They're not selling the data. They're selling the format and convenience of the data.
You can buy a sunday paper and get the TV listings. Somehow TV Guide stays in business selling the same "data" to people, but usually in a better format.
Not that i wouldn't love to be able to get all the stuff for free, but the key to tivo staying in business and making cool boxes is for them to make money somehow. If it would just go over my DSL IP connection I'd be happier than the whole dialing-in thing.
Please note that i never said it was "good" -- only effective. The reason we consider Somalia a failure is because a military victory with a diplomatic failure is, ultimately, a failure.
But both Vietnam and Somalia were instances where the guys on the ground don't deserve to have civilians believe THEY failed. Those soldiers were well-trained and did their jobs, and deserve to be respected (or feared) based on their real effectiveness, not on political shortcomings...
Facing people with shovels? If they were facing people with shovels there wouldn't have been a hundred+ US Rangers and Delta pinned down in the first place.
They were facing plenty of women and children in the crowds, but to suggest the somalis were unarmed is to defy logic in the extreme (not to mention defying all the bullet holes in people and things).
If they were facing kids with shovels and rocks, how the hell did they shoot down 5 helicopters? Must have been pretty big rocks. You contradict not only the physical evidence of the scene, but the very statements of both Somalis and US forces that were on the ground and in command that day.
And i didn't disagree it was a political failure -- but the soldiers aren't there to be politicians. They accomplished their mission and more, with a kill ratio any military force would be jizzing over. That we pulled out of somalia afterwards has nothing to do with the sheer military effectiveness of that ground fighting force.
Well, its kinda like the movie trailer for "Black Hawk Down" saying that the efforts in Somalia back in 1993 were a "Triumph".
Well, it was one of the most successful infantry actions in human history.
A few dozen american soldiers were dropped into an area that turned out to be a trap -- they were pinned down, surrounded by several thousand hostile, armed forces. The americans suffered only a hundred casualties and 18 deaths. They inflicted over a thousand casualties and 500 deaths on the enemy.
Politically it was a failure, but those soldiers did their job with lethal effectiveness that should be a warning to anyone who imagines the US military is a paper tiger.
LOL -- it wasnt a troll, i was just being sarcastic:) I never expected anyone to take it seriously!
I worry sometimes that if "a Modest Proposal" was published today that people would start serious discussions about eating children and miss the irony entirely...
Before this discussion gets biased, we must present equal time for the Libertarian side of the argument:
If the people of Anniston simply stopped buying products from Monsanto, then they could use their "market forces" to stop this kind of activity.
If all we do is ask for "government regulation" then companies will just start producing thier deadly chemicals outside our borders. Then America would lose twice!
So remember, kids: Trust the market, it is perfect.
And don't eat the fish.
Pay for writers?
on
The Forever War
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
This review does no justice to the book, and is distressingly superficial. If it was written by a sixth-grader, I would give this "book report" a barely passing grade.
To review the Forever War as simply Starship Troopers with different training and aliens is to miss the point. This is not a book "about" aliens or technology or hyperspace travel or combat suits.
This is a book about the nature of war -- the people we send to fight, society's relationship to those people, and the permanent affect such an undertaking has on the lives of those it touches.
The Forever War is an excellent novel, not because it is a sci-fi tale, but because it is a human tale -- an admonition to society that conflicts are not to be entered lightly, and that we have a responsibility to those who fight, well beyond merely supplying them with bullets.
Any employer that bases their opinion of you based on something you posted years ago is probably so shortsighted/clueless themselves that I would not want to work for them
Unless that "something" was a question about a serious medical condition.
Someone posting to alt.support.aids in 1992 probably didn't expect it to be information that an employer would accidentally stumble across a decade later.
I would say that one out of every ten times I come to slashdot, it is in the non-user specific mode (meaning that the personalization server is down, from what taco said a while ago).
So technically a server is running, but the site itself isn't really functional.
Plenty of times I show up and the only page I can see is the main page -- clicking on the story link takes me back to the main page...
which it will be branded as Entry level, Upgrade and WorkPlace
I can't imagine what a nightmare this idiotic Laurel and Hardy naming scheme going to be to support.
Which version do you have? Upgrade? An Entry level upgrade? you can't upgrade from workplace, thats a lower version. You want to buy an upgrade? Do you want the full version of upgrade or the upgrade of the entry level version of workplace?
