$79 RC Car $89 Wireless Web Cam with Night Vision & Audio (Link [shoptronics.com])
Couple hours modding/reinforcing... call it $250
This would not survive small arms fire for even a few seconds. Even reenforced. You are going to have to do better than that. Such a device needs to be able to take a clip worth of rounds and still have a good chance of completing it's mission.
You could also go for a more simplistic design, 2 wheels, basically just a powered axel with wheels... kinda like a small Segway without the handlebars and shit, that way you could even modify some sort of rocket/grenade launcher that was large enough instead of tossing it by hand...
This idea has a bit more promise, but one needs to think of how to make it inherently resistant to combat damage.
I was envisioning something more like a titanium koosh-ball with a split down the middle. Each hemisphere is a highly reenforced wheel. The profile of "spines" on the koosh-ball provides stability for the structure to keep it oriented correctly. The internal structure is set so that it's mass is below the center of gravity for the robot. Such a structure could be designed to survive a substantial amount of impact damage, and remain viable. A small gap between the hemispheres allows for optical elements to get a view. The drive system would be based on BLDC motors, with the magnets in the hemispheric wheels.
Optical systems could include mic, IR illumination, and a IR sensitive video camera.
Stairs are a serious problem but this is more of a deployment logistics issue. Clear the lower portion of the house, then throw the robot upstairs. Rinse repeat.
Fahrenheit is zero-referenced from the freezing point of sea water. Not exactly a stable reference point, but thats what it's based on. Don't recall the gradient reference is based on.
The original Celsius scale was inverted: 100 was freezing and 0 was boiling. Along the way someone pointed out how stupid that was: "Hey! Dumb ass, you have the scale upside-down!" It was quietly turned right-side up.
Can I interest you in some tea? It's been a long while since we have had a tea party. The last one finished up with a jolly good row! We really should plan another one.
AIG and C had no choice. They were going to crash and burn if they didn't accept the money, and the golden handcuff that were attached in the form of as I understand it a consent decree.
The other banks basically got a gun held to their heads. " You all fucked up the whole damn economy! So...You sign this Goram document, and take the Goram money, or we will shut you guys down."
The FDIC and FRB hold a lot of power to dissolve banks.
As you said, the MS lawyers could have argued on a broader scale, but chose not to. Guess why.
I'll take "Patent Trolling: Fun and Profit" for $500, Bob.
M$ makes a lot of money taking small upstarts to the cleaners. Often just by threatened Patent violation. Small players cannot afford the defense. Often they will agree to be bought out at fire sale prices, or just fold up the tent.
I strip dead gear for parts all the time. In fact I am repurposing an Dell 23" (1366x768)LCD TV right now into an embedded Linux Box. The original LCD controller/ video router died, but the panel and PSU are more than ready to handle an embedded SBC that has LDVS LCD outputs.
I'll probably be able to sell it on EBay for a tidy sum once I build a nice finished wood case for it to replace the gawd awful black with silver trim plastic case it came with. Heck might even be able to sell the plastics to someone who cracked the plastics on their POS Dell TV.
Buy Windows over the phone, apparently does confer rights to Microsoft. Are you thinking that the agreement written on that ticket is unenforceable?
Try to tell the security staff at a Metallica concert that you have the right to capture content using the camera, or audio recorder you failed to sneak in. They will give you two choices... surrender the device(s) or leave the property. They might just throw your ass out with no further comment, and no refund.
The burning man is actually not about profit, and the 300$ that everyone whines about is nothing to the people that enjoy going there.
Agreed!
It's been quite a few years since I have gone. Honestly, the cost of getting there, and back again, in the first place, with everything you NEED to survive, and have a respectable chance of having a healthy, and comfortable good time, far out weighs the cost of the admission price.
If you are whining about $300USD for admission it's more than likely you also haven't got a decent plan for basic survival on the playa.
Both times I went (back in the mid 90's) I spent easily 10 times as much on travel, survival, and my project than the admission cost.
As for the IP rights. Grow the fuck up. IP rights have become a pain in the ass. That the BM has allowed recording of the event at all by participants, and still manages to not come across as Madonna, is pretty amazing. I can search the interwebs right now and find literally hundreds of thousands of images, videos and audio from the event that are untrammeled by BM's content policy. Including commentary, criticism, annoying parody, and even voyeuristic presentation. Where is the evil suppression?
