Indeed. For Egypt, the servers are far away in another country. They have no access. The US would never shut down the access because the government can get access to the servers. The server logs that must be kept ( fighting terrorists ) are a gold mine of IP addresses and who is doing what. Shut down the services and you lose the ability to spy with ease.
The wiring should be shielded to withstand a lightening strike. A cell phone should have no effect. If it does, the design is defective or the electronics/wiring is damaged. If there is damage/design flaw, there is a lot of interference and other signals coming from radar, power sources, the earth, weather, etc. My guess is that something else will trigger a problem before some cell phone or wifi connection does.
If you planted an air freshener loaded with this stuff ( you need to figure out how to synthesize it ) in an NFL team's locker room, think of the competitive advantage!
If you work for JP Morgan, you would want to load up the Goldman trading floor with this stuff. Take the testosterone out and they will suffer!
Winning recipe! If you planted an air freshener loaded with this stuff ( see above post - you need to figure out how to synthesize it ) in an NFL team's locker room, think of the competitive advantage!
If you work for JP Morgan, you would want to load up the Goldman trading floor with this stuff. Take the testosterone out and they will suffer.
If Assange is charged with terrorist charges, the police should be charged with the same crime because they did the same thing - Released confidential information. It is important to remember ignorance is not a defense. In this country all people get equal treatment - police and Assange.
Sorry. I'm going to sound like I'm trying to be an ass. Please don't take offense.
Yea. Good thing that the military has never blown million to billions of dollars on a weapon system that failed to perform. Their track record is prefect, so there is no reason to be skeptical about marketing claims that sound too good to be true.
There must be missing details here. I'm shocked that so many people on slashdot have responded and basically said that we should trust that the government got it right.
I think we need to wait for the details to come out. If 12,000 people are using this weapon, the true specs will become wildly known.
Bottom line, the timing would have to be amazing accurate. It does make me wonder what is the spin rate. It needs to be high enough to keep the projectile stable, but slow enough that the centrifugal forces don't destroy the electronics.
I think you have the right idea. First a 22 bullet is not very aerodynamic, and it is very light. With a good ballistic coefficient ( more aerodynamic ), a lot more weight and the ability to aim this more as a mortar ( 20-30 degrees up? ), you might be able to consistently hit a window sized target at 800 meters.
You have an issue on windy days at these low speeds ( 210m/s ) and long distances ( 800m ) . A 50 cal. shot at 2,000 meters has less hang time. I assume the on-board computer allows you to enter wind speed and direction. The on-board computer should automatically measure humidity and air pressure. ( these things actually do make a difference for long range sniping or anything that is going to hang in the air for a long time. )
If it only goes 210m/s ( 700fps ) How on earth does it reach 800 meters?
That is slower than a 22 round, and that is utterly worthless at hitting anything further out than 150m.
The problem is: it takes a long time at that speed to reach 200 meters. It is accelerating downwards due to gravity. By 200 meters, it is dropping like a rock.
The projectile is traveling say 1000 feet per second ( let's say that the target is 500m away starting behind a long stone wall ), then the projectile explodes. To kill someone it just passed, it will have to fire lots of large fragments backward and down ( or backward and sideways - if person is standing around the corner of a building ) at at least 1000-2000 feet / second to be lethal.
The physics on this is tricky. To do this, you need to meet the "for every action, an opposite and equal reaction" law. This means something of equal mass will fly forward at ~ 3,000 ft/sec ( this is wasted material not being aimed at anything except unsuspecting persons in the distance ) . In the end, you are talking about a round with what? maybe 20 fragments ( to increase the odds of hitting something ) and each fragment will have to 1) fly fast enough to penetrate and ideally cause hydrostatic shock and 2) be heavy enough to do damage. If the rounds are too big and heavy, a single gunner will have trouble firing the weapon ( bruising on the shoulder ) and won't be able to carry many rounds because of the weight.
For close range targets - 100m, the round is traveling at perhaps 2000 feet per second. Even if this thing blows up over someone's head, it seem most of the blast is going to continue forward, not towards the person behind the wall. Perhaps they hope the concussion wave will be strong enough to be lethal. A very high percentage of the metal fragments should blow forward due to the already high velocity of the round.
Keep in mind, this round is spinning, so the blast will go in all directions. It is not possible to tell the bullet to fire downwards when over the target.
note: a 22 cal bullet fires at bout 800-1200 feet per second. An M15, the standard round for the USMC, fires at about 2,700 to 3,500 feet per second and can have a range out to about 800 meters.
Agreed. Actually, over the last 15 years, I don't know anyone who has been mugged. I do know of people who have lost valuables from their cars at night. Even if a thief smashed my car window and stole everything inside ( the most likely crime to happen to me ), the thief would never get my wallet.
