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User: LooseChanj

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Comments · 209

  1. Re:satellite imagery on Using Google Earth to Find Ancient Cities · · Score: 1

    What part of "more accessible" did you not understand?

    "Available"!="Accessible"

  2. Re:What is not a performance dud today? on Researchers Sour on Vista Service Pack 1 Performance · · Score: 1

    Arguments like this really make me wonder if anyone really remembers exactly what you could do with those screaming fast computers back in the day, compared to machines now.

  3. Re:Can't be the First Time on Gouge Found on Shuttle Endeavour's Underside · · Score: 1

    I wonder how many times this kind of thing happened in the 20-ish years before the Space Shuttle started monitoring its underside like this.

    Probably millions of times. They used to have flights come back with *hundreds* of dings just like this one, and thought nothing of it. In fact, one the flights right after Challenger had the same piece of foam that doomed Columbia fall off and scrape the bottom of the orbiter. They took what pictures they could with the arm's camera, and one of the astronauts said it looked like someone had taken a shotgun and blasted away, and said he was seriously worried about re-entry. Columbia has everyone freaked out about foam hits, and rightfully so, but the truth is those black tiles on the bottom can take a helluva pounding and still do their job. It was never a good situation, but those things turned out to be a lot more dependable than most people thought they'd be when the shuttle first flew.

  4. I wonder... on Some 7-11s Become Kwik-E-Marts · · Score: 1

    Are they giving clerks indian accent lessons?

  5. I suspect... on Think Tank Report On the State of Open Source · · Score: 1

    That "convergence" is probably in the past. Similar problems, etc.

  6. Re:Partisan politics isn't getting worse... on Resolution To Impeach VP Cheney Submitted · · Score: 1

    No one is out there for personal freedom.

    That's because our government is run in the interests of large corporations, not individuals. Well, at least not individuals who don't control those corporations.

  7. Old News? on How Ray Ozzie is Changing Microsoft · · Score: 1

    changing its ways by thinking of software as deliverable services that perhaps could be rented on a monthly subscription basis

    Haven't we been hearing this line for the past decade? It's no truer now than when MS released Office 97.

  8. New Foam? Not. on Fewer Heat Shield Dings on Shuttle Discovery · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This would seem to indicate that the new foam is working better.

    The foam itself hasn't changed at all, so that comment is misleading. What's been changed is where the foam is applied.

    Oh, and there's two types of foam btw. There's the stuff that gets sprayed on the acreage areas of the tank (which is applied by machine), and there's the foam that's hand applied to stuff that needs a bit more precision. The acreage foam is the new environmentally friendly stuff you hear blamed for the Columbia accident. Which is ironic, because it's the other foam, the hand applied variety, they've had so much trouble with. And guess what? It's the older, non "evironment friendly" type, and it's also the type that caused Columbia's disaster.

  9. Re:3 APU's yet only APU1 drives the landing gear ? on Minor Technical Issue Aboard Shuttle Discovery · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't have thought you needed an APU to drop the landing gear at all. The APU's main job is making the flaps flap, the rudder swing, etc.

  10. Re:I was there ... on Shuttle Launch Delayed · · Score: 1

    First off, screw you for the traffic. :-P I'm not even gonna try to leave the apartment today.

    Second, the launch window for ISS missions is so short they have to go through all the motions anyway. Get everything ready, on the off chance everything holds together. I'm honestly amazed the thing ever flies. And it's not just the weather here, it's the rain in spain. Seriously. I've seen launches scrubbed because the weather at various emergency landing sites around the world wasn't just 100% peachy.

  11. Re:SM4 needed on NASA Hopes Discovery's Move Is Not The Last · · Score: 1

    NASA's just manifested a placeholder for another hubble mission, which would be STS-125. It depends how tests go on this next flight, but I've heard both the astronauts and NASA administrator would really like to see it happen regardless.

