Hell, I hate the way people constantly use the dying wife (or whatever) argument. The fact is, it almost never happens. The judgement calls I'd be concerned about are those like: A motorist is goin 15 kph over the speed limit on a straight, 4-lane highway on a brilliantly sunny day with no other cars in sight. No reasonable cop would book someone for that. However, they would hit you hard for going even 1 kph over the limit in dense fog in dense traffic...
What I want to know is how did they acomplish all of this? I mean, reprogramming electrical circuits are one thing to reroute and fix remotely, but how do you fix a valve-blockage from several thousand km away!?
My only thought was that they somehow had a completely redundant backup valve and pipe system in anticipation of this exact problem. But when going into space, every gram costs $ so I highly doubt that this was the case. Kudos to them for first figuring out what was wrong in the first place, and then actually being able to do something about it. But really... how the hell did they do that?!
Nono... That's someone who has the "man coughing" ringtone installed... The conductor triggered it randomly to add realism.
But seriously, there were some pretty weird-ass ring tones out there... Anyone else think that as they were listening?
Re:Good! Re:It just makes me nervous...
on
One Small Step
·
· Score: 1
actually they had the vehicle chained to the ground. Parachutes would be relatively useless inside an upside-down cage that is being rocket-propelled into the ground...
maybe your average estes rocket isn't, but I can tell you that getting anything to fly as stably as that cage did sure takes a hell-lotta rocket science and all the brains to go with it.
And btw, there are moving parts on rockets: the thrust control/vectoring nozzle being the most important...
One good thing to note is that if this guy is actually stupid enough to persist in a lawsuit even after this letter, you better be prepared to follow through on any threats of legal action that you may have made. Otherwise, you are guilty of barratry, and can be quite easily sued for all you're worth...
What I want to know is what he left out of his extremely euro-american view of the world.
If he is right, and such an occurence happened and plunged the northa atlantic into another ica age, would the equatorial areas become even more desertified than they are now because there would no longer be a stream of cold water coming down from the north? If that were to happen, not only would is fsck up the entire equatorial climate as well as the north american one, those changes would cause even more drastic shifts in the southern hemisphere's climate.
""wordperfect for dummies" is a book, there is no overlap, thus no infringement."
Wait... there's a manual that comes with wordperfect right? And that manueal is generally printed in a bound dead-tree medium (book)? and its title is probably "Wordperfect x.x"?
I'm sure that some million-dollar lawyer could argue that into a succesful case...
Speaking of pretty pictures, It looks to me as though this entire article was an excuse for space.com's 3D modelers to play with their toys.
Exhibit A: WTF kind of space station is that?! whatever genius "engineer" came up with the "hairdyer-attatched-to-a-donut-with-some-random-go ld-shperes-for-good-measure spacesation" that wil supposedly end up inhabiting L1?*
Exhibit B: Now we need a lander! ok, get some random gold spheres and put them in the background, they seemed to work well in the last one! Now let me demonstrate my 1337 modeling skillz with this sunflare reflecitng off of the astronauts visor!
Exhibit C: Well, ok... I'll make a realistic-looking sattelite, but only if I get to put a dildo in the corner!
Exhibit D: Well, alright, this one might actually have a (remote) chance of having some science behind it, but the penetrated seismic sensor does look a little overdone...
So, ya... I guess the modelers were just really bored or something...
*yes, i do know that it is just in the modelers' imagination.
1) Our population combined with its transience is to great. In order to evolve effectively, there has to be a small enough population that the beneficial mutation will make a difference. Unfortunatly, with all 6 billion of us, that mutation is likely to just get lost in the enormous gene pool. Now, I suppose you could quarantine people into blocks within which were the only people they were allowed to mate with, but there are so many things wrong with that that I doubt it will happen. (I for one would be against it)
2) We can only evolve to get better at being 0-30 years old (roughly). This is because as long as we survive long enough to reproduce, evolution has served its purpose. This means that we can't evolve to get better at getting old, nor can we evolve to become resistant to diseases that affect us after we reproduce.
So in order for evolution to provide a viable solution to this problem, first we would have to have a plague that wipes out 90% of the people on this planet, and even then evolution wouldn't be able to help anyone much past 30 years old. If this is what you call a viable solution to the problem of super-bugs, then go for it.
