A few days after the attacks, I read an interview on either the jeruslaem post or haaretz daily's websites with an architect who had been one of the lead designers for the WTC towers. He compared the construction of skyscrapers in the US (steel frame) and Israel (reinforced concrete).
Architects know steel is more vulnerable to damage by fire than concrete. So the WTC structure was encased in concrete to provide additional time to evacuate the building. IIRC, he stated that they did not expect the building to survive a fire such as the one following the crashes, but to survive long enough to evacuate following impact of a smaller aircraft (B-707, I believe). Designing a building to be "safe" against all threats is impractical - you have to make a tradeoff at some point.
As to why Israelis use concrete and not steel, it's a matter of cost. Reinforced concrete is far cheaper in Israel than structural steel. In the US, lower costs for steel and resulting faster construction times overall make steel a better choice.
You want a location that places the flight path over water/remote areas for safety. KSC isn't in a "remote" location and population centers limit the available launch azimuths.
Vandenburg is the main US launch site for polar orbits, the islands off California require dogleg flight paths to achieve some orbits.
As NASA says, Kodiak provides an unobstructed launch corridor for polar orbits. Weather and the remote location make it less than ideal, however.
French Guiana is in an excellent location for equatorial launches and has a good launch azimuth for polar - it is one of the few launch sites that can do both geotransfer (equatorial) and earth observation (polar) launches.
PCSAT, designed and built by midshipmen at the US Naval Academy, carries an APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) transponder. Downlink is 145.825 MHz, FM, 1200bps AFSK. (Uplink for licensed amateurs is on 70cm, don't have the info handy).
If all goes well, you should be able to at least hear the downlink packets with a VHF scanner and 1/4 wave vertical antenna (YMMV). You will need a AX.25 TNC and terminal or comparable sound-card software to see the telemetry from the satellite and APRS position reports that get relayed through the satellite. Note that locations in the US will have to wait about 9 orbits before they can hear anything.
The "innovative" use of tape measures (or the equivalent steel tape) dates back at least 10 years to the AMSAT Microsats. I believe the Microsats actually did use hardware store tape measures. We used the same antenna material (purchased for this use, not recycled from tape measures) on AO-27 and IO-26.
Using tape measure material for whip and dipole-style antenna elements is well-known in the amateur satellite community. Several of the middishimen's advisors are also active in AMSAT, and probably provided the suggestion if the middies didn't find it themselves.
It's probably the toughest part of being a freelancer or consultant.
Face it, most "geeks" are as unfamiliar with marketing, selling, cold calling, and negotiating and closing a sale as they are skilled with installations, networking, administration, coding,... This book SHOULD tell the reader to take a long hard look at themselves and ask if they can do the sales job as well as the technical job (and the admin job, and the financial job,..). If they can't or won't, being "an independent" is likely not for them.
Look at many small consulting shops - several techs, usually with kick-ass skills, and a business manager/sales/marketing person to take care of the essential tasks the techs can't do well enough themselves.
I speak with some experience - I know my limitations and being effective as my own sales person is outside my core strengths. My wife has had her own marketing business for years and is very successful - she could sell snow in a blizzard (if I ever decided to go independent, I'd hire her to sell me). My brother is a freelance photographer and multimedia designer/producer, and while he is excellent technically (awards, kudos, the whole bit), he HATES doing the sales part and as a result, he struggles.
The power limits are further constrained by the requirement to use the minimum power necessary to achieve communications, and the need to control uwave RF exposure to people near the antenna.
Plus generating that much power at 2.4 GHz is EXPENSIVE as well as unecessary.
True, but the FCC regulations for the Amateur Service place limitations on the content you can send, use of encryption, and other restrictions that may make "souping up" an 802.11b system more useful.
email when I'm remote and away from a net connection - regularly.
look up tech info on a website - several times - depends on which web browser works (Avantgo is best overall as a web browser, but syncing channels wirelessly is PAINFUL)
get directions/phone numbers to someplace I am trying to find (work and personal)
check stocks - became too painful watching my alleged net worth evaporate
trade stocks - haven't bothered to make necessary changes to my account
Check news, slashdot - when I'm bored, assuming there is a PQA out there (or I'll start using sitescooper)
remote access via ssh to other boxes - several times when I needed it and this was only way. Also handy for irc access.
Granted, the connections are sometimes slow and not always reliable, even in places you'd expect them to be solid. And the omnisky software can go belly-up at the damndest times.
