The Tech Forum

[POFP]

I would start a thread and see if it has legs, unless you mean to bring in an audience from places that aren't here, in which case a small board might be suitable.

Segregating Facebook profiles for security discussions are a bother.

I know of people who aren't from this forum that would love to join and contribute, but I figured I would let my favorite forum get first dibs on membership and format ideas. So, it looks like a board may be the best option.

I wanted this group to be very inclusive, and readily available to anyone who wanted to read on the subject of security. So, if I did use Facebook, I would make it a public group. Facebook, and most of its user-base, don't seem to be accustomed to verbose discussions like this. I feel like most of the people who would join would be turned off by the gross amount of content, and leave the occasional "TL;DR FAGGOT." ~ Not the kind of feedback I want.

I understand that being very inclusive means having to deal with a user-base that is diverse in knowledge, curiosity, drive to learn, and manners. But I would like the board to maintain a certain level of professionalism. This can usually be balanced with methods like moderation of threads and sections of the boards, or thorough and strict board rules. But I also don't want the board to be this strict, production-only machine, that stomps out creativity. Basically, I want to find a balance between professionalism and creativity. But I don't know how to achieve that without a pre-installed user-base that "trolls the trolls into submission" or "pokes at you with sticks until you ooze creativity (or hogwash, depending on whether or not you're a schmuck, through and through)." You know, like this one! 

So, I guess I can start it out as a thread on here, and bring my friends here (Hey, more traffic here will benefit all of us... Right?). The problem is, they don't know shit about Eris or apples. And I'm worried that some of you might scare them away with your "ooby dooby magic talk" and poetry potion nonsense. Should I just show them the metaphorical and horror-ridden gates of Discordintismasticism, or whatever, and let them fight their instincts to hurl on their own? I mean, who knows? One of them may come out spewing that "Thick sweet juice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjtkMCLRf-M)" known as enlightenment.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It would b nice to see if starting such a thread here might have legs.

It would also be nice if it generated an influx of new users.

[Pæs]

WHERE IS THE SECURITY THREAD?

[Junkenstein]

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?board=25.0

There was a good chunk in there, kinda by default. AE has quite a bit kicking around, may be better shoving it in there?

[Cain]

WHERE IS THE SECURITY THREAD?

Um, here http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=21723.0

[Pæs]

WHERE IS THE SECURITY THREAD?

Um, here http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=21723.0

OH, OKAY.

[LMNO]

Man builds AI to win Nintendo games, AI decides when playing Tetris to permanently pause the game rather than lose points.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Man builds AI to win Nintendo games, AI decides when playing Tetris to permanently pause the game rather than lose points.

 

[POFP]

WHERE IS THE SECURITY THREAD?

If you were referring to the one I was planning on making, I am sorry to say it may be awhile before I get that all up and running. I still have some things to do before I will have enough time.

[Brother Mythos]

Engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts

As per the article:

“Now MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an "ionic wind"—a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight.

Unlike turbine-powered planes, the aircraft does not depend on fossil fuels to fly. And unlike propeller-driven drones, the new design is completely silent.

"This is the first-ever sustained flight of a plane with no moving parts in the propulsion system," says Steven Barrett, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. "This has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft which are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions."

He expects that in the near-term, such ion wind propulsion systems could be used to fly less noisy drones. Further out, he envisions ion propulsion paired with more conventional combustion systems to create more fuel-efficient, hybrid passenger planes and other large aircraft.”

Here's a link: https://techxplore.com/news/2018-11-first-ever-plane.html

This is definitely “thinking outside the box.”

[altered]

Engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts

As per the article:

“Now MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an "ionic wind"—a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight.

Unlike turbine-powered planes, the aircraft does not depend on fossil fuels to fly. And unlike propeller-driven drones, the new design is completely silent.

"This is the first-ever sustained flight of a plane with no moving parts in the propulsion system," says Steven Barrett, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. "This has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft which are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions."

