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Slashback: Failure, Errors, Misery
One day it will happen, just not yet. The launch of India's first GSLV anticipated on Slashdot a few days ago appears to have flopped. As Jon Erikson writes: "The launch of the GSLV-D1 has failed. The takeoff was successful, but shortly after its launch flames could be seen coming from the side of the rocket and the launch was aborted. As of yet there is no explaination. The story is here at BBC News." And fiscally-minded defence budget points to Rediff's story on same.
Correction, correction! The name of the country is not "Kanada," either. Jeremy Burman of Toronto's Myubi Search Technologies wrote in response to the recent post about Canadian broadcasters' V-Chip readiness, saying: "You posted a Canadian V-Chip piece to Slashdot earlier today but, unfortunately, the source both misspelled and got the CBC's name wrong. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is one of our country's greatest treasures; the institution of the V-Chip will allow parents more freedom in allowing their children to watch shows, giving the kids control of their TV time and helping them learn independence that much sooner."
The real Canadian Broadcasting Corporation are the ones to blame or praise for all this child liberation, not the devious Candadian Broadcast Company.
Why we used these back in the boiler room, a hundred years ago, and they were old-hat then, too! Isaac Grover of the SJSU College of Engineering writes of the head-tracking pointer system which made a recent appearance on these pages:
"This is *not* new technology. In my Win3.1 days I used a similar device by Spectrum (now Kantek/Spectrum at www.kantek-spectrum.com) called the RingMouse. It has since gone unsupported by Spectrum, but they are still out there and in use (google:RingMouse).And surprisingly it is still superior to the capabilities of the Naturalpoint device in that it was three-dimensional in applications that supported it."
Wei muss Alles Be Immer About Mir?! Unlike Iridium, which has been pretending to have human owners ever since it gained sentience a few months back, Mir has bit the bullet, bought the farm, shuffled off this mortal coil (or rather back onto it), and is no more. Except possibly for some big titanium balls. (Every space collector's dream?)
Cryptacool writes: "http://www.mirreentry.com posted videos (finally) but it doesn't seem to be the footage from the planes rather captured from a video camera on the ground." Knave trickery, but just as well, since none are available in a Linux-friendly format right now :(
And slathering writes: "CNN.com reports that there are decent odds of bits of charred Mir washing up on the shores of pacific islands. The guy they interviewed thinks that the pieces would be worthless but I imagine they'd fetch a reasonable amount of money on eBay."
Now how much would you pay?
Even better is thinking carefully about the connection between more tv watching and independence.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
When I was in the army we talked about guys who "had two big brass ones". Titanium. This "Mir" guy must be one rough mutha!
Best Slashdot Co
The tidbit about the Indian GSLV is incorrect. The rocket did not actually launch. The GSLV launch vehicle has four strap on booster stages (liquid fueled) and a solid first stage. Typical launch profile is to ignite the liquid boosters 4.5 seconds before launch and run engines up to operating thrust. If they have met thrust levels within that time period, the solid propellent center stage (which cannot be extinguished) is ignited and the launch hold bolts released.
What happened w/ the GSLV is that their launch computer ignited the booster stages but one of them failed to reach operating thrust when it was supposed to, so it aborted the launch by shutting down those engines before the solid core was ignited.
The rocket did NOT take off, despite the overenthusiastic announcer who initially yelled 'Takeoff!'. The launch was properly aborted and safed by their computers (which operated exactly as designed) and the rocket (with payload) is intact and ready for future launch (once the engines on the booster stages are replaced or certified for use and the problem is fixed).
There was no flop, no crash, no nuthin.
Why doesn't somebody come up with something really useful like a chip that blocks those disgusting "feminine hygine" commercials from being shown on TV's belonging to single guys? Call it the "Y" chip. You'd have single guys buying them up like crazy!
You're using her as bait, Master!
"the V-Chip will allow parents more freedom in allowing their children to watch shows" HELLOOO, maybe what we need is to have the parents spend more TIME with the kids instead of taking over the parenting duties.
Maybe if parents actually sat down and talked to the kids or took them out to do family stuff we wouldn't NEED the V-Chip because then the parents would know what the kids were doing and would actually be part of their lives instead of relying on the electronic babysitter.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
Your bonfire wont be hot enough. What woud suggest is you do the following to create an authentic piece of MIR junk....
1) Strap one frying pan to a acetelene (sp) bottle. Preferable off a oxy welding unit. Place in enclosed space.
2) Initiate a leak in bottle.
3) Remotely light spark. The resultant explosion, should you not be in the blast radius (and it will be quite considerable blast) shoud accelerate the pan to near sonic levels and bend it into new and exciting shapes.
4) Find what remains of pan, convey to another gas-axe, heat until white hot. As the junk fell into the sea, quench in brine.
5) Allow to cool.
6) Sell on EBAY for $100,000 dollars. You'll need every penny to fend of the lawsuits and repair the damage to the neigbourhood.
"Old Rallydrivers never die - they just fail to book in on time"
Seems like alot of what we have seen over the past few weeks is re-cycled one way or another.
For Example, the Latest from Microsoft: The Tablet PC. (formerly know back in Win 3.1 days as Pen Computing)
but pen computing isn't old hat (to read the article at my link) - I wonder what is available in Linux? it would be amusing to steal his thunder there as well.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
eBay has had various MIR Pieces for days...
If slashdot issued corrections for all the errors in the posts, we'd be up to necks in Slashbacks. :)
That's just one of those statements you have to read a couple of times, slowly and carefully, to fully appreciate. Like a fine wine.
There are several ways of using a mouse without actually using a mouse. MIT's wearable computing department has a link to the eyemouse.
the eyemouse
Black and grey are both shades of white.
OK. here is how I make them. First you go to a junkyard and find either a LADA or a SKODA. Then you chop off a bunch of stuff with an oxy-acetalene cutter.
Next you throw the stuff off the top of a large building.
Then you light a bonfire in the back garden, get the thing up to a really nice heat thenstick a couple of sacks of charcoal on the top. When the flames have died back you have peak heat, stick your 'remains' on top.
By now your wreckage should be almost unidentifiable. So you will need to make it a bit more Soyuz like. Adding a hamer and sickle design or communist star is the next step. Make sure you don't make this too central or it will look suspicious.
Congratulations komrade you now have something that not only looks like MIR wreckage, it probably functions as well in its current state as the original did in orbit.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/