Well, you may go and get a company based on a carribean island, like Accenture. They in turn have coding factories in India and the Phillipines. Of course there are other consultancies with a true US base who still run their own off-shore development centres. If IBM, for example, screw you around then you can sue them even though the software may be a combination of open source and outsourced code.
There is an argument whether space-suits should be pressurised at all or just the helmets. It is clear that from certain incidents, the skin takes absence of pressure quite well, although problems would occur over time. To counter that, an elasticated garment could be worn to prevent fluid build-ups and the eventual rusing from capiilary damage.
It was a glove, here is a quote from one of the newsgroups, but I haven't been able to chase down the NASA log entry yet.
Gregory Bennett adds:
Incidentally, we have had one experience with a suit puncture on the Shuttle
flights. On STS-37, during one of my flight experiments, the palm restraint
in one of the astronaut's gloves came loose and migrated until it punch a
hole in the pressure bladder between his thumb and forefinger. It was
explosive decompression, just a little 1/8 inch hole, but it was exciting
down here in the swamp because it was the first injury we've ever head from a
suit incident. Amazingly, the astronaut in question didn't even know the
puncture had occured; he was so hopped on adrenalin it wasn't until after he
got back in that he even noticed there was a painful red mark on his hand.
He figured his glove was chafing and didn't worry about it.
The whole story didn't come out until the suits were back home and a
suit technician was setting up to clean that glove; he discovered the dried
blood on the outer TMG (thermal micrometrioid garment) and then found the
wayward palm restraint bar. What happened: when the metal bar punctured the
glove, the skin of the astronaut's hand partially sealed the opening. He
bled into space, and at the same time his coagulating blood sealed the
opening enough that the bar was retained inside the hole.
When they tried to revive Beagle, the British were using Joderell Bank at about 120 metres. The standard DSN is less at about 75 metres or so. The front-end amp generally has to be cooled for low noise.
A 10 metre dish is enough to bounce signals of the moon with and you would have no problem picking up stuff from most earth sattelites.
The plain Jane phones will remain so long as they are cheaper than the fancier ones.
There are two issues here, The first issue is that if I sign a two year contract, I get most of my handset paid for. This such that it is often cheaper to buy a new phone than buy a replacement battery for the old phone. The other issue is that the air-time reseller wants to sell me extra services. A phone with new features like a camera is therefore subsidised more than a plainer phone that is just, say, ruggedised. A rugged phone doesn't make me spend more money but multimedia services are supposed to tempt me.
Ok, I worked at the company that produced the telemetry and control system for the trans-sib pipeline in 79. The telemetry subsystems used MC6800s and I think they couldn't use PDP11s because they would have been export embargoed. They had their own computer but it was primitive. Compressed-air systems may have worked for plants, but for pipelines forget it. The networking was plain horrible. Effectively raw HDLC.
There were EPROMS with software on in the telemetry boards but they didn't have the control software. Hell, there was no control automation, all the kit did was to report on instruments, collect operator adjustments and send them to actuators.
As for the VAX 11/780, actually thanks to VMS it could give about 20 people some degree of word-processing, so a little better than the PC even though smaller and slower. I later at a chemical company used VAXen to run above the basic PDP-11 based telemetry systems to provide plant-level supervision.
The usual with a hot-standby system was that both would be active and one would follow the state of the other (we did something similar for the telemtry system). There would have been two PSUs definitely.
I knew people who were the subcontractor for telemetry and control subsystems. There was no canadian software there. And the highest technology chip was the 6800.
AFAIK, this story is about as accurate as Iraqi wmd. The technology used for the telemetry and control system was British not Canadian. The Canadians may have been involved somewhere but I doubt it.
Yep, the USSR get the lid on many accidents, but in the post soviet era, the details of all the major ones seem to have leaked, but this one not. I guess the NYT has been 'at it' again.
