I've seen them, even on firefox under linux. But it's very, very rare. I don't get any on snopes, but I haven't visited there for a long time, so I don't know if frequency matters.
Something odd about that is at least some of the popups I get using firefox/linux are from space.com. Are they doing something new lately?
Good Gu, one has to put up with enough cellphone tones going off at work; I can only imagine what it'd be like here during the Sturgis motorcycle rally (I live a couple dozen km from there, near an interstate ramp).
I'd have to record it and sell it. The results would likely blow away most modern pop music. Then I could get semi-rich and move the hell away from here.:-D
Just some halfway incoherent thoughts (warning, grew out of control);
Doesn't really matter as much for the world at large as it does for the US - innovation will just move* and while anything that hurts our economy hurts everyones to some extent, we have to live with the immediate and possibly the most long-term results. Some people don't seem to believe it, but the last century's (ok, mostly since WWII) proliferation of laws, regulations and those who "service" them has long-term and devastating effects, and our occasional attempts to fix those problems have been clumsy (true that one can often argue both ways on such things as de-regulating an industry and what effects it will have but I won't go into that now) and mostly poorly implemented or not enforced properly, often due to partisan infighting.
Meanwhile we're trying to push our economic domination into every part of the world, along with the laws we created to support it.
Of course as we expand we become thinner... Reminds me of Star Wars for some reason:-) ( in what way this country is NOT becoming an Empire is unclear to me, unless one means in a rational fashion and with the clear will of the people? (?!) )
One could maybe argue that the software industry has already been killed by those factors, right now it's just economic necrophagy - the fattest survivor wins.
I think that in some ways volunteer-written software is not strictly part of the industry, and will always exist; what may become difficult is the continuation of large projects like the Linux kernel - if USPTO 'reform' isn't effective (I'm not holding my breath) then the exploitation of patents will, as you said, get worse and worse to the point where people here in the states won't be able to write code without enormous expenses involved in making sure it's clean, and many simply will be unable to. Your example of the private aircraft industry is a perfect one. Here's another.
Privately owned small bars (pubs) have been another casualty of litigation. In many places, especially smaller towns, they have all but disappeared due to the potential costs of having somebody sue them because a family member got drunk in the bar and accidentally killed someone or for myraid other reasons ( "I got knocked up after having too many drinks at your bar and I'm gonna sue you" - I actually heard that once some years back at a bar, and she had her lawyer with her).
I wonder if anyone has ever tallied up the costs and found the real beneficiaries of the "War on Drugs/alcohol/smoking"? Betcha I know who they are...
I don't hate lawyers as a species mind you, I know a few good ones who are genuinely disgusted at what has become of what they regard as an honest trade.
Sometimes when looking around at the software industry I often feel the same way, and I've only been using computers for about 25 years, having been involved in serious programming only a few times. ( I think I pass the geek test tho, I can configure and compile my own linux kernel and figure out what's broken - although that is mainly head-banging and using the wonderful resources out there:-D )
Or maybe I'm just work-burnt and full of shit delusional (feed on, anon cows). I'd actually hope so in some ways:-D
Sigh. Crap like emotional damage rewards in lawsuits give me the willies. So if my lover dumps me can I sue her for emotional damages? Sheese, what a silly society we have become. Yet the papers are full of just as stupid shit and worse, and it has increased considerably lately from what I can see (out of work lawyers from the dot.com bust?).
Sometimes I think that prosperity may be the potential death knell of nations (though Switzerland prompts hope, but then they are not as silly and unrealistic as a lot of the rest of the world)/rant (well, it didn't start that way:-)
It is well known that dogs and cats in general don't see TV like we do - because their vision system is at a faster rate than ours - to them the screen looks like a lot of weird angled lines. However, everyone knows about that ONE cat or ONE dog that DOES watch TV - most people think they are gifted but instead, they are 'slower' in their vision system.
Odd, I've had many cats over the last twenty years, and not one has had trouble recognizing and tracking objects on tv shows (Discovery channel, hee:)
I've heard that before from some people, but never done any research. If you have any sources for this I'd be interested.
My roommate claims that high refresh crts hurt her eyes, but tv gives me eyestrain headaches. Go figure:)
I'm not really comfy for long periods of time without >=85hz myself. 72 I can tolerate but is noticeable (particularly if there is a lot of animated graphics on the screen); 60hz I can't tolerate at all in a gui...
