That's what parent was trying to say. Hubble is nearly twice as high as ISS to minimize ambient light from Earth, clearly too much of a difference for the shuttle to have even close to enough delta-v to transfer, even assuming the inclinations were the same, which they're not. Hubble's orbit is essentially the maximum service altitude for the shuttle.
Maybe there is a secret society of advanced civilizations that know about us but have decided not to contact us until we're mature enough to be admitted into their club. Perhaps they're observing us as if we were animals in a zoo. I don't see how we can conclusively rule out this possibility. But I will set it aside in order to concentrate on what to me appear more plausible answers to Fermi's question.
Set it aside?! Wait just one minute! That happens to be my favorite theory!
I think it's interesting that the 9/11 Report recommended that United States agencies such as the DoD, CIA & FBI learn to share information more freely to overcome terrorism and now they're turning to internet community applications to accomplish that.
Very interesting, but certainly not surprising. Tools such as Wikis and blogs have exploded in popularity with the private sector because they are easy to use and more efficient than available alternatives (if any exist). It makes perfect sense that government agencies would be looking to harness those same advantages that have worked to the benefit of the public at large.
I think one of the most interesting things to me in my limited dealings with unclassified DoD communications contracting is that these government entities do not have an aversion to or ignorance of the available OSS technologies. On the contrary, they frequently have a strong desire to use these tools, but they're waiting for budget money to contract someone to tell them how to use it properly and securely. Unfortunately they often end up waiting far longer than they should.
Both 802.11b and 802.11g use the 2.4 Megahertz frequency... The 802.11a standard runs at 5 Megahertz...
Either the author is running equipment that's operating ridiculously out of frequency spec, or he's woefully unfamiliar with SI unit prefixes. I'm betting the latter.
I wonder when AMD found out about this from Dell -- I would guess a few months ago. I never remember AMD being very big on advertising, which to me was a good thing because it (hopefully) meant that the kind of money Intel was spending on silly Blue Man Group commercials was instead going towards better chips at AMD (R&D, QA, etc). But just in the last month or two, I've seen AMD ads springing up in NYC and Philadelphia on billboards and bus stops, probably trying to increase brand recognition. I hope it works -- a balanced market share would logically seem to be the best driving force behind quality chip development from both camps.
I would be tempted to argue the opposite, actually. The primary criteria this study considered for a "successful" decision seemed to be all emotional:
...people made better decisions - ones that they remained happy with...
Isn't it possible that your unconscious mind is so much more in-tune with your primitive and emotional id that it's better able to determine what decision will make you "happy" over the long term? People make job or purchasing decisions every day that may not be the best for their career advancement or financial well-being, but none of that matters much if they're satisfied.
Verizon has great coverage across the US, but for the technically inclined or anyone wanting "cutting edge," they're rarely the best choice, with outdated, locked phones and limited, expensive data capabilities.
Not true at all. I work for a wireless engineering firm in the DC area and have done quite a bit of work with a wide range of cellular equipment from all carriers. Verizon's EV-DO data service with a burst max of 2.4Mbps is the absolute best available right now, period. It will likely continue to be so even after Cingular rolls out UMTS (burst max 2.3Mbps). Only when Cingular starts applying the system software upgrade to go to HSPDA (8-10Mbps) will they stand a chance of being the best mobile data service, but Verizon could easily be well on their way to EV-DV by then. And at $60/mo. for a service on which I've personally seen sustained data rates of 700-800kbps (at 80mph no less), I wouldn't call it expensive either. On top of that, Verizon's data service gives you an open public IP address, while Cingular firewalls their data customers without exception.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put Verizon on a pedestal. They've got plenty of problems. I'm a v710 owner and the Bluetooth crippling issue is absolutely ridiculous. I fully intend to be a member of the class action settlement. But I wanted to clarify that poor choice of phones != bad service.
OK, so what do you call the category that includes all of copyright infringement, patent infringement, and trademark infringement, as well as theft of services, petty theft, and grand theft; and robbery, burglary, and shoplifting?
One of the reasons I convert my movies is to get straight to the feature, and skip the gawd-awful menu crap...
Agreed, but I'd be interested to see if it supports configurable options for those menus like DVDs do. It's an easy matter to author a DVD with a menu that gets skipped by default when you play the disc. You only see it if you ask for it (i.e. press the menu button).
...but you're missing out. I just refinanced my mortgage for the third time this month, helped get a chunk of change out of Nigeria, and finally broke nine inches!
I haven't installed the actual DivX codecs (besides 3.11a) since I found ffdshow. Not only does it handle XviD/DivX4/DivX5, but it does it more efficiently than the codecs themselves.
This should be the part where I link to benchmarks, but I seriously can't find any. I can tell you that average CPU utilization on my P3-450 home theater box dropped from 65% to 35% when I switched (no postprocessing).
It's a bit frustrating, but a highly principled response. I respect that.
Here, here. I have to agree that their stance does the Linux community and other GPL adopters a service, if only from a public relations point of view. Much more restraint than I would be able to muster.
If I ran the Samba team, I'd be pointing people to \\samba.org for all their SCO kernel source needs.
Slashdot Mirror
That's what parent was trying to say. Hubble is nearly twice as high as ISS to minimize ambient light from Earth, clearly too much of a difference for the shuttle to have even close to enough delta-v to transfer, even assuming the inclinations were the same, which they're not. Hubble's orbit is essentially the maximum service altitude for the shuttle.
