You'll have to do better than 'there used to be one laying around'. Primary sources (statements by various astronauts) categorically deny the existence of such pills.
On the one hand, I share your skepticism of claims that don't cite sources that can be checked. Lack of verification and/or source information is one of the major problems with looking things up online. (Sometimes, even on slashdot.)
On the other hand, I'm not gonna hop in the car and drive to DC to check whether it's still there. (Besides, the museum closed at 5:00.)
It pretty much comes down to whether you consider the Smithsonian (or me) to be reliable. And who knows? Maybe it's something that was present on earlier flights but not later ones. (Idle speculation is one of the things at which the Internet excels.:-)
There are apocryphal anecdotes that the crew of the Apollo missions were issued poison pins laced with cyanide just in case they could not get into a proper reentry slot and skipped off into space for eternity.
The stories aren't apocryphal. I don't know if it's still there, but the Apollo exhibit at the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum used to have what was either one of the pills, or a (presumably inert) lookalike.
Could someone with more legal knowledge than me clear something up: wouldn't such use of Frazer's comics be considered parody, and therefore fair use? Or at least, so the "bitter ex-fan" could argue.
My understanding is that to be parody, it would have to be "poking fun" at the original material. Just "changing the words" constitutes a derivative work and that falls under copyright. (That distinction is what led the folks who thought they owned "This Land" to threaten legal action against JibJab. What got JibJab off the hook was that the copyright had expired )
As a comparison, The Brothers Grinn took a number of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" articles that were circulating on the web and rewrote them to make fun of the original material.
what dial up service are you using that gives you 300Kbaud? or is this through your cell provider?
It's through the cell provider (Sprint).
I'm sure someone will jump in now denouncing Sprint as evil incarnate because of a bad experience they've had or heard of. Is it perfect? No, I've had dropouts now and then, but it works well enough for my needs.
Blah. If you want to get locked into a contract you'd "buy" a phone like this. If you just want to make and receive calls you'd go and buy one of the billions of Nokia 3210s or Motorolla flip phones available on the second hand market....
I went and got one of Samsung's camera phones a few months ago. I really don't care much about the camera. My reason for getting it (even with the two -year contract) is that it I can hook it into my laptop and go online from anywhere I can get a cellular signal. My connect speed is somewhere around 300Kbaud (the older phones would have been limited to about 56Kbaud)
No need to pay for access to a "Hot Spot", this just uses my celluar minutes. And since I have unlimited evenings and weekends (my usual online time when I'm on the road anyhow), this works out quite nicely.
Stargate-SG1 and Atlantis are both filmed in Vancouver. Farscape was Australia(?), is all Sci-Fi destined to be outsourced?
It seems that way. My understanding is that a lot of the shows (not just SF) that are produced in Canada are primarily there because it's less expensive than filming the US. Shows that are filmed in Australia (or frquently, New Zealand) tend to be there because the scenery and plant life supposedly seem more exotic to American audiences.
Um, the shuttle is designed to be able to land. If it's only slightly damaged, and they autopilot it in for a landing, it could conceivably land and be safe.
Yes, it most certainly is. And in the case of minor damage, they'd likely just have the crew come back on the damaged shuttle rather than any of the more drastic contingencies. (Landing with a few missing tiles has become rather commonplace.) The difficulty comes in the definition of "minor damage."
Take the hypothetical case where another foam hit punches a hole in the leading edge. At that point, it's already been demonstrated that the craft's behavior is no longer predictable. The grandparent post was suggesting, "Why not try landing it anyhow?" My response was that you don't want to risk bringing a severely damaged spacecraft down in an uncontrolled manner over a populated area.
The Mir example I tossed out was just another example of a spacecraft being disposed of in a manner where even the worst case still didn't risk breaking up over a population center. They could have brought it in over land, "because maybe we'll learn something useful" but nobody wanted to risk the having a large piece of spacecraft land on a school.
I can understand the need to not scatter debris all over the continental United States, but since the Space Shuttle can, as I understand it, land itself, why not let it land itself in California?
