It allows them to reasonably download free OS's and software that will run reasonably on a 486?
Linux, BSD and GNU are virtual Godsends to the poor. Third world countries aren't the only ones who can benefit in this manner. The poor everywhere are poor, and having lived in third world countries, in almost pure hunter gatherer conditions, I must say from my own experience that the poor in many of these places are considerably better off than the residents of public housing in rich countries.
"Stone Age" living is still independant living, where one can at least tend to one's own wants and needs in some manner.
The citified poor have been reduced to a state of utter dependency where even their God given abilites to fare for themselves are, for the most part, denied.
Can the poor with a $10 dollar used 486 benefit from broadband. Damned effin' straight they can.
The previous post was not offtopic. It included information, information in no other post at that, on the study of game theory, which, as it happens, is the topic.
Hex and Go are part of the standard curiculum upon entering the formal study of mathmatics known as Game Theory.
My post may have been unfunny or overrated, but I'm afraid the one thing it was not was offtopic.
Thank you for your indulgence in this matter. Please return to your previous employment with your wife/sister.
KFG
Re:Hard to explain to CS people...
on
Game Theory at 190mph
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
American racing really grew out of the county fair "thrill show." Naturally this led to their being held on horse tracks in front of a grandstand where the audience could always see all of the action.
The basic philosophical premise has always been man to man combat. Ben Hur in the modern age.
European racing grew out of an entirely different concept. There the idea was the "test." Pitting the machines of different manufacturers against each other to see which one could best negotiate its way between two points over the road. The driver was considered largely incidental. There merely because someone had to be there to operate the machine.
While the two styles have converged somewhat over the course of a century, their unique orginal philosophies are still evident as they are performed today.
As well as in their respective audiences.
KFG
Re:Hard to explain to CS people...
on
Game Theory at 190mph
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It isn't without reason they call it "Chess at 200 mph."
Now that's a *real* game of speed chess.
You do realize that part of your post really set you up for some zingers in this forum, but I'm not going near it with somebody else's ten foot pole.
( By the way, I once did original research on two wheeled vehicle dynamics back in the mid 70's. A much more fascinating field than cars)
I know my cat likes to sleep on my keyboard. I'm just trying to figure out how she managed to post to Slashdot.
And better than some of mine too.
Funny thing is that I don't recall giving her a user account, so she's either stolen my password or rooted my box. And she looks so innocent sleeping over the sofa.
Guess my momma was right when she warned me felines were devious little fuzzballs.
(No, she's not named after the Friends character. She's named after Phoebe Snow. No, not the singer, the "train babe." Sheesh.)
(By the way. Most of our Interstates *are* built by mulitple private companies. The government isn't in the paving business. They hire the work out. The same goes for the Space Shuttle too, that's why we're talking about Boeing and Morton-Thiokol)
KFG
Re:The future? Just like the past should be...
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 1
Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. Certainly wherever possible the manufacturers nail down the contract on specifications.
More often than not even when this happens more than one manufacturer is in the hunt and the losers can still lose quite a bit of money.
Sometimes, more often than I think most people think, the manufacturers absorb all development costs and then shop the product around. If they can't find a buyer, they get hosed.
Of course if they *do* they're rolling in it, at least for a time.
There's certainly no question that military money drives aircraft development though. That goes right back to the begining, when the Wrights "bet the farm" on an army contract. But they took the risk.
On the flip side there is one NASA, under the Congressional thumb, with one Space Shuttle and a development program that's been completely moribund for 20 years and way in sight to break out of that.
KFG
Re:The future? Just like the past should be...
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 1
You are correct sir, and I obviously misstyped/brain farted.
I'm afraid it happens with all too frequent regularity.
My post editors shall be flogged and fired.
KFG
Re:The future? Just like the past should be...
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
Just as the problem with the O-rings was with Morton-Thiokol.
Nonetheless NASA is still essentially in charge, and the root issue is actually the shuttle design itself, which was political.
You'll note also that it took people outsid of NASA to subversively reveal the trouble with the O-rings. NASA itself ( as well as Morton-Thiokol) tried to everything they could to bury the whole thing under "spin." They're going about it now too, if you look carefully.
Contrast this to the development model of Daimler, Mercedes or Curtis in their first 20 years.
How much better are space shuttles today than they were 20 years ago?
KFG
Re:The future? Just like the past should be...
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 1
Obvioulsy I do. If you go back and read my post again, a bit more carefully this time, you'll find that you just largely agreed with me.
Yes, I am a physicist, who consults, and has worked with people who work on the shuttle. I've avoided the ISS because it's what we in the trade refer to, technically, as "doofey."
So's the shuttle for that matter, but what are ya gonna do?
KFG
Re:The future? Just like the past should be...
