Slashdot Mirror

I believe io.com does. The free shell account SDF also has a dialup partnership with someone.

I think most geeks became familiar with the term "amalgam" through the DC/Marvel Comics collaboration where two characters from their respective companies were combined into one. Like Batman + Wolverine = ??? Profit!

How would this apply to Sega/Sammy (Segammy)? Maybe they'll release Guilty Gear X vs. Sonic the Hedgehog as a fighter/platform hybrid. We can only hope.

Alpha Centaurans are decended from a classical Greek culture transplanted to the Alpha Centauri system by the preservers. Since that time, they have developed more in the intellectual disciplines than in the physical. It was the Alpha Centauran Mathematician Zephran Cochran who created the theoretical basis of the Warp Drive initially used by both the A-C's and Terra. That Warp Drive was further refined after technological exchanges with Vulcan began.

Separated "bike paths" tend to have the same problems. The road really is where you want to be--and as someone who has shared the road with cars on daily commutes, I've found it works darned well in practice too. Just think of yourself as any other slow-moving vehicle (like a tractor (well, except when you have a sufficiently steep downhill...)) and it all works out

The rest of us recognize that they've got a lot of good points, but that the situation isn't as simple as they make it out. The expert cyclist *might* have no need for bike lanes, but beginning cyclists love them, and it's pretty clear that bike lanes help a lot to get people out on bikes (e.g. there've been cases in San Francisco where sticking in a bike lane on a street doubled the bike traffic). Having more bikes on the road gets the car drivers used to seeing bikes out there, and that makes it safer even for the expert riders, and helps encourage even more beginning cyclists.

Also, I have to say that while you might call me an "expert" rider I *still* like having bike lanes. They're not a panacea: you need to understand you have to ride on the *left* side of the lane to stay out of reach of car doors; you need to watch out for right turners cutting you off; and you need to know how to "ride like a car" when you're passing a double-parked idiot, or heading off into a zone where the city planners in their infinite wisdom have not yet seen fit to extend the bike lanes... But even with all those caveats, I like having a zone of relative safety that I can retreat to and relax.

Consider this guy's argument: He makes the point that wide lanes encourage a larger *average* distance between bikes and passing cars, but in his experience you also get a smaller *minimum* distance, which would seem to be more important.

Remember Steve Jackson Games? Got a search warent over a card game and had everything taken. Never charged and got everything back after it long became obsolete. In effect someone tried to shut down a game company becouse they didn't approve of a card game.

Actually ... no.

The explanation of what led up to that whole situation was described in The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling. The details of it from Steve Jackson Games' side can be found on Steve Jackson Games' website. It had to do with a game writer and BBS user who was accused of a connection (as in guilt by association) with a guy who had copied a telco administrative document from an unsecured system run by BellSouth and showed it off to other crackers as a trophy. That particular document was all over the country at that point -- except anywhere near SJG's offices or computers.

The "Illuminati" being referred to was Steve's BBS, not the card game. Incidentally, it grew into an ISP, Illuminati Online, which the last I knew was being run by Steve's brother. They hosted my very first domain name, long ago. I've moved on to bigger things, but I'll always have a soft spot for my old home at io.com.

In fact you have not one but three ext3's: data=journal, data=writeback, data=ordered (look here for details) with different performance.
So if anyone tries filesystems comparison, please benchmark all three data modes of ext3 or, at least, provide information which one was used in the test.
To add my 0.02 EUR I would also like to see comparison of linux filesystems against *BSD ufs2 on the same machine. I know that the underlying operating system adds additional variables in the equation, but if you are interested in filesystem-oriented tasks the system's performance as a whole counts, not only its filesystem. I have seen something like this done already for RAIDs but I would like to see this for ordinary single drives (like ATA and SATA). Shall I have enough time I will perform such tests end of July, when my new hardware arrives.

• Exhibit 1
• Exhibit 2

The redshift stuff did look a bit hokey to me too. But I also know that if for some reason the transmission of light was not constant across the vast distances of the universe, that it would/could throw all of the cherished cosmological theories (like that of an expanding universe) down the drain.

