The scientific paper refers to the object as follows:
The title of the paper is Discovery of a candidate inner Oort cloud planetoid
And the first line of the abstract is We report the discovery of the minor planet 2003 VB12 (popularly named
Sedna), the most distant object ever seen in the solar system.
So, there you have it.. either a Oort cloud planetoid or a minor planet.. take your pick.
Actually, there are those rareities among us.. technically proficent, military-trained geeks who manage networks and write software that licenses for $90,000US per year, who are also very, very good at getting laid and finding themselves in all manners of "interesting" situations.
LMAO, me too. I spent a year in the real mechanized infantry (before switching into the Signal Corps) and kept thinking to myself "you could take out a whole damn platoon of these idiots with 1 grenade".
The "spread out" thing (which is drilled into you in the infantry) is so often not represnented in military dramas.. makes for boring shots I guess.
That said, the movie was a hateful piece of shit that had almost nothing to do with the book. The book was fantastic and rasied a lot of really good points to ponder. However, I've seen the movie, post-9/11, and it sent chills up my spine. Very much a case of life imitating art.
Has anyone seen the licensing costs sun lists for the Java Desktop?
US $50 per desktop per year
Per year? I would scoff at an OS that wanted me to pay a yearly licensing fee like this... think about it: the average end user will keep his PC about 2-3 years.. brings the total cost for the OS up around $100-$150.. more expensive than XP home.
With a BS, you can get in as an officer, but I seem to recall that during AIT at Fort Gordon, GA, that 3 or 4 of the soldiers in the squad I led had BS's. Usually, with a degree, you can enter at more than a "buck private".. sometimes up to pay grade E4.
That said, I also seem to remember my platoon leader (a very cute female 2nd lieutenant) bitching about how officers have to pay for a lot more than the enlisted folks. The get allowances, granted, but get less for free.
I don't know how many other slashdotters are like me, but I'm rather happy I did my 4 ('92-'96) years in the US Army Signal Corps already.. I worked as a digital comms network engineer (MOS 31F), and honestly, it is what opened the door for me into the field that I work in now.
I'm not a rocket scientist, but I've spent a fair amount of time as a virtual astronaut using the Oribiter Space Flight Simulator, and I can't help but to ask "Why The Moon?"
It already takes a lot of energy to climb out of Earth's gravity well. Granted, on the moon, it takes less to achieve orbit, but why decend into a gravity well at all unless theres a good reason? The ideal place to launch into transfer orbits (in the Earth-Moon system) is LEO. Right now, it costs an arm & a leg to get things into LEO. In addition to that, Hohmann transfers, while energy efficient are painfully slow. If a spacecraft could ride 1 G of accelleration for extended periods of time, journeys around the solar system could be measured in weeks, not decades.
If I were the President, my priorities would be:
Fund space elevator research, and other low-cost LEO launch technologies
Propulsion systems
"Living off the land" technologies for other locations in the Solar System.
Search for extrasolar earth-like planets
Unmanned interstellar probe technologies
However, due to the nature of the government in the US, the office of chief executive can only be held for 8 years. I have serious doubts as to wether or not the US can commit to any kind of timeline longer than that in this day and age. It's a shame really.
INAL, but if I remember criminal justice class properly, in the US, the "Burden Of Proof" would be on the plaintiff. I know that the BSA attempts to use tactics like this, and it's really too bad that companies settle with them for fear of court battles with them.
I say, make the BSA (and those like them) convince 12 jurors (this is a crime, right) that company XYZ is stealing software from them. Call the cops and give them probable cause, which is what you need for a search warrant here. I could see it now..
Software Company: We want you to arrest the CIO of company XYZ for software piracy..
Cops: What did he do?
Software Company:Stole our software
Cops: OK, what evidence do you have?
Software Company: Uhh.. doesn't everyone?
A corporation should not enjoy the rights that human beings have. A copyright is not a magical thing that entitles the holder to bust down doors in the middle of the night.
Oh, and on the PATRIOT act.. I, for one, am very pleased that our government is finally busting down the doors of the militant Islamics who want to kill me and my neighbors. It's too bad we can't do more..
