Yea what did Xerox PARC, Bell Labs, Fairchild, or Texas Instruments every do innovative? I mean the transistor, Unix, the C programing language, object oriented programing, the GUI,and the IC where no big deal. Never mind. Just one of those silly statements that flows on slashdot. Bell Labs and Xerox PARC did more fundamental research than you will ever know. Most of what they did was so far out that it was decades before a lot of became practical. BTW that was a good thing because the patents where long expired. Bell Labs was a great example. Because Bell was a government regulated monopoly they had to license everything for dirt cheap. Innovative products come from small and medium companies. Innovative technologies often come from large institutions.
I doubt that a SWAT team could hit a cruse missile. Take a look at footage from WWII sometime. Even a 300 mph airplane isn't an easy target to hit. A small 500 MPH missile would be a bear to hit without a good amount of electronic help. You are correct over land but what about over the water?
Actually the Russians used a liquid fueled missiles on subs... I think some of them still are but I have not checked in a while. I have read that they are using one of the old LHD as a launching barge for missile tests.
It had to be launched from an island or ship. The US has never launched a liquid fueled ballistic missile from a sub. Cruise missiles yes but ballistic no.
The missile they shot down was liquid fueled and not solid. Solid fuel targets may be a little harder to take out. On the plus side Russia and a lot of other nations still use a large number of liquid fueled missiles. I also wonder how well it will work with say cruise missiles, UAVs, and or aircraft.
A projector setup is safer. Any failure of a shield could result in instant blindness. We are after all talking about kids and a school so I would tend to go with the safe and cheap route. But I do wonder if one could make sort of a sealed box around the screen and then mount a Webcam in the box looking at the screen? You could then display the image on a notebook or with a long enough cable a projector in the class room. Add an Arduino, two servos, and a netbook to make an automated solar observatory. Sounds like a science fair project to me.
That wouldn't work. Also what scope does the law have? Let me give you an example. In the town I grew up in there hadn't been a murder in 25 years at one point. Would you then repeal the law on murder? The town I live in makes opening a casino illegal. Nobody has opened a casino so is it now legal? And as for as scope hasn't been enforced in where? The town, city, state, or country?
This law does seem outlandish. Would the republican party need to register since they are trying to unseat the democratic party?
The one part I do feel is of use, is the agent provision. If you are working on behave of another nation in the US you should have to register that. I have no problem with the idea that none citizens have fewer rights than citizens. Of course one would have to be careful to not allow outrageous abuses of visitors.
I have to second the Moon. Deep space objects will tend to be fuzzy blobs at best. Jupiter, Mars, and maybe Saturn would come next. Maybe the North Star or the Pleiades to show them just how many stars are really there. Of course do it yourself first so you don't disappoint.
Nope not at all. It was on a light fluffy tv science show. So take it with a grain of salt. It seems plausible but it would at best be a contributing factor.
But it is cold and it snows and I am don't live there. I sent the link to my local government and hope they will do something with it. Part of me hopes they pick some small towns in the midwest right now only get's dial up. But I don't live so the truth is I hope they will pick here.
I used to be a big OpenSuse fan and still think that SAX is the best Xwindows tool I have ever used. What we have here is personal preference. Maybe it is because I have used so many different systems that I feel most GUI options are not worth the effort. What I want to do is set my mouse speed to fast and change my background. Compwiz has made me want to tweak the hot keys for some of the features as well. But other than that it is mostly just noise to me. The problem with the Suse was that I felt their packages put in too much stuff so they where semi useless to me. That and the program that you used to add and remove software and do configuration was too slow. Yep right now I like Ubuntu the best for ease of install and ease of adding software. It sure isn't perfect but it is IMHO good. To me it is better to add what I need when I need it and not throw in the kitchen sink. But the thing is that I say. I feel and I think. It is okay for you to like Opensuse more than Ubuntu. Frankly for servers I think CentOS is great and way too often overlooked. I think it is dumb to use Fedora for a server at all when you can use CentOS, Ubuntu Server, or Debian. Having a simple quick install that you can then add too is a different way to work but it does not limit your choice. However making everybody wade through hundreds of options in KDE to find the one you need is a pain. A good UI will make common tasks really easy and then allow you to drill down for fine tweaking.
