The worst religion is one that gets bent out if shape when it's criticized. If Linus thinks worshipping a magic rock is crazy then Mormons are free to think Linus is crazy (or damned to eternal torture) for not doing so.
Stages introduce complexity which means weight and more things to go wrong. Also, you have to get back to where you came from. It requires extra fuel to drop back into a low Earth orbit, fuel that you have to drag all the way to Mars and back. Low Earth orbit also requires constant boosting for your assembly facilities and spacecraft (it costs almost a quarter of a billion dollars annually to boost the ISS). There are probably also advantages to slingshot maneuvers around the Earth and moon from L2. And you don't need to dodge space junk and other satellites. You can also probably arrange for constant sunlight, meaning constant power.
Another advantage is that you can boost equipment up from LEO using high specific impulse engines, like ion drives (takes a while) and people using chemical rockets (fast). Your Mars ship might be able to use only high specific impulse engines but the trip isn't lengthened by the need to climb out of Earth's gravity well.
You're making a big deal out of communications. We're very good at communication satellites. If the construction facility was put into an appropriate orbit at L2 it's even possible you wouldn't need a relay.
There ARE advantages to assembling things at a Langrange point. I don't know whether those advantages outweigh the disadvantages or whether a Langrange point is better than another high orbit, but it's not a completely stupid idea as you seem to think.
It takes less fuel (a lot less) to go somewhere from L2 than it does from low orbit. Yes, you have to boost all your assembly materials up anyway, but your actual interplanetary spacecraft can be that much smaller because it doesn't have to carry all the fuel to get out of low orbit in the first place. You don't need to carry as many empty fuel tanks all the way to Mars and back.
The report says "current US targeted killings and drone strike practices undermine respect for the rule of law and international legal protections and may set dangerous precedents." Killing people the government deems inconvenient, with no oversight, legal process or warning, and collateral damage to boot, might not be strictly illegal but it's certainly against the spirit of both US and international law and custom,and sets a dangerous precedent.
Of course it's an Android problem. Samsung phones are by far the most common flavour of Android phone, and they have "Android" prominently displayed all over the place.
If Google doesn't want manufacturer or carrier screwups to reflect badly on Android then they need to be more careful about licensing use of the brand.
Actually, I have. Chickens don't usually leave their eggs, but it does happen, as it does with many species, occasionally. It's also quite possible to milk a cow without a stall or any sort of restraint. It does help if you put food out so they don't wander away, but giving a blood donor a muffin isn't considered a breach of their consent.
Yup. I fully expect that Google will release a full featured navigation app for the iPhone, like the one on Android, which everyone expected when it was announced for Android. Google might even improve the Android version so it lives up to the promo videos they released.
Apple's maps app is quite good too. It's quite a bit quicker and seems more reliable than the Google version was. The only issues seem to be database related, and some crowdsourcing will iron that out (the same way Google improved their database).
Personally I think it's well worth not only having good competitors to Google Maps but also competitors who are a little less into data aggregation and advertising.
Even the quote you cherry picked sounds like it was written by someone with a bachelor of arts more used to getting drunk and arguing about whether Tolstoy could beat Chekhov in a fight.
It doesn't matter. You can write the greatest software in the world, but if I can only run it on crappy hardware, or only get it bundled with other crappy software from a carrier, it's a problem.
The reason Android is the way it is is that Google hasn't been aggressive enough in controlling licensing of it. The majority of Android installs aren't open in any meaningful sense.
Superconducting magnets don't heat up. When your field needs to be uniform in the parts per billion range, a little bit of restive heating is a big problem. And a high field resistive magnet, even if you could make one that didn't melt immediately, would suffer from a bit more than a little resistive heating.
Resistive magnets are used. They have the advantage that they can be shut off easily, but they're not practical above a few tenths of a Tesla because of heating, stability and uniformity problems. Standard clinical scanners are 1.5 T. Research scanners go up to about 8 T for humans, 11 or 12 T for animals. Spectrometers can go even higher.
Apple's mapping app is impressive considering how long they've had to implement it. It works very well. Apparently some of the map data isn't as good as Google's (I haven't seen that) but the maps Apple is sourcing from TomTom.
Dark energy is required to accelerate the expansion of the universe, to match supernova observations. It's also required to explain why the universe appears to be very close to flat, from observations of the cosmic microwave background. It's not a fudge factor invented so Hawking could be right about the universe having zero energy.
No. The idea is that the gravitational field created by a large volume of fairly uniformly distributed matter has negative potential energy. It turns out that negative negative energy neatly cancels the positive energy in the universe.
But go ahead, Shavano, just keep making up misinformed one liners to further your argument with Steven Hawking.
Unfortunately, particularly where updates are concerned, Android doesn't seem very open. You yourself cite "Verizon's stupid involvement" as an excuse.
iOS is closed, but it's maintained by a company that has a vested interest in having it work well. Android itself is (mostly) open, but most of the actual implementations you can buy are considerably less so, and are maintained by companies that have demonstrated they couldn't care less about how well it works.
Slashdot Mirror
The worst religion is one that gets bent out if shape when it's criticized. If Linus thinks worshipping a magic rock is crazy then Mormons are free to think Linus is crazy (or damned to eternal torture) for not doing so.
You're right. There is no modern computer that can turn its clock frequency down within a few orders of magnitude of your brain's.
