I wouldn't raise alarm too much, cosmic rays affect a space craft in mainly three ways: Single Even Upset (SEU), Single Event Latchup (SEL), and Total Ionization Dose (TID) measured in kRad. The higher cosmic rays increase the TID, but all these satellites are built for it and it shouldn't raise an alarm except for very long term missions. SEUs and SELs are what the phrase "just one cosmic ray could disable unlucky satellites or even put a mission to Mars in jeopardy." is mentioning. SEUs aren't too much too worry about, usually nothing too harmful, just a few errors and at worst a reset of some subsystems. The bad one is the SELs. These can cause a temporary short and potentially cause damage. The key thing with SEUs and SELs is that they're typically temporary and the spacecraft's power systems nowadays can easily handle them. The solid state switches/fuses they started with Cassini (and are now typical for NASA missions) are very effective (accidently proven so during integration) and can cut off a shorted subsystem quite fast and prevent damage.
Here at Penn State several of the electrical engineering professors use IBM tablets. They're nice and tiny, last all day, and are possibly the best teaching tool I've come across. I personally own a Toshiba tablet, and while it was pretty good for a while, the hardware has failed constantly. The support was pretty good, but the computer is struggling now that the 3 year warranty is up (dead accelerometer, pen pressure sensitivity not working, screen is wobbly, fixed the CD-ROM myself). I've heard a lot of good things about the IBM models, namely the x61 I believe.
My one tip? For God's sake, don't be that teacher that sits through class endlessly trying to figure out how to use it. Don't introduce it into your classroom until you have the routine down. I had one professor that decided to use it for a signals and systems review, and at least half the time spent was him trying to figure out how to use the computer. He was more of a side walk chalk on the board kind of guy...
Actually, that's sudo apt-get install girlfriend. It's worth noting that after installing girlfriend it will automatically uninstall some of your favorite packages.
"Since our sensitivity is not equally distributed along all frequencies a louder signal "acquires" more frequency range."
That really has nothing to do with boosting the signal. Yes, at lower volumes our hears are far less sensitive in the lower and higher ranges. Once you're up and over around 90dB, our hearing curve evens out and we hear most the of the frequencies at the same level (except for the extremely low and high). This is what explains the "loudness" button on old receivers - it simply boosts the lows and highs for low listening volume.
As for why the record companies do this, most of it can be blamed on the market; namely teenagers and college students. The trend is towards "ear thrashing" music. Like others have mentioned, they mistake loudness for quality. In the world of high end audio we know these decibel drag racers are just utter crap and most of what you're hearing is distortion, especially in the low end - another quality that the untrained ear mistakes as quality.
Something not considered is what type of music you're listening to. Heavy rock music is one of those that listeners just want "in your face" noise. However, if you look at something a little more... sophisticated shall I say, the loudness war need apply. Take a look at classical music and jazz. This tends to be the type of music audiophile listen to and is where sound quality is of the utmost importance. Again, you can simply blame the market for these trends.
I work in the IT Department at a fairly rich public school district, and we have made the decision to go with Open Office. Obviously it makes no sense forcing kids to upgrade to Office 2007, and this way we will be saving over $100,000 in licensing fees and may be able to hire extra staff with the saved money. This also solves the problems of kids bringing in documents saved in open standards and not being able to open them up at school (quite the large problem).
Oh my God, I worked for that company! I was an intern there last year, and I was working the network group. I had the job of pulling old cables from the main data center under the raised floor, and in the process I had heard quite a few stories of things that had happened. Sure enough, they had to extend the data center into some of the cubicle space, and during the remodeling the server got boxed in (don't ask me how). After 4 years of running flawlessly they had a problem and needed to put a CD into it to reinstall something. They tried and tried and couldn't find the computer. So the one guy finally just found the network cable and followed it... into a wall. Needless to say the maintenance crew had to bust a hole through the wall and the server still works to this day:)
Am I right? First free wifi, then the $100 laptop, then free worldwide wireless, then next thing you know Google will be delivering their GoogleOS throughout all those fiber lines they've been buying up and will topple Microsoft!
