Landmines are considerably smaller than 2 ft. The air delivered anti-personnel mines are more like 3 inches across. I believe this is the type that is the biggest maimer/killer.
The resolution observation is interesting and valid. Precisely locating the mines would require a dense flower pattern. But it you just need to give the EOD team a general place to look, then a bigger spread is ok.
Not only does Gerrymandering happen continually but in the Texas case it has been one sided for twenty years.
The Democrats have controlled the Texas legislature for that long and every few years they have continued to skew the district lines to firm up their control. The Republican actions of late are simply skewing in a different direction.
(Soapbox) Gerrymandering is one of the sleaziest activities done by both parties. Nothing says, "I don't care what you think." more than redistricting so that certain groups are underreprensated. Again this done by both sides through out the country and is one of the main reasons I dislike politicans. (/Soapbox)
Actually, the bill of rights is applied to all people not just American citizens. Non-citizens can have their visas revoked and be deported on that basis but they still have the right to a fair trial, to confront their accussers, etc.
Camp x-ray is a different can of worms. First, it is a fallacy that they are not represented by legal counsel. Their respective countries have assigned legal counsel to them and they have seen the inmates. This is not the writ Habeas Corpus but it is a start. Note the British are starting the process of getting their citizens out of camp x-ray and back to England.
The trouble the near 700 Saudis in camp x-ray. Their government has said they NEVER want those people returned to them. That has created the quandry: now what?
Return them to Afghanistan? The new government would be mad as hell.
Give resident status in the US to 700 people that want to destroy us? I think that is a bad plan. Even if we keep a 'close eye' on them what would the country do if they killed just one citizen? The blame game would start and nothing would bring back the dead citizen.
Force Saudi Arabia to take them back? The diplomatic reality is we can't.
Camp x-ray is problem for me too. I don't like it. I hate the fact that it exists but we have no good answer to the problem.
A side note: the writ of Habeas Corpus was suspended for all people during and after the civil war. A clear violation of the constitution but it did happen. This does not excuse the current situation but it is interesting to know.
Ah, you have exposed my ignorance. I have no experience with written Chinese and jumped to the conclusion that is similar to verbal. Thanks for the information.
I believe the poster was referring to the last part of the definition: "Solidly uniform".
No organization of significant size behaves or reacts as a single entity (except the Borg). All actions are by some piece of the group. Goverenment agencies or departments in a big company usually do what is best for that piece of the larger group. Not necessarily what is best for the company/country as a whole. Additionally, as older people retire/quit/get laid off the organization "forgets" past mistakes and tends to repeat them.
Having said that, I think the poster was vague with the last comment. I think they were just saying the people who think up "new ideas" are not necessarily the same ones who came up with the "past failures".
I live near Redmond and know several MS people. They don't all think alike and have unique personalities. But none of them want to talk about that cool head mounted laser they have.
You are correct. My point was the parent post was blaming the Iran hostage crisis on Reagan and I was trying to explain that he was nuts.
My "Ended under Reagan." comment was not to give credit to Reagan but instead to accept that Reagan's adminsitration was at least temporally related to the crisis. But cleared placing blame on him is nonsense.
Iran Hostage crisis ---> Started under Carter. Ended under Reagan.
Star Wars ---> Dreamed up in the 70's continues today. Even Clinton continued to fund it.
Grenada ---> Warehouses full of Soviet weapons seized just before the 'rebellion' was to start. Talk to 82nd airborne vets about what they found and saw before you think it was a joke.
War on drugs ---> Bush Sr., Nancy was "Just say No to drugs." Not to mention drug use DID decline through the end of the 80's and early 90's. The war is 'lost' because we (people and government) lost focus not because it could not be won.
Central America ---> What part? And no fair bringing up Nicaragua. You already have Iran-Contra on the list. And if you thing the Sandinistas were better than the Contras you're frikin' nuts.
