Forget Mars. Explain to me how Uranus got to be that color!
I don't get it.
Voice inside my head: "I'm sorry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all." Oh. What's it called now? Voice inside my head: "Urectum. Here, let me locate it for you."
Tafe: Practical.
Bachelor: General overall knowledge in a specific field.
Masters: Detailed knowledge in a specilised field.
Phd: Research knowledge in a single topic/idea.
I was hoping you would keep going with this idea to include the old cliche about higher and higher levels of education and corresponding specialization: The higher up the educational ladder you get, you learn more and more about less and less until you know everything there is to know about absolutley nothing! You can put that under "Postdoctoral" or something like that.
IIRC, the Shanghai airport maglev also suffers because of its short length. Basically, the first half of the trip is spent accelerating and the second half is spent decellerating. I dont think the maglev even has a chance to reach its top theoretical speed. The average speed during the trip, therefore, ends up being far less.
To everyone who says that we are less safe today than we were before September 11, I say that we were more safe within an HOUR after airplanes flew into the World Trade Center towers than we were before, especially with respect to airline travel. And all this extra airline security does very little. Here is why:
Much has been made of the fact that the highjackers on 9/11 used boxcutters to hijack the planes. This is rubbish. The highjackers used the threat of blowing up the planes with a bomb as their primary weapon to take control of the aircraft. The only thing the boxcutters did was to further intimidate the passengers and to ensure that all sharp objects would henceforth be zealously confiscated before boarding a commercial airplane.
Less than an hour after the first airplane hit the tower, passengers on United flight 93 began calling their loved ones by cell phone, and learned about the attacks in New York and DC. When they realized what the terrorists were going to do with their airplane, they hatched a plan to take the plane out of the hands of the terrorists.
Imagine you were flying in a commercial jet today and the plane was being hijacked with men armed with boxcutters, or small pocket knives, or any similar small weapon. What would you do? I would assume they were trying to pull off another 9/11 style attack, figure I was going to die anyway, and take my chances tackling the guy with the boxcutter. I believe many people on the plane would do the same. For a group of terrorists to pull off a highjacking today, they would have to kill nearly every able-bodied adult on the plane before they could take control. On an aircraft where they are outnumbered 10-1, that's not likely to happen if they're armed with machetes, let alone boxcutters.
Turning commercial jets into missiles was a clever trick (and evil and nefarious and all that), but it can only work once. I know it, the government knows it, Osama Bin-Laden and Al Qaeda know it. There will never be another airline highjacking again, because the terrorists aren't dumb enough to try it, especially in the U.S. where images of 9/11 are still very much fresh in people's minds. They could try to blow a plane up, but there hasn't been a successful airplane bombing in years. There are just easier targets out there for a bomber, like crowded public areas or any building you could drive a truck up to.
So why is the government making such a big deal about its new security measures? Because that's what the people want. People are scared and they want to know the government is doing something to address the issue, which makes them feel safer. It's largely political. I don't think its really possible to make substantial improvements in public safety with respect to terrorism. Take border security as an example. The new fingerprinting scheme is intended to make sure people coming into the country are who they say they are and discourage them from overstaying their visas, not to prevent them from hijacking a plane. It will probably have very little effect on either. Thousands of illegal aliens stream into the country every day from Mexico. Overall, I don't know if it is feasible for the government to completely secure U.S. borders. I doubt it.
In the meantime, I still don't know what to do with my Leatherman when I travel, and I have no bags to check in. I usually take it everywhere with me, but I can't pack it on my carry-on anymore. Do I go up to the check-in desk with a 4 inch long box and say "I have 1 box to check, please!" I don't think they would let me on the plane if I did.
Stretching Floppy Disk Capacity
on
First Computers
·
· Score: 1
Not long ago, I was reminiscing with some friends about our old computers, and the hoops we jumped through to make them do all sorts of neat things.
Remember when floppy disks were the prefered removable storage medium? Rembember when they used to be expensive?
Take a single-sided 5-1/4'' floppy disk. The floppies had magnetic coating on both sides. So you take a signle sided floppy and cut out a new write protect notch on the opposite side, then carefully use a hole punch to create a new reference hole near the center of the disk. You just doubled the capacity of that little floppy.
Floppies evolved. Soon, 3.5'' drives were capable of using 1.44MB "High Density" media, but you were stuck with the old 720K "Double Density" disks. The difference (besides the amount of coating required on the disk) was a hole in the corner of the HD disks. So you go ahead an get your hands on a hole punch made just for this purpose. You punch a hole in the corner of your 720K disk and format it for 1.44M. It didn't always work, but when it did, it was great. You could always just format it as 720K again if it failed.
Years before the overclocking craze, we were pushing our technology far beyond their specs, squeezing everything we could out of them.
I wonder when the death of the floppy will finally be official. I thought it would happen years ago. Yet I'm still clinging to my old Win98SE boot floppy, and it may be the sole reason my next machine will have a floppy drive at all.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't get it.
Voice inside my head: "I'm sorry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all."
Oh. What's it called now?
