Houston, we have a blue screen of death

Science & Technology / /

Commander William Shepherd kept a mission log during the initial 136-day shift aboard the International Space Station. The log is fun reading, and you can’t help but sympathize with many of the frustrations they are constantly facing. As the Laboratorium notes, many of the problems were computer related, and funny as hell. Its a fairly comprehensive list of computer problems, and its quite funny.

While many of those computer systems did have problems, it’s important to note just how well NASA’s aerospace applications work:

This software never crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved. Consider these stats: the last three versions of the program — each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.

Which is really how it should be for something that pilots a space shuttle, but then, writing software for such an focused set of criteria makes things somewhat easier to implement:

Admittedly they have a lot of advantages over the rest of the software world. They have a single product: one program that flies one spaceship. They understand their software intimately, and they get more familiar with it all the time. The group has one customer, a smart one. And money is not the critical constraint: the groups $35 million per year budget is a trivial slice of the NASA pie, but on a dollars-per-line basis, it makes the group among the nation’s most expensive software organizations.

And that’s the point: the shuttle process is so extreme, the drive for perfection is so focused, that it reveals what’s required to achieve relentless execution. The most important things the shuttle group does — carefully planning the software in advance, writing no code until the design is complete, making no changes without supporting blueprints, keeping a completely accurate record of the code — are not expensive. The process isn’t even rocket science. Its standard practice in almost every engineering discipline except software engineering.

The shuttle software group is one of just four outfits in the world to win the coveted Level 5 ranking of the federal governments Software Engineering Institute ( SEI ) a measure of the sophistication and reliability of the way they do their work. [Thanks to the Laboratorium and norton for all the info]

A.I. Internet Mystery

Movies / /

It seems the marketing guys at Dreamworks/WarnerBros have been hard at work setting up an intricate web of sites that pertain to the world of the upcoming film A.I. in the mid-22nd century. Apparently this has “set off an entire underground of researchers who are uncovering more and more of this web of mystery. There are entire layers of plot centering around the murder of one Evan Chan involving affiars and various humans and A.I.s. There are real phone numbers to call, emails which send back clues, places people have left there phone number and may be called back, and passwords and access codes etc to uncover new pages in the mystery.” Wow, while those marketing fellows are most likely evil, I have to admit, they are running quite an interesting show over there. There are even rumors that this internet mystery is not limited to a static, linear flow; that the marketing fellows are actually altering the websites as needed based on progress made. Theres a bunch of interesting discussion dedicated to the A.I. game, including a yahoo group, CA’s thread and AICN’s. Much of this is most likely the work of a bunch of evil ad agency trolls who are pushing and manipulating the discussion (“these guys made that kick-ass game called Majestik”), but its interesting nonetheless.

The Book of Five Rings

Military / /

Miyamoto Musashi is an interesting fellow. A ronin (masterless samurai), he roamed feudal Japan in the early 17th century regularly fighting scores of men alone, and winning. Late in life, he dictated the secrets he had learned throughout his travels, calling it The Book of Five Rings. Each of the first four rings (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind) deals with a different aspect of overcoming adversity, while the last ring reveals what he saw as the innermost tenet of his philosophy. I was introduced to this subject by a rather elegant 5k entry. Vote here.

Wu Xia Pien

Movies / /

The Mandarin term wu xia pian originally referred to the genre of martial arts films. “Wu xia” means chivalrous combat, and “pian” means film. It�s China’s version of the Western, but instead of six-shooters and saloons, its swords and kung-fu. It’s arguably the first form of martial arts film, with its origins dating back hundreds of years (in the form of literature and theater).

Which is probably why the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon flopped in its homeland. To us Westerners, CTHD embodied a different culture with a familiar edge and it was a refreshing change from the typical Hollywood action flick. Critics and audiences alike hailed it as an original blurring between eastern and western cinema, but these types of films have been around for decades back in China.

That being said, CTHD is a particularly good example of the Eastern and Western combination that will hopefully improve both sides of the equation. I, for one, will certainly investigate the genre further, as doubtless others will, but CTHD is definitely going to be the standard by which the others will be judged.

Why high speed access was invented

Computers & Internet / /

by DyRE:

It wasn’t directly to give people a faster Internet connection but I think it was created because of some geek’s sister. See, this sister, she had a very active social life. Whenever she was home, she got phone calls out the wazoo. She wasn’t home much though, because her callers usually invited her somewhere. She was popular.

She had a very active social life.

She was popular.

