Wtf do they expect to find gold, diamonds, platinum?
No, buddy, just RTFA. Le'me quote for you:
The presence of lunar water, as well as other potentially lucrative resources such as helium 2 and rare Earth elements, might spur a new race to the Moon that would dwarf the previous one. The inspiration will be as much commercial as scientific and a desire to enhance national prestige and security.
I took the liberty of emphasising some words in the quote above... I'm totally shaken, almost crying of shame... how could I not see it!! Not contributing with at least my next year's salary to this commercial venture is un-patriotic and on the fringe of qualifying me as a terrorist!
Quick, lets follow the suggestion of the same author (the gianterest mind in the all the worlds... not even recognized enough: only a BA in history??! You gotta be kidd'n' me, right?)... as Ah was sayin' lets privatize the government, start leasing the moon and rip them profits!!!... nothing easier to get out from this economic crisis... wha' the hell are we waiting for?
Except for the little fact that we have NO FUSION POWER technology, you are right! But since when did reality and practical engineering ever get in the way of Space Nutters?
You know, anti-matter is even more betterer than Helium 3 it's not funny. See? It's easy to write childish and delusional things down. Now go do it.
Hang on, mate: Helium 2 is the the besterest way to go
If pooling He-2 in quantities large enough, the strong interaction anomaly (which makes possible the very existence of Helium-2) adds up and will act as a catalyst for creating anti-matter! How can you not see it?
No, no, no, naw.... don't come to me with the BS that He-2 doesn't exists: for sure the enterpreneurs already looking to getting a slice of the Moon aren't that stupid to throw the money of others in pointless ventures, they are endorsed by no other than Mark Whittington on the prestigious Yahoo news site, just RTFA!!
Besides to suggest otherwise it will be not only un-patriotic and possible qualify you as a terrorist: this venture not only will create huge commercial benefits but will also "be as much commercial as scientific and a desire to enhance national prestige and security". Now, be a good guy and chip-in some of your income for the guys that will go and collect He-2, will ya?
You seem to be worried that there isn't enough pie to go around.
Maybe part of the solution is to make more pie.
Why for? There's an easier solution to this:
1. blow hot air under the pie crust (like, create derivatives for the pie)
2. sell the hot air to the dumb-witted. No worries, there will be many to buy, the sum of intelligence on the planet is constant, the population growing is an advantage.
3. make sure you don't get fooled by your own hot air or have some governments ready to bail you
4. profit
Without enough humans to buy iPhones and take mortgages they can't afford, how are those "exponential grow bubbles" gonna last? The boom-to-bust cycle started to become boring, you know?
Won't mining the moon screw up all life on Earth, if we mine enough?
No, the principle of "most restricting factor governs the ecology" acts nice... water is bound to finish much earlier. To continue mining, you'll need to replace it - ice asteroid capture? If you are able to capture asteroids, no need to mine the moon anymore.
It would seem that the dark and light sides of the moon comprises a heat engine. For example, a tube which was placed about the pole and filled with gas, would expand in areas exposed to the sun and contract away from the sun in a continuous cycle, much like the engine that powers the Earths weather.
It would this would be extensible and provide the local energy by turbine to operate some robotic process.
Theoreticaly it should work. Practically, the cosine-law is your worst enemy...
1. staying close to the poles - building cost constraints - very poor angle of incidence...
2. on a 28 days for a "full engine cycle" with probably about 1/3 of this duration in a situation where the gradient is not good enough (extremities of your "tube" too close to the day-night terminators) - need hell of a lot of "thermal inertia" to get the most of the "max temperature differential" period)
somehow... I don't think it's gonna work too well.
(if you've traveled around Japan before, you'd understand the utility of a GPS device. It's so easy to get lost here, even with a good map)
Makes sorta sense for Japan, doesn't make sense for Australia (unless the phone has a satellite-based GPS rather than closest-celltowers-triangulation). Anyhow, even for Japan, sometimes you may run into annoyances: e.g. receiving a call (assume using hands-free) at a moment you need to decide which turn to take.
