I'm sick of looking at black and white pictures of far-off places where the use of nuclear fusion not only makes sense but is also the only way to bring life to desolate locales.
I wanna go there. Where is my Eagle lander damnit?!! Where is my General Enterprises Hull? Where is my Millenium Falcon? Where is my Beaver-1?
Screw all this mechano-assembly 'space sciences', screw all this "lets invade Iraq so we can feed our fat society even more plastic landfill", screw all this "nuclear fusion will kill the Earth", I want my space-hardened nuke-powerplant packin' HumVee, and I want it NOW!!
Seriously. I'd move to Phoebe TODAY. But the closest I can get is a shitty winnebago on some beach in the Netherlands, or some crap like that. What's the frickin' holdup people?
Sheesh. New World Order my ass. Those guys have no clue what they're doing... Vote Me For King, and I'll make it -compulsary- for all schoolkids to learn fusion plant physics on Phoebe...
is it just me, or have there been a lot of reports lately of 'large explosions' and 'bangs in the sky', and 'loud flashes of light in the distance', and pretty much they've all been meteorites?
there was that large bang around seattle a few weeks ago, then the other 'mysterious flashes' over the ocean near new zealand, and now this...
More to the point, its an early test of the technology.
Combine such stuff with ' self-healing' alloys which can 're-seal' themselves, given sufficient energy, and accomodate the whole thing into overall structural design, and you may have yourself a fortress of the future, able to heal.
That it is being 'tested'/'fielded' on tanks and such is a bonus. Harden it out in the big bad world first. Combine it with architecture later, and things get really interesting...
He's referring to the "PC from '95", in context to the 128Megs, and comparing it to how far things have come -now- even, whereas back then they were on the cusp of change. 2 years from microchips.
... is it just me, or does it feel like maybe that entire High Times interview was recorded in an afternoon at Dampkring?
Baer seems like a really grumpy old grandfather type, taking liberties with his age and hipness, and Gonzalez seems like a total stoner having a chat with his favourite god of all times, shooting shit about Simon, both of them with blunts of their own choosing...
(I printed to PDF, no way I'm not reading this one again some day...)
The closer a consumer product looks/feels to a bar of soap, the better.
Why? Because bars of soap are the most intimate object, and you replace them frequently. That's a good association for consumer electronics designers to make.
umm, 'ad hominem'? 'scuse me? if you're taking offense, its only because you're giving it.
tell me, fruity, exactly why wouldn't NASA insure the rover, if it was paid for with public funds, and if the insurance policy covered the operating expenses for the project should something 'out of bounds' occur?
especially since its public money funding the program.
the 'fact' that the MER insurance policy isn't showing up in 10 seconds of googling (its not like i don't have better uses for google) doesn't prove i'm not smart. you either.
sharpen your witty conclusions and get alpha-dog gratification as you will, but its out there...
I'm sure the Rover insurance plan is available, publically, somewhere... and no, I'm not gonna hold your hand and find it. Prove that it isn't there, MrDougJohnsonBoy...
As in, 'we expect the rover to be operational for 3 months' (knowing that it could be operational for years), and therefore we 'expect' that we will get the mission done in that time, and therefore require mission insurance for 3 months.
What good ISO-rated project doesn't have insurance? Name one, Mr. AC.
No way. We can find out with a little google? You hallucinated something (NASA taking insurance on the Rovers) and your "proof" is we can find the proof?
umm, whatever, 'phurd'.
Every space program since Sputnik has had Insurance Policies against failure. Do you even know what the word 'insurance' means? Do you know anything about multi-million dollar projects and the way they are organized, projected, and protected?
I do.
Therefore I don't need to use google to 'know' this, nor do I feel the need to justify every single thing I say with a google reference, since a) its freakin' obvious space program financial managers take out insurance, and b) I'm smart.
