I've heard about plenty of cases like this. The other day my brother (a lawyer) was telling me about a case he'd seen in law school where a guy who was the designated driver had unknowingly become intoxicated because some ass had spiked his coffee. In that case it was agreed that as a matter of FACT, he did not have any knowledge of or reason to believe that he was drunk. He still got the DUI...apparently you don't need intent either.
Having been rear ended by a genuine drunk driver at 60mph (fortunately I was in a Chevrolet Suburban, and he in a Toyota Corolla), I'm very much unimpressed with "real" drunk drivers. And for some reason the police failed to give this guy a field sobriety test...even though he stank of booze...and hadn't even TOUCHED his fucking brakes (absolutely no skid marks). But there's too many cases just like yours that are the collateral damage of the inept organizations like "MADD" fighting on the most foolish of battlegrounds. There are already laws against drunk driving, there's no reason to punish the innocent.
I don't drink much, but I'll be buying a breathalyzer soon to keep in the truck, in the hope of avoiding getting screwed by the system the way you did. Best of luck to you.
IANAL, but if this guy has as much evidence as he claims to against this spammer, he needs to sue the spammer. The spammer is knowingly committing an act that he knows will cause damage to the business that he is effectively "impersonating". He is doing it to turn a profit from an illegal activity. If proof of this act is available, the victim here could be looking at a pretty stout judgement. If this guy made $750,000 spamming people last year, there's a good chance he'll be able to find an attorney who will pursue this on a contingency basis.
And IIRC, I'm pretty certain the victim can sue the spammer from his home state (especially nice since the spammer is on the opposite end of the country).
I'd highly recommend getting out of your contract and getting a non-GSM item. It's really shocking how neat of a device a cellular phone is that actually works. You CAN get out of your contract. A lot of people are under the impression that a cell-phone contract is some type of indentured servitude whereby you sign your life away to phone company X with no recourse for a few years. The customer support folks and salesmen will treat you like this is the case, but it isn't.
It's just another contract. You're providing your money in exchange for their products and services. No service...no money. Ask any lawyer. Basically in your case AT&T has failed to fulfill their contract, and thus cannot expect you to continue meeting your end of the bargain. You obviously don't want to go to court over this as the early-term fee is $175 and that's probably not worth it for most people. But the fact of the matter is they KNOW that you will win on this and they'll do be nice voluntarily if you push them on this point.
Just call them up, and tell them that you're T720 doesn't work, you don't get calls, can't make calls, etc. They will tell probably try and hook you up with a new phone. Politely explain where they can shove it. Ask them if they can bring your last bill up on their screen (they can) and have a copy of it handy. Show them all the one-minute phone calls you undoubtedly have recorded on the bill, and explain what that means (no service/crappy service).
Just my humble recommendation. It will work if you want out of your contract (I just did this last week). You'll probably be on the phone for a half hour, but it's fulfilling in the end. And don't take that "how about we go in halves on the early-termination fee BS" that they will try!
YOU may have been having similar problems, but this is not the same thing. Half of Cingular's network is down. This started on Friday. This is one person having problems such as in your case, this is millions of people.
You're the perfect example of why I rarely post on Slashdot anymore. It's just not fun anymore. Of course it is different! Hasn't anyone ever heard of sarcasm?
And I think if it couldn't find service and shut off maybe power cycling your phone would help...
You know, I figured that out too. About six months ago. The point is it's not fun to do that every four hours! Your tone and IQ suggest you might work for AT&T? Yes?
I noticed similar problems with the AT&T GSM network last week. And the week before. And for about six months, continuously, before that. I couldn't receive calls pretty much anywhere, and couldn't place calls anywhere. The problem stopped abruptly last week, but I believe it may have been coincedental to my signing up with Verizon, and swapping my Motorola GSM phone for an LG whatever-verizon-uses-that-isn't-GSM-phone.
If you live in the US, avoid GSM like the plague. Especially in Southern California. I was effectively unreachable when I had GSM. Now that I'm back to traditional service, I can almost see dropping the land line.
