I hope this doesn't result in the removal of parody reviews. Manually take them out of the weighting algorithm, sure, but please leave them, for the likes of Monster cables, Denon's ethernet cable, uranium oxide samples, reviews which pop up when a price gets bumped up by 33,300% due to occasional glitches in Amazon's dynamic pricing algorithm, and so forth.
Also, PLEASE kill the reviews which rate items a 1 because UPS destroyed the package. That isn't Amazon's fault; it's UPS's fault for shoving 65,000 packages per hour through a conveyor system designed to handle 27,000 packages per hour, resulting in UPS sorters/pickoffs "accidentally" pushing packages (usually the higher ticket items) off of 25' high conveyors onto the ground below out of anger and frustration. Yes, this does happen, and it's not Amazon's fault; it's UPSes for not running longer shifts, poor planning, and putting unrealistic demands on UPS hub workers. The reviews which are based on UPS's malfeasance should not apply to the rating of the product, because the reviews are supposed to be about the product, not the shipper. Same goes for when UPS sorters mis-pick an item sending it to the wrong part of the country, making the product late. That isn't Amazon's fault either.
Indeed; when/. readers want to share something we generally know how to copy & paste. Now, there are always exceptions to the rule but they are in the vast majority.
Besides,/. already HAD the share feature; it was just horribly broken. Fix share, put it back where it was, and bring back the Read More link.
Now, I realize that slashdotters are your product, not your customers, but by not listening to us you're pushing us to continue to choose reddit or even (ugh!) fark over/., thereby reducing the value of product making/. less attractive to your actual customers (advertisers).
Hey I have an idea - why not take this whole trend one step further and start posting stories about the kardashians, other train wrecks like Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and other child stars who delved into hard drugs or alcohol and ruined their lives, thereby increasing readership, and the all-important ad clicks?
The A/B/X tests which proved botique cables are no better than coat hangers used multiple coat hangers, obviously. I'm not saying I would do this because they would be a nightmare to set up....but based on your post I can only assume you fall within the autistic spectrum, or are simply being a pedantic nitwit, as it can be inferred that there would be a 1:1 replacement of coat hanger for each respective conductor. Duh.
Aside from noise rejection and the lack of impedance matching coat hangers work perfectly well even for analog gear as input patch cables (but due to sensitivity to impedance differences you wouldn't want to use in place of phono patch cables). They work supremely well as speaker cables, providing the gauge is heavy enough for the current (so driving the speakers at a Pink Floyd gig may not work out too well but for the average bar, wedding, etc. they would be perfectly fine).
Benefits of fine strand OFC cables:
* they look nice
* The interconnects are usually constructed better
* They are more flexible than cheap cable, allowing for easier cable routing
* They handle repeated stress better (so they're better for speakers mounted in doors)
I use fine strand OFC cables for auto sound systems because they fit into tight spaces without worrying about hitting bend radius limits.
That's because the power supply was dipped in epoxy resin - which is actually the major cause of C=64 power supply failures. The power supplies were very prone to overheating due to the epoxy encasement and were pretty much unserviceable due to the difficulty of getting to the components.
Yours didn't fail due to spillage of sprite because the power supply was in effect waterproof.
> Then again, it's rather challenging to discern an ACTUAL "point of no return" from "nothing promulgated vociferously", particularly when the people INSISTING that THIS TIME the sky REALLY IS FALLING are basically the same crew that has told us the same thing about running out of water,
Which has happened on the West Coast, so that they are now buying water rights from other states and built immensely expensive aquaducts to make up for the shortage... and now moving on to what they should have done decades ago, which is construct desalinization plants
> running out of food
It isn't that we're running out of food - it is that we mis-manage it, use food for the wrong purposes (ethanol), and actually pay farmers to destroy crops rather than can or freeze it and donate it to food banks.
> running out of oil,
We were; but then the government enacted fuel economy and emissions laws, both of which forced manufacturers to find ways to make engines more efficient than they used to be, and to not dump raw fuel out the exhaust. That's why we can now buy 600+hp supercars which achieve >30mpg when driven conservatively. This is one case where government regulations did spur some major innovations. You don't have to put up with a 25hp VW beetle with no heat to get 30mpg any more - you can get turbocharged sports sedans which can achieve > 40mpg cruise on the highway, and now full-size trucks which get better than 20mpg... and it's only going to get better.
We aren't running out because we're tapping new reserves, and are now turning to shale and fracking, and are using it more efficiently, even though we now have more cars, trucks, etc. than ever before.
