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Comment Re:ECC? (Score 1) 155

There's also the matter that better ECCs cost more overhead. You can detect single bit errors with a simple parity bit, but double errors will go undetected. And even something like Reed-Solomon can't correct all the errors it can detect. Spacecraft going to mars have very limited mass budgets, there are often better places to spend the extra mass than on an additional redundant flash chip (and associated circuitry).

Comment Re:business model (Score 1) 34

No, it was that any of the clones would have the full version history of the entire source tree. You still want a primary repo from which you make your releases, but all the developers can have a copy of the whole thing. They can also make changes to their local clones when offline, then merge all the changes later. Anyone can branch from any point, and the whole thing works on snapshots of the repo instead of sets of incremental changes to each file.

Comment Re:Exactly! (Score 3, Interesting) 113

Specifically, the space shuttle didn't have a launch escape system. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Vostok, Shenzhou and Soyuz all do/did, though Vostok and Gemini used ejection seats for the purpose instead of taking the whole capsule. The shuttle test flights had ejection seats, but those were removed when normal operations started. After Challenger a method to escape the shuttle was added: get into a controlled glide, get to the rear hatch, jump out, and parachute to safety...

Comment Re:$230 (Score 1) 611

Something like flattr seems to be the best solution. You pay a set amount per month, then it tracks the pages you visit, and splits the set amount among them all. (Flattr requires you to click a button.) While the transaction amounts from individual users to individual sites will generally be small the total amounts are large enough that payment processing fees are not a huge issue. (IIRC, flattr takes a 10% fee. I have no association with flattr, they're just the only service I know of that works in this manner.)

Comment Re:One script kiddie made a mistake (Score 1) 100

The quantum black hole thing was never a real threat. First, because if they were the earth would have been destroyed long ago: cosmic rays regularly strike with far greater energies than the LHC produces. Since they would therefore also produce even bigger quantum black holes, if it were an issue it would have long ago destroyed the earth.

The second thing is that black holes don't suck material in any more than their constituent mass would. They also have charge if made from charged particles, so the proton-proton collisions of the LHC would produce positively charged quantum black holes. The electric charge is far stronger than the gravitational field, so you'd get something like a helium atom with a black hole for a nucleus. Even if it didn't evaporate it would be harmless.

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