I find in interesting that you put it that way. Why not just install one paint program. Maybe KolorPaint or Krita under KDE. Have I limited choice? Not at all. If I need GIMP I just install it for Synaptic or what every installer comes with the system. What I am fighting is clutter. Way too much clutter on many distros. I spend a large amount of time removing software that I don't want or need from every system. I hate Solitaire I just don't play it on any system. Why do I have it on a default install? Text editors? everybody needs at least one but people that really use text editors each have their favorite. There is no real reason to have emacs and vim on a system. My favorite for light editing is JOE because I grew up using the Borland IDE and it is so small, light, and really works well over ssh. Should every distro include JOE? Not really since I would bet not that many people use it. Why is not putting a program in the default install thought of as reducing choice? Maybe if you live with dial up internet it is but most of use have high speed and I would much rather install what I want as I need it than have the default load me up with a bunch of apps I don't need and then have to wait while the updater updates downloads updates to those apps I don't need. And then I spend time removing the apps I don't need.
Simple Debian isn't as easy to use or last time I looked as up to date as Ubuntu. Yes I can and pretty much have installed a number of Linux distros over the years. Ubuntu is a good compromise between ease of use, up to date, and a lack of clutter. What I tried to say is I have no problem with options but there just isn't any need to install three text editors, two browsers, and three media players by default. Start off with one of each and then let people install from the synaptic. Same with GIMP. It is a great program and I always install it but there is no need for it in the base install. As it is you are going to run an updater after the install and odds are really good GIMP will be one of the packages that gets updated. So the key here is not that choice is bad. Clutter is bad. I don't want to have to uninstall a bunch of stuff because the Distro thinks they should include everything and the dog in the install. Frankly that was one of my big issues with OpenSuse. Debian if fine as a geeks distro or a server but for a mainstream desktop Ubuntu is better IMHO.
Actually there is a theory that a lot of the autoimmune dieses we get are and artifact of the Black Death. Those with a very strong immune system lived so now our immune systems maybe a little too good for our own good.
Okay I tend to agree with you about some of the SSTOs that they showed in the 70s but I disagree with you about the X-33. The load paths for Vertical take off and horizontal landing where not a big issue. The Shuttle and frankly every aircraft that fly's must deal with a thrust load and a landing load. The X-33 empty would have been pretty light so the landing load penalty would be pretty small. Far smaller than the landing fuel penalty that a VTOL SSTO would have. Yes the V Shaped fuel tank would have been a challenge but not as bad of one as you imagine An abort wouldn't have to mean the loss of the X-33. Depending on the failure mode the X-33 could transition to horizontal flight and dump fuel just like every airliner on the planet. A VTOL SSTO actually has more total loss failure modes than the X-33 does. Also the DC-X had to carry the landing fuel all the way to orbit and back unless they refueled in orbit for the landing.
I have used OpenSuse as well which is the "main" KDE distro. It just isn't as usable IMHO as Ubuntu/GNOME. I know that some people will freak over this but I think that part of the problem is almost all of them give you too many choices out of the box. I would love to see a minimal clean KDE distro. It should have one mediaplayer, one editor, one browser, one IM client.... You get the picture. I can always add programs later if I don't like the defaults just as I do on Windows and frankly as I already do on Linux. I always install JOE on every Linux box I use because I grew up using Wordstar commands in Borland's IDEs. Should every distro include JOE? Not really but you get the idea. Ubuntu comes the closest to doing this with Gnome as any system I have seen but even then it should be a little more clean IMHO.
I never said it would be cheaper. Frankly I think that is a big problem with NASA. A lot of the choices made in the Shuttle design where cheaper to develop but added to the cost per flight. But the point that I tried to make but did a bad job at was. No X project can have to many new technologies. That is what an X program is about. Take a look at the X-15. It used a throttle-able liquid fueled engine, a refractory metal airframe, an RCS, and goodness knows how many other brand new technologies. They all had to work. Guess what they didn't at first and a lot of problems had to be solved but in the end they did work. Yes you are correct it would cost more but we would get so much more out of it.
