NASA's d366 bug

Perhaps you've heard of the 'y2k bug', where software wasn't ready for dates rolling from 1999 to 2000. Turns out NASA's space shuttle software has a d366 bug every new year's eve:

NASA wants Discovery back from its 12-day mission by New Year's Eve because shuttle computers are not designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the new year while in flight.

The space agency has figured out a solution for the New Year's Day problem, but managers are reluctant to try it since it has not been thoroughly tested.

I'm surprised NASA's space systems care about calendar years at all. I would have expected them to use some other reference frame, like say seconds since the moon landing.

Tags: nasa, space+shuttle, , software, bug, y2k, d366

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I, for one, welcome our new... *rat-tat-tat-tat-tat*

NewLaunches.com (via Slashdot) Samsung develops machine gun sentry robot costs $200k:

Samsung has partnered with Korea university and developed the machine-gun equipped robotic sentry. It is equipped with two cameras with zooming capabilities one for day time and one for infrared night vision. It has a sophisticated pattern recognition which can detect the difference between humans and trees, and a 5.5mm machine-gun. The robot also has a speaker to warn the intruder to surrender or get a perfect headshot. The robots will go on sale by 2007 for $ 200,000 and will be deployed on the border between North and South Korea.

I've fought similar things in Half-Life. I wonder when Samsung will come out with those flying chainsaws from Half-Life 2?

Tags: scary, robots, samsung, military, machine+guns, half+life, dmz, save+us,+john+connor

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Famous people like me!

I feel so lucky. Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clint Eastwood have called in the last 30 minutes.

That's a big step up from the other day, when it was only former California state treasurer Matt Fong.

I wonder who'll call me next week?

Tags: california, politics, telemarketing, campaigning, facetious, robocalls

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