You could for once, please, run the electrical tubing and the plumbing in orthogonal lines along the main directions in your house! Perhaps even through dedicated gutters/conduits.
What I see here (in the Netherlands and in Denmark) is that all plumbing and electrical conduits are guided in a sort of "shortest path"-way to the application point. This causes many plumbing tubes and electrical tubing to run criss-cross through the walls, making it very hard to determine where it is safe to drill a hole and where it is not. Also, you'd make your life immensely easier if you would run your tubing through accessible conduits so you wouldn't have to tear down half a wall just to replace some tubing.
Also, earth EVERYTHING! (everything metal and not carrying current that is). Install fire and gas detectors, install a few well-placed extinguishers and then think about the rest.
Well, surely not every part on an ordinary firearm was designed with pure functionality in mind. I am thinking of the "bling" on old revolvers. Pearl handles, patterns on the side and such.
So the Bling on a ray-gun might be a little over the top in our eyes, perhaps they are nothing more than a simple bit of decoration, or (you never know) it might actually have function. No-one can tell wether they are useless twisty spiky, doo-dadly junk that are stuck to the side, or functional elements. That's fiction for you.
You are of the opinion that third world countries and the first world countries should be treated as equals?
Well, they are not equals. It's like treating bricks and birds equally and finding that bricks don't grow if you feed them birdfeed.
Anyway, it's not like the first world is not benefitting from the lenient rules on third world pollution production. After all, we get the cheap third world products, whilst having to pay none of the extra costs required to keep the planet alive.
My Ph.D. project happens to be on super-fibre materials, nice coincidence.
As it happens, dyneema is highly stretched polyethylene. As such, it melts at a fairly low temperature (and performs less well before reaching such temeratures. Temperatures around 80 degrees centigrade would do...). Twaron and Kevlar are aramids. They decompose at around 400 degrees, and hardly any change in performance is seen.
Now, 80 degrees C is a quite high temperature, but with a (desert) sun baking on a vest, I would rather wear the slightly heavier aramid vest.
"Surely it is conceivable to cool liquid nitrogen down a little below it's boiling point."
Well, yes, in theory you can do that. I haven't read up on my cryogenics, but the trick is to exchange heat efficiently in order to lower the temperature of the liquid nitrogen. One way to do that is to use an even colder medium and a heat exchanger, which is kind of futile, since the colder medium can be used directly. The other method is to use compressible phase-changing gases, such as found in refrigirators. At this moment I cannot think of a reason why that is impractical. Perhaps there is a lack of suitable elements/gases..
This website http://www.uigi.com/nitrogen.html, however, gives a very good reason: "When liquid nitrogen is vaporized and warmed to ambient temperature, it absorbs a large quantity of heat. The combination of inertness and its intensely cold initial state makes liquid nitrogen an ideal coolant for certain applications such as food freezing."
So the energy/heat required for the phase change of nitrogen from liquid to gas is quite a respectable one, making operating with liquid nitrogen at that temperature (i.e. the b.p.) a preferable one.
I do know, however, that with special techniques, it is possible to cool liquid helium a little further towards the zero Kelvin point. This is used, for example, in MRI scanners to minimize the boiloff of helium. I believe they have now acheived zero (!) boiloff.
Wasn't the trick behind holographics that a part of the pattern could be used to reconstruct the entire pattern? That would make restoring the data on a dropped (and shattered) holographic cube much more convenient..
They might as well have gone with Mac OS X then. I remember Jobs offering to give Mac OS X for free for installation on the OLPC's. At least that'd have been a proper OS.
I believe that Negroponte refused, with the argument that he wanted a truly open OS. Now they've gone with windows, I think his mind must be slipping..
Hear hear. I've been given an old large format camera, and it's taking me quite a while to get used to the sheer variety of options in terms of sharpness plane and perspective correction that that thing has. Especially since the two are slightly convoluted.
Now just to get a developing bath and some sheets of 4x5:)
I've had good fun with ctrl scroll-wheel-up and ctrl scroll-wheel-down though. So that might be a way to go for visually impaired. It doesn't solve the menu bar problem though. Whilst annoying at times, I've recently seen a widescreen windows notebook with adobe reader within a browser. My word! There was hardly any space for the text left due to the sheer number of toolbars present.
I'd be the first to agree that the UI in Mac OS X is quite limited in terms of customisability.
