considering a router somewhere in the midwest going down this morning prevented my office from seeing vast chunks of the internet (including, apparently, our default nameservers.. thankfully i could still get to/.) and thus we were *completely* unable to work for a few hours (a major hardship, not to get email all morning. it took me five minutes to determine it wasn't a local problem. the rest of the time, i read Wired.), a real attack, taking down important sites would make my life.. er.
actually...
a lot easier. damn. no nagging email from clients, no more spam for a few hours...
hell, i should just take the mail server offline and disconnect the phone (people that can't get their email remember my phone number real quick), tell everybody it's the chinese and that the phones got hacked, catch up on my reading or go home for a nap. that should work a a couple times, at least.
"sorry guys. nothing i can do from here. just gotta wait til things can get routed around the problem..."
ah! now i know why Office puts all that crap faux html into its "html" documents:
In an echo of previous trials, where old emails were found which directly contradicted Microsoft employees' testimony, antitrust expert Steve Kuney introduced an internal memo.
In it, Mr Gates told employees to stop working on ways of making sure that documents from the Office suite - Microsoft's "killer app" - were compatible with rival web browsers.
"Allowing Office to be rendered very well by other people's browers is one of the most destructive things we can do to the company," he wrote.
i'm sure somebody out there is thinking about it. i found a couple threads like this one that basically say the same thing:
not bloody likely.
for one, the OS is in ROM, so you'd have to bypass it and put linux into RAM, which, even on the highest-end newton 2100 is still only 4 megs. the newton OS normally takes up about 3.5 of this, leaving the rest for user stuff. a very very tight linux implementation might work, but there are a lot of issues to deal with - namely, where to put your OS? in flash? a custom ROM?
i dig the quotes, and the fact that about.005% of mac users will know what the hell/dev/null is (and i'll bet no small number will try to find out by sending stuff there. fun!)
what makes me smirk, though, is the screenshot on the powerbook. for one, the dock is full of MS Office icons - whoa, lots of unix there. the ever disappointing terminal is open (i replaced Terminal.app on my ibook with one that isn't dog slow, GLterm) and showing the "top" command.
let's see what's in there.. yep, as usual, top is taking top spot.
and what else is on the screen, showing the power of UNIX in a candy-coated Mac shell? iTunes! and lookee here, PowerPoint! i know those are both UNIX apps. i run them on my Solaris box all the time...
top is showing apache in there (on a powerbook? why is that enabled?), and netscape 6 (tho, why not mozilla?) and the X icon is in the dock, but there's no windows to be seen. There's one terminal open, yet i see 2 tcsh processes.. maybe X is using one?
i'm all about Apple advertising their UNIX underpinnings, but i have to think they could have done a better job showing it off. like in the old days when my favorite way of showing somebody the powerPC (smokin' at 100 MHz!) in my new 8100 was so dang fast - the graphing calculator. oh yeah. rotating trig functions in 3D with the apple logo mapped onto the surface.
it sounds to me like this was almost the perfect end for a satellite with this name. a high energy burnout then impact, ending its transient experiments with orbital flight.
sounds as addictive and fun as xpilot used to be when i was in school. i wonder if there's still a big community at the Uni playing xp these days or if they've all moved up to quake and it's brethren. i haven't played any really good networked games since xp (and that includes all the hours of q3 arena, etc i've put in in the last year or so)
xp was introduced to me as "asteroids, but you get to kill other people" and i thought "now that sounds fun"
and addictive. dang. i spent more nights staring at little blips on the computer lab screens than i care to count. as i got more into it, i even started designing my own ship outlines - and even started to see other people copying them.
I was Delta Clipper (after the NASA project) and occasionally Happy Fun Ball (tm) due to my tendency to bounce around the screen, rather than actually try to navigate...
no flags, but there were little powerups (i forget the term we used for them) that would bestow invisibilty, speed, bouncing or multiple shots, mines, guided missiles, and loads of other stuff i never really learned how to control - the game used just about every key on a Sun keyboard, plus meta+key combos.
the place where i colo is just now doing this after tracing the bulk of the spam coming into their own network from chinese ISPs and most especially china.com
rather than refusing email from the offending ISPs, they are going to the rather extreme measure of refusing connections entirely (at the router, i guess, though i'm not certain how the network is set up...) from the entire IP ranges of a number of the offenders.
so, now all my domains (and all those colo'd at my ISP) will basically be inaccessible to anyone in china. big deal. all the traffic i get from china is either spam or nimda requests. woo friggin hoo.
it has yet to go into effect, but i expect it will make a big difference in my monthly bills, as i pay for bandwidth, even if it's spam sent to people on my mail server.
as some folks are bound to say, it's more than a bit presumptuous to basically say "play by my rules or get off the field" where "my rules" are typically those of the mostly american, english speaking internet population, but in this case it's more a case of "play nice or go home"
and the resulting page(s) would hilight all the misspelled or questionable words on the page.
ideally, it could also do this as it spidered a site, and, if the robots.txt or some other means of subscribing were in place, could email the webmaster that X words on page Y are misspelled, and here is the list, with suggested spellings. click here (link to aforementioned query string) to see the misspelled words highlighted.
i actually bugged the google guys a while ago about adding a spellchecking function to google. throw a URL or a set of pages at it, and it spits out a list of misspelled or questionable words - highlighted in the way they already do search terms in the cache...
anyway, someone there emailed me back basically saying it was an interesting idea, but not something on their agenda.
maybe someone out there can work up a scalable google spellchecker that i can run my big-ass database-driven website through (which is a major pain to spellcheck, considering the client simply refuses to do when they provide the content)
actually, i was a neilsen family once. it was a very strange experience. me and my brother, one in college, one just out of school, both single, living in an apartment and keeping odd hours, both with very odd viewing habits.
i'll bet i am personally responsible for "hogan's heroes" and "MASH" staying on in syndication - they were on after i got in from school really late but didn't want to go to bed yet. and then there was the 4 hours of PBS we both got absorbed in one weekend when they were showing a series about spot welding and arc welding techniques. funny shit.
anyhoo, the thing i really want to see this kind of data used for is sending me targeted advertising.
the tivo people and the cable company know i'm a single guy living alone. that i'm of a particular age, i own or rent, i have a car or not, that i have pets, etc. they can send me ads for beer and hamburgers, and stop showing me commercials about diapers for old people, viagra, feminine hygiene products and the VIEW!
