When you mod a 'funny' post 'interesting' to give the poster some karma points, you do something else that has some serious unintended consequences:
You give the wrong impression to certain, how shall I say it, very impressionable, persons. They think you're serious. Then they post silly things. It's so messy and unnecessary. Remember folks, Mod points are power! Use the wisely.
I think you over estimate how easy it is to "just do engineering". It takes immense resources and thus immense political will. Yes, bolting something like the Ares really is feasible given purely technologic contstraints but the ISS is just a toy compared to the tech needed to get something like the Ares built and out of earth orbit. We understand the physics OK, the nuts and bolts not so much. We have never built anything in orbit that has been stressed like a Mars orbiter would be. It would be rather embarrassing to have the thing fall apart as soon as you try and get it into Mars orbit.
But it's all science fiction unless we spend the money and the time. That is why as space loving Americans (or Brits or Germans or Indians or whomever) should privately applaud the Chinese for their efforts and publicly complain loudly of our booster gap.
Then read here: http://www.marssociety.org/
Or read the red mars, blue mars green mars novels.
Or: just think about how you would do it, lol. It is *that simple*
angel'o'sphere
That simple? If you actually looked at "Red Mars" carefully, he lives in a "Star Trek" world of virtually infinite resources. Need a nuclear reactor? Just drop ship a Rickover. Need compressed gasses? Just drop ship a 737 with a bunch of compressors. It's great science fiction - it broad brushes little details like money, and especially later, the ability to create extremely complex high technology items from robotic factories. It would probably work out better if we figured out those little issues here as opposed to there. Hell, we aren't really at the level of technology that we would need to be to bolt the Ares together. Construction in outer space is slow, tricky and dangerous.
Yes we can get better. If the Chinese are trying to do it then great, we can come from behind like usual (insert tasteless joke here). But the Mars Trilogy is not yet an instructional video.
SpaceX and NASA are studying the possibility of a 150 ton payload class heavy lift launcher, based on SpaceX Falcon technology. NASA Studies Scaled-Up Falcon, Merlin
That was kinda my take on this. Yeah, caps are stupid but geez. Turn the damn things OFF for a while.
Off course, there are many activities that include up / downloading data for things other that personal entertainment but it strikes me that some folks have an unhealthy obsession with staring at LCD screens (righteously typed on a computer in the basement).
3D is just hard. If the program has any depth at all, there are a huge number of functions, details and methods that need to be covered. Most of the newer 3D programs include several different ways of interacting with an object - mesh manipulation, NURBS, sculpting, several ways to texture or paint the object, different aspects of animating, then placing things in a scene, integrating it with video / still / whatever output. Lots and lots of things.
Then you have restrictions generating from decades of previous programs - users that are used to manipulating things in particular ways, limitations of data containers, limitations in the ability to transfer data back and forth in a work flow.
Not to mention that working in 3D gets complicated fast. Not too many spherical cows in CG land.
It doesn't really look like Modo 501. I tried the betas of Blender 2.5, still couldn't wrap my head around it very well. I'm starting on Modo and it seems pretty straightforward and reasonable. I like Maya but can't stand Autodesk and don't really want to drop 3.5 grand.
Blender sure does make Maya over priced for anything other than balls to the wall professional use.
Isn't the Mac Photoshop multi window just like the GIMP? Or am I remembering that wrong?
Sort of, more or less. That is to say there is some similarity. You can have floating palettes all over the place ala GIMP but you can snap them together and / or put them in an 'application frame' that Windowizes the experience.
You don't understand thermodynamics very well do you? Nor the implications of closed systems. If you're planning on keeping Business As Usual going with methane from Titan, you need to brush up on economics as well. Yep, you've heard the 'same tripe' for 30 years. Because there are a whole bunch of people who can think about issues that affect us in time frames more distant than next month or next year. But when your whole world requires you to stare at your feet to keep from falling down, it's sometimes hard to see that rock wall.
