And people complain about 30 billion to go to Mars
on
No EZ Fix For The IRS
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· Score: 0
8 BILLION, with a B, spent with apparently more to come, and this wasn't even the first time "...in 1995, Congress pulled the plug on a second modernization program after the IRS spent 10 years and $2 billion with little to show for it." Granted this is not a department of the government we can afford bugs in. Not that I would mind a surprisingly large return, but if someone misplaces a decimal the wrong way, that could go very badly form some people. "You owe $21,320.00." "DOH!"
My point is this. When the IRS fails to perform, people say "Well what did you expect." When NASA fails people are surprised. Let us spend the $30 billion to try to send people to Mars, and if we fail, we will fail spectacularly. If we succeed, we could inspire the next generation, possibly the entire world, to push farther and ignore the perceived limitations of the human race's ability to adapt, excel, and grow. When Christopher Columbus set sail for the east looking for a shorter route to Asia many people thought it was impossible. Some of his own crew thought they would sail off of the edge of the world, but they set out anyway. Spain paid for his voyage in spite of the perception that it couldn't be done. Whether Columbus was the first westerner to come to the Americas or not, his discovery, for better or worse, lead to a new age of discovery and exploration. Let's do that again...It's time.
I know this has gotten a bit off topic, but it's something to think about.
Several people have said Kill Bill was a very artistic movie, and Quinton made some very brave moves in this movie to do something different. As far as artistic goes, I would say he missed the mark he was shooting for. Maybe it was the acting; maybe it was the directing. Nope...I am pretty sure it was because it looked like the movie was cut together by an 8 year old on shrooms.
The action just got to be tedious for me. Ok so she cut of 20 or 30 arms and legs, decapitates 3 or 4 people, and flat out kills countless (I know one of you has counted how many, and that's cool, but I don't need to know the exact number) others. You know what? After about 5 or 6 Arms and legs, I got the point, and personally, from an "artistic" perspective, you save the beheadings for the final fight. I guess I am saying, I get it. She is good at killing people. Okay already.
I thought the script was weak. As much as it twisted and turned trying to be crafty and surprising, I was only surprised once. Coincidentally it was the one bright shining moment of the movie. When she spanked the boy and sent him home crying, I was surprised she didn't cut his sword arm off first. That was funny.
For me, the bottom line is this. I took 2 friends of mine to see this movie. Thank God I paid or I would still be hearing about it. Lisa said it sucked...bad...like Toxic Avenger bad, but without being so campie it was good. She gave it a -2 out of 5. Joe said "I would rather lick my dogs butt than watch that piece of" $#17 "movie again." I said that was pretty bad, and that I wouldn't be willing to do that, but I would lick his dogs paw...once...if it was dry out rather than see that movie again. So for me the question is "What would you be willing to lick rather than pay to see that movie again?"
Wow, you seam angry or bitter about something. At any rate, the internet has changed society. As for open source, that remains to be seen, but people spend hours chatting online, have dates online, shop online, work online, the Internet Guy lived by the net, companies are dying by the net, and that mean a lot of people are employed and unemployed by the Internet. The stock market was obviously affected by the advent of internet trading, and a more informed home/couch trader was created though easily accessed information on the net. I know my job as a system admin has been made easier.
I guess what all of this means is, the Internet has pandered to the desire for more information, instant gratification, impulse buying, and convenience. So saying The Internet will not change society is kind of, nix that, is extremely short sighted, nearly blind. The Internet has already changed society, and as a result the economy, ecology, and psychology of the world.
All of this may not be good, but it certainly isn't all bad either. I do not relish the idea of a bunch of anti/un-social pasty faced net geeks sitting at home all of the time who are more willing to associate with their computer than their family or friends, but when I buy a stock I want to see the companies last three earnings reports, and if I can see those right now instead of in 2-3 weeks, I am ok with that. I like ordering groceries and having them delivered when I want them delivered, or shopping computer prices at pricewatch.com (coolest site around), or reading 5 different news sites a day, or even paying bills online. So there ya go. My view of the issue.
we have already invented several such time altering states. The actual ingredients of a time slowing soup are complex and vary greatly, but they are referred to through their implementations. There is Traffic Jam time, Waiting for the bathroom time, working out time, and my favorite insomnia time which slows to an excruciatingly slow pace then rapidly accelerates once your observation has ended.
