Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER If I was a golfer, I'd complain more about the geese. Fortunately, I am not a golfer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Or a gopher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Heh. I need to do a search to see if I've related my gopher story here before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Not that I recall. And I've been here a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Different thread. Here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Nasty, but probably efficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Dunno. I encountered that when I was 4 or 5, and my grandfather is more than 30 years in his grave now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER The way of most flesh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER * Cancer sighs deeply * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER . . . Hey, you're double millennial . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Yeah, there were a couple bits where I could comment usefully over in Star Hero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER That's nice. Was it the world creation, atmospheric kinda thread? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER That's one; a couple of others as well. I went to a meeting Saturday where Frank Drake was present and did a lengthy discussion of the famous Drake Equation, and I've got some thoughts rumbling around partly formed from that. Haven't put those into a thread yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Can you comment on the gist of the discussion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER One point is that the uncertainty in N is dominated by the uncertainty in the most uncertain factors, since it's a simple product. Those are the f sub i (fraction of planets with life on which the life evolves to intelligence) and L (lifetime of a technological civilization, or more precisely, the length of time a technological civilization pours radio waves copiously into space) terms. Drake expects our own civilization's lifetime may be short, not because it will collapse and end, but because we are moving away from large-scale high-powered radio emission. TV stations are being replaced by cable and by satellite TV (the latter emit MUCH less power than the ground stations), and the BMEWS radars are being replaced by systems with much lower emitted power and much larger bandwidth, both of which drastically decrease the "visibility" of a planet to anyone eavesdropping by radio at interstellar distance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Hah! I knew it! Or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocMan Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Huh? Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER We can't see the aliens because they are Teh Stealtheh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocMan Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Then how do you know they haven't gone home already? Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER You don't, which is part of the point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted May 6, 2009 Report Share Posted May 6, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER One point is that the uncertainty in N is dominated by the uncertainty in the most uncertain factors' date=' since it's a simple product. Those are the f sub i (fraction of planets with life on which the life evolves to intelligence) and L (lifetime of a technological civilization, or more precisely, the length of time a technological civilization pours radio waves copiously into space) terms. Drake expects our own civilization's lifetime may be short, not because it will collapse and end, but because we are moving away from large-scale high-powered radio emission. TV stations are being replaced by cable and by satellite TV (the latter emit MUCH less power than the ground stations), and the BMEWS radars are being replaced by systems with much lower emitted power and much larger bandwidth, both of which drastically decrease the "visibility" of a planet to anyone eavesdropping by radio at interstellar distance.[/quote'] I thought I heard/read that somebody showed that all of our transmissions would fade to the point of being overcome by background static within a "small" distance. And IIRC, that distance was less than the distance to Alpha Centauri, maybe less than half the distance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted May 6, 2009 Report Share Posted May 6, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Maybe they did and just left a webcam? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted May 6, 2009 Report Share Posted May 6, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Got URL? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted May 6, 2009 Report Share Posted May 6, 2009 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Analog TV signals rapidly become demodulated (so that you have no hope of decoding the programming content), but the still have a whopping amount of power in the central carrier frequency (which has a narrow frequency range), and that really stands out against a background. The same thing is true for old-style radar systems, where there was lots of power sent out in a very narrow frequency interval. While the information content in those signals gets lots quickly due to the dispersion in the ISM, the lots-of-power-in-narrow-band characteristic does not. That stands up very well over long distances, and you can hope to detect that over kiloparsec ranges with large radio telescopes. Both of those technologies are changing (or have changed), largely because receiver technology has improved and got cheaper. The ballistic missile radar systems are going broadband with rapid frequency changing, because those are MUCH harder to jam. TV is going digital, which doesn't require the central carrier. Also, old-style central broadcast stations seem to be going away slowly in favor of cable or satellite distribution, both of which release many orders of magnitude less power into space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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