I work in advertising analysis here in the US (I actually write software to facilitate it). These "discount" cards are just a convienent way to collect sales by US ZIP code information at the POS without asking the customer what thier ZIP code is. With this information in hand, the retailer (or ad agency) can determine the effectiveness of an ad campaign, since US Zip Codes are tied to geographies.
I've seen the same post a few time.. the premise of Andromeda set in the ST universe would be awesome. Hell, Andromeda's premise was awesome enough, but the writing sucks ass and the storylines are more campy than ST:TOS's. In my opinion, there is no good scifi on TV.. unless [FLAME_RETARDANT_SUIT_ON] they make a series out of the Battlestar Galactica thing on the SciFi channel..
When I read statistics like this, and I think about how some of the major US development shops are offshoring labor, I feel like writing another letter to my congressperson demanding something be done about this. Tax penalties, for instance. Some incentive to keep the high-tech jobs in the US maybe. Otherwise, all of those who talk about the brain drain here in the US will see it get even worse. Maybe someone should start a registry of companies who offshore development labor, as the starting point for a boycott against this practice by those in the field. I know joe consumer isn't going to give a rat's ass either way if his latest version of whatever was coded here or overseas (by a company that is allegedly a US company.. IBM anyone?), but joe user doesn't buy the high-end software usually.
Imagine the stink if this was auto manufacturing or steel production or whatnot. The labor unions would be screaming for blood.
I still haven't seen the other reason..
on
Lonely Planets
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I still haven't seen the main other reason why we (H.Sap) seems so alone in this universe - specifically, that we might be one of the first intelligent species to evolve.
It's not that hard to imagine. Given the currently accepted age of the universe (~15 billion years), and the age of the solar system (5 billion years), we very well might be the "old ones" you read about in scifi novels.
I've personally run into this w/ Dell. I was trying to get a quote on some rapid rails for a server/rack my company has, and I could not understand a single thing the CSR on the other end was saying. When the call was over, the quote I received was all wrong. I sent a complaint to Dell, and they had someone call me to straighten it all out.
Other than to perform a semi-interesting experiment for seeing how human beings on Mars would adjust to a slightly longer day, I do not understand the purpose for this. What do the operations of an orbiter and a rover have to do with this?
It's not like a shift change during an operation will mess things up. I mean the round-trip light time has got to be about an hour or so, right?
The only law that the US shall uphold are those passed by the congress and signed by the president - so says the constitution of the US.
I keep hearing this "international law" argument. When it comes down to it, our government must only honor the laws and treaties that congress passes (and in the case of laws) the ones that the president signs.
Unfortunately, the US does not have a vehicle capable of carrying human cargo to any of the lagrange points. If GWB actually decides to start a new "return to the moon" program on 12/17, as some are speculating, perhaps we will see the development of a vehicle which can do more than LEO.
I question the need to attempt to set up a permament presence on the moon, unless a Lunar base could be self-sufficent. Even if we find O2 and H2O on the moon, we would still need to ship biomass from earth. Not to mention, as a jumping off point for the rest of the solar system, the moon is not ideal, as it still has a fairly deep gravity well. It is better than Earth for doing so, however.
Really.. who really cares about this? When I was single, I'd rather spend my time in the local bar oogleing real women and trying to get them to go home with me than looking at another self-centered bimbo with trying to make some stupid statement about society.
Having tarpit dummy SMTP servers set up posing as open relays might help a bit. Slow down the SMTP protocol for the spammer and suddenly they can not send the volume they need. The problem is that you need to have enough tarpits set up so that the odds of some randomly port-scanned machine being a tarpit is pretty high.
I've had the following experience w/ patches / service packs:
When the RPC DCOM hole came out, I made sure to bring my servers / workstations up to Windows 2K SP4. Now, I tested SP4 and the DCOM patch on a test server and all was well. So, I merrily go about installing SP4 on the 6 Windows 2K servers I have to deal with.
