is the quote "Shiva Nova is a giant" from a NOVA documentary about Fusion research some 30-odd years ago. Of course, Shiva Nova wasn't going to break even either.
Making OpenGL slower is. If Microsoft can achieve real technical gains in DirectX, more power to them. If they're hobbling OpenGL, that's a different story. If, for instance, they're accepting optimized drivers from the hardware vendors for DirectX, but refusing to accept optimized OpenGL drivers for inclusion in Vista, that's playing dirty. If they're getting -no- optimized drivers from the vendors, but taking it upon themselves to make DirectX faster, I'm not sure how to take that. Does anybody know if ATI and nVidia are -offering- drivers to MS?
Just how many satellite launches do you think take place in one year? If you need 100 microsatellites sent to the same spot in orbit to duplicate the functionality of a single big satellite, you'll be launching most (if not all) of those birds on a single rocket.
I would predict that practical microsatellites will also be insanely expensive to design and launch (maybe not build).
As I suggested elsewhere, major catastrophes that completely take out a satellite already in orbit are rare enough already.
flying formations of small satellites that could eventually replace larger, more expensive satellites
I hate reading text like this in the context of university research projects. Every prof. looking for grant money seems quite willing to say 'Our new Fremulator design will revolutionize the VeebleFetzer industry and replace more expensive Framistan devices used today.' Considering the amount of additional hardware needed by a flock of microsatellites (propulsion, orientation, power collection, communications), you'll need some huge gains in other areas to really make this cheaper than one big integrated satellite. TFA says nothing to support the idea that these small birds really have practical commercial applications.
Big corporations don't spend mega-millions putting satellites into orbit without contingency plans. Sure, a debris hit may take out an entire satellite, but that risk is quite low. Component failures on the other hand are commonplace, so satellites that have to earn their keep have a lot of redundant functionality.
Consider the satellites used by US satellite TV providers Dish and Direct TV. Each of these -big- birds is launched with far more capacity (i.e. transponders) than the providers intend to use. Over the lifetime of the satellite, numerous failures occur. Failing transponders are put of service and replaced with idle ones. I used to wonder whether my TV service would be out-of-order for months if the particular satellite I'm locked on just died completely. I learned that the TV provider can even move satellites they own from one spot in geosynchronous orbit to another, temporarily restoring service until they can get another bird in the air. And they do use a lot of birds: I believe Echostar (Dish) is up to 10.
Lots of things that are trivial to do on Earth are quite difficult to do in space. NASA sometimes belabors every baby step because those steps can be really hard, AND because it took huge amounts of talent, energy and cash to get up there just so you can DO those things.
I think another reason is because they do all these drawn out, precisely choreographed procedures in space. That gives the mission commentators on the ground a lot of dead air to fill.
My memory may be faulty, but I seem to recall that -occasionally- the mission commander has given the pilot the actual landing, perhaps because that astronaut was being prepped for commanding a future mission.
Given how (more) precious an opportunity to fly the shuttle is, I'd be surprised to see any commander do this. Consider that Col. Collins' career in space is probably over, not through any fault of hers, but simply to make room for other mission commanders.
If the belly of the shuttle gets nice laminar air flow across the tiles (which I assume is the goal), I wouldn't expect much force in the 'out' direction away from the shuttle. If anything, I'd expect force pushing the gap filler into the tile behind it, sticking it in place.
AFAIK the tiles are examined quite extensively after each launch, and many of them are replaced due to damage. However, that's a far cry from saying they are all replaced.
Grandparent should realize though that the tiles aren't simply thrown back up into space with everybody merely hoping that they still work, as he seems to suggest.
How many programmers get a bug report, make a significant effort to fix it and believe they were successful, only to have the test group report the exact same problem when they evaluate the new build?
Any sufficiently complex system has problems that cannot be perfectly understood in simulations (or desk checking for the software analogy), unless you happen to 1) be very lucky or 2) have an I.Q. of 300.
NASA was fixing the foam problem during the down time since Columbia. However, they could only test it on the ground, under conditions that at best are weak surrogates for real launch conditions. I'm not at all surprised they missed things, although the magnitude of the remaining problem is surprising.
Of course, NASA must (and does) scrutinize a problem far more than a typical programmer, but still there are limits. If it were feasible to design and launch a cheap (he-he) mockup of the shuttle to test the foam fixes without risking human lives, I'm sure they would have done it many times over.
This last problem with the gap filler worries me more for the possibility that it's a non-issue that they will make worse by trying to deal with it. Fortunately, my concerns were generally relieved after watching NASA TV last night. They showed ground technicians running through various options for sniping/hacking/plucking the gap filler from between tiles. Even when they intentionally ran into the tiles with a hack saw, it looked like they caused no damage.
A group of Autobots are frolicking and playing and exercising their robotic powers at a camp where every month they hold a tournament, and the winners get to leave the camp and go to "Earth", which is the best place ever for Autobots to live, so they all work real hard to be strong and healthy and win the tournament.
