Exactly. A rocket launch is basically a controlled explosion. You are releasing a tremendous amount of energy in a very short amount of time. I was privileged enough to see a Delta II rocket (7425) launch from one mile away, and even though it only had four SRMs, man was it loud!
I have heard this analogy. Take a fully loaded 747, fly it from Los Angeles to Sydney, and measure the amount of energy it used in that 12+ hours in the air. The space shuttle uses just about that much energy to get into orbit, except it expends that energy in just eight minutes!
What gets me isn't that they have me turn off my cellphone. It's that they have me turn off my CD player and my Visor. No way in hell can a CD player and a frickin' PDA generate enough RF to affect any onboard systems.
A friend of mine years ago used to work at Douglas Aircraft on the MD-11 flight test program, and they had three test aircraft stuffed full of high end Sun and HP workstations, with no extra RF shielding at all. If anything would affect the planes electronics it'd be that.
Comcast is THE only option for broadband where I live (no DSL and wireless access is cost prohibitive). They took over ATTBI and immediately raised the rates (which have yet to take effect but I am sure that (based on previous practices) will be "noticed at a later date" and corrected by charging for the back months in a single bill...)
I'm lucky... where I live (southern Cal) the same thing happened to my cable modem (ComCast), but fortunately I have SBC DSL available to me. I got DSL ordered & working, then called ComCast to turn them off. I save $21/month, at a cost of 1/3 the speed. I can live with it (for now).
How many of the people buying Lindows PCs are actually leaving Linux in place? And how many are taking their bootleg copy of Windows 2k (or whatever) and installing that?
I'll bet, not many. Installing an operating system isn't easy for a novice, whether it be Windows or Linux. In my recent experience, in fact, I've found Linux to be much easier to install than Windows. I tried '95, '98SE, ME, and finally W2K installed right. (Windoze is just there for games, folks) The others would mess up during reboots or not even get past the initial disk check.
So I really doubt Joe Sixpack is gonna have the necessary expertise to get a pirate copy of Windows to install on his $199 Walmart box.
I will give them this. Usually when they've got a problem they'll gloss it over or out and out lie about it. I remember a few years ago they were putting up a bunch of Globalstars or Iridiums (iridia?) and the payloads never made it to orbit. But they kept reporting launch events like everything was hunky-dory. The customer was pissed. Maybe they've learned their lesson.
Whoo-Hoo! I just read that page again. The Delta Heavy (not built yet, but all technology in place) can stuff 13 tonnes into Geosynchronous transfer orbit. It can throw (and this is astonishing) twenty-three humungous tonnes to low earth orbit. What the hell can compete with that?
First Delta IV Heavy mission is scheduled for 1 May 2003.
For all us USians, that's 13 metric tons. 29,100 lbs.
Right. That's it. I'm going to become a rocket engineer. It's got to beat the hell out of managing telecoms networks for a living.
That was the 293rd Delta mission. The vehicle family has a 98% success rate, best in the business.
The reason you think the "older" Deltas blow up is because the few spectacular failures make it onto TV, while the much more frequent and boring successes do not.
Yes, the shuttles are that booked up. Plus, at $500 million+ per launch, it's a bit pricy for lofting your $100 million communications satellite.
Yes, there were two cams on board. The other one was mounted on the second stage to monitor the RL-10 engine. That thing gets hot! It was glowing pretty red there.
It's too bad we had to launch the thing at night. Couldn't see much.
My radio knowledge is a bit rusty, but each FM radio station uses a pretty large chunk of spectrum. Why can't they use frequency modulation (or, amplitude modulation) to encode the sound digitally? It stands to reason that you could put hundreds of stations in the space of one current FM station.
And then the whole problem of Clear Channel goes away. Each market can have a few *thousand* radio stations and we can have diverse stations like rave or metal back.
Boeing has two ideas for new airliners. The first announced is the sonic cruiser, which will cruise between mach 0.95 & 0.98 and carry 250 people max. The other is the blended wing body, originally developed by Douglas Aircraft to compete with Boeing planes. The BWB will cruise at mach 0.90, carry 480 people, and burn 32 percent less fuel than a competing Airbus.
And yes, that Concorde is damn loud. I was in London once at Kew Gardens (right under the "whirlpool" for Heathrow) and the Concorde at 10,000 feet was as loud as the 747s going over at 2500. And when it was the Concorde's turn at 2500, you had to shout to hear each other.
While I'd prefer to be on the side of the underdog, in this case A-B does, indeed, own the trademark "Budweiser". I read an article once about this (www.realbeer.com?) which talked about the history of pilseners. When Augustus Busch started brewing the beer that became Budweiser he trademarked the name, something that Budvar had neglected to do.
