Just because dictionary.com says poisonous is synonymous with venomous, doesn't mean it is. They also list as synonyms for poison: virus and bane. Those are specific uses of the word and not the one necessarily intended. They list venomous as a synonym for poisonous as it pertains to venomous jealousy or words.
The original post is correct. I have spent many years in the field of amateur herpetology (study of reptiles/amphibians) and know that, in the scientific community, we say venom is injected and poison is injested.
From Dictionary.com listing of "poison":
Usage: Poison, Venom. Poison usually denotes something received into the system by the mouth, breath, etc. Venom is something discharged from animals and received by means of a wound, as by the bite or sting of serpents, scorpions, etc. Hence, venom specifically implies some malignity of nature or purpose.
If they were only competition for management that would be one thing, but they aren't. If they were just competition, management could just fire any union employees (if they wanted to) and hire non-union employees (if they wanted to). Companies can't do that because of laws that help unions control a company. Unions make it so that a company can't hire the best employees (assuming the best employee doesn't want anything to do with a union) and can't fire the worst ones.
I also think you made a huge jump from "job, pay, benefits" to "OSHA, Americans with Disabilities Act, and all sexual harassment laws." The first three aren't basic human rights guaranteed by the govt, while the three you mentioned are things every employee should have whether they are a good employee or a bad one. Also, unions don't enforce the three you mentioned (usually), the govt does (or should).
Unions MIGHT be needed in un-skilled labor jobs where the company can just hire highschool dropouts for min wage and then never give them a raise (and since all similar companies would be doing the same, there is nowhere for them to go). If they left the company, oh well, there is never a shortage of unemployed, un-skilled people. Highly skilled jobs need highly skilled and trained employees, of which there IS a shortage. If I don't like my pay and benefits at this engineering firm, I can go somewhere else and do (possibly) better. If I can't do better, why should I expect the company to pay more than any of their competitors?
I agree. Check out the Artist's Careers list. Prince is ranked below The Monkees, yet he has 14 albums on the list and The Monkees have only 7. I would like to know the # of albums sold; I would bet Prince not only sells more overall but is also still selling more than The Monkees. That time period multiplication factor definitely skews things toward the old artists whether they still sell or not.
Maybe multiplying the # of sales in a specific year by the # of years (from that year) since the album was released. Do this for every year that an album has been around. This would still put a little bias toward old albums, but it would at least show what bands are selling a lot over a long period of time as opposed to those that sold a lot for 3 years 30 years ago.
I totally agree with the first two and the third paragraphs of your post, but I almost completely disagree with the third.
Independent and regional markets are back with a vengence? I move around the country on a regular basis and I can tell you that I hear the same crap on the radio in LA that I did in Indianapolis or Houston. Of course, that only tells me that the RIAA 'owns' the radio stations play list. You get more of an insight as to what people think is cool and great when you go to clubs where DJ's select the music. I hear the same music in the clubs around the country, too. Invariably, the music that gets the most people dancing and cheering are the songs that you hear on the radio because people 'know them.' After awhile, the DJ will also almost always play something he/she thinks is cool, but that most people haven't heard yet and the dance floor will clear. They have to switch back to the popular crap to get people excited.
My point is that popular music still isn't as regional (with the exception of local bands in college towns) as it was then. The only time I've really seen regionalization in the music industry is with the electronic/rave scene. The songs at the raves in different areas will almost always be different, but the type of songs (house, jungle, true hip-hop, techno, and yes even gabber) will be more prevelant in one region than in another. This doesn't show much, though, because the majority of people at raves already try to be different from mainstream and choose what they like for themselves. It is an interesting sociological study in the fact that people in different towns will gravitate to one type of sound as opposed to another.
As far as the Independents go, you're right: anyone can produce a decent sounding recording now and market it on the internet for a very low cost. There just doesn't seem to be any of them making it big like they used to, though. The only "popular" indie band I can think of is... well, I forget their name, but they've been around forever (before the internet was even on computers as Homer would say) and already have a loyal fan base even though they've had 40 different band members in 10 years.
Independents are gaining back some ground in the internet with Napster and all, but I don't think it is with a vengence yet. People are still listening to and buying the crap from the RIAA, but every once in awhile they might pick up a CD from a little known artist they heard on Napster. I would also say that it IS easy to tell what the next big thing is going to be: just ask the RIAA. I'd bet that every big phenomena in the past 5 years has been picked by them.
