ski_power

Even I think it would be far safer (both for the general public, and for security purposes) just to automate transport and enclose it. Like said above, if enclosed there is nothing stopping an enclosed system running seamlessly at high speeds. There isn't actually a need for a general flying system of vehicles.The problem that needs to be solved is of safety, and congestion. Both of which automated systems can solve. But then again there isn't need of nuclear warheads either...

This. The parents must seriously be checked into an asylum. I mean or else charged (directly/indirectly) for "Assist to Inflict Psychological Trauma in a non-adult" atleast till he can change his name (if it hasn't done enough damage to him already)

Well, I thought I'd not threadjack... But I'm back too... * drum roll * after 4 years(LOLzwut??!!?) Completed Engineering (Mechanical), and I'm planning to study further - Aerospace. I still remember oldies like swansont, Capnrefsmat, and the very resourceful yt2095. I'd remember more gradually once I start being here more regularly.

Correct me, but doesn't the intake of a gas turbine have to be subsonic?

I too believe that it is the practical barriers rather than technological barriers that would impede flying cars from becoming common. Firstly would be the fuel usage that has been said by you guys. They would have to come up with some kind of highly efficient method for converting fuel source energy into power. Also, there would be an issue of compactness. A flying car would quickly lose it's charm if you are going to run out of fuel before returning back from the grocery store. The other obstacle would be the driving license. Now apart from normal training, you'd have to teach everyone concepts of roll, pitch, & yaw. These being only the basics. I mean, you would have to practically teach a pilot training course to all individuals (flying cars are normal remember?). That would be very difficult. Accidents could be far less forgiving, and there would be very little left to luck. A slight graze puts you off balance. You lose control of the vehicle and now you don't just have to worry about slamming into a building or another vehicle, but also need to remember the Z-Axis. You will definitely fall down too. Remember, gravity at its very best. I'm not trying to dissuade or discourage anyone, but unless they start teaching aerospac engineering level science at school level, it would be a long long time that we would see flying cars become common.

oh, well i've not used any *nix before, so this is new to me and I'm quite impressed by it... Atleast I know that my system won't "Crash and Burn" because of some stupid virus... It may not be long before the hackers try to bypass this also, but I hope it doesnt happen that way...

Well actually I dual boot vista(Evaluation) and XP, just for checking it out... I dont install programs twice, ie on each OS... In XP, one file that I ran had a virus, and because of it, literally every system file in XP had a virus. I ran this McAfee, and like atleast 150-200 files infected in the C:\WINDOWS folder alone. Now in Vista, the same program was run, and when I run McAfee, only 1 file infected, that too it's the virus file which I originally took. No other system file, game, office file, no nothing was infected...oh and BTW that virus was called W32.Sality/x Isn't that cool?

The training one is good.... Any idea on how I can fit the "super conductive" within limits of the Mechanical engineering? THanks for your replies man...Today I recommended insane alien's quote and everybody loved it, tomorrow I'll tell these ones too...

Hey isn't there anyone else...? Please?

That's cool man.... :notes it down:

Our class is creating(umm...no making) a T-shirt... We just don't know what quote or line to give to our T-Shirt. We're doing mechanical engineering in the third year(<=year irrelevant) Any of you creative guys care to help with giving a good line...

true swansont... if we did want to be THAT foolish, we could as well make 1 meter = 1/10^6 distance travelled by light and change the definition of a second as well.....

yeah. Every measurement would have to be re done. Scales, callipers, speedometers, etc etc......zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZ....... You get the magnitude of the change right?

Is there any difference between todays USB flash drives and the then Carts... If there isn't couldn't todays flash drives take as much abuse that herme3 has subjected the carts to...

But normal paper isn't exactly what you would call waterproof and fireproof...

Hi guys, I'm going to purchase an MP3 player and want it to look cool. After much thinking i've shortlisted the sony nw-e507 1gb player and the mobiblu cube 1gb. The main feature I want from the player is that it must act as a USB drive when connected, but it is OK if I need a software to load the songs (a la Sonicstage). Here's a scene: I go to my friends house to take an important file for presentation. Now, all I want to do is to connect the player and drag and drop the files.Some what like an iPod, meaning to listen songs you need the software, but to just copy files you can directly do it without any software. The mobiblu supports UMS i.e. drag-and-drop for both songs and files. The sony player does not support UMS, i.e. drag-and-drop for songs, but can I copy files that way? The reason for considering the sony is the battery life, and i can hold more in the atrac3+ format, and that for the cube is for it's cool looks and the UMS support.

