if one assumes the whole point of this is making it so that you don't have to worry about which end of a battery is which then each battery must have wiring for EACH end and if they are wired in series - then there are 4 wires - 2 that are the + - to the series pair and a 2 that connect the other end of each battery - if you add one more battery you need to add two more wires etc.. if you have 8 batteries then there are 16 wires or a circuit board (dual sided with vias) - mechanically there is extra space needed for the MS magic connector so the battery pack will take up more room. All in all its not an idea that is really worth the effort of paying a licensing fee to microsoft so that stupid people can use your products. As a general observation more and more consumer products are going to Li battery packs (cameras, Mp3 players, phones etc...) seems like the only things I have with batteries are remote controls, flashlights, and garage door openers, I guess vibrators do too but I don't own any - I won't argue that it is not a "clever" idea- its just no very compelling if I am manufacturing flashlights, vibrators or TV remotes....
no its universally silly, whether it had come from Sony, Apple, or Ronco - the other complication I see is that this will require each battery to have its own separate contacts (you cannot do direct battery to battery connection) this WILL make the device larger to accommodate the special patented contacts, in essence the space allocated for batteries just got bigger
never wired anything before huh - if its a 6 battery setup it will take twelve individual circuits (wires) to enable this "clever" solution - if those are wires you have to put them somewhere in the device, same for a circuit board - in a standard batter setup the contacts serve that function but don't have to span the length of the battery or the entire series combination of batteries
diode battery isolation while "lossy" is a far better idea from a practical standpoint this idea is just silly - I agree after getting some dirt, moisture, a corroded battery it will be far less reliable - plus many devices need more than two batteries in series which means complicated additional wiring (to handle all the possible cases of screwed up batteries) - I just don't see it as practical in any way, in fact its ridiculous
we have done this over Iridium satellite connections - SMS is one of the best messaging schemes for Iridium - works really well if you do a rateless erasure code on the data first !
This is pretty clear cut per U.S law - he divulged classified information period, he could/should receive serious jail time including life in prison - he could also be executed. After reading the article it sounds like he was a troubled young man craving attention.
I have found that willing to take short term (3 months) or medium term (6 month) assignments and travel a bit has led to better money, more interesting work, and more opportunities. A VP at my company once told me that to get very far would require flexibility in this area, now I personally live in the same town for the last 40 years but I have done lots of out of town assignments in other parts of the country and world. And have made it know that I WOULD move if required.
Commercialization of space will only happen in areas where it can make money - and those areas are generally already commercialized. That's why Obama's plan is a FAIL from day one, unless it can MAKE MONEY, no business is going to do it - the only way it could possibly work is if its government subsidized, and that sucks too. A plan that assumes that manned space flight will be commercialized is a plan for the US to get out of the manned space flight arena.... Virgin Galactic is really nothing more than a high priced thrill ride - it is FAR from commercialized space travel
Only the liberal media and Obama would call it "Bold" - This administration has no interest in the future of anything but their own retirements as evidenced by the fact that they are putting many many generations of Americans into debt. I guess I'll read about the real "bold" endeavors into space carried out by the Chinese and Russian space programs - probably on Slashdot no doubt..
fortunately its NOT Obama's decision, its Congress's decision and the people that voted them in can voice their displeasure at the polls:-) if Congress does not do what they wish.
When I was 6 years old my parents moved to Titusville, Florida right across the Indian River Lagoon from the VAB. I grew up watching Saturn V's, Atlas, Delta, Titan, and Shuttle space vehicles thunder skyward. I went to school with the sons and daughters of real "Rocket Scientists". I'd say the number one reason I got into the engineering field was the excitement and allure of these kind of epic and difficult endeavors. What inspires people to go into engineering today ? I only worked on Spacecraft and launch systems for 10 years before I got into other things, but would I have been inspired at all by a presidential challenge to build a better battery, or an energy efficient home ? I somehow doubt it. So I would argue that not only does going to the moon spin-of useful technology it inspires the youth of today and tomorrow to achieve great things in engineering !
How about instead of spending billions on idiotic projects like high speed rail in Florida (and elsewhere I am guessing) we spend the money on Education and higher salaries so we can attract better people to teaching (and get rid of the losers too !)
Excellent point - If we WANT to have ownership of source we clearly spell it out in the contract - sometimes it is a deal breaker, but we have been hosed too many times by programmers who won't stand up and support their work....
OK - I hear you all and agree that weather and climate are not the same - If I thought that it would be done without promoting the "holy crap" the sky is falling down agenda of Al Gore and the Democratic party I'd be all for it - hopefully if it does get paid for with my tax dollars it will be research that is unbiased and adheres to proven scientific methods and not statistical manipulation.
is my bank account paying for more useless, pointless, farcical government programs ! For heavens sake, the weatherman can't predict the weather a week in advance, why on earth would I believe they can predict it for a century from now...
it may be shielding it from an interference source and not necessarily "boosting" the signal, it might be lowering the noise - there is lots of crap at 2.4 GHz, cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc.. strong interferes will look like poor signal strength since the signal to noise ratio is low... just a thought...
