"I'm starting to get the impression that telephones might not have yet been installed in the Hollywood section of California."
They've been installed and working for years, but there's a huge waiting list to get a phone number. Ever since Hollywood started using the 555 area code, they've had a shortage of numbers.
"thought so too at first. But then I went back and reread the replies as if he were actually speaking them (in.... that slow..... and..... choppy voice). The replies were much longer that way."
heh, so are you saying that his responses were run-length encoded?
... refrigerator owners in Finland have been court ordered to pay royalties for the sounds generated by the space-age technology inside of their appliances. These royalties multiply depending on how many people are in the kitchen at the time. Hillary Rosen of the RIAA was quoted as saying "First they pirate our music, now they're cooling their food with it? Lots of people everywhere owe us money!"
This includes the radio too? If this were satellite radio (that requires a subscription) that would sort of make sense. (Note: I'm not saying I endorse it, I'm only saying it makes sense.) Open air radio, though, is paid for by listening to the ads. Unless Finnish Taxis have some magic radio-ad-filtering technology I don't know about, then a passenger listening to the radio is paying for it by listening to the ads.
"ISS might appeal to people with limited, linear imaginations. Upon closer examination, it is truly worthless."
That's funny, I was just thinking that "limited linear imaginations" would prevent people from seeing the true value of the ISS. Don't consider that comment a personal attack on you, but rather a reflection of your attitude here. You're looking at what it can't do and not looking at what it can do.
The idea alone of having a permanent, 0g environment is very exciting. No ISS, no 0g environment to assist with research. We have no other way, today, to put people into space for extended periods. (Mir's gone, remember?) Without that environment, we do not have a way to train astronauts to get them to Mars. We *have* to launch a Mars bound vehicle from Earth, which is a great deal harder than launching a vehicle from orbit.
The story's not over. We don't know what will come from the ISS. It takes an active imagination to say "Wow, here are some cool things to do while we're there" and a limited one to say "Big deal."
"The problems that stop us from setting up self-sustaining ET colonies are not those addressed by ISS. It's an irrelevant sideshow."
Heh. Irrelevant sideshow, eh? Oooooookay. You really should go find out more about the Space Station. I don't think you realize exactly how much work is really going into it.
"If you really want to protect us from asteroids, get some of NASA's money that being sucked down by ISS and devote it to an enhanced telescopic search program for potentially dangerous NEOs"
And do what? Watch the asteroid all the way to impact?
Let's be serious for a moment: In order to divert a planet-killing asteroid from a collision path is to meet up with it while it's still really far away. And how do we do that? We have to send a manned spacecraft all the way over to it. Guess what: If we don't have the capability to put a space station into orbit, we don't have the capability to build a ship that'd survive the trp. If we don't have a space station to launch the ship from, then the problem becomes much, much worse.
I agree that we should be watching the skies more, but dropping the ISS in favor of it is ridiculous. If an asteroid comes, and we spot it, but we can't stop it, we're dead. D.E.A.D. Exctinct. Now, if we have a thriving colony on Mars, then man-kind isn't extinct. We'll be able to surivive just about any tragedy at that point.
"Moreover, settting up a colony on Mars that can completely sustain itself is not possible with our current technology."
You're right. That's why you take steps (such as building a space station) to learn what you need to in order to make that technology feasible.
"Come on! I've always thought that it was an obvious fact that 'x' dollars only go so far, and if some kid chooses to spend his allowance or paycheck on a computer game, there's that much less money LEFT to spend on a CD or movie ticket. "
I think you're on the right track, but there's more to it than that. The Game Industry does a far better job of ensuring customer satisfaction than the Movie/Music industry does.
-Game reviews are plentiful. -Demo/rental versions are easy to acquire to try out. -You can trade/sell a game to try out other ones. There's more entertainment for your buck. -You have the time to sit down and enjoy the game at your leisure. (as opposed to being at a theater by a certain time...) -Mods, mods, mods... -A bad game isn't as bad as a bad movie. (Your mileage may vary...)
