Well, we had it tough. We used to have to scratch our notes on a dyspeptic mastadon with a burnt stick. And just when you'd get finished, the mastadon would run for the swamp. If you didn't catch him in time, the carbon would wash off of his fur, and if you did catch him, he'd gore you with his tusks. Slate! We used to dream of slate.
Um, given that this took a look at the history of the PDA, shouldn't they have at least mentioned the Apple Newton? I know it's been dead for a while, but Apple worked out a lot of the issues that Palm et al could build on later.
Ah well, nevermind. Maybe I'll just swing over to one of those auction sites all the kids talk about and look under computer->fogey for any Newtons for sale.
Also sprach alteridem: What a great way to bring up kids. Send them out to play in their spacesuits. Kids being kids will probably fall over and crack their visors all the time. "Oops, Billy just fell over and killed himself Honey. That is the second child this month!"
Okay, it's been a few years since I got my astronomy degree, and you probably don't want me to drag in all sorts of things like torque, moment of inertia, centripital acceleration, etc, but...
The planets all orbit the sun within two degrees of a plane, excepting Mercury and Pluto. This means that, when you launch a probe to another planet, you should launch it in the same plane. Launching something perpendicular to the plane of the solar system requires a tremendous amount of energy, since you are eliminating all the momentum that the probe initially has by riding along with the Earth, then building that momentum back in another direction. By launching in the plane, you only need to add to/subtract from the given momentum in one direction, not completely cancel it out while building up a similar amount in a perpendicular direction. It's the difference between, say, using.25x fuel and 2x fuel. (It's actually a bit more complicated than this, but I'm trying to keep things at a high level.)
Now, once you arrive at Mars, coming in along the plane that the planets orbit along, your momentum is entirely in that plane. To get into orbit, you need to lose energy/momentum so the planet can capture you, so you fire reverse rockets (at strength N for time T) and let gravity take over. Since Mars rotates about 20-25 degrees to the plane of its orbit around the sun, your orbit around Mars will put you inclined about 20-25 degrees. In other words, you'll always be orbitting the equatorial regions.
Now, let's say you want to go into a polar orbit. Remember what I said about launching a probe perpendicular to the orbital plane? Not only do you have to decrease your momentum so Mars can capture you, you need to completely cancel out that momentum in the orbital plane while building up momentum perpendicular to it. In other words, you need a lot more energy to go to polar orbit. Staying in a near-equatorial orbit is far easier and far, far cheaper.
Thus the comment that the ice being within 30 degrees of the equator makes it far more accessible and far cheaper.
(Boy, I'm glad to see that my degree FINALLY became useful at SOME level.)
We live on a water based planet and have a water based economy.. this was not necessarily clear when water was plentiful enuf to be free, but now as it becomes scarce we see how much of our society is undergirded by it.
Scarce? Water is becoming scarce? Explain that to my friend whose sump pump quit working while he was on vacation.
I sometimes think that the reason that many environmentalists get their knickers in a twist over water is that many of them live out west where water is scarce. Here in the Midwest we have the opposite problem, which is why we have to build levees, reservoirs (to hold the excess), etc. People tend to project their own local experiences when the "think globally", and this is not meant as a flame, merely a datum. I admit that I do this as well.
On the other hand, if they asked for people to send in money so they could send NStynch and the Backdoor Boys to Mars, sans life support, you'd see parents and older siblings reach straight for their wallets/purses.
Re:If We Humans Are So Smart...
on
Optical SETI
·
· Score: 1
Well, a couple things. First, the Sun is a G3 V star, and a fairly inactive one at that. (This is a good thing, BTW, because around an active star, you get lots of intense flares and other activity that would make life, if not impossible, no fun.) Thus good ol' Sol emits very little in the radio part of the spectrum. Thus, it doesn't take much radio emission for Sol to stand out in the kind of cross-spectrum mapping that astronomy has been doing for a long time. So any radio telescope within 100 LY of us will see our system as odd... "A G3 main sequence star putting out that kind of radio emission? Let's write a proposal to get the funds to look closer."
