Traveller-digest      Friday, October 1 1999      Volume 1999 : Number 1149



(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Military Bands (was Re: Bagpipes)
Annic Nova
Re: UNCLASSIFIED Traveller's many faces (& typos)...
Rules...
Re: Shiont(h)y Belt
RE: UNCLASSIFIED Traveller's many faces (& typos)...
RE: Shiont(h)y Belt
Re: Shiont(h)y Belt
Re: Linux question 
Re: Linux question 
RE: Shiont(h)y Belt
Friday afternoon mind bender
Re: Linux question 
Re: Linux question 
Re: Linux question 
Re: Linux question
WBH different to Grand Census/Suvery [was: Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1143]
Re: Citizens of the TML
Real World(tm) Neural Net Breakthrough
And For You Shipboard Doctors...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 01:41:19 +0100
From: "Dr. Nik" <sharik@barrayar.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Military Bands (was Re: Bagpipes)

>>> Banned by the TU equivalent of the Geneva Convention shurely?
>>>
>>Only by you hethans who do not know the sounds and songs of god when you
>>hear it.
>
>You said it!  There's nothing that the massed pipes and drums to make you
>want to go invade something, preferably northern England.
>
>My Marines use pipes.  Mostly it's a tradition thing, but the effect pipers
>in a small starship have on Naval crew is a big plus.

You want to try listening to the band of HM Royal Marines playing the
Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back - it's a piece you wouldn't
want to hear them play in anger. It explains why all of the Imperials
are played by Brits. No bagpipes admittedly, but the effect is stunning.

Given the size of the Imperial Armed Forces you're going to have a lot
of military bands. Anyone have any idea how many? Or, for that matter,
what the ratio of bands/bandsmen to frontline troops?

Nik
- --------------------------------------------------------------
     Nik Whitehead C885587-B S zh++ as+ da+ kk-- A 224
sharik@barrayar.demon.co.uk    http://www.barrayar.demon.co.uk
           Having the moral high ground is good.
   Having the moral high ground and a meson gun is better.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 19:43:04 +1000
From: "The Roc" <roc@kewl.com.au>
Subject: Annic Nova

- ----- Original Message -----
From: <david.d.jaques-watson@centrelink.gov.au>
To: <traveller@mpgn.com>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 1999 11:28 AM
Subject: Annic Nova (was Fw: Shipboard vs. Groundbound salaries)


> Dear Folks -
>
> Anthony mentioned:
> >Also in the old CT adventure Annic Nova this oddball vessel was carrying
a
> >family, though they all perished prior to the start of the adventure.
>
> Actually, after Adventures 2 & 3, I always pegged the Annic Nova as a
> Droyne hand-built starship. It's an easy way to explain many of the
> anomalies in its design and reported behaviour.
>

Yessssssssss...  I also went for the easy out of saying it was Droyne (to
myself, I never told my players), but if I recall correctly, it contained
some fine wine or brandy or such that the PC's recognised as being from
<wherever> which begged the question of some of the clues making the vessel
accessible to stuff the adventurers "had access to" so why was the ship such
a mystery?

Myself, I'd love to peg where it was really from.

- -- The Roc

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 10:46:34 +0100
From: "Stuart Ferris" <stuart.ferris@virgin.net>
Subject: Re: UNCLASSIFIED Traveller's many faces (& typos)...

Black Ice wrote:-

>Meanwhile, the following settings/worlds have been used as TSR-published
>D&D/AD&D settings in my memory:

>Greyhawk
>Mystara/Blackmoor (the early Blackmoor campaign was said to be in
>Mystara's ancient past)
>The Hollow Earth (a subset of Mystara, with little or no contact)
>The Forgotten Realms
>Dark Sun (I forget the name of the world in question)
>Ravenloft

>I may have forgotten a setting or two; if so I apologize to any fans of
>settings I've forgotten.

>Bottom line:  Traveller has gone through major rule changes, in a single
>evolving setting.  D&D/AD&D have gone through minor rule changes, in
>multiple settings.  Which type of change is more disorienting?  I would
>think that the latter is more difficult to assimilate than the former.

