Comment Three Words... (With three more in brackets) (Score 1) 318
Duke Nukem Forever... (The Eternity Edition)
Comment Re:The Real Reason.... (Score 1) 190
Like that would be the first time someone passed an illegal law.
(Or even cared what the existing law was...)
Comment Re:Bad news. XD (Score 1) 505
At the same time, except for tax related issues (such as banks), I don't believe that and private individual or company can require that you give it.
But they can decide not to do business with you. Kind of a rough deal when you're trying to get power or a telephone or a net connect. I played this game for years, and had nothing but pain over it, and, interestingly, lousy credit even though I DO pay my bills on time...
Comment Re:Hooks under the desk and velcro ties (Score 1) 323
Power supplies are a problem. Far too many companies use power bricks that plug directly into the socket, and block everything else. For such foolish designes, one-foot power extenders are very useful.
I like to use random 6" to 18" jumpers, or make my own octo connectors so that the wall warts don't all end up in the same place.
Submission + - LRO Photographs Apollo landing sites. (nasa.gov)
Paul server guy writes: "
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.
"The LROC team anxiously awaited each image," said LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University. "We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill — and to see how well the cameras had come into focus. Indeed, the images are fantastic."
The satellite reached lunar orbit June 23 and captured the Apollo sites between July 11 and 15. Though it had been expected that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo mission, these first images came even before the spacecraft reached its final mapping orbit. Future LROC images from these sites will have two to three times greater resolution.
Although these pictures provide a reminder of past NASA exploration, LRO's primary focus is on paving the way for the future. By returning detailed lunar data, the mission will help NASA identify safe landing sites for future explorers, locate potential resources, describe the moon's radiation environment and demonstrate new technologies.
This probably won't shut up the "We never went there" crowd, but they are very cool to look at in any case!"
Comment Re:How about open-sourcing the transmission instea (Score 1) 263
For this reason, I would say the only way the public would actually accept "public" photograph data as real deal, is if NASA "open-sourced" spacecraft broadcasting interface - frequencies, protocol, encoding, where to set up a dish, size of dish required - so that whoever actually doubts the authencity of such photos, may instead doubt whether NASA is faking a signal from the Moon that carries digital image data. After all, if the information is pubic, it is public. Nothing in the transmission is really secret or falls under NDA anyway? It involves radio waves, some archaic encoding scheme of some color channels and a wrapping protocol for transmission. The open-sourcing of the transmission would force the hoax game onto a whole new level of complexity, where it would not be so easy for the skeptics to cry fake.
As "rlseaman" said, OpenSource isn't the right term, I would say open protocols and standards, with all data sent in the clear. (You'd have to keep a secured control channel though.)
Which is exactly what http://www.openluna.org/wiki/index.php/Mission_Plan intends to do, Send back every bit of data open and clear. The world's paying for it, the world should have the data.
Comment Re:hmmm (Score 1) 263
But hearing a nasa researcher say that with nowadays technology it will take about 20 years of r&d to put someone on the moon... well
They lost most of contractors projects... schemes...everything... that's a nice scientific way of conducting a mission/experiment... not.
NASA may say it'll take 20 years, What a crock. Come join us, we'll do it in 5-7, and for some $500M-$700M. No BS.
Comment Interesting observaton. (Score 3, Insightful) 263
What I find interesting is that most of the comments are about the "hoax" hoax, a few about how long it took, and not many about how very cool this tech is? Are we really that jaded?
I for one think it's very cool. And I am looking forward to seeing the hardware.
I'm also looking forward to using the date to help plan our mission.
Comment Re:pics and it still didn't happen (Score 1) 263
http://www.openluna.org/wiki/index.php/People_needed Announce what you can do, then dig in and start doing it...
Oh, and you have to believe we can go and have gone, because most of our present condition data requires that... (Unless you like one way trips to the unknown.)
Comment Re:The coverup will continue (Score 2, Interesting) 263
Then join us, maybe you'll get to go...
Comment Re:God dammit (Score 2, Insightful) 263
Oh Gawd, where are my mod points when I need them!!!!
Comment Re:lawyers. (Score 1) 316
...the simple fact that lawyers exist should logically mean that ignorance of the law is a valid excuse.
It sometimes is, especially when dealing with tax law and the like.
It the founding days in the US, Ignorance of the law
Then the GD bloodsucking lawyers showed up...
In my life, I've only meet one lawyer that was worth their salt. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't extract the salt out of the rest of them...
Comment Re:lawyers. (Score 1) 316
I wish I could mod this funny...
Comment Re:They don't care (Score 1) 364
Agreed. They will come in with a warrant to take all computing equipment and data storage devices, and empty your house of everything (Including store bought DVDs), and trash half of it on the way. (House included.) This happened to someone I know - And it really was someone on the open WiFi. They never found who, they finally gave him his (mostly ruined) gear back after six months.
When they come knocking They won't be looking at MAC addresses...
Submission + - Discovery: Even Tiny Stars Have Planets (space.com) 2
Paul server guy writes: "From a story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090528-exoplanet-small-star.html — A Jupiter-like planet has been discovered orbiting one of the smallest stars known, suggesting that planets could be more common than previously thought.
"This is an exciting discovery because it shows that planets can be found around extremely lightweight stars," said Wesley Traub, the chief scientist for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This is a hint that nature likes to form planets, even around stars very different from the sun."
Astrometry was first attempted 50 years ago to search for planets outside our solar system, but the method requires very precise measurements over long periods of time, and until now, has failed to turn up any exoplanets.
The technique involves measuring the precise motions of a star on the sky as an unseen planet tugs the star back and forth.
The discovery will be detailed in the Astrophysical Journal.
The newfound exoplanet, called VB 10b, is about 20 light-years away in the constellation Aquila (a light-year is the distance that light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles or 10 trillion kilometers). It is a gas giant, with a mass six times that of Jupiter, and an orbit far enough away from its star to be labeled a "cold Jupiter" similar to our own.
In reality, though, the planet's own internal heat would give it an Earth-like temperature.
The planet's star, called VB 10, is tiny. It is what's known as an M-dwarf and is only one-twelfth the mass of our sun, just barely big enough to fuse atoms at its core and shine with starlight."
"This is an exciting discovery because it shows that planets can be found around extremely lightweight stars," said Wesley Traub, the chief scientist for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This is a hint that nature likes to form planets, even around stars very different from the sun."
Astrometry was first attempted 50 years ago to search for planets outside our solar system, but the method requires very precise measurements over long periods of time, and until now, has failed to turn up any exoplanets.
The technique involves measuring the precise motions of a star on the sky as an unseen planet tugs the star back and forth.
The discovery will be detailed in the Astrophysical Journal.
The newfound exoplanet, called VB 10b, is about 20 light-years away in the constellation Aquila (a light-year is the distance that light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles or 10 trillion kilometers). It is a gas giant, with a mass six times that of Jupiter, and an orbit far enough away from its star to be labeled a "cold Jupiter" similar to our own.
In reality, though, the planet's own internal heat would give it an Earth-like temperature.
The planet's star, called VB 10, is tiny. It is what's known as an M-dwarf and is only one-twelfth the mass of our sun, just barely big enough to fuse atoms at its core and shine with starlight."
