Given the huge success of the iPod, perhaps a better strategy would be to spin off the computing business.
It is surprising how Woz misunderstands the success of the iPod so deeply. He seems to think of it as a Palm Pilot. A standalone gadget. Jobs obviously takes a different view. He sees a vertically integrated entertainment industry from content production to device presentation. The iPod gets its cache by being associated with other enlightened Apple solutions. Spin it off and the magic is gone, just like IBM Thinkpads and Lenovo. I am not saying the prospect of proprietary integrated technology solutions excites me, but that it where Apple is headed. Expect to see Jobs as next Disney CEO.
I find the slashdot priesthood's control of this forum to be just as odious as Blizzard's emperious policing of WoW. In both cases you have a mob in which individuals are singled out and judged by unwritten rules by an invisible elite and given summary judgement. Try making positive comments about the Bush administration, or negative comments about global warming, the space elevator, or Star Wars and watch your privileges get suspended for 'bad posting'.
I think the GP was referring to the fact that both the major parties have major fascistic tendencies.
I think you don't know the meaning of the word fascist. You are using it as a hyperbolic and misleading description of executive priviledge asserted by the President, and reactionary law making in congress, in the war against terror.
China on the other hand has a very ambitious manned program, which has already made great strides.
Two flights in two years, the third not until fall 2007. Two craft docking not until 2010. All with essentially off the shelf Russian hardware. A tepid program I'd say.
I would also argue that China's current lunar strategy has been a driver to the renewed American efforts in this area.
Definitely. Nothing like a little cold war paranoia to grab funding and advance the state of the art! This is a good thing. The US might otherwise be spending the loot on middle class entitlements.
The irony is that in America, anyone who votes for the two major parties is voting for the rise of Fascism.
No, the two party system is simply the byproduct of the need for a elected majority to make law and control the US government. The republicans and democrats ones simply exchange members from the political center in long period cycles. I see the purity of Reagan's party (smaller government, fewer taxes, strong defense, moral clarity) has been sorely compromised in the present by moderates. Today's republican party is unrecognisable even from the mid 1990's. The pendulum is likely to swing back democrat soon.
JIMO was a mission that would have explored probably the single most important place in the solar system - Europa. Mission cancelled. Why? Because we want to go back to the moon.
JIMO was cancelled because of the enormous cost and high technical risk of its nuclear electric propulsion.
Earth is currently moving out of a window of opportunity to send a probe off to Neptune via Jupiter (moving out in terms of mission planning time)
That is easy to say. Jupiter spends 95%+ of the time outside of the window for *any* flyby trajectory to the outer solar system.
Earth-based observations are limited in the size of planets they can discover due to their detection methods.
So we have heard for the past 30 years. Yet groundbased results continue to pour in. There is no question the US will build a TPF.
I can tell you are really excited about the idea of us building some really big rockets to carry some guys off to the moon for a 30 minute sightsee again. I'm happy for you, really I am. I'm not even concerned about the cost of this mission either - it's the opportunity cost that bothers me.
Sightsee? What else is exploration? Doing science great. But you will never see a planetary mission launched without a camera. For all of the instrument readings and "serious science" being done, it is the pictures, the landscapes that matter to the public! Consider the lousy Mars Spirit landing site choosen by the propeller heads at JPL. The public was pretty bored with exploring a featureless ruble pile. Only after Spirit started climbing some hills and producing some awesome view did the public gain interest. The eye candy matters. Fortunately, the outer solar system is loaded with it.
It seems to me that the opportunity cost of ignoring the moon is higher than that of briefly defering some science missions. With many nations now possessing a space launch capability, a competative strategic environment will inevitably evolve around lunar exploration between the US, Europe, Russia, and China. The US cannot ignore that. Wisely, President Bush is seeing to it that we are out front. Such competition will not develop over a JIMO mission. You can bet if it launches in 2020 it won't pass other spacecraft on the way.
Still, given that the US is the sole operator of solar system exploration probes right now, maybe it's time for the rest of the world to actually come on board and free the US to do what it wants without having to carry the load of the world's expectations.
