This was actually an event in a High School science competion called Science Olympiad. I participated in it about six years ago, and I'm not sure if they are still doing doing that event (called Bottle Rocketry). The object of the game was to keep the 2 liter bottle aloft for as long as possible. People used streamers or parachutes, all sorts of stuff. The hardest part was to get the parachute to deploy correctly. My designs would always accidentally deploy the parachute while the rocket was still on it's way up... So we scrapped the whole chute idea and just decided to go for altitude. After experimenting with a few designs, it was found that attaching a funnel for a nose-cone and using triangular fins that encircled the body of the bottle worked best. Simple and light, shot off like a bat out of hell, and would stay aloft for around 8 seconds before lawn-darting in the field we launched it from. It rocked. Next year we got a bit fancier. A friend of mine came up with this really cool way to keep the chute from deploying until the rocket was at it's apex. It's actually a lot harder than you think...
Another reason why the enthusiast might shy away from electric cars: "trick-out" ability. One of the biggest trends in the auto industry right now is the "Sport Compact" market. Young buyers who want a fire-breathing, ass-hauling machine, but do not have a lot of cash to spend are turning to automobiles such as the Honda Civic or the VW Golf. They have singly handedly created a huge market of aftermarket parts for small, light, inexpensive cars such as these. I could conceivibly go out and buy a VW Golf with a 1.8 Turbo in it, spend about six grand on parts (chip, coilover suspension, anti-roll bars, intake and exhaust), and keep up with if not beat cars that cost twice as much as the finished price. Yes, with a electric or hybird car it is just as easy to modify the suspension, and possibly brakes, and maybe a few other things, but the engine is the problem. You can't just slap a intake and exhaust system on and magically have 15 more horses under the hood. The gasoline engine is remarkably simple to modify, even with all the new fangled electronic control systems. Enthusiasts (such as myself) will pop the hood on a electric or hybrid electric and say to his/herself "What the hell do I do with this?" So what if this thing can beat a 550 or a 911 Carrera-4 (911 Turbo is where it's at, anyway), what is the use if you can't get your hands dirty.
Also, just as a side note,.88 on the skid pad really aint THAT great. If you look at the specs on the 550 and the 911, they are pulling mid to high.9s.
Noise is not necissarly an issue. A friend of mine used to work at a aero-drivative turbine generation plant for the navy. Inside the building were a few jet engines running electrical generators. These engines were capable of powering a MD-11, and they were running at full throttle most of the time. Outside the building you could barely hear a hum, due to all the baffles and mufflers. Plus, things like cruse ships and most big boats run on turbines, but you usually don't hear cruise ship goers complain about the engine noise...
I know I'm going to get ripped on cause my favorite commercial wasn't for a.com (although the etrade with the monkey/cowboy was excelent), but I really enjoyed the VW GTI comercial. I laughed my ass off when the GTI fell out of the tree... Plus, I'm a big VW/Audi fan, so there ya go. Yeah, 1.8T.
Yes, but I have a feeling we will see the "playstation effect." If you don't have a mod chip in your PS1, it will not allow you to play burned disks. Right now, I don't think I know anyone who doesn't have a mod chip in their playstation. I know that it will be more difficult with DVD players because of the plethora of different types/brands, but...
Although I have not yet read the article (I will do so shortly), I am a big F1 and CART fan. There is no way in hell the governing bodies of either would allow such a crazy contraption to compete with real live drivers on the course. It is just too dangerous and there are just too many variables. Frankly, I can't really believe they would let this project waste their time in a single car on track qualifier type event, either. Not that I'm saying it wouldn't be interesting to see...
I am a Penn State Student A few days ago, after PSU received a letter from Napster's lawyers, this email was sent out to all of PSU's students. No where does it say anything about Napster being banned outright. Here's the letter:
Dear Penn State Student,
As you may have heard, computer programs like Napster and computer networks have made copying copyrighted material including music and videos easier than ever. The press has reported this phenomenon widely and there has been considerable discussion of it in the Penn State community. You should know that copying of copyrighted material without the permission of the owner is a violation of state and federal laws as well as University policy. The University regards these violations as a very serious matter.
