4 ms·
Learning today that the word "log" (as in event log or /var/log/messages) actually has roots in a physical log is mind blowing. I feel like when I was looking
by bentcorner 13y ago
Learning today that the word "log" (as in event log or /var/log/messages) actually has roots in a physical log is mind blowing. I feel like when I was looking this up that there's a gigantic april fools prank being played on me.
- KnightHawk3 13y agoCould you elaborate on log's roots in physical log? (A link is fine)
- Retric 13y agoThanks for pointing that out, I never made the connection. Anyway, I just found this out today and thought I would pass it on. "The GPS satellites also have NUDET (Nuclear Detonation) sensors on them to detect nuclear detonations almost anywhere on earth." Which is reasonable as it's run by the airforce and they want global coverage, but I can't help but wonder which was the original goal nuclear detonation detection or navigation.
- ISL 13y agoIt's easier and more straightforward to do nuclear detonation sensing than maintain a properly-synchronized network of orbiting atomic clocks. If the NUDET sensor is a standard package, military-sponsored satellites may have them bolted on as a matter of course.
- dfc 13y agoEach bird has redundant cesium clocks. It would be interesting to know if they also include redundant NUDET sensors.
- joshAg 13y agoI think it was better icbm guidance since inertial guidance tends to drift quite a bit on long flights.
- mjlee 13y agoFun fact, ICBMs do astronav! They have on-board cameras and computers to take a star sight and fix their location. In the war they're designed to operate in GPS would have been disabled long ago.
- joshAg 13y agoThe sr71 did something similar, too, but i think they just used an astrolabe instead of taking a picture. But both still use an internal gyro in between pictures, don't they?
- baddox 13y agoWell, I've always heard that the primary motivation was navigation, but funny enough, it was specifically navigation for submarines armed with nuclear ballistic missiles. Precise knowledge of the launch location was critical to launching such a missile, and when you're out in the ocean there's not a lot of options. And why were submarine-launched ballistic missiles so important? Well, to ensure mutually assured destruction, you need to make sure that the first nuclear strike doesn't disable the victim's ability to launch a second strike. You can easily nuke missile silos and airports, but not submarines which are constantly moving. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_triad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_triad
- phaemon 13y ago> actually has roots Heh, very good!
- gk1 13y agoAn interestingly large number of words and phrases originate from nautical vocabulary. That vocabulary in itself is so vast, it sometimes feels like a different language. Here's a partial list of nautical words in common use today: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-nautical-terms-in-general-use/ http://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-nautical-terms-in-general...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]