Shuttle "Return to Flight Task Force" and PowerPoint

The Shuttle "Return to Flight Task Group" has released its final reports:

A summary analysis of the reports can be found on the Spaceflight Now web site.

Quoting:

“Another lack of rigor cited by the panel - one that also was cited by the CAIB - is the widespread use of PowerPoint presentations in lieu of actual engineering data and analyses.”

Projecting La Porte ISD Bandwidth Needs

Prior to the 1996 bond election, La Porte ISD (my employer) had a leased 56 K (56 kilobits per second) connection between each campus and the central office. Teachers that could justify it their principals (5 or 6 throughout the district), had dial-up (24 K) connections to their personal Internet accounts in their labs. TENET (The Texas Education Network) began supplying free Internet accounts to teachers in 1992.

As LPISD began to install Local Area Networks in 1997, the district acquired a T-1 connection to the Internet (1,540 K) through Region IV Education Service Center that could be used by any computer in the district that was on the network. Individual dial-up accounts were no longer necessary. This is approximately the time when LPISD put up their first web and email servers.

Up until about the year 2000, this was all of the bandwidth La Porte ISD had for 7,000 students and approximately 600 teachers and administrative staff that use the Internet. If you have a "Roadrunner" cable or a DSL connection, you probably have this much bandwidth into your house today.

As most of the campus local area networks were installed, we upgraded our internet connection in 2000 to an OC3 fiber optic connection (155,000 K). We currently use 5 -7 K during a typical school day, and occasionally "burst" up to 30,000 K.

We pay for 3,000 K, burstable to 10,000 K per month.

Year	Kilobits per second (Kbps)
Prior to 1997	56
2000 - 2003	1,540
2000 - 2003	2 - 4,000 (up to 8,000)
2003 - 2006	5 - 7,000 (up to 30,000)

Cool Free Software #1

Google Desktop Search is a free application that you download from Google and install on your computer. When you install the application and go to Google's web page, they add a link to the top of their search box for you (called "Desktop") and index particular file types (Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Text files, Media files, etc) on your hard drive.

The big advantages of Google Desktop Search are that:

1. it searches your email files (from Microsoft Outlook) as well as your data files
2. its fast

More free software that I like will be listed here in the future.

• Google Desktop Search
  

Typography Rant

For at least the last 20 to 25 years, most offices have been preparing most of their documents on computers rather than typewriters (with the exception of completing forms). Some people don't seem to realize this and use a computer as if it were a typewriter. It's not.

• Two spaces after a period.
  Way back in "the old days," we all used typewriters that only had a single typeface (or font), ... Courier. In the Courier typeface, every character occupies the same amount of space (sometimes called a monospaced font). When using the Courier font, the correct way to distinguish between the end of a word and the end of a sentence is to use 2 spaces at the end of a sentence. Fonts other than Courier (and Monaco) do not use the same amount of space between different letters. These fonts automattically adjust the amount of space between letters depending on what letters are adjacent to each other and the correct amount of spacing at the end of a sentence is automatically added.
  
  When using fonts other that Courier or Monaco, use only one space after a period at the end of a sentence. The font automatically adds the correct amount of spacing.
  
  
• Book titles and scientific names should be italicized rather than underlined.
  The only reason book titles and scientific names were ever underlined in the first place is because with our old typewriters, and their unchangeable Courier font, we were unable to produce italicized letters. Underlining was meant to be a note to typesetters that these words should be italicized. Since our computers are capable of using an italic typeface, we should use italics, rather than underlining to denote book titles and scientific names.
  
  
• Tab Stops.
  Don't even get me started on tabs and runs of spaces.

Disclaimer

These web pages represent the facts as I know them at the time. Of course, they also express my opinions. To the extent that the facts are wrong, let me know and I'll be happy to post a retraction. To the extent that my opinions are wrong, I reserve the right to change them. Links usually lead to content on other web sites and I'm not responsible for any content/problems/issues you find with them.

The opinions that I express here do not represent the position, policy, or whatever of my employer. I work for La Porte Independent School District, a public K-12 school district, about 30 miles SE of Houston, Texas.

I dont think anything here violates any existing copyrights, but if it does, let me know and I will investigate and remove the offending item if required.

Welcome to Lagniappe

Welcome to Lagniappe. "Lagniappe" (pronounced LAN-yap) is a cajun term for "something extra," or a small gift presented by a merchant to a customer when they made a purchase (in other words, an extra or unexpected benefit).

(Lagniappe entry in Dictionary.com)