Credit where credit is due. Mr. Clarke was brilliant and creative in many ways, plus he was one of my favorite science and science fiction writers.
However...the story about him inventing the communications satellite, or even the geosynchronous orbit is slightly exagerated. It is well known that he gave the idea wide exposure in a Wireless World (magazine) article back in 1945. The geosynch idea is older than that however, going back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (at least).
If you can access the IEEE database , look up the following paper:
"The Geostationary Orbit and Satellite Communications: Concepts Older Than Commonly Supposed" published in IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AEROSPACE AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS VOL. 38, NO. 4 OCTOBER 2002.
In any event, I am deeply saddened by his passing. Who will inspire us now that he and most of his ilk are gone? Where are this generation's Clarke, Asimov, Sagan, Heinlein, Feynman, etc?
I visited there a few years ago. I could not help but notice that most of the museum visitors were young men in crew cuts (albeit in civilian clothes) and they were ALL talking in whispers.
Actually, if you can get a group tour, it is well worth it. There was one going on at the time and the guide had all kinds of stories and anecdotes to tell.
A rule of thumb quoted ofter during my skydiving days (I made about 1400) was that it took some 8 or 9 seconds to achieve a terminal valocity of about 120 mph. Experience gives me a good feel that this is accurate since it takes about that long after jumping before you can do freefall manuevers effectively.
At one time, there was such an event as skydiving style, in which the jumper would get into a compact tucked position to achieve a higher speed (and more manuevarability). Nowadays, skydivers can achieve high speeds by going into a stable head down position.
Texas is one of the largest buyers of school textbooks. A strategy by the ID'ers is to influence the content of the textbooks, which will, in turn, set the tone for the other states textbooks.
a "skill" based approach where a player learns each skill independently of the avatar's level. In fact, the avatar may have no level associated with it
Here's my suggestion: If we want to get more women into computer science, engineering, math, nuclear waste disposal, car repossession, or any other field, why not just pay more for that job? If starting salaries for CS were, say $250k, I'll bet we'll see a lot of women signing up. We'll probably see a lot of other minorities, ethnic groups and sexual preferences sign up too.
I had conversations about this with female colleagues, usually after they gave a tour of our workplace to some high school girls with the intention of showing them how "exciting" our work was. It was usually the last conversation of any kind I had with them
Good catch davidwr! Arthur Clarke is credited with having discovered the geosynchronous orbit used by so many comm satellites today. He once said that he had the most lucrative idea of the space age but never made any money off it.
In modern times, there was an outfit by the name of Ellipso which attempted to patent the elliptical orbits they were going to put the birds in.
Arthur C. Clarke's original paper describing his scheme is reproduced widely throughout the net, the first hit I got is here .
PS: Good one! LOL! "...3 satellites" I'd mod you up if I could
He he...I am reminded of a very old short story by Arthur C Clarke (quick! what's the connection between Clarke and satellites?).
In the story, written in the 40's or so, the evil Chinese put a satellite in orbit above the US whereupon they begin to broadcast pr0n that can be received on anyone's TV set.
Kewl! Phillip Glass is one of my favorite modern composers...
In his biography, he wrote how he always felt he was a composer for theater (and evidently films). I guess he now composes for video games. Woot Philip!!
Having worked a few years in the communications satellite industry, they are almost always launched by the Arianne (French Rocket), the Proton (Russian rocket), or the Long March (Chinese Rocket). The only customers that use US rockets to get their birds in orbit is the US Department of Defense!
Roger that! I was thinking about playing EVE but if the deck is stacked against you because of cheating players, I won't bother. I will wait a few weeksand see how thisplays out, but before I sink my money into this venture, I want to see a better resolution than what has been posted so far.
In the meantime, I can spend plenty of money in WoW, Age of Conan, or any of several other MMOGs. Let's hope CCP gets the message on how incidents like this hurt their bottom line.