And that is where AD&D has succeeded where Traveller has failed. Traveller
restricts the player to one setting and apart from the on-going timeline
changes there has been very little development of that setting. The worlds
in AD&D have been developed beautifully. I have played various campaigns in
the World of Greyhawk for over 15 years and have yet to find a better
location for roleplaying.

Stuart Ferris
stuart.ferris@virgin.net
http://freespace.virgin.net/stuart.ferris/index.htm

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 20:13:00 +1000
From: "The Roc" <roc@kewl.com.au>
Subject: Rules...

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
To: <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 1999 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: UNCLASSIFIED Traveller's many faces (& typos)...



>
> Bottom line:  Traveller has gone through major rule changes, in a single
> evolving setting.  D&D/AD&D have gone through minor rule changes, in
> multiple settings.  Which type of change is more disorienting?  I would
> think that the latter is more difficult to assimilate than the former.
>

You mean it's easier to learn a whole tome of rules than it is to simply
adjust one or two actual rules?  I always found it more easier to read,
"Instead of This, it is applied as That..." several times than to digest all
of another rules set?  Maybe it's just me?  But I had a lot less trouble
switching to the change over in Merc's (LBB4) expanded chargen than I did
trying to learn all of MT.

- -- The Roc

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 23:09:37 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Shiont(h)y Belt

In mail you write:

>>>> Sinothy Belt/Regina has large chunks of antimatter in it.
>>>
>>>Antimatter? Is this plausible? Or is Yaskodray to blame?
>>
>>It's in the vicinity of Yaskodray's toy universe, so perhaps the large
>>amount of antimatter is an artifaxct of the pinching off of that pocket
>>universe.
>
> I always figured that Shionthy Belt was a result of either Grandfather or
> one of the Kids pointing a big-ass Charge Reversal Ray(tm) at a planet
> (call it Shionthy) and turning it on.  Presumably only a portion of the
> planet's mass flipped from matter to antimatter... but the resulting global
> reaction was more than sufficient to blow Shionthy into fragments.  Some of
> these fragments later met up with their opposites and became smaller
> fragments, accompanied by a nice flash of hard gamma.

Actually, it gets a *lot* more complicated than that. 

Electron/positron mutual annihilation produces gammas, because they are
elementary particles. Neutrons and protons *aren't* elementary
particles. They are composed of 3 quarks each. (red, green & blue for
normal mattter, anti-red, anti-green & anti-blue for antimatter). 

So when an anti-proton reacts with a proton or neutron, you get *one*
quark from each particle annihilating, and the remaining 4
re-organizing into mesons (quark/anti-quark pairs), usually neutral
pions. The pions are created with quite a bit of energy and move
several meters before decaying into other sorts of messons. Those will
travel more than a kilometer before decaying.

So a matter/antimatter reaction will be *very* spread out.

> Locating antimatter chunks in Shionthy Belt shouldn't be too hard.  Just
> look for the strangely eroded-looking asteroids (due to interaction with
> the solar wind) giving off radiation (ditto).  I hope you have good
> radiation shielding, especially if there's a collision-flare nearby, and
> for god's sake don't try to land on one.

Just hit them with a low power particle beam. If they are antimatter,
it'll be obvious. :-)

> This, of course, ignores an entirely different sort of risk - that of
> "Imperial entanglements."  Aside from the obvious safety hazard, it seems
> the Navy doesn't like the idea of people carting off pieces of the most
> powerful explosive known to humaniti.

Actually, "handling" those "pieces" is going to be a *real* problem. 

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 11:25:22 +0100 
From: "Trevor, Peter" <Peter.Trevor@rb.cwplc.com>
Subject: RE: UNCLASSIFIED Traveller's many faces (& typos)...

Michael Hughes wrote:
> Indeed, I'd like to see future editions have a 'now contains
> 33% more footage' sticker on the front to let us know how much
> is actually new. But hell, all RPGs do the 'minor tweaking,
> different artwork' edition thang - CoC, AD&D you name it. At
> least with Trav things do change a bit in each edition (save
> for the cut & paste bits).  

