We're all overlooking one key fact:
It must also demonstrate the ability to dock with Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable space habitat and be able to stay docked in orbit for up to six months.
This prize is not an act of goodwill - it is subcontracted commercial R&D! Presumably this "Bigelow Aerospace" (doesn't that sound like something out of the Jetsons?) company is in need of a launch vehicle, and finds it cheaper to launch a "contest" than to develop the vehicle themselves. Remember, Rutan & Co. spent well more than $10 million developing SS1... it's likely Bigelow will actually save money if the contest is completed successfully...
Yeah, this thing has everything. Except it's really ugly.
Once again, the competition needs to realize Apple's success is not due to its technical dominance but rather its popular dominance. The iPod (mini) is a part of mainstream pop culture. This new device does not look to replace the mini anytime soon.
Insensitive computer programmers with little knowledge of geography
If you read the article, you'll see the computer programmer's problems have nothing to do with geography... and everything to do with understanding and respecting differences in the cultures that may purchase MSFT products. I think showing the programmers where the Pacific Ocean is isn't going to do very much to make the software more culturally acceptable.
When the PS2 was announced, people said the same thing. The PS2 demo videos were the first truly "next-gen" 3d on the console anyone had seen. The argument surfaced that, due to the PS2's ability to push millions of polygons, no one would develop for it, as no sane developer would spend hours detailing the thousands of polygons that go into something simple, like a characters lips.
Well, guess what. Not only was this never a problem, many would argue that the PS2 doesn't push polygons.
Just like that new huge 12 gb harddrive you bought a few years back, PS3 developers will have no trouble filling up the Blu-Ray discs with content.
(From another point of view, even if it was prohibitively difficult to fill up the disc with content/media, who's forcing developers to use all 50 gb? A smaller game is the exact same thing they could develop for another system...)
With CDs having reached (essentially) the physical limits of the media at 52x burning speed - it is my understanding the discs will destruct at higher RPM's - has the speed of DVD burning neared its physical limit as well?
A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that DVDs shouldn't be burnable much faster than 16x... does anyone know anything more about this? Maybe DVDs are more durable than CDs?
I am going out on a limb here and say that this entire mission has really been a big disappointment to me. Although it did enhance our knowledge of the planet considerably, it did not even attempt to verify if there was/is life on the planet, which is the end goal.
The mission exceeded all it's objectives. I don't understand how that can be considered a disappointment. Detecting life, as discovered by the Viking missions, is not always an easy task. Instead, these two rovers have transformed our understanding of Martian geology, for the first time given unrefutable evidence of water's presence, traversed the greatest distance on any body's surface by an unmanned vehicle, and sent back some damn cool pictures. All for a fraction of what the war in Iraq is costing us as taxpayers.
Finding life may be the "end goal" for public relations, etc., but I'm sure there are plenty of planetary geologists that have found these missions to be among the most important endeavours in the history of unmanned missions.
That "flutter" is the sound of the wax cylinder rotating at the time of the original recording.
It just goes to show you how *good* this scanning technology is...
Re:Time for something new?
on
Real Problems
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Similarly, I used to think chopsticks originated in Asia, at least until someone made me aware of their creation as an enticing gimmick by immigrant restaurant owners in American mining communities in the 1800s and subsequent exportation to the Far East as a unique dining tool.
This is offtopic - but are you sure about that?
A quick google search yields manysites that report otherwise...
You're absolutely correct. It was the weight of the tiles that was the problem. If only the shuttle were much heavier...
[/sarcasm]
Communication issues? A fair criticism. NASA bureaucracy? Makes sense. But to criticize the weight of the tiles - which are designed to be heat-resistant yet lightweight - seems a little ignorant to me. I think a heavier object of similar size (say... a brick) would have no problem falling from the sky.
It's always pretty amazing how some of us feel qualified to give aerospace engineering advice to Ph.D. aerospace engineers.
The problem is that the largest difficulty in getting a consumer to redeem the bottle cap certificate is having them remember not to throw it away, and instead bring it home and type it into the computer.
This recycling idea counts on people bringing home their caps but NOT redeeming them. I'm really not quite sure why anyone would want to do that. I certainly have a whole bunch of music I'd be more than happy to get for free one way or another, some of which includes independent albums.
Why can't they simply encourage people to buy music from indy groups, instead of essentially throwing the money away on licensed files that no one's ever going to listen to?
It's one thing to have big sales on iTunes, but if no one's ACTUALLY LISTENING to the music, what point does it serve?
'They're a cornered rat, and quite frankly, I think they have rabies to boot. I'd rather not get too close to them,'
Linus, you're overestimating them. Rabbies only occurs in warm-blooded animals.