I was reading the Tech Review article last night, and I think the combination of dual-mode (CPDP + digital network) "modems" and improvements to the software will make wireless access "good enough", at least for techno-geek early adopters.
As my spouse rarely uses a PDA for more than an address and appointment book, I think it'll be a while for the masses. And USEFUL unification of PDAs, phones, 2-way pagers is even further off.
I guess that would explain the reports of glowing undergrads at MIT.
Already addressed in the Doonsburyesque "Ferd the Nerd" comic strip by Fred Hutchinson that appeared in "The Tech", I believe, in the mid 1970s. As best I can recall:
Student to Asst Dean: "Man, you gotta help me - it's my roomate."
Asst. Dean: "What's the problem?"
Student: "He keeps me up all night."
Asst Dean: "A real tool, eh?" [tool: n., someone who spends all their time studying]
Student: "No. He glows in the dark!"
Asst. Dean: "What?!"
Student: "Yeah man. See, he fell into the reactor while retrieving a wrench and now he's got this pale green glow!"
And hacking was NEVER limited to seniors (limiting hacks to seniors is the tradition at Caltech's "Ditch Day")
We did exactly this on a couple of projects at my old employer (Cold Fusion-based web development, most of the web developers were Windows-only). The MyODBC driver works fine, and Access doesn't really care what the backend system looks like.
There are also 3rd-party scripts to dump a database and definition from Access into SQL for migration into MySQL.
We did run into issues with how Access treats some data types (I recall time/date as one) vs. MySQL.
So using Access as a client for MySQL works and is certainly better than using Access alone.
Longer-term, your employer may be more receptive to replacing Access if you can demonstrate the benefits of cross-platform portability, ease of creating a web interface, or other benefits meaningful to them.
"Ham" (amateur) radio groups provide communications support for the ride. This may include ATV (amateur television) and definietly includes APRS (amatuer position reporting system). ATV can send live NTSC-quality video and audio at least from near cities on the route. APRS has an add-on protocol for sending still images and supports links to internet feeds. The hams have already figured out solutions to power, equipment, safety, and operating procedures.
Another approach might be to use a CPDP modem with a laptop. I do not think there is an easy way to do it with a Palm or Visor, although there is a simple httpd server for the palm that works fine with the omnisky modem. Coverage outside of cities may be a problem.
The reporter seems to have mixed up "freely distributed" (free beer) with "open source" (source code available) with public domain ("no one owns it"). When of course Linux and most open source programs do have an owner; the owner has simply chosen to license their intellectual property in this way and be compensated for it in some way other than selling licenses to use the binary.
But it does suggest a likely way for Microsoft (and others) to attack Linux and other open source alternatives through the US legal system:
"free" (as in beer) distribution of IP is bad. (example: movies and music) [and please ignore the hypocrisy of M$ objecting to the free licensing of software by anyone other than M$]
Linux is "free" (as in open AND beer) and is developed by many of the same people doing (1). [and please ignore the further inconsistancies in our argument]
Therefore, Linux in particular and open source software in general aid and abet illegal activities. Government action to control this is necessary [ignore the flaws in this argument, I'm sure it can be artfully presented]
Another tack would be to sneak language into various spending bills requiring government IT departments to only acquire software that just happens to be rule out use of open source/linux/... Such regulations exist (Posix certficiation, for example), but don't always get enforced.
Although M$'s record lobbying has been poor, they do eventually get things right. And their logical allies (MPAA, RIAA,...) **KNOW** how to lobby.
You're probably thinking of Josephus. A Jewish general who changed sides when he saw his cause was lost (you think the ficitonal Borg are bad - Romans with appropriate technology would waste them).
AFAIK, Josephus makes NO mention of Jesus in his two books that have survived ("The Jewish Wars" is one, I forget the title of the other).
Biblical scholars and historians are in general agreement that the four gospel texts were written long after the death of Jesus. While they may be edited transcripts of oral traditions, they are not eyewitness accounts recorded at or shortly after the events they describe.
There is also general agreement (or at least a strong argument, I am not a "new testament" adherent or bible scholar) that the gospel books in particular have to be considered in the context of when they were written. You have the changing makeup of the early church from Jewish "followers" of Jesus to gentiles, and the changing relationship with Rome.
Fundamentalist Christians who consider their Bible the direct recorded word of G-d are free to disagree with me.
