Ummm, that is actually a good point... What is the point of a 'fuel' that *isn't* flammable?
I know the parent was being facetious, but the very nature of a fuel is that it stores energy. Carrying 15 gallons of highly flammable liquid use to be seen as a some crazy idea, but most of us now do it every day without much thought. It'll be the same thing once we're all carrying hydrogen/plutonium/antimatter, just dont purchase the Pinto or Dell models...
I'll see your "methane" and propose an even better compound that is liquid! Just link about 8 carbon atoms together and pack 18 H atoms around it... the H percentage goes down to around 15%, but it would work well with our current fuel distribution systems...
That's exactly what I though when I first read "chemically" storing hydrogen... perhaps it needs to be stipulated that a "hydrogen" economy is really a "carbon use free/neutral" economy... We already use hydrogen...
MT[TB]F has become a completely BS metric because it is so poorly understood. Dont forget the M in MTBF. Its mean (stastically speaking...). That means (!) that some might fail now, some later, but on average they last a while. Manipulate that information and you might get 1,000,000 hrs MTBF, but you have to account for and not forget about the worst case senario (thats what a failure is) which might be the next drive is going to fail *now*, which is why RAID5 isnt as good as it might seem looking at the average statistics.
Backup, backup, backup has always been my motto (and thats just personal data). Interesting that Google thinks this is the way to go also (i.e. 3 copies of all data)
Although they can learn how to... missionary work where a teacher goes and shows them...
That is kind of the problem where there is an alterior motive to help. And many countries are very skeptical of help now because of old style missionary conquest err conversion... Sure, send them help, but dont thrust beliefs upon them... (just picking on the word missionary)
t=0 SCO lawyer: Did IBM steal any code? t=+10 seconds Wilson: Hmmm, let me thing about that... t=+3hrs 45 seconds Wilson: Well i think you will find... t=+4hrs IBM lawyer: Thats time for today, see you next time shall we?
Yeah, my thoughts were that acetone peroxide would be likely... 2 clear relatively easy to get chemicals, but i though you would want to collect the solids before detonation.
I was thinking about why no pastes (toothpaste, makup etc)... and came up with MEPK (Methyl ethyl ketone peroxide). Thats the stuff that comes in a toothpaste like consistancy with some hobby resins... Relatively easy to make too. And then i just followed the link to Benzoyl peroxide (thats acne cream!) so that explains the no pastes i guess... But someone wanting to travel with 5 kilos of acne cream might have some explaining to do...
Now not allowing anything else onto the plane sort of stumped me. It does allow simple observation that that person is not carrying anything *in their hands*, but there are other, errr cavities, where material could be carried.
A couple of things I saw on TV (an "al quaeida" video) some bomb "experts" etc and of course our friend google, lead me to "astrolite". Rather nasty liquid explosive, with nasty but obtaniable components. Being nitrate based i doubt it would get passed a bomb sniffer, but its interesting property is that it can be absorbed into a surface and remain exlosive for several days even when uncontained (what was shown on the "terrorist training video"). So that is maybe why you cant have your explosive chemical soaked books, spare underware, etc...
No electronic devices is a no brainer... And i would hope that covers no batteries too. A small nicad has enough oompf to weld metal together so could easily ignite a home made detonator. Some of those lithium cells seem to be able to detonate themselves quite nicely too ("Put down that Dell notebook and step away from the device with your hand in the air!")
Now a liquid helium cooled bed sized superconductor might cost a bit ($1.5mill may cover it...)
When you put a magnet over one it is stabilised without active control. IANAP (i am not a physisist) but it has something to do with induced currents opposing motion (lorenz?)
Liquid nitrogen cooled ceramics might be cheeper if you could build and fire a piece that size... they do have prototype *trains* that run on them after all, so maybe it isnt that 'out there'
Have seen pictures of frogs being levitated without contact, not sure what that would do for your health.. (or potential love life)
They come standard with wireless mesh and connection sharing, IIRC. The idea being that the school can get at least one of them connected, then they all are.