I have not used KDE since 3. The simple reason is that Ubuntu and Gnome feel more finished than KDE did to me. Gnome really works well for what I need. I use it to launch programs and to manage files.
Where I think both Gnome and KDE are blowing it is complexity.
Take a look at the settings in both of them sometime. Way to complex. The other place I feel they are falling down is supporting applications. I love choice but there needs to be some good defaults. Oh and I wish GTK had a better file dialog.
"Way too heavy. The whole X-33 project depended on a bunch of exotic technologies simultaneously succeeding. Linear aerospike, metallic heat shield "tiles", exotically structural materials... May as well have bet the farm on a warp drive and computer AI, too." It was an X program. That is the entire point of and X program. It is too push technology. That is what drives me crazy. That is what NASA should be doing pushing technology. The X-1 was a super sonic rocket plane when airliners where still droning along at maybe 300 MPH. You start with the X-33 project and build from their. That is the problem with NASA IMHO. They throw away working systems before they have the replacements working! NASA should have two systems working at all times. One tried and true and one very cutting edge. While we where working on the Shuttle we should have been flying Saturns and Apollos. While we where flying the Shuttle we should have been working on and flying the DCX and X-33. Look at how the military does it. While the F-15 was deploying the F-4 was still being produced and developed. While the F-22 is deploying the F-15 is still being updated and the lines are still open. That is the correct way to do it.
Well I said probably just in case there is some black project that I don't know about or if Russia has something going on we don't know about. I guess I could have said, "as far as I know" but my guess is that your friend is correct.
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Yea what did Xerox PARC, Bell Labs, Fairchild, or Texas Instruments every do innovative? ,and the IC where no big deal.
I mean the transistor, Unix, the C programing language, object oriented programing, the GUI
Never mind.
Just one of those silly statements that flows on slashdot. Bell Labs and Xerox PARC did more fundamental research than you will ever know. Most of what they did was so far out that it was decades before a lot of became practical. BTW that was a good thing because the patents where long expired. Bell Labs was a great example. Because Bell was a government regulated monopoly they had to license everything for dirt cheap.
Innovative products come from small and medium companies. Innovative technologies often come from large institutions.
I doubt that a SWAT team could hit a cruse missile.
Take a look at footage from WWII sometime. Even a 300 mph airplane isn't an easy target to hit. A small 500 MPH missile would be a bear to hit without a good amount of electronic help.
You are correct over land but what about over the water?
Actually the Russians used a liquid fueled missiles on subs... I think some of them still are but I have not checked in a while.
I have read that they are using one of the old LHD as a launching barge for missile tests.
Wow you are so wrong and yet you where modded up to a five.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/12/boeing-747-destroys-ballistic-missile-with-laser/?s=t5
Including pictures of the shootdown.
Just amazing....
It had to be launched from an island or ship. The US has never launched a liquid fueled ballistic missile from a sub. Cruise missiles yes but ballistic no.
It was in boost phase. Figure about a 200+ mile range so this is really going to be limited to battlefield missiles.
The missile they shot down was liquid fueled and not solid. Solid fuel targets may be a little harder to take out.
On the plus side Russia and a lot of other nations still use a large number of liquid fueled missiles. I also wonder how well it will work with say cruise missiles, UAVs, and or aircraft.
A projector setup is safer. Any failure of a shield could result in instant blindness. We are after all talking about kids and a school so I would tend to go with the safe and cheap route.
But I do wonder if one could make sort of a sealed box around the screen and then mount a Webcam in the box looking at the screen? You could then display the image on a notebook or with a long enough cable a projector in the class room.
Add an Arduino, two servos, and a netbook to make an automated solar observatory. Sounds like a science fair project to me.
That wouldn't work. Also what scope does the law have?
Let me give you an example. In the town I grew up in there hadn't been a murder in 25 years at one point. Would you then repeal the law on murder?
The town I live in makes opening a casino illegal. Nobody has opened a casino so is it now legal?
And as for as scope hasn't been enforced in where? The town, city, state, or country?
