I bought a Inspiron 8000 preloaded with linx, and tech support couldn't help my any. In short, they sold something that they couldn't support.
Oh, but it gets better!
I called up once because the laptop would randomly turn itself on, make a bunch of noises, then turn off. What did I get from the tech support guy? "Wow, never heard of that one before."
My friend has another Inspiron. His problem occours when you start up the computer, the computer screetches until an OS is loaded. Dell doesn't believe him.
The only good thing I've heard from any tech support was from IBM. Another pal has a Thinkpad, and when he had a problem, IBM just sent him an empty padded box with shipping paid for, he sent off his Thinkpad, and within 4 days he was working on his repaired laptop.
This is all good
on
WineX 2.0
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
But still...
It'd be really nice if games were ported/developed for linux. Then people will start switching operating systems. Nobody cares if you can run certain programs on linux with a bit of hacking except for those of us who already run linux. Recompile these games for linux, use standards such as opengl, etc...
That being said, I really like seeing these things coming to linux. I love playing certain computer games, and really hate that they are only written for windows (I miss you loki). But hey, I'm off to play some JK II now
That's what caused the losses
There was an article on/. a while ago about how the recording industry lost negative 40 million or some number like that. Profits rose, cd sales went up, all was good.
Then Napster got shut down and look where the recording industry is right now... maby Napster was indeed connected to the rise of profits for the RIAA for the sole reason that it brought music right to the people, into their houses, and music played a part of thier lives... now it takes a back seat to everything else, because the only place you can hear it is on the radio (which sucks)
I hate it when they shoo themselves in the foot./rant
nVidia fixes bugs the first time?! I'm currently running the 23.11 drivers instead of the current ones because the newest driver set SUCKS! I've got a Quadro 2 Pro, and let me tell you that trying to get the newest ones (DetXP 28.whatever) trying to run has been hell. Case in point- Jedi Knight II. It runs fine under 23.11, but the newest driver won't let me load the OpenGL subsystem. Is that getting it right the first time? Every time I try nVidia tech support, they just say "uhhh... restart Windows." That's not the thing I want to hear from tech support. And when you have a question about linux, don't even dare talking to nVidia tech support- they think it's a program running on Windows!
I've never had to contact ATI tech support because nothing went wrong with the card that I previously owned.
Times have changed, and I'll tell you this. If I were to buy another graphics card for my computer, at this point in time I wouldn't know what to get. The GeForce4 looks tempting, but so do the Radeons. I'll have to look at the linux compatability for each (nVidia cards aren't nice to me when I try using Linux. The one time linux crashed on me was the time I was trying to configure a nVidia card)
For the browser, have something that's freely available- I.E. (No pun intended) Netscape and/or Internet Explorer. I lean more tword the Netscape side myself because it's not part of Microsoft, and I've found it actually to be a bit faster in rendering pages, more stable, and just overall better. NS6.x is also up to the W3 standards, IE make 'em up. The reason for something freely available is that a person can upgrade on a whim, and it won't cost you any. If you get Opera or some other pay browser, you've got to relicense (I think), and that'll cost you a bit.
For mail, I'd say Eudora. When I intern'd at Cornell University, we used Eudora, and it was perfect. Easy setup, stable, etc...
Remember that no matter what you include in your software pack, there will be subscribers that don't use what you supply. I never installed anything that came with Road Runner on my computer, one reason was that I run linux most of the time, the other reason was that everything was setup the way I liked it Windows, and I didn't want any more software to mess up the system.
I guess this is just too damn good to pass up to be waiting for a slashdotted site to load... no pictures, but here's the text.. should satisfy your needs. Enjoy!
Experimenting with magnetorheological fluids. Suspending a magnet in mid-air. Levitating pyrolytic graphite. A Gauss Rifle: A Magnetic Linear Accelerator. Building a Curie-effect heat engine. Going further:
Superconductors.
The Gauss Rifle: A Magnetic Linear Accelerator
This very simple toy uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a steel marble at a target at high speed. The toy is very simple to build, going together in minutes, and is very simple to understand and explain, and yet fascinating to watch and to use.
The photo above shows six frames of video showing this toy in action. Each frame shows 1/30th of a second. In the first frame, a steel ball starts rolling towards a magnet taped to a wooden ruler. In the second frame, a second ball can be seen speeding between the rightmost two magnets. By the third frame, the accelerator has sped up so much that the ball that is seen leaving the left side of the device is just a blur as it smashes into the target. One ball, starting at rest, has caused another ball to leave the device at a very high speed.
