1. Actually, you can apply (very, very) cheap foaming agents to all aqueous sprinkler systems which enable them to put out petroleum, ethanol, etc. fires.
2. Gravity feeds the system; therefore, even though it's severed below the fire, the sprinkler heads still get water until the tanks are empty/refilled. Being severed, this might happen faster, but I've heard that the tanks were only 25 percent the size they were first designed to be.
Again, too bad we all wish we knew if it would have helped.
The simple fact remains: There are no provisions to design for the impact and subsequent burning of a fully fueled wide-body into a tall building.
True, true. I never would want to be the designer for any building hit by an airplane. But enormous and significant buildings such as these were designed during a time in the 60s/70s when height was the major consideration. Construction financing rates were 20% and time was money. However, just as in software design, good (big) buildings aren't cranked out in a few months. A huge number of shortcuts and decisions in the WTC were made soley for the purposes of bigger, higher and faster.
We've learned a lot since then. I think one of the most interesting aspects to the whole tragedy is that the terrorists targeted symbols. This is exactly what the developers of the WTC were trying to create, a symbol of power and eminence. Regretably, the price for symbolic power was far greater than a less glorious longstanding quality. While I could never justify any terrorist act, I could see the twin tower's short-lived glory go down in architectural history as an example of how to loose focus on well-rounded and thoughtful design.
I think most of us in the construction industry (architecture) were concerned about this as events were unfolding, even before the first tower collapsed. But the saddest part was finding out later that concessions had been made during design/construction in the sizing and configuration of sprinkler systems including the abscense of a rooftop water supply.
Who knows if it really would have helped, but having to second guess now is hardly comforting. As in most things, those that focus on stupid quantitative evaluations of design (cost per square foot for example) are doomed to come up short when all the chips are really down.
Funny that despite Slashdot considering Microsoft its favorite punching bag, how many stories link to MSNBC. You'd think if Microsoft really was the evil empire, folks wouldn't actually back up their arguments with stories posted there.
Ah, yes. Another hardcoded font size in a press release.
Question: Why is it that press releases, documents that we are sure companies want everybody to read, continue to hard code web page font sizes to about 6pt, in a light shade of gray?
Answer: Management and marketing types write press releases with MS Word and are too busy playing golf to simply open the URL in their browser to verify that the web monkey did his job. They are not concerned enough about their company to follow through on the basics.
I have to say, RedHat (an unabashed Linux company, I might add) is a pleasant exception to this rule. Check out one of their press releases.
Perhaps attention to "details" such as font sizes in HTML-format press releases also give us an idea of a company's ability to follow through with the technical aspects of its core business functions as well.
Pervasiveness is Microsoft's ultimate crime. They have sacrificed ethics, legal business practice and short term profits all for the quality of being pervasive in our culture.
If this is the settlement that is actually reached, it only continues their business goals, with no penalty. (How much does that much software actually cost to produce, anyway?)
As Brier Rabbit used to say, "Whatever ya do, brotha Fox, please don't fling me in that Briar Patch!" In this case, Microsoft is getting thrown back into the very marketplace it was sued for abusing in the first place.
I don't get it. I've never hacked anything (complete none programmer) and I love GNOME. It is very easy to use and as fast/faster than Windows on the same box.
And it's much more beautiful and usable than KDE, which to me is the most important aspect anyway.
Re:The Palm is already dying
on
Pocket PC 2002
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
You know, specs have little to do with overall computing experience. The total design integration between hardware, software and form factor for a specific price is the real test. But Palm is going to be in trouble unless they start delivering at least some hardware that beats Pocket PC devices on numbers alone.
I love my Palm device and it does everything I need and more. But it isn't flashy. Microsoft has always understood that consumers are basically stupid and look at charts like these to make decisions. Just seeing that each of these have 64mb of RAM opposed to Palm's 8mb dooms them.
Until somebody invents a clever word or phrase that can be used to rate price against crashes, app usefulness and security, Palm is going to take a second seat to Pocket PC. Consumer Reports always uses "Consumer Satisfaction" as their main test of a product. Ever seen PDAs evaluated on that? I thought not.
As a rather novice Linux user, I've been curious as the differences between it and BSD. Can somebody point to a link that goes into some rather sophisticated detail between the two? (More than "Supports themes, is cool, etc.")
...I'd just like to point out that Word has always loaded VERY fast for me, at least 5x faster than WordPerfect ever did on its best days...
Five times faster? That's complete baloney.
WordPerfect 8 on a P3-450, 128m RAM, Windows 95 loads in about 4 seconds.
MS Word 2000 on a P3-850, 256m RAM, Windows 2000 takes exactly 5 seconds.
Windows 2000 is obviously slower than Win95, and MS Office 2000 is obviously slower than Corel Office 8, but no one will ever convince me that Word is faster than WordPerfect, even on a superior machine.
An exaggeration filter on/. sure would be a welcome feature.
