Well, it used to be the case... but AFAIK, it isn't any longer. Yes, lots of the Japanese companies still have employees there who have only ever worked for that company. And yes, new employees can probably expect to stay with the first company that hires them for many many years. But it's no longer guarenteed....
It worked both ways, you see. The companies got loyal and productive employees because the employees knew they had a job for life (Obviously a sign of the different mentality... a lot of Americans would slack off) and the employees were more productive and loyal to the company because the company was going to keep them around for life. Compare that to the "standard" in American companies where turnover can run as high as 80% in a single year. (Okay, gross generalization, I know... only in a few fields does it run that high... restaurants, merchandizing, Silicon Valley...)
Also, because of the "lifetime contract", they weren't afraid to train their employees. Compare that to the Dilbert-esque world we seem to live in (yes, I swear, my life seems more like Dilbert's every day) where training is something that happens to employees right before they mysteriously leave the company.
I never said that you couldn't still copy it regardless of the "encryption" on it. If you can hear it, you can easily have any recording program record from the speaker port.
My issue is that, purely from the encoding scheme standpoint, some of those codes are so difficult that there is no point to try and solve them by "brute force" methods. Since the SDMI gives the plaintext version, you already have a leg up on things.
Regardless of all that, I'm not exceptionally worried about the whole SDMI thing. I don't pirate software, I don't pirate music, and until recently I didn't even have access to a DVD player... SDMI doesn't harm people who don't pirate stuff.
If you define one of your freedoms as pirating software or music, then yes, in fact, they are trying to do that. I don't define one of my freedoms as the "freedom to pirate intellectual property".
Look at it this way. If you wrote a program that you wanted to sell, how would you feel about people making pirated copies of it, and not paying you a cent? I'd be upset.
If I want J. Random Program, I go out and buy it (if I can afford it; if I can't, I save up). Same with CDs, DVDs, whatever.
Well, for the rest of us who don't have Cray-2's or whatever new toy the NSA has, it is pretty easy to make an unbreakable code. Now, an unbreakable cipher, that's different... (yes, there is a difference between a code and a cipher)
If you're plugging along on a top speed (insert favorite computer here), some of those codes will still take decades if not centuries to get solved, and by that time, who cares?
The customer has never been right. If the customer was always right, then I, as a customer, could walk into any store in the world, demand free goods, and use "The customer is always right!" as my justification for walking out without paying for anything I wanted to take with me.
Now, I am not necessarily taking their side, but look at it this way. If I buy a car, it's not like I have the equipment to pirate the design specs of the car and start producing my own cars. If I buy an oak desk, likewise, I am not likely to have a shop set up to crank out duplicate desks. However, with computer software, cassette tapes, CDs, video tapes, etc. it is so much easier (and relatively cheaper) to make bootlegs after buying one legal copy. Heck, in some cases, they don't even need a legal copy.... I am reminded of the time I saw tapes of "The Matrix" for sale at a local flea market the day after the movie came out in theaters.
They are not taking away your freedom by trying to protect their interests. They are trying to stop software/music/movie/whatever piracy from happening. In the long run, such piracy raises the prices they we have to pay.
Kierthos
Re:Why haven't others used wood?
on
Hardwoodware
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· Score: 1
Perhaps they have a metal wire cage inside the plastic? If it's thin enough wire, you'd never even see it in the plastic. Of course, taking a bandsaw to the case would offer some insight...
Honestly, I have no idea how they did the shielding in the new iMacs, but the imbedded wire cage does seem to be one option. Are there any plastics with EM shielding properties?
Kierthos
Re:Why haven't others used wood?
on
Hardwoodware
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· Score: 1
One factor might be that it can be highly expensive to do so. Think about it. A "standard" case runs between $30-$60 (okay, I know I shop at strange places, but that's what I can buy one for around here...). And if I wanted to buy the wood to make my own similar case like this guy did, I could probably get the oak for maybe the same price, if I wait for a sale at Lowe's.
However, making these commercially available (and that's the magic words, kids) would at the very least double or triple the price. You're talking manufacturing costs, shipping costs, all kinds of silly-ass regulations, etc, etc. Also, how many different models of cases are out there? And it's much easier to make modular metal and plastic cases then modular wood ones. Wood tends to break easier, requires more care, etc.
Just my take on it...
