The exciting goal in many people's minds) is Mars.
But we should remeber that when NASA decided to turn it's attention away from merely "launching men into space" (Mercury) and towards "going to the moon" (Apollo) there was an intermediate program (Gemini) that served to solve potential problems associated with the Apollo design.
Gemini astronauts help perfect docking in space (which a Lunar Orbit rendevous demanded), and longer term space flight.
The goal should not be "to build a space station" but to "develop an experimental platform for testing problems associatef with long duration spaceflight".
So that's the technical term for feeding/usr/share/dict/words into google.
Of course, some websites have fed lists of "dirty" words into google for a wholly different purpose. Can't those website designers understand that some of us have very specific tastes?
CDDA is 44.1 kHz, 16 bit. Your Audigy is 96 Khz, 24 bit. A some point, the sound card has to convert a 44.1kHz signal into a 96 Khz signal. Depending on what algorithm it uses, this resampling may cause audible distortion. It's akin to curve fitting-- the more accurate the fit, the harder the math.
Suppose you wanted to record to a CD. Obviously, at some point, you would want a 16bit, 44.1kHz file. It would be useful if you could set your card so that it mixed, recorded, and played back at some integer multiple of 44.1 kHz.
Nope. NACA was an independent agency. It may have been created through a Naval appropriations bill, but in 1917, the comptroller of the Treasury ruled that it was independent. 10 Jan 1917.
NASA, which suceeded NACA, was created as an Independent Agency The Congress declares that the general welfare and security of the United States require that adequate provision be made for aeronautical and space activities. The Congress further declares that such activities shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, a civilian agency exercising control over aeronautical and space activities sponsored by the United States, except that activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems, military operations, or the defense of the United States (including the research and development necessary to make effective provision for the defense of the United States) shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, the Department of Defense; and that determination as to which such agency has responsibility for and direction of any such activity shall be made by the President in conformity with section 201(e). Space Act of 1958
m-Audio's cards allow you to set the output frequency to 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 Khz (among others). (To be honest, I have not verified this-- my DAC, if you can call the Midiland ADS/2000 a DAC, doesn't display this information).
Naturally, the quality of the frequency conversions (in cards that do convert everthing to 48 KHz) varies from soundcard to soundcard.
Adjust your soundcard so that its master volume is at maximum. Turn on your amp to a reasonable volume. Drag windows around, copy files, scroll text files etc. Hear that? That's what you don't get in an expensive dedicated system. And that's just interference, there's all sorts of distortions that happen in the electronics too that expensive equiptment tries to eradicate.
Remove the analogue CD/out to CD/in cable. (or mute the CD/in channel). Much of that noise will now be gone. I suppose one could use a cable with more shielding, but the best solution is to use the digital output (spdif), though this technique is being rapidly replaced with digital audio extraction.
Try Part #CL0014 I think Microcenter sells a similar device-- probably stocked in the Mac section. I haven't used such devices, so I have no idea if they work well.
As of September 2000, "There are currently 138 US Astronauts and 17 candidates in the program. 129 astronauts have retired, resigned or been reassigned, and 27 are deceased." source (pdf).
113 launches. 14 deaths. You call that a good record? Yes, there's a need for a reusable crew and science vehicle. The Space Shuttle does this job well, but it kills someone once every eight launches on average.
Ah, to mix rhetoric with statistics. Your "once every eight launches" quip would only work if the shuttle were a one man vehicle. The relevant rate is 2%, not 12.5%. It's probably higher if you divide the entire shuttle astronaut corps by 14, but I don't have that data on hand
How about spending billions to save millions from AIDS... only to have them die anyway of famine, civil war or another infectious disease?
Or of old age?
AIDS disables a lot of otherwise productive members of society. If the farmers die of AIDS, famine results. The elderly and children, largely incapable of sustaining efficient agriculture, tend to cut corners-- such as resorting to slash and burn techniques, which further reduces long term productivity. In some African countries, 40-60 percent of the armed forces are infected with HIV, making those countries vulnerable to insurgencies, invasion, and terrorism. And of course, AIDS overwhelms already strained medical facilities--making death from "another infectious" disease all the more common.
That's the "AIDS is a national security problem" argument in a nutshell. It may be possible to treat AIDS therapy as a luxury in a country where less than one percent of the population is infected, but incidences of 10-20% require different solutions.
I also think "spectacularly unsafe" is extremely unfair. NASA has lost two shuttles in 20 years. I would argue that statistic hardly says they are unsafe.
Losing a shuttle-- that's nothing. Losing a shuttle crew-- that's important. The chance that a shuttle crew member will die on any particular mission is about 2%. That's several times higher than combat pilots.