And of course, to make matters worse, my Motorola T720 would only try for so long to sign back on to the netowrk when it went out of range. After that it just stops, displays "Unregistered SIM", and is effecitvely shut off. So if you're out of range for 30 minutes, you're out of range all day!
Just read this quote from a Diebold press release that is being refuted on blackboxvoiting.com:
"The thorough system assessment conducted by SAIC verifies that the Diebold voting station provides an unprecedented level of election security." (emphasis mine)
Unfortuantely, in this case, blackboxvoting is quite wrong, and Diebold press release is entirely correct. You see, the word "unprecedented" doesn't necessarily mean "good". It means "without precedent". The level of security offered by these voting machines is most certainly "without precedent".
If SUVs are safer then why do American road stats show that you are more likely to die in one? Mainly due to the fact that American SUVs are a con based on 1970s truck designs - half of them don't even have independant rear suspensions. Have you ever tried cornering in an Explorer? Compare that to an X5 and you will see how an SUV can handle when made in Germany.
These same statistics show that far more people die in 2 door cars than in comparable 4 door versions. That's right, the 2-door Honda Civic kills many more people per year than the 4-door Honda Civic.
The problem with the "what kind of car people die most in" statistics is that they ignore the type of people who are driving the car. A lot of SUV purchasers are in groups that are likely to get killed driving a car, regardless of what particular model they drive. These groups include young people and people that drive agressively.
As for the X5, well, that's not really a sport utility vehicle. So much so that BMW's marketing types refuse to call it that, instead referring to it as a sports-activity-vehicle. This type of vehicle now has its own segment, fairly distinct from SUVs, and is generally referred to (in the US at least) as "crossover vehicles". The Cadillac SRX is another example of such a vehicle. The performance of such vehicles has very little to do with being made in Germany (Gelaendewagens are made there too) and more to do with chassis design and ride height. Such vehicles exchange off road performance (pretty much in its entirity) for on-road performance, i.e., they adapt to the real needs of the consumer while maintaining providing the SUV-like capabilities they still require.
I use my MP3 player when mountain biking, and would imagine that a hard drive-based player would not be an option. Back when MP3 players didn't exist, I tried one of those ultra-shock resistant CD players with 20 seconds or so of memory (something like that) and it turned out pretty much worthless. Even my current RAM-based player, a Creative Nomad II MG, can't take some of the shocks I subject it to. It will sometimes (very infrequently, like once every few months) lock up as a result of a hard landing. I'm not talking about crashing here, just landing a little harder-than-usual off a 2-foot or so drop on a hardtail mountain bike.
If there's a hard drive that will withstand such shocks, I'm very interested in upgrading.
So what would happen if American's moved to India, protested for jobs under India Affirmative Action, and then requested US salaries since they are still US citizens working for a US company?
I'm no expert on this, but I think I have an idea of what might happen...
First of all, there aren't many people in the US who are willing to up and move to India. If you are a competent developer who is interested in moving to India, and learning their language (or know it already), then I am almost certain that any company doing this type of outsourcing would welcome you with open arms. I mean c'mon, if you met these qualifications, you'd be perfect as an intermediary between the Indian developers and the American company.
C'mon guys, here's the real scenario that causes the problem:
A customer walks in, takes a pack of razor blades and puts it in his cart. The cameras take his picture and link it to the RFID of the blades.
Before checking out, he decides he doesn't want them. Perhaps he sets them down in the cereal aisle. Perhaps he puts them on the Schick rack. The customer pays for his other items and heads out to his car.
A thief who is aware of the system, sees the razor blades that are no longer being tracked. He steals them. He walks out the door.
What now?
And, while I'm ranting, why not simply scan the damn RFIDs on the way out the door and verify that they've been purchased...if not, sound the alarm. Such a system would be far superior to employing someone to compare photos of razor-blade takers to razor-blade purchasers. It'd be the exact same idea as the magnets they embed in clothing, and wouldn't be nearly as offensive.
