My first impression was, "WTF?! Why would anyone want to do that?" Keep in mind that not only am I typing this on a Chromebook, I basically live on this thing. For what I use it for, it works well. With a web based IDE and an SSH client, you can accomplish almost anything. Entertainment is not a pleasant situation but that's what we have gaming PCs for, right?
The entertainment does suck! But after my old crappy laptop screen went kablooey I got an Acer C720 Chromebook. Not quite top-of-the-line. I was pleasantly surprised to find I could start up crosh and it has an ssh client! Well, and ping. Not much else.
I installed ChrUbuntu 12.04 on my boss's chromebook and it wasn't bad. I do think it's a tad slower than chromeos, though. Booting up of course, and general operation. And I am going to stick it on mine, too, although I've used it long enough that having to clear "all local data" could be pain when/if I ever boot up chromeos again and want to login to a bunch of places.
I just keep adding these low-value (as in, user content) TLDs to blacklists, particularly for email. I'm sure I'm not the only sysadmin doing that, so the overall utility of all these stupid TLDs is basically as a spam-filter and nothing more. No serious business is going to operate on anything other than a.com/.net/.org even if they have to get a longer domain.
You are correct: you're not the only one. I noticed a massive increase in spam the last couple of months from snowshoe spammers using.science,.rocks,.cricket (cricket!), etc, etc, etc. And not a single legitimate message that I can tell. They're the new.infos
That happened with this one as well. It doesn't show the previous action which led up to the officer and the suspect being out in the middle of the grass after a traffic stop
I don't think that was an edit. The man who recorded the video on his cellphone said he was walking to work and saw the beginning of the altercation, then got out his phone and started recording. He got in touch with the family and their lawyer, and handed over the video to them, which they then gave to the NY Times. If he had caught the start of the thing on his phone we would have seen it by now.
Go ahead and give him a life sentence and get this over with. He'll die soon enough in prison, especially of the guards "accidentally" happen to be looking the other way. He's pretty recognizable, and he definitely won't be the most popular position no matter where he is sent to.
They might send him to the supermax prison in Colorado, where the federal government has sent many a high-profile convict. Interaction with others, even guards, is stricly limited and there is 100% (supposedly) video surveillance. The one hour a day they get to exercise is in a cage all alone.
Did I just say that? Sheesh, it's more like 6 hours! When doing the math I must have been remembering my boss not in a good mood that day. Still 6 hours was much longer than the few minutes we were expecting.
I do, too! We did run into a bit of a mess the other day, however, when a domain name somewhat important to us, that was thought to be on auto-renew, was expired. (I know, I know, big screwup) Our registrar then changed the name servers to their own. So we renewed it within a couple of hours, and we generally use our own caching servers, but some of our stuff out there is using google's DNS, and it seems they ignore the TTL for NS records, using their own TTL of, I think, 22600 seconds which equals more than 15.5 days. Ouch! The registrar sets a TTL on those of minutes.
I imagine it was a decision made to save resources. So, I think if google's DNS servers are being used widely, lesson learned from us if you ever need to change your domain's name servers.
I went to public school in Arkansas in the 80's/early 90's. Learned BASIC on TRS-80, Apple ][e, and IBM PS/2s. We had them then too.
I said the same thing a few minutes ago. Didn't read all comments first. And I forgot to mention my TRS! Writing BASIC and saving code on a cassette tape.. what a thrill that was. Until one had to read it back into the computer.
A fond memory, and I wish I still had the BASIC code, I programmed a Star Trek "simulator" in BASIC, complete with big red photon torpedo pixels. I put simulator in quotes because there was no way to code in user input, via joystick or the like, so you just basically watched things get blown up by torpedoes:) Ah, the memories. Our teacher put it up on the big screen for the other students to see. It didn't land me any girlfriends though. Heh.
Agreed. I'm doubting that statistic of only 1 in 10 schools having such courses.
Me too. Could it be 1 in 10 of *all* schools, including elementary? It's gotta be. But it seems as if computer classes are way watered down from when I was a kid, if others' comments are to be believed.
Into this. I'm glad they offer computer science classes. I would have taken one in high school if it was offered.
Indeed. Which I'm a bit flabbergasted to read "1 in 10" schools don't offer CS classes? On first read I thought that couldn't possibly be correct.
