High Power RocketCam Videos

Raketemensch! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 21:49 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Erster Pfosten, Gertruden!

What happens by jki · 2002-11-19 21:53 · Score: 5, Funny

What happens when the founder of Xircom and his brother bolt a DV Camcorder to the side of a 200 lb. model rocket and press the red button

Tens of thousands of USD is blown up in the air and converted into a couple of movies which can be shown on Slashdot so that we can make insightful comments like this?

Re:What happens by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 21:59 · Score: 0

should have bought a $200 walmart cheapo cam. the quality might such just a little, but you'll be about $600 richer in the end.
Re:What happens by Cheese+Cracker · 2002-11-19 22:00 · Score: 0, Flamebait

Tens of thousands of USD is blown up in the air and converted into a couple of movies which can be shown on Slashdot so that we can make insightful comments like this?

Microsoft spends billions of dollars in producing software that makes computers insecure, just so that we can comment it here at Slashdot... The founder of Xircom and his brother just found a cheaper way of keeping us glued to Slashdot... ;)
Re:What happens by jki · 2002-11-19 22:03 · Score: 0, Offtopic

The founder of Xircom and his brother just found a cheaper way of keeping us glued to Slashdot... ;)
Yeah, but where's the minesweeper icon?
Re:What happens by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:05 · Score: 0

i just think it's extremely cool that, at least in the rocket video i just watched, it landed standing straight up.
Re:What happens by glh · 2002-11-20 00:32 · Score: 1

What happens when the founder of Xircom and his brother bolt a DV Camcorder to the side of a 200 lb. model rocket and press the red button

503 Service Unavailable
The requested URL Bandwidth is temporarily unavailable.

That's what happens! :)
Re:What happens by McFly69 · 2002-11-20 02:22 · Score: 3, Funny

The quality of these movies is by far the best I've seen from the "strap a camera to a flying toy" community. They have a nice gallery of still photos too.

I was totally impressed by the quality of the movies and photos! but for some reason they all look the same to me. The movie is on repeat and keeps playing "503 Service Unavailable
The requested URL Bandwidth is temporarily unavailable." Gets kind of boring after watching it for 30 minutes.

--

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Re:What happens by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 05:30 · Score: -1, Offtopic

THE POWER PROCESS
33. Human beings have a need (probably based in biology) for something that we will call the "power process." This is closely related to the need for power (which is widely recognized) but is not quite the same thing. The power process has four elements. The three most clear-cut of these we call goal, effort and attainment of goal. (Everyone needs to have goals whose attainment requires effort, and needs to succeed in attaining at least some of his goals.) The fourth element is more difficult to define and may not be necessary for everyone. We call it autonomy and will discuss it later (paragraphs 42-44).

34. Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he wants just by wishing for it. Such a man has power, but he will develop serious psychological problems. At first he will have a lot of fun, but by and by he will become acutely bored and demoralized. Eventually he may become clinically depressed. History shows that leisured aristocracies tend to become decadent. This is not true of fighting aristocracies that have to struggle to maintain their power. But leisured, secure aristocracies that have no need to exert themselves usually become bored, hedonistic and demoralized, even though they have power. This shows that power is not enough. One must have goals toward which to exercise one's power.

35. Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.

36. Nonattainment of important goals results in death if the goals are physical necessities, and in frustration if nonattainment of the goals is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.

37. Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human being needs goals whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.
Re:What happens by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 06:10 · Score: 0

38. ????
39. Profit!
Re:What happens by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 06:27 · Score: 0

Flamebait?! That comment was fucking brilliant.
Slashdot is getting really fucking fickle and childish. And not childish in a clever, geeky way.
Anyways, I'll see the rest of you over at kuro5hin soon enough.
Re:What happens by trumpetplayer · 2002-11-20 07:23 · Score: 1

"Tens of thousands of USD is blown up in the air and converted into a couple of movies which can be shown on Slashdot so that we can make insightful comments like this?" Well, not even that. Since apparently they didn't converted enough USD into bandwidth, the site is "temporarily unavailable", i.e. slashdotted!
Re:What happens by Shanep · 2002-11-20 11:41 · Score: 3, Interesting

Tens of thousands of USD is blown up in the air and converted into a couple of movies

; )

In the late 80's I was working in electronic weapons. Homing anti aircraft missiles had their internal electronics placed carefully and then covered in resin, due to the fact that when these incredible machines launched, large'ish unprotected components (electrolytic caps for eg) would generally rip right off the PCB's or otherwise be damaged. Sending the missle anywhere but where it was supposed to go.

Even cables would be tied into bundles, bolted down and resin'ed into place.

Ship mounted missles, like the "standard anti aircraft", would strip the on deck "grip paint" back to bare aluminium after just one launch, from the rocket blast.

I can't get to the site, it's /.'ed for me. Did the DV even last one ride?

--
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Great movies... by Cheese+Cracker · 2002-11-19 21:53 · Score: 1, Insightful

and the site haven't been /.ed yet... :)

Re:Great movies... by amonroy · 2002-11-19 22:21 · Score: 1

maybe becase it's 5:20 am ?
Re:Great movies... by sirius_bbr · 2002-11-19 22:26 · Score: 1

maybe becase it's 5:20 am

Maybe we don't all live in the same timezone...

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this sig has intentionally been left blank
Re:Great movies... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:30 · Score: 2, Funny

Yeah, I surprised! Those are the best damn dildo commercials I've ever seen!
Re:Great movies... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:46 · Score: 3, Funny

If you don't live in the USA you are a terrorist. We will bomb you eventually.
Re:Great movies... by some+guy+I+know · 2002-11-19 23:38 · Score: 1

It is now ...

--
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Re:Great movies... by pediddle · 2002-11-19 23:49 · Score: 2, Funny

The sad part is, that won't even be a joke once GWB gets his way...

I'd like to see a camera strapped on the side of one of the cruise missiles. Well, I guess they already have those. Never mind.

if only... by Animaether · 2002-11-19 21:54 · Score: 3, Funny

if only they could strap a DVcam to the desk pointing at the blinkenlights on their server as the poor thing gets slashdotted to hell and back

Re:if only... by The+Original+Yama · 2002-11-19 22:27 · Score: 5, Funny

Of course, you'd need a separate server & bandwidth for the camera feed, so that we can actually see the slashdotting. Then we need a camera (with its own server & bandwidth) to see the blinkenlights on the first camera's server so that we can see it being slashdotted. Then we need a third camera to see the blinkenlights on the second camera's server...

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OLPC Australia
Re:if only... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:57 · Score: 0

Good idea!! But people would get bored of clicking on the links, so you`d probably only need 10 or 15 setups! Unless people deep link to the last one. Hey, i`ve just found a reason for banning deep linking!!

That's Interesting! by Zech+Harvey · 2002-11-19 21:54 · Score: 3, Interesting

You know, since Carmack shares a love of the same hobby as these gentlemen, I wonder if this would interest him? I would say it might. And being that it might, I wonder if he would code a mini-cam for the Rocket Launcher in Doom III? Bullet-time eat your heart out!

--
Zech Harvey, MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA

Re:That's Interesting! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:00 · Score: 0

Best FPS weapon will always be the Redeemer. If you don't know what that is, you're probably the guy I keep blowing up with it.
Re:That's Interesting! by JanusFury · 2002-11-19 22:08 · Score: 5, Informative

There's already been a camera for rocket launchers in FPSes before - Unreal Tournament (and Unreal Tournament 2003, I think) allows you to steer the Redeemer missle in first person.

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troll::post();
Re:That's Interesting! by Zech+Harvey · 2002-11-19 23:21 · Score: 2

You're right! Silly me, thank you for reminding me. I had forgotten about that! I rarely played UT, but when I did, I prefered the Strangelove mod. =)

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Zech Harvey, MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA
Re:That's Interesting! by tincho_uy · 2002-11-19 23:22 · Score: 2, Informative

It's already been done in Max Payne... when you shoot the sniper rifle... and it's bullet time :)
Re:That's Interesting! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:57 · Score: 0

IIRC... Decent II allowed a view from rockets. circa '96.
Re:That's Interesting! by BitwizeGHC · 2002-11-20 00:25 · Score: 1

So did ROTT (via a cheat code).

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N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Re:That's Interesting! by G-funk · 2002-11-20 00:42 · Score: 2

Killer Quake Patch had it first I bellieve, with very agile guided rockets... it was grouse, i loved that patch, you could chase somebody with your rocket till they walked into the room in which the floating gibbed head was waiting :)

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Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Re:That's Interesting! by _ganja_ · 2002-11-20 00:51 · Score: 2

"grouse"???

Must be from Melbourne, Australia right?

--
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a brutal anal raping at airport security
Re:That's Interesting! by Zech+Harvey · 2002-11-20 01:23 · Score: 2

Thank you for the correction! I've not the system yet to run that game, so I've not been exposed to its coolness yet. Hopefully I'll get to see people die up close and personal after the Holidays. ;)

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Zech Harvey, MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA
Re:That's Interesting! by medscaper · 2002-11-20 02:29 · Score: 1

The very virst MDK allowed that, too, on every shot - there was a little video window that let you see the trajectory from all the launchers - rockets, sniper bullets, and grenade launchers.

--
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
Re:That's Interesting! by G-funk · 2002-11-20 13:36 · Score: 1

Hahaha, nope, I hate melbourne, I'm from queensland. But I love the word grouse, it's so aussie :).

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Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Re:That's Interesting! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 19:57 · Score: 0

Gee It's grouse at Hardware House
Re:That's Interesting! by _ganja_ · 2002-11-21 15:01 · Score: 1

Cool, good to know grouse is Aussie wide!

--
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a brutal anal raping at airport security

What happens when... by Russellkhan · 2002-11-19 21:57 · Score: 1, Funny

You put movies with sound up on your site and someone links to it on Slashdot? The server goes down hard!

Actually, I'm impressed - I'm downloading one of the mpegs right now and getting it at a pretty good speed.

Russ

--
Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.

Re:What happens when... by sirius_bbr · 2002-11-19 22:01 · Score: 2, Insightful

They _really_ should have put up divx there instead of mpeg.
They're just asking to be /.-ed :)

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this sig has intentionally been left blank
Re:What happens when... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:08 · Score: 0

Probably because they're rich and can pay for bandwidth :)

Well... by acehole · 2002-11-19 21:58 · Score: 4, Funny

I guess it'd be an improvement over strapping someone to a rocket then hoping they survived the landing so they could tell you about it.

--
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!

Re:Well... by MacAndrew · 2002-11-19 23:10 · Score: 3, Funny

They tried that. Notice they don't mention their "other" brother, Wayne, who would've been fine if he hadn't struggled so much on the way up.
Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:26 · Score: 0

Tenacious D quote perchance?
Re:Well... by G-funk · 2002-11-20 00:38 · Score: 2

Why no just strap a camera to this guys router? I'm sure it had more interesting pyrotechnics...

Not that I can tell you what's in the footage of the rocket.....

--
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Re:Well... by Ozan · 2002-11-20 02:09 · Score: 1

Actualy German experiments with manned rockets in WWII came very close to that. The only things left to tell a story were a hand and a foot, though.

Isn't that just the way... by djupedal · 2002-11-19 22:00 · Score: 4, Funny

So I build this nice, trim little single stage rocket (solid fuel), and my brother talks me into strapping another zero delay motor onto the bottom....it went fine until the tagged on motor lit the main motor....the rocket tumbled just for an instant, and when the main motor fired, the rocket was horizontal...it quickly made it to a nearby freeway and took out an aged Mustang. We figured since lunch was almost over we'd just as soon head back to the lab and quietly call it a day. A camera on that one would have shown one ticked off Mustang owner, I'm sure.