This law does seem outlandish. Would the republican party need to register since they are trying to unseat the democratic party?
The one part I do feel is of use, is the agent provision. If you are working on behave of another nation in the US you should have to register that. I have no problem with the idea that none citizens have fewer rights than citizens. Of course one would have to be careful to not allow outrageous abuses of visitors.
Or a projector setup for the telescope. You project the image from the eyepiece on a small screen.
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/05/stars2.html
for more info http://solar-center.stanford.edu/observe/
Actually Solar observing looks like a good class activity.
I have to second the Moon. Deep space objects will tend to be fuzzy blobs at best. Jupiter, Mars, and maybe Saturn would come next.
Maybe the North Star or the Pleiades to show them just how many stars are really there. Of course do it yourself first so you don't disappoint.
Nope not at all. It was on a light fluffy tv science show. So take it with a grain of salt.
It seems plausible but it would at best be a contributing factor.
But it is cold and it snows and I am don't live there.
I sent the link to my local government and hope they will do something with it.
Part of me hopes they pick some small towns in the midwest right now only get's dial up. But I don't live so the truth is I hope they will pick here.
I used to be a big OpenSuse fan and still think that SAX is the best Xwindows tool I have ever used.
What we have here is personal preference. Maybe it is because I have used so many different systems that I feel most GUI options are not worth the effort. What I want to do is set my mouse speed to fast and change my background. Compwiz has made me want to tweak the hot keys for some of the features as well. But other than that it is mostly just noise to me.
The problem with the Suse was that I felt their packages put in too much stuff so they where semi useless to me. That and the program that you used to add and remove software and do configuration was too slow.
Yep right now I like Ubuntu the best for ease of install and ease of adding software. It sure isn't perfect but it is IMHO good.
To me it is better to add what I need when I need it and not throw in the kitchen sink.
But the thing is that I say. I feel and I think. It is okay for you to like Opensuse more than Ubuntu. Frankly for servers I think CentOS is great and way too often overlooked. I think it is dumb to use Fedora for a server at all when you can use CentOS, Ubuntu Server, or Debian.
Having a simple quick install that you can then add too is a different way to work but it does not limit your choice.
However making everybody wade through hundreds of options in KDE to find the one you need is a pain.
A good UI will make common tasks really easy and then allow you to drill down for fine tweaking.
I would actually keep the ads on Slashdot unblock if they would just not take any animated ads.
I hate them and find them very disruptive
I find in interesting that you put it that way.
Why not just install one paint program. Maybe KolorPaint or Krita under KDE.
Have I limited choice? Not at all. If I need GIMP I just install it for Synaptic or what every installer comes with the system.
What I am fighting is clutter. Way too much clutter on many distros. I spend a large amount of time removing software that I don't want or need from every system.
I hate Solitaire I just don't play it on any system. Why do I have it on a default install?
Text editors? everybody needs at least one but people that really use text editors each have their favorite. There is no real reason to have emacs and vim on a system. My favorite for light editing is JOE because I grew up using the Borland IDE and it is so small, light, and really works well over ssh. Should every distro include JOE? Not really since I would bet not that many people use it.
Why is not putting a program in the default install thought of as reducing choice? Maybe if you live with dial up internet it is but most of use have high speed and I would much rather install what I want as I need it than have the default load me up with a bunch of apps I don't need and then have to wait while the updater updates downloads updates to those apps I don't need. And then I spend time removing the apps I don't need.
Simple Debian isn't as easy to use or last time I looked as up to date as Ubuntu.
Yes I can and pretty much have installed a number of Linux distros over the years.
Ubuntu is a good compromise between ease of use, up to date, and a lack of clutter.
What I tried to say is I have no problem with options but there just isn't any need to install three text editors, two browsers, and three media players by default.
Start off with one of each and then let people install from the synaptic.
Same with GIMP. It is a great program and I always install it but there is no need for it in the base install. As it is you are going to run an updater after the install and odds are really good GIMP will be one of the packages that gets updated.
So the key here is not that choice is bad. Clutter is bad. I don't want to have to uninstall a bunch of stuff because the Distro thinks they should include everything and the dog in the install.
