It works well until inflation kicks in. 10 years from now, kids and the homeless will be returning those carts by the dozen because everyone else couldn't be bothered walking back for a euro.
All those arguments were made by astronomers and physicists, and before the genome revolution. Go ask a genetic biologist why we look the way we do and you'll find that the quadratic configuration has more to do with fish DNA than it has to do with what's simplest.
I've seen tons of comments along the lines of "well if Tivo doesn't want to give back, then they can't use my code!" The thing is, Tivo does give back - they contribute any source code they add. I love the "don't contribute back" argument. Cause it's just such a straw man, propped up by none less than Linus Torvalds. That's how Linus uses the GPL, it's not what the GPL is about. If Linus was asked to summarize what the Linux kernel license should today, I think he'd say:
You can distribute this code however you like but, if you make any changes, and you give them to others, you should make sure those changes make their way back to me.
Which, ya know, is a very permissive license which I think has gotten him a lot of code. But if you were to ask all the other people out there who use the GPL the same question, you'd get a lot of different answers. If you were to ask the FSF I think you'd get this:
Uses of software have 4 freedoms that you must ensure are not quashed when you distribute this software:
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2). * The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
If you can't distribute the software without quashing these freedoms, don't distribute the software.
And that's the difference. As the FSF wrote the GPL, I think we should look to them for its spirit.. not Linus.
Yah.. the russians were always ahead of the game in the ICBM race. The US was trying to catch up. That's why they had a crash program.. and all this happened before Gemini.
The race to put a man on the moon was all about national pride.. countries that were undecided whether they should become communist or not were watching the race and if the US didn't win, they'd go with communism. Well, that's the theory anyway.
I think I made my point clear.. but you seem to unaware that governments are run by people in power not by the "will of the people". You vote them in, they do whatever the hell they like until their term is up. Suggesting that you're going to impeach them or overthrow indicates that you have failed to study history.
Kinda makes you wonder what's going to happen to NASA's budget when there are 2 or more US companies that are putting ordinary (initially rich) people into orbit. Will the public's enthusiasm for space go up? Will that mean more money for NASA or less?
I guess I don't see how efficiency can ever be a bad thing. Sigh. Suppose the government decided to kill you. Would you prefer they do it nice and efficiently or would you prefer that they have to fill out a whole lot of forms first and get them signed by a judge and then have some trouble tracking you down, etc, etc.
Either you're just a very smart troll or you have a vast lack of imagination.
Frankly, I'm thinking you're a white suburbanite with no concept of persecution.
the machine still moves 4 minutes later, not at the exact moment we issue the command even though according to your logic the machine being 4 minutes in the future would mean it would move at the exact moment the engineers issued the command. I don't know who's logic you're using, but it certainly aint mine.
our ability to OBSERVE the machine is delayed by 4 minutes, this however does mean it's 4 minutes ahead in time. hehe.. you say that like it is two different things. It isn't. Something that is 4 light minutes away is exactly the same as something that is 4 minutes into the future, or, I suppose 4 minutes into the past. People just have different concepts because we're not used to thinking about relativistically significant distances.
When you observe the rovers, you're looking into the past. When you signal them, you're communicating into the future.
It happens all the time here on Earth too, but we don't have to think about it cause it is so close to instantanious.
What's funny is that you and I are communicating right now in the way that the NASA scientists have to communicate with the rovers.
If NASA was to spend 90% of its budget on unmanned space exploration and 10% on manned space exploration, there would be no astronauts. They wouldn't have enough money for them. Without astronauts, they wouldn't attract as big a budget, because that's what gets the bucks. You're talking as if NASA's budget is mandated somewhere and can never fluxuate. It's not. They have to justify every dollar and Mars rovers just don't cut it.
Just to think that thing is out there, on mars, right now. hmm.. "right now".. Actually, isn't it sitting out there on Mars, 4 minutes in the future? Relatively speaking, of course.