Maybe there is a secret society of advanced civilizations that know about us but have decided not to contact us until we're mature enough to be admitted into their club. Perhaps they're observing us as if we were animals in a zoo. I don't see how we can conclusively rule out this possibility. But I will set it aside in order to concentrate on what to me appear more plausible answers to Fermi's question.
Set it aside?! Wait just one minute! That happens to be my favorite theory!
I think it's interesting that the 9/11 Report recommended that United States agencies such as the DoD, CIA & FBI learn to share information more freely to overcome terrorism and now they're turning to internet community applications to accomplish that.
Very interesting, but certainly not surprising. Tools such as Wikis and blogs have exploded in popularity with the private sector because they are easy to use and more efficient than available alternatives (if any exist). It makes perfect sense that government agencies would be looking to harness those same advantages that have worked to the benefit of the public at large.
I think one of the most interesting things to me in my limited dealings with unclassified DoD communications contracting is that these government entities do not have an aversion to or ignorance of the available OSS technologies. On the contrary, they frequently have a strong desire to use these tools, but they're waiting for budget money to contract someone to tell them how to use it properly and securely. Unfortunately they often end up waiting far longer than they should.
More troubling is this:
Both 802.11b and 802.11g use the 2.4 Megahertz frequency...
The 802.11a standard runs at 5 Megahertz...
Either the author is running equipment that's operating ridiculously out of frequency spec, or he's woefully unfamiliar with SI unit prefixes. I'm betting the latter.
I wonder when AMD found out about this from Dell -- I would guess a few months ago. I never remember AMD being very big on advertising, which to me was a good thing because it (hopefully) meant that the kind of money Intel was spending on silly Blue Man Group commercials was instead going towards better chips at AMD (R&D, QA, etc). But just in the last month or two, I've seen AMD ads springing up in NYC and Philadelphia on billboards and bus stops, probably trying to increase brand recognition. I hope it works -- a balanced market share would logically seem to be the best driving force behind quality chip development from both camps.
...translated into burning down a KFC in Pakistan.
They probably mistook Colonel Sanders for a blasphemous depiction of Mohammed (breading and barbecue sauce be upon him).
I would be tempted to argue the opposite, actually. The primary criteria this study considered for a "successful" decision seemed to be all emotional:
...people made better decisions - ones that they remained happy with...
Isn't it possible that your unconscious mind is so much more in-tune with your primitive and emotional id that it's better able to determine what decision will make you "happy" over the long term? People make job or purchasing decisions every day that may not be the best for their career advancement or financial well-being, but none of that matters much if they're satisfied.
Verizon has great coverage across the US, but for the technically inclined or anyone wanting "cutting edge," they're rarely the best choice, with outdated, locked phones and limited, expensive data capabilities.
Not true at all. I work for a wireless engineering firm in the DC area and have done quite a bit of work with a wide range of cellular equipment from all carriers. Verizon's EV-DO data service with a burst max of 2.4Mbps is the absolute best available right now, period. It will likely continue to be so even after Cingular rolls out UMTS (burst max 2.3Mbps). Only when Cingular starts applying the system software upgrade to go to HSPDA (8-10Mbps) will they stand a chance of being the best mobile data service, but Verizon could easily be well on their way to EV-DV by then. And at $60/mo. for a service on which I've personally seen sustained data rates of 700-800kbps (at 80mph no less), I wouldn't call it expensive either. On top of that, Verizon's data service gives you an open public IP address, while Cingular firewalls their data customers without exception.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put Verizon on a pedestal. They've got plenty of problems. I'm a v710 owner and the Bluetooth crippling issue is absolutely ridiculous. I fully intend to be a member of the class action settlement. But I wanted to clarify that poor choice of phones != bad service.
OK, so what do you call the category that includes all of copyright infringement, patent infringement, and trademark infringement, as well as theft of services, petty theft, and grand theft; and robbery, burglary, and shoplifting?
Crime.
One of the reasons I convert my movies is to get straight to the feature, and skip the gawd-awful menu crap...
Agreed, but I'd be interested to see if it supports configurable options for those menus like DVDs do. It's an easy matter to author a DVD with a menu that gets skipped by default when you play the disc. You only see it if you ask for it (i.e. press the menu button).
...but you're missing out. I just refinanced my mortgage for the third time this month, helped get a chunk of change out of Nigeria, and finally broke nine inches!
The new screenshots of the 'Aero' interface mainly seem to be concerned with Digital Media integration - which has become deeper still.
In a related story, a hungry pack of US DoJ antitrust lawyers were spotted in downtown Washington, DC today vigorously licking their chops.
I haven't installed the actual DivX codecs (besides 3.11a) since I found ffdshow. Not only does it handle XviD/DivX4/DivX5, but it does it more efficiently than the codecs themselves.
This should be the part where I link to benchmarks, but I seriously can't find any. I can tell you that average CPU utilization on my P3-450 home theater box dropped from 65% to 35% when I switched (no postprocessing).
It's a bit frustrating, but a highly principled response. I respect that.
Here, here. I have to agree that their stance does the Linux community and other GPL adopters a service, if only from a public relations point of view. Much more restraint than I would be able to muster.
If I ran the Samba team, I'd be pointing people to \\samba.org for all their SCO kernel source needs.