Star Trek’s Warp Drive Leads to New Physics

[RV_]

Awesome!

Star Trek’s Warp Drive Leads to New Physics

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/star-treks-warp-drive-leads-to-new-physics/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=today-in-science&utm_content=link&utm_term=2021-07-13_top-stories&spMailingID=70377264&spUserID=NTAzMDg3NDk0MDIzS0&spJobID=2161465343&spReportId=MjE2MTQ2NTM0MwS2

[Chalkie]

Science fiction writers have long been the predictors of current and future history, especially starting with the likes of Heinlein and Asimov. Rodenberry is also one of that number.

[RV_]

You're right Gary,but it started even further back. While that group of Asimov, Bradbury, and Heinlein, which included Arthur C.Clarke who invented the satellite and the "Clarke orbit," were contemporaries. Jules Verne (Submarines, rocket travel to the moon) HG Wells (tank), Hugo Gernsback 1911 (video phones and video conferencing,) Mary Shelley's Prometheus/Frankenstein might have been the earliest Science fiction.

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by RV_

[Jim & Alice]

On 7/13/2021 at 11:12 PM, RV_ said:

Awesome!

Star Trek’s Warp Drive Leads to New Physics

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/star-treks-warp-drive-leads-to-new-physics/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=today-in-science&utm_content=link&utm_term=2021-07-13_top-stories&spMailingID=70377264&spUserID=NTAzMDg3NDk0MDIzS0&spJobID=2161465343&spReportId=MjE2MTQ2NTM0MwS2

Good article, Derek - Thanks.   Yeah... I think I was born 300 years too early... 🙂

 

[RV_]

YW Jim. I would have liked to have been born 30-40 years later so we'd be in our 30s-40s now. But we've been able to go from tube based electronics, radios, and TVs, to big screen flat TVs and cell phones like Star Trek, tablets with sensors now like tricorders, and Electric cars like my Tesla Y, digital assistants that are awesome, and navigation better than any time in history. Internet from LEO satellites at speeds only dreamed of in the old dial up days of 26 years ago with my 300Baud modem and Q-Link that later became AOL. Man on the moon and preparation for our Mars mission, with fusion power possibly around the corner,in addition to solar and battery storage that makes solar energy production and storage using EV battery packs doable on our homes. And the computers, our tech toys, LED flashlights and light bulbs giving 60 watts equivalent lumens but using only 7 watts of energy. Videos, Video calls and better cameras than professional film cameras of 25 years ago, navigation, movies, Bluetooth music and streaming, and that's just on my phone! All on just my phone. Medicine, and treatments better than ever!

Jim I think we were born just about right.

[Barbaraok]

Plus - your Dick Tracy wrist phone!

[Jim & Alice]

9 hours ago, RV_ said:

... Jim I think we were born just about right.

I wouldn't argue too much, Derek.   I go back to the punched card days as a Mainframe systems programmer/manager... pre Internet... pre dialup... Seen more than my share of emerging & applied technology.   My biggest challenge & achievement was to recognize, and accept, the technology to prepare for the Internet.   I managed a large Hospital IBM Network at the time... (SNA)... went to a tech conference in Chicago... and realized the half million $$$ we had just spent to extend coax cabling on campus was the wrong stuff.   Came back, wrote up a white paper, submitted to upper management... and got soundly rejected & beat up.   Then a year later... we had a need to interconnect some regionally dispersed IBM AIX systems... that could network with TCP/IP... and that became impetus to start the migration from SNA to TCP/IP.   Oh well, great memories.   

Anyway, I would still like to see "Warp Sped 1"

[RV_]

Jim I had nothing to do with the punch cards but supply did (USAF.)

I had a computer at home before the majority of folks and my first IBM clone using DOS from the early 80s. Along with several  Commodore systems with 300 baud modems. IN 1986 they took away my IBM Selectric typewriter and plopped a Zenith Z-100 on my desk, an all in one like the TRS 80, that was a CP/M system that had a card translator on the motherboard to "Translate" to and from PCDOS or MSDOS. They were regular DOS boxes not mini or mainframes. So I may be a little later than you were to the table. at age 30.

