Maybe the reason there is so much Apple stuff on/. lately is becuase at this moment they are making the coolest stuff available in the computing world bar none, and/. editors *might* be able to tell when a company has turned itself around and react accordingly with increased coverage of thats company's offerings??
Or do you think they should still be pissing down a rope at Apples products of 3 or 4 years ago, like the asshats who give lame outdated reasons to bash Apple. Wake up. Things are different now.
/. editors are getting this - some of you other people need to.
The problem is that NASA doesn't have the same backing as it did back in the 60's. We went to the moon because it was a priority, and a lot of money and effort was thrown at it. Now NASA is constantly struggling to make as much as they can out of a diminishing budget. I believe that this, more than anything else caused the famous shuttle accident.
If you are an administrator at NASA and you are told that their might be a problem with the age of the fleet and you know the odds of getting funding for a new project are near zero, do you keep that fleet flying? Of course. That's hardly the safest thing to do, but it's either that or close up shop and go work the chinese space program.
NASA puts safety as first as it can afford to. You can argue that NASA is an inefficent bureaucracy, but we seem to have no trouble financing the inefficent military bureaucracy. It's the nature of government, cope.
I'm a private pilot, and even on small planes we can have this problem. The problem does exist. It's not some pilot conspiracy to stop you from playing your Game Boy. Navigation is performed with the aid of a gyroscope and magnetic compass and VOR stations.(GPS is a few years away from becoming a standard). Any number of electronic devices can affect this system. In-cabin devices can have much more affect on these systems then outside incluences simply because you're basically travelling within an aluminum faraday cage. A microwave signal from a cellphone will bounce around inside the cockpit a lot more than if it is outside.
It is particularly crucial that these devices are off during landings. Landing is by far the most dificult portion of flying. On commercial planes, they are often making their approaches in IFR (Insturment) conditions. It takes very little to make approach devices go haywire. You don't want this happening when the visibility is 500ft and you are trying to touch down 30 tons of aircraft in fog. It hasn't happened yet, but sooner or later some aircraft is going to crash on landing because some schmoe couldn't wait till he got down safely to call and tell folks he is going to be late for his meeting. In 99 out of 100 cases there may be no effect on the plane, but it only takes one crucial event to destroy an aircraft. Try to remember that.
Yes it's certainly a lot of taxpayer money, unfortunately most people think the only solution is to privatize the space industry. This always makes me laugh.
How would you feel if for the sake of arguement the eventual winner of the X-Prize were to become the MS of space exploration, with almost total control over who does what in space. The private sector is not about bettering mankind, its about profit and many private sector companies are not averse to using very dubious, and in many cases downright criminal methods to achieve their aims. Suppose they discover valuable caches of materials. Do you think they are going to share them with the rest of the world or make us pay thru the nose ? What will the visa requirements be for landing on Planet Microsoft I wonder ? Suppose you are vacationing on Mars and disaster strikes, what do you reckon the odds would be the highest bidders get the first seats off the planet.
In typical fashion the private sector will not become a serious player in space travel until NASA and the other space agencies have made serious reductions in the cost of entry with lots of tax payer research dollars. The private sector will then demand access and want to cherry pick the most lucrative aspects. Remember, there was a time when Bill Gates was an entreprenuer.
China is actually coming along nicely in a lot of ways. It's beginning to embrace capitalism. Socialism is a nice idea, but greed breeds innovation better. As China's economy heats up it's people are going to come into closer contact with the rest of the world and mainstream world ideas. The communist regime might not be overthrown, but its a safe bet they're going to gradually become more and more moderate. With China's vast natural resources and immense population their economy could easily dwarf that of the U.S. within a couple decades. Say what you will, 1 billion+ is a heckuva tax base!
Keep in mind that skilled labour costs in China are a fraction of what they are in the U.S.. The resources of China's space program could easily dwarf those of NASA long before their economy grows larger than that of the U.S.. (This assumes both nations spend a similar proportion of their GDP on their space programs. China may well value it higher and spend even more...) As has been said, they don't exactly have to reinvent every wheel that has led NASA to it's current cutting-edge 1970's shuttle program either. There are plenty of capitalists, many of them in the U.S., who would only be too glad to do a little Cantonese consulting.
