Disqus - Latest Comments for survtech

Re: SpaceX to launch shared EchoStar, SES satellite in October

survtech — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 13:19:56 -0000

Is it confirmed that this launch will be from Pad 39A rather than SLC-40? The implication would be that Falcon Heavy will not launch in November.

Re: Dense, six-story apartment building adjacent SpaceX in Hawthorne gets initial OK

survtech — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 14:37:57 -0000

Two interesting sentences:

"Reuben Sanchez, president of the North Hawthorne Community Association, said he was asked for support from Blackwood officials, and offered a donation, but refused."

"Planning Commissioner Rula Alshanableh said she loves the concept."

Are we taking bets on whether the one is related to the other?

Re: Leave It To Neil Tyson To Diminish All That We've Done in Space

survtech — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 13:40:54 -0000

I have a serious problem with his attitude toward private spaceflight companies vis a vis NASA. He derides NASA as not doing anything in 45 years with regard to human spaceflight out of one side of his mouth while also deriding private companies that profess interest in human exploration like SpaceX out of the other side.

OK, so NASA either hasn't had the Apollo-size budget to accomplish serious human endeavors in space or has to kowtow to Congressional special interests in lieu of spending money efficiently. Along comes a company whose CEO has the vision and possibly the wherewithal to expand human reach to Mars and beyond and Neil calls them delusional. (http://www.theverge.com/201...

Here's something to wrap your enormous ego around, Neil: You can't have it both ways. If public spaceflight is at the mercy of politics, you might at least have an open mind towards private spaceflight.

Re: ‘Not Like the Electoral College Is a Surprise:’ CNN Anchor Scolds Elector Trying To Reverse Results

survtech — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:01:53 -0000

Wrong. John Quincy Adams was the first. He was both (a Democrat-Republican).

Re: ‘Not Like the Electoral College Is a Surprise:’ CNN Anchor Scolds Elector Trying To Reverse Results

survtech — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 16:50:07 -0000

I find it interesting that more than half of the protestors arrested in Portland Oregon did not vote in the election: many hadn't even bothered to register. So why do they think they are entitled to protest?

Re: Elon Musk, Wernher Von Braun and Gigantism: What is Old is New Again

survtech — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 15:38:32 -0000

"After his initial success with the V-2 rocket, von Braun imagined scaling up the technology for manned voyages to Mars. It proved to be a pleasant and ultimately frustrating illusion." That is not the fault of technical constraints on building the required hardware, it is the fault of a war eating up valuable resources and a lack of vision of our government.
The plans were there, the technology was there and the vision was there but the will was lacking. I blame the Nixon administration for both hobbling space exploration and for its lack of support for continuing Moon missions, expanding to Mars missions, and for the Space Shuttle never fulfilling the original promise of its name: "Space Transportation System".
I also blame the entire concept of government-funded space exploration that is subject to political whims. For many politicians, NASA is, more than anything, a source of "pork" for their districts. There are few, if any, incentives to improve technology or cut costs. Even SLS will likely turn out to be a boondoggle.

Re: Spectacular Images of Recovered Falcon 9 Stages in a Hangar

survtech — Mon, 16 May 2016 14:21:50 -0000

I thought at least one of them was supposed to be put on display at SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne, CA.

Re: Op-Ed | Ending ban on retired ICBMs would allow U.S. companies to reclaim small satellite launch market

survtech — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 13:18:05 -0000

Interesting idea. Take an old ICBM or its engine and use it to launch new missions.
Wait! That sounds familiar... Oh yeah, I remember now: Didn't the Orbital Antares ISS Resupply rocket that exploded use "refurbished" engines from old Russian ICBM's? See how well that worked.
Now, Orbital wants us to use U.S. ICBM engines. I wonder which company would get the contract for those launches. It wouldn't by chance be Orbital ATK, would it?

Re: Should You Buy Into Athersys’ (ATHX) Latest Spin on Failed Stroke Therapy? - TheStreet

survtech — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 16:46:23 -0000

Some key points appear to have been lost or ignored in your article, Adam. Among them are that MultiStem is not a drug so its full MoA and the longevity of its effect are not clear at this juncture. I fail to see how a valid argument can be made that failure at the 90-day point negates results at the 1-year point.

Yes, you can argue that post hoc analysis of the trial results raised suspicions, especially when there are many examples of companies that "cherry picked" data to make failed trials appear in a better light. The details of that post hoc analysis have been discussed ad nauseum and I'm not going to bring that into this discussion.

However, the data from the 1-year follow-up is just as valid as the 90-day data. Both time frames were part of the Secondary Outcome Measures and the results at both time frames should be considered in light of both the purpose of the trial and the effect on participants.