The materials are simple. We need a wooden ruler that has a groove in the top in which a steel ball can roll easily. Any piece of wood or aluminum or brass with a groove will work. We chose the ruler because they are easy to find around the house or at school or at a local stationery store.
We need some sticky tape. Again, almost any kind will do. Here we use Scotch brand transparent tape, but vinyl electrical tape works just as well.
We need four magnets. Most any type will do, but the stronger the magnets are, the faster the balls will go. Here we use the super strong gold-plated neodymium-iron-boron magnets we have made available in our catalog for the other projects. They work great.
We will also need nine steel balls, with a diameter that is a close match to the height of the magnets. We use 5/8 inch diameter nickel plated steel balls from our catalog.
The only tool we will need is a sharp knife for trimming the tape.
We start by taping the first magnet to the ruler at the 2.5 inch mark. The distance is somewhat arbitrary -- we wanted to get all four magnets on a one foot ruler. Feel free to experiment with the spacing later.
With the sharp knife, trim off any excess tape. Be careful, since the knife will be strongly attracted to the magnet.
It is very important that you keep the magnets from jumping together. They are made of a brittle sintered material that shatters like a ceramic. Tape the ruler to the table temporarily, so that it doesn't jump up to the next magnet as you tape the second magnet to the ruler.
Continue taping the magnets to the ruler, leaving 2.5 inches between the magnets.
When all four magnets are taped to the ruler, it is time to load the device with the balls.
To the right of each magnet, place two steel balls. Arrange a target to the right of the device, so the ball does not roll down the street and get lost.
To fire the gun, set a steel ball in the groove to the left of the leftmost magnet. Let the ball go. If it is close enough to the magnet, it will start rolling by itself, and hit the magnet.
When the gun fires, it will happen too fast to see. The ball on the right will shoot away from the gun, and hit the target with considerable force. Our one foot long version is designed so the speed is not enough to hurt someone, and you can use your hand or foot as a target.
How does it do that?
When you release the first ball, it is attracted to the first magnet. It hits the magnet with a respectable amount of force, and a kinetic energy we will call "1 unit".
The kinetic energy of the ball is transfered to the magnet, and then to the ball that is touching it on the right, and then to the ball that is touching that one. This transfer of kinetic energy is familiar to billiards players -- when the cue ball hits another ball, the cue ball stops and the other ball speeds off.
The third ball is now moving with a kinetic energy of 1 unit. But it is moving towards the second magnet. It picks up speed as the second magnet pulls it closer. When it hits the second magnet, it is moving nearly twice as fast as the first ball.
The third ball hits the magnet, and the fifth ball starts to move with a kinetic energy of 2 units. It speeds up as it nears the third magnet, and hits with of 3 units of kinetic energy. This causes the seventh ball to speed off towards the last magnet. As it gets drawn to the last magnet, it speeds up to 4 units of kinetic energy.
The kinetic energy is now transfered to the last ball, which speeds off at 4 units, to hit the target.
When the device is all set up and ready to be triggered, we can see that there are four balls that are touching their magnets. These balls are at what physicists call the "ground state". It takes energy to move them away from the magnets.
But each of these balls has another ball touching it. These second balls are not at the ground state. They are each 5/8ths of an inch from a magnet. They are easier to move than the balls that are touching the magnet.
If we were to take a ball that was touching a magnet, and pull it away from the magnet until it was 5/8ths of an inch away, we would be adding energy to the ball. The ball would be pulling towards the magnet with some considerable force. We could get the energy back by letting the ball go.
After the gun has fired, the situation is different. Now each of the balls is touching a magnet. There is one ball on each side of each magnet. Each ball is in its ground state, and has given up the energy that was stored by being 5/8ths of an inch from a magnet. That energy has gone into the last ball, which uses it to destroy the target.
Speed and kinetic energy
The kinetic energy of an object is defined as its mass times the square of its velocity. As each magnet pulls on a ball, it adds kinetic energy to the ball linearly.
But the speed does not add up linearly. If we have 4 magnets, the kinetic energy is 4, but the speed goes up as the square root of the kinetic energy. As we add more magnets, the speed goes up by a smaller amount each time. But the distance the ball will roll, and the damage it causes to what it hits, is a function of the kinetic energy, and thus a function of how many magnets we use.