If I remember correctly, we're 1 for 2 with the "bouncing spacecraft" idea (Pathfinder was successful, it looks like Beagle was not). Of the two failures in 2001, neither craft used the inflated-airbag approach; the lander used the old Viking method of landing (ie: rocket braking), while the orbiter simply went off course.
I'm sure the Europeans are using a slightly different design than the Americans anyways, so from a NASA point of view, it's actually 1 for 1. We'll see within the next month whether this method is worthwhile or not.
Making a transition to "computer graphics" does not necessarily mean a move to "3D work." There's been tons of CG usage in Disney cartoons already (stampede in Lion King, flying through trees in Tarzan, etc.), and neither of those would be considered 3D animations (like Toy Story, Shrek, et. al.)
I believe this is incorrect. The way I understand it, CG was used in both of the examples you cited to add 3d elements to a 2d cartoon. In The Lion King, the stampede sequence uses 3d to show changing overhead perspectives (think tracking cameras) across the moving herd of wildebeasts. In Tarzan, the trees were CG modelled such that they could be rotated, panned, etc., during the "flying through trees" sequences.
In both cases, simple 2d characters were overlaid on 3d animations. The only difference between those two examples and Toy Story, Shrek, et al., is the fact that the primary characters were composited from 2d sources, not 3d.
I think the best example is the rotating ballroom from the "dance" sequence from Beauty and the Beast. Yeah, the technology's been improved, and the primary focus (the characters) are hand-drawn, but otherwise there's no difference between that and the 3d animations you mentioned above.
Yeah. Check out the Halo: Combat Evolved scores for a good look at the "downside" of this card.
Where the Radeon 9800 Pro's and XT's score 55-60 frames a second, the Duo V8 comes in at 16 fps. Not so good.
"With the current driver, the game is practically unplayable..." Ouch.
In two to three years I doubt this processor will matter much. I'd imagine the Xbox 2 of 2005-2006 will be equivalent to the Xbox 1 of 2002... i.e.: not terribly significant in terms of performance for the price.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyone else notice the U.S. Capitol building is intentionally blurred out? For "security"?
The mirrordot cache is up at http://www.mirrordot.com/stories/b45b564dd93222faa 7fc0335836835d1/index.html
We're all overlooking one key fact:
It must also demonstrate the ability to dock with Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable space habitat and be able to stay docked in orbit for up to six months.
This prize is not an act of goodwill - it is subcontracted commercial R&D! Presumably this "Bigelow Aerospace" (doesn't that sound like something out of the Jetsons?) company is in need of a launch vehicle, and finds it cheaper to launch a "contest" than to develop the vehicle themselves. Remember, Rutan & Co. spent well more than $10 million developing SS1... it's likely Bigelow will actually save money if the contest is completed successfully...
A worthwhile read on the legacy of the lens used in the film can be found here.
It seems a man named Kirk Wooster from Georgia claims to have the lens. Note the auction is listed as taking place in Woodstock, GA.
Yeah, this thing has everything. Except it's really ugly.
Once again, the competition needs to realize Apple's success is not due to its technical dominance but rather its popular dominance. The iPod (mini) is a part of mainstream pop culture. This new device does not look to replace the mini anytime soon.
Wow, those darn 8 pixels refuse to go away.2 203&tid=109&tid=185
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/19/14
Insensitive computer programmers with little knowledge of geography
If you read the article, you'll see the computer programmer's problems have nothing to do with geography... and everything to do with understanding and respecting differences in the cultures that may purchase MSFT products. I think showing the programmers where the Pacific Ocean is isn't going to do very much to make the software more culturally acceptable.
errr... that's supposed to read "PS2 doesn't push enough polygons." my bad.
When the PS2 was announced, people said the same thing. The PS2 demo videos were the first truly "next-gen" 3d on the console anyone had seen. The argument surfaced that, due to the PS2's ability to push millions of polygons, no one would develop for it, as no sane developer would spend hours detailing the thousands of polygons that go into something simple, like a characters lips.
Well, guess what. Not only was this never a problem, many would argue that the PS2 doesn't push polygons.
Just like that new huge 12 gb harddrive you bought a few years back, PS3 developers will have no trouble filling up the Blu-Ray discs with content.
(From another point of view, even if it was prohibitively difficult to fill up the disc with content/media, who's forcing developers to use all 50 gb? A smaller game is the exact same thing they could develop for another system...)
With CDs having reached (essentially) the physical limits of the media at 52x burning speed - it is my understanding the discs will destruct at higher RPM's - has the speed of DVD burning neared its physical limit as well?
A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that DVDs shouldn't be burnable much faster than 16x... does anyone know anything more about this? Maybe DVDs are more durable than CDs?
I am going out on a limb here and say that this entire mission has really been a big disappointment to me. Although it did enhance our knowledge of the planet considerably, it did not even attempt to verify if there was/is life on the planet, which is the end goal.
