You are actually contradict yourself. You write that "They have chosen to rely on the automated flight control system to limit loads on the structure, instead of building the necessary robustness into that structure" but in this case the crash you link to would never have happened - the system would limit rudder movements to sane values. Airbus A300 has got - except of the autopilot - no automated flight control systems whatsoever. It uses conventional mechanical flight controls.
I am not a pilot, either, but at least I can work with your car analogy since I do work in the automotive field (my last job was as a QA engineer for car component software). The software in important car components (ECU, TCU) is very rigorously tested (often just two lines of code change would cause a complete retest - 2500 single test cases) and designed to be failsafe. And if the microcontroller would fail the unit goes electromechanically into a limp home mode with reduced functionality.
The testing and failback functions are much better at the aircraft design. I assume that if the computers would fail, the system would go to the direct control mode where all signals form the side stick and the pedals would be sent from their controllers direct to the rudders.
What happened to margin of safety in airframe construction -- or is that whole concept now obsolete?
A guy I knew is an airplane constructor. He told me once that in the airplane body construction there are no safety margins but rather failure margins (meaning that after so and so many flight hours the body will fail) because if they would build an airplane with a safety margin it wouldn't lift off because of the excessive weight.
There are plenty turn-to-turn navigation apps for windows mobile which already have POI databases.
So yes, I second that. HTC Athena is a pretty decent device with a huge screen, internal GPS and a full keyboard. Good both for hacking and for navigation and is pretty cheap at the used devices market (got one for less than 200 euros).
Estonia is a nice place to visit, but a shitty place to live. Unfriendly people, bad weather, shitty roads, Tallinn smells bad (mostly because of old cars with damaged catalysers due to bad fuel), expensive food, eesti keel is a very difficult language (basically Finnish vocabulary paired with German syntax), economy without any foundation whatsoever and lots of unresolved issues with the enormous Russian minority.
They are some nice things about Estonia, though. Local apples and berries come late but are very tasty. Also, some of the other local gastronomic specialities are very good. I generally visit Estonia every two or three years, but after the second week of my vacation there I generally start missing the more "civilised" western Europe.
We have rights of expression, assembly, thought, speech, and, yes, privacy enshrined in the Constitution.
You can found the same rights in the USSR constitution, even in the Stalin's version of it. If the government doesn't care about the constitution, all your rights aren't worth the paper they are printed on.
Has nothing to do with being libertarian. Even in the USSR - which most slashdotters associate with complete absence of civil rights - a strip search of a teen girl by a school official never could have happened.
P.S. just for your information, the only two parties here in Germany really acting for civil rights are the pirate party and the communists. German libertarians are only pro civil rights when they are in the opposition. When they are in the ruling coalition they happily stamp civil rights to the ground.
I was born and raised in the USSR and I still call bullshit. Corporate welfare is a well-defined term and has nothing to do with socialism whatsoever. What you describe is pure corporate welfare. You use the wrong term.
Socialism is about working class owning the means of production (for example workers of a car factory all own equal amount of shares of the car manufacturer).
Using tax payer's money for funding failed businesses has nothing to do with socialism. This procedure is called "corporate welfare" and is pretty much the opposite of socialism.
just to put it into some perspective: it looks that you have used more electricity in August 2008 alone than me in both years 2007 and 2008 together. And I do consume more than average here because of the two fish tanks.
You have hit on the demand, but you forgot about supply. If i saw doctors making millions a year, I would want to be one. So would everyone else, so more people would become doctors.
not really. first, human medicine study is really hard. second, the doctor lobby wouldn't want cheap concurrency. they would set enrollment limits on human medicine courses (in Germany, it is already the case, you can only study human medicine if your abitur grade is no less than 1.1, which is about A+.
The problem with a state run insurance plan is that that the state has never made anything more efficient.
Wrong. When German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) was still state owned, the trains were always on time, there were many more connections, the fares were lower and easier to understand and the trains and tracks were better in shape.
Now Deutsche Bahn is a private company. Trains run notoriously late (often because the trains are damaged or the tracks are in the sore need of repair), many connections are inoperative, the prices soar.
I never have seen a high speed train being evacuated in the middle of nowhere because of some motor damage in the early nineties. I had to live through it twice last year.
You mean you would enjoy his works more if he was a staunch democrat?
This is absolutely possible. Books often share the worldview of their author, that is why I (for example) cannot stand books of Edward Elmer Smith or Robert Heinlein.
Whats wrong with respecting other peoples' opinions even if you don't agree with them?
Nothing wrong about that as long as the opinions aren't forced on others. In that way you being moderated as a troll only emphasises your point.
That money is still coming out of you, you're just put on an indirect payment plan! Imagine a more direct method of the same: "Well, your bill is $40. Or you can pay me $40/month for the next four months."
Not really. What you discribe is a how a credit company works. An insurance company is more like a bookmaker. I bet that I'll get sick, the take the bet depending on the odds. The difference is that the bets themselves are not the main instrument of bringing profits to the company, instead they bring the cash for investments which in turn bring profits.
Anyway, your examples are the way how it seems to work in the United States. In Germany, where I live, public health ensurances pretty much set the price caps for all procedures they are willing to pay (the minimum coverage is defined by law). It is not a perfect solution because there are too many price caps and thus the doctors often are underpaid, but it works.
A better solution would be possible, but not with the current corrupt government.