you reminded me of a great paradox i pondered once.
consider catholics. a good catholic uses no contraception, has more kids. bad catholics don't have big families, because they find it necessary to have sex and not have kids. good catholics have lots of kids. the best catholics, however, have no kids, because they're priests and nuns.
following this, we're evolving towards more and better catholics (and mormons, for that matter, but they screw up the equations), since they tend to outproduce protestants. eventually, though, all reproduction will stop, because a whole generation will become monks, priests and nuns.
all that might be true if everyone that was having kids was doing so because they were smart enough to see they could afford to and managed their time and work properly. but then, what do you say about all the people who rely on welfare and handouts, and continue to reproduce in inverse proportion to their capacity to support offspring.
and then there are those whose religion, and not their careers, guide their contraceptive and reproductive decisions. there's a reason there will always be mormons and catholics...
that's right. in mesopotamia or sumeria. the first guy who took a couple of sticks and bound them together in such a way that he was able to plow his field and his neighbors' fields all in one day - his was the last generation (at least, of sumerians) to be influenced exclusively by natural selection.
ever since, evolution has been tempered by scientific advancement.
why? food surplus. when you have a better way to plow your fields, you can take some extra time to work out how to store food, to build better houses against the elements, lord your power over your neighbors, build better weapons, and find all kinds of new ways to kill your starving enemies.
our species is certainly still evolving, which is to say changing genetically, but not by natural selection alone. natural selection would tend towards people who are better at surviving famines and the elements, resistant to diseases and all the other natural forces that tend to kill people before they can reproduce.
there's no direction to our evolution now, as there was when our species was young, and intelligence was the most important - but not the only - selective factor. then, it was important to be able to recognize danger, potential food, potential shelter, etc. those people got to reproduce, because they survived long enough to and could supply their offspring with food.
today, everyone gets to reproduce, even the people i would argue shouldn't be allowed to - because they can't provide for their own children to the age where they can reproduce. these are people who give up their children to adoption, have them taken away by social services for just that reason, or rely exclusively upon handouts from others to get by. the intelligence test for survival these days is in finding the generous people (or filling out the government forms) to hit up for money.
in fact, our most intelligent and genetically viable people are the same ones who tend not to have children, or who have only the one or two they know they can sustain. careers and full-time obligations make it possible to provide for more children, but also make it very difficult to actually raise them. such in the irony of modern evolutionary forces.
and then there are those people who nature and selection have denied children. infertile couples, sterile men and women who have children despite nature and the lot they were given at birth, because they can afford to pay a doctor to pump them full of drugs and inject their artificially fertilized eggs. natural selection denies them a chance to reproduce, but technology smacks nature in the face with a petri dish full of zygotes.
so, it's not toward a more intelligent species that we're still evolving, but toward a more technologically dependent, more socially dependent species. it may be, eventually, that here in the "west" we can't reproduce without technology's assistance. it's getting to that point - partly because people see it as their right and privelege to reproduce if they can afford to (which it is, to some extent) - mostly because of the modern technology we already rely on, which is the very thing making them infertile or allowing them to survive longer than nature would have, but with the inability to reproduce.
i wonder how much longer it will be that we in the west, dependent as we are on technology even to get erections (yes, viagra, too, is to blame) won't be able to reproduce with the indigenous peoples, like those in australia, africa and south america, who have had no contact with the technodependent west. we are on our way to becoming a new human species, if that is the eventual outcome. don't tell me evolution is finished, just say nature's done with us what she will, and we are guiding our own evolution - for good or for ill.
quite a ramble, but it's how i feel, and have felt for a long time. we stopped really evolving as soon as we could feed those of us that would otherwise have starved.
Principles Regarding Processes and Criteria for Selection, Assignment, Training and Certification of ISS (Expedition and Visiting) Crewmembers
Multilateral Crew Operations Panel
November 2001
Revision A
Rev. A
11/28/01
Principles Regarding Processes and Criteria for Selection, Assignment, Training and Certification of ISS (Expedition and Visiting) Crewmembers
This document was prepared by the ISS Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP).
Any questions concerning the contents of this document should be directed to CA/Kathleen Abotteen, Executive Secretary.
I. Introduction
The Space Station Memoranda of Understanding, and the Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB), have charged the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP) with defining the processes, standards and criteria for selection, assignment, training, and certification of Space Station crew for flight.
These principles shall be used by all ISS partners when assigning their professional astronauts/cosmonauts or spaceflight participants as ISS (Expedition and Visiting) crewmembers. Each partner that is proposing a crewmember for assignment to a crew shall be responsible for meeting the following process and the requirements listed below regarding flight assignments.
This document, hereinafter referred to as the "ISS Crew Criteria Document," will be updated as required based on operational experience.
II. Scope
This document is limited to defining the processes and criteria for selection, assignment, training, and certification of ISS (Expedition and Visiting) crewmembers. The selection criteria and processes in this document apply to all crewmembers and are used by all ISS partners/sponsoring agencies prior to nominating their candidates. The MCOP will implement the provisions of this document per the applicable ISS MOUs and the MCOP Charter.
III. Definitions
There are two types of crewmembers, professional astronauts/cosmonauts and spaceflight participants. These crewmembers can be designated as expedition or visiting crewmembers.
Professional Astronaut/Cosmonaut
A professional astronaut/cosmonaut is an individual who has completed the official selection and has been qualified as such at the space agency of one of the ISS partners and is employed on the staff of the crew office of that agency.
Spaceflight Participant
Spaceflight participants are individuals (e.g. commercial, scientific and other programs; crewmembers of non-partner space agencies, engineers, scientists, teachers, journalists, filmmakers or tourists) sponsored by one or more partner(s). Normally, this is a temporary assignment that is covered under a short-term contract.
Expedition (Increment) Crewmembers
Expedition crewmembers are the main crew of the ISS and are responsible for implementing the planned activities for an increment. The right of a partner to have its candidates serve as expedition crewmembers is allocated in accordance with Article 11.1 of the MOUs. As part of this allocation, it may be possible to have spaceflight participants as part of an expedition once the ISS has a crew complement of more than 3 persons.
Visiting Crewmembers
Based on experience to date with visiting vehicles to the ISS, visiting crewmembers travel to and from the ISS, but are not expedition crewmembers. Consequently, the visiting crewmembers do not count as a use of a sponsoring agency's allocation of flight opportunities or crew time on-orbit rights as defined in Article 11.1 and Article 8.3.c of the MOUs. They may be either professional astronauts/cosmonauts or spaceflight participants.
