RadioBanter - Sunspot news

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It sounds as if there may be an explanation for the current sunspot
deficit. Ok, not an explanation, but something that perhaps correlates
with sunspot production. And if correct, good news.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2..._jetstream.htm

tom
K0TAR

"tom" wrote in message
. net...
It sounds as if there may be an explanation for the current sunspot
deficit. Ok, not an explanation, but something that perhaps correlates
with sunspot production. And if correct, good news.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2..._jetstream.htm

tom
K0TAR

Tom

Also see-:
http://members.optushome.com.au/vk6y...olarcycles.htm

"Cecil Moore" wrote in message
...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/c...eneration.html
--
73, Cecil, IEEE, OOTC, http://www.w5dxp.com

We defiantly live in interesting times. As soon as politicians, big money
and vested interest got involved it became impossible to know the truth,
inconvenient or otherwise. I've heard here in Australia and likely it's the
same around the western world that if you wanted to improve your chances of
a government research grant, just link it some how to climate change and if
it affirmed climate change all the better.
It has always raises suspicions with me when I hear statements like all the
science is in and if you challenge us we will call you names rather than
argue the challenge.
I'm a sceptic and that includes what these so called leaked emails actually
mean!

Interesting times;
The y2k bug demonstrated the corruption of engineering.
WMDs demonstrated the corruption of the intelligence communities.
World Financial Crisis demonstrated the corruption of the financial system.
And now science!

Cheers

--
Peter VK6YSF

http://members.optushome.com.au/vk6ysf/vk6ysf/main.htm

Interesting times;
The y2k bug demonstrated the corruption of engineering.
WMDs demonstrated the corruption of the intelligence communities.
World Financial Crisis demonstrated the corruption of the financial system.
And now science!

We are going OT, but just to add a few mo
- the widely claimed, though undemonstrated, hazard caused by (low-level) radio
waves demonstrates the corruption of the "green" parties around the world, which
use that argument to threaten the cellular phone companies

- the unjustified panic for some deseases (mad cow, h2n1 swine flu) demonstrates
the corruption of the organization who should look after our health

73

Tony I0JX

Rome, Italy

Peter wrote:
Interesting times;
The y2k bug demonstrated the corruption of engineering.

Incorrect.

The Y2K bug demonstrated that in many cases companies wouldn't listen to
engineers, or more correctly, programmers. Some did, most didn't until
very late. I was working on Y2K upgrades in 1991 at utility companies.
Many other, less critical types waited until much later.

Most programs that really counted, like utility companies billing and
control programs, were written in the 1960s and no one ever expected
them to be used for even 10 years without replacement, let alone 30+.
To blame engineers is foolish, since they had little to do with the
programs in the first place, or the programmers, who could not foresee
the future.

And some languages turned out not to have a Y2K "bug" even if you didn't
handle the years correctly. Like Perl. In most cases the worst thing
that happened was that it gave a 3 digit year where you expected 2. So
year 2000 showed as 100. Wasn't a problem in calculations involving
time spans.

And what little real bits of the Y2K bug that existed was SQUASHED
before it ever got a chance to happen. By the next and a half
generation of engineers and programmers. And management that finally
understood how much they had to lose. At a tremendous cost, 95% of
which was wasted because management was soooo worried.

tom
K0TAR

On Dec 7, 8:17*pm, tom wrote:
Peter wrote:
Interesting times;
The y2k bug demonstrated the corruption of engineering.

Incorrect.

The Y2K bug demonstrated that in many cases companies wouldn't listen to
engineers, or more correctly, programmers. *Some did, most didn't until
very late. *I was working on Y2K upgrades in 1991 at utility companies.
* Many other, less critical types waited until much later.

Most programs that really counted, like utility companies billing and
control programs, were written in the 1960s and no one ever expected
them to be used for even 10 years without replacement, let alone 30+.
To blame engineers is foolish, since they had little to do with the
programs in the first place, or the programmers, who could not foresee
the future.