That is just my take on the situation. I don't EVER listen to the radio in my car and only hear popular music in other people's cars or at clubs, so maybe I'm not the best judge of what's going on in the music industry. I also never use Napster; I go to used record stores and listen to unknown CD's and buy them if I like them.
The only kind of real estate searching I've done on the net involved rental properties (apartments). I have done some searching for townhouses for sale, but those were usually found in apartment search engines. In southern California, Southbay Rentals is the most popular place (lists apts and roommates needed). I found a bunch of other sites, though, but they were extremely UNuseful. Almost all the sites that had stuff for sale or for rent required you to call and talk to the real estate agent in person/on the phone.
So I guess I have searched a lot and haven't found anything useful in terms of rental and real estate stuff.
Actually, even though your point about hiding the pollution in a different source is correct, doesn't the efficiency become a big factor?
We can cut out a lot of the fuel refinery waste (in energy usage and pollutants) to make car fuel, the pollution of the trucks and tanker ships that transport the gas to the stations, the pollution of the cars themselves, and maybe get the power companies to move away from coal burning power (very, very unlikely).
Though I don't know for sure, I wouldn't think that much power is really lost in the resistance of the power lines. I'm sure that some is lost, but is it really a crapload? If you have a percentage, I would be really interested to know it.
It's not a magic bullet, but more efficient engines will help tremendously (if only to lower the price of gas from supply and demand).
You know... this is one of the things that has always boggled my mind. If it weren't for this mass extinction, then dinosaurs might not have continued. If they hadn't continued and the other small mammal-like reptiles had, would humans have evolved? All of these extremely random occurances that had to happen for us to come about as we are today, happened. That is interesting in and of itself. Some other thought exercises for you:
On another Earth-like planet where things developed just like here, if that extinction doesn't occur will these mammal-like reptiles develop intelligence and rule and populate their solar system? e.g. Divergent Evolution.
Or will natural selection and stuff still produce mammals that become similar to us eventually taking over despite the dominant reptiles? e.g. Convergent Evolution
Would we as humans still evolved if this extinction hadn't occured?
Are these kinds of random occurances NECESSARY to create intelligent life in the universe? If so, there may be much less life out there than I previously thought. I have always thought that even if our solar system is one in a billion able to support life, then there are still billions of galaxies with a billion stars. Therefore there must be other intelligent life out there. If something like this had to occur to create us, maybe the odds aren't so good.
Suppose there is a God or super-intelligent alien race watching over the universe. What if He/They saw that these mammal-like reptiles were poised to take over the planet and create intelligence, but they didn't like their specific personality traits. Would they create this mass extinction to save the universe from a violent species?
I love thinking about fun stuff like this. I'm sure much smarter people than me can come up with much better questions, but you can start really opening up areas of conversation with this.
Actually, here is a possible schedule for a good Mars mission (from rev.3 of the NASA DRM):
6 month outbound journey
~560 day stay on Mars
6 month return journey
That's damn near 3 years for either 4 or 6 astronauts (rev.1 and 2 had 6 people on the mission, but I don't remember about rev.3). Of course, if we are spending $60 billion US on this mission then they are going to be doing some science work during the outbound journey and ALL science during the stay on Mars. They won't get much chance to get bored. On the way home, they won't have a damn thing to do except relax, read, watch movies, and talk.
Russia has had cosmonauts up on Mir all alone for between 9 months and 1.5 years (I don't remember exactly, but that long by yourself has to be hard). They have also had full crews up there for long periods of time (again around 9 mos. and 1.5 years). NASA has also been putting crews into big isolated facilities with full resource recycling for 3 months at a time to simulate Mars journeys. They haven't had any mental breakdowns yet.
I totally agree that the mental aspect will be one of the toughest obstacles the crew will face, but I know that I could do it (and luckily I'll be qualified to do it in about 3 years so maybe I'll be selected for the crew, woohoo!) and others, too.
I also know that the "constant horror that a small accident means instant death every single day" won't even bother the astronauts. Think how many people skydive and extreme ski and do other dangerous sports.
The last point you brought up was about the commander being required to land them after a long mission. This isn't the case; the landing will be completely automated for that reason among other technical issues.
My senior design course was a mission to Mars so I know the feasibility of this mission. The crew survivability rate will be about 85-90% and the mission success rate is going to be about 80%. For something as momentous as this, I think these numbers are pretty good.