If you like the OS X GUI, great! If you don't, you'd be forced to use third party apps to change even the most basic elements. Me, I'm happy with the way things are, but if there was an easier way to change the appearance, I might consider changing. All in all, it doesn't play that big a role though, the increase in productivity has been well worth the decrease in UI customizability.
My point was that comparing an operating system (Vista) that has been out for a mere few months to an operating system that is about two years old is quite unfair. When 10.5 is out we'll make some comparisons between Vista and OS X.
B.
p.s. a condescending attitude does not help your otherwise quite explanatory post. Check your attitude at the door next time, for they have no place in any civilised argument.
"Compare Milosevic trial with Saddam's trial. Do you see any difference?"
Oh, absolutely. Whilst the Saddam trial was quite the political show-trial which could only have one outcome to save a certain president's face, the Milosevic trial was a proper trial. The latter was much less of a political statement than the first.
I was honestly appalled by a US-led government blatantly ignoring human rights to a fair trial and decapitating (!) him. Is that the example the US wants to make? As in "Don't like your enemies? Here's what `civilised' people do:...". Yes, sure, that will show them.
Well, I'd say quite a chunk of the 42 million ipods would've been sold in Extra-American [sic] countries, so don't count on most schoolkids having iPods. Never mind the fact that people beyond the 10-18 age group might have bought them as well.
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You could for once, please, run the electrical tubing and the plumbing in orthogonal lines along the main directions in your house! Perhaps even through dedicated gutters/conduits.
What I see here (in the Netherlands and in Denmark) is that all plumbing and electrical conduits are guided in a sort of "shortest path"-way to the application point. This causes many plumbing tubes and electrical tubing to run criss-cross through the walls, making it very hard to determine where it is safe to drill a hole and where it is not. Also, you'd make your life immensely easier if you would run your tubing through accessible conduits so you wouldn't have to tear down half a wall just to replace some tubing.
Also, earth EVERYTHING! (everything metal and not carrying current that is). Install fire and gas detectors, install a few well-placed extinguishers and then think about the rest.
B.
Well, surely not every part on an ordinary firearm was designed with pure functionality in mind. I am thinking of the "bling" on old revolvers. Pearl handles, patterns on the side and such.
So the Bling on a ray-gun might be a little over the top in our eyes, perhaps they are nothing more than a simple bit of decoration, or (you never know) it might actually have function. No-one can tell wether they are useless twisty spiky, doo-dadly junk that are stuck to the side, or functional elements. That's fiction for you.
B.
You are of the opinion that third world countries and the first world countries should be treated as equals?
Well, they are not equals. It's like treating bricks and birds equally and finding that bricks don't grow if you feed them birdfeed.
Anyway, it's not like the first world is not benefitting from the lenient rules on third world pollution production. After all, we get the cheap third world products, whilst having to pay none of the extra costs required to keep the planet alive.
B.
My Ph.D. project happens to be on super-fibre materials, nice coincidence.
As it happens, dyneema is highly stretched polyethylene. As such, it melts at a fairly low temperature (and performs less well before reaching such temeratures. Temperatures around 80 degrees centigrade would do...). Twaron and Kevlar are aramids. They decompose at around 400 degrees, and hardly any change in performance is seen.
Now, 80 degrees C is a quite high temperature, but with a (desert) sun baking on a vest, I would rather wear the slightly heavier aramid vest.
B.
"Surely it is conceivable to cool liquid nitrogen down a little below it's boiling point."
Well, yes, in theory you can do that. I haven't read up on my cryogenics, but the trick is to exchange heat efficiently in order to lower the temperature of the liquid nitrogen. One way to do that is to use an even colder medium and a heat exchanger, which is kind of futile, since the colder medium can be used directly. The other method is to use compressible phase-changing gases, such as found in refrigirators. At this moment I cannot think of a reason why that is impractical. Perhaps there is a lack of suitable elements/gases..
This website http://www.uigi.com/nitrogen.html, however, gives a very good reason:
"When liquid nitrogen is vaporized and warmed to ambient temperature, it absorbs a large quantity of heat. The combination of inertness and its intensely cold initial state makes liquid nitrogen an ideal coolant for certain applications such as food freezing."
So the energy/heat required for the phase change of nitrogen from liquid to gas is quite a respectable one, making operating with liquid nitrogen at that temperature (i.e. the b.p.) a preferable one.