Domain names in the.com,.net, and.org domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.
MICROSOFT.COM.WILL.LIVE.FOREVER.BUT.LUNIX.SUCKS- BY BIRTH.ARTISTICCHEESE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.SHOULD.GIVE.UP.BECAUSE.LINUXISGOD. CO M
MICROSOFT.COM.SE.FAIT.HAX0RIZER.PAR.TOUT.LE.ZOY. OR G
MICROSOFT.COM.OWNED.BY.MAT.HACKSWARE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.N-AIME.BILL.QUE.QUAND.IL.N-EST.PAS .N U
MICROSOFT.COM.MUST.STOP.TAKEDRUGS.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.SOON.GOING.TO.THE.DEATHCORPORAT IO N.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.SECRETLY.RUN.BY.ILLUMINATI.TERR OR ISTS.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.NOTHING.BUT.A.MONSTER.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.NO.MATCH.FOR.THE.UEBER-GEEKS.AT .J IMPHILLIPS.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.GOD.BUT.LINUX.SUCKS-FOREVER.ART IS TICCHEESE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.BORING.COMPARED.TO.TEENEXTREME. CO M
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.AT.THE.MERCY.OF.DETRIMENT.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.INSPIRES.COPYCAT.WANNABE.SUBVERSIV ES.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.HAS.NO.LINUXCLUE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.HACKED.BY.PSYKOJOKO.ON.A.ROOT-NETW OR K.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.HACKED.BY.HACKSWARE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.GUTS.NL
MICROSOFT.COM.FAIT.VRAIMENT.DES.LOGICIELS.A.TROI S. FRANCS.DOUZE.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.ER.IKKE.NO.I.FORHOLD.TIL.LATHANS.N ET
MICROSOFT.COM.AINT.WORTH.SHIT.KLUGE.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM
To single out one record, look it up with "xxx", where xxx is one of the
of the records displayed above. If the records are the same, look them up
with "=xxx" to receive a full display for each record.
>>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 10:55:29 EST <<<
Check your facts before posting (took me under 5 minutes to find details about the Cassini RTGs, starting from www.nasa.gov and following links). The url is here if you can't be bothered to find it yourself.
"Tons" of radioactive material? Cassini carries 3 RTGs (total of 33 kg of plutonium dioxide) and several smaller radioisotope heater units (33.6 CI of fuel and 1.4 oz total weight PER unit). Ref: RTGs and heaters.
So there's approximately 72 pounds (for the metric-challenged) of PU-238 onboard. A "metric ton" is 2200 pounds. Methinks you are off by a factor of at least 30. (60 if you really meant "tons")
The RTGs are *DESIGNED* to prevent releasing the fuel into the environment. You can question the adequacy of the design and invent scenarios where it fails but you CANNOT state that the engineers at JPL, NASA, and various contractors are not taking the risk seriously.
Next, we DO NOT know our solar system. The discovery of active vulcanism on Io, potenital for water ice and liquid water on Europa, and questions about the atmosphere on Titan are relatively recent and the result of sending space probes to Jupiter and Saturn. Data on *ALL* the planets remain sketchy. This same information helps us develop an understanding of planetrary geology and meterology that applies to understanding Earth's environment as well (a good theory should accomodate observations on more than just one planet).
Heck, we don't understand the planet we live on that well. Ever hear of Earth Observation System (EOS)? Where do you think data on global climate changes, upper atmosphere properties (ozone depletion at the poles), or some of the observations of the Pacific and Atlantic thermal osciliations come from? NASA operates ALL those programs.
The *only* mission categories that are economically viable today are communications satellites, earth observation, maybe remote imaging (commercial "spy sats"), maybe weather. Government (DoD, NASA, NOAA in the US) has to fund everything else and did much of the work to make the rest possible. As much as we'd like it, private industry has not raised the capital necessary to do it on its own (for many reasons, political, economic, and technical).
Finally, we don't know WHEN humanity will NEED a real space capability. We CAN afford the research now. It's foolish on several levels to not do it.
The traditional argument over the NASA budget has been about the manned spaceflight program. Which has been a political beast since its inception.
And while I am not employed as a "rocket scientist" today, I studied to be one (aero astro engineering major) and can tell you EXACTLY where I was for most of the Mercury and Gemini launches, the Apollo flights, Shuttle 1st flight, and yes, Challenger.