Slashdot Mirror
if one assumes the whole point of this is making it so that you don't have to worry about which end of a battery is which then each battery must have wiring for EACH end and if they are wired in series - then there are 4 wires - 2 that are the + - to the series pair and a 2 that connect the other end of each battery - if you add one more battery you need to add two more wires etc.. if you have 8 batteries then there are 16 wires or a circuit board (dual sided with vias) - mechanically there is extra space needed for the MS magic connector so the battery pack will take up more room. All in all its not an idea that is really worth the effort of paying a licensing fee to microsoft so that stupid people can use your products. As a general observation more and more consumer products are going to Li battery packs (cameras, Mp3 players, phones etc...) seems like the only things I have with batteries are remote controls, flashlights, and garage door openers, I guess vibrators do too but I don't own any - I won't argue that it is not a "clever" idea- its just no very compelling if I am manufacturing flashlights, vibrators or TV remotes....
no its universally silly, whether it had come from Sony, Apple, or Ronco - the other complication I see is that this will require each battery to have its own separate contacts (you cannot do direct battery to battery connection) this WILL make the device larger to accommodate the special patented contacts, in essence the space allocated for batteries just got bigger
never wired anything before huh - if its a 6 battery setup it will take twelve individual circuits (wires) to enable this "clever" solution - if those are wires you have to put them somewhere in the device, same for a circuit board - in a standard batter setup the contacts serve that function but don't have to span the length of the battery or the entire series combination of batteries
diode battery isolation while "lossy" is a far better idea from a practical standpoint this idea is just silly - I agree after getting some dirt, moisture, a corroded battery it will be far less reliable - plus many devices need more than two batteries in series which means complicated additional wiring (to handle all the possible cases of screwed up batteries) - I just don't see it as practical in any way, in fact its ridiculous
we have done this over Iridium satellite connections - SMS is one of the best messaging schemes for Iridium - works really well if you do a rateless erasure code on the data first !
the more likely outcome is that the Tuna population will do better because the fisherman will quit fishing and go after damages from BP instead
This is pretty clear cut per U.S law - he divulged classified information period, he could/should receive serious jail time including life in prison - he could also be executed. After reading the article it sounds like he was a troubled young man craving attention.
I say we ban cell phones from bee-hives immediately - let them use old fashioned land lines instead
I have found that willing to take short term (3 months) or medium term (6 month) assignments and travel a bit has led to better money, more interesting work, and more opportunities. A VP at my company once told me that to get very far would require flexibility in this area, now I personally live in the same town for the last 40 years but I have done lots of out of town assignments in other parts of the country and world. And have made it know that I WOULD move if required.
Commercialization of space will only happen in areas where it can make money - and those areas are generally already commercialized. That's why Obama's plan is a FAIL from day one, unless it can MAKE MONEY, no business is going to do it - the only way it could possibly work is if its government subsidized, and that sucks too. A plan that assumes that manned space flight will be commercialized is a plan for the US to get out of the manned space flight arena.... Virgin Galactic is really nothing more than a high priced thrill ride - it is FAR from commercialized space travel
Only the liberal media and Obama would call it "Bold" - This administration has no interest in the future of anything but their own retirements as evidenced by the fact that they are putting many many generations of Americans into debt. I guess I'll read about the real "bold" endeavors into space carried out by the Chinese and Russian space programs - probably on Slashdot no doubt..
Time to switch into cushy government jobs in the healthcare business
fortunately its NOT Obama's decision, its Congress's decision and the people that voted them in can voice their displeasure at the polls :-) if Congress does not do what they wish.
When I was 6 years old my parents moved to Titusville, Florida right across the Indian River Lagoon from the VAB. I grew up watching Saturn V's, Atlas, Delta, Titan, and Shuttle space vehicles thunder skyward. I went to school with the sons and daughters of real "Rocket Scientists". I'd say the number one reason I got into the engineering field was the excitement and allure of these kind of epic and difficult endeavors. What inspires people to go into engineering today ? I only worked on Spacecraft and launch systems for 10 years before I got into other things, but would I have been inspired at all by a presidential challenge to build a better battery, or an energy efficient home ? I somehow doubt it. So I would argue that not only does going to the moon spin-of useful technology it inspires the youth of today and tomorrow to achieve great things in engineering !
How about instead of spending billions on idiotic projects like high speed rail in Florida (and elsewhere I am guessing) we spend the money on Education and higher salaries so we can attract better people to teaching (and get rid of the losers too !)
Excellent point - If we WANT to have ownership of source we clearly spell it out in the contract - sometimes it is a deal breaker, but we have been hosed too many times by programmers who won't stand up and support their work....
Seems interesting, I guess the download has been disabled for now... So how does it stack up against X-Plane ??
OK - I hear you all and agree that weather and climate are not the same - If I thought that it would be done without promoting the "holy crap" the sky is falling down agenda of Al Gore and the Democratic party I'd be all for it - hopefully if it does get paid for with my tax dollars it will be research that is unbiased and adheres to proven scientific methods and not statistical manipulation.
is my bank account paying for more useless, pointless, farcical government programs ! For heavens sake, the weatherman can't predict the weather a week in advance, why on earth would I believe they can predict it for a century from now...
If I had mod points I'd give them to you - brilliant and accurate observations !
from another Irish Slashdotter - I agree !
I work for a very large DoD contractor - we are given local admin rights as software developers - note these are only for the local machine.
it may be shielding it from an interference source and not necessarily "boosting" the signal, it might be lowering the noise - there is lots of crap at 2.4 GHz, cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc.. strong interferes will look like poor signal strength since the signal to noise ratio is low... just a thought...
didn't India write the book on porn !
you sir are correct - I'd mod you up if I had some mod points - bravo