Oh, yes... what I'm thinking of are exploration vehicles geared to solar system transits and 6mo to 2 year deployments, much like the old sailing ships in some ways (but vastly modernized, of course). Unfortunately not many politicians read scifi or history, and have little grasp of what worked in opening new frontiers.
I didn't mean to compare those and the shuttle, only tried to point out the thinking that played a part in immobilizing the shuttle design in the first place.
We need G-LEO cargo haulers, plain and simple (and what difference does it make if the "cargo" being hauled is vacuum-tolerant or a self-contained life-support module containing the crew for the mission? The design for the G-orbit hauler should be generalized, anyway. The Soviets did well at that). The cargo hauler should include enough personnel and equipment to solve 5 9's of the problems that may come up on the voyage.
The problem with the Space Shuttle is that it never had a true ship of space to take anyone to.
Yes...
For longer voyages, of course, we attach modules to the basic design, depending on the requirements, but the core stays the same, it's meant to deliver mass M from point A to point B.
We also badly need, for Bush's precious political initiative, a generalized design for an interplanetary cargo hauler. However, I haven't seen any mention of that. Basically that tells me that this hasn't been thought through.
I think we're agreeing on what needs to be done, just not on how to boot it:) From here, it looks like the corporate interests have such a stranglehold on funding that it's unlikely such a solution will ever be considered (I suppose one could look at that as corporate farsightedness - in one sense:( and sheese! ) but in the long run, as they have over the last quarter century and more, political directives to accomplish this or that in space have been mostly ineffective - so I'm not holding my breath.
Of course it's all moot until we have a generalized working ground to orbit hauler, right?. Which we did once...
Cheers SB
PS If it seems like I'm ranting, I am. It's damned difficult, however, to rant to those who you have to explain every third word to - which is why one tends to select friends/colleagues/compadres:)
I don't know what Bush's motives are or not; it seems pointless to speculate. If you think that Bush in particular is deceiving us, that's another topic that warrants further evidence.
Well.... hypocrisy by public officials, in their public policy statements, shouldn't be tolerated.
Otherwise I see your point - and that involves a discussion of the word "deception" as it is used in modern politics:)
I can see how that balance could weigh in favor of IVF and against embryonic stem cell research for a given person, without contradiction.
I don't. Whether or not the embryos are technically "alive" isn't making use of them morally more acceptable then sterilizing them then flushing the debris into a sewer system somewhere? I know which I'd choose... I also have "Organ Donor" on my ID, as I feel it's a lot better use of what I am once I'm not inhabiting that body anymore to help someone, rather than simply putting my remains in the ground and letting the bugs attack 'em (which'll happen anyway) or burning them and spreading the ashes somewhere, which I find ridiculous.
As someone else said, this was a fabulous debate thread, and all too rare on slashdot anymore:(
The bulk of the funding is needed to provide DSN coverage to the Voyage Interstellar Mission.
I didn't know that. It irks me. Why isn't the DSN independently and permanently funded as a necessary installation in it's own right, taking on what missions it can?
Is the Voyager slice of funding just interworking money between the programs?
I very much agree with the rest of what you said, and I'll add my offer to help. I'm not qualified to analyze the data, but I'd certainly donate computer time to analysis, I have several linux machines that run 24/7 anyway.
There is grandeur in hearing the whispers of ourselves from so far away and we should listen until they can't talk to us anymore.
Cheers and GREAT post!
SB
PS My feeling that is if NASA is going to cut funding to Voyager, then they should fund and launch a simple fast heliopause mission. Only fair - heliopause data is invaluable to many branches science.
I remember when they were launched, and I remember the Jupiter encounters... and dropping a measly 4M funding when they are still functioning is criminal.
The problem really isn't Bush, tho; it's the self-sufficient ruling class we've allowed to create itself thru inadequate supervision of our elected representatives:)
But that's an old problem and generally only been solved by revolution.
That's exactly what they should do. Small machine shops are relatively light and inexpensive these days. I see no reason why explorers shouldn't bring one with them when their very lives and return trip may depend on their ability to fabricate a part replacement.
That's exactly my thought. On the heels of that comes the realization that to *really* do this right, we need to build ships geared toward general exploration, not one shot missions. They'd take longer, be more (probably much more) expensive, and be more complicated, but we'd get more use out of them in the long run (I realize the shuttle technically qualifies as a do-it-all craft, but it was badly planned and horridly underfunded in that role).
