>Don't be so sure about it my friend. My parents work in the NHS. >The procedure for a flu pandemic assumes that society will > collapse, which will likely be a reasonable assessment.
Uh, "society will collapse" is a "reasonable assessment"?! Did society collapse in 1918? I don't recall reading about it. Why is it any more likely now, with far better supportive care, and far better understanding of the causes? This is ridiculous, "society" in some form has managed to exist for at least ~8000 years, through a lot worse epidemics than this.
Merely suggesting that the same sort of analysis being applied to the iPhone and its impending "demise" was originally applied to the iPod by no less a slashdot personage as CmdrTaco. We all see how that turned out.
Point being, people keep trying to pooh-pooh the various Apple products based strictly on perceptions of technical merit, and they keep being proved utterly and completely wrong.
How can you have Comic Sans in an email - email is a plain text medium! Pica was good enough from my daddy, it's good enough for me! And what's this business with "!" amd "=="? The proper syntax is.NOT. and.EQ.
Seriously, however, it Comic Sans really that common? I have to admit to being an old fart but I do a lot of document work, and I had to go look up what Comic Sans looked like. I had seen it before and yes, it's goofy, but is it really an issue?
Its not only nothing new, we never stopped renting high-performance computing time. In some cases, it's ancient supercomputers that aren't all that super any more, but that the applications are so large and difficult to port to other machines, we just kept using them.
Orbital Sciences won the contract to develop the arm for the space station...... Few months later Canada came to Orbital trying to figure out how we were going to do it so cheaply. "nuts" to them.
More recently, NASA came to Orbital trying to figure out how you were going to do launcher shrouds so cheaply. Then they found out.
My story is apocryphal, but accurate. My CFLs have been lasting substantially LESS than incandescents. I have about 50/50 CFL/Incandescent mix, in many cases on the same circuit so they get turned on at the same times for the same durations. In some cases I have had 3 CFLs fail while the associated incandescent (plain old GE 60W Soft White) is still plugging. The failure rate is incredibly high, and economically, the electricity saved in no way makes up for the cost of the bulbs. The only saving grace is that they have a warranty and so I have paid for a grand total of 4 CFLs, but used something like 20. Get one, let it fail, complain to GE, get another for free, on and on.
It's certainly NOT Top Secret, in fact it's probably not classified. I would assume its FOUO, meaning that it can't be publicly released nor is it available through the FOIA.
If I built a rocket ship and blasted myself into space (ala The Astronaut Farmer), none of these people would even notice. More likely someone would see a blip on a radar monitoring station and report that to NORAD.. again, via a telephone, and NORAD would write it off as an operator error. Maybe a few months later a satellite monitoring system would spot me in orbit, if I maintained one for that long, but that information would only be delivered to NORAD as part of a space debris avoidance report.. and most like amateur astronomers would spot it first.
Oh, bullshit. Like the condescnding tone, though, nothing like ignorance to foster arrogance.
There would be all sorts of people who knew about it. The boost is a huge IR source for a duration of minutes, there would be 10 different things tracking it from 10 seconds after launch. It would show on ATC radar for the entire time like a gigantic flare (since the ionized exhaust is a fantastic radar target). If nothing else, the NASA Debris monitoring fence would catch it in about one rev, then everyone would know about it and we could all get TLE's to watch it.
I don't think the USA will have any problem using conventional weapons to take out any tinpot dictators nuclear facilities - well before they have a nuke.
After all, the USA outspends the rest of the wolrd combined on their military.
Which is *why* the rest of the world doesn't have to spend much in their military.
I am relieved to see that the FBI has caught all the terrorists, drug dealers, and child molesters! Otherwise they wouldn't have time to chase down trivial leaks of movies that should probably handled through the civil court and lawsuits.
April Fools Day is always a great opportunity to see that computer nerd humor is every bit as good as computer nerd social skills and personal hygiene.
Slashdot Mirror
>Don't be so sure about it my friend. My parents work in the NHS.
>The procedure for a flu pandemic assumes that society will
> collapse, which will likely be a reasonable assessment.
