You mean, your freedom to use their copyrighted material without compensating them? Selfish attitudes such as yours are actually quite prevalent in the world (imagine that), and believe it or not, most musicians and movie makers are not going to stand on street corners and manifest their arts for free, to anyone who comes by, out of the kindness of their hearts.
Okay. I'm fine with that. I'll either make do with what's in the public domain, commission a work, or (gasp) create my own art. Where did people get the idea that the "recording industry" was a necessity for life?
Now I still have to deal with each piece of spam individually (although via an intermediary), and to get the email I WANT, I have to interact with the computer TWICE. Thanks for the time savings.
Absent some source of continuing acceleration, there's no way Mars can "spiral into the sun" - all free-fall paths are conic sections. Haven't you read your Heinlein?
Okay, when the farming jobs went, we all learned new skills in manufacturing. Then when the manufacturing jobs went, those that could took up new skills in IT. Now that the IT jobs are going, what new skills do you propose we learn? The point is that the job market is being hollowed out from below much faster than people can retool for new work.
When I was in the Navy, my ship went into the shipyard for an overhaul - among the equipment scheduled for repair was one of the ship's massive clothes dryers. When the tumbler was removed from its spindle, repair workers found... you guessed it... an enormous bundle of yarn wrapped around the spindle - the remains of uncounted socks the dryer had "eaten" over the years.
I use Notes 6 mail all the time - all the UI goodness of Outlook, but with 99% fewer viruses! And if you don't like the way Notes mail looks or acts, you can change it.
As long as Hubble is working, there'll be less motivation for the "powers that be" (non-NASA) to fund the "next generation". "Hubble works so why do we need another telescope?" will overshadow any [other] requests.
And wouldn't they be correct in taking that position? Speaking as one of the taxpayers involved in paying for NASA, I hope so. This is not to be taken to mean that I'm not in favor of space exploration - I am in favor of it. But any money sunk into to a replacement for Hubble (as opposed to a presumably more economical refurb of Hubble), is money that's not available for other space projects.
The program has been dormant for so many years that a lot of the infrastructure, institutional knowledge, etc, has been lost. NASA will essentially have to start from scratch.
Sean
Maybe you should RTF parent post again...
on
Dream Jobs of 2004
·
· Score: 3, Informative
... since he referred to "a less enlightened country" as one that makes you work more than Germany, presumably the two of you are in violent agreement.
X-rays, per se, would probably not be too useful for such a task - they don't see very far into solid ground. Something like ground-penetrating radar would have a greater ability to "see" into the depths... but my guess is the resolution would leave something to be desired. Given that any Martian life-forms probably never got beyond the single-cell stage, there probably wouldn't be much to see.
More to the point - if you were to image a multi-cellular Martian fossil... how would you know you had done so? Having evolved independently of earthbound life, it wouldn't look anything like our animals/plants.
Can someone explain to me why the presence of olivine somehow precludes water? It certainly doesn't here in Hawaii (though perhaps on a much larger time scale, it does?
You've answered your own question here... it's a matter of timing. Olivine rapidly degrades in the presence of water... on a geologic time scale. In human timescales, you don't notice this. That's why you can find green sand beaches on the Big Island - as you note, it's one big active volcano, and the olivine there was relatively recently produced. Gustev crater is thought to be a geologically old feature, and if water was present there, it should have been there a long time ago (based on current theories of the planet's climatological evolution). The fact that that olivine was laid down a long time ago and hasn't shown signs of water induced breakdown, means that water probably hasn't been there since olivine was formed.
This argument is nothing short of ludicrous. If there was money to be made in space, companies would be going there. The fact that they have shown no interest in space (except as NASA contractors) is very strong evidence that they believe that there are no profits to be made there. And without profits, there's no incentive for business to go.
The frequently made argument that NASA is stopping them from doing so is equally silly. If experience with business/government relations has taught us anything, it is that business will find a way to get the government out of the way of their efforts to make money. For reference, read any of the numerous/. threads involving copyright extension.
well, it being worthless NOW doesn't mean that it will be worthless forever.
No, but until it becomes economically feasible, companies won't touch it. And it can't be shown to be economically feasible until some publically funded exploration actually DOES show this. And it's still possible that it'll NEVER be cost effective to mine/manufacture off-planet. You are correct in saying that "worthless now"!="worthless forever". But what is also true is that "worthless now"!="worth something someday".
sometime in the future the expenses will get smaller than the profits, be it due to new materials or huge amounts of cheap computing power that make it possible
The mind reels. Huge amounts of cheap computing power are going to help? How? By figuring out how to repeal basic laws of physics? Maybe we could use huge numbers of AMD processors to generate heat, which would boil water for steam, which would then be expelled through nozzles?
Hand-waving arguments of this sort are not going to get us there, folks.
In the "robot lobster" article... "Biomimetic Underwater Robot Program". I can see it now...
Ensign Schmoe: Captain! The waters ahead appear to be mined! Captain: Very well... launch a BURP! ENS Schmoe: Aye aye, sir! (loudspeaker) All hands man your BURP stations!... later *splash*
Geez... and the mean time between crashes (I mean accidents, not the Static Speaker of Death), with all that going on on your dashboard would be what, about 17 minutes? Even WITH voice command, that's way too much entertainment while you're driving.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay. I'm fine with that. I'll either make do with what's in the public domain, commission a work, or (gasp) create my own art. Where did people get the idea that the "recording industry" was a necessity for life?