Basically, we have three sets of data:
1. Stroke recovery based on global test analysis
of all patients that received MultiStem (24-48 hours) at 90 days (failed).
2. Stroke recovery based on global test analysis of the patients that received MultiStem (24-36 hours) at 90 days (apparently passed but subject to argument).
3. Changes in outcome measures (mRS, NIHSS, BI) of all patients that received MultiStem (24-48 hours) over time frame 365 days (passed).

The point could be made that since patients who received MultiStem continued to improve past the 90-day point with far better results than patients who received placebo, there has to be some long-lasting effect that was not apparent at the 90-day point. Remember, the full capabilities of the various types of stem cells are still not well understood. That is one of the points of performing clinical trials in humans in the first place.

Now that Athersys has a better handle on the capabilities of MultiStem, the next set of trials should include a wider range of administration times. Athersys has determined that earlier administration yields better results within the original 24-48 hour window. I haven't seen a bell curve of patient response versus administration time. I tend to believe that we may see increased response as the treatment window gets shorter, but probably only up to a point. I've seen speculation that 24-hours post-stroke is the optimum time but I doubt it's that cut and dried.

In conclusion, I believe you do neither your followers nor the medical community a service by your stubborn refusal to examine the 1-year data, Adam. This was not a post hoc data analysis of only a portion of the participants and your insistence that it was reflects poorly on you and on TheStreet.

Re: Should You Buy Into Athersys’ (ATHX) Latest Spin on Failed Stroke Therapy? - TheStreet

survtech — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 00:05:28 -0000

pipelight, are you still at it? Haven't you moved on yet? It really isn't good for your health holding a grudge for that long.

Re: Arianespace Surpassed SpaceX in Commercial Launch Orders in 2015

survtech — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 14:39:47 -0000

"they would reserve judgement on the exploit pending a thorough examination of the stage" LOL, like that's going to happen. Why would SpaceX let Arianespace see anything, including a post-inspection report?

Re: Forget Mars. Here’s Where We Should Build Our First Off-World Colonies

survtech — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 17:46:18 -0000

It's very simple, really - simpletons elect simpletons.

Another way of putting it is "Every nation gets the government it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre

Re: Is There an Apocalyptic Event Coming on September 23, 2015?

survtech — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:32:38 -0000

Thanks for backpedaling, TruthLamp Editorial Team. You actually said "...there appears to be a consensus that multiple, world-changing events (natural, man-made and spiritual) will take place in rapid succession both before, during and after the September 23rd date." and listed many notable happenings around then.

You also said "These and other uncanny circumstances all point to something significant happening in September. As many Christian believers have noted, the return of Christ may be drawing near and now is the time to repent and place your faith and trust in Him before it is too late."

September's nearly over and despite your, and a number of others' predictions of impending doom, apocalypse or The Second Coming, the world goes on as it always has.

Re: Elon Musk & The End of the World as We Know It

survtech — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:08:43 -0000

Ugghhhh. A chilling prospect.

Re: Good news, earthlings: The planet Mercury probably won’t kill us

survtech — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 18:35:39 -0000

I used to own a Mercury but it crashed into a utility pole. Does that count?

Re: Is There an Apocalyptic Event Coming on September 23, 2015?

survtech — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:20:07 -0000

Why? If I die, say, 10 years from now, then I will have lived out my life span, despite the many doom and gloom predictions that will have come and gone during the course of my 75+ year existence.

I never said there is or is not a God, nor would I post my beliefs either way. That is my own and nobody else's business.

Nevertheless, believing in God has absolutely no bearing on believing the Apocalypse is coming in two weeks, two years, two centuries or two millennia. Whether given to us by a Supreme Being or by nature, we still, more or less, have the intelligence to view predictions of a supposedly impending Apocalypse with a skeptical eye.

Re: Is There an Apocalyptic Event Coming on September 23, 2015?

survtech — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 18:23:39 -0000

"How about if I am right and nothing comes to pass. The Earth is still here and we are still living long after September 23, 2015. What then?"

Why, the same thing they do every time their stupid apocalypse predictions don't pan out - claim their math or their interpretation of The Bible or the tea leaves was wrong and pluck another date out of thin air.

These predictions come and go every few years and none have been correct. January 1, 1000 and 2000 were both predicted by many, along with Pat Robertson's April 29, 2007, Ronald Weinland's prediction of various dates in 2011 and, of course December 21, 2012.

Check out the Wikipedia entry for "List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events". There have been, and will be, literally hundreds of apocalyptic predictions.

Hey, if 2015 doesn't pan out, there's always 2020, 2021, 2026, 2060, 2120, 2129 and 2200, to name a few.

Re: 'Jupiter Ascending' Flops At Box Office

survtech — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 23:32:25 -0000

Exactly.

