"No problem raising funds." This is actually not true. Last time they raised funds they did so by selling bonds. Their corporate debt is rated below investment grade (in other words, they are "junk bonds."). I don't think they can easily issue new stock. That would have to be approved by the board and the shareholders.
It doesn't matter how high the stock price is. That doesn't really help them raise money in any significant way.
The battery packs do have thermometers. While I haven't seen this specific design, it is industry standard practice to incorporate negative temperature coefficient thermistors (NTC's), which allow the charger to detect battery temperature. The battery charging circuitry would definitely be designed to stop charging the battery when it is hot.
The problem is most likely caused by faulty battery components (separator), or manufacturing impurities (particles in electrolyte) or poor process (damaging separator during assembly of the battery cell).
It comes down to how we transition off fossil fuels.
With internal-combustion-only cars, there is no migration path. Whatever method of energy generation you use, it all has to end up as gasoline (or similar fuel). This is, currently, enormously wasteful for energy sources that aren't fossil-fuel based.
Actually, a lot of people run their diesel automobiles on straight vegetable oil (SVO) or pure biodiesel, both of which could conceivably be produced in a post-petroleum world.
MM
I grind 20 grams (this is a lot) of coffee beans with a hand grinder. After grinding, I put it in a gold mesh filter, which sits in a single-cup drip maker.
I heat 100 grams of milk (microwave, 35 seconds) in a huge (20 oz?) mug, and put the apparatus on top of the mug.
I pour boiling water slowly, a little at a time, into the filter until the mug is almost full. At first I add just enough water to wet all the coffee, then try to keep the water at that level with small additions of water.
Because I pour the water slowly, the milk stays at the bottom. The gold mesh lets a lot of fine coffee grounds through, and these settle. The first sip is almost like black coffee. After I drink most of the coffee, and start to taste the milk, I swirl the grounds around in the warm milk at the bottom and drink the last gulp, grounds and all. Mmmmm.
The beans get old in about a week, but they still taste pretty good for up to a month or two, when stored at room temperature. (Never freeze or refrigerate beans, in my opinion.)
I buy Peet's French. Yeah, it is really dark, yeah, it's a blend, but I can easily taste the difference between Peet's French and an equally dark roasted coffee purchased elsewhere, so I believe that Peet's really is better. Some people say it's too dark and you can't taste the real bean flavor because of it. Whatever. I like it.
Dolphins and porpoises don't swim alongside boats, per se. They swim in the bow wave. Presumably they do this because they can get a free ride due to the physics of bow-wave formation. That is, with minimal effort, they can travel at the same speed as the boat. This is similar to birds (or gliders) staying aloft for long stretches of time by keeping themselves in the lift near a sea cliff.
With the dolphins, sometimes there are a bunch hovering around beside the boat because they can't all fit in the bow wave, but they seem to be just biding their time. Taking turns or whatever.
MM
PS, the level of intelligence of, for example, killer-whales in the wild is legendary. I realize that intelligence is hard to define, but for my money, dolphins and porpoises have it, and fish don't.
But I'm not sure where you are getting the 10 cents per gallon from. I didn't read the entire site, but I did browse through it and I didn't see a cost estimate.
Is that based on getting used cooking oil for free from a restaraunt or fast-food joint?
You might not be able to "test out" jobs, but you can always just call or email somebody in the industry and set up an informational interview. You would then go to lunch with the person, and just talk about the profession, what it takes to get in, and what the work is like.
It is best if you call a friend of a friend or whatever, but you can just cold-call, too.
The paragraph before the one you quoted said that the equipment should be powered off of a generator in a separate building and that the generator would be powered by pedigreed shetland ponies.
That is still more expensive than LTO. For people who do serious archiving, the media price difference will dominate the total cost. For example, imagine if you backup 100 GB per day, and keep the tapes for a year or something.
Also, according to the estimates I have read, tape is much more durable than hard-disks, especially when you buy the cheapest hard-drives you can find.
