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If I was sending an embedded control computer to another planet, I would have chosen an OS with memory protection, not VxWorks.

Actually, they might have protected memory if they use VxWorks AE RTOS/Tornado Tools 3.0. Spirit uses VxWorks, but I don't know what version they used or when they had to commit to a particular version of VxWorks.

Also, as the article mentions, memory protection adds overhead and can affect real-time performance. Hard real-time software cannot afford to have a complex layered structure and lots of conditional code that adds unpredictable delays. For that reason, many really real-time applications run very close to the hardware (for better or for worse.)

I think we can be reasonably certain that VeriSign (a) only runs as much of an OS on their root server as is absolutely necessary, and (b) only patches it when it's thoroughly tested and approved by people who know what they're working on.

I agree that Verisign is extremely careful in exactly the ways that you suggest. But I also remember the MCI Frame Relay outage of 1999 and Therac-25 Accidents. The point is that any regime of tests and analyses will only eliminate a percentage (admittedly a high percentage) of the potential fault conditions. And if you realize that Verisign is up against the combined smarts of intentional and unintentional black hats, then you realize that it is inevitable that someone outside the trusted circle will discover and use an exploit before Verisign and the internet community can find the fault and plug it.

What I meant by avoiding monoculture is that any mission critical system would do well to avoid a single implementation of a protocol, encryption algorithm, or OS. Instead, the system should employ more than one independent approach with discrepancy detection. That way, a foe would need to simultaneously spoof or hack a system in multiple ways to create an undetectable exploit.

Nothing is foolproof, but systems that rely on a single chain of logic, algorithm, or code are especially fool hardy.

It looks like standard-codes adopted by governemt can be copied due to a recent court ruling: more info

Diversified companies were the fashion of the 50's and 60's, throwing together businesses with no noticeable linkages. Trimming those megacorps back down to a "we make 'x'" model was the fashion of the 90's.

Incidentally, the CAT scanner company still exists as Sensaura.

show your email publicly, and I'll email you on monday. Or email me, and I'll get you some links (hmmm. will take me time), or a marketing/sales type person who'll have all the nice documentation to hand. Let me know more about what you're after.
Cheers.

some news links from google:
about the RAC

Police, Fire:
news
news
news in pdf format

Police Federation news

This is interesting for you.. the Fire Brigade Union's response to the government's desire to integrate control rooms (you don't need me to tell you any excuse will do to stop this)

http://www.fbu.org.uk/campaigns/control/controls tu ds.htm
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odp m_fire/d ocuments/page/odpm_fire_026271-11.hcsp

A lot of people using "average" televisions in the 20-to-27-inch range can't tell the difference between VCRs and DVDs when it comes to quality.

No way. Do a back to back comparison some time. I can easily tell the different on a 19 inch tv.

but I highly doubt that Joe Sixpack (who finally got a DVD player for Christmas) with a 25" screen will care.

Huh? Do you live in an old folks home? Over 50 million households now own a DVD player. 50 million! Joe sixpack bought his two years ago.

What's holding people back? The shipping costs on a $44 DVD player?

Best Buy is selling HD-ready TV's for $500. They're selling 50" widescreens for just over $1000.

Like it or not, this stuff is totally mainstream at this point. People aren't throwing their current TV's into the trash, but the emphasis has clearly shifted to DVDs and all the stores are trying to sell HDTV stuff.

Go to a Best Buy and look at how many rear projection TV's the sell that AREN'T widescreen. Last time I was there it was about 2... two models for the entire store.

Not that I'm complaining, but wasn't 2003 supposed to be the year of desktop linux?

A professor a keele university many years ago ( I think I read this originally) developed a system whereby potentially 14 terrabytes could be stored on a credit card sized device. See this
Article it was reckoned that this storage medium could have been manufactured for roughly 30quid (sterling).

Why havent we seen this technology yet ? well, its potentially a disruptive technology having this kind of storage available so cheaply to consumers would cause so many problems in the marketplace. It hasnt happened yet. Make no mistake, although this is a cool development. Just realise that there are things possible that cant be sold for reason of economy.

So far as I can tell, most mainstream mailreaders (in their default configuration) will show you only the HTML component, if both variants are provided.

