"Actually, they probably did it for next to nothing, anticipating all the free press coverage they would get. "
Don't count on it. First off, they probably didn't even know if they could recover the data. Second, they would have no way of knowing for sure that NASA would release the information about them providing the data recovery services. Third, they very likely wouldn't have known whether or not the data (if recovered) would be used for anything in the future. Fourth, there are very strict rules about government agencies doing business where they don't pay for services, especially with potentially classified data on the drives.
I would bet very strongly that they got well paid for this recovery.
No one was talking about "Joe Hobby" but someone investing $30K into their house, which is something very different. At that cost it's no longer "hobby" by most people's standards and as the post indicated, would be something which tied the system into the grid etc. That's basically a description of the neighbor you said you might consider.
Now that I agree with entirely. Especially from someone who purports to have a knowledge of survival techniques. Like I said, I could easily survive for several weeks in many harsh environments assuming I wasn't injured badly enough to drastically reduce mobility.
And there are plenty of crashes every year that do not garner 6 figure search costs. The reason these expenses were incurred is because of who he was, and as such, his estate should pay at least some portion of the bill.
Most searches are called off in a week or less. Steve Fossett's search lasted for over 6 weeks. The resources used on this search were diverted from their normal duties and this is well beyond any reasonable expectation that the taxpayer should cover the cost.
I agree, flying without a flight plan isn't generally considered particularly risky, but it does help justify transferring some of the cost for an extaordinarily expensive and unusual search.
There are no mountains where there is no food. You may have to work for it, but there's food everywhere. It's not appetizing, but it will sustain you, if you know how to get it. Perhaps Nodar, like some of us, has trained on how to survive the "wild" and learned how to forrage for food in various locales. I can live in a desert without water with only a few pieces of equipment and I can certainly live on nearly any mountain without pre-packaged foods for me to eat. Any season, any weather, I can survive for a couple weeks at least, assuming I'm physically able to get around.
The difference is the taxes you pay don't cover the "extraordinary costs" associated with this type of service. These people aren't paid to go out searching for someone for weeks on end, they're paid to provide services to a specific area. When they get called out for a search like this one, the places they are supposed to provide service are then at a loss for those services. That's exactly why you hear about some people getting billed and others not. Especially when, in this particular case, special treatment was given because a large community of people pulled strings to get the search extended when the search teams were ready to call it off. We'll not even discuss the outside costs (I believe there was a slashdot article about the whole thing) with Google satellite imagery and similar tools being "diverted" to help in the search.
I'm not going to get in an argument over how much you're taxed because it's mostly irrelevant to the discussion, but just because you aren't in your state most of the time doesn't mean you're not using the services provided. Do you think fire and rescue wouldn't help you in an accident out of your home state? You're not paying taxes there though, are you? You pay for services in your "home" because that's the most convenient way to provide those services.
I'm a volunteer SAR team member and I understand it's annoying when stupid actions get "rewarded" with a full search effort. We have to accept that, though to be able to provide service to people who do deserve it and got into situations through no fault (or very little fault) of their own.
Just being in the wrong place at the wrong time isn't doing "dumb stuff" though. Sometimes, things happen beyond your control that put you in need of a rescue. A rock falls and brains your climbing partner while simultaneously cutting your rope. How is that your fault?
I'm not for letting stupidity get away scott free, but assuming that people are doing "dumb stuff" just because they do things you wouldn't is a bit short-sighted.
I'm a member of a search and rescue team because I've been on the receiving end of help before. Now I give back to the system, though the "system" wasn't what helped me but rather a couple of individuals that had more experience than I did at the time. It's not always dumb stuff (though for me it was) that puts people in need of help.
No, not really. The barrels are a fairly small surface area, and they're generally covered with only a small screened opening for water to get in from roof gutters. If they're painted a dark color they also get very warm, (quite hot sometimes) which prevents some of that because the eggs don't incubate well. I believe you can also put some additive drops to the water to prevent it, though I've never bothered.
Solar power most definitely adds to the value of a home though I'll grant it doesn't have a dollar for dollar payback. If, however, you can show that the average house in your neighborhood has $400/month utility bill while you're paying $100 I guarantee people will be interested, whether they are interested in renewable energy or not.