And some languages turned out not to have a Y2K "bug" even if you didn't
handle the years correctly. *Like Perl. *In most cases the worst thing
that happened was that it gave a 3 digit year where you expected 2. *So
year 2000 showed as 100. *Wasn't a problem in calculations involving
time spans.

And what little real bits of the Y2K bug that existed was SQUASHED
before it ever got a chance to happen. *By the next and a half
generation of engineers and programmers. *And management that finally
understood how much they had to lose. *At a tremendous cost, 95% of
which was wasted because management was soooo worried.

tom
K0TAR

Y2k was certainly no surprise to people in the programming field.
Most off those that it was going to have an effect on were already
aware long before the doomsday predictions began. I know I heard of
this in the 60's when I was in high school.

Jimmie

"Antonio Vernucci" wrote in
:

Interesting times;
The y2k bug demonstrated the corruption of engineering.
WMDs demonstrated the corruption of the intelligence communities.
World Financial Crisis demonstrated the corruption of the financial
system. And now science!

We are going OT, but just to add a few mo
- the widely claimed, though undemonstrated, hazard caused by
(low-level) radio waves demonstrates the corruption of the "green"
parties around the world, which use that argument to threaten the
cellular phone companies

- the unjustified panic for some deseases (mad cow, h2n1 swine flu)
demonstrates the corruption of the organization who should look after
our health

73

Tony I0JX

Rome, Italy

Comes from the illusion of control. Instead of learning from King Canute's
demonstration to his courtiers of their folly, a demonstration so vivid we
remember it today all over the world, although those who teach it to us
deliberately in schools more often try to make him look like the fool while
trying to control us and rear us in turn for control.

One reason I'm taking up SWL is that the internet has been great, most
useful, but it easily undermines a sense of how large and complex the world
is. SWL leaves no illusions about difficulty, distance, and luck, and fate.
It reminds me of days when it wasn't so easy to believe in illusions of
control.

tom wrote in
. net:

Incorrect.

The Y2K bug demonstrated that in many cases companies wouldn't listen to
engineers, or more correctly, programmers. Some did, most didn't until
very late. I was working on Y2K upgrades in 1991 at utility companies.
Many other, less critical types waited until much later.

Most programs that really counted, like utility companies billing and
control programs, were written in the 1960s and no one ever expected
them to be used for even 10 years without replacement, let alone 30+.
To blame engineers is foolish, since they had little to do with the
programs in the first place, or the programmers, who could not foresee
the future.

This is true but it doesn't render an 'opposing' view false. People do
various things, some change with fashion, maybe don't beleive they're getting
value unless it's changed whimsically, bloated to look bigger than the
competitor's offering... Others (like me) prefer small efficient modular
systems whose parts serve long after and beyond any intent because their
makers managed to focus on a singular issue while not losing sight of context
while they worked, in effect future-proofing their design to some extent.
This lets me adapt things where they won't just continue to work as is.

I think the Y2K 'bug' wasn't corruption, but folly. It only takes a few more
bits to store the full year values, yet they were not used. No doubt some
engineers did think of it. Similar problems happened in hard disk addressing.
I think people are quickly learning that allocating storage for large
addresses is MUCH cheaper than fixing it too late, several times a decade.
Network addressing with IPv6 for example, that one might never have to change
in all our future. We could populate the local group of stars with people
before we ran out of addresses that way. (Although I guess many people are
more likely to want to network toilets and toasters instead). Even Microsoft
deserve a bit of credit with their 2-byte text allocations filled for years
with alternating ASCII and zero bytes. Looked stupidly wasteful to me all
those years but it's paying off now that Unicode usage extends so much. They
evidently learned from Gates' assertion that 640 KB of RAM was more than
enough for anyone.

While it's not easy to forsee the future, it IS easy to forsee that modest
size addressing systems will be outdated fast, because any successful system
gets adapted to more uses even if the total number of users doesn't change.
MIDI, used in music, has become a versatile machine control language, mainly
because its inventors did think of this, in 1983, and MIDI continuously
outlives its huge number of obituaries.