Don't know if I have the nerve to sacrifice a DV camera...but maybe someone else's camera would be ok :)

Re:Isn't that just the way... by tanveer1979 · 2002-11-19 22:56 · Score: 5, Interesting

The tumbling is due to the fact that the full thrust us taking too much time to come. By the time full thurst came, the initial thrust had already lifted of the rocket and naturally due to that newton guy this thing would start tumbling, and when thrust was enough to pull it with speed it was horizontal.
The solution would be to have a pipe around the rocket, by the time the rocket exits the pipe full thrust would be generated, and before that the pipe would keep it more or less straigt. Or if you can have such a motor design which can go to full thurst in minimal time it would be great, but that is expensive.
If you want a safer demo of this you can try this. Take the ordinary fireworks rocket, the small one with the long stick which you put in a bottle and then ignote the fuse. You will see that the rocket goes quite save. Next take a smaller bottle and place the rocket so that the bottom of the stick is very near to top of botle. you will see that the initial thrust will have the rocket out of the bottle, but since the thrust is not enough yet the rocket will begin to fall sideways and by the time it falls power is max and you have a SSM!

--
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Re:Isn't that just the way... by djupedal · 2002-11-20 00:14 · Score: 2

The second motor was the same thrust as the main, and thus too weak for the initial load. All it did was get the thing off the ground a few meters and then ignite the main...ooopps...time to duck. I figured it would just sit on the stand. All in all, not a good decision by any means...oh well. The solution would have been to not listen to my brother :) I put significant time into shaping the fins, etc. This thing would have flown perfectly, but since this was the first shot, I'll never know for sure.

This is the same poor logic as when he told me to load a small firecracker into a plastic pill bottle, and then light it and cap it and toss it into a bucket of water. I was sure it wouldn't explode...I still have the scar in my left eyeball from the debris. I was bleeding, naturally, and by the time our Mom saw me she thought he'd stuck it in my mouth....oops.
Re:Isn't that just the way... by Graff · 2002-11-20 00:32 · Score: 5, Interesting

it went fine until the tagged on motor lit the main motor....the rocket tumbled just for an instant, and when the main motor fired, the rocket was horizontal

What you need to do is to read this web page on how to design a stable rocket before you build one. Basically it all comes down to the last paragraph on the web page, which tells you to make sure you have the center of gravity closer to the nose than the center of pressure.

What you probably needed was to have more weight in the nose of the rocket and/or to use larger fins on the rocket. More weight in the nose would move the center of gravity toward the nose, larger fins would move the center of pressure toward the motor. If you had done this then the drag on the rocket from the air passing over it would have kept it straight up until it lost all upward velocity. Thus it would have not wobbled during the small delay between the first motor ending and the second motor getting up to speed.

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Sapere aude!
Re:Isn't that just the way... by djupedal · 2002-11-20 00:50 · Score: 2

:)

The errant rocket was properly designed and assembled up until just before launch...errr, I mean just before the second primary motor was added.

I've built and sucessfully flown many, many rockets, including single and multi-stage. This particular launch was the single most entertaining off pad failure I can recall, and it's retold here just to share the stupidity of the last minute 'modification', suggested by a known troublemaker and implemented by yours truly with the excuse of just being curious :)

What was needed was a deft ear to the launch crew...oh well. That reminds me...I owe him one.
Re:Isn't that just the way... by Graff · 2002-11-20 04:50 · Score: 2

Yep, the last-minute addition must have lowered the center of gravity below the center of pressure. It goes to show, never make last-minute changes to a design! The last time I did that I was working on a chemistry project and I ended up with a mixture of hot sulphuric acid, sodium hydroxide, butyl alcohol, and a few other chemicals fountaining out of a flask onto my hands. Luckily for me I was wearing thick gloves and there was a chemical shower 3 feet away. Nasty nasty stuff, those gloves were melting in seconds.

My worst rocketry accident occurred when I built a model SR-71 Blackbird. It was a beautiful model rocket and it took me a long time to get just right. I put it on the launch pad and everything was going ok until I hit the ignition button. The rocket got about 1/2 way up the launch rod and then it stuck. The force of the engine caused the rocket to tip over the pad and then it freed itself and went shooting off at about 2 feet off the ground. The damn rocket slammed into the ground nose first, jammed on, and then the ejection charge fired and lit the rocket on fire.

Many hours of work down the drain in 10 seconds. Amazing. It turned out that the 2 sections of the launch rod had gotten turned and, since they are designed to only line up a certain way, they were off center from each other. The rocket jammed on this and well...

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Sapere aude!
Re:Isn't that just the way... by Timodious · 2002-11-20 07:31 · Score: 1

Hey, that was MY Mustang!

My lawyer will be calling... :-)
Re:Isn't that just the way... by dr_db · 2002-11-21 13:50 · Score: 1

That would've been like the big bugger I made when I was a kid. Got the biggest tube I could find and stuffed 3 D's into it. It stopped a ball game across the field when it launched (it was impressively loud) and about 3/4 the way to altitude something exploded and blew the bottom 1/2 off. Well before the parachute charge should've popped. In fact, 2 of motors popped the chute charges on the way down.

I also made one and ran out and launched it while the glue was still wet :-) A fin came off, and it did a spin around and shoot horizontal trick at about 100 feet. Right across the field into someones house.

Cool! by Goldberg's+Pants · 2002-11-19 22:03 · Score: 2, Interesting

While the on rocket cams are good, I think the tower ones are most impressive. I'm amazed the cameras still worked afterwards! Wow!

SHORTEST AND LONGEST BOOKS by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:04 · Score: -1, Offtopic

SHORTEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN

"A Guide To Arab Democracies"
"A Hiker's Guide To The Ho Chi Minh Trail"
"Advanced Linux User's Guide"
"Blacks I Met While Yachting"
"Career Opportunities for Liberal Arts Majors"
"Excellence In The CFL"
"Fast And Efficient Windows Applications"
"How To Be A Good Sport", by Tonya Harding
"How To Win The Super Bowl", by Jim Kelly
"Keebler Elves That Touch Themselves"
"My Life As A Woman", by Martina Navratilova
"The Engineer's Guide to Fashion"
"Young, Single Males Speak Out Against Masturbation"
"How to be Normal" and "How to be Polite" both by RMS
"Easy to use Linux"
A Canadian telephone book
"My Social Life" by ESR
"Correct Spelling and Grammar in English" by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda
"Business Ethics" by William Gates III (with foreword by Ken Lay)
"Heterosexuality among the Slashdot crew"
"Truths I have told" by Al Gore
"How to Speak Clearly and Correctly" by George W. Bush
"How Canadians Stand Up for Themselves"
"How to Get a Date with a Woman" by your local LUG
"How to Tell the Truth" by William J. Clinton
"The Names of Women Interested in Linux Geeks"
"Successful Business Plans Using Linux"
"What I Wouldn't Do For Money" by Jon Katz
"How to Write Software People Would Want to Buy" by Linus Torvalds
"Addresses of Houses in Canada that aren't Igloos"

LONGEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN

"Loneliness, Buttplugs, Linux and You" by ESR
"Why your name should have 'GNU/' in Front of It" by RMS
"Being Rude to Foriegners" by the French Government
"How to Sexually Abuse Penguins" by Linus Torvalds
"Homosexuality among the Slashdot crew"

Re:SHORTEST AND LONGEST BOOKS by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:55 · Score: 0

"Being Rude to Foriegners" by the French Government

And the follow-up in the "Government" series - "Things I Don't Know Much About" by George W. Bush

What happens? by JanusFury · 2002-11-19 22:05 · Score: 5, Funny

What happens when the founder of Xircom and his brother bolt a DV Camcorder to the side of a 200 lb. model rocket and press the red button?

It gets posted on the slashdot front page and somebody makes a joke about {Bill Gates/Microsoft/Windows/RIAA/MPAA, chooose one}? Oh, that and you scare some wildlife. You can't launch a 200 pound rocket without scaring the shit out of SOMETHING.

--
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();

Re:What happens? by Bastian · 2002-11-20 03:36 · Score: 2

Kind of like how you can't give a hyperlink to a 2,000lb bandwidth-eating beast and not scare the shit out of some sysadmin?

Shock certified camcorders! by krazyninja · 2002-11-19 22:05 · Score: 3, Interesting

"What happens when...."

For one, JVC and Canon camcorder models mentioned in the site get shock certified at 0.6 Mach speed, with forces exceeding 1G. Wow!

--
"Do something man. Right now."

Re:Shock certified camcorders! by Gruneun · 2002-11-20 03:01 · Score: 4, Funny

For one, JVC and Canon camcorder models mentioned in the site get shock certified at 0.6 Mach speed, with forces exceeding 1G. Wow!

The speed is impressive, but I certainly hope it could handle more than 1G. Otherwise, you couldn't pick it up off a table without breaking it.

Cheap shots... again. by Mitreya · 2002-11-19 22:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

...If only everyone named Gates did stuff this cool."

Is it really really neccessary to have a cheap shot at MS no matter how little the post might be related? Why don't we just have a default sig "Windoze sucks, Linux rulez."?

Just in case the posters read the comments: Please lash out at MS and other scapegoats ONLY when it is justified. (not too optimistic, since not all posters proofread the submissions or even read the articles, it seems... sigh...)

Re:Cheap shots... again. by herrd0kt0r · 2002-11-19 22:38 · Score: 5, Funny

Is it really really neccessary to have a cheap shot at MS no matter how little the post might be related?

yes.

Why don't we just have a default sig "Windoze sucks, Linux rulez."?

we do.

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Windoze sucks, Linux rulez.
Re:Cheap shots... again. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:21 · Score: 0

I heard somewhere that Bill Gates has a Trampoline Room in his house. The entire floor is a trampoline and the walls and ceilings are padded. That sounds pretty cool me. I could only imagen though if a video of Billy Boy bouncing on it was posted on slashdot.
Re:Cheap shots... again. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:27 · Score: 1, Insightful

How else would you ever get published on slashdot?
Re:Cheap shots... again. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:40 · Score: 1, Funny

He's also got a room full of Japanese women tied up by his personal rope master, Masahiro. That sounds pretty cool me. I could only imagen though if a video of Billy Boy bouncing on it was posted to slashdot.
Re:Cheap shots... again. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:57 · Score: 0

"whine whine whine"
nobody's forcing you to read slashdot. suck it up.
Re:Cheap shots... again. by tstock · 2002-11-20 02:22 · Score: 0, Troll

Is it really really neccessary to have a cheap shot at MS no matter how little the post might be related

Yes. This is not a popularity vote, it's a jab at a company that has affected more lives than any other. Here's another one for good measure:

"Microsoft is not the answer to anything, it's the question. The answer is NO."
Re:Cheap shots... again. by TheAwfulTruth · 2002-11-20 05:55 · Score: 2

And that is why this site is so pathetic. It does more to hose Linux itself than any amount of anti-linux BS MS could dish out.

It's plain that this site is run by, read by and posted to by cry-babies. One gets the impression that all of Open Source and Linux is a giant playpen full of brats.

The word "professional" is truly not in the vocabulary here. And that is a huge shame. :(

--
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
Re:Cheap shots... again. by thgreatoz · 2002-11-20 07:49 · Score: 1

So...why do you read and post then?

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When their numbers dwindled from 50 to 8, the dwarves began to suspect Hungry.
Re:Cheap shots... again. by MachineShedFred · 2002-11-20 09:30 · Score: 1

I actually have a whole warehouse of systems clustered together running a grep job to find anything related to microsoft / windows / gates / etc. SPECIFICALLY so I can fire off some cheap shots!

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Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Re:Cheap shots... again. by cyril3 · 2002-11-20 11:36 · Score: 1

Get a sense of humor man. Do you think if it had been the Stallman bros or the Torvalds brothers that did this there wouldn't have been jokes based on the coincidence of names.
And if you think the quoted comment is lashing out at MS you live a sheltered life.
Re:Cheap shots... again. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 17:40 · Score: 0

Please lash out at MS and other scapegoats ONLY when it is justified.

Lash out at Microsoft whenever it's justified? Are you insane? What are you trying to do, slashdot slashdot?
Re:Cheap shots... again. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-21 00:29 · Score: 0

>by TheAwfulTruth ...
>and posted to by cry-babies ...
>:(

You, sir, are a wanker.
Re:Cheap shots... again. by Man+Eating+Duck · 2002-11-21 09:09 · Score: 1

OMGROFLMAO!

While the grandparent makes a valid point, herrd0kt0r's post is one of the most hilarious ones I've seen on Slashdot, sig and all... should've been 10 funny

--
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"by far the best I've seen" by nakaduct · 2002-11-19 22:06 · Score: 5, Funny

The quality of these movies is by far the best I've seen from the "strap a camera to a flying toy" community.

