Pods of juffo-wup: a highway to the danger zone!
Long time no post, I know. I've been rather busy as of late. And preoccupied. And stomach-bugged or something the past couple days too. So yeah.
First off:
http://aesmael.tumblr.com/post/95234529792/robothyenawasteland-jchastain
Awesome.
So the title actually refers to a bit of old juffo-wup called Solar Roadways:
http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml
Basically, these panels are supposed to be able to heat themselves to keep themselves clear of snow, power several LEDs, and have an always-on internet connection with a worldwide range. Meanwhile, they are said to be able to replace tarmac - which means that the glass and load-bearing structures will need to be able to bear loads of at least 450 tonnes.
Why 450? The 747-8i, the largest passenger aircraft in active service, has a maximum load of 448 tonnes. Now, people like Thunderf00t raise certain lines of objection, chiefly on cost-analysis and materials science; but there's one that's even simpler: just play Battletech, and then a realtime simulator of it (eg, a Mechwarrior game) and you'll realise the problem at once.
Normal road materials tend to be remarkably adept at forming curved shapes and conforming to elevation changes. That is, good old asphalt can go around the hill and up it, both on the hill's terms, with no modification or loss of smoothness. A jigsaw puzzle - or a latticework of four-foot hexagons - can't do either nearly as well.
In addition, even in the ideal environment for the Solar Roadway - a city - try putting the width of one Battletech map against the length of another. The resulting moiré pattern is similar to what you'll get at the intersection of north-south and east-west streets if both are built so that the panels sustain the same "with the grain" load.
If built to avoid the pattern, then the panels in one street-direction will have "against the grain" load - different load and thus different wear. This will also happen at any driveway-road interface (and indeed sidewalk-driveway interface.) Just a bit of silliness that I don't think people have considered. :P
------
So, in other news, Smash Bros for 3DS. Palutena is fun. Rosalina is interesting with her pet star - she's kinda a mix of Zelda and Olimar if Olimar only had one pikmin; and she's got my best Home Run Derby right now at 2375. What happened was that I noticed that I'd gotten kinda close to my Captain PAOUNCH record of just over 2k, and went out of my way to try to get just one pixel closer to the sweet spot, just a tiny bit more to the right of the platform, and just a smidge more damage. Slam, 2375. WOOOO
Mii Fighters are an interesting concept. I think you could make Hunter into a puncher, Smoker into a gunner (the gunner borrows from Megaman and Samus,) and Charger into a sword-user. You can also modify movesets - like with Samus, I found her #3 neutral, which turns the Charge Beam into a short range energy spike weapon (that can still be charged.)
As for Samus (and her separate unarmoured-form character,) she feels a bit overhauled in a way that most returning characters don't - despite not much changing. Armoured Samus has the same moves, they just look a bit different. Maybe it's just a 3DS thing. ZSS has definitely new regulars, though - she relies more on karate than the gun now, it seems. As for character scaling, it's a bit weird.
It's easy enough to confirm (using Little Mac, who's known to be 5'7 in later Punch-Out! games, and Palutena who's known to be 5'10 in Uprising) that *armoured* Samus is properly 6'3.
Armoured Samus's height is calibrated by her side taunt (she does a weapon change and takes a strong, tall stance, pro'ly losing an inch of height) and an idle where she checks her weapon. This is necessary because her combat stance loses more height than these.
Little Mac tends to take a low boxer's stance; his height is calibrated to the high point of his standing up-smash uppercut, with the caveat that he is on his tiptoes at that moment (gaining about an inch and a half.)
Palutena's basic idle is sufficient for her, as it's a casual stance that doesn't seem to gain or lose height.
The top of Palutena's head comes up to Samus's visor, though just barely; and it is just above the jump jets on the back. Little Mac only reaches the jump jets (the bottom of her shoulder armour) at calibration.
This also jives with Charizard (typical Charizards are 5'7) and Ike (whose down-taunt indicates 6' even when compared to Palutena; this reaches the top of Samus's visor.)
Thus, *armoured* Samus is her proper height of 6'3.
What of ZSS? I'm calibrating her to a weapon-check idle; her left leg is straight, so it's about as good as we're going to get. She has those jump jet platform heels which are adding about two inches of height... and even then Ike is 1-2 inches taller.
ZSS is marginally shorter than Palutena; and barely gets the bottom of armoured Samus's visor.