  12. Oh God No on J.J. Abrams To Direct New 'Star Trek' Film · · Score: 1

    Kirk and Spock? I suppose it's possible, but it just doesn't make sense. It sounds more like let's recapture our pissed away glory by going back to our roots and making a feel good buddy picture about how Kirk and Spock met and became best friends! Nevermind "Where No Man Has Gone Before", no one actually remembers any of that shit anymore. We sure don't!

    Yeah, I suppose it's entirely plausible that Spock rose through the ranks much slower than Kirk did because of being half-vulcan (even though that sort of racism wouldn't really fit in with Roddenberry's rosie vision of the future), and that Gary Mitchell wasn't as important a friend as he appeared to be in the second pilot.

    My wet dream at this point would be an original series re-imagining a la Battlestar Galactica, but more faithful to the original. I dream about what that Enterprise would look like rendered in modern CGI. The kinds of stories that could be done without being in the middle of an era full of hippies.

    Or at least the thrilling adventures of Kelso n' Riley.

  13. Fierce Winds?!? on Pluto's 3 Moons and a Probe to Study Them · · Score: 1

    As Wilma rolled though the region on 24 October, fierce 122-kilometer-per-hour winds tore holes in the hangar's 83-meter-tall door

    Oh please, 'twas but a mere breeze. That hangar's falling apart anyway.

  14. Re:Hurricane beta on Tropical Storm Alpha Sets Naming Record · · Score: 1

    Being an act of God, I expect nothing less than perfection.

  15. Translation: on Red Hat Co-Founder Bob Young Resigns · · Score: 1

    I could give two squats what happens, as long as my shares don't tank.

  16. Hmm on New Batch of XP SP2 Holes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How exactly is this one problem a "batch"?

  17. Re:each flight costs $500 million! on Space Shuttles almost Ready to Re-Launch · · Score: 1

    No, that was ummm, STS-51F in July of 1985.

  18. Re:Definition of a non-story: on Space Shuttles almost Ready to Re-Launch · · Score: 5, Informative

    Issues related to. The bipod foam, which caused the Columbia accident, has been eliminated. You're never going to be able to eliminate all tank debris. The OBSS is a done deal, but I think they're having some problems with work stabilization, that is, having an astronaut actually work on tiles and not send himself flying all over the place. They've installed sensors in the wing leading edges that will be able to sense an impact. So it's not like they've just been sitting on their thumbs this whole time.

  19. Re:N.A.S.A. on Space Shuttles almost Ready to Re-Launch · · Score: 1
  20. Re:There will always be risks on Space Shuttles almost Ready to Re-Launch · · Score: 1

    Two in 75 actually. Soyuz 1's parachute didn't open, ouch. And 11 had a valve open that shouldn't, asphyxiating the crew.

    And just as a data point, I believe the shuttle has flown more flight between its two accidents than soyuz has total.

  21. Re:forget manned missions on Space Shuttles almost Ready to Re-Launch · · Score: 1

    Compare the amount of science we got back from the apollo missions to what we accomplished with only robots. Not even close. The trouble is you start off with a much larger price tag with a manned mission, which puts people off. The fact that you get back far more science for the buck doesn't stop the sticker shock from getting it canned.

  22. Re:each flight costs $500 million! on Space Shuttles almost Ready to Re-Launch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Except it's done a damn good, if expensive, job at being such an all around vehicle. What it's not so good at is measuring up to impossible hype and overselling. The shuttle flew more times before its first accident than Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo combined. It could be improved upon, what with 20 years of flying experience, but nah. Let's just throw it away because of a freak accident that destroyed our false faith in its utter perfection.

  23. OBiwan and R2 on 7-Year Old Prequel Fan On ANH · · Score: 1

    I'd say it's a perfectly logical conclusion that Obiwan didn't recognize R2D2 as the droid Padme and Anakin owned.

  24. Re:huh? on Revenge of the Sith Easter Eggs · · Score: 1

    Also explains why it takes him so long to set up light speed jumps.

    It's more likely Lucas doesn't know wtf he's talking about though.

  25. Re:Declare your bias, why don't you? on OpenBSD 3.7 Reviewed · · Score: 1

    As much as I like Openbsd, you're right. The review might as well have been a cnet review of a microsoft release.