And it will get itself in and out of the ball... how exactly?
I'm just thinking out loud... but maybe eight inflatable/deflatable balloons (like a sphere divided by three planes). If they were all positioned strategically on the rover they could be inflated to make it roll, or deflated and reeled in.
If the rover could switch modes - blow up like a balloon or deflate to be like a more traditional rover - it could do all its tests in regular mode and only use the balloon to cover large distances between testing points.
I built a robot for a class once. And after completing it, I have much more respect for the people trying to design these things.
It's not so hard to make a robot that works. It's all the possible problems that make it hard. And if your robot happens to be on Mars when it breaks... you're SO screwed!
All the little things... unanticipated terrain, sensor malfunction, wheel gets stuck... the list is endless. Of course, during my project I kept to the smooth carpet and just moved the robot whenever something happened. But these guys have got their work cut out for them.
First of all, marking a post a troll because you disagree with it is clearly an abuse, and condoning it is no better. There is no excuse other than having a "Big Brother" streak in you, funny because that's what you seem to hate.
The point of my post was making jest of a speeding UPS driver. You have all taken the first line of a light-hearted post and contorted it into a personal attack by me against you.
Second, don't make the decision for the rest of us. Are you that selfish of a human being that you cannot respect the desire for privacy others may have?
My post does none of the things you imply. I made no decisions for you. And stating that I am not fearful does not make me selfish.
I did not intend to start a fight, so please do not vent your anger toward me.
I've found that there are very few original thoughts or ideas, and very few people who come up with them. It isn't a matter of plagerism. It's just that there are only so many viable ideas out there. And the more that are already taken, the harder it is to come up with a new one. If you reach too far just to have an original thought, then you end up a wacko.
Well, I'm not so scared of being followed and tracked. One reason being that I don't do anything I have to hide.
But the second, and more fun reason, is that with all the tracking infrastructure in place, I can track other people when I'm bored.
Take for instance a package I ordered online. The company sent it UPS and gave me a tracking code. I checked the UPS site to see where my package is/where it was seen last, as well as its destination. Then I log onto MapQuest and get driving directions for me package to see how long the journey should take. I check back at UPS later to see when my package arrived. 14 minutes early! Somebody was speeding! And all this found with no tools from the NSA, just a web browser.
Imagine all the possibilities! It is an incredible waste of your life though.
You are correct so far as to say Einstein did not beleive in a personal God. He said that many times as you pointed out. The quote you included was in response to those who tried to match Einstein's views with their own. Einstein did, however, on many occasions (found within the same google search) express his sense of spirituality, and that he felt the physical structure of the universe was an expression of God.
"Well I've thoroughly enjoyed this clandestined discussion. I feel so devious and evil. But for my own records, could you write down everything we've just said (especially all the bad stuff we're doing) and distribute it to all the company employees? Make sure all the new guys get it too, especially the one in cubicle 4-B that doesn't like his job. Oh, and if this gets out it could ruin our public image, so try to keep it a secret, thank you."
Microsoft VIP
One more thing worth pointing out is that I make money from other people's OSS. I integrate what they already have into my own software and I'm currently negotiating to make a good deal of money from it. So the sharing process is just give-give-give. There is a lot of reciprocal giving.
You are going to have to think of more credible examples to convince me:(
Well first off, I never said writing OSS is a method to get rich quick. I said it isn't throwing away your time.
For instance, while most people don't become extremely rich from an O'Reilly book, with moderate success they can probably count on an extra $100 per month from royalties. Hop on a mortgage calculator and see what happens if you pay an extra $100 on your house every month. Mine goes from a 30 year loan to 14.
Again, fame does not necessarily lead to money
That's true. But writing successful applications is helpful. I don't write OSS professionally, its a hobby of mine. I also work with computers. The last time I was at a job interview they asked if I had any proof of my coding abilities, or if I could complete a test program for them. This is a perfect situation to mention that you worked on (Apache/Samba/YourLittleProject/AnythingAtAll), show them the code, and show your name in the documentation. We're not talking about get recognized on the street fame. We're talking about enough fame to stand out in a crowd. What about running a business that relies on your own software? When you are bidding for contracts, what a bombshell to point out that while you and your competition both use the same software, YOU ACTUALLY WROTE IT.
