That works for a person who wants to build their own computer and knows what parts they want, but what about Joe & Jane Average who just want to browse the internet and let their kid play a few games?
Hmm, I just shot my own argument to the ground with that comment, didn't I?
The only problem is where you buy the computer. I put together my new computer in June for $700, minus the peripherals by buying the parts direct. In July my gf's parents paid almost $1500 for a much inferior off-to-college computer with only about $400 worth of peripherals, $200 of software (windoze), and a $40 guarantee. I'm not adding assembly cost because: 1) I would have been willing to put a computer together for them free of charge, 2) it can't possibly cost the manufacturer much in man-hours, and 3) I rounded my other estimates up to cover it.
The bottom line is that they paid ~$150 MORE for a much INFERIOR computer due mainly to ignorance and retail markup. If I'd spent the extra $150 on my system (and waited a month), I could have even had the next tier video and sound cards. Basically, I'm saying that a price-based rating system needs to be based on some common denominator. Saying "my system cost more than yours therefore it's better" is meaningless because there are too many variables.
Now that I'm done nitpicking, I will agree with your general statement that price is a better yardstick than a 10-division rating system.
It's ok, I'll defend myself in court by claiming that the security system isn't electronic, it's photonic. It emits infrared light to confuse the camera;-)
Oh darn, I'll just have to get a manual-focus and manual-aperture camera for all my terro^H^H^H^H^Haerial photography needs. I'll just set the focus to infinity and the aperture from the ground (or even just guess at the f-stop #... 8 maybe?).
Or am I threatening national security by relating my knowledge of these VERY basic photography skills?
My girlfriend has a bunch of bumper stickers on her car: one of them is a "W '04" sticker, and another is a "Republicans for Voldemort" sticker. When I asked her about them, she told me said that she just likes confusing people.
Hairspray gummed up the works while I used a bolt-to-bolt spark gap. Now that I have a spark plug, it's not a problem (plus I wash it down after every session). Also, the flash circuit generates 300V that goes through an ignition coil that's only supposed to have 12v... so who knows how many volts that has at the spark plug? It's more than enough to break through any residue that the hairspray leaves on the plug.
I'm a mechanical engineering student myself, and I already realize a lot of what you're saying, but keep in mind that the speed of sound changes along with a change in pressure. Thermo/fluids wasn't my strong suit, but I think that it's possible to make it go supersonic by just using enough pressure. Think about this: an explosive supersonic projectile is nothing more than REALLY high pressure gasses (with different properties, but still...)
Anyways, when I make my steel cannon, I'm going to use somewhere in the multiple hundreds of PSI to get that kind of speed, and it's going to be a small "tabletop" model. I'll post in my./ journal when I get it made and tested.:-)
If you use a poppet valve and a cheap solenoid valve you can get better results, this is what my friend uses. If you don't know, a poppet valve holds itself shut with the air pressure in the chamber, and when you release the pressure behind it, the larger volume of air in front of it pushes it out of the way, and then rushes into the barrel, projecting the potato out very quickly. The seals around the valve don't need to be very good because it only needs to work for a fraction of a second, but the seal on the barrel does need to be good.
Re:Beer-can mortars anyone?
on
Disney Goes Boom!
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· Score: 4, Interesting
My potato guns use a customized ignition like what you're describing. The guns themselves are PVC, and the ignition is a camera flash circuit wired through a car ignition coil, which goes into a spark plug. Hairspray shoots the potatoes a good 150 yards if you wedge them in there enough.
Slightly more on-topic though, a friend of mine has a real nice compressed air potato gun that has an electronically triggered poppet valve. Despite the fact that his gun cost much more and is so much more complex, mine shoots more rapidly, farther, and louder. They both get a nice cloud of smoke out the barrel after the shot though. His because of the rapid decompression, and mine because of the burning hairspray. Surprisingly, we have mutual respect for each other's designs and we don't really compete with each other so much as help with design and construction problems.
