I think that as long as the electric resistance of the human body is more or less constant, talking about current and voltage is quite equivalent in this case
I have to disagree. From my experience working in the electrical and electronics fields for over 30 years, you can have 50,000 volts across your body, but if the current flowing is only a couple of microamps, you'll barely feel anything. However, increase the current to 5-10 milliamps or more, and you'll get quite a jolt.
At 100 miliamps (0.1 amps or one-tenth of an amp) or more, there's a very significant risk of death. The current path across your body also plays a large role in the potential lethality. If the current path is across the heart, there's a much higher chance of death. As little as 20 milliamps (0.02 amps or two one-hundredths of an amp) flowing across the heart even momentarily can cause it to stop.
In other words, you can have 50,000 volts or more across your body at a couple microamps of current flow and experience very little discomfort (like a static-electrical discharge from walking across a carpet and touching a grounded object on a dry day), but as little as 80-90 volts at a significant fraction of an ampere can be lethal. It's the current flowing that does the damage and inflicts pain.
I found this info interesting because I had always assumed Taser used high voltage on the human body.
Voltage Facts THE VOLTAGE MYTH Stun guns rely on voltage to cause pain that will stop an attacker only a percentage of the time. That is why the Air TASER® Weapon has been discontinued. The new Advance Tasers do not rely on voltage. They utilize an advance technolgy that totally interrupts the body's electrical system which is effective 100% of the time.
The next question is WHAT is the advance technology being used?
Firstly, if it was voltage alone, there would be no pain. One can play with a Van De Graaf generator with many times the voltage of a taser with no harm whatsoever because it has a very very tiny current delivery. It's the *current* that causes pain and death. I imagine the "new technology" consists of upping the current-delivering abilities of the high voltage circuit to cause every muscle in the targets' body to go into rictus, thus immobilizing them. Unfortunately, the heart is also a muscle.
Even for a perfectly healthy average sized adult, there's a very fine line between enough current to incapacitate, and enough to kill.
A power company lineman died today from excited delirium when he accidentally came in contact with a live power line.
Co-workers are reported as saying he didn't appear to be excited or delirious prior to his unfortunate accident, although witnesses do report that his body appeared to become quite excited at the moment of contact with the fatal current.
Ah, but since the cracking device itself is made by Microsoft, it's not likely to work most of the time anyway. Just MS doing their own part to safeguarding our liberties.
Additionally, you'll know if someone has used this on you..if you no longer see "Unknown Hardware Found-Windows was unable to configure this device or find a driver for this hardware." when you plug something into your PCs' USB port(s), it may be time to retain legal counsel!
From TFA: "...NASA has yet to allot funds to the project.
There's your problem right there. You've got bureaucrats in charge. Bureaucrats think differently about project funds. Their thought process runs something like:
"I'm a big muckety-muck because I'm in charge of this huge project allotment fund. Now, if I just went around willy-nilly *allotting it*, I wouldn't have this big fund to allot and be a big muckety-muck, now would I?".
I wonder how much he'll think being a big muckety-muck was worth as he's watching an Apophos-like object heading directly for him 2 minutes from impact?
Where they *still* won't tell you how much bandwidth and throughput your money entitles you to, only that you'll be disconnected for "using too much" and/or "doing something we decide we don't like".
One other point I'd like to make is that anger here seems to be mainly directed at Comcast, and as that's the particular provider named in TFA, that's understandable. However, let's not forget that Comcast is is only one of many providers pulling shenanigans, Comcast is just the biggest and gets more attention.
I'm on Charter HSI, and I regularly get RST packets injected from their servers interrupting torrents, as well as streaming video and audio. I usually end up having to d/l linux/*BSD.iso's by FTP between 1 AM and 6 AM to get any kind of decent speed and/or not having the connection dropped. YouTube is unwatchable especially in the daytime, and even XMMS/Winamp streaming audio gets RST's every 10-15 minutes during the day and 20-30 minutes at night.
I might even understand this if I was downloading movies and MP3's 24/7 consuming 100+ GB/month, but I don't as I have little use for RIAA/MPAA crap. I use between 25-35 GB down and 400-650 mB up a month. I don't know who configured their Sandvine or whatever they're using for my area, but I wish they had to suffer with it themselves at their own homes.
If there were any alternatives in my location besides dial-up, I'd be a former Charter customer. With my luck, if a competitor moved in, it'd probably be Comcast.:(
Economic reality will eventually cause cars in America to approach what they are elsewhere in the world: primarily for short-range travel. $4/gal gasoline has only caused whining. Real behavior change will happen as prices near $7 or $8.
One thing about the people of the USA. We *Love* our high performance gas burning cars, trucks, and SUVs. Once fuel prices reach those levels, expect a huge black market for fuel and massive amounts of thievery..tank-truck hijackings, theft from gas station holding tanks, break-ins and paperwork fraud at refineries, maybe even black market small-scale refineries with "gas-runners" reminiscent of the moonshine runners, etc.
