It DOESN'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE where Apple stores credit card / serial number / address info. Look folks, it's pretty obvious. Any government larger than, say, North Korea, has the contacts, money and power to get any consumer or personal information running across their territory. Britain, France, Germany, hell even Portugal or Texas (well maybe not Texas).
So, all you can hope for, be you Chinese or American, Swiss or Tongan, is that your friggen Credit Card stays away from some clown in Eastern Europe who wants to make a quick buck. That's ALL you can hope to do.
You put something on a computer hooked to the Internet - it's not private anymore. End of story.
Look you. It's hard to be a fanboi around here. First it was Apple, then Jobs had to go and die on us. Then it was Google which somehow managed to go all Evil in the space of a few years.
There always were a few twisted folk who thought Gates was the second coming but we mostly ignored them except to use them as the butt of some pretty nasty jokes.
Who else? Nokia? Blackberry? Motorola? H-P ???????
So 'ol Elon shows up in a cool car and a rocketship. Man, that's pretty close to God hood around here. Car AND Rocket Scientist analogies.
Indeed. Caffeine is remarkably safe an effective, if not incredibly powerful. Coca leaves are also quite safe. Cocaine and amphetamines not so much. Of course, then one gets into the murky question of how much you let individuals control and take responsibility for their actions. I give the US another generation before pretty much everything is either on the table for everyone to snort or everything the other side of the classic triumvirate (alcohol, tobacco and firearms, oops, coffee) will get you tossed in jail.
Nobody (outside Slashdot and other highly reputable bits of the Internet) really questions whether ADD exists.
Many people wonder about a number of aspects of the problem:
- Where the break between normal and abnormal is. Like most biological issues, this behavior is on a continuum. Where do you intervene? - Which leads to the question of diagnostic accuracy and efficiency.
We know that amphetamine class drugs are helpful in real ADD. But these drugs (like virtually all drugs) have risks and benefits. Since amphetamines carry significant risks, who do you treat and how long. It is also clear than non-pharmeceutical approaches can work, but these are typically labor and time intensive. How do you manage this?
So there is plenty to discuss within the framework of diagnosis and treatment of the disease. But it most certainly exists.
It's there though. To be fair, NASA does have a fair amount of in house engineering although a hell of a lot less than in the glory days. But the big projects have always been through contractors.
NASA was more like the general contractor on a construction site - an architect designed things, structural engineers designed things, construction crews built it - but somebody had to organize it. And, with the Saturn V / Apollo stack, they had to organize the most complex device ever created. Took some work, it did. Especially when you consider the level of automation available then. Most engineers still used slide rules when Apollo 11 took off.
The 'basics' to Mars have hardly been proven. Actually, what SpaceX is doing is bootstrapping up on 'simple' things - getting something to LEO. That's been proven to work. Then going to Mars (perhaps). But you have to start doing relatively straightforward stuff before you can do the esoteric - at least in meatspace engineering.
But, as you say, NASA's job was pushing at frontiers. That's actually what NASA was doing in Mercury - Gemini - Apollo. Then the military with their 'we-want-it-don't-much-care-how' attitude that brought you the Shuttle Kludge pushed in and pretty much trashed the Shuttle (and, ironically reincarnated it as the XB-37). Then it started costing real money and Congress got their fingers in it. The results were predictable.
NASA is in a bit of a bind. They still do a lot of basic research and even applied research (mostly in aeronautics vs. space) but the marquee projects have taken huge hits and management has been beat up at multiple levels. Remember, the big thing with the Apollo program wasn't so much the tech. It was getting all of those bits of tech rolled up into a project that could launch the most complex device ever created and get parts of it back. We've completely lost that management structure. It can be argued that modern engineering and computer science makes that investment in human management unneeded - that's what Musk is really trying to prove - that a small company can put all of the bits and pieces together to do something it took NASA tens of thousands of people to do.
I'm a bit doubtful but I wish him all of the luck - at least he's doing something.
I like OS X / iOS but I get supremely pissed off at Apple's tendency to 'hide' things so the UI looks 'uncluttered'. Yes, you can run an Internet search on the function, but the thesis here is that you write your own documentation, not have Google do it for you.
Right. Because the US fee-for-service medicine model is the only one on the planet and furthermore, US pharmaceutical firms and scientists are the only ones who could possibly do breakthrough level science.
Expand your horizons. There is a large, very sophisticated world out there.
It's easier to innovate while standing on the shoulders of giants. Without the space program there wouldn't be any technology available for SpaceX to build upon. Get over your Libertarian delusions.
It's not like Boeing, Lockheed and the ULA don't have access to 'those giant's shoulders' is it?
Take your meds. The ATF probably wants to buy these things.
Since these guns have been all over the gun-nut press for the past couple of years, I'm sure that various three letter government agencies have heard about them and paid them some visits. Most cordial visits.
Slashdot Mirror
It DOESN'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE where Apple stores credit card / serial number / address info. Look folks, it's pretty obvious. Any government larger than, say, North Korea, has the contacts, money and power to get any consumer or personal information running across their territory. Britain, France, Germany, hell even Portugal or Texas (well maybe not Texas).
So, all you can hope for, be you Chinese or American, Swiss or Tongan, is that your friggen Credit Card stays away from some clown in Eastern Europe who wants to make a quick buck. That's ALL you can hope to do.
You put something on a computer hooked to the Internet - it's not private anymore. End of story.