2. Enable hi-speed data links to the crews' pr0n of choice
3. Allow them some private time/place...
... and let them masturbate as much as they want! Outside of some malcontent whining about not getting the real thing, everything should work out.
Another possibility: Include one female crew member trained as a new type of "mission specialist";) The same solution could apply to an all female hetero crew. I'll bet there would be no shortage of volunteers to be the male "morale officer"! (Make sure he has plenty of stamina and as much viagra as the ship will carry!)
IIRC, there was once a plan to orbit a bunch of reflective balloons that would make out a logo visible at night to most everyone on earth. I forget what the logo was, something for the French bicentennial, or p\Pepsi, i'm not sure which.
Gee whiz guys (and gals)! Haven't we learned anything since Reagan? The answer, of course, is to privatize Arecibo. The market will decide whether Arecibo stays open or closed.
They will just have to adapt like so many others whose cheese has moved. They could have fund-raisers, pledge drives, sell t-shirts, and license their iage for more Jodie Foster movies. This is the way things are done in the 21st century, where free market economy is the highest expression of civilization.
If those aliens want to communicate with us, its probably because they want to sell us something on eBay.
I have not been active in music for a while now, but when I played renaissance music on the recorder, a friend of mine was downloading MIDI files by the boatload of renaissance pieces for the cornetto, the ancient ancestor of modern horns. He would then convert the MIDI to a printable score.
Perhaps it's easier to find the MIDI file of a piece you're looking for than the actual score?
Is it just me, or does it take everybody three whole days to download the first episode on bit torrent?Or does comcast just suck...? Oh, yeah they do!
But what about bit torrent? How can I get these episodes in my lifetime?
Computer games have become like Heavy Metal music. They don't need to make anything new, they just need to find a new audience. Fortunately, there's a new crop of 13 year olds every year...
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Credit where credit is due. Mr. Clarke was brilliant and creative in many ways, plus he was one of my favorite science and science fiction writers.
However...the story about him inventing the communications satellite, or even the geosynchronous orbit is slightly exagerated. It is well known that he gave the idea wide exposure in a Wireless World (magazine) article back in 1945. The geosynch idea is older than that however, going back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (at least).
If you can access the IEEE database , look up the following paper:
"The Geostationary Orbit and Satellite Communications: Concepts Older Than Commonly Supposed" published in IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AEROSPACE AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS VOL. 38, NO. 4 OCTOBER 2002.
In any event, I am deeply saddened by his passing. Who will inspire us now that he and most of his ilk are gone? Where are this generation's Clarke, Asimov, Sagan, Heinlein, Feynman, etc?
I visited there a few years ago. I could not help but notice that most of the museum visitors were young men in crew cuts (albeit in civilian clothes) and they were ALL talking in whispers.
Actually, if you can get a group tour, it is well worth it. There was one going on at the time and the guide had all kinds of stories and anecdotes to tell.
A rule of thumb quoted ofter during my skydiving days (I made about 1400) was that it took some 8 or 9 seconds to achieve a terminal valocity of about 120 mph. Experience gives me a good feel that this is accurate since it takes about that long after jumping before you can do freefall manuevers effectively.
At one time, there was such an event as skydiving style, in which the jumper would get into a compact tucked position to achieve a higher speed (and more manuevarability). Nowadays, skydivers can achieve high speeds by going into a stable head down position.
Exhaustive links, references here and here.
Texas is one of the largest buyers of school textbooks. A strategy by the ID'ers is to influence the content of the textbooks, which will, in turn, set the tone for the other states textbooks.
The voicce of the WOPR from the movie Wargames! :)
a "skill" based approach where a player learns each skill independently of the avatar's level. In fact, the avatar may have no level associated with it
Funny, you just described how Eve Online works.
See you in low sec!
