Considering these guys are somewhere like the planning stages of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, I'm guessing you'll be dead before anything that sophisticated comes around.
Presumably the E.coli would be programmed to shut off alcohol production when a relatively low concentration is reached - errors in this threshold could range from amusing to fatal. And, I don't really like beer that much, I'd probably drink grape juice instead of eating grains... About the gas, that sounds like a problem for another bug, the same one we need to scrub gaseous CO2 from exhaust pipes.
I will aim at making E.coli bacteria much more easily to program and hence harness for useful purposes
So, insert a switch into E.coli to activate "auto-brewery" mode, swallow a pill containing the key on Friday afternoon and you get Free Beer, internally produced.
Those greenhouse turbine thingies have been proposed since the 1970's, ultra-black wouldn't really improve them enough (compared to cheap 90% black paint) to make it worth using. Aren't they building a couple of prototypes in Australia and Spain?
I'm sure this material will make it into projects like space telescopes, and probably the high mountain observatories too. There are just so few applications that really care about that last fraction of a percent of reflectivity.
I'm guessing that the Blackbird SR-71 got so hot with the engines.
At Mach 3+, you get significant heating from friction with the passing air (thus, ablative heat shields on re-entry capsules, shuttle insulation tiles, etc.)
The fun part about the Blackbird was the way it leaked fuel... it's worth doing a little reading about the Blackbird, it's one of the more radical machines ever built, and far more entertaining than refined chimney soot.
Great article, thanks for sharing. BTW, correction: the article states 0.045% no.05% you were 10% off!
Depends on what you care about, if it's a reflection stopper in a telescope tube, then, yes, 10%. If it's something normal humans use like a solar energy collector, then it's 0.005%, or about the same effect as a single bird dropping on a 1000 sq ft collector surface.
Got a kiln capable of a controlled 1382 degrees (Farenheit), and a source of "carbon coating feedstock gas"? Sounds like an extremely affordable process already.
You know, there's a car analogy brewing here... I bought a Miata in 1991 (call it the iPad), but I kept my Honda Civic (call it a cheap Dell desktop). A few years later, I traded the Honda for an old Pickup truck (call it "big iron"). Years after that, the old Pickup was replaced with a new 1999 pickup (the computer analogy is slipping, but you get the idea...) The Miata was turbocharged in early 1997 (processor upgrade?)
Anyway, while the Miata is fun, and I have kept it around all these years, and I do use it for some things, including my daily commute, if I were ever forced to choose a single vehicle, the Miata would almost certainly not be the choice - I'd be a sad to see it go, but it just doesn't do everything I need.
Very much the same for the iPad, except that it's even less useful than the Miata, and I am just not as attached to it. Of course, when I bought the Miata, I was just borrowing computers from work (and school before that), so, even though they're cheaper, computing devices are much easier to live without than cars...
What I was getting at was that when I found myself unemployed, the coding jobs I could come up with over the 'net (that weren't completely obvious scams) seemed to be paying ridiculously low rates, on the order of $10K per year or less.
If you work for a US company and they just allowed you to not come into the office 3 or 4 days a week but keep your regular salary, that's awesome (and still, regrettably, rare).
Oh, and by the way, this article is about the transformer, a tablet that *ahem* transforms into a clamshell notebook with keyboard. I could deal with that, and it could play a bitchin' game of solitare.
I tend to disagree about the media consumption - my clamshell sits in bed between me and my wife, holds its screen at a good viewing angle, and handles more media types than the iPad.
One place the iPad experience wins hands down is in playing solitare, it's perfect for that, but for playing one TV show in the evening, the iPad gets put on the nightstand and the clamshell comes out. In the living room, we have a real TV, and otherwise, we don't consume much media, so maybe we're not the target market.
One paragraph will never be enough to sum up all the complexities of an employment decision. I, through dumb luck and a little bit of stubbornness, ended up promoted past my manipulative jerk and had the satisfaction of watching him retire. Five pretty good years followed that coup.
The advice for offer in hand isn't necessarily to negotiate it in your present employer's face, more to be able to walk out door with confidence and style when they threaten you with termination if you don't like how it's going.
