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http://daytonabeach.erau.edu/coa/aeronautical-science/news-events/embry-riddle-is-training-unmanned-aircraft-pilots.html

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is stepping up to fill that need with a new minor in Unmanned Aircraft Systems that begins on the university’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus in the fall semester of 2010

Did this originate from the NASA SATS Program?
http://sats.erau.edu/nationalsats/

...I don't think there are any cases of planes crashing or otherwise coming to harm because of cigarettes.

I think (not totally sure) that the cause of the lavatory fire in Air Canada 797 on June 2, 1983, could have been a cigarette.

I couldn't find a good linkable reference, but I think the 25 fatalities on an Ilyushin 18B at Guangzhou-Baiyun airport in 1982 was also caused by a fire started by a cigarette.

Another example (July 11th, 1973) can be found here.

One kilometer?? DEBI was a real rocket. [pictures] About 30 feet long, two stage solid fuel. With 40 G's acceleration it reached mach 10 in a little under 30 seconds (below 40km altitude) and sailed to a apogee of about 800km. Since the rocket had a ballistic trajectory we needed clearance through the pentagon to circumvent the anti-ballistic missle treaty.

Even little baby Loki Dart's will reach 50km on a good day.

One kilometer?? DEBI was a real rocket. [pictures] About 30 feet long, two stage solid fuel. With 40 G's acceleration it reached mach 10 in a little under 30 seconds (below 40km altitude) and sailed to a apogee of about 800km. Since the rocket had a ballistic trajectory we needed clearance through the pentagon to circumvent the anti-ballistic missle treaty.

Even little baby Loki Dart's will reach 50km on a good day.

Superglue + Ethernet port = No shit happens

But to be completely honest, I am a student myself, and I get completely pissed off by all the security measures at my school. Sure, it stopped/made it harder to do things such as what your trying to stop, but ultimately if you try hard enough, anythings possible. Ever heard of Mandrake Move?

At my school they disabled right clicking. It seriously impares one of my classes (digital design), which slows down the class because the teacher has to explain how to copy and paste without right click (yeah, we have got some retards in my class).

Anyway, ultimately, its your problem. You can try whatever you want, but there are so many proxies and there are many other ways to get around it anyway. One day, your students will find a way around it.

Good luck anyway, and I hope you decide to just more closely watch your students.

The only fool proof way to stop the internet is to disconnect....

I'm sorry, WHY do you have to tell the difference between red, green, yellow blue and white lights?

You're a VFR pilot and you don't understand this concept? I recommend you read this accident report. This accident was caused in part because the flying pilot was color-blind, and could not differentiate properly between between the red and white of the PAPI lights in use at this particular airport. The same lighting system (where the proper glidepath is denoted by two red and two white lights on the ground) is used at many airports around the world.

Or even better, just home in on RNAV at the airport, then dial up the ILS and do a glideslope/localiser approach.

Well, when you graduate from being VFR-only, you'll realize that not every airport has an ILS, and even major airports do not have ILS on every runway.

As you'll see reading that accident report, even minor variations in color perception can make a major difference. The pilots on that flight thought the PAPI lights were "pink" - does that mean the light is really supposed to be red? Or is it white with a little red bleeding into it? This can mean the difference between a safe landing and a crash, as was the case in this FedEx accident.

Windshields need to appear completely clear to the pilot, and they need to allow the full color spectrum through without alteration. Now, I'm no expert on lasers, maybe there's some way of coating the glass that can only disturb certain wavelengths common to lasers, while allowing the colors a pilot often has to deal with get through. But it's something that would need a lot of study and testing before applying it to aircraft.

Anyways, good suggestion. Most of these were originally taken for documentation purposes. The connector on RAP is a standard canon connector. That's a 15 I believe, just like a game port on a PC. If you go into the photo gallery itself you'll see human hands holding the RAP payload. There are some pictures of the optical assembly of DEBI that I put a dime next to the optics to show scale.

As for nukes and Mars, you're correct. However, if you got to stand *outside* within 150 yards of one of these things taking off you'd reconsider the "coolness" rating you give it. I've even stood on the blockhouse to watch when the science didn't need me at a station. It looked like this.

