Posts by Jefe Mixtli

MYSTERIOUS Siberia CRATER: ALIENS or METEOR not involved, officials insist

Pingo!!

What they are almost certainly seeing is a melted PINGO. In areas of permafrost (like most of Canada) the ice underground can form hills up to a 1000ft high. They are basically a big chunk of ice covered in soil.

If the temperature in the are warms enough, the ice melt and you end up with a crater full of water. You can see an almost identical feature here:

http://icecubicle.net/2010/03/24/phenom-pingos-of-the-far-north/

http://icecubicle.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/pingo-ice-lens-shattered.jpg

India's Martian MOM lays another perfect orbital egg

Re: Not a slingshot

Actually, I'm a little wrong here. By performing burns when the spacecraft is closest to the earth (and thus having the highest velocity) they are taking advantage of the Oberth effect. The Oberth effect states that you will achieve the greater increase in kinetic energy by increasing delta-V when an object is travelling fast the when an object is travelling slow.

So, the most efficient way to achieve a higher orbit is to perform multiple, short burns as your orbit comes closest to the earth. Once your apogee is high enough, THEN you perform a 'Hohmann transfer' by performing a burn at apogee.

Again. No slingshot and no 'stealing energy' from the earth. Just efficient use of propellant.

Not a slingshot

I do not believe it is possible to 'pinch energy' or perform a 'slingshot' maneuver when the spacecraft is bound to earth's gravity. Traditional slingshots, like those performed by the Voyager missions, involve sun-orbiting spacecraft stealing momentum from other planets using close fly-bys. This isn't possible if you are simply in orbit around the earth.

What MOM is doing is using a Hohmann transfer orbit to increase altitude. By performing burns when the spacecraft is at perigee, they are gradually raising it's apogee. This will eventually allow for a smaller burn to take the craft to mars then if they did one large burn once achieving orbit.

It's not about 'stealing energy', it's about efficient orbital mechanics.

ULTRASONIC BOLLOCK BLASTERS help Hawkmoth battle The Bat

A plea to Mother Nature.

Moths: Hey, we're getting tired of being eaten by bats!

Mother Nature: What do you want me to do about it?

Moths: We want ultrasonic, sonar-jamming TESTICLES!!

Mother Nature: DONE!

ARM creators Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber

NOOOOOOO!!!!

If the The Register has one habit that bugs me, it's that their prime articles, and the accompanying banner images, stick around on the right-side bar FOREVER!

I swear we've been staring at those two guys holding that PARIS plane for MONTHS now.

Please, don't tell me I'm still going to be looking at this article's banner pic when Christmas comes around!

(Great articles thought)

ARM creators Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber

NOOOOOOO!!!!

If the The Register has one habit that bugs me, it's that their prime articles, and the accompanying banner images, stick around on the right-side bar forever!

I swear we've been staring at those two guys holding that PARIS plane for MONTHS now.

Please, don't tell me I'm still going to be looking at this article's banner pic when Christmas comes around!

:) :)

Wi-Fi desk rodents break free from oppressive cabling

AWESOM-O 4000?!?

Couldn't help but notice the similarity to Cartman's robot persona:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWESOM-O

Man's phone burns, toasts trouser region

Looks more like a SHORT

I think the pictures clearly show that the terminals of the battery had somehow been shorted. There is no evidence that the battery's internals have self-combusted and all the damage has occurred right where the battery terminals meet the phone.

If I had to guess, I'd say a stray bit of metal lodged itself between the phone and the battery.

Rugby World Cup reporters swap identities in login glitch

Let's all Thread safely people

Someone's session manager isn't thread safe!

ESA unveils billion pixel camera that will map the Milky Way

Which L2 Lagrange point?

"Gaia will be stationed at the L2 Lagrange"

--------------------------

The L2 of the Earth-Sun system, or the L2 of the Earth-Moon system?

Actually... if it's only 1.5Mkm, I guess it must be the earth-moon.

Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed

Is there any %#$@ DRIFTING?!?

I put the original Shift away WAY too soon. Why? The stupid drifting challenges I had to finish to advance in the game.

I buy a racing game to RACE, not to spends hours over-revving engines and sliding around like a jackass. Put drifting in it's own game. I have no interest in it!

David Attenborough dino doc shows limits of 3D TV

Pterosaurs are not Dinosaurs.

Come on guys, you know your science better than this!!

Pterosaurs are NOT 'flying dinosaurs', they are flying reptiles. Calling them dinosaurs is like calling crocodiles 'lizards'.

Sony sells Playstation-packing TV

Bezel

I think the bezel needs to be wider.

http://www.reghardware.com/Design/graphics/icons/comment/joke_32.png

Nokia spits out network diagnostics

Moved to OVI store

The App is apparently on the OVI store now since it's out of beta.

Anyone know what it's called there?

I've searched for "Connectivity analyzer" and "Wifi analyzer" but can't find it with my N86, and neither can my buddy with his N95.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/fail_32.png

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/unhappy_32.png

IBM uncloaks 20 petaflops BlueGene/Q super

Blue gunk

"The compute node is not fully populated with its DDR3 main memory, which is why some of it has blue gunk on it, which is covering the sockets where memory will be plugged in."

---------------------------

From the picture, it's obvious that the 'blue gunk' is thermal grease of some sort. It doesn't appear to covering empty sockets, but is smeared on top of DDR3 chips in-place. You can easily see the blue gunk on some of the chips on the left side of the node.

El Reg uncovers Tiger Woods tech angle

PlayMobil!!!

Come on guys... where is the PlayMobil re-enactment of Tiger's late night drive through the neighborhood?

Burninman

Canadian Taser death caught on camera

This Canadian is pretty ashamed

I tired and confused visitor to our country was tased to death for no more reason then to amuse a bunch of RCMP thugs... disgusting.

The witness who took the video also reported that the cops were discussing whether they could tase the guy while they were rushing to the scene.

I see a headline in the future though.... "RCMP cleared of all responsibility".

Samsung samples SATA II 2.5in SSD

0.5G?

"It can stand up to 20G of vibration - the HDD can withstand only 0.5G, Samsung said."

The old HDD could only handle 0.5G? So does that mean you could only use it on the moon... or maybe the ISS? Seems odd that Samsung would build a HDD that couldn't even handle earth's 1.0G of gravity. :) :)