Thank goodness for kids like you, because I've lost hope of ever seeing space. As a kid, the goal of space travel for us all seemed so close. We were sending men to the moon all the time, so how long would it take until we could all go?
As a kid, I grew up wanting to work at NASA like my dad. He worked at JSC (used to be "Manned" Space Center before being renamed after LBJ) from 1963 until 1990. I worked in and around JSC and Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Al. for 15 years, and, believe me, a lot of the optimism is gone. It's become too much of a business run by big companies. With the appointment of Sean O'Keefe, I hope that things change. Time will tell.
I drive past it several times a week (down Saturn Drive for the locals), and it just makes me sick to see it in the shape it's in. Thank God it's finally going to be taken care of and treated as the treasure it is. The pictures don't do justice to the damage being done to the ship.
By the way, as a teenager, I was horrified to hear that they were going to display it on its side. I thought for sure that it was going to be displayed upright. What a dweeb I was (am?). Yeah, that would be great: make it so you could only see the bottom. And then there's the problems it would cause with low-flying aircraft, (lots of them, including those annoying advertizement-pulling planes). Oh, and we get hurricanes down here in these parts.
I still use Kedit, a win32 programmer's editor, that uses Rexx as the macro language and it rocks (both the editor and the macro environment).
Why? You do know about The Hessling Editor (THE), right? Integrates quite nicely with Regina-REXX on most platforms. And with PDCurses/XCurses, you can edit in a nice X window too.
Since Regina and THE are still actively supported, I would go that route if I were you...
Any list purporting to be the "Worst Cars of All Time" that doesn't include the 1977 Chevrolet Chevette is missing a major example. My friend's father bought one as a commuter car, and it made it 22,000 miles before the floor rusted out beneath his feet at highway speed! (In Houston, so, no, salted roads were not a factor.) Oh, and Chevrolet said "tough" when he complained since it was out of warranty.
And I thought M$ was the enemy... I see now that the Linux community is going to kill itself: Mandrake puts advertising in its product, Red Hat and their infamous BlueCurve theme and short support cycles, etc.
Since when have systems existed that can intelligently extrapolate and link data from video, audio, and the various net sources? Since when has a data warehouse existed that can contain the amounts of data this system would intake on a daily basis?
Hell, show me a reasonably good voice or handwriting recognition program, and I'll be impressed. Neither of these exists yet.
Since it's an emergency situation you are talking about, wouldn't it be possible to simply put the shuttle *near* the space station and use EVA gear to go from one to the other? If that was feasable, then you wouldn't need the appartus for docking if you're only worried about using this as a contingency emergency plan.
Going from memory here, but an EVA between the shuttle and the ISS would be quite difficult. First, there's generally only two custom-fitted space suits. Second, there's nothing to secure them for the trip over. The MMU (Man Manuevering Unit?) are not shipped up very often for weight/cargo room concerns. Docking is the only really viable solution.
I should say that, being a Houstonian with lots of friends and family still at JSC (and being a former NASA contractor for many years myself), I've had the opportunity to bounce ideas off of a lot of people who actually know something(R). It is from them that I got a lot of what I've posted here.
IIRC, to dock with ISS, the shuttle must carry a docking fixture that takes up a substantial portion of the payload bay. In fact, this is why, had Columbia been on the same orbital plane as the ISS, they would not have been able to dock with it since the payload bay was full (SpaceHab, FREESTAR, and the EDO kit), and not carrying the docking fixture.
Does this mean that all future shuttles will have to carry the docking fixture?
I didn't hear you say anything about talking to your management. If your immediate supervisor/manager is unresponsive/ineffective, then you have the right to go up the chain until you get heard.
Most companies want to know when their employees are unhappy. Most companies will do something about thier unhappy employees because they realize that unhappy employees are unproductive.
You are the company. Be a team player. Don't go into a meeting with a manager/director/SVP/etc. making demands; help solve the problem by proposing a solution. You may have already tried some of this. That doesn't mean that you can't try again. If no one is responsive, then it may be time to move on.
But beware... The market is not good right now, and new employers will be less than enthusiastic about hiring someone who walked out on their last employer.
Fortunately, despite NASA's neglect, we do have a few private missions to the Moon in the works.
Try again. It's not NASA's neglect, it's your neglect. You that are US citizens... You told Congress that the money spent on NASA was better spent on social services and defense, among other things. If you want a strong space program, tell your congressmen!!!
You (Congress) funds big NASA programs, and NASA staffs up and leases/builds facilities to support it. Then Congress takes away half the annual funding, thinking they can push the costs out. In fact, the G&A costs (people, facilities) remain constant, so extending projects increases overall costs. Then Congress wails about cost over-runs. And don't get me started about the plethora of NASA facilities in powerful congressman's back yards that do nothing but generate local revenue.
Watching what's happened to NASA from the inside (Johnson Space Center in Houston and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville), it's a sad site to see. Lots of really good people have left, fed up with the lack of mission and bureaucracy. Thank god there's still a dedicated few left.