*Zero Suit* Samus is about 5'7, maybe 5'8, once you account for the heels.
More later. :)
First off:
http://aesmael.tumblr.com/post/95234529792/robothyenawasteland-jchastain
Awesome.
So the title actually refers to a bit of old juffo-wup called Solar Roadways:
http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml
Basically, these panels are supposed to be able to heat themselves to keep themselves clear of snow, power several LEDs, and have an always-on internet connection with a worldwide range. Meanwhile, they are said to be able to replace tarmac - which means that the glass and load-bearing structures will need to be able to bear loads of at least 450 tonnes.
Why 450? The 747-8i, the largest passenger aircraft in active service, has a maximum load of 448 tonnes. Now, people like Thunderf00t raise certain lines of objection, chiefly on cost-analysis and materials science; but there's one that's even simpler: just play Battletech, and then a realtime simulator of it (eg, a Mechwarrior game) and you'll realise the problem at once.
Normal road materials tend to be remarkably adept at forming curved shapes and conforming to elevation changes. That is, good old asphalt can go around the hill and up it, both on the hill's terms, with no modification or loss of smoothness. A jigsaw puzzle - or a latticework of four-foot hexagons - can't do either nearly as well.
In addition, even in the ideal environment for the Solar Roadway - a city - try putting the width of one Battletech map against the length of another. The resulting moiré pattern is similar to what you'll get at the intersection of north-south and east-west streets if both are built so that the panels sustain the same "with the grain" load.
If built to avoid the pattern, then the panels in one street-direction will have "against the grain" load - different load and thus different wear. This will also happen at any driveway-road interface (and indeed sidewalk-driveway interface.) Just a bit of silliness that I don't think people have considered. :P
------
So, in other news, Smash Bros for 3DS. Palutena is fun. Rosalina is interesting with her pet star - she's kinda a mix of Zelda and Olimar if Olimar only had one pikmin; and she's got my best Home Run Derby right now at 2375. What happened was that I noticed that I'd gotten kinda close to my Captain PAOUNCH record of just over 2k, and went out of my way to try to get just one pixel closer to the sweet spot, just a tiny bit more to the right of the platform, and just a smidge more damage. Slam, 2375. WOOOO
Mii Fighters are an interesting concept. I think you could make Hunter into a puncher, Smoker into a gunner (the gunner borrows from Megaman and Samus,) and Charger into a sword-user. You can also modify movesets - like with Samus, I found her #3 neutral, which turns the Charge Beam into a short range energy spike weapon (that can still be charged.)
As for Samus (and her separate unarmoured-form character,) she feels a bit overhauled in a way that most returning characters don't - despite not much changing. Armoured Samus has the same moves, they just look a bit different. Maybe it's just a 3DS thing. ZSS has definitely new regulars, though - she relies more on karate than the gun now, it seems. As for character scaling, it's a bit weird.
It's easy enough to confirm (using Little Mac, who's known to be 5'7 in later Punch-Out! games, and Palutena who's known to be 5'10 in Uprising) that *armoured* Samus is properly 6'3.
Armoured Samus's height is calibrated by her side taunt (she does a weapon change and takes a strong, tall stance, pro'ly losing an inch of height) and an idle where she checks her weapon. This is necessary because her combat stance loses more height than these.
Little Mac tends to take a low boxer's stance; his height is calibrated to the high point of his standing up-smash uppercut, with the caveat that he is on his tiptoes at that moment (gaining about an inch and a half.)
Palutena's basic idle is sufficient for her, as it's a casual stance that doesn't seem to gain or lose height.
The top of Palutena's head comes up to Samus's visor, though just barely; and it is just above the jump jets on the back. Little Mac only reaches the jump jets (the bottom of her shoulder armour) at calibration.
This also jives with Charizard (typical Charizards are 5'7) and Ike (whose down-taunt indicates 6' even when compared to Palutena; this reaches the top of Samus's visor.)
Thus, *armoured* Samus is her proper height of 6'3.
What of ZSS? I'm calibrating her to a weapon-check idle; her left leg is straight, so it's about as good as we're going to get. She has those jump jet platform heels which are adding about two inches of height... and even then Ike is 1-2 inches taller.
ZSS is marginally shorter than Palutena; and barely gets the bottom of armoured Samus's visor.
*Zero Suit* Samus is about 5'7, maybe 5'8, once you account for the heels.
More later. :)