There are three strong source of radio emission in our solar system. The sun, of course, plus Jupiter and Earth. The sun's is typical of the emission in a quiet star. Jupiter's is what you would expect from a planet with an intense electromagnetic field, and it's Doppler shift has a periodicity of 5.2 years. Earth's emission is largely from mankind's technology and would show a Doppler shift of 1.0 years (of course).
As long as there is enough radio and tv transmission, the signals can be picked up. That they can't decode it won't mean a lot, that it can be detected as a radio spectrum that can't be explained by natural phenomena will make it worth a look-see.
1) Nothing in the US is as big, powerful, or monopolistic as the nation's largest employer, the US government.
2) They'll all be selling out to Disney, Sony, and/or MicroSoft.
3) This thing has been going on for well over a century. In fact, of the original business in the Dow Jones index, only one is still there: GE. The rest have been bought out, gone under, etc. This in no way guarantees success.
4) It may make the odds stiffer, but it certainly doesn't prevent a new company rising in a new niche in the ever-changing business environment. Who, twenty-five years ago, had heard of Cisco, Microsoft, Apple, RIM, Palm, Swatch, Eddie Bauer, etc etc etc? Corporate congolomerates, by their nature, are inefficient and have a lot of inertia. This inertia leads to opportunities for smaller, more nimble players.
5) Given the choice of buyout by an American firm or an overseas firm, I'd prefer the American firm. Call me protectionist, jingoistic, xenophobic, etc, but I'm looking at it from a strictly economic viewpoint. I'd rather see that capital generated in my country stay in my country.
Africa has food. During the Ethiopean famine in the early 80s, food production in that country fell 11% in Zambia it fell 37% and there was no famine because the government got out of the way of people who brought in food from the outside. In Ethiopia, the government didn't mind if that troublesome group over there starved, so...
Africa has food. What it needs are politicians who understand and agree with Adam Smith. (Then again, so does Massechusetts.)
Why would the government look for life on Mars? Why, so the IRS could tax it, of course! (They're doing it for the kids, really.)
Though I agree about silicon-based life. Carbon is far more common in our galaxy and solar system. Carbon is more chemically active, ie more likely to bond with hydrogen, oxygen, etc. (I know there's a term for that and I can't think of it for the life of me.) Also, carbon-carbon bonds are tighter than silicon-silicon bonds. So while silicon-based life is possible, it's highly doubtful. Where conditions exist to make silicon-based life possible, carbon-based life will be more probable.
Back then, NASA was about space exploration. Most of the people working there were scientists, programmers, engineers, data archivists, etc.
Nowadays, most of the people at NASA are bureaucrats. Thus they add expense without expertise, knowledge, or usefulness.
...
Okay, that was a cheap shot and was unfair. The cumbersome, vapid bureaucracy is only one of the problems, but it's a big one. By and large, one good bureaucrat can replace twenty average ones and be more effective because the one good bureaucrat knows how to get out of the way and how to shield the techies from the idiocies of other bureaucrats. This is true in business, government, education, charities, wherever. The only problem is, in government, you can't be fired for incompetence. ("The thin end of the wedge." - Yes, Prime Minister)
Personally, I'd like to see it attack the Swiss bank accounts of the limousine liberals in Congress. Sorry if this offends anyone, but their attitude of "we've made a ton of money during the evil Reagan years, now you have to be taxed" really frosts my shorts.
I think Porgy was a role that George Tirebiter had played earlier in his career: "George, do you remember all of those stupid, lovable Porgy and Mudhead movies you did?"
Man, what a great album! Now I'll have to dig out my record player and give it another listen.
JUDGE: If the prisoner doesn't answer the question we'll have to gag him.
MUDHEAD: What question?
JUDGE: Gag him!
LAWYER: Who was that lady I saw you with last night?
Actually, George LeRoy Tirebiter is the name of a character from The Firesign Theatre's classic album Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers. I've never seen it on CD, only on lp, but if you have to mortgage the house to do it, get a copy and listen to it. Repeatedly. There are things in the middle of side 1 (aka This Side) that refer to something at the end of side 2 (aka That Side).
