What worse is watching games live which happen to be televised. Virginia Tech football used to be a 2.75-3 hour affair, now its closer to 4 hours. Every time I see that network guy in the red jacket on the field holding up play I just want to shoot him.
Plus, not all of the links will require a fee. Pepsi, for example, would probably let you in for free, as would most sites which want to sell you things. Simpson Strong-Tie comes to mind (connectors for the building industry) - lots of good info on their products...and they want you to have it!
Better yet, how about requiring a repeat visit to trigger the 5c? If I go to your site one day a month, it's free, twice or more means your content is good enough for me to come back and pay my nickel.
I can't find a real example. I made the demos work on the eunicast site, (whoops, that must have been a freudian typo...Unicast) but I tried ESPN and I didn't get anything.
Well, we're not going to the moon or Mars any time soon. With a pricetag around a trillion dollars, Dubya's 5% a year increase for the next three years won't even pay for the corporate executives at LockMart and Boeing who will oversee the planning and feasbility studies.
No, the real work will still go on. Most of the science coming out of NASA is a result of the smaller science-based centers, such as Lewis, Goddard, and Langley. Okay, Marshall does some too (but I don't count the elevator and sling shot launchers under "useful" science). Johnson (Houston) and Kennedy are all marketing fluff run by contractors and sucking up a disproportionate amount of resources.
The engineers and scientists may have to deal with tighter budgets, or fewer noe projects, but they will make do as they always have. The real heros at NASA don't wear suits (space or designer), don't have furniture built in the last 40 years, and they don't care that their offices are in former warehouses or machine shops. They work on their pet projects day in and day out because they believe in their work and are genuinely excited about it. Heck, some of these guys still manually edit machine code because the instruments they work with have very limited memory or require speed optimization that isn't available with commercial compilers. (try recording the wavefront return signal of a 200 femptosecond pulse retured by an array of over a hundred cornercubes on a sphere)
You'll probably never hear about them or their work. 3D pictures of Mars is not science. No, you won't hear about them on TV, or in the newspaper (not usually), but the basic science which no corporation could/would afford to fund is being done, and the results are used in every day life.
Ask Joe Sixpack what NASA is, and you'll probably get a rely that "They send up the Shuttle, right?" and are amazed that that's not all that happens.
I just hope they don't kill too much of the real work that goes on in the quest for the 2004 election^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H more manned spaceflight.
Total cost should be a trillion US dollars or so...how much can we put you down for?
Re:I forgot-The system is at Edwards AFB
on
The Future of NASA
·
· Score: 1
Wasn't in NASA during O'Keefe, but Dan Goldin was certainly a piece of work. Certain cultures do not thrive in a corporate atmosphere.
It was once said of Dan Goldin (re: budget authorization and choosing which projects to push, which to scrap):
He sees the enemy in the far distance, and decides to kill all the women and children in the castle, for fear that the defenses might not hold, and they be killed by the invading hoard.
Re:Culture of Empire vs. Culture of Exploration.
on
The Future of NASA
·
· Score: 1
No, the safety paranoid mentality is not a function of NASA internals, but rather the pressure from outside the organization. It was once said to me that if you do your job right, your work will be in the back of the science section of the Washington Post, if you screw up you'll be on the front page.
NASA, at it's core, is about research, and exploration. At it's top, it's about politics and power. Outside, it's about national pride. Two out of three of those groups expect perfection.
When Dan Goldin came on in the 90s, the mantra he brought was "Better, Faster, Cheaper." What he meant was "We need to save money so that we can keep manned exploration going, 'cause it's the only way congress will fund us anymore. You guys need to produce more spectacular stuff, but I'm going to give you less money. You should take more risks in your work in order to do more. Failure is a part of taking more risks. But don't fail, because that would make me look bad, and I'll have to can your ass.
Re:NASA is dying... Bushcraft Confirms
on
The Future of NASA
·
· Score: 1
I guess I don't watch enough late night comedy, because I haven't heard anyone yet remark that Bush's new plan is to make the Moon and Mars "safe for democracy"(TM)
Re:My $87 Billion Space Program Proposal
on
The Future of NASA
·
· Score: 2, Funny
You must work at Marshall. I've never see so many people entraced about getting satellites into space using string.
