you think that once that tax is enacted it would actually be used for NASA and NASA only... kinda like in Virginia when they told us that the LOTTO would solve our education budget problems... Yeah, it sounded like a great idea then, but how much money went from the lotto to education? Not a significant percentage and with that I'm being generous...
The moral? Never trust a politician. Especially not one who can only think about the money in your wallet...
So far I have also not seen any discussion on why we should throw more funding at an agency that has really lacked direction in the last couple of years. I'm all for the idea of NASA (and having them be well funded), but I'd rather my tax dollars get used efficiently, not squandered on budget overruns from a station that won't even serve its intended function.
Whether the science is sound or not was not my point, although I think it can be argued effectively either way. An implementatio, IMHO, is the only thing that can effectively prove it either way. My point was that $$ will finally flow INTO the aerospace sector, instead of AWAY FROM. Even if this doesn't conclusively prove that a benefit would result, it has the potential to prolong the life of a company that might otherwise go under (since all govt contracts go to lowest bidder, effectively)...
Let's not forget that Clinton cut NASA's budget 7 years out of eight. "Dubya" is pushing for a National Missile Defense which will help to invigorate some of the companies directly associated with space exploration. An side benefit of such a project might be lowered costs for LEO, or higher payload rates...
Some of these movies are masterpieces. Some, like "The Sixth Day" are less ambitious. They are just entertaining.
That movie sucked. I used to love watching Arnold in action flicks, but he hasn't been in a good one since True Lies, and even that was more comedic. There wasn't anything redeeming about the movie, not even Robert Duvall....
Action movies are supposed to make you drool for the next moment, chase scene, one-liner, etc. The Sixth Day wound up making me look at the time way too often to possibly be mistaken as anything entertaining.
I just wanted to interject here for a second, if I may..
First, I'd like to say that I think you've made some really good points about development of space and why it isn't really going anywhere.
Second, about Europa: I may be mistaken, but somewhere up in the thread earlier you said that Europa was a giant source of water-ice. I don't think anyone really knows that for certain right now. Last I heard, there was a good possibility that Europa had seas of methane. Just thought I'd mention that.
But on everything else I agree with you wholeheartedly. Why the designers of the ISS didn't take a cue from Arthur C. Clarke and use a rotational hub as the living quarters for the inhabitants is utterly beyond me.
Another thing I think maybe should be mentioned regards the shuttle. It was conceived of by von Braun as mainly a Mars vehicle, if I remember correctly. Congress castrated the program and we wound up with a half assed, piecemeal implementation of von Braun's goal, which was: a fleet of vehicles capable of making a trip to Mars with a whole slew of space stations.
You said it yourself.. those children had problems. They probably came from abusive households. They needed us (society) to give them love and instead we gave them images of the most graphic violence imagineable. I'd say it did more than "not help any", it plagued their already fragile minds with those visions until they were so desensitized that they acted out in the only way they knew how... the only way we had shown them.
This stuff needs to be illegal.
I couldn't agree with you less on this. Fragile minded or not, those people chose to go and do what they did. A video game didn't teach them to go and kill people. It showed them how to kill demons. demons != people... Saying that video games should be banned is like saying that anyone who plays D&D is a satanist and should be burned at the stake. Come on. Get real, please.
Their classmates, as already noted by somebody else in this thread, never showed them any compassion. Maybe the problem is with those people who feel it is their duty to rub shit in timid people's faces. Maybe you need to ban football. Maybe you need to make it illegal for these people to grow up. Part of life is struggle. Struggle with your peers, with yourself, with your society. If you can't hack it, you die or go crazy. Or kill a lot of people. In any case, they cracked, not because of some video game, but because they were too weak to be responsible for their own actions any longer.
Irresponsible people are not going to take away my video games. I need them to let off steam. I don't kill people. I just like to do something else besides code for my classes. People like you who are willing to yank my freedom to play a video game are seriously mistaken in the direction you're taking. I think you need to reevaluate the situation and shut your mouth until you've thought it out a bit more.
You think GW Bush is an idiot. Look at it this way: what segment of the populace votes most often and consistently (hint, not the 18 year olds)? Who understands the "techno-culture" the best? The 18 year olds (ie, not the baby boomers). Therefore, IMHO, GW Bush couldn't possibly be an idiot; he's courting the vote of the larger sections of the voting population to better his chances of winning. You don't win by making 18 year olds happy, Jon. I guess you wouldn't make a good politico, then.
NOTE: I have made no comments for/against Bush in this matter. I just wanted to point out that Katz needs to think about what he writes before he puts it up on/.
