The AN-225 was not misplaced. It's location is known, it flies transport missions for some company. Aviation buffs (plane spotters) get into fairly high gear when it's near though...
I was more amazed that it can withstand the heat of re-entry when you consider that the ceramic tiles on the shuttle glow red from the friction of the atmosphere.
I think that's because the tiles on the shuttle get pushed through the air much harder. The trick in this technique is the comparativly low density of the reentry vehicle. If you have the surface of a football field to slow down a rather smallish mass, you get much better deceleration and are able to dissipate the energy much better to the surrounding air. (The Space Shuttle gets so hot because it can't dissipate the energy quickly enough - so, if you touch more air, that air can take the heat away...)
Put it out there, and people will find a use for it.
AFAIK, people over there already don't swap that much stuff any more - they know it's on some friends computer and if they need it, they just use it - no more downloading first...
Linux Distros are the same size today as they were 6 years ago. 1-2 main CDs for the main installation along w/ supplemental apps CDs which don't really count.
You must have been using Suse. Debian Sarge (the upcoming release) is 1 CD for the basic install, and 11 CDs more if you want to do more than basic things with it. These values are for ia32-CPUs, the coming 64-bit CPUs might see a twofold increase in binary size... (I don't have any data on that, though...)
80 million Germans vs. 10 million Belgians does qualify as most, IMHO - there are other countries, but I don't think they're relevant - some drivers are good, others are bad...
IMHO, most Germans are rather good drivers - they should be, or the death toll on German roads would be much higher (no speed limits on the autobahn etc.)...
I have a TB here, and rather than raid, I decided to do a nightly "rsync" mirror to a "yesterday" partition.
You might want to check out faubackup - that's what I'm using. Faubackup is perfectly fine for doing nightly backups and works like this:
It creates a directory hierarchy, with directories named after the backup date and the backed up files below in the directory structure they were originally in. When a file didn't change from one backup to another, just a hard link gets created to the copy in the older backup, if it was changed, it gets created anew.
Expiring old backups is done by rm -rf'ing the corresponding directory - files with no more links get deleted, files that are needed in another generation lose one link. Restore of a file is done via the normal filesystem tools - cd, cp,...
If they were guilty of messin with the books, MS'd be the good guys for tattling. (Everywhere except Slashdot, that is...)
From what I read, they switched the accounting of their subscriptions to a finer granularity. In the end, the result should be mostly the same, but they have to announce the change in accounting practices. Now they're going over their books with they new model, recalculating their revenues, and get slapped with a lawsuit.
Both accounting practices are legal, so where is the messing? I think that lawsuit is bogus and just a means to drain resources from Red Hat...
well the doggie could still be sitting there when you are going 75...in fact if you were going 90 the dog might not have made it to the middle of the road yet.
At 75, the doggie also might have run off the road already - no argument. The point is, what happens when you encounter an unexpected obstacle. At 75, you might swerve around it, at 90, you might hit it, but that same argument works for just about any two speeds. A pretty good rule of thumb is, on a road wide enough to fit two cars side by side, you should be able to stop within your visual range. On a road too narrow to fit two cars side by side, you should be able to stop within half your visual range.
Using that rule, you will be able to avoid hitting another car using the same rule, you will be able to avoid hitting the doggie sitting in the middle of the road (if you can stop within your visual range, you can stop before reaching the doggie, you did see it, right?). You might still hit something running out between two parked cars, but that argument doesn't hold water, either, because what would have happened if you had been going slower, but the doggie had run out just a little bit later? If you can't accept the risk of applied darwinism, you shouldn't be driving at all. You can minimize the risk by adjusting your speed to the environment (there is more probability of someone running out between two parked cars downtown than there is between some bushes in the middle of nowhere...)
Cyclists and children should look out (children should look out for cyclists as well as cars) and the same could apply to them.
Traffic is not a competition, it's a team effort. If everyone exercises a little care and common sense, the risk of hitting or getting hit by someone or something are pretty low. That is why you should be doing not more than about 30 km/h (20 mph) near a school or kindergarden!
I don't think they worry about dogs on the autobahn
Actually, we don't. Everyone around here knows that trying to cross the autobahn on foot or bike of whatever is an almost 100% sure way to kill yourself. Animals either learn quickly or are dead. If you decide to take a walk on the autobahn, even on the banks, the police will probably pick you up quite quickly, and if you don't have a very good reason for being there, you might get fined. (I don't remember the law that allows this, but there is one, afaik)
So they have decided to do this. Firstly, they have to determine what problems they will encounter. What apps might they need that they may have difficulties finding under Linux? Code may have to be migrated from ASP / whatever. Excel / word macros rewritten. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
What about hardware? I'd really love to try one of those F-22's....
