Even if they can "pear under vehicles", they won't have any additional information that is available on the video screen. The advantage with a 3D environment is have a better perception of what the 2D image is recording. It doesn't provide any additional information (unless one of those cameras is infrared or better yet, baggage scanner from an airport).
Interesting, a quick look at that page (sorry, I don't read swedish) found a link to the english version of the manufacturer of the "zero-electricity concept house".
First let me state that I personally have no first hand experience in a situation like this, except that when I was a kid growing up my father was a similar contractor and, since this was the seventies, my family was dragged along as well. That never happens anymore. But I was in Iraq in 1979 before the Iran-Iraq war and remember leaving just before the war broke out. Right now my father is in a similar situation about a job in Indonesia where the company is currently facing people leaving (ironically I was born at that same jobsite).
Okay. It depends upon the security arrangements. First of all working in a second or third world country is very cool. There's nothing like the culture shock while at the same time being an expert compared to most people around you. Second, there is a big difference between having to work outside a secure compound and working inside the compound. If your inside the compound, changes are you'll spend most of your time there is a pretty secure environment and the only time you'll leave is to go on vacation to Dubai or someplace like that and have a significantly better chance at meeting some rich heiress that if you worked in the states.
One the other hand, if you're working outside a secure compound (like for example as a civil or petrolium engineer), make sure your paid well. While you'll still be pretty secure, you never know what'll happen. That being said, when they say that contractors are being targetting, they really are talking about security contractors who are ex navy seal types.
This would make a great tourist / sightseeing / shopping platform for many small towns or urban areas in general. You know those things they hand out at museums. What if something like that could be targetted so that someone would walk around a whole city and through gps they would be able to not only find out the history, but also (convinently) that the shops they were passing on the way to another historic spot were "the same place that so-body was caught doing to you know what". You don't always need a gui for this stuff. How much would a gps + cpu + speaker cost anyways?
Re:My experiences with Gmail invitations
on
Gmail in the News
·
· Score: 1
I was hesitant to ask but since my email already get's enough small I'll put a request in anyways. If you have an extra invite I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
I was about to say the same thing along the lines of "Doesn't it sound a bit familar that when a company discovers that its business model is based upon an obsolete technology that is leading them them to bankrupcy, they decide to sue the biggest of the companies that are using the new technology."
Although unlike sco I think that Kodak is probably looking for a buyout. Good idea really. Kodak's brand is still the largest consumer brand. I can easily see us all buying sony camera's in the future that include "Kodak Colormatch technology" or whatever new tech they want to associates with Kodak's old film brand image (no pun intended).
This satellite is barely past middle age. A quick google search finds that AO-7 is the oldest working satellite and it will turn 30 this year. Mark your calendars boys and girls. November 15 is the day when the _real_ excitement starts. I'm starting an iCal shared calendar right now so I don't forget it!
Actually it is the ability to be shot up and still fly that keeps the pilot safe in A-10s. Planes like the F-16 can be shot down with a single rifle shot and I'm sure the newer planes like the F-22 and the F-35 will be the same because there are so many critical components.
When you actually read about the design criteria for the A-10 it is actually pretty surprising. They were originally very cheap to produce and design because they don't have much technology at all. Just basic physics. The wings on the A-10 actually produce twice the lift required to keep it flying. In theory they could have half a wing shot of and still fly home.
In Gulfwar 1 they didn't even have many of the more advanced combat systems that they have now because they were on the verge of being mothballed and they demonstrated to be the most effective air platform in that war. The same thing happen a year ago as well. They're effective both because they can get really close to the action and therefore be accurate but they also have a psycological affect on the enemy. Look for some videos of the A-10 fireing its cannon. Its sounds scary.
One problem with making an aircraft stealthy is that stealthy characteristics are very aerodynamically unstable characteristics and therefore require computers to make them fly and translate what appears to be an easy control job by the pilot into a very complex aerodynamic control job by the computer. This is completely the opposite of what makes the A-10 effective.
I like reason #4
on
SCOoby Snacks
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Reason number 4 is "SCO UNIX is secure" and they later explain "These security features guard against business interruption, denial of service attacks....". So the DOS attack that took out their website last week was normal business operation?
"When Beagle gets to the surface its power is almost spent and it must immediately open up and expose its solar panels to the sunlight to charge its batteries and run its systems. Too much of a delay and it will die."
Sounds sortoff like the ipod. After a year in space the battery doesn't hold much of a charge.
"Beagle survives on the energy from its solar panels and has no way to clean them if they get dirty because of, say, a dust storm."
