There's a very successful series of TV and print advertisements running in the Australian state of New South Wales. The premise is that everyone else realises that a speeding and reckless young male driver (aka: hoon or yobbo) just does not understand how silly and "inadequate" they make themselves look. These others share among themselves the wiggling of the 'pinkie' ('little') finger when they see such behaviour. The real pay-off is when one of the male passengers in a recklessly driven car wiggles the pinkie to a fellow passenger, and his mate -- the driver -- sees it happen in the mirror, and is shamed.
See an article about the ads in the Sydney Morning Herald of 25 June 2007. Here's a link to the ads at the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority web site.
There is also an accompanying 15-second "viral" internet ad that offers "speedsters" an "xtra xtra small" condom.
James Bannan (the author of the referenced article) is normally quite pro-Microsoft in his pieces in APC Magazine. That he is coming out in this article with this level of criticism makes me feel that he has become quite frustrated by at least one of: (1) the Vista/XP activation issue, (2) the activation process, (3) the Microsoft response. That's quite apart from the process of 'fixing' his system that he has described. Also, being a prominent and normally pro-M$ writer has probably been of great assistance; but, what of the 'normal' M$ user? James Bannan now has an insight!
When I read this it brought me back to the "Harry Potter" moment I had when I finished the most recent book. What do you do if your life is so hum-drum that there is no prospect that 19 years later you'd be even looking at the outside chance of doing something significant? Ah. Write a book, an e-book, a blog, or a... COMMENT! Some things seem not to change.
You said, "Perhaps the closest analogy happens for say, e-commerce. You buy an item, but the seller decides he doesn't want to sell it to you and cancels your order - it's still legal, as the sale hasn't happened yet. He may even have taken your money, but if said product hasn't left his door, he's under no obligation to complete the sale (of course, he will have to give you a refund or it becomes fraud)."
Well, no.
In most cases the transaction is considered complete when there is a transfer of 'consideration'. That quaint legal concept may be money, but a court may also take it to mean be the promise of money. Say I have made arrangements to pay you, and you know this (because there has to be a means to do this by the legal and procedural processes of the auction system. [Does this sound familiar?]) If I win the auction then you have a fair expectation that the payment scheme will kick in, and you will be paid. On the other hand, I have a fair expectation that you will deliver the item. Promises have been underpinning the auction, and there is an implied exchange of 'consideration' (expected payment versus expected delivery) at the close of the auction.
A related concept is 'estopel', meaning the right of Party #2 to 'estop' (i.e. stop) Party #1 from unfairly taking advantage of a situation based on promises that Party #1 made that were relied upon by Party #2 to their detriment. Say I expect to fly the plane you are selling and on the fall of the hammer ring my friend and offer to fly him from his distant home to mine where I and he can enjoy the experience of flying the plane. I go online and pay for his fare. I'm already out-of-pocket not only for what was your plane but now also his fare. Then, you renege. I relied on your promise to my detriment, and I can ask a court to 'estop' you from taking advantage of the situation by releasing to me what I won in the auction. All the more so would I win the case if you sold the plane after the auction. In that case, the court might well void the later sale (contract) and order restitution. [By the way, ours was a hypothetical sale of a flying model of a Wirraway.]
IANAL (I am not a lawyer) but I have studies contract law as part of post graduate business studies.
While I'm at it, let me settle this once and for all.
Australians know that World War 2:
a. STARTED on 3 September 1939 with the declaration by Britain, Australia and New Zealand of war on Germany following the latter's refusal to cease hostilities on and withdraw from Poland which had been invaded on 1 September;
b. STARTED on mainland Australia on 19 February 1942 with the bombing of Darwin, the first and the largest airborne attack by Japan against the mainland Australia.
c. ENDED in Europe on 8 May 1945;
d. ENDED in the Pacific Ocean when the Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945, or V-J day, although it was on 2 September they signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender which was counter-signed for Australia by General Sir Thomas Blamey (later Field Marshall).