Kierthos
Re:Current status of David Hahn
on
Duct Tape
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· Score: 1
However, the Armed Forces has set limits on what you can receive, rad-wise, while in the service. This is to avoid all kinds of legal problems from servicemen and women developing all kinds of fun cancers or having kids with webbed toes and things like that. Therefore, they set limits. Now, most people who enter the Armed Forces have so little of their allowable dosage used up (unless you sat next to a TV for 12 years or something:) that it doesn't matter. Obviously, in his case, it does.
And depending on the type of radioactive particles that were being emitted, yeah, he might only get skin cancer. Not a big danger, considering that if you work on your tan too much, you get the same chances, roughly. However, that's alpha... if it was beta, he's in line for all kinds of possible cancers. (If it was gamma, he'd be dead.)
Kierthos
Re:This can't be for real....me too
on
Duct Tape
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· Score: 2
Come on... if Tom Clancy can put enough information into his fiction so that the DoD comes and pays him a visist to ask him where he got his info (FOIA strikes again!), then it entirely possible to get all the information to build a nuclear device.
Hell's bells, most of the information was in one college textbook I had. It's not the information that is the hard part. It's the acquiring of fissionable materials (enough to do the job), machining the explosives (a real bitch, given the tolerances you are held to), and getting the people who can do the job. Refining plutonium is not the easiest thing in the world, either.
Again, it's not the info that's hard. Most of it can be gotten for less then $200 by buying the correct textbooks. It's acquiring all the parts that is a bitch.
Kierthos
Re:You only need 10lbs of Plutonium
on
Duct Tape
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· Score: 2
Yeah, but the "hard part" is refining the plutonium. Also, I imagine that "unrefined ore" contains damn little actual uranium, and maybe not even the right isotopes to do much. Also, I imagine you have to have some sort of permit or license to order it. (Hell, here in SC, you have to work for a chemical company/chemisty department to order elemental sodium, so I am guessing it's a little stricter for uranium.)
Also, machining the explosives for a nuclear weapon is very critical. They have to be just the right shape and size, and you wouldn't believe the tolerances.
And as I recall, the radioactive particles emitted by Uranium are alpha (okay, it's been a long time, so I'm guessing), which can be stopped by a stout pair of pants. It's gamma particles that are the nasty type... which sounds about right for plutonium.
Regardless, if this guy was detecting anything other then normal background rads 5 houses away, then he's probably going to die from multiple cancers.
Kierthos
Re:An atomic bomb in a toolbox?
on
Duct Tape
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· Score: 1
Just as in all those spy movies that have the suitcase sized nukes, eh? One of my nuclear engineering instructors once explained that while you could build a "nuclear device" the size of a suitcase, you either would not be able to lift it (it weighing about 600 pounds), or if you could lift it, you would die damn quickly because of the lack of shielding.
Can't recall what he said the yield would be though... depends on whether you use a carry-on bag or a samsonite, I guess.
In a word, yes. Most people are completely clueless outside of their chosen field. Maybe they know some trivia they retained from classes or books, but generally speaking, unless they have actually spent time dealing with stocks, they don't understand them.
"Here have all these stock options instead of a raise! By the way, they won't be worth much of anything until four years from now, but then they'll be worth a lot!" Let's here it for vested-stock options that never vest because the company goes under/gets bought out/merges/whatever.
Same here. My computer came with all kinds of things that I didn't use, and I'm still going through and deleting them even today. I had an early version of the MSN software, some other hunk of crap(tm) ISP, and AOL all on my computer to begin with. Turfed most of the initial software as well and installed what I needed.
What ever happened to going into a computer store and telling them you just wanted a blank hard drive? Why must they install all these unwanted programs? (okay, money, I knew that one) Other then just going to Best Buy or something like that and buying my next drive there, I don't have a lot of choice. When I buy a new computer, I don't want to have to spend any time at all deleting crap I didn't ask for, but am paying for anyway. (Is there still a refund policy for MSN/Winblows?)
*sigh* looks like the next box will be bought piecemeal.
And AOL should be more worried about their numerous security issues rather then trying to seize even more market share.
How the screaming Hell(tm) is Linux un-American? Because you can get free copies of it? By that logic, anything I get for free down at Wal-Mart makes Wal-Mart un-American. Oh wait, Linus Torvalds isn't an American... I see how this delusion goes... He _must_ be a commie, having grown up that much closer to the old USSR that good old Bill Gates... yeah right...