Havn't they considering using windshield wipers. They come as standard equipment on all cars but I guess on space probes they are an optional extra that wasn't purchased:)
Sounds like a alpha galaxy (1 crash/bang every 2 years). Our galaxy (the milky way) sounds like beta galaxy (1 crash/bang every 100 years). Hopefully there's a stable galaxy out there somewhere:)
If its the densist server than it has off course it has to be more dense than "most" blade servers. It would have to be denser than "all" blade servers.
I think this is a great idea except it should be targetted at small companies that don't have supercomputing resources instead of large companies that already have these. I know when I worked at GM, they would send models to analyse on the big iron from remote engineering offices. Of course they'd wait a week on the queue and then the code would crash while loading (murphy's law is great isn't it).
Actually, its now wingspan that is the problem, its ground footprint. All major international airports have guidelines about the radius turns and the width of the taxiways. One of the design constraints of the A380 was that it would meet these guidelines. One of the ways this is done on the A380 is that the rear landing gear can also be steered (to be exact, the rear two tires on the six wheeled gear).
As far as gates are concerned, the last time I checked, they are pretty flexible and are basically motorized extensions of the airport terminal since they have wheels. An obvious way for the new plane to come to a gate is not to go beside it like current planes, but to go the gate hub (the secure part) headon and have the mobile parts of either side of the gate then attach to either side of the nose..
Someone with a science background can fill in the details that I've missed, but from my understanding, the first atomic pile that actually producted nuclear fission in any large form was setup in a squash court at some university. Basically then put uranium bricks in a corner of the court, put in some other bricks to act as the moderator and they produced the first working nuc. It just goes to show you, american's shouldn't be worried about Osama bin Laden and his followers halfway around the world, they should be worried about High School students working in their basements..
The summary left out a few key reasons why EA disagreed with MS. The first reason is that EA already has already invested millions in developing its own data centre for online gaming and it doesn't want to both waste efforts it has already spent in this area, and have to support two online gaming infrastructures.
Additionally, the article doesn't mention that EA will not support MS' online gaming infrastructure, it will just not produce any games for it this year and will instead focus on PS2's which allows EA to use its own infrastructure.
I can see it now. A new w32 virus that takes control of your webcam and starts doing random things like crashing programs or typing characters. It then watches as you get frustrated and can tell what frustrates you the most and still does that, over and over into a never ending spiral that ends in....?
I read a book a couple of years ago describing the physics governing the solar sail. In book they mentioned that the first viable use of solar sailing wouldn't be for travelling to other stars or for probes, instead it would allow planetary travel between earth and mars in a reasonable amount of time.
The ship could sail downwind to mars and instead of stopping in orbit at mars, it would pass by it. This would allow it to maintain momentum and then it would tack upwind back to earth. I forget the physics allowing the ship to pass towards the sun but it is similar to upwind sailing on a yacht. When it passes by earth and mars crews would only have on a short window to travel back and forth to the vessel before it started to the other planet.
Another good point this book had was that the ship is very vulnerable to solar flare activity since that would be the equivalent to a storm. Unfortunately, all the material described in this book is theoretical so it will take tests like the proposal one to fine-tune the theories.
True, but then it will be similar to a cellphone network. If you computer is down, then presumable the system would be able to leave a message at an answering service. If creative offered this with their subscription then it would be worth it. Otherwise your just paying to use your own bandwidth.
The Automakers could increase the pace that they develop alternative technologies simply by using them in a racing environment. Take a look at formula for example.
Companies like Bridgestone and Honda love to mention that mention in their ads that the same technology that is used in the formula series is also available on 'your car'. But the continuously variable transmission, one of the greatest improvements in the drivetrain in recent memory, is banned from formula 1!. McLaren tested it out a few years ago but the FIA banned it after about 3 races because it 'took' away from the racing experience.
Another good example are computer assisted braking/automatic transmission. They were only legally re-introduced to formula 1 last year after the FIA admitted they couldn't regulate teams from cheating and using them anyways. Indeed many of the creative aerodynamic improvements that teams are adding to the cars are being rules illegal because they 'spoil' the look of the cars.
I grant that making a whole new racing series for alternative technologies might not be viable, but there are already enough racing series that alternative vehicles could race in. A good example is the LeMans race. In fact LeMans saw a 'non traditional' engine win once. Mazda has the privaledge of being the only automaker to win the overall race with a rotary engine (in addition to being the only japanese automaker to ever win Lemans, something Toyota is very pissed about). Unfortunately, the trend with automakers is to concentrate their factory efforts on increasingly fewer racing series. BMW has all but left leMans after winning it hands down a few years ago.
Slashdot Mirror
Even if they can "pear under vehicles", they won't have any additional information that is available on the video screen. The advantage with a 3D environment is have a better perception of what the 2D image is recording. It doesn't provide any additional information (unless one of those cameras is infrared or better yet, baggage scanner from an airport).
