as someone from industrial engineering background i can tell you that; the only thing that is preventing full automated factories from happening is unemployment concerns, and consequently politics. we dont need to go to moon for that.
Shhh! It's a nice excuse. Don't blow it.
in the wake of that catastrophe those scientists are going to be replaced by whiteass elite rich and politicians who are totally useless to the civilization anyways ?
Well. At least someone survives. It's better than full extinction.
Not necessarily. We failed on building a small-scale replica of our biosphere. Yet, as a small and controllable space, it was a very successful experiment to gather data we can use to understand our own biosphere.
In order to build a self-sustained environment in a hostile place we can take a simpler route that does not include forests and oceans in a relatively confined space.
One thing I mentioned is "a better Hubble than Hubble". Freed from the shuttle cargo bay limitations it can be larger and heavier. Gravity distorts it a little (it would not operate on zero G), but it could be serviced by one of the nice people living next to it and, quite possibly, employ some local materials too.
The materials requirements for such a colony would help advance current automated mining and miscelaneous factories.
Also, a self-sustained extra-terrestrial colony is a nice insurance against global Earth catastrophes, such as an asteroid hit.
And, of course, the magrail-launch system would help a lot both launching cargo back from the Moon (which is rich on things that are rare here) and to bomb countries back to the Archean Period.
As incredible as it may sound, an orbital station is a lot worse an environment than the Moon.
Low gravity instead of no gravity: all sorts of things get more complicated in zero-G. Cooling is a nice example - you have to force circulation of fluids because convection does not exist. Fluids in pipes (plumbing in general) are also much better behaved in any gravity than in zero-G. You could have a decent shower in a moonbase, although I would not recommend a swimming pool due to the risk of drowning - it's harder to swim in low-G and the waves are higher.
No need to boost the orbit every now and then: The station has a low orbit that keeps decaying and needs to be boosted from time to time. A moonbase would have no such need.
Possibility of tapping local raw materials: There must be something we can use to build things there. Once we get started, it may even become self-sustaining
The moon as a heat-sink: One of the problems of the space station is how to dissipate heat. On the Moon you can use thermal conduction to get rid of the excess. A space-borne nuclear reactor is a bitch to build, but a land-based one (here or there) is not.
Just a little bit of atmosphere: IIRC, the Moon has a very tenuous atmosphere that blocks most micrometeorites - that's why the ISS orbit is so low (that and because the shuttle can't go higher) - but not enough to annoy deep space observations. Imagine a Hubble that, when something breaks, can be fixed by someone who lives next to it.
True: Moon-dust (extremely abrasive, sticky, toxic - what else could you wish?) is something we must learn to work with. Also, landing on the Moon requires a lot of energy, but once we have enough local manufacturing and energy-generation capacity, we can launch stuff back to LEO (or straight to the surface) very easily.
And, something to be remembered, such a launch capability could easily be weaponized. Imagine a 100-ton lump of metal falling on your "axis-of-evil" city at Mach 20.
If that doesn't make Bush and Co. sign the check, nothing else will.
Sorry but a BSOD is not "just normal Windows". There is something wrong either with this system or his hardware. If it is hardware then Linux (or any OS you run on the system) may also fail to work because of it. If it is Windows itself there is most likely a simple fix. Most likely is a buggy driver.
Troubleshooting due to malware, viruses and such is "just normal Windows" IMHO. Buggy drivers are much rarer, but they do exist, mainly those you have to install from a two-year-old drivers CD.
I used Red Hat, then Debian and now Ubuntu mainly because "it just works". I work developing software and preparing articles and presentations (about software development, free software in general, Zope and Plone) and I need a Unix-like box that doesn't suck. I had to troubleshoot my wi-fi connection because of, I guess, is an incomplete driver, but I gave up, plugged another brand USB thingie and it been working ever since.
You know... I have a G3 iMac that runs 10.4 just fine, if an order of magnitude slower that the x86 based one. The only upgrades it has seen were memory and a hard disk - because the original one died. Apple made upgrading not necessary.
