What else was there to do ? All you can do is walk around in a space suit, do a bit of science, and come back. The science can be done much better by unmanned rovers, and we're still doing that.
In the link you've provided it says they (maybe not Musk) plan to use the Dragon capsule. However, upon reading some I see they're only planning to use it for unmanned landings, which is of course a whole lot easier.
The Dragon capsule is a tiny little thing. How is anybody supposed to land on Mars with that, and carry enough oxygen, water and food to survive for long enough to do anything useful? In addition, you'd need energy generators, communication equipment, scientific instruments, and some sort of Mars buggy. This will never fit, so it would have to be a much bigger capsule. Now, how is he going to land that monster safely ? The heat shield and parachutes are going to be mostly ineffective through the thin Martian atmosphere, so a lot of the braking needs to be done by rockets. This requires a lot of extra fuel (more mass), plus he needs to figure out how to keep the exhaust flame stable while it faces supersonic winds.
Hardware typically has a much smaller state space, and traverses the state space much quicker. How many flip flops does a complex hardware design have ? How many bits does a complex software program use ? Typically the software has orders of magnitude more state space. Also, most hardware is designed as smaller units talking to each other, with most of the state machines running independently, which makes it easier to test each part in isolation.
Of course, modern airplanes are full of software too, and in most cases it works pretty well. You can achieve a lot with plenty of money, time and manpower.
Sure, but the movement due to impact and vibration is still very limited. A swaying building is conceptually a lot simpler than two industrial robots sharing a workspace, for instance. And of course, in the cases such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, where there is complex dynamic action going in, we can also witness failures in the design, just like in software engineering.
The problem with software is the complexity. Every bit of memory potentially doubles the number of states the program can be in. Due to large number of states, it is impossible to verify them all. In contrast, a civil engineer makes designs that are mostly static. Some structures have moving elements, such as a bridge, but those are still limited in what they can do. Verification of static structures is much simpler.
Sweat cools because the phase transition from liquid to vapor absorbs a lot of energy to break the bonds. This energy is provided by the skin, so as a result, the skin gets cooler. Likewise, if you condense the vapor back into a liquid, the exact same amount of energy is released again. If that condensation happens inside the suit, the suit will get warm, defeating the purpose of sweating in the first place. It would be like running in the desert in a raincoat.
The energy doesn't come out of the tree. It comes out of the electrodes. The tree is only there to provide the electrolytes. It's much easier to put those electrolytes in a small container, and put the electrodes in there. That way you can carry it around, instead of having it rooted in the ground.
It would theoretically be possible, but it would make you even less comfortable. Also, it's only possible to extract energy out of a temperature difference, so it would only work when your skin is hot, and the surrounding air is cool. In hot weather, the device would be ineffective.
My bike has a dynamo, mounted in the hub. The extra force required to power it is quite small compared to the power already required to propel the bike, and it doesn't change anything the biomechanics of pushing the pedals around.
In that case, synchronization would take seconds instead of microseconds, which would also open up the window where the high frequency trader would be vulnerable to external news that could upset the stock price.
Admittedly, the benefits are small (measured in cents or fractions thereof), but the cost is small too.
No. HFT used for arbitrage only stabilizes the prices. For speculation, it doesn't make much difference whether a trade is done in 1 ms or in 1 minute.
Yes, the benefit is that stock prices will stay nicely synchronized between different locations, and that the average Joe doesn't have to worry about it.
Slashdot Mirror
What else was there to do ? All you can do is walk around in a space suit, do a bit of science, and come back. The science can be done much better by unmanned rovers, and we're still doing that.
In the link you've provided it says they (maybe not Musk) plan to use the Dragon capsule. However, upon reading some I see they're only planning to use it for unmanned landings, which is of course a whole lot easier.
The Dragon capsule is a tiny little thing. How is anybody supposed to land on Mars with that, and carry enough oxygen, water and food to survive for long enough to do anything useful? In addition, you'd need energy generators, communication equipment, scientific instruments, and some sort of Mars buggy. This will never fit, so it would have to be a much bigger capsule. Now, how is he going to land that monster safely ? The heat shield and parachutes are going to be mostly ineffective through the thin Martian atmosphere, so a lot of the braking needs to be done by rockets. This requires a lot of extra fuel (more mass), plus he needs to figure out how to keep the exhaust flame stable while it faces supersonic winds.
Exactly. Right now, the only way to profit from space is to put satellites in orbit. Nearly everything beyond geostationary is a hobby.
This is the view our society has agreed upon
More accurately, it's the view the politicians have decided for us. See the secret ACTA negotiations in the EU for instance.
Hardware typically has a much smaller state space, and traverses the state space much quicker. How many flip flops does a complex hardware design have ? How many bits does a complex software program use ? Typically the software has orders of magnitude more state space. Also, most hardware is designed as smaller units talking to each other, with most of the state machines running independently, which makes it easier to test each part in isolation.
Of course, modern airplanes are full of software too, and in most cases it works pretty well. You can achieve a lot with plenty of money, time and manpower.
Apparently not, as this article is about listeners preferring streaming. It must be convenient enough for them, otherwise they wouldn't use it.
Convenience. You have access to the entire library wherever you are, and whatever compatible device you're using.
Assuming you still want to listen to the same music as before, it will probably still be available on file sharing networks.
At around 14:00 the device stops working, and he has to grab a new one.
Sure, but the movement due to impact and vibration is still very limited. A swaying building is conceptually a lot simpler than two industrial robots sharing a workspace, for instance. And of course, in the cases such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, where there is complex dynamic action going in, we can also witness failures in the design, just like in software engineering.
The problem with software is the complexity. Every bit of memory potentially doubles the number of states the program can be in. Due to large number of states, it is impossible to verify them all. In contrast, a civil engineer makes designs that are mostly static. Some structures have moving elements, such as a bridge, but those are still limited in what they can do. Verification of static structures is much simpler.
Maybe to acquire patents.
Or ask the user to turn their head ...
At least the speed up is small enough to make it not noticeable, plus you get to watch the movie quicker.
You forgot 50 and 100 Hz TVs.
Shouldn't the "docking procedure" be done by two crew members ?
Sweat cools because the phase transition from liquid to vapor absorbs a lot of energy to break the bonds. This energy is provided by the skin, so as a result, the skin gets cooler. Likewise, if you condense the vapor back into a liquid, the exact same amount of energy is released again. If that condensation happens inside the suit, the suit will get warm, defeating the purpose of sweating in the first place. It would be like running in the desert in a raincoat.
The energy doesn't come out of the tree. It comes out of the electrodes. The tree is only there to provide the electrolytes. It's much easier to put those electrolytes in a small container, and put the electrodes in there. That way you can carry it around, instead of having it rooted in the ground.
It would theoretically be possible, but it would make you even less comfortable. Also, it's only possible to extract energy out of a temperature difference, so it would only work when your skin is hot, and the surrounding air is cool. In hot weather, the device would be ineffective.
My bike has a dynamo, mounted in the hub. The extra force required to power it is quite small compared to the power already required to propel the bike, and it doesn't change anything the biomechanics of pushing the pedals around.
Sweat only cools when it evaporates, so the suit won't work.
In that case, synchronization would take seconds instead of microseconds, which would also open up the window where the high frequency trader would be vulnerable to external news that could upset the stock price. Admittedly, the benefits are small (measured in cents or fractions thereof), but the cost is small too.
No. HFT used for arbitrage only stabilizes the prices. For speculation, it doesn't make much difference whether a trade is done in 1 ms or in 1 minute.
Yes, the benefit is that stock prices will stay nicely synchronized between different locations, and that the average Joe doesn't have to worry about it.