Third world & power for aquatic crafts and tra
on
Port-A-Nuke
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· Score: 1
It seems to me that the majority of people who post to slashdot don't recognise that having nuclear power isn't some special right that north america has the only right to. Other cultures and societies face the same energy generation problems we do, and why should they have any less right to developing the same technologies? Which country has citizens that use the expression 'but we have the bomb?' Not north korea (although I'm sure they are pleased these days).
Smaller countries have voluntarily agreed to not develop nuclear technologies. We are also supposed to diminish our nuclear stocks as part of that international agreement, however, we seem to be falling short of that agreement. It isn't some knd of innate right we are born with in the first world.
I would think that unless the foreign nations could guarantee non-interference in their internal politics (eg. Bush doesn't like the new prime minister of wherever, so he turns off the power supply to their hospitals/schools). I would also think that this wouldn't be very worthwhile monetarily for other countries, as the current power solutions (while dirty) are relatively inexpensive.
I see the much better use of these things as power supplies for large ocean going vessels, like transports and nuclear subs. A discrete, portable, self-contained power solution that lasts decades would be very worthwhile for them. Also, major industry can now think of making factories to refine raw materials where they are produced (Aluminum is currently refined in Canada, while the raw material is obtained far to the south, simply because electricity is less expensive in Canada).
A structure this big, if self powered, could no doubt be kept in communication with US regulations agencies to guarantee non-tampering. How long would it take for the US government to reach and secure any such structure? This is not a serious security risk, in my opinion.
It also says that they will use a chemical reaction similar to the one in airbags to generate nitrogen from a solid powder. Considering the air pressure is much lower high in the atmosphere, it wouldn't take a huge amount of air to fully inflate the structure.
And yes, lower in the atmosphere the internal air pressure would be too low, hence using a second stage large parachute.
Interesting idea. Much better than a solid craft in some ways. I still can't wait to have a space elevator. That would be cooler.
The one thing I have trouble picturing is how they would be able to have astronoughts go down in one. It seems that the lack of control and relative danger of landing in one is much higher. (but it could be cool to be able to retrieve satellites for repair & re-launch)
By damaging electric fields, I'd guess they mean what is used in capillary electrophoresis (Several kV are used to generate a 'zeta potential' which consists of the counterions on a glass surface moving in the electric field, and dragging water along with them). Such high voltages can have bad effects on large proteins and other things (like living cells) that you might want to move, but not electrocute (let alone boil, which happens if you crank up the voltage to make things move faster).
IAAC (I am an analytical chemist), and in my humble opinion this is interesting, but not immediately practical, not as expansive as the article suggests (surprise!).
We could, for example:
-make an analysis system that comprised a bunch of wires crossing at different points and force droplets of different chemicals to come together to react
-to split individual droplets and move them around
-or to simply interface lots and lots of different analysis techniques without having a million junctions that all get dirty and need to be cleaned.
Kudos to the researchers, and I want to get 10 yards of light-actuated water droplet moving wire once they have it:)
Easy to do. Get a lens (convex, glass better than plastic, so it doesn't absorb the IR). Try surplusshed.com or something. Any lens that'll fit into a tube you like (maybe into the gun's barrel). Make a disc of the same-diameter, and drill a small hole into it. Glue it into place inside the barrel/tube one focal length of the lens from the end of the tube. Next glue the lens into the end of the tube. This will collimate the light, causing the light to travel in a straight line, giving a focused dot.
If you want to get it into a good focus, try taking a light bulb, and assemble the tube/pinhole with the light bulb on the side of the pinhole. If the lens is at the right distance, a dot of visible light should be visible on the far wall. (you are imaging the pinhole onto the wall.) Advantages: narrow beam width, cheap, easy to build, pretty tough. Disadvantages: lose lots of signal, can't cheat as easily:P.
softdsp.com
I bought one two years ago (around 800$ canadian)
it's pretty good, does 200 MHz / (5 GigaSamplesPerSecond equiv., whatever that means), two channel, USB.
The software isn't great. I don't think there is a linux port... I'm lazy, haven't checked recently.
The actual device is really sweet. If I haven't blown it up in two years, it is pretty solid! (I'm a chemist, and I do things like attach 400V power supplies to it randomly, I'll feel bad if it dies. Or me.)
Good luck!
I thought of the same thing recently, and even discussed it briefly at a slashdot meetup in Montreal about 4 months ago.
From my point of view, this is entierly feasible, except for the battery power issue and the long-distance relay issue. I think it remains critical to have long distance carriers of some sort, but that is where I believe a worldwide NGO-run backbone system would be ideal. I'd figure something like 20$ per month to access the backbone network, and the peer-to-peer connection is free. The backbone could do fiber connections to and from the major distances (ie. all major cities and spanning continents and oceans), leaving the p2p wireless providing a mesh coverage across the medium ranges of cities. For the sake of argument, serving a 5 to 10 kilometer radius around the backbone.
The routing system could be based on some kind of positional system in conjunction with unique id's. Thus packet relaying could be based on positional system (a device in a given cell would relay to any device in a limited number of nearby cells), with the final end-point address being specified by the unique id. The majoy relay towers would take care of centralisation of the routing tables, so that the task would be manageable, each device needing to know only the tables for a few devices in the nearest geographic area, and the layout of the geographic cells.
By also having devices plugged-in in homes and offices, the radius of the mobile devices would be extended without significant power problems. (when I had initially conceived this idea, the limiting factor was the always-on transmission power costs)
By using several protocols in tandem (yes, the devices wouldn't be cheap), the network structure and the data could pass over separate channels, and should make bandwidth quite manageable with limited spectral bandwidth.
Finally, by having self-adjusting signal strengths, the network could avoid making the network saturated with signal too intense to actually transmit, while allowing for larger transmission distances in a more sparse network region.