Look you. It's hard to be a fanboi around here. First it was Apple, then Jobs had to go and die on us. Then it was Google which somehow managed to go all Evil in the space of a few years.
There always were a few twisted folk who thought Gates was the second coming but we mostly ignored them except to use them as the butt of some pretty nasty jokes.
Who else? Nokia? Blackberry? Motorola? H-P ???????
So 'ol Elon shows up in a cool car and a rocketship. Man, that's pretty close to God hood around here. Car AND Rocket Scientist analogies.
He's all we've got.
If you're looking for facts, don't go to a psychiatrist. Solace, understanding, compassion, drugs maybe. But not facts.
but psychostimulants are some very nice drugs.
Indeed. Caffeine is remarkably safe an effective, if not incredibly powerful. Coca leaves are also quite safe. Cocaine and amphetamines not so much. Of course, then one gets into the murky question of how much you let individuals control and take responsibility for their actions. I give the US another generation before pretty much everything is either on the table for everyone to snort or everything the other side of the classic triumvirate (alcohol, tobacco and firearms, oops, coffee) will get you tossed in jail.
Nobody (outside Slashdot and other highly reputable bits of the Internet) really questions whether ADD exists.
Many people wonder about a number of aspects of the problem:
- Where the break between normal and abnormal is. Like most biological issues, this behavior is on a continuum. Where do you intervene?
- Which leads to the question of diagnostic accuracy and efficiency.
We know that amphetamine class drugs are helpful in real ADD. But these drugs (like virtually all drugs) have risks and benefits. Since amphetamines carry significant risks, who do you treat and how long. It is also clear than non-pharmeceutical approaches can work, but these are typically labor and time intensive. How do you manage this?
So there is plenty to discuss within the framework of diagnosis and treatment of the disease. But it most certainly exists.
It's there though. To be fair, NASA does have a fair amount of in house engineering although a hell of a lot less than in the glory days. But the big projects have always been through contractors.
NASA was more like the general contractor on a construction site - an architect designed things, structural engineers designed things, construction crews built it - but somebody had to organize it. And, with the Saturn V / Apollo stack, they had to organize the most complex device ever created. Took some work, it did. Especially when you consider the level of automation available then. Most engineers still used slide rules when Apollo 11 took off.
The 'basics' to Mars have hardly been proven. Actually, what SpaceX is doing is bootstrapping up on 'simple' things - getting something to LEO. That's been proven to work. Then going to Mars (perhaps). But you have to start doing relatively straightforward stuff before you can do the esoteric - at least in meatspace engineering.
But, as you say, NASA's job was pushing at frontiers. That's actually what NASA was doing in Mercury - Gemini - Apollo. Then the military with their 'we-want-it-don't-much-care-how' attitude that brought you the Shuttle Kludge pushed in and pretty much trashed the Shuttle (and, ironically reincarnated it as the XB-37). Then it started costing real money and Congress got their fingers in it. The results were predictable.
NASA is in a bit of a bind. They still do a lot of basic research and even applied research (mostly in aeronautics vs. space) but the marquee projects have taken huge hits and management has been beat up at multiple levels. Remember, the big thing with the Apollo program wasn't so much the tech. It was getting all of those bits of tech rolled up into a project that could launch the most complex device ever created and get parts of it back. We've completely lost that management structure. It can be argued that modern engineering and computer science makes that investment in human management unneeded - that's what Musk is really trying to prove - that a small company can put all of the bits and pieces together to do something it took NASA tens of thousands of people to do.
I'm a bit doubtful but I wish him all of the luck - at least he's doing something.
Ack. No.
I like OS X / iOS but I get supremely pissed off at Apple's tendency to 'hide' things so the UI looks 'uncluttered'. Yes, you can run an Internet search on the function, but the thesis here is that you write your own documentation, not have Google do it for you.
If you need extensive documentation... you had failed.
At Kandy Krush perhaps.
At a real program, not so much.
Does your department get dinged for using the caps key too many times?
Right. Because the US fee-for-service medicine model is the only one on the planet and furthermore, US pharmaceutical firms and scientists are the only ones who could possibly do breakthrough level science.
Expand your horizons. There is a large, very sophisticated world out there.
Romanes Enut Domus.
Oh. Thanks.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the latter." - Albert Einstein.
FTFY.
Einstein was right, apparently.
I also find that the slashdot comments are often more useful than the actual article.
What article?
No, this isn't the 'doomsday machine'. It's much more like William Gibson's ICE programs in 'Neuromancer'.
So very much like it that one wonders.....
Are you insane? We haven't even figured out if Google is evil or not.
My Apple-phobic Samsung-fan friends are going to have an aneurysm over this.
There's an app for that!
At some point in your life you're going to have to go all Zen about it and not care so much.
Only then can you throw those old SCSI cables out.
Full circle?
As in circle jerk? Or am I dating myself?
It's easier to innovate while standing on the shoulders of giants. Without the space program there wouldn't be any technology available for SpaceX to build upon. Get over your Libertarian delusions.
It's not like Boeing, Lockheed and the ULA don't have access to 'those giant's shoulders' is it?
Why are so many ACs so smart?
The guys just really wanted to give Linux a boost by creating the killer app.
Take your meds. The ATF probably wants to buy these things.
Since these guns have been all over the gun-nut press for the past couple of years, I'm sure that various three letter government agencies have heard about them and paid them some visits. Most cordial visits.
So does a stinger. Better warhead. Heat seeking is easy with all that hot air and inflated sense of importance.