Their calculations showed that the containment facility was in danger...
Containment facility? Umm.. that was their problem. There was NO containment. All they had was a heavy lid on the reactor, which blew off due to steam pressure caused by a power spike. The containment facility (aka the Sarcophagus) was built after the meltdown.
It still pisses me off to know that USSR was so negligent in their design. Due to the meltdown, which was also caused by human intervention (hey, let's bypass safety interlocks!), nuclear has become so misunderstood and feared. The repercussions of the meltdown on the environment is astronomical. Not because of the radiation dust (not a huge deal really), but the massive stigma placed on nuclear plants thereafter. Literally billions of tons of CO2 could have been prevented if nuclear plants were the norm today rather than the feared bogyman they are now.
800 millirem per hour might sound like a lot, but I don't think she's going to hang around there long. What I would be worried about is the radioactive particulate that still might be around. Once it gets into your lungs, that's bad news because both beta and alpha radiation can wreck havoc on your insides. Gamma isn't as big as a deal (since it just usually goes through stuff anyways).
I work at a nuclear power plant, and there are fields in certain places that go upwards to 25 REM/h. So, what do you do? Don't stand near it and get your buddy to (unknowingly) shield you!
What we need is a sniper at a Spam convention to thin out the ranks a bit... There's probably hundreds of pyschos out there into all kinds of weird stuff. Why can't a few be interested in offing a few of these spamboys like me? Waitaminute....
Why? Because there's always added costs on top of that. Extra batteries, lots of tapes (because you're actually going to use it right?), nice video tripod (because you don't want to hold it all the time), software for some editing (yes, you DO want to do that), bigger HD to hold all that video (1 gig for every 5 min of vid!!) and the knowledge that anything more will be a waste of money because it'll be obsolete in 2 years, regardless of price. Also, summer vacation usually involves outdoors (I hope so!), so the possibility of theft, weather damage, abuse and other unknowns are factored in. Do you really want to loose a $2k camera due to a bit of sand on the beach?
Things to note:
-MiniDV is the way to go right now (decent tape prices, wide availability, good resolution, small size).
-MiniDVD's are expensive and not good for motion stuff (optical skip!).
-MiniMPG tapes are pricy but smaller. The quality is actually less than MiniDV due to the inherent compression, since it's native MPEG2 format (yeah, I know MiniDV is compressed, but not nearly as bad).
-Digital8 is more of a stop-gap between the world of digital and Hi8. Lower resolution and uses 2x the tape (so a 90 min Hi8 tape only lasts for 45 min)
- Be wary of zoom and resolution claims. High levels of zoom is pretty impractical (digital or optical) due to your shaky hand, and the speed of the zoom (ever notice that TV and movies don't whip up and down from 1x to 40x)? Resolution is another tricky thing. All media formats have a standardized resolution, so a mega-pixel camcorder won't be any better (at least on a normal CRT TV) than a lower res one.
- Lens quality is important, as the light-gathering abilities (and distortions) affect the image actually more than the CCD itself. Try to get the best you can get in that respect.
- If you only have a CRT TV (or older projection TV), the limitations of your TV will hold back the quality of the video. You'll notice a HUGE difference in quality from your computer screen vs the TV.
- You're going to have to transfer the material one way or another, even if you don't edit it, if you want to share your memories. The general public doesn't have MiniDV VCR's and such. Even the MiniDVD you have to duplicate if you want to share the video. Keep in mind a possible loss (potentially major) of quality when transferring to another media, whether it be VHS, VCD or SVCD (preferred).
Editing video has become surprisingly easy, but still pretty time-consuming if you want to make something nice. But the quality you get is phenomenal. It's like your own TV show, to your liking. Once you start, it's hard not to get hooked. Good luck and happy video memories!
I guess it didn't help in the case of 9/11 where all the hijackers were middle-class Saudi who had a pretty good life.
This computer break-in (yes, that's what it is) disappoints me, but doesn't surprise me. I just wish someone on the GOP stopped it while it was happening. That would at least give them some moral ground.
I love the fact that they're still making Peter Parker a geek. True to the comic's heritage and spirit. Although in the first one we see that he has no need for glasses, he's still wearing them here. A geek at heart, but one that can kick ass.
The anguish between his powers/ reponsibilities and love life looks to play a bigger part in this movie. DocOct looks great without a cheezy mask to hide behind.. and it looks like they're working in the revenge angle for Harry Osborne. Looking good here!
