John W Campbell had some ideas about the inherent superiority of the White race. But then again, a lot of people did back then.
Indeed. At the time, the idea that white men were superior was combined with the "scientific" ideals of Eugenics to produce such monsters as Hitler. The problem was that they were so wrapped up in themselves that they didn't pay any attention to the fact that Eugenics would spell doom for a species.
Livestock is a perfect example of this. The animals have been so inbred, that we are quickly running out of "new blood" to pull from. Many companies are beginning to partner with international companies in an attempt to broaden the gene pool.
I have not read the book, but I think Starship Troopers was a very good movie, with very good balanced satire in between the CGI scenes : Am I the only one ?
Yes. There were only two points that stood out in that movie: Sex and Violence.
While Heinlein often wrote about the former and occasionally included the later, his stories did have more depth than showing naked people and bugs blowing up (both quite impossible in the printed word). The movie was nothing more than a story stripped of its plot and overall social commentary.
Now to throw my own controversial statement out. I personally believe that Heinlein's Juveniles were some of his best works, primarily because he left out the Sex focus and spent more time on the science and story. Ok, so maybe he wasn't always *that* scientific, but the stories were far more enjoyable.
Why don't you people read some of the other stuff Asimov wrote? The End of Eternity is a perfect example of a non-robot work of his that was engaging, entertaining, and thought provoking. Does it ever get a mention? No! Because 99.9% of people think of Asimov as "The robot guy."
Looking at my own habits, I realize that I do nearly all writing (columns, articles, papers, etc.) on my Macintosh iBook. Upon analysis, it is very easy to understand why. The laptop form allows me easy retreat to an environment of my choosing, while the high quality built in spell checker (at the OS level) provides me with a much better "digital assistant" than clippy ever could.
The question that is then raised is, "Do Mac users have a better grip on the English language, or does the Macintosh provide a more comfortable platform for professional writers?"
Sesequepedalianism does not, however, imply 'intelligence'.
Sesequepedalianism? That's not even in most dictionaries!
Any canadians want to comment on the cost of living? 40% may not be that big of a hit if it's cheap to live. Try buying a house in Westchester, NY.
I wonder if we can get companies to "outsource" to Wisconsin. Cost of living is very low ($50,000 a year goes a long way!) and quality of life is very high. I know Madison has attracted a few large corporations because of the lower cost and high number of "smart people" from the UW.
Of course, I've often wondered why companies think they have to have their building in downtown New York or smack dab in San Francisco. Just keep a "main office" there for valuation reasons, and have all the real work done somewhere else.
Like Daniel Jackson? or Jack O'Neil? (different actors in the movie that started it all)
That's different. The entire background changed in the translation from Movie to TV. The characters actually redefined who they were. (Anyone remember Daniel's alergies?) In this case we're just supposed to believe that this new Weir is the same as the old when the environment hasn't changed at all. Even more annoying is that the new Weir doesn't even remotely resemble the old Weir. Compare that to Dr. Jackson. He was so convincing that I at first thought they had the same guy from the movie.
Well in that case, I'm strapping him to a NERVA rocket. With 1000 ISP, a 4:1 thrust ratio, and fewer things to go wrong, he'll be flying high in no time!:-D
According to this article on rail guns, They can only get a 2kg projectile up to 4 km/s. Not nearly powerfull enough to launch me to mach 10! Next suggustion please!
Fine. I'm strapping your ass to the back of a LHOx rocket then.;-)
Everybody knows AKAImBatman is one of the biggest karma whores around.
Actually, I'm very curious. I'm capped on karma, so why should I care about that. I *care* about minds. Sure I could find some of this stuff on Google, but it's often misleading and is nothing like speaking with a real rocket scientist, physicist, biologist, etc.
And does anybody really give a crap that he "actually installed" Sun's horrible Linux distribution with all its lame Java applets?!
Some people do actually care. Just because you don't is too bad. There's also reviews for Fedora, SuSE, and Mandrake if they're more your fancy.
Lifting body? With that kind of speed and that duration of flight, you don't need much lift.
The final craft is supposed to be of a lifting body design. This is to provide as smooth of an airframe as possible. Even the slightest corner or dent could be a potential heat buildup hazard.
I think it's interesting that they are wondering how the engine will perform. I am much more interested how the human body reacts to this.
