> Now the thing is, when you're doing something like this, why would anyone even consider "Bob's Discount Lasik > -- Buy one Eye, Get one Free!" Or going to Thailand to have lasik done?
Sounds like free laser eye surgery, but there's a Viagra ad etched in so you see it everywhere you look.
"Ok, 3D game engine. Model and load my town. Make it multiplayer. Compile it for every operating system that ever existed. Begin sales. Wake me up when we've made 10 million bucks."
Not to mention how silly this article is to anyone who has even a vague idea of how cell phones work. But then a lot of people think using a cordless phone presents the same risk of a lightning strike as talking on a land line during a storm.
Exactly. Not to mention the doppler shift of any lower angle passes. If you have a really good 10 minute pass directly overhead, you'll only be able to see the signal at 145.990mhz for 4-6 minutes of that pass. And only a fraction of that will be any good because of reasons we've already mentioned. So if it's not a good, overhead pass, you'll be hard pressed to get anything at all. You can, of course, adjust for doppler shift but that's a whole trip in itself.
Yeah, the distance is kind of a relative thing. Indeed, 200 miles is a much easier contact from space to earth than between two points on the surface of the earth on VHF (especially using a half watt, the dome light on your car is probably more than that). The orbit is fairly predictable for now, but gets worse as more time elapses and can still be a significant source of error. People are picking it up, but it's hit and miss. I guess I'm just saying that it's a little trickier than what people were initially lead to believe, and that it's not a total failure just yet.
Now they've made it sound like anyone with a cheap receiver and a rubber duck antenna will be able to easily pick up this thing's signal full quieting from their basement. Keep in mind we don't know where it is other than "space" (which is rather far away from anyone on earth), it's transmitting at a low wattage, and it's impossible to predict the polarization of its antenna. Give it some time, set your SSTV software up to wait all day for a signal, and try an eggbeater antenna. It's still up there and it's apparently still transmitting.
"Hey, I bet you can't get your fingerprint to stay on this piece of clay!"
I guess a lot of people would fall for that. If not, you could go ahead and add assault to the charges by knocking them out. Or better yet, you could just offer them a candy bar in exchange for their fingerprint.
I don't see what all the whining is about. 5wpm isn't a big deal. So what if you never use it? I never use any of the ancient programming languages they made me learn. CW has its merits, it's fun, it's simple, it's rewarding, it doesn't require a computer (which is nice when the power is out).
On the other hand, most of the people you talk to on HF anymore already don't know the code well enough to use it, so there's no really difference. Those who still want to use it will, those who don't, won't. Getting rid of the requirement won't change that. It's the combination of that and changing to regulation by bandwidth rather than mode that might lead to the death of CW.
So quit whining about being denied HF privledges because you simply don't want to learn morse code, and quit whining that your bands will be overrun by no-code n00bz because they're already there and you don't have to talk to em if you don't want to (in fact, you _can't_ talk to em if you're using CW).
From the article: "To demonstrate, Sullivan tried to pick up a water glass from a table. The first time, he dropped it. The second time, he wrapped his prosthetic fingers around it and picked it up, then set it back down."
And when I started, I thought, "If cave people could do it, it can't be that tricky." Boy was I ever wrong. It's amazing they ever got consistent results using 'primitive' equipment and techniques. You'd think that just having knowledge of modern chemistry should be enough to give me a significant edge over the ancients, but my problems are still the same as theirs. There's always something to learn.
Really? Wow! My high school science textbooks only had four elements: earth, air, fire, and water...which explains why we only used them as a unit of mass.
Good point. It's not like the books were close to the radio versions and the TV series was like neither of those. Part of story's charm is how it completely contradicts itself with each telling of each episode. I'm looking forward to the new version.
I just want grass that's engineered to only grow 2-3 inches so I don't have to mow it. Course, it'd be difficult if not impossible to do that with a monocot, and without the grass going to seed at its new max height. But then, IANA, and I'm allowed to dream.
It seems kinda funny that we've 'narrowed' the search down to about 10 billion stars. Seems like a lot until you consider the 90 billion that were ruled out.
Slashdot Mirror
> Now the thing is, when you're doing something like this, why would anyone even consider "Bob's Discount Lasik > -- Buy one Eye, Get one Free!" Or going to Thailand to have lasik done?
Sounds like free laser eye surgery, but there's a Viagra ad etched in so you see it everywhere you look.