The University has done initial scans of its networks to determine the use level of programs like Napster. These scans do not examine the content of a particular computer in any way but do determine traffic characteristics. The scans suggest that some students may be making extensive use of Napster and other programs that can facilitate illegal copying of copyrighted material that belongs to another person, group, or company. There is also evidence that computer viruses have been transmitted in the process that owners may not be aware of.
Although it is not the intent to curtail legitimate use of such software, the University has an obligation to ensure that its networks and computers are not used to violate the law or University policy. While some seem to take violation casually, the penalties for copyright infringement are serious. All users should be aware of Penn State's program of continuous review of network traffic to identify copyright violations, viruses, or other unsanctioned activities.
If you are responsible for a computer that is attached to the Penn State network in any way, your use of that network is subject to such review. If the review uncovers symptoms of problems discussed above, you will be contacted for further review of your network use. Assistance will be available to eliminate any problems that exist. This will improve network performance for all network users. If the University receives notice that you have used the University network to infringe copyrighted works, your account will be suspended.
Appropriate use of the Penn State computer network and respect for the copyrighted works of others will help to ensure continued access to the widest possible array of software for all University users.
Sincerely,
Rodney A. Erickson
Executive Vice President and Provost
PS: For further information or questions, contact the Center for Academic Computing (helpdesk@psu.edu), Computer and Network Security (security@psu.edu), or your local campus computing organization. Students in the Residence Halls can contact ResCom (rescom@psu.edu).
I heard from a fairly reliable source that Intel's.13 micron chips would be running on a 400 Mhz front side bus, but this article says 200... anybody know anything about this?
Naw, this can't be from penn state. If it were, there would be something about detecting beer. And there is nothing about detecting beer anywere. As a Penn Stater, I have learned that any technology can be applied to beer, no matter how obscure. And since there is no beer, I can only conclude it came from those morons over at Pitt.
This has gotta be one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Do I have to tell you how many times DOS has saved my ass? "Oops! Some how my registry and half my sys files have been corrupted, better get into DOS mode and transfer that term paper that's due tomorro to a floppy." This has happened more than once. I don't care what anyone says, floppys and DOS are indespensible if you run 95/98/98SE.
Well, I agree honda has had it's share of problems in the past, but they are absolutely unbeatable now. No other way to say it. I work at a tier one supplier for automotive components, and there is no question about the quality of the honda stuff we see come through. They lead the market in reliability, quality, and number of off the line defects. The only thing I don't like about Honda products (with the exception of the sweet looking S2000) is their plain jane looks. But, technically, their product is unbeatable. Their VTEC system is a marvel to behold (i've seen one up close and personal). The aforementioned S2000 makes 240 horsepower out of a naturally asperated (as in no turbo, no supercharger, no ram air) 2 liter inline four cylinder, and redlines at 9000 rpm. It has the most horsepower per liter of any naturaly aspirated engine ever. Granted it doesn't make too much torque, and you have to get the engine spooled to get anything out of it, but it and almost every other honda product is a technical marvel. And rest assured, if you buy a honda product and take care of it, it'll last you a good 300,000. I realise I'm sounding like a Honda sales rep, sorry, but just to show I'm not... I wouldn't buy one for, but for purely performance reasons. I love low rpm torque and throttle response, which basically mean i have two choices. American or German. Well, really just german, if I want it to last more than five years. But even the Germans can't compete with the Japanese for quality and technology.
Yep it is. There are also levels where innocents get mowed down in the cross fire, or where you see your "collegues" executed. Also, some of the weapons are just plain disgusting. If you use the "special" on the microwave gun, the victim blows up like a balloon and then explodes.
A friend gave me SOF to try a while back, and I must say, it is the worst game I have ever played interms of blood and guts. I am a avid QuakeIII, Quake II, and Unreal player, but they just cannot hold a Candle to SOF. If you shoot someone in the head with certain weapons, you will only blow away half of the head, leaving realistic lookin skull fragments and brain, etc. Like wise, shooting in the gut will lead to realistic intesines spewing out of their stomach. One of the areas of the meat packing plant is the sewer, where you slog through disembodied cow parts, a river of blood, and various red objects falling from grates and tunnels. Let me say this again: The bloodiest game I have ever witnessed.
Now, while I do not condone censorship of any type, I must say that this is not something I would let my children (if I had any) play. I don't think government should be playing the parents role in situations such as this. But on the other hand, I can see why this game was given this rating.