Here's my suggestion: If we want to get more women into computer science, engineering, math, nuclear waste disposal, car repossession, or any other field, why not just pay more for that job? If starting salaries for CS were, say $250k, I'll bet we'll see a lot of women signing up. We'll probably see a lot of other minorities, ethnic groups and sexual preferences sign up too.
I had conversations about this with female colleagues, usually after they gave a tour of our workplace to some high school girls with the intention of showing them how "exciting" our work was. It was usually the last conversation of any kind I had with them
Good catch davidwr! Arthur Clarke is credited with having discovered the geosynchronous orbit used by so many comm satellites today. He once said that he had the most lucrative idea of the space age but never made any money off it.
In modern times, there was an outfit by the name of Ellipso which attempted to patent the elliptical orbits they were going to put the birds in.
Arthur C. Clarke's original paper describing his scheme is reproduced widely throughout the net, the first hit I got is here .
PS: Good one! LOL! "...3 satellites" I'd mod you up if I could
He he...I am reminded of a very old short story by Arthur C Clarke (quick! what's the connection between Clarke and satellites?).
In the story, written in the 40's or so, the evil Chinese put a satellite in orbit above the US whereupon they begin to broadcast pr0n that can be received on anyone's TV set.
Does anyone know the name of the short story?
Kewl! Phillip Glass is one of my favorite modern composers...
In his biography, he wrote how he always felt he was a composer for theater (and evidently films). I guess he now composes for video games. Woot Philip!!
LOL...Sad, but more than a little bit true.
Having worked a few years in the communications satellite industry, they are almost always launched by the Arianne (French Rocket), the Proton (Russian rocket), or the Long March (Chinese Rocket). The only customers that use US rockets to get their birds in orbit is the US Department of Defense!
Roger that! I was thinking about playing EVE but if the deck is stacked against you because of cheating players, I won't bother. I will wait a few weeksand see how thisplays out, but before I sink my money into this venture, I want to see a better resolution than what has been posted so far. In the meantime, I can spend plenty of money in WoW, Age of Conan, or any of several other MMOGs. Let's hope CCP gets the message on how incidents like this hurt their bottom line.
1. Send an all-male heterosexual crew,
2. Enable hi-speed data links to the crews' pr0n of choice
3. Allow them some private time/place...
Another possibility: Include one female crew member trained as a new type of "mission specialist" ;) The same solution could apply to an all female hetero crew. I'll bet there would be no shortage of volunteers to be the male "morale officer"! (Make sure he has plenty of stamina and as much viagra as the ship will carry!)
Everybody knows that "flex time" means you have the flexibility to work as much as the company wants you to work! ;)
IIRC, there was once a plan to orbit a bunch of reflective balloons that would make out a logo visible at night to most everyone on earth. I forget what the logo was, something for the French bicentennial, or p\Pepsi, i'm not sure which.
Gee whiz guys (and gals)! Haven't we learned anything since Reagan? The answer, of course, is to privatize Arecibo. The market will decide whether Arecibo stays open or closed. They will just have to adapt like so many others whose cheese has moved. They could have fund-raisers, pledge drives, sell t-shirts, and license their iage for more Jodie Foster movies. This is the way things are done in the 21st century, where free market economy is the highest expression of civilization. If those aliens want to communicate with us, its probably because they want to sell us something on eBay.
I have not been active in music for a while now, but when I played renaissance music on the recorder, a friend of mine was downloading MIDI files by the boatload of renaissance pieces for the cornetto, the ancient ancestor of modern horns. He would then convert the MIDI to a printable score.
Perhaps it's easier to find the MIDI file of a piece you're looking for than the actual score?
...what does this mean for the future of the four-legged league?
Is it just me, or does it take everybody three whole days to download the first episode on bit torrent?Or does comcast just suck...? Oh, yeah they do! But what about bit torrent? How can I get these episodes in my lifetime?
Computer games have become like Heavy Metal music. They don't need to make anything new, they just need to find a new audience. Fortunately, there's a new crop of 13 year olds every year...