How about some sort of formal version number  system  (like  FF&S
had "Mk 1 Mod 1").  For  example  "v5.1.2"  would  tell  you  the
product in question is for T5, its the  first  version,  but  the
second sub version (probably corrected typos and the  like).  And
print it  on  the  outside  cover  as  many  game  shops  I  know
shrink-wrap everything.



> However, if the mechanics and setting were isolated in separate
> books, you could get around it more. That way you don't feel
> that a good chunk of the new edition is the same old Library
> data again (except the setting stuff). 

I always liked the idea that Harnworld used (don't know if it was
repeated in the Harn ruleset):  With each new product you cut off
the spine and hole-punched the sheets.  That way you could insert
new pages of source material into  the  right  sections  of  your
universe ring-binder.

Imagine being able  to  organise  your  Traveller  collection  by
Library Data, Atlas, Ship Compedium, Equipment, Adventure  Plots,
NPCs,  Character  Generation  Rules,  Other  Rules,  etc.   Then,
instead of buying semi-miscellaneous  soucebooks  and  adventures
(sourcebooks with plots), you could buy game modules  ...  which,
if an adventure, would list what other modules were  needed.  You
wouldn't have to search through several books to find the one bit
of information you need, and you  could  add  in  your  own  ship
designs/NPCs/whatever also in the right sections.

Such a system would mean more,  but  thinner,  products  ...  and
reduce the amount  of  duplicated  material  you  buy.  Those  on
limited budgets who don't collect everything with  a  "Traveller"
printed on the front could even control their  spending  by  just
buying those components they  need  for  their  campaign  (eg.  a
merchant prince campaign is unlikely to  need  the  fleet  combat
module).

Rulesets could then evolve  piece  by  piece,  instead  of  going
through major changes.  For example, if  task  definitions  don't
change then you could choose between the MT  task  system  of  T4
task system ... based on your own preferences.



Regards PLST
"Rome wasn't burned in a day."

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 11:32:28 +0100 
From: "Trevor, Peter" <Peter.Trevor@rb.cwplc.com>
Subject: RE: Shiont(h)y Belt

Shadow wrote:
> > Locating antimatter chunks in Shionthy Belt shouldn't be too
> > hard.  Just look for the strangely eroded-looking asteroids
> > (due to interaction with the solar wind) giving off radiation
> > (ditto).  I hope you have good radiation shielding, especially
> > if there's a collision-flare nearby, and for god's sake don't
> > try to land on one.
>
> Just hit them with a low power particle beam. If they are
> antimatter, it'll be obvious. :-)

Er, wouldn't the *ongoing* interaction with the solar wind ...
(a) cause antimatter asteroids to glow radioactively? and
(b) "melt" away over time?

Regards PLST
"Rome wasn't burned in a day."

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 04:39:26 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Shiont(h)y Belt

In mail you write:

> Shadow wrote:
>> > Locating antimatter chunks in Shionthy Belt shouldn't be too
>> > hard.  Just look for the strangely eroded-looking asteroids
>> > (due to interaction with the solar wind) giving off radiation
>> > (ditto).  I hope you have good radiation shielding, especially
>> > if there's a collision-flare nearby, and for god's sake don't
>> > try to land on one.
>>
>> Just hit them with a low power particle beam. If they are
>> antimatter, it'll be obvious. :-)
>
> Er, wouldn't the *ongoing* interaction with the solar wind ...

> (a) cause antimatter asteroids to glow radioactively? and

Different stars have different intensities of "solar wind". In a system
with a weak outflow, it may not be that noticeable.

> (b) "melt" away over time?

Fairly slowly. Remember that dust impacts will tend to soften" the
outlines of *any* asteroid.

And stellar wind "impacts" will tend to penetrate the surface before
reacting. A single proton, reacting a few mm below the surface won't
"soften" or melt much. 

If physical contact was possible, the surface would be "crunchy". 

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 08:56:05 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Linux question 

> >> formats linux will support. Anybody got any suggestions, and will a PC
> >> file translate to linux?
> 
> WinZip supports the ".gz" compression of gzip. It also supports ".tar.gz"
> and ".tgz"
> Also most linux systems support the good old zip format.