I hope i get this submitted before Pacific Gas and Electric shuts the power o____________
Hmmmmm, Because there was one!
"His father repeated to me twice, as if he couldn't quite believe the whole thing had actually happened, that the police gave him a case number and are keeping the report on file"
When the police keep something in file, that is a police record. It can be admitted into evidence. That is what a record is all about!
Well here is a question. How are they planning on keeping it in the bubble/bubbles? I mean buoyancy would make it pretty difficult to keep the sub from falling out of the bubble and lawn darting the bottom of the ocean. Now they are going to speed of sound, with a bubble of air around the sub, how does the sonar work? Then again, what do I know about sonar. If a jet is going mak 1 and hits a pigeon, it could go through the cockpit and kill the pilot bringing the jet down. So what happens when a sub hits a shark or a school of tuna at mak 1? The big sky theory really seems to fall apart in water. Lastly, don't we have plains for that?
I am not even going to mension the first post aspect of the previous posting. BTW they were actually college and junior high students....
God, I have wasted my life, and I'm OK with that.
If some highschool kids can get can sats up and some college kids can get piocosats up and communicate with them, why couldn't NASA find a way to get NEAR back down. Ok Ok, maybe I expect to much.
Gees...What an ass. I wonder how many posts his page can take before his e-mail/database/drive quota is reached. If only Monkey were here. He would know what to do
In this post we see the statement "users avoid using more that 10% of application's functionality for fear that something will break." What percentage of users say they only use 10% of the app's functionality? Maybe they use 10%of the app because that is all they need 90% of the time. What about the other 10%. What about when you need to insert some kind of questionalble scripting into a document, or if you actually need to look at the behing the sceens "code" that makes RTF look the way it does, or insert an image/auto generated spread sheet? And, I hate to ask this and posibly seem like an anti-MS freek, what percentage are useing Microsoft apps. I know I would hate to have to buy 5 word processors just to get all of the features. Maybe installing functionality as needed would be a better idea. A word processor with RT support, tha does tables, indensions, and images, and vector clip art as the default load with addons(included of course) for all the rest of that crap. Maybe even a load as needed or when requested senario would be preferable. Or am I a jack ass?
Re:We do more research, so you don't have too
on
FSF Europe Founded
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· Score: 1
well if you want to get technical about it, the the Americas have been around for millenia too. It just took europe a while to restle it away from the people already living here.
We do more research, so you don't have too
on
FSF Europe Founded
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· Score: 1
I have been hearing more about Europe in the last 2 years than ever before. When it come to comp news that is. For instance there is a Swedish Usergroup promoting Linux which is for the moment only in Swedish unfortunatly. And storyies that Italy, in an effort to help the future generations compete in a global market, has tried to do a serious gearup in the IT and high tech industries. One good example of this can be found in the CNUCE Institute, and the good news is, this one's in english. A vastly more diverse example can be found at Search Europe, in their computers and internet section. Even a link to a list of companies in the Irish Internet Industry can be found there. All in all pretty encouraging stuff from the European front.
Is anyone else thinking about the movie Virus? Or is this the super army or robots anime has been warning us about for years. Maybe we should start considering the status of our own army of super robots. Some of the people I could find working on it are The Georgia Tech Mobile Robot Laboratory, The MIT Mobot Group, The University of Texas at Austin has a Robotics Research Group, and there is the Stanford Robotics Laboratory. All in all pretty dismal. you only have to go a few links down in a search result list to get to the Biped Robot Research in the World link. If you check it out you may notice, They are all in Japan. We are soooo gonna get our asses kicked. Even Robodex
2000, the world's first exhibition of "Robots as Partner" from November 24-26 is in Yokohama, Japan.
OK so ack! Expensive, boring weather, and small food. I am from the south, and I know that puts me about 3 rungs down on the respect ladder off the bat, so lets see I can climb back up a bit.
