Virtual Light had this exact, identical system. Upon seeing the post, the first thing that crossed my mind was..Gibson did it again. His foresight is rather unnerving, in my view.
As it always is, the difficulty lies in that last 10% of perfection. In this case, however, the powers-that-be are convinced the only acceptable level of sucess is 100%. Never mind the fact that it would take a theoretically infinite amount of resources to make sure planes are absolutely, positively, guaranteed safe.
And whose fault is this? Ours. The public's. For bitching and moaning and shitting our pants out over terrorism and 9/11 and "intelligence failures". Because as they say, shit happens. And no one is perfect. True wisdom is realizing and accepting that there will always be failures. Unfortunately the American public seems rather short on wisdom, unsprisingly enough.
This suit isn't really what I would call "protection". Personally I think a good Abrams or even an old Panzer would make far better protection against a grizzly.
Absolutely perfectly put, the parent and your reply below. Bravo, bravo. You should write for a living. Thank you for your efforts to educate/., perhaps they have had some positive effect.
If I had to guess, I'd say the reason might well have been because we had one in our embassy in Moscow as well, it seems likely;) But no Cuba sitting up in the Arctic Ocean, and thus no equivilant.
"I suspect, too, that since nuclear wapons are primarily offensive, rather than defensive (mutually assured destruction relies on being able to strike targets anywhere in the world, not defending your own soil)"
You don't know much about nukes, do you? Nuclear landmines, nuclear artillery shells, and nuclear short-range surface-to-surface rockets were all developed during the Cold War to be used defensively in the possibility of a Russian attack. An airburst weapon does amazing things to enemy tanks, troops, aircraft, and ships. In the '50s we even did training exercises out west, simulating a Russian landing on the Western coast, making a counter-offensive with tactical nuclear weapons and infantry.
And anyways, have you ever WATCHED any anime? *I* wouldn't trust them with nukes;)
Step One: Create free, really expensive-to-run public email server.
Step Two: Make lots of media hype, and then sell all the "good" account names on eBay to/. nerds for large sums of money.
Step Three: Profit!!!
I would personally consider the meaning of his statement to be "Holy shit, I didn't realize the technology has gotten this far. These young'ins are really, incredible(ly dangerous)." It sounds like he's suprised by the ubiquity and ingenuity, more than considering that he now needs to start reading up on Hitler.
Make a TI-86 with the same features, and the capability for wireless "multiplayer notepad" with a range of 20-30 feet buried down in the menus. I guarantee it will increase test scores more effectively than anything GWB has done so far;)
Stephen Baxter had a story once along these lines...I forget the name of it, but the basic plot was that humanity was stranded on the moon, with a very slowly diminishing atmosphere, and no appreciable resources to mine. All technology had been destroyed by a nanomachine, and the survivors were forced to use plants and their bodies to attempt to make concentrated amounts of gold, copper, iron, in hopes of producing a spaceship to return home.
While I found it an ironic caricature of the book, if you watch the DVD Verhoen flatly states he never read the book, and presumably had no idea he was making a satire of anything. Sadly, it simply wound up appearing that way. I enjoyed the movie for it's unintentional irony, but do not make the mistake of thinking there was purpose there.
In case you are like I am, and curiosity runs hard, all I'll say is that it's an image of elephantitis of the female genitalia, and if you want a rough idea, imagine a really deformed baby cat between the girl's legs. It makes one long for the mild horror of goatse.
So far, no one has found a road-and wheel combination in which the road has the same shape as the wheel. That's an intriguing challenge for mathematicians.
Simple. Make the road out of lots of tiny spheres (1inch dm), multi or single layered. Then make the wheel a 10ft diameter monster truck wheel. If you really want to be anal, the road can be made out of cheese-wheel shaped bits of material, stacked in rows. Voila, a smooth comfortable ride. No one ever said a thing about scale anywhere in there...;)
If I download a Brittney Spears song, I'm copying data for the purpose of my own enjoyment. If I copy another website and try to actively steal their revenue stream, that's a completely different matter.