That's actually pretty well known. Rockets have been capable of giving a hellva lot more Gs, and experiments with Jet Pilots have pretty well established human's capacity for acceleration tolerance.
The thrust to weight ratios are interesting, however. A 15-20 to 1 ratio would provide one serious kick in the pants.:-)
...have data on its trajectory? It seems to me that if you want to reduce heat, you need to fly it in a steep climb. Of course, the air then gets thinner, thus providing less boost. Your lifting body is also less effective with that sort of trajectory.
At least one isn't exactly a "new" character- she was on the last three episodes last season
But was played by a completely different Actress with a completely different personality. Actually, I kind of liked the old Weir better. There's nothing worse than changing the character in midstream.
From what I've read, the same generators that allow the gate to dial another galaxy, (an area code via the 8th chevron, so to speak) also power the city, but they are either a) failing b) drained.
I think it's (c) needed for defense of Atlantis. IIUC, there's constantly a shield around the city that keeps it high and dry, and keeps baddies out.
Well as seen in previous episodes of SG-1 it takes a lot more power to create a wormhole to another galaxy then they have readily available at the SGC. The one time they did it, and I feel like such a dork for knowing this, was in the episode "The Fifth Race" where O'Neill had the Ancient's Library uploaded into his mind. He created a device, that was subsequently destroyed upon use, that allowed the gate to dial up one of the Asgard worlds.
But since then they've been contacting the Asgard on occasion, it would follow that they have enough power generation ability to establish wormholes with them on a regular basis. Remember, when the "Fifth Race" aired, the SGC didn't have Naquada power generation yet. Now they use them as portable generators.
Also, the Asgard don't seem to have too many qualms about giving the SGC technology. They just don't have the time to give Earth a proper education.
So as they don't have the power readily available in the Pegasus Galaxy to be able to get a wormhole back to Earth they're stuck, for the time being.
That's my understanding. Basically, there's no "goof up" as the original poster suggested, but rather they get stuck there intentionally. Since the SGC can obviously establish a wormhole, they'll be calling up the Atlantis team on occasion to say "how ya' doing"? Unfortunately, matter can only propagate one direction, so they can't bring them back that way.
Nothing stops C/C++ doing it using DLLs...or even compiling its own code.
It's worth noting that I never said you couldn't. I said it was HARD. If you look farther up the thread, I reiterated this point.
But it will be much easier if a persistent object oriented system would be around. Self organizing code would be very easy to write with such a system.
I actually built an entire self-organizing system out of the Java SPI concept. On program startup, each module would decide if it should load itself in the current environment, and if so builds on top of other modules. One of these days I plan to write a paper or article on the concept.
Why do you say Windows can't provide millisecond resolution ?
I didn't. I said the default Windows timer sucked. (10ms res on 2000/XP, a whopping 50ms res on 9x!) And windows timing sucks in general.
Furthermore, Windows is the only O/S I know that provides sub-millisecond timers.
Seen a lot of OSes lately? OS X's default timer is in the microsecond range. They actually has to deresolute the timer's value for use in Java's System.currentTimeMillis() method. Pretty much all Unixes have millisecond OR BETTER timing for their standard timer. Most Unix systems have a hi-res timer that dives down to the nanosecond range. Only Windows sucks so much on timing.
See High Resolution Multimedia Timers in MSDN.
You mean the documents that say "this timer is not actually accurate and is only useful in certain situations", or do you mean the documents that say "the resolution of this timer is dependent on how many processors are in the system".
Sorry, as far as the industry is concerned, Windows timing blows. Just about every other OS does a better job.
Slashdot Mirror
John W Campbell had some ideas about the inherent superiority of the White race. But then again, a lot of people did back then.
Indeed. At the time, the idea that white men were superior was combined with the "scientific" ideals of Eugenics to produce such monsters as Hitler. The problem was that they were so wrapped up in themselves that they didn't pay any attention to the fact that Eugenics would spell doom for a species.
Livestock is a perfect example of this. The animals have been so inbred, that we are quickly running out of "new blood" to pull from. Many companies are beginning to partner with international companies in an attempt to broaden the gene pool.
It was Campbell. (See here) I was just reading Asimov's "Science Fiction of the 1930s", so the name is well burned into my mind.