I was in high school 1986-1990, and we had a computer science class. Hell, we had Apple IIs in junior high, and we moved things around on the CRT using Logo programmong! Mind you, in high school we were instructed in BASIC and, of all things, Hypercard.. heh. Well we used Macintoshes.. IIe I think. But the class was there and it was a start for me.
Regarding the melting glaciers: they obviously melt during spring and summer. And as you seem to be an rally badly educated man: glaciers exist in the Alps, in the Himalaya, in Africa on the Kilimancharo, in New Zealand, I bet you have them in the Rockies and in the Andes, too.
There are hundreds of glaciers in the Cascade range of mountains in the northwest US. And sadly to say, they all seem to be retreating. Just the other day news broke of a glacier cave on Mt. Hood, near Portland, OR, that had been around for ages but is now collapsing. Not that I venture into glacial caves myself:-) And we have had one hell of a weird winter in this part of the world, which did not help the cave. While we watch the news and see what our family and friends are dealing with everywhere east of the Rockies, I have flowers blooming in my front yard two weeks ago! And I'm in the middle of Oregon!
I guess if you live long enough, you really can see it all. Heh
I believe that up until recently, what is currently called a "polar vortex" was called "arctic air" in a weather forecast. Polar vortex, while being a historical term dating to the 1800's, was rarely used to describe the phenomena of cold cyclonic polar air pushing south. Using it commonly now makes it seem like winter weather patterns have suddenly and drastically changed. They haven't, not in just a couple of years.
I believe this ties into the phenomena of the naming of winter storms by a certain cable weather channel.
In many of my posts, I have been highly critical of the seeming non-efforts by government agencies to deal with SPAM, malware, phishing etc. etc.
It is wonderful to hear this great news about good works being done for the greater good. Thank you to all the investigators for your many hours and hard work to shut this down.
Wow. You are very good troll. Heh, even getting a few mod points. The reply to this is pretty good, too.
or me, "dumb" is just a label that closed-minded people apply to other people, so they can feel superior. Which seems to be fundamental to the human psyche : we need to be better than other people. It's our base drive to compete. I think this might also explain greed : possessing more resources is one way to be better than the rest.
My opinion: dumb people are those that have no idea how ignorant they are about a great many things. I don't think that opinion is new at all:-)
It was a big story on the front page of The Oregonian this morning. That's the first time I heard about it. If those guys are worried about having enough space they ought to put their data centers in Prineville. Tons of room out there.
Hah. Yeah well Prineville doesn't seem to be complaining too much about the Facebook center there, since the only other thing around is Les Schwab HQ. It's true however it's not supplying any jobs to a pretty depressed economy in that county. I think they're planning to expand, or are already. I've forgotten. DC's like it here though; low humidity allowed for an interesting cooling setup there, and the electricity is relatively cheap.
But really our general world-connectivity in central Oregon has improved much since a DC here required more fiber. It used to be that a backhoe or other would cut our only link to Portland, and more than once all ATMs in three counties would stop working.
People speculating Mexico or Guatamala are simply new to the meteorology of the region. To local sources a glance at a recent eruption map makes and it is instantly obvious there is 1 known candidate, and it would explain it perfectly.
("Just rain" in my part of Oregon, too)
Same here in Bend. It's been pretty windy, trees falling. Nowhere like the rain west of the mountains of course. But there were fires all around last summer. No dirty rain falling here. Hell, at 50+ degrees it's almost been like a spring rain. So sorry for our mountain snow pack, however.
Siberia though, makes more sense. The jet stream seems to be pushing a lot of air our way. Not just dirty Beijing air, either, it seems. Or is it... ?:)
I grew up in Spokane and was there when St. Helens erupted. That was ash fall.
Then this reveals my ignorance, because I would have assumed/hoped that there is full body armour which protects the limbs while not significantly restricting movement.
Whoever your are, AC, I applaud your frankness. Admitting ignorance is kind of rare in these parts. Heh.
Anyway, unless you want to wear full plate armor, like the days of long past, no. Even then, stopping a rifle round--probably not.
1. Over half of police killed by firearms WERE wearing body armor. It's not like the ancient stuff that provides whole body protection, you have a front piece and a back piece that protects your chest. A hit to the head, or in from the side, and you're still possibly dead. 2. Police body armor is drastically lighter than the stuff I wore. A rifle round will generally go right through them, as will a shotgun slug* at close enough range.
