I believe people are using these cards simply to avoid paying more than they have to for grocery and healthcare items. They are not using them because they like them. Almost everyone agrees that the average card carrying consumer uses cards from multiple competing stores, thereby eliminating the loyalty aspect from the idea. They view the cards as a form of required ID which enables them to buy sale priced merchandise. Given the choice, I believe people would rather they weren't required to show an ID card in order to receive sale prices. (Or even normal, un-inflated prices in many cases)
I left the industry about 6 months ago and therefore no longer have access to all the marketing spin we were subjected to while being sold a loyalty program; otherwise I would share some of those golden nuggets with you. The study below is a little old and not exactly what I was looking for to support my claim but, almost everything else I found online required a journal subscription or $25 to buy the report. It simply doesn't mean enough to me to buy a report or spend too much more time digging through search results. It would make things much easier if the general media would just cite studies and surveys in their reporting, ahem.
ACNielson research illustrates that U.S. consumers are spending less money at supermarkets because they can find the same products elsewhere in convenience stores, wholesale clubs, and super centers. (US consumers turn their back on supermarkets 2000) In addition, the typical American shopper now uses no fewer than three different supermarket frequent shopper cards and often far more. Moreover, shoppers use loyalty cards the way they once used newspaper ads--to cherry pick the weekly specials. In other words, shoppers today are no more loyal to one particular supermarket than in the era before loyalty programs. (Pinto 2000) Another important point, loyalty in one area does not necessarily translate into other areas.
----
Descriptive statistics and mean calculations reveal the cumulative order of rank data with 1 being the most important to 7 the least important when selecting a supermarket. The results reveal 1) Everyday low price; 2) quality of merchandise; 3) convenient location; 4) assortment; 5) store deals; 6) customer service; and dead last 7) loyalty programs.
-----
Conclusions There may be further implications and effects of loyalty card marketing to consider. After a complete analysis and study, the researcher also suggests that current supermarket loyalty card programs may be best categorized as a form of sales promotion. This is due to the underlying motive of loyalty card programs. From the consumer's perspective, the perceived brand value from loyalty programs is not much different than everyday and weekly promotional sales. In other words, most supermarkets utilizing cards do so mainly to offer the advertised weekly sale price. If a customer does not have the card, they do not receive the discounts or sale price. It would appear that if loyalty cards programs are supposed to be centered around customer retention and building life-long value then using loyalty cards in a sales promotion capacity, alone should n
GMail also doesn't provide a well-defined delete feature
I've seen this statement more than a few times now, and I don't understand where this idea is coming from. I'ved used Gmail. It took me only a few seconds of playing around with the features to understand the procedure. You delete items in Gmail just as you do in most email clients or operating systems. You select the items you want to delete and then choose the Move to Trash option. (Windows calls it a Recycle Bin which I believe is more confusing than calling it trash.) Ever so often you empty your trash by selecting the messages in the trash folder, pressing the button clearly marked Delete Forever and the messages are gone.
The concept is no different than your home trashcan. You place things you no longer want in there, and then a couple times a week you take it out to the curb. You can retrieve something you placed in your trash up until you decide to get rid of it forever. What about that is not well-defined? Do people really have a problem understanding how this works?
SELL LIKE HOT CAKES - "Hot cakes cooked in bear grease or pork lard were popular from earliest times in American. First made of cornmeal, the griddle cakes or pancakes were of course best when served piping hot and were often sold at church benefits, fairs, and other functions. So popular were they that by the beginning of the 19th century 'to sell like hot cakes' was a familiar expression for anything that sold very quickly effortlessly, and in quantity." From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997)
This concludes today's test of the trivia broadcast system. We now return you to your regularly scheduled iPod discussion, already in progress.
People also are even happier and more productive with a two to four hour nap in the afternoon. Where's that legislation is what I want to know.
Heh. My last employer offered flexible scheduling. We could work a 8-hour day anywhere between the hours of 6am and 7pm, with our supervisors prior approval. One of my coworkers decided this was a great idea and submitted a request to change his schedule to 7-7. When our boss ponted out that he was requesting a 12 workday, the guy replied with a dead serious, "yeah, I know. I plan to take a 3 hour nap after lunch everyday." Come to find out, he was also a DJ for a AM station and worked 11pm-3am several nights a week.
I already worked a 10-11 hour day, so I should have just closed the door and napped anyway.
