I work with people that make something from nothing on a daily basis.
Well, shit, theres the problem. Let the poor bastards build on existing technology.:)
Seriously though, I see you are getting lots of shit for JPL not producing much cool stuff. I'm dissapointed with the progress as well, and I think that perhaps the way our space agencies are organized is a big part of the problem. Too much CYA and not the right balance of bright young engineers too stupid to know they 'cant do that' to seasoned engineers who can keep them pointed in the right general direction. Lack of grand, high visibility goals hasn't helped either. The american public has the attention span of an ADHD child in a Toys-R-Us super store, the news of botched unmanned missions makes the eyes glaze over pretty quick. Now, if you could burn up some real people with some unit conversion errors, that would probably get some attention;).
Can't keep doing the same old thing if you want to keep getting money. If NASA et al want money they need to market their stuff. Glitz and glamor, sell it to the public. Make it cool and high visibility. Mars Survivor anybody?
While I don't disagree with what you've said (in the short to medium term), I don't think that is necessarily a reason we should not establish permanent, mostly self-sustaining human presense on other planets and moons.
And I think we are even less able to say what technology will be capible of accomplishing 1000 years from now than our ancestors from the year 1003 were. Its concievable that we will have the ability to either terraform other planets or bioengineer ourselves to better suit the achievable biospheres of other worlds.
Incidentally, Yes, distributing this file is in direct violation of the included license agreement, so if you give a rats ass about such things, don't redistribute or download it.
In that case, any work which happens to contain only characters in HPaTCoS could be shown to be a 'derivative work', simply by coming up with an algo that would produce the work.
Heck, it would be trivial produce an Xth order function with roots that completely describe any number of short poems it terms of HPaTCoS.
I write and test typical business software, and I keep a paper log of all changes I make. Its pretty-level, but if something does break I can take a quick look back at the log to see if something I changed might have caused it. If so I can pull the CVS version(s) for that day and compair.
I could keep it on the computer, but its just easier to write it down. Besides, a pad of paper with crap written on it makes it look like I'm actually doing something:)
The RIAA probably doesn't need to worry too much about looking bad, from a consumer opinion point of view. Its not like you can walk into a music store and avoid the albums under the 'RIAA' brand.
Or maybe you can, I haven't purchased a new CD in about 5 years.
I used to deliver pizza to people in the projects in the small town where I lived. Not one of them had a TV less than 36 inches, and several had those 60+" monsters.
What passes for science fiction movies today are generally no more than shoot-em-up's in space.
Thats why I usually hate sci-fi movies.
Its also why my wife hates going to sci-fi movies, its mostly shoot-em-up with none of the 'chick-flick' stuff that makes for interesting stories or characters.
Maybe the net-distributed indy films will start filling in these areas in the next few decades. Rendered actors and sets are improving at an amazing rate. I'd be willing to trade some of the polish of Hollywood for some good sci-fi with less-than perfect effects.
The book industry is rapidly pricing themselves out of what the masses can afford.
Indeed. A good SciFi paperback is costing me about 8 bucks now, more than I'm usually willing to pay, unless its Vinge or the like.
It's not that I can't afford the books, 8 bux is barely more than pocket change, but I just don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth from one small book. Now, if I could get goods books for 4 bucks each, I'd be happy to double or triple my spending. As it is I'll stick with shopping at the local book resellers and e-bay (I'm amazed at the books you can get for a buck on ebay).
Bush LIED about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
IIRC, they mostly said that they had reason to believe that Iraq was developing WMD and was not complying with inspection requirements (unless UN or US invasion was emanant).
Its possible he was simply misinformed due to poor intelligence (I mean gathered data, not Georges mental capacity). Either way I think the real reasons for the invasion are many.
Curious that we don't hear anything about Afganistan any more isn't it?
The Patriot act was some thousands of pages long. Do you really think it was written up after 9/11
If there is one thing lawyers excel at, its generating massive amounts of legalesee in very short amounts of time. This is, IMO, similar to how the oracles operated, by generating lots of completely unintelligible data, which they can later interpret to mean whatever they like. The methods are aimed at a different kind of public, but the techniques and goals are the same.
Its going to get worse before it gets better, hopefully a correction will happen in a way that does not disrupt world my local economy too much.
