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I wintered over in Antarctica a couple years ago, so you bet we had to take tons of personality tests as the 2nd step of the selection process. I filled them up exactly as I knew they wanted them. So did everyone else who was selected.

After that, for a while, an interesting ongoing discussion was the various ways we'd lied our way through it. So was lying the wrong thing to do ? I'd say no, everything went well, except for the doctor/psychologist who blew a fuse during the winter and was for two months in a straightjacket. That guy had designed many such tests, so he knew exactly what to answer on them...

But consider yourself fortunate (with a little cunning it's easy to fake tests), in other countries they have much worse methods: in France the big craze is handwriting psychology (or whatever that utter stupidity is called). You have to send handwritten resume and cover letters and they pay contractors to determine your psychologic profile from your handwriting (not from the content of the letters, heavens no) !!! Not only do you have to waste hours to write those by hand, but imagine an IT pro who's been using a 'puter for 20 years and haven't touched a pen since then... I can't even read myself, what does it have to do with my IT ability ? It's the exact opposite, the more you use a computer, the less you can write with a pen...

...and I married a psychologist... ;-)

Back in 1981, I had an Oric 1 and was fiddling with the internals, motherboard upside down. Then I plugged the power in to test it, forgetting that it was upside down and put the power plug inside the video out... A huge spark came out, my hair briefly caught fire and I was scared I'd just busted my first computer in which two years of savings had just gone. Plugged it properly and it works fine.

2nd story in Antarctica, 1997. I had two rugged military laptops for data acquisition and an HP Vectra desktop for use inside. One of the laptops video fried when a snow machine started a few feet from it and the other didn't have the right connectors. I had to program an eprom on some equipment outside and just put the Vectra+Monitor on a box. For 4 hours at -45C and it worked fine. I even have a picture.

Back in 1981, I had an Oric 1 and was fiddling with the internals, motherboard upside down. Then I plugged the power in to test it, forgetting that it was upside down and put the power plug inside the video out... A huge spark came out, my hair briefly caught fire and I was scared I'd just busted my first computer in which two years of savings had just gone. Plugged it properly and it works fine.

2nd story in Antarctica, 1997. I had two rugged military laptops for data acquisition and an HP Vectra desktop for use inside. One of the laptops video fried when a snow machine started a few feet from it and the other didn't have the right connectors. I had to program an eprom on some equipment outside and just put the Vectra+Monitor on a box. For 4 hours at -45C and it worked fine. I even have a picture.

Back in 1981, I had an Oric 1 and was fiddling with the internals, motherboard upside down. Then I plugged the power in to test it, forgetting that it was upside down and put the power plug inside the video out... A huge spark came out, my hair briefly caught fire and I was scared I'd just busted my first computer in which two years of savings had just gone. Plugged it properly and it works fine.

2nd story in Antarctica, 1997. I had two rugged military laptops for data acquisition and an HP Vectra desktop for use inside. One of the laptops video fried when a snow machine started a few feet from it and the other didn't have the right connectors. I had to program an eprom on some equipment outside and just put the Vectra+Monitor on a box. For 4 hours at -45C and it worked fine. I even have a picture.

> Why don't you cook the meal yourself?

...all you needed to do was ask: plenty of "pictures of mountains" on my site. And, no, this is not a troll.

THe americans will only start doing what the russians have been doing for 40 years to reach Vostok (I have a picture here showing the route itself), and what the french have been doing for 13 years to reach Dome C / Concordia.
The only difference is that until now the americans were rich enough to carry everything by plane and new experiments like the IceCube will require much more weight. Other countries not as rich have much more experience doing those 'traverses'. The term ice route is misleading, as other posters have pointed out. The route is nothing more than a list of GPS waypoint for reuse every year (it's easier to use the same track every year as the terrain is fairly soft outside of them).

THe americans will only start doing what the russians have been doing for 40 years to reach Vostok (I have a picture here showing the route itself), and what the french have been doing for 13 years to reach Dome C / Concordia.
The only difference is that until now the americans were rich enough to carry everything by plane and new experiments like the IceCube will require much more weight. Other countries not as rich have much more experience doing those 'traverses'. The term ice route is misleading, as other posters have pointed out. The route is nothing more than a list of GPS waypoint for reuse every year (it's easier to use the same track every year as the terrain is fairly soft outside of them).

