Nothing with the sketch-plane model of solid modeling. There are light-weight CAD programs like vectorworks, rhino, turbocad etc. But none of the heavyweights like Autodesk Inventor, solidworks, ProEngineer etc.
That's not to say that you can't do good work in some of the lighter weight cad programs, but after working on a something like ProE all day, going back to Vectorworks is a step backwards.
Given that any recent mac can also run windows, it's not really an issue.
Given that the license terms for OsX force (by the terms, nothing else) the user to run it on Apple hardware, the comparison is really one of hardware. Where we have two camps:
camp 1: Apple hardware; expensive and nice, and able to run all three operating systems as the user needs or desires. This provides the user with the ability to run all software on tidy but expensive hardware. Price is the barrier to entry.
camp 2: Windows vs. Ubuntu on anything other than Apple hardware. This opens up the low end of hardware as well as other form factors and styles of hardware that Apple doesn't think you need.
These articles suck because they assume that you CAN do the same task on other operating systems. For many tasks that just isn't so. I can't do serious CAD on my shiny Apple under Snow leopard or any other non-domesticated cat. There are a TON of applications that don't work or are painful under Linux. I love Linux and use it frequently, and I also love my Mac, but there are and always will be a need for the mainstream OS, and today that is Windows.
I have to agree with the underwhelming nature of only 13MPH faster.
We now have a much better handle on material science and metallurgy. We actually have the capability to model the predicted performance and make design tweaks. We have the ability to machine to tolerances only dreamed about back then. And we have composites and alloys that weren't available.
I realize that it's not a linear scale from a drag standpoint, but our victory could be due only to 1906 measurement error.
Here i was thinking that this article would be about comcast, but then i remembered that comcast is just the regular kind of fraud. Over-promising and under-delivering...
Careful there! You are giving Comcast WAY too much credit. I would chalk that up to incompetence rather than malice. The latter is way harder, and the clowns at Comcast don't have the chops to do it well.
Not really practical for a megawatt laser that's for sure. I'm sure there's a cooling problem with all the optics, even 99.9% reflective still adds up to a lot of heat on that optic.
That's the same problem the target faces. Hot reflective can it really be. It's getting pounded with energy, and it's under considerable stress already. Even the remainder that it can't reflect has to be dealt with.
Rotating the missile would make some sense, so the laser would have a much larger surface area to damage.
Reflective would be the key. There's no such thing as camo when you are red hot ("Red on the head, like a dick on a dog" and old southern missile guy said to me once) against the 4K coldness of space. That missile is pretty obvious that it's there even with a low emissivity of a shiny surface.
If you want a small high energy density at a distance, you need to expand the beam and focus it down, or diffraction and atmospherics will eat your lunch.
Now lets talk about the issues with this plan:
There's power and water for cooling. There's a gimbal system for tracking There's a focusing system that must dynamically adjust focus for both distance changes, as well as atmospherics to keep a high strehl (sp?) number on the target. This means that you'll need adaptive optics or a honking big laser that can eat these losses. (think chemical laser) There's the issue of planes being pretty big without much in the way of soft underbelly that is vulnerable.(remember, that these are basically buses, rather than missiles)
when you compare that to a simple RPG or other heat seeking surface to air missile, the second option seems a whole lot better.
Also I'm not sure the people who are enough into their cause to ride the plane to 72 virginville would care about you seeing the smoke trail or not.
BTW, my subject was supposed to be: Python greater than Matlab, but the open bracket got eaten.
It really depends on your field how useful your school tools will be. I still use LaTeX, but not like I used to. Sadly, it's a Microsoft Office world out in business. Even the highly technical folks (5 PhD's in my group) get beaten into using word. It's just too painful not to, and why fight that battle when there are budget battles, and staffing battles, and schedule battles, and why the "F" is the lunchroom not open now battles.
"R" is the same way. I still use MATLAB when collaborating with others, so I'm not the odd duck. I'm odd enough without working at it. I've been fortunate enough to have enough computing projects where I have control of all the analysis, and thus the world opens up for me language wise.
I've been making inroads at the (unnamed) aerospace company where I work in getting people to use Python and the pylab and numpy libraries in place of MATLAB. Not only is it free vs. several thousand dollars, but it's faster, more flexible, and makes your teeth whiter. I've been much happier and more productive since I switched.
We also use "R" for a lot of analysis rather than MATLAB.
The highway system has a huge benefit because there are, you know, places to go. People can use roads in cars, on bikes, on foot and even busses etc. Is a space taxi or space exploration the most efficient use of technology, and technology transfer?
There's a lot of technology that can be brought to bear on building the biggest jenga tower too, but is that the most efficient method to get that technology and jobs spread around?
