Slashdot Mirror


User: Muad'Dave

Muad'Dave's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
3,666
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 3,666

  1. Re:UPS - No Problem. on FedEx Won't Ship DIY Gunsmithing Machine · · Score: 1

    Note that OUR government has it's nose in our copiers to this day to prevent copying anything exhibiting the Orion Constellation like most world currency. Check the backs of recent US currency - the pattern is there.

  2. Re:And how does it compare to gas engines? on The Best, and Worst, Places To Drive Your Electric Car · · Score: 1
  3. Re:Good grief... on Bill Nye Disses "Regular" Software Writers' Science Knowledge · · Score: 1

    IIRC, all you need is a NOR gate - the rest are derivable.

  4. Re:Highlander III did it already... on What If We Lost the Sky? · · Score: 1

    Have you seen "Zardoz"? Sean Connery running around in a loincloth and hip boots. Eek!

  5. Re:That is close! on Another Star Passed Through Our Oort Cloud 70,000 Years Ago · · Score: 1

    I doubt that the star is a magnetar, but it's "magnetically active" per the article - if it were active enough it may have had some influence on our magnetically active core and/or magnetically-sensitive ionosphere. Earthquakes followed by volcanos or more likely additional radiation due to perturbations of the ionosphere.

  6. Re:Maybe not the power supply? on Xenon Flashes Can Make New Raspberry Pi 2 Freeze and Reboot · · Score: 1

    Not all plastic or glass that's opaque to visible light is opaque to UV.

  7. Re:They brought it on themselves on Confirmed: FCC Will Try To Regulate Internet Under Title II · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure where you live, but only the DISTRIBUTION of power in my area is a monopoly. I can buy power from any number of producers, but it's all sent to me over Dominion Power's wires. It's clearly separated on my power bill.

  8. Re:It was never not prohibited on FCC Prohibits Blocking of Personal Wi-Fi Hotspots · · Score: 2

    I understand Part 15 (as well as Part 97, since I'm licensed under those rules). The mechanisms mentioned in the GP _do_ exist in law for 5GHz U-NII (read WiFi) systems. Please refer to Title 47 Part 15, Subpart E, particularly 15.407(h)(1) and (2) and also 15.37(e).

    Also, (if I read it correctly) 15.37(h) forbids the marketing or sale of devices that use any digital modulation technique other than Spread Spectrum operating in the 5725-5850 MHz bands starting on June 2, 2016.

    The definition of "digital modulation" is distinct from SS - from 15.403(f):

    (f) Digital modulation. The process by which the characteristics of a carrier wave are varied among a set of predetermined discrete values in accordance with a digital modulating function as specified in document ANSI C63.17-1998.

  9. Re:Fermi's paradox is hubris on Gamma-ray Bursts May Explain Fermi's Paradox · · Score: 1

    with 2.5 Watts I can talk to 30 people around the globe using PSK31 or Wspr.

    I've got that record beat at least on WSPR. I xmitted on 30m using 100mW from central VA (grid FM17), and was heard in New Zealand. An amazing mode, isn't it?

  10. Re:It was never not prohibited on FCC Prohibits Blocking of Personal Wi-Fi Hotspots · · Score: 2

    You're incorrect. Part 15 devices are absolutely required to not cause interference. From the link, emphasis mine:

    (a) Persons operating intentional or unintentional radiators shall not be deemed to have any vested or recognizable right to continued use of any given frequency by virtue of prior registration or certification of equipment, or, for power line carrier systems, on the basis of prior notification of use pursuant to 90.35(g) of this chapter.
    (b) Operation of an intentional, unintentional, or incidental radiator is subject to the conditions that no harmful interference is caused and that interference must be accepted that may be caused by the operation of an authorized radio station, by another intentional or unintentional radiator, by industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) equipment, or by an incidental radiator.
    (c) The operator of a radio frequency device shall be required to cease operating the device upon notification by a Commission representative that the device is causing harmful interference. Operation shall not resume until the condition causing the harmful interference has been corrected.

  11. Re:Oops on At Oxford, a Battery That's Lasted 175 Years -- So Far · · Score: 1

    Maybe she's trying to tell you to buy her a cordless vacuum.

  12. Re:Oops on At Oxford, a Battery That's Lasted 175 Years -- So Far · · Score: 1

    My favorite was the coworker that set up a UPS on a server and left for the day. I got a call an hour later saying the server had stopped responding. It turns out that the coworker plugged the UPS INTO ITSELF, and left it running. From that day on his nickname was 'loopback'.

  13. Nice atmospheric window, but rainfade KILLS on TWEETHER Project Promises 10Gbps MmW 92-95GHz Based Wireless Broadband · · Score: 1

    I always post to the wrong duplicate article! ~sarcasm

    From my other post:

    According to line 'A' on this graph, the atmospheric absorption at 95-100 GHz is fairly low, but this graph shows that rainfade is an absolute killer. Light rain contributes 1 dB/km, which amounts to losing 20.6% of your signal per km. After 10km, you're under 1% of your original signal.

