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Rocket Jones

March 23, 2004

My Apology In Advance

I'm not normally a "bathroom" blogger, but it seems to me that if you're rattling around in a stall to get one of those sanitary seat protectors perfectly placed, and when you finally sit down noises emerge that come straight from a Lovecraft novel, then the last thing you'd want circling your nether regions is flammable tissue paper.

Posted by: Ted at 09:21 AM | Comments (37) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Frecce Tricolori - the Italian Precision Flying Team

These guys are the Italian version of the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, or Red Arrows. But whereas the Angels and such are known for precise machine-like maneuvers, the Italians have flair and panache.

On this page, maneuver #5 is the closest to the 'Pierced Heart' routine which resulted in the disaster at Flugtag. The difference being that the solo plane which breaks from the pack at the top of the split is shown flying off to the left. In the 'Pierced Heart', this plane did the same arc as the rest of the planes, but heading directly away from the crowd. As he came down towards the meet with the rest of the planes, he crossed over the top of the other nine planes and flew directly over the crowd at low altitude. Pretty spectacular.

At Flugtag, that aircraft clipped two of the other planes and broke apart, plowing into the spectators in a giant fireball.

The same modified maneuver is titled "Big Apple (figure 3)", and no mention is made of the "Pierced Heart" routine.

You can see all of the related Flugtag posts here.

Posted by: Ted at 06:18 AM | Comments (33) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Other side of the coin

I've had a few naughty links lately (and more to come, I'm sure), so to even things out a little bit, I present an extensive gallery of links to Religious Art.

Posted by: Ted at 05:00 AM | Comments (35) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tenuous Link

I have almost 20 years of experience working with the Model 204 Database Management System, aka M204. It's strengths are extreme flexibility coupled with excellent security features and blazing speed when working with massive databases. Here's a link to a recent press release about the product, and below an email I got:

Dear Model 204 User,
I wanted to draw your attention to a new press release posted on our Web site. Centrelink of Australia, one of the world's largest users of Model 204, has just signed an agreement with CCA allowing them to use Model 204 throughout their enterprise for at least the next ten years; that is at least until the year 2014. This is very exciting news not only to all of us here at CCA, but to the entire Model 204 customer base. It means that after 20 years of use at Centrelink, Model 204 continues to be the best product on the market to meet their ever-changing and ever-growing needs -- needs which are very likely similar to your own.
Centrelink originally chose Model 204 back in 1983 because it was the only product that could meet their performance and capacity requirements. Since that time their requirements have grown dramatically. What started out as a traditional database system with just a few thousand online users now services over 24,000 internal users and over 6 million customers over the Internet and Interactive Voice Response systems. They now run the fourth largest information and technology network in Australia and are still growing. With Model 204, they have been able to meet every new challenge, while integrating new technologies as they come to market.

This is the kind of application that would make Oracle do the 'dead bug'.

The tenuous link is that the company I work for had the original contract to optimize the Australian databases, way back in the 1980's. When I first hired on, I was hoping to be assigned to that contract.

Computer-wise, newer is not always better.

Posted by: Ted at 04:26 AM | Comments (36) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 22, 2004

Drivers Wanted

Once again, NASA presents a sweet way to teach a little science.

Drive one of the Mars Rovers.

Note that this isn't the same link I posted before (Maestro), this is all new coolness.

Posted by: Ted at 08:05 PM | Comments (35) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ramstein Flugtag '88

Introduction

I first mentioned the Flugtag Airshow disaster here, and have had three military guys who were on the scene find Rocket Jones via Google searches.

I've been doing further research on it, and have discovered that it's still discussed occasionally on internet Newsgroups. I've seen posts in German, Polish, Italian and English in various places. There is even a Yahoo group devoted to the disaster and those affected by it.

I'm hoping to build a web page dedicated to Flugtag, but until I get time to do that, I'm going to post gathered information here. Check the extended entry, and I'll announce updates as they happen.

There are a lot of links I have to put in, so things will be tweaked and added for a while.

If you're a new visitor to Rocket Jones, you can click on the link immediately below ("Light this candle...") to see the rest of this article. You can also click on the little "Flugtag '88" link at the very bottom of this post to see all Flugtag-related articles.

Posted by: Ted at 01:58 AM | Comments (45) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Crash Site Map

This excellent diagram provided by Gordon Tatro.

(in the extended entry)

Posted by: Ted at 01:55 AM | Comments (32) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Crash Site Pictures - 1

These are the first three of 21 pictures taken and scanned by Gordon Tatro. For an overview of the crash scene and picture orientation, see the crash site map.