I suppose if you think there is some sort of future in space, then this may be worthwhile. But call me cynical, but I'd like some sort of similar effort put into exploring and enriching things where the people actually are. Even if there is a future in space, I won't see it. I want to see more practical programs that affect us where we are. Here's some crazy ideas: better actually usable public transport in the US, more renewable energy in the US, bridges and roads improved in the US, rails to trails, park improvements, etc. Then there's healthcare, etc. I'd put the space taxi on the last page of the pad of paper I was writing on.
There is already a standardized OS for robots, it's linux with real-time extensions. The program is called "Enhanced Machine Controller", and it was started by NIST and has now grown into something very usable. There's even live CD's for fiddling with it without a hard drive install. I use it for my 3 axis mill and it's the best thing out there that I've tried.
See: http://linuxcnc.org/
I've cut a lot of metal with it (and plastic, and wood), and it has never let me down.
IE was better on the mac at the time. That tells you how bad it netscape sucked. I realize that it may be hard to tell given what a house of cards MacOS was in those days and it's propensity to crumble.
I used to use an obscure browser called iCab that was actually a light weight browser, and man that rocked unless you hit a weird mime type.
Happy shiny people come by my house to troll in person from time to time. I find that WAY more annoying than trolling on websites such as this where we all can have a good laugh at them. When they ring my doorbell (despite a no soliciting sign in the neighborhood), I now have to deal with my dogs and stopping what I'm doing. Trolling on one of these boards doesn't interrupt my morning breakfast or a good wank etc. So to me, if this replaces the door to door brainwashing service it's a good thing (TM).
From and end user perspective 3G (at least here in the midwest) seems slow compared to home. Using some speedtest app, it appears that the 3G network has big latencies, not as bad as edge was, but still was laggy compared to cable modem and wifi. Plus there's the lower processing power of the phone. It all combines to make page loading feel slower and more studdery. Anything I can do to limit the extra crap loading (via adblock) is a good thing (tm) in my option.
I like the idea of free choice when it comes to what I run on my phone. And I'm in serious need of adblock on the phone (c'mon apple, the 3G pipe is small, I don't want to waste time downloading that crap). But the thing that keeps me from jailbraking my phone is:
1) primarily it's a phone and it's got to be reliable. I'm not going to do anything to reduce the already marginal reliability of the cell network.
2) Once jailbroken it's a constant game of cat and mouse when it comes to updates. I don't want to have to research every system patch and update to see when it's ok to use it and how. This goes back to point 1, it's an appliance for me, with extra functionality I can strap on. It's not a cutting edge geeky plaything because that would hose up the core functionality that I need (the phone part)
So in this regard, I look at android and think that the grass is a bit greener over there. But there's a lot of reasons to stay with the iPhone if you aren't butthurt over someone else telling you what you can do with the shiny.
It must be worth it, but it seems that it's a rare bit of abuse that hurts the internals but leaves the exterior shell and windows etc on the product free of teltale signs. That would rule out:
High-G impacts - which require a hard surface to stop the motion of the unit very quickly. This would leave a tell-tale blemish on the case.
Imersion in liquids - This would leave dried residue unless it's immersed in de-ionized water or other pure substance that wouldn't leave any residue. With no residue, the unit may not be damaged when it dries out.
Jailbreaking sensor - BINGO! This is the real money maker.
The only reason to include these things is to improve product reliability (nope), customer satisfaction (nope), profit (yup). And I don't see a whole lot of profit increase in anything but preventing jailbreaking.
In your terminology, what kind of computer found in a home is not a personal computer?
The server next to my furnace is a surly bastard. I say hello to it when I'm refilling the water softener and it doesn't say anything, it just hums at me. To add insult to injury, it blinks some lights too. The thing never says a word, that's awfully impersonal if you ask me.
I've tried some of the first person shooter type games for the iPhone and i just can't get into them like I can with a keyboard and mouse. I have the same problem with console games, sure I can play them, but there just isn't the same level of immersion than WASD has for me. I guess it's time for a blanket and rocking chair instead.
The biggest challenge is aiming, if they can do something clever and creative then they will have a real winner. until then simple games like doodlejump and ragdoll blaster seem to be taking my eyeball time.
Some of the panasonic toughbooks have "daylight friendly" screens. I haven't personally tried one, but they are well regarded. The older toughbooks that I have used have been very nice.
My wife and I each only a glossy screened laptop and the glossy screens work way better than the matt ones.
Slashdot Mirror
Now even my own blog says that I need to enlarge my Penis!
Nothing with the sketch-plane model of solid modeling. There are light-weight CAD programs like vectorworks, rhino, turbocad etc. But none of the heavyweights like Autodesk Inventor, solidworks, ProEngineer etc.
That's not to say that you can't do good work in some of the lighter weight cad programs, but after working on a something like ProE all day, going back to Vectorworks is a step backwards.
