Slashdot Mirror


User: n76lima

n76lima's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
29
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 29

  1. Had a glass of water at Lake Tahoe CA? on Urine Passes NASA Taste Test · · Score: 5, Informative

    The waste water treatment industry has 3 levels of treatment here on Earth. Primary was what was done in the 60's and before (if any treatment). Solids were ground and held to allow bacteria to digest it (the septic tank method) and it was dumped in the river to dilute it for downstream, with a shot of Chlorine. Then secondary treatment came online in the 70's and later, which is what most municipalities do today, where the solids are filtered out by vacuum or pressure filters and burned or buried, but you'd still be able to tell that the chlorine treated effluent was far from potable.

    Finally there is tertiary treatment, which yields water so pure you could drink it (disgusting as it might seem), and this is what is implemented at locations such as Lake Tahoe CA. The water flowing out of the waste water treatment is cleaner than that in the lake itself, after the calcium filtration, etc. There are also de-nitrogenation and de-phosphoration processes to "scrub" the effluent of excess Nitrogen and Phosphorus.

    How did you think the Mission to Mars was going to supply water to the crew? Certainly could not tanker enough fresh water to make the multi-year trip to Mars AND BACK.

  2. Aircraft Plexi Repair to the rescue! on Effective Optical Disc Repair? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Use Micro-Mesh to remove scratches from the music side of the disc. It will remove scratches that you can catch a fingernail in, as well as the minor ones. Yes it is "sandpaper", but it is a system of varying grits that are used to restore the optics of aircraft windows, etc. I have extensive experience with it, and it works great when recovering a damaged CD. http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/

  3. Re:I'm skeptical -- ZPM power? on 100-MPG Air-Powered Car Headed To US Next Year · · Score: 1

    "ZPM spokesman Kevin Haydon told PM" That's IT! They are using ZPM's for power!

    What? You don't watch Stargate-Atlantis?
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Point_Module

    --
    Sig: A model airplane company in Iowa
  4. May Violate Noise Pollution Ordinances on Beamed Sonic Advertising Is Coming · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Many municipalities have ordinances against intentional noise, like the ones against overly loud Car Stereos. The local ones specify a number of feet from the source as the limit for hearing the sound.

    Targeted "sonic advertising" could be construed as noise pollution, even if it has a very small foot print.

    I am not keen to see a technology like this used to interrupt one's thoughts and concentration, particularly for commercial purposes.

    A possible "good" use for it might be at street crossings to warn pedestrians of changes in the traffic lights. I am sure that other uses for the public good could be found.

    --
    Sig: A model airplane company in Montezuma IA.

  5. Re:VOOM for OTA on Where Are All of the HDTV Tuners? · · Score: 1

    I picked up a Voom TV box from a local installer after they folded, just so I could get HD OTA broadcasts.

    Paid a whopping $50 for receiver and another $25 for the VOOM flat panel antenna and mount. Only had to buy a little COAX to go with it, and I was set. Even came with its own remote.

    As I understand it, the VOOM box has to have been activated for it to be of any use, so be sure you check on that point before picking one up off Ebay, etc.

    --
    Karma is overrated!

  6. NASA did a test plane decades ago on The Pentagon's Supersonic, Shape-Shifting Assassin · · Score: 5, Informative

    I recall seeing a NASA test plane with a swiveling wing at the EAA OSHKOSH airshow back in the early 80's. It was one place, jet powered, and was flown in the airshow with the wing rotated to a fairly steep angle several times. It was a proof of concept to explore control issues and to prove that the wing need not be swept BACK on both sides to improve aerodynamics at high speeds. They referred to is as the AD-1", an oblique wing aircraft.

    --
    We don't need no stinkin' sig!

  7. There are several competing systems like this on High-Tech RepoMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    My brother runs a car lot in Memphis and has been using a device like this for years.

    Sure a saavy mechanic can find the ignition lock out and disable it, but its in the contract that people sign at purchase that they will not disturb it, and is a felony to tamper with it (at least in Tennessee).

    He's had a few folks defeat it and stop making payments, but eventually something happens to get the car repo'd and the customer in hot water. He says he's lost a very tiny percentage of the hundreds of cars he's outfitted with the ignition lock out.

    --
    We don't NEED no stinkin' sig

  8. Microwave your Passport? on Fatal Flaw Weakens RFID Passports · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So its time to Microwave your new Passport for a few seconds to cook the RFID device, right?

    --We don't NEED no stinkin' sig!

  9. Re:Intercontinental US "ETOPS" on Successful Supersonic Jet Launch · · Score: 1

    ETOPS, Extended Twin-engine Operation Performance Standard, is what you are trying to remember the name for. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS

    It might be a unimportant factor if the "space plane" will be flying a boost-glide profile, in which after obtaining its initial trajectory, it glides at high Mach for most of the rest of the way.

