it seems like the server's going down (or it could just be australia's crap old ADSL) So here's the body text, fear my karma-whoring or something.
Mojave, October 3, 2001: XCOR Aerospace today announced that it has successfully completed the first phase of its flight test program for the EZ-Rocket. The EZ-Rocket is the world's first privately built rocket powered airplane.
At 0900 hours today the EZ-Rocket took off from the Mojave Civilian Flight Test Center to an altitude of 6,200 feet before gliding back to Runway 30. The EZ-Rocket is powered by twin 400 pound thrust rocket engines designed and built by XCOR Aerospace. The flight test program passed its first milestone by flying with both engines for an engine run time of 96 seconds and total flight time of five minutes and twenty seconds.
Retired United States Air Force Lieutenant
Colonel Dick Rutan
XCOR's test pilot is retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Dick Rutan, a Vietnam veteran and world-famous test pilot. "I ignited one engine and the crew said everything looked good, so I lit the second engine and we started moving," said Lt. Col. Rutan. "As I rolled down the runway Mike Melvill flew overhead in another Long-EZ and served as chase plane. The plane took off 1,200 feet down the runway and once airborne the vehicle rapidly accelerated to 160 knots. The rocket power provided positive, firm acceleration. Once we started running out of liquid oxygen I shut down both engines. Mike inspected the airplane visually and reported it was clean with no leaks. We entered a standard flame-out [landing] pattern and glided back to the runway."
The EZ-Rocket is a research and development test bed for XCOR. "Routine operations must be the primary criterion for rocket engine development," said XCOR Chief Engineer Dan DeLong. "Our approach is to build safe and reliable rocket engines first, then progress to the higher performance needed for orbital launch vehicles."
XCOR president Jeff Greason said, "We passed a major milestone today. This is a significant technical achievement for a variety of reasons. First, once you get two engines working in combination it is significantly easier to cluster more engines for larger vehicles. Second, we were able to keep the engine and fuel flow running smoothly during the flight."
The official roll-out and flight demonstration of the EZ-Rocket will take place this November at Mojave airport. Check the XCOR (www.xcor.com) web site in the next few days for details on the event.
EZ-Rocket Specifications The EZ-Rocket is a modified Long-EZ homebuilt aircraft. The aircraft is powered by twin 400 lb thrust regeneratively cooled rocket engines and fueled by isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen. The EZ-Rocket includes an external composite fuel tank and an insulated internal aluminum liquid oxygen tank. The modifications were performed at XCOR Aerospace's Mojave, CA shop. Tests are performed at the Mojave Civilian Flight Test Center.
So with the combination of this and wireless control, we're going to start seeing people waving their hands around, controlling remote devices - really, it's going to look like (and I cringe when I say this).. magic.
While all this Bill bashing is going on, I still find it hard to be so annoyed at someone who has just donated $100 million to fight AIDS. Counter-bitch all you like about how it's a tax cut, and how he has so much more money than that, it's still a nice thing I wish I could do.
If you read the article, it doesn't mention that microsoft will be able to change your content - all it will do is put links under keywords. Not exactly something platable, but nowhere near as bad as 'reedit' suggests -I had horrible visions of my pages all reading:
There are two ways the home user can emulate this exciting technology today! that's right, in your very own home, right now! These methods are quick, easy and proven!
a.) use a tub of vaseline smeared over the screen.
b.) use a bottle of vodka.
If there's a 1 in 250 chance that the falling objects will hit someone. The odds are, there's going to be a few ear-bursting near misses, and a small amount of structural damage.
In any event, if you use simple kiddy math, there's a 1 in 1500000000000 chance that a bit will hit YOU. And if you look at all the millions of things that could kill you, this ends up somewhere near the 'insignificant' end of the scale.
--
I will be late for work; a falling star hit my leg and it broke. Glen Murphy
I'm only looking at the near future (5-10 years) here, as I'm still trying to sort out my views on the distant future (20-30 years).
It probably won't change much during our nerdy 'sit in front of the PC for hours' sessions, but as portable 'net access devices (such as the Palm VII) become available, people will begin to use it 'on the run' for brief periods, while they search for instantly-required local information (latest news, train timetables, etc) thus, local net traffic will increase significantly.
