grondilu

97 ms·

901.
by grondilu 12y ago
The short answer is that Mach 5 may be only a fifth of Mach 25, but since the rocket equation is logarithmic, this speed gain actually matters a lot. Just enough to go to orbit in a single stage, anyway. According to ReactionEngines calcu
902.
by grondilu 12y ago
I've tried it with a picture of mine. The encoding process was painfully slow, but I guess that does not concern the end-user much. The file size went from 1.2M in jepg to 164K in bpg, and the decoding was fairly fast. After turning
903.
by grondilu 12y ago
> The best option is not screwing up our planet. It's very hard to imagine what we could do to Earth so that it becomes even less hospitable than mars.
904.
by grondilu 12y ago
All the more reasons not to make things more difficult than necessary by building those things in space.
905.
by grondilu 12y ago
> Encapsulating and packaging our civilisation also means creating a backup of our knowledge, You don't need to go to space to do that. It is much, much easier to build such "backups" on Earth, in the form of underground
906.
by grondilu 12y ago
> The history of the human race is a long succession of people contributing for something that other people will benefit from. I hope you will acknowledge that this applies to some of the most sinister parts of this history, though.
907.
by grondilu 12y ago
> Having the technology to live on Mars or on the Moon would enable us to settle pretty much anywhere in the habitable zone of the system. Just imagine how much real estate can be built in the form of rings or tubes with materials mine
908.
by grondilu 12y ago
> It would be so great if mankind is able to cooperate in the colonization of our solar system. We already collaborate for the exploration of the solar system, via robotic probes and giant telescopes. That's good enough. Coloni
909.
by grondilu 12y ago
Haha.
910.
by grondilu 12y ago
> Stan Williams of HP Labs gave a talk recently at Rice Any link?
911.
by grondilu 12y ago
Tungsten is near 20g/cm3 and is much more reasonable as far as price is concerned (Osmium is basically a precious metal). I'm not sure sparing a few hundred meters of hole digging is worth gathering tons of tungsten, but I would
912.
by grondilu 12y ago
I suppose they plan on using a transmission mechanism that will turn one meter down to as many turns as you want anyway, so I guess the depth of the hole is at least partially determined by how good a transmission mechanism you can afford.
913.
by grondilu 12y ago
What determines the depth of the whole? I mean, since E = mgh, you can get the same energy storage capacity with a less deep hole if you use a heavier weight. And you can get a heavier weight either by using more expensive material (why us
914.
by grondilu 12y ago
In his lecture called "Heretical Thoughts About Science and Society"[1], Freeman Dyson[2] states: "the problem of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a problem of land management, not a problem of meteorology". This is b
915.
by grondilu 12y ago
Oh OK, my bad then.
916.
by grondilu 12y ago
Noise cancellation is a big, existing market. If they really have a better technology to offer, they don't need a Kickstarter.
917.
by grondilu 12y ago
The speaker is Larry Wall but I interpreted timotimo's quote as meaning that the abstract on the FOSDEM page, along with the pseudo-announcement, has not been written by Larry himself.
918.
by grondilu 12y ago
Well, as you pointed out, Python 3 differs from Python 2 only with minor languages changes. Perl 6 is drastically different from Perl 5 (though clearly in the same lineage). Not only the language is quite different, but so is the design of
919.
by grondilu 12y ago
IIRC, this was a premature claim that has been written without any consulting of the actual Perl 6 community: http://irclog.perlgeek.de/perl6/2014-11-05#i_9617218
920.
by grondilu 12y ago
Being able to give your vote means you're able to sell it. I'm OK with this, but I'm pretty sure most people aren't.
921.
by grondilu 12y ago
I'm not sure racism is the only possible explanation for that.
922.
by grondilu 12y ago
> Unlike some of you, I’ve also experienced racism (police stops, How do you know when police stops you because of racism and not regular police work?
923.
by grondilu 12y ago
> I fully agree that we don’t want to live in an aristocratic society in which already-wealthy families get richer simply by sitting on their laurels and collecting what Piketty calls “rentier income”—that is, the returns people earn whe
924.
by grondilu 12y ago
You're confusing being free with being able. Freedom is a deep concept, but I'm pretty sure not being able to do something does not mean you're not free to do it.
925.
by grondilu 12y ago
Being free does not necessarily mean having the means to exercise this freedom. E.g, I'm free to drive a luxurious car if I want to but if I don't own or rent one, I can't. You may be free, but it does not mean your beer is.
926.
by grondilu 12y ago
Most people walk by homeless, possibly starving people everyday and they do sleep at night. It's a lack of empathy that everyone basically has.
927.
by grondilu 12y ago
> Capitalism is not about right to exchange there is no right in capitalism that is in liberalism. Capitalism is an economic system that just is. Even if I'm ok with calling capitalism a "system", it still is a "syste
928.
by grondilu 12y ago
The use of the word "system" here is obviously a rhetoric device. Only far-left-oriented people use this term. If you ask the question, "What will we do if the system can no longer create jobs?", it's hard not to s
929.
by grondilu 12y ago
Exactly. That's basically the one thing the author fails to acknowledge. Money doesn't magically appears from labor. It results as a voluntary exchange between a worker and a employer. There's no "capitalistic system
930.
by grondilu 12y ago
I was a bit bugged by the section about the density matrix. He writes: > Then you compute the outer product of the vector with itself I'm not sure what he means by outer product here. Isn't the outer product of a vector by its

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