The mission exceeded all it's objectives. I don't understand how that can be considered a disappointment. Detecting life, as discovered by the Viking missions, is not always an easy task. Instead, these two rovers have transformed our understanding of Martian geology, for the first time given unrefutable evidence of water's presence, traversed the greatest distance on any body's surface by an unmanned vehicle, and sent back some damn cool pictures. All for a fraction of what the war in Iraq is costing us as taxpayers.
Finding life may be the "end goal" for public relations, etc., but I'm sure there are plenty of planetary geologists that have found these missions to be among the most important endeavours in the history of unmanned missions.
That "flutter" is the sound of the wax cylinder rotating at the time of the original recording. It just goes to show you how *good* this scanning technology is...
Similarly, I used to think chopsticks originated in Asia, at least until someone made me aware of their creation as an enticing gimmick by immigrant restaurant owners in American mining communities in the 1800s and subsequent exportation to the Far East as a unique dining tool.
This is offtopic - but are you sure about that?
A quick google search yields many sites that report otherwise...
Gnome.org hacked? Gnome and KDE working together?
Coicidence?
I think not.
You're absolutely correct. It was the weight of the tiles that was the problem. If only the shuttle were much heavier... [/sarcasm]
Communication issues? A fair criticism. NASA bureaucracy? Makes sense. But to criticize the weight of the tiles - which are designed to be heat-resistant yet lightweight - seems a little ignorant to me. I think a heavier object of similar size (say... a brick) would have no problem falling from the sky.
It's always pretty amazing how some of us feel qualified to give aerospace engineering advice to Ph.D. aerospace engineers.
The problem is that the largest difficulty in getting a consumer to redeem the bottle cap certificate is having them remember not to throw it away, and instead bring it home and type it into the computer.
This recycling idea counts on people bringing home their caps but NOT redeeming them. I'm really not quite sure why anyone would want to do that. I certainly have a whole bunch of music I'd be more than happy to get for free one way or another, some of which includes independent albums.
Why can't they simply encourage people to buy music from indy groups, instead of essentially throwing the money away on licensed files that no one's ever going to listen to?
It's one thing to have big sales on iTunes, but if no one's ACTUALLY LISTENING to the music, what point does it serve?
Final Fantasy XI. Plenty of girls playing (really!) and it allows you two to not only have fun exploring the game, but to socially interact.
'They're a cornered rat, and quite frankly, I think they have rabies to boot. I'd rather not get too close to them,'
Linus, you're overestimating them. Rabbies only occurs in warm-blooded animals.
Well, now we know why Beagle 2 didn't survive...E MPM75V9ED_1.html
http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/S
Um... no .nu's is good news, right?
[ducks]
Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they hide is vital.
If I remember correctly, we're 1 for 2 with the "bouncing spacecraft" idea (Pathfinder was successful, it looks like Beagle was not). Of the two failures in 2001, neither craft used the inflated-airbag approach; the lander used the old Viking method of landing (ie: rocket braking), while the orbiter simply went off course.
I'm sure the Europeans are using a slightly different design than the Americans anyways, so from a NASA point of view, it's actually 1 for 1. We'll see within the next month whether this method is worthwhile or not.
Making a transition to "computer graphics" does not necessarily mean a move to "3D work." There's been tons of CG usage in Disney cartoons already (stampede in Lion King, flying through trees in Tarzan, etc.), and neither of those would be considered 3D animations (like Toy Story, Shrek, et. al.)
I believe this is incorrect. The way I understand it, CG was used in both of the examples you cited to add 3d elements to a 2d cartoon. In The Lion King, the stampede sequence uses 3d to show changing overhead perspectives (think tracking cameras) across the moving herd of wildebeasts. In Tarzan, the trees were CG modelled such that they could be rotated, panned, etc., during the "flying through trees" sequences.
In both cases, simple 2d characters were overlaid on 3d animations. The only difference between those two examples and Toy Story, Shrek, et al., is the fact that the primary characters were composited from 2d sources, not 3d.
I think the best example is the rotating ballroom from the "dance" sequence from Beauty and the Beast. Yeah, the technology's been improved, and the primary focus (the characters) are hand-drawn, but otherwise there's no difference between that and the 3d animations you mentioned above.
Yeah. Check out the Halo: Combat Evolved scores for a good look at the "downside" of this card.
Where the Radeon 9800 Pro's and XT's score 55-60 frames a second, the Duo V8 comes in at 16 fps. Not so good.
"With the current driver, the game is practically unplayable..." Ouch.
In two to three years I doubt this processor will matter much. I'd imagine the Xbox 2 of 2005-2006 will be equivalent to the Xbox 1 of 2002... i.e.: not terribly significant in terms of performance for the price.