Posts by Gordo Rex

25 PETAbytes?

My goodness, but that's a lot of pron legal data.

"Lift-offfffffffff"

Pity Lewis didn't include a link to the video of the event. I saw it here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/raw-video-spacex-rocket-launch-aborted-in-fla/2012/05/19/gIQAnDuUaU_video.html

The disappointment and confusion in the controller's voice as he tries to unsay "Liftoff" makes me hurt for him.

It's the Priotities

On the one hand, I can see where it looks like UF has its priorities all wrong.

On the other hand, in my two-plus decades as a programmer, I never had 90,000 people cheering me on as I tried to find a bug.

Plus, knowing that some of my best work was on a project that finally got optimized for the 8086 a mere 6 months after the 80386 was introduced......

I should have done more weightlifting.

Using His Talents

Because one of his stated talents is "Refusing to move," I would think he would make an excellent anchor during the inflation of the balloon, sort of like the gantry towers that hold rockets prior to launch. I'm willing to bet that the SPBW (Special Projects Burro Wrangler) could be persuaded to add her talents as anchor-tender by an appeal to patriotic and scientific duty, thus adding little additional cost to the endeavor.

So how big is that?

When I first read the article I was less than impressed. Then I figured that the thing was over 17 KiloJubs. That is huge by any standard.

LOPEZ

LOHAN

Obstruction for

Protecting

Experimenting

Zealots

Tram Speed

According to the video on this page:

http://www.yarratrams.com.au/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-233/268_read-1194/

the trams cruise at about 0.00000232 Ssx (sheepsecs).

Of course, there are several different types of trams in service, but I found information that one of these types has a maximum speed of 0.00000534 Ssx.

I hope that someone with better understanding of how to translate Jubs and Ssx to Norisses can furnish the final answer.

Your future is in the cloud

Computing resources will become a utility. Let's look at a couple of issues:

1) Security. Sure, you should be concerned about security. But most people have become pretty complacent about leaving the security of their money to the banks. As another example, if you collect gold bullion, you would probably leave it with people who know how to guard it, rather than keeping it in a shoe box under your bed. I was around back when people didn't want to trust their data to "bits" that they couldn't see, and preferred to keep everything in hard copy in a filing cabinet.

2) Reliability. The question is, What happens when the link goes down? Well, what happens when the electricity goes off? Of course it happens on rare occasions (at least where I live), but it is so rare that you just shrug it off and go on with your life. Perhaps the solution is to use redundant access points. (It seems to work for the Internet.)

This is a movement that is in its infancy. It will mature, and data storage and crunch power will become metered utilities.