While Jacqard certainly has a major place in the history of computers, his looms can not be said to been computers in the sence we use today as they could "solve" only one problem - how to make fabrik.
No, the true inventor, if such a word can be used, of the true programable, mulitpurpose computer is one of Great Britans great geniuses from the early 1800s - Charles Babbage. In 1835 he presented a design for a programable, mechanical computer - the Analytical engine. It was to be powered by steam, and would been 30 meters long (roughtly 100') and 10 meters wide (roughtly 30'). It would use cards simular to those invented by Jacqard for input, while output was via a mecanical printer (rather simular to the printingpresses employed by newspapers), a curveplotter and a bell. Unlike modern, binary machines it would use base 10 in it's calculations.
Ada Lovelace, as someone else pointed out, was the first programmer for the analytical engine. It would have employed a launguage very simular in most respects to modern assembler, including the possibility to branch and loop.
I think you fail to realise that handhelds and consoles are two different marketssegments alltogether.
Yes, the screen on my GBA is tiny comprared to me 30" WideScreen TV thats hooked up to my PS2. Yes, the graphics kinda sucs compared to the PS2 as well, beeign (roughtly) on the same level as most PC-games from a decade ago. Yes, the whole shebang is in a tiny package, making the controlls akward if you got huge hands.
BUT I can slip my GBA in my pocket and take it with me on long journey, and the batteries last all the way across the atlantic. Hard to do that with my PS2 and the widescreen tv, right?
You may not like them or be able to use them for recreation, but that do not mean they are useless. As for the agebracket... well, I'll admidt that my Pokemongame might be aimed (mostly) at kids around 10-12, but I can assure you thats there is plenty of games around that any adult might find fun too.
As almost everyone else has pointed out, you can't be european...
An SMS is a cheap (at least over here) way to send condensed information - like phonenumbers, adresses, names and so forth (yes, I know that other uses it for pure comunication too, but I speak mostly for myself). Much better than leaving a voicemail, particulary since it's easy to backtrack thru the SMSs and make sure you actually understood it.
Mind you, if you really are from the US as other have guessed, I think I know one reason why it hasn't taken off in the same way as over here - y'all don't have a single standard to which all the providers adhere... as well we beeing screwed over by having to pay for incomming calls and messages (yes, I know this isn't true for all providers any more, but it's true for quite a lot of them). Complain all you want about GSM beeing 'french' (it ain't) or that it ain't 'free competition' between european telcos (it's as free or freeer as in the US btw - we simply have a level playing field)... and using an open, non-proprietary standard to cap it off.
I'll second that - in fact, I preached that gospel myself before.
A phone is for making phonecalls with, allthought I'll be happy to point out that an SMS (or text-message if you prefer) is a nice way to convay a fair chunk of info in a fast way without having to talk to the answeringmachine. A camera is for taking pictures with - or short videos.
A PDA is for pretty much everything else - reading ebooks, to do lists, calendars, list of numbers and adresses and so on and so forth.
My portable gameconsole (ie; my GBA) is for short bursts of simple fun
A portable computer is for serious working - or serious gaming if you prefer.
Yes, it does mean I have to carry around two or three devises instead of one. It also means I can leave the functionality I don't need at home, and that each of my devices are optimised for it's intended role - meaning the camera takes very nice pictures, the PDA has a nice big screen and fits my hand comfertable, my portable game consolle has easy to change games and so on. It also means that if one device breaks, the rest of my gizmos are in perfect working order.
How about the german WW2 era Saenger-Bredt antipodal bomber, that where the inspiration for pretty much every winged spacecraft that has been developed, planned and / or built? While the Wikipedia don't have much on the Silverbird, it has an article on Saenger himself. And as allways, Google is your friend in finding more.
Interesting fact; Saenger seems to have been the first to suggest the use of a regeneratively cooled engine, in which the nozzle are cooled with eitehr fuel or oxidizer which are then introdused to the burner itself.
Solar cell technology seems to be getting more and more advanced. When will the time come when we are able to use it to effectively power a complete house?
We are there today. In fact, we where there several years ago. The trick is not to need more power than the solar cell generates... so obviously you can easily supply the energy a house needs from solar cells if your house don't need much energy. Say, if you live in the tropics or subtropics, there is no big deal to power everything electrical with solar cells today (even more so if you use natural gas for cooking and running the frigde). If you live above the arctic circle, the day will never arrive that solar cells are efficient enought - since when you need them the most (ie; in winter), the sun just isn't over the horisont... up here it's more a question of efficient storage of the electricity.
