mm22

I have recently watched an episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon pointed out that carbon composites are almost as strong as titanium, yet not nearly as heavy. I also read on Wikipedia that carbon fiber has lesser density than steel, which makes it a very good compromise, if I could be so audacious to call it a compromise. Imagine an eating implement stronger than plastic, yet lighter than steel!
Now that I come to think of it, would it be possible to replace steel implements with non-steel? For one, I suppose we could start with the airplane's seats, the cabinet doors or what not?

The only thing I have not yet considered it the cost of manufacturing carbon fiber items, compared to manufacturing plastic or steel ones... Although I believe it will cost more to create carbon composite items versus plastic ones. I'm not sure about steel though...

well, I think most metallic stuff on the airplane are aluminum, right? that's already much lighter compared to steel, certainly plastics or fancier materials could be lighter and offer the same mechanical properties.. the cost, as you mentioned, is what decides their usage ratio.. I think aeronautic industry is pretty much on the cutting-edge when it comes to reducing weight and the won't probably miss a chance to improve if it's worth the money

yeah it'll be great to have titanium or carbon fiber cutlery, I'm not sure though how many of them would the crew be able to recollect after the meal... it'd be pretty nice to have it at home as a souvenir and why not use it as an every day set after a few trips (on the same airline!!)

It seems to me that the Olympics are creating a dislike towards China for most Americans. Although it is very unlikely, a war could possibly break out over the Olympics. I was wondering everyone else's feelings are towards this. Do the Olympics create too much hate? Feel free to agree or disagree.

I don't think a war could break out over the Olympics, although a conflict would theoretically be possible over economical and political reasons which are often the basis of the Olympics themselves... but I want to be optimistic and believe the Olympics will contribute to improve reciprocal knowledge between China and the world which in my opinion is the beginning of reciprocal understanding.

You're right about the Olympic spirit which might not be present as originally was (in ancient Greece they even paused wars for the Games, right?) and a lot of sports are now overloaded with money and celebrities, still I think the rare moments of "pure sport" have some emotion to offer, regardless under which flag they originate... at least this is what makes me still watch sports... sometimes

I've recently bought a Panasonic Lumix TZ3, the one with a wideangle to telephoto lens (10x zoom from 28mm to 280mm equivalent) and I am very satisfied with the overall performance.Obviously I didn't buy the camera because of the movie features but occasionally I do take some short clip or use the "picture with audio" to comment on a photo, these functions are pretty easy to use and the quality of the video is reasonable.The movie files (or the audio attached to a picture) get saved in Jpeg Motion Picture format, generating a .MOV file which appears on the memory card next to a snapshot of the video itself in low-resolution Jpeg format, for example for a videoclip we would have something like this:- P1234567.MOV ---> audio/video file (I play it with real player)- P1234567.JPG ---> snapshot of the first frame (small size ~60-80kB) or actual picture in full resolution if using "picture with audio" no problem with JPG files, the MOV files instead show an unpredictable behaviour when trying to rename or delete them, in some cases the "impossible to rename/delete, the file is in use by another process" shows up (windows XP SP2) and the file can't be touched anymore, as if protected! moreover it's usually just ONE file in the whole folder that is not movable/renamable as if it had to hold some kind of mystic content... I thought there might be a link between the JPG and MOV files relating to the same picture but this doesn't seem to be the case or the source of problems since the JPG files can be handled fine...I occasionally experienced this kind of problems with other cameras when renaming files (I have my own naming convention I stick to) but usually the problem was solved by restarting windows, so I've always blamed this on windows probably that's still the case here, windows having troubles with MOV files or something like that...anyone has (had) the same problem and can help with that? sorry if the description is at times a bit messy :Pthanks!

I don't know if anyone cares, and maybe it's off-topic, but Bobcat is the name of a pick-up truck in GTA-series game too. In GTA San Andreas is almost everywhere.

and a popular manufacturer of loaders, excavators, etc.