THe americans will only start doing what the russians have been doing for 40 years to reach Vostok (I have a picture here showing the route itself), and what the french have been doing for 13 years to reach Dome C / Concordia.
The only difference is that until now the americans were rich enough to carry everything by plane and new experiments like the IceCube will require much more weight. Other countries not as rich have much more experience doing those 'traverses'. The term ice route is misleading, as other posters have pointed out. The route is nothing more than a list of GPS waypoint for reuse every year (it's easier to use the same track every year as the terrain is fairly soft outside of them).

The Iditabike is a bike race in winter in Alaska at the same place than the more famous Iditarod (dog sled race). I have some friends who took part several times, with custom bikes using 2 or 3 wheels welded together.

A few years ago a group tried to bike to the North pole. It was probably the shortest lived expedition of the history of polar adventure: after 2 hours they were turned around by the soft snow.

A friend of mine tried biking on Antarctic ice and gave up quickly. He was using a normal mountain bike though (he also tried a custom sail sled). This guy seems much more prepared and I wish him good luck: the snow in the center is often crusty with a soft underlayer... Yes, I've been there.

Not only do I post something advertising my own site, but I also reply to myself, bad, bad karma... The link was wrong, there are pinguins there but the large pictures are all on a separate wallpaper page. And as another poster pointed out, yes you can gimp "Linux" on them...

If all you want are penguin pictures, feel free to get them from my site. You can even photoshop "Linux" on them if you want !

Especially when 4950 of them are penguins.

What will `Tux do without his internet access? Actually, I thought that Antarctica was uninhabited except for scientists and researchers.

• a stable tripod
• a cable release (if not, use the delay)
• a WIDE ANGLE (20mm or 24mm)
• A fast lens (f2.8 or better).
• A precise film: do not use 3200iso: 100/200iso slide film is best, although that's counter-intuitive.

And here is the result (see the shooting star on the right of the picture ?). Pic taken in Utah.

• a stable tripod
• a cable release (if not, use the delay)
• a WIDE ANGLE (20mm or 24mm)
• A fast lens (f2.8 or better).
• A precise film: do not use 3200iso: 100/200iso slide film is best, although that's counter-intuitive.

And here is the result (see the shooting star on the right of the picture ?). Pic taken in Utah.

NO, the helocopter dies, and you autorotate down to the ground

Yeah, right, tell that to my friends... And he was one of the very best pilots ever, having flown thousands of rescue missions in heinous weathers in the Alps. Power cut-off while taking off --> immediate crash.

Radar images of Antarctica, including Vostok.

>Just out of curiosity, I did a Google search for the phrase Nikon sucks and the word CoolScan

Just out of curiosity, I decided to check if you are lying.

You are.

Here's just a couple of hits I came up with, liar:

Software / connection to Mac sucks
Yet another expensive flop from Nikon, further confirming my belief that Nikon hasn't made anything worth owning since 1980
BONUS: the NikonScan 2.5 software sucks big time. I nominate it as the worst user interface I've ever seen

Now that I have "proven" (in a way you seem to accept) computer users and professional photographers alike don't think Nikon is perfect, will you please shut up and stop crawling up Nikon's ass?

They have a PATHETIC software development department, and for anyone who has to deal with their software on a regular basis, like computer support staff or a journalism department, they are exactly the WRONG choice.

I guess if all you do is take 35mm photos, well, Nikon is the choice for you.

>That phrase only appeared on three web sites (four now that I've written this).

A hell of a lot more than that. You need to learn to use google properly, and realize that the word sucks doesn't need to be right beside Nikon to still bring up hits of things that suck about Nikon, such as "Nikon's software sucks ass".

>It seems that there are not many people that share your opinion.

It seems you are wrong about a great many things.

>Nor have I had any problems with my Nikon SLRs or lenses.

So they have two good product departments. Big friggin' deal. Especially if they can't compete in the information age (and with today's more and more generic products, software is the ONLY thing that distinguishes between them). Nikon can FOAD for all I care.

>You need to grow up and realize that Nikon is in business to sell products, not to provide you with replacement parts and new drivers for obsolete slide scanners.

Yup. That's good business for you (haha). It people with defeatist attitudes like yours that contribute to the complete waste of this country's resources, and the cash of consumers.

Buddy, I'd better not hear you complaining about your 5 year old car requiring replacement parts that the company doesn't make anymore. You should just suck it up and say "Well, hell, it's a little older anyways, the company is doing the right thing by making me buy a $20k car instead of a $500 replacement part". Show us your balls to support the fact you think yer all "grown up" and do that for me. Of course you won't because when the tables are turned, you'll say how horribly hard Toyota/Ford/Chevy/whoever sucks. And people will tell you they're perfect because them and all their friends have them, just like you're doing now.

