As someone who works in space flight hardware, I will state what I think is obvious to most slashdotters:
First, "works with space flight hardware" != "works with the ISS's COTS based network". Second, what is 'obvious to everyone' is frequently wrong.
These are not just "consumer grade electronics." True, they were based heavily or solely on an existing consumer product, but they have to meet a very stringent set of requirements to operate in space.
First off, don't be coming here and making false claims of authority - and then getting it wrong. Second off, RTFA.
These are existing consumer grade products. Sure, they're individually screened and tested and have some modifications to their fans and ventilation - but beyond that, they're absolutely identical to what you or I can get off the shelf. (Add one of those aftermarket lap desks with extra ventilation and you have something almost exactly like what flies.) So says not only TFA, but the guys in the Shuttle and ISS program I occasionally correspond with.
As I've long predicted, when real money starts being placed on the line - that what the alt.space community calls the 'mammals' (almost hobbyist level startups) will start behaving like the 'dinosaurs' (traditional aerospace companies).
A very interesting Rubicon has been crossed by the nascent 'small space' industry, even if they don't realize all the implications of it yet.
Wow, so in 10 years Armadillo went from a rocket club with a bunch of guys launching hobby motors in fields to building moon landers?
More accurately "to building self guided rocket powered models capable of vertical take off and landing". The craft couldn't survive the boost to orbit, let alone the extreme environment of the Earth-Moon cruise, let alone the extreme environment of the landing phase and the lunar surface.
Homebrew liquid fueled engines and homebrew control systems are kinda impressive hobbyist accomplishments... (With the ubiquity of compact computing, the impressiveness of the latter has dropped off considerably in my estimation.) But they're still a very, very long way from anything even remotely resembling an experimental prototype lunar lander.
Most of the folks who participated don't know who prevailed in the end - nor do they even care. The whole thing was much less about freedom than in being seen as being in favor of the current fashionable cause and participating in the latest internet meme de jour.
If I had to put money on an existing organized network, my money would be on geocachers - they own GPSr's (which is an obvious prerequisite), they have a high degree of intercommunication on the national level, are habituated to cooperation in pursuit of a goal, and they have a web of trust already built... Plus they are used to individuals creating and leading spontaneous group projects.
Charitable organizations like the Salvation Army simply can't react fast enough, especially at this time of year when they are swamped with preparations for the holidays.
Microsoft is getting too big and is starting to develop the endemic characteristics of all corporations that grow too large. Bureaucracy is growing. Innovation and individual initiative are dying. Honesty is dying. Agility is dying.
Microsoft is not, yet, populated by Thralls, there are still some amazing, even truly innovative things coming out of Microsoft and they are, to this day, still making good, positive changes toward improving the health of the company (embracing open source, for example). But all of these good things are the byproducts of the sorts of individuals, groups, and processes that will eventually be choked off by Microsoft's increasingly stultifying business culture.
The funny thing is, people have been emphatically saying this for a decade now, and somehow Microsoft stubbornly manages to not only to refuse to die - but to continues to grow.
Microsoft would be much better off if it were split into multiple smaller companies. Many parts of Microsoft would be stand-alone profitable (operating systems, office, xbox, developer tools, etc.) For many parts of Microsoft that are unprofitable the cost of having to pay the Microsoft strategy tax is far worse than would being forced to sink or swim in the wild. Indeed, many parts of Microsoft would be far better off if they were forced to prove their viability of their product in the market sooner rather than later.
That sounds more like a heaping helping of the same wishful thinking quoted above.
Which can also be read the other way 'round - Jobs is a very slick salesman well tuned to riding the waves of technology, trends, and taste. He's not really different from his competitors, he just has better PR and enough dedicated followers who'll, by being early and enthusiastic adopters, make him look like a genius.
But the data they will get will be biased to a tiny subset of commuters (fuel-gaugers), not a heterogeneous cross section.
That represents an assumption, not a fact. Somebody who presumes to lecture another on science should be able to tell the difference between the two. Furthermore, someone who knows anything about data analysis should know that this type of driving will stick out like a statistical sore thumb when the data is analyzed.
You sound like the type of twit that never learned math and is sure that his calculator is always correct. Science needs common sense to question stupid results.
You talk about science, but make basic errors and indulge in personal insults. That tells me all I need to know about you.
Except the Obama White House is also declaring themselves above the law - by insisting the suit be thrown out based on secret evidence rather than in open court.
If you read the article, it does not say that.
If you read the article is says exactly that.
