People are chucking around the idea of life on Titan, with Hydrogen taking the place of Oxygen. The thing you have to look for is an environment out of balance. Plant life on Earth turns sunlight and carbon dioxide into oxygen. Our free oxygen gives the game away and would be obvious to a good telescope many light years away. I think we would look first for free oxygen, but other combinations would raise alarm bells too.
When my dad taught me to drive he told me to keep my window down (if possible) and listen for the tyre noise of overtaking vehicles.
If you drive with the window down you'll be hearing wind noise and maybe your own tyres. Also, engines were much noisier back then, so why the hell would you listen for the tyres?
If you want to detect overtaking vehicles then that's what mirrors and your neck are for.
As I said, tyres give you information about a moving vehicle, even if the engine is running slow. Of course you have to use your eyes, but there are situations (especially on my bike) where I want to keep my eyes on the road ahead and I rely on other senses to tell me what is going on around me.
It looks like they focused on only measuring certain atmospheric things, but this proves nothing as far as extrasolar planets go.
Free oxygen on any planet tells you that something is making oxygen. In our case it is the plants which we treat so badly: turning them into newspapers, etc. Oxygen is so reactive that its presence tells you something must be going on. Mars used to have free oxygen but it combined with iron in the soil, turning it red: Iron Oxide.
When my dad taught me to drive he told me to keep my window down (if possible) and listen for the tyre noise of overtaking vehicles. That was 25 years ago when engines were louder now, but it made sense even then. I ride a bike to work and for me tyre noise from cars is much more important than engine noise. You don't get much engine noise from an automatic which has shifted up under low load.
One thing which did happen though was one night we had gone out for dinner. I had left my phone or something in the car so I went back to get it. There was an empty parking space beside our corolla so I opened the drivers side door and started rummaging. Quite suddenly there was this prius right beside me and almost hitting the car door. It had snuck up on me because in slow driving situations you do listen for an engine at idle, and for fan noise, etc. I didn't hear that. The thing was very quiet.
Everything is relative and I think that as electric cars become more common the total amount of noise will decrease. We will become accustomed to the lower overall level of noise. Towns which have signs asking truck drivers to avoid the use of engine brakes will replace those with signs banning the use of regenerative braking. Homeowners will complain about the sound of cruddy AC motor controllers roaring past their houses. Normality will have returned.
remember Linus *created* a distributed version management tool (git) when he couldn't use anymore BitKeeper.. remember linus refused to use version control at all until the author of bitkeeper backed him into a corner fixing by every perceived issue until he ran out of excuses.
A DVCS actually makes it easier for a head honcho to retain complete control of the main tree. With a traditional vcs you pretty much have to let major developers commit directly to the main repositry or manually manage patches from them like you would if you weren't using a vcs at all. With a DVCS you can pull in commits while keeping thier history.
Ah but if Linus controlled the entire history because it was in his cvs repository he could sack anybody from the project and all they would have is a clone. Linus doesn't even need to give everybody read access, he owns the copyright. DVCS makes the history distributed in a meaningful way.
And for what it is worth I think the copyright is the main risk in the "Linus going under a bus" scenario. What if his heirs decide to cash in on the name, and the copyright on his code?
It is possible that aliens will make conclusions about our development of semiconductors by looking for the signature of LEDs and lasers in our night side light emissions, but would be in the dark about our biology. Photons are a great invention.
In 1835, Auguste Comte, a prominent French philosopher, stated that humans would never be able to understand the chemical composition of stars. He was soon proved wrong. In the latter half of the 19th century, astronomers began to embrace two new techniques—spectroscopy and photography. Together they helped bring about a revolution in people's understanding of the cosmos. For the first time, scientists could investigate what the universe was made of. This was a major turning point in the development of cosmology, as astronomers were able to record and document not only where the stars were but what they were as well.
I thought the fact that these had to be explicitly manufactured and seemed to be a human-invented molecule meant that they'd never appear naturally in space.
Apparently there are no lab conditions on earth that are not duplicated somewhere else in the universe.
Candle flame is loaded with Buckminsterfullerene. These molecules have been right under our noses for that long.
if Google gets pissed in the same way Microsoft eventually did about pre-installed crapware, Google's fix could be pretty simple.
Assuming that the apps are installed that way. What if the kernel has been coded to look for the applications? Take out that bit and the signed bootloader refuses to load the system.
My guess is they would do a bulk deal, probably for a token amount to make sure it is legal. Power bills for street lights and traffic signals work that way in my state.