Re:Cool but a BFT (Big F*SCKING Target)
on
Laser-equipped 747
·
· Score: 2
Good point and I was thinking of that when I posted my comment.
Which won't stop someone from trying innovative ways to try to defeat the system. Passive means, launch in bad weather, attack the aircraft (see Tom Clancy's <i>Red Storm Rising</i>, <i>Hunt for Red October</i> and <i>Debt of Honor</i> for ways of dealing with AWACS-style aircraft), ground infrastructure,....
USAF really wants to do this - they've been squeezed out of theatre missile defense and this is their ticket back in for the R&D and procurement dollars. And not every potential theater can be defended from ground (Patriot and successors) or sea-based (Ageis) systems.
USAF has been working on airborne laser concepts for years as part of various theatre and strategic missile defense projects. The 747 is a good platform for this - lots of payload capacity (power generation for the laser) and plenty of duration to loiter in a threat area.
But don't think this is going to be a "Battlestar Gallactica" with wings. The plane is going to be one great big high-value target. It will need escort fighters, tankers to refuel the fighters, maybe an AWACS to manage things,... you get the idea. Then there needs to be a ground base to maintain the laser system, housing for the technicians, facilities.... Multiply by the number of aircraft necessary to provide 24x7 defense of an area and you begin to get an idea of the difference between a one-off technology demonstration and a real weapon system.
So that there is little-to-nothing that can fail in the event of a reboot. This is firmware that *MUST* be as close to 100% reliable as humanly possible. There's no opportunity to flash new code into rom, after all. It simply has to be able to bring the satellite into a known safe state capable of responding to ground commands.
Once the satellite is in a known "safe" state, more capable software can be uplaoded into the flight computer. Which is what the controllers are doing.
As far as I know, most amateur satellites have followed this approach since at least AO-10. I know the microsat design does based on my experience with AO-27 and (peripherally) with IO-26. And yes, the ROMs on AO-27 were horribly expensive.
Aerospace and defense have *always* followed the ups and downs of contract awards. And the industry has been consolidating (and continues to) for the past 10-15 years with no signs of stopping.
The employee makeup at the big aerospace firms I worked at usually consisted of a large number of people with under 10 years experience (the point at which company pension plans started to vest until the retirement laws changed), a smaller group of greybeards who provided the corporate knowledge base and adult leadership, and relatively fewer people in between. There was always a large mass of people who followed the contracts from contractor to contractor - they were often quite good, but just never able to survive the mass layoffs when a contract was cancelled. They've been aware of the aging workforce problem for at least 10 years and seem no closer to a solution now.
I've worked at a number of big aerospace firms until I *finally* got into a growing IT firm and I 'd go back only if that was my only choice. The ones I worked for had very stratified management, you needed years of seniority to get onto a good project where you could have an impact, and your job security was only as good as the company's ability to lobby the government to keep the contract funded.
The satellite is spin-stabilized until they're done with the orbital manuevering. I don't think any automatic attitude control is activiated until they go into 3-axis mode. The command stations were using the sun/earth sensors and the camera experiment to orient for the first rocket firing.
But you're right about the satellite attitud. It should be close to 0/270, which poins to high-gain antennas at earth only near perigee (use InstantTrack or similar to see). So they've been using the omnis. I recall that the 70cm beacon was very weak, which is why they switched to 2M (which required IHU-2 I understand, which has the SEU's in ram,...)
I'm hoping the watchdog trips on the 25th, or that a reset if necessary is successful.
My understanding is the controllers had not yet uploaded EDAC code to the IHU-2 computer when the telemetry failure ocurred. That would have solved the RAM corruption problem. And maybe alleviated whatever happened, as they were having problems with the default 70cm telemetry beacon from IHU-1 and were using IHU-2 to activate the 2M beacon.
Bruce has explained that the critical onboard computer is rad-hard. The one that has the ram corruption is an experimental unit. The control team was planning on uploading error detection and correction (EDAC) code to deal with the ram corruption.
Hamsats spend their money where they have to and use clever design to get workarounds where they need it. And we take more risks than the commercial and scientific folks.
Eyesat/AO-27 (launced in 1993) uses a NEC V50 CPU with EDAC code for a 16MB ram disk. The only rad-hard chips were used for the boot roms, so a reset (either CPU crash or from a reset command) is unlikely to fail. As I recall, those few chips cost a fair percentage of the rest of the satellite's computer.
