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Comment Even Chinese must obey laws... (Score 1) 481

of Orbital Mechanics. Physics, too... when convenient.
  1. Let's start with the mass of this asteroid, so we can determine the VAST amount of energy it will take to "nudge it." Recall that the 365-foot Saturn V pushed a capsule the size of a VW Bug.
  2. Secondly, note the orbital change is a plane change, which takes orders of magnitude more Delta-V than an in-plane maneuver.
  3. Thirdly, what will they gain from this rock that will be worth the effort, energy, money, and risk to the planet?
    Sure, mining asteroids is a great idea, in principle, but not in theory.

Submission + - iTunes Killer... dead (cnn.com)

starglider29a writes: It looks like price isn't the most important thing when it comes to music downloads. Once upon a time, Walmart was an 'iTunes-killer' with deeply-discounted, 88-cent MP3s. But discounts meant little compared to integrated iPod and iPhone integration, a superior iTunes user interface, and the tether created by stored credit cards (which Apple does well).
Google

Submission + - Google TV sales "Negative" (wsj.com)

starglider29a writes: In its fiscal first-quarter earnings release, Logitech said demand for the Revue, which works with special Google TV software to allow viewers to navigate Internet content, had been disappointing. The Swiss firm said customer returns of the Revue have outpaced the device's "very modest sales."
Space

Submission + - First Earth Trojan asteroid discovered (discovermagazine.com) 1

The Bad Astronomer writes: "Astronomers have found the very first Earth Trojan asteroid, a rock that more-or-less shares Earth's orbit around the Sun. Seen in data by NASA's WISE mission, 2010 TK7 is about 300 meters across and leads the Earth by 60 degrees around the Sun. Trojans have been seen for Jupiter, Neptune, and Mars, but this is the first for our planet."

Comment Lies, Damn Lies, and IE at 24.3% (Score 1) 104

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

I know this is YMMV source, but according to it, IE hit 50% in August of 2008.

I know how browsers are detected. It's about as scientific as a Slashdot poll.

This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.

For example:

  1. I'd bet that Chrome's download page has a much lower percentage of Chrome users than the general populace.
  2. I'm sure M$ could show you stats with IE at 92% and the rest reading the files from FTP.
  3. Corporate vs. Academic sites would probably see great variation for a single browser.

What makes any one set of browser share statistics any better than any other?

Comment Re:Does not apply to FTL (Score 1) 428

Not the same thing. Analogously, that is like saying "I can mail this letter, and if the envelope is opened, I can tell." vs. "I can mail this letter and get it to Mars in 23 minutes (this month)."

The first defies someone's opinion on a theory. The latter defies physics. You can fool the theory, but you can't fool the physics.

BTW, you just did what I initially complained about. "technological breakthrough."

Comment Does not apply to FTL (Score 1) 428

Sadly, I have heard people use the argument that "the experts miss calls like this one" to point to how we can achieve Faster-Than-Light once we start to "think outside the box".

None of these missed calls, esp. satellite radio, defy the known physics of their day. Those FTL-friendly people see FTL as a mere 'technological breakthrough."

Comment Re:Read the history of polar exploration. (Score 1) 201

How much energy did it take to keep the polar caches in place? That's the difference. NASA can't just hang it up there, turn on the anti-gravity, and find it there in 10 years. I mean... explorers sailed to new worlds for centuries using nothing but windpower. Why doesn't NASA do the same thing...

Oh, right... they also have to take their own oxygen, and don't have a medium upon which to float. Gotcha...

Comment You need propellant to lift the propellant (Score 4, Interesting) 201

Disclaimer: degreed rocket scientist without time to do the math.

Rather than
  1. lift a surplus of propellant to a gas station
  2. have the Mars mission lift with just enough energy to park at L5, Phobos or whereever,
  3. refuel and thrust away to mars... Instead:
  4. launch the required propellant on nearly the same trajectory as the mission, once trajectory confirmed...
  5. Launch the Mars mission with enough energy to travel to Mars
  6. Rendezvous on the long trip, refuel, carry on

Advantages: putting the heavy lifting on the booster on Earth (where logistics is easier), don't waste energy stopping/pausing and restarting the trajectory.
Disadvantages: You better be sure you can refuel in flight.

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