In 1985 Rockwell considered the business potential of a “servicing center” that could be added on to the forthcoming Space Station. It could service satellites and orbital transfer vehicles and the like.
Nov 082019
Nov 082019
The trailer for the Nic Cage adaptation of Lovecraft’s “Color out of Space:”
It certainly seems… colorful.
Nov 082019
BUT FOR HOW LONG????
So, the net computer that went down: it’s a doorstop. Apparently the “spine” went bad; whether or not it was fixable was apparently a matter of debate, but I decided to just put it out of it’s misery and buy a new one, because, hey, if there’s anything I’m rolling around in right now, it’s big piles of ready-to-burn cash.
So now I’m re-loading everything I need onto yet another computer. Yaaaaaaaay. I’ll be back to bitchin’ about every damned thing before long.
Nov 062019
Forgive the lack of proper formatting and quoting; the computer still ain’t fixed.
http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-berler-ammunition-20191105-bmfxmme6qzhe3horcsnc7mbufy-story.html
Where the author claims that the solution to the “gun crisis” is not to ban guns, because that would be unconstitutional… but to ban all currently produced calibers of ammunition. That, somehow, would make criminals give up their lives of crime, because once they’ve burned through their nine millimeter ammo, they’re not going to get more from the black market of foreign ammo, and they’re certainly not going to go to the bother of reloading rounds.
“Freedom of the press” doesn’t mean you can ban ink or paper so long as you leave the actual presses alone.
Nov 052019
An interesting vid that debunks a lot of the claims of Columbus’ evilness. With luck it’ll post correctly from my phone…
Nov 052019
My computer remains at the shop. I have no expection of hearing anything for another day or two. Fortunately, “my computer” in this context refers strictly to the pawn-shop-purchased Chromebook that I use strictly for online work… none of my writing or CAD or scanning or any of that. It is ina sense “sacrificial,” so if it gets fed through a woodchipper then all that’s lost is a bunch of bookmarks and logn passwords. Not that that won;t be a massive irritant, but compared to losing a few terabytes of 3D models and scanned documents…
Anyway, while I wait I continue the long task of unpacking. One thing I unpacked was my *previous* internet computer, a *tiny* and by now truly ancient netbook. As you can see it functions, but *damn* is it slow. Slow enough to make being online as painful as listening to an SJW give a lecture, so until I’m back to the “good” internet computer… I’m off of the net, back to unloading books from boxes onto shelves. Feel free to order stuff (*please* order stuff…. tell other people to order stuff), there’ll just be a longer than usual delay in responding.
Nov 042019
No, not me, though with the constant piling on of problems it will surprise me none at all when my heart finally says “frak it” and takes a nap. No, this time what’s flatlined are the number of sunspots, which if this phone works right should be illustrated below.
Nov 032019
Yay, back to posting with my phone. This time my internet computer give me a blue screen of death about a minute after startup due to “memory management.” Shuts down starts up crashes again rinse and repeat ad infinitum. Nothing seems to affect it, so tomorrow off I go on a time wasting expensive journey to try to get it repaired. Friggin huzzah.
Nov 032019
Well, the audio here should just about satisfy your monthly required dosage of Teh Dum. Short form: a university professor arguing that space doesn’t exist because he’s never been there, and that the only reason why people say that it does is because Evil White People, and that the fact that there are black astronauts who have claimed to actually go to space only means that they are participating in whiteness. Oh, and that trusting someone else’s experience about something you’ve never actually experience is “colonialism.”
And it gets better: the students try to make the argument that the proper thing to do is eliminate all the white people… by shooting them into space, which the professor argues does not exist.
Interestingly, as stupid as these people clearly are, there’s an interesting basis for a sci-fi future buried in there. Hmmm…
Nov 022019
Picking up where we left off…
In 1985, Rockwell considered the possibilities of space-based commercial services such as modules added to the Space Station or free-flying on their own and propellant scavenging from the External Tank and OMS pods. in the decades since, neither of these has come to pass. Commercial modules for the ISS have been proposed, but none flown, and certainly no free-flying man-tended commercial space facilities have been launched. Similarly, the idea of scavenging residual propellant is a good one… *IF* you can do it cost effectively. Every drop of rocket fuel returned to Earth is a waste of money and potential, along with being a potential environmental hazard when it’s inevitably just dumped into the atmosphere after re-entry or touchdown.