The major breakthrough will come when portable instant-messaging becomes widespread, but because the owners of these portable devices won't be spending hours trawling the web, the contacts they'll be communicating with will be those whom they first meet in real life, and again, for these people, the majority of the traffic from these people will be local.
One thing people ramble on about when they talk about the internet is how it's just as easy to communicate with people overseas, but they fail to realise that most people don't have people overseas they especially *want* to talk to. And for the majority of netizens, the only international contacts they'll be communicating with are contacts they've made through 'virtual communities', and as people start to stop going overseas for their information, they'll stop partaking in long-distance communities, and start making friends in their local area.
So, the internet will become a great tool for building local social networks, but international networks will begin to suffer.
Unless you were just talking about the web, in which case, I'll just shut up. Glen Murphy
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe you're looking for something like the NES Powerpad ?
Or any of the dance-pads available for the PSX?
So with the combination of this and wireless control, we're going to start seeing people waving their hands around, controlling remote devices - really, it's going to look like (and I cringe when I say this) .. magic.
While all this Bill bashing is going on, I still find it hard to be so annoyed at someone who has just donated $100 million to fight AIDS. Counter-bitch all you like about how it's a tax cut, and how he has so much more money than that, it's still a nice thing I wish I could do.
If you read the article, it doesn't mention that microsoft will be able to change your content - all it will do is put links under keywords. Not exactly something platable, but nowhere near as bad as 'reedit' suggests -I had horrible visions of my pages all reading:
"glen is a nuffnuff,
sincerely,
bill"
There are two ways the home user can emulate this exciting technology today! that's right, in your very own home, right now! These methods are quick, easy and proven!
a.) use a tub of vaseline smeared over the screen.
b.) use a bottle of vodka.
I am not drunk.
Glen Murphy
These things have been around for months now. Check the thumbdrive
Glen Murphy
This isn't the only 3d interpretation of scorch, there's also 3d scorch...
Glen Murphy
http://kaput.org has scorched earth done in crossbrowser DHTML, with destructible terrain, wind, etc.
DISCLAIMER: kaput.org is one of my sites
Glen Murphy
Compare interacting with my site, which uses a command line as the only form of navigation, with navigating icon-based sites.
User feedback has said that while the command line is fun, as far as usability goes, it's sloooww.
Glen Murphy
If there's a 1 in 250 chance that the falling objects will hit someone. The odds are, there's going to be a few ear-bursting near misses, and a small amount of structural damage.
In any event, if you use simple kiddy math, there's a 1 in 1500000000000 chance that a bit will hit YOU. And if you look at all the millions of things that could kill you, this ends up somewhere near the 'insignificant' end of the scale.
--
I will be late for work; a falling star hit my leg and it broke.
Glen Murphy
umm.. according to the online retailer I ordered it from last month, my copy should be arriving next week.
(this is Australia - Region 4)
Glen Murphy
Just go out and buy a copy of DOS for $5. What's MS gonna do about *that*? AHAR!
Glen Murphy
> Also keep in mind that your config.sys and
> autoexec.bat are not parsed anymore either
Well, autoexec.bat *is* parsed - though only for the environment variables.
Glen Murphy
I'm only looking at the near future (5-10 years) here, as I'm still trying to sort out my views on the distant future (20-30 years).
It probably won't change much during our nerdy 'sit in front of the PC for hours' sessions, but as portable 'net access devices (such as the Palm VII) become available, people will begin to use it 'on the run' for brief periods, while they search for instantly-required local information (latest news, train timetables, etc) thus, local net traffic will increase significantly.
The major breakthrough will come when portable instant-messaging becomes widespread, but because the owners of these portable devices won't be spending hours trawling the web, the contacts they'll be communicating with will be those whom they first meet in real life, and again, for these people, the majority of the traffic from these people will be local.
One thing people ramble on about when they talk about the internet is how it's just as easy to communicate with people overseas, but they fail to realise that most people don't have people overseas they especially *want* to talk to. And for the majority of netizens, the only international contacts they'll be communicating with are contacts they've made through 'virtual communities', and as people start to stop going overseas for their information, they'll stop partaking in long-distance communities, and start making friends in their local area.
So, the internet will become a great tool for building local social networks, but international networks will begin to suffer.
Unless you were just talking about the web, in which case, I'll just shut up.
Glen Murphy
I suggest using the part of the brain responsible for politics.
Glen Murphy