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  1. Re:Engineers bullied or bamboozled into acquiescen on 7 Myths About The Challenger Disaster · · Score: 1

    One of the engineers who first tried to raise the issue of the potential failure of the O-rings spoke at my college when I was freshman, as part of some sort of "ethics in engineering" seminar. From my (admittedly vague) memory, it wasn't just the managers bullying and bamboozling, but also some of the other engineers.

  2. Re:Live at school on 7 Myths About The Challenger Disaster · · Score: 1

    I don't think that the Columbia disaster affected the national psyche nearly as much as the Challenger disaster, for a lot of reasons. In the 1980's, the space program in general and the Shuttle in particular were a huge source of national pride. On the other hand, when the Columbia broke up, I suspect that the initial reaction of a great many Americans was "Oh, they still fly those things?"

    Also, there was a lot of media attention focused on the Challenger when it launched because of the schoolteacher on board. Other than that one launch, (and the well publicized launches following each disaster) most people, even ones who do care about the space program, don't generally know when there is a shuttle taking off or landing.

  3. Re:composite aging? on 7 Myths About The Challenger Disaster · · Score: 1

    While it's possible that aging and fatigue may have contributed to the problem, it's worth remembering that they did tests after the incident where they fired pieces of foam at a mockup wing and were able to recreate the damage done. While I don't know this for sure, I suspect that they didn't go and dig out a 20 year old piece of composite to do the tests.

  4. Re:Fear is the key on Poll Finds Mixed Support for Domestic Wiretaps · · Score: 1

    We had what, two senators vote against it the first time around?

    No. Only one...

  5. Re:Please stop... on Poll Finds Mixed Support for Domestic Wiretaps · · Score: 2, Funny

    and you can do all this without fear of retaliation from the govt.

    Unless your wife works for the CIA.

  6. Re:Not news on IE7 To Support XMLHTTP Requests · · Score: 1

    Perhaps, until someone discovered a while back that it was possible for sites from an untrusted zone to gain privilges limited to trusted zones via XSS hacks.

  7. it has to be said... on MS Security VP Mike Nash Replies · · Score: 3, Funny

    given that Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server are going to be the most significant releases of Windows in the last five years or so, we know that they are going to be used broadly by a large set of users for sometime--so getting it right is critical.

    At the rate they are going now, they will be the only releases of Windows in the last five years by the time they are ready.

  8. Re:Ajax over IFRAME - more compatible? on IE7 To Support XMLHTTP Requests · · Score: 2, Informative

    I started using the iframe method back in 2001, and I've pretty much converted entirely over to xmlHttpRequest. The two main reasons:

    1) IE makes a 'click' sound every time you navigate to a new url in a window or frame. using xmlHttpRequest gets rid of this.

    2) Using xmlHttpRequest doesn't pollute your history, so it makes it a easier to make something useful happen when the user hits the back or forward button.

    Generally speaking, compatibility isn't a problem- most of the time that I need to implement something using AJAX, any browser that doesn't support xmlHttpRequest will also not support some other feature that I am using anyway. The one exception here seems to be Opera browsers in the upper 7.x range, as IIRC Opera didn't get a usable xmlHttpRequest until 8.0. But personally, I'm not going to lose too much sleep over that.

  9. Re:Not news on IE7 To Support XMLHTTP Requests · · Score: 1

    This matters because it will allow people to use sites like GMail while still disabling or tightly restricting ActiveX for security purposes. It doesn't make a bit of difference to web developers, but it most definitely matters.

  10. Re:What Internet Explorer 7 *REALLY* needs... on IE7 To Support XMLHTTP Requests · · Score: 1

    IMO, document.addEventListener() is more important than any of those. Many of your issues can be worked around, and some of them can be worked around rather trivially. However, there is no way in IE to match the functionality of addEventListener, with any amount of hacking.

  11. Re:About time! on DoJ search requests: Yahoo, AOL, MSN said "Yes" · · Score: 1

    We may still be better off than most of the world, however, I still find it very disheartening that it seems that our current government seems to have destroyed much of what I was taught to be proud of about our country when I was growing up, and I am strting to see a lot of behaviors that I was told would never happen in America, but were common in places such as the Soviet Union.

    Sure, it could be a lot worse, but it also could be a lot better. Then again, a lot of this stuff has probably been going on for as long as I've been alive, but the government just doesn't feel as much need to hide it anymore, as there is no longer any need for the "US against the Soviet Union" propoganda.

  12. Re:A related story on DoJ search requests: Yahoo, AOL, MSN said "Yes" · · Score: 1

    As a similar story, I was a little shocked (in hindsight I probably shouldn't have been) at the search results I got back when trying to find this gaming blog that I had read about somewhere but couldn't remember the URL.

  13. Re:Shake a Legacy and move into the 1990s on Ask Microsoft's Security VP · · Score: 1

    When will defragging a disk or some obscure network function not lock up every task?

    Better yet, when will defragging become a thing of the past entirely?