The Chinese have a curse - 'may you live in interesting times'. Grab on to your butts.
And nothing of value was lost. Really. There are limits to what is sane and sustainable. Then there are cartoon fantasies from the 1960's. Certainly the US is going through a period of turmoil and decline. That tends to happen - history is replete with the rise and fall of civilizations and I know of no counter examples. The US (and other western social democracies) picked up an arc of power and influence after WWII whose slope seems to be changing. Perhaps it will be a permanent decline, perhaps only temporary (yeah, right). It's uncomfortable for sure but it's probably inevitable.
Unfortunately, in the larger picture, the rest of the world has appeared to pick up the majority of our bad habits and the human race is busily chomping up the planet faster and faster. Again, history (this time studies of ecology and evolution) show us what happens when an organism pushes the boundary of the environment's carrying capacity for the organism.
The real lesson here is that a modern industrial state with some reasonable quality of life doesn't come about by the invisible hand; it takes focused, directed work at the goal to get anything done.
I'm sure there is. But it doesn't matter. It's 2011 - banks don't care about old-fashioned criteria like 'credit-worthiness' or 'proper identification'.
Excellent. I would like one billion dollars, please.
The fundamental problem with this argument is, of course, the definition of 'human rights'. The argument that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control" is pushed by a UN based committee and is a wonderful warm and fuzzy statement that has limited utility in the real world. It's a nice definition of formal communism and largely ignored by everyone except a few relatively wealthy European social democracies. This definition is certainly not accepted by the US Government.
Are we to be arrested by Norway / Sweden / Denmark (and a few others) for our transgressions? Can I fly to Stockholm and request asylum? (Hmm,...)
Yes. Exactly this. It isn't a right but it is as important part of the infrastructure and should be treated accordingly. Of course, at least with the current situation in the US (and other countries), the infrastructure is busily falling down as we type. But that is an issue of how we manage and fund our societies, not how we deal with "rights".
Given that it's how people look for jobs, conduct their livelihood, keep in touch with people, do their banking and loads of other stuff... you can make the argument that for a lot of us, the internet has become fundamental to how we do a lot of things.
So are cars. In fact, you could substitute 'automobile' for 'Internet' in your sentence and have it perfectly valid. Should having a car be a fundamental human right?
If someone cuts me off from the internet for 6 months, my life reverts to the stone age in a lot of ways.
How entertainingly dramatic. Stone age? Do you realize that many of us lived healthy, invigorating lives before the 1980s?
Now, it might seem laughable and trivial to call it a human right when people don't have really basic rights like personal liberty or religious freedom... but, in terms of how it impacts my ability to carry out my daily life (such as my job), it's difficult to express just how entwined it has become.
So, I can see why some of these "three strikes" laws whereby you suddenly can't access the internet would be fairly devastating to someone.
Your personal convenience does not raise the issue to a fundamental right. While I agree that the 'three strikes' rules are stupid and useless, you do realize that if you 'struck out' you could still go over to your friend's house (assuming, of course, you had any) and use their Internet to carry on those dramatically important parts of your life that require it.
For all of you that think the Internet is that important - maybe you should go outside for a while without your cell phone or anything with a battery. It's shockingly pleasant (except for those unfortunates living in Cleveland or New Jersey, probably best you all stay indoors).
Slashdot Mirror
Even when the spoon is inside the drawer.
NO! Bad Mods! Bad!
When you mod a 'funny' post 'interesting' to give the poster some karma points, you do something else that has some serious unintended consequences:
You give the wrong impression to certain, how shall I say it, very impressionable, persons. They think you're serious. Then they post silly things. It's so messy and unnecessary. Remember folks, Mod points are power! Use the wisely.
Or leave them to the pros.
The Daily Star doesn't cost very much in the UK because they don't need to pay for clothes for some of the models.
Funny, that's never worked for any woman that I knew....