The trans-siberian natural gas pipeline used technology by a UK company called Serck Controls. In those days, the telemetry computers were 6800 based and I believe they used DEC PDP-11s or more likely (because of export controls), Serck's own computers for running the main control system. I know they were working with a bundle of other western companies, but I thought they had the telemetry system side of it completely.
There were 'many' people concernned about the foam so his best statement should have been:
"Yes we are aware of the foam strike but whilst our engineers are investigating its significance, we are also investigating avenues for study"
See, it wasn't discounted, but at the same time he doesn't box himself in early in the investigation. This isn't science, this is just being sensible which is what you would expect for the boss of a major organisation like NASA.
In reality, I'm suprised he didn't sanity check himself and be cautious. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to note that a large chunk of foam and ice can do major damage wih just gravity, let alone under full-thrust accelleration.
Actually there is also the angle of incidence issue. A blow against the tiles woulkd be glancing, however the RCC panels face the direction of flight and are therefore *much* more vulnerable.
The reason that I suspected the foam was not just the relative velocity, it was how much ice would be around the foam. I don't know if all the ice would have been shed immediately, but foam plus ice would be a lot more damaging.
Space *is* commercially profitable. It is the manned space program that isn't and suffers from 'goal post creepage'. Commercial and engineering mandates happen all the time and it works.
A good example is chemical engineering. All plants leak to a lessor or greater degree, but to fix the leaks requires a plant shutdown. It is a balance between the engineer's concern about safety and the manager's concern about wasted production (a plant may take a day to shutdown or startup). The interesting thing is that with the exception of a few major disasters like Bhopal, things generally go well.
Yes, I found that pretty frightening. A lot can be done just by changing the way meetings are conducted. One way is to change the 'default' answer so that people have to actively assent to things rather than to express disagreement. Another way is to table a review segment in meetings where possible problems are raised by everyone, however unlikely and then dismissed by the group *if* they can prove that the problem is handled.
If you ever are involved in QA or project management in *any* engineering discipline, even developing and maintaining computer systems, you really should read the report.
Many of the findings are not unique to the space program, but reflect the pressures when the bean counters are chasing targets and are in the driving seat. Of course, the converse is that a true engineer is a perfectionist so things are late and too expensive if they run things. You need the mixture of bean-counters and engineers and that is difficult. One issue is that these days, the bean-counters are professional managers and have thus been educated in communication. Some engineers are but many aren't. The core problems addressed by the CAIB revolve around miscommunication and misunderstanding. Powerpoint didn't help either.
I didn't read the space.com ad but have ready my way through the entire CAIB report. Yes, it mentons the miscommunications but iut also examine the management style. Engineers should learn better communications skills, thats true. However, it appears theat management only cared about their targets.
Um, no - Ms Ham cancelled both as she felt they were unnecessary. She questioned the senior managers that were her direct reports but forgot about the Debris Assesment Team, which was an ad-hoc group.
No my issue is that two NASA managers were overconcerned with 'efficiency', that is Ham and Dittemore both seemed rightly concerned that everything should go smoothly with minimal cost overrun that they ran roughshod over those who actually knew something who were unhappy but had no real evidence at the time.
If the managers were running a production line, there call was correct. If they were involved with something safety critical (not just the shuttle, the same could have been said if they ran a chemical plant) then until the engineers are convinced, they should play safe.
Another issue was the confusion felt by the lower ranking engineers. They realised that the capabilities of the military cameras were *very* classified. Some who really wanted the imagery hasd the impression that a more senior peron had seen it and there was nothing to worry about. If they did not have that impression, they may have fought harder to get the pictures.
No, from the initial (and stupid staetments by O'Keefe, where he completely discounted the foam) through to the detailed errors earlier, it shows a lack of engineering knowhow at the top of the shuttle program. Bean counters are useful and an invaluable aid to budget control, but puting them in charge of something they don't really understand is stupid.
The price is normally per CD. Linux would come on 3 minimum and that was for the binary version. XP would come on one or two (depending on how the Office bundling was done).
However, it is interesting that Linux is still sitting there, it would be hard to see it getting shelf/stall space unless it was selling.
