Nuke

i stopped playing mario when the bits got up to 32.

one of my major pet peves are people who fail to remove those protective vinyl cling films from their tech products. its packing material, get rid of it. especially the ones that are printed for marketing reasons. most of the time they are unaware thats what its for or that you can even peel it off in the first place (sometimes its so well pressed down clear and bubble free that i dont notice it for weeks). whats even worse is when they try to justify its existance. "durr... but it protects the finish" what good is the finish if you cant see it through the couldy clingfilm! "dun te duh.. but i want people to know my tv is 1080i" your cable box only delivers standard def! it doesnt even have an hd capable output! also 1080p is better.

most recent data loss fail was when i lost my videos folder during of all things a system backup. the ssd i had bought awhile back wasnt big enough to store all the files from my 1 terabyte mechanical hard drive. so it only had a partial set, my disc image archive (i had decided to stop using cd drives and virtualize my entire collection), and my videos (including some videos of lizzy when she was a kitten) all had to be stored elsewhere. fast forward to my last pc build, i had forgotten this. now i dont trust backup software, i like to do things manually. so when i went to back up my ssd to my 1t drive, i just formatted in instead of delete everything to save time. forgetting that my videos where on there. i had managed to make room for my disc images some time earlier, which i had realized were not that big (most were 700mb or less). but those kitten videos, gone, forever. tragic. when i was on my first computer i did format my hard drive, lost all my descent mods and levels, all my high school code projects, and my then tiny mp3 archive. i think everyone does this at least once, its part of the learning process. most recent non computer failure was fairly recent, ive been designing my own r/c hovercraft from the ground up, using parts on hand and a 3d printer. one of my prime directives is to do so without buying anything, using only the crap in my parts bins that i had accumulated over the years. so after designing, printing and testing the main impeller fan, bolting it to a brushless motor, sticking it in a box (fitted with skirt consisting of tape and plastic) and getting a successful air cushion, it was time to think about forward propulsion and steering. i have this really nice 3d printed ducted fan with almost enough thrust to hover, it just happens to have a big nacelle on it preventing the installation of a rudder. to make things more difficult, i dont have a two way speed controller, so i can only thrust forward. i rummage through boxes trying to find something i can use. i find an old busted tail assembly for an rc helicopter. the system can pitch the blades in either direction, but its designed with belt drive in mind, and i dont know how to set that up. it has no blades, and the blade mounts are broken, but the hub, bearings, and all the variable pitch gear is intact. so i start salvaging, i find 3mm precision rods, gears (despite being salvaged from 2 different things, mesh just fine), and a motor. i am not satisfied with the motor, so i open it up and re-wind the coils with some thicker wire. i test it and while it runs hot (15 amps hot, but motor controller can handle 18) it works. i then design the whole assembly and spent all day printing it. i break it down into 5 parts, 2 blades, which mount into the metal hub, an axle bearing housing and servo bracket, a motor bracket (i want it separate in case i need to adjust its height with washers or layers of card stock or whatever to ensure good gear meshing). i also design a fan cage, but dont print it because the damn thing needs to work before i worry about not loosing fingers. here are the failutes in order. first thing the mounting point for the lever that changes the blade pitch hits the bering housing, i redesign in software, but ultimately fix it with a file, avoiding a reprint. servo bracket is too small and i cant get the servo in it. more filing ensues, i finally get the servo in there and then realize ive put it in backwards, and filing was not needed. derp. i found out i didnt measure the distance between the blade pivot and the screwhole for the linkage accurately enough, so i dont get the blade pitch i had intended, i can either reprint the blades or print new linkages to fix it (the latter is easier). the motor bracket i designed doesn't fit the motor, turns out i didnt account for the full motor diameter, only the lip at the buisness end of the motor. i worry i may have to redo the whole design, but ultimately print a working solution (thanks to that removable motor mount i had designed earlier). i get the unit assembled and realize that nothing prevents the axle from sliding in the berings, screwing up the variable pitch system. fix this by pressing a second pair of berings into the slots intended to install the first set into their sockets, this worked well. i also try my metal working skills and turn a small aluminum end stop from the undercarriage of a long destroyed rc spitfore foamy into another endstop with a slightly wider hole. i drill it out to 3mm, chuck it up in my drill ans use it as a lathe to taper one end, found a couple washers, and it keeps it from sliding out just fine. and the final fail. motor burns out. i guess its fragile commutator and brush assembly cant handle 15 amps. oops. anyone who knows enough to re wind a motor should know that. derp. so now i need to find a whole new motor, and not rewind it (or at least use slightly thinner wire this time) and print yet another motor mount. 4th times the charm. also this nekro thread.

were just getting better and better at making antennas smaller. we keep getting better at nanoscale manufacturing. kind of a spin off of the semiconductor revolution. of course we are still in the process of finding useful applications for this technology. then of course it will take years to get these technologies to the point where you can mass produce them. its one thing to make this lens in the lab, and quite another to make a million unit run. but its nice to know that camera technology will get smaller than it already is.

ive yet to encounter an application that required more than 8gb of ram. so i usually get a 2 slot board and just stick a couple of 4gig sticks in it and call it done. current gen intel is the way to go. you dont have to go with a top notch i7, but try to get something current gen. 750 ti is an ok card. been happily running mine for a while now. but there are newer cards very close to the same price range. dont spend more than 200 but dont spend less than 120. like cpu try to get a current gen gpu architecture.

