This story provides an intriguing corollary to what is happening in the US. It's a sober reminder of what the end result can be when Big Brother gets too much power over technological lines of communication and the ordinary lives of citizens.
I'm sad to say that I have noticed a disturbing gravitation towards this kind of draconian system by our government who has somehow convinced the majority of the populace that they should be granted whatever monitoring rights they want because we need them to protect us from terrorists. Personally, I could give jack sh*t about terrorists on a minute by minute basis throughout most of my day. I feel much safer keeping certain parts of my life private and away from the Washington watchdogs.
The reality of the situation is that if we willingly give up all rights to privacy something like this type of system is not going to be far away, though few see it.
If a few people may get killed because of this rocketry program
That argument is moot. As others have pointed out, since the amateur rocketry industry was properly regulated by Tripoli and NAR decades ago there has not been a single accident where anyone has died.
How can MS continue to wage campaign against open source in government and economic circles, decree the "dangers" of it, and spew other such nonsense while at the same time employing an open source strategy of its own?
Maybe they should change their message to "open source is not bad as long as an established company (read: closed source also) offers it.
The one article says: "The movie, which is the sixth in the series, also features Anakin being transformed into the evil Darth Vader when he falls into the lava..."
Joe User: "I can't seem to find that link. One of my geek friends recommended a little while ago that I try an IE replacement called Firefox. But I've Googled endlessly and there is no browser by that name."
1. Pwn Bill's box
2. Mass email his private confessions to Steve B.
3. PROFIT!!
4. Watch as Bill takes on a malicious, narcissistic revenge complex that causes him to invoke the DMCA on all Windows users
5. In their fury to preserve the law, the Feds decide to have Windows declared illegal
In a move to inspire confidence, Diebold agrees to have Microsoft review their code.
The company was quoted as saying, "Microsoft's highly qualified software testers will objectively review all source to determine any bugs. We are confident their analysis will put speculation about the reliability of our software to rest."
Whispers in the echo chamber
Why the media says the space plan costs a trillion dollars
by Dwayne A. Day
--
There is an old children's game that teachers occasionally inflict upon their students as a morality play. A group of children are placed in a circle and then one of them is told a story that they are to whisper to the person to their right. That child is supposed to whisper it to the person on their right and so on until they reach the originator, by which time it no longer resembles the original story. Distortions are introduced by miscommunication or deliberate fraud. The lesson is that you should not believe everything you hear.
We saw the modern media version of this game recently when rumors emerged that President Bush was about to unveil a new space policy that called for a return to the Moon and an eventual human mission to Mars. Media reports quickly declared that this plan would cost a trillion dollars or even more. That number was widely repeated within the modern media echo chamber, often by supposedly reputable sources. It may have already done substantial damage to the Bush space policy, creating public opposition to what is perceived as a massively expensive program and scaring away any possible supporters.
The $1 trillion cost estimate is wrong. It is based upon a completely inaccurate reading of historical data and deeply flawed mathematics. But the problems are worse than this. Not only was an inaccurate number repeated endlessly by the media without confirmation, but the flawed calculations were repeated again and again by various people with their own agendas. Reporters also appear to have ignored or evaded obvious weaknesses with the original source of the information, preferring to repeat an inaccurate number that they saw repeated endlessly rather than seek out better information. The story of the $1 trillion cost estimate raises some troubling questions about how modern journalism is conducted.
There was no secret that the Bush administration was formulating a new space policy in the fall of 2003. However, the details of the policy were shrouded in secrecy until a January 7 article carried by wire service United Press International. That article reported that President Bush would unveil his new space plan the following week and provided a few details, some of which were later proven false. The story contained some budgetary figures indicating that large increases in the NASA budget would not occur, but did not provide an overall budget figure for the plan. It also made clear that a return to the Moon, not a human mission to Mars, was the primary emphasis of the new plan.
On January 8 Paul Recer of the Associated Press reported on the new space plan. In his article, Recer stated: "No firm cost estimates have been developed, but informal discussions have put the cost of a Mars expedition at nearly $1 trillion, depending on how ambitious the project was. The cost of a Moon colony, again, would depend on what NASA wants to do on the lunar surface." Note that according to Recer, the trillion-dollar figure is only for a single Mars expedition, not for both the Moon and Mars, which the UPI story stated were part of the new plan. Outside observers could naturally assume that a plan for both Moon and Mars missions would be more expensive than a Mars mission alone.
I was able to contact Recer on March 4 and ask him where he had gotten the $1 trillion cost estimate for a human mission to Mars. Recer stated that he had gotten the information from "industry sources and people I talked to." He said that none of the information was provided by government sources. He said that his sources told him that in 1989 Congress--not NASA--had produced an estimate of $400-$500 billion for a mission to Mars as proposed by President George H.W. Bush. Recer had adjusted for inflation, which would have produced a range of $640-$800 billion. He had then rounded up by at least $200 billion to produce the estimate of "nearly $1 trillion."
Slashdot Mirror
It appears from this photo of the install screen that the current system requirements for Tiger are:
G3, G4 or G5 processor
a DVD Drive
builtin Firewire
128 MB Ram
2 GB disk space
This story provides an intriguing corollary to what is happening in the US. It's a sober reminder of what the end result can be when Big Brother gets too much power over technological lines of communication and the ordinary lives of citizens.
I'm sad to say that I have noticed a disturbing gravitation towards this kind of draconian system by our government who has somehow convinced the majority of the populace that they should be granted whatever monitoring rights they want because we need them to protect us from terrorists. Personally, I could give jack sh*t about terrorists on a minute by minute basis throughout most of my day. I feel much safer keeping certain parts of my life private and away from the Washington watchdogs.
