Do you really think that if the government didn't have NASA that there wouldn't be "stupid government restrictions" on firing large missiles into the atmosphere and beyond?
The existence of the Space Shuttle was used to hinder privatization, so yes.
And the Space Shuttle was an utter (and expensive) failure compared to its original design goals - "NASA expected the Space Shuttle fleet to ultimately complete 25 to 60 missions per year. Plans called for up to 20 launches per year from each of three launch pads." http://www.spaceline.org/rocketsum/shuttle-program.html
I do not hate Dick Nixon because he was the usual scum sucking Washington swine dog of a politician they all seem to be. I do hate him for approving the Space Shuttle and perhaps ruining my chances forever for going to into space.
Can we please have a Godwin's Law for Car Analogies?
A better way to have ended WWII rather than the nuke, would have been to have driven all the bad guys down the autobahn at top speed without a windshield?
The Sweet 16 interpreter remains the most amazing piece of code I have ever seen. It emulates a full featured 16 bit processor and is written in just over a page (256 bytes) of code. Absolutely no wasted space and reasonably fast. I doubt one programmer in a million could take those specs make it work and fit it in the space budget.
The guys who pioneered programming languages as versus hand coded assembly were the guys in IBM who wrote an efficient FORTRAN compiler. They once and for all killed the notion that hand coded assembly language was the only way to get efficient code. At least John Backus got mention though none of his team did.
I notice that Herman Hollerith (inventor of the punch card) was absent too.
I might as well finish off the list of omissions. Andrew Morton (#2 penguin), David Miller (Linux networking), and Al Viro (VFS). Maybe Greg KH (Linux device drivers) too.
And one applications guy: I think Ken'ichi Handa (Mule - MUlti Lingual extensions to Emacs) belongs on the list.
What monopoly? The U.S. government didn't do anything to prevent these guys from their commercial enterprise...they didn't do anything anti-competitive.
And you do not remember the Phoenix in the early 1980s.
If you want to respond...please address my main point, which is: We can have BOTH successful private space development AND publicly funded scientific exploration...they are not mutually exclusive.
Only on a level playing field. The (real) Phoenix got bogged down in government regulation and was shitcanned before it really had a chance.
I did not work on it, but another colleague of mine from NASA, did...
Heck, even this launch... which I do believe to be not just newsworthy but down right historic... is just a footnote in science columns right now if it is being covered by "mainstream" news media at all.
That's a pity. This is historic.
I despise the current Chinese government, but I applaud their efforts at moving off Earth. Competition Is Good. Keeping all of one's eggs in one basket is never a particularly safe idea. Whether or not you believe Algore and the GW crowd, the undeniable fact is that Earth goes through major climate change periodically. The sooner we get some people away, the better. Perhaps you have to be a parent to understand the feeling.
Are you implying that public funded space exploration is wrong for some reason? If so you are dead wrong.
I'm not the person you're responding to, but I used to work for NASA in the 1980s and I think that yes, public funded space exploration is wrong. WRONG WRONG WRONG.
We could have had something like this about three decades ago if there weren't so many stupid government restrictions in this area.
Hmmm. After reading the Diablo III FAQ I see that they will support systems I want to play games on (Mac OSX has a bit too many proprietary things for me to be totally comfortable with it, but hey, it's still Unix inside). I guess I will buy a copy on general principles. Thanks for the tip.
I'd go with they shouldn't but they would because not everyone learns the same with the same methods.
Fair enough.
Since folks learn at different rates, perhaps the dumbest criteria for classes is age if the goal is producing the most educated people.
My gripes with the education industry in the US will not be settled in a slashdot article. At the very least, I can guarantee that my sons will never get anywhere close to a US, particularly a California public school. It's the least I can do for them.
[Shameless plug: I've been to Mactan Island[1] several times. It is a wonderful vacation place and well worth visiting.]
So, just think -- kids in Venezuela watching educational videos on programming 6502 assembly, and using a 6502 emu, all on their cheap Classmates. Sounds pretty cool to me.
And you completely miss the point I was trying to make.
Why should anyone need a video to learn how to program (anything)?
My understanding is that custom hardware supercomputers like BlueGene are generally moving away from operating systems and more toward compiling code that runs pretty much directly on the metal.
I am not an IBM employee, nor am I privvy to any IBM strategery, but... I can reverse engineer the design decisions behind what I see their engineers posting to LKML.
"Compute nodes" on a supercomputer do not need a "minimal O/S", they only need to be designated as such and then left alone when scheduling decisions are made. There are Linux kernel patches to do this; I'm not sure whether Linus has accepted them yet or not.