Caveat: unless you do win major visible concessions at the negotiation, you probably should leave before they find a replacement and fire you.
Also, if you can telecommute, you can park yourself in some cheap ass banana republic (Panama and Costa Rica are pretty tolerable) and enjoy the economic disparity.
I wouldn't be so sure about this. I telecommute.
So, I don't telecommute because I am supporting a family of four on a single income, and while nowhere Florida is cheap, it isn't cheap enough for us to live on income competitive with the world market for coders... Were you able to get non banana republic pay?
Either go above the heads of the manipulative jerks and report what's making a hostile work environment, or start brushing up your resume, practice interviewing, and start looking for a new job.
I'd order that more:
Brush up the resume
Go on some interviews, even though you hate to, you'll get a better feel what's out there
Once you have an offer that is at least a lateral move, go above the jerks heads and see what you can accomplish (hint: there's a reason you have an offer in hand when doing this)
Choose your destiny
Happiness comes from control, that why your bosses are manipulative jerks, they're basically pleasuring themselves at your expense.
Don't discount the possibility of things turning around where you are, it has happened for me in the past.
But I think we should shift subsidies away from suburban education and transportation systems -- not to mention funding high-speed internet to your home
Transportation I'll grant, tax vehicles and fuel enough to actually pay for the roads - if you don't want to pay the tax, move to the core where you don't need a car.
But, as long as we have kids living out in the sprawl, at least for elementary years, the schools should be small and local. Our county is "saving money" by cramming 8 and 900 kids in a single school, with lunch starting at 9:45 running until 1:30 so they can hotseat the lunchroom to maximum efficiency, crowded library time, etc. etc. etc. Keep the elementary schools to 3-400 max, and place them close to where the kids live, they are already paid for from property taxes.
As for work at home -- I don't have the articles at my fingertips, but I believe the societal costs of telecommuting (including all the extra lights, heat/ac, phone systems, internet access etc.) supposedly far exceed the damage caused by your commute. I'd google it if you have any genuine interest.
-GiH
I don't doubt that the articles don't exist, but I call B.S. - my house is air-conditioned all day while I'm gone because of the wife and kids, and I'd bet most people leave it on even when it's empty because they're too lazy to know that they could save money by doing otherwise. On the other end, if the office doesn't need to accomodate me, less space can be built and leased, there's major savings in air conditioning, etc.
My house will have internet access regardless, I've had broadband since it was first available and would probably give up running water for 6 hours a day in preference to giving up internet access for the same period. And, as to total societal cost, one fiber in the ground has to be cheaper to install and maintain than a single lane of asphalt. Not to mention the costs saved in jet travel when people finally get accustomed to not having to do "real face time."
Why I choose to underutilize a relatively lame device, not everyone has the same experience:
carry it with me between meetings
A 13" notebook travels just as easily as the iPad
use it for email
I generally type more than one word responses to e-mails, and even find reading and sorting e-mail easier on a notebook, plus, I don't have to have my hands on the notebook while I read (iPad 2 has a better cover/stand, but still lacks compared to a hinge)
calendar
Granted, calendaring is on-par, perhaps even better in an iPad or iPhone or Blackberry, or even Smartwatch.
reading documents
I still prefer hands-free, and find some documents don't open as easily in iOS as they do on a desktop OS
and an occasional terminal session to fix a problem with one of the servers using iSSH.
Typing is clearly easier for me with real keys, though the iPad touchscreen is certainly an improvement over, say, the Atari 400 membrane keyboard.
The notepad application is pretty useful, and I've become spoiled with having my meeting notes already in my computer when I do make it to my office. Our office uses an internal wiki and we have web applications that I'm able to use with my iPad.
If you've got a built ecosystem that's 100% iOS friendly, more power to you...
I get exceptional battery life when compared against my netbook
Granted, iPad - roughly 9 hours of heavy use, cheap UX notebook more like 5 (though, Asus makes some models that go for 13...)
and I don't have to open and close the clamshell as I move from meeting to meeting or travel on public transportation.
I like the clamshell action, but, then, I still like my clamshell phone too.
At home I'll watch netflix on it, or HBO GO.