Sponsoring Agency
A sponsoring agency is one of the five ISS partners (CSA, ESA, NASA, GOJ, and Rosaviakosmos) that provide the crew flight opportunities.
IV. Selection
In general, each partner selects candidates for its own astronaut/cosmonaut corps based on its own criteria and procedures. However, for nomination of candidates to ISS crews, the partner must certify to the MCOP that the individual meets the criteria below. All criteria apply to all crewmembers except where otherwise noted in this section.
A. General Suitability
For spaceflight participants to be assigned to an expedition crew or visiting crew, a background review must be done by the sponsoring agency in accordance with its internal procedures. Partners will cooperate with the sponsoring agency, as appropriate, to provide access to information about a candidate for purposes of this background review. The general suitability decision process for spaceflight participants involves an assessment of the candidate's past and present conduct in order to predict probable future actions that may adversely impact the ISS program. The following list defines some of the factors that would be considered as a basis for disqualification: (a) delinquency or misconduct in prior employment/military service; (b) criminal, dishonest, infamous, or notoriously disgraceful conduct; (c) intentional false statement or fraud in examination or appointment; (d) habitual use of intoxicating beverages to excess; (e) abuse of narcotics, drugs, or other controlled substances;
(f) membership or sponsorship in organizations which adversely affect the confidence of the public in the integrity of, or reflecting unfavorably in a public forum on, any ISS Partner, Partner State or Cooperating Agency. Consideration may also be given to the following factors prior to disqualification: (a) critical/sensitive nature of the ISS crewmember position; (b) nature and seriousness of any misconduct; (c) circumstances surrounding such misconduct; (d) recency of the misconduct; (e) age of person at time of the misconduct; (f) contributing social or environmental conditions; (g) any reoccurrence of the same misconduct and/or occurrence of similar misconduct; and (h) absence of rehabilitation.
For professional crewmembers, general suitability is determined prior to employment so another background review is not required at this stage of selection.
B. Medical
The candidate must meet the agreed-upon medical criteria as established by the ISS multilateral medical operations boards and panels for long-term or short-term spaceflight. This includes the medical aspects of behavioral assessments.
C. Behavioral Suitability
The sponsoring agency, in accordance with its internal procedures, will determine if its candidate has the interpersonal and communication skills necessary to function as a successful member of a space flight team in a multicultural environment and has the ability to demonstrate situational awareness to conduct himself or herself effectively in the space environment. In addition to the other criteria in this section the sponsoring agency will consider the following attributes in their behavioral suitability assessments of their candidates: (a) relevant operational experience; (b) demonstrated performance under stress; (c) ability to function as a team member; (d) high moral integrity; (e) adaptability/flexibility; and (f) motivation consistent with the program mission.
D. Linguistic Ability
Oral and reading fluency in the English language is a requirement for all ISS candidates. In addition, the ability to communicate effectively in other languages may be required. Candidates must possess both the capacity and the interest to learn a foreign language.
E. Adherence to the ISS Crew Code of Conduct (CCOC)
The candidate must show an understanding of the provisions of the CCOC and commit to adhere to its provisions. Each partner, in exercising its right to provide crew, shall ensure that its crewmembers observe the Code of Conduct.
V. Assignment
A. General
Implementation of the crew assignment process is outlined in Appendix A - MCOP Crew Assignment Work Instruction.
Only professional astronauts/cosmonauts will be eligible to be assigned as crew commanders, pilots, flight engineers, station scientists or mission specialists in either expedition or visiting crews. Space flight participants will be eligible to be assigned as visiting scientists, commercial users, or tourists. Task assignments for spaceflight participants will not include ISS assembly, operations and maintenance activities.
ISS crewmembers should be capable of achieving a suitable level of language capability to correspond with his or her functional duties and type of transport vehicle. As a goal, and due regard being given to the requirement that the working language for all activities under the MOUs is the English language and on the Soyuz is Russian, the ISS Commanders, Pilots, and Flight Engineers should be capable of achieving a minimum level of 1+ in both Russian and English prior to flight.1 Visiting crew should achieve a minimum level of 1-, in Russian or English (as appropriate to the transport vehicle) prior to flight or they should fly with crewmembers that can provide interpretation support.
B. Assignment and Composition of Expedition Crews
Any expedition crew complement must have one commander and at least two flight engineers. Spaceflight participants will not be assigned to an expedition until such time as the ISS has a crew complement of more than 3 persons. Flight opportunities are allocated in accordance with Article 11.1 of the ISS MOUs. The MCOP coordinates and determines the scheduling of specific increments for ISS partners' flight opportunities based on major planned activities, expected durations of expeditions, and crew rotation plans. Each MCOP member recommends crewmembers for its flight opportunities and options are discussed. The final assignment takes into account the composition of the full crew from the viewpoints of performance, language abilities and safety. This will be based on individual experience and skill required for the increment, and includes major task assignments (Commander, Pilot, Flight Engineer, Extravehicular Activity, and Robotics) for the ISS and the rescue vehicle. 1 1+ is an Intermediate High level of proficiency on the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language) scale. 1- is an Intermediate Low level of proficiency. This scale has been accepted for use by all the ISS partners.
As a rule, back-up expedition crew assignments are made at the same time as the prime assignment and mirror the sponsoring agency and task assignments they are backing up.
C. Assignment and Composition of Visiting Crews
The sponsoring agency that provides the transport vehicle determines the manifest and crew size/composition of its missions, coordinated through the standard ISS operations planning processes. The sponsoring agency nominates which crewmembers will fly, assigns major roles and responsibilities for its crewmembers, and submits this information to the MCOP. If spaceflight participants are being considered, the sponsoring agency will provide the MCOP with necessary information to demonstrate the candidate has met the selection criteria defined in Section IV.
As a rule, back-up visiting crew assignments are made by the sponsoring agency, consistent with the process for assignment of visiting crew described in this document.
VI. Training
Station Program Implementation Plan (SPIP) Volume 7 defines the ISS Program's training concepts for professional expedition crewmembers. As a rule, recommended professional expedition crewmembers should begin advanced training approximately 12 months before the start of increment-specific training.