Hey, I was on Devon the first feild season so I am totally aware of the serious scientific merits of what is going on.
The guys in the Hab wearing suits don't really have much to do with the real science -- they're the publicity part.
The suits they're wearing are not even remotely Mars prototypes, they're just suits they built to simulate wearing a spacesuit. They look kinda like the soft design that Hamilton Standard has, but even HS doesn't know for sure what they're going to do. NASA hasn't gotten to the point of really making specs, so everythign is a guess on that point.
But the geology, biology, communications work, etc, are real. I've finished my paper on the medical research that I did, and it wasn't fake (though it certainly could have been done wihtout me flying so far). But it sounds better to say we did the research on Devon with the whole MARS group than to say we did it last tuesday in my aprtment. It makes a big difference in funding (fortunately and unfortunately).
But if I had done it in the lab, I wouldn't have spent a week with the HS guys learning about space suit design, and suggesting to them ways that they could incorporate new medical technology into the suit itself. I wouldn't have learned about the biological research going on with bacteria that can survive space, or the communications workon how we send this data around.
I'm not really defending it so much as sayign it's not as harebrained as it seems from the outside. Having a regular research season -- ANYWHERE -- that space/mars researchers can get together and work is a good idea. Having it someplace "exciting" helps pay the bills and get volunteers and news coverage for the ultimate goal of space exploration.
But yes, Zubrin can (and has) damaged the notion of Mars exploration as much as help it. You'll notice NASA is not participating as visibly (though many NASA researchers are still going on their own projects). That's part of why I'm not there again -- the Mars Society and NASA have their own personality issues to sort out before NASA will pay my airfare again. I'm optimistic about the project and goals, but not so much that i want to go on my own dime or work for free...
The suit designers DO test this stuff in the backyard and easy to access places. There is more going on than suit testing though -=- there is geological and biological as well as psychological testing going on. Having all these things in one place (whether it be the utah desert or devon island) at the same time gives a chance to see how things really fit together.
The suit designers don't necessarily have a real geologist on hand to tell them if the gloves work for geology in the lab, but in this field environment, they can get the real geologists to try out things they otherwise wouldn't run across. Cross-pollination of ideas occurs, just like any conference or gathering.
You can debate how cheap it would be to do everything in Utah, but don't underestimate the importance of good publicity-friendly science. Doing a $100k project in Utah won't get you as much money as doing a $500k project in Devon. NASA learned long ago that people only pay for what they get excited about, which is half the reason we use human astronauts. It woud be cheaper and safer to just send all-robotic missions, but if there were no people going they would have an even HARDER time getting money.
is there anything about testing a "space suit" that can't be done in a lab, as opposed to hauling it to the middle of nowhere
Everything works in the lab. basically they want to see what happens when you're NOT in the lab. can you really ride an ATV and climb around in a meteorite crater while carrying tools? Do you trip and fall a lot, what is it like for someone to learn to walk in it? Can you pick up rocks and anylize them wearing the gloves? How easy is it to get in and out of in an airlock by yourself? Etc...
The temperature isn't that bad during summer -- the sun is up 24 hours a day (usually above freezing). In winter you definitely don't want to be around, though...
I agree -- after reading through all the messages, it certainly seems that Christoph is genuinely upset, but not about anything that anyone in particular has done.
There are no GPL violations or real ethical lapses here, it just seems like maybe the community is too big for the kind of relationships he wants the developers and users to have.
This is more of a "tragic on all sides" situation than a case of anyone doing something wrong.
Y'know, if we got all these satellite guys together, the ones in the previous story could have helped the EU save a few billion by using parts from Radio Shack...
What is it like to be a b-movie star, and a very successful one at that? I assume that everyone going into acting has the fantasy that they'll be the A-list guys making $20 million a picture, so are you happy to be in that "middle ground"?
You're well-known and very liked (probably moreso than the hunk-of-the-month actors), but is it frustrating to feel typecast in that way, or fulfilling to be successful, albeit not in the stereotypical hollywood sense?
He's not being sued, he got charged with some sort of "crime". And since it's a felony, the punishment is apparently five full years in the state penitentiary. I wish I could say it was urban legend.