Wow, I would love to see what you're working on... is it Open/Free? Please email me with details.
The new AutoCAD ADT 3.3 is all XML, including the new (unreleased) Mechanical/Plumbing add-on tools to ADT. (Not Mech. desktop, though.) I saw a preview a week ago by an AutoCAD rep and they will shortly be releasing full, huge libraries of XML objects for use with this module.
Does anybody know if SVG addresses CAD vector files? If not, could it be adapted? It sure would be nice to have a "blessed" standard other than the proprietary (AutoDesk's AutoCAD).DWG.
The problem with tap typing is that you don't get any benefit from 10 fingers. So they're all basically the same. And I still prefer graffiti because I can use it without even looking down at my PDA.
Also, the Palm Keyboard is only $100US, and is really terrific if you are just looking for portability and super-fast input without having to re-learn a keyboard.
This may be the one enabling both my wife and I to chuck the famous IE/Outlook Express combo.
A lot of attention on this site has been on the Linux, etc. platforms, but Mozilla 9.2 on Windows is pretty good, too. Still not quite as fast as IE, but with the Enable Quick Launch feature checked, Mozilla is finally becoming competitive. Perhaps 9.3 will be about equal.
And the Modern theme is very nice and durable, which makes IE look very tired. Great work by all involved!
Ok, you trolls, this one's too easy. How about somebody try posting something more insightful than, "Hey, if you think this recent Messenger experience was too much, wait until everybody's using.NET."
I'd like to see some good posts from a WinCE device owner on why they chose it over a Palm. I've had the lowest, cheapest Palm model (m100) for a while now and it does everything that I need it to do. I didn't get a PDA that I can dual boot, play MP3s, watch videos or do software development. It's just an organizer and mine does that very well.
Sure, I wish I could have gotten an 8mb unit (m105), but mine has over 1500 addresses, the entire New Testament, hundreds of ToDos, more than 40 lists, two chess games, a kickin' calculator and the Formula 1 schedule/track layouts and STILL has 688K free. What in the world do you people put on your PDA's (beyond entertainment) that actually require more memory/resolution/processor/color than something from the Palm line?
Everything I've read says PalmOS still owns (excuse me, 0wnz/ru1z) the market and I think it will be quite a distant day before I find a better value with ANY device that uses Windows. I've never been in a store trying one of these devices when it didn't crash. My Palm never has.
Slashdot Mirror
Two clarifictions then:
1. Actually, you can apply (very, very) cheap foaming agents to all aqueous sprinkler systems which enable them to put out petroleum, ethanol, etc. fires.
2. Gravity feeds the system; therefore, even though it's severed below the fire, the sprinkler heads still get water until the tanks are empty/refilled. Being severed, this might happen faster, but I've heard that the tanks were only 25 percent the size they were first designed to be.
Again, too bad we all wish we knew if it would have helped.
True, true. I never would want to be the designer for any building hit by an airplane. But enormous and significant buildings such as these were designed during a time in the 60s/70s when height was the major consideration. Construction financing rates were 20% and time was money. However, just as in software design, good (big) buildings aren't cranked out in a few months. A huge number of shortcuts and decisions in the WTC were made soley for the purposes of bigger, higher and faster.
We've learned a lot since then. I think one of the most interesting aspects to the whole tragedy is that the terrorists targeted symbols. This is exactly what the developers of the WTC were trying to create, a symbol of power and eminence. Regretably, the price for symbolic power was far greater than a less glorious longstanding quality. While I could never justify any terrorist act, I could see the twin tower's short-lived glory go down in architectural history as an example of how to loose focus on well-rounded and thoughtful design.
I think most of us in the construction industry (architecture) were concerned about this as events were unfolding, even before the first tower collapsed. But the saddest part was finding out later that concessions had been made during design/construction in the sizing and configuration of sprinkler systems including the abscense of a rooftop water supply.
Who knows if it really would have helped, but having to second guess now is hardly comforting. As in most things, those that focus on stupid quantitative evaluations of design (cost per square foot for example) are doomed to come up short when all the chips are really down.
Funny that despite Slashdot considering Microsoft its favorite punching bag, how many stories link to MSNBC. You'd think if Microsoft really was the evil empire, folks wouldn't actually back up their arguments with stories posted there.
Ah, yes. Another hardcoded font size in a press release.
Question: Why is it that press releases, documents that we are sure companies want everybody to read, continue to hard code web page font sizes to about 6pt, in a light shade of gray?
Answer: Management and marketing types write press releases with MS Word and are too busy playing golf to simply open the URL in their browser to verify that the web monkey did his job. They are not concerned enough about their company to follow through on the basics.
I have to say, RedHat (an unabashed Linux company, I might add) is a pleasant exception to this rule. Check out one of their press releases.
Perhaps attention to "details" such as font sizes in HTML-format press releases also give us an idea of a company's ability to follow through with the technical aspects of its core business functions as well.