But... it turns out that all these Autobots are prisoners of a gang of Decepticons, and anybody who wins the trip to "Earth" gets dismantled and used for spare parts for other greedy rich Decepticons.
I'm sick of people trying to find ways to punish others for the way they want to live. At least in America, it's obvious that millions of people want to be spread out and don't want to live on top of each other in cities. The 'American Dream' of owning a home is still valid even as prices skyrocket so fewer young people can get there.
I think the problem with suburbs is not that the population is so spread out, but actually that there are not -enough- downtown centers. As the formerly rural space between towns starts to fill up with McMansions, it's too bad that zoning boards don't allow (and perhaps encourage) new commercial centers to form at the town borders. Then, those comfy suburbanites would not have to fill up the overburdened roads leading to the 'old' town center just for a gallon of milk or a trip to the post office.
Way way back when towns were founded, a distance of 5 to 10 miles from town to town probably made sense. Even into the late 20th century, the population on the outskirts of a town was fairly low, so there weren't that many people driving long distances to the town center. Now, the towns where I live are facing the prospect of 100% build-out of developable land (at least I hope people realize that's where we're headed). Since so many people just don't want to move to the commerce, I think the solution is to move the commerce out to them.
By the way, I happen to be somebody who has never commuted into a city to work. I live in the suburbs and work in the suburbs. No it's not ideal for finding a public transit solution, but it means that I neither suffer from nor contribute to the congestion of the city. I don't understand why the people who scream about sprawl seem to assume that all jobs are in the cities, and that every last surburbanite is stuck in traffic at rush hour. There are alternatives.
"Lets take off our clothes before they freeze on us"
You're telling me that line actually works? I only tried the 'my hands are getting frostbitten, let me put them someplace warm' line. I have three fingers left.
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has run out of useless crap to pay wads of cash for. We need another miracle grilled-cheese sandwich to get the gaming public interested again.
is the quote "Shiva Nova is a giant" from a NOVA documentary about Fusion research some 30-odd years ago. Of course, Shiva Nova wasn't going to break even either.
Making OpenGL slower is. If Microsoft can achieve real technical gains in DirectX, more power to them. If they're hobbling OpenGL, that's a different story. If, for instance, they're accepting optimized drivers from the hardware vendors for DirectX, but refusing to accept optimized OpenGL drivers for inclusion in Vista, that's playing dirty. If they're getting -no- optimized drivers from the vendors, but taking it upon themselves to make DirectX faster, I'm not sure how to take that. Does anybody know if ATI and nVidia are -offering- drivers to MS?
If you're rounding to the nearest 100 deg.C
Just how many satellite launches do you think take place in one year? If you need 100 microsatellites sent to the same spot in orbit to duplicate the functionality of a single big satellite, you'll be launching most (if not all) of those birds on a single rocket.
I would predict that practical microsatellites will also be insanely expensive to design and launch (maybe not build).
As I suggested elsewhere, major catastrophes that completely take out a satellite already in orbit are rare enough already.
flying formations of small satellites that could eventually replace larger, more expensive satellites
I hate reading text like this in the context of university research projects. Every prof. looking for grant money seems quite willing to say 'Our new Fremulator design will revolutionize the VeebleFetzer industry and replace more expensive Framistan devices used today.' Considering the amount of additional hardware needed by a flock of microsatellites (propulsion, orientation, power collection, communications), you'll need some huge gains in other areas to really make this cheaper than one big integrated satellite. TFA says nothing to support the idea that these small birds really have practical commercial applications.
Big corporations don't spend mega-millions putting satellites into orbit without contingency plans. Sure, a debris hit may take out an entire satellite, but that risk is quite low. Component failures on the other hand are commonplace, so satellites that have to earn their keep have a lot of redundant functionality.
Consider the satellites used by US satellite TV providers Dish and Direct TV. Each of these -big- birds is launched with far more capacity (i.e. transponders) than the providers intend to use. Over the lifetime of the satellite, numerous failures occur. Failing transponders are put of service and replaced with idle ones. I used to wonder whether my TV service would be out-of-order for months if the particular satellite I'm locked on just died completely. I learned that the TV provider can even move satellites they own from one spot in geosynchronous orbit to another, temporarily restoring service until they can get another bird in the air. And they do use a lot of birds: I believe Echostar (Dish) is up to 10.
Now I know this one will be a winner.
V IIV is 53. Remember "I before V except after C". Didn't you learn anything in Latin school?
1. Because I know the orbital flight will cost 10x the suborbital and I'm not quite rich enough for that.
2. Because I'll be dead before they get the orbital vehicle ready for commercial passengers.
Isn't that called drowning? Not very comfortable if you ask me.