I expect it could even rival the "war on drugs" in scope eventually as there will be a huge demand, with an equally huge profit potential similar to the illegal drug market. I could even see a point where a gas-vehicle driver would be required by law to keep and produce fuel logs, receipts, and mileage logs on demand along with a license and proof of insurance at a traffic stop. I could see random traffic checkpoints set up similar to the random drunk-driving checkpoints used in some states, only with vehicles being checked for fuel logs/receipts and hidden fuel-transport tanks.
It reminds me a bit of the old Rush song, "Little Red Barchetta".
Also interesting to note is the absence of seismographic stations immediately around the New Madrid fault zone, here [usgs.gov]
Well, we can't have detailed information about any dangerous activity there possibly causing a panic, or maybe causing citizens to move away from the area and deprive businesses of workers and income, or $Deity-forbid, insist the government take actions to insist that building codes are updated and cost the construction and real-estate development industries money! Besides, it's just "fly-over country". Nobody that matters lives there, right?
A 15-30 ton, 10m mech would be shredded by fairly light weapons. A main battle tank weights 60 tons and can barely withstand a tank shot despite having a much lower profile (critical to avoid hits and use cover) and a much smaller area facing the enemy so less armor needed for a given thickness. Imagine how much armor you could fit onto a mech of that size without going over 15-30 tons. You'd probably hit that limit with just the motor system and weapon loadout.
Granted, the light 'mechs don't carry a lot of armor. They depend mostly on speed and maneuverability and generally carry a relatively large suite of ECM electronics and anti-missile systems, as well as "jump-jets" which allow a 'mech to become airborne for short hops, reaching as high as 350 feet, as well as the ability to cover a significant distance horizontally. This allows a "jack-in-the-box" tactic of popping up over cover, delivering a weapons salvo, and dropping back behind cover to move to another location, as well as also jumping terrain obstructions like gorges to escape. In the classic BattleTech universe, their main uses are as scout 'mechs, fire-support 'mechs, and anti-personnel units. Light 'mechs start at around 7 meters height, and are capable of "crouching" behind cover.
In the Mechwarrior game, light 'mechs can be quite effective against the larger, slower, heavy- and assault-class 'mechs because their high speed makes them very hard to hit. Back when the MechWarrior 3 and 4 game series were current, I had great fun in online team play piloting a light 'mech (the "Uller" was my preferred light 'mech chassis) and teaching newbies, who tended to go for heavy or assault 'mechs with lots of armor and weapons, the value of light 'mechs. I usually chose a single medium-strength weapon with a fairly rapid fire rate, and configured the 'mech for maximum armor and speed.
I'd then select my "victim", and use tactics and cover to get close, many times working with a "lancemate" (sometimes even two or three) in another light 'mech. Then it was a matter of maxing the throttle and circling the target close-in, while concentrating fire to a single, more thinly-armored section.
The rapid incoming fire the enemy pilot experienced also "bounced" his 'mech around spoiling his aim, hence my logic in selecting a lower-powered but faster-firing weapon. These tactics were very very effective, and tended to frustrate and fluster the enemy pilot in the heavier, more cumbersome 'mech, which just made things worse for him. I got called some very bad names quite often (heheh).
Just like any weapon, there's a place and situation for it, and a proper set of tactics to maximize its' effectiveness. In a firefight between two (or more) 'mech forces mainly composed of heavy and assault class 'mechs, a few fast light-'mechs in the enemy forces' lines causing havoc can and has tipped battles.
The physics involved when you are a good 1000tons and 10m tall is totally different.
Well, if one keeps to the BattleTech battlemech visions ala MechWarrior, a light 'mech would be in the 15-30 ton class IIRC. An "assault class" 'mech was in the 80-100 ton class. Maybe a small dropship might weigh 1000 tons.
Also, the 'mechs used "myomer" muscles and were powered by thermonuclear power-plants (not nuclear) encased in a magnetic bottle and also heavily armored (would kinda make sense). No clumsy hydraulics or cripplingly-heavy, inefficient, and relatively low-powered energy source.
Given the huge amount of energy one could presumably get from a thermonuclear power-plant, coupled with relatively efficient muscle-type actuators and a neural link with the pilots' brain and inner-ear nerve bundles for balance and control, the physics could allow for a fairly nimble machine, although maybe not quite as nimble as what is modeled in the MechWarrior-genre games.
I did find it rather strange though that in the BattleTech universe, there was sufficiently advanced knowledge and computing power for a neural-interface-based balance and control system, yet targeting and guidance systems in many cases like missile systems, didn't even equal what's available today.
I'd love to see a novel written in which someone digs up an old US airbase on ancient Terra and finds an F-22 Raptors' missile guidance and targeting system or an Apache helicopters' systems and adapts it to battlemech targeting and weapons guidance systems. A bit of a twist on the "Lostech" plot tool.
