Actually the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile is the official speed record certifying bodies - it's a French organisation. There's one for the motorbikes too which is also French. Last time I checked, both most certainly aren't British;-)
As for the Budweiser rocket car, even the USAF say it wasn't an official sanction of the speed either and that it was done by USAF personnel in their personal time and the speed that they actually recorded was something like 35mph! I think it was from a passing car rather than the rocket car itself that they measured but if they made this kind of a mistake, I wouldn't take their claims seriously. Eventually some time later after the car was driven (I think it was next day) the speed was actually calculated from the accelerometer data, which the team did not make public - so basically the Budweiser rocket car's team have claimed that they've broken the speed of sound barrier, but have no data to back it up but their words.
But the major evidence against the Budweiser rocket car's claim was the lack of a sonic boom - this wasn't heard and yes a car breaking the sound barrier will create one. The Thrust SSC did create a sonic boom that was heard over a very wide area.
One real world example of how open source is actually saving money
France's Gendarmerie Nationale switched to Ubuntu to replace Windows XP.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/french-police-saves-millions-of-euros-by-adopting-ubuntu.ars
Training cost is factored in however this is also pointed out as here:
"Moving from Microsoft XP to Vista would not have brought us many advantages and Microsoft said it would require training of users," said Lt. Col. Guimard. "Moving from XP to Ubuntu, however, proved very easy. The two biggest differences are the icons and the games. Games are not our priority."
They claim that Microsoft said you require training to switch from XP to Vista. By switching to open source they're saving 70% on their IT budget.
They will release the linux version soon I'm sure of that. That news was about publisher not the developers. 2D Boys aren't bankrupt. The publisher is. They don't make the games so that's OK.
Erm...not a fail...the menu at bottom is in very tiny text. I find it a bit difficult to read that.
It's ignoring my browser set preferences in minimum font size, so using Flash in this case is a fail. What's wrong with using HTML for the menu? Why does it need to be in Flash where it can ignore my choice of minimum font size, it's more like 4 points size where my minimum is 12.
the core system would remain immune - true...but for a typical home user - the core system is the least of their worries - they care more about their own files - photo collection etc etc. If there's a script that basically nuke their/home - they're not gonna say "gee that's OK as long as my core system is fine..."
Granted most viruses are after zombie PC's etc, in this respect I agree.
One thing that must be pointed out - BBC does bring a huge range of benefit - they make programmes that no commerical channels would ever make.
See Hear - http://www.bbc.co.uk/seehear - this is a channel that is broadcast in BSL (British Sign Language) the 4th language of UK and used by over 300,000 people. (some claim 25,000, but realitically, there is probably about 300,000 that can sign BSL, but about 25,000 are native users - ie their first language is BSL and not English.
See Hear is a programme that if there was no BBC, we'll never get. Not only that, they also provide signed (shows with a BSL interpreter in the corner) re-runs of popular shows at late night Thursday (ie at a time when few people are watching - so we can record them) - again something no commerical channels will do.
Furthermore BBC have stated that they will provide 100% subtitle coverage by 2008 and currently it's almost a blanket coverage already with a very high % availabity (between 80-95%), which is much higher than the commerical channels. Commerical channels are increasing their sutbtilting coverage due to this.
BBC also does audio describtion too.
BBC will also aim to include their online videos with blanket coverage as well - this can be done due to the fact that they will marry the subtitling technology for TV to the one for digital videos for download/streaming - ie if a TV programme is subtitled, then its online video is subtitled as well with no to minimal work. Yet again, commerical channels won't do this.
How about other languages of UK? Another popular language is Welsh, so here's BBC website in Welsh and they provide Welsh language shows via S4C (10 hours a week) along with Welsh subtitles as well
The point is that...if we have no BBC but just commerical channels - we would never get the shows for the minority of UK population such as the Welsh language and British Sign Language, nor the shows for them.
So I am glad that we have the BBC in UK.
Furthermore - often people say that there are poor people that can't afford TV licences - it's just £150 and can be spread out over the year, even while an extremely hard up uni student with massive debts I could at least afford that - just a matter of deciding which was more essential to life as a student - another pint of beer or TV...
