Most AFBs I've been on have them. A few were set up agains a hill (Offutt comes to mind) that greatly reduces the areas where it can point. Basically, its to protect the dish from the weather.
On the subject of "weapons systems", wouldn't a failure be more likely to prevent death than cause it?!
It depends on the type of failure. If a missile system launches when required, but not detonate, that might save lives. If a missile system launches inadvertantly, but does detonate, that might kill some people (even friendlies). If a missile system hangfires (motor ignites, rail doesn't release), its possible that the pilot doesn't die, or crash, but is required to stay away from the field for a certain amount of time (I think two hours) before being allowed to land, in case more malfunctions occur.
Its not just stupid users though. There are users out there with a clue that get fed up with the stupid tech support.
I called up @home tech support after I got back from a weekend trip to Vegas when I found out (from the roomies) that the cable modem died on Friday and didn't come back to life yet. I checked the connections, then the TV. The cable to the TV was killed (which was good, I requested that), but I figure the guy that came out to do it didn't bother reading the part where I said '_DONT_ disconnect the cable modem'.
After convincing the tier 1 tech support that I already tried resetting it ('Yes, I unplugged it for 5 mins then I called you.' '5 mins is too long, try only for 1 min.'). I mentioned that the account was probably disabled when the TV was, they insisted that wasn't the problem because there was a note on my account about my request. After talking to tier 1 for about 40 mins, I finally got transferred to somebody who could dispatch a tech - took them about 4 minutes once he got there to reconnect the cable since it was disconnected at the pole.
Tier 2 and 3 support probably get a lot of irate customers because the tier 1 support are idiots.
Maltron makes a one-handed keyboard (either hand), that doesnt use chording. I ran across it while looking for my current keyboard. It looks absolutely insane, but might be what you had in mind;)
Of course, that much money (just the money they're paying to take care of uncertain licenses) could probably also buy CD burners and enough blanks to create no-license-hassles copies of Linux or Free / Open / NetBSD for every computer the city owns.
Or that $129,000 could have been used to buy some filing cabinets (probably pretty nice ones for that much money) so that they can keep the licenses in there in case of future raids.
I got to use one of their original units, just red colors (now they have units that are full color). It is unbelievable that you can see an image on your eye even as you focus on the surrounding environment. They are currently trying to find uses in military aircraft (lose the HUD, which only works while looking forward).
I was skeptical at first, but seeing it was amazing.
Sorry about that - I wasn't clear in what I meant. Our addressbook (by default) contains the names of all the Employees as well as several distribution lists for various projects. Outlook (previous to 2000 I guess) would just roll over and die with that much data. I don't think it liked the Public Folders either - there are so many of them that I don't even bother looking. Its borderline ridiculous.
Our Enterprise (well over 100k people spread over the world) uses Exchange. Outlook couldn't handle the load. I guess we are going to be going to Outlook2000 in six months, but as of right now, we are running Exchange 5.0.xxxxxx.
I wouldn't use Outlook, too many security features. Exchange doesnt have the goofy preview and run malicious code stuff going on. But, like people said before - if its not broke, don't fix it.
Global Hawk is unarmed. The purpose of it is to use its sensors as a remote platform to get intelligence. You still have to send other units in to take action on what the Global Hawk found.
There are a ton of misconceptions in this discussion, so I'll just try to address them here.
1) There is no AI running the UCAV. There is AI running in the aircraft, but it is there to help the pilot of the aircraft. It is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), but there is a ground station that the pilot sits at. From this station, the pilot controls the aircraft, as well as designates and determines targets. The ground station has a screen that is a sensor view from the UCAV (both FLIR and DTV (I think it has DTV anyway)) that is used to identify the target before the PERSON pulls the trigger. (One person controls a flight of four UCAVs).
