Slashdot Mirror

Look what I found... another link

all persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental. - Kurt Vonnegut

http://www.geocit ies.com/ResearchTriangle/Station/3492/index.html

this site has no real topic, just some random files, one of which happens to be DeCSS.zip

Look here for a comprehensive list of available RCX tools.

As for aiming at the wrong market -- their attitude slowly changes. They start marketing for adults. Look here and here (front and back sides of their printed ad).

Moderate this down (-1, Minus One)
--

Look here for a comprehensive list of available RCX tools.

As for aiming at the wrong market -- their attitude slowly changes. They start marketing for adults. Look here and here (front and back sides of their printed ad).

Moderate this down (-1, Minus One)
--

• Barnes & Nobel - three separate orders of CDs, a package of 10 paperback novels, a set of language tapes. All but the tapes were "ships within 24 hours" stuff, ordered on either the 10th or the 14th. The books took 5 days to ship, the CDs took 3 days to ship, the tapes were ordered on the 14th of Dec and are yet to ship (they were 1-2 weeks to ship items). I live in Australia. The CDs are shipping via air, the books & tapes via surface. Nothing has arrived. The local postal system will not be running until Wed of next week...
• 1942 for the GBC, (pre) ordered from "checkout.com" around the 29th of Oct. Supposed to ship around the 14th of Nov. Yet to be released.
• A 1050mAh battery for my 8810. Ordered on the 15th, arrived early last week. (rocks BTW)
• A USB-PSX controller adapter ordered on the 12th from "Borer's Nest" - no sign of it yet.

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Program/355 5/

Or, for click-friendliness: Wave to Disk

- The Archon

Salvage
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Andy Griffith + Sanford and Son
The Skinny: Imagine Matlock building a spaceship out of junk, flying it to the moon, salvaging space junk and using an ordinary fire extinguisher as a handy thruster for space walks. And yes, no episode was complete without some big-shot NASA official scoffing at Andy's home-spun spacecraft built with home-spun wisdom, only to get showed up at the end. One imagines a young Linus Torvalds watching this show, not conscious of how it will inspire him.

Yogi's Space Race
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Yogi Bear + Wacky Races/Laff-a-lympics + Disco fever of the same era
The Skinny: It had four segments, the two Star Wars-inspired ones being Space Race, which had the stable of Hanna-Barbera characters racing in space vehicles and Galaxy Goof-Ups, with Yogi and friends as some kind of space police who spent their off-hours goofing off at the local space disco. A cartoony attempt to swipe as much Star Wars momentum as possible -- I distinctly remember one episode where the bad guy was a Darth Vader rip-off assisted by an R2-D2 rip-off. One imagines George Lucas watching Yogi's space adventures and being inspired to create the Ewoks.

Galaxina
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten + The guy from those '70's Doritos commericals
The Skinny: The Infinity is a ship captained by the Doritos guy and maintained by the ultra-vixen android Galaxina, a robot with feelings. The Infinity crew is a randy bunch of sailors (There's a brothel scene in which the crew sing a song called "Porno Patrol" to the tune of "Bridge Over the River Kwai") and eventually Galaxina and a crewmember fall in love. I actually remember a line in which the guy says "Too bad you don't have a you-know-what," to which Galaxina responds "We can order one in the catalog." Kind of like Arthur C. Clarke's "predictions," except for cyberdildonics. One imagines Rick Berman (writer for the post-Shatner Star Trek series, whose hedonistic appetites are legendary among sci-fi fandom) watching this.

Quark
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Richard Benjamin + Mr. Spock + Mindy's Dad (from Mork and Mindy) + Buck Henry + Sanitation engineering
The Skinny: A sci-fi spoof created by Buck Henry. TV's first "Quark" is not the bar owner from Deep Space Nine, but Richard Benjamin as a garbage scow captain with a nitwit crew. In a tip of the dumpster to Star Trek, the science officer is an emotionless half-human/half-plant being (I remember him saying his species does not kiss, but rather pollenates. I am not making this up). There were a few Star Wars references too, including "The Source," which gave Quark power only if he believed in it, as well as a character named Obeemud, a wookie-like creature who was Quark's boss' side-kick, and a bumbling C3P0-ish android named Andy. If I recall, it never got past a half-dozen shows. This is probably one of Buck Henry's few bombs, but perhaps he was saving his creative energies for other things, such as Saturday Night's Live's "Lord and Lady Douchebag" skit (around the same era, if drug-and-age-addled memory serves). Commentary on science fiction and present-day stuff through a sci-fi lens with unintentionally hilarious results. One imagines a young John Katz watching every episode...twice.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Gil Gerard + Mel Blanc + Skin tight disco outfits
The Skinny: Would you leave your job to play opposite Seven of Nine? Gil Gerard left his job at a chemical engineering firm to play Buck Rogers, Earth's super special agent who often came to the aid of women in skin-tight outfits (this is the future, you know). Upped the cheese factor by getting Gary Coleman to play a child prodigy (a concept that Universal also used in Galactica 1980 with "Doctor Zee"). In later seasons, it tried to be more true to "real" SF with many Asimov references, most notably the character of (gasp) Admiral Asimov. It's the only TV show I recall in which Asimov's Laws of Robotics get metioned. The original formula was so good that Universal Studios recycled it as Knight Rider a few years later -- one imagines a young David Hasselhoff getting his jollies watching this show.