> running out of land
In cities and surrounding communities we are.. but the world is nowhere near overpopulated. Certain regions are overpopulated.
I'd say that the West Coast which is suffering an unprecedented drought and massive flooding in Texas, and the incredible amount of precipitation the northeast has been getting is valid proof that climate change is accelerating beyond what can be expected; certainly faster than the "geological timescale."
We don't need to stop driving cars, or enjoying heat or air conditioning. What we DO need to do is invest heavily in green power, and consider retooling refineries to make diesel and synthetic gasoline from plant matter - making it 100% carbon-neutral. Legalize industrial hemp as well as other strains of cannabis - it's a better food source than soy anyhow, considering cannabis is hypoallergenic, whereas soy is a major allergen that is getting harder and harder to avoid.
Stop protesting wind farms - where there is high sustained winds, encourage wind power.
Give tax incentives for retrofitting homes and commercial buildings with photovoltaic panels, and do the same for geothermal heat pumps - or hell, even give tax credits for the installation of swimming pools providing the pool is being used as a heat sink (when I build my forever home I actually plan to use the pool as a heat sink, integrating it into a geothermal system).
It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing; we can have our toys and our freedom, we just need to be willing to embrace change, and we need to be willing to tell lobbyists (paper mills, soy industry, oil industry, corn/ethanol industry, etc.) to SHUT THE FUCK UP and deal with going the way of the buggy whip, and instead consider changing their business models to engage in production of green forms of petrol, or geothermal HVAC systems, or better solar panels and battery banks.
> Ask the Russians and Chinese how well their 5th gen fighters are coming.
Russia's aircraft are actually quite good. For example, he F-15 was developed in response to rumors of the MiG-25... but performance was inferior. The design of the MiG-25 is so good it is the basis for the MiG-31, and is also rumored to be the basis for a MACH 4-capable interceptor... same basic design but with modern materials and construction techniques. Also other Russian (Soviet?) military aircraft were historically superior to ours in other respects; because they had little access to ICs, many of their bombers used vacuum tubes which are far more resistant to EMP than solid state electronics. Don't underestimate Russia's capabilities. It is such a shame that after the cold war we never became better than frenemies with them; if we could get alone and put our heads together we would very likely be moving much faster in developing truly practical space travel.
The Chinese stealth fighter's advanced capabilities exist largely in the form of CGI propaganda videos. Besides, even if it were real, it would likely break the day after the warranty is out, and there will be no phone number for customer support the manufacturer should it fail within the 30-day warranty.;)
> Animals do it because, as long as they can digest it, it's a significant source of nutrition right after massive energy and biomass expenditure.
Even many animals which cannot digest it (herbivores) consume it. It's not to get nutrition but to reduce odors which attract predators. It's their way of picking it up so they can carry and defaecate it away from where their offspring are.
It's not really "cat shit." They're "cat like" but are not in the felidae order but are in the feliformia which includes felidae (cats) and hyena and mongoose. Wikipedia states that they are in the order viverridae (a suborder of felifornia, cousins of felidae but are not felidae, which are all obligate carnivores).
> So they bolt on a pair of wings, add some propellers that have to be deployed from a casing that protects them during launch, oh and another stage separation event, a mechanism for separating the fuel tank from the engine.
I do not think you know what a turbofan is based on what you stated.
> And that's supposed to be simpler than some hydraulic landing legs and grid fins?
Not simpler to build and package, but certainly far easier to land given that we have 70 years of experience building jet engines
> And carrying all those additions to space doesn't cost them any extra fuel?
It does - but turbofans and horizontal flight with lifting surfaces is far more efficient than attempting to land vertically using a rocket engine, and we have 110 years of experience landing aircraft horizontally, or if you want to combine total experience, probably approaching on a million combined "man years" of experience landing aircraft (and spacecraft if you include the X15, space shuttle, scaled/virgin's spaceship, Buran, and the space plane) horizontally.
Large government contractors live or die suckling the tits of taxpayers... and their internal goal is NOT to solve the problems they're brought in to solve (the paperless initiative to reduce costs and ALSO as a side effect make all government records indexable and searchable for example) but to maximize billable hours.