Inyeresting, and thanks for the link. I'm curious how clear-cut the assault on the woman was, given the reaction in this case -- the husband "threatened" the ref by saying he was gonna kick his butt, so a lot of this would hinge on whether or not it was really a case of self-defense. It should be an interesting case when it reaches court and gets better documentation with witnesses and such -- right now it seems to be the story told only by these two victims in which the whole world is picking on them, which makes me suspicious. But given the facts as stated, its clearly an application of the law that wouldn't be upheld, so long as they are able to fight it long enough.
"Fighting words" are one of the few classes of speech that can be legally restricted, so the question would be whether or not the person uttering them was acting in self-defense or was provoking the fight in the first place.
I do remember a story (on television, I think) of a storeowner who was repeatedly getting break-ins by (I think) a rooftop window. He decided to wire it up with electricity as a deterrent. A would-be criminal wound up dead because it was more than just a deterrent; it was deadly.
Yes, there is a law against booby-traps. I found this out when trying to figure out how to protect my car which is frequently broken into.
The idea isn't that the criminal doesn't deserve it -- its that an innocent bystander or emergency worker could fall prey to it. Imagine a fireman trying to come in through a window that had been electrified. Oops! One of those times where I realized how many considerations have to go into lawmaking.
Seriously, though -- how many of us have had to show up and "fix" a CD-R drive because the user put in that stupid plastic disc?
I'm beginning to think they should label it with "this is not a blank CD -- it is a useless piece of plastic. Just throw it away" (like the books that have "this page intentionally left blank")...
I find it offensive and a travesty of justice that my life would be worth less (under such a new set of laws) than a minority or someone with an "alternative" lifestyle
Well your life is "worth less" than a police officer, fireman, mailman, etc, already. We've always had separate "classes" of victims, some more important than others.
But this doesn't have anything to do with the inherent worth of the victime -- it has to do with society's judgement of how unacceptable the motivation is.
If you kill a man who's sleeping with your wife, you've got a pretty good chance of getting a light sentence. If you kill a cop in the line of duty, you've got a really good chance of getting the death penalty. They might be the same person, same skin color, but the reason you kill them is different. And if you kill him for being black, it won't be as bad as if you'd killed him for being a cop, but much worse than if you'd killed him for cutting you off in traffic.
Some talk show I listen to, the guy was reading a newspaper clipping about a guy
With all due respect to this unimpeachable source, there is a distinct possibility that this is either being grossly misreporte, misinterpreted, or never happened in this manner.
I'm reminded of the story of the crook who cuts himself breaking into a persons house and sues the homeowner -- people bring it up all the time when complaining about the crazy legal system. Certainly its a terrible story, but it also has never happened, its an urban legend.
That said, there are a dozen different scenarios that could explain the set of facts you presented. Perhaps the man is being SUED by the assailant, which has nothing to do with the police. He'll lose, of course, but everyone in this country has the right to sue. Perhaps the victim's husband yelled the epithet not during the attack, but three days later outside the courthouse, in the context of a threat. Being the victim doesn't give you carte blanche to threaten people.
There are many other circumstances in which these two people could have this factual interaction in which the person yelling does not look particularly sympathetic. Until you see the complete story you're just as likely to come to the wrong conclusion as the right one.
Case in point, that damn McDonald's coffee case that everyone points to as an example of how stupid our court system is. But anyone who read more than the first paragraph of the story knows that in fact the case was handled as it should have been, and that the woman also didn't get that huge financial windfall that everyone reported.
Most of you haven't lived through the type of hate that's being spread by the hate speech being banned
Are you kidding? Americans have honed hatred into a fine artform. We have more social groups who would like to annihilate each other than any other nation on earth. Heck, we still bicker about our civil war, and that was over a hundred years ago.
But the answer is not to tighten down the lid -- then the pressure builds until it explodes. Instead we let all these groups go on and on about how much they hate each other, until quite frankly everyone is bored. With twelve talk shows a day to let off your Nazi steam in public, it's hard to pretend you're not just a bunch of idiots in black boots with nothing better to do.
Slashdot Mirror
They're not selling the data. They're selling the format and convenience of the data.
You can buy a sunday paper and get the TV listings. Somehow TV Guide stays in business selling the same "data" to people, but usually in a better format.
