I'm sure the Bells have been paid back many times over for their investments in building out the infrastructure, and for which they were given monopolies. Lets organize a law to create state agencies that get to take over and maintain the phone and cable lines and poles and conduits for a monthly utility fee, just like happens with highways or other city run utilities. If companies want to run their own fibre after that, great, let them.
It would need to be clear that this is a critical national infrastructure and was critical that it be maintained and upgraded. There would be grants from an appropriate Federal agency to assist with this, much like they assist with highway and other projects today.
This would even the playing field between providers of all types and remove all of the conflicts of interest. Heck, while we are at it, lets take back the power lines too, let the government be responsible for distribution of power and let power companies actually compete on supply and service.
"The implications is that to release the water you need to drill down 1.5km or possibly 2.5 to get to the liquid. Doing that on another planet would probably cost more than another iraq war. With no oil at the end."
Water on Mars will be worth more than the oil in Iraq.
Note: highly personal opinions are to follow, but they are the result of building lots of my own computers and fixing way more for other people. Use this list as a guideline to get you started and narrow down from there.
First, processors. Intel highly overcharged everyone for years until AMD starting giving them some competition. For that reason alone I buy AMD CPUs exclusively - but they just happen to be the best in most every category currently anyway. Get a 64bit dual core processor, let price decide which one. Get the retail version with a fan and a better warranty.
Motherboard - narrow down by chipset first looking for stability in the drivers etc. Forums can help you a lot here. My advice is go with a motherboard with an Nvidia chipset - they seem to have less bugs and better drivers than VIA. Besides I will be recommending an Nvidia video card and that just helps on the compatibility front. If you are going all new then get a motherboard with PCIe video card slots instead of AGP. Don't get SLI (dual video cards) unless you are really into games and want to spend a lot of money on this.
Next go find a good vendor, (newegg.com), that's as important as any thing else. Check them out on resellerratings.com - look at their satisfaction ratings from when people need to do returns; (newegg.com) that will tell you the most. Or just go to newegg.com. They are the best general vendor out there (newegg.com) with the best customer service, but a little bit pricey because of it. (newegg.com):)
From that vendor get the list of motherboards that meet the goals above, and research those boards on the forums (pcper.com) and find one that people are not having trouble with. Don't worry about the absolute fastest performance, the difference between brands is usually negligible. Asus motherboards are usually a safe bet.
Video card - get the best Nvidia card your budget will allow. Don't even think about ATI. Buggy cards, buggy drivers, have been that way for years. ATI's idea of adding stability to their drivers is to add a utility that auto-restarts them when they crash. Make sure that the type of video card matches the video card slot on the motherboard - AGP vs. PCIe.
Memory - get name brand - Corsair, Crucial or Kingston all make me happy.
HD - get Western Digital (one with a 5 year warranty) or Seagate - you can check storagereview.com for specifics.
Don't get a cheap power supply - either buy one separately or get a good name brand case with a power supply - antech etc. There are some good power supply reviews around.
Get nice interface items - keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor. Those items really control how you interact with your computer and are usually overlooked. Go to circuit city or something and try different ones, find out what you like. Personally I go for the Microsoft Natural Pro keyboards and 5 button laser mouse.
A shard of pottery found in southern Israel was inscribed with what is believed to be the original form of the name Goliath. The shard dates from about 900 BC. and is from the supposed hometown of Goliath of the biblical story of David and Goliath. Before this discovery there had not been any evidence outside of the Bible that the name Goliath had ever been used in ancient Israel.
If you read something and it doesn't make sense, go back and read it again (especially before posting about it on/.), because you may have misunderstood it.
He is not saying that they wanted to win by a million to one, as you point out, that wouldn't make any sense. He is saying that they would prefer to win the summary judgement a million times more than they would prefer to win the other motion.
Just becuase we don't like him doesn't make him an idiot.
They have to protect their data stream and project data from people who would vandalize it via hacked clients, thus the protected clients.
People on slashdot and the grid have been begging for a linux client since it started. Now they have provided one.
I'm sorry you feel uncomfortable about the eula, but if you think about the reasons behind it and the importance of keeping this data valid, it makes sense.
I personally think that it's a great project and have been happy to contribute 111 days of computing time to the project so far.