This thing tried to send itself to our mailing list, although we were unaffected as we only allow subscribers to post. This is probably just a fluke incident, unless someone is specifically targetting SF.net lists as a way to hit a large number of people with reduced effort.
you owned 2 small 8-man software shops.. and you were DIRECTLY REWARDED for the work your team put in.... you owned the company, so no shit you paid yourself extra.
The point was that even though I was directly rewarded based on the company's profits (read: dividends on shares), I myself experienced diminishing returns when working excessive hours.
was your dev team rewarded similarly?
Yes.
Not everyone who owns a company is an asshole.
In the past six years, I've owned two small (~8 developer) software development shops. In both shops I've played the role of the "technical" partner, who leads the development team for the software projects we create. I've bitten off more than I (and my team) can chew on multiple occassions in the interest of delivering a big-dollar project for a big-name client, and as a result spent absolutely every waking moment possible trying to complete projects. I've really tried to push my limits as hard as I can, and in my situation, I WAS DIRECTLY REWARDED for my work.
Let me offer these idiots (the people requesting a 12/7 schedule) a piece of advice: 84 hours per week is f---ing insane. You wind up with diminishing returns after about 50-60 hours/week. While 84 (or more) hours is very possible for a week or two, such a schedule will QUICKLY become ineffective immediately thereafter. You might be at work for 84 hours, but your mind won't. Whoever is running this company doesn't know that, which means they don't know how to run a company, which therefore means that the company (or your department) isn't likely to be successful, which you should take as an indicator of its expected lifespan. Get out now.
The second web site I wrote used this amazing technology. I wrote it in 1995.
I don't see finding prior art on this one to be that great of a problem. The patent was applied for in May of 96. Netscape 2.0 went beta in October of 1995. Every introductory tutorial on frames used this application as the primary example.
Mojave, California, April 18, 2003: Scaled Composites today unveiled the existence of a commercial manned space program. This previously hidden, active research program has been in the works at its facility for two years. This program includes an airborne launcher (the White Knight), a space ship (SpaceShipOne), rocket propulsion, avionics, simulator and ground support elements. Master of Ceremonies, Cliff Robertson, introduced Burt Rutan who explained the history and the components of the program. Other dignitaries who attended the event were Dr. Maxim Faget (pioneer configuratioin designer of the early NASA space program from the Mercury through the Apollo programs), Erik Lindbergh (grandson of Charles Lindbergh and President of the Lindbergh Foundation), and Dennis Tito (Soyuz space tourist). Further information about the space program and high-resolution photographs are available at the Scaled Composites website: www.scaled.com.
The FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
VISION What does Burt Rutan think of the other X-Prize designs? Burt prefers to discuss this only after the X-Prize is won.
How long has Burt been working on all this? The concept dates back to April 1996. Design work and some limited testing was started 3.5 years ago. The full development program began in May 2001.
What's going to be next in Burt's bag of tricks? Scaled has completed 34 manned research aircraft and none were announced until they were ready to fly.
BUSINESS How much does it all cost? This is generally not known until the program is complete, but projections place it close to a Soyuz ride.
How much will it cost to get a ride into space? Rides will not be offered in SpaceShipOne. The price of a ride will have to take in consideration the cost of certification and establishing an airliner-like operation. One goal of this research program is to see how low it might be without the burden of regulatory costs. At program completion we will have good data for operational costs and may publish them.
Is it physically stressful? It is expected to be on the order of some modern theme park rides. The highest forces occur during reentry but build up gradually and peak near 6 G's for less than 10 seconds. With the pilot and passengers reclined, these forces should be quite tolerable for anyone in reasonable health.
