| Tyler_Canada |
| There seem to be a fair number of high tech people who buy Nissans and Infinitis. Lets see some numbers. |
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| senza |
| I am seriously "tech challenged"....I still can't figure out how to post a picture....that's one reason I find this board so helpful... |
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| jaak |
Every single field person at my employer, that's in Ontario and Quebec has, or is considering, a Nissan product. We've got Maximas, Altimas and some guy has a Copper Murano, which some of the others are now considering...
Is it the high pace of high tech, that makes us want a sporty ride?
Is it our technical knowledge that makes us appreciate the vehicle's engine, drivetrain and quality? (Most issues are minor or have happened on a small handful or individual vehicles, and the squeaks and rattles are amplified by the ride.)
Or is it because we are technical, we are comfortabe with computers, the internet and the idea of a forum? |
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| Snow MO |
High Tech? Definitely!
4 computers in my bedroom alone (7 altogether). File and Print server...flat screen monitors with built in TV tuners. Universal touch screen remote to control DVD/VCR/TV/Stereo system. I even took the time to have the remote "learn" all of the other remotes features. I work for a fortune 500 company and babysit 600+ Intel based servers... EDIT: 
I'm rambling here...but to sum it up, the first time my friends saw my car, one person said, "Even your car is full of nerdy stuff!" :p
My reply, "No heated seat for you then." ;) |
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| Kris |
I have read somewhere that in Japan:
Hondas – are for engineers
Nissans – for “city sleekers”
Toyotas – for “country folks”
Interesting observations. In down under you could bet that Volvo drivers wear hats..
;) |
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| Dij |
| Does teaching a college-level computer literacy course count? I used to always have the latest toys, but am now satisfied with things that are not state-of-the-art now. However, I've had pivoting (portrait) monitors since they came out (back in the 14" CRT stage), have always had a portable, carry a PDA, and have a few tech toys, just not the latest and greatest. |
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| Tyler_Canada |
Originally posted by Snow MO
quote:
4 computers in my bedroom alone (7 altogether). File and Print server...flat screen monitors with built in TV tuners. Universal touch screen remote to control DVD/VCR/TV/Stereo system. I even took the time to have the remote "learn" all of the other remotes features.
Where's the drooling smilie?
quote:
I'm rambling here...but to sum it up, the first time my friends saw my car, one person said, "Even your car is full of nerdy stuff!" :p
My reply, "No heated seat for you then." ;)
ROFL!!! |
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| Tyler_Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Dij
Does teaching a college-level computer literacy course count? I used to always have the latest toys, but am now satisfied with things that are not state-of-the-art now. However, I've had pivoting (portrait) monitors since they came out (back in the 14" CRT stage), have always had a portable, carry a PDA, and have a few tech toys, just not the latest and greatest.
I would say yes, because you probably have to keep on top of technological developments, and demostrate some of those things too.
Ok, I admit it, I like to be surrounded by geeks! |
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| turbodog |
| I voted yes, but this is my first Nissan, and frankly, I bought it in SPITE of it being a Nissan. I have been leery of Nissan ever since Renault's takeover ( I owned one Renault, and vowed to never let THAT happen again), and Ghosn's drastic cost-cutting measures which routinely showed up in magazine reviews as gross 'cheepniz'. Nissan's financial fortunes have turned around, but their quality of materials is still on a starvation diet. My test drive of the Murano overcame my doubts. |
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| Snow MO |
quote:
Originally posted by Tyler_Canada
Where's the drooling smilie?
Edited my previous post for ya! |
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| jaak |
Speaking of geeks, I may as well do the confession....
Started doing electronics around the age of 10, so I've been doing this for a while! Computers? Let's see, three servers, 6 clients, 5 printers all on the network, two routers, mix of wired and wireless, DSL and Cable modem.
Technology? Never satisfied, because I work with R&D engineers on the products that we won't see on the shelves for 3 years at least, so when something's "new", It's old news to me. But I still love to play, so toys are important! Speaking of toys, Test Instruments are the coolest toys around! So I get to share the latest info on them with all the other techno geeks that are my customers. While most people's eyes glaze over when I talk about what excites me, I share the excitement of things like a handheld spectrum analyser that's good to 3 GHz and a new Oscilloscope that has a Bandwidth of 8 GHZ and sample rate of 20 Gigasamples per second.:drool:
To most people, I just tell them that pretty well everything electronic that they use, has been designed, manufactured and would be maintained and repaired using the tools my employer makes. As an example, I know what's required and how to completely simulate an XM or Sirius satellite constellation so that a receiver would think it's actually getting the signals from space, but in reality, it was just sitting on a shelf in a room.
