First, it makes practical sense. The technology certainly exists. I ponder whether a fully autonomous wireless balloon (solar-powered, etc?) could replace the tethered concept.
Second, I'll bet BT is disinclined to allow the competition. I know for sure it would never (no pun intended) get off the ground in the USA. You can bet as soon as it reared it's beautiful head over here in the States, the big money telecoms will be beating two paths: one to Congree to dump FUD on the proposal, and another to Tom Ridge's office, warning of some fantastic and fictional security threat posed by balloons.
There's too much money invested in bad/old technology to allow this idea an easy birth, as much as I regret to acknowledge that reality. I pray to be proven wrong someday soon, though!
Voting is the process of taking an active part in determining the course of the larger constituent group to which you belong. It is at its core a very social activity. Members of a democracy ought to, for both their own good and the good of the body politic, get out at least once a year to see what the hell they are voting on, and actually walk through it, engage with it, and decide whether or not to vote it into oblivion, even. You can't judge these things accurately from an armchair, indoors. e-voting, despite it's siren call of convenience, actually works, in my view, against civic participation, by both further removing people from the society to which they belong, and by casting FUNDAMENTAL DOUBT on the outcome of ANY election (paper trails needed, etc.).
I think that, long before we implement e-voting in the United States, we should consider either a voting holiday/weekend, or action to form smaller districts.
First, there is no argument I can think of for maintaining the current 12-hour polling period. We are no longer a nation captained by agrarian landowners, who can go off to vote and leave the farm in the hands of those unable to vote, for lacking property rights, or even basic freedom. The largest part of the voting public works 9-5, and the traditional polling structure, in terms of the time frame, put those voters at a disadvantage and inconvenience. Some people, in fact, when faced with the choice, can legitemately claim that work is more important than voting, as food is a nearer priority than choosing between rich people playing King for a Term.
Second, shrink districts so that the issues are more personal to the constituent, and the representatives more accountable. In fact, shrink both the districts AND the salaries--keep the reps at home working in-district, eliminating the need for pricey Georgetown housing. This may consequently price special interests groups right out of the influence game (not as easy to maintain 1,000's of offices all over the US as it is to maintain a big office in DC and get all the turkeys in one shot). Since the secrecy of a representative's voting while on-the-job is not at issue (they are public record, anyhow), the work of representation can be performed electronically, anyhow. Why go to DC anymore, except to see museums and bother the lonely resident of 1600 Penn Ave.
I do not find it so amusing as all that, simply common sense. It seems to me that a closed-source system, to an open-source zealot, is like an unreachable itch: the longer it itches and the less reachable it is, the more tantalizing it becomes. Also, on a fundamental level, the Xbox is just a fancy-schmancy basic PC with artificial blocks on it to prevent anything but limited use of it. All told, the above adds up to a very enticing temptation to open-source muckers-about.
What I find amusing at best (and sad at worst) is that the DMCA was passed by our "Elected" representatives in DC. These same people who are telling YOU (and me, actually), the American voter, not to pay "...any attention to the man behind the curtain," are the same ones you BLITHELY allowed to attain their post, either in an act of omission ("I forgot to vote" or "I was too busy") or comission ("I voted for Congressman X, but I didn't know that a kneejerk fundie neoconservative would actually FOLLOW THROUGH on the slow REPEAL of the First Amendment!).
Suck it up crybabies: you let Congress take away your toys, now you have to play with the leavings.
I have to agree about Comcrap, er, I mean Comcast. I would have to say that in my area (as close as you can get to Ypsilanti and still live within an Ann Arbor zip code) Comcast goes out at least once a fortnight. When I had DSL (before DirecTV screwed it's DSL customers like me) THAT connection was out maybe once in two years.
Comcast's support is, as noted, miserable at worst, and spotty at best. I once called in to them with connection trouble, even though I was pretty sure it was a problem with my router--I just needed to have them walk me through hardware recognition issues. The moron at the other end emphatically told me it was NOT a router issue, and talked me through all these unrelated resetting steps for all BUT the router. When all else failed, I reset the router and VIOLA! it worked.
I would apply to work there, seeing how much more qualified I obviously am, but I understand working for them is almost as traumatic as receiving their 'service'.
" I can't remember anyone that I know every being hurt my a meteor. I can't even remember any friend of a friend type stories."
The thing to remember, given the hullaballoo at high gov't levels regarding "do we tell the kids" is that, when a newsworthy metor DOES finally strike, there may be no one around to buy that particular day's paper to read about it.