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
For the most part this is not true. The military has poured vasts amount of *money* into certain areas (notably airplanes, their involvment in the others is actually miniscule).
Development, however, has almost all been by the private sector to compete for contracts. In other words, they develop a product and then try to sell it.
Fokker, Sopwith, Boeing, General Dynamics, SAAB, all private firms that develop most of their products, even the military ones, quite independently.
KFG
Re:The future? Just like the past should be...
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Note that I didn't make any particular value judgment, per se. I was simply stating facts that make it difficult or impossible for NASA to operate under what would be called "normal" circumstances. They are not truly a scientific or engineering firm. They are a political agency with all the faults thereof, which just happens to be in charge of building things that go "Whooosh" into the sky.
Certainly up to this point what they have accomplished would have been simply impossible otherwise. It would be like asking some ancient Egyptians to get together and build a pyramid in their back yard.
However, even a cursory examination of the history of the whole shuttle project will reveal it to be a purely political affair.
Apollo and its forbears may have had politics as their genesis, but then, at least for a time, the politics dictated that the politicians get the hell out of the way and let the engineers get the job done.
That time has long since passed, whether public perception has caught up with the times or not.
KFG
For the same reason they didn't want. . .
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
people to know about the O-rings. The modern/post Apollo NASA has always been deathly allergic to admiting they just plain fucked up or cut corners.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77832,00.htm l
KFG
Re:The future? Just like the past should be...
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
All of which were invented and developed in the public sector.
NASA is a monopolistic government agency which self evaluates, self polices and has little in the way of market pressures to deal with in order to continue to exist.
It makes a difference.
KFG
Re:How does a website spend $80mln?
on
Salon Asks for Help
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
What's more, in Springfield you have huuuuuge. . . tracts of land begging for tenants.
Being able to large facilities for a buck a squared foot isn't unheard of.
Here in upstate NY my last business had 3000 square feet. I payed $350 month *with* electric/heat/air.
Now that I'm more aware of the situation I'm actually *less* inclined to subscribe. They were idiots who didn't know enough to make desks out of orange crates and boards until they got on their feet and now want me to bail out their overextragance.
Frankly, I think they owe *me* money. Lord knows I don't have it as good as they have.
Slashdot Mirror
It allows them to reasonably download free OS's and software that will run reasonably on a 486?
Linux, BSD and GNU are virtual Godsends to the poor. Third world countries aren't the only ones who can benefit in this manner. The poor everywhere are poor, and having lived in third world countries, in almost pure hunter gatherer conditions, I must say from my own experience that the poor in many of these places are considerably better off than the residents of public housing in rich countries.
"Stone Age" living is still independant living, where one can at least tend to one's own wants and needs in some manner.
The citified poor have been reduced to a state of utter dependency where even their God given abilites to fare for themselves are, for the most part, denied.
Can the poor with a $10 dollar used 486 benefit from broadband. Damned effin' straight they can.
KFG
The previous post was not offtopic. It included information, information in no other post at that, on the study of game theory, which, as it happens, is the topic.
What it *was* was blatant moderator bait however.
*THIS* post is offtopic.
KFG
Hex and Go are part of the standard curiculum upon entering the formal study of mathmatics known as Game Theory.
My post may have been unfunny or overrated, but I'm afraid the one thing it was not was offtopic.
Thank you for your indulgence in this matter. Please return to your previous employment with your wife/sister.
KFG
American racing really grew out of the county fair "thrill show." Naturally this led to their being held on horse tracks in front of a grandstand where the audience could always see all of the action.
The basic philosophical premise has always been man to man combat. Ben Hur in the modern age.
European racing grew out of an entirely different concept. There the idea was the "test." Pitting the machines of different manufacturers against each other to see which one could best negotiate its way between two points over the road. The driver was considered largely incidental. There merely because someone had to be there to operate the machine.
While the two styles have converged somewhat over the course of a century, their unique orginal philosophies are still evident as they are performed today.
As well as in their respective audiences.
KFG
It isn't without reason they call it "Chess at 200 mph."
Now that's a *real* game of speed chess.
You do realize that part of your post really set you up for some zingers in this forum, but I'm not going near it with somebody else's ten foot pole.
( By the way, I once did original research on two wheeled vehicle dynamics back in the mid 70's. A much more fascinating field than cars)
KFG
Congrats. Looks like you suckered a moderator. :)
KFG
when I spent an entire semester playing Hex and Go.
KFG
Move to Charlotte North Carolina and find out.
(Although I rather thought that *everyone* was an "ethnic" of some ethnicity or other)
KFG
It is a branch of mathmatics.
4 86 251012.html
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/doverpublications/0
KFG
Ooooooo, cheap shot. :)
KFG
that needs 128MB of RAM and a 3ghz Itanium just to load in under 5 minutes is Bad Thing?