And yet, still vastly inferior to the output of the "strap a camera to a showerhead" community.

On the subject of 'Gates' by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:07 · Score: 3, Interesting

It's pretty offtopic, I know, but does anyone else here really wonder about Bill Gates? I mean, he is a geek, right? Would it be possible to hang out with the guy and have a good time chatting about different clever ways to approximate solutions to the travelling salesman problem?

Does the guy code?

Does he have other geek hobbies?

I mean, seriously. I think this is fascinating stuff. Whether we like it or not, HE'S ONE OF US (but maybe with a different economic perspective). Wouldn't it be interesting to get to know the other Bill Gates?

Re:On the subject of 'Gates' by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:17 · Score: 3, Interesting

Hmmm... I like the thought...
Perhaps a slashdot interview -- with the restriction that nothing can be about anything MS related (ie: "Do you think DRM in windows... etc" is a no-no, but "How often do you blow shit up in your microwave? Do you have a warehouse full of microwave ovens?" yes-yes") would be a good idea.
Perhaps we could even get him to admit that he's been contributing to the apach project under a psuedonym for the past three years... ;)

-your mother
Re:On the subject of 'Gates' by dtmos · 2002-11-20 00:50 · Score: 5, Interesting

I realize having Bill even reply to a Slashdot missive is far, far out into fantasyland, but here's what I've always been interested in.

Bill went from being a (perhaps upper-) middle-class Harvard student to the richest person on the planet in the space of fifteen years or so. That *had* to involve a large lifestyle change. While I'm not at all interested in his present personal affairs, I am interested in how he handled the transition from college drop-out to industry icon. I'd like to ask:

-How did you handle the transition from handling your own personal affairs (going down to the dealer to by a car, buying your own Pepsi and Fritos at the grocery, etc.) to having assistants and minions perform all these functions for you? When did this transition occur? At the time, did you view the transition positively or negatively (i.e., as one of the benefits of success, or one of the banes)?

-When was the last time you drove yourself to work on public roads, or flew on a commercial airline flight? When the transition to limousines and personal aircraft occurred, what was the rationalization (e.g., more time available for work, increased prestige, etc.) for their use?

-When did you first feel the need for 24x7 personal security? How did having people around you constantly affect your lifestyle? (Personally, I'd find it pretty creepy to have people monitoring me all the time--but even more creepy to realize that they were needed.)

-You were single a relatively long time, then married a woman who worked at your office. As the richest bachelor on the continent, I can imagine that the competition among the single women at MS for your attentions must have made Machiavelli look like a Sunday-school teacher. Were you aware of this? If so, how did you address the resulting problems with office politics? Did you suffer from the insecurity, so common among the wealthy and powerful, that everyone that meets you is more interested in your money and power than in you?

Just post the above in the "unavailable for comment" file....
Re:On the subject of 'Gates' by jinx90277 · 2002-11-20 02:31 · Score: 1, Insightful

Does anyone else think that this "Anonymous Coward" is actually Bill Gates looking for some love from the Slashdot crowd?

--
"she says i'm lousy conversation. as if that's supposed to help."
Re:On the subject of 'Gates' by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 02:44 · Score: 1, Insightful

That's a silly idea! It would interfere with the blind hatred that the sheep who post here exude. I mean, people might start liking him, stop spelling Microsoft with a $ and start drawing Tux as a borg!

It would be the end of civilization as we know it.
Re:On the subject of 'Gates' by JohnsonJohnson · 2002-11-20 03:49 · Score: 3, Interesting

See here for a concise biography of Gates, in particular the history of the wealth of the Gates family of Washington State. Summarizing he's always been upper class, he was already from one of the wealthiest families in Washington State at birth. As an aside many "entrepreneurs" came from upper class backgrounds: the Walton family (yeah Sam started off running a mom and pop grocery but it's been growing exponentially since the early 70's, by the time Wal-Marts started popping up like dandelions Walton was already among the wealthiest people in Arkansas) and Donald Trump (second generation scion of a New York real estate millionaire) and Ted Turner (he bet the already considerable family fortune on cable television in the early 70's).

Really there are two kinds of "entrepreneur" those who entered the world without access to significant capital (Larry Ellison, don't know about Jobs, Mark Cuban) and those who risked significant personal wealth (Turner, Gates et al.) to move from being merely very wealthy (as in top1 or 2% of the population) to extremely wealthy (as in the number of individuals with similar wealth on the entire planet numbers less than 1000). Given that the very wealthy can afford to make great sacrifices (gamble) because often they will still be very wealthy even if they fail it's really not that remarkable that sometimes they succeed. For example Gates sacrificed a Harvard degree (and the concommitant access it provides) to move to New Mexico where all he had to fall back on was a $1 million trust fund ($1 million in 1979 remember, invested conservatively at 6% that's $3.8 million today a far cry from $1 billion but I'm sure Bill would find a way to survive on it).
Re:On the subject of 'Gates' by daviddennis · 2002-11-20 04:48 · Score: 2

I think that for a long time he flew coach.

It's only in the last few years that he finally bit the bullet and got a private jet.

So my guess is that he didn't think much of some of the changes, and was probably forced into them strictly for reasons of privacy.

D

Amazing! by joebp · 2002-11-19 22:07 · Score: 3, Funny

This is the most amazing thing I've seen in all my life! The way it goes up, gets put through such a lot of strain and still lives! And it's still flying! I wonder what hardware they're using.

Oh, the videos of the rockets are OK too.

*rimshot*

Time to put away childish things... by locarecords.com · 2002-11-19 22:08 · Score: -1, Troll

Wouldn't it be better and more rewarding to give the money to charity than to just blow up DV camcorders. This seems enormously childish and selfish for no gain *except* the feeling of burning money for nothing but a cheap thrill.

I do sometimes wonder about people like this - with so much child poverty in the US, hunger and disease in the developing world, misogynistic and repressive state actions around the globe and a terrifying new famine certain to hit Ethiopia very soon. Should we really be acting like spoilt little children breaking our toys just because we are bored.

--
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM

Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:15 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Oh shutup, Child poverty? Hunger? Hello earth to liberal these things have always and will always exist. No amout of effort or money will make them go away. So if you got the toys to blow up go for it and brighten the days of a few lonely geeks.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by jki · 2002-11-19 22:19 · Score: 2

Wouldn't it be better and more rewarding to give the money to charity than to just blow up DV camcorders. This seems enormously childish and selfish for no gain *except* the feeling of burning money for nothing but a cheap thrill.
Exactly. It is extremely bizarre in cases like this where the thrill is obtained by just burning money and no brains or hack value (which they seem to be hunting for) involved at all. I believe this experiment could have been useful too - but atleast they failed to reveal that on the site. But naturally, it is their money and they can burn it anyway they want. As it must matter for them a lot: hack-value points from the local audience: void.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Tailhook · 2002-11-19 22:22 · Score: 5, Funny

Wouldn't it be better and more rewarding to give the money to charity than to just blow up DV camcorders.

No.

--
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:25 · Score: 0

You are obviously an idiot.

Spending money at all on childish poverty will make no difference? These things have always been with us?

Er.. maybe they have always been with us *because* idiots like you propose spending no money.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by jlanthripp · 2002-11-19 22:30 · Score: 5, Interesting

You mean a cheap thrill and valuable research data that may be used to make space travel cheaper, safer, and more efficient? Have you ever heard of a man named Werner Von Braun? You know, the man who contributed more working knowledge to the US space program than any other single person (granted, knowledge gained mostly from the German V2 rocket program, but we won't go there because it involved nasty things like slave labor and the US government deciding that his expertise was more important than justice) - he got his start making small liquid-fueled rockets about the size of the solid-fueled rockets shown in the referenced site. Who knows, maybe one of these hobbyists will end up working for NASA one day and inventing an O-ring that won't get brittle at low temperatures, or some other rocket safety improvement - thus preventing the Challenger thing from happening again.
BTW, if you had actually RTFA or watched the videos, you would know that they recover the rockets using parachutes - which keeps the camcorders from breaking apart when the rockets reacquaint themselves with terra firma.
If you really believe your own bullshit, what are you doing with a computer and an internet connection? For what you spend every month on your internet connection alone you could feed a starving child in Uganda for a year! I mean, really! Shame on you (and me)!
We should be volunteering at our local soup kitchens and donating all our spare cash to feed those poor starving children in some nameless backwater instead of surfing the web, watching TV, and playing with our modded Xboxes. After all, /. user number 601843 says so!

--
"Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:31 · Score: 0

Hello earth to liberal these things have always and will always exist
People have always murdered each other and always will. Let's stop wasting MY (MY, MY, MY!) TAX MONEY on cops.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by VC · 2002-11-19 22:32 · Score: -1, Flamebait

Karma burn time...

Jeez, get a life. I know your a troll, but seriously are you sure you should be reading slashdot? This aint amnesty international dot com you know. Its slashdot, we like strapping hi tech gear to explosives and shouting whoop whoop, and damn it this is our website, so please take your moralising somewhere else.
ps If your local synagogue/church is allowed to have bingo, while there there are "starving children" then its probably ok.. Ok?
Good, glad we got that cleared up.

--
Official GOD FAQ.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by JaredOfEuropa · 2002-11-19 22:36 · Score: 2

So they aren't allowed to have a hobby now? Who are you to tell or even suggest how and where they spend their money?

If you'd have taken the trouble to take a look at the site and the video's, you'd have seen that the object they tried to achieve wasn't blowing up camcorders, it was to send one up in a rocket and bring it down in one piece. Which they did.

As for the "gain" they got out of it... as anyone with a similar hobby knows, it is not about cheap thrills, but about the thrill of personal achievement. And as anyone who has experienced that kind of thrill will attest: it is something worth spending money on.

--
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Re:Time to put away childish things... by herrd0kt0r · 2002-11-19 22:42 · Score: 1

no kidding. the HERRD0KT0R FUND FOR BLOWING UP CRAP has been bone dry ever since the dotcom bubble burst.

people, give to charities now! without your support, the only people who'll be able to blow stuff up are people like the Gates brothers.

i'd give to this charity myself, but you know, i'd rather spend money on computers and stuff so i can spend my time bitching and moaning about things, instead of dedicating my resources to anything productive. like a job. so i can make money. to blow stuff up.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Qrlx · 2002-11-19 22:42 · Score: 2

Was there poverty before money?

Ultimately, possesion is what leads to poverty. It also leads to having an economy. If you ask me the jury's still out, but in Western Civilization, inventing shit, finding new ways to do things, and getting rich is "morally right." Cultures that don't hold those values get disappeared by Western Civilization. Our whole "way of life" is in part predicated on greed. It's the Invisible Hand that Adam Smith was all on about.

The problem, though, is how do you get people to share without, well, completely redistributing wealth and resources? And why shouldn't there be poor people? If you're lazy, shouldn't you be poor?

These questions have been debated for centuries, and we still have poverty. We suck.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by locarecords.com · 2002-11-19 22:43 · Score: 1, Insightful

Firstly this has no scientific value at all.

Secondly, I am not proposing an anti-technological anti-progress position here. It is quite simple, these people are *burning* money for no other reason than there own individualistic selfish satisfaction. And yes, the fuel costs money as does the destroyed rockets, ruined camcorders (lets face it how long can they really last) and all to stick look-at-me videos on the internet.

I am merely stating that when you look around at the world (and the Internet has been enormously useful in helping us to do just that) you see repressive states, anti-democractic regimes, torture, poverty, starvation and unhappiness.

When you start to think you as a nation have absolutely no responsibilies to the rest of the globe (ie as America so often does) then there is a very real danger in the growth of terrorist organisations and anti-american sentiment growing. And if this is allowed to grow unchecked *no* amount of American hegemony or military muscle is going to stop it. This is a political problem and requires sensitivity to the problems of the world.

I fear that the Internet as an advert for the sheer unadulturated self-satisified and selfish behaviour of Americans will be the last thing you as a nation need at the moment. But then maybe its true that you *really* don't care and don't want to know...

