It is important to remember (and I worked for a shuttle contractor, at the time) that the Challenger accident (caused by political pressure to launch (so that President Reagan would be able to talk about the "teacher in space" for his state of the Nation address) over rode engineering concerns about launching at a temperature that had never been planned for) is the reason for the 5-6 launches per year scenario. Pre Challenger, the plans that were discussed included having multiple shuttle missions on-orbit at the same time, having much reduced turn-around time (I worked on a prototype that would have helped cut payload integration time for shuttle missions from months to weeks) and would have seen an increase (slowly) in the size of the shuttle fleet. When the Challenger accident occurred, the first thing that the Bureacracy at NASA did was scrap plans for multiple on-orbit missions at the same time, and cut back the number of missions per year. This caused the economies of scale to fall apart, and is the root cause for the expense of the shuttle program.
The underlying root cause of the problem has been that NASA has shed "working engineers" who designed things, and gained "managers" to simply (1) justify their existence, (2) manage the contractors/subcontractors who actually do the work and (3) slowly become more and more risk-averse, meaning fewer flights, and more costs.
...
>When you go to the gas station you are entering
>into an implied contract to purchase gas. If you
>drive away without paying you are in violation of
>that contract and can be sued (in addition to being
>charged with theft).
So you're saying that if I pull into a gas station, do not pump any gas, and drive away, I can be sued? WRONG!
The problem that arises is that these terms are agreed to by opening the shrink wrap that contains the software, and the license... Therefore, you're not agreeing to something you are aware of... You've agreed to a blank slate, because you can't read the terms, until you agree to them.
Ok, so someone calling your cell phone, and burning up your minutes isn't stealing from you?
Bandwidth, diskspace, and administrative time all cost money. You may not see them itemized on your ISP bill, but when your ISP raises their rates, this is part of the reason..
(1) typewritten logs of license plate numbers for all vehicles that pass in front of your home...
(2) written logs of all conversations you have on the phone...
(3) and if it's not too much trouble, would you please stop snoring, they're having trouble recording what you say while you're asleep...
Seriously... Homeland security.. The last time I heard that come up, it was Hitler's Germany, and it was about controlling the citizenry (and having them report on their neighbors, etc!!) I don't have a problem with then trying to prevent terrorism, but, when they say the need to look at everyone in the country's shopping habits (on the off chance that 1 out of the 260+Million Americans is buying diesel fuel, and Fertilizer (oooh, sure, you CLAIM to be a farmer... but how do we know you're not a terrorist!)...
"Opening Ourselves" to a terrorist attack? You know, 2 short years ago, we considered that "Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness".. Now, we have to worry that if we don't let them monitor us with cameras at traffic lights, body cavity searches at the airport, and logs of all our web surfing, we might let a terrorist get us.
I'm sorry, I don't want terrorists to do bad things to people... but I see our government racing towards total control of all of our lives, all in the name of the "War on Terrorism".
Besides.. the Server logs are there for the admin's use.. there is not rule of law that says, run a web server, log the traffic for your government.
...
Last week, Secret Service agents in New York arrested three men and seized 35,000 illegally copied music discs, 10,000 movies on DVD and 421 compact disc burners that are used to make the counterfeit products....
Note, that the 156 physical CD burners have mysteriously become the virtual 421 cd burners.
Gotta love RIAA statistics.
What's next, an article that states "that 100% of (the three arrested) americans are involved in music piracy" ??
Sure, they may not be insured, but odds are next to none that both the backup that you keep at your house, the current running version of things on your lan and your bank are ALL going to go the way of the dodo on the same day.
Earthquake
Tornado
Flood
Riots
Nuke Blast
Bio/Chem Attack
Asteroid
EMP Attack
Bad Backups
Uhm.. A couple of those, how likely are you to survive, to care whether your data did?
as for the rest, I try to keep the "important" data on my home LAN burned to CD, and typically have a copy kicking around my desk at work (reference copies are a good thing) as well as at home.
This is a good thing(tm) because my Linux box at home died a horrible death last week... As soon as a new hard disk arrives, I rebuild the OS, and restore all the "mission critical" data from cd-rom.
