And to build one that would move an asteroid, the craft would have to much nearly as heavy as the asteroid or the force would move the craft a great distance and the asteroid very little. The asteroid would need to be composed mostly of iron I should think too or the electromagnets wouldn't do much.
If it has several small thrusters, each pointing out not directly at the object, but say at 45 degree angles to the object in a conical sort of fashion, each applying the same force, with the tractor at the point and the object inside the cone, the forces applied by the thrusters (my physics teacher would be proud that i remembered all this business about vectors) will add up to an overall force on the tractor directly away from the object, while not applying an opposing force on the object.
Or, have a craft land, and use an ion thruster, which would require much less fuel than a rocket, but would be enough to push it off course if you had time.
I totally agree that there should always be 1 person holding all the keys, and that they should give them out as needed, and at thier discretion. However, you also need insurance. How about keeping a manilla envelope, with important admin passwords and configuration info, locked in a wall safe that only the admin and a trusted keeper (say a manager, or a college) know the combination to. If the admin goes bonkers, sure they can change the passwords and you're screwed, but you can't really prepare for the onset of batshiat-crazy, but if the admin gets hit by a bus, his boss can open the safe, break the seal on the envelope, and minimize the damage done by losing the admin.
I know you shouldn't write passwords down, but there's a difference between a sticky note under a keyboard and a sealed envelope in a safe someplace.
TheRaven is right, a being travelling in a ship at the speed of light, for say 1000 light years, wouldn't perceive the passage of 1000 years. If we use the twins thought experiment as a base, 1 day for the twin in the ship to 72 years for the twin on earth, then the passengers in the ship thats travelling 1000 light years would only perveive a couple of weeks. So if one were to travel from here to the nearest star (only 4.5 light years away or so) the time would pass in a few minutes. Of course it'd be several years to your wife before you ever got back. so she probably won't let you go anyway.
And you assume, that since some guy (I know Einstein wasn't just some guy, but he's not above being wrong either) said that nothing can accellerate past the speed of light, that everything in the whole of the universe must abide by that.
A far as the intergalactic food chain goes, we may be nothing more than rodents to the grown up civilizations, and to assume that our feeble understanding of the workings of the universe is wholly accurate and will never change is foolish.
Allow me to re-state my comment.
A hundred years ago if you told someone it was possible to speak into a little plastic box that displayed moving images in color, could give you directions to your grandmother's house, and could tell you with a reasonable degree of accuracy your exact location on the planet, and for someone else with a little plasic box just like it halfway across the planet to hear you, , and check thier stocks, and make dinner arrangements, and get get an email from thier bank notifiying them of a possible theft of thier identity, they'd call you a nutter too. Speaking of which, I need to check my voicemail...
A hundred years ago if you told someone it was possible to speak into a little plastic box and for someone else with a little plasic box halfway across the planet to hear it, they'd call you a nutter too. Speaking of which, I need to check my voicemail...
You know, I always wondered how a rock could break a pair of scissors and fail miserably at the relatively simple task of tearing a piece of paper.
Paper dulls the scissors, paper wins.
Scissors can be sharpend on a rock, scissors win.
Rock can rip a hole in the paper, rock wins.
See, it still works!
and thus, if the human is good enough, they might be able to pick out patterns in the decisions the computer makes and exploit them. The computer can't learn how to adapt to each opponenent nearly as well as the human players can. I play hold 'em all the time and I can tell you if you can't keep up with someone's changes in strategy you're going to lose. Also, if you play exactly the same every hand, everyone else on the table will pick up on it, and own you.
Well, I'd tell you to install linux, as its more secure, and I'd be willing to bet those kids have never even heard of it, much less know how to operate it. But then I think about that one kid (not unlike my self in my highschool days) that DOES know what it is, and DOES know how to operate it, know what I mean?
I'm not sure thats any better:-P
Slashdot Mirror
according to dictionary.com, the 1st defininition of use is "to employ for some purpose...".
He employed those words, for the purpose of making an ass of himself, i rest my case.
you just used em all!
uhhh, an ion thruster IS a mass driver... -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver#Spacecraft-based_mass_drivers
And to build one that would move an asteroid, the craft would have to much nearly as heavy as the asteroid or the force would move the craft a great distance and the asteroid very little. The asteroid would need to be composed mostly of iron I should think too or the electromagnets wouldn't do much.
if you gave em your email address, you paid through the nose!
think of the time you'll waste on the spam your going to get now, and as we all know time = money.