It's funny, if you think about it: Video games cost quite a bit more than movies. You'd think that the industry would be all over trying to get things like P2P shut down. But they don't. They understand that people are willing to pay for games, they just need reassurance that the game will do what they want. (Hence the popularity of Demo CDs...) If the *AA would learn from that example, then maybe they wouldn't be $1B behind the Game Industry.
"It's pretty well known video games cause violence among kids.."
It's also pretty well known that the Earth is flat, the moon landing was a hoax, and masterbation makes you blind. I agree that common sense should be divvied out, but I don't think you're channeling it in the right direction.
"With fusion and heavy lift we could just lift entire self contained biodomes into space. "
And how do you propose we build these biodomes if we don't know what they need to be like to exist in space? Mmm? That's like saying "well, we know how to push a single molecule around. Now let's build a transporter!". Sounds like a simple solution until you realize there are steps you have to take on the way.
Besides, 40B isn't going to make fusion appear faster.
"I was alluding to you making sure you know something about what you are talking about or ( like most reasonable folks) curbing your tongue until you do know."
Doh! I misread that, I'm sorry heh.
"Mozilla is a fairly frequent article subject on/. and on the web in general."
Perhaps, but that doesn't mean that it's religiously followed. I don't use Mozilla. I'm quite happy with Opera and a little annoyed that it doesn't get more press. So when I see announcements for the release of Mozilla 1.2 and 1.21, but I don't see that Opera 7 has entered beta, it makes me feel like Slashdot's biases are really crowding the main page. It's the same with the anti-MS crap that keeps making it's way to the front page.
It was really starting to look like that every little minor update to Mozilla was going to be blasted on the main page. But if they had just said "this is a followup to a previous article..." or something like that, it'd be more understandable.
I agree with you that my frustrations with this topic are partly my own responsibility, but that doesn't excuse the poster from not considering that a little modifications to their article could make it interesting to the uninitiated.
"no but theres no way ISS will help with that. to do that you need safe heavy lift engines and nuclear propulsion using fusion/fission."
That statement's a bit narrow, don't you think? Travelling through space is not just strapping a thruster on and picking a direction to go. Humans have to stay alive during the trip. If the station is built so that any given human can survive on it for extended periods of time, then it's a win. It means we beat the radition problem, the meteorite problem, and the muscular atrophy problem.
It doesn't matter how good we make a fusion/fission drive, it's still a long ass trip to anywhere we wanna go. The trip is a total write-off if we don't know how to make a human comfortable out in space. There's no way besides the ISS to pull this off, they're not going to orbit a shuttle for a year.
The tone of this article is that the money was spent badly. I have no doubt that it could be managed better, but it's not like the project is a write-off. I'd respond to the "What could you do with $40 billion" except I don't want to take validity away from the ISS.
I feel very strongly that we, as a species, need to have a presence in space. Right now, we are one asteroid impact away from extinction. The ISS is a very important step to ensuring that man-kind can survive a disaster like that. We need to get to Mars. We need to leave the solar system. We need to colonize other planets.
The real question is: Is $40 billion too much to spend to start us down the path of being truely, and I mean truely independent?
Slashdot Mirror
"There's no life on the Sun, ya goofball!"
There is, but we've yet to see one. All the creatures that live on the sun are nocturnal.
"Short? Yes. Rude? Where the hell did you get that idea? He mostly seems to be trying hard to be amusing, with some success."
Well... double dumb ass on you!
Heh the interview would have been funnier if he used colorful metaphors.
"I'm starting to get the impression that telephones might not have yet been installed in the Hollywood section of California."
They've been installed and working for years, but there's a huge waiting list to get a phone number. Ever since Hollywood started using the 555 area code, they've had a shortage of numbers.
"thought so too at first. But then I went back and reread the replies as if he were actually speaking them (in.... that slow..... and..... choppy voice).
The replies were much longer that way."
heh, so are you saying that his responses were run-length encoded?
... refrigerator owners in Finland have been court ordered to pay royalties for the sounds generated by the space-age technology inside of their appliances. These royalties multiply depending on how many people are in the kitchen at the time. Hillary Rosen of the RIAA was quoted as saying "First they pirate our music, now they're cooling their food with it? Lots of people everywhere owe us money!"
