If you have a choice between a walled-garden, shitty ISP that treats you like garbage and price-gouges you, and high-latency satellite service that doesn't treat you like garbage, which are you going to really choose?
Damn. Without something like that, an interstellar probe is more or less pointless, given our socio-political climate at any given time. Even if they managed to get a probe launched and it gets there, in 100 years politics may have de-funded the whole thing and no one would be here to receive any signals or data sent back.:-( Hell, the way things are going right now, in 100 years there might not be a civilization here to receive it.:-(
Am I the only one that would be disturbed by random software updates to a vehicle I'm driving? Tesla owners: Is there a way to completely turn off the vehicles' update function? Disable the transceiver, perhaps?
Bussard Ramjet? It's total Science Fantasy, but if we can manage to make a fusion reactor that works, we might be able to design a ramscoop for interstellar hydrogen and a magnetic constriction to force a fusion reaction to use for propulsion.
There are bands in the EM spectrum that are relatively quiet that could be used.
However the real challenge here would be keeping an interstellar probe on course. There's no way at our current level of technology that we could predict and account for any and all gravitational forces between here and there, so you can't just send it on trajectory and expect it to get there. The probe will have to be autonomous to large degree, and capable of deciding on it's own course corrections, sighting on fixed points like pulsars, to determine it's current position and heading, Dead Reckoning or Inertial Navigation really won't work.
Then there's the question of power and propulsion. You need a power source that'll keep going for at least, say, 100 years. That'll probably end up being a reactor of some sort. Solar panels aren't going to be any use in interstellar space. For propulsion, you can't count on anything requiring reaction mass; cross your fingers that this alleged 'EM' drive we'd heard about in the past year or so isn't just a hoax of some kind or a fantasy like 'perpetual motion' machines or 'cold fusion' hoaxes we've all heard about.
So to summarize:
o If Quantum Entanglement can be leveraged into an "instantaneous" communications system, we won't have 88 year round-trip waits to talk to it
o Onboard navigation system smart enough to take care of itself and stay on course
o Robust power generation for at least 100 years' operation
o Propulsion not requiring reaction mass
That doesn't even begin to address the sciences package it'd need to make the trip worthwhile.
There's also the question of making such a probe tough enough to survive the journey and still be operational. Lots can happen, and there's lots of radiation out there.
We've made some interesting discoveries concerning quantum entanglement, perhaps that could be leveraged to provide a communication? Or am I totally misunderstanding how quantum entanglement works?
This 'Start Over' button this person speaks of is a trap. It would only really benefit platforms like Facebook. Why? Because the 'old' data the user wants to delete permanently just dilutes the entire database Facebook would have of that person; deleting the old data would actually improve the quality of the data for Facebook. I'm with other commentors: All data collection should be 'opt in', and it should be ILLEGAL to collect data on people otherwise.
Also, this: PEOPLE DO NOT WANT 'TARGETED' ADS, EVER! Even if most people aren't very verbal about it, people HATE ads and would prefer to never see them.
The existence of UFOs had been "proved beyond reasonable doubt," according the head of the secret Pentagon program that analyzed the mysterious aircrafts.
LOL, no. As much as I'd prefer that there were starfaring alien civilization(s) that have been visiting us (it would irrevocably change the entire paradigm of the human species, hopefully in a positive way), before I'm willing to 'believe' in the Fox Mulder-sort of way, I'll need to see actual alien hardware of some sort: an actual ship, or some piece of tech that absolutely can't have been of human manufacture, or some other hard evidence (like, say, an actual, live, walking-and-talking member of an alien species). Pictures, still or moving, just don't cut it, especially in a day and age where we've got the technology to fake just about anything like that. I can't believe that someone who was allegedly that high up the food chain would say something like this.
Your story reminds me of how Pyongyang in North Korea is so modern and prosperous-looking, yet the rest of the country and it's people are starving and living in poverty. China seems to do the same thing: lots of stuff for how it looks on the surface, but never mind any actual substance. I'm not saying that here in the West (I'm in the U.S.) we don't throw a coat of paint on things to make them look better, but China (and North Korea, since I mentioned it) seem to do it an order of magnitude more often.
I understand what you're saying. For the average person, this, comparatively speaking, is representative of the level of computer they're skilled enough to deal with: http://toiowoagd.w.interiowo.p...
