Thius is a very good example where the old fashioned way is the best. ATC controllers don't need a computer to tell them which planes are theirs (actually they have one) but the strips are essential as it is one plane - one strip and the it is passed between controllers to indicate handover of control.
In some ATC centres, they print the strips on a computer, but they still use the paper clipped to the plastic thingys.
GPS is supposed to be jam resistent, hence the use of a pseudo-random bit stream to enable recovery below noise in the receiver. Also signals are received from sattelites so an aircraft can use upwards facing antennae with good rejection near the horizon.
Soldiers are taught to read maps, but this takes time and requires thought. It is so much easier to read out the digits from a GPS and give them to air support or artillary control. This mans that map reading is at a premium.
Even before GPS, US units would get lost regularly on exercises in Germany due to poor map reading skills.
Quite right, but you forget another point. If I'm with a friend in a foreign place, say India and our phone accounts are in Germany, a voice call means you pay from India to Germany and he pays from Germany to India. Very expensive.
With SMS, I pay the same rate regardless.
A final point is that because an SMS message fits inside a single 'frame', it requires little power to send and a not particularly good connection (not good enough for voice). There are cases of people who couldn't get through by voice, being rescused because SMS did get through.
Also a lot of SMS advertising. Not so good and due to congestion, messages don't always get through. D2-Vodaphone protect the identity of spammers unless you make a police complaint (costs money).
I guess one of the issues is that the BIOS settings go together with the chipset so interpretations vary depending upon the motherboard.
However, I agree with the point. Someone should provide this information and I'm certain a lot of it already exists in the documentation provided by the BIOS manufacturer to the motherboard manufacturer.
However, a show normally has too many poeple around (except for the spaces between the halls).
No, the place that I think the segway will clean up in is the airport for moving staff around between checkins. Bicycles and gate taxis are great but they are not that manouverable when people are around. The Segway is sort like a slower bicycle and usually the passenger density is less than the crowd at shows.
Apart from that I can see the thing being used by maintenance workers to move around production lines and plant. Bikes are often used, but again this may be better because of the better manouverability at slow speeds.
True for a lot of people working near nuclear reactors. Photographic style dosimeters (a piece of film shielded by different layers of metal) are very common. I think even hospital workers in X-ray have to use them.
This sounds suspiciously like the old stuff floating around at the time of the cold war, which were hopelessly high. Has this been updated in light of Chernobyl?
When were they banned? I have seen geiger counters and dosimeters available on the UK s/h market, What isn't allowed is a device with a calibration source ('cos it is radioactive).
Of course, you might end up on Ton's list of people with dangerous equipment and as we know, what is Tony's, is also George's.
The system proposed is a derivative of the Patriot theatre defence system. This didn't work. Many of the tests have not worked (or more conveniently, the scope of the test was adjusted after the results).
Of course, very few nations have nuclear weapons capable of fitting on top of a missile, all of these are quite friendly now. there are other forms of WMD delivery which are much easier. So why waste money on something that doesn't work and isn't needed? I would like to ask is how all that money is being spent, because it sure as heck isn't being spent on competent engineering. However, I hear politicians come quite expensive these days.
The ESA are not concerned with the construction of fantasy weapons, but they are seeking interesting alternative approaches for the exploration of space and the application of space related technology to everyday life.
Just think what would happen to the US space program if they had ome of the missle defence system development money? The Space Station would have been completed by now and we would have been on our way to Mars.
our space program takes its cues from scientists who are serious professionals with years of training
Regrettably it gets its money from the lunatics on the hill and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. With an obsession with providing rewards for the backhanders received from the aerospace inducstry, a lot is spent on inappropriate and/or ineffective technologies (Star Wars).
Re:Arthur C. Clarkes Geostationary satellites
on
Science Fact From Fiction
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· Score: 5, Informative
I read his original report, he was showing how a minimum system could be built for full earth coverage. He wrote this at a time when space flight was still very much fiction (about ten years before Sputnik) and there were vacuum tubes rather than semiconductors. Tubes need regular replacement, hence the need for a manned presence.
How much does it cost to call a cellphone from the land-line? It would be kind of nice to be able to route outgoing cell phone calls via something like this automatically - certainly an issue with European style billing (caller pays mobile charges) rather than US (recipient pays).
Yes, fax devices and modems must be linked directly to the digital feed. Without a modem, PCS can got at 9.6 or more without problems. In such a case a computer deals with the phone as if it was a fake modem and the phone recodes the info as frames to go over the net which get converted back to analog at the provider's end.
Useless with this thing because the digital connection can only be made through the base of the unit (where this unit connects).
Microsoft gives good deals to colleges (as do Sun Microsystems, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM...) because they want their stuff in front of the people who will be making the decisions in ten years.
Charge the SOBs then!!!!
