A more appropriate question is of all the GLXP teams, how many will actually get to the point of getting off the ground and doing a successful Trans Lunar Injection, and of that number, how many are actually going to attempt to meet the "imaging man made artefacts" criteria.
Official GLXP team; White Label Space has recently written of it's Lunar landing intentions and the focus seems to be more on finding water (another bonus) than finding Apollo, Lunokhod, Surveyor et al. They're considering the peaks of eternal light near the Moon's south pole which would also provide nearby landing sites with rover routes into the permanently shadowed zones.
Any self respecting geek would want to get at least some of the facts straight before passing judgement on an ODF vs OOXML discussion, so why not this one? I guess it's easier to hold a bias.
You see the whole Science vs Religion argument in my opinion is fundamentally flawed, and frankly it's a bit deceptive to expect as default the notion that they are mutually exclusive.
Yes the Catholic Church has made some big mistakes, Specifically in the Galileo affair but also regarding Copernicus too. Over 2000 years or so the Catholic Church has accumulated quite a bit of experience and has had to learn lots from the mistakes of people who call themselves Catholic. That separation of Church & State is a good thing, that Faith can never conflict with reason and that the sacraments the Church offers for the benefit of the faithful should never ever be sold.
Specifically in the case of Galileo, several Popes offered tribute to him and Pope John Paul II in 1992, essentially apologised on behalf of the Inquisition that had wrongly admonished him.
"Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and by relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the centre of the world, as it was then known, that is to say, as a planetary system. The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world's structure was, in some way, imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture...."
- Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano N. 44 (1264) - 4th November,1992
Over time it has been a humbling but healthy experience for the Catholic Church, and it grows wiser from it. It seems exceptionally unlikely to me that the current Pope was going to Rome's La Sapienza university to tell them that Science sux and that Galileo was wrong, so there!
Why?
Because Science and Religion are not mutually exclusive. The very rigour of Science itself came from monks in monasteries attempting to understand and describe the observable world in objective ways. The first Universities were monasteries. Galileo himself quotes a Catholic cleric saying "The intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach how to go to heaven and not how go the heavens".
A person can choose to be an honest Scientist. A person can choose to have an honest belief in God. A Person can choose to be an honest Scientist with and honest belief in God.
A 6000 year old Earth which is an evolution free zone with dinosaur bones pre-baked is not honest. An honest Christian should not believe such things, they are not consistent with reason. With this in mind, one who doesn't lie about science can also honestly have faith in God. Faith in God does should not require taking the Bible as being a literal, scientifically prescriptive document. Paradoxically, Galileo, a sincere believer, showed himself to be more perceptive in this regard than the theologians who opposed him. "If Scripture cannot err", he wrote to Benedetto Castelli, "certain of its interpreters and commentators can and do so in many ways".
Of course, It's always just a lot easier to criticize the Catholic Church and those that represent it as backward, anti-Science and probably involved in some kind of conspiracy. Trouble is, the truth just wants to be free.
I've always considered Slashdot to be such a great place to read some news scoops, interesting developments, a repost or two and many a chuckle and possibly an insight or three thanks to the comments. Slashdot has a kind of life of it's own.
Yet, here's one thing I couldn't help but wonder about today...
Slashdot is seems to me is a living library, a pristine record that is also growing, of the life of a very important part of a community, that was and is responsible in part for some of the most important endeavours in a very important industry, that is changing the world we live in. Changing even what ordinary people expect - the way they think.
Slashdot is the kind of record of human striving, achievement, admonishment, celebration and good old piss farting around that Anthropologists dream of.
This Thursday coming marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik and with the perspective that we have of that event now, we can really appreciate how good and important it was and what a 133t geek Sergei Korolyov was.
I can help but wonder how people 40 years from now will appreciate the importance of Slashdot to the world they will be happy to be living in.
For about 2 years since Mozilla was stable I've been persisting with a campaign of Mozilla promotion and publicising every IE security issue. Mozilla is part of our SOE.
Regardless, of the 200 or so users that I support, most have to be seriously enticed NOT to use IE.
