Actually, theirs might have been. Cosmonauts might have done their exercises in zero-g instead of drinking vodka and not misled the world on how much time in orbit the human body can take. There might not have been so many top secret deaths in the cosmonaut program.
You're right actually in your point about competition. It just spurred some thoughts about how we overestimated our foes post-Apollo.
We aren't going to get beyond LEO with private enterprise. I'm saddened by the realization, but no D. D. Harriman is going to emerge to get us onto another world. I'd like to see us mine the He3 on the moon, and think we will. But it will be due mainly to gevernment research and spending, much as I hate the fact. Private enterprise won't even have much to do with developing the controlled, sustainable fusion reactors we need the He3 FOR, let alone the vehicles that get it from Luna to Earth. The invesment's too big, the payoff too small, and the timescale too long for any serious investors. Write your congresscritter and tell them how important fusion and space travel are. And read Robert Zubrin's Entering Space, an eye-opening book.
Not long ago I would have agreed with all of you who say that private enterprise is the way we'll get into space. I read "The Man Who Sold the Moon" and all those other awesome Heinlein stories about private enterprise getting us into space and then governments following (as is obvious from my sig, I suppose). I loved them. I became convinced that we needed a D. D. Harriman to get us established off the planet, especially looking at NASA's recent offerings (pathetic) and failures. Unmanned probes(and cheap, tiny ones at that) and futzing around in orbit do not constitute anything like what we need to become a spacefaring species, the only kind with long term survivability.
Then about a month and a half ago I went to see Robert Zubrin speak. I'd never heard of him. I'd started to almost hate the "weird" space travel buffs I associated with the Mars Society, X-Prize followers and the like. None of it looked like it was going anywhere. But the Honors Program was having this talk and I had nothing to do that night: my inner SciFi geek made me go. The first thing I realized was that Zubrin wasn't some nutcase with no respect except from other space nuts; he was a serious engineer/scientist who knew his stuff. He's a former engineer for Martin-Marietta (not sure if he was still there when it became Lockheed Martin) and one of the foremost experts on space travel. You won't understand just how smart and informed he is unless you hear him speak on the subject. Reading one of his books is close, but BSing is easier in writing, I think.
The second thing I slowly realized was that the Mars Direct program he champions (and designed) is THE way we ought to get to Mars. It's cheap, uses off the shelf technology, and could have us there in seven to eight years. I was flabbergasted. I'd become a cynic about seeing humans on Mars in my lifetime.
But it becomes clear reading Entering Space, one of Zubrin's books which I purchased at the talk, that private enterprise is almost certainly incapable of innovating in space travel. The R&D costs are too high, the potential payoff (in financial terms, the only ones VCs understand) not high enough, and the time scale too large. As little as my political views want me to admit it, we need governments, preferably OURS (sorry to non-US/.ers), to not only maintain their space programs but BUILD them. Get our space spending back up to 1960s levels. Scrap the Shuttle, it's older than I am. Let the ISS drift off into space. Encourage X-Prize and it's ilk but remember they're followers, not leaders. Our society will stagnate if we allow it to become a static system and don't keep an open frontier.
We're talking about posting on Amazon, not just reading it. Putting a large warning on the front page, especially when unnecessary, would NOT help their business. To post reviews on Amazon you have to go through some sort of registration, though I don't know the particulars. I'm sure you are required to state in that process that you are over 18 or have a parent's permission, which would put Amazon in the right. Anyone know how their registration works?
This is a tough call. Amazon does have the policy that those under 18 need parental permission to use their services, but it's not exactly prominently displayed. And technically they may seem to be on the wrong side of at least the letter of the law.
On the other hand, I'm not sure how much more they could do and this seems to be a nasty ploy by the group opposing them. I'm not a big fan of Amazon, but I do think they are being unfairly targeted here.