In my area, the cost offset is probably about 50% if you can show a reasonable return on monthly cost by having the renewable energy option.
I think the most effective "hobbyist" renewable energy use is to preheat water for your hot water tank. Either passively with a tube system or actively with solar panels. Heating water is one of the highest energy costs consumers have, generally speaking, and it's a very easy solution to your problem. No grid tie-ion necessary and the biggest bang for your buck, typically speaking.
Combine that with grey water heat exchangers and you'll be saving a lot of energy on heating water.
For more green options, put some rain barrels out and only use house water for things you do in the house. Use the rain barrels for your lawn/garden needs. Compost is your friend too, if you do any lawn and garden work.
They generally aren't traveling laterally very much (without suits) and they definitely aren't traveling at near-sonic or hypersonic speeds as the clips seem to show iron-man doing.
You're right though, it doesn't take much to change course for a body as small as a human. Slight variations can make huge trajectory differences.
I disagree. How can it be pink and invisible? Seriously. The only current way we have of making things invisible is camouflage, either active (cloaking) or passive (painting) both of which would necessitate the unicorn not being pink.
Fit in a shoe and not burn your feet off. Or to make an exoskeleton light enough to fly and still give you the strength of ten men etc etc etc.
I'll also say the examples given in the article are complete crap for saying "this could be real" even in the next 20 years for most of the technology.
You will find that movie ratings do in fact give a brief description of why it is rated that way. I think it's a relatively new thing, but that's how they are rated now.
Exactly. Anyone who's spent time actually trying to get a company off the ground by interacting with other companies (not creating a software product in the basement) sees this constantly.
Most companies, especially tech companies, are started and managed by people in their late 30s and early 40s who've garnered enough success and experience to venture out on their own in a field they are familiar with and where others are familiar with their work.
No, the biggest reason 20 somethings succeed is that they have less to lose if they fail. Thus, they are more likely to take the risks of losing it all.
I think you'll find the average oil platform worker makes a damn good salary and far more than the "average" artist on tour. Certainly they make far less than the super-star artists on tour, but those are not the "average" artist on tour.
Now, I agree with your sentiment, and your post, but your facts are somewhat skewed as to what an "average" artist makes.
That would be a riding crop, buggy whips are different. There may be a few buggy whips being used out there, but certainly not pervasive enough to say they're common.
As I said, that's not what the summary suggests. I wasn't able to read the full article, so I don't know the actual details, but the summary specifically says "produce no further open products at all-- Dungeons & Dragons related or not." which is not what you're saying.
As you said, there are several legal ways to get around this issue, and Hasbro just look like a bunch of asshats.
It may be legal to say that people have to use a different license to support 4e but there is no way it is legal to "force" them to stop making OGL products all together, especially those unrelated to any D&D product as the summary suggests. That is not enforceable in any legal manner, though it can be effectively enforced by crushing the competition who are much smaller, which is the point of the whole article.
So, just out of curiosity, how do you propose to employ the people whose jobs you've destroyed with your 90% cost savings?
Would the system be more advantageous to more people? Probably, but I think you'd find there are far more factors keeping colleges running than just churning out "synthetic, inefficient broadcasting".
While I think it's a little rude to the professor and the other students, suggesting that people have a problem if they choose to take notes (assuming that's actually what they're doing) on a laptop is a bit presumptive.
I might also suggest that if you can't focus on the professor because of the noise from people typing, you're going to have a hard time working in the real world, where you will either share an office with someone or be stuck in a cube farm dealing with everyone who talks loud, leaves their cell phone on, etc etc etc.
Which was my point exactly. School isn't about "doing what you love" it's about getting a piece of paper so someone will give you a job "doing what you love".
Whether trite or not, I agree with you, if you truly hate your entire course load, you're probably going down the wrong path. That doesn't, however, preclude being on the right path and having to deal with a few shitty classes (or professors who don't lecture well) in the interim.