Finally, I change tapes every day, but I can't be rebooting the file server every time I do it. I am not aware of any 200 GB drive that costs $90 and can be hot-swapped. If you are, please provide details.
Well, we're a small company. I'm not really an IT guy, but I'm the closest thing we've got. I verify after every backup, and I have done a couple of restores to see how it worked. There weren't any problems with those restores.
In honesty, I've done enough due diligence that I wouldn't lose my job if we couldn't restore after a disaster. But the pain level for the whole company would be enormous, and that is a good enough reason to not want to see it happen.
Still, I think you are right. I should do a simulated disaster recovery and see how it goes.
If you (i.e., anyone) really needs to archive large ammounts of data, there is only one viable solution: tape.
The price per gigabyte of tape is much lower than hard disks. The large capacity drives are expensive, but in the long run, the higher media cost for hard drives will be even more expensive.
What do you mean LTO tapes are expensive? They are 40 bucks for 100 GB. I call that cheap.
The LTO drives are expensive, though.
Where I work, we use LTO every day to back up our RAID. The tapes seem to work fine.
So far we haven't had to restore from tape, but there is considerable error-checking and logging in the backup process, so I know everything is going along smoothly.
He probably switched because of the license. Think about it. If you were making network gear with a unix-like kernel in it, wouldn't it be easier to not have to deal with the GPL?
I see that the gliders are called "Spray," and "Slocum."
The people behind this project are obviously big fans of Joshua Slocum and his voyage aboard the Spray.
For those of you who don't know, around the end of the 19th century, Slocum, a lifelong mariner who found himself without a ship to command, rebuilt the derelict hull of a 30-foot fishing sailboat, christened her "Spray," and sailed her around the world alone.
He wrote a book about it called, strangely enough, "Sailing Alone Around the World." The book came out long enough ago that it has now passed into the public domain and can be read online in its entirety at, among other places:
"I had taken little advice from anyone, for I had a right to my own opinions in matters pertaining to the sea."
Later, Bernard Moitessier, a sort of French sailing hero (though he grew up in Indochina) sailed around alone, too. He had several boats throughout his life, and made many voyages. He named one of his boats "Joshua" after Joshua Slocum.
Moitessier wrote several books, all of which were translated into English.
But I agree that Ramanujan was a phenomenon. He was so completely different from any of his contemporary mathematicians that there is really no comparison.
He was discovered by the west when he sent a manuscript to Hardy, a famous English mathematician. Hardy almost discarded it, since much of it was stuff he had seen before (though Ramanujan had rediscovered it independently), but it also contained 120 thereoms no one but Ramanujan had ever seen before.
Later, when he came to England, Ramanujan filled notebooks with thousands of theorems, though not, apparently with proofs. I think proving Ramanujan's thereoms is still a major occupation of academia.
Interestingly, there is a similar story involving Einstein. Bose, who was an unknown Indian physics instructor, sent an unsolicited manuscript to Einstein which eventually led to the theory of Bose statistics, or Bose-Einstein statistics and the Bose condensate.
Crackpots from all over the world were sending Einstein manuscripts, and Bose's manuscript looked a lot like one of these. But Einstein read it anyway, and saw that Bose's ideas had merit. Ultimately, it seemed that Bose only had the one really good idea in him, and after collaborating with Einstein on the one paper, he went back to India and continued teaching. Apparently he was an especially good teacher.
You don't seem to know what you are talking about. There are two men: Branson and Fosset.
AFAICT, all Branson did is write a check and provide moral support.
The pilot was Fosset. Apparently they are friends. Fosset is not that rich. The article refers to him as a millionaire. Branson, on the other hand, is referred to as a billionaire. So I think it is incorrect to say that Fosset can do whatever he chooses. It might be more accurate to say that he has enough determination to accomplish his objectives.
Other than that, I guess I agree with you. I like reading about Branson and Fosset and their ilk. I don't see why they shouldn't keep doing the stuff they do. Rutan wouldn't have nearly as much fun without guys like Branson and Fosset and Paul Allen to help pay for everything. And I like reading about Rutan's accomplishments, too.