Given that any recent mac can also run windows, it's not really an issue.
Sheldon
Given that the license terms for OsX force (by the terms, nothing else) the user to run it on Apple hardware, the comparison is really one of hardware. Where we have two camps:
camp 1: Apple hardware; expensive and nice, and able to run all three operating systems as the user needs or desires. This provides the user with the ability to run all software on tidy but expensive hardware. Price is the barrier to entry.
camp 2: Windows vs. Ubuntu on anything other than Apple hardware. This opens up the low end of hardware as well as other form factors and styles of hardware that Apple doesn't think you need.
These articles suck because they assume that you CAN do the same task on other operating systems. For many tasks that just isn't so. I can't do serious CAD on my shiny Apple under Snow leopard or any other non-domesticated cat. There are a TON of applications that don't work or are painful under Linux. I love Linux and use it frequently, and I also love my Mac, but there are and always will be a need for the mainstream OS, and today that is Windows.
Sheldon
Tom T Hall would be proud...
Well, we have photoshop...
I have to agree with the underwhelming nature of only 13MPH faster.
We now have a much better handle on material science and metallurgy. We actually have the capability to model the predicted performance and make design tweaks. We have the ability to machine to tolerances only dreamed about back then. And we have composites and alloys that weren't available.
I realize that it's not a linear scale from a drag standpoint, but our victory could be due only to 1906 measurement error.
Sheldon
Here i was thinking that this article would be about comcast, but then i remembered that comcast is just the regular kind of fraud. Over-promising and under-delivering...
Careful there! You are giving Comcast WAY too much credit. I would chalk that up to incompetence rather than malice. The latter is way harder, and the clowns at Comcast don't have the chops to do it well.
Sheldon
Not really practical for a megawatt laser that's for sure. I'm sure there's a cooling problem with all the optics, even 99.9% reflective still adds up to a lot of heat on that optic.
That's the same problem the target faces. Hot reflective can it really be. It's getting pounded with energy, and it's under considerable stress already. Even the remainder that it can't reflect has to be dealt with.
Rotating the missile would make some sense, so the laser would have a much larger surface area to damage.
Sheldon
Reflective would be the key. There's no such thing as camo when you are red hot ("Red on the head, like a dick on a dog" and old southern missile guy said to me once) against the 4K coldness of space. That missile is pretty obvious that it's there even with a low emissivity of a shiny surface.
Sheldon
If you want a small high energy density at a distance, you need to expand the beam and focus it down, or diffraction and atmospherics will eat your lunch.
Now lets talk about the issues with this plan:
There's power and water for cooling.
There's a gimbal system for tracking
There's a focusing system that must dynamically adjust focus for both distance changes, as well as atmospherics to keep a high strehl (sp?) number on the target. This means that you'll need adaptive optics or a honking big laser that can eat these losses. (think chemical laser)
There's the issue of planes being pretty big without much in the way of soft underbelly that is vulnerable.(remember, that these are basically buses, rather than missiles)
when you compare that to a simple RPG or other heat seeking surface to air missile, the second option seems a whole lot better.
Also I'm not sure the people who are enough into their cause to ride the plane to 72 virginville would care about you seeing the smoke trail or not.
Sheldon
BTW, my subject was supposed to be: Python greater than Matlab, but the open bracket got eaten.
It really depends on your field how useful your school tools will be. I still use LaTeX, but not like I used to. Sadly, it's a Microsoft Office world out in business. Even the highly technical folks (5 PhD's in my group) get beaten into using word. It's just too painful not to, and why fight that battle when there are budget battles, and staffing battles, and schedule battles, and why the "F" is the lunchroom not open now battles.
"R" is the same way. I still use MATLAB when collaborating with others, so I'm not the odd duck. I'm odd enough without working at it. I've been fortunate enough to have enough computing projects where I have control of all the analysis, and thus the world opens up for me language wise.
Sheldon
I've been making inroads at the (unnamed) aerospace company where I work in getting people to use Python and the pylab and numpy libraries in place of MATLAB. Not only is it free vs. several thousand dollars, but it's faster, more flexible, and makes your teeth whiter. I've been much happier and more productive since I switched.
We also use "R" for a lot of analysis rather than MATLAB.
Sheldon
And if I had some moderator points you'd be getting marked as -1 Troll for saying
assuming that a GM car will last for 10 years
Why? there's a long history of GM making absolute crap (not all models, admittedly). It's not like he's spouting off some sort of unwarranted claims.
If I was a betting man, I wouldn't bet on GM being around in 10 years.
Sheldon
The highway system has a huge benefit because there are, you know, places to go. People can use roads in cars, on bikes, on foot and even busses etc. Is a space taxi or space exploration the most efficient use of technology, and technology transfer?