i think its time i start playing with minecraft mods.

http://hackaday.com/2016/05/31/kerbal-space-program-for-the-apple-ii/ lol. someone wrote a version of ksp that can run on an apple 2.

tinfoil hats aside there are other things i dont like. for example the interface is horrible. it seems there is a windows style interface and a more tablet oriented interface and the system cant decide which to use. start menu still broke. i shouldn't have to install a 3rd party utility to get basic functionality.

i really didnt like it. i didnt like that it sneak updates. do i need to kill every service that makes it different from windows 7, probibly. i tend to think a lot of operating systems grossly overstep their boundries as to what an operating system should be and windows 10 is definitely no exception. i didnt think it would happen but they finally made a windows i do not want. good thing i only installed it on one demo computer, and i am so going to uninstall that and put 7 back on there. or reactos 0.4, if i can get my 3d printer drivers to work on it. .

its going to be an iss cargo ship and nothing more.

i have to say that b5 was more accurate than the others in that list. firefly had a good cast of characters, thats about it (i like to call it a 'space western', because it is, they actually hauled cows in one episode). trek is highly technobabble driven, sometimes it meshes with theoretical concepts, but a lot of cases its garbage (voyager). tos was more a social commentary, but became more sciencey with tng, then ds9 was highly character driven, and then voyager got lazy and just started spewing jargon out of context, then enterprise tried to mix all the things and came out mediocre (then turn into "zomg terrorists!" in later episodes). in b5 the humans were still using centrifuges, less advanced species were still using zero g ships. only the extremely advanced species had artificial gravity. i liked b5 because of its tech gradient, you had species barely able to fly in space and super advanced species. people are floating around in some circumstances and walking around in others. ships conserve momentum, if you watch some of the star fury combat you only see engines firing when they are needed and they ship responds accordingly. it had some really good characters too. hyperspace was handwavium, but you get always get one free. it at least showed that it cared about real physics.

since the death of lemmy, it was starting to depress me that there would never be any more motorhead. ive been looking for another long running metal band to get into. you cant replace the irreplaceable but you can supplement it with something equally legendary. after trying to get into iron maiden and failing miserably (lacks aggression), i started thumbing through the judas priest discog. i think i struck paydirt. i found something on almost every album worth listening too.

zomg, its zork IN SPACE!!!

sneak into the ladys room with a roll of saran wrap. place it on all the toilets under the seat and lower it. it should be visually imperceptible. hand out free bottled water nearby.

nobody tell me what i do.

the guy from hackadayio seems to have a more flight ready thruster. i have some question marks about his noisy test setups, but he has a 24ghgz rf supply (solid state), frustum (much smaller thanks to the higher frequency supply) and a mainboard for a 50mm cube sat. i have no idea how he intends to come up with the launch costs (kickstarter?). i kinda wish he would test the thruster on a more sensitive, less noisy test stand though. but he might be on to something trying to miniaturize it.

i dont think ive seen a photo of lm's machine with a plasma ball in it yet. so im gonna have to conclude that they haven't even fired a shot with it yet. of course they are being very tight lipped.

damn it i thought this was an independence day 2 thread.

big enough so that if it explodes on the pad, it wont kill anybody or break anything.

the reason fusion is always 20 years away, is that is because thats how long it takes to fund, build, shakedown, and test a tokamak. the reason its always recurring is there is always someone building another tokamak because they went as far as they could go with the previous iteration. tokamaks really suffer from their size and complexity and it really slows down the scientific process. the only reason we keep using them is that they are the most well understood method right now. but the competition is catching up. eventually we will get to a point where building more tokamaks is pointless. once you can say something like dpf or polywell is equivalent to the current state of tokamaks, and you have to choose which to fund. will you fund the one that costs 100 billion or the one that costs 100 million? eventually we will stop putting all the eggs into the same donut shaped basket. polywell will be tokamak equivalent when it achieves wiffleball. dpf currently has some plasma contamination issues to resolve. and those are just 2 examples of things that have the potential to outperform tokamaks.

its like that space combat game from the xplane dev, but with depth.

its good if you want a torchship simulator. that game is a lot older than windows 3.1. i remember playing on an apple2 or something ancient.

i recently went through lemmy era hawkwind. i really wasnt that impressed. the albums felt like a couple good songs wrapped in a whole lot of filler.

id imagine they would use stored sperm and embryos and just use the 4 as breeders. they would be all female. when one gets to old or dies then another is impregnated with a female embryo. embryos would be pre-sexed and sourced from genetically diverse stock. this allows you to maintain a high genetic diversity without needing to keep a large population going. upon arrival all 4 are impregnated with female embryos, and this goes on until a large genetically diverse population of breeders is established. they they are all artificially inseminated and are allowed to procreate naturally from that point onward. 4 is probably just the minimum number at which the odds for total failure are sufficiently small, issues with pregnancy, disease, infertility, even issues with the environment like depressurization events.

the wright flier had very thin wings. but it got its ridgidity from a network of wires that also allowed for wing twisting for roll control. i believe the lower camber on those wings was actually negative creating more of a cupped wing shape. overall thickness is the sum of the upper and lower camber i believe. structurally speaking you are going to need some support. you can still pull off single sheet wings if you fold in creases to act like ribs and roll up the leading and trailing edges as spars. something like that might work.