Weak, man, so very weak. When you grow up and out of your "my xyz is the best because by photographer friend says so" attitude, come back and play. 'Till then take your ball and go home. The big guys who regularly get +4 and +5 scores have things to say.

I went to Dome C, now renamed Concordia, twice, in 1997 and 2000 to install some atmospheric physics experiments. I had to lay some cable there. Although it doesn't snow much (at most one mm / day), after 2 months the cables were buried and difficult to remove. We have to use expensive teflon coated cables so they won't break from the cold (-25~-50C in summer and down to -80C in winter, colder than South pole itself).

They want to lay the cable between Concordia and South pole for various reasons: Concordia is a joint French/Italian project that started in 1997 and should be operational for winterover in 2004. The french have lots of experience with ground raids to resupply station from the coast (Dumont d'Urville); while the Americans always fly C-130 to the Pole.

There has never been any land raid between Dome C and South pole, although a woman skied it alone in 1999 (pictures on my site as well). The flow of ice is non-existent at Dome C, for the simple reason that the several 'domes' are local ice summits from which the ice flows. They will certainly run into problems of stretching cables nearer to the pole though.

But from Dome C to where ? Right now the communications are very limited: one email connection a day, expensive NOAA phone calls/fax, Irridium when they are not bankrupt... It would be impossible to lay another cable between DC and the coast for the simple reason that the ice accelerates it's flow and it gets full of crevasses... Maybe a dedicated antenna can reach a geostationary satellite, but that's not the way it works right now.

I went to Dome C, now renamed Concordia, twice, in 1997 and 2000 to install some atmospheric physics experiments. I had to lay some cable there. Although it doesn't snow much (at most one mm / day), after 2 months the cables were buried and difficult to remove. We have to use expensive teflon coated cables so they won't break from the cold (-25~-50C in summer and down to -80C in winter, colder than South pole itself).

They want to lay the cable between Concordia and South pole for various reasons: Concordia is a joint French/Italian project that started in 1997 and should be operational for winterover in 2004. The french have lots of experience with ground raids to resupply station from the coast (Dumont d'Urville); while the Americans always fly C-130 to the Pole.

There has never been any land raid between Dome C and South pole, although a woman skied it alone in 1999 (pictures on my site as well). The flow of ice is non-existent at Dome C, for the simple reason that the several 'domes' are local ice summits from which the ice flows. They will certainly run into problems of stretching cables nearer to the pole though.

But from Dome C to where ? Right now the communications are very limited: one email connection a day, expensive NOAA phone calls/fax, Irridium when they are not bankrupt... It would be impossible to lay another cable between DC and the coast for the simple reason that the ice accelerates it's flow and it gets full of crevasses... Maybe a dedicated antenna can reach a geostationary satellite, but that's not the way it works right now.

I went to Dome C, now renamed Concordia, twice, in 1997 and 2000 to install some atmospheric physics experiments. I had to lay some cable there. Although it doesn't snow much (at most one mm / day), after 2 months the cables were buried and difficult to remove. We have to use expensive teflon coated cables so they won't break from the cold (-25~-50C in summer and down to -80C in winter, colder than South pole itself).

They want to lay the cable between Concordia and South pole for various reasons: Concordia is a joint French/Italian project that started in 1997 and should be operational for winterover in 2004. The french have lots of experience with ground raids to resupply station from the coast (Dumont d'Urville); while the Americans always fly C-130 to the Pole.

There has never been any land raid between Dome C and South pole, although a woman skied it alone in 1999 (pictures on my site as well). The flow of ice is non-existent at Dome C, for the simple reason that the several 'domes' are local ice summits from which the ice flows. They will certainly run into problems of stretching cables nearer to the pole though.

But from Dome C to where ? Right now the communications are very limited: one email connection a day, expensive NOAA phone calls/fax, Irridium when they are not bankrupt... It would be impossible to lay another cable between DC and the coast for the simple reason that the ice accelerates it's flow and it gets full of crevasses... Maybe a dedicated antenna can reach a geostationary satellite, but that's not the way it works right now.

I went to Dome C, now renamed Concordia, twice, in 1997 and 2000 to install some atmospheric physics experiments. I had to lay some cable there. Although it doesn't snow much (at most one mm / day), after 2 months the cables were buried and difficult to remove. We have to use expensive teflon coated cables so they won't break from the cold (-25~-50C in summer and down to -80C in winter, colder than South pole itself).

