Re: vacuum-safe laptops ?
On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote: At 06:35 AM 7/16/04 -0400, An Metet wrote: Does anyone *know* (first or second hand, I can speculate myself) which laptops, if any, can safely go to zero air pressure (dropping from 1 atm to 0 in, say, 1 minute.) waves hand furiously I got it! I got it!!! You're building an ICBM? -- Yours, J.A. Terranson [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0xBD4A95BF ...justice is a duty towards those whom you love and those whom you do not. And people's rights will not be harmed if the opponent speaks out about them. Osama Bin Laden - - - There aught to be limits to freedom!George Bush - - - Which one scares you more?
Re: Terror in the Skies, Again?
At 02:19 PM 7/16/04 -0500, Riad S. Wahby wrote: I don't quite know what to make of this. Is it just paranoid rambling? http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=1articleid=711 What I experienced during that flight has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats. Ask the American citizens interned in California during WWII..
Re: vacuum-safe laptops ?
At 04:03 AM 7/17/04 +0200, Thomas Shaddack wrote: On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote: Sorry so late ---but your can-shaped capacitors might not handle the rapid depressurization so well. Perhaps it's time to challenge the introductory assumption. Why a laptop? There are many various embedded computers available on the market, eg. the one from http://www.gumstix.com/. Um, even the small form factor PC on a board the size of your palm may still rely on caps in the power supply that don't handle 760 to 0 mm Hg/min so readily. Otherwise, there are many small PCs on a card if you look into the embedded marketplace. Complete with solid state disks, etc. COTS. Power dissipation is not a problem if you use a CPU like Via's and have a nice radiative heatsink. Or dick with Peltier-effect junctions at the expense of watts. ARM's edge is low power, but you may not want to run Linux or BSD or a RTOS, perhaps anon actually wants to run M$ in a low pressure environ. Perhaps that's why he's anonymous :-) My guess is regular ole airplane takeoff, but its not quite 0 torr at 35Kfeet, and I *think* the cargo part is pressurized, lest Fido suffocate. And while a SAM would be a great science fair project, you don't go above that limit. Perhaps anon will be a space tourist, wanting to take notes, on something heavier than a PDA+keyboard. I once TA'd at a UC, one advanced ugrad had a project for an atmospheric science prof building a board for the nose of a spyplane, to sample the air. (For ozone, not nucleotides. No, really.) He was interested in vibration problems; I told him to take his proto board on an offroad trip in his car to shake out the moths. Am not sure that epoxy cover makes a difference, the board manuf. go to lengths to avoid air pockets under traces, the ICs themselves fairly (albeit not guaranteed) encapsulated in an epoxy mix. We-all being scientists, I'd suggest looking up with the vacuum hobbyists do with fridge pumps, etc, and doing a bit of testing. I've even seen using a CRT as a vacuum source, break the glass neck and shazaam, a few litres of hard vacuum. Got Kalman filtering?
Re: vacuum-safe laptops ?
On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote: Does anyone *know* (first or second hand, I can speculate myself) which laptops, if any, can safely go to zero air pressure (dropping from 1 atm to 0 in, say, 1 minute.) Sorry so late ---but your can-shaped capacitors might not handle the rapid depressurization so well. Perhaps it's time to challenge the introductory assumption. Why a laptop? There are many various embedded computers available on the market, eg. the one from http://www.gumstix.com/. (Question for the crowd: anybody knows other comparable or better Linux-ready affordable embedded computer solutions?) You may like to take such module and seal it in resin in order to shield it from the pressure changes (question for the crowd: would it really work?). Use memory card instead of hard drive; you don't want moving parts that depend on air density. The smaller size and lower power consumption than a laptop has makes many issues, from cooling to powering, much easier; vacuum-proofing and testing of the assembly is potentially simplified as well. I'd also be cautious about the fluorescent tubes for the displays, the glass won't necessarily have to withstand the rapid change in air pressure. The LCDs themselves consist from two layers of glass with a electricalyl-sensitive light-polarizing liquid between them, make sure it won't have tendency to boil or vaporize in vacuum. Optionally, for unmanned operation, do without the display completely. For manned operation, use something like the head-worn see-through http://www.microopticalcorp.com/ display, located in the operator's pressure suit, and connect it to the computer by a suitable wired or wireless connection. If the system has to go beyond the reach of the atmosphere, you would like to use some sort of radiation shielding, or use a redundant assembly with several computers working in parallel, compensating lower reliability (silicon-on-insulator chips are difficult to find in off-the-shelf setting) with redundancy. You may also prefer to keep critical systems working on lower frequencies, with older-design parts, using bipolar transistors instead of CMOS (which tends to trap charged particles in the insulator layers of the gates, which shifts the gate threshold voltage), and chips with larger structures (so the ionization traces of particles won't affect the chips that much). Protect the content of the memories - large arrays of rad-sensitive elements - with ECC codes. GaAs is also more radiation resistant material than silicon. Again, combine rad-hard design with redundancy for best results. Cooling is a royal bitch. You can't use anything but radiation cooling. I think satellites use a neat trick with pipes containing a wick soaked in a suitable liquid, eg. some freon. The liquid is vaporizing on the hot end of the pipe, condensing on the cold end, and soaking back to the hot end by capillary forces; this is used to bring the heat from the power parts and the sun-facing side of the satellite to the dark side of the satellite, from where it radiates to space. (Question for the crowd: Can thermal imaging be used for scanning the sky for low-orbit satellites? Other question for the crowd: How suitable would be this wick-in-a-tube approach for ground-level computers, could it increase the efficiency of heat transfer from the CPU chips to the wings of the heatsinks? Eg. for the purpose of having the computer sealed in an RF-shielded enclosure, with the heatsinks being part of the case, which could eliminate the cooling air inlets?)
