Don't file share movies and CDs! The penalties for shoplifting are much lighter, so just help yourself to the five finger discount the next time you're at a DVD/CD store!
And you know how backed up that court is. They've still got a backlog from all the damage claims from when the fifth planet got obliterated. We'll never see the end of this.
You are quite correct. I had a complete brain fart on the math there. Knowing that it would still take a huge shift of mass to make a damn bit of difference, I got carried away and explained completely incorrectly. There actually isn't a real difference in *orbit*, but not because of my stupid error. Since the entire mass of the moon is barely significant next to that of the Earth, one can say that the gravitational force F is directly proportional to the mass of the Moon. So, change the Moon's mass by just about any amount and the force is changed similarly. This leaves the acceleration constant (F = ma), and consequently, the orbit. Therefore this wouldn't change the orbit (in the same way that heavy objects fall at the same rate as light ones, ignoring air resistance). However, we were talking about tides and it would certainly change the tides (as the total force has changed). In my defense I will say that I work with orbital mechanics for a living, but I don't do much calculation with tidal forces. Still, there's no excuse to assume (m1 + d) * (m2 - d) = m1 * m2 is true because (m1 + d) + (m2 - d) == m1 + m2. Sorry about that.
Yes, you are right on the metric units as well. A metric tonne is 1000 kg, FYI. I should have had "A trillion kilograms", since I established that I was using American nomenclature, but then slipped into UK nomenclature on that one conversion. I do that sometimes, and should've stayed in scientific notation (it's safer!). However, that error is in my favor, as now you have to ship a 1000 megatons off the Moon every year for 50 million years before you impact the Moon's mass to the third significant figure. That's a lot of space freighters!:-)
I think my base assertion still holds, but I thank you for pointing out the errors in my maths.
It stands to reason that they could also read all your cookies for the site you otherwise would've gone to, as well. Even if what you get redirected to is just a redirection server to assholes.belkin.com or whatever, that redirector has access to the cookies because your browser at that point still thinks it's talking to the site you intended to go to.
That leaves the door open for all kinds of pleasant things...
Begging your pardon, but has your shadow ever darkened the door of a physics class?
Simply expressed, the force of gravity between two bodies is expressed as F = (G*m1*m2)/d**2
Where:
G is a universal constant.
m1 and m2 are the respective masses of the two bodies in question.
and d is the distance from the centers of mass of the two bodies.
Note than moving mass from one mass to the other affects the force of gravity not one tiny bit. So your "especially if they were transported to Earth" line should be "except when transported to earth, as it will have absolutely NO effect."*
The only effect that would happen on the gravitation of the Earth-Moon system is if some of the Moon's (or the Earth's) mass was removed from the system completely. Let's look at your assertion about a "few gigagrammes" could make a difference.
To help your case, I'm going to assume "a few" gigagrammes to be 1,000,000 gigagrammes. Personally, I think a million is a bit more than a few, but I'm feeling generous today. Let's run the numbers, shall we?
We'll use the cgs (centimeter-gram-second) system for all our measurements. G, the universal constant of gravitation, has been measured experimentally to be 6.6726E-8 (dyne*cm**2/g**2)
The mass of the Earth is: 5.98E+27 g.
The mass of the Moon is: 7.35E+25 g.
The distance between the center of mass of each of these bodies is 3.84E+10 cm.
The force of gravity between these bodies (in dynes) is computed to be 1.99E+25 dynes to the three significant figures we have the mass measured.
Now let's subtract a million gigagrams from the Moon's mass. This is a million billion (using the American convention for naming numbers), or one quadrillion grams, or 1E+15. 7.35E+25 - 1E+15 is still approximately equal to 7.35E+25. To be perfectly pedantic, it's 7.3499999999E+25, but we're dealing with numbers to three significant figures, so it's still 7.35E+25.
A million gigagrams is a billion kilograms, or one million metric tonnes. If we could haul away a million tonnes a year from the moon, it would take us 50 million years before we affected the Moon's mass to the third significant figure.
I think the tides are safe for a while.
*The pedants among would note that the transit time of some mass between one body and the other would have some impact on the system, as it becomes a three body problem. As above though, unless the mass being moved were a substantial fraction of the total mass, its impact is negligible, and doesn't warrant pulling out much nastier three body solutions.
The best part about a prediction like that is you're virtually guaranteed to be right, and if you're not, you're not alive anymore to look like a schmuck.
So, in other words, Columbus was a complete, total and abject failure because he never did find that route to China. I think I beg to differ on that. The thing that becomes the wild success is almost never the thing that is looked for. You may be right, orbital power may not pan out. But who's to say what other things unlooked for will emerge if we try?
As to "unproven" concepts, it's not even proven that I will successfully navigate home tonight, much less something not mundane and trivial. If all we do is wait to do stuff that's proven, then we might as well just stay in bed.