Iran-Contra ---> I will not make excuses for going behind congress' back to get things done. But I do understand the desire to provide continous support to allies that congress was not doing.
BTW, I make less than $65K a year and I've benefitted from every Bush Jr. tax cut. Similarly, I was hindered by every Clinton tax increase. Does that make me part of the richest 1%?
Check out one of the other products they offer. 667 MHz, 20GB HDD, USB 2.0, and on board video. Not as cost effective as a desktop box, but if space is a premium then this is a good answer.
I completely agree with you comment. The only concern I have is if they use the comparator technique discussed in the article. It sounded like it was a lot harder to get around.
The thermal detection technique sounded perfect. The retailer would have to put some serios effort into cooling the CPU and that would offset the savings of selling the OC'ed CPU. At the same time most OC'ers go to great length to cool their CPUs and are expecting to have to do something to manage heat anyway.
Great!!! I'm all for trying something new. What did you have in mind? A space elevator made with nanotubes that DO NOT EXIST? Built by robotic climbers more robust than any ever built? Carrying 'ribbons' longer than any ever made?
I agree that current space exploration options are crappy at best, but this 'elevator' is still a flight on fancy. The nanotubes have NOT been developed to handle the loads needed. In addition no mention is made of how to manufacture, literally, millions of KMs worth of the stuff once it is invented.
What the authors have started with is an assumption that the technology will be available shortly to get around all the little details that make this a difficult venture. Those assumptions lead to the conclusion that this is feasible in the short term. I contend that, while I think the space elevator has a real future, the assumptions used are huge leaps that cannot be overlooked.
I've read many posts to this story claiming that this idea should be pursued right now, because it is so simple to accomplish. Well, it isn't simple or even possible to start on it today. I bet we have another 10 to 20 years before nanotubes production gets good enough to consider this for real.
From what I have seen so far, the load limit is about 20 tons. That does not take into account a engineering safety factor (usually x10). Which means that the climber and payload are now limited 2 tons.
It is NOT near term feasible!!
on
The Space Elevator
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Many of the posts regarding this book/review are convinced we should already be building the thing for the lousy $6 billion it will cost. The problem is the $6 billion number and the technology are still NOT real.
The authors admit that the tensile strength needed is 3 to 4 times greater than any experiments have shown so far. They ASSUME that the strength needed can be reached in the near future based on theorical projections and it can be mass produced for cheap. They additionally assume that the nanotube technology will not have adverse environmental impacts that will curtail production and drive up costs.
The $6 billion budget seems horribly low and fails to account for the vast amonts of R&D, and manufacturing that would be needed before construction could begin. $6 billion is a small amount to the megacorps of today and they would jump at the thought of such a great ROI (Return On Investment). Then why aren't they investing in this already? Because it is still a LONG way off from reality.
I like the idea as much as most people, but the truth is that this idea has many obstacles to overcome before serious development can begin. My guess (and it is a total guess)is that the real cost would be closer to $60 billion after the technology has been developed.
I often work on firmware build systems that are 5 to 10+ years old. The answer is SCSI hard drives with SCSI backup hard drives. AND keep them running. No mechanical device performs well when left motionless for an extended period of time.
Currently I'm working on a ten year old system that has the main SCSI drive and a mirror drive encase the main unit fails. Then a nightly backup is done of the changed files to a main server.
Hmmmm... Given the desire to read and write data to players (DVD, CD, MP3), I doubt that the future of audio/video equipment will lack this feature. CDs originally were read only. DVDs same thing. MP3 encoding (NOT decoding) was once seen as difficult on a home PC.
In the future people will still want to make digital home movies and recordings. I think the equipment in the future will have more of these features not less. The Indy bands will just have to live with the fact that they have to use the same technology as the home user.
>You'll be able to listen to all the pirated Britney that you want...
Stop it. You're terrifying me. Think I 'll go curl up in a ball until the shaking subsides.