But even myself, who has been building and using computers since before the IBM model 5150 (I had CP/M systems, and hand-soldered much of them), and at one time had a valid MCSE card in my wallet (still seems like I'm hacking a registry at least every other day), there's a learning curve for any distro of Linux I've tried -- and I'm trying to find one that can replace Windows entirely, without having to give up too much. If the learning curve seems steep to someone like me who has been hacking on Microsoft OS's for a couple decades (and even had the training to know how to do it), then I can imagine what it's like for someone for whom any computer may as well be a Scary Magic Box. I see something ReactOS as being a possible alternative -- assuming Microsoft allows it to exist. I'm imagining at some point, around the time it reaches non-alpha and non-beta stage and is ready to be a full Release, they'll either sue the daylights out of them, or just buy it all up and kill it off completely. Meanwhile we see Microsoft infiltrating the Linux community, which I see as a steady program of subversion, and in the meantime you can now have the 'Linux experience' from within Windows itself -- which I see as a path towards the complete annexation of Linux. Now take into account Secure Boot and who holds the power over that (and therefore what OS is 'allowed' to run on your computer), and you see that between the technical scariness of Linux to the average person, and the outright hegemony of Microsoft, Linux has a hard row to hoe to say the least -- and of the two I'd have to say Microsoft is the bigger part of that roadblock. Microsoft needs to be prevented from dominating the computing market like they're trying (again!) to do. Having only one real OS in the world isn't going to be good for anyone.
My take on this is that it's got nothing to do with efficiency or practicality, and it has everything to do with the 'optics' to the rest of the world (i.e. China being an attention whore; "Look at us! Look at us! We're technological leaders! PAY ATTENTION TO US, NOT THE WEST!"). Just my gut feeling is that this 2km stretch of highway would cost at least 100 times as much as a normal highway with solar panels on poles next to the roadway, will be a fraction of the efficiency, and will last a fraction of the time, and cost many times more to 'repair' if something goes wrong. I wouldn't even go so far as to call it a proof-of-concept. There's far better ways to accomplish the same or similar goal without doing it this way. Hell, I'd think you'd be better off spending that money on R&D to produce a replacement for asphalt that has photovoltaic properties; imagine having sections of roadway, that has the properties of naturally-occuring asphalt, but has metal plates bolted to the sides to collect the current generated. Would be easier to maintain and repair than this approach. Who knows if such a thing is possible or practical though.
If we actually had the technology to take any 'unknown' substance of any kind and tell exactly what it's physical properties were, then we'd be living in a very different world. The only way I'd start believing that someone had something of extra-terrestrial origin, is if the analysis of it indicated elements that don't occur in nature, and that our species does not have the technology to synthesize. Even then I'd sooner believe in there being a 'mad scientist' somewhere on this planet who'd found a way to create the aforementioned 'unnatural' element. Otherwise it's just all media hype and superstition.
As a tangent/sidebar, an odd thought I just had: How do you think U.S. ISPs (i.e., Comcast/Xfinity, AT&T, Verizon, and so on) would feel about it if an EU-based ISP decided to offer satellite-based Internet, that conforms to our idea of Net Neutrality, makes a point of not snooping on it's customers, etc, to U.S. citizens at a competitive price? Note that I don't seriously think anyone would do this, but aside from pissing U.S. ISPs off maximally, it would suddenly take away their monopoly power-base.
Of course it can. Congress created the FCC, so it can make whatever law it wants to override FCC's decision. Will it is a better question.
Absolutely this. Congress can disband the FCC entirely if they decide they want to, and never forget: even if Trump (or any POTUS, for that matter!) vetoes it, congress has the ability to override a Presidential veto. I know many (most?) of us are in doom-and-gloom mode over the general state of affairs in our country (world?) right now, but don't forget this fact: our Constitution is still in place, still 100% relevant, and the checks-and-balances of our system of government are still in place, preventing any sitting President from becoming a dictator -- as well as preventing any iteration of Congress from becoming despotic or degenerate. Always Darkest Before the Dawn, and all that, Keep Calm and Carry On (yeah yeah I know that's British, what about it?) and so on.
