Orbital colonies? For the average person? Give me a break. Most people can barely afford a 3 bedroom house on Earth. Who do you think is going to pay for all the high tech hardware required to support you out there?
A century ago, most people couldn't afford a car. Now, most people have at least one. Prices come down, "dude", and once self-replicating intelligent nanotech takes off and the Space Elevator is built, getting to Space, and around in Space once you're there, will be relatively inexpensive, compared to ocean crossings in the 1600s.
You're talking about leaving repressive governments for a corprorate controlled research facility/colony.
No, I will be living by myself in my own habitat/spacecraft, free form corporate and governmental interference. I never wrote anything about corporate-controlled research; I was writing about research in general, which can be performed by corporations, yes, but also by educational institutions, or by individuals. For example, if I wanted to research genetically-modified plants here on Earth, in many cases I would need some sort of (possibly expensive or restrictive) government oversight/licensing, and wouldn't be permitted to do some kinds of research at all (e.g., finding ways to make kudzu grow faster, or to produce deadly toxins). Out in Space, this wouldn't be a problem.
It seems to me that this need to spread like a virus is more cultural than genetic.
Then Man has had this cultural need since the time he moved from the trees to the Savannah, out of Africa, throughout the Old World and Australia, across the Bering Land Bridge, and down through the Americas.
Remind me again why people would WANT to colonize Mars? If we are hurting that bad for space, why not move to Antartica, the bottom of the ocean, of the middle of the desert?
For the same reason that the Pilgrims and others colonized America: to get away from repressive governments. Unfortunately, there is nowhere on Earth that scum like GWB et al can't reach. The only solution is to get off the planet.
To ensure the propogation of the human race should something bad happen to the Earth (e.g., asteroid strike, etc.). Larry Niven once wrote that the reason that the dinosaurs became extinct is that they didn't have a space program. Granted, one needn't go so far as to colonize planetary surfaces to ensure the survival of the human race; orbital colonies can do that as well. (I plan to move out to the asteroid belt my own self, once such a thing becomes feasible, and then, eventually, out to the Oort Cloud and interstellar space (although, admittedly, by then I will probably be no longer a human).)
To engage in dangerous or low-gravity research. Research that would be difficult or impossible to do here on Earth, due to its gravity (e.g., some metalurgy, chemistry, and biology) might be easier to do on Mars. Research that would be dangerous to do here on Earth (e.g., with virulent pathogens or self-replicating nanotechnology) can be done on Mars or other planets with less chance of endangering life on Earth. (Again, though, much of this research could probably be better done using orbital facilities.)
To spread our species throughout the galaxy, like plaque spreads on teeth. Our species is a voracious virus, seeking to inhabit every environment. It's what we do. It's what we are. It is our destiny. And so on.
Wait! I know! Let's do the exact same thing, but not use computers! Hmmm... Yes, do the exact same thing that others have done for years, but not using computers. What an incredibly original idea! Please excuse me while I go file a patent.
This is some annoying shit! Fuck the AC posting then, I don't have time to wait around for an hour until/. lets me post again
If you have a dial-up line or a cable/DSL modem that lets you disconnect, then disconnect and reconnect to get a new IP address. You can do this without closing your browser, and without having to refresh your comment. The Slashdot code looks at your IP address, not your user name, when detemining how long it's been since your last post. (The down side is that you will also lose any other net connections that you may have (USENET, IRC, etc.).)
The other thing that you can do, if you are posting multiple replies and using a browser that supports tabs, is to compose each reply in its own tab, and then submit them all at once. If you do it fast enough, (Submit/Change-Tab/Submit/Change-Tab/etc.), you can get several posts in before the Slashdot code realizes that you've posted. I have been able to submit up to three AC posts at a time using this method (which is the most that I've ever wanted to submit simultaneously; I've not tried four or more).
Also, make sure that you submit your AC posts before you submit your non-AC posts, because the stupid Slashdot code doesn't distinguish between AC posts and non-AC posts when it determines how long it's been since your last post.
There are several bands in Las Vegas that have also been doing this for about 5 years. In fact, one band made a joke about it on their flyers, saying "Rip us off online!" then a web address. Sorry, I don't remember names ATM.
Yeah, that kind of reminds me of that time when some band somewhere may have done something or other on some web site that may have something vaguely to do with this article, possibly. Sorry, I don't remember who, what, where, when, or why.
"It has become appallingly obvious that our blabology has exceeded our technology."
- Albert Einstein, circa 1827.