The less stuff my computer has to depend on to actually boot, the better. I like the fact that relatively modern Linux systems can still run effectively on old hardware.
My python library is about 62 megabytes in size. Are we going to create a separate boot-mode python that is minimal? In my opinion, we've just taken out one of the best features of python: All that cool stuff that comes free with python. In addition, now I have two python install to maintain. If not, I run the risk of upgrading python making my system unusable. Not likely, but not zero probability, either.
As much as I generally hate shell scripting, I'm happy to do it for init.
In fact, one could make an argument that it is more strongly typed than Java.
Python, however, is dynamically typed. It has its advantages and disadvantages with a statically typed language such as Java.
There are good arguments for using a dynamically typed language in conjunction with doing unit testing which serves to demonstrate program correctness, rather than mere syntactical correctness. Relying on your compiler to save you from a stupid moment (and let's be honest, we all have them) can get you burnt just as easily.
With that said, a strong static typed language does relieve you from many simple coding mistakes, but you should be unit testing in a large system anyway. Let's be hnoest: those sorts of bugs are the easiest to fix in a complicated system. Much more difficult is finding and removing flaws in encoded business logic. No compiler or code analyzer is going to help you there. Unit tests will.
Partisan bickering about typing mechanisms doesn't address the larger issues of software validation and correctness.
Sorry about that: We're running a bit behind schedule. We apologize to our consumers for these delays. We promise we're going to release BigBrother 1.0 very soon now. Thank you for your continued patience.
going to make a witty joke about them not taxing the illegal drugs I deal from my home, but then thought better of it, lest some yay-hoo DEA agent reading this thinks I'm serious.
Have you read "Stranger in a Strange Land"? "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"? "Friday"? "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls"?
If not, I would highly recommend you do so. Heinlein decidedly did NOT write just for "Cleaver Family Morality' and to say he did is either ignorant or dishonest.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't file share movies and CDs! The penalties for shoplifting are much lighter, so just help yourself to the five finger discount the next time you're at a DVD/CD store!
And you know how backed up that court is. They've still got a backlog from all the damage claims from when the fifth planet got obliterated. We'll never see the end of this.
because their server has been turned into slag by a good slashdotting.
You are quite correct. I had a complete brain fart on the math there. Knowing that it would still take a huge shift of mass to make a damn bit of difference, I got carried away and explained completely incorrectly. There actually isn't a real difference in *orbit*, but not because of my stupid error. Since the entire mass of the moon is barely significant next to that of the Earth, one can say that the gravitational force F is directly proportional to the mass of the Moon. So, change the Moon's mass by just about any amount and the force is changed similarly. This leaves the acceleration constant (F = ma), and consequently, the orbit. Therefore this wouldn't change the orbit (in the same way that heavy objects fall at the same rate as light ones, ignoring air resistance). However, we were talking about tides and it would certainly change the tides (as the total force has changed). In my defense I will say that I work with orbital mechanics for a living, but I don't do much calculation with tidal forces. Still, there's no excuse to assume (m1 + d) * (m2 - d) = m1 * m2 is true because (m1 + d) + (m2 - d) == m1 + m2. Sorry about that.
Yes, you are right on the metric units as well. A metric tonne is 1000 kg, FYI. I should have had "A trillion kilograms", since I established that I was using American nomenclature, but then slipped into UK nomenclature on that one conversion. I do that sometimes, and should've stayed in scientific notation (it's safer!). However, that error is in my favor, as now you have to ship a 1000 megatons off the Moon every year for 50 million years before you impact the Moon's mass to the third significant figure. That's a lot of space freighters! :-)
I think my base assertion still holds, but I thank you for pointing out the errors in my maths.
It stands to reason that they could also read all your cookies for the site you otherwise would've gone to, as well. Even if what you get redirected to is just a redirection server to assholes.belkin.com or whatever, that redirector has access to the cookies because your browser at that point still thinks it's talking to the site you intended to go to.
That leaves the door open for all kinds of pleasant things...
Begging your pardon, but has your shadow ever darkened the door of a physics class?
Simply expressed, the force of gravity between two bodies is expressed as F = (G*m1*m2)/d**2
Where:
Note than moving mass from one mass to the other affects the force of gravity not one tiny bit. So your "especially if they were transported to Earth" line should be "except when transported to earth, as it will have absolutely NO effect."*
The only effect that would happen on the gravitation of the Earth-Moon system is if some of the Moon's (or the Earth's) mass was removed from the system completely. Let's look at your assertion about a "few gigagrammes" could make a difference.
To help your case, I'm going to assume "a few" gigagrammes to be 1,000,000 gigagrammes. Personally, I think a million is a bit more than a few, but I'm feeling generous today. Let's run the numbers, shall we?
