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Maybe the Space Shuttle program helped make the Delta IV Heavy launches "cheap"... I don't know and I am not really defending the program. I always thought that ceramic tile construction was a sub-optimal design choice.
Soren Madsen
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The tiles made it work with current technology. They wanted to get the Shuttle off the ground, so sometimes had to just make it work. That is the problem with not building demonstrators. You cannot test any of the technologies for the final product without having whole design work.
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There is very little from the space shuttle that probably was used on the Delta IV. The Delta IV is the latest of a long line of Delta boosters that have one of the longest histories with a 95% success. In the first decade of the century there were two partial failures of Delta rockets where the satellite was not put in the correct orbit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Thor_and_Delta_launches_(2000%E2%80%932009)[^]), one the first launch of the Delta IV Heavy.
It is well known that the tile system was not a good design (http://www.keithcompany.com/Article%201-23.aspx[^]). There has been some work on other options (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_entry[^]), but I guess without a future space plane in the works, probably not a lot of work has been done on the concept. I would guess that a lot of the reason for the shuttle's economic failure comes from the tiles (it was suppose to make space flight cheap).
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...but out of Iraq we got.... wait, let me think about that one... 
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i would prefer spend that money to build beach resorts - imagine, free vacation for everyone
dev
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It's only about 3 USD per citizen, so it's maybe 1 free burger. 
Wout
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wout de zeeuw wrote: maybe 1 free burger.
But the cheeseburger would be in paradise. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Couldn't see why this was 2-voted. Countered.
I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
Stephen Hawking
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There are too many databases in the world with completely unencrypted passwords. Even when databases have encrypted passwords, they typically do not implement protection that is strong enough to keep them from being stolen, and used maliciously. With the advancements in computing technology, we now need another approach to store passwords and keep them safe from prying eyes. Fortunately, you don't have to be a cryptography expert to use good password protection. Protect your users, take password management seriously.
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The new version of iBooks allows you to read books in a continuous scroll instead of page by page. This has, surprisingly, set off an argument on which is the better way to read an ebook. I don’t get it. Paging is clearly an artifact of the technology of paper books, a technology I love deeply, but one that doesn’t make a lot of sense in an ebook reader. What's your preferred method of reading ebooks?
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I think that paging has the advantage of being able to maintain your place on the screen by location on the screen. Interestingly, ancient scrolls did not have pages, so are we going back in time? Obviously doing scrolling has the advantage of not having to move images so that they can be fully displayed on a page.
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Paging.
In the browser I normally scroll short articles and mostly pgup/dn long ones; the only place where the latter works poorly is on the last fractional screen of text because the resume reading point is in mid screen instead of at the top.
Minimizing movement (and RSI risk) was one of the major reasons why I bought a kindle keyboard with page turn buttons instead of a touch screen model. Having to either swipe my finger a fixed distance down the screen to bring a new screen of text (or make more frequent shorter swipes that only move 2/3rds to 3/4ths of a screen) would be worse than just swinging my thumb out and tapping the screen.
PS when did continuous scrolling get redefined to mean being able to scroll and stop at an arbitrary point in a document and not text that's always moving (hopefully at the speed you're reading) like the ticker at the bottom of the TV on news channels or the way StarTrek TNG displays always were shown as working? I tried the latter almost as soon as I got a mouse with a scroll wheel and once the OOOOH SHINEY!!!! wore off found it more maddening than useful (the need to read at a slant disrupted my autopilot and slowed my speed by at least a third). I was this >< close to sounding off on a rant about that before actually clicking (and reading) the link.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: In the browser I normally scroll short articles and mostly pgup/dn long ones; the only place where the latter works poorly is on the last fractional screen of text because the resume reading point is in mid screen instead of at the top.
PS Browser (or browser addon) developers: creating an option to have the last pgdn place content as if there was infinite white space at the bottom of the page would earn my undying love.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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JavaScript engines such as Google’s V8 (Chrome, Node) are specifically designed for the fast execution of large JavaScript applications. As you develop, if you care about memory usage and performance, you should be aware of some of what’s going on in your user’s browser’s JavaScript engine behind the scenes. There are many hidden performance gotchas in the world of JavaScript engines. Here's how to beat them.
