On the other hand, the MIT boys (and mythbusters) were using MODERN high efficiency, silver on glass mirrors. I would be more impressed if they managed to pull it off with mirrors constructed using roman era technology.
What if you simply print on legal sized paper, and simply chopped off the offending marks after printing?
But seriously, the next time I go shopping for a colour printer, I will get a sample printout and bring along my keychain with a blue LED to find one that doesn't have the yellow dot pattern.
Actually, I wish I had the time to create a flying chairs screensaver for XP.;)
It would also make a humorous flash web game - you could play the role of Balmer, and try to pitch chairs at executives leaving for google, knocking them out before they reach the exit.
Anybody with time on their hands good at creating such things?
I used to work for a company that did military contracts, (your proverbial $500 screwdriver) and I could tell you that in many cases they were selling them at a loss. The $500 screwdriver contract would read as follows:
You will need a certificate from the foundary certifing that it does not contain substance X or Y, and no more than ### ppm of element Z. This must be signed off by the chief metalurgist. Each screwdriver shall be x-rayed to ensure it contains no manufacturing defects.
At least one screwdriver from each lot must be tested to destruction, to ensure it has the required strength and does not emit any toxic fumes while being blown up or burned.
The screwdriver contract shall contain no less than 500 pages, detailing stuff like exactly what angles the fillets shall be on the handle, the minimum torque strength of the shaft, etc. These specification shall be revised no less than 3 times throughout the program, sending the manufacturer back to the drawing board on each occasion.
Each screwdriver shall be individually serial numbered, and come with a 50 page manual detailing proper screwdriver storage procedures, table listing 14 digit part numbers for all screws that can be adjusted with it, and detailed pictorials showing how the screwdriver shall be used.
The specifications for military semiconductors were so onerous that most part manufacturers simply gave up on it. I remember stuff like having to manually pull each bonding wire to test its strength, lengthy temerature soaks, etc. This led to the rise of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) manufacturing, which essentially modified commercial grade components for military use.
The enemy ship would have to attack on a cloudless sunny day, when the sun was in the right position... Presumably too early in the morning or too late in the afternoon and the mirror(s) would be between the sun and the enemy ship - no good.
Even then, the enemy captain has to park his ship at the focal point. Not very practical I am afraid. Polished metal mirrors tend to tarnish rapidly, which is one reason why large telescopes used mirrors made from metal evaporated onto glass as soon as the technology became available.
I would be more likely to believe Archimedes cooked his lamb chops over a mirror stove than to believe it ever made for a practical weapon.
We could send it to mars, and instead of just taking pictures, it could blow things up. You know, in case they do actually discover life and it turns out to be hostile...
Besides, who needs a rock abrasion tool (RAT) when you have a 120mm cannon to crack open any interesting formations!
What happened to the Taliban. There are no Taliban left in Afghanistan, they have all emigrated to the US. In fact, I think Mullah Omar is hiding out in the supreme court.
We just need to groundburst a few hundred large nukes somewhere and voila! Instant nuclear winter to counteract the global warming. Too bad about the fallout....
Actually, here in Canada we might be one of the few countries in the world to benefit from global warming. Just think, orange and bannana groves in Ontario, wheat farms in Nunavit, and we can put Panama out of business when the north west passage becomes ice free. We won't need to fly south anymore for warm weather, although the skiing would positively suck.
What if somebody rehosts BNET.d on a non-US server? There are plenty of non US develpers who wouldn't mind sharpening their skills while having fun working on this. Perhaps it is just time for the original development team to pass the torch.
A corporation is just a faceless legal entity. It is no more good or evil than a particular country. The "good" or "evilness" just reflects the mindset of their current rulers. As countries can change leaders, so do corporations. Also, a companies "coolness" factor can grow stale over time, just like clothing styles.
Remember when Microsoft was geeky cool and everybody wanted to work there? (I do, but few here today would admit it)
Remember when HP and Nortel did really cool cutting edge research?
Remember when Germany/Japan/Russia was an evil empire?
Remember when Spain, Mexico or Canada was at war with the USA?
If and when (I hope not soon) Google's leadership changes, so may their philosophy.
Actually, if you read the article, they found a really neat solution around that problem as well, similar to the way suspension bridge cables are built up from a single strand.