How many of these probes could we have launched if we spent money making a cheap launch system instead of ICBMs?
Or.. how many Mars rovers could we make if we spent the national health care budget on making them?
As cool as the Mars rovers are, they had enough trouble getting money for a 90 day project, let alone a freakin' armada. To the people who control the bucks, this is just boring geek stuff. At least the shuttle gives them some national heroes to say they support.
The impeachment process has NEVER worked. Not once.
although the majority of Americans are ridiculously ignorant, it would be really hard to get away with a significant level of evil against citizens for any extended period of time You're kiding right? You are aware that Bush suspended habeas corpus 6 years ago right?
Imagine that in the future some administration decides to crack down on desidents. Exactly how much damage do you want them to be able to do in the 4 years before you can kick them out of office? That is the point I was trying to make.
I wasn't saying that the US was like Nazi Germany (for fuck sake) I was saying that it isn't like Nazi Germany, and if you want to keep it that way, you better stop this "let's make things more efficient" bullshit.
It's not the airline refusing you air travel, it's the TSA.. no matter who they get to do it, the no fly list is compiled an maintained by the government and yes, many people have been denied access to air travel because their destination was a protest rally.
The fact that it is so hard to get a pilot's license and low cost aircraft have been denied flight approval over the years is an even bigger travesty.
And the trains always ran on time in Nazi Germany.. I hate give reason to invoke Godwin's Law here but this is on topic.
Every time the government aims to make things "more efficient" or "easier", ask yourself this: Would you prefer an efficient Third Reich or a slow bureaucratic one?
How much evil do you really want an administration to be able to enact in a single term?
The fact that you are required to show ID to travel by air so they can check their "no fly" list and deny you the right to travel to a protest rally is proof enough of the danger of any ID card. Next is biometrics so you don't even need an ID.. they're already doing it to international visitors. And, yeah, I guess eventually they'll relax those laws that say a cop can't stop you for no reason and they'll be free to put up checkpoints on the roads. Around then you'll have a "no drive" list.
But hey, don't listen to the warnings.. just keep letting your country turn into a totalitarian regime.
If someone out there thinks they have the necessary skills (say, you can write your own bootloader if you wanted to) and wants to take on this issue, drop me an email, I have a few ideas how you might go about it.
Slashdot Mirror
It works well until inflation kicks in. 10 years from now, kids and the homeless will be returning those carts by the dozen because everyone else couldn't be bothered walking back for a euro.
All those arguments were made by astronomers and physicists, and before the genome revolution. Go ask a genetic biologist why we look the way we do and you'll find that the quadratic configuration has more to do with fish DNA than it has to do with what's simplest.
You can distribute this code however you like but, if you make any changes, and you give them to others, you should make sure those changes make their way back to me.
Which, ya know, is a very permissive license which I think has gotten him a lot of code. But if you were to ask all the other people out there who use the GPL the same question, you'd get a lot of different answers. If you were to ask the FSF I think you'd get this:
Uses of software have 4 freedoms that you must ensure are not quashed when you distribute this software:
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
* The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
If you can't distribute the software without quashing these freedoms, don't distribute the software.
And that's the difference. As the FSF wrote the GPL, I think we should look to them for its spirit.. not Linus.
Yah.. the russians were always ahead of the game in the ICBM race. The US was trying to catch up. That's why they had a crash program.. and all this happened before Gemini.
The race to put a man on the moon was all about national pride.. countries that were undecided whether they should become communist or not were watching the race and if the US didn't win, they'd go with communism. Well, that's the theory anyway.
You're on crack if you think "the people" (and by that I mean - the congressmen) give two shits about pictures of space.
The only time I see pictures of space on tv is when they're talking about out of body experiences.
It pisses me off. I can only imagine how much it pisses off the astronomers.
I think I made my point clear.. but you seem to unaware that governments are run by people in power not by the "will of the people". You vote them in, they do whatever the hell they like until their term is up. Suggesting that you're going to impeach them or overthrow indicates that you have failed to study history.
