Hint: It is not necessary to pass a law banning every silly action - a little education would probably suffice. Not to mention the fact that not every driver will be distracted by a passenger using a computer in the front seat...
You could ask him why the landing area for the Beagle has a crater right in the middle of it.
IANANS (I Am Not A NASA Scientist), but it seemed pretty clear from the article I read. To quote:
" Scientists picked the site -- a flat, low-lying basin that's 700 square kilometres (270 square miles) in area -- to minimise natural hazards.
But, not surprisingly for a pockmarked planet, the area has a crater one kilometer (1,100 yards) wide at its center, and possibly hundreds of meters (feet) deep.
It was only revealed by close-up pictures of the site taken by another NASA orbiter, Mars Global Surveyor, minutes after the British probe was supposed to have landed last Thursday."
It does seem that they would have been better off waiting for the MGS imagery before actually landing...;-)
Sometimes even the most obvious things are only clear with hindsight.
Or: if you're a gamer, own a console. While we aren't quite at the point where all games are "better" and "first" on the console, that day seems to be growing closer. Game stores are stocking fewer and fewer PC games, and signs point to stores like Game Stop eliminating them completely.
The parent should really be modded "troll", simply because the consoles will only briefly compare to PCs for gaming, over any amount of time. When the PS2 and Xbox came out, they were (almost) comparable platforms to the PC of the time. However, within a year, the CPU, video hardware and RAM capacity of PCs once again completely eclipsed the consoles. Since both Xbox and PS2 are only going to be updated in 2005/2006, the PC will have had a 3-4 year run as a noticeably superior gaming platform (1600x1200 graphics anyone?). The same thing will happen with PS3 and Xbox4.
The other thing that separates PC games from console games is that game designers generally feel that console games have to be super-easy to use and play, which often translates into dumbed-down titles with little depth. One example that I've experienced personally is the difference between "Heroes of Might and Magic" on PC vs. PS2. The PS2 version is a pale shadow of the PC game.
Finally, PC game designers have to worry less about the constraints of the platform, and can concentrate more on great gameplay, graphics and depth. Perhaps the only balancing factor is if the game is intended for a console port as well, in which case the PC game designer had best plan well.
Don't get me wrong - lots of the console games are fun (especially the arcade-style games). The PC games are in a different league though. All the PC really needs to catch up in every way are inexpensive 50" wall-mountable monitors...;-)
The quote I saw was $1 billion for Viking and $62 million for Beagle, although that $62 million is a bit fictitious since it piggybacked a ride to Mars on Mars Express, so the real cost may have been higher.
If adjusted for inflation, though, the cost of Beagle does come out to about $100 million in 1976 dollars.
What does this mean? I'd say a few things. First of all, Viking was a much larger lander, as it had to be in 1976 since miniaturization was much less further along. Viking was the first attempt, so much more basic research went into that effort. Beagle was able to leverage all the space related research in the intervening 27 years or so, which should have lowered costs considerably.
Of course, the bottom line is that Viking worked, which made it an infinitely better investment.
All in all, a poor showing for current space technology.
And those are the facts. Boil it down to simple numbers and those are the facts. And yes, I hold Clinton responsible - completely.
Great post, and I agree that the H1-B boom is a debacle, and a traitorous blow to all U.S. tech workers.
I hold Clinton 90% responsible, but I do feel Bush should have ended the H1-B program early in his tenure. I also think companies should be clueful enough to not outsource. "Gee, let's create, train and fund a GIANT foreign workforce to compete against one of our most vibrant and profitable industries!". Smart...
Perhaps when there's a Jython-like JVM based Ruby implementation?
Seriously (given the number of ignorant "why use Java it's so slooooow" posts) as far as I can tell the current Ruby implementations are slow compared to Java. Would you really want to use a slow interpreted language for database functions, rather than one with close-to-C performance?
Also on the subject of knee-jerk Java bashing, I can't understand why so many C++ programmers resist Java, tooth and nail. Yes, Java has a somewhat bulky memory footprint (that may not be such a problem going forward with all the new 64-bit architectures out there). However, you get a ton of niceties as well, and a very sane language compared with C++. Java runs very fast these days, given sufficient JVM heap. Gcj is also getting there in terms of being useful, and provides an OSS traditional ahead-of-time compiler for Java code. Java may not be an ECMA standard, but it is open enough to permit free implementations.
Java isn't perfect...but it is better than many of the alternatives, and deserves more respect than it seems to get here on/. and among programmers in general. At least it is well supported on Linux by it's originators, unlike C# and.Net.
Seems that NASA has actually lost the edge in robotic space exploration.
Seems to me that we should wait for the probe to actually land, power up, and communicate before we judge how far the EU has caught up.
With some of the coming propulsion breakthroughs, these missions are just scratching the surface (so to speak;) anyhow.