It makes perfect sense to say it isn't economically feasible to make the first stage of spacecraft reusable; because for them it ISN'T an economically sound business model. It would reduce their total revenue for these projects. For new players, it absolutely makes perfect sense because it is a new market which established players will not touch with a ten foot/3m (notice the inaccurate conversion of english to metric, quite appropriate for aerospace contractors;) ) but new players who want to break into the market are seizing as an opportunity to get established in the industry.... so of course now that practical designs, even if flawed, are proving to be achievable they are absolutely terrified of being forced to unlatched from the teat. That has them scared so they will of course now begin in earnest to develop more reusable spacecraft because they work on such a large scale that losing just a couple of contracts where they have designed their business model to be as inefficient as possible in order to maximize net profits could bankrupt them very quickly.
This business model will also make affordable space tourism and arriving at next generation, more efficient spacecraft to be developed sooner.
Consider this: what if Scaled Composites were to get into the strategic fighter game? What if they were to go head-to-head against Lockheed's Skunk Works, and reduced the cost of stealth interceptor/fighter/bombers and spy planes to tens of millions per unit rather than a blllion per unit, and made them more efficient and faster to boot? Given their immense investment in conventional tooling and methodologies, I don't think they could change their ways and remain profitable... taxpayers would save money, we'd see more capable military aircraft, and as a side effect we would probably see variable geometry airfoils with the ability to reduce or even cancel out audible sonic booms become reality and over-land supersonic airliners become a practical reality.
The goal of a large government contractor is not to reduce costs (even if that is a requirement laid out in the RFQ/RFP), but to maximize net profits. Cost-cutting measures are always impractical until a new emerging player proves that it is possible.
Yep... I've done work for the Red Cross and they are extremely wasteful. We were brought in to audit the design, development and QA process to make it more efficient and less prone to defects and to reduce iterations... but even though THEY brought us in they fought the process every step of the way. We eventually ended up firing them as a client. I think they just wanted someone to rubber stamp their chaos.
I'm very pro gun. I'm going to be buying two rifles (AR-15 and AR-10) and two pistols (two Colt 1911s, a.45 and a.22) and will be training for competitive shooting.... I do believe that the second amendment means what it says (The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed) but we made a really boneheaded move in not requiring background checks, and not implementing waiting periods across the board. When I'm ready to buy the firearms, I won't be opposed to a waiting period. I don't see either a waiting period or background check as any sort of infringement.
Also I think the whole "assault rifle" ban was ridiculous; why is it that if I put a semi-auto lower receiver into a plain-looking rifle it was okay, but if I put it into an AR/AK-style rifle that "looks scary" it is suddenly something which needed to be banned?
The interesting issue this presents is this: should we implement background checks for 3D printers capable of sintering metal, or CNC milling machines? Of course for a machinist who already has access to such a machine, it's simple to replicate a pre-original-ban AR lower receiver which is very easily converted to fully automatic (which should not have been banned since that IS an infringement but that's beside the point at the moment).
The bottom line is this: we need to not coddle psychopaths and sociopaths, we need to not ignore warning signs, but to commit and treat them. Don't let people with serious illnesses suffer and let anger or violent tendencies fester. Treat the actual problem - and if it takes implementing universal health care so they can actually get access to proper mental health treatment, so be it. Health care SHOULD be a universal human right - and yes it is an entitlement - EVERYONE should be entitled to full health care.
Why punish the tool, or act like the tool is the problem? The real problem is society telling everyone FUCK YOU WE DON'T WANT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE then suddenly act surprised when a teenager with serious psychological problems steals his mom's firearms and shoots up a school, or when a mentally ill adult decides to shoot up a workplace. Why are we so shocked when we keep rejecting universal health care, and keep rejecting treating the mentally ill?
At one point, there were shooting leagues in schools, where students brought their firearms in. What school shootings were there? The only shootings at that point were ones carried out by the government, not by The People. The mentally ill were locked away (which IMHO is nearly as bad as not treating them at all which is what we do now - we pretend they don't deserve "free" health care) to protect society. My generation? No school shootings, and yet guys often had rifles in gun racks out in the parking lot. No problems with it.... but now we're scared of our own shadows, and a kindergartener drawing a picture of a gun or playing "cops and robbers" and pointing fingers at each other and saying "bang" results in expulsion.
We have our priorities all wrong, we misplace blame on the tools rather than the evil and/or mentally ill people who carry out the evil acts, and we act all shocked when the people we denied health care end up hurting others.
Sooo do we start instituting background checks for ANYTHING which can be used as a weapon or manufacture a weapon (CNC milling machines, die grinders, billet metal, pressure cookers, knives, plate glass, tubing, anything which is combustible, etc.) or do we fucking wake up and provide free treatment to the mentally ill and start locking them up if necessary?