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The Numeric Javascript library allows you to perform sophisticated numerical computations in pure javascript in the browser and elsewhere. Although Javascript does not reach the same performance as native programs, the Numeric Javascript library is carefully tuned to obtain the best possible performance for a Javascript program. All the things in the browser!
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tcpdump is the premier network analysis tool for information security professionals. Having a solid grasp of this über-powerful application is mandatory for anyone desiring a thorough understanding of TCP/IP. Many prefer to use higher level analysis tools such as Ethereal Wireshark, but I believe this to usually be a mistake. In a discipline so dependent on a true understanding of concepts vs. rote learning, it's important to stay fluent in the underlying mechanics of the TCP/IP suite. A thorough grasp of these protocols allows one to troubleshoot at a level far beyond the average analyst, but mastery of the protocols is only possible through continued exposure to them. What kind of packets are floating around your network?
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We’re very pleased to announce the immediate availability of RISC OS for the Raspberry Pi. First released in 1987, its origins can be traced back to the original team that developed the ARM microprocessor. RISC OS is owned by Castle Technology Ltd, and maintained by RISC OS Open Ltd. This version is made available free of charge to Raspberry Pi users. RISCy business.
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We are finally, really, truly, on the cusp of a NUI explosion. We’ve seen massive improvements in the real-world usage of touch (iPhone), voice (Siri), and computer vision (Kinect) the the last few years. I think this is just the beginning. There will be huge strides made in voice and touch based input, but in my view, the area where our world will be rocked the most is in computer vision. Cameras are everywhere. They are dirt cheap. They can see things we can’t. And as amazing as the tech in Kinect is at decoding all those signals, interpreting them, and figuring out your body’s intent is, you haven’t seen anything yet. Siri is Watching You.
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When I first read Rainbows End[^] I considered it about as plausible as the galactic usenet of A Fire Upon the Deep[^]. Unfortunately I'm beginning to think he got it at least half right, with the main difference being that in addition to the corporate microtransaction skim off of everything you do the universal connection/infrastructure will lead to the pervasive surveillance tyranny that he gave as one of the ways advanced civilizations could collapse in A Deepness in the Sky[^].
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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The creator of the popular web comic xkcd muses about the merits of pen and paper versus computer coding, tic-tac-toe, and where he sits on the scale of intellectual purity. See also xkcd 5, 10, 12, 19, 26...
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Printing anything from anywhere is no longer fantasy. In fact, it's often a necessity if using a smartphone, tablet, or laptop is an essential part of your daily workflow. Cases in point: You receive a huge spreadsheet attachment on your smartphone, and need a way to view the document without squinting. Or you revise a PowerPoint deck just as your plane lands, and need to print it before you arrive at a meeting. Or maybe you’re just staying with family out of town, and need to print a boarding pass directly from your phone. When all else fails, just scan the screen of your tablet.
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My printer has a feature that allows me to email it, and it will print both the body of the email and the attachments. Worked like a charm.
Of course, I have to be at home to get the printed papers, but I can print from anywhere. 
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Currently, there are four major types of e-voting around the world that are worth keeping an eye on: Brazil’s homegrown direct recording electronic (DRE) setup, Australia’s open-source software, Estonia’s Internet voting, and a Spanish startup’s efforts to expand what’s been called "crypto-voting." Each of these approaches has its own unique set of problems, but the primary obstacles they present for many voting officials and computer scientists is their lack of ability to verify source code and expense. The iVotes have it!
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At BUILD in Redmond today, Microsoft announced its plans to improve C++ standards conformance in its Visual Studio development environment, and talked about ways in which C++ would become a better, regularly updated, modern programming language. Microsoft developer and C++ standard committee chair Herb Sutter introduced work being done by the C++ community to make the language better, and also discussed the work being done by Microsoft to make its own compiler better. The Standard C++ Foundation will promote and advocate the usage and development of modern C++.
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