I think you over estimate how easy it is to "just do engineering". It takes immense resources and thus immense political will. Yes, bolting something like the Ares really is feasible given purely technologic contstraints but the ISS is just a toy compared to the tech needed to get something like the Ares built and out of earth orbit. We understand the physics OK, the nuts and bolts not so much. We have never built anything in orbit that has been stressed like a Mars orbiter would be. It would be rather embarrassing to have the thing fall apart as soon as you try and get it into Mars orbit.
But it's all science fiction unless we spend the money and the time. That is why as space loving Americans (or Brits or Germans or Indians or whomever) should privately applaud the Chinese for their efforts and publicly complain loudly of our booster gap.
Then read here: http://www.marssociety.org/ Or read the red mars, blue mars green mars novels. Or: just think about how you would do it, lol. It is *that simple* angel'o'sphere
That simple? If you actually looked at "Red Mars" carefully, he lives in a "Star Trek" world of virtually infinite resources. Need a nuclear reactor? Just drop ship a Rickover. Need compressed gasses? Just drop ship a 737 with a bunch of compressors. It's great science fiction - it broad brushes little details like money, and especially later, the ability to create extremely complex high technology items from robotic factories. It would probably work out better if we figured out those little issues here as opposed to there. Hell, we aren't really at the level of technology that we would need to be to bolt the Ares together. Construction in outer space is slow, tricky and dangerous.
Yes we can get better. If the Chinese are trying to do it then great, we can come from behind like usual (insert tasteless joke here). But the Mars Trilogy is not yet an instructional video.
SpaceX and NASA are studying the possibility of a 150 ton payload class heavy lift launcher, based on SpaceX Falcon technology. NASA Studies Scaled-Up Falcon, Merlin
My space penis is bigger than your space penis.
Mr. President, I'm afraid we have a missile gap!
That was kinda my take on this. Yeah, caps are stupid but geez. Turn the damn things OFF for a while.
Off course, there are many activities that include up / downloading data for things other that personal entertainment but it strikes me that some folks have an unhealthy obsession with staring at LCD screens (righteously typed on a computer in the basement).
BGA? Ball Grid Assembly?
I don't think humor works around here anymore. Maybe the tag got deprecated.
3D is just hard. If the program has any depth at all, there are a huge number of functions, details and methods that need to be covered. Most of the newer 3D programs include several different ways of interacting with an object - mesh manipulation, NURBS, sculpting, several ways to texture or paint the object, different aspects of animating, then placing things in a scene, integrating it with video / still / whatever output. Lots and lots of things.
Then you have restrictions generating from decades of previous programs - users that are used to manipulating things in particular ways, limitations of data containers, limitations in the ability to transfer data back and forth in a work flow.
Not to mention that working in 3D gets complicated fast. Not too many spherical cows in CG land.
It doesn't really look like Modo 501. I tried the betas of Blender 2.5, still couldn't wrap my head around it very well. I'm starting on Modo and it seems pretty straightforward and reasonable. I like Maya but can't stand Autodesk and don't really want to drop 3.5 grand.
Blender sure does make Maya over priced for anything other than balls to the wall professional use.
Isn't the Mac Photoshop multi window just like the GIMP? Or am I remembering that wrong?
Sort of, more or less. That is to say there is some similarity. You can have floating palettes all over the place ala GIMP but you can snap them together and / or put them in an 'application frame' that Windowizes the experience.
A few hours ago we got news about Safari implementing the Do Not Track option, and now we get a this, enforcing tracking for all US citizens.
So, you go online with Safari and then what happens? The world implodes into a singularity? Could be fun to watch (from a safe distance, of course).
I guess I am just getting jaded in my old age.
But you're happy. That's all that matters....
If it manages to make useful annoying sites that insist on implementing basic functionality in Flash, then it will impress quite well enough..
Instead, it takes useful sites and converts them into slow, annoying ads. Not exactly progress, IMHO.
Keyloggers
No keyboard! (Well, none to speak of, anyway).
