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User: Dunbal

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Comments · 12,109

  1. Re:Latency? What latency? on Japan Launches "Super-Speed" Internet Satellite · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With radio waves traveling at the speed of light what difference is 175 miles going to make?

    175 miles? Try more like 22,230 miles. That's pretty much the only place you can put it unless you want your internet connection to only work 3 minutes out of every 90 minutes...

    The reasons are simple physics. Gravity causes everything to want to fall towards the center of the Earth. Satellites manage to stay in orbit because they are constantly "falling" ahead of the Earth. That's why things in "low earth orbit" are referred to as being "in freefall" and not REALLY in zero gravity. Gravity is still there, only the velocity of the satellite is so high that all gravity manages to do is curve the trajectory of the satellite, not cause it to lose height. This means your satellite is going to be moving VERY fast with respect to the ground.

    It's only at 22,230 miles out where the circle is so big that your satellite now appears fixed with respect to the ground. It's still moving. It's still "free-falling". But it appears to be hovering over a fixed spot over the equator - very useful for communication satellites since now you know where to aim your antenna and you don't have to bother moving it.

  2. Re:But I want RoooOoon on Ralph Nader Might Announce Run For President · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't be so sure. Europe seems to be weathering the storm just fine.

  3. Re:You cannot be serious on Japan Launches "Super-Speed" Internet Satellite · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    So a subsistence farmer in rural Indonesia gets a better download speed than me, a sophisticated suburban Australian. Awesome.

          Don't worry the kiwi's have apparently come up with a sheep powered device that's even faster. Coming to Australia soon.

  4. Re:Geosynchronous Latency on Japan Launches "Super-Speed" Internet Satellite · · Score: 5, Funny

    The connection sucks for anything interactive

          Except, possibly chess.

  5. Re:I Think the problem is... on Leaked RIAA Training Video · · Score: 1

    When people set up CD duplication plants that produce 50,000 well produced, colour printed hard-to-spot counterfeits CD's that look just like the real thing

          No one does THAT anymore either. Originals = $20... your "reproduction" = $5. My copy via bit-torrent: free (the cost is my bandwidth and patience). Wake up, no one "buys" pirate copies anymore. You're 10 years behind.

  6. Re:Geniuses on Ulysses Spacecraft on its Last Legs · · Score: 1

    INAE, but if you watch Star Trek at all you know that space engineers always leave themselves a huge safety margin because this a) impresses the rest of the crew and b) makes them always right!

    It's kinda like your doctor - I'd rather tell you that I want to run some tests because I suspect disease, have you pay for such tests, and then have you breathe a sigh of relief when disease is ruled out than just tell you outright to stop being such a crybaby it's all in your head (except of course when it's pretty damned obviously a psychological problem). What happens with the guy I said was having panic attacks when 6 months later he has a heart attack? This stuff happens. Better to err on the side of caution.

    I'm sure engineers have found a way to do that too. If it's 5 years I'm sure it's 5 years MINIMUM. More = bonus points.

  7. Re:Power decrease on Ulysses Spacecraft on its Last Legs · · Score: 1

    But they thought they could turn the main transmitter back on. That part's broke.

    60 watts should be enough for anybody.
  8. Re:D'oh on Ulysses Spacecraft on its Last Legs · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you had read the article you would know that this originally was intended to be a five year mission, and the spacecraft has been sending us useful data for seventeen years. Yes, they got plenty of of it before transmission was cut off - more than they bargained for.

    I know reading articles goes against everything slashdot stands for, but doing it from time to time can make you smarter.

  9. Re:Oblig: Linux? on IBM Leaks Details on New Mainframe · · Score: 1

    More importantly, hopefully with all that computing power we will finally have a machine that can divide by zero.

  10. Re:Betamax wasn't better. on Sony Paid Warner Bros. $400 Million to Go Blu-Ray? · · Score: 1

    Well, that, and VHS had porn.

          Betamax had porn too. My dad's collection was all betamax... uhh, don't ask me how I know.

  11. What a joke on Radio Telescopes on Moon to Study Cosmic Dark Ages · · Score: 1

    NASA can't even afford to keep flying the shuttle, and they want to put a radio telescope on the moon? I guess they're allowed to dream.

