I watched the documentary showing the testing of Beagle II in JPL (or NASA's) huge space environment simulator. It took ages and some pretty state of the art (and expensive) vacuum pump technology to evacuate this one admittedly hangar sized room. Imagine doing that for something the size of the channel tunnel (or a tunnel 1000km long). Spacecraft engineering materials would have to be employed (lubricants that can withstand vacuum for example). Quite a feat of engineering indeed, but probably far to costly ever to be realised for some considerable time.
Why are we so obssessed with faster travel? Why not make *slower* trains etc, so you can relax and appreciate the view out of the window whilst sampling fine food and vintage bevarages (maybe even the odd Agatha Christie style murder laid on for ones edification). I don't want to be blasted across the Atlantic strapped into a modified ICBM like spam in a can, I want to take a laid back week or two, as a passenger aboard a luxury 'airship' (WTF happened to them).
Why travel at all? The vast majority of buisiness meetings can be conducted in virtual reality.
What I want is *SLOWER* more laid back and above all higher quality modes of transport. Speed, bah.:)
They need to repressurize so the emergency crews can go in and hose down whats left of the passengers off the tunnel walls.
Also think of the consequences of foreign body (loose nuts n bolts etc) damage. Maintainance and regular tunnel inspections would be an expensive and constant hassle with a system like this.
Yes. But how does regenerative braking work with respect to a maglev style linear motor? Presumably energy needs to be fed into such a system the whole time to maintain the fields that levitate and move the vehicle.
I can see how regen braking works with wheels, tracks and bog standard motor/generator type technology, dumping the vehicles momentum into a flywheel for instance. But I don't know (yet) how this type of thing would work with a linear motor.
Possibly, in some cases, in some communities. But...
There are whole slew of research opportunitys for sociologists to study behaviour patterns in the denizens of these virtual worlds. Given, that to some extent the patterns of behaviour of an individual online must mirror those found in the person offline.
Given a large diverse range of experimental subjects and a convincing enough world one could vary the paramaters of the world to see how the subjects react, for example to issues such as censorship within that world. In some worlds let the subjects decide their own destinys, in others restrict their options.
How will the virtual society develop? If it turns to anarchy, so be it. Dictatorship, oligarchy, democracy or whatever. The possibilities are endless, er just like in the real world.
If this is the 'real' world.....
Bottom line. People will be people will be people.
This could be a seriously bad idea. What if the cheese slicers with their star wars style weaponary joined forces with the toasters and internet enabled refrigerators? The begining of the end of humanity the revolt of the machines.
I for one welcome our new kitchen appliance overlords.
On the other hand it opens up a whole new culinary experience.
Whilst the basic Mindstorms/RCX combination is a great introduction to mechatronics losing it won't be the end of civilisation as we know it.
Building an equivalent to the RCX using Basic stamp or PIC microcontrollers and servos is fairly straightforward. People have probably been combining LEGO and homebrew electronics since LEGO was first produced in the 50's.
Anyone who's really caught the robotics bug from 'playing' with Mindstorms fairly quickly graduate to building their own sensors and replacing the RCX firmware or whatever (I stuck with original firmware but use NQC to program RCX). Should have picked up enough nous to embed an alternative controller into their creations.
For the record, I tend to use PIC's n Servos as my controllers and motive units of choice. Emacs on GNU/Linux is my preffered development environment (also at work as well).:)
I hope LEGO still continue to support RCX via their educational division as it realy does inspire people to get into engineering and robotics in particular.
Yup, thats me. I *still* spend serious ammounts on stuff like LEGO. I fall into the geek addicted to gadgets with disposable income category.:)
LEGO type stuff must fit in with the techy mindset. Pulling things apart to see what makes em tick. I wonder how many/.ers have ever taken apart a tape deck, vcr or practically any other electrical/mechanical appliance ever built?
I bought a freestyle bucket (set 1796) a couple of years ago to supplement my Mindstorms set. It cost me about 15 quid for about 600 pieces. Pretty good value I thought considering how long the stuff lasts.
I can still remember going into a local toy store and buying all the Mars exploration and Star Wars sets in one hit. The damn things practically overran my office. Those were the days *sigh*.
Must admit I'm still a bit of a LEGOholic, it must be a denial kinda thing:)
The heck with it, I'm gonna log off the net and build a Star Destroyer. Yowza.
Wow ! I once made some customised back to back blocks by supergluing normal 2x8 blocks together. I think I've still got some them:) That was back in the day when the only specialized parts in LEGO sets tended to be window and door bits.
Well in the future the RIAA have obviously won and books are a form of illicit file/information sharing and are thus banned. The people of the future have also all had their taste genes bypassed why else live in a place like this.
Just a thought, would elves go with Infra Red LEDS?
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I watched the documentary showing the testing of Beagle II in JPL (or NASA's) huge space environment simulator. It took ages and some pretty state of the art (and expensive) vacuum pump technology to evacuate this one admittedly hangar sized room. Imagine doing that for something the size of the channel tunnel (or a tunnel 1000km long). Spacecraft engineering materials would have to be employed (lubricants that can withstand vacuum for example). Quite a feat of engineering indeed, but probably far to costly ever to be realised for some considerable time.
Informative. Thanks for the links and taking the time to post them. :)
Why are we so obssessed with faster travel? Why not make *slower* trains etc, so you can relax and appreciate the view out of the window whilst sampling fine food and vintage bevarages (maybe even the odd Agatha Christie style murder laid on for ones edification). I don't want to be blasted across the Atlantic strapped into a modified ICBM like spam in a can, I want to take a laid back week or two, as a passenger aboard a luxury 'airship' (WTF happened to them).