The problem seems to be an old fasion 'hearts & minds' issue and will take some considerable time to crack.
Even users who should know better I find having slipped to the dark side from time to time.
They use the same whimpy excuses; 'a site didn't load properly..' - as if I don't use Mozilla & Firefox exclusively without issue.
Firefox does help to deliver a clean and simple interface that's quick and not 'scary' to users thanks to the 'Dinosaur head' that so many of my users find off putting.
I have to admitit it, but the things that attract geeks seem to scare the average user who wants their hand held away.
Vegie variety users prefer evil blandness to sharp teeth trustworthyness.
The way to overcome this attitude is if Firefox & Mozilla are percieved as 'cool', as some users are noticing, thanks to custom skins etc.
Slowly Mozilla & Firefox are increasing market share - Shame Google dropped their cludgy browser metrics. At least it was a rough guide.
His company; Scaled Composites, have not only survived the drastic slump of the light aircraft market in the 80's and 90' but made innovation their tradition - no small feat.
IMHO, they deserve to succeed with this attempt of Spaceship One.
Indeed Linus is here, as well as Bdale and others. We got together for a meal at one of Adelaide's fine resturants.
Lots of great conversations were had, the ususal stuff. Discussions of dumb vendors, brilliant past innovations and at other end of the table invisible Rabbits were mentioned. See the usual stuff...
An image for you gratification...
The really interesting thing is that this is being posted from a pub on Rundle street via freewifi!
Ahhh yes, this Linux.conf will be good.
Oh and it's the Second year in a row that Linus has attended, not the third...
But where is Hemos ???
More info on the Wafer Chip project AKA Wafer Scale Integration.
During 1986, Sinclair Research (SRL) took the decision to divest itself of its computer business - which, inclusive of the then product range and 'Sinclair' brand name - was sold to Amstrad plc. The company itself then became a holding company for interests in a series of 'spin outs' covering electronics and other sectors. First among these in 1986 were the Winchester-based Shave Communications - a leader in the development of new communications products - and Anamartic. Established to design, develop and market a range of new memory and processor products using WSI (Wafer Scale Integration) technology, Anamartic shipped its first product in 1989 following a multi-million pound investment programme. It represented the 'first successful application of the wafer-scale technique worldwide'. At the same time Sir Clive also launched a third company, Cambridge Computer Limited, in which SRL initially retained majority control. Cambridge-based, it launched its first product, the best selling Z88 portable computer in summer 1987 and, during 1989, also entered the then new market for advanced satellite receivers.
Well the Z88 was a mild success that developed into the Psion PDAs. A nice approach to portable computing.
But what of the Wafer Scale Integration technology?
Clive Sinclair did have a few sharp ideas and one of them was the the wafer chip project:
"What you have is a wafer of silicon a few inches in diameter and instead of chopping that up and putting all the bits that work into packages and then putting them all together again on a circuit board, you keep them on the wafer. The problem is that you've got to have some system to test for the good areas. Essentially we divide the memory up into blocks about the size of an ordinary chip and put a bit of extra logic on which uses a mathematical algorithm to connect up the good chips and not the bad. If one bit fails you can power-down and reconfigure it so it has an extended lifetime."
This was a genuinely good idea. Reduce the cost of chip manufacture and extend the life of computers by many years. Just replace the odd power supply every 3 or 4 years. The reconfigure of faulty chips could even be done on the fly.
Using this proposed method, Memory & Processor chips aren't just "Good" or "Dead", they can last many years in a very slow state of hardly noticable decay.
Heat is a problem I hear you say for processors? Well if you have 20 of them on one wafer you don't need them to all be P4s.
Intel will probably jump onto this idea when Moore's law starts to flatten out.
Cheap slabs of ram and CPU, that don't fail all at once - yeah!!
Are these fears justified, or am I missing something here?
Your fears are not justified, you are missing something - what's happening with other largish corporations working with OSS.
IBM have ported Linux to their s390 the code is still open. That's how GPL works, and IBM benefit from community contributions, peer review, reduced development costs and all the benefits that OSS brings.
Apple use OSS software extensively in OSX. Stuff that includes Samba, CUPS, OpenSSH, XFree86, and in all these cases Apple returns the code to their respective projects and honours the GPL.