Slashdot Mirror
"Actually, they probably did it for next to nothing, anticipating all the free press coverage they would get. "
Don't count on it. First off, they probably didn't even know if they could recover the data. Second, they would have no way of knowing for sure that NASA would release the information about them providing the data recovery services. Third, they very likely wouldn't have known whether or not the data (if recovered) would be used for anything in the future. Fourth, there are very strict rules about government agencies doing business where they don't pay for services, especially with potentially classified data on the drives.
I would bet very strongly that they got well paid for this recovery.
No one was talking about "Joe Hobby" but someone investing $30K into their house, which is something very different. At that cost it's no longer "hobby" by most people's standards and as the post indicated, would be something which tied the system into the grid etc. That's basically a description of the neighbor you said you might consider.
Now that I agree with entirely. Especially from someone who purports to have a knowledge of survival techniques. Like I said, I could easily survive for several weeks in many harsh environments assuming I wasn't injured badly enough to drastically reduce mobility.
And there are plenty of crashes every year that do not garner 6 figure search costs. The reason these expenses were incurred is because of who he was, and as such, his estate should pay at least some portion of the bill.
Most searches are called off in a week or less. Steve Fossett's search lasted for over 6 weeks. The resources used on this search were diverted from their normal duties and this is well beyond any reasonable expectation that the taxpayer should cover the cost.
I agree, flying without a flight plan isn't generally considered particularly risky, but it does help justify transferring some of the cost for an extaordinarily expensive and unusual search.
There are no mountains where there is no food. You may have to work for it, but there's food everywhere. It's not appetizing, but it will sustain you, if you know how to get it. Perhaps Nodar, like some of us, has trained on how to survive the "wild" and learned how to forrage for food in various locales. I can live in a desert without water with only a few pieces of equipment and I can certainly live on nearly any mountain without pre-packaged foods for me to eat. Any season, any weather, I can survive for a couple weeks at least, assuming I'm physically able to get around.
The difference is the taxes you pay don't cover the "extraordinary costs" associated with this type of service. These people aren't paid to go out searching for someone for weeks on end, they're paid to provide services to a specific area. When they get called out for a search like this one, the places they are supposed to provide service are then at a loss for those services. That's exactly why you hear about some people getting billed and others not. Especially when, in this particular case, special treatment was given because a large community of people pulled strings to get the search extended when the search teams were ready to call it off. We'll not even discuss the outside costs (I believe there was a slashdot article about the whole thing) with Google satellite imagery and similar tools being "diverted" to help in the search.
I'm not going to get in an argument over how much you're taxed because it's mostly irrelevant to the discussion, but just because you aren't in your state most of the time doesn't mean you're not using the services provided. Do you think fire and rescue wouldn't help you in an accident out of your home state? You're not paying taxes there though, are you? You pay for services in your "home" because that's the most convenient way to provide those services.
I'm a volunteer SAR team member and I understand it's annoying when stupid actions get "rewarded" with a full search effort. We have to accept that, though to be able to provide service to people who do deserve it and got into situations through no fault (or very little fault) of their own.
Just being in the wrong place at the wrong time isn't doing "dumb stuff" though. Sometimes, things happen beyond your control that put you in need of a rescue. A rock falls and brains your climbing partner while simultaneously cutting your rope. How is that your fault?
I'm not for letting stupidity get away scott free, but assuming that people are doing "dumb stuff" just because they do things you wouldn't is a bit short-sighted.
I'm a member of a search and rescue team because I've been on the receiving end of help before. Now I give back to the system, though the "system" wasn't what helped me but rather a couple of individuals that had more experience than I did at the time. It's not always dumb stuff (though for me it was) that puts people in need of help.
No, not really. The barrels are a fairly small surface area, and they're generally covered with only a small screened opening for water to get in from roof gutters. If they're painted a dark color they also get very warm, (quite hot sometimes) which prevents some of that because the eggs don't incubate well. I believe you can also put some additive drops to the water to prevent it, though I've never bothered.
Solar power most definitely adds to the value of a home though I'll grant it doesn't have a dollar for dollar payback. If, however, you can show that the average house in your neighborhood has $400/month utility bill while you're paying $100 I guarantee people will be interested, whether they are interested in renewable energy or not.