Stages introduce complexity which means weight and more things to go wrong. Also, you have to get back to where you came from. It requires extra fuel to drop back into a low Earth orbit, fuel that you have to drag all the way to Mars and back. Low Earth orbit also requires constant boosting for your assembly facilities and spacecraft (it costs almost a quarter of a billion dollars annually to boost the ISS). There are probably also advantages to slingshot maneuvers around the Earth and moon from L2. And you don't need to dodge space junk and other satellites. You can also probably arrange for constant sunlight, meaning constant power.
Another advantage is that you can boost equipment up from LEO using high specific impulse engines, like ion drives (takes a while) and people using chemical rockets (fast). Your Mars ship might be able to use only high specific impulse engines but the trip isn't lengthened by the need to climb out of Earth's gravity well.
You're making a big deal out of communications. We're very good at communication satellites. If the construction facility was put into an appropriate orbit at L2 it's even possible you wouldn't need a relay.
There ARE advantages to assembling things at a Langrange point. I don't know whether those advantages outweigh the disadvantages or whether a Langrange point is better than another high orbit, but it's not a completely stupid idea as you seem to think.
It takes less fuel (a lot less) to go somewhere from L2 than it does from low orbit. Yes, you have to boost all your assembly materials up anyway, but your actual interplanetary spacecraft can be that much smaller because it doesn't have to carry all the fuel to get out of low orbit in the first place. You don't need to carry as many empty fuel tanks all the way to Mars and back.
The report says "current US targeted killings and drone strike practices undermine respect for the rule of law and international legal protections and may set dangerous precedents." Killing people the government deems inconvenient, with no oversight, legal process or warning, and collateral damage to boot, might not be strictly illegal but it's certainly against the spirit of both US and international law and custom,and sets a dangerous precedent.
All of whom would be "brown" to the average idiot who says stuff like the OP did.
Of course it's an Android problem. Samsung phones are by far the most common flavour of Android phone, and they have "Android" prominently displayed all over the place.
If Google doesn't want manufacturer or carrier screwups to reflect badly on Android then they need to be more careful about licensing use of the brand.
You mean not everyone likes buying a product and then having to spend time fixing it before they can use it? Say it isn't so!
Actually, I have. Chickens don't usually leave their eggs, but it does happen, as it does with many species, occasionally. It's also quite possible to milk a cow without a stall or any sort of restraint. It does help if you put food out so they don't wander away, but giving a blood donor a muffin isn't considered a breach of their consent.
Did you miss the part where the reader is a microscope?
What if you milk a cow that is free to walk away? Or pick up eggs that are discarded by a chicken?
Yup. I fully expect that Google will release a full featured navigation app for the iPhone, like the one on Android, which everyone expected when it was announced for Android. Google might even improve the Android version so it lives up to the promo videos they released.
Apple's maps app is quite good too. It's quite a bit quicker and seems more reliable than the Google version was. The only issues seem to be database related, and some crowdsourcing will iron that out (the same way Google improved their database).
Personally I think it's well worth not only having good competitors to Google Maps but also competitors who are a little less into data aggregation and advertising.
Even the quote you cherry picked sounds like it was written by someone with a bachelor of arts more used to getting drunk and arguing about whether Tolstoy could beat Chekhov in a fight.
I don't know. Go ahead and figure it out. 1.5 T field, air core, a uniform field in the core of at least 50 cm diameter and length.
"Again, the problem isn't with Android itself."
It doesn't matter. You can write the greatest software in the world, but if I can only run it on crappy hardware, or only get it bundled with other crappy software from a carrier, it's a problem.
The reason Android is the way it is is that Google hasn't been aggressive enough in controlling licensing of it. The majority of Android installs aren't open in any meaningful sense.
Superconducting magnets don't heat up. When your field needs to be uniform in the parts per billion range, a little bit of restive heating is a big problem. And a high field resistive magnet, even if you could make one that didn't melt immediately, would suffer from a bit more than a little resistive heating.
Resistive magnets are used. They have the advantage that they can be shut off easily, but they're not practical above a few tenths of a Tesla because of heating, stability and uniformity problems. Standard clinical scanners are 1.5 T. Research scanners go up to about 8 T for humans, 11 or 12 T for animals. Spectrometers can go even higher.
No, Apple's app is quite good. So is the TomTom data. It's just under a lot of scrutiny right now.
Apple's mapping app is impressive considering how long they've had to implement it. It works very well. Apparently some of the map data isn't as good as Google's (I haven't seen that) but the maps Apple is sourcing from TomTom.
These aren't even employees. They're contractors.
Dark energy is required to accelerate the expansion of the universe, to match supernova observations. It's also required to explain why the universe appears to be very close to flat, from observations of the cosmic microwave background. It's not a fudge factor invented so Hawking could be right about the universe having zero energy.
No. The idea is that the gravitational field created by a large volume of fairly uniformly distributed matter has negative potential energy. It turns out that negative negative energy neatly cancels the positive energy in the universe.
But go ahead, Shavano, just keep making up misinformed one liners to further your argument with Steven Hawking.
"Of course Jelly Bean's adoption level is very low because what, 3-4 devices support Jelly Bean officially?"
I think that was the point.
Unfortunately, particularly where updates are concerned, Android doesn't seem very open. You yourself cite "Verizon's stupid involvement" as an excuse.
iOS is closed, but it's maintained by a company that has a vested interest in having it work well. Android itself is (mostly) open, but most of the actual implementations you can buy are considerably less so, and are maintained by companies that have demonstrated they couldn't care less about how well it works.
Google seems to like to direct me the wrong way down one way streets. I haven't had iOS 6 long enough to tell whether Apple's is better yet.