Only 4 of those servers were normal afterwards. One of the servers, an Oracle 8i DB server (I know, I know..) was all messed up. We still have to start oracle instances "by hand" on it. The second server, a "staging" web server, bluescreens on boot, and I have yet to resolve this issue.
So for now, I say NO! to automatic patch rollout. I know its a catch-22, but at least if I'm manually installing patches, I'm only going to ruin 1 system before realizing what happens.
I work in an advertising agency. A good portion of my users are very non-techincal. After the latest Win32 exploits were announced, I became so frustrated with having to install patches that I asked if I can set up a RH 9.0 box, with Wine (for Lotus Notes client), Star Office, Mozilla and get the system all set up for one of these non-tech savvy users. Still waiting for a response on this one...
You don't know what you're talking about, submitter Dynamoo. Please, tell us why one shouldn't rely on a firewall?
Here's why: All it takes is a 1 user running a non-firewalled connection dialing up on thier private ISP account from thier laptop while on the road. Said user becomes infected with blaster or another win32 worm, disconnects and merrily returns to the office the next day and plugs said laptop into the LAN. WHAMMO! You had better hope that the machines on your LAN are patched because said user has effectively bypassed the firewall for the worm.
It happened to my network. I had just finished a new win2k install for an end user and before I could get it up to the current SP/Patch level, it got infected because I have a "road warrior" who likes to use AOL when she's on the road (even though I explicitly told her not too).
As long as the.Net developement is being done in C#, the code can be ported to Java if need be. I've coded in both languages (C# and Java) and they are extremely similar.
The bits of.Net that might cause problems (WMI, native calls, etc.) should be avoided if possible when writing C# code with mono anyway. I don't think that Microsoft can successfully enforce a patent on an API. Just change the name of the language. Call it "D--" or something.
Amazing... I went through 31F training back in '93 and it still sounds pretty much the same. I was prior service in AIT, though, so I had a few more priveleges. The equipment sounds pretty much the same. I trained on all of the MSE gear, but when I got to my unit in Korea (A co., 307th sig bn), I ended up in a SEN. I acutally made team chief as a PFC though. When I got back stateside, I ended up in a FA Brigade HQ in the communications platoon. The only time I ever saw MSE equipment again was when the Sig bn's would come up from Fort Hood to support us.
Slashdot Mirror
The scientific paper refers to the object as follows:
The title of the paper is Discovery of a candidate inner Oort cloud planetoid
And the first line of the abstract is We report the discovery of the minor planet 2003 VB12 (popularly named Sedna), the most distant object ever seen in the solar system.
So, there you have it.. either a Oort cloud planetoid or a minor planet.. take your pick.
Actually, there are those rareities among us.. technically proficent, military-trained geeks who manage networks and write software that licenses for $90,000US per year, who are also very, very good at getting laid and finding themselves in all manners of "interesting" situations.
;) )
(Speaking from experience
LMAO, me too. I spent a year in the real mechanized infantry (before switching into the Signal Corps) and kept thinking to myself "you could take out a whole damn platoon of these idiots with 1 grenade".
The "spread out" thing (which is drilled into you in the infantry) is so often not represnented in military dramas.. makes for boring shots I guess.
That said, the movie was a hateful piece of shit that had almost nothing to do with the book. The book was fantastic and rasied a lot of really good points to ponder. However, I've seen the movie, post-9/11, and it sent chills up my spine. Very much a case of life imitating art.
Per year? I would scoff at an OS that wanted me to pay a yearly licensing fee like this... think about it: the average end user will keep his PC about 2-3 years.. brings the total cost for the OS up around $100-$150.. more expensive than XP home.
Ahh.. for a second I had some hope that the "gutenberg2" project might actually have a machine-parsable index file format.
With a BS, you can get in as an officer, but I seem to recall that during AIT at Fort Gordon, GA, that 3 or 4 of the soldiers in the squad I led had BS's. Usually, with a degree, you can enter at more than a "buck private".. sometimes up to pay grade E4.
That said, I also seem to remember my platoon leader (a very cute female 2nd lieutenant) bitching about how officers have to pay for a lot more than the enlisted folks. The get allowances, granted, but get less for free.
