Pressure, pressure, and more pressure...

[alexpgp]

Lots to do at work. A dozen radiograms arrived just around lunch time and I was able to get them all done, but it took quite a bit out of me. Between words, I was drinking in the wild speculation about what's supposed to happen (and not happen) on-orbit over the next couple of days.

Monitoring the loop to the Russian control center, this morning I heard the NASA flight director ask for confirmation from the Russian side that the Soyuz capsule on its way to the ISS performed two so-called "DV" burns that would irrevocably rendezvous the vehicle with the ISS on Monday. After some delay, the answer came back, "Yes."

Computer problems continue to plague the mission, but slowly things seem to be getting back in line (and on line). The Italian multipurpose logistics module was stowed back in the Shuttle payload bay yesterday, and I was so busy with the radiograms today, I have no idea how much further the Shuttle crew got toward achieving a goal of an undocking sometime tomorrow. If that happens, then the arrival of the Soyuz on Monday will be a moot point, though it is said that someone did find a flight rule that says no ISS-bound flights may launch (much less rendezvous or dock) while the Shuttle is docked to the station.

In the morning, I did a bunch of reading about XML, and though I understand (somewhat) the purpose of XML, I cannot immediately understand the benefit of using it, say, in Web pages. As it turns out, there is precious little time to "sharpen the saw," and that's something I'm going to have to make time for.

I spoke with Galina earlier; she tells me Lee is leaving for Houston tonight. That'll put her in town tomorrow evening, I guess. I look forward to seeing her.

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

"Italian multipurpose logistics module" = NASA-SPEAK for garbage can??

Go Dennis!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Nah. An MPLM is basically a portable cargo bay that's brought up on the Shuttle, then moved (via robotic arm) to a docking port on the station for unloading. It sure beats having to wrestle stuff through the relatively narrow Shuttle docking port.

Coming back, the MPLM contains stuff bound for back home. Probably including some garbage, but I'm sure it all gets analyzed and tested, placing it in a special category of garbage. :)

Shuttle undock is set for today, between noon and one. Soyuz is still on track to arrive tomorrow.

Cheers...

[volkris.livejournal.com]

I've read a bit about XML in the last couple of months, and my impression is that it's a useful and rather obvious concept that is getting overused quite a bit.

As far as webpages is concerned, HTML could be seen as a rather sloppy subclass of XML. In fact, the language being set to replace HTML (xHTML maybe, I forget) is supposed to be basically just more strict about things like tag case (all lowercase) and tag nesting (close nested tags before exiting).

The purpose of this is to allow web browsers to be much more simple to code. No longer would they have to take in to account the mixed case and sloppy nesting, and so the web itself will be much better at looking the same in all browsers.

The benefits of XML are basically along the same lines. It gives discipline to how information can be accessed so more programs can access it without as much trouble. It's just like the standardized threads on a screw.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I gathered pretty much the same points from my reading, though I wasn't aware of the effort to move from HTML to something a bit more...strict.

The idea makes me cringe, though not because any of my HTML is defective :^), but because so much of everyone else's is, which means that browser writers really won't have any choice but to support both the new (simpler) language and the old (sloppy) one.

Or am I missing something here?

Cheers...