Tech Weenie Alert!:ucrazy:
I do disquise myself as a normal person, when not at work, however... Although I did marry another tech geek. She brings me computers and printers, so it's heaven.:D
The funny thing is, my 8 year girl old knows what an Oscilloscope, Logic Analyser and Spectrum Analyser are. Poor kid...:p |
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| generator |
I work (install, maintain and repair) on these for a living.
Considering that they are completely electric (battery) powered, have numerous processors on board, a mini lan on board and the ability to drive auto-pilot over an invisible wire within a tolerance of less than a 1/2 inch I would say that is kinda high tech. Besides that I am the typical nerd minus the glasses. One look in my office screams nerd! I have a multi-monitor computer; dvd burner; routers; hub; fiery print server & Xerox color laser printer; automated digital 32 track mixing console with flying faders and a rack of midi gear. Turn around and you find my O-scope and Heathkit circuit designer; not to mention resistors and caps all over the place. I still have my first computer, a Commodore 64, still connected and occasionally I fire it up. The place is a mess. But I like it just the way it is. Am I a Nerd? |
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| Tyler_Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by jaak
[B]Computers? Let's see, three servers, 6 clients, 5 printers all on the network, two routers, mix of wired and wireless, DSL and Cable modem.
quote:
While most people's eyes glaze over when I talk about what excites me, I share the excitement of things like a handheld spectrum analyser that's good to 3 GHz and a new Oscilloscope that has a Bandwidth of 8 GHZ and sample rate of 20 Gigasamples per second.:drool:
Must get more gigastuff! I think spectrum analyzers are cool. My head unit (that I can't install in the Murano) has a 10 band one for it's display. |
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| Tyler_Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by generator
I work (install, maintain and repair) on these for a living.
Considering that they are completely electric (battery) powered, have numerous processors on board, a mini lan on board and the ability to drive auto-pilot over an invisible wire within a tolerance of less than a 1/2 inch I would say that is kinda high tech.
I would say so. I didn't know they made those that advanced.
quote:
automated digital 32 track mixing console with flying faders and a rack of midi gear.
Audio equipment is another of the things I love to mess around with.
quote:
The place is a mess. But I like it just the way it is. Am I a Nerd?
I would say that qualifies. |
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| Snow MO |
quote:
Originally posted by generator
Am I a Nerd?
Nope! Just a techy MO owner, like the rest of us! :29: |
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| Boobaba |
quote:
Technology? Never satisfied, because I work with R&D engineers on the products that we won't see on the shelves for 3 years at least, so when something's "new", It's old news to me. But I still love to play, so toys are important! Speaking of toys, Test Instruments are the coolest toys around! So I get to share the latest info on them with all the other techno geeks that are my customers. While most people's eyes glaze over when I talk about what excites me, I share the excitement of things like a handheld spectrum analyser that's good to 3 GHz and a new Oscilloscope that has a Bandwidth of 8 GHZ and sample rate of 20 Gigasamples per second.
I say damnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| Kris |
Interesting reading,
I said yes, but after reading posts of some of you I am not so sure…………
Started in late 60’s with electronics and photography, both were my hobbies and still are to some extend. Unfortunately had to go “mechanics”. Not for long though…………J Changed it quickly to electronics. Designed and build first codec with PCM (32 digital channels over a pair of telephone wires, I know it seems so simple now……..). Worked on high frequency, high power (1.2 MW) frequency converters……….analog and digital drives………..first PLC’s…………had to program in assembly language, Fortran (good old days………..)
These days just advise people how to optimize their asset performance utilizing modern technology as well as modern management practices………..so I am not so high tech after all…………definitely no so looking at jaak posts………. |
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| jaak |
| Don't measure yourself against what I do.... I work for the Bleeding edge! My Murano often carries instruments that are 2-4 times the value of the Murano. There have been times when a rear end accident would be be worth over half a million dollars with my Murano. Fortunately, it's not mine!!!!:19: |
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| pcs15394 |
| I was thinking the same thing after reading some of the post's. I work for a Cellular and Cable/Broadband billing company. Most of what I touch on a day to day basis is fairly high tech in the IT and Telecom industry but not very meaningful to the "Outside World". I think Jaak has the coolest job in the world, but there are probably days that he wishes he was doing something else. I always say if I lose my job I'm going to be the guy who hands out the shopping carts at WALMART. and take a break from the "High Tech" world we live in.:20: :20: |
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| pat |
| I am a senior engineer for the most tehnologically advanced membrane separation systems available on the market today. |
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| mgthe3 |
Kris--hehehe---Fortran.....I wrote my first fortran program on punch cards and processed them on the first super computer a CDC 7600, which by the way is still in use on the world's most powerful radar.
