From: William Hamblen on
On Wed, 05 May 2010 08:14:03 -0400, Walter Bushell <proto(a)panix.com>
wrote:

>In article <hrqoft$enh$2(a)news.eternal-september.org>,
> Charles Richmond <frizzle(a)tx.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> Yeah!!! Where the hell would the world be today without the
>> three-phase electric motor??? All the "heavy industry" plants rely
>> on this workhorse, and Tesla invented it.
>
>Ah, I remember a exhibit in the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. of
>a steam powered factory. The ceiling was entirely belts, because every
>machine was belt powered.

Shaft and belt drives persisted after electric motors became popular.
A big electric motor replaced the steam engine. I've been in one old
woodworking factory like that. It is long gone, now. The owner was
an academically trained artist and had decorated his office with
plaster casts of eyes, noses, ears, etc. He had been trained in the
era when they had art students draw from the antique before they let
them loose on lofe drawing. Do they still do this?

Bud
From: Morten Reistad on
In article <michelle-BFDF32.20132604052010(a)62-183-169-81.bb.dnainternet.fi>,
Michelle Steiner <michelle(a)michelle.org> wrote:
>In article <hrqnk1$9q5$8(a)news.eternal-september.org>,
> Charles Richmond <frizzle(a)tx.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> And *please* don't tell the bees that they can't fly! We *need*
>> the honey, and we need our crops pollinated!!!
>
>No worry there; no one said that honey bees can't fly, just bumblebees.

bees are getting so scarce that wild bee colonies are regularly
stolen (or, kidnapped?) to other locations.

-- mrr
From: Joe Pfeiffer on
nospam(a)see.signature (Richard Maine) writes:

> jmfbahciv <username(a)isp.net.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
>> > jmfbahciv wrote:
>> >
>> >> Nope. What remains of the work produced by DEC is all over the place;
>> >> it's simply not recognized.
>> >
>> > And their misdeeds too, for example, that stupid backwards memory model for
>> > storing data that was the exact opposite of everyone else's.
>>
>> I don't understand what you're talking about. You can store data any which
>> way you wanted to.
>> >
>> > It was picked up by Intel and we stuck with it today on the Mac.
>> >
>> > In comparison, the PPC used the saner model.
>>
>> Are you talking about push down lists?
>
> I hesitate to even mention matters of religion, so I'll just say that he
> is obviously (to me - though maybe that's just because I tend to share
> his religious beliefs) referring to big endian versus little endian. No
> further will I comment.

It was equally clear to me, and I'm a pretty devout Little-Endian.
--
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)
From: Walter Bushell on
In article <i6q2u5lvm5pug0eajn5qrvr9fm6p832e57(a)4ax.com>,
William Hamblen <william.hamblen(a)earthlink.net> wrote:

> On Wed, 05 May 2010 08:14:03 -0400, Walter Bushell <proto(a)panix.com>
> wrote:
>
> >In article <hrqoft$enh$2(a)news.eternal-september.org>,
> > Charles Richmond <frizzle(a)tx.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Yeah!!! Where the hell would the world be today without the
> >> three-phase electric motor??? All the "heavy industry" plants rely
> >> on this workhorse, and Tesla invented it.
> >
> >Ah, I remember a exhibit in the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. of
> >a steam powered factory. The ceiling was entirely belts, because every
> >machine was belt powered.
>
> Shaft and belt drives persisted after electric motors became popular.
> A big electric motor replaced the steam engine. I've been in one old
> woodworking factory like that. It is long gone, now. The owner was
> an academically trained artist and had decorated his office with
> plaster casts of eyes, noses, ears, etc. He had been trained in the
> era when they had art students draw from the antique before they let
> them loose on lofe drawing. Do they still do this?
>
> Bud

Well yes. In the big inning I suppose electric motors were expensive and
one already had the belts and the belt driven equipment, not to
mentioned people who were skilled in using the system.

One would expect a gradual transition.

--
A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
From: Joe Pfeiffer on
Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo(a)eircom.net> writes:

> On Tue, 04 May 2010 11:08:30 -0600
> Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer(a)cs.nmsu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo(a)eircom.net> writes:
>>
>> > On Tue, 04 May 2010 08:15:20 -0600
>> > Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer(a)cs.nmsu.edu> wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> > 1) Warping space
>> >> > 2) Wormholes
>> >> > 3) Inertialess drives
>> >>
>> >> None of the three is remotely plausible.
>> >
>> > At least two of them are the subjects of papers in very
>> > respectably physics journals.
>>
>> Not in any context that is relevant to FTL travel. Applying space
>
> Yes in a context relevant to FTL travel - check the references
> listed in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive for warp bubbles
> applied to FTL travel.
>
>> warping or wormholes to FTL is borrowing a word and leaving virtually
>
> For wormholes see Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 1446–1449 (1988) "Wormholes,
> Time Machines, and the Weak Energy Condition" - abstract at
> http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v61/i13/p1446_1.
>
>> everything related to the actual theory behind.
>
> Yes I know there are energy and other problems with both Alcubierre
> warp bubbles and Thorne wormholes - but they are subjects of papers in
> respectable physics journals which do talk about FTL travel and there are
> arguments that the difficulties may be overcome.

OK, let's say not in any context that involves FTL travel actually
happening. Theoretical constructs that require large quantities of
exotic matter are firmly in "assume a can opener" territory.
--
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)