The CA16 Wirraway was manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation following the pattern of the North American Aviation, Inc. (that was a manufacturer's name) NA-16 trainer aircraft, using locally manufactured versions of the Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine. First flight was on 27 March 1939, and its later incarnation as the CA16 brought total production to just over 750 aircraft. While it was normally used as a trainer, various armed versions were used in air-to-air fighter combat, generally against slow and lightly defended bombers and patrol aircraft. The Wirraway became the pattern for the heavier CAC Boomerang fighter for which design was started on 21 December 1941 using the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engine; the prototype flew on 29 May 1942.
I recently put an older-generation 'rock' (crystal oscillator) -based VHF Amateur radio into my car. This 30+ year old radio still functions well; it is still completely inter-operable with equipment bought yesterday (using various techniques in ICs) or any time between, and actually is interoperable with 60 year old equipment.
I can use this equipment to talk via repeaters to folk all along the eastern seaboard of Australia, or via IRLP with people all over the world.
Hands up anyone with even a 10 year old mobile phone in everyday use.
I can't find if someone has said it here already, but... the media has reported that HyShot it was a successful flight and trial.
Also, unlike other comments here, you'll notice that the rocket went (not to 35km altitude) to around 300 kilometres. The joke in our office among the trial managers has been that the HyShot team was trying NOT to shoot down the International Space Station (see my earlier comment). It appears that they also succeeded in this aim. (And, before anyone asks... yes, there is an international coordination of all such launches and they DO get a 'launch window' time when the rocket is unlikely to hit anything.)
Woomera and nearby areas has a long history of trials; several British designed rockets were trialled there, and several satellites were launched to earth orbit. Maralinga was one Australian site of British atom bomb tests in the late '40s and '50s.
HyShot is intended to be recovered, but it is a large area in which it might land. Watch this space!
Okay, take one system then multiply it across various similar systems. Soon, you get a repeatable pattern that folk just love to take advantage of. For example, the crackers. You have to love naivety!
This is so "old news". At the time of my writing, the success of MRO's insertion into orbit has been in the media for some time! Except that I often accuse media outlets of NOT telling about things before they actually happen, in which case I am possibly open to being called a hypocrite, I would say that this foreward looking story (or, at least, headline) is so very quickly outdated as to be a blot on Slashdot.
Someone will look at my history and at first think this is 'bad blood', but I ask that my whole history with SlashDot be considered!
Some populations are in great danger. The toads are toxic from the egg stage, and are eaten by native amphibians, reptiles, and mammals at all levels of the food chain. Because the native populations can't learn and pass on their new behaviours (to avoid the toads, because the ones who eat a toad normally die) there has been considerable reduction in some kinds of native animals who have been eating the toads. It has been reported that even the seemingly indestructable Saltwater Crocodiles have died after eating toads.
Because the cane toad 'escaped' into the environment, Australian scientists have been much more aware of the dangers and have studied subsequent releases of biological controls at very considerable depth before release. (I am aware of this from being peripherally connected to studies into release of several other biological controls by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.)
Using a car to squash a Cane Toad that is on a road has been a sport in certain parts of Australia for many years. Many people in areas infested with cane toads (used to) consider a golf club, cricket bat, or shovel a suitable implement for toad control; they are probably a *little* more Politically Correct these days.
Okay, so several radar systems track the items and several computer systems analyse the orbital elements.
However, it is 'space junk' from the time it is sent from the ISS.
Can anyone predict the orbit of the spacesuit if it is 'thrown' or 'ejected' from the ISS? NO! Any hand-derived force is different any other occasion when a similar mass is trown / pushed. No two throws (vectors) can be the same. Accordingly, the orbit is different, and must be assessed - quickly - in order to have it avoid future launches.
On 23 Nov 97, another satellite -- Sputnik 40 (Object 24958/97058C) -- was launched (thrown) by hand from the MIR space station during a spacewalk. Batteries lasted until 29 Dec 97, but the de-orbit was much later. In that time, its orbit was refined by use of similar radars as will be used to track the space suits of this story.
Please do not expect that the radars and computers will have an 'exact' orbit quickly: That is simply not possible. A 'reliable' or 'predictable' orbit it may be called, but that is not 'exact'.