It sure would be nice, now we wait.... and in the meantime, Ma Bell keeps sucking away for service that isn't even close to today's technological potential.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that the majority of people who post to slashdot don't recognise that having nuclear power isn't some special right that north america has the only right to. Other cultures and societies face the same energy generation problems we do, and why should they have any less right to developing the same technologies? Which country has citizens that use the expression 'but we have the bomb?' Not north korea (although I'm sure they are pleased these days).
Smaller countries have voluntarily agreed to not develop nuclear technologies. We are also supposed to diminish our nuclear stocks as part of that international agreement, however, we seem to be falling short of that agreement. It isn't some knd of innate right we are born with in the first world.
I would think that unless the foreign nations could guarantee non-interference in their internal politics (eg. Bush doesn't like the new prime minister of wherever, so he turns off the power supply to their hospitals/schools). I would also think that this wouldn't be very worthwhile monetarily for other countries, as the current power solutions (while dirty) are relatively inexpensive.
I see the much better use of these things as power supplies for large ocean going vessels, like transports and nuclear subs. A discrete, portable, self-contained power solution that lasts decades would be very worthwhile for them. Also, major industry can now think of making factories to refine raw materials where they are produced (Aluminum is currently refined in Canada, while the raw material is obtained far to the south, simply because electricity is less expensive in Canada).
A structure this big, if self powered, could no doubt be kept in communication with US regulations agencies to guarantee non-tampering. How long would it take for the US government to reach and secure any such structure? This is not a serious security risk, in my opinion.
rtfa
It also says that they will use a chemical reaction similar to the one in airbags to generate nitrogen from a solid powder. Considering the air pressure is much lower high in the atmosphere, it wouldn't take a huge amount of air to fully inflate the structure.
And yes, lower in the atmosphere the internal air pressure would be too low, hence using a second stage large parachute.
Interesting idea. Much better than a solid craft in some ways. I still can't wait to have a space elevator. That would be cooler.
The one thing I have trouble picturing is how they would be able to have astronoughts go down in one. It seems that the lack of control and relative danger of landing in one is much higher. (but it could be cool to be able to retrieve satellites for repair & re-launch)
By damaging electric fields, I'd guess they mean what is used in capillary electrophoresis (Several kV are used to generate a 'zeta potential' which consists of the counterions on a glass surface moving in the electric field, and dragging water along with them). Such high voltages can have bad effects on large proteins and other things (like living cells) that you might want to move, but not electrocute (let alone boil, which happens if you crank up the voltage to make things move faster).
IAAC (I am an analytical chemist), and in my humble opinion this is interesting, but not immediately practical, not as expansive as the article suggests (surprise!).
Kudos to the researchers, and I want to get 10 yards of light-actuated water droplet moving wire once they have it :)
FrancisEasy to do. Get a lens (convex, glass better than plastic, so it doesn't absorb the IR). Try surplusshed.com or something. Any lens that'll fit into a tube you like (maybe into the gun's barrel). Make a disc of the same-diameter, and drill a small hole into it. Glue it into place inside the barrel/tube one focal length of the lens from the end of the tube. Next glue the lens into the end of the tube. This will collimate the light, causing the light to travel in a straight line, giving a focused dot.
If you want to get it into a good focus, try taking a light bulb, and assemble the tube/pinhole with the light bulb on the side of the pinhole. If the lens is at the right distance, a dot of visible light should be visible on the far wall. (you are imaging the pinhole onto the wall.) Advantages: narrow beam width, cheap, easy to build, pretty tough. Disadvantages: lose lots of signal, can't cheat as easily :P.
Good lucksoftdsp.com
I bought one two years ago (around 800$ canadian)
it's pretty good, does 200 MHz / (5 GigaSamplesPerSecond equiv., whatever that means), two channel, USB.
The software isn't great. I don't think there is a linux port... I'm lazy, haven't checked recently.
The actual device is really sweet. If I haven't blown it up in two years, it is pretty solid! (I'm a chemist, and I do things like attach 400V power supplies to it randomly, I'll feel bad if it dies. Or me.)
Good luck!
I thought of the same thing recently, and even discussed it briefly at a slashdot meetup in Montreal about 4 months ago.
From my point of view, this is entierly feasible, except for the battery power issue and the long-distance relay issue. I think it remains critical to have long distance carriers of some sort, but that is where I believe a worldwide NGO-run backbone system would be ideal. I'd figure something like 20$ per month to access the backbone network, and the peer-to-peer connection is free. The backbone could do fiber connections to and from the major distances (ie. all major cities and spanning continents and oceans), leaving the p2p wireless providing a mesh coverage across the medium ranges of cities. For the sake of argument, serving a 5 to 10 kilometer radius around the backbone.
The routing system could be based on some kind of positional system in conjunction with unique id's. Thus packet relaying could be based on positional system (a device in a given cell would relay to any device in a limited number of nearby cells), with the final end-point address being specified by the unique id. The majoy relay towers would take care of centralisation of the routing tables, so that the task would be manageable, each device needing to know only the tables for a few devices in the nearest geographic area, and the layout of the geographic cells.
By also having devices plugged-in in homes and offices, the radius of the mobile devices would be extended without significant power problems. (when I had initially conceived this idea, the limiting factor was the always-on transmission power costs)
By using several protocols in tandem (yes, the devices wouldn't be cheap), the network structure and the data could pass over separate channels, and should make bandwidth quite manageable with limited spectral bandwidth.
Finally, by having self-adjusting signal strengths, the network could avoid making the network saturated with signal too intense to actually transmit, while allowing for larger transmission distances in a more sparse network region.
It sure would be nice, now we wait.... and in the meantime, Ma Bell keeps sucking away for service that isn't even close to today's technological potential.