You're right, mine is by Orckit and just branded under Fujitsu. My old Orckit (that I traded in) was about twice the size and looked more like a hub or router or something. That thing was solid as a rock. This one disconnects if I tap it with my foot or squeeze the case or look at it funny (as did the two previous ones). It promptly reconnects, but where's the quality manufacturing anymore?
I have a Fujitsu Speedport DSL modem. The damn thing gets so freaking hot that I have to have it perched at a wierd angle with all sides getting airflow so that it doesn't burn out (even in an airconditioned apartment I had two burn out). The Verizon tech guy said he carries a ton of backups because they burn out so much he has to replace them all the time for customers.
Verizon previously used Orkitt modems and when I moved and they switched, I made them let me trade in my Orkitt for the Fujitsu; so I didn't get stuck with an old modem. I did, however, get a nice source of heat in my apartment during the winter...
I downloaded it as soon as I saw it up on/.
I "made" it as soon as I downloaded it.
I installed it and rebooted as soon as I made it.
I am running it right now and I haven't crashed yet. I haven't noticed any difference except that I forgot to load a few modules and stuff. Oh well, I'm not a power user and only use my box as a desktop machine. I did notice that there were a lot of options that weren't available for me to check (reiserfs most importantly). I don't know if they are disabled in this version or if I am just an idiot and don't have a higher level option checked.
P.S. I'm a newbie so don't take anything I've said with more than a grain of salt.
There are ThinkPads running DOS/Windows, but those aren't the critical ones. I work for Boeing on these exact machines and their connection to the control systems (as well as the control systems themselves). Solaris is the OS on the critical laptops and it runs custom interface software.
There are other ThinkPads on board with DOS, but those are only for other functions (email, documents, DVD movies, etc). I think there is another laptop or PC that runs windows to do some excel spreadsheets for the control systems, but I have never seen it or read any documentation or even heard anyone mention it except for some posts here on/. Everyone here is also saying (as are all the news sites) that the laptops are 486's, but all the documentation I've read and hardware I've used and been told about have been ThinkPad Pentium 133's and 166's. That may have just been test hardware with the 486's as flight hardware, though.
I wish I had all the 10's of 1000's of pages of documentation I read and have access to at work so that I could confirm all the stuff I've been saying. The thing most people aren't saying is that there are three different systems running: the main computer control system which is a crapload of 386's and custom microchips communicating on a 1553 bus (I don't know what the OS is for this or even if there is an "OS" since each piece of hardware is its own system), the Solaris ThinkPads that are interfacing the main system, and the random computers that do everything else. I personally think all these different machines running different OS's and other software can cause (and may have caused) problems for the station as a whole even though each part may be best suited for its task.
OK, that is pretty much everything I know about the system of control computers on ISS; I will stop postion on this article now.
Yes, I saw the humor, but I didn't think it was relevant or correct.
In this case, the problem was not with the interface software OR interface computer (thinkpad) but with the core system (they were still not sure whether it was software or hardware last I checked). Not only that, but the software of the Thinkpad was not provided by a "monolith^H^H^H^Hpoly" unless you consider Sun Solaris a monopoly.
I guess I always did think of HAL as an OS and not an interface. That is an interesting revelation to me, but that still doesn't change the fact that the interface didn't cause the problem and the fact that the interface wasn't supplied by a monopoly.
The thinkpads are called the PCS's (Personal Computing System). They run Solaris and use a custom graphical program to interface with the computer systems of the ISS. They are only interfaces and don't actually "control" the station. They CAN send signals requesting certain control items, but all the control system software is on a seperate system.
I have no idea what the arm and stuff is running and how it communicates with everything else.
I think there are also a couple thinkpads that are Windows only, but they are just used for email and reading documents and stuff (nothing mission critical).
Apparently, the station came back online before having to "rock the casbah." I guess that's good because we didn't have to intentionally break things. It's unfortunate because I love silly, brute force solutions like this.
What really happened, and FUD even by /.ers
on
Space Station BSOD
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· Score: 5
First off, Windows almost definitely did not cause the crash;/. personnel are the only people saying that. It was a hardware failure in all likelyhood occuring the the US control module (probably in the Command and Control MDMs). I can't believe the kind of reporting going on here; it reads like a M$ FUD press release. Blue Screen of Death my ass!?!