You just can't make Vista fit into a 1998 PC. You can barely make XP run on a Pentium II and those were the computers I used when I bought that Mac.
When compared to Apple, Microsoft is grossly incompetent. Just face it.
Yeah. Gamers have Windows. Let them play. They may come when they grow up.
As for the PS3, it's an incredibly fast computer for its price. Of course, it's incredibly hard to program, but we don't do such things because they are easy, right?
NASA has big cargo capacity in the ARES V heavy-lifter and a much smaller manned craft in the ARES I. There is not much for returning orbiting cargo, something the shuttle could do, but I suspect it is cheaper to strap a heat shield and parachutes on anything that need to go down in one piece.
ESA was also planning a cargo vehicle to replace the Progress ships.
Using the shuttle for both types of mission, crew and cargo, is terribly ineffective. It should have stopped long ago.
Yet, NASA still needs to develop some way to do orbital assembly for larger vehicles. I think even an ARES V can't haul a Mars-capable spaceship in one haul.
As for replacements to Hubble, I would love to have one installed near the first long-term settlement on the Moon.
Since so many laws call for "reasonable effort" and use similar wording, can someone call using something like Windows a reasonable effort to stay secure and/or avoid data loss/theft?
Specially since there are some reasonably easy to use alternatives?
Slashdot Mirror
I expect a competent professional to inform me competently and, if requested, perform the job he was hired for in a competent way.
I would add a lot of fear-mongering to the mix. Sowing panic is a powerful marketing tool.
I see a need for a law that denies religious texts some copyright protection.
If something is a religious text and it expresses the truth (as far as the writer will admit)m it has a value for society that cannot be ignored.
therefore, the text should not be allowed to be secret, as its publication would be for the greater good of all mankind.
Shhh! It's a nice excuse. Don't blow it.
in the wake of that catastrophe those scientists are going to be replaced by whiteass elite rich and politicians who are totally useless to the civilization anyways ?Well. At least someone survives. It's better than full extinction.
Not necessarily. We failed on building a small-scale replica of our biosphere. Yet, as a small and controllable space, it was a very successful experiment to gather data we can use to understand our own biosphere.
In order to build a self-sustained environment in a hostile place we can take a simpler route that does not include forests and oceans in a relatively confined space.
I could listen to Apple II binary tapes and distinguish between code and bitmaps from the rhythmic patterns of the sound.
I bet my current memory dump would have some interesting musical properties, as there is so much more bitmap data in the machine.
One thing I mentioned is "a better Hubble than Hubble". Freed from the shuttle cargo bay limitations it can be larger and heavier. Gravity distorts it a little (it would not operate on zero G), but it could be serviced by one of the nice people living next to it and, quite possibly, employ some local materials too.
The materials requirements for such a colony would help advance current automated mining and miscelaneous factories.
Also, a self-sustained extra-terrestrial colony is a nice insurance against global Earth catastrophes, such as an asteroid hit.
And, of course, the magrail-launch system would help a lot both launching cargo back from the Moon (which is rich on things that are rare here) and to bomb countries back to the Archean Period.
Well... they have stayed as far from the Moon as possible since Apollo XVII...
Actually, it's a measured big stick that should make Novell behave.
As incredible as it may sound, an orbital station is a lot worse an environment than the Moon.
Low gravity instead of no gravity: all sorts of things get more complicated in zero-G. Cooling is a nice example - you have to force circulation of fluids because convection does not exist. Fluids in pipes (plumbing in general) are also much better behaved in any gravity than in zero-G. You could have a decent shower in a moonbase, although I would not recommend a swimming pool due to the risk of drowning - it's harder to swim in low-G and the waves are higher.
No need to boost the orbit every now and then: The station has a low orbit that keeps decaying and needs to be boosted from time to time. A moonbase would have no such need.
