There are many that create apps and have them for sale at Apple, but do they make a living from these sales? There was an article saying App store is more like a casino. House always collects revenue, almost all participants lose money but a few make some money. Article went on about how everyone has to pay $100 to submit their app to Apple Store, and most apps have little sales. Occasionally some apps have huge sales (i.e. Angry Birds) and developers make lots of money. I wonder if same like Hollywood says it creates 374,000 jobs but does that include people working at theaters making marginal income, or starving actors who occasionally get a stand-in part for $50?
I've never faked an engine noise but back in 1970s I replaced the horn from my 1971 Toyota with a horn from a Chevy, Toyota horn was a measly bleat-bleat where the GM product had more ommf to get people's attention. I see the tagline referencing a Mazda. I also remembered in that decade a friend had a rotary engine Mazda and it was a screamer. This was back in the days when small cars were small powered but with his Mazda he routinely accelerated ahead of those big American cars. But maintenance was a nightmare.
If going to fake engine noises, have a selection of vehicles from quiet Telsas to way-too-loud-for-city-streets Formula One racers. Now that would be fun to have.
And also broadband internet is essential infrastructure for businesses like good roads and schools for a successful city. If roads (and internet) are bad, many businesses are not going to set up shop in town. They will go someplace else and the city will become third-world.
True but if sending people to the Moon is the goal, then funding and work on things like a earth departure stage, lunar lander, and God knows what else will have to be done. NASA is not doing it because they don't have fundng for these items. Musk doesn't talk about it because he will have to allocate money and engineers to work on this stuff (right now their busy with developing a reusable rocket).
Mars as a goal cannot be readily challenged because it is so far into the future. There is no land rush to the Gobi desert because it is plonkingly obvious it is inhospitable to live. And it's thousand times easier to settle than on Mars. We romantize of colonies on Mars because it is so far out of touch.
The question is, how will they have a tech revolution without an open internet?
I wonder if they seek advice from other countries besides US. I'm thinking of places like Bulgaria have faster internet service than most of US. Then there is the higher ups in Cuba, are they willing to delegate authority? Only big transition is from Fidel to his brother Raul. Cuba could easily do business with other countries in spite of US embargo, I heard Cuban govt is terrible at doing business with other countries.
However, it will be interesting to see some Cubans wire up their 57 Chevy with internet access as JoeyRox suggested with various homebrew gadgets. At least many are mechanically creative like fabricating parts for these old cars.
But the point remains: what was their core mission? I never got that.
"Core mission" is probably a poor choice of words, I don't have a MBA to properly use management terms. What I was implying is Radio Shack is a store that sells radios, stereos, TV sets, walkie-talkies, microphones, headsets, various electronic parts, power supplies, etc. though not specializing in one thing. When personal computers became the rage, RS featured the Tandy computer but it never became the central item. Tandy Radio Shack thought of selling tens of thousands, Steve Jobs and also IBM and clone makers thought of selling millions (probably a good thing RS didn't try to compete with the PC market). It seems RS focused on the cellphone rage at expense of what they were originally known for so non-cellphone items took a backseat. Tough to compete selling phones.
When I was growing up. Used to be one of the few places you could go and buy electronics parts, and even leatherworking products.
I don't think I recall RS being a great store, many times it seemed mediocre. But now with its demise, this will be a huge loss for the tinkerers. I occasionally go to RS to get parts for some of my homebrew projects. Though there is Frys and HSC (in Sunnyvale), RS was also convenient. You don't know what you got until you lost it. It seems root of RS downfall is them chasing the cellphone market instead of staying with their core mission.
Because everybody knows what a black box does even those that don't. With newer cars outfitted with recorder boxes, they call them black boxes so people know it's this thing that stores data for experts to examine later when "something" happens.
Saturn rocket was way too expensive to be sustainable, NERVA was cancelled because only need for it is to go to Mars (and no money for that so need for such a rocket).
Reagan (Cancelled the Space Tug crippling the Shuttle)
problem with space tug is amount of energy to change orbits is more than sending a spacecraft to the moon. Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle can change orbit inclinations but these were very small.
