Sun shines
Letters to the editor
Ted Gibbons | Sunday, August 30 2009You're July coverage of a digital school in Manukau City [Mission Heights Primary and Junior college] demonstrates the folly of democracy in IT.
A couple of determined women have ignored all the advice and government IT deals, to come up with something that looks great. It was a green-fields start-up school: there were no parents around to muck things up, no office cliques sabotaging the negotiations, no board members offering ‘cheaper’ solutions.
On the other hand, it looks very like an elitist enclave where selected kids enjoy treats not available to the masses.
What is unquestionably brilliant though, is the appearance of Sun in an NZ school. If Sun play their cards right they should sweep all the competitors away within a couple of years.
Graham Philip, Taupo
Magic move
In the “How To” section of the 20th anniversary edition David Murphy wrote about installing a new or additional hard drive and how to transfer files in the first case, or how to get Windows to save data to folders such as My Documents on the new secondary drive. He finished by writing, “Unfortunately you can’t use this technique to remap your Program Files folder. If only it were that simple!”
Well, there is a freeware program called Junction Link Magic
(tinyurl.com/yp7sbg) which does just that. It’s a matter of remapping junction points. Quoting from the web page, “A junction point is a special type of reparse point. Reparse points are redirections in the Windows file system.”
With Junction Link Magic you can remap any folder (except the Windows folder) to any other folder on the same or any other hard drive, meaning you can have your operating system on the first hard drive or the first partition on a drive, and the My Documents and Program Files folders on any other partition or hard drive.
There is a disclaimer “FOR EXPERIENCED USERS ONLY!” I would class myself in that field, but I found the program quite easy and intuitive to use and would recommend it to moderately experienced users. Before using it though, remember the prime rule. Backup! Backup! Backup!
Rob Simpson, Via email
Rob wins a month’s supply of Demon Energy Shots for letter of the month.
One giant leap
Page eight of the July PC World featured a large photograph of the 1969 moon landing with the caption, “One giant leap.”
The photo shown appears to be one that Hasselblad examined following NASA’s use of the famous brand of cameras purportedly to document the moon landings in 1969.
Hasslblad found that a great many of the photos purportedly showing the moon landings were faked. I would note that in the photo you used there’s a shadow cast in the front of the astronaut indicating the light source from the sun behind the astronaut. However, the front of the astronaut’s suit is also lit as with the reflection from the special goggles on the helmet indicating there is another light source in front of the astronaut. Hasselblad has great difficulty getting an explanation form NASA because there is only one sun in the solar system.
One other problem with the photo is that there are no stars in the background either.
How do I decide whether the moon landings happened forty years ago or not? The answer is in the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the earth. Nothing living on earth can survive going through the Van Allen radiation belts because the temperature is two thousand degrees. Solar flares increase that temperature by perhaps a thousand degrees.
I guess the moon landings never happened and no astronaut has ever gone back to the moon, or will anytime soon. The moon landings are one of the grossest lies force fed on the people.
Keith White, Waitakere
PC World Editor Ted Gibbons replies: To mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings, Hasselblad is celebrating by taking selected photographers on an expenses-paid trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Recalling the history of its cameras in space Hasselblad said, ‘In 1962, astronaut Walter Schirra took his Hasselblad on board the Mercury-Atlas 8 and took the first images of earth from space. Hasselblad followed NASA, on space flight after space flight, with Hasselblad cameras proving that they could meet the stringent demands made by extraterrestrial travel.
‘And in 1969 when the world watched in awe as the Apollo 11 astronauts became the first men to set foot on the moon, those astronauts also carried Hasselblad cameras, capturing some of the most definitive images man has ever captured.’
Hasselblad CEO Christian Poulsen added, ‘Obviously, lunar travel posed even more demanding challenges than shooting inside a space capsule, with extreme temperatures and dust… placing serious strains on equipment. Lunar photography leaves no margin for errors, no room for second chances…’
Hasselblad added, ‘The research and development that was required to meet the challenges of space travel benefited not only extraterrestrial photographers, but even those with both feet firmly on the ground. The advancements gained during the space camera design process were implemented into the standard Hasselblad line as well.’
Read more here: tinyurl.com/nxuxtn
US TV show Mythbusters also has an excellent episode dedicated to the moon landings.
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