Why do i get the image of african children lined up alongside a road every 50 meters, winding their clockwork computers so the village down the road has 'net access???
How far could a chain of 4 million mesh networked computers reach anyway?
I can not recall all the times i have heard people not having real backups despite being instructed too. A couple of great ones
1) Having a backup - i saved it twice...
2) Having a backup - 2 floppies (only)- in the same backpack. Stolen the week before the thesis was due.
3) Having a backup - and overwriting it with the corrupted copy (anyone else expreienced the big red X in old MS word?)
4)Having a backup - and not realising that the first 50 pages are corrupted and overwriting the perfectly good backup...
5)Trying incremental backups but stuffing it up completely and working on an old file *and then* overwriting the latest (numbers and dates people...)
These experiences of other people have me using; 5 minute autosave, immediate copy to another media, using incremental filename, having more than 3 backups (home, work, thumbdrive) and emailing it to myself (gmail/gspace is great... i guess that counts as a 4th) and keeping printouts... If something bad enough happens to take out all my backups then i have a lot more to worry about than my thesis...
I still cant believe that someone can spend months (or even hours) working on a project and not have backups. I really have no sympathy when someone comes to me (somehow i am the go to person...) and says "my file is stuffed". To which the reply is "where is your backup/s". "oh i didnt have time..."
I remember a time when i had a 3.5" floppy in my top pocket and my friend gave me a "friendly" punch hello in the chest, breaking the case and bending the door. A spare floppy and some quick surgery to transfer the floppy's brains later the data was still recoverable from that disk... They were kind of resilient...
No, we're not all like John Howard, but the majority of us are. We, Australia, elected him to represent us
Ok i am not an electoral expert but with our preferential system it is very possible to have a *party* that less than half voted for as a first preference. Only because we *have* to put them down somewhere did they end up with more than half the votes. (ie on my card i probably put the major parties last and second last - 8 and 9 if i remember-, who i really wanted doesnt really matter)
On a second note, noone actually voted for John Howard. He is a figure head of the party we voted for. The PM is not elected like the president of the USA, but by his mates in the party, once again on a similar system that could have a person that is not half of everyones 1st choice (and is corrupted by being an open system with lots of deals being made).
just calls the action of making a search a "google" yes
use msn cause thats the Dell default yes
secretly brainwashed by butterfies that come out of the sewer each night to sprinkle mind altering drugs on our lips as we sleep Not sure... my version of reality might have been substituted for someone elses...
What i really dont get is why they hell *cant* thermite or some other exothermic, dangerous, explosive, acid, etc method be used on a military plane...
Its not like they dont already carry thermite, tnt, gunpowder, phosphorous, gasoline, oil, napalm, magnesium (to burn), uranium depleted or otherwise etc etc
This is the military after all, they do know how to safely handle this stuff (I hope)
I do like the idea of using a solvent susceptable binder for the oxide layer though... This is the military too, so they are not using off-the-shelf components for this (or they dont have to).
My other idea would be to include a special erase arm in the drive. Hit the panic button and steel wool (or tungsten carbide or whatever) arm drops onto the spinning platter, making confetti out of the drive surface with about 80 passes in a second...
"with the functional purpose of improving hygiene"...... "Wait Bob, before you pull off the semi I scored a 3 pissing on Pac Man"... 5 feet from the urinal!
Slashdot Mirror
"Microsoft gives IT to the EU"
...and best of all is not flamable
Ummm, that is actually a good point... What is the point of a 'fuel' that *isn't* flammable?
I know the parent was being facetious, but the very nature of a fuel is that it stores energy. Carrying 15 gallons of highly flammable liquid use to be seen as a some crazy idea, but most of us now do it every day without much thought. It'll be the same thing once we're all carrying hydrogen/plutonium/antimatter, just dont purchase the Pinto or Dell models...
I'll see your "methane" and propose an even better compound that is liquid! Just link about 8 carbon atoms together and pack 18 H atoms around it... the H percentage goes down to around 15%, but it would work well with our current fuel distribution systems...
