orpheus_okt - Slashdot User

Comment Mythbusters (Score 1) 207

by orpheus_okt on Thursday January 16, 2014 @09:35AM (#45975203) Attached to: Why Birds Fly In a V Formation

I remember having watched a special episode of Mythbusters a few days ago where they also made experiments with small airplanes in different flying formations. They tried the classic birds' V formation, an extended version of that or straight line formations. It was actually impressive how strongly fuel consumption and manoeuvrability were affected by some seemingly small variations of the formations.

Here is a small clip:
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/extended-v-minimyth.htm

Main Toilet On ISS Craps Out 219

Posted by kdawson on Monday July 20, 2009 @01:44AM from the series-of-tubes dept.

The Narrative Fallacy writes "NASA has spent years getting ready for a crowd in space — adding additional sleeping quarters, learning how to recycle liquid waste into drinking water, and installing a second bathroom last year. But now the main toilet has broken down on the International Space Station while a record 13 astronauts are on board. For now Mission Control has advised the astronauts to hang an 'out of service' sign on the toilet as it may take days to repair. In the meantime, Endeavour's seven astronauts will be restricted to the shuttle bathroom. Last year a Russian cosmonaut complained that he was no longer allowed to use the US toilet because of billing and cost issues. Now the six space ISS residents will have to get in line to use the back-up toilet in the Russian part of the station. The pump separator on the malfunctioning toilet has apparently flooded, and ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is the guy tasked with putting his plumbing skills to work on short notice. 'We don't yet know the extent of the problem,' says flight director Brian Smith, adding that the toilet troubles were 'not going to be an issue' for now."

Comment Re:I don't like this idea (Score 1) 435

by orpheus_okt on Wednesday April 02, 2008 @03:56AM (#22938444) Attached to: ISO Approves OOXML

I for one will be keeping my documents in a *standard* format...ODF.

So will I.

A must admit, I did not follow the discussion in detail and all the time, but did OOXML gain a special power to ban ODF in some way by the... (well, most people seem to call it) "purchase" of this ISO standard? Maybe the combination of ISO and M$ sounds great and safe for certain large enterprises when they evaluate new products which their 5000 employees will have to use for the next five years.

But why should ODF become uninteresting for the "normal" users? And ODF does not need a 80% market share of the "document handling business" in the enterprises to survive properly in the average household, does it? (Is the main danger public institutions switching to OOXML-only altogether in a short time while there won't be (really) free reader tools available? This is the only kind of force I can imagine right now to impress John Doe.) Please tell me whether I'm too naïve or short-sighted at the moment. Most comments here just sounds to me like the apocalypse is near and everyone not wanting to be an outsider will have to use OOXML tools from now on and prod ODF down the cliff.

Man, I don't want to lose my "ODF(->PDF)" routine which I could even explain to my parents...

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