lousyd - Slashdot User

Submission + - SpaceX Announces Dragon as First Falcon 9 Payload (spaceflightnow.com)

Submitted by

BJ_Covert_Action

on Friday September 25, 2009 @02:53PM

BJ_Covert_Action writes: "SpaceX announced yesterday that it would be integrating a stripped down test version of its own Dragon cargo capsule as the payload for its first Falcon 9 test launch. The Falcon 9 rocket is currently scheduled to launch on November 29 of this year if everything goes according to plan. However, Elon Musk admits that launch day will likely slip to sometime early next year. The Falcon 9 is the heavy launch vehicle designed by SpaceX to be used as a cheap, commercial alternative to existing United States launch platforms. Having launched a few successful light missions with the Falcon 1 rocket, SpaceX is going to launch the Falcon 9 as its next milestone in commercializing the space industry.

Utilizing its own cargo capsule as the first Falcon 9 payload will effectively give SpaceX twice the tests for one launch slot on the Cape Canaveral range. The capsule that will be used is a test version of the full Dragon capsule that encompasses primarily the structure and a few components of the full version. It served originally as a ground test platform for the Dragon design team and now will double as an orbital testbed. If nothing else, the announcement, which was detailed by Spaceflightnow.com upped the ante in the commercial space market by showing the SpaceX is capable and willing to push the envelop on its development schedules. It should serve as a proper motivator for other commercial competitors such as Orbital Sciences with their Cygnus capsule which is also under development."

Submission + - Space Shuttles Could Fly Beyond 2011 (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by

xp65

on Friday September 25, 2009 @02:23PM

xp65 writes: "Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov said earlier today in Moscow that he hopes that the US space shuttle program will be prolonged, adding he has been informed of the possibility of shuttles flying beyond 2011. "We have received information from certain sources that the use of space shuttles could be extended beyond 2011," Perminov was quoted in Interfax, adding that this information arrived through unofficial channels. As of now, NASA plans only six more shuttle missions, with the program ending by late 2010 or early 2011 after the construction of the International Space Station (ISS) is complete."

Submission + - Google Project 10^100 Reaches Voting Phase (project10tothe100.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25, 2009 @02:00PM

An anonymous reader writes: In autumn last year, Google announced Project 10 to the 100, through which it aimed to commit $10 million to implement the best philanthropic idea. The project was suspended indefinitely after receiving more than 150,000 submissions.

Google has now announced sixteen finalists--each of which was inspired by many individual submissions--and issued a call for votes. The voting deadline is October 8: the Project 10^100 advisory board will then select up to five ideas to be implemented.

Submission + - Survivalism: Not Just for the Soldier of Fortune (pjtv.com)

Submitted by

YIAAL

on Friday September 25, 2009 @11:02AM

YIAAL writes: "Survivalism has gone mainstream, as has a lesser culture of increased self-reliance in the form of gardening, "off the grid" power sources, etc. In this TV interview, Popular Mechanics editor Jim Meigs talks about what's happening and why."

Submission + - SPAM: Worker Accused in Dell Deal Led 1979 Iran Rescue

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Friday September 25, 2009 @09:32AM

itwbennett writes: "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Perot Systems worker charged by the SEC with insider trading in Dell's purchase of Perot Systems earlier this week once led the mob that broke into the prison where two American EDS employees were being held hostage. After setting his fellow workers free, Saleh helped safeguard them on a harrowing overland escape to Turkey, the Journal says."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Andy Grove to Industry: Get off your Ass

Submitted by lousyd on Friday September 04, 2009 @12:23PM

lousyd writes: Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel and present instructor at Stanford Business School, has a message for industry. He believes that health care and energy, especially, could learn a lesson from computing's innovative and relatively government-free history. He asks students to imagine if mainframe vendors had asked government to prop them up in the same way that General Motors has recently had. On the issue of computer patents, he insists that firms must use their patents or lose them: "You can't just sit on your ass and give everyone the finger."

Comment End the Monopoly (Score 1) 381

by lousyd on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @06:31PM (#28018839) Attached to: Cory Doctorow Draws the Line On Net Neutrality

If this is about phone companies, then I think I'd rather just end the monopoly they enjoy anyway. Asking a committee or government to decide what forms of Internet access are equal to others (and thus require neutrality) is just asking for trouble.

End the monopoly and let me pay my own way.

Submission + - The Sewing Machine War (volokh.com)

Submitted by lousyd on Thursday April 30, 2009 @01:17PM

lousyd writes: Volokh has hosted a paper by George Mason University law professor Adam Mossoff on the patent fracas a century and a half ago surrounding the sewing machine. A Stitch in Time: The Rise and Fall of the Sewing Machine Patent Thicket challenges assumptions by courts and scholars today about the alleged efficiency-choking complexities of the modern patent system. Mossoff says that complementary inventions, extensive patent litigation, so-called "patent trolls," patent thickets, and privately formed patent pools have long been features of the American patent system reaching back to the antebellum era.

Comment 5-10 per minute? For 100 people? (Score 4, Funny) 321

by lousyd on Thursday February 26, 2009 @08:36PM (#27006509) Attached to: Best FOSS Help Desk Software For Small Firms?

If your organization is only 100 people, and you get 5 to 10 support requests per minute, one wonders if you're doing something wrong.

Submission + - DARPA Testing Numenta's Brain Tech

Submitted by lousyd on Thursday October 11, 2007 @01:38PM

lousyd writes: CNN Money DARPA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency have given $4.9 million to Lockheed Martin to develop an image recognition system that will be used to scan satellite images and photographs for familiar objects. Called Object Recognition via Brain-Inspired Technology (ORBIT), the system will fuse commercial airborne EO and LIDAR sensor data into a three-dimensional, photorealistic model of the landscape. The brains of the system, so to speak, will be Numenta's Hierarchical Temporal Memory technology, modelled on the technology growing inside human heads. The system is expected to increase image analysts' productivity by 100 times.

Submission + - How do you advocate Linux in 5 mintues?

Submitted by xtracto on Saturday January 13, 2007 @06:25PM

xtracto writes: I just returned from buying certain Linux magazine. While looking at the "Computing" stand in the library and right after I grabbed a copy of the Linux magazine a guy asked me if I used Linux, after that, the made told me he had tried to use Linux but that he found it difficult. I told him the first things that came to my mind, this is, that it depended on the distribution (to what answered that he tried using Kubuntu). I recommended him to look for a Linux User Group near his hometown (he told me he was not from nearby). What would you tell this kind of people?, Not so long ago a relative who is completely computer illiterate started talking about Linux (to my surprise) but the general thought is that "it is harder than Windows". What do you people say to advocate Linux, in very few words, considering people that tried to use it before or people that has never used it?

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