Possibility of tapping local raw materials: There must be something we can use to build things there. Once we get started, it may even become self-sustaining
The moon as a heat-sink: One of the problems of the space station is how to dissipate heat. On the Moon you can use thermal conduction to get rid of the excess. A space-borne nuclear reactor is a bitch to build, but a land-based one (here or there) is not.
Just a little bit of atmosphere: IIRC, the Moon has a very tenuous atmosphere that blocks most micrometeorites - that's why the ISS orbit is so low (that and because the shuttle can't go higher) - but not enough to annoy deep space observations. Imagine a Hubble that, when something breaks, can be fixed by someone who lives next to it.
True: Moon-dust (extremely abrasive, sticky, toxic - what else could you wish?) is something we must learn to work with. Also, landing on the Moon requires a lot of energy, but once we have enough local manufacturing and energy-generation capacity, we can launch stuff back to LEO (or straight to the surface) very easily.
And, something to be remembered, such a launch capability could easily be weaponized. Imagine a 100-ton lump of metal falling on your "axis-of-evil" city at Mach 20.
If that doesn't make Bush and Co. sign the check, nothing else will.
Nooo!
The Moon is a terribly useful place - low-gravity, no atmosphere and just arounf the corner.
Throw them on the Sun. They will get a nice tan.
Troubleshooting due to malware, viruses and such is "just normal Windows" IMHO. Buggy drivers are much rarer, but they do exist, mainly those you have to install from a two-year-old drivers CD.
I used Red Hat, then Debian and now Ubuntu mainly because "it just works". I work developing software and preparing articles and presentations (about software development, free software in general, Zope and Plone) and I need a Unix-like box that doesn't suck. I had to troubleshoot my wi-fi connection because of, I guess, is an incomplete driver, but I gave up, plugged another brand USB thingie and it been working ever since.
You know... I have a G3 iMac that runs 10.4 just fine, if an order of magnitude slower that the x86 based one. The only upgrades it has seen were memory and a hard disk - because the original one died. Apple made upgrading not necessary.
You just can't make Vista fit into a 1998 PC. You can barely make XP run on a Pentium II and those were the computers I used when I bought that Mac.
When compared to Apple, Microsoft is grossly incompetent. Just face it.
Paul Allen was the brilliant programmer. Gates was the mediocre one.
Even if they didn't, LEDs can flash so fast a PWM modulator could fix it rather easily.
Raise the taxes on incandescent, reducing taxes on LED and CFLs.
Yeah. Gamers have Windows. Let them play. They may come when they grow up.
As for the PS3, it's an incredibly fast computer for its price. Of course, it's incredibly hard to program, but we don't do such things because they are easy, right?
The only way not to heat the universe is to sit perfectly still at zero Kelvin.
Pretty hard to do.
Dig deeper and you can use it as a geothermal power-source. ;-)
It funny now people who don't understand something are very quick at dismissing it as a bad idea.
I have some faith.
NASA has big cargo capacity in the ARES V heavy-lifter and a much smaller manned craft in the ARES I. There is not much for returning orbiting cargo, something the shuttle could do, but I suspect it is cheaper to strap a heat shield and parachutes on anything that need to go down in one piece.
ESA was also planning a cargo vehicle to replace the Progress ships.
Using the shuttle for both types of mission, crew and cargo, is terribly ineffective. It should have stopped long ago.
Yet, NASA still needs to develop some way to do orbital assembly for larger vehicles. I think even an ARES V can't haul a Mars-capable spaceship in one haul.
As for replacements to Hubble, I would love to have one installed near the first long-term settlement on the Moon.
They have the James Webb telescope due to launch in 6 years, but it's made to detect infra-red wavelenghts.
But it will give some very interesting pics anyway.
Anything that prevents people to switching or pirating themselves to Vista helps my agenda, so I am happy.
Way to go, Microsoft!
Since so many laws call for "reasonable effort" and use similar wording, can someone call using something like Windows a reasonable effort to stay secure and/or avoid data loss/theft?
Specially since there are some reasonably easy to use alternatives?
:-) OK. I give up.