AKA strawmen. If someone actually believes strawman arguments, then a strawman seems like an accurate representation of the position. So this may be more ignorance than malice.
Right on all counts. I considered a cheaper flyby ticket a possibility, but concluded it wouldn't cost SpaceX MUCH more to do lunar orbit, and the value proposition would be much higher for tourists, so they'd just skip the flyby option (at least at first, when they start doing this regularly). They'd probably have a medic/technician/security/attendant onboard, but the per-flight cost would be only say $10k per onboard employee. Insurance would be the BIG cost, at least until they'd done a few dozen flights without issue; probably in the $millions per flight to start. Mission control could eventually be automated far beyond what is done currently with airplanes, and this is mostly a one-time infrastructure cost. Their existing mission control could also help reduce those costs. New parts and repairs would need to be made, true, but I suspect these would end up cheaper than insurance.
People will get out of their seats whenever the main engines are off, they're hardly going to be strapped in 7 days straight. The cargo room should be ample, so food storage will be no problem. Existing dehydration/filtration should take care of waste mass, and most of the water needs (although how many billionaires would be eager to drink water that once came out of someone's urethra? they might just use fresh water for drinking and recycled for bathing.) Entertainment is the easiest part, most people will be in awe of the space view (there will be windows), and sending photos to their friends and family. There will be tablets etc. for videos/music/video games. Playing around with zero-G will be amusing for a few days. Zero-G sex will amuse many the entire trip; what weird position can you be the first to invent and name? Zero-G sports (like tennis) already exist and are sometimes played on space stations, there could be a room dedicated to sports. Other exercises could be devised.
Indeed. They'd need a live demonstration of a launch escape system (ideally with full-envelope coverage, although that should be easy due to the powered-landing capability of Starship) before many would sign on. The insurance would still be expensive, though.
The new plan is to send the BFR on trips to the moon, early on. Later, they'll send it to Mars; this may only happen after they build their next-gen Raptor engines. There is some sense to this. If they can cram 100 space tourists into Starship, then send it to orbit the Moon for a day (7 day space vacation), they could make LOTS of money. $10 million per ticket x 100 seats = $1beeelion per launch (prior launch of fuel into orbit required, however), and they'd only pay the cost of fuel, probably less than $1million. After a few years, once they get more super heavies/starships built, they could bring the price down to $1 million for a ticket, still make massive profits, and it'd hugely increase the number of people who would pay to go to the moon. Only a few dedicated people would be willing to spend a few years of their life to go to Mars, wait a while for a launch window to arrive, then come back. Of course, they could also offer moon landings, maybe build a moon hotel. Maybe put some Starlink satellites in lunar orbit for lunar internet connectivity, although the 1,250ms latency would be killer.
Internet access on Mars would suck (due to the half-hour latency). Bet there's a business opportunity for an orbiting data center that'd host mirrors of various sites.
A contraction is many of the world's largest conglomerates could precede layoffs, or other measures that accelerate a recession. Probably $trillions of GDP, worldwide, come from smartphone-related employment/goods/services and those of their associated contractors. The US telecom monopolies could thus be seen as a world security risk, if they form an implementation/protocol monoculture that is easy to attack.
I wonder if large elements become unstable because they're approaching the size at which quantum effects no longer manifest. I imagine it's known, but also wonder why certain non-isotopes are radioactive.
Indeed. We could even call this hypothetical delivery person a 'milk man', maybe dress them all in white to denote their station. They could even service lonely housewives, for extra efficiency. I'll get on this, right away!
For balance, the judges seemed skeptical that the issue wasn't already settled with the 2005 'Brand X' case, where a Supreme Court ruled that cable modem service was an 'information service'. It's possible they'll contradict that decision or say it doesn't apply, but that seems less than clear.
The best metaphor in the Ars comments is that DNS is comparable to Caller ID, and that doesn't automatically cause phone service to be classified as an 'information service.'
Long-distance packets usually travel via fiber, which only transmit signals at 0.7x the speed of light (due to internal bouncing). Beaming it to an orbital relay at 1.0x the speed of light could thus be faster. Optical switches need to convert the optical signal at the endpoints as well.
I have google-analytics.com set to Untrusted in NoScript. Privacy Badger blocks the whole domain by default. I suspect Firefox's tracking protection also blocks it. This post gets extra irony points given Slashdot uses Google Analytics.
Indeed. I have a relative who drove cross-country to his new home in NYC. He fell asleep at the wheel in the NY countryside, and woke up in a cornfield at the wheel of a totaled car. He got it towed to the junkyard and started his new life, possessions in hand; never bought a car again, despite working for Toyota.
Slashdot Mirror
Said the piemaker after selling one million units.
I just updated to 6.1.4 yesterday, to patch a security flaw. Later in the same day they have a new major release? Bah.
Perhaps one made of fire, yes.
AKA strawmen. If someone actually believes strawman arguments, then a strawman seems like an accurate representation of the position. So this may be more ignorance than malice.
Damn, stack ranking is getting cutthroat!