An Jaak, I wish I had my O-scope to chase signals down with in da MO. I usedta ***** about only havin a 2 gig scope for chasing signals off hard drive head amps.
I'm just an old net admin now.
;) |
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| Kris |
| Ye, good old days……..you would write a program, have it punched on cards……..discover a number of compilation errors………and after a week or so, when finally the comp errors were gone you would get EXECUTION ERROR! ……..maybe the good old days weren’t so good after all………..:D |
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| mgthe3 |
HAVE them punched...I used ta punch them myself on an old 029 IBM. They tried to get me to fix the print part of them once cause it was printing half characters--after I finished, it was printing some weird Chinese things. Well at least it was printing the whole character!
LOL |
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| Eric L. |
From old tech to new tech.
I am currently a graduate/medical student pursuing both my Ph.D. and M.D. My research in biophysics and computational biology involves high performance parallel computing to simulate large biomolecular systems. Most of my work is computed on the fast computer clusters at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at my school UIUC. I have also done protein simulations using the computers at PSC (Limieux), SDSC, and CalTech (Teragrid).
Sometimes I feel like I am working on the Starship Enterprise, things are so advanced. However, I still remember my first computer - my dad's hand me down IBM PC (upgraded from 4.77 to 5.2Mhz), 640K ("no one needs that much memory"), EGA (oh yeah - 16 colors), and a state of the art 40MB hard disk that was the size of a tissue box. |
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| Dij |
Punched cards? Ack! After a couple of times through the card reader in the central TX humidity, some of 'em were goners. When I was a grad student at TAMU, I was one of the first ones to move from punched cards to a dumb terminal with a screen.
I didn't ever fix a card punch, but I knew how to create a drum card and was quite talented using an old card sorting machine. And later, hauling 30 or so tapes to the machine room for overnight processing and having to run all my jobs after midnight because that's when the least expensive CPU time was.
My first computer was an Osborne I (the second-generation blue one) with a 5" monochrome text-only screen, two 90 K floppies, and 64K RAM. WordStar, SuperCalc, and dBase II.
Ya gotta laugh at that stuff now, but back then, it was pretty cool. |
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| Sassafras |
I counted myself in. I'm just in a different field than engineering. I live in the world of web site design and usability which can get pretty techie, especially when dealing with my IT brethren. I'm an Information Architect accountable for the organization of content and navigation on my Fortune 500 company's internal and external sites globally. Involved with deploying our content management system and now comes an enterprise portal and a bunch of applications. Does that qualfy as techie status? Well, maybe semi-techie?
quote:
I always say if I lose my job I'm going to be the guy who hands out the shopping carts at WALMART. and take a break from the "High Tech" world we live in
I always say that too, PCS. Except I'd probably wind up managing the store. |
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| pcs15394 |
| You're probably right. I would say your job is definitely High Tech. I don't think we have to build the next Space plane to be considered high tech. I think most of are tech junkies, like the latest gadgets, etc...:18: :18: |
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| mgthe3 |
oh yeaaaaah, I remember the 1403 TANK printer and the carriage control tapes as well. I had a program on reel tape that would make a string of reel drives do jingle bells by reading variable length blocks. To us field engineers it was funny as hell, they would sing it in harmony, was a real laff. I worked for STC, we replaced most of the 1403's and 3400 series tape drives. Seems ole itty bitty minds couldn't get a drive stable enough to read another's tapes. Later (17 years) I worked on the robotic tape subsystems that are in use now.
I got really tired of workin every dang weekend and got the same dough playin with servers in a Govmt shop. 6 to 4 baby, and no weekends. |
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| mgthe3 |
cooly!
Ya, they have 125 of those silo's in ATT Alpheretta, GA. That's a lil over 30 PB, was kinda awesome.
hmmm interesting ideas ya have there Dennis. I'm a gamer so I concentrate on playin at home. |
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| GripperDon |
| One day when going to the lab I dropped my punch cards with my first real Fortran program and Gene Hollorith helped me pick them up, Now that is old tech. How many even know who Gene is? The answer is here. GRIP :D |
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| SugarRushMurano |
I oftne wonder how amazing human intellect is.
Using punch card and computing power 30 yrs ago, we landed man on the moon. Now your murano has more computing power than the apollo 11 itself.