Hybrids are a bit of a joke, efficiency wise so I have my doubts about a domestic market for them in China. But Chinese car makers could compete with the Japanese, etc in the export market. But you'd expect that they would get found out. Maybe the immediate objective was to sell a complete system within china and let the buyer take the rap for the stolen tech.
Actually I ride a bike most of the time but my concern is that drivers are not allowed to use marijuana when driving, and this is a problem if legalisation leads to more consumption.
It least if it is legal it can be regulated in a sensible way. I would like my next door neighbor to stop smoking marijuana in their back yard because it gets into my sons bedroom. But if I call the cops it will turn into a drug bust with lots of bad impacts for me.
That said I think we are too soft on passive smoking and drug use while driving.
Where I used to live my neighbors complained that the stuff was growing up under their back fence. Another neighbor of mine had a plant he claimed was for horticultural purposes in his front yard. A couple of kids broke into his neighbor and escaped into his place, landing on the plant. They were running too hard to do anything more than note it and because of all the cops around the next day the plant had to be moved pronto. My problem was that during the next night the kids came back, crossing my back yard and looking over the fence for the plant. Pissed me off to no end so I called the cops (not for the first time).
Shades of Heinlein. Seems several of his books mentioned marijuana farms.
The Number of the Beast comes to mind but that was in a parallel universe where colonial england ran half of mars. I can't recall him using that idea anywhere else. Could be wrong of course.
Its a pretty simple issue. No other phones have actual bare metal antennas. All other phones cover their antennas with plastic so you can't conduct the signal away.
I don't see how these arguments warrant a *linear* relationship between the relative masses and the probability of impact
Oh okay. My argument was really intended to be back of the envelope but I looked up Gravitational acceleration (its been a while since I had to use it). Acceleration due to gravity is proportional to mass so if you pass Earth at 100000km and Jupiter at the same distance you will get 317 times the acceleration from Jupiter at that distance. So if you think about a target 100000 km in radius the gravity alone should make it 317 times more likely you will hit the planet, if the planet is Jupiter.
Slashdot Mirror
People are chucking around the idea of life on Titan, with Hydrogen taking the place of Oxygen. The thing you have to look for is an environment out of balance. Plant life on Earth turns sunlight and carbon dioxide into oxygen. Our free oxygen gives the game away and would be obvious to a good telescope many light years away. I think we would look first for free oxygen, but other combinations would raise alarm bells too.
If you drive with the window down you'll be hearing wind noise and maybe your own tyres. Also, engines were much noisier back then, so why the hell would you listen for the tyres?
If you want to detect overtaking vehicles then that's what mirrors and your neck are for.
As I said, tyres give you information about a moving vehicle, even if the engine is running slow. Of course you have to use your eyes, but there are situations (especially on my bike) where I want to keep my eyes on the road ahead and I rely on other senses to tell me what is going on around me.
It looks like they focused on only measuring certain atmospheric things, but this proves nothing as far as extrasolar planets go.
Free oxygen on any planet tells you that something is making oxygen. In our case it is the plants which we treat so badly: turning them into newspapers, etc. Oxygen is so reactive that its presence tells you something must be going on. Mars used to have free oxygen but it combined with iron in the soil, turning it red: Iron Oxide.
Do you think Stephen Conroy might have chucked them a few bucks?
When my dad taught me to drive he told me to keep my window down (if possible) and listen for the tyre noise of overtaking vehicles. That was 25 years ago when engines were louder now, but it made sense even then. I ride a bike to work and for me tyre noise from cars is much more important than engine noise. You don't get much engine noise from an automatic which has shifted up under low load.
One thing which did happen though was one night we had gone out for dinner. I had left my phone or something in the car so I went back to get it. There was an empty parking space beside our corolla so I opened the drivers side door and started rummaging. Quite suddenly there was this prius right beside me and almost hitting the car door. It had snuck up on me because in slow driving situations you do listen for an engine at idle, and for fan noise, etc. I didn't hear that. The thing was very quiet.
Everything is relative and I think that as electric cars become more common the total amount of noise will decrease. We will become accustomed to the lower overall level of noise. Towns which have signs asking truck drivers to avoid the use of engine brakes will replace those with signs banning the use of regenerative braking. Homeowners will complain about the sound of cruddy AC motor controllers roaring past their houses. Normality will have returned.
remember Linus *created* a distributed version management tool (git) when he couldn't use anymore BitKeeper..
remember linus refused to use version control at all until the author of bitkeeper backed him into a corner fixing by every perceived issue until he ran out of excuses.