I think I have a fairly good basis for comparison. I have worked in Georgia, Alabama, and California. I have lived in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mexico(not new mexico, but Mexico), Kansas, Iowa, and California. And the Silicon Valley is the simgle most expensive place I have ever been. I was watching the news last night, and I saw a story claiming that in 3 counties in the San Francisco Bay area (which contains the Silicon Valley), a single parent has to make approximately $25 and hour to get buy. Now that is just to get by, based on a minimal budget, not get Gap baby clothes, eat out, or little Armani suits for the kid, but get by. What bull. I was stylin in Atlanta for $22.50 an hour, I moved out here, now I make..well...more than that and I still find myself out of money every month. Here is a perfect example. On the news last night they also had a story about an 800 squar foot house which was put on the market at $600+ THOUSAND sold for only $500 THOUSAND. 800 square feet. That is like a Cracker Jack prize in the south. For example, my ex-roommate just bought a house north of Atlanta for around $250 thousand. Kind of pricey? It's a 2 1/2 story 5 bedroom house with thousands of square feet of space. So that is a little difference. Rent is also out of controle here. Mine is $2000 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment at 950 square feet, right next to the railroad, with no air conditioning, and that is a really good price. Check out Rent.net for some prices of apartments in the North California SF Bay area, and figure out how much you would have to make to maintain your lifestyle in the bay area/Silicon Valley. Oh ya, and the food is small. Little expensive portions, and really bad service. Which I can understand, because if I was a waiter making crap pay with crap tips and paying $1000 a month to live with 3 other people, I would probably be a little bitchy too.
Here is my story, and I am not happy. I bought 4 stock, all of which came heavily recomended by market analysts. They were all recomended for different reasons (I won't dore you with details) by well known "analysts" whom I pay thousands of dollars a year for the benafit of their jewels of wisdom. They told me to buy 4 stocks: IRVINE SENSORS CORP (IRSN), SOFTNET SYSTEMS INC (SOFN), VERTICALNET INC (VERT), and APPLIED DIGITAL SOLUTIONS INC (ADSX). I put many thousands of dollars into these trades and as a result, my edog got run over, my ewife left me, and my ehouse burned down. Translation, I lost $22,269 not including the money I paid those goobers for thier "expertise", for a grand loss of 80.8% of my investment. WoooooHooooo, ya loose that cash. I'm not ruined; all of the money I invested was money I could loose. Still, that sucked. I was holding the checks in my hand before I sent them to etrade thinking "Ya' know, that 65 convertable cherry red mustange is only $17,000. No no no, your investing in your future, send the money." CRAP I could have had a V8. Myself, I blaim the media.
Slashdot Mirror
8 BILLION, with a B, spent with apparently more to come, and this wasn't even the first time "...in 1995, Congress pulled the plug on a second modernization program after the IRS spent 10 years and $2 billion with little to show for it." Granted this is not a department of the government we can afford bugs in. Not that I would mind a surprisingly large return, but if someone misplaces a decimal the wrong way, that could go very badly form some people. "You owe $21,320.00." "DOH!"
My point is this. When the IRS fails to perform, people say "Well what did you expect." When NASA fails people are surprised. Let us spend the $30 billion to try to send people to Mars, and if we fail, we will fail spectacularly. If we succeed, we could inspire the next generation, possibly the entire world, to push farther and ignore the perceived limitations of the human race's ability to adapt, excel, and grow. When Christopher Columbus set sail for the east looking for a shorter route to Asia many people thought it was impossible. Some of his own crew thought they would sail off of the edge of the world, but they set out anyway. Spain paid for his voyage in spite of the perception that it couldn't be done. Whether Columbus was the first westerner to come to the Americas or not, his discovery, for better or worse, lead to a new age of discovery and exploration. Let's do that again...It's time.
I know this has gotten a bit off topic, but it's something to think about.
Several people have said Kill Bill was a very artistic movie, and Quinton made some very brave moves in this movie to do something different. As far as artistic goes, I would say he missed the mark he was shooting for. Maybe it was the acting; maybe it was the directing. Nope...I am pretty sure it was because it looked like the movie was cut together by an 8 year old on shrooms.