We need ships that have large crews and contain enough tools and resources to stay self-contained for periods of time. It's not an issue of whether or not we could build and launch them, it's an issue of whether or not the funds &!! commitment to do so is there.
In that respect, I suspect we'll be rapidly surpassed by other countries with technical expertise...
There has never been a Fusion plant that produces more power than it uses. Not a single watt, not a single Joule. While scientists have ideas on getting around this, Fusion is perpetually "20 years away".
Sorta like the Moon and Mars plans that have been batted around for several decades:-(
Sigh.
Both fusion and interplanetary manned flight suffer from the same thing - lack of vision among our political leaders.
In a lot of respects, both are dependent to some degree on another (fusion to reduce travel times and up cargo capacities, and spaceflight to mine the helium3 we'll likely need to obtain practical fusion).
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
If we (Homo Sap) want to go there, we will. Ours isn't the first generation of frustrated dreams:-( but spaceflight will be a persistent one in the human meme from now on, I think.
What I'd rather see, if NASA's manned spaceflight section ceased to exist, is the astronauts (the whole diverse group of them, they are much more varied than you seem to think) band together and form a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to getting us Up There.
They'd have to have industry jobs, of course, but they'd have a lot of pull, and the training and smarts to pull that sort of thing off (who better?)
Slashdot Mirror
I've seen them, even on firefox under linux. But it's very, very rare. I don't get any on snopes, but I haven't visited there for a long time, so I don't know if frequency matters.
Something odd about that is at least some of the popups I get using firefox/linux are from space.com. Are they doing something new lately?
SB
Indeed. Bet the methane levels in most malls are much higher than the ambient outside :-)
Offtopic:
Hunter S. Thompson, 1937-2005. RIP. "He stomped terra"
Yeah. Damn.
You might like this if you haven't seen it. I thought it was pretty fair.
SB
Sadly, most critics regard it as a failure at stardom.
SB
What makes the irony complete is that the NSA is a department of the Federal Government. ;-)
SB
Sure, they want to audit your personal files in view of a possible future partnership of matrimony. Truly a relationship to bank on.
SB
Disgruntled employees... :-(
SB
While apparently all the karma belongs to people offering mirrors.
Ah, the opportunities of a slashdotting...
SB
Good Gu, one has to put up with enough cellphone tones going off at work; I can only imagine what it'd be like here during the Sturgis motorcycle rally (I live a couple dozen km from there, near an interstate ramp).
:-D
I'd have to record it and sell it. The results would likely blow away most modern pop music. Then I could get semi-rich and move the hell away from here.
SB
Very well said.
Just some halfway incoherent thoughts (warning, grew out of control);
Doesn't really matter as much for the world at large as it does for the US - innovation will just move* and while anything that hurts our economy hurts everyones to some extent, we have to live with the immediate and possibly the most long-term results. Some people don't seem to believe it, but the last century's (ok, mostly since WWII) proliferation of laws, regulations and those who "service" them has long-term and devastating effects, and our occasional attempts to fix those problems have been clumsy (true that one can often argue both ways on such things as de-regulating an industry and what effects it will have but I won't go into that now) and mostly poorly implemented or not enforced properly, often due to partisan infighting.
Meanwhile we're trying to push our economic domination into every part of the world, along with the laws we created to support it.
Of course as we expand we become thinner... Reminds me of Star Wars for some reason
One could maybe argue that the software industry has already been killed by those factors, right now it's just economic necrophagy - the fattest survivor wins.
I think that in some ways volunteer-written software is not strictly part of the industry, and will always exist; what may become difficult is the continuation of large projects like the Linux kernel - if USPTO 'reform' isn't effective (I'm not holding my breath) then the exploitation of patents will, as you said, get worse and worse to the point where people here in the states won't be able to write code without enormous expenses involved in making sure it's clean, and many simply will be unable to. Your example of the private aircraft industry is a perfect one. Here's another.
Privately owned small bars (pubs) have been another casualty of litigation. In many places, especially smaller towns, they have all but disappeared due to the potential costs of having somebody sue them because a family member got drunk in the bar and accidentally killed someone or for myraid other reasons ( "I got knocked up after having too many drinks at your bar and I'm gonna sue you" - I actually heard that once some years back at a bar, and she had her lawyer with her).
