Actually it lasted for the 3.5 years it was supposed to. The mission was extended to 2016 or something like that before this failure. If this was the military no one would think twice about it and they'd just launch another as they'd probably have built two anyway (hey, why let tax payers know the military has too much money?). Unfortunately it's NASA and with their tiny budget every event (even a mission failing AFTER it's designed lifetime) has massive repercussions on their budget.
Agreed, I've had 3 different apple laptop batteries - and I've never got more than about a 2.5 hour charge on them, even brand new. I don't know where this bullshit about ~8 hour battery life comes from. I don't even use it that heavily, we're talking about 2.5 hours of internet and Word.
I think you're exaggerating some. The iOS and Android operating systems were huuuuuge steps forward in productivity while on the road and were very much post 2001. More recently I can think of Dropbox, solid state drives becoming common, screens increasing in resolution, better repository software such as github has been developed. Lots of stuff.....
Admittedly lots of trash too - but that has always been, and will always be the case...
I really wish people would stop posting MarsOne propaganda. It's a scam, pure and simple. It's been pointed out time and time again that their team is primarily artists and PR people. Just look here for yourself:
Of the 7 people listed there's: an artist, an editor, a communication specialist, a communications director, and an MD. There's only 2 people who could conceivably have any expertise on getting to Mars.
They did an interview (AMA) on reddit and were torn apart:
It was of course wrong, but at least one could understand their rational back in 2001, even if you disagree (which most of us here do). People were scared and were willing to give up freedoms for reassurance. Terrible choice, but you can at least make sense of it. In 2011 people weren't scared (hasn't been a terrorist attack in quite some time in the US), so the logic is much fuzzier.
Netflix is reliant on content producers for the most part. Yeah they've started making a few of their own shows, but most of their library is network and cable tv produced. All comcast has to do is offer those content producers more money to sign exclusive contracts. Then netflix is done. It's already happened with streaming movies (hence apple can't stream most movies from major film companies).
I really wish people would stop posting MarsOne propaganda. It's a scam, pure and simple. It's been pointed out time and time again that their team is primarily artists and PR people. Just look here for yourself:
Of the 7 people listed there's: an artist, an editor, a communication specialist, a communications director, and an MD. There's only 2 people who could conceivably have any expertise on getting to Mars.
They did an interview (AMA) on reddit and were torn apart:
This is just not true at all. In low light conditions shrinking the pixels will produce higher noise results. Additionally this is way too many pixels to have any effect resolution-wise. It's a marketing gimmick, pure and simple. If there was any validity to your argument, then why do real DSLR cameras typically max out around 15-20 megapixels even though their sensors are substantially larger than this one?
The iPads only go to 31,000 students, so the $30M would go to the teachers of those 31,000 (i.e. roughly 1000 teachers).
I think that by increasing the pay you would start to attract teachers who didn't necessarily major in education. You could start to "steal" teachers from industry - professionals who maybe want to do some good for the community, but can't afford to live on the current level of teacher pay. If the current pay is $66k, then raise it to $96k! I guarantee that at some price point you'll start to get some really smart people competing - simple capitalism.
On the other hand I do agree with your argument that at some level you need to improve things in parallel to teacher compensation.
Just think - with a class size of ~31, that's 1000 classes and teachers. If you spread that $30M over 1000 teachers you'd get about a $30k bump per teacher. Imagine recruiting teachers at $70k/year instead of $40k/year. I'm guessing you'd get a much better teacher, and thus a much better education for your kids. These constant stories of dumping technology onto kids never end with any positive results it's just sad. It's especially sad here because iPads are devices meant to consume, not to create. What a waste of taxpayer money.
Yeah, people reeeeealy don't understand how inflation works, or that the *average* student loan amounts require a decent salary just to pay off. Sadly I think most graduates this year will expect about what you made when you started in 1990 - $35k. Which if you account for inflation would have been about $20k in 1990.
You don't get to decide if the benefits / compensation package is reasonable for these open positions. That's what the market is for. If you aren't getting applicants that meet your requirements than any true capitalist would tell you that you have to increase the value of your offer (or lower your applicant expectations). In my experience people loooove capitalism but refuse to acknowledge the obvious when it doesn't suit their immediate interests. You're like the guy who expects to buy a Ferrari for $3.50 and then whines to everyone when no one will sell it to him at that price point. Wake up.
