Kerbart

It's funny that you mentioned this. My sister is into Baking (with a capital B) so I brought her over some American measuring cups (small & large) last time I visited. I also mentioned that the American way of things, by measuring in volumes, seemed more practical to me than the European way of using a scale. Boy, was I wrong... She promptly sent me a link to a site for Bakers (capital B again) where an American Bakeress (Bakress? Bakerette?) went into an entire tirade against volume measurements and why weight units were so much more accurate. Depending on how you measure it, "one cup of flour" has a tremendous variance in it. On the other hand, 150g of flour is 150g of flour. But not only that, converting portions to bake something bigger or smaller is much easier with weights (masses, really, of course) than with volumes. In the kitchen, and need only half of 3 3/4 cup? Good luck with that. Dividing 375g of flour in half is a lot easier (you don't need a calculator to figure out it's 187g). In the end it's a matter of perspective. If you're used to using cups, using a scale will seem cumbersome. If you're used to a scale, the cups seem clumsy. The superior method is not one or the other; it's the one you are used to.

Obviously it would be ill advised to switch measuring systems in the middle of a process. I hope that's the point you're making. Similarly, using Imperial measures, regardless of their prime number witchcraft, would not be very suitable when you have to distribute 2L of cola (a standard measure even in the US) over 7 cups (the number of kids you can fit in a Chevy Suburban). Neither exercise says anything regarding the usefulness of either system, and much of the ways measures are expressed in either culture is geared towards its use. Yes, a mile is 5280 foot and it's remarkable practical that such a number can be divided by practically any integer,so it's easy to split a mile into six pieces of 880 foot. But it's easy to do in metric as well: "one sixth of a kilometer." Done. Most of the arguments why one system is "superior" over the other are based on "the way you do things" in the preferred system. "If you need less than 1/4 and more 1/8 you pick 3/16, doh" is a nobrainer for mechanics used to imperial measurements. But a metric mechanic wouldn't entertain such thoughts and simply look for something between 9mm and 11mm. Guess what! It's 10! If you're used to Imperial you'll deal with measurements in a way that matches the imperial system. Metric seems insane, I guess. If you're used to metric you'll deal with measurements in a way that matches the metric system. Imperial will seem insane. Science is where the metric system shines because you don't have to deal with insanely arbitrary conversion factors. In daily life, the two lines above apply.

We're on the same track then Scientifically the SI system also has the advantage that everything is based on reproducable experiments, not on the length of the thumb of some king or some other arbitratily chosen amount. That makes one meter the same everywhere. Of course, the imperial system has very well defined units as well, these days. The inch, for instance, is defined as 2.54 cm

Someone's length is say, 186 cm or 1.86m. It doesn't work like that in Imperial. Your length would be a little over 73 inches. And that is 6'1". Wait; I said "a little over," the remaining .2283 inches would not be expressed as such, but as 6'1" 29/128 There's nothing decimal about that, except for the digits being used. Now, looking at 6'1" 29/128, can you tell me what fifteen times this length is? Quickly? That is the decimal advantage. The same with weights that are cut up in stones, pounds and ounces. Surely you can use a decimal notation and claim that something weighs 3.75 pounds. But that's not how Imperial works; its 3 pounds 12 ounces.

...and in science the SI system is what is used globally, even in the US. For day-to-day the challenge is that shifting to an SI (metric) system is not without cost, both financial and in the form of stress/anguish, and it's 0pen for debate if the benefits outweigh the cost. For smaller countries the benefits, especially when your neighbors are metric, are obvious. Wow. Even NIST (the US bureau of standards) seems to get this wrong. Are you sure you're not confusing pound (mass) with the pound force (lbf), often just shorthanded to "pound?" Because the Brits were awfully aware of the distinction between mass and force, and choosing a unit that would be different all over the British Empire would seem to be an incredible awkward choice. One of the things the metric system has going for it is that such confusion is far less likely, as mass and force are using different units.

That might actually be better discussed in the release thread. I have no experience with it, but why not hook up the Arduino to a Raspberry Pi? RP comes with Python already, and interfacing to an Arduino is easy, or so I'm told.

Because that will magically make people switch to 64 bit? Windows XP is still on that list too...

Will there even be a 32 bit version?

