Theres a very interesting article here http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20021212. html, about the business practices of the original recording and movie industry, and the contrast against the present day. It makes a good argument as to why they should change their current business practices to adapt, but of course that would be the intelligent thing to do, so they won't.
Read my reply to the other guy who asked that. NASA contracted phillips to design a new storage medium to use on the shuttle. I didn't say they invented it, just that they were the reason for its creation.
NASA makes very few of the components on the shuttle, but most of the ones that they have contracted, normally based on loose designs and specifications, find there way into the general publics use eventually.
Thanks for the name, they've apparently chosen cheaper and better, but they've hired more people with the savings, so they get more, too, and the compact disc was something that NASA asked several vendors to try and develop for the space program, so they are basically responsible for it.
Booya.
I remember reading a couple of years or so ago that Nasa's new director, whose name I cannot remember for the life of me, was actually a former CEO, instead of a scientist or politician. I agreed with this at the time, and still do. He stated, and has followed through, that he wants NASA to be, if not probable, then at least not a financial disaster, while still respecting the engineers and scientists. Thats the reason that the Mars probes have been (relatively) cheap, but still (relatively) effective, and is probably why NASA would take a look into a cheaper fuel, whereas before they probably didn't give too much of a crap. And, of course, spending less, and focusing more on the details of the engineering not only means more missions and research can be performed, but also they're more likely to succeed.
And for every person who thinks NASA produces nothing useful, two words: Compact Disc
Literally, the only people i know that surf for soft core porn are my little brothers. They're nine. Hardcore, now theres a different story, I'd pay, or pirate, for that.
Seriously though, I don't see a massive demand for this. I've never been so horny, and I'm 20, that I absolutely HAD TO LOOK AT PORN RIGHT THE @#$% NOW!!!!!! I can wait til I get to a computer, go to a strip club, or, *gasp*, actually hit on a chick. And honestly, its soft core. If I just have to look at porn, I'll pull over at a gas station and buy a Hustler. God bless you Larry Flynnt!!!!!
I'm American. I'm supposed to be ignorant about other cultures. Seriously, see, its in the high school course book, here......j/k
I know, but still, the idea of sitting out on a park bench in a major metropolitan area for two hours or so when I have a connection in my house two blocks away doesn't really appeal to me. If I want fresh air I open a window.
I imagine the system they would use is that you'd just log onto the network, and be billed for it every month. Seems like that would be the easiest way, cause otherwise you'd have people standing in line at a terminal holding laptops and trying to rush before they get disconnected.
As for secure, please remember that the information backbone of general America, the phone lines, used to be fooled by someone using a cereal box toy to make a certain tone. If you build it, they will break it, and you won't find out until your pants have already fallen to your ankles. Intrusion security into the actual network may get better, but theres always some asshole whose user name is sex and his password is daddy, and boom, hello wi-fi network where most people don't even use firewalls.
Thats actually one of the cooler wi-fi ideas I've heard in a while, but I don't really think it'll take off just yet.
Unfortunately the page seems to have been brought down by the almight/., so I can't get specifics, but just how many sites do they plan on having running? I mean high traffic areas where people are more likely to have wi-fi cards like airports are good, of course, but would it really be worth paying a fee to use this?
I'm American, so I don't know how big an area Bell Canada actually covers up there, but in the world of business travel, where its unusual to hit up the same city more than say, once every two weeks, how much is it really worth to be on the internet for an hour per visit?
Now, if they could get some international cooperation for this, I can see it being viable. I mean, I know plenty of business travelers who would love to stay connected while waiting for adjoining flights in three different airports ov er the course of a day. But just in one area.....naaaaaaah
And of course there are always parks, stadiums, etc, but with the exception of parks that normally seems to be more of the business's perogative, and in parks....well, isn't it kinda cold up there? I mean who really wants to sit in the middle of a park at 3o degrees farenheit trying to type with numb fingers?
And also, to have a truly effective network, as well as a viable profit option, you'd have to have massive blanket coverage over a large area, but wouldn't that be a little cost prohibitive, especially since relatively few people use wi-fi cards in the mass public? Neat idea, but......
