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Slashback: HAMnation, Books, Criticism
Reversing the dilithium crystals is not an option in this case. $FFh writes: "AMSAT-DL President (and P3D Project leader) Dr. Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, provided ANS with additional information regarding AO-40's recent S-band transmissions on 2401.305 MHz:
Ian, ZL1AOX, has succeeded in loading IPS software and a minimal operational package into AO-40. As a consequence, AO-40 is now sending telemetry (A blocks) that will enable an analysis of the status of the spacecraft.
A first (quick) look has revealed that some temperature sensors and possibly some current sensors have been lost by whatever incident caused the telemetry transmissions to stop. However, the power situation, in particular the battery voltages, look nominal.
We will now start a detailed analysis of the situation; the command stations will continue to follow a conservative philosophy with the primary target of not causing any additional damage along with retaining as much evidence as possible for the analysis of the incident.
Furthermore, command stations will now try to uplink the entire operational software package, which in particular should establish positive control over the power generation system. From there on, the communications capabilities of the spacecraft will be explored. The 2-meter transmitter is considered off limits for the time being (in case that it may have been damaged and thus might have the potential to cause the IHU to crash). The risk is too large before the Warte-Orbits and Command-Assist programs have been updated to reflect the actual capabilities of the satellite available after the incident.
In summary, we can state that the command stations have now regained control over AO-40. During the next few days we hope to learn to what extent the satellite was damaged and to what extent this will impact mission targets."
Read up -- then spread some praise or some griping! bcrowell writes: "The Assayer is a web site for user-contributed book reviews, with a focus on free books. All reviews are free information. We now have 35 free books on computer science in our database, almost all without reviews. A common argument against free books is that without a publisher, there's no way to filter out the junk -- if you'd like to prove otherwise, it's time to do some reading!"
Dissecting Mandrake 7.2: Beyond Eye Candy Linux Tests writes: "Linux Tests published their first review of a distribution. Linux-Mandrake 7.2 was chosen as the first victim -- umm -- first distribution. Linux Tests did the installation several different ways over several weeks timeframe in order to answer the age old question, "Is this right for someone new to Linux?" Find out if this distribution answers the question well."
Their review reflects my experience with Mandrake 7.2, as well -- some glitches, a lot of slickness, and some problems with the manual vs. reality. (On the other hand, Mandrake remains one of only two distributions I would recommend to parents and siblings at present.)
The Linux Tests' site looks like a great resource, too -- three guys grousing is a cool basis for a web site! It will be nice when hardware manufacturers realize that a perhaps small but significant fraction of their buying audience is paying a lot more attention to their products then they may be used to. Publishing specs is always nice, eh?
Now kiss, make up, and have fun, ok? DaGoodBoy writes: "John Roderick, the Director of Rosen Interactive, contacted us with a rebuttal to some of the statements our member Kenneth J. Hendrickson in his recent "Report on the 2nd Real-Time Linux Workshop" which ran here on Slashdot. Details are available here"
There is absolutely NO excuse for requiring a re-install of the operationg system when hardware changes. In my opinion, that is a serious liability. What happens if you have a motherboard failure (stuff like that happens), and the motherboard is discontinued, or now ships with another bios or is a newer revision. I agree totally that motherboards are not all the same (I'm not that naive--I've designed microprocessor-based systems and written BIOS routines, etc. I know that there can be significant, important differences in motherboards, even if they are the exact same models but different revisions--this is reality even in much simpler systems like I worked on). Also, What if you want to make several "Images" of a drive to ease installation of W2K Pro, but can't count on all the PC's to be IDENTICAL?
Obviously, for mission-critical stuff, you would have a backup server in the event of hardware failure, but you still need to restore the primary machine. Instead of puking out a STOP 0x7b when it encounters a certain driver/hardware mismatch (as has often happened since NT 3.51) why can't Win2k catch the exception and continue with the "generic" drivers, and allow the user to correct the problem without an invasive repair/re-install process? THERE IS NO GOOD REASON why it can't. Microsoft already allows you to boot in "VGA Mode" if you change video cards. This could be extended to all subsystems.
Yes, there ARE countless different motherboards. However, all decent ones have the same entry points into the black box. They all have PCI and AGP slots, they all support the same BIOS calls and so on. Why can't Win2K (even if only in "Safe Mode") deal with the common denominator in the event the "optimised" configuration no longer applies. I know it seems harsh to hold Win2K to those standards. However, if I'm a company paying tens of thousands a year in licensing fees, a "smarter boot sequence" to save many hours of IT work isn't just a "nice" thing. If the FREE competition appears to be superior in that respect it would be something I'd DEMAND in return for those thousands I gave to Microsoft--particularly then they won't even give me the tools (ie. source code) to make improvements myself (improvements I'd be willing to share).
Yes, I do have a double standard w.r.t. Win2k vs. Linux. It's because they are two different situations. Linux isn't "perfect" or "optimised for everything". However, it is free (monetarily) so you get more than you pay for. It is also Free (open source) so I can contribute improvements. Until MS Windows is Free (open source if not monitarily) I will not be nearly as forgiving with it's shortcomings.
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If Linux is going to compete against MS on the desktop market, it needs to be easier to use. I don't want to have to hunt around and recompile the kernel just to get sound (this is my biggest complaint with Linux distros right now.) I don't want to poke around with mysterious .conf files just to get a periphial working.
It seems that Mandrake has come a long way towards making Linux much more user friendly. While Linux distros still have a long ways to go, its good to see that they're on the right track!!
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
It takes patience, and a lot of persistance. Congrats to the ground operators whose persistance paid off.
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
If Linux is going to compete against MS on the desktop market, it needs to be easier to install/configure. Once Linux is installed and configured, it tends to be at least as easy to use as anything else out there, if not easier, simply because it doesn't go belly-up and demand to be reinstalled, used in safe mode, or whatever. A machine with Linux properly pre-loaded by the OEM is no doubt a joy to behold.
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