- The loss of dial-up as a backup when my cable modem connectivity is down. This morning it was down for four hours.
In my lengthy discussion with a tech. support "supervisor" I was told that the dial-up numbers were discontinued because a survey revealed that "business people" mostly wanted it to access e-mail while on the road.
I wonder if this is the type of thing that could be impacted by the recent overturning of a ruling by the special federal appeals court. Apparently the U.S. Supreme Court felt that the ruling went too far by allowing competitors to make minor changes and then applying for new patents. At a minimum it could open the door for existing patent holders to delay things by filing lawsuits against the new technology on the grounds that it is similar and not sufficiently different.
Actually I decided to register a.org domain name with e-mail forwarding. Now I don't give out my attbi e-mail address anymore. This does add 20 bucks a year to the cost but I like having complete control.
This is a rate increase, pure and simple. Let's face it. This has nothing to do with the cost of supporting modems. I lease my modem. I first got it when I started with Highway1, the name that preceeded MediaOne. They have simply found it easier to raise rates by couching it in terms of "lowered cost of equipment". In my view it's part of a trend that continues to provide me with lower services at an increased price.
I'm only glad that at the moment this price increase does not affect me. There are other things that bug me a whole lot more.
My top ten pet peeves with AT&T Broadband:
10. Playing with the pricing structure so much that it's starting to resemble the price structure for Cable TV. That means it's going to end up being nothing short of confusing.
9. Being moved from only 3 hops to a backbone to 7 hops. A move that now forces *all* of my IP traffic to go to new york instead of cambridge. I have a lot of traffic that ends up at POP's in Cambridge.
8. Elimination of "vanity" hostnames. Soon we will all have hostnames like h000102030405.ne.client2.attbi.com instead of nice names like vanity.mediaone.net. I suppose it helps them to discorouge people from running services on their machines.
7. Having my upstream bandwidth reduce by 15% because the @Home folks only had 256KBps so now we all have to. Why not give the @Home folks a little bandwidth boost rather than punish the rest of us?
6. Having to deal with Teir 1 Tech Support. I remember the days when you got to talk to a knowledgable person immediately. You didn't have to wrestle with someone verbally for 20 minutes before they would let you talk to a real network admin.
5. Getting all those calls from AT&T trying to cross sell other services such as Broadband Telephony. For a while I didn't even qualify for Digital Voice yet I still would keep getting the calls for it. Go figure.
4. All the changes in added services such as e-mail and personal pages. I enjoy improvements in these services but do they really need to be "improved" on a yearly basis. It seems that everything has to totally change each time this happens.
3. The confusion and fingerpointing everytime my broadband service is sold to or merged with someone else. I really miss the days when you could just pick a good service provider and know that they would always be there for you.
2. Having to print new busniess cards and notify *all* my contacts that my e-mail address has changed from "mediaone.net" to "attbi.com". (I tell them that the attbi stands for AT&T's Big Inconvenience.)
1. The voice menu "from hell" system. I think Jon Katz could write another popular column on this one. Heck he could probably write three columns. It's so convoluted it want's to make you scream. To top it off you can no longer pretend you have a rotary phone and jump straight to a person. It now has voice recognition. Arrggghhh!
I am actually interested to know if one could run linux on a NAS device. I would love to be able use use one as an Automated Backup Appliance. Preferably by running a pared down version of Linux with Samba and some scripts to automatically mount disks and backup their data to the disks on the NAS device.
At present I use old PC's and throw a couple of 80Gb disks in them. Unfortunately this is a bulky solution that you can't just plop on somebodys desk.
On the one hand I too feel that sometimes folks do not always do their homework. On the other hand I actually learned something from some of the replies to this post.
This is an area that I am interested in, but not so much that I would have spent my own time researching them. I too would like a open source offering that is like quicken and that runs on Linux.
It would be nice if there was a topic here on slashdot for folks to share information on specific topics that they have researched. Not with the intent or pretext of asking a question but with the intent of generating further discussion on the topic. Or perhaps all that is needed is a new name or subtitle for "Ask Slashdot".
Hopefully this would allow everyone involved to expand their horizons in a collaborative fashion.
Re:My good ISPs were all bought by bad ones
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Yeah, I first got cable trough Highway1 which became MediaOne after it was aquired (by SBC I think). Now it has become AT&T Broadband of course. Soon it will likely change a third time if Comcast is successful.