I think what mm22 means is that by cutting back on ice, airlines end up with (a bit) lesser load to lift up into the air, indirectly requiring less fuel thus saving up by a little bit since oil prices are rising. Oh, I must admit, I don't altogether know how it really goes. In any case, though, I really think that the availability of water is not the issue here

just following up the topic after vacation yes, that's right, what i meant with my post was "fuel savings through aircraft weight cut by not carrying ice cubes PLUS energy saved by not freezing and storing the water in the first place"... indeed the ice cubes are just an example of how airlines can save fuel, sure it's not easy to compromise on comfort, as someone pointed out in the above replies customers are expecting airlines to provide them with a high standard of comfort, else they might choose a different airline if the different comfort level is not reflected in price difference...

btw, I didn't take any ice during flights in my last vacation (how could I??) but I got the idea for yet another interesting (maybe...) point of debate: metal or plastic cutlery on board? metal is definitely better for the user experience and also in my opinion gives a better idea of the "class" of the airline, but is probably much heavier to carry than plastic cutlery... on the other hand if plastic cutleries are disposable, as often the case, their impact on the environment will probably be greater than their weight savings..

I haven't calculated nor researched the actual numbers but the feeling is that disposable cutlery should be best avoided wherever possible and the use of non-disposable cutlery favored (sure this will require washing thus energy consumption to be considered when finding the numbers)... perhaps a good solution would be using good quality plastic reusable cutlery with a much lower weight compared to metal and a comparable "comfort level"...

let's see what people think about that by the way interesting excursus on biofuels, I agree they are one of the most important ways to fight CO2, sure as Stridr mentioned there's an issue regarding the quota of "food stuff" devoted to biofuels production and all related socio-economical and political aspects... in my opinion the production of biofuels should be primarily boosted where organic refuse is 'naturally' available, for example in farms or some food processing plants..

Oh, sorry. I just remembered that ice has some other uses. It serves, not just to freeze but also dilute the liquid it is immersed in. Ever tried drinking brandy or any hard drink without the "rocks"? I think it helps in slowing down the drinker's inebriation rate. Airline companies, after all, would not want their first-class passengers hollering in their seats or dancing naked on the aisle or, worse, throwing up on other passengers and crew.

that is so right! that's how bars save on drinks, by selling you ice cubes instead of brandy yeah I do agree sometimes it is a must to have ice, if you had to take a particular drink without ice then you might as well just don't drink it at all! (which would spare even more resources ahah) no, I am not that much against enjoying life and drinks for the sake of the environment

oh yeah sugar if another of those things I'd rather leave out... ok maybe my personal taste is a little bit too "energy saving"

Oil price is on the rise... so why not going a bit lighter and "drop off" a few things when we fly? certainly a few billions (?) are spent every year to lift up all those ice cubes people enjoy while flying around... so why not cut them to a minimum or cut them at all?This is one of the latest news I've heard about airlines cutting on their 'fringe' services, after starting to charge for soft drinks, water etc. over the past few years... now I don't think cutting on water is such a nice behavior, as passengers are deprived the right to take their own water on board and the shops at the gate are often not that cheap... additionally why should we purchase hundreds of plastic bottles for each flight when the same could be achieved with just a few larger tanks provided by the airline?ok people might argue water provided from tanks is not that good and hygienic conditions could be disputable and so on, so let's just put this aside and go back to out ice cubes I don't personally like to have ice in my drinks and i do my best trying to prevent waiters from putting any in my drinks, I don't always succeed... anyway I was just wondering if ice is of any use to our organism, is it always necessary to cool our throat down to nearly freezing level? what if we all just stopped using ice in our drinks especially when we are not in a tropical environment (I'm assuming planes do not offer a tropical environment)?again, drinking water is very important while flying, due to the low relative humidity in the cabin, and I happened to read from people wondering if any airline will ever be sued for causing dehydration in fliers or something like that...back (and to conclusions) to the ice... if airlines start using this no-ice-policy widely won't more people realize how unnecessary the use of ice cubes is? won't this make us reluctant to accept ice also in contexts other than planes? won't all that ultimately benefit our Earth? (how funny though, Earth being helped by some among the worst contributors to its ruin...)ok this was a little 'simplified' and provocative piece, but that's the way a debate should start, I think

