stevenrace | 9 years ago | on: Spin wants to bring dock-less bike sharing to the US
stevenrace's comments
stevenrace | 9 years ago | on: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
The carbon fiber is then chopped and used as reinforcement in other material likes plastics. SGL Group, who supplies/partners in production with BMW, even uses reclaimed and production waste in it's production process for the new 7-series.
A more technical breakdown and state of the industry can be found here: http://www.compositesworld.com/articles/recycled-carbon-fibe...
stevenrace | 9 years ago | on: Confessions of a Former Apocalypse Survival Guide Writer
- Weapons of Mass Casualties and Terrorism Responce Handbook - Charles Stewart MD FACEP
https://books.google.com/books?id=7ZnXZfwWwgcC&pg=PA221&lpg=...
referencing a Boston Globe article: May 4th 1999 page A27
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I recall reading of another accident, but can't easily find the source.
stevenrace | 9 years ago | on: Confessions of a Former Apocalypse Survival Guide Writer
>Nobody's bothered to try to figure out how to create a
small-scale EMP without a nuclear blast
Additionally the US DoD has an EMP weapon that comes in guided missile form via Raytheon/Boeing Phantom Works' CHAMP (publicly tested in 2012, confirmed in operation thereafter [1][2]) for taking out buildings, power grids, and such. It can be discharged 100 times per sortie.Targeting power grids 'the old fashioned way' in Desert Storm, Lockheed F-117As dropped a cluster bomb full of carbon graphite filaments (BLU-114/B). This shorted out power lines/transformers and destroyed 85% of Iraq's power grid. Later used in Serbia and accidentally in SoCal during testing [3].
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[1] http://www.boeing.com/features/2012/10/bds-champ-10-22-12.pa...
[2] http://mil-embedded.com/3908-air-forceboeing-emp-weapon-movi...
stevenrace | 9 years ago | on: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?
The Tesla battery is a liquid cooled battery and thus can be warmed via coolant that is heated by the inductive heater for the HVAC. Same for the GM Volt/Bolt.
stevenrace | 10 years ago | on: MakerBot Is Outsourcing Its Brooklyn Manufacturing Jobs to China
The Lulzbot mentioned below was based on the Mendelmax 1.5. This line of printers moved RepRap from a threaded rod construction to extruded aluminum. Also the first to have linear rails instead of steel rod+linear bearings. The new Mendelmax3 is a mix of laser cut parts and extrusions - and has required less service than any of my printers to date.
stevenrace | 10 years ago | on: Ways David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest Predicted the Future
stevenrace | 10 years ago | on: Military technology: Laser weapons get real
'The first was in 1973 when the USAF shot down a winged drone at their Sandia Optical Range, New Mexico, using a carbon dioxide GDL and a gimballed telescope. Subsequently, in 1976, the US Army employed an electrically pumped HEL to destroy a number of winged and helicopter drones at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. The USN, in March 1978, then engaged and destroyed an Army TOW missile in flight' [1]
The first targets destroyed from an airborne platform (KC-135) were in 1979.
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: The history of wave-powered boats
[1] http://liquidr.com/technology/waveglider/how-it-works.html
stevenrace | 11 years ago
If you search for the MD5 hashes of the code you can find code snippets and incidents where such code was used in the past (hacking attempts at DHS, etc). Even though none of these were '0-days' or written by those with ties to NK, the attribution seems to be based on such code reuse.
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: Usenet, updated in real time as it was thirty years ago
stevenrace | 11 years ago
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: The First 3-D Printer in Space Makes Its First Object: A Spare Part
As for layer/bed adhesion. Even here on Earth, the RepRap MendelMax/Lulzbot [1] can print upside down. I imagine that's true for most of the units made from aluminum extrusions. And there have already been prints done in parabolic 'zero-g' flights using a Makerbot looking printer [2].
[1] http://download.lulzbot.com/TAZ/photos/upside_down/Lulzbot_p...
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: New Electric Skateboard Models
To be fair, 250W on an ebike is 'not fun' or anywhere close to the legal limits in the US (750-1000W).
The happy spot seems to be 2500-5000W for most hub driven ebikes. I turned my bike down to 1000W this afternoon and couldn't imagine running anything less.
Endless-sphere [1] is the place to go if you're interested in eskateboards/ebikes with a bent towards DIY/highpower.
stevenrace | 11 years ago
At what speed do you replay text->audio (ie realtime, 1.5x,2x,...)?
Lastly, if you disregard price is the braille 'refreshable display' a better experience?
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: Salmon Cannon Fires 40 Fish a Minute
The number quoted as $9,000/'Snakeriver Sockeye' that made the 800 mile journey upstream to Redfish Lake, Idaho. In 1992, as they tell it, only one fish made it. But that apparently was the first year after the project began. Then again, only 243 made it 2011 [1]. Only ~1,500 made it back to Granite lake, which is 400 miles upstream [2]. So it's part of a larger problem in the area.
So the $40million spent equates to 222 fish per year on average.
I'm pretty sure the 'Fish Canon', however humane, can at least match the 1 fish every 36hrs rate of existing systems.
It's also worth noting the US Army Corp of Engineers ship large numbers of juvenile fish downstream on barges. Collecting them with the 'Fish Cannon' and then shipping them on barges back upstream (or furthest upstream lock) is just a budget/politics problem not one of technology.
[1] http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019705443_captivefis...
[2] http://www.bpa.gov/news/newsroom/Pages/Snake-River-sockeye-c...
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: Write Gmail in Emacs the Easy Way: gmail-message-mode
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: Outsmarting the smart meter
I was familiar with Project Sanguine, but had hoped there were less ambitious public projects I had overlooked (perhaps closer to VLF which operates <30m seawater depths).
After reading about the Navy E-6B aircraft, which trails a 5km antenna behind it to communicate with subs, I had presumed modern 'submarine -> other underwater radios' were akin to large commercial fishing trawling nets - or the really long antennas were packed into hilbert curves and epoxied to the hulls or something.
Anyhow, it seems 'acoustic modems' using 'CSMA' [1] are the norm for commercial underwater ROVs (such as James Gosling's 'wavegliders' [2]).
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: Outsmarting the smart meter
I've explored all the ISM bands - I just want to play with something even slower/longer range whilst sailing (in international waters, of course :)).
stevenrace | 11 years ago | on: Show HN: First US-based Bitcoin broker
Also your 'HN Profile' lacks contact info...
[1] https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM10848...