Sure, no problem. Just enter the air force and prove you are able to do it without damaging yourself or anything else. (That is, pass all the pilot's training, medical examinations, background checks...)
That's funny. So, XFree86 is faster, yet looks slower. Windows is slower, yet looks faster. Now, call me weird, but I'd prefer something that seems faster to something that is faster, as if it's faster to me, that's all that matters.
Well, let's compare OSes to cars, again. Some weeks ago, I was driving home from work. At one traffic lights, I was sitting besides a really tuned-up, fast-looking VW Polo. He was in the left lane, I was in the right lane. I didn't want to race, what he wanted I don't know. The lights turned green, he burned rubber and went screaming off. I followed more slowly, maybe half throttle or so. After about 1 km, I was overtaking him - I have no idea what was the problem, but I think he invested so much money in looking fast that there was no money left to make him go fast... in the end, the air drag got him at about 130-140 km/h, while my (slow-looking) ten years old Mercedes E-Class still had some legs left...;-)
(Disclaimer: I live in Germany, no speed limits there (yet...), don't try this at home, kids!;-))
The point of this short story is: some people don't care if something looks fast, they are after the real speed...
OK, it's a kit car, but I think you can talk them into assembling it for you. Including engine (in the 500hp range) you should be able to get it below $40k - but OTOH, it can beat the pants off 99.9% of all other cars... 0-60 in under 4 secs, top speed around 200 mph, cornering capabilities to make a superbike driver envious... what else did you want?
Imagine a MyDoom, that caused each computer it affected to dial up 911
*That* would be called Terrorism, and (IMHO) rightly so, because the worm caused a global failure of 911 service, lasting for some days. That effect alone could cause more deaths than 9/11!
Whoever wrote that worm should be put into prison for life, or possibly executed.
If you use really strong cryptography, you stand a pretty good chance that it will not be cracked. One criterion of strong cryptography is that the algorithm has been published for some time and no weakness was found, like with the IDEA algorithm. The CSS algorithm of DVDs was not cracked, a valid decryption key was leaked. (AFAIK)
The advantage of having a PKI and a somewhat networked system is that you can replace keys. One of these new passports should only be valid for 2 years, like a credit card, but easily renewable, for example using a stored checksum at the issuing authority. The keys itself should expire within one year, which results in a maximum exposure of three years to forgery (1 year key validity, 2 years passport validity).
That way, even if a key gets leaked, the hole gets plugged after a maximum of three years - assuming the key gets leaked the day it is created and the leak is not discovered.
What good is comparing an iris scan to information on the passport? It should be compared against a central database. At some point the system used to place the information on the passport will be cracked - either by hacking or theft.
What makes you think the database will not be cracked?
What scares me is the idea of having a big central database of biometric data - *that* is a big intrusion of privacy, IMHO.
I've got no problem with biometric identification, if it's done right. A good solution (IMHO) to using biometric ID without privacy intrusion is to store all the data on the ID card (passport or whatever), cryptographically signed. The scanning device now just has obtain the public key from a central database - you could even put the database into the scanning device and update it periodically! Basically, every authority that can issue ID cards needs its private key(s), which must be signed by some central authority. Just your normal Public Key Infrastructure. That way, you could build a infrastructure that really is only good for automatically comparing people to their ID cards.
What else are customs officers doing right now? Compare people and check if they are allowed to enter - using a computer. You could speed that up quite a bit using this technique...
Actually, there is quite a load of green goo, floating around in our oceans. It's called plankton. Quite some fish (you might say almost all, at different levels of indirectness) feed off of it...
(a) voice comm may still be useful, but why not use IM for a group of people to "chat." Is the voice feed for the media?
Because IM is even slower than voice comms. Remeber why people want headsets to communicate during multiplayer egoshooters?
(b) why not "follow the procedure" with some online, multi-user app that checks off the steps done on some browser sort of app? The engineering specs have to be changing up to the last minute; why commit to paper something that becomes obsolete once you press Print?
Because nothing changes at the last minute. Also, paper is more failproof than a computer app.
I have to admit, this approach does actually have some merit, but not because of the reasons you mentioned here, but rather because it cuts down on the voice communication needs.
BTW - pagination doesn't necessarily imply printed docs, they might be using an app that doesn't use scrolling. Not scrolling might be actually a good thing, because all you need at this moment is there, easily visible, without having to navigate - cuts down on possible error sources...
Beagle 2 was just a (relatively) cheap addon to Mars Express. I don't remember the exact value, but I ssem to recall that the cost of beagle was less than 10% of the overall cost of the mission - the main goal was the cartography mission.
I've read that that up to 20% of the population does not have a fingerprint suitable for biometric identification. Most of these people are Asian women. If biometric identification ever becomes mandatory are these people simply out of luck?
