grokgov - Slashdot User

Main US Weather Satellite Fails As Hurricane Season Looms 235

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 23, 2013 @01:34PM from the ok-fellas-let's-just-stick-to-the-tornadoes dept.

First time accepted submitter Rebecka writes with bad news, quoting an IB Times report: "Just as the 2013 hurricane season is about to begin, one of the U.S.' main weather satellites failed this week. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, also known as GOES-13, reportedly ceased to operate as of Tuesday, making it impossible to predict weather patterns on the East Coast." A note at NOAA's page for the GOES family of satellites says "GOES-13 imaging and sounding operations suspended. Recovery efforts for GOES-13 continue and the spacecraft health and safety are nominal. GOES-14 is being activated." You can follow the progress on the agency's page of General Satellite Messages.

Comment i wonder (Score 1) 386

by grokgov on Saturday January 22, 2011 @11:18PM (#34969914) Attached to: Biotech Company Making Fossil Fuels With a 'Library' of Bacteria

when the some time passes and the knowledge becomes more commonplace, will bioengineering prove to be, intellectually, roughly as hard to implement as, say, c++ coding? is it just that it's new, and producing amazing results right now, like 'on demand' petrochemicals from 'libraries' of engineered organisms? will we hit the day when genome hacking is farmed out to India, for $12 an hour, becoming as mundane as, um, i am?

Comment It's more true now than ever before... (Score 2) 828

by grokgov on Saturday December 18, 2010 @08:37PM (#34603520) Attached to: Senate Repeals 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

If you're going to fight in the jungle, clash!

Comment My Experience with ATT and Sprint in NYC Area (Score 1) 187

by grokgov on Monday December 06, 2010 @09:23PM (#34468548) Attached to: Consumer Reports Gives AT&T Lowest US Carrier Rank

ATT in Manhattan (iPhone 3g):
~40% dropped calls in first 5 minutes. That's right -- 40%
Acceptable data rates: Pandora on high-bw with no buffering stutters.
Customer service: lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies.

Conclusion: ATT is UNUSABLE in NYC Metro Area, and I hate, hate, hate them for wasting my time.

Sprint in Manhattan (HTC Hero and HTC Evo)
0% dropped calls. Some loss of signal resulting in dropped calls in some backwoods areas of rural/suburban areas.
Acceptable data rates on 3g: Pandora on high-bw with no buffering stutters.
4g: Available in Brooklyn in the Park Slope area. Insane up and down rates, but 4g connection often flakes, requiring restart of networking services (switch on-off airplane mode).
Customer service: Downright classy. At least right now, intelligent people who don't seem burned out.

Comment on HW: HTC Hero is frustratingly slow.

Conclusion: Sprint on the Evo is the best Phone/Carrier Combination I've ever had. I finally have a device I am truly happy about!

Comment if this is anything like Oracle RDBMS Express.... (Score 1) 160

by grokgov on Monday November 15, 2010 @10:22PM (#34238318) Attached to: Oracle Solaris 11 Express Released

Just beware -- Don't make the mistake of putting this in production. The "Express" version of Oracle is not taken seriously by Oracle support - There are no Oracle support bulletins for Express versions of the RDBMS - it's just off their radar. If you have an issue, and you will, you are on your own...

Comment Re:Lack of bandwidth is not Apple's fault (Score 1) 551

by grokgov on Thursday September 03, 2009 @09:34AM (#29298715) Attached to: iPhone Straining AT&T Network

Agreed. I get squid proxy 500 error pages in Union Square, Manhattan, all the time, from the ATT network (not a local wi-fi).

Comment Re:slow data (Score 1) 551

by grokgov on Thursday September 03, 2009 @09:31AM (#29298689) Attached to: iPhone Straining AT&T Network

NYC -- Practically unusable. All, I repeat, all voice calls get dropped about 2-3 mins into the call. Some zones of Manhattan you can't even make a call. Downloads of anything off the web are impossible in lower Manhattan, or over the East River.

Comment Stephen Colbert Thank You Site (Score 4, Interesting) 939

by grokgov on Monday May 01, 2006 @04:39AM (#15235549) Attached to: Colbert New Comic-in-Chief

http://thankyoustephencolbert.org

For serving as an example, telling it like it is, I've thrown together a site to collect thank yous for Mr. Colbert.

Hopefully this site will help boost awareness of this story, which is already being distorted in the mainstream press.

Go over and say thanks.

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