Is Burt Rutan going to ride in the vehicle? Yes, as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
WHITE KNIGHT Why did the first flight last only 2 minutes? The airplane had outboard spoilers on the wings to help improve roll control in the event of gusty cross wind landings. They were pneumatically actuated (using the same tanks, valves and fittings as the RCS system on SpaceShipOne) and returned to recesses in the wings by springs. On the first flight, the low air pressure, at rotation was sufficient to "suck" the spoilers out which killed the lift and caused the return springs to slam them closed. Four of these surfaces chattering out on the wingtips during the climb out produced significant airframe vibrations and the pilot elected to turn downwind and land immediately rather than aggravate the condition any longer than necessary.
How can you see where you're going? The visibility is actually much better than you might imagine. By moving your head slightly you can piece together an acceptable picture of the outside world and maintain adequate "situational awareness". What is more difficult is spotting other airborne traffic. However, between radar advisories from ground controllers and an onboard traffic alert system called "Skywatch," this limitation is minimized.
Isn't it hard to land with all those wheels? No. The pilot doesn't notice that he has two nose wheels up front and with excellent elevator control he can hold them off until about 45 knots during the landing roll.
Why is the cockpit called a "pressure vessel"? The cockpit is airtight and
One trait I always look for when purchasing phones...can I dial it while driving, and not have to look at the phone? My Motorola T720 certainly meets this criteria... it has large buttons, including a concave "5" button in the center with a small point it its middle.
This phone on the other hand, with its circular dial pad, can't come close to meeting this criteria. Nokia seems to have been trying to make it more and more difficult to dial their phones using the keypad, and this particular model seems to be quite the shining example of their hard efforts.
I'd love to have bluetooth, a multi-megapixel camera, and video capability too. But personally, these features rank a little lower on the list than being able to effectively use the device as a telephone.
And please, no rants about driving and using a cell phone. I saw you talking on yours while holding up traffic in the fast lane yesterday.
I used BitTorrent to get RH9, which worked smoothly when I let it run overnight on a cable modem.
- Mozilla is up to v1.2.1 and supports AA fonts. Unforunately, Galeon is on 1.2.7 and does not. - Nautlius has no problems browsing SMB networks, just make sure your firewall settings are at or below "Medium" if you use RH's firewall tool. - Menu editing appears to be totally b0rked. I am so far unable to add items to the applications menu, neither by right clicking on the menu and then clicking "Add new item to this menu" nor by dragging launchers into the "Applications:///" view in Nautlius. Major disappointment here, I was really hoping this would be fixed in 9. With any luck, RH will make it a priority to fix it. - Java works fine (whew). - "Extras" menus are now submenus in each menu that contains "extra" programs. Much nicer layout IMHO. - "Security Level" firewall configurator no longer has option to add extra ports, which makes it quite worthless to those of us that require this feature. At least it remembers settings this time (the RH8 version did not).
Overall it seems to be a fine product, runs as fast as RH8, just with a bit more polish.
The address is encased in an <A> tag that whose target is JavaScript code:
<a href="javascript:doMail('bobbobson');">...
Where the doMail() method appends @bobsontech.com onto the email and redirects to "mailto:bobbobson@bobsontech.com".
When I was building the web site I figured it was worth a shot, although I didn't think it would work. There are about six email addresses on a single page, and I've yet to see a single spam show up in all of them together. Some of the addresses have never received a single spam.
I think it's a good idea that its now being bundled with lottery tickets. If you're playing the lottery, you'll undoubtedly find this game both entertaining and highly educational.
Followed shortly by...
on
Server In A Fly
·
· Score: 2, Funny
This article sounds like it's coming from a corrupt politician: the author chooses to ignore all facts with controvert his point. This tactic is universally used by those who are attempting to lead an audience to a false conclusion. Drivel.
Slashdot Mirror
I've heard about plenty of cases like this. The other day my brother (a lawyer) was telling me about a case he'd seen in law school where a guy who was the designated driver had unknowingly become intoxicated because some ass had spiked his coffee. In that case it was agreed that as a matter of FACT, he did not have any knowledge of or reason to believe that he was drunk. He still got the DUI...apparently you don't need intent either.