Not that i wouldn't love to be able to get all the stuff for free, but the key to tivo staying in business and making cool boxes is for them to make money somehow. If it would just go over my DSL IP connection I'd be happier than the whole dialing-in thing.
They add a couple of canadian article (politics, society, etc), but its pretty much the same damn magazine.
A few extra pictures of beavers, that sort of thing...
:P
Please note that i never said it was "good" -- only effective. The reason we consider Somalia a failure is because a military victory with a diplomatic failure is, ultimately, a failure.
But both Vietnam and Somalia were instances where the guys on the ground don't deserve to have civilians believe THEY failed. Those soldiers were well-trained and did their jobs, and deserve to be respected (or feared) based on their real effectiveness, not on political shortcomings...
Facing people with shovels? If they were facing people with shovels there wouldn't have been a hundred+ US Rangers and Delta pinned down in the first place.
They were facing plenty of women and children in the crowds, but to suggest the somalis were unarmed is to defy logic in the extreme (not to mention defying all the bullet holes in people and things).
If they were facing kids with shovels and rocks, how the hell did they shoot down 5 helicopters? Must have been pretty big rocks. You contradict not only the physical evidence of the scene, but the very statements of both Somalis and US forces that were on the ground and in command that day.
And i didn't disagree it was a political failure -- but the soldiers aren't there to be politicians. They accomplished their mission and more, with a kill ratio any military force would be jizzing over. That we pulled out of somalia afterwards has nothing to do with the sheer military effectiveness of that ground fighting force.
Well, its kinda like the movie trailer for "Black Hawk Down" saying that the efforts in Somalia back in 1993 were a "Triumph".
Well, it was one of the most successful infantry actions in human history.
A few dozen american soldiers were dropped into an area that turned out to be a trap -- they were pinned down, surrounded by several thousand hostile, armed forces. The americans suffered only a hundred casualties and 18 deaths. They inflicted over a thousand casualties and 500 deaths on the enemy.
Politically it was a failure, but those soldiers did their job with lethal effectiveness that should be a warning to anyone who imagines the US military is a paper tiger.
LOL -- it wasnt a troll, i was just being sarcastic :) I never expected anyone to take it seriously!
I worry sometimes that if "a Modest Proposal" was published today that people would start serious discussions about eating children and miss the irony entirely...
Before this discussion gets biased, we must present equal time for the Libertarian side of the argument:
If the people of Anniston simply stopped buying products from Monsanto, then they could use their "market forces" to stop this kind of activity.
If all we do is ask for "government regulation" then companies will just start producing thier deadly chemicals outside our borders. Then America would lose twice!
So remember, kids: Trust the market, it is perfect.
And don't eat the fish.
This review does no justice to the book, and is distressingly superficial. If it was written by a sixth-grader, I would give this "book report" a barely passing grade.
To review the Forever War as simply Starship Troopers with different training and aliens is to miss the point. This is not a book "about" aliens or technology or hyperspace travel or combat suits.
This is a book about the nature of war -- the people we send to fight, society's relationship to those people, and the permanent affect such an undertaking has on the lives of those it touches.
The Forever War is an excellent novel, not because it is a sci-fi tale, but because it is a human tale -- an admonition to society that conflicts are not to be entered lightly, and that we have a responsibility to those who fight, well beyond merely supplying them with bullets.
Any employer that bases their opinion of you based on something you posted years ago is probably so shortsighted/clueless themselves that I would not want to work for them
Unless that "something" was a question about a serious medical condition.
Someone posting to alt.support.aids in 1992 probably didn't expect it to be information that an employer would accidentally stumble across a decade later.
I would say that one out of every ten times I come to slashdot, it is in the non-user specific mode (meaning that the personalization server is down, from what taco said a while ago).
So technically a server is running, but the site itself isn't really functional.
Plenty of times I show up and the only page I can see is the main page -- clicking on the story link takes me back to the main page...
...it's that stuff in the back of my refrigerator!
:)
which means its time to move
which it will be branded as Entry level, Upgrade and WorkPlace
I can't imagine what a nightmare this idiotic Laurel and Hardy naming scheme going to be to support.
Which version do you have? Upgrade? An Entry level upgrade? you can't upgrade from workplace, thats a lower version. You want to buy an upgrade? Do you want the full version of upgrade or the upgrade of the entry level version of workplace?
