"Depending on humans to do battery maintenance doesn't work,"
you mean, Depending on average consumer humans to do battery maintenance doesn't work, they can barely maintain a gas car with oil changes and other very simple maintenance.
And I agree, the average person is way, way, too stupid to remember to take proper care of things.
I think both of these situations could be easily remedied by putting a "Perform Maintenance" light on the dash. Surely we can cobble together some electronics to sense when the vehicle is due for an oil change or a battery watering.
The adaptive optics are run by computers. They could be programmed to compensate for any "chromatic" aberration induced by the frequency difference. However, the visibility or invisibility of the laser is not the real issue. The real issue is that the adaptive optics work by calibrating a flexible mirror based on light received from a reference star. The laser creates an artificial reference star by exciting sodium vapour high in the upper atmosphere, causing it to glow. The laser must therefore be tuned to a specific frequency, or the sodium vapour doesn't glow. No glow, no reference star. No reference star, no adaptive optics.
The primary thing that makes lasers harmful to planes is that the brightness temporarily blinds the pilot. It's like looking directly at the flash from a camera, or an oncoming car's high beams at night. invisible frequencies don't cause temporary blindness (although prolonged exposure can cause permanent damage).
Calendar Epochs, in my opinion, are the most difficult things to pick when designing a calendar. I've had tons of trouble with it over the years.
And, as far as the beginning of units goes, I still like the thought of them changing when everything is in it's most dormant state.
Can you or anyone think of any other neutral accurately measurable Epochs?
You've got basically four choices for setting an epoch: - an astronomic event, like a conjunction or stellar alignment - a politically/culturally convenient moment - an arbitrary fiat declaration - or a compromise.
Considering that the apparent point of the Terran Computational Calendar is to measure the motion of the Earth, an astronomic event is probably your best bet.
However, I think the more important question is the one raised by Peter on the website: "What is missing from the site is motivation, what advantage is there to this calendar when compared to the well known ones?" People have proposed 13 months of 28 days before. What problem are you trying to solve?
To me, the primary advantage of the Terran Computational Calendar is the system of basetime+datemod. The basetime is always in the UTC/Zulu time zone, whereas in ISO8601, the base is in local time unless designated otherwise. Sadly, the fact that it is not in phase with the normal calendar makes it unusable to me from a practicality standpoint.
Good luck with it though. I've learned a ton doing the research for my comments.
True, but all our timekeeping math works great if you're thinking in angles and degrees, and a lot of it came about long before geometry was invented or anyone realized that the earth was round and went around the sun. Time makes a lot more sense if you realize that and think Pi instead of nice round numbers.
Um... no. We're measuring angles and ratios of angles, not circumferences. Pi has nothing to do with it.
Choice of year schronization:seasons: I've heard people say that the equinox is a more stable constant so it definitely has that going for it. The solstice was chosen because it is the darkest point (but only in the northern hemisphere). The new moon is at the darkest point and so is the day. I'm not completely convinced that the terran computational calendar should break with that standard, but maybe, the equinox would definitely be a more neutral location. But if we are staying on the side of neutrality then which equinox?
Well, I would argue for the spring equinox. It has long been used as the start of the year. The Romans used it as such (which is why September, October, November, and December are numbered so. They are the 7th to 10th month reckoning from a March start). It was used by the Celts, the Babylonians, Mayans, Germanic tribes, and a host of others. Stonehenge, Woodhenge, various "medicine wheels", even the Polynesians and Australian Aboriginal People had stone circles to kept track of the Equinoxes and the path the Sun made through the constellations.
By the way, the reason that the equinox is easier to determine than the solstice is this: On the equinox days, the sunrise is exactly due East and sunset is exactly due West. For the solstice, you have to measure the apparent altitude of the Sun, which varies by only a 60th of its apparent diameter from one day to the next near solstice time, and watch for the maximum (or minimum) altitude.
As far as starting at the darkest point, that's also not entirely true. I've already covered years, though I will mention that the Mayans used the winter solstice as their starting point. Lunar calendars generally start with either a full moon, or with the earliest visible crescent (consider the flags of the nations where lunar calendars predominate). This is because the new moon is nearly impossible to see, due to the Sun. As far as days, it has for the longest time been considered to be two step cycle, a twelve "hour" day and a twelve "hour" night (the hours were not of equal length). The day started at sunrise, and ended at sunset, though some cultures started the day at sunset rather than sunrise. In the early days, Roman timekeeping also started at sunrise. Time was kept using sundials and water clocks. Due to a quirk of Roman law, petitions before the courts needed to be made before midday (ante meredium), As the Roman empire spread across Europe and the near east, two things happened. Clocks became better, and noon became more important than sunrise. By the 4th century BC, Roman timekeeping had evolved to the current 12 hour day/12 hour night cycle with noon and midnight being 12:00.
january 1: If you're going to create a whole new calendar, I feel like keeping with a January 1st start date would be very confusing because you might expect the date to be a UTC date when it's totally not at all the same. But there'd be lots of confusion in ANY case. I know that TAI/UTC/UNIX uses January 1st, but besides that, do you know of any good reason to use January 1st as a start date other than convention?