I'm more interested in getting really cheap solar cells than super efficiant ones - if I can put up ten cells produsing (say) 1kWh each for the same price I can put up two producing 4kWh each, the cheaper ones are the better choice - as well as making replacing broken arrays cheaper.
Off course, the day I can get solar cells that are both cheap and efficient, I'll pick them without a second thought;)
On a side note, I don't understand the design of these rovers. Seems like they're dangerously flippable. If that happens, they're pretty much junk, right? Do they have any way of correcting themselves if one tread climbs up onto a rock and it tips over? Why not have 5 or 6 treads around the center and have the middle gyroscopiclly right itself?
Interesting point, and one which sendt me looking all over the web for pictures of planetary rovers. Seems like pretty much every rover we (ie, humans) have sendt out there is built on the same principles - wheels, no autoerect feature, seemingly hight center of gravity. So, I'm forced to conclude, they picked this particular design because it works.
It is, when talking about spacecraft, worth remembering that they are designed down - down to a volume to fit the launcer, down to a weight to be able to get where it's going, and down to a budget to get it of the ground in the first place.
Perhaps a tracked, selfrighting rover with wrap around tracks (like the early british tanks of WWI) would be a better design to use on Mars... but since it isn't used I'll hazard a guess that it's either not as suited as it may appear, or it may be too bulky, too heavy and too expencive.
Uhm. Wrong. Sort of. I suggest you find whoever told you that and ask them to bother learning stuff before opening their mouth. An explosive carries it's own oxidiser, just like a rocket. Thats one reason why a rocket can be considered a (barely) controlled explotion. Therefore a bomb (and a rocket) works pretty much anywhere - on earth, in outher space and on Mars. However, to tackle the question asked by the grandparent; A crater that is natural may (or may not) show proof of water in the form of erosion, layered stratas that were laid down under water and what not. A bombcrater shows not much than a bombcrater would here on earth - a heap of rubble, contaminated with residual chemicals from the explosive, fragments of casing and so on.. not to mention that the heat could alter the very rocks NASA sendt the rovers there to have a look at.
The article - which I read most of - isn't saying that people in the US are getting stupider. It says that people outside of the US is getting smarter... Quite a different issue, and for the species as a whole, a good one.
If the system allows for "stupid people" to sue for all things of silly things that pure, common sence should tell them (like, for instance, that putting on a cape do not give you the power to fly), then I have to logicaly conclude that the system is not working fine.
Maybe a pre-screener prosess should be added to each case? Something like: IF case = goes.against.common.sence THEN DISMISS (I know, I'm not good at writing psudocode - but I suck at regular code too). With this simple step added, the US legal system can clear out a lot of cruft and cases that shouldn't be in the courtroom anyway - like the people suing for capes not enabling you to fly, coffe thats hot (coffe thats too hot is a different matter) and microwaveoven that kills your cat.
While I'm at it, may I suggest putting a cap on how big settlements that can be awarded? Like, actuall costs + 50% in damages? Because, honestly, suing someone for a few million US dollars because you spilled hot coffe on yourself is one of the things that make the rest of the planet wonder at just how stupid Joe Avrage really are...
We - ie; the members of the anti-419 board I post on - have discussed this in the past, and discussed it often. the general concensious is that it's a Bad Idea(tm).
The wast majority of 419ers uses cybercafes to access the 'net. By sending them viri, we not only infect the machines in question, but would also help spred the virus to a) everyone else having to use that cybercafe, and b) everyone the 419ers and the others send mail to. And off course there is c) sending viruses is a naughty thing to do.
Off course, if you go ahead anyway, the mugu would simply walk to the next cybercafe - the refugee camp my present mugu claim to live in must be chocked full with them...
The orbit of the ISS was altered after the russians got onboard the project so that they could reach it from their launccomplex - even if it meant that the shuttles could carry somwhat less up there. I don't know if the original planned orbit would have put the ISS in a better position in regard to the issue at hand, ie making possible a shuttleflight that could reach both Hubble and the ISS (which even had a different name back then since it wasn't international)
I guess it is partly about maintaing the avilability of a spacebased telescope until the new, cheaper, better and maintanencefree telecope is designed, built and launced.
