• tal@lemmy.today
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    7 months ago

    No flying machine will ever reach New York from Paris.

    googles

    Interestingly, when he wrote that, it was part of a larger quote saying virtually the same thing that you are, just over a century ago:

    Wilbur in the Cairo, Illinois, Bulletin, March 25, 1909

    No airship will ever fly from New York to Paris. That seems to me to be impossible. What limits the flight is the motor. No known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping, and you can’t be sure of finding the proper winds for soaring. The airship will always be a special messenger, never a load-carrier. But the history of civilization has usually shown that every new invention has brought in its train new needs it can satisfy, and so what the airship will eventually be used for is probably what we can least predict at the present.

          • OpenStars@startrek.website
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            7 months ago

            I cannot stomach much of it, but it is fun to go back and watch older media related to technology - e.g. the six million dollar man has like spinning tape disks, when computers were entire-room affairs.

            So he was right, using the definition at that time, though there was also so much potential for more.

            Also it is funny to hear them say that technology would literally make the six million dollar man “better”, not just “well again” or “he will have side effects but his capabilities will be far above the norm” or some such. One glance at Google these days, or a Boeing plane, does not inspire me to think of the word “better” than what came before even from those exact companies. Technology moves forward, but I am not so sure that the new is always “better” than the old. It was an interesting bias that they had though, during the cold war and after the moon landing.

            • Joe Cool@lemmy.ml
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              7 months ago

              Considering we now have a “CD” that stores 125TB of data ( https://www.livescience.com/technology/electronics/new-petabit-scale-optical-disc-can-store-as-much-information-as-15000-dvds ).

              Not all older tech are necessarily worse. An LTO-9 tape can also store 18TB of data per tape. It’s still sold today and great for archival.

              Other cheaper, less error prone tech usually gets mass market penetration. But I am happy that massive storage niche tech is still there.

                • Joe Cool@lemmy.ml
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                  7 months ago

                  True. 12h to write the whole 18TB makes it a bit impractical for stuff other than backups. ;)

                  • OpenStars@startrek.website
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                    7 months ago

                    Well, I imagine the write-once, re-write-never part also may limit its applicability too:-). Then again, for a purpose where the data doesn’t need to be constantly changing, like storing a TV show or movie, possibly even music if someone wants to listen to albums rather than randomized songs, it could offer a lot of practical utility to many people.

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          7 months ago

          And thank goodness it’s not nearly impossible to convince a computer that it isn’t correct when you don’t have admin rights.

          sudo you’re a fucking idiot, computer

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      7 months ago

      Oh, and to provide numbers:

      https://www.distance.to/New-York/Paris

      That’s 5,837.07 km.

      As of the moment, the longest flight by distance:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Atlantic_GlobalFlyer

      In February 2006, Fossett flew the GlobalFlyer for the longest aircraft flight distance in history: 25,766 miles (41,466 km).

      That’s 7.1 times the Paris-to-New-York flight distance.

      As for time:

      No known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping…

      The longest flight by time:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Voyager

      The flight took off from Edwards Air Force Base’s 15,000 foot (4,600 m) runway in the Mojave Desert on December 14, 1986, and ended 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds later on December 23, setting a flight endurance record.

      • Ech@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        the longest aircraft flight distance in history: 25,766 miles (41,466 km)

        That’s 800 miles (1,400 km) longer than the circumference of the Earth. Humans are a trip.

    • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      “Brought in its train” what an interesting phrase, do people still say this? Is it the same as “in its wake” we use today?