Torvalds ABCNews Transcripts

yuri-g sent us a link to the transcripts of last nights ABCNews Chat with Linus. While he doesn't say what Transmeta does, he talks about the Cult of Linus, Linux on Consumer Electronics, Distributions, and the ever popular LiGnuX debate. Somewhat lengthy, but a good summary, with some new info too.

Comments

Nuclear Plants

[Anonymous Coward]

I did some moderation on this section, so I have to post as an AC. That aside, I think that something needs to be said in response to the individual above who posted defamatory remarks about the nuclear power industry.

First, it should be observed that there have not been any problems with the nuclear industry in the US despite well over 50 years of nuclear power generation. Yes, Three Mile Island had a partial meltdown, but the total radiation exposure for the residents of the surrounding area as a result of the meltdown was far less than the total radiation exposure of the residents of Colorado during the same period of time. Read some of the books by Bernard L. Cohen.

I've studied this issue up and down, and the only reasonable conclusion is that with proper safeguards, nuclear power is completely harmless and totally efficient. Note that I said proper safeguard. The Chernobyl disaster is an example of not using proper safeguards. In the US, not only do plants have safeguards in place, but due to the irrational fears encouraged by the anti-nuclear activists, the NRC has actually put in place measures that are overly tight.

The regulations in effect are so bureaucratic today that it takes six different people to change a light bulb at some plants. And that's just to change a light bulb. The control room operators get periodic drug tests, and failure of a drug test results in the operator being fired (not to mention that he/she cannot get any other jobs in the industry). Did you know that eating a poppyseed roll even two weeks before a drug test will make you test positive for opium use? Let's think about that one for a minute....

As for the computers, well, that's a different matter. For the obvious reasons, nuclear plants use stable computing systems. One power plant that I know of uses VAX/VMS machines. We've seen the stability tests for Linux and UNIX versus NT. I haven't seen any stability tests for VAX/VMS, but I imagine that such tests would compare with UNIX. Would you believe that some of these plants actually have Windows- and NT-based PC's? Not in any critical application of course....they're usually used to model the fuel dyanmics or monitor the control systems. Wouldn't Linux be a far more reasonable choice for these systems? Probably.

Did you know that the critical systems in the power plant are almost all mechanical? SCRAMing the plant works by closing an electrical current to the control rods, dropping them into the core. And in the US, the control rods are usually above the core, so gravity can be used if something fails. The pumping mechanisms are mechanical, as is the turbine. When computers don't have direct access to the core, suggesting that computer failure would cause a meltdown (let alone the deaths of "millions" of people) is laughable.

Sometimes I think that people on slashdot need to do a little more research before spouting off. While I haven't actually worked in the nuclear industry, I know someone who does, and have watched him work. He explained to me what he does, and has given me a good feel for the way things work. A couple of weeks ago he caught a human error in a company that will go unmentioned. The error had happened at another plant, (notice that human error is almost always the problem) resulting in the termination of a high-level manager. By finding the error himself, this man that I know was rewarded with an unheard-of lump sum of cash (to the tune of double the average cash reward for finding serious problems).

How many ways do I need to say it? The industry is safe. The computers are not a potential problem even if they are running Windows or NT . And people really need to know their ground before spouting off....

microsoft and oracle asking questions ?

[Lennie]

while I was reading the article I came acrose the some of the addresses (that are behind the name of the poster) of the posters:
most are just IP names,
but some are IP addresses, see what I found:

'Mike Armentano from [205.227.43.11]:
Are you still working with Transmeta... and so on'

Name: inet-fw1-o.oracle.com
Address: 205.227.43.11

'The Keeper from [32.97.136.234], at 2:53pm ET
Java seems to be the latest technology that is taking the computer industry by storm. Is there a port of the Java VM and JDK to the Linux platform and where can I get it? How do you feel that Java can benefit Linux and vice versa?'

Name: ss04.nc.us.ibm.com
Address: 32.97.136.234

maybe more interresting:
'ndex from [131.107.3.76], at 2:42pm ET
One of the biggest drawbacks to having a linux only desktop is that there aren't many supported games. This is keeping a lot of people on Win9x whether they like it or not. Are you planning to do anything to promote or facilitate the porting of games to Linux?'

Name: tide76.microsoft.com
Address: 131.107.3.76

(but, they are probably not talking officially,
but then again, the microsoft guy... I dunno, seems like FUD to me (-; ).