There are plenty of places on Earth that we have not set up shop which are still a trillion times more hospitable than Mars. Go 400 km straight north of Ottawa (which in Canadian terms is pretty well next door) and you are in absolute wilderness. It is great country full of rocks, swamps and lakes but living there is hard. Except for a few valley towns, First Nations reserves and settlements, and some mining centres, people are measured in 1s and 10s per 100 square km. And it is pretty much endless. Now look at Mars - it is worse in every way. No air, no plants, no water and winters that are even colder! There is no economic argument for mining Mars when the potential of most of the Canadian Shield, the Australian Outback, and Siberia has not been explored . Even mining the ocean floor would be easier!
What we need is to clean up our act here. Use less stuff, make less of a mess and start to work on the over-population problem in a sensible way (whatever that would be).
It is funny how the expensive neighbourhoods tend to be upwind of the industrial centres and the cheaper ones are downwind. West-enders versus East-enders.
I am on the fence regarding Climate Change. The evidence appears compelling (melting ice, warm winters, etc) but the Green side has been so disreputable (exaggeration, false claims, rent-seeking, wealth-building), that it is hard to move over (not that the other side is lily white but status quo always wins a tie). I have set my trigger at this. The day Greenpeace supports Nuclear Energy development to fight Climate Change, I am on side.
I have seen many posts about needing to get off this "rock" or "this badly degraded mudball" but where exactly do you plan to go?
Even badly degraded this mudball is a billion times more inhabitable than any other rock, gas cloud, or sulfuric-acid soaked hell-hole anywhere in the neighbourhood. Earth is not so badly degraded that it can't be cleaned up a heck of a lot easier and cheaper than making say Mars habitable. Things have lived here a long time and suffered pretty big setbacks (bye-bye dino) but it still more or less runs - trees grow, fish swim, birds fly, and deer and antelope roam (within certain confines). Cutting back the population growth through education and improved living standards in developing countries would probably help. Reducing the developed countries desire (not need) for "stuff" would help too (2400 sq ft houses, power toys, green lawns, multi cars, 6 computers, 5 TVs, vacation properties- cut it in half and you probably would still be able to survive).
That said, space travel is a great human achievement and we should keep up the good work. However, if we want to do it faster there will be risks and tragedies (by which I mean the rare but very public deaths of a few famous people, not the frequent off-camera deaths of hundreds of anonymous people that happen in normal life).
If we can't justify the tragedies, that will hold us back. So is there a burning requirement to get off this mudball faster? Is there something out there we really, really need now that we can't get? I doubt getting off this rock soonish is not one of those requirements.
This is where many stupidities collide.
1) 14 year old girl gets changed while talking on the phone
2) Says "It takes my picture when I say 'Photo me Echo'"
3) Echo takes picture of semi naked 14 year old
4) She says "And then I say 'Send it to everyone Echo'"
5) Picture goes to all her friends
6) School does random search of everyone's phone
7) All her friends charged with possession of Child porn and become sex offenders
8) Not sure who profits.
A large number of kids at my kid's highschool are failing courses. My son failed one and we traced it to his smart phone. We took it away and after months of complaining, he actually thanked us. Smart phone apps and video games are designed to be addictive. Kids (and many of us) are now addicted to checking apps and playing games 24/7. Attention spans are shortening and nerves are fraying. Real sports (hockey, soccer, football, etc) are temporary respites from the "always on" world. Replacing these with more video games is just stupid.
We have a system that allows web access to Windows servers using Citrix. The outside computer just needs to have Java installed. You run pretty well any Windows app through it. You can leave sessions disconnected and reconnect to them from other locations.
We use SSL connections only (data is further encrypted inside the pipe with Citrix's secure client encryption).
Keystroke logging is a problem - particularly with password capture. We use CryptoCard one-time passwords (like SecurID). Users would be better not to type truly confidential stuff into a strange computer, though.