We can keep scaling up the gun until the kinetic energy gets so high that the last magnet is shattered by the impact. After that, adding more magnets will not do much good.
Why a circular track will not be a perpetual motion device
I have been getting a lot of mail asking what would happen if we made the track circular. Would we get free energy? Would the balls keep accelerating forever?
I have been tempted to reply with the famous quote: "There are two kinds of people in the world -- those who understand the second law of thermodynamics, and those who don't".
However, I am not the kind of person to leave an inquiring mind unsatisfied, and it is more productive (and kind) to explain in a little more depth what is going on.
Suppose you made a circular track, and put two balls after each magnet. When the last ball is released, it encounters a magnet that has two balls at the ground state. There is no energy to be had from this magnet. The ball just bounces back.
Now suppose you had placed three balls after each magnet. When the last ball is released, it hits a ball that is 5/8ths inch from the magnet. It has not gained much momentum, because most of the momentum gained is in the last half inch as the magnet pulls much stronger on things that are closer. But the ball has enough energy from previous accelerations to release the next ball. However, that ball has less energy than the ball that caused it to release. It may have enough energy to release another ball or two, but each ball that is released has less energy than before, and eventually the chain stops.
You can show by inductive logic that no matter how many balls you stack in front of each magnet, eventually the system stops.
To estimate the losses due to heating the balls as they compress when hit, consider a plastic tube standing upright on a table. Place one steel ball at the bottom of the tube. Now drop another ball into the tube, so it hits the ball at the bottom, and bounces back up.
Now measure how high the ball bounced. If it bounces halfway back up, the losses are 50%. Perform the experiment for yourself with the balls from the Gauss Rifle. How high does your ball bounce? Send me mail with your results.
It seems really nice now, but when you have the machine in hand, the VC really sucks. As stated in the review, it's really picky with order. The best thing though would be when you use it in a really crowded place. I'd get it just to get looks from people when I'm yelling at the player. Interesting stuff. "Play Bach damnit! I want to hear something soothing!"
Ads are perfect for radio and public television, because there aren't subscription fees. I myself, however, pay about $30/mo for basic cable service to my house, and if I wanted the whole shebang, I'd be paying upwards of $50-$60/mo. Now lets do some math-
Time Warner-12.7 million subscribers Directv-10.7 million subscribers Dish Networks-Around 5.5 million subscribers Total (selected companies)-28.9 million subscribers
Now, if we are conservative and say that your average joe only pays $35/mo, then that means that the cash flow into the TV business is about 1.01 billion dollars. In reality, this number is much higher (I'm guessing around 5-6 billion in income per month), because there are more subscribers (I only know of three providers off the top of my head, and I live in the north east), and these subscribers pay a larger fee for their service (about $40-$60). Now, with that much money going into the programming biz each month, do we need commercials?
Maby I should put it this way- I sure as hell don't pay $30/mo to watch commercials half the damn time. Cable should be free if we're forced to watch commercials.
Lookie here- AOL will use linux, because they already do!!!!
Go to netcraft, check out www.aol.com, then read the result- Linux. AOL has always, and will always, be a linux shop.
That being said- I don't think that they should get red hat. RH is doing fine, and you know what- if MS goes down, who are we going to turn to and yell at????
Um, how the hell are they going to store all the antimatter (It needs to be standing still, not being slung around a particle accelerator), and how the hell do they make all the antimatter that will power these spacecraft?
E=MC^2 : that's a very commonly known formula, and it means that even if a very tiny amount of matter was turned into energy, there would be a whole lot of that energy made. For example- if.5 grams of antimatter met up w/.5 grams of normal matter, then you'll end up with 8.99 x 10^13 J (lots and lots of power). However, this also kinda means that to get.5 grams of antimatter, you have to put in a slew of energy, because there has to be a conservation of energy. How NASA scientists will get around this will be interesting to see.
I'm already a victim of TW/AOL price inflation. I'm using Road Runner and have Digital Cable, and that's running me over $100/month... I think I'll get rid of the TVI'm already a victim of TW/AOL price inflation. I'm using Road Runner and have Digital Cable, and that's running me over $100/month... I think I'll get rid of the TV service, which will save me $50, and I'll eventually go to DSL, hoping to save a few dollars. Prices are ridiculus with Time Warner. When we had ACC (Old cable company bought out by TW), I paid a full $25 a month and got better service then than I get now. What the hell is going on...