Having been rear ended by a genuine drunk driver at 60mph (fortunately I was in a Chevrolet Suburban, and he in a Toyota Corolla), I'm very much unimpressed with "real" drunk drivers. And for some reason the police failed to give this guy a field sobriety test...even though he stank of booze...and hadn't even TOUCHED his fucking brakes (absolutely no skid marks). But there's too many cases just like yours that are the collateral damage of the inept organizations like "MADD" fighting on the most foolish of battlegrounds. There are already laws against drunk driving, there's no reason to punish the innocent.
I don't drink much, but I'll be buying a breathalyzer soon to keep in the truck, in the hope of avoiding getting screwed by the system the way you did. Best of luck to you.
IANAL, but if this guy has as much evidence as he claims to against this spammer, he needs to sue the spammer. The spammer is knowingly committing an act that he knows will cause damage to the business that he is effectively "impersonating". He is doing it to turn a profit from an illegal activity. If proof of this act is available, the victim here could be looking at a pretty stout judgement. If this guy made $750,000 spamming people last year, there's a good chance he'll be able to find an attorney who will pursue this on a contingency basis.
And IIRC, I'm pretty certain the victim can sue the spammer from his home state (especially nice since the spammer is on the opposite end of the country).
I'd highly recommend getting out of your contract and getting a non-GSM item. It's really shocking how neat of a device a cellular phone is that actually works. You CAN get out of your contract. A lot of people are under the impression that a cell-phone contract is some type of indentured servitude whereby you sign your life away to phone company X with no recourse for a few years. The customer support folks and salesmen will treat you like this is the case, but it isn't.
It's just another contract. You're providing your money in exchange for their products and services. No service...no money. Ask any lawyer. Basically in your case AT&T has failed to fulfill their contract, and thus cannot expect you to continue meeting your end of the bargain. You obviously don't want to go to court over this as the early-term fee is $175 and that's probably not worth it for most people. But the fact of the matter is they KNOW that you will win on this and they'll do be nice voluntarily if you push them on this point.
Just call them up, and tell them that you're T720 doesn't work, you don't get calls, can't make calls, etc. They will tell probably try and hook you up with a new phone. Politely explain where they can shove it. Ask them if they can bring your last bill up on their screen (they can) and have a copy of it handy. Show them all the one-minute phone calls you undoubtedly have recorded on the bill, and explain what that means (no service/crappy service).
Just my humble recommendation. It will work if you want out of your contract (I just did this last week). You'll probably be on the phone for a half hour, but it's fulfilling in the end. And don't take that "how about we go in halves on the early-termination fee BS" that they will try!
YOU may have been having similar problems, but this is not the same thing. Half of Cingular's network is down. This started on Friday. This is one person having problems such as in your case, this is millions of people.
You're the perfect example of why I rarely post on Slashdot anymore. It's just not fun anymore. Of course it is different! Hasn't anyone ever heard of sarcasm?
And I think if it couldn't find service and shut off maybe power cycling your phone would help...
You know, I figured that out too. About six months ago. The point is it's not fun to do that every four hours! Your tone and IQ suggest you might work for AT&T? Yes?
I noticed similar problems with the AT&T GSM network last week. And the week before. And for about six months, continuously, before that. I couldn't receive calls pretty much anywhere, and couldn't place calls anywhere. The problem stopped abruptly last week, but I believe it may have been coincedental to my signing up with Verizon, and swapping my Motorola GSM phone for an LG whatever-verizon-uses-that-isn't-GSM-phone.
If you live in the US, avoid GSM like the plague. Especially in Southern California. I was effectively unreachable when I had GSM. Now that I'm back to traditional service, I can almost see dropping the land line.
And of course, to make matters worse, my Motorola T720 would only try for so long to sign back on to the netowrk when it went out of range. After that it just stops, displays "Unregistered SIM", and is effecitvely shut off. So if you're out of range for 30 minutes, you're out of range all day!