The reality of the situation is that if we willingly give up all rights to privacy something like this type of system is not going to be far away, though few see it.
If a few people may get killed because of this rocketry program
That argument is moot. As others have pointed out, since the amateur rocketry industry was properly regulated by Tripoli and NAR decades ago there has not been a single accident where anyone has died.
How can MS continue to wage campaign against open source in government and economic circles, decree the "dangers" of it, and spew other such nonsense while at the same time employing an open source strategy of its own?
Maybe they should change their message to "open source is not bad as long as an established company (read: closed source also) offers it.
Try deleting the Mail prefs file.
The one article says: "The movie, which is the sixth in the series, also features Anakin being transformed into the evil Darth Vader when he falls into the lava..."
I can't wait till they are over with.
This is to inform you that because of excessive bandwidth usage,
your ResNet account will be terminated for a period of 3 months.
If you feel this is too extreme a corrective measure,
you may appeal this decision to the OIT office.
Sincerely,
Campus Windows Admin
Tony Fadell, a young engineer who had worked briefly at RealNetworks, led by Rob Glaser, who has developed the Rhapsody music service
It's a good thing these people's amazingly successful software business principles didn't carry over to hardware.
Ditch IE for Firefox.
Two months later:
Joe User: "I can't seem to find that link. One of my geek friends recommended a little while ago that I try an IE replacement called Firefox. But I've Googled endlessly and there is no browser by that name."
1. Pwn Bill's box
2. Mass email his private confessions to Steve B.
3. PROFIT!!
4. Watch as Bill takes on a malicious, narcissistic revenge complex that causes him to invoke the DMCA on all Windows users
5. In their fury to preserve the law, the Feds decide to have Windows declared illegal
SpaceShipOne has already been to 60,000 feet though. Did they not need a license for that flight?
I'm really tired of people bashing microsoft on a daily basis
Yet you are still reading Slashdot?
In a move to inspire confidence, Diebold agrees to have Microsoft review their code.
The company was quoted as saying, "Microsoft's highly qualified software testers will objectively review all source to determine any bugs. We are confident their analysis will put speculation about the reliability of our software to rest."
United claims prior art and sues Bill for defamation of character.
Who the hell is still using CVS over pserver?
The water we spread upon the sand, has become blood.
I see a beast, and on the head of that beast...
Nah, this story is stupid.
Global Thermonuclear War!
Die Zedminos!
If a thief tries to take my iPod, I'll just bludgeon them to death with it.
What happened to 2012?
I haven't heard anyone say they are using Framemaker for serious development of anything in years.
Use a lab computer. ;)
Whispers in the echo chamber
Why the media says the space plan costs a trillion dollars
by Dwayne A. Day
--
There is an old children's game that teachers occasionally inflict upon their students as a morality play. A group of children are placed in a circle and then one of them is told a story that they are to whisper to the person to their right. That child is supposed to whisper it to the person on their right and so on until they reach the originator, by which time it no longer resembles the original story. Distortions are introduced by miscommunication or deliberate fraud. The lesson is that you should not believe everything you hear.
We saw the modern media version of this game recently when rumors emerged that President Bush was about to unveil a new space policy that called for a return to the Moon and an eventual human mission to Mars. Media reports quickly declared that this plan would cost a trillion dollars or even more. That number was widely repeated within the modern media echo chamber, often by supposedly reputable sources. It may have already done substantial damage to the Bush space policy, creating public opposition to what is perceived as a massively expensive program and scaring away any possible supporters.
The $1 trillion cost estimate is wrong. It is based upon a completely inaccurate reading of historical data and deeply flawed mathematics. But the problems are worse than this. Not only was an inaccurate number repeated endlessly by the media without confirmation, but the flawed calculations were repeated again and again by various people with their own agendas. Reporters also appear to have ignored or evaded obvious weaknesses with the original source of the information, preferring to repeat an inaccurate number that they saw repeated endlessly rather than seek out better information. The story of the $1 trillion cost estimate raises some troubling questions about how modern journalism is conducted.
There was no secret that the Bush administration was formulating a new space policy in the fall of 2003. However, the details of the policy were shrouded in secrecy until a January 7 article carried by wire service United Press International. That article reported that President Bush would unveil his new space plan the following week and provided a few details, some of which were later proven false. The story contained some budgetary figures indicating that large increases in the NASA budget would not occur, but did not provide an overall budget figure for the plan. It also made clear that a return to the Moon, not a human mission to Mars, was the primary emphasis of the new plan.
On January 8 Paul Recer of the Associated Press reported on the new space plan. In his article, Recer stated: "No firm cost estimates have been developed, but informal discussions have put the cost of a Mars expedition at nearly $1 trillion, depending on how ambitious the project was. The cost of a Moon colony, again, would depend on what NASA wants to do on the lunar surface." Note that according to Recer, the trillion-dollar figure is only for a single Mars expedition, not for both the Moon and Mars, which the UPI story stated were part of the new plan. Outside observers could naturally assume that a plan for both Moon and Mars missions would be more expensive than a Mars mission alone.
I was able to contact Recer on March 4 and ask him where he had gotten the $1 trillion cost estimate for a human mission to Mars. Recer stated that he had gotten the information from "industry sources and people I talked to." He said that none of the information was provided by government sources. He said that his sources told him that in 1989 Congress--not NASA--had produced an estimate of $400-$500 billion for a mission to Mars as proposed by President George H.W. Bush. Recer had adjusted for inflation, which would have produced a range of $640-$800 billion. He had then rounded up by at least $200 billion to produce the estimate of "nearly $1 trillion."
Available here
Real might be able to make their player appeal to a wider audience by not bloating it up with spyware and ads.