Each time it seems that either customer service or the quality of service takes a hit. I remember having a cheap MediaOne pen that they had sent to me. If someone wanted to borrow a pen that is the one I would lend them with the caution that it doesn't always work. They would always retort "Yeah, just like the service".
I tried calling AOL about a free trial after reading Jon Katz' story at 800-509-7538. In talking to them I asked where would I call if I wanted to cancel. The offer said I could cancel durring the free period and not be charged at all. The woman gave me a number that I should call, 888-265-8008. The person at that number said I needed to call another number, 888-346-3704, which turned out to be Tech Support. Tech support said I had to talk to the Billing Dept at 888-265-8003. The Billing Dept in turn said I needed to call 888-265-8008. I told the Billing Dept that I had already been given that number to call and that I wouldn't be signing up for AOL. So my little test did indeed corroborate Jon's experience.
BTW - AOL does not support Linux, I specifically asked them. So if anyone wants to cancel and gets asked why, just tell them that you have moved to a Linux OS.
I dont know about the A.F. but in the Navy you can join 3x6. That's 3 years active duty, then 3 years reserve (at least 1 year of which must be active reserves). Most people who sign up for 4 years active duty must then be on inactive reserves for 2 years (4x6?).
Anyway it's enough time to get the traning. You also get certain benefits if you want go to college after you tour of duty. Plus you get a small income while in school for being active reserve.
I've actually found my way trough a lot of the ideas presented here. I went to a vocational technical H.S. (plumbing). Then I joined the Navy. Then I went to college. Then I worked for Bell Labs as Sys. Admin where I learned what I really needed to know to manage UNIX systems.
If you ask me college simply provides you with the credemtials you need to get your foot in the door. A former collegue of mine who had been in the Army never went to college. He managed to become a Sys Admin in the Army. When he got out he started doing entry level contract work. He worked his way up until he landed a direct position as director of IT at a large financial company.
There are many routes you can take. Most likely the one you end up on will not be the one you started upon. Just get yourself going down a path that has potential. Always be on the lookout for new opportunites.
Implementing IPV6
on
Learning IPv6?
·
· Score: 3, Informative
A former colleage of mine had this book and liked it. I have not read it personally but I just checked it out on Amazon. It looks like it has a lot of useful information.
Here's a bit from their description:
"IPv6 is a critical new technology, essential for the geometrically increasing traffic on the net. The second edition of Implementing IPv6 shows networking professionals the how and why of making the transition -- and points out both IPv6's capabilities, and the potential issues it raises for network managers."
Inside you'll find everything you need to:
Learn the IPv6 addressing architecture.
Keep up to date with the latest Request For Comments (RFC) documents.
Understand such hot issues as upper layer protocols, APIs, and security.
Manage IPv6 Internetworks.
Master transition mechanisms and routing.
Troubleshoot autoconfiguration and local network issues.
Understand all the capabilities and shortcomings of the next generation...
Another commonly hanled object also carries around a lot of bacteria.
Cold Hard Cash! Yup, it's a fact. That's why many places require food service staff to wear platic gloves if they also handle cash.
It's a lost cause to try to avoid bacteria completely and, as the other posts here point out, you don't really need nor should you want to.
P.S. - I know guy who are plumbers who will stick their bare hands into stuff you don't even want to know about. After a good gon of hand cleaner they'll go and grab a sandwich. A few of them are almost as old as dirt too.
The Fowler Company, makers of the TagLogic RFID Tagging System says on their product page: Tags retain data for a minimum of 10 years, and have a minimum of 100,000 read/write cycles. They are impervious to electrical noise, magnetism, dirt and grime and all but the most extreme temperature conditions.
Apparently these devices can withstand temperatures of up to 105C!
In a previous slashdot sumission on RFID Tags I had put forth this very same idea. It was shot down on the grounds that it would only affect magnetic devices and not RF devices. I suppose if RF Tags only use discrete logic or EPROMs then this would be true.
Of course the Microwave tactic would only seem to me to be feasible if it generates enough heat to melt the components.
Does anyone know of any reference material on what environment factors RF Tags can operate within?
I agree. The title makes it sound like it has overtones of tabloid journalism. Sensationalize everything to maximize readership.
Aside from that, does the OpenSource community have any charismatic leaders? I personally don't know them so I can't say/ I get the impression that many are opinionated but tend towards degenerating into a tirade. Or perhaps that's just my impression from what I've read in postings here and elsewhere on the net.
