If were crazy enough to want to write a HHGTTG book, I'd simply state that all the Vogons did was make it almost impossible for anybody to find any Earth. Even with a probability of infinity minus one that you could find one, the Heart of Gold could manage it, it would be the one Arthur was on, and he'd be picked up a fraction of a second before the bullet hit. No problem, except that the probability is also infinity minus one that I could write a book that matched both the writing style and quality of the originals.
What I'm hoping for is that they'll realize that Adams accidentally left himself an opening in the last book for a continuation: as long as The Heart of Gold is still around, literally anything can happen. I saw that when I read the book, but never mentioned it because I knew he wanted to end the series and didn't want people bugging him for Yet Another HGTTG book. Now, of course, it's safe to mention it.
In the introduction to the collection of the first four books (and short story) Douglas Adams explained why every version of HGTTG controdicted every other version. Is the BBC going to maintain this tradition, or are they going to follow the books?
With all the cut backs, I doubt they have the collective engineering genius needed to reproduce it even if they stuck to the original blueprints.
What original blueprints? They were thrown away years ago. Not only that, the only surviving Saturn V has been on its side for years, and would probably collapse if they tried to upright it.
Mona may not have been simply late, but so late she'd already received a disconnect notice. If she's living as hand-to-mouth as the article implies, she's probably paying each utility at the last minute before disconnection simply because she just can't afford to pay all of them every month.
If the power company had a brain or heart, they would have not done any disconnects due to non-payment during this time frame. Sure, some deadbeats would get 3 days of free power, but the majority of people who missed their payment deadline would happily pay if just given the chance.
Exactly. If they wanted to avoid helping out deadbeats, all they had to do was give the extension only to people who called in to report that they'd been unable to pay. Deadbeats wouldn't bother, because they're probably hoping you won't notice if they don't call attention to themselves.
I can't help but feel sorry for Mona and the uncountable other people in her situation. She had her power disconnected for three days because of this, lost all the food in her refrigerator through no fault of her own, and all she got in return was her reinstatement fees waved. All through the article I kept waiting for somebody to correct their cranial-rectal insertion and put a hold on any disconnects or late fees until the system was back up. Clearly, they know that not everybody can get to their office during normal business hours -- why else have the payment centers in convenience stores -- and having their payment system down wasn't going to change that. When Mona called in on Day 2, she should have been told that the disconnect had been moved back until two days after the system was back up. If somebody isn't investigating why this wasn't done, and firing the people that dropped the ball,it's only because Pointy-haird middle managers tend to be employed by Pointy-haired CEO's.
Until then, any spaceship made is just a tourist platform. The fact that your post got modded insightful just shows how many moderators will give bonuses to anti-US posts (especially ones that insult our incredibly sucessful space program).
And besides, the grapes are sour.
Seriously, this is a step along the path we need to take to get to space. The ship may not be capable of being developed into an orbital ship, but I'll bet there are many things on it that can be used on such a ship. All the things you're calling for are good, and we'll get to them, bur right now, we're still taking our first baby steps. It's hard for a baby to take its first steps, and when it does, it isn't steady on its feet and can't go far. Does that lessen the importance of those first steps? Of course not, and this is the same thing.
You mean the way the've thrown every obsticle in the way of civillian spaceflight? The way the've frozen their operation on the obsolete shuttle in order to keep the 25,000 people it takes to launch one employed? Oh, you mean what NASA did over thirty years ago back when they actually were active in pioneering spaceflight instead of sitting on their laurels.
The update may be using any number of ports that would be blocked by a firewall. I've no idea why they would or should, but if so, it would make it rather hard to update with the firewall turned on. Of course, as at least one other poster mentioned, the firewall doesn't really have any effect on the update. Probably just NanoLimp setting up their instructions so that J. Random Luser can follow them and turning things off always seems safer to lusers than turning them on.
Asimov claimed, later, that Campbell actually gave his three laws their form. Campbell pointed out that Asimov had been using a set of three, never specified laws for robots in his stories and gave them their format: A robot may not harm a human being or through inaction allow one to come to harm, a robot must obey any order given by a human being unless it would violate the First Law, and a robot must protect its existence unless by so doing it would violate the First or Second Law. The most interesting thing about them is how they're structured, to make each law subordinate to any earlier law, making the First Law override everything else. Over the years, Asimov came up with an astonishing number of ways for these laws to create problems that could only be solved by humans.
Across the years, there were several versions of Robbie the Robot. One, (I think the first) was owned for many years by Forrest J Ackerman. However, when he finally closed the Ackermansion and sold off his collecion, I'm not sure where it ended up. Does anybody here know?
I'm sorry you took my comments about the improper conduct of certain Puritans as a condemnation of all. Granted, going by their own (sometimes) standard of collective responsibility they could all be considered guilty, I hold none responsible except for those who actually committed the act.
in Colon's time, nobody knew that European's diseases could be fatal for indians...
Yes, and as soon as they did, they took advantage of it by giving the Indians blankets from smallpox patients to get rid of them faster. Now, as you say, we have better ethics than the Puritans and other early American colonists. I agree that we need to make as sure as we can first that we're not harming existing life, or at least finding ways to preserve it. I really doubt that there's much there to worry about but it needs to be considered and due dilligance taken.