Suggestion: If you took a slant that wasn't so obviously designed to evoke some emotion from me (a computer geek), perhaps I would have bothered reading the entire article; however, I can't stand reading more than a couple of sentences when you try so hard to take advantage of your demographic so that you can turn/. into some nasty political machine. Please, tone it down or cut it out.
Our society (the US) is idiotic and selfish. I can't believe we've collectively sunk so low as to allow such ridiculous litigation into the public record. The fact that lawyers can constipate our justice system with such crap only verifies what I've longed feared. We're doomed as a society because we no longer have any brains or spines.
Somebody posted up a wonderful quote from Thomas Jefferson the other day. I'm sorry to say that I can't give credit directly to the person who posted this up, but I think it's absolutely wonderful. As for me, I can't wait to move to Sweden....
Quote follows: Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson 13 Aug. 1813Writings 13:333--34
It has been pretended by some, (and in England especially,) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions, and not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. But while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural and even an hereditary right to inventors. It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. By an universal law, indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him who occupies it, but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property goes with it. Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction ofman, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody. Accordingly, it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was, until we copied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general law, gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and personal act, but, generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society; and it may be observed that the nations which refuse monopolies of invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful devices.
Yes, getting up from your work for awhile may help you. No, it's probably not a cure-all. But you know, there really isn't much else to do.
Here is a list of things to try: (i've personally tested these myself)
1. Turn off the computer and go watch a movie
2. Play some q3a and get smacked down by those people who have much faster connections than you.
3. Get up, go for a run or even a walk. You've been working in this field longer than me, but when I have a really serious problem, the healthiest thing for me and my equipment/girlfriend/monitor/etc. is to get away from the problem for just a little bit.
4. If you've ever run alot you know what it's like when you're running up a nasty hill and you think you can't go anymore, but then you realize how close you are to the top... then, you make yourself feel guilty by telling yourself that there's no good reason to stop now... whatever you tell yourself, you need to persevere. Alot of times that's the only lesson you can get out of these things.
5. Lastly, this probably isn't an issue for you, but I've seen it way too often to leave out mention of it. When you don't know where to go with your project, Can't quite think about it the way you'd like, whatever; walk away from the machine and go somewhere, making sure to bring a pencil and some paper with you. Then, talk to yourself while writing stuff down about your problem. Way too often (my father included) I see people trying to simply hack through something, waiting for the electron gun to show them the path to enlightenment... it's not going to happen unless you already understand the problem.
Alright, I think I've gone far enough now. There's my two cents.
We still use it because the companies tell us that we still use it. There is still money left in fossil fuels, and you won't see any "innovative discoveries" until after we've run out of the copious supply that we have now. Of course there's other alternatives right now, but who's gonna push them? The Oil Companies?
Somebody bought a positive Linux review? Somehow I doubt this would be the first time that an organization supposedly impartial was influenced by dollars in front of their noses. Let's face it, it happens all the time in this industry, otherwise why would we have such a problem with RDRAM vs. SDRAM. Every reviewer I've read comes to the side of SDRAM, but corparate marketing always tries to exert it's influence on the free market.
Perhaps I'm totally wrong and completely unjustified in my view, but it just seems to me that this is only what we should expect when dealing with large corporations (don't forget that CNET is a pretty big company too, and their word shouldn't be taken automatically... I wonder who owns shares of CNET (ZD)? )
Alright, I've hurried into my aspestos-lined jumpsuit now... turn on the flames!
I use MS Products and I personally was very excited originally when I read the story on the Mac version of IE5.5 a month or two ago. Now, obviously, I'm very much disappointed with the turn of events.
So, I was thinking earlier this morning about what it was that could be done to let them know how we (the people who use their products, willingly or not) feel about their decision.
Consequently, I decided to be a minimalist: I wanted to let them know that I was angry, but I didn't feel like writing them a big, long-winded email about it, so I decided to just copy the press release from WaSP and send it to them a couple of times in different departments (since their comment system for 5.5 was broken and their other comment system only allowed you to comment on 4.0), just to make sure that it got there.:-)
I think that if they got enough of a response to this, something might actually be done about it. Even if it takes until the 6.0 version, or some later SP.
I would just like to say "Thank you" for being one of the only people to have pointed this out directly. When people try to draw lines like this, it divides us from the other group. You don't want to ever be like "those people" over there.... somehow I suspect that more than a couple of people are going to fall prey to this, forgetting of course that they were themselves the subject of stereotyping back in high school. (isn't it amazing at how quickly some forget?) On another, related note, I've been watching Katz spew his articles out for some time, and I've never been more convinced that he's one of those people who opens his mouth just so he can hear his own voice... 'nuff said
Slashdot Mirror
you think that once that tax is enacted it would actually be used for NASA and NASA only... kinda like in Virginia when they told us that the LOTTO would solve our education budget problems... Yeah, it sounded like a great idea then, but how much money went from the lotto to education? Not a significant percentage and with that I'm being generous...