Other than widespread convention, supported by numerous standards bodies and government decrees... well, no. However, I will throw this suggestion to you: If you're going to create a whole new calendar, and if keeping a Jan 1 start date is going to cause confusion anyways, then why not capitalize on that and use the spring equinox as your start point. I'm confident it will cause a lot less questions.
I will never understand how some peoples brains hear "Must discriminate against white people!" whenever someone says "Must not discriminate against black people".
Seriously, this white separatist thinking eally needs to die.
It's not the white separatist thinking that needs to die. It's the entire racial discrimination thing that needs to die. "Must not discriminate against black people" is just as wrong as "Must discriminate against white people!". The only effect the color of your skin has is how much sunbock you need.
We need a lot less angry testosterone driven assholes.
This is just another form is sexism. I'm really tired of this bullshit about the "testerone driven male".
Actually, you're the one making the sexist assumption that they are male. Just because it is primarily a male hormone, doesn't mean that females can't be driven by it as well.
It's not pretty because it evolved from an astronomical model. When timekeeping was being invented, we weren't entirely aware that's what we were modeling.
Um... no. We knew exactly what we were modelling - the apparent motion of the heavenly bodies.
Slashdot Mirror
"Depending on humans to do battery maintenance doesn't work,"
you mean, Depending on average consumer humans to do battery maintenance doesn't work, they can barely maintain a gas car with oil changes and other very simple maintenance.
And I agree, the average person is way, way, too stupid to remember to take proper care of things.
I think both of these situations could be easily remedied by putting a "Perform Maintenance" light on the dash. Surely we can cobble together some electronics to sense when the vehicle is due for an oil change or a battery watering.
The adaptive optics are run by computers. They could be programmed to compensate for any "chromatic" aberration induced by the frequency difference. However, the visibility or invisibility of the laser is not the real issue. The real issue is that the adaptive optics work by calibrating a flexible mirror based on light received from a reference star. The laser creates an artificial reference star by exciting sodium vapour high in the upper atmosphere, causing it to glow. The laser must therefore be tuned to a specific frequency, or the sodium vapour doesn't glow. No glow, no reference star. No reference star, no adaptive optics.
The primary thing that makes lasers harmful to planes is that the brightness temporarily blinds the pilot. It's like looking directly at the flash from a camera, or an oncoming car's high beams at night. invisible frequencies don't cause temporary blindness (although prolonged exposure can cause permanent damage).
Ok, wheres your studies to prove this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI7Qq1mYQlI
Major astronomical telescopes often use lasers for their adaptive optics systems.
Why don't they just use non-visible lasers?
None of those net you $5K though.
Depends on the umbrella.
Why does it need a pilot?
OS X is UNIX based.
Actually, from a structural standing, Windows 8 is fine, even better than the ones that came before.
It's the UI they changed.
Oh? They've switched to a unix-like structure?
Just what we don't need, an easier way to write buggy code.
Exactly! Who, besides the Amish, need buugy code? What we need is self driving automobile code.
I vote for the existence of unobtanium on that planet. 2.3 times the size of the Earth?
By golly! You're right. Weren't the Na'vi about 2.3 times the size of humans?
Who needs the sun when you've got peroxide?
By not being in them to begin with, doofus.
Okay. So how do I get people to stop posting pictures that I've been photoshopped into.
Calendar Epochs, in my opinion, are the most difficult things to pick when designing a calendar. I've had tons of trouble with it over the years.
And, as far as the beginning of units goes, I still like the thought of them changing when everything is in it's most dormant state.
Can you or anyone think of any other neutral accurately measurable Epochs?
You've got basically four choices for setting an epoch:
- an astronomic event, like a conjunction or stellar alignment
- a politically/culturally convenient moment
- an arbitrary fiat declaration
- or a compromise.
Considering that the apparent point of the Terran Computational Calendar is to measure the motion of the Earth, an astronomic event is probably your best bet.
However, I think the more important question is the one raised by Peter on the website: "What is missing from the site is motivation, what advantage is there to this calendar when compared to the well known ones?" People have proposed 13 months of 28 days before. What problem are you trying to solve?
To me, the primary advantage of the Terran Computational Calendar is the system of basetime+datemod. The basetime is always in the UTC/Zulu time zone, whereas in ISO8601, the base is in local time unless designated otherwise. Sadly, the fact that it is not in phase with the normal calendar makes it unusable to me from a practicality standpoint.