Hey, I was on Devon the first feild season so I am totally aware of the serious scientific merits of what is going on.
The guys in the Hab wearing suits don't really have much to do with the real science -- they're the publicity part.
The suits they're wearing are not even remotely Mars prototypes, they're just suits they built to simulate wearing a spacesuit. They look kinda like the soft design that Hamilton Standard has, but even HS doesn't know for sure what they're going to do. NASA hasn't gotten to the point of really making specs, so everythign is a guess on that point.
But the geology, biology, communications work, etc, are real. I've finished my paper on the medical research that I did, and it wasn't fake (though it certainly could have been done wihtout me flying so far). But it sounds better to say we did the research on Devon with the whole MARS group than to say we did it last tuesday in my aprtment. It makes a big difference in funding (fortunately and unfortunately).
But if I had done it in the lab, I wouldn't have spent a week with the HS guys learning about space suit design, and suggesting to them ways that they could incorporate new medical technology into the suit itself. I wouldn't have learned about the biological research going on with bacteria that can survive space, or the communications workon how we send this data around.
I'm not really defending it so much as sayign it's not as harebrained as it seems from the outside. Having a regular research season -- ANYWHERE -- that space/mars researchers can get together and work is a good idea. Having it someplace "exciting" helps pay the bills and get volunteers and news coverage for the ultimate goal of space exploration.
But yes, Zubrin can (and has) damaged the notion of Mars exploration as much as help it. You'll notice NASA is not participating as visibly (though many NASA researchers are still going on their own projects). That's part of why I'm not there again -- the Mars Society and NASA have their own personality issues to sort out before NASA will pay my airfare again. I'm optimistic about the project and goals, but not so much that i want to go on my own dime or work for free...
The suit designers DO test this stuff in the backyard and easy to access places. There is more going on than suit testing though -=- there is geological and biological as well as psychological testing going on. Having all these things in one place (whether it be the utah desert or devon island) at the same time gives a chance to see how things really fit together.
The suit designers don't necessarily have a real geologist on hand to tell them if the gloves work for geology in the lab, but in this field environment, they can get the real geologists to try out things they otherwise wouldn't run across. Cross-pollination of ideas occurs, just like any conference or gathering.
You can debate how cheap it would be to do everything in Utah, but don't underestimate the importance of good publicity-friendly science. Doing a $100k project in Utah won't get you as much money as doing a $500k project in Devon. NASA learned long ago that people only pay for what they get excited about, which is half the reason we use human astronauts. It woud be cheaper and safer to just send all-robotic missions, but if there were no people going they would have an even HARDER time getting money.
is there anything about testing a "space suit" that can't be done in a lab, as opposed to hauling it to the middle of nowhere
Everything works in the lab. basically they want to see what happens when you're NOT in the lab. can you really ride an ATV and climb around in a meteorite crater while carrying tools? Do you trip and fall a lot, what is it like for someone to learn to walk in it? Can you pick up rocks and anylize them wearing the gloves? How easy is it to get in and out of in an airlock by yourself? Etc...
We don't really know what the Mars suits will be like yet -- there are both soft and hard designs right now...
The temperature isn't that bad during summer -- the sun is up 24 hours a day (usually above freezing). In winter you definitely don't want to be around, though...
It's not that cold, barely ever gets below freezing. Keep in mind that the sun is up 24 hours a day (though it gets low in the horizon).
I agree -- after reading through all the messages, it certainly seems that Christoph is genuinely upset, but not about anything that anyone in particular has done.
There are no GPL violations or real ethical lapses here, it just seems like maybe the community is too big for the kind of relationships he wants the developers and users to have.
This is more of a "tragic on all sides" situation than a case of anyone doing something wrong.
Y'know, if we got all these satellite guys together, the ones in the previous story could have helped the EU save a few billion by using parts from Radio Shack...
What is it like to be a b-movie star, and a very successful one at that? I assume that everyone going into acting has the fantasy that they'll be the A-list guys making $20 million a picture, so are you happy to be in that "middle ground"?
You're well-known and very liked (probably moreso than the hunk-of-the-month actors), but is it frustrating to feel typecast in that way, or fulfilling to be successful, albeit not in the stereotypical hollywood sense?
