Yeah, I did this, but I was stripping the plugged in phone line with my teeth*. The other lead touched my nose and I got one hell of a shock through the roof of my mouth. I looked it up, here in Oz the phones are nominally 50V.
*I was mid call to a friend and one of the dogs chewed through the lead. I planned to quickly strip them and twist the line back together before the call was dropped. Even with the shock I was quick enough, got the twisted the leads together and went on with my conversation.
I was under the impression that ATRAC can not be played back on a PC, only via some SONY portable device.
I bought a Sony MP3 Discman back in August and it included software to create ATRAC files on a CD for playback on the device, but the files could not be played any other way, the booklet said so.
So while ATRAC may well be better the limitations of the format far outweigh the fidelity improvements.
I put a new PCI modem in my WinXP machine and didn't think much of it.
Three weeks later my computer started to power off at random intervals (1-3 days). Not shutdown, not BSOD, a _total_ power cut, as if it had been switched off at the wall.
Luckily I approached the problem rationally and removed the modem as it was the last thing I'd installed.
Hasn't happened since.
Re:Welcome to capitalism
on
HIV Vaccine
·
· Score: 1
Do I assume by the line "No offense to university people..." that you are not one yourself?
If you are, then I feel sorry that your work place is driven by "tenure and seniority" and that perhaps you may be surprised that not all universities are like this.
If you are not then you are talking out your arse.
Universities are amazing places full of people trying their hardest to get the most done with what little resources they have available to them. Most academics commit much of their lives to their work, something that I'd expect occurs less in the private industry.
The other benefit of university research is that it is driven by knowledge and collaboration:
Private Situation: "Oh, what will this drug do in situation X?" "I dunno Jim, do the regulations mean we care?" "No, they don't." "Oh well, guess we'll never know!"... always remember that the private company will do the BARE MINIMUM to get it's product to market. A university research program is admittedly still limited, but much wider ranging and exploratory than anything the private sector would undertake.
You are right and this is my bad. If you look at the context of the original article:
"The real reason is because hydrogen is the smallest molecule in the world (maybe universe). It is very very difficult to contain hydrogen because it diffuses through just about anything."
My interpretation of this was to mean that hydrogen gas is the most difficult gas to contain because of its small size. This is the point that I was trying to counter, by saying that helium is actually a smaller gas and escapes more readily than hydrogen.
So sure, I provided a scientific correction to a my own incorrect interpretation of a verbal postulate and resulted in making a scientific mistake of my own. Doh, this is probably a good example of why science reporters do such a shit job; I'm also sure it's because they are stupid.:)
Yeah my med school mates always mention the long hours they work and the [in my opinion completely insane] 24 hour on - 24 hour off rostering system.
Perhaps they are worked so hard because doctors are in short supply?
Why are doctors in short supply? I think it's because they are allowed to regulate their own industry by having too much control over the training process and artificially restricting the number of students allowed into med courses. Why not lower the entrance mark/grade etc for medicine? I don't mean lower the standard of graduating students, just give more students a shot at the course. If they don't make it through the course then that's fine, they've payed for their education and they lost, it happens all the time in other subjects. With more students the quality and number of doctors will actually INCREASE! And that's win-win for everyone except the existing doctors who find themselves in a more open market and would have to lower prices or raise their standards to compete, etc...
"Music/Video player/Game player with camera, gameboy-sized screen and TV output and still feasable to fit in the pocket. Will not displace iPod, but will sure have it's own market. Pictures/video at iPod original size are IMHO useless."
Ditch the idea of watching video on that tiny screen completely and save battery life by feeding the signal directly to TV/VGA out.
Here's some innovation for you; PDAs and emerging mobiles are pumping a lot of effort into getting their screens high res, in colour and well lit for long battery life. Where is the data link!!! Why can't I plug my IPod sized data vault into my PDA/phone and watch a movie, or, plug that same data vault into a TV/computer monitor and enjoy some media!
Also, what amazes me is that these students see a title "Forensic Scientist" and assume they must do a degree in "Forensic Science"! Heck, I'd bet that most forensic scientists did plan old science degrees, specialised in some forensics related area, and bamn, there you go. I'm a physicist and run an electron microprobe. I've been asked to do forensic analysis, gun shot residue to be exact, and I didn't do not stupid forensic science degree.
I didn't set it up with that label in mind but I suppose that's what it is. It's only natural to want to put photos to words or words to photos, the two mediums coexist quite nicely.
