hello NASA, using the old junk box?

Case in point again. Personal attacks are an *not* an acceptable substitute for evidence, logic, and civil discourse. Your continued ad hominems say a ;ot more about you than they do about your target.

I was talking to a youngish German guy, with a degree in IT and mutlimedia.

He could not understand that I taught myself enough C to program

OK, I still dont know enough engineering, but I know how to read a book. He did roll a good joint though, something I have never achieved

martin

I guess We hoped in vain. Read a dictionary, plural versus singular.

I can see this statement coming back to haunt you. I remember reading in a book by Charles Pellegrino about a conference of some kind where there was a really fussy, indecisive guy - couldn't choose where to sit, couldn't choose what pen to use, where to put his notepad, etc. It transpired that the last decisive order that guy ever issued - which left him in that state - was "Challenger, you are go for throttle up".

I'm all in favor of allowing people to take informed risks and not requiring them to meet bureaucratic safety standards. I think private spaceflight should be as unregulated as possible, and certainly should not be held to general aviation safety standards; I think the only safety standards should be to protect people on the ground track.

But the risks to crew must be quantifiable. Without a rigorous design control process and exhaustive qual, it can be very difficult to quantify the risk of using a new part. I don't think that many people, even daredevils, would fly in a spacecraft that had a 75% chance of catastrophic failure. And you can build up to those kinds of odds VERY quickly with just a few part substitutions.

India a

thousand.

On my short tour of a transistor factory many years agot, one station near the end was where every device was tested so they would know what to call it.

Of course, processes have improved.

Bring on the lions ;-)

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

That's still S.O.P. for discrete transistors and diodes.

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

still

(Today,

single

came

somebody

that

IIRC, our costs for each person was calculated to be $300/hr. I used the $100/hr to decide if I should hire somebody to do work around the house or do it myself.

I just wish somebody had put a price tag on one code review where 99% of the criticisms were correcting the spelling of the word "the". 12 TOPS-20 software developers plus the reviewee were at that meeting. Out of a 2-session of 2 hours, or perhaps 3, there was only one constructive comment.

I had one who couldn't even read the specs; I had to read them to him. I hated retraining bosses.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

There are shuttles being launched out of Asia? Cool! I didn't knove this before.

Ken

There was a lot of fake semiconductor rubbish coming out of (mainly) India a few years back. It would seem NASA still has some. Interesting it still works at all - I recall some of the packages contained no die.

Ken

Um, that's not exactly accurate. The prototype ABL

Yeah, well.

Thanks, Rich

They were also used in low-noise E.C.G. and E.E.G pre-amps. They had very low 'flicker noise', which was important at the low frequencies they were amplifying.

I believe one high-spec RF signal generator was still using them in its oscillator circuit right into the 1970s, because nothing else exhibited such low phase jitter.

Even nowadays, it is surprising how many of the 'low-noise' semiconductors become noisy below 100 c/s.

I don't know if it's a requirement, but I do remember from flying lessons in a Cessna 150, it had two magnetos and two sets of spark plugs, which had to both be individually tested during your pre-flight.[1] I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find that it _could_ continue to fly without a battery - in fact, I think I've seen a guy prop start one, which shouldn't require a battery - think "lawnmower". :-)

Thanks, Rich

This is supposed to be followed by a question mark, as in:

'Nuf said?

~$35,000

Acquisition costs would remain the same. NASA can't buy off-the-shelf.

Tell me. Would you allow your laptop to be MRIed? Would you expect ones to remain ones and the zeros to remain zeros? Would you expect the CPU to remain unfried? That's just hardware.

Software is even more expensive.

Yea, right. Lower safety is the reason everything's been on hold for two years.

You are ignoring the funding. There is a shortage of politicians and Liberals who are willing to lower "safety" standards.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

On a sunny day (Thu, 14 Jul 2005 22:23:33 +0000) it happened Guy Macon wrote in :

F*ck of.

On a sunny day (Fri, 15 Jul 2005 05:24:03 GMT) it happened "Morituri-|-Max" wrote in :

How about you saying: ave imperator, morituri te salutant ?

On a sunny day (Fri, 15 Jul 2005 09:01:27 +1200) it happened "Ken Taylor" wrote in :

Eh, I had a Philips BC109 with nothing in it, one of a batch of a thousand. They do not test individual transistors IIRC.

Is that why there's so frickin' many different part numbers?

Thanks, Rich