Will I be able to see Mars landing in my lifetime? I really hope so ... :4: |
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| GripperDon |
| Hint, I was a pyro engineer for "Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, Gene was a semir retired computer guy. Get that semi retired in 1957. Anybody know what Gene was famous for? Answer later. GRIP :D |
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| GripperDon |
1884 AD - Herman Hollerith patents an automatic punch-card tabulating machine.
1890 AD - Herman Hollerith construts a punch-card tabulating machine for use in calculating the US Census.
1896 AD - Herman Hollerith founds the Hollerith Tabulating Machine Co., later to become IBM
Gene was his son! Imagine The son of the guy that invented the punch card and start what is IBM, is helping this nebie pick his up, and now we have RAID on our desktops! and IBM sells most of the PC busines to CHINA , where are we headed?
GRIP :D |
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| MKevin3 |
I ran a punch card machine for a bank during my "temping" years. Have run all kinds of data entry stuff but now am a Techical Director at a place that does Stock Market data.f
I have a pile of computers and love tech stuff. |
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| Kris |
quote:
Originally posted by GripperDon
1884 AD - Herman Hollerith patents an automatic punch-card tabulating machine.
1890 AD - Herman Hollerith construts a punch-card tabulating machine for use in calculating the US Census.
1896 AD - Herman Hollerith founds the Hollerith Tabulating Machine Co., later to become IBM
Gene was his son! Imagine The son of the guy that invented the punch card and start what is IBM, is helping this nebie pick his up, and now we have RAID on our desktops! and IBM sells most of the PC busines to CHINA , where are we headed?
GRIP :D
Ask Wallstreet, beancounters, shareholders and the likes........Oh, I am sorry, they will not know the answer.............thay do not see anything beyond quartely horizon............:( |
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| ekaxel |
Fortran??? The first programs we wrote were in machine code - 48 bits of 1s & 0s per word. Took a couple of days to get them punched.
The computer had 4k (that's k, not m not g!) of core memory. A year later when they upgraded to 64k, everyone wondered what they would do with all that memory!
Also worked on a number of paper tape based machines - nothing fancy like cards! |
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| GripperDon |
| :eek: You are old.! Maybe even older than Me. |
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| ekaxel |
| I said I was when you complained about your back last month! |
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| mgthe3 |
I used to fix tape punches as well. They punched in ascii and ita2.
The high speed one had a radiator for the gear oil like the high speed card punch, hey, 250 cards per minute, can you imagine how hot those punch pins and interposers got?
All of the data that went across the equipment I worked on in the airfarce was classified. The tape that was punched was for the old (now get this) Kleinschmidt teletypes interfaced to a KL7 for a backup to the kw26's and went across......the ARPANET.
My first mainframe I worked on had ferrite core memory as well.
Funny, I have a gig of ram for this ole PC, I remember watchin an amdahl buddy of mine doing an 8 meg upgrade on an old V8 for $50k.....those were the days....83 I believe. |
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| GripperDon |
| EKAXEL, See what great shape you are in! I already forgot that. |
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| hfelknor |
Been around awhile myself. Seen a few things.
Enough to know that mgthe3 was in Crypto.
Wildest thing I ever worked on was the Voice of America Transmitter at Lingayen Gulf, Phillipines (Poro Point) about a half century ago.
About a megawatt. That's right. A one million watt transmitter!
Had an island girl and lived in a stilt hut. We had a couple of Flourescent lights that we hung from the ceiling with string. No electricity. The RF power from the station ran the whole village lighting! The bars had some great lights!
When you went to bed, you had to put the bulbs under a blanket. THere was no way to "turn them off".
Later years I worked on the computers used on the Poseidon Submarines. Atomic subs and Ferrite memory! What a pair!
And I finished my career working on Non Stop Computers at places like AOL. 16 million users, with 6 million logged in at any one time through one computer (Think Parallel Processing).
I had a ball growing up in Electronics and finally retiring with 40 years of development behind me. Saw a lot.
And now it's moving even faster.
Homer |
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| GripperDon |
| You and Tesla! Neat Stuff. Grip |
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| mgthe3 |
yes, I worked on crypto...and a whole lot of other stuff....and I did get to see the fluorescent lamps light around klystrons.
I figured you might get a kick outta this link:
http://www.6srw.com/
I wasn't there for rivet, I was there for cobra ball.
Fun fun fuuuuun.
:) |
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| jaak |
Hey Homer, was that the TX output power, or ERP? If the TX, what was the gain of the antenna and feedline losses?
Besides transmitting programming, were you trying to ionize the atmosphere?:p
Anyone need a Teletype ASR/KSR series machine fixed or tweaked for their core memory computer, I'd be happy to help. Just more useless information in my head... I was the king of low distortion on fast Telex machines. (Oxymoron, if I've heard one.)