What really happened is the US control module computers stopped responding to any inputs from the ground. They weren't able to control the station or tell it to shutdown or anything. Their plan to fix it (last I heard) was to have the Russian control module move and shake the ISS around until the US system thought it was out of control and went into what is called Free Drift Mode. In this mode, it can be completely controlled by the Russian module and we can debug the system and bring it back online.
That is not what happened at all. The IBM thinkpads are just INTERFACES for the control system. They don't actually control things. They just allow the astronauts to see what is going on in the station and sendc ommands. All of the actual control (autonomous and commanded) is done by other machines: three Command and Control Multiplexor/DeMultiplexors (not running windows).
From what I understand (though I haven't gone to look at the pictures) they only posted pictures of people who were particularly aggressive/violent/riotous. There might be those "bystanders" in the pictures, but the focus was supposed to be the worst of the bunch. I heard that the pictures look like they aren't doing anything bad, but like one post mentions, they could've just committed the crime and now are just looking innocent.
I was in a real riot in San Francisco a few years ago. The town was holding a city-wide party open to the public. Too many people showed up so they blocked off some streets. We were in a crowd of people going to the party when the cops start forcing us from three directions at an intersection while more people were pouring in from the fourth. We weren't out for the riot and weren't rioting. At Purdue, though, these people actively left their houses/dorms to be in the riot. I think that is almost as bad as the damagers themselves.
I go to school at Purdue and I knew there would be riots. I was ACTUALLY watching the girls' game and cheering them on in an amazing game. I would venture to bet that only 1/3 or 1/4 of the people in the riots even watched the game, let alone any of the other games this season.
A lot of people the next day were complaining about how the police were arresting/gassing the violent rioters as well as the by-standers. In my opinion, if you are out in the middle of a riot and don't leave when the cops show up: a) you're an idiot; b) you are hindering the police's ability to maintain order. Others have made the statement that they were just trying to get home and were "caught in the riot." If you are walking home and see a big, violent group of people then walk around them and find another way home. My friend was walking home from school during a riot 2 years ago. He was chased by a naked, drunken tuba player and the riots were blocking his way home, too, but he didn't get into the riot; he went around them and got home without being tear gassed or tipping over a car.
People have been complaining about this all last week, but they were out there helping to create the problem. If these "by-standers" had stayed inside (when they KNEW full well that there would be riots), it wouldn't have been a riot but just isolated incidences of violence. I think posting the pictures of the idiots in the riots will not only take away the assumed anonymity of being out in PUBLIC (where some of the riots erupted) or on private property (I don't know if a land-grant university is considered public or private property), but make them be responsible for their actions.
I think the statement about employers and parents is a good one, too. When I own a company or am hiring for one, I want to know if my prospective employees are going to have a mind of their own or will just succumb to mob mentality.
These people are in freaking college now. They are supposed to be adults, able to carry guns and drink responsibly. If they can't even control their anger at the loss of a basketball game (assuming they actually care about the game) or control the urge to riot for fun, they should no longer be treated as adults and should be expelled from the university. Having their pictures up on the web for everyone to see is showing them that they have to act like citizens to be treated like citizens.
One huge difference you are completely not mentioning is that we are still BUILDING the ISS. Mir had been up and running for 12 years (about 9 or 10 years past its design life) before they sent non-scientists up. I have no qualms about sending this guy up when we are just doing science, but we are installing new pieces to it (the Canadian arm for one) and still getting all the little kinks worked out. Can you imagine what would happen politically if a civilian were up there when an oxygen scrubber goes out or air conditioning units stop working or the toilets don't work? There would be a backlash against NASA for having a non-working station up there even though it is still being built.
As for the US astronauts not getting special training before going up on Mir... do you not know that our astronauts are trained for YEARS before ever being assigned a mission? Though I'm not sure about this, I think most (if not all) of the US astronauts sent to Mir had already been on a Shuttle mission. That sounds like relevant training to me. The Mir is also one country's station and not twelve country's. Canada doesn't want this guy going when we install the arm. The US doesn't want him going when we install our stuff. I'm sure none of the other countries really want this guy up there when their stuff is being installed and tested.
About the guy who was on Mir during the fire: yeah, he stayed out of the way while the trained guys fixed things. Wouldn't it have been nice to actually have another trained and helpful person up there fixing problems instead of just "staying out of the way?"
