NASA does a ton of incredibly good things to encourage science and technology.
They supported over 30 FIRST teams when I was in FIRST - I would bet they support more now. Look at the link, it's an incredible program. If possible, get your company or school involved in it. FIRST was one of the best experiences of my career.
Note: FIRST stands for:
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
You have something that you are building that is one unit(foot or meter) long, you want to put 4 equally spaced legs along the edge... Which means three spaces in between.
Take a foot (12 inches) divide by 3 - you get 4 inches. Very easy to work with - hey, it's even one of those large lines on the ruler!
Take a meter (100 cm) divide by 3 - you get 33.3333333 repeating. Find that on a ruler.
I remember seeing a document talking about fractions in relationship to the imperial system.
Think of this:
One foot can be divided in these ways to make integer values of inches:
2 - 6" 3 - 4" 4 - 3" 5 - not an integer 6 - 2"
That's 5 different ways to divide it and still not need to worry about fractions or decimals at all.
Now look at Metric. Let's take a meter and divide that:
2 - 50 cm 3 - not an integer 4 - 25 cm 5 - 20 cm 6 - not an integer
I know there is a much better write up on this someplace, but you get the idea. Imperial units end up with more "useful" divisions than metric.
The whole reason they can get so many of the labels they do is that they protect their rights. I know it sucks for the little guy who wants to give music to all of their friends, but I find their version of DRM within acceptable limits, unlike most other DRM systems.
When are you not just mixing colors, but making a painting? At what point does the combining of code become a unique work? One line? Ten? A Thousand?
There isn't an easy guage to determine that point, perhaps one needs to be developed? When does code truly change from General Purpose (a "color"), to specialized (a "painting")?
I think the colors should be free for all, and the paintings rights should be retained by the artist or whomever they are painting it for.
Hackers are vandals, I can piss in your mailbox, throw shit at your door, there are lots of things I can do, and probably not get caught to prove I can do them, but I don't, because I don't want to screw with other peoples shit.
Would this be something good to build into space suits for exploring places like MARS or the Moon?
Imagine - a single astronaut being able to carry hundreds of pounds of equipment without even noticing it! Want to move the lander? Have three astronauts pick it up and move it.
"Go to Rock A" "Extend Arm, place payload element X on Rock" "Let Payload element X analyze rock A" "Switch to Payload Element Y" "Let Payload Element Y Analyze Rock A" (...repeat for each element Mission control wants to use...) "Stow Arm" "Navigate at bearing of 110deg until Z time"
Each of the science payloads may take an unknown amount of time to perform it's task - the rock grinder probably moves at different speeds based on the density of the rock.
Also, the driving algorythm probably takes more time to analyze no-so-good paths than good paths.
I run a dual processor x86 at home with Win 2K on it. The second processor makes a noticable improvement in the OS. I understand 2K and XP Pro both support multi processor systems.
I'm still looking at a Mac for my next system though.
It depends on the place and time. When graffiti is done someplace without the permission of the owner of that property, then yes, no matter how artistic it is, it is still vandalism.
I have seen some graffiti that I find is very artistic, but I also find a lot of it ugly.
Hindsight is 20/20, but that doesn't mean that we should wear blinders when looking towards the future!
The Management team _actively_ canceled requests for information pertaining to the impact. See page 153 of the PDF.
The management team also didn't follow their own procedures, they didn't meet every day (they were supposed to).
I was impressed by the engineers at Boeing (I think that was the company) who elected to research the impact and footage of it over the weekend even when management told them not to.
Read the report. Section 6.3 (DECISION-MAKING DURING THE FLIGHT OF STS-107) is extremely interesting and points out Eight seperate missed opportunities to find out more information about the problem.
There were also some engineering related issues - the engineers using test software that wasn't designed to analize an impact nearly that large, and other issues - but it really comes down to a lack of the management team accepting that there could be a real, out-of-family problem on the mission.
"Now all illegal products are required to be manufactured with RFIDs installed"
Explain to me how this will help them to catch terrorists before the act. If it's after the act of terrorism, it doesn't matter that much anymore, does it? "hey, this piece has an RFID of a timex watch"
Someone with a computer and a modem could spend a lot of time on-line and find _lots_ of items, which could be traded into cash.
The only issue I see here is that it truly pays the person to be lazy, and could be exploited be people in prisons or things where they have access to a computer but can't do much else.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd mod you up if I could.
NASA does a ton of incredibly good things to encourage science and technology.
They supported over 30 FIRST teams when I was in FIRST - I would bet they support more now. Look at the link, it's an incredible program. If possible, get your company or school involved in it. FIRST was one of the best experiences of my career.
Note: FIRST stands for:
For
Inspiration and
Recognition of
Science and
Technology
Wish I had mod points.
Soylent Green is People!?
Movie
The simplest example I can think of is this...
You have something that you are building that is one unit(foot or meter) long, you want to put 4 equally spaced legs along the edge... Which means three spaces in between.
Take a foot (12 inches) divide by 3 - you get 4 inches. Very easy to work with - hey, it's even one of those large lines on the ruler!