Since storage and dare I say it bandwidth are cheap these days there's no reason (well apart from all the obvious ones, laziness:) etc... ) why not to have hundereds of photos a day!
I just had a thought: If you were building a house with airconditioning, pretty standard, how hard would it be to plumb the aircon cooling lines to certain rooms (just one or two; basement, office, etc...) and finish with tops and standard fittings. Then you can just connect all the hardware in that room to the house's full strength chiller, woot!
All they have to do is store one copy of each spam email. Individual user inboxes just store a link to the content, thus it seems like they have 2GB.:)
Hey, it's low and it's sneaky, but it's what I'd do!
Don't charge for fucking water, that just sucks balls. Charge a decent price for anything, but only to recover costs.
I would do this to win the hearts and minds of the people coming. That's worth a lot more than cash.
Re:Its not new- radioactive Uranium in plane stabl
on
Nuclear Batteries
·
· Score: 1
For sure, eating radioactive material is a pretty stupid thing to do. But, that's what happens when you get fallout from a nuclear blast/accident/explosion. The radioactive isotopes are taken up by plants and animals and contaminate water supplies. It would be very easy for people to consume the material under such cirumstances, hence the risk.
And hey, you're right about Cassini, I'm all for the RTGs.
Re:Its not new- radioactive Uranium in plane stabl
on
Nuclear Batteries
·
· Score: 1
Good post, however, and I guess I'm nit picking here, but:
"The point is, no, it isn't. 238 is stable."
You then correct yourself later by saying that it has a long half life. It is not stable, it does decay (Pb is the heaviest true stable element) but does so very slowly.
"For the purposly ignorant, its the gammas that hurt."
Sorry, but alpha particles will kill you too. However, you generally have to eat the material that's emitting them. This was the alpha particles can really get in close for some wild DNA busting action. Beta particles will also kill you, but you need to eat that as well. Radiation exposure is a very complex beast, based on all the probabilities involved, you will still get people contracting cancers after low-level radiation exposure. Was it the radiation? Or were they going to get cancer anyway? See, it's not so simple to say what is safe and what isn't.
5) Try to be a dick by pulling (3) and being told to get fucked.
Let them call the police, they'd have a damn hard time pinning something on you just on the word of some dipshit RA.
Your post gave me an idea: why not design computer desks with a recessed and lockable compartment to take the computer case. It's ventilated and allows holes for power, network, keyboard and mouse (PS2 only*).
I suppose (as always) cost is the issue. But, it would work better than the little locks, put on most cases I've seen, that small bolt cutters can remove in seconds, and some places may value that extra security.
*If I has keen I would cut the mouse cable and with some wire strippers and a blowtorch soldering iron have a fully usable USB port ready to go in about 3 minutes. Plug in my thumb drive and use the keyboard to copy off the files, bingo;-)
True, but I'm curious to know how you differentiate between a machine that's been unplugged and one that's been shutdown before being unplugged.
In a lot of places it is normal for users to turn off computers all the time, they think they're doing something good, saving power, "it's bad to leave them on, isn't it?"... so a machine being shut down should be hidden in this "noise".
That's why I always shut down a PC before unplugging the network cable before booting to linux to change the admin password to login and steal data before shutting down, plugging the cable back in, rebooting and running out the door;-)
Of course, in a high security environment (which yours sounds like) you probably have it drilled into everyon's heads "do not turn off your computer!"
You mention plasma screens and it has spawned some drivel from me: I've always thought that the resolution of the screen must be many many times more than the TV signal.
So instead of some stupid zoom feature, why can't a plasma TV have multiple tuners inside so you can watch 4,5 or more channels at once side by side, each displaying at its native resolution.
I know some TVs have "picture in picture" but seriously, with the resolution available on these large screens you should be able to watch at least 8 channels simultaneously.
"The only way you can bury it is to find container technology that will hold it for tens of thousands of years, unattended, and we simply don't have it"
Sorry, wrong. We do have it and it's called "SynRoc" and has been around for 20 years.
It was developed at the ANU in Canberra, Australia, and is considered by many to be the "perfect" solution for disposal of Nuclear waste.
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Yeah, I did this, but I was stripping the plugged in phone line with my teeth*. The other lead touched my nose and I got one hell of a shock through the roof of my mouth. I looked it up, here in Oz the phones are nominally 50V.
*I was mid call to a friend and one of the dogs chewed through the lead. I planned to quickly strip them and twist the line back together before the call was dropped. Even with the shock I was quick enough, got the twisted the leads together and went on with my conversation.
