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 Discussion on question by Schezuk: Di…

Imported from a comment discussion on retrocomputing.stackexch...
DrSheldon
Feb 12, 2023 18:03
Worth noting that the Advanced Placement computer programming test moved from Pascal to Java.
 

 The Pod Bay

General discussion for space.stackexchange.com. Check our sche...
3
DrSheldon
Aug 18, 2022 00:09
Wait... Russia invented the Genesis cave?! Why didn't Chekov remind Kirk about that? After all, they were trapped together there. Must have been a deleted scene I missed.
DrSheldon
Jul 6, 2021 05:50
@uhoh Don't forget theta and omicron radiation.
DrSheldon
Jun 2, 2021 21:16
@uhoh Thanks. And you are #1, of course!
DrSheldon
May 15, 2021 22:39
The company blog is currently running a series on software in space, and there are zero mentions of space.stackexchange. The company does not even know we exist.
DrSheldon
Apr 28, 2021 23:03
RIP Michael Collins.
2
DrSheldon
Apr 11, 2021 18:50
@geoffc "Those are honking big cranes, that need huge cranes to aassemble the bigger crane to assemble the bigger crane, to assemble the biggest crane." It's turtles cranes all the way down.
DrSheldon
Mar 24, 2021 05:26
@uhoh That black spot in Mars' sky is obviously a Jawa sandcrawler. Better watch out, they are known to snatch droids, to sell them to moisture farmers!
DrSheldon
Mar 24, 2021 05:21
@ymb1 Shuttle landings are definitely on-topic here. You will probably also get a better answer here than in Aviation.SE.
DrSheldon
Mar 20, 2021 00:51
News item: Bill Nelson (a former U.S. Senator from Florida) was nominated today to be the next NASA Administrator.
DrSheldon
Mar 9, 2021 19:49
user image
DrSheldon
Mar 9, 2021 19:48
Here is what I think of balloon and rockoon questions:
DrSheldon
Nov 11, 2020 04:55
Oh wait, it's just the tag badge. Never mind.
DrSheldon
Nov 11, 2020 04:55
user image
DrSheldon
Nov 11, 2020 04:54
Wow... I've just earned the moon. I believe this gives me dominion over Buzz Aldrin.
DrSheldon
Oct 2, 2020 05:04
@uhoh "nobody is exempt from being human here, well except for one or two whom I suspect are indeed extraterrestrials." (DrSheldon sheepishly raises three hands.)
DrSheldon
Jul 1, 2020 10:20
@DavidZ When I recommended migrating the question, I was not expecting to answer the question myself. However, the existing answers were speculation. It needed examples of actual use.
DrSheldon
Jun 30, 2020 04:24
@DavidZ Go ahead. We already have two questions about using mechanical pencils in space, so using pens would similarly be a reasonable question. There are a few questions that mention pens in passing, but are not the same as your question. I would tag it equipment.
DrSheldon
Jun 23, 2020 18:21
@uhoh When I heard there would be a solar eclipse in Asia, my first thought was "I bet uhoh will be out observing it." Glad to see I was right.
DrSheldon
Jun 10, 2020 05:01
@uhoh That post is not in the reopen queue. However, one can vote to undelete the question, by manually going to the question's page.
DrSheldon
Jun 7, 2020 16:23
@GuruVishnu Why don't you just post that as a proper question?
DrSheldon
Apr 16, 2020 21:22
The last two questions will be "Did any part of the Apollo 13 LiOH adapter return to Earth?" and "Did Apollo 13 produce any scientific results?" I don't have a firm answer on the former question.
DrSheldon
Apr 16, 2020 21:20
@RussellBorogove Go ahead and ask that. Tomorrow is the last day of the series, as splashdown occurred on April 17.
DrSheldon
Apr 15, 2020 04:27
C'mon folks, @uhoh is only 66 points away from 10k. Help him out!
DrSheldon
Apr 9, 2020 01:57
@uhoh The problem must be in my browser. Thanks. You are a steely-eyed MathJAX man!
DrSheldon
Apr 9, 2020 01:23
@uhoh I used \left( and \right) on my other equations in that answer, and they still don't look right. The parens aren't sizing to the height of their contents -- even in the formula. Maybe it's something wrong with my browser. Do they look correct to you?
DrSheldon
Apr 9, 2020 00:31
@uhoh, if you're online, I'm having trouble with the parentheses in my MathJAX in this answer. They are not stretching to the correct height. What am I doing wrong?
DrSheldon
Jul 30, 2019 02:36
Fun fact: The telephone area code for KSC is 321.
DrSheldon
Jul 30, 2019 02:36
Woohoo, just made 12345 reputation. Though 54321 would be a better fit for Space Exploration.
 

 Discussion on answer by ohwilleke: Do…

Imported from a comment discussion on politics.stackexchange.c...
DrSheldon
Jan 12, 2022 22:26
@HiddenBabel: "I could print out fake student IDs in my garage, and you would never be able to verify them." I could print out fake concealed-carry permits, and partisan election officials won't bother to verify them.
 

 Discussion on answer by manassehkatz-…

Imported from a comment discussion on retrocomputing.stackexch...
DrSheldon
Jan 11, 2022 11:38
Plated wire memory was a form of core memory that could be machine-assembled, so that's not the reason. The core memories have poor density and access times, and many forms have a destructive read.
 

