According to TFA, the TSA scumbag (Pythias Brown, eBay ID 'alirla') has been placed on administrative leave and will soon be fired. On top of that, his eBay registration has been canceled.:-) Pity (for eBay) because he has 100% positive feedback.
Yeah, there's nothing new under the sun -- it's been going on for years. When I was in the USAF in the late 70's and 80's, Squadron Intelligence got their data on the foreign powers and briefed aircrews based on articles in Time Magazine.
... I don't much care if retailers evade some sales taxes.
Well I do care. I pay the retailer the sales tax and he pockets it. He's not only cheating the government; he's scamming me.
I always have my suspicions about a dealer at a flea market, convention, etc. who charges sales tax when none of the others do (because they know they can get away with it for a temporary occasion). I usually assume that dealer is greedier than the others.
Of course, I often think the worst (and am often proved right).
Sheesh! Air controllers don't land planes, stricken or otherwise. Aircrews land airplanes. The airplane will land (and fly) just fine without an "air controller".
Air traffic controllers _clear_ airplanes to land. This involves traffic de-confliction and statistically improves safety but there are plenty of non-towered airports where the aircrew routinely lands without benefit of Air Traffic Control.
For instance: http://flightaware.com/live/airport/KPUW At Pullman/Moscow Regional Airport, a non-towered field near Pullman, WA, Horizon Airlines makes almost a dozen arrivals and departures a day _after_ they leave air traffic control.
This applies to devices they sell too, voice or data. GSM is supposed to work better than that. I'm so happy to be an ex-Cingular (now AT&T) GSM voice customer.
> "Would you buy a Ferrari and put regular gas into it?
If the compression ratio and timing of the Ferarri's engine was suitable for 87 octane gasoline, yes I would. Octane higher than needed doesn't translate into more power, easier starting, "cleaner" burning, etc.
Similarly for memory. If the memory meets the required specs, good enough.
And "good enough" is what I strive for. (Not "perfect", not "better", not "premium".)
Typical inept Slashdot editing: the data is *encoded* (as the original AvWeb article states), not encrypted.
Sure, JPI is an evil company with a history of slimey dealings as shown here http://home.earthlink.net/~timrv6a/jpi.html but lets be accurate about what they've done.
If JPI (or someone else) was to provide info on the format of the encoded data there would be no news story.
Indeed. In 1980 in the electronics market section of Seoul, Korea I came across parts and PC boards for the Krapple. A couple of months later in Tokyo I found similar items for the Japple.
A female friend used one to shop and run errands while vacationing in California. She described is as a "man magnet", much the same as my cute dog is a babe magnet. Perhaps that's a consideration for you.
Not Just in the 50s
on
Nuke-Lobbing
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
This type of nuclear delivery wasn't limited to the USN Skyraiders in the 50s. As late as 1980 (and possibly later) the USAF F-111As at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho and the other models of F-111s at Cannon AFB, NM and in the U.K. practiced nuclear deliveries of two types.
Each type was executed with a 4G pullup some 5 NM short of the target (at 540 KGS IIRC). In both cases, the bomb released at about 45 degrees nose high during the pullup. The toss/loft ended with a 135-degree bank turning split-S type of egress manuver and the LADD (Low Altitude Drogue Delivery) had a roll inverted after bomb release, a pull down to low altitude (200 feet) and straight out egress over the target. The loft delivery was for a "slick" bomb; the LADD for a "retarded" (one with a drogue chute).
What made them exciting was doing them at night using the TFR (Terrain Following Radar) for ingress and egress! The pullup, roll, and pulldown were done manually of course.
Never occurred to us that these manuvers weren't survivable. Of course, F-111 airspeeds were half an order of magnitude faster than the Skyraider but the bomb was a B-61 with considerably more yield.
> jump into both the modern PDA (I owned the original Palm until this year)
I'd consider any Palm PDA as modern -- I use a Hewlett-Packard 200LX Palmtop, vintage 1991. The price was right (it was given to me when I worked at HP) and amazingly, it can run MS-DOS programs.
Listening to whining about modern PDA synching problems makes me laugh -- the HP200LX syncs through a proprietary serial cable using a DOS program that pre-dates Windows-95.
But this is another instance of the old saw: "good enough is the enemy of perfect". And another example of a market that HP practically invented and now, for one reason or another, no longer competes in.
> two centuries ago, American President Thomas Jefferson sought a paltry $2,500 in funds.