And just how can an OS have a socioeconomic philosophy? And when was the last time that an American serviceman gave his life for his OS?
Kierthos
(normally I don't respond to such crapola, but I have way too much karma lately...)
You do know how insurance works, right? Odds are, this is an "at-fault" type of insurance, which means that it is probably very carefully delineated what the insurance company will pay off for. If the "minimum security standards" are met, and they still get cracked, the insurance company will pay out an amount dependent on the damages done.
However, if it is the fault of the company that is paying for the insurance, then the insurance company doesn't have to pay.
To liken it to car insurance, you would get paid if you were in an accident that was not your fault (someone else hits you, mechanical defect in the car, whatever), but you wouldn't get paid if you deliberately smashed the car into a tree.
Regardless of any of this, the rates that the insurance company sets (even regardless of what OS you're using) are based on actuary tables governing the chances that a system will get cracked. Odds are that most systems will never get cracked to the extent that an insurance settlement is required. Just as, odds are, most people that have auto insurance will never be in an auto accident. But they still have the insurance in case they need it.
Exactly. The correlation exists. Because young male drivers are more likely to be involved in accidents then older female drivers, the insurance rates for those young male drivers is significantly higher. (Ob note: AFAIK, the age range for the highest insurance rates is 16-25.) Likewise, because Windows machines are "easier" to crack, at least in terms of availability, then the insurance rates are higher. Think about it. Windows has how much market share compared to Linux? It's so much easier to find a Windows based system to exploit then a similar Linux system.
Couple that with the fact that most Windows systems are reliant not upon the sysadmin for fixes, but rather Microsoft, and you see the problem. (Whereas anyone with enough know-how can patch most of the problems with Linux machines.)
If Microsoft released the source code, or they were more proactive in putting out quality software, or they were quicker and more efficient at patching software in a timely manner, then the rates wouldn't be so high. But if they released their source code now, all it would do is create thousands of script kiddies exploiting the holes that someone else found first.
What Microsoft needs to do is take the time to put out proper software. But the chances of that happening are similar to the chances of a whelk surviving a supernova.
Actually, in civil law, it's called preponderence of evidence. You are found liable if the judge (or jury, in a jury civil trial) finds that the preponderence of evidence weighs against you. In plainer terms, if more of the evidence then not makes you look liable, then you're liable. Of course, you still have to worry about how the jury will interpret the evidence, but it doesn't have to be "beyond reasonable doubt", as in a criminal trial.
International Space Station. You know, that big orbital thingy that Dennis Tito visited recently?
I suppose that one of the ideas for the place is to use it as a transit point for other orbital traffic and installations. It's a helluva lot easier to move a shuttle from one orbital point to another then from ground to orbit.
Also, what the Hell(tm) ever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? Or has the whole legal world become convinced that we're all Napster-using freaks bent on pirating more songs/videos/software then China?
Check me on this, but how are you supposed to get revenue out of censorship anyway? The whole speed limit/ticket thing I can see (I've gotten enough warnings and such for that kind of thing), but how are you supposed to get money out of restricting web sites? Charge for the hit that didn't happen?
Hey, if the Aussie gov'mint wants to keep throwing money at U.S. based corps that write the filtering software, I got no problem with it. (I'd have less of a problem if I worked for one of those corps, but...)
This just strikes me as yet another waste of time, space and money by a goverment. It isn't the first time, it won't be the last, and there will be others when the politicos don't understand the tech they are trying to regulate.
Well, we have gotten some cool stuff from NASA, other then Tang, of course. But a lot of the stuff they have come up with has been inspired by sci-fi writers to begin with.
Regardless, I'd much rather see more "space-tourists" like Dennis Tito, as a way to help defray the costs of ISS, and as a way to increase awareness in the space program then all this Mickey Mouse shit they're doing now.
As for this 20 year wait for a trip to Mars, IMAO, that's way too damn long. But part of it (only part) might be waiting for a proper orbital conjunction so the astronauts have to spend as little time as possible in between the two planets. I mean, it's going to take a while to get there anyway, so why not minimize it?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, it used to be the case... but AFAIK, it isn't any longer. Yes, lots of the Japanese companies still have employees there who have only ever worked for that company. And yes, new employees can probably expect to stay with the first company that hires them for many many years. But it's no longer guarenteed....
