Ares = paper rocket that doesn't actually exist, planned to cost BILLIONS
Falcon 9 = Saw it fly!! Cost is $50 million/launch. You can book a contract today if you like.
The next Falcon 9 flight in August will have a fully functional Dragon capsule on it. The only thing missing for the mythical "man-rating" is the launch abort system. SpaceX estimates 2-3 years to fully develop that and install it in Dragon. SpaceX is unlikely to break even one billion in investment to get to this point.
I think BP has spent the last 60 days showing the extreme limitations of robots or tele-operated machines in harsh environments. If you want to get anything serious done, send a person.
The people that want to go to space are not you, and they DO have reasons for wanting to go. A lot of them are even spending their own, hard earned money to do so. Whether you think they should or not is rather beside the point.
Well, simply put, F*CK that. I DON'T WANT the government to go to Mars.
Let's see something more like the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Company. That way, people might actually have a reason to stay on Mars instead of planting another flag and leaving.
wait until robots take over most manual labor jobs. They've got a robot than can fold towels now. How much longer until you have a good multi-purpose robot that can do the work to replace janitors, lawn maintenance people, shelf stockers, short order cooks, etc?
Then it will really hit the fan.
Everyone can not be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc. A LOT of people just aren't cut out for that sort of thing. What will they do then? Enjoy your 10% unemployment while it lasts, America. Those lost jobs not only aren't coming back, many, many more will be going away in coming decades.
I would have welcomed this pin with open arms. Trying to keep the interest of 1st - 5th graders on anything at all is difficult, and Cub Scouts requires the active participation of parents too. I certainly would have had more luck with this material than the woodcraft or tool work, which I have little talent for.:)
From what I can see, the focus of the pin is clearly on educating the kids about making better choices in video games, and on games that are educational. Looks like a win to me.
For the record, my Cub Scout pack (and yes, it was MY pack in the late 70s and my son's in the late 90s) is not affiliated with or sponsored by any religious institution (other than perhaps the BSA itself). We had to pay rent to the elementary school where we met, just like anyone else.
IMHO, based on everything I've read about this case, I think Childs should have done the following:
- Demand that a city HR person be present while he argues his case against divulging - Formally put his objection into his personnel record - When still ordered to by his boss, divulge the passwords
Where on Earth does it say your corporate IT policy is supposed to be a career suicide pact? I, for one, think that Childs made a life-altering, serious mistake. He started out trying to be principaled, and ended up breaking the law.
I do hope that he ends up only being sentenced to time served, but I can guarantee you he doesn't have a job waiting at my company. This guy's judgement is seriously impaired.
Oh, and regarding this statement: "There will never be another Alexander, another Caesar, another Genghis Khan, another Napoleon, another Hitler, and this is also a good thing. "
I'm guessing you've never owned a poorly designed, older home.
My old house had to be kept at 72F at all times, or the AC simply could not keep up. Once the inside temp was allowed to creep up even a few degrees, the AC would just run non-stop until it froze solid. Then you had to turn it off, open the windows, and live with 90+ degree inside temps until you could crank up the AC again the next morning.
I'm sure there are all sorts of expensive, technical solutions to this problem, but at the time, it was far cheaper to just keep the AC on all the time in the summer. I repeatedly told Xcel Energy to f*ck off when they tried to get to enroll in the AC switch off program.
One of the very first things you have to do before getting a security clearance is sign a document acknowledging that revealing classified information is punishable by a fine of $10,000 or 10 years in prison or both. If you can't handle that from the outset, you have no business having a security clearance.
Make no mistake: this was a very serious crime. While I applaud this guy's intent, the proper place for his complaint was either the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, or the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. From that point on, it is the responsibility of those Congressional committees to follow up on the information. No person other than the Director of Central Intelligence or the President has the authority to release classified information.
If you think that sucks, then imagine the situation where everyone with a clearance got to decide on their own whether that information should be kept secret or not. There wouldn't be any point to having classified information, and you might as well give it all away to the Chinese/Russians, etc. Do you think they'll reciprocate?
With all due respect to those great men, and their accomplishments, they are wrong.
