Megan Gannon has another article on this past weekend’s DC-X meeting in Alamagordo.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Not Eating For Two Weeks
Someone gives soylent a try.
The Delta Clipper Legacy
Pat Hynes writes about last weekend, and her own remembrance of the test flights.
The Share Buttons Problem
I’ve disabled the plugin that puts the share buttons on the posts, so let’s see if that helps page loading. But I’ve also noticed that there’s an update to it, so it might be that if I install the new version, it will fix it as well.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, I”ve installed the new version. Let me know if you’re still having problems with page loads.
[Update a while later]
OK, new version didn’t fix it, so I’ve deactivated again. It does seem to be Google that was slowing things down.
Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun
A review of an old SF movie. From Lileks. With a bonus Avengers theme and Benny Goodman.
California’s High-Speed Pork Project
Will Elon Musk kill it?
Let’s hope.
NSA
…Doesn’t know the extent of the Snowden damage:
This is criminal. Every single thing he did should have left an audit trail, both as a guard against misuse, and for damage assessment in a case just like this.
I didn’t say “criminal incompetence,” because if the need for an audit trail is obvious to such as me, it surely must have been obvious to higher-ups at NSA. If the systems lack the capacity for this, it’s because somebody doesn’t want the records kept. That suggests abuse at a systemic level. (It also undercuts claims of extensive auditing here.)
Then there’s the incompetence of letting someone like Snowden have such free-ranging access to the system: “The NSA had poor data compartmentalization, said the sources, allowing Snowden, who was a system administrator, to roam freely across wide areas. By using a ‘thin client’ computer he remotely accessed the NSA data from his base in Hawaii.” Snowden and Bradley Manning. That’s who’s in charge of our secrets?
Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s put the federal government in charge of our health care!
A Nuclear Reactor
…competitive with natural gas.
That’s quite a trick, considering how cheap fracking is making gas.
[Update a few minutes later]
Wrong link, fixed now. Sorry!
The DC-X Story
Per Jerry Pournelle (who unfortunately couldn’t attend this past weekend, for reasons he explains).
Note: “Dr. Gould from North American” was my boss at the time.
The Pima Air (And Space) Museum
OK, since I have to check out of my room, and I have a few hours to kill before my flight, I’m going to check it out, since I’ve never actually been there. Like Aviation Week (and space technology) I expect the “Space” part to be an afterthought.
[Update, waiting at the airport]
As I expected, the emphasis was on the “Air,” but there were a lot of pretty neat aircraft there. It was 104 degrees, but didn’t seem that bad to me (as it generally doesn’t in the desert, particularly in the shade). I was more put off from wandering far out in the field by the sun for which I had no sunblock than the heat itself. I pointed out to a docent that Gene Kranz never said “Failure is not an option,” at least while he was a NASA mission controller. He said he’d talk to the curator.
I also showed the book to the space docents, and they all wanted a copy. The gift-shop manager was out for the day, but I’ll email her. But it would look pretty lonely amidst the other books. Almost nothing about space –mostly aviation. But I did put it up on the shelf to see how it stood out. It did, a lot. I think we’ll be glad we spent extra time on the cover design.
[Update a while later, before boarding]
I forgot to mention that it happened to be Orville Wright’s birthday. There were remnants of a cake (I had a small piece). I got a picture of it, but not on my phone — on my good camera, and I don’t have a card reader with me, so I’ll have to post it later.
[Bumped]