I'm struggling with this, too. I think the idea is that the electron ionization can get triggered either at a maximum or a minimum of the electric field. The electrons which get liberated at the maximum go off in direction X, if you will, while the minimum-triggered electrons go off in direction -X.
Since there are two maxima, there is an interference pattern at the X detector. Since there is only one minimum, there is no interference pattern at the -X detector.
I believe the article goes on to say that when they inverted the pulse so that there were two minima and one maximum, they saw an interferrence pattern at the -X (so to speak) detector, but not at the X detector.
I was wondering about this, too. Current semiconductor wirebond technology uses wires that you can see with an optical microscope. I think these are way too big for the nano-elements the articles are talking about.
Somehow these nano-sized devices will have to be oriented or located in such a way that they are predictably in series or (more likely) parallel. Maybe they can put the photovoltaic film in-between two conductive films. (Think photovoltaic goo between two layers of transparent, conductive plastic.) Then the two layers of conductive film would act as the terminals. If the individual photovoltaic elements are polar, they could be flipped into the desired rotation by applying a DC Volgage to the two conductive films.
Note that I am just sort of making this up. I have no knowledge other than what is in the two articles.
Slashdot Mirror
"No problem raising funds." This is actually not true. Last time they raised funds they did so by selling bonds. Their corporate debt is rated below investment grade (in other words, they are "junk bonds."). I don't think they can easily issue new stock. That would have to be approved by the board and the shareholders.
It doesn't matter how high the stock price is. That doesn't really help them raise money in any significant way.
The first link in the Slashdot description is to a story about an incident from May (the wrong collision).
The battery packs do have thermometers. While I haven't seen this specific design, it is industry standard practice to incorporate negative temperature coefficient thermistors (NTC's), which allow the charger to detect battery temperature. The battery charging circuitry would definitely be designed to stop charging the battery when it is hot.
The problem is most likely caused by faulty battery components (separator), or manufacturing impurities (particles in electrolyte) or poor process (damaging separator during assembly of the battery cell).
--MM
Actually, a lot of people run their diesel automobiles on straight vegetable oil (SVO) or pure biodiesel, both of which could conceivably be produced in a post-petroleum world.
MM
I grind 20 grams (this is a lot) of coffee beans with a hand grinder. After grinding, I put it in a gold mesh filter, which sits in a single-cup drip maker.
I heat 100 grams of milk (microwave, 35 seconds) in a huge (20 oz?) mug, and put the apparatus on top of the mug.
I pour boiling water slowly, a little at a time, into the filter until the mug is almost full. At first I add just enough water to wet all the coffee, then try to keep the water at that level with small additions of water.
Because I pour the water slowly, the milk stays at the bottom. The gold mesh lets a lot of fine coffee grounds through, and these settle. The first sip is almost like black coffee. After I drink most of the coffee, and start to taste the milk, I swirl the grounds around in the warm milk at the bottom and drink the last gulp, grounds and all. Mmmmm.
The beans get old in about a week, but they still taste pretty good for up to a month or two, when stored at room temperature. (Never freeze or refrigerate beans, in my opinion.)
I buy Peet's French. Yeah, it is really dark, yeah, it's a blend, but I can easily taste the difference between Peet's French and an equally dark roasted coffee purchased elsewhere, so I believe that Peet's really is better. Some people say it's too dark and you can't taste the real bean flavor because of it. Whatever. I like it.
MM
BS.
Dolphins and porpoises don't swim alongside boats, per se. They swim in the bow wave. Presumably they do this because they can get a free ride due to the physics of bow-wave formation. That is, with minimal effort, they can travel at the same speed as the boat. This is similar to birds (or gliders) staying aloft for long stretches of time by keeping themselves in the lift near a sea cliff.
With the dolphins, sometimes there are a bunch hovering around beside the boat because they can't all fit in the bow wave, but they seem to be just biding their time. Taking turns or whatever.