I don't know how many other slashdotters are like me, but I'm rather happy I did my 4 ('92-'96) years in the US Army Signal Corps already.. I worked as a digital comms network engineer (MOS 31F), and honestly, it is what opened the door for me into the field that I work in now.
It already takes a lot of energy to climb out of Earth's gravity well. Granted, on the moon, it takes less to achieve orbit, but why decend into a gravity well at all unless theres a good reason? The ideal place to launch into transfer orbits (in the Earth-Moon system) is LEO. Right now, it costs an arm & a leg to get things into LEO. In addition to that, Hohmann transfers, while energy efficient are painfully slow. If a spacecraft could ride 1 G of accelleration for extended periods of time, journeys around the solar system could be measured in weeks, not decades.
If I were the President, my priorities would be:
However, due to the nature of the government in the US, the office of chief executive can only be held for 8 years. I have serious doubts as to wether or not the US can commit to any kind of timeline longer than that in this day and age. It's a shame really.
INAL, but if I remember criminal justice class properly, in the US, the "Burden Of Proof" would be on the plaintiff. I know that the BSA attempts to use tactics like this, and it's really too bad that companies settle with them for fear of court battles with them.
I say, make the BSA (and those like them) convince 12 jurors (this is a crime, right) that company XYZ is stealing software from them. Call the cops and give them probable cause, which is what you need for a search warrant here. I could see it now..
Software Company: We want you to arrest the CIO of company XYZ for software piracy..
Cops: What did he do?
Software Company:Stole our software
Cops: OK, what evidence do you have?
Software Company: Uhh.. doesn't everyone?
A corporation should not enjoy the rights that human beings have. A copyright is not a magical thing that entitles the holder to bust down doors in the middle of the night.
Oh, and on the PATRIOT act.. I, for one, am very pleased that our government is finally busting down the doors of the militant Islamics who want to kill me and my neighbors. It's too bad we can't do more..
I work in advertising analysis here in the US (I actually write software to facilitate it). These "discount" cards are just a convienent way to collect sales by US ZIP code information at the POS without asking the customer what thier ZIP code is. With this information in hand, the retailer (or ad agency) can determine the effectiveness of an ad campaign, since US Zip Codes are tied to geographies.
Just my $0.02US
I've seen the same post a few time.. the premise of Andromeda set in the ST universe would be awesome. Hell, Andromeda's premise was awesome enough, but the writing sucks ass and the storylines are more campy than ST:TOS's. In my opinion, there is no good scifi on TV.. unless [FLAME_RETARDANT_SUIT_ON] they make a series out of the Battlestar Galactica thing on the SciFi channel..
When I read statistics like this, and I think about how some of the major US development shops are offshoring labor, I feel like writing another letter to my congressperson demanding something be done about this. Tax penalties, for instance. Some incentive to keep the high-tech jobs in the US maybe. Otherwise, all of those who talk about the brain drain here in the US will see it get even worse. Maybe someone should start a registry of companies who offshore development labor, as the starting point for a boycott against this practice by those in the field. I know joe consumer isn't going to give a rat's ass either way if his latest version of whatever was coded here or overseas (by a company that is allegedly a US company.. IBM anyone?), but joe user doesn't buy the high-end software usually.
Imagine the stink if this was auto manufacturing or steel production or whatnot. The labor unions would be screaming for blood.
I still haven't seen the main other reason why we (H.Sap) seems so alone in this universe - specifically, that we might be one of the first intelligent species to evolve.
It's not that hard to imagine. Given the currently accepted age of the universe (~15 billion years), and the age of the solar system (5 billion years), we very well might be the "old ones" you read about in scifi novels.
Makes you think.
I've personally run into this w/ Dell. I was trying to get a quote on some rapid rails for a server/rack my company has, and I could not understand a single thing the CSR on the other end was saying. When the call was over, the quote I received was all wrong. I sent a complaint to Dell, and they had someone call me to straighten it all out.
Other than to perform a semi-interesting experiment for seeing how human beings on Mars would adjust to a slightly longer day, I do not understand the purpose for this. What do the operations of an orbiter and a rover have to do with this?