2) Maneuverability. Sure, losing the human inside the aircraft would lessen the restrictions on aircraft agility, but the UCAV isn't designed for that. It is designed for deep attack missions, where the threat is too high for humans to risk their lives. It is designed for stealth. They don't want the UCAV to be seen at all. If its seen, it has very little in the way of surviving (which is why they are so cheap). They are designed to fly a long way, destroy the SAM sites (very easy to ID) and other high-priority targets (such as command and control structures).
3) IFF. Modern land vehicles don't have the CPU power or bandwidth to answer all the IFF queries that would be going on on the modern battlefield. That is the main reason that they don't have IFF. It is still up to the person to decide if a target is a threat.
The UCAV isn't designed for maneuverability. It is designed for 'stealth'. The UCAV isn't going to get into a dogfight, it is designed for deep attack missions that are deemed to risky for human pilots (read, First Night of the War - lose the SAMs).
The UCAV isn't run on AI. It has a ground station. From this ground station, the controller has control of the UCAV's movement (routes and waypoints, speed, altitude), as well as sensor pictures (FLIR and DayTV - no radar (I believe)). Thus, even though it is 'unmanned' (which it is, there is no pilot inside the aircraft), it is still controlled by a human.
--nitpick--
In almost every case the mistake was recongnized immediately, but of course once the Hellfire is launched it does little good to realize it was a friendly tank.
The Hellfires used in the Gulf War were actually the SAL (Semi-Active Laser) Hellfire. I think they were the AGM-114B model, but I could be wrong on that account. Anyway, since the SAL is laser guided, the target can be changed up until something eight seconds before missile impact. (They need eight seconds of terminal guidance).
Pilots use a technique called 'ripple fire'. This technique has two SALs in the air, launched about 15 secs apart, and the second missile doesn't get a target designated until the first missile has impacted (since the aircraft only has one laser designator).
The Kinesis Contour is absolutely awesome. I ordered it because a few friends recommended it after I told them about my wrist pain. It didn't take very long to re-teach myself how to use it (about 6 hours screwing around and playing with the (IMHO) next-to-worthless typing tutor). I did learn that I typed 'wrong', in using the wrong fingers for the wrong keys:P I can now type as fast, if not a tad bit faster than on a flat keyboard. The wrist pain went away after about a week. It was awesome. My roomies still can't type on it, and usually have me type anything more than a URL in for them, but they can't touch type anyway. I got the footpedals also, but haven't even bothered hooking those up yet.
One thing I did find is that the ALT-F? keys don't seem to change virtual consoles, but I can live with that.
I seriously recommend getting one for anybody who has wrist pains. (No, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just happen to love this keyboard).
Yeah, I just can't wait for an office full of people talking to their computers. All the phones ringing, people talking on the phones, people singing to headphones and not realizing it aren't enough distractions for me either.
Voice Recog has its place - but I think a keybowl is a TON better for an office environment.
People are worried about the warm water and steam that run into the oceans from factories (this is the clean stuff - just temperature changes). The temperature changes kill all sorts of fish within a huge range of the factories.
Now, imagine a space station crashing through the atmosphere, heating up to insane temperatures, and falling into the middle of the ocean, where the water temperature stays mostly constant. If you don't think that is going to have a measurable effect on a large chunk of water, you haven't taken any thermo or bio classes...
It depends on the application. The last time this was posted, we actually called the company up and check on the price for it (and the killer Wall monitors - our's is getting old). For what we do, the three angled screens is a lot more productive and realistic than the "Reality Center" would be.
The Special Forces are developing/experimenting with microuavs. These things are less than 2inches long and transmit images back to a ground station. Great for urban settings.
Slashdot Mirror
I bet they are all Tesla Coils disguised as Transformers ;)
Most AFBs I've been on have them. A few were set up agains a hill (Offutt comes to mind) that greatly reduces the areas where it can point. Basically, its to protect the dish from the weather.
Sea shipping is TOO cheap, and is MORE than fast enough!
Unless, of course, the sea is 90%+ frozen over half the year. Then it takes some time to ship through it.