It's important to understand that the Space Shuttle (while a Marvelous piece of technology) is far to expensive for "most" satellite launches. There are numbers out there (somewhere on the internet) that compare cost per pound, for the various launch vehicles. Because it's man-rated, and much larger than the other vehicles, the shuttle is MUCH more expensive, on average.
The shuttle, on the other hand, is perfect for getting "hands-on" time with a payload, either as a capture, repair and relaunch, or for those payloads that need tender loving care, before being sent on their way.
That being said, when there is payload space available on an existing shuttle flight, fitting in satellite launchs that make sense for shuttle launch, is a good thing... (Satellite launches that make sense for Shuttle carriage would tend to include low-earth orbit birds) High Altitude Satellites (geosynchronous, and such-like) tend to require a "second stage" to lift them from the shuttles (approx.) 180 mile orbit... making them even less cost effective for deployment by Shuttle.
All of that being said, it took the Challenger accident to convince NASA that the shuttle wasn't the Do-it-all pick-up-truck to the stars that they liked to think it was. Before Challenger, NASA's plans were to shift more and more Satellite launches (ever hear of Shuttle Centaur? - it's the Centaur second stage, modified for use from the shuttle payload bay) to Shuttle based launches.
Fortunately, they are now using a "best fit" when it comes to launching Satellites, which means that if it can be done without on-site human intervention, and isn't LEO bound, it'll probably launch on a Delta, Titan, or some other suitable unmanned launch vehicle.
-I know you think you saw me post this, but you didn't.
Ok.. Lots to disagree with here, both on the flame bait angle, as well as the Education angle.
1) I work to support the technology infrastructure for a major southern City's school system. I guarantee the machines that are deployed are getting used. The average librarian is supporting a couple dozen machines (typically mixed between Windows and Mac), and they are using them all the time.. have classes lined up waiting to use the resources, for research, etc. To the point where they'd rather we come out and fix them on site (not likely) rather than take it out of service long enough to send it in for repairs. So your comment of Computers in schools being simple corporate welfare doesn't float..
2) In our school system, Cisco has partnered with the high schools, and is teaching networking technology. We're growing the next generation of network saavy folks, today...
3) (and now to address the bait) We're in the south.. None of the Technical team here are rednecks... so bugger off, mate. (and yes, that's southern US, to you globalists).
-I know you think you saw me post this, but I didn't...
I agree that anything in the webserver's document root (-R) is "fair game", as it can be considered to be published, as soon as it's where the webserver can serve it.
I do know that Project Zapata (spelling?) is a Open Source Hardware project building PBX cards for linux hardware... And that there exists software to drive such things. Just don't have all my references with me, at the moment.
Will post further, when I can find my notes.
Thanks for correcting my errors.. was posting with no reference materials in front of me, and worse, am terrible with the Kilometer/mile thing.
Glad to see your numbers agree with my "gut-feel"
thoughts... Don't know characteristics of carbon nanotubes either to heating... do have a feeling it would have one heck of a time dissipating the heat from friction.
but if it's designed to break, then how to you make it strong enough to withstand the required compressive, and expansive forces?
Compressive force - picture bricks holding up the wieght of a building..
expansive force - picture a suspension bridge...
Uhm...
BZZZZT. Wrong. one, the materials used are going to be heavy.. carbon nanotubes will have weight comparable to diamonds... second.. the 1000 mph rotational velocity of the earth is gonna play one hell of a game of crack the whip with the end of the cable. Terminal velocity doesn't count, because it's not "free falling".. it's being dragged down, winched around the planet.
36,000 miles of cable, gaining 1000mph of lateral accelleration, is gonna be spectacular to watch fall. It will move thru the air fast enough to appear as a flaming line (think about meteorites burning up, - now consider this a 36000 mile long meteorite!) the further the end is out, the faster it's gonna be going, when it strikes.
Some things to consider.
1) carbon nanotubes are conductive. VERY conductive.
2) using solar power (collected at the upper end) to run payloads up and down the elevator.
3) selling solar power, using the elevator (or superconducting cables attached thereto) as a transmission line (avoiding all those scary microwave antenna farms that sci-fi writers dream up for solar power transmission)
4) depending on how things are designed, the energy it takes to lift one elevator car can be recovered in part from the energy lost as by a down-traveling car.
all in all, a do-able, interesting alternative method to get to space.
