Second this. Because it's set in a parallel universe very similar to our own (yet with striking differences), Anathem is heavy going for the first hundred pages or so, mainly because the language and cultural assumptions are unfamiliar. There are lots of made-up words that sound tantalisingly like English, but are not; the title of the book itself is one such word, a sort of amalgam of "anathema", "analemma", and "anthem".
But it is definitely worth the effort. It's the only Stephenson novel I've ever felt compelled to reread for the sheer joy of it.
Don't automatically assume that AOL cooperating with the FBI involves Carnivore, nor should you assume that the FBI will be grepping through the entire message base for keywords. (What keywords would you look for? "Appt. at 8:45 a.m. today confirmed"? Let's be serious.)
Much more likely, they've got a few individual names of some possible material witnesses (so-called "persons of interest"), and the FBI wants to have a look at the e-mail traffic of those few individuals. This is not hi-tech, this is shoe leather stuff, folks.
Never underestimate the value of trying the obvious thing first.
The rocket they are talking about here is the old R7 booster, the rocket that launched the Sputnik and all Russian manned spacecraft (with the exception of their Buran shuttle, which only ever flew unmanned).
The project began in 1950, the design of the ICBM version was frozen in 1954, and the first flight occured in 1956. As of last year over 1,628 had been launched with a success rate of 97.5% for production models, pretty remarkable for a booster design nearing fifty years of service this decade.
The R7 and its derivatives use plain old kerosene and liquid oxygen, so the exhaust would be mostly H2O and CO2. I'm not sure what gas generator fuel it uses for its turbopumps, but that would be the only other exhaust that could possibly be toxic. I'm supposing it uses kerosene and LOX, but it may be using H2O2. In either case the exhaust products are quite benign.
If you are interested in finding out more about boosters and spacecraft of the world, check out astronautix.com.
In the gift economy of OS infrastructure the bright light of day is the best assurance of continued future prosperity. Sooner or later MS will figure this out, but no bets from me on whether it will be in time for them to profit from the knowledge.
Like Marijuana, FreeBSD just leads to the Hard Stuff; can leaks about MS dependence on GNU/Linux be far behind? Go GPL!
Battlebots and Robot Wars can be fun to watch, but I have no interest in them beyond the spectacle. It isn't that I don't like robot bloodsports, it's that these things aren't really robots. They are radio control toys that pump iron.
If you really want to know how to build autonomous robots, there are several competitions with the same level of excitement as Battlebots et al, but with the added benefit that you can imagine it might eventually be a good thing to turn the resulting machines loose in the real world.
For instance, Robot Sumo is quite popular in Japan and the US. You can find the rules and links to competitions at Sine Robotics. Another big competition is the Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest, wherein robots navigate a known maze (a model house floorplan) to put out a fire (simulated by a lit candle).
It is true that researchers--both pure and applied, "scientists" and "engineers"--sometimes present their discoveries so dryly and with so many qualifications that you can't be sure exactly what the heck they've actually done or what it might conceivably be useful for. In this case what they've done is basic and essential to nanotechnology, and it's important to get past the "so what?" reflex. (For a quick intro on the basics of molecular nanotechnology, take a look at http://www.zyvex.com/nano/)
Consider what they've demonstrated here: nano-scale springs and linear bearings. Presumably these bearings will also work rotationally, but that hasn't been tested yet, so I'll concentrate on the former. If you want to move molecules around one at a time with enough positional accuracy that you can place individual molecules where you want them to chemical react with other specific molecules--and no others--then you must position your molecule to within about 1/10th nanometer of the desired position.
In the face of thermal vibrations--and thermal vibrations dominate at this scale, not quantum mechanical effects--you must have a very stiff positioner to do this. Buckytubes are among the stiffest known structures, so it's very useful that we can make linear bearings and springs from them. If a way can be found to attach the ends of these telescoping buckytubes to spherical joints and, further, to provide a means to actuate them, then it would be possible to combine a minimum of six such telescoping tubes into a nano-scale Stewart platform.
A Stewart platform is a parallel linkage resembling a space frame of connected variable-length struts. The linkages form an octahedron in which one triangular face is the "platform" and the opposing triangular face is the "base." By varying the lengths of each strut, the position and orientation of the platform with respect to the base will vary in six degrees of freedom (translation in X,Y, and Z, and rotation in pitch, roll, and yaw). Stewart platforms are much stiffer than ordinary serial linkages (what we normally think of when we talk about robot arms), and thus they are commonly used for flight motion simulators. (Check here http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/6dof.html for more details.)
OK, now you may rightly say, "So what?" again. Being able to build Stewart platforms from buckytubes means that we can then make robotic nanosystems conceptually capable of assembling anything else given the proper raw materials, energy, and software. And that means they can assemble copies of themselves, replicating exponentially. Even if it costs a billion dollars to build the first one,it takes just a few generations before the cost of each assembler/replicator drops to the cost of the raw materials, and since carbon atoms are plentiful and cheap, that cost can be very, very low.
To get all the details, consult Drexler's Nanosystems: molecular machinery, manufacturing, and computation, http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/nanosystems.html
Slashdot Mirror
"en route" is standard American English, no sic required.
I believe TurboStar was just referring to inflation, where $1795US in 2007 would be something like $2100US in 2018 dollars.
My question is, how could they tell? Could you decisively prove you're a human in only 140 characters?