Lots of things that are trivial to do on Earth are quite difficult to do in space. NASA sometimes belabors every baby step because those steps can be really hard, AND because it took huge amounts of talent, energy and cash to get up there just so you can DO those things.
I think another reason is because they do all these drawn out, precisely choreographed procedures in space. That gives the mission commentators on the ground a lot of dead air to fill.
My memory may be faulty, but I seem to recall that -occasionally- the mission commander has given the pilot the actual landing, perhaps because that astronaut was being prepped for commanding a future mission.
Given how (more) precious an opportunity to fly the shuttle is, I'd be surprised to see any commander do this. Consider that Col. Collins' career in space is probably over, not through any fault of hers, but simply to make room for other mission commanders.
If the belly of the shuttle gets nice laminar air flow across the tiles (which I assume is the goal), I wouldn't expect much force in the 'out' direction away from the shuttle. If anything, I'd expect force pushing the gap filler into the tile behind it, sticking it in place.
AFAIK the tiles are examined quite extensively after each launch, and many of them are replaced due to damage. However, that's a far cry from saying they are all replaced.
Grandparent should realize though that the tiles aren't simply thrown back up into space with everybody merely hoping that they still work, as he seems to suggest.
How many programmers get a bug report, make a significant effort to fix it and believe they were successful, only to have the test group report the exact same problem when they evaluate the new build?
Any sufficiently complex system has problems that cannot be perfectly understood in simulations (or desk checking for the software analogy), unless you happen to 1) be very lucky or 2) have an I.Q. of 300. NASA was fixing the foam problem during the down time since Columbia. However, they could only test it on the ground, under conditions that at best are weak surrogates for real launch conditions. I'm not at all surprised they missed things, although the magnitude of the remaining problem is surprising.
Of course, NASA must (and does) scrutinize a problem far more than a typical programmer, but still there are limits. If it were feasible to design and launch a cheap (he-he) mockup of the shuttle to test the foam fixes without risking human lives, I'm sure they would have done it many times over.
This last problem with the gap filler worries me more for the possibility that it's a non-issue that they will make worse by trying to deal with it. Fortunately, my concerns were generally relieved after watching NASA TV last night. They showed ground technicians running through various options for sniping/hacking/plucking the gap filler from between tiles. Even when they intentionally ran into the tiles with a hack saw, it looked like they caused no damage.
Can't post any damn morse code because the Lameness Filter thinks it's ASCII art. Guess /. needs this rule change as much as anybody.
nothing else to say...
A group of Autobots are frolicking and playing and exercising their robotic powers at a camp where every month they hold a tournament, and the winners get to leave the camp and go to "Earth", which is the best place ever for Autobots to live, so they all work real hard to be strong and healthy and win the tournament.
But... it turns out that all these Autobots are prisoners of a gang of Decepticons, and anybody who wins the trip to "Earth" gets dismantled and used for spare parts for other greedy rich Decepticons.
What's that you say? Oh hell.
I'm sick of people trying to find ways to punish others for the way they want to live. At least in America, it's obvious that millions of people want to be spread out and don't want to live on top of each other in cities. The 'American Dream' of owning a home is still valid even as prices skyrocket so fewer young people can get there.
I think the problem with suburbs is not that the population is so spread out, but actually that there are not -enough- downtown centers. As the formerly rural space between towns starts to fill up with McMansions, it's too bad that zoning boards don't allow (and perhaps encourage) new commercial centers to form at the town borders. Then, those comfy suburbanites would not have to fill up the overburdened roads leading to the 'old' town center just for a gallon of milk or a trip to the post office.
Way way back when towns were founded, a distance of 5 to 10 miles from town to town probably made sense. Even into the late 20th century, the population on the outskirts of a town was fairly low, so there weren't that many people driving long distances to the town center. Now, the towns where I live are facing the prospect of 100% build-out of developable land (at least I hope people realize that's where we're headed). Since so many people just don't want to move to the commerce, I think the solution is to move the commerce out to them.
By the way, I happen to be somebody who has never commuted into a city to work. I live in the suburbs and work in the suburbs. No it's not ideal for finding a public transit solution, but it means that I neither suffer from nor contribute to the congestion of the city. I don't understand why the people who scream about sprawl seem to assume that all jobs are in the cities, and that every last surburbanite is stuck in traffic at rush hour. There are alternatives.
Her bank account is more than capable of compensating for any deficiencies in the looks dept. Of course, I'm not really that crass...
It was a crime against humanity.
but back to the Death Star... Did it make Alderaan light and flakey on the outside, crisp and chewy on the inside?
"Lets take off our clothes before they freeze on us"
You're telling me that line actually works? I only tried the 'my hands are getting frostbitten, let me put them someplace warm' line. I have three fingers left.
They stated that this doesn't nothing to prevent states from legislating limits on eminent domain seizures by municipal government
And that will happen when? Don't forget who's pulling the strings of all those state legislatures.