Posts by Gene Cash 7029 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Mar 2007
LOL. And you forget Boeing with the Starliner capsule that nearly killed a crew (it got REALLY dicey for a bit) and is still so untrustworthy that NASA doesn't trust it any further than it can throw a Saturn V, and now looks like it'll NEVER deliver a crew to ISS?
Go look up how much Boeing has sucked up for that. They got paid a lot more than SpaceX got for Crew Dragon.
Not that SpaceX is flawless, but at least they're going measurably in the right direction.
It's not that impressive. At least back to the Saturn I, there's a brief holddown period while the computer checks all the temperatures, pressures, RPMs, etc (rates of change as well as the values themselves) and if it's not all proper, it's "computer says no", the holddowns don't release, and things shut down. It only takes a few seconds.
You still have to watch out for engines grenading because of (for example) a cleaning rag left in a turbopump inlet. However, you hope the numbers will be off far enough for a shutdown before unexpected disassembly.
Also, quickly shutting down a rocket engine in the middle of startup can be exciting, with thermal and turbopump RPM excursions to worry about.
Edit: See Why Saturn V Was Not Released at Zero
Or my Honeywell thermostat:
"I see you're using the Android app!! Great!! Let's delete your current configuration and get started!!"
NOOOOO! [as my laboriously set up heating/cooling schedule vanishes]
It was replaced a unit with a COOL/HEAT/OFF slider and +/- buttons for the temperature, plus it met Mr. 64oz Sledge.
"Because in 1983 there was nothing like it outside research labs"
Ah, but the rub is that wasn't visible on the other side of a magazine page. The journos didn't talk it up because they had no clue, and even if they did, it was impossible to get most of that across to an audience that DID NOT know what a mouse even was.
Remember, Windows *2.0* wasn't released until 1988, which is 5 years later.
Decades ago, I had a 2nd-hand AMD board, running without a case on a bare piece of plywood, as I was a poor college student.
I was reading email when I heard "SPROOING" and something ricocheted around the walls. I was like "what the HELL was THAT?" when the box went into thermal shutdown.
Inspection showed the anchor at one end of the heatsink clip had simply pulled out of the motherboard.
Has there been any, other than Land Rover?
Every time I've seen "[major company] got hacked, xxx,000s records of customer data released on dark web" everyone shrugs their shoulders, the affected people get 12 months of credit reporting and a $5 voucher good at [major company] and nothing else happens.
There's no impact from any regulatory body, there's no notice from stockholders or investors, and it's a complete non-issue.
No wonder no one considers spending money on IT security.
Our uni had VM/CMS, and we had the usual command to change your password. But I know it was stored in plain text, because my boss was part of a research project that categorized passwords (e.g. dictionary word, acronym, user name) and he had to look at every one. This was mid-'90s.
At my community college we had a Data General. I remember hearing it had an OS "user profile" file, so I found and dumped mine. First thing that popped out was my plain text password. This was mid-'80s.
1,000 percent increase in the number of 3D printed ghost guns appearing in crime scenes between 2020 and 2024
That's because there weren't any decent 3D printers in 2020 to print any guns.
It's like saying there was a 1,000 percent increase in the number of iphones appearing in crime scenes between 2006 and 2010
"cross platform messaging client" - isn't that marketing speak for email?
It's also got an RSS reader which works pretty well.
Meh. It's an email client with a useful UI where I can turn off the threads crap that everything likes to force down my throat.
It's also finally got a native calendar display. I don't use it for anything other than listing holidays and my events for the next month, but that's just the way I like it.
It doesn't crash, it doesn't hang, and it doesn't play stupid UI tricks, and that's all I ask.
This is the sort of bullshit that caused me to stop using my gmail account.
Now they have a banner saying I could lose 19 years of email if I don't provide my phone number. Which is false because I no longer even use it, and it's now just a MASSIVE spam repository.
I only have it because I have an Android phone.
The original reason was because Google went on a rampage deleting accounts of "people not using their real names" and my name is weird enough that I was worried it would happen to me.
At least on this side of the pond, I can report them to the FTC, especially if they don't a) honor my unsubscribe or b) don't have an unsubscribe.
A couple times I've reported them to their mail provider. This REALLY pissed off a Chinese company that didn't have an unsubscribe link. I accidentally bought some motorcycle stuff from them, before I discovered it was just a drop-ship front. They started filing bogus shipping and customs claims with FedEx, which apparently pissed off FedEx enough to ban them.
I've had a Toyota dealer bug me about oil changes for my 4Runner, which is nonsense because I don't have a car, much less a Toyota. I've reported them 4 times, and the last time, I got a call from the sales manager wondering why I keep reporting them to the FTC.
The trajectory allowed the mission to happen at all. Originally outer-planet missions were going to be launched on Saturn Vs. When that went away, it was rough.
Can you imagine a Saturn V launching a Pluto probe? We might actually get an orbiter instead of a Warp 9 "whoopthereitswhooptherewego" flyby.
This country went from landing on the Moon to "This bag is not a toy!" and arguing about evolution in 40 years. This makes me very sad.
I can't imagine many circumstances where I'd return to a PPOE.
I left for a reason, and that usually would be an asshole boss (who'd be welcome to enjoy the unlubed dildo of consequences) or complete clown mismanagement ("they had simply turned the server off") and that reason would preclude returning.
Not even if there was a lot of money involved. Not worth it.
I'd be like "no, you decided to fire the people running the systems, it's your fault things are in a state"
Gemini did a lot of "how to work in weightlessness" and "how to rendezvous" which we now know how to do. So most of Gemini is not applicable now.
I guess it was just to mention Gemini 8 as some sort of frightful scare tactic?
And considering SpaceX has launched 3 Falcon 9s from the Cape in less than 24 hours, I don't think they'd find it difficult to do two launches in 2 hours if they wanted to.
When you have roughly the same mission but a new spacecraft, you're still going to need to test that the spacecraft can do the same things.
And close to home too... You don't want to go all the way to the Moon and find out your lander just shit itself.
Edit: also a lot of the changes are being driven by hardware availability, just like Apollo. There was never supposed to be an Apollo 8. That only happened because the LM was late and we wanted to beat the Soviets. Also, there was not really supposed to be an Apollo 10. That happened because the LM was still too heavy to land and take off again. They had to do a SWIP (super weight improvement plan) for Apollo 11 and this wasn't finished by Apollo 10.
So Apollo was not a joyride down to the park either.
See Unimaginable outcome from Curiosity’s latest drilling attempt on Mars Guy's YouTube channel.
Now if you read an article, there's no change to indicate what you've read, and what you haven't. No link color change or anything like that.
I don't have time or inclination to sit here and try to remember what the hell I read yesterday or an hour ago. That's what computers and browsers ARE FOR.
So now there's friction when I come to the front page, and I go "ugh I don't want to deal with that"
I guess I'll probably just drift to TWZ.com, or more webcomics forums, or YouTube and browse Big Clive or OutsideXbox or How2Drink or something.
See ya.
You did have a nice long run before enshittification. I've been expecting this sort of thing since Lester Haines died.
Shoot, my Motorola Droid still boots and the battery works for at least a week on a charge, which is rather impressive.
I think the Droid was the Milestone in the UK?
Of course Google Play just laughs at me because it's still running Froyo.
Anyway, the damn thing is solid metal and weighs nearly half a pound. I'd give a kneecap to have another one. That slide-out keyboard was the best.