I might add that the AMSAT designers are VERY experienced with the space environment. Many work in space-related industries. The primary computer on AO-40 has a design history including two successful predecessors (AO-10, 13). They know what they are doing.
> One recurring theme in the book is one that any
> Social Engineer learns early on: Act like you're
> supposed to be there/doing that.
Or as a friend once observed regarding a colleague who had a knack for getting promotions based soley on his ability to B-S: "Act like you own the place and someone may just hand you the keys."
Slashdot Mirror
A few days after the attacks, I read an interview on either the jeruslaem post or haaretz daily's websites with an architect who had been one of the lead designers for the WTC towers. He compared the construction of skyscrapers in the US (steel frame) and Israel (reinforced concrete).
Architects know steel is more vulnerable to damage by fire than concrete. So the WTC structure was encased in concrete to provide additional time to evacuate the building. IIRC, he stated that they did not expect the building to survive a fire such as the one following the crashes, but to survive long enough to evacuate following impact of a smaller aircraft (B-707, I believe). Designing a building to be "safe" against all threats is impractical - you have to make a tradeoff at some point.
As to why Israelis use concrete and not steel, it's a matter of cost. Reinforced concrete is far cheaper in Israel than structural steel. In the US, lower costs for steel and resulting faster construction times overall make steel a better choice.
You want a location that places the flight path over water/remote areas for safety. KSC isn't in a "remote" location and population centers limit the available launch azimuths.
Vandenburg is the main US launch site for polar orbits, the islands off California require dogleg flight paths to achieve some orbits.
As NASA says, Kodiak provides an unobstructed launch corridor for polar orbits. Weather and the remote location make it less than ideal, however.
French Guiana is in an excellent location for equatorial launches and has a good launch azimuth for polar - it is one of the few launch sites that can do both geotransfer (equatorial) and earth observation (polar) launches.
If all goes well, you should be able to at least hear the downlink packets with a VHF scanner and 1/4 wave vertical antenna (YMMV). You will need a AX.25 TNC and terminal or comparable sound-card software to see the telemetry from the satellite and APRS position reports that get relayed through the satellite. Note that locations in the US will have to wait about 9 orbits before they can hear anything.
More info on the PCSAT web page. You can learn more about amateur radio at the ARRL web page and about amateur satellites at the AMSAT web page.
73, KA1LM
Vern Brownell was CTO at GS. He's CEO, not CTO, at Egenera.
The "innovative" use of tape measures (or the equivalent steel tape) dates back at least 10 years to the AMSAT Microsats. I believe the Microsats actually did use hardware store tape measures. We used the same antenna material (purchased for this use, not recycled from tape measures) on AO-27 and IO-26.
Using tape measure material for whip and dipole-style antenna elements is well-known in the amateur satellite community. Several of the middishimen's advisors are also active in AMSAT, and probably provided the suggestion if the middies didn't find it themselves.
73
KA1LM
It's probably the toughest part of being a freelancer or consultant.
... This book SHOULD tell the reader to take a long hard look at themselves and ask if they can do the sales job as well as the technical job (and the admin job, and the financial job,..). If they can't or won't, being "an independent" is likely not for them.
Face it, most "geeks" are as unfamiliar with marketing, selling, cold calling, and negotiating and closing a sale as they are skilled with installations, networking, administration, coding,
Look at many small consulting shops - several techs, usually with kick-ass skills, and a business manager/sales/marketing person to take care of the essential tasks the techs can't do well enough themselves.
I speak with some experience - I know my limitations and being effective as my own sales person is outside my core strengths. My wife has had her own marketing business for years and is very successful - she could sell snow in a blizzard (if I ever decided to go independent, I'd hire her to sell me). My brother is a freelance photographer and multimedia designer/producer, and while he is excellent technically (awards, kudos, the whole bit), he HATES doing the sales part and as a result, he struggles.
The power limits are further constrained by the requirement to use the minimum power necessary to achieve communications, and the need to control uwave RF exposure to people near the antenna.
Plus generating that much power at 2.4 GHz is EXPENSIVE as well as unecessary.
True, but the FCC regulations for the Amateur Service place limitations on the content you can send, use of encryption, and other restrictions that may make "souping up" an 802.11b system more useful.