In the case of visiting crew and spaceflight participants, a minimum ISS training program will be defined by the International Training Control Board (ITCB). Advanced and increment-specific/ mission-specific training will be customized by the sponsoring agency and coordinated through the MCOP with the other partners for segment and special equipment training. As a rule, the visiting crew should train with the increment crew that will be on orbit during their visit.
VII. Certification of Crew Flight Readiness
The MCOP will determine the readiness of the crew for flight based on the results of a review
of the crew's medical condition, the crew's performance during training, and the CDR's
evaluation of the crew's readiness. If the MCOP members concur that the crew is ready for its
mission, each member will submit a recommendation to its respective agency to sign the ISS
Certificate of Flight Readiness (CoFR) according to internal agency procedures.
APPENDIX A
MCOP Crew Assignment Work Instruction
The following process is used by the MCOP in the assignment of flight crews to the ISS. For expedition crews, the crew assignment process is initiated after the MCOP has scheduled the flight opportunities in accordance with the allocations in Article 11.1 of the ISS MOUs. For visiting crews, the sponsoring agency that provides the transport vehicle determines the manifest and crew size/composition of its missions, coordinated through the standard ISS operations planning processes.
The four steps in the coordination cycle are as follows. Step 1 should occur 22 months prior to launch for expedition crews, and no later than 6 months prior to launch for visiting crews. Step 4 should be completed no later than 20 months prior to launch for expedition crews and no later than 4 months prior to launch for visiting crews. As a rule, the entire process should be completed prior to the start of mission specific training.
1. For expedition crews, the sponsoring agencies that have been scheduled flight opportunities present their candidate(s) in a jointly signed recommendation to nominate a particular crew. In the case of visiting crews, the agency that provides the transport vehicle is responsible for signing the recommendation. The recommendation includes brief background information about the candidates, high-level crew roles, and an overview of the mission. This recommendation is then forwarded by the MCOP Executive Secretary to the other MCOP members for review. All internal reviews are conducted in parallel.
2. Upon receipt of the recommendation, the MCOP members have an opportunity to ask questions about the recommended crew nominations. Questions are limited to the scope of the MCOP's ISS Crew Criteria Document. These questions are forwarded, in writing, within two weeks of receipt of the recommendation to the MCOP Executive Secretary for distribution to all MCOP members. Absence of questions indicates consensus with the recommendation.
3. Upon receipt of these questions, the MCOP partner(s) who initiated the recommendation will provide answers through the MCOP Executive Secretary to all MCOP members. These answers will provide a best effort on the part of the sponsoring agencies to establish necessary conditions that mitigate any concerns of the other partners associated with the flight of any particular candidate. If any partner is not satisfied with the response to a question, they must submit a written statement of their disagreement to the MCOP Executive Secretary within 3 working days. Absence of this written disagreement indicates consensus. Pending resolution of the issues through meetings/telecons scheduled by the MCOP Executive Secretary, the sponsoring agency may start crew training. The MCOP Executive Secretary will issue a formal statement of MCOP consensus on the nomination of the particular crew as recommended by the sponsoring agencies. This step should be completed in approximately 2 weeks.
4. After receiving MCOP consensus, and after receiving authority to proceed from their internal agencies' management, the sponsoring agencies for the flight assignment will sign a resolution making the assignment official. The resolution includes a list of the crewmembers assigned to the mission with their major responsibilities and mission tasks, a brief mission description, and a statement that the sponsoring agencies for the mission certify that the crewmembers meet MCOP established selection criteria with reference to the MCOP consensus.
yeesh. you people obviosly fail to see my poor attempt at humor here.
the implication, obviously, is that the slashdot light mode should have a bgcolor of white set, so its graphics don't all have white halos, and that since it looks rather unprofessional, that the information i find on the site is therefore unreliable.
sure, it's not obvious humor, but wake up and smell the irony.
any site that fails to use a BGCOLOR tags in its body definition immediately comes under suspicion. i browse using netscape, and the default background color for undefined pages is "Netscape Grey" and not white, as it is under explorer.
as soon as i see graphics with white halos hovering on a grey background, i know the site is run by an inexperienced webmaster, and any information on the site is likely fraudulent.
am i the only one that purchased the series on VHS because of the content and not the production quality?
seriously, it's bad. laughable. almost as if it was done intentionally to make the humo(u)r have to carry the series, which it did. admirably.
anyhow, don't make a big fuss about how awful the directing or photography was. if you were a fan of Dr. Who, you'd think HHGttG was a Bergman film by comparison...
this sounds like a really good hack, by my own definition of Good Hack, which is "do something nobody else has done yet, that's really hard and at the same time, almost completely useless to most people"
up there in my book would have to be the MP3 player for Newton MessagePads (which i installed, and it works really well. streaming MP3 on a newton? oh yeah...)
though, along with the ATA flash card driver for Newtons, it almost turns my MessagePad 2100 into my portable MP3 player. saves me $400 for an iPod (though i'm lacking about 4.9G of the storage...)
kudos to the hack, and massive props to apple][ users still out there who can take advantage of this and all the cheap storage of the new CF cards.
Slashdot Mirror
it was all the way at the end, but they did it. they put in a scary "brave new world" reference. ooh.
like we're scared of "brave new world" any more... yeesh
sounds like an excellent idea to me. add to this a cable/DSL modem, all in one card.
maybe the next thing we see will be a little UPS-in-a-power-supply combo thingy.
that would cut down on a lot of clutter for me, lose a couple more boxes under the desk, and three or four cables.
considering a router somewhere in the midwest going down this morning prevented my office from seeing vast chunks of the internet (including, apparently, our default nameservers.. thankfully i could still get to /.) and thus we were *completely* unable to work for a few hours (a major hardship, not to get email all morning. it took me five minutes to determine it wasn't a local problem. the rest of the time, i read Wired.), a real attack, taking down important sites would make my life.. er.
actually...
a lot easier. damn. no nagging email from clients, no more spam for a few hours...
hell, i should just take the mail server offline and disconnect the phone (people that can't get their email remember my phone number real quick), tell everybody it's the chinese and that the phones got hacked, catch up on my reading or go home for a nap. that should work a a couple times, at least.
"sorry guys. nothing i can do from here. just gotta wait til things can get routed around the problem..."
ah! now i know why Office puts all that crap faux html into its "html" documents:
In an echo of previous trials, where old emails were found which directly contradicted Microsoft employees' testimony, antitrust expert Steve Kuney introduced an internal memo.