A DVCS actually makes it easier for a head honcho to retain complete control of the main tree. With a traditional vcs you pretty much have to let major developers commit directly to the main repositry or manually manage patches from them like you would if you weren't using a vcs at all. With a DVCS you can pull in commits while keeping thier history.
Ah but if Linus controlled the entire history because it was in his cvs repository he could sack anybody from the project and all they would have is a clone. Linus doesn't even need to give everybody read access, he owns the copyright. DVCS makes the history distributed in a meaningful way.
And for what it is worth I think the copyright is the main risk in the "Linus going under a bus" scenario. What if his heirs decide to cash in on the name, and the copyright on his code?
Don't they have those pneumatic push up screens? Every bank where I live has one so nobody robs banks anymore.
Commit it to git, surely.
Yes, I assume that aliens will have impressive telescopes.
(MOTD says Pournelle must die!)
Plenty of hot carbon, particularly around supernovas.
It is possible that aliens will make conclusions about our development of semiconductors by looking for the signature of LEDs and lasers in our night side light emissions, but would be in the dark about our biology. Photons are a great invention.
In 1835, Auguste Comte, a prominent French philosopher, stated that humans would never be able to understand the chemical composition of stars. He was soon proved wrong. In the latter half of the 19th century, astronomers began to embrace two new techniques—spectroscopy and photography. Together they helped bring about a revolution in people's understanding of the cosmos. For the first time, scientists could investigate what the universe was made of. This was a major turning point in the development of cosmology, as astronomers were able to record and document not only where the stars were but what they were as well.
link
I thought the fact that these had to be explicitly manufactured and seemed to be a human-invented molecule meant that they'd never appear naturally in space.
Apparently there are no lab conditions on earth that are not duplicated somewhere else in the universe.
Candle flame is loaded with Buckminsterfullerene. These molecules have been right under our noses for that long.
Israel will have their own kosher molten salt power plants. Tourists will charge their video cameras before they travel.
if Google gets pissed in the same way Microsoft eventually did about pre-installed crapware, Google's fix could be pretty simple.
Assuming that the apps are installed that way. What if the kernel has been coded to look for the applications? Take out that bit and the signed bootloader refuses to load the system.
My guess is they would do a bulk deal, probably for a token amount to make sure it is legal. Power bills for street lights and traffic signals work that way in my state.
Hybrids are a bit of a joke, efficiency wise so I have my doubts about a domestic market for them in China. But Chinese car makers could compete with the Japanese, etc in the export market. But you'd expect that they would get found out. Maybe the immediate objective was to sell a complete system within china and let the buyer take the rap for the stolen tech.
Thats interesting because drivers in my state can lose their license for having physiologically insignificant quantities of THC in their system.
Actually I ride a bike most of the time but my concern is that drivers are not allowed to use marijuana when driving, and this is a problem if legalisation leads to more consumption.
I do, but its nice to go outside without sharing the neighbours drug habit.
People should have access to fresh air.
It least if it is legal it can be regulated in a sensible way. I would like my next door neighbor to stop smoking marijuana in their back yard because it gets into my sons bedroom. But if I call the cops it will turn into a drug bust with lots of bad impacts for me.
That said I think we are too soft on passive smoking and drug use while driving.
Where I used to live my neighbors complained that the stuff was growing up under their back fence. Another neighbor of mine had a plant he claimed was for horticultural purposes in his front yard. A couple of kids broke into his neighbor and escaped into his place, landing on the plant. They were running too hard to do anything more than note it and because of all the cops around the next day the plant had to be moved pronto. My problem was that during the next night the kids came back, crossing my back yard and looking over the fence for the plant. Pissed me off to no end so I called the cops (not for the first time).
Shades of Heinlein. Seems several of his books mentioned marijuana farms.
The Number of the Beast comes to mind but that was in a parallel universe where colonial england ran half of mars. I can't recall him using that idea anywhere else. Could be wrong of course.
Its a pretty simple issue. No other phones have actual bare metal antennas. All other phones cover their antennas with plastic so you can't conduct the signal away.
I don't see how these arguments warrant a *linear* relationship between the relative masses and the probability of impact
Oh okay. My argument was really intended to be back of the envelope but I looked up Gravitational acceleration (its been a while since I had to use it). Acceleration due to gravity is proportional to mass so if you pass Earth at 100000km and Jupiter at the same distance you will get 317 times the acceleration from Jupiter at that distance. So if you think about a target 100000 km in radius the gravity alone should make it 317 times more likely you will hit the planet, if the planet is Jupiter.