A very painful Carol Burnett show
(for the Tim Conway fan from an earlier posting)
The Formula: Star Wars space hype + Tim Conway + Mark Hammill + Christmas
The Skinny: This is the only one for which I have no proof, but only a vague memory (any help would be appreciated). Santa Claus' sled gets abducted by an evil starship and Tim Conway (playing a Luke Skywalker parody), a "Walkie" and a garbage can-shaped droid (the R2D2 parody) attempt to stop the evil. The lame Star Wars jokes continue until Mark Hammill walks on set, bringing the Force -- the Los Angeles Police Force -- who arrest the actors in the skit for copyright infringement. One imagines a young ESR and RMS watching this, shocked at how Carol Burnett's attempt to modify the Star Wars story was crushed under the bootheel of a proprietary screenplay.

Well, writing this has cured my insomnia. Thank you and good night.

Outside, it's unusable

Okay, maybe this isn't going to be the brightest moon of all time. I'm sure that the original information upon which the story that this refers to never claimed it would be. However, for those of us who are blessed with a clear sky tonight, the full moon should be brighter than we typically experience during a normal month.

As far as stories of secret indian attacks carried out by the bright light of the full moon, it is about as plausable as the story about the Space Shuttle size being dictated by Roman Chariot wheel spacing. Sure, it sounds like a neat explaination, but that doesn't make it right. I'm not qualified to say whether its wrong.

Regardless of the relative brightness of this full moon, I doubt if I will get to see it, based on the local weather. Anyway, this isn't the full moon I care about. Its Next Month's full moon that is something to look at. That is when we get to see a Total Lunar Eclipse. This event occurs on the evening of January 20, between about 9:30 pm EST and 2:30 am EST., with totality lasting from 78 minutes between about 11:00 pm EST and 12:20 am EST. Be sure not to miss this one, because we won't see another one in the us until May 16, 2003.

It's a big closeup..

here

If by moving away from the Real Audio format, Yahoo! is no longer supporting non-win-doze machines, then it will in effect be pushing the users of the other machiens away. Perhaps this is intentional, but with O/Ss other than MS eventually becoming more common, it may eventually mean lost market share. THAT will have a greater affect on Yahoo!s future decisions than anything else.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@spam.yahoo.com

Here's a few things you might be interested in:
Why Yahoo uses FreeBSD written by David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo
Booting Linux and FreeBSD using BootEasy
Booting Linux and FreeBSD using LILO
Linux+FreeBSD mini-HOWTO Excellent resource for installing and using FreeBSD and Linux on the same system

If the forum where the speech is being made is a public one, then everyone has a right to speak publicly. However, that right may be subject to certain terms which the forum provider stipulates (eg, no pornography, racial-hate talk, etc) as a condition to providing the forum. This is not a restriction of Freedom of Speech. It is more a contractual agreement between the forum provider and the person speaking on the forum.

As for the rights of advertisers or others to present content which we may not wish to see, if the general guidelines of the forum where the material is being displayed allow the content of the advertisement, then it should be okay. Noone forces anyone to follow links to sites which they do not want to look at. Hopefully the advertiser would have the good taste to keep excessively obtrusive content out of the advertisement itself, and save the "best" material for the actual site.

In the case of children, there are certain sites on the web that are specifically designed for children. An advertisement for Porography would be inappropriate here, and I believe that the people hosting such a web site would be very concerned with presenting any, even by accident.

Just as advertisers have 1st Amendment rights to put material of their choosing on a public site (subject to the stipulations I mentioned), individuals have a right to privacy. I could picture some bright new company coming up with filtering software that could be installed on the individual's machine that would do the filtering based on the individual's preferences. Your own machine can't be considered a public place.

Just my 2 cents.

Our office is right down the street from Red Hat's new HQ. We've noticed a substantial increase in the average value of the car driven by Red Hat employees during the last few months.

I'm sure that this earnings news is going to have some impact on the cost of Red Hat's shares, but I don't think that it will bother option holding employees all that much!

The pictures that you will see displayed for these systems are second generation wearable computers.

I had an opportunity several years ago to work on a first generation wearable computer project at the University of Oregon. You talk about lame! That thing was made from the guts of a notebook PC (I forget what model) stuffed into a heavy duty fishing/hunting vest, with a bulky set of virtual glasses and Dragon Dictate for voice control. Control was problematic, and the darned thing didn't even DO that much, but the department head was happy, which counted for more.

The point is, it was lame and useless, but it served its purpose of proof of concept! That work, and similiar projects, allowed the second generation of wearable computers to be put together as something halfway useful.

