Does anyone (preferably knowledgable) care to comment on that concept picture in the article @ NASA ?
In particular, i'm wondering about the following:
What do people think those pulsese going down to the planet are in a weird curly line?
That thing above the hurricane that appears to be shooting something into it ? What's that ?
The guy standing on the right side of the picture in the MOL who appears to be "fishing" for the incoming spacecraft... with a what.. a big magnet on a tether ?
Are they referring to Mac OS here ? I highly value the open source ports made to Mac OS X, such as firefox.
Furthermore, at least on OSX, the Fink project makes many programs OS X buildable, but puts the maintenance onus mostly on the Fink people, not the original authors. Of course this can have it's own problems.
And clearly legislation of this sort will hinder these street sellers....
Seriously: These people have connections, and i'm not talking about the internet kind. No new law will stop them from getting and reselling ill gotten goods. Arresting them will stop them from selling infinging goods.
Laws like the ones being proposed hurt the american public more. The legislators are using a shotgun approach, and the damn thing's aimed backwards.
Not quite I say.. there's unfortunately still a few things holding it back. As I see it, the following hold FF back from being the dominant browser (note: not all these are things that are FF/Mozilla Fndations' fault).
IE is the default browser in all windows distros, unfortunately, this means IE has a defacto advantage, and a huge one at that, as many people dont even know the alternative exists.
On the same note: Many people dont know about FF. Things like spread firefox and word of mouth, and positive press are helping this problem in a big way. Now even some of my non-tech savvy friends proclaim "I'll never touch explorer again, I love the 'Fox". Firefox has become enough of a better browser that they see that as superior.
Stubborn IT policies that refuse to consider new applications, namely a new default browser for companies. I know my school has finally seen the light and included FF as an option on the default install on all publicly available computers. But it's still not on the desktop, hidden away in the programs menu. We need the make it just as easy to launch FF as to launch IE (I know a default install of FF puts a desktop icon there, but we need to get IT departments to leave it there).
The extremely techincally illiterate who hold corporate power. That is, those upper level managers who have only ever known IE, and are terrified to use anything else because of those viruses and worms they keep hearing about. If they're intelligent, they'll listen to smart IT advice, however, we know how often upper management likes to think they know best outside their area.
I'm sure there are areas that i've missed, but these are some of the problem's facing down the 'Fox as I see it.
Hrm... i'm sure that wont go over so hot with the stock holders. But really, it's not his companies' fault. The CPU just executes code like it should, and their CPUs do a decent job at it (the price/perfomance ratio vs AMD aside).
Interested that he should say this, especially with Apple/Intel cooperation rumors surfacing recently. Anyone care to speculate ? (we all know the mac rumor sites are going to be jumping up and down on this one)
First, and foremost, as a previous post said, they simply cant afford a 5 mil $ a day hit to the bottom line. I doubt they make 5 million+ a day in europe, and even if they did, not enough of it would be from their practices that they're being asked to stop.
Second, and almost equally important is a show of good faith that the EU wants to see from them. If they were to not comply, and/or perhaps refuse to pay the fine (extremely unlikely) that would end up with a lot of powerful people angry at them pretty quickly. My guess is that the US state department would lean on MSFT to cooperate w/ the EU. The U.S. simply cant afford to have one of it's premier companies acting in bad faith, as it would reflect poorly on Americans (whether that should be the case is another argument, but the fact is that many foriegners view America in part through it's major corporations, i.e. MSFT, McDonalds, CocaCola, etc)
From a buisness perspective, I expect them to have whatever needs to be done done by the deadline, or very close to it.
On the curiosity side, would someone care to outline exactly what it is the EU is demanding that MSFT do to 'comply'?
That people believe that microwaves are causing lupus and other maladies just is saddening.
I mean, if I were gonna make my house an eyesore and invest what must be thousands in metallic "protection" you think i'd consult a real source, instead of the hundreds of quack websites out there.
I mean, a quick search on wikipedia would set these poor people straight.
People following quack science can be more dangerous than any diehard religious nut. (Cough, scientologists)
It looks like they're using a Gallium/Indium (rare elements) alloy. This is certainly not environmentally safe from a chemical point of view as these are toxic heavy metals. I think by environmentally safe they are pointing to the "sealed" system that they are advertising. That is, they dont exepect the systems to leak, as they do not require any refilling.
Basically, their argument appears to be that it's safe because it cant get out, just like coolant in a nuclear reactor. This is actually a reasonable claim, however, we shouldnt take it to mean that the liquid metal coolant itself is evironmentally sound, just that the system, while in operation, is.
P.S. it appears they've also experimented w/ Lead/Bismuth, mercury, and Sodium/Potassium alloys.
As it's a liquid metal.. and the only one liquid at temperatures around room temperature to 100 degrees C are lead, mercury and maby a lead tin amalgam.. it's got to be some new thing.
I'm curious about the chemical composistion of this new amalgam, as it must be (unless they're using highly reactive cesium, which I really doubt).