:)
Why travel at all? The vast majority of buisiness meetings can be conducted in virtual reality.
What I want is *SLOWER* more laid back and above all higher quality modes of transport. Speed, bah.
1000kph to 0kph in 1.8 sec. *OUCH*
They need to repressurize so the emergency crews can go in and hose down whats left of the passengers off the tunnel walls.
Also think of the consequences of foreign body (loose nuts n bolts etc) damage. Maintainance and regular tunnel inspections would be an expensive and constant hassle with a system like this.
Yes. But how does regenerative braking work with respect to a maglev style linear motor? Presumably energy needs to be fed into such a system the whole time to maintain the fields that levitate and move the vehicle.
I can see how regen braking works with wheels, tracks and bog standard motor/generator type technology, dumping the vehicles momentum into a flywheel for instance. But I don't know (yet) how this type of thing would work with a linear motor.
> you only have to use energy to get up to the speed you want plus of course the energy to keep the train afloat.
And supply the energy to slow down and stop presumably. Er and the energy to evacuate the tunnel in the first place and to keep it evacuated.
Possibly, in some cases, in some communities. But ...
There are whole slew of research opportunitys for sociologists to study behaviour patterns in the denizens of these virtual worlds. Given, that to some extent the patterns of behaviour of an individual online must mirror those found in the person offline.
Given a large diverse range of experimental subjects and a convincing enough world one could vary the paramaters of the world to see how the subjects react, for example to issues such as censorship within that world. In some worlds let the subjects decide their own destinys, in others restrict their options.
How will the virtual society develop? If it turns to anarchy, so be it. Dictatorship, oligarchy, democracy or whatever. The possibilities are endless, er just like in the real world.
If this is the 'real' world.....
Bottom line. People will be people will be people.
That plunger comes in handy if you've got a blocked toilet or sink though.
Thats bloody typical. All we get on the BBC here in the UK are naff Australian soaps like *ugh* Home and Away. Its not fair WAAAAA. :(
what hardware glue they're using to connect them
Araldite !
Space for even more bloatware.
200 Gb for a Hello World program here we come.
How do you say F**k Off SCO in American?
This could be a seriously bad idea. What if the cheese slicers with their star wars style weaponary joined forces with the toasters and internet enabled refrigerators? The begining of the end of humanity the revolt of the machines.
I for one welcome our new kitchen appliance overlords.
On the other hand it opens up a whole new culinary experience.
Anyone for Cheese Plasma.
Whilst the basic Mindstorms/RCX combination is a great introduction to mechatronics losing it won't be the end of civilisation as we know it.
:)
Building an equivalent to the RCX using Basic stamp or PIC microcontrollers and servos is fairly straightforward. People have probably been combining LEGO and homebrew electronics since LEGO was first produced in the 50's.
Anyone who's really caught the robotics bug from 'playing' with Mindstorms fairly quickly graduate to building their own sensors and replacing the RCX firmware or whatever (I stuck with original firmware but use NQC to program RCX). Should have picked up enough nous to embed an alternative controller into their creations.
For the record, I tend to use PIC's n Servos as my controllers and motive units of choice. Emacs on GNU/Linux is my preffered development environment (also at work as well).
I hope LEGO still continue to support RCX via their educational division as it realy does inspire people to get into engineering and robotics in particular.
*sigh*
Yup, thats me. I *still* spend serious ammounts on stuff like LEGO. I fall into the geek addicted to gadgets with disposable income category. :)
/.ers have ever taken apart a tape deck, vcr or practically any other electrical/mechanical appliance ever built?
LEGO type stuff must fit in with the techy mindset. Pulling things apart to see what makes em tick. I wonder how many
I bought a freestyle bucket (set 1796) a couple of years ago to supplement my Mindstorms set. It cost me about 15 quid for about 600 pieces. Pretty good value I thought considering how long the stuff lasts.
:)
I can still remember going into a local toy store and buying all the Mars exploration and Star Wars sets in one hit. The damn things practically overran my office. Those were the days *sigh*.
Must admit I'm still a bit of a LEGOholic, it must be a denial kinda thing
The heck with it, I'm gonna log off the net and build a Star Destroyer. Yowza.
Wow ! :) That was back in the day when the only specialized parts in LEGO sets tended to be window and door bits.
I once made some customised back to back blocks by supergluing normal 2x8 blocks together. I think I've still got some them
Hmmm the warm glow of nostalgia.
no books in the home of the future
Well in the future the RIAA have obviously won and books are a form
of illicit file/information sharing and are thus banned. The people
of the future have also all had their taste genes bypassed why else
live in a place like this.
Just a thought, would elves go with Infra Red LEDS?
Sounds like the ideal place to shoot a porn movie.
If you ask me the designers got it spot on.
In fact I wouldn't mind the USAF sending a few spammers
on a little trip to camp x-ray. That would be a public
spirited service.
Hell, who needs encryption or steganography.
...
How about hiding messages in good old *SPAM* how much noisier
an environment could one want? Most people find it a pain. But
For example. P - E - N - I - S ** EnLaRgeMeNt pIlz
Could be instructions for a terrorist cell to take out a target.
Thats one good reason for cracking down on this abomination IMHO so perhaps
some good come from all this paranoia.
The first OS to feature a stone tablet interface?
Presumably.
Revenge is a dish best served cold :)
If the Isrealis do go with Open Office will the Palestinians
;)
plump for MSoffice just to be contrary (or vis a vis)?
Well there would be peaceful dialogue between us if only we
we could share documents.
In the interest of peace & harmony in the Middle East I hope they
remember to use plain old text or pdf.
Batteries not included.