I really don't want to pay for Hulu Plus, and Hulu seems to be preying on the device users while still taking pity on cheapskates on PCs.
This is my personal preference. I'm sure everybody's is different.
That depends on whether or not you have kids. It's hard for me to get my son to turn if off at bedtime. It's an expensive toy, I know.
Amen, I often curse the iPad's 9 hour battery life when trying to pry it away from my 8 year old - if it would just die after one or two, it would make one less child psychology challenge for me.
Having experienced the iPad has largely put me off from getting an iPhone, or really any "smart" phone with a little screen. Whatever I would want to do on the "smartphone" that my "dumbphone" can't is already hobbled on the 10" iPad, and is just that much harder on a 4" or smaller screen.
Unless you're sitting at a desk or table, reading documents is much easier on flat device without an attached keyboard.
For me, at least, my 13" notebook weighs about the same as an iPad (yes, it's VERY light), and I find it easier to read because the 1600x900 resolution screen with brighter backlight is easily adjustable to any angle while sitting in my lap hands free, as opposed to the iPad (1) which is always hands on or precariously balanced.
In the iPad wins column: the notebook can cook toast with it's starboard cooling vent.
When the first one came out, it was the only tablet that piqued my interest. I like the idea of a dual use, "dockable," tablet since I don't imagine I'd use a tablet much longer after the novelty wore off. Asus has really done something great with this incarnation too, it looks like.
I won an iPad for free - it sits on my nightstand mostly unused, the 13" laptop still rules: it has a keyboard, it has Windows instead of iOS, and Hulu is free on Windows...
When I do pick up the iPad, it's for things like Angry Birds, Pocket Frogs, etc. It _can_ browse the web, but not as well as the notebook. It does win out occasionally for things like working on the car where it's nice to have the reference handy without worrying about breaking the more fragile notebook, but then it loses again when it's time to hook up the OBDII diagnostic tool to the USB port.
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Considering these guys are somewhere like the planning stages of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, I'm guessing you'll be dead before anything that sophisticated comes around.
Presumably the E.coli would be programmed to shut off alcohol production when a relatively low concentration is reached - errors in this threshold could range from amusing to fatal. And, I don't really like beer that much, I'd probably drink grape juice instead of eating grains... About the gas, that sounds like a problem for another bug, the same one we need to scrub gaseous CO2 from exhaust pipes.
I will aim at making E.coli bacteria much more easily to program and hence harness for useful purposes
So, insert a switch into E.coli to activate "auto-brewery" mode, swallow a pill containing the key on Friday afternoon and you get Free Beer, internally produced.
500,000,000 downloads of Angry Birds?
In my math, 9% of 100 is 9.
Those greenhouse turbine thingies have been proposed since the 1970's, ultra-black wouldn't really improve them enough (compared to cheap 90% black paint) to make it worth using. Aren't they building a couple of prototypes in Australia and Spain?
I'm sure this material will make it into projects like space telescopes, and probably the high mountain observatories too. There are just so few applications that really care about that last fraction of a percent of reflectivity.
I'm guessing that the Blackbird SR-71 got so hot with the engines.
At Mach 3+, you get significant heating from friction with the passing air (thus, ablative heat shields on re-entry capsules, shuttle insulation tiles, etc.)
The fun part about the Blackbird was the way it leaked fuel... it's worth doing a little reading about the Blackbird, it's one of the more radical machines ever built, and far more entertaining than refined chimney soot.
I think I've just found the material I want for the pigment of my next tattoo.
1400 degrees F, man, if you thought needles were painful....
Great article, thanks for sharing. .05% you were 10% off!
BTW, correction: the article states 0.045% no
Depends on what you care about, if it's a reflection stopper in a telescope tube, then, yes, 10%. If it's something normal humans use like a solar energy collector, then it's 0.005%, or about the same effect as a single bird dropping on a 1000 sq ft collector surface.
Because feeding the Trolls is entertaining... if you can keep them outside until sunrise....
I wonder how soon it can be done affordably.
Got a kiln capable of a controlled 1382 degrees (Farenheit), and a source of "carbon coating feedstock gas"? Sounds like an extremely affordable process already.
