Except, of course, for the little fact that physicists didn't just accept the oddities of Mercury's orbit. They tried everything they could think of to explain it, including postulating a planet named Vulcan nearer to the Sun. Physicists don't ever just accept something as an exception, they look for explanations. That's why they keep coming up with new theories.
I worked in development, not operations, so I don't remember specific episodes, but it sounds like Earthlink was getting caught up in AOL's spam filters.
That happened too, of course, but I'm not thinking of that. All mail from us to AOL would bounce without explanation but mail from other domains would get through at the same time. I first heard about AOL blocking us because of server load from my lead, who got it from a meeting of all supervisors with people from the NOC. The NOC guys told us about this, and we were told *not* to pass it on to members as we didn't want to badmouth another service, nor to give them any reason not to accept our mail. I think I may have heard about it happening to other services, but I'm not sure and won't insist on it. I also can't prove that AOL blocked us for the reason I was given, but I do know that it would fit the facts quite nicely.
When I worked at Earthlink (1995-2003) there were a number of times we were getting complaints from members that all mail to AOL bounced. Our Operations people would get in touch with AOL. Sometimes it would clear right up, sometimes it would take a day or so. Word filtered down that this is what had happened. Naturally, we didn't tell this to callers, just that there was a difficulty and we were working with AOL to resolve it. In no case did we have to do anything at our end to change things; all we could do is wait until AOL decided to let our mail through again.
How do birds adapt to living IN SPACE? How do cats? Not, mind you, that I want to learn just yet how cats chase birds IN SPACE, but I'd like to see birds taken up long enough to see if they can change their flight habits to those appropriate to zero G. I'd also like to see how cats adapt to needing to use their claws to anchor themselves to walls at all times, and having to regard the nearest wall as "down."
You do realize that this is standard sendmail behavior, and not some sort of nefarious AOL plot to make your mail disappear? Refusing connections at a high load average just delays delivery of the mail until the next retry.
That wouldn't have been a problem. What happened was that all mail from our ISP bounced, for at least several hours, if not a day or more.
The thing is, the way the email is "blocked" does not cause it to never get delivered... it is just delayed
Back at the time I was writing about, It did mean that all mail from that domain bounced. Delayed wouldn't have been a problem, and probably not even noticed.
Years ago, I realized how AOL works: it walks around with a gun in each hand. Each gun points at one of its own feet. Then, at random intervals, it pulls one or both triggers. AOL shooting it in the foot isn't news; AOL managing not to shoot itself in the foot would be news indeed.
A few years ago, AOL was known to block all mail from random domains to lower its server load when things got overloaded. I see no reason to think they've stopped.
Even fairly close encounters with other asteroids can change the orbit. And yes, I do happen to know that all the calculating methods are estimates. I worked, years ago, with the late Daniel J. Alderson, who wrote JPL's original space-probe navigation software. Not one thing we sent up ever missed its target or failed because of his software. All the problems we've had recently have been run by its replacement.
and nearly-free metal has been unavailable, short of tapping the core, for aeons
Except, of course, for the millions of tons of refined iron in all the various scrap piles and so on. It can be reused again and again and again, as long as we want or need to.
(Hey, a few megatons of nickel-iron might not make us all rich, but it could defray at least *some* of the expense of saving our lives. Cost recovery is good.)
And just why do you think that bringing this here from space is going to be more profitable than just digging it out of the ground? Nickle and iron aren't exactly rare, you know.
No. You *don't* tear up a mis-voted ballot, you replace it (up to three times) and set them aside. I worked the polls in Los Angeles for over ten years and I know that every ballot must be turned in, either voted, spoiled or defaced.
All ballots not used must be torn up or marked in a way that shows they weren't used, then sent back. One year, the Inspector told us not to bother and if anybody asked, we'd just tell them we forgot. I reported this the next day, and she wasn't there for the next election.
Re:Polluting other planets
on
Melting Europa
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· Score: 1
Guess what... the concept of ownership is completely human.
I take it then, you've never had any experience with a teritorial animal? Why do you think cats fight when there's no female around? One cat has entered another's territory and that one wants the intruder gone. That yowl you hear means, "This yard is MINE! Get out!"
Re:Polluting other planets
on
Melting Europa
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· Score: 1
It has everything to do with this: --> People are, in general, fucking idiots
Maybe, but idiots aren't my type, and I'm not about to demean myself by fucking them.
Re:Editorial bias anyone?
on
Melting Europa
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· Score: 1
If they started doing that, then half of the people who visit this site would just stop visiting
Well, that would probably improve the quality of the comments, so it might not be a bad idea.
You have it wrong. It won't cut the number of applications one bit, but it will cut the number of examiners considerably, quite possibly by the two orders of magnatude you suggest. This will either slow patent approval down to an unacceptable rate, vastly increase the number of bad patents granted or (probably) both.
I never have understood this obsession of counting the number of small living creatures around us.
