Perhaps this is bogus, I was reading some bit of history on the internet, and some people in the 60's or 70's objected to the idea as they understood it. They were thinking of a truly distributed architecture like a physical version of what P2P applications simulate, and according to their estimates, there was no where near enough copper in the world to build it. Every single user would need lines connecting to multiple other users and you would potentially have to connect through thousands of nodes (depending how many lines the average node had) in order to connect to someone across the country. I'm a little skeptical of the copper claim, but it would be a lot more expensive than the current model, unless perhaps it is feasible to accomplish it all wirelessly.
Instead, what we have are the end nodes connected to ISP's which in turn are connected to a limited number of backbones. It is still distributed, but not nearly as much so.
Arguably, Sony did break into something. They installed software on user's computers without the user's permission. This is not within the bounds of the law, as the actions of Gator, 180 solutions, and quite a few other malware distributors have led the court system to rule. Sony's software then deprived them of the proper use of their CD drive. The fact that it also contained a security flaw should be secondary to Sony's decision to act without the consent of the person who owns the computer. To go back to my original analogy, I guess sticking a CD with the intent of making legal, digital copies of your music for your own use is like letting the comcast cable guy come into your house to hook up service, and he is the one who steals (or I guess smashes would fit the analogy better) the TV and leaves the door unlocked when he leaves. It might not be a good idea to leave the cable guy in the house unattended, but you expect a certain level of professionalism and obedience to the law. In the same way, you could monitor your computer obsessively, but we've come to expect CD's to contain what they say they will and not do anything illegal when we pop them in the drive.
NASA has outlined the anticipated costs of a future moon mission up through the first landing. While some funding comes out of aeronautics research and science growth will be limited, most of it replaces the shuttle budget. I believe it really is feasible with the budget proposed, but there's a serious threat that funding will get cut to the point that development of the EELV has to be cancelled because pushing items into the next budget cycle will no longer make up for congressional cuts. I don't expect the CEV to get cancelled, because we will need a crew vehicle after the shuttle is retired, but without the EELV, there's nothing to get us to the moon. Griffin knows the threat is real, and rather than see the work conducted up til this point go to waste, probably wants to push it through as hard as possible.
By the way, I wasn't aware the Terrestrial Planet Finder had been cancelled. Perhaps I'm thinking of the Kepler space telescope. Regarding JIMO, though, Griffin has stated that he doesn't believe the concept put forth for the mission was reasonable. It banked too heavily on technology still in its infancy (ion propulsion) and was too big (lots of $$). Cassini was pretty simple in comparison. He'd love to send another mission to Jupiter, Europa in particular, but the $2 billion for a Cassini-like mission or something like $5 billion for JIMO isn't available.
What I find so fascinating about settling the Oregon territory is that there really is *no* space for us humans.
The living conditions are horrific.
The game The Oregon Trail has really lobotomized the public about what it will be like to live near the Pacific Ocean; at least for the near future.
Covered wagons often had zillions of organisms growing on their covers.
The smell inside was like a dirty locker room full of moldy socks.
The weather is like living under a waterfall.
No showers, no proper waste disposal.
Never mind shaving your face.
Breathing that prairie dust into your lungs crossing the midwest is very unhealthy. (You don't suppose the ISS has filters though, do you?)
Sweating is a big problem with water loss leading to dehydration and diarhea.
Crossing the Rocky Mountains is nearly impossible
Some of the Indians are unfriendly
There's a big volcano right along side the Columbia River
The list goes on with all the health concerns and morphing changes ones body goes through.
The Pacific Northwest is *not* as glamorous as we are lead to believe.
Personally, I don't ever want to leave the pacific northwest. The pioneers were willing to face a little adversity to settle this region and make it possible to live comfortably here. I see no reason why we wouldn't eventually be able to accomplish the same in space (although the current challenges are far from trivial).
Last summer my housemate and I got the basic Qwest DSL package. Phone for $12.99/month + DSL for $30.99/month. I was a little pissed off when the first bill came for over $100! After spending about 45 minutes trying to decipher the cryptographic layout and wording of the bill (other people I showed it to didn't understand it either), I decided that sales associate had done a poor job explaining the hookup fees, and it would all be better when the next month's bill for $43.98 arrived. When the next month's bill for $63 and some-odd cents arrived, I was definitely pissed. $19 in service fees? Screw Qwest. Between staying late after work, using the library, and hanging out on the unsecured wireless access point in my neighborhood, I don't need to subject myself to them lying to me.