Bush W (cancelled the Shuttle replacement - without replacing it)
Most certain intent was to "scuttle the fleet" to motivate a development of a new vehicle much like Cortez scuttling his fleet to motivate his troops to take down the Aztec Empire. Silly analogy but according to Paul Spudis there was this kind of thinking.
as this also ties in with old TV sets, any old timers here remember when staying up late watching OTA TV, falling asleep and to wake up later (about 3 am) to the sound of 'shsshshshshshsh' and nothing but static because station went off air at 1 am (will not get back on till 6)?
or a car backfiring, it seems very rare these days. I had a 1970 plymouth, in early 80s the points/rotator was getting out of sync which caused engine to backfire occasionally. When going up a incline it backfired more, and then one of these backfires blew the muffler off and then the vehicle was really loud.
no money for a lander. That's why Moon is off limits (human landings that is). Until NASA is given money for a lander, the moon is simply not discussed. Mars is discussed even though no money for lander or habitat module while getting there, but that's far off into the future (much like fusion power plants, flying cars, etc.).
All these gadgets are nice but many (i.e. high tech light switches) cause lot of RFI on my VHF and UHF radios. I cannot imagine what HF must endure, I don't have such at my place but I've heard a lot of gripes for HF users.
Presumably, this discovery would be accompanied by some facts about the nature of the organisms that lived on Mars,
I recall one of those 1950s sci-fi comics of a manned Mars mission exploring surface, come across some ruins (there really was a cilivization here millions of years ago). They find this one place of various apparatus and documents (maybe it's advanced mathematical studies and high technology). After spending some time analyzing the numbers, one concludes it doesn't seem much more than just a balance sheet for a business. Another finds the equipment some kind of holographic projector and manages to get it operating. It shows a person under attack by a tenacle monster. Among other evidence they realize Martians were very humanoid and what they stumbled on was a movie theatre with feature film, "Invasion From The Third Planet."
Is it me, or does NASA seem scared to get the answer to the question of is/was there life on Mars?
Viking’s results where ambiguous, so we decided – NO LIFE – no need to go back for over 20 years.
that's why mission is not to ask "is there life?" Because if answer is no, then we ain't going back for another 20 years because that is exactly what happened with Viking (ok maybe I'm stretching it). But then I feel the same way, the next big thing is even a bigger rover. I've read stories of the "Mars Mafia" to keep the money rolling to JPL by continuing easy missions (but talk to people that worked on Curiosity and they'll tell you it is ***NOT*** easy). Now for a mission of big leap is a Europa lander and submarine (imagine it taking pictures of the little fishies if any).
yes, this same argument was made back in 1944 when NASA was NACA, billions were millions, and a completely different enemy.
How much is it worth to this country to make sure we won’t find the Luftwaffe our superiors when we start that “Second Front”? We spend in one night over Berlin more than $20,000,000. The NACA requires—now—$17,546,700 for this year’s work. These raids are prime factors in winning the War. How can we do more towards Victory than by spending the price of one air raid in research which will keep our Air Forces in the position which the NACA has made possible?
"...the public, when surveyed, thinks that NASA gets something like a quarter to a third of the US budget. Perhaps we should show the world what we could accomplish if we really had that level of funding?"
No. We need to educate the public what percentage of federal budget is spent on NASA. We first need to show the brutal truth of what's going on, and those who closely follow space activities have shown misinformation among themselves (not that it is all their fault, it seems federal policies are delibrietly made confusing).
Some years ago I purchase Premeire, it was a turkey. Resolution gets squashed and saved files like 720x480 are immensely large size to a point impractical. I heard these days Avid is the top program. Regarding gripes about FCP I bought a program last year and it sure doesn't perform like pre-Apple version. It may be easier to use but I find it will not import many video formats (I heard previous versions did). Then latest problem is audio is stripped when I import AVI files. Nobody seems to know how to deal with this, occassionally someone posts a useless tip like go to this menu selection that doesn't exist on my system.
If I was a predator and a clam lights up with those horrible 1970s fashions of bright clashing colors of polyester material, yuck that would turn me off very quickly.
If I break a blender, its simply not worth me sourcing parts, waiting, and then spending an hour repairing it.
Do you have to replace that blender frequently? There was a time when a blender would has forever, I still have my mom's Oster. A book called "High Cost of Cheap Fashion" besides clothes mentioned someone had a reading light for years but it finally burned out. So went a bought another (hey they're cheap) but the light didn't last very long. Then realizing these cheap lights actually cost more as having to buy a few instead of one over a certain time.
Slashdot Mirror
Decades ago someone asked a physicist (I wonder if it was Townes) how can a laser be used as a weapon. His answer was, "throw it at your target."