Believe you me, I hate myself sometimes for the spark of Hope that somehow manages to survive within me, but at the same time I'm glad it's there to keep me, personally, from the Long Cold Night. Here's hoping it does the same for all you out there in Slashdotland, too.;-)
There are places where, for instance, if you do not have electric service at your house (and it could be a multi-million dollar home with self-generated solar, for instance, just no grid connection), the County will Condemn your property and threaten to tear it down as such. I also think that if you pay for water service, you have to pay for sewer service (which makes sense, they're tied together in the larger scheme of things anyway).
To sound paranoid for a moment, imagine this: The world Internet moves to IPv6; every single person on the planet can now have their own, personally-identifiable IP address, that can literally follow you around from cradle to grave. There now is no such thing as 'anonymity' on the Internet, everything you say and do can be traced back to you, immediately and easily. Government spook types would LOVE this. That's one reason for compulsory internet service. Another, less paranoid-sounding, would be to help subsidize Internet access for the poor, much like the ACA (which by the way is for all intents and purposes now defunct) does/did.
Oh, but I mean really, really censored, like anything Trump doesn't personally like, doesn't fit his agenda, and so on. In other words: only petitions will be allowed that suit his agenda. Nevermind what the peons want if it doesn't fit that.
Yeah, I don't disagree with you, everyone wants to make it smell like them and not the other guy, but with Trump it's like he's obsessive-compulsive about it, or like it's personal or something.
Personally, I think that if the Internet isn't going away, and more and more vital services are going to be accessible via the Internet, that eventually it's going to have to be considered another basic utility, like water, sewer, electric, and sometimes natural gas are. Of course if I can see this possible future so can ISPs, which I'm sure gives them nightmares regularly (i.e., their profitability would become non-existent).
How this would be a dangerous precedent, I think, is if the implementation of a policy like this is done poorly. Too much or not enough of a leash on the ISP(s) involved might mean people get price-gouged (even worse than they are already), especially if they decided you were required to have Internet, whether you wanted it or not (much like the ACA), and there wasn't any sort of subsidy for low-income people.
I don't see anywhere in the linked article anything about it being 'free', just that they want everyone to have access to it. It being 'free' would be kind of insane. For that to work it'd almost have to be government-owned and government-run, funded by taxpayer money. Think Affordable Care Act but for Internet (except maybe you're not required to have it, unlike the ACA).
This sort of 'tax reform plan' has been tried before (Reagan era), and it never produces the economic growth it claims it'll produce -- and 'trickle down economics' is bullshit, the wealthy and corporations will keep their extra cash, and to hell with everyone else.
The last thing Trump or his administration wants is transparency or actually having to interface in any meaningful way with the peasantry, er, I mean average citizens. At most I'd expect if it came back in a different form, they'd insist on 'approving' any petitions before actually being posted for people to sign (read as: censorship). Either way this is just another typical dick move from Trump, wanting to erase anything that Obama had anything to do with.
And, by the way, can we save everyone a huge amount of time and wasted expense and just assume that we won't find any evidence of "collusion" between this White House and the hacking of the DNC email servers or the purchase of Facebook advertisements?
No, we cannot.:-)
We all have even less reason to trust Trump, his cabinet, and any of his appointees, than we do any other POTUS we've had. Mueller isn't on a 'witch hunt', he's not chasing ghosts, there's no 'political bias' in the FBI, everything is being done by the numbers, above-board, and in the most sincere way possible, it's uncovering wrongdoing, it'll likely unconver more wrongdoing, and maybe, just maybe, there will be some justice served, and while it'll suck in the short term, the American people will be better off in the long run. Playing the 'denial' game, trying to redirect attention to shit that doesn't matter anymore (i.e. Hillary Clinton, who is no longer relevant to anything) and especially trying repeatedly to quash the whole investigation, is disingenuous at best, and absolutely criminal at worst, vis-a-vis Richard Nixon (lest we forget!), and I'd be just as happy at this point in time if Trump tries to fire Mueller -- because that will signal The End of his administration, impeachment will have to happen at that point, and we can start to rewind everything and start down the decade-or-more long path towards repairing the damage done in less than a calendar year.
Slashdot Mirror
If you have a choice between a walled-garden, shitty ISP that treats you like garbage and price-gouges you, and high-latency satellite service that doesn't treat you like garbage, which are you going to really choose?
