If I may drone on a bit about yesterday’s ‘toon, it seems feds plan registration of new drones in place by Christmas?
Ooh, I smell profit! I hope they make them stamp post-ban models ROO (registered operators only), and I can make a crap-ton of money buying and selling pre-bans like I did selling $15 magazines for $100 under Clinton!
Gov bans and regulations…best sales tools ever!
October 19, 2015 at 11:21 pm
formwiz
In less than 2 months?
You mean the way they threw IdiotCare together?
Can’t wait.
October 20, 2015 at 8:45 am
rooftop voter
I plan on ignoring them…………… What, they gonna serial number them?
Suspect there will be a market for scratch built drones.
October 20, 2015 at 8:06 am
eon
You can probably build one with the supplies available at any place that sells homebuilt aircraft kits, plus any place that sells RC model airplane materials.
Please note that RC airplane controls operate on frequencies that do not require individual FCC licensing, and if you couple it to a WiFi’d, MILSPEC or better ruggedized laptop bolted in, you may not have something that you can fly from thousands of miles away to drop JDAMs, you will still have something that can do most “non-offensive” missions locally.
As Jeff Cooper once observed, silly laws promote transparent evasions.
And as with gunpowder, once the technological djinn is out of the bottle, trying to stuff it back in is pretty much a waste of time.
You’ll still have to use a numbered and regulated lower, so you can build a kit but they’ll still register and control it. It’s worked so well to limit EBR’s.
Next step, back to the ol’ 3D printer! New company: Flight Distributed.
When I read that, I got the giggles. Sorry. I lost track of my metric units, and I was thinking the young lad was going to build something of HUGE power, not something you could power with a AA battery for a century.
October 20, 2015 at 12:08 am
Blue Quasar
A big laser, a shield and you have Galt’s Gulch. Hop to it son.
October 20, 2015 at 12:12 am
Ed
Wouldn’t a petawatt laser be more fun? There’s just something cool about an extreme laser named “peta.” Now if we can just get our petawatt laser to dump all its power in a femtosecond burst…
October 20, 2015 at 12:28 am
Grant
A petawatt (10^15) laser for 1 femtosecond (10^-15) delivers one watt-second of energy, aka one joule. Nil.
October 20, 2015 at 6:32 pm
Ed
Total power output is delivered, not a subdivided portion of it.
October 20, 2015 at 6:51 pm
Ed
That would mean a petawatt delivered in a femtosecond.
October 20, 2015 at 6:58 pm
Ed
1 PW = 1 000 000 000 000 kJ/sec That’s per second, mind you. Now deliver the same amount of energy in a femtosecond.
October 20, 2015 at 8:42 pm
Gundo
You’ve got a basic misunderstanding of exactly what a “watt” is.
Hey, it could be worse. He might have built a clock or sumthin’…..
October 20, 2015 at 8:09 am
Redleg
I used to be a judge at science fairs. That kid’s clock would have been laughed out of school: take a Radio Shack digital clock out of its case, mount it in a pencil box, and claim it as something he built! If you want to be astounded, visit your local high school science fair.
The invitation to NASA shows the politicalization of the affair (or the ignorance of current management.)
October 20, 2015 at 11:56 am
NotYetInACamp
NASA was tasked by the occupant of the white house to raise Muslim self esteem around the world. many articles written and the head of NASA said so.
Inviting a bomb ignition controller builder would be following the task NASA was given.
From little jigglewatts, big ones grow. Gigglewatts. Conversion table, please. Boys just wanna have fun.
*SIGH* Kids and computers these days. Once upon a time, before my brain fried as I got old, I could have learned those things far better than I did. You know the whole thing about our cell phones having more gigs than NASA did when we went to the moon? I can’t even cope with all the crap in my cell phone! Kids today? Damn. They got that shit.
October 20, 2015 at 5:43 am
Bill G
Yeah, and we “older and wiser heads” try to put in controls to keep them out of ‘adult content’ even though we go to them when we screw something up.
October 20, 2015 at 7:07 am
Pamela
Tech is all well and good, but knowing and being old school hands on can save your life. There’s an application for everything except common sense these days.
October 20, 2015 at 8:03 am
nonncom
Amen…
October 20, 2015 at 8:48 pm
capn
“Common sense is altogether too uncommon.” B. Franklin (if memory serves?)
“Experience is the best instructor.” Unknown (to me at least)
Now … If we can just reach them with the truth about the dangers inherent in socialism and democracy before they drink the koolaid …. sigh
October 20, 2015 at 9:03 am
BlaxPac
Heh. If I had a son….
Kid is coding (and debugging!) flight-capable programs and capable of building (basic) lasertech he is well on his way.
His Aunt Sam is a Engineer.
Dad is a astute programmer.
Can anyone say “Shadetree Skunkworks”?
October 20, 2015 at 9:41 am
B Woodman
I’d invest in that.
October 20, 2015 at 10:12 am
Buck OFama
It’s okay kid, you CAN’T put your eye out with it.
October 20, 2015 at 10:31 am
Tom Francis
A Femtowatt is only a measure of RF power – basically the lowest limit of reception power on a digital network or spread spectrum cell system. Example: a femtowatt is 1000 times less power than a picowatt which is about the power used biological cell. Essentially useless and impossible to build – its really difficult to measure even – specialized analyzers. A nanowatt laser would have made more sense.
October 20, 2015 at 4:56 pm
SOB
Question for resident brain trust(s). Can a Femtowatt laser carry communications and instructions to a target that is line of sight???
Ya know, curiosity and all that.