You know, there's a car analogy brewing here... I bought a Miata in 1991 (call it the iPad), but I kept my Honda Civic (call it a cheap Dell desktop). A few years later, I traded the Honda for an old Pickup truck (call it "big iron"). Years after that, the old Pickup was replaced with a new 1999 pickup (the computer analogy is slipping, but you get the idea...) The Miata was turbocharged in early 1997 (processor upgrade?)
Anyway, while the Miata is fun, and I have kept it around all these years, and I do use it for some things, including my daily commute, if I were ever forced to choose a single vehicle, the Miata would almost certainly not be the choice - I'd be a sad to see it go, but it just doesn't do everything I need.
Very much the same for the iPad, except that it's even less useful than the Miata, and I am just not as attached to it. Of course, when I bought the Miata, I was just borrowing computers from work (and school before that), so, even though they're cheaper, computing devices are much easier to live without than cars...
What I was getting at was that when I found myself unemployed, the coding jobs I could come up with over the 'net (that weren't completely obvious scams) seemed to be paying ridiculously low rates, on the order of $10K per year or less.
If you work for a US company and they just allowed you to not come into the office 3 or 4 days a week but keep your regular salary, that's awesome (and still, regrettably, rare).
Oh, and by the way, this article is about the transformer, a tablet that *ahem* transforms into a clamshell notebook with keyboard. I could deal with that, and it could play a bitchin' game of solitare.
I tend to disagree about the media consumption - my clamshell sits in bed between me and my wife, holds its screen at a good viewing angle, and handles more media types than the iPad.
One place the iPad experience wins hands down is in playing solitare, it's perfect for that, but for playing one TV show in the evening, the iPad gets put on the nightstand and the clamshell comes out. In the living room, we have a real TV, and otherwise, we don't consume much media, so maybe we're not the target market.
One paragraph will never be enough to sum up all the complexities of an employment decision. I, through dumb luck and a little bit of stubbornness, ended up promoted past my manipulative jerk and had the satisfaction of watching him retire. Five pretty good years followed that coup.
The advice for offer in hand isn't necessarily to negotiate it in your present employer's face, more to be able to walk out door with confidence and style when they threaten you with termination if you don't like how it's going.
Caveat: unless you do win major visible concessions at the negotiation, you probably should leave before they find a replacement and fire you.
Also, if you can telecommute, you can park yourself in some cheap ass banana republic (Panama and Costa Rica are pretty tolerable) and enjoy the economic disparity.
I wouldn't be so sure about this. I telecommute.
So, I don't telecommute because I am supporting a family of four on a single income, and while nowhere Florida is cheap, it isn't cheap enough for us to live on income competitive with the world market for coders... Were you able to get non banana republic pay?
Either go above the heads of the manipulative jerks and report what's making a hostile work environment, or start brushing up your resume, practice interviewing, and start looking for a new job.
I'd order that more:
Happiness comes from control, that why your bosses are manipulative jerks, they're basically pleasuring themselves at your expense.
Don't discount the possibility of things turning around where you are, it has happened for me in the past.
In the iPad wins column: the notebook can cook toast with it's starboard cooling vent.
I would put this in the "notebook wins" column, but I have a somewhat extreme love for toast.
Me too, problem is, I never seem to have a handy slice of bread when the notebook is in my lap and I am wearing shorts...
But I think we should shift subsidies away from suburban education and transportation systems -- not to mention funding high-speed internet to your home
Transportation I'll grant, tax vehicles and fuel enough to actually pay for the roads - if you don't want to pay the tax, move to the core where you don't need a car.
But, as long as we have kids living out in the sprawl, at least for elementary years, the schools should be small and local. Our county is "saving money" by cramming 8 and 900 kids in a single school, with lunch starting at 9:45 running until 1:30 so they can hotseat the lunchroom to maximum efficiency, crowded library time, etc. etc. etc. Keep the elementary schools to 3-400 max, and place them close to where the kids live, they are already paid for from property taxes.
As for work at home -- I don't have the articles at my fingertips, but I believe the societal costs of telecommuting (including all the extra lights, heat/ac, phone systems, internet access etc.) supposedly far exceed the damage caused by your commute. I'd google it if you have any genuine interest.