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There are plenty of places on Earth that we have not set up shop which are still a trillion times more hospitable than Mars. Go 400 km straight north of Ottawa (which in Canadian terms is pretty well next door) and you are in absolute wilderness. It is great country full of rocks, swamps and lakes but living there is hard. Except for a few valley towns, First Nations reserves and settlements, and some mining centres, people are measured in 1s and 10s per 100 square km. And it is pretty much endless. Now look at Mars - it is worse in every way. No air, no plants, no water and winters that are even colder! There is no economic argument for mining Mars when the potential of most of the Canadian Shield, the Australian Outback, and Siberia has not been explored . Even mining the ocean floor would be easier! What we need is to clean up our act here. Use less stuff, make less of a mess and start to work on the over-population problem in a sensible way (whatever that would be).
It is funny how the expensive neighbourhoods tend to be upwind of the industrial centres and the cheaper ones are downwind. West-enders versus East-enders.
I am on the fence regarding Climate Change. The evidence appears compelling (melting ice, warm winters, etc) but the Green side has been so disreputable (exaggeration, false claims, rent-seeking, wealth-building), that it is hard to move over (not that the other side is lily white but status quo always wins a tie). I have set my trigger at this. The day Greenpeace supports Nuclear Energy development to fight Climate Change, I am on side.
Reporter posing as sketchy PR guy asks sketchy sites to do sketchy things. Some say YES!
I have seen many posts about needing to get off this "rock" or "this badly degraded mudball" but where exactly do you plan to go? Even badly degraded this mudball is a billion times more inhabitable than any other rock, gas cloud, or sulfuric-acid soaked hell-hole anywhere in the neighbourhood. Earth is not so badly degraded that it can't be cleaned up a heck of a lot easier and cheaper than making say Mars habitable. Things have lived here a long time and suffered pretty big setbacks (bye-bye dino) but it still more or less runs - trees grow, fish swim, birds fly, and deer and antelope roam (within certain confines). Cutting back the population growth through education and improved living standards in developing countries would probably help. Reducing the developed countries desire (not need) for "stuff" would help too (2400 sq ft houses, power toys, green lawns, multi cars, 6 computers, 5 TVs, vacation properties- cut it in half and you probably would still be able to survive). That said, space travel is a great human achievement and we should keep up the good work. However, if we want to do it faster there will be risks and tragedies (by which I mean the rare but very public deaths of a few famous people, not the frequent off-camera deaths of hundreds of anonymous people that happen in normal life). If we can't justify the tragedies, that will hold us back. So is there a burning requirement to get off this mudball faster? Is there something out there we really, really need now that we can't get? I doubt getting off this rock soonish is not one of those requirements.
They just need to partner with Samsung - they perfected a rapid heating feature in the Note 7 :-).
This is where many stupidities collide. 1) 14 year old girl gets changed while talking on the phone 2) Says "It takes my picture when I say 'Photo me Echo'" 3) Echo takes picture of semi naked 14 year old 4) She says "And then I say 'Send it to everyone Echo'" 5) Picture goes to all her friends 6) School does random search of everyone's phone 7) All her friends charged with possession of Child porn and become sex offenders 8) Not sure who profits.
From what I see eSports is just a fancy name for competative gaming. Like chess or bridge but with computers and flashy screens.
A large number of kids at my kid's highschool are failing courses. My son failed one and we traced it to his smart phone. We took it away and after months of complaining, he actually thanked us. Smart phone apps and video games are designed to be addictive. Kids (and many of us) are now addicted to checking apps and playing games 24/7. Attention spans are shortening and nerves are fraying. Real sports (hockey, soccer, football, etc) are temporary respites from the "always on" world. Replacing these with more video games is just stupid.
We have a system that allows web access to Windows servers using Citrix. The outside computer just needs to have Java installed. You run pretty well any Windows app through it. You can leave sessions disconnected and reconnect to them from other locations. We use SSL connections only (data is further encrypted inside the pipe with Citrix's secure client encryption). Keystroke logging is a problem - particularly with password capture. We use CryptoCard one-time passwords (like SecurID). Users would be better not to type truly confidential stuff into a strange computer, though.