It's not like a shift change during an operation will mess things up. I mean the round-trip light time has got to be about an hour or so, right?
The only law that the US shall uphold are those passed by the congress and signed by the president - so says the constitution of the US.
I keep hearing this "international law" argument. When it comes down to it, our government must only honor the laws and treaties that congress passes (and in the case of laws) the ones that the president signs.
Unfortunately, the US does not have a vehicle capable of carrying human cargo to any of the lagrange points. If GWB actually decides to start a new "return to the moon" program on 12/17, as some are speculating, perhaps we will see the development of a vehicle which can do more than LEO.
I question the need to attempt to set up a permament presence on the moon, unless a Lunar base could be self-sufficent. Even if we find O2 and H2O on the moon, we would still need to ship biomass from earth. Not to mention, as a jumping off point for the rest of the solar system, the moon is not ideal, as it still has a fairly deep gravity well. It is better than Earth for doing so, however.
Really.. who really cares about this? When I was single, I'd rather spend my time in the local bar oogleing real women and trying to get them to go home with me than looking at another self-centered bimbo with trying to make some stupid statement about society.
Having tarpit dummy SMTP servers set up posing as open relays might help a bit. Slow down the SMTP protocol for the spammer and suddenly they can not send the volume they need. The problem is that you need to have enough tarpits set up so that the odds of some randomly port-scanned machine being a tarpit is pretty high.
A few weeks ago, I received this spam offer for 1 acre of land on the moon for $29.95.
I've had the following experience w/ patches / service packs:
When the RPC DCOM hole came out, I made sure to bring my servers / workstations up to Windows 2K SP4. Now, I tested SP4 and the DCOM patch on a test server and all was well. So, I merrily go about installing SP4 on the 6 Windows 2K servers I have to deal with.
Only 4 of those servers were normal afterwards. One of the servers, an Oracle 8i DB server (I know, I know..) was all messed up. We still have to start oracle instances "by hand" on it. The second server, a "staging" web server, bluescreens on boot, and I have yet to resolve this issue.
So for now, I say NO! to automatic patch rollout. I know its a catch-22, but at least if I'm manually installing patches, I'm only going to ruin 1 system before realizing what happens.
I work in an advertising agency. A good portion of my users are very non-techincal. After the latest Win32 exploits were announced, I became so frustrated with having to install patches that I asked if I can set up a RH 9.0 box, with Wine (for Lotus Notes client), Star Office, Mozilla and get the system all set up for one of these non-tech savvy users. Still waiting for a response on this one...
You don't know what you're talking about, submitter Dynamoo. Please, tell us why one shouldn't rely on a firewall?
Here's why: All it takes is a 1 user running a non-firewalled connection dialing up on thier private ISP account from thier laptop while on the road. Said user becomes infected with blaster or another win32 worm, disconnects and merrily returns to the office the next day and plugs said laptop into the LAN. WHAMMO! You had better hope that the machines on your LAN are patched because said user has effectively bypassed the firewall for the worm.
It happened to my network. I had just finished a new win2k install for an end user and before I could get it up to the current SP/Patch level, it got infected because I have a "road warrior" who likes to use AOL when she's on the road (even though I explicitly told her not too).
As long as the .Net developement is being done in C#, the code can be ported to Java if need be. I've coded in both languages (C# and Java) and they are extremely similar. .Net that might cause problems (WMI, native calls, etc.) should be avoided if possible when writing C# code with mono anyway. I don't think that Microsoft can successfully enforce a patent on an API. Just change the name of the language. Call it "D--" or something.
The bits of
Amazing... I went through 31F training back in '93 and it still sounds pretty much the same. I was prior service in AIT, though, so I had a few more priveleges. The equipment sounds pretty much the same. I trained on all of the MSE gear, but when I got to my unit in Korea (A co., 307th sig bn), I ended up in a SEN. I acutally made team chief as a PFC though. When I got back stateside, I ended up in a FA Brigade HQ in the communications platoon. The only time I ever saw MSE equipment again was when the Sig bn's would come up from Fort Hood to support us.