Considering that I'm on at least my fourth logic board now, this isn't always true. I have heard of other people getting their computer replaced instead of repaired, but at this point, in the past year I've had the logic board replaced at least three times, the DVD drive replaced, the power adapter replaced, and some other miscellaneous cables and internal things replaced. I just bought AppleCare for my iBook right before the warranty ran out, because if the average of two months between repairs keeps up, it's due to break again.
What I'm wondering is if you had AppleCare when they replaced your computer or if it was only under the normal warranty. As far as I can remember, everyone I know who's gotten anything outright replaced instead of just repaired had AppleCare for the product in question.
Mmm, but iTunes is mainly used to buy music online, not to play music, QuickTime maybe used to preview music, but I think they can use Linux OSS or something similar, or just give the user the preview file to play using MPlayer or Xine, so I think QuickTime isn't that important in porting iTunes.
If you're only speaking in terms of what it does that can't already be done well by something else in Linux, then yes, iTunes mainly is just for buying stuff from the iTMS. However, the way that's worded, it sounds more like a comment on what people who use iTunes use it for. People who use it, in my experience, do not use it primarily to buy things. It's been the primary MP3 player/organizer on the Mac for most people for years now (probably since SoundJam was discontinued), kind of like how everyone uses WinAmp on Windows, but with a less profoundly odd interface (which is a whole different story...don't get me started on using ZXCVB for play/stop/ff/rw/etc. or how unintuitive that is).
If it were to be ported, I don't see Apple just porting the store and not the rest of the features iTunes has. From what I've seen, they seem to want to keep everything together in products like that, because the presentation and the total package are a vital part of their image.
The point of iTunes isn't to buy music, it's to have a completely integrated music experience where everything is handled in a simple, streamlined way with a consistent interface. The only single missing feature from other software is the iTMS, but passing files between different apps in Linux to accomplish the same thing isn't the "Apple way". In iTunes, you can seamlessly buy songs from the iTMS, have them automatically added to your master playlist and your music folder, create a new playlist of songs (even automatically based on criteria you specify, if you want), then burn it to a CD and have it all synced to your iPod, with maybe a dozen mouse clicks, all in the same familiar interface, pretty much straight out of the box.
So no, it probably wouldn't be that hard to just port the iTMS frontend itself and write something to handle the AAC files (with their minimal DRM...I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to play normal AAC files already), but that just isn't how Apple works. If you don't get the full experience of it, where's the incentive to go out and buy their products in the future? There won't be Linux iTunes unless they can use it to entice enough people to use OS X on Apple hardware to make the cost of porting the full app worth it.
I can't compare directly to your experience, but with their laptops, the repair turnaround is extremely fast. In my experience, I call Apple one day, and I have a box at my door the next day to ship the laptop to them. It came back within two days of when I shipped it, which is almost ridiculous, considering that it has to be shipped there and back plus repaired in that time. I'm assuming that with desktops, it depends at least partly on the specific place you take it to be repaired. I haven't had a problem with one that needed to be repaired, but the local Apple Store ordered a replacement power adapter for me, and I was able to pick it up within a couple days. Every time I've dealt with Apple in person or over the phone, they've taken good care of me, and stuff gets done in a hurry. From your post, I guess it seems not everyone is that lucky, though.
This has always been one of my favorite books that I read when I was younger, but I haven't re-read it in years. I was lucky; at the elementary school I went to, my class actually was required to read "The Phantom Tollbooth" in third grade. I don't think everyone appreciated it, but most of us had fun with it, some more than others. Maybe I should go pick up a copy of it so I can read it again...
Biased-opinion-powers, activate! I vote for the one I help run, AlteredReality. It's kind of funny to be mentioning it in this article, since it might actually be a better experience without a client. We have a VT100-mode that provides a constantly updating prompt bar, separate output and input areas, and other fun things like command history.
I've got my own biased opinion too. I help run AlteredReality. I didn't catch this article soon enough that anyone will ever see this, unfortunately. We support SSH connections (on a different port), and a bunch of features in VT100-mode that are equal to or surpass the experience using a normal mud client. Most people actually play using PuTTY in Windows, or Terminal.app in OS X, or whatever term they prefer in Linux.