You're right. If the goal is simply to make pirating too difficult for the average user then they can win.
But the larger pirating rings will be able to continue to thrive. This is especially true with digital data like HDTV. When the receiving devices (the TV) expects binary data then that stream can be intercepted and compared to the encoded verison on the disc. At that point breaking the copy protection is just a matter of time. Without any loss in quality.
I don't know if the bigger loss comes from the private pirates or from the 'for profit' pirates. Either way they can't stop it all.
As long as we can get the encoded version (on the disc) and decoded version (out the speaker or monitor) of media (music, movies) then copy protection is doomed.
Our demand for power fluctuates throughout the day (Thus, peak and off peak rates). Most conventional plants can easily adjust the power output to meet the demand at any given time.
Most, not all, but most green power sources do not have this inherent control. Solar power only generates when the sun is shining. Windmills only turn when the wind is blowing. And tidal generators only work when the tide is flowing. Given 2 high and 2 low tides per day, there are four points of no power output each day. Since we can not control when the tides occur (without controlling the moon's orbit) we cannot control when we get max power from a tidal generator.
This presents the problem of what to do during a peak demand period and the tide is either high or low. At present the best alternative is to have another power plant kick in to generate the missing power. That means despite having a green power plant we still need a conventional one that will meet our peak demand.
I am aware of efforts to create storage devices for electric power of the scale needed for cities ( http://www.aip.org/isns/reports/2001/025.html ). These efforts will probably work and prove to be the real reason green power has a future. At the same time these storage facilities will take strain off the conventional generators at peak times and allow them to run more efficiently.
Small distributed powers plants sound good, but they have their own shortcomings. Take this tidal power plant. The website suggested that it will power 1000 homes with a capital investment of over 13.5M USD. That's about $13,500 per household before the powerplant has generated any power.
After that maintenence becomes an issue. If you think maintence costs on traditional power plants is high, imagine doing it at the bottom of the ocean.
Slashdot Mirror
Landmines are considerably smaller than 2 ft. The air delivered anti-personnel mines are more like 3 inches across. I believe this is the type that is the biggest maimer/killer.
The resolution observation is interesting and valid. Precisely locating the mines would require a dense flower pattern. But it you just need to give the EOD team a general place to look, then a bigger spread is ok.
Not only does Gerrymandering happen continually but in the Texas case it has been one sided for twenty years.
The Democrats have controlled the Texas legislature for that long and every few years they have continued to skew the district lines to firm up their control. The Republican actions of late are simply skewing in a different direction.
(Soapbox) Gerrymandering is one of the sleaziest activities done by both parties. Nothing says, "I don't care what you think." more than redistricting so that certain groups are underreprensated. Again this done by both sides through out the country and is one of the main reasons I dislike politicans. (/Soapbox)
Actually, the bill of rights is applied to all people not just American citizens. Non-citizens can have their visas revoked and be deported on that basis but they still have the right to a fair trial, to confront their accussers, etc.
Camp x-ray is a different can of worms. First, it is a fallacy that they are not represented by legal counsel. Their respective countries have assigned legal counsel to them and they have seen the inmates. This is not the writ Habeas Corpus but it is a start. Note the British are starting the process of getting their citizens out of camp x-ray and back to England.
The trouble the near 700 Saudis in camp x-ray. Their government has said they NEVER want those people returned to them. That has created the quandry: now what?
Return them to Afghanistan? The new government would be mad as hell.
Give resident status in the US to 700 people that want to destroy us? I think that is a bad plan. Even if we keep a 'close eye' on them what would the country do if they killed just one citizen? The blame game would start and nothing would bring back the dead citizen.
Force Saudi Arabia to take them back? The diplomatic reality is we can't.
Camp x-ray is problem for me too. I don't like it. I hate the fact that it exists but we have no good answer to the problem.