Also sprach phillymjs: Plus a couple months in the field would expose any minor problems (a la the PB G4's "case flex shutdown" issue) that much sooner, before Apple starts really moving these things by the dozens of thousands to school districts.
Bingo. Apple had gotten its backside smacked in the education market the previous year by not releasing a new model in time for the school-buying season. They weren't about to do that again.
Go sulli! Go sulli! I'd mod your keister up if I could spare the karma! [Unfortunately I just told the truth in a Katz thread, which plays merry hell with your karma.]
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe he shouldn't have offered them all that cut-price Apple stock ...
Beowulf clusters are easier to imagine, at least amongst the /. faithful.
Sometimes a little deception can save a ton of explanation.
- Saki, "The Square Egg" (not sure that's the verbatim quote)
Well, we had it tough. We used to have to scratch our notes on a dyspeptic mastadon with a burnt stick. And just when you'd get finished, the mastadon would run for the swamp. If you didn't catch him in time, the carbon would wash off of his fur, and if you did catch him, he'd gore you with his tusks. Slate! We used to dream of slate.
Ah well, nevermind. Maybe I'll just swing over to one of those auction sites all the kids talk about and look under computer->fogey for any Newtons for sale.
What a great way to bring up kids. Send them out to play in their spacesuits. Kids being kids will probably fall over and crack their visors all the time. "Oops, Billy just fell over and killed himself Honey. That is the second child this month!"
As a bachelor I must ask "And the problem is?"
The planets all orbit the sun within two degrees of a plane, excepting Mercury and Pluto. This means that, when you launch a probe to another planet, you should launch it in the same plane. Launching something perpendicular to the plane of the solar system requires a tremendous amount of energy, since you are eliminating all the momentum that the probe initially has by riding along with the Earth, then building that momentum back in another direction. By launching in the plane, you only need to add to/subtract from the given momentum in one direction, not completely cancel it out while building up a similar amount in a perpendicular direction. It's the difference between, say, using .25x fuel and 2x fuel. (It's actually a bit more complicated than this, but I'm trying to keep things at a high level.)
Now, once you arrive at Mars, coming in along the plane that the planets orbit along, your momentum is entirely in that plane. To get into orbit, you need to lose energy/momentum so the planet can capture you, so you fire reverse rockets (at strength N for time T) and let gravity take over. Since Mars rotates about 20-25 degrees to the plane of its orbit around the sun, your orbit around Mars will put you inclined about 20-25 degrees. In other words, you'll always be orbitting the equatorial regions.
Now, let's say you want to go into a polar orbit. Remember what I said about launching a probe perpendicular to the orbital plane? Not only do you have to decrease your momentum so Mars can capture you, you need to completely cancel out that momentum in the orbital plane while building up momentum perpendicular to it. In other words, you need a lot more energy to go to polar orbit. Staying in a near-equatorial orbit is far easier and far, far cheaper.
Thus the comment that the ice being within 30 degrees of the equator makes it far more accessible and far cheaper.
(Boy, I'm glad to see that my degree FINALLY became useful at SOME level.)
We live on a water based planet and have a water based economy.. this was not necessarily clear when water was plentiful enuf to be free, but now as it becomes scarce we see how much of our society is undergirded by it.
Scarce? Water is becoming scarce? Explain that to my friend whose sump pump quit working while he was on vacation.
I sometimes think that the reason that many environmentalists get their knickers in a twist over water is that many of them live out west where water is scarce. Here in the Midwest we have the opposite problem, which is why we have to build levees, reservoirs (to hold the excess), etc. People tend to project their own local experiences when the "think globally", and this is not meant as a flame, merely a datum. I admit that I do this as well.
On the other hand, if they asked for people to send in money so they could send NStynch and the Backdoor Boys to Mars, sans life support, you'd see parents and older siblings reach straight for their wallets/purses.
They don't know Morse code.
There are three strong source of radio emission in our solar system. The sun, of course, plus Jupiter and Earth. The sun's is typical of the emission in a quiet star. Jupiter's is what you would expect from a planet with an intense electromagnetic field, and it's Doppler shift has a periodicity of 5.2 years. Earth's emission is largely from mankind's technology and would show a Doppler shift of 1.0 years (of course).