Re:So instead
on
Global Dimming
·
· Score: 4, Informative
No. The amount of sunlight reaching earth is still the same. The amount reaching the ground is what is decreasing. It is being absorbed elsewhere or being reflected.
Not quite right either. The amount of sunlight reaching the top of the Earth's atmosphere is still the same. The amount reaching the ground is over 10% less than during the 60's. It is not clear how much of the sunlight is being absorbed and then re-emitted as IR within the atmosphere, and how much is being reflected back into space. Snow and clouds both reflect a lot of energy back out of the atmosphere. You mention reflection, but you don't seem to think it could result in net energy loss.
What I'm trying to get at is that if some factor (say cloud seeding from aircraft exhaust, a known phenomenon) is causing more cloud cover, it could well be that the total solar energy absorbed by the ground+atmosphere is substantially less than it used to be. The article wasn't clear on this point.
It is rather hard to get a weapon license (which allows you to OWN a firearm, and transport it to the gun range or hunting grounds), and almost impossible to get a "weapon carrying permission" which allows you to carry it on your body.
If you have one of those permissions, it's no problem to have a Glock though.
Thanks for the reply! Sorry it took me so long to respond, it's been a busy couple of days. I hope you notice this response...:-)
BTW, the situation here is that you can own any pistol, rifle or shotgun (unless it is an all-so-evil "assault weapon", then it has to be of pre-1994 manufacture;) after taking a short safety test at the store, and signing a statement saying you're not insane, a felon, a drug addict etc.
In my state the rule for getting a "carry permit" is "shall issue" meaning that unless there is a strong reason not to issue the permit, they will do it. Many states aren't that way, and it's much harder to get a carry permit.
I didn't manage to read as many posts as I would have liked Sunday, and I just wanted to say that both this post and your last one up the tree (heh, meta-monkey, tree - it is 5:30 AM after all;) deserved to be modded way up.
Bush may (or may not) have all kinds of problems as a politician and/or human being, but you have to love his audacity, and his policies.
I voted for him primarily since I didn't want a tax-and-spend Democrat in power (let's not talk about the deficits *sigh*), but after 9/11 I've become a fan, I have to admit.
I suggest providing actual sources and reasoning for your views, rather than just "could be's" and other conspiracy theory views. Technically, your assertion is unfalsifiable: that is, it is impossible to prove wrong and as such is unscientific and can't really be logically discussed (much like assertions regarding the existence of God, or conspiracy theories regarding all sorts of things). So yeah, I'd suggest shaping up on that. My initial response to you praised your logic, but it seems like I may have been mistaken.
I appreciate your regard for logic...however in the intelligence business logic is often trumped by tactics. All I can say is what I believe, that the U.S. gummint (with all that implies;) is still hot on the trail of OBL despite evidence to the contrary.
I apologise if I have failed you in some way. If you're so inclined, drop me a note here if you'll be in the Southeast portion of the U.S., I'd be happy to buy you a beer or other beverage of your choice.:-)
Well, slashdot is "run" by American teens, so what can you expect? Teenage idolation of phallistic guns and adulation of military that can do no wrong since their boyhood cartoons and Rambos were the definitive truth and history - really all they know about it, or at best what was repeated on FOX.
Hi AC, busy again I see...;-)
What I was complaining about was some serious minus ratings based on the opposite attitudes (right or wrong;) from what you describe above.
So, sleep well knowing that many Slashdottites(?) are falling right in line with your views, regardless of how ridiculous they are. =)
You should actually read the link I'm referring to. It shows that Osama *has* been forgotten by the military and government.
You should actually look up the definition of "disinformation". If you were to do that, you'd find that the fact that the government has disavowed interest in finding Osama is not relevant.
It's the same logic that's robbing US citizens (as well as citizens here in Australia) of their civil liberties without them having a say in it.
Hi there. Please read my (multiferous) other posts today for my take on the overall situation. However, I did want to say that I don't agree with the Bush Administration's take on civil liberties here in the States. I favored aggresive enforcement regarding cockpit doors, border enforcement, and international crackdowns on terrorists. Those measures were more than justified based on 9/11.
Extreme measures violating the U.S. Constitution, here in the States, were not, and are not. If there is a flaw in the Bush Policy, it will be in those areas.
What happened with the parent post? It was +5 Insightful...with no negative moderations it appears Slashdot is directly censoring me...shame, shame...:-p
"It took 11 hours to evacuate some 50,000 people from the complex."
It should be pointed out that (thank goodness!) the terrorists were quite incompetent in their 9/11 attack. It could easily have been 30,000+ dead in rather than less than 3,000.
The two factors were not setting the time until more people were at work, and not crashing into the base of the towers, which would have trapped everyone, and brought the towers down faster due to greater stresses.
Do you think that WMDs are the size of a pencil that can be carried in your pocket?? WMDs moved to Syria/Iran and the satellites could not see anything??