Frankly that was one of my big issues with OpenSuse.
Debian if fine as a geeks distro or a server but for a mainstream desktop Ubuntu is better IMHO.
Actually there is a theory that a lot of the autoimmune dieses we get are and artifact of the Black Death.
Those with a very strong immune system lived so now our immune systems maybe a little too good for our own good.
Okay I tend to agree with you about some of the SSTOs that they showed in the 70s but I disagree with you about the X-33.
The load paths for Vertical take off and horizontal landing where not a big issue.
The Shuttle and frankly every aircraft that fly's must deal with a thrust load and a landing load.
The X-33 empty would have been pretty light so the landing load penalty would be pretty small. Far smaller than the landing fuel penalty that a VTOL SSTO would have.
Yes the V Shaped fuel tank would have been a challenge but not as bad of one as you imagine
An abort wouldn't have to mean the loss of the X-33. Depending on the failure mode the X-33 could transition to horizontal flight and dump fuel just like every airliner on the planet.
A VTOL SSTO actually has more total loss failure modes than the X-33 does. Also the DC-X had to carry the landing fuel all the way to orbit and back unless they refueled in orbit for the landing.
The X-33 was suborbital. The next vehicle was supposed to be orbital. I think most people forgot that part and where looking at the next vehicle.
I have used OpenSuse as well which is the "main" KDE distro. It just isn't as usable IMHO as Ubuntu/GNOME.
I know that some people will freak over this but I think that part of the problem is almost all of them give you too many choices out of the box.
I would love to see a minimal clean KDE distro. It should have one mediaplayer, one editor, one browser, one IM client....
You get the picture. I can always add programs later if I don't like the defaults just as I do on Windows and frankly as I already do on Linux.
I always install JOE on every Linux box I use because I grew up using Wordstar commands in Borland's IDEs. Should every distro include JOE? Not really but you get the idea.
Ubuntu comes the closest to doing this with Gnome as any system I have seen but even then it should be a little more clean IMHO.
I never said it would be cheaper.
Frankly I think that is a big problem with NASA. A lot of the choices made in the Shuttle design where cheaper to develop but added to the cost per flight.
But the point that I tried to make but did a bad job at was.
No X project can have to many new technologies. That is what an X program is about.
Take a look at the X-15. It used a throttle-able liquid fueled engine, a refractory metal airframe, an RCS, and goodness knows how many other brand new technologies. They all had to work. Guess what they didn't at first and a lot of problems had to be solved but in the end they did work.
Yes you are correct it would cost more but we would get so much more out of it.
I have not used KDE since 3.
The simple reason is that Ubuntu and Gnome feel more finished than KDE did to me.
Gnome really works well for what I need. I use it to launch programs and to manage files.
Where I think both Gnome and KDE are blowing it is complexity.
Take a look at the settings in both of them sometime. Way to complex.
The other place I feel they are falling down is supporting applications.
I love choice but there needs to be some good defaults.
Oh and I wish GTK had a better file dialog.
"Way too heavy. The whole X-33 project depended on a bunch of exotic technologies simultaneously succeeding. Linear aerospike, metallic heat shield "tiles", exotically structural materials... May as well have bet the farm on a warp drive and computer AI, too."
It was an X program. That is the entire point of and X program. It is too push technology.
That is what drives me crazy. That is what NASA should be doing pushing technology.
The X-1 was a super sonic rocket plane when airliners where still droning along at maybe 300 MPH.
You start with the X-33 project and build from their. That is the problem with NASA IMHO. They throw away working systems before they have the replacements working!
NASA should have two systems working at all times. One tried and true and one very cutting edge. While we where working on the Shuttle we should have been flying Saturns and Apollos.
While we where flying the Shuttle we should have been working on and flying the DCX and X-33.
Look at how the military does it.
While the F-15 was deploying the F-4 was still being produced and developed. While the F-22 is deploying the F-15 is still being updated and the lines are still open.
That is the correct way to do it.
Well I said probably just in case there is some black project that I don't know about or if Russia has something going on we don't know about.
I guess I could have said, "as far as I know" but my guess is that your friend is correct.