The difference is that we typically have about a 20 man crew, everything from range support to NASA TM to PI and his crew. Check out my lab's photo gallery for some pictures.

It's an ugly image (aviation) but that's what we're known for. The professor who proposed this grant is one of the best known gravity wave modeling researchers in the country. I, personally, work in the Atmospheric Physics Research Lab building sounding rocket payloads.

"I was attending Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach, I flew down to Titusville to see a friend"

Umm, that's a less than two and a half-hour drive, and you flew? They let you do that just to see a friend?

Actually, this picture and this explaination are more likely the source of the UFO theories in the area. Both pictures taken by me at White Sands Missile Range. You can click on the picture for a closer look.

Actually, this picture and this explaination are more likely the source of the UFO theories in the area. Both pictures taken by me at White Sands Missile Range. You can click on the picture for a closer look.

Here's one from bluerobot.com
And here's one I developed myself...

I just transfered from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and while there my Microprocessor Systems Professor who took me in shared with me information of the UAV project that he was starting. The following was the information about the UAV he planned: -It will be small, the craft being a helicopter -It would be cheap. $15k ($7k - Helicopter, $8k Electronics) -Price to public would be $50k-$75k -It would be easy to fly & user friendly. Requiring NO pilot training. Would be similar to flying a video game airplane. -Allowing for single-user operation. With high level command structure. -Object-oriented design with much more robust software to ensure it won't fail like the Predator in combat. -Includes GPS & Video for non-combat survillance work. Most people in the Aviation field laughed at him after making most of these statements including the price. Unfortunately, they don't understand his background and full knowledge of the field. After being a Microprocessor Engineer for Texas Instruments and Intel he took a liking to flying and started an aviation business for UAV flight control system in 1994. His knowledge and abilities will be make it able for him to help the students of Embry-Riddle create the UAV despite the many people who continue to laugh in his face!

I think a bigger concern would be whether the connectors are properly held together and maintain electrical connection. The boards should be fine.

You can find lots of DEBI info by looking through the past two weeks of my journal. You'd have to follow links from my web page link below in my sig. I won't link it directly since the machine will probably tank after only a few concurrent connections.

The National Transportation Safety Board pulled investigators pulled people from the Flight 587 probe to help out on the Columbia investigation. NTSB Field Investigators, unfortunately, are experienced with finding the cause from many sometimes grisly pieces of data.
They also know what to bring, what to do, where to go and what to ask. And of course, they known how to extract data from Flight Data Recorders Interestingly, the NTSB issued recommendations that Require retrofit after January 1, 2005, of all cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) [...] [be] fitted with an independent power source [...] that provides 10 minutes of operation whenever aircraft power to the recorder ceases. Just one of the things the NTSB fights the FAA over :-)

But remember the "Black box" (OEX recorder) on the shuttle is very different from a CVR.

Well, Nasa has stopped their ISS crew rescue vehicle program last year for cost reasons. See here .

Thanks for the info. I found some additional information . There was some talk of using this gold-plated mini-shuttle as the rescue vehicle. Then this design was being worked on. Even though its budget was, as Lars pointed out, cut for 2002, they still test launched it as recently as December 2001. This link has some info on the use of the Soyuz as the rescue vehicle.

I hadn't realized that US budget decisions had cut the ISS back to a skeleton crew. Here is a press release from a US Senator commenting on a recently released independent review of the Space Station's Science programs.

It is an extremely one sided system- as they unethically designed it to be (1). As many have pointed out, the system is set up to make you feel you cannot possibly fight it, given the unacceptable risk if you lose.(2) However, if you can find other cases where people have fought, and you see how they did it, you might have hope.

People need to know how bad it is for schools. Example: Slashdot on Microsoft / BSA vs the LA School District, (3) where "hundreds" of unlicensed copies were found. the threat was $150,000 fine for each copy of a $100 per license product. ($100 at best. 1/3 was MSDOS, and schools get very good rates). They "negotiate" down to a $300,000 total fine, and the school district probably felt very grateful for this kindness of the BSA.