As for the next generation of wearable computers, I think that you will find that wearing one will no longer mark you as a dork or dweeb. Screen projectors will routinely be fitted into standard eyeglasses (or sunglasses, for those who are "too cool" to be a four eyed nerd). Controls will probably be by voice and or some sort of control glove that will not be too conspicuous. And noone will be able to tell you are wearing a computer unless they look real close.

As for the advantage of a wearable system over a PDA... Well, a PDA has (at best) a 5" screen. I would imagine that the effective size of a projected screen from a wearable could be as large as desired. Can we say 32" monitor?

Several Science Fiction books besides have looked at the same issues explored in Gattaca. On e in particular that comes to mind is Leo Frankowski's Copernik's Rebellion , which describes what could happen if genetic developers introduce "useful" bio-artifacts into the world.

With the increasing complexity of computers, it is becoming possible to make the complex calculations required to do genetic manipulations such as described. And when a thing can be done, you just know that it will be done, sooner or later.

I am not so much worried about someone accidently creating some sort of all destroying life form. Such things aren't realistic, considering the delecate balance of a life form. But I could imagine someone doing it on purpose (someday).

Ethical questions aside, I don't think creating life in a laboratory is going to be a bad thing. It will certainly be interesting.

Hello, young person! Tipper Gore wants to be a positive influence on your life!


Tipper Gore wants to improve the judgement of ALL young people, like the one revealed here. Keep a positive attitude and your mental health can only improve! --Tipper Gore

Hello, young person! Tipper Gore wants to be a positive influence on your life!


Tipper Gore wants to improve the judgement of ALL young people, like the one revealed here. Keep a positive attitude and your mental health can only improve! --Tipper Gore

Ever heard of Nist/Livid ?

No DVD under Linux, huh? Well than don't look at this sample , it might confince you otherwise... Also, never heard about the DXR2 drivers on the Creative Opensource site? Or that Sigma Designs is planning on giving their next Hollywood chip native Linux support?!

With those Windoze players, I always have to mess around with my display settings, if I want to watch DVD.. with Nist I just compiled it in.. no need to mess with that anymore..

Using Gnu, or any other method or means to produce something, shouldn't make any difference as to whether someone can package it commercially. The time and creative effort to compose the package has to be worth something.

Giving away a product on the premise that you can sell support is fine, if it can fly. But I'd rather have cash in hand.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@spam.yahoo.com

Any of the "new" instant messaging services, that is. Currently, the only one I bother to keep up on my desktop is good ol' Yahoo! pager. No, it probably doesn't have all the fancy capabilities of the newer things, but I'm used to it, and it gets me by. Besides, it is what all my Internet contacts use as well.


Mike Eckardt meckardt@spam.yahoo.com

Privacy concerns aside, the only thing about placing an identification number on a color print that would bother me would be if I could see it. If the ID was scattered about the page as "noise", and unobservable by me, it wouldn't bother me much.

As for the privacy issue... wouldn't such a encoding method be proprietary to the manufacturer? So what happens if I first copy the color image on a Xerox machine, and then take the copy over to a different machine, and copy that. Assuming the quality was not lost, the hidden ID code would not be decipherable by any (one) decryption algorythm.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@spam.yahoo.com

Even if this guy wins, do you think that the on line casinos will again ever let him play their games on credit?

And would he be suing if he had won? Come on! Nobody forced this guy to play the games. If he is able to show in court that AE is at fault, it would open the door to even more frivilous suits, where Jane Doe sues Visa for helping her spend too much money on clothes at the local K-Mart.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@spam.yahoo.com

My friend and I make music under his alias of "Pimp Daddy Welfare". I should note that it is vulgar, offensive, awful music. But we're doing this for fun, and care more about having listeners than having CD buyers....

We've had our own personal webpage for almost 2 years, and early on during the summer of 1999, we signed up with mp3.com. At first it was great... our songs were rapidly climbing the charts, we were getting lots of exposure. Even a few CD sales...

until one day, our song "I Fucked Her" broke the top 100 on the charts. It made it up to #87. We were very pleased with ourselves for the next few days until MP3.com had a sudden change of mind about censorship over musicians. They decided to remove all songs listed under the "Hardcore Rap" section from the listings in all the other charts. (which includes ALL of Pimp Daddy Welfare's music)

"I Fucked Her" dropped from 250 downloads per day to 40 in one night. We've emailed MP3.com about this, and they wont reason with us at all. We tried to re-upload songs into different categories, but the watchful vultures at mp3.com quickly deleted them. They've been deleting songs ever since, and last time i bothered to look there were only 3 of our songs left.

our own personal site is doing better than ever though. We probably sell between 10-20 cds per month, and get around 150 hits per day. Not too shabby for a couple of white boys from Ohio.

so yeah....screw mp3.com. it's good for exposure, but you're better of doing your own thing, or dealing with a down-to-earth mp3 site such as the wonderfully non-commercialized Free-Music.com.

ok...i'm done venting now....whew...

if you'd like to see our crappy little site, then come check it out. =)

...
hdj jewboy

Military hardware with night vision, when they don't work so well, and admission that they do cause mishaps in some instances.

