nanodust’s blog

let's play global thermonuclear war

7 hours ago
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Let's take a moment while still hungover from July 4th celebrations to put the recent N. Korean Patriotic Display of Weak Weapons to put it all in perspective:

the first hydrogen bomb blast is impressive. the precambrian meteor blast is impressive. hiroshima & nagasaki, compared to those two, not so much. and the N Korean display, not impressive whatsoever.

nuke it

screw work

2 days ago
1 comment

The US now has fewer jobs than it did nine years ago.

Unemployment is at 9.5 percent, a 26-year high.

It's the first time since the Great Depression that a recession has wiped out all the jobs created during the previous business cycle.

June unemployment:

10 percent: Adult men

7.6 percent: Adult women

11.7 percent: Female heads of households

8.2 percent: Asians

8.6 percent: Whites

12.2 percent: Hispanics

14.7 percent: Blacks

24 percent: Teenagers

Implementation of all routines concerning a model photon.

Jun 24, 2009
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//The object 'photon follows a photon's life from its creation in some
// emission region of the model space, through scattering processes,
// until either its absorption or detection. All necessary routines
// and parameters are defined here, including the procedures for
// electron scattering or scattering off a generalized dust
// grain. Some features are marked with a symbol (*) denoting that
// they are not used by the program at its current state but that they
// are reserved for future purposes or diagnostic reasons.

source

random lunch hack

Jun 24, 2009
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It's a video deposition/complaint/feedback/confession/booth. The complaint was slow video framerate.

after testing device & network throughput with VNC & streaming, we fixed it by UNINSTALLING the webcam drivers.

it was some fancy new thing, and wasn't allowing us to explicitly set the resolution at a driver level.

so we removed the driver, and the most basic windows driver did a 320x240 stream.

then we installed a different/older driver for the same camera, and got it up closer to 640x480 at at least 25 fps.

problem solved.

what amateurs put this thing together ? ? so goofy and complicated: mac mini running xp two cpu when only one needed single Linux box more reliable and cheaper... furthermore, they developed on quad core with firewire; and installed with two seperate mac & pcs both running xp & vista with a webcam. They obviously didn't leave time to debug on-site, after changing platforms for install.

Amateurs !!

heaven forbid they were paid.

Anyway, fun to check out & work w friends to fix.

(the name of the school is booth... too much?)

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Nyc refuse fills the statue of liberty each day

Jun 22, 2009
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This is a sculpture representing the volume of garbage produced daily by the activities of millennia New Yorkers. It was produced by [insert awesome dudes name], and was one of a fascinating array of sculptures, and not manufactured from beef jerkey. It can be seen at addy

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obama & motorcade on LSD in Chicago

Jun 15, 2009
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just got to see three helecopters land @ soldier field, and obama's motorcade head up lake shore drive (and lower wacker?) on way to AMA meeting @ hyatt

IMG_2389

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Friday Nights are Hard Work

May 15, 2009
1 comment

on tonight's agenda:

http://www.uchisciart.org/Home.html 6-8 pm @ 929 E 57th s t 3rd floor auditorium

http://www.antenapilsen.com/current.html 6-10 pm @ 1765 S. Laflin St

http://www.id.iit.edu/events/show2009/ 6:30-9 @ 350 North LaSalle Street

oh and there's also the SAIC fashion show @ heaven from 8-10p

and then to top it off

Friday, May 15
Ninja Tune welcomes...
MR SCRUFF (6 HOUR SET)
Tickets: $12 before midnight,
$15 after midnight
21 & over
Doors: 10pm / Show: 10pm

random shuttle facts (for STS-125)

May 11, 2009
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stuff i didn't know before spending the day @ kennedy space center:

if shuttle didn't roll over backwards (right after launch, always does this), Comms would drop out (blocked by fuel tanks), they'd have no line of sight in case nav dropped out, and fuel use would not be as efficient.

polar orbits are launched from california, equatorial from florida.

space station orbit is from 117-245 miles up (relatively low)

hubble is around 350 mi up (relatively high)

every 45 minutes goes from light/dark... so they orbit earth every 1.5 hrs.

the shuttle must cool down & 'rest' for 40 hrs before they open up the bay or go outside

at 30 seconds, they throttle down, or else the orange fuel tank would crush by an atmospheric pressure change at that height. they throttle it back up at 51 seconds.

@ 10 seconds, shuttle is going 1000 mph (well ok 927 mph)

@ 1 min, 2000 mph

@ 2 min 1s, the booster seperation happens

@ 6 min, 17729 mph (!) - large tank drops

@ 10 min, officially in space (above 99 mi high)

pretty amazing.

oh, and tons of debris is still left from recent satellite collisions, so there was a whole extra shuttle ready to go, crew on standby, in case they get hit w/ debris & can't land the shuttle. yep. rescue mission on standby. high stakes. all for a telescope. so cool. 'most dangerous mission yet'

launched. (8 more to go...)

May 11, 2009
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the sound. tearing through. (view launch viddy here)

DSC00785 (Large)

public viewing area is 5mi away - tho one can apparently get closer in a kayak.

next time !!!

meanwhile. so. lovely.

they're up there, now... doing it.

first spacewalk on thursday.

STS-125 12 hrs to liftoff

May 10, 2009
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so made it to florida to see the last hubble mission !

flew into orlando & drove around kennedy space center to get a feel for the layout... leaving 6am tomorrow to make sure we get there in time....

332103main_liteglow_full

ken said:
it's now over 10%, a forty year high..and still going up. read more
on screw work
nanodust said:
SCRUFF SUCKED !!!no deep funk groove, just unrelated unmixed tracks. so odd; he's so lively in past. Maybe just bored... read more
on Friday Nights are Hard Work
peltonin said:

[this is good]
read more
on just watched ice pirates
athf said:

[this is good]
read more
on what happened to systrum system ?
tesia said:

[this is good]
BEST OF TIMES WORST OF TIMES!!! hell ya. read more
on worker = terrorist