October 20, 2015 at 6:35 pm
Ed
I’d say anything that an be modulated in any way can carry data, even if that is simple on-off binary.
41 Comments
“What’s a jiggawatt?” Let alone 1.2 of them.
Spin
Gigawatt.
Some of the less computer-savvy (y’know, management types; especially in IT departments) pronounce it jigga-.
I was referring to the movie. It is 2015, the year of the Future Past. Go Cubs!
Spin
Femtowatt lasers can only target females.
Jiggawat lasers can only target very healthy females.
OK with me. A femtowatt (10^-15 W) is so minuscule you probably couldn’t even see the light from a meter away.
Oh, I thought it said femtwat and I was gonna say we already got plenty…
yeah, baby!
“Oh, I thought it said femtwat and I was gonna say we already got plenty…”
Coffee sprayed on the keyboard…
If I may drone on a bit about yesterday’s ‘toon, it seems feds plan registration of new drones in place by Christmas?
Ooh, I smell profit! I hope they make them stamp post-ban models ROO (registered operators only), and I can make a crap-ton of money buying and selling pre-bans like I did selling $15 magazines for $100 under Clinton!
Gov bans and regulations…best sales tools ever!
In less than 2 months?
You mean the way they threw IdiotCare together?
Can’t wait.
I plan on ignoring them…………… What, they gonna serial number them?
Oh, and Chris? I heart them silhouettes!
Suspect there will be a market for scratch built drones.
You can probably build one with the supplies available at any place that sells homebuilt aircraft kits, plus any place that sells RC model airplane materials.
Please note that RC airplane controls operate on frequencies that do not require individual FCC licensing, and if you couple it to a WiFi’d, MILSPEC or better ruggedized laptop bolted in, you may not have something that you can fly from thousands of miles away to drop JDAMs, you will still have something that can do most “non-offensive” missions locally.
As Jeff Cooper once observed, silly laws promote transparent evasions.
And as with gunpowder, once the technological djinn is out of the bottle, trying to stuff it back in is pretty much a waste of time.
cheers
eon
You’ll still have to use a numbered and regulated lower, so you can build a kit but they’ll still register and control it. It’s worked so well to limit EBR’s.
Next step, back to the ol’ 3D printer! New company: Flight Distributed.
Dang it, forgot the link again!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printed_firearms
Those kids may save us yet.
Let’s hope!!
When I read that, I got the giggles. Sorry. I lost track of my metric units, and I was thinking the young lad was going to build something of HUGE power, not something you could power with a AA battery for a century.
A big laser, a shield and you have Galt’s Gulch. Hop to it son.
Wouldn’t a petawatt laser be more fun? There’s just something cool about an extreme laser named “peta.” Now if we can just get our petawatt laser to dump all its power in a femtosecond burst…
A petawatt (10^15) laser for 1 femtosecond (10^-15) delivers one watt-second of energy, aka one joule. Nil.
Total power output is delivered, not a subdivided portion of it.
That would mean a petawatt delivered in a femtosecond.
1 PW = 1 000 000 000 000 kJ/sec That’s per second, mind you. Now deliver the same amount of energy in a femtosecond.
You’ve got a basic misunderstanding of exactly what a “watt” is.
Hint: it involves time.
Argh, never mind. I misread something.
Hey, it could be worse. He might have built a clock or sumthin’…..
I used to be a judge at science fairs. That kid’s clock would have been laughed out of school: take a Radio Shack digital clock out of its case, mount it in a pencil box, and claim it as something he built! If you want to be astounded, visit your local high school science fair.
The invitation to NASA shows the politicalization of the affair (or the ignorance of current management.)
NASA was tasked by the occupant of the white house to raise Muslim self esteem around the world. many articles written and the head of NASA said so.
Inviting a bomb ignition controller builder would be following the task NASA was given.
From little jigglewatts, big ones grow. Gigglewatts. Conversion table, please. Boys just wanna have fun.
*SIGH* Kids and computers these days. Once upon a time, before my brain fried as I got old, I could have learned those things far better than I did. You know the whole thing about our cell phones having more gigs than NASA did when we went to the moon? I can’t even cope with all the crap in my cell phone! Kids today? Damn. They got that shit.
Yeah, and we “older and wiser heads” try to put in controls to keep them out of ‘adult content’ even though we go to them when we screw something up.
Tech is all well and good, but knowing and being old school hands on can save your life. There’s an application for everything except common sense these days.
Amen…
“Common sense is altogether too uncommon.” B. Franklin (if memory serves?)
“Experience is the best instructor.” Unknown (to me at least)
Now … If we can just reach them with the truth about the dangers inherent in socialism and democracy before they drink the koolaid …. sigh
Heh. If I had a son….
Kid is coding (and debugging!) flight-capable programs and capable of building (basic) lasertech he is well on his way.
His Aunt Sam is a Engineer.
Dad is a astute programmer.
Can anyone say “Shadetree Skunkworks”?
I’d invest in that.
It’s okay kid, you CAN’T put your eye out with it.
A Femtowatt is only a measure of RF power – basically the lowest limit of reception power on a digital network or spread spectrum cell system. Example: a femtowatt is 1000 times less power than a picowatt which is about the power used biological cell. Essentially useless and impossible to build – its really difficult to measure even – specialized analyzers. A nanowatt laser would have made more sense.
Question for resident brain trust(s). Can a Femtowatt laser carry communications and instructions to a target that is line of sight???
Ya know, curiosity and all that.
I’d say anything that an be modulated in any way can carry data, even if that is simple on-off binary.