Slashdot Mirror
Bombing the Moon for Water
s20451 writes "In 1998, NASA scientists deliberately crashed the Lunar Prospector into the Moon, in a
failed attempt to detect traces of water allegedly hiding in deep craters at the lunar south pole.
Now the BBC is reporting a new proposal to attack the lunar poles with "Bunker Buster" missiles to liberate a detectable amount of water. Called Polar Night, the mission is being proposed as part of the "Discovery" series of probes."
The Anti-GPL Mindset FAQ v.00001
:)
1. The Free Market
Freedom is a very important, albeit often misused, word. Freedom refers to the ability
of a person to perform unhindered exchange with other people.
Just as freedom does not mean the ability to do what you want, like punch your
neighbor, it does not mean the ability to take whatever you want. People often
confuse freedom as meaning unrestriction on action, where it actually means
unrestriction on TRADE.
The physical manifestation of freedom is the free market, where people have the
option, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to exchange items with one another. These
exchanges are not forced, which is why they are free. Both parties agree to the
exchange.
2. The GPL is legit
This is not going to be a document which says the GPL is illegitmate and should go
away. The GPL merely is a way for authors to ensure that their work is used as
intended, negotiating a free exchange between the author and user.
The problem is not the GPL, but the mindset and assumptions it has brought about
regarding freedom and capitalism. The other problem is that it's generally
assumed that there is an impossible rift between commercial and free software,
scalable only by tech support, manuals, and service contracts. I won't settle
for that.
3. The Need for Money
A large chunk of the Linux community has never written a line of code or contributed
to the world of Linux whatsoever, aside from their misguided rantings on Slashdot.
Despite their opinions, we are currently, thankfully, living in a free market society.
The medium for exhange in this market is cash, as we've evolved beyond the barter
system. With this in mind, the prominent way to obtain physical goods is to
perform an exchange of value with others.
Hence, for those of us not still living off of our parents, or who are unsatisfied
working at Subway by day and exclusively using our programming talents for free at
night, money is a necessity. Working on the latest build of GIMP is fun and exciting,
especially if you have the physical goods you need provided for you by someone else,
but it is impractical to exclusively exchange your work for source code through the
GPL when you need to exchange some work for money as well to survive.
4. Making Money is Not Evil
It seems that a lot of people have fallen into the trap assuming that making money
is inherently evil. They point to Bill Gates as an example.
Though the ethics involved can be questionable, making money is not inherently evil.
Why? Simple -- both parties involved in the exchange of money are doing so
voluntarily. Don't like Microsoft? Don't buy their software. Don't like the fact
that your car payments are so expensive? Don't drive. The reason freedom is such an
important word is because it implies a lack of force. You are not FORCED to do anything
you don't want to.
People argue that a Microsoft monopoly provides no choice. The choice is simple: use
Windows, or don't use Windows. If not using Windows means you have to settle for a
lesser product, or no product, well, then maybe you understand why Microsoft has so much
money
People argue that not using Windows or having a car are impossible, but seem to forget
that in reality the only reason they even have an opportunity to use these things are
due to the creators who made them.
5. What about source code?
The commercial software model in the past has often neglected to include source code
with their products. The reason for doing so is most likely because algorithms, techniques,
or even the entire product itself could be re-branded by a competitor and sold on
the free market as their own work.
However, for most users who are not software houses looking to steal the work of
others, source code can be a useful tool. A
You know, these terroristical A-rabs just aren't the intimidating foes that the Soviet supermen or the Aryan NAZIs were. I bet Rumsfeld/Cheney/Bush wish the cold war wasn't over!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
They should just shoot a couple million Chinamen up to the moon... they'll all die pretty quickly but its a cheap way to do manual labor.
Can't get enough of that Zyklon-B...
But really your honour I was simply liberating the money - it was being held captive by the opressive regime at the bank.
That is just insane.
I don't recall anybody denying either of those.
And BTW, they have located a 6-12 month supply of medical supplies for all the hospitals in a warehouse IN BAGHDAD.
Dead babies make good propaganda.
This Crawford Pig Farmer is like a second-grader creating the game "Ooey-Gooey" by pouring water over a loaf of bread and throwing the slices at a wall to watch them *splat*. He hasn't even reached the level of emotional maturity necessary to generate the phrase "oooooooooo.... ahhhhhhh" at a fireworks show.