the following is an excerpt from an email i received this morning and the op-ed that it links to... a sad day for the us and the world... and after i just finished watching my "from the earth to the moon" mini-series on dvd for about the 37th time...

- wc



Cancellation of NASA’s Constellation Program

It is sometimes said that if a decision has a nearly equal number of proponents and critics, it must have been a pretty good decision. Such is not the case with President Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s Constellation program. [The Constellation program is a human spaceflight program which involves the development of spacecraft and booster vehicles to replace the Space Shuttle, with the Ares I vehicle for sending astronauts to the International Space Station and other low earth orbit missions, and the Ares V vehicle to send astronauts to the Moon and possibly to Mars as well.] The proponents say that Constellation’s demise is a good thing, because it will allow NASA to focus more of its efforts and resources on science…something that should have been at the core of its direction all along. Critics of the decision say that the cancellation is another sign of United States abrogation of its role as technological and exploration leader of the world. Both sides of the argument in this case have valid points to make, but there is far more at stake in this decision than merely the focus of NASA’s direction for the future.

There is no question that the cancellation of the Constellation program will result in the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs around the country. Not only will major suppliers feel the impact, but so will second and third tier suppliers, not to mention other collateral business fallout. The magnitude of the job loss is catastrophic enough, particularly when the nation is experiencing an unemployment rate of nearly 10%, but compounding the effect is the fact that jobs being lost are exactly the types we would like to retain if we are serious about remaining in a position of world leadership…highly technical design, engineering, and manufacturing jobs, most of which are fairly high paying. There is also a significant negative impact on the United States aerospace industrial base. As an example, we currently have but one or two companies in this country that can reliably produce large scale solid rocket boosters. The elimination of Constellation eliminates the need to produce those boosters, and as a result, the capability to do so will likely wither away. There is money in the NASA budget for research on large rockets, but there is a huge difference between R&D capability and production capability. Let us also not forget that our Armed Forces depend on these same companies to produce large missiles and boosters for our national defense. The DOD is not currently procuring enough large missile or booster systems to keep these companies afloat, either. In fact, it was the combination of military and NASA business that enabled a booster production capability to be maintained in this country. Since the NASA aerospace industrial base and the DOD aerospace industrial base are inherently intertwined, a significant negative impact on one has the same impact on the other.

One can argue the scientific merit of manned exploration of the moon, asteroids, and perhaps Mars. There are certainly other ways of doing at least some of that exploration. But what cannot be argued is the intangible value of demonstrating a technological capability that is a part of a portfolio of capabilities that translate into a position of leadership around the world. We know that the U.S. is not the only country that has (or had, in our case) aspirations of manned exploration missions on the moon. What is clear from President Obama’s decision is that the next human to set foot there will not be American.

The Constellation cancellation also means that, once the Shuttle is retired this year, we will no longer have a governmental capability to place astronauts in orbit around the earth or beyond. Instead, we will rely on the Russians to provide transportation to the International Space Station (ISS.) By agreement, that is a U.S. responsibility, which means we will be paying the Russians for that service. Relying on another country for this service, particularly one with which we do not always see eye-to-eye, carries a degree of risk. NASA also has plans to fund commercial U.S. firms to develop the capability to safely transport cargo and humans to and from the ISS. Whether that can actually be achieved and when it can be achieved are subjects of debate at this point, and the costs of those services are highly speculative at best. The bottom line is that there is no shortage of risk with either the Russian or the commercial option.

NASA has been long looked to as the entity that can inspire our young people to become excited about technologies of the future and to pursue education in science, engineering and math…areas in which our youth are currently lagging the youth of other countries, particularly in Asia. Those of us old enough to remember the days of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo remember the excitement that was generated by those manned missions as we continually did things that had never been done before. That we were in a race to achieve those incredible things before anyone else only added to the excitement. In some sense, we believed that our very future as a world leader was at stake, and in many ways, it was. Thousands and thousands of young people were inspired to pursue technical fields, and we have reaped the benefits as a nation ever since. Not only were we successful in our manned space exploration pursuits, but the technical backgrounds of a significant portion of the workforce enabled us to make tremendous strides in quality of life and other benefits to society. The NASA website has a short slide presentation on the 2011 budget and the direction it plans to pursue consistent with that budget. Its concluding slide has a line that says, “NASA’s new strategic approach will … inspire a new generation of Americans.” Unfortunately, there is nothing in the approach that is very inspirational at all, except to perhaps a few who are already in the “choir.” With no human exploration program defined, there simply is nothing in NASA’s approach that inspires in the way that NASA inspired in the 1960s.