This isn't necessarily how things will happen. However, if the Chinese don't do anything stupid their economic and technological superiority is functionally inevitable provided U.S. citizens don't start multiplying like mosquitoes. It's a simple matter of statistics unless you subscribe to some sort of white supremast movment and belive that Chinese minds are inherently inferior.
Personally, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to start early on those Cantonese lessons.:D
Solidarity with the Iraqi resistance. End the occupation! End all borders! Sometimes imperialists get what they deserve.
The mutilated US "contractors" were actually mercenaries working for a private "security" firm, named USA Blackwater. The name "Blackwater" is derived from the nighttime water-entry commando activities of the Navy SEALs, because many of Blackwater's employees are former Navy SEALs or other ex-Special Forces military personnel.
The US, UK, and other militaries involved in the occupation of Iraq are relying heavily on private mercenaries to do "security" and other work that the Coalition forces are stretched too thin to do; another benefit of using mercs is that, because they're civilians, their deaths do not raise the official casualty numbers.
Some info on Blackwater and their employees
Jim DeHart Director of Facilities/Chief Design Officer 212 252-435-0012
Chris Taylor Director of Target Systems 213 252-435-0013
Jim Sierawski Director of Training 214 252-435-0014
Carol Confer Comptroller 215 252-435-0015
Yvette Cohens Accountant 216 252-435-0016
Brian Berrey Director of Security 217 252-435-0017
Danielle Morrison Director of Operations and Sales 219 252-435-0019
Carol Smeltzer Training Sales Coordinator 220 252-435-0020
Rob Howard Target Sales 221 252-435-0021
Linda Miller Target CAD Design 224 252-435-0024
Matthew Paxson Target Supervisor 226 252-435-0026 V Mail Only
Ken Cashwell Senior Training Instructor/Armorer 228 252-435-0028
Tony Vernon Facilities Supervisor 229 252-435-0029
John Carswell Supply/Procurement 204 252-435-2004
Julie Garza Kitchen 207 252-435-2488
Susan Behrens Reception 208 252-435-2488
Employees of Blackwater: Most should be in North Carolina
Gary Jackson President Gary served 23 years in the U. S. Navy as a SEAL, and worked through the ranks to earn a commission in 1989, retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer-4. His last job in the TEAM's was a 24-month tour as platoon commander of a Counter-Drug Platoon in the Caribbean. His leadership, diverse experience in planning and logistics, and incredible energy are the core of the Blackwater USA experience. "Our TEAM concept on the staff allows for each professional who trains at Blackwater to maximize his or her experience" Jim Sierawski jims@blackwaterusa.com Director of Training Jim has both a military and law enforcement background. He spent 22 years as a Navy SEAL, and retired as a Chief Warrant Officer-3 from SEAL Team EIGHT. Ten of those years were spent with an elite counter-terrorist unit. During his tour, he earned several decorations and awards. After retiring, Jim became a police officer with the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Jim was assigned to patrol division where he spent four years before joining Blackwater USA's team. His diverse experience in the fields of special operations, law enforcement, and security clearly qualify him to lead the Blackwater Training Center. "This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. We create customized and complete training packages that allow our customers to train harder and more efficiently and become better prepared for today's ever-changing world. When you come to Blackwater, come ready to work." Jim Dehart jimd@blackwaterusa.com Director of Facilities and Chief Design Officer Jim Dehart is responsible for all physical assets at Blackwater USA. He spent 15 years designing, building, and managing the U.S. Navy's most comprehensive and sophisticated small-arms ranges at SEAL Team SIX and Naval Special Warfare Development Group. Jim retired after 20 years as a Chief Gunner's Mate. Today, he is a leader at Blackwater USA because of his unwavering work ethic, creativity, and ability to execute. Jim heads up research and development for Blackwater Target Systems and designs complete range systems for our customers worldwide. Brian Berry brianb@blackwaterusa.com Director of Blackwater Security Consulting Brian has fi
I put NetBSD on most of my Sparc hardware. Because then I can run and build from the same exact source tree of packages as I use on my Intel boxes. And run a kernel built from exactly the same source.
Which brings up a point: both NetBSD/Sparc and NetBSD/Sparc64 will run on an Ultra 1, which is a 64 bit machine. Why doesn't somebody install each NetBSD port on two seperate Ultra 1 machines. Then the benchmark comparision can be between the normal apps that build on both systems, running in parallel on two identical systems. Its exactly the same codebase except for the 32 or 64 bittedness.
