And with the Russian icebreaker/reactor... wtf - how high were they when they came up with that idea?
Icebreakers are one ship type where using a nuclear reactor makes sense. You need ungodly amounts of power for Arctic-region icebreaking, so carrying enough fuel to power conventional engines would make the ship quite a bit larger (although the Arktika-class vessels aren't exactly small). The Arktikas can break 2.0 m thick ice at a speed of 19 km/h, the largest conventional-powered vessels (US Polar-class) reach only 6 km/h when the ice is that thick.
Countries like Finland basically solved this years ago, providing power in e.g. public car parks for engine block heaters. Shouldn't have to take the US 50 years to catch up...
An interesting idea, but they better implement it correctly: keep reading while changing the speed. With high-speed CD drives I always get the impression they only start reading after the drive has arrived at top speed, which means that for small files a 40x drive ends up being slower than a 4x drive.
In that case, could you please stop preaching to the choir and direct your vitriol at the people who are actually doing the pushing instead? Ranting on/. isn't going to help.
Simple solution: make sure his tether is non-conducting. Use one of those MMUs so the astronaut can be autonomous instead of on an umbilical. Or am I overlooking something?
If the room you watch movies in is a fairly standard 12'x12'x10' box there's really no need for much more than a $60-$80 system. The components in such a system are superior in frequency response and isolation to expensive Hi Fi systems of a half century ago. AF electronics are cheap. High strength magnets are cheap. Precision machining is even cheap.
The law of diminishing returns kicks in quick for audio equipment, and the only reason you'll need to spend more is if you want to damage your ears by listening to an hour-long movie at jet-engine volume levels. In which case, you won't need high fidelity equipment for long.
You're right about the law of diminishing returns, but $80 is ridiculous. Diminishing returns kick in sooner for some components than others. Decent DVD players can be had for under $100, amplifiers and a TV don't need to cost the earth either. For speakers, every dollar you spend can audibly improve the sound. A $200 speaker will sound so much better than a $100 speaker that non-fanatics can easily hear the difference. The performance/price curve flattens gradually, but real improvement can be had all the way up to the $10000 region. The main reason for this is that speaker design still isn't an exact science. Getting it right is difficult, and the materials haven't been subject to Moore's law so they're still expensive. There's no way to create a truly neutral speaker, every manufacturer deals with this in its own way so speakers sound very different. As a result, personal taste plays an important role in selecting speakers.
All we need now is a 3D CAD application that's affordable for hobbyists, both in $$$ and in time investment. Google SketchUp is a good start, but it's not there yet: I recently came across a company that offers a 3D printing service. Unfortunately, Google SketchUp can't export to any of the CAD file formats accepted by Printapart.
Trust me, if you were to be injured or killed during a flight--extremely unlikely as it is, you probably stand a greater chance of it being because some nutjob jihadist checked a bomb, or infiltrated airport security and poisoned the in-flight food, than because of mechanical failure or runway incursions or mid-air collisions or birds meeting their maker inside a jet engine.
What was the Russian proverb again? Trust, but verify? Check the statistics, accidents are still way more common than deaths due to terrorism on airplanes. Are the US Govt scare tactics this effective?
The Pirate Bay could have been rather more subtle about it: 1. copy the content of IFPI.org 2. change the content, subtly at first 3. publish ever more outrageous claims 4. wait for people to realize the site isn't owned by the IFPI.
As stress levels rise, I want the computer to get out of my way as much as possible, not have Clippy pop up saying, "It seems you're trying to accomplish a difficult task. Do you want me to mess it up for you?" Also, if there's a way the computer can make my life easier, it should do that already rather than wait until I'm stressed out.
By the end of WW2, aircraft engine technology was transitioning from pistons to turbines. The last generation of piston engines relied heavily on turbochargers and/or superchargers. Engines like the Napier Nomad and the Wright R3350 turbocompound can be considered hybrids: some of their output power comes from the piston engine, but some comes directly from the turbines.
Slashdot Mirror
And with the Russian icebreaker/reactor ... wtf - how high were they when they came up with that idea?
Icebreakers are one ship type where using a nuclear reactor makes sense. You need ungodly amounts of power for Arctic-region icebreaking, so carrying enough fuel to power conventional engines would make the ship quite a bit larger (although the Arktika-class vessels aren't exactly small). The Arktikas can break 2.0 m thick ice at a speed of 19 km/h, the largest conventional-powered vessels (US Polar-class) reach only 6 km/h when the ice is that thick.