James Oberg is a regular participant in several space related newsgroups and news sites that I read. (I note sci.space.station)
Accordingly, I have watched his coverage of several newsworthy space events and know, from my watching of coverage and analysis, that James Obserg is credible and often "ahead of the game" in calling what really happened.
I congratulate James Oberg on this account, and analysis, and ask readers to take his work as 'credible'.
Unfortunately, I have seen numerous analysis pieces that add evidence and weight to Myth #3: The crew died instantly. It seems they died on impact with the water, minutres afterward, as evidence from the video suggests that the capsule remained substantially intact. I recall the analysis that the investigators could not construct a scenario that showed 'the crew died instantly and did not know they were going to die'.
Myth #4: Dangerous booster flaws result of meddling is also flawed! It seems that the rockets were fired (the Shuttle launched) outside the demonstrated 'safe' parameters of the launch vehicle. For example, if your car is driven across a slickly wet road then full steering lock is applied in an instant then most cars will just be in a skid, as the design parameters have just been exceeded. Get it?
The real question for me is, "Why did it take at least 7 hours after I saw this online for the information to appear on/.?" I did not even bother to go near/. to post it, because I figured that I'd been comprehensively beaten to the story. And, I know that the story had been online several hours by the time I saw it. So, why the big delay,/.?
I have to say that it "arcs me up" to see the media treat this kind of simple science story with disdain and hype, trying NOT to understand and then explain the simple science involved.
Slashdot Mirror
There's a very successful series of TV and print advertisements running in the Australian state of New South Wales. The premise is that everyone else realises that a speeding and reckless young male driver (aka: hoon or yobbo) just does not understand how silly and "inadequate" they make themselves look. These others share among themselves the wiggling of the 'pinkie' ('little') finger when they see such behaviour. The real pay-off is when one of the male passengers in a recklessly driven car wiggles the pinkie to a fellow passenger, and his mate -- the driver -- sees it happen in the mirror, and is shamed.
See an article about the ads in the Sydney Morning Herald of 25 June 2007. Here's a link to the ads at the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority web site.
There is also an accompanying 15-second "viral" internet ad that offers "speedsters" an "xtra xtra small" condom.
James Bannan (the author of the referenced article) is normally quite pro-Microsoft in his pieces in APC Magazine. That he is coming out in this article with this level of criticism makes me feel that he has become quite frustrated by at least one of: (1) the Vista/XP activation issue, (2) the activation process, (3) the Microsoft response. That's quite apart from the process of 'fixing' his system that he has described. Also, being a prominent and normally pro-M$ writer has probably been of great assistance; but, what of the 'normal' M$ user? James Bannan now has an insight!
We were there! Some add-ins also came, we signed one up on the spot, and also took some pictures as proof (see the Reply several down!)
While reading SCO's Ch11 woes, use even a bit more of their bandwidth.
Just for fun, click on the links to:
Print page,
Email page, and
Download PDF.
And, perhaps, that is the story of the URI.
I am NOT anonymous!!! And, perhaps the first to say so!!!!
Well, no.
In most cases the transaction is considered complete when there is a transfer of 'consideration'. That quaint legal concept may be money, but a court may also take it to mean be the promise of money. Say I have made arrangements to pay you, and you know this (because there has to be a means to do this by the legal and procedural processes of the auction system. [Does this sound familiar?]) If I win the auction then you have a fair expectation that the payment scheme will kick in, and you will be paid. On the other hand, I have a fair expectation that you will deliver the item. Promises have been underpinning the auction, and there is an implied exchange of 'consideration' (expected payment versus expected delivery) at the close of the auction.
A related concept is 'estopel', meaning the right of Party #2 to 'estop' (i.e. stop) Party #1 from unfairly taking advantage of a situation based on promises that Party #1 made that were relied upon by Party #2 to their detriment. Say I expect to fly the plane you are selling and on the fall of the hammer ring my friend and offer to fly him from his distant home to mine where I and he can enjoy the experience of flying the plane. I go online and pay for his fare. I'm already out-of-pocket not only for what was your plane but now also his fare. Then, you renege. I relied on your promise to my detriment, and I can ask a court to 'estop' you from taking advantage of the situation by releasing to me what I won in the auction. All the more so would I win the case if you sold the plane after the auction. In that case, the court might well void the later sale (contract) and order restitution. [By the way, ours was a hypothetical sale of a flying model of a Wirraway.]
