This is great and all, but I can't help thinking that it's the modern Jazz of racing: Interesting to see once in a while, but the real fun is only there for the performers.
To put it another way, this is mostly a highly publicized rich kid's hobby. I guess the rich kids enjoy it more if they can get the great unwashed masses to watch in awe. Not that there's anything particularly bad or unusual about all that, but don't expect it to be the amazing spectacle promised. The promotional videos show smooth-flying machines vying wingtip-to-wingtip, boosting and diving, with huge plumes coming from their exhausts, and a mid-air camera that somehow follows them perfectly. You ain't gonna get that. The clip I've seen of one of the real planes makes it look like a success that it gets off the ground at all.
Ok, so everybody schedules aggressively, and everybody has unforseen delays. It's kind of funny now remembering how Boeing were crowing over the A380 problems, but what I'd like to know is how the 380 vs 787 delays stack up against each other.
Obviously the energy is built up over the period between pulses. And since the repetition rate is only 1 shot per HOUR, the average power output is only 0.1 W!
That wouldn't even put a dent in my electricity bill.
To be fair, a 5mW laser point would need to be focused to a diameter of ~10 microns to reach the sun's surface intensity of ~6kW/cm^2. And a cheap laser pointer can't be focused to that size.
But of course you're right. They're just going for the unwashed public wow factor.
The pulse length is ~100 fs (0.1 ps), not 0.1 fs. 100 fs is already about as short as laser pulses can get - and 0.1 fs is much shorter than the length of a single electromagnetic wave.
It efficiently copies itself by infecting the brains of geeks and subtly altering their behavioral patterns. This causes the geek hosts to construct additional RepRaps from publically available plans and then post the details to the internet in order to spread the seed further.
Lordy. If I could only have been there I would have been able to bag me a Kylie Minogue while everyone else was prostrating at the feet of the almighty Dawkins. Another missed opportunity, dammit.
if I'm paying for a product I don't want to see ads. So you don't read magazines or newspapers then? Or watch the TV? Or use MS software (OK, this being Slashdot, that one's actually possible)?
This has been going on for decades, and time has proven that what you want doesn't really matter.
When I reported a (fairly serious) issue with Safari on my new calculation project website, it was fixed within a couple of weeks. I don't really know if it had anything to do with my report, but I like to dream...
So there were two of you then. I messed around with the thing for years, and that's the first time I've heard it. As far as I'm concerned, the "Beeb" is the BBC (corporation, that is).
...and as far as I know it's not superconducting either. It has a superfluid phase, which does a heck of a lot of very weird stuff, but not superconductivity.
The backwards conpatibility that really matters is one that is invisible to the consumer. It is the thousands of installed DVD production lines worldwide that can be modified to churn out HD-DVDs with very minimal modification (an no modification at all for the most recent lines).
The manufacture of Blu-Rays requires whole new lines, unbelievable expense, and technology that isn't quite fully developed yet (and is very immature).
Maybe you're thinking of the out-of-control media reaction to a dumbly over-hyped press release my university made over a patent I filed a few years ago. It was for a way to print circuits using a regular laser printer and specially treated parer. By the time it hit the newsstands, it was about disposable paper cell phones that you can download from the internet. See what I mean?
Re:Anhydrous ethanol is usually spiked
on
Hacking Vodka
·
· Score: 1
It is possible to get ethanol with (5%) MeOH, but it's very far from the norm. Mostly used in high-schools, other low-trust situations, and small outfits that can't be bothered to get on top of the regulatory paperwork. It often also has colour and a foul flavour added.
You won't find any serious chemisry lab that uses impure ethanol, since the cost is the same (assuming you have the proper parerwork) and nobody wants to be chucking mixtures into their reactions. Trust me, I've been a research chemist in academia and industry for the last 10 years.
If you want to be worried about something in it, go for the trace impurities of god-knows-what. I know people who have ingested large amounts of lab EtOH and not suffered. Mind you, I wouldn't touch the stuff myself. Many stories abound about how back in Soviet Russia, lab alcohol was used as a form of currency by scientists lucky enough to have access to it.
Well, at manufacturing level a CD-R/DVD head costs less than a dollar. (I have that from a very senior executive who manufactures them in tens of millions of units)
All Blu-Ray drives will have CD/DVD heads added for backwards compatibility at that price, since they would be rather unattractive otherwise.
CO2 has a vapour pressure of ~400 Torr at -90 C, and a partial pressure of only 25 Torr in air, so unfortunately it won't freeze out. For that to happen, the temperature would have to go down to about -115 C.
Sorry.
Well, fair enough. For die-hard fans it's worth it. So there's nothing to complain about. In any case, the fanboys would easily enough find some other useless memorabilia to spend their disposable cash on.
On the other hand, if someone doesn't think it's worth it and still 'has to' buy it, or if they spend their non-disposable cash on this kind of stuff, then they're displaying addictive behaviour. That would be consistant with them being so easily manipulated into parting with their cash even when they know what's being done to them and how.
In a case like that, I would recommend attendance at a local branch of Geeks Anonymous. Remember, the first step is admitting you've got a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, think on the bright side.
At least we don't have to worry about fixing the 2038 UNIX 32-bit date bug any more.
This is great and all, but I can't help thinking that it's the modern Jazz of racing: Interesting to see once in a while, but the real fun is only there for the performers.