The thing is, renewable energy is only uneconomical until it's not. Science and technology progress - pretending something won't ever work because it doesn't today is a dangerous line of thinking.
great, so now we have to remember both a username AND password? That'll make this whole thing even worse! Even worse, if my login is taken on one website then every website has a different log in (and password likely). So now I'm remembering 2xN pieces of information instead of just N.
A typical winter storm? It dropped 34.5 inches on one town overnight!! (source: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/02/09/snowfall-nearing-record-levels-several-more-inches-coming/). It was the 5th largest storm in the last 100 years in New England! You call that a "typical storm"? Drivers were told to stay indoor as to not interfere (and cause) with emergencies that required emergency services to use the roads. A couple accidents and suddenly not only do those people need rescuing, but the people who have heart attacks at home suddenly can't be reached because accidents are clogging the roads.
Secondly, no one was actually put in jail for travelling on the roads - the emergency ban on travel wasn't enforced with such punitive measures - it was just a threat to let people know the ban wasn't a joke.
Thirdly - I'll agree with you that the militarization of police is scary.
Yeah, this always frustrates me. A company makes a nice product and an executive gets credit for making the company billions when everyone runs out to buy said product. The business man is doing a decent job, but the product (and its creator) are the real money makers here. However the compensation is completely backwards from this.
We need to stop rewarding people from pushing paper and digital money around. Looking back, I'm glad I did a STEMy career, but it sure wasn't the best choice with regards to my financial state.
The other issue is companies act like it's there god-given right to have access to a work force that is 100% trained for the job opening. Whatever happened to hiring smart people and training them for the job? People like Bill Gates argue we need more H-1B people because they're trained for the job. A lot of time those workers are not really well trained, they're just so cheap that a bit of training isn't a big deal.
Companies need to get over themselves and offer wages that either entice people into the field or poach already trained people from other companies. I hate the double standard with regards to capitalism.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually it lasted for the 3.5 years it was supposed to. The mission was extended to 2016 or something like that before this failure. If this was the military no one would think twice about it and they'd just launch another as they'd probably have built two anyway (hey, why let tax payers know the military has too much money?). Unfortunately it's NASA and with their tiny budget every event (even a mission failing AFTER it's designed lifetime) has massive repercussions on their budget.
Agreed, I've had 3 different apple laptop batteries - and I've never got more than about a 2.5 hour charge on them, even brand new. I don't know where this bullshit about ~8 hour battery life comes from. I don't even use it that heavily, we're talking about 2.5 hours of internet and Word.
I think you're exaggerating some. The iOS and Android operating systems were huuuuuge steps forward in productivity while on the road and were very much post 2001. More recently I can think of Dropbox, solid state drives becoming common, screens increasing in resolution, better repository software such as github has been developed. Lots of stuff.....
Admittedly lots of trash too - but that has always been, and will always be the case...
I really wish people would stop posting MarsOne propaganda. It's a scam, pure and simple. It's been pointed out time and time again that their team is primarily artists and PR people. Just look here for yourself:
http://www.mars-one.com/en/about-mars-one/team
Of the 7 people listed there's: an artist, an editor, a communication specialist, a communications director, and an MD. There's only 2 people who could conceivably have any expertise on getting to Mars.
They did an interview (AMA) on reddit and were torn apart:
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/ufb42/ama_i_am_founder_of_mars_one_sending_four_people/
STOP FEEDING THESE PEOPLE FREE PRESS!
It was of course wrong, but at least one could understand their rational back in 2001, even if you disagree (which most of us here do). People were scared and were willing to give up freedoms for reassurance. Terrible choice, but you can at least make sense of it. In 2011 people weren't scared (hasn't been a terrorist attack in quite some time in the US), so the logic is much fuzzier.
Netflix is reliant on content producers for the most part. Yeah they've started making a few of their own shows, but most of their library is network and cable tv produced. All comcast has to do is offer those content producers more money to sign exclusive contracts. Then netflix is done. It's already happened with streaming movies (hence apple can't stream most movies from major film companies).
I really wish people would stop posting MarsOne propaganda. It's a scam, pure and simple. It's been pointed out time and time again that their team is primarily artists and PR people. Just look here for yourself:
http://www.mars-one.com/en/about-mars-one/team
Of the 7 people listed there's: an artist, an editor, a communication specialist, a communications director, and an MD. There's only 2 people who could conceivably have any expertise on getting to Mars.
