FYI Galileo is an EU project, subcontracted out to ESA and private companies. (And most of the "real" work of ESA is sub contacted out.) (EU and ESA doing mainly funding, project management, co-ordinating etc.)
> I quick read of your linked article suggests that only France has the 500m exclusion zone, and it seems unclear to me whether this refers only to buildings. Certainly where I live in central Germany I have not seen 500m exclusion zones: even many roads are that close !!
> Their decision is not some reactionary anti-nuclear rhetoric as many on Slashdot seem to think, it is a plan maintain their position of leadership in this field.
I beg to differ: as I understand it the SDP/Greens agreed to a) not build any new nuclear plants and b) shutdown the existing ones when they reached the end-of-life. The CDU came in and *reversed* that decision. Later came Fukushima, the press reacted, some state elections loomed which were going to be close for the CDU and so they suddenly reversed their own reversion !
In case anyone is wondering I think this success is unlikely to translate to such a success nationally. Remember that Berlin is not only a city state but also a fairly hip one !! The PP are not likely to get this level of support in, for example, more rural areas !!
> Microsoft has decided the Desktop is no longer relevant.
I never liked(/got?) the Desktop metaphor: I run everything I can at Full Screen, and Alt-Tab between my apps, whether on Windows XP or FVWM2 on Linux.
> Hmm, no. Car accident statistics dont get worse if you ignore them.
I beg to differ: what about all that legislation of road safety rules, car design etc that stopped the early rise of car accident stats ? OK it was a long time ago, but it still happened, and still relies on constant law enforcement.
> Most of the green energy sources are not viable by themselves. They're too unstable.
You could have mentioned 2 of the most stable ones: tidal and geo-thermal. If they stop working we would have bigger problems than an electricity shortage !!
IMHO you are correct, sort of. The *previous* government (a centre left/green) coalition agreed to a) build no new nuclear plants and b) let the existing ones run till the end of their operational life (this was a compromise: the Greens wanted an immediate shutdown). The current government came in and *reversed* that policy. It was only after Fukushima that they had a knee-jerk reaction with 2 state elections looming and shutdown the oldest plants.
> Germany and a few other EU countries have recognized the danger from wind, and established exclusion zones around wind turbines where people are prohibited from entering (600m radius for Germany, 500m for others).
I quick read of your linked article suggests that only France has the 500m exclusion zone, and it seems unclear to me whether this refers only to buildings. Certainly where I live in central Germany I have not seen 500m exclusion zones: even many roads are that close !!
Amen to that: as a native English speaker now living in Germany, and struggling to learn German, it would be great if we all learnt a single, *logically structured*, language like Esperanto !!
My favourite early Linux quote is v0.02 (I think) (still 1991) "Hurd will be out in a year (or two, or next month, who knows)", and little later "Wait for Hurd if you want something real.".
> What is the big fuss about getting a garbage collector anyway? Why does it even matter? Good C++ code shouldn't need a garbage collector.
In a way you have answered your own question: in my humble 20+ years experience good code is hard to find in the real world !! I can't remember how many bugs I have fixed in *live code* that come from uninitialised vars, mixing "|" and "||", buffer overflows etc. None should exist in "Good Code", but they do. Same with garbage collection: there *should* be no garbage to collect, but there will be !!
Slashdot Mirror
FYI Galileo is an EU project, subcontracted out to ESA and private companies. (And most of the "real" work of ESA is sub contacted out.) (EU and ESA doing mainly funding, project management, co-ordinating etc.)
Does this mean there is still a chance the UK Government will get some of it's money back ?
The Guardian reports that the scheme is only applicable to *new* contracts, and is neither opt-in or opt-out: you choose the service you want when you sign up: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/11/david-cameron-porn-filter-isps
You forgot to list that Russian dude crash landing there a few months ago.
IIRC there was a documentary about it.
> Germany has a 600 m exclusion zone.
As I live in Germany I would be especially interested in a reference for this. Please.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2421220&cid=37362382
> I quick read of your linked article suggests that only France has the 500m exclusion zone, and it seems unclear to me whether this refers only to buildings. Certainly where I live in central Germany I have not seen 500m exclusion zones: even many roads are that close !!