I wonder if anyone has ever tallied up the costs and found the real beneficiaries of the "War on Drugs/alcohol/smoking"? Betcha I know who they are...
I don't hate lawyers as a species mind you, I know a few good ones who are genuinely disgusted at what has become of what they regard as an honest trade.
Sometimes when looking around at the software industry I often feel the same way, and I've only been using computers for about 25 years, having been involved in serious programming only a few times. ( I think I pass the geek test tho, I can configure and compile my own linux kernel and figure out what's broken - although that is mainly head-banging and using the wonderful resources out there
Or maybe I'm just work-burnt and full of shit delusional (feed on, anon cows). I'd actually hope so in some ways
Sigh. Crap like emotional damage rewards in lawsuits give me the willies. So if my lover dumps me can I sue her for emotional damages? Sheese, what a silly society we have become. Yet the papers are full of just as stupid shit and worse, and it has increased considerably lately from what I can see (out of work lawyers from the dot.com bust?).
Sometimes I think that prosperity may be the potential death knell of nations (though Switzerland prompts hope, but then they are not as silly and unrealistic as a lot of the rest of the world)
Meh, I've babbled on enough tonite.
SB
* as it already has to a large extent
I've actually had it apart before, but I don't remember the lense arrangement. At this moment I'm not even sure where the camera is :0
:-0~
( I got it secondhand for a few bucks and it got dumped in a box somewhere when I got better ones)
If I get some time tonite I'll look for it but don't count on hearing back, it's tax time
Good luck!
SB
It is well known that dogs and cats in general don't see TV like we do - because their vision system is at a faster rate than ours - to them the screen looks like a lot of weird angled lines. However, everyone knows about that ONE cat or ONE dog that DOES watch TV - most people think they are gifted but instead, they are 'slower' in their vision system.
:)
:)
Odd, I've had many cats over the last twenty years, and not one has had trouble recognizing and tracking objects on tv shows (Discovery channel, hee
I've heard that before from some people, but never done any research. If you have any sources for this I'd be interested.
My roommate claims that high refresh crts hurt her eyes, but tv gives me eyestrain headaches. Go figure
I'm not really comfy for long periods of time without >=85hz myself. 72 I can tolerate but is noticeable (particularly if there is a lot of animated graphics on the screen); 60hz I can't tolerate at all in a gui...
SB
use the se401 module (assuming you're talking about linux
SB
and terrifying ;-)
SB
Oh, yes... what I'm thinking of are exploration vehicles geared to solar system transits and 6mo to 2 year deployments, much like the old sailing ships in some ways (but vastly modernized, of course). Unfortunately not many politicians read scifi or history, and have little grasp of what worked in opening new frontiers.
:) From here, it looks like the corporate interests have such a stranglehold on funding that it's unlikely such a solution will ever be considered (I suppose one could look at that as corporate farsightedness - in one sense :( and sheese! ) but in the long run, as they have over the last quarter century and more, political directives to accomplish this or that in space have been mostly ineffective - so I'm not holding my breath.
:)
I didn't mean to compare those and the shuttle, only tried to point out the thinking that played a part in immobilizing the shuttle design in the first place.
We need G-LEO cargo haulers, plain and simple (and what difference does it make if the "cargo" being hauled is vacuum-tolerant or a self-contained life-support module containing the crew for the mission? The design for the G-orbit hauler should be generalized, anyway. The Soviets did well at that). The cargo hauler should include enough personnel and equipment to solve 5 9's of the problems that may come up on the voyage.
The problem with the Space Shuttle is that it never had a true ship of space to take anyone to.
Yes...
For longer voyages, of course, we attach modules to the basic design, depending on the requirements, but the core stays the same, it's meant to deliver mass M from point A to point B.
We also badly need, for Bush's precious political initiative, a generalized design for an interplanetary cargo hauler. However, I haven't seen any mention of that. Basically that tells me that this hasn't been thought through.
I think we're agreeing on what needs to be done, just not on how to boot it
Of course it's all moot until we have a generalized working ground to orbit hauler, right?. Which we did once...
Cheers
SB
PS If it seems like I'm ranting, I am. It's damned difficult, however, to rant to those who you have to explain every third word to - which is why one tends to select friends/colleagues/compadres
I don't know what Bush's motives are or not; it seems pointless to speculate. If you think that Bush in particular is deceiving us, that's another topic that warrants further evidence.