A small sized ribbon would be used at first, so that a space should could temporarily act as the counterweight. A small elevator would be sent to the top of the ribbon, which could then replace the shuttle as counterweight. More small elevators then are sent to the top - each adding additional ribbons to the structure to improve its lift capacity, until they reach the end of the line where they add their own mass to that of the counterweight. After 2 dozen or so small lift units have reached the end of the teather the mass of the counterweight will have reached 20 tons, and the elevator is ready to send full size payloads up.
The latest issue of IEEE spectrum featurs the space elevator.
Being more environmentally friendly than conventional rockets wasn't even mentioned as a space elevator advantage. And yes - we do now have the technology in place to build it, for less than the cost of a shuttle replacement.
All we need is somebody in power to sign off on the program and put this into high gear.
I need to upgrade my linux firewall - a quick reformat and Novell linux install will solve that problem for good. Heck, the PC they are tossing out is probably more powerful than my server.
Your local telephone company has been racking up money from lewd conversations, pedophilia and and terrorist plots!
It it true - people have been picking up the phone for years and saying just about anything to the party on the other end, which may include attempts to lure young girls into illicit behavior, planning terrorist plots and criminal activity. And the phone company has been making a profit by turning a blind eye to this for years!
I demand immediately that the phone company put filters in place to filter out any illegal or immoral conversation. Write your local politician today!
What we need is some sort of "Fair Use" or "User Friendly" certification that can be applied to any piece of consumer electronics, when can then be posted on product review websites. Only products which are DRM free could carry the certification label and/or sticker. This will both raise public awareness, and for those in the know, steer them towards products that work. It will also provide sales and grass roots marketing to companies that refuse to knuckle under to the content cartels.
Last year's DARPA challenge was very good for breaking things. Killing people might happen if they stand anywhere around the course, and the robotic drivers decide you are just a sagebrush.
Slashdot Mirror
They need look no farther than here:
http://www.babynames.com/Names/X/
http://www.babynames.com/Names/Y/
http://www.babynames.com/Names/Z/
I thought about that too.
On the other hand, the MIT boys (and mythbusters) were using MODERN high efficiency, silver on glass mirrors. I would be more impressed if they managed to pull it off with mirrors constructed using roman era technology.
What if you simply print on legal sized paper, and simply chopped off the offending marks after printing?
But seriously, the next time I go shopping for a colour printer, I will get a sample printout and bring along my keychain with a blue LED to find one that doesn't have the yellow dot pattern.
Actually, I wish I had the time to create a flying chairs screensaver for XP. ;)
It would also make a humorous flash web game - you could play the role of Balmer, and try to pitch chairs at executives leaving for google, knocking them out before they reach the exit.
Anybody with time on their hands good at creating such things?
I used to work for a company that did military contracts, (your proverbial $500 screwdriver) and I could tell you that in many cases they were selling them at a loss. The $500 screwdriver contract would read as follows:
You will need a certificate from the foundary certifing that it does not contain substance X or Y, and no more than ### ppm of element Z. This must be signed off by the chief metalurgist. Each screwdriver shall be x-rayed to ensure it contains no manufacturing defects.
At least one screwdriver from each lot must be tested to destruction, to ensure it has the required strength and does not emit any toxic fumes while being blown up or burned.
The screwdriver contract shall contain no less than 500 pages, detailing stuff like exactly what angles the fillets shall be on the handle, the minimum torque strength of the shaft, etc. These specification shall be revised no less than 3 times throughout the program, sending the manufacturer back to the drawing board on each occasion.
Each screwdriver shall be individually serial numbered, and come with a 50 page manual detailing proper screwdriver storage procedures, table listing 14 digit part numbers for all screws that can be adjusted with it, and detailed pictorials showing how the screwdriver shall be used.
The specifications for military semiconductors were so onerous that most part manufacturers simply gave up on it. I remember stuff like having to manually pull each bonding wire to test its strength, lengthy temerature soaks, etc. This led to the rise of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) manufacturing, which essentially modified commercial grade components for military use.
Yeah, you never know, he be might be attacked by another crazed pie wielding terrorist:
http://www.zpub.com/un/bill/pie.html
The enemy ship would have to attack on a cloudless sunny day, when the sun was in the right position... Presumably too early in the morning or too late in the afternoon and the mirror(s) would be between the sun and the enemy ship - no good.
Even then, the enemy captain has to park his ship at the focal point. Not very practical I am afraid. Polished metal mirrors tend to tarnish rapidly, which is one reason why large telescopes used mirrors made from metal evaporated onto glass as soon as the technology became available.