In CKY4, Bam Magera and Raab Himself of CKY/Jackass fame tested that if you piss on an electric fence, it *really* does electrocute your frank and beans. It hurt Raab so much that he rolls around naked in snow for a while due to the shock/pain. All in the name of science! You can also find out what happens when you try to take a dump while running at full speed (to prove a George Carlin monologue wrong) in CKY2K
I almost had the same experience, only that I was fortunately not fired (Unions ARE sometimes useful). I work at a nuclear power plant, and I posted some things in my blog that I thought was benign, as I self-censor myself when I write. Too bad the company didn't think it was that benign, even though what I posted is publically available info. PR, security, upper management all nit-picked my blog. After a "chat" with my boss's boss, I took down my site (but still confused about the fuss). Trust me, during that few days I was really combing through my blog making sure I didn't let something REALLY important slip through!
It didn't take me long to realize that the company (or a contractor) had some spiders out there looking for websites with key words (company name, nuclear, etc) and probably found my blog. So, the easiest way to defeat them and still have my blog was to put up a simple login/password to my site. Only my friends/family view it anyways, and I just create one login account for everybody.
Since then, I've had 2 other friends (A teacher and a programmer) go through almost the same thing, and they've all put passwords on their sites. I would recommend ALL bloggers to do that if they decide to post anything about work, co-workers, etc if they value their jobs. If this guy did that, I bet he would still have his job.
While you're at it, please standardize audio components. Make all audio decks the same size (DIN would do nicely), have standardized connections (so I don't have to use a harness).
Standardize the on-the-wheel audio control interface so I can use it to do simple things like control volume, skip/search track/station.
If someone could do this, we would all save hundreds by not getting the overpriced audio options the car dealer has. Whoops, doesn't sound like it'll happen anytime soon.
that elderly people have, which is falling (this might surprise some of you). Elderly people falling is the *leading* cause of injury death (so heart attacks don't count) and severe injuries to old folks. Yes, gravity is the worst enemy for senior citizens.
But this exo-skeleton does nothing really to solve that problem. In fact, it can even make the falling problem even more severe, by allowing people that have lost their sense of balance to walk. Just like the fact that some old folks shouldn't be driving, some should not be walking, for their own safety.
What you're talking about is called "splitting lanes", which usually mean a motorcycle going inbetween lanes. You characterize it as dangerous, but in proper circumstances 9under 30mph), it can be actually safer than just sitting behind a car (because a motorcycle is a lot harder to see than a car, and people misjudge distances).
Which brings out this question - Why not ride a motorcycle instead of this "car"? I can't imagine it being much safer than a motorcycle (force needs distance to be dissappated), a motorcycle is more efficient (check previous posts for calculations) and performances is pretty much in the upper echlon (a good 600cc will give a Ferrari a run for it's money).
I'm talking about the power/hydro/water industry. Literally EVERYBODY needs those things, and the sources have to be localized (you can't make power in India and send it here) and due to the economy of scale (and their importance), there's a lot of money to be made in those areas. Without eletricity and water, pretty much all business as we know it ends. (Unless your a Canadian, because we live in igloos, which everybody knows doesn't mix well with electricity).
Or a job that will pretty much never go away? Be a guard for spent nuclear fuel. They're pretty tame when stored properly, but since their half-lifes tend to go to the thousands of years, your job is pretty safe in this century (unless of course, they ship it to India....)
As much as people would like to believe that Apple created the G5, that's simply not true. IBM was the one that created it, about 2.5 years ago for their servers.
This great
article discusses the general specs of the CPU and it's architecture.
A really well written (but highly technical) article. As you can see, IBM designed it to beat Sun and Alpha (still alive at the time), not Intel. As far as Apple is "involved" in the development, it's in the latter stages of implementation rather than design itself.
The Godfather DVD's are out, as a 5 disc trilogy set. It was released a year and a half ago, about $80 US.
I guess they could be meaning that they only wanted Godfather I and Godfather II as single DVD's, rather than pay for the full box set. True, Godfather III was not up to par with the other 2 movies, but it was far from "bad". It was more in the "not as good" department.
Anyways, good to see that they'll be FINALLY coming out with the DVD's. Now just get Lucas off his fat ass and get StarWars out!
The G5 name has been taken by Canon's sweet new 5 megapixel camera. They had the G1, G2, G3 and now the G5. They actually skipped G4 name due to possible trademark issued with Apple. I guess that's secretly ironic.