I say we start treating the mentally ill, and if they are a threat so society keep them locked up and provide competent treatment until they are mentally stable, and stop blaming inanimate objects for society's failings.
A gasoline odor coming from a car? That NEVER happens, despite an 8 - 30 gallon tank of gasoline being in the car. It sure is grounds for probable cause. >_>
and I suppose the M3800 is glued together like the newer Macbooks, making it near impossible even for seasoned techs to replace without warping or breaking parts during disassembly or at least baking the crap out of it with a heat gun?
> Worst thing ever. White-LED backlight. Why? Shit color gamut with RGB. White LEDs are near-blackbody in emission spectrum, have been for ages.
That would be true if white LEDs didn't have a very notchy color spectrum. The whole point of RGB-LEDs is that they cover the full Adobe color gamut. White LED backlights do not. Read up on backlight tech - RGB-LED is acknowledged as the best backlight. To get better you need a plasma screen (unworkable in a laptop unless you want crap battery life)
* Upgraded to a Core 2 Quad Extreme (did that a week after buying the notebook - as usual it was many hundreds cheaper to buy the upgraded processor separately so I ordered it with a mid-range Core 2 Duo) * Replaced both heat sink thermal transfer pads with copper shims when I replaced the motherboard after the lightning strike (and of course cleaned ALL of the dust out of every nook and cranny of the notebook while I had it torn down to the bare chassis) * About six months ago the screen hinge FINALLY started to loosen up so I disassembled the screen assembly to tighten all the internal screws on the screen frame. Feels like new. * Upgraded to hybrid hard drives about six years ago (so, not long after buying the laptop) * Upgraded the RAM about four years ago
Aside from the above all I've done since is maintain the Windows 7 install (including defrag of MFT and shrinking/defragging registry hives) and update the Linux install (OpenSUSE - my preferred Linux distro for workstations). The processor is still plenty fast for sysadmin work, and even for software builds on occasion.
It has what is by far the best laptop screen I've used - and I do credit that to the RGB-LED backlight array, I've worked with newer Precisions, HPs, Asus, Lenovo, and other desktop/workstation replacement and gaming laptops and none of the screens compare.:-(
I'd like to see a real upgrade to the m6x00 line (their 17" mobile workstations). I am still running an M6400 Precision Mobile Workstation. Why? Because I like a full keyboard, dual pointer options, and the 17" screen. I check the Precision lineup every few weeks hoping an upgrade comes out. The problem with the current models is that they are downgrades; the laptop I have has a WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB-LED backlit display while the current models top out at 1080p, with white LED edgelights. I want to see them go back to the RGB-LED backlight, and more importantly, offer a 1440p or higher resolution display.
They manage to offer WQXGA+ (3200x1800) and UHD (4K) displays in the 15" models - why are those of us who want the flagship 17" worksation left out in the cold when it comes to decent screens now? I also checked the Alienware line (since they're pretty much Precisions/Latitudes with a gamer case and gaming video card rather than the Quadro line) but even they top out at 1080p in the 17" model..:-(
Until Dell gets their act together with screen offerings on the m6x00 I'll keep my M6400 going. It paid for itself hundreds of times over and it is still going strong. I did have to replace the motherboard after a lightning strike but other than that it has been absolutely flawless. It's dropped from a 4' high ledge onto a tiled concrete floor while running and never skipped a beat; you cannot tell it was ever dropped and the hard drives scanned clean and STILL scan clean (SMART long test and surface scans with CHKDSK and fsck respectively) to this day. It's been an absolute tank for me, and aside from video resolution and video performance (I can't really use it for current games, plus it'd be nice to drive an external 3D display when at home) I am still very happy with it. I am still even on the original battery and still get decent life (almost two hours - when new it would get almost three hours) with the thing.:-)
Dell please throw m6x00 customers a bone - offer a 1440p or higher resolution display, then shut up and take my money.
15" laptops? Not interested. I like larger screen models (since it allows for close to full-size keyboards) with as high of a resolution as possible.
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I hope this doesn't result in the removal of parody reviews. Manually take them out of the weighting algorithm, sure, but please leave them, for the likes of Monster cables, Denon's ethernet cable, uranium oxide samples, reviews which pop up when a price gets bumped up by 33,300% due to occasional glitches in Amazon's dynamic pricing algorithm, and so forth.