To not fix something simply because we at some point in the future will have somethign better is like not fixing that harddisk in your PC when it keels over because in the near future we will have access to holographics storage with no moving parts... well, maybe not the best analogy, but you get the idea.
What's the point of 170dpi? My Palm has perhaps 40dpi at the most and it has perfectly readable text.
As already mentioned, higher resolution is easier on the eyes.. and recall that this is a japanse product which means it has to be able to display japanse letters (kanji and katakana I believe they are called) which needs a higher resolution then the latin alphabet to remain readable.
..yet. Give it a generation or two to iron out the problems that bound to pop up, and practicly everyone will buy them. The first videorecorders, personal computers, walkmen, mp3-players and whatnot wasn't perfect either, but these days 'everyone' has one.
For me, I would like to see this for at least half the prize and with the ability to display colour photographs (but then, a lot of the books I read has colour pictures in them), as well as support for wirtually any fileformat that displays text under the sun - as well as beeing able to display photographs from my digicam. Oh, and add a CF-card slot to it too, please;)
Seriously thought - drop the price in half and I'll prolly buy one, memorystick, monocrome text and all.
There is no way to have 100% effecency in transforming energy from one from to the other - so we have a loss from transforming sunlight to electricity, and then a loss transforming the electricity to a storable chemical (hydrogen), and then yet another loss as it's transfered back to electricity to run the house. Sounds like they are wasting power by having unnecesary steps here...
Now, I'm not a rocketscientist, and I dont research fuelscells and batteries - but would it not been just as efficient, or even more efficient, to just store the electricity in a batterybank? Unlike in a car, weight and to a certain degree volume isn't a limiting factor in a house.
Interesting facts:
on
Extreme Yo-Yoing
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· Score: 4, Informative
The yoyo is one of the oldest known toys. It's also not evolved from a weapon, country to popular myth.
All the stuff I know that is useless... I don't need no yoyo to prevent me from getting laid;)
Yikes... I mean... what 'right' do they have to invide our privacy? To use bandwidth other people pay for to try to sell whatever junk they are peddling?
It reminds me of a sci-fi story I read a few years back, in which society was totaly taken over by capitalist forces... I can't recall much of the plot sadly, but I do recall one of the main characters beeing punished for owning a set of earplugs and therefore 'stealing' time form the companies by not listening to the non stop comercals on the radio.
It's free speech again, in a way. The company may have a right to say whatver they want, but I have a right not to listen... and I have the right to throw them out of my home, and my computer. And now an entire state in the US has, in a way, thrown them out of their home.
Whats next? A company claiming the right to paint ads in your livingroom?
..but maybe the difference is in the execution or something? To me, it's less important that someone might have done this before than the fact that doing it now might change peoples life to the better.
Shouldn't that be the focus of inventing new ways for doing things by the way? To improve peoples life?
Off course it won't. But by learning to work together, people may stop having civil wars, which means peole have more time to grow food (and not having it stolen by "freedom fighters") and get an education, which in turn leads to (hopefully) a cure for AIDS and a democracy that grows from the bottom up.
When you're trying to bring the better part of a continent out of the dark ages and into the bright new future, you has to start somewhere - and learning to work together seems like a bloody good place to start for me. But, hey, thats my point of view, right?
Expencive? off course it is expencive
on
The Wrong Stuff
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· Score: 2, Insightful
To say that we shouldn't fly men into space because it costs a lot of money is roughtly analog to this:
The first automobiles (better know as 'cars' today) were hidiously expencive and highly unreliable machines. Horses were cheaper, more reliable and even selfreprodusing. By applying the same echonomic logic, people should not have started using cars at all, but keept to the horse... or at least done so until cars could be massmanufacured cheaply (hint: ford would never have started massproducing cars if there wasn't a market - catch 22 anyone?)
Going into space is going to cost a lot. Not going into space might cost us the future.
Adobe is a company that needs to make money to survive (like all companies). If a product isn't selling well enought, it will get killed.
So the fault isn't squarely on Adobes shoulders in this - the particular segment of the market that Framemaker for Mac catered to just isn't big enought for the software to keep selling...
On the lighter side, this must be a wonderfull opertunity for the Open Source Software to show that it can deliver somethign just as good for the Mac, right?
Slashdot Mirror
Or Charles Babbage and his 1835 design for the Analytical Engine.
While Jacqard certainly has a major place in the history of computers, his looms can not be said to been computers in the sence we use today as they could "solve" only one problem - how to make fabrik.
