"Just need to solve hills where the driver may need throttle and brake simultaneously to start moving, and it should work."

That problem has already been solved, too. Some manual transmission cars have a "hill start assist" that hold the brakes for a couple seconds to allow easy starts up hills, without rolling backwards. The brakes are released the instant any forward force is detected. It makes starting uphill virtually identical to starting on a level surface. Seems like that should be applicable to auto transmissions as well, which can also roll back a bit before the torque converter locks up.

I like the idea of having a purely mechanical way of removing power to the wheels, which can be done instantaneously in a panic; and that is why I don't trust cars with fewer than 3 pedals!

Brake fade is what happens when the brakes get overheated, they become less effective.

However, what happens when the engine is at wide open throttle is the same thing that happens when the engine is off: you lose vacuum assist. You'll have enough for maybe 2 pumps of the pedal and that's it. Once your vacuum assist is gone, you're relying 100% on the pressure of your foot on the brake via the hydraulic system to stop the car. If you've ever tried to use the brake pedal when coasting with the engine off, you know how hard that is.

So if you are ever in a "unintended acceleration" situation, push the brake down as hard as you can and do NOT let it back up. You will probably destroy your brakes in the process but that's better than the alternative.

The whole move to electronics is somewhat disconcerting. Computer software will always have bugs, and modern cars have computer software that controls the throttle, and the transmission shifter. Always make sure you know how to shift into neutral in a panic. On my car, it's easy: just push down the clutch pedal.

Except they have no problems asking tech people to do free work.

"Oh, you're a bricklayer? Hey, can you stop by sometime and replace the bricks on my front sidewalk? I'll give you a beer...."

Affordable health care is not insane.

It's just that insane health care "reform" is... insane.

on the other hand, i've seen cases where an old 12 Volt fan or a crappy harddisk either shorts out or worse induces a lot of noise into the line.

With a power supply per server, this usually affects only that one machine. Now, if you have a power supply per rack, this might affect all servers in that rack. Especially with the noise-on-the-line problem, this might not actually shut down or crash the servers, it might make them unreliable -> much harder to find the bad component!

I'*d say, rather than changing the power supply, we should focus on the power consumption. From what i've seen, most servers in a company are completly over-sized in terms of capabilities because "at some point in the next 5 years (well after the next upgrade...) we'll need that resources". In many of these cases, the companies could save a lot of energy and money by buying slower and "greener" servers without really reducing service.

In one case, i've seen a top-notch AMD Quad-Core Dual-Processor Machine with 8 Gig RAM used as an Email-Server for about 10 people. And yes, it also had a top-notch graphics card, too. Hooked up to a DSL-Line. In this case, a 5 Watt Soekris would have been enough and it probably even would not have slowed email transfer...

Apple still has a "spare" Steve available... though he's currently only a part-time employee and probably has no interest in becoming CEO.

But maybe he (Woz) can deliver keynotes? The fanbase will love him.

Think "Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll". Well, drugs are probably not available and you're too young for Rock'n'Roll. So, that leaves just one thing...

You're right. Hadn't thought it through. A small antenna should be enough.

Anyway, making more local contacts is more interesting in this case anyway (for everything else: HAM sats are available and should work with a small, hendheld yagi)

That's why you probably wont need a big antenna. One of this mobile ones with the magnet on the bottom should be really enough.

May also take a few meters of cable, some solder and a soldering iron with you... if need be, you can put together a simple handheld yagi and call you beloved ones via HAM satellite. And that's what your internet connection comes into play: Spend a few minutes looking up the up-to-date comm passes. Even just listening in could be a very exiting experience for you and your shipmates.. with any luck, you might even make contact with the International Space Station (Callsign: NA1SS)

Check this http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/ and this http://www.issfanclub.com/taxonomy/term/6 out.

A paper journal also gives (at least) me more time to think about what i'm actually writing, because it's a much slower, more intense process than typing on a keyboard.

When you come home. you can always take the text you have written, put it into a text editor and expand on it before putting it on the web... (but: add the scans too!)

Get a HAM radio license and a portable radio (like the VX-7R or whatever works for you).

While you likely wont be able to make worldwide contacts (unless you bring a 30+ meter long antenna with you as well), you should be able to contact many people while you are near the shore.

Believe me, it's much more interesting than surfing the web. And in case of an emergency, you have some means of backup communication.

About blogging: Don't blog. At least not "online". If you really want to blog (a some sort of diary), do it offline but spend as little time as possible on it; just take quick notes. When the semester is over, take that notes, refine them into articles and release them part-by-part over some time. This way, you don't waste precious time of your semester AND you have much more leisure time to really release refined articles.

Put the BlinkenSisters Jump'n'Run on it:

http://www.blinkensisters.org/

I'll be glad to give support via email if required :-)

...i hereby invite you to join our Jump'n'Run game project "BlinkenSisters". I think, participating in an already working project makes quite a lot of sense, because there's already a team that can help you out when you're stuck.

We do the core engine in C/C++ with the SDL library, use CMake as our *nix build system and also have (a few) Perl scripts around.

As for writing portable code: The game is supposed to run everywhere, my team and i can show you many pittfalls of non-portable programming (yeah, we done them all). We have a wide range of sub-projects: From enhancing the engine to scripting to writing new, small tools.

If you're interested, email us at:
team AT blinkensisters DOT org

See, now that is EXACTLY the problem when trying to cooperate with male co-workers: They require predictable results, especially when dealing with technical stuff.

Technical matters require precision and repeatability; that includes the team working on it.

And to all the comments about sexual harassment: If you are a commited, gifted geek your fellow male geeks might not notice that you have breasts at all... much to your own annoyment when the time comes to flirt your way out of a sticky situation :-P