It may be easier just to do binary diffs on the executable files. I think that finding any large chunks of similar patterns would be proof enough. Of course you'd have to have some idea of what you were looking for to narrow down the search.
It may be a valid thesis that you are putting forth. It does occur to me, however, that you seem more interested in having someone else prove it for you. Your rather cursory investigation and lack of basis neither lends credence to your theory nor compels one to take it seriously. If you desire the respect of the scientific community then I suggest you put a little more work and effort into it.
Here's an abstract from a paper that discusses colonizing Mars in some detail. Very interesting.
"The economic viability of colonizing Mars is examined. It is shown, that of all bodies in the solar system other than Earth, Mars is unique in that it has the resources required to support a population of sufficient size to create locally a new branch of human civilization. It is also shown that while Mars may lack any cash material directly exportable to Earth, Mars' orbital elements and other physical parameters gives a unique positional advantage that will allow it to act as a keystone supporting extractive activities in the asteroid belt and elsewhere in the solar system. The potential of relatively near-term types of interplanetary transportation systems is examined, and it is shown that with very modest advances on a historical scale, systems can be put in place that will allow individuals and families to emigrate to Mars at their own discretion. Their motives for doing so will parallel in many ways the historical motives for Europeans and others to come to America, including higher pay rates in a labor-short economy, escape from tradition and oppression, as well as freedom to exercise their drive to create in an untamed and undefined world. Under conditions of such large scale immigration, sale of real-estate will add a significant source of income to the planet's economy. Potential increases in real-estate values after terraforming will provide a sufficient financial incentive to do so. In analogy to frontier America, social conditions on Mars will make it a pressure cooker for invention. These inventions, licensed on Earth, will raise both Terrestrial and Martian living standards and contribute large amounts of income to support the development of the colony."
Yeah, I was reading about this in the paper a few days ago. Implementation of both cell phone and phone number portability have be dragged out for years by mobile phone companies. Apparently the companies want to minimize churn by holding their customers hostage. They seem to have focused more on this technique as opposed to improving service.
I wonder what functions the API will provide access to? One of my peeves with 3G (or near 3G) devices is the inability to programatically control the telephony functions of the device. For example it would be very desirable to be able to filter incoming calls. Particularly all the phone spam that these devices are going to be magnets for. If this device would allow for this then that would be *very* cool. At any rate, I want one!
Whether is embedded or systems programming, and I've done both, it seems that all the fun has been taken away. When I started working at Bell Labs 15 years ago there was a lot of excitement around software. Software engineers were the cognizenti of the tech industry.
This no longer seems to be the case. Perhaps its dot com fallout but I have been less than enamored of this industry for the last few years. I feel like we have become the tech industries factory workers.
I must admit, my curiosity was piqued when I first read the blurb above. A python zine sounded very appealing. Partcularly the part about "extending Python with C". Then I clicked on the link to vist the site and the disapointment was palpable.
I was not about to shell out 3 bucks just to find out if the content was worth the price. Even if it was this time around it may not be so in the future.
I would like to suggest to the editors of PyZine that they consider providing some content for no charge. Sites such as Salon, to which I subscribe, have found this to be a successful compromise between free and paid content.
As for the issue of why this submission was accepted by slashdot, I will assume that it was done in good faith and not for advertising revenue. I would be very dissapointed if it was in actuality an Ad. Particularly after all of the uproar over this very issue with search engines in past slashdot posts.
Of course if the fee is paid upon discarding the unit there is no incentive to discard it properly. How many tires do you see chucked on the side of the road. I bet if the fee was paid up front for tires you'd see folks hauling them out of the gutter to get the redemption fee.
[Teachers] "for the most part they were a regular person doing a regular job."
I have to disagree with you completely on this point. Most of the teachers (in public schools) that I have dealt with have earned my deep respect. Many of them go above and beyond when it comes to teaching and helping kids. They are overworked and underpaid. They do what they do because most of them have a deep personal desire to foster kids into becoming better people and reach their full potential.
I don't doubt for a second that NASAs motivations are for purely PR reasons. Teachers represent so much as role models for our kids (as do Police and Firemen. No comment on Janitors). They also represent the higher education that are kids need to fully participate in endeavors of space flight or any other prestegious technology careers.
In short what they add to the mission is to be a role model for future generation who might not otherwise beleive that they have the potential to make difference. Being an astronaut in space is not necessarily out of their grasp. Go for it!
Slashdot Mirror
I'd like to add one more item to my list.
- The loss of dial-up as a backup when my cable modem connectivity is down. This morning it was down for four hours.