Thus, the spammer puts their filter-fooling gibberish in the text/plain component, and their add in the text/html component. The recipient is none the wiser about the gibberish.

Since I use mutt, and I don't have an HTML filter configured, I'm immune to the ads in most spam. Since spam advertisements like to have tracker images and so on (to measure how often people actually open spam), I seem to get relatively little spam that lacks an HTML component. Further, most spam lacks a meaningful text/plain component.

The only annoyance with this arrangement is the fact that one or two of my coworkers insist on sending HTML-only email. *sigh* (Since one of them is the father of JTAG, I don't bother trying to bend his ways.)

Seems to me the higher energy costs in these factories would be offest by the gain in work hours that would have before been used for cleaning, disinfecting, sharpening, replacing etc of the blades.

All the evidence suggests that U.S. meat and poultry processing plants already save money by not cleaning or disinfecting, so this is just added unnecessary cost! Why, it sounds like you're trying to take away grisly, unpleasant, underpaid, underinsured jobs from hard working underemployed Americans and illegal aliens! Why don't you go back to Communist, um, Canada! Yeah.

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean you're not eating it

Here is another link for a proposed Mars Calendar:
http://mars.complete-isp.com/time/zubrin.html

NASA has an Applet showing the current time on Mars.

Offtopic - NASA is really embracing Java lately. At least parts of the control and visualising software for the current mission uses Java, including Java 3D. Java not ready for user interfaces eh?
They also certainly seem to be considering Java and Linux for future missions and have built a concept vehicle using it. The SD times article is very preachy, and I'm sure people sceptical of Java can argue over many of the points, but it is interesting still.

Head... about... to... EXPLODE!!!

Linux is used for oil exploration research.

Gates and McBride are in a different circle of hell than Cheney and Perle.

This string is highly informative of the fine line between uninformed and misinformed. The study mentioned was either poorly conducted or deliberately misleading. I suspect the latter as it included beer and carbonated water. Real science would use controlled factors, such as the same base wine, same storage conditions, etc. As to the 'sparkling wine' in the study, we are not informed whether it is injection carbonated, bulk transfer, bottle transfer, or traditional method(methode champenoise). These processes all contribute or detract from the flavor of finished wine. Do apples taste better than oranges? I think so, but I wouldn't then draw conclusions about the organaleptic superiority of malic acid over citric acid.

In my research, evidence about a correlation between bubble size and gustatory quality is mixed. Cited in the following article is one of many studies that draws a more ambivalent conclusion, but I have read others as well. There is also an explanation of the Guiness cascade effect.

However, bubble science itself is wicked cool.

By the way, according to the EU, the term 'methode champenoise' referring to wines grown and produced outside of Champagne, also causes enough confusion so as to be banned in Europe. While I agree with protection of appellation through regulation-mainly because businesses have proven they will stoop to any prevarication in order to increase sales-this one I would have to disagree with as it is a description of process and it seems to me it is done in a respectful and even deferential way. The term used now is 'methode traditionelle' or 'traditional method.'

US Federal receipts have been rising at a fairly close to exponential rate of a power of ten every 20 years from about 1950 until today. The total debt has been tracking Federal receipts very well for a long period of time, with debt 2-3 times yearly receipts.

Federal receipts have been slightly down since 2000, but I suspect they will rise shortly.

The big economic threat to the US Federal financing is Social Security pension system. But I suspect that will be restructured shortly once people realize how horrible it is going to get.

If I understand your viewpoint it's that consumers are helpless victims of advertising. What happened to all the dot-coms that ran brilliant ads during the Super Bowl a few years ago? Pets.com had that great sock puppet spokesman - they should have cornered the market.

Dell MP3 players are cheaper, but they're not as stylish. The Dell DJ is clunky - the iPod is svelte. Apple isn't bamboozling people with sexy iPod ads; style has a legitimate value for a product you carry around with you.

The failing of a "superior" product is often the fault of a competing product with a better value. Betamax had a clearer picture than VHS, but Sony's refusal to license Beta meant VHS was a better product. Beta was the superior technology - VHS was the superior product. QWERTY versus Dvorak keyboards is another popular example, but Dvorak's superiority has been debunked.