You probably don't know, but the current government offers these computers to kids in elementary school (those from low income families) as also some other conventional laptops (read: 500USD laptops) to kids in medium and high school. But the truth is that year after year, kids get more stupid.
You can blame some of that on television, the rest of it on poor education one way or another.
The most valuable education I ever got was sitting down with a friend in HS to write a development system. I wrote the editor, he wrote the assembler (and later rewrote the editor in assembly language instead of binary patching with the Apple "mini-assembler").
I would not want to sit down in front of one of today's computers and learn the assembly language via a data sheet like I did with the 6502. In some ways, our technology has gotten backwards and "advances" in programming haven't been.
This list seems incomplete, it makes no mention of Java, not even in the honorable mentions!
Nor any mention of FORTRAN[1], Perl[2], MySQL, PostgreSQL, any Unix[3], etc.
Sigh.
[1] The successful proof of concept that proved once and for all that hand crafted assembly language was a lose.
[2] Perl came before Java and is significant in the fact that it was the first large-scale community developed language. Arguably, Perl has a larger contribution to the web than Java.
[3] BSD Unix was the Reference Implementation for the Arpanet.
But then again, Linux is just as old as Windows. Doesn't matter. Soon they will all go the way of the Dodo.
Actually, MS Windows is a bit older than Linux, but much younger than Unix. See my latest journal entry for a long explanation of why Linux, the BSDs, etc. are NOT going away any time soon.
Slashdot Mirror
I have an axe to grind, no doubt about it. Before I accidentally clicked the wrong button I meant to link:
"Never forget, space flight is COOL!" - http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312074/history.htm
Over the years, yes. But he was asking for a car analogy for Godwin's Law and we all know who built the autobahn.
Do you really think that if the government didn't have NASA that there wouldn't be "stupid government restrictions" on firing large missiles into the atmosphere and beyond?
The existence of the Space Shuttle was used to hinder privatization, so yes.
And the Space Shuttle was an utter (and expensive) failure compared to its original design goals - "NASA expected the Space Shuttle fleet to ultimately complete 25 to 60 missions per year. Plans called for up to 20 launches per year from each of three launch pads." http://www.spaceline.org/rocketsum/shuttle-program.html
I do not hate Dick Nixon because he was the usual scum sucking Washington swine dog of a politician they all seem to be. I do hate him for approving the Space Shuttle and perhaps ruining my chances forever for going to into space.
Can we please have a Godwin's Law for Car Analogies?
A better way to have ended WWII rather than the nuke, would have been to have driven all the bad guys down the autobahn at top speed without a windshield?
SWEET 16
The Sweet 16 interpreter remains the most amazing piece of code I have ever seen. It emulates a full featured 16 bit processor and is written in just over a page (256 bytes) of code. Absolutely no wasted space and reasonably fast. I doubt one programmer in a million could take those specs make it work and fit it in the space budget.
It's a true work of art.
I'm having trouble thinking of the name of the SAMBA dude
Jeremy Allison and he has his own Wikipedia page.
Whether she was the absolute first is disputable.
The guys who pioneered programming languages as versus hand coded assembly were the guys in IBM who wrote an efficient FORTRAN compiler. They once and for all killed the notion that hand coded assembly language was the only way to get efficient code. At least John Backus got mention though none of his team did.
I notice that Herman Hollerith (inventor of the punch card) was absent too.
I might as well finish off the list of omissions. Andrew Morton (#2 penguin), David Miller (Linux networking), and Al Viro (VFS). Maybe Greg KH (Linux device drivers) too.
And one applications guy: I think Ken'ichi Handa (Mule - MUlti Lingual extensions to Emacs) belongs on the list.
What did Tesla do that actually got built and worked?
How about the first working Alternating Current distribution system?
What monopoly? The U.S. government didn't do anything to prevent these guys from their commercial enterprise...they didn't do anything anti-competitive.
And you do not remember the Phoenix in the early 1980s.
If you want to respond...please address my main point, which is: We can have BOTH successful private space development AND publicly funded scientific exploration...they are not mutually exclusive.
Only on a level playing field. The (real) Phoenix got bogged down in government regulation and was shitcanned before it really had a chance.
I did not work on it, but another colleague of mine from NASA, did ...
Heck, even this launch... which I do believe to be not just newsworthy but down right historic... is just a footnote in science columns right now if it is being covered by "mainstream" news media at all.
That's a pity. This is historic.
I despise the current Chinese government, but I applaud their efforts at moving off Earth. Competition Is Good. Keeping all of one's eggs in one basket is never a particularly safe idea. Whether or not you believe Algore and the GW crowd, the undeniable fact is that Earth goes through major climate change periodically. The sooner we get some people away, the better. Perhaps you have to be a parent to understand the feeling.
