Posts by John Smith 19

The top of the atmosphere varies 10x at any one time.

and that is the biggest force on a satellite (below 1000Km) by a *large* margin. Given at least one NASA con-tractor (Raytheon?) is looking to de-orbit debris by puffing small bursts of gas in there path (so they plough into what is *relatively* a brick wall compared to the actual atmosphere at that height, and fall rapidly below orbital velocity while the cloud disperses) this variation is not that surprising. While daily and seasonal changes are *fairly* predictable there are solar flares which are not. That said it seems hard to believe that NASA did not leave *something* in the tanks to bring it down faster, or even solar panels pointing at right angles to the direction of flight in the atmosphere would have an effect.

Finally an excuse to use even cheaper plastic for the case.

Brilliant.

I can barely control my excitement.

So how difficult is it to configure an SSL certificate server *correctly*

Is it a task requiring many years of study and wearing of sandals?

Or just a case of RTFM?

You can teach knowledge, but you can't teach thoroughness.

BTW Sampling *every* meter every 2 secs. Note that's not switching tariffs every 2 secs.

How often are they planning to bill customers?

But don't worry as old source code is *never* used in newer products.

I believe them.

Honest I do.

Monocultures of *all* kinds are susceptible.

Plants, crop fungus.

Operating systems, viruses.

Large centrally owned media conglomerates, group think.

Nothing will change until *senior* officials get fired or go to jail.

Until then it's just an accountancy problem (unless the fine can *bankrupt* the institution).

I thought a chimera was made from *different* species

But finding out the differences between mouse and primate stem cells and learning how far you can push the mouse is just like a human analogy is a *key* piece of information for all future researchers in this area.

So much disrespect for the recently departed.

And soon to be sanctified.

It gives me a real feeling of hope for the world.

And of course there is always this

http://www.channel4.com/news/is-the-future-of-british-coal-burning-it-underground

Fire in the hole!

Reaction Engines might be hiring as well.

Provided their pre-cooler tests go off OK and roughly £200m gets released.

I said there *might* be a way to make this work

I also said what it's chances of working out were.

IRL, I think they be f***ed.

They're *collectibles*

As in first edition books, stamps, etc.

They may be used but I bet most of the buyers will keep them in their original packaging.

As for reverse engineering, I'll doubt anyone could match the price unless they are prepared to order roughly 10x the quantity of chips from Broadcomm.

"There's *always* an enemy, Steed.

You just need to know where to look"

As Microsoft know this is a hearts and minds campagn

Grab them by the API's (and the proprietary data formats) and their hearts and minds follow right along.

A note on GPS antennas

Most high data rate sat systems are either in geosynchronous orbit (IE *fixed* in the sky) or needing to communicate with 1 sat at a time (LEO comms constellations like Iridium and Orbcomm).

The usual answer is a *steerable* dish in azimuth and direction to track the *single* target while the platform moves, while receiving or sending a signal across a *very* narrow angle of sky.

GPS does not have this luxury. Signals could come from anywhere across the whole visible *hemisphere* of sky, 180deg in *either* direction.

And a GPS receiver has to track *four* satellites for a fix. Not 1 or 2.

The *simplest* solution is a special *passive* aerial with good coverage in a blister on the top side of the vehicle. Phased arrays have trouble down to the horizon ("endfire") and add complexity. Multiple blisters worsen aerodynamics (and presumably stealth characteristics).

Tests have been done for using GPS for *attitude* determination on satellites (JPL and IIRC SSTL have done so), which is a similar problem.

Obviously depending on how seriously people take this capability future designs may choose to go with other aerial and receiver options.Modern DSP based GPS receivers can have enough "channels" to track *all* visible satellites continuously.

BTW the CSM article *names* a General supposedly involved in the programme (who was reportedly dead of a heart attack shortly afterward) who should be senior enough to speak with some authority on the project. It's not entirely an anonymous informant.

Sadly there are few *British* companies big enough to compete on these £Bn c ontracts

Although all of those that can seem perfectly capable of f***ing them up as well as any of their foreign rivals.

I will note that NpfIT was a joint f***up of the Dept of Health, NHS management (at various levels) and of course the monster IT "service providers" who *despite* being monster sizes (and expensive) seemed unable to support more than 1 web browser.

Note that unlike the US Gov (which can cancel contracts *unilaterally* with *no* compensation) HMG virtually *always* sticks to the contract and (apparently) *never* inserts penalty clauses.