I presume that means that the ship gets high enough that it can launch secondary vehicles from there to orbit. Usefull and probably cheaper than what we're doing now, even if the ship itself can't quite reach orbit. Great! I hadn't known that and am glad to read about it. Thanx!
ROTFLMAO! You make your point in a very witty way. Thank you. However, AFAIK, the plane itself was a dead end. Just a proof of concept, just as this one is. Honored for what it is, with nothing else expected from it.
You gotta learn to walk before you learn run. You gotta learn to take the first step when learning to walk.
Yes, and this is a grand first step. And that's exactly what it was designed to be: a first step, and nothing more. You make some great points about the next steps. Thanks for your insigtful, informative input.
I gather that the problem here is the ammount of dead weight needed to contain and support the additional fuel rises faster than the advantage from that fuel. Always a problem, of course, but more so when the ship is designed to be launched from an airplane. You can't get the ship so heavy that the launching plane can't lift it. I don't know if that's the issue or what, but I can certainly imagine it becoming one eventually.
I'm not posting a critique of the design, mearly pointing out its limits. The design is, as far as I know, just fine for a ship that's only intended for sub-orbital flight. As that's all that's needed to win the prize, that's all that they did. Sensible, really, building your design around your goal. I'm only reminding people that its abilities are limited.
No. Mercury-Redstone had a clear design path leading to the Moon: first single manned flights, then pairs of astronauts, then three together, until they had a capsule that could reach the moon, land and return. The fuel this ship uses simply isn't powerfull enough to reach orbit and it can't be changed to a different fuel without a complete redesign. Accept the fact that even though it's limited to sub-orbital flight it's an important milestone on the path to space.
NASA may have cut corners to get us to the moon, but they've been out of the risk business for years. There was no reason to stop the shuttle for over two years after the Challanger crash, except for NASA's desire to make spaceflight risk free.
I think you're reading a little too much into the term. What I meant by it is that this particular way to get a ship to 100 km can't be extended into one that can reach orbit, or descend from orbit if it were there. The hot air balloon could be considered a dead end too, if you want to stretch things, but look what came from it. The value of this flight will be in what it inspires as much as in what it does and I honor the people who designed it for that.
You make an important point, but misunderstand mine. I'm not knocking the achievement, just pointing out its limits. This ship was designed to win the prize and nothing else. It wasn't designed to reach orbit because the terms on the prize didn't specify that. All I'm asking is that you be realistic about this, and not expect it to do things it was never intended for.
As far as the X projects, I probably know more about them than most people, because I know people who worked on them. This prize is very much in their tradition, and I hope the tradition continues.
Once this prize is won, we need another, specifying that the same vehicle reaches orbit, returns to Earth and then does it again within a limited time frame. I hope somebody will have the vision to offer one.
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If were crazy enough to want to write a HHGTTG book, I'd simply state that all the Vogons did was make it almost impossible for anybody to find any Earth. Even with a probability of infinity minus one that you could find one, the Heart of Gold could manage it, it would be the one Arthur was on, and he'd be picked up a fraction of a second before the bullet hit. No problem, except that the probability is also infinity minus one that I could write a book that matched both the writing style and quality of the originals.
In the forward, he explains how the inconsistancies came about. He never tried to resolve them, but he did want the record set conclusively wrong.
What I'm hoping for is that they'll realize that Adams accidentally left himself an opening in the last book for a continuation: as long as The Heart of Gold is still around, literally anything can happen. I saw that when I read the book, but never mentioned it because I knew he wanted to end the series and didn't want people bugging him for Yet Another HGTTG book. Now, of course, it's safe to mention it.
In the introduction to the collection of the first four books (and short story) Douglas Adams explained why every version of HGTTG controdicted every other version. Is the BBC going to maintain this tradition, or are they going to follow the books?
What original blueprints? They were thrown away years ago. Not only that, the only surviving Saturn V has been on its side for years, and would probably collapse if they tried to upright it.
Mona may not have been simply late, but so late she'd already received a disconnect notice. If she's living as hand-to-mouth as the article implies, she's probably paying each utility at the last minute before disconnection simply because she just can't afford to pay all of them every month.
Exactly. If they wanted to avoid helping out deadbeats, all they had to do was give the extension only to people who called in to report that they'd been unable to pay. Deadbeats wouldn't bother, because they're probably hoping you won't notice if they don't call attention to themselves.
I can't help but feel sorry for Mona and the uncountable other people in her situation. She had her power disconnected for three days because of this, lost all the food in her refrigerator through no fault of her own, and all she got in return was her reinstatement fees waved. All through the article I kept waiting for somebody to correct their cranial-rectal insertion and put a hold on any disconnects or late fees until the system was back up. Clearly, they know that not everybody can get to their office during normal business hours -- why else have the payment centers in convenience stores -- and having their payment system down wasn't going to change that. When Mona called in on Day 2, she should have been told that the disconnect had been moved back until two days after the system was back up. If somebody isn't investigating why this wasn't done, and firing the people that dropped the ball,it's only because Pointy-haird middle managers tend to be employed by Pointy-haired CEO's.
