Posts by Chemist

@AC

GPS satellites do NOT run in geostationary orbits

To quote from YOUR source !

The global coverage for each system is generally achieved by a constellation of 20–30 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites spread between several orbital planes. The actual systems vary, but use orbit inclinations of >50° and orbital periods of roughly twelve hours (height 20,000 km / 12,500 miles).

Re : It's a GPS satalite too.

What makes you think that ?

GPS satellites don't run in geostationary orbits

Re : You'll laugh at this then

May be a bit obvious but why not download the driver using Ubuntu ?

Re : I have given up windows for Ubuntu

Just for info have you tried kdenlive for video editing. I haven't used it a lot yet but recently finished a 20 min video of niece's wedding without any crashing. That involved a lot of cutting, editing, transitions, sound manipulation.

I've also used the heavier-weight Cinelera but that seems to have a much bigger learning curve.

This all on OpenSUSE 11.2/KDE not Ubuntu

Re : Not A Computer

Well I guess most of us can recognize sarcasm - I was wondering who the poster was that couldn't

Re : My Aunt Elsa Equivilent

87 -year old mother-in-law in my case ( not Ubuntu but OpenSUSE but it's the principle) . Never a moments problem. Uses FF, KMail, OpenOffice. Does all her banking on-line - I certainly wouldn't trust Windows for that esp. for an inexperienced user

Re : Yes, and well, no

"the possibilities and potential are boundless."

I'd say they were totally constrained. The analogy with the Americas is meaningless even though it was a magnificent struggle & great achievement.

They were on the same planet, same atmosphere, same gravity - human physiology hasn't sig. changed in >10000 years. Even on Earth it takes a special kind of person to tough it out in Antarctica for 6 months ( at least you can go outside sometimes and go home when you've had enough) and that sounds easy compared to Mars, let alone anywhere else. The only serious anywhere else would be some moons but they look worse than Mars.

Re : Perhaps not at this moment, but...

"but long-term, it can be eventually rigged (say, a century or so away) so that the majority of population growth is happening somewhere that isn't Earth"

Yeah, right !

Totally artificial living spaces, no atmosphere, cold, weak gravity - muscle & bone atrophy. Slow communications. All sounds so feasible and really, really desirable.

Re : travelling outside the solar system

So your 'answer' is that everything we can possibly imagine is going to be feasible.

Trouble is we've found that certain principles e.g thermodynamics are always obeyed. These are always going to be a limit.

Re : 99% ofl ight speed

Suggest you find a calculator that gives the energy required for 99% light speed.

I calculate the energy ( expressed as electric power at 100% efficiency) to get 1 tonne to 99% light speed at ~150 million million kWh - that's quite an electric bill!

Re : Sorry

It wasn't KNOWN he would fall off the edge it was just a conjecture by mainly uneducated people . They had no way of looking beyond the horizon - ~4 miles at sea-level. In any case since classical times there was good evidence the world was spherical. (Aristotle 330 BC). Columbus was aiming to sail round the world to the east. I'm sure he was expecting problems but falling off the edge wasn't one of them.

In any case most seamen would know that a ship, mountain, tower appeared to drop below the horizon within a short distance but could reappear again.

On the other hand large amounts of money and effort have been spent mapping the universe so we have a good idea of what's out there. I'm sure there are many things waiting to be discovered. Doesn't mean we will ever have the means to try.

Re : Anonymous coward →

It might seem negative but reality can be like that. You might like to step out of the window and float but I'm not being negative when I say that (unaided) it's not ever going to happen.

There are plenty of immense challenges for people to get engaged with and focus effort on - space exploration is just a side-show.

Re : AC@14:29

That was covered by the poster. " even allowing for relativistic effects shortening the time for the traveler the energy involved is enormous."

A more realistic calculation is traveling at ~10% light speed when it would take ~40 years but allowing for acceleration/deceleration it would take much longer to travel and arrive at the nearest star.

The energy to drive acceleration to 99% c would truly enormous due to the relativistic effects - a good example is the kinetic energy of the fraction of a mole of protons in the LHC having the energy of an aircraft carrier at 12 knots or whatever.

It has been calculated that at least 100 times the total energy output of the entire world would be required for the voyage (to Alpha Centauri) even at modest fractions of c

Re : Some suggestions to Microsoft

I think by these rules you may have stopped Microsoft using most of it's own apps

@Andrew C

"how many netbooks are still sold with Linux preinstalled"

All it really indicates is the stranglehold MS has on the market !