Somewhat OT: Long term design

Ah, but that is with constant, or at least intermittent, use and maintenance. Let that drill or pipe organ sit for 100 years and see how well they work.

Ask Thompson what keeps him going.

Ducking and running. ;-)

No need.

I keep at it because I'm having fun. If it were work I'd quit immediately. But I enjoy the challenges... virtually every month some client presents a need that I don't have a ready answer for. Finding an exotic solution is fun!

Take a look at that sonar chip posting... all kinds of cute logarithmic curve fitting WITH temperature compensation of _everything_, including NPN bulk re, beta and resistors with nasty TC's. ...Jim Thompson

Tin whiskers.

Maybe you could ask how far in the future you have to go before your 'device' becomes unrecognisable ? If the original function is still needed, just publishing the ideas and design is probably the best way of preserving it. After that time, either it is still needed, and could be built, or its totally irrelevant, and not needed.

As long as we're talking SF then might as well provide intelligent robotic maintainance.

What are you talking about? I've watched TV and not only do those guys instantly recognize millennium old devices, they recognize millennium old ALIEN devices, and they all invariably function. I would be more interested in a power source that could just sit for that period of time and still be useable, especially those in all the neato hand held stuff they pick up and use. You just haven't been watching the right programs. ;)

They can plug alien memory sticks into their computer and always read them instantly. Clearly the Enterprise computer doesn't run Windows.

John

On a sunny day (Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:54:31 -0500) it happened WangoTango wrote in :

Solar.

The sun is unliklely to disappear over these sorts of timescales.

But will the solar cell even still be exposed to it? We usually have to dig down into the ground to find prehistoric sites, even from a few thousand years ago.

And if the cell manages to remain exposed - how many severe hailstorms do you get an a period of several thousand years? Even if you choose a place that's currently unlikely to get hailstorms, will that remain true for the next thousands of years?

Sylvia.

I've always been most impressed with how readily humans seem to be able to pick up on how to run, e.g., an entire alien spacecraft despite said aliens not speaking any known language, not necessarily resembling human physiologically (e.g., the wavelengths you use in displays is going to be tuned to the individual species), and of course so often coming from planets with gravities and atmospheres highly compatible with human life. :-)

Your part of Europe was obviously quieter than most. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Interplanetary space is around 10^-11 torr, according to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I mean Wikipedia.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

They don't have to. The cast all read their scripts, and know what to do. ;-)

And the aliens in many cases not only speak English, but do so with an American accent.

Sylvia.

Evidently you haven't been watching Dr Who.

Woe, Hoss!

A number of the original Tek tube scopes (517? do not remember numbers it has been too long) still work only needing capacitor forming via slow increase of AC via triac.

.."functional"..guess one better start to define (nominal) capabilities of that computer first. That way, one has an idea as to the complexity of design: 4 banger?