Now, this is just a theory but I figured since it was a theoretical question I would bring it in ^-^

this reminds me of what a high school classmate used to ask people: "do you believe in relativity?" "do you think Einstein is right??"

now if he is, or if you cannot prove he is not, what you say about the different age of two twins is the most common example brought up to make the theory more accessible... yet it is very powerful because it applies to living beings, humans indeed! traveling keeps you young, you could say! just to throw in a joke

actually there is a quite "simple" and undisputed proof of the theory of relativity or at least of one of its aspects, that is the fact that light can be "bent" by a gravitational field... when observing stars which are "very close" to the sun (I'm talking about their apparent position as seen from Earth) a little displacement from their usual position is observed, the cause of it being identified with the gravitational field of our Sun, which are capable of "pulling" the light beams traveling towards us from those stars...

fascinating

yeah quite a nice story indeed, congratulations! I don't know if there are similar services on the internet but you definitely deserve it if Xisto becomes even more successful

The only thing I have found that helps much for releaving my miseries, is some homemade lye soap a friend of mine made and gave me some years ago. He gave me a big boxfull, and boy am I glad, I have most of a lifetimes supply if I just use it for my summer time blues.

freshly sliced tomato is said to help if put in contact with the 'blues'... try that out if you have a chance, it won't hurt

Your other problem I dont think they allow scripts to access remote mysql databases so you may need to wait for them to fix it.

that's good to know! I was also thinking of doing that eventually... then I don't even waste time trying

I heard plants do not contain cholesterol; it's an animal product.

that's what I thought as well... even if they do it shouldn't be the main 'ingredient' found in bananas as for the fact bananas are good for sports, as far as i know it's one of the best fruit regarding potassium content, which is what you need for your muscles in order to avoid cramps and probably helps your muscles recovering faster as well... and yes it is convenient to eat

well, since you don't see any "blue screen" it's likely to be "just" a hardware issue, not related to any particular driver, and it doesn't look like it's realted to that game since it also happens when you are not playing it... I think in a way you already answered your question yourself when you pointed out how it worked for some time after "de-dusting"... but sure it could be anything (power supply, motherboard, PCI devices...), one suggestion could be "debugging" the problem by removing hardware you don't need, like extra LAN/USB/Firewire PCI cards or things like that and see if the problem still arises... good luck!

I wonder if it's some kind of restriction in place on Xisto - Web Hosting server or a problem with gmail (I'd rule that out as I was able to send emails from my testing server at the same time)

ok read something about "socket must be open in php configuration in order for that to work" so I guess this is the restriction...

just a little off-topic... has anyone used phpmailer? I set it up on my testing server and it works fine with gmail (smtp)... it's also very easy to customize!I just got my hosting on Xisto and when I tried to send email from them (with phpmailer) I get the following error:Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect to ssl://smtp.gmail.com:465 (Connection timed out)I wonder if it's some kind of restriction in place on Xisto - Web Hosting server or a problem with gmail (I'd rule that out as I was able to send emails from my testing server at the same time)thanks for any help :)ps anyway I think I'll investigate the sendmail function provided by Xisto - Web Hosting and set up my own mail server there as most of you suggest...