Absolutely, positively, answer these calls! Talk nicely to the poor dweeb on the other end of the line, and find out the name of the company. Politely refuse the offer. Then report them to the Federal Trade Commision (assuming you're in the states.) It is illegal. This will not necesarily produce an actionable case, but if you and your fellow pissed-off citizens do it enough, then they will get swatted.
According to this article in E-Commerce Times the Meta Group has just published a paper saying that IT employee burnout is reaching critical levels:
A majority of IT managers say IT employee burnout is now a serious issue in their organizations, according to a recent study by research firm Meta Group. Among the many areas of high concern to IT departments this year, few are as evident as employee morale, the report states.
Before I lost my job to a layoff, (my job was outsourced oversees) I was doing the work of several, and constantly worried that layoffs and outsourcing were coming.
I'm now considering a whole new career in a completely unrelated field...
Any CIO who is worth his / her salt should be able to understand technological issues at a profound level.
No, CIO's should not be technical. That is not their job. They have technicians working for them that should understand all of the technical issues, and should clearly and without bias summarize technical issues for the CIO. The CIO's job is to understand the mission of the company, understand the IT costs of doing that business, and should, with the help of their technical staff, make decisions that accomplish the mission of the company.
CIO's often work for the CFO, and that's as it should be. IT infrastructure costs money, and IT decisions directly affect the bottom line. There should be no technical bias in these decisions unless they serve the overall mission of the company.
This is very true, but there is a trend, starting among academic economists but moving into the mainstream, away from this kind of short-term thinking
Yeah. Tell me about it. That's why my company just whacked 100 developers, (about 10%, plus another 150 IT grunts and middle managers). It was because they were thinking of the long-term goals of the company, and not the fat bonuses they'll get when they show reduced operating costs.
Mind you, 70% or so of them will be rehired in India.
Oh, I was one of the IT grunts, so color me bitter...
I worked for a NASA sub-contractor in Houston during Challenger accident. I, like my co-workers, was watching a very public shuttle launch back in January of 1986. We had already grown somewhat weary of watching them like everyone else, but this one was special. So we all gather in the cafeteria to watch. What happened seconds into the mission is still seared into my memory. Watching people you know die is difficult. Watching your co-workers cry for hours on end... Jesus, it was a bad day.
I still have to turn away whenever media shows the footage. It's way too painful. So now I have new images to go along with the old ones. God bless these seven astronauts, their families, and the whole NASA and international space community. I know what you're going through.
Don't anyone think that putting human beings in a box and hurtling them into the air at ballistic speeds is safe. Nothing about it is safe. But the astronauts do it, and they're glad to do it.
Although I used Graffiti for years, I could never get much past 15 to 20 words a minute. Within a week of using the Fitaly Stamp, a sticker that overlays the Graffiti area, I was routinely doing 30 to 35 wpm. And the best part was the low error rate that I saw with Graffiti. Their site has several testimonials of speeds over 80 wpm.
The advantage is that the keyboard is designed to lessen pen (stylus) movement based on common words. It is highly customizable and supports international characters. shifting, special characters, etc.
I like it and it works for me. I won't miss Graffiti at all. Worth a look if you're interested in alternatives.
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Thank goodness for kids like you, because I've lost hope of ever seeing space. As a kid, the goal of space travel for us all seemed so close. We were sending men to the moon all the time, so how long would it take until we could all go?
As a kid, I grew up wanting to work at NASA like my dad. He worked at JSC (used to be "Manned" Space Center before being renamed after LBJ) from 1963 until 1990. I worked in and around JSC and Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Al. for 15 years, and, believe me, a lot of the optimism is gone. It's become too much of a business run by big companies. With the appointment of Sean O'Keefe, I hope that things change. Time will tell.
I drive past it several times a week (down Saturn Drive for the locals), and it just makes me sick to see it in the shape it's in. Thank God it's finally going to be taken care of and treated as the treasure it is. The pictures don't do justice to the damage being done to the ship.
By the way, as a teenager, I was horrified to hear that they were going to display it on its side. I thought for sure that it was going to be displayed upright. What a dweeb I was (am?). Yeah, that would be great: make it so you could only see the bottom. And then there's the problems it would cause with low-flying aircraft, (lots of them, including those annoying advertizement-pulling planes). Oh, and we get hurricanes down here in these parts.
Since Regina and THE are still actively supported, I would go that route if I were you...
Any list purporting to be the "Worst Cars of All Time" that doesn't include the 1977 Chevrolet Chevette is missing a major example. My friend's father bought one as a commuter car, and it made it 22,000 miles before the floor rusted out beneath his feet at highway speed! (In Houston, so, no, salted roads were not a factor.) Oh, and Chevrolet said "tough" when he complained since it was out of warranty.
And I thought M$ was the enemy... I see now that the Linux community is going to kill itself: Mandrake puts advertising in its product, Red Hat and their infamous BlueCurve theme and short support cycles, etc.