Hi Anonymous, back again I see!;-)
No, WMDs are not "the size of a pencil". However, they are the size of a 55 gallon drum (or smaller if needed) and easily moved in trucks. How many trucks do you suppose crossed the Iraq border with either Syria or Iran in the weeks preceeding the war?
Answer: Plenty.
How many ships left Iraqi harbors before the war started?
Answer: Plenty.
How is it that the U.S. was supposed to interdict all those vehicles before the war started, exactly?
Slashdot Mirror
Wrong, Beagle 2 cost $375 million.
Not such a great deal after all, eh? ;-) Did it have a British electrical system?
Doesn't have quite the same ring does it? ;-)
Hint: It is not necessary to pass a law banning every silly action - a little education would probably suffice. Not to mention the fact that not every driver will be distracted by a passenger using a computer in the front seat...
IANANS (I Am Not A NASA Scientist), but it seemed pretty clear from the article I read. To quote:
" Scientists picked the site -- a flat, low-lying basin that's 700 square kilometres (270 square miles) in area -- to minimise natural hazards.
But, not surprisingly for a pockmarked planet, the area has a crater one kilometer (1,100 yards) wide at its center, and possibly hundreds of meters (feet) deep.
It was only revealed by close-up pictures of the site taken by another NASA orbiter, Mars Global Surveyor, minutes after the British probe was supposed to have landed last Thursday."
It does seem that they would have been better off waiting for the MGS imagery before actually landing... ;-)
Sometimes even the most obvious things are only clear with hindsight.
but the upcoming new Sun Opteron systems look pretty sweet! :-)
The parent should really be modded "troll", simply because the consoles will only briefly compare to PCs for gaming, over any amount of time. When the PS2 and Xbox came out, they were (almost) comparable platforms to the PC of the time. However, within a year, the CPU, video hardware and RAM capacity of PCs once again completely eclipsed the consoles. Since both Xbox and PS2 are only going to be updated in 2005/2006, the PC will have had a 3-4 year run as a noticeably superior gaming platform (1600x1200 graphics anyone?). The same thing will happen with PS3 and Xbox4.
The other thing that separates PC games from console games is that game designers generally feel that console games have to be super-easy to use and play, which often translates into dumbed-down titles with little depth. One example that I've experienced personally is the difference between "Heroes of Might and Magic" on PC vs. PS2. The PS2 version is a pale shadow of the PC game.
Finally, PC game designers have to worry less about the constraints of the platform, and can concentrate more on great gameplay, graphics and depth. Perhaps the only balancing factor is if the game is intended for a console port as well, in which case the PC game designer had best plan well.
Don't get me wrong - lots of the console games are fun (especially the arcade-style games). The PC games are in a different league though. All the PC really needs to catch up in every way are inexpensive 50" wall-mountable monitors... ;-)
I found a quoted cost of $375 million here.
If adjusted for inflation, though, the cost of Beagle does come out to about $100 million in 1976 dollars.
What does this mean? I'd say a few things. First of all, Viking was a much larger lander, as it had to be in 1976 since miniaturization was much less further along. Viking was the first attempt, so much more basic research went into that effort. Beagle was able to leverage all the space related research in the intervening 27 years or so, which should have lowered costs considerably.
Of course, the bottom line is that Viking worked, which made it an infinitely better investment.
All in all, a poor showing for current space technology.
Perhaps the next American probe will fare better.
Great post, and I agree that the H1-B boom is a debacle, and a traitorous blow to all U.S. tech workers.
I hold Clinton 90% responsible, but I do feel Bush should have ended the H1-B program early in his tenure. I also think companies should be clueful enough to not outsource. "Gee, let's create, train and fund a GIANT foreign workforce to compete against one of our most vibrant and profitable industries!". Smart...
Perhaps when there's a Jython-like JVM based Ruby implementation?
Seriously (given the number of ignorant "why use Java it's so slooooow" posts) as far as I can tell the current Ruby implementations are slow compared to Java. Would you really want to use a slow interpreted language for database functions, rather than one with close-to-C performance?
Also on the subject of knee-jerk Java bashing, I can't understand why so many C++ programmers resist Java, tooth and nail. Yes, Java has a somewhat bulky memory footprint (that may not be such a problem going forward with all the new 64-bit architectures out there). However, you get a ton of niceties as well, and a very sane language compared with C++. Java runs very fast these days, given sufficient JVM heap. Gcj is also getting there in terms of being useful, and provides an OSS traditional ahead-of-time compiler for Java code. Java may not be an ECMA standard, but it is open enough to permit free implementations.
Java isn't perfect...but it is better than many of the alternatives, and deserves more respect than it seems to get here on /. and among programmers in general. At least it is well supported on Linux by it's originators, unlike C# and .Net.