They did an interview (AMA) on reddit and were torn apart:
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/ufb42/ama_i_am_founder_of_mars_one_sending_four_people/
STOP FEEDING THESE PEOPLE FREE PRESS!
This is just not true at all. In low light conditions shrinking the pixels will produce higher noise results. Additionally this is way too many pixels to have any effect resolution-wise. It's a marketing gimmick, pure and simple. If there was any validity to your argument, then why do real DSLR cameras typically max out around 15-20 megapixels even though their sensors are substantially larger than this one?
The iPads only go to 31,000 students, so the $30M would go to the teachers of those 31,000 (i.e. roughly 1000 teachers).
I think that by increasing the pay you would start to attract teachers who didn't necessarily major in education. You could start to "steal" teachers from industry - professionals who maybe want to do some good for the community, but can't afford to live on the current level of teacher pay. If the current pay is $66k, then raise it to $96k! I guarantee that at some price point you'll start to get some really smart people competing - simple capitalism.
On the other hand I do agree with your argument that at some level you need to improve things in parallel to teacher compensation.
It's not a substitute for good parenting OR good teaching. Kids need both and iPads don't help with either.
Just think - with a class size of ~31, that's 1000 classes and teachers. If you spread that $30M over 1000 teachers you'd get about a $30k bump per teacher. Imagine recruiting teachers at $70k/year instead of $40k/year. I'm guessing you'd get a much better teacher, and thus a much better education for your kids. These constant stories of dumping technology onto kids never end with any positive results it's just sad. It's especially sad here because iPads are devices meant to consume, not to create. What a waste of taxpayer money.
Yeah, people reeeeealy don't understand how inflation works, or that the *average* student loan amounts require a decent salary just to pay off. Sadly I think most graduates this year will expect about what you made when you started in 1990 - $35k. Which if you account for inflation would have been about $20k in 1990.
You don't get to decide if the benefits / compensation package is reasonable for these open positions. That's what the market is for. If you aren't getting applicants that meet your requirements than any true capitalist would tell you that you have to increase the value of your offer (or lower your applicant expectations). In my experience people loooove capitalism but refuse to acknowledge the obvious when it doesn't suit their immediate interests. You're like the guy who expects to buy a Ferrari for $3.50 and then whines to everyone when no one will sell it to him at that price point. Wake up.
The thing is, renewable energy is only uneconomical until it's not. Science and technology progress - pretending something won't ever work because it doesn't today is a dangerous line of thinking.
Progress comes in random spurts - but it always comes: http://www.digikey.com/Web%20Export/techzone/energy-harvesting/article-2011july-solar-cell2.jpg
great, so now we have to remember both a username AND password? That'll make this whole thing even worse! Even worse, if my login is taken on one website then every website has a different log in (and password likely). So now I'm remembering 2xN pieces of information instead of just N.
A typical winter storm? It dropped 34.5 inches on one town overnight!! (source: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/02/09/snowfall-nearing-record-levels-several-more-inches-coming/). It was the 5th largest storm in the last 100 years in New England! You call that a "typical storm"? Drivers were told to stay indoor as to not interfere (and cause) with emergencies that required emergency services to use the roads. A couple accidents and suddenly not only do those people need rescuing, but the people who have heart attacks at home suddenly can't be reached because accidents are clogging the roads.
Secondly, no one was actually put in jail for travelling on the roads - the emergency ban on travel wasn't enforced with such punitive measures - it was just a threat to let people know the ban wasn't a joke.
Thirdly - I'll agree with you that the militarization of police is scary.
Yeah, this always frustrates me. A company makes a nice product and an executive gets credit for making the company billions when everyone runs out to buy said product. The business man is doing a decent job, but the product (and its creator) are the real money makers here. However the compensation is completely backwards from this.
We need to stop rewarding people from pushing paper and digital money around. Looking back, I'm glad I did a STEMy career, but it sure wasn't the best choice with regards to my financial state.
The other issue is companies act like it's there god-given right to have access to a work force that is 100% trained for the job opening. Whatever happened to hiring smart people and training them for the job? People like Bill Gates argue we need more H-1B people because they're trained for the job. A lot of time those workers are not really well trained, they're just so cheap that a bit of training isn't a big deal.
Companies need to get over themselves and offer wages that either entice people into the field or poach already trained people from other companies. I hate the double standard with regards to capitalism.