As far as phone service now, it's T-mobile prepaid. $100 for 1,000 minutes and no other fees whatsoever (the phone itself was $40). I'm currently on pace to just barely use up all the minutes before they expire after 1 year.
Honestly, if they didn't resort to deception, I'd possibly be willing to split a $63 bill with one or two housemates.
It really bugs me that DHS and generally everyone else are looking at this issue as if the security vulnerabilities in the Sony rootkit are the main issue. And perhaps it is to them, but not to me. The real issue is that Sony is installing software on computers without the owner's permission, and it's software that intentionally hobbles hardware/software you paid for. That's like being upset, not because a thief stole your TV, but because he left the back door unlocked when he left.
True that. It would be completely within reason to review your child's myspace page and find out a little bit about their contacts. In fact, it would be pretty much negligent to not do so, in addition to talking to them about the dangers that exist and what information is not acceptable for them to post on their page. Of course, you're going to find someone who signed their guestbook using profanity or inuendo and have to figure out how much you want your kid conversing with them, but you'll encounter that elsewhere, too. Really, it would be prudent to make sure the internet is only one part of their social life. If they don't get out and interact with people directly, before you know they'll be surfing worse sites (I'm talking about Slashdot).
There is just as much of a chance as a kidnapper being otuside your daughters school, as there is on myspace.
And if you can eliminate one of those sources of risk, you've reduced the overall risk. Of course, it's possible that she'll meet good people on myspace that she'll learn positive things from, but I think there's better networking sites (like friendster) for teens to participate in.
At a slight disadvantage being the oldest biathalete on record, vice president Cheney nonetheless earned plenty of points for his target skills. "I tracked the target across my vision," he said. "When I pulled the trigger however, there was a spammer in my line of fire. I take full responsibility for what I did."
The spammer was taken to a hospital with.22 wounds to the face and neck, where his condition was upgraded from "stable" to "beaten to death with computer mice."
Motorcycles have a pretty limited practicality, especially if you, as most Americans and I suspect most people in other areas, have a family. 75 miles per gallon for each of 4 small bikes still doesn't beat sticking 4 people in one car that gets 35 miles per gallon, plus you've got a trunk to stick groceries in. You could get a motorcycle for simple errands in good weather, but I suspect the energy savings would at best, barely approach the amount of energy consumed creating one extra vehicle. Me personally, I ride a bicycle for the simple stuff. It's nice staying in shape while not spending outrageous amounts on gym fees like a lot of people I know, who just go there to ride the stationary cycles or ellipticals.
You think toads are great, wait til we send you some of our oppossums! (or did we get those from you? I can't remember). I've never felt regret over a dead possum before.
According to my understanding of superposition, all that having a really strong field super-imposed would accomplish is raise the noise floor...same for electronics. You can increase the voltage above your ground, but it still only takes a certain amount of voltage drop across an element to cause an effect. In the same way, they could look for a field of 1 gauss among a 0 gauss background or a field of 101 gauss against a 100 gauss background.
My thought was perhaps this is no problem at all, or perhaps the strength of magnetic field they're working with is currently great enough that they don't run into this problem
This is one of those stories like the origin of the term "computer bug." According to what I've read, the term did not actually originate with actual problems related to bugs (as the common myth goes), but there was a case with an electromechanical computer where a moth got caught in a relay that formed part of the logic circuit. When the engineers found it, they reported it as the first actual instance of debugging a computer program.
That is a good point. I remembered that idea after I hit submit. I believe lab experiments have produced fibers that will conduct, insulate, or act as semi-conductors. One of the concerns I've heard raised about that, however, is lightning. I don't know a whole lot about lightning, so I don't know if it's possible to turn the entire ribbon into a giant lightning rod, but I know that one of the problems Airbus and Boeing have found in using composite aircraft fuselages, is that the lightning will not pass harmless through like it does aluminum bodies. Because of the energy involved, you either have to avoid conducting at all, or be able to handle the entire current. If a lightning strike found a path through an ordinary antenna wire, for example, the current could vaporize the wire and actually cause an explosion.
You can drop the mules off in space (actually, depend how high you drop them, they may fall, or be slingshot out of the earth's orbit, or you drop them geosynchronously and use them for parts), but you could also let them roll down the cable, braked by eddy currents, so power for returning shouldn't be a problem. Then you can retrieve them at the base, service them, and reuse them. They probably will only be cheap compared to rockets.