When I originally started answering the issues that people brought up in this thread, I wasn't really aware of how significant the remittance issue was in Mexico. I now understand it somewhat better and agree that it is a matter of some importance to the Mexican economy, with all that that entails. In fact I even ran across an article that indicated that the Mexican government has used remittances to fund projects and has had programs where they would contribute funding to match the amount of remittances, thus trying to encourage and increase them. So there appears to be at least a candid acceptance of the current state of affairs.
That said though, how much better would it be for Mexico if the jobs themselves were in Mexico, and all of the wages were contributed into their economy, not just a portion sent back from some other country? While they might be accepting remittances as a silver lining in the dark cloud of their emigration/economic issues, they would truly rather have their workers at home, working in Mexico, contributing to their own economy, and they are actively working towards that end.
As far as I understand it, that was one of the main reasons for Mexico to join NAFTA; the US would transfer the jobs and some industries down there, their workers would stay there, it would fix their economy/emigration issues and our illegal immigration issues. Unfortunately for the North Americans, the Chinese underbid the Mexicans and we (Wallmart:) shipped all the jobs and manufacturing work to China instead. Oops.
As far as the pamphlet, I still completely believe that it is produced just as a safety advisory to try and help those who are probably going to cross anyway. Both to protect them from the physical dangers that the actual crossing can entail, as well as to help them avoid the brutality issues that they occasionally meet with at the hands of our enforcement agencies. I also realize that it is unfortunately not clear and that someone who wants to see it the other way probably will.
Please note: I am not a scientist/astronaut/engineer/... so all of my info is second hand, but I believe it to be correct as far as we know.
So with that grain of salt, I think we are farther along that you think.
Except for the duration of travel, the Moon is a harsher mistress than Mars. It's colder at night, hotter in the day, less gravity while you're staying there, the long night will be killer on any scenario that tries to use solar power or batteries, and the radiation is worse due to no atmosphere or magnetic shield whatsoever. As to the dust both of our Viking landers lived though dust storms on Mars and survived unscathed.
We already have the technology to cross space and land on another body; that's old hat. The only trick with Mars is getting enough provisions along for the ride; food, fuel, water, air. Those are funding and coordination issues, not new technology and research issues. We could leave for Mars in five years if we had the political will power and funding. We just need a big man-rated launcher again and NASA is finally working on that.
hard vacuum - Apollo dealt with that.
weightlessness - string out a tether, capsule at one end, some equal mass at the other, spin at appropriate speed and presto, one gravity while enroute.
cosmic and solar flare radiation - minimal shielding in flight, their cancer risk goes up about 1% over their lifetime after a two year trip.
cold - Apollo dealt with that.
heat - Apollo dealt with that.
energy (our own) - If you are referring to electricity, take a small nuclear plant, we do it for subs, for space probes, for satellites - its not mystery science.
If you are talking about human energy to last through the mission, well, that's a question. My guess is that it won't be an issue with the right personality type. They will still be able to be in contact with Earth via radio, Internet (bluetooth 3.0 has a realllly long range...:), etc. I mean, how many guys on slashdot go for years with nothing but a computer, the internet and porn? Just don't send a neat freak with a slob. And I think that an all male, heterosexual crew is the only way to go. But I'm not a sociologist either....
I really think that we are ready to go, we just need a friendly Queen to finance us. Wouldn't it be cool if Queen Elizabeth II browses slashdot?:)
If you want a great book on the subject, read
The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin. It's a great book, discusses all of this, specifically in chapter 5 - 'Killing the Dragons'.
It's not about going to Mars because its a pretty fun place to visit like Disneyland. It's about going to Mars because of a desire to learn about new environments and new science and new technology.
We are like 15th century Europe about to start exploring the Americas, it's a huge wild dangerous place filled with great unknowns and fantastically huge potential. Should we stay home in our safe little castles or step out into the next frontier and learn how to live there and what its pitfalls and rewards are?
Or maybe I have. Perhaps
threeothertimes
in this very thread.
And maybe I have actually read the pamphlet, and understood what its
actual purpose
is, instead of spouting off half truths that I can't be bothered to verify or to try and reason out.
Maybe I pointed out a link to an English version of that same pamphlet that is being distributed by a committee set up by the US Government, instead of
slinging racist slurs
at Mexicans in my posts.
But then that's just me. I try to research and understand topics that I talk about and things that are important to me, but I also understand that there are vulgar simpleminded people out there who would rather have their ideas fed to them by hate mongers.
Are you willing to take the red pill and accept that you may have been wrong and try to look at this in a new way? Or are you going to take the blue pill and continue along in your angry little preconceived world?