Good luck with it though. I've learned a ton doing the research for my comments.
True, but all our timekeeping math works great if you're thinking in angles and degrees, and a lot of it came about long before geometry was invented or anyone realized that the earth was round and went around the sun. Time makes a lot more sense if you realize that and think Pi instead of nice round numbers.
Um... no. We're measuring angles and ratios of angles, not circumferences. Pi has nothing to do with it.
If you don't want someone else to see it, don't send it.
Pray tell, how do I get someone to not post pictures of me?
Why not start spying on the spies and publish every single move and action they make.
Okay. Here's a start.
Oh, wait! I think I saw one of them blink.
Choice of year schronization: seasons: I've heard people say that the equinox is a more stable constant so it definitely has that going for it. The solstice was chosen because it is the darkest point (but only in the northern hemisphere). The new moon is at the darkest point and so is the day. I'm not completely convinced that the terran computational calendar should break with that standard, but maybe, the equinox would definitely be a more neutral location. But if we are staying on the side of neutrality then which equinox?
Well, I would argue for the spring equinox. It has long been used as the start of the year. The Romans used it as such (which is why September, October, November, and December are numbered so. They are the 7th to 10th month reckoning from a March start). It was used by the Celts, the Babylonians, Mayans, Germanic tribes, and a host of others. Stonehenge, Woodhenge, various "medicine wheels", even the Polynesians and Australian Aboriginal People had stone circles to kept track of the Equinoxes and the path the Sun made through the constellations.
By the way, the reason that the equinox is easier to determine than the solstice is this: On the equinox days, the sunrise is exactly due East and sunset is exactly due West. For the solstice, you have to measure the apparent altitude of the Sun, which varies by only a 60th of its apparent diameter from one day to the next near solstice time, and watch for the maximum (or minimum) altitude.
As far as starting at the darkest point, that's also not entirely true. I've already covered years, though I will mention that the Mayans used the winter solstice as their starting point. Lunar calendars generally start with either a full moon, or with the earliest visible crescent (consider the flags of the nations where lunar calendars predominate). This is because the new moon is nearly impossible to see, due to the Sun. As far as days, it has for the longest time been considered to be two step cycle, a twelve "hour" day and a twelve "hour" night (the hours were not of equal length). The day started at sunrise, and ended at sunset, though some cultures started the day at sunset rather than sunrise. In the early days, Roman timekeeping also started at sunrise. Time was kept using sundials and water clocks. Due to a quirk of Roman law, petitions before the courts needed to be made before midday (ante meredium), As the Roman empire spread across Europe and the near east, two things happened. Clocks became better, and noon became more important than sunrise. By the 4th century BC, Roman timekeeping had evolved to the current 12 hour day/12 hour night cycle with noon and midnight being 12:00.
january 1: If you're going to create a whole new calendar, I feel like keeping with a January 1st start date would be very confusing because you might expect the date to be a UTC date when it's totally not at all the same. But there'd be lots of confusion in ANY case. I know that TAI/UTC/UNIX uses January 1st, but besides that, do you know of any good reason to use January 1st as a start date other than convention?
Other than widespread convention, supported by numerous standards bodies and government decrees... well, no. However, I will throw this suggestion to you: If you're going to create a whole new calendar, and if keeping a Jan 1 start date is going to cause confusion anyways, then why not capitalize on that and use the spring equinox as your start point. I'm confident it will cause a lot less questions.
Dang! Fouled up the link
The best person/robot should be given the job. be it white black asian purple or bender
Purple people? Now hold on..."
I will never understand how some peoples brains hear "Must discriminate against white people!" whenever someone says "Must not discriminate against black people".
Seriously, this white separatist thinking eally needs to die.
It's not the white separatist thinking that needs to die. It's the entire racial discrimination thing that needs to die. "Must not discriminate against black people" is just as wrong as "Must discriminate against white people!". The only effect the color of your skin has is how much sunbock you need.
We need a lot less angry testosterone driven assholes.
This is just another form is sexism. I'm really tired of this bullshit about the "testerone driven male".
Actually, you're the one making the sexist assumption that they are male. Just because it is primarily a male hormone, doesn't mean that females can't be driven by it as well.
A good candidate for an intersteller calendar. So to make the current date (1401510007 UNIX) more readable you could write it as 1:401:510:007.
Shouldn't that be ::1:401:510:7?
The metric system typically uses millimetres, metres, and kilometres. Centimetres are used, and are perfectly valid, but they're old fashioned.
It's not pretty because it evolved from an astronomical model. When timekeeping was being invented, we weren't entirely aware that's what we were modeling.
Um... no. We knew exactly what we were modelling - the apparent motion of the heavenly bodies.