"Because the aerostats are not highly pressurized, bullets won’t burst them; they can actually remain buoyant for hours after suffering multiple punctures." (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/the-usas-raid-program-small-aerostats-big-surveillance-time-02779/)
If you google harder than I did, you'll find more information about aerostats.
However, if you'd like to be a worrier consider the following:
Aircraft landing at Washington Nation, Dulles and Andrews (home of Air Force One).
You've got to be kidding. As someone who grew up on Merritt Island and had many friends whose dads worked at the Cape, we did not want it changed to be named after Kennedy.
Although the name change was approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names of the Interior Department in 1964, it was not popular in Florida, especially in the city of Cape Canaveral, Florida. In 1973 the state passed a law restoring the former 400-year-old name, and the board went along. The Kennedy family issued a letter stating they "understood the decision"; Jacqueline Kennedy also stated if she had known that the Canaveral name had existed for 400 years, she never would have supported changing the name. The NASA center retains the "Kennedy" name.
It would have been more appropriate to have renamed Cape Cod as Cape Kennedy, as that was the Kennedy stomping grounds. There's even a museum about Kennedy there. Cape Cod was named in 1602 and Cape Canaveral named in the first half of the 16th century. It was inappropriate for a Texas politician to name a Florida historical site after a Massachusetts politician. Thankfully, in 1973, the mistake was corrected.
Excellent summary. My bachelor's was in Physics and after several years of coding I got my Master's in compsci. Understanding state machines (via Automata & Computability) helped with untangling complicated conditions and process. The analysis of data structures was also a big deal. I blush at some of the algorithms I wrote.
The only thing I would add to the list above is mathematical logic as applied to programming. While I'm not wild about program correctness techniques, preconditions and postconditions are useful for deciding if a piece of code is correct and has applications in unit testing among others.
Basically, what I got from my CompSci degree is that I finally really understood what I was doing. It made getting the degree a series of aha! moments.
I grew up on Merritt Island in the 60's and 70's and the space program inspired me in my schooling and life. I hope the shuttle program has inspired some youth with the vision for the next steps in space.
Regardless of our manifest failings, space exploration and travel represent fine qualities of the human spirit and give me some hope for what humanity can achieve. I know, it's pretty easy to be cynical given the sheer brutal, nastiness that we demonstrate, but I prefer to focus on the positive.
That being said, the "Mission Completed" patch really hit home with me, especially the nebula in the background. It is gorgeous. The others are remarkable, the tributes to the lost astronauts are moving and I'd love to have each of these patches.
The Moors invaded Spain in 711 AD. The Roman Empire ended in 476 AD. I suspect the concept of zero entered Europe in some other fashion. Perhaps until the Moors came into Spain, zero was nothing to write home about.
It's always been fascinating to me that most fiction is repeating the same stories (see Joseph Campbell), but that certain writers can make the tale shine in a new way. It's what she can do with these "generic fantasy" stories that makes her either a good or bad author. Whether she can take the "I, Robot" series and make them memorable and entertaining remains to be seen.
Besides, IMHO, the "I, Robot" stories were to some extent just detective stories, with robots and some interesting speculation about robot "morality", with Asimov exploring how that morality could be circumvented. It is up to the discerning to recognize that he was really talking about human morality...as well as making a living as an author.;)
For the record, Ms. Reichert is a she.
Also for the record, the "I, Robot" movie was as bad as you mention. You are fortunate. The only people who remember the movie completely are locked in institutions.
My first computer was an IBM clone...actually an IBM System/360 clone made by Amdahl. It was at U of Fl. back around 1976-1978. I used punch cards for class assignments. Since class accounts were so limited in computer time, if you asked nicely at the engineering department, you could get a free account. With that I then had enough computer time to use the CRTs or the IBM Selectrics with the cool type balls.
But I'm sure there's someone on Slashdot who goes back further than me.
Perhaps the companies that really mean what they're saying will go to the local university and ask for a list of people who graduated with CS degrees over the last 7 years and start doing some calling/mailing.