In it, Mr Gates told employees to stop working on ways of making sure that documents from the Office suite - Microsoft's "killer app" - were compatible with rival web browsers.
"Allowing Office to be rendered very well by other people's browers is one of the most destructive things we can do to the company," he wrote.
i'm sure somebody out there is thinking about it. i found a couple threads like this one that basically say the same thing:
not bloody likely.
for one, the OS is in ROM, so you'd have to bypass it and put linux into RAM, which, even on the highest-end newton 2100 is still only 4 megs. the newton OS normally takes up about 3.5 of this, leaving the rest for user stuff. a very very tight linux implementation might work, but there are a lot of issues to deal with - namely, where to put your OS? in flash? a custom ROM?
i dig the quotes, and the fact that about .005% of mac users will know what the hell /dev/null is (and i'll bet no small number will try to find out by sending stuff there. fun!)
what makes me smirk, though, is the screenshot on the powerbook. for one, the dock is full of MS Office icons - whoa, lots of unix there. the ever disappointing terminal is open (i replaced Terminal.app on my ibook with one that isn't dog slow, GLterm) and showing the "top" command.
let's see what's in there.. yep, as usual, top is taking top spot.
and what else is on the screen, showing the power of UNIX in a candy-coated Mac shell? iTunes! and lookee here, PowerPoint! i know those are both UNIX apps. i run them on my Solaris box all the time...
top is showing apache in there (on a powerbook? why is that enabled?), and netscape 6 (tho, why not mozilla?) and the X icon is in the dock, but there's no windows to be seen. There's one terminal open, yet i see 2 tcsh processes.. maybe X is using one?
i'm all about Apple advertising their UNIX underpinnings, but i have to think they could have done a better job showing it off. like in the old days when my favorite way of showing somebody the powerPC (smokin' at 100 MHz!) in my new 8100 was so dang fast - the graphing calculator. oh yeah. rotating trig functions in 3D with the apple logo mapped onto the surface.
okay, i'm rambling now.
HETE: High Energy Transient Experiment.
it sounds to me like this was almost the perfect end for a satellite with this name. a high energy burnout then impact, ending its transient experiments with orbital flight.
almost like... they planned it this way.
sounds as addictive and fun as xpilot used to be when i was in school. i wonder if there's still a big community at the Uni playing xp these days or if they've all moved up to quake and it's brethren. i haven't played any really good networked games since xp (and that includes all the hours of q3 arena, etc i've put in in the last year or so)
xp was introduced to me as "asteroids, but you get to kill other people" and i thought "now that sounds fun"
and addictive. dang. i spent more nights staring at little blips on the computer lab screens than i care to count. as i got more into it, i even started designing my own ship outlines - and even started to see other people copying them.
I was Delta Clipper (after the NASA project) and occasionally Happy Fun Ball (tm) due to my tendency to bounce around the screen, rather than actually try to navigate...
no flags, but there were little powerups (i forget the term we used for them) that would bestow invisibilty, speed, bouncing or multiple shots, mines, guided missiles, and loads of other stuff i never really learned how to control - the game used just about every key on a Sun keyboard, plus meta+key combos.
man, what a fun game. (http://www.xpilot.org/)
so, what's this about tanks? is there a Darwin/OS X port? can i play on my ibook? i'm about ready for a new addiction...
There's an organizer app that runs on the Apple MP3 player?
cool. now all we need is an MP3 player that runs on Apple's last organizer (and one that's GPL, to boot).
oh wow. now how about a new Apple PDA?
"Mac Oh Ess TEN"
Ten Ten Ten
"Ecks" is reserved for X (as in X11)
thank you.
61.128.0.0 - 61.191.255.255
63.0.0.0 - 63.63.255.255
65.128.0.0 - 65.158.159.255
66.24.0.0 - 66.27.255.255
66.81.0.0 - 66.81.127.255
128.121.122.33 - 128.121.122.43
161.207.0.0 - 161.207.255.255
167.107.0.0 - 167.107.255.255
193.227.32.0 - 193.227.63.255
200.13.160.0 - 200.13.175.255
200.28.0.0 - 200.28.255.255
200.63.0.0 - 200.63.31.255
202.90.0.0 - 202.207.255.255
208.253.172.0 - 208.253.175.255
209.196.2.0 - 209.196.43.255
209.235.3.0 - 209.235.47.255
210.25.0.0 - 210.47.255.255
210.90.0.0 - 210.127.255.255
211.32.0.0 - 211.71.255.255
211.80.0.0 - 211.119.255.255
211.152.0.0 - 211.255.255.255
216.64.152.0 - 216.64.255.255
216.143.68.0 - 216.143.76.255
216.205.5.0 - 216.205.191.255
217.8.160.0 - 217.8.191.255
oh yeah, and china.com
the place where i colo is just now doing this after tracing the bulk of the spam coming into their own network from chinese ISPs and most especially china.com
rather than refusing email from the offending ISPs, they are going to the rather extreme measure of refusing connections entirely (at the router, i guess, though i'm not certain how the network is set up...) from the entire IP ranges of a number of the offenders.
so, now all my domains (and all those colo'd at my ISP) will basically be inaccessible to anyone in china. big deal. all the traffic i get from china is either spam or nimda requests. woo friggin hoo.
it has yet to go into effect, but i expect it will make a big difference in my monthly bills, as i pay for bandwidth, even if it's spam sent to people on my mail server.
as some folks are bound to say, it's more than a bit presumptuous to basically say "play by my rules or get off the field" where "my rules" are typically those of the mostly american, english speaking internet population, but in this case it's more a case of "play nice or go home"
no. something like a query string like so:
spellcheck:http://slashdot.org
and the resulting page(s) would hilight all the misspelled or questionable words on the page.
ideally, it could also do this as it spidered a site, and, if the robots.txt or some other means of subscribing were in place, could email the webmaster that X words on page Y are misspelled, and here is the list, with suggested spellings. click here (link to aforementioned query string) to see the misspelled words highlighted.
that is what i mean.
i actually bugged the google guys a while ago about adding a spellchecking function to google. throw a URL or a set of pages at it, and it spits out a list of misspelled or questionable words - highlighted in the way they already do search terms in the cache...
anyway, someone there emailed me back basically saying it was an interesting idea, but not something on their agenda.