  12. Re:I Think the problem is... on Leaked RIAA Training Video · · Score: 1

    "I Think the problem is that there are known links between piracy and organised crime and dare I say it, probably even the T-word."

          Put the crack pipe away. WTF?

  13. Re:How Convenient on USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC · · Score: 1

    and its eccentricity is about 0.00051, if that means anything to you.

    Yes it does. After all, I have played Orbiter!

  14. Re:This doesn't make any sense! on Finnish Censorship Expanding · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Secondly... the point of this is that many of the sites *aren't* illegal

    True dat. What happens when the legal age for sexual consent is 14, and pictures of naked 14 year olds engaged in sexual acts are viewed by someone where the legal age of consent is 18? How are you going to make a case against the website that is doing nothing wrong in its country? Are you going to go after the person viewing the content? Then you can make the argument that how can you know what is on a website without seeing it first?

  15. Re:Where's the free INTERNET? on Finnish Censorship Expanding · · Score: 1

    It's dead and calcifying as we speak.

          No it's not. Evolution is just leaving you behind. But the people will always be one step ahead of the government in this. That's what happens when you allow cheap, instant communication between people all over the world. The only way to prevent people finding different ways to share information is to prevent that means communication and take everyone off the net.

          I don't justify child pornography, after all children under the age of consent should not be exploited or sexualized. But information will always flow as long as you keep the taps open. It just finds a different way to do it.

  16. Re:Good coverage on USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC · · Score: 1

    The eclipse likely makes it easier to spot the "target".

          Why? How does the moon affect radar? I'm sure they're not tracking the thing visually.

  17. Re:Good coverage on USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC · · Score: 1

    The *real* reason that they're spending $60M is to make sure that some fuel doesn't contaminate an acre or so of land.

          Hey, each shot is only 60% of the National Science Foundation's annual budget. Why not?

  18. Re:Good coverage on USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC · · Score: 1

    It IS a spy satellite after all.

        Was. Either way.

  19. Re:Woo! on USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC · · Score: 1

    Your faith in the current administration disturbs me. You actually expect this to work?

  20. Re:How Convenient on USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC · · Score: 1

    Why do you suppose the debris will stay up any longer?

          SOME of it will. Parts of the missile, as well as some of the debris from the satellite will end up in a higher orbit because of the impact. I don't want to say "explosion" because in space explosions are different - without an atmospheric pressure wave - all you have is the hot, expanding gas from the explosive itself, and the shrapnel.

  21. Re:Isn't it obvious? on USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC · · Score: 1

    all trumpets and drums before it happens.

          Which is why it isn't going to work. At least not the first time :)

  22. Re:Get a Video! on USA 193 Shootdown Set For Feb 21, 03:30 UTC · · Score: 1

    Only while the engine is running. And I expect the "explosion" to be rather anti-climactic. They usually are, thanks to Hollywood which has led us to believe that everything explodes in a huge fireball.

  23. Re:I don't get it on UK ISPs To Start Tracking Your Surfing To Serve You Ads · · Score: 1

    You're right, I didn't read the article. Still I think it's an ISP's job to connect me to whoever I want to be connected to. If they're not making enough (yeah right), then they should raise their fees. However modifying, adding to or taking from my data connection with the third party is none of their business.

  24. Re:Power corrupts on UK ISPs To Start Tracking Your Surfing To Serve You Ads · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This would work great inside urban sprawl, but you'll still need the telcos for rural and inter-continental stuff and that's where they will bite you in the ass. Unless of course you make enough money to lay your own trans-ocean cables.

  25. I don't get it on UK ISPs To Start Tracking Your Surfing To Serve You Ads · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So how come it's not okay for the phone company to barge into a voice communication in the middle of a conversation I am having with someone in order to tell me of the sale at my local shopping mall and the low low prices on mattresses, but when it's DATA they feel they have the right to alter the communication between myself and the party I am communicating with?

    Plus are the websites going to be compensated for their loss? Because presumably if the visitor is reading a 3rd party ad instead of the ads on the website, the value of the ad space on said website is diminished.