I'm not the expert on heat pipes but I do know something about soldering copper pipes and you're better off soldering a cap on one end and a threaded adapter to the other, then filling with water, heating, and screw a brass cap on the threaded adapter.
You don't have to spend much time soldering even wet pipes to get a good illustration of the differences in the boiling point of water and the melting point of solder. Soldering anything but bone dry pipes is a non-starter.
Also, you want a brass cap instead of galvanized with the copper since galvanized will create a small electrical charge that will corrode the steel and the copper.
Modern Art is a great game link. Players represent competing art galleries and buy and sell art. Depending on what is purchased and what is sold the value of the art varies dramatically. Buying a piece can turn out to be a waste or turn a huge profit but you have to keep in mind how the money will add up in your competitors hand later as well as how the piece shifts the value of the other art in everyone's collections. It's endlessly fascinating with usually very close games that differ radically with different mixes of players.
Note: the original is in German though it's also available in Enlgish.
Unless the innovation in the usic industry of the 2k's is the internet.
We're the freakin' Jetsons; sitting at home wired into the world. We're free to discover music that suits our tastes and mood AND spend bucks on it and the RIAA is busily throwing up roadblocks.
To draw out your example it'd be like if 40 years ago they tried to outlaw stereo or electric guitars.
1. Be generous with your team. When a new employee starts, buy the team lunch. When the team is having a crappy day, buy the team lunch. If there's an emergency and no one is getting lunch/dinner, order pizza in and send people home early the next day. When someone really comes through, send them home early with a bonus check. Food, cash, and time off go a long way.
2. Defend your team. When people are interfering with a team member, nullify them before it becomes a distraction. If a team member isn't working out, do what you can to help them function but move them along if it's impacting other members. Do everything you can to keep your team smart, their tasks clear, and shield them from the inevitable corporate nonsense.
Ditto on TWiki here. Built in search, built in revision control. TWiki rocks!
We have the bugzilla plugin so we can trivially link to bugs, we track status with the discussion form plugin, we throw in links to code via our cvsweb and simply use the shit out of it. We've been using it for 5 months and would be crippled without it.
To all the sibling posts citing Betamax vs. VHS, it isn't a valid comparision.
It was a complete fumble on the part of Sony; they killed Betamax themselves. They didn't license the technology to other manufacturers so VHS was cheaper and more available (link) and they refused to allow prOn on Betamax (link).
We can put it to a vote but my suspicion is that inferior-technology-prOn beats superior-technology-non-prOn every time.
Further, the whole superior technology thing was kind of a myth anyway (link).
You must be smoking some of Uncle George's crack; the new Darth Vader costume is an ill-conceived reprisal of Leia's widely revered gold bikini.
Hayden Christensen has been working out for months in preparation for his new outfit.
New vader suit == twice as many vader toys to sell.
If anyone here made as much money off of star wars toys as Meester Lucas you'd get erect nipples at the mere suggestion of a new costume for a major character. The boy pretty much invented the entire business of making bucks from movies by selling crap tie-ins.
And lots of powerful special interests. Even if this project was wildy successful you know there are some people that like things the way they are and have power to keep it that way. Unions and good ol boy networks are just the tip of the iceberg.
The real solution is to flush the whole of the IRS along with the tax code. Streamline the fuck out of the whole thing. Everyone gets a postcard at year end that itemizes what was withheld from their pay and why. Not that I'm holding my breath.
When we got to regionals though, it was clear that we didn't have the experience needed to go further. We had 8 hours I believe, and sadly, a few of those were fighting with stupid language problems, instead of actually solving problems. As an example, for one of the problems, we ended up overflowing a double in C, because the data was too big. The solution? Rebuild the same problem in Java, using a BigInt...
Back in 1991 or 1992 I competed in this; at least back then arbirtrary precision arithmetic was a standard trick they throw into one of the problems.
In preparation for the contest we divided up several of those kinds of things and wrote simple libraries to deal with those problems (you were allowed to bring hardcopy documentation or code). I worked on the abitrary precision code and don't remember the other libs we developed.
