I like the type of torture devised by Tom Clancy in Without Remorse: Put the offender in a pressure chamber, slowly acclimate them to a very high pressure (say 4-5 atmospheres), the pull the plug and watch the results as it returns to one atmosphere. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Nato planes were dropping spools of carbon monofilament which short-circuited the power lines. If we're going to go ahead and do that, why not save the jet fuel, the wear and tear, and the potential loss of men and material involved in air runs by simply cracking into the power station and shutting it down (or re-routing the voltage flows from different plants down the same lines, thus shorting those out)? On the subject of collateral damage, any shorts in the power grid have the potential for damaging computer hardware attached to the grid. For example, when a lighting storm hit our area of the southeast US some months ago, I lost a nic and nearly lost a mobo. If you're crossing wires (monofilament, cracking,...) and shorting them, then the result is the same, including potential collateral damage.
GoType makes a keyboard for the Palm series...it's not quite a full keyboard (no F* keys, for example), and it doesn't have that useless Windows key we all hate, but it works quite well....last quarter I took all of my class notes on it (was difficult in stats...and no ability to sketch diagrams....)
Of course, then I had to delete all those notes to make room at the end of the quarter...guess why I'm not repeating the performance:)
I read somewhere (bxboards, I think) that the 400 is more oc'able than the 466 (and besides, it's cheaper;) )
FWIW, I have a dual celeron 400 box at home and I can run seti@home on one processor, sift through a dataset in 16 hours, 40 minutes, and simultaneously run anything (or several things) on the other processor (and my box isn't even oc'ed)
good luck with your new dual box and enjoy the sheer power it will give you:)
I bet they're gonna start selling clustered PC's as supercomputers and leave the new Cray unit to fend for itself...this sounds like a demo model more than anything....
Last dozen times I tried to access frehsmeat's ftp server I discovered that it wasn't even running...I don't know why this is, but it's kind of annoying to try to get a file (either from freshmeat or filewatcher) and then discover that said file is on the (non-running) freshmeat ftp server.
Fine...if ya like some windows software, use it...but don't advertise where it doesn't matter...
by the way, front page is the worst program ever to come out of megasloth...the idea behind it was good, but the implementation sucks...any program that inserts useless comments and code into my web page, re-arranges the structure of my site, creates directories beginning with "_", and creates non-standard html, (e.g., front page) deserves to die a horrid death without users
get xfstt and install it, you can symlink your windows fonts into the standard ttf dir for Linux...if you run RH you may have to edit your init scripts to start xfstt on boot...then sync xfstt with the X fontserver and enjoy...
it isn't a perfect solution (Arial on my box looks like crap, but Helvetica looks pretty good), but it's better than rebooting and it allows you the use of all those 'doze fonts:)
zoom down to the closest-in resolution...make sure you got the grid on...go to some starting place on the grid (100*100 works nice in a 600*400 image), then select an area as many pixels tall as you want your line to be thick, and stretch the area to some final destination (say 101*500)...fill the line in with your color/texture...now rotate/stretch the region to the proper angle...
1. I'm a guy. If this book applies only to girls, where's the book for the guys? 2. In English, the standard has been to use "him". 3. For the non-gender-specific individuals, "one" and "one's self" are appropriate in English. 4. Let's stop trying to alter the accepted rules for grammar and writing.
With nuclear plants, the design is very different than nuclear bombs or missiles. The result is that if something goes wrong in a nuclear plant the contaiment structure (which is designed to withstand a direct impact from a jetliner) will NOT rupture (I have this feeling that the nuclear plant construction kept the steel workers fat and happy with all the rebar that went in). Oh...should the reactor vessel melt (as with TMI), the worst that happens is it puddles on the floor...the "China Syndrome" (after the movie, where the nuclear mass eats its way through the ground) is a fiction...bombs kill tens of thousands of people, poison gas can kill tens of thousands, even a very well placed gas plant explosion can kill a few thousand, but nuclear plants don't explode and don't have the potential for killing thousands of people (unless you have one of the crummy Russian designs and decide to disable all the safety equipment).
oh, and that doesn't even begin to address your NASA remark...AFAIK (unless you know something I don't) the most people NASA has ever lost at one time was 7--far from a thousand, let alone tens of thousands...now if you want to talk about gas/chemical/paper plant explosions, we have some ground to stand on...