Even in the mugging scenario, it is very rare for me to carry more than 500USD ( this is only immediately after leaving the bank ) . I only carry more than 500USD if I have a specific purchase in mind. The odds of being mugged during those brief windows is low ( generally during the day and while traveling from the house to the store ). A loss of 500USD would hurt, but it wouldn't wipe me out. The loss due to identity theft can be much more painful. It can take years and lawyers to clear your name.
This comes out at the same time as I have stopped using credit/debit cards. I've started paying for everything with cash ( minus my web purchases... ). The government's ability to track non-cash transactions has improved to the point where I would rather have my privacy and take my chances with the possibility of theft.
What does "cloud" mean? It means that I will eat you alive if I see it on your resume.
People can not talk intelligently about this subject. There are completely open issues from SLA's to security to handling 20 different versions of the OS on the servers in the "cloud". I include Steve Balmer on my list of people who can't clearly define this concept.
You ask people what is the cloud and they give "e-mail" or YouTube or an e-commerce site as an example.
In brief, the Brachistochrone problem asks: what is the shortest time between two points. I'm simplifying a bit. It isn't always a straight line!
It should be fairly obvious to anyone in academia that the solution presented intuitively makes sense. Assuming that the goal is only to round the bases as fast as possible.
I do have to add that it seems sad that professors these days solve problems with mathematical modeling instead of equations.
I know the guys at Timber Hill from before IB bought them. They are what one would calls pros. It is hard to think of them as victims. They have all the money hardware and brains a company could want. Actually, I would call Timber Hill fairly predatory. These guys were printing big money through high speed algo trading before anyone knew what that was back in 2000.
Knowing them, I doubt they are happy that their name is in the news. Years ago, they truly didn't want any attention. The less the outside world knew, the better.
The big issue is: this is essentially what all the high speed traders are doing. The line here is fuzzy. However, I fear these Norwegian fellows are being held to a higher standard than people who are more powerful and more established.
But the person who stole the data was paid by the government. That makes him an agent of a foreign government in Switzerland. He was paid by the government ( French government ) for his work.
If he was in the US, stealing data from Bank of American for France and being paid millions of dollars for the theft, he would be an agent of the French government. As such, he could be arrested in the US for failing to register as an agent of a foreign government.
This should be obvious. There is a general principal that evidence must be gathered according to a long list of rules. The rules are there to protect the people from their government. There are a lot of criminals who walk free in the US every year because the police and/or the district attorney made a mistake. That is why you pay a lot of money for a good lawyer when you are in trouble. Any mistakes that the lawyer finds will ALWAYS work to the defendant's favor. By allowing an exception for this situation, a precedent is being set for making exceptions. The next time the government wants go after someone without following the rules, the government can cite the "bank data" as a precedent for bending the rules and ask for another exception.
Do we want a government based on the general principle that: The ends ( busting tax evaders ) justify the means ( illegal gathering of evidence )?
A slightly different issue is: Should the UK government be encouraging, and in some cases paying, people in Switzerland to break the laws of the Swiss?
This means that evidence gathered illegally is admissible! Get a confession by torture. No problem. Illegal wire tap? This never was much of a problem in the US. Taking pictures of police engaging in illegal activity where photography is banned. The judge won't throw out the evidence.
I disagree. Let's assume I can sell you a very very cheap solar cell that runs at 2% efficiency. The price is so low that the $ per kw/h is very low. However, this is not a viable option. In this case, you will quickly recoup your investment, but you aren't producing much power. Do you plan to make your roof 5 to 10 times as large?
$ per kw/h is important, but it is not the only important metric.
I do agree that there is no absolute need to be off the grid. However, it seems to me that a logical goal for the technology should be: a typical house should be able to cover its southern facing roof with solar panels and produce enough power to run lights, refrigerator, and A/C on a summer day at noon.
One of the problems with solar that no one seems to talk about is the system is limited by the size of the southern facing roof on a house. In the case of desert power generation, a large amount of land is required. If solar cells can make the leap from 12% efficiency to 40%, this will change everything. Your roof installation will be able to produce a much more meaningful amount of power especially in the context of trying to run air conditioning during day light hours. More importantly, the same applies for many malls, warehouses, factories, etc. At 12% efficiency, the roof of a mall is simply too small to generate enough power to be off the grid during the day. The amount of land required per MegaWatt will drop considerably. At 40% efficiency solar starts to become a much more viable option.
Slashdot Mirror
Indeed. For Egypt, the servers are far away in another country. They have no access. The US would never shut down the access because the government can get access to the servers. The server logs that must be kept ( fighting terrorists ) are a gold mine of IP addresses and who is doing what. Shut down the services and you lose the ability to spy with ease.
The wiring should be shielded to withstand a lightening strike. A cell phone should have no effect. If it does, the design is defective or the electronics/wiring is damaged. If there is damage/design flaw, there is a lot of interference and other signals coming from radar, power sources, the earth, weather, etc. My guess is that something else will trigger a problem before some cell phone or wifi connection does.