To put it another way, this is mostly a highly publicized rich kid's hobby. I guess the rich kids enjoy it more if they can get the great unwashed masses to watch in awe. Not that there's anything particularly bad or unusual about all that, but don't expect it to be the amazing spectacle promised. The promotional videos show smooth-flying machines vying wingtip-to-wingtip, boosting and diving, with huge plumes coming from their exhausts, and a mid-air camera that somehow follows them perfectly. You ain't gonna get that. The clip I've seen of one of the real planes makes it look like a success that it gets off the ground at all.
Ok, so everybody schedules aggressively, and everybody has unforseen delays. It's kind of funny now remembering how Boeing were crowing over the A380 problems, but what I'd like to know is how the 380 vs 787 delays stack up against each other.
Anyone got a clue?
Dammit, if only there were some way to entice the good people to stay... like... pay rises? Promotion? Perks?
That's why I'm still where I am.
Errr, either that or... um... nah, can't be that.
RTFA? Moi?
Obviously the energy is built up over the period between pulses. And since the repetition rate is only 1 shot per HOUR, the average power output is only 0.1 W!
That wouldn't even put a dent in my electricity bill.
Yes I know, I know...
To be fair, a 5mW laser point would need to be focused to a diameter of ~10 microns to reach the sun's surface intensity of ~6kW/cm^2.
And a cheap laser pointer can't be focused to that size.
But of course you're right. They're just going for the unwashed public wow factor.
The pulse length is ~100 fs (0.1 ps), not 0.1 fs. 100 fs is already about as short as laser pulses can get - and 0.1 fs is much shorter than the length of a single electromagnetic wave.
It efficiently copies itself by infecting the brains of geeks and subtly altering their behavioral patterns. This causes the geek hosts to construct additional RepRaps from publically available plans and then post the details to the internet in order to spread the seed further.
Lordy. If I could only have been there I would have been able to bag me a Kylie Minogue while everyone else was prostrating at the feet of the almighty Dawkins. Another missed opportunity, dammit.
This has been going on for decades, and time has proven that what you want doesn't really matter.
When I reported a (fairly serious) issue with Safari on my new calculation project website, it was fixed within a couple of weeks. I don't really know if it had anything to do with my report, but I like to dream...
Or you could just calculate it online in any of a million places, and have somebody else do the coding...
So there were two of you then. I messed around with the thing for years, and that's the first time I've heard it. As far as I'm concerned, the "Beeb" is the BBC (corporation, that is).
...and as far as I know it's not superconducting either. It has a superfluid phase, which does a heck of a lot of very weird stuff, but not superconductivity.
Liquid helium is under $5/liter, which is just as well if you piss it away cooling superconducting magnets 24/7.
Well, you're pushing the lower limit a bit there. Nanotech is normally defined as 1-100 nm.
Otherwise it would include all chemistry.
Hell, even water is well over 0.1 nm side to side!
The backwards conpatibility that really matters is one that is invisible to the consumer. It is the thousands of installed DVD production lines worldwide that can be modified to churn out HD-DVDs with very minimal modification (an no modification at all for the most recent lines).
The manufacture of Blu-Rays requires whole new lines, unbelievable expense, and technology that isn't quite fully developed yet (and is very immature).
TFA, however, says:
"Fiona Deans, associate director of AADC, said the compression was visually lossless so no picture degradation will occur."
Which aint the same.
Given that choice, I'll have neither.
I'd rather have one device that does ten jobs well.
Maybe you're thinking of the out-of-control media reaction to a dumbly over-hyped press release my university made over a patent I filed a few years ago.
It was for a way to print circuits using a regular laser printer and specially treated parer. By the time it hit the newsstands, it was about disposable paper cell phones that you can download from the internet.
See what I mean?
It is possible to get ethanol with (5%) MeOH, but it's very far from the norm. Mostly used in high-schools, other low-trust situations, and small outfits that can't be bothered to get on top of the regulatory paperwork. It often also has colour and a foul flavour added.
You won't find any serious chemisry lab that uses impure ethanol, since the cost is the same (assuming you have the proper parerwork) and nobody wants to be chucking mixtures into their reactions. Trust me, I've been a research chemist in academia and industry for the last 10 years.
If you want to be worried about something in it, go for the trace impurities of god-knows-what. I know people who have ingested large amounts of lab EtOH and not suffered. Mind you, I wouldn't touch the stuff myself. Many stories abound about how back in Soviet Russia, lab alcohol was used as a form of currency by scientists lucky enough to have access to it.
Well, at manufacturing level a CD-R/DVD head costs less than a dollar. (I have that from a very senior executive who manufactures them in tens of millions of units)
All Blu-Ray drives will have CD/DVD heads added for backwards compatibility at that price, since they would be rather unattractive otherwise.
CO2 has a vapour pressure of ~400 Torr at -90 C, and a partial pressure of only 25 Torr in air, so unfortunately it won't freeze out. For that to happen, the temperature would have to go down to about -115 C. Sorry.
No, no, no. You fool, do you not pay attention? The other story was in the "Apple" section, and this one's in "Developers".
Completely different.
Well, fair enough. For die-hard fans it's worth it. So there's nothing to complain about. In any case, the fanboys would easily enough find some other useless memorabilia to spend their disposable cash on.
On the other hand, if someone doesn't think it's worth it and still 'has to' buy it, or if they spend their non-disposable cash on this kind of stuff, then they're displaying addictive behaviour. That would be consistant with them being so easily manipulated into parting with their cash even when they know what's being done to them and how.
In a case like that, I would recommend attendance at a local branch of Geeks Anonymous. Remember, the first step is admitting you've got a problem.