Also, PLEASE kill the reviews which rate items a 1 because UPS destroyed the package. That isn't Amazon's fault; it's UPS's fault for shoving 65,000 packages per hour through a conveyor system designed to handle 27,000 packages per hour, resulting in UPS sorters/pickoffs "accidentally" pushing packages (usually the higher ticket items) off of 25' high conveyors onto the ground below out of anger and frustration. Yes, this does happen, and it's not Amazon's fault; it's UPSes for not running longer shifts, poor planning, and putting unrealistic demands on UPS hub workers. The reviews which are based on UPS's malfeasance should not apply to the rating of the product, because the reviews are supposed to be about the product, not the shipper. Same goes for when UPS sorters mis-pick an item sending it to the wrong part of the country, making the product late. That isn't Amazon's fault either.
OMG, Amazon sells plastic spoons? JUST WHAT I NEEDED! Okay, here's a review:
"Best spoon evar! All other spoons suck!!!"
SOLD!!!
Indeed; when /. readers want to share something we generally know how to copy & paste. Now, there are always exceptions to the rule but they are in the vast majority.
Besides, /. already HAD the share feature; it was just horribly broken. Fix share, put it back where it was, and bring back the Read More link.
Now, I realize that slashdotters are your product, not your customers, but by not listening to us you're pushing us to continue to choose reddit or even (ugh!) fark over /., thereby reducing the value of product making /. less attractive to your actual customers (advertisers).
Hey I have an idea - why not take this whole trend one step further and start posting stories about the kardashians, other train wrecks like Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and other child stars who delved into hard drugs or alcohol and ruined their lives, thereby increasing readership, and the all-important ad clicks?
I'm not so sure a lead injection into the skull qualifies as a cure, nor as an improvement in condition.
Try again, North Korea!
The A/B/X tests which proved botique cables are no better than coat hangers used multiple coat hangers, obviously. I'm not saying I would do this because they would be a nightmare to set up... .but based on your post I can only assume you fall within the autistic spectrum, or are simply being a pedantic nitwit, as it can be inferred that there would be a 1:1 replacement of coat hanger for each respective conductor. Duh.
Aside from noise rejection and the lack of impedance matching coat hangers work perfectly well even for analog gear as input patch cables (but due to sensitivity to impedance differences you wouldn't want to use in place of phono patch cables). They work supremely well as speaker cables, providing the gauge is heavy enough for the current (so driving the speakers at a Pink Floyd gig may not work out too well but for the average bar, wedding, etc. they would be perfectly fine).
Benefits of fine strand OFC cables:
* they look nice
* The interconnects are usually constructed better
* They are more flexible than cheap cable, allowing for easier cable routing
* They handle repeated stress better (so they're better for speakers mounted in doors)
I use fine strand OFC cables for auto sound systems because they fit into tight spaces without worrying about hitting bend radius limits.
That's because the power supply was dipped in epoxy resin - which is actually the major cause of C=64 power supply failures. The power supplies were very prone to overheating due to the epoxy encasement and were pretty much unserviceable due to the difficulty of getting to the components.
Yours didn't fail due to spillage of sprite because the power supply was in effect waterproof.
> Then again, it's rather challenging to discern an ACTUAL "point of no return" from "nothing promulgated vociferously", particularly when the people INSISTING that THIS TIME the sky REALLY IS FALLING are basically the same crew that has told us the same thing about running out of water,
Which has happened on the West Coast, so that they are now buying water rights from other states and built immensely expensive aquaducts to make up for the shortage... and now moving on to what they should have done decades ago, which is construct desalinization plants
> running out of food
It isn't that we're running out of food - it is that we mis-manage it, use food for the wrong purposes (ethanol), and actually pay farmers to destroy crops rather than can or freeze it and donate it to food banks.
> running out of oil,
We were; but then the government enacted fuel economy and emissions laws, both of which forced manufacturers to find ways to make engines more efficient than they used to be, and to not dump raw fuel out the exhaust. That's why we can now buy 600+hp supercars which achieve >30mpg when driven conservatively. This is one case where government regulations did spur some major innovations. You don't have to put up with a 25hp VW beetle with no heat to get 30mpg any more - you can get turbocharged sports sedans which can achieve > 40mpg cruise on the highway, and now full-size trucks which get better than 20mpg... and it's only going to get better.
We aren't running out because we're tapping new reserves, and are now turning to shale and fracking, and are using it more efficiently, even though we now have more cars, trucks, etc. than ever before.