Suppose the shuttle turns out to be in worse shape than it was suspected? After it's in the atmosphere, right on track for a "safe" area in the desert, suppose something goes wrong. And then the shuttle comes down in the middle of LA....
Ditching it in the middle of the ocean is much safer than any option that brings it in over land. That's why Mir was dumped in the ocean as well.
It might be safe to bring a damaged shuttle in over land, but nobody will want to take a chance on it going bad.
If they go giving away their CC details because they didn't understand the security warning about phishing (rubbish name by the way), then they really shouldn't expect to not get taken to the cleaners.
The "rubbish name" is the problem. If I all hear about is "phishing schemes" and don't know what they are, why would I be at all concerned about my bank sending an email so I can confirm my account number?
Re:Amateur look
on
CES Tidbits
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Is it just me, or do the display tables look very amateurish?
It's not clearly stated in the article, but my guess is that the photos were taken at the "Pepcom Digital Experience" pre-CES event. Those are just the tables you'll find at any hotel, complete with an inexpensive (but durable) tablecloth and decorative table skirt.
But why are you taking note of tables in the photos? The very first page after the introduction includes a genuine "Booth Babe" and surely she's more interesting than any silly table.:-)
Sure, I click submit and THEN I find the answer from Google.
Well yeah. Of course. That's the nature of the universe. The only sure way to find a piece of information is to give up all hope of ever finding it.:-)
I've tried using pragma warning(disable:4786) many times with no luck (It has no effect, even as the first line of stdafx.h). I'll try this "long static" approach when I'm back in the office. Thanks!
A lot of compiler warning messages are there for a reason, at least in gcc, and they should not be ignored.
One of the banes of my existence is "normal" warning messages. Warnings that everyone expects to see and just ignores, completely unaware of the very important message (e.g. An uninitialized variable) that got lost in the noise.
Unfortunately, the VC6 compiler we use has a few useless messages that can't be disabled. (e.g. "Symbol too long for debugging" when a template is being expanded.) Those cause some serious grief on occasion.
So what are you supposed to do when you get into a skid on ice? With an automatic, you can't depress the clutch...
It turns out I was wrong about the lack of a neutral gear, but I've never before heard anyone advocate shifting into neutral as a way to control a skid.
Maybe nobody's ever mentioned the neutral thing to me before, but the advice I've always heard about skid control is if you have anti-lock brakes, hit them and hold them down (and if you don't have them, pump the brakes so you don't lock the wheels). I'd be quite surprised if Prius didn't have anti-lock brakes. Regardless, you definitely don't keep a foot on the gas. As you slow down, the skidding lessens, regardless of what gear you're in.
According to the little tag that sticks up at the back of it's collar, Prius is hand-wash only. You should also avoid anything other than the low setting when you iron it.:-)
The original Prius had a "Battery" gear, for things like coasting down hills which would give you heavier charge, but no acceleration abilities. This gear would be effectivly be Neutral, just it's below Drive, not above.
But if the computer's fried and not letting you stop, why would it let you switch gears? And if "Dr. Zowie" is correct, that isn't really a neutral gear anyhow, the computer could still accelerate.
As others have pointed out, the so-called "emergency" brake can't overpower a runaway engine.
There isn't even an option for a manual transmission.
What do you want, little dials on the dashboard to set the gear ratio?
That would be silly.:-P
My point was that with some cars, shifting into neutral isn't an option. Not only does the automatic transmission not have a neutral position, but there's also no other transmission option.
Nevermind that regenerative braking and a clutch wouldn't get along well....
They get along just fine in my Civic Hybrid. Toyota simply made some different design decisions than Honda. One such decision being that the computer is in charge of shifting gears.
Some newer cars don't have a neutral gear. You can only select forward, backward or park and that's it.
One example is the 2004 Prius, you have no direct control over the engine and, much like the car in the article, there isn't even a key to take out of the ignition. If there's a problem and the computer doesn't want to stop, there's really not much you can do. There isn't even an option for a manual transmission.