There are so many unintended consequences, primarily negative, tied to President Obama’s decision to cancel the Constellation program that one wonders if the decision was one that received sufficient thought prior to announcement. If the Administration believes it did, that may be cause for even more alarm.

Last post made by: NDeangiver on Mar 7 2010, 02:53 PM

Opera 10.5 Final for Windows Brings the Speed

Windows: As expected, Opera made version 10.5 of its browser official this morning, calling it "the fastest browser on Earth" and also touting its Windows 7 integration, HTML5 video support, better private browsing, and more.

In terms of HTML5 and video, Opera has gone the way of Firefox, supporting native, Flash-free streams of the Ogg Theora format, but not H.264. Apple's Safari supports only H.264, and Google Chrome supports both. Opera has also added in extensive Windows 7 graphical look and taskbar support, as we've detailed, and also added the seemingly requisite "private browsing" option.

What the Opera developers are really touting, though, is Opera's JavaScript and page loading speeds—and we don't blame them. Here are two quick reminders of how Opera's 10.5 pre-alpha (labeled erroneously as a beta in these charts) fared against its competition. First in java script:



And in "cold" (right off a reboot) and "warm" (having previously opened) start-ups:



Opera's certainly managed to get everyone's attention with their new Carakan engine, that's for sure. In our own tests, Opera 10.5 feels very snappy and lightweight when moving about the web, and that's without the server-caching Turbo is turned on.

Opera 10.5 is a free download for Windows systems only; Mac and Linux users should expect their own final versions to follow very soon.

If you haven't downloaded it yet, what is taking you so long? Head over to www.opera.com/download, to get your hands on it now.

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Mar 2 2010, 08:18 PM

What could simultaneously bring down Sony's PlayStation Network worldwide and make it impossible for millions of gamers to play single-player games like Heavy Rain, Bayonetta, and BioShock 2?

Hackers? A terrorist attack? CIA black ops? Full-scale alien invasion?

Think stupider. Like: A requirement that players synchronize trophy information with Sony's online servers in order to play trophy-based games. UPDATE: Or think goofier, like a hardware-related time and date glitch that resets your PS3's clock to 12/31/99, corrupts local trophy data, prevents you from connecting to the PlayStation Network, and only affects older "fat" retail and debug PS3 models.

Late Sunday night, Sony's PlayStation Network appared to experience a problem that garbled its trophy sync process, which sounds harmless at first blush. You don't need trophies synchronized to actually play a game, right? After all, Xbox 360 games doesn't require achievement synchronization to function offline.

Well it seems Sony's PlayStation Network does, because the glitch prevents you from playing trophy-using games whether you're offline or online.

I had a taste firsthand this morning. I slipped a review copy of Final Fantasy XIII into my debug PS3 and, after the Square Enix logo flashed, received the following error message:

Registration of the trophy information could not be completed. The game will quit. (8001050F)

Cue drop to PS3 XMB menu and a few repeat attempts with other games like Heavy Rain and White Knight Chronicles to verify the issue had to be something bigger than a local ISP glitch.

A quick scan for the error code online turned up a rash of users complaining about the same error, including this story by our own Japan-based Martyn Williams confirming that yes, indeed, there's Big Trouble in Not-So-Little Sony-land.

Games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and the recent God of War duology reissue work fine, presumably because they don't use trophies (MGS4) or don't require the preliminary trophy sync (God of War).

About eight hours ago, Sony posted this to its PlayStation Twitter feed:

"We're aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we're looking into it. Stay tuned for updates."

That was followed about five hours ago with this:

"PSN status update: We're narrowing down the issue and continue to work to restore service to all. Updates as soon as we have them."

And shortly after that, this:

"PSN status update (part 2): Readers/followers are confirming that "slim" units (120/250 GB models) are connecting normally."

Stand by for further updates. Presumably the trophy-sync "requirement" isn't really (required) and Sony will have things back to normal shortly, allowing you to play offline (Ethernet unplugged, wireless disabled) at leisure.

UPDATE: It seems the issue has something to do with a hardware date reset to 12/31/99 (per my own "fat" retail and debug units) that occurred with the February 28 to March 1 turnover, even though this wasn't a leap year. I say 'hardware', because it reportedly occurs whether you've gone online with your PS3 or not.

It's not the first time the error's occurred. Run a date-filtered Google search on error code '8001050F' and you'll see it popping up time and again. Sounds like we'll either need a 24 hour cycle or a firmware update to see this fixed (and no, manually setting the correct time and date doesn't fix the issue).