That's exactly what I though when I first read "chemically" storing hydrogen... perhaps it needs to be stipulated that a "hydrogen" economy is really a "carbon use free/neutral" economy... We already use hydrogen...
Its a legal system, not a "justice" system. Justice has nothing to do with the law.
i.e. Government can decide that we all should or shouldnt do something, but that doesnt make it right. --> insert example of your choice
MT[TB]F has become a completely BS metric because it is so poorly understood.
Dont forget the M in MTBF. Its mean (stastically speaking...). That means (!) that some might fail now, some later, but on average they last a while. Manipulate that information and you might get 1,000,000 hrs MTBF, but you have to account for and not forget about the worst case senario (thats what a failure is) which might be the next drive is going to fail *now*, which is why RAID5 isnt as good as it might seem looking at the average statistics.
Backup, backup, backup has always been my motto (and thats just personal data). Interesting that Google thinks this is the way to go also (i.e. 3 copies of all data)
Just dont try using the thing over the new year...
excuse me while I go wee from my wee wee-wee
Although they can learn how to ... missionary work where a teacher goes and shows them...
That is kind of the problem where there is an alterior motive to help. And many countries are very skeptical of help now because of old style missionary conquest err conversion... Sure, send them help, but dont thrust beliefs upon them... (just picking on the word missionary)
I think we can safely say that "He was struck by this meteriote", but i still cant decide what you could be hit with...
BOFHs around the world rejoice that they now have a good excuse for travel to Hawaii...
The four hours will fly by!
t=0
SCO lawyer: Did IBM steal any code?
t=+10 seconds
Wilson: Hmmm, let me thing about that...
t=+3hrs 45 seconds
Wilson: Well i think you will find...
t=+4hrs
IBM lawyer: Thats time for today, see you next time shall we?
Yeah, my thoughts were that acetone peroxide would be likely... 2 clear relatively easy to get chemicals, but i though you would want to collect the solids before detonation.
I was thinking about why no pastes (toothpaste, makup etc)... and came up with MEPK (Methyl ethyl ketone peroxide). Thats the stuff that comes in a toothpaste like consistancy with some hobby resins... Relatively easy to make too. And then i just followed the link to Benzoyl peroxide (thats acne cream!) so that explains the no pastes i guess... But someone wanting to travel with 5 kilos of acne cream might have some explaining to do...
Now not allowing anything else onto the plane sort of stumped me. It does allow simple observation that that person is not carrying anything *in their hands*, but there are other, errr cavities, where material could be carried.
A couple of things I saw on TV (an "al quaeida" video) some bomb "experts" etc and of course our friend google, lead me to "astrolite". Rather nasty liquid explosive, with nasty but obtaniable components. Being nitrate based i doubt it would get passed a bomb sniffer, but its interesting property is that it can be absorbed into a surface and remain exlosive for several days even when uncontained (what was shown on the "terrorist training video"). So that is maybe why you cant have your explosive chemical soaked books, spare underware, etc...
No electronic devices is a no brainer... And i would hope that covers no batteries too. A small nicad has enough oompf to weld metal together so could easily ignite a home made detonator. Some of those lithium cells seem to be able to detonate themselves quite nicely too ("Put down that Dell notebook and step away from the device with your hand in the air!")
Now a liquid helium cooled bed sized superconductor might cost a bit ($1.5mill may cover it...)
When you put a magnet over one it is stabilised without active control. IANAP (i am not a physisist) but it has something to do with induced currents opposing motion (lorenz?)
Liquid nitrogen cooled ceramics might be cheeper if you could build and fire a piece that size... they do have prototype *trains* that run on them after all, so maybe it isnt that 'out there'
Have seen pictures of frogs being levitated without contact, not sure what that would do for your health.. (or potential love life)
They come standard with wireless mesh and connection sharing, IIRC. The idea being that the school can get at least one of them connected, then they all are.
Why do i get the image of african children lined up alongside a road every 50 meters, winding their clockwork computers so the village down the road has 'net access???
How far could a chain of 4 million mesh networked computers reach anyway?