The one thing I do not see is commercial exploitation of BM or it's attendant masses.
It seems to me that the EFF has stepped over the line here in assuming that carrying a weapon, a priori means that the weapon will be abused. I personally appreciate most of the work the EFF does, but maybe they have spent too much time fighting the Guberment, and 'evil corporations.' The EFF needs to remember that most people who carry a side-arm are not contemplating criminal acts. They are simply exercising their right to be ready to defend themselves. So far as I have seen BM applies their IP rights protocol to the same standard. It's unfortunate that IP rights are so messed up that BM has to do this to protect the event from commercial and privacy exploitation.
But Mir wasn't really detached from earth. It might as well have just been an oil platform in the middle of the ocean. We just kept on shipping more supplies to it whenever it ran out. It wasn't self sustaining at all. Let me know when we get something in orbit or on the moon (or mars) that is self sustaining, and doesn't require that we keep on shipping them supplies.
That is fucking stupid. Without investing in the technology to put infrastructure on the moon, we are never going to get any infrastructure on the moon. Robots cannot do that. Ignoring the marginal, but potentially valuable resources of the moon is just shortsighted bullshit; the same shortsighted bullshit that has damn near financially wrecked this country.
How about the first practical application for the new fangled integrated circuit?
It was a pipe dream, and a risky, and very expensive idea before the Apollo program funded the technology infrastructure enough to use in the space programs. The side benefit is that it gave private companies a new market. Which grew into an industry so vast that it's profits dwarf the total cost of the Apollo program, as well as Mercury and Gemini!!!
And thats just one example. there are many more. How about velcro? Didn't exist before the Apollo program. Probably would not have been invented without the space program. Stuff that wacky doesn't get invented without a pressing need. The space race created a pressing need for Velcro.
Inventions require need. No need no invention. You can only go so far with mundane needs, before you just run out of stuff that is cost effective to develop. When there's a push to do something really crazy, like going to the moon; new inventions fall out.
It's easy to argue that the MIC does this too. It also does so with a deliberate focus on killing people and destroying property. Inventions in that arena also end up being used to deprive US of our rights, and kill US right here at home.
I think that space is a much more noble way to foster invention, don't you?
500 million years is a long time, even by the evolutionary time base.
It only took us 2 million years to go from gibbon-like pre-hominid Human. There's still some of those types waiting in line.
I'd be willing to bet on raccoons or maybe one of the other cat, ferret, badger variants. Bears aren't too far out of the realm of possibility. Just about any critter that spends a fair amount of time upright, picking stuff out of trees might make the transition given a couple of million years, and a well timed evolutionary stressor.
You (conveniently?) left out part of the agreement:
"By using the software, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the software. Instead, contact the manufacturer or installer to determine their return policy for a refund or credit."
I think you are conveniently leaving out a part of the agreement... as in you will get a refund or a credit depending on their return policy, not that they do not have a return policy because as the EULA states you must return the software if you do not agree to it.
You are conveniently misquoting the agreement. It says nothing about returning the software. It tells you that if you do not accept the EULA, do not use the software.
It then redirects you to the manufacturer to work something out. Microsoft at that point conveniently washes their hands of the issue at that point.
Look this moron knew that the deal included a EULA for Windows. Was probably told he couldn't buy it without Windows. This is a tough deal, but you don't hand someone your money for a deal you don't want. You go make a deal you do want. Is he honestly going to stand up in court and say he was unaware that the EULA has terms he would refuse to accept? Did he not attempt to negotiate with Levenov for a OS free version of the machine? If he did and they refused his offer, then he should not have traded with them. Chasing this refund is stupid, since the refund value for a bulk license is probably pennies on the dollar. It's not itemized in the bill of sale. Levenov could simply say that the OS is complementary, and has no value in the sale.
Another issue that rears it's ugly head for a seller is "Perceived Value."
Your calculations may tell you that your sweet spot based on internal production costs and predicted market volume is $9.99. So you roll out at $9.99. And the sales tank. What happened?
Potential customers are likely perceiving the product as being of poor quality, even if it is really of superior quality. This happens simply because the price is too low for the customer's internal representation of value.
This facet tends to encourage sellers to set an initial high price for the product, and then gradually lower it towards the desired "Sweet Spot" until lowering the price causes only a very small spike in demand. They stop lowering the price even if they haven't reached the "sweet spot" because lowering the price any more will likely cause sales to drop.