The fun thing was when I was working in such places, we were forbiddden about getting Win from the market officially because of piracy but really because of virus fears. Not so with Linux, as we could verify the MD5s over the net.
are another neat thing from Microsoft which doesn't seem to have been covered by the FTC. They offer a flat rate price per system giving access to a wide variety of software. However, you pay it whether your system is Linux, Mac, or even Sun (the latter being incapable of running any MS software). You just pay per system.
This is addition to their games over the OEM licensing that you mention.
The problem is the bad credit cards. There are so many people ordering with them in some parts of the former Soviet Union, that the system is basically fscked. If you are legit, you have to jump through hoops to get things done. The usual way is to have something shipped/delivered to western europe and then to reexport.
The biggest issue is the effort taken to change orbit. You are travelling at orbital velocity in one direction and then you want to change that direction by 20 degrees, which takes some work.
Thanks for the link. What is interesting is that if the Space Shuttle was declared irreperable, then the shuttle could also change inclination somewhat using the fuel earmarked for reentry. WHilst it cannot hope to get to the altitude of the ISS, it could possibly get into a more compatible orbit.
I originally heard this as part of an stage act in a British Uni by a folk singer which I believe predated Yes, Prime Minister. There were some vartions like the "Telegraph was read by people who used to run the country".
Excellent show though, I have even seen it dubbed into Russian. This together with show like "drop the dead donkey" gave a pretty good picture of British politics and the TV journalists.
Murdoch wants his broadcast privileges in the US and does not want to come under scrutiny for his cross-media ownership in the UK. He therefore likes to be very freindly with the government.
Many from the military were very unhappy about being told that there was no legal justification for the war and there would be a lot of civillian casualties. They really didn't want to hear this news.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, you may go and get a company based on a carribean island, like Accenture. They in turn have coding factories in India and the Phillipines. Of course there are other consultancies with a true US base who still run their own off-shore development centres. If IBM, for example, screw you around then you can sue them even though the software may be a combination of open source and outsourced code.
There is an argument whether space-suits should be pressurised at all or just the helmets. It is clear that from certain incidents, the skin takes absence of pressure quite well, although problems would occur over time. To counter that, an elasticated garment could be worn to prevent fluid build-ups and the eventual rusing from capiilary damage.
When they tried to revive Beagle, the British were using Joderell Bank at about 120 metres. The standard DSN is less at about 75 metres or so. The front-end amp generally has to be cooled for low noise.
A 10 metre dish is enough to bounce signals of the moon with and you would have no problem picking up stuff from most earth sattelites.
There were EPROMS with software on in the telemetry boards but they didn't have the control software. Hell, there was no control automation, all the kit did was to report on instruments, collect operator adjustments and send them to actuators.
As for the VAX 11/780, actually thanks to VMS it could give about 20 people some degree of word-processing, so a little better than the PC even though smaller and slower. I later at a chemical company used VAXen to run above the basic PDP-11 based telemetry systems to provide plant-level supervision.
The usual with a hot-standby system was that both would be active and one would follow the state of the other (we did something similar for the telemtry system). There would have been two PSUs definitely.
I knew people who were the subcontractor for telemetry and control subsystems. There was no canadian software there. And the highest technology chip was the 6800.
AFAIK, this story is about as accurate as Iraqi wmd. The technology used for the telemetry and control system was British not Canadian. The Canadians may have been involved somewhere but I doubt it.
Yep, the USSR get the lid on many accidents, but in the post soviet era, the details of all the major ones seem to have leaked, but this one not. I guess the NYT has been 'at it' again.
The trans-siberian natural gas pipeline used technology by a UK company called Serck Controls. In those days, the telemetry computers were 6800 based and I believe they used DEC PDP-11s or more likely (because of export controls), Serck's own computers for running the main control system. I know they were working with a bundle of other western companies, but I thought they had the telemetry system side of it completely.
In reality, I'm suprised he didn't sanity check himself and be cautious. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to note that a large chunk of foam and ice can do major damage wih just gravity, let alone under full-thrust accelleration.