The unix 'unzip' doesn't support the 'shrink' format.  IIRC, it's due to a 
copyright problem in a library that PKWare used to make PKZip.

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 08:58:57 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Linux question 

> On Thu, 30 Sep 1999 10:50:47 -0400 (EDT), "Andrew
> Moffatt-Vallance" <a.vallance@netaccess.co.nz> wrote:
> 
> >I making a version of my Pocket Empires sheet for Linux. At the moment
> >I've converted it to StarOffice on my PC, but I don't know what compression
> >formats linux will support. Anybody got any suggestions, and will a PC
> >file translate to linux?
> 
> Linux should support any of the widely-available unix formats -
> that would be tar and gzip almost universally; you may also be
> able to get a PKZIP-compatible program.
> 
> As far as StarOffice files moving from Wintel to Linux, my
> understanding of the goals of StarOffice was to make exactly that
> possible, without needing to go through obscure interchange
> formats.

StarOffice is nice.  It handles Word9x format documents no problem, something
that the Linux port of Word Perfect doesn't.  And the price is right,
too.  <grin>  Dunno if Sun changed the pricing schedule when they aquired the
rights to it though, haven't checked yet...

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 14:08:31 +0100 
From: "Trevor, Peter" <Peter.Trevor@rb.cwplc.com>
Subject: RE: Shiont(h)y Belt

Shadow wrote:
> > Er, wouldn't the *ongoing* interaction with the solar wind ...
> >
> > (a) cause antimatter asteroids to glow radioactively? and
>
> Different stars have different intensities of "solar wind". In
> a system with a weak outflow, it may not be that noticeable.

I guess we need to know Shionthy's star  type  (haven't  got  the
books with me), and distence of  the  planetoid  belt.  Was  this
system ever defined in expanded form?



> > (b) "melt" away over time?
>
> Fairly slowly. Remember that dust impacts will tend to soften"
> the outlines of *any* asteroid.
>
> And stellar wind "impacts" will tend to penetrate the surface
> before reacting. A single proton, reacting a few mm below the
> surface won't "soften" or melt much. 
>
> If physical contact was possible, the surface would be "crunchy". 

Okay, so "melt" was the wrong word, how about  "reduce"?  Or  are
you saying that the rate of reduction is  not  much  faster  than
normal abrasion?

If the rate of reduction is significant  then  the  existance  of
antimatter in this system must have started fairly "recently" ...
say the time of the Ancients.  If the rate of  reduction  is  not
significant then the antimatter *may* predate  the  Ancients  and
perhaps be a natural phenomenon.

Actually,  thinking  about  it  wouldn't  the  normal  chance  of
collision with normal matter  rocks  in  the  belt  pose  a  much
greater "reduction" rate?



Regards PLST
"Rome wasn't burned in a day."

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 14:23:52 +0100 
From: "Trevor, Peter" <Peter.Trevor@rb.cwplc.com>
Subject: Friday afternoon mind bender

Okay, here's one for all you astrophysicists out there:

The stated reason you can't go FTL in normal space  is  that  the
closer your speed gets to c the  more  mass  you  have  ...  when
travelling at c you have infinate mass.  However,  if  travelling
FTL your mass is no longer infinate ... but is a complex  number.
Something similar happens to length.

So if you had a STL object with a mass  described  by  a  complex
number how  would  this  manifest  itself?  Would  the  imaginary
portion of the  mass  be  ignored  in  interactions  with  normal
matter?  Would there be different interactions between  two  such
objects?  And what about complex number  value  lengths?  If  you
had such an object would you know?

(No, this isn't OT:  I'm  thinking  of  using  this  info  in  my
campaign, but haven't figured out the details yet.



Regards PLST
"Rome wasn't burned in a day."