On the subject of "weapons systems", wouldn't a failure be more likely to prevent death than cause it?!
It depends on the type of failure. If a missile system launches when required, but not detonate, that might save lives. If a missile system launches inadvertantly, but does detonate, that might kill some people (even friendlies). If a missile system hangfires (motor ignites, rail doesn't release), its possible that the pilot doesn't die, or crash, but is required to stay away from the field for a certain amount of time (I think two hours) before being allowed to land, in case more malfunctions occur.
Its not just stupid users though. There are users out there with a clue that get fed up with the stupid tech support.
I called up @home tech support after I got back from a weekend trip to Vegas when I found out (from the roomies) that the cable modem died on Friday and didn't come back to life yet. I checked the connections, then the TV. The cable to the TV was killed (which was good, I requested that), but I figure the guy that came out to do it didn't bother reading the part where I said '_DONT_ disconnect the cable modem'.
After convincing the tier 1 tech support that I already tried resetting it ('Yes, I unplugged it for 5 mins then I called you.' '5 mins is too long, try only for 1 min.'). I mentioned that the account was probably disabled when the TV was, they insisted that wasn't the problem because there was a note on my account about my request. After talking to tier 1 for about 40 mins, I finally got transferred to somebody who could dispatch a tech - took them about 4 minutes once he got there to reconnect the cable since it was disconnected at the pole.
Tier 2 and 3 support probably get a lot of irate customers because the tier 1 support are idiots.
Maltron makes a one-handed keyboard (either hand), that doesnt use chording. I ran across it while looking for my current keyboard. It looks absolutely insane, but might be what you had in mind ;)
Of course, that much money (just the money they're paying to take care of uncertain licenses) could probably also buy CD burners and enough blanks to create no-license-hassles copies of Linux or Free / Open / NetBSD for every computer the city owns.
Or that $129,000 could have been used to buy some filing cabinets (probably pretty nice ones for that much money) so that they can keep the licenses in there in case of future raids.
I got to use one of their original units, just red colors (now they have units that are full color). It is unbelievable that you can see an image on your eye even as you focus on the surrounding environment. They are currently trying to find uses in military aircraft (lose the HUD, which only works while looking forward).
I was skeptical at first, but seeing it was amazing.
Does this mean that the web safe palette drops from 22 to 2? Just black and white now...
Sorry about that - I wasn't clear in what I meant. Our addressbook (by default) contains the names of all the Employees as well as several distribution lists for various projects. Outlook (previous to 2000 I guess) would just roll over and die with that much data. I don't think it liked the Public Folders either - there are so many of them that I don't even bother looking. Its borderline ridiculous.
Our Enterprise (well over 100k people spread over the world) uses Exchange. Outlook couldn't handle the load. I guess we are going to be going to Outlook2000 in six months, but as of right now, we are running Exchange 5.0.xxxxxx.
I wouldn't use Outlook, too many security features. Exchange doesnt have the goofy preview and run malicious code stuff going on. But, like people said before - if its not broke, don't fix it.
I would bet that the route information is stored on the aircraft itself, rather than the ground station. Otherwise it wouldn't make any sense at all.
Of course, jamming units do make a pretty big target for a HARM...
The ground stations are SGIs.
Global Hawk is unarmed. The purpose of it is to use its sensors as a remote platform to get intelligence. You still have to send other units in to take action on what the Global Hawk found.
There are a ton of misconceptions in this discussion, so I'll just try to address them here.
1) There is no AI running the UCAV. There is AI running in the aircraft, but it is there to help the pilot of the aircraft. It is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), but there is a ground station that the pilot sits at. From this station, the pilot controls the aircraft, as well as designates and determines targets. The ground station has a screen that is a sensor view from the UCAV (both FLIR and DTV (I think it has DTV anyway)) that is used to identify the target before the PERSON pulls the trigger. (One person controls a flight of four UCAVs).
