I find it ironic when a poster feels the need to grouse about the "bias" in a Register article, without even bothering to research to see if the allegations presented in the article are true.
You might want to try actually listening to the event cited in the Register. The issue in question is addressed roughly 18 minutes in.
Firms are finding that they can skip cabling and adopt wireless networks. The next step is to give each machine a direct Internet connection, with appropriate security technology, skipping the LAN, he predicted.
Nice caveat..."appropriate security technology"...that one reason is why this move to the "huge WAN" won't be happening anytime soon.
Perception is reality, and the perception is that Vista is a dud.
You know, Lance, many of us have first-hand experience with the "reality" of Vista. To argue that "perception is reality, and the perception is that Vista is a dud", in the same sentence as "there's nothing wrong with Vista" gives the impression that our perceptions are not based on reality (to put it mildly). To put it not so mildly, you're calling us either deluded, or liars. Is that really what you want to say, Lance?
Aptera has two innovative models that are almost production-ready at $30,000 and below: for next year, the all-electric, 120-mile-range Typ-1 e that we drove; and, by 2009, the range-extended series gasoline Typ-1 h, which Aptera says will hit 300 mpg.
Whatever happened to the Phoenix? VTOL, SSTO, and a dollar-per-kilo payload to orbit cost a mere fraction of either the shuttle, the Soyuz, or the Orion.
It seems that the 200-lb weight of the unit, the problems inherent in trying to beam a microwave signal several yards to the engine compartment from behind the vehicle, and the dangers of collateral damage, could all be eliminated in one fell swoop, by redesigning the technology, not to work from a police car rooftop, but from a "stop stick" type device, similar to the spike strips police already use to disable vehicles by taking out their tires.
Instead of a spikes, the strip could contain the necessary apparatus to emit the microwave pulse, plus a pressure-sensitive triggering mechanism. Thus redesigned, the power unit need not be attached directly to the strip, greatly reducing its size. When the target vehicle passes over the strip, the pressure sensor triggers the pulse to go off in one big burst, directly under the vehicle's engine compartment, mere inches from the "brain box".
All three problems of the rooftop device solved. Police: I accept PayPal. ^_^
For a while it was very much a cat-and-mouse game between Apple and developers and was almost comical to observe. Developers would find that Apple had used a special name for ringtones and bang, custom ringtones worked. A few days later, Apple would change the name and the next day developers would figure out the new naming structure.
Then, in late September, Apple "nuked" the renegade developers by issuing an update to the iPhone firmware that required all data to be signed and encrypted. Anything not put there by Apple was wiped out.
If Nintendo is 0% successful at this, they will have wasted a lot of money and time for nothing.
If Nintendo is 100% successful, on the other hand, they will save some revenue, but at the cost of pissing off a lot of users, legitimate and otherwise, who might decide to take their business elsewhere.
Odds are pretty good that their actual success rate will fall somewhere between 0% and 100% (most probably close to the low end of the scale), making this endeavor slightly annoying to the users, while being in the main a big waste of time.
Given the potentially huge range of temperatures we're talking about here (potentially millions of degrees in the focus of the mirror, only a few degrees above absolute zero in the shadow of the mirror), what sort of material were you considering for the heat transfer? You made a reference to "steam engines", suggesting water as a possibility, but considering the temperatures involved, might not another substance prove to be more suitable?
Just wondering if you have considered this possibility...
Unless you could change the focal length of this mirror at will, I doubt the reflected light itself would be of any use as a weapon. Of course, the microwave or laser beam used to transmit the power to earth may be a different story, but there's an interesting refutation of that possibility here.
Besides which, I think it would be probably that the economic advantage of having this power would outweigh taking it offline willy-nilly to terrorize lesser nations...we can terrorize lesser nations quite adequately already.
Granted, but you're going to face that problem wherever you try to get rid of your waste heat.
Basically, if you're using a steam-engine type of generator to produce your power, you're tapping into the energy of a temperature differential you're creating. Using the occluded space behind the mirror as your low point increases that differential considerably. Also, even though the only mechanism a radiator fin can lose heat by is radiation, that difficulty can be surmounted by simply increasing the surface area of the fin, and in zero-gee, fairly gigantic structures can be constructed without excessive regard for their structural integrity (a fact we'll already be counting on in the construction of the mirror).
The hardest part of this is actually the radiator to get rid of the waste heat.
Actually, that part is simplicity itself. All that is needed is an array of radiator fins, positioned behind the collector mirror. In the perpetual shadow behind the collector, things are going to get very cold, and any waste heat can easily be bled off there.
So that problem's solved...leaving only the original problem of manufacturing enough defect-free tubes in enough industrially-significant quantities to make the skyhook in the first place...
Slashdot Mirror
I find it ironic when a poster feels the need to grouse about the "bias" in a Register article, without even bothering to research to see if the allegations presented in the article are true.
You might want to try actually listening to the event cited in the Register. The issue in question is addressed roughly 18 minutes in.