And besides, the grapes are sour.
Seriously, this is a step along the path we need to take to get to space. The ship may not be capable of being developed into an orbital ship, but I'll bet there are many things on it that can be used on such a ship. All the things you're calling for are good, and we'll get to them, bur right now, we're still taking our first baby steps. It's hard for a baby to take its first steps, and when it does, it isn't steady on its feet and can't go far. Does that lessen the importance of those first steps? Of course not, and this is the same thing.
You mean the way the've thrown every obsticle in the way of civillian spaceflight? The way the've frozen their operation on the obsolete shuttle in order to keep the 25,000 people it takes to launch one employed? Oh, you mean what NASA did over thirty years ago back when they actually were active in pioneering spaceflight instead of sitting on their laurels.
The update may be using any number of ports that would be blocked by a firewall. I've no idea why they would or should, but if so, it would make it rather hard to update with the firewall turned on. Of course, as at least one other poster mentioned, the firewall doesn't really have any effect on the update. Probably just NanoLimp setting up their instructions so that J. Random Luser can follow them and turning things off always seems safer to lusers than turning them on.
Well, at least he never got so low into the gutter that his cry became, "Exterminate, eliminate, distroy!"
Asimov claimed, later, that Campbell actually gave his three laws their form. Campbell pointed out that Asimov had been using a set of three, never specified laws for robots in his stories and gave them their format: A robot may not harm a human being or through inaction allow one to come to harm, a robot must obey any order given by a human being unless it would violate the First Law, and a robot must protect its existence unless by so doing it would violate the First or Second Law. The most interesting thing about them is how they're structured, to make each law subordinate to any earlier law, making the First Law override everything else. Over the years, Asimov came up with an astonishing number of ways for these laws to create problems that could only be solved by humans.
Across the years, there were several versions of Robbie the Robot. One, (I think the first) was owned for many years by Forrest J Ackerman. However, when he finally closed the Ackermansion and sold off his collecion, I'm not sure where it ended up. Does anybody here know?
I'm sorry you took my comments about the improper conduct of certain Puritans as a condemnation of all. Granted, going by their own (sometimes) standard of collective responsibility they could all be considered guilty, I hold none responsible except for those who actually committed the act.
Yes, and as soon as they did, they took advantage of it by giving the Indians blankets from smallpox patients to get rid of them faster. Now, as you say, we have better ethics than the Puritans and other early American colonists. I agree that we need to make as sure as we can first that we're not harming existing life, or at least finding ways to preserve it. I really doubt that there's much there to worry about but it needs to be considered and due dilligance taken.
I presume that means that the ship gets high enough that it can launch secondary vehicles from there to orbit. Usefull and probably cheaper than what we're doing now, even if the ship itself can't quite reach orbit. Great! I hadn't known that and am glad to read about it. Thanx!
ROTFLMAO! You make your point in a very witty way. Thank you. However, AFAIK, the plane itself was a dead end. Just a proof of concept, just as this one is. Honored for what it is, with nothing else expected from it.
Yes, and this is a grand first step. And that's exactly what it was designed to be: a first step, and nothing more. You make some great points about the next steps. Thanks for your insigtful, informative input.
I gather that the problem here is the ammount of dead weight needed to contain and support the additional fuel rises faster than the advantage from that fuel. Always a problem, of course, but more so when the ship is designed to be launched from an airplane. You can't get the ship so heavy that the launching plane can't lift it. I don't know if that's the issue or what, but I can certainly imagine it becoming one eventually.
I'm not posting a critique of the design, mearly pointing out its limits. The design is, as far as I know, just fine for a ship that's only intended for sub-orbital flight. As that's all that's needed to win the prize, that's all that they did. Sensible, really, building your design around your goal. I'm only reminding people that its abilities are limited.
No. Mercury-Redstone had a clear design path leading to the Moon: first single manned flights, then pairs of astronauts, then three together, until they had a capsule that could reach the moon, land and return. The fuel this ship uses simply isn't powerfull enough to reach orbit and it can't be changed to a different fuel without a complete redesign. Accept the fact that even though it's limited to sub-orbital flight it's an important milestone on the path to space.
NASA may have cut corners to get us to the moon, but they've been out of the risk business for years. There was no reason to stop the shuttle for over two years after the Challanger crash, except for NASA's desire to make spaceflight risk free.
I think you're reading a little too much into the term. What I meant by it is that this particular way to get a ship to 100 km can't be extended into one that can reach orbit, or descend from orbit if it were there. The hot air balloon could be considered a dead end too, if you want to stretch things, but look what came from it. The value of this flight will be in what it inspires as much as in what it does and I honor the people who designed it for that.
As far as the X projects, I probably know more about them than most people, because I know people who worked on them. This prize is very much in their tradition, and I hope the tradition continues.
Once this prize is won, we need another, specifying that the same vehicle reaches orbit, returns to Earth and then does it again within a limited time frame. I hope somebody will have the vision to offer one.