They want to lay the cable between Concordia and South pole for various reasons: Concordia is a joint French/Italian project that started in 1997 and should be operational for winterover in 2004. The french have lots of experience with ground raids to resupply station from the coast (Dumont d'Urville); while the Americans always fly C-130 to the Pole.

There has never been any land raid between Dome C and South pole, although a woman skied it alone in 1999 (pictures on my site as well). The flow of ice is non-existent at Dome C, for the simple reason that the several 'domes' are local ice summits from which the ice flows. They will certainly run into problems of stretching cables nearer to the pole though.

But from Dome C to where ? Right now the communications are very limited: one email connection a day, expensive NOAA phone calls/fax, Irridium when they are not bankrupt... It would be impossible to lay another cable between DC and the coast for the simple reason that the ice accelerates it's flow and it gets full of crevasses... Maybe a dedicated antenna can reach a geostationary satellite, but that's not the way it works right now.

But they're not all that rugged. One LCD screen failed when a snowcat started just next to it. And I had to use my backup indoor machine outdoor; an old HP Vectra that had to sit outside for 4 hours while I uploaded firmwares into weather forecast systems. With gloves.

• one recipe based on nothing but 3 cans of various potato soup.
• another that starts with a big Mac or somesuch.
• ...

Anyway, there are already plenty of recipe website everywhere. I even have one big help file with 10 thousand recipes. And it's freeware, so no need to reinvent the wheel. Only catch: it's all in French...

He has several books out that I'd recommand to any french-speaking cooking geek: Casseroles et éprouvettes, Traité élémentaire de cuisine, Les Secrets de la casserole...

Some of his recipes are online; at least try the chocolate mayonnaise.

And for those of you who want a big classic list of recipes, I have 10000 of them in a big Windows Help file (5Mb), still all in french. He, at least that's one thing this language is good for!

The technology is very neat but, I dont quite understand why it was needed. Was it really neccesary for the physician in the pole to be talked through the operation. I am truely curious about this and would like to know more.

When I wintered over at Dumont d'Urville in '93 we broke all records with 7 surgeries, including one appendicitis. I have more info on how we coped with it and pictures as well on my site.

At the time all the doctor could rely on was a satellite voice link and a motley crew to assist him. Still much better than what the pioneers had to rely on. In Port-Martin in 1951 they did an appendicitis with sharpened kitchen knives and there's a great story about it but the link seems to be gone.

A russian doctor had to take out his own appendix in Antarctica in 1961.

OK, this is 100% pure spam, and I'm a bit worried about slashdot reaction, but I figure you are going to need penguin pictures, right ? I just started selling a CD of Antarctic pictures, royalty-free.

But read what one of the best of all, Douglas Adams, had to say on the subject.

On the last trip, in 2000, we bought two new PCs just for that purpose. I checked the systems before leaving but couldn't run a real time check because all the instrumentation was already on the ship.

So I get there and install the stuff. Lo and behold, all the acquisitions run 4 times too fast. I spent 10 days and nights... err, no, no nights there... debugging the crap out of it. Apparently each time an external interrupt was called, the motherboard would generate 4 interrupt calls instead of one.

Tech support calls over a satellite phone from Antarctica were costing about 20$/minute ["Please hold." NO!!!]. I never solved it but rewrote the interrupt routine (wearing gloves) to throw out interrupt calls that came too close to each others. Never could figure out what was wrong with that motherboard. Lost 10 days of data but saved the next two months.

On the last trip, in 2000, we bought two new PCs just for that purpose. I checked the systems before leaving but couldn't run a real time check because all the instrumentation was already on the ship.

So I get there and install the stuff. Lo and behold, all the acquisitions run 4 times too fast. I spent 10 days and nights... err, no, no nights there... debugging the crap out of it. Apparently each time an external interrupt was called, the motherboard would generate 4 interrupt calls instead of one.

Tech support calls over a satellite phone from Antarctica were costing about 20$/minute ["Please hold." NO!!!]. I never solved it but rewrote the interrupt routine (wearing gloves) to throw out interrupt calls that came too close to each others. Never could figure out what was wrong with that motherboard. Lost 10 days of data but saved the next two months.

Excellent comment by slewazimuth. Only thing I can add are a few pictures of weather balloon launches, both of the described kind and also tethered balloons.

Emperor penguins at play...

For those interested, I have other RadarSat pictures on my website.