"At least you had the brains to post anonymously."
Too bad you didn't. Overrated indeed. Ha!
(psst, I didn't post anonymously.)
'Wise up and stop being such a fool.'
That's rich coming from somebody who's suggesting that launching a vehicle to Mars wouldn't require a space station.
This includes the radio too? If this were satellite radio (that requires a subscription) that would sort of make sense. (Note: I'm not saying I endorse it, I'm only saying it makes sense.) Open air radio, though, is paid for by listening to the ads. Unless Finnish Taxis have some magic radio-ad-filtering technology I don't know about, then a passenger listening to the radio is paying for it by listening to the ads.
"So are movie rentals. And first run movies only cost $5 to $7."
Months after the movies are released... Not to mention that deceptive trailers are the only demos of movies you get.
"Phantom Edit, Extended Editions, Renderman Licensing..."
The Phatom Edit was a rare example, and extremely rare to come by. Unlike the 4.3 billion Quake mods out there...
Heh. That was amusing.
Dare I provide a rebuttal, or are you just arguing with me with the hope of getting that ever so precious +1, Insightful?
"ISS might appeal to people with limited, linear imaginations. Upon closer examination, it is truly worthless."
That's funny, I was just thinking that "limited linear imaginations" would prevent people from seeing the true value of the ISS. Don't consider that comment a personal attack on you, but rather a reflection of your attitude here. You're looking at what it can't do and not looking at what it can do.
The idea alone of having a permanent, 0g environment is very exciting. No ISS, no 0g environment to assist with research. We have no other way, today, to put people into space for extended periods. (Mir's gone, remember?) Without that environment, we do not have a way to train astronauts to get them to Mars. We *have* to launch a Mars bound vehicle from Earth, which is a great deal harder than launching a vehicle from orbit.
The story's not over. We don't know what will come from the ISS. It takes an active imagination to say "Wow, here are some cool things to do while we're there" and a limited one to say "Big deal."
"The problems that stop us from setting up self-sustaining ET colonies are not those addressed by ISS. It's an irrelevant sideshow."
Heh. Irrelevant sideshow, eh? Oooooookay. You really should go find out more about the Space Station. I don't think you realize exactly how much work is really going into it.
"If you really want to protect us from asteroids, get some of NASA's money that being sucked down by ISS and devote it to an enhanced telescopic search program for potentially dangerous NEOs"
And do what? Watch the asteroid all the way to impact?
Let's be serious for a moment: In order to divert a planet-killing asteroid from a collision path is to meet up with it while it's still really far away. And how do we do that? We have to send a manned spacecraft all the way over to it. Guess what: If we don't have the capability to put a space station into orbit, we don't have the capability to build a ship that'd survive the trp. If we don't have a space station to launch the ship from, then the problem becomes much, much worse.
I agree that we should be watching the skies more, but dropping the ISS in favor of it is ridiculous. If an asteroid comes, and we spot it, but we can't stop it, we're dead. D.E.A.D. Exctinct. Now, if we have a thriving colony on Mars, then man-kind isn't extinct. We'll be able to surivive just about any tragedy at that point.
"Moreover, settting up a colony on Mars that can completely sustain itself is not possible with our current technology."
You're right. That's why you take steps (such as building a space station) to learn what you need to in order to make that technology feasible.
"Come on! I've always thought that it was an obvious fact that 'x' dollars only go so far, and if some kid chooses to spend his allowance or paycheck on a computer game, there's that much less money LEFT to spend on a CD or movie ticket. "
I think you're on the right track, but there's more to it than that. The Game Industry does a far better job of ensuring customer satisfaction than the Movie/Music industry does.
-Game reviews are plentiful.
-Demo/rental versions are easy to acquire to try out.
-You can trade/sell a game to try out other ones. There's more entertainment for your buck.
-You have the time to sit down and enjoy the game at your leisure. (as opposed to being at a theater by a certain time...)
-Mods, mods, mods...
-A bad game isn't as bad as a bad movie. (Your mileage may vary...)
