This is refreshing. A scientist who thinks it may be there now, and has no problems with terraforming. Usually such people are concerned about the ethics.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Yes, You Really Can Say That
My lawyers, on the limits of the First Amendment as applied to libel and slander.
Ubuntu
Partly out of interest, and partly because there don’t seem to be any yum packages for Kerbal, I decided to load it on a spare SSD (not using grub, I just go into the BIOS and decide which drive I want to boot). I set up an account. It didn’t ask me to create a password for root, just a personal account. I try to ‘su -i’ and it asks me for a password. I use the one I created for my personal account. Nope.
Way to go, guys.
The SpaceX Landing Attempt
Chris Bergin has a pretty detailed account. The focus still seems to be on a slow response in the throttle valve.
He seems to be ignoring Aaron Mehta’s interview with Gwynne last week, though, in which she said the next attempt would probably be on land.
Linux Question
I just set up a new system on an SSD. Can I simply clone the old root LVM to it with DD (from a live USB, neither partition mounted)? If so, would I have to delete everything except /home first, or just overwrite?
The Real Problem With The Hugos
Chad Orzel says there’s just too much to read.
[Update a while later]
Sort of related: The culture war has gone nuclear. And yes, that young man was a waste of a good heart.
Space Access
Windows Install Problem
I’m trying to repair a Windows 7 installation with a Windows 8.1 DVD. I’ve configured the BIOS for Windows 8 mode, and I’m booting from the UEFI-DVD option. It dumps me into the EFI shell. I switch to fs3 (the drive name). I see BOOTX64.EFI on the drive, but when I run it from shell, it gives a screen saying to hit any key to install. I do that, and it dumps me back into the shell. Anyone have any idea what’s going on, or how to diagnose?
[Update a few minutes later]
Huh. Never mind. For some reason, now it’s working.
Now, next question. I selected the option to “repair the PC.” But it says that the drive where Windows is installed is “locked,” and I have to “unlock” it. What the hell does that mean?
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, I followed these instructions. After firing it back up, it’s back to it’s old trick of dumping me back into the EFI shell when I try to run bootx64.exe. Guess I’ll give it a few minutes and try again.
[Update a while later]
OK, separate (but related subject). Has anyone ever experienced a computer that kills flash drives? I just tried to copy an updated BIOS on to one. It didn’t work. When I put it back into the (Fedora) laptop that I’d downloaded it too, it can no longer see the drive. My Fedora desktop has done this as well, to the point that I’m afraid to put USB drives in it.
[Update a while later]
OK, this is weird. It turns out that the machine that’s destroying the flash drives is the one that I’m trying to flash the BIOS on. They’re OK when they leave linux, and get bricked when I plug them into the other machine, without even an OS running.
[Update a while later]
OK, it appears that the front USB port on the machine is killing the drives. The rear ones seem to be OK. Guess I’ll just tape them over.
[Update Saturday afternoon]
Still can’t figure out why I can’t boot Windows from the installation DVD. Anyone have any ideas?
On Diet
Nina Teichholz fisks the quack Dean Ornish within an inch of his low-fat life.
It’s a little confusing, though. The usual format is to blockquote the fiskee, not the critique.
Electronic Key Fobs
I’ve never been that thrilled with them. The one on our BMW has a failed lock button, and it’s over $200 to replace. But here’s another problem:
The teenagers, he said, likely got into the car using a relatively simple and inexpensive device called a “power amplifier.”
He explained it like this: In a normal scenario, when you walk up to a car with a keyless entry and try the door handle, the car wirelessly calls out for your key so you don’t have to press any buttons to get inside. If the key calls back, the door unlocks. But the keyless system is capable of searching for a key only within a couple of feet.
Mr. Danev said that when the teenage girl turned on her device, it amplified the distance that the car can search, which then allowed my car to talk to my key, which happened to be sitting about 50 feet away, on the kitchen counter. And just like that, open sesame.
“It’s a bit like a loudspeaker, so when you say hello over it, people who are 100 meters away can hear the word, ‘hello,’ ” Mr. Danev said. “You can buy these devices anywhere for under $100.” He said some of the lower-range devices cost as little as $17 and can be bought online on sites like eBay, Amazon and Craigslist.
Mr. Danev said his company was in talks with several car manufacturers to install a chip that can tell how far the key is from the car, thereby defeating the power-amplifier trick.
I’d think that putting the key in the microwave would work as well as the freezer, except you risk accidentally cooking it. That wouldn’t be a problem with our new unit, though — it won’t let you start it without opening and reclosing the door.