Given that stars (excluding the Sun) are point sources as far as our current telescopes are concerned, and these KBOs are discs... what are the odds of a KBO eclipsing a given star during a standard observation period?
Things I don't know: 1) density of KBOs vs stars 2) apparent speed of KBOs relative to the stars beyond them. 3) The average length of time any star is in a field of observation at a major telescope.
Actually, there's probably a lot more I don't know, that's just what comes to mind at the moment.
Usually, there is no interest in finding solutions for the world's poor - because the profit margins are vanishingly small compared to selling things to the world's middle and upper classes.
This guy is great because, while he will be trying to make some money (guy's gotta eat, you know), he engineered a solution for a problem everyone overlooked because despite the potential for improving a great number of people's quality of life, the potential profit margin was too low.
Personally, I think he needs to package this system up and sell it and supplies to the four-eyed with money first. I'd like to be able to print out new lenses whenever I wanted, and if his process really is so much better, it would be cheaper than buying every couple of years from my optometrist.
I believe that in most jurisdictions, having the keys in the ignition is enough to get you charged... leaving the car running is just asking for it.
If you're going to drink and need transportation afterwards, you have choices: leave enough time to sober up at night's end, get a cab, or have a designated driver. Anything else should be treated as attempted murder.
If everyone was forced to work and live in a large compound with padded floors, ceilings, and windows, and if everyone was kept seperate from everyone else by plexiglass walls, and if everyone's food was prepared by a dietician, and if everyone requiring transportation was given a padded, computer controlled wheelchair...
The point is that saving human lives is, in and of itself, NOT a valid excuse for treating me like a criminal.
Actually, corporations and insurance are two financial mechanisms that the modern world would (and could) not exist without. Without them, nobody would risk significant capital, and nothing would ever get done.
Argue about the current implementations of those concepts, but if you want argue against the basic concepts themselves you should try living as if it were the year 1000 or so and see how you like it.
No single person wrote the Bible, unless you take a strict view that God is the author because he 'inspired' the writings... in which case you have a God who, despite omniscience and omnipotence, can't write a book without filling it with contradictions.
The Bible and its siblings are collections of stories, the older parts of which probably existed as oral tradition for quite some time before being recorded in written form.
Man, I'm crying for you... it must be so difficult to have to check to see if someone has explicitly asked that you not pester them with your invasion of their privacy before you pester them with your invasion of their privacy.
While muscle loss does occur in freefall, it isn't the big problem; That loss can be combated by regular exercise. The problem is bone density loss, and if you pump up someone's muscles while their bones are weakening, you just get a person who can shatter their arms when flexing.
I joined one of the major political parties in my province... and once you're on the list they NEVER forget you, even if you ask them to. I stopped getting snail mail when I moved and left no forwarding address, and I stopped getting email updates when I changed email addresses. Thank God I never gave them my cell number, because I kept that.
It depends on how you define the edge... if you mean the 'Big Bang', then probably not. If you mean shortly after the end of the 'Dark Ages' when the first luminescent matter appeared, then possibly yes.
In the last couple of years I've only gone to maybe a dozen movies. NOT ONE MOVIE was uninterupted by a cell phone - and in most cases, the asshat involved took the damn call instead of appearing embarassed that they had not turned off their damn phone.
I swear if that ever happens near enough to me, and I think I can take the guy in a fight, I'm gonna grab the phone and stomp it.
First, get rid of the real bad guys. Once they are guarenteed to be gone, I'll support locking up anyone who enjoys 'testing' security on computers. Until then, they are a lesser evil made tolerable by their effect on the virulence of a greater evil.
On a side note - how often do you think the locks on your doors help you? I have yet to see a residential door that would stop a good shoulder. My old house had a lovely steel door - in a thin wood frame that would split if you looked at it. Windows break if they can't be jimmied. Only once was my house ever entered because I didn't lock the door - and that was a new neighbour who was mortified that she'd entered the wrong house!
Let's use the home metaphor - you live in a house in a neighbourhood built by "MS Homes". They are nice, comfortable homes, but the security system involves closing your front door with a plastic latch. Because the latch doesn't LOOK like plastic, everyone feels secure. Burglars, however, suspect there is an easy way in to the homes.
Now, if none of the good guys examine the security and say, "Hey, maybe these latches should be steel", then eventually a bad guy will figure it out and your home is open for business.
