Comment ask... (Score 1) 191
...slashdot!
Comment Dear mr. Alien, Please... (Score 1) 803
Take our leaders with you!
Comment Re:Question for you Dutch. (Score 1) 229
Bij deze is uw geek-card ingetrokken.
Submission + - Off to jail for Pirate Bay founders (cnn.com)
SiggyRadiation writes: The Pirate Bay founders have lost their case and have been sentenced to a year in jail. Now, finally, "all authors all around the world" will be protected from this dreaded evil "because what is going on now is actually a plundering of the author's works". This goes to show that if you are presenting yourself as a pirate, then the defense "I am only providing an infrastructure and when and if my users choose to plunder is non of my concern", might not always work. Check the cnn article for some wonderfull quotes by the industry reps.
And before you all start downloading your pr0n ^h^h^h^h linux distros at once; the Pirate Bay site is expected to keep on operating for quite some time.
And before you all start downloading your pr0n ^h^h^h^h linux distros at once; the Pirate Bay site is expected to keep on operating for quite some time.
Submission + - Faulty sensor + no error checking = plane crashes
SiggyRadiation writes: "A few days ago the dutch transport safety board presented a preliminary report regarding the crash of a Turkish Airline Boeing 737.
The cause was a radio altimeter that suddenly went from 1950 feet to -8 feet. This altimeter was connected to the autopilot which continuously decelerated the plane, thinking it was close to touching the runway, and caused a stall. Of course, the pilots should have checked the auto pilot and should have noticed in time that they were not following the correct glide-path.
But, as a software ingeneer, I can't think of any reason why this error couldn't have been detected in software; there are redundant altimeters; the system could check for differences between those altimeters, and the system could even have detected the huge jump from 1850 feet to -8 feet and decided that this was an implausible reading and alert the pilots of "suspect" or "tainted" input.
Are all those sofisticated autopilots and flight management systems really as advanced as the industry wants us to believe or has the first random website better input-checks these days?"
The cause was a radio altimeter that suddenly went from 1950 feet to -8 feet. This altimeter was connected to the autopilot which continuously decelerated the plane, thinking it was close to touching the runway, and caused a stall. Of course, the pilots should have checked the auto pilot and should have noticed in time that they were not following the correct glide-path.
But, as a software ingeneer, I can't think of any reason why this error couldn't have been detected in software; there are redundant altimeters; the system could check for differences between those altimeters, and the system could even have detected the huge jump from 1850 feet to -8 feet and decided that this was an implausible reading and alert the pilots of "suspect" or "tainted" input.
Are all those sofisticated autopilots and flight management systems really as advanced as the industry wants us to believe or has the first random website better input-checks these days?"
Comment Missing option: fine the US government (Score 1) 261
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab
When Skylab reentered, disintegrated and some fragments fell on Australian soil...
The Shire of Esperance fined the United States $400 for littering, a fine which, to this day, remains unpaid.
EU Fines Microsoft $1.3 Billion 699
jd writes "The EU has slammed Microsoft with a fine of €899 million ($1.337 billion at current exchange rates) for perpetuating violations of the 2004 antitrust ruling.The fine is the sum of daily fines running from June 21, 2006 to October 21, 2007. It is the first company ever to be fined for non-compliance. The amazing thing is that the EU now expects Microsoft to comply and 'close a dark chapter' in their history. The EU has opened new investigations into Microsoft's practices and gave a lukewarm response to the company's turning over yet another new leaf last week."