    -----
    We don't need no stinkin' sig!

  10. Shades of Pentium Pro on Itanium Will Only Be Partly Supported by Longhorn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Its deja vu all over again.

    MS was slow to get 32 bit support to the Pentium Pro, and Intel twisted in the wind for a couple years with expensive chips and no support for the mainstream.

    Now we have Itanium64 and MS is again (very) late with support, and now saying that the much promised and never yet delivered Longhorn will not give the support to Itanium that it will need.

    Maybe Intel ought not to accept MS's promise of support for new chip architectures and look to FOSS for their hot new chip's support for the first couple years. What a boost to their sales and to the FOSS world if they'd supply the kernel updates for their new architecture.

    Seems like they ought to know:
    "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

    Sig: Nothing to see here, move along.

  11. Re:I hope they invite the DShield guy on Hunting for Botnet Command and Controls · · Score: 1

    This sounds like Steve Gibson at Gibson Research.

    http://www.grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm

    This is the story about them being DDOS'ed and him cracking the IRC channel that was being used to run the bots.

  12. Re:Sympathetic vibration is fun. on dB Drag Racing · · Score: 1

    Howabout that scene in DC Cab where they crank up the sound system in the cab and BLOW ALL THE WINDOWS OUT?

  13. Slashdot DDOS attack on Toshiba servers on Toshiba Introduces A 17"-Screen Laptop · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sheesh! I read the story and see only *3* comments and when I try to hit the lonk to Toshiba to see the bad boy, I find the server is so busy it times out. When will we ahve a link to the RIAA so we can DDOS them again?

  14. Methane wasted at many facilities on Cow Manure --> Electricity · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ever drive by a HUMAN sewage plant? See that orange flame at the top of a tall pipe? That is the same "bio-gas" which is surplus being wasted. See the large spheres nearby? Those are "bio-gas" storage tanks. Many facilities use it to heat the digester tanks to promote microbe growth.

    Imagine if human waste treatment were to start generating electricity. Your local water and sewage board could start PAYING you for the privilege of of disposing of your sewage.

  15. Roogle is just ASKING for trouble... on Roogle: RSS Search Engine · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why would one intentially seek to raise the hackles of the Google Lawyers? If one has a new search engine that has different algorithms or some unique features that will help it become a standard in the industry, then why rip off the masthead logo of the current indusrty leader and BEG for the cease and desist letter to arrive in the morning mail?

    Can they be mounting a serious effort or is it April Fool's Day already?

  16. CRASHED Exo-skeleton Flying Vehicle on Buy Your Very Own Exoskeleton Flying Vehicle · · Score: 5, Informative

    The reason they are selling the proto-type is that it got tangled up in the tether during a test hop and crashed. Its damaged and they don't have the funds to fix it. The DOD/DARPA folks that were supporting the development declined to extend the deadline(s) for demonstration of the technology after the crash.

    The whole story as told from the SoloTrek perspective is on their web site. http://www.solotrek.com/

  17. Surgeon General's Warning? on MS Cites National Security to Justify Closed Source · · Score: 2, Funny

    If the M$ Code is so dangerous, maybe we can get Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.
    to require warning labels on every box!

    "Warning: This product may exhibit serious security flaws and compromise National Security and cause death of US Soldiers fiting terrorism in foreign countries."

  18. Re:Rough draft vs. Gold standard on 3rd Chromosome Deciphered · · Score: 1

    Its the difference between having the compiled code and having the source. Just because you have SEQUENCED all the genes doesn't mean you know anything about what they do.

    That was what was so ludicrous about the "mappers" wanting to copyright and patent the genome. They only found the SEQUENCE, not the function of each pair.

  19. IBM Thinkpad NOT so difficult to upgrade on Notebook Upgrades: Hacking your Dell/Compaq/Toshiba · · Score: 4, Interesting

    About a year ago I "hot rodded" my 4 year old IBM Thinkpad which started out life as a P-133 w/16 MB RAM and 2 GB HD.

    I was able to find info on IBM's web pages http://www-1.ibm.com/support/ to change the dip switches for the clock ratio and the CPU voltage. I bought a used AMD K6-233 CPU off of Ebay for $30, a 32 MB RAM upgrade from McGlen Micro http://www.mcglen.com/, and a 6 GB Fujitsu HD from a local store and upgraded it in an afternoon.

    Because I was not willing to clip the pin on the CPU I am limited to 200 MHz as the dip switch settings did not support 3.5 clock multiplier, and the backplane is limited to 66 MHz. But the increase in raw CPU speed was 50%, and with the extra RAM (48 MB total) even WinDOZE 98 was able to perform acceptably well.