NASA does have to pay to train this guy and that is where we are putting our foot down. He is part of a Russian crew and we have to train that crew to do certain tasks. If we have all of our procedures based around three members and now it is only two, can we really successfully accomplish a safe mission without redesigning the mission? Even if we didn't have to train him and didn't have to worry about his safety and didn't have to worry about the safety of the mission, we would still be paying an opportunity cost for not having a trained scientist or engineer up there (though he is an engineer, he would need training to help with science experiments).
I just checked that out and he was. I wonder why the news stories never mention that little fact. They always refer to him as "American Businessman" and never as "former NASA engineer" or "American Businessman and former NASA engineer." As an engineer he would be much less useless and dangerous, but NASA would still have to pay a ton of money to train him. Astronauts train for 2 years before being assigned a mission (then they train some more); he wouldn't need that much training, but he would still need a lot.
NASA has a very valid and major reason behind not letting him go up (yet). He has virtually no training and the Russians want us to train him at our expense. He pays Russia 20 million and we have to spend millions to train him. What do we get out of it?
Wasted space. He is taking up space and money on a scientific mission. Not only that, but he is in no way prepared should any technical problems come up (not an engineer, scientist, or even mechanic). Maybe on a mission when we have everything running smoothly we can take some tourists, but we are still building this and testing it. It is just not the right time.
First of all, what does "Don't give the MPAA! *ahem*" mean? I don't understand that phrase at all.
Besides, what does the MPAA have to do with this?
It wasn't a motion picture that was released in
theaters or anything. It didn't get a rating so the MPAA had nothing to do with this.
Maybe you meant the DVD CCA?
Even then, it doesn't require their consent to make a DVD so they weren't involved there. The show was put on (I think) by the SciFi channel and they aren't part of the CCA so you're not supporting the CCA. It was distributed by Artisan Entertainment (which may be in the CCA, but I'm not sure), but they are a major place for independent films so you may want to support them.
Or maybe you are talking about the lack of legal DVD movie players for Linux?
I thought there finally was one. If not, I think you can use the new DeCSS program that was written in C to decode and play in real time which would make it fair use if you delete the copy you make of it everytime.
The only reason not to buy this DVD would be if you didn't like the show. The same goes for some foreign/anime films.
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The original post is correct. I have spent many years in the field of amateur herpetology (study of reptiles/amphibians) and know that, in the scientific community, we say venom is injected and poison is injested.
From Dictionary.com listing of "poison":
Usage: Poison, Venom. Poison usually denotes something received into the system by the mouth, breath, etc. Venom is something discharged from animals and received by means of a wound, as by the bite or sting of serpents, scorpions, etc. Hence, venom specifically implies some malignity of nature or purpose.
I also think you made a huge jump from "job, pay, benefits" to "OSHA, Americans with Disabilities Act, and all sexual harassment laws." The first three aren't basic human rights guaranteed by the govt, while the three you mentioned are things every employee should have whether they are a good employee or a bad one. Also, unions don't enforce the three you mentioned (usually), the govt does (or should).
Unions MIGHT be needed in un-skilled labor jobs where the company can just hire highschool dropouts for min wage and then never give them a raise (and since all similar companies would be doing the same, there is nowhere for them to go). If they left the company, oh well, there is never a shortage of unemployed, un-skilled people. Highly skilled jobs need highly skilled and trained employees, of which there IS a shortage. If I don't like my pay and benefits at this engineering firm, I can go somewhere else and do (possibly) better. If I can't do better, why should I expect the company to pay more than any of their competitors?
Maybe multiplying the # of sales in a specific year by the # of years (from that year) since the album was released. Do this for every year that an album has been around. This would still put a little bias toward old albums, but it would at least show what bands are selling a lot over a long period of time as opposed to those that sold a lot for 3 years 30 years ago.
Independent and regional markets are back with a vengence? I move around the country on a regular basis and I can tell you that I hear the same crap on the radio in LA that I did in Indianapolis or Houston. Of course, that only tells me that the RIAA 'owns' the radio stations play list. You get more of an insight as to what people think is cool and great when you go to clubs where DJ's select the music. I hear the same music in the clubs around the country, too. Invariably, the music that gets the most people dancing and cheering are the songs that you hear on the radio because people 'know them.' After awhile, the DJ will also almost always play something he/she thinks is cool, but that most people haven't heard yet and the dance floor will clear. They have to switch back to the popular crap to get people excited.