Yeah, but they make the money of the ink, not the printer. Printers have insanely crappy profit margins, thats why real cheap printers are inkhogs. Theres only like 5 bucks worth of difference in the hardware between an intermediate inkjet and the El Cheapo Grande, but theres about $150 in ink catridges a year difference, so thats the reason lexmark is so gung ho about this
The thing I despise the most about the DMCA, or, as I like to call it, Destroy My Consumer Allowances Law, is that it beats the living crap out of my fair use rights. When I buy a CD, it is my own damn business what I do with it as long as I do not resell it for profit. It is also my right that when I buy a product, I should be able to know about any flaws or limitations i might have. This is a basic consumer right.
But if I buy a DVD and wanna burn a copy to my computer, ooo, well, I must be a felon, cause I had to circumvent encryption on the DVD. But, wait, don't I already own this? Don't I have the right to use that however the hell I wish, as long as I don't threaten that corporation's profits? How can any sane individual argue that making a back up copy is not in my rights?
Or what about when a bug is found in Windows? Shouldn't I be allowed to know about this? I bought it, if theres a flaw, I should be told. Of course this ignores the fact that Windows is basically one big flaw, but you get the drift. I own it, I use it, and any errors affect me directly if theres a security breach or performance issue.
This whole issue will finally be solved when Nike manages to get the law changed so Corporations can lie and legally get away with it no matter what, and some politician is sued for copyright infringement when he says he invented the internet or something and doesn't get in trouble for it.
Oh come on, there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The USA has had a massive surveillance operation running for years, they have spy sattelites and planes, and they bugged the phone lines, and they gave their info to the UN inspectors, and the inspectors conducted 250 unannounced surprise raids on those places and still found nothing!
Okay, first off, this is the real world, not a video game. There is no "recono-sat" button that you press, and magically get a perfect view of all hidden units. Why do you think weapons inspectors, which are useless, but anyway, are spending so much time in supposed pharmecutical factories and plasic and rubber plants? Buildings that make nukes and germ warfare agents are not usually marked as such, so you have to get down on the ground, and take a peek. Also, such industries regularly deal with the ingredients and methods of creating weapons of mass destruction, which is one reason they are such ideal hiding places. And, one quick note, considering the fact that Iraq used biological and chemical warfare agents in the gulf war, which are weapons of mass destruction I'd say, yes, they do at least have some such weapons.
By the way: read this poll result [rumormillnews.com] in Portugal; more than 70% of the population think that the USA is the biggest threat to world peace today. 3% say it's Iraq, 1% say it's China. 12% say it's Israel.
First off, Portugal isn't exactly a superpower, I get my news from countries that actually matter in the socio-political enviroment. Secondly, polling is a notoriously innacurate when it comes to statistics. Sure, group a of 1000 people say one thing, but groups b, c, d, and so on totally disagree. Polls are used to back up the viewpoint of whoever is doing the poll. Also, once again, this is the real world. World peace is a nice idea, but when terrorists are driving planes into buildings, wearing the latest fashions from DuPont and Plastique, and rogue nations have been unusually aggressive over the past 15 years, what are we supposed to do, sit back and relax? Oh, and one quick note, other nations always seem to b-tch about us getting in the world's business, but who do they look to for leadership in the UN and Nato? Who do they rely on to keep the world economy afloat? And who do they scream "Help!" to first when they're in trouble? Uh-huh, thats right, the US of A.
All this warmongering will only make things worse. First of all, it gave North Korea a legitimate excuse to leave the nuclear proliferation treaty. After all, Bush said he will to preventive strikes against his enemies, and he said North Korea is part of the Axis of Evil, so he actually gave North Korea the only good excuse to build more weapons.
Bush made those remarks over a year ago, so I just have to giggle a bit when they use them as part of an excuse to act like lil brats of the international community. I mean, they know that, quite frankly, the North Korean government IS evil. Fact: As of 1995, North Korea had a higher percentage of Doctorate Degrees than any other country in the world. So how does such a country have a population that is starving, dying of disease, and being so heavily repressed and controlled? Hello, Communism/Totalitarian Regime! As in all governments, and especially communist ones, the select few are doin fine, screw everyone else. Not exactlly the behavior of a "good" nation, eh? N.Korea is throwing this hissy fit right now not because of anything anyone else did, but because they want more aid. Simple enough.