When those fools raise the price to $230/month, that's when I say "Good bye" and look for alternatives. They have no competition here in the Ithaca area, and that's why the can inflate prices so much. I really doubt that they will add the proposed "features," but they still want to charge as much as they can... AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!
There really wasn't much (if any) student code used. It's more archetecture. The man's name on the patent is H.C Thorng, a recently retired professor of CU in the Electrical Engineering department. I actually have a computer that he used, an old HP vectra!
I actually met him- really nice guy. Worked w/ my dad.
GO BIG RED!!!
Remember the last Spy Mac iWalk?
on
Apple PDA?
·
· Score: 1
If you don't, then let me remind you. They posted a rendered PDA and said it was the "next big thing." What was it really?... The iPod. Personally I think it's a hoax, but the only the future can tell.
Boy, I'm wondering what the hell didn't happen this year. Terrorist attacks, new prez, cloning, artifical hearts, iPod, 2.4.x, Linux PDA's, Pentium 4, RAM prices fall, RAM prices go up, people born, people die, text Quake II, etc...
Oh what a year it was. Hell, I think the only thing that didn't happen was me getting a girlfriend...
I got 2000 AOL cds. Looks like my little brother and his friend went around to the 3 Sears stores close to us, and looted all their AOL CD's... Well, at least it was a Christmas to remember...
Oh poor babies! Getting your bandwith capped at 1.5 MBit/sec. Over here, I've topped the damn thing out at just under.9Mbit/sec with road runner. I want it to go faster, after all, I am paying $50/month, but all I get is shitty service.
I watched triumph of the nerds again, and it smacked me right across the face- what does an OS or computer need in order for people to get/use it? A killer Application!
Let me elaborate- When the Apple II came out, nobody got the damn thing until it got a spreadsheet. Then came the IBM. Nobody bought that damn thing until Lotus 123 came out. Later nobody bought a Macintosh until it got some graphics software. Then came MSDOS sometime between IBM (yes, DOS ran on IBM), and it's killer app was IBM's, sorta... Then Came windows, and people only bought that crap after they released Office.
Now, Linux has it's killer apps, but they are in the server market, and therefore normal people don't want to use it. What it will take is software developers to make something new and pitched at the normal consumer for Linux to hit the mainstream
This is in reference to the link off of the message- the DoJ press release
No, it really doesn't make sense, but I guess this is the only way to have charges dropped from the Warez rings.
Remember the last moments of the Clinton Presidency? When he made a slew of laws? Well one of these was called the McDade Act(s), which specifically states that no agent undercover may lie. That was one of the dumbest laws passed, considering that it could have prevented 9-11, but it applies to this case. The DoJ prides itself on it's "year-long" undercover investigation, but they should have known that its a big no-no to lie. I'd bet that some of these people "undercover" were asked "are you w/ the feds" in which their answer would obviously be "NO." Thats a lie, and goes against whath the (retarded) McDade act states. Boom, thats it- they were found illegally.
Please don't flame this, because all I'm doing is bringing to light something that most people didn't know. This is like the old police searching a random student at a HS dance, then arresting him for Marijuana possession. THe kid gets off totally free afterwards because the police had no warrant (etc...). I guess that the McDade act is the only trump card that the Warez rings have. I personally believe that McDade is totally stupid, and it will be really sad if they are used to throw out the case.
Si si- Razor and DoD were both groups that made high quality cracks of Windows/Office/etc... I actually know a buddy of mine who has the DoD versions of Win 95, 98, 2000, Me and XP. Razor mainly concentrated on games, but I think they were the ones who did Maya and some Photoshops. I have seen many different people do cracks for these, but the Warez community won't see as many releases now, because they just busted one of the biggest (in amount of people and respect) cracking orginizations.
Rest in Peace Drink or Die and Razor. You will not be forgotten soon. The wonderful thing about this is that the feds still haven't pulled two of the biggest cracking orgs around. Their names are not to be mentioned, just to send a finger to the FBI. So fear not! There will still be quality warez distributed. Actually, I think that the people that weren't taken down will actually join other groups. There is no way that the feds can stop warez- its impossible. Find one way to crack down on warez, and there will be people to find another way.
Slashdot Mirror
I bought a Inspiron 8000 preloaded with linx, and tech support couldn't help my any. In short, they sold something that they couldn't support.
Oh, but it gets better!
I called up once because the laptop would randomly turn itself on, make a bunch of noises, then turn off. What did I get from the tech support guy? "Wow, never heard of that one before."