maybe someone out there can work up a scalable google spellchecker that i can run my big-ass database-driven website through (which is a major pain to spellcheck, considering the client simply refuses to do when they provide the content)
Try here
it's a java VM that runs on palm OS. it even, gasp! has been ported to Newton, and even TI Calculators.
ditto and double ditto.
actually, i was a neilsen family once. it was a very strange experience. me and my brother, one in college, one just out of school, both single, living in an apartment and keeping odd hours, both with very odd viewing habits.
i'll bet i am personally responsible for "hogan's heroes" and "MASH" staying on in syndication - they were on after i got in from school really late but didn't want to go to bed yet. and then there was the 4 hours of PBS we both got absorbed in one weekend when they were showing a series about spot welding and arc welding techniques. funny shit.
anyhoo, the thing i really want to see this kind of data used for is sending me targeted advertising.
the tivo people and the cable company know i'm a single guy living alone. that i'm of a particular age, i own or rent, i have a car or not, that i have pets, etc. they can send me ads for beer and hamburgers, and stop showing me commercials about diapers for old people, viagra, feminine hygiene products and the VIEW!
erm.. sorry.
you reminded me of a great paradox i pondered once.
consider catholics. a good catholic uses no contraception, has more kids. bad catholics don't have big families, because they find it necessary to have sex and not have kids. good catholics have lots of kids. the best catholics, however, have no kids, because they're priests and nuns.
following this, we're evolving towards more and better catholics (and mormons, for that matter, but they screw up the equations), since they tend to outproduce protestants. eventually, though, all reproduction will stop, because a whole generation will become monks, priests and nuns.
then, as a species, we're screwed.
better drivers, yes. and more of us are having their kids before they have drivers' licenses.
all that might be true if everyone that was having kids was doing so because they were smart enough to see they could afford to and managed their time and work properly. but then, what do you say about all the people who rely on welfare and handouts, and continue to reproduce in inverse proportion to their capacity to support offspring.
and then there are those whose religion, and not their careers, guide their contraceptive and reproductive decisions. there's a reason there will always be mormons and catholics...
that's right. in mesopotamia or sumeria. the first guy who took a couple of sticks and bound them together in such a way that he was able to plow his field and his neighbors' fields all in one day - his was the last generation (at least, of sumerians) to be influenced exclusively by natural selection.
ever since, evolution has been tempered by scientific advancement.
why? food surplus. when you have a better way to plow your fields, you can take some extra time to work out how to store food, to build better houses against the elements, lord your power over your neighbors, build better weapons, and find all kinds of new ways to kill your starving enemies.
our species is certainly still evolving, which is to say changing genetically, but not by natural selection alone. natural selection would tend towards people who are better at surviving famines and the elements, resistant to diseases and all the other natural forces that tend to kill people before they can reproduce.
there's no direction to our evolution now, as there was when our species was young, and intelligence was the most important - but not the only - selective factor. then, it was important to be able to recognize danger, potential food, potential shelter, etc. those people got to reproduce, because they survived long enough to and could supply their offspring with food.
today, everyone gets to reproduce, even the people i would argue shouldn't be allowed to - because they can't provide for their own children to the age where they can reproduce. these are people who give up their children to adoption, have them taken away by social services for just that reason, or rely exclusively upon handouts from others to get by. the intelligence test for survival these days is in finding the generous people (or filling out the government forms) to hit up for money.
in fact, our most intelligent and genetically viable people are the same ones who tend not to have children, or who have only the one or two they know they can sustain. careers and full-time obligations make it possible to provide for more children, but also make it very difficult to actually raise them. such in the irony of modern evolutionary forces.
and then there are those people who nature and selection have denied children. infertile couples, sterile men and women who have children despite nature and the lot they were given at birth, because they can afford to pay a doctor to pump them full of drugs and inject their artificially fertilized eggs. natural selection denies them a chance to reproduce, but technology smacks nature in the face with a petri dish full of zygotes.
so, it's not toward a more intelligent species that we're still evolving, but toward a more technologically dependent, more socially dependent species. it may be, eventually, that here in the "west" we can't reproduce without technology's assistance. it's getting to that point - partly because people see it as their right and privelege to reproduce if they can afford to (which it is, to some extent) - mostly because of the modern technology we already rely on, which is the very thing making them infertile or allowing them to survive longer than nature would have, but with the inability to reproduce.
i wonder how much longer it will be that we in the west, dependent as we are on technology even to get erections (yes, viagra, too, is to blame) won't be able to reproduce with the indigenous peoples, like those in australia, africa and south america, who have had no contact with the technodependent west. we are on our way to becoming a new human species, if that is the eventual outcome. don't tell me evolution is finished, just say nature's done with us what she will, and we are guiding our own evolution - for good or for ill.
quite a ramble, but it's how i feel, and have felt for a long time. we stopped really evolving as soon as we could feed those of us that would otherwise have starved.
more on evolution (moron evolution).
if the lameness filters don't foil me again:
Principles Regarding Processes and Criteria for Selection, Assignment, Training and Certification of ISS (Expedition and Visiting) Crewmembers
Multilateral Crew Operations Panel
November 2001
Revision A
Rev. A
11/28/01
Principles Regarding Processes and Criteria for Selection, Assignment, Training and Certification of ISS (Expedition and Visiting) Crewmembers
This document was prepared by the ISS Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP).
Any questions concerning the contents of this document should be directed to CA/Kathleen Abotteen, Executive Secretary.
I. Introduction
The Space Station Memoranda of Understanding, and the Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB), have charged the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP) with defining the processes, standards and criteria for selection, assignment, training, and certification of Space Station crew for flight.
These principles shall be used by all ISS partners when assigning their professional astronauts/cosmonauts or spaceflight participants as ISS (Expedition and Visiting) crewmembers. Each partner that is proposing a crewmember for assignment to a crew shall be responsible for meeting the following process and the requirements listed below regarding flight assignments.
This document, hereinafter referred to as the "ISS Crew Criteria Document," will be updated as required based on operational experience.
II. Scope
This document is limited to defining the processes and criteria for selection, assignment, training, and certification of ISS (Expedition and Visiting) crewmembers. The selection criteria and processes in this document apply to all crewmembers and are used by all ISS partners/sponsoring agencies prior to nominating their candidates. The MCOP will implement the provisions of this document per the applicable ISS MOUs and the MCOP Charter.