UPDATE 2: Wondering whether Sony could remotely patch an issue that prevents connecting to the PlayStation Network? I assume the firmware update process works discretely, since clicking 'System Update' generates a standard "There is no need to update" message and not an error.

UPDATE 3: According to The Examiner, Sony tech support says both trophy and savegame data should be fine, and that a fix should be up 'by morning' (US time zones).

http://www.pcworld.com/article/190392/playstation_network_corrupted_prevents_offline_play_worldwide.html

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Mar 1 2010, 06:30 PM

Intel on Monday will officially release the latest Atom N470 processor, which should bring faster performance and longer battery life to netbooks, a source familiar with Intel's plans said.

Atom chips go into small, low-cost laptops called netbooks that are designed to surf the Web and run productivity applications. The N470 chip processor will run at a speed of 1.83GHz, making it Intel's fastest chip for netbooks to date.

The new processor is based on a new second-generation Atom chip architecture that Intel released in December. Intel at the time announced the first chip belonging to the architecture, the Atom N450 processor, which runs at a speed of 1.66GHz. The processor can be found in netbooks priced between US$299 and $499.

Systems based on N470 could start shipping as early as next week, the source said. Some PC makers displayed netbooks with the N470 processor at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year in Las Vegas, but no systems have officially shipped yet.

Intel officials declined to comment on the product.

The architecture integrates a graphics processor and memory controller inside the Atom chip, which allows for faster system and graphics performance than its predecessor. Intel has claimed that the integrated graphics processor could smoothly play back 720p high-definition video.

The new Atom chips are also more power-efficient, which could extend the battery life in some netbooks. Some netbooks have shown battery life of more than 10 hours. The integration also makes the chip smaller, which allows PC makers to build smaller and lighter netbooks.

Intel also offers the Atom D410 and D510 processors for low-cost desktops.

More improvements for Atom netbooks are on tap, including a graphics boost in early March when Nvidia launches the Ion 2 graphics platform. The platform couples an Atom processor with an Nvidia graphics processor to bring full high-definition video to netbooks. Acer has already announced a netbook, the Aspire One 532G, with the Ion 2 platform.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/190320/intel_to_release_atom_n470_processor.html

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Feb 28 2010, 04:18 PM

Solar cells are cute and all, but let's be real -- these things are far too inefficient for mainstream use. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology are working hard to remedy that very issue, and they've recently concocted a "new type of flexible solar cell that enhances the absorption of sunlight and efficiently converts its photons into electrons." The solution relies on arrays of long, thin silicon wires embedded onto a polymer substrate, which uses just a fraction of the expensive semiconductor materials required by conventional solar cells. According to professor Harry Atwater, these cells have "surpassed the conventional light-trapping limit for absorbing materials" for the first time, and we're told that the arrays can convert between 90 and 100 percent of the photons they absorb into electrons, and yes, that does mean that they have a near-perfect internal quantum efficiency. Hit the source link for all the technobabble, and cross your fingers for this stuff to get the honored approval of the Governator.

http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223000119

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Feb 28 2010, 04:16 PM

Apple's famous desire for total control over its operations seems to have extended to its manufacturing facilities as we've come across Cupertino's Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report, which details audits the American company has done of its overseas suppliers and the failures identified therein. The findings are pretty damning on the whole, with more than half (54 percent) of all factories failing to meet Apple's already inflated maximum 60-hour work week, 24 percent paying less than the minimum wage, 37 percent failing to respect anti-discrimination rules, and three facilities holding records of employing a total of eleven 15-year olds (who were over the legal age of 16 or had left by the time of the audit). Apple is, predictably, not jazzed about the situation, and has taken action through train-the-trainer schemes, threats of business termination with recidivist plants, and -- most notably -- the recovery of $2.2 million in recruitment fees that international contract workers should not have had to pay.

It should come as no shock to learn that cheaper overseas factories are cutting illegal corners, but it's disappointing to hear Apple's note that most of the 102 audited manufacturers said Cupertino was the only vendor to perform such rigorous compliance checks. Still, we'll take what we can get and the very existence of this report -- which can be savagely skewed to defame Apple's efforts (as demonstrated expertly by The Daily Telegraph below) -- is an encouraging sign that corporate responsibility is being taken seriously. We hope, wherever your geek loyalties and fervor may lie, that you'll agree Apple's leading in the right direction and that its competitors should at the very least have matching monitoring schemes. They may have to swallow some bad PR at first, but sweeping up the dirty details of where gadgets come from is juvenile and has no place in a civilized world. Hit the source link for the full report.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-using-child-labour.html

Last post made by: Spacebunny on Feb 28 2010, 04:14 PM