I don't deny that it may be possible to build a space elevator in 10 years if we start throwing money at it like crazy, but developing the technology will be expensive. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the amount of money invested in the manned space program from Mercury up through Apollo 11 was around $100 billion, in 1960's dollars. I would classify this effort on the same level. We've seriously never done something like this before. Goddard launched his first liquid fueled rockets around the 1900's. I don't really know whether to say our current progress is on par with his, 60-70 years before we walked on the moon, or closer to that in the 1960's when Kennedy declared his vision, less than 10 years before it happened. Meanwhile however, Liftport is operating on a few million dollars a year, at best, and CNT companies a little bit more.
Actually, no. When you're in a car, or in the international space station, you have a radial velocity relative to the earth's surface. Although wind causes local effects, the atmosphere as a whole does not move relative to the earth's surface, and neither does the ribbon. Imagine a bicycle wheel. The hub is the earth and the rim is distance where the counterweight orbits. If you pick a point on the "earth" marked by where a spoke comes out of the hub and stand there, the same spoke is over your head. If you get in a car and drive, you can eventually reach the next spoke. If you're on the ISS, it has to have a certain velocity to maintain a sub-geosynchronous orbit, and it very rapidly reaches the next spoke. If you have a space elevator, however, it is anchored to the earth in one spot, and the cable stretches straigh out like another spoke.
Achieving the strength needed with nanotubes is one part of the problem. I believe there are several companies working on that, because even if the space elevator never comes to fruition, high strength composites will probably pay for all the research that goes into them.
I'm fairly convinced that power is a bigger problem. How far does your car go one tank of gas? 400-500 miles off of maybe 20 gallons. To get to geosynchronous orbit climbing a cable you have to go 22,000 miles (or is it 18,000...I can never remember if that includes the earth's radius), that's 55 times as far. But you can't just assume you can scale that 1100 gallons of fuel. First (as every rocket enthusiast knows), you burn a lot of fuel lifting your fuel. Second, the mileage you get in your SUV almost entirely from overcoming friction. In the space elevator, you have to develop potential energy...a lot of it. It quickly becomes clear that on onboard power supply is not feasible.
Most of the discussion I've heard revolves around power beaming with either a laser or a big microwave antenna. From 22,000 miles away, this has to hit a collector small enough to fit on the climber, but big enough to convert several hundred kilowatts of power into electricity. I'm not aware of any current application anywhere near this scale.
A space elevator is theoretically feasible, but the challenges are far from trivial. I laugh at people who suggest one can be built starting today for $10 billion. Some of the estimates I've heard put the cost of developing all the technology for and building the first elevator at several $trillion, or equivalent to the federal government's entire annual budget. Of course, if we ever get one up, subsequent elevators are far cheaper.
On the other hand, while IBM's boxes could add and multiply, ENIAC could, according to Pres, solve differential equations. That doesn't settle anything, but it is an impressive step up.
The movie was almost too controlled. It was like an American clean-up job on British humor. The borderline insanity of the book was displaced by downright quirkiness in the movie, so that I would say you had to be a similar form of quirky to really enjoy it (I find it moderately amusing). For the book, you just had to enjoy irony, cariacature, and sarcasm.
You've got to have a pretty darn powerful 5.1 system before your video game is adding that one final element that makes things difficult in a combat experience: you might die any moment. No quickload, no extra lives, no stimpacks.
It never made it to market (fuji made some) because it's niche was too small.
I assume you mean the mass consumer market? I worked as a phone tech at my university. A couple years ago we replaced our finicky NEC phone switch (1980's vintage) with newer system. I'm pretty sure the processor had several cards of bubble memory rather than RAM, I think so calls didn't get dropped if the power blinked. The memory rack probably took up around a cubic foot of space. The new switch uses a pair of redundant compact flash cards. Those are a bit smaller.
I'm not sure my question was understood. I don't really see how running 36 volts through a motherboard is particularly relevant to the question of whether having varying strengths of magnetic fields around this sort of processor could affect its operation. As I understand, strong EMI can cause a traditional transistor to flip. Could not a similar thing happen to this magnetic processor, and if so would it be more or less sensitive? Consider a bit being held in the processor as a 0, that is, no magnetic field (or perpendicular field, whatever). The state is being read based on its magnetic field. If there was another source of a magnetic field, wouldn't it be theoretically possible (by superposition) for the state to be incorrectly read as a 1? Furthermore, if a magnetic processor turns out to be more sensitive to interference than current processors, how do you protect against that.
