I know, what about experiencing an earth-rise, floating in zero gravity with the entire universe beneath your feet, seeing nebula with the naked eye and stars as bright as diamonds. I mean, you can't just live your life in some crappy space port and expect to see anything as mind-shatteringly cool as that. Err, oh wait...
Like I said in my post, it would be nice for a week or two, but the novelty would soon wear off and I'd be craving my earthly paradise. For me it's not worth givin up my life to experience. Going into space might make you value what you have right here a lot more. Didn't the NASA astronauts who walked on the Moon come back with a profoundly changed attitude towards the earth?
When you're young, life is long, and quite often boring, and any excitement is welcome.
I'd love to go into space, but I don't see why it has to be risky, or why we should accept high risks in a gung-ho fasion. There is plenty of intelligent and advanced engineering that can be done to minimise risk. I realise that people do dangerous things like mountaineering for sport and for fun, but that's not my cup of tea.
As I get older, and become more aware of the limited time available for life, I realise that there's lots to do. Anyone can put their body into space, alive or dead, for short periods of time. What I'm saying is there is more to most people than a physical presence.
I can imagine getting very bored with being in space, cooped up in a tiny craft for any length of time. Many of us don't appreciate the importance to our well-being and sanity of being in the natural environment which we've evolved to be in. Could you imagine being in a tin can for years breathing recycled air, having nothing to eat but a small selection of plants and freeze-dried food? What about experiencing day and night, wind, tide, rain, hearing bird song, the fragrance of flowers and freshly cut grass or a good chicken jalfrezi? What about the company of friends and family? What about gravity? Wouldn't you get bored with floating about all the time and not being able to walk?
I'd love to go into space, for a week or two, in a safe, reliable and comfortable craft. Some people have that gung-ho spirit and would throw their lives and well-being away for a few minutes of experience that one day will be as common as walking down the street. Whatever floats your boat.
Personally, I'd prefer a more considered and rational approach, but heck, I'm rapidly becoming and old git.
These manufactured female pop stars are cynical marketting devices designed to exploit male sexuality, just in the same way that boy bands are specifically designed to exploit female sexuality. They do a very good job of parting young people, the hard of thinking and trendies of their money. From a purely business point of view, they are astoundingly successful.
Yes, but the US is basically writing there laws anyway:) We're all set now.
...and people will just ignore them like everywhere else.
The thing with software is that most people prefer to use ripped-off commercial software rather than legitimate Free software because they perceive that the commercial software must somehow be "better" (after all, expensive things are usually better according to the prevailing mindset). Also, if the rest of the world is using Windows or whatever, that's what people will use. It's the herd mentality. It's human nature:-(
in developing countries it has the opportunity to get a fresh start PLUS a user base that will hardly be able to pay Windows licences!
If only:-( In many countries, US-style copyright and software licensing laws to not apply. Many people use unauthorised copies of commercial software (i.e. Windows) anyway moral and legal issues aside.
If Open Standards, and more importantly Free Software, prevails in places like Iraq, it will do so by virtue of being first: in the right place at the right time like everything else.
The UNIX ABI on each platform is simple, well-defined and stable. It is intimately linked with the code produced by C compilers. It is the accepted standard way in which binaries can call each other.
C++ is far more complicated. Also, there is not yet a widely-adopted standard for a C++ ABI. It is currently not possible to link code compiled with two different C++ compilers on the same system (sometimes different versions of the same compiler e.g. gcc). This can cause problems where a vendor may supply a library compiled with a proprietary compiler and a user may wish to compile an application to use that library using e.g. gcc.
In addition, while compilers (and interpreters) for most other languages are designed to use (or at least support) the C ABI, there is little support for any C++ ABI.
Also don't tell some car insurance companies your a pilot, you will get the rates of a 16 year old.
Can someone please explain what goes on inside the tiny little minds of insurance people? If they're insuring you to drive a car, why the heck would they care if you fly planes as well? Some people have told me that if you're a pilot you sometimes get a discount on your car insurance because you're considered to be much more responsible, and probably a much more careful and skillful driver, than average.
However, it should be blatantly obvious to anyone that as long as your upwards speed is positive, you are still climbing and will eventually get into orbit
Nope. You may achieve a height that would be useful for an orbit, but to be "in orbit" you have to achieve a speed tangential to the earth's radius (i.e. at right angles to your ascent) such that the centripetal acceleration of your vehicle is equal and opposite to that of the earth's gravity. You can work it out quite simply from Newton's famous equation F=GMm/r^2 and F=-mv^2/r
Where I come from, we print out out CV (resume) and covering letter with a laser printer on finest quality A4 paper and post it flat and unfolded first class directly to the person doing the hiring. That way there is no messing about with incompatible word processors, clueless secretarial staff who reformat things before printing, people who don't know what a.zip or.gz or.bz2 file is, or people with flaky old monitors that are set to 640x480 etc. What if their virus scanner doesn't like your attachment?
What would you rather have? A nice, thick piece of beautifully-presented paper in your hand or some dodgy word processor file which might get half-heartedly printed out on economy office paper on a crusty old inkjet?
You need this book:The Perfect CV by Max Eggert. It's got me every job I've had after graduating. That and a little proof-reading and advice from the head of personnel at my old job...
And people love Microsoft Office? Over the years I've had nothing but trouble from it. OpenOffice.org is truly a breath of fresh air. Honestly, I can't believe the amount of Microsoft astroturfing going on around here nowadays, and usually from Anonymous Cowards.
Maybe they'd get the Indians to launch and construct the thing. A few LEO chicken vindaloos, jalfrezis and garlic naans should do the trick, and at a fraction of the cost.