One reason for which I'm buying (only when I need them) gadgets with a dedicated/specialized function (mobile is phone-and-wakeup-alarm, GPS is a dedicated satellite-GPS, camera is a DSLR, games are played on the computer or game-console, etc) - no inconvenience given by their "convergence". I learnt it while living on rental - in the cramped place I could afford some 15 years ago - I skipped buying a TV-set and went for a cheap TV-tunner card... couldn't use my computer and watch the news in the same time (not on the Pentium 1 I owned at that time).
The other reason: even they tend to cost more (as an one-off investment) but doesn't deprecate/break so easily and (except the mobile fees - minimalistic plan) they do not come with an on-ongoing cost of ownership.
I would prefer to see OLPC provide a path from the XO to a full blown Linux distribution that does not require children to learn a new UI.
Since when being in a position to learn new things is bad for a kid?
Note that it is not the knowledge that's important, but rather to "flex that muscle" involved in learning and make learning (and, if possible, critical thinking) a constant through the life. Something that the westernalized "civilizations", so blinded by efficiency/cost-reduction, have lost the focus long ago - I'd venture to say for as long as 1950-ies. No wonder the "taming" process now called "education" is seen by the kids like a burden and also as a "cost" by the society in general.
No wonder a constructivist like Negroponte, in addition to a very low price, took another radical step: to make the OLPC not feel like a pure laptop but as a tool for leaning. A disputable choice, as there are many other choices leading to the same result, but at least the mission is very well defined:
To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.
Also, some other quotes from Negroponte's personal vision:
It's an education project, not a laptop project.
Laptops are both a window and a tool a window into the world and a tool with which to think They are a wonderful way for all children through "learn learning"
Trying to figure out why slashdotters mod one way or another isn't likely to get you anywhere,...
Luckily, in this case it finally did. Glad that you stayed in this conversation, a sincere thank you for this.
Assessing the situation as an adult, the reason I bought a smartphone (an HTC Desire) is because my old phone was starting to fall apart, and there was a deal at Softbank on the Desire:... Most dumb phones, unlikely as it sounds, would have cost me at least a little bit more.
Consumer market does show such paradoxical situation, indeed. As long as your fun doesn't get you in the acting mindlessly as a consumer afterwards, nothing wrong in "playing their game" at the personal level (at the general/society level, the smart-phone-cheaper-than-a-dumb-one situation still equates somehow with a waste of resources).
No, you don't understand at all*. I was asking what phone was available that didn't treat its users like children.
With the apology for the coming back to this... there's another detail hat put me on the wrong track: the use of the qualifiers of have their own cars, pay for their own pizzas, have keys to their own (mortgaged) houses in relation with adult. In my mind, if an adult lives her/his life to do these, then s/he is really a consumer no better than a kid or a teenager - for such an adult the current offer on the market is good enough. And because the current offer is absolutely crafted the way it is, one can derive that the consumer market segment is awfully prevalent in our today's world: with people that live their lives just to consume and be proud of the gadgets they own - essentially not much different from a teen that owns an iPhone "just because its cool".
No, you don't understand at all*. I was asking what phone was available that didn't treat its users like children.
* (and, honestly, I don't think you're actually trying)
Actually, I was making desperate attempts to understand what the hell you asked and how come your questions were rated insightful.
Now that you came clear with what you asked for and let aside the redundant details, I can tell you my opinion: there aren't any... Simply because all the players in this game have an awful lot to gain if they treat their customers like consumers: to be guided like kids and/or to be kept strictly fenced from real choices. So, if you really what to enjoy more liberty in this concern, you'll have to rely on weird/geek-ish solutions of the type I suggested you in my first reply.
Or choose to not use a smart phone at all. Assessing the situation like an adult (and no a consumer) can you offer me you sincere opinion on how much real-life value a smart-phone brings in addition to a dumb phone? Facebook access is for teens, nothing of importance there. "There is an app for that" - like what? - is there something of importance that wasn't possible without a smart phone? What would one have to lose if using a dumb mobile?
Took me a while, but now I understand...