There's a lot of technology that can be brought to bear on building the biggest jenga tower too, but is that the most efficient method to get that technology and jobs spread around?
I suppose if you think there is some sort of future in space, then this may be worthwhile. But call me cynical, but I'd like some sort of similar effort put into exploring and enriching things where the people actually are. Even if there is a future in space, I won't see it. I want to see more practical programs that affect us where we are. Here's some crazy ideas: better actually usable public transport in the US, more renewable energy in the US, bridges and roads improved in the US, rails to trails, park improvements, etc. Then there's healthcare, etc. I'd put the space taxi on the last page of the pad of paper I was writing on.
Sheldon
(former NASA guy)
There is already a standardized OS for robots, it's linux with real-time extensions. The program is called "Enhanced Machine Controller", and it was started by NIST and has now grown into something very usable. There's even live CD's for fiddling with it without a hard drive install. I use it for my 3 axis mill and it's the best thing out there that I've tried.
See: http://linuxcnc.org/
I've cut a lot of metal with it (and plastic, and wood), and it has never let me down.
Sheldon
IE was better on the mac at the time. That tells you how bad it netscape sucked. I realize that it may be hard to tell given what a house of cards MacOS was in those days and it's propensity to crumble.
I used to use an obscure browser called iCab that was actually a light weight browser, and man that rocked unless you hit a weird mime type.
Sheldon
Happy shiny people come by my house to troll in person from time to time. I find that WAY more annoying than trolling on websites such as this where we all can have a good laugh at them. When they ring my doorbell (despite a no soliciting sign in the neighborhood), I now have to deal with my dogs and stopping what I'm doing. Trolling on one of these boards doesn't interrupt my morning breakfast or a good wank etc. So to me, if this replaces the door to door brainwashing service it's a good thing (TM).
Sheldon
From and end user perspective 3G (at least here in the midwest) seems slow compared to home. Using some speedtest app, it appears that the 3G network has big latencies, not as bad as edge was, but still was laggy compared to cable modem and wifi. Plus there's the lower processing power of the phone. It all combines to make page loading feel slower and more studdery. Anything I can do to limit the extra crap loading (via adblock) is a good thing (tm) in my option.
I like the idea of free choice when it comes to what I run on my phone. And I'm in serious need of adblock on the phone (c'mon apple, the 3G pipe is small, I don't want to waste time downloading that crap). But the thing that keeps me from jailbraking my phone is:
1) primarily it's a phone and it's got to be reliable. I'm not going to do anything to reduce the already marginal reliability of the cell network.
2) Once jailbroken it's a constant game of cat and mouse when it comes to updates. I don't want to have to research every system patch and update to see when it's ok to use it and how. This goes back to point 1, it's an appliance for me, with extra functionality I can strap on. It's not a cutting edge geeky plaything because that would hose up the core functionality that I need (the phone part)
So in this regard, I look at android and think that the grass is a bit greener over there. But there's a lot of reasons to stay with the iPhone if you aren't butthurt over someone else telling you what you can do with the shiny.
Sheldon
It must be worth it, but it seems that it's a rare bit of abuse that hurts the internals but leaves the exterior shell and windows etc on the product free of teltale signs. That would rule out:
High-G impacts - which require a hard surface to stop the motion of the unit very quickly. This would leave a tell-tale blemish on the case.
Imersion in liquids - This would leave dried residue unless it's immersed in de-ionized water or other pure substance that wouldn't leave any residue. With no residue, the unit may not be damaged when it dries out.
Jailbreaking sensor - BINGO! This is the real money maker.
The only reason to include these things is to improve product reliability (nope), customer satisfaction (nope), profit (yup). And I don't see a whole lot of profit increase in anything but preventing jailbreaking.
Sheldon
In your terminology, what kind of computer found in a home is not a personal computer?
The server next to my furnace is a surly bastard. I say hello to it when I'm refilling the water softener and it doesn't say anything, it just hums at me. To add insult to injury, it blinks some lights too. The thing never says a word, that's awfully impersonal if you ask me.
Sheldon
I've tried some of the first person shooter type games for the iPhone and i just can't get into them like I can with a keyboard and mouse. I have the same problem with console games, sure I can play them, but there just isn't the same level of immersion than WASD has for me. I guess it's time for a blanket and rocking chair instead.
The biggest challenge is aiming, if they can do something clever and creative then they will have a real winner. until then simple games like doodlejump and ragdoll blaster seem to be taking my eyeball time.
Sheldon
Screw privacy, I want my window manager to focus the window I'm looking at. Now that would be useful.
Sheldon
Some of the panasonic toughbooks have "daylight friendly" screens. I haven't personally tried one, but they are well regarded. The older toughbooks that I have used have been very nice.
My wife and I each only a glossy screened laptop and the glossy screens work way better than the matt ones.
Sheldon