I think that statistic is crap. There are people out there that don't have a suitable fingerprint (a company I used to work for had an employee who couldn't unlock her PC on the fingerprint mouse), but she wasn't even close to being asian... just old, cracked skin etc...
I just don't think you can fix it to a certain ethnicity - age group, perhaps, but not where they are from...
Slashdot Mirror
Some pictures... Search for Antonov AN-225
Pictures like this
Cheers, Ulli
I think that's because the tiles on the shuttle get pushed through the air much harder. The trick in this technique is the comparativly low density of the reentry vehicle. If you have the surface of a football field to slow down a rather smallish mass, you get much better deceleration and are able to dissipate the energy much better to the surrounding air. (The Space Shuttle gets so hot because it can't dissipate the energy quickly enough - so, if you touch more air, that air can take the heat away...)
Just my 2 cents...
Ulli
AFAIK, people over there already don't swap that much stuff any more - they know it's on some friends computer and if they need it, they just use it - no more downloading first...
Cheers, Ulli
You must have been using Suse. Debian Sarge (the upcoming release) is 1 CD for the basic install, and 11 CDs more if you want to do more than basic things with it. These values are for ia32-CPUs, the coming 64-bit CPUs might see a twofold increase in binary size... (I don't have any data on that, though...)
Regards, Ulli
IMHO, most Germans are rather good drivers - they should be, or the death toll on German roads would be much higher (no speed limits on the autobahn etc.)...
Disclaimer: I'm from Germany ;-)
Cheers, Ulli
You might want to check out faubackup - that's what I'm using. Faubackup is perfectly fine for doing nightly backups and works like this:
It creates a directory hierarchy, with directories named after the backup date and the backed up files below in the directory structure they were originally in. When a file didn't change from one backup to another, just a hard link gets created to the copy in the older backup, if it was changed, it gets created anew.
Expiring old backups is done by rm -rf'ing the corresponding directory - files with no more links get deleted, files that are needed in another generation lose one link. Restore of a file is done via the normal filesystem tools - cd, cp, ...
Faubackup can be found here.
Regards, Ulli
From what I read, they switched the accounting of their subscriptions to a finer granularity. In the end, the result should be mostly the same, but they have to announce the change in accounting practices. Now they're going over their books with they new model, recalculating their revenues, and get slapped with a lawsuit.
Both accounting practices are legal, so where is the messing? I think that lawsuit is bogus and just a means to drain resources from Red Hat...
Regards, Ulli
At 75, the doggie also might have run off the road already - no argument. The point is, what happens when you encounter an unexpected obstacle. At 75, you might swerve around it, at 90, you might hit it, but that same argument works for just about any two speeds. A pretty good rule of thumb is, on a road wide enough to fit two cars side by side, you should be able to stop within your visual range. On a road too narrow to fit two cars side by side, you should be able to stop within half your visual range.
Using that rule, you will be able to avoid hitting another car using the same rule, you will be able to avoid hitting the doggie sitting in the middle of the road (if you can stop within your visual range, you can stop before reaching the doggie, you did see it, right?). You might still hit something running out between two parked cars, but that argument doesn't hold water, either, because what would have happened if you had been going slower, but the doggie had run out just a little bit later? If you can't accept the risk of applied darwinism, you shouldn't be driving at all. You can minimize the risk by adjusting your speed to the environment (there is more probability of someone running out between two parked cars downtown than there is between some bushes in the middle of nowhere...)
Cyclists and children should look out (children should look out for cyclists as well as cars) and the same could apply to them.
Traffic is not a competition, it's a team effort. If everyone exercises a little care and common sense, the risk of hitting or getting hit by someone or something are pretty low. That is why you should be doing not more than about 30 km/h (20 mph) near a school or kindergarden!
I don't think they worry about dogs on the autobahn
Actually, we don't. Everyone around here knows that trying to cross the autobahn on foot or bike of whatever is an almost 100% sure way to kill yourself. Animals either learn quickly or are dead. If you decide to take a walk on the autobahn, even on the banks, the police will probably pick you up quite quickly, and if you don't have a very good reason for being there, you might get fined. (I don't remember the law that allows this, but there is one, afaik)
Regards, Ulli
Well, they already the first step. They ran into some difficulties, but had plans to overcome some of them already prepared.
Regards, Ulli
Sure, no problem. Just enter the air force and prove you are able to do it without damaging yourself or anything else. (That is, pass all the pilot's training, medical examinations, background checks...)