How many nations put satellites in space in geosynchronous orbit perfectly above their land? That's a serious question that I don't know the answer to,
Not a list of geosynchronous satelites but: This information is from the Satellite Situation Report from Goddard Space Flight Center, dated September, 1997. http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/rocket_sci/sa tellites/ssr.html If anyone has a link to a more recent list, I would like to see it.
And for a very cool visual on some of these satellites: http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/ Choose J-Track 3D from the left menu. Java required.
Did you know there are over eight thousand artificial objects orbiting Earth? Over 2,500 are satellites, operative and inoperative. The remaining objects are orbital debris: parts such as nosecone shrouds, lens, hatch covers, rocket bodies, payloads that have disintegrated or exploded, and even objects that "escape" from manned spacecraft during operations.
J-Track 3D is one of the most popular Java applets on our web site. It shows 700 satellites, out of thousands, swarming about our earth. You can rotate the display and modify all kinds of settings. The display will also zoom in and out.
Thanks to the information provided by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, crewed spacecraft are able to dodge larger pieces of orbital debris. When an object is expected to come within a few miles of the Space Shuttle, and there is greater than a 1 in 10,000 chance of collision, the Space Shuttle changes its path to avoid the object. During normal flight operations of the Space Shuttle, this happens about once every year or two. The International Space Station (ISS) can also maneuver away from debris in its path. In addition, the ISS is also the most heavily shielded spacecraft ever, able to withstand impact with smaller pieces of debris. Since the smallest particles of debris cannot be tracked, occasional collisions with them are inevitable. The Space Shuttle frequently returns to Earth with tiny impact craters from being hit by orbital debris. Astronauts have reported seeing very small cracks formed in the Space Shuttles' front windows when they strike objects. While impact by small pieces of orbital debris is routine, the odds of two pieces of debris larger than 10 cm in diameter colliding is very low. In all of spaceflight history, there is only one recorded incident of two such objects from different missions accidentally colliding.
One thing that I learned reading through this is that the shuttle can be brought down via computer system. Some folks on Slashdot (and many other websites) have stated that the landing gear must be activated by persons onboard the shuttle, via some sort of mechanical device. That is not true according to this information from NASA. The quote below is found under Landing Aids about 2/3 way down the html page. The PDF is actually a very good read, with charts and graphics, for those into this stuff.
Landing Aids An array of visual aids as well as sophisticated guidance equipment at the Shuttle Landing Facility help to guide the orbiter to a safe landing.
The Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) system on the ground provides range and bearing measurements to the orbiter when it is at an altitude of up to 145,000 feet. More precise guidance signals on slant range, azimuth and elevation come from the Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System (MSBLS) when the orbiter gets closer - up to 18,000 to 20,000 feet. Both TACAN and MSBLS are automatic systems that update the orbiter's onboard navigation systems.
The MSBLS also provides an autoland capability that can electronically acquire and guide the space plane to a completely "hands off" landing. So far, Shuttle mission commanders have taken control of the orbiter for all final approach and landing maneuvers during subsonic flight, usually about 22 miles from the touchdown point.
How about using some common sense and just choose the right tool for the job. I find it funny that many here think nothing of calling a technology a scam because it doesn't fit their narrow definition of being useful. I wonder how many of the "inkjet is a scam" crowd use disposable razors to shave because they think electric razors are too expensive or that disposable razors give better results. Same concept.
Inkjet happens to be a superior technology for some applications and laser just happens to be a superior technology for other applications. I won't use an inkjet to output 1000 newsletters on a weekly basis but I certainly will use inkjet any time I need color accuracy and extremely fine control over detail in a photo or art print.
Inkjet technology is used by artists because it allows them to produce beautiful prints. Check any fine art gallery and you will likely see a large number of inkjet prints being sold for astronomical amounts. Granted, the artist and gallery operators know better than to advertise them as inkjet, because the public thinks inkjet is cheap. They label them as Giclee Prints but they are in fact made on inkjet printers. Printed on the proper substrate and with the proper inks, these prints can be true works of art and last quite a long time.
Laser technology is used by most businesses because it has higher output and lower TCO, period. Those in the business of creative design or image proofing use both technologies and choose the one that actually does best what they need done. Pretty simple.
Now for home use, people need to do a little research and think through what they need a printer for. Most home users don't understand the concept of TCO or at least they don't consider it when buying a printer. They buy what Wal-Mart has for $49 and some of them learn the hard way that inkjet may not be ideal for them. Print too much or too little and inkjet is a poor choice.