--
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Re:Time to put away childish things... by locarecords.com · 2002-11-19 22:45 · Score: 2

Rubbish.
Have you actually *read* The Wealth of Nations? Do you think that Adam Smith was proposing completely unchecked market economics???
Er... No.

--
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Zoolander · 2002-11-19 22:46 · Score: 1

It's always like this:
If someone suggests that we start caring about people, or even try to be less egoistic, he's a 'liberal'.
And I don't even find 'liberal' derogatory, is that baad, Mr. Right-wing?
Since you people seem to use it as an insult.

--
Meep.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:47 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Oh,
1) get a life
2) go away
3) don't come back.

Pantywaist.

Wait right here and I'll go find the URL for bleeding heart liberals. You guys are SO tiring.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by locarecords.com · 2002-11-19 22:49 · Score: 1

I didn't think it was Amnesty International.
I thought it was a site that welcomed interesting thoughts and comments and valued the American values of debate and democracy.
Or maybe I was wrong.

--
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Re:Time to put away childish things... by locarecords.com · 2002-11-19 22:58 · Score: 2

Nice to see an adult response.
Why are so many slashdotters so seemingly terrified of a critical question about one of the site posts?
Must we really be robots being fed this information or can we actually say something critical occassionally without the need for abuse?
No-one seems to be proposing outlawing hobbies, and frankly I don't propose to, however some hobbies make less sense than others, for example Saddam presumably thinks he has every right to indulge in his 'hobbies' so why are you American's so keen to stop him? Oh right, yeah, because he is a *threat* to the world, he is 'evil'... oh I see claims to a moral position when it suits the *Americans*....
Or would it be ok if he strapped DV cameras to his rockets and posted them to Slashdot?
Does raise the interesting question of this very useful rocket technology information being posted where Saddam can find it easily ...

--
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Re:Time to put away childish things... by digitalbeing · 2002-11-19 23:03 · Score: 1

Wouldn't it be better and more rewarding to give away your money to charity than to sell electronica, like at locarecords.com?

Perhaps we should stop buying music. Especially electronica. All those expensive synthesizers.

How can anybody buy or sell entertainment when the children are starving?

You did get an eyeball going to your site - was that the purpose of this troll?
Re:Time to put away childish things... by adolf · 2002-11-19 23:10 · Score: 1

Yes; we should be acting like spoilt little children, to as much of an extent as our pocketbooks will permit.

It is, after all, the American dream .

--
Kid-proof tablet..
Re:Time to put away childish things... by locarecords.com · 2002-11-19 23:10 · Score: 2

Actually if you had spent anytime on the site you would have realised that the record label LOCA is committed to Open Media. That means we are putting all our output into the public domain royalty free - copyleft... Copy what you like, we just love the music...
And as I have said previously, I am not anti-technological nor anti-progess, merely I believe we need to be more sensitive to issues. Rather than, wow a rocket that has a DV camera, gosh, wow, amazing. Yeah right.. amazing waste of money... hardly creative and hardly useful either...
And I have not said stop buying things. The purpose of the post was to raise a dissenting voice and say, hey, maybe this isn't all that great, is that *so* bad??

--
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Re:Time to put away childish things... by digitalbeing · 2002-11-19 23:13 · Score: 3, Insightful

I can't believe you are comparing rocketry videos with using chemical weapons on your own people. When I was in school, you could tell a debate was degenerating when someone made an analogy to Hitler. Today, it is Saddam.

Congratulations on resorting to the last refuge of a desperate debater. Only took you 50 minutes from your first post.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:14 · Score: 3, Insightful

Firstly this has no scientific value at all.
And I assume you have the credentials to back up this claim? Please tell me which university has granted you a degree in rocket science or aerospace engineering.
It is quite simple, these people are *burning* money for no other reason than there own individualistic selfish satisfaction.
It's their money to burn. Maybe the people who do these kinds of things also tend to be socially-conscious people who donate a sizeable chunk of time and/or money to the Good Cause Du Jour. Besides, hobbies, individualism and fun are bad because...?
I am merely stating that when you look around at the world (and the Internet has been enormously useful in helping us to do just that) you see repressive states, anti-democractic regimes, torture, poverty, starvation and unhappiness.
And what exactly do you suggest we do about this? I mean it - if you have the solutions to these problems, speak up! People have been trying to solve these problems for literally thousands of years - if you know how to solve them, well...the Nobel Peace Prize awaits!
When you start to think you as a nation have absolutely no responsibilies to the rest of the globe (ie as America so often does)...
You're right. We don't. Since when did the US (or any other nation) become the world's police force/janitors/feeders/saviours? Why should we have to clean up the messes made by others? Everybody bitches when the US doesn't get involved, then they bitch when the US does get involved. Make up your fucking minds already!
...then there is a very real danger in the growth of terrorist organisations and anti-american sentiment growing.
...Resentment caused by the US getting involved and trying to help someone somewhere (regardless of whether said attempts to help were unsuccessful and/or directed at the wrong people or places - nobody ever said the US was perfect, at least nobody who's sane).
And if this is allowed to grow unchecked *no* amount of American hegemony or military muscle is going to stop it.
Hear hear! Personally I'd like to see the US withdraw from the UN and tell them to find another country to hold their parties in, then withdraw all military forces to US soil, to be used only to totally annihilate any nation that invades the country or blows up parts of it. Then tell the rest of the world to go clean up their own damn mess.
But then maybe its true that you *really* don't care and don't want to know...
<sarcasm>You're right. I don't care and I don't want to know. I just want to watch cool videos of big penis-shaped rockets being fired into the air, and speculate on how big of a payload they could carry to blow up schools and hospitals in some third-world starving hellhole.</sarcasm>
(jlanthripp, posting anonymously because of the bleeding heart socialists with mod points)
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:15 · Score: 0

Oh and hang on. Bush compares Saddam with... er... hang on... right yeah.. Hitler...
Re:Time to put away childish things... by thunderbee · 2002-11-19 23:15 · Score: 1

I don't think you can use "American values" and "debate and democracy" in the same sentence anymore. Or maybe just democracy, you can still debate all you want as long as you just debate and don't act.
And no, I'm not trolling, I really think democracy left gradually without anyone noticing.

--
In my opinion, Scientology is a cult you should avoid.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:16 · Score: -1, Offtopic

1) get a life
2) ???
3) Profit!
Re:Time to put away childish things... by digitalbeing · 2002-11-19 23:26 · Score: 1

Yep, I think Bush is a lousy debater as well. Just because I disagree with david@LOCArecords does not mean I like Bush, or American nationalism for that matter. To me Bush calls to mind the phrase "the revenge of the C students".
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:40 · Score: 0

heheh..

I bet PETA would love if i took a cat and straped it to the rocket.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by chevelleSS · 2002-11-20 00:07 · Score: 1

Why do people spend tons of money on case mods? there is no real use to the freakin thing!!

because it's a hobby!!

come on!! everyone needs a hobby, some peoples hobbies are just a litte more expensive then others!

This is just as childish as anyone else who has a hobby

on a side note, I saw these guys launch at LDRS in Amarillo, these guys rockets kicked some SERIOUS ass!! and if you happen to watch the video's rarely destroy a rocket
Re:Time to put away childish things... by ComaVN · 2002-11-20 00:22 · Score: 1

And why shouldn't there be poor people? If you're lazy, shouldn't you be poor?

Very true... if there's equal opportunity. If Dubya's daddy wasn't a wealthy man, I'm pretty sure he'd be crawling in a gutter right now, instead of playing Wargames.

If someone's unwilling to work, they should be poor. If someone works 12 hours a day for minimum wage, they shouldn't be.

But then again, I guess I'm just a European communist. :P

--
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by jki · 2002-11-20 00:28 · Score: 2

Why do people spend tons of money on case mods?
Beats me ;)
This is just as childish as anyone else who has a hobby on a side note, I saw these guys launch at LDRS in Amarillo, these guys rockets kicked some SERIOUS ass!! and if you happen to watch the video's rarely destroy a rocket
True. I guess it's just too hard to imagine myself in the same league of money wasting. My original point was however, that it would have been interesting to read some bit more analytical results of the experiments. I'm sure these guys have already a lot to share on the subject. Anyway, it was dull whining from me. I guess I am having a bad hair day. :)
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:28 · Score: -1

Well said!
Re:Time to put away childish things... by forged · 2002-11-20 00:37 · Score: 2

Firstly this has no scientific value at all.
Damn right. That was not the intent either.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Kenshiro · 2002-11-20 00:53 · Score: 1

> Oh and hang on. Bush compares Saddam with... er... hang on... right yeah.. Hitler...

Hmm. Let's run through the list.

- enourmous support from own people during economic depression resulting from sanctions due to previous lost war? CHECK

- gasses own people, along ethnic lines? CHECK

- develops military strength, while trying to pretend otherwise? CHECK Ok, ok, that's under debate :)

- tolerates no dissention in his ranks? CHECK

Now let's compare/contrast the model rocketry gang along the same lines :)
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 01:21 · Score: 0

It is quite simple, these people are *burning* money for no other reason than there own individualistic selfish satisfaction.
A frickload of things and discoveries have been made thanks to someone's selfish interest throughout History.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Sacarino · 2002-11-20 01:29 · Score: 1

heh. I particularly enjoyed this part.

Hear hear! Personally I'd like to see the US withdraw from the UN and tell them to find another country to hold their parties in, then withdraw all military forces to US soil, to be used only to totally annihilate any nation that invades the country or blows up parts of it. Then tell the rest of the world to go clean up their own damn mess.

Right on... I'll just happily move into that underground bunker I've been constructing in my backyard when the fallout makes the surface totally uninhabitable.... Maybe I'd better bone up on my plate welding skills to thicken the walls some more...

--
-- El Sacarino tiene gusto de la chocha
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Walterk · 2002-11-20 01:53 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Hey! Look over there! *point* I see a poor child starving!

Honestly, if you really cared about those kids you'd be out there giving all your money to those little critters instead of sitting in your comfy chair whining about everybody being so insensitive.

--

"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome."
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Qrlx · 2002-11-20 04:55 · Score: 2

Dude. this is slashdot. you don't have to read the article to be an expert.

By the way, it was brilliant how you refuted my arguments simply by positing that I never read the article. And I don't know how you inferred what you did in the part before the ???

For the record, my point is: The same forces which creates so many of the good things in civilization also ensures there will be bad things, and that bad things will happen if an individual sees a compelling enough good to offset the badness.

Take for example that time-bomb oil tanker two miles underwater off the coast of Spain. That's a bad thing. But before it sank, it was good. It would create wealth and add value for so many people along the way, as it gets unloaded, refined, distributed, sold, and combusted.

We all get in our cars in the morning and drive to work, knowing that by doing so, we guarantee that eventually things like this oil tanker disaster-in-the-works are bound to happen. So on the one hand we have the "good thing" of being highly mobile and the freedom that brings. And essentially the Western World has decided that we'd rather have cars and run the risk of a huge ecological disaster than NOT drive cars, and NOT run the risk of a huge ecological disaster.

The ways society justifies or rationalizes that decision-making process are many, but a really important one (possibly paramount) is Capitalism. We do things for no other reason than they will create wealth. They need not perform a useful function, creating wealth is utility in and of itself. It seems innocent enough, but a lot of it has "hidden costs", or at least costs that the capitalist won't have to pay directly, because they'll get some big government bailout or corporate welfare or special law passed, like this thing shielding Eli Lilly from lawsuits because they used mercury in their injections. See, the immunization of children represents a "good thing," they used a mercury preservative because it was cheaper, which had a "hidden cost" that didn't show up on the balance sheet at first. And now society is stepping in, to shield Eli Lilly from paying that hidden cost, because we've decided that we'd rather have Eli Lilly around in the future to create more value than to make them pay for their "oops." Which wasn't really an "oops", except in the sense of "oops, we got caught." Monsanto, GE, the S&L bailout... It's pretty obvious why we have poverty. If I could stop paying to clean up other people's messes, things might change. But that might put thousands of decent, hard-working people out of good-paying American jobs, and we can't have that!

