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Comment Re:Steam Family Sharing (Score 1) 317

And doesn't remotely solve his problem, either. From the FAQ: "a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time" and "Shared games will be unavailable on even an authorized device when the account holder’s library is currently in use on another computer" In other words, if he's playing a game, his wife still can't use any other game in his library. That's exactly the same situation he was bemoaning.

Comment Re:Windmills do not work that way, Human! (Score 1) 158

And what happens to helium as temperature changes? Its volume changes too. And what happens when its volume changes? Its density changes. And what happens when its density changes? You guessed it. The buoyancy of the blimp changes.

Did I say it was for instantaneous buoyancy change to climb or descend? No. You just made that assumption. It isn't used for that, as you note. It is, however, correct to state that the buoyancy is changed. I will grant you that it is close to 15 years since I got to fly in it, and spoke to the pilot; my memory was rusty. The primary goal is indeed to keep the envelope pressure constant.

However, that doesn't change the fact that "you couldn't possibly be wrong" is unnecessarily arrogant and belittling. I'm fairly certain I could've been a lot more wrong. And I'm fairly certain your own statements aren't perfect, either.

Also, a quote from a patent by Don Shaw, CEO of Advanced Tactics Inc., might be pertinent:

"The most widely used type of airship today is the blimp, which is a non-rigid airship having a generally flexible balloon envelope filled with a lighter-than-air gas such as helium. Inside the balloon envelope are one or more ballonets that can be filled with outside air. The filling of the ballonets compresses against and displaces the helium within the balloon envelope, and as the ballonets are filled (using outside air instead of the lighter helium), the overall weight of the blimp increases. Allowing the ballonets to deflate permits the helium to expand to fill more of the envelope, thus lightening the weight of the blimp."

Comment Re:Windmills do not work that way, Human! (Score 1) 158

If you looked at my link, you should have seen that it, too, has vectored thrust engines. That's hardly unique. And nor is recompressing, AFAIK. The only reason that the Skyship 600s don't recompress is because they're using a readily-available commodity (external air) in the gas bladders, so it is unnecessary to store it. Doing so would be a waste of energy. You simply use more outside air to fill the bladders as needed.

Comment Re:Windmills do not work that way, Human! (Score 1) 158

Indeed. I'm lucky enough to have flown in one, and discussed the system with the pilot. They're used for trim and buoyancy both; inflate or deflate bladders to shift the helium forwards or backwards inside the envelope. Inflate both bladders to decrease buoyancy. Deflate both bladders to increase buoyancy. (And in addition, adjust quantity of sandbags in hatches underneath the passenger cabin to get the craft approximately at neutral buoyancy before liftoff.)

I'm failing to see what's unique here, tbh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyship_600

Comment Re:In part, this is a good idea, and here's why (Score 1) 732

Nice excuse. Never seen it myself. Most likely, because if you're that close to death, you're going to die if placed in a car with no medical assistance, and no life support systems. You know what I have seen, multiple times? People injured or killed in accidents caused by speeders. If it's a choice between having a handful of lives lost in a largely fictitious scenario, or a large number saved by preventing people driving like they're *completely* insane, I know which I'll choose.

Comment Cruise control is (typically) not a speed limiter (Score 1) 732

While some cars do have the ability to apply the brakes while using cruise control, most do not. That's easily demonstrated by enabling cruise control and then driving down a reasonable gradient. Your car quickly exceeds the cruise control-selected speed, often by a very significant margin.

So no, unless your car is in the minority with the ability to brake automatically to maintain an upper threshold on cruise control speed, then you don't have a speed limiter. You have cruise control. And I sincerely hope you're aware of that fact.

Comment In part, this is a good idea, and here's why (Score 2) 732

Clearly, the idea of "reading" speed limits and varying your speed based upon some detected speed limit is a bad idea, at least with current technology. Signage-based solutions are easily disturbed by tampering with signs, and GPS-driven, database-linked solutions are subject to errors in the databases.

However, the idea of capping the maximum possible speed is sound, and here's why. With the exception of a few places which stubbornly hold onto their lack of permanent speed limits -- essentially some roads in Germany and the Isle of Man, to my knowledge -- it is fairly trivial to ascertain the maximum legal speed for a road-licensed vehicle within Europe. (Yes, the speed will vary by country, but there will be a speed limit beyond which *no* European country will allow you.)

That limit should be hardwired into your vehicle, because legally, you have no reason *ever* to exceed it. If you have an emergency, you contact emergency services (police, ambulance, whatever) who are legally allowed to exceed that limit. If you don't have an emergency, you abide by the limit. And if the technical challenges of a vehicle-enforced speed limit on every road can be solved, it would be a good idea there, too.

And here's why it is a good idea. If everybody -- including the politicians and those tasked with enforcing (and making money out of) the speed limits are forced to abide by them too wherever possible, then we can be sure that irrationally slow speed limits will be raised to rational levels. In the current system used by many countries, we have two rules. One for the general populace, designed to raise funding via a system of road taxation based on illogically-slow speed limits, and one for those who create and enforce the system, and are allowed to ignore the speed limit with a nudge and a wink.

If their cars cannot ignore the speed limit, they suddenly have a vested interest in setting proper speed limits. Right now, they have the very opposite in many countries.

Comment Re: Sounds good to me (Score 1) 555

My god, you mean they serve a drink that is supposed to be made with near-boiling water at the temperature of near-boiling water? It's insanity! If you don't hold a cup of coffee carefully, don't take care when drinking from it, or you place it between your legs and pull out of the drive-thru, then sorry -- that's your own fault, or that of your parents for not teaching you coffee is hot. Cook your own food at home? Hell, own a regular electric kettle? If so, you probably deal with food and/or beverages that are just as hot on a daily basis.

Comment Re:about high-tech highways that light up at night (Score 1) 91

Have you looked at a road lately? Even though the markings are mostly not in the vehicles' tire tracks, they paint becomes worn very quickly indeed. We put up with it for paint because it's a radically different color to the background, so even heavily-faded paint is easy to see. Paint emitting a relatively dim glow is not going to be so easy to see, and it is going to need much more frequent repainting. Not to mention that the markings will have to cover a much larger proportion of the road to have any real utility, making the volume of paint required significantly higher.

We already have enough difficulty and expense maintaining the world's roads. Making them even more expensive and difficult to maintain is an idiotic idea, done largely in the name of being pseudo-futuristic. For the most part, you don't pay direct attention to the road surface when driving anyway, except when slowing for junctions. You focus most of your attention further down the road, or at least you are driving properly and anticipating problems. The correct answer isn't nonsensical painted snowflakes shimmering on the road. It is easily-maintained, automated road signs that would very quickly pay for themselves in a reduced failure rate and far-less-frequent maintenance.

You know, the same thing as the messaging gantries we have over many large roads now, although a far smaller scale is needed on most roads.

But that's not sexy and futuristic, so it doesn't win awards. Idiotic rubbish like this does.

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