Just back up your gamedata and saves folders, and reinstall the game. No big deal.

They don't tell me. And maybe it's all AVC (lite) and there's different behavior possible. At any rate, some mods will tell me they're outdated, I can update their version config file to bypass that. Others tell me they're outdated and I cannot update the config file (that gets old, especially when the mod doesn't get updated “because there are no significant changes between version 1.0.x and 1.0.y”). And then I know I encountered a few that simple refused to run under a new version, although I think I simply got rid of those.

I agree, but my point was that the average user of mods should exercise a little patience and not be expecting or demanding that every mod is updated on the same day the new version comes out. After all, mods are made by people like you, who have a life besides KSP. Conversely, it would really help if the various update checkers would be a little bit more forgiving and not force me to close a pop-up every single time I start KSP, especially when it's a third-digit upgrade that is very unlikely to break compatibility. I understand CYA, but really a warning ONCE should be doing the trick (or at least a "don't show this again" option).

Hello Kristoffer, if you are completely new to the game I'd recommend trying out the demo version first. If you're like most people here you will probably buy the full version before you even hit the limitations the demo version has built into it. As mentioned, 64 bit is mainly an issue when you use a lot of mods, and mods are bit like lenses in photography; when starting out you're better off by not acquiring too many. By the time you've developed an appetite for the amount of mods that require 64 bit it is very likely that the upgrade will already be there. It's even likely that you will never hit the 32 bit limitation in the first place.

I'd argue that it's to a large extend semantics. As pointed out above, both systems have advantages and disadvantages. I think that metric is easier in scientific and engineering applications when quantities, expressed as a fraction from each other, don't need arcane conversion factors just because you're switching from inches to feet or from ounces (solid or liquid) to pounds, especially when squares come in place. For day to day life it doesn't really matter, which is why metric has such a hard time being adopted in the US. There's no real advantage for Joe Average to use centimeters over inches, and switching over is a major inconvenience for 90% of the population. There are long term advantages in science and engineering. But those are things we really don't like that much in the US, as a society. So why bother?

Curseforge is the one that the “Get Mods!” tab is linking to. I don’t think it really is rocket science to figure out which one you’re supposed to use. And even if it is, aren’t we all pretending to be rocket scientists here?

Can I use part x, designed for a specific task, to perform a different task that shares some words in the name of the task? Let's take a look: “I live in an apartment building. There's an elevator in the building. I know that there are elevators that can lift ships. Therefore, it should be possible to use the elevator in the building to bring a yacht to the top floor, no?” I’ll leave it to the student to work out the problem here.

So we're complaining that Squad is using an "ad laden site" to host mods even though they're providing a link that leads uses to an ad-free site, because users choose to not use that link? What's next, complaining that there are no good instructions on how to play it because they decided to watch Pewdiepie's videos instead of Scott Manley's? The option to experience mods on Curse without ads is there. It's not even hidden. If people choose to take the ad-route anyway, they shouldn't complain.

Ads? On KSP's Curse page? Let me look. Let's start by following the link Get Mods! at the top of this page... http://imgur.com/a01Jh1x Nope, no ads here. Maybe if I actually select a mod. Will I see ads? http://imgur.com/BAeSHAV Nope, no ads here either. Must be when I download the mod then? http://imgur.com/wfNWCai AAAAGH! THE HORROR! GET IT OFF ME! GET OFF! Oh, wait, it's just a regular download dialog. So, where are these horrible ads that you speak off? Surely you can find them by going directly to curse.com, but why would you? Unless you want to see them? But why complain about them then?

Curse has no ads. At least no when you follow the link provided by Squad. I think that's part of the issue. “I will never visit my mom, she lives too far away.” “What are you talking about? She lives three blocks down the street” “I insist on driving via Cleveland. It's too far away” “Why would you drive over Cleveland? You can walk there” “That's not how I roll. I drive over Cleveland. It's too far away” That's how I feel whenever I see people complaining about ads on Curse.

Growing potatoes?

