing a button to release a bomb or shell where you don't even see the target (and the results) is easier than shooting. Following this logic means that programming a system that does the killing for you is so remote we don't even register.
This has far reaching implication for scientists: The old excuse of "we're just building the machine, someone else uses it" does not hold water in case of an autonomous system. Now the machine runs on its own and our "spirit" is within in form of programming code. It is us who are doing the killing. Engineers and programmers need to take now direct moral responsibility for their actions the same way soldiers have to.
Philosophy and ethics should occupy a large chunk in any engineering curriculum...
Many here voice their opinion that the space station os a waste of money. This solar panel incident has vindicated the ISS supporters: Testing such technologies in low earth orbit is a needed. You would not want to experience that on an interplanetary flight.
We may not necessarily develop new technologies but engineers can test solutions "in the field" and hone the skills needed to develop working solutions for voyages where no rescue/repair is possible.
Some out of time experiments have been done in the 60s and 70s. In 1962 Michel Siffre, a French Geologist and caver spent 2 months alone in a cave without time reference He surfaced September 17 believing it was August 20, stretching his subject time by 85% or averaging a 44.5 hour day. On a second experiment in 1972 he spent over 200 days in a cave in Texas, sponsored by NASA. Again no time reference but but this time regular communications with the outside world. Even while knowing the problem and trying to actively counter balance it he stretched time by 17%.
A cave is a much better testing ground than a boat or an arctic region since it does not give you a clue of daytime time and season. Even during the long summer days in the arctic you can estimate time from the position of the sun and if the experiment is long enough the passing of the seasons. Such experiments are important to see how people cape with the time needed to fly to mars.
There was an article in National Geographic, "Six months alone in a cave", National Geographic, v.147, no.3, March 1975, pp.426-435.
You're living in New Orleans - Hot and wet. I've done up a flat in Hong Kong where we have similar climatic conditions. Your no 1 issue will be environmental control to prevent your gear from decaying. - Dehumidification: You have a flood damaged property and I assume there is still a lot of water in your foundation and the walls. You will need to have an above standard dehumidifier to keep indoor humidity below 80% - Air-con: You'll probably air condition your flat. If you don't work at home and/or nobody is in during the day your indoor temperature and humidity will go up and down again as soon as you return and switch on the AC.
I have insulated my place well and installed double-glassed windows. This reduces the temperature spikes, saves a ton of money and is nice to the environment. I also combined the server cabinet with a wine cooler storage shelf to not having to permanently cool two places (and to get the space needed for a NAS approved by my wife). The construction cost of insulated walls, windows and roofs paid off in about four years but Hong Kong has high energy charges and it could take longer for you.
You can think of adding solar panels, solar warm-water generation and of using the AC to heat your pool should you have one. There are a lot of options around to help you reduce your energy needs (good for your wallet and the environment) but often contractors do not know any of these often very simple measures.
Other issues: - Conducts for every cable: Your house (hopefully) outlives most technologies - Cable plans: Draw a sketch / photograph every wall so you know where cables and pipes are and you don't drill or nail into them if you want to hang a picture five years from now - Storage: You can never have enough, put clever cabinets into the garage, utilise the space under the roof, etc. - Living or planning to live with a GF/wife? Have a work room for each one of you. Your relationship will last much longer. - Light: Don't use in-built light, you will change them after a few years (except in corridors, etc.) - Light fixtures: Use commodity fixtures and refrain form using some that need special bulbs that are often extremely expensive to replace.
Slashdot Mirror
There could be an additional reason: Their star is about to go nova and they need a new home...
If you have empty prisons you go to any length to fill them...
I know, I know it's old but I'm still hoping for a good chair throwing game!
You'll have to build a sentinel on the moon, best in the shape of a black monolith... Drop one on earth too for good measure :-)
Agreed. Failing that I'd settle for a facility where I can connect my tablet and it becomes a storage device and my files that can be edited with workstation software and tablet software without having to go through an interface like itunes....
DSLR Lenses are designed for relatively large CCDs (up to 24 x 36mm for full frame cameras). The iPhone has a tiny CCD and needs a much shorter focal length to give you a normal field of view.
You would need an super wide angle lens to achieve normal viewing angles with this device. Any normal DSLR lens would just give you a super telephoto lens. This is already the case for consumer grade DSLRs where you often have a conversion factor of 1.6 or 1.5: A 50mm (normal) lens takes photos as a 75mm (light tele) on a 35mm film camera.
The smaller CCD effectively crops your image. This is cool if you're into wild-life photography and very cool as the image only sues the centre part of the image circle of the lens (for lenses that work with both half and full-frame cameras) because every lens degrades close to the edge of the field of view. However, if you need a 20mm wide angle lens you have to get a very expensive 14mm lens for the same effect.
