I agree with you both. $350 billion per year for the military is ridiculous. $15 billion is a lot of money for a space agency (compare that to the Russian Space Agency which bailed our asses this time... what maybe $200 million).
What NASA should do is convince the military there are bad aliens that want to kill us out there. See how quickly the space infrastructure would get built.
I'd love to see the faces of the military guys 10 years later: You've been punked!!! We'll be taking our nifty space stuff for civilian purposes now, back to Earth with the lot of you.
"MANY believe The Matrix is cursed. In August 2001 pop star Aaliyah, who had been cast in a supporting role, was killed in a plane crash."
Doesn't it take more than one occurence to proclaim something cursed? Jackie Chan broke just about every bone in his body, but you've never heard let's say "Rush Hour" being called "cursed," have you?
The real value in surveillance cameras is in people not knowing they're even there. In urban centers/banks/public places, it makes sense to make them big and visible, to act as a deterrent, but at highly sensitive places, there should be (body) heat detectors, tiny hidden cameras, trip wires, bear traps.... you get the point. You have no business sneaking around a nuclear plant.
"not to be an ass but, what does the PC do that you can't do with an apple? I'm genuinely curious."
Actually runs software? 1) The number of professional software titles available for PCs far outnumbers that for Mac. 2) Tiny utilities people write for themselves (converting file X to file Y, anything from computational modules to silly stuff like computing AD&D roll tables, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc) - it's either going to be available for Windows, or Linux (increasingly so). In 99% of cases, it will not be Mac.
If you need to use specialized applications (music software, video editing perhaps, stuff like that), use a Mac. If you need your computer to be as broadly useful as possible (as most/.-ers do, I think), you will not use a Mac.
I think we would do well to look at the budget differences. And yes, I know, NASA wastes too much money, and Russians can put together a space ship with some rubber bands and some old tank parts, but come on! NASA's budget is around 15bn, if I'm not mistaken. Russian Space Agency.... the only numbers I could find were their budget figures a year or two ago, where they were about to receive $150 million, but they asked for $300 million. So NASA actually has 50-100 times the budget of the Russkies.
And as for flying a Russian guy up in a Russian vehicle... NASA runs the show. Russian modules are late, and god only knows of what quality their work even is.
Now don't get me wrong... I'm all for having equal partners in Space Exploration, be they ESA, the Chinese, the Russians, or Indians. I don't care, more is better. But to imply that the US is getting overtaken just because they had to ground their shuttle fleet for a while - now that's a stretch.
OK, I'll bite. I see that discussion has gone from "Is it ethical?" to "Is it legal?" Two completely different things. While it may be my right to copy songs off the radio, if I go through the effort of doing so, *and* I like it enough to listen to it again, I do feel like I have to compensate the artist in some way for the entertainment he provided me. I think it's only fair. Then you get into the whole question of buying a whole album for one song, paying the record company instead of the artist, etc, etc... which *are* things we should work to change. Not on looking for loopholes to pay nothing for the music we enjoy (not that parent was going down this route, but some people definitely have this line of thinking here on/.)
Do you honestly think that the number one goal of a society should be to maximize its members' wealth? How is not having a huge wealth equal to mediocrity?
Personally, I'd rather have a nice system of public parks in which I can exercise, than $100,000 in my bank account. As a matter of fact, I can think of many, many things I'd rather have than $100,000... even a round $billion. (like being healthy)
Now don't get me wrong, I like having money. Rather, I like having the ability to go on trips (abroad and here in the US) and not worrying how I'm going to pay for it. But what good is money to me if I am afraid to travel worldwide (because my country has pissed off the world to such an extent I am a target when I step outside its borders), if I can't even enjoy a walk on the Mall (think downtown DC) without looking around for terrorists that will blow me up?
I would suggest you think about what you really want in life...
"that supporting the war in Iraq means you are anti-peace and want the Iraqis to die"
Yeah, that one is pretty much right, isn't it? If you were pro-peace, you wouldn't be wanting war, now would you? Also, when you're at war with a country, you must want some of its population to die... otherwise, we'd be talking with them, not shooting at them... right?
Thank you for being the voice of reason on/. today. Microsoft brought standards... and to me, an 80% useful single standard is 100 times better than two 50% useful standards. (there are some ifs there, like "if it's being improved through listening to users, etc, etc", but for the most part, I think that's right)
We have these phones at work where you have to hit like 15 keys to get a conference call to get going... line1, then hold, then that unmarked key in top left, then type the other number, go to line 2, then unhold line 1, then hit * 3 for confirmation and ##* to say you're sure.
Phones today need LCD's that are touch sensitive. At any given point, you can only have about 3-4 things to do with a call... the damn thing should tell you what to do next, draw a little picture of what is happening! As it is, I just call the PM to hook me up. I can program the most complex thing, but give me an office phone and I can't operate it worth a damn.
No, they won't. Looking at the picture, where is the gas tank? If you have to strap a gallon or two of gas onto your back while in traffic, expect some nice accidents to start off with.