I do agree that if all they print is snapshots from their digital camera, then online services or the corner drugstore are both a better choice than printing at home. Not many people print only photos though.
Not so. According to Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Deputy Program Manager, most of the shuttle commanders prefer night landings due to generally better weather conditions and less distraction from visual stimuli on approach. He made this statement while responding to a query from a reporter during a press briefing at the Johnson Space Center.
The reporter phrased his question in a way that made it sound like NASA had intentionally scheduled a night landing to avoid a live televised disaster. What a prick. Hale responded that landing windows are a technical decision based on orbit and not something that they could just pick for convince.
According to the commentator on NASA TV, they have about 4 hours of shutdown procedures to go through after a wave off. They shutdown many onboard systems to conserve power. They also reposition the shuttle to an inverted attitude again so that the underside of the orbiter faces the sun. This is to keep the temperature of the tires and landing gear up prior to reentry. They will reverse all procedures one again 4 hours prior to the next landing window.
I know you were joking, but it surprised me to learn that they use Outlook for email services onboard. Watching NASA TV, I lost track of the number of times Capcom instructed the crew to reboot one of their machines in order to fix sync problems with Outlook.
That is one impressive group of cameras. They plan to image the entire earth disk with the wide field camera at 2.75 kilometer resolution and at the same time operate two narrow field cameras at a much higher 250 meter resolution. Add to those images the lighting sensor and infrared sensor, and that's a hell of a lot of data to stream.
I can see something like this being great for hurricane, volcano, and forest fire research.
3., US Space Shuttle cannot land on full-automatic. At least the two pilots need to be onboard. The landing gear can't be opened remotely. Only the soviet Space Shuttle copycat "Buran" could (and did) fly unmanned, automatically.
The gear lowering switch is also there because the astronauts wanted there to be a function that the computers couldn't do so that a crew would always be required.
Landing Aids The MSBLS also provides an autoland capability that can electronically acquire and guide the orbiter to a completely "hands off" landing. So far, Shuttle mission commanders have taken control of the orbiter for all final approach and landing maneuvers during subsonic flight, usually about 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the touchdown point.
PReviously, there has been absolutely no competition for the private space payload industry
Theat is incorrect. Sea Launch has been launching payloads since 1999. National Geographic TV just aired an episode of Megastructures about the company and their semi-submersible launch pad. It will air again on Wednesday, August 10. Pretty neat project they have.
They have launched over a dozen payloads, including several satelites for Direct TV and three XM Radio satelites(Rock, Roll, and Rhythm.)
Their heaviest payload so far was 13,376 lb:
Spaceway 1 - April 26, 2005
Sea Launch delivered DIRECTV's 6,080 kg (13,376 lb) Spaceway 1 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, on its way to a final orbital position of 102.8 degrees West Longitude, completing the successful launch of the heaviest commercial satellite to date. The 702 model spacecraft, with a design life of 12 years, is one of four Boeing-built Ka-band satellites that DIRECTV has scheduled for launch over the next three years as part of an historic expansion of programming capacity for delivery of more than 1,500 local and national High Definition channels and other advanced programming services.
Or better yet, combine this idea with the solar/fiber optic light fixtures covered in a recent slashstory and you could almost eliminate the electricity completely. You would then have the added beneift of slowly dimming lights before bedtime.
Some of you may be interested in reading a bit about these so called loyalty card programs here. http://www.nocards.org/
I am not usually the tinfoil hat type, and these people tend to go a little overboard with some of their logic (especially on the RFID side) but most of their information about the loyalty card programs I have found to be true.
Having worked for a grocery chain for 8 years and most recently a pharmacy chain for 12 years, I am very familiar with the pricing and promotion models used in both. Buying product, setting prices, and developing promotions was my job. The apparent savings offered to these loyalty card holders is nothing of the sort in most cases. Most chains simply raise the normal everyday price of an item and then offer what used to be the everyday price (pre card program) to only those willing to apply for and use the card. This is effectively charging a privacy tax to anyone not wishing to participate in the data collection program. Ironically, that privacy tax pays for collecting data on card holders, with no true cost benefit to any customers.