It is a nice idea, but I fail to see how it would help the people of third world nations. In principle free premium software could create jobs and help educate people, but you have to remember that even now 90% of their software is pirated. Even in my country it rounds to the same figure. So they already have the software, the only difference is that it is not legit.The problem with the software is not the costs itself, rather the fact that the cost isn't proportioned with the income. For an American 30$ isn't more then spare change, but for someone who's monthly income is 50$ (or in most cases even much less) 30$ is a fortune. It isn't fare to label it as free for someone and 30$ for someone else. You could say ... the price of the software is x% of the national medium income. That way software would be much more affordable, developers will still get some money for their work and people can say they own the software. As for the benefits - I am pessimistic. They already have the software, the fact that it is legit will not make much of a difference I'm afraid!

as adriantc says I also see little advantage in using non-pirated software, at least for 'general purpose' software, office etc. Surely it'd help more if specific and usually VERY expensive pieces of software ere available to selected businesses in third world areas who could take advantage of them.

I am thinking about applications for scientific research or professional design which are often unique in their fields and can really represent an added value to an organization that uses them, it is also an opportunity for the software house to expand their business in those areas... I believe this mechanism is already in place, the software firm sponsoring the usage of their proprietary software, I wonder if it is widely happening in so called third world countries

yes, when buying a digital camera we shouldn't forget that it is first of all a CAMERA, therefore its most important part should be its lens and opto-mechanical properties in general (aperture, shutter time, etc.) having said that, the mega pixel count is certainly important but it usually suffices for most purposes whenever it is higher than 3MP... digital processing also plays a fundamental role in enhancing the performance of the hardware, achieving results that would probably be out of reach for film cameras with a similar hardwaresure we need a lot of megapixels if we ever want to print out pictures on a big format or crop out portions of an image... I've read somewhere that 16MP would provide the same quality we obtained with a traditional film camera, is that true? I believe it might depend on the sensitivity (ISO) of the film anyway...

I couldn't agree more. I've noticed that those whose use HTML instead of CSS don't have strong facts to justify their choice. They are simply trying to resist change.
Why not change it in CSS whenever you think the font is now obsolete. Besides I don't like sites that keep changing their looks. I believe there should be some uniformity in your pages and pages shoud not change the way they look in a matter of days. Imagine if one day you see your Google search results in Verdana, the next day in Lucida console and then days later they change it to Times New Roman. I don't think sane people would love that.

I agree on that, a website should have homogeneous look throughout the pages and should not change it that often, but that's just my personal opinion... nevertheless it seems like it's been like that for most popular sites in the last few years, while it was possibly more common to have fancy colors and the like in the early age of the internet, perhaps people just wanted to try out all tags anyway it's a matter of taste after all... clothes, cars, etc. use different shapes and colors every couple of years so does mainstream web design...

I still think sometimes it is ok to "break the style", for example if one page is really special or displays a different content or we want to achieve "special effects", just wondering if it's a good practice to put the css declaration inside a tag every now and then when it's not worth it creating a new id (for example <p style="font-size:......>), is it recommended/deprecated/ok?

as far as the pink unicorn. well, i don't think i am crazy or nuts in believing this, but i do believe that there are other level and planes of existance than the one we normally see first hand in our every day lives. i also believe there are sometimes portals to these levels of existance and planes.

this is a very interesting topic on which we could keep on talking without drawing much of a conclusion, for the simple fact that to-date we haven't found a way to either prove or rule out any of the above possibility you mentioned... I think I'm a rather rational thinking person and I don't like to believe things without trying to understand if they could possibly be, yet I have to agree with you on the fact that there might be other "dimensions" or "levels of existence" which we cannot see nor perceive but can influence our "level" from time to time... I think it'd be irrational to blindly turn down every such claim on the basis of rationality (if this sentence even makes sense )

having said that, I believe astrology is mostly based on traditions that date back at least to the ancient Greek civilization and therefore cannot really be labeled as science or anything close to that... yet the fact that people born in the same period of the year often show the same behavior might not be just a coincidence or maybe it's just that people usually take note of things that prove a certain thesis rather than things that don't

by the way, if I am not wrong here, due to equinoctial precession it happens that the zodiac signs are actually shifted by approximately one sign with respect to the (apparent) position they occupied at the time (few millennia back) they were first identified... therefore if there were any effect related to those figures, well it'd actually be due to the next/previous sign in line!

just recalled of an interesting book I haven't fully read but once quickly skimmed through it, it's "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" by Edwin A. Abbott which imagines an hypothetical 2-D world whose inhabitants can only move on a surface and when they walk into someone else they do not have many choices to avoid crashing into each other well, try to imagine how they could possibly come up with the vision of a third spatial dimension...