My friend has another Inspiron. His problem occours when you start up the computer, the computer screetches until an OS is loaded. Dell doesn't believe him.
The only good thing I've heard from any tech support was from IBM. Another pal has a Thinkpad, and when he had a problem, IBM just sent him an empty padded box with shipping paid for, he sent off his Thinkpad, and within 4 days he was working on his repaired laptop.
But still...
It'd be really nice if games were ported/developed for linux. Then people will start switching operating systems. Nobody cares if you can run certain programs on linux with a bit of hacking except for those of us who already run linux. Recompile these games for linux, use standards such as opengl, etc...
That being said, I really like seeing these things coming to linux. I love playing certain computer games, and really hate that they are only written for windows (I miss you loki). But hey, I'm off to play some JK II now
That's what caused the losses There was an article on /. a while ago about how the recording industry lost negative 40 million or some number like that. Profits rose, cd sales went up, all was good.
Then Napster got shut down and look where the recording industry is right now... maby Napster was indeed connected to the rise of profits for the RIAA for the sole reason that it brought music right to the people, into their houses, and music played a part of thier lives... now it takes a back seat to everything else, because the only place you can hear it is on the radio (which sucks)
I hate it when they shoo themselves in the foot. /rant
nVidia fixes bugs the first time?! I'm currently running the 23.11 drivers instead of the current ones because the newest driver set SUCKS! I've got a Quadro 2 Pro, and let me tell you that trying to get the newest ones (DetXP 28.whatever) trying to run has been hell. Case in point- Jedi Knight II. It runs fine under 23.11, but the newest driver won't let me load the OpenGL subsystem. Is that getting it right the first time? Every time I try nVidia tech support, they just say "uhhh... restart Windows." That's not the thing I want to hear from tech support. And when you have a question about linux, don't even dare talking to nVidia tech support- they think it's a program running on Windows!
I've never had to contact ATI tech support because nothing went wrong with the card that I previously owned.
Times have changed, and I'll tell you this. If I were to buy another graphics card for my computer, at this point in time I wouldn't know what to get. The GeForce4 looks tempting, but so do the Radeons. I'll have to look at the linux compatability for each (nVidia cards aren't nice to me when I try using Linux. The one time linux crashed on me was the time I was trying to configure a nVidia card)
For the browser, have something that's freely available- I.E. (No pun intended) Netscape and/or Internet Explorer. I lean more tword the Netscape side myself because it's not part of Microsoft, and I've found it actually to be a bit faster in rendering pages, more stable, and just overall better. NS6.x is also up to the W3 standards, IE make 'em up. The reason for something freely available is that a person can upgrade on a whim, and it won't cost you any. If you get Opera or some other pay browser, you've got to relicense (I think), and that'll cost you a bit. For mail, I'd say Eudora. When I intern'd at Cornell University, we used Eudora, and it was perfect. Easy setup, stable, etc... Remember that no matter what you include in your software pack, there will be subscribers that don't use what you supply. I never installed anything that came with Road Runner on my computer, one reason was that I run linux most of the time, the other reason was that everything was setup the way I liked it Windows, and I didn't want any more software to mess up the system.
I guess this is just too damn good to pass up to be waiting for a slashdotted site to load... no pictures, but here's the text.. should satisfy your needs. Enjoy!
Experimenting with magnetorheological fluids.
Suspending a magnet in mid-air.
Levitating pyrolytic graphite.
A Gauss Rifle: A Magnetic Linear Accelerator.
Building a Curie-effect heat engine.
Going further:
Superconductors.
The Gauss Rifle:
A Magnetic Linear Accelerator
This very simple toy uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a steel marble at a target at high speed. The toy is very simple to build, going together in minutes, and is very simple to understand and explain, and yet fascinating to watch and to use.
The photo above shows six frames of video showing this toy in action. Each frame shows 1/30th of a second. In the first frame, a steel ball starts rolling towards a magnet taped to a wooden ruler. In the second frame, a second ball can be seen speeding between the rightmost two magnets. By the third frame, the accelerator has sped up so much that the ball that is seen leaving the left side of the device is just a blur as it smashes into the target. One ball, starting at rest, has caused another ball to leave the device at a very high speed.
The materials are simple. We need a wooden ruler that has a groove in the top in which a steel ball can roll easily. Any piece of wood or aluminum or brass with a groove will work. We chose the ruler because they are easy to find around the house or at school or at a local stationery store.