Re: 'Jupiter Ascending' Flops At Box Office

survtech — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 17:33:11 -0000

I don't think the Wachowskis are in the same league as Cameron. At least he used to have the "touch", as evidenced by T1, T2, Aliens and maybe Titanic, although his more recent films have been disappointing. I think The Matrix was a lucky fluke and the Wachowskis have shot their wad.

Re: Role and impact of HDcctv AT 2.0 standard on video surveillance market | Security News - SourceSecurity.com

survtech — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:11:42 -0000

"Format confusion inevitably has the same kind of impact on the video
surveillance market. Therefore, it is in the commercial interest of
every company who has invested in HD surveillance equipment to fully
support the open, global PnP standards for local-site transport of HD
surveillance signals."

That statement is highly self-serving. Just like with Beta vs. VHS and HD-DVD vs. BluRay, the market will decide which, if any, of the competing proprietary analog and/or digital HD technologies will be the winner in the end. HDcctv, HD-SDI, HDCVI, HD-TVI and AHD will all be competing against each other and against IP for adoption. It's entirely possible that neither of the upstarts will win, since IP has a huge head start.

Re: Red Lobster Goes Vertical on Plate to Push Quality

survtech — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 16:45:25 -0000

"As for the food itself, that hasn't changed."

Does that mean their dipping butter will still be some kind of thin white overly-salty liquid with floating globules of fat, instead of real clarified butter? Yuch!

Re: The Ugly Numbers Behind Unbundled Cable TV

survtech — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 09:41:24 -0000

John,

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 34 hours of TV a week (source http://www.nielsen.com).

According to the report, "The average American spends more than 41 hours each week—nearly five-and-a-half hours daily—engaging with content across all screens. They spend most of that time (more than 34 hours) in front of a TV, and consumers spend three of those TV hours watching time-shifted content. Viewing behavior varies by ethnicity, however: the average African-American spends close to 55 hours, Hispanics just over 35 hours and Asian Americans spend more than 27 hours."

Re: The Ugly Numbers Behind Unbundled Cable TV

survtech — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 13:26:13 -0000

The author's suggestion to stream TV via the likes of Hulu, Amazon and Netflix ignores the reality of ISP bandwidth caps and the limited online offerings of many content providers.

The average American watches around 34 hours of television a week. A family of four would watch (34x4x4.3=585) hours of TV a month. HDTV's bitrate is approximately 5-8 Megabits per second so the family of four above would need more than 1,200 Gigabytes of bandwidth (5x60x60x585/8/1024).

The average ISP bandwidth cap is around 200GB per month, leaving a 1,000GB overage. Assuming your ISP even allows that level of overage (many will just either cut you off or throttle your usage) and adding the overage charges to the subscription fees (keeping in mind that many channels either charge exorbitant prices for subscriptions or don't offer all of their shows online), the author's suggestion to "cut the cord" is a bit disingenuous.

AT&T, for instance, charges $10 per each 50GB over their 150GB bandwidth cap so 1050GB overage would cost $210 additional over their basic $34.95 "special rate" and that plan's 6GB/s would not allow simultaneous viewing of even two HD channels.

Re: Multicast for Surveillance Primer

survtech — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:43:18 -0000

I know this is an old thread but the subject has come up recently and I'm hoping someone here can provide some clarity.

According to one VMS manufacturer, to simultaneously feed the recording server and viewing clients, either the devices (cameras or encoders) must support dual streams (one unicast and one multicast) or the system would require proxy server(s) to convert a single unicast stream from the device to multiple streams: unicast for recording and multicast for viewing. They do not recommend feeding only a multicast stream from the edge device because of the difficulties encountered in troubleshooting multicast streams if there are problems.

I had never heard of the need for proxy servers but the manufacturer claims that they would add substantially to the cost of a system of our size. The same manufacturer also states that their own cameras are able to deliver (up to 8, I think) simultaneous streams due to the design of the cameras.

We tested a number of IP cameras during VMS system evaluations and the ones we liked best, Axis' P3354/64/84, were unable to deliver more than one 30fps stream at 720p/1280x960. Axis has confirmed that shortcoming. The documentation they sent us graphs resolution and frame rate versus number of streams. The only way they can deliver even two 30fps streams is to throttle back the resolution to <= 800x600.

That was also true of other third party IP cameras we tested. That leaves us "stuck" using only the VMS manufacturer's cameras or spending additional money on proxy servers or finding another camera(s) capable of delivering multiple 30fps streams at HD resolution.

Our budget would require sacrificing important features if we had to purchase proxy servers but we are concerned that if we don't, we would be basically sacrificing our ability to choose other IP cameras.

Any comments or suggestions?

Re: Stop Saying 'It Depends on the Application'

survtech — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:48:09 -0000

"See our 120+ tutorials for examples of explaining key drivers on fundamental issues."

That should eliminate any confusion ;o

I say, it depends on the tutorial....