Dun know how any one manages to communicate in WoW chat.
It's almost impossible to keep moving in a group situation and type at the same time.
For mature guilds there is often a Ventrilo service, and that helps a lot in communicating in guilds.
For my small group experiences(with close friends and long time V-Friends from SecondLife) it's often a conference call in Skype, and those that won't join it are always left out of the group dynamics because typing in chat takes too damn long.
BTW if you want to find interesting social life. Non-game environments do much better than game environments. The issue I see is that by the time you need to group in WoW to take on instances, or just push beyond "safe grinding" it's hard to find group-mates, even amongst close friends, who don't have some reason to be aggressively competitive. This competition might be as simple as having the same profession, like herbing. It makes keeping a group together since someone is feeling either left out of the chat, left out of the herbing/oreing, or didn't get the last twink-grade drop....
Consequently there are only four people I trust to group with because I know that at least when there is a disagreement, it's going to get resolved without anyone getting bent out of shape over a stupid game.
The other case where this works is when a guildie is running me through an instance, since I am paying them gold for letting me get all the drops, or there is a prior agreement about specific drops should they appear.
Every PUG I have joined was a complete cluster fuck of terrible attitudes and irresponsible playing styles.
One issue in WoW is players who grind out to 60th lvl and never really learn how to use all their skills, or develop any situational awareness. One common reason this happens is that they don't take on anything but green quests. Consequently they never have to try very hard to complete the quest. When they finally group to do things that cannot be soloed they don't have any clue what they are doing.
Players who tends to align with the 'forces of progress' don't get why players who align with the 'forces of awesomeness' can run rings around them in game. Players who push their own limits by taking on risky quests learn how to use every aspect of their toon and know what they can do. Players that plod through the quests grinding in the safety of green quests never get beyond the basics.
Players who focus on progress seldom even want to try PvP, and yet this is probably the best area of the game to develop tactical skills and get a good grasp of what other classes are capable of.
Disclosure: Rez Date Jan 2009, highest lvl toon 45th lvl NE Druid. Best toon: 29th lvl Twink NE Druid feral spec. US-Runetotem-HolyBloodLine (currently active 10 hours per month)
Well... IANAP however... some of the silliness around here doesn't even pass the sniff test of basic physics.
Why would a rogue planet's orbital plane be perpendicular to the rotational axis of the capturing star? Are you going to tell me that all independent star systems in a neighborhood sit in the same plane, have a similar axis of rotation, and spin polarity? That seems kinda far fetched.
It seems more likely that something in the same plane as the rest of the star system acted as a pivot point and sent this planet orbiting the opposite direction. If it was an external influence I'd expect the planet not to be very well aligned with the star's rotational axis.
As a young adult, playing with a simplistic 2-d orbital mechanics simulator, I was easily able to create configurations that would sling a planet into a retrograde orbit. It was also fairly easy to create semi-stable systems that could do this hundreds or even thousands of orbits after they were set in motion.
Just to be clear... Flipping the angular momentum of a star? That just doesn't seem likely. If it did happen, what are the odds the star would survive that kind of abuse? Or the rest of the system for that matter... If the star could survive it, I'd expect to see lots of chunks floating around such a system that were out of alignment with the star's rotational axis. What ever could cause that would almost certainly have been external to the star system, and a very large fraction of the star's pre-collision mass.
The soundport driver had a similar issue, and it was discussed at that time that with the right offset you wouldn't need to map page zero to exploit the issue because: { somestruct* foo;...
foo[some_useful_offset].endelement = something_dangerous; } This code will NOT dereference addr = 0x000000 at any time
in fact it doesn't even have to reference page zero!
Good luck threading through Apache, et al. Any reasonably well lit bulb has shells for those users mapped to a non-shell exe such as 'true' or false. You'd have a heck of a time getting local access via a typical service set up.
Slashdot Mirror
Compiler Error: Symbol 'COTS' redefined in NASA.h at 2009.
Commmon Off The Shelf [components] (Military design goals program from the 90's)
From TFA:
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (NASA)
$79 RC Car
$89 Wireless Web Cam with Night Vision & Audio (Link [shoptronics.com])
Couple hours modding/reinforcing... call it $250
This would not survive small arms fire for even a few seconds. Even reenforced. You are going to have to do better than that. Such a device needs to be able to take a clip worth of rounds and still have a good chance of completing it's mission.