This is the same as product placement. You want this Uni to place MS products in front of their students (and future decision makers), well pay the Uni for the privilege!!!
Yes, you were right but if the signal was separated into TX and RX. then a high antannae could legitimately be used for reception and a conventional antannae for transmission. The end result would still be a directional link, with longer than normal range.
Re:Congratulations Mr. Marthouse, You've Invented.
on
The End of Solotrek
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· Score: 2
What does this have to do with personal flight? Well, it's only safe if you build a train-like system where the vehicle "locks on" to a program and the user doesn't actually have to pilot the vehicle.
People will not accept this in a personal flight system until they accept it in a ground transportation system.
Most people have driving licenses but they don't have pilot's licenses. This is a simple barrier to acquiring the right to fly and allows a class of license to be created for those who only will fly in a ground supervised flight mode on an appropriately equipped aircraft.
As regards your sentiments, the train falls down once you arrive at the station. Is the public transport system infrastructure then good enough to get you to within a few hundred metres of your home? I live in Germany and even there, it can be a problem if you live outside a well connected town so people continue to use cars. As people currently have the right to drive where and how they want, rhey won't want to give up this right to join a 'road train', even though it would be safer on motorways.
An added issue is that in Germany, the autobahn remains one of the few places that are comparitively unregulated. The motor industry and the public would fight any attempt to force poeple into road trains. Even though Germany has one of the best public transport systems in the world. many still don't want to use it.
The Moeller was always interesting and it really does look great.
Now they have finally performed some flight tests (only tethered so far), it is beginning to look realistic as a project. However from a techie viewpoint they have stated their vehicle contains 24 microprocessors and 24000 lines of machine code so proving the technical platform is an issue.
First, WTF did they use assembler? Almost anything else would have been easier to bench test. Can't they simulate the hardware to a large degree so the software is properly checked?
In any case, I'm glad to see the project progressing (and the price dropping). The only problem is that it will require a major change in the national flight infrastructure before it can be fully relised (the dumbed-down pilot concept requires a close communication with ATC to prevent collisions).
During a release test, you run through everything so all possible interactions are checked. This takes some time. A patch is something that gets rushed out to cure a problem in the field. It gets checked to see whether it fixes the bug but there is usually insufficient time to run it through a complete regression test. End result is that patches may introduce bugs.
Another issue is that sometimes to fix a bug, a newer version of a code block may be used (like taking a Linux 2.5.x solution back to fix a bug in 2.4.x). This code block may have unwanted functionality (because it has been inadequately tested).
Now all the above goes for commercial software, where there is a formal testing and 'fixit' budget. It therefore goes for free software too. Although individual teams are well motivated to sort out their software, it is more difficult to organise proper testing across teams.
In this case, we are lucky as a single team are working on this and it was sorted out quickly. Somehow some closed source developers don't seem to be so good about quick releases of their patches, and when they do, they still contain as many bugs (IE patches anyone?).
I guess weapons get stolen though, just as they do in the US. However many Swiss men do own a gun but they are part of a militia (just as the founding fathers intended in the US). Certainly many rural Swiss do hunt, but it is interesting that despite the high gun ownership, the problem of drug abuse and the issues over immigration, it has a relatively low murder rate.
It just (along with the other examples that I gave) just goes to show that it is very difficult to be simplistic about the relationship of gun control and abuse. I don't like easy access to guns but I certainly can't argue against the example of Canada.
The BBC has been banned from Zimbabwe for a while, but every despot likes to have an excuse to go after any critical reporting. If the excuse has been used in a western country, even easier.
I guess though that Australia suffers from a British-style approach to defamation because of the related legal systems, which often makes rich men very much richer.
Slashdot Mirror
In some ATC centres, they print the strips on a computer, but they still use the paper clipped to the plastic thingys.
GPS is supposed to be jam resistent, hence the use of a pseudo-random bit stream to enable recovery below noise in the receiver. Also signals are received from sattelites so an aircraft can use upwards facing antennae with good rejection near the horizon.
Even before GPS, US units would get lost regularly on exercises in Germany due to poor map reading skills.
Sorry Compaq is out, the EV78 is the last Alpha, may she rest in peace. Where are those performance figures on Itanium again?
SMS works wonderfully (and cheaply), except for those poor bastards stuck with non-GSM phones.
With SMS, I pay the same rate regardless.
A final point is that because an SMS message fits inside a single 'frame', it requires little power to send and a not particularly good connection (not good enough for voice). There are cases of people who couldn't get through by voice, being rescused because SMS did get through.
Call me sweety, 0190-(high-rate prefix).
Also a lot of SMS advertising. Not so good and due to congestion, messages don't always get through. D2-Vodaphone protect the identity of spammers unless you make a police complaint (costs money).
However, I agree with the point. Someone should provide this information and I'm certain a lot of it already exists in the documentation provided by the BIOS manufacturer to the motherboard manufacturer.
