SpacemanSpiff

6 ms·

31.
by SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
So as a pilot of a manned aircraft what does this mean for the safety of my flights? Do I need to start trying to avoid unlicensed, unlit, and unannounced drone aircraft whenever I'm below 400ft AGL? Edit: Thanks to everyone below for
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by SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
Did anyone pick up the OP's book, "Writing Idiomatic Python"? I'm tempted to buy, as someone new to Python. Looks like it may be useful for learning some Python best practices.
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by SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
In a nutshell, we encountered two problems (which may or may not be prevalent with all Earthships) 1. Extreme temperature fluctuations. You're essentially living inside a solar collector. In the fall, the sun would blaze in through the
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by SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
My wife and I live in a ~720 sq. foot loft we built inside of an airplane hangar. The story is here: http://www.makingthishome.com/hangar-loft-remodel/ We really love living in smaller spaces.
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by SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
"all useful things no doubt, but things you don't change on a per-folder basis that often- while literally not having an "up one level" button. At all." Add the "path" menu to your Finder window toolbar. Y
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by SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
Excellent project, but the shading on the solar panels from the railings is more than likely severely reducing the output of the panels at lower sun angles. Even shading a single cell on a series connected panel effectively reduces the outp
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by SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
from the linked Wikipedia article: The neat coincidence that 2^10 is nearly equal to 10^3 provides the basis of a technique of estimating larger powers of 2 in decimal notation. Using 2^10a+b ≈ 2b10^3a is fairly accurate for exponents up to
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
I've encountered malware where the computer being used to administer the site was compromised, and the malicious code was injected periodically this way. So make sure your personal computer, as well as the computers of anyone with write acc
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
yeah, I caught that irony too. College professors, lol. I do admire the guy for the large amount of effort he put into the presentation though. I mean he disassembled and re-assembled parts of a watch in front of the class, not to mention t
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
great video, thanks for posting!
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
Agreed. I've done all kinds of accidental abuse to AVRs, shorting outputs while testing, powering an entire circuit through the USART pins, switching the PDI connector on an XMEGA (3.3V) with a +5V USB connector, that sort of thing. They se
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
Here's a nice discussion about Switched Reluctance Motors courtesy of TI (and control thereof): http://www.ti.com/lit/an/spra420a/spra420a.pdf
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
So assuming we're talking about a synchronous machine aka permanent magnet AC motor, the control of whether the motor acts as a generator or motor is inherent in the physics of the machine. Inside the motor are polyphase AC windings which w
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
I second AP Circuits. I've been using them for prototypes for about 5 years now and am very happy with their work.
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
The 555 design contest winners (from 4/2011): http://www.555contest.com/2011/04/the-555-contest-winners-an... I especially like the adding machine made from 102 555s: http://www.vk2zay.net/article/258
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
Nice. Thanks for pointing this out.
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by SpacemanSpiff 14y ago
I checked out the video you linked. It's now all of a sudden marked Private for some reason... Is there any corroboration from SpaceX that there was indeed an engine failure? It looked to me like it could have been ice breaking off near max
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by SpacemanSpiff 15y ago
I just emailed the author of the article (Seth Stevenson) to see if he would let the mapmaker know about his map being mentioned on Hacker News. Maybe we can get some contact info for those of us interested in purchasing the map. I know I w
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by SpacemanSpiff 15y ago
my favorite part of the article: Algorhyme I think that I shall never see a graph more lovely than a tree. A tree whose crucial property is loop-free connectivity. A tree that must be sure to span
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by SpacemanSpiff 15y ago
Agreed. Permanent magnet synchronous motors are just one kind of traction motor. There are alternatives out there that don't require rare earth magnets. See this nice table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor#Categorization
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by SpacemanSpiff 15y ago
cessna_172 Fixed-wing_aircraft Aircraft Vehicles Bicycle Human-powered_transport Transport Cargo Commerce Buying San_Juan_de_Dios_Market Guadalajara,_Jalisco States_of_Mexico Mexico Spanish_language Romance_languages Indo-European_languages
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by SpacemanSpiff 15y ago
Wow, the components on the GPS board look like they are hand soldered, which to me means very low volume/specialized production.
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by SpacemanSpiff 16y ago
Czech
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Setting Due Dates [...] to Maximize Customer Satisfaction and Profits(leeds-faculty.colorado.edu)
2 points by SpacemanSpiff 16y ago|0 comments
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by SpacemanSpiff 16y ago
I wonder if this phenomena is at all related to red sprites and blue jets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jets
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by SpacemanSpiff 16y ago
from the article: Writing to random locations in system memory isn't generally a wise design practice. Unsurprisingly, the game would generate spectacular crashes as a result. A human player would be driving blind and usually crash right a
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by SpacemanSpiff 16y ago
awesome, I look forward to trying it out.
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by SpacemanSpiff 16y ago
"If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Attributed to Henry Ford
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by SpacemanSpiff 16y ago
Alternately for the $20,000 he could get an old cessna 172, learn how to maintain it and get his A&P mechanic license and have a safe and reliable way to fly during nice weather. Still would need an "airport car" to get to work from the
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by SpacemanSpiff 16y ago
Check out the Terrafugia: http://www.terrafugia.com/aircraft.html I am skeptical as you are about the possibility of a practical flying car, but I've been watching this one for a couple of years and it seems on the right track. It'll be a

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