Heck, while they're at it, take a page from one of Star Treks' original series episodes, and have them also find an ancient copy of the US Constitution and have a new United Star Systems democratic representative republic formed based on it, only with better implementations. Just please don't let the Clans get hold of any of the recent US politicians' ancient DNA and make any clones!!
Yes, I'm well aware of the long history on both sides. I was just reporting my actual experiences and observations. I'm not aware of any Republican shenanigans of the same type in the same time frame and areas as I reported on. There were most certainly Republican vote shenanigans going on, no doubt..I just never observed them personally. Given the atmosphere and my experiences, I'm also sure that whatever shenanigans the Republicans pulled had to be a lot more low-key and smaller-scale than the large-scale, blatant, and open actions I saw occurring on behalf of Democrats, where the police were actively helping the Democrat organizers keep unwelcome attention and publicity at bay.
Maybe the best we can hope for is that the two parties' shenanigans....Democrats with bus-loads of serial-voters...and Republicans with electronic vote-rigging...will roughly cancel each other out.
"One thing I don't see mentioned here is the issue of some kind of proof you are who you say you are before you vote. In my opinion thats as much an issue as counting correctly, but it seems to be ignored. Why?"
Because the Democrats have largely been successful in pettifogging and demagoguing the issue so that in the publics' mind, asking for ID==discrimination. No politician can afford, especially when their party is in a major election cycle, to be accused, however falsely, of discrimination. The Democrats have been increasingly using the tactic of busing in homeless people and illegal aliens to vote, sometimes across multiple districts, over the last 20 to 30 years.
This is not anecdotal, this is observation at my polling places, watching the buses pull up and empty out, with the organizers instructing the passengers, and sometimes even blatantly in full view handing out various "payments", from gift cards to cartons of cigarettes. I've overheard the passengers complaining about how many stops and long lines they've had to stand in to the largely unsympathetic organizers.
At first I tried to get someone to take action. I've met with indifference and hostility from both parties' election workers and even the police. I've been shoved around, roughed up, and threatened with arrest and major violence. I've had cameras taken from me, smashed, and the media destroyed. Newspapers, TV, & radio stations have all ignored the situation.
I finally had to give up and just be thankful I was even allowed to vote at all. When I hear Democrats scream about electronic vote rigging, I have to wonder if it's only because they didn't think of it first, and that they're losing the money they spent on the buses and payoffs.
I think there should be a secure way to vote that minimizes shenanigans, but there needs to be just as much concern, if not more, about what other non-electronic tactics are being used to subvert the vote.
Yeah, there is that possibility, but this is why I mentioned website owners too. We need a number of large(er than mine) website owners to send such notices to the ISPs in question. That way either Phorm misses a huge bunch of traffic, those ISPs refuse to provide access to popular local sites or they risk committing a clear criminal offence.
Also, there is tghe possibility that such a clause ina ToS may be ruled as objectionable (or whatever the legal term is) and therefore void, nullifying ither the contract or the ISPs supposed protection from criminal prosecution.
Another thought - there is no way that such an agreement to be wiretapped can reasonably be expected to aplpy to someone else visiting someone and using their connection.
Again, I'm not aware of the legislative/judicial atmosphere in the UK. You may be able to make something like that fly, and more power to you if so. I harbor serious doubts as to the success of any such similar strategy in the USA. With the courts and lawmakers we currently have, I wouldn't be surprised if such a strategy was ruled as an extortion conspiracy, or some similar tortuous logic employed to obviate any such efforts and punish the participants.
As to the your thought about ISPs' legal liabilities and/or responsibilities regarding a visitor or guest using your connection, they'd probably rule using the logic that, as precedent currently makes you responsible for any illegal acts committed on your connection (unless evidence suggests it was being used without your knowledge or permission), you would similarly be responsible for any liability to any guest and/or visitor arising from said guest and/or visitor using it with your knowledge and/or permission without you having informed them of all such issues.
I know I may sound cynical, but unfortunately I'm entirely too rarely proved wrong, or at least not nearly often enough when it comes to our legal system, politicians, and their greed and hunger for power and the disregard which they hold for the average citizen.
...IMO, if you write to the ISPs involved expressly denying the right to monitor you as a user and also expressly denying the right to monitor any websites you may own puts them in clear breach of RIPA if they do so....
I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the USA the TOS/Customer Service Agreement is not negotiable or modifiable by a customer. It's a "take it or leave it" deal.
If you don't sign on the dotted line and agree to all of the ISPs' terms and conditions, which in most of the ISP TOS/Customer Service Agreements I've seen also means that the ISP may change the terms at their discretion, they simply refuse to do business with you and will cut you off if you're already receiving service if you indicate refusal to comply or agree to all the terms and conditions.
In many if not most areas this means that you have very few options in other providers because of either the distance limits with DSL, the exclusive franchise agreements with cities/townships, or simply because you may be in an area that hasn't been offered any choice in providers because of low customer density making it not worthwhile for anyone else to build out infrastructure to.