This is a 150,000% fine negotiated down to a 1,000% fine. (or 1,500x down to 10x). How does the BSA get to levy fines so out of proportion to actual damages? Yes, illegal copies are a crime (as is speeding), but the LAUSD wasn't running a mass piracy operation. Assuming that "hundreds" = 500 copies found, then the LAUSD had found roughly 1 copy per school, or 1 copy per 120 employees. The BSA got to treat the LAUSD as if it had found widespread felonious behavior rather than a few years worth of a few people deliberately or mistakenly making copies. No proof of bad intentions needed.

Extraordinary fines should require extraordinary proof, but instead the BSA has you do all the work, and even if you are entirely innocent you can still get hit. Unless a mistake can cause extraordinary harm, you don't usually get to treat mistakes like a felony! What makes the BSA so special? They get to threaten fines in line with fines for damage to life and health. Is software piracy that much worse than discharging toxic substances into waterways (max fine $125,000)? Misbranding a drug in interstate commerce (max fine $100,000)? Violating the Sherman Antitrust Act (the fine listed in Section 3571 (d) is "not more than the greater of twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss" caused by the conduct...)?

The LAUSD is not a happy ending story- but this current story might be. A collection of all cases like it would be useful for anyone just receiving a dreadful BSA / Microsoft letter. The site should be part of a high-Google-rank site, so that it is easy to find (for non-technical folks). The database should also have easy to find links to all user groups, by geographical areas, so that anyone can quickly get advice / quotes / support.

(1) Because a good ethical system (think Categorical Imperative) includes consistency in applying rules. The BSA would never accept their rules applied to themselves: imagine a Software Consulting Association sending audit letters out checking for late payments to consultants. If you've paid a consultant more than 30 days late, you get fined 150,000% of the daily rate.

(2) You'll fight a traffic ticket because you can afford to lose. What if the original ticket was $100,000, with a "negotiated" fine of $1,000? This is extortion, not a negotiation- you'll accept whatever the court says. Not to mention if *you* had to show that you didn't speed, even a little bit, and lack of evidence = proof of guilt. And it took a minimum of 5 days in court and they get to dismantle your car and replace equipment to test its maximum speed! That is what these audits are: time consuming and they can place programs on your system.

(3) Also see Inside the BSA (2/02)

This is a 150,000% fine negotiated down to a 1,000% fine. (or 1,500x down to 10x) How does the BSA get to levy fines so out of proportion to actual damages? Is software piracy that much worse than discharging toxic substances into waterways (max fine $125,000)? Misbranding a drug in interstate commerce (max fine $100,000)? Violating the Sherman Antitrust Act (the fine listed in Section 3571 (d) is "not more than the greater of twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss" caused by the conduct...)?

Assuming that "hundreds" = 500 copies found, then the LAUSD had found roughly 1 copy per school, or 1 copy per 120 employees ( it has 60k employees total). The BSA got to treat the LAUSD as if it had found widespread felonious behavior rather than a few years worth of a few people deliberately or mistakenly making copies. That is too much power for one relatively small group (sure, $3 billion sounds like a lot, but per capita that's only $30/ working adult). Extraordinary fines should require extraordinary proof, but instead the BSA has you do all the work, and unless you are completely clean, you're faced with that 1,000x fine.

Put another way: if local traffic courts had $100,000 tickets for speeding, you'd feel grateful if the court "reduced" the fine to $666. But should the original ticket be so high? Most people would have to accept whatever the court says, because the original penalty makes it almost impossible to fight- you'll fight a ticket if you can accept the possibility of failure- with the original penalty so high, that risk cannot be taken. Not to mention if *you* had to show that you didn't speed, even a little bit, and lack of evidence = proof of guilt.

The BSA's power fails the Categorical Imperative test (i.e. only set rules for yourself that you'd be willing to accept as rules for everyone). Imagine if every association had the BSA's power. Failure to pay overtime can be worth hundreds to an employee. So lets have unions get the power to force self-audits for overtime, with $400k fines per violation. Or not paying a consultant on time... I think $200k is an appropriate fine, and half should go to that consultant, of course.

Apparently a single server is malfunctioning. Problems include not being able to communicate with the Station, command the new robot arm, nor turn off the Station navigation system. The Shuttle also cannot lift the orbit while the Station navigation system is flying the Station.