Uh, "society will collapse" is a "reasonable assessment"?! Did society collapse in 1918? I don't recall reading about it. Why is it any more likely now, with far better supportive care, and far better understanding of the causes? This is ridiculous, "society" in some form has managed to exist for at least ~8000 years, through a lot worse epidemics than this.
Brett
Merely suggesting that the same sort of analysis being applied to the iPhone and its impending "demise" was originally applied to the iPod by no less a slashdot personage as CmdrTaco. We all see how that turned out.
Point being, people keep trying to pooh-pooh the various Apple products based strictly on perceptions of technical merit, and they keep being proved utterly and completely wrong.
Brett
As long as you never leave your mom's basement, yes.
Brett
Sounds a lot like....
Brett
An M-16 with a full clip.
Brett
I love the part where the dog messes everything up! I can't believe the Academy passed this one up!
That's odd. I have been using Preview as the printing application for just about everything, because it had less issues than anything else I tried.
I, too, never bothered to install Acrobat Reader on any of my OS X machines.
Brett
Maybe with all those page hits, the hamster got tired. No wonder they need a solar plant
How can you have Comic Sans in an email - email is a plain text medium! Pica was good enough from my daddy, it's good enough for me! And what's this business with "!" amd "=="? The proper syntax is .NOT. and .EQ.
Seriously, however, it Comic Sans really that common? I have to admit to being an old fart but I do a lot of document work, and I had to go look up what Comic Sans looked like. I had seen it before and yes, it's goofy, but is it really an issue?
Brett
Say it now and say it loud
I'm a cow and I am proud!
We obey the laws of thermodynamics in this house, young lady!
The highest mach number ever attained by any of the family was Mach 3.56.
Brett
Its not only nothing new, we never stopped renting high-performance computing time. In some cases, it's ancient supercomputers that aren't all that super any more, but that the applications are so large and difficult to port to other machines, we just kept using them.
Brett
For the most part, this is nonsense. The Okla reactors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor offer a perfect case study for this. Specifically:
"Remarkably, most of the non-volatile fission products and actinides have only moved centimeters in the veins during the last 2 billion years."
Brett
More recently, NASA came to Orbital trying to figure out how you were going to do launcher shrouds so cheaply. Then they found out.
Brett
My story is apocryphal, but accurate. My CFLs have been lasting substantially LESS than incandescents. I have about 50/50 CFL/Incandescent mix, in many cases on the same circuit so they get turned on at the same times for the same durations. In some cases I have had 3 CFLs fail while the associated incandescent (plain old GE 60W Soft White) is still plugging. The failure rate is incredibly high, and economically, the electricity saved in no way makes up for the cost of the bulbs. The only saving grace is that they have a warranty and so I have paid for a grand total of 4 CFLs, but used something like 20. Get one, let it fail, complain to GE, get another for free, on and on.
Brett
It's certainly NOT Top Secret, in fact it's probably not classified. I would assume its FOUO, meaning that it can't be publicly released nor is it available through the FOIA.
Brett
Oh, yeah, slashdot is a conservative hotspot!
Brett
Damn good question, pointless complexity for no advantage. Just put the motor in a golf cart, save $50000.
Brett
Which puts Slashdot software ahead of most of its posters.
Brett
Oh, bullshit. Like the condescnding tone, though, nothing like ignorance to foster arrogance.
There would be all sorts of people who knew about it. The boost is a huge IR source for a duration of minutes, there would be 10 different things tracking it from 10 seconds after launch. It would show on ATC radar for the entire time like a gigantic flare (since the ionized exhaust is a fantastic radar target). If nothing else, the NASA Debris monitoring fence would catch it in about one rev, then everyone would know about it and we could all get TLE's to watch it.
Brett
Which is *why* the rest of the world doesn't have to spend much in their military.
Brett
Exactly right, this reactor type is inherently dangerous, and moreover, you can't overcome something inherently dangerous with procedure.
I am relieved to see that the FBI has caught all the terrorists, drug dealers, and child molesters! Otherwise they wouldn't have time to chase down trivial leaks of movies that should probably handled through the civil court and lawsuits.
Brett
Yeah, opening for Kathy Griffin.
April Fools Day is always a great opportunity to see that computer nerd humor is every bit as good as computer nerd social skills and personal hygiene.
Brett