</rant>
Just read this quote from a Diebold press release that is being refuted on blackboxvoiting.com:
"The thorough system assessment conducted by SAIC verifies that the Diebold voting station provides an unprecedented level of election security." (emphasis mine)
Unfortuantely, in this case, blackboxvoting is quite wrong, and Diebold press release is entirely correct. You see, the word "unprecedented" doesn't necessarily mean "good". It means "without precedent". The level of security offered by these voting machines is most certainly "without precedent".
If SUVs are safer then why do American road stats show that you are more likely to die in one? Mainly due to the fact that American SUVs are a con based on 1970s truck designs - half of them don't even have independant rear suspensions. Have you ever tried cornering in an Explorer? Compare that to an X5 and you will see how an SUV can handle when made in Germany.
These same statistics show that far more people die in 2 door cars than in comparable 4 door versions. That's right, the 2-door Honda Civic kills many more people per year than the 4-door Honda Civic.
The problem with the "what kind of car people die most in" statistics is that they ignore the type of people who are driving the car. A lot of SUV purchasers are in groups that are likely to get killed driving a car, regardless of what particular model they drive. These groups include young people and people that drive agressively.
As for the X5, well, that's not really a sport utility vehicle. So much so that BMW's marketing types refuse to call it that, instead referring to it as a sports-activity-vehicle. This type of vehicle now has its own segment, fairly distinct from SUVs, and is generally referred to (in the US at least) as "crossover vehicles". The Cadillac SRX is another example of such a vehicle. The performance of such vehicles has very little to do with being made in Germany (Gelaendewagens are made there too) and more to do with chassis design and ride height. Such vehicles exchange off road performance (pretty much in its entirity) for on-road performance, i.e., they adapt to the real needs of the consumer while maintaining providing the SUV-like capabilities they still require.
I use my MP3 player when mountain biking, and would imagine that a hard drive-based player would not be an option. Back when MP3 players didn't exist, I tried one of those ultra-shock resistant CD players with 20 seconds or so of memory (something like that) and it turned out pretty much worthless. Even my current RAM-based player, a Creative Nomad II MG, can't take some of the shocks I subject it to. It will sometimes (very infrequently, like once every few months) lock up as a result of a hard landing. I'm not talking about crashing here, just landing a little harder-than-usual off a 2-foot or so drop on a hardtail mountain bike.
If there's a hard drive that will withstand such shocks, I'm very interested in upgrading.
So what would happen if American's moved to India, protested for jobs under India Affirmative Action, and then requested US salaries since they are still US citizens working for a US company?
I'm no expert on this, but I think I have an idea of what might happen...
First of all, there aren't many people in the US who are willing to up and move to India. If you are a competent developer who is interested in moving to India, and learning their language (or know it already), then I am almost certain that any company doing this type of outsourcing would welcome you with open arms. I mean c'mon, if you met these qualifications, you'd be perfect as an intermediary between the Indian developers and the American company.
C'mon guys, here's the real scenario that causes the problem:
A customer walks in, takes a pack of razor blades and puts it in his cart. The cameras take his picture and link it to the RFID of the blades.
Before checking out, he decides he doesn't want them. Perhaps he sets them down in the cereal aisle. Perhaps he puts them on the Schick rack. The customer pays for his other items and heads out to his car.
A thief who is aware of the system, sees the razor blades that are no longer being tracked. He steals them. He walks out the door.
What now?
And, while I'm ranting, why not simply scan the damn RFIDs on the way out the door and verify that they've been purchased...if not, sound the alarm. Such a system would be far superior to employing someone to compare photos of razor-blade takers to razor-blade purchasers. It'd be the exact same idea as the magnets they embed in clothing, and wouldn't be nearly as offensive.
said Enderle of Giga Information Group..."The lines of code contained typos, misspellings..."
You sure? It compiles fine for me.
This thing tried to send itself to our mailing list, although we were unaffected as we only allow subscribers to post. This is probably just a fluke incident, unless someone is specifically targetting SF.net lists as a way to hit a large number of people with reduced effort.
