Humor Random Comments Thread

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

If you don't explicitly initialize a variable with a defined value. it contains either garbage, which will be rather easy to spot as bug, or in this case, the last stored value before power was turned off, which is a valid value for the variable and thus harder to spot during debugging.

Ah,

Ive heard that also tends to be the major problem with crashes caused by dereferencing a pointer to an element that has been deleted; The program calls delete to the pointer, but its data is still in place until a new memory allocation overwrites its block of memory and it can be accessed until it is. If the developer is testing with only a few programs open, bugs like that might not be spotted during the development process. At least that was what I was told, I havent tested it yet.


Bit of an odd question, but this is the RTC, so here goes:

Is there any way to request high resolution satellite imagery of a specific site (middle of nowhere in northern Ontario) as a civilian? Google maps imagery just does not cut it in this case.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

THIS. IS. AWESOME.

[ame="http://vimeo.com/58200103"]"Eye of the tiger" on dot matrix printer on Vimeo[/ame]

 

[Urwumpe]

Is there any way to request high resolution satellite imagery of a specific site (middle of nowhere in northern Ontario) as a civilian? Google maps imagery just does not cut it in this case.

Of course. But that costs you some serious money.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Of course. But that costs you some serious money.

How serious?

 

[Artlav]

in this case, the last stored value before power was turned off, which is a valid value for the variable

That, and worse.
Once power goes up, the program continues to run merrily, but an SD card would be "wha... whussgoingon? why are you sending me all this for?"
Because the SD card driver thought it was initialized already.

It's a really counter-intuitive environment, to power the thing off, and see it working from the same spot when it's turned on.

You need to detect the loss of power, reset enough to get things working, but not enough to negate the whole point of having non-volatile RAM in the first place. Even so, it tends to gravitate towards checkpoint architecture.

Also, error handling is mandatory.
Rebooting won't save you this time.

 

[Urwumpe]

How serious?

Would need to ask, but you sure know the usual suspects for that kind of services.

http://www.digitalglobe.com/products/imagery

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Also, error handling is mandatory.
Rebooting won't save you this time.

So much for the standard tech support script

 

[kamaz]

Is there any way to request high resolution satellite imagery of a specific site (middle of nowhere in northern Ontario) as a civilian? Google maps imagery just does not cut it in this case.

If you're OK with older photos, the state/federal geological/geographical survey may have suitable aerial/satellite imagery for a reasonable price.

At least that's the case where I live.

Edit: here is a pricelist from Astrium http://www.geo-airbusds.com/en/122-price-lists - IMHO if you are surveying the land to buy this looks completely affordable

 

[C3PO]

THIS. IS. AWESOME.

It even sounds better than a much more expensive "instrument".

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

If you're OK with older photos, the state/federal geological/geographical survey may have suitable aerial/satellite imagery for a reasonable price.

At least that's the case where I live.

Ah yes that makes a great deal more sense than satellite imagery. The OGS probably might have aerial photgraphs of the area of pretty decent quality. Its not really urgent though, just something that would be nice to have.

The coordinates are

45.0160623, -77.791849

An old Nepheline-Syenite quarry near Bancroft, our groups project topic for Mineralogy. I was hoping to get a better image of the quarry from above in case any of the rock textures would be visible. Probably not likely to be of any use, but it still might make an interesting slide background for our powerpoint presentation.

Im discovering just how hard it is to correlate images taken in the field to where they were and why we took them a month after the fact. :facepalm:

The topic of Syenites is rather interesting though, as formation of feldspathoids (silica undersaturated rock) is difficult to explain, given that Silicon & Oxygen make up a very high percentage of the elements in the Earths crust.

 

[Urwumpe]

What about using a small camera drone? for this tiny area?

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

What about using a small camera drone? for this tiny area?

Well Id have to get back to the site to begin with, but thats actually a really good idea :hmm:

Something like this?

I remember seeing one of those at MHacks this year, one of the teams was creating a VR setup with it so that users could see what it was seeing in 3d using an Occulus Rift.

Thats actually not a bad idea for field work at all, could be really useful for imaging inaccessible portions of outcrops up close. Ideas for the future...

 

[SpaceEagle]

I loled

, SpaceEagle

 

[Urwumpe]

Well Id have to get back to the site to begin with, but thats actually a really good idea :hmm:

Something like this?

Yeah, such a drone. There are many kits and complete packages around for them, so its pretty easy to trade money for time and mechanic skills there.

Also no need for getting a heavy expensive drone, a small one with a gopro is already good enough for government work.

 

[Athena]

I loled

, SpaceEagle

But does it blend?

 

[n122vu]

She was only a meteorologist's daughter, but man oh man, what a front!

 

[ISProgram]

I've done this a couple of times, though not in this context. xkcd knows everything.

 

[jedidia]

I have my Xperia play and Dosbox Turbo for over 2 years now, and only now it occurs to me that TES: Arena is perfectly well playable on this thing? really?? :facepalm:

 

[mojoey]

Was playing Sniper Elite III, specifically Kasserine Pass, when I had that once in a lifetime 'I really am that unlucky' moment.

So, there I am, running for my life after pissing off what seemed to be half of the Afrika Korps, when Generic Hans #965 turns a corner as I'm running towards him. Me being me, I shouldered my rifle and quickly fired. Then I flew backwards...and he flew everywhere. Turns out, of all the places I could shoot him, I happened to hit his grenade. From ~20 feet. Yay me.

 

[MattBaker]

Then I flew backwards

Am I stupid or is that not how grenades work? Would a grenade really knock you back from its blast if you're 20 feet away? I always thought you'd just be absolutely blasted with shrapnel but besides that not much?