This seems to be an awfully silly way to go about this unless their purpose is, as someone else suggested, merely to stir up interest in their own product. It seems that Mozilla really did need to change the name from Phoenix and picked a synonymous term. If the Firebird people really care, a nice letter wxplaining their problem and maybe even suggesting another similar name (Thunderbird, Trans Am, IROC) would have been infinitely more productive, I think. Therefore I must assume either the're trying to drum up interest in Firebird the database or the people there are all vindictive eleven year olds.
Ghost Rider rocked. I still have the multipart poster from the big crossover in ~1992 with Morbius and Blade (I think) and a bunch of others I forget. It was weird seeing Johnny and Ghost Rider next to each other though.
Well, locally I shop at Manifest and CD Alley. Try your local independent stores; they're almost always cheaper than any store with a franchise in the mall, plus the staff is more knowledgeable and doesn't have to wear uniforms.
"The guy should do something worthwhile with his bucks, like sponsor literary awards for young SF authors to help ensure the genre doesn't stagnate. Or donate a few hundred mil to Seti."
Or use his bucks to make Neal Stephenson stop pushing back the release date for Quicksilver . . .
But that's Star Trek, which is its own entity related to scifi but not really part of it. And the article makes it sound like it's mostly related to literary scifi, and specifically hard science fiction, though the article doesn't actually say that.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, theirs might have been. Cosmonauts might have done their exercises in zero-g instead of drinking vodka and not misled the world on how much time in orbit the human body can take. There might not have been so many top secret deaths in the cosmonaut program.
You're right actually in your point about competition. It just spurred some thoughts about how we overestimated our foes post-Apollo.
Yes.
Pssst. All three of the prequels filmed in Oz.
Disclaimer: I find Steve Irwin's existence bothersome and am mostly pissed at being reminded he's not dead.
I really want to take a surf trip to Oz.
We aren't going to get beyond LEO with private enterprise. I'm saddened by the realization, but no D. D. Harriman is going to emerge to get us onto another world. I'd like to see us mine the He3 on the moon, and think we will. But it will be due mainly to gevernment research and spending, much as I hate the fact. Private enterprise won't even have much to do with developing the controlled, sustainable fusion reactors we need the He3 FOR, let alone the vehicles that get it from Luna to Earth. The invesment's too big, the payoff too small, and the timescale too long for any serious investors. Write your congresscritter and tell them how important fusion and space travel are. And read Robert Zubrin's Entering Space, an eye-opening book.
Not long ago I would have agreed with all of you who say that private enterprise is the way we'll get into space. I read "The Man Who Sold the Moon" and all those other awesome Heinlein stories about private enterprise getting us into space and then governments following (as is obvious from my sig, I suppose). I loved them. I became convinced that we needed a D. D. Harriman to get us established off the planet, especially looking at NASA's recent offerings (pathetic) and failures. Unmanned probes(and cheap, tiny ones at that) and futzing around in orbit do not constitute anything like what we need to become a spacefaring species, the only kind with long term survivability.
/.ers), to not only maintain their space programs but BUILD them. Get our space spending back up to 1960s levels. Scrap the Shuttle, it's older than I am. Let the ISS drift off into space. Encourage X-Prize and it's ilk but remember they're followers, not leaders. Our society will stagnate if we allow it to become a static system and don't keep an open frontier.
Then about a month and a half ago I went to see Robert Zubrin speak. I'd never heard of him. I'd started to almost hate the "weird" space travel buffs I associated with the Mars Society, X-Prize followers and the like. None of it looked like it was going anywhere. But the Honors Program was having this talk and I had nothing to do that night: my inner SciFi geek made me go. The first thing I realized was that Zubrin wasn't some nutcase with no respect except from other space nuts; he was a serious engineer/scientist who knew his stuff. He's a former engineer for Martin-Marietta (not sure if he was still there when it became Lockheed Martin) and one of the foremost experts on space travel. You won't understand just how smart and informed he is unless you hear him speak on the subject. Reading one of his books is close, but BSing is easier in writing, I think.