My point is that popular music still isn't as regional (with the exception of local bands in college towns) as it was then. The only time I've really seen regionalization in the music industry is with the electronic/rave scene. The songs at the raves in different areas will almost always be different, but the type of songs (house, jungle, true hip-hop, techno, and yes even gabber) will be more prevelant in one region than in another. This doesn't show much, though, because the majority of people at raves already try to be different from mainstream and choose what they like for themselves. It is an interesting sociological study in the fact that people in different towns will gravitate to one type of sound as opposed to another.
As far as the Independents go, you're right: anyone can produce a decent sounding recording now and market it on the internet for a very low cost. There just doesn't seem to be any of them making it big like they used to, though. The only "popular" indie band I can think of is... well, I forget their name, but they've been around forever (before the internet was even on computers as Homer would say) and already have a loyal fan base even though they've had 40 different band members in 10 years.
Independents are gaining back some ground in the internet with Napster and all, but I don't think it is with a vengence yet. People are still listening to and buying the crap from the RIAA, but every once in awhile they might pick up a CD from a little known artist they heard on Napster. I would also say that it IS easy to tell what the next big thing is going to be: just ask the RIAA. I'd bet that every big phenomena in the past 5 years has been picked by them.
That is just my take on the situation. I don't EVER listen to the radio in my car and only hear popular music in other people's cars or at clubs, so maybe I'm not the best judge of what's going on in the music industry. I also never use Napster; I go to used record stores and listen to unknown CD's and buy them if I like them.
So I guess I have searched a lot and haven't found anything useful in terms of rental and real estate stuff.
We can cut out a lot of the fuel refinery waste (in energy usage and pollutants) to make car fuel, the pollution of the trucks and tanker ships that transport the gas to the stations, the pollution of the cars themselves, and maybe get the power companies to move away from coal burning power (very, very unlikely).
Though I don't know for sure, I wouldn't think that much power is really lost in the resistance of the power lines. I'm sure that some is lost, but is it really a crapload? If you have a percentage, I would be really interested to know it.
It's not a magic bullet, but more efficient engines will help tremendously (if only to lower the price of gas from supply and demand).
On another Earth-like planet where things developed just like here, if that extinction doesn't occur will these mammal-like reptiles develop intelligence and rule and populate their solar system? e.g. Divergent Evolution.
Or will natural selection and stuff still produce mammals that become similar to us eventually taking over despite the dominant reptiles? e.g. Convergent Evolution
Would we as humans still evolved if this extinction hadn't occured?
Are these kinds of random occurances NECESSARY to create intelligent life in the universe? If so, there may be much less life out there than I previously thought. I have always thought that even if our solar system is one in a billion able to support life, then there are still billions of galaxies with a billion stars. Therefore there must be other intelligent life out there. If something like this had to occur to create us, maybe the odds aren't so good.
Suppose there is a God or super-intelligent alien race watching over the universe. What if He/They saw that these mammal-like reptiles were poised to take over the planet and create intelligence, but they didn't like their specific personality traits. Would they create this mass extinction to save the universe from a violent species?
I love thinking about fun stuff like this. I'm sure much smarter people than me can come up with much better questions, but you can start really opening up areas of conversation with this.
6 month outbound journey
~560 day stay on Mars
6 month return journey
That's damn near 3 years for either 4 or 6 astronauts (rev.1 and 2 had 6 people on the mission, but I don't remember about rev.3). Of course, if we are spending $60 billion US on this mission then they are going to be doing some science work during the outbound journey and ALL science during the stay on Mars. They won't get much chance to get bored. On the way home, they won't have a damn thing to do except relax, read, watch movies, and talk.
Russia has had cosmonauts up on Mir all alone for between 9 months and 1.5 years (I don't remember exactly, but that long by yourself has to be hard). They have also had full crews up there for long periods of time (again around 9 mos. and 1.5 years). NASA has also been putting crews into big isolated facilities with full resource recycling for 3 months at a time to simulate Mars journeys. They haven't had any mental breakdowns yet.
I totally agree that the mental aspect will be one of the toughest obstacles the crew will face, but I know that I could do it (and luckily I'll be qualified to do it in about 3 years so maybe I'll be selected for the crew, woohoo!) and others, too.
I also know that the "constant horror that a small accident means instant death every single day" won't even bother the astronauts. Think how many people skydive and extreme ski and do other dangerous sports.
