I also forgot about Microstation and AutoCAD. Until they come out with Mac versions of these programs the Mac will be locked out of entire industries. Too bad, becaues again, these are extremly graphics intensive apps.
Don't forget about GIS. There are no GIS apps for the Mac, which is really strange since GIS is really about graphics and graphic design. (or at least about 50% of GIS)
I wonder if that will change since corporations are starting to realize that GIS is a huge competative advantage. Until they do though, Windows is the only way to go for GIS shops.
I respectfully disagree. Going to an up position will require almost no force. Once you are at the end of a power stroke the wings will be able to go to a neutral position with NO added energy; simply release the force that is keeping them in the down position.
Since the only resistance in moving the structure to the up position is the weight of the Snail itself, the wings will only have to move slightly, and then back to neutral.
Addressing your concern about using more energy to move the wings downward for a power stroke than is generated, use your own example of an airplane. The hydraulic pumps used aboard a Boeing 777 to control the flaps can move a jet to a higher altitude and weighs almost double the 200 tons we are talking about here without an enormous power supply.
The underwater wings do not have to be fast responding like on a jet either, which means extreme-ratio reduction gearing could be used and use a relatively small motor for the amount of work that is being done.
The turbine on top of the snail seems rather delicate. I think you could generate more power from the actual wings themselves.
Have servo motors move the wings to lift the entire structure upward. This would "arm" the device for the power stroke. The power stroke would come from tilting the wings dramatically downward. This would provide 200 tons of pressure to work a pump that could pressurize sea water that turns a more efficient turbine.
Most of the public radio stations are already signed up to upgrade to HD radio. It won't affect you in the slightest. You can keep listening with you current radio. At some point, most radios will be able to receive and decode the digital signals that are broadcast alongside the analog signals.
Re:Importance of GPS, & questions on its Relia
on
Equine Speedometers
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· Score: 1
The $5,000 ones are the cheap ones too. The best go for about $20,000. I am looking ahead over the next 5 years. As GPS, GIS, and location based services become more common and widespread, the cost and size of hardware will drop dramatically.
There is nothing about the hardware that should be expensive except that the current market is incredibly small, so all research costs must be spread over a very small user population.
The Corp of Engineers have fixed DGPS base stations in certain areas that can be used for free. For example there is complete DGPS coverage along the entire Mississippi river for barges to use. If one of these was within broadcast range of a racetrack, there would be no need for the track to have their own.
The cheap handheld units already use a version of DGPS called WAAS. There are two satellites in space broadcasting correction signals. This isn't as good as a base station that is 1/4 away, but you see where the technology is heading.
If every idea was evaluated on the state, cost, and size of current technology, nothing would ever happen.
Re:Importance of GPS, & questions on its Relia
on
Equine Speedometers
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
..the readings are sometimes unreliable as one second it may say you are one place, and the next tell you that you are a foot the other way...
This is what to expect with an autonomous GPS unit like the cheap $200 hand-held units you can get from Garmin or Magellan.
There are surveyor grade differential GPS units that have sub-centimeter accuracy.
The way these work is you first need to survey a position, in this case how about the center of the infield, to find its exact coordinates. You then set up a base station GPS unit exactly on top of this surveyed point. You enter the coordinates into the base station unit. Every second the base station gets a reading from the satellites and compares the solution it calculates with where it knows it actually is. The base station then broadcasts this difference to the roving GPS unit. The rover takes the solution it has derived and applies the difference it receives from the base station, and voila, an extremely accurate fix of your position.
Assuming the track invested in having a monument surveyed in the outfield and maintains the base station, a rover unit would not be that expensive for individual horse owners to purchase.
...but accurate telemetry from my unstable cardiac patients...
I would imagine a jammer is going to cause much more ugly interference than a cell phone in that situation. The cell phone frequencies are at least known and regulated, and therefore the medical equipment manufacturers can build their devices with that interference in mind . A jammer is going to produce radio waves on a number of different frequencies to make sure it can jam everything, and its output is not going to be regulated.
ARPANet was there in 1986. This was not generally available to the public and looked nothing like the internet does today.
Being a visionary and seeing that this research network could be useful to civilians, and then getting funding to move in that direction does seem like an accomplishment.
When the lay person hears the word internet, they think e-mail, IM, porn, etc. They don't think of the evolution of DARPANet, to ARPANet, to the everyday internet of today.
...I don't care if it's a volunteer effort, and neither do most users. We just care about what's sitting in front of us on our screen, the net output...
Restated in words from marketing 101: "People don't want 1/4" drill bits; they want 1/4" holes."
...there are some people out there that absolutely refuse to believe that humans can have any noticeable effect on the environment.
That is Rush Limbaugh's stance.
The real "problem" is that VoIP produces negligible amounts of data...
But it produces a different kind of data. Traditional data can arrive in any order, and the computer will piece it back together into the correct order.
Voice data needs to have very high priority, no latency (OK, very little latency), and arrive in the exact order it was sent.
So even though there may be fewer bits than traditional data traffic, the above requirements put extra stress on the networks.
The owners of an 800 number can opt to not accept calls from pay phones so these extra charges can be avoided. I would imagine that this would be the case for the direct marketing people.
