Sanctions worked in Iraq: they kept Hussein from acquiring WMD. If the US had tried to improve the UN management of the oil-for-food program (instead of just heckling from the sidelines), they probably would've worked better.
Lots? (just guessing...) As we've seen repeatedly, the amount of information is not nearly as important as its organization. "The" government (US Federal?, state?, local? combination?) is justifiably ridiculed for its inability to organize information. Call 'em "silos" (databases) or "stovepipes" (access). The US Federal government has focused on integrating disparate information without notable success. I think this is a good thing, since their identifications of evildoers rarely withstands the tests provided by those nettlesome, centuries-old, protections of civil liberties such as habeas corpus.
Is it true that Bill Gates travelled on scheduled airlines until relatvely recently, say the mid-90's? I heard that he did so because he wanted the experience of the average businessperson, (presumably) so that he could help guide software development to meet their needs. It seems incredible now, but Gates was not well known back then and could probably travel without attracting too much attention. Could be apocryphal, but if true, it's the sort of dedication and obsessive focus that has made MS so successful while other firms flame-out.
Thanks for the reality check. Orbital speed is another big number that puts Rutan's achievment in perspective. Tom Wolfe in "The Right Stuff" expressed similar nostalgia for flying into space (X15). However, experience seems to show that accelerating signifcant mass to the required speed is most efficiently done with a launch, unleashing enormous force quickly and sometimes with a bang. Slowing down from 40,000 km/h is another challenge. Rutan seems to discount the costs but even unambitious "suborbital" flights will not be routine, and never commercial, until the force can be generated much more economically. Even if governments had permitted Concord to spread it's sonic pollution everywhere, the airlines couldn't sell enough tickets to pay for the fuel. Alternatively, the energy required to access space might be reduced by developing new materials that enable a space elevator or understanding the physics of a matter transporter. Perhaps these are mundane when contrasted with blasting into space or recounting how you commuted to work in your fighter jet (Rutan, mid-talk), but they are the real future of space travel.
That's not the way it should work on US government grants, at least those awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The government will ask for the return of money that is not spent as quickly as planned. However, the grant recipient can request an extra 1-2 years to spend the money. This "no cost extension" is usually allowed if the money can be well spent in attaining the aims of the grant.
If the interstates were built to the same spec as the Autobahn, the system wouldn't be nearly as extensive as it is
Bingo. All of Germany is about the size of Wyoming. Extending the Autobahn to the former East Germany, roughly a third the size of the former West, is a work in progress. Also, keeping right except to pass is not uniformly followed even in Germany. There's a great billboard showing nearly all the cars in the left lane with the caption "und Sie?" (and You?). But going 220 kph (~ 132 mph) is a kick, even when others overtake! Absolute Hell on the fuel efficiency, however.
Probably a more accurate version of the story, too. The "well prepared mind" was supposed to be a joke about a cooked brain (well done), not a comment on the perception of GIs.
'The seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them.'"
Louis Pasteur's dictum is later: "Chance favors the prepared mind."
The original quote is less pithy: "Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés" (In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind).
Using microwaves to heat food was supposedly discovered when a candy bar melted in the pocket of a soldier guarding a radar station in the arctic. (No mention of what happened to the soldier's brain... a well prepared mind?) Maybe it doesn't belong on the list with penicillin (neither does viagra).
This sort of stupidity makes (us) Americans look bad. Not just because it's xenophobic jingoism. Competition and meritocracy are core American values (despite evidence in DC to the contrary). MS was charged by the US government with anti-competitive practice and found guilty. Regarding merit, few of MS products could be called superior (since about 15 years ago) yet they have won market share through anti-competitive practice and excellent marketing.
It's from the classic movie "Apocalypse Now". Besides, "sanction" itself means to stop (and also to approve, demonstrating the wonderful economy and clarity of the English language). Ok, carry on with your interesting dicscussion...
Skip the resume -- you've already demonstrated the craven arrogance that we treasure -- we can cut straight to the background clearance. How's your marksmanship? How's your "ticker"? Plenty of positions opening up in the administration.
Such cynicism is well justified by experience, especially the last few years. Why didn't anyone say "send the inspectors to check out the claims"? This is what I find most curious and suspicious. We had well qualified inspectors with full access without warning to the entire country. Yet Powell could show pictures and nobody asked what happened when the inspectors arrived.
Maybe this policy will be more consistent. After all, he comes from Utah, home of the once seemingly invincible WordPerfect. People from there might take a little pleasure at causing MS a little pain.