SGI have moved lots of their formally commercial code to the GPL.
It's when a Corp "Gets it" that they cooperate and participate with the OSS methodoligies. It does work, and does save them and make them money.
I have little doubt that Novell will eventually, or already have "Got it" and move key parts of their NDS and Groupware technologies to GPL bound Open code.
Novell is a very valuable friend for the OSS community to have.
Just one gripe; I mentioned this story yesterday!!??
Now you have ample ammo for suing SCO for libel, slander, defamation, etc...
The trouble is Who will do the suing?
IBM? Redhat? Knoppix??? certainly not Knoppix.
Lets face it, even though this is in NZ, it sets a very nasty precedent internationally.
And although IBM have been playing it cool, as they should, with the rabid SCO flinging mud everywhere the concerning thing is that some of that mud might stick.
Feature for feature, tech for tech and even on usability grounds Linux is beginning to really become a desktop option with mountains more flexibility than Windows - any flavour of windows.
MS have played very very dirty in the past, and it would not surprise me in the slightest if it's their intention to do so again, and this case is testing the waters. Anyone remember Stacker?
However this is a delicate time for Linux in the hearts and minds of the general uninformed masses.
For the criminally insane at SCO to get some of their allegations to stick is a significant blow in Linux Marketing in the short term.
It would help significantly if IBM made an big, loud, international, and official statement about the Damage SCO is doing to their market and reputation, and threaten serious legal action.
A response form IBM like this would strengthen, not damage the reputation of Linux and Open Source software.
Rusty, Tridge, Martin, have you fellows had smoco with some IBM lawyers recently?
Hergé, the Belgian author of the Tintin comics is a very interesting an complex fellow.
Harmless on the surface, but with deep contemplation perpetually pumping within.
It's not surprising that this flows over into the character Tintin.
To sum it up as a kids story is like considering a Ferrari F40 as fancy steel.
Tintin, like his author, had a brain, and a conscience - something that many Hackers (in the ESR meaning of the term) can relate to.
Sure there was action and comic relief in the comics - but also ethics!
Tintin was very much a 1930's Hacker - he handled information for a living, but saw deeper than contemporary fads, he was prepared to tweak the system if necessary and had the technical prowess to do so. He was a big believer in context and doing things the "Right Way"tm. He looked after daily issues, but always managed to consider the Big picture.
We're not talking Batman here - a character based on a psychological disorder, Tintin has brains and substance.
So is Steven up to the task? - Yes he's displayed real talent one more than one occasion - but does he really CARE about this project? As mentioned previously, Steven has already benefited plenty from Hergé's vision, especially regarding action - so does Steven feel the needs to give something back in return?
Steven sure can afford to - and Europeans would be rather grateful if he did.
So that leads to logistics:
what time period will it be set ?
Tintin stories range from 1930's to 1970's
which book will be selected ?
a normal development - or all the characters in your face at once?
how will he handle Snowy?
The Gadget movie's version of the dog, Brain is an excellent example of what NOT to do
how much original materal will be introduced ?
Inevitable, but a very important issue
If done with care, Spielberg could further perpetuate a Cult classic, via Hollywood apparatus
to international aproval.
There is an important fact that would benefit you to learn and remember:
The Whole world does not share your opinions or values.
Obviously you have little knowledge of what you are writing about, but have strong opinions about it anyway.
Wake up see reality. MS is soon to become LEGACY software.
Providing a genuinely Heterogeneous network is the key to the future. Linux allows you to do that - even to the point of accurate emulation.
Take your prozac and stop embarrassing yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
Between now and the 2012 deadline we're likely to hear more and more of the developments and adventures or the various GLXP teams.
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams
A more appropriate question is of all the GLXP teams, how many will actually get to the point of getting off the ground and doing a successful Trans Lunar Injection, and of that number, how many are actually going to attempt to meet the "imaging man made artefacts" criteria.
