Steve Hayward writes that the Trump administration is arguably more conservative than Ronald Reagan’s. But to be fair, Reagan never had control of the House.
Category Archives: Business
Idiot Conservatives
Eric Berger has the story on how, in attacking SpaceX, they’re ripping off the taxpayer and actively damaging national security.
[Update a while later]
Meanwhile, the target launch date for Falcon Heavy is now late December.
This would be a nice Christmas present to space enthusiasts and the nation at large. https://t.co/C9MtND81vD
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) November 1, 2017
Libre Office And PDF
So, I’m trying to convert a Libre Office Writer document to PDF. When I do so, it loses the right justification. Microsoft Word does a better job of it, but when I save the document in Libre Office as a *.docx, and reopen in Word, it loses the page templates. Anyone have any ideas?
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, I played around with the export settings, to preserve document structure, and it’s better now.
[Update a few more minutes later]
OK, I found the problem. It exports it just fine. The problem arises when I try to edit the PDF with Libre Office. It undoes the justification when it pulls it into Draw, and then it re-exports it that way.
[Update]
Here is my real problem. I wouldn’t have to edit it if I could make it do what I want in the first place. I’m trying to start the first page of the document in a certain style, and it refuses to do it. I can only start that style on the second page, with a blank first page. If I had a good PDF editor, I could just remove the first blank page after the conversion, but apparently I have to lay out money for that. It may ultimately be my only solution if I can’t get Libre Office to do what I want, though.
[Update late morning]
Someone on Twitter helped me figure out how to do it. I’ve finally got the document looking the way I want.
Mike Griffin
The guy who ignored the advice of the Aldridge Commission and industry to utilize commercial providers for the Vision for Space Exploration, instead issuing no-bid cost-plus contracts for Constellation, that were overrunning and slipping more than a year per year when it was canceled, seems like an odd choice to be put in charge of reforming procurement at the Pentagon.
Getting Off The Rock
Sarah Hoyt has an interview with Jeff Greason (part 1, part 2 will be tomorrow).
[Tuesday-morning update]
Computer Problems
Did a kernel upgrade in Fedora yesterday. Rebooted today. Wouldn’t boot, had errors. Rather than simple reboot, I decided to shut the whole machine down, then turn it on again. Now it’s dead.
Guess I’ll try swapping the power supply first. If that doesn’t work, sounds like a motherboard or CPU problem.
[Update a few minutes later]
Aaaaaaand, I can’t find any spare supplies. Have to run over to Fry’s to buy one, that probably isn’t the problem…
[Update after returning from Fry’s]
Welp, before I opened the new PS, I tried firing it up again. It booted without complaint. I guess I scared it with the new PS. #HappyHalloween
Seriously, though, it’s probably still a symptom of an incipient problem, probably from overheating.
NASA’s Risk Aversion
Remember when they were insisting on new-car-smell Dragons for CRS missions? Well, they’ve now approved flight-proven boosters. As I’ve long said, there will come a day when customers will demand a discount to fly on an unproven vehicle.
[Update a while later]
With today’s launch, SpaceX will double its record for annual launches.
[Update half an hour before launch]
You can follow launch and landing at the webcast.
SLS
You’ll be as shocked as I am to learn that first flight will likely slip into 2020.
Elon’s Plans
Doug Messier has a critique, with which I largely agree. He does seem to be laser focused on solving the transportation problem (which was the first one he encountered when he tried to implement his initial Mars plans). I emailed him years ago about the fact that we have no idea whether or not we can conceive/gestate in 0.4g. His response was basically, “that’s not my problem right now.”
But this blinkered mindset may not ultimately serve him well in terms of his long-term goal. It would be tragic for him if he solved the transportation problem, but not the biological one, and his dreams of Mars colonies ended up being still born, despite the cost reduction of transportation there.
The GAO And Climate
Media headline: “Climate Change Causing Billions Of Taxpayer Dollars In Disaster Relief.”
Accurate headline: “Cost Of Dealing With Weather Much Less Than Decarbonization.”