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Comment Re:Spacecraft, aircraft, commercial vehicles... (Score 1) 91

Gravity Probe B had what i believe is at least a comparable spec of gyroscope:

http://einstein.stanford.edu/TECH/technology1.html

"The SQUID magnetometers are so sensitive that a field change of only one quantum—equivalent to 5 x 10-14 gauss (1/10,000,000,000,000th of the Earth's magnetic field) and corresponding to a gyro tilt of 0.1 milliarcsecond (3x10-8 degrees)—is detectable. "

Comment Re:If you are too old to retrain... (Score 1) 418

exactly, outside of work I meet some people who are nearing retirement at 25, and others are full of life well into their retirement. My great uncle was still fixing his car at 80!

I learnt c#, c++ and c just after uni (with only BASIC as prior experience) whilst working primarily as a physicist, and am now a full time software developer. As with any learning, you find the best people around to learn from and put the effort in. Changing teams reasonably often enables you to cherry pick techniques and ideas, whilst bouncing your own off others.

It also helps to ask your employer for as much relevant training as possible. Understand the technologies that interest you in particular through your own reading and practice.

Of course if you really can't be bothered to at least keep up with the cutting edge of technology (or invent it!) then perhaps you should think of a different career path.

Comment Re:'Atomically pure material' (Score 3, Informative) 88

from the harvard gazette article:

"In initial experiments, the team used diamonds that contained 99 percent carbon-12 atoms"

"Working with researchers at Element Six, a British-based company that specializes in manufacturing artificial diamonds, they developed a new technique to create crystals that were even more pure: 99.99 percent carbon-12."

Specs For the New KITT 195

An anonymous reader writes "The upcoming made-for-TV Knight Rider movie features an all-new version of the Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT). Popular Mechanics has the 'specs' for the original Hasslehoff-mobile, as well as for the digital-effects enhanced version in the 2008 production. 'Designer Harald Belker, who has created the Batmobile for Batman and Robin and a next-gen space shuttle for Armageddon, came onboard to give the new KITT. a unique look. "The goal was to make it look more aggressive without being hokey or garish," Belker says.'"
Censorship

Student Arrested for Writing Essay 890

mcgrew writes "The Chicago Tribune reports that an eighteen year old straight-A High School student was arrested for writing an essay that 'disturbed' his teacher. Even though no threats were made to a specific person, 18 year-old Allen Lee's English teacher convened a panel to discuss the work. As a result of that discussion, the police were called in. 'The youth's father said his son was not suspended or expelled but was forced to attend classes elsewhere for now. Today, Cary-Grove students rallied behind the arrested teen by organizing a petition drive to let him back in their school. They posted on walls quotes from the English teacher in which she had encouraged students to express their emotions through writing.'"
Sci-Fi

New Laws of Robotics Proposed for US Kill-Bots 373

jakosc writes "The Register has a short commentary about a proposed new set of laws of robotics for war robots by John S Canning of the Naval Surface Warfare Centre. Unlike Asimov's three laws of robotics Canning proposes (pdf) that we should 'Let machines target other machines and let men target men.' Although this sounds OK in principle, 'a robot could decide under Mr Canning's rules, to target a weapon system such as an AK47 for destruction on its own initiative, requiring no permission from a human. If the person holding it was thereby killed, that would be collateral damage and the killer droid would be in the clear.'"

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