Joe Sixpack HATES DVDs. He can barely watch a movie on dvd 'cause they don't work on his TV. He has no idea why he can't watch the movei witout those black bars. He paid a lot of money for that new 50" big screen, and the DVD version of Freddy vs Jason only takes up half the screen. Either that or everybody is tall and thin. DVD just doesn't work.
VHS - now that's the format of the masses. Be Kind, Rewind. Fills the whole screen - no messin' with those "full" "stretch" "zoom" options three layers down in the setup menu.
DVD is good enough...for the small screens. In fact, for many older films, the original print (or the transfer) is so poor that DVD resolution and artifacting is two or three notches removed from affecting PQ. AND HD-DVD on a 60" RPTV with three consumer-quality 7" guns isn't going to make you sit up and say wow.
Until the old technology is gone and we're all watching digital sets with actual resolutions in the HD range, there will always be resistance.
Me? My nipples are hard just thinking about getting one of these babies to go with my HD-TiVo. That is, when I get my HD-TiVo;-)
My best friend in Middle and High School was what I call an "odd" genius. Our parents had to fight to get us into the "accelerated" program, 'cause we both missed the IQ cutoff by 1 point. [rant] What an odd way to classify people, by a single number. I know it's convenient, but abilities vary so widely by subject type, a single score can't possibly provide proper classification. [/rant]
He was very artistic, but had a mind for numbers and language as well. He took the standard middle school French classes, rather than literature - which I took. Every once in a while I'd skip class and sit in the back of his French class. It was obvious the teacher quietly hated him. You could see it in her face. He would sit in class for the entire hour and read a novel. It flared when she would bark his name and ask him a question about the lesson. He usually wouldn't look up when he answered her...correctly, in French. She would usually give up after three questions, but you could see her frustration. He didn't know any language before taking her class, he was just bored with the pace, and could pick up what he needed "passively".
I suspect we probably both would have been diagnosed ADD if it had been popoular 25 years ago. I had a couple of teachers inquire of my parents whether I was doing drugs when I was in 7th grade. I wouldn't focus, was easily distracted, and often just sat with a blank look on my face. Of course, it wasn't drugs, I was just bored.
Bzzzzt! Sorry, wrong answer. If you have a set of custom filters you've created over the years, or work with certain production houses, you must use Adobe. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Though my experience with PS is limited, the industry functions about the same as the CAD world. If it's not in AutoCAD, it's not useable outside of your own little cadre of specialty companies. Nobody is willing to throw away (literally) $100k+ in manhours to choose, retrain, and recustomize a new application, just to then fight with every other vendor in the market over format incompatibilities.
Adobe = Microsoft = AutoDesk. If you're not using the standard, you will be wasting your companies money trying to interface with the rest of the world. Think you can change it? Try using methane to power your car. Then tell me how long it takes your mechanic and gas station to switch over to the "better, less restrictive" technology.
Better yet, switch all of your written and verbal communications to esperanto. It's just as good - maybe better! Just retrain your workforce, then retrain everyone you work with, convince your customers (in Esperanto only!) that it's a better language.
You get the point, I hope. If you are playing with your family pictures and printing them on your printer, any application you chose is fine. Once you have to interface with the real world, you choices are usually singular in number.
There are several radio programs I like to listen to, and most are on when I can't (or son't like to ) listen. As an engineer, when I'm doing detailed design or calculations, I can't have distracting talk radio in the background, and I even prefer totally instrumental pieces over vocals. But when I'm drafting, filing, doing cleanup, commuting, or performing the other brainless functions which my day requires I prefer talk radio. Jim Rome, Marketplace, All Things Considered, even Bill O'Reilly (sp?) are all great to have when I want to focus much of my brain on something other than an otherwise boring task.
But I'm only about 50/50 with talk radio when I want it. Why not dial up a recent episode of Jim Rome which I'd missed? Or be able to switch to another show if the one I'm listening to is annoying. Or, better yet, be able to "instant replay" (5-15 minute buffer in 15-30 sec increments) the weather, closings, traffic, news, whatever I just missed. Now that would be great, and easily accomplished with solid state memory, if it could take the read/write cycles necessary. Heck, a 20H version probably wouldn't take more than a 512M card, just the instant replay could easily be done in 16MB.
