Even knowing this is a Troll, this guy reminds me of Al Gore.
Gore was more interested in going up into space and looking BACK at Earth instead of looking out, away from Earth and to human kind's future. Human kind is doomed in the very long run (100% chance in a few billion years), and perhaps in the short run, if we don't get our freakin' DNA off this planet.
As much as I hate seeing IIS suck the dough from other NASA projects, the work IIS supports in gaining experience in long term space travel is worth it. Read the book
Dragonfly about the Shuttle-Mir program for a good look at life in space.
Once a good sized chunk of rock smacks into Earth, all that starving and disease doesn't matter much anyway.
Anyone who thinks the money would be better spent on charity is very shortsighted.
Sorry, but NASA did use the Mars Global Surveyor craft to image the "face" in the Cydonia region. Please see
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/4_ 6_face_release/
for the actual images and the details of how they were processed. Please note it's a real, honest to god NASA website.
At some point, I think a hiking group used the imaging data and laser altimeter data of the hill that makes up the face to create maps of a cool three hour hike over the various features.
FYI, given how MGS worked (it's camera isn't pointable;, it only images what's directly under the spacecraft), the NASA folks sort of went way out of their way to image this region as soon as they could instead of waiting to map it like they are mapping the rest of the planet.
FYII, I don't think Odessey has an imager, it mostly has instruments to measure chemical makes up of the different areas of Mars.
I worked on a site that used mod_perl/html::templates/MySQL/Oracle. Worked very nicely, we did a lot with just a few people. Originally, we used MySQL and the developers complained very mightly and loudly when the management weenies decided to switch to Oracle.
Why? Business and partnering. Not technical. When the CEO was in meetings with possible partners and said "MySQL" when asked about our database, he got wrinkled noses and confused looks (mys..what?) in response. When he said "but we are migrating to Oracle," the result were ohhhss and hhhhhaaaa. Sigh.
Once the technical team got into Oracle, they liked it and started to use various features that MySQL didn't support (at the time). I can remember doing rollbacks more than once while handjamming SQL code before a demo.
Seems like almost everything NAI sells is difficult to buy because they make their product lines so complex. They are so complex that it is very difficult to understand just what you are buying. You end up having to talk to a sell rep and are completely relying on their knowledge of a very complex product.
I bought one of the PGP suites about a year ago. Took forever to figure what product I needed, then I had to buy a BUNCH of stuff that I never used (All I wanted was the PGPdisk (a very cool product), but ended up with all sorts of stuff that I never used.
Finally, you didn't really buy this stuff from NAI, you leased it... usually for two years. Does this sound familar?
Same story if you try to look at their sniffer products.
In fact, same story if you look at their Virus protection products. Complex packages that are too difficult to understand.
I use egroups and also Majordomo at home. I run MD for two reasons:
It's just fun to do it yourself. Hey, I'm a geek and a bit of a control freak;
There are some lists that I run that I want total control over privacy of the subscriber list and the best privacy I can get for the subscribers. I don't really trust the public/egroups systems in this regards. Did you read the changes Yahoo made to the egroups privacy statement when they bought it?
This book taught me how to run Majordomo... I wasn't a complete novice, but mid level and it certainly made things go faster, especially when it came to hacking the aliases file and tying up some loose security knots.
The intro was all praises, but I've worked with this guy. Love can be a true bloom'in idiot. Sure, he does some good things (everyone does), but he will also champion a cause with utter complete blindness to the reality of the universe and the business world.
I'm sure a lot of slashdotters would like to do just that, but go ask your dot.bomb buddies who are now unemployeed about reality.
The work I'm familiar with, Love pushed a certain cause that cost many jobs, almost destroyed many more and worst of all, just about all but promised that the government's premier collection of scientific and technical research documents remain unavailable to just about everyone - we're talking trillions of dollar's worth here.
So far, all of the "image bank" references link to the Heritage website. The REAL archive is here.
Yeah, it's complex and the images are raw, but you can get any image or dataset collected that is more than a year old. If you are into image processing, it's great fun.