In my lengthy discussion with a tech. support "supervisor" I was told that the dial-up numbers were discontinued because a survey revealed that "business people" mostly wanted it to access e-mail while on the road.
I wonder if this is the type of thing that could be impacted by the recent overturning of a ruling by the special federal appeals court. Apparently the U.S. Supreme Court felt that the ruling went too far by allowing competitors to make minor changes and then applying for new patents. At a minimum it could open the door for existing patent holders to delay things by filing lawsuits against the new technology on the grounds that it is similar and not sufficiently different.
Actually I decided to register a .org domain name with e-mail forwarding. Now I don't give out my attbi e-mail address anymore. This does add 20 bucks a year to the cost but I like having complete control.
This is a rate increase, pure and simple. Let's face it. This has nothing to do with the cost of supporting modems. I lease my modem. I first got it when I started with Highway1, the name that preceeded MediaOne. They have simply found it easier to raise rates by couching it in terms of "lowered cost of equipment". In my view it's part of a trend that continues to provide me with lower services at an increased price.
I'm only glad that at the moment this price increase does not affect me. There are other things that bug me a whole lot more.
My top ten pet peeves with AT&T Broadband:
10. Playing with the pricing structure so much that it's starting to resemble the price structure for Cable TV. That means it's going to end up being nothing short of confusing.
9. Being moved from only 3 hops to a backbone to 7 hops. A move that now forces *all* of my IP traffic to go to new york instead of cambridge. I have a lot of traffic that ends up at POP's in Cambridge.
8. Elimination of "vanity" hostnames. Soon we will all have hostnames like h000102030405.ne.client2.attbi.com instead of nice names like vanity.mediaone.net. I suppose it helps them to discorouge people from running services on their machines.
7. Having my upstream bandwidth reduce by 15% because the @Home folks only had 256KBps so now we all have to. Why not give the @Home folks a little bandwidth boost rather than punish the rest of us?
6. Having to deal with Teir 1 Tech Support. I remember the days when you got to talk to a knowledgable person immediately. You didn't have to wrestle with someone verbally for 20 minutes before they would let you talk to a real network admin.
5. Getting all those calls from AT&T trying to cross sell other services such as Broadband Telephony. For a while I didn't even qualify for Digital Voice yet I still would keep getting the calls for it. Go figure.
4. All the changes in added services such as e-mail and personal pages. I enjoy improvements in these services but do they really need to be "improved" on a yearly basis. It seems that everything has to totally change each time this happens.
3. The confusion and fingerpointing everytime my broadband service is sold to or merged with someone else. I really miss the days when you could just pick a good service provider and know that they would always be there for you.
2. Having to print new busniess cards and notify *all* my contacts that my e-mail address has changed from "mediaone.net" to "attbi.com". (I tell them that the attbi stands for AT&T's Big Inconvenience.)
1. The voice menu "from hell" system. I think Jon Katz could write another popular column on this one. Heck he could probably write three columns. It's so convoluted it want's to make you scream. To top it off you can no longer pretend you have a rotary phone and jump straight to a person. It now has voice recognition. Arrggghhh!
I am actually interested to know if one could run linux on a NAS device. I would love to be able use use one as an Automated Backup Appliance. Preferably by running a pared down version of Linux with Samba and some scripts to automatically mount disks and backup their data to the disks on the NAS device.
At present I use old PC's and throw a couple of 80Gb disks in them. Unfortunately this is a bulky solution that you can't just plop on somebodys desk.
On the one hand I too feel that sometimes folks do not always do their homework. On the other hand I actually learned something from some of the replies to this post.
This is an area that I am interested in, but not so much that I would have spent my own time researching them. I too would like a open source offering that is like quicken and that runs on Linux.
It would be nice if there was a topic here on slashdot for folks to share information on specific topics that they have researched. Not with the intent or pretext of asking a question but with the intent of generating further discussion on the topic. Or perhaps all that is needed is a new name or subtitle for "Ask Slashdot".
Hopefully this would allow everyone involved to expand their horizons in a collaborative fashion.
Yeah, I first got cable trough Highway1 which became MediaOne after it was aquired (by SBC I think). Now it has become AT&T Broadband of course. Soon it will likely change a third time if Comcast is successful.
Each time it seems that either customer service or the quality of service takes a hit. I remember having a cheap MediaOne pen that they had sent to me. If someone wanted to borrow a pen that is the one I would lend them with the caution that it doesn't always work. They would always retort "Yeah, just like the service".