Otherwise, with those specs, it's about time. When it does come out, it will at least give Intel/AMD a run for the money (remember, the 64 bit stuff will be out by then), instead of eating their dust.
I take it that I'm in the minority here, belonging to a union. I work at a nuclear power plant.
Some might call unions "relics" of the 19th century, that they are resistant to change (both good and bad) and major drain on resources. I actually wouldn't argue with you there.
BUT, the current tech-worker situation has a lot of parallels of *why* unions were created in the first place. It's to prevent management from rolling over everybody, and to protect the workers (though sometimes it protects the wrong ones). One person has little bargaining power (unless they're the only ones that know the admin passwords). But a couple hundred of people like you, and it will get the company's attention.
I personally dream of the day where unions will be as professional, if not more, than management in coming up with solutions to hard problems. Nowadays, unions all seem to be money grubbing, commie organizations, when really, that's just the union stewards/presidents hijacking the real agenda, which is the well-being of the workers AND the company.
I'm not saying that unions are perfect in all situations, but there is such a thing as professional unions (Nurses, teachers, engineers that work at my plant).
Howard's obviously not clueless to this, as he's reviewed both those phones already a while back. Check out his site.
Smartphone (with a capital S) is Microsoft's brandname for... smartphones (duh!). They've copyrighted the name, so that's what Howard means when he writes "first commercially available Smartphone".
I've played with the phone myself, and the OS isn't bloated compared to the Symbian phones (they're about the same). In fact, my Nokia 3650, which uses Symbian, crashes every now and then. I'm not saying the MS one doesn't crash, but don't think because it's made by someone other than Microsoft that it's automagically better.
I'm friends with Howard, and got to see it then. It's a decent phone, and the white LED flashlight is really handy at times (much like the Photons). As for the sound meter and themometer, I guess you can use it when reviewing the latest PC =)
Kaplan/Princeton review gives you NOTHING that you can't get yourself, other than motivation of "you just blew $$$ on it so you better get the most out of the course".
I got the same mark as you on the MCAT without doing the Kaplan thing. My friend teaches Princton review (and got higher than me) never did it either.
It's all about motivation, on *how* much you want it. The books themselves are fine (I personally like PR's), but the courses.. well, they don't hurt except for the pocketbook.
They're not really elegant creatures, looking very non-discript. Scientist love them because they reproduce fast, and can tinker with their genes ( I believe they have the genome all mapped out). Some even have spliced in a "glowing" gene, much like the ones found in deep sea creatures into them.
Nor does it work the other way around, currently (even with Sony's effort).
It's really ignorant to equate 3 min clip on a digital camera to the superiority of true DV. That's like comparing a drive to Florida for 12 hours to a 2 hour plane ride. Sure, they both get you there, but it's a vastly different experience.
Even with a cheap-o MiniDV cam, it's lightyears ahead of any $2k digital camera can do, as far as moving pictures/sound quality goes.
I will admit that for some people, a digital camera is "good enough" for them, but don't bother to say it's good enough for everybody. This camcorder, for the professionals, is really a huge step forward. For the rest of us, hopefully this tech will trickle down in 5 years.
Carmack himself (on Slashdot no less) has predicted this would come to pass, due to the increasingly feature-rich and faster video chipsets.
SGI laughed at the unassuming threat of the video chipsets, thinking that they would never be as fast as brute force. Even Pixar thought the same. Boy, were they wrong though. You can set up a cheap-ass render farm for about $250k, taking up minimal space that can do the same job as a SGI render farm that costs a cool $2 million (Shuttle SFF PC w/ 3 gig CPU + ATI 9700). Of course, there's still the software side.
The Nvidia's GeForceFX and ATI's Radeon 9800 both contain features that even through the marketing-hype has some real value to programmers out there. Just look at Doom 3. It will run well on some computers that are just 6 months old. Now, imagine taking 250 of them, as a Beowulf cluster!!1
Slashdot Mirror
Containment facility? Umm.. that was their problem. There was NO containment. All they had was a heavy lid on the reactor, which blew off due to steam pressure caused by a power spike. The containment facility (aka the Sarcophagus) was built after the meltdown.
It still pisses me off to know that USSR was so negligent in their design. Due to the meltdown, which was also caused by human intervention (hey, let's bypass safety interlocks!), nuclear has become so misunderstood and feared. The repercussions of the meltdown on the environment is astronomical. Not because of the radiation dust (not a huge deal really), but the massive stigma placed on nuclear plants thereafter. Literally billions of tons of CO2 could have been prevented if nuclear plants were the norm today rather than the feared bogyman they are now.