It worked both ways, you see. The companies got loyal and productive employees because the employees knew they had a job for life (Obviously a sign of the different mentality... a lot of Americans would slack off) and the employees were more productive and loyal to the company because the company was going to keep them around for life. Compare that to the "standard" in American companies where turnover can run as high as 80% in a single year. (Okay, gross generalization, I know... only in a few fields does it run that high... restaurants, merchandizing, Silicon Valley...)
Also, because of the "lifetime contract", they weren't afraid to train their employees. Compare that to the Dilbert-esque world we seem to live in (yes, I swear, my life seems more like Dilbert's every day) where training is something that happens to employees right before they mysteriously leave the company.
Kierthos
I never said that you couldn't still copy it regardless of the "encryption" on it. If you can hear it, you can easily have any recording program record from the speaker port.
My issue is that, purely from the encoding scheme standpoint, some of those codes are so difficult that there is no point to try and solve them by "brute force" methods. Since the SDMI gives the plaintext version, you already have a leg up on things.
Regardless of all that, I'm not exceptionally worried about the whole SDMI thing. I don't pirate software, I don't pirate music, and until recently I didn't even have access to a DVD player... SDMI doesn't harm people who don't pirate stuff.
Kierthos
If you define one of your freedoms as pirating software or music, then yes, in fact, they are trying to do that. I don't define one of my freedoms as the "freedom to pirate intellectual property".
Look at it this way. If you wrote a program that you wanted to sell, how would you feel about people making pirated copies of it, and not paying you a cent? I'd be upset.
If I want J. Random Program, I go out and buy it (if I can afford it; if I can't, I save up). Same with CDs, DVDs, whatever.
Kierthos
Well, for the rest of us who don't have Cray-2's or whatever new toy the NSA has, it is pretty easy to make an unbreakable code. Now, an unbreakable cipher, that's different... (yes, there is a difference between a code and a cipher)
If you're plugging along on a top speed (insert favorite computer here), some of those codes will still take decades if not centuries to get solved, and by that time, who cares?
Kierthos
The customer has never been right. If the customer was always right, then I, as a customer, could walk into any store in the world, demand free goods, and use "The customer is always right!" as my justification for walking out without paying for anything I wanted to take with me.
Now, I am not necessarily taking their side, but look at it this way. If I buy a car, it's not like I have the equipment to pirate the design specs of the car and start producing my own cars. If I buy an oak desk, likewise, I am not likely to have a shop set up to crank out duplicate desks. However, with computer software, cassette tapes, CDs, video tapes, etc. it is so much easier (and relatively cheaper) to make bootlegs after buying one legal copy. Heck, in some cases, they don't even need a legal copy.... I am reminded of the time I saw tapes of "The Matrix" for sale at a local flea market the day after the movie came out in theaters.
They are not taking away your freedom by trying to protect their interests. They are trying to stop software/music/movie/whatever piracy from happening. In the long run, such piracy raises the prices they we have to pay.
Kierthos
Perhaps they have a metal wire cage inside the plastic? If it's thin enough wire, you'd never even see it in the plastic. Of course, taking a bandsaw to the case would offer some insight...
Honestly, I have no idea how they did the shielding in the new iMacs, but the imbedded wire cage does seem to be one option. Are there any plastics with EM shielding properties?
Kierthos
One factor might be that it can be highly expensive to do so. Think about it. A "standard" case runs between $30-$60 (okay, I know I shop at strange places, but that's what I can buy one for around here...). And if I wanted to buy the wood to make my own similar case like this guy did, I could probably get the oak for maybe the same price, if I wait for a sale at Lowe's.
However, making these commercially available (and that's the magic words, kids) would at the very least double or triple the price. You're talking manufacturing costs, shipping costs, all kinds of silly-ass regulations, etc, etc. Also, how many different models of cases are out there? And it's much easier to make modular metal and plastic cases then modular wood ones. Wood tends to break easier, requires more care, etc.
Just my take on it...
Kierthos
However, the Armed Forces has set limits on what you can receive, rad-wise, while in the service. This is to avoid all kinds of legal problems from servicemen and women developing all kinds of fun cancers or having kids with webbed toes and things like that. Therefore, they set limits. Now, most people who enter the Armed Forces have so little of their allowable dosage used up (unless you sat next to a TV for 12 years or something :) that it doesn't matter. Obviously, in his case, it does.