I tried calling AOL about a free trial after reading Jon Katz' story at 800-509-7538. In talking to them I asked where would I call if I wanted to cancel. The offer said I could cancel durring the free period and not be charged at all. The woman gave me a number that I should call, 888-265-8008. The person at that number said I needed to call another number, 888-346-3704, which turned out to be Tech Support. Tech support said I had to talk to the Billing Dept at 888-265-8003. The Billing Dept in turn said I needed to call 888-265-8008. I told the Billing Dept that I had already been given that number to call and that I wouldn't be signing up for AOL. So my little test did indeed corroborate Jon's experience.
BTW - AOL does not support Linux, I specifically asked them. So if anyone wants to cancel and gets asked why, just tell them that you have moved to a Linux OS.
I dont know about the A.F. but in the Navy you can join 3x6. That's 3 years active duty, then 3 years reserve (at least 1 year of which must be active reserves). Most people who sign up for 4 years active duty must then be on inactive reserves for 2 years (4x6?).
Anyway it's enough time to get the traning. You also get certain benefits if you want go to college after you tour of duty. Plus you get a small income while in school for being active reserve.
I've actually found my way trough a lot of the ideas presented here. I went to a vocational technical H.S. (plumbing). Then I joined the Navy. Then I went to college. Then I worked for Bell Labs as Sys. Admin where I learned what I really needed to know to manage UNIX systems.
If you ask me college simply provides you with the credemtials you need to get your foot in the door. A former collegue of mine who had been in the Army never went to college. He managed to become a Sys Admin in the Army. When he got out he started doing entry level contract work. He worked his way up until he landed a direct position as director of IT at a large financial company.
There are many routes you can take. Most likely the one you end up on will not be the one you started upon. Just get yourself going down a path that has potential. Always be on the lookout for new opportunites.
Implementing IPV6: Supporting the Next Generation Internet Protocols
A former colleage of mine had this book and liked it. I have not read it personally but I just checked it out on Amazon. It looks like it has a lot of useful information.
Here's a bit from their description:
"IPv6 is a critical new technology, essential for the geometrically increasing traffic on the net. The second edition of Implementing IPv6 shows networking professionals the how and why of making the transition -- and points out both IPv6's capabilities, and the potential issues it raises for network managers."
Inside you'll find everything you need to:
Learn the IPv6 addressing architecture.
Keep up to date with the latest Request For Comments (RFC) documents.
Understand such hot issues as upper layer protocols, APIs, and security.
Manage IPv6 Internetworks.
Master transition mechanisms and routing.
Troubleshoot autoconfiguration and local network issues.
Understand all the capabilities and shortcomings of the next generation...
Another commonly hanled object also carries around a lot of bacteria.
Cold Hard Cash! Yup, it's a fact. That's why many places require food service staff to wear platic gloves if they also handle cash.
It's a lost cause to try to avoid bacteria completely and, as the other posts here point out, you don't really need nor should you want to.
P.S. - I know guy who are plumbers who will stick their bare hands into stuff you don't even want to know about. After a good gon of hand cleaner they'll go and grab a sandwich. A few of them are almost as old as dirt too.
That should have been up to 150C (about 300F).
The Fowler Company, makers of the TagLogic RFID Tagging System says on their product page:
Tags retain data for a minimum of 10 years, and have a minimum of 100,000 read/write cycles. They are impervious to electrical noise, magnetism, dirt and grime and all but the most extreme temperature conditions.
Apparently these devices can withstand temperatures of up to 105C!
In a previous slashdot sumission on RFID Tags I had put forth this very same idea. It was shot down on the grounds that it would only affect magnetic devices and not RF devices. I suppose if RF Tags only use discrete logic or EPROMs then this would be true.
Of course the Microwave tactic would only seem to me to be feasible if it generates enough heat to melt the components.
Does anyone know of any reference material on what environment factors RF Tags can operate within?
I agree. The title makes it sound like it has overtones of tabloid journalism. Sensationalize everything to maximize readership.
Aside from that, does the OpenSource community have any charismatic leaders? I personally don't know them so I can't say/ I get the impression that many are opinionated but tend towards degenerating into a tirade. Or perhaps that's just my impression from what I've read in postings here and elsewhere on the net.
It may be easier just to do binary diffs on the executable files. I think that finding any large chunks of similar patterns would be proof enough. Of course you'd have to have some idea of what you were looking for to narrow down the search.