So your original question:
So where's the phone for adults who have their own cars and pay for their own pizzas? And have keys to their own houses?
was either:
1. an attempt to sip some thoughts from the/. collective mind on what would be a good choice of a smart phone for the wealthy people... very sublte, sir, very subtle and a bit naive.../. is being notoriusly frequented by geeks (which, if I may point it to you, are very seldom wealthy); or
2. a question on the line of: "What smart-phone should I consider when I would have paid my mortgage in full and I can retire?"... given the evolution speed of this gizmos, isn't much too early for you to look into this?
Now; how many engineers have worked on the iOS platform again? will they all keep it's secrets?
What are you suggesting? That at least one of the engineers will leak the source-code of iOS? Or the engineers knowingly introduced some security bugs just to have something to leak? Or what?
There's no money in banning rocks, only costs related with enforcing the ban. On the other had, here's a Trend Micro helmet for you, sir... yes, indeed sir, a keen eye you have... it is lined with real tin foil, the ultimate quality, not like the cheap al-foil one is offered unfortunately so often.
Not at all, really. His claim clearly lines up with his interests. He wants you to buy his Android security app, so he'll claim that Android is really insecure.
Or... he just forget to mention what security is about... the security of his company's income being just he has in mind.
Uh...."remember" WHAT?!?!? Never heard of a mortgage?!?
BTW, if you have a mortgage, you are NOT the owner, the bank is (or whoever bought the derivatives you mortgage was transformed into). My advice: stay with the Desire you have and stop wasting your money on data plans, use it as a dumb phone. Rumors have it that you skip a payment, the house you are so proud of is due for foreclosure.
I'd like to point out the hilarity of you fucking up the spelling of a word you're linking the definition of?
Point taken.
And frankly, as a pissed off user of a Samsung Galaxy, perma-stuck on 1.5, I'm all in favour of Google getting some damn balls and telling companies that using Android carries some responsibilities.
I really sympathise with your predicament, I really do. But here's my advice: put this on the "lesson learned" tab (not quite at the "college tuition fees"), because it is not with Google you have the problem and I argue it is not Google's fault the model you picked has been made obsolete so soon.
No one's asking Google to act as God over Android, but instead impose structure on something that Google created. Sort of like companies usually do with their products.
I invite you to read the license under which (pick your OpenSource project here) is licensed. Take ZFS or JBoss or whatever OSS created by a company. Where does it say that the developers are responsible for anyone's use of their creation? Now, go back to Android and read TF license, why is should spell something different?
Buddy, a saying that I remember goes like: "you simply cannot enter the heavens after whoring around and enjoying every bit of it". Grow up, freedom comes with a price (hint: unfortunately not the one you paid on your Samsung Galaxy). Next time: wait a bit, shop around, don't buy on impulse - pay the needed price of judging your decision before acting on it because it will be your decision and you will have to live with it.
Remember, the price is not an issues for "for adults who have their own cars and pay for their own pizzas" and who "have keys to their own houses".
There's no such thing as non-network locked phones in Japan,
Assuming you are right (can't verify) can't you buy a smart-phone from overseas with a mini-USB port? Even the first version of HTC Desire have had one.
... so there's no such thing as just simply "picking a carrier".
And what, are there no longer Mobile-Internet dongles (data only) in Japan? Did the Japanase economy go down so badly from 2006?
At this point, I'm pretty happy to have seen a Knuth check in reality. Owning one is a long term career goal.
While a noble goal, you do remember that... human are mortals, Knuth is still human... you know how it goes, don't you? Hurry up man, you don't have that much time.
Slashdot Mirror
The inspiration will be as much commercial as scientific and a desire to enhance national prestige and security.
Afterall, there's nothing wrong with greedy corporations. I mean, Mark Whittington - huge genius, I tell ya - offered two out-of-the-box solutions for free... how can we not go ahead and privatize the government, start leasing the moon and reap the profits!?
mmmmmmmmmm moon powder.
Wtf do they expect to find gold, diamonds, platinum?