 Discussion on answer by Ted Wrigley: …

Imported from a comment discussion on politics.stackexchange.c...
DrSheldon
Nov 24, 2021 08:51
"the whole thing makes less sense within the modern world, where the military has become a highly technical profession unsuited to citizen militias." How true, and the history of Crimea supports such a statement. A group of citizens with hunting weapons would at best be a "light brigade", and such a brigade couldn't take Crimea in 1854, much less today. (See the famous Tennyson poem.) Fast forward 160 years, and a single company of masked Russian special forces was able to take control of the region in just a few days.
 

 Discussion on question by Number File…

Imported from a comment discussion on politics.stackexchange.c...
DrSheldon
Jul 13, 2021 21:45
Even Abraham Lincoln jumped out of a window to avoid a quorum of the Illinois legislature.
 

 Discussion on question by natevw: Whe…

Imported from a comment discussion on retrocomputing.stackexch...
DrSheldon
Jul 8, 2021 15:22
Possibly a beeping computer appeared in movies or TV before real life, but that would be a question for movies.se.
 

 Discussion on answer by Will Hartung:…

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DrSheldon
Jul 1, 2021 17:25
"The compilers don't care." But automatic makefile rules do. "The editors don't care." It's useful for having custom editor modes for each type of source file. Sure, you could get it to work with any file extension you want (or none at all), but it's simply more convenient to use tools that expect conventions to be followed.
 

 Discussion on answer by Organic Marbl…

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DrSheldon
Apr 19, 2021 12:23
I agree with Organic on this one. "If X is damaged, use Y." That's good practice to have a backup. But what if X and Y are both damaged? Are you going to provide a Z? You can continue this line of reasoning indefinitely, creating increasingly elaborate scenarios and their backup, yet never eliminate all risk. Yet there are diminishing returns for each level of backup: more weight, more complexity, more expense, for increasingly unlikely risk.
 

 Discussion on question by kim holder:…

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DrSheldon
Mar 29, 2021 13:17
This question is on the close queue as opinion-based. I'm going to abstain from VTC, as I believe the question can be edited to address those concerns.
 

 Discussion on question by CourageousP…

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DrSheldon
Mar 22, 2021 13:40
Apollo 12 had a "snowman formation", but you could build a real snowman!
DrSheldon
Mar 22, 2021 13:40
Interesting. Even if the launch is feasible, the landing may shatter your giant snowballs. Could you simply roll your giant snowballs to their destination?
 

 Discussion on question by Mike Serfas…

Imported from a comment discussion on worldbuilding.stackexcha...
DrSheldon
Mar 20, 2021 16:59
An interesting follow-up question would ask how to restart software development from no existing software. "Just build a C compiler" grossly underestimates the difficulty of the task.
 

 Discussion on question by user39728: …

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DrSheldon
Mar 15, 2021 12:32
There are enough issues raised by this question, that one could write an entire book about the subject. That indicates that the question is too broad for the StackExchange format.
 

 Discussion on question by Paul Ghobri…

Imported from a comment discussion on retrocomputing.stackexch...
DrSheldon
Feb 21, 2021 11:50
To clarify the question: Are you asking about a magazine about electronics, or a magazine distributed electronically? If the latter, do you care if the magazine was also distributed in print? Also, if the answer is not to be limited to the Commodore 64 or cassette tape, then those tags should be removed from the question.
 

 Discussion on answer by PcMan: Would …

Imported from a comment discussion on worldbuilding.stackexcha...
DrSheldon
Dec 19, 2020 01:15
Core rope memory has the data literally woven in the wires. As long as the wires are intact, it will survive indefinitely. However, it is extremely labor-intensive to produce, and therefore low-capacity.
 

 Discussion on answer by Ash: What cir…

Imported from a comment discussion on worldbuilding.stackexcha...
DrSheldon
Nov 11, 2020 10:24
This is great, but aren't there footpaths? How are they arranged? What are the shapes of the housing lots? It seems like you will still have a rectangular grid within the suburb.
 

 Discussion on question by Dragongeek:…

Imported from a comment discussion on worldbuilding.stackexcha...
DrSheldon
Oct 20, 2020 13:10
The most important question is: Does StackExchange still work?
 

 Discussion on answer by DrSheldon: Wh…

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DrSheldon
Jul 21, 2020 10:42
Elan Musk is pretty good at ignoring what has been learned "the hard way" (by cosmonaut or astronaut deaths) and using new technology instead. I'm not going to be surprised when something goes terribly wrong with Dragon. In contrast, Boeing is taking the conservative approach to spacecraft design, which has put them behind SpaceX, but will likely result in a safer spacecraft.
 

 Discussion on question by LoveForChri…

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DrSheldon
Jun 15, 2020 13:41
Staying in space is more than getting high enough; you need to be fast enough to reach orbital speed. The X-15 could reach the altitude of space, but it was nowhere near orbital speed. So once its fuel runs out, you will fall back to Earth. Mercury-Atlas was powerful enough to reach orbital velocity. Mercury-Redstone wasn't powerful enough to reach orbital speeds, but it was at least a significant milestone towards reaching that goal, and was ready earlier than Mercury-Atlas.
 

 Discussion on question by user6760: H…

Imported from a comment discussion on worldbuilding.stackexcha...
DrSheldon
Mar 7, 2020 17:15
My alien race (the Eulerians) can only count 0, 1, e, pi, and i.
 

 Discussion between Russell Borogove a…

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DrSheldon
Aug 8, 2019 15:23
@called2voyage I'm fine with trying to solicit more answers.
 

 Discussion on question by curiousguy:…

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DrSheldon
Jul 22, 2019 12:30
@curiousguy: Welcome to Space! I have edited your question to address some of the criticism it has received. Let's see if this new version is well-received. If you think I have misrepresented your question, please let me know and we can adjust the question.