Sean
Now I still have to deal with each piece of spam individually (although via an intermediary), and to get the email I WANT, I have to interact with the computer TWICE. Thanks for the time savings.
Sean
Absent some source of continuing acceleration, there's no way Mars can "spiral into the sun" - all free-fall paths are conic sections. Haven't you read your Heinlein?
Sean
Okay, when the farming jobs went, we all learned new skills in manufacturing. Then when the manufacturing jobs went, those that could took up new skills in IT. Now that the IT jobs are going, what new skills do you propose we learn? The point is that the job market is being hollowed out from below much faster than people can retool for new work.
Sean
So what you're saying is it's just like US Slashdot?
Sean
When I was in the Navy, my ship went into the shipyard for an overhaul - among the equipment scheduled for repair was one of the ship's massive clothes dryers. When the tumbler was removed from its spindle, repair workers found... you guessed it... an enormous bundle of yarn wrapped around the spindle - the remains of uncounted socks the dryer had "eaten" over the years.
No kidding.
Sean
Sean
How about long-distance phone spam? Located conveniently in Uzbekistan... out of reach of FCC/FTC "Do Not Call" lists.
Sean
... and while the VeriChip is obviously not a food or a drug, it sure resembles a medical device to me.
Sean
Some links:
Terminology: Domino is the server, Notes is the client. Hope this helps.
Sean
I use Notes 6 mail all the time - all the UI goodness of Outlook, but with 99% fewer viruses! And if you don't like the way Notes mail looks or acts, you can change it.
Sean
And wouldn't they be correct in taking that position? Speaking as one of the taxpayers involved in paying for NASA, I hope so. This is not to be taken to mean that I'm not in favor of space exploration - I am in favor of it. But any money sunk into to a replacement for Hubble (as opposed to a presumably more economical refurb of Hubble), is money that's not available for other space projects.
Sean
The program has been dormant for so many years that a lot of the infrastructure, institutional knowledge, etc, has been lost. NASA will essentially have to start from scratch. Sean
... since he referred to "a less enlightened country" as one that makes you work more than Germany, presumably the two of you are in violent agreement.
Sean
X-rays, per se, would probably not be too useful for such a task - they don't see very far into solid ground. Something like ground-penetrating radar would have a greater ability to "see" into the depths... but my guess is the resolution would leave something to be desired. Given that any Martian life-forms probably never got beyond the single-cell stage, there probably wouldn't be much to see.
More to the point - if you were to image a multi-cellular Martian fossil... how would you know you had done so? Having evolved independently of earthbound life, it wouldn't look anything like our animals/plants.
Sean
Sean
They just served IBM with a lawsuit, and are threatening more! Sean
You've answered your own question here... it's a matter of timing. Olivine rapidly degrades in the presence of water... on a geologic time scale. In human timescales, you don't notice this. That's why you can find green sand beaches on the Big Island - as you note, it's one big active volcano, and the olivine there was relatively recently produced. Gustev crater is thought to be a geologically old feature, and if water was present there, it should have been there a long time ago (based on current theories of the planet's climatological evolution). The fact that that olivine was laid down a long time ago and hasn't shown signs of water induced breakdown, means that water probably hasn't been there since olivine was formed.
This argument is nothing short of ludicrous. If there was money to be made in space, companies would be going there. The fact that they have shown no interest in space (except as NASA contractors) is very strong evidence that they believe that there are no profits to be made there. And without profits, there's no incentive for business to go.
/. threads involving copyright extension.
The frequently made argument that NASA is stopping them from doing so is equally silly. If experience with business/government relations has taught us anything, it is that business will find a way to get the government out of the way of their efforts to make money. For reference, read any of the numerous
Sean
No, but until it becomes economically feasible, companies won't touch it. And it can't be shown to be economically feasible until some publically funded exploration actually DOES show this. And it's still possible that it'll NEVER be cost effective to mine/manufacture off-planet. You are correct in saying that "worthless now"!="worthless forever". But what is also true is that "worthless now"!="worth something someday".
The mind reels. Huge amounts of cheap computing power are going to help? How? By figuring out how to repeal basic laws of physics? Maybe we could use huge numbers of AMD processors to generate heat, which would boil water for steam, which would then be expelled through nozzles?
Hand-waving arguments of this sort are not going to get us there, folks.
Sean
This would be a new elementary particle - the smallest piece into which an accountant can be divided?
Sean
Wouldn't that be "areographically"? The rule for forming this sort of word seems to be to use the Greek form for the prefix.
Sean
... but the US Mint only makes coins. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing makes all the bills.
Sean
In the "robot lobster" article... "Biomimetic Underwater Robot Program". I can see it now...
... later
Ensign Schmoe: Captain! The waters ahead appear to be mined!
Captain: Very well... launch a BURP!
ENS Schmoe: Aye aye, sir!
(loudspeaker) All hands man your BURP stations!
*splash*
ENS Schmoe: BURP away, Captain!
Sean
Geez... and the mean time between crashes (I mean accidents, not the Static Speaker of Death), with all that going on on your dashboard would be what, about 17 minutes? Even WITH voice command, that's way too much entertainment while you're driving.
Sean