Now we'll know what sheets floating across the road are.

Get them while they last, goggles for Y2K. So when you drive around in your caddy on Jan 1, you'll know where to swerve in order to hit those nuts running around in the dark.

Finally, some (real?) statistics about how night vision in cars increases safety.

I've got all the affilliate MP3.com charts here. HTH.

Here's a good site to check out for some in depth information about anarchism and pointers to where you can read more: Anarchism FAQ

|73'5 1/\/54/\/3, 1 54y! -Anonymous Coward
00p5
"Wow, lookit this big fuckin' gun!!" -Fritz the Cat

The truth is that the vast majority of anarchists do not advocate absolute license to do whatever the hell you want, regardless how it affects people.

As for spouting ideology or lighting a dumpster on fire being the only choices for anarchist tactics, that just isn't true. Sure, those are tactics that many anarchists might choose, but many other anarchists see them as ineffective.

For example, while spouting ideology and burning dumpsters certainly went on at the WTO protests in Seattle, the Industrial Workers of the World (not exactly anarchist, but close enough) were able to persuade thousands of rank-and-file AFL-CIO members to break off from the labor march and join with demonstrators downtown rather than follow the planned march route that just looped back to the starting point. This by itself probably helped keep the WTO conference shut down for at least another hour or two that day, and also it also helped to further radicalize quite a lot of already pissed-off union members. It doesn't make a great sound-bite or front-page picture, but it gets the job done...

Sure, its possible for a clever Cracker to get at my cookies. But I'm not too concerned with it. The guys who are that good have bigger fish to fry.

I'm more worried about some store clerk collecting card numbers and passing them on to someone else. That is a lot more likely to happen in the real world!

Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

Based on the facts as stated in this article, I would say that the people from the etoy site would have the basis for a counter suit against EToys. And since EToys is worth $6 billion, it seems they can afford a multi-million dollar settlement.

Maybe with that, the etoy people can afford to get themselves a better address... one that won't be confused with a stupid toy company.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

The problem with letting governments (be they National, (US) State, or local have the right to tax Internet commerce in at all is that it makes them think they have a right to tax Internet commerce in any fashion they want to. And historically, governments are much more reluctant to give up taxes than they are to raise them.

Besides it is difficult to determine just what to tax. What is the basis for determining who gets the tax? The location of the server hosting a selling company? The location of the company's HQ? The location of the factory/warehouse the sold product is coming from? The buyer's location (in all his possible permutations)? The thought that I could be taxed buy multiple governments scares me.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

This is great that IBM will keep the speed increase for CPUs going for another decade. But will it really make the computers speed up that much? As the article points out, memory on the chip is faster than memory not on the chip. Part of the new technology involves putting more memory on the chip. But what is not mentioned is that the computer bus (used in moving data from memory to the chip) is not the biggest bottleneck today. Even slower is the network connection between computers. Sure, there is progress here, but the rate of increase is no where near as steep as the speed increase for CPU cycles. The problem is that the amount if information being transfered over the networks is increasing too.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

Undoubtedly, the mapping of the human genome will revolutionize medicine during the 21st century. But it opens at least one can of worms... Will individuals have rights to their genetic map? Like any information, if this gets out, could this information be used against a person.

Say, if you carry the gene predisposing you to some form of cancer, could an insurance co. deny you coverage for that condition? Could an employer not hire (or fire you) because you have a genetic tendency toward alcoholism? Could police or the FBI tag you as being a potential criminal because of some combination of traits in your genes?

Stuff like this worries me sometimes.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

If it wasn't for the opportunity to importalize themselves in the software, would all those developers work such long hours? Admittedly, the money's good, but you don't think that's the real reason they went into this field, do you?

Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

This is one of those life-imitating-art-imitating-life recursive things. Apparently Mr. Youens, some eight months before he committed his acts, signed a guestbook at this site, which is specifically about murders -- serial, mass, and otherwise. After he did the deed, the site owner put up a page *about* him, noting that "this is the first time that I know of any of you lot [i.e. guest book signers] going through with your plans." (The site contains a link to the guestbook).

Nerd relevance: the family of the victim is now calling for ' regulation of the internet, "I'm angry because we as a public have so little control over what is on the Internet." ' They go on to say that sites like this, which "advocate criminal actions" should be removed from the net. Needless to say, the site's owner is "astounded" and finds such suggestions "ludicrous".

BTW, Youens' occupation is listed here as "software engineer" [third-hand info, tho].

What is surprising is not the goofy letters the fadetoblack guys came up with, it is how many of these odd-ball letters actually got responses.
Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

This discovery does have significance, not for the possibility of life on those gas giants, but because it proves that planets outside of our solar system do form in the "life zone".

