* Cheap to produce * Incredibly robust (no moving parts) * Efficient (although they don't give any numbers) * Safe(r) for the environment * Multiple uses (pumps) * Scales well in a small package
Without seeing any numbers, it sounds like it beats the pants off of outboard engines. My 70HP Evinrude has been rebuilt twice because of sand-suckage, and standard jet impellers are too inneficient.
So what's the catch? I want to see some real numbers. If there's no catch, then I hope and think this thing will revolutionize the small-craft market.
the bug being in CVS has nothing to do with changing the source code on a hacked machine. If you have root from ANY bug, you can change the source code.
I agree, but one thing does make the risk a little higher: any server hacked through a CVS bug is almost guaranteed to have some source code on it. If some script kiddie goes poking around for all the CVS servers he can find with the intention of backdooring as much code as possible, well... it just makes his job easier.
A longtime multi-day reader, and longtime "metamoderator", It has been 6 months to a year since I've been invited to moderate. My suspicion is that it's because I often contribute a "commercial" viewpoint.
I wouldn't go shouting conspiracy theories yet. Selection for moderation is automated, and I doubt any slashdot editors would take the time to read your comments, let alone (1) remember who you are and make the connection between a specific viewpoint and you, and (2) actually removing you from the moderation queue because of it.
Yet it is still wierd that you haven't been invited, while I've moderated three times in the past month... bad karma?
I noticed that recently, my local news channels have reverted to calling it "Space Station Alpha" whenever there's some new mission or development. Are we just trying to piss the Russians off now that they've rebuffed their commitments to the project? Interesting.
I agree that it deserves the +5 Insightful it currently has, but I just want to say that just because you agree with something doesn't mean it needs to be modded up. I agree that the goatse.cx guy has a gigantic hole, but that doesn't mean I mod it up:-)
Maybe that worked for your elementary school, but I don't think people are going to cough up tens of billions of dollars for raffle tickets. Especially when the prize is just some stinkin' rocks (as cool as us geeks might think that is), when people's money could better be spent on some Powerball tickets that might give a hrfty return on investment.
I used Hotbot, but I wouldn't say I loved it. For a while I remember that it had the most indexed pages of any engine, so I always tried to use it first. But Hotbot, like all the other engines of old, hardly ever gave relevant results. That's why Hotbot, Altavista, and of course Dogpile all had their own buttons on my toolbar.
No, you're talking trademark there, not copyright. And there is no trademark on the shape of a two-liter bottle, only on the labels. Similarly, there is no trademark on the plastic case that holds the printer toner. Patents could possibly apply, but that assumes that any patents cover it. Either way, it's not a copyright issue.
It was more than enough to make a difference (and I ran lots of these races). If your car was a hundredth of an ounce lighter than another car, and barring major differences in wheel lubrication, you would lose. The judges at the races had electronic postage meters, and maximum weight limits were strictly enforced.
Remember these are cars running down an incline, not freefalling. And the cars sit on wheels that (1) make contact with the wood track, and (2) rub against their bearing-less axels. So the way to win was to (1) minimize friction, and (2) make your car as heavy as absolutely possible.
At these speeds, starting from 0 and going to maybe just a few miles an hour, the total force of the drag is small compared to say, an airplane, but it is still very significant.
That said, don't use "wheel nails" as he indicates -- use an actual axle running through a hole drilled into the body.
Makes sense, but unfortunately the rules about what you can and cannot do to your car are pretty strict (at least in my Cub Scout Pack and District -- actually, I think the rules were nationally standardized). Everyone built their cars out of the exact same block of wood and used the exact same wheel nails and plastic wheels.
Oh duh, we're on completely different topics here:-). You're thinking of soap-box derby, where you actually sit on the car and pilot it down a hill.
Pinewood Derby is when you cut a car out of an approximately 15cm by 4cm by 4cm block of pine wood (hence the name). The cars run on a track with ruts cut into it. You line all the cars up in their respective ruts and let them go, and it's pretty much a straight shot down to the finish line. The track is only 3-5m long.
The race is just as much an excersize in arts-and-crafts and woodworking skills, since there are awards for the best looking cars. It's also kind of a "father-son" event, where the dads are supposed to help their kids build their cars. Of course some dads did all the work and got way too competetive.... Ah... the memories:)
As a Cub Scout in the US, all of our cars came in a box with three components:
Four plastic wheels.
Four nails (IIRC they were actually nails that you could have nailed into the wood, but that's not how it worked).
A block of wood with four slots cut into the bottom where the nails would sit.
Nothing quite so fancy as what you had; I don't even recall having bearings between the wheel and axel. Also, there really wasn't anything at all to screw or glue; just cut your pattern into the wood, lubricate everything, add lead weights, and go.
Slashdot Mirror
In the article it said that salt water works fine, because the water blasting through the system is fast enough to obliterate any deposits.
This sounds amazing:
* Cheap to produce
* Incredibly robust (no moving parts)
* Efficient (although they don't give any numbers)
* Safe(r) for the environment
* Multiple uses (pumps)
* Scales well in a small package
Without seeing any numbers, it sounds like it beats the pants off of outboard engines. My 70HP Evinrude has been rebuilt twice because of sand-suckage, and standard jet impellers are too inneficient.
So what's the catch? I want to see some real numbers. If there's no catch, then I hope and think this thing will revolutionize the small-craft market.