There are two things that we know about but yet their effect on light is not known. Over great distances, if these two things were to affect light in even the most infinitesimal way, all of the cosmological theories would have to be rewritten.

Those two things are dark energy and dark matter.

P.S. In my experience, whining about how alternative theorists are ostracized is a dead giveaway of a crackpot.

Like all those people who whined that Galileo was ostracized?

Real scientists know that all theories are honestly criticized,

So what makes a "real scientist?" Is it the the fact that they are pursuing scientific knowledge in a scientific manner, or do they need to be "the right people."

Real scientists know that all theories are honestly criticized, and they can point to the literature in which alternatives have been proposed.

I do not think that all theories are honestly criticized. One prime example of this is String Theory

In an ideal world, your statement would be true. But scientific endeavor is fraught with the same problems that are caused by human failings as much as anything else.

...in Bret Pettichord's Scripting for Testers one day class.

It talks about eliminating some of the tediousness from testing web applications, mainly by using automated solutions like WTR.

He's also got a list of testing resources that's got some good stuff in there...

Check this out:

http://www.io.com/~kazushi/filesystem/

Especially the transfer rates. Linux clearly wins!

Author's comment:
"""
I tried Linux since it was sooo fast, but I couldn't live with Linux. It's not an OS for me. ;-) I'm NetBSD lover.
"""

Anyone willing to comment those rates from a tech point of view?

DiceChat is a perl script that combines secure die rolling with webchat so that players and GMs are kept honest and informed of other players' rolls. It's free software, help yourself.

I'm still waiting for the one I used in a 1977 science fiction story. Don't laugh too loudly at my version of the internet. http://www.io.com/~hmelton/stories/opus18.html

Here in the US, "queer" is worse when used offensively than "gay", but nowhere near as strong as "fag"/"faggot". It's been semi-adopted as an umbrella term to replace the ever-growing and unwieldly GLBTQ acronym (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (of which transsexuals are only one part), Questioning). The Straight Person's Guide To Gay Etiquette has a chapter discussing language usage that touches on the subject.

Here in the US, "queer" is worse when used offensively than "gay", but nowhere near as strong as "fag"/"faggot". It's been semi-adopted as an umbrella term to replace the ever-growing and unwieldly GLBTQ acronym (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (of which transsexuals are only one part), Questioning). The Straight Person's Guide To Gay Etiquette has a chapter discussing language usage that touches on the subject.

Online at Space.Com

The Online Columbia Loss Faq, compiled through March 2003 much of which might be outdated, but good for lots of small details, and a sense of the history as it happened.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board Website, due to become inactive on February 1st, 2004 (!)

People might want to download the final report while they can, dated October 2003, although It is also available on the Nasa Website here

From launch, there was no way of the Columbia to reach the ISS. Different orbits and speeds, no fuel and the laws of physics. Look here.

:wq

They wouldn't be abandoned.

Weepy celebrities and televangelists could hold telethons to raise money to send supplies out there.

Each package would take years to arrive, traveling to Mars by slow, efficient orbits that criss-cross the inner system to build velocity before finally careening into Mars' upper atmosphere, reentering, and bouncing to a stop, persued by eager colonists in grubby, patched space suits.

"Dig deep my friends! Just $350 can send a package of Ramen Noodles to a needy Mars pioneer. A mere $500 can send this roll of single-ply toilet paper, or two day's worth of tampons, to a brave colonist. And imagine the joy this package of Jolly Roger treats could bring, for only $150."

Stefan "I'll stick with suborbital stuff!" Jones

It makes me just want to rush out and buy the Revell model and imagine myself going back and forth between Earth and LEO in it, which is all that it will be doing.

On the other hand, maybe the name isn't clunky, but descriptive. The crew will be exploring themselves in it. That's it . . . NASA is getting into the space sex tourism business!