I'm still waiting for nanotech that can be injected into our bloodstream and go around physicallyy combating the bacteria:-)
"Active aeroelastic wing (AAW) technology is a multidisciplinary, synergistic technology that integrates air vehicle aerodynamics, active controls, and structures to maximize air vehicle performance."
Wow, I can hardly count the number of technobabbling, get-the-investors-drooling phrases in that sentance.
Kids under 3 years old don't have fingerprints at all, and the fingerprints only fully develop after age 5. Don't believe me? go out and try to fingerprint a kid under 5 - I guarantee you won't get anything but I black smudge.
I found out this interesting piece of information when my cousin was going to get her toddler fingerprinted for one of those identity kits in case of a kidnapping, but apparently they can't fingerprint young children. Extremely odd...
The only "educational" game that I've ever played really, i mean truly, enjoyed, is civilization (I, 2, and III). Why? Because it was not designed to be educational! It was designed to put the player in a fun, challenging, situatation that happened to be educational. The other games mentioned on the site like Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail managed to keep my attention for a few hours sure, but I played civilization for days!
I'd be really interested to see an article posted that interviews every single one of the students in that class regarding their opinion of the games. Then see if you still get the impression that these games are still as wondeful as this article says. I mean, all the evidence they present here is an interview with 1 student/family and a bunch of people who are either making or deploying the game.
I am really not sure why they would have an air filter. The only possibility that came to my mind was that it was solely a marketing gimmick (i.e. "This car not only produces zero emissions, it even cleans the atmosphere as it runs!")
Maybe they figure that gimmick will bring in more $$ than the inefficiency of the vehicle?
I think the catch-phrase is security enhanced through obscurity. This is generally a good deterrant against lazy script kiddies who'll target anyone, but against someone who has you lined up in their sights and doesn't care about anyone else, it doesn't do much.
Maybe the best system would be one under which the individual inventor gets the patent, with the caveat that he must give an unrestricted license to the the company that employed him when he invented it?
That way he would be able to sort of "hold the company hostage" by threatening to release licenses to other companies unless he gets fair compensation. But he still can't hold the company completely hostage and destroy their right to even use his invention.
the speed quoted in the article was 140 mph IIRC...
Re:Yes, but can they aim?
on
Skydriving
·
· Score: 2, Informative
If you read the article, you will find that they don't plan to parachute the bus. It will just fall and smash to pieces, after all of the skydivers have bailed out the doors/windows and used their chutes as normal.
As far as i'm concerned, that would would be dope!
"No one in the right mind would attempt to caculate the some trillionth digits in PI by themselves."
Do you think saddam hussein is in his "right mind"? But seriously, if the information you have encrypted is valuable enough, even PI won't be safe. In fact, there are way more complicated algorithms out there, and i can't believe that i'm responding to this stupid troll...
the only problem is that most of your variables won't change in matters of seconds, so theoretically the same number would come up a lot of times in a very short period of time.
If you use a LOT of variables you approach a good version of randomness, but if someone knows the input data to your system (e.g. by taking separate measurements for themselves) and your algorithim, they can predict your number with 100% accuracy, which is bad in the crypto-security world.
"Nothing is random! Things can just be reasonably complex, and seemingly unpredictable."
Well, actually, I don't know if you've ever heard of the famous Bohr-Einstein debate regarding randomness, but the conclusion of that is generally accepted to be that the movement of quantum particles is essentially random.
Einstein was never quite convinced even till the day he died, but he could never come up with evidence (mathematical or practical) to disprove bohr. On this subject he was quoted as saying "God does not play dice with the universe." However, as we understand the world today, god does.:-)
Now to go out and build myself a random-number-generating-card that uses the motion of quantum particles. Lets see, i'll need 1 particle accelerator, $thousands in research grants, a lot of KWh (power) and a bajillion other things to make it impractical...
so, on second thought, this LCD-random-generator is actually pretty cool.
and bill still owns controlling interest (even though it sometimes fluctuates to another guy for shot periods of time as the stock market goes up+down IIRC)
I think the best analogy I've ever seen is the one using ping pong balls.
Imagine you have a long tube filled with pingpong balls all the way to each end. Then, when you push another ball in one end, what happens? Another ball immediately pops out the other end, at exactly the same speed that you pushed in the first one, but potentially miles away from your end of the tube. But still, none of the pingpong balls ever went faster than you pushed in the first one.