Why did the managers overrule the engineers this time? They knew there was a problem with cold O-rings and the Rogers Commission found
The ambient air temperature at launch was 36 degrees Fahrenheit measured at ground level approximately 1,000 feet from the 51-L mission launch pad 39B. This temperature was 15 degrees colder than that of any previous launch. (emphasis added)
The Commission investigated several "rumors" of pressure from outside NASA, and dismissed the claim that the White House had wanted a live feed for President Reagan's State of the Union. (Sounds preposterous, but then again he did institute the practice of singling out individuals for recognition and an orbiting teacher would've been perfect for the show.)
One rumor was that plans had been made to have a live communication hookup with the 51-L crew during the State of the Union Message. Commission investigators interviewed all of the persons who would have been involved in a hookup if one had been planned, and all stated unequivocally that there was no such plan. Furthermore, to give the crew time to become oriented, NASA does not schedule a communication for at least 48 hours after the launch and no such communication was scheduled in the case of flight 51-L.
The Commission did not explicitly address rumors that President Reagan and his staff urged the launch so that their beloved Star Wars initiative would not look even more technically "challenging". The Commission took sworn testimony but did not subpoena telephone logs. Reagan postponed his State of the Union Message after the Challenger "accident". You can almost imagine the old actor yelling Rewrite!
Right. Early proponants of nuclear energy (fission) promised power "too cheap to meter" because they couldn't imagine consumers using all the electricity (and because the didn't include all the costs). This "all you can eat" pricing approach works only when there is a relatively small potential increase, say for long distance telephone service.
As attractive as fusion is, cutting corners on generating a terrestrial sun doesn't seem like the way to go. On the eve of the first atomic bomb test, scientists engaged in that gold-plated program apparently wondered whether it might ignite the atmosphere. Oops.
The display doesn't look that great in the pictures accompanying the linked Wired article. The text looks pretty good but the background is greyish. One of the reasons the original Mac was so successful, I think, is because the display had a white background. This would help the acceptance of the ebook, too. Has anyone seen the real thing and can report on their impression of this aspect?
Books like Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond explain how evolutionary fears in species develop over many thousand years of exposure.
I don't recall anything like this in the book, unless you are reversing the domesticization of dogs and farm animals, which presumably required these species to lose their fear of man. Could you be more specific?
Bill Gates' intoductions of Win95 and later versions stumbled when the OS crashed during the demonstration. Yahoo Go suffered a similar fate today.
Jobs' introductions work and they work impressively. Whether this is because the products are simply better or because Jobs makes sure everything works, I don't know. But it's most assuredly the product of hard work and dedication. Jobs' "reality distortion field" is just the fun part.
Slashdot Mirror
Just the facts...
NASA "Science, Aeronautics, and Exploration"
$10 Billion
DoD (Department of Defense)
$420 Billion
So about 42x more for DoDO (Department of "Defense" operations) than for NASA in fiscal year 2006 (completed).
Sanctions worked in Iraq: they kept Hussein from acquiring WMD. If the US had tried to improve the UN management of the oil-for-food program (instead of just heckling from the sidelines), they probably would've worked better.
Lots? (just guessing...)
As we've seen repeatedly, the amount of information is not nearly as important as its organization. "The" government (US Federal?, state?, local? combination?) is justifiably ridiculed for its inability to organize information. Call 'em "silos" (databases) or "stovepipes" (access). The US Federal government has focused on integrating disparate information without notable success. I think this is a good thing, since their identifications of evildoers rarely withstands the tests provided by those nettlesome, centuries-old, protections of civil liberties such as habeas corpus.
Even the "demo" requires registration, including name, sex, and birthdate. That's just plain wrong.
So that's about $150/year for most
Do you mean text? Many presenters try to explain on the slide, producing paragraphs that bury key points.
Tufte == KISS (but not too simple).
Is it true that Bill Gates travelled on scheduled airlines until relatvely recently, say the mid-90's? I heard that he did so because he wanted the experience of the average businessperson, (presumably) so that he could help guide software development to meet their needs. It seems incredible now, but Gates was not well known back then and could probably travel without attracting too much attention. Could be apocryphal, but if true, it's the sort of dedication and obsessive focus that has made MS so successful while other firms flame-out.
Thanks for the reality check.
Orbital speed is another big number that puts Rutan's achievment in perspective. Tom Wolfe in "The Right Stuff" expressed similar nostalgia for flying into space (X15). However, experience seems to show that accelerating signifcant mass to the required speed is most efficiently done with a launch, unleashing enormous force quickly and sometimes with a bang. Slowing down from 40,000 km/h is another challenge. Rutan seems to discount the costs but even unambitious "suborbital" flights will not be routine, and never commercial, until the force can be generated much more economically. Even if governments had permitted Concord to spread it's sonic pollution everywhere, the airlines couldn't sell enough tickets to pay for the fuel. Alternatively, the energy required to access space might be reduced by developing new materials that enable a space elevator or understanding the physics of a matter transporter. Perhaps these are mundane when contrasted with blasting into space or recounting how you commuted to work in your fighter jet (Rutan, mid-talk), but they are the real future of space travel.