We can expect a certain lack of financial acumen from a "Senior Space Writer" but what mathemetically-educated person thinks $2500 two hundred years ago is "paltry"? At 6% interest, it would be worth about $287 million today. And at 10% it would be worth $474 billion.
Disclaimer: my calculations were hastily done with Lotus-1-2-3. Nevertheless, my point is that $2500 two hundred years ago is worth more than $2500 in year 2003 dollars.
If they turned it around a flew it the other way, then they wouldn't have all the instability problems you get with carard configuration aircraft... IMHO
Huh? Canard != unstable design. My VariEze (canard pusher designed by Burt Rutan) is the model of stability. As angle of attack increases (airspeed decreases), the canard will stall before the main wing, resulting in the nose pitching down. With the nose down, the angle of attack is reduced (airspeed increases) and the stall is broken. If you apply full aft elevator, the aircraft will "porpoise" but always under control without any wing drop or tendency to depart controlled flight.
OK, I'm not talking static or dynamic stability in the classic aero sense and I'll make no argument that the Wright Flyer was unstable. But it's not because it used a canard (and rear propulsion).
> I wholeheartedly support banning of ALL rebates.
Yeah, just what we need -- more rules, regulations, and government intervention. Just vote with your wallet and don't buy Age of Empires 2 or whatever if you don't like the deal. Take some responsibility upon yourself instead of saddling the rest of society with it.
Slashdot Mirror
According to TFA, the TSA scumbag (Pythias Brown, eBay ID 'alirla') has been placed on administrative leave and will soon be fired. On top of that, his eBay registration has been canceled. :-) Pity (for eBay) because he has 100% positive feedback.
Great timestamp verbage on Motzarella:
"Today is September, 5500 1993, the september that never ends".
If you're new here, you should know about Eternal_September.
Yeah, there's nothing new under the sun -- it's been going on for years. When I was in the USAF in the late 70's and 80's, Squadron Intelligence got their data on the foreign powers and briefed aircrews based on articles in Time Magazine.
Well I do care. I pay the retailer the sales tax and he pockets it. He's not only cheating the government; he's scamming me.
I always have my suspicions about a dealer at a flea market, convention, etc. who charges sales tax when none of the others do (because they know they can get away with it for a temporary occasion). I usually assume that dealer is greedier than the others.
Of course, I often think the worst (and am often proved right).
Sheesh! Air controllers don't land planes, stricken or otherwise. Aircrews land airplanes. The airplane will land (and fly) just fine without an "air controller".
Air traffic controllers _clear_ airplanes to land. This involves traffic de-confliction and statistically improves safety but there are plenty of non-towered airports where the aircrew routinely lands without benefit of Air Traffic Control.
For instance: http://flightaware.com/live/airport/KPUW
At Pullman/Moscow Regional Airport, a non-towered field near Pullman, WA, Horizon Airlines makes almost a dozen arrivals and departures a day _after_ they leave air traffic control.
Your puny weapons are no match for our superior GPS.
This applies to devices they sell too, voice or data. GSM is supposed to work better than that. I'm so happy to be an ex-Cingular (now AT&T) GSM voice customer.
# Worst network ever.
It really doesn't much matter. It's as Homer Simpson says: "Marge, no one flies commercial except losers and terrorists!".
> ... the company "has done a 360" since the primary
A 360, eh? As in: "Let's do a 360 and get the f*** out of here"?
> "Would you buy a Ferrari and put regular gas into it?
If the compression ratio and timing of the Ferarri's engine was suitable for 87 octane gasoline, yes I would. Octane higher than needed doesn't translate into more power, easier starting, "cleaner" burning, etc.
Similarly for memory. If the memory meets the required specs, good enough.
And "good enough" is what I strive for. (Not "perfect", not "better", not "premium".)
It's Johns Hopkins, not John Hopkins. Sheesh :-(
Oh, yeah, this is Slashdot -- never mind.
Typical inept Slashdot editing: the data is *encoded* (as the original AvWeb article states), not encrypted. Sure, JPI is an evil company with a history of slimey dealings as shown here http://home.earthlink.net/~timrv6a/jpi.html but lets be accurate about what they've done. If JPI (or someone else) was to provide info on the format of the encoded data there would be no news story.
> I am not trying to get rich, but . . .
Why not? What's wrong with trying to get rich?
Or is that code for not wanting to get into management? I can understand that but being rich is a Good Thing (tm).
Or is do you have an objection to _trying_ because Homer Simpson says "the first step toward failure is trying so never, ever try"?
