The climate is mild, pretty much all year round, and wet, pretty much all year round. Slugs love it. In agriculture the use of pesticides is not overly encouraged by environmental legislation and there aren't too many natural predators (just hedgehogs and badgers really). But there is an abundance of suitable food plants for slugs.
It's maybe not a plague of slugs but enough to think that this robot thing would do a useful job in eliminating the slugs without adding more pesticides to a pretty delicately balanced (in some areas) ecology.
Well from reading the 3Dwm site it seems that that is exactly what they are trying to do with the whole thing. The window manager is designed for use in there 3dCube virtual reality environment.
One thing I don't understand is how these times are authenticated. There's no provision for it on the submission form. You just fill in your name and machine, and enter a time. You can just make it up.
I already posted the result somewhere else so apologies if you're reading it again.
Assuming the flags were roughly a half metre across and are now lying flat n the surface. Then with the moon at around 400,000 km distance the approximate angular size is 1.25x10^-9 radians.
The angular resolution of a tescope is equal to 1.22 x W / D. W is the wavelength of the light, and D is the diameter. Assuming visible light to have a wavelength of 550nm (yellow light) then in order to see the angle above D = 1.22 x 550 x 10^-9 / 1.25x10^-9
or
D = 54 metres (approximately)
That's a pretty big telescope. The largest optical telscopes currently in use are the Keck telsocpes which are each 10 m in diameter.
Once you've buit your 54 metre telescope let me know and I'll advise you on how to elimnate atmospheric turbulence and other effects that make it even harder...;)
1) I don't think he means the USSR landed a man. They were the first to land an unmanned probe though when the US could only manage targetted crashes.
2) The flag _could_ be seen by a large enough telescope, but it would have to be roughly 60 metres across in order to see it as anything other than a dot. The largest telescope in the world is only ten meteres. In addition, so as to avoid atmospheric conditions interfering, you'd have to put it in space.:)
You'd stand a better chance of seeing the abandoned lower stage of the lunar module, which is probably just about visible using the largest telescopes in the world, providing you use some of the modern high tech compensation techniques to cope with the atmospheric image degradation.
3) IIRC it wasn't "a bit of adjustment" it was down to the fact that their new bigger rockets kept blowing up and so they lost too much time on the US.
Many people with violent tendencies can be quite useful as cops, firemen, emergency medical technicians, rocket scientists, demolition experts, military personnel, spies, surgeons, butchers, football players, and other professions where violence and/or gore are facts of life.
There's a couple of things I disagree with here. I think your definition of violence is a bit dodgy (demolishing a building?! rocket science?!).
I don't think surgery or butchering really involves gore. That doesn't need violent tendancies just an unsqueamish nature.
And the main thing here is that in all those professions listed above, the last thing i'd want is for them to have a tendancy towards violence. I'd have thought the total opposite for police, soldiers, sportsmen would be much more beneficial to society.
For example: Surely we need police who are resistant to the urge to beat the crap out of someone because they insulted them. Police who ask questions and investigate, before shooting.
80+ hours of music seems like a bit of overkill when the battery life is only 10 hours. I'd have thought 20 hours or so would be enough to have a good random shuffle play capability.
If every ten hours you need to charge up the batteries then you might as well download a different chunk of music while you're at it.
I think saying that Her Maj herself is now a firm supporter of Linux is going a bit far... Especially when the same article later states that she has no idea what her own website is run on.
Even if she's a "keen web-surfer" she's probably got a dedicated manservant to move the mouse around and click where she tells him while the royally approved browser (I wonder what THAT is) is viewed on a forty inch flat plasma screen by the royal person.
But it does seem that someone in the UK government reckons Linux beats everyone else for web server performace...
The article does mention the earlier bacterial work, and points out the failings. The plant method is supposed to produce high quality plastic.
As for fuel from plants, that's already here. Lots of European farmers grow oil seed rape for the production of a cleaner alternative to diesel fuel for trucks etc...
I can't provide a reference for that I'm afraid, but I'm pretty sure it's the case.
If I was going to get a chip in me somewhere, it had better be able to tell whether I was still living and breathing around it, before letting someone get cash out my bank account or have access to my house, etc.
I'd rather have my wallet nicked than my arm ripped off...
It's just a thought but you don't have to have a visible tattoo and tus suffer from the negative effects of having a number etched onto you.
I saw a prog on telly once about rave culture, and there was a young woman on who worked for some big firm in a customer facing role. She obviously couldn't go around with a load of facial tattoos in case she freaked out the custo's so she got a really cool Spider web tattoo done on her face in a flourescent dye so you could only see it under UV lighting in clubs or whatever.
This doesn't mean I'm in favour of this whole idea, but it does mean you don't have to be "disfigured" by a mandatory tattoo...
If it was the Beeb itself then you're probably OK. But of course they don't make their own programmes any more. All they do is commission them from other people.
As someone else mentioned (sorry can't remember) it's World of Wonder you need to worry about.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, lets look at a few issues...
The climate is mild, pretty much all year round, and wet, pretty much all year round. Slugs love it. In agriculture the use of pesticides is not overly encouraged by environmental legislation and there aren't too many natural predators (just hedgehogs and badgers really). But there is an abundance of suitable food plants for slugs.