If it has several small thrusters, each pointing out not directly at the object, but say at 45 degree angles to the object in a conical sort of fashion, each applying the same force, with the tractor at the point and the object inside the cone, the forces applied by the thrusters (my physics teacher would be proud that i remembered all this business about vectors) will add up to an overall force on the tractor directly away from the object, while not applying an opposing force on the object.
Or, have a craft land, and use an ion thruster, which would require much less fuel than a rocket, but would be enough to push it off course if you had time.
i've never been so surpised by any other slashdot story in my life, who would have thought hasbro would gay out and ruin everything...
/sarcasm
s/college/collegue
I totally agree that there should always be 1 person holding all the keys, and that they should give them out as needed, and at thier discretion. However, you also need insurance. How about keeping a manilla envelope, with important admin passwords and configuration info, locked in a wall safe that only the admin and a trusted keeper (say a manager, or a college) know the combination to. If the admin goes bonkers, sure they can change the passwords and you're screwed, but you can't really prepare for the onset of batshiat-crazy, but if the admin gets hit by a bus, his boss can open the safe, break the seal on the envelope, and minimize the damage done by losing the admin.
I know you shouldn't write passwords down, but there's a difference between a sticky note under a keyboard and a sealed envelope in a safe someplace.
TheRaven is right, a being travelling in a ship at the speed of light, for say 1000 light years, wouldn't perceive the passage of 1000 years. If we use the twins thought experiment as a base, 1 day for the twin in the ship to 72 years for the twin on earth, then the passengers in the ship thats travelling 1000 light years would only perveive a couple of weeks. So if one were to travel from here to the nearest star (only 4.5 light years away or so) the time would pass in a few minutes. Of course it'd be several years to your wife before you ever got back. so she probably won't let you go anyway.
And you assume, that since some guy (I know Einstein wasn't just some guy, but he's not above being wrong either) said that nothing can accellerate past the speed of light, that everything in the whole of the universe must abide by that.
A far as the intergalactic food chain goes, we may be nothing more than rodents to the grown up civilizations, and to assume that our feeble understanding of the workings of the universe is wholly accurate and will never change is foolish.
Allow me to re-state my comment. A hundred years ago if you told someone it was possible to speak into a little plastic box that displayed moving images in color, could give you directions to your grandmother's house, and could tell you with a reasonable degree of accuracy your exact location on the planet, and for someone else with a little plasic box just like it halfway across the planet to hear you, , and check thier stocks, and make dinner arrangements, and get get an email from thier bank notifiying them of a possible theft of thier identity, they'd call you a nutter too. Speaking of which, I need to check my voicemail...
A hundred years ago if you told someone it was possible to speak into a little plastic box and for someone else with a little plasic box halfway across the planet to hear it, they'd call you a nutter too. Speaking of which, I need to check my voicemail...
you = crazy
You know, I always wondered how a rock could break a pair of scissors and fail miserably at the relatively simple task of tearing a piece of paper.
Paper dulls the scissors, paper wins.
Scissors can be sharpend on a rock, scissors win.
Rock can rip a hole in the paper, rock wins.
See, it still works!
Even blind people saw this coming.
Uh yeah, I'll be lining the inside of every hat I have with some good ol foil now!
and thus, if the human is good enough, they might be able to pick out patterns in the decisions the computer makes and exploit them. The computer can't learn how to adapt to each opponenent nearly as well as the human players can. I play hold 'em all the time and I can tell you if you can't keep up with someone's changes in strategy you're going to lose. Also, if you play exactly the same every hand, everyone else on the table will pick up on it, and own you.
I don't pretend to understand those words completely, but yeah it sounds like it'd be something cool to do to someone's car.
yeah, what he said...
I already have tickets for the alpha centauri show!!!
heh, triffids
Well, I'd tell you to install linux, as its more secure, and I'd be willing to bet those kids have never even heard of it, much less know how to operate it. But then I think about that one kid (not unlike my self in my highschool days) that DOES know what it is, and DOES know how to operate it, know what I mean? I'm not sure thats any better :-P
if i were to "uninstall or otherwise remove" the software, how is it they can still delete the content? hmmmm...
no, but now im gonna watch it again with that song playin in the background!