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2004 Venus Transit In Pictures
oneiros27 writes "For those astronomy fans out there -- pictures are starting to come in from the 2004 Venus Transit (where Venus passes in front of the sun). Times of the transit will vary by city, but make sure you use safe techniques for viewing the sun if you want to look for yourself."
Anonymous Coward writes "Check out the transit of Venus webcast from Australia. It starts at 4.50 UTC on June 8." Update: 06/07 04:03 GMT by T : Linked webcast link updated to a URL projected to better handle the load, thanks to reader Tom Minchin.
"on the question of brakes I remember when Porsche came to me for help in designing a better system for the 928 s4. After reviewing their design over dinner, I came to the conclusion that the tangerian coefficient of 4 multiplied by the over boost pressure generated when the heat factor and boiling point of mercury reached a stasis in the left rear caliper thus creating a brake symmetry problem. I easily designed a new system over breakfast the next morning that inverted the overpressure mapping and allowed the excess pressure to bleed into the canavarn canister that I installed next to the johnson rod for the turbo.
And that reminds me of the time I was racing cars on an air base and the general saw how good I was and asked me to be a flight instructor on the SR 71, of course they didn't realize that I designed it by my self. so I did that for a while and then I became the chief instructor pilot for the combined military service. This was a bit hard as i was still instructing Seal Team instructors. In my spare time I developed a new turbo enhancement system that took the reverse pressurization flow from the fleegleman valve and applied this pressure at a constant 1.5 bar to the overboost induction Johnson rod, this increased the turbo efficiency by 85% and caused the root mean square of the coefficient of the 4.8 bar under boost over booster to recycle wasted franistan reformer load to get 200% better fuel mileage. Of course the big gas companies bought my patent and then buried it but it was ok because they also funded my secret moon base for further research and development.
Did you know that I invented the TCP-IP protocol? I was working on a movie in Switzerland and the guys at CERN heard I was there and so they asked my advice on a problem they were having. Well I looked and it was immediately obvious that they were over-clocking the tcpip stack at layer 3 and I wrote a little script fix for it for them. They wanted to nominate me for a Pulitzer prize but I simply told them to use it for the betterment of mankind. They of course were amazed at my philanthropic nature but they gave me ½ of Switzerland as a reward. I kept a little hotel on the lake but gave the rest back to the people. They then erected a statue of me and once a year has a ceremony at that site. Its really kind of embarrassing but you do what you can.
BTW Mel also asked me to be the chief camera operator on his new movie but he demanded that I not use my name as he didn't want people to come to the movie to see my brilliant work, but rather to view the story as he intended. I of course, complied with his wishes as he is a close personal friend. Also I have been working on a promising new cure for Alzheimer's in my spare time. I have been working closely with the Regan family as Ronald and I are best friends. and you remember the hunt for red October? Well that was a TRUE story. The president asked me to train the CIA for this eventuality but of course no one but me was fit for the mission so I went instead, please don't tell anyone.........then my buddy Hugh Heffner or Hef as his personal friends call him, asked me to shoot the playmate of the year spread and he rented me a 747-400 and i flew it to Fiji with all the models on board --- well one thing lead to another and I slept with ALL the playboy playmates...."
Speaking of 747's did I ever tell you guys about the development I did with the space shuttle? They came to me (of course) and asked my help in developing a recovery system for potentially damaged shuttles. I worked on it a while but didn't have the time to devote to it until I finished inventing the overthruster. Anyway, eventually I came up with a hypothesis that I could land the shuttle on the back of a 747 in flight. Of course like all good ideas, they just laughed at me, so gave them all the specs. And told them to set it up and I would prove it. I went on a secret shuttle launch to re-supply my moon base science lab. After we got the supplies down to the base I flew a perfect return to earth and moved into re-entry posi
jeez, this guy is everywhere!
here are some pics of Dick Venus in transit
I have always felt that Linux is a nice operating system (for hobbyists and geeks), but there are some areas where it is seriously lacking, especially when compared to its main competitor, Microsoft Windows.
* File sharing. Windows has long been superior when it comes to making large
amounts of files available to third parties. Even early versions of Windows
automatically detected and made available all directories thanks to the built in
NetBIOS-powered file sharing support. But Microsoft has realized that this
technology is inherently limited and has added even better file sharing support
to its Windows XP operating system. Universal Plug and Play will
make it possible to literally access any file, from any device! I think
universal file sharing support needs to be built into the Linux kernel soon.
* Intelligent agents. With innovations like Clippy, the talking paperclip and Microsoft Bob, Microsoft has always tried to make life easier
for its customers. With Outlook and Outlook Express, Microsoft has built a framework for developers to create even smarter agents. Especially popular agents include "Sircam", which automatically asks the users' friends for advice
on files he is working on and the "Hybris" agent, which is a self-replicating
copy of a humorous take on "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves" (the real story!).
Microsoft is working on expanding this P2P technology to its web servers. This
project is still in the beta stage, thus the name "Code Red". The next versions
will be called "Code Yellow" and "Code Green".
* Version numbers. Linux has real naming problems. What's the difference
between a 2.4.19 and a 2.2.17 kernel anyway? And what's with those odd and even
numbers? Microsoft has always had clear and sophisticated naming/versioning
policies. For example, Windows 95 was named Windows 95 because it was released
in 1995. Windows 98 was released three years later, and so on. Windows XP
brought a whole new "experience" to the user, therefore the name. I suggest that
the next Linux kernel releases be called Linux 03, Linux 04, Linux 04.5 (OSR1),
Linux 04.7B (OSR2 SP4 OEM), Linux 2005 and Linux VD (Valentine's Day edition).
Furthermore, remember how Microsoft named every upcoming version of Windows
after some Egyptian city? Cairo, Chicago and so on. I think that the development
kernels should be named after Spanish cities to celebrate Linux' Spanish
origins. Linux Milano or Linux Rome anyone?
* Multi-User Support. This has always been one of Microsoft's strong sides,
especially in the Windows 95/98 variants, where passwords were completely
unnecessary. Microsoft has made the right decision by not bothering the user
with a distinction between "normal" and "root" users too much -- practice has
shown that average users can be trusted to act responsibly and in full awareness
of the potential consequences of their actions. After all, if your operating
system doesn't trust you, why should you trust it? (To be fair, Linux is making
some progress here with the Lindows distribution, where users are always running as root.)
With Windows XP, Microsoft has again improved multi-user support. Not only
does Windows XP come with a larg
Use a magnifying glass or binoculars.