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> a bunch of off-the-shelf Canon telephoto lenses stuck together on a metal frame That's an interesting remark. It's hard to beat mass production. As number pr
by kartan 9y ago
> a bunch of off-the-shelf Canon telephoto lenses stuck together on a metal frame
That's an interesting remark. It's hard to beat mass production. As number produced skyrocket to the millions, it's difficult that a custom device has the resources that a mass marketed device has.
That's why millionaires have the same phone that you, the military use Xbox 360 controllers in their submarine's periscopes and COTS supercomputers are common.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_cluster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_cluster
https://www.quora.com/What-smartphone-do-tech-billionaires-use https://www.quora.com/What-smartphone-do-tech-billionaires-u...
"US Navy submarines are getting Xbox 360 controllers to control their periscopes" https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/19/16333376/us-navy-military-xbox-360-controller https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/19/16333376/us-navy-military...
- ktpsns 9y agoIn fact, a whole generation of HPC students and scientists write codes for consumer graphics cards (GPGPU). All of this only because they are so cheap.
- sgt101 9y agoI think that the most powerful thing is that they offer a low point of entry. You can start for pretty near free, but for less than £100k you can build a differentiating capability and start contributing to knowledge... vs traditional instruments where the onramp starts at £millions and goes from there.
- lou1306 9y agoThank you! Never heard of the term "Beowulf cluster". Sad to see the Wikipedia page never mention good old Linda, which was developed precisely to allow collaboration in heterogeneous systems. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/19/business/david-gelernter-s-romance-with-linda.html https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/19/business/david-gelernter-...
- toopok4k3 9y agoIt's really hard for me to figure out if you were sarcastic or not with your "never heard of the term"? You must be either young or never visited slashdot for it not to be sarcasm. It was a running joke in slashdot on every comment section to have a Beowulf cluster of whatever was mentioned in the article.
- dboreham 9y ago400mm f2.8 lenses aren't made in the millions. Tens of thousands probably. The lenses used in this telescope cost $8k retail and they use 8 per. Not exactly cheap but surely much lower cost than typical astronomical big iron. Astronomy RAID :)
- mikevin 9y ago> Now if the controls break, “I can go to any video game store and procure an Xbox controller anywhere in the world, so it makes a very easy replacement,” Senior Chief Mark Eichenlaub told The Virginian-Pilot. I get his point but that sounds hilarious. "Hey guys, could we surface for a moment, I need to visit the North Korean/Russian/Antarctic Gamestop for a moment"
- muthdra 9y ago"Guys, if you head west now, we can intercept our shipment from PlayAsia by 0700."