I have not read the book, but I think Starship Troopers was a very good movie, with very good balanced satire in between the CGI scenes : Am I the only one ?
Yes. There were only two points that stood out in that movie: Sex and Violence.
While Heinlein often wrote about the former and occasionally included the later, his stories did have more depth than showing naked people and bugs blowing up (both quite impossible in the printed word). The movie was nothing more than a story stripped of its plot and overall social commentary.
Now to throw my own controversial statement out. I personally believe that Heinlein's Juveniles were some of his best works, primarily because he left out the Sex focus and spent more time on the science and story. Ok, so maybe he wasn't always *that* scientific, but the stories were far more enjoyable.
Alright, I was probably a bit hard on you. But that doesn't mean that most of Slashdot doesn't deserve a verbal whipping.
That's primarily because the original poster spelled it wrong. It's Sesquipedalianism, not Sesequepedalianism.
Why don't you people read some of the other stuff Asimov wrote? The End of Eternity is a perfect example of a non-robot work of his that was engaging, entertaining, and thought provoking. Does it ever get a mention? No! Because 99.9% of people think of Asimov as "The robot guy."
Looking at my own habits, I realize that I do nearly all writing (columns, articles, papers, etc.) on my Macintosh iBook. Upon analysis, it is very easy to understand why. The laptop form allows me easy retreat to an environment of my choosing, while the high quality built in spell checker (at the OS level) provides me with a much better "digital assistant" than clippy ever could.
The question that is then raised is, "Do Mac users have a better grip on the English language, or does the Macintosh provide a more comfortable platform for professional writers?"
Sesequepedalianism does not, however, imply 'intelligence'.
Sesequepedalianism? That's not even in most dictionaries!
Show off.
Any canadians want to comment on the cost of living? 40% may not be that big of a hit if it's cheap to live. Try buying a house in Westchester, NY.
I wonder if we can get companies to "outsource" to Wisconsin. Cost of living is very low ($50,000 a year goes a long way!) and quality of life is very high. I know Madison has attracted a few large corporations because of the lower cost and high number of "smart people" from the UW.
Of course, I've often wondered why companies think they have to have their building in downtown New York or smack dab in San Francisco. Just keep a "main office" there for valuation reasons, and have all the real work done somewhere else.
Like Daniel Jackson? or Jack O'Neil? (different actors in the movie that started it all)
That's different. The entire background changed in the translation from Movie to TV. The characters actually redefined who they were. (Anyone remember Daniel's alergies?) In this case we're just supposed to believe that this new Weir is the same as the old when the environment hasn't changed at all. Even more annoying is that the new Weir doesn't even remotely resemble the old Weir. Compare that to Dr. Jackson. He was so convincing that I at first thought they had the same guy from the movie.
I was waiting for someone to mention that...
Well in that case, I'm strapping him to a NERVA rocket. With 1000 ISP, a 4:1 thrust ratio, and fewer things to go wrong, he'll be flying high in no time! :-D
Why bother? A 450 ISP LHOx rocket works just fine. No tricky R&D required.
But it's technically possible, and would get you up to Mach 10 in no time if it doesn't kill you first!
I'm not sure if his life is the biggest concern in this experiment.
According to this article on rail guns, They can only get a 2kg projectile up to 4 km/s. Not nearly powerfull enough to launch me to mach 10! Next suggustion please!
;-)
Fine. I'm strapping your ass to the back of a LHOx rocket then.
How exactly do you propose I travel at mach 10?
;-)
Rail gun. It would probably melt during launch, but we'd get you there.
But, if you know of a way, I'd be willing to make an attempt for the Darwin awards!
I think you'd better stick to being the "shooter of bull". It's a lot safer occupation.
Everybody knows AKAImBatman is one of the biggest karma whores around.
Actually, I'm very curious. I'm capped on karma, so why should I care about that. I *care* about minds. Sure I could find some of this stuff on Google, but it's often misleading and is nothing like speaking with a real rocket scientist, physicist, biologist, etc.
And does anybody really give a crap that he "actually installed" Sun's horrible Linux distribution with all its lame Java applets?!
Some people do actually care. Just because you don't is too bad. There's also reviews for Fedora, SuSE, and Mandrake if they're more your fancy.