There are MANY ways to earn a living with free software.
Once you write a successful application, you have book deals.
OSS is a sure and quick way to show your prowess and become moderately famous overnight.
And Most importantly, I haven't yet met a boss who could take free code and use it. No matter how free and open code is, there is still a job market for people who can use it, tailor it, and integrate it into a business.
The list goes on. But as you can see. Writing OSS isn't throwing your time away.
That reminds me of a news special I saw on TV about professional shoplifters. Apparently they had devised a way to smuggle clothing and other goods with RFID tags past those little scanner gates. You wanna know how they did it?
Tin foil lined bags!
According to the show, some of these shoplifting rings take millions of dollars worth of merchanise a year. So this method must be pretty effective. I love when people go through a ton of work and invest billions of dollars while ignoring something simple/stupid like tin foil.
My father in law works in a manufacturing plant for a parent company. They don't really do that much manufacturing. The parent company outsources over 95% of all their manufacturing needs. What they are really for is bargaining leverage. When the parent company negotitates, they have the ability to say "screw you, we'll do it ourselves." That alone drives costs down with all their partnering manufacturers.
The situation with Motorola is not the same. But Apple can always leverage the idea of using Motorola chips again to hedge any abuse by other chip manufacturers, although they hopefully won't need to.
A crap load of junk mail comes from insecure personal computers that were hijacked. If these computers send their junk mail, and this system tracks them, it will send the "A-OK" because the mail came from where it said it did.
This will help, no doubt. But fix the problem? No.
Actually you can do a similar experiment in a boat with a gun. If you shoot out the back of the boat enough times, the boat will move slightly forward. Shooting forward will make it move backward a little. If you shoot up in the air, the boat will move downward slightly before springing back from boyancy.
Once strange thing I've never been able to figure out though, is why shooting downward also makes the boat move downward?!
I believe an object in motion will stay in motion, and with inertia, say an asteroid was on a straight trajectory direct to earth, decreasing its mass wouldn't change its vector at all, would it?
Decreasing its mass won't change its trajectory. However, that's not the idea here. The important part is what they do with the mass that's important. If these little drills dig up rock and throw it in one direction, the conservation laws make the remainder of the rock move in the other direction - ever so slightly. If you do that long enough, you could get an asteroid to move sideways fast enough to veer it off a collision course.
Continue to encourage NASA to shift earth's orbit to avoid asteroids. It's a GREAT idea!
Meanwhile, I will buy a bunch of arctic/desert land for cheap. Then, when they shift the earth ever so slightly the climate shift will make all the paradises of today baren wastelands. And who's left with all the sugar? Me.
I know this will work. I saw something similar on Superman a long time ago.
My favorite approach that I've heard so far is to paint the asteroid while its still a long way out. You paint one half to absorb radiation and leave the other side alone. The idea is that after long enough the sun will push the asteroid off course.
What kind of goofy people come up with this stuff?
My second favorite is to put rocket engines on lots of little asteroids and crash them into the big asteroid coming for earth. Some lucky bastard would get paid to sit in his chair at NASA with a joystick and play asteroids.
Slashdot Mirror
That's not the reason for me being glad you got marked a troll. The reason is because your argument is fundamentally flawed, and therefore incorrect.
Thinking my idea is incorrect/flawed is the same as disagreeing with it.
YOU think it is flawed. So in YOUR OPINION it is wrong. That's why YOU DISAGREE with it.
Which is still no excuse to Mod as a troll.
And it will get itself in and out of the ball ... how exactly?
I'm just thinking out loud... but maybe eight inflatable/deflatable balloons (like a sphere divided by three planes). If they were all positioned strategically on the rover they could be inflated to make it roll, or deflated and reeled in.
I keep seeing images of naughty little martian children running around with pins popping these like bubble wrap.
BAP
Aeriouloo: I'm telling Dad! He said not to pop any more of those. You are SO goona get grounded.
Eiixpi: Don't be a tattle tail. I don't see why we can't pop 'em anyway.
