I'm 60 and working as a System Administrator at NASA. I would much rather be doing software development, but this is what I could get. My savings are such that I have hopes of retiring early, but a major concern with that would be health care. I'm just not sure that the ACA will be there for me to use when I need it. I think a fair number of us old techies would gladly retire if we could get Medicare at 60, or earlier.
Managua was hit by a meteoroid. If anyone saw the bright light of its fall to earth, they saw a meteor. If any part of it survived, that's meteorite. Thank you.
I'm actually using Epiphany, the new browser, to post this. Slashdot was one of the first sites I visited and co-incidentally there was an article about it right at the top! So far, it does seem to be a nice upgrade to the previous Midori browser, which I found essentially unusable.
I still have my CARDIAC, which stood for CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation. A teacher gave it to me in Junior High, about 1971, and it helped get me interested in computers. I'll have to check out the spreadsheet version.
As an aside, I love old computer names that end in -AC. My Mac Pro is named prozac.
This is not a new policy. The implementation of full disk encryption has been underway for some time. We are doing laptops first, then desktops. The current fire drill is because a laptop with PII was stolen at NASA HQ and it was one that had not yet had full disk encryption installed.
NASA IT staff are as overworked and under appreciated as anywhere. If NASA had wanted full disk encryption done sooner, they could have added the resources to make it happen. And that would have taken resources from missions, like Curiosity and the James Webb telescope. It's all about priorities.
I remember 300 baud modems. Cool that one still works today. The oldest operating bit of technology in my house is my 120 year old Seth Thomas kitchen clock, which is currently being cleaned, but I use it daily.
I work in the vis studio that produced the animations and I can tell you that file formats are a big problem with images this size. We usually work in TIFF, and while the TIFF format has no specific resolution limits, it is effectively limited to 4GB per image due to the use of internal 32-bit offsets. The full Blue Marble NG data sets simply don't fit in common image formats. Work is being done on a "big TIFF" spec that includes 64-bit offsets and other improvements that will accomodate much larger images.
The upgraded kernel, based on FreeBSD 5.x, provides optimized resource locking for better scalability across multiple processors, support for 64-bit memory pointers through the System library and standards-based access control lists.
One could read that as saying that the kernel is now FreeBSD 5.x, not Mach. The comment about better resource locking for SMP is consistent with the SMP improvements in FreeBSD 5.x over 4.x. It probably doesn't matter to the end user, but it would still be interesting to know.
Rootbear
Actually they are running at 20MHz. I've seen several write ups which clearly state that. The RAD6000 can apparently run at up to 33MHz, with a claimed 35MIPS. The rovers are "underclocked", probably due to power budget concerns.
Go to http://www.iews.na.baesystems.com/space/rad600 0/ra d6000.html and click on the rover picture to get a PDF brochure, which gives the 33MHz/35MIPS figure.
There is very little on the Rovers that is "commodity" in any sense. The CCD image sensors, the computers, everything, is all custom made. Everything has to be made to withstand the rigors of flight and the harsh environments of space and Mars. The CPU does not have a backup, which is a bit unusual for NASA (I'm a contractor at NASA/Goddard, but not involved in any flight missions). However, the particular computer used on the rovers (the RAD6000) has a very good record. There are something like 150 in use on various spacecraft and they've all worked very well.
And the flash memory has probably not failed. It seems to have been a software problem, not hardware.
CGI means Computer Generated Imagery, if you're into graphics, or it means Common Gateway Interface, if you're into web programming. An unfortunate coincidence.
I've long been a fan of the SF novels of Vernor Vinge. In some of his books, the underground technologists were called "Tinkers". I always liked the concept of the Tinkers and think it would be a fine substitute for "hacker".
Slashdot Mirror
I'm 60 and working as a System Administrator at NASA. I would much rather be doing software development, but this is what I could get. My savings are such that I have hopes of retiring early, but a major concern with that would be health care. I'm just not sure that the ACA will be there for me to use when I need it. I think a fair number of us old techies would gladly retire if we could get Medicare at 60, or earlier.
Managua was hit by a meteoroid. If anyone saw the bright light of its fall to earth, they saw a meteor. If any part of it survived, that's meteorite. Thank you.
I'm actually using Epiphany, the new browser, to post this. Slashdot was one of the first sites I visited and co-incidentally there was an article about it right at the top! So far, it does seem to be a nice upgrade to the previous Midori browser, which I found essentially unusable.
I still have my CARDIAC, which stood for CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation. A teacher gave it to me in Junior High, about 1971, and it helped get me interested in computers. I'll have to check out the spreadsheet version.
As an aside, I love old computer names that end in -AC. My Mac Pro is named prozac.
This is not a new policy. The implementation of full disk encryption has been underway for some time. We are doing laptops first, then desktops. The current fire drill is because a laptop with PII was stolen at NASA HQ and it was one that had not yet had full disk encryption installed.
NASA IT staff are as overworked and under appreciated as anywhere. If NASA had wanted full disk encryption done sooner, they could have added the resources to make it happen. And that would have taken resources from missions, like Curiosity and the James Webb telescope. It's all about priorities.
I remember 300 baud modems. Cool that one still works today. The oldest operating bit of technology in my house is my 120 year old Seth Thomas kitchen clock, which is currently being cleaned, but I use it daily.
I've had "DEV CAR" in Maryland for over twenty years. It's on its third car, which I call DEV CAR 3.0.
I work in the vis studio that produced the animations and I can tell you that file formats are a big problem with images this size. We usually work in TIFF, and while the TIFF format has no specific resolution limits, it is effectively limited to 4GB per image due to the use of internal 32-bit offsets. The full Blue Marble NG data sets simply don't fit in common image formats. Work is being done on a "big TIFF" spec that includes 64-bit offsets and other improvements that will accomodate much larger images.
Jim Williams
Rootbear
Actually they are running at 20MHz. I've seen several write ups which clearly state that. The RAD6000 can apparently run at up to 33MHz, with a claimed 35MIPS. The rovers are "underclocked", probably due to power budget concerns.
0 0/ra d6000.html
Go to
http://www.iews.na.baesystems.com/space/rad60
and click on the rover picture to get a PDF brochure, which gives the 33MHz/35MIPS figure.
Rootbear
There is very little on the Rovers that is "commodity" in any sense. The CCD image sensors, the computers, everything, is all custom made. Everything has to be made to withstand the rigors of flight and the harsh environments of space and Mars. The CPU does not have a backup, which is a bit unusual for NASA (I'm a contractor at NASA/Goddard, but not involved in any flight missions). However, the particular computer used on the rovers (the RAD6000) has a very good record. There are something like 150 in use on various spacecraft and they've all worked very well.
And the flash memory has probably not failed. It seems to have been a software problem, not hardware.
Rootbear
Chaucer wrote in Middle English and I'm sure his spelling and grammar are just fine, thank you. And his name is Chaucer, not Chauncer!
CGI means Computer Generated Imagery, if you're into graphics, or it means Common Gateway Interface, if you're into web programming. An unfortunate coincidence.
I've long been a fan of the SF novels of Vernor
Vinge. In some of his books, the underground technologists were called "Tinkers". I always liked the concept of the Tinkers and think it would be a fine substitute for "hacker".
Jim