The idea is that first you count all the microbes in an area, then you claim that all of them are germs. This way you spread FUD about health and get people to waste money on anti-bacterial this, that and the other thing. Germs are microbes, but not all microbes are germs.
Slashdot Mirror
Except, of course, for the little fact that physicists didn't just accept the oddities of Mercury's orbit. They tried everything they could think of to explain it, including postulating a planet named Vulcan nearer to the Sun. Physicists don't ever just accept something as an exception, they look for explanations. That's why they keep coming up with new theories.
My favorite string theory is the String Bikini Theory.
That happened too, of course, but I'm not thinking of that. All mail from us to AOL would bounce without explanation but mail from other domains would get through at the same time. I first heard about AOL blocking us because of server load from my lead, who got it from a meeting of all supervisors with people from the NOC. The NOC guys told us about this, and we were told *not* to pass it on to members as we didn't want to badmouth another service, nor to give them any reason not to accept our mail. I think I may have heard about it happening to other services, but I'm not sure and won't insist on it. I also can't prove that AOL blocked us for the reason I was given, but I do know that it would fit the facts quite nicely.
When I worked at Earthlink (1995-2003) there were a number of times we were getting complaints from members that all mail to AOL bounced. Our Operations people would get in touch with AOL. Sometimes it would clear right up, sometimes it would take a day or so. Word filtered down that this is what had happened. Naturally, we didn't tell this to callers, just that there was a difficulty and we were working with AOL to resolve it. In no case did we have to do anything at our end to change things; all we could do is wait until AOL decided to let our mail through again.
How do birds adapt to living IN SPACE? How do cats? Not, mind you, that I want to learn just yet how cats chase birds IN SPACE, but I'd like to see birds taken up long enough to see if they can change their flight habits to those appropriate to zero G. I'd also like to see how cats adapt to needing to use their claws to anchor themselves to walls at all times, and having to regard the nearest wall as "down."
Right. Operations at AOL would just tell its servers to bounce all mail from random domains to lower the load. Operations problem is exactly right.
That wouldn't have been a problem. What happened was that all mail from our ISP bounced, for at least several hours, if not a day or more.
Back at the time I was writing about, It did mean that all mail from that domain bounced. Delayed wouldn't have been a problem, and probably not even noticed.
Years ago, I realized how AOL works: it walks around with a gun in each hand. Each gun points at one of its own feet. Then, at random intervals, it pulls one or both triggers. AOL shooting it in the foot isn't news; AOL managing not to shoot itself in the foot would be news indeed.
A few years ago, AOL was known to block all mail from random domains to lower its server load when things got overloaded. I see no reason to think they've stopped.
Even fairly close encounters with other asteroids can change the orbit. And yes, I do happen to know that all the calculating methods are estimates. I worked, years ago, with the late Daniel J. Alderson, who wrote JPL's original space-probe navigation software. Not one thing we sent up ever missed its target or failed because of his software. All the problems we've had recently have been run by its replacement.
Except, of course, for the millions of tons of refined iron in all the various scrap piles and so on. It can be reused again and again and again, as long as we want or need to.
Except, of course, for the perterbations from Earth, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and almost anything else it comes near.
And just why do you think that bringing this here from space is going to be more profitable than just digging it out of the ground? Nickle and iron aren't exactly rare, you know.
No, you don't tear up spoiled ballots; they're returned as is. It's only un-used ballots that get torn in half, and those also get returned.
An error of 1/1000 is 0.1% and rarely enough to swing an election. It doesn't matter if there are 10,000 votes, 1,000,000 or 100,000,000.
All ballots not used must be torn up or marked in a way that shows they weren't used, then sent back. One year, the Inspector told us not to bother and if anybody asked, we'd just tell them we forgot. I reported this the next day, and she wasn't there for the next election.
I take it then, you've never had any experience with a teritorial animal? Why do you think cats fight when there's no female around? One cat has entered another's territory and that one wants the intruder gone. That yowl you hear means, "This yard is MINE! Get out!"
Maybe, but idiots aren't my type, and I'm not about to demean myself by fucking them.
Well, that would probably improve the quality of the comments, so it might not be a bad idea.
Yet. The way things are going, they'll be put on it and an Environmental Impact Report will be required just before it lands.
You have it wrong. It won't cut the number of applications one bit, but it will cut the number of examiners considerably, quite possibly by the two orders of magnatude you suggest. This will either slow patent approval down to an unacceptable rate, vastly increase the number of bad patents granted or (probably) both.
The idea is that first you count all the microbes in an area, then you claim that all of them are germs. This way you spread FUD about health and get people to waste money on anti-bacterial this, that and the other thing. Germs are microbes, but not all microbes are germs.
So I could live year round without freezing my tail off in snow. Besides, once I'd used a few roach bombs it wouldn't be infested anymore.
I think the best possible answer to that would be, "Hmmm, maybe I'll need a third one..."