A side note: the writ of Habeas Corpus was suspended for all people during and after the civil war. A clear violation of the constitution but it did happen. This does not excuse the current situation but it is interesting to know.
Ah, you have exposed my ignorance. I have no experience with written Chinese and jumped to the conclusion that is similar to verbal.
Thanks for the information.
The way I read the article they are using the Midori distro because of the support for written Chinese (not specific on the dialect).
I believe the poster was referring to the last part of the definition: "Solidly uniform".
No organization of significant size behaves or reacts as a single entity (except the Borg). All actions are by some piece of the group. Goverenment agencies or departments in a big company usually do what is best for that piece of the larger group. Not necessarily what is best for the company/country as a whole. Additionally, as older people retire/quit/get laid off the organization "forgets" past mistakes and tends to repeat them.
Having said that, I think the poster was vague with the last comment. I think they were just saying the people who think up "new ideas" are not necessarily the same ones who came up with the "past failures".
I live near Redmond and know several MS people. They don't all think alike and have unique personalities. But none of them want to talk about that cool head mounted laser they have.
You are correct. My point was the parent post was blaming the Iran hostage crisis on Reagan and I was trying to explain that he was nuts.
My "Ended under Reagan." comment was not to give credit to Reagan but instead to accept that Reagan's adminsitration was at least temporally related to the crisis. But cleared placing blame on him is nonsense.
I'm sorry I wasn't clearer in my original post.
Let's see about your list:
Iran Hostage crisis ---> Started under Carter. Ended under Reagan.
Star Wars ---> Dreamed up in the 70's continues today. Even Clinton continued to fund it.
Grenada ---> Warehouses full of Soviet weapons seized just before the 'rebellion' was to start. Talk to 82nd airborne vets about what they found and saw before you think it was a joke.
War on drugs ---> Bush Sr., Nancy was "Just say No to drugs." Not to mention drug use DID decline through the end of the 80's and early 90's. The war is 'lost' because we (people and government) lost focus not because it could not be won.
Central America ---> What part? And no fair bringing up Nicaragua. You already have Iran-Contra on the list. And if you thing the Sandinistas were better than the Contras you're frikin' nuts.
Iran-Contra ---> I will not make excuses for going behind congress' back to get things done. But I do understand the desire to provide continous support to allies that congress was not doing.
BTW, I make less than $65K a year and I've benefitted from every Bush Jr. tax cut. Similarly, I was hindered by every Clinton tax increase. Does that make me part of the richest 1%?
Check out one of the other products they offer. 667 MHz, 20GB HDD, USB 2.0, and on board video. Not as cost effective as a desktop box, but if space is a premium then this is a good answer.
I completely agree with you comment. The only concern I have is if they use the comparator technique discussed in the article. It sounded like it was a lot harder to get around.
The thermal detection technique sounded perfect. The retailer would have to put some serios effort into cooling the CPU and that would offset the savings of selling the OC'ed CPU. At the same time most OC'ers go to great length to cool their CPUs and are expecting to have to do something to manage heat anyway.
Great!!! I'm all for trying something new. What did you have in mind? A space elevator made with nanotubes that DO NOT EXIST? Built by robotic climbers more robust than any ever built? Carrying 'ribbons' longer than any ever made?
I agree that current space exploration options are crappy at best, but this 'elevator' is still a flight on fancy. The nanotubes have NOT been developed to handle the loads needed. In addition no mention is made of how to manufacture, literally, millions of KMs worth of the stuff once it is invented.
What the authors have started with is an assumption that the technology will be available shortly to get around all the little details that make this a difficult venture. Those assumptions lead to the conclusion that this is feasible in the short term. I contend that, while I think the space elevator has a real future, the assumptions used are huge leaps that cannot be overlooked.
I've read many posts to this story claiming that this idea should be pursued right now, because it is so simple to accomplish. Well, it isn't simple or even possible to start on it today. I bet we have another 10 to 20 years before nanotubes production gets good enough to consider this for real.