But it has been a blast.

[sandsys]

I don't really speak much computer but a lot of terms you are throwing around are familiar to me because of Dave having been a computer programmer early on. He used to program in machine language and I did my first data entry in hexadecimal. Our first computer at home was a Commodore PET which used audio tape for data. My, my, how old we are.

Linda

[RV_]

Linda, I remember tape drives on the PET too but I started with the C-64 and the PC almost immediately after. The PC had a hard drive - 10GB! (On Edit: it was 10 MB not GB. Habit. I rarely type KB or MB anymore.) I'd never fill that up, right? I came late to the table at age 30ish early to mid 80s. I was a 1952 Taurus.

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by RV_

[durangodon]

22 minutes ago, RV_ said:

Linda, I remember tape drives on the PET too but I started with the C-64 and the PC almost immediately after. The PC had a hard drive - 10GB! I'd never fill that up, right? I came late to the table at age 30ish early to mid 80s. I was a 1952 Taurus.

 

My first IBM clone had no hard drive, just two floppies.  I was so happy to get a hard drive later.  I think it was 20 MB, not GB.  I've slept since then though.

[mptjelgin]

1 hour ago, RV_ said:

Linda, I remember tape drives on the PET too but I started with the C-64 and the PC almost immediately after. The PC had a hard drive - 10GB! I'd never fill that up, right? I came late to the table at age 30ish early to mid 80s. I was a 1952 Taurus.

 

RV  - I'm guessing that is was a 10 MB (not 10 GB) hard drive, and yes, we didn't think it possible to fill that up...  I started with a TRS-80 that first used a cassette deck for mass storage, and then updated it to 5.25" floppies that held a whopping 180 KB each (Single sided, single density). 

[RV_]

It was MB. Typo. I remembered, I even have a receipt from a later purchase when the smaller drive filled up. Check out the price!

Edited July 17, 2021 by RV_

[Jim & Alice]

7 minutes ago, RV_ said:

It was MB. Typo. I remembered, I even have a receipt from a later purchase when the smaller drive filled up. Check out the price!

Ouch!... again.   Derek, I bow to your very excellent knowledge of today's computer technology.   Seriously!   We all have our slot in time on things like this... emerging & advancing technology... and your's is still going.   I appreciate your sharing of your knowledge.   I enjoyed IT tech from back in the early 70's up to retirement time in the 2012 timeframe but now it's just retirement stories.   But I do enjoy talking to younger folks about IT and mentioning... "Before the Internet..."... The looks on their face is precious - BEFORE the internet... they can't conceive of!

[sandsys]

Plus, the original Oregon Trail was much better back in the Apple II days than it is now. That telegraph message if you reached your destination...!

Linda

[Chalkie]

12 hours ago, RV_ said:

It was MB. Typo. I remembered, I even have a receipt from a later purchase when the smaller drive filled up. Check out the price!

And I thought I was a packrat/hoarder. 🤣

[durangodon]

2 hours ago, Chalkie said:

And I thought I was a packrat/hoarder. 🤣

Yes, he reminded me of me.  Just last year, I went through two large filing cabinets full of paperwork from the 80's and 90's when I was dealing in computer hardware, most of it on haggle.com and eBay.  I still have all my paycheck stubs from 1970-now and income tax files from the 60's.

[sandsys]

Our apartment complex hires a security company to provide a shredder for resident use at tax time. Dave cleaned out a bunch of old medical records this time. We must not have been the only ones cleaning out more than recent tax documents as they had to replace the shredder several times because it was full.

Linda

[Chalkie]

6 hours ago, durangodon said:

Yes, he reminded me of me.  Just last year, I went through two large filing cabinets full of paperwork from the 80's and 90's when I was dealing in computer hardware, most of it on haggle.com and eBay.  I still have all my paycheck stubs from 1970-now and income tax files from the 60's.