No, buddy, just RTFA. Le'me quote for you:
The presence of lunar water, as well as other potentially lucrative resources such as helium 2 and rare Earth elements, might spur a new race to the Moon that would dwarf the previous one. The inspiration will be as much commercial as scientific and a desire to enhance national prestige and security.
I took the liberty of emphasising some words in the quote above... I'm totally shaken, almost crying of shame... how could I not see it!! Not contributing with at least my next year's salary to this commercial venture is un-patriotic and on the fringe of qualifying me as a terrorist!
Quick, lets follow the suggestion of the same author (the gianterest mind in the all the worlds... not even recognized enough: only a BA in history??! You gotta be kidd'n' me, right?)... as Ah was sayin' lets privatize the government, start leasing the moon and rip them profits!!!... nothing easier to get out from this economic crisis... wha' the hell are we waiting for?
Except for the little fact that we have NO FUSION POWER technology, you are right! But since when did reality and practical engineering ever get in the way of Space Nutters?
You know, anti-matter is even more betterer than Helium 3 it's not funny. See? It's easy to write childish and delusional things down. Now go do it.
Hang on, mate: Helium 2 is the the besterest way to go
If pooling He-2 in quantities large enough, the strong interaction anomaly (which makes possible the very existence of Helium-2) adds up and will act as a catalyst for creating anti-matter! How can you not see it?
No, no, no, naw.... don't come to me with the BS that He-2 doesn't exists: for sure the enterpreneurs already looking to getting a slice of the Moon aren't that stupid to throw the money of others in pointless ventures, they are endorsed by no other than Mark Whittington on the prestigious Yahoo news site, just RTFA!!
Besides to suggest otherwise it will be not only un-patriotic and possible qualify you as a terrorist: this venture not only will create huge commercial benefits but will also "be as much commercial as scientific and a desire to enhance national prestige and security".
Now, be a good guy and chip-in some of your income for the guys that will go and collect He-2, will ya?
You seem to be worried that there isn't enough pie to go around.
Maybe part of the solution is to make more pie.
Why for? There's an easier solution to this:
1. blow hot air under the pie crust (like, create derivatives for the pie)
2. sell the hot air to the dumb-witted. No worries, there will be many to buy, the sum of intelligence on the planet is constant, the population growing is an advantage.
3. make sure you don't get fooled by your own hot air or have some governments ready to bail you
4. profit
Sounds familiar?
What do we need more humans for?
Somebody has to consume and pay for it.
Without enough humans to buy iPhones and take mortgages they can't afford, how are those "exponential grow bubbles" gonna last? The boom-to-bust cycle started to become boring, you know?
Won't mining the moon screw up all life on Earth, if we mine enough?
No, the principle of "most restricting factor governs the ecology" acts nice... water is bound to finish much earlier. To continue mining, you'll need to replace it - ice asteroid capture? If you are able to capture asteroids, no need to mine the moon anymore.
It would seem that the dark and light sides of the moon comprises a heat engine. For example, a tube which was placed about the pole and filled with gas, would expand in areas exposed to the sun and contract away from the sun in a continuous cycle, much like the engine that powers the Earths weather.
It would this would be extensible and provide the local energy by turbine to operate some robotic process.
Theoreticaly it should work. Practically, the cosine-law is your worst enemy... ...
1. staying close to the poles - building cost constraints - very poor angle of incidence
2. on a 28 days for a "full engine cycle" with probably about 1/3 of this duration in a situation where the gradient is not good enough (extremities of your "tube" too close to the day-night terminators) - need hell of a lot of "thermal inertia" to get the most of the "max temperature differential" period)
somehow... I don't think it's gonna work too well.
Geothermal? (does the moon have any geothermal energy to be tapped?)
Geothermal? For sure it doesn't.
(hint: Geo comes from Gea or Gaia).
(if you've traveled around Japan before, you'd understand the utility of a GPS device. It's so easy to get lost here, even with a good map)
Makes sorta sense for Japan, doesn't make sense for Australia (unless the phone has a satellite-based GPS rather than closest-celltowers-triangulation). Anyhow, even for Japan, sometimes you may run into annoyances: e.g. receiving a call (assume using hands-free) at a moment you need to decide which turn to take.