Holder said U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who is handling the case, was given a classified description of why the case must be dismissed so that the court can "conduct its own independent assessment of our claim."
Not to mention that he assessment can't possible be independent - because it is based on evidence presented only by the respondent without the opportunity for the plaintiff to examine and refute it.
My bet is this won't be won by a truly spontaneous group - the noise level and odds of betrayal are too high. You need a group that is a) national in scope, b) owns a GPS, c) is already reasonably organized and possesses a web of trust, and d) already has an existing communications network.
All of these somehow involve or inform the general public--not exactly par for the course given DARPA activities historically have been kept very much under wraps.
Just because something isn't/wasn't widely known by the general public doesn't mean it is/was 'under wraps'. DARPA projects have been widely (and openly) discussed, for example, by those interested in space access and space travel for decades. DARPA projects have been featured for discussion here on Slashdot since about Day One. (Or at least since I started hanging about here in 2000 or so.)
I'm guessing DARPA doesn't care about that. That's why they've got $40k on the line- not to promote communication, but to promote disinformation. They don't want to know who can build a network with modern technology, they want to know how people will build a network of trust when there's a serious incentive for betrayal.
Betrayal is also a function of who makes up the ad hoc network, that is whether it is truly spontaneous and ad hoc among the general population or whether it arises within an existing network. My bet is that if the prize is won at all, it will be within a network that already exists. The general population is too diffuse and unorganized to gather all the data and organize and filter it.
Therefore you can examine various groups and their characteristics and determine the odds of betrayal. For example, if the B-tards decide to go after the prize, the odds of betrayal are essentially unity. (But their self generated noise level would probably prevent them from winning.) If the Boy Scouts decide to do so, the odds of betrayal go way down. (Bit I don't know if the Boy Scouts have the reasonably centralized and connected communications network need to make this work.)
They provided the judge with the specifics, and let him decide. If the Bush White House had done that, rather than declare themselves above the law, we wouldn't be so jaded about executive privilege today.
Except the Obama White House is also declaring themselves above the law - by insisting the suit be thrown out based on secret evidence rather than in open court.
Of course, someone who bothered to read the article would know the sample is biased by design. They're examining the design of a commuter car, so the data they seek is biased towards commuters.
The data they collect will say regenerative braking is pointless, but the common-knowledge data will say that regenerative braking is the bee's knees.
So data that runs counter to 'what everyone knows' is pointless? It seems the rejection of science that so many characterize as being typical of America has at last come to Slashdot.
The link you designed was then machined out of aluminum by a machinist. It was put in a testing machine and placed under the specified load. If the link broke, you failed the course.
Took a school like that in the Navy, six weeks on the mechanics of a disk drive. (The size of a footlocker, with hydraulic, mechanical, electromagnetic, and optical components. It held an amazing 10meg (not shabby for a 1964 era drive) and was built like a friggin' tank.) For the final exam you walked in and the whole damn thing was dismantled and spread out on 3-4 tables...
You had two days to put it back together and perform all the alignments - then it was plugged into it's electronics and the 'self test' button was pushed. If it passed, you did. If it didn't, you didn't - and got to repeat the entire school.
Don't even ask about the school on the drive electronics. Nearly a quarter of a century later I still have nightmares about that school.
I'm guessing that either you lack reading comprehension or have some kind of a hobby horse, because your reply had zip point shit to do with my comment.
Sure, because oil will just keep coming...right?
Did I say that? No, I did not.
The Europeans get this, they have Electricity Feed laws that make it cost effective to generate and sell electricity to the grid using wind. In a lot of cases the wind turbines belong to a cooperative that invests in the turbine(s) to make money and to make a difference. This only works with legislation.
In other words, it's not cost effective without government intervention. In which case it should be allowed to die. All the government should do is set the regulatory environment such that it's possible for wind power to be delivered to the consumer, and then get the hell out of the way.
This isn't just a business issue, it's a survival issue.
No, it's a business issue. Let the market decide which form of alternate energy is preferable, not government bureaucrats deciding which utility gets my tax money.
Here's a news flash: some substantial portion of the US wasn't born with silver spoons in their mouth. Their parents don't have enough money to send them to college, and in the absence of "government bailouts", it's all but impossible to afford to go on your own.
Yet I know over a dozen people born without said silver spoon, who found a way to go to college anyhow.
How are people in this situation supposed to just make sure there in the top 10%?
You get off your ass and work and study. If that means 18 hour days and no weekends, and living without the latest game or phone or other status symbol - so be it. America promises opportunity, not iPods.
