Disqus - Latest Comments for liotier

Re: Dilbert for 1991-03-10

Utilisateur — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 16:13:06 -0000

29 years later, this fiction becomes reality - thanks to lack of Bluetooth access control !
https://twitter.com/matt_ob...

Re: [Mystère #243] Un technicien avec un modèle de ballon pour des tests en soufflerie

Utilisateur — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 06:57:11 -0000

Vu l'usinage et la taille de l'objet, je devine qu'il s'agit d'un obus profilé aérodynamiquement (tête à gauche de la photo, queue à droite) pour en augmenter la portée. Probablement un prototype vu qu'aux vitesses atteintes par un obus, cette forme n'apporte pas beaucoup de portée supplémentaire par rapport à un simple rétrécissement progressif à sa base plate (en encore: https://www.scribd.com/doc/... mentionne qu'au delà de 2500 pieds par seconde même le "boat tail" est inutile) - et en plus l'augmentation du poids à l'arrière pourrait dégrader la stabilité du projectile. Bref - disons pifométriquement que la photo date de 1920, une époque où on commence à comprendre l'aérodynamique... Mais pas encore bien. De nos jours, les munitions d'artillerie optimisées pour la portée utilisent un générateur de gaz dans leur base pour diminuer leur traînée ("base bleed").

Re: The power of email clients: why did we redesign Thunderbird?

Utilisateur — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 06:45:58 -0000

> adding some white space

Removing as much whitespace as I can is one of my ways to milk my display real estate for as much information density as I can. Also, I bloody hate linear conversation-style presentation - I want proper hierarchical threads.

There underlying problem here: different users have different needs... So far, as far as I understand, Thunderbird has satisfied experienced traditionalist email users. Changing it to fit novices better might break the deal for the former audience.

Re: Automated military para-drops to use image recognition

Utilisateur — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 10:13:18 -0000

Reminds me of TERCOM's predecessor, DSMAC - https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Re: Aftermath of Paris Attacks: Only A Fool Thinks All Lives Matter Equally…

Utilisateur — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 05:20:11 -0000

I guess the article sums up as "don't hate the media, be the media !" - thankfully we have the Internet for that !

Re: Backblaze Vaults: Zettabyte-Scale Cloud Storage Architecture

Utilisateur — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 12:00:37 -0000

A pretty cubicle farm I guess ?

Re: OpenCage Data Blog — Open Geo interview - Daniel Kirstenpfad - Miataru

Utilisateur — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 05:30:01 -0000

I come from the same place, sketched the same ideas... And promptly gave up before even beginning... I am extremely happy and impressed that you took it all the way to this implementation ! Thank you - I'll be playing with it soon !

Re: Video shows what aerial combat looks like from aboard a Bulgarian Mig-29 Fulcrum

Utilisateur — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 07:50:46 -0000

Smoky engine exhaust at 2:16, pushing full throttle at 2:33 - unsurprisingly this end in a bingo fuel...

Re: Watch: NASA video ‘Manufacturing a Large Composite Rocket Fuel Tank’

Utilisateur — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 15:02:51 -0000

Answer to my own question in this video: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Re: Watch: NASA video ‘Manufacturing a Large Composite Rocket Fuel Tank’

Utilisateur — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 14:58:51 -0000

So they also have an oven big enough to cure that fairly large bit of resin ?

Re: Google Calendar Door Sign

Utilisateur — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 06:01:55 -0000

Unauthorized presence should trigger the system into displaying that you are meditating inside the room... Might scare the intruders away...

Re: SelekTOR: Tor GUI With Country Exit Node Selection, Useful To Bypass Country Restrictions For Various Websites

Utilisateur — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 14:22:51 -0000

Does exit node selection potentially degrade a Tor connection's anonymity in any way ?