In my area, the cost offset is probably about 50% if you can show a reasonable return on monthly cost by having the renewable energy option.
I think the most effective "hobbyist" renewable energy use is to preheat water for your hot water tank. Either passively with a tube system or actively with solar panels. Heating water is one of the highest energy costs consumers have, generally speaking, and it's a very easy solution to your problem. No grid tie-ion necessary and the biggest bang for your buck, typically speaking.
Combine that with grey water heat exchangers and you'll be saving a lot of energy on heating water.
For more green options, put some rain barrels out and only use house water for things you do in the house. Use the rain barrels for your lawn/garden needs. Compost is your friend too, if you do any lawn and garden work.
They generally aren't traveling laterally very much (without suits) and they definitely aren't traveling at near-sonic or hypersonic speeds as the clips seem to show iron-man doing.
You're right though, it doesn't take much to change course for a body as small as a human. Slight variations can make huge trajectory differences.
I disagree. How can it be pink and invisible? Seriously. The only current way we have of making things invisible is camouflage, either active (cloaking) or passive (painting) both of which would necessitate the unicorn not being pink.
Fit in a shoe and not burn your feet off. Or to make an exoskeleton light enough to fly and still give you the strength of ten men etc etc etc.
I'll also say the examples given in the article are complete crap for saying "this could be real" even in the next 20 years for most of the technology.
Without benefit of a money-shot, though.
You will find that movie ratings do in fact give a brief description of why it is rated that way. I think it's a relatively new thing, but that's how they are rated now.
Exactly. Anyone who's spent time actually trying to get a company off the ground by interacting with other companies (not creating a software product in the basement) sees this constantly.
Most companies, especially tech companies, are started and managed by people in their late 30s and early 40s who've garnered enough success and experience to venture out on their own in a field they are familiar with and where others are familiar with their work.
No, the biggest reason 20 somethings succeed is that they have less to lose if they fail. Thus, they are more likely to take the risks of losing it all.
I think you'll find the average oil platform worker makes a damn good salary and far more than the "average" artist on tour. Certainly they make far less than the super-star artists on tour, but those are not the "average" artist on tour.
Now, I agree with your sentiment, and your post, but your facts are somewhat skewed as to what an "average" artist makes.
That would be a riding crop, buggy whips are different. There may be a few buggy whips being used out there, but certainly not pervasive enough to say they're common.
As I said, that's not what the summary suggests. I wasn't able to read the full article, so I don't know the actual details, but the summary specifically says "produce no further open products at all-- Dungeons & Dragons related or not." which is not what you're saying.
As you said, there are several legal ways to get around this issue, and Hasbro just look like a bunch of asshats.
It may be legal to say that people have to use a different license to support 4e but there is no way it is legal to "force" them to stop making OGL products all together, especially those unrelated to any D&D product as the summary suggests. That is not enforceable in any legal manner, though it can be effectively enforced by crushing the competition who are much smaller, which is the point of the whole article.
So, just out of curiosity, how do you propose to employ the people whose jobs you've destroyed with your 90% cost savings?
Would the system be more advantageous to more people? Probably, but I think you'd find there are far more factors keeping colleges running than just churning out "synthetic, inefficient broadcasting".
While I think it's a little rude to the professor and the other students, suggesting that people have a problem if they choose to take notes (assuming that's actually what they're doing) on a laptop is a bit presumptive.
I might also suggest that if you can't focus on the professor because of the noise from people typing, you're going to have a hard time working in the real world, where you will either share an office with someone or be stuck in a cube farm dealing with everyone who talks loud, leaves their cell phone on, etc etc etc.
Which was my point exactly. School isn't about "doing what you love" it's about getting a piece of paper so someone will give you a job "doing what you love".
Whether trite or not, I agree with you, if you truly hate your entire course load, you're probably going down the wrong path. That doesn't, however, preclude being on the right path and having to deal with a few shitty classes (or professors who don't lecture well) in the interim.
So you're bitching about focused advertisements based upon your own browsing history?
How can you say that's a site issue rather than a personal habit issue? Nice try but I call bullshit.