"So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs"
Have you ever seen an astronomer's paycheck? There's a reason they never compare anything to a Crown Victoria or an SUV, though you might see comparisons made to 'big as two Bugs' in such cases.
PLEASE note that the article spoke of TWO THREE-MAN Soyuz capsules. One is up there now, the other exists in theory. Additionally, each Soyuz seats only three, and it is cramped even then.
And, as many people are stating in their replies, many things would have to come together to abort to ISS, the most important of which being someone waving a magic wand. One does not simply change orbit by firing a few attitude jets--orbiters are launched into specific orbits using fuel that is exhausted once the external tank goes bye-bye.
Columbia was too heavy to perform ISS missions, and the question is now moot, as the remaining orbiters will most likely be assigned to ISS assembly missions almost exclusively. Thus, the question will likely not come up again.
The new mega dam being built by China (Three Gorges Dam, I think it is called) will cause enough of a backlog of water to play with Earth's spin and thus help lengthen our day. But I guess you'd have to be really sensitive to notice it, or live to be reaaaaally old and annoying about it ("Why, I remember a time waaay back in the 20th century...")
Additionally, remember the licensing fees you need to pay for each client that accesses your MS server. In the end, it is easier to wake up and small the penguin.;)
My favorite neat book/bad sf movie is When World Collide. Mad props to George Pal and the movie company, but that movie really stunk after I read the book.
"It's a little different, though. It's much harder to issue a security patch for the human body."
It's really not that hard, actually. They've been issuing such patches for years, in the form of vaccines and less proactive therapies, such as self-medication and more formal hospital stays.
What a bunch of bullshit. I can't believe that rational people (such as scientists, etc.) would suggest such a thing. Those times when information is kept secret are when a population is most at-risk, because the masses cannot then defend themselves against what any ambitious terrorist is bound to develop independently, should said terrorist be evil enough.
Sheesh. Next they'll be requiring all firearms eliminated from movies and television, because people might get the idea that guns can be harmful, when used properly.
...An old Apple ad from the early early 80s. It showed an Apple II (or some such device) that had been through a fire and still operated. Anyone else remember that one?
I doubt we'll be out of the space game for very long. All practical needs of supporting a space station aside, W can't afford to sit on a grounded space fleet, specifically for re-election purposes. A nation at 'war' with a stalled economy can't afford to slip into malaise with a mothballed space program.
Keeping the program going, and making the delay as short as possible, are both politically imperative for W, heading into 2004, and I am sure Karl Rove has made a note of that.
With that in mind, you could just as easily see a ramped-up exporation program, and possibly a manned mission to Mars (like the Project Prometheus we have heard of), in order to keep the rabble's eyes on the skies, er, I mean, in order to keep the nation's spirits up.
They also all tend to be on the bleeding edge for their times. Part of the price has to be due to the R&D and the hours of overtime for bleary-eyed engineers and programmers asked to throw in one last goody, etc. Another price aspect would be directly related to the console designs: consoles integrating oddball hardware (3D screen, nifty-keen motorized CD tray (it had to be cutting edge at SOME point!), etc.)
So, avoiding high prices in the future might lead to everyone shipping the same features across the board, because the bean counters see the obvious solution to cost-cutting: no new features.
While I never owned any of the failed systems mentioned, and always because of the cost, I do confess I lusted after every one of them, the wierder the features, the better.
Has anyone considered the potential for such systems being used to trigger proximity-type sensors? I can imagine few more convenient ways to make terrorism easier than by employing large magnets like this and waiting for the fun to arrive.
I am not studied in such areas, but can't one just place a sensor near the docking point and tell it to make something go boom when it detects such a magnet on the hull? It's not as though there are other such magnets being used at the same hull contact points, which might confuse such a strategy.
Slashdot Mirror
ROFL
I always look for the entry with the final two items of the dot-bomb business plan!
Yes, sad, but true.
First, it makes practical sense. The technology certainly exists. I ponder whether a fully autonomous wireless balloon (solar-powered, etc?) could replace the tethered concept.
Second, I'll bet BT is disinclined to allow the competition. I know for sure it would never (no pun intended) get off the ground in the USA. You can bet as soon as it reared it's beautiful head over here in the States, the big money telecoms will be beating two paths: one to Congree to dump FUD on the proposal, and another to Tom Ridge's office, warning of some fantastic and fictional security threat posed by balloons.