Space science is dramatically less of a priority in Europe than in the US when you compare budgets and GDP. They are mostly occupied with modest Mars and Venus orbiter missions. Even these are probably too pedestrian for your exotic tastes. And they're interested in the moon too. Russia and China don't even have programs.
Sorry, but spending billions to repeat an exercise from over 30 years ago does not have anything to do with space exploration.
A whole world awaits exploration and you call it a repeat program. The billions are being spent because an awesome capability (Apollo) was allowed to atrophy. 30+ years of stagnation require some repair. The scientific and strategic importance of the moon, asteroids, and Mars are to great to ignore. I wouldn't all it repetition of Apollo. It is the logical extension, and high time too.
This flag-waving project has casued the indefinite postponement of the Terrestrial Planet Finder, and the not-quite indefinite postponement of the James Webb Space Telescope (Hubble's replacement), as well as cancellations of any exploratory probes after Pluto Express, so it can be argued that the US is now getting out of the business of space exploration.
I suppose it can be argued, but not very convincingly. Active/planned US missions:
Mars Spirit & Opportunity Rovers
Cassini
Messenger
Mars Surveyor
Mars Odyssey
New Horizons
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Exploration Rover
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Let us not forget that Hubble will be rescued. This is the most robust planetary program of any nation, by far! All this and the CEV too. It doesn't get any better. JWST and TPF will improve technically while they are being replanned. Remember how the expensive VOIR morphed into Magellan? The same will happen here.
Not to be cynical- but keeping Atlantis for spare parts doesn't put money in anyone's pockets.
It does indirectly. The budgets costs of parts and Atlantis support infrastructure will be applied directly to the CEV, the new moon rocket, and lunar lander. The new budget reality is taking hold. This is good news. For the first time in 30+ years the US is back in the business of space exploration.
Story submitter is complaining about US propaganda and then links to an article on Al Jazeera?
You got that right. These are the same savages who gleefully conspire with the captors of Jill Carroll to play sadistic tapes of her begging for her life to a to a gloating Muslim audience. All in the name of Islam, hmm? I would cheer if the Air Force put them out of business permanently.
Astronomy and planetary science have been well funded for 15 years. There great new missions in the pipeline. Progress continues to be made in extrasolar studies. NASA space science is as healthy as it has ever been. The Planetary Society is nothing more than a greedy lobbying organisation that takes with both hands. They will never be satisfied. They are no different from AARP or AFLCIO. I hardly consider their views on the direction of the US space program to be mainstream. I would not dream of helping them out.
The article you linked says it has been defered. The cancelling part was the author's embellishment. This is happening because NASA administrator Griffin is responsibly trying to balance the retirement of the space shuttle, the completion of ISS, and the development of the CEV. Something has to give, it is space science. They've had a heck of a run. Look on the bright side. Extrasolar science is advancing rapidly without a TPF. The extra few years until it is flown will allow technology to advance even more.
There's more to "interacting" than killing, raping, and torturing. I say it's about time soldiers learn that.
Well, our soldiers also passed out soccer balls in an effort to win hearts and minds. But seriously, this program is a useful tool for training to counter islamist insurgent battle tactics: the use of women and children as human shields, the fake surrender, the roadside bomb, and sniping from mosques.
And to think it only took you 7 releases to figure it out. If the rest of Micro$oft's customers are as willing to waste their money, their future is very bright.
However, I'd personally be screwed if I made much less than $100K (rent is over $2000/month in my very plain, old neighborhood in California). I don't really spend much on anything else.
If housing prices in California are too high, make the market and move to a place where prices are lower! Midwest cities have excellent high tech opportunities and less expensive housing. I own 3 beds and two baths on a quiet acre for hundreds less then what you are paying in rent. With my big SUV, life is grand!
Well, as long as that involves being willing to de-recognize countries that elect the "wrong" people, like Hamas. After all, its not real democracy if you don't vote the way that we want you to.