--
Joe
For a supposedly "operating system agnostic" ISP I'm disappointed that Flash is required to use DirecWay's web site.
Of course, "agnostic" means "skeptical about the existence of God". Perhaps what is required is a full "atheist operating system".
--
Joe
> there was a brief market in Apple II clones
Indeed. In 1980 in the electronics market section of Seoul, Korea I came across parts and PC boards for the Krapple. A couple of months later in Tokyo I found similar items for the Japple.
I'm not making this up!
> Someone who is paid for the purposes of developing an application.
And are embedded systems programmers not developers? (Firmware != an application).
> Hybrid/Electric Vehicles: Should I Buy?
A female friend used one to shop and run errands while vacationing in California. She described is as a "man magnet", much the same as my cute dog is a babe magnet. Perhaps that's a consideration for you.
This type of nuclear delivery wasn't limited to the USN Skyraiders in the 50s. As late as 1980 (and possibly later) the USAF F-111As at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho and the other models of F-111s at Cannon AFB, NM and in the U.K. practiced nuclear deliveries of two types.
Each type was executed with a 4G pullup some 5 NM short of the target (at 540 KGS IIRC). In both cases, the bomb released at about 45 degrees nose high during the pullup. The toss/loft ended with a 135-degree bank turning split-S type of egress manuver and the LADD (Low Altitude Drogue Delivery) had a roll inverted after bomb release, a pull down to low altitude (200 feet) and straight out egress over the target. The loft delivery was for a "slick" bomb; the LADD for a "retarded" (one with a drogue chute).
What made them exciting was doing them at night using the TFR (Terrain Following Radar) for ingress and egress! The pullup, roll, and pulldown were done manually of course.
Never occurred to us that these manuvers weren't survivable. Of course, F-111 airspeeds were half an order of magnitude faster than the Skyraider but the bomb was a B-61 with considerably more yield.
> jump into both the modern PDA (I owned the original Palm until this year)
I'd consider any Palm PDA as modern -- I use a Hewlett-Packard 200LX Palmtop, vintage 1991. The price was right (it was given to me when I worked at HP) and amazingly, it can run MS-DOS programs.
Listening to whining about modern PDA synching problems makes me laugh -- the HP200LX syncs through a proprietary serial cable using a DOS program that pre-dates Windows-95.
But this is another instance of the old saw: "good enough is the enemy of perfect". And another example of a market that HP practically invented and now, for one reason or another, no longer competes in.
> Even more unrelated, where the hell do you get gas.
If you're at 20,000 feet in a USAF fighter, you might look for something like this: http://www.af.mil/news/Feb2003/20603250.shtml
Admittedly somewhat off-topic but I thought the picture of Ladies Night Over Afghanistan was cool.
--
Joe
The space.com referenced story says:
> two centuries ago, American President Thomas Jefferson sought a paltry $2,500 in funds.
We can expect a certain lack of financial acumen from a "Senior Space Writer" but what mathemetically-educated person thinks $2500 two hundred years ago is "paltry"? At 6% interest, it would be worth about $287 million today. And at 10% it would be worth $474 billion.
Disclaimer: my calculations were hastily done with Lotus-1-2-3. Nevertheless, my point is that $2500 two hundred years ago is worth more than $2500 in year 2003 dollars.
--
Joe
If they turned it around a flew it the other way, then they wouldn't have all the instability problems you get with carard configuration aircraft... IMHO
Huh? Canard != unstable design. My VariEze (canard pusher designed by Burt Rutan) is the model of stability. As angle of attack increases (airspeed decreases), the canard will stall before the main wing, resulting in the nose pitching down. With the nose down, the angle of attack is reduced (airspeed increases) and the stall is broken. If you apply full aft elevator, the aircraft will "porpoise" but always under control without any wing drop or tendency to depart controlled flight.
OK, I'm not talking static or dynamic stability in the classic aero sense and I'll make no argument that the Wright Flyer was unstable. But it's not because it used a canard (and rear propulsion).
--
Joe
> I wholeheartedly support banning of ALL rebates.
Yeah, just what we need -- more rules, regulations, and government intervention. Just vote with your wallet and don't buy Age of Empires 2 or whatever if you don't like the deal. Take some responsibility upon yourself instead of saddling the rest of society with it.
> An update on the health of troubled HAM satellite Oscar 40
Typical rookie mistake; it's "ham" not "HAM" radio.
--
Joe
> traffic accident on US route 95 in Maryland.
This doesn't ring true. US 95 is in Idaho and other western states.
--
Joe