There's too much money invested in bad/old technology to allow this idea an easy birth, as much as I regret to acknowledge that reality. I pray to be proven wrong someday soon, though!
Voting is the process of taking an active part in determining the course of the larger constituent group to which you belong. It is at its core a very social activity. Members of a democracy ought to, for both their own good and the good of the body politic, get out at least once a year to see what the hell they are voting on, and actually walk through it, engage with it, and decide whether or not to vote it into oblivion, even. You can't judge these things accurately from an armchair, indoors. e-voting, despite it's siren call of convenience, actually works, in my view, against civic participation, by both further removing people from the society to which they belong, and by casting FUNDAMENTAL DOUBT on the outcome of ANY election (paper trails needed, etc.).
I think that, long before we implement e-voting in the United States, we should consider either a voting holiday/weekend, or action to form smaller districts.
First, there is no argument I can think of for maintaining the current 12-hour polling period. We are no longer a nation captained by agrarian landowners, who can go off to vote and leave the farm in the hands of those unable to vote, for lacking property rights, or even basic freedom. The largest part of the voting public works 9-5, and the traditional polling structure, in terms of the time frame, put those voters at a disadvantage and inconvenience. Some people, in fact, when faced with the choice, can legitemately claim that work is more important than voting, as food is a nearer priority than choosing between rich people playing King for a Term.
Second, shrink districts so that the issues are more personal to the constituent, and the representatives more accountable. In fact, shrink both the districts AND the salaries--keep the reps at home working in-district, eliminating the need for pricey Georgetown housing. This may consequently price special interests groups right out of the influence game (not as easy to maintain 1,000's of offices all over the US as it is to maintain a big office in DC and get all the turkeys in one shot). Since the secrecy of a representative's voting while on-the-job is not at issue (they are public record, anyhow), the work of representation can be performed electronically, anyhow. Why go to DC anymore, except to see museums and bother the lonely resident of 1600 Penn Ave.
A simple proposal. It'll never catch on.... sigh.
Yeah, Apple has a penchant for using decent chips and then locking them down with slow board and bus implementation. It's frustrating. It's a pisser.
Nice GUI, though...
I do not find it so amusing as all that, simply common sense. It seems to me that a closed-source system, to an open-source zealot, is like an unreachable itch: the longer it itches and the less reachable it is, the more tantalizing it becomes. Also, on a fundamental level, the Xbox is just a fancy-schmancy basic PC with artificial blocks on it to prevent anything but limited use of it. All told, the above adds up to a very enticing temptation to open-source muckers-about.
What I find amusing at best (and sad at worst) is that the DMCA was passed by our "Elected" representatives in DC. These same people who are telling YOU (and me, actually), the American voter, not to pay "...any attention to the man behind the curtain," are the same ones you BLITHELY allowed to attain their post, either in an act of omission ("I forgot to vote" or "I was too busy") or comission ("I voted for Congressman X, but I didn't know that a kneejerk fundie neoconservative would actually FOLLOW THROUGH on the slow REPEAL of the First Amendment!).
Suck it up crybabies: you let Congress take away your toys, now you have to play with the leavings.
Ok... setting cynicism to off...
Ok, someone remind me again, HOW many pencil tips in size is a VW Bug?
Just trying to keep my weights and measures straight...
I have to agree about Comcrap, er, I mean Comcast. I would have to say that in my area (as close as you can get to Ypsilanti and still live within an Ann Arbor zip code) Comcast goes out at least once a fortnight. When I had DSL (before DirecTV screwed it's DSL customers like me) THAT connection was out maybe once in two years.
Comcast's support is, as noted, miserable at worst, and spotty at best. I once called in to them with connection trouble, even though I was pretty sure it was a problem with my router--I just needed to have them walk me through hardware recognition issues. The moron at the other end emphatically told me it was NOT a router issue, and talked me through all these unrelated resetting steps for all BUT the router. When all else failed, I reset the router and VIOLA! it worked.
I would apply to work there, seeing how much more qualified I obviously am, but I understand working for them is almost as traumatic as receiving their 'service'.
Where do YOU want to go today?
I thought that was what Michael Flattley does everytime some moron shells out $$ for a Riverdance ticket.
An unfortunate software title for those of us disaffected, frustrated theatre types in geekdom.
" I can't remember anyone that I know every being hurt my a meteor. I can't even remember any friend of a friend type stories."
