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User: bill_mcgonigle

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Comments · 18,097

  1. Re:What a bunch of crapola on Launching Frequently Key To NASA Success · · Score: 1

    More than one launch company has failed because it could not secure a launch site

    Is this the federal government putting the kibosh on plans? I'd guess somewhere in the middle of the New Mexico desert there would be communities eager for a high tech business center.

    I ask with an Eisenhower's leery eye.

  2. Re:cheap highpower photocells, the ultimate vaporw on Next-Gen Glitter-Sized Photovoltaic Cells Unveiled · · Score: 1

    Does anyone else notice every few months an amazing breakthrough in solar cells that will increase solar efficiency by 10^x power or lower the cost to nearly free? Meanwhile, the solar panels for useful applications are still expensive and space consuming?

    There are two kinds of breakthroughs - ones that can be used to go to manufacturing and ones that can be used to go to venture capital.

  3. Re:Homebrew on Helping Perl Packagers Package Perl · · Score: 1

    In truth, all three languages run (though none of them pass the full test suite) and interoperate on Parrot today.

    Thanks for your efforts to bring nirvana ever closer.

  4. Re:Does anyone really use it? on All GPLed Code Removed From MonoDevelop · · Score: 1

    But if you wanted to write a native app for Windows and you didn't HAVE Windows or didn't care to be subjected to it, what would you use?

    If you don't hate your users you'd get a Windows machine and actually test your software. Please, it's Christmas Eve, don't make my head explode.

  5. Perl 6 on Helping Perl Packagers Package Perl · · Score: 1

    Apologies to Python/Ruby guys, but I have yet to encounter a very compelling reason to switch from Perl for the tasks I've been using it. Maybe it's just me.

    Perl's object system blows but it has CPAN.
    Ruby is slow and its community doesn't get coarse-grained dependencies.
    Python is memory hungry and breaks compatibility frequently.

    Perl 6 fixes the object system and is finally on a steady march to reality. I would have expected Ruby or Python to win by now but my money is on Perl 6 being the best option in the near future.

  6. Re:What a bunch of crapola on Launching Frequently Key To NASA Success · · Score: 1

    You might look for other motivations, like maybe huge profits for the rocket makers and launchers?

    What's preventing competition from bringing down these costs?

  7. Re:Strange question on BBC's Plan To Kick Open Source Out of UK TV · · Score: 1

    Readers are not available on the open market? There's one in every sat receiver, and because we get them from China they're dirt cheap.

    Did geeks forget so quickly how to work with soldering iron and scope?

    Reverse engineering != Open Market

  8. Re:Strange question on BBC's Plan To Kick Open Source Out of UK TV · · Score: 1

    To say that the satellite companies have "solved" this problem is perhaps a slight exaggeration. It would be true to say that they have reduced it to a problem that they can justify ignoring...

    Right, "solved" in a business sense. I have no problem paying $19/mo for satellite service, I just wish I could timeshift it easily on my MythTV box.

  9. Re:Strange question on BBC's Plan To Kick Open Source Out of UK TV · · Score: 1

    Satellite receivers solve this with smartcards. Then there's government and/or industry collusion to make sure the readers aren't available on the open market for open source solutions to use.

  10. Re:Innovation! on The Last GM Big-Block V-8 Rolls Off the Line · · Score: 1

    The big block Chevrolet is a simple, tough engine that produces excellent torque, is durable, very easy to work on and inexpensive to repair. Aftermarket support is excellent and one can build complete engines without using a single GM part.

    In that case I'm just shocked they didn't kill it sooner!

  11. Re:Nolo books at the library on Best Open Source Business Tools? · · Score: 1

    Your best strategy is to skim thru, maybe even check out, the books that look interesting at the library, then purchase the most recent version from nolo for daily use.

    Which come with PDF's on CD.

    At least they did a decade ago...

  12. Business Process Patent Collateral Damage on New USPTO Test Could Limit Software-Based Patents · · Score: 1

    Any algorithm can be expressed in lambda calculus. The rest is simple mechanical and interchangeable details needed to apply it.

    It would be worth it to take down business process patents as well, for they are merely algorithms.

    I'm pretty sure most machines could also be so represented, though.

  13. Re:"Contributing" is impossible on How Can I Contribute To Open Source? · · Score: 1

    And, quietly spread the word to other government employees - it's rare to see such conscious actions by those in government.

    This.

    Do brownbag lunches, write reports, do business case analysis. Create a Center of Excellence with you as the director and spread the good news. OK, that's probably Step 20, but you're on the right track.

  14. Different Universe on The Definitive Evisceration of The Phantom Menace *NSFW* · · Score: 1

    Older Skywalker (Lets get him in his late teens)

    Let's be happy they didn't.

    ObiWan is far to young in the so-called prequels for them to be part of the same Universe as the first three movies.