I fully agree with that, that's why I suggested to join the local grotto / cave club before going off exploring in the original post. I probably could have emphasised this a bit more.
Most of the flotsam there consists of small particles that are distributed in the first 10m of the water column. What would need to be done is to filter it out and bind it similar to how pebbles are bound with cement to create concrete to create large enough bits that can be combined into an island.
Eventually we (the world community) will have to clear this patch as the plastics now enter the food chain and threaten to poison us all. Already there are areas in the ocean where plastic is more prevalent than krill and plastic is being ingested by marine animals, accumulating in higher organisms and ultimately in us too.
Collecting plastic there would be a nice occupation for all those fishermen that have been made redundant due to overfishing and the necessities to conserve fish stocks. Get them to fish plastic instead and pay them for the trash catch they return.
Two articles on that matter, a bit lengthy but worth your time:
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/270
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm
Exploring caves is the last adventure left to the proverbial "common man". Everything is mapped and surveyed except caves. Even if you climb a mountain as a first ascent, someone has photographed it and its height is known. There is no technology that allows to survey caves without going there and that is the excitement and fun of it. You can do it big as Bill Stone of you can find a few meters in a local cave and you can do it according your technical and physical ability. Just join the local Grotto and you have that chance! Nothing beats entering a passage where no other human being has walked before and where your light illuminates formations that nobody has seen before. You can do this only in space and on the bottom of the ocean but the costs and technology needed for that is beyond the reach of hobbyists.
There will never be the ultimate deepest cave as we know the highest mountain as there are no means of knowing this until all caves are explored. Estimates place the ratio of explored caves at some 5% of total caves. Some have not even an entrance... Of course, we know the theoretical limit which is the height difference of the limestone bedding that houses the cave but there might always be a higher entrance or a sump or something else
The reason why caving is not as popular with viewers is that it really is not a spectator sport. All you see is some cavers departing into a deep hole. Comparing this to seeing mountaineers where you can see the mountain, the cliff and where you can admire the challenge you have no such chance with a cave. And if you're not a caver you can not imagine the challenge, the joy, the cold and the misery and the excitement.
While there are mostly advantages in using this as a fuel, it might be an ecologic disaster to strip-mine the tundra. The Tibet - Qinghai Plateau is between 3 and 4,000 m above sea level and the climate is harsh. Areas that have been strip mined will recover slowly and the little soil that was there and allowed the tundra to grow will be removed, leaving only rocks and sands behind. It might take centuries to recover and will make life for the nomadic herders and the indigenous animals (many of them endangered) difficult if not impossible.
cocking a meal? Something tells me you're using one of those first generation MacBook pros...
Bringing a netbook is great for blogs and photos and e-mail, etc but I would not do any banking over it. Get an account that offers phone banking and transfer money that way. IDD charges are not that high and your phone is more secure if you don't want to go to great length securing your computer.
You don't need to land the bomb to cause lots of damage. Anyone resourceful enough to get hold of a nuclear bomb will probably know about the detection system and the best risk avoidance is to detonate it before unloading. You could detonate it below the waterline (in the ship) or above ground (hoisted off deck by the port crane) to be as destructive as possible. No detection possible unless you scan cargo 20km offshore.
Not exactly true. Fish schools are specifically targeted by trawlers, found by sonar and fished out. There is not much by-catch in these nets contrary to indiscriminate trawling or using longlines or gill nets. Bluefin Tuna, for example is only found in the Mediterranean and the chance of catching a endangered species that lives in the Arctic is zero. Of course Bluefin is already endangered and there lies the crux of the problem: We generally overexploit all fish stocks and should declare large areas of the oceans at no-fishing zones to recover fish populations and become sustainable in the long run.
...There was a time in my life when I'd go rock-climbing (only a few times, but it was fun and I was in pretty good physical shape back then.) Almost thirty years later and I wouldn't even bother trying: totally out of my league now, having been at a desk job for almost that long...
Try it again! No matter how bad you are you can still have fun climbing. There is no need to lead a 7C to enjoy. As long as you're in a group of friends with similar interests and abilities you have fun. I'm close to 50 and I still climb regularly.
Maybe, but then there was SARS and isolation of sick people and scanners and travel restrictions prevented the disease from becoming a pandemic. I was in Hong Kong during that time and wearing masks all day was no fun. If maybe the USA would have undertaken a few more drastic measures right at the beginning we would not have a swine flue pandemic now.
Agreed, but then again it is completely selfish and irresponsible to fly with a fever. Stay put where you are and cure it before spreading whatever you have to your fellow passengers!
"...What is just so wrong about windows being the future is it breaks the the very first claim about the future of netbooks, 'cheap'. The M$ solution represents licence fees for the OS, licence fees for the office suits, licence fees for the servers to connect them, licence fees for communications both email and web server."...