On the shuttle tangent, I think they had an electronics upgrade a couple years ago, but astronauts still carry laptops (EMI rated) to do most of their computer-related tasks.
The cost of IM's on mobile phones was really puzzling to me, so I asked my uncle about it, who writes drivers for mobile phone hardware. My two theories were:
1.) For whatever reason due to the architecture of mobile systems, there was a ridiculously huge amount of overhead that needed to be packaged with each IM that required a noteable portion of a serving tower's capacity, OR
2.) People are willing to pay $0.10 for each IM they send.
His response was that the size of an IM is negligible compared to voice. People are essentially as willing to pay $0.10 for an IM as they are to pay $0.01.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps this is bogus, I was reading some bit of history on the internet, and some people in the 60's or 70's objected to the idea as they understood it. They were thinking of a truly distributed architecture like a physical version of what P2P applications simulate, and according to their estimates, there was no where near enough copper in the world to build it. Every single user would need lines connecting to multiple other users and you would potentially have to connect through thousands of nodes (depending how many lines the average node had) in order to connect to someone across the country. I'm a little skeptical of the copper claim, but it would be a lot more expensive than the current model, unless perhaps it is feasible to accomplish it all wirelessly.
Instead, what we have are the end nodes connected to ISP's which in turn are connected to a limited number of backbones. It is still distributed, but not nearly as much so.
Arguably, Sony did break into something. They installed software on user's computers without the user's permission. This is not within the bounds of the law, as the actions of Gator, 180 solutions, and quite a few other malware distributors have led the court system to rule. Sony's software then deprived them of the proper use of their CD drive. The fact that it also contained a security flaw should be secondary to Sony's decision to act without the consent of the person who owns the computer. To go back to my original analogy, I guess sticking a CD with the intent of making legal, digital copies of your music for your own use is like letting the comcast cable guy come into your house to hook up service, and he is the one who steals (or I guess smashes would fit the analogy better) the TV and leaves the door unlocked when he leaves. It might not be a good idea to leave the cable guy in the house unattended, but you expect a certain level of professionalism and obedience to the law. In the same way, you could monitor your computer obsessively, but we've come to expect CD's to contain what they say they will and not do anything illegal when we pop them in the drive.
NASA has outlined the anticipated costs of a future moon mission up through the first landing. While some funding comes out of aeronautics research and science growth will be limited, most of it replaces the shuttle budget. I believe it really is feasible with the budget proposed, but there's a serious threat that funding will get cut to the point that development of the EELV has to be cancelled because pushing items into the next budget cycle will no longer make up for congressional cuts. I don't expect the CEV to get cancelled, because we will need a crew vehicle after the shuttle is retired, but without the EELV, there's nothing to get us to the moon. Griffin knows the threat is real, and rather than see the work conducted up til this point go to waste, probably wants to push it through as hard as possible.
By the way, I wasn't aware the Terrestrial Planet Finder had been cancelled. Perhaps I'm thinking of the Kepler space telescope. Regarding JIMO, though, Griffin has stated that he doesn't believe the concept put forth for the mission was reasonable. It banked too heavily on technology still in its infancy (ion propulsion) and was too big (lots of $$). Cassini was pretty simple in comparison. He'd love to send another mission to Jupiter, Europa in particular, but the $2 billion for a Cassini-like mission or something like $5 billion for JIMO isn't available.
Last summer my housemate and I got the basic Qwest DSL package. Phone for $12.99/month + DSL for $30.99/month. I was a little pissed off when the first bill came for over $100! After spending about 45 minutes trying to decipher the cryptographic layout and wording of the bill (other people I showed it to didn't understand it either), I decided that sales associate had done a poor job explaining the hookup fees, and it would all be better when the next month's bill for $43.98 arrived. When the next month's bill for $63 and some-odd cents arrived, I was definitely pissed. $19 in service fees? Screw Qwest. Between staying late after work, using the library, and hanging out on the unsecured wireless access point in my neighborhood, I don't need to subject myself to them lying to me.
As far as phone service now, it's T-mobile prepaid. $100 for 1,000 minutes and no other fees whatsoever (the phone itself was $40). I'm currently on pace to just barely use up all the minutes before they expire after 1 year.