    Somewhere between medium and heavy rain you cross the 10 dB/km line - you lose 90% of your signal per km. That ventures into 'unusable' territory very quickly.

  14. Re:Absolutely fair.. on Apple Agrees To Chinese Security Audits of Its Products · · Score: 1

    In a world where several BILLION up-and-coming wage earners are ripe to purchase their products, which, incidentally, wouldn't exist if not for the cheap labor still extant in that very same country.

  15. Re:Design failure on Lost Beagle2 Probe Found 'Intact' On Mars · · Score: 1

    Why you link an article about hypothetical nano technology is bejond me :)

    Because it's fascinating, and it mentions the extreme energy density of other 'safe' radionuclides besides Plutonium 238. That was the question that was asked in the parent post, after all. :-)

    As for efficiency, I bet a closed-cycle Stirling Engine system could work on Mars with Gd148 as the heat source and a radiative heat sink to space or the (almost non-existent) Mars atmosphere as the sink. Naturally you could parallel the Gd148 sources so that no one source exceeded the max temp for the engine. If you're not willing to do that, there are other non-moving solutions that beat the paltry 3-7% of an RTG.

  16. Ah yes, Fort Monmouth on NJ Museum Revives TIROS Satellite Dish After 40 Years · · Score: 1

    I remember seeing that dish when I worked at Concurrent Computer in nearby Oceanport. I also volunteered at Ft. Monmouth during the 1st Gulf war operating their Army MARS station AAR2USI providing comms between deployed soldiers and their families stateside.

  17. Re:Design failure on Lost Beagle2 Probe Found 'Intact' On Mars · · Score: 1

    You assume RTG technology - I don't and I don't think the linked article does, either.

    They discuss Energy Organs here, stating that (emphasis mine):

    a sphere of Gd148 emitting ~100 watts with a 75-year half-life and measuring 3.41 cm in diameter with a 5-micron Pt shield glows at 1326 K (e-sub-r for Pt at 1326 K is 0.156; Gd melting point ~1585 K, Pt melting point ~2042 K); this is approximately the decomposition temperature of diamond (into graphite) and well above the combustion point for diamond in air (Section 6.5.3), so Pt-coated sapphire (sapphire melting point ~2310 K) may provide a more stable first wall for the radionuclide energy organ. Carnot thermal efficiency for a heat engine using this source could reach, at most, ~76%.

    I'd say that's pretty good efficiency, and given the power levels and temperatures, I think non-RTG technologies should be used. If the system never drops below 0C, why not use a more conventional system?

    Plus, you could just use the Gd148 to keep the craft warm and use other means to generate electrical power.

  18. Re:Design failure on Lost Beagle2 Probe Found 'Intact' On Mars · · Score: 1

    Gd148 is sexy as hell, but isn't exactly available in the corner drugstore. I quote:

    A ~0.2 kg block of pure Gd148 (~1 inch^3) initially yields ~120 watts, sufficient in theory to meet the complete basal power needs of an entire human body for ~1 century...

  19. Re:Fun with font rendering! on Deep-Frying Graphene Microspheres For Energy Storage · · Score: 1

    Yes, I admit it.

  20. Don't like it? Use H&R Block on Intuit Charges More For Previously Offered TurboTax Features, Users Livid · · Score: 1

    I stopped using TurboTax when they decided they could write data outside my filesystem, as if it were their computer. I use H&R Block's TaxCut, and it's just as good as TurboTax ever was.

  21. Re:The longer you live...Cancer could be your rewa on Silicon Valley's Quest To Extend Life 'Well Beyond 120' · · Score: 2

    Cancer may not have to be the cause of death, but rather the cause of immortality.

    Perhaps they can harness the same thing that keeps HeLa cells immortal - sort of a body-wide 'cancer' that makes you immortal?

  22. The sound I'd like to hear again on Ask Slashdot: Sounds We Don't Hear Any More? · · Score: 1

    The sound of a Saturn V ripping and rending it's way into space.

  23. Re:The whine of the flyback transformer on Ask Slashdot: Sounds We Don't Hear Any More? · · Score: 1

    Lucky you. I have a huge notch in my hearing around 15 kHz thanks to flybacks.

  24. Re:frosty horizon ash winter on NASA's New Horizons To Arrive At Pluto With Clyde Tombaugh's Ashes · · Score: 1

    Life is a "Grand Illusion" -- Styx, 1977

  25. Re:What's odd is that on Ebola Patient Zero Identified, Probably Infected By Bats · · Score: 1

    Check out Strong Spermin' ^H^H^H^H Strom Thurmond. He popped out 4 kids between the ages of 68 and 73.