We'll use the cgs (centimeter-gram-second) system for all our measurements. G, the universal constant of gravitation, has been measured experimentally to be 6.6726E-8 (dyne*cm**2/g**2)
The mass of the Earth is: 5.98E+27 g.
The mass of the Moon is: 7.35E+25 g.
The distance between the center of mass of each of these bodies is 3.84E+10 cm.
The force of gravity between these bodies (in dynes) is computed to be 1.99E+25 dynes to the three significant figures we have the mass measured.
Now let's subtract a million gigagrams from the Moon's mass. This is a million billion (using the American convention for naming numbers), or one quadrillion grams, or 1E+15. 7.35E+25 - 1E+15 is still approximately equal to 7.35E+25. To be perfectly pedantic, it's 7.3499999999E+25, but we're dealing with numbers to three significant figures, so it's still 7.35E+25.
A million gigagrams is a billion kilograms, or one million metric tonnes. If we could haul away a million tonnes a year from the moon, it would take us 50 million years before we affected the Moon's mass to the third significant figure.
I think the tides are safe for a while.
*The pedants among would note that the transit time of some mass between one body and the other would have some impact on the system, as it becomes a three body problem. As above though, unless the mass being moved were a substantial fraction of the total mass, its impact is negligible, and doesn't warrant pulling out much nastier three body solutions.
Uh, actually we do. both MGS and Odyssey are designed to be used as communications relays for surface missions.
Changingthe value of pi?
The best part about a prediction like that is you're virtually guaranteed to be right, and if you're not, you're not alive anymore to look like a schmuck.
So, in other words, the editors are trolls.
So, in other words, Columbus was a complete, total and abject failure because he never did find that route to China. I think I beg to differ on that. The thing that becomes the wild success is almost never the thing that is looked for. You may be right, orbital power may not pan out. But who's to say what other things unlooked for will emerge if we try?
As to "unproven" concepts, it's not even proven that I will successfully navigate home tonight, much less something not mundane and trivial. If all we do is wait to do stuff that's proven, then we might as well just stay in bed.
Yes, you are asking too much, and no we may not. If we did, I might forget what site I'm on.
"Soon to be in prototype" is synonymous with "does not exist"
Ah, but what the hell, let's post it to the front page anyway.
Yeah, it's confusing. What really bothers me is that a dime bag costs considerably more than a dime. How are we supposed to keep this straight?
and I think this is a bad idea.
The less stuff my computer has to depend on to actually boot, the better. I like the fact that relatively modern Linux systems can still run effectively on old hardware.
My python library is about 62 megabytes in size. Are we going to create a separate boot-mode python that is minimal? In my opinion, we've just taken out one of the best features of python: All that cool stuff that comes free with python. In addition, now I have two python install to maintain. If not, I run the risk of upgrading python making my system unusable. Not likely, but not zero probability, either.
As much as I generally hate shell scripting, I'm happy to do it for init.
In fact, one could make an argument that it is more strongly typed than Java.
Python, however, is dynamically typed. It has its advantages and disadvantages with a statically typed language such as Java.
There are good arguments for using a dynamically typed language in conjunction with doing unit testing which serves to demonstrate program correctness, rather than mere syntactical correctness. Relying on your compiler to save you from a stupid moment (and let's be honest, we all have them) can get you burnt just as easily.
With that said, a strong static typed language does relieve you from many simple coding mistakes, but you should be unit testing in a large system anyway. Let's be hnoest: those sorts of bugs are the easiest to fix in a complicated system. Much more difficult is finding and removing flaws in encoded business logic. No compiler or code analyzer is going to help you there. Unit tests will.
Partisan bickering about typing mechanisms doesn't address the larger issues of software validation and correctness.
as long as it's Java, C++, C#, or VB.NET.
There is no problem in the IT industry with...
Er, what are we talking about?
why I don't get a paid subscription to /.
Bah!
Oh drat. Wrong site.
Sorry about that: We're running a bit behind schedule. We apologize to our consumers for these delays. We promise we're going to release BigBrother 1.0 very soon now. Thank you for your continued patience.
Your friends at CIA/NSA/FBI/RIAA/MPAA.
And look at this way... Every dollar MS gives to schools is a dollar they don't have to give to SCO!
going to make a witty joke about them not taxing the illegal drugs I deal from my home, but then thought better of it, lest some yay-hoo DEA agent reading this thinks I'm serious.
Have you read "Stranger in a Strange Land"? "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"? "Friday"? "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls"?
If not, I would highly recommend you do so. Heinlein decidedly did NOT write just for "Cleaver Family Morality' and to say he did is either ignorant or dishonest.
Maybe someone was playing too much Alpha Centauri