ObSenselessRant: Oh yeah, and Piers Anthony is a dirty old man. "Bio of A Space Tyrant" sucked once he got into the hero having consensual sex with a 12 year old. That coupled with Xanth novels titled "The Color of Her Panties" makes me want to have authorities monitoring his shack in Florida... ]
What? No mention of Anthony's 'Firefly' or 'Pornacopia'? 'The Color of Her Panties', along with the rest of the Xanth novels are very tame unless you are about 8 years old (thanks to the Adult Conspiracy no doubt). There are a couple of pages of 'Firefly' that I would not be surprised to find floating around underaged porn sites.
I suppose there is nothing wrong with being a card-carrying Dirty Old Man, as long as it is in thought rather than action.
The line between writing about this stuff and actually becoming a catholic priest is rather a large one I think.
When I was delivering pizza for a living our delivery area covered two small towns and much of the surrounding rural area. Delivery time ran about 1 hour on average.
We had one guy that would regularly tip 100%, sometimes better. It takes 6 minutes to get an order though the pizza oven, and we'd generally have it to his house in 12 to 15 minutes, often with some free hotwings or something.
I think people often underestimate how effective tipping is when done right (that is, when you regularly tip about half again or better what the average tip is, and you have established yourself as a known customer).
For a very small number of launches (so what's the point)
The point is that the heavy lift capability of such a craft would make frequent launches using that technology unnecessary. You just take everything with you the first time.
You're suprised that you're not seeing research into a technology that would be insanely expensive and dangerous to develop
With an insanely large payoff in terms of payload capacity or speed of delivery for spacecraft. We are talking about reducing the time for missions to the outer planets from decades to months.
would have to work flawlessly every time
No, it simply has to fail in a reasonably safe way. This would not be as difficult as people like to think. Consider that with the launch energies available one could launch from anywhere on Earth with no problems.
and which we could only use for a small number of launches ever?
Each launch could potentially carry more than the sum total payload of every launch in history, with room too spare.
Try to be a bit more objective, the anti-nuclear activists FUD tacticts are clouding your judgment.
That is true, but there is only so much processing power one can squeeze out of a given CPU, as long as there are technology gains to be made, lets keep making them.
I've only got another 60 or 70 years before I need to transfer my conciousness to a computer you know.
I used to use that system too, before I finally realized that I could simplify it by just piling all the paper in the trash bin to begin with.
I empty it once a month and try to avoid throwing drink cans in there before the unconsumed contents evaporate down to a nice syrup that won't get on my hands if I have to retrieve anything.
True, which is fine, thats part of the point of OSS, they can do with it what they please.
But if they start writing lots of software on it, at the least they will be producing developers with lots of linux/GNU software experiance, who might end up make changes that the community can use. At the very least they aren't giving money to microsoft.
The only way to "deflect" an asteroid with nukes is "to land" nukes on it, dig them into it, and blast a hughe portion of the asteroid away with it.
IANARS, but I do not believe this is true. The Orion project proposed detonating nuclear bombs a few hundred yards behind a pusher plate to propel a large spacecraft. This did not ablate the surface of the plate for its propulsion, it used the energy of the material ejected from the explosion.
The same principle could be used to move an astroid without actually landing on it. Thats not to say that this method would necessarily be more effective than blasting chunks off the surface, just that it could be used (and would probably have to be used if the astroid were a large metallic chunk rather than a flying gravel pile)
I watched that too. The really bonkers part is that it was serious research and would likely work without serious environmental issues (for a very small number of launches).
I think they said that they calculated an Orion launch would add around 1% to the nuclear material already released by atomic testing at the time.
With the huge amount of power available from nuclear fuel and the probably insanely ineffiencent way that Orion would have harnessed it, I'm suprised we are seeing lots of research into small rocket gains (like the areospike engine) instead of research into nuclear fuels.
Slashdot Mirror
I work with people that make something from nothing on a daily basis.
:)
;).
Well, shit, theres the problem. Let the poor bastards build on existing technology.