He's not being sued, he got charged with some sort of "crime". And since it's a felony, the punishment is apparently five full years in the state penitentiary. I wish I could say it was urban legend.
Inyeresting, and thanks for the link. I'm curious how clear-cut the assault on the woman was, given the reaction in this case -- the husband "threatened" the ref by saying he was gonna kick his butt, so a lot of this would hinge on whether or not it was really a case of self-defense. It should be an interesting case when it reaches court and gets better documentation with witnesses and such -- right now it seems to be the story told only by these two victims in which the whole world is picking on them, which makes me suspicious. But given the facts as stated, its clearly an application of the law that wouldn't be upheld, so long as they are able to fight it long enough.
"Fighting words" are one of the few classes of speech that can be legally restricted, so the question would be whether or not the person uttering them was acting in self-defense or was provoking the fight in the first place.
I do remember a story (on television, I think) of a storeowner who was repeatedly getting break-ins by (I think) a rooftop window. He decided to wire it up with electricity as a deterrent. A would-be criminal wound up dead because it was more than just a deterrent; it was deadly.
Yes, there is a law against booby-traps. I found this out when trying to figure out how to protect my car which is frequently broken into.
The idea isn't that the criminal doesn't deserve it -- its that an innocent bystander or emergency worker could fall prey to it. Imagine a fireman trying to come in through a window that had been electrified. Oops! One of those times where I realized how many considerations have to go into lawmaking.
Seriously, though -- how many of us have had to show up and "fix" a CD-R drive because the user put in that stupid plastic disc?
I'm beginning to think they should label it with "this is not a blank CD -- it is a useless piece of plastic. Just throw it away" (like the books that have "this page intentionally left blank")...
I find it offensive and a travesty of justice that my life would be worth less (under such a new set of laws) than a minority or someone with an "alternative" lifestyle
Well your life is "worth less" than a police officer, fireman, mailman, etc, already. We've always had separate "classes" of victims, some more important than others.
But this doesn't have anything to do with the inherent worth of the victime -- it has to do with society's judgement of how unacceptable the motivation is.
If you kill a man who's sleeping with your wife, you've got a pretty good chance of getting a light sentence. If you kill a cop in the line of duty, you've got a really good chance of getting the death penalty. They might be the same person, same skin color, but the reason you kill them is different. And if you kill him for being black, it won't be as bad as if you'd killed him for being a cop, but much worse than if you'd killed him for cutting you off in traffic.
Some talk show I listen to, the guy was reading a newspaper clipping about a guy
With all due respect to this unimpeachable source, there is a distinct possibility that this is either being grossly misreporte, misinterpreted, or never happened in this manner.
I'm reminded of the story of the crook who cuts himself breaking into a persons house and sues the homeowner -- people bring it up all the time when complaining about the crazy legal system. Certainly its a terrible story, but it also has never happened, its an urban legend.
That said, there are a dozen different scenarios that could explain the set of facts you presented. Perhaps the man is being SUED by the assailant, which has nothing to do with the police. He'll lose, of course, but everyone in this country has the right to sue. Perhaps the victim's husband yelled the epithet not during the attack, but three days later outside the courthouse, in the context of a threat. Being the victim doesn't give you carte blanche to threaten people.
There are many other circumstances in which these two people could have this factual interaction in which the person yelling does not look particularly sympathetic. Until you see the complete story you're just as likely to come to the wrong conclusion as the right one.
Case in point, that damn McDonald's coffee case that everyone points to as an example of how stupid our court system is. But anyone who read more than the first paragraph of the story knows that in fact the case was handled as it should have been, and that the woman also didn't get that huge financial windfall that everyone reported.
Most of you haven't lived through the type of hate that's being spread by the hate speech being banned
Are you kidding? Americans have honed hatred into a fine artform. We have more social groups who would like to annihilate each other than any other nation on earth. Heck, we still bicker about our civil war, and that was over a hundred years ago.
But the answer is not to tighten down the lid -- then the pressure builds until it explodes. Instead we let all these groups go on and on about how much they hate each other, until quite frankly everyone is bored. With twelve talk shows a day to let off your Nazi steam in public, it's hard to pretend you're not just a bunch of idiots in black boots with nothing better to do.