I'll hope that this curbs CSC's more creative proposal writing efforts in the future.

But I doubt it.

BIS has *lots* of research papers on research they have funded

But boy, try and find them. No workable search facility I've ever found.

For those looking for 1 off papers in the UK but not linked up to a proper academic library you might like to try interlibrary loans. These have a flat fee for single articles with no known page limit.

AFAIK the fee is *lots* lower than the typical fee charged by any learned society but with a fairly long delivery time (weeks, not days).

She'll be the "One bad apple" as per usual.

Like the one bad apple that framed the Birmingham 6

The OBA that framed the Guidlford 4

The OBA that fitted up the Cardiff 3

But never fear. "Lessons will be learned"

Funny though that you'd have thought the folk on the NoTW would have met someone closer to their home offices around Wapping.

Wow. Memory interleaved with processors.

The 80's have finally arrived*

*As in there is real *hardware*, weather or not it will be sold is another matter.

Chopping the Home Office in to 2 bits doesn't seem to have curbed their enthusiasm

for this sort of b***ocks.

I'd like to get the senior civil servants who think this s**t up (or their brain dead "masters") to write out

"Massive govt IT projects have a long history of failure to deliver either the cost, staffing or operational benefits they are touted as offering and are almost invariably late and over budget"

1000 times in pencil.

Remember Britards, it's *your* cash they will be splashing.

Still looking for Goldilocks

Not too big, not too small...

But getting closer.

"Dear Randall"

This is the best Christmas present we have ever had.

We could not have done it without you.

Thanks a Billion

Your old friend

Rene.

Note this system *currently* applies to people over 60.

Using CodgerTrac(TM) on your mobile you'll know when registered CD's are out and about (and more importantly if they're likely to drop in on you).

Plan your surprise visits with confidence knowing they won't have gone off somewhere. Be warned of impending inlaw arrivals, allowing the chance of a quick tidy up and hiding any embarrassing items you wouldn't want them to see.

Of course there will be down sides as clueful burglars use hacked versions to find out where they are in a block or street and do a block burglary when they're off to the local day care centre/church/bowling green

As Stephen Hawking might say "The possibilities are endless and limited only by the imagination."

Who *owns* this company?

Somewhere along the line it seems that many US & UK managers forgot they are usually the companies highest paid *employees*. Putting Conrad Black in jail was a good start to reversing this view but I thing a few more could have done with checking into one of Uncle Sam hotels.

The *owners* are the people holding the stocks. However they seem to be mostly *corporate* investors, IE pension funds.

I can only presume that the stock pays out a good dividend, otherwise what excuse would they have for not trying to get the Board replaced?

The *only* part of the market which does seem to be working is *repeated* lousy results -> louse stock price, which suggest the market as a whole is not stupid enough to buy into this mess.

Shareholders have rights but it is up to them to *exercise* those rights.

"total suppression of published opinion based on allegations "

I have some vague memory that was not quite the basis the US was founded upon.

Perhaps US citizens reading this would like to put pen to paper and remind their *elected* representatives of this fact.

"the only supported browser is IE6"

This just keeps getting better and better.

"new physics starts now"

Well I thought 60ns faster than light results might have had some impact....

Or perhaps the work on could formation being driven by Galactic cosmic ray input.,,,

Shhh. It's OK

1) No one will ever find about them.

2) Their staff will *never* tell anyone about them.

Opps

A few points

Short production runs of highly specialized aircraft is what Scaled Composites *does*. That's BAU for them.

It's not clear if they just using the engines or keeping the fuselages as well.

As others have pointed out you gain some velocity (up to c300ms) and avoid some losses *but* not enough to eliminate a whole *stage* (AFAIK they are still talking TSTO).

It's not clear if you can use the nozzle developed for the Merlin vacuum variant or need another nozzle entirely. Which up's the development bill.

While Falcon 5 was *planned* it's unclear how far it's development has actually gone, while "Falcon 4" would seem to be a *completely* new vehicle.

That said given Spacex's highly modular approach to development *should* make the shift fairly easy.

*However* that leaves the problem that it's *very* doubtful any Falcon was designed to be carried *horizontally* while fully loaded with a payload attached. Might have enough margin that it's no big deal. Might not.

The hair

is well weapon.

AC@11:07

"... even if it's just for garlic eating foreigners."

To begin with.

This smells of Lenin's admonishment to "Press the bayonet in. If it meets fat, press harder."