And depending on the type of radioactive particles that were being emitted, yeah, he might only get skin cancer. Not a big danger, considering that if you work on your tan too much, you get the same chances, roughly. However, that's alpha... if it was beta, he's in line for all kinds of possible cancers. (If it was gamma, he'd be dead.)
Kierthos
Come on... if Tom Clancy can put enough information into his fiction so that the DoD comes and pays him a visist to ask him where he got his info (FOIA strikes again!), then it entirely possible to get all the information to build a nuclear device.
Hell's bells, most of the information was in one college textbook I had. It's not the information that is the hard part. It's the acquiring of fissionable materials (enough to do the job), machining the explosives (a real bitch, given the tolerances you are held to), and getting the people who can do the job. Refining plutonium is not the easiest thing in the world, either.
Again, it's not the info that's hard. Most of it can be gotten for less then $200 by buying the correct textbooks. It's acquiring all the parts that is a bitch.
Kierthos
Yeah, but the "hard part" is refining the plutonium. Also, I imagine that "unrefined ore" contains damn little actual uranium, and maybe not even the right isotopes to do much. Also, I imagine you have to have some sort of permit or license to order it. (Hell, here in SC, you have to work for a chemical company/chemisty department to order elemental sodium, so I am guessing it's a little stricter for uranium.)
Also, machining the explosives for a nuclear weapon is very critical. They have to be just the right shape and size, and you wouldn't believe the tolerances.
And as I recall, the radioactive particles emitted by Uranium are alpha (okay, it's been a long time, so I'm guessing), which can be stopped by a stout pair of pants. It's gamma particles that are the nasty type... which sounds about right for plutonium.
Regardless, if this guy was detecting anything other then normal background rads 5 houses away, then he's probably going to die from multiple cancers.
Kierthos
Just as in all those spy movies that have the suitcase sized nukes, eh? One of my nuclear engineering instructors once explained that while you could build a "nuclear device" the size of a suitcase, you either would not be able to lift it (it weighing about 600 pounds), or if you could lift it, you would die damn quickly because of the lack of shielding.
Can't recall what he said the yield would be though... depends on whether you use a carry-on bag or a samsonite, I guess.
Kierthos
In a word, yes. Most people are completely clueless outside of their chosen field. Maybe they know some trivia they retained from classes or books, but generally speaking, unless they have actually spent time dealing with stocks, they don't understand them.
"Here have all these stock options instead of a raise! By the way, they won't be worth much of anything until four years from now, but then they'll be worth a lot!" Let's here it for vested-stock options that never vest because the company goes under/gets bought out/merges/whatever.
I'd rather have the raise.
Kierthos
Same here. My computer came with all kinds of things that I didn't use, and I'm still going through and deleting them even today. I had an early version of the MSN software, some other hunk of crap(tm) ISP, and AOL all on my computer to begin with. Turfed most of the initial software as well and installed what I needed.
What ever happened to going into a computer store and telling them you just wanted a blank hard drive? Why must they install all these unwanted programs? (okay, money, I knew that one) Other then just going to Best Buy or something like that and buying my next drive there, I don't have a lot of choice. When I buy a new computer, I don't want to have to spend any time at all deleting crap I didn't ask for, but am paying for anyway. (Is there still a refund policy for MSN/Winblows?)
*sigh* looks like the next box will be bought piecemeal.
And AOL should be more worried about their numerous security issues rather then trying to seize even more market share.
Kierthos
Your last name wouldn't be Katz, would it?
How the screaming Hell(tm) is Linux un-American? Because you can get free copies of it? By that logic, anything I get for free down at Wal-Mart makes Wal-Mart un-American. Oh wait, Linus Torvalds isn't an American... I see how this delusion goes... He _must_ be a commie, having grown up that much closer to the old USSR that good old Bill Gates... yeah right...
And just how can an OS have a socioeconomic philosophy? And when was the last time that an American serviceman gave his life for his OS?
Kierthos
(normally I don't respond to such crapola, but I have way too much karma lately...)
You do know how insurance works, right? Odds are, this is an "at-fault" type of insurance, which means that it is probably very carefully delineated what the insurance company will pay off for. If the "minimum security standards" are met, and they still get cracked, the insurance company will pay out an amount dependent on the damages done.