It's funny, if you think about it: Video games cost quite a bit more than movies. You'd think that the industry would be all over trying to get things like P2P shut down. But they don't. They understand that people are willing to pay for games, they just need reassurance that the game will do what they want. (Hence the popularity of Demo CDs...) If the *AA would learn from that example, then maybe they wouldn't be $1B behind the Game Industry.
"No wonder my mom resented me so much.
The keyboard and mouse I carried out of the womb musta hurt like hell."
Your mom was lucky. I was a Super Scope baby!
"It's pretty well known video games cause violence among kids.."
It's also pretty well known that the Earth is flat, the moon landing was a hoax, and masterbation makes you blind. I agree that common sense should be divvied out, but I don't think you're channeling it in the right direction.
"With fusion and heavy lift we could just lift entire self contained biodomes into space. "
And how do you propose we build these biodomes if we don't know what they need to be like to exist in space? Mmm? That's like saying "well, we know how to push a single molecule around. Now let's build a transporter!". Sounds like a simple solution until you realize there are steps you have to take on the way.
Besides, 40B isn't going to make fusion appear faster.
"I was alluding to you making sure you know something about what you are talking about or ( like most reasonable folks) curbing your tongue until you do know."
/. and on the web in general."
Doh! I misread that, I'm sorry heh.
"Mozilla is a fairly frequent article subject on
Perhaps, but that doesn't mean that it's religiously followed. I don't use Mozilla. I'm quite happy with Opera and a little annoyed that it doesn't get more press. So when I see announcements for the release of Mozilla 1.2 and 1.21, but I don't see that Opera 7 has entered beta, it makes me feel like Slashdot's biases are really crowding the main page. It's the same with the anti-MS crap that keeps making it's way to the front page.
It was really starting to look like that every little minor update to Mozilla was going to be blasted on the main page. But if they had just said "this is a followup to a previous article..." or something like that, it'd be more understandable.
I agree with you that my frustrations with this topic are partly my own responsibility, but that doesn't excuse the poster from not considering that a little modifications to their article could make it interesting to the uninitiated.
Cheers
"We must have been mistaken when we assumed that you had the responsibility to inform yourself before engaging your sarcastic wit."
Not a very effective news reporting strategy if the users have to go do all the research themselves. Heh.
"The evil corporates want you by the balls. Even if you're a girl."
...the evil corporates... ...by the balls... ...you might be a redneck.
Comments like that tend to inspire Jeff Foxworthy style jokes.
1.) If your mom...
2.)
3.) ????
4.)
5.) ????
6.)
"*Your* joke? That was *my* joke, you bastard!
Someone let Cmdr Taco know: this son of a bitch stole my nick."
That'd be funny, if I were an AC. Heh.
"Many of them apply directly to medicine or something for the homeless..."
Exactly! Just imagine where we'll be able to send the homeless once we invent an FTL drive!
"no but theres no way ISS will help with that. to do that you need safe heavy lift engines and nuclear propulsion using fusion/fission."
That statement's a bit narrow, don't you think? Travelling through space is not just strapping a thruster on and picking a direction to go. Humans have to stay alive during the trip. If the station is built so that any given human can survive on it for extended periods of time, then it's a win. It means we beat the radition problem, the meteorite problem, and the muscular atrophy problem.
It doesn't matter how good we make a fusion/fission drive, it's still a long ass trip to anywhere we wanna go. The trip is a total write-off if we don't know how to make a human comfortable out in space. There's no way besides the ISS to pull this off, they're not going to orbit a shuttle for a year.
"sending people to space is cool and all, but why not use the resources to find a cure for cancer or aids or do something for the homeless?"
Because an aerospace degree doesn't automatically make you eligible to cure cancer?
The tone of this article is that the money was spent badly. I have no doubt that it could be managed better, but it's not like the project is a write-off. I'd respond to the "What could you do with $40 billion" except I don't want to take validity away from the ISS.
I feel very strongly that we, as a species, need to have a presence in space. Right now, we are one asteroid impact away from extinction. The ISS is a very important step to ensuring that man-kind can survive a disaster like that. We need to get to Mars. We need to leave the solar system. We need to colonize other planets.
The real question is: Is $40 billion too much to spend to start us down the path of being truely, and I mean truely independent?