It was a pity I never heard of Slashdot back then, otherwise I could have joined in all this "free beer" that's mentioned a lot in here...
Just in, leaked via Think Secret - Apple is releasing the latest must have item - the iAmen. Expect to see Steve Job showing it off and all Macboys worshippi...err...never mind they already do that.
Ring ring....ring ring....Hello this is Microsoft Tech Support. My name is John, how may I help you?
Me: I'm calling about a problem with Calculator...when I put in this value 4195835 divided by 3145727 I get 1.33374 6 sig figs as the answer?
.
.....
One suggestion I can make is to go to Ubuntu - in the menu - see Shipit - Free CDs - it means what it say...you can order as many CD's as you like and it is shipped over to you. Free.
So order 1000 CD's - each case comes with a Installation CD and a Live CD. Hand them out at an University. They are free to get, free to hand out.
That's one way of passing out free Linux distro's and Ubuntu make it as cheap as possible for you to pass it around - they ship it to you free. So for those uni students, why not get CD's, hand them out as if they are sweets? I've ordered about 100 CD's and gave 80 of them to the local library so people could help themselves - doing my little bit.
In UK we have vlogs but make use of signing in sign language. The human eye is attracted to movement and so you will see a wide varity of hand, hand and body movement for signing - which need to be watched to understand (there is no sound/talking).
I would be interested to see how those type of videos are viewed by the Deaf. Vlogs are perfect for the Deaf, some whose English might not be very good (due to no "audio" memory which English use) but can follow signing easily.
I feel that they might be different - I certainly watch a signing video in full.
In the UK, BBC et al have a quota of % of shows that they provide subtitling for that they meet with the BBC aiming to provide 100% coverage on all channels.
But currently all BBC video's from their website does not include any subtitles and nor does any other Internet TV's.
There is a huge number of hearing impaired PC users that could watch those steaming video's but don't due to no subtitles/captions.
It'll be nice if some of the more popular one start thinking about providing subtitles (and this have the additional bonus of reaching a larger audience - forgien language subtitles)
Slashdot Mirror
Actually the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile is the official speed record certifying bodies - it's a French organisation. There's one for the motorbikes too which is also French. Last time I checked, both most certainly aren't British ;-)
As for the Budweiser rocket car, even the USAF say it wasn't an official sanction of the speed either and that it was done by USAF personnel in their personal time and the speed that they actually recorded was something like 35mph! I think it was from a passing car rather than the rocket car itself that they measured but if they made this kind of a mistake, I wouldn't take their claims seriously. Eventually some time later after the car was driven (I think it was next day) the speed was actually calculated from the accelerometer data, which the team did not make public - so basically the Budweiser rocket car's team have claimed that they've broken the speed of sound barrier, but have no data to back it up but their words.
But the major evidence against the Budweiser rocket car's claim was the lack of a sonic boom - this wasn't heard and yes a car breaking the sound barrier will create one. The Thrust SSC did create a sonic boom that was heard over a very wide area.
One real world example of how open source is actually saving money France's Gendarmerie Nationale switched to Ubuntu to replace Windows XP. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/french-police-saves-millions-of-euros-by-adopting-ubuntu.ars Training cost is factored in however this is also pointed out as here: "Moving from Microsoft XP to Vista would not have brought us many advantages and Microsoft said it would require training of users," said Lt. Col. Guimard. "Moving from XP to Ubuntu, however, proved very easy. The two biggest differences are the icons and the games. Games are not our priority." They claim that Microsoft said you require training to switch from XP to Vista. By switching to open source they're saving 70% on their IT budget.
They will release the linux version soon I'm sure of that. That news was about publisher not the developers. 2D Boys aren't bankrupt. The publisher is. They don't make the games so that's OK.
Erm...not a fail...the menu at bottom is in very tiny text. I find it a bit difficult to read that. It's ignoring my browser set preferences in minimum font size, so using Flash in this case is a fail. What's wrong with using HTML for the menu? Why does it need to be in Flash where it can ignore my choice of minimum font size, it's more like 4 points size where my minimum is 12.
the core system would remain immune - true...but for a typical home user - the core system is the least of their worries - they care more about their own files - photo collection etc etc. If there's a script that basically nuke their /home - they're not gonna say "gee that's OK as long as my core system is fine..."