Damn straight. This reminds me of a police action in Portland, OR, they entered a house and the guy had a high-power rifle with armor-piercing bullets. One female office was killed outright, one shot just above her kevlar vest, one just below. Another female office was shot twice, they went through her vest, but she survived after surgery. It was a mess. I remember it so well because the police chief was livid about the news helicopter coverage. Apparently the guy was watching the news and knew exactly where the officers were around his house and where they were entering.
When I was in the Army in the '90's we were told our body armor was really only effective against shrapnel. Don't get hit by that big 7.62 AK round!
As a non-American, I don't really understand US gun culture very well, but: if there is a likelihood of someone brandishing a deadly weapon, wtf don't police come in with full body armour?
The guy can be rushed, and if it turns out the gun's a toy / he wasn't going to use it, nobody dies - but if they're shot at, no big deal, and he faces justice.
I understand that some weapons are so powerful that body armour won't help, but how common are they?
Body armor is great at stopping shots to your chest, but come on. Sure, in Hollywood shots to a limb are shrugged off like they're bee stings, but that isn't how it is in real life. One of my favorites was in CSI: Miami, Horatio gets shot in the gut, but sticks his hand on the wound and walks around toting his pistol and saving the day.
Gunshots are no joke. One to to your leg can cause lifelong disability. Or how about to one's face? Ouch. I would never want to rush an armed opponent in the hope that his shots will only hit my body armor.
but you still have to use ctrl c and ctrl x. how does it help to have a dedicated ctrl v button? seems like a strange hill to die on to insist on a 3 button mouse. don't you think?
The middle button acts like CTRL-V. Selecting the text automatically places it in its own paste buffer, so you can CTRL-C some other text and have an entirely different selection and two paste options--I've actually done that before. After using Linux 20 plus years, I can tell you it's weird not to have that functionality when I happen to be at windows machine.
Like many of his ideas, such as the "Fuller dome" to encase entire stars to collect all energy and provide enormous living space, it's extremely impractical, But it's a wonderful thought experiment.
Aren't you confusing his geodesic dome homes with the "Dyson Sphere?"
I think many of your (valid) complaints stem from weak and/or immature writers relying on "magical" things and/or super tech to achieve the desired story line. I dislike "magic" in most stories as it seems to be used mostly as a crutch for weak writing, or a writer unwilling to deal with unpleasant consequences in a story.
My understanding is that the transporter was originally used to workaround using a shuttle craft for all extra-vehicular excursions (for screen-time efficiencies) and later became a useful story device. But, you're right that this new trans-warp beaming-device is simply "plot magic". Kahn could have beamed to a near-by ship and flown to Klingon space. (Furthermore, why didn't an Enterprise retrieval party simply re-use the trans-warp transporter to beam themselves as did Kahn... saving themselves the trouble of the trip.
I've been watching Trek for like 30 years and didn't know that about TOS transporter. Thanks. I guess I need to read more Trekkie history.
The two J.J. Abrams ST films seem full of unnecessary / stupid things - like parking the Enterprise underwater to avoid being seen by natives when parking it in *orbit* would have accomplished the same thing. Granted, watching the ship rise from the ocean was a ST boner moment, but still technologically unnecessary. (JJ's signature move seems to be having the Enterprise rise up through clouds, water, etc...)
I wonder about orbit. They generally enter a moderate orbit, perhaps? A large starship streaking across the sky at regular intervals would be noticeable near sunrise/sunset. I'm nitpicking I suppose, but it reminds me of C.J. Cherryh's excellent Foreigner series, which had humans get really lost and end up finding a planet that happens to have an intelligent steam-age society. That light orbiting up there seriously got the natives thinking, "WTF?". (umm, I don't recall how much, it's been years since I read the first). But they were semi-advanced and had astronomers.
Oh, and in First Contact they *were* noticeable from orbit, and as we know at that point there were likely plenty of people around with telescopes and eyeballs and tech savvy. Nobody else noticed Enterprise up there? Well, probably I guess, but it didn't matter in that story. No more missiles to shoot it down, save Cochran's!
But I suppose the Prime Directive made an exception to being noticed as merely a light in the sky:)
Slashdot Mirror
My first impression was, "WTF?! Why would anyone want to do that?" Keep in mind that not only am I typing this on a Chromebook, I basically live on this thing. For what I use it for, it works well. With a web based IDE and an SSH client, you can accomplish almost anything. Entertainment is not a pleasant situation but that's what we have gaming PCs for, right?