Sad to hear it.
Hell, show me a reasonably good voice or handwriting recognition program, and I'll be impressed. Neither of these exists yet.
Going from memory here, but an EVA between the shuttle and the ISS would be quite difficult. First, there's generally only two custom-fitted space suits. Second, there's nothing to secure them for the trip over. The MMU (Man Manuevering Unit?) are not shipped up very often for weight/cargo room concerns. Docking is the only really viable solution.
I should say that, being a Houstonian with lots of friends and family still at JSC (and being a former NASA contractor for many years myself), I've had the opportunity to bounce ideas off of a lot of people who actually know something(R). It is from them that I got a lot of what I've posted here.
IIRC, to dock with ISS, the shuttle must carry a docking fixture that takes up a substantial portion of the payload bay. In fact, this is why, had Columbia been on the same orbital plane as the ISS, they would not have been able to dock with it since the payload bay was full (SpaceHab, FREESTAR, and the EDO kit), and not carrying the docking fixture.
Does this mean that all future shuttles will have to carry the docking fixture?
Most companies want to know when their employees are unhappy. Most companies will do something about thier unhappy employees because they realize that unhappy employees are unproductive.
You are the company. Be a team player. Don't go into a meeting with a manager/director/SVP/etc. making demands; help solve the problem by proposing a solution. You may have already tried some of this. That doesn't mean that you can't try again. If no one is responsive, then it may be time to move on.
But beware... The market is not good right now, and new employers will be less than enthusiastic about hiring someone who walked out on their last employer.
Good luck.
Try again. It's not NASA's neglect, it's your neglect. You that are US citizens... You told Congress that the money spent on NASA was better spent on social services and defense, among other things. If you want a strong space program, tell your congressmen!!!
You (Congress) funds big NASA programs, and NASA staffs up and leases/builds facilities to support it. Then Congress takes away half the annual funding, thinking they can push the costs out. In fact, the G&A costs (people, facilities) remain constant, so extending projects increases overall costs. Then Congress wails about cost over-runs. And don't get me started about the plethora of NASA facilities in powerful congressman's back yards that do nothing but generate local revenue.
Watching what's happened to NASA from the inside (Johnson Space Center in Houston and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville), it's a sad site to see. Lots of really good people have left, fed up with the lack of mission and bureaucracy. Thank god there's still a dedicated few left.
Absolutely, positively, answer these calls! Talk nicely to the poor dweeb on the other end of the line, and find out the name of the company. Politely refuse the offer. Then report them to the Federal Trade Commision (assuming you're in the states.) It is illegal. This will not necesarily produce an actionable case, but if you and your fellow pissed-off citizens do it enough, then they will get swatted.
Before I lost my job to a layoff, (my job was outsourced oversees) I was doing the work of several, and constantly worried that layoffs and outsourcing were coming.
I'm now considering a whole new career in a completely unrelated field...
No, CIO's should not be technical. That is not their job. They have technicians working for them that should understand all of the technical issues, and should clearly and without bias summarize technical issues for the CIO. The CIO's job is to understand the mission of the company, understand the IT costs of doing that business, and should, with the help of their technical staff, make decisions that accomplish the mission of the company.
CIO's often work for the CFO, and that's as it should be. IT infrastructure costs money, and IT decisions directly affect the bottom line. There should be no technical bias in these decisions unless they serve the overall mission of the company.
This is very true, but there is a trend, starting among academic economists but moving into the mainstream, away from this kind of short-term thinking
Yeah. Tell me about it. That's why my company just whacked 100 developers, (about 10%, plus another 150 IT grunts and middle managers). It was because they were thinking of the long-term goals of the company, and not the fat bonuses they'll get when they show reduced operating costs.
Mind you, 70% or so of them will be rehired in India.
Oh, I was one of the IT grunts, so color me bitter...
I worked for a NASA sub-contractor in Houston during Challenger accident. I, like my co-workers, was watching a very public shuttle launch back in January of 1986. We had already grown somewhat weary of watching them like everyone else, but this one was special. So we all gather in the cafeteria to watch. What happened seconds into the mission is still seared into my memory. Watching people you know die is difficult. Watching your co-workers cry for hours on end... Jesus, it was a bad day.
I still have to turn away whenever media shows the footage. It's way too painful. So now I have new images to go along with the old ones. God bless these seven astronauts, their families, and the whole NASA and international space community. I know what you're going through.
Don't anyone think that putting human beings in a box and hurtling them into the air at ballistic speeds is safe. Nothing about it is safe. But the astronauts do it, and they're glad to do it.
I would gladly be on the next mission if I could.
The advantage is that the keyboard is designed to lessen pen (stylus) movement based on common words. It is highly customizable and supports international characters. shifting, special characters, etc.
I like it and it works for me. I won't miss Graffiti at all. Worth a look if you're interested in alternatives.