Seriously though, I see you are getting lots of shit for JPL not producing much cool stuff. I'm dissapointed with the progress as well, and I think that perhaps the way our space agencies are organized is a big part of the problem. Too much CYA and not the right balance of bright young engineers too stupid to know they 'cant do that' to seasoned engineers who can keep them pointed in the right general direction. Lack of grand, high visibility goals hasn't helped either. The american public has the attention span of an ADHD child in a Toys-R-Us super store, the news of botched unmanned missions makes the eyes glaze over pretty quick. Now, if you could burn up some real people with some unit conversion errors, that would probably get some attention
Can't keep doing the same old thing if you want to keep getting money. If NASA et al want money they need to market their stuff. Glitz and glamor, sell it to the public. Make it cool and high visibility. Mars Survivor anybody?
While I don't disagree with what you've said (in the short to medium term), I don't think that is necessarily a reason we should not establish permanent, mostly self-sustaining human presense on other planets and moons.
And I think we are even less able to say what technology will be capible of accomplishing 1000 years from now than our ancestors from the year 1003 were. Its concievable that we will have the ability to either terraform other planets or bioengineer ourselves to better suit the achievable biospheres of other worlds.
Incidentally, Yes, distributing this file is in direct violation of the included license agreement, so if you give a rats ass about such things, don't redistribute or download it.
Thanks for the link, the file has been made available by others.
Fortunately I haven't been forced to upgrade to XP yet, so this will be fine.
I can't find a download for it, got any more information about it?
In that case, any work which happens to contain only characters in HPaTCoS could be shown to be a 'derivative work', simply by coming up with an algo that would produce the work.
Heck, it would be trivial produce an Xth order function with roots that completely describe any number of short poems it terms of HPaTCoS.
I write and test typical business software, and I keep a paper log of all changes I make. Its pretty-level, but if something does break I can take a quick look back at the log to see if something I changed might have caused it. If so I can pull the CVS version(s) for that day and compair.
:)
I could keep it on the computer, but its just easier to write it down. Besides, a pad of paper with crap written on it makes it look like I'm actually doing something
The RIAA probably doesn't need to worry too much about looking bad, from a consumer opinion point of view. Its not like you can walk into a music store and avoid the albums under the 'RIAA' brand.
Or maybe you can, I haven't purchased a new CD in about 5 years.
I used to deliver pizza to people in the projects in the small town where I lived. Not one of them had a TV less than 36 inches, and several had those 60+" monsters.
Just gotta know where your priorties are I guess.
Under 10 pounds? damn, in the US you're lucky to get to PARK at the airport for those rates.
What passes for science fiction movies today are generally no more than shoot-em-up's in space.
Thats why I usually hate sci-fi movies.
Its also why my wife hates going to sci-fi movies, its mostly shoot-em-up with none of the 'chick-flick' stuff that makes for interesting stories or characters.
Maybe the net-distributed indy films will start filling in these areas in the next few decades. Rendered actors and sets are improving at an amazing rate. I'd be willing to trade some of the polish of Hollywood for some good sci-fi with less-than perfect effects.
The book industry is rapidly pricing themselves out of what the masses can afford.
Indeed. A good SciFi paperback is costing me about 8 bucks now, more than I'm usually willing to pay, unless its Vinge or the like.
It's not that I can't afford the books, 8 bux is barely more than pocket change, but I just don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth from one small book. Now, if I could get goods books for 4 bucks each, I'd be happy to double or triple my spending. As it is I'll stick with shopping at the local book resellers and e-bay (I'm amazed at the books you can get for a buck on ebay).
Ebay has everything: New chicken suit. Buy it now for 110 bucks.
Bush LIED about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
IIRC, they mostly said that they had reason to believe that Iraq was developing WMD and was not complying with inspection requirements (unless UN or US invasion was emanant).
Its possible he was simply misinformed due to poor intelligence (I mean gathered data, not Georges mental capacity). Either way I think the real reasons for the invasion are many.
Curious that we don't hear anything about Afganistan any more isn't it?
The Patriot act was some thousands of pages long. Do you really think it was written up after 9/11
If there is one thing lawyers excel at, its generating massive amounts of legalesee in very short amounts of time. This is, IMO, similar to how the oracles operated, by generating lots of completely unintelligible data, which they can later interpret to mean whatever they like. The methods are aimed at a different kind of public, but the techniques and goals are the same.
Its going to get worse before it gets better, hopefully a correction will happen in a way that does not disrupt world my local economy too much.