Right on all counts. I considered a cheaper flyby ticket a possibility, but concluded it wouldn't cost SpaceX MUCH more to do lunar orbit, and the value proposition would be much higher for tourists, so they'd just skip the flyby option (at least at first, when they start doing this regularly). They'd probably have a medic/technician/security/attendant onboard, but the per-flight cost would be only say $10k per onboard employee. Insurance would be the BIG cost, at least until they'd done a few dozen flights without issue; probably in the $millions per flight to start.
Mission control could eventually be automated far beyond what is done currently with airplanes, and this is mostly a one-time infrastructure cost. Their existing mission control could also help reduce those costs. New parts and repairs would need to be made, true, but I suspect these would end up cheaper than insurance.
People will get out of their seats whenever the main engines are off, they're hardly going to be strapped in 7 days straight. The cargo room should be ample, so food storage will be no problem. Existing dehydration/filtration should take care of waste mass, and most of the water needs (although how many billionaires would be eager to drink water that once came out of someone's urethra? they might just use fresh water for drinking and recycled for bathing.) Entertainment is the easiest part, most people will be in awe of the space view (there will be windows), and sending photos to their friends and family. There will be tablets etc. for videos/music/video games. Playing around with zero-G will be amusing for a few days. Zero-G sex will amuse many the entire trip; what weird position can you be the first to invent and name? Zero-G sports (like tennis) already exist and are sometimes played on space stations, there could be a room dedicated to sports. Other exercises could be devised.
Indeed. They'd need a live demonstration of a launch escape system (ideally with full-envelope coverage, although that should be easy due to the powered-landing capability of Starship) before many would sign on. The insurance would still be expensive, though.
Google told me 1.25 light-seconds, I guess that was rounded.
The new plan is to send the BFR on trips to the moon, early on. Later, they'll send it to Mars; this may only happen after they build their next-gen Raptor engines.
There is some sense to this. If they can cram 100 space tourists into Starship, then send it to orbit the Moon for a day (7 day space vacation), they could make LOTS of money. $10 million per ticket x 100 seats = $1beeelion per launch (prior launch of fuel into orbit required, however), and they'd only pay the cost of fuel, probably less than $1million. After a few years, once they get more super heavies/starships built, they could bring the price down to $1 million for a ticket, still make massive profits, and it'd hugely increase the number of people who would pay to go to the moon. Only a few dedicated people would be willing to spend a few years of their life to go to Mars, wait a while for a launch window to arrive, then come back. Of course, they could also offer moon landings, maybe build a moon hotel. Maybe put some Starlink satellites in lunar orbit for lunar internet connectivity, although the 1,250ms latency would be killer.
Internet access on Mars would suck (due to the half-hour latency). Bet there's a business opportunity for an orbiting data center that'd host mirrors of various sites.
Soon phones will be expensive enough you can put down your phone as collateral to get a mortgage.
A contraction is many of the world's largest conglomerates could precede layoffs, or other measures that accelerate a recession. Probably $trillions of GDP, worldwide, come from smartphone-related employment/goods/services and those of their associated contractors. The US telecom monopolies could thus be seen as a world security risk, if they form an implementation/protocol monoculture that is easy to attack.
That strategy's working out SO well for cable monopolies in response to cord-cutting, right?
Shareholders care more about profit than revenue, anyhow (unless they anticipate the latter can be easily converted to the former via e.g. layoffs).
I wasn't taught about neutron excess in school. I thought the number of neutrons and protons were always equal, except in isotopes. Or I just forgot.
I wonder if large elements become unstable because they're approaching the size at which quantum effects no longer manifest. I imagine it's known, but also wonder why certain non-isotopes are radioactive.
It's still possible, but the probability halves with each successive element.
Indeed. We could even call this hypothetical delivery person a 'milk man', maybe dress them all in white to denote their station. They could even service lonely housewives, for extra efficiency. I'll get on this, right away!
Why exactly would it require 20,000 people? If it were fully-automated, it'd have no minimum inhabitant requirement.
For balance, the judges seemed skeptical that the issue wasn't already settled with the 2005 'Brand X' case, where a Supreme Court ruled that cable modem service was an 'information service'. It's possible they'll contradict that decision or say it doesn't apply, but that seems less than clear.
The best metaphor in the Ars comments is that DNS is comparable to Caller ID, and that doesn't automatically cause phone service to be classified as an 'information service.'
Long-distance packets usually travel via fiber, which only transmit signals at 0.7x the speed of light (due to internal bouncing). Beaming it to an orbital relay at 1.0x the speed of light could thus be faster. Optical switches need to convert the optical signal at the endpoints as well.
You're right, seems I'd manually blocked it. Can't revert for some reason (bug?), so can't check what the default setting is.
I have google-analytics.com set to Untrusted in NoScript. Privacy Badger blocks the whole domain by default. I suspect Firefox's tracking protection also blocks it.
This post gets extra irony points given Slashdot uses Google Analytics.
I'd worry that suddenly honking at a sleeping driver might cause them to jerk the wheel, disabling autopilot and hitting someone the next lane over.
Indeed. I have a relative who drove cross-country to his new home in NYC. He fell asleep at the wheel in the NY countryside, and woke up in a cornfield at the wheel of a totaled car. He got it towed to the junkyard and started his new life, possessions in hand; never bought a car again, despite working for Toyota.