Slashdot Mirror
You are actually contradict yourself. You write that "They have chosen to rely on the automated flight control system to limit loads on the structure, instead of building the necessary robustness into that structure" but in this case the crash you link to would never have happened - the system would limit rudder movements to sane values. Airbus A300 has got - except of the autopilot - no automated flight control systems whatsoever. It uses conventional mechanical flight controls.
I am not a pilot, either, but at least I can work with your car analogy since I do work in the automotive field (my last job was as a QA engineer for car component software). The software in important car components (ECU, TCU) is very rigorously tested (often just two lines of code change would cause a complete retest - 2500 single test cases) and designed to be failsafe. And if the microcontroller would fail the unit goes electromechanically into a limp home mode with reduced functionality.
The testing and failback functions are much better at the aircraft design. I assume that if the computers would fail, the system would go to the direct control mode where all signals form the side stick and the pedals would be sent from their controllers direct to the rudders.
A guy I knew is an airplane constructor. He told me once that in the airplane body construction there are no safety margins but rather failure margins (meaning that after so and so many flight hours the body will fail) because if they would build an airplane with a safety margin it wouldn't lift off because of the excessive weight.
Not really, as many airplan crashes caused by severed hydraulic lines show. And more often than not all three hydraulic lines were cut.
There are plenty turn-to-turn navigation apps for windows mobile which already have POI databases.
So yes, I second that. HTC Athena is a pretty decent device with a huge screen, internal GPS and a full keyboard. Good both for hacking and for navigation and is pretty cheap at the used devices market (got one for less than 200 euros).
Estonia is a nice place to visit, but a shitty place to live. Unfriendly people, bad weather, shitty roads, Tallinn smells bad (mostly because of old cars with damaged catalysers due to bad fuel), expensive food, eesti keel is a very difficult language (basically Finnish vocabulary paired with German syntax), economy without any foundation whatsoever and lots of unresolved issues with the enormous Russian minority.
They are some nice things about Estonia, though. Local apples and berries come late but are very tasty. Also, some of the other local gastronomic specialities are very good. I generally visit Estonia every two or three years, but after the second week of my vacation there I generally start missing the more "civilised" western Europe.
You can found the same rights in the USSR constitution, even in the Stalin's version of it. If the government doesn't care about the constitution, all your rights aren't worth the paper they are printed on.
They can speak English (although the accent is outrageous), they often just don't bother to (same as the French).
It is actually easier to forge real money than a German ID card.
You never visit foreign countries?
You only need to ask Hans Reiser.
Has nothing to do with being libertarian. Even in the USSR - which most slashdotters associate with complete absence of civil rights - a strip search of a teen girl by a school official never could have happened.
P.S. just for your information, the only two parties here in Germany really acting for civil rights are the pirate party and the communists. German libertarians are only pro civil rights when they are in the opposition. When they are in the ruling coalition they happily stamp civil rights to the ground.
I was born and raised in the USSR and I still call bullshit. Corporate welfare is a well-defined term and has nothing to do with socialism whatsoever. What you describe is pure corporate welfare. You use the wrong term.
Sorry, but you have no idea what socialism is.
Socialism is about working class owning the means of production (for example workers of a car factory all own equal amount of shares of the car manufacturer).
Using tax payer's money for funding failed businesses has nothing to do with socialism. This procedure is called "corporate welfare" and is pretty much the opposite of socialism.
Well, maybe because 200 grams of carrots would be two carrots and most people need higher amounts.
Holy shit :-O
just to put it into some perspective: it looks that you have used more electricity in August 2008 alone than me in both years 2007 and 2008 together. And I do consume more than average here because of the two fish tanks.
as long as the gas is pure, it can be used for carbonating drinks.
I experienced the same thing in Finland five years ago. It was kind of scary, but finnish traffic is fortunately quite calm.
So? You can always save digital data on an analogue medium. If it is an optical medium, as you mention it, 2D barcode would be an example.
You can get Sigma SD9 used for about 100 Euros, though. SD10 costs not much more.
not really. first, human medicine study is really hard. second, the doctor lobby wouldn't want cheap concurrency. they would set enrollment limits on human medicine courses (in Germany, it is already the case, you can only study human medicine if your abitur grade is no less than 1.1, which is about A+.
Wrong. When German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) was still state owned, the trains were always on time, there were many more connections, the fares were lower and easier to understand and the trains and tracks were better in shape.
Now Deutsche Bahn is a private company. Trains run notoriously late (often because the trains are damaged or the tracks are in the sore need of repair), many connections are inoperative, the prices soar.
I never have seen a high speed train being evacuated in the middle of nowhere because of some motor damage in the early nineties. I had to live through it twice last year.
This is absolutely possible. Books often share the worldview of their author, that is why I (for example) cannot stand books of Edward Elmer Smith or Robert Heinlein.
Nothing wrong about that as long as the opinions aren't forced on others. In that way you being moderated as a troll only emphasises your point.
Well, when Oracle buys Virtual Iron, they also buy all their commitments. That means they still have to fulfill all support contracts.
Not really. What you discribe is a how a credit company works. An insurance company is more like a bookmaker. I bet that I'll get sick, the take the bet depending on the odds. The difference is that the bets themselves are not the main instrument of bringing profits to the company, instead they bring the cash for investments which in turn bring profits.
Anyway, your examples are the way how it seems to work in the United States. In Germany, where I live, public health ensurances pretty much set the price caps for all procedures they are willing to pay (the minimum coverage is defined by law). It is not a perfect solution because there are too many price caps and thus the doctors often are underpaid, but it works.
A better solution would be possible, but not with the current corrupt government.