One reason for which I'm buying (only when I need them) gadgets with a dedicated/specialized function (mobile is phone-and-wakeup-alarm, GPS is a dedicated satellite-GPS, camera is a DSLR, games are played on the computer or game-console, etc) - no inconvenience given by their "convergence". I learnt it while living on rental - in the cramped place I could afford some 15 years ago - I skipped buying a TV-set and went for a cheap TV-tunner card... couldn't use my computer and watch the news in the same time (not on the Pentium 1 I owned at that time).
The other reason: even they tend to cost more (as an one-off investment) but doesn't deprecate/break so easily and (except the mobile fees - minimalistic plan) they do not come with an on-ongoing cost of ownership.
I would prefer to see OLPC provide a path from the XO to a full blown Linux distribution that does not require children to learn a new UI.
Since when being in a position to learn new things is bad for a kid?
Note that it is not the knowledge that's important, but rather to "flex that muscle" involved in learning and make learning (and, if possible, critical thinking) a constant through the life. Something that the westernalized "civilizations", so blinded by efficiency/cost-reduction, have lost the focus long ago - I'd venture to say for as long as 1950-ies. No wonder the "taming" process now called "education" is seen by the kids like a burden and also as a "cost" by the society in general.
No wonder a constructivist like Negroponte, in addition to a very low price, took another radical step: to make the OLPC not feel like a pure laptop but as a tool for leaning. A disputable choice, as there are many other choices leading to the same result, but at least the mission is very well defined:
To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.
Also, some other quotes from Negroponte's personal vision:
It's an education project, not a laptop project.
Laptops are both a window and a tool a window into the world and a tool with which to think They are a wonderful way for all children through "learn learning"
.
Trying to figure out why slashdotters mod one way or another isn't likely to get you anywhere, ...
Luckily, in this case it finally did. Glad that you stayed in this conversation, a sincere thank you for this.
Assessing the situation as an adult, the reason I bought a smartphone (an HTC Desire) is because my old phone was starting to fall apart, and there was a deal at Softbank on the Desire: ... Most dumb phones, unlikely as it sounds, would have cost me at least a little bit more.
Consumer market does show such paradoxical situation, indeed. As long as your fun doesn't get you in the acting mindlessly as a consumer afterwards, nothing wrong in "playing their game" at the personal level (at the general/society level, the smart-phone-cheaper-than-a-dumb-one situation still equates somehow with a waste of resources).
No, you don't understand at all*. I was asking what phone was available that didn't treat its users like children.
With the apology for the coming back to this... there's another detail hat put me on the wrong track: the use of the qualifiers of have their own cars, pay for their own pizzas, have keys to their own (mortgaged) houses in relation with adult. In my mind, if an adult lives her/his life to do these, then s/he is really a consumer no better than a kid or a teenager - for such an adult the current offer on the market is good enough.
And because the current offer is absolutely crafted the way it is, one can derive that the consumer market segment is awfully prevalent in our today's world: with people that live their lives just to consume and be proud of the gadgets they own - essentially not much different from a teen that owns an iPhone "just because its cool".
No, you don't understand at all*. I was asking what phone was available that didn't treat its users like children.
* (and, honestly, I don't think you're actually trying)
Actually, I was making desperate attempts to understand what the hell you asked and how come your questions were rated insightful.
Now that you came clear with what you asked for and let aside the redundant details, I can tell you my opinion: there aren't any... Simply because all the players in this game have an awful lot to gain if they treat their customers like consumers: to be guided like kids and/or to be kept strictly fenced from real choices.
So, if you really what to enjoy more liberty in this concern, you'll have to rely on weird/geek-ish solutions of the type I suggested you in my first reply.
Or choose to not use a smart phone at all. Assessing the situation like an adult (and no a consumer) can you offer me you sincere opinion on how much real-life value a smart-phone brings in addition to a dumb phone?
Facebook access is for teens, nothing of importance there. "There is an app for that" - like what? - is there something of importance that wasn't possible without a smart phone? What would one have to lose if using a dumb mobile?