Why doesnt someone just put a small TV tuner in a phone w/ some extra hardware space (hard to find, I know).
You could just click a button on the side of the phone, and the TV tuner takes over the screen, have a small analog dial on the side for tuning and you'd be set.
Of course, that way it'd be impossible to charge for the service, which I'm sure the phone companies would be none too pleased about.
An interesting way to fund Open source based buisness ideas... but the captial seems a little small spread out over that many ideas... will it run out before the ideas pan out ?
The new gold does not nessicarily have to be radioactive...
The stable isotope of gold is Au 197
from lead.. it would appear the decay pattern leads to Au 194, an unstable isotope.
However, if we start from mecury and force it to capture neutrons, the resulting decay chain can produce Au 197. Neutrons to attack the Hg would need at least ~9 MeV (within the ability of nuclear reactors, but the resulting gold would be contaminated w/ other radioisotopes)). I'm not sure if an experiment has been done in sufficient quantity to synthesize Au 197 from Hg.
It's been done, with a supercollider.. by bombarding lead atoms with the appropriate particles to knock out enough subatomic particles to bring the proton (and hence electron) count to 79, which is Au's atomic #.
There is a report (1972) in which Soviet physicists at a nuclear research facility near Lake Baikal in Siberia accidentally discovered a "reaction" for turning lead into gold when they found the lead shielding of an experimental reactor had changed to gold.
Note: any reaction tranmuting one element into another is by definition no longer chemistry, but nuclear physics.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone (preferably knowledgable) care to comment on that concept picture in the article @ NASA ?
In particular, i'm wondering about the following:
What do people think those pulsese going down to the planet are in a weird curly line?
That thing above the hurricane that appears to be shooting something into it ? What's that ?
The guy standing on the right side of the picture in the MOL who appears to be "fishing" for the incoming spacecraft... with a what.. a big magnet on a tether ?
Is this really so surprising to people that google has a human feedback loop ?
Their pagerank system, while incredibly good, is not infalliable, and requires some checks and balances.
Did they ever say directly that they didnt use humans to check up on the system?
I dont really see what the big secret is here..
Are they referring to Mac OS here ? I highly value the open source ports made to Mac OS X, such as firefox.
Furthermore, at least on OSX, the Fink project makes many programs OS X buildable, but puts the maintenance onus mostly on the Fink people, not the original authors. Of course this can have it's own problems.
And clearly legislation of this sort will hinder these street sellers....
Seriously: These people have connections, and i'm not talking about the internet kind. No new law will stop them from getting and reselling ill gotten goods. Arresting them will stop them from selling infinging goods.
Laws like the ones being proposed hurt the american public more. The legislators are using a shotgun approach, and the damn thing's aimed backwards.
Is firefox ready to take the browsing crown ?
Not quite I say.. there's unfortunately still a few things holding it back. As I see it, the following hold FF back from being the dominant browser (note: not all these are things that are FF/Mozilla Fndations' fault).
IE is the default browser in all windows distros, unfortunately, this means IE has a defacto advantage, and a huge one at that, as many people dont even know the alternative exists.
On the same note: Many people dont know about FF. Things like spread firefox and word of mouth, and positive press are helping this problem in a big way. Now even some of my non-tech savvy friends proclaim "I'll never touch explorer again, I love the 'Fox". Firefox has become enough of a better browser that they see that as superior.
Stubborn IT policies that refuse to consider new applications, namely a new default browser for companies. I know my school has finally seen the light and included FF as an option on the default install on all publicly available computers. But it's still not on the desktop, hidden away in the programs menu. We need the make it just as easy to launch FF as to launch IE (I know a default install of FF puts a desktop icon there, but we need to get IT departments to leave it there).
The extremely techincally illiterate who hold corporate power. That is, those upper level managers who have only ever known IE, and are terrified to use anything else because of those viruses and worms they keep hearing about. If they're intelligent, they'll listen to smart IT advice, however, we know how often upper management likes to think they know best outside their area.
I'm sure there are areas that i've missed, but these are some of the problem's facing down the 'Fox as I see it.
Did anyone else read "portmaster" (as posted in the story headline) and think... oh great.. now what does microsoft think they own ?
Hrm... i'm sure that wont go over so hot with the stock holders. But really, it's not his companies' fault. The CPU just executes code like it should, and their CPUs do a decent job at it (the price/perfomance ratio vs AMD aside).
Interested that he should say this, especially with Apple/Intel cooperation rumors surfacing recently. Anyone care to speculate ? (we all know the mac rumor sites are going to be jumping up and down on this one)
Perhaps it'll be replaced by the new search engine that just came out today ? (see previous slashdot story)
Anyone seeing that new engine going down in a similar manner ?
I'm ashamed that my taxes are going to the FBI doing the lobbying group's dirty work. Sigh.
I've heard you can do IP over shortwave radio (i.e. Ham Radio), would this be a reliable/ reasonable option in this case?