They have many, if not most, customers over a barrel. Agree completely to anything we demand or go to dial-up, mobile wireless (most services here are still very costly and extremely bandwidth-limited), possibly satellite if you can stand it and/or get it, or do without any internet connection.
By their actions, they're basically saying: "So what? What're ya gonna do about it? Switch!? BWAAHAHAHAHAA!!".
Yeah, but I hear that they're going to be stopping those soon. Something about problems with infections of the skin around the RJ-45 connectors or something like that.
Hmmm, that's funny...I heard it was more like the "Blipverts" from Network 23.
It appears Creative have joined the ever growing ranks of vendors who don't give a SHIT about their customers.
That's because corporations don't have "customers" anymore, how 20th-century of you!
They have "exploitable market bases", "intellectual property monetization", "stock growth management" "vendor lock-in", "political lobbying and influence peddling" and "legal liability costs of law violations vs potential profit/stock price growth/market share increase calculations" these days.
"Customers" don't enter into it. Ideally, "customers" are given neither choice in buying, nor recourse when wronged.
Corporations that *do* have "customers" in the old sense that they make efforts to satisfy are dying out because they start already disadvantaged in the competition with those that have "modernized" their outlooks, and in the short-term world of corporations, are either bought out or go broke.
For audiophiles and musicians, particularly guitar players, the vacuum tube has no sonic equal as yet. Yes, there are digital modelers and such out there, but they haven't succeeded in duplicating the sound and feel of an actual vacuum tube guitar amplifier, nor the warmth and naturalness of a vacuum tube stereo amplifier. It's not all hype, although there is hype enough, no denying that.
I saw a PC soundcard advertised that included a 12AX7 preamp tube. That's hype. Whatever it may do to the signal, by the time it passes through all the A/D converters, etc any "tubish" characteristics it may impart have been lost, and could be more cheaply replicated by software or DSP.
Nevertheless, vacuum tubes are in a bit of a renaissance. New factories are being set up all over the world, including in the US, China, Russia, and eastern Europe. Demand is growing, as nearly all the flagship guitar amps from the major makers tout being all-tube, and audiophile demand is also increasing.
And for high-power broadcasting, there's still nothing as efficient as a vacuum tube for producing multiple-kilowatts of RF reliably.
You're right, when the ultra-religious evangelicals took over the Republican party in the 80s, the first thing they did was make it more liberal.:-P
Again, that's *back then*. That's not *now*. Not as far back as the '60s or '70s, but the same principle applies. Both major parties can and do become more liberal in one area while going more conservative in another for a time, occasionally reversing directions and switching the areas involved. Power blocks within each party wax and wane in power and influence, appear and disappear. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. But it *always* happens given enough time.
Yep, those Democratic bastards John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson nearly killed our space program by underfunding Gemini and Apollo, but the Republican Richard Nixon did a swell job of building on the success of Apollo with ambitious, well funded follow-on programs, which is why we have a thriving lunar colony and burgeoning orbital industries today.
You ignore the fact that by todays' considerably more liberal Democrat standards, both Kennedy and Johnson would be considered war-mongering ultra-right neo-conservatives. The Democrat party of today bears little resemblance to the Democrat party of 30-40 years ago.
The Republican party has also changed dramatically in that time. It has moved considerably toward liberalism. Witness the new social programs, immigration proposals, spending policies in general.
I'm not making any judgment or criticism for or against any party or political view. However, to blatantly disregard the massive changes that have occurred over time to the two major parties is intellectually dishonest and precludes any logical, rational discussion.
But Sony is not a US company, which means they have a viable third option: ignore US law and violate the patent.
There is a fourth option. Granted, it's quite extreme, but seeing as TFA quoted $7.9 *billion* dollars, well..that's a heck of a lot of motivation.
"NEWS FLASH!! A Columbia professor emerita was killed earlier today in a random (pick one: drive-by, mugging, burglary, hit-and-run). No details are available at this time and authorities declined to comment."
Slashdot Mirror
I think that as long as the electric resistance of the human body is more or less constant, talking about current and voltage is quite equivalent in this case
I have to disagree. From my experience working in the electrical and electronics fields for over 30 years, you can have 50,000 volts across your body, but if the current flowing is only a couple of microamps, you'll barely feel anything. However, increase the current to 5-10 milliamps or more, and you'll get quite a jolt.
At 100 miliamps (0.1 amps or one-tenth of an amp) or more, there's a very significant risk of death. The current path across your body also plays a large role in the potential lethality. If the current path is across the heart, there's a much higher chance of death. As little as 20 milliamps (0.02 amps or two one-hundredths of an amp) flowing across the heart even momentarily can cause it to stop.
In other words, you can have 50,000 volts or more across your body at a couple microamps of current flow and experience very little discomfort (like a static-electrical discharge from walking across a carpet and touching a grounded object on a dry day), but as little as 80-90 volts at a significant fraction of an ampere can be lethal. It's the current flowing that does the damage and inflicts pain.