I suspect the most common use of this sort of software is to monitor foreign broadcasts - something the CIA/OSS has been doing for more than 50 years. Traditionally, this has been done through a group (mentioned in the article) called the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). FBIS monitors newspapers/broadcasts of many, many non-US media sources and makes this information available to US Government agencies.
For many years, FBIS made available to the public a daily paper copy product via the US Dept of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS) that was fedex'ed daily to hundreds of subscribers around the country/world. There were several issues, broken down by regions. For many years, it was one of the best public ways to track what was happening in the Soviet space program.
It's widely known that FBIS/CIA as been developing and using technology to aid the translation process for many years.
A few years ago, they dropped the paper product and moved to an electronic version.
The FBIS server to distribute the information to US Government users can be seen at http://199.221.15.211/ and can be found via a simple Google search on "FBIS".
The public can access this information via NTIS's World News Connection system (http://wnc.fedworld.gov). Yes, there is a charge to use WNC, because NTIS has to pay copyright (gasp!!!!!) to the foriegn sources (just because you steal the data stream doesn't mean you own it!) as well as operate the system. It's pretty well known that foriegn sources who complain loud enough also get paid by the Govt for the US govt use of the data.
As one who actively worked to get funding from Congress for the old BMDO DC-X craft in the late 1980's and early 90's, I'm glad to see the over weight, over bloated and sadly, poorly conceived X-33 program get put out of it's misery.
The original concept behind the X-33 (and faster/better/cheaper) is to do what was done in the early days of aircraft and spaceflight: Make cheap craft that test one or two new ideas or technologies and do it quickly - in small leaps that only take a couple of years each.
Many of us believed ten years ago that it is impossible for NASA to do this. They are driven for reasons beyond their control to pack as much new stuff into a single program/platform. To wit, it took NASA years to define X-33, another year to choose a prime and then it ran late, late and late. Hell, I think it was originally suppose to first fly in 1997!
The BMDO program of the 1980's was able do to this through good leadership, strong project management on a tight budget, good but loose oversight, and lack of forty years of "if not invented here, forget it" history. DC-X tested two or three new ideas (vertical takeoff/landing, workstation control by just a couple of people, fast turnaround between missions).
In normal fashion, NASA stuffed more and more new technologies and concepts into X-33 (just not new lightweight tank materials, but tanks formed to odd shapes to fit into the aeroshell, for example - a fatal push since tank failure was a BIG problem for X-33, revolutionary aerospike engines that were late, late and later (duh)) and then answered critics by saying "oh, private industry, LM's skunk works, is going to work all that out for us, so don't worry about it, they never fail."
Yeah, right.
Please note that under Bush's budget, NASA's Space Launch Initiative (the program to replace the shuttle) got a 64% increase over it's $290 million 2001 budget.
Also note NASA's talking about axing some modules and parts of IIS in order to make Bush's budget.
Yet, Bush is proposing to increase NASA's budget by 2 percent (perhaps a larger increase then during all of the Clinton years (Clinton reduced the NASA budget 7 years in a row).
Anyone else get the sense that NASA's been over promised in recent years?
I'm thrilled to see Bush's budget pushing for more Mars exploration, yet keeping keeping ISS under control.
Pease 1
I ain't rich, but I can't wait to get some of my money back - it's about freakin' time
/. was much better before you allowed politics to get in the mix.
I can listen to mindless liberal babble just by turning on the radio and TV news. It does little to read it on/. also.
So, I'll sign off until after the election. No more banner ad clicks from me until after the 7th and my favorite morning read has real content again.
I read./ because it news for nerds. This crap ain't news for nerds... too bad Cmdr Taco, Rob and crew have closed their minds to real freedom and self determination. Figure they got brainwashed in school.
