...if a radio program we had in Denver in the Seventies contributed any inspiration to MST3K.
It was created by students at the U of Denver and called High Street -- a double entendre on the street address of the school and the default condition of the participants.
It ran at 10 PM Fridays, simultaneously with the evening movie on Channel 2, a non-network TV station. You were instructed to turn on the movie with the sound off, and High Street would supply the dialogue.
The guys were insanely creative. They might stumble for a bit until they'd established a plot premise, but then they were off and running, with improvisations that would keep even perfectly straight people in stitches...eventually they graduated and there was nobody to carry it on.
Look. Statistically, Mother Nature threw a couple of rocks at you from space yesterday. And the day before that, and the day before that...better lay in a big case of granola bars.
You can already buy power on a "demand rate": your monthly bill is X times the peak power you draw at any time during the month. The more level your demand, the less you pay per kilowatt-hour. The peak power draw has to exist for 15 continuous minutes or more before it counts, so you don't get nailed for spikes.
There are home controllers available that let you control your bill by selective load shedding. You set the max load you want, and priorities for the various circuits; the unit will cut off as many circuits as it takes, in priority order, to keep you below that setting.
...and bloody little of it, less than 1/100 as dense as our atmosphere at the surface. A wind sufficient to move part of that instrument would be pretty stormy weather by Martian standards.
They have actual duplicate examples of onboard units, as well as "breadboard" versions built for easy access to the innards.
A complete computer model of the whole thing, emulated right down to hardware and software?
Betcher sweet ass.
How are reboot/reprogram sequences like this handled/practiced/tested?
Endlessly.
Even at design stage I imagine failure modes are extensively analyzed and multiple redundancy built in.
Yes they are. But before switching in a redundant unit, you want to be very sure you know exactly what happened where. The last thing you want to do is to "switch into a short".
Slashdot Mirror
It was created by students at the U of Denver and called High Street -- a double entendre on the street address of the school and the default condition of the participants.
It ran at 10 PM Fridays, simultaneously with the evening movie on Channel 2, a non-network TV station. You were instructed to turn on the movie with the sound off, and High Street would supply the dialogue.
The guys were insanely creative. They might stumble for a bit until they'd established a plot premise, but then they were off and running, with improvisations that would keep even perfectly straight people in stitches...eventually they graduated and there was nobody to carry it on.
rj
...you know what a Phoenix does when it dies, right?
rj
-Let me tell you how you can make a ton of money with Amway!
-How much are you making now?
-Hey, we're just starting out.
rj
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOEq-ImGWJ0
rj
And how many calibans?
rj
Look. Statistically, Mother Nature threw a couple of rocks at you from space yesterday. And the day before that, and the day before that...better lay in a big case of granola bars.
rj
Lafayette was medium-sized potatoes. Rochambeau, de Grasse...absent them and a boatload of French money, we'd be speaking English today.
rj
rj
87.5 naked cities.
rj
Crap, s-meister beat me to it.
rj
...and Baba Yaga gets the royalties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_yaga
rj
3.3 meters. http://www.convertunits.com/from/feet/to/stories
rj
Sure...13.95 stories.
rj
You can already buy power on a "demand rate": your monthly bill is X times the peak power you draw at any time during the month. The more level your demand, the less you pay per kilowatt-hour. The peak power draw has to exist for 15 continuous minutes or more before it counts, so you don't get nailed for spikes.
There are home controllers available that let you control your bill by selective load shedding. You set the max load you want, and priorities for the various circuits; the unit will cut off as many circuits as it takes, in priority order, to keep you below that setting.
rj
...when the drums stop.
rj
WTF? If you're ten years over 55, there's about an even-money chance that you were ten years old before you had any TV set.
rj
Mars does possess an atmosphere
rj
...for the Slashdot Straight-Line Hall of Fame.
rj
Do they have several mock ups?
They have actual duplicate examples of onboard units, as well as "breadboard" versions built for easy access to the innards.
A complete computer model of the whole thing, emulated right down to hardware and software?
Betcher sweet ass.
How are reboot/reprogram sequences like this handled/practiced/tested?
Endlessly.
Even at design stage I imagine failure modes are extensively analyzed and multiple redundancy built in.
Yes they are. But before switching in a redundant unit, you want to be very sure you know exactly what happened where. The last thing you want to do is to "switch into a short".
rj
...nominated Giant Tallywhacker?
rj
Or using "exponentially" for the same purpose...
rj
...that it's a normal, healthy part of growing up, but they mustn't experiment with it too early.
rj
Two words: Forty-five seconds.
rj
There can only be one athiest. Some people are athy, some are athier, but only one can be the athiest.
rj
rj