Honestly, if they didn't resort to deception, I'd possibly be willing to split a $63 bill with one or two housemates.
It really bugs me that DHS and generally everyone else are looking at this issue as if the security vulnerabilities in the Sony rootkit are the main issue. And perhaps it is to them, but not to me. The real issue is that Sony is installing software on computers without the owner's permission, and it's software that intentionally hobbles hardware/software you paid for. That's like being upset, not because a thief stole your TV, but because he left the back door unlocked when he left.
True that. It would be completely within reason to review your child's myspace page and find out a little bit about their contacts. In fact, it would be pretty much negligent to not do so, in addition to talking to them about the dangers that exist and what information is not acceptable for them to post on their page. Of course, you're going to find someone who signed their guestbook using profanity or inuendo and have to figure out how much you want your kid conversing with them, but you'll encounter that elsewhere, too. Really, it would be prudent to make sure the internet is only one part of their social life. If they don't get out and interact with people directly, before you know they'll be surfing worse sites (I'm talking about Slashdot).
The first step should be banning noscroll backgrounds and background music.
At a slight disadvantage being the oldest biathalete on record, vice president Cheney nonetheless earned plenty of points for his target skills. "I tracked the target across my vision," he said. "When I pulled the trigger however, there was a spammer in my line of fire. I take full responsibility for what I did."
.22 wounds to the face and neck, where his condition was upgraded from "stable" to "beaten to death with computer mice."
The spammer was taken to a hospital with
Motorcycles have a pretty limited practicality, especially if you, as most Americans and I suspect most people in other areas, have a family. 75 miles per gallon for each of 4 small bikes still doesn't beat sticking 4 people in one car that gets 35 miles per gallon, plus you've got a trunk to stick groceries in. You could get a motorcycle for simple errands in good weather, but I suspect the energy savings would at best, barely approach the amount of energy consumed creating one extra vehicle. Me personally, I ride a bicycle for the simple stuff. It's nice staying in shape while not spending outrageous amounts on gym fees like a lot of people I know, who just go there to ride the stationary cycles or ellipticals.
You think toads are great, wait til we send you some of our oppossums! (or did we get those from you? I can't remember). I've never felt regret over a dead possum before.
According to my understanding of superposition, all that having a really strong field super-imposed would accomplish is raise the noise floor...same for electronics. You can increase the voltage above your ground, but it still only takes a certain amount of voltage drop across an element to cause an effect. In the same way, they could look for a field of 1 gauss among a 0 gauss background or a field of 101 gauss against a 100 gauss background.
My thought was perhaps this is no problem at all, or perhaps the strength of magnetic field they're working with is currently great enough that they don't run into this problem
This is one of those stories like the origin of the term "computer bug." According to what I've read, the term did not actually originate with actual problems related to bugs (as the common myth goes), but there was a case with an electromechanical computer where a moth got caught in a relay that formed part of the logic circuit. When the engineers found it, they reported it as the first actual instance of debugging a computer program.
That is a good point. I remembered that idea after I hit submit. I believe lab experiments have produced fibers that will conduct, insulate, or act as semi-conductors. One of the concerns I've heard raised about that, however, is lightning. I don't know a whole lot about lightning, so I don't know if it's possible to turn the entire ribbon into a giant lightning rod, but I know that one of the problems Airbus and Boeing have found in using composite aircraft fuselages, is that the lightning will not pass harmless through like it does aluminum bodies. Because of the energy involved, you either have to avoid conducting at all, or be able to handle the entire current. If a lightning strike found a path through an ordinary antenna wire, for example, the current could vaporize the wire and actually cause an explosion.
You can drop the mules off in space (actually, depend how high you drop them, they may fall, or be slingshot out of the earth's orbit, or you drop them geosynchronously and use them for parts), but you could also let them roll down the cable, braked by eddy currents, so power for returning shouldn't be a problem. Then you can retrieve them at the base, service them, and reuse them. They probably will only be cheap compared to rockets.
I don't deny that it may be possible to build a space elevator in 10 years if we start throwing money at it like crazy, but developing the technology will be expensive. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the amount of money invested in the manned space program from Mercury up through Apollo 11 was around $100 billion, in 1960's dollars. I would classify this effort on the same level. We've seriously never done something like this before. Goddard launched his first liquid fueled rockets around the 1900's. I don't really know whether to say our current progress is on par with his, 60-70 years before we walked on the moon, or closer to that in the 1960's when Kennedy declared his vision, less than 10 years before it happened. Meanwhile however, Liftport is operating on a few million dollars a year, at best, and CNT companies a little bit more.