I smell trademark infringement lawsuit. The makers of the RadioSHARK receiver will have to answer to sharks of another kind.
Seems rather unlikely. The name "RadioShack" is undoubtedly trademarked. But it's difficult to imagine that the Tandy Corporation would have trademarked the derogatory nickname. That would be somewhat akin to me saying, "Hey! You can't call him a doofus! That label's reserved for when people want to insult me."
Why would anyone want to spend money defending something like that?
If I could find a station I wanted to listen to, it would probably not entice me to buy another radio to listen to it.
A way to timeshift broadcast radio doesn't have a lot of appeal for me either, but I also enjoy Dr. Demento and none of my local stations carry the show. What I need is a way to timeshift streaming audio. Anyone know of something?
Slashdot Mirror
On the one hand, I share your skepticism of claims that don't cite sources that can be checked. Lack of verification and/or source information is one of the major problems with looking things up online. (Sometimes, even on slashdot.)
On the other hand, I'm not gonna hop in the car and drive to DC to check whether it's still there. (Besides, the museum closed at 5:00.)
It pretty much comes down to whether you consider the Smithsonian (or me) to be reliable. And who knows? Maybe it's something that was present on earlier flights but not later ones. (Idle speculation is one of the things at which the Internet excels. :-)
My understanding is that to be parody, it would have to be "poking fun" at the original material. Just "changing the words" constitutes a derivative work and that falls under copyright. (That distinction is what led the folks who thought they owned "This Land" to threaten legal action against JibJab. What got JibJab off the hook was that the copyright had expired )
As a comparison, The Brothers Grinn took a number of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" articles that were circulating on the web and rewrote them to make fun of the original material.
So now instead of just overheating... my laptop can have a total meltdown?
Only if your mom runs it through the washer and you try to fix it with a screwdriver.
But what would you put on it? "FFFFFF00"? Or just "SLASH24"?
It's through the cell provider (Sprint).
I'm sure someone will jump in now denouncing Sprint as evil incarnate because of a bad experience they've had or heard of. Is it perfect? No, I've had dropouts now and then, but it works well enough for my needs.
I went and got one of Samsung's camera phones a few months ago. I really don't care much about the camera. My reason for getting it (even with the two -year contract) is that it I can hook it into my laptop and go online from anywhere I can get a cellular signal. My connect speed is somewhere around 300Kbaud (the older phones would have been limited to about 56Kbaud)
No need to pay for access to a "Hot Spot", this just uses my celluar minutes. And since I have unlimited evenings and weekends (my usual online time when I'm on the road anyhow), this works out quite nicely.
Third, if they pay cash, the phone can't be traced to them.
It seems that way. My understanding is that a lot of the shows (not just SF) that are produced in Canada are primarily there because it's less expensive than filming the US. Shows that are filmed in Australia (or frquently, New Zealand) tend to be there because the scenery and plant life supposedly seem more exotic to American audiences.
Yes, it most certainly is. And in the case of minor damage, they'd likely just have the crew come back on the damaged shuttle rather than any of the more drastic contingencies. (Landing with a few missing tiles has become rather commonplace.) The difficulty comes in the definition of "minor damage."
Take the hypothetical case where another foam hit punches a hole in the leading edge. At that point, it's already been demonstrated that the craft's behavior is no longer predictable. The grandparent post was suggesting, "Why not try landing it anyhow?" My response was that you don't want to risk bringing a severely damaged spacecraft down in an uncontrolled manner over a populated area.
The Mir example I tossed out was just another example of a spacecraft being disposed of in a manner where even the worst case still didn't risk breaking up over a population center. They could have brought it in over land, "because maybe we'll learn something useful" but nobody wanted to risk the having a large piece of spacecraft land on a school.
Suppose the shuttle turns out to be in worse shape than it was suspected? After it's in the atmosphere, right on track for a "safe" area in the desert, suppose something goes wrong. And then the shuttle comes down in the middle of LA....
Ditching it in the middle of the ocean is much safer than any option that brings it in over land. That's why Mir was dumped in the ocean as well.