The action just got to be tedious for me. Ok so she cut of 20 or 30 arms and legs, decapitates 3 or 4 people, and flat out kills countless (I know one of you has counted how many, and that's cool, but I don't need to know the exact number) others. You know what? After about 5 or 6 Arms and legs, I got the point, and personally, from an "artistic" perspective, you save the beheadings for the final fight. I guess I am saying, I get it. She is good at killing people. Okay already.
I thought the script was weak. As much as it twisted and turned trying to be crafty and surprising, I was only surprised once. Coincidentally it was the one bright shining moment of the movie. When she spanked the boy and sent him home crying, I was surprised she didn't cut his sword arm off first. That was funny.
For me, the bottom line is this. I took 2 friends of mine to see this movie. Thank God I paid or I would still be hearing about it. Lisa said it sucked...bad...like Toxic Avenger bad, but without being so campie it was good. She gave it a -2 out of 5. Joe said "I would rather lick my dogs butt than watch that piece of" $#17 "movie again." I said that was pretty bad, and that I wouldn't be willing to do that, but I would lick his dogs paw...once...if it was dry out rather than see that movie again. So for me the question is "What would you be willing to lick rather than pay to see that movie again?"
I guess what all of this means is, the Internet has pandered to the desire for more information, instant gratification, impulse buying, and convenience. So saying The Internet will not change society is kind of, nix that, is extremely short sighted, nearly blind. The Internet has already changed society, and as a result the economy, ecology, and psychology of the world.
All of this may not be good, but it certainly isn't all bad either. I do not relish the idea of a bunch of anti/un-social pasty faced net geeks sitting at home all of the time who are more willing to associate with their computer than their family or friends, but when I buy a stock I want to see the companies last three earnings reports, and if I can see those right now instead of in 2-3 weeks, I am ok with that. I like ordering groceries and having them delivered when I want them delivered, or shopping computer prices at pricewatch.com (coolest site around), or reading 5 different news sites a day, or even paying bills online. So there ya go. My view of the issue.
I hope i get this submitted before Pacific Gas and Electric shuts the power o____________
Hmmmmm, Because there was one! "His father repeated to me twice, as if he couldn't quite believe the whole thing had actually happened, that the police gave him a case number and are keeping the report on file " When the police keep something in file, that is a police record. It can be admitted into evidence. That is what a record is all about!
Well here is a question. How are they planning on keeping it in the bubble/bubbles? I mean buoyancy would make it pretty difficult to keep the sub from falling out of the bubble and lawn darting the bottom of the ocean. Now they are going to speed of sound, with a bubble of air around the sub, how does the sonar work? Then again, what do I know about sonar. If a jet is going mak 1 and hits a pigeon, it could go through the cockpit and kill the pilot bringing the jet down. So what happens when a sub hits a shark or a school of tuna at mak 1? The big sky theory really seems to fall apart in water. Lastly, don't we have plains for that?
I am not even going to mension the first post aspect of the previous posting. BTW they were actually college and junior high students.... God, I have wasted my life, and I'm OK with that.
If some highschool kids can get can sats up and some college kids can get piocosats up and communicate with them, why couldn't NASA find a way to get NEAR back down. Ok Ok, maybe I expect to much.
Gees...What an ass. I wonder how many posts his page can take before his e-mail/database/drive quota is reached. If only Monkey were here. He would know what to do
In this post we see the statement "users avoid using more that 10% of application's functionality for fear that something will break." What percentage of users say they only use 10% of the app's functionality? Maybe they use 10%of the app because that is all they need 90% of the time. What about the other 10%. What about when you need to insert some kind of questionalble scripting into a document, or if you actually need to look at the behing the sceens "code" that makes RTF look the way it does, or insert an image/auto generated spread sheet? And, I hate to ask this and posibly seem like an anti-MS freek, what percentage are useing Microsoft apps. I know I would hate to have to buy 5 word processors just to get all of the features. Maybe installing functionality as needed would be a better idea. A word processor with RT support, tha does tables, indensions, and images, and vector clip art as the default load with addons(included of course) for all the rest of that crap. Maybe even a load as needed or when requested senario would be preferable. Or am I a jack ass?
well if you want to get technical about it, the the Americas have been around for millenia too. It just took europe a while to restle it away from the people already living here.