From what I have seen so far, the load limit is about 20 tons. That does not take into account a engineering safety factor (usually x10). Which means that the climber and payload are now limited 2 tons.
Many of the posts regarding this book/review are convinced we should already be building the thing for the lousy $6 billion it will cost. The problem is the $6 billion number and the technology are still NOT real.
The authors admit that the tensile strength needed is 3 to 4 times greater than any experiments have shown so far. They ASSUME that the strength needed can be reached in the near future based on theorical projections and it can be mass produced for cheap. They additionally assume that the nanotube technology will not have adverse environmental impacts that will curtail production and drive up costs.
The $6 billion budget seems horribly low and fails to account for the vast amonts of R&D, and manufacturing that would be needed before construction could begin. $6 billion is a small amount to the megacorps of today and they would jump at the thought of such a great ROI (Return On Investment). Then why aren't they investing in this already? Because it is still a LONG way off from reality.
I like the idea as much as most people, but the truth is that this idea has many obstacles to overcome before serious development can begin. My guess (and it is a total guess)is that the real cost would be closer to $60 billion after the technology has been developed.
I often work on firmware build systems that are 5 to 10+ years old. The answer is SCSI hard drives with SCSI backup hard drives. AND keep them running. No mechanical device performs well when left motionless for an extended period of time.
Currently I'm working on a ten year old system that has the main SCSI drive and a mirror drive encase the main unit fails. Then a nightly backup is done of the changed files to a main server.
Hmmmm... Given the desire to read and write data to players (DVD, CD, MP3), I doubt that the future of audio/video equipment will lack this feature. CDs originally were read only. DVDs same thing. MP3 encoding (NOT decoding) was once seen as difficult on a home PC.
In the future people will still want to make digital home movies and recordings. I think the equipment in the future will have more of these features not less. The Indy bands will just have to live with the fact that they have to use the same technology as the home user.
>You'll be able to listen to all the pirated Britney that you want...
Stop it. You're terrifying me. Think I 'll go curl up in a ball until the shaking subsides.
But the larger pirating rings will be able to continue to thrive. This is especially true with digital data like HDTV. When the receiving devices (the TV) expects binary data then that stream can be intercepted and compared to the encoded verison on the disc. At that point breaking the copy protection is just a matter of time. Without any loss in quality.
I don't know if the bigger loss comes from the private pirates or from the 'for profit' pirates. Either way they can't stop it all.
As long as we can get the encoded version (on the disc) and decoded version (out the speaker or monitor) of media (music, movies) then copy protection is doomed.
Our demand for power fluctuates throughout the day (Thus, peak and off peak rates). Most conventional plants can easily adjust the power output to meet the demand at any given time.
Most, not all, but most green power sources do not have this inherent control. Solar power only generates when the sun is shining. Windmills only turn when the wind is blowing. And tidal generators only work when the tide is flowing. Given 2 high and 2 low tides per day, there are four points of no power output each day. Since we can not control when the tides occur (without controlling the moon's orbit) we cannot control when we get max power from a tidal generator.
This presents the problem of what to do during a peak demand period and the tide is either high or low. At present the best alternative is to have another power plant kick in to generate the missing power. That means despite having a green power plant we still need a conventional one that will meet our peak demand.
I am aware of efforts to create storage devices for electric power of the scale needed for cities ( http://www.aip.org/isns/reports/2001/025.html ). These efforts will probably work and prove to be the real reason green power has a future. At the same time these storage facilities will take strain off the conventional generators at peak times and allow them to run more efficiently.
Small distributed powers plants sound good, but they have their own shortcomings. Take this tidal power plant. The website suggested that it will power 1000 homes with a capital investment of over 13.5M USD. That's about $13,500 per household before the powerplant has generated any power. After that maintenence becomes an issue. If you think maintence costs on traditional power plants is high, imagine doing it at the bottom of the ocean.