:)
:(
Well.... hypocrisy by public officials, in their public policy statements, shouldn't be tolerated.
Otherwise I see your point - and that involves a discussion of the word "deception" as it is used in modern politics
I can see how that balance could weigh in favor of IVF and against embryonic stem cell research for a given person, without contradiction.
I don't. Whether or not the embryos are technically "alive" isn't making use of them morally more acceptable then sterilizing them then flushing the debris into a sewer system somewhere? I know which I'd choose... I also have "Organ Donor" on my ID, as I feel it's a lot better use of what I am once I'm not inhabiting that body anymore to help someone, rather than simply putting my remains in the ground and letting the bugs attack 'em (which'll happen anyway) or burning them and spreading the ashes somewhere, which I find ridiculous.
As someone else said, this was a fabulous debate thread, and all too rare on slashdot anymore
Cheers everyone
SB
The bulk of the funding is needed to provide DSN coverage to the Voyage Interstellar Mission.
I didn't know that. It irks me. Why isn't the DSN independently and permanently funded as a necessary installation in it's own right, taking on what missions it can?
Is the Voyager slice of funding just interworking money between the programs?
I very much agree with the rest of what you said, and I'll add my offer to help. I'm not qualified to analyze the data, but I'd certainly donate computer time to analysis, I have several linux machines that run 24/7 anyway.
There is grandeur in hearing the whispers of ourselves from so far away and we should listen until they can't talk to us anymore.
Cheers and GREAT post!
SB
PS My feeling that is if NASA is going to cut funding to Voyager, then they should fund and launch a simple fast heliopause mission. Only fair - heliopause data is invaluable to many branches science.
I remember when they were launched, and I remember the Jupiter encounters... and dropping a measly 4M funding when they are still functioning is criminal.
Sigh.
Isn't social inertia wonderful? ;-)
SB
The problem really isn't Bush, tho; it's the self-sufficient ruling class we've allowed to create itself thru inadequate supervision of our elected representatives
But that's an old problem and generally only been solved by revolution.
Cheers!
SB
That's exactly what they should do. Small machine shops are relatively light and inexpensive these days. I see no reason why explorers shouldn't bring one with them when their very lives and return trip may depend on their ability to fabricate a part replacement.
That's exactly my thought. On the heels of that comes the realization that to *really* do this right, we need to build ships geared toward general exploration, not one shot missions. They'd take longer, be more (probably much more) expensive, and be more complicated, but we'd get more use out of them in the long run (I realize the shuttle technically qualifies as a do-it-all craft, but it was badly planned and horridly underfunded in that role).
We need ships that have large crews and contain enough tools and resources to stay self-contained for periods of time. It's not an issue of whether or not we could build and launch them, it's an issue of whether or not the funds &!! commitment to do so is there.
In that respect, I suspect we'll be rapidly surpassed by other countries with technical expertise...
Cheers,
SB
There has never been a Fusion plant that produces more power than it uses. Not a single watt, not a single Joule. While scientists have ideas on getting around this, Fusion is perpetually "20 years away".
:-(
Sorta like the Moon and Mars plans that have been batted around for several decades
Sigh.
Both fusion and interplanetary manned flight suffer from the same thing - lack of vision among our political leaders.
In a lot of respects, both are dependent to some degree on another (fusion to reduce travel times and up cargo capacities, and spaceflight to mine the helium3 we'll likely need to obtain practical fusion).
Real Soon Now. Really...
Cheers,
SB
and open-pit mining and smog...
SB
Doh, clipped the first part of my post accidentally:
:)
But wouldn't lookalike Gemini capsules be trendy 50 years from now? Get in on the ground floor now...
cue:
It was done with the VW bug, and apparently was 5x profitable...
Heh
SB
-- d'oh!
It was done with the VW bug, and apparently was 5x profitable...
Heh
SB
Indeed. Yet-
:-( but spaceflight will be a persistent one in the human meme from now on, I think.
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
If we (Homo Sap) want to go there, we will. Ours isn't the first generation of frustrated dreams
Yeah, I want to go too...
SB
What I'd rather see, if NASA's manned spaceflight section ceased to exist, is the astronauts (the whole diverse group of them, they are much more varied than you seem to think) band together and form a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to getting us Up There.
:-)
They'd have to have industry jobs, of course, but they'd have a lot of pull, and the training and smarts to pull that sort of thing off (who better?)
But alas, I dream
SB