There are many that create apps and have them for sale at Apple, but do they make a living from these sales? There was an article saying App store is more like a casino. House always collects revenue, almost all participants lose money but a few make some money. Article went on about how everyone has to pay $100 to submit their app to Apple Store, and most apps have little sales. Occasionally some apps have huge sales (i.e. Angry Birds) and developers make lots of money. I wonder if same like Hollywood says it creates 374,000 jobs but does that include people working at theaters making marginal income, or starving actors who occasionally get a stand-in part for $50?
I almost read the C word as communism from Soviet Russia or Chairman Mao.
I've never faked an engine noise but back in 1970s I replaced the horn from my 1971 Toyota with a horn from a Chevy, Toyota horn was a measly bleat-bleat where the GM product had more ommf to get people's attention. I see the tagline referencing a Mazda. I also remembered in that decade a friend had a rotary engine Mazda and it was a screamer. This was back in the days when small cars were small powered but with his Mazda he routinely accelerated ahead of those big American cars. But maintenance was a nightmare.
If going to fake engine noises, have a selection of vehicles from quiet Telsas to way-too-loud-for-city-streets Formula One racers. Now that would be fun to have.
And also broadband internet is essential infrastructure for businesses like good roads and schools for a successful city. If roads (and internet) are bad, many businesses are not going to set up shop in town. They will go someplace else and the city will become third-world.
Stop the insanity!
True but if sending people to the Moon is the goal, then funding and work on things like a earth departure stage, lunar lander, and God knows what else will have to be done. NASA is not doing it because they don't have fundng for these items. Musk doesn't talk about it because he will have to allocate money and engineers to work on this stuff (right now their busy with developing a reusable rocket).
Mars as a goal cannot be readily challenged because it is so far into the future. There is no land rush to the Gobi desert because it is plonkingly obvious it is inhospitable to live. And it's thousand times easier to settle than on Mars. We romantize of colonies on Mars because it is so far out of touch.
The question is, how will they have a tech revolution without an open internet?
I wonder if they seek advice from other countries besides US. I'm thinking of places like Bulgaria have faster internet service than most of US. Then there is the higher ups in Cuba, are they willing to delegate authority? Only big transition is from Fidel to his brother Raul. Cuba could easily do business with other countries in spite of US embargo, I heard Cuban govt is terrible at doing business with other countries.
However, it will be interesting to see some Cubans wire up their 57 Chevy with internet access as JoeyRox suggested with various homebrew gadgets. At least many are mechanically creative like fabricating parts for these old cars.
(1) The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;
(building space vehicles was number 3 on the list)
Good point made. I'm saving this for other forums.
But the point remains: what was their core mission? I never got that.
"Core mission" is probably a poor choice of words, I don't have a MBA to properly use management terms. What I was implying is Radio Shack is a store that sells radios, stereos, TV sets, walkie-talkies, microphones, headsets, various electronic parts, power supplies, etc. though not specializing in one thing. When personal computers became the rage, RS featured the Tandy computer but it never became the central item. Tandy Radio Shack thought of selling tens of thousands, Steve Jobs and also IBM and clone makers thought of selling millions (probably a good thing RS didn't try to compete with the PC market). It seems RS focused on the cellphone rage at expense of what they were originally known for so non-cellphone items took a backseat. Tough to compete selling phones.
When I was growing up. Used to be one of the few places you could go and buy electronics parts, and even leatherworking products.
I don't think I recall RS being a great store, many times it seemed mediocre. But now with its demise, this will be a huge loss for the tinkerers. I occasionally go to RS to get parts for some of my homebrew projects. Though there is Frys and HSC (in Sunnyvale), RS was also convenient. You don't know what you got until you lost it. It seems root of RS downfall is them chasing the cellphone market instead of staying with their core mission.
Decline and fall of the United States will be from causes within.
Because everybody knows what a black box does even those that don't. With newer cars outfitted with recorder boxes, they call them black boxes so people know it's this thing that stores data for experts to examine later when "something" happens.
Nixon (cancelled NERVA & Saturn)
Saturn rocket was way too expensive to be sustainable, NERVA was cancelled because only need for it is to go to Mars (and no money for that so need for such a rocket).
Reagan (Cancelled the Space Tug crippling the Shuttle)
problem with space tug is amount of energy to change orbits is more than sending a spacecraft to the moon. Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle can change orbit inclinations but these were very small.