OT but mildy related:
True enough, but mobile phone frequencies are non-ionizing as well and there are heaps of people that think these give us cancer.
RF has a heating effect as the energy is absorbed by the water molecules in our body. This is how a microwave oven cooks food.
Tests have been done to look for the heating effect caused by mobile phones but none has been found, the transmitters are not strong enough.
Can anyone explain why people think mobiles cause cancer?
I was under the impression that ATRAC can not be played back on a PC, only via some SONY portable device.
I bought a Sony MP3 Discman back in August and it included software to create ATRAC files on a CD for playback on the device, but the files could not be played any other way, the booklet said so.
So while ATRAC may well be better the limitations of the format far outweigh the fidelity improvements.
I put a new PCI modem in my WinXP machine and didn't think much of it.
Three weeks later my computer started to power off at random intervals (1-3 days). Not shutdown, not BSOD, a _total_ power cut, as if it had been switched off at the wall.
Luckily I approached the problem rationally and removed the modem as it was the last thing I'd installed.
Hasn't happened since.
Do I assume by the line "No offense to university people..." that you are not one yourself?
... always remember that the private company will do the BARE MINIMUM to get it's product to market. A university research program is admittedly still limited, but much wider ranging and exploratory than anything the private sector would undertake.
If you are, then I feel sorry that your work place is driven by "tenure and seniority" and that perhaps you may be surprised that not all universities are like this.
If you are not then you are talking out your arse.
Universities are amazing places full of people trying their hardest to get the most done with what little resources they have available to them. Most academics commit much of their lives to their work, something that I'd expect occurs less in the private industry.
The other benefit of university research is that it is driven by knowledge and collaboration:
Private Situation: "Oh, what will this drug do in situation X?" "I dunno Jim, do the regulations mean we care?" "No, they don't." "Oh well, guess we'll never know!"
You are right and this is my bad. If you look at the context of the original article:
:)
"The real reason is because hydrogen is the smallest molecule in the world (maybe universe). It is very very difficult to contain hydrogen because it diffuses through just about anything."
My interpretation of this was to mean that hydrogen gas is the most difficult gas to contain because of its small size. This is the point that I was trying to counter, by saying that helium is actually a smaller gas and escapes more readily than hydrogen.
So sure, I provided a scientific correction to a my own incorrect interpretation of a verbal postulate and resulted in making a scientific mistake of my own. Doh, this is probably a good example of why science reporters do such a shit job; I'm also sure it's because they are stupid.
No, this is incorrect.
:)
Hydrogen atoms bond to form hydrogen gas, H2. This moelcule is larger than the single He atoms found in helium gas.
He does not form He2 because of it's 2 electrons filling its inner shell.
Some basic chemistry at work here
Yeah my med school mates always mention the long hours they work and the [in my opinion completely insane] 24 hour on - 24 hour off rostering system.
Perhaps they are worked so hard because doctors are in short supply?
Why are doctors in short supply? I think it's because they are allowed to regulate their own industry by having too much control over the training process and artificially restricting the number of students allowed into med courses. Why not lower the entrance mark/grade etc for medicine? I don't mean lower the standard of graduating students, just give more students a shot at the course. If they don't make it through the course then that's fine, they've payed for their education and they lost, it happens all the time in other subjects. With more students the quality and number of doctors will actually INCREASE! And that's win-win for everyone except the existing doctors who find themselves in a more open market and would have to lower prices or raise their standards to compete, etc...
[/rant]
"Music/Video player/Game player with camera, gameboy-sized screen and TV output and still feasable to fit in the pocket. Will not displace iPod, but will sure have it's own market. Pictures/video at iPod original size are IMHO useless."
Ditch the idea of watching video on that tiny screen completely and save battery life by feeding the signal directly to TV/VGA out.
Here's some innovation for you; PDAs and emerging mobiles are pumping a lot of effort into getting their screens high res, in colour and well lit for long battery life. Where is the data link!!! Why can't I plug my IPod sized data vault into my PDA/phone and watch a movie, or, plug that same data vault into a TV/computer monitor and enjoy some media!
That's what I want.
Also, what amazes me is that these students see a title "Forensic Scientist" and assume they must do a degree in "Forensic Science"! Heck, I'd bet that most forensic scientists did plan old science degrees, specialised in some forensics related area, and bamn, there you go. I'm a physicist and run an electron microprobe. I've been asked to do forensic analysis, gun shot residue to be exact, and I didn't do not stupid forensic science degree.
Well, does this site count as a photoblog?