The thing to remember, given the hullaballoo at high gov't levels regarding "do we tell the kids" is that, when a newsworthy metor DOES finally strike, there may be no one around to buy that particular day's paper to read about it.
Just my $.02.
"So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs"
Have you ever seen an astronomer's paycheck? There's a reason they never compare anything to a Crown Victoria or an SUV, though you might see comparisons made to 'big as two Bugs' in such cases.
PLEASE note that the article spoke of TWO THREE-MAN Soyuz capsules. One is up there now, the other exists in theory. Additionally, each Soyuz seats only three, and it is cramped even then.
And, as many people are stating in their replies, many things would have to come together to abort to ISS, the most important of which being someone waving a magic wand. One does not simply change orbit by firing a few attitude jets--orbiters are launched into specific orbits using fuel that is exhausted once the external tank goes bye-bye.
Columbia was too heavy to perform ISS missions, and the question is now moot, as the remaining orbiters will most likely be assigned to ISS assembly missions almost exclusively. Thus, the question will likely not come up again.
The new mega dam being built by China (Three Gorges Dam, I think it is called) will cause enough of a backlog of water to play with Earth's spin and thus help lengthen our day. But I guess you'd have to be really sensitive to notice it, or live to be reaaaaally old and annoying about it ("Why, I remember a time waaay back in the 20th century...")
Additionally, remember the licensing fees you need to pay for each client that accesses your MS server. In the end, it is easier to wake up and small the penguin. ;)
My favorite neat book/bad sf movie is When World Collide. Mad props to George Pal and the movie company, but that movie really stunk after I read the book.
"It's a little different, though. It's much harder to issue a security patch for the human body."
It's really not that hard, actually. They've been issuing such patches for years, in the form of vaccines and less proactive therapies, such as self-medication and more formal hospital stays.
...Only criminals will have information.
What a bunch of bullshit. I can't believe that rational people (such as scientists, etc.) would suggest such a thing. Those times when information is kept secret are when a population is most at-risk, because the masses cannot then defend themselves against what any ambitious terrorist is bound to develop independently, should said terrorist be evil enough.
Sheesh. Next they'll be requiring all firearms eliminated from movies and television, because people might get the idea that guns can be harmful, when used properly.
...An old Apple ad from the early early 80s. It showed an Apple II (or some such device) that had been through a fire and still operated. Anyone else remember that one?
"It should go up."
Well actually, in space there is no 'up'. So it'd have to do something else.
Big words for an anonymous bastard.
"Since when has the health of the space program ever been a big campaign issue? You can't be serious..."
Ever since Sputnik, you anonymous coward.
I doubt we'll be out of the space game for very long. All practical needs of supporting a space station aside, W can't afford to sit on a grounded space fleet, specifically for re-election purposes. A nation at 'war' with a stalled economy can't afford to slip into malaise with a mothballed space program.
Keeping the program going, and making the delay as short as possible, are both politically imperative for W, heading into 2004, and I am sure Karl Rove has made a note of that.
With that in mind, you could just as easily see a ramped-up exporation program, and possibly a manned mission to Mars (like the Project Prometheus we have heard of), in order to keep the rabble's eyes on the skies, er, I mean, in order to keep the nation's spirits up.
They also all tend to be on the bleeding edge for their times. Part of the price has to be due to the R&D and the hours of overtime for bleary-eyed engineers and programmers asked to throw in one last goody, etc. Another price aspect would be directly related to the console designs: consoles integrating oddball hardware (3D screen, nifty-keen motorized CD tray (it had to be cutting edge at SOME point!), etc.)
So, avoiding high prices in the future might lead to everyone shipping the same features across the board, because the bean counters see the obvious solution to cost-cutting: no new features.
While I never owned any of the failed systems mentioned, and always because of the cost, I do confess I lusted after every one of them, the wierder the features, the better.
Has anyone considered the potential for such systems being used to trigger proximity-type sensors? I can imagine few more convenient ways to make terrorism easier than by employing large magnets like this and waiting for the fun to arrive.
I am not studied in such areas, but can't one just place a sensor near the docking point and tell it to make something go boom when it detects such a magnet on the hull? It's not as though there are other such magnets being used at the same hull contact points, which might confuse such a strategy.
I'm only asking...
If there was ever any sign that the rich are too rich, it's that people are actually bidding on this thing.
And another thing... for half a million simoleans, you can BET I will fly the thing, or die trying!