Slashdot Mirror
Hell, I hate the way people constantly use the dying wife (or whatever) argument. The fact is, it almost never happens. The judgement calls I'd be concerned about are those like: A motorist is goin 15 kph over the speed limit on a straight, 4-lane highway on a brilliantly sunny day with no other cars in sight. No reasonable cop would book someone for that. However, they would hit you hard for going even 1 kph over the limit in dense fog in dense traffic...
What I want to know is how did they acomplish all of this? I mean, reprogramming electrical circuits are one thing to reroute and fix remotely, but how do you fix a valve-blockage from several thousand km away!?
My only thought was that they somehow had a completely redundant backup valve and pipe system in anticipation of this exact problem. But when going into space, every gram costs $ so I highly doubt that this was the case. Kudos to them for first figuring out what was wrong in the first place, and then actually being able to do something about it. But really... how the hell did they do that?!
Nono... That's someone who has the "man coughing" ringtone installed... The conductor triggered it randomly to add realism.
But seriously, there were some pretty weird-ass ring tones out there... Anyone else think that as they were listening?
actually they had the vehicle chained to the ground. Parachutes would be relatively useless inside an upside-down cage that is being rocket-propelled into the ground...
maybe your average estes rocket isn't, but I can tell you that getting anything to fly as stably as that cage did sure takes a hell-lotta rocket science and all the brains to go with it.
And btw, there are moving parts on rockets: the thrust control/vectoring nozzle being the most important...
One good thing to note is that if this guy is actually stupid enough to persist in a lawsuit even after this letter, you better be prepared to follow through on any threats of legal action that you may have made. Otherwise, you are guilty of barratry, and can be quite easily sued for all you're worth...
What I want to know is what he left out of his extremely euro-american view of the world.
If he is right, and such an occurence happened and plunged the northa atlantic into another ica age, would the equatorial areas become even more desertified than they are now because there would no longer be a stream of cold water coming down from the north? If that were to happen, not only would is fsck up the entire equatorial climate as well as the north american one, those changes would cause even more drastic shifts in the southern hemisphere's climate.
""wordperfect for dummies" is a book, there is no overlap, thus no infringement."
Wait... there's a manual that comes with wordperfect right? And that manueal is generally printed in a bound dead-tree medium (book)? and its title is probably "Wordperfect x.x"?
I'm sure that some million-dollar lawyer could argue that into a succesful case...
Speaking of pretty pictures, It looks to me as though this entire article was an excuse for space.com's 3D modelers to play with their toys.
o ld-shperes-for-good-measure spacesation" that wil supposedly end up inhabiting L1?*
Exhibit A: WTF kind of space station is that?! whatever genius "engineer" came up with the "hairdyer-attatched-to-a-donut-with-some-random-g
Exhibit B: Now we need a lander! ok, get some random gold spheres and put them in the background, they seemed to work well in the last one! Now let me demonstrate my 1337 modeling skillz with this sunflare reflecitng off of the astronauts visor!
Exhibit C: Well, ok... I'll make a realistic-looking sattelite, but only if I get to put a dildo in the corner!
Exhibit D: Well, alright, this one might actually have a (remote) chance of having some science behind it, but the penetrated seismic sensor does look a little overdone...
So, ya... I guess the modelers were just really bored or something...
*yes, i do know that it is just in the modelers' imagination.
Unfortunatly, humans are no longer evolving.
:-)
1) Our population combined with its transience is to great. In order to evolve effectively, there has to be a small enough population that the beneficial mutation will make a difference. Unfortunatly, with all 6 billion of us, that mutation is likely to just get lost in the enormous gene pool. Now, I suppose you could quarantine people into blocks within which were the only people they were allowed to mate with, but there are so many things wrong with that that I doubt it will happen. (I for one would be against it)
2) We can only evolve to get better at being 0-30 years old (roughly). This is because as long as we survive long enough to reproduce, evolution has served its purpose. This means that we can't evolve to get better at getting old, nor can we evolve to become resistant to diseases that affect us after we reproduce.
So in order for evolution to provide a viable solution to this problem, first we would have to have a plague that wipes out 90% of the people on this planet, and even then evolution wouldn't be able to help anyone much past 30 years old. If this is what you call a viable solution to the problem of super-bugs, then go for it.
I'm still waiting for nanotech that can be injected into our bloodstream and go around physicallyy combating the bacteria
1 tesla = 10,000 gauss
and yes, teslas are a linear scale.
