Wired News 29/08
The communications failure that nearly brought NASA’s Spirit mission to Mars to an early end in January was caused by an unforeseen aspect of the DOS file system, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist said Monday.

During a presentation at Stanford University’s Hot Chips conference, JPL software developer Robert Denise said his team did not anticipate that a DOS file system containing directory information would continue to grow after other files had been deleted from the Spirit rover’s flash memory. This oversight, coupled with an instruction to copy the contents of Spirit’s flash memory into its limited random access memory launched the rover into a nearly disastrous cycle of errors and reboots.

Fortunately for NASA, the JPL team was able to upload a software upgrade and disable the copy instruction before the rebooting completely drained the rover’s batteries.

Spirit has performed well ever since, according to NASA. In April, the agency extended the rover’s mission — along with that of its twin, Opportunity — for an additional five months. Both rovers have already detected evidence of the water that is thought to have once existed on Mars.

I’m a fast reader: I’m known to prevore a good novel at 60-70 pages per hour. My Saturday purchase “Essential actionscript 2.0 by Colin Moock”, reads a wee bit slower. I’ve had my nose in it on the train, during breaks, while the G5 was rendering and under the shower. It’s fascinating to see how the Object Oriented Programming patterns look much like what my scripting in Flash was evolving to.

Must be carefull not to get swallowed by the mathematical side and keep using it to create visual spectacles. So easy to drown.

I dreamt that my employer made a last minute decision to extend my contract. It may have been the third time I had that dream.

I’m cleaning up my e-mail archive: 3 years worth of projects, mixed with small personal words from people I’m gonna miss like crazy. I’m bad at goodby’s (aren’t we all).

You thought Cirque Du Soleil was great? You’ve seen all their shows, right? Tonight, I was in the cutest little blue tent to see Cirque Ici, organised by the Zomer Van Antwerpen. For almost 2 hours, Johann Le Guillerm showed us his studies of motion and balance, wrapped in an excellent choregraphy without the polished Soleil-look. Just to give one away: he makes a real twister on the stage; 50cm by 6m. Florida terrors in miniature. Go see it!

Nobody seems to have noticed fall is in the air. Go on, laugh. This is not just a lot of rain, kiddos. There’s change in the air. Twins have a nose for change, I assure you. In no time, leaves will start to tumble and evening skies will die gracefully behind skeleton trees. Is the fall fashion collection already in stores?

Wake me up gently Klara, you know how I like it.

The bastard is doing better than before. My suicidal plant. Remember how he broke in 2 last month? A morbid gesture from my side stuck the broken top back in the earth next to the standing remains. Both are doing fine as I write this. Better even, as the 2 halfs now support each other. Strange folk, plants.

Roeland and me are brainstorming about a film script, based on a dream his friend Veerle had. Past projects that never made it past the script phase haunt me; 4 years some mad dog placed an ad searching for people to work on a video project. 12 Meeting later just about everyone had left the group: too little time. Right after that I wanted to continue slowly with the last motivated member of the group, right until an Asian friend of his moved to Belgium as he convinced her on a chat session not to get married. End of story.

So I’m taking it slow.

Man down! The suckers got to me!

Actually, Unable to find what was tickling me around the knee in my pants, I sat down again. On the wasp. It stung me good. To take revenge, I smacked and scanned it. I should print it out letter format to scare its family.

My hard disk broke down yesterday. I’m at Christines, my thoughts wander to the sick one at home. Hang in there hun, we’re gonna fix you up. Slowly walking though 12 electro stores looking for a new external disc, I realize I’ve only used the old one twice in 2 years. That’s like buying a jeep to drive the city. It may make sense if you’re American.