The VLT team has successfully beaten many hurdles, but it seems like the largest one is yet to come: getting all four units (telescopes) working together as one. This has been done before at radio wavelengths for many years. In recent years, arrays of small scopes - less then one meter - have meant with some success (often way late and way over budget). Have any other project tried to marry such large scopes? What's the combined aperture/resolution of all four units? What sort of computing power goes into monitoring the "marrying" of the beams from the four units? What's the time frame for starting testing, or have you already started? Do you first test with just two units? Or start right off with all four? What sort of network is used to exchange data between the drive (tracking) systems of units when they are working together to ensure they are all pointing at exactly the same spot: ether, fiber, fire? Where the drive systems of each unit built to do this from the get go, or do the systems have to be upgraded at some point? The operational units are being used to collect science - and surely the astronomers want as much time on them as possible. What sort of engineering time is alloted to support the testing of the marrying of the units. Can you do this during light time (while the Moon is up)? Thanks!
Slashdot Mirror
then wait 18 months and suddenly you have a cool little person who wants to do all sorts of fun things the wife would never let you do before...
Gore was more interested in going up into space and looking BACK at Earth instead of looking out, away from Earth and to human kind's future. Human kind is doomed in the very long run (100% chance in a few billion years), and perhaps in the short run, if we don't get our freakin' DNA off this planet.
As much as I hate seeing IIS suck the dough from other NASA projects, the work IIS supports in gaining experience in long term space travel is worth it. Read the book Dragonfly about the Shuttle-Mir program for a good look at life in space.
Once a good sized chunk of rock smacks into Earth, all that starving and disease doesn't matter much anyway.
Anyone who thinks the money would be better spent on charity is very shortsighted.
At some point, I think a hiking group used the imaging data and laser altimeter data of the hill that makes up the face to create maps of a cool three hour hike over the various features.
FYI, given how MGS worked (it's camera isn't pointable;, it only images what's directly under the spacecraft), the NASA folks sort of went way out of their way to image this region as soon as they could instead of waiting to map it like they are mapping the rest of the planet.
FYII, I don't think Odessey has an imager, it mostly has instruments to measure chemical makes up of the different areas of Mars.
Why? Business and partnering. Not technical. When the CEO was in meetings with possible partners and said "MySQL" when asked about our database, he got wrinkled noses and confused looks (mys..what?) in response. When he said "but we are migrating to Oracle," the result were ohhhss and hhhhhaaaa. Sigh.
Once the technical team got into Oracle, they liked it and started to use various features that MySQL didn't support (at the time). I can remember doing rollbacks more than once while handjamming SQL code before a demo.
Nonetheless, I think we all remain MySQL fans.
I bought one of the PGP suites about a year ago. Took forever to figure what product I needed, then I had to buy a BUNCH of stuff that I never used (All I wanted was the PGPdisk (a very cool product), but ended up with all sorts of stuff that I never used.
Finally, you didn't really buy this stuff from NAI, you leased it... usually for two years. Does this sound familar?
Same story if you try to look at their sniffer products.
In fact, same story if you look at their Virus protection products. Complex packages that are too difficult to understand.
This book taught me how to run Majordomo... I wasn't a complete novice, but mid level and it certainly made things go faster, especially when it came to hacking the aliases file and tying up some loose security knots.
I'm sure a lot of slashdotters would like to do just that, but go ask your dot.bomb buddies who are now unemployeed about reality.
The work I'm familiar with, Love pushed a certain cause that cost many jobs, almost destroyed many more and worst of all, just about all but promised that the government's premier collection of scientific and technical research documents remain unavailable to just about everyone - we're talking trillions of dollar's worth here.
Love's response is to ignore it. Forget it. Opps.
Yeah, it's complex and the images are raw, but you can get any image or dataset collected that is more than a year old. If you are into image processing, it's great fun.
I suspect the most common use of this sort of software is to monitor foreign broadcasts - something the CIA/OSS has been doing for more than 50 years. Traditionally, this has been done through a group (mentioned in the article) called the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). FBIS monitors newspapers/broadcasts of many, many non-US media sources and makes this information available to US Government agencies.
For many years, FBIS made available to the public a daily paper copy product via the US Dept of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS) that was fedex'ed daily to hundreds of subscribers around the country/world. There were several issues, broken down by regions. For many years, it was one of the best public ways to track what was happening in the Soviet space program.