MM
PS, the level of intelligence of, for example, killer-whales in the wild is legendary. I realize that intelligence is hard to define, but for my money, dolphins and porpoises have it, and fish don't.
Wow. That "make your own biodiesel" site is cool.
But I'm not sure where you are getting the 10 cents per gallon from. I didn't read the entire site, but I did browse through it and I didn't see a cost estimate.
Is that based on getting used cooking oil for free from a restaraunt or fast-food joint?
MM
You might not be able to "test out" jobs, but you can always just call or email somebody in the industry and set up an informational interview. You would then go to lunch with the person, and just talk about the profession, what it takes to get in, and what the work is like.
It is best if you call a friend of a friend or whatever, but you can just cold-call, too.
MM
Dude,
Your sarcasm detector is not working AT ALL.
The paragraph before the one you quoted said that the equipment should be powered off of a generator in a separate building and that the generator would be powered by pedigreed shetland ponies.
I mean come on.
MM
Yesterday, my computer wouldn't do a think I asked of it. Today, I seem to be back in its good graces.
My cat is mad at me because I took it to the vet. It doesn't seem to understand that I did it for its own good!
MM
That is still more expensive than LTO. For people who do serious archiving, the media price difference will dominate the total cost. For example, imagine if you backup 100 GB per day, and keep the tapes for a year or something.
Also, according to the estimates I have read, tape is much more durable than hard-disks, especially when you buy the cheapest hard-drives you can find.
Finally, I change tapes every day, but I can't be rebooting the file server every time I do it. I am not aware of any 200 GB drive that costs $90 and can be hot-swapped. If you are, please provide details.
MM
Well, we're a small company. I'm not really an IT guy, but I'm the closest thing we've got. I verify after every backup, and I have done a couple of restores to see how it worked. There weren't any problems with those restores.
In honesty, I've done enough due diligence that I wouldn't lose my job if we couldn't restore after a disaster. But the pain level for the whole company would be enormous, and that is a good enough reason to not want to see it happen.
Still, I think you are right. I should do a simulated disaster recovery and see how it goes.
Thanks.
MM
If you (i.e., anyone) really needs to archive large ammounts of data, there is only one viable solution: tape.
The price per gigabyte of tape is much lower than hard disks. The large capacity drives are expensive, but in the long run, the higher media cost for hard drives will be even more expensive.
MM
What do you mean LTO tapes are expensive? They are 40 bucks for 100 GB. I call that cheap.
The LTO drives are expensive, though.
Where I work, we use LTO every day to back up our RAID. The tapes seem to work fine.
So far we haven't had to restore from tape, but there is considerable error-checking and logging in the backup process, so I know everything is going along smoothly.
MM
He probably switched because of the license. Think about it. If you were making network gear with a unix-like kernel in it, wouldn't it be easier to not have to deal with the GPL?
MM
Yes, I posted elsewhere about this.
m 2. htm
According to TFA, one of the other models of glider is actually called a "Slocum."
Here is a URL where you can read "Sailing Alone Around the World" by Capt. Joshua Slocum in its entirety:
http://www.arthur-ransome.org/ar/literary/slocu
MM
I see that the gliders are called "Spray," and "Slocum."
The people behind this project are obviously big fans of Joshua Slocum and his voyage aboard the Spray.
For those of you who don't know, around the end of the 19th century, Slocum, a lifelong mariner who found himself without a ship to command, rebuilt the derelict hull of a 30-foot fishing sailboat, christened her "Spray," and sailed her around the world alone.
He wrote a book about it called, strangely enough, "Sailing Alone Around the World." The book came out long enough ago that it has now passed into the public domain and can be read online in its entirety at, among other places:
http://www.arthur-ransome.org/ar/literary/slocum2. htm
My favorite line from Slocum's book:
"I had taken little advice from anyone, for I had a right to my own opinions in matters pertaining to the sea."
