Monthly Archives: April 2006

Portable Applications – An Office on a (USB) Stick

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For those folks trapped using Windows here’s a really nice way to get access to all those free open-source applications in such a way that you don’t have to install them on your computer to be able to use them.

These can just be copied onto a USB memory stick and (apparently) run directly from there – you can even save your documents onto it, unplug it and move it to another computer and your virtual office should follow you!

The Portable Applications site has a heap of applications built for this, including:

and much much more!

Google Alternative To ‘DSH’ ?

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Looks like Mikal and Andrew have come up with an interesting take on the age-old cluster/distributed SSH tool, like LLNL’s good old pdsh. But the twist is this (from their FAQ):

You run a utility (cssh) giving a couple of server names as parameters, and then xterms opens up to each server with an extra “console” window. Anything typed into the console is replicated into each server window (so you can edit the same file on N machines at the same time).

It should work on any POSIX system (including, they claim, CygWin).

Venus Express Telemetry is Good!

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The last piece of the puzzle is in, the ESA have confirmed that they have telemetry from Venus Express and have held a press conference to announce everything looks A-OK with the spacecraft. Congratulations to all involved!

Emily quotes Don McCoy, Venus Express Project Manager saying:

In fact we have quite a bit margin of fuel on board. We allocate extra fuel for a bad launch, for maneuvers on route, [and everything was nominal] so we probably have enough fuel to do the extended mission, and quite frankly I think we could do another one after that. We have enough fuel for 4 and a half to 6 years.

This could be a really interesting mission..

Venus Express Arrives!

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The Planetary Society’s Emily Lakdawalla is reporting from Darmstadt that the European Space Agency’s Venus Express is in orbit!

She does sound one note of caution though, saying:

while the S-band signal has indicated that the spacecraft has shut down its main engine properly, it does not yet indicate the full health of the spacecraft; that will only happen at 11:13 local time, when (if) they detect the X-band signal from the spacecraft’s high-gain antenna.

So congratulations on getting there, and here’s hoping the spacecraft reports it is in good shape!

Skokholm Island Bought By Welsh Wildlife Trusts

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Here’s some nice news, the small island of Skokholm has been bought by The Wildlife Trusts who have been managing it for the past 50 years, on behalf of the Dale Caste Estate who owned it since 1646. Because of this long involvement the trusts were given preferred buyer status by the trustees of the estate after the death of Mrs Osra Lloyd-Philipps (1920-2005).

Also see the information about the Skomer, Skokholm and Midland Island nature reserves.

White House Admits Bush “Leaked” Intelligence

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OK – so now they’re arguing about whether it was really a “leak” if the president ordered that classified information be released. Their spokesman said:

Because of the public debate that was going on and some of the wild accusations that were flying around at the time, we felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified and that’s exactly what we did.

Common Sense Rules in UK Book Copyright Case

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Hooray, it appears that the law and common sense has triumphed in the case of Baigent & Leigh versus The Random House Group Limited over the fiction work “The Da Vinci Code“. From the judgement:

2.1 Holy Blood Holy Grail does not have a Central Theme as contended by the Claimants: it was an artificial creation for the purposes of the litigation working back from the Da Vinci Code.

and

2.3 Even if the Central Themes were copied they are too general or of too low a level of abstraction to be capable of protection by copyright law.