Take a meter (100 cm) divide by 3 - you get 33.3333333 repeating. Find that on a ruler.
I remember seeing a document talking about fractions in relationship to the imperial system.
Think of this:
One foot can be divided in these ways to make integer values of inches:
2 - 6"
3 - 4"
4 - 3"
5 - not an integer
6 - 2"
That's 5 different ways to divide it and still not need to worry about fractions or decimals at all.
Now look at Metric. Let's take a meter and divide that:
2 - 50 cm
3 - not an integer
4 - 25 cm
5 - 20 cm
6 - not an integer
I know there is a much better write up on this someplace, but you get the idea. Imperial units end up with more "useful" divisions than metric.
Are YOU in India?
It's for e-mail and other not-so time-sensitive data. It's just like a standard postman, except that they carry around data in electronic form.
Once they get to the "main office", all of that data gets exchanged through a satelite dish.
Total cost per point was under $500.
Read the article, it's all in there.
Go To Your Room!
Good for Apple.
The whole reason they can get so many of the labels they do is that they protect their rights. I know it sucks for the little guy who wants to give music to all of their friends, but I find their version of DRM within acceptable limits, unlike most other DRM systems.
The real question for this example is:
When are you not just mixing colors, but making a painting? At what point does the combining of code become a unique work? One line? Ten? A Thousand?
There isn't an easy guage to determine that point, perhaps one needs to be developed? When does code truly change from General Purpose (a "color"), to specialized (a "painting")?
I think the colors should be free for all, and the paintings rights should be retained by the artist or whomever they are painting it for.
Hackers are vandals, I can piss in your mailbox, throw shit at your door, there are lots of things I can do, and probably not get caught to prove I can do them, but I don't, because I don't want to screw with other peoples shit.
So throw your own shit!
(Just a joke, I agree with what you mean)
Would this be something good to build into space suits for exploring places like MARS or the Moon?
Imagine - a single astronaut being able to carry hundreds of pounds of equipment without even noticing it! Want to move the lander? Have three astronauts pick it up and move it.
So, instead of poor programming it's incompetent management?
I think it is a combination of the two...
Mission control sends a command like:
"Go to Rock A"
"Extend Arm, place payload element X on Rock"
"Let Payload element X analyze rock A"
"Switch to Payload Element Y"
"Let Payload Element Y Analyze Rock A"
(...repeat for each element Mission control wants to use...)
"Stow Arm"
"Navigate at bearing of 110deg until Z time"
Each of the science payloads may take an unknown amount of time to perform it's task - the rock grinder probably moves at different speeds based on the density of the rock.
Also, the driving algorythm probably takes more time to analyze no-so-good paths than good paths.
Visit Google's new web portal...
The "g" Spot
I run a dual processor x86 at home with Win 2K on it. The second processor makes a noticable improvement in the OS. I understand 2K and XP Pro both support multi processor systems.
I'm still looking at a Mac for my next system though.
Find ';', replace with "NOEOL" (Non-Offending End Of Line)
Post process all code, replacing NOEOL with \59
Or... Better yet...
The compiler is open source, no? Simply change it in the compiler
It depends on the place and time. When graffiti is done someplace without the permission of the owner of that property, then yes, no matter how artistic it is, it is still vandalism.
I have seen some graffiti that I find is very artistic, but I also find a lot of it ugly.
Did you read the Investigation report?
Hindsight is 20/20, but that doesn't mean that we should wear blinders when looking towards the future!
The Management team _actively_ canceled requests for information pertaining to the impact. See page 153 of the PDF.
The management team also didn't follow their own procedures, they didn't meet every day (they were supposed to).
I was impressed by the engineers at Boeing (I think that was the company) who elected to research the impact and footage of it over the weekend even when management told them not to.
Read the report. Section 6.3 (DECISION-MAKING DURING THE FLIGHT OF STS-107) is extremely interesting and points out Eight seperate missed opportunities to find out more information about the problem.
There were also some engineering related issues - the engineers using test software that wasn't designed to analize an impact nearly that large, and other issues - but it really comes down to a lack of the management team accepting that there could be a real, out-of-family problem on the mission.
SIRTF will be following the Earth around the sun, kind of like a faithful puppy dog," astronomer Michael Werner said.
We'll be fine as long as it doesn't try to hump the Earth's leg!
You missed Apple...
Day of Week: M T W T F S Su
Apple G G E G G G G
That's why I liked Picard.
"Now all illegal products are required to be manufactured with RFIDs installed"
Explain to me how this will help them to catch terrorists before the act. If it's after the act of terrorism, it doesn't matter that much anymore, does it? "hey, this piece has an RFID of a timex watch"
*sigh*
It also works the other way though...
Someone with a computer and a modem could spend a lot of time on-line and find _lots_ of items, which could be traded into cash.
The only issue I see here is that it truly pays the person to be lazy, and could be exploited be people in prisons or things where they have access to a computer but can't do much else.
You make a better inkblot, we'll make a better idiot.