I have been hearing more about Europe in the last 2 years than ever before. When it come to comp news that is. For instance there is a Swedish Usergroup promoting Linux which is for the moment only in Swedish unfortunatly. And storyies that Italy, in an effort to help the future generations compete in a global market, has tried to do a serious gearup in the IT and high tech industries. One good example of this can be found in the CNUCE Institute, and the good news is, this one's in english. A vastly more diverse example can be found at Search Europe, in their computers and internet section. Even a link to a list of companies in the Irish Internet Industry can be found there. All in all pretty encouraging stuff from the European front.
Is anyone else thinking about the movie Virus? Or is this the super army or robots anime has been warning us about for years. Maybe we should start considering the status of our own army of super robots. Some of the people I could find working on it are The Georgia Tech Mobile Robot Laboratory, The MIT Mobot Group, The University of Texas at Austin has a Robotics Research Group, and there is the Stanford Robotics Laboratory. All in all pretty dismal. you only have to go a few links down in a search result list to get to the Biped Robot Research in the World link. If you check it out you may notice, They are all in Japan. We are soooo gonna get our asses kicked. Even Robodex 2000, the world's first exhibition of "Robots as Partner" from November 24-26 is in Yokohama, Japan.
OK so ack! Expensive, boring weather, and small food. I am from the south, and I know that puts me about 3 rungs down on the respect ladder off the bat, so lets see I can climb back up a bit.
I think I have a fairly good basis for comparison. I have worked in Georgia, Alabama, and California. I have lived in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mexico(not new mexico, but Mexico), Kansas, Iowa, and California. And the Silicon Valley is the simgle most expensive place I have ever been. I was watching the news last night, and I saw a story claiming that in 3 counties in the San Francisco Bay area (which contains the Silicon Valley), a single parent has to make approximately $25 and hour to get buy. Now that is just to get by, based on a minimal budget, not get Gap baby clothes, eat out, or little Armani suits for the kid, but get by. What bull. I was stylin in Atlanta for $22.50 an hour, I moved out here, now I make..well...more than that and I still find myself out of money every month. Here is a perfect example. On the news last night they also had a story about an 800 squar foot house which was put on the market at $600+ THOUSAND sold for only $500 THOUSAND. 800 square feet. That is like a Cracker Jack prize in the south. For example, my ex-roommate just bought a house north of Atlanta for around $250 thousand. Kind of pricey? It's a 2 1/2 story 5 bedroom house with thousands of square feet of space. So that is a little difference. Rent is also out of controle here. Mine is $2000 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment at 950 square feet, right next to the railroad, with no air conditioning, and that is a really good price. Check out Rent.net for some prices of apartments in the North California SF Bay area, and figure out how much you would have to make to maintain your lifestyle in the bay area/Silicon Valley. Oh ya, and the food is small. Little expensive portions, and really bad service. Which I can understand, because if I was a waiter making crap pay with crap tips and paying $1000 a month to live with 3 other people, I would probably be a little bitchy too.
Here is my story, and I am not happy. I bought 4 stock, all of which came heavily recomended by market analysts. They were all recomended for different reasons (I won't dore you with details) by well known "analysts" whom I pay thousands of dollars a year for the benafit of their jewels of wisdom. They told me to buy 4 stocks: IRVINE SENSORS CORP (IRSN), SOFTNET SYSTEMS INC (SOFN), VERTICALNET INC (VERT), and APPLIED DIGITAL SOLUTIONS INC (ADSX). I put many thousands of dollars into these trades and as a result, my edog got run over, my ewife left me, and my ehouse burned down. Translation, I lost $22,269 not including the money I paid those goobers for thier "expertise", for a grand loss of 80.8% of my investment. WoooooHooooo, ya loose that cash. I'm not ruined; all of the money I invested was money I could loose. Still, that sucked. I was holding the checks in my hand before I sent them to etrade thinking "Ya' know, that 65 convertable cherry red mustange is only $17,000. No no no, your investing in your future, send the money." CRAP I could have had a V8. Myself, I blaim the media.