Try holding Shift, then clicking No

thanks a lot rvalkass, that's great!! at least one of them solved for the others, well i suppose I'll either live with them or start using Linux more

I would say find a way to get rid of the registry and the use of DLL's especially now that the winsxs folder in vista is talking up most of the hard drive space. I would say...

yes, these are the major things! those that really matter for the overall performance, mine was more like a (un)usability list... yeah Linux distributions can squeeze all sort of softwares/tools in their installation CD and also offer a better memory and disk management, let alone the chance of actually getting to know a bit of what's going on behind the scenes (provided you want to, but if you don't you probably won't even install linux in the first place...)

This is not a Win/Linux/Mac dispute, rather pointing out a few minor things that I find really annoying in Windows OS and I'd rather change if I had the chance/knowledge (disclaimer: I mainly refer to winxp but I've used almost all other versions, I have some experience with Linux and almost never used a Mac OS)

copying/moving files: ever tried to copy a folder containing one or more corrupted files? if I were the OS I'd just skip those and copy the good ones, then prompt a message "file x, y, z were not copied we're sorry for the inconvenience caused"... but no, instead we're left with a "copy file aborted" message and the torture of handpicking files to copy trying to spot the bad ones...

overwrite existing files?: I think that "Yes to all" button is very useful and time saving but what about a "No to all" button??

(ok this is maybe not entirely windows' fault but rather depending on the software you are running) when running an application that takes a few seconds to load it keeps popping up from the background although it's not fully loaded instead of letting you work on other windows you have open

(this is really a picky one but) wouldn't it be nice to be able to reorder the tabs on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen instead of being stuck with the same configuration once the applications are run in a certain sequence?

I think I had a few more "complaints" but I can't recall them... anyway enough for now

 

please correct me if a simple solution exists for some of those issues or if I've improperly described things, also I'd like to know if any of those "bugs" were fixed in Vista (which I've only used a handful of times) and what's the situation like in Linux/Mac regarding those points

 

tkx

Has anyone mentioned that plants actually NEED oxygen to survive? just like any other (or almost any other) living organism on Earth they "breathe" by consuming oxygen and releasing CO2... then of course comes the star, photosynthesis, that can turn the "bad guy" CO2 into breathable O2! as far as I remember from biology classes the two processes (breathing and photosynthesis) are independent one from the other so in an atmosphere containing solely or mostly CO2 plants won't be able to breathe, thus to live, thus to carry on the photosynthesis process...let aside, as mentioned earlier, the lack of nutrients in the soil... nevertheless, I believe someday humans will be able to make whatever change they'll like on Mars, given they'll had survived by then

That is a very interesting piece of information... thanks for sharing ;)If I am right that's exactly the way life on Earth evolved through millennia, at least according to Darwinians/evolutionists... I wonder at which stage of the evolution we are as human race and if in some way we are influencing the evolution process itself with our actions

try setting up the network as sonesay describes... if you use xp the wizard should do the job for you as long as you run it on both computers and choose the same workgroup name to make things easier. Since you have a router it's probably best to connect through it, so you don't need to use crossover cables, and remember to share the folders you want to transfer (just right-click and choose Sharing and Security...) If you still can't figure out where the other computer's file are you may search for the computer through explorer (Start Menu >> Search >> Find computer), you can search either by the name you assigned to the other computer (if the two machines are in the same workgroup) or by local network IP address (you can check that in LAN properties / tray icon)aside from that i find an external hard drive a convenient and reliable solution to store and backup data, and keep them synchronized between different computers... you probably don't want to overload your new laptop with a whole lot of (growing) data, even though 250GB seem, and are, a lot