ObSenselessRant: Oh yeah, and Piers Anthony is a dirty old man. "Bio of A Space Tyrant" sucked once he got into the hero having consensual sex with a 12 year old. That coupled with Xanth novels titled "The Color of Her Panties" makes me want to have authorities monitoring his shack in Florida... ]
What? No mention of Anthony's 'Firefly' or 'Pornacopia'? 'The Color of Her Panties', along with the rest of the Xanth novels are very tame unless you are about 8 years old (thanks to the Adult Conspiracy no doubt). There are a couple of pages of 'Firefly' that I would not be surprised to find floating around underaged porn sites.
I suppose there is nothing wrong with being a card-carrying Dirty Old Man, as long as it is in thought rather than action.
The line between writing about this stuff and actually becoming a catholic priest is rather a large one I think.
Turning on your dog is illegal in most areas of the US, regardless of what all those videos on the 'net show.
When I was delivering pizza for a living our delivery area covered two small towns and much of the surrounding rural area. Delivery time ran about 1 hour on average.
We had one guy that would regularly tip 100%, sometimes better. It takes 6 minutes to get an order though the pizza oven, and we'd generally have it to his house in 12 to 15 minutes, often with some free hotwings or something.
I think people often underestimate how effective tipping is when done right (that is, when you regularly tip about half again or better what the average tip is, and you have established yourself as a known customer).
For a very small number of launches (so what's the point)
The point is that the heavy lift capability of such a craft would make frequent launches using that technology unnecessary. You just take everything with you the first time.
You're suprised that you're not seeing research into a technology that would be insanely expensive and dangerous to develop
With an insanely large payoff in terms of payload capacity or speed of delivery for spacecraft. We are talking about reducing the time for missions to the outer planets from decades to months.
would have to work flawlessly every time
No, it simply has to fail in a reasonably safe way. This would not be as difficult as people like to think. Consider that with the launch energies available one could launch from anywhere on Earth with no problems.
and which we could only use for a small number of launches ever?
Each launch could potentially carry more than the sum total payload of every launch in history, with room too spare.
Try to be a bit more objective, the anti-nuclear activists FUD tacticts are clouding your judgment.
That is true, but there is only so much processing power one can squeeze out of a given CPU, as long as there are technology gains to be made, lets keep making them.
I've only got another 60 or 70 years before I need to transfer my conciousness to a computer you know.
I used to use that system too, before I finally realized that I could simplify it by just piling all the paper in the trash bin to begin with.
I empty it once a month and try to avoid throwing drink cans in there before the unconsumed contents evaporate down to a nice syrup that won't get on my hands if I have to retrieve anything.
How much do you complain when you have to junk a $50 printer?
Lets see, I can buy a new printer for $20 with a color cart installed, or buy a new cart for $35.
I'll rip the nice little motors and gears out of the printer for other projects and junk the rest, thanks.
True, which is fine, thats part of the point of OSS, they can do with it what they please.
But if they start writing lots of software on it, at the least they will be producing developers with lots of linux/GNU software experiance, who might end up make changes that the community can use. At the very least they aren't giving money to microsoft.
I personally am not sure how much of the prophecy is to be taken literally, and how much is figurative
Easy, the ones you can find concrete examples for are meant to be taken literally, the rest are figurative.
The only way to "deflect" an asteroid with nukes is "to land" nukes on it, dig them into it, and blast a hughe portion of the asteroid away with it.
IANARS, but I do not believe this is true. The Orion project proposed detonating nuclear bombs a few hundred yards behind a pusher plate to propel a large spacecraft. This did not ablate the surface of the plate for its propulsion, it used the energy of the material ejected from the explosion.
The same principle could be used to move an astroid without actually landing on it. Thats not to say that this method would necessarily be more effective than blasting chunks off the surface, just that it could be used (and would probably have to be used if the astroid were a large metallic chunk rather than a flying gravel pile)
I watched that too. The really bonkers part is that it was serious research and would likely work without serious environmental issues (for a very small number of launches).
I think they said that they calculated an Orion launch would add around 1% to the nuclear material already released by atomic testing at the time.
With the huge amount of power available from nuclear fuel and the probably insanely ineffiencent way that Orion would have harnessed it, I'm suprised we are seeing lots of research into small rocket gains (like the areospike engine) instead of research into nuclear fuels.