Companies with large-volume toll free call centers do not usually pay by the minute. They have dedicated voice circuits, and they pay the same amount for the circuit whether they are used 24/7 or not at all.
In the old days the greater the distance a phone call covered, the more it cost. Today, distance plays almost no part in pricing calls. You can see this evidenced my free long distance on your cell phone, the MCI Neighborhood plan with unlimited long distance, etc.
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And that's why it is easier to get a contract employee in the first place.
I also forgot about Microstation and AutoCAD. Until they come out with Mac versions of these programs the Mac will be locked out of entire industries. Too bad, becaues again, these are extremly graphics intensive apps.
I wonder if that will change since corporations are starting to realize that GIS is a huge competative advantage. Until they do though, Windows is the only way to go for GIS shops.
Since the only resistance in moving the structure to the up position is the weight of the Snail itself, the wings will only have to move slightly, and then back to neutral.
Addressing your concern about using more energy to move the wings downward for a power stroke than is generated, use your own example of an airplane. The hydraulic pumps used aboard a Boeing 777 to control the flaps can move a jet to a higher altitude and weighs almost double the 200 tons we are talking about here without an enormous power supply.
The underwater wings do not have to be fast responding like on a jet either, which means extreme-ratio reduction gearing could be used and use a relatively small motor for the amount of work that is being done.
Have servo motors move the wings to lift the entire structure upward. This would "arm" the device for the power stroke. The power stroke would come from tilting the wings dramatically downward. This would provide 200 tons of pressure to work a pump that could pressurize sea water that turns a more efficient turbine.
Most of the public radio stations are already signed up to upgrade to HD radio. It won't affect you in the slightest. You can keep listening with you current radio. At some point, most radios will be able to receive and decode the digital signals that are broadcast alongside the analog signals.
There is nothing about the hardware that should be expensive except that the current market is incredibly small, so all research costs must be spread over a very small user population.
The Corp of Engineers have fixed DGPS base stations in certain areas that can be used for free. For example there is complete DGPS coverage along the entire Mississippi river for barges to use. If one of these was within broadcast range of a racetrack, there would be no need for the track to have their own.
The cheap handheld units already use a version of DGPS called WAAS. There are two satellites in space broadcasting correction signals. This isn't as good as a base station that is 1/4 away, but you see where the technology is heading.
If every idea was evaluated on the state, cost, and size of current technology, nothing would ever happen.
This is what to expect with an autonomous GPS unit like the cheap $200 hand-held units you can get from Garmin or Magellan.
There are surveyor grade differential GPS units that have sub-centimeter accuracy.
The way these work is you first need to survey a position, in this case how about the center of the infield, to find its exact coordinates. You then set up a base station GPS unit exactly on top of this surveyed point. You enter the coordinates into the base station unit. Every second the base station gets a reading from the satellites and compares the solution it calculates with where it knows it actually is. The base station then broadcasts this difference to the roving GPS unit. The rover takes the solution it has derived and applies the difference it receives from the base station, and voila, an extremely accurate fix of your position.
Assuming the track invested in having a monument surveyed in the outfield and maintains the base station, a rover unit would not be that expensive for individual horse owners to purchase.
Lawyers? When did filing a lawsuit acquire the same urgency as saving a life? ("This man is having a heart attack! Is there a lawyer in the house?")
I would imagine a jammer is going to cause much more ugly interference than a cell phone in that situation. The cell phone frequencies are at least known and regulated, and therefore the medical equipment manufacturers can build their devices with that interference in mind . A jammer is going to produce radio waves on a number of different frequencies to make sure it can jam everything, and its output is not going to be regulated.
ARPANet was there in 1986. This was not generally available to the public and looked nothing like the internet does today.
Being a visionary and seeing that this research network could be useful to civilians, and then getting funding to move in that direction does seem like an accomplishment.
When the lay person hears the word internet, they think e-mail, IM, porn, etc. They don't think of the evolution of DARPANet, to ARPANet, to the everyday internet of today.
This retraction of the original story should put an end to this discussion: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12114
Restated in words from marketing 101: "People don't want 1/4" drill bits; they want 1/4" holes."
Nicely said.
...there are some people out there that absolutely refuse to believe that humans can have any noticeable effect on the environment.
That is Rush Limbaugh's stance.
The real "problem" is that VoIP produces negligible amounts of data... But it produces a different kind of data. Traditional data can arrive in any order, and the computer will piece it back together into the correct order. Voice data needs to have very high priority, no latency (OK, very little latency), and arrive in the exact order it was sent. So even though there may be fewer bits than traditional data traffic, the above requirements put extra stress on the networks.
The owners of an 800 number can opt to not accept calls from pay phones so these extra charges can be avoided. I would imagine that this would be the case for the direct marketing people.
Companies with large-volume toll free call centers do not usually pay by the minute. They have dedicated voice circuits, and they pay the same amount for the circuit whether they are used 24/7 or not at all. In the old days the greater the distance a phone call covered, the more it cost. Today, distance plays almost no part in pricing calls. You can see this evidenced my free long distance on your cell phone, the MCI Neighborhood plan with unlimited long distance, etc.