I don't mind playing a good LAN party game with people I know, but back when I was pretty good at Quake II, and started to try out MMRPG's like the "Ultima Online" beta, I realized that I just didn't enjoy playing the online games for one simple reason:
Most of the people online acted like assholes.
Too often, I'd log into a Quake/Quake II server, and get some punk calling me a MotherF---er because his team was losing at Capture the Flag. I got tired of Ultima Online when, during the beta, some jackass got in the way of the door and wouldn't let me walk out.
Diablo? Town killed by someone who thought it was fun to use the cheats to kill people.
On the whole, I tend to like the gamers I know in person and through my writings. But in online games, it seems that there are hordes of people who never learned to act above the age of 12, and need a good kick in the ass - or just never be allowed to play with anyone else online again.
It's probably the #1 reason why Nintendo still hasn't moved into online gaming in a big way (so far, Sega's Phantasy Star Online is their only online experience) - they don't want Jimmy's parents complaining about how their child got ragged on as a "Pikachu-f---er" during Pokemon Online.
The author's right - the penalities for "bad" behavior in an online format might work with some who have a community in the game, but for those who just want to be a dickhead, it's hard to do much other than ban them, since they have little emotionally wrapped up in the game.
We can only hope that they wont fork Qtopia like Sharp did and upgrade as TrollTech releases new versions. Because of Sharp's fork, the Zaurus users never got the bug fixes from TrollTech and Sharp never gave back their fixes leaded to a very rapid End Of Life for the Zaurus. Ever wonder why Sharp's Qtopia sucked so much? It was a fork of 1.4beta. 1.5 was TrollTech's first stable release and that is debatable as to being stable. 1.7 is much better.
Now for the big question... Will it be compiled with gcc 2.x or gcc 3? If they use 2 they get binary compatibility. If they use 3 they get a much needed speedup, but only have source compatibility. Sharp choose the worse of the two. They broke binary compatibility and kept gcc 2. What stupidity!
While I agree with your post (in theory) up to a point, the reality is that immigrant workers (in particular, illegal ones) have been shown to be significantly better at time management and have greater productivity than their white counterparts. Many employers have a preconceived notion of illegals as dirty, uneducated "wetbacks" who are only good at menial janitorial jobs. The reality is that the American economy would mushroom if only we would take advantage of the enormous low-cost workforce out there currently wasted as tomato-pickers and housemaids.
For instance, if the federal minimum wage law was amended to allow undocumented workers to be paid $2-3/hour, employers could afford up expand their operations up to 75%! Imagine creating HUNDREDS of thousands of jobs with the stroke of the pen, at NO EXTRA cost to industry! These are numbers George W. Bush could only dream of with his well-intentioned but ultimately ineffective tax cuts. Hopefully the upcoming election will highlight this important issue.
While I agree with your post (in theory) up to a point, the reality is that immigrant workers (in particular, illegal ones) have been shown to be significantly better at time management and have greater productivity than their white counterparts. Many employers have a preconceived notion of illegals as dirty, uneducated "wetbacks" who are only good at menial janitorial jobs. The reality is that the American economy would mushroom if only we would take advantage of the enormous low-cost workforce out there currently wasted as tomato-pickers and housemaids.
For instance, if the federal minimum wage law was amended to allow undocumented workers to be paid $2-3/hour, employers could afford up expand their operations up to 75%! Imagine creating HUNDREDS of thousands of jobs with the stroke of the pen, at NO EXTRA cost to industry! These are numbers George W. Bush could only dream of with his well-intentioned but ultimately ineffective tax cuts. Hopefully the upcoming election will highlight this important issue.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.apple.com/xserve/cluster/wgcluster.html and try to tell me Apple is producing shit hardware.
Maybe the reason there is so much Apple stuff on /. lately is becuase at this moment they are making the coolest stuff available in the computing world bar none, and /. editors *might* be able to tell when a company has turned itself around and react accordingly with increased coverage of thats company's offerings??
Or do you think they should still be pissing down a rope at Apples products of 3 or 4 years ago, like the asshats who give lame outdated reasons to bash Apple. Wake up. Things are different now.