You could also go for a more simplistic design, 2 wheels, basically just a powered axel with wheels... kinda like a small Segway without the handlebars and shit, that way you could even modify some sort of rocket/grenade launcher that was large enough instead of tossing it by hand...
This idea has a bit more promise, but one needs to think of how to make it inherently resistant to combat damage.
I was envisioning something more like a titanium koosh-ball with a split down the middle. Each hemisphere is a highly reenforced wheel. The profile of "spines" on the koosh-ball provides stability for the structure to keep it oriented correctly. The internal structure is set so that it's mass is below the center of gravity for the robot. Such a structure could be designed to survive a substantial amount of impact damage, and remain viable. A small gap between the hemispheres allows for optical elements to get a view. The drive system would be based on BLDC motors, with the magnets in the hemispheric wheels.
Optical systems could include mic, IR illumination, and a IR sensitive video camera.
Stairs are a serious problem but this is more of a deployment logistics issue. Clear the lower portion of the house, then throw the robot upstairs. Rinse repeat.
Fahrenheit is zero-referenced from the freezing point of sea water. Not exactly a stable reference point, but thats what it's based on. Don't recall the gradient reference is based on.
The original Celsius scale was inverted: 100 was freezing and 0 was boiling. Along the way someone pointed out how stupid that was: "Hey! Dumb ass, you have the scale upside-down!" It was quietly turned right-side up.
If you want a nice romp through the history of temperature measurement, may I suggest Nova's 'The conquest of Cold' aka 'Absolute Zero' http://video.pbs.org/video/1050757560/program/979359664/topic/979382098
WTF does "Connection anomaly noted." mean?
Can I interest you in some tea? It's been a long while since we have had a tea party. The last one finished up with a jolly good row! We really should plan another one.
AIG and C had no choice. They were going to crash and burn if they didn't accept the money, and the golden handcuff that were attached in the form of as I understand it a consent decree.
The other banks basically got a gun held to their heads. " You all fucked up the whole damn economy! So...You sign this Goram document, and take the Goram money, or we will shut you guys down."
The FDIC and FRB hold a lot of power to dissolve banks.
As you said, the MS lawyers could have argued on a broader scale, but chose not to. Guess why.
I'll take "Patent Trolling: Fun and Profit" for $500, Bob.
M$ makes a lot of money taking small upstarts to the cleaners. Often just by threatened Patent violation. Small players cannot afford the defense. Often they will agree to be bought out at fire sale prices, or just fold up the tent.
Catch is that i4i is behaving like a patent troll, and the patent is weak at best.
With the business name i4i seems like maybe a group of investors went through a lot of trouble to shank Microsoft.
it's definitely an AvP moment...
I strip dead gear for parts all the time. In fact I am repurposing an Dell 23" (1366x768)LCD TV right now into an embedded Linux Box. The original LCD controller/ video router died, but the panel and PSU are more than ready to handle an embedded SBC that has LDVS LCD outputs.
I'll probably be able to sell it on EBay for a tidy sum once I build a nice finished wood case for it to replace the gawd awful black with silver trim plastic case it came with. Heck might even be able to sell the plastics to someone who cracked the plastics on their POS Dell TV.
Cheers.
Nice twist on Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand much?
The 'Rez' is sovereign territory that the US Guberment does not have the jurisdiction to police.
Kaplan interacted with Americans in US jurisdiction, essentially encouraging them to break the law by telling them that his operation was 'off-shore.'
Now for the big one... Why does Nevada get to ignore Federal Gambling Statues?
Buy Windows over the phone, apparently does confer rights to Microsoft. Are you thinking that the agreement written on that ticket is unenforceable?
Try to tell the security staff at a Metallica concert that you have the right to capture content using the camera, or audio recorder you failed to sneak in. They will give you two choices... surrender the device(s) or leave the property. They might just throw your ass out with no further comment, and no refund.
The burning man is actually not about profit, and the 300$ that everyone whines about is nothing to the people that enjoy going there.
Agreed!
It's been quite a few years since I have gone. Honestly, the cost of getting there, and back again, in the first place, with everything you NEED to survive, and have a respectable chance of having a healthy, and comfortable good time, far out weighs the cost of the admission price.
If you are whining about $300USD for admission it's more than likely you also haven't got a decent plan for basic survival on the playa.
Both times I went (back in the mid 90's) I spent easily 10 times as much on travel, survival, and my project than the admission cost.
