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Comment Re:No Way Out (Score 1) 720

With water cooling, you can pull the pipes as far away as you like. Even outside the house. No latency issues like with cables.
That makes for some very quiet systems (except for where the pump is - basement? attic?).

Of course the moment your system is silent enough she'll find a different reason to complain, or act all passive-aggressive. I highly doubt it's the noise that annoys her.

Comment Re:We may hear from Philae later (Score 1) 337

Yes, the comet's perihelion is about 1.3AU so not much farther than Earth's orbit (and so Earth surface heat input), and yes, ice melting temperature drops significantly with pressure. As for what forms the emission takes, this is one of the huge questions Rosetta is suppoed to answer - we've never observed a comet from near enough to see how exactly the melting process works. In one hand, the chance that they will be explosive is quite low (though non-zero, under-rock ice pockets heating up and accumulated steam blasting its way out), on the other hand Philae weighs about 1 gram while on Chury, and its size is around 1 cubic meter. That's about the parameters of 1m^3 sized soap bubble when it comes to reacting to "wind". So the emission doesn't have to be anywhere near to explosive; even mild zephyr from under the surface can move the lander.

Since we still don't know about the character of the emissions from the comet, we can only guess whether the point when Philae heats up enough to starts charging its batteries happens before or after the comet produces enough steam to blow it away.

Of course, had the harpoons deployed, that would be moot. Currently the outlook isn't too good. Philae is in a hole, which can channel the steam into a stream. Plus its systems could have been damaged by extreme cold, plus even the intensified sun input may be insufficient, plus the 'seasonal shift' of shadows can (though is unlikely) to worsen the shadow conditions... Still - until the comet actually begins emitting steam and we see how it does it, we have really no clue what's going to happen.

Check this nice graph for water behavior in different pressures.

Comment Re:Hey don't worry (Score 1) 337

Yes. Cubesats are currently within most university space enthusiasts clubs budget now, and launched in such number thae ISS got a launcher/gun for them installed to streamline the process. I can easily see small probes going that way once cost per kg out of Earth gravity well gets on par with current cost per kg to LEO.

Comment Re:Who cares about the lander? (Score 1) 337

Actually, it's insult when used by people described as "cishet scum" by the SJW. "Cishet scum" means non-transgender heterosexuals. Anyone who isn't currently described as "discriminated" is scum. According to SJW if you're white male, with male identity and not homosexual, you are pretty much the worst blight of this earth.

The core of the SJW legion is female supremacists - the kind of extremist feminists who are absolutely not satisfied by the idea of equality of genders, claiming e.g. that all men are supporters of the rape culture (and about 10%-20%, (varies with different groups), are actual rapists.)

They also take a great offense in assuming one's gender basing on physical characteristics, and using plain pronouns like 'he, she' when referring to people, without first asking them which gender pronoun they want used (xe, shi etc...?). It's the kind of people who will protest when presented with a form that requires you to enter your gender and provides two checkboxes - [ ] male [ ] female - ability to check either, both or none is insufficient to describe their genders...

Comment Re:Fair-weather power sources are lame... (Score 1) 337

There was one more significant concern: the thermoelectric generators have actually pretty low efficiency, something of order of 10%. Lots of heat generated by the generator would affect the ground around, risking melting the ice and causing exactly the problems with "steam blast" mentioned a little above.

OTOH, Philae could definitely use a couple more thrusters, to be able to control its descent and move around.

Comment Re:We may hear from Philae later (Score 1) 337

Nope.
A human could -push- it over escape velocity. With a good shove.
Philae is still 100kg of inert mass so kicking it will either injure your foot or break the panels. OTOH its weight is around 10g, and the escape speed is some 0.8m/s, so propelling it to escape speed really doesn't require much work.

Comment Re:We may hear from Philae later (Score 1) 337

Generally we see them whenever the comet is near the sun - as the "comet tail" - you know, the distinguishing feature of comets that sets them apart from asteroids?

And melting ice on Earth happens in ~1bar atmospheric pressure. Meaning water is liquified instead of vaporized, and presence of air limits the range of any steam blast to several meters at most, while in vacuum a "steam tail" may run for many kilometers with no atmosphere to disrupt it.

Comment QA rejects. (Score 2) 178

Most likely QA rejects. Now why they were rejected by QA - this is your opportunity for getting decent media cheap. Sometimes the controller is broken and you'll end up with a fancy guitar pick. But sometimes the number of bad blocks on flash exceeds the standard. Run 'badblocks' on your card, and you'll get a card 95% the size of respective 'brand' at 20% the price. As a bottom line, this may cost some work and don't expect your profit is 4x the value of 'certified', but you may come out profitable.

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