It may be a valid thesis that you are putting forth. It does occur to me, however, that you seem more interested in having someone else prove it for you. Your rather cursory investigation and lack of basis neither lends credence to your theory nor compels one to take it seriously. If you desire the respect of the scientific community then I suggest you put a little more work and effort into it.
Here's an abstract from a paper that discusses colonizing Mars in some detail. Very interesting.
"The economic viability of colonizing Mars is examined. It is shown, that of all bodies in the solar system other than Earth, Mars is unique in that it has the resources required to support a population of sufficient size to create locally a new branch of human civilization. It is also shown that while Mars may lack any cash material directly exportable to Earth, Mars' orbital elements and other physical parameters gives a unique positional advantage that will allow it to act as a keystone supporting extractive activities in the asteroid belt and elsewhere in the solar system. The potential of relatively near-term types of interplanetary transportation systems is examined, and it is shown that with very modest advances on a historical scale, systems can be put in place that will allow individuals and families to emigrate to Mars at their own discretion. Their motives for doing so will parallel in many ways the historical motives for Europeans and others to come to America, including higher pay rates in a labor-short economy, escape from tradition and oppression, as well as freedom to exercise their drive to create in an untamed and undefined world. Under conditions of such large scale immigration, sale of real-estate will add a significant source of income to the planet's economy. Potential increases in real-estate values after terraforming will provide a sufficient financial incentive to do so. In analogy to frontier America, social conditions on Mars will make it a pressure cooker for invention. These inventions, licensed on Earth, will raise both Terrestrial and Martian living standards and contribute large amounts of income to support the development of the colony."
Yeah, I was reading about this in the paper a few days ago. Implementation of both cell phone and phone number portability have be dragged out for years by mobile phone companies. Apparently the companies want to minimize churn by holding their customers hostage. They seem to have focused more on this technique as opposed to improving service.
I wonder what functions the API will provide access to? One of my peeves with 3G (or near 3G) devices is the inability to programatically control the telephony functions of the device. For example it would be very desirable to be able to filter incoming calls. Particularly all the phone spam that these devices are going to be magnets for. If this device would allow for this then that would be *very* cool. At any rate, I want one!
Whether is embedded or systems programming, and I've done both, it seems that all the fun has been taken away. When I started working at Bell Labs 15 years ago there was a lot of excitement around software. Software engineers were the cognizenti of the tech industry.
This no longer seems to be the case. Perhaps its dot com fallout but I have been less than enamored of this industry for the last few years. I feel like we have become the tech industries factory workers.
I must admit, my curiosity was piqued when I first read the blurb above. A python zine sounded very appealing. Partcularly the part about "extending Python with C". Then I clicked on the link to vist the site and the disapointment was palpable.
I was not about to shell out 3 bucks just to find out if the content was worth the price. Even if it was this time around it may not be so in the future.
I would like to suggest to the editors of PyZine that they consider providing some content for no charge. Sites such as Salon, to which I subscribe, have found this to be a successful compromise between free and paid content.
As for the issue of why this submission was accepted by slashdot, I will assume that it was done in good faith and not for advertising revenue. I would be very dissapointed if it was in actuality an Ad. Particularly after all of the uproar over this very issue with search engines in past slashdot posts.
Of course if the fee is paid upon discarding the unit there is no incentive to discard it properly. How many tires do you see chucked on the side of the road. I bet if the fee was paid up front for tires you'd see folks hauling them out of the gutter to get the redemption fee.
Not necessarily. It depends upon who was talking. Marketing or Engineering. We all know how that works.
[Teachers] "for the most part they were a regular person doing a regular job."
I have to disagree with you completely on this point. Most of the teachers (in public schools) that I have dealt with have earned my deep respect. Many of them go above and beyond when it comes to teaching and helping kids. They are overworked and underpaid. They do what they do because most of them have a deep personal desire to foster kids into becoming better people and reach their full potential.
I don't doubt for a second that NASAs motivations are for purely PR reasons. Teachers represent so much as role models for our kids (as do Police and Firemen. No comment on Janitors). They also represent the higher education that are kids need to fully participate in endeavors of space flight or any other prestegious technology careers.
In short what they add to the mission is to be a role model for future generation who might not otherwise beleive that they have the potential to make difference. Being an astronaut in space is not necessarily out of their grasp. Go for it!
So it's OK to say you don't beleive in something like Cold Fusion but not Excercise Pills. At least I put my name on my post.