  14. Re:Pennies must go! on Earth's Copper Supply Inadequate For Development? · · Score: 1

    You missed the point. Assuming the rounding is done to the nearest nickel on the combined total rather than on each individual item, I could buy 2 $0.99 items, which would be $1.98 and would thus round up to $2.00, or I could buy 4 $0.99 items, which would be $3.96 and would round down to $3.95. If the store doesn't know how many or which combination of items you are purchasing, it could never set prices so that they would always round up.

  15. Re:"D" key? on Ars Technica Reviews Intel iMacs · · Score: 1

    The article did mention the C key. The GP post must have edited it out:

    Holding down the D key (according to the Core Duo iMac User's Guide, Apple has changed it from the C key, perhaps because OS X now comes on DVDs instead of CDs. Who knows?) to try to force booting off of the optical drive failed as well.

  16. Re:Question on Web Users Judge Sites in the Blink of an Eye · · Score: 1

    Considering that they are being paid to run the site, and we are not, (In fact, some people pay to read the site. Suckers!) it seems a little bit ridiculous for them to say that the only way they'll do something about the problem is it we do it for them, don't you think?

  17. Re:Web 2.0: Where solutions don't need problems? on Web 3.0 · · Score: 1

    Where are you working that writing an application using AJAX requires first writing a non-AJAX application and then re-writing it to be AJAX capable? Skip steps 2 and 3 and save yourself a lot of wasted effort.

    The issue about people expecting a page reload is a red herring. If people see something change on the screen, they know something has changed, whether the page has reloaded or not. The company I work for has been writing AJAX web sites for years and I have never heard of anyone complain that they (or their customers) were confused by the lack of refresh.

    I will grant you that AJAX is used in a lot of places where it isn't really necessary, but there are a lot of ways that it can be used to make a site far more useful. Google for "Amazon Diamond Search", and compare the usefulness of the advanced AJAX diamond search to the basic diamond search. (And note that I said usefullness, not useability).

  18. Re:More like 0.2 than 2.0 on Web 3.0 · · Score: 1

    For example you could use things like Java Web Start, or the OSGI framework that underpins Eclipse, to simplify product installation. Once you've got that, you can build a much more flexible application that integrates better with the host OS and runs that much closer to the hardware.

    Yes, but it would still be written in Java. AJAX is cool, and Java is not. Where have you been?

  19. I am *Shocked* on Symantec Competing Unfairly Against Spybot? · · Score: 3, Funny

    I must say, I am shocked, shocked to hear that Symantec might have said something untrue in order to promote their product or malign a competing product. Clearly they have always shown in the past that they hold themselves to the highest of ideals.

  20. Re:Limited problem on Toyota Prius Under Fire For Patent Infringement · · Score: 1

    So I would say 5 yrs for this entire process is not completely ridiculous.

    Also, keep in mind that Toyota completely overhauled the drive train on the 2004 model year Prius. It's possible that the new drive train infringes on the patent while the previous one didn't, in which case it's actually only about 2 years.

  21. Re:Low Resolution on MacWorld Keynote Announces x86 iMac & Laptop · · Score: 1

    I sit the same distance from my current LCD monitor at work as I did from the previous CRT monitor. If 1600x1200 was usable on a 17" CRT, I see no reason why it shouldn't be on a 17" LCD.

    I would guess that due to the way I tended to sit at a desk with that laptop, about half the time I used it I was about the same distance from the screen as I would be with a desktop. And for the rest of the time, I think that a 2" increase in viewable size would be enough to account for the difference.

  22. Re:Security through obscurity on Does Your Company Use a PKI Solution? · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure when he said "User ID" he was referring to the name (a.k.a. nick) not the number. Take another look and maybe you'll get the joke.

    Oh, and you lose....

  23. Re:Learner vehicles on High-tech Cars Replacing Driver Skill? · · Score: 1

    When I was trying to get my drivers license, several of my frieds were shocked that I would attempt the test in a car with a manual transmission. "Don't you know you automatically fail if you stall?" I told them it didn't matter- all the cars my family owned at the time were sticks, so I had no choice. They found that even more amazing than the fact that anyone would consider taking the driving test in a stick.

    Still took me three tries to get my license, but the stickshift had nothing to do with it (except that I got docked once for not setting the parking brake when I parked, which I doubt they would have done in an automatic).

  24. Re:Some work in this area on High-tech Cars Replacing Driver Skill? · · Score: 1

    Did you actually read his comment? He never said sticks were bad. He said you don't want multiple control functions situated on one control mechanism.

    When a pilot is landing his mach 3 jet on a carrier in a storm, he is using 3 completely independent control surfaces- a control stick to control pitch/roll, a throttle to control thrust, and a pair of rudder pedals to control yaw. Any other controls that he has to use (landing gear, flaps, spoliers) are also all separate controls.

  25. Re:The Mailer I want on Thunderbird 1.5 Arrives · · Score: 1

    As much as I like Mutt, I must say I find it amusing that you criticize Thunderbird for "aping last decades Outlook/Netscape Mail" with a three pane interface, and then hold up Mutt as an example of a (presumably?) more modern way to do a mail interface.