My favorite example of this is something near and dear to my heart, my coffee creamer. Back when only one of the three grocery chains in my town had a card program, my favorite coffee creamer retailed everyday for $1.19 in all three stores. Even the card store had to maintain that price everyday to stay competitive with the two non-card stores. This was a few years ago, when this card program was just catching on full force in the US. Well, eventually the other two chains joined in the scam and suddenly the price of my coffee creamer started to go through the roof. This item began retailing from $1.79 to $1.99 everyday but with a loyalty card price of $1.19 to $1.29. This is a non-dairy product, so fluctuating milk prices had nothing to do with it. If I had raised everyday prices in my category by 50-60%, I could have stopped buying and taken a long vacation before too long!
The pharmacy chain I left this spring just implemented one of these card programs about 6 months before I left. I was one of the only dissenters when the topic first came up in a marketing meeting. Everyone else claimed that we just had to have a loyalty program "because we look out of place if we don't." My stance was that not having one of these irritating programs could be a great marketing point. Unfortunately, most market research falsely indicates that the average consumer loves these damn things and of course our management team wanted to be loved.
Once it was decided that they would start their own program, I began to investigate the subject a little deeper and found the site above. It was at that time I also started to seriously think about my role in the process and began looking to get out of retail all together if I couldn't find a new employer with a little common sense and a focus on true customer service. I don't feel right charging more to people who simply wish to remain unmonitored.
If you are lucky enough to live near a grocer and/or pharmacy which does not have a loyalty program, do yourself a favor and support those stores. Tell the managers you shop in their stores because they don't insult your intelligence by offering you artificial savings in exchange for spying on you.
Charges dismissed!
Arson charges against firefighter dropped after another confesses
We previously reported that a fireman in Everett, Washington had been arrested for setting a fire in his own home. The fire was reported to have been started using a "firestarter" which, although charred, still had a "Safeway Supermarket" label attached. Police used Safeway club card records from the family to show there had been a purchase of the firestarters in July, and a police dog that was asked to track the arsonist repeatedly went from the fire to the homes front door.
This week the charges were dropped after "another person accepted responsibility for the fire" according to news reports. At least one media outlet, KIRO TV, is reporting that his wife was the one who came forward.
In our original article on this we noted:
Retail stores attempt to portray privacy fears as being groundless but the fact remains that this data is accessible, and will continue to be so for years. And even though this data "might" help law enforcement officers, the potential is equally large to implicate people who have committed no crime.
NASA provides a ton of information about the shuttle and ISS programs online. You have to go find it. You're not going to see most of this info reported by the general media because it doesnt have all the foolsih drama and it would require research/explanation.
It's been interesting to watch the mission and press meetings live and then compare that to the drivel the media spews. The only issue I have with NASA TV is that I have to watch it over the web because my cable operator only offers it with a overpriced package of junk I could care less about. Would be nice if it were freely broadcast, at least when there is an active mission.
Gaps and Gap Fillers
The gaps between the tiles, which range from
0.028 inch to 0.200 inch are necessary for two important
reasons. The first reason concerns the difference in
thermal expansion properties between the tiles and
the orbiter airframe. When in orbit, the external
temperature fluctuates by as much as 400 degrees F.
The tiles contract much less than the airframe, due to
differences in the thermal expansion; thus, the gaps
are required to accommodate the difference. During
reentry the gap dimensions are also critical. As the
orbiter descends through the ever-thickening
atmosphere, pressure gradients cause the plasma
surrounding the orbiter to flow. If the gaps are too
large, hot gases can flow through the gaps and can
cause damage to the backup surface seals (filler bar).
Gap fillers are used extensively to control the gap
dimensions between the individual tiles in many areas
of the orbiter and in some areas to provide mechanical
'padding' between the tiles.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe people are using these cards simply to avoid paying more than they have to for grocery and healthcare items. They are not using them because they like them. Almost everyone agrees that the average card carrying consumer uses cards from multiple competing stores, thereby eliminating the loyalty aspect from the idea. They view the cards as a form of required ID which enables them to buy sale priced merchandise. Given the choice, I believe people would rather they weren't required to show an ID card in order to receive sale prices. (Or even normal, un-inflated prices in many cases)
.wvu.edu:8080/files/2378.1.brumley_catherine_thesi s.pdf
I left the industry about 6 months ago and therefore no longer have access to all the marketing spin we were subjected to while being sold a loyalty program; otherwise I would share some of those golden nuggets with you. The study below is a little old and not exactly what I was looking for to support my claim but, almost everything else I found online required a journal subscription or $25 to buy the report. It simply doesn't mean enough to me to buy a report or spend too much more time digging through search results. It would make things much easier if the general media would just cite studies and surveys in their reporting, ahem.