I work at a nuclear power plant, and there are fields in certain places that go upwards to 25 REM/h. So, what do you do? Don't stand near it and get your buddy to (unknowingly) shield you!
What we need is a sniper at a Spam convention to thin out the ranks a bit... There's probably hundreds of pyschos out there into all kinds of weird stuff. Why can't a few be interested in offing a few of these spamboys like me? Waitaminute....
Things to note:
-MiniDV is the way to go right now (decent tape prices, wide availability, good resolution, small size).
-MiniDVD's are expensive and not good for motion stuff (optical skip!).
-MiniMPG tapes are pricy but smaller. The quality is actually less than MiniDV due to the inherent compression, since it's native MPEG2 format (yeah, I know MiniDV is compressed, but not nearly as bad).
-Digital8 is more of a stop-gap between the world of digital and Hi8. Lower resolution and uses 2x the tape (so a 90 min Hi8 tape only lasts for 45 min)
- Be wary of zoom and resolution claims. High levels of zoom is pretty impractical (digital or optical) due to your shaky hand, and the speed of the zoom (ever notice that TV and movies don't whip up and down from 1x to 40x)? Resolution is another tricky thing. All media formats have a standardized resolution, so a mega-pixel camcorder won't be any better (at least on a normal CRT TV) than a lower res one.
- Lens quality is important, as the light-gathering abilities (and distortions) affect the image actually more than the CCD itself. Try to get the best you can get in that respect.
- If you only have a CRT TV (or older projection TV), the limitations of your TV will hold back the quality of the video. You'll notice a HUGE difference in quality from your computer screen vs the TV.
- You're going to have to transfer the material one way or another, even if you don't edit it, if you want to share your memories. The general public doesn't have MiniDV VCR's and such. Even the MiniDVD you have to duplicate if you want to share the video. Keep in mind a possible loss (potentially major) of quality when transferring to another media, whether it be VHS, VCD or SVCD (preferred).
Editing video has become surprisingly easy, but still pretty time-consuming if you want to make something nice. But the quality you get is phenomenal. It's like your own TV show, to your liking. Once you start, it's hard not to get hooked. Good luck and happy video memories!
I guess it didn't help in the case of 9/11 where all the hijackers were middle-class Saudi who had a pretty good life. This computer break-in (yes, that's what it is) disappoints me, but doesn't surprise me. I just wish someone on the GOP stopped it while it was happening. That would at least give them some moral ground.
The anguish between his powers/ reponsibilities and love life looks to play a bigger part in this movie. DocOct looks great without a cheezy mask to hide behind.. and it looks like they're working in the revenge angle for Harry Osborne. Looking good here!
Next up, Spiderman 3.. Introducing Venom!
You can buy the DVD here
It didn't take me long to realize that the company (or a contractor) had some spiders out there looking for websites with key words (company name, nuclear, etc) and probably found my blog. So, the easiest way to defeat them and still have my blog was to put up a simple login/password to my site. Only my friends/family view it anyways, and I just create one login account for everybody.
Since then, I've had 2 other friends (A teacher and a programmer) go through almost the same thing, and they've all put passwords on their sites. I would recommend ALL bloggers to do that if they decide to post anything about work, co-workers, etc if they value their jobs. If this guy did that, I bet he would still have his job.
Standardize the on-the-wheel audio control interface so I can use it to do simple things like control volume, skip/search track/station.
If someone could do this, we would all save hundreds by not getting the overpriced audio options the car dealer has. Whoops, doesn't sound like it'll happen anytime soon.
But this exo-skeleton does nothing really to solve that problem. In fact, it can even make the falling problem even more severe, by allowing people that have lost their sense of balance to walk. Just like the fact that some old folks shouldn't be driving, some should not be walking, for their own safety.
but dammit, I wish I was now. But at least I can console myself with the fact that IANAL makes for a cooler license plate than IAAL!
Which brings out this question - Why not ride a motorcycle instead of this "car"? I can't imagine it being much safer than a motorcycle (force needs distance to be dissappated), a motorcycle is more efficient (check previous posts for calculations) and performances is pretty much in the upper echlon (a good 600cc will give a Ferrari a run for it's money).