A NASA page says:

The primary result of today's computer problem was a loss of communication and data transfer between the Space Station Flight Control Room and the station. Communication capability was routed through Endeavour enabling the crew and flight controllers to talk to one another.

Despite the difficulties encountered with the computer system today, all systems on board the spacecraft continued to function properly.

We discussed some of the ISS computers in an April 4 article about ISS logs, although not the C&C computers. Apparently there is a malfunction of the Control & Data Handling C&C MDMs, not merely communications to the PCS C&C laptops. The 6MB PDF NASA ISS overview describes CDH in Section 2.

Apparently a single server is malfunctioning. Problems include not being able to communicate with the Station, command the new robot arm, nor turn off the Station navigation system. The Shuttle also cannot lift the orbit while the Station navigation system is flying the Station.

A NASA page says:

The primary result of today's computer problem was a loss of communication and data transfer between the Space Station Flight Control Room and the station. Communication capability was routed through Endeavour enabling the crew and flight controllers to talk to one another.

Despite the difficulties encountered with the computer system today, all systems on board the spacecraft continued to function properly.

We discussed some of the ISS computers in an April 4 article about ISS logs, although not the C&C computers. Apparently there is a malfunction of the Control & Data Handling C&C MDMs, not merely communications to the PCS C&C laptops. The 6MB PDF ISS overview describes CDH in Section 2.

Over a decade ago I proposed the National Science Trust that would be a trust fund that paid out only for information delivered, from whatever source and by whatever lawful means. In other words, new information flowing in causes new cash to flow out.

I'm no longer one to advocate political action about anything, but The National Science Trust idea can easily be adapted to private philanthropy as well.

Over a decade ago I proposed the National Science Trust that would be a trust fund that paid out only for information delivered, from whatever source and by whatever lawful means. In other words, new information flowing in causes new cash to flow out.

I'm no longer one to advocate political action about anything, but The National Science Trust idea can easily be adapted to private philanthropy as well.

LED's are terrific. Increased reliability, higher efficiency, lower power consumption, higher peak output, and better heat dissipation.

BUT, one 'negative' side effect of greater LED usage is the NTSB will have less forensic evidence after aircrashes (at least with smaller private planes without a flight data recorder)...

At moment-of-impact, the filament from a lit bulb breaks apart differently from an already-burned out bulb or from an operable-but-not-lit bulb.

Here's an article that describes filament analysis. And two reports, one where LED's prevent filament analysis (search for "filament analysis") and another where analysis showed the status of indicators (search for "filament stretching")

Slightly off-topic, but interesting, I think.

Unix is any operating system derived from the source code of the original unix developed by Bell Labs. Linux is not a UNIX, but a UNIX-like operating system. A Unix-like operating system is any operating system which reimplements the spirit and designs of the operating system drempt up by Dennis Ritchie et al. *BSD on the other hand has a pedigree which goes all the way back, so is a "true unix", although the definition varys a little depending on who you are talking to. Some people think UNIX is any OS that Bell Labs says. Go look at these web pages:

Unix History

and be sure to visit the history of unix written by Dennis Ritchie himself:

Dennis Ritchie's History of Unix.

DOS is dead, as well it should be. The concept of a single-user, single-tasking, unprotected memory space OS should have been dead and buried a long, long time ago. The scheduler for DOS is laughable at best, and please don't even mention threading. DOS was never designed to go anywhere but a single PC, unattatched to any network. That's a huge issue today when even your microwave oven has a Net connection. We are becoming a wired society, and the operating systems we use should reflect that.

I guess I just take issue with your assertion that only the "latest and greatest" is worth anything. If you'll recall, the seemingly favorite platform of the majority of Slashdot has it's origins over thirty years ago. Just because something is old, doesn't mean it isn't worth anything. Look at the technical merits of DOS (or anything else, for that matter) before viewing its usefulness in the future.

I realize that this is slightly whacky, and the person who's page this is will probably growl at me, but, one of the slashdotters (can't remember his name/nick) has a page, here (or linked to from here, I believe) that should prove interesting.. in the field of microwaves an other such pyro-manageable items. and to whoever's site this is, many thanks and kudos!!