April 17, 2007

A huge loss to the aerospace community.

Liviu Librescu died yesterday trying to save his students from the gunman Cho Seung-hui. Students reported that he locked and held the door shut to the classroom, so they could jump out the windows to safety.

He was a very well known and published researcher for the aerospace engineering field. Contributing to over 1000+ technical books, chapters and other literature. He has been received multiple awards for his dedication to his research, with his most recent being a diploma from the 17th International Conference on Adaptive Structures and Technology.

You can view his sixty-two page resume here. I am deeply saddened by the loss of a person that had such dedication to the advancement of science.

edit: I just found an article on ynetnews.com linked from Liviu Librescu’s wiki, with some quotes from his family.

Ayala said that her father-in-law was passionate about his research and a dedicated family man. “He has been teaching there for 20 years, and was a senior, world-renowned lecturer. He is the professor with the highest number of publications in the history of Virginia Tech. In the past, he taught at Tel Aviv University and the Technion,” she added.

Joe said that his parents were very happy in the United States, where they have been living since 1984. “He and my mom led a simple life, at a pastoral place in West Virginia, between hills and mountains, and he loved the school in which he taught.”

“He is scientist who did not work for money, but for the pleasure he got from his occupation,” he added.

* Filed by RawCode at 11:25 am under Banter
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April 9, 2007

Awesome self adjusting Wire strippers!

Can you tell that I found a tool blog or what?

I am so going to buy the Irwin Self adjusting Wire Stripper.

The one thing I have always hated about rewiring home theater, or running cable for any reason was stripping the cable. The tools I had were a pain in the ass, or I had to manually cut the insulator with a knife and pull off with a pair of pliers. But with Toolmonger’s review, I’ll just spend 20 bucks, and end my problems.

* Filed by RawCode at 2:10 am under Banter
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Stanley Demolition Screwdrivers

I have got to get me a set of these.

I am particularly hard on my screwdrivers as I use them in methods which they were not designed for.  However, the guys over at Toolmonger have put these puppies through some horrible testing.
Like driving them through a 2×4 with a sledge.

Toolmonger’s review of the Stanley Demolition Screwdrivers

* Filed by RawCode at 2:01 am under Banter
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April 3, 2007

Cisco is becoming more aware of grey market gear

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/040207-cisco-channel-partners.html?page=1

Cisco is being very careful is how it supports grey market gear. According to the article, Cisco Partners will stall SmartNet negotiations  if your supplied list of serial numbers contains Grey market gear that was acquired outside of a Cisco Certified Partner. If Cisco is going to be this strict, they need to have some sort of Used Hardware Certification that people can choose to but, but with limitations on support time frames and issues they will resolve. They could also choose to limit what IOS you can install on used hardware as an incentive to buy new.

This way it would allow Cisco to direct customers to new hardware, while limiting their exposure to supporting used gear.

* Filed by RawCode at 2:43 am under Commentary
* 2 Comments