    Remember, "surely he must be dead by now?" when talking about a man who looked to be 80 in non-Jedi terms (they age more slowly than normal humans). Yet, 'Old Ben' is not even forty when Luke is born in the prequels. And he meets Luke 16 years later in ANH? No, different universe, does not apply.

  15. Re:Yes on Where Are the Cheap Thin Clients? · · Score: 1

    Some of us have jobs that involve lots of users. I wouldn't want to put together more than two or three boxes, let alone hundreds or thousands of them.

    At that kind of volume you can do some local job creation (high schooler, etc.) and still have money left over to send him for pizza.

  16. Re:About your hangup... on Where Are the Cheap Thin Clients? · · Score: 1

    Exactly. Thin clients are an economic win if your environment fits them, even at their inflated hardware price. So, if you have an actual budget and need service and support, you buy the $400+ thin clients. If you don't have the budget you build them (pfft, snap-together is more like it) and have a half dozen spares on a half a bookshelf. You probably don't bother fixing ones that die, but they're all solid-state so they don't very often.

  17. Re:Horrifyingly poor management on A Requiem For Saab · · Score: 1

    "We New Englanders still need a nice winter car,"

    Subaru.

    Exactly. This area used to be lousy with Saabs - we'd play punch-Sabb with 911's in the early 90's and they were famous for being in the shop. I heard the manuals' clutch was a nearly a disposable part. Then Subaru came forward with their change from the old Legacys that rusted by year 3 to the Outback and associated lines with high quality builds, and now it seems Subaru has a quarter of the Northern New England car market. Mine is from '98 and still works mostly well.

    Saab's niche was filled with a better product - oh well. Volvo suffered a similar fate (what, rear wheel drive for snow?) and has only clawed back some among the affluent with the Cross-Country AWD which is pretty darn close to an expensive Subaru Outback Legacy.

  18. Re:StatCounter? on Firefox 3.5 Now the Most Popular Browser Worldwide · · Score: 1

    More than half of a sample can be above or below average. Exactly half will be above and below the median.

    Since you've started the nit-picking already ... 'average' can refer to the mean, median or mode.

  19. Re:Why a decade later on The Definitive Evisceration of The Phantom Menace *NSFW* · · Score: 2, Insightful

    and a very black-and-white simplistic morality,

    Stormtroopers wore white and Jedi Luke Skywalker wore black. ;)

  20. Re:Are any non-profits doing anything like this? on Proposed NASA Mission Would Sail the Seas of Titan · · Score: 1

    That sounds plausible, but after a little searching the only research I managed to find on the web suggested that a decrease in estate tax would result in a loss of charitable donations because there is less incentive for tax-free donations.

    Could be, but I wasn't talking about inheritance - rater everyday people having their everyday wages confiscated.

    Estimates including gas tax, property tax, liquor tax, tobacco tax, embedded income taxes (~22% of everything you buy goes to pay the producers' income taxes) and finally actual income tax range from 55% to over 70%. Counting fiat inflation estimates range to over 90% for a lifetime of earnings and savings.

    If people had "just" 50% more money in their pockets they'd be feeling much more charitable. I'd certainly done to something like (but not) the Planetary Society. I suspect their budget would even top NASA's.

  21. Re:Are any non-profits doing anything like this? on Proposed NASA Mission Would Sail the Seas of Titan · · Score: 1

    Any money put into non profits would quickly go to waste, theres just no way you can send something to Titan without governmental assistance.

    I think you mean "without a government-sized budget", right? Non-profits aren't all that well-funded because average people are paying over half of their incomes to taxes. Fix one, fix the other.

  22. Re:Can't wait to fund this. on Proposed NASA Mission Would Sail the Seas of Titan · · Score: 1

    Those who want to fund it can and those who don't could choose not to contribute.

    Almost like it doesn't need to be a government agency...

  23. Re:And again: Stereo, not 3D. on 3D Blu-ray Spec Finalized, PS3 Supported · · Score: 1

    So actually, normal movies already are 3D. Just not the dimensions youâ(TM)d expect. ;)

    gah! We've been keeping that a secret from the marketing departments. Now you've done it.

  24. Re:What? on 3D Blu-ray Spec Finalized, PS3 Supported · · Score: 1

    I just got my first blu ray player yesterday and I generally keep up with things. I think it won't be until 2011 that you start to see sales of blu ray dominate. And even then since many players will up-convert DVDs, a lot of less popular titles will keep DVD sales up.

    A guy mentioned to me the other day that he could be buying BluRay's but mostly he's buying DVD's because they work in the DVD player in the car.

    When we switched from VHS to DVD the only worry was the one box on top of the living room TV. Now DVD players are everywhere, people have to worry about replacing multiple units or being incompatible.

    It looks like a year from now we should be seeing $50 players. At that point, wait 5 years for the other units to all wear out, then we can have a change-over.

  25. Re:Urban on US McDonald's Wi-Fi Going Free In January · · Score: 1

    how often are you willing to reset your MAC address to get free McWiFi?