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Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici
Picture of ChuckFinley
posted
My "new" computer from this summer has already crashed, hard...Paraphrased from a longer article:

Voyager space missions which, since they were launched in August and September 1977 to explore outer space, have been travelling at 38,000 miles an hour away from us powered by computers made 40 years ago. The smartphone in your pocket has 240,000 times more memory.

The computer on board Voyager 1 uses just 12 watts (or the same kind of power used by a light bulb in a fridge) to transmit its data back to base, taking 38 hours, from way beyond the reaches of Saturn, Uranus and even Neptune — and it’s been working continuously all those years.

Why, then, do our own household computers and phones have a shelf-life of only about five years?




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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C.S. Lewis
 
Posts: 5643 | Location: District 12 | Registered: June 16, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
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So that you have to buy a new one every 5 years, naturally.

They're not in the business of building things that last forever. If they did, they'd soon run out of customers.

Whereas if you have to buy a new one every few years, they have a constant stream of revenue.
 
Posts: 32428 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Go ahead punk, make my day
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Because retail computers are a business,
 
Posts: 45798 | Registered: July 12, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Leemur
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And no one is browsing the web with the voyager computer. No browser hijacks, malware, etc.
 
Posts: 13735 | Location: Shenandoah Valley, VA | Registered: October 16, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of myrottiety
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Cause it's hard to do Warranty work on the Voyager.




Train how you intend to Fight

Remember - Training is not sparring. Sparring is not fighting. Fighting is not combat.
 
Posts: 8838 | Location: Woodstock, GA | Registered: August 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
DeadHead
Picture of two-two-niner-romeo
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V'Ger!




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B0NBQBnCO0



"Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker's God-given right!" - GhostBusters II

"You have all the tools you need. Don't blame them. Use them." - Dan Worrall
 
Posts: 1899 | Location: Putnam County, NY | Registered: May 22, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici
Picture of ChuckFinley
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I know the reasons. I also know what could be done differently to help. It's simply a rant.




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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C.S. Lewis
 
Posts: 5643 | Location: District 12 | Registered: June 16, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Only the strong survive
Picture of 41
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Capacitors are usually the components that fail or degrade over time. Better quality capacitors would make the equipment last longer.

The cheap capacitors in my game cameras are causing a longer delay before the camera starts recording. Mad


41
 
Posts: 11828 | Location: Herndon, VA | Registered: June 11, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
E tan e epi tas
Picture of cslinger
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But honestly how much porn could you really access with the Voyager probe. Razz


"Guns are tools. The only weapon ever created was man."
 
Posts: 7631 | Location: On the water | Registered: July 25, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of Leemur
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quote:
Originally posted by cslinger:
But honestly how much porn could you really access with the Voyager probe. Razz


How much do you need to access when you have a NASA grade probe?
 
Posts: 13735 | Location: Shenandoah Valley, VA | Registered: October 16, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici
Picture of ChuckFinley
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Porn and probe in the same post, what could possibly go wrong with this? Wink




_________________________
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_________________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C.S. Lewis
 
Posts: 5643 | Location: District 12 | Registered: June 16, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
cost
quote:
Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
My "new" computer from this summer has already crashed, hard...Paraphrased from a longer article:

Voyager space missions which, since they were launched in August and September 1977 to explore outer space, have been travelling at 38,000 miles an hour away from us powered by computers made 40 years ago. The smartphone in your pocket has 240,000 times more memory.

The computer on board Voyager 1 uses just 12 watts (or the same kind of power used by a light bulb in a fridge) to transmit its data back to base, taking 38 hours, from way beyond the reaches of Saturn, Uranus and even Neptune — and it’s been working continuously all those years.

Why, then, do our own household computers and phones have a shelf-life of only about five years?


because they don't cost $2 million dollars!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Posts: 21335 | Registered: June 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici
Picture of ChuckFinley
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^ Big Grin




_________________________
NRA Endowment Member
_________________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C.S. Lewis
 
Posts: 5643 | Location: District 12 | Registered: June 16, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Unmanned Writer
Picture of LS1 GTO
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Because Voyager used Fortran, not DOS (ie: Windows or Apple).







Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.



Only in an insane world are the sane considered insane.


The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime


 
Posts: 14020 | Location: It was Lat: 33.xxxx Lon: 44.xxxx now it's CA :( | Registered: March 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Delusions of Adequacy
Picture of zoom6zoom
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Yeah, no Windows on Voyager.




I have my own style of humor. I call it Snarkasm.
 
Posts: 17944 | Location: Virginia | Registered: June 02, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Oh stewardess,
I speak jive.
Picture of 46and2
posted Hide Post
I can put together an equally talented team and build you a computer with the same level of quality, extensive testing, and otherwise, but our day rate would be about $10,000 and it would take a couple of years or more. For roughly $500-2500 total we're spoiled it works this well.

Still sucks though. Smile
 
Posts: 25613 | Registered: March 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
אַרְיֵה
Picture of V-Tail
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quote:
Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Because Voyager used Fortran, not DOS (ie: Windows or Apple).
Confused



הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
 
Posts: 30544 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
quarter MOA visionary
Picture of smschulz
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Not exactly a valid comparison but kinda get the jest.
 
Posts: 22858 | Location: Houston, TX | Registered: June 11, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
Picture of Skins2881
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 46and2:
I can put together an equally talented team and build you a computer with the same level of quality, extensive testing, and otherwise, but our day rate would be about $10,000 and it would take a couple of years or more. For roughly $500-2500 total we're spoiled it works this well.

Still sucks though. Smile


How much for the environmental impact study and certification of fair labor?



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
 
Posts: 20756 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: December 27, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of billr
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quote:
Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
Why, then, do our own household computers and phones have a shelf-life of only about five years?


Because you wouldn't pay millions of dollars for a CPU. The computers on Voyager 1 were all build to be hardened against things like solar radiation, and they cost a lot of money.



--
When you rest your steak and your whiskey upon the table you have made, you feel pretty goddamn tall for keeping those treats off the ground.
 
Posts: 2167 | Location: Arizona | Registered: July 08, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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