> running out of land
In cities and surrounding communities we are.. but the world is nowhere near overpopulated. Certain regions are overpopulated.
> , etc, etc, ad infinitum,
I'd say that the West Coast which is suffering an unprecedented drought and massive flooding in Texas, and the incredible amount of precipitation the northeast has been getting is valid proof that climate change is accelerating beyond what can be expected; certainly faster than the "geological timescale."
We don't need to stop driving cars, or enjoying heat or air conditioning. What we DO need to do is invest heavily in green power, and consider retooling refineries to make diesel and synthetic gasoline from plant matter - making it 100% carbon-neutral. Legalize industrial hemp as well as other strains of cannabis - it's a better food source than soy anyhow, considering cannabis is hypoallergenic, whereas soy is a major allergen that is getting harder and harder to avoid.
Stop protesting wind farms - where there is high sustained winds, encourage wind power.
Give tax incentives for retrofitting homes and commercial buildings with photovoltaic panels, and do the same for geothermal heat pumps - or hell, even give tax credits for the installation of swimming pools providing the pool is being used as a heat sink (when I build my forever home I actually plan to use the pool as a heat sink, integrating it into a geothermal system).
It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing; we can have our toys and our freedom, we just need to be willing to embrace change, and we need to be willing to tell lobbyists (paper mills, soy industry, oil industry, corn/ethanol industry, etc.) to SHUT THE FUCK UP and deal with going the way of the buggy whip, and instead consider changing their business models to engage in production of green forms of petrol, or geothermal HVAC systems, or better solar panels and battery banks.
but.... how does that help Haliburton, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing get rich?
Wars need to be invented so that they can buy more yachts.
> Ask the Russians and Chinese how well their 5th gen fighters are coming.
Russia's aircraft are actually quite good. For example, he F-15 was developed in response to rumors of the MiG-25... but performance was inferior. The design of the MiG-25 is so good it is the basis for the MiG-31, and is also rumored to be the basis for a MACH 4-capable interceptor... same basic design but with modern materials and construction techniques. Also other Russian (Soviet?) military aircraft were historically superior to ours in other respects; because they had little access to ICs, many of their bombers used vacuum tubes which are far more resistant to EMP than solid state electronics. Don't underestimate Russia's capabilities. It is such a shame that after the cold war we never became better than frenemies with them; if we could get alone and put our heads together we would very likely be moving much faster in developing truly practical space travel.
The Chinese stealth fighter's advanced capabilities exist largely in the form of CGI propaganda videos. Besides, even if it were real, it would likely break the day after the warranty is out, and there will be no phone number for customer support the manufacturer should it fail within the 30-day warranty. ;)
> Animals do it because, as long as they can digest it, it's a significant source of nutrition right after massive energy and biomass expenditure.
Even many animals which cannot digest it (herbivores) consume it. It's not to get nutrition but to reduce odors which attract predators. It's their way of picking it up so they can carry and defaecate it away from where their offspring are.
It's not really "cat shit." They're "cat like" but are not in the felidae order but are in the feliformia which includes felidae (cats) and hyena and mongoose. Wikipedia states that they are in the order viverridae (a suborder of felifornia, cousins of felidae but are not felidae, which are all obligate carnivores).
> So they bolt on a pair of wings, add some propellers that have to be deployed from a casing that protects them during launch, oh and another stage separation event, a mechanism for separating the fuel tank from the engine.
I do not think you know what a turbofan is based on what you stated.
> And that's supposed to be simpler than some hydraulic landing legs and grid fins?
Not simpler to build and package, but certainly far easier to land given that we have 70 years of experience building jet engines
> And carrying all those additions to space doesn't cost them any extra fuel?
It does - but turbofans and horizontal flight with lifting surfaces is far more efficient than attempting to land vertically using a rocket engine, and we have 110 years of experience landing aircraft horizontally, or if you want to combine total experience, probably approaching on a million combined "man years" of experience landing aircraft (and spacecraft if you include the X15, space shuttle, scaled/virgin's spaceship, Buran, and the space plane) horizontally.
Large government contractors live or die suckling the tits of taxpayers... and their internal goal is NOT to solve the problems they're brought in to solve (the paperless initiative to reduce costs and ALSO as a side effect make all government records indexable and searchable for example) but to maximize billable hours.