Generally THIS is why I don't use Word at home - I use a Word Processor which is a Word Processor and nothing more.
Emacs users all of the world spit in scorn at your shameful statement.
You don't understand thermodynamics very well do you? Nor the implications of closed systems. If you're planning on keeping Business As Usual going with methane from Titan, you need to brush up on economics as well. Yep, you've heard the 'same tripe' for 30 years. Because there are a whole bunch of people who can think about issues that affect us in time frames more distant than next month or next year. But when your whole world requires you to stare at your feet to keep from falling down, it's sometimes hard to see that rock wall.
The Chinese have a curse - 'may you live in interesting times'. Grab on to your butts.
We had the Concorde for a short time
And nothing of value was lost. Really. There are limits to what is sane and sustainable. Then there are cartoon fantasies from the 1960's. Certainly the US is going through a period of turmoil and decline. That tends to happen - history is replete with the rise and fall of civilizations and I know of no counter examples. The US (and other western social democracies) picked up an arc of power and influence after WWII whose slope seems to be changing. Perhaps it will be a permanent decline, perhaps only temporary (yeah, right). It's uncomfortable for sure but it's probably inevitable.
Unfortunately, in the larger picture, the rest of the world has appeared to pick up the majority of our bad habits and the human race is busily chomping up the planet faster and faster. Again, history (this time studies of ecology and evolution) show us what happens when an organism pushes the boundary of the environment's carrying capacity for the organism.
The real lesson here is that a modern industrial state with some reasonable quality of life doesn't come about by the invisible hand; it takes focused, directed work at the goal to get anything done.
Why do you hate America?
I'm sure there is. But it doesn't matter. It's 2011 - banks don't care about old-fashioned criteria like 'credit-worthiness' or 'proper identification'.
Excellent. I would like one billion dollars, please.
The fundamental problem with this argument is, of course, the definition of 'human rights'. The argument that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control" is pushed by a UN based committee and is a wonderful warm and fuzzy statement that has limited utility in the real world. It's a nice definition of formal communism and largely ignored by everyone except a few relatively wealthy European social democracies. This definition is certainly not accepted by the US Government.
Are we to be arrested by Norway / Sweden / Denmark (and a few others) for our transgressions? Can I fly to Stockholm and request asylum? (Hmm,...)
Yes. Exactly this. It isn't a right but it is as important part of the infrastructure and should be treated accordingly. Of course, at least with the current situation in the US (and other countries), the infrastructure is busily falling down as we type. But that is an issue of how we manage and fund our societies, not how we deal with "rights".
Given that it's how people look for jobs, conduct their livelihood, keep in touch with people, do their banking and loads of other stuff ... you can make the argument that for a lot of us, the internet has become fundamental to how we do a lot of things.
So are cars. In fact, you could substitute 'automobile' for 'Internet' in your sentence and have it perfectly valid. Should having a car be a fundamental human right?
If someone cuts me off from the internet for 6 months, my life reverts to the stone age in a lot of ways.
How entertainingly dramatic. Stone age? Do you realize that many of us lived healthy, invigorating lives before the 1980s?
Now, it might seem laughable and trivial to call it a human right when people don't have really basic rights like personal liberty or religious freedom ... but, in terms of how it impacts my ability to carry out my daily life (such as my job), it's difficult to express just how entwined it has become.
So, I can see why some of these "three strikes" laws whereby you suddenly can't access the internet would be fairly devastating to someone.
Your personal convenience does not raise the issue to a fundamental right. While I agree that the 'three strikes' rules are stupid and useless, you do realize that if you 'struck out' you could still go over to your friend's house (assuming, of course, you had any) and use their Internet to carry on those dramatically important parts of your life that require it.
For all of you that think the Internet is that important - maybe you should go outside for a while without your cell phone or anything with a battery. It's shockingly pleasant (except for those unfortunates living in Cleveland or New Jersey, probably best you all stay indoors).