Aeriouloo: Dad says if all their rovers pop, the earth people might figure out we're here and try to collonize us.
Eiixpi: What's he afraid of? They can't be that dangerous. Look at their rovers...
If the rover could switch modes - blow up like a balloon or deflate to be like a more traditional rover - it could do all its tests in regular mode and only use the balloon to cover large distances between testing points.
I built a robot for a class once. And after completing it, I have much more respect for the people trying to design these things.
It's not so hard to make a robot that works. It's all the possible problems that make it hard. And if your robot happens to be on Mars when it breaks... you're SO screwed!
All the little things... unanticipated terrain, sensor malfunction, wheel gets stuck... the list is endless. Of course, during my project I kept to the smooth carpet and just moved the robot whenever something happened. But these guys have got their work cut out for them.
No pressure, its just a 3 million dollar robot!
I'm glad this got marked troll.
First of all, marking a post a troll because you disagree with it is clearly an abuse, and condoning it is no better. There is no excuse other than having a "Big Brother" streak in you, funny because that's what you seem to hate.
The point of my post was making jest of a speeding UPS driver. You have all taken the first line of a light-hearted post and contorted it into a personal attack by me against you.
Second, don't make the decision for the rest of us. Are you that selfish of a human being that you cannot respect the desire for privacy others may have?
My post does none of the things you imply. I made no decisions for you. And stating that I am not fearful does not make me selfish.
I did not intend to start a fight, so please do not vent your anger toward me.
Absolutely marvelous! I have to admit, although you used my words, I didn't think of that.
...bloggers steal their ideas from other people.
I've found that there are very few original thoughts or ideas, and very few people who come up with them. It isn't a matter of plagerism. It's just that there are only so many viable ideas out there. And the more that are already taken, the harder it is to come up with a new one. If you reach too far just to have an original thought, then you end up a wacko.
It isn't just bloggers.
Did you get a credit card? Post the number here.
Did you go to the toilet today? Post videos. You haven't GOT any videos? You must have been doing something bad then.
Do you have a girlfriend? What's her name and address? Does she have a credit card?
In short:
I don't have a credit card.
I do use the toilet - don't have a video camera - wouldn't video myself on the toilet if I had one.
I have a wife. I don't mind if you know she's my wife. It's a matter of public record anyway.
Oh, and she doesn't have a credit card either.
Well, I'm not so scared of being followed and tracked. One reason being that I don't do anything I have to hide.
But the second, and more fun reason, is that with all the tracking infrastructure in place, I can track other people when I'm bored.
Take for instance a package I ordered online. The company sent it UPS and gave me a tracking code. I checked the UPS site to see where my package is/where it was seen last, as well as its destination. Then I log onto MapQuest and get driving directions for me package to see how long the journey should take. I check back at UPS later to see when my package arrived. 14 minutes early! Somebody was speeding! And all this found with no tools from the NSA, just a web browser.
Imagine all the possibilities! It is an incredible waste of your life though.
You are correct so far as to say Einstein did not beleive in a personal God. He said that many times as you pointed out. The quote you included was in response to those who tried to match Einstein's views with their own. Einstein did, however, on many occasions (found within the same google search) express his sense of spirituality, and that he felt the physical structure of the universe was an expression of God.
It's true! He looks just like a young Dan Akroyd! It's funny because it true! All he needs is one of those beam guns and a trap.
Yeah, I also saw these in such credible movies as Alien and The Matrix.
"Well I've thoroughly enjoyed this clandestined discussion. I feel so devious and evil. But for my own records, could you write down everything we've just said (especially all the bad stuff we're doing) and distribute it to all the company employees? Make sure all the new guys get it too, especially the one in cubicle 4-B that doesn't like his job. Oh, and if this gets out it could ruin our public image, so try to keep it a secret, thank you." Microsoft VIP
One more thing worth pointing out is that I make money from other people's OSS. I integrate what they already have into my own software and I'm currently negotiating to make a good deal of money from it. So the sharing process is just give-give-give. There is a lot of reciprocal giving.
You are going to have to think of more credible examples to convince me :(
Well first off, I never said writing OSS is a method to get rich quick. I said it isn't throwing away your time.