Also, I checked out Blood Dusk, mentioned in the parent to this post. I can't actually think of the last time I saw another mud than my own that had a decent VT100-mode, so that was nice to see. The skill system seems pretty interesting too. I'd have to say that I think our VT100 support is better, but I give Blood Dusk credit for some good ideas. People might as well check both it and AlteredReality out, right? Who needs mud clients anyway, especially when you can have a prompt bar, separate input and output text areas, and all your aliases and speedwalks and stuff built-in so you can mud from any computer without leaving data in your client behind?
This trick (I assume you're talking about this one for window buffer compression) does indeed help, but I believe it's only useful in 10.1. I don't think that feature existed in 10.1, and I've been told that it's enabled by default in 10.2. The single biggest thing that helped was getting more RAM. I can't recommend enough that people always have at least 256MB, preferably even 384MB or more, if they're going to use OS X. It just gets faster the more memory you throw at it. The next biggest improvement I had after that, other than getting a new computer, was getting a faster HD, but that was a smaller improvement. A few other things like disabling the UI drop shadows help a little bit, but that tends to make things look funny, and it's less useful than just spending a few dollars on more memory.
I probably should've stayed with OS 9 on my Wallstreet too, but I was one of those people who just had to see what OS X was like on it. I managed to have the slowest Wallstreet there is (233MHz with no L2 cache), so that turned out to not be the greatest idea. 10.0.* was nearly unusable for just about anything, but at least it ran without complaining. As of 10.1, if I didn't mind doing much outside of Terminal, it was almost tolerable, but I still ran stuff in Classic a lot of the time, just because it was noticeably faster that way. When I tried to upgrade it to 10.2, the installer trashed my 10.1 install instead of updating it, probably because I'd moved a bunch of things around to different locations, including putting the Applications folder on a different partition. The installer is (or at least used to be) very picky about some things and didn't fail gracefully.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that it's extremely slow, more so if you don't have at least 256-384 MB of RAM. iTunes uses over 60% CPU just to play an MP3 (although mpg123 and the sound daemon it uses only took a combined total of around 12%...), and doing two things at once really brings performance even farther down. But hey, at least it was as stable as it was slow and didn't act strange on the old hardware at all. I'm much, much happier with OS X on my current model iBook.
My former roommate has had good luck with it on his (G4-and-Radeon-upgraded) B&W G3, though, as of 10.2. It was perfectly usable before he upgraded it, but he didn't like 10.1 enough to stick with it then. It's probably worth trying out on yours, just to see how it goes, in my opinion at least.
I have to say, I agree with most of your observations. I can't really say if they would be true for other people. I too have been playing the piano for around 15 years (although not as much lately, since I've been living without one), I've been learning to play the bass, and I have a history of playing probably more games than I should. I have fairly large hands and long fingers, and as a result of all the exercise they get, I would assume they're probably relatively coordinated, strong, and quick compared to some people.
I think part of why I don't feel a need to try to keep my fingers in a "home" position might be that on the piano or the bass, there really isn't a "home" position. I tend to be aware of where my hands and fingers are and where they're moving to, relative to their current position. After playing the piano for this long and getting familiar with it, it's easy enough to put two fingers the right distance apart for an octave or other interval without having a piano in sight, and the same applies to a computer keyboard in some sense. Once I became comfortable with where the keys are and gained some familiarity with the layout, it became fairly simple to instinctively move a finger to the next letter just by having an idea of where it was compared to where the last letter was.
At one point, several years ago, I did learn the "proper" way to touch-type, just as I learned to play pieces on the piano by following recommended fingerings, either from sheet music or from my teacher. However, as I practiced each skill and became better at them, I discovered that modifying what I'd been taught and doing it in a way that was more comfortable for me worked better and allowed me to do things more easily that I'd had trouble with before. Who says you "have" to play a certain chord with "1-3-5" when it's more comfortable to use "1-2-4" in that situation, or that you shouldn't use your thumb to play black keys, even if it's already right there? Likewise, if it's more comfortable for me to keep my left hand on "control, a, w, f, space" and use my pinky mainly for things like control and shift, that's what I'll do.
I have to admit that it never occurred to me to use my thumb for punctuation if my hand is shifted out of the way, it seems like a good idea, and I intend to try it. I can't claim to type 150wpm, but some I manage well enough at 90-110wpm on a good day. I can't complain though, since I've found a way to type that works for me, and my hands and fingers never get sore or stiff...unless I play the bass long enough to get blisters instead of working on my callouses, but that's another story entirely...
just before i read this whole thing here, i found out about "IT" sort of accidentally after following a link from another/. story to a cnet article. so far the most interesting comment i've seen from anyone about "IT" is this one, from the cnet comments page thingy:
The informant, techy1217@yahoo.com
10-Jan-2001 06:25:17 am
Want to know what it is???
