Posts by Simon Woodworth

Obama: We're off to Mars

Bad speech. Good policy move.

Obama's speech was very poorly delivered. Several jokes tanked and he seemed to stumble quite a lot. Lack of preparation perhaps? Anyway, scrapping Ares I and Ares V is a good move. Jupiter Direct is allegedly cheaper, safer and provides just as much heavy lift capabilitiy. And you can put an Orion capsule on top if you wish. Elon Musk has every right to be happy as Falcon 9 is emerging as the front runner for transport to LEO. And it's human - rated.

The beer is for the Apollo 13 crew.

DIMENSIONAL PORTAL INCURSION AT THE LHC!

Stargate?

Did Rodney McKay step through?

NASA review: Forget about boots on Mars by 2030

It's the Moon I'm worried about

The more worrying problem is that the Moon by 2020 might be off the cards. This would be a big mistake. Getting to the Moon should be much cheaper and much more sustainable than going to Mars. I don't understand why some of the development cost can't be moved to private industry. SpaceX isn't that far away from launching its Falcon 9 vehicle, which is designed from the outset to be human-rated.

High Court shields database state from blame

Your computer is your friend

Citizen! Report to your local extermination centre immediately! Your computer is your friend.

A bad joke from my college days, now I'm not so sure.

Microsoft delays first Windows 7 public beta

Available to download now

It's working now. Took two attempts to get the download started but so far so good.

SpaceX assembles Falcon 9 rocket

@Sean: ESA?

Not sure what the ESA can do to stop SpaceX. The Falcon 9 Heavy could be seen as a direct competitor for the Ariane 5 ECA. The killer is that the Falcon 9 + Dragon is man-rated from the word go, whereas the Ariane 5 isn't. The ESA could man-rate the Ariane 5 + Jules Verne combo and then we'd have two heavy lifters capable of ferrying people + cargo to LEO. This might actually make the ISS useful.

Jerry Yang - Slugworth to Google's Willy Wonka

Don't stand under the tree

If I remember my Gulliver's Travels correctly, Yahoos were obnoxious creatures who climbed trees and crapped on anyone below. So Yang's title of Chief Yahoo! seems apt.

Hadron boffins: Our meddling will not destroy universe

Carter Catastrophe or Big Mistake?

Anyone taking bets on whether it'll be a Stephen Baxter - or Dan Simmons - flavoured catastrophe? If it's of the Dan Simmons variety then I for one welcome our TechnoCore overlords.

Orange dismantles Bristol Tower of Doom

Idiots

Most of the energy from a mobile mast is radiated outwards, not downwards. So if you want to dodge all those "harmful" mobile 'phone signals, being right under the antennae is not a bad place to be.