* * *

But seriously:

There's speculation that this will be a cone shaped "capsule," perhaps a bit bigger than the old Apollo capsule. I wonder what they'll use as a booster. A Titan with strap on boosters? A Delta? Some of the later variants of these rockets can carry a lot of payload, approaching the capabilities of the Saturn Ib.

They would have to be "man rated" first. I'm not sure what is involved with that . . .

I suppose it's possible that the CEV could be used for trips to Lunar orbit. This would probably require docking with a transfer stage. I think it would be interesting if this were a permenant resource, rather than something tossed after one round trip. It could concievably be the first nuclear-powered craft.

Stefan "Likes to think he's a rocket scientist" Jones

Specific impulse is a clunky way of stating exhaust velocity.

It has nothing to do with a thrust to weight ratio.

In fact, ion motors, and proposed fusion motors (google for "inertial confinement fusion" and "magnetic confinement fusion") have a very high Isp (3000 seconds for ion motors, up in the mid 100,000 seconds for fusion motors) but generate very low thrust.

The stream of particles these motors produce move very quickly, but there aren't a lot of them.

Why is a high specific impulse a Good Thing?

Recall Newton's Third Law of Motion: Every reaction produces an equal an opposite reaction. Simply put: In a rocket, the momentum of the stuff the motor accellerates out the back ("reaction mass") translates into forward momentum. The faster the stuff you toss out the back, the more bang the buck you get out of that mass.

A higher exhaust velocity means you need less reaction mass, in terms of the percentage of your starting total mass, to achieve the same changes in velocity.

Here's the rocket equation:

M(f)+M(0)
--------- = e ^ (Vd/Vex)
M(0)

M(f) = mass of fuel
M(0) = mass of space ship w/o fuel
e = natural log number, about 2.718 is fine for these purposes
Vd = desired velocity change
Vex = exhaust velocity

The "velocity change budget" for a fast trip to Mars is about 20 kps. The exhaust velocity of a good chemical motor is about 5 kps. If you plug these numbers into the above, you find you need a mass ratio of 54:1 for your Mars trip. That is, 53 tons of fuel for every ton delivered to Mars orbit. With a nuclear fission rocket motor with a exhaust velocity of 10 kps, the mass ratio is more like 7:1.

Stefan " I'm not a rocket scientist but I play one on TV" Jones

The Solution of the Voynich Manuscript by Leo Levitov was published by the Aegean Press in 1987. Links to Amazon.com are left as an exercise to the Slashdot readership.

Levitov provides methodology for extracting the linguistic model that the book encodes. Many examples and translations are provided, and there is plenty of work for the reader to do if he wants to prove the system to himself.

Levitov proposes that his solution reveals a manual of heretical text regarding the ease and assistance of the mortally ill into death -- euthenasia, basically. To my knowledge, his work has not been discredited, only ignored.

For the definitive hoax-type artificial reality book, check out the amazing Codex Seraphinianus.

I doubt I'm alone in that this article reminded me of the Codex Seraphinanus, an untranslated, if I recall correctly, book of sketches of imaginary flora and fauna. It's a modern work by a european artist, mostly in colored pencil.

There are only around 600 copies of the book, but I got a chance to see it recently via the marvelous university-interlibrary loan system. Worth a look!

If you're interested in slightly more detailed descriptions of what I've read this year, you can check out my reading diary.

Um, no. The Game of Life is not about reproduction at all. If you want reproduction, check out Primordial Life. The Game of Life is about complex patterns and behaviour emerging from simple rules and structure. Not the same thing at all.

Interesting timing on this question. Just recently I attended the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference and heard a talk by Bret Pettichord on just this very subject. His presentation, Home Brew Test Automation covered this subject with some terrific lessions.

If you have a good logical design that compartmentalizes each functional unit of your code (what I'll call "well-factored"), how long should it take to fix any one bug? For a typical app, even of pretty hefty size, you should, in theory, be able to run to the exact object, swap out what's broken, and *poof*, every place that functionality is needed is good to go. XP et al really do lose a lot of time in the overhead it takes to keep two people on any programming task, unit test, and the rest. You might be nearly guaranteed nice code, but what's your opportunity cost? In short, it's having two coders hacking about twice as much on what, if they're mature enough, should be well-documented, modular code!