If you planted an air freshener loaded with this stuff ( you need to figure out how to synthesize it ) in an NFL team's locker room, think of the competitive advantage!
If you work for JP Morgan, you would want to load up the Goldman trading floor with this stuff. Take the testosterone out and they will suffer!
Winning recipe!
If you planted an air freshener loaded with this stuff ( see above post - you need to figure out how to synthesize it ) in an NFL team's locker room, think of the competitive advantage!
If you work for JP Morgan, you would want to load up the Goldman trading floor with this stuff. Take the testosterone out and they will suffer.
If Assange is charged with terrorist charges, the police should be charged with the same crime because they did the same thing - Released confidential information. It is important to remember ignorance is not a defense. In this country all people get equal treatment - police and Assange.
Thanks. I see how this might work
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1888636&cid=34388460
This post has some numbers, but he doesn't site a source.
Sorry. I'm going to sound like I'm trying to be an ass. Please don't take offense.
Yea. Good thing that the military has never blown million to billions of dollars on a weapon system that failed to perform. Their track record is prefect, so there is no reason to be skeptical about marketing claims that sound too good to be true.
I should hire you! Someone with initiative!
There must be missing details here. I'm shocked that so many people on slashdot have responded and basically said that we should trust that the government got it right.
I think we need to wait for the details to come out. If 12,000 people are using this weapon, the true specs will become wildly known.
I don't know how fast this thing spins.
Regular bullets do spin very fast. Fast as in 50,000 to 250,000 RPM.
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2008/06/calculating-bullet-rpm-spin-rates-and-stability/
Bottom line, the timing would have to be amazing accurate. It does make me wonder what is the spin rate. It needs to be high enough to keep the projectile stable, but slow enough that the centrifugal forces don't destroy the electronics.
I think you have the right idea. First a 22 bullet is not very aerodynamic, and it is very light. With a good ballistic coefficient ( more aerodynamic ), a lot more weight and the ability to aim this more as a mortar ( 20-30 degrees up? ), you might be able to consistently hit a window sized target at 800 meters.
You have an issue on windy days at these low speeds ( 210m/s ) and long distances ( 800m ) . A 50 cal. shot at 2,000 meters has less hang time. I assume the on-board computer allows you to enter wind speed and direction. The on-board computer should automatically measure humidity and air pressure. ( these things actually do make a difference for long range sniping or anything that is going to hang in the air for a long time. )
If it only goes 210m/s ( 700fps ) How on earth does it reach 800 meters?
That is slower than a 22 round, and that is utterly worthless at hitting anything further out than 150m.
The problem is: it takes a long time at that speed to reach 200 meters. It is accelerating downwards due to gravity. By 200 meters, it is dropping like a rock.
http://www.federalpremium.com/products/GraphPages/BallisticGraphs/LongTrajectoryGraph.aspx
The chart above is for something shot at 1200fps. That is a lot faster than 700fps.
Gravity is powerful.
Source:
http://www.federalpremium.com/products/details/rimfire.aspx?id=666
The projectile is traveling say 1000 feet per second ( let's say that the target is 500m away starting behind a long stone wall ), then the projectile explodes. To kill someone it just passed, it will have to fire lots of large fragments backward and down ( or backward and sideways - if person is standing around the corner of a building ) at at least 1000-2000 feet / second to be lethal.
The physics on this is tricky. To do this, you need to meet the "for every action, an opposite and equal reaction" law. This means something of equal mass will fly forward at ~ 3,000 ft/sec ( this is wasted material not being aimed at anything except unsuspecting persons in the distance ) . In the end, you are talking about a round with what? maybe 20 fragments ( to increase the odds of hitting something ) and each fragment will have to 1) fly fast enough to penetrate and ideally cause hydrostatic shock and 2) be heavy enough to do damage. If the rounds are too big and heavy, a single gunner will have trouble firing the weapon ( bruising on the shoulder ) and won't be able to carry many rounds because of the weight.
For close range targets - 100m, the round is traveling at perhaps 2000 feet per second. Even if this thing blows up over someone's head, it seem most of the blast is going to continue forward, not towards the person behind the wall. Perhaps they hope the concussion wave will be strong enough to be lethal. A very high percentage of the metal fragments should blow forward due to the already high velocity of the round.
Keep in mind, this round is spinning, so the blast will go in all directions. It is not possible to tell the bullet to fire downwards when over the target.
note: a 22 cal bullet fires at bout 800-1200 feet per second. An M15, the standard round for the USMC, fires at about 2,700 to 3,500 feet per second and can have a range out to about 800 meters.