Mexico is actively creating jobs specifically to keep people from leaving the country.
Here is a link to an article that discusses the jobs program and some of the problems that towns in Mexico are having due to loosing workers to the US.
Why do you think the truth is sinister? Do you have any facts to show that the Mexican government encourages illegal immigration into the US?
To me it would seem like they would be loosing the people that are willing and able to go out and work, the workers that you would most want to keep to help build your economy.
And by the way, did you listen to that radio interview that you are linking to? It includes an interview with a high Mexican official who basically states what I surmised; that the pamphlet is an attempt to save some of the hundreds of lives that are lost each year when Mexicans try to cross the border into the US. It is not about encouraging illegal immigration into the US. It is also distributed by the US for the same reasons.
That is not a document encouraging Mexicans to sneak into the US, think of it as a public safety manual. Many Mexicans are killed each year trying to do this and their government is being realistic and publishing a document to warn those who will inevitably attempt it of the dangers and how to mitigate them. It's like a program to distribute clean needles to drug addicts; it doesn't mean that you are promoting drug use, you know that its happening and are trying to mitigate some of the dangers it causes.
You can also find the same document, with an english translation, distributed by a joint US/Mexican Government Commission, borderhealth.org. Does this mean that the US government is promoting illegal Mexican immigration into the US? No, and the existence of the document doesn't mean that Mexico is either, they are simply trying to protect their citizens, just as the US is.
I think you're failing to take into account the fact that the top Blue Gene/L just doubled its performance, (the subject of the story)?
My totals (with the new Blue Gene figures) show 355.5 US classified vs. 212.8 US non-classified, a fair advantage for weapons research.
Also, this is assuming that we know about all of the classified supercomputers, which seems to be a bit of a stretch for me, but maybe I've read too many spy novels.
That's no different than the way most western countries work. The US doesn't have laws or custom's officials to stop you from walking across the border into Canada or Mexico, it's just when you try to come back in that you have to go through US customs.
FWIW, the Mexician government doesn't like its citizens coming up to the US any more than the US governemnt does; they are losing potiential workforce and it just looks bad for them.
The completion of these small outriggers has been delayed for several years however because of the (idiotic) cries of "oh noes it will disturb the sacred mountain spirits so you can't build anything there ever anymore!!" from native Hawaiian tribe organizations.
Why are they idiotic cries? Just because it is not your religion's most sacred site that is being desecrated doesn't mean that it doesn't matter or isn't important. How far would this project get if its proposed site was the Wailing Wall, or Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai?
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure the Bells have been paid back many times over for their investments in building out the infrastructure, and for which they were given monopolies. Lets organize a law to create state agencies that get to take over and maintain the phone and cable lines and poles and conduits for a monthly utility fee, just like happens with highways or other city run utilities. If companies want to run their own fibre after that, great, let them.
It would need to be clear that this is a critical national infrastructure and was critical that it be maintained and upgraded. There would be grants from an appropriate Federal agency to assist with this, much like they assist with highway and other projects today.
This would even the playing field between providers of all types and remove all of the conflicts of interest. Heck, while we are at it, lets take back the power lines too, let the government be responsible for distribution of power and let power companies actually compete on supply and service.
With no oil at the end."
Water on Mars will be worth more than the oil in Iraq.
Here's a second vote for the Riddlemaster of Hed series. Can't believe it's not more well known.
Thanks for posting that. Saved me a lot of time writing it myself...
Note: highly personal opinions are to follow, but they are the result of building lots of my own computers and fixing way more for other people. Use this list as a guideline to get you started and narrow down from there.
:)
First, processors. Intel highly overcharged everyone for years until AMD starting giving them some competition. For that reason alone I buy AMD CPUs exclusively - but they just happen to be the best in most every category currently anyway. Get a 64bit dual core processor, let price decide which one. Get the retail version with a fan and a better warranty.
Motherboard - narrow down by chipset first looking for stability in the drivers etc. Forums can help you a lot here. My advice is go with a motherboard with an Nvidia chipset - they seem to have less bugs and better drivers than VIA. Besides I will be recommending an Nvidia video card and that just helps on the compatibility front. If you are going all new then get a motherboard with PCIe video card slots instead of AGP. Don't get SLI (dual video cards) unless you are really into games and want to spend a lot of money on this.