The reason that I suspected the foam was not just the relative velocity, it was how much ice would be around the foam. I don't know if all the ice would have been shed immediately, but foam plus ice would be a lot more damaging.
A good example is chemical engineering. All plants leak to a lessor or greater degree, but to fix the leaks requires a plant shutdown. It is a balance between the engineer's concern about safety and the manager's concern about wasted production (a plant may take a day to shutdown or startup). The interesting thing is that with the exception of a few major disasters like Bhopal, things generally go well.
Yes, I found that pretty frightening. A lot can be done just by changing the way meetings are conducted. One way is to change the 'default' answer so that people have to actively assent to things rather than to express disagreement. Another way is to table a review segment in meetings where possible problems are raised by everyone, however unlikely and then dismissed by the group *if* they can prove that the problem is handled.
Many of the findings are not unique to the space program, but reflect the pressures when the bean counters are chasing targets and are in the driving seat. Of course, the converse is that a true engineer is a perfectionist so things are late and too expensive if they run things. You need the mixture of bean-counters and engineers and that is difficult. One issue is that these days, the bean-counters are professional managers and have thus been educated in communication. Some engineers are but many aren't. The core problems addressed by the CAIB revolve around miscommunication and misunderstanding. Powerpoint didn't help either.
I didn't read the space.com ad but have ready my way through the entire CAIB report. Yes, it mentons the miscommunications but iut also examine the management style. Engineers should learn better communications skills, thats true. However, it appears theat management only cared about their targets.
No my issue is that two NASA managers were overconcerned with 'efficiency', that is Ham and Dittemore both seemed rightly concerned that everything should go smoothly with minimal cost overrun that they ran roughshod over those who actually knew something who were unhappy but had no real evidence at the time.
If the managers were running a production line, there call was correct. If they were involved with something safety critical (not just the shuttle, the same could have been said if they ran a chemical plant) then until the engineers are convinced, they should play safe.
Another issue was the confusion felt by the lower ranking engineers. They realised that the capabilities of the military cameras were *very* classified. Some who really wanted the imagery hasd the impression that a more senior peron had seen it and there was nothing to worry about. If they did not have that impression, they may have fought harder to get the pictures.
No, from the initial (and stupid staetments by O'Keefe, where he completely discounted the foam) through to the detailed errors earlier, it shows a lack of engineering knowhow at the top of the shuttle program. Bean counters are useful and an invaluable aid to budget control, but puting them in charge of something they don't really understand is stupid.
However, it is interesting that Linux is still sitting there, it would be hard to see it getting shelf/stall space unless it was selling.
The fun thing was when I was working in such places, we were forbiddden about getting Win from the market officially because of piracy but really because of virus fears. Not so with Linux, as we could verify the MD5s over the net.
This is addition to their games over the OEM licensing that you mention.
The problem is the bad credit cards. There are so many people ordering with them in some parts of the former Soviet Union, that the system is basically fscked. If you are legit, you have to jump through hoops to get things done. The usual way is to have something shipped/delivered to western europe and then to reexport.
I will guive kudos to MS when the patch ships, not before. I have waited too long over too many years and IE problems have been getting beyond a joke.
The biggest issue is the effort taken to change orbit. You are travelling at orbital velocity in one direction and then you want to change that direction by 20 degrees, which takes some work.
Thanks for the link. What is interesting is that if the Space Shuttle was declared irreperable, then the shuttle could also change inclination somewhat using the fuel earmarked for reentry. WHilst it cannot hope to get to the altitude of the ISS, it could possibly get into a more compatible orbit.
Excellent show though, I have even seen it dubbed into Russian. This together with show like "drop the dead donkey" gave a pretty good picture of British politics and the TV journalists.
Who owns the Sydney Morning herald? Is this another Murdoch vehicle?
Many from the military were very unhappy about being told that there was no legal justification for the war and there would be a lot of civillian casualties. They really didn't want to hear this news.