I do. Using palm Vx and Omnisky:
email when I'm remote and away from a net connection - regularly.
look up tech info on a website - several times - depends on which web browser works (Avantgo is best overall as a web browser, but syncing channels wirelessly is PAINFUL)
get directions/phone numbers to someplace I am trying to find (work and personal)
check stocks - became too painful watching my alleged net worth evaporate
trade stocks - haven't bothered to make necessary changes to my account
Check news, slashdot - when I'm bored, assuming there is a PQA out there (or I'll start using sitescooper)
remote access via ssh to other boxes - several times when I needed it and this was only way. Also handy for irc access.
Granted, the connections are sometimes slow and not always reliable, even in places you'd expect them to be solid. And the omnisky software can go belly-up at the damndest times.
I was reading the Tech Review article last night, and I think the combination of dual-mode (CPDP + digital network) "modems" and improvements to the software will make wireless access "good enough", at least for techno-geek early adopters.
As my spouse rarely uses a PDA for more than an address and appointment book, I think it'll be a while for the masses. And USEFUL unification of PDAs, phones, 2-way pagers is even further off.
Already addressed in the Doonsburyesque "Ferd the Nerd" comic strip by Fred Hutchinson that appeared in "The Tech", I believe, in the mid 1970s. As best I can recall:
Student to Asst Dean: "Man, you gotta help me - it's my roomate."
Asst. Dean: "What's the problem?"
Student: "He keeps me up all night."
Asst Dean: "A real tool, eh?" [tool: n., someone who spends all their time studying]
Student: "No. He glows in the dark!"
Asst. Dean: "What?!"
Student: "Yeah man. See, he fell into the reactor while retrieving a wrench and now he's got this pale green glow!"
And hacking was NEVER limited to seniors (limiting hacks to seniors is the tradition at Caltech's "Ditch Day")
We did exactly this on a couple of projects at my old employer (Cold Fusion-based web development, most of the web developers were Windows-only). The MyODBC driver works fine, and Access doesn't really care what the backend system looks like.
There are also 3rd-party scripts to dump a database and definition from Access into SQL for migration into MySQL.
We did run into issues with how Access treats some data types (I recall time/date as one) vs. MySQL.
So using Access as a client for MySQL works and is certainly better than using Access alone.
Longer-term, your employer may be more receptive to replacing Access if you can demonstrate the benefits of cross-platform portability, ease of creating a web interface, or other benefits meaningful to them.
"Ham" (amateur) radio groups provide communications support for the ride. This may include ATV (amateur television) and definietly includes APRS (amatuer position reporting system). ATV can send live NTSC-quality video and audio at least from near cities on the route. APRS has an add-on protocol for sending still images and supports links to internet feeds. The hams have already figured out solutions to power, equipment, safety, and operating procedures.
Another approach might be to use a CPDP modem with a laptop. I do not think there is an easy way to do it with a Palm or Visor, although there is a simple httpd server for the palm that works fine with the omnisky modem. Coverage outside of cities may be a problem.
But it does suggest a likely way for Microsoft (and others) to attack Linux and other open source alternatives through the US legal system:
Another tack would be to sneak language into various spending bills requiring government IT departments to only acquire software that just happens to be rule out use of open source/linux/... Such regulations exist (Posix certficiation, for example), but don't always get enforced.
Although M$'s record lobbying has been poor, they do eventually get things right. And their logical allies (MPAA, RIAA, ...) **KNOW** how to lobby.
should be interesting....
AFAIK, Josephus makes NO mention of Jesus in his two books that have survived ("The Jewish Wars" is one, I forget the title of the other).
There is also general agreement (or at least a strong argument, I am not a "new testament" adherent or bible scholar) that the gospel books in particular have to be considered in the context of when they were written. You have the changing makeup of the early church from Jewish "followers" of Jesus to gentiles, and the changing relationship with Rome.
Fundamentalist Christians who consider their Bible the direct recorded word of G-d are free to disagree with me.
$ whois microsoft.com@whois.internic.net
.com, .net, and .org domains can now be registered
- BY BIRTH.ARTISTICCHEESE.COM
. CO M
. OR G
S .N U
T IO N.COM
R OR ISTS.NET
T .J IMPHILLIPS.ORG
T IS TICCHEESE.COM
. CO M
V ES .NET
W OR K.COM
I S. FRANCS.DOUZE.ORG
N ET
[whois.internic.net]
Whois Server Version 1.3
Domain names in the
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.