Slashdot Mirror
It is important to remember (and I worked for a shuttle contractor, at the time) that the Challenger accident (caused by political pressure to launch (so that President Reagan would be able to talk about the "teacher in space" for his state of the Nation address) over rode engineering concerns about launching at a temperature that had never been planned for) is the reason for the 5-6 launches per year scenario. Pre Challenger, the plans that were discussed included having multiple shuttle missions on-orbit at the same time, having much reduced turn-around time (I worked on a prototype that would have helped cut payload integration time for shuttle missions from months to weeks) and would have seen an increase (slowly) in the size of the shuttle fleet. When the Challenger accident occurred, the first thing that the Bureacracy at NASA did was scrap plans for multiple on-orbit missions at the same time, and cut back the number of missions per year. This caused the economies of scale to fall apart, and is the root cause for the expense of the shuttle program.
The underlying root cause of the problem has been that NASA has shed "working engineers" who designed things, and gained "managers" to simply (1) justify their existence, (2) manage the contractors/subcontractors who actually do the work and (3) slowly become more and more risk-averse, meaning fewer flights, and more costs.
...
>When you go to the gas station you are entering
>into an implied contract to purchase gas. If you
>drive away without paying you are in violation of
>that contract and can be sued (in addition to being
>charged with theft).
So you're saying that if I pull into a gas station, do not pump any gas, and drive away, I can be sued? WRONG!
The problem that arises is that these terms are agreed to by opening the shrink wrap that contains the software, and the license... Therefore, you're not agreeing to something you are aware of... You've agreed to a blank slate, because you can't read the terms, until you agree to them.
Ok, so someone calling your cell phone, and burning up your minutes isn't stealing from you? Bandwidth, diskspace, and administrative time all cost money. You may not see them itemized on your ISP bill, but when your ISP raises their rates, this is part of the reason..
a LOT safer than high intensity saturation bombing of that intersection, or that hospital...
(1) typewritten logs of license plate numbers for all vehicles that pass in front of your home...
(2) written logs of all conversations you have on the phone...
(3) and if it's not too much trouble, would you please stop snoring, they're having trouble recording what you say while you're asleep...
Seriously... Homeland security.. The last time I heard that come up, it was Hitler's Germany, and it was about controlling the citizenry (and having them report on their neighbors, etc!!) I don't have a problem with then trying to prevent terrorism, but, when they say the need to look at everyone in the country's shopping habits (on the off chance that 1 out of the 260+Million Americans is buying diesel fuel, and Fertilizer (oooh, sure, you CLAIM to be a farmer... but how do we know you're not a terrorist!)...
"Opening Ourselves" to a terrorist attack? You know, 2 short years ago, we considered that "Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness".. Now, we have to worry that if we don't let them monitor us with cameras at traffic lights, body cavity searches at the airport, and logs of all our web surfing, we might let a terrorist get us.
I'm sorry, I don't want terrorists to do bad things to people... but I see our government racing towards total control of all of our lives, all in the name of the "War on Terrorism".
Besides.. the Server logs are there for the admin's use.. there is not rule of law that says, run a web server, log the traffic for your government.
FP
... Last week, Secret Service agents in New York arrested three men and seized 35,000 illegally copied music discs, 10,000 movies on DVD and 421 compact disc burners that are used to make the counterfeit products. ...
Note, that the 156 physical CD burners have mysteriously become the virtual 421 cd burners.
Gotta love RIAA statistics.
What's next, an article that states "that 100% of (the three arrested) americans are involved in music piracy" ??
MOD the parent up.. This is the BEST explanation of how it really works... and send a copy to the blamed-fool media who wrote the original article.
as for the rest, I try to keep the "important" data on my home LAN burned to CD, and typically have a copy kicking around my desk at work (reference copies are a good thing) as well as at home.
This is a good thing(tm) because my Linux box at home died a horrible death last week... As soon as a new hard disk arrives, I rebuild the OS, and restore all the "mission critical" data from cd-rom.
So this would be the first step in creating Plague Lite(tm) ?
Microsoft has just said "Don't Trust Signed Code from Microsoft".. what about all those poor saps who clicked "Always trust code from Microsoft"?