Damn. Without something like that, an interstellar probe is more or less pointless, given our socio-political climate at any given time. Even if they managed to get a probe launched and it gets there, in 100 years politics may have de-funded the whole thing and no one would be here to receive any signals or data sent back. :-( Hell, the way things are going right now, in 100 years there might not be a civilization here to receive it. :-(
Am I the only one that would be disturbed by random software updates to a vehicle I'm driving?
Tesla owners: Is there a way to completely turn off the vehicles' update function? Disable the transceiver, perhaps?
Bussard Ramjet? It's total Science Fantasy, but if we can manage to make a fusion reactor that works, we might be able to design a ramscoop for interstellar hydrogen and a magnetic constriction to force a fusion reaction to use for propulsion.
There are bands in the EM spectrum that are relatively quiet that could be used.
However the real challenge here would be keeping an interstellar probe on course. There's no way at our current level of technology that we could predict and account for any and all gravitational forces between here and there, so you can't just send it on trajectory and expect it to get there. The probe will have to be autonomous to large degree, and capable of deciding on it's own course corrections, sighting on fixed points like pulsars, to determine it's current position and heading, Dead Reckoning or Inertial Navigation really won't work.
Then there's the question of power and propulsion. You need a power source that'll keep going for at least, say, 100 years. That'll probably end up being a reactor of some sort. Solar panels aren't going to be any use in interstellar space. For propulsion, you can't count on anything requiring reaction mass; cross your fingers that this alleged 'EM' drive we'd heard about in the past year or so isn't just a hoax of some kind or a fantasy like 'perpetual motion' machines or 'cold fusion' hoaxes we've all heard about.
So to summarize:
o If Quantum Entanglement can be leveraged into an "instantaneous" communications system, we won't have 88 year round-trip waits to talk to it
o Onboard navigation system smart enough to take care of itself and stay on course
o Robust power generation for at least 100 years' operation
o Propulsion not requiring reaction mass
That doesn't even begin to address the sciences package it'd need to make the trip worthwhile.
There's also the question of making such a probe tough enough to survive the journey and still be operational. Lots can happen, and there's lots of radiation out there.
We've made some interesting discoveries concerning quantum entanglement, perhaps that could be leveraged to provide a communication? Or am I totally misunderstanding how quantum entanglement works?
This 'Start Over' button this person speaks of is a trap. It would only really benefit platforms like Facebook. Why? Because the 'old' data the user wants to delete permanently just dilutes the entire database Facebook would have of that person; deleting the old data would actually improve the quality of the data for Facebook. I'm with other commentors: All data collection should be 'opt in', and it should be ILLEGAL to collect data on people otherwise.
Also, this: PEOPLE DO NOT WANT 'TARGETED' ADS, EVER! Even if most people aren't very verbal about it, people HATE ads and would prefer to never see them.
The existence of UFOs had been "proved beyond reasonable doubt," according the head of the secret Pentagon program that analyzed the mysterious aircrafts.
LOL, no. As much as I'd prefer that there were starfaring alien civilization(s) that have been visiting us (it would irrevocably change the entire paradigm of the human species, hopefully in a positive way), before I'm willing to 'believe' in the Fox Mulder-sort of way, I'll need to see actual alien hardware of some sort: an actual ship, or some piece of tech that absolutely can't have been of human manufacture, or some other hard evidence (like, say, an actual, live, walking-and-talking member of an alien species). Pictures, still or moving, just don't cut it, especially in a day and age where we've got the technology to fake just about anything like that. I can't believe that someone who was allegedly that high up the food chain would say something like this.
Your story reminds me of how Pyongyang in North Korea is so modern and prosperous-looking, yet the rest of the country and it's people are starving and living in poverty. China seems to do the same thing: lots of stuff for how it looks on the surface, but never mind any actual substance. I'm not saying that here in the West (I'm in the U.S.) we don't throw a coat of paint on things to make them look better, but China (and North Korea, since I mentioned it) seem to do it an order of magnitude more often.
I understand what you're saying. For the average person, this, comparatively speaking, is representative of the level of computer they're skilled enough to deal with: http://toiowoagd.w.interiowo.p...