The moral? Never trust a politician. Especially not one who can only think about the money in your wallet...
So far I have also not seen any discussion on why we should throw more funding at an agency that has really lacked direction in the last couple of years. I'm all for the idea of NASA (and having them be well funded), but I'd rather my tax dollars get used efficiently, not squandered on budget overruns from a station that won't even serve its intended function.
China is not a superpower. I won't even back this up with evidence, since it should be obvious.
Whether the science is sound or not was not my point, although I think it can be argued effectively either way. An implementatio, IMHO, is the only thing that can effectively prove it either way. My point was that $$ will finally flow INTO the aerospace sector, instead of AWAY FROM. Even if this doesn't conclusively prove that a benefit would result, it has the potential to prolong the life of a company that might otherwise go under (since all govt contracts go to lowest bidder, effectively)...
Let's not forget that Clinton cut NASA's budget 7 years out of eight. "Dubya" is pushing for a National Missile Defense which will help to invigorate some of the companies directly associated with space exploration. An side benefit of such a project might be lowered costs for LEO, or higher payload rates...
Some of these movies are masterpieces. Some, like "The Sixth Day" are less ambitious. They are just entertaining.
That movie sucked. I used to love watching Arnold in action flicks, but he hasn't been in a good one since True Lies, and even that was more comedic. There wasn't anything redeeming about the movie, not even Robert Duvall....
Action movies are supposed to make you drool for the next moment, chase scene, one-liner, etc. The Sixth Day wound up making me look at the time way too often to possibly be mistaken as anything entertaining.
I just wanted to interject here for a second, if I may..
First, I'd like to say that I think you've made some really good points about development of space and why it isn't really going anywhere.
Second, about Europa: I may be mistaken, but somewhere up in the thread earlier you said that Europa was a giant source of water-ice. I don't think anyone really knows that for certain right now. Last I heard, there was a good possibility that Europa had seas of methane. Just thought I'd mention that.
But on everything else I agree with you wholeheartedly. Why the designers of the ISS didn't take a cue from Arthur C. Clarke and use a rotational hub as the living quarters for the inhabitants is utterly beyond me.
Another thing I think maybe should be mentioned regards the shuttle. It was conceived of by von Braun as mainly a Mars vehicle, if I remember correctly. Congress castrated the program and we wound up with a half assed, piecemeal implementation of von Braun's goal, which was: a fleet of vehicles capable of making a trip to Mars with a whole slew of space stations.
I couldn't agree with you less on this. Fragile minded or not, those people chose to go and do what they did. A video game didn't teach them to go and kill people. It showed them how to kill demons. demons != people... Saying that video games should be banned is like saying that anyone who plays D&D is a satanist and should be burned at the stake. Come on. Get real, please.
Their classmates, as already noted by somebody else in this thread, never showed them any compassion. Maybe the problem is with those people who feel it is their duty to rub shit in timid people's faces. Maybe you need to ban football. Maybe you need to make it illegal for these people to grow up. Part of life is struggle. Struggle with your peers, with yourself, with your society. If you can't hack it, you die or go crazy. Or kill a lot of people. In any case, they cracked, not because of some video game, but because they were too weak to be responsible for their own actions any longer.
Irresponsible people are not going to take away my video games. I need them to let off steam. I don't kill people. I just like to do something else besides code for my classes. People like you who are willing to yank my freedom to play a video game are seriously mistaken in the direction you're taking. I think you need to reevaluate the situation and shut your mouth until you've thought it out a bit more.
And here's why.
You think GW Bush is an idiot. Look at it this way: what segment of the populace votes most often and consistently (hint, not the 18 year olds)? Who understands the "techno-culture" the best? The 18 year olds (ie, not the baby boomers). Therefore, IMHO, GW Bush couldn't possibly be an idiot; he's courting the vote of the larger sections of the voting population to better his chances of winning. You don't win by making 18 year olds happy, Jon. I guess you wouldn't make a good politico, then.
NOTE: I have made no comments for/against Bush in this matter. I just wanted to point out that Katz needs to think about what he writes before he puts it up on /.
Suggestion: If you took a slant that wasn't so obviously designed to evoke some emotion from me (a computer geek), perhaps I would have bothered reading the entire article; however, I can't stand reading more than a couple of sentences when you try so hard to take advantage of your demographic so that you can turn /. into some nasty political machine. Please, tone it down or cut it out.