Damn, back to my ed clone I guess. I think I can get that to run under your specs if I leave out the SETI@home easter egg.
KFG
and went straight for the LSD.
And they *warned* you the brown acid was bad.
KFG
I know my cat likes to sleep on my keyboard. I'm just trying to figure out how she managed to post to Slashdot.
And better than some of mine too.
Funny thing is that I don't recall giving her a user account, so she's either stolen my password or rooted my box. And she looks so innocent sleeping over the sofa.
Guess my momma was right when she warned me felines were devious little fuzzballs.
(No, she's not named after the Friends character. She's named after Phoebe Snow. No, not the singer, the "train babe." Sheesh.)
KFG
space travel is the domain of governments."
Absolutely. I've never denied it.
(By the way. Most of our Interstates *are* built by mulitple private companies. The government isn't in the paving business. They hire the work out. The same goes for the Space Shuttle too, that's why we're talking about Boeing and Morton-Thiokol)
KFG
Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. Certainly wherever possible the manufacturers nail down the contract on specifications.
More often than not even when this happens more than one manufacturer is in the hunt and the losers can still lose quite a bit of money.
Sometimes, more often than I think most people think, the manufacturers absorb all development costs and then shop the product around. If they can't find a buyer, they get hosed.
Of course if they *do* they're rolling in it, at least for a time.
There's certainly no question that military money drives aircraft development though. That goes right back to the begining, when the Wrights "bet the farm" on an army contract. But they took the risk.
On the flip side there is one NASA, under the Congressional thumb, with one Space Shuttle and a development program that's been completely moribund for 20 years and way in sight to break out of that.
KFG
You are correct sir, and I obviously misstyped/brain farted.
I'm afraid it happens with all too frequent regularity.
My post editors shall be flogged and fired.
KFG
Just as the problem with the O-rings was with Morton-Thiokol.
Nonetheless NASA is still essentially in charge, and the root issue is actually the shuttle design itself, which was political.
You'll note also that it took people outsid of NASA to subversively reveal the trouble with the O-rings. NASA itself ( as well as Morton-Thiokol) tried to everything they could to bury the whole thing under "spin." They're going about it now too, if you look carefully.
Contrast this to the development model of Daimler, Mercedes or Curtis in their first 20 years.
How much better are space shuttles today than they were 20 years ago?
KFG
Obvioulsy I do. If you go back and read my post again, a bit more carefully this time, you'll find that you just largely agreed with me.
Yes, I am a physicist, who consults, and has worked with people who work on the shuttle. I've avoided the ISS because it's what we in the trade refer to, technically, as "doofey."
So's the shuttle for that matter, but what are ya gonna do?
KFG
For the most part this is not true. The military has poured vasts amount of *money* into certain areas (notably airplanes, their involvment in the others is actually miniscule).
Development, however, has almost all been by the private sector to compete for contracts. In other words, they develop a product and then try to sell it.
Fokker, Sopwith, Boeing, General Dynamics, SAAB, all private firms that develop most of their products, even the military ones, quite independently.
KFG
Note that I didn't make any particular value judgment, per se. I was simply stating facts that make it difficult or impossible for NASA to operate under what would be called "normal" circumstances. They are not truly a scientific or engineering firm. They are a political agency with all the faults thereof, which just happens to be in charge of building things that go "Whooosh" into the sky.
Certainly up to this point what they have accomplished would have been simply impossible otherwise. It would be like asking some ancient Egyptians to get together and build a pyramid in their back yard.
However, even a cursory examination of the history of the whole shuttle project will reveal it to be a purely political affair.
Apollo and its forbears may have had politics as their genesis, but then, at least for a time, the politics dictated that the politicians get the hell out of the way and let the engineers get the job done.
That time has long since passed, whether public perception has caught up with the times or not.
KFG
people to know about the O-rings. The modern/post Apollo NASA has always been deathly allergic to admiting they just plain fucked up or cut corners.
m l
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77832,00.ht
KFG
All of which were invented and developed in the public sector.
NASA is a monopolistic government agency which self evaluates, self polices and has little in the way of market pressures to deal with in order to continue to exist.
It makes a difference.
KFG
What's more, in Springfield you have huuuuuge. . . tracts of land begging for tenants.
Being able to large facilities for a buck a squared foot isn't unheard of.
Here in upstate NY my last business had 3000 square feet. I payed $350 month *with* electric/heat/air.
Now that I'm more aware of the situation I'm actually *less* inclined to subscribe. They were idiots who didn't know enough to make desks out of orange crates and boards until they got on their feet and now want me to bail out their overextragance.
Frankly, I think they owe *me* money. Lord knows I don't have it as good as they have.
KFG
See Food Lion vs. ABC
KFG
Sure I'm losing money on every customer, but I'm making it up on volume.
As I understand it that's the actual business plan of Amazon.
KFG