... nothing is more powerful than "I'm gonna tell your dad!" - Chris Rock
I'm talking about the power/hydro/water industry. Literally EVERYBODY needs those things, and the sources have to be localized (you can't make power in India and send it here) and due to the economy of scale (and their importance), there's a lot of money to be made in those areas. Without eletricity and water, pretty much all business as we know it ends. (Unless your a Canadian, because we live in igloos, which everybody knows doesn't mix well with electricity).
Or a job that will pretty much never go away? Be a guard for spent nuclear fuel. They're pretty tame when stored properly, but since their half-lifes tend to go to the thousands of years, your job is pretty safe in this century (unless of course, they ship it to India....)
This great article discusses the general specs of the CPU and it's architecture.
A really well written (but highly technical) article. As you can see, IBM designed it to beat Sun and Alpha (still alive at the time), not Intel. As far as Apple is "involved" in the development, it's in the latter stages of implementation rather than design itself.
I guess they could be meaning that they only wanted Godfather I and Godfather II as single DVD's, rather than pay for the full box set. True, Godfather III was not up to par with the other 2 movies, but it was far from "bad". It was more in the "not as good" department.
Anyways, good to see that they'll be FINALLY coming out with the DVD's. Now just get Lucas off his fat ass and get StarWars out!
Otherwise, with those specs, it's about time. When it does come out, it will at least give Intel/AMD a run for the money (remember, the 64 bit stuff will be out by then), instead of eating their dust.
Some might call unions "relics" of the 19th century, that they are resistant to change (both good and bad) and major drain on resources. I actually wouldn't argue with you there.
BUT, the current tech-worker situation has a lot of parallels of *why* unions were created in the first place. It's to prevent management from rolling over everybody, and to protect the workers (though sometimes it protects the wrong ones). One person has little bargaining power (unless they're the only ones that know the admin passwords). But a couple hundred of people like you, and it will get the company's attention.
I personally dream of the day where unions will be as professional, if not more, than management in coming up with solutions to hard problems. Nowadays, unions all seem to be money grubbing, commie organizations, when really, that's just the union stewards/presidents hijacking the real agenda, which is the well-being of the workers AND the company.
I'm not saying that unions are perfect in all situations, but there is such a thing as professional unions (Nurses, teachers, engineers that work at my plant).
Smartphone (with a capital S) is Microsoft's brandname for... smartphones (duh!). They've copyrighted the name, so that's what Howard means when he writes "first commercially available Smartphone".
I've played with the phone myself, and the OS isn't bloated compared to the Symbian phones (they're about the same). In fact, my Nokia 3650, which uses Symbian, crashes every now and then. I'm not saying the MS one doesn't crash, but don't think because it's made by someone other than Microsoft that it's automagically better.
HowardChui.com
I'm friends with Howard, and got to see it then. It's a decent phone, and the white LED flashlight is really handy at times (much like the Photons). As for the sound meter and themometer, I guess you can use it when reviewing the latest PC =)
I got the same mark as you on the MCAT without doing the Kaplan thing. My friend teaches Princton review (and got higher than me) never did it either.
It's all about motivation, on *how* much you want it. The books themselves are fine (I personally like PR's), but the courses.. well, they don't hurt except for the pocketbook.
Go here for more info (genetic) and a pic of them
It's really ignorant to equate 3 min clip on a digital camera to the superiority of true DV. That's like comparing a drive to Florida for 12 hours to a 2 hour plane ride. Sure, they both get you there, but it's a vastly different experience.
Even with a cheap-o MiniDV cam, it's lightyears ahead of any $2k digital camera can do, as far as moving pictures/sound quality goes.
I will admit that for some people, a digital camera is "good enough" for them, but don't bother to say it's good enough for everybody. This camcorder, for the professionals, is really a huge step forward. For the rest of us, hopefully this tech will trickle down in 5 years.
That being said, yeah, it would be probably be using the same codec as the DV/MiniDV cams out there.
SGI laughed at the unassuming threat of the video chipsets, thinking that they would never be as fast as brute force. Even Pixar thought the same. Boy, were they wrong though. You can set up a cheap-ass render farm for about $250k, taking up minimal space that can do the same job as a SGI render farm that costs a cool $2 million (Shuttle SFF PC w/ 3 gig CPU + ATI 9700). Of course, there's still the software side.
The Nvidia's GeForceFX and ATI's Radeon 9800 both contain features that even through the marketing-hype has some real value to programmers out there. Just look at Doom 3. It will run well on some computers that are just 6 months old. Now, imagine taking 250 of them, as a Beowulf cluster!!1