Not only do most of your bones get crushed by the SUV that hit you, but now you're also on completely on fire... Heh... that's a lovely image.
So often you'll hear people say: Yeah, I've used brand X for Y years (where Y>5), and none of them have ever failed. I was one of those till recently (X=Maxtor, Y=6), until two 80Gb Maxtor drives bit the dust (one during a simple reboot, and the other one during a copy operation). If you haven't had a large capacity drive fail yet, a) consider yourself lucky b) back up!!!
A buddy of mine works in a data recovery company. They see all sorts of drives (brands, capacities), and according to him, the drives that fail the most are those over 60Gb, almost irregardless of the brand. It makes sense too, if you a) pack that much more data into a smaller space b) spew out 10x more drives out of your factories than you used to,
Running on identical boxes? Hmmm... haven't tried that one.:) I upgraded the hardware (as is almost always necessary with msoft), but it wouldn't surprise me to find XP slower in your case.
I really think the main advantage is compatibility... XP is there to stay, and the hardware manufacturers know it.
The only thing I hate about XP is the way it looks right out of the box. But once you take the 20-30 seconds to make it "conform" to your old Win2k desktop, you're in business. It seems to me like a better product than Win2000. (purely anecdotal remark). The first OS anybody's making their drivers for these days is XP. The remote desktop feature is finally mature enough to be usable. (work->home) It has emulation modes (95/98/Win2K) for running your old games/apps. It behaves a lot less jerky while copying files/during intense computing operations/etc. And I'm going to draw an instant hatred of all 100 Slashdotters, but I think it's well worth $120/copy.
Yeah, and vi is just the right choice for a typical mac user... heh... (don't get me wrong, I love vi above all else, but I don't think most of the Mac-owning hippies will be up to remembering:1,$s/Mac/Wintel/g when they want to do a search and replace...?)
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I agree with you both. $350 billion per year for the military is ridiculous. $15 billion is a lot of money for a space agency (compare that to the Russian Space Agency which bailed our asses this time... what maybe $200 million).
What NASA should do is convince the military there are bad aliens that want to kill us out there. See how quickly the space infrastructure would get built.
I'd love to see the faces of the military guys 10 years later: You've been punked!!! We'll be taking our nifty space stuff for civilian purposes now, back to Earth with the lot of you.
OK, OK... I'm allowed to dream, am I not?
"MANY believe The Matrix is cursed. In August 2001 pop star Aaliyah, who had been cast in a supporting role, was killed in a plane crash."
Doesn't it take more than one occurence to proclaim something cursed? Jackie Chan broke just about every bone in his body, but you've never heard let's say "Rush Hour" being called "cursed," have you?
The real value in surveillance cameras is in people not knowing they're even there. In urban centers/banks/public places, it makes sense to make them big and visible, to act as a deterrent, but at highly sensitive places, there should be (body) heat detectors, tiny hidden cameras, trip wires, bear traps.... you get the point. You have no business sneaking around a nuclear plant.
"not to be an ass but, what does the PC do that you can't do with an apple? I'm genuinely curious."
/.-ers do, I think), you will not use a Mac.
Actually runs software?
1) The number of professional software titles available for PCs far outnumbers that for Mac.
2) Tiny utilities people write for themselves (converting file X to file Y, anything from computational modules to silly stuff like computing AD&D roll tables, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc) - it's either going to be available for Windows, or Linux (increasingly so). In 99% of cases, it will not be Mac.
If you need to use specialized applications (music software, video editing perhaps, stuff like that), use a Mac. If you need your computer to be as broadly useful as possible (as most
Simple as that.
Please.
I think we would do well to look at the budget differences. And yes, I know, NASA wastes too much money, and Russians can put together a space ship with some rubber bands and some old tank parts, but come on!
NASA's budget is around 15bn, if I'm not mistaken. Russian Space Agency.... the only numbers I could find were their budget figures a year or two ago, where they were about to receive $150 million, but they asked for $300 million.
So NASA actually has 50-100 times the budget of the Russkies.
And as for flying a Russian guy up in a Russian vehicle... NASA runs the show. Russian modules are late, and god only knows of what quality their work even is.
Now don't get me wrong... I'm all for having equal partners in Space Exploration, be they ESA, the Chinese, the Russians, or Indians. I don't care, more is better.
But to imply that the US is getting overtaken just because they had to ground their shuttle fleet for a while - now that's a stretch.
You should watch Penn & Teller's new show on Showtime called "Bullshit" If you believe these kinds of things, you might want to give it a go.
"NASA is at serious risk of falling further and further behind, and becoming largely irrelevant in space exploration."
You mean the same NASA that currently has a whole space station at its disposal, vs. the recently scrapped Mir?
I join my esteemed colleagues in their evaluation of this software: it f***ing kicks ass :)
"I have to wonder what the point is with some of these new faster processors."
I'd say their biggest advantage is dropping the price of processors only 3% slower by about 50%.