My next gun will be compressed air, and once I figure it out with PVC, I'm moving on to stainless steel to hopefully get a supersonic potato (or other projectile) gun:-)
I feel the exact same way. I really don't care for CS 1.6, it runs slower and buggier than 1.5 did on my old half-as-fast computer! I'm just really glad that I still have my original HL CD as well as some backup copies of CS 1.5 full install and the latest HL update, so that if I really want to I can give them to friends to load on their computers, and we can still play CS 1.5 on a LAN.
Fuck Steam. I just want to be able to play 1-player HL without having to connect to Steam to do it! Fuck Steam!
4 easy ways to protect yourself from this worm:
1- Use Linux.
2- Disconnect your webcam when you don't want to use it.
3- Turn your webcam toward the wall / floor / desktop when you don't want to use it.
4- Cover the lens wtih tape when you don't want to use it.
Interestingly enough, there is evidence that crows can count to 7.
Bugs Bunny - "No, no, no. You're doing it all wrong! You have to say, 'You have till the count of four to get out of there or else I'll shoot you!'"
Redneck crow - "Oh, ok. Um, uh... one. Um... uhhhh, ummmmm, two.... Hey rabbit critter, what comes after two?"
BB - "Three. [While attaching metal pipe to the rifle and making it point at the crow's pappy]ience] I figured that math wouldn't be his strong suit."
Crow - "Hey pappy, what comes after 3 in countin'?"
Pappy - "Four Elvis."
Crow - "Four?"
*BANG!*
Pappy - "Now why'd you go and shoot your Pappy for?"
*BANG*.....
Other than the obvious abuse possibilities, this is a good way to remove the incentive to spam people. Until I started getting too much junk mail to keep up with, I would go to the website that was advertised (stripping out the personal identifier junk-text string) and e-mail the webmaster saying that I would never buy their product because of their advertising techniques and that I would actively warn people away from them. I doubt that they took me seriously, but it was nice to rant anyways, and yes I did follow through in my threat for many of those advertisers.
Also, if the spammers are getting a [very low percentage] click-through number, I wonder how many of those are people who have never gotten spam before. The number of people on the internet is growing so quickly, I'd imagine that many of the click-throughs are actually people who have never seen a "bulk unsolicited e-mail" before.
... a new game has been released called "Sim Fall On Your Face And Break Your Nose". Where you try to walk, lean like you do when naturally walking, and fall on your face because you're not actually moving! Company spokesman John Doe is quoted as saying, "Bell, thiz game iz a lot like ben you try walkig on ize, excep you fall dowm bore often. We're exbectig a lot of beople who habe neber been on ize to buy our broduct do zee what it iz like."
Seriously, it's counterintuitive to not lean when you start walking, but it's relatively easy to learn how to do it. I used to talk on water cooler bottles when I was little, I even got the the point where I could kick them to make them turn. I could go into rooms and down hallways and around corners and everything.
The CS degree at my school has a relatively short CS program, where there's a LOT of free electives: 32 credits (2 semesters for most students). If those courses simply weren't required, you could be done with your BS in 3 years. That's why I was able to go for a dual CS major alongside my Mechanical Engineering major and only need to stay one extra semester.
I've been wondering for a while now why they have so many free electives without doing certification or hardware courses (you'd be amazed at how many of my fellow students don't realize some of the limitations of the hardware that they code on).
(Yes I realize that the link above lists 36 credits of free electives, but RPI has since changed their degree requirements).
The flash capacitor is about 4kV, not 12V. The whining noise after you fire it is the inverter pumping the cap back up for the next shot
I can't imagine that any caps are as high as 4k volts, all of the ones that I've taken apart (quite a few) are around 300V (the caps are only rated to around 330V). Maybe you're talking about the voltage after the stepup transformer that's in line between the capacitor and the flashbulb, that steps the voltage up considerably.
Also, it's not exactly an inverter inside the thing, it's called a flyback transformer.