But even myself, who has been building and using computers since before the IBM model 5150 (I had CP/M systems, and hand-soldered much of them), and at one time had a valid MCSE card in my wallet (still seems like I'm hacking a registry at least every other day), there's a learning curve for any distro of Linux I've tried -- and I'm trying to find one that can replace Windows entirely, without having to give up too much. If the learning curve seems steep to someone like me who has been hacking on Microsoft OS's for a couple decades (and even had the training to know how to do it), then I can imagine what it's like for someone for whom any computer may as well be a Scary Magic Box. I see something ReactOS as being a possible alternative -- assuming Microsoft allows it to exist. I'm imagining at some point, around the time it reaches non-alpha and non-beta stage and is ready to be a full Release, they'll either sue the daylights out of them, or just buy it all up and kill it off completely. Meanwhile we see Microsoft infiltrating the Linux community, which I see as a steady program of subversion, and in the meantime you can now have the 'Linux experience' from within Windows itself -- which I see as a path towards the complete annexation of Linux. Now take into account Secure Boot and who holds the power over that (and therefore what OS is 'allowed' to run on your computer), and you see that between the technical scariness of Linux to the average person, and the outright hegemony of Microsoft, Linux has a hard row to hoe to say the least -- and of the two I'd have to say Microsoft is the bigger part of that roadblock. Microsoft needs to be prevented from dominating the computing market like they're trying (again!) to do. Having only one real OS in the world isn't going to be good for anyone.
Does the word 'escalation' mean anything to you?
My take on this is that it's got nothing to do with efficiency or practicality, and it has everything to do with the 'optics' to the rest of the world (i.e. China being an attention whore; "Look at us! Look at us! We're technological leaders! PAY ATTENTION TO US, NOT THE WEST!"). Just my gut feeling is that this 2km stretch of highway would cost at least 100 times as much as a normal highway with solar panels on poles next to the roadway, will be a fraction of the efficiency, and will last a fraction of the time, and cost many times more to 'repair' if something goes wrong. I wouldn't even go so far as to call it a proof-of-concept. There's far better ways to accomplish the same or similar goal without doing it this way. Hell, I'd think you'd be better off spending that money on R&D to produce a replacement for asphalt that has photovoltaic properties; imagine having sections of roadway, that has the properties of naturally-occuring asphalt, but has metal plates bolted to the sides to collect the current generated. Would be easier to maintain and repair than this approach. Who knows if such a thing is possible or practical though.
If we actually had the technology to take any 'unknown' substance of any kind and tell exactly what it's physical properties were, then we'd be living in a very different world. The only way I'd start believing that someone had something of extra-terrestrial origin, is if the analysis of it indicated elements that don't occur in nature, and that our species does not have the technology to synthesize. Even then I'd sooner believe in there being a 'mad scientist' somewhere on this planet who'd found a way to create the aforementioned 'unnatural' element. Otherwise it's just all media hype and superstition.
As a tangent/sidebar, an odd thought I just had: How do you think U.S. ISPs (i.e., Comcast/Xfinity, AT&T, Verizon, and so on) would feel about it if an EU-based ISP decided to offer satellite-based Internet, that conforms to our idea of Net Neutrality, makes a point of not snooping on it's customers, etc, to U.S. citizens at a competitive price? Note that I don't seriously think anyone would do this, but aside from pissing U.S. ISPs off maximally, it would suddenly take away their monopoly power-base.
Of course it can. Congress created the FCC, so it can make whatever law it wants to override FCC's decision. Will it is a better question.
Absolutely this. Congress can disband the FCC entirely if they decide they want to, and never forget: even if Trump (or any POTUS, for that matter!) vetoes it, congress has the ability to override a Presidential veto. I know many (most?) of us are in doom-and-gloom mode over the general state of affairs in our country (world?) right now, but don't forget this fact: our Constitution is still in place, still 100% relevant, and the checks-and-balances of our system of government are still in place, preventing any sitting President from becoming a dictator -- as well as preventing any iteration of Congress from becoming despotic or degenerate. Always Darkest Before the Dawn, and all that, Keep Calm and Carry On (yeah yeah I know that's British, what about it?) and so on.