OK, I'll bite. I see that discussion has gone from "Is it ethical?" to "Is it legal?" Two completely different things. /.)
While it may be my right to copy songs off the radio, if I go through the effort of doing so, *and* I like it enough to listen to it again, I do feel like I have to compensate the artist in some way for the entertainment he provided me.
I think it's only fair.
Then you get into the whole question of buying a whole album for one song, paying the record company instead of the artist, etc, etc... which *are* things we should work to change. Not on looking for loopholes to pay nothing for the music we enjoy (not that parent was going down this route, but some people definitely have this line of thinking here on
Do you honestly think that the number one goal of a society should be to maximize its members' wealth?
How is not having a huge wealth equal to mediocrity?
Personally, I'd rather have a nice system of public parks in which I can exercise, than $100,000 in my bank account.
As a matter of fact, I can think of many, many things I'd rather have than $100,000... even a round $billion. (like being healthy)
Now don't get me wrong, I like having money. Rather, I like having the ability to go on trips (abroad and here in the US) and not worrying how I'm going to pay for it.
But what good is money to me if I am afraid to travel worldwide (because my country has pissed off the world to such an extent I am a target when I step outside its borders), if I can't even enjoy a walk on the Mall (think downtown DC) without looking around for terrorists that will blow me up?
I would suggest you think about what you really want in life...
"that supporting the war in Iraq means you are anti-peace and want the Iraqis to die"
Yeah, that one is pretty much right, isn't it? If you were pro-peace, you wouldn't be wanting war, now would you?
Also, when you're at war with a country, you must want some of its population to die... otherwise, we'd be talking with them, not shooting at them... right?
Thank you for being the voice of reason on /. today. Microsoft brought standards... and to me, an 80% useful single standard is 100 times better than two 50% useful standards. (there are some ifs there, like "if it's being improved through listening to users, etc, etc", but for the most part, I think that's right)
This is the funniest message I have ever seen on /. - just laughed my ass off for 10 minutes.
Amen brother.
We have these phones at work where you have to hit like 15 keys to get a conference call to get going... line1, then hold, then that unmarked key in top left, then type the other number, go to line 2, then unhold line 1, then hit * 3 for confirmation and ##* to say you're sure.
Phones today need LCD's that are touch sensitive. At any given point, you can only have about 3-4 things to do with a call... the damn thing should tell you what to do next, draw a little picture of what is happening! As it is, I just call the PM to hook me up. I can program the most complex thing, but give me an office phone and I can't operate it worth a damn.
Anyone else with experiences like this?
Yeah, my grandpa also smoked his whole life (I'm talking like 3 packs a day) and lived to be 140.
QED.
No, they won't. Looking at the picture, where is the gas tank? If you have to strap a gallon or two of gas onto your back while in traffic, expect some nice accidents to start off with.
Not only do most of your bones get crushed by the SUV that hit you, but now you're also on completely on fire... Heh... that's a lovely image.
Yes! IG2 was the most fun space conquest game I've ever played. Never did find those freaking crystals (defeated all opponents before that).
This is the first game where I actually had to develop military in step with the economy, otherwise I got clobbered. Sweet game.
So often you'll hear people say: Yeah, I've used brand X for Y years (where Y>5), and none of them have ever failed. I was one of those till recently (X=Maxtor, Y=6), until two 80Gb Maxtor drives bit the dust (one during a simple reboot, and the other one during a copy operation). If you haven't had a large capacity drive fail yet,
a) consider yourself lucky
b) back up!!!
A buddy of mine works in a data recovery company. They see all sorts of drives (brands, capacities), and according to him, the drives that fail the most are those over 60Gb, almost irregardless of the brand.
It makes sense too, if you
a) pack that much more data into a smaller space
b) spew out 10x more drives out of your factories than you used to,
something has to give.
BACK UP YOUR DATA!
Running on identical boxes? Hmmm... haven't tried that one. :) I upgraded the hardware (as is almost always necessary with msoft), but it wouldn't surprise me to find XP slower in your case.
I really think the main advantage is compatibility... XP is there to stay, and the hardware manufacturers know it.
The only thing I hate about XP is the way it looks right out of the box. But once you take the 20-30 seconds to make it "conform" to your old Win2k desktop, you're in business.
It seems to me like a better product than Win2000. (purely anecdotal remark).
The first OS anybody's making their drivers for these days is XP. The remote desktop feature is finally mature enough to be usable. (work->home)
It has emulation modes (95/98/Win2K) for running your old games/apps. It behaves a lot less jerky while copying files/during intense computing operations/etc.
And I'm going to draw an instant hatred of all 100 Slashdotters, but I think it's well worth $120/copy.
Yeah, and vi is just the right choice for a typical mac user... heh... :1,$s/Mac/Wintel/g
(don't get me wrong, I love vi above all else, but I don't think most of the Mac-owning hippies will be up to remembering
when they want to do a search and replace...?)
Just attach some fins to the vehicle... like a dart. That would probably work.
Of course, then they would have to change their name to NAA.