There is photographic evidence (burnt paint on one side). It was a big problem in coal fired ships (and in coal mines). When the RN went over to oil firing, the worries about the flammability of oil were answered that coal dust was considerably worse.
There is also the moderately convincing theory that there was a problem at the time with steam and sail crews, in that on sailing ships the helm goes the other way. There were known problems with “steam orders” and “sail orders” and there is some evidence that the order was given to steer away from the iceberg in good time - but in a confusion of orders between differently trained crew members the opportunity was lost.
We don’t learn; remember the near-disaster with the first Moon landing where the computer was overloaded because NASA thought that routines were needed to enable the astronauts to work in feet - even though they were perfectly familiar with SI?
I’m basically a lowbrow, but I enjoyed Terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, and The Abyss, all written by Cameron. In line with this topic, I note that they all feature prominent female characters.
I haven’t seen Titanic - too much hype before I got around to it.
Buzz Aldrin himself is on record as saying the issue was he was running two programs at once, but the computer could only handle one of the two he was running. Once he turned off the officially not-required one, the computer worked fine.
You might be thinking of Apollo 13, where the vendor used standard aircraft specs for voltage and not the actual specs being used by NASA. There was an Imperial/SI muckup more recently with an unmanned probe.
ETA: right, that was the Mars orbiter
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric/
If you’d prefer to preserve your childhood fondness for those movies, do not, under any circumstances watch Avatar in HD rather than 3D. Everything craptacular about this movie, and his other movies jump right in your face.
I didn’t bother with Titanic, either. There was definitely too much hype, and it was billed as one of those sappy, romantic dramas. I really do not like those “chick flics,” never have.
It was a multitasking system using core memory, as I recall. The point was that the programs were over complex due to unit conversion. (The architecture of those computers was remarkable and reminds me in some ways of a much simplified PIC).
I may be wrong but I remember distinctly being told this by someone who worked with NASA and directly with the astronauts.
Definitely not, I knew nothing about 13. But now I’ve read it up on Wikipedia. I am going to make a USist comment. My justification is my own one time membership of an IEC safety committee, and running an R&D department designing electrical safety devices. (I actually used to know one of the US delegates dealing with thermostats).
The root problem is likely to be that the US has had an extremely sloppy attitude to electrical safety - it has been left up to industry and the level of testing and approval of components expected in Europe just hasn’t been there. It doesn’t surprise me that Beech thought a switch rated at 28VDC would continue to work at 65, even though the reason 28V was chosen is because, basically, it doesn’t create arcs.
And why has there been a lax attitude to safety? Machismo, I think. We’re still seeing the recklessness in male-dominated occupations (which is what software development has become). Risk taking behaviour, in fact. When it was women who wrote the software - mainly in COBOL let it be added - things like banking programs were written which, with a Y2K hiccup, are in many cases still in use. The new “agile” methodology relies on rapid break/fix. Not the attitude you want in building spacecraft, but what you expect from a Silicon Valley where taking risks is seen as a route to promotion and the more cautious (and wider ranging) approach of women tends not to be valued.
German Sitzfleisch and the British Standards Institute preserved Northern Europe from the worst of it. Our switches, plugs and sockets are largely idiot proof.
And that’s enough rant.
I can’t find a primary source saying that, just discussions on Reddit and blogs. The NASA history page doesn’t mention measurements at all, but does say that memory management was an issue:
https://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch2-5.html
That article is so good.
But the men that need to read it the most still won’t believe it. /sigh
I assure you, the gender bias is real.
OMG
THIS WAS THE PLOT OF MOONLIGHTING AND REMINGTON STEEL!
For fucks sake!
We are now actively living 80s night time dramas?
Have we gone backwards in time?
What the actual fuck!
There’s been a lot of research that shows women entrepreneurs have better return on average than men: 1, 2, 3 – i.e., the magic invisible hand of the market itself proves women are up against an irrational bias
Jesus that was sad.
Have you seen “Where to Invade Next” the Michael Moore doc?
Its hilarious and amazing.
When he gets to Iceland he talks to bankers, specifically women bankers, because their bank (invest firm, whatever) was the only bank that survived the financial meltdown. The reason is simple: they only invested in things that they understood and made sense. So they never invested in the crazy american mortgage schemes. So they survived the meltdown. Al the other banks, run by men, had taken crazy risks, invested in crazy schemes, and when it all collapsed… were all the men responsible were arrested and put in jail. The women are still in business.
I can just never forget that.
No, but it sounds like an incredible watch
Its really good. Not his usual shtick. Basically goes around the world to steal good ideas.
Like how France does school lunches, how the Italians do time off, how Iceland does equality, Finland does prisons. Its really really good. Worth a watch,
It is. I second the recommendation.
Yeah, but remember his (quite reasonable) conclusion? That really brought it home for me.
As a Canadian, I think we need to stop comparing ourselves to our southern neighbours, and start comparing ourselves to France, Iceland, Finland, Italy, because OMG we do not measure up at all. Everyone needs to do better. Honestly, can the Aliens come and take over already? Cuz we have fucked it all up!
I totally agree. Moore’s point that those countries often get their ideas from American information still stands, though. Either they keep doing something the US used to do but cut, or they implement something so they don’t wind up like the US (universal healthcare).
OMG that whole bit about HOW Iceland put its bankers in prison when America failed to do so… was heartbreaking. They wrote the damn book on how to do it, and then… just… didn’t do it? Madness!
Think about it like this: Canada is part of the Arctic Rim. Apart from the Scandinavian countries and Finland, with what other large countries do you share a lot of latitudes? Palinstan and Siberia. As a percentage of available population Canada does pretty well. Places like Norway and Finland are in US terms state sized. No wonder their problems are manageable.