IANAL (I am not a lawyer) but I have studies contract law as part of post graduate business studies.
Australians know that World War 2:
a. STARTED on 3 September 1939 with the declaration by Britain, Australia and New Zealand of war on Germany following the latter's refusal to cease hostilities on and withdraw from Poland which had been invaded on 1 September;
b. STARTED on mainland Australia on 19 February 1942 with the bombing of Darwin, the first and the largest airborne attack by Japan against the mainland Australia.
c. ENDED in Europe on 8 May 1945;
d. ENDED in the Pacific Ocean when the Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945, or V-J day, although it was on 2 September they signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender which was counter-signed for Australia by General Sir Thomas Blamey (later Field Marshall).
The CA16 Wirraway was manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation following the pattern of the North American Aviation, Inc. (that was a manufacturer's name) NA-16 trainer aircraft, using locally manufactured versions of the Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine. First flight was on 27 March 1939, and its later incarnation as the CA16 brought total production to just over 750 aircraft. While it was normally used as a trainer, various armed versions were used in air-to-air fighter combat, generally against slow and lightly defended bombers and patrol aircraft. The Wirraway became the pattern for the heavier CAC Boomerang fighter for which design was started on 21 December 1941 using the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engine; the prototype flew on 29 May 1942.
Nashua Police
Nashua Police "Frequent Juvenile Questions"
http://www.ci.nashua.nh.us/ City of Nashua
Nashua - "Contact the City" webform
I recently put an older-generation 'rock' (crystal oscillator) -based VHF Amateur radio into my car. This 30+ year old radio still functions well; it is still completely inter-operable with equipment bought yesterday (using various techniques in ICs) or any time between, and actually is interoperable with 60 year old equipment.
I can use this equipment to talk via repeaters to folk all along the eastern seaboard of Australia, or via IRLP with people all over the world.
Hands up anyone with even a 10 year old mobile phone in everyday use.
de Peter in VK1
A colleague has been involved in establishing the web site for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Museum. See www.defence.gov.au/raaf/raafmuseum.
Yes, this is also off-topic! :-)
First, read the very recent /. article and discussion on this just the other day.
A colleague of mine is the trial manager for HyShot. I will post more 'insider' details when they become available.
I can't find if someone has said it here already, but... the media has reported that HyShot it was a successful flight and trial.
Also, unlike other comments here, you'll notice that the rocket went (not to 35km altitude) to around 300 kilometres. The joke in our office among the trial managers has been that the HyShot team was trying NOT to shoot down the International Space Station (see my earlier comment). It appears that they also succeeded in this aim. (And, before anyone asks... yes, there is an international coordination of all such launches and they DO get a 'launch window' time when the rocket is unlikely to hit anything.)
Well done to the Space Cadets!
The launch has been delayed until Saturday 25 March (Central Australian time.) See my earlier entry.
The launch has been delayed until Saturday 25 March (Central Australian time.)
A colleague of mine is the project manager for the HyShot trial. It is being conducted at the Australian Defence Force's Woomera test and evaluation range and shooting north-west across the Australian desert.
Woomera and nearby areas has a long history of trials; several British designed rockets were trialled there, and several satellites were launched to earth orbit. Maralinga was one Australian site of British atom bomb tests in the late '40s and '50s.
HyShot is intended to be recovered, but it is a large area in which it might land. Watch this space!
Okay, take one system then multiply it across various similar systems. Soon, you get a repeatable pattern that folk just love to take advantage of. For example, the crackers. You have to love naivety!
This is so "old news". At the time of my writing, the success of MRO's insertion into orbit has been in the media for some time! Except that I often accuse media outlets of NOT telling about things before they actually happen, in which case I am possibly open to being called a hypocrite, I would say that this foreward looking story (or, at least, headline) is so very quickly outdated as to be a blot on Slashdot.
