glabifrons
Joined 16 years ago
Joined 16 years ago
0 - It has very short descriptions for each stage. There's not quite enough info to understand the "whys". Like it states that the 6501 was dropped after the threat of a lawsuit, but doesn't explain that it was because of it being pin-(and I believe signal)-compatible with the 6800, which the 6502 was not.
I'd love to run a ZFS-backed Ubuntu One server for all my family's portable devices.
I'm also surprised to see the Proteus and X29 in the list. The Proteus was quite a ground-breaker and doesn't look too strange if you've seen a few gliders. I remember seeing the X29 on the front cover of (I think) Popular Science back in the day, and thought it was a beautiful design. Highly efficient, highly maneuverable, and I think this was the one with a vertical canard (under the pilot, not visible in most pictures) that allowed it to corner flat (for improved visibility during dogfights).
I think the Edgley Optica looks like something from Lexx, the Bartini Beriev VVA-14 belongs in a video game and the Handley-Page Victor belongs in Agents of Shield!
The water we're pumping down there isn't the only water deep in the earth. Water + C02 = carbonic acid, commonly known to dissolve limestone (frequently the cause of sinkholes when it happens near the surface). Am I the only one who thinks pumping enormous amounts of C02 deep into the ground (where it's going to come into contact with water and limestone) is a really, really bad idea?
Outside of that, very interesting article. Fantastic that they have access to a fault via an old military installation!
So, you had to rear-end a Pinto wagon (not hatchback) with a nearly empty tank so the bolts entered at the fume level for any chance of fire or explosion.
Edit: Fixed typo.
Reference:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/systems/opensparc/openspar...
[0] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/02/swap_nsa_expl...
FTA: "This innovation will make it possible to build series hybrid-electric aircraft with four or more seats," said Frank Anton, Head of eAircraft at Siemens Corporate Technology
The whole point of hybrid cars are the fact that you're only on the throttle periodically. You start, stop, speed up, slow down all the time (especially in S. Florida!). Normally when you're slowing down, you're burning off the energy as heat (friction from the brakes), etc. Adding an electric motor/generator to this allows you to recapture energy that is normally wasted slowing back down, so it can be reused to re-accelerate back up to speed. This is why hybrids (unlike non-hybrid cars) get better fuel mileage in town than on the freeway.
Aircraft, on the other hand, are at full-throttle on takeoff, and close to 3/4 throttle during the vast majority of the flight. There is no slowdown to recoup the energy until coming in for a landing. @beloch has already done the math showing the electric range would be downright miniscule, so there's very, very little to be gained here.
Until we have some utterly astounding advances in battery (or more likely, supercapacitor) tech (probably via graphene), this won't really be a cost-effective solution.
However, this would be an absolutely incredible motor for electric car conversions. Imagine a pair of these (each powering an axle)... it would be considerably more powerful than even the Tesla Model S P85D.
They're describing SWAP [0]. Cool they Kasperksy now has binaries to reverse-engineer.
What's impressive is the number of OSes and filesystems that are supported. Keep in mind the documentation publicized is from 2008, so they likely support ZFS, ext4 & btrfs as well now.
[0] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/02/swap_nsa_expl...
Thank you very much for the 2nd link. I was unaware any company was still manufacturing them. The last time I looked, the last company I could find that made them stopped a few years prior. I'm glad someone is making them still/again and marketing for an appropriate use.
The one odd thing is the price... for something as low-tech (relatively speaking) as an Edison cell, I'd expect them to be much cheaper. Must be the lack of competition.
Does it have to resemble an existing aircraft to be considered a "model aircraft"? This could easily be open to interpretation of law enforcement. If so, my brother had some "small unmanned aircraft systems" back in the '70s (powered by 049 engines). They were most definitely "experimental designs" as some of them looked nothing like any (manned) aircraft ever produced. This proposal looks dangerously close to something that could make experimenting with new aircraft designs an illegal activity, including those designed for humor. Examples include flying lawnmowers, doghouses and witches. [0] How would they classify my Dragonflies? [1] They certainly don't resemble any manned flying contraption ever made, they barely resemble an actual dragonfly. Would these fall under the "more flexible framework for “micro” UAS under 4.4 pounds"? If so, that's utterly absurd. If your answer is "it's a toy", I agree, but then so are all of the quads and aircraft I've already mentioned. It needs to have a very distinct line distinguishing a "model aircraft" from a "small unmanned aircraft".
It doesn't even say "powered aircraft", so a large hand-launched remote controlled glider could be illegal (yes, I know this is reaching a bit, just trying to prove a point).
It's unclear to me if this will make illegal all of the automated fliers that have been built (such as those suggested on old episodes of Hak5, programmed to fly to a nearby building's roof, park for a period of time, then fly back, etc.). I suspect it will, since it makes repeated references to the "operator" and "line of sight", etc. I saw interviews with people (at DEFCON?) who had created some very impressive auto-navigating (beyond autopilots) craft as well. All of the machines produced with cameras and video feeds for remote operation would suddenly be illegal to fly in the manner for which they were designed. Among those would be a wonderfully implemented one with a full cockpit view. [2]
"A small UAS may not fly over people" This is really vague... "directly over" or just "kinda over" (what range)? Technically, if they're over 7 feet up, they're "over people" so already in violation. This will make flying remote control airplanes illegal in parks too... where will all the hobbyists be able to go? You can't launch and land in a cornfield.
[0] http://flyingthingz.com/ [1] http://www.wowwee.com/en/products/toys/flight/flytech/dragon... [2] http://hackaday.com/2014/06/18/rc-plane-flies-with-a-cockpit...