Well, there's no consumer demand for this. The Evil RIAA has a demand for it though. They are going to push an (likely) inferior product on the consumer in the name of copy protection, and try to make sure they think they need to buy it. (just like dvd's, while not inferior, could have been sooo much better).
I was going to build one once, but i found the most expensive part was an LCD screen (not one of those crappy 2 line lcd displays). That, and very few companies actually sell empty 1U cases.
Not enough detail. What about the things that need a clock, like communication over a serial or paralell port, or USB, or data transfer to a HD? or to a 3d card? How many bits wide would an asynchronous bus be, and is there any way to keep from having to design all new peripherals?
And what kind of OS would it run? I dont think it would be as trivial as taking linux and compiling it for an asynchronous computer, because it's so much different from a normal PC. And Bill's certianly not going to recompile windows to run on one, not for a long time.
I dont think Asynchronous computers will ever be used for much more than specialty devices for specific applications, becuase of the above reasons.
If you dont think geeks have that "killer instinct", you've obviously never worked on a helpdesk!
Re:This is part of our destiny.
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Solar Sails
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Einstein proved mathematically that nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light. Hence, the M (mass) in E=MC2
It's a fact, live with it.
Absolutley age matters. I'm 22 and work for a large company. I have 5 years IT experience, which is more that most of the people I work with. They treat me like the kid and dont take anything I say seriously, and I make less than older people who dont have as much experience as me.
This is a common misconception about rail guns, as opposed to coil guns. The way that a rail gun works, is that there are 2 metal rods, inside a large coil of wire (the rods run through the diamiter of the coil). So far most people get it. But the part most people dont get is that there is a thin wire running between the 2 wires, right behind the projectile.
When the high voltage is applied to the coil and to the rods, the thin wire conducts the current for a short time, and then vaproizes. The electromagnetic foces propel the vaporized wire down the rods, which in turn propels the projectile, usually at an extremley high acceleration and velocoty.
The distinction is small, but significant, because it's a pain in the ass to re-load a real rail gun.
You're right, RSA is one of the best (in my opinion). But for truly unbreakable encryption, we need to switch to quantam encryption, where the data is encoded in pulses of photons of light, and the very process of trying to decrypt the information destroys it. Numerous advances in the past few years have made this possible, and IBM has actually ran a prototype quantam encryption machine. Their only limitation was that they couldnt count individual photons. On the BBC science page (not sure where) they announced earlier this year that they now have sensors capable of detecting individual photons, so quantam encryption, here we come!
(and yes, it is COMPLETLEY unbreakable, the laws of quantam mechanichs specify that it must be)
Actually, the whole thing is the wrong approach. We should be trying to stabilize the sun instead of move the planet. Granted, that's a little bit harder, but we've got a billion years to figure out how to do it. All we need to do is figure out how to counteract the gravity of the sun, which is slowly causing it to contract and become brighter. If we can control the rate at which the sun contracts, we can keep it's brightness the same, right up until it turns into a dead white dwarf (a large, cold lump of iron).
I know you're probably joking, but there's probably good reasons why they dont do that, otherwise, mini-me would have been up in orbit long ago, especially during appollo. My guess is that there are other health problems that usually go along with being a midget, and NASA is very strict about sending the healthiest people into orbit. (unless it's a publicity stunt, like John Glen)
I guess it's a case of if you cant beat em, join em. Cray must be getting hit pretty hard by people building their own cheap supercomputers, so why not get into selling them?
Ok, this is getting off topic, but...
Of course you fail to consider the climatological effects of terraforming a large area of the earth. It could be a recipie for disaster. What if:
1. More vegetation=decreased surface albedo. Earth heats up more. Area absorbs more heat, increased global warming.
2. Area flourishes for a while, then everything dies and dries up becase we dont understand why it's a dessert in the first place. Dried fores burns. Massive smoke. Neuclear winter.
Mars at least has the benifit that we arent living on it, and catastrophic changes to Mars are probably not going to kill us.
Your comments about NASA are dead on. It's no difference than any other old fashioned industry with a monoply on the product (space shuttle).
Mark my words: NASA will not be the first agency/group to land a human on Mars. (barring some presidential directive tomorrow to reach mars in the next 10 years) it will be private industry. Hell, any schmoe with an extra 10 billion dollars (Bill, I'm talking to you!)could get Zubrin's Mars Direct going. And Mars Direct should lead directly to colonization.
Swatch beats are bad. I dont think there could be a less intuitive way to divide up the day. UTC is soo much better, and lots of people allready use it.
But this 13 month calender thing sounds great, i would witch to it. I can see how he would come up agains alot of opposition though, most people are very afraid of change.