I'm not as old as you guys, but I was a geek at an early age. Before anyone knew what a geek was.
And to think I'm looking at PCI Express on PC's now, and wondering if I should wait for the next generation that's already being worked on... Recording HDTV shows on the PC is keeping it busy though. I'm at the point where I can finally justify a terabyte of storage, but I'm waiting for the drive prices to drop a little more. Talk about seeing extremes of technology in a lifetime! |
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| hfelknor |
jaak, you know, a lot of the memories are fading.
But Some that I remember.......the transmitter(s) was a Continental and it was rated at 1 megawatt TX power.
The antennas were like a bunch of dipoles that were phased (And we are talking BIG...this was Broadcast AM!) and were called a curtain antenna.
BTW, I worked on the Modulator section.
We never ionized the atmosphere but one time!
Late in 1957 something happened. Russia tested an atomic bomb or an ICBM or some such. I know the date as that is when I was there late 57-early 58 and I was still fairly new when we "burned the air".
Anyway we cranked up the big boy and we arced over to the guide wires. All over the place. It was quite a show.
We backed off the power.
And I guess it happened again years later and the boys cut the guide wires!
Here is a pix I found (Ain't the internet swell!) of my old site.
Also a little history including some about the Arc Show they had.
http://squatchman.home.mindspring.com/Wallace.htm
Homer |
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| GripperDon |
| Like I said you guys and TESLA! CAn believe with all that background nobody guessed this picture. |
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| mgthe3 |
that is a peace keeper depositing it's 10 individually targeted warheads over the kwaj missle range.
:D |
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| GripperDon |
| YOU WIN! Picture hangs in my Garage! TELL ME HOW YOU KNEW. |
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| mgthe3 |
I am a big time buff of nukes....who has what and where...
How bout this MX shot: |
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| GripperDon |
| I recognize the outline of the turboprop on the left. |
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| jaak |
I love this stuff.... From the advanced systems that allow defense mechanisms to sometimes work right (hey, it's not easy!) to the "Black Magic" of RF and phased antenna arrays, I just soak it up like a sponge.
Homer, Curtain Arrays are just so cool... I've seen sites with multiple 250 KW transmitters, but not a megawatt. Talk about being heard anywhere you want on the planet. I expect you could change the phasing as well, to shift direction of the antenna's pattern.
RF is pretty neat. Do things correctly and it's amazing what you can pull off. I've seen an FM broadcast antenna mounted on an AM broadcast tower (the whole tower is the antenna) and they were quite happy together, but it meant some tricks with the feedline lengths and mounting position.
Do it wrong and you end up with lots of sparks and melted metal.
I've done the old flourescent tube trick even with a 20 watt transmitter. Find the right point near an antenna and you can make it light up, to where your hand is holding it.
I've also seen a 5 inch blue arc jump from a metal knob mounted on a clear plexiglas door to a rather brave, but foolish associate, in an AM broadcast site tuning shack. Effectively the knob was floating in the air, but the potential difference between it and my "friend" was large enough to draw the arc.
RF at high power levels, is truly fascinating...
Yes Don, I would have loved to meet Tesla. I tried to make it up to Signal Hill in Newfoundland, one day when I was in town on business, but freezing rain and dress shoes, made it impossible. It took me 20 minutes just to walk across the parking lot. I gave up and spent another 20 getting back. It wasn't a big parking lot and I was at the Battery, which is a hotel just down the hill.
That was the site at which Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission from England. A friend of mine signed the book there "Marconi, Thanks a Million Bucks! Literally!" as he also works in RF Test and Measurement.
What can I say... It's fun to be a geek! |
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| GripperDon |
| I have the good fortune to have an extensive collection of Teslas's Patents and writings of and about him. |
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| simplesb |
| Oh gosh I feel so young compared to you...ummm veterans. I've only been in to computers since '95, actually knowing somewhat how to do anything since '99. |
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| mgthe3 |
I have a few pics you guys may be interested in....
For jaak: the twin phased array radar in Mass. |
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| mgthe3 |
For da Gripper:
A minuteman III pic |
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| mgthe3 |
This one is sooo surreal to me.
These are MRV storage containers and nose cones. |
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| Kris |
Simply fascinating stuff! I guess it goes straight to my hart, to my first love and hobby. Unfortunately I am more and more away from it now……..
Had an opportunity to work around frequency converters, just 8 kHz but up to 1.2 MW. Weird things can happen, especially when one does not know the difference between 50/60 Hz and a few kilohertz……
Many years ago I visited Roentgen Museum. Fascinating staff. Now I work for a company that owns many “electrical’ patents and can trace it heritage to Westinghouse, Tesla, Siemens and a few more………I think I have to start studying history again…
Don, how one can hold of the Tesla collection you are talking about? |
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| Snow MO |
NERDS! All of ya!