The entertainment does suck! But after my old crappy laptop screen went kablooey I got an Acer C720 Chromebook. Not quite top-of-the-line. I was pleasantly surprised to find I could start up crosh and it has an ssh client! Well, and ping. Not much else.
I installed ChrUbuntu 12.04 on my boss's chromebook and it wasn't bad. I do think it's a tad slower than chromeos, though. Booting up of course, and general operation. And I am going to stick it on mine, too, although I've used it long enough that having to clear "all local data" could be pain when/if I ever boot up chromeos again and want to login to a bunch of places.
Oops, they are smart. They just changed it to 00000000, hey, if it's safe enough for nukes why not for wifi router?
The Football's password has to be "NoMoreJayCutler", though I might be wrong about the capitilization. My other guess is "CubsWillWinWorldSeries".
Just a guess ;-)
I just keep adding these low-value (as in, user content) TLDs to blacklists, particularly for email. I'm sure I'm not the only sysadmin doing that, so the overall utility of all these stupid TLDs is basically as a spam-filter and nothing more. No serious business is going to operate on anything other than a .com/.net/.org even if they have to get a longer domain.
You are correct: you're not the only one. I noticed a massive increase in spam the last couple of months from snowshoe spammers using .science, .rocks, .cricket (cricket!), etc, etc, etc. And not a single legitimate message that I can tell. They're the new .infos
That happened with this one as well. It doesn't show the previous action which led up to the officer and the suspect being out in the middle of the grass after a traffic stop
I don't think that was an edit. The man who recorded the video on his cellphone said he was walking to work and saw the beginning of the altercation, then got out his phone and started recording. He got in touch with the family and their lawyer, and handed over the video to them, which they then gave to the NY Times. If he had caught the start of the thing on his phone we would have seen it by now.
Go ahead and give him a life sentence and get this over with. He'll die soon enough in prison, especially of the guards "accidentally" happen to be looking the other way. He's pretty recognizable, and he definitely won't be the most popular position no matter where he is sent to.
They might send him to the supermax prison in Colorado, where the federal government has sent many a high-profile convict. Interaction with others, even guards, is stricly limited and there is 100% (supposedly) video surveillance. The one hour a day they get to exercise is in a cage all alone.
22600 seconds which equals more than 15.5 days
Did I just say that? Sheesh, it's more like 6 hours! When doing the math I must have been remembering my boss not in a good mood that day. Still 6 hours was much longer than the few minutes we were expecting.
Cheers!
Man I love 8.8.8.8
I do, too! We did run into a bit of a mess the other day, however, when a domain name somewhat important to us, that was thought to be on auto-renew, was expired. (I know, I know, big screwup) Our registrar then changed the name servers to their own. So we renewed it within a couple of hours, and we generally use our own caching servers, but some of our stuff out there is using google's DNS, and it seems they ignore the TTL for NS records, using their own TTL of, I think, 22600 seconds which equals more than 15.5 days. Ouch! The registrar sets a TTL on those of minutes.
I imagine it was a decision made to save resources. So, I think if google's DNS servers are being used widely, lesson learned from us if you ever need to change your domain's name servers.
And I forgot to mention my TRS!
First time replying to my own post, that I can remember. I typed TRS, but should have said TI-99.
I went to public school in Arkansas in the 80's/early 90's. Learned BASIC on TRS-80, Apple ][e, and IBM PS/2s. We had them then too.
I said the same thing a few minutes ago. Didn't read all comments first. And I forgot to mention my TRS! Writing BASIC and saving code on a cassette tape.. what a thrill that was. Until one had to read it back into the computer.
A fond memory, and I wish I still had the BASIC code, I programmed a Star Trek "simulator" in BASIC, complete with big red photon torpedo pixels. I put simulator in quotes because there was no way to code in user input, via joystick or the like, so you just basically watched things get blown up by torpedoes :) Ah, the memories. Our teacher put it up on the big screen for the other students to see. It didn't land me any girlfriends though. Heh.
Agreed. I'm doubting that statistic of only 1 in 10 schools having such courses.
Me too. Could it be 1 in 10 of *all* schools, including elementary? It's gotta be. But it seems as if computer classes are way watered down from when I was a kid, if others' comments are to be believed.
Into this. I'm glad they offer computer science classes. I would have taken one in high school if it was offered.
Indeed. Which I'm a bit flabbergasted to read "1 in 10" schools don't offer CS classes? On first read I thought that couldn't possibly be correct.