First of all, everyone take a deep breath, pull up Google, and remember that the space shuttle program was cancelled SIX YEARS AGO by BUSH. That is not a decision by the Obama administration.
Second, the Constellation program was already years behind schedule, billions overbudget, and would still have resulted in years of us paying the Russians for a ride to the ISS, if they could have even worked out the problems and gotten a system flying. There can be no doubt whatsoever that Constellation would have resulted in a massively overpriced, low flight-rate system that was no better than the shuttle it replaced.
By giving private industry more incentives to proceed with their plans for commercial spacecraft (which NASA was previously competing with and blocking investment in), the Obama administration has made it vastly MORE likely that we will return to the Moon and space in general. This time, we will have a business reason to STAY THERE, instead of just going sightseeing.
I am overall not a fan of the Obama administration, but on this one thing, they have absolutely nailed it. This decision is good for the space industry, good for America, and good for the future of mankind.
I've used SharePoint at several jobs now. While it does its basic function ok, I have yet to see where SharePoint is any improvement whatsoever over a shared directory and RCS/CVS/Subversion, with a web front end.
Seriously, why do people like this thing? It is yet another MS redo of technology from 20 years ago.
My personal favorite for group documentation is Mediawiki, but it may not be suitable for something as formal as ISO9001.
As for ISO9001 itself, I've survived one job with an 18 month nightmare ISO implementation. When I hear that term now, I start looking for a new job.
As a cyclist, I'd love to see the study impact on cycling accidents along these same streets. Tighter roads, less visibility and cars parked along the side of the road spells dangerous conditions to me.
I'll take a wider road with a marked bike lane, thanks.
Ok, so per your argument, Apple hasn't "created wealth" with the iPhone, they've really just created an "iPhone scarcity"? Someone had better tell Steve Jobs and Apple shareholders this...
While I'm not a fan of patent trolls, economics is not a zero sum game and wealth is most definitely something that can be created (or destroyed). Here's some reading for you to start fixing your woeful lack of education on this subject: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-3rd-Ed-Economy/dp/0465002609
As of last September, SpaceX had about 700 employees (http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4328638.html). They've done in just a few years and few hundred million dollars, what takes NASA a decade or more, billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of employees.
"If you told me that you were going to post them to make money and asserted your right to stand there taking pictures of my house, I would probably call the cops."
And in the US anyway, the cops would tell you that this is perfectly legal and to stop filing bogus complaints (or they SHOULD).
Are they nuts? I honestly doubt whether I'll renew my local paper (The Denver Post) next year. I'm paying about $35/year for a Thursday-Sunday subscription, and even that seems like too much. The news is outdated and I've read it all online by the time the paper is delivered. The only thing I'm really still getting it for is local advertisements and coupons. The NY Times has none of those things, and I can read the same AP/Reuters articles anywhere. I could care less about their editorials and investigative stuff. If it is really important, it will show up all over the web in short order.
Sorry, Microsoft, but you guys claim that every release is the best thing since sliced bread. Having just finally gotten rid of my Samsung BlackJack II, with Windows Mobile 6.1, I can say that it was simultaneously the most promising, and most disappointing phone I've ever owned. I won't ever buy another Windows Mobile phone.
For now, I've got a used Blackberry (even this old one is way better than the Blackjack) while I wait for my AT&T contract to expire, then it is hello, Android.
Perhaps they did the best they could in a bad economy, and by engineering the sale to Oracle, they made the best of a bad situation? Certainly if you were a Sun stockholder, you are better off now than you were a year ago, and these guys were big stockholders.
Personally, I'm still pissed at the massive payoff that Carly Fiorina got when HP booted her out the door....:)
Your referenced post conveniently lumps together printing in with other editing and overhead costs. In an ebook model, there IS no warehouse and massive overhead. I'm sorry, but that diagram is massively self-serving, and clearly a new ebook only competitor without your 100 years of bureaucratic crap weighing them down could eat your lunch.
I look forward to it, because they are going to get my money for their ebooks, and you aren't.
I repeat, I WILL NEVER PAY $15 FOR AN EBOOK, MacMillan.