We need some sticky tape. Again, almost any kind will do. Here we use Scotch brand transparent tape, but vinyl electrical tape works just as well.
We need four magnets. Most any type will do, but the stronger the magnets are, the faster the balls will go. Here we use the super strong gold-plated neodymium-iron-boron magnets we have made available in our catalog for the other projects. They work great.
We will also need nine steel balls, with a diameter that is a close match to the height of the magnets. We use 5/8 inch diameter nickel plated steel balls from our catalog.
The only tool we will need is a sharp knife for trimming the tape.
We start by taping the first magnet to the ruler at the 2.5 inch mark. The distance is somewhat arbitrary -- we wanted to get all four magnets on a one foot ruler. Feel free to experiment with the spacing later.
With the sharp knife, trim off any excess tape. Be careful, since the knife will be strongly attracted to the magnet.
It is very important that you keep the magnets from jumping together. They are made of a brittle sintered material that shatters like a ceramic. Tape the ruler to the table temporarily, so that it doesn't jump up to the next magnet as you tape the second magnet to the ruler.
Continue taping the magnets to the ruler, leaving 2.5 inches between the magnets.
When all four magnets are taped to the ruler, it is time to load the device with the balls.
To the right of each magnet, place two steel balls. Arrange a target to the right of the device, so the ball does not roll down the street and get lost.
To fire the gun, set a steel ball in the groove to the left of the leftmost magnet. Let the ball go. If it is close enough to the magnet, it will start rolling by itself, and hit the magnet.
When the gun fires, it will happen too fast to see. The ball on the right will shoot away from the gun, and hit the target with considerable force. Our one foot long version is designed so the speed is not enough to hurt someone, and you can use your hand or foot as a target.
How does it do that?
When you release the first ball, it is attracted to the first magnet. It hits the magnet with a respectable amount of force, and a kinetic energy we will call "1 unit".
The kinetic energy of the ball is transfered to the magnet, and then to the ball that is touching it on the right, and then to the ball that is touching that one. This transfer of kinetic energy is familiar to billiards players -- when the cue ball hits another ball, the cue ball stops and the other ball speeds off.
The third ball is now moving with a kinetic energy of 1 unit. But it is moving towards the second magnet. It picks up speed as the second magnet pulls it closer. When it hits the second magnet, it is moving nearly twice as fast as the first ball.
The third ball hits the magnet, and the fifth ball starts to move with a kinetic energy of 2 units. It speeds up as it nears the third magnet, and hits with of 3 units of kinetic energy. This causes the seventh ball to speed off towards the last magnet. As it gets drawn to the last magnet, it speeds up to 4 units of kinetic energy.
The kinetic energy is now transfered to the last ball, which speeds off at 4 units, to hit the target.
When the device is all set up and ready to be triggered, we can see that there are four balls that are touching their magnets. These balls are at what physicists call the "ground state". It takes energy to move them away from the magnets.
But each of these balls has another ball touching it. These second balls are not at the ground state. They are each 5/8ths of an inch from a magnet. They are easier to move than the balls that are touching the magnet.
If we were to take a ball that was touching a magnet, and pull it away from the magnet until it was 5/8ths of an inch away, we would be adding energy to the ball. The ball would be pulling towards the magnet with some considerable force. We could get the energy back by letting the ball go.
After the gun has fired, the situation is different. Now each of the balls is touching a magnet. There is one ball on each side of each magnet. Each ball is in its ground state, and has given up the energy that was stored by being 5/8ths of an inch from a magnet. That energy has gone into the last ball, which uses it to destroy the target.
Speed and kinetic energy
The kinetic energy of an object is defined as its mass times the square of its velocity. As each magnet pulls on a ball, it adds kinetic energy to the ball linearly.
But the speed does not add up linearly. If we have 4 magnets, the kinetic energy is 4, but the speed goes up as the square root of the kinetic energy. As we add more magnets, the speed goes up by a smaller amount each time. But the distance the ball will roll, and the damage it causes to what it hits, is a function of the kinetic energy, and thus a function of how many magnets we use.
We can keep scaling up the gun until the kinetic energy gets so high that the last magnet is shattered by the impact. After that, adding more magnets will not do much good.
Why a circular track will not be a perpetual motion device
I have been getting a lot of mail asking what would happen if we made the track circular. Would we get free energy? Would the balls keep accelerating forever?