Are you implying that public funded space exploration is wrong for some reason? If so you are dead wrong.
I'm not the person you're responding to, but I used to work for NASA in the 1980s and I think that yes, public funded space exploration is wrong. WRONG WRONG WRONG.
We could have had something like this about three decades ago if there weren't so many stupid government restrictions in this area.
These clowns have only managed to get 25 percent of their ships to sub orbit and you are babbling about that being some sort of 'accomplishment'???
The US, Soviets/Russians, Chinese have similar numbers at a similar stage of development.[1]
This is a huge advancement. Space just isn't for the elite any more and it is about time! W00t! And hats off to the SpaceX engineers.
[1] How do American children count down? 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0 shit. - joke from the 1950's.
Hmmm. After reading the Diablo III FAQ I see that they will support systems I want to play games on (Mac OSX has a bit too many proprietary things for me to be totally comfortable with it, but hey, it's still Unix inside). I guess I will buy a copy on general principles. Thanks for the tip.
Yes, but will this have any affect on the release of Wrath of the Lich King? Inquiring minds want to know!
I'd go with they shouldn't but they would because not everyone learns the same with the same methods.
Fair enough.
Since folks learn at different rates, perhaps the dumbest criteria for classes is age if the goal is producing the most educated people.
My gripes with the education industry in the US will not be settled in a slashdot article. At the very least, I can guarantee that my sons will never get anywhere close to a US, particularly a California public school. It's the least I can do for them.
[Shameless plug: I've been to Mactan Island[1] several times. It is a wonderful vacation place and well worth visiting.]
[1] Where Magellan was killed by Lapu-lapu.
So, just think -- kids in Venezuela watching educational videos on programming 6502 assembly, and using a 6502 emu, all on their cheap Classmates. Sounds pretty cool to me.
And you completely miss the point I was trying to make.
Why should anyone need a video to learn how to program (anything)?
My understanding is that custom hardware supercomputers like BlueGene are generally moving away from operating systems and more toward compiling code that runs pretty much directly on the metal.
I am not an IBM employee, nor am I privvy to any IBM strategery, but ... I can reverse engineer the design decisions behind what I see their engineers posting to LKML.
"Compute nodes" on a supercomputer do not need a "minimal O/S", they only need to be designated as such and then left alone when scheduling decisions are made. There are Linux kernel patches to do this; I'm not sure whether Linus has accepted them yet or not.
You probably don't know, but the current government offers these computers to kids in elementary school (those from low income families) as also some other conventional laptops (read: 500USD laptops) to kids in medium and high school.
But the truth is that year after year, kids get more stupid.
You can blame some of that on television, the rest of it on poor education one way or another.
The most valuable education I ever got was sitting down with a friend in HS to write a development system. I wrote the editor, he wrote the assembler (and later rewrote the editor in assembly language instead of binary patching with the Apple "mini-assembler").
I would not want to sit down in front of one of today's computers and learn the assembly language via a data sheet like I did with the 6502. In some ways, our technology has gotten backwards and "advances" in programming haven't been.
This list seems incomplete, it makes no mention of Java, not even in the honorable mentions!
Nor any mention of FORTRAN[1], Perl[2], MySQL, PostgreSQL, any Unix[3], etc.
Sigh.
[1] The successful proof of concept that proved once and for all that hand crafted assembly language was a lose.
[2] Perl came before Java and is significant in the fact that it was the first large-scale community developed language. Arguably, Perl has a larger contribution to the web than Java.
[3] BSD Unix was the Reference Implementation for the Arpanet.
Approaching it from the rear end, sir.
Considering that goatse made the list, that's an oddly appropriate, though still disturbing, comment.
3.Slashdot stories are second-hand information,and most value is in user comments.
Duh.
But come on, two entries for Digg when sites like Slashdot and FreeRepublic.com were there first (and are better done)?
The article sucked. As others have pointed out, it was
a
little
bit
of
content
spread
out
over
many
many
slow
to
load
pages.
Two mentions of Digg? Not one of Slashdot, even in the top 100 (though goatse, sigh, was mentioned)?
Not a single mention of Unix, Linux or Open Source software or the GPL?
Add this article to its own category EPIC FAIL.
I read about this last week on an English language Chinese news website.
But then again, Linux is just as old as Windows. Doesn't matter. Soon they will all go the way of the Dodo.
Actually, MS Windows is a bit older than Linux, but much younger than Unix. See my latest journal entry for a long explanation of why Linux, the BSDs, etc. are NOT going away any time soon.
AI won't be solved until computers are creative.
INTERESTING. NOW LETS TALK ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR MOTHER.
Good god. The lameness filter kills what should have been a great joke. Sigh.