Off Topic - Main

[hailstone]

From  aJokeADay.com

During the initial space flights, Nasa discovered that biro pens didn’t work under zero gravity conditions. To beat the problem, Nasa spent 6 years and $2 million in designing a pen for use in space. The pen would work under zero gravity conditions due to the pressurized ink inside, it would work under sub zero conditions, underwater, on glass and virtually any surface known to man. The Russians used a pencil.

[-Archmage-]

Nice one.

BTW, the answer was 137 mega-pixels.

[modman]

Why God never got a PhD
-----------------------

1. He had only one major publication.
2. It was written in Aramaic, not in English.
3. It has no references.
4. It wasn't even published in a refereed journal.
5. There are serious doubts he wrote it himself.
6. It may be true that he created the world, but what has he done since
then?
7. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
8. The Scientific community has had a hard time replicating his results.
9. He unlawfully performed not only Animal, but *Human* testing.
10. When one experiment went awry, he tried to cover it by drowning his
subjects.
11. When subjects didn't behave as predicted, he deleted them from
the sample.
12. He rarely came to class, just told his students to read the book.
13. Some say he had his son to teach the class.
14. He expelled his first two students for learning.
15. Although there were only 10 requirements, most of his students
failed his tests.
16. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountain top.

[Hectate]

I think that I've seen that before modman, good one - I like it.

You know who was the first person to break all the ten commandments at the same time? Moses.

You know you can tell it's cold outside when you see lawyers and politicians with their hands in their own pockets.

One cannibl looks at the other and says "Does this clown taste funny to you?"

[Trappin]

The Russians used a pencil.

The graphite dust from pencils can be a problem if/when it interacts with electronic components. I worked for a US defense contractor in Silicon Valley and pencils in the clean room(s) were forbidden. The techs in the assembly area wore link free smocks and shoe coverings - I think the air was filtered to 9 microns -  the workers in the silicon-wafer doping rooms wore lint-free suits which covered their heads/hair/feet and the air was filtered below 9 microns. The ink based plotting pens used lint-free cloth marker head materials and the lint-free plotting paper cost about $5 per sheet ( 6 pack of beer cost around $2 US dollars at that time)

We built low noise 6-18ghz detected output GAsFET amplifiers. That technology is pretty old now but the clean rooms are the same.

During the siege of Baghdad - US warplanes dropped graphite type cluster bombs on power plant sub-stations - thus shorting them out. Baghdad went dark.

[Hectate]

Very informative. thank you Trappin!

[Trappin]

Unreasonable environmental regulations - Case study of tin-lead solder products.

The problem of tin whiskers has new resonance as restrictions on lead have manufacturers struggling to non-destructively inspect these micron-sized crystals.

Tin whiskers are small and hard to detect and inspect. Typically no bigger than 1 to 5 microns in diameter and as much as several millimeters in length, they are small, but powerful; capable of short circuiting pacemakers, radar systems, fuses, relays and GPS receivers.



In April 2005, a tin whisker, sprouting from the lead of the diode on a universal logic board that had too high of a tin content, caused a short. The short gave a false low-pressure reading that tripped automatic safety protocols and forced an unplanned, emergency shutdown of the Millstone Power Station, a nuclear reactor facility in Southeast Connecticut, USA.

Tin Whiskers can take many shapes, can bend and kink during growth, and grow to lengths that could be disastrous. Their length becomes a problem as they grow and come in contact with leads and short out electronics. This is believed to have been the cause of a range of product failures including the disabling of the Galaxy 4 communications satellite in 1998.


As can be seen in the Millstone Power Station case, lead is a key ingredient. Gedney says that while the tin whisker problem has been around for 50 years, it was essentially solved decades ago by infusing the soldering material with as little as 3% lead.

Fine, outlaw the lead in tin based soldering materials designed for public consumption, but banning industrial and military grade soldering products seems to be reckless and shortsighted.

[-Archmage-]

Hey, anybody who believes in evolution.

I dare you to prove evolution!

[Hectate]

Hey, anybody who believes in evolution.

I dare you to prove evolution!

Sorry Archmage. While it would be undoubtedly interesting, this conversation was ended by all other parties involved. In the meantime, who likes the mechwarrior games? Anybody think a mod might do well in that vein?

[John.d.h]

I just thought I'd share what I've been working on in my Internet Applications class:

http://eustis.eecs.ucf.edu/~jo514450/main.html

I think I'm getting decent at XHTML and CSS, but I know almost nothing of JavaScript yet.

In the meantime, who likes the mechwarrior games? Anybody think a mod might do well in that vein?

That could be fun.

[Hectate]

I almost forgot. I have 4 invitations left to Google Wave preview, should anyone desire them.

First come first serve, other people are aware of this offer as well (on other forums).

Email me at nathaniel (dot) mitchell (at) gmail (dot) com

and I will submit an invitation to the email you used to email me.

Update : one less, now only 4 left.

[-Archmage-]

Google Wave?

[Hectate]

Google it, haha!

2 Left!

[John.d.h]

As cool as it looks, I think I'll wait until they have some of the kinks ironed out and release it to the public.

Edit: Finally finished watching the video at http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html, and I'm extremely impressed.  It's like IM, blogging, bulletin boards, email, and wikis all in one.  Also, that translation tool... well, what can I say but "wow!"

[Hectate]

Just got another batch of invitations available it appears. 16 more available, so let me know if you're even mildly interested.

nathaniel (dot) mitchell (at) gmail (dot) com

[Omega]

Interesting... I'll try it out!

Just click the button under my name for my email.

~~~

John, the site isn't bad. I took a look at the source, and despite the obvious simplicity, it is neat and well organized, with plenty of room for expansion. The CSS styles are fine, though I would STRONGLY recommend you do NOT use the em measurement. Pixels are much, much better.

Still got some learning to go, but it is nice to see you can use XHTML Strict (I've always prefered transitional myself). Speaking of Javascript, I plan on making some tutorials and posting them with Triond, which I recently discovered, and after two completely crappy, almost useless articles, I generated 57 cents (for once, I want the american dollar to stay up...). Not bad for terrible articles. Now imagine something everyone wants to learn: REAL WEBDESIGN!

[Hectate]

Sent one to you. With yours and a few additional I currently have 13 invites left. Those of you who took advantage of an invite may also have your own set of invites when you get in. Feel free to offer them up as well. So long as I have invites I will continue to pass them along!

[Hectate]

Incredible video. Must watch.

[-Archmage-]

That is definitely not incredible, what's so great about it, it looks totally rediculous and pointless...........

[Hectate]

its just so, bizarre and off-the-wall. I guess it just appeals to my sense of humor.

[-Archmage-]

That video seriously creeped me out.......

[-Archmage-]

Hey, has anybody designed something with legos that they want to share.
I believe that I have designed the worlds smallest and most powerful lego projectile weapon!

My Dad recently designed a lego car with front wheel steering using the "rack and pinion" method, I think his third car so far, he's also made one with a gear shift!

Anybody else design some good lego stuff?

Edit: Redesigned the ammunition for the gun, also ended up replacing the rubberband, now the gun has 2-3x the firepower!

[tiger]

download my game!
here

Pics




COOL HUH?

[-Archmage-]

Neat, how did you make it?

[ElimiNator]

Using the ST engine. he made all the images and levels.