Bush W (cancelled the Shuttle replacement - without replacing it)
Most certain intent was to "scuttle the fleet" to motivate a development of a new vehicle much like Cortez scuttling his fleet to motivate his troops to take down the Aztec Empire. Silly analogy but according to Paul Spudis there was this kind of thinking.
as this also ties in with old TV sets, any old timers here remember when staying up late watching OTA TV, falling asleep and to wake up later (about 3 am) to the sound of 'shsshshshshshsh' and nothing but static because station went off air at 1 am (will not get back on till 6)?
or a car backfiring, it seems very rare these days. I had a 1970 plymouth, in early 80s the points/rotator was getting out of sync which caused engine to backfire occasionally. When going up a incline it backfired more, and then one of these backfires blew the muffler off and then the vehicle was really loud.
WTF is the problem?
no money for a lander. That's why Moon is off limits (human landings that is). Until NASA is given money for a lander, the moon is simply not discussed. Mars is discussed even though no money for lander or habitat module while getting there, but that's far off into the future (much like fusion power plants, flying cars, etc.).
All these gadgets are nice but many (i.e. high tech light switches) cause lot of RFI on my VHF and UHF radios. I cannot imagine what HF must endure, I don't have such at my place but I've heard a lot of gripes for HF users.
BH complaining about wasting time.
but sure has a lot of time to write this article.
Presumably, this discovery would be accompanied by some facts about the nature of the organisms that lived on Mars,
I recall one of those 1950s sci-fi comics of a manned Mars mission exploring surface, come across some ruins (there really was a cilivization here millions of years ago). They find this one place of various apparatus and documents (maybe it's advanced mathematical studies and high technology). After spending some time analyzing the numbers, one concludes it doesn't seem much more than just a balance sheet for a business. Another finds the equipment some kind of holographic projector and manages to get it operating. It shows a person under attack by a tenacle monster. Among other evidence they realize Martians were very humanoid and what they stumbled on was a movie theatre with feature film, "Invasion From The Third Planet."
Is it me, or does NASA seem scared to get the answer to the question of is/was there life on Mars?
Viking’s results where ambiguous, so we decided – NO LIFE – no need to go back for over 20 years.
that's why mission is not to ask "is there life?" Because if answer is no, then we ain't going back for another 20 years because that is exactly what happened with Viking (ok maybe I'm stretching it). But then I feel the same way, the next big thing is even a bigger rover. I've read stories of the "Mars Mafia" to keep the money rolling to JPL by continuing easy missions (but talk to people that worked on Curiosity and they'll tell you it is ***NOT*** easy). Now for a mission of big leap is a Europa lander and submarine (imagine it taking pictures of the little fishies if any).
How much is it worth to this country to make sure we won’t find the Luftwaffe our superiors when we start that “Second Front”? We spend in one night over Berlin more than $20,000,000. The NACA requires—now—$17,546,700 for this year’s work. These raids are prime factors in winning the War. How can we do more towards Victory than by spending the price of one air raid in research which will keep our Air Forces in the position which the NACA has made possible?
But the real issue in Launius's article is NACA did not consider importance of the jet engine.
http://launiusr.wordpress.com/...
"...the public, when surveyed, thinks that NASA gets something like a quarter to a third of the US budget. Perhaps we should show the world what we could accomplish if we really had that level of funding?"
No. We need to educate the public what percentage of federal budget is spent on NASA. We first need to show the brutal truth of what's going on, and those who closely follow space activities have shown misinformation among themselves (not that it is all their fault, it seems federal policies are delibrietly made confusing).
Some years ago I purchase Premeire, it was a turkey. Resolution gets squashed and saved files like 720x480 are immensely large size to a point impractical. I heard these days Avid is the top program. Regarding gripes about FCP I bought a program last year and it sure doesn't perform like pre-Apple version. It may be easier to use but I find it will not import many video formats (I heard previous versions did). Then latest problem is audio is stripped when I import AVI files. Nobody seems to know how to deal with this, occassionally someone posts a useless tip like go to this menu selection that doesn't exist on my system.
If I was a predator and a clam lights up with those horrible 1970s fashions of bright clashing colors of polyester material, yuck that would turn me off very quickly.
If I break a blender, its simply not worth me sourcing parts, waiting, and then spending an hour repairing it.
Do you have to replace that blender frequently? There was a time when a blender would has forever, I still have my mom's Oster. A book called "High Cost of Cheap Fashion" besides clothes mentioned someone had a reading light for years but it finally burned out. So went a bought another (hey they're cheap) but the light didn't last very long. Then realizing these cheap lights actually cost more as having to buy a few instead of one over a certain time.