To say nothing of the fact that the top 10% is, well 10%. So you're perfectly ok with the idea that 90% of the population is going to spiral into poverty. Nice.
That seems to be pretty much the way it's always been - it's only in the last forty odd years that people have gotten this strange idea that everyone can have everything they want and nobody has to be cold, or hungry, or poor, or even exert themselves to change their own lives.
Deregulation of the utilities and the lack of Government incentives has killed this industry, not foreign competition
If the industry can't survive without government intervention - then it should be allowed to die. Isn't that the Slashdot mantra?
Whether it's GM, Amalgamated Buggy Whips, or GE's wind power division - if they want to make money from it, let 'em do on their dime not on that of the taxpayer.
Apparently you don't know how a turbine or windmill works. See there is this thing called a turbine. It's basically a bunch of magnets and a big spool of copper where the spool of copper wire is wrapped around a drive shaft. As the drive shaft spins the copper wire turns within the magnetic field generated by the magnets generating electricity (alternatively you can construct the system with the magnets on the shaft and the wire spools around the shaft). This drive shaft, magnets and spool are all housed in an iron housing to contain the magnetic field. This enclosed system is called a TURBINE.
Actually, yes I do know how a turbine or windmill works... (Hint: What you describe above isn't a turbine.)
Now don't you feel like an idiot?
No, I don't feel like an idiot at all. Because I know the difference between a generator and a turbine.
Before you call other people idiots, you just might check your facts.
This isn't surprising, or even useful. The folks who ordered the book and have written reviews in the 48 odd hours since they would have released are predisposed to like it.
Not to mention they're likely punch drunk from having stayed up two nights running in order to finish this doorstop.
Slashdot Mirror
First, "works with space flight hardware" != "works with the ISS's COTS based network". Second, what is 'obvious to everyone' is frequently wrong.
First off, don't be coming here and making false claims of authority - and then getting it wrong. Second off, RTFA.
These are existing consumer grade products. Sure, they're individually screened and tested and have some modifications to their fans and ventilation - but beyond that, they're absolutely identical to what you or I can get off the shelf. (Add one of those aftermarket lap desks with extra ventilation and you have something almost exactly like what flies.) So says not only TFA, but the guys in the Shuttle and ISS program I occasionally correspond with.
It's very sad, with the real high tech shit aboard the ISS, that consumer grade electronics are featured as 'the tech of ISS'.
As I've long predicted, when real money starts being placed on the line - that what the alt.space community calls the 'mammals' (almost hobbyist level startups) will start behaving like the 'dinosaurs' (traditional aerospace companies).
A very interesting Rubicon has been crossed by the nascent 'small space' industry, even if they don't realize all the implications of it yet.
More accurately "to building self guided rocket powered models capable of vertical take off and landing". The craft couldn't survive the boost to orbit, let alone the extreme environment of the Earth-Moon cruise, let alone the extreme environment of the landing phase and the lunar surface.
Homebrew liquid fueled engines and homebrew control systems are kinda impressive hobbyist accomplishments... (With the ubiquity of compact computing, the impressiveness of the latter has dropped off considerably in my estimation.) But they're still a very, very long way from anything even remotely resembling an experimental prototype lunar lander.
Most of the folks who participated don't know who prevailed in the end - nor do they even care. The whole thing was much less about freedom than in being seen as being in favor of the current fashionable cause and participating in the latest internet meme de jour.
Nothing other than it's one of Slashdot's favorite boogiemen and thus a good way to get excellent karma.
If I had to put money on an existing organized network, my money would be on geocachers - they own GPSr's (which is an obvious prerequisite), they have a high degree of intercommunication on the national level, are habituated to cooperation in pursuit of a goal, and they have a web of trust already built... Plus they are used to individuals creating and leading spontaneous group projects.
Charitable organizations like the Salvation Army simply can't react fast enough, especially at this time of year when they are swamped with preparations for the holidays.
The funny thing is, people have been emphatically saying this for a decade now, and somehow Microsoft stubbornly manages to not only to refuse to die - but to continues to grow.
That sounds more like a heaping helping of the same wishful thinking quoted above.
Which can also be read the other way 'round - Jobs is a very slick salesman well tuned to riding the waves of technology, trends, and taste. He's not really different from his competitors, he just has better PR and enough dedicated followers who'll, by being early and enthusiastic adopters, make him look like a genius.
That represents an assumption, not a fact. Somebody who presumes to lecture another on science should be able to tell the difference between the two. Furthermore, someone who knows anything about data analysis should know that this type of driving will stick out like a statistical sore thumb when the data is analyzed.