"Active aeroelastic wing (AAW) technology is a multidisciplinary, synergistic technology that integrates air vehicle aerodynamics, active controls, and structures to maximize air vehicle performance."
Wow, I can hardly count the number of technobabbling, get-the-investors-drooling phrases in that sentance.
Wtf are you on?
Kids under 3 years old don't have fingerprints at all, and the fingerprints only fully develop after age 5. Don't believe me? go out and try to fingerprint a kid under 5 - I guarantee you won't get anything but I black smudge.
I found out this interesting piece of information when my cousin was going to get her toddler fingerprinted for one of those identity kits in case of a kidnapping, but apparently they can't fingerprint young children. Extremely odd...
The only "educational" game that I've ever played really, i mean truly, enjoyed, is civilization (I, 2, and III). Why? Because it was not designed to be educational! It was designed to put the player in a fun, challenging, situatation that happened to be educational. The other games mentioned on the site like Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail managed to keep my attention for a few hours sure, but I played civilization for days!
I'd be really interested to see an article posted that interviews every single one of the students in that class regarding their opinion of the games. Then see if you still get the impression that these games are still as wondeful as this article says. I mean, all the evidence they present here is an interview with 1 student/family and a bunch of people who are either making or deploying the game.
I am really not sure why they would have an air filter. The only possibility that came to my mind was that it was solely a marketing gimmick (i.e. "This car not only produces zero emissions, it even cleans the atmosphere as it runs!")
Maybe they figure that gimmick will bring in more $$ than the inefficiency of the vehicle?
I think the catch-phrase is security enhanced through obscurity. This is generally a good deterrant against lazy script kiddies who'll target anyone, but against someone who has you lined up in their sights and doesn't care about anyone else, it doesn't do much.
Maybe the best system would be one under which the individual inventor gets the patent, with the caveat that he must give an unrestricted license to the the company that employed him when he invented it?
That way he would be able to sort of "hold the company hostage" by threatening to release licenses to other companies unless he gets fair compensation. But he still can't hold the company completely hostage and destroy their right to even use his invention.
shouldn't be more than 200 mph...
the speed quoted in the article was 140 mph IIRC...
If you read the article, you will find that they don't plan to parachute the bus. It will just fall and smash to pieces, after all of the skydivers have bailed out the doors/windows and used their chutes as normal.
As far as i'm concerned, that would would be dope!
"No one in the right mind would attempt to caculate the some trillionth digits in PI by themselves."
Do you think saddam hussein is in his "right mind"? But seriously, if the information you have encrypted is valuable enough, even PI won't be safe. In fact, there are way more complicated algorithms out there, and i can't believe that i'm responding to this stupid troll...
P.S. Random numbers DO exist!
the only problem is that most of your variables won't change in matters of seconds, so theoretically the same number would come up a lot of times in a very short period of time.
If you use a LOT of variables you approach a good version of randomness, but if someone knows the input data to your system (e.g. by taking separate measurements for themselves) and your algorithim, they can predict your number with 100% accuracy, which is bad in the crypto-security world.
"Nothing is random! Things can just be reasonably complex, and seemingly unpredictable."
:-)
Well, actually, I don't know if you've ever heard of the famous Bohr-Einstein debate regarding randomness, but the conclusion of that is generally accepted to be that the movement of quantum particles is essentially random.
Einstein was never quite convinced even till the day he died, but he could never come up with evidence (mathematical or practical) to disprove bohr. On this subject he was quoted as saying "God does not play dice with the universe." However, as we understand the world today, god does.
Now to go out and build myself a random-number-generating-card that uses the motion of quantum particles. Lets see, i'll need 1 particle accelerator, $thousands in research grants, a lot of KWh (power) and a bajillion other things to make it impractical...
so, on second thought, this LCD-random-generator is actually pretty cool.
and bill still owns controlling interest (even though it sometimes fluctuates to another guy for shot periods of time as the stock market goes up+down IIRC)
not exactly true...
if it is considered general knowledge, then it is also trespassing. Thus your house analogy doesn't work, but you're still right about the uni...
I think the best analogy I've ever seen is the one using ping pong balls.
Imagine you have a long tube filled with pingpong balls all the way to each end. Then, when you push another ball in one end, what happens? Another ball immediately pops out the other end, at exactly the same speed that you pushed in the first one, but potentially miles away from your end of the tube. But still, none of the pingpong balls ever went faster than you pushed in the first one.