Thank god. I wasted a good amount of my life on Ultima Online last year. It got so bad I was skipping classes, meetings, you name it. My GPA actually dropped a couple points because of that damn game. I quit cold turkey a few months ago, but the temption is still there. Maybe now that I know the next UO won't have Richard's creative input, I won't be tempted to buy it...
Is TMBG gonna be on the soundtrack? They have a song for every Planet of the Apes movie ever made... If you wanna hear em, they are the "hidden" tracks on their live album, Severe Tire Damage. My personal fav is "Escape from the Planet of the Apes." Awww yeah.
This past summer, I bought a new Voodoo3 card. Everything seemed to be working fine, except when I would play games that actually used Glide or OpenGL, about ten minutes in my computer would hang. Black screen, no response from anything I did... I had just got a new motherboard too, so at first I thougt is was a driver problem. Well, one day I had the cover of my case off and was playing Quake III when I realized I had been playing for 20 min with no problem. So I reached down and put my hand on the heatsink on the video board, and burned the hell out of it. Long story short, attached a couple cpu fans to it and now it runs fine. I used to have a voodoo 2 accelerator, and it seemed like it ran pretty cool, but that was a while ago... You might try running with your cover off and check out your heat situation.
I don't know about the rest of you, but the public schools i went to were excelent. We had ton's of AP and honors classes. A lot of stuff I did in high school was harder than my first year of college.
Hey, what about a Home Brew System/PC? You could have a program running in the background keeping a constant eye on your beer-to-be. Changing the temp, stirring if it needs it, opening the release valve if it's gonna turn out to be skunk. Someone design of those, and I'll be first in line to buy it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I know, I should have read the article first. D'oh.
Eric
This was actually an event in a High School science competion called Science Olympiad. I participated in it about six years ago, and I'm not sure if they are still doing doing that event (called Bottle Rocketry). The object of the game was to keep the 2 liter bottle aloft for as long as possible. People used streamers or parachutes, all sorts of stuff. The hardest part was to get the parachute to deploy correctly. My designs would always accidentally deploy the parachute while the rocket was still on it's way up... So we scrapped the whole chute idea and just decided to go for altitude. After experimenting with a few designs, it was found that attaching a funnel for a nose-cone and using triangular fins that encircled the body of the bottle worked best. Simple and light, shot off like a bat out of hell, and would stay aloft for around 8 seconds before lawn-darting in the field we launched it from. It rocked. Next year we got a bit fancier. A friend of mine came up with this really cool way to keep the chute from deploying until the rocket was at it's apex. It's actually a lot harder than you think...
Eric
Thank God. My grades are spared for at least another semester...
Eric
Another reason why the enthusiast might shy away from electric cars: "trick-out" ability. One of the biggest trends in the auto industry right now is the "Sport Compact" market. Young buyers who want a fire-breathing, ass-hauling machine, but do not have a lot of cash to spend are turning to automobiles such as the Honda Civic or the VW Golf. They have singly handedly created a huge market of aftermarket parts for small, light, inexpensive cars such as these. I could conceivibly go out and buy a VW Golf with a 1.8 Turbo in it, spend about six grand on parts (chip, coilover suspension, anti-roll bars, intake and exhaust), and keep up with if not beat cars that cost twice as much as the finished price. Yes, with a electric or hybird car it is just as easy to modify the suspension, and possibly brakes, and maybe a few other things, but the engine is the problem. You can't just slap a intake and exhaust system on and magically have 15 more horses under the hood. The gasoline engine is remarkably simple to modify, even with all the new fangled electronic control systems. Enthusiasts (such as myself) will pop the hood on a electric or hybrid electric and say to his/herself "What the hell do I do with this?" So what if this thing can beat a 550 or a 911 Carrera-4 (911 Turbo is where it's at, anyway), what is the use if you can't get your hands dirty.
.88 on the skid pad really aint THAT great. If you look at the specs on the 550 and the 911, they are pulling mid to high .9s.
Also, just as a side note,
Anyway, how about that new WRX? SWEET!