As some of the news stories stated, only a tiny fraction of the stars have been identified as having a planet. Ten or twenty years will probably be required to detect some of the planets out there, based on the length of their orbital periods.

As for these gas giants... well, it is still possible that one or more of them have a moon large enough to old a decent atmosphere. That would provide a possible abode for life.

Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

We should all thank the FBI for providing educators with such a valuable tool for identifying that 1 in a million kid who will kill his classmates. Now, we can throw him in jail before he perpetrates his deed.

Oh, we can tell which one of the million kids is really the potential killer? Let's treat them all like potential killers, just to make sure!

Mike Eckardt meckardt@yahoo.spam.com

Since the provider appears to have pulled the page: Here's a mirror of the source (uuencoded to protect it from geocities)... http://www.geoci ties.com/SiliconValley/Foothills/7223/gpltrans.txt It's fairly uncomplex...

Yeah well... That's the big problem of cults like this... They start messing around with your use of language so that in the end you even owe your thoughts to them... My site is back up now, though it's getting a major facelift nine9

I read through some of the answer and saw, that many of them pointed to different muds and web-based BBS games.

I've been playing Utopia for more than a year now, and I have at least 200 utopia people on my ICQ contact list, 30 bookmarks with pages about utopia and an okay reputation. The game itself is similar to Earth, and remember playing something like that back in the later 80 on a BBS.

The online game can be found here, and has more than 40K players at the moment. We have an official forum (plus 10 non-official with many posts every day), we have Active ICQ lists with hundreds of members (doesn't work with licq I'm afraid), we have quite a few big alliances (complete with ministers and leaders).

In other words, we have an community. Many things seems strange for outsiders. Ever heard of an landgrab for example? I meet new people every through this game, and our common interest for this game makes it easy to find something to talk about - a bit too easy perhaps.

That said, there are periods where I have to stay away a bit from this game... It's time consuming if you're into many alliances and such. But overall, I think it's great.

Did I mention that the author (Mehul Patel) made the first BBS game where many BBSs was linked into one game? He tells a bit about in in this Interview.

Yeah, I would love to go to my site too. I've posted a mirror to the H4X0R'5 Guide To Slashdot page, but due to structure, can't get all the rest over there. Plus, they require .html files, and all my links are .htm. Anyway, if you still wanna check out the H4X0R'5 Guide To Slashdot, the url is http://geocities.com/issue9mm/index.html. Have fun.

Yeah, I would love to go to my site too. I've posted a mirror to the H4X0R'5 Guide To Slashdot page, but due to structure, can't get all the rest over there. Plus, they require .html files, and all my links are .htm. Anyway, if you still wanna check out the H4X0R'5 Guide To Slashdot, the url is http://geocities.com/issue9mm/index.html. Have fun.

Let me first make a summary of some of the facts known to me...

The Chernobyl plant (or Chornobyl as the Oekrainian people call it now), consisted out of 5 RBMK reactors..
The 1st reactor was brought back on line Oktober 1995 and the 4th this year, if I recall it right..

The Chernobyl plant is unique, because it was designed for two purposes:
1) Supplying power
2) Producing nucleair weapons.. This is also one of the main reasons, it lacks a containment structure.

During the construction of the plant, some engineers came to the believe, that the plant had structural design flaws in the cooling system and pleeded to halt the construction, these engineers where taken of the project and Russia made sure that the carrier ended as well..

The #4 reactor of the Chernobyl plant, exploded after series of human errors, when conducting a 'safety test'.

Before running the safety test, all three safety systems where disabled.

The test was performed to see, how long the reactor could hold out, when shutting it down and not generating power, without external power to the water cooling pumps & controls and without the backup power generators online.. Also, the emergency core cooling system was taken off-line..
The reactor was deliberaty put below a power output of 700MW, the strict minimum limit to garanty safe operations of all support systems and the reactor it self.. After a series of major human ignorance and errors that followed, mainly the work of Deputy chief engineer Dyatlov, who also lead the test, the reactor #4 finally exploded.
In the immidiate vicinity, there where about 135000 people, who where only evacuated days after the incident happend... It took around 8000-10000 lives of worksman, mostly soldiers (liquidators), to put out the fire and to seal of the reactor, by building 'the Sarcophagus'. (Almost) all people, who did the footage on the accident, by helicopter, died.
The radiation level in the surrounding environment, was much faster reduced, than scienctist would have expected, helped by a natural process called 'chitin'.
Envision how in the western world, these rescue workers would be dressed like and than look at the liquidators

Since 1996, a lot of modifications are done to the Chornobyl reactors, but the basic design, with it's flaws, wasn't changed, nor is the situation surrounding these reactors...
In 1997 Russia agreed to build more reactors, based on the RBMK models in Chornobyl..
In 1986, Russia could find 10.000 souls, who were send into their dead, to end the disaster..
In 1999, Ukrainian people know a lot more about radiation... Today, the area around Chernobyl is still inhabitat by Oekrainian people, who feel they are left alone by the government..
Unemployment is sky high, as you would expect, so no source of income and medical threatment is done under very bad conditions, by idealistic people who don't care about their own lives...