Official GLXP team; White Label Space has recently written of it's Lunar landing intentions and the focus seems to be more on finding water (another bonus) than finding Apollo, Lunokhod, Surveyor et al. They're considering the peaks of eternal light near the Moon's south pole which would also provide nearby landing sites with rover routes into the permanently shadowed zones.
http://www.whitelabelspace.com/2009/05/preliminary-landing-site-considerations.html
Any self respecting geek would want to get at least some of the facts straight before passing judgement on an ODF vs OOXML discussion, so why not this one? I guess it's easier to hold a bias.
You see the whole Science vs Religion argument in my opinion is fundamentally flawed, and frankly it's a bit deceptive to expect as default the notion that they are mutually exclusive.
Yes the Catholic Church has made some big mistakes, Specifically in the Galileo affair but also regarding Copernicus too. Over 2000 years or so the Catholic Church has accumulated quite a bit of experience and has had to learn lots from the mistakes of people who call themselves Catholic. That separation of Church & State is a good thing, that Faith can never conflict with reason and that the sacraments the Church offers for the benefit of the faithful should never ever be sold.
Specifically in the case of Galileo, several Popes offered tribute to him and Pope John Paul II in 1992, essentially apologised on behalf of the Inquisition that had wrongly admonished him.
"Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and by relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the centre of the world, as it was then known, that is to say, as a planetary system. The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world's structure was, in some way, imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture...."
- Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano N. 44 (1264) - 4th November,1992
Over time it has been a humbling but healthy experience for the Catholic Church, and it grows wiser from it. It seems exceptionally unlikely to me that the current Pope was going to Rome's La Sapienza university to tell them that Science sux and that Galileo was wrong, so there!
Why?
Because Science and Religion are not mutually exclusive. The very rigour of Science itself came from monks in monasteries attempting to understand and describe the observable world in objective ways. The first Universities were monasteries. Galileo himself quotes a Catholic cleric saying "The intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach how to go to heaven and not how go the heavens".
A person can choose to be an honest Scientist. A person can choose to have an honest belief in God. A Person can choose to be an honest Scientist with and honest belief in God.
A 6000 year old Earth which is an evolution free zone with dinosaur bones pre-baked is not honest. An honest Christian should not believe such things, they are not consistent with reason. With this in mind, one who doesn't lie about science can also honestly have faith in God. Faith in God does should not require taking the Bible as being a literal, scientifically prescriptive document. Paradoxically, Galileo, a sincere believer, showed himself to be more perceptive in this regard than the theologians who opposed him. "If Scripture cannot err", he wrote to Benedetto Castelli, "certain of its interpreters and commentators can and do so in many ways".
Faith and Reason are actually quite compatible, and from a Catholic perspective are interdependent. On the relationship between Faith and Reason
Of course, It's always just a lot easier to criticize the Catholic Church and those that represent it as backward, anti-Science and probably involved in some kind of conspiracy. Trouble is, the truth just wants to be free.
Congratulations to Rob, Jeff, Robin et al.
I've always considered Slashdot to be such a great place to read some news scoops, interesting developments, a repost or two and many a chuckle and possibly an insight or three thanks to the comments. Slashdot has a kind of life of it's own.
Yet, here's one thing I couldn't help but wonder about today...
Slashdot is seems to me is a living library, a pristine record that is also growing, of the life of a very important part of a community, that was and is responsible in part for some of the most important endeavours in a very important industry, that is changing the world we live in. Changing even what ordinary people expect - the way they think.
Slashdot is the kind of record of human striving, achievement, admonishment, celebration and good old piss farting around that Anthropologists dream of.
This Thursday coming marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik and with the perspective that we have of that event now, we can really appreciate how good and important it was and what a 133t geek Sergei Korolyov was.
I can help but wonder how people 40 years from now will appreciate the importance of Slashdot to the world they will be happy to be living in.
Just a thought.
Happy 'double figures' Birthday!
This morning Jonathan Corbet mentioned this news in detail, at this talk
:(
However, It's a same that Linus wasn't here himself to talk about it, as in previous years.
So there'll be no re-enactment of that famous penguin nip, which made history and changed the world.
Sadly this kind of response is not unusual.