This is old news. The creator of ginger, according to the press releases, is someone who is really into helicopters and even flies his own to work. Amazingly enough, its a self contained gyroscopic transporter you wear on your back. It was profiled in popular mechanics a while ago but at the time it was in an experimental stage. The blades are only a few feet across, has a gps system and onboard hit detection system so that you don't chop up any slow-pokes in the sky. Its powered by a tiny fuel cell of some kind. There are 2 models, according to MSNBC, one called metro and one called pro. The metro one is one I have been describing which because of its low cost, could even be rented out to fly from one end of town to the next. The other will be larger, possibly having a canopy to prevent you from going deaf. I think its a stupid idea but there you have it. We'll all be flying around like Flash Gordon according to these "supposed luminaries" who see us whirling around from building to building instead of taking the subway. Meet George Jetson....
i seem to remember hearing about this before maybe a year or two back and then completely forgot about it until now. who knows...nice job generating lots of excessive hype though:P
Yeah, so his stuff isn't usually the greatest, and it's not generally considered the best written. I still tend to read everything posted by him because he tends to bring up points that get people talking.
I suppose I could never be involved with making a good movie either, because I thought Contact wasn't all that well done. I was disappointed by everything that had changed from the book, since to me, it completely changed the point of the story. As for someone not being able to produce something good because they have a different standard for what's good or not, I can't agree with that. But making something good after seeing how thrilled everyone tends to be with his stories here? We'll have to wait and see about that:P
Ok, I admit it, I'm a bad person for that last part. Or at least I didn't word it very well. I guess I'm disappointed that some people think something I like sucks, but I don't really have a problem with it. Well, sorry, my bad. Have fun not playing Gameboy Tetris:P
Wow. That's pretty harsh. The original Gameboy Tetris is the only one I've ever actually liked. I still play it when I get bored sometimes, and it's still a damn good game. I haven't found another version ever where the control is remotely as well done. I'm not sure what does it, but everything about it, the look, the feel, and even the sound, is just so elegant considering what it's done with. I'm kind of insulted you don't like the Gameboy one, but that's your choice. Oh well.
I think it's a good point that Windows became so widely used mostly because it worked with everything, and if someone like Apple had taken the same approach, they likely would have run into the same situation as there is with Windows now. You can either make your product work well with one thing, or less well for many things. It's a good deal harder to make it work as well for everything, almost impossible.
As for MacOS pre-8 vs Win95, i think 7.5.5 is more comparable. I've never used a system that's pre-Win95 or pre-MacOS 7.5.5 that was all that reliable in any way, but I've seen relatively stable Win95 boxes, and my older computer which is still running 7.5.5 averages about 2 months uptime without problems. As of now, I've had better experiences with MacOS 8/9 compared to Win98, but we'll have to see what happens with MacOS X and Win2K.
You start to make a good point about getting all the people who really care to organize and support their cause independantly. Other than the fact that it would be a good deal harder to do things in that way, it's a very noble idea. I've actually thought about why more things aren't done that way before, and I came to the conclusion that most people aren't motivated or knowledgable to do anything approaching that kind of non-professional, non-governmental organization of those working for a cause. I can be willing to help out for a cause, willing to donate what I can afford, willing to sign a petition, and still be unable to contribute enough to make a difference. Sure, exploration and gaining knowledge is very important to me, but I'm fresh out of school and unable to contribute as much as I'd like, because I literally don't have as much as I'd like to contribute. I think the same is probably true of a good deal of the most enthusiastic towards causes like this; while we're young and easily excited by projects such as this one, we don't have the resources to do much about it.
As for this petition being a plot of the "Commie Bastards," I somehow doubt that. How does wanting to make an opinion known make someone communist? They want everyone to know how they feel and what they want to do, but I didn't notice a section about forcing anything on anyone. I could be wrong, and correct me if I am, but what I got out of reading it was that it's a group of people who want to make their views known in hopes of informing others and influencing them to support their goal. Nowhere did I see any mention of trying to force anyone into doing something they don't want to be a part of. If enough people agree with their purpose, then perhaps something will come of it, but if there isn't enough support for it for whatever reason, lack of interest, other priorities, or whatever other reason, then no one will have anything imposed upon them.