It's important to understand that the Space Shuttle (while a Marvelous piece of technology) is far to expensive for "most" satellite launches. There are numbers out there (somewhere on the internet) that compare cost per pound, for the various launch vehicles. Because it's man-rated, and much larger than the other vehicles, the shuttle is MUCH more expensive, on average.
The shuttle, on the other hand, is perfect for getting "hands-on" time with a payload, either as a capture, repair and relaunch, or for those payloads that need tender loving care, before being sent on their way.
That being said, when there is payload space available on an existing shuttle flight, fitting in satellite launchs that make sense for shuttle launch, is a good thing... (Satellite launches that make sense for Shuttle carriage would tend to include low-earth orbit birds) High Altitude Satellites (geosynchronous, and such-like) tend to require a "second stage" to lift them from the shuttles (approx.) 180 mile orbit... making them even less cost effective for deployment by Shuttle.
All of that being said, it took the Challenger accident to convince NASA that the shuttle wasn't the Do-it-all pick-up-truck to the stars that they liked to think it was. Before Challenger, NASA's plans were to shift more and more Satellite launches (ever hear of Shuttle Centaur? - it's the Centaur second stage, modified for use from the shuttle payload bay) to Shuttle based launches.
Fortunately, they are now using a "best fit" when it comes to launching Satellites, which means that if it can be done without on-site human intervention, and isn't LEO bound, it'll probably launch on a Delta, Titan, or some other suitable unmanned launch vehicle.
-I know you think you saw me post this, but you didn't.
1) I work to support the technology infrastructure for a major southern City's school system. I guarantee the machines that are deployed are getting used. The average librarian is supporting a couple dozen machines (typically mixed between Windows and Mac), and they are using them all the time.. have classes lined up waiting to use the resources, for research, etc. To the point where they'd rather we come out and fix them on site (not likely) rather than take it out of service long enough to send it in for repairs. So your comment of Computers in schools being simple corporate welfare doesn't float..
2) In our school system, Cisco has partnered with the high schools, and is teaching networking technology. We're growing the next generation of network saavy folks, today...
3) (and now to address the bait) We're in the south.. None of the Technical team here are rednecks... so bugger off, mate. (and yes, that's southern US, to you globalists).
-I know you think you saw me post this, but I didn't...
Air traffic controllers are reporting a number of flying pigs, around Redmond Washington... *grin*
-You only think you saw me post this...
I agree that anything in the webserver's document root (-R) is "fair game", as it can be considered to be published, as soon as it's where the webserver can serve it.
I do know that Project Zapata (spelling?) is a Open Source Hardware project building PBX cards for linux hardware... And that there exists software to drive such things. Just don't have all my references with me, at the moment. Will post further, when I can find my notes.
Thanks for correcting my errors.. was posting with no reference materials in front of me, and worse, am terrible with the Kilometer/mile thing. Glad to see your numbers agree with my "gut-feel" thoughts... Don't know characteristics of carbon nanotubes either to heating... do have a feeling it would have one heck of a time dissipating the heat from friction.
but if it's designed to break, then how to you make it strong enough to withstand the required compressive, and expansive forces?
Compressive force - picture bricks holding up the wieght of a building..
expansive force - picture a suspension bridge...
Uhm...
BZZZZT. Wrong. one, the materials used are going to be heavy.. carbon nanotubes will have weight comparable to diamonds... second.. the 1000 mph rotational velocity of the earth is gonna play one hell of a game of crack the whip with the end of the cable. Terminal velocity doesn't count, because it's not "free falling".. it's being dragged down, winched around the planet.
36,000 miles of cable, gaining 1000mph of lateral accelleration, is gonna be spectacular to watch fall. It will move thru the air fast enough to appear as a flaming line (think about meteorites burning up, - now consider this a 36000 mile long meteorite!) the further the end is out, the faster it's gonna be going, when it strikes.
Some things to consider. 1) carbon nanotubes are conductive. VERY conductive. 2) using solar power (collected at the upper end) to run payloads up and down the elevator. 3) selling solar power, using the elevator (or superconducting cables attached thereto) as a transmission line (avoiding all those scary microwave antenna farms that sci-fi writers dream up for solar power transmission) 4) depending on how things are designed, the energy it takes to lift one elevator car can be recovered in part from the energy lost as by a down-traveling car. all in all, a do-able, interesting alternative method to get to space.