1. it's a doomsday book (lots of FUD) 2. if it was an anti-(whatever your OS is) book, you'd shout "FUD!" so loud that all of earth, heaven, and hell could hear 3. government doesn't subsidize nuclear power (not in the US) 4. FUD-mongers have caused the NRC to crack down on nuclear plants so hard that it takes a whole team of people and ream of paper to change a light bulb (OK, I'm exaggerating, but you get my point) 5. Other forms of energy require government regulation (coal, gas) 6. because of the regulatory nightmare, no one builds new plants--which is fine for the coal companies, the railraods, the miners union...but not for the miners, the atmosphere, or the earth's appearance 7. disposal of by-products from non-nuclear plants is massive--tons of coal ash every year...I don't know the current figure, but the estimate was that the entire waste disposal from US nuclear plants from the beginning of all US nuclear activities up until 1989--all of that waste--would fill one football field to a depth of 10 feet (as opposed to mountains of ash and soot and poisonous fumes)
Woops...forgot that part;) (seriously, tho, if gravity ceases to function, meltdown is the least of our troubles) (although I guess the spring is also there in case the rod sticks)
Daddy has nuc physics degrees and works for a power company...he said the only casualty at TMI was one of the regulatory folks had a heart-attack while running around assuring everyone that it was perfectly safe...ironic, don't you think?
According to a book by Bernard L Cohen, the accident at Chernobyl could basically be attributed to gross human error. He said that the operators in the plant were instructed to disable all safety measures, then to simulate a LOCA (loss of coolant accident, for those who don't know). Apparently the reactor was a German design, and was designed to work under most forseeable circumstances except for the one where the operators do something very foolish. He also stated that the Soviet government had run out of money, so they bought the reactor design, but not the contaiment shield. When the operators stopped the coolant, the fuel bundles overheated and melted the graphite moderating material*. The resulting slurry then cause other problems like reactor breach, fire,....
Basically it was a preventible accident that resulted from very foolish, very preventable human acts (not computers or even poor design).
* Now for a little reactor-workings theory;)
The outermost part of the plant (at least in the US) is a concrete building, usually with metallic lining inside (e.g., lead). This part is designed to withstand a direct airplane crash.... Inside you have a reactor set into a depression with a minimum of two (usually three or more) water tanks to pump a moderator into the core. This "moderator" absorbs neutrons and performs two functions. First, it controls the amount of neutrons bouncing around in the reactor, preventing a runaway reaction. Second, it absorbs the heat from the reaction. Various moderators exist. The most popular is water (it's cheap;) ), but others are used, like liquid sodium. The reactor has a set of control rods made out of some neutron-absorbing material. These may be at the top or bottom of the reactor. If they are placed at the top, then the reactor can be shut down by gravity (this is becoming a popular way of doing things). Their purpose is to stop (or modify) the flow of neutrons. When the rods are fully inserted, the neutrons can't reach critical mass and start a reaction. When they are fully withdrawn, the reactor can boil madly. The rods have hard-wired electrical controls, so that they can be inserted quickly into the core if the reaction goes out of control. The coolant/moderator material passes through a loop from the reactor into a heat exchanger. The liquid in the heat exchanger then passes to the turbine to generate power. This provides the power, but keeps the radioactivity inside the reactor. The inside of the reactor contains a series of fuel bundles (square sheathes of fuel rods (IIRC, about 20 feet long)). Each bundle contains several rods, and each rod consists of uranium pellets about the size of your pinky finger. The bundles are arranged in a grid to fit inside the reactor. There is space between each bundle for the coolant/moderator to pass, and at several key points there are spaces for the control rods to slide in.
The interesting thing about this is that a lot of work goes into determining what mixture of fuel goes where in the core, and how far the rods should be pulled and when, so as to maximize the benefit of the fuel and minimize safety issues. I've seen the work involved first-hand...it's months of time and lots of double- and triple-checking before a fuel plan is implemented.
I'm not worried about it. Usually fears that a plant will meltdown are based on ignorance and propaganda. As long as you know how the system works, and why, you know why there won't be a problem;)
Slashdot Mirror
I like the type of torture devised by Tom Clancy in Without Remorse: Put the offender in a pressure chamber, slowly acclimate them to a very high pressure (say 4-5 atmospheres), the pull the plug and watch the results as it returns to one atmosphere. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
Nato planes were dropping spools of carbon monofilament which short-circuited the power lines. If we're going to go ahead and do that, why not save the jet fuel, the wear and tear, and the potential loss of men and material involved in air runs by simply cracking into the power station and shutting it down (or re-routing the voltage flows from different plants down the same lines, thus shorting those out)? ...) and shorting them, then the result is the same, including potential collateral damage.