"Ok, 3D game engine. Model and load my town. Make it multiplayer. Compile it for every operating system that ever existed. Begin sales. Wake me up when we've made 10 million bucks."
I didn't steal anyone's identity, they left it behind!
Not to mention how silly this article is to anyone who has even a vague idea of how cell phones work. But then a lot of people think using a cordless phone presents the same risk of a lightning strike as talking on a land line during a storm.
Exactly. Not to mention the doppler shift of any lower angle passes. If you have a really good 10 minute pass directly overhead, you'll only be able to see the signal at 145.990mhz for 4-6 minutes of that pass. And only a fraction of that will be any good because of reasons we've already mentioned. So if it's not a good, overhead pass, you'll be hard pressed to get anything at all. You can, of course, adjust for doppler shift but that's a whole trip in itself.
Yeah, the distance is kind of a relative thing. Indeed, 200 miles is a much easier contact from space to earth than between two points on the surface of the earth on VHF (especially using a half watt, the dome light on your car is probably more than that). The orbit is fairly predictable for now, but gets worse as more time elapses and can still be a significant source of error. People are picking it up, but it's hit and miss. I guess I'm just saying that it's a little trickier than what people were initially lead to believe, and that it's not a total failure just yet.
Now they've made it sound like anyone with a cheap receiver and a rubber duck antenna will be able to easily pick up this thing's signal full quieting from their basement. Keep in mind we don't know where it is other than "space" (which is rather far away from anyone on earth), it's transmitting at a low wattage, and it's impossible to predict the polarization of its antenna. Give it some time, set your SSTV software up to wait all day for a signal, and try an eggbeater antenna. It's still up there and it's apparently still transmitting.
"Hey, I bet you can't get your fingerprint to stay on this piece of clay!"
I guess a lot of people would fall for that. If not, you could go ahead and add assault to the charges by knocking them out. Or better yet, you could just offer them a candy bar in exchange for their fingerprint.
Can someone explain the Godzilla comparison to me?
a mundane detail!
Just when I get this one tweaked the way I want it, a new model comes out and it's time to upgrade!
So they can train more scientists, we'll still have more Elvises.
I don't see what all the whining is about. 5wpm isn't a big deal. So what if you never use it? I never use any of the ancient programming languages they made me learn. CW has its merits, it's fun, it's simple, it's rewarding, it doesn't require a computer (which is nice when the power is out).
On the other hand, most of the people you talk to on HF anymore already don't know the code well enough to use it, so there's no really difference. Those who still want to use it will, those who don't, won't. Getting rid of the requirement won't change that. It's the combination of that and changing to regulation by bandwidth rather than mode that might lead to the death of CW.
So quit whining about being denied HF privledges because you simply don't want to learn morse code, and quit whining that your bands will be overrun by no-code n00bz because they're already there and you don't have to talk to em if you don't want to (in fact, you _can't_ talk to em if you're using CW).
From the article:
... "Groovy"
"To demonstrate, Sullivan tried to pick up a water glass from a table. The first time, he dropped it. The second time, he wrapped his prosthetic fingers around it and picked it up, then set it back down."
zzzt ZZZZt Zzzzt *crunch*
42
And when I started, I thought, "If cave people could do it, it can't be that tricky." Boy was I ever wrong. It's amazing they ever got consistent results using 'primitive' equipment and techniques. You'd think that just having knowledge of modern chemistry should be enough to give me a significant edge over the ancients, but my problems are still the same as theirs. There's always something to learn.
Really? Wow! My high school science textbooks only had four elements: earth, air, fire, and water...which explains why we only used them as a unit of mass.
Good point. It's not like the books were close to the radio versions and the TV series was like neither of those. Part of story's charm is how it completely contradicts itself with each telling of each episode. I'm looking forward to the new version.
You could record the dance with an 88 cent video tape.
I just want grass that's engineered to only grow 2-3 inches so I don't have to mow it. Course, it'd be difficult if not impossible to do that with a monocot, and without the grass going to seed at its new max height. But then, IANA, and I'm allowed to dream.
Yeah, really. It could make the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!
No, you just need a silly helmet. It seems to work for Magnito.
Muscles make up a pretty big part of all the fast food menus here in the US.
It seems kinda funny that we've 'narrowed' the search down to about 10 billion stars. Seems like a lot until you consider the 90 billion that were ruled out.
They do, the spell checker doesn't.