PDF
http://scholar.google.com/url?sa=U&q=http://kitkat
Google HTML
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&c2coff =1&safe=off&q=cache:-07mI1czlpYJ:kitkat.wvu.edu:80 80/files/2378.1.brumley_catherine_thesis.pdf+groce ry+store+loyalty+cards+consumer+attitude
ACNielson research illustrates that U.S. consumers are spending less money at supermarkets because they can find the same products elsewhere in convenience stores, wholesale clubs, and super centers. (US consumers turn their back on supermarkets 2000) In addition, the typical American shopper now uses no fewer than three different supermarket frequent shopper cards and often far more. Moreover, shoppers use loyalty cards the way they once used newspaper ads--to cherry pick the weekly specials. In other words, shoppers today are no more loyal to one particular supermarket than in the era before loyalty programs. (Pinto 2000) Another important point, loyalty in one area does not necessarily translate into other areas.
----
Descriptive statistics and mean calculations reveal the cumulative order of rank data with 1 being the most important to 7 the least important when selecting a supermarket.
The results reveal
1) Everyday low price;
2) quality of merchandise;
3) convenient location;
4) assortment;
5) store deals;
6) customer service;
and dead last
7) loyalty programs.
-----
Conclusions
There may be further implications and effects of loyalty card marketing to consider. After a complete analysis and study, the researcher also suggests that current supermarket loyalty card programs may be best categorized as a form of sales promotion.
This is due to the underlying motive of loyalty card programs. From the consumer's perspective, the perceived brand value from loyalty programs is not much different than everyday and weekly promotional sales. In other words, most supermarkets utilizing cards do so mainly to offer the advertised weekly sale price. If a customer does not have the card, they do not receive the discounts or sale price. It would appear that if loyalty cards programs are supposed to be centered around customer retention and building life-long value then using loyalty cards in a sales promotion capacity, alone should n
GMail also doesn't provide a well-defined delete feature
I've seen this statement more than a few times now, and I don't understand where this idea is coming from. I'ved used Gmail. It took me only a few seconds of playing around with the features to understand the procedure. You delete items in Gmail just as you do in most email clients or operating systems. You select the items you want to delete and then choose the Move to Trash option. (Windows calls it a Recycle Bin which I believe is more confusing than calling it trash.) Ever so often you empty your trash by selecting the messages in the trash folder, pressing the button clearly marked Delete Forever and the messages are gone.
The concept is no different than your home trashcan. You place things you no longer want in there, and then a couple times a week you take it out to the curb. You can retrieve something you placed in your trash up until you decide to get rid of it forever. What about that is not well-defined? Do people really have a problem understanding how this works?
Hell, it appears that just about everything is selling like hotcakes8 &q=selling%20like%20hotcakes
e =off&c2coff=1&q=%22are+hotcakes+selling+like+hotca kes%3F%22&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-
except for um... hotcakes.
http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&saf
SELL LIKE HOT CAKES - "Hot cakes cooked in bear grease or pork lard were popular from earliest times in American. First made of cornmeal, the griddle cakes or pancakes were of course best when served piping hot and were often sold at church benefits, fairs, and other functions. So popular were they that by the beginning of the 19th century 'to sell like hot cakes' was a familiar expression for anything that sold very quickly effortlessly, and in quantity." From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997)
This concludes today's test of the trivia broadcast system. We now return you to your regularly scheduled iPod discussion, already in progress.
People also are even happier and more productive with a two to four hour nap in the afternoon. Where's that legislation is what I want to know.
Heh. My last employer offered flexible scheduling. We could work a 8-hour day anywhere between the hours of 6am and 7pm, with our supervisors prior approval. One of my coworkers decided this was a great idea and submitted a request to change his schedule to 7-7. When our boss ponted out that he was requesting a 12 workday, the guy replied with a dead serious, "yeah, I know. I plan to take a 3 hour nap after lunch everyday." Come to find out, he was also a DJ for a AM station and worked 11pm-3am several nights a week.
I already worked a 10-11 hour day, so I should have just closed the door and napped anyway.
How many nations put satellites in space in geosynchronous orbit perfectly above their land? That's a serious question that I don't know the answer to,
a tellites/ssr.html
Not a list of geosynchronous satelites but: This information is from the Satellite Situation Report from Goddard Space Flight Center, dated September, 1997. http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/rocket_sci/s
If anyone has a link to a more recent list, I would like to see it.