But being cynical as I am, I suspect it's really just an exercise to drive salaries down with H-1B hires.
I agree that "verbally raped" is one of those victimhood phrases that some women use to avoid self-responsibility. By no means am I a feminist apologist. However, from Ms. Sierra's reaction. it's clear she feels attacked. From what little I know of her from her books, blog and a brief conversation, she is not a self-pitying, victim kind of person. Nor is she cynically manipulating the incident to gain traffic on her blog or sell books. She is worth defending and I feel bad for her.
In some sense, she is working for human rights. Her blog is about how to build companies, systems, customer support, etc., that respect other people and focuses on the best for them. She's always talking about how we are not to turn into some kind of soulless entities, but to actually care for our customers as people, not as wallets with legs.
If somethign like this happened to me, I would be hurt as well. But it goes beyond that. These people didn't do it because they personally disagree with her techniques for good customer relationships. They did it because she is female and because of their own inadequacy and failings as human beings. They decided to prop themselves up by vile, cruel, and demeaning comments.
I met Ms. Sierra briefly at a conference once. She is gracious, kind, and funny. Her books are well-written and many parts of them are hilarious, which considering that they are just software development books, is pretty special. Her blog is insightful and witty. She really does bring, in a small way, the world to a better place and the wretches who verbally raped her are beneath contempt.
Great link! I've started using CFLs and the site answered some lingering questions.
BTW, I haven't noticed any difference in how the light looks from CFLs. Also, our kitchen ceiling fixture holds four bulbs. With incandescents, it got pretty hot, so much so that I believe the bulbs' life times were shortened. With the CFLs in place, it's just as bright and the heat is way down. As a matter of fact, you can touch a CFL when it's on. Try that with an incandescent and enjoy the resulting blisters.
This has got to be the most informative post I've ever read on slashdot. I've been in the s/w development field for almost 30 years and I am finally in a great company where I get paid for my actual work, without having to continually fight for it. However, I wish I'd had this to back me up all the times I had to go up against my bosses. Most of them understood, but it was still stressful and wasted time.
One of the first things a smart developer learns to do is not to get the sysadmins mad. Otherwise, next thing you know, Windows 98 is installed on your computer and your Internet connection is through a 300 baud modem. I tend to be very friendly. Making offerings of trade show loot and small woodland creatures seems to help too.
GPS is a navigation device. IFR, in contrast, is best summarized from the following Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFR:
IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) is a set of regulations and procedures for flying aircraft without the assumption that pilots will be able to see and avoid obstacles, terrain, and other air traffic; it is an alternative to visual flight rules (VFR), where the pilot is primarily or exclusively responsible for see-and-avoid.
But we get your point that is elaborated on by patrick24601 below: there are multiple ways of checking where you are. Small planes generally have radio navigation, which includes VOR, NDB, DME, and so on. (See bottom of link given above). GPS is just another navigation tool. In addition, the big guys have inertial navigation devices. One can also ask the controller where you're at if you're really lost. Of course, if the weather isn't bad, one can always resort to using a map and looking out the window. (Actually should anyhow...half the fun is the view!)
If you want to get a better idea of what those pilot friends are doing, take a look at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) site http://www.aopa.org/ and read some of the stuff for newbies. I believe there are some articles from previous issues that talk about GPS and radio frequency interference of all sorts.
First computer I used was some kind of Amdahl that emulated IBM 360. Never actually saw it as it was kept locked back in a sacred area, guarded by priests. There were rumors of virgin sacrifices. This was at U of Fla around 1976-1978. Also programmed Commodore and a PDP-8 in the solid state physics lab.
First computer I actually bought was an Apple ][+.
I wish I had mod points for RailGunner's insightful post. I think that we're missing one motivation here. While many of the street level protestors are marching in support of their "faith", they are being manipulated by others for political purposes. One of which is to intimidate the western democracies. The invasion parallel is also pretty strong here, given that the US is sitting right in the middle between Syria and Iran, making both of them (rightly) nervous. Frankly, the pressure isn't going to let up any time soon.