That you were able to use a built in arbitrary precsion lib by switching languages takes all the fun out. =)
Strictly speaking you're right, there was no Web until about the mid 90's.
BUT...the Net was a very lively place even in '85: I remember mind blowing threads in alt.sex. All the usenet groups where we tracked the progress of cold fusion. Ftping low res prOn from finland.
After a few years competing in robot wars and battlebots I know how tough it is to think of something, pull it together in your spare time, and get it to the competition in one piece. And that's just souped up remote contol cars with saw blades. These are auto-fucking-nomous trucks.
This is damn good and all the competitors should be proud.
There's a lot more to type and design than is obvious to the layman.
If you ever use the bold or the underline controls in your desktop publisher you need Robin Williams (the author not the comedian). Her books The PC is Not a Typewriter and The Non-Designer's Design Book have been of particular value to me as a geek who too often ends up designing webpages, the occasional user interface, and generating documents.
Re:Patriot missile -- really a "failure"
on
Can Software Kill?
·
· Score: 1
So, wouldn't the Patriot missile failure be understandable due to it being used outside its original design?
You're right that the missile was used outside of it's original design but it sounds like the Army paid somone(?) good money to convert the system to take out missiles.
What's really shocking to me that we deployed a weapon and ran it in a mode different than the way it was tested in. For all the extreme tests and over the top specifications that the military has, how hard would it have been to decide that the Patriot might run for a week straight, document it as a requirement, and actually take one out to the desert and run it for a month just to be sure?
From the article it sounds like the clock drift should have been obvious even after a long day.
Anyone young enough to be fooled by this site for long probably shouldn't be surfing the Net without a guide. I think an average 5th grader would catch on to the bias before long. http://www.martinlutherking.org/
We're all very wise adults here and it's easy to wring our hands and worry about the poor naive children but they've all fucking grown up online. I'll bet the average grade school kid has a better bullshit detector than an average adult.
Further, the phrase, "we need to protect children," regardless of the intention usually ends up meaning, "we need to treat adults like children."
I've been using CVS in professional development environments for about 5 years at several different employers. I love CVS but have been watching Subversion closely and with some anticipation.
The atomic commits will be nice but honestly the lack of them has never been a huge problem for my teams (atomic commits are probably less a problem with 6-8 people). The things that do bug me about CVS that Subversion is supposed to address:
1. the ability to move or rename a file w/o losing the history
2. the ability to set file permissions
3. ability to remove unused directories
I know that these things can be achieved by tweaking CVS's files manually but that's a long way from elegant. It's been a stumbling block when I'm trying to introduce a new team to CVS.
I know that vibrations hold a special spot in many people's hearts but come on, if the power is out light a candle and let your fingers do the walking.
This is good advice regardless of the number of recent layoffs at your employer. As a professional in any field you need to be making more $$ than you cost. That said, no one is ever bullet proof.
Surviving the first round of layoffs is pretty easy. That's when they take cut out the dead wood. Once they get to latter rounds of layoff and their cutting muscle all takes is for your number to come up is that the decision maker feels that you're less valuable than someone else. Not being dead wood is easy. Being the most valuable person in every potential decision maker's eyes is impossible.
Once the layoffs start you're wise to polish the resume and start double checking your network of employed friends.
I'm biased having my BS and MS in Comp Sci from Poly but it's a great school. Poly's not a huge name but the CS department is well respected. They take the learn by doing motto very seriously, if there's a way to work a lab into a class they do it.
But don't you dare graduate with no real, on the job experience. A few short co-ops will help pay for college and give you a huge boost when seeking work.
Or people get a cold and go to the doctor who trivially replaces you with a clone so they can skip the feverish bedrest? Or doctors develve into 1-hour-photolab technicians since anything that is wrong with you can be solved with a patched clone and a brain scan.
Those are far from the only interesting hints of future science covered but Cory Doctorow has been there and done that in his downloadable book, "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom." It's some of the best SF I've read in years, check er out...
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not the expert on heat pipes but I do know something about soldering copper pipes and you're better off soldering a cap on one end and a threaded adapter to the other, then filling with water, heating, and screw a brass cap on the threaded adapter.