These license fees may not be relevant for home users. However, the costs for anti virus, spyware and additional software necessary to run Windows safely will have to be included. Your $250 netbook soon costs the same annually even if you run free office software. The Lenovo statement is not in line with current trends where users replace their desktops with large-screen laptops and buy netbooks for portability.
I often hear new music first as MP3 from friends or on low-cost headphones on planes. If I like it I buy the CD. Playing these on good equipment at home often results in a disappointment: The bass is too overpowering and the dynamic range sucks. I suspect the sound engineers mix tracks to make them sound best on iPods or cheap equipment since this is how most people experience music these days.
Don't move the data, move the consultant. Prepare a work space and ask the consultants to work in your office. As soon as data leaves your system you have no guarantee that it will not be passed on. Data transfer is the least of your problems.
Additional issue: Sending raw data out is easy (many ideas have been voiced in this forum) but how are you getting it back? Tables to import? Live link between your company and the consultants? Incremental? Is this a one-off or a continuing effort?
Regards, Oliver
can't wait to see someone walking into a lamp post while recompiling the kernel. A whole new world of geek accidents...
Such systems will most likely increase the frequency and deadliness of wars and especially small, localised conflicts because it is easy, cheap and saves soldiers' lives. The further away one is from the messy details, the easier it is to conduct an action: Pushing a knife into your enemy's body is harder than shooting him from a distance. Pushing a button to release a bomb or shell where you don't even see the target (and the results) is easier than shooting. Following this logic means that programming a system that does the killing for you is so remote we don't even register.
This has far reaching implication for scientists: The old excuse of "we're just building the machine, someone else uses it" does not hold water in case of an autonomous system. Now the machine runs on its own and our "spirit" is within in form of programming code. It is us who are doing the killing. Engineers and programmers need to take now direct moral responsibility for their actions the same way soldiers have to.
Philosophy and ethics should occupy a large chunk in any engineering curriculum...
Many here voice their opinion that the space station os a waste of money. This solar panel incident has vindicated the ISS supporters: Testing such technologies in low earth orbit is a needed. You would not want to experience that on an interplanetary flight.
We may not necessarily develop new technologies but engineers can test solutions "in the field" and hone the skills needed to develop working solutions for voyages where no rescue/repair is possible.
Some out of time experiments have been done in the 60s and 70s. In 1962 Michel Siffre, a French Geologist and caver spent 2 months alone in a cave without time reference He surfaced September 17 believing it was August 20, stretching his subject time by 85% or averaging a 44.5 hour day. On a second experiment in 1972 he spent over 200 days in a cave in Texas, sponsored by NASA. Again no time reference but but this time regular communications with the outside world. Even while knowing the problem and trying to actively counter balance it he stretched time by 17%.
A cave is a much better testing ground than a boat or an arctic region since it does not give you a clue of daytime time and season. Even during the long summer days in the arctic you can estimate time from the position of the sun and if the experiment is long enough the passing of the seasons. Such experiments are important to see how people cape with the time needed to fly to mars.
There was an article in National Geographic, "Six months alone in a cave", National Geographic, v.147, no.3, March 1975, pp.426-435.
You're living in New Orleans - Hot and wet. I've done up a flat in Hong Kong where we have similar climatic conditions. Your no 1 issue will be environmental control to prevent your gear from decaying.
- Dehumidification: You have a flood damaged property and I assume there is still a lot of water in your foundation and the walls. You will need to have an above standard dehumidifier to keep indoor humidity below 80%
- Air-con: You'll probably air condition your flat. If you don't work at home and/or nobody is in during the day your indoor temperature and humidity will go up and down again as soon as you return and switch on the AC.
I have insulated my place well and installed double-glassed windows. This reduces the temperature spikes, saves a ton of money and is nice to the environment. I also combined the server cabinet with a wine cooler storage shelf to not having to permanently cool two places (and to get the space needed for a NAS approved by my wife). The construction cost of insulated walls, windows and roofs paid off in about four years but Hong Kong has high energy charges and it could take longer for you.
You can think of adding solar panels, solar warm-water generation and of using the AC to heat your pool should you have one. There are a lot of options around to help you reduce your energy needs (good for your wallet and the environment) but often contractors do not know any of these often very simple measures.
Other issues:
- Conducts for every cable: Your house (hopefully) outlives most technologies
- Cable plans: Draw a sketch / photograph every wall so you know where cables and pipes are and you don't drill or nail into them if you want to hang a picture five years from now
- Storage: You can never have enough, put clever cabinets into the garage, utilise the space under the roof, etc.
- Living or planning to live with a GF/wife? Have a work room for each one of you. Your relationship will last much longer.
- Light: Don't use in-built light, you will change them after a few years (except in corridors, etc.)
- Light fixtures: Use commodity fixtures and refrain form using some that need special bulbs that are often extremely expensive to replace.
Good luck!