Yes, space travel is dangerous, but that's no reason to continue spending billions of dollars on a program that has proven itself to be spectacularly unsafe. For instance, the space shuttle is not equiped with ejection seats. There is some speculation that the ejection seeats could hae proven useful in the Challenger type disaster, but because of the way the shuttle cabin is laid out (5 seats on upper deck, 2 on lower) the crew capacity would be reduced to 5. Ejection seats are not a panacea, and they probably would not have save the crew of the Columbia... But other safety features that wre proposed in the wake of the Challenger disaster, but not implemented due to engineering problems might well have. It is not an insult to design a vehicle with a higher margin of safety. Our astronauts are not sacrificial victims, and it behooves NASA to place a higher value on human life than the shuttle program evidently did.
It was enacted in 1972 as a punishment for the US being so far ahead of everyone else in our space program. (Also goes to show that the current spate of anti-American sentiment is nothing new).
US Senate: Punish me like the dog I am, mistress. UN: Not until you sign and ratify this treaty.
I mean, really. This treaty has been signed, and ratified on the advice and consent of the Senate. Surely it had other reasons than simple masochism for doing so.
Bloody priorities? The authorities in Texas are telling people not to touch the wreckage. The administrators at NASA are telling reporters not to jump to conclusions. When a technical cause of the accident can be found, perhaps, Slashdotters can discuss changes to NASA policy.
In the meantime, I think we all have a grasp of the technical issues involved in 64 bit computing. Get your priorities straight..
Nevertheless, firewire has always included a facility for encrption and key exchange-- it is a little dissapointing that the first "encrypted firewire drive" to market supports an obsolete standard firewire encrypt "Designers notes"
Slashdot Mirror
But of course-- we speak of Kubrick's spiritual heir-- Stephen Spielberg.
The exciting goal in many people's minds) is Mars.
But we should remeber that when NASA decided to turn it's attention away from merely "launching men into space" (Mercury) and towards "going to the moon" (Apollo) there was an intermediate program (Gemini) that served to solve potential problems associated with the Apollo design.
Gemini astronauts help perfect docking in space (which a Lunar Orbit rendevous demanded), and longer term space flight.
The goal should not be "to build a space station" but to "develop an experimental platform for testing problems associatef with long duration spaceflight".
I think Benford had a much larger centrifuge in mind than either the STS90 or STS107 experiments.
Boeing designed a centrifuge module for the ISS that was a bit larger--2.5 meters or so, but it's not for human use.
So that's the technical term for feeding
Of course, some websites have fed lists of "dirty" words into google for a wholly different purpose. Can't those website designers understand that some of us have very specific tastes?
What do you know? The pix captcha finally accepts plurals. It still doesn't realize that infant == baby.
You can buy them here, if they're not out of stock. Bear in mind that many of the online reviews are of the form "Let us pretend that I have money to burn".
And no, I have not even seen this model.
CDDA is 44.1 kHz, 16 bit. Your Audigy is 96 Khz, 24 bit. A some point, the sound card has to convert a 44.1kHz signal into a 96 Khz signal. Depending on what algorithm it uses, this resampling may cause audible distortion. It's akin to curve fitting-- the more accurate the fit, the harder the math.
Suppose you wanted to record to a CD. Obviously, at some point, you would want a 16bit, 44.1kHz file. It would be useful if you could set your card so that it mixed, recorded, and played back at some integer multiple of 44.1 kHz.
Nope. NACA was an independent agency. It may have been created through a Naval appropriations bill, but in 1917, the comptroller of the Treasury ruled that it was independent. 10 Jan 1917.
NASA, which suceeded NACA, was created as an Independent Agency
The Congress declares that the general welfare and security of the United States require that adequate provision be made for aeronautical and space activities. The Congress further declares that such activities shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, a civilian agency exercising control over aeronautical and space activities sponsored by the United States, except that activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems, military operations, or the defense of the United States (including the research and development necessary to make effective provision for the defense of the United States) shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, the Department of Defense; and that determination as to which such agency has responsibility for and direction of any such activity shall be made by the President in conformity with section 201(e).
Space Act of 1958
m-Audio's cards allow you to set the output frequency to 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 Khz (among others). (To be honest, I have not verified this-- my DAC, if you can call the Midiland ADS/2000 a DAC, doesn't display this information).
Naturally, the quality of the frequency conversions (in cards that do convert everthing to 48 KHz) varies from soundcard to soundcard.
Adjust your soundcard so that its master volume is at maximum. Turn on your amp to a reasonable volume. Drag windows around, copy files, scroll text files etc. Hear that? That's what you don't get in an expensive dedicated system. And that's just interference, there's all sorts of distortions that happen in the electronics too that expensive equiptment tries to eradicate.
