These ideas have been floating around NASA and the defense industry for years. They have also been demonstrated at Sandia. So why haven't these engines been put into use? As someone said, they provide very little acceleartion thus they'd only be able to get a ship to the moon by creating an increasingly eccentric orbit around the earth then eventually transferring to a very eccentric moon orbit and normalizing. Such a process would take a month at least and more realistically 3-6. As a result the only projects suggested were either unmanned deep space probes or like one that I briefly worked on with JPL called SmallTug to create the technology that could eventually create a supply chain for a moon base. Most of these projects have been put on hold for the Crew Excursion Vehicle.
So while the ESA is desperately trying to generate some positive press to help people forget about their recent failings the good old US of A is putting proven and effective technology into getting back to the moon. What I will be interested in seeing is a dual propulsion system that uses conventional propulsion to gain a large initial delta v and then use a constant ion thrust to gradually increase it for longer manned missions (can someone say Mars?)
It's more like "I Can See How MS Avoids Catastrophe With This Move"
To understand why they will continue support let's look at what would happen if they discontinued it. Initially panic would set in as a few million Mac users start worrying about what they'll do for Office software. Keep in mind Macintosh users tend to be more high end users who wouldn't hesitate to pay $300-$500 for nice looking and well supported Office software. This will start a huge competition among MS's competitors to produce software. I'd expect Sun to port StarOffice, Corel to port WordPerfect and about 20 other companies will come out of the woodwork. I also wouldn't be surprised if Adobe tries to get involved in some way shape or form.
After a couple of months the panic starts to settle down as Mac users realize they can still use their Office products until Office 13 is released and they move into a more calm search for alternatives. Since Mac users are so used to having standards fed down from Apple, the idea of many different Office apps using many different formats will displease them. As a result Apple will have to step in and name a standard.
There are pretty much two possibilites here: either Macintosh will team up with some company not named Sun to make their own propreitary format or they will partner with Sun and tell all software makers that they must use OpenDocument to get the coveted Apple seal of approval. Logically the first sounds more like something Apple would do because they love controlling proprietary formats but the truth is that unless they bought Corel or Adobe they won't be able to create a set of enterprise level Office formats in time. They'd have to borrow from the open source community just like they did with the kernel. So lets assume for now that they would opt to partner with Sun.
As I said before Mac users tend to be more high end users so they would create a well funded and supported proprietary client (either StarOffice or something based on it) using the OpenDocument standard that could likely be ported to Linux and maybe even Windows. Moreover as Mac users also tend to be in more important positions, there would be increased pressure for people to switch to OpenDocument. Afterall, when you linux-using IT guys say "Hey, We just found a great new Office format, you guys should switch" companies say "No thanks. Since you guys are tech savvy, convert your stuff to what we use.". If however your high powered executive using a $2000 Mac system with a $3000 21" Studio Display says "All new important policy memos will be sent as.odt because my new Office program doesn't have a save as.doc option and I don't want to bother exporting as PDF" people start to change the standard they use.
Even in that hypothetical case the chances are that Microsoft would recognize how threatening Apple using OpenDocument would be and intervene by encouraging them to partner with someone else offering proprietary plugins to save as.doc. Ultimately they recognize that unlike WMP or IE they not only control the market, but they have no real threats unless they leave.
4. They'll need money, of course, so I predict a supplemental stock offering timed with a 20-to-1 stock split. 2006 is a building year for Google.
The operative phrase is "They'll need money", since shares of Google have never been within the reach of the average investor splitting the stock will create a short term boost. As a result they'd split then make an offering in a week or so, enough time to let people buy the price up but before the major investment firms start taking profits. The interesting thing about this prediction is that Google just offered up 4 billion in shares. Thus to say they'll need money is to say they'll try something big (like his gCube idea). It's a pretty bold prediction and I doubt it will come true.
11TiVo will be bought by another company
When I first read that I thought "That's about as bold as saying Microsoft will still suck at security". Then I saw how many./ers doubt this. Make no doubt about it, TiVo is worth buying for the brand name alone.
