The light wattage/lumens/candela/luminous flux (choose your favourite) required would be enormous.
It's not impossible; ever notice spotlights illuminating clouds - usually originating from car dealearships and such? Last winter, I noticed a four-spotlight pattern swirling on the underside of some low clouds at night while heading out to the movies. By chance I passed the actual dealership where the spotlights were originating (the light patterns were visible 30 miles away.) The dealership was using some sort of large robotic spotlight platform, about half the size of VW bug, which moved a set of 4 spotlights in a simple spiral-graph like pattern. That set me to thinking, it should be relatively simple to paint text messages on the underside of clouds using a system like that. Granted, you'd have to be able to move those spotlights a bit quicker to give the illusion of text, but it should be in the realm of possibility. Next thing you know... sky spam...
If you think about it it's not surprising... the equipment they use to clean PCBs at the factory is pretty much the same as a home dishwasher - just different solvents I guess.
Nope. Not even close. At our company, we use Rosstech 119me to clean our PCB's. It's strong enough even to remove permanent ink marks - with child-like ease. Does wonders with gummy flux residues and solder paste. Nothing at all like dishwashing detergent (But yes, the machine in which the PCB's are cleaned in resemble a dishwasher, though some companies perfer ultrasonic versions.)
Firstly, this is a second-hand story but the source is highly reliable. A friend of mine was piecing together an old 486 system to use as a home network server. For shits and giggles, really. It was one of those older 486's that didn't have pin orientation on the CPU - and you know where I'm going with this already. He 180'ed the CPU by mistake and fired the computer up and couldn't figure out why the computer wouldn't POST. Several minutes of head-scratching later, a billowing cloud of magic smoke comes pouring out of the case! Naturally, he turns the computer off and realizes the 486 is in wrong (and after presumably letting it cool back down) re-inserts it correctly. Surprisingly, the damn thing worked like a champ for months afterward. (Suppose it still had enough magic smoke left to run;-)
So, they should stop serving the needs of high population density areas, which are profitable, and they should start running expensive cable out to the boonies, where it will be used by one person (you).
The high density areas can also be served by wireless broadband, which is my point... wireless can serve EVERYONE vs. wired which is inclined to favor the higher-density areas.
It's all well and good that Verizon is offering Yet Another last-mile solution, but for us insensitive clods out in the rural areas, we'll still never see any of it in our lifetimes. I live right on the border of two counties, which do not share some sort of necessary agreement to share cable providers. (I don't know the details other than Comcast telling me "We can't cross that line.") But all my other lines (Power, phone) come in from the adjacent county because there is no right-of-way cut alongside the road coming in from county I actually live in. So I'm stuck in some sort of mythical no-man's land of can't-get-cable, can't-get-DSL and I know ain't no way in hell Verizon or anyone else will ever lay cable out to us rural folks. What Verizon needs to push is not this damn fiber that'll only be deployed in the major cities and 'burbs, but their own wireless broadband option which could work anywhere. (And while I'm complaining, make it competative to DSL in pricing, at least.)
The sales guy was really pushing the "fabric protection" crap that they spray on for another $45
All that stuff is is Scotchguard which you can buy at wal-mart for a few dollars a can. It's not cheap and it doesn't go far (expect two to three cans at least per sofa-sized furniture item) but you'll still save a ton over what the furniture stores charge. (They make a killing on it.)
Every so often, something comes along that reminds me that I'm 29
I'm right there with you at 29. You know you're getting older when you switch from listening to the top 40 radio stations, the rock stations, etc. and just listen to NPR or talk radio because all the new music these days suck; it's not as good as when we were growing up. (with notable exception of hair bands.)
We grew up with Atari 2600's and later Nintendo; imagine what it's like for today's 8 to 12 year olds growing up with Xbox/PS2's?
Without needing to register with ifilms and dealing with all that crap, go here instead and just download the.avi, or if you're really lazy then just direct download SummonerGeeks.avi this way.
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Firstly, this is a second-hand story but the source is highly reliable. A friend of mine was piecing together an old 486 system to use as a home network server. For shits and giggles, really. It was one of those older 486's that didn't have pin orientation on the CPU - and you know where I'm going with this already. He 180'ed the CPU by mistake and fired the computer up and couldn't figure out why the computer wouldn't POST. Several minutes of head-scratching later, a billowing cloud of magic smoke comes pouring out of the case! Naturally, he turns the computer off and realizes the 486 is in wrong (and after presumably letting it cool back down) re-inserts it correctly. Surprisingly, the damn thing worked like a champ for months afterward. (Suppose it still had enough magic smoke left to run ;-)
It's all well and good that Verizon is offering Yet Another last-mile solution, but for us insensitive clods out in the rural areas, we'll still never see any of it in our lifetimes. I live right on the border of two counties, which do not share some sort of necessary agreement to share cable providers. (I don't know the details other than Comcast telling me "We can't cross that line.") But all my other lines (Power, phone) come in from the adjacent county because there is no right-of-way cut alongside the road coming in from county I actually live in. So I'm stuck in some sort of mythical no-man's land of can't-get-cable, can't-get-DSL and I know ain't no way in hell Verizon or anyone else will ever lay cable out to us rural folks. What Verizon needs to push is not this damn fiber that'll only be deployed in the major cities and 'burbs, but their own wireless broadband option which could work anywhere. (And while I'm complaining, make it competative to DSL in pricing, at least.)
Don't you mean, "Khaaan!!!"
Every so often, something comes along that reminds me that I'm 29
I'm right there with you at 29. You know you're getting older when you switch from listening to the top 40 radio stations, the rock stations, etc. and just listen to NPR or talk radio because all the new music these days suck; it's not as good as when we were growing up. (with notable exception of hair bands.)
We grew up with Atari 2600's and later Nintendo; imagine what it's like for today's 8 to 12 year olds growing up with Xbox/PS2's?
Without needing to register with ifilms and dealing with all that crap, go here instead and just download the .avi, or if you're really lazy then just direct download SummonerGeeks.avi this way.
Niven, Card, and also Greg Bear. The Forge of God is in the works, with the superior Anvil of Stars also optioned.