You talk about science, but make basic errors and indulge in personal insults. That tells me all I need to know about you.
If you read the article is says exactly that.
Holder said U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who is handling the case, was given a classified description of why the case must be dismissed so that the court can "conduct its own independent assessment of our claim."
Not to mention that he assessment can't possible be independent - because it is based on evidence presented only by the respondent without the opportunity for the plaintiff to examine and refute it.
My bet is this won't be won by a truly spontaneous group - the noise level and odds of betrayal are too high. You need a group that is a) national in scope, b) owns a GPS, c) is already reasonably organized and possesses a web of trust, and d) already has an existing communications network.
My money is on geocachers.
Just because something isn't/wasn't widely known by the general public doesn't mean it is/was 'under wraps'. DARPA projects have been widely (and openly) discussed, for example, by those interested in space access and space travel for decades. DARPA projects have been featured for discussion here on Slashdot since about Day One. (Or at least since I started hanging about here in 2000 or so.)
Betrayal is also a function of who makes up the ad hoc network, that is whether it is truly spontaneous and ad hoc among the general population or whether it arises within an existing network. My bet is that if the prize is won at all, it will be within a network that already exists. The general population is too diffuse and unorganized to gather all the data and organize and filter it.
Therefore you can examine various groups and their characteristics and determine the odds of betrayal. For example, if the B-tards decide to go after the prize, the odds of betrayal are essentially unity. (But their self generated noise level would probably prevent them from winning.) If the Boy Scouts decide to do so, the odds of betrayal go way down. (Bit I don't know if the Boy Scouts have the reasonably centralized and connected communications network need to make this work.)
It's the same theory that " America's Most Wanted " has operated on for twenty years now. At least for them, it seems to work quite well.
Except the Obama White House is also declaring themselves above the law - by insisting the suit be thrown out based on secret evidence rather than in open court.
Of course, someone who bothered to read the article would know the sample is biased by design. They're examining the design of a commuter car, so the data they seek is biased towards commuters.
Duh.
Not all 'biased' data is bad.
So data that runs counter to 'what everyone knows' is pointless? It seems the rejection of science that so many characterize as being typical of America has at last come to Slashdot.
Took a school like that in the Navy, six weeks on the mechanics of a disk drive. (The size of a footlocker, with hydraulic, mechanical, electromagnetic, and optical components. It held an amazing 10meg (not shabby for a 1964 era drive) and was built like a friggin' tank.) For the final exam you walked in and the whole damn thing was dismantled and spread out on 3-4 tables...
You had two days to put it back together and perform all the alignments - then it was plugged into it's electronics and the 'self test' button was pushed. If it passed, you did. If it didn't, you didn't - and got to repeat the entire school.
Don't even ask about the school on the drive electronics. Nearly a quarter of a century later I still have nightmares about that school.
I'm guessing that either you lack reading comprehension or have some kind of a hobby horse, because your reply had zip point shit to do with my comment.
Did I say that? No, I did not.
In other words, it's not cost effective without government intervention. In which case it should be allowed to die. All the government should do is set the regulatory environment such that it's possible for wind power to be delivered to the consumer, and then get the hell out of the way.
No, it's a business issue. Let the market decide which form of alternate energy is preferable, not government bureaucrats deciding which utility gets my tax money.
Yet I know over a dozen people born without said silver spoon, who found a way to go to college anyhow.
You get off your ass and work and study. If that means 18 hour days and no weekends, and living without the latest game or phone or other status symbol - so be it. America promises opportunity, not iPods.
That seems to be pretty much the way it's always been - it's only in the last forty odd years that people have gotten this strange idea that everyone can have everything they want and nobody has to be cold, or hungry, or poor, or even exert themselves to change their own lives.
If the industry can't survive without government intervention - then it should be allowed to die. Isn't that the Slashdot mantra?
Whether it's GM, Amalgamated Buggy Whips, or GE's wind power division - if they want to make money from it, let 'em do on their dime not on that of the taxpayer.
Actually, yes I do know how a turbine or windmill works... (Hint: What you describe above isn't a turbine.)
No, I don't feel like an idiot at all. Because I know the difference between a generator and a turbine.
Before you call other people idiots, you just might check your facts.
There's a reason why, along with Duke Nukem, this series is considered iconic - but in neither case is it complimentary.
This isn't surprising, or even useful. The folks who ordered the book and have written reviews in the 48 odd hours since they would have released are predisposed to like it.
Not to mention they're likely punch drunk from having stayed up two nights running in order to finish this doorstop.