For instance, while most people don't become extremely rich from an O'Reilly book, with moderate success they can probably count on an extra $100 per month from royalties. Hop on a mortgage calculator and see what happens if you pay an extra $100 on your house every month. Mine goes from a 30 year loan to 14.
Again, fame does not necessarily lead to money
That's true. But writing successful applications is helpful. I don't write OSS professionally, its a hobby of mine. I also work with computers. The last time I was at a job interview they asked if I had any proof of my coding abilities, or if I could complete a test program for them. This is a perfect situation to mention that you worked on (Apache/Samba/YourLittleProject/AnythingAtAll), show them the code, and show your name in the documentation. We're not talking about get recognized on the street fame. We're talking about enough fame to stand out in a crowd. What about running a business that relies on your own software? When you are bidding for contracts, what a bombshell to point out that while you and your competition both use the same software, YOU ACTUALLY WROTE IT.
There are MANY ways to earn a living with free software.
Once you write a successful application, you have book deals.
OSS is a sure and quick way to show your prowess and become moderately famous overnight.
And Most importantly, I haven't yet met a boss who could take free code and use it. No matter how free and open code is, there is still a job market for people who can use it, tailor it, and integrate it into a business.
The list goes on. But as you can see. Writing OSS isn't throwing your time away.
That reminds me of a news special I saw on TV about professional shoplifters. Apparently they had devised a way to smuggle clothing and other goods with RFID tags past those little scanner gates. You wanna know how they did it?
Tin foil lined bags!
According to the show, some of these shoplifting rings take millions of dollars worth of merchanise a year. So this method must be pretty effective. I love when people go through a ton of work and invest billions of dollars while ignoring something simple/stupid like tin foil.
My father in law works in a manufacturing plant for a parent company. They don't really do that much manufacturing. The parent company outsources over 95% of all their manufacturing needs. What they are really for is bargaining leverage. When the parent company negotitates, they have the ability to say "screw you, we'll do it ourselves." That alone drives costs down with all their partnering manufacturers.
The situation with Motorola is not the same. But Apple can always leverage the idea of using Motorola chips again to hedge any abuse by other chip manufacturers, although they hopefully won't need to.
This isn't going to fix it.
A crap load of junk mail comes from insecure personal computers that were hijacked. If these computers send their junk mail, and this system tracks them, it will send the "A-OK" because the mail came from where it said it did.
This will help, no doubt. But fix the problem? No.
Actually you can do a similar experiment in a boat with a gun. If you shoot out the back of the boat enough times, the boat will move slightly forward. Shooting forward will make it move backward a little. If you shoot up in the air, the boat will move downward slightly before springing back from boyancy.
Once strange thing I've never been able to figure out though, is why shooting downward also makes the boat move downward?!
I believe an object in motion will stay in motion, and with inertia, say an asteroid was on a straight trajectory direct to earth, decreasing its mass wouldn't change its vector at all, would it?
Decreasing its mass won't change its trajectory. However, that's not the idea here. The important part is what they do with the mass that's important. If these little drills dig up rock and throw it in one direction, the conservation laws make the remainder of the rock move in the other direction - ever so slightly. If you do that long enough, you could get an asteroid to move sideways fast enough to veer it off a collision course.
Continue to encourage NASA to shift earth's orbit to avoid asteroids. It's a GREAT idea!
Meanwhile, I will buy a bunch of arctic/desert land for cheap. Then, when they shift the earth ever so slightly the climate shift will make all the paradises of today baren wastelands. And who's left with all the sugar? Me.
I know this will work. I saw something similar on Superman a long time ago.
My favorite approach that I've heard so far is to paint the asteroid while its still a long way out. You paint one half to absorb radiation and leave the other side alone. The idea is that after long enough the sun will push the asteroid off course.
What kind of goofy people come up with this stuff?
My second favorite is to put rocket engines on lots of little asteroids and crash them into the big asteroid coming for earth. Some lucky bastard would get paid to sit in his chair at NASA with a joystick and play asteroids.
Imagine the pressure!
In related news, DARPA funds research to eliminate the North and South pole.