Look at it this way: downloading music translated to this case would be if I were to go to the original site, download a copy, and view it exclusively on my own computer for my own reference purposes, perhaps occasionally allowing a friend to view it. In this case, I am going to the original website, downloading a copy, hosting it onto the web, and actively attempting to steal the traffic from another site in order to make money. P2P isn't a money-making business for "pirates" of the latest pop song. In this case, it's theft for significant monetary gain. Yet again why we need to differentiate not between copying and not copying, but between what the copies are used for.
Whatever format this machine has, it's likely going to have to be mounted on a framework with all construction carried out inside the confines of the frame. Now, were the construction material especially fast-drying, sturdy, and lightweight, it might be economical to produce structures in a factory and haul them to location. But for anything larger than a small home, it seems likely that a portable on-site scaffolding-like frame would be necessary. I wonder what sort of calibration issues might arise from such a necessity: the temperature, stability, angle, and many other factors would all affect the construction. Sounds to me like the best idea would be to lay down a concrete floor first the conventional way, with attachment points for the machine, then bring it in, turn it on, wait, and move it on to the next site. No matter how this is done, houses are not going to be constructed in a single day: you'd still need the foundation, the flooring, the roofing, the electrical and plumbing systems, doors, paint, windows, bathroom fixtures, and a myriad of other things to all be installed. As it is, pouring concrete and constructing the walls of a house is by no means the most time-consuming part of making a new home. IANAE, but I really doubt that implementation of this technology would shorten the construction time of an average structure by more than a day or two.
Hehe, Feynmann's methods were not at all what you're thinking;) Think A Beautiful Mind, but in more detail. He came close to devising genuine rules of dating for men, mostly along the lines of denying women what they want to make them want it more. Highly amusing read.
Slashdot Mirror
Virtual Light had this exact, identical system. Upon seeing the post, the first thing that crossed my mind was..Gibson did it again. His foresight is rather unnerving, in my view.
As it always is, the difficulty lies in that last 10% of perfection. In this case, however, the powers-that-be are convinced the only acceptable level of sucess is 100%. Never mind the fact that it would take a theoretically infinite amount of resources to make sure planes are absolutely, positively, guaranteed safe.
And whose fault is this? Ours. The public's. For bitching and moaning and shitting our pants out over terrorism and 9/11 and "intelligence failures". Because as they say, shit happens. And no one is perfect. True wisdom is realizing and accepting that there will always be failures. Unfortunately the American public seems rather short on wisdom, unsprisingly enough.
This suit isn't really what I would call "protection". Personally I think a good Abrams or even an old Panzer would make far better protection against a grizzly.
To sum up a bunch of inevitable comments right now....
Why?
Absolutely perfectly put, the parent and your reply below. Bravo, bravo. You should write for a living. Thank you for your efforts to educate /., perhaps they have had some positive effect.
If I had to guess, I'd say the reason might well have been because we had one in our embassy in Moscow as well, it seems likely ;) But no Cuba sitting up in the Arctic Ocean, and thus no equivilant.
"I suspect, too, that since nuclear wapons are primarily offensive, rather than defensive (mutually assured destruction relies on being able to strike targets anywhere in the world, not defending your own soil)"
;)
You don't know much about nukes, do you? Nuclear landmines, nuclear artillery shells, and nuclear short-range surface-to-surface rockets were all developed during the Cold War to be used defensively in the possibility of a Russian attack. An airburst weapon does amazing things to enemy tanks, troops, aircraft, and ships. In the '50s we even did training exercises out west, simulating a Russian landing on the Western coast, making a counter-offensive with tactical nuclear weapons and infantry.
And anyways, have you ever WATCHED any anime? *I* wouldn't trust them with nukes
Step One: Create free, really expensive-to-run public email server. Step Two: Make lots of media hype, and then sell all the "good" account names on eBay to /. nerds for large sums of money.
Step Three: Profit!!!
So many wasted hours...that game was designed to be impossible unless you bought guides for it :/
I dunno, I think I'd phrase that slightly differently...
"Jesus. Someone finally gets a chance to blow a hole in Valenti and they grill him about Linux instead."