15.Whatever we expect from Google might just as easily appear from Yahoo, too. With so much attention on Google, Yahoo is operating under the RADAR and will have several surprises for the market while AOL continues to shrink.
This would have been good if he hadn't said "Whatever we expect from Google might just as easily appear from Yahoo, too." Whatever we expect from Google probably won't come out of Google because we have such high expectations. Still Yahoo has been flying under the radar, I expect them to use that to their advantage and introduce some interesting new services. The fact that he talks about Yahoo and AOL in the same sentence is very interesting. It leads me to beleive that he thinks Yahoo will start encrouching on AOL's turf.
The only way I see them doing that is if they release a browsing environment comparable to AOL and MSN to push their advertising further. Considering they don't have a dialup infrastructure to deal with they might be able to price it competitively.
If you recall back when Apple announced the Intel move that they were saying that OS X would not be able to run on any old Intel PC. Rumors flew and many people thought that it would require a certain chip on the motherboard to load. The asusmption I had was that it would have to be somewhat crucial to the opertaion of the computer so that people wouldn't just find ways of bypassing or faking it, I may have been wrong though.
Here's the question: if the Intel Mac Machines do not in any way shape or form prevent Windows from being loaded, what became of this chip? Will Vista have special patches to deal with it, will it just appear in Device Manager as an unkown system resource or is not there in the first place?
If it's not there then I don't see what stops me from installing OS X on any computer. The only problem might be drivers but then again there is always OpenDarwin.
First and foremost I love studies that compare the system requirements on the label. This seems like an obvious ploy to convince developing countries to use Windows on hand-me-down hardware. This article is not going to convice anyone that even if XP can run on a Pentium 1 it is worth paying more in software licensing fees than they paid for the hardware.
The only way Windows will convince people that Windows is good for legacy hardware will be if they either restart support for Windows 95 and Windows 98 or write a service pack that will remove or downgrade many system components. This of course presents a major problem for them since they also have to please the OEM's desire for software that forces you to upgrade.
This much aside I beleive all this article shows is that Microsoft recognizes they might lose market share in developing countries and that is a huge compliment and inspiration to open source companies.
Exactly, has the thought ever occured to anyone that this is all just hype to generate inmterest and raise the stock price of both Google and Opera? Even if they do buy Opera it might just be to keep MS guessing.
Given Apple's track record, their understanding of markets, and their ability to package a whole product which does what it claims to in a simple, useful, and aesthetically pleasing way, this would have a better chance than most previous attempts at being _the_ breakthough device they've been looking for.
Or it means that Apple would enter the market with good but severly overpriced offerings allowing them to take a small marketshare.
It's open to Microsoft and anyone who wants to pay them enough, but keep in mind the technology isn't hidden, just blocked legally. This means converters and tools will be developed and served on russian mirrors. While this likely will not be open for American businesses it certainly could be open for others.
That'd be really funny if it weren't true. I half expect windows to automatically install the plugin, somehow merge it with WMP so they can make it incredibly difficult to uninstall and constantly make itself the default plugin.
Re:All fun and games until...
on
Space Tourism?
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· Score: 1
That's exactly part of the fun. The possibility of death is what makes Skydiving, Swimming with Sharks and climbing Everest so exciting. Even if someone does die it won't stop others. It should also be pointed out that even after Columbia space travel is a very mature human endeavor and many of the bugs have been worked out so it's not quite as risky as say climbing Everest in the 50s.
My hope is not so much with Space tourists as with SpaceshipOne. The Ultrabillionaires spend hundreds of millions on superyachts, one has to expect that they will get bored with that pissing contest and take up having personal spacecraft asd their next pissing contest. That more than anything will help the commercial space industry and make space more accessible to us.
All In all though this is the only optiuon so far but I hope the concept of space tourism catches on.