I do know, however, that with special techniques, it is possible to cool liquid helium a little further towards the zero Kelvin point. This is used, for example, in MRI scanners to minimize the boiloff of helium. I believe they have now acheived zero (!) boiloff.
B.
religious? how does that go? Perhaps something along the lines of:
"Mankind was never meant to play with liquid gases!", or:
"Superconductivity is the work of the devil! The Devil, I tells ye!"
B.
Probably because that is the method of cooling with liquid nitrogen. If you want to go lower, use liquid helium.
B.
Wasn't the trick behind holographics that a part of the pattern could be used to reconstruct the entire pattern? That would make restoring the data on a dropped (and shattered) holographic cube much more convenient..
Except if you pay a sum of $203.000,- to free the assets of Abrahim Bruhaha, my father..
Nigerian scammers take another leap.
yes, here's one http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn20-e.htm and at a mere 3 kilos it is quite light as well.
I've read about a subsonic firing sniper rifle though. I can't imagine it having any range, but it sure must be quite quiet.
B.
They might as well have gone with Mac OS X then. I remember Jobs offering to give Mac OS X for free for installation on the OLPC's. At least that'd have been a proper OS.
I believe that Negroponte refused, with the argument that he wanted a truly open OS. Now they've gone with windows, I think his mind must be slipping..
B.
Hear hear.
:)
I've been given an old large format camera, and it's taking me quite a while to get used to the sheer variety of options in terms of sharpness plane and perspective correction that that thing has. Especially since the two are slightly convoluted.
Now just to get a developing bath and some sheets of 4x5
B.
A quick google results in "ShapeShifter" http://unsanity.com/haxies/shapeshifter
I've had good fun with ctrl scroll-wheel-up and ctrl scroll-wheel-down though. So that might be a way to go for visually impaired.
It doesn't solve the menu bar problem though. Whilst annoying at times, I've recently seen a widescreen windows notebook with adobe reader within a browser. My word! There was hardly any space for the text left due to the sheer number of toolbars present.
Good luck.
B.
I'd be the first to agree that the UI in Mac OS X is quite limited in terms of customisability.
If you like the OS X GUI, great! If you don't, you'd be forced to use third party apps to change even the most basic elements.
Me, I'm happy with the way things are, but if there was an easier way to change the appearance, I might consider changing. All in all, it doesn't play that big a role though, the increase in productivity has been well worth the decrease in UI customizability.
B.
Time to move out of your parent's basement then.
I keed, I keed.
B.
Or get a mac, for the price of windows Vista, with screen-licking graphics and other cool shininess! Ooh, shinyyyyyy!.
B.
My point was that comparing an operating system (Vista) that has been out for a mere few months to an operating system that is about two years old is quite unfair.
When 10.5 is out we'll make some comparisons between Vista and OS X.
B.
p.s. a condescending attitude does not help your otherwise quite explanatory post. Check your attitude at the door next time, for they have no place in any civilised argument.
No, 10.4.x is the current version, the XP-alike. 10.3 would be more windows ME or 2000 perhaps..
"Compare Milosevic trial with Saddam's trial. Do you see any difference?"
Oh, absolutely. Whilst the Saddam trial was quite the political show-trial which could only have one outcome to save a certain president's face, the Milosevic trial was a proper trial. The latter was much less of a political statement than the first.
I was honestly appalled by a US-led government blatantly ignoring human rights to a fair trial and decapitating (!) him. Is that the example the US wants to make? As in "Don't like your enemies? Here's what `civilised' people do:...". Yes, sure, that will show them.
B.
And they could show Dresden and the result of the incessant bombing of that city... oh wait, it's been rebuilt.. never mind.
Well, It's a sure-fire way to be able to boast about your vista sales by the end of the year.
CEO's want instant gratification, instead of keeping the customers happy.
B.
.. and it will always contain the same amount of music over time. what's the use of 3 million songs when you already have two?
Call me again when they've released an iPod that can contain all the music in the known universe. Then I might switch to a higher capacity one.
B.
Well, I'd say quite a chunk of the 42 million ipods would've been sold in Extra-American [sic] countries, so don't count on most schoolkids having iPods. Never mind the fact that people beyond the 10-18 age group might have bought them as well.
B.
Well, you could, for example, compute things that would not require intervention of any video card.
B.