You don't have to spend much time soldering even wet pipes to get a good illustration of the differences in the boiling point of water and the melting point of solder. Soldering anything but bone dry pipes is a non-starter.
Also, you want a brass cap instead of galvanized with the copper since galvanized will create a small electrical charge that will corrode the steel and the copper.
Modern Art is a great game link. Players represent competing art galleries and buy and sell art. Depending on what is purchased and what is sold the value of the art varies dramatically. Buying a piece can turn out to be a waste or turn a huge profit but you have to keep in mind how the money will add up in your competitors hand later as well as how the piece shifts the value of the other art in everyone's collections. It's endlessly fascinating with usually very close games that differ radically with different mixes of players.
Note: the original is in German though it's also available in Enlgish.
Unless the innovation in the usic industry of the 2k's is the internet.
We're the freakin' Jetsons; sitting at home wired into the world. We're free to discover music that suits our tastes and mood AND spend bucks on it and the RIAA is busily throwing up roadblocks.
To draw out your example it'd be like if 40 years ago they tried to outlaw stereo or electric guitars.
1. Be generous with your team. When a new employee starts, buy the team lunch. When the team is having a crappy day, buy the team lunch. If there's an emergency and no one is getting lunch/dinner, order pizza in and send people home early the next day. When someone really comes through, send them home early with a bonus check. Food, cash, and time off go a long way.
2. Defend your team. When people are interfering with a team member, nullify them before it becomes a distraction. If a team member isn't working out, do what you can to help them function but move them along if it's impacting other members. Do everything you can to keep your team smart, their tasks clear, and shield them from the inevitable corporate nonsense.
Shock Collars? I remember the good old days (tm) when, if your code failed to compile, you simply had a beer.
Whole industries got a boost or were even created with that money...computers.
The Tang industry is still benefiting mankind as well as other lots of other stuff too.
Ditto on TWiki here. Built in search, built in revision control. TWiki rocks!
We have the bugzilla plugin so we can trivially link to bugs, we track status with the discussion form plugin, we throw in links to code via our cvsweb and simply use the shit out of it. We've been using it for 5 months and would be crippled without it.
To all the sibling posts citing Betamax vs. VHS, it isn't a valid comparision.
It was a complete fumble on the part of Sony; they killed Betamax themselves. They didn't license the technology to other manufacturers so VHS was cheaper and more available (link) and they refused to allow prOn on Betamax (link).
We can put it to a vote but my suspicion is that inferior-technology-prOn beats superior-technology-non-prOn every time.
Further, the whole superior technology thing was kind of a myth anyway (link).
Perhaps I just need a swift kick to understand.
The FBI is on it's way to give you a swift kick and seize all of your computer equipment.
"cool cyborg costume???"
You must be smoking some of Uncle George's crack; the new Darth Vader costume is an ill-conceived reprisal of Leia's widely revered gold bikini. Hayden Christensen has been working out for months in preparation for his new outfit.
New vader suit == twice as many vader toys to sell.
If anyone here made as much money off of star wars toys as Meester Lucas you'd get erect nipples at the mere suggestion of a new costume for a major character. The boy pretty much invented the entire business of making bucks from movies by selling crap tie-ins.
Seriously though, why did the author have to use the term Viagra to simple mean 'performance boost'
The Jargon File covers Geek Jargon Construction in Chapter 4, Soundalike Slang in this case
And lots of powerful special interests. Even if this project was wildy successful you know there are some people that like things the way they are and have power to keep it that way. Unions and good ol boy networks are just the tip of the iceberg.
The real solution is to flush the whole of the IRS along with the tax code. Streamline the fuck out of the whole thing. Everyone gets a postcard at year end that itemizes what was withheld from their pay and why. Not that I'm holding my breath.
When we got to regionals though, it was clear that we didn't have the experience needed to go further. We had 8 hours I believe, and sadly, a few of those were fighting with stupid language problems, instead of actually solving problems. As an example, for one of the problems, we ended up overflowing a double in C, because the data was too big. The solution? Rebuild the same problem in Java, using a BigInt...
Back in 1991 or 1992 I competed in this; at least back then arbirtrary precision arithmetic was a standard trick they throw into one of the problems.