What if it would happend again now?
What if they decide to run Y2K 'tests'?

Check for more info these links: this and this
"The odds of a meltdown are one in 10,000 years. The plants have safe and reliable controls that are protected from any breakdown with three safety systems." Vitaly Sklyarov, Minister of Power for the Ukrainian SSR., February 1986

Let me first make a summary of some of the facts known to me...

The Chernobyl plant (or Chornobyl as the Oekrainian people call it now), consisted out of 5 RBMK reactors..
The 1st reactor was brought back on line Oktober 1995 and the 4th this year, if I recall it right..

The Chernobyl plant is unique, because it was designed for two purposes:
1) Supplying power
2) Producing nucleair weapons.. This is also one of the main reasons, it lacks a containment structure.

During the construction of the plant, some engineers came to the believe, that the plant had structural design flaws in the cooling system and pleeded to halt the construction, these engineers where taken of the project and Russia made sure that the carrier ended as well..

The #4 reactor of the Chernobyl plant, exploded after series of human errors, when conducting a 'safety test'.

Before running the safety test, all three safety systems where disabled.

The test was performed to see, how long the reactor could hold out, when shutting it down and not generating power, without external power to the water cooling pumps & controls and without the backup power generators online.. Also, the emergency core cooling system was taken off-line..
The reactor was deliberaty put below a power output of 700MW, the strict minimum limit to garanty safe operations of all support systems and the reactor it self.. After a series of major human ignorance and errors that followed, mainly the work of Deputy chief engineer Dyatlov, who also lead the test, the reactor #4 finally exploded.
In the immidiate vicinity, there where about 135000 people, who where only evacuated days after the incident happend... It took around 8000-10000 lives of worksman, mostly soldiers (liquidators), to put out the fire and to seal of the reactor, by building 'the Sarcophagus'. (Almost) all people, who did the footage on the accident, by helicopter, died.
The radiation level in the surrounding environment, was much faster reduced, than scienctist would have expected, helped by a natural process called 'chitin'.
Envision how in the western world, these rescue workers would be dressed like and than look at the liquidators

Since 1996, a lot of modifications are done to the Chornobyl reactors, but the basic design, with it's flaws, wasn't changed, nor is the situation surrounding these reactors...
In 1997 Russia agreed to build more reactors, based on the RBMK models in Chornobyl..
In 1986, Russia could find 10.000 souls, who were send into their dead, to end the disaster..
In 1999, Ukrainian people know a lot more about radiation... Today, the area around Chernobyl is still inhabitat by Oekrainian people, who feel they are left alone by the government..
Unemployment is sky high, as you would expect, so no source of income and medical threatment is done under very bad conditions, by idealistic people who don't care about their own lives...

What if it would happend again now?
What if they decide to run Y2K 'tests'?

Check for more info these links: this and this
"The odds of a meltdown are one in 10,000 years. The plants have safe and reliable controls that are protected from any breakdown with three safety systems." Vitaly Sklyarov, Minister of Power for the Ukrainian SSR., February 1986

Let me first make a summary of some of the facts known to me...

The Chernobyl plant (or Chornobyl as the Oekrainian people call it now), consisted out of 5 RBMK reactors..
The 1st reactor was brought back on line Oktober 1995 and the 4th this year, if I recall it right..

The Chernobyl plant is unique, because it was designed for two purposes:
1) Supplying power
2) Producing nucleair weapons.. This is also one of the main reasons, it lacks a containment structure.

During the construction of the plant, some engineers came to the believe, that the plant had structural design flaws in the cooling system and pleeded to halt the construction, these engineers where taken of the project and Russia made sure that the carrier ended as well..

The #4 reactor of the Chernobyl plant, exploded after series of human errors, when conducting a 'safety test'.

Before running the safety test, all three safety systems where disabled.

The test was performed to see, how long the reactor could hold out, when shutting it down and not generating power, without external power to the water cooling pumps & controls and without the backup power generators online.. Also, the emergency core cooling system was taken off-line..
The reactor was deliberaty put below a power output of 700MW, the strict minimum limit to garanty safe operations of all support systems and the reactor it self.. After a series of major human ignorance and errors that followed, mainly the work of Deputy chief engineer Dyatlov, who also lead the test, the reactor #4 finally exploded.
In the immidiate vicinity, there where about 135000 people, who where only evacuated days after the incident happend... It took around 8000-10000 lives of worksman, mostly soldiers (liquidators), to put out the fire and to seal of the reactor, by building 'the Sarcophagus'. (Almost) all people, who did the footage on the accident, by helicopter, died.
The radiation level in the surrounding environment, was much faster reduced, than scienctist would have expected, helped by a natural process called 'chitin'.
Envision how in the western world, these rescue workers would be dressed like and than look at the liquidators

Since 1996, a lot of modifications are done to the Chornobyl reactors, but the basic design, with it's flaws, wasn't changed, nor is the situation surrounding these reactors...
In 1997 Russia agreed to build more reactors, based on the RBMK models in Chornobyl..
In 1986, Russia could find 10.000 souls, who were send into their dead, to end the disaster..
In 1999, Ukrainian people know a lot more about radiation... Today, the area around Chernobyl is still inhabitat by Oekrainian people, who feel they are left alone by the government..
Unemployment is sky high, as you would expect, so no source of income and medical threatment is done under very bad conditions, by idealistic people who don't care about their own lives...