Do you have any idea how frightened the South Koreans must be now, and all of that just because of a few dumb remarks from Mr. Bush?
Actually, most S.Koreans don't think it'll come to war. They know full damn well that this is all bluff and bluster. But, its politics, so you gotta at least pretend to take these regimes seriously. I mean, WTF, who is N.Korea gonna use those nukes on? Every single target they could reach is either a nuclear superpower or allied with one. Iraq on the other hand could go apesh-t with heavy duty weapons, and as such completely wreck the world economy by slamming the brakes on oil production.
So whats the moral of the story children? Think before you speak!
a a a The bacteria in my fridge have mutated enough to build a time machine, so don't be so sure.
Seriously though, the main problem i have with estimates like these is that we're dealing with things pretty much beyond our comprehension. Sure, we know something about the universe and how it functions, but look at how many things we've learned in the past 20 years that are kinda freaky when ya really stop and think about them.
Also, we have to remember the basic, fundamental problem with mathematical modeling of a dynamic system, which is Chaos Theory, or rather Murphy's First Law. In an age where Quantam Physics and the Theories of Relativity often contradict each other and disagree, but we're okay with that, we can't really kid ourselves into thinking that we have the capability to model something that is affected by forces that we don't even know about yet. Especially when we've seen time and time again that complex models always degenerate the longer they run or the more detail you try to extract. I mean come on.
So while such speculation is interesting, and maybe even profitable if it inspires the scientists making the models and calculations to identify the flaws with their own theories and improve upon them, the speculation is, in the end, pointless.
If you go and read the interview that Sachs did shortly after the release of Uncle Tungsten in Wired magazine, he states that one of his greater problems with the modern culture is that the things that he was able and allowed to do are really no longer possible in todays world, a point that some others have raised here.
Of course we all know the reasons that this is so: america, land of the lawsuits, political correctness, the new Mcarthy era of Terrorism, etc. But the real problem is that science and knowledge are no longer really seen as something mysterious and beckoning and, well, almost seductive, as it was in Sach's boyhood.
Case in point. My little brother, who is 9, attends public school in Tenessee. I've looked through his textbooks, and I mean Jesus! Science, meaning chemistry, biology, physics, all of that isn't even taught until 6th grade!! So when I visit my parents and bring anything remotely intellectually(sic?) interesting, hes simply not interested. And not because hes not curious or questioning, almost all children are, its because hes never been, and really never will be exposed, at least in public school, to anything like it. And so it falls upon the parents, which is lucky for him, since my partents, mainly my mom, encouraged me to learn to such a degree that they let me leave public school and enter home-schooling and design my own curriculum. But what about other kids, who just want the kids to shut up and watch TV?
The sad thing is, I'd say that Uncle Tungsten should be required reading for every child 3rd grade and up, just so they can get a hint of the alluring, and yes, innocently seductive pull of knowledge and discovery, but its references to various "dangerous" chemicals and their means of production means it would be banned in most public school libraries.
Hmph.
Slashdot Mirror
NASA makes very few of the components on the shuttle, but most of the ones that they have contracted, normally based on loose designs and specifications, find there way into the general publics use eventually.
Booya.
And for every person who thinks NASA produces nothing useful, two words: Compact Disc
Seriously though, I don't see a massive demand for this. I've never been so horny, and I'm 20, that I absolutely HAD TO LOOK AT PORN RIGHT THE @#$% NOW!!!!!! I can wait til I get to a computer, go to a strip club, or, *gasp*, actually hit on a chick. And honestly, its soft core. If I just have to look at porn, I'll pull over at a gas station and buy a Hustler. God bless you Larry Flynnt!!!!!
I'm American. I'm supposed to be ignorant about other cultures. Seriously, see, its in the high school course book, here......j/k I know, but still, the idea of sitting out on a park bench in a major metropolitan area for two hours or so when I have a connection in my house two blocks away doesn't really appeal to me. If I want fresh air I open a window.