So, if you think sending people to Mars is a good idea and we'll benefit from it, and you agree with the statements in the petition, sign away. That's what I did. However, if you disagree with any of it for any reason, don't whine about it and call anyone names just because they disagree with you. Make your views known, get people informed, and then maybe they'll see it your way. If they either do or don't, at least it will be because of sound reasoning instead of insults and accusations.
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Considering that I'm on at least my fourth logic board now, this isn't always true. I have heard of other people getting their computer replaced instead of repaired, but at this point, in the past year I've had the logic board replaced at least three times, the DVD drive replaced, the power adapter replaced, and some other miscellaneous cables and internal things replaced. I just bought AppleCare for my iBook right before the warranty ran out, because if the average of two months between repairs keeps up, it's due to break again.
What I'm wondering is if you had AppleCare when they replaced your computer or if it was only under the normal warranty. As far as I can remember, everyone I know who's gotten anything outright replaced instead of just repaired had AppleCare for the product in question.
Mmm, but iTunes is mainly used to buy music online, not to play music, QuickTime maybe used to preview music, but I think they can use Linux OSS or something similar, or just give the user the preview file to play using MPlayer or Xine, so I think QuickTime isn't that important in porting iTunes.
If you're only speaking in terms of what it does that can't already be done well by something else in Linux, then yes, iTunes mainly is just for buying stuff from the iTMS. However, the way that's worded, it sounds more like a comment on what people who use iTunes use it for. People who use it, in my experience, do not use it primarily to buy things. It's been the primary MP3 player/organizer on the Mac for most people for years now (probably since SoundJam was discontinued), kind of like how everyone uses WinAmp on Windows, but with a less profoundly odd interface (which is a whole different story...don't get me started on using ZXCVB for play/stop/ff/rw/etc. or how unintuitive that is).
If it were to be ported, I don't see Apple just porting the store and not the rest of the features iTunes has. From what I've seen, they seem to want to keep everything together in products like that, because the presentation and the total package are a vital part of their image.
The point of iTunes isn't to buy music, it's to have a completely integrated music experience where everything is handled in a simple, streamlined way with a consistent interface. The only single missing feature from other software is the iTMS, but passing files between different apps in Linux to accomplish the same thing isn't the "Apple way". In iTunes, you can seamlessly buy songs from the iTMS, have them automatically added to your master playlist and your music folder, create a new playlist of songs (even automatically based on criteria you specify, if you want), then burn it to a CD and have it all synced to your iPod, with maybe a dozen mouse clicks, all in the same familiar interface, pretty much straight out of the box.
So no, it probably wouldn't be that hard to just port the iTMS frontend itself and write something to handle the AAC files (with their minimal DRM...I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to play normal AAC files already), but that just isn't how Apple works. If you don't get the full experience of it, where's the incentive to go out and buy their products in the future? There won't be Linux iTunes unless they can use it to entice enough people to use OS X on Apple hardware to make the cost of porting the full app worth it.
I can't compare directly to your experience, but with their laptops, the repair turnaround is extremely fast. In my experience, I call Apple one day, and I have a box at my door the next day to ship the laptop to them. It came back within two days of when I shipped it, which is almost ridiculous, considering that it has to be shipped there and back plus repaired in that time. I'm assuming that with desktops, it depends at least partly on the specific place you take it to be repaired. I haven't had a problem with one that needed to be repaired, but the local Apple Store ordered a replacement power adapter for me, and I was able to pick it up within a couple days. Every time I've dealt with Apple in person or over the phone, they've taken good care of me, and stuff gets done in a hurry. From your post, I guess it seems not everyone is that lucky, though.
This has always been one of my favorite books that I read when I was younger, but I haven't re-read it in years. I was lucky; at the elementary school I went to, my class actually was required to read "The Phantom Tollbooth" in third grade. I don't think everyone appreciated it, but most of us had fun with it, some more than others. Maybe I should go pick up a copy of it so I can read it again...