I hope I'm not stating the obvious, but religion is just the tool here.
I believe you're on to something. If you look at the paper, you'll notice that Adam's Metasyntactic Variable appears several times within each of the curve-fitted coefficients for the sample galaxies cited in the paper's appendix.
This has a very deep significance, the explanation of which escapes me at the moment.
Slashdot Mirror
They're not going to pop like a party balloon:
"Because the aerostats are not highly pressurized, bullets won’t burst them; they can actually remain buoyant for hours after suffering multiple punctures." (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/the-usas-raid-program-small-aerostats-big-surveillance-time-02779/)
If you google harder than I did, you'll find more information about aerostats.
However, if you'd like to be a worrier consider the following:
You've got to be kidding. As someone who grew up on Merritt Island and had many friends whose dads worked at the Cape, we did not want it changed to be named after Kennedy.
From the wikipedia article:
Although the name change was approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names of the Interior Department in 1964, it was not popular in Florida, especially in the city of Cape Canaveral, Florida. In 1973 the state passed a law restoring the former 400-year-old name, and the board went along. The Kennedy family issued a letter stating they "understood the decision"; Jacqueline Kennedy also stated if she had known that the Canaveral name had existed for 400 years, she never would have supported changing the name. The NASA center retains the "Kennedy" name.
It would have been more appropriate to have renamed Cape Cod as Cape Kennedy, as that was the Kennedy stomping grounds. There's even a museum about Kennedy there. Cape Cod was named in 1602 and Cape Canaveral named in the first half of the 16th century. It was inappropriate for a Texas politician to name a Florida historical site after a Massachusetts politician. Thankfully, in 1973, the mistake was corrected.
Excellent summary. My bachelor's was in Physics and after several years of coding I got my Master's in compsci. Understanding state machines (via Automata & Computability) helped with untangling complicated conditions and process. The analysis of data structures was also a big deal. I blush at some of the algorithms I wrote.
The only thing I would add to the list above is mathematical logic as applied to programming. While I'm not wild about program correctness techniques, preconditions and postconditions are useful for deciding if a piece of code is correct and has applications in unit testing among others.
Basically, what I got from my CompSci degree is that I finally really understood what I was doing. It made getting the degree a series of aha! moments.
I grew up on Merritt Island in the 60's and 70's and the space program inspired me in my schooling and life. I hope the shuttle program has inspired some youth with the vision for the next steps in space. Regardless of our manifest failings, space exploration and travel represent fine qualities of the human spirit and give me some hope for what humanity can achieve. I know, it's pretty easy to be cynical given the sheer brutal, nastiness that we demonstrate, but I prefer to focus on the positive. That being said, the "Mission Completed" patch really hit home with me, especially the nebula in the background. It is gorgeous. The others are remarkable, the tributes to the lost astronauts are moving and I'd love to have each of these patches.
Actually, I am in a basement writing code in a cube. I had a window office once. I dream of those days even though that company was evil.
The Moors invaded Spain in 711 AD. The Roman Empire ended in 476 AD. I suspect the concept of zero entered Europe in some other fashion. Perhaps until the Moors came into Spain, zero was nothing to write home about.
My AI course teacher said that AI was whatever we hadn't figured out to do with computers yet.
It's always been fascinating to me that most fiction is repeating the same stories (see Joseph Campbell), but that certain writers can make the tale shine in a new way. It's what she can do with these "generic fantasy" stories that makes her either a good or bad author. Whether she can take the "I, Robot" series and make them memorable and entertaining remains to be seen.
Besides, IMHO, the "I, Robot" stories were to some extent just detective stories, with robots and some interesting speculation about robot "morality", with Asimov exploring how that morality could be circumvented. It is up to the discerning to recognize that he was really talking about human morality...as well as making a living as an author. ;)
For the record, Ms. Reichert is a she. Also for the record, the "I, Robot" movie was as bad as you mention. You are fortunate. The only people who remember the movie completely are locked in institutions.
nobody knows you're a dog. And all you have to know is 200 words.