I wouldn't exactly call it "insane"...the Sun's tidal effects on Mercury are only about 17% greater then the Moon's tidal effects on Earth.
From TFA:
Nice caveat..."appropriate security technology"...that one reason is why this move to the "huge WAN" won't be happening anytime soon.
You know what the real affront to human dignity is?
Organized religion.
Let them keep pumping rounds into their foot, I say.
You know, Lance, many of us have first-hand experience with the "reality" of Vista. To argue that "perception is reality, and the perception is that Vista is a dud", in the same sentence as "there's nothing wrong with Vista" gives the impression that our perceptions are not based on reality (to put it mildly). To put it not so mildly, you're calling us either deluded, or liars. Is that really what you want to say, Lance?
Read the articles. That what the links are for.
Daikatana.
False dichotomy.
How exactly is this strategy going to protect you from a keylogger?
Here's just a few money-making ventures available to an orbital station:
These are just a few off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more.
Whatever happened to the Phoenix? VTOL, SSTO, and a dollar-per-kilo payload to orbit cost a mere fraction of either the shuttle, the Soyuz, or the Orion.
Oh please. They already have microbes that do that. They're called "yeast".
I'd be more interested in a more complex molecule...like, say, C20H25N3O. ^_^
No offense dude, but please read the posts before you respond to them, especially when they're just 3 or 4 sentences.
No offense, dude, but if the OP is going to contradict himself within the space of a single post, my observation is entirely valid.
It seems that the 200-lb weight of the unit, the problems inherent in trying to beam a microwave signal several yards to the engine compartment from behind the vehicle, and the dangers of collateral damage, could all be eliminated in one fell swoop, by redesigning the technology, not to work from a police car rooftop, but from a "stop stick" type device, similar to the spike strips police already use to disable vehicles by taking out their tires.
Instead of a spikes, the strip could contain the necessary apparatus to emit the microwave pulse, plus a pressure-sensitive triggering mechanism. Thus redesigned, the power unit need not be attached directly to the strip, greatly reducing its size. When the target vehicle passes over the strip, the pressure sensor triggers the pulse to go off in one big burst, directly under the vehicle's engine compartment, mere inches from the "brain box".
All three problems of the rooftop device solved. Police: I accept PayPal. ^_^
At a roadblock in Iraq i think people would appreciate their engine getting shut off a little more the getting shot at.
And just how many of the cars in Iraq do you expect to have electronic ignition control?
From the article:
If Nintendo is 0% successful at this, they will have wasted a lot of money and time for nothing.
If Nintendo is 100% successful, on the other hand, they will save some revenue, but at the cost of pissing off a lot of users, legitimate and otherwise, who might decide to take their business elsewhere.
Odds are pretty good that their actual success rate will fall somewhere between 0% and 100% (most probably close to the low end of the scale), making this endeavor slightly annoying to the users, while being in the main a big waste of time.
Any way you slice it, it's a dumb idea.
Whether you believed that threat to be real or overblown, the new language would seem to put the issue to rest."
Given the fact that AT&T seemed to think it necessary to "put the issue to rest", I'd say the threat was quite real.
As the original AC...
Ahh...I'm glad you returned. I have a question.
Given the potentially huge range of temperatures we're talking about here (potentially millions of degrees in the focus of the mirror, only a few degrees above absolute zero in the shadow of the mirror), what sort of material were you considering for the heat transfer? You made a reference to "steam engines", suggesting water as a possibility, but considering the temperatures involved, might not another substance prove to be more suitable?
Just wondering if you have considered this possibility...
Unless you could change the focal length of this mirror at will, I doubt the reflected light itself would be of any use as a weapon. Of course, the microwave or laser beam used to transmit the power to earth may be a different story, but there's an interesting refutation of that possibility here.
Besides which, I think it would be probably that the economic advantage of having this power would outweigh taking it offline willy-nilly to terrorize lesser nations...we can terrorize lesser nations quite adequately already.
Granted, but you're going to face that problem wherever you try to get rid of your waste heat.
Basically, if you're using a steam-engine type of generator to produce your power, you're tapping into the energy of a temperature differential you're creating. Using the occluded space behind the mirror as your low point increases that differential considerably. Also, even though the only mechanism a radiator fin can lose heat by is radiation, that difficulty can be surmounted by simply increasing the surface area of the fin, and in zero-gee, fairly gigantic structures can be constructed without excessive regard for their structural integrity (a fact we'll already be counting on in the construction of the mirror).
The hardest part of this is actually the radiator to get rid of the waste heat.
Actually, that part is simplicity itself. All that is needed is an array of radiator fins, positioned behind the collector mirror. In the perpetual shadow behind the collector, things are going to get very cold, and any waste heat can easily be bled off there.
Actually, carbon nanotubes ("buckytubes") are quite good conductors of electricity.
So that problem's solved...leaving only the original problem of manufacturing enough defect-free tubes in enough industrially-significant quantities to make the skyhook in the first place...
One more reason not to upgrade to IE7. Thanks, Microsoft!