On the subject of collateral damage, any shorts in the power grid have the potential for damaging computer hardware attached to the grid. For example, when a lighting storm hit our area of the southeast US some months ago, I lost a nic and nearly lost a mobo. If you're crossing wires (monofilament, cracking,
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
It's Federal Court...one level down....
this means Microsoft gets one appeal...
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
GoType makes a keyboard for the Palm series...it's not quite a full keyboard (no F* keys, for example), and it doesn't have that useless Windows key we all hate, but it works quite well....last quarter I took all of my class notes on it (was difficult in stats...and no ability to sketch diagrams....)
:)
Of course, then I had to delete all those notes to make room at the end of the quarter...guess why I'm not repeating the performance
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
So when do they start growing your dinner in its plastic packaging? ;)
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
if you're trying to avoid windows, don't run vmware...all vmware does is act as a virtual machine...you still have to run 'doze on top of it...
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
I read somewhere (bxboards, I think) that the 400 is more oc'able than the 466 (and besides, it's cheaper ;) )
:)
FWIW, I have a dual celeron 400 box at home and I can run seti@home on one processor, sift through a dataset in 16 hours, 40 minutes, and simultaneously run anything (or several things) on the other processor (and my box isn't even oc'ed)
good luck with your new dual box and enjoy the sheer power it will give you
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
I bet they're gonna start selling clustered PC's as supercomputers and leave the new Cray unit to fend for itself...this sounds like a demo model more than anything....
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
Last dozen times I tried to access frehsmeat's ftp server I discovered that it wasn't even running...I don't know why this is, but it's kind of annoying to try to get a file (either from freshmeat or filewatcher) and then discover that said file is on the (non-running) freshmeat ftp server.
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
Fine...if ya like some windows software, use it...but don't advertise where it doesn't matter...
by the way, front page is the worst program ever to come out of megasloth...the idea behind it was good, but the implementation sucks...any program that inserts useless comments and code into my web page, re-arranges the structure of my site, creates directories beginning with "_", and creates non-standard html, (e.g., front page) deserves to die a horrid death without users
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
OK, so please explain for all of us who still haven't figured it out :)
How do I create a decent (flat) bevel instead of the script-fu rounded bevel?
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
User Maunual DOES suck...I don't know how the book compares....(just try using User Manual to make a cut-out effect...argh!)
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
get xfstt and install it, you can symlink your windows fonts into the standard ttf dir for Linux...if you run RH you may have to edit your init scripts to start xfstt on boot...then sync xfstt with the X fontserver and enjoy...
:)
it isn't a perfect solution (Arial on my box looks like crap, but Helvetica looks pretty good), but it's better than rebooting and it allows you the use of all those 'doze fonts
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
zoom down to the closest-in resolution...make sure you got the grid on...go to some starting place on the grid (100*100 works nice in a 600*400 image), then select an area as many pixels tall as you want your line to be thick, and stretch the area to some final destination (say 101*500)...fill the line in with your color/texture...now rotate/stretch the region to the proper angle...
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
does shift+click work in gimp versions = 1.0?
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
Since when do we change the English language?
1. I'm a guy. If this book applies only to girls, where's the book for the guys?
2. In English, the standard has been to use "him".
3. For the non-gender-specific individuals, "one" and "one's self" are appropriate in English.
4. Let's stop trying to alter the accepted rules for grammar and writing.
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
With nuclear plants, the design is very different than nuclear bombs or missiles. The result is that if something goes wrong in a nuclear plant the contaiment structure (which is designed to withstand a direct impact from a jetliner) will NOT rupture (I have this feeling that the nuclear plant construction kept the steel workers fat and happy with all the rebar that went in). Oh...should the reactor vessel melt (as with TMI), the worst that happens is it puddles on the floor...the "China Syndrome" (after the movie, where the nuclear mass eats its way through the ground) is a fiction...bombs kill tens of thousands of people, poison gas can kill tens of thousands, even a very well placed gas plant explosion can kill a few thousand, but nuclear plants don't explode and don't have the potential for killing thousands of people (unless you have one of the crummy Russian designs and decide to disable all the safety equipment).
oh, and that doesn't even begin to address your NASA remark...AFAIK (unless you know something I don't) the most people NASA has ever lost at one time was 7--far from a thousand, let alone tens of thousands...now if you want to talk about gas/chemical/paper plant explosions, we have some ground to stand on...