Exactly my thoughts. To me it seems that, when you access Curse through the link on the forum here, most (if not all) issues people have with Curse are bypassed anyway. KS was done wonderfully, but right from the start I felt itchy about the No ads approach. Somebody has to pay for bandwidth and server space, and once the passion is gone (as can happen for a slew of reasons) it'll be hard to keep going. I never got “into” KS for that reason. Whatever the issues with Curse are, I don’t see it as a bad thing that they advertise. They’re in it for the money, which means they’ll keep going even if people send them nasty emails (or don’t send them encouraging ones). Having to feed the kids and paying the mortgage is a better lasting motivator than for the love of the game, which is why I can see Squad went with them and not with a volunteer who happens to have a server laying around. There seem to be a couple of initiatives already to let KS rise from its ashes. Given the speedy occurrence of those I cannot help to think that, well-meant as they are, they are spur of the moment decisions without a long term view on how to keep this running for the next three, five years. And of course there will be the question who will be the “real” KS replacement. With some luck I’m wrong about that, but the unsurprising demise of KS doesn’t give me a lot of hope.

It’s really easy, but as this forum is filled with people who understand hard core science but not psychology, most do not understand. You cannot see, feel, hear or smell radiation In large amounts, radiation can kill you We have to trust scientists when they tell us that the radiation about powerplants is perfectly safe and hardly exceeds what is in the environment already. Because we cannot see, feel, hear, etc, etc. We are also told by scientists that nuclear power plants are absolutely safe, and nothing, nothing, can ever, ever, ever happen And yet we have two large areas (Chernobyl and Fukushima) that are unfit for people to live for generations to come, due to radiation contamination resulting from a mishap at a nuclear power plant. I’m sure if you add up all fatalities dues to gas explosions, reduced life span of air contamination, driving off the road because of the glare of solar panels, getting whacked by the blades of a windmill, etc, you will probably have more fatalities than Chernobyl and Fukushima combined. But that is not how public perception works, and the nuclear industry does not seem to get that. Don’t get me wrong, I think nuclear energy is the answer to a lot of the energy problems we are facing today. The biggest problem is that the fears the public has are not as irrational as nuclear proponents like to think. Accidents are downplayed, kept silent, understated. Why? If it’s so safe shouldn’t you be blasting “this and this happened, but as usual, nobody was ever remotely in danger, because the system worked. Again.” Instead we hear later about these kinds of incidents instead of when they happen. It’s promising that the nuclear industry itself doesn’t trust its safety features, apparently. For nuclear energy in its current form to be safe, you need to be damn near perfect. And history has proven that you cannot trust that perfection to be there all the time. It’s good enough for statistics; the probability that you will encounter a nuclear disaster in your backyard is basically zero. But look at what happens when the Powerball jackpots hits $500M; “the public” has no understanding of probability. To not take that into account is foolish, and counterproductive. And here we are. The tragedy will be that when, at one point, there is truly safe nuclear power (Thorium reactors seem the way to go but I have no clue how viable the technology is), it will still have a hard time being accepted as the non-experts don’t know to what extend they can trust the experts when they’re telling it’s “safe.”

It will take less than 48 hrs to see the first forum post that the game is now BROKEN and has been DESTROYED by Squad. Perhaps even shorter; place your bets! I doubt it will take more than a week for those who think that 64 bit will solve their mod problem to discover that the old problem (not enough addressable memory) simply has been replaced by a new problem (not enough physical memory). I wish the aero/heat/gravity/structural/rendering model of 0.18/.20/.25/.90/1.0/1.0.1/1.0.2/1.0.3/1.0.4/1.0.5 was still here, it was much better. We will hit all permutations of these before the first SLS is launched. Complaints that those lazy ### developers of [your favorite mod] should publish an updated version will appear about 0.5 µs after Squad has announced the download is available.

Well, if my intents to help you make little sense I apologize for wasting your time. Sorry.

You ninja'd my edit I think it has more to do with TWR than with DV.

I have no clue. I thought maybe they launched a whole bunch of them with one rocket but that doesn't seem to be the case either. However, one of the links you listed has this to tell: So perhaps that has something to do with it (I’ll admit that, being at work, I don’t have the luxury of doing the math and see if, ΔV-wise, it makes sense). EDIT: In addition, the article mentions: These are not the giant boosters that are the same size as the first stage, but rather small boosters. I get the impression that they're added for the same reason we add Flea's or Hammers to a launch vehicle: not so much for additional ΔV but just to boost the TWR at lift-off.