The problem is that NASA doesn't have the same backing as it did back in the 60's. We went to the moon because it was a priority, and a lot of money and effort was thrown at it. Now NASA is constantly struggling to make as much as they can out of a diminishing budget. I believe that this, more than anything else caused the famous shuttle accident.
If you are an administrator at NASA and you are told that their might be a problem with the age of the fleet and you know the odds of getting funding for a new project are near zero, do you keep that fleet flying? Of course. That's hardly the safest thing to do, but it's either that or close up shop and go work the chinese space program.
NASA puts safety as first as it can afford to. You can argue that NASA is an inefficent bureaucracy, but we seem to have no trouble financing the inefficent military bureaucracy. It's the nature of government, cope.
I'm a private pilot, and even on small planes we can have this problem. The problem does exist. It's not some pilot conspiracy to stop you from playing your Game Boy. Navigation is performed with the aid of a gyroscope and magnetic compass and VOR stations.(GPS is a few years away from becoming a standard). Any number of electronic devices can affect this system. In-cabin devices can have much more affect on these systems then outside incluences simply because you're basically travelling within an aluminum faraday cage. A microwave signal from a cellphone will bounce around inside the cockpit a lot more than if it is outside.
It is particularly crucial that these devices are off during landings. Landing is by far the most dificult portion of flying. On commercial planes, they are often making their approaches in IFR (Insturment) conditions. It takes very little to make approach devices go haywire. You don't want this happening when the visibility is 500ft and you are trying to touch down 30 tons of aircraft in fog. It hasn't happened yet, but sooner or later some aircraft is going to crash on landing because some schmoe couldn't wait till he got down safely to call and tell folks he is going to be late for his meeting. In 99 out of 100 cases there may be no effect on the plane, but it only takes one crucial event to destroy an aircraft. Try to remember that.
Yes it's certainly a lot of taxpayer money, unfortunately most people think the only solution is to privatize the space industry. This always makes me laugh.
How would you feel if for the sake of arguement the eventual winner of the X-Prize were to become the MS of space exploration, with almost total control over who does what in space. The private sector is not about bettering mankind, its about profit and many private sector companies are not averse to using very dubious, and in many cases downright criminal methods to achieve their aims. Suppose they discover valuable caches of materials. Do you think they are going to share them with the rest of the world or make us pay thru the nose ? What will the visa requirements be for landing on Planet Microsoft I wonder ? Suppose you are vacationing on Mars and disaster strikes, what do you reckon the odds would be the highest bidders get the first seats off the planet.
In typical fashion the private sector will not become a serious player in space travel until NASA and the other space agencies have made serious reductions in the cost of entry with lots of tax payer research dollars. The private sector will then demand access and want to cherry pick the most lucrative aspects. Remember, there was a time when Bill Gates was an entreprenuer.
China is actually coming along nicely in a lot of ways. It's beginning to embrace capitalism. Socialism is a nice idea, but greed breeds innovation better. As China's economy heats up it's people are going to come into closer contact with the rest of the world and mainstream world ideas. The communist regime might not be overthrown, but its a safe bet they're going to gradually become more and more moderate. With China's vast natural resources and immense population their economy could easily dwarf that of the U.S. within a couple decades. Say what you will, 1 billion+ is a heckuva tax base!
:D
Keep in mind that skilled labour costs in China are a fraction of what they are in the U.S.. The resources of China's space program could easily dwarf those of NASA long before their economy grows larger than that of the U.S.. (This assumes both nations spend a similar proportion of their GDP on their space programs. China may well value it higher and spend even more...) As has been said, they don't exactly have to reinvent every wheel that has led NASA to it's current cutting-edge 1970's shuttle program either. There are plenty of capitalists, many of them in the U.S., who would only be too glad to do a little Cantonese consulting.
This isn't necessarily how things will happen. However, if the Chinese don't do anything stupid their economic and technological superiority is functionally inevitable provided U.S. citizens don't start multiplying like mosquitoes. It's a simple matter of statistics unless you subscribe to some sort of white supremast movment and belive that Chinese minds are inherently inferior.
Personally, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to start early on those Cantonese lessons.
I OWN A BUSINESS!!!!
Solidarity with the Iraqi resistance. End the occupation! End all borders! Sometimes imperialists get what they deserve.