2) Maneuverability. Sure, losing the human inside the aircraft would lessen the restrictions on aircraft agility, but the UCAV isn't designed for that. It is designed for deep attack missions, where the threat is too high for humans to risk their lives. It is designed for stealth. They don't want the UCAV to be seen at all. If its seen, it has very little in the way of surviving (which is why they are so cheap). They are designed to fly a long way, destroy the SAM sites (very easy to ID) and other high-priority targets (such as command and control structures).
3) IFF. Modern land vehicles don't have the CPU power or bandwidth to answer all the IFF queries that would be going on on the modern battlefield. That is the main reason that they don't have IFF. It is still up to the person to decide if a target is a threat.
The UCAV isn't designed for maneuverability. It is designed for 'stealth'. The UCAV isn't going to get into a dogfight, it is designed for deep attack missions that are deemed to risky for human pilots (read, First Night of the War - lose the SAMs).
The UCAV isn't run on AI. It has a ground station. From this ground station, the controller has control of the UCAV's movement (routes and waypoints, speed, altitude), as well as sensor pictures (FLIR and DayTV - no radar (I believe)). Thus, even though it is 'unmanned' (which it is, there is no pilot inside the aircraft), it is still controlled by a human.
--nitpick--
In almost every case the mistake was recongnized immediately, but of course once the Hellfire is launched it does little good to realize it was a friendly tank.
The Hellfires used in the Gulf War were actually the SAL (Semi-Active Laser) Hellfire. I think they were the AGM-114B model, but I could be wrong on that account. Anyway, since the SAL is laser guided, the target can be changed up until something eight seconds before missile impact. (They need eight seconds of terminal guidance).
Pilots use a technique called 'ripple fire'. This technique has two SALs in the air, launched about 15 secs apart, and the second missile doesn't get a target designated until the first missile has impacted (since the aircraft only has one laser designator).
--/nitpick--
The Kinesis Contour is absolutely awesome. I ordered it because a few friends recommended it after I told them about my wrist pain. It didn't take very long to re-teach myself how to use it (about 6 hours screwing around and playing with the (IMHO) next-to-worthless typing tutor). I did learn that I typed 'wrong', in using the wrong fingers for the wrong keys :P I can now type as fast, if not a tad bit faster than on a flat keyboard. The wrist pain went away after about a week. It was awesome. My roomies still can't type on it, and usually have me type anything more than a URL in for them, but they can't touch type anyway. I got the footpedals also, but haven't even bothered hooking those up yet.
One thing I did find is that the ALT-F? keys don't seem to change virtual consoles, but I can live with that.
I seriously recommend getting one for anybody who has wrist pains. (No, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just happen to love this keyboard).
Yeah, I just can't wait for an office full of people talking to their computers. All the phones ringing, people talking on the phones, people singing to headphones and not realizing it aren't enough distractions for me either.
Voice Recog has its place - but I think a keybowl is a TON better for an office environment.
In school, we priced everything out as 12packs or kegs.
"Hmmm, that memory is going to cost 2.5 kegs... is it really worth that for 12 megs?"
It really helps put things in perspective.
People are worried about the warm water and steam that run into the oceans from factories (this is the clean stuff - just temperature changes). The temperature changes kill all sorts of fish within a huge range of the factories.
Now, imagine a space station crashing through the atmosphere, heating up to insane temperatures, and falling into the middle of the ocean, where the water temperature stays mostly constant. If you don't think that is going to have a measurable effect on a large chunk of water, you haven't taken any thermo or bio classes...
It depends on the application. The last time this was posted, we actually called the company up and check on the price for it (and the killer Wall monitors - our's is getting old). For what we do, the three angled screens is a lot more productive and realistic than the "Reality Center" would be.
The Special Forces are developing/experimenting with microuavs. These things are less than 2inches long and transmit images back to a ground station. Great for urban settings.
Don't disturb the dirt... the dirt firsters will hunt you down.