Testing flight software is very intense. 50 KSLOC of C will take a few dozen man years to develop.
As a side note on terminology, QA means a very different thing in the aerospace industry. The function of QA in this world is to witness the tests and attest that we did indeed run the test as written. Usually in the form of stamping a printed procedure as it is followed. This mirrors the process used to test the mechanical and electrical parts. The testing of the software is called verification and validation testing not QA.
In a large company, such a change only has a chance if it is mandated from the top and then the mgmt team is very committed to push the change through for as long as it takes. Without both pieces it will get killed by apathy at the middle management layer and below. Without that support the technical solutions will gain no foothold.
But those other big companies with unpaid internships didn't publish a book about how they believe in empowering individuals (albeit women individuals in this case). Some finger pointing seems warranted in that her company's actions do not match her words...
Empowering women and unpaid internships are not mutually exclusive. In fact, you could say that unpaid internships are extremely empowering, because it gives the prospective employee on the job training that they wouldn't get if they were unemployed.
Well, if Sandberg takes that position in her book then she shouldn't deserve finger pointing I suppose. But since she talks about leveling the playing field in the workforce and fixing the salary gender gap is part of that I'd say she believes that cash money is a key source of empowerment.
"you could say that unpaid internships are extremely empowering"
You can say lots of things. Doesn't make them true. If the prospective employee needs to eat this month, unpaid internships can be as empowering as they like, however the prospective employee will not be able to indulge themselves.
The last paragraph of the story talks about how
"the German city of Freiburg voted to end the city's experiments with a free and open source office suite. In that city, the IT department had been struggling for years to support both an decade-old proprietary office suite as well as an outdated version of OpenOffice. Increasing frustration by the city's civil staff prompted the city board to revert to use only proprietary office solutions"
The conclusion I draw it that any kind of software adoption depends on how well IT departments support it. In addition to lobbying budget conscious city councils it is also necessary to evangalize and train the government IT workers.
Keep in mind that the email account was a private, personal account. His CIA email account wasn't compromised. I'm guessing that they know pretty well how to keep their email safe.
Yes. For his security clearance he was required to self-report any adverse information, which includes an affair. The FBI uncovered the affair, so he probably did not self-report. That the FBI discovered it probably made the situation even worse.
Consider the contemporary development programs RAINBOW and GUSTO and these specs don't seem so far out. Rainbow was to add radar stealth the to U2 (cloaking). Lockheed started development of what became the A-12 in the late 50's. It flew reconnaissance 10 years later. The A-12 could fly at mach 3.35 at 75000 ft. and had a range of 2200 nm.
Those specifications were achieved in that era on other programs. I think the answer requires a deeper look.
A blended wing body and flying wing configuration have been flown. There are similarities to the saucer in that they use lifting body effects. They benefit from high lift-to-drag ratio.
However, the other handling qualities of these designs make them difficult to fly. Stability can be a real problem. I would guess that air handling problems were the issues that cancelled the saucer program. Perhaps the modern fly-by-wire computer control systems used today might make it easier to fly a saucer.
As a side note on terminology, QA means a very different thing in the aerospace industry. The function of QA in this world is to witness the tests and attest that we did indeed run the test as written. Usually in the form of stamping a printed procedure as it is followed. This mirrors the process used to test the mechanical and electrical parts. The testing of the software is called verification and validation testing not QA.