As for the IP rights. Grow the fuck up. IP rights have become a pain in the ass. That the BM has allowed recording of the event at all by participants, and still manages to not come across as Madonna, is pretty amazing. I can search the interwebs right now and find literally hundreds of thousands of images, videos and audio from the event that are untrammeled by BM's content policy. Including commentary, criticism, annoying parody, and even voyeuristic presentation. Where is the evil suppression?
The one thing I do not see is commercial exploitation of BM or it's attendant masses.
It seems to me that the EFF has stepped over the line here in assuming that carrying a weapon, a priori means that the weapon will be abused. I personally appreciate most of the work the EFF does, but maybe they have spent too much time fighting the Guberment, and 'evil corporations.' The EFF needs to remember that most people who carry a side-arm are not contemplating criminal acts. They are simply exercising their right to be ready to defend themselves. So far as I have seen BM applies their IP rights protocol to the same standard. It's unfortunate that IP rights are so messed up that BM has to do this to protect the event from commercial and privacy exploitation.
But Mir wasn't really detached from earth. It might as well have just been an oil platform in the middle of the ocean. We just kept on shipping more supplies to it whenever it ran out. It wasn't self sustaining at all. Let me know when we get something in orbit or on the moon (or mars) that is self sustaining, and doesn't require that we keep on shipping them supplies.
That is fucking stupid. Without investing in the technology to put infrastructure on the moon, we are never going to get any infrastructure on the moon. Robots cannot do that. Ignoring the marginal, but potentially valuable resources of the moon is just shortsighted bullshit; the same shortsighted bullshit that has damn near financially wrecked this country.
Unfortunately how many were glued to the tube when Apollo 18 was there? That fact is hard to ignore from a political perspective.
How about the first practical application for the new fangled integrated circuit?
It was a pipe dream, and a risky, and very expensive idea before the Apollo program funded the technology infrastructure enough to use in the space programs. The side benefit is that it gave private companies a new market. Which grew into an industry so vast that it's profits dwarf the total cost of the Apollo program, as well as Mercury and Gemini!!!
And thats just one example. there are many more. How about velcro? Didn't exist before the Apollo program. Probably would not have been invented without the space program. Stuff that wacky doesn't get invented without a pressing need. The space race created a pressing need for Velcro.
Inventions require need. No need no invention. You can only go so far with mundane needs, before you just run out of stuff that is cost effective to develop. When there's a push to do something really crazy, like going to the moon; new inventions fall out.
It's easy to argue that the MIC does this too. It also does so with a deliberate focus on killing people and destroying property. Inventions in that arena also end up being used to deprive US of our rights, and kill US right here at home.
I think that space is a much more noble way to foster invention, don't you?
500 million years is a long time, even by the evolutionary time base.
It only took us 2 million years to go from gibbon-like pre-hominid Human. There's still some of those types waiting in line.
I'd be willing to bet on raccoons or maybe one of the other cat, ferret, badger variants. Bears aren't too far out of the realm of possibility. Just about any critter that spends a fair amount of time upright, picking stuff out of trees might make the transition given a couple of million years, and a well timed evolutionary stressor.
You forgot the pr0n crowd:
Vista Watersport
I think you are conveniently leaving out a part of the agreement... as in you will get a refund or a credit depending on their return policy, not that they do not have a return policy because as the EULA states you must return the software if you do not agree to it.
You are conveniently misquoting the agreement.
It says nothing about returning the software. It tells you that if you do not accept the EULA, do not use the software.
It then redirects you to the manufacturer to work something out. Microsoft at that point conveniently washes their hands of the issue at that point.
Look this moron knew that the deal included a EULA for Windows. Was probably told he couldn't buy it without Windows. This is a tough deal, but you don't hand someone your money for a deal you don't want. You go make a deal you do want. Is he honestly going to stand up in court and say he was unaware that the EULA has terms he would refuse to accept? Did he not attempt to negotiate with Levenov for a OS free version of the machine? If he did and they refused his offer, then he should not have traded with them. Chasing this refund is stupid, since the refund value for a bulk license is probably pennies on the dollar. It's not itemized in the bill of sale. Levenov could simply say that the OS is complementary, and has no value in the sale.
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Only if he is competent at lighting his taper!
Another issue that rears it's ugly head for a seller is "Perceived Value."