OK, time to do something useful now... :-)
Seems to me that we should wait for the probe to actually land, power up, and communicate before we judge how far the EU has caught up.
With some of the coming propulsion breakthroughs, these missions are just scratching the surface (so to speak;) anyhow.
Not quite right either. The amount of sunlight reaching the top of the Earth's atmosphere is still the same. The amount reaching the ground is over 10% less than during the 60's. It is not clear how much of the sunlight is being absorbed and then re-emitted as IR within the atmosphere, and how much is being reflected back into space. Snow and clouds both reflect a lot of energy back out of the atmosphere. You mention reflection, but you don't seem to think it could result in net energy loss.
What I'm trying to get at is that if some factor (say cloud seeding from aircraft exhaust, a known phenomenon) is causing more cloud cover, it could well be that the total solar energy absorbed by the ground+atmosphere is substantially less than it used to be. The article wasn't clear on this point.
I doubt the Israeli government has the time to get the Windows build process right... ;-)
Mistletoe?
Yeah, I know...it's not a bush. It's not a shrub, either, though... ;-)
Well, the court may or may not be, but the entire Open Source community sure is...
Nice business model... :-P
Nice post! :-)
If you have one of those permissions, it's no problem to have a Glock though.
Thanks for the reply! Sorry it took me so long to respond, it's been a busy couple of days. I hope you notice this response... :-)
BTW, the situation here is that you can own any pistol, rifle or shotgun (unless it is an all-so-evil "assault weapon", then it has to be of pre-1994 manufacture;) after taking a short safety test at the store, and signing a statement saying you're not insane, a felon, a drug addict etc.
In my state the rule for getting a "carry permit" is "shall issue" meaning that unless there is a strong reason not to issue the permit, they will do it. Many states aren't that way, and it's much harder to get a carry permit.
I didn't manage to read as many posts as I would have liked Sunday, and I just wanted to say that both this post and your last one up the tree (heh, meta-monkey, tree - it is 5:30 AM after all;) deserved to be modded way up.
Bush may (or may not) have all kinds of problems as a politician and/or human being, but you have to love his audacity, and his policies.
I voted for him primarily since I didn't want a tax-and-spend Democrat in power (let's not talk about the deficits *sigh*), but after 9/11 I've become a fan, I have to admit.
Have a good one!
I appreciate your regard for logic...however in the intelligence business logic is often trumped by tactics. All I can say is what I believe, that the U.S. gummint (with all that implies;) is still hot on the trail of OBL despite evidence to the contrary.
I apologise if I have failed you in some way. If you're so inclined, drop me a note here if you'll be in the Southeast portion of the U.S., I'd be happy to buy you a beer or other beverage of your choice. :-)
Hi AC, busy again I see... ;-)
What I was complaining about was some serious minus ratings based on the opposite attitudes (right or wrong ;) from what you describe above.
So, sleep well knowing that many Slashdottites(?) are falling right in line with your views, regardless of how ridiculous they are. =)
Merry Christmas!
You should actually look up the definition of "disinformation". If you were to do that, you'd find that the fact that the government has disavowed interest in finding Osama is not relevant.
I hope this helped... :-)
Hi there. Please read my (multiferous) other posts today for my take on the overall situation. However, I did want to say that I don't agree with the Bush Administration's take on civil liberties here in the States. I favored aggresive enforcement regarding cockpit doors, border enforcement, and international crackdowns on terrorists. Those measures were more than justified based on 9/11.
Extreme measures violating the U.S. Constitution, here in the States, were not, and are not. If there is a flaw in the Bush Policy, it will be in those areas.
I apologise for any confusion.
What happened with the parent post? It was +5 Insightful...with no negative moderations it appears Slashdot is directly censoring me...shame, shame... :-p
Osama will be "forgotten" about as soon as we forget about Pearl Harbor.
You should look up the definition of "disinformation", I'm sure it applies... :-)
"It took 11 hours to evacuate some 50,000 people from the complex."
It should be pointed out that (thank goodness!) the terrorists were quite incompetent in their 9/11 attack. It could easily have been 30,000+ dead in rather than less than 3,000.
The two factors were not setting the time until more people were at work, and not crashing into the base of the towers, which would have trapped everyone, and brought the towers down faster due to greater stresses.
Go USA!!!!!
Hi Anonymous, back again I see! ;-)
No, WMDs are not "the size of a pencil". However, they are the size of a 55 gallon drum (or smaller if needed) and easily moved in trucks. How many trucks do you suppose crossed the Iraq border with either Syria or Iran in the weeks preceeding the war?
Answer: Plenty.
How many ships left Iraqi harbors before the war started?
Answer: Plenty.
How is it that the U.S. was supposed to interdict all those vehicles before the war started, exactly?
Awaiting your response...
Sad, really...
(And some people around here think Fox News is biased... :P)