As for secure, please remember that the information backbone of general America, the phone lines, used to be fooled by someone using a cereal box toy to make a certain tone. If you build it, they will break it, and you won't find out until your pants have already fallen to your ankles. Intrusion security into the actual network may get better, but theres always some asshole whose user name is sex and his password is daddy, and boom, hello wi-fi network where most people don't even use firewalls.
Unfortunately the page seems to have been brought down by the almight /., so I can't get specifics, but just how many sites do they plan on having running? I mean high traffic areas where people are more likely to have wi-fi cards like airports are good, of course, but would it really be worth paying a fee to use this?
I'm American, so I don't know how big an area Bell Canada actually covers up there, but in the world of business travel, where its unusual to hit up the same city more than say, once every two weeks, how much is it really worth to be on the internet for an hour per visit?
Now, if they could get some international cooperation for this, I can see it being viable. I mean, I know plenty of business travelers who would love to stay connected while waiting for adjoining flights in three different airports ov er the course of a day. But just in one area.....naaaaaaah
And of course there are always parks, stadiums, etc, but with the exception of parks that normally seems to be more of the business's perogative, and in parks....well, isn't it kinda cold up there? I mean who really wants to sit in the middle of a park at 3o degrees farenheit trying to type with numb fingers?
And also, to have a truly effective network, as well as a viable profit option, you'd have to have massive blanket coverage over a large area, but wouldn't that be a little cost prohibitive, especially since relatively few people use wi-fi cards in the mass public? Neat idea, but......
Yeah, but they make the money of the ink, not the printer. Printers have insanely crappy profit margins, thats why real cheap printers are inkhogs. Theres only like 5 bucks worth of difference in the hardware between an intermediate inkjet and the El Cheapo Grande, but theres about $150 in ink catridges a year difference, so thats the reason lexmark is so gung ho about this
But if I buy a DVD and wanna burn a copy to my computer, ooo, well, I must be a felon, cause I had to circumvent encryption on the DVD. But, wait, don't I already own this? Don't I have the right to use that however the hell I wish, as long as I don't threaten that corporation's profits? How can any sane individual argue that making a back up copy is not in my rights?
Or what about when a bug is found in Windows? Shouldn't I be allowed to know about this? I bought it, if theres a flaw, I should be told. Of course this ignores the fact that Windows is basically one big flaw, but you get the drift. I own it, I use it, and any errors affect me directly if theres a security breach or performance issue.
This whole issue will finally be solved when Nike manages to get the law changed so Corporations can lie and legally get away with it no matter what, and some politician is sued for copyright infringement when he says he invented the internet or something and doesn't get in trouble for it.
Okay, first off, this is the real world, not a video game. There is no "recono-sat" button that you press, and magically get a perfect view of all hidden units. Why do you think weapons inspectors, which are useless, but anyway, are spending so much time in supposed pharmecutical factories and plasic and rubber plants? Buildings that make nukes and germ warfare agents are not usually marked as such, so you have to get down on the ground, and take a peek. Also, such industries regularly deal with the ingredients and methods of creating weapons of mass destruction, which is one reason they are such ideal hiding places. And, one quick note, considering the fact that Iraq used biological and chemical warfare agents in the gulf war, which are weapons of mass destruction I'd say, yes, they do at least have some such weapons.
By the way: read this poll result [rumormillnews.com] in Portugal; more than 70% of the population think that the USA is the biggest threat to world peace today. 3% say it's Iraq, 1% say it's China. 12% say it's Israel.
First off, Portugal isn't exactly a superpower, I get my news from countries that actually matter in the socio-political enviroment. Secondly, polling is a notoriously innacurate when it comes to statistics. Sure, group a of 1000 people say one thing, but groups b, c, d, and so on totally disagree. Polls are used to back up the viewpoint of whoever is doing the poll. Also, once again, this is the real world. World peace is a nice idea, but when terrorists are driving planes into buildings, wearing the latest fashions from DuPont and Plastique, and rogue nations have been unusually aggressive over the past 15 years, what are we supposed to do, sit back and relax? Oh, and one quick note, other nations always seem to b-tch about us getting in the world's business, but who do they look to for leadership in the UN and Nato? Who do they rely on to keep the world economy afloat? And who do they scream "Help!" to first when they're in trouble? Uh-huh, thats right, the US of A.