What is the actual cost, per copy, of printing and shipping a physical textbook to a store, vs supplying one to Amazon or another e-tailer? Personally, I'd be shocked if it isn't at LEAST 50% of the cost of a book. Books are heavy, bits are light.:)
Until I see ebook pricing that reflects what I think is a fair discount from a paper book (or proof that I'm wrong), I'm no way in HELL paying $15 for an ebook.
Scientists report that the average weight of the Chinese has begun to spike rapidly as they begin using electric bikes, and eat at McDonald's, Starbucks, and KFC.
Seriously, I spent two weeks in China in 2007 and I realized why most of the world views most Americans as fat and lazy - we are! I was positively huge compared to 99% of the people in Beijing.
Now I've dropped 30lbs and ride my (pedal-powered) bike to work, and for fun, on a regular basis. I can conceed the benefits of electric bikes vs cars, but from a health standpoint, I suspect the Chinese are going backwards.
Uhm, hello? We've been outsourcing a lot of manned space flights (to the ISS) to Russia for years since the Columbia disintegrated, plus lots of cargo flights too.
The Ares rocket program is already years behind and billions over budget. The design has huge flaws that may actually make it completely unusable.
So ask yourself this question as an American taxpayer: Do I want NASA to pay the Russians to hitch a ride to the ISS, or should we, oh gee I don't know, pay an American company for the same thing?
Those of you flipping out about this really need to take a look at the web page of SpaceX http://www.spacex.com/ In just a few years, they have built a fantastic family of rockets, from scratch, for vastly less than NASA spends in one year, and also much less than the pre-existing space industry giants.
NASA, for all of its past glory, is the absolute worst government bureaucracy there is. We CAN do better!
Slashdot Mirror
Oh please. How about this one?
Ares = paper rocket that doesn't actually exist, planned to cost BILLIONS
Falcon 9 = Saw it fly!! Cost is $50 million/launch. You can book a contract today if you like.
The next Falcon 9 flight in August will have a fully functional Dragon capsule on it. The only thing missing for the mythical "man-rating" is the launch abort system. SpaceX estimates 2-3 years to fully develop that and install it in Dragon. SpaceX is unlikely to break even one billion in investment to get to this point.
Necron69
I think BP has spent the last 60 days showing the extreme limitations of robots or tele-operated machines in harsh environments. If you want to get anything serious done, send a person.
The people that want to go to space are not you, and they DO have reasons for wanting to go. A lot of them are even spending their own, hard earned money to do so. Whether you think they should or not is rather beside the point.
Necron69
Well, simply put, F*CK that. I DON'T WANT the government to go to Mars.
Let's see something more like the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Company. That way, people might actually have a reason to stay on Mars instead of planting another flag and leaving.
Necron69
Would have bought us two more SpaceX's and four more new rockets, based on what SpaceX has spent in their 8 years or so of existance.
NASA's Constellation program is a massive budget boondoggle.
Stick a fork in it....
Necron69
wait until robots take over most manual labor jobs. They've got a robot than can fold towels now. How much longer until you have a good multi-purpose robot that can do the work to replace janitors, lawn maintenance people, shelf stockers, short order cooks, etc?
Then it will really hit the fan.
Everyone can not be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc. A LOT of people just aren't cut out for that sort of thing. What will they do then? Enjoy your 10% unemployment while it lasts, America. Those lost jobs not only aren't coming back, many, many more will be going away in coming decades.
Necron69
I would have welcomed this pin with open arms. Trying to keep the interest of 1st - 5th graders on anything at all is difficult, and Cub Scouts requires the active participation of parents too. I certainly would have had more luck with this material than the woodcraft or tool work, which I have little talent for. :)
From what I can see, the focus of the pin is clearly on educating the kids about making better choices in video games, and on games that are educational. Looks like a win to me.
For the record, my Cub Scout pack (and yes, it was MY pack in the late 70s and my son's in the late 90s) is not affiliated with or sponsored by any religious institution (other than perhaps the BSA itself). We had to pay rent to the elementary school where we met, just like anyone else.
Necron69
IMHO, based on everything I've read about this case, I think Childs should have done the following:
- Demand that a city HR person be present while he argues his case against divulging
- Formally put his objection into his personnel record
- When still ordered to by his boss, divulge the passwords
Where on Earth does it say your corporate IT policy is supposed to be a career suicide pact? I, for one, think that Childs made a life-altering, serious mistake. He started out trying to be principaled, and ended up breaking the law.