That's not the way it should work on US government grants, at least those awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The government will ask for the return of money that is not spent as quickly as planned. However, the grant recipient can request an extra 1-2 years to spend the money. This "no cost extension" is usually allowed if the money can be well spent in attaining the aims of the grant.
Bingo. All of Germany is about the size of Wyoming. Extending the Autobahn to the former East Germany, roughly a third the size of the former West, is a work in progress.
Also, keeping right except to pass is not uniformly followed even in Germany. There's a great billboard showing nearly all the cars in the left lane with the caption "und Sie?" (and You?). But going 220 kph (~ 132 mph) is a kick, even when others overtake! Absolute Hell on the fuel efficiency, however.
assures me that they are still working. Buy cheap, buy often. Keep 'em fresh and growing each generation.
Probably a more accurate version of the story, too. The "well prepared mind" was supposed to be a joke about a cooked brain (well done), not a comment on the perception of GIs.
Louis Pasteur's dictum is later: "Chance favors the prepared mind."
The original quote is less pithy: "Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés" (In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind).
Using microwaves to heat food was supposedly discovered when a candy bar melted in the pocket of a soldier guarding a radar station in the arctic. (No mention of what happened to the soldier's brain... a well prepared mind?) Maybe it doesn't belong on the list with penicillin (neither does viagra).
This sort of stupidity makes (us) Americans look bad. Not just because it's xenophobic jingoism. Competition and meritocracy are core American values (despite evidence in DC to the contrary). MS was charged by the US government with anti-competitive practice and found guilty. Regarding merit, few of MS products could be called superior (since about 15 years ago) yet they have won market share through anti-competitive practice and excellent marketing.
"terminate with extreme sanction"? Where the heck is that from? Two hits on Google. Your're probably thinking:
Terminate with extreme prejudice.
It's from the classic movie "Apocalypse Now". Besides, "sanction" itself means to stop (and also to approve, demonstrating the wonderful economy and clarity of the English language). Ok, carry on with your interesting dicscussion...
Skip the resume -- you've already demonstrated the craven arrogance that we treasure -- we can cut straight to the background clearance. How's your marksmanship? How's your "ticker"? Plenty of positions opening up in the administration.
Such cynicism is well justified by experience, especially the last few years.
Why didn't anyone say "send the inspectors to check out the claims"? This is what I find most curious and suspicious. We had well qualified inspectors with full access without warning to the entire country. Yet Powell could show pictures and nobody asked what happened when the inspectors arrived.
Maybe this policy will be more consistent. After all, he comes from Utah, home of the once seemingly invincible WordPerfect. People from there might take a little pleasure at causing MS a little pain.
The Commission investigated several "rumors" of pressure from outside NASA, and dismissed the claim that the White House had wanted a live feed for President Reagan's State of the Union. (Sounds preposterous, but then again he did institute the practice of singling out individuals for recognition and an orbiting teacher would've been perfect for the show.)
The Commission did not explicitly address rumors that President Reagan and his staff urged the launch so that their beloved Star Wars initiative would not look even more technically "challenging". The Commission took sworn testimony but did not subpoena telephone logs. Reagan postponed his State of the Union Message after the Challenger "accident". You can almost imagine the old actor yelling Rewrite!
As attractive as fusion is, cutting corners on generating a terrestrial sun doesn't seem like the way to go. On the eve of the first atomic bomb test, scientists engaged in that gold-plated program apparently wondered whether it might ignite the atmosphere. Oops.
The display doesn't look that great in the pictures accompanying the linked Wired article. The text looks pretty good but the background is greyish. One of the reasons the original Mac was so successful, I think, is because the display had a white background. This would help the acceptance of the ebook, too. Has anyone seen the real thing and can report on their impression of this aspect?
Gasp! He checked his own advice! /. community where it could stifle discussion for days.
Quick, mod him down before this virus spreads into the virgin
I don't recall anything like this in the book, unless you are reversing the domesticization of dogs and farm animals, which presumably required these species to lose their fear of man. Could you be more specific?
Bill Gates' intoductions of Win95 and later versions stumbled when the OS crashed during the demonstration. Yahoo Go suffered a similar fate today.
Jobs' introductions work and they work impressively. Whether this is because the products are simply better or because Jobs makes sure everything works, I don't know. But it's most assuredly the product of hard work and dedication. Jobs' "reality distortion field" is just the fun part.
How about some comments on the technology instead of so many on the name and the celebrities?
Is AJAX behind it? Why not a linux version? (Yahoo podcasts work pretty well on Linux.) How long before Google copies, uh, re-innovates the tech?
Almost forgot: obligitory Slashdot missspelling.