I can not recall all the times i have heard people not having real backups despite being instructed too. A couple of great ones
1) Having a backup - i saved it twice...
2) Having a backup - 2 floppies (only)- in the same backpack. Stolen the week before the thesis was due.
3) Having a backup - and overwriting it with the corrupted copy (anyone else expreienced the big red X in old MS word?)
4)Having a backup - and not realising that the first 50 pages are corrupted and overwriting the perfectly good backup...
5)Trying incremental backups but stuffing it up completely and working on an old file *and then* overwriting the latest (numbers and dates people...)
These experiences of other people have me using; 5 minute autosave, immediate copy to another media, using incremental filename, having more than 3 backups (home, work, thumbdrive) and emailing it to myself (gmail/gspace is great... i guess that counts as a 4th) and keeping printouts... If something bad enough happens to take out all my backups then i have a lot more to worry about than my thesis...
I still cant believe that someone can spend months (or even hours) working on a project and not have backups. I really have no sympathy when someone comes to me (somehow i am the go to person...) and says "my file is stuffed". To which the reply is "where is your backup/s". "oh i didnt have time..."
I remember a time when i had a 3.5" floppy in my top pocket and my friend gave me a "friendly" punch hello in the chest, breaking the case and bending the door. A spare floppy and some quick surgery to transfer the floppy's brains later the data was still recoverable from that disk... They were kind of resilient...
No, we're not all like John Howard, but the majority of us are. We, Australia, elected him to represent us
Ok i am not an electoral expert but with our preferential system it is very possible to have a *party* that less than half voted for as a first preference. Only because we *have* to put them down somewhere did they end up with more than half the votes. (ie on my card i probably put the major parties last and second last - 8 and 9 if i remember-, who i really wanted doesnt really matter)
On a second note, noone actually voted for John Howard. He is a figure head of the party we voted for. The PM is not elected like the president of the USA, but by his mates in the party, once again on a similar system that could have a person that is not half of everyones 1st choice (and is corrupted by being an open system with lots of deals being made).
You understand perfectly...
just calls the action of making a search a "google"
yes
use msn cause thats the Dell default
yes
secretly brainwashed by butterfies that come out of the sewer each night to sprinkle mind altering drugs on our lips as we sleep
Not sure... my version of reality might have been substituted for someone elses...
Maybe I need to make more friends, but all of my imaganary ones and my not-made-up dogs swear they use Google.
Us being on slashdot I belive you (my dog uses google too)...
But, not to be pedantic, most people in the outside world *think* they use Google
From what I've seen;
you get the top guys saying that "it was the manager/s below me who were responsible for oversight on that matter"
and the bottom guys going "it was the manager/s above me who were responsible for that matter"
The guy/s in the middle who now have two votes to one don't stand a chance at who gets the blame...
Don't be caught in the middle (-managment)...
Please excuse my ignorance, but wouldnt standard operation of a computer with an encrypted harddrive be "keeping the key in memory"
1) turn on encrypted computer
2) log in (thus providing key)
3) key is in memory decrypting harddrive
4) ?
5) profit...
What i really dont get is why they hell *cant* thermite or some other exothermic, dangerous, explosive, acid, etc method be used on a military plane...
Its not like they dont already carry thermite, tnt, gunpowder, phosphorous, gasoline, oil, napalm, magnesium (to burn), uranium depleted or otherwise etc etc
This is the military after all, they do know how to safely handle this stuff (I hope)
I do like the idea of using a solvent susceptable binder for the oxide layer though... This is the military too, so they are not using off-the-shelf components for this (or they dont have to).
My other idea would be to include a special erase arm in the drive. Hit the panic button and steel wool (or tungsten carbide or whatever) arm drops onto the spinning platter, making confetti out of the drive surface with about 80 passes in a second...
"with the functional purpose of improving hygiene"...... "Wait Bob, before you pull off the semi I scored a 3 pissing on Pac Man" ... 5 feet from the urinal!
Warning... 836MB !
its (TTAGGG)n... No, seriously...