For about 2 years since Mozilla was stable I've been persisting with a campaign of Mozilla promotion and publicising every IE security issue. Mozilla is part of our SOE.
Regardless, of the 200 or so users that I support, most have to be seriously enticed NOT to use IE.
The problem seems to be an old fasion 'hearts & minds' issue and will take some considerable time to crack.
Even users who should know better I find having slipped to the dark side from time to time.
They use the same whimpy excuses; 'a site didn't load properly..' - as if I don't use Mozilla & Firefox exclusively without issue.
Firefox does help to deliver a clean and simple interface that's quick and not 'scary' to users thanks to the 'Dinosaur head' that so many of my users find off putting.
I have to admitit it, but the things that attract geeks seem to scare the average user who wants their hand held away.
Vegie variety users prefer evil blandness to sharp teeth trustworthyness.
The way to overcome this attitude is if Firefox & Mozilla are percieved as 'cool', as some users are noticing, thanks to custom skins etc.
Slowly Mozilla & Firefox are increasing market share - Shame Google dropped their cludgy browser metrics. At least it was a rough guide.
It's appropriate to view this attempt win the X Prize with a full perspective of who Scaled Composites are, and where they came from.
Burt Rutan has been thinking outside the box, from the halcyon days of the Vari-Eze & Long-Eze to the innovative Ares and the 'appear-to-thumb-your-nose-at-physics' Boomerang.
His company; Scaled Composites, have not only survived the drastic slump of the light aircraft market in the 80's and 90' but made innovation their tradition - no small feat.
IMHO, they deserve to succeed with this attempt of Spaceship One.
Google could get Ali G to express his 'respect' for his new email address and "dat all doze who want more dan bling bling need to get one a deez"...
Just a thought..
Indeed Linus is here, as well as Bdale and others. We got together for a meal at one of Adelaide's fine resturants. Lots of great conversations were had, the ususal stuff. Discussions of dumb vendors, brilliant past innovations and at other end of the table invisible Rabbits were mentioned. See the usual stuff... An image for you gratification... The really interesting thing is that this is being posted from a pub on Rundle street via free wifi! Ahhh yes, this Linux.conf will be good. Oh and it's the Second year in a row that Linus has attended, not the third... But where is Hemos ???
More info on the Wafer Chip project AKA Wafer Scale Integration.
During 1986, Sinclair Research (SRL) took the decision to divest itself of its computer business - which, inclusive of the then product range and 'Sinclair' brand name - was sold to Amstrad plc. The company itself then became a holding company for interests in a series of 'spin outs' covering electronics and other sectors. First among these in 1986 were the Winchester-based Shave Communications - a leader in the development of new communications products - and Anamartic. Established to design, develop and market a range of new memory and processor products using WSI (Wafer Scale Integration) technology, Anamartic shipped its first product in 1989 following a multi-million pound investment programme. It represented the 'first successful application of the wafer-scale technique worldwide'. At the same time Sir Clive also launched a third company, Cambridge Computer Limited, in which SRL initially retained majority control. Cambridge-based, it launched its first product, the best selling Z88 portable computer in summer 1987 and, during 1989, also entered the then new market for advanced satellite receivers.
Well the Z88 was a mild success that developed into the Psion PDAs. A nice approach to portable computing.
But what of the Wafer Scale Integration technology?
Anyone know?
Forget the C5 or C6, and Segway.
Clive Sinclair did have a few sharp ideas and one of them was the the wafer chip project:
"What you have is a wafer of silicon a few inches in diameter and instead of chopping that up and putting all the bits that work into packages and then putting them all together again on a circuit board, you keep them on the wafer. The problem is that you've got to have some system to test for the good areas. Essentially we divide the memory up into blocks about the size of an ordinary chip and put a bit of extra logic on which uses a mathematical algorithm to connect up the good chips and not the bad. If one bit fails you can power-down and reconfigure it so it has an extended lifetime."
This was a genuinely good idea. Reduce the cost of chip manufacture and extend the life of computers by many years. Just replace the odd power supply every 3 or 4 years. The reconfigure of faulty chips could even be done on the fly.