Steve Jobs is referring to the appearance of the Segway. The article summary misquotes this quite deceptively.
you owned 2 small 8-man software shops.. and you were DIRECTLY REWARDED for the work your team put in.... you owned the company, so no shit you paid yourself extra. The point was that even though I was directly rewarded based on the company's profits (read: dividends on shares), I myself experienced diminishing returns when working excessive hours. was your dev team rewarded similarly? Yes. Not everyone who owns a company is an asshole.
In the past six years, I've owned two small (~8 developer) software development shops. In both shops I've played the role of the "technical" partner, who leads the development team for the software projects we create. I've bitten off more than I (and my team) can chew on multiple occassions in the interest of delivering a big-dollar project for a big-name client, and as a result spent absolutely every waking moment possible trying to complete projects. I've really tried to push my limits as hard as I can, and in my situation, I WAS DIRECTLY REWARDED for my work.
Let me offer these idiots (the people requesting a 12/7 schedule) a piece of advice: 84 hours per week is f---ing insane. You wind up with diminishing returns after about 50-60 hours/week. While 84 (or more) hours is very possible for a week or two, such a schedule will QUICKLY become ineffective immediately thereafter. You might be at work for 84 hours, but your mind won't. Whoever is running this company doesn't know that, which means they don't know how to run a company, which therefore means that the company (or your department) isn't likely to be successful, which you should take as an indicator of its expected lifespan. Get out now.
The second web site I wrote used this amazing technology. I wrote it in 1995.
I don't see finding prior art on this one to be that great of a problem. The patent was applied for in May of 96. Netscape 2.0 went beta in October of 1995. Every introductory tutorial on frames used this application as the primary example.
The Press Release
Mojave, California, April 18, 2003:
Scaled Composites today unveiled the existence of a commercial manned space program. This previously hidden, active research program has been in the works at its facility for two years. This program includes an airborne launcher (the White Knight), a space ship (SpaceShipOne), rocket propulsion, avionics, simulator and ground support elements.
Master of Ceremonies, Cliff Robertson, introduced Burt Rutan who explained the history and the components of the program. Other dignitaries who attended the event were Dr. Maxim Faget (pioneer configuratioin designer of the early NASA space program from the Mercury through the Apollo programs), Erik Lindbergh (grandson of Charles Lindbergh and President of the Lindbergh Foundation), and Dennis Tito (Soyuz space tourist).
Further information about the space program and high-resolution photographs are available at the Scaled Composites website: www.scaled.com.
The FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
VISION
What does Burt Rutan think of the other X-Prize designs?
Burt prefers to discuss this only after the X-Prize is won.
How long has Burt been working on all this?
The concept dates back to April 1996. Design work and some limited testing was started 3.5 years ago. The full development program began in May 2001.
What's going to be next in Burt's bag of tricks?
Scaled has completed 34 manned research aircraft and none were announced until they were ready to fly.
BUSINESS
How much does it all cost?
This is generally not known until the program is complete, but projections place it close to a Soyuz ride.
How much will it cost to get a ride into space?
Rides will not be offered in SpaceShipOne. The price of a ride will have to take in consideration the cost of certification and establishing an airliner-like operation. One goal of this research program is to see how low it might be without the burden of regulatory costs. At program completion we will have good data for operational costs and may publish them.
Is it physically stressful?
It is expected to be on the order of some modern theme park rides. The highest forces occur during reentry but build up gradually and peak near 6 G's for less than 10 seconds. With the pilot and passengers reclined, these forces should be quite tolerable for anyone in reasonable health.
Is Burt Rutan going to ride in the vehicle?
Yes, as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
WHITE KNIGHT
Why did the first flight last only 2 minutes?
The airplane had outboard spoilers on the wings to help improve roll control in the event of gusty cross wind landings. They were pneumatically actuated (using the same tanks, valves and fittings as the RCS system on SpaceShipOne) and returned to recesses in the wings by springs. On the first flight, the low air pressure, at rotation was sufficient to "suck" the spoilers out which killed the lift and caused the return springs to slam them closed. Four of these surfaces chattering out on the wingtips during the climb out produced significant airframe vibrations and the pilot elected to turn downwind and land immediately rather than aggravate the condition any longer than necessary.