Next go find a good vendor, (newegg.com), that's as important as any thing else. Check them out on resellerratings.com - look at their satisfaction ratings from when people need to do returns; (newegg.com) that will tell you the most. Or just go to newegg.com. They are the best general vendor out there (newegg.com) with the best customer service, but a little bit pricey because of it. (newegg.com)
From that vendor get the list of motherboards that meet the goals above, and research those boards on the forums (pcper.com) and find one that people are not having trouble with. Don't worry about the absolute fastest performance, the difference between brands is usually negligible. Asus motherboards are usually a safe bet.
Video card - get the best Nvidia card your budget will allow. Don't even think about ATI. Buggy cards, buggy drivers, have been that way for years. ATI's idea of adding stability to their drivers is to add a utility that auto-restarts them when they crash. Make sure that the type of video card matches the video card slot on the motherboard - AGP vs. PCIe.
Memory - get name brand - Corsair, Crucial or Kingston all make me happy.
HD - get Western Digital (one with a 5 year warranty) or Seagate - you can check storagereview.com for specifics.
Don't get a cheap power supply - either buy one separately or get a good name brand case with a power supply - antech etc. There are some good power supply reviews around.
Get nice interface items - keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor. Those items really control how you interact with your computer and are usually overlooked. Go to circuit city or something and try different ones, find out what you like. Personally I go for the Microsoft Natural Pro keyboards and 5 button laser mouse.
DVD drives, Plextor.is usually a safe bet.
That's it!
First Archaeological Evidence of the Name Goliath
A shard of pottery found in southern Israel was inscribed with what is believed to be the original form of the name Goliath. The shard dates from about 900 BC. and is from the supposed hometown of Goliath of the biblical story of David and Goliath. Before this discovery there had not been any evidence outside of the Bible that the name Goliath had ever been used in ancient Israel.
He is not saying that they wanted to win by a million to one, as you point out, that wouldn't make any sense. He is saying that they would prefer to win the summary judgement a million times more than they would prefer to win the other motion.
Just becuase we don't like him doesn't make him an idiot.
They have to protect their data stream and project data from people who would vandalize it via hacked clients, thus the protected clients.
People on slashdot and the grid have been begging for a linux client since it started. Now they have provided one.
I'm sorry you feel uncomfortable about the eula, but if you think about the reasons behind it and the importance of keeping this data valid, it makes sense.
I personally think that it's a great project and have been happy to contribute 111 days of computing time to the project so far.
Bittorrent is considered P2P software and lots of people use it for downloading distros.
Several dictionaries and half a million web sites say that it is a viable alternate spelling. Make that Cowardly Jerk. Get a life.
That said though, how much better would it be for Mexico if the jobs themselves were in Mexico, and all of the wages were contributed into their economy, not just a portion sent back from some other country? While they might be accepting remittances as a silver lining in the dark cloud of their emigration/economic issues, they would truly rather have their workers at home, working in Mexico, contributing to their own economy, and they are actively working towards that end.
As far as I understand it, that was one of the main reasons for Mexico to join NAFTA; the US would transfer the jobs and some industries down there, their workers would stay there, it would fix their economy/emigration issues and our illegal immigration issues. Unfortunately for the North Americans, the Chinese underbid the Mexicans and we (Wallmart :) shipped all the jobs and manufacturing work to China instead. Oops.
As far as the pamphlet, I still completely believe that it is produced just as a safety advisory to try and help those who are probably going to cross anyway. Both to protect them from the physical dangers that the actual crossing can entail, as well as to help them avoid the brutality issues that they occasionally meet with at the hands of our enforcement agencies. I also realize that it is unfortunately not clear and that someone who wants to see it the other way probably will.
So with that grain of salt, I think we are farther along that you think.
Except for the duration of travel, the Moon is a harsher mistress than Mars. It's colder at night, hotter in the day, less gravity while you're staying there, the long night will be killer on any scenario that tries to use solar power or batteries, and the radiation is worse due to no atmosphere or magnetic shield whatsoever. As to the dust both of our Viking landers lived though dust storms on Mars and survived unscathed.
We already have the technology to cross space and land on another body; that's old hat. The only trick with Mars is getting enough provisions along for the ride; food, fuel, water, air. Those are funding and coordination issues, not new technology and research issues. We could leave for Mars in five years if we had the political will power and funding. We just need a big man-rated launcher again and NASA is finally working on that.
hard vacuum - Apollo dealt with that.
weightlessness - string out a tether, capsule at one end, some equal mass at the other, spin at appropriate speed and presto, one gravity while enroute.
cosmic and solar flare radiation - minimal shielding in flight, their cancer risk goes up about 1% over their lifetime after a two year trip.
cold - Apollo dealt with that.
heat - Apollo dealt with that.
energy (our own) - If you are referring to electricity, take a small nuclear plant, we do it for subs, for space probes, for satellites - its not mystery science.