Remove the analogue CD/out to CD/in cable. (or mute the CD/in channel). Much of that noise will now be gone. I suppose one could use a cable with more shielding, but the best solution is to use the digital output (spdif), though this technique is being rapidly replaced with digital audio extraction.
Try Part #CL0014 I think Microcenter sells a similar device-- probably stocked in the Mac section. I haven't used such devices, so I have no idea if they work well.
As of September 2000,
"There are currently 138 US Astronauts and 17 candidates in the program. 129 astronauts have retired, resigned or been reassigned, and 27 are deceased." source (pdf).
113 launches. 14 deaths. You call that a good record? Yes, there's a need for a reusable crew and science vehicle. The Space Shuttle does this job well, but it kills someone once every eight launches on average.
Ah, to mix rhetoric with statistics. Your "once every eight launches" quip would only work if the shuttle were a one man vehicle.
The relevant rate is 2%, not 12.5%. It's probably higher if you divide the entire shuttle astronaut corps by 14, but I don't have that data on hand
Beats me. If you want to read the original context for this tidbit, look in this Charles Krauthammer column
How about spending billions to save millions from AIDS ... only to have them die anyway of famine, civil war or another infectious disease?
Or of old age?
AIDS disables a lot of otherwise productive members of society. If the farmers die of AIDS, famine results. The elderly and children, largely incapable of sustaining efficient agriculture, tend to cut corners-- such as resorting to slash and burn techniques, which further reduces long term productivity.
In some African countries, 40-60 percent of the armed forces are infected with HIV, making those countries vulnerable to insurgencies, invasion, and terrorism.
And of course, AIDS overwhelms already strained medical facilities--making death from "another infectious" disease all the more common.
That's the "AIDS is a national security problem" argument in a nutshell. It may be possible to treat AIDS therapy as a luxury in a country where less than one percent of the population is infected, but incidences of 10-20% require different solutions.
I also think "spectacularly unsafe" is extremely unfair. NASA has lost two shuttles in 20 years. I would argue that statistic hardly says they are unsafe.
Losing a shuttle-- that's nothing. Losing a shuttle crew-- that's important. The chance that a shuttle crew member will die on any particular mission is about 2%. That's several times higher than combat pilots.
What is it about China conquering space that induces paronoia? It's a bit of an SF cliché.
$500M prize for agriculture pod that produces 1000 tons of food per year. $250M bonus if it's a forest pod that produces wood.
Forest Pod? Is this some kind of computer game?
Why would you want to grow wood in in space? The water import costs would be prohibitive.
Yes, space travel is dangerous, but that's no reason to continue spending billions of dollars on a program that has proven itself to be spectacularly unsafe.
For instance, the space shuttle is not equiped with ejection seats. There is some speculation that the ejection seeats could hae proven useful in the Challenger type disaster, but because of the way the shuttle cabin is laid out (5 seats on upper deck, 2 on lower) the crew capacity would be reduced to 5.
Ejection seats are not a panacea, and they probably would not have save the crew of the Columbia... But other safety features that wre proposed in the wake of the Challenger disaster, but not implemented due to engineering problems might well have.
It is not an insult to design a vehicle with a higher margin of safety. Our astronauts are not sacrificial victims, and it behooves NASA to place a higher value on human life than the shuttle program evidently did.
It was enacted in 1972 as a punishment for the US being so far ahead of everyone else in our space program. (Also goes to show that the current spate of anti-American sentiment is nothing new).
US Senate: Punish me like the dog I am, mistress.
UN: Not until you sign and ratify this treaty.
I mean, really. This treaty has been signed, and ratified on the advice and consent of the Senate. Surely it had other reasons than simple masochism for doing so.
Those mirrors are obsolete (or were when this post was written)
Bloody priorities?
The authorities in Texas are telling people not to touch the wreckage. The administrators at NASA are telling reporters not to jump to conclusions. When a technical cause of the accident can be found, perhaps, Slashdotters can discuss changes to NASA policy.
In the meantime, I think we all have a grasp of the technical issues involved in 64 bit computing. Get your priorities straight..
It brings a whole meaning to the coffee scene from Austin Powers 2:The spy who shagged me...
Yes, Galactic Trader. I loved that game. I tried playing the mac "port" but my first thoughts were "Where are the slaves and drugs?"
Quite. It is vapourware.
Nevertheless, firewire has always included a facility for encrption and key exchange-- it is a little dissapointing that the first "encrypted firewire drive" to market supports an obsolete standard
firewire encrypt "Designers notes"