Wow! just wow!

[Barbaraok]

Before we went full timing in '06, I went through 2 shredders getting rid of old paperwork.  We have file boxes full of old bank statements, etc., from when we were married in 1966!  All the boxes had multiple stickers on them from the various moving companies we used for all our moves around the country.   Checks from the first week we were married - $15 for groceries for the week!

[Kirk W]

Having married a banker, we kept our receipts and tax files for 7 years and then used to burn them. Having moved pretty frequently kept down the amount of paper we hauled around with us. We did keep the plans and paperwork from our first house, bought in 1965 until preparing for fulltime. That was a custom built house, 3 bedrooms, 3 bath with 1 car garage and 1200 sq. ft. We made a downpayment of $600 and financed the remaining $16,000 for 20 years with a payment of $101/month @ 4% interest. 

On the computer side, my first exposure to those was in 1963 when I was trained to repair submarine auto steering & diving systems and soon after a hovering system that maintained depth on a missile sub while launching Polaris missiles. Both were pretty primitive by modern standards. 

[Chalkie]

44 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

On the computer side, my first exposure to those was in 1963 when I was trained to repair submarine auto steering & diving systems and soon after a hovering system that maintained depth on a missile sub while launching Polaris missiles. Both were pretty primitive by modern standards. 

That was prior to Apollo 11 even. “Today, your cell phone has more computer power than all of NASA back in 1969, when it placed two astronauts on the moon.” - Michio Kaku

Here is an interesting article about the Apollo 11 computer on The Atlantic. 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Chalkie

[RV_]

On 7/17/2021 at 8:09 AM, Chalkie said:

And I thought I was a packrat/hoarder. 🤣

Back when I moved a large technical and personal library of hard covers people would come in and see my book shelves. They fell into two general categories. Those like me, who when we get to see the library of another regardless of size, read the spines to see if we read the same things. You can tell a lot by what folks read and the comments of those who see your books.

The other category? Well, there were also folks who did not even try to read the spines but commented "Boy those are some thick books!"

I long ago stopped carrying around hard and softcover books except for a small book box of classics and first editions. I have thousands of books in my Kindle account yet to be read.

Like the rest of you I go through and shred what we aren't going to keep. But long ago after many hundreds of pictures of people no one recognized I started writing on the back who and when. Then I started scanning them into my computer. Then scanning my memorabilia from car pics to receipts and pay stubs from my early years in the 1971 and we received 60 bucks every two weeks for military pay.

I learned to handle all paperwork once, and deal with it then. So when I am going to purge I know I will be scanning some things like that receipt above. I ripped all my CDs to digital and can carry over 2k-3k CDs and 30k plus cuts on a 1TB USB flash drive even at the highest mp3 rates. Whenever I say ripped to mp3, even though many don't know to go to best mp3 quality 320Kbps, I immediately get critics saying their favorite format is more true to the source. I keep the original CDs because they are the source. I have three boxes of LPs that are collectors items out of my thousand or so LPs from the 60s and 70s. DJing paid for my conversion from vinyl and dbx cassettes to CDs. Just like my Super 8 film home movies gave way to video tapes which have given way to digital direct.

So before I save anything I decide to scan it or not and have ready digital folders for everything from our old cars, motorcycles, Homes and entertainment gear, places and decor pics to music to our more than 200 two hour Hi8 videos and 20 Super 8 movies from the 60s to current.

So before it goes in a filing cabinet or box, to sort later, I decide if I need the original or not and if not I scan it and store it on a hard drive. I try to handle everything only once instead of putting it off and storing it. So my CDs are numbered as are my Videos and I have a master table of contents of what is in each as doing DJ shows from 1983-2003 professionally I had to do requests and my collection had gotten too big to know every cut on every disk. Thus my first notebook and music database we used on stage. I had to keep the jewel cases then to protect so many of them. Now they are in albums with 300 or so to each Case Logic disk album. Much lighter and compact and still numbered and stored digitally.