If you are talking about human energy to last through the mission, well, that's a question. My guess is that it won't be an issue with the right personality type. They will still be able to be in contact with Earth via radio, Internet (bluetooth 3.0 has a realllly long range... :), etc. I mean, how many guys on slashdot go for years with nothing but a computer, the internet and porn? Just don't send a neat freak with a slob. And I think that an all male, heterosexual crew is the only way to go. But I'm not a sociologist either....
I really think that we are ready to go, we just need a friendly Queen to finance us. Wouldn't it be cool if Queen Elizabeth II browses slashdot? :)
If you want a great book on the subject, read The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin. It's a great book, discusses all of this, specifically in chapter 5 - 'Killing the Dragons'.
It's not about going to Mars because its a pretty fun place to visit like Disneyland. It's about going to Mars because of a desire to learn about new environments and new science and new technology.
We are like 15th century Europe about to start exploring the Americas, it's a huge wild dangerous place filled with great unknowns and fantastically huge potential. Should we stay home in our safe little castles or step out into the next frontier and learn how to live there and what its pitfalls and rewards are?
And maybe I have actually read the pamphlet, and understood what its actual purpose is, instead of spouting off half truths that I can't be bothered to verify or to try and reason out.
Maybe I pointed out a link to an English version of that same pamphlet that is being distributed by a committee set up by the US Government, instead of slinging racist slurs at Mexicans in my posts.
But then that's just me. I try to research and understand topics that I talk about and things that are important to me, but I also understand that there are vulgar simpleminded people out there who would rather have their ideas fed to them by hate mongers.
Are you willing to take the red pill and accept that you may have been wrong and try to look at this in a new way? Or are you going to take the blue pill and continue along in your angry little preconceived world?
Here is a link to an article that discusses the jobs program and some of the problems that towns in Mexico are having due to loosing workers to the US.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2 005/10/27/MNGQFFEGB41.DTL
Why do you think the truth is sinister? Do you have any facts to show that the Mexican government encourages illegal immigration into the US?
To me it would seem like they would be loosing the people that are willing and able to go out and work, the workers that you would most want to keep to help build your economy.
You can read my response in this posting:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=166640&cid=138 96062
And by the way, did you listen to that radio interview that you are linking to? It includes an interview with a high Mexican official who basically states what I surmised; that the pamphlet is an attempt to save some of the hundreds of lives that are lost each year when Mexicans try to cross the border into the US. It is not about encouraging illegal immigration into the US. It is also distributed by the US for the same reasons.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=16664 0&cid=13896515
You can also find the same document, with an english translation, distributed by a joint US/Mexican Government Commission, borderhealth.org. Does this mean that the US government is promoting illegal Mexican immigration into the US? No, and the existence of the document doesn't mean that Mexico is either, they are simply trying to protect their citizens, just as the US is.
http://www.borderhealth.org/view_article.php?id=15 0
I think you're failing to take into account the fact that the top Blue Gene/L just doubled its performance, (the subject of the story)?
My totals (with the new Blue Gene figures) show 355.5 US classified vs. 212.8 US non-classified, a fair advantage for weapons research.
Also, this is assuming that we know about all of the classified supercomputers, which seems to be a bit of a stretch for me, but maybe I've read too many spy novels.
That's no different than the way most western countries work. The US doesn't have laws or custom's officials to stop you from walking across the border into Canada or Mexico, it's just when you try to come back in that you have to go through US customs.
FWIW, the Mexician government doesn't like its citizens coming up to the US any more than the US governemnt does; they are losing potiential workforce and it just looks bad for them.
Our moon also has the two weeks of chilly night thing, I don't think this rover design would survive that.
http://www.scottevest.com/
Up to 52 hidden pockets and allowances for a personal area network!
It may not be the most stylish coat in the world, but well, it's geeky and it will keep you warm in the winter.
http://www.maxpedition.com/product/catalog_versipa ck.htm
What are you talking about?
Yes it asked for a birthday - duh - don't give them an accurate one....
but cc? Nooo.....