I was in high school 1986-1990, and we had a computer science class. Hell, we had Apple IIs in junior high, and we moved things around on the CRT using Logo programmong! Mind you, in high school we were instructed in BASIC and, of all things, Hypercard.. heh. Well we used Macintoshes.. IIe I think. But the class was there and it was a start for me.
Regarding the melting glaciers: they obviously melt during spring and summer. And as you seem to be an rally badly educated man: glaciers exist in the Alps, in the Himalaya, in Africa on the Kilimancharo, in New Zealand, I bet you have them in the Rockies and in the Andes, too.
There are hundreds of glaciers in the Cascade range of mountains in the northwest US. And sadly to say, they all seem to be retreating. Just the other day news broke of a glacier cave on Mt. Hood, near Portland, OR, that had been around for ages but is now collapsing. Not that I venture into glacial caves myself :-) And we have had one hell of a weird winter in this part of the world, which did not help the cave. While we watch the news and see what our family and friends are dealing with everywhere east of the Rockies, I have flowers blooming in my front yard two weeks ago! And I'm in the middle of Oregon!
I guess if you live long enough, you really can see it all. Heh
I believe that up until recently, what is currently called a "polar vortex" was called "arctic air" in a weather forecast. Polar vortex, while being a historical term dating to the 1800's, was rarely used to describe the phenomena of cold cyclonic polar air pushing south. Using it commonly now makes it seem like winter weather patterns have suddenly and drastically changed. They haven't, not in just a couple of years.
I believe this ties into the phenomena of the naming of winter storms by a certain cable weather channel.
BTW, well said. So tired of spam--so now I'll likely get more :)
In many of my posts, I have been highly critical of the seeming non-efforts by government agencies to deal with SPAM, malware, phishing etc. etc.
It is wonderful to hear this great news about good works being done for the greater good. Thank you to all the investigators for your many hours and hard work to shut this down.
Wow. You are very good troll. Heh, even getting a few mod points. The reply to this is pretty good, too.
or me, "dumb" is just a label that closed-minded people apply to other people, so they can feel superior. Which seems to be fundamental to the human psyche : we need to be better than other people. It's our base drive to compete. I think this might also explain greed : possessing more resources is one way to be better than the rest.
My opinion: dumb people are those that have no idea how ignorant they are about a great many things. I don't think that opinion is new at all :-)
It was a big story on the front page of The Oregonian this morning. That's the first time I heard about it. If those guys are worried about having enough space they ought to put their data centers in Prineville. Tons of room out there.
Hah. Yeah well Prineville doesn't seem to be complaining too much about the Facebook center there, since the only other thing around is Les Schwab HQ. It's true however it's not supplying any jobs to a pretty depressed economy in that county. I think they're planning to expand, or are already. I've forgotten. DC's like it here though; low humidity allowed for an interesting cooling setup there, and the electricity is relatively cheap.
But really our general world-connectivity in central Oregon has improved much since a DC here required more fiber. It used to be that a backhoe or other would cut our only link to Portland, and more than once all ATMs in three counties would stop working.
Why would that be? Walla Walla and its surroundings produce lots of good wine. Plenty of anesthetic to soothe your pain. :-)
People speculating Mexico or Guatamala are simply new to the meteorology of the region. To local sources a glance at a recent eruption map makes and it is instantly obvious there is 1 known candidate, and it would explain it perfectly.
("Just rain" in my part of Oregon, too)
Same here in Bend. It's been pretty windy, trees falling. Nowhere like the rain west of the mountains of course. But there were fires all around last summer. No dirty rain falling here. Hell, at 50+ degrees it's almost been like a spring rain. So sorry for our mountain snow pack, however.
Siberia though, makes more sense. The jet stream seems to be pushing a lot of air our way. Not just dirty Beijing air, either, it seems. Or is it... ? :)
I grew up in Spokane and was there when St. Helens erupted. That was ash fall.
Then this reveals my ignorance, because I would have assumed/hoped that there is full body armour which protects the limbs while not significantly restricting movement.
Whoever your are, AC, I applaud your frankness. Admitting ignorance is kind of rare in these parts. Heh.
Anyway, unless you want to wear full plate armor, like the days of long past, no. Even then, stopping a rifle round--probably not.
Now, a Holtzman shield would work. See http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Shi... in case you aren't familiar with them.
1. Over half of police killed by firearms WERE wearing body armor. It's not like the ancient stuff that provides whole body protection, you have a front piece and a back piece that protects your chest. A hit to the head, or in from the side, and you're still possibly dead.