Now we all know *poof* is not the case, and we all know that a well-factored system is about as hard to come by as nirvana (which means each fix requires ripping out a chunk of code), but the argument is still a valid one. Unless you have a huge system, where perhaps someone's "fixed" a bug by hack on top of hack ("Hrm, Bob's addFunction always returns a number one too low. Instead of bugging Bob, I'll just add one to the result in my function."), bugs today aren't like bugs in pre-object oriented days. If coders in the 80's had the debug tools and langauges we have today... Let's face it, it's much easier to create an Atari 2600 game today than it was when you had to burn to an EPROM to test on hardware each time and print out your code to review it.

The bottom line is whether it's more cost-effective to prevent 99.44% of bugs up front than it is to fix the extra 10% that slip through. I believe the original post is simply suggesting that the cost of fixing on the backside is dropping considerably, especially compared to what the same results would've required decades ago, and that is, honestly, a good point.

(Remember, this isn't upgrading code -- might be awfully tough to make code that's slapped together change backends from, say, flat files to an RDBMS; this is just bug fixing to make what you've got work *now*. But XP tells us not to program thinking that far down the road anyhow, so future scalibility is another topic altogether.)

Holds an ass load of ink, writes like a dream, and has the coolest and perhaps geekiest damn filler mechanism ever. mid-late 50's pens have always written best for me, though the early sixties pens are also pretty good. The Triumph and Touchdown nibs always seem better than the conventional nibs as well.

Check out a tech brief here.

Snorkels are readily available on e-bay, and for some reason don't seem draw high bids from the colectors. Expect to pay $25-$50 for a good functioning used snorkel, depending on the amount of gold and wear. If you are willing to learn how to fix the suckers (not that hard(pun intended)) you can get them for $10 or less, and often in better aesthetic condition than "working" pens.

Here's a quick and dirty tutorial on repairing snorkels.

enjoy!

Howdy Neil. Me again. (Because three hours of asking you questions for Nova Express just wasn't enough.) You've collaborated with a wide range extremely talented people, including Terry Prachett (Good Omens), Gene Wolfe (A Walking Tour of the Shambles), numerous illustrated projects with David McKean, and, of course, an ever-rotating cast of artists on your many graphic novels. If you could collaborate on a future project with any living writer/artist/etc., that you haven't already collaborated with, who would it be and why?

If you like censorship then this is great news! Otherwise ask some privacy and to be left the hell alone as We the People are the Internet.

The thing that impressed me most about Neil when I interviewed home for Nova Express back in 1999 (he had just started working on American Gods), was how generous he was with his time and how his tremendous success had left him largely untouched. Despite his enormous popularity, he was quite generous about signing things for a never ending stream of people, and seemed genuinely interested in talking to every one among the legions of his fans at Armadillocon. Certainly there are others who have let far less success go to their head.

There are lots of cool people among my fellow SF scribblers, but Neil has remained one of the coolest, and not to mention perhaps the most level-headed. And then there's his considerable talent...

...since I collect first edition science fiction hardbacks, I really don't have any standing to cast aspersions on someone else's collecting madness...

Sure - go ahead.
Just remember - the contestant picks first. Monty must pick a *different, empty* door.

So the chance you're right between two doors is 1/2, provided Monty doesn't give anything away by eliminating a door... But did he give anything away ?
He did, because he always has to open a losing door: one losing door is always eliminated. The probabilities of your initial choice being correct, and the remaining choices have to sum to equal one. Therefore, the probability of the remaining choices have to sum to equal one minus the probability of your initial choice. In this case (with three doors), they have to sum to equal 2/3. Say a door isn't opened. Then, you would have two to switch to (if you choose to switch - this would be like "changing your mind"), and your chance of picking the correct door would be 1/2 * 2/3. Well, that's 1/3, just like your initial choice. But if Monty has to open a door, then you'll only have one door to switch to. In this case (which is the Monty Hall problem), you'll pick the remaining door - so that'd be 1 * 2/3. And that's a probability of 2/3.