It's widely known that FBIS/CIA as been developing and using technology to aid the translation process for many years.
A few years ago, they dropped the paper product and moved to an electronic version.
The FBIS server to distribute the information to US Government users can be seen at http://199.221.15.211/ and can be found via a simple Google search on "FBIS".
The public can access this information via NTIS's World News Connection system (http://wnc.fedworld.gov). Yes, there is a charge to use WNC, because NTIS has to pay copyright (gasp!!!!!) to the foriegn sources (just because you steal the data stream doesn't mean you own it!) as well as operate the system. It's pretty well known that foriegn sources who complain loud enough also get paid by the Govt for the US govt use of the data.
The original concept behind the X-33 (and faster/better/cheaper) is to do what was done in the early days of aircraft and spaceflight: Make cheap craft that test one or two new ideas or technologies and do it quickly - in small leaps that only take a couple of years each.
Many of us believed ten years ago that it is impossible for NASA to do this. They are driven for reasons beyond their control to pack as much new stuff into a single program/platform. To wit, it took NASA years to define X-33, another year to choose a prime and then it ran late, late and late. Hell, I think it was originally suppose to first fly in 1997!
The BMDO program of the 1980's was able do to this through good leadership, strong project management on a tight budget, good but loose oversight, and lack of forty years of "if not invented here, forget it" history. DC-X tested two or three new ideas (vertical takeoff/landing, workstation control by just a couple of people, fast turnaround between missions).
In normal fashion, NASA stuffed more and more new technologies and concepts into X-33 (just not new lightweight tank materials, but tanks formed to odd shapes to fit into the aeroshell, for example - a fatal push since tank failure was a BIG problem for X-33, revolutionary aerospike engines that were late, late and later (duh)) and then answered critics by saying "oh, private industry, LM's skunk works, is going to work all that out for us, so don't worry about it, they never fail."
Yeah, right.
Please note that under Bush's budget, NASA's Space Launch Initiative (the program to replace the shuttle) got a 64% increase over it's $290 million 2001 budget.
Also note NASA's talking about axing some modules and parts of IIS in order to make Bush's budget.
Yet, Bush is proposing to increase NASA's budget by 2 percent (perhaps a larger increase then during all of the Clinton years (Clinton reduced the NASA budget 7 years in a row).
Anyone else get the sense that NASA's been over promised in recent years?
I'm thrilled to see Bush's budget pushing for more Mars exploration, yet keeping keeping ISS under control.
Pease 1
I ain't rich, but I can't wait to get some of my money back - it's about freakin' time
I can listen to mindless liberal babble just by turning on the radio and TV news. It does little to read it on /. also.
So, I'll sign off until after the election. No more banner ad clicks from me until after the 7th and my favorite morning read has real content again.
I read ./ because it news for nerds. This crap ain't news for nerds... too bad Cmdr Taco, Rob and crew have closed their minds to real freedom and self determination. Figure they got brainwashed in school.
Sigh.
The VLT team has successfully beaten many hurdles, but it seems like the largest one is yet to come: getting all four units (telescopes) working together as one. This has been done before at radio wavelengths for many years. In recent years, arrays of small scopes - less then one meter - have meant with some success (often way late and way over budget). Have any other project tried to marry such large scopes? What's the combined aperture/resolution of all four units? What sort of computing power goes into monitoring the "marrying" of the beams from the four units? What's the time frame for starting testing, or have you already started? Do you first test with just two units? Or start right off with all four? What sort of network is used to exchange data between the drive (tracking) systems of units when they are working together to ensure they are all pointing at exactly the same spot: ether, fiber, fire? Where the drive systems of each unit built to do this from the get go, or do the systems have to be upgraded at some point? The operational units are being used to collect science - and surely the astronomers want as much time on them as possible. What sort of engineering time is alloted to support the testing of the marrying of the units. Can you do this during light time (while the Moon is up)? Thanks!