Cheers!
Strat
I found this info interesting because I had always assumed Taser used high voltage on the human body.
Voltage Facts
THE VOLTAGE MYTH
Stun guns rely on voltage to cause pain that will stop an attacker only a percentage of the time. That is why the Air TASER® Weapon has been discontinued. The new Advance Tasers do not rely on voltage. They utilize an advance technolgy that totally interrupts the body's electrical system which is effective 100% of the time.
The next question is WHAT is the advance technology being used?
Firstly, if it was voltage alone, there would be no pain. One can play with a Van De Graaf generator with many times the voltage of a taser with no harm whatsoever because it has a very very tiny current delivery. It's the *current* that causes pain and death. I imagine the "new technology" consists of upping the current-delivering abilities of the high voltage circuit to cause every muscle in the targets' body to go into rictus, thus immobilizing them. Unfortunately, the heart is also a muscle.
Even for a perfectly healthy average sized adult, there's a very fine line between enough current to incapacitate, and enough to kill.
Cheers!
Strat
A power company lineman died today from excited delirium when he accidentally came in contact with a live power line.
Co-workers are reported as saying he didn't appear to be excited or delirious prior to his unfortunate accident, although witnesses do report that his body appeared to become quite excited at the moment of contact with the fatal current.
Full story at 11.
Ummm...yeah...
Strat
Ah, but since the cracking device itself is made by Microsoft, it's not likely to work most of the time anyway. Just MS doing their own part to safeguarding our liberties.
Additionally, you'll know if someone has used this on you..if you no longer see "Unknown Hardware Found-Windows was unable to configure this device or find a driver for this hardware." when you plug something into your PCs' USB port(s), it may be time to retain legal counsel!
Yes, I know. Sorry.
Strat
From TFA: "...NASA has yet to allot funds to the project.
There's your problem right there. You've got bureaucrats in charge. Bureaucrats think differently about project funds. Their thought process runs something like:
"I'm a big muckety-muck because I'm in charge of this huge project allotment fund. Now, if I just went around willy-nilly *allotting it*, I wouldn't have this big fund to allot and be a big muckety-muck, now would I?".
I wonder how much he'll think being a big muckety-muck was worth as he's watching an Apophos-like object heading directly for him 2 minutes from impact?
Cheers!
Strat
"...read through a 50 page TOS for details!
.iso's by FTP between 1 AM and 6 AM to get any kind of decent speed and/or not having the connection dropped. YouTube is unwatchable especially in the daytime, and even XMMS/Winamp streaming audio gets RST's every 10-15 minutes during the day and 20-30 minutes at night.
:(
Where they *still* won't tell you how much bandwidth and throughput your money entitles you to, only that you'll be disconnected for "using too much" and/or "doing something we decide we don't like".
One other point I'd like to make is that anger here seems to be mainly directed at Comcast, and as that's the particular provider named in TFA, that's understandable. However, let's not forget that Comcast is is only one of many providers pulling shenanigans, Comcast is just the biggest and gets more attention.
I'm on Charter HSI, and I regularly get RST packets injected from their servers interrupting torrents, as well as streaming video and audio. I usually end up having to d/l linux/*BSD
I might even understand this if I was downloading movies and MP3's 24/7 consuming 100+ GB/month, but I don't as I have little use for RIAA/MPAA crap. I use between 25-35 GB down and 400-650 mB up a month. I don't know who configured their Sandvine or whatever they're using for my area, but I wish they had to suffer with it themselves at their own homes.
If there were any alternatives in my location besides dial-up, I'd be a former Charter customer. With my luck, if a competitor moved in, it'd probably be Comcast.
Cheers!
Strat
Economic reality will eventually cause cars in America to approach what they are elsewhere in the world: primarily for short-range travel. $4/gal gasoline has only caused whining. Real behavior change will happen as prices near $7 or $8.
One thing about the people of the USA. We *Love* our high performance gas burning cars, trucks, and SUVs. Once fuel prices reach those levels, expect a huge black market for fuel and massive amounts of thievery..tank-truck hijackings, theft from gas station holding tanks, break-ins and paperwork fraud at refineries, maybe even black market small-scale refineries with "gas-runners" reminiscent of the moonshine runners, etc.
I expect it could even rival the "war on drugs" in scope eventually as there will be a huge demand, with an equally huge profit potential similar to the illegal drug market. I could even see a point where a gas-vehicle driver would be required by law to keep and produce fuel logs, receipts, and mileage logs on demand along with a license and proof of insurance at a traffic stop. I could see random traffic checkpoints set up similar to the random drunk-driving checkpoints used in some states, only with vehicles being checked for fuel logs/receipts and hidden fuel-transport tanks.
It reminds me a bit of the old Rush song, "Little Red Barchetta".
Cheers!
Strat
At least Tesla and the other EV/REV startups aren't facing what Mr. Tucker faced when he decided he could build a better, safer car.