BTW - I don't have either, but I like the look of the programming on Sirius. I still have a problem justifying another chuck of cash on an ongoing basis. Alas, no Jim Rome.
Oh, I don't know. In quantity, machinery get's less expensive (through economies of scale). A human still costs $100,000 to be in "standby" mode on active duty. The "capital cost" of a soldier is not just the trainig time (2Y = $200,000), but the present valuse of the back end costs: pension, medical, survivor benefits.
Of course, at $100,000/yr and low survivor benefits, a man (or woman) killed on the battlefield in the first months of a war is relatively cheap. I suppose we should keep humans on the ground, but replace the costly long-term career military with robots. Now there's a cost savings!
Not only that, but we could include a grammar checking feature in the speach engine of the more advanced/higher ranking models. That would clearly be an upgrade from the current commander (in chief) model of today.;-)
I rip mine not for journalistic or scientific pursuits, but so I can stip out all the commercials and front-end bother. I usually only do it for the disney stuff my one-year-old likes.
Nearly all can be placed on a DVD-5 without re-encoding once the extras and multiple soundtracks are stipped. They're great because they automatically play, no menus, no waiting. Perfect for the little one.
Now that I've got a couple larger HDs, I've been trying to remember to rip each disc to HD. I hope to create a HD-based media center in the next couple of years, and if they're already ripped I won't have to go through the task of pulling and ripping 300 discs all at one time (like I did with my CDs a few years ago).
I listened to the unabr. version of ST on CD, and my expectation was that it was the basis for the movie. Now I'd only seen the last 30-40 minutes of the movie, as chopped up by TNT or somebody, but I figured it would be a no-thought-required listening.
Oh boy, was I wrong. It's down right meaty. The future view from the last century adds a quaint touch here and there, but it's really a book about civilization and human organization. The political commentary shines though the (good) storyline. Being a Washinton D.c. native, political discussion is high entertainment - moving, tragic, funny, frustrating, envigorating but mostly because it's reality. This is a man getting to set out a whole political system, and making it enjoyable to read.
The movie, well, it's another work of fiction, and whoever the screenwriter is probably read at least parts of Heinlien's novel. And it's got nekkid chicks.
Exactly my thought. I can just see it now, Methonol at only $1600/gallon ($5 per 2oz refill @ 20%). Use anything else and we'll find a way to void your warranty.
Luckily we'll have ebay, and it'll you'll be able to buy 10 refills for $.99. Of course, it'll cost you $20 in shipping and handling for the 1.5lb package.
You've touched on a big beef of mine. Bay area housing at $250-$400/SF and up is not substantially different than Roanoke, Virginia housing at $100/SF, except you get more land under the building.
I bought 8 acres of hillside with a view that even God would be envious of for about 50k. Sure, it's ten miles outside of Blackburg (Virginia Tech), but that's not too far to drive. I even have DSL and CableTV (though I get my video via DirecTV).
I started a company that relies on the building industry, so I have to be somewhat close to civilization, and I'll be generating real income in under a year...starting from scratch.
Why is it that high tech firms believe that they must locate in big, expensive cities? How many of your programmers have to make face-to-face visits with clients on a weekly basis? You could just as easily move to Newport, Pembroke, or Pearisburg, VA and set up shop for nickles on the dollar. Would people have to relocate? Probably. Can you live on $45k? Comfortably. And you'll know your neighbors, and everybody will wave to you when they see you. Go to www.gilescounty.org, call up Chris McKlarney and he'll set you up. He's got space for new businesses that's just now coming online.
Me? I rent space in an historic building downtown for under $5/SF. 768kADSL to my business runs $44/mo. Electricity is $0.05/kWh. VaTech is right down the road - good for interns and p/t workers, plus the research library and all the attractions of a big state campus.
Locating a non-geographically sensitive business in a big city is about as smart as equiping an accounting firm with Aeron chairs, solid mahogony furniture, G5s with 23" 16:9 LCDs, and a couple of DS3s. Sure it looks nice, but it's ego-fluff that will likely kill the business financially before it ever has a chance.
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What worse is watching games live which happen to be televised. Virginia Tech football used to be a 2.75-3 hour affair, now its closer to 4 hours. Every time I see that network guy in the red jacket on the field holding up play I just want to shoot him.