MICROSOFT.COM.WILL.LIVE.FOREVER.BUT.LUNIX.SUCKS
MICROSOFT.COM.SHOULD.GIVE.UP.BECAUSE.LINUXISGOD
MICROSOFT.COM.SE.FAIT.HAX0RIZER.PAR.TOUT.LE.ZOY
MICROSOFT.COM.OWNED.BY.MAT.HACKSWARE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.N-AIME.BILL.QUE.QUAND.IL.N-EST.PA
MICROSOFT.COM.MUST.STOP.TAKEDRUGS.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.SOON.GOING.TO.THE.DEATHCORPORA
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.SECRETLY.RUN.BY.ILLUMINATI.TER
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.NOTHING.BUT.A.MONSTER.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.NO.MATCH.FOR.THE.UEBER-GEEKS.A
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.GOD.BUT.LINUX.SUCKS-FOREVER.AR
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.BORING.COMPARED.TO.TEENEXTREME
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.AT.THE.MERCY.OF.DETRIMENT.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.INSPIRES.COPYCAT.WANNABE.SUBVERSI
MICROSOFT.COM.HAS.NO.LINUXCLUE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.HACKED.BY.PSYKOJOKO.ON.A.ROOT-NET
MICROSOFT.COM.HACKED.BY.HACKSWARE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.GUTS.NL
MICROSOFT.COM.FAIT.VRAIMENT.DES.LOGICIELS.A.TRO
MICROSOFT.COM.ER.IKKE.NO.I.FORHOLD.TIL.LATHANS.
MICROSOFT.COM.AINT.WORTH.SHIT.KLUGE.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM
To single out one record, look it up with "xxx", where xxx is one of the
of the records displayed above. If the records are the same, look them up
with "=xxx" to receive a full display for each record.
>>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 10:55:29 EST <<<
"Tons" of radioactive material? Cassini carries 3 RTGs (total of 33 kg of plutonium dioxide) and several smaller radioisotope heater units (33.6 CI of fuel and 1.4 oz total weight PER unit). Ref: RTGs and heaters. So there's approximately 72 pounds (for the metric-challenged) of PU-238 onboard. A "metric ton" is 2200 pounds. Methinks you are off by a factor of at least 30. (60 if you really meant "tons")
The RTGs are *DESIGNED* to prevent releasing the fuel into the environment. You can question the adequacy of the design and invent scenarios where it fails but you CANNOT state that the engineers at JPL, NASA, and various contractors are not taking the risk seriously.
Next, we DO NOT know our solar system. The discovery of active vulcanism on Io, potenital for water ice and liquid water on Europa, and questions about the atmosphere on Titan are relatively recent and the result of sending space probes to Jupiter and Saturn. Data on *ALL* the planets remain sketchy. This same information helps us develop an understanding of planetrary geology and meterology that applies to understanding Earth's environment as well (a good theory should accomodate observations on more than just one planet).
Heck, we don't understand the planet we live on that well. Ever hear of Earth Observation System (EOS)? Where do you think data on global climate changes, upper atmosphere properties (ozone depletion at the poles), or some of the observations of the Pacific and Atlantic thermal osciliations come from? NASA operates ALL those programs.
The *only* mission categories that are economically viable today are communications satellites, earth observation, maybe remote imaging (commercial "spy sats"), maybe weather. Government (DoD, NASA, NOAA in the US) has to fund everything else and did much of the work to make the rest possible. As much as we'd like it, private industry has not raised the capital necessary to do it on its own (for many reasons, political, economic, and technical).
Finally, we don't know WHEN humanity will NEED a real space capability. We CAN afford the research now. It's foolish on several levels to not do it.
The traditional argument over the NASA budget has been about the manned spaceflight program. Which has been a political beast since its inception.
And while I am not employed as a "rocket scientist" today, I studied to be one (aero astro engineering major) and can tell you EXACTLY where I was for most of the Mercury and Gemini launches, the Apollo flights, Shuttle 1st flight, and yes, Challenger.
Good point and I was thinking of that when I posted my comment.
Which won't stop someone from trying innovative ways to try to defeat the system. Passive means, launch in bad weather, attack the aircraft (see Tom Clancy's <i>Red Storm Rising</i>, <i>Hunt for Red October</i> and <i>Debt of Honor</i> for ways of dealing with AWACS-style aircraft), ground infrastructure,....