Since, perhaps 'phurd', you're a moron who is unable to use google, let alone think, for himself, and most certainly seem to have such a low opinion of the world and others living in it, here's a few choice links for you, off the top of the google:'space program insurance' stack:
Do you mean the cost of operating the rovers, or an actual insurance policy?
I'm talking about the insurance policy which NASA took out on the rover program, to cover any losses, damages, etc. Yes, there is one, no I don't know if its Lloyds of London or what, but I'm sure you can find out with a little google...
With budgets like NASA's, you can be sure that there is insurance for loss of operation. The sooner they can stop paying that (i.e. the terms of the insurance are short), the better.
Thus, the rovers have a 'short life expectancy' window within which they are supposed to get the job done...
As for 'tin foil', well, whats more superstitious, someone who wears a tin foil beanie, or someone who goes around wondering if everyone who offers an opinion not in line with 'what everyone knows' is wearing one...
Does anyone else get the feeling that the rovers were actually designed to last this long, but the lifespan that was published was a PR version that was extraordinarily short, so that in the event the rovers didn't last this long, they could save having to answer questions?
Yes. Two words: Insurance Policy.
NASA can't keep paying insurance on the rovers for years and years, so they plan (in the budget) for limited life times. Set your targets low, get as much done as you can within the limits of those targets, and get out.
But we should never forget that our estimations for how long things last are completely arbitrary... until after we've had the experience to back up the assumptions made about the longevity of the hardware.
The lifetime of the rovers is not so much about science as it is about beauracracy and politices, and ultimately 'responsibility'.
Personally, I don't see why we just kick out the beauracrats entirely, throw all Insurance premium mafia ripoffs to the winds, and build harder rovers.
Maybe we don't need to keep going to Mars, maybe we just need to 'learn to stay there' technologically longer than our society is currently capable of supporting. (Insurance is a 'society' thing, it isn't technological...)
I hope they're gonna give us plenty of warning when they fire that thing up, over here in Trans..beria... give us plenty time to strap one on in Baikonur and escape the planet as it gets sucked up by "Black Hole San Francisco".
All 'that free energy' has gotta come from somewhere.
maybe you labrats can 'make things' in your laboratories, but lets see you 'grow' a full-blown scaled facility that is capable of yields warranting the ultra-millions the finance monkies are throwing at the problem...
only needing one... more people thought like this, about lots of things.
but alas, what will more likely happen is 'consumericans' and other dis-world orders will 'drive the demand' up for super hi-res video, and we'll all be having HDTV Home Video dumps to sony-marketed 'nano-bricks'... and you'll still be needing piles and piles of 'media' around, for those moments.
things will just get 'prettier' and 'waaay bigger', the functions will stay the same... and so will the markets.
i totally just had a monty python moment as i was scanning through the images in the uk site pretty randomly, you know, flickflickflick... and then suddenly oh no, whats this??? the hand of god is prodding venus!!!!
I wonder if there is a video of the entire transit, from end to end?
That is something I most certainly would like to know more about... especially if it were a bit 'closer'... perhaps with more precision optics/receptors being pitched over venus' surface, with the sun in the background.
I'm sure there are some serious sun observation systems watching all that.
I don't know of the actual scientific value of 'watching the provile of venus as she casts her swathe across the most violent sun'... but, it sure would make a nice screensaver.
for my lcd projector.
so, what are the odds one of those sun-satellite whatsits we launched a few months ago got some good precision closeup footage? anyone know? hello, jpl?
Slashdot Mirror
If only they were personally available.
I'd buy a blimp instead of a winnebago any day. Imagine that!
I'm sick of looking at black and white pictures of far-off places where the use of nuclear fusion not only makes sense but is also the only way to bring life to desolate locales.
I wanna go there. Where is my Eagle lander damnit?!! Where is my General Enterprises Hull? Where is my Millenium Falcon? Where is my Beaver-1?
Screw all this mechano-assembly 'space sciences', screw all this "lets invade Iraq so we can feed our fat society even more plastic landfill", screw all this "nuclear fusion will kill the Earth", I want my space-hardened nuke-powerplant packin' HumVee, and I want it NOW!!