All my music, papers, pictures, videos, are digitized and or stored on hard drives. They will last my lifetime and then my sons can throw it all out or go through the catalogues of what each contains, and decide. Once I am gone I expect most of it to go, and maybe the digital kept. But I do keep one hard drive with the most important to our family history IMO.

Here are my hard drives in  my storage case in my filing cabinet, the formatted ones were checked and important stuff transferred to a storage drive. The ones in rubber sleeves are storage. I took the below pics today, Sun 18 July.

Below is my Drive Dock that can work with both 3.5" and 2.5" laptop drives

Below are my 2.5" drives including a factory WD 1TB drive, and other drives in external enclosures I bought for them like the clear one in front.

Three storage drives next to my newest Dell 27" AIO for loading from to be my wife's new desktop.

Below on the other side of my AIO is a 6TB WD external drive.

It's not hard just habit to deal with once to scan/store, and again to scan store the storage drives and deal with duplicates.

In addition there is a 1 TB SSD in each of our computers, including my back up minis for the home theater systems.

Below is a picture of the music storage all numbered and safe in a small space with ~200-300 disks in each album. I started putting the one page front and back covers/liner notes behind the disks.after album 4 to double the album capacity from how I did at first.

Edited July 18, 2021 by RV_

[RV_]

On 7/16/2021 at 8:11 PM, Jim & Alice said:

Ouch!... again.   Derek, I bow to your very excellent knowledge of today's computer technology.   Seriously!   We all have our slot in time on things like this... emerging & advancing technology... and your's is still going.   I appreciate your sharing of your knowledge.   I enjoyed IT tech from back in the early 70's up to retirement time in the 2012 timeframe but now it's just retirement stories.   But I do enjoy talking to younger folks about IT and mentioning... "Before the Internet..."... The looks on their face is precious - BEFORE the internet... they can't conceive of!

Thanks Jim but I am slowing down on early adopting and now have two last major projects here. I bought a specially age restored (Capacitors heads etc replaced and brought back to Sony new specifications) Sony EV-2000 Hi8 VCR because my old Sony EV 100 is too old from years of heavy editing use. I have several hundred 120min Hi8 metal tapes from the mid 80s to our 7 years in Europe, fulltime RV travels, to about 2007 when we started using our cell phones for pics and videos direct to digital. Transferring to computer was never easier than using today's tech.

Anyway I still have my Toshiba CD recorder and am organizing my Videos according to number and my previous table of contents. I already used the new deck and was pleasantly surprised that my tapes are still in excellent condition. So it is a few days to organize and then several hours a night to record and check on to change tapes and blank CDs. I already have several hundred blanks and the storage albums. Then for the ones for the kids and others I can change them to mp4s easily and send on flash USB drives or CD duplicates.

I do plan to watch most of them as they record to augment my tables of contents files with anything I missed. I will enjoy the watching and the recording that caused me to review them. I already sent my Super 8 films to be converted professionally as it cost less than me buying the projectors and concerting hardware and software. Now those were really low resolution. and now they are on a 128GB Flash USB drive and copies easily made for my kids and my old subordinate's first free fall jump as permanent party at the Academy her in 1979.

Once I finish that project all my future videos and pics will be added as we go.

It's all fun Jim, when it's not I move on too!

Be well bud!

Edited July 18, 2021 by RV_

[RV_]

On 7/16/2021 at 9:12 AM, Barbaraok said:

Plus - your Dick Tracy wrist phone!

Barb I still have my wrist phone made by Martian that worked and was not used because the battery ran out daily. And I preferred my big screen 6.5" smartphone screen and speakers to it. It sits in my watch collection and never gets charged/used. No one would buy it these days but it is a memory that not all tech is as I would use, just most! 😂

Here it is: Martian wrist phone 2013