The democratic choice that brought Hamas to power in the kingdoms of Samaria and Judea is a good thing. It is self determination. But voters must realise that their choices have consequences. Hamas' vision is to continue violent struggle from a position of weakness and maintaining the wretched status quo. They reject international will and defy those who provide aid. They should not be surprised when aid is withdrawn.
Tom Lord's Arch would be a better decentralized CM choice. bzr is a redundantant project, as many Python projects are, it is slow and subject to tumultuous and backward incompatable changes in the Python core.
Saying that "piracy" isn't an appropriate term is complete bull, to the point of being an even more propagandaish argument than the RIAA et. al. using "steal" or "theft" in its place.
Hyperbolic terms like piracy are a recent invention of holders of copyright, particularly for music or film, in order to deceive the public into a particular, and warped, line of thought. How am I spreading propaganda in suggesting that people think more freely about an important issue? BTW "copyright protection" is another confusing word you might want to avoid. Copyright laws were not created to protect authors. They are a gratuitous gesture made by society to encourage authors to share their works. Such gratutities are not necessary for software because the barrier to producing it is so low and the social need to share works is so high. Can you imagine a mathematician hiding his theorems so that his colleagues could not apprciate his results? The same is true of software, it is no different.
I prefer to use the term, copying prohibited in the United States, rather than the confusing term, piracy. Clearly, copying is a matter of local law and not universal right. Laws surrounding copying vary depending on where it occurs. In most countries copying software is not a crime. Gates and his ilk have managed to attach a stigma to copying in the United States and so it is illegal here. But he also tries to exercise undue influence on developing countries using, yes, bullying tactics. I find him loathsome.
They applauded because Bush's proposals to "fix" social security were terrible and no one wanted them except the investement firms and big business who would get to play with all the money. They applauded because they actually managed to stop some small part of the Bush agenda (albiet a small part).
Yet the demographic timebomb that will distroy Social Security as we know it continues to tick, and the democrats offer no alternatives. Credit President Bush with meeting the problem head on. In the end the solution must contain elements of his proposal. Social Security will become the anti-poverty program it was originally intended to be and not a national socialist retirement program. The democrats defend the indefensable, and they take pleasure in it. How petty their agenda has become.
Not only is it beyond annoying, it is downright wrong! This is an amazing result. The effective temperature of the planet may be low. But if it is 5 times (volume? radius?) as large as the Earth it will produce prodigous amounts of radiogenic heat. It's heat of formation will also be huge. It's internal temperature will be much higher than Earth's. If it has a similar composition to Earth there will definitely be active volcanism, perhaps plate tectonics. Maybe liquid metallic volcanism, who knows? The large size also suggests it might receive more cometary infall hence have more volatiles. It might have a huge insulating atmosphere or oceans. No, this is about the most interesting exoplanet discovery to date.
Agreed. As a serious poster and always at risk for being thrown in the Slashdot penalty box, how do you respond to this stuff? If you defend the professors and rail against the neocons you will be upmodded. If you express satisfaction that the light of day is being shined on some real whackos, down you go. Why not record a global vote on the quality of the submissions so that some of these princes can get some real feedback? Maybe Taco can illuminate us in one of his 'fireside chats'. I see you have been downmodded. Nice.
I thought that was a problem with the solar panel mounts and not the actual structure of the vehicle. It caused them to aerobrake more slowly than planned I think.
You are correct. I used to work at Hughes. The spacecraft structure is made out of graphite honeycomb panels in a six sided structure, three panels for payload electronics, three panels for satellite bus electronics.. They are very light and can sustain lots of damage and still keep their strength. I am not aware of a spacecraft ever failing in the way suggested by the article. There might be an application for the material, but it ain't spacecraft.
It has been quite a while since the crash landing of the sample capsule. I have seen absolutely no intermediate results, or how compromised the samples might be. My understanding is that many isotope ratios of the Sun's photosphere preserve those of the pre-solar nebula. Genesis is supposed to measure these. I found this at Caltech that highlights one of the isotope problems being investigated.