I used to play what we termed "bike polo" with a bunch of guys who, for the most part, worked at a local bike shop. The rules were: you had to have a girls' bike frame (very low top tube) that was 18" or smaller, a banana seat, & the biggest handlebars you could find. You used a hockey stick to hit a lacrosse ball around a parking lot into the other team's net. Fair play to jam your hockey stick into an opponenet's spokes, fair play to check the ball carrier, no time outs. You couldn't score from the grass around the lot, but the ball was still in play.
The games usually ended when there was only one or 2 people on each team, and keep in mind that the people who played were between about 16 and 40, so they didn't fit on the bikes very well. It was so much fun to watch.
RTFA: By boosting its computing capacity ten-fold through Project Columbia, the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility (NAS) will be able to more effectively handle such critical projects as simulating future space missions, projecting the impact of human activity on weather patterns, and designing safe and efficient space exploration vehicles and aircraft. The present collaboration builds upon the highly successful 8-year partnership that last year developed the world's first 512-processor Linux server - based on standard, "off-the-shelf" microprocessor and open source technology - the SGI Altix at NASA Ames Research Center named 'Kalpana' after Columbia astronaut and Ames alumna Kalpana Chawla.
Newsflash: your voting records are available to the politicians anyways. They aren't supposed to use them for evil purposes, but who knows?
Besides, if you're talking about coercing the public into voting for someone, it just wouldn't be worth their time. Imagine a candidate walking around saying: "vote for me or I'll cut funding for your fire department." It'd make national news in no time! They could get away with coercing small groups, but it'd just be a small group... so there's no real point.
(Disclaimer: This tidbit was off the top of my head, I can't find any evidence that supports or refutes it, so if anyone can find hard evidence, please reply.)
Slashdot Mirror
That works for a person who wants to build their own computer and knows what parts they want, but what about Joe & Jane Average who just want to browse the internet and let their kid play a few games?
Hmm, I just shot my own argument to the ground with that comment, didn't I?
The only problem is where you buy the computer. I put together my new computer in June for $700, minus the peripherals by buying the parts direct. In July my gf's parents paid almost $1500 for a much inferior off-to-college computer with only about $400 worth of peripherals, $200 of software (windoze), and a $40 guarantee. I'm not adding assembly cost because: 1) I would have been willing to put a computer together for them free of charge, 2) it can't possibly cost the manufacturer much in man-hours, and 3) I rounded my other estimates up to cover it.
The bottom line is that they paid ~$150 MORE for a much INFERIOR computer due mainly to ignorance and retail markup. If I'd spent the extra $150 on my system (and waited a month), I could have even had the next tier video and sound cards. Basically, I'm saying that a price-based rating system needs to be based on some common denominator. Saying "my system cost more than yours therefore it's better" is meaningless because there are too many variables.
Now that I'm done nitpicking, I will agree with your general statement that price is a better yardstick than a 10-division rating system.
It's ok, I'll defend myself in court by claiming that the security system isn't electronic, it's photonic. It emits infrared light to confuse the camera ;-)
Oh darn, I'll just have to get a manual-focus and manual-aperture camera for all my terro^H^H^H^H^Haerial photography needs. I'll just set the focus to infinity and the aperture from the ground (or even just guess at the f-stop #... 8 maybe?).
Or am I threatening national security by relating my knowledge of these VERY basic photography skills?
My girlfriend has a bunch of bumper stickers on her car: one of them is a "W '04" sticker, and another is a "Republicans for Voldemort" sticker. When I asked her about them, she told me said that she just likes confusing people.
Then again, it's not illegal if you don't get caught, right?
Hairspray gummed up the works while I used a bolt-to-bolt spark gap. Now that I have a spark plug, it's not a problem (plus I wash it down after every session). Also, the flash circuit generates 300V that goes through an ignition coil that's only supposed to have 12v... so who knows how many volts that has at the spark plug? It's more than enough to break through any residue that the hairspray leaves on the plug.
