NASA has a game out: Where on the Blue Marble?
I am not entirely certain that the game lives up to its lofty ideal : crowd sourcing geographical points of interest.
I suspect a data set of Google Earth lookups would do a better job.
But anyways, whats considered a good score? I can routinely get 1000 pts/game just by clicking on the center of the map.
I would like to know what such a game strategy is doing to the NASA metrics.
I/O, I/O, Cthuhlu fthagn or xor xor and not nand xor...
"Did your Rex ever mention to you a hypothesis which used to be entertained in the days when quasi-intelligent machines, advanced computers and so forth were just beginning to make their impact on society? The hypothesis I refer to was this: that machines more complex than the human brain might be instructed to evolve still more complex examples of their kind, and thee in turn to evolve others until finally they transcended human ability to comprehend their workings?"
---'The Rites of Ohe', John Brunner, 1963
From what did the Cult of Singularity spring? Certainly the basic concepts are a re-working of John of Patmos' bitter ravings, but at what point was the Lovecraftian nightmare of a logic-gate embodied deity invented?
"...I/O,I/O, Cthuhlu fthagn or xor nor and not nand xor..."
I've always had a certain amount of respect for RCA. The kind of respect you might have for an old man that lives next door, a distinguished scientist perhaps, or a retired elder statesman. After all, I did start studying electronics with the RCA Receiving Tube Manual and the RCA Radio Designers Handbook. I've seen their logo on enough pieces of older equipment, and while a RCA jack may seem horribly outdated next to a fiber optic ST connector, the warmth of nostalgia is there.
Or rather, was there.
You see, I bought a cheap voice recorder. RCA VR5320R-A to be exact. And while I was excited to get it for ~$20 Cdn, courtesy of my local Princess Auto, I am considerably less thrilled to discover it won't connect via USB.
A little research uncovers that these units are notorious for USB failure, and the best solution is to re-record the data via a male-male 1/4" patch cord.
Data transfer via audio patching?
Oh RCA, how you have failed me...
Effort without Thinking, #65789:
Moved the dish I use for Internet access 43 kilometers. Hung it on my new house. Trees blocked my line of sight. My house is sunk into the forest. There isn't enough clear ground to play baseball for kilometers in any direction. Google Earth can't see my rooftop, or for that matter, my driveway, my front yard or even the road I live on.
So I spent a ridiculous amount of energy cutting - nay, hacking - a channel through the forest.
End result?
Wrong satellite, wrong line of sight. Six weeks off the 'Net (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
Post effort analysis: ten minutes with a cup of espresso checking my calculations might have saved me ten hours running the saw.
...At least my winter wood is cut up.
This article on penguins using air bubbles to reduce their drag makes me think of the supercavitating torpedoes reputedly in use by the Russian Navy. Now, apparently part of the problem with the supercavitation approach is that its difficult to keep the torpedo traveling in a straight line, as the torpedo wobbles back and forth inside the large - and apparently irregular- gas pocket blown by the cavitation. If the penguins can make do with micro-bubbles, I wonder what the actual airflow rate would be necessary to lubricate an RPV...and if that amount of gas could be stored in a compressed cylinder on board. Will have to make some calculations. Hard part might be skinning the RPV with pores.
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