I was too quick to rant there as usual. You were postulating that might be their line of thinking. It wasn't your personal opinion. I quite agree with you that that's what they might be thinking. PHBs and rationality or clues rarely mix.
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Like I said in my post, it would be nice for a week or two, but the novelty would soon wear off and I'd be craving my earthly paradise. For me it's not worth givin up my life to experience. Going into space might make you value what you have right here a lot more. Didn't the NASA astronauts who walked on the Moon come back with a profoundly changed attitude towards the earth?
I'd love to go into space, but I don't see why it has to be risky, or why we should accept high risks in a gung-ho fasion. There is plenty of intelligent and advanced engineering that can be done to minimise risk. I realise that people do dangerous things like mountaineering for sport and for fun, but that's not my cup of tea.
As I get older, and become more aware of the limited time available for life, I realise that there's lots to do. Anyone can put their body into space, alive or dead, for short periods of time. What I'm saying is there is more to most people than a physical presence.
I can imagine getting very bored with being in space, cooped up in a tiny craft for any length of time. Many of us don't appreciate the importance to our well-being and sanity of being in the natural environment which we've evolved to be in. Could you imagine being in a tin can for years breathing recycled air, having nothing to eat but a small selection of plants and freeze-dried food? What about experiencing day and night, wind, tide, rain, hearing bird song, the fragrance of flowers and freshly cut grass or a good chicken jalfrezi? What about the company of friends and family? What about gravity? Wouldn't you get bored with floating about all the time and not being able to walk?
I'd love to go into space, for a week or two, in a safe, reliable and comfortable craft. Some people have that gung-ho spirit and would throw their lives and well-being away for a few minutes of experience that one day will be as common as walking down the street. Whatever floats your boat.
Personally, I'd prefer a more considered and rational approach, but heck, I'm rapidly becoming and old git.
These manufactured female pop stars are cynical marketting devices designed to exploit male sexuality, just in the same way that boy bands are specifically designed to exploit female sexuality. They do a very good job of parting young people, the hard of thinking and trendies of their money. From a purely business point of view, they are astoundingly successful.
...and people will just ignore them like everywhere else.
The thing with software is that most people prefer to use ripped-off commercial software rather than legitimate Free software because they perceive that the commercial software must somehow be "better" (after all, expensive things are usually better according to the prevailing mindset). Also, if the rest of the world is using Windows or whatever, that's what people will use. It's the herd mentality. It's human nature :-(
Dad, is that you? Get back to your Delphi coding...
If only :-( In many countries, US-style copyright and software licensing laws to not apply. Many people use unauthorised copies of commercial software (i.e. Windows) anyway moral and legal issues aside.
If Open Standards, and more importantly Free Software, prevails in places like Iraq, it will do so by virtue of being first: in the right place at the right time like everything else.
C++ is far more complicated. Also, there is not yet a widely-adopted standard for a C++ ABI. It is currently not possible to link code compiled with two different C++ compilers on the same system (sometimes different versions of the same compiler e.g. gcc). This can cause problems where a vendor may supply a library compiled with a proprietary compiler and a user may wish to compile an application to use that library using e.g. gcc.
In addition, while compilers (and interpreters) for most other languages are designed to use (or at least support) the C ABI, there is little support for any C++ ABI.
Can someone please explain what goes on inside the tiny little minds of insurance people? If they're insuring you to drive a car, why the heck would they care if you fly planes as well? Some people have told me that if you're a pilot you sometimes get a discount on your car insurance because you're considered to be much more responsible, and probably a much more careful and skillful driver, than average.
Nope. You may achieve a height that would be useful for an orbit, but to be "in orbit" you have to achieve a speed tangential to the earth's radius (i.e. at right angles to your ascent) such that the centripetal acceleration of your vehicle is equal and opposite to that of the earth's gravity. You can work it out quite simply from Newton's famous equation F=GMm/r^2 and F=-mv^2/r
What would you rather have? A nice, thick piece of beautifully-presented paper in your hand or some dodgy word processor file which might get half-heartedly printed out on economy office paper on a crusty old inkjet?
You need this book:The Perfect CV by Max Eggert. It's got me every job I've had after graduating. That and a little proof-reading and advice from the head of personnel at my old job...
Can you still get WordPerfect? Last time I used it was about 1998 on Linux.
What, and kill the ant-eye-virus and security industry overnight? :-) Surely Bill isn't that cruel?
And people love Microsoft Office? Over the years I've had nothing but trouble from it. OpenOffice.org is truly a breath of fresh air. Honestly, I can't believe the amount of Microsoft astroturfing going on around here nowadays, and usually from Anonymous Cowards.
And I say "foo!" to you, young whipper-snapper. Give me a Z80 and a hex loader to sail her by...
And there was me thinking they actually developed said programming "language" on an 8080 emulator running on a DEC PDP-11 or something.
No man. We're all flame-warred out from the other day.
No! Please! Not the JCL again! Anything but the JCL!
You may jest, but some of us have our beliefs. We want to make the world a better place.
Well, that all the more proof that Harry Potter is Satanic Propaganda!
Maybe they'd get the Indians to launch and construct the thing. A few LEO chicken vindaloos, jalfrezis and garlic naans should do the trick, and at a fraction of the cost.
Maybe they could use e-Bibles with small, lightweight PDAs to read them with.
Maybe they could recycle digestive and other waste gasses to top-up the supply to keep the structure inflated.
Oh, what I wouldn't give to hear "I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester" one more time...
I bet they don't have the Funky Gibbon by the Goodies.
I was too quick to rant there as usual. You were postulating that might be their line of thinking. It wasn't your personal opinion. I quite agree with you that that's what they might be thinking. PHBs and rationality or clues rarely mix.