Actually, no. When you're in a car, or in the international space station, you have a radial velocity relative to the earth's surface. Although wind causes local effects, the atmosphere as a whole does not move relative to the earth's surface, and neither does the ribbon. Imagine a bicycle wheel. The hub is the earth and the rim is distance where the counterweight orbits. If you pick a point on the "earth" marked by where a spoke comes out of the hub and stand there, the same spoke is over your head. If you get in a car and drive, you can eventually reach the next spoke. If you're on the ISS, it has to have a certain velocity to maintain a sub-geosynchronous orbit, and it very rapidly reaches the next spoke. If you have a space elevator, however, it is anchored to the earth in one spot, and the cable stretches straigh out like another spoke.
Achieving the strength needed with nanotubes is one part of the problem. I believe there are several companies working on that, because even if the space elevator never comes to fruition, high strength composites will probably pay for all the research that goes into them.
I'm fairly convinced that power is a bigger problem. How far does your car go one tank of gas? 400-500 miles off of maybe 20 gallons. To get to geosynchronous orbit climbing a cable you have to go 22,000 miles (or is it 18,000...I can never remember if that includes the earth's radius), that's 55 times as far. But you can't just assume you can scale that 1100 gallons of fuel. First (as every rocket enthusiast knows), you burn a lot of fuel lifting your fuel. Second, the mileage you get in your SUV almost entirely from overcoming friction. In the space elevator, you have to develop potential energy...a lot of it. It quickly becomes clear that on onboard power supply is not feasible.
Most of the discussion I've heard revolves around power beaming with either a laser or a big microwave antenna. From 22,000 miles away, this has to hit a collector small enough to fit on the climber, but big enough to convert several hundred kilowatts of power into electricity. I'm not aware of any current application anywhere near this scale.
A space elevator is theoretically feasible, but the challenges are far from trivial. I laugh at people who suggest one can be built starting today for $10 billion. Some of the estimates I've heard put the cost of developing all the technology for and building the first elevator at several $trillion, or equivalent to the federal government's entire annual budget. Of course, if we ever get one up, subsequent elevators are far cheaper.
On the other hand, while IBM's boxes could add and multiply, ENIAC could, according to Pres, solve differential equations. That doesn't settle anything, but it is an impressive step up.
The movie was almost too controlled. It was like an American clean-up job on British humor. The borderline insanity of the book was displaced by downright quirkiness in the movie, so that I would say you had to be a similar form of quirky to really enjoy it (I find it moderately amusing). For the book, you just had to enjoy irony, cariacature, and sarcasm.
You've got to have a pretty darn powerful 5.1 system before your video game is adding that one final element that makes things difficult in a combat experience: you might die any moment. No quickload, no extra lives, no stimpacks.
I'm not sure my question was understood. I don't really see how running 36 volts through a motherboard is particularly relevant to the question of whether having varying strengths of magnetic fields around this sort of processor could affect its operation. As I understand, strong EMI can cause a traditional transistor to flip. Could not a similar thing happen to this magnetic processor, and if so would it be more or less sensitive? Consider a bit being held in the processor as a 0, that is, no magnetic field (or perpendicular field, whatever). The state is being read based on its magnetic field. If there was another source of a magnetic field, wouldn't it be theoretically possible (by superposition) for the state to be incorrectly read as a 1? Furthermore, if a magnetic processor turns out to be more sensitive to interference than current processors, how do you protect against that.
On the shuttle tangent, I think they had an electronics upgrade a couple years ago, but astronauts still carry laptops (EMI rated) to do most of their computer-related tasks.
The cost of IM's on mobile phones was really puzzling to me, so I asked my uncle about it, who writes drivers for mobile phone hardware. My two theories were:
1.) For whatever reason due to the architecture of mobile systems, there was a ridiculously huge amount of overhead that needed to be packaged with each IM that required a noteable portion of a serving tower's capacity, OR
2.) People are willing to pay $0.10 for each IM they send.
His response was that the size of an IM is negligible compared to voice. People are essentially as willing to pay $0.10 for an IM as they are to pay $0.01.
Haha! Wow, my thought was an abbacus, but your's is definitely more on the mark. That's similar to a game called avalanche I used to play.
Forget gravity though. I want a computer based on the strong nuclear force.