What if it would happend again now?
What if they decide to run Y2K 'tests'?

Check for more info these links: this and this
"The odds of a meltdown are one in 10,000 years. The plants have safe and reliable controls that are protected from any breakdown with three safety systems." Vitaly Sklyarov, Minister of Power for the Ukrainian SSR., February 1986

Let me first make a summary of some of the facts known to me...

The Chernobyl plant (or Chornobyl as the Oekrainian people call it now), consisted out of 5 RBMK reactors..
The 1st reactor was brought back on line Oktober 1995 and the 4th this year, if I recall it right..

The Chernobyl plant is unique, because it was designed for two purposes:
1) Supplying power
2) Producing nucleair weapons.. This is also one of the main reasons, it lacks a containment structure.

During the construction of the plant, some engineers came to the believe, that the plant had structural design flaws in the cooling system and pleeded to halt the construction, these engineers where taken of the project and Russia made sure that the carrier ended as well..

The #4 reactor of the Chernobyl plant, exploded after series of human errors, when conducting a 'safety test'.

Before running the safety test, all three safety systems where disabled.

The test was performed to see, how long the reactor could hold out, when shutting it down and not generating power, without external power to the water cooling pumps & controls and without the backup power generators online.. Also, the emergency core cooling system was taken off-line..
The reactor was deliberaty put below a power output of 700MW, the strict minimum limit to garanty safe operations of all support systems and the reactor it self.. After a series of major human ignorance and errors that followed, mainly the work of Deputy chief engineer Dyatlov, who also lead the test, the reactor #4 finally exploded.
In the immidiate vicinity, there where about 135000 people, who where only evacuated days after the incident happend... It took around 8000-10000 lives of worksman, mostly soldiers (liquidators), to put out the fire and to seal of the reactor, by building 'the Sarcophagus'. (Almost) all people, who did the footage on the accident, by helicopter, died.
The radiation level in the surrounding environment, was much faster reduced, than scienctist would have expected, helped by a natural process called 'chitin'.
Envision how in the western world, these rescue workers would be dressed like and than look at the liquidators

Since 1996, a lot of modifications are done to the Chornobyl reactors, but the basic design, with it's flaws, wasn't changed, nor is the situation surrounding these reactors...
In 1997 Russia agreed to build more reactors, based on the RBMK models in Chornobyl..
In 1986, Russia could find 10.000 souls, who were send into their dead, to end the disaster..
In 1999, Ukrainian people know a lot more about radiation... Today, the area around Chernobyl is still inhabitat by Oekrainian people, who feel they are left alone by the government..
Unemployment is sky high, as you would expect, so no source of income and medical threatment is done under very bad conditions, by idealistic people who don't care about their own lives...

What if it would happend again now?
What if they decide to run Y2K 'tests'?

Check for more info these links: this and this
"The odds of a meltdown are one in 10,000 years. The plants have safe and reliable controls that are protected from any breakdown with three safety systems." Vitaly Sklyarov, Minister of Power for the Ukrainian SSR., February 1986

The best website concerning the Arrow is probably the Discovery Channel's Flight Deck which has a good piece on the technical aspects of the Arrow, and exn.ca has some decent stuff as well. There are several other sites which contain pix, specs & plans, noteworthy info and comparisons or narratives (mirrored), and like all obscure subjects online, it also has a Web Ring.

The Arrow was the first aircraft to pull a 2-G turn at 50,000' without loss of speed or altitude - unusual even today. It was also an extraordinary achievement in the amount and variety of weaponry that it carried in its weapons pack, which could include not only weaponry, but also reconansance equipment, fuel, and just about anything else, most of which could be reloaded or swapped in a matter of minutes - still impressive by today's standards. Consider that an Arrow in 1959 could have flown higher at a similar speed (slightly faster, actually) than an F-14D Tomcat did 31 years later... the Arrow is a 40-year-old accomplishment that would compare remarkably well with the aircraft of today - and comparisons with aircraft of its day are in most instances almost unfair, unless you look only at a single feature.