...
Imagine that there were a million doors. Also, after you have chosen your door; Monty opens all but one of the remaining doors, showing you that they are "losers." It's obvious that your first choice is wildly unlikely to have been right. And isn't it obvious that of the other 999,999 doors that you didn't choose; the one that he didn't open is wildly likely to be the one with the prize?


(quoted without permission from http://www.io.com/~kmellis/monty.html

No, because theoretically there can be multiple universes.

> Lawrence Person (lawrencehh@hiho.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
Sir, I've constructed a more "user-friendly" e-mail hyperlink for you:
lawrence@io.com

Hope I was of some assistance to you and the Slashdot community.

This was somewhat foreseen long ago.

Catacomb, by Henry Melton

Excellent story. I still have and treasure a copy of this issue, not the least of which because of Robyn Wood's incredible cover art.

I was so influenced by this story that I transcribed it for a friend's local BBS, and later he and I ended up writing our own ORPG (single-line BBSes kinda prevented the MM part) inspired by it.

Deja Vu. Back in the May 1985 issue of Dragon Magazine, I published a story Catacomb where the main character was trying to raise cash by playing a mulit-user dungeon crawling game. I often wondered why on-line gambling went with casino games instead of following the D&D model.

I'll guess it's from Dam Simmons' Hyperion cantos.

9 was named "Shrike". This beta is "Severn". Both are characters from Hyperion.

In Hyperion, Joseph Severn was a cybrid reconstruction of the deceased 19th-century poet John Keats.

For a counter example, take Bruce Sterling. I'm in the same writing workshop as Bruce, and he's written the occasional piece for my SF critical magazine, so I know both him and his work pretty well. As long as I've known him, he's been married to Nancy Sterling, and for some 15 or so of those years he's been father to Amy (and to Laura for about five). If anything, Bruce's work has generally gotten better over the years, with both Holy Fire and Distraction being among his best novels. Not to mention winning Hugos for "Bicycle Repairman" in 1997 and "Taklamakan" in 1999.

Actually, I think the opposite may be true for science fiction writers: They need a spouse to support them in their early years! (And if there are any beautiful, single women out there who would like to support my science fiction writing career, please write me at the address below. ;-))

For a counter example, take Bruce Sterling. I'm in the same writing workshop as Bruce, and he's written the occasional piece for my SF critical magazine, so I know both him and his work pretty well. As long as I've known him, he's been married to Nancy Sterling, and for some 15 or so of those years he's been father to Amy (and to Laura for about five). If anything, Bruce's work has generally gotten better over the years, with both Holy Fire and Distraction being among his best novels. Not to mention winning Hugos for "Bicycle Repairman" in 1997 and "Taklamakan" in 1999.

Actually, I think the opposite may be true for science fiction writers: They need a spouse to support them in their early years! (And if there are any beautiful, single women out there who would like to support my science fiction writing career, please write me at the address below. ;-))

For a counter example, take Bruce Sterling. I'm in the same writing workshop as Bruce, and he's written the occasional piece for my SF critical magazine, so I know both him and his work pretty well. As long as I've known him, he's been married to Nancy Sterling, and for some 15 or so of those years he's been father to Amy (and to Laura for about five). If anything, Bruce's work has generally gotten better over the years, with both Holy Fire and Distraction being among his best novels. Not to mention winning Hugos for "Bicycle Repairman" in 1997 and "Taklamakan" in 1999.

Actually, I think the opposite may be true for science fiction writers: They need a spouse to support them in their early years! (And if there are any beautiful, single women out there who would like to support my science fiction writing career, please write me at the address below. ;-))

A nice synopsis of the tank types, the flights they were used on, and so on:

What's this about Columbia using an old tank?

The tank being used on Columbia was the older style. NASA has gotten exemptions from the EPA to use the old style tanks and foam. They happened to use an old one on this launch.