Interesting, a quick look at that page (sorry, I don't read swedish) found a link to the english version of the manufacturer of the "zero-electricity concept house".
Follow: http://www.ncc.se/english and click on the ncc concept house image.
Murphy's law predicts that the one that will sink california is the 1 in 16 they miss.
Do you have any weblinks to these. I would be curious as too what their actual cost is specifically.
First let me state that I personally have no first hand experience in a situation like this, except that when I was a kid growing up my father was a similar contractor and, since this was the seventies, my family was dragged along as well. That never happens anymore. But I was in Iraq in 1979 before the Iran-Iraq war and remember leaving just before the war broke out. Right now my father is in a similar situation about a job in Indonesia where the company is currently facing people leaving (ironically I was born at that same jobsite).
Okay. It depends upon the security arrangements. First of all working in a second or third world country is very cool. There's nothing like the culture shock while at the same time being an expert compared to most people around you. Second, there is a big difference between having to work outside a secure compound and working inside the compound. If your inside the compound, changes are you'll spend most of your time there is a pretty secure environment and the only time you'll leave is to go on vacation to Dubai or someplace like that and have a significantly better chance at meeting some rich heiress that if you worked in the states.
One the other hand, if you're working outside a secure compound (like for example as a civil or petrolium engineer), make sure your paid well. While you'll still be pretty secure, you never know what'll happen. That being said, when they say that contractors are being targetting, they really are talking about security contractors who are ex navy seal types.
This would make a great tourist / sightseeing / shopping platform for many small towns or urban areas in general. You know those things they hand out at museums. What if something like that could be targetted so that someone would walk around a whole city and through gps they would be able to not only find out the history, but also (convinently) that the shops they were passing on the way to another historic spot were "the same place that so-body was caught doing to you know what". You don't always need a gui for this stuff. How much would a gps + cpu + speaker cost anyways?
I was hesitant to ask but since my email already get's enough small I'll put a request in anyways. If you have an extra invite I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
mrtreibe@engmail.uwaterloo.ca
When I read this, the first thing to pop into my mind was the theme song from Gilligan's Island: "A three hour tour..."
Here's pseudo-code for DeSCO:
i=1;
while (i==1)
ping www.sco.com;
end
It works best when implemented in a distributed environment like SETA@HOME and other brute force distributed computing efforts.
I was about to say the same thing along the lines of "Doesn't it sound a bit familar that when a company discovers that its business model is based upon an obsolete technology that is leading them them to bankrupcy, they decide to sue the biggest of the companies that are using the new technology."
Although unlike sco I think that Kodak is probably looking for a buyout. Good idea really. Kodak's brand is still the largest consumer brand. I can easily see us all buying sony camera's in the future that include "Kodak Colormatch technology" or whatever new tech they want to associates with Kodak's old film brand image (no pun intended).
This satellite is barely past middle age. A quick google search finds that AO-7 is the oldest working satellite and it will turn 30 this year. Mark your calendars boys and girls. November 15 is the day when the _real_ excitement starts. I'm starting an iCal shared calendar right now so I don't forget it!
Actually it is the ability to be shot up and still fly that keeps the pilot safe in A-10s. Planes like the F-16 can be shot down with a single rifle shot and I'm sure the newer planes like the F-22 and the F-35 will be the same because there are so many critical components.
When you actually read about the design criteria for the A-10 it is actually pretty surprising. They were originally very cheap to produce and design because they don't have much technology at all. Just basic physics. The wings on the A-10 actually produce twice the lift required to keep it flying. In theory they could have half a wing shot of and still fly home.
In Gulfwar 1 they didn't even have many of the more advanced combat systems that they have now because they were on the verge of being mothballed and they demonstrated to be the most effective air platform in that war. The same thing happen a year ago as well. They're effective both because they can get really close to the action and therefore be accurate but they also have a psycological affect on the enemy. Look for some videos of the A-10 fireing its cannon. Its sounds scary.
One problem with making an aircraft stealthy is that stealthy characteristics are very aerodynamically unstable characteristics and therefore require computers to make them fly and translate what appears to be an easy control job by the pilot into a very complex aerodynamic control job by the computer. This is completely the opposite of what makes the A-10 effective.
Reason number 4 is "SCO UNIX is secure" and they later explain "These security features guard against business interruption, denial of service attacks....". So the DOS attack that took out their website last week was normal business operation?
"When Beagle gets to the surface its power is almost spent and it must immediately open up and expose its solar panels to the sunlight to charge its batteries and run its systems. Too much of a delay and it will die."
:)
Sounds sortoff like the ipod. After a year in space the battery doesn't hold much of a charge.
"Beagle survives on the energy from its solar panels and has no way to clean them if they get dirty because of, say, a dust storm."