Plus, not all of the links will require a fee. Pepsi, for example, would probably let you in for free, as would most sites which want to sell you things. Simpson Strong-Tie comes to mind (connectors for the building industry) - lots of good info on their products...and they want you to have it!
Better yet, how about requiring a repeat visit to trigger the 5c? If I go to your site one day a month, it's free, twice or more means your content is good enough for me to come back and pay my nickel.
I can't find a real example. I made the demos work on the eunicast site, (whoops, that must have been a freudian typo...Unicast) but I tried ESPN and I didn't get anything.
;-)
Bummer.
I don't know, sounds like parody to me. Can you do a parody of a tradmark, like you can of copyrighted material?
Well, we're not going to the moon or Mars any time soon. With a pricetag around a trillion dollars, Dubya's 5% a year increase for the next three years won't even pay for the corporate executives at LockMart and Boeing who will oversee the planning and feasbility studies.
No, the real work will still go on. Most of the science coming out of NASA is a result of the smaller science-based centers, such as Lewis, Goddard, and Langley. Okay, Marshall does some too (but I don't count the elevator and sling shot launchers under "useful" science). Johnson (Houston) and Kennedy are all marketing fluff run by contractors and sucking up a disproportionate amount of resources.
The engineers and scientists may have to deal with tighter budgets, or fewer noe projects, but they will make do as they always have. The real heros at NASA don't wear suits (space or designer), don't have furniture built in the last 40 years, and they don't care that their offices are in former warehouses or machine shops. They work on their pet projects day in and day out because they believe in their work and are genuinely excited about it. Heck, some of these guys still manually edit machine code because the instruments they work with have very limited memory or require speed optimization that isn't available with commercial compilers. (try recording the wavefront return signal of a 200 femptosecond pulse retured by an array of over a hundred cornercubes on a sphere)
You'll probably never hear about them or their work. 3D pictures of Mars is not science. No, you won't hear about them on TV, or in the newspaper (not usually), but the basic science which no corporation could/would afford to fund is being done, and the results are used in every day life.
Ask Joe Sixpack what NASA is, and you'll probably get a rely that "They send up the Shuttle, right?" and are amazed that that's not all that happens.
I just hope they don't kill too much of the real work that goes on in the quest for the 2004 election^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H more manned spaceflight.
Hey, you're not allowed to say that until after our cops beat you to a bloody pulp.
Total cost should be a trillion US dollars or so...how much can we put you down for?
Wasn't in NASA during O'Keefe, but Dan Goldin was certainly a piece of work. Certain cultures do not thrive in a corporate atmosphere.
It was once said of Dan Goldin (re: budget authorization and choosing which projects to push, which to scrap):
He sees the enemy in the far distance, and decides to kill all the women and children in the castle, for fear that the defenses might not hold, and they be killed by the invading hoard.
No, the safety paranoid mentality is not a function of NASA internals, but rather the pressure from outside the organization. It was once said to me that if you do your job right, your work will be in the back of the science section of the Washington Post, if you screw up you'll be on the front page.
NASA, at it's core, is about research, and exploration. At it's top, it's about politics and power. Outside, it's about national pride. Two out of three of those groups expect perfection.
When Dan Goldin came on in the 90s, the mantra he brought was "Better, Faster, Cheaper." What he meant was "We need to save money so that we can keep manned exploration going, 'cause it's the only way congress will fund us anymore. You guys need to produce more spectacular stuff, but I'm going to give you less money. You should take more risks in your work in order to do more. Failure is a part of taking more risks. But don't fail, because that would make me look bad, and I'll have to can your ass.
I guess I don't watch enough late night comedy, because I haven't heard anyone yet remark that Bush's new plan is to make the Moon and Mars "safe for democracy"(TM)
You must work at Marshall. I've never see so many people entraced about getting satellites into space using string.
No No No
;-)
Joe Sixpack HATES DVDs. He can barely watch a movie on dvd 'cause they don't work on his TV. He has no idea why he can't watch the movei witout those black bars. He paid a lot of money for that new 50" big screen, and the DVD version of Freddy vs Jason only takes up half the screen. Either that or everybody is tall and thin. DVD just doesn't work.