"(NASA) said the piece that broke off and hit the wing of the Columbia was PROBABLY THE OLD FOAM, NOT THE NEW, MORE TROUBLE-PLAGUED MATERIAL.

When it had trouble with the replacement foam, NASA applied to the Environmental Protection Agency for an exemption from the CFC ban, saying, 'no viable alternative has been identified.' It gained the exemption in 2001, and still uses that foam in a few spots on the shuttle fleet."

--ANDREW C. REVKIN (NYT 2/6/03)

Meanwhile, astronauts have mentioned the problems with the foam since the earliest days of the program:

During the early missions, astronauts even complained over their cockpit radios during liftoffs about falling white-colored insulation from the external fuel tank hitting the shuttle's windows, according to a 1983 NASA report. It said spray-on foam insulation flying off the external tank could cause significant damage to the shuttle's heat-resistant tiles.

Engineers developed at least two procedures -- shaving foam insulation and venting it with thousands of tiny pinpricks -- to reduce the amount of insulation flying off the external tank.

But NASA stated three years ago that "venting ... is only a temporary solution to the problem until a new type of foam can be formulated and applied."

The old foam is still being used.

...After Columbia's first flight in April 1981, NASA engineers said they would have had a difficult time clearing it for flight had they known in advance the insulation breakaways would produce such a debris shower.

-- AP story on USAToday

NASA's been working on this problem since before the first launch. Gee, it doesn't seem like a stark "environment vs. people" choice they made, does it?

You might want to consider your sources before you start assuming everything falls into the neat little cubbyholes your politics make you think of. Fox "News" has run a "special" claiming that the moon launches were all a big conspiracy; maybe that's not the best source for news about NASA. You think? (Meanwhile do we hear any liberals ranting about this all being Bush's fault? They seem to actually give a crap about the problem, rather than just vying to score faked-up political points.)

It only started happening after they switched to a non-freon based foam to make the environmentalists happy. Despite that this was a known problem on quite a few missions, they were more interested in being politically correct than in insuring the safety of the missions.

NASA are in the process of switching foam types as mandated by the EPA. However STS-107 did not have the new "superlightweight" tanks with the new foam - the foam that was shed was the old foam. See the shuttle loss FAQ for details.

So it did not "only start happening after the switch". Its clearly a problem with the foam system in general, and is not directly related to the type of foam used, as you imply. This conspiracy theory that "environmentalists" or a "politically correct" NASA caused the shuttle disaster is wrong.

All your questions can be answered with the Columbia Loss FAQ. (scroll down to section "VI: Preventative Measures and Rescue Attempts")

Briefly:
They did not have enough oxygen to last for the weeks it would have taken to prep and launch another shuttle.
Even if they could have lasted, there were only two space-rated spacesuits aboard. And STS-107 had no airlock.
STS-107 had nowhere near enough deltaV to be able to alter their orbit enough to dock with the ISS. This is because the ISS is in a weird inclined orbit to allow Russian supply fights to be able to make it to the station.
This wierd orbit is also the reason that no Russian supply fight could have made it to STS-107

All this was argued to death on sci.space.shuttle months ago. The bottom line was that the shuttle was doomed the moment the heat shield was damaged.

I have written an essay on ending spam. The idea is to associate a second piece of information that goes along with your e-mail address. This 'secret' can be used for anything you want, such as blocking anyone who does not get the secret right.