And for a very cool visual on some of these satellites:
http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/ Choose J-Track 3D from the left menu. Java required.
Did you know there are over eight thousand artificial objects orbiting Earth? Over 2,500 are satellites, operative and inoperative. The remaining objects are orbital debris: parts such as nosecone shrouds, lens, hatch covers, rocket bodies, payloads that have disintegrated or exploded, and even objects that "escape" from manned spacecraft during operations.
J-Track 3D is one of the most popular Java applets on our web site. It shows 700 satellites, out of thousands, swarming about our earth. You can rotate the display and modify all kinds of settings. The display will also zoom in and out.
I'd always wondered about that myself. How come NASA never seemed to take any precautions against space junk
a tures/F_What_Goes_Up.html
from here: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/9-12/fe
Thanks to the information provided by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, crewed spacecraft are able to dodge larger pieces of orbital debris. When an object is expected to come within a few miles of the Space Shuttle, and there is greater than a 1 in 10,000 chance of collision, the Space Shuttle changes its path to avoid the object. During normal flight operations of the Space Shuttle, this happens about once every year or two. The International Space Station (ISS) can also maneuver away from debris in its path. In addition, the ISS is also the most heavily shielded spacecraft ever, able to withstand impact with smaller pieces of debris. Since the smallest particles of debris cannot be tracked, occasional collisions with them are inevitable. The Space Shuttle frequently returns to Earth with tiny impact craters from being hit by orbital debris. Astronauts have reported seeing very small cracks formed in the Space Shuttles' front windows when they strike objects. While impact by small pieces of orbital debris is routine, the odds of two pieces of debris larger than 10 cm in diameter colliding is very low. In all of spaceflight history, there is only one recorded incident of two such objects from different missions accidentally colliding.
Here's a link to the NASA fact sheet on landing the space shuttle, for those interested in factual type of info: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/release/1992/1- 92.htm
a ndingSS-2005.pdf
There is also a updated secure PDF of this article here:
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/nasafact/pdf/L
One thing that I learned reading through this is that the shuttle can be brought down via computer system. Some folks on Slashdot (and many other websites) have stated that the landing gear must be activated by persons onboard the shuttle, via some sort of mechanical device. That is not true according to this information from NASA. The quote below is found under Landing Aids about 2/3 way down the html page. The PDF is actually a very good read, with charts and graphics, for those into this stuff.
Landing Aids
An array of visual aids as well as sophisticated guidance equipment at the Shuttle Landing Facility help to guide the orbiter to a safe landing.
The Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) system on the ground provides range and bearing measurements to the orbiter when it is at an altitude of up to 145,000 feet. More precise guidance signals on slant range, azimuth and elevation come from the Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System (MSBLS) when the orbiter gets closer - up to 18,000 to 20,000 feet. Both TACAN and MSBLS are automatic systems that update the orbiter's onboard navigation systems.
The MSBLS also provides an autoland capability that can electronically acquire and guide the space plane to a completely "hands off" landing. So far, Shuttle mission commanders have taken control of the orbiter for all final approach and landing maneuvers during subsonic flight, usually about 22 miles from the touchdown point.
Informative? WTF?
How about using some common sense and just choose the right tool for the job. I find it funny that many here think nothing of calling a technology a scam because it doesn't fit their narrow definition of being useful. I wonder how many of the "inkjet is a scam" crowd use disposable razors to shave because they think electric razors are too expensive or that disposable razors give better results. Same concept.
Inkjet happens to be a superior technology for some applications and laser just happens to be a superior technology for other applications. I won't use an inkjet to output 1000 newsletters on a weekly basis but I certainly will use inkjet any time I need color accuracy and extremely fine control over detail in a photo or art print.
Inkjet technology is used by artists because it allows them to produce beautiful prints. Check any fine art gallery and you will likely see a large number of inkjet prints being sold for astronomical amounts. Granted, the artist and gallery operators know better than to advertise them as inkjet, because the public thinks inkjet is cheap. They label them as Giclee Prints but they are in fact made on inkjet printers. Printed on the proper substrate and with the proper inks, these prints can be true works of art and last quite a long time.
Laser technology is used by most businesses because it has higher output and lower TCO, period. Those in the business of creative design or image proofing use both technologies and choose the one that actually does best what they need done. Pretty simple.
Now for home use, people need to do a little research and think through what they need a printer for. Most home users don't understand the concept of TCO or at least they don't consider it when buying a printer. They buy what Wal-Mart has for $49 and some of them learn the hard way that inkjet may not be ideal for them. Print too much or too little and inkjet is a poor choice.