1827? In 1827, Einstein wasn't even a sparkle in his grandad's sgukarkle (with apologies to Ice-Burg or whatever that guy's name is with the big pants, you know, the one who says "can't touch this shnizzle in my fizzle" or something?). I think that you may have meant 1927.
Who knows if they would have finished in time, if they were at that stage. Even if I thought I was 75% finished, we know I might only be half finished -- that last bit to finish is always a huge effort, and that's typically where you blow your schedule.
Yeah, like the old saying "The first half of a project takes 90% of the time, and the last half takes the other 90% of the time.".
Canada: I'm still waitng for Mario Curling. U.S.A.: I'm still waiting for Mario Bowling/Foorball. Mexico/Spain: I'm still waiting for Mario Bullfighting. U.K.: I'm still waiting for Mario Cricket/Rugby/Football. France: I'm still wating for Mario Insult Foreigners. China: I'm still waiting for Mario Tianenmen Square. Osama bin Laden: I'm still waiting for Mario Kill the Infadels. GWB: I'm still waiting for Mario Rapture. Hey, Dick, my controller doesn't work, and I pushed the red button over and over again. What? What missles?
No, scientists have been able to create fusion in many ways, including H-Bombs, those mega-watt LASER facilities that you mentioned, and various cold-fusion means (such as cavitation, etc.). The problem has been that either the energy released is too much at once (H-Bombs), or has required more energy to initiate/sustain than is recoverable in a useful form (LASER facilities and cold fusion).
what if there is a jar full of these wires coming out of the factory and they drop, break, and get dispersed into a crowd of 5 people?
Then those five people will have gotten free cancer screenings, and the sixth and other persons will be left out, or have to pay for theirs. BTW, in English, sentences usually begin with a capital letter.
what does also knowing that ^U is "delete to start of line" make me?
Not as geeky as someone who knows about ^W. Why? Because ^U meant "delete line" long before ^W meant "delete word". In fact, ^U as line delete originated at DEC, I believe, and was used in their systems (e.g., DOS 7 for PDP-11 in 1974, where I personally remember using it) long before it was used in UNIX. (I think that DEC also originated using ^C as the process interrupt character (whereas UNIX originally used DEL (and I still use DEL myself to this day)).) In addition, ^W originated in the Berkeley version of UNIX first (probably in the vi editor before the TTY drivers), and only later made it into UNIX in general.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, the original standard character erase and line erase characters in UNIX (which are now ^H (or BACKSPACE) and ^U) were # and @, respectively. This made it a pain to write C preprocessing statements in ed, the line editor that preceded ex and vi.
you'd think they'd simply not show a Submit button until after the first Preview.
No, that is a design flaw present in way too many sites.
No, the design flaw is not having it here on Slashdot. Posters should be required (not just "encouraged") to preview their posts before posting them. In addition, a person who edits a post should be required to preview it again. That is, put the "Submit" button in the "Preview Comment" area (maybe renamed to "Submit the Above Comment"), and leave the "Preview" button in the "Edit Comment" area. A person who can't be bothered to preview his/her post shouldn't be posting in the first place.
Wow, what a freak^H^H^H^H^H geeky^H^H^H^H^H cool thing to know!
To delete entire words in UNIX/Linux, you can use "^W" (i.e., "CTRL+W" in MS-speak). So you could have typed
Wow, what a freak^W geeky^Wcool thing to know!
or
Wow, what a freak geeky^W^Wcool thing to know!
for an equivalent, but even geekier, humorous effect. (Note also that you shouldn't have a space after the "^W", because "^W" deletes back only to, but not including, the previous space. Similarly, in your original example, you should have omitted the spaces after each of your "^H" sequnces, or made each six long, instead of only five.)
I would think that one would want the CG to be slightly on the Earth side of L1 in order to maintain some cable tension at the Moon base. Otherwise, the cable would bob around and occasionally go slack at the end, which might not be too good if a car were being loaded onto the cable at the time, etc. In addition, if the CG is on the Earth side, the cable would tend to be pulled toward the Earth, which would counteract the pull toward the Moon caused by full (heavier) cars traveling up the cable and empty (lighter) cars (if any) traveling down it. Of course, the CG can't be too far away from L1, or the tension at the base of the cable might be so much that it would break.
Yeah, one of the googled articles mentioned that. As the other person who responded to you wrote, such a device would have to be boosted each time it picked up a load from the surface, if it wanted to maintain altitude (which, of course, it would). This could be done with fuel coming from part of the load it picked up, or from fuel loads picked up periodically.