This is a mix of SF, Fantasy, and Horror, and includes things I think are out of print:

Novels
Rats & Gargoyles - Mary Gentle
The Werewolves of London - Brian Stableford
Blood Music - Greg Bear
Eon - Greg Bear
The Glass Hammer - K.W. Jeter
Moving Mars - Greg Bear
Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, Eight Skilled Gentlemen - Barry Hughart
The Hereafter Gang - Neal Barrett Jr.
The Light at the End - John Skipp & Craig Spector
Crucifax Autumn - Ray Garton
The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
The Bridge - Iain Banks
Evolution's Shore (a.k.a. Chaga) - Ian McDonald
Holy Fire - Bruce Sterling
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
Terminal Cafe (a.k.a. Necroville) - Ian McDonald
The Night Watch - Sean Stewart
Nifft the Lean - Michael Shea
Fevre Dream - George R. R. Martin
The Magic Wagon - Joe R. Lansdale
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
The Difference Engine - William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
Synners - Pat Cadigan
Lord of the Hollow Dark - Russell Kirk
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Door Number Three - Patrick O'Leary
The Paratawa Trilogy - Christopher Hinz
The Paper Grail - James P. Blaylock
Firelord - Parke Godwin
The Shaft - David J. Schow
Empire of the East - Fred Saberhagen

Collections & Anthologies

The Hugo Winners (Volumes I & II)- Isaac Asimov, editor
Strange Things in Close Up - Howard Waldrop
Songs the Dead Men Sing (Dark Harvest version) - George R. R. Martin
Vacuum Diagrams - Stephen Baxter
San Diego Lightfoot Sue & Other Stories - Tom Reamy
Night of the Cooters - Howard Waldrop
By Bizarre Hands - Joe Lansdale
Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelley
Dark Gods - T.E.D. Klein
The Fire When It Comes - Parke Godwin
Portraits of His Children - George R. R. Martin
Book of the Dead - John Skipp & Craig Spector, editors
Watchers at the Straight Gate - Russell Kirk
The Last Defender of Camelot - Roger Zelazny
Mirrorshades - Bruce Sterling, editor
Slow Dancing Through Time - Gardner Dozois, et al.
Seeing Red - David J. Schow
Heatseeker - John Shirley
Empire Dreams - Ian McDonald
Patterns - Pat Cadigan
Crystal Express - Bruce Sterling
Before the Golden Age - Isaac Asimov, Editor

Many of these are still available on the used book market. In fact I have many available at The Lame Excuse Books Web Page

Say goodbye to dialing numbers in the dark with that fscking pad... then when you finally get used to it and go and try to use your housephone it will take you roughly 4 minutes to dial 10 digits.

Right.... Because back then everyone was SO confused when we switched from rotary phones to ones with keypads.

Take a look at:

The Osama Bin Laden Suicide Bomber Dating Service

Terry Brooks to rewrite The Lord of the Rings

Baen Books Announces Product Placement Deal with Microsoft

Each and every one of these stories is as true as the parent, and most are funnier...

There are plenty of mini rules sets available on the web. My favorite is Evil Stevie's Pirate Game.

07:36:45am CST
--------------

GNC: "Flight, GNC - they accidentally downmoded to inertial. They're back in auto now."

[Either the PLT or CDR accidentally bumped the stick, which the flight control system interprets as the crew taking manual control from the autopilot. The FCS downmodes from Auto to Inertial. The crew saw that they did this, and went back to Auto.]

Looking for more to support your theory I found articles from USA Today, Time, and IOCOM.

USA Today also has a link to a very nice graphical representation of the sensor failures.

The Time article interestingly describes what the final moments may have been like on board for the astronauts. It appears there was another 2 Sec burst of data after contact was lost. Time states, "For 5 sec. after that, only computer data streamed down, and then all contact was lost. Finally, 25 sec. later, the ship crackled back online for just 2 sec., but the data packed into that brief burst told a chilling tale. According to the readings, the ship was in a flat, counterclockwise spin, moving at 20 per second, meaning it would complete a full rotation in 18 sec. Actually, Columbia was probably twirling faster than that, but 20 per second is as much as its systems could record, given that that's more than the ship could take. The data also suggest that Husband switched the spacecraft from autopilot to manual, evidently fighting to stabilize his spacecraft. There was no "Oh, shoot" this time."

IOCOM's FAQ is pack full of info. I have not had a chance to read it completely, but it does contain dialog that does mention "we bumped the stick earlier".

I have to agree with you that this may be one of the many things that when looked at alone would not have caused a catastrophic failure. I am very interested in what the final findings will be.