In such an event, if a good guy opened *a* front door on a *single* MS home, then posted a note in the local newpaper that maybe latches should be upgraded, I'd sleep with a shotgun until my latch was replaced. In the end, I'd have a safer home and know it. Without the good guy, I don't have a safe home, AND I'm unaware until a break in.
Well - since the comments are excised at compile, one would expect the source to be larger. Still, a better than 39:1 comment-to-code ratio? That'd be nuts!
I don't even have to review the legislation to know that no matter how it is written, CSIS, the RCMP, and your local cop shop will ignore it if they feel the need.
Your SIN is private, right? HEH. Nope. Now it's linked in government databases to everything. As someone who once had complete and total access to several sensitive (welfare client info) government databases - and was challenged appropriately by only ONE of dozens of sysadmins - I don't trust the government to protect a pile of dog feces.
It's already being done - except they're going to have the engineered device (I think it's a matter of incorporating into traditional tech what some plants already do) produce hydrogen directly.
I'm going to show my complete and total ignorance of programming here... but how can there be 40GB of source for a product that doesn't even half fill a 640MB CD? Even if you add in all the variants and patches, it doesn't approach a significantly larger fraction of 40GB.
You know, sometimes you deserve the moderation you get, but really... I didn't expect to get modded "Flamebait" for poking fun at Microsoft on freakin' Slashdot.
Maybe it's been done, but I'd love to see an 'idiot-proof installer' for Linux... you know, download ONE file, run it, and it has enough of an IQ to do whatever it needs to to tailor itself to your OS.
That might make for a fun private path to a house or something, but certainly not on a city street where it'd A) cost taxpayers more and B) get covered with gum anyway.
I'd think you'd see this as a new material for a dance floor before most other novelty surface applications.
Actually, on a smooth road these wouldn't work; they require a cycle of compression and decompression to generate power - you'd want nice hard tires and a bumpy road to shake the suckers up.
It would be interesting to know just how vigourously they need to be jostled to generate a given luminosity.
Slashdot Mirror
Given that stars (excluding the Sun) are point sources as far as our current telescopes are concerned, and these KBOs are discs... what are the odds of a KBO eclipsing a given star during a standard observation period?
Things I don't know: 1) density of KBOs vs stars 2) apparent speed of KBOs relative to the stars beyond them. 3) The average length of time any star is in a field of observation at a major telescope.
Actually, there's probably a lot more I don't know, that's just what comes to mind at the moment.
I'm waiting to hear what Gabe and Tycho have to say.
Usually, there is no interest in finding solutions for the world's poor - because the profit margins are vanishingly small compared to selling things to the world's middle and upper classes.
This guy is great because, while he will be trying to make some money (guy's gotta eat, you know), he engineered a solution for a problem everyone overlooked because despite the potential for improving a great number of people's quality of life, the potential profit margin was too low.
Personally, I think he needs to package this system up and sell it and supplies to the four-eyed with money first. I'd like to be able to print out new lenses whenever I wanted, and if his process really is so much better, it would be cheaper than buying every couple of years from my optometrist.
I believe that in most jurisdictions, having the keys in the ignition is enough to get you charged... leaving the car running is just asking for it.
If you're going to drink and need transportation afterwards, you have choices: leave enough time to sober up at night's end, get a cab, or have a designated driver. Anything else should be treated as attempted murder.
If you don't understand the difference, you're too stupid to have a job; I really hope you're just trolling.
If everyone was forced to work and live in a large compound with padded floors, ceilings, and windows, and if everyone was kept seperate from everyone else by plexiglass walls, and if everyone's food was prepared by a dietician, and if everyone requiring transportation was given a padded, computer controlled wheelchair...
The point is that saving human lives is, in and of itself, NOT a valid excuse for treating me like a criminal.
Actually, corporations and insurance are two financial mechanisms that the modern world would (and could) not exist without. Without them, nobody would risk significant capital, and nothing would ever get done.
Argue about the current implementations of those concepts, but if you want argue against the basic concepts themselves you should try living as if it were the year 1000 or so and see how you like it.
No single person wrote the Bible, unless you take a strict view that God is the author because he 'inspired' the writings... in which case you have a God who, despite omniscience and omnipotence, can't write a book without filling it with contradictions.
The Bible and its siblings are collections of stories, the older parts of which probably existed as oral tradition for quite some time before being recorded in written form.