I do agree that if all they print is snapshots from their digital camera, then online services or the corner drugstore are both a better choice than printing at home. Not many people print only photos though.
auto correct is a convenience, but you'll never convince me it reduces blunders.
The reporter phrased his question in a way that made it sound like NASA had intentionally scheduled a night landing to avoid a live televised disaster. What a prick. Hale responded that landing windows are a technical decision based on orbit and not something that they could just pick for convince.
According to the commentator on NASA TV, they have about 4 hours of shutdown procedures to go through after a wave off. They shutdown many onboard systems to conserve power. They also reposition the shuttle to an inverted attitude again so that the underside of the orbiter faces the sun. This is to keep the temperature of the tires and landing gear up prior to reentry. They will reverse all procedures one again 4 hours prior to the next landing window.
I know you were joking, but it surprised me to learn that they use Outlook for email services onboard. Watching NASA TV, I lost track of the number of times Capcom instructed the crew to reboot one of their machines in order to fix sync problems with Outlook.
That is one impressive group of cameras. They plan to image the entire earth disk with the wide field camera at 2.75 kilometer resolution and at the same time operate two narrow field cameras at a much higher 250 meter resolution. Add to those images the lighting sensor and infrared sensor, and that's a hell of a lot of data to stream.
I can see something like this being great for hurricane, volcano, and forest fire research.
Just today I read about this Australian company that plans to provide **live** satellite feeds
Where did you read this? I'd like to read it myself. Unless you're talking about **live** television or communications feeds.
The AC post is entirely bogus!
3 &cid=13265720
3., US Space Shuttle cannot land on full-automatic. At least the two pilots need to be onboard. The landing gear can't be opened remotely. Only the soviet Space Shuttle copycat "Buran" could (and did) fly unmanned, automatically.
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=15794
I call bull.
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/nasafact/pdf/L
Landing Aids
The MSBLS also provides an autoland capability that can electronically acquire and guide the orbiter to a completely "hands off" landing. So far, Shuttle mission commanders have taken control of the orbiter for all final approach and landing maneuvers during subsonic flight, usually about 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the touchdown point.
Theat is incorrect. Sea Launch has been launching payloads since 1999. National Geographic TV just aired an episode of Megastructures about the company and their semi-submersible launch pad. It will air again on Wednesday, August 10. Pretty neat project they have.
http://www.sea-launch.com/
They have launched over a dozen payloads, including several satelites for Direct TV and three XM Radio satelites(Rock, Roll, and Rhythm.)
Their heaviest payload so far was 13,376 lb:
Spaceway 1 - April 26, 2005 Sea Launch delivered DIRECTV's 6,080 kg (13,376 lb) Spaceway 1 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, on its way to a final orbital position of 102.8 degrees West Longitude, completing the successful launch of the heaviest commercial satellite to date. The 702 model spacecraft, with a design life of 12 years, is one of four Boeing-built Ka-band satellites that DIRECTV has scheduled for launch over the next three years as part of an historic expansion of programming capacity for delivery of more than 1,500 local and national High Definition channels and other advanced programming services.
Or better yet, combine this idea with the solar/fiber optic light fixtures covered in a recent slashstory and you could almost eliminate the electricity completely. You would then have the added beneift of slowly dimming lights before bedtime.
Some of you may be interested in reading a bit about these so called loyalty card programs here. http://www.nocards.org/
I am not usually the tinfoil hat type, and these people tend to go a little overboard with some of their logic (especially on the RFID side) but most of their information about the loyalty card programs I have found to be true.
Having worked for a grocery chain for 8 years and most recently a pharmacy chain for 12 years, I am very familiar with the pricing and promotion models used in both. Buying product, setting prices, and developing promotions was my job. The apparent savings offered to these loyalty card holders is nothing of the sort in most cases. Most chains simply raise the normal everyday price of an item and then offer what used to be the everyday price (pre card program) to only those willing to apply for and use the card. This is effectively charging a privacy tax to anyone not wishing to participate in the data collection program. Ironically, that privacy tax pays for collecting data on card holders, with no true cost benefit to any customers.