Later, Bernard Moitessier, a sort of French sailing hero (though he grew up in Indochina) sailed around alone, too. He had several boats throughout his life, and made many voyages. He named one of his boats "Joshua" after Joshua Slocum.
Moitessier wrote several books, all of which were translated into English.
MM
Maybe you meant to say "marine mammals" instead of "cetaceans?"
Mind you, the octopus might just be smarter than the manatee.
MMThe plural of "octopus" is "octopuses."
"Octopi" as a plural started as an ignorant mistake.
Read more about it here.
MMEinstein was very smart.
I wouldn't want to put him down.
But I agree that Ramanujan was a phenomenon. He was so completely different from any of his contemporary mathematicians that there is really no comparison.
He was discovered by the west when he sent a manuscript to Hardy, a famous English mathematician. Hardy almost discarded it, since much of it was stuff he had seen before (though Ramanujan had rediscovered it independently), but it also contained 120 thereoms no one but Ramanujan had ever seen before.
Later, when he came to England, Ramanujan filled notebooks with thousands of theorems, though not, apparently with proofs. I think proving Ramanujan's thereoms is still a major occupation of academia.
Interestingly, there is a similar story involving Einstein. Bose, who was an unknown Indian physics instructor, sent an unsolicited manuscript to Einstein which eventually led to the theory of Bose statistics, or Bose-Einstein statistics and the Bose condensate.
Crackpots from all over the world were sending Einstein manuscripts, and Bose's manuscript looked a lot like one of these. But Einstein read it anyway, and saw that Bose's ideas had merit. Ultimately, it seemed that Bose only had the one really good idea in him, and after collaborating with Einstein on the one paper, he went back to India and continued teaching. Apparently he was an especially good teacher.
MM
How to prove any theroem:
1) If a proof exists, then the thereom is true.
2) A proof exists (you're reading it), therefore the thereom must be true.
QED.
MM
You don't seem to know what you are talking about. There are two men: Branson and Fosset.
AFAICT, all Branson did is write a check and provide moral support.
The pilot was Fosset. Apparently they are friends. Fosset is not that rich. The article refers to him as a millionaire. Branson, on the other hand, is referred to as a billionaire. So I think it is incorrect to say that Fosset can do whatever he chooses. It might be more accurate to say that he has enough determination to accomplish his objectives.
Other than that, I guess I agree with you. I like reading about Branson and Fosset and their ilk. I don't see why they shouldn't keep doing the stuff they do. Rutan wouldn't have nearly as much fun without guys like Branson and Fosset and Paul Allen to help pay for everything. And I like reading about Rutan's accomplishments, too.
MM
I'm struggling with this, too. I think the idea is that the electron ionization can get triggered either at a maximum or a minimum of the electric field. The electrons which get liberated at the maximum go off in direction X, if you will, while the minimum-triggered electrons go off in direction -X.
Since there are two maxima, there is an interference pattern at the X detector. Since there is only one minimum, there is no interference pattern at the -X detector.
I believe the article goes on to say that when they inverted the pulse so that there were two minima and one maximum, they saw an interferrence pattern at the -X (so to speak) detector, but not at the X detector.
I could be wrong!
MM
I think the website mentioned that the glide ratio is 12:1.
So if you are 11 or 12 miles up (60,000/5128), you could cover less than 150 miles (neglecting wind).
Even with a tail wind, the craft would not make it across the Atlantic.
MM
I was wondering about this, too. Current semiconductor wirebond technology uses wires that you can see with an optical microscope. I think these are way too big for the nano-elements the articles are talking about.
Somehow these nano-sized devices will have to be oriented or located in such a way that they are predictably in series or (more likely) parallel. Maybe they can put the photovoltaic film in-between two conductive films. (Think photovoltaic goo between two layers of transparent, conductive plastic.) Then the two layers of conductive film would act as the terminals. If the individual photovoltaic elements are polar, they could be flipped into the desired rotation by applying a DC Volgage to the two conductive films.
Note that I am just sort of making this up. I have no knowledge other than what is in the two articles.
MM