Yet.
Cheers!
Strat
Also interesting to note is the absence of seismographic stations immediately around the New Madrid fault zone, here [usgs.gov]
Well, we can't have detailed information about any dangerous activity there possibly causing a panic, or maybe causing citizens to move away from the area and deprive businesses of workers and income, or $Deity-forbid, insist the government take actions to insist that building codes are updated and cost the construction and real-estate development industries money! Besides, it's just "fly-over country". Nobody that matters lives there, right?
Yes, that was sarcasm.
Cheers!
Strat
At the bottom of this comment page I'm viewing, the /. quote:
/. editors read the article...
Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate'er it touches... -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
It's almost as if the
Nahhhhhhhh!
Cheers!
Strat
Umm..how about:
All your digeridoo are belong to us?
I, for one, welcome our new communications-intercepting, vegemite-eating, penal-colony overlords?
But will it run Paul Hogan?
Feel free to contribute!
Or not...
Cheers!
Strat
A 15-30 ton, 10m mech would be shredded by fairly light weapons. A main battle tank weights 60 tons and can barely withstand a tank shot despite having a much lower profile (critical to avoid hits and use cover) and a much smaller area facing the enemy so less armor needed for a given thickness. Imagine how much armor you could fit onto a mech of that size without going over 15-30 tons. You'd probably hit that limit with just the motor system and weapon loadout.
Granted, the light 'mechs don't carry a lot of armor. They depend mostly on speed and maneuverability and generally carry a relatively large suite of ECM electronics and anti-missile systems, as well as "jump-jets" which allow a 'mech to become airborne for short hops, reaching as high as 350 feet, as well as the ability to cover a significant distance horizontally. This allows a "jack-in-the-box" tactic of popping up over cover, delivering a weapons salvo, and dropping back behind cover to move to another location, as well as also jumping terrain obstructions like gorges to escape. In the classic BattleTech universe, their main uses are as scout 'mechs, fire-support 'mechs, and anti-personnel units. Light 'mechs start at around 7 meters height, and are capable of "crouching" behind cover.
In the Mechwarrior game, light 'mechs can be quite effective against the larger, slower, heavy- and assault-class 'mechs because their high speed makes them very hard to hit. Back when the MechWarrior 3 and 4 game series were current, I had great fun in online team play piloting a light 'mech (the "Uller" was my preferred light 'mech chassis) and teaching newbies, who tended to go for heavy or assault 'mechs with lots of armor and weapons, the value of light 'mechs. I usually chose a single medium-strength weapon with a fairly rapid fire rate, and configured the 'mech for maximum armor and speed.
I'd then select my "victim", and use tactics and cover to get close, many times working with a "lancemate" (sometimes even two or three) in another light 'mech. Then it was a matter of maxing the throttle and circling the target close-in, while concentrating fire to a single, more thinly-armored section.
The rapid incoming fire the enemy pilot experienced also "bounced" his 'mech around spoiling his aim, hence my logic in selecting a lower-powered but faster-firing weapon. These tactics were very very effective, and tended to frustrate and fluster the enemy pilot in the heavier, more cumbersome 'mech, which just made things worse for him. I got called some very bad names quite often (heheh).
Just like any weapon, there's a place and situation for it, and a proper set of tactics to maximize its' effectiveness. In a firefight between two (or more) 'mech forces mainly composed of heavy and assault class 'mechs, a few fast light-'mechs in the enemy forces' lines causing havoc can and has tipped battles.
Cheers!
Strat
The physics involved when you are a good 1000tons and 10m tall is totally different.
Well, if one keeps to the BattleTech battlemech visions ala MechWarrior, a light 'mech would be in the 15-30 ton class IIRC. An "assault class" 'mech was in the 80-100 ton class. Maybe a small dropship might weigh 1000 tons.
Also, the 'mechs used "myomer" muscles and were powered by thermonuclear power-plants (not nuclear) encased in a magnetic bottle and also heavily armored (would kinda make sense). No clumsy hydraulics or cripplingly-heavy, inefficient, and relatively low-powered energy source.
Given the huge amount of energy one could presumably get from a thermonuclear power-plant, coupled with relatively efficient muscle-type actuators and a neural link with the pilots' brain and inner-ear nerve bundles for balance and control, the physics could allow for a fairly nimble machine, although maybe not quite as nimble as what is modeled in the MechWarrior-genre games.
I did find it rather strange though that in the BattleTech universe, there was sufficiently advanced knowledge and computing power for a neural-interface-based balance and control system, yet targeting and guidance systems in many cases like missile systems, didn't even equal what's available today.
I'd love to see a novel written in which someone digs up an old US airbase on ancient Terra and finds an F-22 Raptors' missile guidance and targeting system or an Apache helicopters' systems and adapts it to battlemech targeting and weapons guidance systems. A bit of a twist on the "Lostech" plot tool.