Starbucks didn't go from one store in Seattle to 7,200 stores around the world without a commitment to quality coffee. They didn't ride the wave of the gourmet coffee craze. They got that wave rolling. Starbucks success is the result of hard work and gutsy risk-taking by its founders. In the words of Nation's Restaurant News, "Simply put, Starbucks spends only about $5 million or so on advertising, but it's gotten a remarkable return on its investment by creating a cult following among coffee drinkers."

My tastes are a little more gourmet than McDonald's. But McDonald's has a product with wide appeal: it's cheap, it's consistent, it's exactly what the man on the street wants. If McDonalds sold eggplant sandwiches with goat cheese, they wouldn't be successful. You and I may not personally like it, but the Big Mac is a superior product. It hasn't been foisted on hapless consumers through ubiquity or ballyhoo.

I can't think of a single example of a company that has thrived in the long term with a weak product and strong marketing.

Just putting some of the parent-post's rebuttal statements in perspective. India is self sufficient as regards food grains and does export a lot of food products. Note that the link contains more recent stats..

The Expansionism link is from a website which is a mouthpiece of the for the ultra left and rebellious Communist Party of Nepal (CPN), which has been known to spread propagandist statements against India (and the US!!).

Cray computers: Never happened.
US did refuse to give India Cray super computers and we invented the Param supercomputer to do the same job in much cheaper and more efficient manner. Hell, I had classmates in undergrad who worked on many of the projects to develop Param and its successors.

It takes a lot more than a technological accomplishment in design to compete with the likes of Boeing and Airbus.
But its definitely a start. Something similar happened in the Pharma industry 15-20 years back. But Indian pharma companies are beginning to compete with American pharma giants in their own markets due to technologies and expertise they developed.

Public healthcare in India is lacking, but as was the original posters claim, there is still FREE public healthcare available to the common man. Hopefully, as India as a country matures and becomes richer, the quality of healthcare will improve.

However your 'facts' and arguments are completely false.
Not quite...See above.

If a Magistrate ordered a car stopped after looking at a real-time video feed via satellite/cellular from the scene of the incident, most people wouldn't mind that because then the police wouldn't have the arbitrary power to stop any vehicle anywhere such as the fast lane or whilst going around a mountainous curve, it would be up to the Magistrate.

GM, Ford, etc. already store car key immobiliser encryption codes which are needed to make spare keys. I'm sure they can also store your vehicle's Engine Management System Private key which can be used to calculate a timestampted engine-off signal to remotely override your vehicle's ignition computer with a Magistrate-authorised signal sent via INMARSAT/IRIDIUM or cellular. The vehicle's Engine Management System would then calculate whether the decrypted engine-off signal hashes to the current time (so that engine-off signals issued in the past cannot disable a vehicle in the future). If it checks out the Engine Management System will shut down and maybe then pop a thermal switch or two.

In Europe, there's a massive problem with drug dealers carjacking luxury cars such as Mercedes S-class and Audi S4, driving them at >190mph to bust through police checkpoints and get to drug-dealer ghettos. This will worsen as vehicles get faster and run-flat tyres become popular

There's a huge problem with car theft in the UK, we've got lots of bored teenagers, but at least they don't gang-bang yet like across the pond, there aren't enough guns here for that yet. The thing is they tend to only steal older cars that use carburation (no EMS). This system would therefore be aimed at professional criminals or people running away from the Law. If Linus, Alan Cox and Stallman were shot by a carjacker who then drove off at speed, we'd all change our minds about these technologies.

I laughed, but they were completely serious. Apparently libraries have been sued before because of the content of the internet! But if the library installs filters, they violate first admendment rights.

I know this doesn't help with your decision, but you might want to have some sort of disclaimer up stating the cafe is not responsible for the content of the internet.

Here's one then!

Being relatively young, the first time I saw TRON was on TV. Four years ago, Disney showed it at the El Capitan and I went to watch it on the giant old-school screen!

You stand corrected.

More hardcore, yet twisted verbally describedexample.

What I actually wanted to point out is the clever mechanism that the Amsterdam cops use not to necessarily recoup the phone but to annoy cell phone thieves to no end. Aparently it has cut down theft by 50%.