What have you given back, Mr. AC?
Will they make these as convertibles? I love the feeling of wind blowing by as I drive...
...right before your head separates from your body. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted, right?
Lifting body? With that kind of speed and that duration of flight, you don't need much lift.
The final craft is supposed to be of a lifting body design. This is to provide as smooth of an airframe as possible. Even the slightest corner or dent could be a potential heat buildup hazard.
I think it's interesting that they are wondering how the engine will perform. I am much more interested how the human body reacts to this.
:-)
That's actually pretty well known. Rockets have been capable of giving a hellva lot more Gs, and experiments with Jet Pilots have pretty well established human's capacity for acceleration tolerance.
The thrust to weight ratios are interesting, however. A 15-20 to 1 ratio would provide one serious kick in the pants.
I could do my daily commute in 15 seconds. That would be fun.
Oh, you can have a commute like that right now. It's the stopping that's the problem.
...have data on its trajectory? It seems to me that if you want to reduce heat, you need to fly it in a steep climb. Of course, the air then gets thinner, thus providing less boost. Your lifting body is also less effective with that sort of trajectory.
At least one isn't exactly a "new" character- she was on the last three episodes last season
But was played by a completely different Actress with a completely different personality. Actually, I kind of liked the old Weir better. There's nothing worse than changing the character in midstream.
Indeed. [/Teal'C]
+5 funny
From what I've read, the same generators that allow the gate to dial another galaxy, (an area code via the 8th chevron, so to speak) also power the city, but they are either a) failing b) drained.
I think it's (c) needed for defense of Atlantis. IIUC, there's constantly a shield around the city that keeps it high and dry, and keeps baddies out.
Well as seen in previous episodes of SG-1 it takes a lot more power to create a wormhole to another galaxy then they have readily available at the SGC. The one time they did it, and I feel like such a dork for knowing this, was in the episode "The Fifth Race" where O'Neill had the Ancient's Library uploaded into his mind. He created a device, that was subsequently destroyed upon use, that allowed the gate to dial up one of the Asgard worlds.
But since then they've been contacting the Asgard on occasion, it would follow that they have enough power generation ability to establish wormholes with them on a regular basis. Remember, when the "Fifth Race" aired, the SGC didn't have Naquada power generation yet. Now they use them as portable generators.
Also, the Asgard don't seem to have too many qualms about giving the SGC technology. They just don't have the time to give Earth a proper education.
So as they don't have the power readily available in the Pegasus Galaxy to be able to get a wormhole back to Earth they're stuck, for the time being.
That's my understanding. Basically, there's no "goof up" as the original poster suggested, but rather they get stuck there intentionally. Since the SGC can obviously establish a wormhole, they'll be calling up the Atlantis team on occasion to say "how ya' doing"? Unfortunately, matter can only propagate one direction, so they can't bring them back that way.
Nothing stops C/C++ doing it using DLLs...or even compiling its own code.
It's worth noting that I never said you couldn't. I said it was HARD. If you look farther up the thread, I reiterated this point.
But it will be much easier if a persistent object oriented system would be around. Self organizing code would be very easy to write with such a system.
I actually built an entire self-organizing system out of the Java SPI concept. On program startup, each module would decide if it should load itself in the current environment, and if so builds on top of other modules. One of these days I plan to write a paper or article on the concept.
Why do you say Windows can't provide millisecond resolution ?
I didn't. I said the default Windows timer sucked. (10ms res on 2000/XP, a whopping 50ms res on 9x!) And windows timing sucks in general.
Furthermore, Windows is the only O/S I know that provides sub-millisecond timers.
Seen a lot of OSes lately? OS X's default timer is in the microsecond range. They actually has to deresolute the timer's value for use in Java's System.currentTimeMillis() method. Pretty much all Unixes have millisecond OR BETTER timing for their standard timer. Most Unix systems have a hi-res timer that dives down to the nanosecond range. Only Windows sucks so much on timing.
See High Resolution Multimedia Timers in MSDN.
You mean the documents that say "this timer is not actually accurate and is only useful in certain situations", or do you mean the documents that say "the resolution of this timer is dependent on how many processors are in the system".
Sorry, as far as the industry is concerned, Windows timing blows. Just about every other OS does a better job.