In Soviet Russia, people make books out of trees. Wait, they do that here in the US, too.
display exerpts of ANY book
If that's the case, then I will be able to reconstruct the entire book on my machine by using a series of searches. I predict that programs to do this automatically will begin to appear shortly after Google goes public with its Library Project.
I think the US wants to revisit the moon soon to make sure the Chinese don't take all the good base spots.
That's OK, if they build Moon bases in spots that we want, then we'll just invade them like we do everything else. Then all their base will belong to us.
Ever write code that just stores a pointer in a long and assume void * is the same size?
I did when I was first starting to code in C, but I don't do it any more, because I know better now. I find it somewhat disturbing that people still write such defective code these days, especially for an important project like this. (OK, there may be one or two places (e.g., accessing hardware registers in device drivers) where such code is necessary, but definitely not "happen[ing] quite a bit".)
Just because it's "valid C", it doesn't mean that it's good programming.
A Lunar Space Elevator cable would not have to be so long that it would intersect the Earth. According to this article, it would have to be only twice as long as an Earth Space Elevator cable, which is not long enough to intersect the Earth. This surprises me; I had thought that, despite the Moon's lower gravity, the ~29-day rotational period of the Moon would have required an extremely long cable, long enough to intersect the Earth. Sorry for the error. (That'll teach me to post without doing sufficient research first. [No, it won't.] Shut up.)
BTW, the Wikipedia article has a lot of additional info about a Lunar Space Elevator.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, most people have at least one.
Prices come down, "dude", and once self-replicating intelligent nanotech takes off and the Space Elevator is built, getting to Space, and around in Space once you're there, will be relatively inexpensive, compared to ocean crossings in the 1600s.No, I will be living by myself in my own habitat/spacecraft, free form corporate and governmental interference.
I never wrote anything about corporate-controlled research; I was writing about research in general, which can be performed by corporations, yes, but also by educational institutions, or by individuals.
For example, if I wanted to research genetically-modified plants here on Earth, in many cases I would need some sort of (possibly expensive or restrictive) government oversight/licensing, and wouldn't be permitted to do some kinds of research at all (e.g., finding ways to make kudzu grow faster, or to produce deadly toxins).
Out in Space, this wouldn't be a problem.Then Man has had this cultural need since the time he moved from the trees to the Savannah, out of Africa, throughout the Old World and Australia, across the Bering Land Bridge, and down through the Americas.
Unfortunately, there is nowhere on Earth that scum like GWB et al can't reach.
The only solution is to get off the planet.
Larry Niven once wrote that the reason that the dinosaurs became extinct is that they didn't have a space program.
Granted, one needn't go so far as to colonize planetary surfaces to ensure the survival of the human race; orbital colonies can do that as well.
(I plan to move out to the asteroid belt my own self, once such a thing becomes feasible, and then, eventually, out to the Oort Cloud and interstellar space (although, admittedly, by then I will probably be no longer a human).)
Research that would be difficult or impossible to do here on Earth, due to its gravity (e.g., some metalurgy, chemistry, and biology) might be easier to do on Mars.
Research that would be dangerous to do here on Earth (e.g., with virulent pathogens or self-replicating nanotechnology) can be done on Mars or other planets with less chance of endangering life on Earth.
(Again, though, much of this research could probably be better done using orbital facilities.)
Our species is a voracious virus, seeking to inhabit every environment.
It's what we do.
It's what we are.
It is our destiny.
And so on.
See also this post.
Let's do the exact same thing, but not use computers!
Hmmm...
Yes, do the exact same thing that others have done for years, but not using computers.
What an incredibly original idea!
Please excuse me while I go file a patent.
You can do this without closing your browser, and without having to refresh your comment.
The Slashdot code looks at your IP address, not your user name, when detemining how long it's been since your last post.
(The down side is that you will also lose any other net connections that you may have (USENET, IRC, etc.).)
The other thing that you can do, if you are posting multiple replies and using a browser that supports tabs, is to compose each reply in its own tab, and then submit them all at once.
If you do it fast enough, (Submit/Change-Tab/Submit/Change-Tab/etc.), you can get several posts in before the Slashdot code realizes that you've posted.
I have been able to submit up to three AC posts at a time using this method (which is the most that I've ever wanted to submit simultaneously; I've not tried four or more).
Also, make sure that you submit your AC posts before you submit your non-AC posts, because the stupid Slashdot code doesn't distinguish between AC posts and non-AC posts when it determines how long it's been since your last post.
I hope that some of these tips help.
Good luck!
Sorry, I don't remember who, what, where, when, or why.