I would personally consider the meaning of his statement to be "Holy shit, I didn't realize the technology has gotten this far. These young'ins are really, incredible(ly dangerous)." It sounds like he's suprised by the ubiquity and ingenuity, more than considering that he now needs to start reading up on Hitler.
Make a TI-86 with the same features, and the capability for wireless "multiplayer notepad" with a range of 20-30 feet buried down in the menus. I guarantee it will increase test scores more effectively than anything GWB has done so far ;)
Mod parent up as funny, not offtopic. If you don't get the humor, go to a library.
Didn't you ever WATCH The Matrix?!? /galaxyquest
Stephen Baxter had a story once along these lines...I forget the name of it, but the basic plot was that humanity was stranded on the moon, with a very slowly diminishing atmosphere, and no appreciable resources to mine. All technology had been destroyed by a nanomachine, and the survivors were forced to use plants and their bodies to attempt to make concentrated amounts of gold, copper, iron, in hopes of producing a spaceship to return home.
How many lives could that $6,000,000 dollars save? Probably a few hundred thousand easily. Wouldn't you trade a single life for that?
Don't we have regulations like that over here in the US? And how come I managed to get first post? Is the apocalypse coming?
While I found it an ironic caricature of the book, if you watch the DVD Verhoen flatly states he never read the book, and presumably had no idea he was making a satire of anything. Sadly, it simply wound up appearing that way. I enjoyed the movie for it's unintentional irony, but do not make the mistake of thinking there was purpose there.
THE BURN! OH GOD, THE BURN!
In case you are like I am, and curiosity runs hard, all I'll say is that it's an image of elephantitis of the female genitalia, and if you want a rough idea, imagine a really deformed baby cat between the girl's legs. It makes one long for the mild horror of goatse.
Simple. Make the road out of lots of tiny spheres (1inch dm), multi or single layered. Then make the wheel a 10ft diameter monster truck wheel. If you really want to be anal, the road can be made out of cheese-wheel shaped bits of material, stacked in rows. Voila, a smooth comfortable ride. No one ever said a thing about scale anywhere in there...
Looks like Duplo to me...to my knowledge no one ever tried to rip off that particular Lego theme. Which doesn't come as much of a suprise.
At least that might have some practical applicatinos for our troops in Baghdad.
If I download a Brittney Spears song, I'm copying data for the purpose of my own enjoyment. If I copy another website and try to actively steal their revenue stream, that's a completely different matter. Look at it this way: downloading music translated to this case would be if I were to go to the original site, download a copy, and view it exclusively on my own computer for my own reference purposes, perhaps occasionally allowing a friend to view it. In this case, I am going to the original website, downloading a copy, hosting it onto the web, and actively attempting to steal the traffic from another site in order to make money. P2P isn't a money-making business for "pirates" of the latest pop song. In this case, it's theft for significant monetary gain. Yet again why we need to differentiate not between copying and not copying, but between what the copies are used for.
Whatever format this machine has, it's likely going to have to be mounted on a framework with all construction carried out inside the confines of the frame. Now, were the construction material especially fast-drying, sturdy, and lightweight, it might be economical to produce structures in a factory and haul them to location. But for anything larger than a small home, it seems likely that a portable on-site scaffolding-like frame would be necessary. I wonder what sort of calibration issues might arise from such a necessity: the temperature, stability, angle, and many other factors would all affect the construction. Sounds to me like the best idea would be to lay down a concrete floor first the conventional way, with attachment points for the machine, then bring it in, turn it on, wait, and move it on to the next site. No matter how this is done, houses are not going to be constructed in a single day: you'd still need the foundation, the flooring, the roofing, the electrical and plumbing systems, doors, paint, windows, bathroom fixtures, and a myriad of other things to all be installed. As it is, pouring concrete and constructing the walls of a house is by no means the most time-consuming part of making a new home. IANAE, but I really doubt that implementation of this technology would shorten the construction time of an average structure by more than a day or two.
Hehe, Feynmann's methods were not at all what you're thinking ;) Think A Beautiful Mind, but in more detail. He came close to devising genuine rules of dating for men, mostly along the lines of denying women what they want to make them want it more. Highly amusing read.