The last point you brought up was about the commander being required to land them after a long mission. This isn't the case; the landing will be completely automated for that reason among other technical issues.
My senior design course was a mission to Mars so I know the feasibility of this mission. The crew survivability rate will be about 85-90% and the mission success rate is going to be about 80%. For something as momentous as this, I think these numbers are pretty good.
You're right, mine is by Orckit and just branded under Fujitsu. My old Orckit (that I traded in) was about twice the size and looked more like a hub or router or something. That thing was solid as a rock. This one disconnects if I tap it with my foot or squeeze the case or look at it funny (as did the two previous ones). It promptly reconnects, but where's the quality manufacturing anymore?
Verizon previously used Orkitt modems and when I moved and they switched, I made them let me trade in my Orkitt for the Fujitsu; so I didn't get stuck with an old modem. I did, however, get a nice source of heat in my apartment during the winter...
I "made" it as soon as I downloaded it.
I installed it and rebooted as soon as I made it.
I am running it right now and I haven't crashed yet. I haven't noticed any difference except that I forgot to load a few modules and stuff. Oh well, I'm not a power user and only use my box as a desktop machine. I did notice that there were a lot of options that weren't available for me to check (reiserfs most importantly). I don't know if they are disabled in this version or if I am just an idiot and don't have a higher level option checked.
P.S. I'm a newbie so don't take anything I've said with more than a grain of salt.
There are other ThinkPads on board with DOS, but those are only for other functions (email, documents, DVD movies, etc). I think there is another laptop or PC that runs windows to do some excel spreadsheets for the control systems, but I have never seen it or read any documentation or even heard anyone mention it except for some posts here on /. Everyone here is also saying (as are all the news sites) that the laptops are 486's, but all the documentation I've read and hardware I've used and been told about have been ThinkPad Pentium 133's and 166's. That may have just been test hardware with the 486's as flight hardware, though.
I wish I had all the 10's of 1000's of pages of documentation I read and have access to at work so that I could confirm all the stuff I've been saying. The thing most people aren't saying is that there are three different systems running: the main computer control system which is a crapload of 386's and custom microchips communicating on a 1553 bus (I don't know what the OS is for this or even if there is an "OS" since each piece of hardware is its own system), the Solaris ThinkPads that are interfacing the main system, and the random computers that do everything else. I personally think all these different machines running different OS's and other software can cause (and may have caused) problems for the station as a whole even though each part may be best suited for its task.
OK, that is pretty much everything I know about the system of control computers on ISS; I will stop postion on this article now.
In this case, the problem was not with the interface software OR interface computer (thinkpad) but with the core system (they were still not sure whether it was software or hardware last I checked). Not only that, but the software of the Thinkpad was not provided by a "monolith^H^H^H^Hpoly" unless you consider Sun Solaris a monopoly.
I guess I always did think of HAL as an OS and not an interface. That is an interesting revelation to me, but that still doesn't change the fact that the interface didn't cause the problem and the fact that the interface wasn't supplied by a monopoly.
I have no idea what the arm and stuff is running and how it communicates with everything else.
I think there are also a couple thinkpads that are Windows only, but they are just used for email and reading documents and stuff (nothing mission critical).
Also, according to that same article, it is sounding more like a software glitch again. Of course, that still doesn't mean it is Microsoft.
Apparently, the station came back online before having to "rock the casbah." I guess that's good because we didn't have to intentionally break things. It's unfortunate because I love silly, brute force solutions like this.
exactly.
What really happened is the US control module computers stopped responding to any inputs from the ground. They weren't able to control the station or tell it to shutdown or anything. Their plan to fix it (last I heard) was to have the Russian control module move and shake the ISS around until the US system thought it was out of control and went into what is called Free Drift Mode. In this mode, it can be completely controlled by the Russian module and we can debug the system and bring it back online.
That is not what happened at all. The IBM thinkpads are just INTERFACES for the control system. They don't actually control things. They just allow the astronauts to see what is going on in the station and sendc ommands. All of the actual control (autonomous and commanded) is done by other machines: three Command and Control Multiplexor/DeMultiplexors (not running windows).