In preparation for the contest we divided up several of those kinds of things and wrote simple libraries to deal with those problems (you were allowed to bring hardcopy documentation or code). I worked on the abitrary precision code and don't remember the other libs we developed.
That you were able to use a built in arbitrary precsion lib by switching languages takes all the fun out. =)
Strictly speaking you're right, there was no Web until about the mid 90's.
BUT...the Net was a very lively place even in '85: I remember mind blowing threads in alt.sex. All the usenet groups where we tracked the progress of cold fusion. Ftping low res prOn from finland.
After a few years competing in robot wars and battlebots I know how tough it is to think of something, pull it together in your spare time, and get it to the competition in one piece. And that's just souped up remote contol cars with saw blades. These are auto-fucking-nomous trucks.
This is damn good and all the competitors should be proud.
There's a lot more to type and design than is obvious to the layman.
If you ever use the bold or the underline controls in your desktop publisher you need Robin Williams (the author not the comedian). Her books The PC is Not a Typewriter and The Non-Designer's Design Book have been of particular value to me as a geek who too often ends up designing webpages, the occasional user interface, and generating documents.
Her complete book list
So, wouldn't the Patriot missile failure be understandable due to it being used outside its original design?
You're right that the missile was used outside of it's original design but it sounds like the Army paid somone(?) good money to convert the system to take out missiles.
What's really shocking to me that we deployed a weapon and ran it in a mode different than the way it was tested in. For all the extreme tests and over the top specifications that the military has, how hard would it have been to decide that the Patriot might run for a week straight, document it as a requirement, and actually take one out to the desert and run it for a month just to be sure?
From the article it sounds like the clock drift should have been obvious even after a long day.
Anyone young enough to be fooled by this site for long probably shouldn't be surfing the Net without a guide. I think an average 5th grader would catch on to the bias before long. http://www.martinlutherking.org/
We're all very wise adults here and it's easy to wring our hands and worry about the poor naive children but they've all fucking grown up online. I'll bet the average grade school kid has a better bullshit detector than an average adult.
Further, the phrase, "we need to protect children," regardless of the intention usually ends up meaning, "we need to treat adults like children."
I've been using CVS in professional development environments for about 5 years at several different employers. I love CVS but have been watching Subversion closely and with some anticipation.
:
The atomic commits will be nice but honestly the lack of them has never been a huge problem for my teams (atomic commits are probably less a problem with 6-8 people). The things that do bug me about CVS that Subversion is supposed to address
1. the ability to move or rename a file w/o losing the history
2. the ability to set file permissions
3. ability to remove unused directories
I know that these things can be achieved by tweaking CVS's files manually but that's a long way from elegant. It's been a stumbling block when I'm trying to introduce a new team to CVS.
I know that vibrations hold a special spot in many people's hearts but come on, if the power is out light a candle and let your fingers do the walking.
This is good advice regardless of the number of recent layoffs at your employer. As a professional in any field you need to be making more $$ than you cost. That said, no one is ever bullet proof.
Surviving the first round of layoffs is pretty easy. That's when they take cut out the dead wood. Once they get to latter rounds of layoff and their cutting muscle all takes is for your number to come up is that the decision maker feels that you're less valuable than someone else. Not being dead wood is easy. Being the most valuable person in every potential decision maker's eyes is impossible.
Once the layoffs start you're wise to polish the resume and start double checking your network of employed friends.
I'm biased having my BS and MS in Comp Sci from Poly but it's a great school. Poly's not a huge name but the CS department is well respected. They take the learn by doing motto very seriously, if there's a way to work a lab into a class they do it.
But don't you dare graduate with no real, on the job experience. A few short co-ops will help pay for college and give you a huge boost when seeking work.
One more time, with a link this time.
Or people get a cold and go to the doctor who trivially replaces you with a clone so they can skip the feverish bedrest? Or doctors develve into 1-hour-photolab technicians since anything that is wrong with you can be solved with a patched clone and a brain scan. Those are far from the only interesting hints of future science covered but Cory Doctorow has been there and done that in his downloadable book, "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom." It's some of the best SF I've read in years, check er out...