It makes perfect sense to say it isn't economically feasible to make the first stage of spacecraft reusable; because for them it ISN'T an economically sound business model. It would reduce their total revenue for these projects. For new players, it absolutely makes perfect sense because it is a new market which established players will not touch with a ten foot/3m (notice the inaccurate conversion of english to metric, quite appropriate for aerospace contractors ;) ) but new players who want to break into the market are seizing as an opportunity to get established in the industry.... so of course now that practical designs, even if flawed, are proving to be achievable they are absolutely terrified of being forced to unlatched from the teat. That has them scared so they will of course now begin in earnest to develop more reusable spacecraft because they work on such a large scale that losing just a couple of contracts where they have designed their business model to be as inefficient as possible in order to maximize net profits could bankrupt them very quickly.
This business model will also make affordable space tourism and arriving at next generation, more efficient spacecraft to be developed sooner.
Consider this: what if Scaled Composites were to get into the strategic fighter game? What if they were to go head-to-head against Lockheed's Skunk Works, and reduced the cost of stealth interceptor/fighter/bombers and spy planes to tens of millions per unit rather than a blllion per unit, and made them more efficient and faster to boot? Given their immense investment in conventional tooling and methodologies, I don't think they could change their ways and remain profitable... taxpayers would save money, we'd see more capable military aircraft, and as a side effect we would probably see variable geometry airfoils with the ability to reduce or even cancel out audible sonic booms become reality and over-land supersonic airliners become a practical reality.
The goal of a large government contractor is not to reduce costs (even if that is a requirement laid out in the RFQ/RFP), but to maximize net profits. Cost-cutting measures are always impractical until a new emerging player proves that it is possible.
Yep... I've done work for the Red Cross and they are extremely wasteful. We were brought in to audit the design, development and QA process to make it more efficient and less prone to defects and to reduce iterations... but even though THEY brought us in they fought the process every step of the way. We eventually ended up firing them as a client. I think they just wanted someone to rubber stamp their chaos.
Making health care universal and bringing back asylums for long-term inpatient treatment would address that.
Interesting problem....
I'm very pro gun. I'm going to be buying two rifles (AR-15 and AR-10) and two pistols (two Colt 1911s, a .45 and a .22) and will be training for competitive shooting.... I do believe that the second amendment means what it says (The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed) but we made a really boneheaded move in not requiring background checks, and not implementing waiting periods across the board. When I'm ready to buy the firearms, I won't be opposed to a waiting period. I don't see either a waiting period or background check as any sort of infringement.
Also I think the whole "assault rifle" ban was ridiculous; why is it that if I put a semi-auto lower receiver into a plain-looking rifle it was okay, but if I put it into an AR/AK-style rifle that "looks scary" it is suddenly something which needed to be banned?
The interesting issue this presents is this: should we implement background checks for 3D printers capable of sintering metal, or CNC milling machines? Of course for a machinist who already has access to such a machine, it's simple to replicate a pre-original-ban AR lower receiver which is very easily converted to fully automatic (which should not have been banned since that IS an infringement but that's beside the point at the moment).
The bottom line is this: we need to not coddle psychopaths and sociopaths, we need to not ignore warning signs, but to commit and treat them. Don't let people with serious illnesses suffer and let anger or violent tendencies fester. Treat the actual problem - and if it takes implementing universal health care so they can actually get access to proper mental health treatment, so be it. Health care SHOULD be a universal human right - and yes it is an entitlement - EVERYONE should be entitled to full health care.
Why punish the tool, or act like the tool is the problem? The real problem is society telling everyone FUCK YOU WE DON'T WANT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE then suddenly act surprised when a teenager with serious psychological problems steals his mom's firearms and shoots up a school, or when a mentally ill adult decides to shoot up a workplace. Why are we so shocked when we keep rejecting universal health care, and keep rejecting treating the mentally ill?
At one point, there were shooting leagues in schools, where students brought their firearms in. What school shootings were there? The only shootings at that point were ones carried out by the government, not by The People. The mentally ill were locked away (which IMHO is nearly as bad as not treating them at all which is what we do now - we pretend they don't deserve "free" health care) to protect society. My generation? No school shootings, and yet guys often had rifles in gun racks out in the parking lot. No problems with it.... but now we're scared of our own shadows, and a kindergartener drawing a picture of a gun or playing "cops and robbers" and pointing fingers at each other and saying "bang" results in expulsion.
We have our priorities all wrong, we misplace blame on the tools rather than the evil and/or mentally ill people who carry out the evil acts, and we act all shocked when the people we denied health care end up hurting others.