That doesn't mean that A-B Budweiser isn't horse piss, or that A-B isn't amazingly silly when protecting its trademark.
Did you ever stop to wonder if a pelican (I think it's a sparrow in actuality) traveling at 700 miles/hour would tip off a radar operator? I'm no military genius, but I think small, 700mph birds are a sign that something is afoot.
Again, people do not understand how RADAR works.
RADAR does not track individual objects. It takes a "revolving snapshot" of reflected objects. You know that antenna that revolves in a circle? That's RADAR. RADAR operators use the equivalent of a squelch to clear up the picture. If they let everything in, they see planes, birds, rain, and clouds. In other words, it's useless. They filter out the clouds, rain, and birds until there's just non-stealthy planes. Planes like the B-2 and F-117A get filtered out with the birds, and then they drop their bombs successfully.
Put it another way: turn on the weather report & look at the RADAR view. See all the green? That's where our stealth planes hide.
What is stopping a band from going to a studio and re-recording an album for Net use? Why can't RHCP go back to the studio & crank out a "live" version of "Californication" that isn't owned by the RIAA and then RHCP gives it or sells it for use by Net broadcasters?
This would have the added benefit of exposing talentless RIAA drivel for what it is, BTW.
I remember a while back Soundgarden did a video for "Fell on Black Days" where they performed the song live. And that version made it on the radio here in SoCal, so it was arguably popular. So why not have bands re-record a "free" version for the Internet?
I rarely see those warnings because I put the DVD in, then turn on the stereo, then turn on the TV, then I go hit the can. By the time all that's done, I'm happily looking at the menu.:)
I think that "National Security" here means "the NSA asked us to put xyz into our code, and they'd be unhappy if it had to be removed or became public".
If that's true, then the NSA asked them to put classified information in a lightly-encrypted (machine code) form widely released to the public.
There is no way the NSA would allow anything of the sort to occur. Classified information is tightly controlled and releasing such information in such a manner will get you in serious trouble.
Slashdot Mirror
These things are essentially big bombs.
Exactly. A rocket launch is basically a controlled explosion. You are releasing a tremendous amount of energy in a very short amount of time. I was privileged enough to see a Delta II rocket (7425) launch from one mile away, and even though it only had four SRMs, man was it loud!
I have heard this analogy. Take a fully loaded 747, fly it from Los Angeles to Sydney, and measure the amount of energy it used in that 12+ hours in the air. The space shuttle uses just about that much energy to get into orbit, except it expends that energy in just eight minutes!
So yeah, these things are controlled bombs.
God, shmod, I want my monkey-man!
What gets me isn't that they have me turn off my cellphone. It's that they have me turn off my CD player and my Visor. No way in hell can a CD player and a frickin' PDA generate enough RF to affect any onboard systems.
A friend of mine years ago used to work at Douglas Aircraft on the MD-11 flight test program, and they had three test aircraft stuffed full of high end Sun and HP workstations, with no extra RF shielding at all. If anything would affect the planes electronics it'd be that.
Comcast is THE only option for broadband where I live (no DSL and wireless access is cost prohibitive). They took over ATTBI and immediately raised the rates (which have yet to take effect but I am sure that (based on previous practices) will be "noticed at a later date" and corrected by charging for the back months in a single bill...)
I'm lucky... where I live (southern Cal) the same thing happened to my cable modem (ComCast), but fortunately I have SBC DSL available to me. I got DSL ordered & working, then called ComCast to turn them off. I save $21/month, at a cost of 1/3 the speed. I can live with it (for now).
Nothin' but clear sailin' ahead for our precious cargo!
Uhhh, you mean the hot pants, Captain?
Aye, the hot pants!
"Oh NOOOO! Beta!"
I'll bet, not many. Installing an operating system isn't easy for a novice, whether it be Windows or Linux. In my recent experience, in fact, I've found Linux to be much easier to install than Windows. I tried '95, '98SE, ME, and finally W2K installed right. (Windoze is just there for games, folks) The others would mess up during reboots or not even get past the initial disk check.
So I really doubt Joe Sixpack is gonna have the necessary expertise to get a pirate copy of Windows to install on his $199 Walmart box.
I am a man, not a mouse!
I will give them this. Usually when they've got a problem they'll gloss it over or out and out lie about it. I remember a few years ago they were putting up a bunch of Globalstars or Iridiums (iridia?) and the payloads never made it to orbit. But they kept reporting launch events like everything was hunky-dory. The customer was pissed. Maybe they've learned their lesson.