Eric
Noise is not necissarly an issue. A friend of mine used to work at a aero-drivative turbine generation plant for the navy. Inside the building were a few jet engines running electrical generators. These engines were capable of powering a MD-11, and they were running at full throttle most of the time. Outside the building you could barely hear a hum, due to all the baffles and mufflers. Plus, things like cruse ships and most big boats run on turbines, but you usually don't hear cruise ship goers complain about the engine noise...
Eric
I know I'm going to get ripped on cause my favorite commercial wasn't for a .com (although the etrade with the monkey/cowboy was excelent), but I really enjoyed the VW GTI comercial. I laughed my ass off when the GTI fell out of the tree... Plus, I'm a big VW/Audi fan, so there ya go. Yeah, 1.8T.
Eric
"Honey, We're going to have to take out the kids room in order to put in the new 300 gallon liquid N2 dewar I just ordered... What?"
Eric
Yes, but I have a feeling we will see the "playstation effect." If you don't have a mod chip in your PS1, it will not allow you to play burned disks. Right now, I don't think I know anyone who doesn't have a mod chip in their playstation. I know that it will be more difficult with DVD players because of the plethora of different types/brands, but...
Eric
Although I have not yet read the article (I will do so shortly), I am a big F1 and CART fan. There is no way in hell the governing bodies of either would allow such a crazy contraption to compete with real live drivers on the course. It is just too dangerous and there are just too many variables. Frankly, I can't really believe they would let this project waste their time in a single car on track qualifier type event, either. Not that I'm saying it wouldn't be interesting to see...
Eric
I made the comment that Napster sent the letter to penn state. I messed up. It was the lawyers for Metallica and Dre and some others...
I am a Penn State Student A few days ago, after PSU received a letter from Napster's lawyers, this email was sent out to all of PSU's students. No where does it say anything about Napster being banned outright. Here's the letter:
Dear Penn State Student,
As you may have heard, computer programs like Napster and computer networks have made copying copyrighted material including music and videos easier than ever. The press has reported this phenomenon widely and there has been considerable discussion of it in the Penn State community. You should know that copying of copyrighted material without the permission of the owner is a violation of state and federal laws as well as University policy. The University regards these violations as a very serious matter.
The University has done initial scans of its networks to determine the use level of programs like Napster. These scans do not examine the content of a particular computer in any way but do determine traffic characteristics. The scans suggest that some students may be making extensive use of Napster and other programs that can facilitate illegal copying of copyrighted material that belongs to another person, group, or company. There is also evidence that computer viruses have been transmitted in the process that owners may not be aware of.
Although it is not the intent to curtail legitimate use of such software, the University has an obligation to ensure that its networks and computers are not used to violate the law or University policy. While some seem to take violation casually, the penalties for copyright infringement are serious. All users should be aware of Penn State's program of continuous review of network traffic to identify copyright violations, viruses, or other unsanctioned activities.
If you are responsible for a computer that is attached to the Penn State network in any way, your use of that network is subject to such review. If the review uncovers symptoms of problems discussed above, you will be contacted for further review of your network use. Assistance will be available to eliminate any problems that exist. This will improve network performance for all network users. If the University receives notice that you have used the University network to infringe copyrighted works, your account will be suspended.
Appropriate use of the Penn State computer network and respect for the copyrighted works of others will help to ensure continued access to the widest possible array of software for all University users.
Sincerely,
Rodney A. Erickson
Executive Vice President and Provost
PS: For further information or questions, contact the Center for Academic Computing (helpdesk@psu.edu), Computer and Network Security (security@psu.edu), or your local campus computing organization. Students in the Residence Halls can contact ResCom (rescom@psu.edu).
I heard from a fairly reliable source that Intel's .13 micron chips would be running on a 400 Mhz front side bus, but this article says 200... anybody know anything about this?
Naw, this can't be from penn state. If it were, there would be something about detecting beer. And there is nothing about detecting beer anywere. As a Penn Stater, I have learned that any technology can be applied to beer, no matter how obscure. And since there is no beer, I can only conclude it came from those morons over at Pitt.
Eric
This has gotta be one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Do I have to tell you how many times DOS has saved my ass? "Oops! Some how my registry and half my sys files have been corrupted, better get into DOS mode and transfer that term paper that's due tomorro to a floppy." This has happened more than once. I don't care what anyone says, floppys and DOS are indespensible if you run 95/98/98SE.