Slashdot Mirror
Given the huge success of the iPod, perhaps a better strategy would be to spin off the computing business.
It is surprising how Woz misunderstands the success of the iPod so deeply. He seems to think of it as a Palm Pilot. A standalone gadget. Jobs obviously takes a different view. He sees a vertically integrated entertainment industry from content production to device presentation. The iPod gets its cache by being associated with other enlightened Apple solutions. Spin it off and the magic is gone, just like IBM Thinkpads and Lenovo. I am not saying the prospect of proprietary integrated technology solutions excites me, but that it where Apple is headed. Expect to see Jobs as next Disney CEO.
Nah, people will just blame that I'm fat on being lazy, it's not like there could be other contributing factors.
Have you considered the role of hypochondria? Sounds like a classic case. Anti-depressants can help.
I find the slashdot priesthood's control of this forum to be just as odious as Blizzard's emperious policing of WoW. In both cases you have a mob in which individuals are singled out and judged by unwritten rules by an invisible elite and given summary judgement. Try making positive comments about the Bush administration, or negative comments about global warming, the space elevator, or Star Wars and watch your privileges get suspended for 'bad posting'.
I think the GP was referring to the fact that both the major parties have major fascistic tendencies.
I think you don't know the meaning of the word fascist. You are using it as a hyperbolic and misleading description of executive priviledge asserted by the President, and reactionary law making in congress, in the war against terror.
China on the other hand has a very ambitious manned program, which has already made great strides.
Two flights in two years, the third not until fall 2007. Two craft docking not until 2010. All with essentially off the shelf Russian hardware. A tepid program I'd say.
I would also argue that China's current lunar strategy has been a driver to the renewed American efforts in this area.
Definitely. Nothing like a little cold war paranoia to grab funding and advance the state of the art! This is a good thing. The US might otherwise be spending the loot on middle class entitlements.
The irony is that in America, anyone who votes for the two major parties is voting for the rise of Fascism.
No, the two party system is simply the byproduct of the need for a elected majority to make law and control the US government. The republicans and democrats ones simply exchange members from the political center in long period cycles. I see the purity of Reagan's party (smaller government, fewer taxes, strong defense, moral clarity) has been sorely compromised in the present by moderates. Today's republican party is unrecognisable even from the mid 1990's. The pendulum is likely to swing back democrat soon.
JIMO was a mission that would have explored probably the single most important place in the solar system - Europa. Mission cancelled. Why? Because we want to go back to the moon.
JIMO was cancelled because of the enormous cost and high technical risk of its nuclear electric propulsion.
Earth is currently moving out of a window of opportunity to send a probe off to Neptune via Jupiter (moving out in terms of mission planning time)
That is easy to say. Jupiter spends 95%+ of the time outside of the window for *any* flyby trajectory to the outer solar system.
Earth-based observations are limited in the size of planets they can discover due to their detection methods.
So we have heard for the past 30 years. Yet groundbased results continue to pour in. There is no question the US will build a TPF.
I can tell you are really excited about the idea of us building some really big rockets to carry some guys off to the moon for a 30 minute sightsee again. I'm happy for you, really I am. I'm not even concerned about the cost of this mission either - it's the opportunity cost that bothers me.
Sightsee? What else is exploration? Doing science great. But you will never see a planetary mission launched without a camera. For all of the instrument readings and "serious science" being done, it is the pictures, the landscapes that matter to the public! Consider the lousy Mars Spirit landing site choosen by the propeller heads at JPL. The public was pretty bored with exploring a featureless ruble pile. Only after Spirit started climbing some hills and producing some awesome view did the public gain interest. The eye candy matters. Fortunately, the outer solar system is loaded with it.
It seems to me that the opportunity cost of ignoring the moon is higher than that of briefly defering some science missions. With many nations now possessing a space launch capability, a competative strategic environment will inevitably evolve around lunar exploration between the US, Europe, Russia, and China. The US cannot ignore that. Wisely, President Bush is seeing to it that we are out front. Such competition will not develop over a JIMO mission. You can bet if it launches in 2020 it won't pass other spacecraft on the way.