III. Definitions
There are two types of crewmembers, professional astronauts/cosmonauts and spaceflight participants. These crewmembers can be designated as expedition or visiting crewmembers.
Professional Astronaut/Cosmonaut
A professional astronaut/cosmonaut is an individual who has completed the official selection and has been qualified as such at the space agency of one of the ISS partners and is employed on the staff of the crew office of that agency.
Spaceflight Participant
Spaceflight participants are individuals (e.g. commercial, scientific and other programs; crewmembers of non-partner space agencies, engineers, scientists, teachers, journalists, filmmakers or tourists) sponsored by one or more partner(s). Normally, this is a temporary assignment that is covered under a short-term contract.
Expedition (Increment) Crewmembers
Expedition crewmembers are the main crew of the ISS and are responsible for implementing the planned activities for an increment. The right of a partner to have its candidates serve as expedition crewmembers is allocated in accordance with Article 11.1 of the MOUs. As part of this allocation, it may be possible to have spaceflight participants as part of an expedition once the ISS has a crew complement of more than 3 persons.
Visiting Crewmembers
Based on experience to date with visiting vehicles to the ISS, visiting crewmembers travel to and from the ISS, but are not expedition crewmembers. Consequently, the visiting crewmembers do not count as a use of a sponsoring agency's allocation of flight opportunities or crew time on-orbit rights as defined in Article 11.1 and Article 8.3.c of the MOUs. They may be either professional astronauts/cosmonauts or spaceflight participants.
Sponsoring Agency
A sponsoring agency is one of the five ISS partners (CSA, ESA, NASA, GOJ, and Rosaviakosmos) that provide the crew flight opportunities.
IV. Selection
In general, each partner selects candidates for its own astronaut/cosmonaut corps based on its own criteria and procedures. However, for nomination of candidates to ISS crews, the partner must certify to the MCOP that the individual meets the criteria below. All criteria apply to all crewmembers except where otherwise noted in this section.
A. General Suitability
For spaceflight participants to be assigned to an expedition crew or visiting crew, a background review must be done by the sponsoring agency in accordance with its internal procedures. Partners will cooperate with the sponsoring agency, as appropriate, to provide access to information about a candidate for purposes of this background review. The general suitability decision process for spaceflight participants involves an assessment of the candidate's past and present conduct in order to predict probable future actions that may adversely impact the ISS program. The following list defines some of the factors that would be considered as a basis for disqualification: (a) delinquency or misconduct in prior employment/military service; (b) criminal, dishonest, infamous, or notoriously disgraceful conduct; (c) intentional false statement or fraud in examination or appointment; (d) habitual use of intoxicating beverages to excess; (e) abuse of narcotics, drugs, or other controlled substances;
(f) membership or sponsorship in organizations which adversely affect the confidence of the public in the integrity of, or reflecting unfavorably in a public forum on, any ISS Partner, Partner State or Cooperating Agency. Consideration may also be given to the following factors prior to disqualification: (a) critical/sensitive nature of the ISS crewmember position; (b) nature and seriousness of any misconduct; (c) circumstances surrounding such misconduct; (d) recency of the misconduct; (e) age of person at time of the misconduct; (f) contributing social or environmental conditions; (g) any reoccurrence of the same misconduct and/or occurrence of similar misconduct; and (h) absence of rehabilitation.
For professional crewmembers, general suitability is determined prior to employment so another background review is not required at this stage of selection.
B. Medical
The candidate must meet the agreed-upon medical criteria as established by the ISS multilateral medical operations boards and panels for long-term or short-term spaceflight. This includes the medical aspects of behavioral assessments.
C. Behavioral Suitability
The sponsoring agency, in accordance with its internal procedures, will determine if its candidate has the interpersonal and communication skills necessary to function as a successful member of a space flight team in a multicultural environment and has the ability to demonstrate situational awareness to conduct himself or herself effectively in the space environment. In addition to the other criteria in this section the sponsoring agency will consider the following attributes in their behavioral suitability assessments of their candidates: (a) relevant operational experience; (b) demonstrated performance under stress; (c) ability to function as a team member; (d) high moral integrity; (e) adaptability/flexibility; and (f) motivation consistent with the program mission.
D. Linguistic Ability
Oral and reading fluency in the English language is a requirement for all ISS candidates. In addition, the ability to communicate effectively in other languages may be required. Candidates must possess both the capacity and the interest to learn a foreign language.
E. Adherence to the ISS Crew Code of Conduct (CCOC)
The candidate must show an understanding of the provisions of the CCOC and commit to adhere to its provisions. Each partner, in exercising its right to provide crew, shall ensure that its crewmembers observe the Code of Conduct.
V. Assignment
A. General
Implementation of the crew assignment process is outlined in Appendix A - MCOP Crew Assignment Work Instruction.
Only professional astronauts/cosmonauts will be eligible to be assigned as crew commanders, pilots, flight engineers, station scientists or mission specialists in either expedition or visiting crews. Space flight participants will be eligible to be assigned as visiting scientists, commercial users, or tourists. Task assignments for spaceflight participants will not include ISS assembly, operations and maintenance activities.
ISS crewmembers should be capable of achieving a suitable level of language capability to correspond with his or her functional duties and type of transport vehicle. As a goal, and due regard being given to the requirement that the working language for all activities under the MOUs is the English language and on the Soyuz is Russian, the ISS Commanders, Pilots, and Flight Engineers should be capable of achieving a minimum level of 1+ in both Russian and English prior to flight.1 Visiting crew should achieve a minimum level of 1-, in Russian or English (as appropriate to the transport vehicle) prior to flight or they should fly with crewmembers that can provide interpretation support.
B. Assignment and Composition of Expedition Crews
Any expedition crew complement must have one commander and at least two flight engineers. Spaceflight participants will not be assigned to an expedition until such time as the ISS has a crew complement of more than 3 persons. Flight opportunities are allocated in accordance with Article 11.1 of the ISS MOUs. The MCOP coordinates and determines the scheduling of specific increments for ISS partners' flight opportunities based on major planned activities, expected durations of expeditions, and crew rotation plans. Each MCOP member recommends crewmembers for its flight opportunities and options are discussed. The final assignment takes into account the composition of the full crew from the viewpoints of performance, language abilities and safety. This will be based on individual experience and skill required for the increment, and includes major task assignments (Commander, Pilot, Flight Engineer, Extravehicular Activity, and Robotics) for the ISS and the rescue vehicle. 1 1+ is an Intermediate High level of proficiency on the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language) scale. 1- is an Intermediate Low level of proficiency. This scale has been accepted for use by all the ISS partners.