I didn't set it up with that label in mind but I suppose that's what it is. It's only natural to want to put photos to words or words to photos, the two mediums coexist quite nicely.
Since storage and dare I say it bandwidth are cheap these days there's no reason (well apart from all the obvious ones, laziness :) etc... ) why not to have hundereds of photos a day!
I just had a thought: If you were building a house with airconditioning, pretty standard, how hard would it be to plumb the aircon cooling lines to certain rooms (just one or two; basement, office, etc...) and finish with tops and standard fittings. Then you can just connect all the hardware in that room to the house's full strength chiller, woot!
How much nicer would all these posts be if we had real MathML suport!!!
Here is what Mozilla is doing about it, but is any other browser supporting this [much needed!] standard?
Good plan, I used to use exactly that with Yahoo. But they stopped giving free forwarding. Google may plan to do the same.
Well, guess what, if someone had modded a computer case to cook brownies in then that would be pretty fucking cool.
I know, I know, don't feed the trolls.
All they have to do is store one copy of each spam email. Individual user inboxes just store a link to the content, thus it seems like they have 2GB. :)
Hey, it's low and it's sneaky, but it's what I'd do!
Don't charge for fucking water, that just sucks balls. Charge a decent price for anything, but only to recover costs.
I would do this to win the hearts and minds of the people coming. That's worth a lot more than cash.
For sure, eating radioactive material is a pretty stupid thing to do. But, that's what happens when you get fallout from a nuclear blast/accident/explosion. The radioactive isotopes are taken up by plants and animals and contaminate water supplies. It would be very easy for people to consume the material under such cirumstances, hence the risk.
And hey, you're right about Cassini, I'm all for the RTGs.
Good post, however, and I guess I'm nit picking here, but:
"The point is, no, it isn't. 238 is stable."
You then correct yourself later by saying that it has a long half life. It is not stable, it does decay (Pb is the heaviest true stable element) but does so very slowly.
"For the purposly ignorant, its the gammas that hurt."
Sorry, but alpha particles will kill you too. However, you generally have to eat the material that's emitting them. This was the alpha particles can really get in close for some wild DNA busting action. Beta particles will also kill you, but you need to eat that as well. Radiation exposure is a very complex beast, based on all the probabilities involved, you will still get people contracting cancers after low-level radiation exposure. Was it the radiation? Or were they going to get cancer anyway? See, it's not so simple to say what is safe and what isn't.
Discaimers are lame lame lame!!!
They probably need something legally, but put it on the inside or back cover, not on the front!
Cmon guys, what's with this "not my fault" attitude?
5) Try to be a dick by pulling (3) and being told to get fucked. Let them call the police, they'd have a damn hard time pinning something on you just on the word of some dipshit RA.
Your post gave me an idea: why not design computer desks with a recessed and lockable compartment to take the computer case. It's ventilated and allows holes for power, network, keyboard and mouse (PS2 only*).
;-)
I suppose (as always) cost is the issue. But, it would work better than the little locks, put on most cases I've seen, that small bolt cutters can remove in seconds, and some places may value that extra security.
*If I has keen I would cut the mouse cable and with some wire strippers and a blowtorch soldering iron have a fully usable USB port ready to go in about 3 minutes. Plug in my thumb drive and use the keyboard to copy off the files, bingo
Sure, you'd notice, but I'd be gone by then...
True, but I'm curious to know how you differentiate between a machine that's been unplugged and one that's been shutdown before being unplugged.
... so a machine being shut down should be hidden in this "noise".
;-)
In a lot of places it is normal for users to turn off computers all the time, they think they're doing something good, saving power, "it's bad to leave them on, isn't it?"
That's why I always shut down a PC before unplugging the network cable before booting to linux to change the admin password to login and steal data before shutting down, plugging the cable back in, rebooting and running out the door
Of course, in a high security environment (which yours sounds like) you probably have it drilled into everyon's heads "do not turn off your computer!"
You mention plasma screens and it has spawned some drivel from me: I've always thought that the resolution of the screen must be many many times more than the TV signal.
So instead of some stupid zoom feature, why can't a plasma TV have multiple tuners inside so you can watch 4,5 or more channels at once side by side, each displaying at its native resolution.
I know some TVs have "picture in picture" but seriously, with the resolution available on these large screens you should be able to watch at least 8 channels simultaneously.
And that would be cool (even useful?).
Sorry, wrong. We do have it and it's called "SynRoc" and has been around for 20 years.
It was developed at the ANU in Canberra, Australia, and is considered by many to be the "perfect" solution for disposal of Nuclear waste.
Read this.