My favorite example of this is something near and dear to my heart, my coffee creamer. Back when only one of the three grocery chains in my town had a card program, my favorite coffee creamer retailed everyday for $1.19 in all three stores. Even the card store had to maintain that price everyday to stay competitive with the two non-card stores. This was a few years ago, when this card program was just catching on full force in the US. Well, eventually the other two chains joined in the scam and suddenly the price of my coffee creamer started to go through the roof. This item began retailing from $1.79 to $1.99 everyday but with a loyalty card price of $1.19 to $1.29. This is a non-dairy product, so fluctuating milk prices had nothing to do with it. If I had raised everyday prices in my category by 50-60%, I could have stopped buying and taken a long vacation before too long!
The pharmacy chain I left this spring just implemented one of these card programs about 6 months before I left. I was one of the only dissenters when the topic first came up in a marketing meeting. Everyone else claimed that we just had to have a loyalty program "because we look out of place if we don't." My stance was that not having one of these irritating programs could be a great marketing point. Unfortunately, most market research falsely indicates that the average consumer loves these damn things and of course our management team wanted to be loved.
Once it was decided that they would start their own program, I began to investigate the subject a little deeper and found the site above. It was at that time I also started to seriously think about my role in the process and began looking to get out of retail all together if I couldn't find a new employer with a little common sense and a focus on true customer service. I don't feel right charging more to people who simply wish to remain unmonitored.
If you are lucky enough to live near a grocer and/or pharmacy which does not have a loyalty program, do yourself a favor and support those stores. Tell the managers you shop in their stores because they don't insult your intelligence by offering you artificial savings in exchange for spying on you.
Let's hope what they learn about you is true.
http://www.nocards.org/news/index.shtml#fire
Charges dismissed!
Arson charges against firefighter dropped after another confesses
We previously reported that a fireman in Everett, Washington had been arrested for setting a fire in his own home. The fire was reported to have been started using a "firestarter" which, although charred, still had a "Safeway Supermarket" label attached. Police used Safeway club card records from the family to show there had been a purchase of the firestarters in July, and a police dog that was asked to track the arsonist repeatedly went from the fire to the homes front door.
This week the charges were dropped after "another person accepted responsibility for the fire" according to news reports. At least one media outlet, KIRO TV, is reporting that his wife was the one who came forward.
In our original article on this we noted:
Retail stores attempt to portray privacy fears as being groundless but the fact remains that this data is accessible, and will continue to be so for years. And even though this data "might" help law enforcement officers, the potential is equally large to implicate people who have committed no crime.
You must be new here.
Think of the phone sex possibilities.
On second thought...
PDF of STS-114 Mission Overview:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/112310main_114_miss_overvi ew_july05.pdf
NASA provides a ton of information about the shuttle and ISS programs online. You have to go find it. You're not going to see most of this info reported by the general media because it doesnt have all the foolsih drama and it would require research/explanation.
I've been off all week and have had the chance to watch almost the entire mission on NASA TV as well as crawl their websites. (Yes, I need a shower and shave about now.) They update their website pretty quickly when new events take place and just about anything you could want to know is available by doing a simple search.s p l
http://search.nasa.gov/nasasearch/search/search.j
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/crew/index.htm
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
It's been interesting to watch the mission and press meetings live and then compare that to the drivel the media spews. The only issue I have with NASA TV is that I have to watch it over the web because my cable operator only offers it with a overpriced package of junk I could care less about. Would be nice if it were freely broadcast, at least when there is an active mission.
page 4 from this NASA PDF:_ tps.pdf
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/91372main
Gaps and Gap Fillers The gaps between the tiles, which range from 0.028 inch to 0.200 inch are necessary for two important reasons. The first reason concerns the difference in thermal expansion properties between the tiles and the orbiter airframe. When in orbit, the external temperature fluctuates by as much as 400 degrees F. The tiles contract much less than the airframe, due to differences in the thermal expansion; thus, the gaps are required to accommodate the difference. During reentry the gap dimensions are also critical. As the orbiter descends through the ever-thickening atmosphere, pressure gradients cause the plasma surrounding the orbiter to flow. If the gaps are too large, hot gases can flow through the gaps and can cause damage to the backup surface seals (filler bar). Gap fillers are used extensively to control the gap dimensions between the individual tiles in many areas of the orbiter and in some areas to provide mechanical 'padding' between the tiles.
Great search site here: http://search.nasa.gov/nasasearch/search/search.js p
and lots of info on on the thermal protection system here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts -newsref/sts-tps.html
Well Google offers the following as one definition:
An enclosed view, usually long and narrow.
www.calgaryarea.net/cpted/cpted/glossary.htm