As a rule, back-up expedition crew assignments are made at the same time as the prime assignment and mirror the sponsoring agency and task assignments they are backing up.
C. Assignment and Composition of Visiting Crews
The sponsoring agency that provides the transport vehicle determines the manifest and crew size/composition of its missions, coordinated through the standard ISS operations planning processes. The sponsoring agency nominates which crewmembers will fly, assigns major roles and responsibilities for its crewmembers, and submits this information to the MCOP. If spaceflight participants are being considered, the sponsoring agency will provide the MCOP with necessary information to demonstrate the candidate has met the selection criteria defined in Section IV.
As a rule, back-up visiting crew assignments are made by the sponsoring agency, consistent with the process for assignment of visiting crew described in this document.
VI. Training
Station Program Implementation Plan (SPIP) Volume 7 defines the ISS Program's training concepts for professional expedition crewmembers. As a rule, recommended professional expedition crewmembers should begin advanced training approximately 12 months before the start of increment-specific training.
In the case of visiting crew and spaceflight participants, a minimum ISS training program will be defined by the International Training Control Board (ITCB). Advanced and increment-specific/ mission-specific training will be customized by the sponsoring agency and coordinated through the MCOP with the other partners for segment and special equipment training. As a rule, the visiting crew should train with the increment crew that will be on orbit during their visit.
VII. Certification of Crew Flight Readiness
The MCOP will determine the readiness of the crew for flight based on the results of a review
of the crew's medical condition, the crew's performance during training, and the CDR's
evaluation of the crew's readiness. If the MCOP members concur that the crew is ready for its
mission, each member will submit a recommendation to its respective agency to sign the ISS
Certificate of Flight Readiness (CoFR) according to internal agency procedures.
APPENDIX A
MCOP Crew Assignment Work Instruction
The following process is used by the MCOP in the assignment of flight crews to the ISS. For expedition crews, the crew assignment process is initiated after the MCOP has scheduled the flight opportunities in accordance with the allocations in Article 11.1 of the ISS MOUs. For visiting crews, the sponsoring agency that provides the transport vehicle determines the manifest and crew size/composition of its missions, coordinated through the standard ISS operations planning processes.
The four steps in the coordination cycle are as follows. Step 1 should occur 22 months prior to launch for expedition crews, and no later than 6 months prior to launch for visiting crews. Step 4 should be completed no later than 20 months prior to launch for expedition crews and no later than 4 months prior to launch for visiting crews. As a rule, the entire process should be completed prior to the start of mission specific training.
1. For expedition crews, the sponsoring agencies that have been scheduled flight opportunities present their candidate(s) in a jointly signed recommendation to nominate a particular crew. In the case of visiting crews, the agency that provides the transport vehicle is responsible for signing the recommendation. The recommendation includes brief background information about the candidates, high-level crew roles, and an overview of the mission. This recommendation is then forwarded by the MCOP Executive Secretary to the other MCOP members for review. All internal reviews are conducted in parallel.
2. Upon receipt of the recommendation, the MCOP members have an opportunity to ask questions about the recommended crew nominations. Questions are limited to the scope of the MCOP's ISS Crew Criteria Document. These questions are forwarded, in writing, within two weeks of receipt of the recommendation to the MCOP Executive Secretary for distribution to all MCOP members. Absence of questions indicates consensus with the recommendation.
3. Upon receipt of these questions, the MCOP partner(s) who initiated the recommendation will provide answers through the MCOP Executive Secretary to all MCOP members. These answers will provide a best effort on the part of the sponsoring agencies to establish necessary conditions that mitigate any concerns of the other partners associated with the flight of any particular candidate. If any partner is not satisfied with the response to a question, they must submit a written statement of their disagreement to the MCOP Executive Secretary within 3 working days. Absence of this written disagreement indicates consensus. Pending resolution of the issues through meetings/telecons scheduled by the MCOP Executive Secretary, the sponsoring agency may start crew training. The MCOP Executive Secretary will issue a formal statement of MCOP consensus on the nomination of the particular crew as recommended by the sponsoring agencies. This step should be completed in approximately 2 weeks.
4. After receiving MCOP consensus, and after receiving authority to proceed from their internal agencies' management, the sponsoring agencies for the flight assignment will sign a resolution making the assignment official. The resolution includes a list of the crewmembers assigned to the mission with their major responsibilities and mission tasks, a brief mission description, and a statement that the sponsoring agencies for the mission certify that the crewmembers meet MCOP established selection criteria with reference to the MCOP consensus.
yeesh. you people obviosly fail to see my poor attempt at humor here.
the implication, obviously, is that the slashdot light mode should have a bgcolor of white set, so its graphics don't all have white halos, and that since it looks rather unprofessional, that the information i find on the site is therefore unreliable.
sure, it's not obvious humor, but wake up and smell the irony.
any site that fails to use a BGCOLOR tags in its body definition immediately comes under suspicion. i browse using netscape, and the default background color for undefined pages is "Netscape Grey" and not white, as it is under explorer.
as soon as i see graphics with white halos hovering on a grey background, i know the site is run by an inexperienced webmaster, and any information on the site is likely fraudulent.
take, for example, Slashdot's light mode...
am i the only one that purchased the series on VHS because of the content and not the production quality?
seriously, it's bad. laughable. almost as if it was done intentionally to make the humo(u)r have to carry the series, which it did. admirably.
anyhow, don't make a big fuss about how awful the directing or photography was. if you were a fan of Dr. Who, you'd think HHGttG was a Bergman film by comparison...
this sounds like a really good hack, by my own definition of Good Hack, which is "do something nobody else has done yet, that's really hard and at the same time, almost completely useless to most people"
up there in my book would have to be the MP3 player for Newton MessagePads (which i installed, and it works really well. streaming MP3 on a newton? oh yeah...)
though, along with the ATA flash card driver for Newtons, it almost turns my MessagePad 2100 into my portable MP3 player. saves me $400 for an iPod (though i'm lacking about 4.9G of the storage...)
kudos to the hack, and massive props to apple][ users still out there who can take advantage of this and all the cheap storage of the new CF cards.