Man, I'm crying for you... it must be so difficult to have to check to see if someone has explicitly asked that you not pester them with your invasion of their privacy before you pester them with your invasion of their privacy.
Telemarketers should be legal hunting.
While muscle loss does occur in freefall, it isn't the big problem; That loss can be combated by regular exercise. The problem is bone density loss, and if you pump up someone's muscles while their bones are weakening, you just get a person who can shatter their arms when flexing.
I joined one of the major political parties in my province... and once you're on the list they NEVER forget you, even if you ask them to. I stopped getting snail mail when I moved and left no forwarding address, and I stopped getting email updates when I changed email addresses. Thank God I never gave them my cell number, because I kept that.
It depends on how you define the edge... if you mean the 'Big Bang', then probably not. If you mean shortly after the end of the 'Dark Ages' when the first luminescent matter appeared, then possibly yes.
In the last couple of years I've only gone to maybe a dozen movies. NOT ONE MOVIE was uninterupted by a cell phone - and in most cases, the asshat involved took the damn call instead of appearing embarassed that they had not turned off their damn phone.
I swear if that ever happens near enough to me, and I think I can take the guy in a fight, I'm gonna grab the phone and stomp it.
...between the real world and the ideal world.
First, get rid of the real bad guys. Once they are guarenteed to be gone, I'll support locking up anyone who enjoys 'testing' security on computers. Until then, they are a lesser evil made tolerable by their effect on the virulence of a greater evil.
On a side note - how often do you think the locks on your doors help you? I have yet to see a residential door that would stop a good shoulder. My old house had a lovely steel door - in a thin wood frame that would split if you looked at it. Windows break if they can't be jimmied. Only once was my house ever entered because I didn't lock the door - and that was a new neighbour who was mortified that she'd entered the wrong house!
You're quite right - but there is a difference...
Let's use the home metaphor - you live in a house in a neighbourhood built by "MS Homes". They are nice, comfortable homes, but the security system involves closing your front door with a plastic latch. Because the latch doesn't LOOK like plastic, everyone feels secure. Burglars, however, suspect there is an easy way in to the homes.
Now, if none of the good guys examine the security and say, "Hey, maybe these latches should be steel", then eventually a bad guy will figure it out and your home is open for business.
In such an event, if a good guy opened *a* front door on a *single* MS home, then posted a note in the local newpaper that maybe latches should be upgraded, I'd sleep with a shotgun until my latch was replaced. In the end, I'd have a safer home and know it. Without the good guy, I don't have a safe home, AND I'm unaware until a break in.
To be fair, I was dealing with an Ontario *provincial* system... I still don't trust the feds.
Well - since the comments are excised at compile, one would expect the source to be larger. Still, a better than 39:1 comment-to-code ratio? That'd be nuts!
I don't even have to review the legislation to know that no matter how it is written, CSIS, the RCMP, and your local cop shop will ignore it if they feel the need.
Your SIN is private, right? HEH. Nope. Now it's linked in government databases to everything. As someone who once had complete and total access to several sensitive (welfare client info) government databases - and was challenged appropriately by only ONE of dozens of sysadmins - I don't trust the government to protect a pile of dog feces.
It's already being done - except they're going to have the engineered device (I think it's a matter of incorporating into traditional tech what some plants already do) produce hydrogen directly.
This article at BetterHumans.com covers it.
I'm going to show my complete and total ignorance of programming here... but how can there be 40GB of source for a product that doesn't even half fill a 640MB CD? Even if you add in all the variants and patches, it doesn't approach a significantly larger fraction of 40GB.
You know, sometimes you deserve the moderation you get, but really... I didn't expect to get modded "Flamebait" for poking fun at Microsoft on freakin' Slashdot.
Maybe it's been done, but I'd love to see an 'idiot-proof installer' for Linux... you know, download ONE file, run it, and it has enough of an IQ to do whatever it needs to to tailor itself to your OS.
"Ha-ha!" - Nelson
That might make for a fun private path to a house or something, but certainly not on a city street where it'd A) cost taxpayers more and B) get covered with gum anyway.
I'd think you'd see this as a new material for a dance floor before most other novelty surface applications.
Actually, on a smooth road these wouldn't work; they require a cycle of compression and decompression to generate power - you'd want nice hard tires and a bumpy road to shake the suckers up.
It would be interesting to know just how vigourously they need to be jostled to generate a given luminosity.