Voice inside my head: "Urectum. Here, let me locate it for you."
Tafe: Practical.
Bachelor: General overall knowledge in a specific field.
Masters: Detailed knowledge in a specilised field.
Phd: Research knowledge in a single topic/idea.
I was hoping you would keep going with this idea to include the old cliche about higher and higher levels of education and corresponding specialization: The higher up the educational ladder you get, you learn more and more about less and less until you know everything there is to know about absolutley nothing! You can put that under "Postdoctoral" or something like that.
IIRC, the Shanghai airport maglev also suffers because of its short length. Basically, the first half of the trip is spent accelerating and the second half is spent decellerating. I dont think the maglev even has a chance to reach its top theoretical speed. The average speed during the trip, therefore, ends up being far less.
I don't think we are that far away from other applications like automobile headlights and real replacement sources for household lighting...
The Hyundai HCD-8, a concept car recently unveiled at the North American International Auto Show, features LED headlights. More information about the HCD-8 can be found in a Hyundai press release.
To everyone who says that we are less safe today than we were before September 11, I say that we were more safe within an HOUR after airplanes flew into the World Trade Center towers than we were before, especially with respect to airline travel. And all this extra airline security does very little. Here is why:
Much has been made of the fact that the highjackers on 9/11 used boxcutters to hijack the planes. This is rubbish. The highjackers used the threat of blowing up the planes with a bomb as their primary weapon to take control of the aircraft. The only thing the boxcutters did was to further intimidate the passengers and to ensure that all sharp objects would henceforth be zealously confiscated before boarding a commercial airplane.
Less than an hour after the first airplane hit the tower, passengers on United flight 93 began calling their loved ones by cell phone, and learned about the attacks in New York and DC. When they realized what the terrorists were going to do with their airplane, they hatched a plan to take the plane out of the hands of the terrorists.
Imagine you were flying in a commercial jet today and the plane was being hijacked with men armed with boxcutters, or small pocket knives, or any similar small weapon. What would you do? I would assume they were trying to pull off another 9/11 style attack, figure I was going to die anyway, and take my chances tackling the guy with the boxcutter. I believe many people on the plane would do the same. For a group of terrorists to pull off a highjacking today, they would have to kill nearly every able-bodied adult on the plane before they could take control. On an aircraft where they are outnumbered 10-1, that's not likely to happen if they're armed with machetes, let alone boxcutters.
Turning commercial jets into missiles was a clever trick (and evil and nefarious and all that), but it can only work once. I know it, the government knows it, Osama Bin-Laden and Al Qaeda know it. There will never be another airline highjacking again, because the terrorists aren't dumb enough to try it, especially in the U.S. where images of 9/11 are still very much fresh in people's minds. They could try to blow a plane up, but there hasn't been a successful airplane bombing in years. There are just easier targets out there for a bomber, like crowded public areas or any building you could drive a truck up to.
So why is the government making such a big deal about its new security measures? Because that's what the people want. People are scared and they want to know the government is doing something to address the issue, which makes them feel safer. It's largely political. I don't think its really possible to make substantial improvements in public safety with respect to terrorism. Take border security as an example. The new fingerprinting scheme is intended to make sure people coming into the country are who they say they are and discourage them from overstaying their visas, not to prevent them from hijacking a plane. It will probably have very little effect on either. Thousands of illegal aliens stream into the country every day from Mexico. Overall, I don't know if it is feasible for the government to completely secure U.S. borders. I doubt it.
In the meantime, I still don't know what to do with my Leatherman when I travel, and I have no bags to check in. I usually take it everywhere with me, but I can't pack it on my carry-on anymore. Do I go up to the check-in desk with a 4 inch long box and say "I have 1 box to check, please!" I don't think they would let me on the plane if I did.
Not long ago, I was reminiscing with some friends about our old computers, and the hoops we jumped through to make them do all sorts of neat things.
Remember when floppy disks were the prefered removable storage medium? Rembember when they used to be expensive?
Take a single-sided 5-1/4'' floppy disk. The floppies had magnetic coating on both sides. So you take a signle sided floppy and cut out a new write protect notch on the opposite side, then carefully use a hole punch to create a new reference hole near the center of the disk. You just doubled the capacity of that little floppy.
Floppies evolved. Soon, 3.5'' drives were capable of using 1.44MB "High Density" media, but you were stuck with the old 720K "Double Density" disks. The difference (besides the amount of coating required on the disk) was a hole in the corner of the HD disks. So you go ahead an get your hands on a hole punch made just for this purpose. You punch a hole in the corner of your 720K disk and format it for 1.44M. It didn't always work, but when it did, it was great. You could always just format it as 720K again if it failed.
Years before the overclocking craze, we were pushing our technology far beyond their specs, squeezing everything we could out of them.
I wonder when the death of the floppy will finally be official. I thought it would happen years ago. Yet I'm still clinging to my old Win98SE boot floppy, and it may be the sole reason my next machine will have a floppy drive at all.
>My $.02
Yes, that would probably be about my bid for this mod as well.