Fascinating...

Likewise, I haven't found that my ABILITY to use a slide rule has *positively* impacted my career.

But, they were still pushing them when I went to school. Now, Get Off My Lawn...

Well, Ubuntu does have the ntp package set up to call home to ntp.ubuntu.com. I'd guess that not that many people install ntp though. In any case it's a simple edit to change the default ntp server, and I recommend doing so, to use some of the ntp pool servers (www.pool.ntp.org). Or, run your own if you've got an accurate local clock. USB connected GPS devices can be had for less than $40 US these days. Although they typically suffer from a large amount of jitter, in my experience they work well enough with ntp to keep your system clock within a second of National Institute of Standards time.

As an (currently unemployed) ASIC designer, I have to agree with this. You may have THOUGHT you submitted the GDS file

url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDSII";

for tapeout for an embedded processor core, but later find out that there were 'tweaks' added to a ROM block, or something similar, to deal with encryption issues you weren't informed of. Not that this could possibly interfere with LVS (Layout versus Schematic) or verification simulations, of course...

O.K., and the test was terminated WHY?? Thermal issues? Ran out of fuel? Test Design limit? Or is it classified?

No, I DIDN'T RTFA. Hello, this is /. ...

Seriously. If the CEO of a major corporation, supposedly entrusted ( by the consent of the Federal Government) with safeguarding the environment while trying to make a buck on underground minerals, isn't held responsible for that corporation's actions, then we can expect to see a lot more of these environmental catastrophes.

Washington, are you paying attention ???

I think It's the only way to bring some much needed accountability to these problems...

well, of COURSE it strips out the link...

How about:

    http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/DisplayImage.cfm?ID=111

Sure. Here's a link to a commonly used oil industry graph:

2X the hydrostatic gradient is "about" the most pressure ever encountered in wells. Of course, relying on that could be part of why BP is in the mess it's in, but I suspect the original problem may well have been the hydrates, and/or a cementing problem, as speculated elsewhere in the oil industry press.

Your estimate of water and rock density is fine. It's just that downhole pressure versus formation depth can vary significantly - the total weight of the overburden is NOT translated into actual pressure, since the rock is somewhat solid...

Not to mention 150,000 psi --- No, Seriously, WTF kind of drugs is the author ON????

The figure I've seen quoted for the well depths was sea floor at about 5000 feet deep, and two miles down to the producing zone - say, about another 11000 feet. That's only 16000 feet total.
Hydrostatic head would only be about 13000 psi at that depth. Even if that production zone is WAY overpressured, you're NOWHERE near 150,000 psi...

Can anyone in the media actually do MATH ???

Sorry. That was rhetorical. I already knew the answer to that question...

Here, Let Me Google That For You (LMGTFY)...

Here's a map from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists assembled to answer this very question...

http://smu.edu/geothermal/2004NAMap/2004NAmap.htm

I'll let you spend the money to get your answer...

For a quick and cheap estimate, here's a publication specific to one particular field in the Gulf of Mexico:

http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2007/07013forrest/images/forrest.pdf

To quickly summarize from reference # 2, in the Gulf of Mexico, you might assume a static "surface" temperature of about 73 degrees F, and an increase of about 1.17 degrees F per 100 feet of well depth.

Ummm... No, NOT for everyone. The Kubuntu fiasco that was KDE 4 ( Screw Yew, Cashew!!) and broken wireless card support was what finally drove me to back to Gnome. I rather miss KDE 3.5, but not enough to go back to the "Hardy Heron" version.

"Why did they even put this press release out?"

I thought the reason to put it out was obvious. I know, who on Slashdot would RTFA, but I thought it was obvious from the money shot at the end of the article:

"Companies are waking up to the fact that they've under-invested in the area of security around surveillance and monitoring and forensics to get to the bottom of what happened."

* Buy our Services! Buy Now! Help us spread FUD so your associates buy our services!!! *

Or maybe I'm just being cynical...

I've used Keepassx for a few years now. It's cross platform (Windows / Linux) and stores the files encrypted. I tried one of Bruce Schneier's public domain solutions previously, but the Linux install (Password Gorilla ???) was rather painful on some systems if I recall correctly.

Just be sure to use a substantial password for the database...

For those of you that need wireless, and need to access Access Points with hidden ESSIDs (like I do for work), you should stay away from the KDE version of 9.10 (Kubuntu) for the time being, unless you're still comfortable with installing/running wicd. The latest release candidate of 9.10 I ran last week still had issues out of the box. If you need this capability, stick with the plain vanilla version (Gnome). I'm told that nm-applet works O.K. with wireless, although I've not had the chance to confirm it yet.

As always, YMMV...