This is all probably nothing new to you, since you've read Adam Smith. ;-)

peace bro
Re:Time to put away childish things... by ianjk · 2002-11-20 04:57 · Score: 1

Wouldn't it be better and more rewarding to give the money to charity than to just blow up DV camcorders. This seems enormously childish and selfish for no gain *except* the feeling of burning money for nothing but a cheap thrill.

damn hippies.

nah.. not more rewarding. now go hug a tree and eat some granola.

rockets are cooler than charities. at least you know where your cash is going.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 05:45 · Score: 0

Hear hear! Personally I'd like to see the US withdraw from the UN and tell them to find another country to hold their parties in, then withdraw all military forces to US soil, to be used only to totally annihilate any nation that invades the country or blows up parts of it. Then tell the rest of the world to go clean up their own damn mess
Right.. and tell me again why is it that Bin Laden attacked the US.. oh yeah and they've done a great job of catching him haven't they...
God. Some of you are so stupid it makes me want to puke. American arrogance will only lead to more attacks, more terrorism and more helplessness from America.
Your nukes are no use if you haven't got anyone to point them at.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by locarecords.com · 2002-11-20 05:49 · Score: 2

God this is so depressing...
Yeah lets compare.. with a President who *Stole* the election from the American people...
Yeah interesting eh?

--
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Combuchan · 2002-11-20 08:48 · Score: 2

This might get modded as a troll or whatever, but I don't care. Moderators, do your worst.

I prefer the capitalist model: That $700 (or whatever) DV cam was designed by a team of engineers, tested by a group of consumers, packaged and sold by JVC, and manufactured using hundreds of components from all over. Each motor, lens, PCB, etc. all has vast amounts of engineering behind it. Then JVC sells this camera to distributors, who truck it to your local Best Buy or whatever electronics shop, where it is put on the shelves and sold at the register.

My point is, that a $700 camera has untold thousands of people getting paid for its development, manufacture, and sale. Many of these people have kids and grandchildren, who will no doubt contribute to the charities you speak. They got paid from the sale of that $700 camera.

Some people tend to forget that money spent in the great engine of capitalism can improve the lives of thousands, where a pittance of direct aid might improve the life of a few if it's not siphoned off by a corrupt government.

Granted, I'm not telling you to stop donating to Your Favorite Charity, but keep in mind there are other ways to help.

my US$0.02

--
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Oggust · 2002-11-20 09:51 · Score: 1
Firstly this has no scientific value at all.
One:
What are your qualifications in saying that?
Two:
The Gates brothers have been doing a lot of research type stuff, simply because many of their rockets are so big. A copule of examples off the top of my head:
- They did a lot of beta testing and initial flights on head end igniters (I think BSR manufactured them, but I'm not sure) for aerotech/Dr Rocket motors.
- They have done good things wrt recovery of really big rockets - check out their launch reports on their site (when it comes back up).
- They were the first to fly DV cameras.
Three:
Why does that matter? It's their money, they get to do whatever they feel like with them. Again, what's your own status here? Do you have a hobby? How come you own a computer and use it to post to slashdot instead of "doing something useful"?
"*burning* money for no other reason than there own individualistic selfish satisfaction" is a pretty good definition of the word hobby. (Not that they're the only ones enjoying it, I was there at LDRS and saw their flights, and I had a really good time.)
I fly rockets too, though not at their level (I'm level 2, biggest rocket is 4" by about six feet, highest altitude about 4400 feet), and it certainly is an expensive hobby, but it's one that really drives you to do things you never thought you could. And there's a lot of undiscovered goodness in between what the HPR industry does and the "real space industry". These things actually will make a difference in making spaceflight affordable.
/August.
--
"An object declared as type _Bool is large enough to store the values 0 and 1." -- 6.1.2.5, C99 standard.
Re:Time to put away childish things... by isorox · 2002-11-20 11:05 · Score: 2

Thats modded up as fun, but its insightful too. Perhaps the original poster should have given a months cable bill to a charity instead of posting on slashdot?
Re:Time to put away childish things... by locarecords.com · 2002-11-20 13:02 · Score: 1

It's a good point. But care has to be taken.
This is the same argument as war is good for the economy as it means we have to build lots of stuff, smash it up and then build it again... and of course full employment too...
There are *other* human values. For instance some poor kid in Pakistan might be working 12 hours a day in a stinking hot factory poking wires inside the camera but so you can pay a measly $700. That is *not* so great.

--
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 13:22 · Score: 0

Your nukes are no use if you haven't got anyone to point them at.

Damn, you're right. So I say we nuke everone else in the world and them take over.

How do you like THEM apples?

You'll have to explain this arrogance you speak of. I personally have done no disservice to anyone or anything from another country. Come to think of it, I haven't even really interracted with anyone from any other country than my own. So where do you get off inferring that we're all arrogant here?

We'll get Bin Laden. Sooner or later. So what's your point? That we're not nuking the entire country to get one guy? Excuse the fuck out of me. Then again, if *I* were king...
Re:Time to put away childish things... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 17:47 · Score: 0

Yes, when you're not getting anywhere with your main argument, it's a good strategy to distract everybody by veering off into a good old anti-American rant.. Stick with the tried and true.

Please help me understand why you are so steamed about these guys and their rocket videos, when 90% of the net is crammed with porn, video games, stolen music, ads, etc. How does any of that help world hunger? And how does locarecords.com help stop starvation and poverty for that matter? Seems like you just have a bunch of artists who are making music for their own individualistic selfish satisfaction, and for other people to waste time listening to music when they could be rising up against anti-democratic regimes. The bandwidth costs money as does the destroyed guitar strings, ruined synthesizers (lets face it how long can they really last) and all to stick look-at-me albums on the internet.

What happens? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:08 · Score: 4, Funny

What happens when the founder of Xircom and his brother bolt a DV Camcorder to the side of a 200 lb. model rocket and press the red button?

You prove to NASA that it can be done cheaply? :)
-mo

definitely! by ryochiji · 2002-11-19 22:10 · Score: 2

I just watched the high res version of the on-board camera for Jayhawk...and it was awesome!! Beats NASA's attempt at strapping on a camera to a rocket, if you ask me.

Besides, it landed standing up. How cool is that?

--

---
Open Source Shirts

Combine the best of both. by JanusFury · 2002-11-19 22:10 · Score: 2, Funny

strap a camera to a flying toy and fly it into the showers at a local school
Get the best of both, people freaking out hilariously and lots of h4w7 n3kk1d gur1z 8-). You could even have it blow up afterward, but that would ruin the whole video thing.

--
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();

Re:Combine the best of both. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:51 · Score: 1, Funny

You want school girls to blow your rocket, are you a child molester?
Re:Combine the best of both. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:59 · Score: 0

point of order:

he may be still IN school with said schoolgirls.

Hee yaa by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:11 · Score: 0

Whoa. Rocket cam. Cool. Very cool. It's like you're there man! up in the sky! a bird? a plane? No, just geeks like us! Up in the rocket! I can fly! Here I come space boy -- Watch me now!

Gonna slash and burn on impact though...nothing can survive what's about to hit the Gates' brothers overly generous web site.

Wow. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:12 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Neat! (come on, mod me up to Score 5: Insightful. I dare you!)

WOW by RAMMS+EIN · 2002-11-19 22:17 · Score: 1

I'm triply amazed! This is damn hot stuff, good quality video, and the site is still alive! Kudos to the Gates brothers!

--
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.

If only he wanted to see his pastrami in orbit... by Quaoar · 2002-11-19 22:19 · Score: 2

...I could finally yell, "Fly lunchbox, fly!"

--
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!

Wasted money by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:21 · Score: -1, Flamebait

Just look at all the money wasted doing this crap. It's just another example of why we should be taxing the hell out of the rich and giving the money to people that can actually use it.

Re:Wasted money by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:52 · Score: 0

Just move to Sweden!
Here they tax the hell out of everybody.
An old woman living in an old house in an attractive area can't afford to buy a dish washer because that would increase her property tax by about $250 _yearly_. Great!
Re:Wasted money by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:02 · Score: 0

Maybe she should pay attention to his tax form and into deductions in particular...

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. by toybuilder · 2002-11-19 22:27 · Score: 5, Interesting

I'd rather see these on prime-time TV than glorified remote-controlled chainsaws destroying each other... The views of the horizon gliding into place is absolutely breathtaking!

Homeland Security Bill - APPROVED by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:27 · Score: -1, Offtopic

And so it begins...

I'm going to send my thanks to these nine brave individuals who stood up against the Orwellian monstrosity giving the government and corporations unprecedented powers to stomp on our rights.

The senators who voted against the measure were

Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts
Paul Sarbanes, D-Maryland
Jim Jeffords, I-Vermont
Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii
Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii
Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia
Carl Levin, D-Michigan
Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-South Carolina
Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin

Re:Homeland Security Bill - APPROVED by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:32 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Fritz voted AGAINST? Disney will be disappointed.
Re:Homeland Security Bill - APPROVED by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:36 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Disney didn't get any pork in this bill whereas big pharma did.
I don't know which "honorable" Senator(s) are owned by the big pharma, but apparently Fritz wasn't one of them.
Re:Homeland Security Bill - APPROVED by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:06 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Go Hawaii. w00t w00t! That's both my senators there.

And people say the moon was a hoax! by deathcloset · 2002-11-19 22:32 · Score: 1

I hope the monkey cameraman is ok! So what are the laws on space? Can just anybody who wants to ( i.e. has enough cash ) build a rocket and go to space. Supposing, of course the materials to build said spacecraft were not in the several hundred million to billion range? Furthermore, can one send a monkey up? To test things on. In a Zero G environment. I mean, anyone can go up in the air right? With an ultralite, or circus cannon, without a pilots license. Does one need a Space license?

Re:And people say the moon was a hoax! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:58 · Score: 0

try these guys
Re:And people say the moon was a hoax! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:05 · Score: 1, Informative

"Does one need a Space license?"

Yes you do. You can't legally launch things up randomly in the sky. Hitting a plane at the present time would brand you as a terrorist. The difference is that space angencies "owns" their portion of the sky.
Re:And people say the moon was a hoax! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 01:48 · Score: 0

Like hell you can't.

Contrary to what you might think, the air is not congested everywhere. Looking at my aircraft situation display right now, I show 3990 aircraft currently flying IFR under FAA ATC. How many are in Alaska, for instance? 14. Colorado? 18. Granted, you'll have many more aircraft flying VFR but the point is there's a LOT of land, and not nearly as many planes over it. Nobody says you have to throw your rocket up near LAX or JFK.

Additionally, if you're concerned about what might be above you, there are ways that joe civilian can call an ATC center to find out if he can launch his rocket. ATC will issue a NOTAM out and pilots (in communication) will avoid the area accordingly.

Slashdot's unethical ad campaign by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 22:33 · Score: 0

See.

There's a sneaky ad in the "Related info" box.

As if having a page wide, animated and fucking annoying SourceForge ad at the top of the page, now they've started cramming ads down our throats.

they blew up the Shuttle, what more do you want? by DrSkwid · 2002-11-19 22:37 · Score: 0, Offtopic

no text0x

--
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter

Yes it is necessary. by torpor · 2002-11-19 22:40 · Score: 2

Bill Gates doesn't do anything cool.

As he is an active /. reader, he must be told.

--
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --

How did they keep that thing balanced? by nounderscores · 2002-11-19 22:41 · Score: 5, Interesting

With the camera sticking out of the side? Many, many rockets have been totally destroyed from just losing one fin. This series of rockets had a whole fairing bigger than a grapefruit protruding from it and it never tumbled. (except the one which had a parachute failure.)

Re:How did they keep that thing balanced? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:39 · Score: 5, Informative

You counterweight inside the rocket and streamline the bulge to minimize drag. At 200 lb weight, a 10 oz camera sticking 2" out isn't going to cause enough thrust to overcome the resultant stabilization forces from the fins. Also, these motors are producing upwards of 1000 lb (not precise number) of thrust distributed across the cross sectional area of the rocket. Once again, 10 oz vs 1000 lb, it's not much.
Re:How did they keep that thing balanced? by NerveGas · 2002-11-20 05:38 · Score: 2

It's really not that difficult. Provided that the center of pressure (the summation of drag forces on the rocket) is behind the center of gravity, small differences like that aren't going to make much of a difference at all.