Granted most viruses are after zombie PC's etc, in this respect I agree.
password2 ...wait a minute!
One thing that must be pointed out - BBC does bring a huge range of benefit - they make programmes that no commerical channels would ever make.
See Hear - http://www.bbc.co.uk/seehear - this is a channel that is broadcast in BSL (British Sign Language) the 4th language of UK and used by over 300,000 people. (some claim 25,000, but realitically, there is probably about 300,000 that can sign BSL, but about 25,000 are native users - ie their first language is BSL and not English.
See Hear is a programme that if there was no BBC, we'll never get. Not only that, they also provide signed (shows with a BSL interpreter in the corner) re-runs of popular shows at late night Thursday (ie at a time when few people are watching - so we can record them) - again something no commerical channels will do.
Furthermore BBC have stated that they will provide 100% subtitle coverage by 2008 and currently it's almost a blanket coverage already with a very high % availabity (between 80-95%), which is much higher than the commerical channels. Commerical channels are increasing their sutbtilting coverage due to this.
BBC also does audio describtion too.
BBC will also aim to include their online videos with blanket coverage as well - this can be done due to the fact that they will marry the subtitling technology for TV to the one for digital videos for download/streaming - ie if a TV programme is subtitled, then its online video is subtitled as well with no to minimal work. Yet again, commerical channels won't do this.
How about other languages of UK? Another popular language is Welsh, so here's BBC website in Welsh and they provide Welsh language shows via S4C (10 hours a week) along with Welsh subtitles as well
The point is that...if we have no BBC but just commerical channels - we would never get the shows for the minority of UK population such as the Welsh language and British Sign Language, nor the shows for them.
So I am glad that we have the BBC in UK.
Furthermore - often people say that there are poor people that can't afford TV licences - it's just £150 and can be spread out over the year, even while an extremely hard up uni student with massive debts I could at least afford that - just a matter of deciding which was more essential to life as a student - another pint of beer or TV...
It was a pity I never heard of Slashdot back then, otherwise I could have joined in all this "free beer" that's mentioned a lot in here...
Just in, leaked via Think Secret - Apple is releasing the latest must have item - the iAmen. Expect to see Steve Job showing it off and all Macboys worshippi...err...never mind they already do that.
Ring ring....ring ring....Hello this is Microsoft Tech Support. My name is John, how may I help you? Me: I'm calling about a problem with Calculator...when I put in this value 4195835 divided by 3145727 I get 1.33374 6 sig figs as the answer? . . ....
One suggestion I can make is to go to Ubuntu - in the menu - see Shipit - Free CDs - it means what it say...you can order as many CD's as you like and it is shipped over to you. Free. So order 1000 CD's - each case comes with a Installation CD and a Live CD. Hand them out at an University. They are free to get, free to hand out. That's one way of passing out free Linux distro's and Ubuntu make it as cheap as possible for you to pass it around - they ship it to you free. So for those uni students, why not get CD's, hand them out as if they are sweets? I've ordered about 100 CD's and gave 80 of them to the local library so people could help themselves - doing my little bit.
In UK we have vlogs but make use of signing in sign language. The human eye is attracted to movement and so you will see a wide varity of hand, hand and body movement for signing - which need to be watched to understand (there is no sound/talking). I would be interested to see how those type of videos are viewed by the Deaf. Vlogs are perfect for the Deaf, some whose English might not be very good (due to no "audio" memory which English use) but can follow signing easily. I feel that they might be different - I certainly watch a signing video in full.
In the UK, BBC et al have a quota of % of shows that they provide subtitling for that they meet with the BBC aiming to provide 100% coverage on all channels. But currently all BBC video's from their website does not include any subtitles and nor does any other Internet TV's. There is a huge number of hearing impaired PC users that could watch those steaming video's but don't due to no subtitles/captions. It'll be nice if some of the more popular one start thinking about providing subtitles (and this have the additional bonus of reaching a larger audience - forgien language subtitles)