Still, given that the US is the sole operator of solar system exploration probes right now, maybe it's time for the rest of the world to actually come on board and free the US to do what it wants without having to carry the load of the world's expectations.
Space science is dramatically less of a priority in Europe than in the US when you compare budgets and GDP. They are mostly occupied with modest Mars and Venus orbiter missions. Even these are probably too pedestrian for your exotic tastes. And they're interested in the moon too. Russia and China don't even have programs.
Sorry, but spending billions to repeat an exercise from over 30 years ago does not have anything to do with space exploration.
A whole world awaits exploration and you call it a repeat program. The billions are being spent because an awesome capability (Apollo) was allowed to atrophy. 30+ years of stagnation require some repair. The scientific and strategic importance of the moon, asteroids, and Mars are to great to ignore. I wouldn't all it repetition of Apollo. It is the logical extension, and high time too.
This flag-waving project has casued the indefinite postponement of the Terrestrial Planet Finder, and the not-quite indefinite postponement of the James Webb Space Telescope (Hubble's replacement), as well as cancellations of any exploratory probes after Pluto Express, so it can be argued that the US is now getting out of the business of space exploration.
I suppose it can be argued, but not very convincingly. Active/planned US missions:
Let us not forget that Hubble will be rescued. This is the most robust planetary program of any nation, by far! All this and the CEV too. It doesn't get any better. JWST and TPF will improve technically while they are being replanned. Remember how the expensive VOIR morphed into Magellan? The same will happen here.
Not to be cynical- but keeping Atlantis for spare parts doesn't put money in anyone's pockets.
It does indirectly. The budgets costs of parts and Atlantis support infrastructure will be applied directly to the CEV, the new moon rocket, and lunar lander. The new budget reality is taking hold. This is good news. For the first time in 30+ years the US is back in the business of space exploration.
Story submitter is complaining about US propaganda and then links to an article on Al Jazeera?
You got that right. These are the same savages who gleefully conspire with the captors of Jill Carroll to play sadistic tapes of her begging for her life to a to a gloating Muslim audience. All in the name of Islam, hmm? I would cheer if the Air Force put them out of business permanently.
Astronomy and planetary science have been well funded for 15 years. There great new missions in the pipeline. Progress continues to be made in extrasolar studies. NASA space science is as healthy as it has ever been. The Planetary Society is nothing more than a greedy lobbying organisation that takes with both hands. They will never be satisfied. They are no different from AARP or AFLCIO. I hardly consider their views on the direction of the US space program to be mainstream. I would not dream of helping them out.
The Terrestrial Planet Finder has been cancelled:
The article you linked says it has been defered. The cancelling part was the author's embellishment. This is happening because NASA administrator Griffin is responsibly trying to balance the retirement of the space shuttle, the completion of ISS, and the development of the CEV. Something has to give, it is space science. They've had a heck of a run. Look on the bright side. Extrasolar science is advancing rapidly without a TPF. The extra few years until it is flown will allow technology to advance even more.
There's more to "interacting" than killing, raping, and torturing. I say it's about time soldiers learn that.
Well, our soldiers also passed out soccer balls in an effort to win hearts and minds. But seriously, this program is a useful tool for training to counter islamist insurgent battle tactics: the use of women and children as human shields, the fake surrender, the roadside bomb, and sniping from mosques.
And to think it only took you 7 releases to figure it out. If the rest of Micro$oft's customers are as willing to waste their money, their future is very bright.
If housing prices in California are too high, make the market and move to a place where prices are lower! Midwest cities have excellent high tech opportunities and less expensive housing. I own 3 beds and two baths on a quiet acre for hundreds less then what you are paying in rent. With my big SUV, life is grand!
Well, as long as that involves being willing to de-recognize countries that elect the "wrong" people, like Hamas. After all, its not real democracy if you don't vote the way that we want you to.