USAF really wants to do this - they've been squeezed out of theatre missile defense and this is their ticket back in for the R&D and procurement dollars. And not every potential theater can be defended from ground (Patriot and successors) or sea-based (Ageis) systems.
USAF has been working on airborne laser concepts for years as part of various theatre and strategic missile defense projects. The 747 is a good platform for this - lots of payload capacity (power generation for the laser) and plenty of duration to loiter in a threat area.
But don't think this is going to be a "Battlestar Gallactica" with wings. The plane is going to be one great big high-value target. It will need escort fighters, tankers to refuel the fighters, maybe an AWACS to manage things,... you get the idea. Then there needs to be a ground base to maintain the laser system, housing for the technicians, facilities.... Multiply by the number of aircraft necessary to provide 24x7 defense of an area and you begin to get an idea of the difference between a one-off technology demonstration and a real weapon system.
So that there is little-to-nothing that can fail in the event of a reboot. This is firmware that *MUST* be as close to 100% reliable as humanly possible. There's no opportunity to flash new code into rom, after all. It simply has to be able to bring the satellite into a known safe state capable of responding to ground commands.
Once the satellite is in a known "safe" state, more capable software can be uplaoded into the flight computer. Which is what the controllers are doing.
As far as I know, most amateur satellites have followed this approach since at least AO-10. I know the microsat design does based on my experience with AO-27 and (peripherally) with IO-26. And yes, the ROMs on AO-27 were horribly expensive.
KA1LM
Aerospace and defense have *always* followed the ups and downs of contract awards. And the industry has been consolidating (and continues to) for the past 10-15 years with no signs of stopping.
The employee makeup at the big aerospace firms I worked at usually consisted of a large number of people with under 10 years experience (the point at which company pension plans started to vest until the retirement laws changed), a smaller group of greybeards who provided the corporate knowledge base and adult leadership, and relatively fewer people in between. There was always a large mass of people who followed the contracts from contractor to contractor - they were often quite good, but just never able to survive the mass layoffs when a contract was cancelled. They've been aware of the aging workforce problem for at least 10 years and seem no closer to a solution now.
I've worked at a number of big aerospace firms until I *finally* got into a growing IT firm and I 'd go back only if that was my only choice. The ones I worked for had very stratified management, you needed years of seniority to get onto a good project where you could have an impact, and your job security was only as good as the company's ability to lobby the government to keep the contract funded.
The satellite is spin-stabilized until they're done with the orbital manuevering. I don't think any automatic attitude control is activiated until they go into 3-axis mode. The command stations were using the sun/earth sensors and the camera experiment to orient for the first rocket firing.
...)
But you're right about the satellite attitud. It should be close to 0/270, which poins to high-gain antennas at earth only near perigee (use InstantTrack or similar to see). So they've been using the omnis. I recall that the 70cm beacon was very weak, which is why they switched to 2M (which required IHU-2 I understand, which has the SEU's in ram,
I'm hoping the watchdog trips on the 25th, or that a reset if necessary is successful.
KA1LM
My understanding is the controllers had not yet uploaded EDAC code to the IHU-2 computer when the telemetry failure ocurred. That would have solved the RAM corruption problem. And maybe alleviated whatever happened, as they were having problems with the default 70cm telemetry beacon from IHU-1 and were using IHU-2 to activate the 2M beacon.
KA1LM
Bruce has explained that the critical onboard computer is rad-hard. The one that has the ram corruption is an experimental unit. The control team was planning on uploading error detection and correction (EDAC) code to deal with the ram corruption.
Hamsats spend their money where they have to and use clever design to get workarounds where they need it. And we take more risks than the commercial and scientific folks.
Eyesat/AO-27 (launced in 1993) uses a NEC V50 CPU with EDAC code for a 16MB ram disk. The only rad-hard chips were used for the boot roms, so a reset (either CPU crash or from a reset command) is unlikely to fail. As I recall, those few chips cost a fair percentage of the rest of the satellite's computer.
I might add that the AMSAT designers are VERY experienced with the space environment. Many work in space-related industries. The primary computer on AO-40 has a design history including two successful predecessors (AO-10, 13). They know what they are doing.
KA1LM
> One recurring theme in the book is one that any
> Social Engineer learns early on: Act like you're
> supposed to be there/doing that.
Or as a friend once observed regarding a colleague who had a knack for getting promotions based soley on his ability to B-S: "Act like you own the place and someone may just hand you the keys."