    By adding the 6 GB HD I had room for both the WinDOZE and RH 6.1 (Cartman) and all the apps I wanted.

    A full install of Office 2K and Star Office 5 allow me compatibility where ever I roam.

    Now if I could just upgrade the 56K modem with "portable" DSL when I travel....

  20. Re:Sort the names out first ... on A Number For Everything · · Score: 1

    For at least the fouth option (gender dysphoria) they could all have androgenous names like "Pat" or "Chris", etc. [Grin]

  21. Re:Aristotelian Logic on Virus Cost Estimate For 2001 Tops $10 Billion · · Score: 1

    Where are the lawyers when you need them?

    Aircraft manufacturer's have been sued because they made "defective" aircraft that will run out of fuel and crash.

    If Microsoft made "defective" tools that allow a Virus to be written, they should be held responsible under the same perverted logic that blames the aircraft manufacturer when the user was at fault.

  22. Re:If I were the owner of the ISP on Spammers Stoop To New Low · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "I would just shut off MonsterHut."
    This equals "I will rot in jail for contempt of Court."

    "But you better get your shit together and make sure you can prove they are spamming."

    They tried this. They brought affidavits to Court showing numerous complaints from those that have email addresses setup for only Network Solutions contact, and spam traps that have never been used for public email, etc.

    "Something that puzzles me though is I wonder why the ISP didn't force MonsterHut to sign to some kind of agreement that protects the ISP and grants power to the ISP to cut them off for violating the TOS."

    They did have an agreement that specifically banned "B.U.C.E." or SPAM. But MonsterHut argued that they should be allowed to continue unless 2% of the 69 million emails sent came back as complaints! PAETEC has been warned by Vario (their upstream provider) that they are in danger of being cut off because of this!

    "This should be a lesson for other ISP's who may know how to run an ISP (e.g. technically) but not how to protect themselves legally."

    Fat chance. PAETEC had a contract negotiated with MonsterHut which the Judge examined and found to be valid, but he issued the injuction anyway, inspite of MonsterHut not meeting deadlines for depostions, etc.

  23. Re:Oops, unexpected outage. on Spammers Stoop To New Low · · Score: 1

    An EXCELLENT idea. If my DSL can go down for hours at a time with no explanation (or refund!) It seems reasonable that the PAETEC circuits *might* go out on occasion!

    And yes the Judge DOES have internet access at home and an email address. I read the entire 73 page transcript of the hearing. He claims that SPAM is annoying and unwanted at home, and costly (productivity) in business. So he's not clueless about this issue.

  24. Not 10 years for the first release... on Good Software Takes 10 Years? · · Score: 5

    I work in the medical practice management business. A group of Docs that I consult with have their own PM app suite that they had written in house. Its 14 years old, and has gone through 2 major re-writes. It ddn't take 10 years to produce good workable software, but it continues to take development to refine it and add features that the staff need to transition to an office model that uses less paper. It started as a DOS program and evolved into several DOS sessions that could be task switched under Windows 3.1, then 95. Now the current version is all Windows (on the desktop, we run extensive Linux support on all the servers). They have had a full time programmer on staff for 14 years with no end in sight. The current thrust is to make the medical records available to the Docs on the web through a browser interface. The cost to develop it has all been paid by 1 clinic, and I estimate that they have ~$1 million tied up in the coding over the life of the project.

  25. XP is not the salvation of the PC industry on Microsoft Case Slogs Forward · · Score: 4

    XP is not going to pull the Big 4 out of the PC sales doldrums. The reason PC sales have fallen off is 2 fold. We have a softening economy (DOH!) and the current crop of PCs are so very powerful and so very cheap that consumers don't want/need to upgrade to new machines. An Athlon 1200 based system for ~$750 WITH a 17" monitor and 128 MB of RAM? What possible application could a potential PC buyer have that needs more power than that? The problem is one of economics. If the PC is selling for 1/2 the price it was 2 years ago, then the manufacturer has to sell twice as many units to maintain sales volume in dollars. With the markup being so competitive there is the same or LESS percentage of profit in each unit. How long can you make money manufacturing the same product for the 1/2 the price and having to sell twice as many of them, and all the while each sale requires the same manpower to build, test and then TECH SUPPORT each unit? This is a recipe for financial ruin that all PC makers are struggling against. XP does not change any of this, particularly since MS will be selling XP to be installed on existing systems. No chance that they will insist it can only be purchased with a new system. The possibility that the DOJ is going to seek an injunction against the sale of XP as a remedy for past actions by MS may well send shock waves through the PC industry, but even if the Federal Government were PROMOTING the purchase of XP with tax incentives (XP purchase cost tax deductable to consumers?) This would NOT cause a stampede to buy new PCs. Thus "rescuing" PC builders in the 4th Quarter.