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I wouldn't raise alarm too much, cosmic rays affect a space craft in mainly three ways: Single Even Upset (SEU), Single Event Latchup (SEL), and Total Ionization Dose (TID) measured in kRad. The higher cosmic rays increase the TID, but all these satellites are built for it and it shouldn't raise an alarm except for very long term missions. SEUs and SELs are what the phrase "just one cosmic ray could disable unlucky satellites or even put a mission to Mars in jeopardy." is mentioning. SEUs aren't too much too worry about, usually nothing too harmful, just a few errors and at worst a reset of some subsystems. The bad one is the SELs. These can cause a temporary short and potentially cause damage. The key thing with SEUs and SELs is that they're typically temporary and the spacecraft's power systems nowadays can easily handle them. The solid state switches/fuses they started with Cassini (and are now typical for NASA missions) are very effective (accidently proven so during integration) and can cut off a shorted subsystem quite fast and prevent damage.
In a nutshell, don't get your panties in a bunch.
Here at Penn State several of the electrical engineering professors use IBM tablets. They're nice and tiny, last all day, and are possibly the best teaching tool I've come across. I personally own a Toshiba tablet, and while it was pretty good for a while, the hardware has failed constantly. The support was pretty good, but the computer is struggling now that the 3 year warranty is up (dead accelerometer, pen pressure sensitivity not working, screen is wobbly, fixed the CD-ROM myself). I've heard a lot of good things about the IBM models, namely the x61 I believe.
My one tip? For God's sake, don't be that teacher that sits through class endlessly trying to figure out how to use it. Don't introduce it into your classroom until you have the routine down. I had one professor that decided to use it for a signals and systems review, and at least half the time spent was him trying to figure out how to use the computer. He was more of a side walk chalk on the board kind of guy...
Actually, that's sudo apt-get install girlfriend. It's worth noting that after installing girlfriend it will automatically uninstall some of your favorite packages.
My iFavorite is the iBUYPOWER gaming system. At least they're blunt about it.
It's also what we like to call "wrong".
but I love hearing about everything that happens to my friends.
He said witty.
Just try to think of something else when looking at those screenshots.
"Since our sensitivity is not equally distributed along all frequencies a louder signal "acquires" more frequency range." That really has nothing to do with boosting the signal. Yes, at lower volumes our hears are far less sensitive in the lower and higher ranges. Once you're up and over around 90dB, our hearing curve evens out and we hear most the of the frequencies at the same level (except for the extremely low and high). This is what explains the "loudness" button on old receivers - it simply boosts the lows and highs for low listening volume. As for why the record companies do this, most of it can be blamed on the market; namely teenagers and college students. The trend is towards "ear thrashing" music. Like others have mentioned, they mistake loudness for quality. In the world of high end audio we know these decibel drag racers are just utter crap and most of what you're hearing is distortion, especially in the low end - another quality that the untrained ear mistakes as quality. Something not considered is what type of music you're listening to. Heavy rock music is one of those that listeners just want "in your face" noise. However, if you look at something a little more... sophisticated shall I say, the loudness war need apply. Take a look at classical music and jazz. This tends to be the type of music audiophile listen to and is where sound quality is of the utmost importance. Again, you can simply blame the market for these trends.
Here's a good video outlining what the record companies have been doing.
I work in the IT Department at a fairly rich public school district, and we have made the decision to go with Open Office. Obviously it makes no sense forcing kids to upgrade to Office 2007, and this way we will be saving over $100,000 in licensing fees and may be able to hire extra staff with the saved money. This also solves the problems of kids bringing in documents saved in open standards and not being able to open them up at school (quite the large problem).
I once had a professor that sometimes rode with the Hell's Angels. He said once you get to know them they can be pretty fun. Still brutally scary.
Oh my God, I worked for that company! I was an intern there last year, and I was working the network group. I had the job of pulling old cables from the main data center under the raised floor, and in the process I had heard quite a few stories of things that had happened. Sure enough, they had to extend the data center into some of the cubicle space, and during the remodeling the server got boxed in (don't ask me how). After 4 years of running flawlessly they had a problem and needed to put a CD into it to reinstall something. They tried and tried and couldn't find the computer. So the one guy finally just found the network cable and followed it... into a wall. Needless to say the maintenance crew had to bust a hole through the wall and the server still works to this day :)
Am I right? First free wifi, then the $100 laptop, then free worldwide wireless, then next thing you know Google will be delivering their GoogleOS throughout all those fiber lines they've been buying up and will topple Microsoft!