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Well, there's no consumer demand for this. The Evil RIAA has a demand for it though. They are going to push an (likely) inferior product on the consumer in the name of copy protection, and try to make sure they think they need to buy it. (just like dvd's, while not inferior, could have been sooo much better).
I was going to build one once, but i found the most expensive part was an LCD screen (not one of those crappy 2 line lcd displays). That, and very few companies actually sell empty 1U cases.
Not enough detail. What about the things that need a clock, like communication over a serial or paralell port, or USB, or data transfer to a HD? or to a 3d card? How many bits wide would an asynchronous bus be, and is there any way to keep from having to design all new peripherals? And what kind of OS would it run? I dont think it would be as trivial as taking linux and compiling it for an asynchronous computer, because it's so much different from a normal PC. And Bill's certianly not going to recompile windows to run on one, not for a long time. I dont think Asynchronous computers will ever be used for much more than specialty devices for specific applications, becuase of the above reasons.
If you dont think geeks have that "killer instinct", you've obviously never worked on a helpdesk!
Einstein proved mathematically that nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light. Hence, the M (mass) in E=MC2 It's a fact, live with it.
Absolutley age matters. I'm 22 and work for a large company. I have 5 years IT experience, which is more that most of the people I work with. They treat me like the kid and dont take anything I say seriously, and I make less than older people who dont have as much experience as me.
This is a common misconception about rail guns, as opposed to coil guns. The way that a rail gun works, is that there are 2 metal rods, inside a large coil of wire (the rods run through the diamiter of the coil). So far most people get it. But the part most people dont get is that there is a thin wire running between the 2 wires, right behind the projectile. When the high voltage is applied to the coil and to the rods, the thin wire conducts the current for a short time, and then vaproizes. The electromagnetic foces propel the vaporized wire down the rods, which in turn propels the projectile, usually at an extremley high acceleration and velocoty. The distinction is small, but significant, because it's a pain in the ass to re-load a real rail gun.
You're right, RSA is one of the best (in my opinion). But for truly unbreakable encryption, we need to switch to quantam encryption, where the data is encoded in pulses of photons of light, and the very process of trying to decrypt the information destroys it. Numerous advances in the past few years have made this possible, and IBM has actually ran a prototype quantam encryption machine. Their only limitation was that they couldnt count individual photons. On the BBC science page (not sure where) they announced earlier this year that they now have sensors capable of detecting individual photons, so quantam encryption, here we come! (and yes, it is COMPLETLEY unbreakable, the laws of quantam mechanichs specify that it must be)
Actually, the whole thing is the wrong approach. We should be trying to stabilize the sun instead of move the planet. Granted, that's a little bit harder, but we've got a billion years to figure out how to do it. All we need to do is figure out how to counteract the gravity of the sun, which is slowly causing it to contract and become brighter. If we can control the rate at which the sun contracts, we can keep it's brightness the same, right up until it turns into a dead white dwarf (a large, cold lump of iron).
I know you're probably joking, but there's probably good reasons why they dont do that, otherwise, mini-me would have been up in orbit long ago, especially during appollo. My guess is that there are other health problems that usually go along with being a midget, and NASA is very strict about sending the healthiest people into orbit. (unless it's a publicity stunt, like John Glen)
The best? That would have to be BT's patent on hyperlinking. The one that they're actually trying to enforce.
ummmm, Netbsd isnt linux.
I guess it's a case of if you cant beat em, join em. Cray must be getting hit pretty hard by people building their own cheap supercomputers, so why not get into selling them?
Ok, this is getting off topic, but... Of course you fail to consider the climatological effects of terraforming a large area of the earth. It could be a recipie for disaster. What if: 1. More vegetation=decreased surface albedo. Earth heats up more. Area absorbs more heat, increased global warming. 2. Area flourishes for a while, then everything dies and dries up becase we dont understand why it's a dessert in the first place. Dried fores burns. Massive smoke. Neuclear winter. Mars at least has the benifit that we arent living on it, and catastrophic changes to Mars are probably not going to kill us.
Your comments about NASA are dead on. It's no difference than any other old fashioned industry with a monoply on the product (space shuttle). Mark my words: NASA will not be the first agency/group to land a human on Mars. (barring some presidential directive tomorrow to reach mars in the next 10 years) it will be private industry. Hell, any schmoe with an extra 10 billion dollars (Bill, I'm talking to you!)could get Zubrin's Mars Direct going. And Mars Direct should lead directly to colonization.
Swatch beats are bad. I dont think there could be a less intuitive way to divide up the day. UTC is soo much better, and lots of people allready use it. But this 13 month calender thing sounds great, i would witch to it. I can see how he would come up agains alot of opposition though, most people are very afraid of change.