Biased-opinion-powers, activate! I vote for the one I help run, AlteredReality. It's kind of funny to be mentioning it in this article, since it might actually be a better experience without a client. We have a VT100-mode that provides a constantly updating prompt bar, separate output and input areas, and other fun things like command history.
telnet ar.static.net 4000
ssh -p 4005 ar.static.net
I've got my own biased opinion too. I help run AlteredReality. I didn't catch this article soon enough that anyone will ever see this, unfortunately. We support SSH connections (on a different port), and a bunch of features in VT100-mode that are equal to or surpass the experience using a normal mud client. Most people actually play using PuTTY in Windows, or Terminal.app in OS X, or whatever term they prefer in Linux.
Also, I checked out Blood Dusk, mentioned in the parent to this post. I can't actually think of the last time I saw another mud than my own that had a decent VT100-mode, so that was nice to see. The skill system seems pretty interesting too. I'd have to say that I think our VT100 support is better, but I give Blood Dusk credit for some good ideas. People might as well check both it and AlteredReality out, right? Who needs mud clients anyway, especially when you can have a prompt bar, separate input and output text areas, and all your aliases and speedwalks and stuff built-in so you can mud from any computer without leaving data in your client behind?
This trick (I assume you're talking about this one for window buffer compression) does indeed help, but I believe it's only useful in 10.1. I don't think that feature existed in 10.1, and I've been told that it's enabled by default in 10.2. The single biggest thing that helped was getting more RAM. I can't recommend enough that people always have at least 256MB, preferably even 384MB or more, if they're going to use OS X. It just gets faster the more memory you throw at it. The next biggest improvement I had after that, other than getting a new computer, was getting a faster HD, but that was a smaller improvement. A few other things like disabling the UI drop shadows help a little bit, but that tends to make things look funny, and it's less useful than just spending a few dollars on more memory.
-Nalgas D. Lemur
I probably should've stayed with OS 9 on my Wallstreet too, but I was one of those people who just had to see what OS X was like on it. I managed to have the slowest Wallstreet there is (233MHz with no L2 cache), so that turned out to not be the greatest idea. 10.0.* was nearly unusable for just about anything, but at least it ran without complaining. As of 10.1, if I didn't mind doing much outside of Terminal, it was almost tolerable, but I still ran stuff in Classic a lot of the time, just because it was noticeably faster that way. When I tried to upgrade it to 10.2, the installer trashed my 10.1 install instead of updating it, probably because I'd moved a bunch of things around to different locations, including putting the Applications folder on a different partition. The installer is (or at least used to be) very picky about some things and didn't fail gracefully.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that it's extremely slow, more so if you don't have at least 256-384 MB of RAM. iTunes uses over 60% CPU just to play an MP3 (although mpg123 and the sound daemon it uses only took a combined total of around 12%...), and doing two things at once really brings performance even farther down. But hey, at least it was as stable as it was slow and didn't act strange on the old hardware at all. I'm much, much happier with OS X on my current model iBook.
My former roommate has had good luck with it on his (G4-and-Radeon-upgraded) B&W G3, though, as of 10.2. It was perfectly usable before he upgraded it, but he didn't like 10.1 enough to stick with it then. It's probably worth trying out on yours, just to see how it goes, in my opinion at least.
-Nalgas D. Lemur
I have to say, I agree with most of your observations. I can't really say if they would be true for other people. I too have been playing the piano for around 15 years (although not as much lately, since I've been living without one), I've been learning to play the bass, and I have a history of playing probably more games than I should. I have fairly large hands and long fingers, and as a result of all the exercise they get, I would assume they're probably relatively coordinated, strong, and quick compared to some people.
I think part of why I don't feel a need to try to keep my fingers in a "home" position might be that on the piano or the bass, there really isn't a "home" position. I tend to be aware of where my hands and fingers are and where they're moving to, relative to their current position. After playing the piano for this long and getting familiar with it, it's easy enough to put two fingers the right distance apart for an octave or other interval without having a piano in sight, and the same applies to a computer keyboard in some sense. Once I became comfortable with where the keys are and gained some familiarity with the layout, it became fairly simple to instinctively move a finger to the next letter just by having an idea of where it was compared to where the last letter was.
At one point, several years ago, I did learn the "proper" way to touch-type, just as I learned to play pieces on the piano by following recommended fingerings, either from sheet music or from my teacher. However, as I practiced each skill and became better at them, I discovered that modifying what I'd been taught and doing it in a way that was more comfortable for me worked better and allowed me to do things more easily that I'd had trouble with before. Who says you "have" to play a certain chord with "1-3-5" when it's more comfortable to use "1-2-4" in that situation, or that you shouldn't use your thumb to play black keys, even if it's already right there? Likewise, if it's more comfortable for me to keep my left hand on "control, a, w, f, space" and use my pinky mainly for things like control and shift, that's what I'll do.
