While in many applications it may be possible to replace metal with composites, there are always going to be corner cases. It wouldn't be too big a deal to lose one of these 50-kt machines, but losing the capability worldwide is another matter.
I'm reminded of a story a while back about there being only one company worldwide that can cast nuclear reactor vessels.
My experience with RDP is that the mouse cursor is always a couple of pixels off, making it difficult to hit small targets. For example, I find it nearly impossible to resize columns by dragging in Windows 7 Explorer. So Photoshop via RDP? No thanks.
The open spaces they mention seem a bad idea to me. At that altitude the wind is much stronger than on the ground. Even in good weather, you'd be sitting in a gale up there.
The Z3 was an electromechanical computer, i.e. it used relays. This avoided a big problem with mechanical computers: power transfer. The crank on a Babbage computer potentially had to drive all of the components in the mill, which would place high loads on the gears.
The VW Transporter is firmly in the 'van' or minibus category. A minivan is based on a passenger car; examples include the Renault Espace and Chrysler Voyager. They usually weigh less than 2 tons and seat up to 7 people.
My first computer was a Spectrum. Not having been exposed to other machines before, the one-keystroke-per-command feature felt perfectly natural to me, and faster than having to type the commands by hand (in part because the rubber keyboard hindered fast typing).
It also made it easier to formulate correct programs: the system knew that certain keywords should only appear at the start of a line and made it impossible to put that keyword anywhere else in the line. An early form of syntax checking.
It made Spectrum Basic readable; it ensured that the commands and keywords were always written in full, rather than the shorthand that crept up everywhere else.
It had its drawbacks: hunting down infrequently-used commands could take more time than typing them, and the system was unique to Sinclair so the skill didn't transfer.
Ah, the Speccy. I still have mine, plus a box full of tapes. I wonder if they're still readable though.
The default setting for auto-updates is that the machine checks once a week. Then I tend to postpone the actual installation a few times if it requires a reboot (and security updates generally do). So I'm not surprised that not everyone has installed the update in the 4 days between release and the day the stats were taken.
It seems to me that reactors at the scale TFA talks about become small enough that items like the reactor vessel can be road-transported in one piece instead of having to be assembled on-site.
They had an unusual result, ended up having to publish something after a leak, then found the error and published that as well. This is science as it should be done. Asking for this man's resignation is idiotic.
Having seen a couple of aircraft wrecks that have been salvaged, all they'll be able to retrieve is a hunk of junk. Restoring them to a state that's useful for exhibition will mean rebuilding most, if not all, of it. If that's the case anyway, why not borrow NASA's blueprints and build a replica or two? As an added bonus, the replica materials can be chosen to be easier to work with than the originals, since you're not going to build flightworthy examples. E.g. replace titanium with aluminium.
The rationale for that location is that you don't have to move your eyes as far from the road to see them. What you're noticing now is the adjustment period where your 'look down' reflex still kicks in when you want to check the gauges.
If you can't read a map but rely on POV views, I don't want you on the roads without special dispensation and training. You have no spatial awareness, and are a danger to others.
That, sir, is an idiotic POV. Reading a map, and reading a map while negotiating a complex intersection at 120 km/h are very different things. When you're standing still, the time you need to correlate between the map's information and your surroundings is of no consequence. When you're driving, especially in unfamiliar territory, this is just the sort of mental arithmetic you'll want to offload to a device. When driving South, even a moment's confusion between left and right turns at the wrong moment is at least inconvenient and potentially dangerous.
Also, a map view is less informative than a POV view: a map view can't show me which lane to take without zooming in to useless levels.
I agree that the POV view can lead one to lose overall spatial awareness. That's why you do a sanity check on the calculated route before you set off by showing it in map view. Once you're underway, the information given must require as little thought as possible to minimize distraction.
The main photo in TFA shows a pair of Enigmas with 4 rotors rather than the customary 3. Interesting, since the only 4-rotor Enigmas I know of are the German Navy ones.
Slashdot Mirror
The US has the only mill in the world that can produce the propellers used in high speed silent running.
Didn't Toshiba get in trouble years ago over exporting high-quality CNC mills to the USSR for exactly this?
While in many applications it may be possible to replace metal with composites, there are always going to be corner cases. It wouldn't be too big a deal to lose one of these 50-kt machines, but losing the capability worldwide is another matter.
I'm reminded of a story a while back about there being only one company worldwide that can cast nuclear reactor vessels.
