code_rage - Slashdot User

iOS 4 Releases Today 702

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 21, 2010 @10:22AM from the don't-hold-your-breath dept.

tekgoblin writes "Today Apple releases the much anticipated iOS 4 for iPhones and iPod Touches. No word on when we will see this update on the iPad." Can't wait to see all the neat new stuff that won't run on my stale phone.

Comment Unfair? Maybe. Overdue? Definitely. (Score 5, Informative) 67

by code_rage on Sunday May 30, 2010 @11:08AM (#32397054) Attached to: Senators Question Removal of NASA Program Manager

Best short summary: Norm Augustine's testimony to Congress http://legislative.nasa.gov/hearings/5-12-10%20AUGUSTINE.pdf

"...the mismatch of ends and means coupled with technical problems that were encountered on the Ares I program were such that during its first four years the program slipped between three and five years...". Read that again. After four years of development and billions of $, the objective was no closer than it was at the start of the program. I could cut NASA some slack on that if they were attempting to develop new technology, but the Ares I program was largely based on well-understood technology and an existing industrial production base.

The Program Manager does not set the budget and he was not delivered the budget that was estimated for the job. So maybe the dismissal was unfair. But the PM's job is explicitly to develop the program within the actual (not wished for) triangle of resources, schedule and performance. If the delivered resources are so inadequate that the completion date never gets closer, then something else needs to change - this is the PM's job.

Officers Lose 243 Homeland Security Guns 125

Posted by samzenpus on Friday February 19, 2010 @02:23PM from the they-were-right-here-a-second-ago dept.

In a screw up so big it could only be brought to you by the government or a famous athlete, 243 guns were lost by Homeland Security agencies between 2006 and 2008. 179 guns, were lost "because officers did not properly secure them," an inspector general report said. One of the worst examples of carelessness cites a customs officer who left a firearm in an idling vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store. The vehicle was stolen while the officer was inside. "A local law enforcement officer later recovered the firearm from a suspected gang member and drug smuggler," the report said.

Comment How about this (Score 1) 200

by code_rage on Tuesday November 17, 2009 @10:02PM (#30138510) Attached to: NASA Willing To Team With China; Rumors of a Budget Cut

First of all - take a look at the joint US-China statement - the only thing we have agreed to is a high-level visit. Not a marriage, maybe just a coffee date.

Second - what is this really about? Probably not NASA. More likely this is just a deal sweetener for something else we want, like:
- devalue the Chinese currency (see NYTimes this week)
- improve WMD nonproliferation efforts
- green technology

At the NASA level, which is at best a secondary concern of most US politicos, here are some possibilities:
- hedge against Russian monopoly of US human access to space during the Gap
- engagement may offer US a better view into Chinese goals and means re: space than isolation would
- possibly a veiled threat to NASA: Ares is not the only game in town: get your act together

Most Extreme Gamma-Ray Blast Yet Detected 128

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday February 21, 2009 @03:07AM from the in-a-galaxy-far,-far-away dept.

Matt_dk sends in a quote from a story at NASA: "The first gamma-ray burst to be seen in high-resolution from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is one for the record books. The blast had the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the highest-energy initial emissions ever seen. ... Gamma-ray bursts are the universe's most luminous explosions. Astronomers believe most occur when exotic massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As a star's core collapses into a black hole, jets of material — powered by processes not yet fully understood — blast outward at nearly the speed of light. The jets bore all the way through the collapsing star and continue into space, where they interact with gas previously shed by the star and generate bright afterglows that fade with time. ...Fermi team members calculated that the blast exceeded the power of approximately 9,000 ordinary supernovae, if the energy was emitted equally in all directions."

Comment Most overlooked item (Score 2, Informative) 308

by code_rage on Wednesday January 07, 2009 @11:48PM (#26367915) Attached to: Why Does the US Have a Civil Space Program?

I am surprised the following report has not been posted or submitted to /.

Future of Human Spaceflight (16-page PDF)

The MIT Space, Policy & Society Research Group took a step back from the "do this" / "no, do that" debate and examined the very questions being posed by the National Academy of Sciences.

The above link has a 16-page document that examines the reasons for a human spaceflight program. The report is compelling, challenging and thought-provoking.

Give it a read!

Comment V is for Vision (Score 3, Insightful) 237

by code_rage on Sunday January 20, 2008 @02:39PM (#22118258) Attached to: Asteroid Missions May Replace Lunar Base Plans

The Moon-Mars plan is referred to as the "Vision for Space Exploration."

What exactly is the vision? The founding document [large PDF warning] for the "VSE" lists goals and strategies, but no vision of what the goals and strategies are meant to accomplish. A vision involving the Moon could be "create a new civilization on the Moon that might do for the U.S. what the New World colonies did for the Old World." (you can snicker but that is an example).

"Go to the Moon and Mars" is not a vision. It's an strategy.
"Build launchers and spacecraft based on current infrastructure & technology" is an implementation of that strategy.

Again... what is the vision?

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