Sooo do we start instituting background checks for ANYTHING which can be used as a weapon or manufacture a weapon (CNC milling machines, die grinders, billet metal, pressure cookers, knives, plate glass, tubing, anything which is combustible, etc.) or do we fucking wake up and provide free treatment to the mentally ill and start locking them up if necessary?
I say we start treating the mentally ill, and if they are a threat so society keep them locked up and provide competent treatment until they are mentally stable, and stop blaming inanimate objects for society's failings.
Not to worry - they're working on VR shoes so you can get the full LEGO experience ;)
A gasoline odor coming from a car? That NEVER happens, despite an 8 - 30 gallon tank of gasoline being in the car. It sure is grounds for probable cause. >_>
(in case you missed it: NOT)
and I suppose the M3800 is glued together like the newer Macbooks, making it near impossible even for seasoned techs to replace without warping or breaking parts during disassembly or at least baking the crap out of it with a heat gun?
> Worst thing ever. White-LED backlight. Why? Shit color gamut with RGB. White LEDs are near-blackbody in emission spectrum, have been for ages.
That would be true if white LEDs didn't have a very notchy color spectrum. The whole point of RGB-LEDs is that they cover the full Adobe color gamut. White LED backlights do not. Read up on backlight tech - RGB-LED is acknowledged as the best backlight. To get better you need a plasma screen (unworkable in a laptop unless you want crap battery life)
Oh other things I have done to the notebook:
* Upgraded to a Core 2 Quad Extreme (did that a week after buying the notebook - as usual it was many hundreds cheaper to buy the upgraded processor separately so I ordered it with a mid-range Core 2 Duo)
* Replaced both heat sink thermal transfer pads with copper shims when I replaced the motherboard after the lightning strike (and of course cleaned ALL of the dust out of every nook and cranny of the notebook while I had it torn down to the bare chassis)
* About six months ago the screen hinge FINALLY started to loosen up so I disassembled the screen assembly to tighten all the internal screws on the screen frame. Feels like new.
* Upgraded to hybrid hard drives about six years ago (so, not long after buying the laptop)
* Upgraded the RAM about four years ago
Aside from the above all I've done since is maintain the Windows 7 install (including defrag of MFT and shrinking/defragging registry hives) and update the Linux install (OpenSUSE - my preferred Linux distro for workstations). The processor is still plenty fast for sysadmin work, and even for software builds on occasion.
It has what is by far the best laptop screen I've used - and I do credit that to the RGB-LED backlight array, I've worked with newer Precisions, HPs, Asus, Lenovo, and other desktop/workstation replacement and gaming laptops and none of the screens compare. :-(
I'd like to see a real upgrade to the m6x00 line (their 17" mobile workstations). I am still running an M6400 Precision Mobile Workstation. Why? Because I like a full keyboard, dual pointer options, and the 17" screen. I check the Precision lineup every few weeks hoping an upgrade comes out. The problem with the current models is that they are downgrades; the laptop I have has a WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB-LED backlit display while the current models top out at 1080p, with white LED edgelights. I want to see them go back to the RGB-LED backlight, and more importantly, offer a 1440p or higher resolution display.
They manage to offer WQXGA+ (3200x1800) and UHD (4K) displays in the 15" models - why are those of us who want the flagship 17" worksation left out in the cold when it comes to decent screens now? I also checked the Alienware line (since they're pretty much Precisions/Latitudes with a gamer case and gaming video card rather than the Quadro line) but even they top out at 1080p in the 17" model.. :-(
Until Dell gets their act together with screen offerings on the m6x00 I'll keep my M6400 going. It paid for itself hundreds of times over and it is still going strong. I did have to replace the motherboard after a lightning strike but other than that it has been absolutely flawless. It's dropped from a 4' high ledge onto a tiled concrete floor while running and never skipped a beat; you cannot tell it was ever dropped and the hard drives scanned clean and STILL scan clean (SMART long test and surface scans with CHKDSK and fsck respectively) to this day. It's been an absolute tank for me, and aside from video resolution and video performance (I can't really use it for current games, plus it'd be nice to drive an external 3D display when at home) I am still very happy with it. I am still even on the original battery and still get decent life (almost two hours - when new it would get almost three hours) with the thing. :-)
Dell please throw m6x00 customers a bone - offer a 1440p or higher resolution display, then shut up and take my money.
15" laptops? Not interested. I like larger screen models (since it allows for close to full-size keyboards) with as high of a resolution as possible.
You don't even need to RTFA to learn the printed parts are metal - it's stated right in the summary.