First Delta IV Heavy mission is scheduled for 1 May 2003.
For all us USians, that's 13 metric tons. 29,100 lbs.
Don't. The pay is lousy.
That was the 293rd Delta mission. The vehicle family has a 98% success rate, best in the business.
The reason you think the "older" Deltas blow up is because the few spectacular failures make it onto TV, while the much more frequent and boring successes do not.
Yes, the shuttles are that booked up. Plus, at $500 million+ per launch, it's a bit pricy for lofting your $100 million communications satellite.
Yes, there were two cams on board. The other one was mounted on the second stage to monitor the RL-10 engine. That thing gets hot! It was glowing pretty red there.
It's too bad we had to launch the thing at night. Couldn't see much.
I'm looking forward to the next movie, "Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Training Bra".
Yes, shamelessly ripped from Mr. Cranky.
Obligatory....
1. Make Army Nanotech pants
2. ???
3. Victory! errr, Profit!
My radio knowledge is a bit rusty, but each FM radio station uses a pretty large chunk of spectrum. Why can't they use frequency modulation (or, amplitude modulation) to encode the sound digitally? It stands to reason that you could put hundreds of stations in the space of one current FM station.
And then the whole problem of Clear Channel goes away. Each market can have a few *thousand* radio stations and we can have diverse stations like rave or metal back.
Why isn't this being done?
Add AT&T Broadband in southern California. When I try to hit http://listen4ever.com/ from Galeon, I get this:
:(
No web site is configured at this address.
Interesting, I just tried to get it from my work proxy (I can telecommute) and I get the same thing.
Maybe they got taken down.
Of course, when I read this headline I immediately thought of our pint-sized West Virginian friend.
Boeing has two ideas for new airliners. The first announced is the sonic cruiser, which will cruise between mach 0.95 & 0.98 and carry 250 people max. The other is the blended wing body, originally developed by Douglas Aircraft to compete with Boeing planes. The BWB will cruise at mach 0.90, carry 480 people, and burn 32 percent less fuel than a competing Airbus.
And yes, that Concorde is damn loud. I was in London once at Kew Gardens (right under the "whirlpool" for Heathrow) and the Concorde at 10,000 feet was as loud as the 747s going over at 2500. And when it was the Concorde's turn at 2500, you had to shout to hear each other.
While I'd prefer to be on the side of the underdog, in this case A-B does, indeed, own the trademark "Budweiser". I read an article once about this (www.realbeer.com?) which talked about the history of pilseners. When Augustus Busch started brewing the beer that became Budweiser he trademarked the name, something that Budvar had neglected to do.
That doesn't mean that A-B Budweiser isn't horse piss, or that A-B isn't amazingly silly when protecting its trademark.
Did you ever stop to wonder if a pelican (I think it's a sparrow in actuality) traveling at 700 miles/hour would tip off a radar operator? I'm no military genius, but I think small, 700mph birds are a sign that something is afoot.
Again, people do not understand how RADAR works.
RADAR does not track individual objects. It takes a "revolving snapshot" of reflected objects. You know that antenna that revolves in a circle? That's RADAR. RADAR operators use the equivalent of a squelch to clear up the picture. If they let everything in, they see planes, birds, rain, and clouds. In other words, it's useless. They filter out the clouds, rain, and birds until there's just non-stealthy planes. Planes like the B-2 and F-117A get filtered out with the birds, and then they drop their bombs successfully.
Put it another way: turn on the weather report & look at the RADAR view. See all the green? That's where our stealth planes hide.
What is stopping a band from going to a studio and re-recording an album for Net use? Why can't RHCP go back to the studio & crank out a "live" version of "Californication" that isn't owned by the RIAA and then RHCP gives it or sells it for use by Net broadcasters?
This would have the added benefit of exposing talentless RIAA drivel for what it is, BTW.
I remember a while back Soundgarden did a video for "Fell on Black Days" where they performed the song live. And that version made it on the radio here in SoCal, so it was arguably popular. So why not have bands re-record a "free" version for the Internet?
>Bill Gates, who is every bit as ethical as Larry Flynt,
"If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, it will protect all of you." -- Larry Flynt
Larry Flynt is *way* more ethical than Bill Gates.
I rarely see those warnings because I put the DVD in, then turn on the stereo, then turn on the TV, then I go hit the can. By the time all that's done, I'm happily looking at the menu. :)
There is no way the NSA would allow anything of the sort to occur. Classified information is tightly controlled and releasing such information in such a manner will get you in serious trouble.