In 1827, Einstein wasn't even a sparkle in his grandad's sgukarkle (with apologies to Ice-Burg or whatever that guy's name is with the big pants, you know, the one who says "can't touch this shnizzle in my fizzle" or something?).
I think that you may have meant 1927.
Actually, no; I've never even played any of the Mario games (except for a couple of minutes once in a store).
And you aren't there yet?
What, did you start on foot or something from Australia?
Canada: I'm still waitng for Mario Curling.
U.S.A.: I'm still waiting for Mario Bowling/Foorball.
Mexico/Spain: I'm still waiting for Mario Bullfighting.
U.K.: I'm still waiting for Mario Cricket/Rugby/Football.
France: I'm still wating for Mario Insult Foreigners.
China: I'm still waiting for Mario Tianenmen Square.
Osama bin Laden: I'm still waiting for Mario Kill the Infadels.
GWB: I'm still waiting for Mario Rapture. Hey, Dick, my controller doesn't work, and I pushed the red button over and over again. What? What missles?
The problem has been that either the energy released is too much at once (H-Bombs), or has required more energy to initiate/sustain than is recoverable in a useful form (LASER facilities and cold fusion).
BTW, in English, sentences usually begin with a capital letter.
Why?
Because ^U meant "delete line" long before ^W meant "delete word".
In fact, ^U as line delete originated at DEC, I believe, and was used in their systems (e.g., DOS 7 for PDP-11 in 1974, where I personally remember using it) long before it was used in UNIX.
(I think that DEC also originated using ^C as the process interrupt character (whereas UNIX originally used DEL (and I still use DEL myself to this day)).)
In addition, ^W originated in the Berkeley version of UNIX first (probably in the vi editor before the TTY drivers), and only later made it into UNIX in general.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, the original standard character erase and line erase characters in UNIX (which are now ^H (or BACKSPACE) and ^U) were # and @, respectively.
This made it a pain to write C preprocessing statements in ed, the line editor that preceded ex and vi.
Posters should be required (not just "encouraged") to preview their posts before posting them.
In addition, a person who edits a post should be required to preview it again.
That is, put the "Submit" button in the "Preview Comment" area (maybe renamed to "Submit the Above Comment"), and leave the "Preview" button in the "Edit Comment" area.
A person who can't be bothered to preview his/her post shouldn't be posting in the first place.
So you could have typedorfor an equivalent, but even geekier, humorous effect.
(Note also that you shouldn't have a space after the "^W", because "^W" deletes back only to, but not including, the previous space.
Similarly, in your original example, you should have omitted the spaces after each of your "^H" sequnces, or made each six long, instead of only five.)
I would think that one would want the CG to be slightly on the Earth side of L1 in order to maintain some cable tension at the Moon base.
Otherwise, the cable would bob around and occasionally go slack at the end, which might not be too good if a car were being loaded onto the cable at the time, etc.
In addition, if the CG is on the Earth side, the cable would tend to be pulled toward the Earth, which would counteract the pull toward the Moon caused by full (heavier) cars traveling up the cable and empty (lighter) cars (if any) traveling down it.
Of course, the CG can't be too far away from L1, or the tension at the base of the cable might be so much that it would break.
Yeah, one of the googled articles mentioned that.
As the other person who responded to you wrote, such a device would have to be boosted each time it picked up a load from the surface, if it wanted to maintain altitude (which, of course, it would).
This could be done with fuel coming from part of the load it picked up, or from fuel loads picked up periodically.
Wait, they do that here in the US, too.If that's the case, then I will be able to reconstruct the entire book on my machine by using a series of searches.
I predict that programs to do this automatically will begin to appear shortly after Google goes public with its Library Project.
P.S. It's spelled "legal".
Then all their base will belong to us.
I find it somewhat disturbing that people still write such defective code these days, especially for an important project like this.
(OK, there may be one or two places (e.g., accessing hardware registers in device drivers) where such code is necessary, but definitely not "happen[ing] quite a bit".)
Just because it's "valid C", it doesn't mean that it's good programming.
A Lunar Space Elevator cable would not have to be so long that it would intersect the Earth.
According to this article, it would have to be only twice as long as an Earth Space Elevator cable, which is not long enough to intersect the Earth.
This surprises me; I had thought that, despite the Moon's lower gravity, the ~29-day rotational period of the Moon would have required an extremely long cable, long enough to intersect the Earth.
Sorry for the error.
(That'll teach me to post without doing sufficient research first. [No, it won't.] Shut up.)
BTW, the Wikipedia article has a lot of additional info about a Lunar Space Elevator.