I feel right at home! ;) |
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| Gonzo |
| I'm not too old but here is what I've been test flying.... I guess this makes me an aviation geek. |
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| Gonzo |
Mgthe3,
Were in MASS is that antenna array? I want to wear my lead pants when I fly over it. :p |
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| GripperDon |
I collected my Tesla Collection my self. I started when I built my first Tesla Coil, The input was a 15,000 volt neon sign transformer and the output was over 1,000,000 volts. The secondary was 4.5 ft tall wound on a 10 inch diameter. I was in Houston TX at the time and when I turned it on, I must have blanked every TV within 3 miles. So it was usually about 3 AM and for short times.
Here are some great sites for getting more info on who I think was "The Nerd" of his day. Westinghouse and Edison while outstanding were dwarfted by his innovations.
He actually had a very tought life.
http://www.pbs.org/tesla/
http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/
Can you imagine how that "Only Triple" Launch ever done must have shook up the "bad guys"
I never saw that pic of the wharehouse full before. WOW.
My Laser Ordnance iniation System had a 1000 det tip jitter time of 2 pico seconds! Guess what that good do for output, and that was back in mid 60's. US pat #3408937 and others. It was hard to make that kind of time measurement back then.
What is the Plane with the "Glass Cockpit" displays in it? |
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| mgthe3 |
| Gonzo, it is 2 miles west of Sandwich. I am certain there is a no fly zone in front of it. |
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| Gonzo |
2 west of Sandwitch... must be near/part of Otis AFB.
Gripper that picture is a Columbia Lancair 350.... a pocket rocket! One of the fastest single engine 4 seaters out there ( a bit slower than the newer 400 which also has our equipement in it. I love that aircraft. You will also find our stuff in Cirrus aircraft, Piper aircraft, Adam aircraft, some Skywest aircraft, aftermarket aircraft and soon out the cheapest micro jet.... the Eclipse Jet... very impressive.
We were the first company to have an approved glass panel display for GA... and I'll tell you what a difference. Below is what most GA aircraft are still flying with... its night and day interms of safey and awarness! |
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| mgthe3 |
| yes Gonzo, all PavePaws sites are USAF. There is one in alaska, cali, greenland and england. They form the shield around the US and Canada for missile intercepts, and they track all of the space objects as well, even found a lost glove from a space walk once. |
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| GripperDon |
| PavePaw now there a name I haven't heard in Years. |
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| jaak |
Love the pictures!
You guys are Geeks. I love Geeks... Don, I considered building a Tesla coil myself, many times, but it just didn't happen. What guy doesn't like stuff that arcs and has a corona! I'm trying to remember, but didn't Tesla create some balls of plasma? That would be cool to see.... Just the existance of something like that fascinates me.
mgthe3 that radar array could be fun for searching for your favourite fowl and having it pre-cooked before it hits the ground!
Gonzo, you can't be a geek without liking anything that flies! |
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| Gonzo |
| You could say that I love stuff that flies..... |
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| jaak |
| Yup, it is... A geek just read them.;) |
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| mgthe3 |
that was some article....sheesh
jaak, I did personally see someone tracking the lead goose in a flight over red square, no kiddin. The programmers were battling over who could determine it's weight. LOL
They were doin it with this: |
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| mgthe3 |
| this is bird #2 flying at mach 3+ with it's wings fully bent riding it's own shockwave. |
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| Gonzo |
| I just feel out of my chair.... schwing!!!!! :6: |
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| Kris |
It is insaine!
You guys far excedeed what would commonly be defined as "being geek"...........
:6: |
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| GripperDon |
| Aha A thing of beauty is a Joy forever and the "Valkyrie" is it. |
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| GripperDon |
One more Pic, Had the good fortune to involved with the little bird that "Rode on the Back of these" Imagine what these 10 Babes were worth!! This is the D-21 drone. Its engine is a pure ramjet (essentially a tube with no moving parts, compressing and heating the air by using sonic shockwaves at the intake), developed in the X-7 program, and it cannot operate at subsonic speeds. So the D-21 can only fly once boosted to supersonic speeds by something else carrying it.
