While I agree that sending a probe is a good idea... This is a common theme in science fiction: Send a colony ship to a star system known to contain a potentially habitable planet, without knowing if the colony will be viable or survive. They might get there and find a virtual Eden. They might find a wholly uninhabitable planet offering little chance for survival (oops, did we send them to a planet whos surface is partially molten and atmosphere is toxic... oh well, we'll try somewhere else.)
And so he's suggesting that we've used this "weapon of mass destruction", which would affect global climate and therefor harm the U.S. too. On purpose. Riiight.
I've gigabytes of code, specifications and test data on my personal machine at home. Why? Because I often do work at night in my home office. When I leave, I'm not going to go out of my way to delete all that... There are confidentiality agreements and intellectual property agreements in place, which I signed. I wouldn't be an asshat and publish all their stuff, and risk the lawsuit that would likely follow, even if they fired me. But, as I said, I'm not going to go out of my way to delete the code.
Sure, they could. But the guy can buy a ruggedized Garmin or Magellan GPS, designed for hiking, for less than the $100 he was planning to spend, today.
If your Dad's taking this thing hunting, camping, and hiking... Buy him something that'll be durable enough to survive the aforementioned hunting, camping, and hiking, in the rain, because Murphy's law says it will rain and the device will get wet. Get him one that uses replaceable batteries like AA alkaline or CR123 lithium so he can carry spares that he can get anywhere (like a convenience store along the interstate). Don't get him a toy. Don't kludge something together. It's not worth the hassle.
A handheld GPS unit might survive a drop on a trail where the unit falls/slides 10 feet down a rock-face (my experience in the Blue Ridge / Appalachian Mts). A decent GPS will be water resistant and not be bothered by rain or being splashed with water (might even survive falling into a stream at the bottom of the previously mentioned fall -- again, has happened in my experience in the Blue Ridge). A Droid won't survive that.
Not quite. but they will sue him and demand he return all infringing material -- meaning the seed, plants, harvested crop... and the lung they're attached to.
People don't need electronics or computers to do other tasks either; but, we have them. You're using one now for a purpose that, technically, is nothing more than communication. Humans have had the ability to communicate without electronics since at least when Homo Sapiens started walking the Earth.
Many of these devices added to cars are conveniences, like your stereo. Many have been shown to (or have the potential to) save lives, like the tire pressure sensors. As such, have been mandated in new vehicles. If you want to drive a simpler vehicle, then either buy an older pre-electronic car; or, build your own car.
And therein lies the problem. I did the post kind of tongue-in-cheek. I do thermal tests of instrumentation boards all the time. The system would be at -40 and the board might survive; but, some capacitors on the board might stop functioning. The processor is an interesting problem: Since I'm not directly cooling the cpu I'd have to use an air cooler which brings it's own problems. Without re-plumbing the chamber to supply a cold head, the cpu temp would probably be 30 or 40 degrees above the chamber temp. Even if I tried to crank the chamber to below -75C and put the air cooler in the path of the cold air, immediately after the evaporator, I'd still not see -40 at the cpu; and, at those temperatures you'd start to have problems with the other components on the boards.
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While I agree that sending a probe is a good idea... This is a common theme in science fiction: Send a colony ship to a star system known to contain a potentially habitable planet, without knowing if the colony will be viable or survive. They might get there and find a virtual Eden. They might find a wholly uninhabitable planet offering little chance for survival (oops, did we send them to a planet whos surface is partially molten and atmosphere is toxic... oh well, we'll try somewhere else.)
Makes for a good story.
You're not wrong.
This is what I was going to suggest... Not much aperature in a single 10' dish; but, it's a start.
Right. So:
Note to self: order bulk ammo online
they have to get to where I am... and they aren't likely to make it across the oceans.
So, vampires and werewolves are OK? Or was that not an all inclusive list?
We got em, they don't. To quote another fictional character, Neo, "Guns, lots of guns"
And so he's suggesting that we've used this "weapon of mass destruction", which would affect global climate and therefor harm the U.S. too. On purpose. Riiight.
I've gigabytes of code, specifications and test data on my personal machine at home. Why? Because I often do work at night in my home office. When I leave, I'm not going to go out of my way to delete all that... There are confidentiality agreements and intellectual property agreements in place, which I signed. I wouldn't be an asshat and publish all their stuff, and risk the lawsuit that would likely follow, even if they fired me. But, as I said, I'm not going to go out of my way to delete the code.
That's interesting... We seem to have a bunch of single post pylons right outside the building where I sit. Maybe I'm just imaging them...
There is no such thing as a coincidence...
The AI has been waiting for enough compute power to guarantee it can take control, in order to assure its survival....
There was also concern that widespread use of supersonic transport would add to the problem and force global cooling.
Summary is wrong. Production cars don't ship with zero camber. Most ship with a degree or two of negative camber. It improves the handling.
Sure, they could. But the guy can buy a ruggedized Garmin or Magellan GPS, designed for hiking, for less than the $100 he was planning to spend, today.
If your Dad's taking this thing hunting, camping, and hiking... Buy him something that'll be durable enough to survive the aforementioned hunting, camping, and hiking, in the rain, because Murphy's law says it will rain and the device will get wet. Get him one that uses replaceable batteries like AA alkaline or CR123 lithium so he can carry spares that he can get anywhere (like a convenience store along the interstate). Don't get him a toy. Don't kludge something together. It's not worth the hassle.
A handheld GPS unit might survive a drop on a trail where the unit falls/slides 10 feet down a rock-face (my experience in the Blue Ridge / Appalachian Mts). A decent GPS will be water resistant and not be bothered by rain or being splashed with water (might even survive falling into a stream at the bottom of the previously mentioned fall -- again, has happened in my experience in the Blue Ridge). A Droid won't survive that.
more likely he just coughed and inhaled.
The pea shooter was just trying to be proactive and get a head start. The guy wasn't a zombie yet; but...
Not quite. but they will sue him and demand he return all infringing material -- meaning the seed, plants, harvested crop... and the lung they're attached to.
People don't need electronics or computers to do other tasks either; but, we have them. You're using one now for a purpose that, technically, is nothing more than communication. Humans have had the ability to communicate without electronics since at least when Homo Sapiens started walking the Earth.
Many of these devices added to cars are conveniences, like your stereo. Many have been shown to (or have the potential to) save lives, like the tire pressure sensors. As such, have been mandated in new vehicles. If you want to drive a simpler vehicle, then either buy an older pre-electronic car; or, build your own car.
Wait... What? People sleep? Solidly? Damn, I need some of that.
I don't believe Hawkins has ever used the word "Abandon", has he?
I like that... That's good.
And therein lies the problem. I did the post kind of tongue-in-cheek. I do thermal tests of instrumentation boards all the time. The system would be at -40 and the board might survive; but, some capacitors on the board might stop functioning. The processor is an interesting problem: Since I'm not directly cooling the cpu I'd have to use an air cooler which brings it's own problems. Without re-plumbing the chamber to supply a cold head, the cpu temp would probably be 30 or 40 degrees above the chamber temp. Even if I tried to crank the chamber to below -75C and put the air cooler in the path of the cold air, immediately after the evaporator, I'd still not see -40 at the cpu; and, at those temperatures you'd start to have problems with the other components on the boards.