The problem with losing a fin is not the resultant asymmetry of the rocket, it's that it shifts the center of pressure very far forward - almost always ahead of the center of mass, which then results in, to put it mildly, a "suboptimal" flight pattern. : )

You'd be amazed at some of the amazingly odd designs people come up with that still fly perfectly fine. Take a browse through here.

steve

--
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
Re:How did they keep that thing balanced? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 06:28 · Score: 0

Typical method is to keep the camera inside the body of the rocket and only have a small faired mirror providing a periscope view down the side of the rocket.

FWIW, I tested several of the Gates Bros largest motors which peaked at about 2,200 pounds thrust.
(P-10,000 and N something or other for the HPR geeks)

Question... by sifi · 2002-11-19 22:44 · Score: 3, Interesting

I'm curious to know: Do you have to get permission to launch these things? or is it a free-for-all
Is there some sort of height limit?
What about the UK (where I live)?

--
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)

Re:Question... by deathcloset · 2002-11-19 23:24 · Score: 1

Wow, I asked the same thing. I mean, maybe in the US or UK airspace considerations might be a problem. But what about, say, international waters? Peru? Or how about Russia right? They seem pretty lax about most things. I wouldn't imagine launching oneself (or ones monkey) into space would be much of a problem. given that you are far enough away from everyone and everything that is - I revisit the russia/international water argument. But despite my thoughts and assumptions "anonymous coward" tells me. "Yes you do [need a license/permmision]. You can't legally launch things up randomly in the sky. Hitting a plane at the present time would brand you as a terrorist. The difference is that space angencies "owns" their portion of the sky.". Ohh well, there's always the russians
Re:Question... by gregwbrooks · 2002-11-19 23:25 · Score: 5, Informative

I don't know if the Gates Bros. went this route or not, but High Powered Rocketry is a big hobby and has some pretty strict self-policing standards. For example, you can't go buy engine x until you're qualified by your peers on its smaller predecessors. The group also works with various federal and local agencies to make sure John Law doesn't get too itchy about rockets going up in the desert.
More info? The leading organization is www.tripoli.org.

--

"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
Re:Question... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:44 · Score: 0
In the US you must fill out FAA paperwork. It used to be that paperwork was necessary if you were in heavy traffic airspace, but after 9/11, it's a safe bet that they'll want paperwork regardless of where you launch. Low atltitude subsonics are still ok to do freestyle (estes rockets), but after a certain point the red tape kicks in. To get FAA approval, you'll need
1. The rocket (duh)
2. Rocket specs (speed, altitude, thrust, etc.)
3. Approval of the landowner of your launch site
4. Insurance if necessary. Downed rockets still burning tend to start fires. [duh]
Re:Question... by GothChip · 2002-11-20 00:50 · Score: 3, Informative

You do need permission in the UK but I don't know where from :-(

A few years ago my friend bought a model Rocket from Beatties (a toy shop). We went down to a local park which was deserted. Just as we were about to set it up for the third launch we were approached by a local Bobby who told us to stop immediately.

Just found [a href="http://www.gbnet.net/orgs/staar/legal.html"> this. It says there are no laws in the UK fro mpreventing this (except not doing it within 5 miles of an airport), but there may be many byelaws preventing it.
Re:Question... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 02:02 · Score: 0

I would guess 500 ft over uncongested areas, and 1000 ft in congested (read: urban) areas would be the points where you would need approval. Under those altitudes aircraft are illegal to fly in the US unless they have been issued a waiver (how airshows get away with it, for instance)
Re:Question... by molo · 2002-11-20 03:50 · Score: 2

The group also works with various federal and local agencies to make sure John Law doesn't get too itchy about rockets going up in the desert.

The problem isn't really the US agencies, its the launch detection systems of other countries. You don't want the Russians to think there's an ICBM heading their way when John Carmack sends up his first test rocket, do you?

--
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
Re:Question... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 06:01 · Score: 0

In the UK you should have a look at the UK Rocketry Associate for answers to all the legal stuff
(http://www.ukra.org.uk/)

Also, the UK high-end rocketry suppliers have FAQs on their sites; you might start with http://www.petesrockets.co.uk/ , http://www.ukmodelshop.com/ , http://modelrockets.co.uk/ and http://www.apo11o.co.uk/
Re:Question... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 06:19 · Score: 0

You don't want the Russians to think there's an ICBM heading their way when John Carmack sends up his first test rocket, do you?

Your age is showing.
Re:Question... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 08:10 · Score: 0

As someone who actually does this aside from my computer-related career, I can tell you its really not all that complicated.

First step is to join an organization such as Tripoli http://www.tripoli.org or NAR (national assoc of rocketry) http://www.nar.org. The cost is under $100 per year for the membership. This buys you a magazine, insurance, and membership.

Once you get membership, then you should consider hooking up with a local rocket club in the area. They're all over the country and each organization's website has information on it.

I'd suggest going to a launch just to watch first. Then, there may be some vendors that can help you either on site at the launch, or the other club members can help point you in the right direction.

The rockets themselves are large versions of what some of you may have done as little kids- with heavier materials including fiberglass, phenolic tubing, etc.

I've launched a few post-9/11 and most of the rules are similar to what they were before.

Generally, a club will go to the trouble of getting FAA launch waivers for the group, and with your membership you get the insurance at the launch site. The fields have to be large. This is not something you can do on just a few acres. The small rockets will go 2000-4000 ft in altitude and larger ones can go higher. The FAA generally has the waiver limited to a certain altitude.

You can fly up to a G rocket motor without certification- but still need a launch waiver in most areas. Beyond that, there are 3 levels, each with a successful launch to reach the next level required, and with the upper 2 levels requiring a written exam.

Its a safe hobby if you follow the rules and are mature enough to handle what could be used for less than good purposes.
Re:Question... by RocketGeek · 2002-11-20 13:23 · Score: 1
In the UK, at the larger end of the rocketry scale, generally, one contacts the Civil Aviation Authority for a NOTAM - certainly at the larger UK rocketry launch events, they are all covered by NOTAMS - ranging from 5000 feet to 20,000 feet. Although you can technically fly in most places apart from near airports or urban conurbations, there are often byelaws that prohibit launching, so you may need to check. The other option is to go along to a rocketry launch event in the UK, where the launch site will be arranged in advance.
For more examples of UK non professional launch activities, see websites such as:
Going above an altitude of 24,500 feet in the UK, does require you to contact the CAA and submit documentation and details of your proposed rocket launch in advance.
I hope this helps ?

Re:Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. by nounderscores · 2002-11-19 22:50 · Score: 2

I agree. but you can imagine the networks getting hold of it and making the rockets hit each other "for the 12-18 male demographic."

Sigh. It's true. In the TV business the product is not the show that is sold to the viewers; the product is the viewers who are sold to the advertisers.

October SKy by katalyst · 2002-11-19 22:56 · Score: 1

This sounds very similar to the premise of October Sky , a brilliant movie based on a true story about some school kids (from a coal mining town)getting obsessed with rockets and blowing things up in the process; and how ultimately this passion helps them get out of the unescapable coaltown. On of 'em actually made it to NASA. However , all this was sans cameras. So where are these guys going to land up ?

--
|/________
|\A|ALYS|

Re:October SKy by JessLeah · 2002-11-19 23:09 · Score: 1

Well, apparently one of them ended up as head of Xircom... ;)

--
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Re:October SKy by ParrotDroppings · 2002-11-19 23:10 · Score: 1

or Galileo, by R.A.H. I think...

--
Free ?! Does that mean I can't get a Discount ?!
This message was /.'ed

I wish we could have taped this... by Malorian · 2002-11-19 22:58 · Score: 5, Funny

A few years ago, a friend had a nasty split with his g/f not to long before Guy Fawkes night and she'd been foolish enough to leave her beloved 'Piglet' cuddly toy...

Piglet was firmly taped to a display firework rocket (one of those damn huge ones), head facing the sky before being fired into the sky. Can you say "Pigs in Spaaaaaaace!" ;)
I wish we could have had a Piglets eye view of it, we kept finding bits of piglet in nearby streets for days :)

Re:I wish we could have taped this... by Malorian · 2002-11-19 23:06 · Score: 2, Funny

Oh, in case someone tries something similar - don't! At least not anywhere populated!
That thing starting to come back down way too early - we started to get a bit worried as it started to curve back down, luckily it exploded just high enough so that only a few sparks bounced off our roof!
Shout's of 'Pigs in Space' soon turned to 'Shit, INCOMING!!' ;)
Re:I wish we could have taped this... by Walterk · 2002-11-20 02:01 · Score: 1

Bunch of amateurs.. simply make a light little framework of several of those rockets, tie their fuses together (approximatly same length), stick your fuzzy critter in the middle, light the fuse, and start your evil laughter.

Simple matter of weight/power ratio.. More weight? More Power!

--

"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome."

Anyone Thinking of "FoxTrot" by Ronin+Jonin · 2002-11-19 22:58 · Score: 4, Funny

I'm sorry, but I'm thinking of those FoxTrot comics where Marcus and Jason attach the video camera to the rocket which upsets the balance and it flies straight at them. Something along those lines happaned to me once.

Re:Anyone Thinking of "FoxTrot" by er0ck · 2002-11-20 05:55 · Score: 1

What, you mean These Fox Trot comics?

MOD THIS POST UP by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:03 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Why can't people make critical comments without being swamped and mod'ed down?

The problems with the kind of moderation on slashdot seems to be that no alternative voices get heard. You only hear what you collectively want to hear - has anybody read Atlas Shrugged?

Great. NOW you did it. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:05 · Score: 0

The site exceeded its bandwidth limit.

slashdotted ? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:07 · Score: -1, Redundant

"503 Service Unavailable
The requested URL Bandwidth is temporarily unavailable."

site been slashdotted ? hehe :p

best regards wimpy

No, he took a swipe at BILL. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:07 · Score: 0

There's a difference, you know.

(Talk about knee-jerk reactionaries.... or is that just 'jerk' reactionaries...)

Bill does need to do something uber-nerdy by deathcloset · 2002-11-19 23:08 · Score: 1

I must say, The least Billy could do is launch a remote controlled space shuttle into orbit and rendevous with the ISS. He could have a camera beam his face to an lcd on the front so he could pull up to one of the viewports and scare the astronauts.

G-forces on the DV camera by psychofox · 2002-11-19 23:08 · Score: 3, Insightful

What amazes me is that the video camera can still record footage succesfully given the enormous g-forces sustained at takeoff. The clarity of video appears unaffected.

I would have at least expected a bit of flicker as the tape strains, or the motor backtracks a little or something...

Very cool.

Re:G-forces on the DV camera by Erik+K.+Veland · 2002-11-19 23:16 · Score: 1

Of the videos I managed to pull down before I got the 503 Slashdotted message, you can see plenty of artifacts on the Jayhawk 2nd flight On board movie. As well as some dirt kicked up by the take off.

--
"I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
Re:G-forces on the DV camera by Infestation · 2002-11-20 01:52 · Score: 1

This extremely surprising to me. A friend of mine once did some onboard camera work for a formula one motor racing team, and there were easily noticable effects of G-force when the car slowed from 150mph to 80mph in less than 5 seconds. Surely a 200lb. rocket produces more G-force than this?
Re:G-forces on the DV camera by NerveGas · 2002-11-20 05:17 · Score: 2

Some time ago, I downloaded all of their movies. in the higher-thrust liftoffs, yet, the G-forces do causes temporary glitches in the video, but they're very minor. However, when the deployment charge goes off and separates the sections, there is a more noticeable dropout in video.

steve

--
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.

Oh, grow up! Re:Time to put away childish things.. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:12 · Score: 0

"...very useful rocket technology information being posted where Saddam can find it easily ..."

Oh, grow UP!

The sheer arrogance of your assumption that Saddam needs to learn about rockets from a model rocketry post on Slashdot... simply mind BOGGLING.

You, sir, need a reality check. One that doesn't bounce.

Absolutely agree by Burb · 2002-11-19 23:12 · Score: 1

Yeah, it's lots of fun dissing Bill. But Slashdot will get more kudos in the wider world if it restricts it's criticism of Microsoft to situations where it's really justified.