2. Police body armor is drastically lighter than the stuff I wore. A rifle round will generally go right through them, as will a shotgun slug* at close enough range.
Damn straight. This reminds me of a police action in Portland, OR, they entered a house and the guy had a high-power rifle with armor-piercing bullets. One female office was killed outright, one shot just above her kevlar vest, one just below. Another female office was shot twice, they went through her vest, but she survived after surgery. It was a mess. I remember it so well because the police chief was livid about the news helicopter coverage. Apparently the guy was watching the news and knew exactly where the officers were around his house and where they were entering.
When I was in the Army in the '90's we were told our body armor was really only effective against shrapnel. Don't get hit by that big 7.62 AK round!
As a non-American, I don't really understand US gun culture very well, but: if there is a likelihood of someone brandishing a deadly weapon, wtf don't police come in with full body armour?
The guy can be rushed, and if it turns out the gun's a toy / he wasn't going to use it, nobody dies - but if they're shot at, no big deal, and he faces justice.
I understand that some weapons are so powerful that body armour won't help, but how common are they?
Body armor is great at stopping shots to your chest, but come on. Sure, in Hollywood shots to a limb are shrugged off like they're bee stings, but that isn't how it is in real life. One of my favorites was in CSI: Miami, Horatio gets shot in the gut, but sticks his hand on the wound and walks around toting his pistol and saving the day.
Gunshots are no joke. One to to your leg can cause lifelong disability. Or how about to one's face? Ouch. I would never want to rush an armed opponent in the hope that his shots will only hit my body armor.
but you still have to use ctrl c and ctrl x. how does it help to have a dedicated ctrl v button? seems like a strange hill to die on to insist on a 3 button mouse. don't you think?
The middle button acts like CTRL-V. Selecting the text automatically places it in its own paste buffer, so you can CTRL-C some other text and have an entirely different selection and two paste options--I've actually done that before. After using Linux 20 plus years, I can tell you it's weird not to have that functionality when I happen to be at windows machine.
You are correct about it not replacing CTRL-X.
Like many of his ideas, such as the "Fuller dome" to encase entire stars to collect all energy and provide enormous living space, it's extremely impractical, But it's a wonderful thought experiment.
Aren't you confusing his geodesic dome homes with the "Dyson Sphere?"
I think many of your (valid) complaints stem from weak and/or immature writers relying on "magical" things and/or super tech to achieve the desired story line. I dislike "magic" in most stories as it seems to be used mostly as a crutch for weak writing, or a writer unwilling to deal with unpleasant consequences in a story.
My understanding is that the transporter was originally used to workaround using a shuttle craft for all extra-vehicular excursions (for screen-time efficiencies) and later became a useful story device. But, you're right that this new trans-warp beaming-device is simply "plot magic". Kahn could have beamed to a near-by ship and flown to Klingon space. (Furthermore, why didn't an Enterprise retrieval party simply re-use the trans-warp transporter to beam themselves as did Kahn... saving themselves the trouble of the trip.
I've been watching Trek for like 30 years and didn't know that about TOS transporter. Thanks. I guess I need to read more Trekkie history.
The two J.J. Abrams ST films seem full of unnecessary / stupid things - like parking the Enterprise underwater to avoid being seen by natives when parking it in *orbit* would have accomplished the same thing. Granted, watching the ship rise from the ocean was a ST boner moment, but still technologically unnecessary. (JJ's signature move seems to be having the Enterprise rise up through clouds, water, etc...)
I wonder about orbit. They generally enter a moderate orbit, perhaps? A large starship streaking across the sky at regular intervals would be noticeable near sunrise/sunset. I'm nitpicking I suppose, but it reminds me of C.J. Cherryh's excellent Foreigner series, which had humans get really lost and end up finding a planet that happens to have an intelligent steam-age society. That light orbiting up there seriously got the natives thinking, "WTF?". (umm, I don't recall how much, it's been years since I read the first). But they were semi-advanced and had astronomers.
Oh, and in First Contact they *were* noticeable from orbit, and as we know at that point there were likely plenty of people around with telescopes and eyeballs and tech savvy. Nobody else noticed Enterprise up there? Well, probably I guess, but it didn't matter in that story. No more missiles to shoot it down, save Cochran's!
But I suppose the Prime Directive made an exception to being noticed as merely a light in the sky :)