I was in a real riot in San Francisco a few years ago. The town was holding a city-wide party open to the public. Too many people showed up so they blocked off some streets. We were in a crowd of people going to the party when the cops start forcing us from three directions at an intersection while more people were pouring in from the fourth. We weren't out for the riot and weren't rioting. At Purdue, though, these people actively left their houses/dorms to be in the riot. I think that is almost as bad as the damagers themselves.
A lot of people the next day were complaining about how the police were arresting/gassing the violent rioters as well as the by-standers. In my opinion, if you are out in the middle of a riot and don't leave when the cops show up: a) you're an idiot; b) you are hindering the police's ability to maintain order. Others have made the statement that they were just trying to get home and were "caught in the riot." If you are walking home and see a big, violent group of people then walk around them and find another way home. My friend was walking home from school during a riot 2 years ago. He was chased by a naked, drunken tuba player and the riots were blocking his way home, too, but he didn't get into the riot; he went around them and got home without being tear gassed or tipping over a car.
People have been complaining about this all last week, but they were out there helping to create the problem. If these "by-standers" had stayed inside (when they KNEW full well that there would be riots), it wouldn't have been a riot but just isolated incidences of violence. I think posting the pictures of the idiots in the riots will not only take away the assumed anonymity of being out in PUBLIC (where some of the riots erupted) or on private property (I don't know if a land-grant university is considered public or private property), but make them be responsible for their actions.
I think the statement about employers and parents is a good one, too. When I own a company or am hiring for one, I want to know if my prospective employees are going to have a mind of their own or will just succumb to mob mentality.
These people are in freaking college now. They are supposed to be adults, able to carry guns and drink responsibly. If they can't even control their anger at the loss of a basketball game (assuming they actually care about the game) or control the urge to riot for fun, they should no longer be treated as adults and should be expelled from the university. Having their pictures up on the web for everyone to see is showing them that they have to act like citizens to be treated like citizens.
As for the US astronauts not getting special training before going up on Mir... do you not know that our astronauts are trained for YEARS before ever being assigned a mission? Though I'm not sure about this, I think most (if not all) of the US astronauts sent to Mir had already been on a Shuttle mission. That sounds like relevant training to me. The Mir is also one country's station and not twelve country's. Canada doesn't want this guy going when we install the arm. The US doesn't want him going when we install our stuff. I'm sure none of the other countries really want this guy up there when their stuff is being installed and tested.
About the guy who was on Mir during the fire: yeah, he stayed out of the way while the trained guys fixed things. Wouldn't it have been nice to actually have another trained and helpful person up there fixing problems instead of just "staying out of the way?"
NASA does have to pay to train this guy and that is where we are putting our foot down. He is part of a Russian crew and we have to train that crew to do certain tasks. If we have all of our procedures based around three members and now it is only two, can we really successfully accomplish a safe mission without redesigning the mission? Even if we didn't have to train him and didn't have to worry about his safety and didn't have to worry about the safety of the mission, we would still be paying an opportunity cost for not having a trained scientist or engineer up there (though he is an engineer, he would need training to help with science experiments).
I just checked that out and he was. I wonder why the news stories never mention that little fact. They always refer to him as "American Businessman" and never as "former NASA engineer" or "American Businessman and former NASA engineer." As an engineer he would be much less useless and dangerous, but NASA would still have to pay a ton of money to train him. Astronauts train for 2 years before being assigned a mission (then they train some more); he wouldn't need that much training, but he would still need a lot.
Wasted space. He is taking up space and money on a scientific mission. Not only that, but he is in no way prepared should any technical problems come up (not an engineer, scientist, or even mechanic). Maybe on a mission when we have everything running smoothly we can take some tourists, but we are still building this and testing it. It is just not the right time.
Besides, what does the MPAA have to do with this?
It wasn't a motion picture that was released in theaters or anything. It didn't get a rating so the MPAA had nothing to do with this.
Maybe you meant the DVD CCA?
Even then, it doesn't require their consent to make a DVD so they weren't involved there. The show was put on (I think) by the SciFi channel and they aren't part of the CCA so you're not supporting the CCA. It was distributed by Artisan Entertainment (which may be in the CCA, but I'm not sure), but they are a major place for independent films so you may want to support them.
Or maybe you are talking about the lack of legal DVD movie players for Linux?
I thought there finally was one. If not, I think you can use the new DeCSS program that was written in C to decode and play in real time which would make it fair use if you delete the copy you make of it everytime.
The only reason not to buy this DVD would be if you didn't like the show. The same goes for some foreign/anime films.