As long as there is enough radio and tv transmission, the signals can be picked up. That they can't decode it won't mean a lot, that it can be detected as a radio spectrum that can't be explained by natural phenomena will make it worth a look-see.
1) Nothing in the US is as big, powerful, or monopolistic as the nation's largest employer, the US government.
2) They'll all be selling out to Disney, Sony, and/or MicroSoft.
3) This thing has been going on for well over a century. In fact, of the original business in the Dow Jones index, only one is still there: GE. The rest have been bought out, gone under, etc. This in no way guarantees success.
4) It may make the odds stiffer, but it certainly doesn't prevent a new company rising in a new niche in the ever-changing business environment. Who, twenty-five years ago, had heard of Cisco, Microsoft, Apple, RIM, Palm, Swatch, Eddie Bauer, etc etc etc? Corporate congolomerates, by their nature, are inefficient and have a lot of inertia. This inertia leads to opportunities for smaller, more nimble players.
5) Given the choice of buyout by an American firm or an overseas firm, I'd prefer the American firm. Call me protectionist, jingoistic, xenophobic, etc, but I'm looking at it from a strictly economic viewpoint. I'd rather see that capital generated in my country stay in my country.
6) There is no point #6.
7) No pooftahs.
Africa has food. What it needs are politicians who understand and agree with Adam Smith. (Then again, so does Massechusetts.)
Though I agree about silicon-based life. Carbon is far more common in our galaxy and solar system. Carbon is more chemically active, ie more likely to bond with hydrogen, oxygen, etc. (I know there's a term for that and I can't think of it for the life of me.) Also, carbon-carbon bonds are tighter than silicon-silicon bonds. So while silicon-based life is possible, it's highly doubtful. Where conditions exist to make silicon-based life possible, carbon-based life will be more probable.
Nowadays, most of the people at NASA are bureaucrats. Thus they add expense without expertise, knowledge, or usefulness.
Okay, that was a cheap shot and was unfair. The cumbersome, vapid bureaucracy is only one of the problems, but it's a big one. By and large, one good bureaucrat can replace twenty average ones and be more effective because the one good bureaucrat knows how to get out of the way and how to shield the techies from the idiocies of other bureaucrats. This is true in business, government, education, charities, wherever. The only problem is, in government, you can't be fired for incompetence. ("The thin end of the wedge." - Yes, Prime Minister)
Hard to believe that it's already been 25 years since Leif Erickson and his Viking pals first came to North America.
Of course, they landed way up in what is now the Canadian great white north, so it is not too surprising that no signs of life were found.
Well, they did land on a Tuesday night, so finding no signs of life is no surprise.
FWIW, I worked at NASA for 2.5 years and never once did I see intelligent life there ...
Personally, I'd like to see it attack the Swiss bank accounts of the limousine liberals in Congress. Sorry if this offends anyone, but their attitude of "we've made a ton of money during the evil Reagan years, now you have to be taxed" really frosts my shorts.
Man, what a great album! Now I'll have to dig out my record player and give it another listen.
JUDGE: If the prisoner doesn't answer the question we'll have to gag him.
MUDHEAD: What question?
JUDGE: Gag him!
LAWYER: Who was that lady I saw you with last night?
Actually, George LeRoy Tirebiter is the name of a character from The Firesign Theatre's classic album Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers. I've never seen it on CD, only on lp, but if you have to mortgage the house to do it, get a copy and listen to it. Repeatedly. There are things in the middle of side 1 (aka This Side) that refer to something at the end of side 2 (aka That Side).
Yours impersonatedly,
Micheal Dell
Oh, what a giveaway!
[Name that obscure reference for one karma point.]
Plus a couple months in the field would expose any minor problems (a la the PB G4's "case flex shutdown" issue) that much sooner, before Apple starts really moving these things by the dozens of thousands to school districts.
Bingo. Apple had gotten its backside smacked in the education market the previous year by not releasing a new model in time for the school-buying season. They weren't about to do that again.
Go sulli! Go sulli! I'd mod your keister up if I could spare the karma! [Unfortunately I just told the truth in a Katz thread, which plays merry hell with your karma.]