I'm a mechanical engineering student myself, and I already realize a lot of what you're saying, but keep in mind that the speed of sound changes along with a change in pressure. Thermo/fluids wasn't my strong suit, but I think that it's possible to make it go supersonic by just using enough pressure. Think about this: an explosive supersonic projectile is nothing more than REALLY high pressure gasses (with different properties, but still...)
./ journal when I get it made and tested. :-)
Anyways, when I make my steel cannon, I'm going to use somewhere in the multiple hundreds of PSI to get that kind of speed, and it's going to be a small "tabletop" model. I'll post in my
Pshaw, you don't need to spend that much.
If you use a poppet valve and a cheap solenoid valve you can get better results, this is what my friend uses. If you don't know, a poppet valve holds itself shut with the air pressure in the chamber, and when you release the pressure behind it, the larger volume of air in front of it pushes it out of the way, and then rushes into the barrel, projecting the potato out very quickly. The seals around the valve don't need to be very good because it only needs to work for a fraction of a second, but the seal on the barrel does need to be good.
My potato guns use a customized ignition like what you're describing. The guns themselves are PVC, and the ignition is a camera flash circuit wired through a car ignition coil, which goes into a spark plug. Hairspray shoots the potatoes a good 150 yards if you wedge them in there enough.
:-)
Slightly more on-topic though, a friend of mine has a real nice compressed air potato gun that has an electronically triggered poppet valve. Despite the fact that his gun cost much more and is so much more complex, mine shoots more rapidly, farther, and louder. They both get a nice cloud of smoke out the barrel after the shot though. His because of the rapid decompression, and mine because of the burning hairspray. Surprisingly, we have mutual respect for each other's designs and we don't really compete with each other so much as help with design and construction problems.
My next gun will be compressed air, and once I figure it out with PVC, I'm moving on to stainless steel to hopefully get a supersonic potato (or other projectile) gun
I feel the exact same way. I really don't care for CS 1.6, it runs slower and buggier than 1.5 did on my old half-as-fast computer! I'm just really glad that I still have my original HL CD as well as some backup copies of CS 1.5 full install and the latest HL update, so that if I really want to I can give them to friends to load on their computers, and we can still play CS 1.5 on a LAN.
Fuck Steam. I just want to be able to play 1-player HL without having to connect to Steam to do it! Fuck Steam!
4 easy ways to protect yourself from this worm...
This is a Windows worm, therefore it doesn't affect Linux.
4 easy ways to protect yourself from this worm: 1- Use Linux. 2- Disconnect your webcam when you don't want to use it. 3- Turn your webcam toward the wall / floor / desktop when you don't want to use it. 4- Cover the lens wtih tape when you don't want to use it.
Interestingly enough, there is evidence that crows can count to 7.
.....
Bugs Bunny - "No, no, no. You're doing it all wrong! You have to say, 'You have till the count of four to get out of there or else I'll shoot you!'" Redneck crow - "Oh, ok. Um, uh... one. Um... uhhhh, ummmmm, two.... Hey rabbit critter, what comes after two?" BB - "Three. [While attaching metal pipe to the rifle and making it point at the crow's pappy]ience] I figured that math wouldn't be his strong suit." Crow - "Hey pappy, what comes after 3 in countin'?" Pappy - "Four Elvis." Crow - "Four?" *BANG!* Pappy - "Now why'd you go and shoot your Pappy for?" *BANG*
Sorry, I've never been good at writing headlines.
Other than the obvious abuse possibilities, this is a good way to remove the incentive to spam people. Until I started getting too much junk mail to keep up with, I would go to the website that was advertised (stripping out the personal identifier junk-text string) and e-mail the webmaster saying that I would never buy their product because of their advertising techniques and that I would actively warn people away from them. I doubt that they took me seriously, but it was nice to rant anyways, and yes I did follow through in my threat for many of those advertisers.