--

Thanks Slashdot... by MoThugz · 2002-11-19 23:15 · Score: 1, Redundant

for flushing an American company that actually produces something exciting down the bandwidth toilet...

503 Service Unavailable
The requested URL Bandwidth is temporarily unavailable.

--
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers

Re:Oh, grow up! Re:Time to put away childish thing by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:18 · Score: 0

You need to build a record program. Firstly you need to know the maths. Then the physics. Then the engineering.. however the hard part is the technical which is basically building the prototypes. This takes a lot of time and money and is not easy to do if you have an UN inspection team over your head.

Knowledge is useful. *Even* from Slashdot!

Charity==good; Sanctimony==bad by MacAndrew · 2002-11-19 23:20 · Score: 2

Isn't it lovely to complain ... about other people.

Giving liberals a bad name.

Where Are the Mirrors?!?!?! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:21 · Score: 0

Must have! Must want! Soon!

celeb tourism by greenalbatros · 2002-11-19 23:37 · Score: 0

maybe some idle billionaire really want to visit the upper lower atmosphere and be willing to pay top dollar because the tv coverage will be good for PR. mmmmm a business opportunity presents itself, might pop down the patent office this afternoon...

--
this sig steers like a cow. and i can prove it

The requested URL Bandwidth is temporarily unavail by LazyGun · 2002-11-19 23:38 · Score: 1

Alternative download sites ??

Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by fantomas · 2002-11-19 23:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

What happens when?... it gets slashdotted! Help them out, slashdot!

Anybody get a mirror? Maybe slashdot should think about providing mirrors of small time operators' sites when an article like this is posted. We all *know* the poor little guy is going to get slashdotted. At best, he can't show his girlfriend/ dad/ best friends what he is up to. At worst, he gets a hefty bandwidth bill from his ISP. Linking to IBM etc is another thing, but surely slashdot could show a bit of community spirit and responsibility and offer a mirror before posting up articles with links to little guys?

Re:Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by tulare · 2002-11-19 23:55 · Score: 4, Funny

Which, on a good enough story, would result in the world's first recursive slashdotting.

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Re:Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:48 · Score: 1, Informative
FYI's:
1. These launches were in 1999/2000. You've had plenty of time to slashdot this thing
2. One of the guys is the founder of Xircom, aka HE'S RICH. Considering the amount of money required to launch a rocket that size, this guy has already bought plenty of bandwidth.
3. That's what we have google for
4. Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...
5. RIAA sucks! Microsoft Sux! Linux Rules! etc. etc. etc.
Re:Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 01:04 · Score: 0

Learn [angryflower.com] how to use your goddamn apostrophe's!" (sic)
please tell me you're joking. you did that on purpose, right?
Re:Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by zBoD · 2002-11-20 02:31 · Score: 1

Use Freenet luke, use Freenet.

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BoD
Re:Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by tulare · 2002-11-20 05:07 · Score: 2

Duh :)

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political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
Re:Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by Mr_Perl · 2002-11-20 07:39 · Score: 2

I don't have a mirror but these guys sure do

--

My poetry site welcomes the unusual.
Re:Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by stungod · 2002-11-20 08:54 · Score: 1

LOL dude. You beat me to it.

Nah. This is what *really* happens... by Cl1mh4224rd · 2002-11-19 23:42 · Score: 1

503 Service Unavailable
The requested URL Bandwidth is temporarily unavailable.

--
People will pass up steak once a week, for crap every day.

Re:Nah. This is what *really* happens... by TheAlmightyQ · 2002-11-19 23:56 · Score: 5, Funny

If only everyone named Gates did stuff this cool.

If only everyone named Gates could create a web server that could take a slashdotting.

--
I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.
Re:Nah. This is what *really* happens... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 07:11 · Score: 0

LINDOOOOOOOOOOO!

(To all you non-Portuguese-speaking Geeks, that's Portuguese for "BAHAHHAHAHAH".... or not! Who cares?)

HOW MANY STORIES.. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-19 23:44 · Score: -1, Offtopic

are in "pending" state currently?? A lot, I know for sure. Timothy is just waiting for Taco to start checking them out. Timothy and others don't seem to have permission to publish certain kind of stories. Only Taco can make the decision. And Taco will start publishing stories after ..hmm.. I'd say like 1-2 hours. It looks like other slashdot editors are pussies! They are fucking afraid of Taco! Un-fucking-believable.

Re:HOW MANY STORIES.. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 00:07 · Score: -1, Offtopic

Well, all editors will have to undergo an initiation ceremony in which Taco breaks their will by repeated TacoSnottings.
Every man has his breaking point and after you've gone through an all-night TacoSnotting session, you'll do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, to serve CmdrTaco - your master.

But Bill's shooting for Jupiter by DrSkwid · 2002-11-19 23:47 · Score: 2

Microsoft sets course for Jupiter

Microsoft Corp will today announce further details of its Jupiter project to componentize and integrate its e-business server family, including Content Management Server 2002, Commerce Server 2002, and BizTalk Server 2002.

--
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter

Are you nuts? by tulare · 2002-11-19 23:49 · Score: 2

Yes, I know divx is smaller. But you have no idea how painful a pain in the, um, what a hassle divx is for some (read OS X) people to deal with. And, personally, I think the quality of divx is somewhere around that of real video, not the purtiest horse in the stable. Naw, they would get /.ed no matter what format they use, so why not the best?

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political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type

Re:Are you nuts? by jweatherley · 2002-11-20 01:32 · Score: 3, Informative

I use OS X and don't have much of a problem with DivX;). You need to get yourself a copy of DivX Doctor II to convert from DivX .avi videos to 3ivx QuickTime (.mov) videos.

--

--
Reverse outsourcing: it's the future
Re:Are you nuts? by tulare · 2002-11-20 05:05 · Score: 2

That's just the point - here we are with this "media friendly" operating system and we have to deal with this clunky format conversion to view divx. Am wondering why the #$@%@% a native player hasn't been released - or a codec/plugin for quicktime. For the time being, I just rail against the format, lacking the chops to do the needed dev work myself.

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political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type

Mini camera bolted to the side of a rocket? by Trollificus · 2002-11-20 00:15 · Score: -1

Is it just me, or do you get the sense that the pr0n industry could benefit greatly from this idea?

--

"People should be allowed to keep midgets as pets."
- Gov. Jesse Ventura

Please put the movie on Kazaa by slashuzer · 2002-11-20 00:15 · Score: -1

Please share that movie. Can't get it from the webiste. Have sex. Not.

Google cache by xadhoom · 2002-11-20 00:16 · Score: 1, Informative

here it is:
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:FfdE9ICFkdQC: www.gbrocketry.com/movie_theater.htm+&hl=en&start= 1&ie=UTF-8
But the movies are not cached... so you must wait until the slashdot effect passes...

--
I was there.

links to other sites about High powered rocketry by chevelleSS · 2002-11-20 00:27 · Score: 1

LDRS in Amarillo , More LDRS Photos and Gates Brothers Rocket at LDRS Other sites VERY MASSIVE ROCKET another link

I know! I know! Oooh, pick me! *waving hand* by CrystalFalcon · 2002-11-20 00:41 · Score: 3, Funny

What happens when the founder of Xircom and his brother bolt a DV Camcorder to the side of a 200 lb. model rocket and press the red button?

They have to get a new web hosting provider because the old one gets slashdotted, blames them for the outage, and kicks them out?

Mirror of photos by chevelleSS · 2002-11-20 00:42 · Score: 5, Informative

link to photos of GB rockets at LDRS

Re:Mirror of photos by aslagle · 2002-11-20 01:56 · Score: 2

It's not a mirror of photos from the camera - just photos of the launch.
Re:Mirror of photos by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 05:19 · Score: 0

no links to the videos?

You guys should ask permission before hosing them by gelfling · 2002-11-20 00:53 · Score: 3, Interesting

Really this is like the 10th time in the past two weeks you guys have hosed someone's site. You should start asking permission before you post someone's site here.

This is nothing new... by CowardNeal · 2002-11-20 00:56 · Score: 2, Funny

I've been seeing these films on Roadrunner vs Coyote, though they look a little chalky.

Probably we're being trolled... by mangu · 2002-11-20 01:02 · Score: 2

...but I'll bite. What you are proposing is that people who work in making DV camcorders and model rockets become unemployed, so we can give them as charity the money we currently waste in such expensive toys?

Re:Time to put away childish things...not liberals by panurge · 2002-11-20 01:04 · Score: 1, Offtopic

Could we be clear about this? A liberal is someone who wants you to be allowed to do what you want, provided you do not harm other people. Someone who wants you to stop spending money on rockets and solve world problems is perhaps a socialist, perhaps even a Marxist, possibly a Green.

Right wingers try to label these causes "liberal" because they want to force through their agenda - which is to let you send up rockets and keep guns, but to stop you from having:

Extra-marital sex
Non-missionary-position sex
Gay sex
Mood altering substances other than alcohol and tobacco

And from:

Questioning US foreign policy
Questioning the right of people to run the govt. because they have a lot of money
Asking awkward questions, full stop.

Trying to get people to confuse liberalism with left wing social activism is a well tested Republican technique.

--
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.

But is it art? by Henry_Doors · 2002-11-20 01:22 · Score: 1

One if the nominations for the prestigious (or facrcical depending on your POV) Turner Prize was a video taken with a camera strapped to a toy helicopter which buzzed BBC Broadcasting House in London. According to The Guardian it 'had at least two art world glitterati spluttering on their Jimmy Choo shoes'

Maybe the Gates Brothers should try for next years prize?

--
"I deny nothing, but doubt everything." Lord Byron

Re:But is it art? by btc9183 · 2002-11-20 05:10 · Score: 1

A camera on a R/C chopper? Now that would be cool!

--
There's nothing wrong with shooting, just as long as the right people get shot...

Gates by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 01:29 · Score: 4, Funny

"If only everyone named Gates did stuff this cool."

What? Windows for Warheads? :)

Re:Gates by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 01:33 · Score: -1

>>>Joke: Service Pack 1

New meanings for "Fatal Error", "Crashes" and "Blue Screens of Death".
Re:Gates by roystgnr · 2002-11-20 05:51 · Score: 1

If they ever made "Windows for Warheads", I think we'd need a new term for "Blue Screen of Death". There would still be "Screens of Death", sure, but nobody would ever find out what color they were...

Everything is forbidden in the UK. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 01:31 · Score: -1, Flamebait

You should shove your government and your Queen into the Thames.

You've got the most fucking government of them all, except for maybe Zimbabwe. The Register knows why: Implanting chips into humans to track them down is the most disgusting thing since Zyklon B.

Please get a real Constitution, then we can talk. I dislike people who don't want civil rights.

Cliche time: by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 01:42 · Score: -1, Redundant

In soviet russia, the DV camcorder launches teh rocket.

Imagine a beowulf cluster of rockets with DV camcorders.

In soviet russia, the beowulf cluster of DV camcorders launching rockets IMAGINES YOU!

Re:Time to put away childish things...not liberals by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 01:53 · Score: -1

"Could we be clear about this? A liberal is someone who wants you to be allowed to do what you want, provided you do not harm other people."

You just defined a Libertarian, not a liberal.

It's a shame.. by cre8tor · 2002-11-20 02:11 · Score: 1

When the founder of Xircom can't afford some decent bandwidth.

Re:Time to put away childish things...not liberals by panurge · 2002-11-20 02:12 · Score: 1

No, a libertarian is a very particular kind of US right-wing liberal. Libertarians believe that their personal freedom is more important than things like equality of opportunity, and have a restricted notion of what constitutes harm to other people (basically they tend to have the right-wing extreme insistence on property rights.)

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Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.

Medicine by vikstar · 2002-11-20 02:17 · Score: 0, Offtopic

This gives a new meaning to bowel endoscopy.

--
The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.

Dontcha mean.... by purduephotog · 2002-11-20 02:32 · Score: 2

... he's one of us and everyone else is jealous of the fact that not only did he have the skills but the business sense to cash in on it all?

Oh, thats right, the whole struggling 'artist' concept applies- it's good to suffer the injustices of the majority for your craft....