Seriously. I'd move to Phoebe TODAY. But the closest I can get is a shitty winnebago on some beach in the Netherlands, or some crap like that. What's the frickin' holdup people?
Sheesh. New World Order my ass. Those guys have no clue what they're doing
Whether this is good or not, someone, within 30 comments of this post will post a jab at Bush.
...
what does Bush have to do with anything? you just fulfilled your own prediction by bringing him up, completely non-sequitur.
but then, bushies are good at self-fulfilling prophecies, aren't they
seriously though, does bush have -anything- to do with this story? i think not.
is it just me, or have there been a lot of reports lately of 'large explosions' and 'bangs in the sky', and 'loud flashes of light in the distance', and pretty much they've all been meteorites?
there was that large bang around seattle a few weeks ago, then the other 'mysterious flashes' over the ocean near new zealand, and now this...
whats with all this junk?
The word is "persistence".
More to the point, its an early test of the technology.
Combine such stuff with ' self-healing' alloys which can 're-seal' themselves, given sufficient energy, and accomodate the whole thing into overall structural design, and you may have yourself a fortress of the future, able to heal.
That it is being 'tested'/'fielded' on tanks and such is a bonus. Harden it out in the big bad world first. Combine it with architecture later, and things get really interesting
He's referring to the "PC from '95", in context to the 128Megs, and comparing it to how far things have come -now- even, whereas back then they were on the cusp of change. 2 years from microchips.
... is it just me, or does it feel like maybe that entire High Times interview was recorded in an afternoon at Dampkring?
...
Baer seems like a really grumpy old grandfather type, taking liberties with his age and hipness, and Gonzalez seems like a total stoner having a chat with his favourite god of all times, shooting shit about Simon, both of them with blunts of their own choosing
(I printed to PDF, no way I'm not reading this one again some day...)
Fathers of Flight, I meant... sorry, haven't had my cocoa yet.
...
The point being, it was an appropriate analogy to make.
Anyway, all I know is that Pong still rocks it. You can still play Pong with your girlfriend. And thats saying something
Thats like saying without wright brother we wouldn't have aeroplanes
Thats fine, but the Wright Brothers are the 'Fathers of Fight'? Aren't they?
The closer a consumer product looks/feels to a bar of soap, the better.
Why? Because bars of soap are the most intimate object, and you replace them frequently. That's a good association for consumer electronics designers to make.
umm, 'ad hominem'? 'scuse me? if you're taking offense, its only because you're giving it.
...
tell me, fruity, exactly why wouldn't NASA insure the rover, if it was paid for with public funds, and if the insurance policy covered the operating expenses for the project should something 'out of bounds' occur?
especially since its public money funding the program.
the 'fact' that the MER insurance policy isn't showing up in 10 seconds of googling (its not like i don't have better uses for google) doesn't prove i'm not smart. you either.
sharpen your witty conclusions and get alpha-dog gratification as you will, but its out there
Dude. Kiss it.
I'm sure the Rover insurance plan is available, publically, somewhere
"Set your targets low"
Okay, maybe I should have said 'expectations'.
As in, 'we expect the rover to be operational for 3 months' (knowing that it could be operational for years), and therefore we 'expect' that we will get the mission done in that time, and therefore require mission insurance for 3 months.
What good ISO-rated project doesn't have insurance? Name one, Mr. AC.
No way. We can find out with a little google? You hallucinated something (NASA taking insurance on the Rovers) and your "proof" is we can find the proof?
... nobody cared, except the insurance companies ... ... commercial insurance recovery ...
...
umm, whatever, 'phurd'.
Every space program since Sputnik has had Insurance Policies against failure. Do you even know what the word 'insurance' means? Do you know anything about multi-million dollar projects and the way they are organized, projected, and protected?
I do.
Therefore I don't need to use google to 'know' this, nor do I feel the need to justify every single thing I say with a google reference, since a) its freakin' obvious space program financial managers take out insurance, and b) I'm smart.