All this warmongering will only make things worse. First of all, it gave North Korea a legitimate excuse to leave the nuclear proliferation treaty. After all, Bush said he will to preventive strikes against his enemies, and he said North Korea is part of the Axis of Evil, so he actually gave North Korea the only good excuse to build more weapons.
Bush made those remarks over a year ago, so I just have to giggle a bit when they use them as part of an excuse to act like lil brats of the international community. I mean, they know that, quite frankly, the North Korean government IS evil. Fact: As of 1995, North Korea had a higher percentage of Doctorate Degrees than any other country in the world. So how does such a country have a population that is starving, dying of disease, and being so heavily repressed and controlled? Hello, Communism/Totalitarian Regime! As in all governments, and especially communist ones, the select few are doin fine, screw everyone else. Not exactlly the behavior of a "good" nation, eh? N.Korea is throwing this hissy fit right now not because of anything anyone else did, but because they want more aid. Simple enough.
Do you have any idea how frightened the South Koreans must be now, and all of that just because of a few dumb remarks from Mr. Bush?
Actually, most S.Koreans don't think it'll come to war. They know full damn well that this is all bluff and bluster. But, its politics, so you gotta at least pretend to take these regimes seriously. I mean, WTF, who is N.Korea gonna use those nukes on? Every single target they could reach is either a nuclear superpower or allied with one. Iraq on the other hand could go apesh-t with heavy duty weapons, and as such completely wreck the world economy by slamming the brakes on oil production.
So whats the moral of the story children? Think before you speak!
Seriously though, the main problem i have with estimates like these is that we're dealing with things pretty much beyond our comprehension. Sure, we know something about the universe and how it functions, but look at how many things we've learned in the past 20 years that are kinda freaky when ya really stop and think about them.
Also, we have to remember the basic, fundamental problem with mathematical modeling of a dynamic system, which is Chaos Theory, or rather Murphy's First Law. In an age where Quantam Physics and the Theories of Relativity often contradict each other and disagree, but we're okay with that, we can't really kid ourselves into thinking that we have the capability to model something that is affected by forces that we don't even know about yet. Especially when we've seen time and time again that complex models always degenerate the longer they run or the more detail you try to extract. I mean come on.
So while such speculation is interesting, and maybe even profitable if it inspires the scientists making the models and calculations to identify the flaws with their own theories and improve upon them, the speculation is, in the end, pointless.
If you go and read the interview that Sachs did shortly after the release of Uncle Tungsten in Wired magazine, he states that one of his greater problems with the modern culture is that the things that he was able and allowed to do are really no longer possible in todays world, a point that some others have raised here. Of course we all know the reasons that this is so: america, land of the lawsuits, political correctness, the new Mcarthy era of Terrorism, etc. But the real problem is that science and knowledge are no longer really seen as something mysterious and beckoning and, well, almost seductive, as it was in Sach's boyhood. Case in point. My little brother, who is 9, attends public school in Tenessee. I've looked through his textbooks, and I mean Jesus! Science, meaning chemistry, biology, physics, all of that isn't even taught until 6th grade!! So when I visit my parents and bring anything remotely intellectually(sic?) interesting, hes simply not interested. And not because hes not curious or questioning, almost all children are, its because hes never been, and really never will be exposed, at least in public school, to anything like it. And so it falls upon the parents, which is lucky for him, since my partents, mainly my mom, encouraged me to learn to such a degree that they let me leave public school and enter home-schooling and design my own curriculum. But what about other kids, who just want the kids to shut up and watch TV? The sad thing is, I'd say that Uncle Tungsten should be required reading for every child 3rd grade and up, just so they can get a hint of the alluring, and yes, innocently seductive pull of knowledge and discovery, but its references to various "dangerous" chemicals and their means of production means it would be banned in most public school libraries. Hmph.