Re: FIPS chassis/linux security engineer?
On Sat, 17 Jul 2004, Eric Murray wrote: For a seperate project, does anyone know of a small linux-ready/able box with ethernet? Gumstix looks cool but I need hardwire networking. Soekris, http://www.soekris.com/. PXA255, http://www.hw-server.com/hw_products/sld_hws.html Are there more, and/or better?
Re: vacuum-safe laptops ?
Sorry to need educating once again, but I had assumed can-shaped capacitors were gone from laptops in lieu of surface mount. Anyone know? (I don't own a laptop.) -TD From: Major Variola (ret) [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: vacuum-safe laptops ? Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 17:27:56 -0700 At 06:35 AM 7/16/04 -0400, An Metet wrote: Does anyone *know* (first or second hand, I can speculate myself) which laptops, if any, can safely go to zero air pressure (dropping from 1 atm to 0 in, say, 1 minute.) Sorry so late ---but your can-shaped capacitors might not handle the rapid depressurization so well. MV _ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
FIPS chassis/linux security engineer?
Does anyone know of a manufacturer of FIPS 140 certified or certifiable 1u/2u rack mount chassis? For a seperate project, does anyone know of a small linux-ready/able box with ethernet? Gumstix looks cool but I need hardwire networking. Last, I'm looking for a Linux expert security engineer in the SF bay area. (I'm managing a security group at a startup that has been shipping products to paying customers for a few years. No its not lne.com, this just address I use to post). This person will need to know linux/unix OS security/hardening _in depth_ and also have an understanding of crypto APIs (writing them not using them) plus significant industry experience. Sorry, no relocation assistance. Eric
Re: US Seeks Bobby Fischer Extradition
At 10:30 AM 7/16/04 -0700, Eric Cordian wrote: So it should be interesting to see how this case unfolds, in a country where Martha Stewart can go to prison for lying, but Colin Powell can't. Colin was/is played the fool. He was a killer, wanted to be a diplomat. They had to let him; but he's so out of the Real Loop is comedic. thanks for the news re BF. Supposedly my ancestors go back to Abraham, but you've largely convinced me to get over the default amerikan zionism. The germans should have given up a slice of the coast of the Med., price of war, a lot nicer than some desert, fuck the books. Really the UK's fault, but the progression is Romans, Brits, then US. But empire == death, insert Bob Dylan (perhaps cover) song here, how many whatevers, fuck it, if it moves, bomb it, if you're not with us you're up the chimneys.
Re: USA PATRIOT Act Survives Amendment Attempt
At 03:34 PM 7/16/04 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I posted a few months back offering an alternative to religion in recruitment: the terminally ill. That's not good for this purpose; their lifetime is too short. Do you have evidence to support this (e.g., average survivial times of the TI from their first learning about their condition)? When I find out that I have 6 months left, I will take up motorcycle riding, which my parents prohibited, probably resulting in my respiring currently. A lone sleeper cell for the Constitution would not be so far from this. Should they draft my son, I might have to practice a bit of chemistry (or get a friggin scope and zero it) just then, he being at times a reason for my living. Many slaves died trying to escape, I suspect. However, I have no terminal illness, so its all moot, take note, Herrs Spooks. Have a nice day.
Re: Terror in the Skies, Again?
Sounds to me like Al-Qaeda is just getting the most mileage they can out of their little PR Event a couple of years ago. They don't even need to blow up anything to get the most bang for their buck. Hell, in this story the biggest threat was the incompetence of the airline. -TD From: Major Variola (ret) [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Terror in the Skies, Again? Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 17:36:21 -0700 At 02:19 PM 7/16/04 -0500, Riad S. Wahby wrote: I don't quite know what to make of this. Is it just paranoid rambling? http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=1articleid=711 What I experienced during that flight has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats. Ask the American citizens interned in California during WWII.. _ Dont just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/
Re: vacuum-safe laptops ?
Thomas Shaddack [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There are many various embedded computers available on the market, eg. the one from http://www.gumstix.com/. (Question for the crowd: anybody knows other comparable or better Linux-ready affordable embedded computer solutions?) When I investigated this a while back, gumstix were about the best deal. They also have pretty good support, it's a small company and the techies directly answer queries on mailing lists. Peter.