I have been tempted to reply with the famous quote: "There are two kinds of people in the world -- those who understand the second law of thermodynamics, and those who don't".
However, I am not the kind of person to leave an inquiring mind unsatisfied, and it is more productive (and kind) to explain in a little more depth what is going on.
Suppose you made a circular track, and put two balls after each magnet. When the last ball is released, it encounters a magnet that has two balls at the ground state. There is no energy to be had from this magnet. The ball just bounces back.
Now suppose you had placed three balls after each magnet. When the last ball is released, it hits a ball that is 5/8ths inch from the magnet. It has not gained much momentum, because most of the momentum gained is in the last half inch as the magnet pulls much stronger on things that are closer. But the ball has enough energy from previous accelerations to release the next ball. However, that ball has less energy than the ball that caused it to release. It may have enough energy to release another ball or two, but each ball that is released has less energy than before, and eventually the chain stops.
You can show by inductive logic that no matter how many balls you stack in front of each magnet, eventually the system stops.
To estimate the losses due to heating the balls as they compress when hit, consider a plastic tube standing upright on a table. Place one steel ball at the bottom of the tube. Now drop another ball into the tube, so it hits the ball at the bottom, and bounces back up.
Now measure how high the ball bounced. If it bounces halfway back up, the losses are 50%. Perform the experiment for yourself with the balls from the Gauss Rifle. How high does your ball bounce? Send me mail with your results.
So now I can read slashdot everywhere I go, and won't have to ever be without it for more than 10 minutes. Maby I can get some first posts in too...
It seems really nice now, but when you have the machine in hand, the VC really sucks. As stated in the review, it's really picky with order. The best thing though would be when you use it in a really crowded place. I'd get it just to get looks from people when I'm yelling at the player. Interesting stuff. "Play Bach damnit! I want to hear something soothing!"
No- really, think about it
Ads are perfect for radio and public television, because there aren't subscription fees. I myself, however, pay about $30/mo for basic cable service to my house, and if I wanted the whole shebang, I'd be paying upwards of $50-$60/mo. Now lets do some math-
Time Warner-12.7 million subscribers
Directv-10.7 million subscribers
Dish Networks-Around 5.5 million subscribers
Total (selected companies)-28.9 million subscribers
Now, if we are conservative and say that your average joe only pays $35/mo, then that means that the cash flow into the TV business is about 1.01 billion dollars. In reality, this number is much higher (I'm guessing around 5-6 billion in income per month), because there are more subscribers (I only know of three providers off the top of my head, and I live in the north east), and these subscribers pay a larger fee for their service (about $40-$60). Now, with that much money going into the programming biz each month, do we need commercials?
Maby I should put it this way- I sure as hell don't pay $30/mo to watch commercials half the damn time. Cable should be free if we're forced to watch commercials.
So pigs can fly, you can throw snoballs into hell
And yes, there is a Santa Claus.
I never thought it possible.
Lookie here- AOL will use linux, because they already do!!!!
Go to netcraft, check out www.aol.com, then read the result- Linux. AOL has always, and will always, be a linux shop.
That being said- I don't think that they should get red hat. RH is doing fine, and you know what- if MS goes down, who are we going to turn to and yell at????
AOL
Old news... You can find some more stuff at the Reg
I wonder if I can get the Carson Daily signiture edition...
Um, how the hell are they going to store all the antimatter (It needs to be standing still, not being slung around a particle accelerator), and how the hell do they make all the antimatter that will power these spacecraft?
.5 grams of antimatter met up w/ .5 grams of normal matter, then you'll end up with 8.99 x 10^13 J (lots and lots of power). However, this also kinda means that to get .5 grams of antimatter, you have to put in a slew of energy, because there has to be a conservation of energy. How NASA scientists will get around this will be interesting to see.
E=MC^2 : that's a very commonly known formula, and it means that even if a very tiny amount of matter was turned into energy, there would be a whole lot of that energy made. For example- if
I'm already a victim of TW/AOL price inflation. I'm using Road Runner and have Digital Cable, and that's running me over $100/month... I think I'll get rid of the TVI'm already a victim of TW/AOL price inflation. I'm using Road Runner and have Digital Cable, and that's running me over $100/month... I think I'll get rid of the TV service, which will save me $50, and I'll eventually go to DSL, hoping to save a few dollars. Prices are ridiculus with Time Warner. When we had ACC (Old cable company bought out by TW), I paid a full $25 a month and got better service then than I get now. What the hell is going on...