Slashdot Mirror
These ideas have been floating around NASA and the defense industry for years. They have also been demonstrated at Sandia. So why haven't these engines been put into use? As someone said, they provide very little acceleartion thus they'd only be able to get a ship to the moon by creating an increasingly eccentric orbit around the earth then eventually transferring to a very eccentric moon orbit and normalizing. Such a process would take a month at least and more realistically 3-6. As a result the only projects suggested were either unmanned deep space probes or like one that I briefly worked on with JPL called SmallTug to create the technology that could eventually create a supply chain for a moon base. Most of these projects have been put on hold for the Crew Excursion Vehicle.
So while the ESA is desperately trying to generate some positive press to help people forget about their recent failings the good old US of A is putting proven and effective technology into getting back to the moon. What I will be interested in seeing is a dual propulsion system that uses conventional propulsion to gain a large initial delta v and then use a constant ion thrust to gradually increase it for longer manned missions (can someone say Mars?)
It's more like "I Can See How MS Avoids Catastrophe With This Move"
.odt because my new Office program doesn't have a save as .doc option and I don't want to bother exporting as PDF" people start to change the standard they use.
.doc. Ultimately they recognize that unlike WMP or IE they not only control the market, but they have no real threats unless they leave.
To understand why they will continue support let's look at what would happen if they discontinued it. Initially panic would set in as a few million Mac users start worrying about what they'll do for Office software. Keep in mind Macintosh users tend to be more high end users who wouldn't hesitate to pay $300-$500 for nice looking and well supported Office software. This will start a huge competition among MS's competitors to produce software. I'd expect Sun to port StarOffice, Corel to port WordPerfect and about 20 other companies will come out of the woodwork. I also wouldn't be surprised if Adobe tries to get involved in some way shape or form.
After a couple of months the panic starts to settle down as Mac users realize they can still use their Office products until Office 13 is released and they move into a more calm search for alternatives. Since Mac users are so used to having standards fed down from Apple, the idea of many different Office apps using many different formats will displease them. As a result Apple will have to step in and name a standard.
There are pretty much two possibilites here: either Macintosh will team up with some company not named Sun to make their own propreitary format or they will partner with Sun and tell all software makers that they must use OpenDocument to get the coveted Apple seal of approval. Logically the first sounds more like something Apple would do because they love controlling proprietary formats but the truth is that unless they bought Corel or Adobe they won't be able to create a set of enterprise level Office formats in time. They'd have to borrow from the open source community just like they did with the kernel. So lets assume for now that they would opt to partner with Sun.
As I said before Mac users tend to be more high end users so they would create a well funded and supported proprietary client (either StarOffice or something based on it) using the OpenDocument standard that could likely be ported to Linux and maybe even Windows. Moreover as Mac users also tend to be in more important positions, there would be increased pressure for people to switch to OpenDocument. Afterall, when you linux-using IT guys say "Hey, We just found a great new Office format, you guys should switch" companies say "No thanks. Since you guys are tech savvy, convert your stuff to what we use.". If however your high powered executive using a $2000 Mac system with a $3000 21" Studio Display says "All new important policy memos will be sent as
Even in that hypothetical case the chances are that Microsoft would recognize how threatening Apple using OpenDocument would be and intervene by encouraging them to partner with someone else offering proprietary plugins to save as
Indeed, it would appear I'm behind on the news. Sorry.
4. They'll need money, of course, so I predict a supplemental stock offering timed with a 20-to-1 stock split. 2006 is a building year for Google.
./ers doubt this. Make no doubt about it, TiVo is worth buying for the brand name alone.
The operative phrase is "They'll need money", since shares of Google have never been within the reach of the average investor splitting the stock will create a short term boost. As a result they'd split then make an offering in a week or so, enough time to let people buy the price up but before the major investment firms start taking profits. The interesting thing about this prediction is that Google just offered up 4 billion in shares. Thus to say they'll need money is to say they'll try something big (like his gCube idea). It's a pretty bold prediction and I doubt it will come true.