How can you see where you're going?
The visibility is actually much better than you might imagine. By moving your head slightly you can piece together an acceptable picture of the outside world and maintain adequate "situational awareness". What is more difficult is spotting other airborne traffic. However, between radar advisories from ground controllers and an onboard traffic alert system called "Skywatch," this limitation is minimized.
Isn't it hard to land with all those wheels?
No. The pilot doesn't notice that he has two nose wheels up front and with excellent elevator control
he can hold them off until about 45 knots during the landing roll.
Why is the cockpit called a "pressure vessel"?
The cockpit is airtight and
No, I was the guy on the motorcycle you cut off because you didn't signal cause your hand was on your dick^W Cell Phone.
No, you nearly hit me because you were splitting lanes in a bend at 70 when traffic was stopped.
One trait I always look for when purchasing phones...can I dial it while driving, and not have to look at the phone? My Motorola T720 certainly meets this criteria... it has large buttons, including a concave "5" button in the center with a small point it its middle.
This phone on the other hand, with its circular dial pad, can't come close to meeting this criteria. Nokia seems to have been trying to make it more and more difficult to dial their phones using the keypad, and this particular model seems to be quite the shining example of their hard efforts.
I'd love to have bluetooth, a multi-megapixel camera, and video capability too. But personally, these features rank a little lower on the list than being able to effectively use the device as a telephone.
And please, no rants about driving and using a cell phone. I saw you talking on yours while holding up traffic in the fast lane yesterday.
Oh, you actually decided to VIEW A PAGE in Galeon. Doh, my bad! :)
I used BitTorrent to get RH9, which worked smoothly when I let it run overnight on a cable modem.
- Mozilla is up to v1.2.1 and supports AA fonts. Unforunately, Galeon is on 1.2.7 and does not.
- Nautlius has no problems browsing SMB networks, just make sure your firewall settings are at or below "Medium" if you use RH's firewall tool.
- Menu editing appears to be totally b0rked. I am so far unable to add items to the applications menu, neither by right clicking on the menu and then clicking "Add new item to this menu" nor by dragging launchers into the "Applications:///" view in Nautlius. Major disappointment here, I was really hoping this would be fixed in 9. With any luck, RH will make it a priority to fix it.
- Java works fine (whew).
- "Extras" menus are now submenus in each menu that contains "extra" programs. Much nicer layout IMHO.
- "Security Level" firewall configurator no longer has option to add extra ports, which makes it quite worthless to those of us that require this feature. At least it remembers settings this time (the RH8 version did not).
Overall it seems to be a fine product, runs as fast as RH8, just with a bit more polish.
I've found this works quite well. I didn't use their technique, but instead embedded HTML comments in the addresses, e.g.
N -->bob<!--NOSPAN-->son<!--NOSPAN--> ;
bob<!--NOSPAM-->bobson<!--NOSPAN-->@
<!--NOSPA
tech.<!--NOSPAN-->com
The address is encased in an <A> tag that whose target is JavaScript code:
<a href="javascript:doMail('bobbobson');">...
Where the doMail() method appends @bobsontech.com onto the email and redirects to "mailto:bobbobson@bobsontech.com".
When I was building the web site I figured it was worth a shot, although I didn't think it would work. There are about six email addresses on a single page, and I've yet to see a single spam show up in all of them together. Some of the addresses have never received a single spam.
Game Info
I think it's a good idea that its now being bundled with lottery tickets. If you're playing the lottery, you'll undoubtedly find this game both entertaining and highly educational.
The first slashdotting of a fly:
139.142.46.159
This article sounds like it's coming from a corrupt politician: the author chooses to ignore all facts with controvert his point. This tactic is universally used by those who are attempting to lead an audience to a false conclusion. Drivel.