My experience with RDP is that the mouse cursor is always a couple of pixels off, making it difficult to hit small targets. For example, I find it nearly impossible to resize columns by dragging in Windows 7 Explorer. So Photoshop via RDP? No thanks.
The open spaces they mention seem a bad idea to me. At that altitude the wind is much stronger than on the ground. Even in good weather, you'd be sitting in a gale up there.
Why this obsession, bordering on reverence, for a boat that sank and killed 1500 people?
The Z3 was an electromechanical computer, i.e. it used relays. This avoided a big problem with mechanical computers: power transfer. The crank on a Babbage computer potentially had to drive all of the components in the mill, which would place high loads on the gears.
in 2011
and 2010
The VW Transporter is firmly in the 'van' or minibus category.
A minivan is based on a passenger car; examples include the Renault Espace and Chrysler Voyager. They usually weigh less than 2 tons and seat up to 7 people.
My first computer was a Spectrum. Not having been exposed to other machines before, the one-keystroke-per-command feature felt perfectly natural to me, and faster than having to type the commands by hand (in part because the rubber keyboard hindered fast typing).
It also made it easier to formulate correct programs: the system knew that certain keywords should only appear at the start of a line and made it impossible to put that keyword anywhere else in the line. An early form of syntax checking.
It made Spectrum Basic readable; it ensured that the commands and keywords were always written in full, rather than the shorthand that crept up everywhere else.
It had its drawbacks: hunting down infrequently-used commands could take more time than typing them, and the system was unique to Sinclair so the skill didn't transfer.
Ah, the Speccy. I still have mine, plus a box full of tapes. I wonder if they're still readable though.
The default setting for auto-updates is that the machine checks once a week. Then I tend to postpone the actual installation a few times if it requires a reboot (and security updates generally do). So I'm not surprised that not everyone has installed the update in the 4 days between release and the day the stats were taken.
It seems to me that reactors at the scale TFA talks about become small enough that items like the reactor vessel can be road-transported in one piece instead of having to be assembled on-site.
I've got a bunch of CFLs that have been in use for going on 15 years. None of the CFLs I've ever bought have failed.
(anecdotes != data)
This is just what I've been looking for. Thanks for making it available.
Militarizing Your Backyard With Python and AI
Bonus points if you expand the system to include a giant boulder.
No, it means they didn't think they had anything worth publishing at that point. Big difference.
They had an unusual result, ended up having to publish something after a leak, then found the error and published that as well. This is science as it should be done. Asking for this man's resignation is idiotic.
Having seen a couple of aircraft wrecks that have been salvaged, all they'll be able to retrieve is a hunk of junk. Restoring them to a state that's useful for exhibition will mean rebuilding most, if not all, of it. If that's the case anyway, why not borrow NASA's blueprints and build a replica or two?
As an added bonus, the replica materials can be chosen to be easier to work with than the originals, since you're not going to build flightworthy examples. E.g. replace titanium with aluminium.
The rationale for that location is that you don't have to move your eyes as far from the road to see them. What you're noticing now is the adjustment period where your 'look down' reflex still kicks in when you want to check the gauges.
If you can't read a map but rely on POV views, I don't want you on the roads without special dispensation and training. You have no spatial awareness, and are a danger to others.
That, sir, is an idiotic POV. Reading a map, and reading a map while negotiating a complex intersection at 120 km/h are very different things. When you're standing still, the time you need to correlate between the map's information and your surroundings is of no consequence. When you're driving, especially in unfamiliar territory, this is just the sort of mental arithmetic you'll want to offload to a device. When driving South, even a moment's confusion between left and right turns at the wrong moment is at least inconvenient and potentially dangerous.
Also, a map view is less informative than a POV view: a map view can't show me which lane to take without zooming in to useless levels.
I agree that the POV view can lead one to lose overall spatial awareness. That's why you do a sanity check on the calculated route before you set off by showing it in map view. Once you're underway, the information given must require as little thought as possible to minimize distraction.
The main photo in TFA shows a pair of Enigmas with 4 rotors rather than the customary 3. Interesting, since the only 4-rotor Enigmas I know of are the German Navy ones.
But the modem connection dialog gives me more accurate information and is less painful on the ears.
If a picture is 1000 words, a 30-minute video would be 1000x24x1800=43.2 million words. I dunno about disk space, but that's a LOT of shelf space.
Loading programs from tape on e.g. the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Five minutes of aural assault (followed by swearing as the load failed at 4:55).
My first modem had the sound playback as an option. That was the first option I found and disabled. Why listen to that awful screech?
Neal Stephenson's essay Mother Earth Mother Board