When those fools raise the price to $230/month, that's when I say "Good bye" and look for alternatives. They have no competition here in the Ithaca area, and that's why the can inflate prices so much. I really doubt that they will add the proposed "features," but they still want to charge as much as they can... AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!
Yes, finally, Ithaca is making news!
There really wasn't much (if any) student code used. It's more archetecture. The man's name on the patent is H.C Thorng, a recently retired professor of CU in the Electrical Engineering department. I actually have a computer that he used, an old HP vectra!
I actually met him- really nice guy. Worked w/ my dad.
GO BIG RED!!!
If you don't, then let me remind you. They posted a rendered PDA and said it was the "next big thing." What was it really?... The iPod. Personally I think it's a hoax, but the only the future can tell.
So some sicko can check out alien girls somewhere out there?
Boy, I'm wondering what the hell didn't happen this year. Terrorist attacks, new prez, cloning, artifical hearts, iPod, 2.4.x, Linux PDA's, Pentium 4, RAM prices fall, RAM prices go up, people born, people die, text Quake II, etc...
Oh what a year it was. Hell, I think the only thing that didn't happen was me getting a girlfriend...
Happy New Year everyone!
I got 2000 AOL cds. Looks like my little brother and his friend went around to the 3 Sears stores close to us, and looted all their AOL CD's... Well, at least it was a Christmas to remember...
Oh poor babies! Getting your bandwith capped at 1.5 MBit/sec. Over here, I've topped the damn thing out at just under .9Mbit/sec with road runner. I want it to go faster, after all, I am paying $50/month, but all I get is shitty service.
Well, what happens if you have an infestation of pigeons around where you live? LED's aren't easy to clean if they're in a tube
I watched triumph of the nerds again, and it smacked me right across the face- what does an OS or computer need in order for people to get/use it? A killer Application!
Let me elaborate- When the Apple II came out, nobody got the damn thing until it got a spreadsheet. Then came the IBM. Nobody bought that damn thing until Lotus 123 came out. Later nobody bought a Macintosh until it got some graphics software. Then came MSDOS sometime between IBM (yes, DOS ran on IBM), and it's killer app was IBM's, sorta... Then Came windows, and people only bought that crap after they released Office.
Now, Linux has it's killer apps, but they are in the server market, and therefore normal people don't want to use it. What it will take is software developers to make something new and pitched at the normal consumer for Linux to hit the mainstream
This is in reference to the link off of the message- the DoJ press release
No, it really doesn't make sense, but I guess this is the only way to have charges dropped from the Warez rings.
Remember the last moments of the Clinton Presidency? When he made a slew of laws? Well one of these was called the McDade Act(s), which specifically states that no agent undercover may lie. That was one of the dumbest laws passed, considering that it could have prevented 9-11, but it applies to this case. The DoJ prides itself on it's "year-long" undercover investigation, but they should have known that its a big no-no to lie. I'd bet that some of these people "undercover" were asked "are you w/ the feds" in which their answer would obviously be "NO." Thats a lie, and goes against whath the (retarded) McDade act states. Boom, thats it- they were found illegally.
Please don't flame this, because all I'm doing is bringing to light something that most people didn't know. This is like the old police searching a random student at a HS dance, then arresting him for Marijuana possession. THe kid gets off totally free afterwards because the police had no warrant (etc...). I guess that the McDade act is the only trump card that the Warez rings have. I personally believe that McDade is totally stupid, and it will be really sad if they are used to throw out the case.
Si si- Razor and DoD were both groups that made high quality cracks of Windows/Office/etc... I actually know a buddy of mine who has the DoD versions of Win 95, 98, 2000, Me and XP. Razor mainly concentrated on games, but I think they were the ones who did Maya and some Photoshops. I have seen many different people do cracks for these, but the Warez community won't see as many releases now, because they just busted one of the biggest (in amount of people and respect) cracking orginizations.
Rest in Peace Drink or Die and Razor. You will not be forgotten soon. The wonderful thing about this is that the feds still haven't pulled two of the biggest cracking orgs around. Their names are not to be mentioned, just to send a finger to the FBI. So fear not! There will still be quality warez distributed. Actually, I think that the people that weren't taken down will actually join other groups. There is no way that the feds can stop warez- its impossible. Find one way to crack down on warez, and there will be people to find another way.
Isn't America Grand?