It might be safe to bring a damaged shuttle in over land, but nobody will want to take a chance on it going bad.
No, I'm fairly certain that First Posts are an evolutionary disadvantage.
The "rubbish name" is the problem. If I all hear about is "phishing schemes" and don't know what they are, why would I be at all concerned about my bank sending an email so I can confirm my account number?
It's not clearly stated in the article, but my guess is that the photos were taken at the "Pepcom Digital Experience" pre-CES event. Those are just the tables you'll find at any hotel, complete with an inexpensive (but durable) tablecloth and decorative table skirt.
But why are you taking note of tables in the photos? The very first page after the introduction includes a genuine "Booth Babe" and surely she's more interesting than any silly table. :-)
Well yeah. Of course. That's the nature of the universe. The only sure way to find a piece of information is to give up all hope of ever finding it. :-)
I've tried using pragma warning(disable:4786) many times with no luck (It has no effect, even as the first line of stdafx.h). I'll try this "long static" approach when I'm back in the office. Thanks!
One of the banes of my existence is "normal" warning messages. Warnings that everyone expects to see and just ignores, completely unaware of the very important message (e.g. An uninitialized variable) that got lost in the noise.
Unfortunately, the VC6 compiler we use has a few useless messages that can't be disabled. (e.g. "Symbol too long for debugging" when a template is being expanded.) Those cause some serious grief on occasion.
Evidently, wearing overly silly sunglasses causes oral decay.
So what are you supposed to do when you get into a skid on ice? With an automatic, you can't depress the clutch...
It turns out I was wrong about the lack of a neutral gear, but I've never before heard anyone advocate shifting into neutral as a way to control a skid.
Maybe nobody's ever mentioned the neutral thing to me before, but the advice I've always heard about skid control is if you have anti-lock brakes, hit them and hold them down (and if you don't have them, pump the brakes so you don't lock the wheels). I'd be quite surprised if Prius didn't have anti-lock brakes. Regardless, you definitely don't keep a foot on the gas. As you slow down, the skidding lessens, regardless of what gear you're in.
According to the little tag that sticks up at the back of it's collar, Prius is hand-wash only. You should also avoid anything other than the low setting when you iron it. :-)
The original Prius had a "Battery" gear, for things like coasting down hills which would give you heavier charge, but no acceleration abilities. This gear would be effectivly be Neutral, just it's below Drive, not above.
But if the computer's fried and not letting you stop, why would it let you switch gears? And if "Dr. Zowie" is correct, that isn't really a neutral gear anyhow, the computer could still accelerate.
As others have pointed out, the so-called "emergency" brake can't overpower a runaway engine.
There isn't even an option for a manual transmission.
What do you want, little dials on the dashboard to set the gear ratio?
That would be silly. :-P
My point was that with some cars, shifting into neutral isn't an option. Not only does the automatic transmission not have a neutral position, but there's also no other transmission option.
Nevermind that regenerative braking and a clutch wouldn't get along well....
They get along just fine in my Civic Hybrid. Toyota simply made some different design decisions than Honda. One such decision being that the computer is in charge of shifting gears.
Some newer cars don't have a neutral gear. You can only select forward, backward or park and that's it.
One example is the 2004 Prius, you have no direct control over the engine and, much like the car in the article, there isn't even a key to take out of the ignition. If there's a problem and the computer doesn't want to stop, there's really not much you can do. There isn't even an option for a manual transmission.
Well whaddya know. We slashdotted a volcano!
Seems rather unlikely. The name "RadioShack" is undoubtedly trademarked. But it's difficult to imagine that the Tandy Corporation would have trademarked the derogatory nickname. That would be somewhat akin to me saying, "Hey! You can't call him a doofus! That label's reserved for when people want to insult me."
Why would anyone want to spend money defending something like that?
A way to timeshift broadcast radio doesn't have a lot of appeal for me either, but I also enjoy Dr. Demento and none of my local stations carry the show. What I need is a way to timeshift streaming audio. Anyone know of something?