-GiH
I don't doubt that the articles don't exist, but I call B.S. - my house is air-conditioned all day while I'm gone because of the wife and kids, and I'd bet most people leave it on even when it's empty because they're too lazy to know that they could save money by doing otherwise. On the other end, if the office doesn't need to accomodate me, less space can be built and leased, there's major savings in air conditioning, etc.
My house will have internet access regardless, I've had broadband since it was first available and would probably give up running water for 6 hours a day in preference to giving up internet access for the same period. And, as to total societal cost, one fiber in the ground has to be cheaper to install and maintain than a single lane of asphalt. Not to mention the costs saved in jet travel when people finally get accustomed to not having to do "real face time."
Why I choose to underutilize a relatively lame device, not everyone has the same experience:
carry it with me between meetings
A 13" notebook travels just as easily as the iPad
use it for email
I generally type more than one word responses to e-mails, and even find reading and sorting e-mail easier on a notebook, plus, I don't have to have my hands on the notebook while I read (iPad 2 has a better cover/stand, but still lacks compared to a hinge)
calendar
Granted, calendaring is on-par, perhaps even better in an iPad or iPhone or Blackberry, or even Smartwatch.
reading documents
I still prefer hands-free, and find some documents don't open as easily in iOS as they do on a desktop OS
and an occasional terminal session to fix a problem with one of the servers using iSSH.
Typing is clearly easier for me with real keys, though the iPad touchscreen is certainly an improvement over, say, the Atari 400 membrane keyboard.
The notepad application is pretty useful, and I've become spoiled with having my meeting notes already in my computer when I do make it to my office. Our office uses an internal wiki and we have web applications that I'm able to use with my iPad.
If you've got a built ecosystem that's 100% iOS friendly, more power to you...
I get exceptional battery life when compared against my netbook
Granted, iPad - roughly 9 hours of heavy use, cheap UX notebook more like 5 (though, Asus makes some models that go for 13...)
and I don't have to open and close the clamshell as I move from meeting to meeting or travel on public transportation.
I like the clamshell action, but, then, I still like my clamshell phone too.
At home I'll watch netflix on it, or HBO GO.
I really don't want to pay for Hulu Plus, and Hulu seems to be preying on the device users while still taking pity on cheapskates on PCs.
This is my personal preference. I'm sure everybody's is different.
Clearly.
That depends on whether or not you have kids. It's hard for me to get my son to turn if off at bedtime. It's an expensive toy, I know.
Amen, I often curse the iPad's 9 hour battery life when trying to pry it away from my 8 year old - if it would just die after one or two, it would make one less child psychology challenge for me.
Having experienced the iPad has largely put me off from getting an iPhone, or really any "smart" phone with a little screen. Whatever I would want to do on the "smartphone" that my "dumbphone" can't is already hobbled on the 10" iPad, and is just that much harder on a 4" or smaller screen.
Unless you're sitting at a desk or table, reading documents is much easier on flat device without an attached keyboard.
For me, at least, my 13" notebook weighs about the same as an iPad (yes, it's VERY light), and I find it easier to read because the 1600x900 resolution screen with brighter backlight is easily adjustable to any angle while sitting in my lap hands free, as opposed to the iPad (1) which is always hands on or precariously balanced.
In the iPad wins column: the notebook can cook toast with it's starboard cooling vent.
When the first one came out, it was the only tablet that piqued my interest. I like the idea of a dual use, "dockable," tablet since I don't imagine I'd use a tablet much longer after the novelty wore off. Asus has really done something great with this incarnation too, it looks like.
I won an iPad for free - it sits on my nightstand mostly unused, the 13" laptop still rules: it has a keyboard, it has Windows instead of iOS, and Hulu is free on Windows...
When I do pick up the iPad, it's for things like Angry Birds, Pocket Frogs, etc. It _can_ browse the web, but not as well as the notebook. It does win out occasionally for things like working on the car where it's nice to have the reference handy without worrying about breaking the more fragile notebook, but then it loses again when it's time to hook up the OBDII diagnostic tool to the USB port.