Also, if the spammers are getting a [very low percentage] click-through number, I wonder how many of those are people who have never gotten spam before. The number of people on the internet is growing so quickly, I'd imagine that many of the click-throughs are actually people who have never seen a "bulk unsolicited e-mail" before.
I guess the prior art does not stand in court.
That is yet to be seen. The article says that this company has settled with Adobe and Sony, meaning that it didn't go to court.
... a new game has been released called "Sim Fall On Your Face And Break Your Nose". Where you try to walk, lean like you do when naturally walking, and fall on your face because you're not actually moving! Company spokesman John Doe is quoted as saying, "Bell, thiz game iz a lot like ben you try walkig on ize, excep you fall dowm bore often. We're exbectig a lot of beople who habe neber been on ize to buy our broduct do zee what it iz like."
Seriously, it's counterintuitive to not lean when you start walking, but it's relatively easy to learn how to do it. I used to talk on water cooler bottles when I was little, I even got the the point where I could kick them to make them turn. I could go into rooms and down hallways and around corners and everything.
When I read the writeup I seriously thought that it was a joke, then I read the article. Wow.
Hey, what's up with slashdot posting all the 4-line articles today?
You've been watching old episodes of the Red Green show, haven't you?
The CS degree at my school has a relatively short CS program, where there's a LOT of free electives: 32 credits (2 semesters for most students). If those courses simply weren't required, you could be done with your BS in 3 years. That's why I was able to go for a dual CS major alongside my Mechanical Engineering major and only need to stay one extra semester.
I've been wondering for a while now why they have so many free electives without doing certification or hardware courses (you'd be amazed at how many of my fellow students don't realize some of the limitations of the hardware that they code on).
(Yes I realize that the link above lists 36 credits of free electives, but RPI has since changed their degree requirements).
The flash capacitor is about 4kV, not 12V. The whining noise after you fire it is the inverter pumping the cap back up for the next shot
I can't imagine that any caps are as high as 4k volts, all of the ones that I've taken apart (quite a few) are around 300V (the caps are only rated to around 330V). Maybe you're talking about the voltage after the stepup transformer that's in line between the capacitor and the flashbulb, that steps the voltage up considerably.
Also, it's not exactly an inverter inside the thing, it's called a flyback transformer.
I used to play what we termed "bike polo" with a bunch of guys who, for the most part, worked at a local bike shop. The rules were: you had to have a girls' bike frame (very low top tube) that was 18" or smaller, a banana seat, & the biggest handlebars you could find. You used a hockey stick to hit a lacrosse ball around a parking lot into the other team's net. Fair play to jam your hockey stick into an opponenet's spokes, fair play to check the ball carrier, no time outs. You couldn't score from the grass around the lot, but the ball was still in play.
The games usually ended when there was only one or 2 people on each team, and keep in mind that the people who played were between about 16 and 40, so they didn't fit on the bikes very well. It was so much fun to watch.
RTFA:
By boosting its computing capacity ten-fold through Project Columbia, the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility (NAS) will be able to more effectively handle such critical projects as simulating future space missions, projecting the impact of human activity on weather patterns, and designing safe and efficient space exploration vehicles and aircraft. The present collaboration builds upon the highly successful 8-year partnership that last year developed the world's first 512-processor Linux server - based on standard, "off-the-shelf" microprocessor and open source technology - the SGI Altix at NASA Ames Research Center named 'Kalpana' after Columbia astronaut and Ames alumna Kalpana Chawla.
Modeling and building on a business relationship.
Newsflash: your voting records are available to the politicians anyways. They aren't supposed to use them for evil purposes, but who knows?
Besides, if you're talking about coercing the public into voting for someone, it just wouldn't be worth their time. Imagine a candidate walking around saying: "vote for me or I'll cut funding for your fire department." It'd make national news in no time! They could get away with coercing small groups, but it'd just be a small group... so there's no real point.
(Disclaimer: This tidbit was off the top of my head, I can't find any evidence that supports or refutes it, so if anyone can find hard evidence, please reply.)