So where's the phone for adults who have their own cars and pay for their own pizzas? And have keys to their own houses?
was either:
1. an attempt to sip some thoughts from the /. collective mind on what would be a good choice of a smart phone for the wealthy people... very sublte, sir, very subtle and a bit naive... /. is being notoriusly frequented by geeks (which, if I may point it to you, are very seldom wealthy); or
2. a question on the line of: "What smart-phone should I consider when I would have paid my mortgage in full and I can retire?"... given the evolution speed of this gizmos, isn't much too early for you to look into this?
Now; how many engineers have worked on the iOS platform again? will they all keep it's secrets?
What are you suggesting? That at least one of the engineers will leak the source-code of iOS? Or the engineers knowingly introduced some security bugs just to have something to leak? Or what?
And also rocks should be banned.
There's no money in banning rocks, only costs related with enforcing the ban. On the other had, here's a Trend Micro helmet for you, sir... yes, indeed sir, a keen eye you have... it is lined with real tin foil, the ultimate quality, not like the cheap al-foil one is offered unfortunately so often.
Not at all, really. His claim clearly lines up with his interests. He wants you to buy his Android security app, so he'll claim that Android is really insecure.
Or... he just forget to mention what security is about... the security of his company's income being just he has in mind.
Uh...."remember" WHAT?!?!? Never heard of a mortgage?!?
BTW, if you have a mortgage, you are NOT the owner, the bank is (or whoever bought the derivatives you mortgage was transformed into).
My advice: stay with the Desire you have and stop wasting your money on data plans, use it as a dumb phone. Rumors have it that you skip a payment, the house you are so proud of is due for foreclosure.
I'd like to point out the hilarity of you fucking up the spelling of a word you're linking the definition of?
Point taken.
And frankly, as a pissed off user of a Samsung Galaxy, perma-stuck on 1.5, I'm all in favour of Google getting some damn balls and telling companies that using Android carries some responsibilities.
I really sympathise with your predicament, I really do. But here's my advice: put this on the "lesson learned" tab (not quite at the "college tuition fees"), because it is not with Google you have the problem and I argue it is not Google's fault the model you picked has been made obsolete so soon.
No one's asking Google to act as God over Android, but instead impose structure on something that Google created. Sort of like companies usually do with their products.
I invite you to read the license under which (pick your OpenSource project here) is licensed. Take ZFS or JBoss or whatever OSS created by a company. Where does it say that the developers are responsible for anyone's use of their creation? Now, go back to Android and read TF license, why is should spell something different?
Buddy, a saying that I remember goes like: "you simply cannot enter the heavens after whoring around and enjoying every bit of it". Grow up, freedom comes with a price (hint: unfortunately not the one you paid on your Samsung Galaxy). Next time: wait a bit, shop around, don't buy on impulse - pay the needed price of judging your decision before acting on it because it will be your decision and you will have to live with it.
They would be correct, so I'd believe it.
Maybe others would be willing to, but I simply can't argue for the contrary.
There's no such thing as non-network locked phones in Japan,
Assuming you are right (can't verify) can't you buy a smart-phone from overseas with a mini-USB port? Even the first version of HTC Desire have had one.
... so there's no such thing as just simply "picking a carrier".
And what, are there no longer Mobile-Internet dongles (data only) in Japan? Did the Japanase economy go down so badly from 2006?
No, not broken. Removed. And Microsoft is pissed about it!
Huh! They should save their mouth-foam for the time YouTube clips will only be available in WebM encoding!
I've heard that h.264 support is broken in an upcoming release.
My bet on Google's answer: "that's not a bug, that's a feature". Would you believe it?
;) He can't help: the Russian Mafia has a price on his head, he can no longer sell to them, he needs something to live on ;)
At this point, I'm pretty happy to have seen a Knuth check in reality. Owning one is a long term career goal.
While a noble goal, you do remember that ... human are mortals, Knuth is still human... you know how it goes, don't you? Hurry up man, you don't have that much time.