VHS - now that's the format of the masses. Be Kind, Rewind. Fills the whole screen - no messin' with those "full" "stretch" "zoom" options three layers down in the setup menu.
DVD is good enough...for the small screens. In fact, for many older films, the original print (or the transfer) is so poor that DVD resolution and artifacting is two or three notches removed from affecting PQ. AND HD-DVD on a 60" RPTV with three consumer-quality 7" guns isn't going to make you sit up and say wow.
Until the old technology is gone and we're all watching digital sets with actual resolutions in the HD range, there will always be resistance.
Me? My nipples are hard just thinking about getting one of these babies to go with my HD-TiVo. That is, when I get my HD-TiVo
Full price upgrades? Who do they think they are, Microsoft?
Another anecdote...
My best friend in Middle and High School was what I call an "odd" genius. Our parents had to fight to get us into the "accelerated" program, 'cause we both missed the IQ cutoff by 1 point. [rant] What an odd way to classify people, by a single number. I know it's convenient, but abilities vary so widely by subject type, a single score can't possibly provide proper classification. [/rant]
He was very artistic, but had a mind for numbers and language as well. He took the standard middle school French classes, rather than literature - which I took. Every once in a while I'd skip class and sit in the back of his French class. It was obvious the teacher quietly hated him. You could see it in her face. He would sit in class for the entire hour and read a novel. It flared when she would bark his name and ask him a question about the lesson. He usually wouldn't look up when he answered her...correctly, in French. She would usually give up after three questions, but you could see her frustration. He didn't know any language before taking her class, he was just bored with the pace, and could pick up what he needed "passively".
I suspect we probably both would have been diagnosed ADD if it had been popoular 25 years ago. I had a couple of teachers inquire of my parents whether I was doing drugs when I was in 7th grade. I wouldn't focus, was easily distracted, and often just sat with a blank look on my face. Of course, it wasn't drugs, I was just bored.
Bzzzzt! Sorry, wrong answer. If you have a set of custom filters you've created over the years, or work with certain production houses, you must use Adobe. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Though my experience with PS is limited, the industry functions about the same as the CAD world. If it's not in AutoCAD, it's not useable outside of your own little cadre of specialty companies. Nobody is willing to throw away (literally) $100k+ in manhours to choose, retrain, and recustomize a new application, just to then fight with every other vendor in the market over format incompatibilities.
Adobe = Microsoft = AutoDesk. If you're not using the standard, you will be wasting your companies money trying to interface with the rest of the world. Think you can change it? Try using methane to power your car. Then tell me how long it takes your mechanic and gas station to switch over to the "better, less restrictive" technology.
Better yet, switch all of your written and verbal communications to esperanto. It's just as good - maybe better! Just retrain your workforce, then retrain everyone you work with, convince your customers (in Esperanto only!) that it's a better language.
You get the point, I hope. If you are playing with your family pictures and printing them on your printer, any application you chose is fine. Once you have to interface with the real world, you choices are usually singular in number.
There are several radio programs I like to listen to, and most are on when I can't (or son't like to ) listen. As an engineer, when I'm doing detailed design or calculations, I can't have distracting talk radio in the background, and I even prefer totally instrumental pieces over vocals. But when I'm drafting, filing, doing cleanup, commuting, or performing the other brainless functions which my day requires I prefer talk radio. Jim Rome, Marketplace, All Things Considered, even Bill O'Reilly (sp?) are all great to have when I want to focus much of my brain on something other than an otherwise boring task.
But I'm only about 50/50 with talk radio when I want it. Why not dial up a recent episode of Jim Rome which I'd missed? Or be able to switch to another show if the one I'm listening to is annoying. Or, better yet, be able to "instant replay" (5-15 minute buffer in 15-30 sec increments) the weather, closings, traffic, news, whatever I just missed. Now that would be great, and easily accomplished with solid state memory, if it could take the read/write cycles necessary. Heck, a 20H version probably wouldn't take more than a 512M card, just the instant replay could easily be done in 16MB.
BTW - I don't have either, but I like the look of the programming on Sirius. I still have a problem justifying another chuck of cash on an ongoing basis. Alas, no Jim Rome.