• The CIA's U2 spy-plane had a higher flight ceiling than the Arrow - 60,000' compared with 58,000 - and its only defence was altitude. In 1959, one of the very few things aloft that could have brought one down from its flight ceiling was an Arrow, which could bring down a target at a 70,000' altitude. The U2 was replaced by the SR-71 Blackbird (nominated elsewhere), which the Arrow predates just slightly (the Blackbird first hit the drawing board at Lougheed's SkunkWorks in September 1959, whereas the Arrow project was scrapped in February 1959; note the SR-71 has a strikingly similar cockpit configuration). For further comparison, the F14's flight ceiling is about 53,000', (the SR-71's is around 85,000' achieved in 1976).
  
• The F-117A Stealth Fighter has internal weapons carriage and fly-by-wire controls: the current wave of the future. The Arrow had both in 1957.
  
• The F/A-18 engines (20 years later) each produce 11,000/16,000 pounds thrust without/with afterburner; the Arrow's Iriquois engine produced 19,500/25,600 with a potential for 30,000 -- more similar to a MiG-31 or an F-14.
  
• Delta-wing aircraft were revolutionary at the time - the Arrow was a tail-less delta-wing design with a "blended" cockpit (think Stealth Bomber) rather than the (at that time) conventional "bubble" cockpit with a conventional wing design.
  
• Although the Arrow was intended for use as a fighter-interceptor, its armament bay was larger than a B29 Bomber's.
  

The Arrow contained serveral other aviation 'firsts' and 'near-firsts' and several 'bests' and 'near-bests' - but the truly amazing thing was the way that Avro brought it all together in a single package. The designers' plans for an 'Ultimate Arrow' suggest they were thinking bigger still, despite having made history already - there is really no telling what might have evolved from the project today if had been left intact. After the project was scrapped, many of the design team from Avro went on to work on other projects, so that certain Arrow features apparently began to appear in a variety of places, including (perhaps) the Concorde, the Stealth Bomber, and at NASA, where 32 Avro engineers ended up working on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo - including Apollo 11 (nominated elsewhere) and I believe 13 (also nominated elsewhere) and the space shuttle.

The best website concerning the Arrow is probably the Discovery Channel's Flight Deck which has a good piece on the technical aspects of the Arrow, and exn.ca has some decent stuff as well. There are several other sites which contain pix, specs & plans, noteworthy info and comparisons or narratives (mirrored), and like all obscure subjects online, it also has a Web Ring.

The Arrow was the first aircraft to pull a 2-G turn at 50,000' without loss of speed or altitude - unusual even today. It was also an extraordinary achievement in the amount and variety of weaponry that it carried in its weapons pack, which could include not only weaponry, but also reconansance equipment, fuel, and just about anything else, most of which could be reloaded or swapped in a matter of minutes - still impressive by today's standards. Consider that an Arrow in 1959 could have flown higher at a similar speed (slightly faster, actually) than an F-14D Tomcat did 31 years later... the Arrow is a 40-year-old accomplishment that would compare remarkably well with the aircraft of today - and comparisons with aircraft of its day are in most instances almost unfair, unless you look only at a single feature.

• The CIA's U2 spy-plane had a higher flight ceiling than the Arrow - 60,000' compared with 58,000 - and its only defence was altitude. In 1959, one of the very few things aloft that could have brought one down from its flight ceiling was an Arrow, which could bring down a target at a 70,000' altitude. The U2 was replaced by the SR-71 Blackbird (nominated elsewhere), which the Arrow predates just slightly (the Blackbird first hit the drawing board at Lougheed's SkunkWorks in September 1959, whereas the Arrow project was scrapped in February 1959; note the SR-71 has a strikingly similar cockpit configuration). For further comparison, the F14's flight ceiling is about 53,000', (the SR-71's is around 85,000' achieved in 1976).
  
• The F-117A Stealth Fighter has internal weapons carriage and fly-by-wire controls: the current wave of the future. The Arrow had both in 1957.
  
• The F/A-18 engines (20 years later) each produce 11,000/16,000 pounds thrust without/with afterburner; the Arrow's Iriquois engine produced 19,500/25,600 with a potential for 30,000 -- more similar to a MiG-31 or an F-14.
  
• Delta-wing aircraft were revolutionary at the time - the Arrow was a tail-less delta-wing design with a "blended" cockpit (think Stealth Bomber) rather than the (at that time) conventional "bubble" cockpit with a conventional wing design.
  
• Although the Arrow was intended for use as a fighter-interceptor, its armament bay was larger than a B29 Bomber's.
  

The Arrow contained serveral other aviation 'firsts' and 'near-firsts' and several 'bests' and 'near-bests' - but the truly amazing thing was the way that Avro brought it all together in a single package. The designers' plans for an 'Ultimate Arrow' suggest they were thinking bigger still, despite having made history already - there is really no telling what might have evolved from the project today if had been left intact. After the project was scrapped, many of the design team from Avro went on to work on other projects, so that certain Arrow features apparently began to appear in a variety of places, including (perhaps) the Concorde, the Stealth Bomber, and at NASA, where 32 Avro engineers ended up working on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo - including Apollo 11 (nominated elsewhere) and I believe 13 (also nominated elsewhere) and the space shuttle.