Then her geeky little brother, who was petrified of social physical interaction, started going online via a dial-up connection… all the time. Soon this girl never got any calls because the line was always busy. Her parents didn’t want to pay for another phone line and she couldn’t afford one herself. Luckily, her father was a some sort of technician at [insert phone or cable company name here]. One day, he was brooding over his recent troubles concerning his daughter’s attempt to dismantle the computer to find which part was the modem and beat his son with it. As he contemplated this situation, he inadvertantly began staring at the phone line. Or the cable TV line. Whichever came first (DSL or cable modems). Suddenly, the idea hit him and he rushed off to the company offices to present this new high speed idea to his superiors. All of them having one popular child and one geeky child themselves thought it was wonderful. Thus, the phone line was free (until the girl began getting calls again) and the bandwidth was used like nobody’s business… and all were happy.

The end.

I honestly wouldn’t be suprised if thats how it actually happened. [originally posted at 4degreez.com]

A monumental decline

Arts & Letters / /

I know I’ve talked about this before, but I’m going to do it again, because this article is good. Just what is up with the Simpsons? When I saw Mike Reiss speak, I was somewhat suprised at his thoughts on the quality of the show. He basically agreed that the show’s quality was declining, and he stated that even the current “young” writers agree. As the shows became more rediculous, more one-sided, and basically less substantial, I’m still hoping for a resurgence. A fresh infusion of humor from a young up-and-comer might be able to salvage something. Then again, as Mike said in his lecture, the show has been on for 12 years, way longer than any show can sustain a good quality… He also said that since the ratings are higher than ever, the show won’t be going off the air any time soon…

At the end of the article, the author mentions another animated program that has taken the place of The Simpsons as TV’s most enjoyable half-hour of edgy satire. I assume he is referring to the currently defunct (but coming back!) Family Guy, which I found to be very entertaining. I can not wait for its (hopefully) triumphant return. Heres another article by the same author that captures the essense of That 70s Show quite nicely. That 70s Show has really grown on me, in a I-don’t-mind-having-it-on-in-the-background-while-I-fiddle-with-my-computer kind of way. I remember joking about it with my roommates when if first appeared (“Hey Dan, which 70s show is coming on?…. Ohhhhhhhh, thaaat 70s show…”), but that was over 2 years ago. Go figure.

Elements of Phyle

Arts & Letters / /

In an effort to continue the mindnumbing posts about genetic mutants and the letter X, I found the Elements of Phyle, a clever jab at both the X-Files and the infamous Elements of Style. Its a handy guide to proper grammar, spelling, and style with X-Files themed examples:

Could have and could’ve are good.

Could of is bad.

(Ditto with would and should.)

“How strange,” Mulder thought, reading the fanfic. “Scully would never say ‘could of.’ Not even in an internal monologue.”

The Legacy

Movies / /

It seems that the latest premise 20th Century Fox is considering for X-Men 2 concerns the Legacy Virus, a man-made disease that is only infectious to mutants, eventually resulting in their deaths. I’m assuming this was a story arc that originally appeared in the comics, as Michael Chabon’s proposal (see below) also used the Legacy virus as a major story element. It is only a treatment and could very well be passed over in favor of something else. Of all the rumored story lines, I think the most interesting is the Wolverine Solo pic which focuses on the Logan character and a search for his identity (fitting in perfectly with the ending of the first film). There are several advantages for Fox:

  1. Not having to reassemble the massive cast dealing with schedules, negotiations, etc would free up time and allow the shoot to begin sooner.
  2. Wolverine’s massive popularity among fans would ensure a good box office and omitting the other 5 or 6 X-Men would streamline the story and keep the budget down.
  3. When execs see the possibility of expanding the franchise while keeping the budget and cast concerns to a minimum, they try and do so.

Not to mention how much Hugh Jackman kicks ass as Wolverine. Whether or not that would make a good movie, I don’t know. I would be really worried about their explainations for Wolverine’s past, so maybe we’d be better off with another ensemble film.

A Brief Bout of Mutant Madness

Movies / /

The X-Men and I: Michael Chabon’s thoughts and proposal for the X-Men movie. It never saw the light of day, but its interesting to note that Chabon’s 4 elements that are essential to the X-Men are present in the version of X-Men that did make it to the screen. Chabon’s actual proposal is a good read, but I don’t know if it would have been any better than the filmed version. Chabon wrote last year’s Wonder Boys, a movie friends have been hounding me to see; I shall have to do that.

Special thanks to Metascene (Meatscene?), which has been updated more times in the past few weeks than it has this year. Good work Fred!