No, the true inventor, if such a word can be used, of the true programable, mulitpurpose computer is one of Great Britans great geniuses from the early 1800s - Charles Babbage. In 1835 he presented a design for a programable, mechanical computer - the Analytical engine. It was to be powered by steam, and would been 30 meters long (roughtly 100') and 10 meters wide (roughtly 30'). It would use cards simular to those invented by Jacqard for input, while output was via a mecanical printer (rather simular to the printingpresses employed by newspapers), a curveplotter and a bell. Unlike modern, binary machines it would use base 10 in it's calculations.
Ada Lovelace, as someone else pointed out, was the first programmer for the analytical engine. It would have employed a launguage very simular in most respects to modern assembler, including the possibility to branch and loop.
More on his analytcal engine can be found here.
I think you fail to realise that handhelds and consoles are two different marketssegments alltogether.
Yes, the screen on my GBA is tiny comprared to me 30" WideScreen TV thats hooked up to my PS2. Yes, the graphics kinda sucs compared to the PS2 as well, beeign (roughtly) on the same level as most PC-games from a decade ago. Yes, the whole shebang is in a tiny package, making the controlls akward if you got huge hands.
BUT I can slip my GBA in my pocket and take it with me on long journey, and the batteries last all the way across the atlantic. Hard to do that with my PS2 and the widescreen tv, right?
You may not like them or be able to use them for recreation, but that do not mean they are useless. As for the agebracket... well, I'll admidt that my Pokemongame might be aimed (mostly) at kids around 10-12, but I can assure you thats there is plenty of games around that any adult might find fun too.
Wathch out.. the early eighties are back, at least as far as casedesign is considered...
Mind you, there isn't too many ways to pack dual screens into a handheld unit in - and the clamshell will help protect the screens, unlike on my GBA.
As for wether it'll flaot or sink... it depends on many factors, not least price and avilability of games that require two screens.
As almost everyone else has pointed out, you can't be european...
An SMS is a cheap (at least over here) way to send condensed information - like phonenumbers, adresses, names and so forth (yes, I know that other uses it for pure comunication too, but I speak mostly for myself). Much better than leaving a voicemail, particulary since it's easy to backtrack thru the SMSs and make sure you actually understood it.
Mind you, if you really are from the US as other have guessed, I think I know one reason why it hasn't taken off in the same way as over here - y'all don't have a single standard to which all the providers adhere... as well we beeing screwed over by having to pay for incomming calls and messages (yes, I know this isn't true for all providers any more, but it's true for quite a lot of them). Complain all you want about GSM beeing 'french' (it ain't) or that it ain't 'free competition' between european telcos (it's as free or freeer as in the US btw - we simply have a level playing field)... and using an open, non-proprietary standard to cap it off.
I'll second that - in fact, I preached that gospel myself before.
A phone is for making phonecalls with, allthought I'll be happy to point out that an SMS (or text-message if you prefer) is a nice way to convay a fair chunk of info in a fast way without having to talk to the answeringmachine.
A camera is for taking pictures with - or short videos.
A PDA is for pretty much everything else - reading ebooks, to do lists, calendars, list of numbers and adresses and so on and so forth.
My portable gameconsole (ie; my GBA) is for short bursts of simple fun
A portable computer is for serious working - or serious gaming if you prefer.
Yes, it does mean I have to carry around two or three devises instead of one. It also means I can leave the functionality I don't need at home, and that each of my devices are optimised for it's intended role - meaning the camera takes very nice pictures, the PDA has a nice big screen and fits my hand comfertable, my portable game consolle has easy to change games and so on. It also means that if one device breaks, the rest of my gizmos are in perfect working order.
How about the german WW2 era Saenger-Bredt antipodal bomber, that where the inspiration for pretty much every winged spacecraft that has been developed, planned and / or built? While the Wikipedia don't have much on the Silverbird, it has an article on Saenger himself. And as allways, Google is your friend in finding more.
Interesting fact; Saenger seems to have been the first to suggest the use of a regeneratively cooled engine, in which the nozzle are cooled with eitehr fuel or oxidizer which are then introdused to the burner itself.
Solar cell technology seems to be getting more and more advanced. When will the time come when we are able to use it to effectively power a complete house?