The real problem with photographing the robot dragonflies is avoiding the little hellfire missiles they can shoot at nosy photographers.
My first computer was an IBM clone...actually an IBM System/360 clone made by Amdahl. It was at U of Fl. back around 1976-1978. I used punch cards for class assignments. Since class accounts were so limited in computer time, if you asked nicely at the engineering department, you could get a free account. With that I then had enough computer time to use the CRTs or the IBM Selectrics with the cool type balls.
But I'm sure there's someone on Slashdot who goes back further than me.
But being cynical as I am, I suspect it's really just an exercise to drive salaries down with H-1B hires.
I agree that "verbally raped" is one of those victimhood phrases that some women use to avoid self-responsibility. By no means am I a feminist apologist. However, from Ms. Sierra's reaction. it's clear she feels attacked. From what little I know of her from her books, blog and a brief conversation, she is not a self-pitying, victim kind of person. Nor is she cynically manipulating the incident to gain traffic on her blog or sell books. She is worth defending and I feel bad for her.
You make a good point though. Thanks.
If somethign like this happened to me, I would be hurt as well. But it goes beyond that. These people didn't do it because they personally disagree with her techniques for good customer relationships. They did it because she is female and because of their own inadequacy and failings as human beings. They decided to prop themselves up by vile, cruel, and demeaning comments.
I met Ms. Sierra briefly at a conference once. She is gracious, kind, and funny. Her books are well-written and many parts of them are hilarious, which considering that they are just software development books, is pretty special. Her blog is insightful and witty. She really does bring, in a small way, the world to a better place and the wretches who verbally raped her are beneath contempt.
So about this Lovecraftian Elder God...sounds pretty good considering the alternatives mentioned above. Where do I go to sign up?
BTW, I haven't noticed any difference in how the light looks from CFLs. Also, our kitchen ceiling fixture holds four bulbs. With incandescents, it got pretty hot, so much so that I believe the bulbs' life times were shortened. With the CFLs in place, it's just as bright and the heat is way down. As a matter of fact, you can touch a CFL when it's on. Try that with an incandescent and enjoy the resulting blisters.
This has got to be the most informative post I've ever read on slashdot. I've been in the s/w development field for almost 30 years and I am finally in a great company where I get paid for my actual work, without having to continually fight for it. However, I wish I'd had this to back me up all the times I had to go up against my bosses. Most of them understood, but it was still stressful and wasted time.
Thanks again for a great post!
One of the first things a smart developer learns to do is not to get the sysadmins mad. Otherwise, next thing you know, Windows 98 is installed on your computer and your Internet connection is through a 300 baud modem. I tend to be very friendly. Making offerings of trade show loot and small woodland creatures seems to help too.
But we get your point that is elaborated on by patrick24601 below: there are multiple ways of checking where you are. Small planes generally have radio navigation, which includes VOR, NDB, DME, and so on. (See bottom of link given above). GPS is just another navigation tool. In addition, the big guys have inertial navigation devices. One can also ask the controller where you're at if you're really lost. Of course, if the weather isn't bad, one can always resort to using a map and looking out the window. (Actually should anyhow...half the fun is the view!)
If you want to get a better idea of what those pilot friends are doing, take a look at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) site http://www.aopa.org/ and read some of the stuff for newbies. I believe there are some articles from previous issues that talk about GPS and radio frequency interference of all sorts.
First computer I actually bought was an Apple ][+.
I don't miss any of them for a second...
I hope I'm not stating the obvious, but religion is just the tool here.
I believe you're on to something. If you look at the paper, you'll notice that Adam's Metasyntactic Variable appears several times within each of the curve-fitted coefficients for the sample galaxies cited in the paper's appendix.
This has a very deep significance, the explanation of which escapes me at the moment.
Well he wasn't fat and didn't dress all that funny, but he did have a long beard.