;-)
Believe you me, I hate myself sometimes for the spark of Hope that somehow manages to survive within me, but at the same time I'm glad it's there to keep me, personally, from the Long Cold Night. Here's hoping it does the same for all you out there in Slashdotland, too.
There are places where, for instance, if you do not have electric service at your house (and it could be a multi-million dollar home with self-generated solar, for instance, just no grid connection), the County will Condemn your property and threaten to tear it down as such. I also think that if you pay for water service, you have to pay for sewer service (which makes sense, they're tied together in the larger scheme of things anyway).
To sound paranoid for a moment, imagine this: The world Internet moves to IPv6; every single person on the planet can now have their own, personally-identifiable IP address, that can literally follow you around from cradle to grave. There now is no such thing as 'anonymity' on the Internet, everything you say and do can be traced back to you, immediately and easily. Government spook types would LOVE this. That's one reason for compulsory internet service. Another, less paranoid-sounding, would be to help subsidize Internet access for the poor, much like the ACA (which by the way is for all intents and purposes now defunct) does/did.
Get your own instead for $5 and to hell with what the doctor tells you. B3 is B3 is B3.
Oh, but I mean really, really censored, like anything Trump doesn't personally like, doesn't fit his agenda, and so on. In other words: only petitions will be allowed that suit his agenda. Nevermind what the peons want if it doesn't fit that.
Yeah, I don't disagree with you, everyone wants to make it smell like them and not the other guy, but with Trump it's like he's obsessive-compulsive about it, or like it's personal or something.
Personally, I think that if the Internet isn't going away, and more and more vital services are going to be accessible via the Internet, that eventually it's going to have to be considered another basic utility, like water, sewer, electric, and sometimes natural gas are. Of course if I can see this possible future so can ISPs, which I'm sure gives them nightmares regularly (i.e., their profitability would become non-existent).
How this would be a dangerous precedent, I think, is if the implementation of a policy like this is done poorly. Too much or not enough of a leash on the ISP(s) involved might mean people get price-gouged (even worse than they are already), especially if they decided you were required to have Internet, whether you wanted it or not (much like the ACA), and there wasn't any sort of subsidy for low-income people.
I don't see anywhere in the linked article anything about it being 'free', just that they want everyone to have access to it. It being 'free' would be kind of insane. For that to work it'd almost have to be government-owned and government-run, funded by taxpayer money. Think Affordable Care Act but for Internet (except maybe you're not required to have it, unlike the ACA).
This sort of 'tax reform plan' has been tried before (Reagan era), and it never produces the economic growth it claims it'll produce -- and 'trickle down economics' is bullshit, the wealthy and corporations will keep their extra cash, and to hell with everyone else.
The last thing Trump or his administration wants is transparency or actually having to interface in any meaningful way with the peasantry, er, I mean average citizens. At most I'd expect if it came back in a different form, they'd insist on 'approving' any petitions before actually being posted for people to sign (read as: censorship). Either way this is just another typical dick move from Trump, wanting to erase anything that Obama had anything to do with.
Seriously: when are you all going to say 'enough is enough' and stop using Facebook?
And, by the way, can we save everyone a huge amount of time and wasted expense and just assume that we won't find any evidence of "collusion" between this White House and the hacking of the DNC email servers or the purchase of Facebook advertisements?
No, we cannot. :-)
We all have even less reason to trust Trump, his cabinet, and any of his appointees, than we do any other POTUS we've had. Mueller isn't on a 'witch hunt', he's not chasing ghosts, there's no 'political bias' in the FBI, everything is being done by the numbers, above-board, and in the most sincere way possible, it's uncovering wrongdoing, it'll likely unconver more wrongdoing, and maybe, just maybe, there will be some justice served, and while it'll suck in the short term, the American people will be better off in the long run. Playing the 'denial' game, trying to redirect attention to shit that doesn't matter anymore (i.e. Hillary Clinton, who is no longer relevant to anything) and especially trying repeatedly to quash the whole investigation, is disingenuous at best, and absolutely criminal at worst, vis-a-vis Richard Nixon (lest we forget!), and I'd be just as happy at this point in time if Trump tries to fire Mueller -- because that will signal The End of his administration, impeachment will have to happen at that point, and we can start to rewind everything and start down the decade-or-more long path towards repairing the damage done in less than a calendar year.