shimpei - Slashdot User

Ares Manager Steve Cook Resigns From NASA 153

Posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, 2009 @07:33PM from the but-it's-a-revolving-door-in-space dept.

FleaPlus writes "Steve Cook, project manager for the Ares I-X, Ares I, and Ares V rockets, announced that he will resign from NASA MSFC after 19 years at the agency, leaving for an executive position at Dynetics, Inc. This raises doubts about the future of the Ares program, which has been plagued with development problems and massive cost/schedule overruns since its inception. Steve Cook also oversaw the (since discredited) 2005 ESAS study which scrapped NASA's prior plans to adapt already-existing commercial rockets for human/beyond-LEO exploration in favor of internally developing the Ares rockets."

Verizon Tells Cops "Your Money Or Your Life" 593

Posted by Soulskill on Friday May 22, 2009 @07:23PM from the pay-it-forward dept.

Mike writes "A 62-year-old man had a mental breakdown and ran off after grabbing several bottles of pills from his house. The cops asked Verizon to help trace the man using his cellphone, but Verizon refused, saying that they couldn't turn on his phone because he had an unpaid bill for $20. After an 11-hour search (during which time the sheriff's department was trying to figure out how to pay the bill), the man was found, unconscious. 'I was more concerned for the person's life,' Sheriff Dale Williams said. 'It would have been nice if Verizon would have turned on his phone for five or 10 minutes, just long enough to try and find the guy. But they would only turn it on if we agreed to pay $20 of the unpaid bill.' Score another win for the Verizon Customer Service team."

Comment Re:In a word... (Score 1) 1385

by shimpei on Friday April 17, 2009 @08:47PM (#27622463) Attached to: Obama Proposes High-Speed Rail System For the US

Coming from Japan, the most frustrating aspect of Acela is that it routinely runs late, due to having to share tracks with those damned freighter trains. The Shinkansen's average delay is measured in seconds; the Japanese routinely plan trips with 5 minute transit time because they can trust the trains to arrive on time.

The main reason Shinkansen trains are fast and on time is because the main routes run on dedicated tracks. On the Yamagata and Akita lines, they do share tracks with local passenger trains, but Shinkansen gets preferred right-of-way.

This, incidentally, is why splitting track and train ownership is a bad idea for high speed rail. Neither side can take full ownership in assuring the most convenience to the end users, which is what generates revenue at the end of the day.

ICANN Takes a Step Toward Ending Domain Tasting 155

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 29, 2008 @03:24PM from the what-we-don't-need-when-we-don't-need-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "For years, domain squatters have exploited an ICANN loophole: whenever a domain name is registered, ICANN collects a 20-cent fee from the registrar. To allow for non-paying customers, the registrar can return it five days later for a full refund. The loophole has let unscrupulous registrars constantly create and refund domain-squatting websites, selling 'what you need when you need it' advertising. The problem has grown so bad that every month the world's top three domain squatters, all located in Miami with the same address and represented by the same lawyer, recycle 11 million domain names. After years of complaints, ICANN has finally begun moving on the problem. On April 17 ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization voted to make the ICANN 20-cent fee non-refundable. If the ICANN board ratifies this position in June, those top three squatters will be getting a monthly bill for $2.2M. News of the ICANN changes has been applauded by legitimate Internet businesses, tired of having to choose nonsense names because all the good ones have been squatted. ICANN has published an analysis of the economics of ending domain squatting."

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