Heck, while they're at it, take a page from one of Star Treks' original series episodes, and have them also find an ancient copy of the US Constitution and have a new United Star Systems democratic representative republic formed based on it, only with better implementations. Just please don't let the Clans get hold of any of the recent US politicians' ancient DNA and make any clones!!
Cheers!
Strat
What? They stopped doing that before 1980?
Yes, I'm well aware of the long history on both sides. I was just reporting my actual experiences and observations. I'm not aware of any Republican shenanigans of the same type in the same time frame and areas as I reported on. There were most certainly Republican vote shenanigans going on, no doubt..I just never observed them personally. Given the atmosphere and my experiences, I'm also sure that whatever shenanigans the Republicans pulled had to be a lot more low-key and smaller-scale than the large-scale, blatant, and open actions I saw occurring on behalf of Democrats, where the police were actively helping the Democrat organizers keep unwelcome attention and publicity at bay.
Maybe the best we can hope for is that the two parties' shenanigans....Democrats with bus-loads of serial-voters...and Republicans with electronic vote-rigging...will roughly cancel each other out.
Cheers!
Strat
"One thing I don't see mentioned here is the issue of some kind of proof you are who you say you are before you vote. In my opinion thats as much an issue as counting correctly, but it seems to be ignored. Why?"
Because the Democrats have largely been successful in pettifogging and demagoguing the issue so that in the publics' mind, asking for ID==discrimination. No politician can afford, especially when their party is in a major election cycle, to be accused, however falsely, of discrimination. The Democrats have been increasingly using the tactic of busing in homeless people and illegal aliens to vote, sometimes across multiple districts, over the last 20 to 30 years.
This is not anecdotal, this is observation at my polling places, watching the buses pull up and empty out, with the organizers instructing the passengers, and sometimes even blatantly in full view handing out various "payments", from gift cards to cartons of cigarettes. I've overheard the passengers complaining about how many stops and long lines they've had to stand in to the largely unsympathetic organizers.
At first I tried to get someone to take action. I've met with indifference and hostility from both parties' election workers and even the police. I've been shoved around, roughed up, and threatened with arrest and major violence. I've had cameras taken from me, smashed, and the media destroyed. Newspapers, TV, & radio stations have all ignored the situation.
I finally had to give up and just be thankful I was even allowed to vote at all. When I hear Democrats scream about electronic vote rigging, I have to wonder if it's only because they didn't think of it first, and that they're losing the money they spent on the buses and payoffs.
I think there should be a secure way to vote that minimizes shenanigans, but there needs to be just as much concern, if not more, about what other non-electronic tactics are being used to subvert the vote.
Cheers!
Strat
Also, what does "tangible" mean?
:)
In this case, it means whatever they can convince a carefully selected court and judge that it means.
HTH, HAND
Cheers!
Strat
Yeah, there is that possibility, but this is why I mentioned website owners too. We need a number of large(er than mine) website owners to send such notices to the ISPs in question. That way either Phorm misses a huge bunch of traffic, those ISPs refuse to provide access to popular local sites or they risk committing a clear criminal offence.
Also, there is tghe possibility that such a clause ina ToS may be ruled as objectionable (or whatever the legal term is) and therefore void, nullifying ither the contract or the ISPs supposed protection from criminal prosecution.
Another thought - there is no way that such an agreement to be wiretapped can reasonably be expected to aplpy to someone else visiting someone and using their connection.
Again, I'm not aware of the legislative/judicial atmosphere in the UK. You may be able to make something like that fly, and more power to you if so. I harbor serious doubts as to the success of any such similar strategy in the USA. With the courts and lawmakers we currently have, I wouldn't be surprised if such a strategy was ruled as an extortion conspiracy, or some similar tortuous logic employed to obviate any such efforts and punish the participants.
As to the your thought about ISPs' legal liabilities and/or responsibilities regarding a visitor or guest using your connection, they'd probably rule using the logic that, as precedent currently makes you responsible for any illegal acts committed on your connection (unless evidence suggests it was being used without your knowledge or permission), you would similarly be responsible for any liability to any guest and/or visitor arising from said guest and/or visitor using it with your knowledge and/or permission without you having informed them of all such issues.
I know I may sound cynical, but unfortunately I'm entirely too rarely proved wrong, or at least not nearly often enough when it comes to our legal system, politicians, and their greed and hunger for power and the disregard which they hold for the average citizen.
Cheers!
Strat
...IMO, if you write to the ISPs involved expressly denying the right to monitor you as a user and also expressly denying the right to monitor any websites you may own puts them in clear breach of RIPA if they do so....
I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the USA the TOS/Customer Service Agreement is not negotiable or modifiable by a customer. It's a "take it or leave it" deal.
If you don't sign on the dotted line and agree to all of the ISPs' terms and conditions, which in most of the ISP TOS/Customer Service Agreements I've seen also means that the ISP may change the terms at their discretion, they simply refuse to do business with you and will cut you off if you're already receiving service if you indicate refusal to comply or agree to all the terms and conditions.