It's maybe not a plague of slugs but enough to think that this robot thing would do a useful job in eliminating the slugs without adding more pesticides to a pretty delicately balanced (in some areas) ecology.
Well from reading the 3Dwm site it seems that that is exactly what they are trying to do with the whole thing. The window manager is designed for use in there 3dCube virtual reality environment.
One thing I don't understand is how these times are authenticated. There's no provision for it on the submission form. You just fill in your name and machine, and enter a time. You can just make it up.
I already posted the result somewhere else so apologies if you're reading it again.
;)
Assuming the flags were roughly a half metre across and are now lying flat n the surface.
Then with the moon at around 400,000 km distance the approximate angular size is 1.25x10^-9 radians.
The angular resolution of a tescope is equal to 1.22 x W / D. W is the wavelength of the light, and D is the diameter. Assuming visible light to have a wavelength of 550nm (yellow light) then in order to see the angle above D = 1.22 x 550 x 10^-9 / 1.25x10^-9
or
D = 54 metres (approximately)
That's a pretty big telescope. The largest optical telscopes currently in use are the Keck telsocpes which are each 10 m in diameter.
Once you've buit your 54 metre telescope let me know and I'll advise you on how to elimnate atmospheric turbulence and other effects that make it even harder...
1) I don't think he means the USSR landed a man. They were the first to land an unmanned probe though when the US could only manage targetted crashes.
:)
2) The flag _could_ be seen by a large enough telescope, but it would have to be roughly 60 metres across in order to see it as anything other than a dot. The largest telescope in the world is only ten meteres. In addition, so as to avoid atmospheric conditions interfering, you'd have to put it in space.
You'd stand a better chance of seeing the abandoned lower stage of the lunar module, which is probably just about visible using the largest telescopes in the world, providing you use some of the modern high tech compensation techniques to cope with the atmospheric image degradation.
3) IIRC it wasn't "a bit of adjustment" it was down to the fact that their new bigger rockets kept blowing up and so they lost too much time on the US.
4) I agree, but see 1.
Many people with violent tendencies can be quite useful as cops, firemen, emergency medical technicians, rocket scientists, demolition experts, military personnel, spies, surgeons, butchers, football players, and other professions
where violence and/or gore are facts of life.
There's a couple of things I disagree with here. I think your definition of violence is a bit dodgy (demolishing a building?! rocket science?!).
I don't think surgery or butchering really involves gore. That doesn't need violent tendancies just an unsqueamish nature.
And the main thing here is that in all those professions listed above, the last thing i'd want is for them to have a tendancy towards violence. I'd have thought the total opposite for police, soldiers, sportsmen would be much more beneficial to society.
For example: Surely we need police who are resistant to the urge to beat the crap out of someone because they insulted them. Police who ask questions and investigate, before shooting.
You're getting mixed up between kilobytes per second and kilobits per second.
4.6 Gbytes in 80 hours works out at 16kbytes per sec. But at 8 bits per byte that's 128 kilobits, so top Q stuff. and no worries.
80+ hours of music seems like a bit of overkill when the battery life is only 10 hours. I'd have thought 20 hours or so would be enough to have a good random shuffle play capability.
If every ten hours you need to charge up the batteries then you might as well download a different chunk of music while you're at it.
I think saying that Her Maj herself is now a firm supporter of Linux is going a bit far... Especially when the same article later states that she has no idea what her own website is run on.
Even if she's a "keen web-surfer" she's probably got a dedicated manservant to move the mouse around and click where she tells him while the royally approved browser (I wonder what THAT is) is viewed on a forty inch flat plasma screen by
the royal person.
But it does seem that someone in the UK government reckons Linux beats everyone else for web server performace...
NEVER write the truth -
write what you want people to hear
Shouldn't that be "what people want to hear".
The article does mention the earlier bacterial work, and points out the failings. The plant method is supposed to produce high quality plastic.
As for fuel from plants, that's already here. Lots of European farmers grow oil seed rape for the production of a cleaner alternative to diesel fuel for trucks etc...
I can't provide a reference for that I'm afraid, but I'm pretty sure it's the case.
If I was going to get a chip in me somewhere, it had better be able to tell whether I was still living and breathing around it, before letting someone get cash out my bank account or have access to my house, etc.
I'd rather have my wallet nicked than my arm ripped off...
under a black light
;)
?!?
What is black light? Is that what happens when you wire a light bulb up backwards?
It's just a thought but you don't have to have a visible tattoo and tus suffer from the negative effects of having a number etched onto you.
I saw a prog on telly once about rave culture, and there was a young woman on who worked for some big firm in a customer facing role. She obviously couldn't go around with a load of facial tattoos in case she freaked out the custo's so she got a really cool Spider web tattoo done on her face in a flourescent dye so you could only see it under UV lighting in clubs or whatever.
This doesn't mean I'm in favour of this whole idea, but it does mean you don't have to be "disfigured" by a mandatory tattoo...
I didn't really get to the techy stuff on HP's site. I got distracted by "the Ultimate DNA separation game".
Or Arkanoid as it's also known.
If it was the Beeb itself then you're probably OK. But of course they don't make their own programmes any more. All they do is commission them from other people.
As someone else mentioned (sorry can't remember) it's World of Wonder you need to worry about.
"down there in Europe"? Where are you? In orbit?
We're to the East of the USA not underneath them.