The reason the drone was developed is that, soon after the A-12 entered service, the US signed an agreement with Russia that said they would not fly over each other's restricted airspace with manned aircraft. This means the US could no longer fly Blackbirds over Russian military installations, and had to use spy planes without people in them. So Lockheed developed the D-21 drone, which would be carried by a Blackbird to the edge of restricted airspace, and launched into enemy territory. Two Blackbirds were built especially as drone launchers, and designated M-21's (for "mothership", I think, as airplane-carrying airplanes are often called). The system was not very reliable, and during one separation experiment, the D-21 crashed into the Blackbird and essentially broke it in half, killing a test pilot that was a close friend of Kelly Johnson's, so the project was scrapped. The D-21 was later boosted by Pegasus rockets launched from B-52s (much like the X-47 is now), but became unnescessary with the development of side-looking technologies and synthetic aperture radar on the Blackbird, which allowed it to take pictures from very far away, without entering restricted airspace. Then, of course, spy satellites came along and the whole idea of deep-penetration spyplanes became kinda unnescessary. |
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| GripperDon |
| Here it is the fastest thing in the air! I worked on the separation system that held in nestled between the Canted vertical Stabilizers of the A-12 |
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| GripperDon |
| Last one I promise. |
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| mgthe3 |
very cool Don! Nice pic of the sled with it's baby.
Yes, the Valkyrie. It's funny that the TU-114 could have been it's twin although I liked the engine layout more on the 114.
Did you ever see the mig-25's they dug up in Iraq?
http://www.parkwayreststop.com/archives/000237.html
Pretty strange. I guess they thought one day they may be able to use them..... |
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| GripperDon |
| I had never seen the "Dig up" pictures, OR the explanation of the forbidden electronics. Another view of the anything for a buck from our buddies. Thanks The seperation system for the "sled and it's baby" involved pyro thrusters and explosive bolts that used "solid" RTV silicone as "hydraulic fluid". |
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| jaak |
quote:
Originally posted by mgthe3
that was some article....sheesh
jaak, I did personally see someone tracking the lead goose in a flight over red square, no kiddin. The programmers were battling over who could determine it's weight. LOL
They were doin it with this:
That made me laugh my head off, then start to think about the technology that enables it. (Geek alert!)
Then I started looking at the following pictures and got all tingly...:D
Yes, I am a technology Geek...
I've done a few high tech jobs but would always get bored after a few years. Test and Measurement keeps me on the bleeding edge and satisfies the technology cravings... I laugh at myself for that!:p
You guys know how to post pictures of the best toys... I know what to ask Santa for, finally! |
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| MOpar |
| Saw the Valkyrie and SR71 Blackbird at the air museum in Ohio ( can't rember the name) two beautiful birds. |
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| Kris |
| You guys are making me want to retire and travell to see all the nice things......ar better change the career........:D |
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| Gonzo |
| Ah the SR-71... an aircraft with unbelieable sexy lines! |
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| GripperDon |
| Nice lines on the beach in Fla too! |
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| MightyMo |
Since we've gotten so WAY far off topic....my fav site for awesome and unusual aircraft pics is the Dryden Flight Research Center. They have more fun stuff than you can shake a stick at, pics AND videos from their entire history of flight research....for instance:
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| GripperDon |
My office used to be across the parking lot from the 8ft HT blowdown tunnel at Langley. We would all stand in the windows on the second floor and watch the show. When it was "Fired" the Mach diamonds went out 10 diamond and the noise was astounding. The equivalent thrust was about 1.5 mil pounds.
I remember a winter test that caught a bunch of birds roosting on the pond behind it, Boy did that get their attention, it sure "ruffled some feather " |
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| mgthe3 |
I think it was in this thread you mentioned about going to PCI express, or at least you were contemplating it.
I have been lusting for some of the new graphics cards out, mine is a ti-4600, it was at the cutting edge 2 years ago at $350. Now the price has gone way out there for SLI PCI-X which is the cutting edge.
I don't think I will bother with AGP 8X because of the drastic improvement of PCI-X over AGP. Hard to believe AGP is dead isn't it?
I saw this months ago as all of the mobo manuf. were adopting PCI-X.
Compare the numbers between current PCI-X vid cards:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gr..._charts-07.html
To the current AGP offerings:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gr..._charts-09.html
No contest.
Of course this will require us to change out our mobos, ram and maybe the cpu's--for sure with me as I am at AMD XP+2100. I may even go up to a dual opteron die as AMD has already shown examples of dual die opterons running the fastest servers in the world.
It's funny how the .90nm has hit the wall at 3.6 gig.
Da Maw will assuredly squawk when she see's the bill for that. But I am working on that as well.... |
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| jaak |
Yeah, AGP's dead. PCI-Express is faster and cheaper to build!
Now, the next gen is being worked on. Last I heard, Intel's looking to increase system performance, since CPU performance and dumping the heat, is such an issue. My 3 Gig P4 makes a fair bit of it.