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 09:39:51 -0400
From: "Jory Earl" <j-man@iname.com>
Subject: Re: Linux question 

>The unix 'unzip' doesn't support the 'shrink' format.  IIRC, it's due to a
>copyright problem in a library that PKWare used to make PKZip.
>
>Keven

I been using "Unzip" on my GF's pants for years and it hasn't gotten me
anywhere yet.  :(

<heh heh>


___________________________________________________________
 J-Man
 ICQ# 2843475
 New Hampshire - U.S.A.
 Email : j-man@iname.com
 Home Page : http://www.geocities.com/~jman037/
___________________________________________________________

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 09:41:14 -0400
From: "Jory Earl" <j-man@iname.com>
Subject: Re: Linux question 

>StarOffice is nice.  It handles Word9x format documents no problem,
something that the Linux port of Word >Perfect doesn't.  And the price is
right, too.  <grin>  Dunno if Sun changed the pricing schedule when they
>aquired the rights to it though, haven't checked yet...
>
>
.>Keven

Just so happens I downloaded the complete Star Office while it was still
FREE.  So my copy is free to anyone with a cable modem..:)


___________________________________________________________
 J-Man
 ICQ# 2843475
 New Hampshire - U.S.A.
 Email : j-man@iname.com
 Home Page : http://www.geocities.com/~jman037/
___________________________________________________________

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 02:11:00 +1200
From: "Andrew Moffatt-Vallance" <a.vallance@netaccess.co.nz>
Subject: Re: Linux question 

From:           	"Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Date sent:      	Fri, 01 Oct 1999 08:58:57 -0400

> > As far as StarOffice files moving from Wintel to Linux, my
> > understanding of the goals of StarOffice was to make exactly that
> > possible, without needing to go through obscure interchange
> > formats.

> StarOffice is nice.  It handles Word9x format documents no problem,
> something that the Linux port of Word Perfect doesn't.  And the price is
> right, too.  <grin>  Dunno if Sun changed the pricing schedule when they
> aquired the rights to it though, haven't checked yet...

As of right now, its still free on the Sun site.


Andrew etc
Homepage http://users.netaccess.co.nz/amv/
Traveller http://www.downport.com/amv/
 "What do you expect from a species who's females are
 always in heat" Ko of the Ilui clan on Humans and honour

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 02:11:00 +1200
From: "Andrew Moffatt-Vallance" <a.vallance@netaccess.co.nz>
Subject: Re: Linux question

From:           	Jeff Zeitlin <jzeitlin@cyburban.com>
Date sent:      	Thu, 30 Sep 1999 17:35:13 -0400

> Linux should support any of the widely-available unix formats -
> that would be tar and gzip almost universally; you may also be
> able to get a PKZIP-compatible program.

Okay, so does anyone know where I can get a wintel utility to make tar
and gzip files? I've got something which seems to make something called
tgz, but my knowledge of linux is sadly lacking.


Andrew etc
Homepage http://users.netaccess.co.nz/amv/
Traveller http://www.downport.com/amv/
 "What do you expect from a species who's females are
 always in heat" Ko of the Ilui clan on Humans and honour

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:14:27 +0100
From: Timothy.Collinson@solent.ac.uk
Subject: WBH different to Grand Census/Suvery [was: Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1143]

Seth Kimmel wrote:


>BTW, what's the difference between WBH and First Censis/First Survey?


I haven't seen a response to this so here goes:

Basically, _World Builder's Handbook_ is an amalgamation of the two with
lots of additional material and the text generally tidied up and the layout
improved.  (For example, WBH uses the DGP standard equipment sheets).

However, not everything made it into WBH.

Gone from _Grand Survey_:
- - cover picture
- - page of DGP Univeral Task Profile explanation
- - nearly three pages of examples of how to use the sensor control panels
- - the 3/4 page of using starship sensors in combat
- - the illustrations of vacc suits from TL9-15
- - 3/4 page of climate/weather detailing and tables for overcast and
precipitation and weather intensity and duration
- - page of geologic activity detailing with earthquakes and effects and a
volacano eruption table
- - page and half of movement rate tables, weather effects of movement and
other effects of world data on play
- - an index

Gone from _Grand Census_:
- - page of DGP Univeral Task Profile explanation
- - page of linguistics skill usage with DGP style example tasks that use
linguistics
- - 2 pages of notes on law, crime and punishment
- - 3/4 page of notes on minor races and a partial listing of minor races
(with references to Traveller materials where it's appeared)
- - page or so on 'roots of Imperial culture'
- - one column on economics
- - Ethical Batar - an example religion
- - an index
- - colour version of Bwap meeting picture (WBH has it small and in b/w)