The democratic choice that brought Hamas to power in the kingdoms of Samaria and Judea is a good thing. It is self determination. But voters must realise that their choices have consequences. Hamas' vision is to continue violent struggle from a position of weakness and maintaining the wretched status quo. They reject international will and defy those who provide aid. They should not be surprised when aid is withdrawn.
Tom Lord's Arch would be a better decentralized CM choice. bzr is a redundantant project, as many Python projects are, it is slow and subject to tumultuous and backward incompatable changes in the Python core.
Saying that "piracy" isn't an appropriate term is complete bull, to the point of being an even more propagandaish argument than the RIAA et. al. using "steal" or "theft" in its place.
Hyperbolic terms like piracy are a recent invention of holders of copyright, particularly for music or film, in order to deceive the public into a particular, and warped, line of thought. How am I spreading propaganda in suggesting that people think more freely about an important issue? BTW "copyright protection" is another confusing word you might want to avoid. Copyright laws were not created to protect authors. They are a gratuitous gesture made by society to encourage authors to share their works. Such gratutities are not necessary for software because the barrier to producing it is so low and the social need to share works is so high. Can you imagine a mathematician hiding his theorems so that his colleagues could not apprciate his results? The same is true of software, it is no different.
I prefer to use the term, copying prohibited in the United States, rather than the confusing term, piracy. Clearly, copying is a matter of local law and not universal right. Laws surrounding copying vary depending on where it occurs. In most countries copying software is not a crime. Gates and his ilk have managed to attach a stigma to copying in the United States and so it is illegal here. But he also tries to exercise undue influence on developing countries using, yes, bullying tactics. I find him loathsome.
They applauded because Bush's proposals to "fix" social security were terrible and no one wanted them except the investement firms and big business who would get to play with all the money. They applauded because they actually managed to stop some small part of the Bush agenda (albiet a small part).
Yet the demographic timebomb that will distroy Social Security as we know it continues to tick, and the democrats offer no alternatives. Credit President Bush with meeting the problem head on. In the end the solution must contain elements of his proposal. Social Security will become the anti-poverty program it was originally intended to be and not a national socialist retirement program. The democrats defend the indefensable, and they take pleasure in it. How petty their agenda has become.
Not only is it beyond annoying, it is downright wrong! This is an amazing result. The effective temperature of the planet may be low. But if it is 5 times (volume? radius?) as large as the Earth it will produce prodigous amounts of radiogenic heat. It's heat of formation will also be huge. It's internal temperature will be much higher than Earth's. If it has a similar composition to Earth there will definitely be active volcanism, perhaps plate tectonics. Maybe liquid metallic volcanism, who knows? The large size also suggests it might receive more cometary infall hence have more volatiles. It might have a huge insulating atmosphere or oceans. No, this is about the most interesting exoplanet discovery to date.
Agreed. As a serious poster and always at risk for being thrown in the Slashdot penalty box, how do you respond to this stuff? If you defend the professors and rail against the neocons you will be upmodded. If you express satisfaction that the light of day is being shined on some real whackos, down you go. Why not record a global vote on the quality of the submissions so that some of these princes can get some real feedback? Maybe Taco can illuminate us in one of his 'fireside chats'. I see you have been downmodded. Nice.
I thought that was a problem with the solar panel mounts and not the actual structure of the vehicle. It caused them to aerobrake more slowly than planned I think.
You are correct. I used to work at Hughes. The spacecraft structure is made out of graphite honeycomb panels in a six sided structure, three panels for payload electronics, three panels for satellite bus electronics.. They are very light and can sustain lots of damage and still keep their strength. I am not aware of a spacecraft ever failing in the way suggested by the article. There might be an application for the material, but it ain't spacecraft.
It has been quite a while since the crash landing of the sample capsule. I have seen absolutely no intermediate results, or how compromised the samples might be. My understanding is that many isotope ratios of the Sun's photosphere preserve those of the pre-solar nebula. Genesis is supposed to measure these. I found this at Caltech that highlights one of the isotope problems being investigated.