For the click lazies it works like this:

Every couple of minutes your freshly stolen phone receives an SMS around the lines:

This phone is stolen property and you will be shot, zapped or get a visit by Darth Vader if you sell or buy it

The fun thing is that exchanging the SIM (Subscriber Identification Module for non GSM users, essentially a smart card or a chip) will not do you any good, since the messages are geard towards your phone's IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), which is unique.

Well, it will not bring your phone back of course, but you'd at least have the satisfaction that the thieve is annoyed to no end and has a virtually useless phone, which he could as well toss into the canals.

I have often been asked how I can live without having a cell phone, and I tell people that I don't need one because everyone else has one. It is the same logic as herd immunity -- if most people have cell phones, then those who don't (such as myself) can still be "connected" if they use someone else's cell phone to make the occasional phone call.

So, for those who wear tin foil hats, you can use this technique to your advantage, and avoid being tracked. I think at least 50% of people in the U.S. have a cell phone now, so odds are you can easily find someone with a phone. Europe undoubtedly has an even higher saturation. Granted, you can't speak at length on someone else's phone, but in the event of an emergency, you are most likely within a short distance of someone with a cell phone. Social engineering is all that is needed at that point.

This is the exact thought that i had. I remember reading some analysis that said there was a significantly larger temperature range recorded due to the reduction in cloud cover over the US in the days following Sept 11th, as all the planes were grounded.Link

It makes sense that on average the increase in cloud would also reduce the solar radiation.Has anyone plotted, global flight hours of jet aircraft against year on year dimming effect? Sounds like a likely answer to me, especially as roughly speaking jet travel started in the early 50's and has grown steadily since.

Although the article did a good job of discussing flight technology, they did not say enough on the market forces that might drive different scenarios. Its not clear whether Boeing's vision of direct point-to-point travel or Airbus's visions of mass-transit hub-and-spoke will be the future of air travel. On the one hand, the decline in business travel hurts the economics of offering quick direct flights to everywhere while new technologies like free flight aid point-to-point travel. On the other hand, its not clear whether people will tolerate multiple connections and long boarding processes required for larger aircraft like the A380.

Article on Salon...

Guess you missed this correction.

Harpers...

Here is Katherine Harris' response to the garbage the Palast published.

You might also want to read the USCCR Report, which states in part:

The report does not find that the highest officials of the state conspired to disenfranchise voters. Moreover, even if it was foreseeable that certain actions by officials led to voter disenfranchisement, this alone does not mean that intentional discrimination occurred. Instead, the report concludes that officials ignored the mounting evidence of rising voter registration rates in communities..

The Dissenting Statement is also a worthwhile read on the subject.

Only on the WB and not until 2005 you have to have something to follow up that crazy Bernie Mac!

WAH!
No personally I love gadgets but I wouldnt want to subject any of my friends and family to my pasty white face. If I ever have a dire need I can use a webcam but I think it is too 'gimmiky'.

Not sure if that was meant to be funny or not. But for those that don't get the allusion, it's pretty serious stuff. Here's the article from May 2003 Harper's. The guy documents overdosing on drugs in a chatroom and dies as everyone else debates whether he is serious/tries to call for help.

Wouldn't blanket monitoring open the company to *increased* liability? Surely the way to go is to wait for a complaint/subpoena and then monitor *only* what is requested by the court.

"Don't ask, don't tell" may work in the U.S. Army, but a blind corporate eye may not be a sufficient defense in court. A 2000 article suggests that companies can be held liable for harassment in any media once any knowledge of harassment surfaces. A 2002 article suggests that many large companies can and do monitor email and surfing in the U.S.

Jurisdiction matters too, as other posts to this thread suggest, the EU has workplace privacy laws and personal data laws that forestall nonconsensual monitoring (the EU's personal data laws even complicate consensual monitoring). There are probably differences within the U.S., too. I would not be surprised if more liberal jurisdictions have both greater workplace privacy rules and hold companies to greater levels of liability for misconduct on company IT systems.

"He famously refused to employ graduates on the basis that they had been brainwashed and couldn't think for themselves any more."

Actually what James Dyson said indicates that it is the other way around:

"We employ a lot of graduates straight from university. The basic reason for this is that they are unsullied. They haven't been strapped into a suit and taught to think by a company with nothing on its mind but short-term profit and early retirement. We want people who are creative and courageous. And we have faith in their ability to make a difference".