Using this proposed method, Memory & Processor chips aren't just "Good" or "Dead", they can last many years in a very slow state of hardly noticable decay.
Heat is a problem I hear you say for processors? Well if you have 20 of them on one wafer you don't need them to all be P4s.
Intel will probably jump onto this idea when Moore's law starts to flatten out.
Cheap slabs of ram and CPU, that don't fail all at once - yeah!!
Your fears are not justified, you are missing something - what's happening with other largish corporations working with OSS.
IBM have ported Linux to their s390 the code is still open. That's how GPL works, and IBM benefit from community contributions, peer review, reduced development costs and all the benefits that OSS brings.
Apple use OSS software extensively in OSX. Stuff that includes Samba, CUPS, OpenSSH, XFree86, and in all these cases Apple returns the code to their respective projects and honours the GPL.
SGI have moved lots of their formally commercial code to the GPL.
It's when a Corp "Gets it" that they cooperate and participate with the OSS methodoligies. It does work, and does save them and make them money.
I have little doubt that Novell will eventually, or already have "Got it" and move key parts of their NDS and Groupware technologies to GPL bound Open code.
Novell is a very valuable friend for the OSS community to have.
Just one gripe; I mentioned this story yesterday!!??
The trouble is Who will do the suing?
IBM? Redhat? Knoppix??? certainly not Knoppix.
Lets face it, even though this is in NZ, it sets a very nasty precedent internationally.
And although IBM have been playing it cool, as they should, with the rabid SCO flinging mud everywhere the concerning thing is that some of that mud might stick.
Feature for feature, tech for tech and even on usability grounds Linux is beginning to really become a desktop option with mountains more flexibility than Windows - any flavour of windows.
MS have played very very dirty in the past, and it would not surprise me in the slightest if it's their intention to do so again, and this case is testing the waters. Anyone remember Stacker?
However this is a delicate time for Linux in the hearts and minds of the general uninformed masses.
For the criminally insane at SCO to get some of their allegations to stick is a significant blow in Linux Marketing in the short term.
It would help significantly if IBM made an big, loud, international, and official statement about the Damage SCO is doing to their market and reputation, and threaten serious legal action.
A response form IBM like this would strengthen, not damage the reputation of Linux and Open Source software.
Rusty, Tridge, Martin, have you fellows had smoco with some IBM lawyers recently?
It's not surprising that this flows over into the character Tintin.
To sum it up as a kids story is like considering a Ferrari F40 as fancy steel.
Tintin, like his author, had a brain, and a conscience - something that many Hackers (in the ESR meaning of the term) can relate to. Sure there was action and comic relief in the comics - but also ethics!
Tintin was very much a 1930's Hacker - he handled information for a living, but saw deeper than contemporary fads, he was prepared to tweak the system if necessary and had the technical prowess to do so. He was a big believer in context and doing things the "Right Way"tm. He looked after daily issues, but always managed to consider the Big picture.
We're not talking Batman here - a character based on a psychological disorder, Tintin has brains and substance.
So is Steven up to the task? - Yes he's displayed real talent one more than one occasion - but does he really CARE about this project? As mentioned previously, Steven has already benefited plenty from Hergé's vision, especially regarding action - so does Steven feel the needs to give something back in return?
Steven sure can afford to - and Europeans would be rather grateful if he did.
So that leads to logistics:
Tintin stories range from 1930's to 1970's
a normal development - or all the characters in your face at once?
The Gadget movie's version of the dog, Brain is an excellent example of what NOT to do
- how much original materal will be introduced ?
If done with care, Spielberg could further perpetuate a Cult classic, via Hollywood apparatus to international aproval.Inevitable, but a very important issue
Done badly - A treasure will have been soiled
I am very interested. At the moment I'm in the process of writing a paper on the topic. Please get in contact.
There is an important fact that would benefit you to learn and remember: The Whole world does not share your opinions or values. Obviously you have little knowledge of what you are writing about, but have strong opinions about it anyway. Wake up see reality. MS is soon to become LEGACY software. Providing a genuinely Heterogeneous network is the key to the future. Linux allows you to do that - even to the point of accurate emulation. Take your prozac and stop embarrassing yourself.