Oh, and the _real_ name did actually change. It’s not Zonked Quokka any more, that’s so yesterday. Today we’re Woozy Numbat! Get your order in!
Monthly Archives: October 2004
Amusing Disclaimer
From the front page of the website of the Australian satirical magazine Chaser who do the occasional forays into TV with CNNNN and “The Chaser Decides”.
There’s a lot more than just this quote there. 🙂
If any part of The Chaser causes disagreement between you and any other person, the editors recommend that disputes be resolved without recourse to violence. If a dispute concerning a Chaser article cannot be resolved without physical aggression, combatants are advised to fight only at locations that have valid and paid-up public liability insurance and/or in playgrounds administered by the Department of Education or other public body. Fights should be conducted in the presence of a qualified referee and with medical help readily available. No biting, scratching, blows below the belt or nipple cripples.
Cassini-Huygens almost went badly wrong
The IEEE Spectrum Magazine is reporting that the Huygens probe would not have returned data to Cassini when released to probe Titans atmosphere.
None of the participants from the manufacturer through ESA to NASA realised this could happen, partly because the Italian manufacturer saw JPL as a rival and wanted NASA to sign an non-disclosure agreement to protect their proprietary design, which NASA refused.
Disaster was averted when Claudio Sollazzo, Huygens’s ground operations manager at the ESA became uneasy about this not being tested, and asked Boris Smeds (also of the ESA) to investigate. He finally persuaded NASA to relent and allow the test and demonstrated that Cassini would not understand the signals that Huygens sent because of the doppler shift as it accelerated away due to Titans gravity.
Australian Government under investigation for phone-spamming unlisted numbers
As I wrote previously during the recent election the Liberal Party of Australia phone-spammed households with a message from the PM.
They are now under investigation by the Australian Communications Authority for spamming silent (unlisted, ex-directory) telephone numbers which should be only available to the emergency services.
Returning Chinese Satellite Destroys House
The ABC is is reporting that a Chinese satellite destroyed a home in Sichuan Province last Friday.
Apparently Chinese space experts said “The landing technology of our country’s satellites is very mature and the precision of the landing point is among the best in the world. Members of the public need not worry about this,” – so in this case did they have something against the person who owned the house ? Or maybe it was an extreme practical joke ?
I wonder what the insurance company would say..
Going down… a graphical view of SCO’s stock price
Courtesy of Yahoo Finance, this is what SCO’s share price has been doing over the last 12 months.
Microsoft server crash nearly causes 800-plane pile-up & Windows for Warships
Found via Alec Muffett’s blog, Southern California’s air traffic control system failed due to a Microsoft Windows problem causing at least 5 near misses and leaving 800 planes airborne with no contact to ATC in mid-September.
Just to make you more depressed, read how the UK’s new Type-45 destroyers are being fitted with “Windows for Warships” (from the Risks Digest) – a chilling new turn for the blue screen of death if it goes wrong, which it has plenty of opportunity to according to the report.. There is another report on this over at the Register.
Windows Security Nightmare
The BBC is reporting that Symantec say that 30,000 Windows PC’s are being recruited into spam and virus spreading networks each day which is a massive increase from 2,000 a day 6 months ago.
Computer Weekly is also reporting a security hole in Microsoft Word (2000 and XP) which will let people run code on your machine. This does not yet have a fix.
So, if you must use Windows, make sure you keep your machine up to date with patches from Windows Update and Office up to date with OfficeUpdate, switch from Internet Explorer to a more secure browser like Firefox or Opera, use a personal firewall like ZoneAlarm and install a good virus checker and keep it up to date!
Oh, and don’t forget to clean out spyware with a program such as AdAware.
Of course if you don’t have to run Windows then you can think about switching to Linux, I’d suggest looking at a distribution like Ubuntu, Mandrake or Fedora.
You can even try out Linux without installing it by running it from a CD using the Knoppix boot-CD.
Don’t be part of the problem.
Beautiful Mars 360 Degree Panoramic Photo-Mosaic
SpaceRef has a story about NASA releasing an amazing panorama of the Columbia Hills on Mars. The full size version gives me an amazing feeling of “being there”, something that you don’t get from the normal photos. The panorama gives you the freedom to virtually spin in a circle and see what’s out there.
They’ve also got an interesting article about Max Faget, who just died, the man who designed the “escape rocket” (the Launch Escape System) on top of the NASA Mercury and later launches.
Mars Rovers find more signs of water
Having vented my spleen about the recent elections in Australia in my previous article here’s a more upbeat story.
A heap of sites are reporting that the NASA Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have not only survived their Martian winter hibernation but have now both returned more evidence for water having existed on Mars.
This is a remarkable achievement given that both rovers have survived well past their 90 Martian days “warranty” (Spirit has managed 184 to date, Opportunity 163 as it landed just under three weeks later than Spirit).