I do hope that he ends up only being sentenced to time served, but I can guarantee you he doesn't have a job waiting at my company. This guy's judgement is seriously impaired.
Necron69
"but in real life it's mass murder on a scale that not even the most bloody-minded conquerors in history have ever attempted"
Never heard what the Romans did to Carthage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage#Carthaginian_Republic/, have you? They were only limited by the technology available at the time.
Oh, and regarding this statement: "There will never be another Alexander, another Caesar, another Genghis Khan, another Napoleon, another Hitler, and this is also a good thing. "
Keep dreaming.
Necron69
I'm guessing you've never owned a poorly designed, older home.
My old house had to be kept at 72F at all times, or the AC simply could not keep up. Once the inside temp was allowed to creep up even a few degrees, the AC would just run non-stop until it froze solid. Then you had to turn it off, open the windows, and live with 90+ degree inside temps until you could crank up the AC again the next morning.
I'm sure there are all sorts of expensive, technical solutions to this problem, but at the time, it was far cheaper to just keep the AC on all the time in the summer. I repeatedly told Xcel Energy to f*ck off when they tried to get to enroll in the AC switch off program.
Necron69
One of the very first things you have to do before getting a security clearance is sign a document acknowledging that revealing classified information is punishable by a fine of $10,000 or 10 years in prison or both. If you can't handle that from the outset, you have no business having a security clearance.
Make no mistake: this was a very serious crime. While I applaud this guy's intent, the proper place for his complaint was either the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, or the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. From that point on, it is the responsibility of those Congressional committees to follow up on the information. No person other than the Director of Central Intelligence or the President has the authority to release classified information.
If you think that sucks, then imagine the situation where everyone with a clearance got to decide on their own whether that information should be kept secret or not. There wouldn't be any point to having classified information, and you might as well give it all away to the Chinese/Russians, etc. Do you think they'll reciprocate?
Necron69
That's because the monolith is on the Moon, and those idiots at NASA landed in the wrong places to find it!! :)
Necron69
With all due respect to those great men, and their accomplishments, they are wrong.
First of all, everyone take a deep breath, pull up Google, and remember that the space shuttle program was cancelled SIX YEARS AGO by BUSH. That is not a decision by the Obama administration.
Second, the Constellation program was already years behind schedule, billions overbudget, and would still have resulted in years of us paying the Russians for a ride to the ISS, if they could have even worked out the problems and gotten a system flying. There can be no doubt whatsoever that Constellation would have resulted in a massively overpriced, low flight-rate system that was no better than the shuttle it replaced.
By giving private industry more incentives to proceed with their plans for commercial spacecraft (which NASA was previously competing with and blocking investment in), the Obama administration has made it vastly MORE likely that we will return to the Moon and space in general. This time, we will have a business reason to STAY THERE, instead of just going sightseeing.
I am overall not a fan of the Obama administration, but on this one thing, they have absolutely nailed it. This decision is good for the space industry, good for America, and good for the future of mankind.
Necron69
I've used SharePoint at several jobs now. While it does its basic function ok, I have yet to see where SharePoint is any improvement whatsoever over a shared directory and RCS/CVS/Subversion, with a web front end.
Seriously, why do people like this thing? It is yet another MS redo of technology from 20 years ago.
My personal favorite for group documentation is Mediawiki, but it may not be suitable for something as formal as ISO9001.
As for ISO9001 itself, I've survived one job with an 18 month nightmare ISO implementation. When I hear that term now, I start looking for a new job.
Necron69
As a cyclist, I'd love to see the study impact on cycling accidents along these same streets. Tighter roads, less visibility and cars parked along the side of the road spells dangerous conditions to me.
I'll take a wider road with a marked bike lane, thanks.
Necron69
YES!! I AM colorblind, and I would most definitely like to be cured. Where do I sign up??
Necron69
Ok, so per your argument, Apple hasn't "created wealth" with the iPhone, they've really just created an "iPhone scarcity"? Someone had better tell Steve Jobs and Apple shareholders this...