Second this. Because it's set in a parallel universe very similar to our own (yet with striking differences), Anathem is heavy going for the first hundred pages or so, mainly because the language and cultural assumptions are unfamiliar. There are lots of made-up words that sound tantalisingly like English, but are not; the title of the book itself is one such word, a sort of amalgam of "anathema", "analemma", and "anthem".
But it is definitely worth the effort. It's the only Stephenson novel I've ever felt compelled to reread for the sheer joy of it.
WTF! This just bows me away. I know he is small, but how in the world did they manage to fit three Ferengi into a USB!?
Or maybe there are other Quarks out there?
Don't automatically assume that AOL cooperating with the FBI involves Carnivore, nor should you assume that the FBI will be grepping through the entire message base for keywords. (What keywords would you look for? "Appt. at 8:45 a.m. today confirmed"? Let's be serious.)
Much more likely, they've got a few individual names of some possible material witnesses (so-called "persons of interest"), and the FBI wants to have a look at the e-mail traffic of those few individuals. This is not hi-tech, this is shoe leather stuff, folks.
Never underestimate the value of trying the obvious thing first.
The project began in 1950, the design of the ICBM version was frozen in 1954, and the first flight occured in 1956. As of last year over 1,628 had been launched with a success rate of 97.5% for production models, pretty remarkable for a booster design nearing fifty years of service this decade.
The R7 and its derivatives use plain old kerosene and liquid oxygen, so the exhaust would be mostly H2O and CO2. I'm not sure what gas generator fuel it uses for its turbopumps, but that would be the only other exhaust that could possibly be toxic. I'm supposing it uses kerosene and LOX, but it may be using H2O2. In either case the exhaust products are quite benign.
If you are interested in finding out more about boosters and spacecraft of the world, check out astronautix.com.
-RLN
In the gift economy of OS infrastructure the bright light of day is the best assurance of continued future prosperity. Sooner or later MS will figure this out, but no bets from me on whether it will be in time for them to profit from the knowledge.
Like Marijuana, FreeBSD just leads to the Hard Stuff; can leaks about MS dependence on GNU/Linux be far behind? Go GPL!
If you really want to know how to build autonomous robots, there are several competitions with the same level of excitement as Battlebots et al, but with the added benefit that you can imagine it might eventually be a good thing to turn the resulting machines loose in the real world.
For instance, Robot Sumo is quite popular in Japan and the US. You can find the rules and links to competitions at Sine Robotics. Another big competition is the Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest, wherein robots navigate a known maze (a model house floorplan) to put out a fire (simulated by a lit candle).
Another nice thing about these competitions is they can be cheaper to get into than Battlebots (less heavy iron and welding). And there are lots of good people and organizations who can help you climb the learning curve. Just a few of my favorites are the Seattle Robotics Society, The Robotics Club of Yahoo, Raleigh Triangle Amateur Robotics Group, Portland Area Robotics Society, Robotics Society of Southern CA, and the San Francisco Robotics Society of America.
Finally, here's a few places you can find parts, books, plans, kits, and lots of links: Mondo-Tronics, Acroname, and Robot Books.com.
It is true that researchers--both pure and applied, "scientists" and "engineers"--sometimes present their discoveries so dryly and with so many qualifications that you can't be sure exactly what the heck they've actually done or what it might conceivably be useful for. In this case what they've done is basic and essential to nanotechnology, and it's important to get past the "so what?" reflex. (For a quick intro on the basics of molecular nanotechnology, take a look at http://www.zyvex.com/nano/)
Consider what they've demonstrated here: nano-scale springs and linear bearings. Presumably these bearings will also work rotationally, but that hasn't been tested yet, so I'll concentrate on the former. If you want to move molecules around one at a time with enough positional accuracy that you can place individual molecules where you want them to chemical react with other specific molecules--and no others--then you must position your molecule to within about 1/10th nanometer of the desired position.
In the face of thermal vibrations--and thermal vibrations dominate at this scale, not quantum mechanical effects--you must have a very stiff positioner to do this. Buckytubes are among the stiffest known structures, so it's very useful that we can make linear bearings and springs from them. If a way can be found to attach the ends of these telescoping buckytubes to spherical joints and, further, to provide a means to actuate them, then it would be possible to combine a minimum of six such telescoping tubes into a nano-scale Stewart platform.
A Stewart platform is a parallel linkage resembling a space frame of connected variable-length struts. The linkages form an octahedron in which one triangular face is the "platform" and the opposing triangular face is the "base." By varying the lengths of each strut, the position and orientation of the platform with respect to the base will vary in six degrees of freedom (translation in X,Y, and Z, and rotation in pitch, roll, and yaw). Stewart platforms are much stiffer than ordinary serial linkages (what we normally think of when we talk about robot arms), and thus they are commonly used for flight motion simulators. (Check here http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/6dof.html for more details.)
OK, now you may rightly say, "So what?" again. Being able to build Stewart platforms from buckytubes means that we can then make robotic nanosystems conceptually capable of assembling anything else given the proper raw materials, energy, and software. And that means they can assemble copies of themselves, replicating exponentially. Even if it costs a billion dollars to build the first one,it takes just a few generations before the cost of each assembler/replicator drops to the cost of the raw materials, and since carbon atoms are plentiful and cheap, that cost can be very, very low.
To get all the details, consult Drexler's Nanosystems: molecular machinery, manufacturing, and computation, http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/nanosystems.html