I'm planning to buy a 5.1 channel creative inspire speakers. On closer inspection I found out that there is only one mini phone jack that goes out of the sub into the PC. This means that this is the Digital In plug. Now, I've performed the SPDIF hack on my Xbox. Now I wish to connect the speaker set to my xbox. Is it possible? I've got reasons that support my view point that this should work: 1. The input mini jack in the Sub-Woofer has two terminals. 2. An SPDIF also has two terminals in the RCA plug. Now, is the SPDIF Digital Out same as the Digital In in the 5.1 surround sound system, i.e. if I make an RCA to minijack convertor will I get 5.1 sound?

Well, actually this is used in the play Merchant Of Venice, in the court scene. Just click the link below and search for the word. http://pd.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/merchant/section19.html It's used for a good judgement, impartial and a well said statement. I agree wholly with Aardvark that those fellows need to learn tolerance. I don't think it's as much as the skin colour as it is the religion. For arguement sake, if a white baby grows up in an Islamic family then I think the skin colour won't make ANY difference, and that kid when he/she grows up will be just as fanatic as a...say...non-white/non-black Race has nothing to do with it. Its the attitude of the religion. edit: 2 guys beat me to post

the parallel port eih? Good idea actually. I'll try that out as well. I was thinkin of USB primarily because we'll have no screws to bother with, and instant snap-on. Anyway, I'll just check your idea out

JohnB, Man A third Daniel to you, a fourth even You've hit the nail right on it's head

How about this one... The National Comittee for Prevention of Cruelty towards Trees initially banned pencils. But then they realised that due to this there would be s shortage of pens and such which would lead to a price hike and the poor people won't be able to pay for it... So they passed the bill to get maximum efficiency from a single log of wood. Hence the Hex pencils

Here's the reason why aliens don't contact us... drum roll please.... It's because of the simple reason that ...well, um....that...yeah got it...they haven't built a cellphone that can support Interplanetary calls...

No no no...we're just using the ports. There's no computer involved at all. We're just planning to use it for easy connections instead of keeping it all soldered onto the car and then needing to take long dangling wires everywhere along with the car

Hey, couldn't it be that they're also trying to contact us but to no avail. Maybe like they use different language and we use different language. Don't you think how funny it would be if an American radiocaster uses circuits that make use of binary logic, and a Japanese guy used circuits of hexadecimal or maybe septadecimal logic(hey any different base is possible). Do you even think they both will be able to intercept each other? Fine, both will discover it and classify it as background noise but they just can't decode it.

We're making a "car" that's to run for a racing competition. The track consists of plenty of obstructions like 5mm steel rods for speedbreakers, sand pits, gravel beds, S-bends, 50 degree inclines etc etc... The thing is that it cannot be wireless, and must have wires. This makes it simple for us in sense that all we need to do is strap 4 motors and then connect the left side motors in a group and the right side motors in another group to a 2 way switch each. Here's where I need help: 1. We've thought of putting the motors in a T-joint of pipe and then connect both of them. Will this be good enough. 2. The motors we are using are 12V motors@300 R.P.M, but on the track we run it at 15V. This makes the "car" feel more responsive but makes it difficult for turns which is comfortable at 12V... Is there any way we can vary the supply to the car WITHOUT touching the power supply like some potentiometer on the (tiffin box) remote. This is because then the person controlling the car can also vary the voltage on the fly without having to meddle with the supply.(Yes, I made that power supply in the other thread, and it is variable). 3. Since max. voltage is 24V, and I want to put some LEDs on the car. So which resistance value should I put. Should it be the one meant for 24V? If yes, won't the LEDs run a little dim when the voltage is lowered? 4. Can USB ports take 24V and 5 amperes(the plugs), as we are planning to use it for our connections?