11TiVo will be bought by another company
When I first read that I thought "That's about as bold as saying Microsoft will still suck at security". Then I saw how many
15.Whatever we expect from Google might just as easily appear from Yahoo, too. With so much attention on Google, Yahoo is operating under the RADAR and will have several surprises for the market while AOL continues to shrink.
This would have been good if he hadn't said "Whatever we expect from Google might just as easily appear from Yahoo, too." Whatever we expect from Google probably won't come out of Google because we have such high expectations. Still Yahoo has been flying under the radar, I expect them to use that to their advantage and introduce some interesting new services. The fact that he talks about Yahoo and AOL in the same sentence is very interesting. It leads me to beleive that he thinks Yahoo will start encrouching on AOL's turf.
The only way I see them doing that is if they release a browsing environment comparable to AOL and MSN to push their advertising further. Considering they don't have a dialup infrastructure to deal with they might be able to price it competitively.
If you recall back when Apple announced the Intel move that they were saying that OS X would not be able to run on any old Intel PC. Rumors flew and many people thought that it would require a certain chip on the motherboard to load. The asusmption I had was that it would have to be somewhat crucial to the opertaion of the computer so that people wouldn't just find ways of bypassing or faking it, I may have been wrong though.
Here's the question: if the Intel Mac Machines do not in any way shape or form prevent Windows from being loaded, what became of this chip? Will Vista have special patches to deal with it, will it just appear in Device Manager as an unkown system resource or is not there in the first place?
If it's not there then I don't see what stops me from installing OS X on any computer. The only problem might be drivers but then again there is always OpenDarwin.
First and foremost I love studies that compare the system requirements on the label. This seems like an obvious ploy to convince developing countries to use Windows on hand-me-down hardware. This article is not going to convice anyone that even if XP can run on a Pentium 1 it is worth paying more in software licensing fees than they paid for the hardware.
The only way Windows will convince people that Windows is good for legacy hardware will be if they either restart support for Windows 95 and Windows 98 or write a service pack that will remove or downgrade many system components. This of course presents a major problem for them since they also have to please the OEM's desire for software that forces you to upgrade.
This much aside I beleive all this article shows is that Microsoft recognizes they might lose market share in developing countries and that is a huge compliment and inspiration to open source companies.
Exactly, has the thought ever occured to anyone that this is all just hype to generate inmterest and raise the stock price of both Google and Opera? Even if they do buy Opera it might just be to keep MS guessing.
Given Apple's track record, their understanding of markets, and their ability to package a whole product which does what it claims to in a simple, useful, and aesthetically pleasing way, this would have a better chance than most previous attempts at being _the_ breakthough device they've been looking for. Or it means that Apple would enter the market with good but severly overpriced offerings allowing them to take a small marketshare.
Maybe, at least the state won't have to pay for his trip to club fed.
It's open to Microsoft and anyone who wants to pay them enough, but keep in mind the technology isn't hidden, just blocked legally. This means converters and tools will be developed and served on russian mirrors. While this likely will not be open for American businesses it certainly could be open for others.
That'd be really funny if it weren't true. I half expect windows to automatically install the plugin, somehow merge it with WMP so they can make it incredibly difficult to uninstall and constantly make itself the default plugin.
That's exactly part of the fun. The possibility of death is what makes Skydiving, Swimming with Sharks and climbing Everest so exciting. Even if someone does die it won't stop others. It should also be pointed out that even after Columbia space travel is a very mature human endeavor and many of the bugs have been worked out so it's not quite as risky as say climbing Everest in the 50s.
My hope is not so much with Space tourists as with SpaceshipOne. The Ultrabillionaires spend hundreds of millions on superyachts, one has to expect that they will get bored with that pissing contest and take up having personal spacecraft asd their next pissing contest. That more than anything will help the commercial space industry and make space more accessible to us.
All In all though this is the only optiuon so far but I hope the concept of space tourism catches on.