No, the place that I think the segway will clean up in is the airport for moving staff around between checkins. Bicycles and gate taxis are great but they are not that manouverable when people are around. The Segway is sort like a slower bicycle and usually the passenger density is less than the crowd at shows.
Apart from that I can see the thing being used by maintenance workers to move around production lines and plant. Bikes are often used, but again this may be better because of the better manouverability at slow speeds.
For private use, I can't see it being useful.
True for a lot of people working near nuclear reactors. Photographic style dosimeters (a piece of film shielded by different layers of metal) are very common. I think even hospital workers in X-ray have to use them.
This sounds suspiciously like the old stuff floating around at the time of the cold war, which were hopelessly high. Has this been updated in light of Chernobyl?
Of course, you might end up on Ton's list of people with dangerous equipment and as we know, what is Tony's, is also George's.
Of course, very few nations have nuclear weapons capable of fitting on top of a missile, all of these are quite friendly now. there are other forms of WMD delivery which are much easier. So why waste money on something that doesn't work and isn't needed? I would like to ask is how all that money is being spent, because it sure as heck isn't being spent on competent engineering. However, I hear politicians come quite expensive these days.
The ESA are not concerned with the construction of fantasy weapons, but they are seeking interesting alternative approaches for the exploration of space and the application of space related technology to everyday life.
Just think what would happen to the US space program if they had ome of the missle defence system development money? The Space Station would have been completed by now and we would have been on our way to Mars.
Regrettably it gets its money from the lunatics on the hill and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. With an obsession with providing rewards for the backhanders received from the aerospace inducstry, a lot is spent on inappropriate and/or ineffective technologies (Star Wars).
I read his original report, he was showing how a minimum system could be built for full earth coverage. He wrote this at a time when space flight was still very much fiction (about ten years before Sputnik) and there were vacuum tubes rather than semiconductors. Tubes need regular replacement, hence the need for a manned presence.
How much does it cost to call a cellphone from the land-line? It would be kind of nice to be able to route outgoing cell phone calls via something like this automatically - certainly an issue with European style billing (caller pays mobile charges) rather than US (recipient pays).
Useless with this thing because the digital connection can only be made through the base of the unit (where this unit connects).
This is the same as product placement. You want this Uni to place MS products in front of their students (and future decision makers), well pay the Uni for the privilege!!!
Yes, you were right but if the signal was separated into TX and RX. then a high antannae could legitimately be used for reception and a conventional antannae for transmission. The end result would still be a directional link, with longer than normal range.
Um, if it was NASA, they would use FORTRAN!!!!!
Most people have driving licenses but they don't have pilot's licenses. This is a simple barrier to acquiring the right to fly and allows a class of license to be created for those who only will fly in a ground supervised flight mode on an appropriately equipped aircraft.
As regards your sentiments, the train falls down once you arrive at the station. Is the public transport system infrastructure then good enough to get you to within a few hundred metres of your home? I live in Germany and even there, it can be a problem if you live outside a well connected town so people continue to use cars. As people currently have the right to drive where and how they want, rhey won't want to give up this right to join a 'road train', even though it would be safer on motorways.
An added issue is that in Germany, the autobahn remains one of the few places that are comparitively unregulated. The motor industry and the public would fight any attempt to force poeple into road trains. Even though Germany has one of the best public transport systems in the world. many still don't want to use it.
Now they have finally performed some flight tests (only tethered so far), it is beginning to look realistic as a project. However from a techie viewpoint they have stated their vehicle contains 24 microprocessors and 24000 lines of machine code so proving the technical platform is an issue.
First, WTF did they use assembler? Almost anything else would have been easier to bench test. Can't they simulate the hardware to a large degree so the software is properly checked?
In any case, I'm glad to see the project progressing (and the price dropping). The only problem is that it will require a major change in the national flight infrastructure before it can be fully relised (the dumbed-down pilot concept requires a close communication with ATC to prevent collisions).
Another issue is that sometimes to fix a bug, a newer version of a code block may be used (like taking a Linux 2.5.x solution back to fix a bug in 2.4.x). This code block may have unwanted functionality (because it has been inadequately tested).
Now all the above goes for commercial software, where there is a formal testing and 'fixit' budget. It therefore goes for free software too. Although individual teams are well motivated to sort out their software, it is more difficult to organise proper testing across teams.
In this case, we are lucky as a single team are working on this and it was sorted out quickly. Somehow some closed source developers don't seem to be so good about quick releases of their patches, and when they do, they still contain as many bugs (IE patches anyone?).
It just (along with the other examples that I gave) just goes to show that it is very difficult to be simplistic about the relationship of gun control and abuse. I don't like easy access to guns but I certainly can't argue against the example of Canada.
I guess though that Australia suffers from a British-style approach to defamation because of the related legal systems, which often makes rich men very much richer.