Oleg Zabluda's blog: March 22, 2012

Oleg Zabluda's blog

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Elon Musk of SpaceX on CBS’s 60 Minutes
Elon Musk of SpaceX on CBS’s 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50121782n

Bonus: Elon Musk "Opportunities in Space: Mars Oasis" October 08, 2003
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=381
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50121782n

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

The Soviet Siberian natural gas pipeline Urengoy–Surgut–Chelyabinsk had a level of complexity that required advanced...
The Soviet Siberian natural gas pipeline Urengoy–Surgut–Chelyabinsk had a level of complexity that required advanced SCADA automated control software. The control system and its software that had been stolen by KGB from Canada. But CIA inserted a logic bomb in the program for sabotage purposes, eventually resulting in an explosion with the power of three kilotons of TNT in 1982.

"The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space."
The explosion was, in fact, so large that the White House received warning from U.S. early-warning satellites of a bizarre event in a remote area of the Soviet Union. NORAD had initially feared that the event was a missile launch from an area previously not known to host missile launching facilities.

As the explosion occurred in a remote area, no casualties are known to have resulted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_pipeline_sabotage
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/BV2BTs43WyU

The Soviets dispute this, but, undoubtedly, CIA fed a lot of defective "formulas" to the thieving soviets, the biggest of which was NASA's Space Shuttle.

Related: another gas explosion, yeild estimates 0.3-12kt with 575 people dead, 806 burned and injured
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufa_train_disaster

Part of the series:
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/BV2BTs43WyU
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/GXSF13Exgc4
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/4RKZEQaSkww
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_pipeline_sabotage

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

The capacitor plague is the massive numbers of premature failures (sometimes spectacular explosions) of aluminum...
The capacitor plague is the massive numbers of premature failures (sometimes spectacular explosions) of aluminum electrolytic capacitors (rendering your computers, broken) from some Taiwanese manufacturers. Caused by the theft of a secret electrolyte formula gone wrong (see https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/BV2BTs43WyU)
by a researcher moving from Japan to Taiwan. He was underselling the pricing of the Japanese capacitors, but the secret formula had apparently been copied incompletely, and it lacked important proprietary ingredients which were essential to the long-term stability of the capacitors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague#Industrial_espionage_implicated

http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/leaking-capacitors-muck-up-motherboards/0
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_30328/article.html
Of course, I had my share of electrolytic capacitor blow up in my face. It had nothing to do with a stolen formula, but with soldering a capacitor backwards, with reversed polarity. It's such a common problem, that they make special pressure-relief notches on the top, to conveniently direct the explosion straight into your face.

And a week ago, an 11 yr old boy in Denis' radio class, had a capacitor blow into his face. Tears welled up in my eyes - tradition continues. Denis was only burned by the ball of solder he was making to impress a girl (https://plus.google.com/117227760106852840320/posts/SracsyV3bfp)

Now, the real mystery is, what the hell is that white powder that blows up in your face. That mystery is unsolvable, just like the great mystery of what keeps a strapless dress up.

Part of the series:
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/BV2BTs43WyU
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/GXSF13Exgc4
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/4RKZEQaSkww
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague#Industrial_espionage_implicated

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

While still in USSR in 1990, I was learning spoken English from the series
While still in USSR in 1990, I was learning spoken English from the series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Follow_Me!_(BBC_television_series)

My favorite story was "The Red Arrow" by John Tully. And my favorite episode from the story goes like so (video is in part 28 below)

[spoiler alert]
An biochemist invents a secret formula how to convert beer to petrol: "We don't need beer, do we? It only makes people stupid. People need petrol for their cars." The formula is kept in a secret place. A gang of thugs are hunting for the formula, under the leadership of enigmatic and ever-watching "Red Arrow". The inventor is madly in love with a beautiful young lady, in a dazzlingly, yet completely coincidentally, red dress with plunging V-neckline. In the middle of the story (in part 28), the thugs tie the lady to a post, so the inventor has to divulge the formula. Since the thugs, apparently, all had F in their 10-th grade organic chemistry class, when they try the [false] formula, the result is predictable. They blow up.

Incidentally, later it turns out that the real formula, although it technically works, is stupid and useless.

I encounter both themes all the time in real life, and I'll post at least 2 examples next.

Follow Me - InterMediate, complete "Read Arrow" story:

Part 22 Follow Me - InterMediate Part 22
Part 24 Follow Me - InterMediate Part 24
Part 26 Follow Me - InterMediate Part 26
Part 28 Follow Me - InterMediate Part 28 <<== the "formula" episode in here
Part 30 Follow Me - InterMediate Part 30

When I came to US in 1992, I polished my spoken Language from "Beavis and Butthead" by Mike Judge, but that's another story.

Part of the series:
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/BV2BTs43WyU
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/GXSF13Exgc4
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/4RKZEQaSkww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtrRfP359kw#t=3m06s

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

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