While I'm not a fan of patent trolls, economics is not a zero sum game and wealth is most definitely something that can be created (or destroyed). Here's some reading for you to start fixing your woeful lack of education on this subject: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-3rd-Ed-Economy/dp/0465002609
Necron69
As of last September, SpaceX had about 700 employees (http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4328638.html). They've done in just a few years and few hundred million dollars, what takes NASA a decade or more, billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of employees.
How's that for reduced bureacracy?
Necron69
"If you told me that you were going to post them to make money and asserted your right to stand there taking pictures of my house, I would probably call the cops."
And in the US anyway, the cops would tell you that this is perfectly legal and to stop filing bogus complaints (or they SHOULD).
Necron69
Are they nuts? I honestly doubt whether I'll renew my local paper (The Denver Post) next year. I'm paying about $35/year for a Thursday-Sunday subscription, and even that seems like too much. The news is outdated and I've read it all online by the time the paper is delivered. The only thing I'm really still getting it for is local advertisements and coupons. The NY Times has none of those things, and I can read the same AP/Reuters articles anywhere. I could care less about their editorials and investigative stuff. If it is really important, it will show up all over the web in short order.
Necron69
Sorry, Microsoft, but you guys claim that every release is the best thing since sliced bread. Having just finally gotten rid of my Samsung BlackJack II, with Windows Mobile 6.1, I can say that it was simultaneously the most promising, and most disappointing phone I've ever owned. I won't ever buy another Windows Mobile phone.
For now, I've got a used Blackberry (even this old one is way better than the Blackjack) while I wait for my AT&T contract to expire, then it is hello, Android.
Necron69
Perhaps they did the best they could in a bad economy, and by engineering the sale to Oracle, they made the best of a bad situation? Certainly if you were a Sun stockholder, you are better off now than you were a year ago, and these guys were big stockholders.
Personally, I'm still pissed at the massive payoff that Carly Fiorina got when HP booted her out the door.... :)
Necron69
Your referenced post conveniently lumps together printing in with other editing and overhead costs. In an ebook model, there IS no warehouse and massive overhead. I'm sorry, but that diagram is massively self-serving, and clearly a new ebook only competitor without your 100 years of bureaucratic crap weighing them down could eat your lunch.
I look forward to it, because they are going to get my money for their ebooks, and you aren't.
I repeat, I WILL NEVER PAY $15 FOR AN EBOOK, MacMillan.
Necron69
Ok, Mr. MacMillan,
What is the actual cost, per copy, of printing and shipping a physical textbook to a store, vs supplying one to Amazon or another e-tailer? Personally, I'd be shocked if it isn't at LEAST 50% of the cost of a book. Books are heavy, bits are light. :)
Until I see ebook pricing that reflects what I think is a fair discount from a paper book (or proof that I'm wrong), I'm no way in HELL paying $15 for an ebook.
Necron69
Scientists report that the average weight of the Chinese has begun to spike rapidly as they begin using electric bikes, and eat at McDonald's, Starbucks, and KFC.
Seriously, I spent two weeks in China in 2007 and I realized why most of the world views most Americans as fat and lazy - we are! I was positively huge compared to 99% of the people in Beijing.
Now I've dropped 30lbs and ride my (pedal-powered) bike to work, and for fun, on a regular basis. I can conceed the benefits of electric bikes vs cars, but from a health standpoint, I suspect the Chinese are going backwards.
Necron69
Uhm, hello? We've been outsourcing a lot of manned space flights (to the ISS) to Russia for years since the Columbia disintegrated, plus lots of cargo flights too.
The Ares rocket program is already years behind and billions over budget. The design has huge flaws that may actually make it completely unusable.
So ask yourself this question as an American taxpayer: Do I want NASA to pay the Russians to hitch a ride to the ISS, or should we, oh gee I don't know, pay an American company for the same thing?
Those of you flipping out about this really need to take a look at the web page of SpaceX http://www.spacex.com/ In just a few years, they have built a fantastic family of rockets, from scratch, for vastly less than NASA spends in one year, and also much less than the pre-existing space industry giants.
NASA, for all of its past glory, is the absolute worst government bureaucracy there is. We CAN do better!
Necron69