There is no now.
Your thinking is outdated.
There's obviously no talking to you.
You, my friend, are insane, ignorant or just trolling me.
Kinda makes you wonder what's going to happen to NASA's budget when there are 2 or more US companies that are putting ordinary (initially rich) people into orbit. Will the public's enthusiasm for space go up? Will that mean more money for NASA or less?
Either you're just a very smart troll or you have a vast lack of imagination.
Frankly, I'm thinking you're a white suburbanite with no concept of persecution.
It was the driving force to develop the technology, yes.
But ever since the Atlas we've gone beyond the needs for ICBMs.
When you observe the rovers, you're looking into the past. When you signal them, you're communicating into the future.
It happens all the time here on Earth too, but we don't have to think about it cause it is so close to instantanious.
What's funny is that you and I are communicating right now in the way that the NASA scientists have to communicate with the rovers.
Huh? No. Light takes about 4 minutes to get to us from Mars, on average. That's what makes it 4 minutes in the future.
Ok, I didn't make myself clear.
If NASA was to spend 90% of its budget on unmanned space exploration and 10% on manned space exploration, there would be no astronauts. They wouldn't have enough money for them. Without astronauts, they wouldn't attract as big a budget, because that's what gets the bucks. You're talking as if NASA's budget is mandated somewhere and can never fluxuate. It's not. They have to justify every dollar and Mars rovers just don't cut it.
That's even more cool.
What you're looking at is a snapshot of the slippery slope.
For all the doubters out there I say: look on.
How many of these probes could we have launched if we spent money making a cheap launch system instead of ICBMs?
Or.. how many Mars rovers could we make if we spent the national health care budget on making them?
As cool as the Mars rovers are, they had enough trouble getting money for a 90 day project, let alone a freakin' armada. To the people who control the bucks, this is just boring geek stuff. At least the shuttle gives them some national heroes to say they support.
You gotta love the creative genius of designing a mission that lasts 20 years and claiming that it will only last 90 days...
If they had said the rovers would last 20 years upfront, they never would have gotten funding for it.
What it has to do with a Real-ID is that National IDs make the national government more efficient.. duh.
So you want your government to be efficient at being evil? Or do you just want them to be efficient when they're being nice and democratic?
You can't have it both ways.
Imagine that in the future some administration decides to crack down on desidents. Exactly how much damage do you want them to be able to do in the 4 years before you can kick them out of office? That is the point I was trying to make.
I wasn't saying that the US was like Nazi Germany (for fuck sake) I was saying that it isn't like Nazi Germany, and if you want to keep it that way, you better stop this "let's make things more efficient" bullshit.
It's not the airline refusing you air travel, it's the TSA.. no matter who they get to do it, the no fly list is compiled an maintained by the government and yes, many people have been denied access to air travel because their destination was a protest rally.
The fact that it is so hard to get a pilot's license and low cost aircraft have been denied flight approval over the years is an even bigger travesty.
And the trains always ran on time in Nazi Germany.. I hate give reason to invoke Godwin's Law here but this is on topic.
Every time the government aims to make things "more efficient" or "easier", ask yourself this: Would you prefer an efficient Third Reich or a slow bureaucratic one?
How much evil do you really want an administration to be able to enact in a single term?
The fact that you are required to show ID to travel by air so they can check their "no fly" list and deny you the right to travel to a protest rally is proof enough of the danger of any ID card. Next is biometrics so you don't even need an ID.. they're already doing it to international visitors. And, yeah, I guess eventually they'll relax those laws that say a cop can't stop you for no reason and they'll be free to put up checkpoints on the roads. Around then you'll have a "no drive" list.
But hey, don't listen to the warnings.. just keep letting your country turn into a totalitarian regime.
If someone out there thinks they have the necessary skills (say, you can write your own bootloader if you wanted to) and wants to take on this issue, drop me an email, I have a few ideas how you might go about it.