However, if it is the fault of the company that is paying for the insurance, then the insurance company doesn't have to pay.
To liken it to car insurance, you would get paid if you were in an accident that was not your fault (someone else hits you, mechanical defect in the car, whatever), but you wouldn't get paid if you deliberately smashed the car into a tree.
Regardless of any of this, the rates that the insurance company sets (even regardless of what OS you're using) are based on actuary tables governing the chances that a system will get cracked. Odds are that most systems will never get cracked to the extent that an insurance settlement is required. Just as, odds are, most people that have auto insurance will never be in an auto accident. But they still have the insurance in case they need it.
Kierthos
Exactly. The correlation exists. Because young male drivers are more likely to be involved in accidents then older female drivers, the insurance rates for those young male drivers is significantly higher. (Ob note: AFAIK, the age range for the highest insurance rates is 16-25.) Likewise, because Windows machines are "easier" to crack, at least in terms of availability, then the insurance rates are higher. Think about it. Windows has how much market share compared to Linux? It's so much easier to find a Windows based system to exploit then a similar Linux system.
Couple that with the fact that most Windows systems are reliant not upon the sysadmin for fixes, but rather Microsoft, and you see the problem. (Whereas anyone with enough know-how can patch most of the problems with Linux machines.)
If Microsoft released the source code, or they were more proactive in putting out quality software, or they were quicker and more efficient at patching software in a timely manner, then the rates wouldn't be so high. But if they released their source code now, all it would do is create thousands of script kiddies exploiting the holes that someone else found first.
What Microsoft needs to do is take the time to put out proper software. But the chances of that happening are similar to the chances of a whelk surviving a supernova.
Kierthos
Of course virtually all deaths by firearms accidents are fatal... if they weren't fatal, they wouldn't be deaths!
Please think before writing.
Kierthos
Actually, in civil law, it's called preponderence of evidence. You are found liable if the judge (or jury, in a jury civil trial) finds that the preponderence of evidence weighs against you. In plainer terms, if more of the evidence then not makes you look liable, then you're liable. Of course, you still have to worry about how the jury will interpret the evidence, but it doesn't have to be "beyond reasonable doubt", as in a criminal trial.
IANAL, but I used to live with one.
Kierthos
International Space Station. You know, that big orbital thingy that Dennis Tito visited recently?
I suppose that one of the ideas for the place is to use it as a transit point for other orbital traffic and installations. It's a helluva lot easier to move a shuttle from one orbital point to another then from ground to orbit.
Kierthos
Also, what the Hell(tm) ever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? Or has the whole legal world become convinced that we're all Napster-using freaks bent on pirating more songs/videos/software then China?
Kierthos
Check me on this, but how are you supposed to get revenue out of censorship anyway? The whole speed limit/ticket thing I can see (I've gotten enough warnings and such for that kind of thing), but how are you supposed to get money out of restricting web sites? Charge for the hit that didn't happen?
Kierthos
Considering that most "kids" in a house with Internet access know more about computers then dear old mom and dad, it's usually a moot point.
"Oh look, dad installed some filter software! I only know 42 ways around that!"
I started looking at porn when I was 12, and I turned out just fine. Now if you're excuse me, I have to go shave my palms.
Kierthos
Hey, if the Aussie gov'mint wants to keep throwing money at U.S. based corps that write the filtering software, I got no problem with it. (I'd have less of a problem if I worked for one of those corps, but...)
This just strikes me as yet another waste of time, space and money by a goverment. It isn't the first time, it won't be the last, and there will be others when the politicos don't understand the tech they are trying to regulate.
Kierthos
Already slashdotted... anyone have a mirror site for this?
Kierthos
Well, we have gotten some cool stuff from NASA, other then Tang, of course. But a lot of the stuff they have come up with has been inspired by sci-fi writers to begin with.
Regardless, I'd much rather see more "space-tourists" like Dennis Tito, as a way to help defray the costs of ISS, and as a way to increase awareness in the space program then all this Mickey Mouse shit they're doing now.
As for this 20 year wait for a trip to Mars, IMAO, that's way too damn long. But part of it (only part) might be waiting for a proper orbital conjunction so the astronauts have to spend as little time as possible in between the two planets. I mean, it's going to take a while to get there anyway, so why not minimize it?
Kierthos