Even though the main dish is fixed, the receiver still can be aimed within 20 degrees of zenith, resulting in a fairly decent amount of stars it can be aimed at.
If we advance, say 50-100 years from now, our economic productivity will be such that an individual, or small group of individuals, could launch a self-replicating interstellar probe
Unless our civilization crashes before that. Given the fact we're quickly running out of oil, that scenario seems more likely.
It's not that easy. Radio/TV transmissions leaking into space are very weak. There could be an alien civilization at 10 light years from us, and we could aim our arecibo dish straight at them, without picking up anything. Our only hope is that they'll point a very powerful transmitter straight in our direction, at exactly the same time as we point our most sensitive receiver in their direction. The chances of this happening are astronomically small.
And of course, most suitable alien planets are much further away, reducing the chances even more.
Instead of 'overkill' you can say 'really powerful', because there is no downside to this 'overkill'. And yes, given the choice between two architectures, I'll take the really powerful one. ARMs are cheap (less than $2 for the cheapest Cortex in low quantities), low power, small size, and have a ton of peripherals. It will let you run high speed USB and 100 Mbps ethernet without a problem.
Many people keep doing what they are used to. If a student buys an Arduino as a hobby, there's a good chance that the same person, some years later, will design something based on the same AVR architecture that will end up in a larger volume product.
Mathematically I was under the impression that one kilogram is what exactly one liter of water weighs.
True, but for calibration purposes it's not really suitable. You'll need a constant volume, constant temperature and a controlled purity of the water. It's hard to do that with sufficient precision.
How do pilots manage to see the ground during landing inside a cockpit that opens facing upward ? Aside from banking sharply it doesn't make any sense.
Even if the Greenland coast warms up, it's still a barren rock with a minimal layer of fertile material on top. It won't support a very high agricultural productivity.
Think that the last ice age was only 20,000 years or so ago so there is an overall warming trend.
No, the "back to normal" effect from the last ice age ended about 8000 years ago. The warm interglacial peaks are actually very short, as can be seen in this temperature graph:
Your pot plants also need nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Unless you take measures to add those things (and a few more), they'll slowly deplete the soil and die.
I tried it last year, but I noticed some problems in getting my web and mail server to work properly, so I went back to IPv4. The problem with IPv6 is that there's no benefit to switching, only more trouble, so what's the point ? This isn't going to change anytime soon.
The very last thing anyone wants is ISP level NAT
They will have to anyway. The IPv6-only customers still want access to IPV4-only servers. This means there's no benefit to upgrade those servers to IPv6.
Yes, it's Google's fault for not filtering it. Other Usenet providers already do that, and if I read Usenet through them, I rarely see spam. I'm sure Google has all the spam filtering technology, so it's not really that hard for them to add it to groups.
If I destroy equipment NOT only do I have to pay for the destruction but for the write-off for the equipment.
The TFA mentions the sum of 400k GBP only for the destruction of the data. I would expect the equipment write-off to be a separate sum, probably bigger.
Paperwork is all routine and doesn't actually cost all that much. The actual physical work is done by minimum wage employees after some basic training.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know. In Hollywood movies, they always seem to be very good at manipulating photos by hammering at the keyboard.
The human harvesting of geothermal energy is totally insignificant compared to natural cooling over the entire surface of the earth.
That's not a very convincing argument. The fact that some of the predictions were premature doesn't mean they're inherently invalid.
Realistically, none of the proposed alternatives can scale up in time to replace falling oil production.
Even though the main dish is fixed, the receiver still can be aimed within 20 degrees of zenith, resulting in a fairly decent amount of stars it can be aimed at.
Unless our civilization crashes before that. Given the fact we're quickly running out of oil, that scenario seems more likely.
It's not that easy. Radio/TV transmissions leaking into space are very weak. There could be an alien civilization at 10 light years from us, and we could aim our arecibo dish straight at them, without picking up anything. Our only hope is that they'll point a very powerful transmitter straight in our direction, at exactly the same time as we point our most sensitive receiver in their direction. The chances of this happening are astronomically small.
And of course, most suitable alien planets are much further away, reducing the chances even more.
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/astronomy/faq/part6/section-12.html
Instead of 'overkill' you can say 'really powerful', because there is no downside to this 'overkill'. And yes, given the choice between two architectures, I'll take the really powerful one. ARMs are cheap (less than $2 for the cheapest Cortex in low quantities), low power, small size, and have a ton of peripherals. It will let you run high speed USB and 100 Mbps ethernet without a problem.
Many people keep doing what they are used to. If a student buys an Arduino as a hobby, there's a good chance that the same person, some years later, will design something based on the same AVR architecture that will end up in a larger volume product.
The 8051 is an ancient piece of crap and it needs to die. Do yourself a favor and get an ARM instead.
and all of the good stuff one gets with an 8051
LOL
The transition to internet as television will be made at the same time. The providers don't care about peer to peer connectivity.
True, but for calibration purposes it's not really suitable. You'll need a constant volume, constant temperature and a controlled purity of the water. It's hard to do that with sufficient precision.
How do pilots manage to see the ground during landing inside a cockpit that opens facing upward ? Aside from banking sharply it doesn't make any sense.
Even if the Greenland coast warms up, it's still a barren rock with a minimal layer of fertile material on top. It won't support a very high agricultural productivity.
We'll get access to more viking camps that are buried by ice and snow
The viking camps are near the coast, and they haven't been buried by ice and snow.
Here's a famous settlement. Note how it's still green.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=61.152222,-45.515&spn=0.1,0.1&t=h&q=61.152222,-45.515
No, the "back to normal" effect from the last ice age ended about 8000 years ago. The warm interglacial peaks are actually very short, as can be seen in this temperature graph:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Vostok_Petit_data.svg/800px-Vostok_Petit_data.svg.png
And the last 12000 years close up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holocene_Temperature_Variations.png
Your pot plants also need nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Unless you take measures to add those things (and a few more), they'll slowly deplete the soil and die.
If there's a profit in this, the oil companies would just buy the technology and use it themselves.
When they finally open the capsule, and find they're still on earth.
What's the benefit to them ? As long as 99.9% of the customers can still access their site by IPv4, there's no incentive.
I tried it last year, but I noticed some problems in getting my web and mail server to work properly, so I went back to IPv4. The problem with IPv6 is that there's no benefit to switching, only more trouble, so what's the point ? This isn't going to change anytime soon.
They will have to anyway. The IPv6-only customers still want access to IPV4-only servers. This means there's no benefit to upgrade those servers to IPv6.
Yes, it's Google's fault for not filtering it. Other Usenet providers already do that, and if I read Usenet through them, I rarely see spam. I'm sure Google has all the spam filtering technology, so it's not really that hard for them to add it to groups.
They should also take a look at the Google groups interface to Usenet. It's nothing but spam.
Nah, somebody bidding less than 400k would be considered unreliable.
The TFA mentions the sum of 400k GBP only for the destruction of the data. I would expect the equipment write-off to be a separate sum, probably bigger.
Paperwork is all routine and doesn't actually cost all that much. The actual physical work is done by minimum wage employees after some basic training.