Dyson Culture

Dyson Appliances CEO James Dyson

Harper's: The radioactive boy scout

Here's the explanation, for those who missed out on this one.

This article is much more thorough and does say there was an "eerie glow" from the shed.

Does anyone remember this story?

It made a good read, regardless.

Good way to win a Darward Award while still living if you ask me...

Blockwars: free, multiplayer, and with new features!

According to this story virtually anyone can build a nuclear reactor.. therefore, point is mostly irrelevant. Build that thing on a bigger scale, and then send it off, and Boom! there goes half a state. Great for the Fourth of July!

David Foster Wallace wrote an excellent article for Harper's a while back which described the prescriptivist / descriptivist split in more detail.

But if you want to read a really good (and factual) article about a boy scout who built a breeder reactor in his back yard out of radioactive paint and old smoke detectors check out the Harper's magazine story here.

It's a long article but a great read.

You can also build your own nuclear weapon using a discarded smoke detector and a cell phone.

Well actually you could use the thorium from Coleman lantern mantles to make a breeder reactor like this enterprising young man did.

I think this book came out of a Harper's article.

Imagine if Neal Stephenson played poker. It's like that--but the tournament actually happened. My favorite part is where McManus ends up playing at the same table with the author of the poker book Mcmanus studied in order to prepare for the tournament!

I read an article from James McManus in the December 2000 issue of Harper's Magazine about the World Series of Poker. It was absolutely facinating. There are quite a few characters in the high stakes poker world. I haven't read the book, but read this article for a sample of what it's all about.

They used nitromethane as a monopropellant previously... Why not again?

Aside from being much safer (safer than gasoline or alcohol - 25 percent of the heat energy in gasoline) to transport, it contains nearly 50 percent oxygen, by weight.

Sounds like a winner to me.

I don't know if you're refering to Stradivarius violins, but I just thought that I would pass along an article about the "Nagyvarius". The basics are this, Stradivarius may or may not have been a genius violin maker, but either way his violins are amazing, and reproducable. The other argument is that he was a great violin maker that through a combination of materials, luck and geographic location. Unfortunately whatever secret he may have possessed died with his sons, whose deaths followed shortly after their father.

In search of the Stradivarius Secret

Personally I find this idea amazing. But in response to the problem of mutation I would imagine that a technology could come along soon that would allow the DNA to be changed so that self-induced mutations wouldn't appear. I would imagine that this kind of technological jump isn't a self sustaining technology. It would HAVE to have other supporting technology to make the initial idea stable. Sort of like the research in prolonging the cellular production of telomerase to literally eliminate programmed cell death, and we got the idea from CANCER no less. The number one killer could be our ticket to immortality. And, vice versa, turning off telomerase makes cancer cells mortal again, allowing tumors to die off like normal cells. Ah well, so goes life.

Nuclear weapons development? I don't get it. Nuclear weapons are 50+ year old technology. This is stuff that Boy Scouts can build in their mom's shed. This is stuff that college students can build for a Scavanger Hunt. I can't believe that nuclear weapons are that hard to build and develop that they need a super computer. The college students probably didn't use a super computer. The Boy Scout almost certainly didn't.

This story is an example of someone who actually tried to do something simmilar.
Its a fantasticly strange and scary story.

There was a kid who tried building a reactor once for his Boy Scout merit badge, and he got arrested for it. Do you want to risk that?

If the clones are supposed to be exact replicas, why do the clones have defects? This suggests we're missing something...Perhaps they're not exact after all?

You may find the following article article very interesting.

Be careful when using the words "free range" and "humane" together.

Some "free range" farms may really care about the animals they're raising but problems can still occur at "free range" farms. These problems are due to a lack of requirements from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for "free range" farms. Here are a few examples:

• Animals may have space to roam but nothing to eat in that space.
• "Free range" hens may still be debeaked.
• There may be overcrowding.
• Flocks may be separated by sex and age.
• "Worthless" male chicks may still be killed.
• "Free range" cows still have a long, not-so-great future after they leave the farm and before they are "finished."

Bibliography
The Google Search
Farm Sanctuary (recommended site)
"Free Range" Poultry and Eggs: Not All They're Cracked Up to Be
Vegetarian Times: Not-so free bird. (free-range hens and eggs)
Cattle: Not so free on the range