On the other hand, WBH did gain some extra material:

Added to _World Builder's Handbook_:
- - cover picture
- - IS Form 23 (replacing IS Form 20 and 22)
- - half page on the IISS in the Shattered Imperium
- - half page detailing the IISS field offices
- - half page sidebar defining 'lifeform'
- - revised sensor readout panel (replacing two given in GS)
- - DGP style equipment sheets (NB: info transferred from earlier books but
better laid out)
- - Image Converter Binoculars, Floater and Remote Earpiece
- - MT details for the Kankurur G-carrier
- - MT Universal Craft Profile for the Donosev class survey vessel
- - intererior illos for the Donosev
- - various diagrams in the world building section
- - female scout illo


In addition some of the grainier illustrations from the earlier two books
have been removed.  No great losses, though the silhouetted explorers on
the horizon with a moon as backdrop (p.26) was disappointingly not
transferred.  Other illustrations were added.

Hope this helps.  I'm ready to be corrected on any of the above as the
three books are a real pain to compare with their different layouts.


tc

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 07:33:52 -0700
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: Citizens of the TML

>From: "James W. Lindsay" <jlindsay@home.com>
...
>>   You mean _rabid_ - you traded for my copy of T4 Starships, remember? :)
>
>You betcha.  I needed to wrap my recently completed tome of "96 blank
>pages" in a shiny new black cover (featuring some non-related Foss art, of

  Just be careful not to say his name three times... :)

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 09:33:24 -0500 
From: "Smart, David J (David)" <dasmart@lucent.com>
Subject: Real World(tm) Neural Net Breakthrough

Welcome to TL9!

ScienceDaily has posted an article on a recent breakthrough
with neural nets. An excerpt is below.

- --- quote ---
Machine demonstrates superhuman speech recognition abilities.
University of Southern California biomedical engineers have 
created the world's first machine system that can recognize 
spoken words better than humans can. A fundamental rethinking
of a long-underperforming computer architecture led to their
achievement...

In benchmark testing using just a few spoken words, USC's 
Berger-Liaw Neural Network Speaker Independent Speech
Recognition System not only bested all existing computer speech
recognition systems but outperformed the keenest human ears...

The system can distinguished words in vast amounts of random
"white" noise, noise with amplitude 1,000 times the strength of
the target auditory signal. Human listeners can deal with only a
fraction as much. And the system can pluck words from the
background clutter of other voices, the hubbub heard in bus
stations, theater lobbies and cocktail parties, for example.
Even the best existing systems fail completely when as little as
10 percent of hubbub masks a speaker's voice. At slightly higher
noise levels, the likelihood that a human listener can identify
spoken test words is mere chance. By contrast, Berger and Liaw's
system functions at 60 percent recognition with a hubbub level
560 times the strength of the target stimulus. With just a minor
adjustment, the system can identify different speakers of the
same word with superhuman acuity...

- --- endquote ---

The full story is at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/10/991001064257.htm

ObTrav:  Hook this baby up to a hi-TL equivalent of a parabolic
or laser microphone and an hi-TL repressive government can listen
in on any PC group's conversations. Fortunately, the reverse
is also true.

David

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 09:42:39 -0500 
From: "Smart, David J (David)" <dasmart@lucent.com>
Subject: And For You Shipboard Doctors...

ScienceDaily strikes again with a story on the use
of LED probes used to destroy brain cancer. The details
are great for background color of a shipboard sickbay.

- --- quote ---

For the first time, surgeons have used a special lighting
technology, developed for space-based commercial plant
growth research on NASA's Space Shuttle, in two
successful operations to treat brain cancer on Earth...

For the treatment technique called Photodynamic Therapy,
a surgeon uses tiny pinhead-size Light Emitting Diodes
(LEDs) -- a source releasing long wavelengths of light
- -- to activate light-sensitive, tumor-treating drugs...

- --- endquote ---

More details can be found at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/09/990930185847.htm

David

------------------------------

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1149
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