Havn't they considering using windshield wipers. They come as standard equipment on all cars but I guess on space probes they are an optional extra that wasn't purchased
Sounds like a alpha galaxy (1 crash/bang every 2 years). Our galaxy (the milky way) sounds like beta galaxy (1 crash/bang every 100 years). Hopefully there's a stable galaxy out there somewhere :)
I like what Rep. Tim Roemer calls the ISS, the "International Sucking Sound".
If its the densist server than it has off course it has to be more dense than "most" blade servers. It would have to be denser than "all" blade servers.
I think this is a great idea except it should be targetted at small companies that don't have supercomputing resources instead of large companies that already have these. I know when I worked at GM, they would send models to analyse on the big iron from remote engineering offices. Of course they'd wait a week on the queue and then the code would crash while loading (murphy's law is great isn't it).
Actually, its now wingspan that is the problem, its ground footprint. All major international airports have guidelines about the radius turns and the width of the taxiways. One of the design constraints of the A380 was that it would meet these guidelines. One of the ways this is done on the A380 is that the rear landing gear can also be steered (to be exact, the rear two tires on the six wheeled gear).
As far as gates are concerned, the last time I checked, they are pretty flexible and are basically motorized extensions of the airport terminal since they have wheels. An obvious way for the new plane to come to a gate is not to go beside it like current planes, but to go the gate hub (the secure part) headon and have the mobile parts of either side of the gate then attach to either side of the nose..
Someone with a science background can fill in the details that I've missed, but from my understanding, the first atomic pile that actually producted nuclear fission in any large form was setup in a squash court at some university. Basically then put uranium bricks in a corner of the court, put in some other bricks to act as the moderator and they produced the first working nuc. It just goes to show you, american's shouldn't be worried about Osama bin Laden and his followers halfway around the world, they should be worried about High School students working in their basements..
The summary left out a few key reasons why EA disagreed with MS. The first reason is that EA already has already invested millions in developing its own data centre for online gaming and it doesn't want to both waste efforts it has already spent in this area, and have to support two online gaming infrastructures.
Additionally, the article doesn't mention that EA will not support MS' online gaming infrastructure, it will just not produce any games for it this year and will instead focus on PS2's which allows EA to use its own infrastructure.
I can see it now. A new w32 virus that takes control of your webcam and starts doing random things like crashing programs or typing characters. It then watches as you get frustrated and can tell what frustrates you the most and still does that, over and over into a never ending spiral that ends in....?
I read a book a couple of years ago describing the physics governing the solar sail. In book they mentioned that the first viable use of solar sailing wouldn't be for travelling to other stars or for probes, instead it would allow planetary travel between earth and mars in a reasonable amount of time.
The ship could sail downwind to mars and instead of stopping in orbit at mars, it would pass by it. This would allow it to maintain momentum and then it would tack upwind back to earth. I forget the physics allowing the ship to pass towards the sun but it is similar to upwind sailing on a yacht. When it passes by earth and mars crews would only have on a short window to travel back and forth to the vessel before it started to the other planet.
Another good point this book had was that the ship is very vulnerable to solar flare activity since that would be the equivalent to a storm. Unfortunately, all the material described in this book is theoretical so it will take tests like the proposal one to fine-tune the theories.
True, but then it will be similar to a cellphone network. If you computer is down, then presumable the system would be able to leave a message at an answering service. If creative offered this with their subscription then it would be worth it. Otherwise your just paying to use your own bandwidth.
The Automakers could increase the pace that they develop alternative technologies simply by using them in a racing environment. Take a look at formula for example.
Companies like Bridgestone and Honda love to mention that mention in their ads that the same technology that is used in the formula series is also available on 'your car'. But the continuously variable transmission, one of the greatest improvements in the drivetrain in recent memory, is banned from formula 1!. McLaren tested it out a few years ago but the FIA banned it after about 3 races because it 'took' away from the racing experience.
Another good example are computer assisted braking/automatic transmission. They were only legally re-introduced to formula 1 last year after the FIA admitted they couldn't regulate teams from cheating and using them anyways. Indeed many of the creative aerodynamic improvements that teams are adding to the cars are being rules illegal because they 'spoil' the look of the cars.
I grant that making a whole new racing series for alternative technologies might not be viable, but there are already enough racing series that alternative vehicles could race in. A good example is the LeMans race. In fact LeMans saw a 'non traditional' engine win once. Mazda has the privaledge of being the only automaker to win the overall race with a rotary engine (in addition to being the only japanese automaker to ever win Lemans, something Toyota is very pissed about). Unfortunately, the trend with automakers is to concentrate their factory efforts on increasingly fewer racing series. BMW has all but left leMans after winning it hands down a few years ago.