We are there today. In fact, we where there several years ago. The trick is not to need more power than the solar cell generates... so obviously you can easily supply the energy a house needs from solar cells if your house don't need much energy. Say, if you live in the tropics or subtropics, there is no big deal to power everything electrical with solar cells today (even more so if you use natural gas for cooking and running the frigde). If you live above the arctic circle, the day will never arrive that solar cells are efficient enought - since when you need them the most (ie; in winter), the sun just isn't over the horisont... up here it's more a question of efficient storage of the electricity.
I'm more interested in getting really cheap solar cells than super efficiant ones - if I can put up ten cells produsing (say) 1kWh each for the same price I can put up two producing 4kWh each, the cheaper ones are the better choice - as well as making replacing broken arrays cheaper.
Off course, the day I can get solar cells that are both cheap and efficient, I'll pick them without a second thought ;)
On a side note, I don't understand the design of these rovers. Seems like they're dangerously flippable. If that happens, they're pretty much junk, right? Do they have any way of correcting themselves if one tread climbs up onto a rock and it tips over? Why not have 5 or 6 treads around the center and have the middle gyroscopiclly right itself?
Interesting point, and one which sendt me looking all over the web for pictures of planetary rovers. Seems like pretty much every rover we (ie, humans) have sendt out there is built on the same principles - wheels, no autoerect feature, seemingly hight center of gravity. So, I'm forced to conclude, they picked this particular design because it works.
It is, when talking about spacecraft, worth remembering that they are designed down - down to a volume to fit the launcer, down to a weight to be able to get where it's going, and down to a budget to get it of the ground in the first place.
Perhaps a tracked, selfrighting rover with wrap around tracks (like the early british tanks of WWI) would be a better design to use on Mars... but since it isn't used I'll hazard a guess that it's either not as suited as it may appear, or it may be too bulky, too heavy and too expencive.
2. Non nuclear bombs require oxygen to explode.
Uhm. Wrong. Sort of. I suggest you find whoever told you that and ask them to bother learning stuff before opening their mouth. An explosive carries it's own oxidiser, just like a rocket. Thats one reason why a rocket can be considered a (barely) controlled explotion. Therefore a bomb (and a rocket) works pretty much anywhere - on earth, in outher space and on Mars.
However, to tackle the question asked by the grandparent; A crater that is natural may (or may not) show proof of water in the form of erosion, layered stratas that were laid down under water and what not. A bombcrater shows not much than a bombcrater would here on earth - a heap of rubble, contaminated with residual chemicals from the explosive, fragments of casing and so on.. not to mention that the heat could alter the very rocks NASA sendt the rovers there to have a look at.
The article - which I read most of - isn't saying that people in the US are getting stupider. It says that people outside of the US is getting smarter... Quite a different issue, and for the species as a whole, a good one.
If the system allows for "stupid people" to sue for all things of silly things that pure, common sence should tell them (like, for instance, that putting on a cape do not give you the power to fly), then I have to logicaly conclude that the system is not working fine.
Maybe a pre-screener prosess should be added to each case? Something like: IF case = goes.against.common.sence THEN DISMISS (I know, I'm not good at writing psudocode - but I suck at regular code too). With this simple step added, the US legal system can clear out a lot of cruft and cases that shouldn't be in the courtroom anyway - like the people suing for capes not enabling you to fly, coffe thats hot (coffe thats too hot is a different matter) and microwaveoven that kills your cat.
While I'm at it, may I suggest putting a cap on how big settlements that can be awarded? Like, actuall costs + 50% in damages? Because, honestly, suing someone for a few million US dollars because you spilled hot coffe on yourself is one of the things that make the rest of the planet wonder at just how stupid Joe Avrage really are...
We - ie; the members of the anti-419 board I post on - have discussed this in the past, and discussed it often. the general concensious is that it's a Bad Idea(tm).
The wast majority of 419ers uses cybercafes to access the 'net. By sending them viri, we not only infect the machines in question, but would also help spred the virus to a) everyone else having to use that cybercafe, and b) everyone the 419ers and the others send mail to. And off course there is c) sending viruses is a naughty thing to do.
Off course, if you go ahead anyway, the mugu would simply walk to the next cybercafe - the refugee camp my present mugu claim to live in must be chocked full with them...
The orbit of the ISS was altered after the russians got onboard the project so that they could reach it from their launccomplex - even if it meant that the shuttles could carry somwhat less up there. I don't know if the original planned orbit would have put the ISS in a better position in regard to the issue at hand, ie making possible a shuttleflight that could reach both Hubble and the ISS (which even had a different name back then since it wasn't international)
I guess it is partly about maintaing the avilability of a spacebased telescope until the new, cheaper, better and maintanencefree telecope is designed, built and launced.