I would be more likely to believe Archimedes cooked his lamb chops over a mirror stove than to believe it ever made for a practical weapon.
but if I was a sailor on a ship under torpedo attack, I wouldn't be thinking about the whales.
Yeah but according to Moore's law, the robot cars should be able to break Mach 1 sometime around 2010.
We could send it to mars, and instead of just taking pictures, it could blow things up. You know, in case they do actually discover life and it turns out to be hostile...
Besides, who needs a rock abrasion tool (RAT) when you have a 120mm cannon to crack open any interesting formations!
What happened to the Taliban. There are no Taliban left in Afghanistan, they have all emigrated to the US. In fact, I think Mullah Omar is hiding out in the supreme court.
We just need to groundburst a few hundred large nukes somewhere and voila! Instant nuclear winter to counteract the global warming. Too bad about the fallout....
Actually, here in Canada we might be one of the few countries in the world to benefit from global warming. Just think, orange and bannana groves in Ontario, wheat farms in Nunavit, and we can put Panama out of business when the north west passage becomes ice free. We won't need to fly south anymore for warm weather, although the skiing would positively suck.
Hats off to the judge, but you forget Mr. Clinton was the **AA stooge who signed the DMCA into law.
What if somebody rehosts BNET.d on a non-US server? There are plenty of non US develpers who wouldn't mind sharpening their skills while having fun working on this. Perhaps it is just time for the original development team to pass the torch.
A corporation is just a faceless legal entity. It is no more good or evil than a particular country. The "good" or "evilness" just reflects the mindset of their current rulers. As countries can change leaders, so do corporations. Also, a companies "coolness" factor can grow stale over time, just like clothing styles.
Remember when Microsoft was geeky cool and everybody wanted to work there? (I do, but few here today would admit it)
Remember when HP and Nortel did really cool cutting edge research?
Remember when Germany/Japan/Russia was an evil empire?
Remember when Spain, Mexico or Canada was at war with the USA?
If and when (I hope not soon) Google's leadership changes, so may their philosophy.
As opposed to SCO's openserver which comes bundled with a lawsuit at no extra charge. :P
Actually, if you read the article, they found a really neat solution around that problem as well, similar to the way suspension bridge cables are built up from a single strand.
A small sized ribbon would be used at first, so that a space should could temporarily act as the counterweight. A small elevator would be sent to the top of the ribbon, which could then replace the shuttle as counterweight. More small elevators then are sent to the top - each adding additional ribbons to the structure to improve its lift capacity, until they reach the end of the line where they add their own mass to that of the counterweight. After 2 dozen or so small lift units have reached the end of the teather the mass of the counterweight will have reached 20 tons, and the elevator is ready to send full size payloads up.
The latest issue of IEEE spectrum featurs the space elevator.
Being more environmentally friendly than conventional rockets wasn't even mentioned as a space elevator advantage. And yes - we do now have the technology in place to build it, for less than the cost of a shuttle replacement.
All we need is somebody in power to sign off on the program and put this into high gear.
I need to upgrade my linux firewall - a quick reformat and Novell linux install will solve that problem for good. Heck, the PC they are tossing out is probably more powerful than my server.
Would you want a body implant that runs on Windows?
I can just see it - adware popups that appear every 2 minutes on your ocular implants.
Your local telephone company has been racking up money from lewd conversations, pedophilia and and terrorist plots!
It it true - people have been picking up the phone for years and saying just about anything to the party on the other end, which may include attempts to lure young girls into illicit behavior, planning terrorist plots and criminal activity. And the phone company has been making a profit by turning a blind eye to this for years!
I demand immediately that the phone company put filters in place to filter out any illegal or immoral conversation. Write your local politician today!
What we need is some sort of "Fair Use" or "User Friendly" certification that can be applied to any piece of consumer electronics, when can then be posted on product review websites. Only products which are DRM free could carry the certification label and/or sticker. This will both raise public awareness, and for those in the know, steer them towards products that work. It will also provide sales and grass roots marketing to companies that refuse to knuckle under to the content cartels.
Last year's DARPA challenge was very good for breaking things. Killing people might happen if they stand anywhere around the course, and the robotic drivers decide you are just a sagebrush.
Or in 10 years open source might well be illegal there.
Imagine how many times my hard drive has been erased and recycled to hold new information?