Eric
I'm Agent Campbell... and this is my BOOM STICK. Now whhhooo wants some.. Huh? Who wants some? You want some Smoking Man? Huh?
Well, I agree honda has had it's share of problems in the past, but they are absolutely unbeatable now. No other way to say it. I work at a tier one supplier for automotive components, and there is no question about the quality of the honda stuff we see come through. They lead the market in reliability, quality, and number of off the line defects. The only thing I don't like about Honda products (with the exception of the sweet looking S2000) is their plain jane looks. But, technically, their product is unbeatable. Their VTEC system is a marvel to behold (i've seen one up close and personal). The aforementioned S2000 makes 240 horsepower out of a naturally asperated (as in no turbo, no supercharger, no ram air) 2 liter inline four cylinder, and redlines at 9000 rpm. It has the most horsepower per liter of any naturaly aspirated engine ever. Granted it doesn't make too much torque, and you have to get the engine spooled to get anything out of it, but it and almost every other honda product is a technical marvel. And rest assured, if you buy a honda product and take care of it, it'll last you a good 300,000. I realise I'm sounding like a Honda sales rep, sorry, but just to show I'm not... I wouldn't buy one for, but for purely performance reasons. I love low rpm torque and throttle response, which basically mean i have two choices. American or German. Well, really just german, if I want it to last more than five years. But even the Germans can't compete with the Japanese for quality and technology.
Eric
Yep it is. There are also levels where innocents get mowed down in the cross fire, or where you see your "collegues" executed. Also, some of the weapons are just plain disgusting. If you use the "special" on the microwave gun, the victim blows up like a balloon and then explodes.
A friend gave me SOF to try a while back, and I must say, it is the worst game I have ever played interms of blood and guts. I am a avid QuakeIII, Quake II, and Unreal player, but they just cannot hold a Candle to SOF. If you shoot someone in the head with certain weapons, you will only blow away half of the head, leaving realistic lookin skull fragments and brain, etc. Like wise, shooting in the gut will lead to realistic intesines spewing out of their stomach. One of the areas of the meat packing plant is the sewer, where you slog through disembodied cow parts, a river of blood, and various red objects falling from grates and tunnels. Let me say this again: The bloodiest game I have ever witnessed.
Now, while I do not condone censorship of any type, I must say that this is not something I would let my children (if I had any) play. I don't think government should be playing the parents role in situations such as this. But on the other hand, I can see why this game was given this rating.
Eric
Touche! See, not all lawyers are evil.... Ya just gotta PAY em to be nice...
Eric
Thank god. I wasted a good amount of my life on Ultima Online last year. It got so bad I was skipping classes, meetings, you name it. My GPA actually dropped a couple points because of that damn game. I quit cold turkey a few months ago, but the temption is still there. Maybe now that I know the next UO won't have Richard's creative input, I won't be tempted to buy it...
Eric
Is TMBG gonna be on the soundtrack? They have a song for every Planet of the Apes movie ever made... If you wanna hear em, they are the "hidden" tracks on their live album, Severe Tire Damage. My personal fav is "Escape from the Planet of the Apes." Awww yeah.
Eric
This past summer, I bought a new Voodoo3 card. Everything seemed to be working fine, except when I would play games that actually used Glide or OpenGL, about ten minutes in my computer would hang. Black screen, no response from anything I did... I had just got a new motherboard too, so at first I thougt is was a driver problem. Well, one day I had the cover of my case off and was playing Quake III when I realized I had been playing for 20 min with no problem. So I reached down and put my hand on the heatsink on the video board, and burned the hell out of it. Long story short, attached a couple cpu fans to it and now it runs fine. I used to have a voodoo 2 accelerator, and it seemed like it ran pretty cool, but that was a while ago... You might try running with your cover off and check out your heat situation.
Chowder
hehe. Man, this thread is burning up!
I don't know about the rest of you, but the public schools i went to were excelent. We had ton's of AP and honors classes. A lot of stuff I did in high school was harder than my first year of college.
Hey, what about a Home Brew System/PC? You could have a program running in the background keeping a constant eye on your beer-to-be. Changing the temp, stirring if it needs it, opening the release valve if it's gonna turn out to be skunk. Someone design of those, and I'll be first in line to buy it.