To not fix something simply because we at some point in the future will have somethign better is like not fixing that harddisk in your PC when it keels over because in the near future we will have access to holographics storage with no moving parts... well, maybe not the best analogy, but you get the idea.
What's the point of 170dpi? My Palm has perhaps 40dpi at the most and it has perfectly readable text.
As already mentioned, higher resolution is easier on the eyes.. and recall that this is a japanse product which means it has to be able to display japanse letters (kanji and katakana I believe they are called) which needs a higher resolution then the latin alphabet to remain readable.
..yet. Give it a generation or two to iron out the problems that bound to pop up, and practicly everyone will buy them. The first videorecorders, personal computers, walkmen, mp3-players and whatnot wasn't perfect either, but these days 'everyone' has one.
For me, I would like to see this for at least half the prize and with the ability to display colour photographs (but then, a lot of the books I read has colour pictures in them), as well as support for wirtually any fileformat that displays text under the sun - as well as beeing able to display photographs from my digicam. Oh, and add a CF-card slot to it too, please ;)
Seriously thought - drop the price in half and I'll prolly buy one, memorystick, monocrome text and all.
There is no way to have 100% effecency in transforming energy from one from to the other - so we have a loss from transforming sunlight to electricity, and then a loss transforming the electricity to a storable chemical (hydrogen), and then yet another loss as it's transfered back to electricity to run the house. Sounds like they are wasting power by having unnecesary steps here...
Now, I'm not a rocketscientist, and I dont research fuelscells and batteries - but would it not been just as efficient, or even more efficient, to just store the electricity in a batterybank? Unlike in a car, weight and to a certain degree volume isn't a limiting factor in a house.
The yoyo is one of the oldest known toys. It's also not evolved from a weapon, country to popular myth.
All the stuff I know that is useless... I don't need no yoyo to prevent me from getting laid ;)
Yikes... I mean... what 'right' do they have to invide our privacy? To use bandwidth other people pay for to try to sell whatever junk they are peddling?
It reminds me of a sci-fi story I read a few years back, in which society was totaly taken over by capitalist forces... I can't recall much of the plot sadly, but I do recall one of the main characters beeing punished for owning a set of earplugs and therefore 'stealing' time form the companies by not listening to the non stop comercals on the radio.
It's free speech again, in a way. The company may have a right to say whatver they want, but I have a right not to listen... and I have the right to throw them out of my home, and my computer. And now an entire state in the US has, in a way, thrown them out of their home.
Whats next? A company claiming the right to paint ads in your livingroom?
..but maybe the difference is in the execution or something? To me, it's less important that someone might have done this before than the fact that doing it now might change peoples life to the better.
Shouldn't that be the focus of inventing new ways for doing things by the way? To improve peoples life?
...is a lot like sex - if it's medicore it's better than nothing, but when it's good it's great!
I know, old joke. I'm of the RTFA now ;)
Off course it won't. But by learning to work together, people may stop having civil wars, which means peole have more time to grow food (and not having it stolen by "freedom fighters") and get an education, which in turn leads to (hopefully) a cure for AIDS and a democracy that grows from the bottom up.
When you're trying to bring the better part of a continent out of the dark ages and into the bright new future, you has to start somewhere - and learning to work together seems like a bloody good place to start for me. But, hey, thats my point of view, right?
To say that we shouldn't fly men into space because it costs a lot of money is roughtly analog to this:
The first automobiles (better know as 'cars' today) were hidiously expencive and highly unreliable machines. Horses were cheaper, more reliable and even selfreprodusing. By applying the same echonomic logic, people should not have started using cars at all, but keept to the horse... or at least done so until cars could be massmanufacured cheaply (hint: ford would never have started massproducing cars if there wasn't a market - catch 22 anyone?)
Going into space is going to cost a lot. Not going into space might cost us the future.
Adobe is a company that needs to make money to survive (like all companies). If a product isn't selling well enought, it will get killed.
So the fault isn't squarely on Adobes shoulders in this - the particular segment of the market that Framemaker for Mac catered to just isn't big enought for the software to keep selling...
On the lighter side, this must be a wonderfull opertunity for the Open Source Software to show that it can deliver somethign just as good for the Mac, right?