Someone will look at my history and at first think this is 'bad blood', but I ask that my whole history with SlashDot be considered!
I am an amateur herpetologist and have heard the bad-news stories of reptile deaths from eating Cane Toad (Giant Neotropical Toad, Bufo marinus) in northern Australia for some years.
Some populations are in great danger. The toads are toxic from the egg stage, and are eaten by native amphibians, reptiles, and mammals at all levels of the food chain. Because the native populations can't learn and pass on their new behaviours (to avoid the toads, because the ones who eat a toad normally die) there has been considerable reduction in some kinds of native animals who have been eating the toads. It has been reported that even the seemingly indestructable Saltwater Crocodiles have died after eating toads.
Because the cane toad 'escaped' into the environment, Australian scientists have been much more aware of the dangers and have studied subsequent releases of biological controls at very considerable depth before release. (I am aware of this from being peripherally connected to studies into release of several other biological controls by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.)
Using a car to squash a Cane Toad that is on a road has been a sport in certain parts of Australia for many years. Many people in areas infested with cane toads (used to) consider a golf club, cricket bat, or shovel a suitable implement for toad control; they are probably a *little* more Politically Correct these days.
Okay, so several radar systems track the items and several computer systems analyse the orbital elements.
However, it is 'space junk' from the time it is sent from the ISS.
Can anyone predict the orbit of the spacesuit if it is 'thrown' or 'ejected' from the ISS? NO! Any hand-derived force is different any other occasion when a similar mass is trown / pushed. No two throws (vectors) can be the same. Accordingly, the orbit is different, and must be assessed - quickly - in order to have it avoid future launches.
On 23 Nov 97, another satellite -- Sputnik 40 (Object 24958/97058C) -- was launched (thrown) by hand from the MIR space station during a spacewalk. Batteries lasted until 29 Dec 97, but the de-orbit was much later. In that time, its orbit was refined by use of similar radars as will be used to track the space suits of this story. Please do not expect that the radars and computers will have an 'exact' orbit quickly: That is simply not possible. A 'reliable' or 'predictable' orbit it may be called, but that is not 'exact'.
James Oberg is a regular participant in several space related newsgroups and news sites that I read. (I note sci.space.station)
Accordingly, I have watched his coverage of several newsworthy space events and know, from my watching of coverage and analysis, that James Obserg is credible and often "ahead of the game" in calling what really happened.
I congratulate James Oberg on this account, and analysis, and ask readers to take his work as 'credible'.
Unfortunately, I have seen numerous analysis pieces that add evidence and weight to Myth #3: The crew died instantly. It seems they died on impact with the water, minutres afterward, as evidence from the video suggests that the capsule remained substantially intact. I recall the analysis that the investigators could not construct a scenario that showed 'the crew died instantly and did not know they were going to die'.
Myth #4: Dangerous booster flaws result of meddling is also flawed! It seems that the rockets were fired (the Shuttle launched) outside the demonstrated 'safe' parameters of the launch vehicle. For example, if your car is driven across a slickly wet road then full steering lock is applied in an instant then most cars will just be in a skid, as the design parameters have just been exceeded. Get it?
The real question for me is, "Why did it take at least 7 hours after I saw this online for the information to appear on /.?" I did not even bother to go near /. to post it, because I figured that I'd been comprehensively beaten to the story. And, I know that the story had been online several hours by the time I saw it. So, why the big delay, /.?
This story created something of a media sensation for a few days, with various stories of varying scientific relevance.
I have to say that it "arcs me up" to see the media treat this kind of simple science story with disdain and hype, trying NOT to understand and then explain the simple science involved.
Information and images of the flare activity is available from the Ionospheric Prediction Service (IPS) in Australia; especially the Solar page, that shows things like:
List of X-ray flares
Solar disk with flare image - Culgoora Observatory
Spectrograph 25-180MHz) - Learmonth Observatory
full disc image - Learmonth Observatory
Then, there is the comprhensive Space Weather page.
Use the various online feedback forms at the Australian Tax Office that start at this page.