On Sun, 28 Jul 2002 16:30:10 -0700, The Silent Observer
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>In fact, enough flash memory to hold a hundred or so megapixel 24-bit
>images need cost only a few hundred dollars and weigh under 100 grams
Electronics can be used for some very interesting things, very
cheaply. JP Aerospace flies "pongsats" periodically - you write to
JPA, get a tracking number, write it on your ping-pong ball, then cut
the ball in half, put something inside it, and glue it back together.
Great for elementary schools learning about meteorology, right? Not
just elementary schools, though. :-)
A physics grad student bought a flash RAM chip - 128 MB or so - then
studied the internal structure, and wrote a sequence of 1s and 0s
corresponding to the physical and logical structure of the chip.
Wrote the sequence to the chip and mailed it off. JPA flew it a few
weeks later, and mailed the flown chip back to him. He read the
sequence back out, and every flipped bit represented a cosmic ray
strike. This guy invented the world's smallest, cheapest, lightest,
least power hungry, most reliable, cosmic ray detector ever. A few
cc's, a few grams, no power required during the experiment...
It's getting to the point that all the humans have to supply is
intelligence. It's not magic *yet* - but this ol' boy can see it from
here. :-)
-R
--
"Sutton is the beginning of wisdom -
but only the beginning."
-- Jeff Greason
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