The second thing I slowly realized was that the Mars Direct program he champions (and designed) is THE way we ought to get to Mars. It's cheap, uses off the shelf technology, and could have us there in seven to eight years. I was flabbergasted. I'd become a cynic about seeing humans on Mars in my lifetime.
But it becomes clear reading Entering Space, one of Zubrin's books which I purchased at the talk, that private enterprise is almost certainly incapable of innovating in space travel. The R&D costs are too high, the potential payoff (in financial terms, the only ones VCs understand) not high enough, and the time scale too large. As little as my political views want me to admit it, we need governments, preferably OURS (sorry to non-US
Ask him to hurry up and finish Quicksilver while you're at it. As time goes by, the release seems to keep getting farther away. Huh?!?
"Prehaps the film Equilibrium got it right and prehaps we should all just stop feeling with drugs."
Don't forget Brain Candy. A horribly underrated movie, though not as good as it should have been.
My money's actually on the dolphins. Plus they had the manners to give their friends nice going away gifts!
Kelso:
BURN!!!
Sorry, I just got caught up in that supergood burn.
We're talking about posting on Amazon, not just reading it. Putting a large warning on the front page, especially when unnecessary, would NOT help their business. To post reviews on Amazon you have to go through some sort of registration, though I don't know the particulars. I'm sure you are required to state in that process that you are over 18 or have a parent's permission, which would put Amazon in the right. Anyone know how their registration works?
This is a tough call. Amazon does have the policy that those under 18 need parental permission to use their services, but it's not exactly prominently displayed. And technically they may seem to be on the wrong side of at least the letter of the law.
On the other hand, I'm not sure how much more they could do and this seems to be a nasty ploy by the group opposing them. I'm not a big fan of Amazon, but I do think they are being unfairly targeted here.
This seems to be an awfully silly way to go about this unless their purpose is, as someone else suggested, merely to stir up interest in their own product. It seems that Mozilla really did need to change the name from Phoenix and picked a synonymous term. If the Firebird people really care, a nice letter wxplaining their problem and maybe even suggesting another similar name (Thunderbird, Trans Am, IROC) would have been infinitely more productive, I think. Therefore I must assume either the're trying to drum up interest in Firebird the database or the people there are all vindictive eleven year olds.
"cuz frankly I don't know if people have forgotten about Batman Forever and Batman and Robin yet."
I had until you brought it up. Thanks.
Ghost Rider rocked. I still have the multipart poster from the big crossover in ~1992 with Morbius and Blade (I think) and a bunch of others I forget. It was weird seeing Johnny and Ghost Rider next to each other though.
Roberta, actually. And damn but Sierra rocked back in the day.
Well, locally I shop at Manifest and CD Alley. Try your local independent stores; they're almost always cheaper than any store with a franchise in the mall, plus the staff is more knowledgeable and doesn't have to wear uniforms.
Very clever, but on Slashdot I don't think it's really an insider reference. At least 70-80% of slashdot readers have read Snowcrash*, probably more.
*90% of all statistics are made up, definitely including this one, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was true.
"Because it's dull, you idiot - it'll hurt more."
I believe the word used is "twit", not "idiot". I'm about 97% sure.
But cats demand our respect in a way people do not. Oh, and the little furball OUCH!!! I mean cutie on my lap says they deserve it.
"The guy should do something worthwhile with his bucks, like sponsor literary awards for young SF authors to help ensure the genre doesn't stagnate. Or donate a few hundred mil to Seti."
Or use his bucks to make Neal Stephenson stop pushing back the release date for Quicksilver . . .
But that's Star Trek, which is its own entity related to scifi but not really part of it. And the article makes it sound like it's mostly related to literary scifi, and specifically hard science fiction, though the article doesn't actually say that.
Try the original, and best ever, romantic comedy: Roman Holiday.
I failed the Turing Test the first time I took it, but I'm studying hard this time.
Actually, I think techies are pretty much always going to be "_____, the Computer Guy". And that's okay.
"Highly desirable employees"
Yes. In the before time. In the long, long ago.