Since, perhaps 'phurd', you're a moron who is unable to use google, let alone think, for himself, and most certainly seem to have such a low opinion of the world and others living in it, here's a few choice links for you, off the top of the google:'space program insurance' stack:
Mission Costs, UToronto.
etc. I'll leave it up to you to find the one for the rover program, dud. I'm sure you can manage that.
Do you mean the cost of operating the rovers, or an actual insurance policy?
...
...
...
I'm talking about the insurance policy which NASA took out on the rover program, to cover any losses, damages, etc. Yes, there is one, no I don't know if its Lloyds of London or what, but I'm sure you can find out with a little google
With budgets like NASA's, you can be sure that there is insurance for loss of operation. The sooner they can stop paying that (i.e. the terms of the insurance are short), the better.
Thus, the rovers have a 'short life expectancy' window within which they are supposed to get the job done
As for 'tin foil', well, whats more superstitious, someone who wears a tin foil beanie, or someone who goes around wondering if everyone who offers an opinion not in line with 'what everyone knows' is wearing one
Does anyone else get the feeling that the rovers were actually designed to last this long, but the lifespan that was published was a PR version that was extraordinarily short, so that in the event the rovers didn't last this long, they could save having to answer questions?
... until after we've had the experience to back up the assumptions made about the longevity of the hardware.
Yes. Two words: Insurance Policy.
NASA can't keep paying insurance on the rovers for years and years, so they plan (in the budget) for limited life times. Set your targets low, get as much done as you can within the limits of those targets, and get out.
But we should never forget that our estimations for how long things last are completely arbitrary
The lifetime of the rovers is not so much about science as it is about beauracracy and politices, and ultimately 'responsibility'.
Personally, I don't see why we just kick out the beauracrats entirely, throw all Insurance premium mafia ripoffs to the winds, and build harder rovers.
Maybe we don't need to keep going to Mars, maybe we just need to 'learn to stay there' technologically longer than our society is currently capable of supporting. (Insurance is a 'society' thing, it isn't technological...)
everything.
rld ...
... give us plenty time to strap one on in Baikonur and escape the planet as it gets sucked up by "Black Hole San Francisco".
I hope they're gonna give us plenty of warning when they fire that thing up, over here in Trans..beria
All 'that free energy' has gotta come from somewhere.
cool...
If you think what I think you mean, I sort of agree with you.
Linus and Ken ought to be screening their public responses to this mess through their lawyers.
I can bet you any money (and lots of it) that those funding this AdTI "research", have lots of money for their lawyers.
This is such an obvious hatchet job, I have to wonder if it isn't a draw for something, more
Lets hope the plot doesn't thicken.
maybe you labrats can 'make things' in your laboratories, but lets see you 'grow' a full-blown scaled facility that is capable of yields warranting the ultra-millions the finance monkies are throwing at the problem
industry. its not just a petri dish.
only needing one ... more people thought like this, about lots of things.
... and you'll still be needing piles and piles of 'media' around, for those moments.
... and so will the markets.
but alas, what will more likely happen is 'consumericans' and other dis-world orders will 'drive the demand' up for super hi-res video, and we'll all be having HDTV Home Video dumps to sony-marketed 'nano-bricks'
things will just get 'prettier' and 'waaay bigger', the functions will stay the same
i totally just had a monty python moment as i was scanning through the images in the uk site pretty randomly, you know, flick flick flick ... and then suddenly oh no, whats this??? the hand of god is prodding venus!!!!
gaaah!!
phew.
I wonder if there is a video of the entire transit, from end to end?
That is something I most certainly would like to know more about
I'm sure there are some serious sun observation systems watching all that.
I don't know of the actual scientific value of 'watching the provile of venus as she casts her swathe across the most violent sun'
for my lcd projector.
so, what are the odds one of those sun-satellite whatsits we launched a few months ago got some good precision closeup footage? anyone know? hello, jpl?