Your calculations may tell you that your sweet spot based on internal production costs and predicted market volume is $9.99. So you roll out at $9.99. And the sales tank. What happened?
Potential customers are likely perceiving the product as being of poor quality, even if it is really of superior quality. This happens simply because the price is too low for the customer's internal representation of value.
This facet tends to encourage sellers to set an initial high price for the product, and then gradually lower it towards the desired "Sweet Spot" until lowering the price causes only a very small spike in demand. They stop lowering the price even if they haven't reached the "sweet spot" because lowering the price any more will likely cause sales to drop.
Dun know how any one manages to communicate in WoW chat.
It's almost impossible to keep moving in a group situation and type at the same time.
For mature guilds there is often a Ventrilo service, and that helps a lot in communicating in guilds.
For my small group experiences(with close friends and long time V-Friends from SecondLife) it's often a conference call in Skype, and those that won't join it are always left out of the group dynamics because typing in chat takes too damn long.
BTW if you want to find interesting social life. Non-game environments do much better than game environments. The issue I see is that by the time you need to group in WoW to take on instances, or just push beyond "safe grinding" it's hard to find group-mates, even amongst close friends, who don't have some reason to be aggressively competitive. This competition might be as simple as having the same profession, like herbing.
It makes keeping a group together since someone is feeling either left out of the chat, left out of the herbing/oreing, or didn't get the last twink-grade drop....
Consequently there are only four people I trust to group with because I know that at least when there is a disagreement, it's going to get resolved without anyone getting bent out of shape over a stupid game.
The other case where this works is when a guildie is running me through an instance, since I am paying them gold for letting me get all the drops, or there is a prior agreement about specific drops should they appear.
Every PUG I have joined was a complete cluster fuck of terrible attitudes and irresponsible playing styles.
One issue in WoW is players who grind out to 60th lvl and never really learn how to use all their skills, or develop any situational awareness. One common reason this happens is that they don't take on anything but green quests. Consequently they never have to try very hard to complete the quest. When they finally group to do things that cannot be soloed they don't have any clue what they are doing.
Players who tends to align with the 'forces of progress' don't get why players who align with the 'forces of awesomeness' can run rings around them in game. Players who push their own limits by taking on risky quests learn how to use every aspect of their toon and know what they can do. Players that plod through the quests grinding in the safety of green quests never get beyond the basics.
Players who focus on progress seldom even want to try PvP, and yet this is probably the best area of the game to develop tactical skills and get a good grasp of what other classes are capable of.
Disclosure: Rez Date Jan 2009, highest lvl toon 45th lvl NE Druid. Best toon: 29th lvl Twink NE Druid feral spec. US-Runetotem-HolyBloodLine (currently active 10 hours per month)
Well... IANAP however... some of the silliness around here doesn't even pass the sniff test of basic physics.
Why would a rogue planet's orbital plane be perpendicular to the rotational axis of the capturing star? Are you going to tell me that all independent star systems in a neighborhood sit in the same plane, have a similar axis of rotation, and spin polarity? That seems kinda far fetched.
It seems more likely that something in the same plane as the rest of the star system acted as a pivot point and sent this planet orbiting the opposite direction. If it was an external influence I'd expect the planet not to be very well aligned with the star's rotational axis.
As a young adult, playing with a simplistic 2-d orbital mechanics simulator, I was easily able to create configurations that would sling a planet into a retrograde orbit.
It was also fairly easy to create semi-stable systems that could do this hundreds or even thousands of orbits after they were set in motion.
Just to be clear... Flipping the angular momentum of a star? That just doesn't seem likely. If it did happen, what are the odds the star would survive that kind of abuse? Or the rest of the system for that matter... If the star could survive it, I'd expect to see lots of chunks floating around such a system that were out of alignment with the star's rotational axis. What ever could cause that would almost certainly have been external to the star system, and a very large fraction of the star's pre-collision mass.
The soundport driver had a similar issue, and it was discussed at that time that with the right offset you wouldn't need to map page zero to exploit the issue because: ...
{
somestruct* foo;
foo[some_useful_offset].endelement = something_dangerous;
}
This code will NOT dereference addr = 0x000000 at any time
in fact it doesn't even have to reference page zero!
Good luck threading through Apache, et al. Any reasonably well lit bulb has shells for those users mapped to a non-shell exe such as 'true' or false. You'd have a heck of a time getting local access via a typical service set up.