Regards, Ulli
They know exactly which side of the door they want to be on: the other side! ;-)
Cheers, Ulli
Well, let's compare OSes to cars, again. Some weeks ago, I was driving home from work. At one traffic lights, I was sitting besides a really tuned-up, fast-looking VW Polo. He was in the left lane, I was in the right lane. I didn't want to race, what he wanted I don't know. The lights turned green, he burned rubber and went screaming off. I followed more slowly, maybe half throttle or so. After about 1 km, I was overtaking him - I have no idea what was the problem, but I think he invested so much money in looking fast that there was no money left to make him go fast... in the end, the air drag got him at about 130-140 km/h, while my (slow-looking) ten years old Mercedes E-Class still had some legs left... ;-)
(Disclaimer: I live in Germany, no speed limits there (yet...), don't try this at home, kids! ;-))
The point of this short story is: some people don't care if something looks fast, they are after the real speed...
Cheers, Ulli
Well, no. IMHO, Windows is some family sedan, while Linux is some truck, like this one...
Cheers, Ulli
Speed trap ahead - vehicles going too slow will be fined.
Cheers, Ulli
Check out these guys: Ultima Sports Car Ltd.
OK, it's a kit car, but I think you can talk them into assembling it for you. Including engine (in the 500hp range) you should be able to get it below $40k - but OTOH, it can beat the pants off 99.9% of all other cars... 0-60 in under 4 secs, top speed around 200 mph, cornering capabilities to make a superbike driver envious... what else did you want?
Oh, yes, and you can service it yourself. :-)
Regards, Ulli
*That* would be called Terrorism, and (IMHO) rightly so, because the worm caused a global failure of 911 service, lasting for some days. That effect alone could cause more deaths than 9/11!
Whoever wrote that worm should be put into prison for life, or possibly executed.
Regards, Ulli
As far as I've heard the main problems are:
- lack of resources: there are no people available to assess the needs
- stonewalling: IMHO some department heads see their influence waning and try to stonewall the assessment process
There are some more issues but I don't remember the details.Regards, Ulli
(Courtesy of a friend nicknamed Mash)
Disclaimer: yes, I drove a Nissan 300ZX for some time. ;-)
Cheers, Ulli
The advantage of having a PKI and a somewhat networked system is that you can replace keys. One of these new passports should only be valid for 2 years, like a credit card, but easily renewable, for example using a stored checksum at the issuing authority. The keys itself should expire within one year, which results in a maximum exposure of three years to forgery (1 year key validity, 2 years passport validity).
That way, even if a key gets leaked, the hole gets plugged after a maximum of three years - assuming the key gets leaked the day it is created and the leak is not discovered.
I don't think you can get much more secure...
Regards, Ulli
What makes you think the database will not be cracked?
What scares me is the idea of having a big central database of biometric data - *that* is a big intrusion of privacy, IMHO.
I've got no problem with biometric identification, if it's done right. A good solution (IMHO) to using biometric ID without privacy intrusion is to store all the data on the ID card (passport or whatever), cryptographically signed. The scanning device now just has obtain the public key from a central database - you could even put the database into the scanning device and update it periodically! Basically, every authority that can issue ID cards needs its private key(s), which must be signed by some central authority. Just your normal Public Key Infrastructure. That way, you could build a infrastructure that really is only good for automatically comparing people to their ID cards.
What else are customs officers doing right now? Compare people and check if they are allowed to enter - using a computer. You could speed that up quite a bit using this technique...
Regards, Ulli
Cheers, Ulli
(a) voice comm may still be useful, but why not use IM for a group of people to "chat." Is the voice feed for the media?
Because IM is even slower than voice comms. Remeber why people want headsets to communicate during multiplayer egoshooters?
(b) why not "follow the procedure" with some online, multi-user app that checks off the steps done on some browser sort of app? The engineering specs have to be changing up to the last minute; why commit to paper something that becomes obsolete once you press Print?
Because nothing changes at the last minute. Also, paper is more failproof than a computer app.
I have to admit, this approach does actually have some merit, but not because of the reasons you mentioned here, but rather because it cuts down on the voice communication needs.
BTW - pagination doesn't necessarily imply printed docs, they might be using an app that doesn't use scrolling. Not scrolling might be actually a good thing, because all you need at this moment is there, easily visible, without having to navigate - cuts down on possible error sources...
Cheers, Ulli
Beagle 2 was just a (relatively) cheap addon to Mars Express. I don't remember the exact value, but I ssem to recall that the cost of beagle was less than 10% of the overall cost of the mission - the main goal was the cartography mission.
Cheers, Ulli
Cheers, Ulli
I think that statistic is crap. There are people out there that don't have a suitable fingerprint (a company I used to work for had an employee who couldn't unlock her PC on the fingerprint mouse), but she wasn't even close to being asian... just old, cracked skin etc...
I just don't think you can fix it to a certain ethnicity - age group, perhaps, but not where they are from...
Regards, Ulli