Yet more proof that "we in the states" need to ammend 90% of our public education system.
Sorry, wrong: the Java Language Specification requires that compilers error out on unreachable statements.
Examples:
while(true) something();
unreachable();
or
throw new Exception();
moreUnreachable();
You can still have variables that never get used or methods that never get called, but true dead code is illegal according to any compiler.
Copyright, patent, Copyright, patent, Copyright, patent, ... COPYRIGHT!
the bug being in CVS has nothing to do with changing the source code on a hacked machine. If you have root from ANY bug, you can change the source code.
I agree, but one thing does make the risk a little higher: any server hacked through a CVS bug is almost guaranteed to have some source code on it. If some script kiddie goes poking around for all the CVS servers he can find with the intention of backdooring as much code as possible, well... it just makes his job easier.
A longtime multi-day reader, and longtime "metamoderator", It has been 6 months to a year since I've been invited to moderate. My suspicion is that it's because I often contribute a "commercial" viewpoint.
I wouldn't go shouting conspiracy theories yet. Selection for moderation is automated, and I doubt any slashdot editors would take the time to read your comments, let alone (1) remember who you are and make the connection between a specific viewpoint and you, and (2) actually removing you from the moderation queue because of it.
Yet it is still wierd that you haven't been invited, while I've moderated three times in the past month... bad karma?
I use my "BS detector"
For me, the blinking GIF at the top of the page and the fact that they are using this site to sell tickets and CDs was a dead giveaway.
Okay, I can agree with that. (And I appologize if I insulted you or anything, because that wasn't my intention.)
I noticed that recently, my local news channels have reverted to calling it "Space Station Alpha" whenever there's some new mission or development. Are we just trying to piss the Russians off now that they've rebuffed their commitments to the project? Interesting.
I agree that it deserves the +5 Insightful it currently has, but I just want to say that just because you agree with something doesn't mean it needs to be modded up. I agree that the goatse.cx guy has a gigantic hole, but that doesn't mean I mod it up :-)
Maybe that worked for your elementary school, but I don't think people are going to cough up tens of billions of dollars for raffle tickets. Especially when the prize is just some stinkin' rocks (as cool as us geeks might think that is), when people's money could better be spent on some Powerball tickets that might give a hrfty return on investment.
Did you even watch the videos? That's not what I saw.
You haven't read your own sig, have you?
I used Hotbot, but I wouldn't say I loved it. For a while I remember that it had the most indexed pages of any engine, so I always tried to use it first. But Hotbot, like all the other engines of old, hardly ever gave relevant results. That's why Hotbot, Altavista, and of course Dogpile all had their own buttons on my toolbar.
Not only that, but you can magically paint the car *after* the windows and headlights have been installed. They must be using ForceField.NET.
Please, do us all a favor and get these guys busted. If you feel so strongly about it, then what's your job really worth?
I got a free Mach-3 in the mail just before my 18th birthday.
No, you're talking trademark there, not copyright. And there is no trademark on the shape of a two-liter bottle, only on the labels. Similarly, there is no trademark on the plastic case that holds the printer toner. Patents could possibly apply, but that assumes that any patents cover it. Either way, it's not a copyright issue.
I understand how the *system* works, but that doesn't mean I think it's the right system.
It also doesn't mean there wasn't something funky going on in Florida, but I forgot my tinfoil hat today so I'd better not think about it.
Did you notice that George Bush was not chosen by the majority of voters? Or that the whole Florida fiasco remains questionable?
It was more than enough to make a difference (and I ran lots of these races). If your car was a hundredth of an ounce lighter than another car, and barring major differences in wheel lubrication, you would lose. The judges at the races had electronic postage meters, and maximum weight limits were strictly enforced.
Remember these are cars running down an incline, not freefalling. And the cars sit on wheels that (1) make contact with the wood track, and (2) rub against their bearing-less axels. So the way to win was to (1) minimize friction, and (2) make your car as heavy as absolutely possible.
At these speeds, starting from 0 and going to maybe just a few miles an hour, the total force of the drag is small compared to say, an airplane, but it is still very significant.
That said, don't use "wheel nails" as he indicates -- use an actual axle running through a hole drilled into the body.
Makes sense, but unfortunately the rules about what you can and cannot do to your car are pretty strict (at least in my Cub Scout Pack and District -- actually, I think the rules were nationally standardized). Everyone built their cars out of the exact same block of wood and used the exact same wheel nails and plastic wheels.
Oh duh, we're on completely different topics here :-). You're thinking of soap-box derby, where you actually sit on the car and pilot it down a hill.
:)
Pinewood Derby is when you cut a car out of an approximately 15cm by 4cm by 4cm block of pine wood (hence the name). The cars run on a track with ruts cut into it. You line all the cars up in their respective ruts and let them go, and it's pretty much a straight shot down to the finish line. The track is only 3-5m long.
The race is just as much an excersize in arts-and-crafts and woodworking skills, since there are awards for the best looking cars. It's also kind of a "father-son" event, where the dads are supposed to help their kids build their cars. Of course some dads did all the work and got way too competetive.... Ah... the memories
Nothing quite so fancy as what you had; I don't even recall having bearings between the wheel and axel. Also, there really wasn't anything at all to screw or glue; just cut your pattern into the wood, lubricate everything, add lead weights, and go.