In what cases does that sort of system work? Is it high bandwidth ?
I'm hoping for some knowledgable Ham slashdotter here.
Clarification: On making 5 mil.$ a day in europe, I meant profit, not gross.
They'll comply for two reasons.
First, and foremost, as a previous post said, they simply cant afford a 5 mil $ a day hit to the bottom line. I doubt they make 5 million+ a day in europe, and even if they did, not enough of it would be from their practices that they're being asked to stop.
Second, and almost equally important is a show of good faith that the EU wants to see from them. If they were to not comply, and/or perhaps refuse to pay the fine (extremely unlikely) that would end up with a lot of powerful people angry at them pretty quickly. My guess is that the US state department would lean on MSFT to cooperate w/ the EU. The U.S. simply cant afford to have one of it's premier companies acting in bad faith, as it would reflect poorly on Americans (whether that should be the case is another argument, but the fact is that many foriegners view America in part through it's major corporations, i.e. MSFT, McDonalds, CocaCola, etc)
From a buisness perspective, I expect them to have whatever needs to be done done by the deadline, or very close to it.
On the curiosity side, would someone care to outline exactly what it is the EU is demanding that MSFT do to 'comply'?
That people believe that microwaves are causing lupus and other maladies just is saddening.
I mean, if I were gonna make my house an eyesore and invest what must be thousands in metallic "protection" you think i'd consult a real source, instead of the hundreds of quack websites out there.
I mean, a quick search on wikipedia would set these poor people straight.
People following quack science can be more dangerous than any diehard religious nut. (Cough, scientologists)
I wouldnt put them in the same saftey profile as iron, zinc or copper, would you ?
Everythings' toxic in the right amount.
Water, for instance, will drown you.
yes it was, but it was also graduation here, and i had 6+ beers in me while posting.. so... I forgive myself.. ;)
i'm confused.. are you yelling at me or him ?
I'm a chemist, so i'd never forget Hg... I did almost forget Ga tho.. melts in your hand, and not particularly toxic either I hear.
Yea, but what happens when we're at a cold start?
Did some research, found the following two patents:
T O2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r =1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=nanocoolers&OS=nanoc oolers&RS=nanocoolers
T O2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r =2&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=nanocoolers&OS=nanoc oolers&RS=nanocoolers
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=P
And
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=P
It looks like they're using a Gallium/Indium (rare elements) alloy. This is certainly not environmentally safe from a chemical point of view as these are toxic heavy metals. I think by environmentally safe they are pointing to the "sealed" system that they are advertising. That is, they dont exepect the systems to leak, as they do not require any refilling.
Basically, their argument appears to be that it's safe because it cant get out, just like coolant in a nuclear reactor. This is actually a reasonable claim, however, we shouldnt take it to mean that the liquid metal coolant itself is evironmentally sound, just that the system, while in operation, is.
P.S. it appears they've also experimented w/ Lead/Bismuth, mercury, and Sodium/Potassium alloys.
As it's a liquid metal.. and the only one liquid at temperatures around room temperature to 100 degrees C are lead, mercury and maby a lead tin amalgam.. it's got to be some new thing.
I'm curious about the chemical composistion of this new amalgam, as it must be (unless they're using highly reactive cesium, which I really doubt).
Anyone know any chemical details ?
Why doesnt someone just put a small TV tuner in a phone w/ some extra hardware space (hard to find, I know).
You could just click a button on the side of the phone, and the TV tuner takes over the screen, have a small analog dial on the side for tuning and you'd be set.
Of course, that way it'd be impossible to charge for the service, which I'm sure the phone companies would be none too pleased about.
An interesting way to fund Open source based buisness ideas... but the captial seems a little small spread out over that many ideas... will it run out before the ideas pan out ?
No no.. it's those damned ethernet cables... you've gotta cut off the system at layer 1 people !
None of this Layer 4 TCP junk.
The new gold does not nessicarily have to be radioactive... The stable isotope of gold is Au 197 from lead.. it would appear the decay pattern leads to Au 194, an unstable isotope. However, if we start from mecury and force it to capture neutrons, the resulting decay chain can produce Au 197. Neutrons to attack the Hg would need at least ~9 MeV (within the ability of nuclear reactors, but the resulting gold would be contaminated w/ other radioisotopes)). I'm not sure if an experiment has been done in sufficient quantity to synthesize Au 197 from Hg.
It's been done, with a supercollider.. by bombarding lead atoms with the appropriate particles to knock out enough subatomic particles to bring the proton (and hence electron) count to 79, which is Au's atomic #.
There is a report (1972) in which Soviet physicists at a nuclear research facility near Lake Baikal in Siberia accidentally discovered a "reaction" for turning lead into gold when they found the lead shielding of an experimental reactor had changed to gold.
Note: any reaction tranmuting one element into another is by definition no longer chemistry, but nuclear physics.
(I'm a chemist).