In many if not most areas this means that you have very few options in other providers because of either the distance limits with DSL, the exclusive franchise agreements with cities/townships, or simply because you may be in an area that hasn't been offered any choice in providers because of low customer density making it not worthwhile for anyone else to build out infrastructure to.
They have many, if not most, customers over a barrel. Agree completely to anything we demand or go to dial-up, mobile wireless (most services here are still very costly and extremely bandwidth-limited), possibly satellite if you can stand it and/or get it, or do without any internet connection.
By their actions, they're basically saying: "So what? What're ya gonna do about it? Switch!? BWAAHAHAHAHAA!!".
Cheers!
Strat
Yeah, but I hear that they're going to be stopping those soon. Something about problems with infections of the skin around the RJ-45 connectors or something like that.
Hmmm, that's funny...I heard it was more like the "Blipverts" from Network 23.
http://www.tv.com/max-headroom/blipverts/episode/120668/recap.html
Watch for upcoming Wikileaks videos of exploding internet customers!
Cheers!
Strat
It appears Creative have joined the ever growing ranks of vendors who don't give a SHIT about their customers.
That's because corporations don't have "customers" anymore, how 20th-century of you!
They have "exploitable market bases", "intellectual property monetization", "stock growth management" "vendor lock-in", "political lobbying and influence peddling" and "legal liability costs of law violations vs potential profit/stock price growth/market share increase calculations" these days.
"Customers" don't enter into it. Ideally, "customers" are given neither choice in buying, nor recourse when wronged.
Corporations that *do* have "customers" in the old sense that they make efforts to satisfy are dying out because they start already disadvantaged in the competition with those that have "modernized" their outlooks, and in the short-term world of corporations, are either bought out or go broke.
Sad, ain't it?
Cheers!
Strat
I intend on distributing my music through the web, how can I get in on those payments?
I believe Steve Albini has the procedure for that outlined here:
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
In other words, if you're not signed to a major label, fugettaboutit!
You think they want to share any money with the competition?
Cheers!
Strat
Also add to the list the venerable vacuum tube.
For audiophiles and musicians, particularly guitar players, the vacuum tube has no sonic equal as yet. Yes, there are digital modelers and such out there, but they haven't succeeded in duplicating the sound and feel of an actual vacuum tube guitar amplifier, nor the warmth and naturalness of a vacuum tube stereo amplifier. It's not all hype, although there is hype enough, no denying that.
I saw a PC soundcard advertised that included a 12AX7 preamp tube. That's hype. Whatever it may do to the signal, by the time it passes through all the A/D converters, etc any "tubish" characteristics it may impart have been lost, and could be more cheaply replicated by software or DSP.
Nevertheless, vacuum tubes are in a bit of a renaissance. New factories are being set up all over the world, including in the US, China, Russia, and eastern Europe. Demand is growing, as nearly all the flagship guitar amps from the major makers tout being all-tube, and audiophile demand is also increasing.
And for high-power broadcasting, there's still nothing as efficient as a vacuum tube for producing multiple-kilowatts of RF reliably.
Cheers!
Strat
You're right, when the ultra-religious evangelicals took over the Republican party in the 80s, the first thing they did was make it more liberal. :-P
Again, that's *back then*. That's not *now*. Not as far back as the '60s or '70s, but the same principle applies. Both major parties can and do become more liberal in one area while going more conservative in another for a time, occasionally reversing directions and switching the areas involved. Power blocks within each party wax and wane in power and influence, appear and disappear. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. But it *always* happens given enough time.
Cheers!
Strat
Yep, those Democratic bastards John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson nearly killed our space program by underfunding Gemini and Apollo, but the Republican Richard Nixon did a swell job of building on the success of Apollo with ambitious, well funded follow-on programs, which is why we have a thriving lunar colony and burgeoning orbital industries today.
You ignore the fact that by todays' considerably more liberal Democrat standards, both Kennedy and Johnson would be considered war-mongering ultra-right neo-conservatives. The Democrat party of today bears little resemblance to the Democrat party of 30-40 years ago.
The Republican party has also changed dramatically in that time. It has moved considerably toward liberalism. Witness the new social programs, immigration proposals, spending policies in general.
I'm not making any judgment or criticism for or against any party or political view. However, to blatantly disregard the massive changes that have occurred over time to the two major parties is intellectually dishonest and precludes any logical, rational discussion.
Cheers!
Strat
But Sony is not a US company, which means they have a viable third option: ignore US law and violate the patent.
There is a fourth option. Granted, it's quite extreme, but seeing as TFA quoted $7.9 *billion* dollars, well..that's a heck of a lot of motivation.
"NEWS FLASH!! A Columbia professor emerita was killed earlier today in a random (pick one: drive-by, mugging, burglary, hit-and-run). No details are available at this time and authorities declined to comment."
Cheers!
Strat