Agreed. Actually, over the last 15 years, I don't know anyone who has been mugged. I do know of people who have lost valuables from their cars at night. Even if a thief smashed my car window and stole everything inside ( the most likely crime to happen to me ), the thief would never get my wallet.
Even in the mugging scenario, it is very rare for me to carry more than 500USD ( this is only immediately after leaving the bank ) . I only carry more than 500USD if I have a specific purchase in mind. The odds of being mugged during those brief windows is low ( generally during the day and while traveling from the house to the store ). A loss of 500USD would hurt, but it wouldn't wipe me out. The loss due to identity theft can be much more painful. It can take years and lawyers to clear your name.
This comes out at the same time as I have stopped using credit/debit cards. I've started paying for everything with cash ( minus my web purchases... ). The government's ability to track non-cash transactions has improved to the point where I would rather have my privacy and take my chances with the possibility of theft.
What does "cloud" mean? It means that I will eat you alive if I see it on your resume.
People can not talk intelligently about this subject. There are completely open issues from SLA's to security to handling 20 different versions of the OS on the servers in the "cloud". I include Steve Balmer on my list of people who can't clearly define this concept.
You ask people what is the cloud and they give "e-mail" or YouTube or an e-commerce site as an example.
Any math teacher should know this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachistochrone_curve
In brief, the Brachistochrone problem asks: what is the shortest time between two points. I'm simplifying a bit. It isn't always a straight line!
It should be fairly obvious to anyone in academia that the solution presented intuitively makes sense. Assuming that the goal is only to round the bases as fast as possible.
I do have to add that it seems sad that professors these days solve problems with mathematical modeling instead of equations.
I know the guys at Timber Hill from before IB bought them. They are what one would calls pros. It is hard to think of them as victims. They have all the money hardware and brains a company could want. Actually, I would call Timber Hill fairly predatory. These guys were printing big money through high speed algo trading before anyone knew what that was back in 2000.
Knowing them, I doubt they are happy that their name is in the news. Years ago, they truly didn't want any attention. The less the outside world knew, the better.
The big issue is: this is essentially what all the high speed traders are doing. The line here is fuzzy. However, I fear these Norwegian fellows are being held to a higher standard than people who are more powerful and more established.
But the person who stole the data was paid by the government. That makes him an agent of a foreign government in Switzerland. He was paid by the government ( French government ) for his work.
If he was in the US, stealing data from Bank of American for France and being paid millions of dollars for the theft, he would be an agent of the French government. As such, he could be arrested in the US for failing to register as an agent of a foreign government.
This should be obvious. There is a general principal that evidence must be gathered according to a long list of rules. The rules are there to protect the people from their government. There are a lot of criminals who walk free in the US every year because the police and/or the district attorney made a mistake. That is why you pay a lot of money for a good lawyer when you are in trouble. Any mistakes that the lawyer finds will ALWAYS work to the defendant's favor. By allowing an exception for this situation, a precedent is being set for making exceptions. The next time the government wants go after someone without following the rules, the government can cite the "bank data" as a precedent for bending the rules and ask for another exception.
Do we want a government based on the general principle that: The ends ( busting tax evaders ) justify the means ( illegal gathering of evidence )?
A slightly different issue is: Should the UK government be encouraging, and in some cases paying, people in Switzerland to break the laws of the Swiss?
Western governments will pay you millions to steal your employer's data!!!
This means that evidence gathered illegally is admissible!
Get a confession by torture. No problem.
Illegal wire tap? This never was much of a problem in the US.
Taking pictures of police engaging in illegal activity where photography is banned. The judge won't throw out the evidence.
I disagree. Let's assume I can sell you a very very cheap solar cell that runs at 2% efficiency. The price is so low that the $ per kw/h is very low. However, this is not a viable option. In this case, you will quickly recoup your investment, but you aren't producing much power. Do you plan to make your roof 5 to 10 times as large?
$ per kw/h is important, but it is not the only important metric.
I do agree that there is no absolute need to be off the grid. However, it seems to me that a logical goal for the technology should be: a typical house should be able to cover its southern facing roof with solar panels and produce enough power to run lights, refrigerator, and A/C on a summer day at noon.
One of the problems with solar that no one seems to talk about is the system is limited by the size of the southern facing roof on a house. In the case of desert power generation, a large amount of land is required. If solar cells can make the leap from 12% efficiency to 40%, this will change everything. Your roof installation will be able to produce a much more meaningful amount of power especially in the context of trying to run air conditioning during day light hours. More importantly, the same applies for many malls, warehouses, factories, etc. At 12% efficiency, the roof of a mall is simply too small to generate enough power to be off the grid during the day. The amount of land required per MegaWatt will drop considerably. At 40% efficiency solar starts to become a much more viable option.
Young single male admins at companies like Google and Yahoo are golden contacts. If you are looking to research something, they can help. For a price.
In other words, an embedded C-4 change :)