Yesh, this is unbelievable if it's true.
Pervasiveness is Microsoft's ultimate crime. They have sacrificed ethics, legal business practice and short term profits all for the quality of being pervasive in our culture.
If this is the settlement that is actually reached, it only continues their business goals, with no penalty. (How much does that much software actually cost to produce, anyway?)
As Brier Rabbit used to say, "Whatever ya do, brotha Fox, please don't fling me in that Briar Patch!" In this case, Microsoft is getting thrown back into the very marketplace it was sued for abusing in the first place.
I don't get it. I've never hacked anything (complete none programmer) and I love GNOME. It is very easy to use and as fast/faster than Windows on the same box.
And it's much more beautiful and usable than KDE, which to me is the most important aspect anyway.
No, no. Try the real link, in Germany:
www.FischerTechnik.de
You know, specs have little to do with overall computing experience. The total design integration between hardware, software and form factor for a specific price is the real test. But Palm is going to be in trouble unless they start delivering at least some hardware that beats Pocket PC devices on numbers alone.
I love my Palm device and it does everything I need and more. But it isn't flashy. Microsoft has always understood that consumers are basically stupid and look at charts like these to make decisions. Just seeing that each of these have 64mb of RAM opposed to Palm's 8mb dooms them.
Until somebody invents a clever word or phrase that can be used to rate price against crashes, app usefulness and security, Palm is going to take a second seat to Pocket PC. Consumer Reports always uses "Consumer Satisfaction" as their main test of a product. Ever seen PDAs evaluated on that? I thought not.
As a rather novice Linux user, I've been curious as the differences between it and BSD. Can somebody point to a link that goes into some rather sophisticated detail between the two? (More than "Supports themes, is cool, etc.")
Thanks.
Five times faster? That's complete baloney.
WordPerfect 8 on a P3-450, 128m RAM, Windows 95 loads in about 4 seconds.
MS Word 2000 on a P3-850, 256m RAM, Windows 2000 takes exactly 5 seconds.
Windows 2000 is obviously slower than Win95, and MS Office 2000 is obviously slower than Corel Office 8, but no one will ever convince me that Word is faster than WordPerfect, even on a superior machine.
An exaggeration filter on /. sure would be a welcome feature.
Wow, I would love to see what you're working on... is it Open/Free? Please email me with details.
The new AutoCAD ADT 3.3 is all XML, including the new (unreleased) Mechanical/Plumbing add-on tools to ADT. (Not Mech. desktop, though.) I saw a preview a week ago by an AutoCAD rep and they will shortly be releasing full, huge libraries of XML objects for use with this module.
Does anybody know if SVG addresses CAD vector files? If not, could it be adapted? It sure would be nice to have a "blessed" standard other than the proprietary (AutoDesk's AutoCAD) .DWG.
The problem with tap typing is that you don't get any benefit from 10 fingers. So they're all basically the same. And I still prefer graffiti because I can use it without even looking down at my PDA.
Also, the Palm Keyboard is only $100US, and is really terrific if you are just looking for portability and super-fast input without having to re-learn a keyboard.
I agree, it was definitely informative. Best line:
Hey, that's us!! :)
Stallman gets his acronym and the rest of us don't have to add any more sylables.
This may be the one enabling both my wife and I to chuck the famous IE/Outlook Express combo.
A lot of attention on this site has been on the Linux, etc. platforms, but Mozilla 9.2 on Windows is pretty good, too. Still not quite as fast as IE, but with the Enable Quick Launch feature checked, Mozilla is finally becoming competitive. Perhaps 9.3 will be about equal.
And the Modern theme is very nice and durable, which makes IE look very tired. Great work by all involved!
If you're new to Linux or even been around a little while, you have to check out the LINUX Rute Users Tutorial and Exposition.
Been referencing it exclusively ever since I found it.
Ok, you trolls, this one's too easy. How about somebody try posting something more insightful than, "Hey, if you think this recent Messenger experience was too much, wait until everybody's using .NET."
Key word: Insightful
I know next to nothing about this, but what's to stop somebody from using this same method to force you a cookie from evilwebmaster.com?
Sure, I wish I could have gotten an 8mb unit (m105), but mine has over 1500 addresses, the entire New Testament, hundreds of ToDos, more than 40 lists, two chess games, a kickin' calculator and the Formula 1 schedule/track layouts and STILL has 688K free. What in the world do you people put on your PDA's (beyond entertainment) that actually require more memory/resolution/processor/color than something from the Palm line?
Everything I've read says PalmOS still owns (excuse me, 0wnz/ru1z) the market and I think it will be quite a distant day before I find a better value with ANY device that uses Windows. I've never been in a store trying one of these devices when it didn't crash. My Palm never has.
I have this problem with all my GUIs.
To me, the real story here is that IBM has decided to promote KDE. Why? Is it:
Uhhh...so you mean petroleum grows in your gas tank, right?