Not a Model Rocket by jlv · 2002-11-20 02:36 · Score: 2

By definition, if it weights over 1500 grams, it is NOT a model rocket. Their web server is /.'d, so I can't read their details. Assuming their rocket really has a lift off weight of 200 lbs., it is going to require a substantial motor of that would clearly put it into the high power class.

Remember Estes CINEROC? by jqpublic · 2002-11-20 02:46 · Score: 1

Back in the 1970s, Estes rocket corp
had a model on which mounted a Super 8mm
movie camera. Ah, those were the days!
http://www.paratech-parachutes.com/Estes/ci neroc.h tml

Typical Gates baiting........ by Ride-My-Rocket · 2002-11-20 03:33 · Score: 2, Insightful

If only everyone named Gates did stuff this cool.

Yeah..... sadly, all Bill Gates does is donate hundreds of millions of dollars to finance vaccinations for children in third-world countries who otherwise wouldn't receive them. But then again, not everybody named Gates can put their fortunes to such practical use......

</sarcasm>

Strap a camera on this guy... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 03:56 · Score: 0

http://www.joereger.com/detail_fs.joe?eventid=810

Descent II by Nicolay77 · 2002-11-20 04:01 · Score: 1

Descent II had guided missiles since the Doom II times man !!
It was the upgrade to the homing missiles from Descent.

You could see them in the cockpit, or in the main display if you wished.

And it was the first real 3D game before Quake. What a great game.

--
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.

Cool story...lame jab at Bill Gates by oosid · 2002-11-20 04:05 · Score: 1

"If only everyone named Gates did stuff this cool." Come on people grow up. Oh...and check the facts. Truth is that out of all the big moneymakers in the tech industries, Bill Gates does more good stuff with his money than any of the other richy rich children out there. Just check out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I know some people who work there and they do some truly excellent stuff. Maybe not the flash of of a camera, but i'm sure the MILLIONS of people positively affected by this Foundation think it's at least as cool. p.s. This reply typed on my powerbook, via the Chimera browser.

the effect in action by prell · 2002-11-20 04:19 · Score: 1

I wish slashdot would simply stop posting links.

SiN had this, as did Tribes by Wee · 2002-11-20 04:34 · Score: 3, Informative

In the Wages of SiN expansion pack (came out in 99) for the game SiN there was an "alternate fire" mode for the rocket launcher that put you in the nose cam, flying the missle. It was deadly (especially if someone caught you up on the roof, staring off into space). Sound was done very well, too. You could just sort of hear distorted sounds from the missle's travel, but could also hear things happening around your "body". The effect of wearing googles to steer the missle was very well done.

There was also a Tribes 1 mod that allowed you to deploy a base station which you could load with various missle types (my favorite was the one that exploded in poison gas) and then fly them around the map. You had to put them on the ground or on a structure, and you could only carry one missle ata time, so they had to be near an inventory station. My brother and I found a bug which allowed you to delpoy them on these floating, mid-air platforms with inventory stations. He'd fly a bomber waaaay up into the sky, I'd jump out, deploy the platform, fall to my death. He'd fly above the platform, jump out onto it, then set up a transporter. I'd respawn in the base, set up the other transporter, and wind up on the base in the sky. Then we'd set up missle stations and fly around destroying things. The best was when you had a missle in the air and you saw a scout car (really fast one-man vehicles). They were the same speed as the missles (except for one type) and catching them was a challenge. Occasionally, we'd get three people flying missles around. It took about 4 minutes to gain air superiority over most of the map. It took about 8 minutes for the other team to find our base in the sky and blow it up (or try, we'd defend it pretty well).

Anyway, flying missles around is great in CTF-type FPS games, especially when they have ultra-large, indoor/outdoor maps like in Tribes -- it gives the game a "Gulf War" flavor.

-B

--

Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

Re:You guys should ask permission before hosing th by ckedge · 2002-11-20 04:38 · Score: 2

If I were them I'd start worrying about over-zealous lawyers coming after them for damages. The worrying thing is, the lawyer might have a case. I mean if hundreds of US are repeatedly pointing out to slashdot how irresponsible/lazy it is of them to not at least give warning, knowing that a slashdotting is imminent...

I'm serious! The lawyer might have a leg to stand on. And I'm sure slashdot doesn't really want to end up spending what meagre money it has on lawyers of it's own.

Not that I or you think that they'd be justified. Put your stuff up in public, no fault of anyone else if an interested crowd shows up. Bah, I'm just trying to scare them into it.

Giving a warning WOULD be a courteous thing to do.

You don't understand Slashdot's business model by bill_mcgonigle · 2002-11-20 04:55 · Score: 3, Insightful

Slashdot hosts text, and the few images it feels it needs for the UI, which are cached by most browsers. It needs beefy database and application servers, but the bandwidth is relatively low.

Slashdot's 'content', what people come for, is all hosted by other people. It almost always is full of multimedia. They pay the real bandwidth costs.

In this business, at sufficient scales, bandwidth approaches 100% of the costs, the servers nearly factor out. So, Slashdot offers a service to its readers for almost nothing by passing on the content costs to the sites it links to.

Don't get me wrong, the slashdot infrastructure is well-done, it's highly available and you do need good capacity to handle the user base it has, but it couldn't be profitable if it had to pay for all the bandwidth the 'Slashdot-experience' requires.

Now, if they had caches for 'gold-level' subscribers, that might be profitable, say at a hundred bucks a year.

--
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)

This should whet your appetite... by celerityfm · 2002-11-20 05:13 · Score: 1

Heres a snap from a model rocket pointed downwards whilest in flight from a Kodak DC20.

In-Flight

This looks similar to the Kite photography that was on /. before.

From Steve's Digicams website

--
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...

Re:You guys should ask permission before hosing th by Hast · 2002-11-20 05:14 · Score: 2

You have an ID in the thousands and just noticed that sites linked to from Slashdot have a tendency to be "hosed"? Are you often told that you are very perceptive? ;-)

like some pie? by nucal · 2002-11-20 05:36 · Score: 2, Insightful

When did you first feel the need for 24x7 personal security?

I think that we all know when that happened.

Re:You guys should ask permission before hosing th by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 05:47 · Score: 0

And how about declining to post if the recipient of the slashdotting decides they don't wan't to be down for 2 days?

A warning means nothing, is the site owner supposed to go buy/install/configure $500,000 worth of machinery so that a million snot-nose geeks can get their rocket picture jollies?

Slash has never once shown the slightest interest in being "responsible". It won't start now and it never will. I hope they do get sued out of existance on day because of it. It's only fair. They've put down at least one site every day it's been in existance!

Slashdotted! by matt_fk · 2002-11-20 06:08 · Score: 1

It appears that we've managed to slashdot the page. Maybe we can see it next month!

It has also been done with Low Power Rocketry by er0ck · 2002-11-20 06:15 · Score: 2, Informative

Here's another site with videos from both low and high power rockets:
www.videorocketry.com
(videos available Here)

One prime candidate for a low power camera is the discontinued Intel Play Digital Movie Creator. You record video onto a chip and upload to your PC via USB. I believe I saw this camera resurface at Toys R Us under the manufacturer name "Digital Blue". Anyone?

Here is an example of the Intel camera at work in an off-the-shelf Estes rocket with a payload bay added

And here is a rocket with Gumby as the pilot.

Re:It has also been done with Low Power Rocketry by er0ck · 2002-11-20 06:25 · Score: 1

Found it. Digital Blue Digital Movie Creator

Slashdot IS a DoS Attack by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 07:30 · Score: 0

Another example of how Slashdot can be a denial of service attack

Re:You guys should ask permission before hosing th by ivan_13013 · 2002-11-20 08:07 · Score: 3, Insightful

If you don't want people to look at your website, don't make it public.

If you DO make it public, and a lot of people suddenly look at it, and as a result you exceed your bandwidth/transfer-limit/server-specs limitations, this means one of two things:

(1) Your site has become, at least temporarily, far more popular than you anticipated! Hooray!! Now to call the ISP...

(2) You can't afford to be popular, so you probably shouldn't have made it so public. You, the server administrator, made a mistake. Perhaps you should have required a password to access the resources.

If someone runs their own web page, like /., they don't have to ask anyone's permission before linking to your site. A similar situation is, if someone finds a cool web site, they don't have to ask permission before forwarding the URL to their friends (even though that might cause it to be forwarded on to thousands more people)

If someone makes your server so popular that you can't handle it, that's really not their problem.

-=Ivan

Re:You guys should ask permission before hosing th by Anm · 2002-11-20 08:43 · Score: 1

So... DDOS attacks are bad, but slashdot is without blame. Hmmm.....

ouch by djupedal · 2002-11-20 09:25 · Score: 2

I built the SR-71 as well, and you're not kidding about the time. Mine went straight into retirement as a static display...no guts :)

Thanks slashdot! by Tuffnut · 2002-11-20 10:15 · Score: 1

Your article is no longer an article because of the slashdot effect

What happens? by markov_chain · 2002-11-20 10:46 · Score: 2

Links to movies on Slashdot's main page?

Duck and cover!

*server explodes*

--
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!

Get a life guys! by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 11:00 · Score: 0

I stumbled across this thread. You guys really need to get a life. Normally I wouldn't take the time to respond. Life's too short. But Shhheeeeesh! C'mon guys. Get out there and smell the flowers! (Pansies excepted).
Anonymous Coward

PS I am giggling to myself that this posting is going to elicit about 100 responses. Giggling because I won't be around to read them... you guys are going to be reading each other's responses while I am out having a good time.

-ISMS by MacAndrew · 2002-11-20 11:37 · Score: 2

Your definition was tending towards the libertarian aspect of liberalism -- the "keep your laws off my body" sort of thing under the umbrella of "civil libertarianism." This IS very different from libertarianism in the American sense, which one friend described as "mutant Republicanism."

Liberalism goes beyond these prohibitions to impose affirmative obligations on society, as you note, and thus liberals tend to approve of government intervention to effectuate justice. This ranges from affirmative application of civil rights laws (desegregation, etc.) to welfare to social security to medicare and so on. (The older conservatives get the more sound these latter entitlements seem to them.)

I like the ring of "free-market liberal," intended to emphasize individual/group rights without the cloying overgoverning of socialism.

Prior art 45 years ago by knorthern+knight · 2002-11-20 12:28 · Score: 1

OK, I may as well admit that I turned 51 last October. As a kid growing up during the 1950's and 1960's, I watched "The Twentieth Century", narrated by Walter Cronkite. The series ran 1957..1967. It was a popular science show.

The intro to the program every week was... a filmclip taken from the side of a rocket as it was launched. The film was a bit grainy. The rocket was stabilized by spinning around the long axis. You could get dizzy watching it. I'd love to be able to get my hands on one of those broadcasts today.

--

I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user

Bill Gates' Personal Life by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-20 12:42 · Score: 0

I live near Seattle, and a close family member of mine works at Microsoft. I'm working at a pizza joint right now while I'm in college, and Bill Gates has showed up a couple times with his wife in the past couple years. We all know it's him because of his credit card and his amazing likeness to himself. He didn't have any armed security guards or cheuffers. He drives a nice sportscar. Both times he sat with his wife in a semi-private booth near the back. We're not even close to an upper-class pizza restaurant and we're kind of far from his home in Medina or his Redmond home (about 10 miles), so I'm not sure why he came here twice (while I've been working here, apparently he's been here five or six times at least).. maybe some kind of function at the university.

My family member who works at Microsoft said he's a pretty down to earth guy and he drives his own car without security guards around him. He has a bunch of nice expensive cars and has a tendency to not come to complete stops at stop signs.

And if anyone's wondering, he and his wife ordered a medium mushrooms, onions, and sausage with extra sauce the first time I was there (I nabbed his receipt). The second time I think he ordered a supreme. He tipped $2 I think but we're not exactly full-service so that's better than 98% of customers. And I didn't nab his credit card number. =(

Please Mirror it in Freenet by Anonymous Coward · 2002-11-22 21:28 · Score: 0

and put here the key/link

Last Post! by alpg · 2002-12-04 06:29 · Score: 1

... faster BogoMIPS calculations (yes, it now boots 2 seconds faster than
it used to: we're considering changing the name from "Linux" to "InstaBOOT"
-- Linus, in the announcement for 1.3.26

- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...

264 comments