Our society (the US) is idiotic and selfish. I can't believe we've collectively sunk so low as to allow such ridiculous litigation into the public record. The fact that lawyers can constipate our justice system with such crap only verifies what I've longed feared. We're doomed as a society because we no longer have any brains or spines.
Somebody posted up a wonderful quote from Thomas Jefferson the other day. I'm sorry to say that I can't give credit directly to the person who posted this up, but I think it's absolutely wonderful. As for me, I can't wait to move to Sweden....
Quote follows:
Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson
13 Aug. 1813Writings 13:333--34
It has been pretended by some, (and in England especially,) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions, and not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. But while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural and even an hereditary right to inventors. It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. By an universal law, indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him who occupies it, but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property goes with it. Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction ofman, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody. Accordingly, it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was, until we copied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general law, gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and personal act, but, generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society; and it may be observed that the nations which refuse monopolies of invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful devices.
...but I think I'm going to say it anyways.
Yes, getting up from your work for awhile may help you. No, it's probably not a cure-all. But you know, there really isn't much else to do.
Here is a list of things to try: (i've personally tested these myself)
1. Turn off the computer and go watch a movie
2. Play some q3a and get smacked down by those people who have much faster connections than you.
3. Get up, go for a run or even a walk. You've been working in this field longer than me, but when I have a really serious problem, the healthiest thing for me and my equipment/girlfriend/monitor/etc. is to get away from the problem for just a little bit.
4. If you've ever run alot you know what it's like when you're running up a nasty hill and you think you can't go anymore, but then you realize how close you are to the top... then, you make yourself feel guilty by telling yourself that there's no good reason to stop now... whatever you tell yourself, you need to persevere. Alot of times that's the only lesson you can get out of these things.
5. Lastly, this probably isn't an issue for you, but I've seen it way too often to leave out mention of it. When you don't know where to go with your project, Can't quite think about it the way you'd like, whatever; walk away from the machine and go somewhere, making sure to bring a pencil and some paper with you. Then, talk to yourself while writing stuff down about your problem. Way too often (my father included) I see people trying to simply hack through something, waiting for the electron gun to show them the path to enlightenment... it's not going to happen unless you already understand the problem.
Alright, I think I've gone far enough now.
There's my two cents.
Richard
We still use it because the companies tell us that we still use it. There is still money left in fossil fuels, and you won't see any "innovative discoveries" until after we've run out of the copious supply that we have now. Of course there's other alternatives right now, but who's gonna push them? The Oil Companies?
Ha.
Wow, I couldn't believe this when I read it....
Somebody bought a positive Linux review? Somehow I doubt this would be the first time that an organization supposedly impartial was influenced by dollars in front of their noses. Let's face it, it happens all the time in this industry, otherwise why would we have such a problem with RDRAM vs. SDRAM. Every reviewer I've read comes to the side of SDRAM, but corparate marketing always tries to exert it's influence on the free market.
Perhaps I'm totally wrong and completely unjustified in my view, but it just seems to me that this is only what we should expect when dealing with large corporations (don't forget that CNET is a pretty big company too, and their word shouldn't be taken automatically... I wonder who owns shares of CNET (ZD)? )
Alright, I've hurried into my aspestos-lined jumpsuit now... turn on the flames!
I use MS Products and I personally was very excited originally when I read the story on the Mac version of IE5.5 a month or two ago. Now, obviously, I'm very much disappointed with the turn of events.
:-)
.sigms, I just believe in me"
So, I was thinking earlier this morning about what it was that could be done to let them know how we (the people who use their products, willingly or not) feel about their decision.
Consequently, I decided to be a minimalist: I wanted to let them know that I was angry, but I didn't feel like writing them a big, long-winded email about it, so I decided to just copy the press release from WaSP and send it to them a couple of times in different departments (since their comment system for 5.5 was broken and their other comment system only allowed you to comment on 4.0), just to make sure that it got there.
I think that if they got enough of a response to this, something might actually be done about it. Even if it takes until the 6.0 version, or some later SP.
What do you guys think?
"I don't believe in
I would just like to say "Thank you" for being one of the only people to have pointed this out directly. When people try to draw lines like this, it divides us from the other group. You don't want to ever be like "those people" over there.... somehow I suspect that more than a couple of people are going to fall prey to this, forgetting of course that they were themselves the subject of stereotyping back in high school. (isn't it amazing at how quickly some forget?) On another, related note, I've been watching Katz spew his articles out for some time, and I've never been more convinced that he's one of those people who opens his mouth just so he can hear his own voice... 'nuff said