He expects that in the near-term, such ion wind propulsion systems could be used to fly less noisy drones. Further out, he envisions ion propulsion paired with more conventional combustion systems to create more fuel-efficient, hybrid passenger planes and other large aircraft.”

Here's a link: https://techxplore.com/news/2018-11-first-ever-plane.html

This is definitely “thinking outside the box.”

I’ve been following this since before it became a DARPA thing back in 06. There’s been four or five people working on it since the mid 90s, they got DARPA backing after they showed a tethered flight prototype (about a foot long wingspan and literally just electric cables wrapped around a shaped piece of plywood) but that went nowhere and got canned around 2010 ish iirc.

Good to see they kept going and got something more useful. Also super interesting that they have reason to think the efficiency scales well now, that was a huge deal with the DARPA project, they couldn’t make it scale up at all.

[Brother Mythos]

Engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts

As per the article:

“Now MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an "ionic wind"—a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight.

Unlike turbine-powered planes, the aircraft does not depend on fossil fuels to fly. And unlike propeller-driven drones, the new design is completely silent.

"This is the first-ever sustained flight of a plane with no moving parts in the propulsion system," says Steven Barrett, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. "This has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft which are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions."

He expects that in the near-term, such ion wind propulsion systems could be used to fly less noisy drones. Further out, he envisions ion propulsion paired with more conventional combustion systems to create more fuel-efficient, hybrid passenger planes and other large aircraft.”

Here's a link: https://techxplore.com/news/2018-11-first-ever-plane.html

This is definitely “thinking outside the box.”

I’ve been following this since before it became a DARPA thing back in 06. There’s been four or five people working on it since the mid 90s, they got DARPA backing after they showed a tethered flight prototype (about a foot long wingspan and literally just electric cables wrapped around a shaped piece of plywood) but that went nowhere and got canned around 2010 ish iirc.

Good to see they kept going and got something more useful. Also super interesting that they have reason to think the efficiency scales well now, that was a huge deal with the DARPA project, they couldn’t make it scale up at all.

That's interesting. How, or where, did you first learn about this R&D project?

[altered]

It was brought up in some UFO discussion somewhere, a suggestion for the propulsion of saucer-type UFOs. (They do actually seem like they’re possible if done properly with this tech.)

I was curious, googled it, and they had a really crappy website on an .edu domain showing how they got regular extension cables to produce enough ionic wind to visibly glow. It was crazy, but just incomplete enough to annoy me, so I kept googling it every few months to check the progress out.

Around the time they got the DARPA contract, they showed a working tethered prototype and a concept image of a scifi looking stealth bomber using the old, “giant blue glowing coil of doom” method they were working on at the time, but otherwise kinda like the Nighthawk.

I’m not one hundred percent sure if they are the same people as this group, but the main guy on that project was the leader of the field (because no one else was in it, mind) so I’m inclined to assume it’s connected.

[Brother Mythos]

Unraveling The Nazi Origins Of The American Space Program

I'll post this here, as it is part of the history of Space Techmology.

This article contains an excerpt from the book MOONBOUND: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight, by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm. The article is difficult to quote, as it is done in graphic novel format. And, as I'm certain the graphic panels are copyright protected, I'm not going to copy and paste any of them here. Still, the article really is of historical interest.

Here's the link: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/nazi-origins-us-space-program-moonbound

[Brother Mythos]

A Cool New Thermoelectric Generator Has Been Developed

Device generates light from the cold night sky

As per the article:

'An inexpensive thermoelectric device harnesses the cold of space without active heat input, generating electricity that powers an LED at night, researchers report September 12 in the journal Joule.

"Remarkably, the device is able to generate electricity at night, when solar cells don't work," says lead author Aaswath Raman (@aaraman), an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Beyond lighting, we believe this could be a broadly enabling approach to power generation suitable for remote locations, and anywhere where power generation at night is needed."'

Here's a link: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/cp-dgl090519.php

Diehard technology fans can access the original paper here: https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(19)30412-X