Re: nickpegg.com : Posts

Utilisateur — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 07:44:17 -0000

Have you given Shorewall a look ? I used to write my own custom ipfwadm/ipchains/iptables rules but I have migrated to Shorewall and didn't look back - sane configuration files, iptable rules generation... http://shorewall.net/

Re: What it’s like to be sitting behind a radar screen of an SA-11 Buk SAM system

Utilisateur — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 11:25:23 -0000

ADS-B can be spoofed - it is invalid information in an adverse environment. That said, unless the target was showing threatening behaviour (which level flying at 33,000 ft is not) is should have been positively identified before firing.

Re: What it’s like to be sitting behind a radar screen of an SA-11 Buk SAM system

Utilisateur — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 07:15:36 -0000

The SAMSimulator is wonderful, but don't take the vintage stuff for granted : Soviet engineering philosophy is constant incremental upgrades and then third-party retrofit... Systems such as the S-125 family take that to extremes in heterogeneity but the Buk too has quite a few variants with very different performance and ergonomics.

That said, I believe that the main issue in this incident is the operation of the TELAR with its own radar in autonomous mode : no target acquisition radar and no command post have been spotted. That has to degrade target recognition performance - I doubt that the integrated system has the same NCTR capabilities as the full one. C.J. Chivers argued that the crew must have had to decide whether to shoot or not in a shorter engagement windows - thus adding to the likelihood of a mistake.

Re: nadjetey - Where are the African programmers?

Utilisateur — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 10:19:26 -0000

Good discussion about this article at https://news.ycombinator.co...

Re: The Hidden Design Genius of Airport Runways

Utilisateur — Fri, 23 May 2014 06:10:09 -0000

This begs for a "runway designators" font - would look great for aeronautical or technical titles !

Re: Biased and Inefficient - Anchoring bias

Utilisateur — Wed, 21 May 2014 05:30:23 -0000

Looks like I mistook p for a correlation coefficient... Sorry.

Re: Biased and Inefficient - Anchoring bias

Utilisateur — Tue, 20 May 2014 13:03:22 -0000

I like the experiment a lot but p=0.037 is rather weak... Did you reproduce that result with other samples ?

Re: Incredible video from the receiving end of a DC-10 Supertanker’s fire retardant drop

Utilisateur — Fri, 16 May 2014 07:39:47 -0000

Does the twin turboprop that takes the same flight path as the DC-10 just before him act as a pathfinder or is it just a coincidence ?

Re: What happens when you upload to CPAN?

Utilisateur — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 06:16:58 -0000

Why introduce a dependency on Github ? Fetching a tag on the submitter's VCS would be better than dependancy on a centralized resource. But would that provide any benefits compared to submitting the package in-band ?

Re: 3quarksdaily: The Misfits - Last Caress

Utilisateur — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 17:53:03 -0000

Regularly covered live by Metallica - here a 1989 live in Seattle : http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works reveals a Mach 6 strike successor of SR-71 Blackbird dubbed SR-72

Utilisateur — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 19:24:27 -0000

As another poster mentioned, lasers are most promising option - even an hypersonic vehicle with heat shielding can only absorb so much heat from non-aerodynamic sources. Of course such lasers are only in early development - but so are hypersonic aircraft.

The next best thing I imagine could be an hypothetical THAAD, S500 or Arrow derivative taking hypersonic aircraft into account. But as you mention, even with those super-missiles the engagement envelope will be slim and it will take a pretty dense and well-organized air defense network to have a chance. Lesser opponents will only be able to enjoy the show on their IRST...

Re: Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works reveals a Mach 6 strike successor of SR-71 Blackbird dubbed SR-72

Utilisateur — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 09:41:51 -0000

Is an hypersonic vehicle viable as an ISR platform ? In the IR band, at high speeds, this thing is going to be as stealthy as a giant blowtorch...

Re: Motorola announces Project Ara, an open hardware platform with modular components ala Phonebloks

Utilisateur — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 13:33:40 -0000

So far I have always compromised on battery life, but I'm now swinging the other way: features are useless without available energy...