I thought it was because it's a day you'll want to avoid shops like the plague.
(if there's one thing I can't stand, it's shopping on a busy day)
Countries like Finland basically solved this years ago, providing power in e.g. public car parks for engine block heaters. Shouldn't have to take the US 50 years to catch up...
until moneygrubbing investors pressure Google into ditching the button?
The 'maximize profit at the expense of everything including customer experience' really gets to me sometimes.
An interesting idea, but they better implement it correctly: keep reading while changing the speed. With high-speed CD drives I always get the impression they only start reading after the drive has arrived at top speed, which means that for small files a 40x drive ends up being slower than a 4x drive.
tripe?
Suddenly, buying an old army bunker complex to house your datacenter doesn't seem that excessive.
That's what HTML e-mail and the Ransom font are for.
In that case, could you please stop preaching to the choir and direct your vitriol at the people who are actually doing the pushing instead? Ranting on /. isn't going to help.
Simple solution: make sure his tether is non-conducting. Use one of those MMUs so the astronaut can be autonomous instead of on an umbilical. Or am I overlooking something?
Acme Labs is at it again?
If the room you watch movies in is a fairly standard 12'x12'x10' box there's really no need for much more than a $60-$80 system. The components in such a system are superior in frequency response and isolation to expensive Hi Fi systems of a half century ago. AF electronics are cheap. High strength magnets are cheap. Precision machining is even cheap.
The law of diminishing returns kicks in quick for audio equipment, and the only reason you'll need to spend more is if you want to damage your ears by listening to an hour-long movie at jet-engine volume levels. In which case, you won't need high fidelity equipment for long.
You're right about the law of diminishing returns, but $80 is ridiculous. Diminishing returns kick in sooner for some components than others. Decent DVD players can be had for under $100, amplifiers and a TV don't need to cost the earth either. For speakers, every dollar you spend can audibly improve the sound. A $200 speaker will sound so much better than a $100 speaker that non-fanatics can easily hear the difference.
The performance/price curve flattens gradually, but real improvement can be had all the way up to the $10000 region.
The main reason for this is that speaker design still isn't an exact science. Getting it right is difficult, and the materials haven't been subject to Moore's law so they're still expensive. There's no way to create a truly neutral speaker, every manufacturer deals with this in its own way so speakers sound very different.
As a result, personal taste plays an important role in selecting speakers.
All we need now is a 3D CAD application that's affordable for hobbyists, both in $$$ and in time investment. Google SketchUp is a good start, but it's not there yet:
I recently came across a company that offers a 3D printing service. Unfortunately, Google SketchUp can't export to any of the CAD file formats accepted by Printapart.
DNA, for example, would be closer to the size of a virus. You could end up with an intact cell wall containing nothing but debris.
Maybe there needs to be a Slashdot for OLD nerds. ;^)
Korea.slashdot.org ?
that's a space station!
Sounds like the "Muppet News Flash" where the news anchor is pelted with ten thousand ping pong balls and one bowling ball...
Trust me, if you were to be injured or killed during a flight--extremely unlikely as it is, you probably stand a greater chance of it being because some nutjob jihadist checked a bomb, or infiltrated airport security and poisoned the in-flight food, than because of mechanical failure or runway incursions or mid-air collisions or birds meeting their maker inside a jet engine.
What was the Russian proverb again? Trust, but verify? Check the statistics, accidents are still way more common than deaths due to terrorism on airplanes.
Are the US Govt scare tactics this effective?
after careful consideration I've come to the conclusion that your new defence system sucks.
The Pirate Bay could have been rather more subtle about it:
1. copy the content of IFPI.org
2. change the content, subtly at first
3. publish ever more outrageous claims
4. wait for people to realize the site isn't owned by the IFPI.
I want a Back to the Future-style suction cup.
As stress levels rise, I want the computer to get out of my way as much as possible, not have Clippy pop up saying, "It seems you're trying to accomplish a difficult task. Do you want me to mess it up for you?"
Also, if there's a way the computer can make my life easier, it should do that already rather than wait until I'm stressed out.
Or do it in hardware instead: Black bar glasses.
By the end of WW2, aircraft engine technology was transitioning from pistons to turbines. The last generation of piston engines relied heavily on turbochargers and/or superchargers. Engines like the Napier Nomad and the Wright R3350 turbocompound can be considered hybrids: some of their output power comes from the piston engine, but some comes directly from the turbines.
Rip. Mix. Burn.