Bit by bit I'm getting together my Media Center Edition XP with HDTV. Still on AGP, but I may build a dedicated box, in which case, it's going to be PCI-Express. The dumb thing is MS disables HD if you tell it you're in Canada, so I had to hack the settings in the registry to get it to work with the correct program guide. It's never easy, is it!
Now think what it's like trying to provide tools that are an order of magnitude better, to these companies!
Love the pictures above as well... I visited the airship hanger in Tillamook, OR last summer, that was kind of fun too. Old tech, but interesting tech... |
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| jaak |
Oh one more thing... The CPU upgrade will blow your mind!
I had a 2 Gig P4 and thought it wouldn't hurt to push it up to a 3 Gig Hyperthreading P4. The 2 Gig P4 was busy, with Media Center running in the background, while I did other things.
Now I can't even tell it's doing anything, unless I open Task Manager and go look. XP sees it as a dual CPU, so that's cool...
Too bad my Extender software on the Xbox doesn't support HD...
These are the toys I can afford to play with. I'd much rather pick something from a picture above and play with that!!! |
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| mgthe3 |
yes, I have been drooling for a while now.....
I game with my machine a lot so it is pushed 100% quite a bit.
When games like Far Cry and Halo for the PC came out I saw how elderly my graphics card and CPU had gotten. They play smooth but on the ragged edge. Of course the wifey (otherwise known as Maw) does not game and rarely if ever uses the system so she has no sympathy. I have been saving up birthdays and anniversaries and this past xmas for the biggy. I will have a tough time watching my new PCIe graphics card sit by waiting for the new mobo, CPU and ram. I will be stuck for a while considering I am in AGP land and won't be able to plug my old 4600 into a new PCIe mobo.
:rolleyes:
I recently decided that going to AGP8x just to have a compat mobo wasn't worth it, that's what prompted me to respond to your AGP versus PCIe delimma.
It's hell being on the edge of a new revolution in graphics. When ya get it, it is heaven. Six months later something else arrives and makes urs obsolete. The graphics gurus say getting an SLI mobo should set you up for at least 18 months--that way you get one $500 graphics card now, then another 6 months to a year later for way cheaper, then, in tandem, kick the current single card's butt.
That's the way I'm heading.
:D |
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| mgthe3 |
| A bit different than the X-45A. |
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| GripperDon |
| The Pioneer launch motor that the article you linked to was also part of the (UPCo) Universal Propulsion Company developments and production while I ran engineering. That's it firing in the picture. Thanks for the link.:) That X-45C is a beauty! |
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| jaak |
Never mind PCs, think of the cost of the computers in that sucker!
It is truly a thing of beauty. And I suppose the pilot just tells the computers where to fly it, 'cause otherwise it would never fly! |
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| GripperDon |
| JAAK you lost me the X-45C is a UAV. |
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| jaak |
OK, so that means I've said something that makes no sense, because there's something I don't understand...
So, dumb question... UAV? Unmanned Automated Vehicle? Umbrella Accelerated Valve? Useless Action Vacation? United Apple Vacination? Useful Audio Video? U Asked, Vhy? Ubiquitous Aftermath Velocity?
OK, more than one dumb question and some were really stupid...
I guess the point I was making was how other aircraft were basically unflyable by pilots, until computers came along to control them, as they're inherently very unstable.
Considering how important it is for such a computer not to fail, it would be interesting to see the level of technology involved.
Although on second thought, I know of Nuclear Reactors still running on ancient DEC machines... It works, they don't want to mess with it.:p
Speaking of computers... You know that PCI Express is already going to be obsoleted, as the second gen PCI Express is being worked on... Thought that would cheer everyone up, running out to buy new PC parts. I gave up on owning bleeding edge, it costs too much! So now I let requirements drive purchases. That Media Center Edition 2005 is killing me though... 3Gig P4, 360 Gig HD space, and now I'm considering building a media specific machine for the HDTV, but it's cool being able to record two SD and one HD program at the same time... Need more disk space. Never thought I'd say that when I bought my first 20 Meg hard disk for $400. |
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| GripperDon |
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Here is a great site;
http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/uav.htm
The X-29 however IS manned and IS un-stable with the forward swept wings and does require active computer to control it. The computers are tri-dundant.
:) |
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| mgthe3 |
I was figuring on the opterons but...I have already sat back and said, "dam, the FX is sure niiiize, but the cost difference for .2 ghz is incredible".
I think I am now going to be in the market for a 3400+ and a 6800 GT. I will save over 1000 bucks and only be a few frames away from the best. |
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