Oh, I don't know. In quantity, machinery get's less expensive (through economies of scale). A human still costs $100,000 to be in "standby" mode on active duty. The "capital cost" of a soldier is not just the trainig time (2Y = $200,000), but the present valuse of the back end costs: pension, medical, survivor benefits.
;-)
Of course, at $100,000/yr and low survivor benefits, a man (or woman) killed on the battlefield in the first months of a war is relatively cheap. I suppose we should keep humans on the ground, but replace the costly long-term career military with robots. Now there's a cost savings!
Not only that, but we could include a grammar checking feature in the speach engine of the more advanced/higher ranking models. That would clearly be an upgrade from the current commander (in chief) model of today.
I rip mine not for journalistic or scientific pursuits, but so I can stip out all the commercials and front-end bother. I usually only do it for the disney stuff my one-year-old likes.
Nearly all can be placed on a DVD-5 without re-encoding once the extras and multiple soundtracks are stipped. They're great because they automatically play, no menus, no waiting. Perfect for the little one.
Now that I've got a couple larger HDs, I've been trying to remember to rip each disc to HD. I hope to create a HD-based media center in the next couple of years, and if they're already ripped I won't have to go through the task of pulling and ripping 300 discs all at one time (like I did with my CDs a few years ago).
Of course you've got to protect it. Otheriwse thosed damned hackors will put it on the internet and then EVEYBODY will see it.
I listened to the unabr. version of ST on CD, and my expectation was that it was the basis for the movie. Now I'd only seen the last 30-40 minutes of the movie, as chopped up by TNT or somebody, but I figured it would be a no-thought-required listening.
Oh boy, was I wrong. It's down right meaty. The future view from the last century adds a quaint touch here and there, but it's really a book about civilization and human organization. The political commentary shines though the (good) storyline. Being a Washinton D.c. native, political discussion is high entertainment - moving, tragic, funny, frustrating, envigorating but mostly because it's reality. This is a man getting to set out a whole political system, and making it enjoyable to read.
The movie, well, it's another work of fiction, and whoever the screenwriter is probably read at least parts of Heinlien's novel. And it's got nekkid chicks.
Exactly my thought. I can just see it now, Methonol at only $1600/gallon ($5 per 2oz refill @ 20%). Use anything else and we'll find a way to void your warranty.
Luckily we'll have ebay, and it'll you'll be able to buy 10 refills for $.99. Of course, it'll cost you $20 in shipping and handling for the 1.5lb package.
If you walk past the experiment setup, are you then travelling faster than light?
(sorry, it's a bad morning and I just can't seem to fucs on work)
I've used it in the last year to communicate with my HP48gx over a serial link. It may be old, but there are still uses for it.
So...if you shake it more than three times, does that mean you're playing with it?
You've touched on a big beef of mine. Bay area housing at $250-$400/SF and up is not substantially different than Roanoke, Virginia housing at $100/SF, except you get more land under the building.
I bought 8 acres of hillside with a view that even God would be envious of for about 50k. Sure, it's ten miles outside of Blackburg (Virginia Tech), but that's not too far to drive. I even have DSL and CableTV (though I get my video via DirecTV).
I started a company that relies on the building industry, so I have to be somewhat close to civilization, and I'll be generating real income in under a year...starting from scratch.
Why is it that high tech firms believe that they must locate in big, expensive cities? How many of your programmers have to make face-to-face visits with clients on a weekly basis? You could just as easily move to Newport, Pembroke, or Pearisburg, VA and set up shop for nickles on the dollar. Would people have to relocate? Probably. Can you live on $45k? Comfortably. And you'll know your neighbors, and everybody will wave to you when they see you. Go to www.gilescounty.org, call up Chris McKlarney and he'll set you up. He's got space for new businesses that's just now coming online.
Me? I rent space in an historic building downtown for under $5/SF. 768kADSL to my business runs $44/mo. Electricity is $0.05/kWh. VaTech is right down the road - good for interns and p/t workers, plus the research library and all the attractions of a big state campus.
Locating a non-geographically sensitive business in a big city is about as smart as equiping an accounting firm with Aeron chairs, solid mahogony furniture, G5s with 23" 16:9 LCDs, and a couple of DS3s. Sure it looks nice, but it's ego-fluff that will likely kill the business financially before it ever has a chance.