> Their decision is not some reactionary anti-nuclear rhetoric as many on Slashdot seem to think, it is a plan maintain their position of leadership in this field.
I beg to differ: as I understand it the SDP/Greens agreed to a) not build any new nuclear plants and b) shutdown the existing ones when they reached the end-of-life. The CDU came in and *reversed* that decision. Later came Fukushima, the press reacted, some state elections loomed which were going to be close for the CDU and so they suddenly reversed their own reversion !
Amen to that. I wish I could mod you up to 5 !
In case anyone is wondering I think this success is unlikely to translate to such a success nationally. Remember that Berlin is not only a city state but also a fairly hip one !! The PP are not likely to get this level of support in, for example, more rural areas !!
> Microsoft has decided the Desktop is no longer relevant.
I never liked(/got?) the Desktop metaphor: I run everything I can at Full Screen, and Alt-Tab between my apps, whether on Windows XP or FVWM2 on Linux.
Yooww: I had not seen the Metro interface before: I can just see Fisher Price firing up their lawyers with prior-art !!
Maybe I am getting old, but I can remember when they just fell out of the sky, for free :-)
> How did the solar deaths happen?
Falling from the roof whilst fitting them ?
The article I read said that the dead worker had been "carbonised". Bit more information than anyone needed I though :-(
> Hmm, no. Car accident statistics dont get worse if you ignore them.
I beg to differ: what about all that legislation of road safety rules, car design etc that stopped the early rise of car accident stats ? OK it was a long time ago, but it still happened, and still relies on constant law enforcement.
> They aren't really dropping nuclear, they are exporting it across the Rhine to France.
Or it will be replaced with Russian gas: Schoeders' Gazrpom can only go up !! Maybe Merkel has some as well ??
> Most of the green energy sources are not viable by themselves. They're too unstable.
You could have mentioned 2 of the most stable ones: tidal and geo-thermal. If they stop working we would have bigger problems than an electricity shortage !!
IMHO you are correct, sort of. The *previous* government (a centre left/green) coalition agreed to a) build no new nuclear plants and b) let the existing ones run till the end of their operational life (this was a compromise: the Greens wanted an immediate shutdown). The current government came in and *reversed* that policy. It was only after Fukushima that they had a knee-jerk reaction with 2 state elections looming and shutdown the oldest plants.
> Germany and a few other EU countries have recognized the danger from wind, and established exclusion zones around wind turbines where people are prohibited from entering (600m radius for Germany, 500m for others).
I quick read of your linked article suggests that only France has the 500m exclusion zone, and it seems unclear to me whether this refers only to buildings. Certainly where I live in central Germany I have not seen 500m exclusion zones: even many roads are that close !!
My understanding (but IANAL and my German is poor) from the judgement http://www.lg-duesseldorf.nrw.de/presse/pressemitteilungen_ab_2009/13-11.pdf (small PDF) and also from this article http://www.chip.de/news/Galaxy-Tab-10.1-Verkaufsverbot-endgueltig-bestaetigt_50819592.html is that this is not a decision on the patent, but simple the rejection of Samsungs attempt to have the provisional injunction lifted. The real case is due maybe mid-2012 !
Amen to that: as a native English speaker now living in Germany, and struggling to learn German, it would be great if we all learnt a single, *logically structured*, language like Esperanto !!
> Unification is actually a very good idea generally. It will happen to language eventually...
I agree: we should get a head start and teach our kids Simplified Mandarin :-)
My favourite early Linux quote is v0.02 (I think) (still 1991) "Hurd will be out in a year (or two, or next month, who knows)", and little later "Wait for Hurd if you want something real.".
Are you a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_percenters ?
So we can be happy that Stanislav Petrov was not a robot ? !!
> What is the big fuss about getting a garbage collector anyway? Why does it even matter? Good C++ code shouldn't need a garbage collector.
In a way you have answered your own question: in my humble 20+ years experience good code is hard to find in the real world !! I can't remember how many bugs I have fixed in *live code* that come from uninitialised vars, mixing "|" and "||", buffer overflows etc. None should exist in "Good Code", but they do.
Same with garbage collection: there *should* be no garbage to collect, but there will be !!