I have to admit that it never occurred to me to use my thumb for punctuation if my hand is shifted out of the way, it seems like a good idea, and I intend to try it. I can't claim to type 150wpm, but some I manage well enough at 90-110wpm on a good day. I can't complain though, since I've found a way to type that works for me, and my hands and fingers never get sore or stiff...unless I play the bass long enough to get blisters instead of working on my callouses, but that's another story entirely...
Yeah, so his stuff isn't usually the greatest, and it's not generally considered the best written. I still tend to read everything posted by him because he tends to bring up points that get people talking.
:P
I suppose I could never be involved with making a good movie either, because I thought Contact wasn't all that well done. I was disappointed by everything that had changed from the book, since to me, it completely changed the point of the story. As for someone not being able to produce something good because they have a different standard for what's good or not, I can't agree with that. But making something good after seeing how thrilled everyone tends to be with his stories here? We'll have to wait and see about that
Ok, I admit it, I'm a bad person for that last part. Or at least I didn't word it very well. I guess I'm disappointed that some people think something I like sucks, but I don't really have a problem with it. Well, sorry, my bad. Have fun not playing Gameboy Tetris :P
Wow. That's pretty harsh. The original Gameboy Tetris is the only one I've ever actually liked. I still play it when I get bored sometimes, and it's still a damn good game. I haven't found another version ever where the control is remotely as well done. I'm not sure what does it, but everything about it, the look, the feel, and even the sound, is just so elegant considering what it's done with. I'm kind of insulted you don't like the Gameboy one, but that's your choice. Oh well.
I think it's a good point that Windows became so widely used mostly because it worked with everything, and if someone like Apple had taken the same approach, they likely would have run into the same situation as there is with Windows now. You can either make your product work well with one thing, or less well for many things. It's a good deal harder to make it work as well for everything, almost impossible.
As for MacOS pre-8 vs Win95, i think 7.5.5 is more comparable. I've never used a system that's pre-Win95 or pre-MacOS 7.5.5 that was all that reliable in any way, but I've seen relatively stable Win95 boxes, and my older computer which is still running 7.5.5 averages about 2 months uptime without problems. As of now, I've had better experiences with MacOS 8/9 compared to Win98, but we'll have to see what happens with MacOS X and Win2K.
You start to make a good point about getting all the people who really care to organize and support their cause independantly. Other than the fact that it would be a good deal harder to do things in that way, it's a very noble idea. I've actually thought about why more things aren't done that way before, and I came to the conclusion that most people aren't motivated or knowledgable to do anything approaching that kind of non-professional, non-governmental organization of those working for a cause. I can be willing to help out for a cause, willing to donate what I can afford, willing to sign a petition, and still be unable to contribute enough to make a difference. Sure, exploration and gaining knowledge is very important to me, but I'm fresh out of school and unable to contribute as much as I'd like, because I literally don't have as much as I'd like to contribute. I think the same is probably true of a good deal of the most enthusiastic towards causes like this; while we're young and easily excited by projects such as this one, we don't have the resources to do much about it.
As for this petition being a plot of the "Commie Bastards," I somehow doubt that. How does wanting to make an opinion known make someone communist? They want everyone to know how they feel and what they want to do, but I didn't notice a section about forcing anything on anyone. I could be wrong, and correct me if I am, but what I got out of reading it was that it's a group of people who want to make their views known in hopes of informing others and influencing them to support their goal. Nowhere did I see any mention of trying to force anyone into doing something they don't want to be a part of. If enough people agree with their purpose, then perhaps something will come of it, but if there isn't enough support for it for whatever reason, lack of interest, other priorities, or whatever other reason, then no one will have anything imposed upon them.
So, if you think sending people to Mars is a good idea and we'll benefit from it, and you agree with the statements in the petition, sign away. That's what I did. However, if you disagree with any of it for any reason, don't whine about it and call anyone names just because they disagree with you. Make your views known, get people informed, and then maybe they'll see it your way. If they either do or don't, at least it will be because of sound reasoning instead of insults and accusations.
if anyone has made a wallet, bag, belt, or article of clothing solely with duct tape, please raise your hand :P
*raises hand*
duct tape pants anyone?
-Nalgas D. Lemur