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
My sources tell me it's a FUD book (anti-nuke to the point that facts don't matter but fear does)
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
1. it's a doomsday book (lots of FUD)
:)
2. if it was an anti-(whatever your OS is) book, you'd shout "FUD!" so loud that all of earth, heaven, and hell could hear
3. government doesn't subsidize nuclear power (not in the US)
4. FUD-mongers have caused the NRC to crack down on nuclear plants so hard that it takes a whole team of people and ream of paper to change a light bulb (OK, I'm exaggerating, but you get my point)
5. Other forms of energy require government regulation (coal, gas)
6. because of the regulatory nightmare, no one builds new plants--which is fine for the coal companies, the railraods, the miners union...but not for the miners, the atmosphere, or the earth's appearance
7. disposal of by-products from non-nuclear plants is massive--tons of coal ash every year...I don't know the current figure, but the estimate was that the entire waste disposal from US nuclear plants from the beginning of all US nuclear activities up until 1989--all of that waste--would fill one football field to a depth of 10 feet (as opposed to mountains of ash and soot and poisonous fumes)
Read a more reliable book, next time
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
You have to consider the source...of course a Navy person would say that...doesn't mean it's true tho...
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
Woops...forgot that part ;) (seriously, tho, if gravity ceases to function, meltdown is the least of our troubles) (although I guess the spring is also there in case the rod sticks)
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
AFAIK we don't do this in the US...the plant Daddy works for goes offline when they refuel....
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
Daddy has nuc physics degrees and works for a power company...he said the only casualty at TMI was one of the regulatory folks had a heart-attack while running around assuring everyone that it was perfectly safe...ironic, don't you think?
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
but don't quote me ;)
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?
According to a book by Bernard L Cohen, the accident at Chernobyl could basically be attributed to gross human error. He said that the operators in the plant were instructed to disable all safety measures, then to simulate a LOCA (loss of coolant accident, for those who don't know). Apparently the reactor was a German design, and was designed to work under most forseeable circumstances except for the one where the operators do something very foolish. He also stated that the Soviet government had run out of money, so they bought the reactor design, but not the contaiment shield. When the operators stopped the coolant, the fuel bundles overheated and melted the graphite moderating material*. The resulting slurry then cause other problems like reactor breach, fire, ....
;)
;) ), but others are used, like liquid sodium.
;)
Basically it was a preventible accident that resulted from very foolish, very preventable human acts (not computers or even poor design).
* Now for a little reactor-workings theory
The outermost part of the plant (at least in the US) is a concrete building, usually with metallic lining inside (e.g., lead). This part is designed to withstand a direct airplane crash....
Inside you have a reactor set into a depression with a minimum of two (usually three or more) water tanks to pump a moderator into the core. This "moderator" absorbs neutrons and performs two functions. First, it controls the amount of neutrons bouncing around in the reactor, preventing a runaway reaction. Second, it absorbs the heat from the reaction. Various moderators exist. The most popular is water (it's cheap
The reactor has a set of control rods made out of some neutron-absorbing material. These may be at the top or bottom of the reactor. If they are placed at the top, then the reactor can be shut down by gravity (this is becoming a popular way of doing things). Their purpose is to stop (or modify) the flow of neutrons. When the rods are fully inserted, the neutrons can't reach critical mass and start a reaction. When they are fully withdrawn, the reactor can boil madly. The rods have hard-wired electrical controls, so that they can be inserted quickly into the core if the reaction goes out of control.
The coolant/moderator material passes through a loop from the reactor into a heat exchanger. The liquid in the heat exchanger then passes to the turbine to generate power. This provides the power, but keeps the radioactivity inside the reactor.
The inside of the reactor contains a series of fuel bundles (square sheathes of fuel rods (IIRC, about 20 feet long)). Each bundle contains several rods, and each rod consists of uranium pellets about the size of your pinky finger. The bundles are arranged in a grid to fit inside the reactor. There is space between each bundle for the coolant/moderator to pass, and at several key points there are spaces for the control rods to slide in.
The interesting thing about this is that a lot of work goes into determining what mixture of fuel goes where in the core, and how far the rods should be pulled and when, so as to maximize the benefit of the fuel and minimize safety issues. I've seen the work involved first-hand...it's months of time and lots of double- and triple-checking before a fuel plan is implemented.
I'm not worried about it. Usually fears that a plant will meltdown are based on ignorance and propaganda. As long as you know how the system works, and why, you know why there won't be a problem
Who am I?
Why am here?
Where is the chocolate?