The mutilated US "contractors" were actually mercenaries working for a private "security" firm, named USA Blackwater. The name "Blackwater" is derived from the nighttime water-entry commando activities of the Navy SEALs, because many of Blackwater's employees are former Navy SEALs or other ex-Special Forces military personnel.
The US, UK, and other militaries involved in the occupation of Iraq are relying heavily on private mercenaries to do "security" and other work that the Coalition forces are stretched too thin to do; another benefit of using mercs is that, because they're civilians, their deaths do not raise the official casualty numbers.
Some info on Blackwater and their employees
Jim DeHart Director of Facilities/Chief Design Officer 212 252-435-0012
Chris Taylor Director of Target Systems 213 252-435-0013
Jim Sierawski Director of Training 214 252-435-0014
Carol Confer Comptroller 215 252-435-0015
Yvette Cohens Accountant 216 252-435-0016
Brian Berrey Director of Security 217 252-435-0017
Danielle Morrison Director of Operations and Sales 219 252-435-0019
Carol Smeltzer Training Sales Coordinator 220 252-435-0020
Rob Howard Target Sales 221 252-435-0021
Linda Miller Target CAD Design 224 252-435-0024
Matthew Paxson Target Supervisor 226 252-435-0026 V Mail Only
Ken Cashwell Senior Training Instructor/Armorer 228 252-435-0028
Tony Vernon Facilities Supervisor 229 252-435-0029
John Carswell Supply/Procurement 204 252-435-2004
Julie Garza Kitchen 207 252-435-2488
Susan Behrens Reception 208 252-435-2488
Employees of Blackwater: Most should be in North Carolina
Gary Jackson President Gary served 23 years in the U. S. Navy as a SEAL, and worked through the ranks to earn a commission in 1989, retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer-4. His last job in the TEAM's was a 24-month tour as platoon commander of a Counter-Drug Platoon in the Caribbean. His leadership, diverse experience in planning and logistics, and incredible energy are the core of the Blackwater USA experience. "Our TEAM concept on the staff allows for each professional who trains at Blackwater to maximize his or her experience" Jim Sierawski jims@blackwaterusa.com Director of Training Jim has both a military and law enforcement background. He spent 22 years as a Navy SEAL, and retired as a Chief Warrant Officer-3 from SEAL Team EIGHT. Ten of those years were spent with an elite counter-terrorist unit. During his tour, he earned several decorations and awards. After retiring, Jim became a police officer with the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Jim was assigned to patrol division where he spent four years before joining Blackwater USA's team. His diverse experience in the fields of special operations, law enforcement, and security clearly qualify him to lead the Blackwater Training Center. "This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. We create customized and complete training packages that allow our customers to train harder and more efficiently and become better prepared for today's ever-changing world. When you come to Blackwater, come ready to work." Jim Dehart jimd@blackwaterusa.com Director of Facilities and Chief Design Officer Jim Dehart is responsible for all physical assets at Blackwater USA. He spent 15 years designing, building, and managing the U.S. Navy's most comprehensive and sophisticated small-arms ranges at SEAL Team SIX and Naval Special Warfare Development Group. Jim retired after 20 years as a Chief Gunner's Mate. Today, he is a leader at Blackwater USA because of his unwavering work ethic, creativity, and ability to execute. Jim heads up research and development for Blackwater Target Systems and designs complete range systems for our customers worldwide. Brian Berry brianb@blackwaterusa.com Director of Blackwater Security Consulting Brian has fi
I put NetBSD on most of my Sparc hardware. Because then I can run and build from the same exact source tree of packages as I use on my Intel boxes. And run a kernel built from exactly the same source.
Which brings up a point: both NetBSD/Sparc and NetBSD/Sparc64 will run on an Ultra 1, which is a 64 bit machine. Why doesn't somebody install each NetBSD port on two seperate Ultra 1 machines. Then the benchmark comparision can be between the normal apps that build on both systems, running in parallel on two identical systems. Its exactly the same codebase except for the 32 or 64 bittedness.
I don't mind playing a good LAN party game with people I know, but back when I was pretty good at Quake II, and started to try out MMRPG's like the "Ultima Online" beta, I realized that I just didn't enjoy playing the online games for one simple reason:
Most of the people online acted like assholes.
Too often, I'd log into a Quake/Quake II server, and get some punk calling me a MotherF---er because his team was losing at Capture the Flag. I got tired of Ultima Online when, during the beta, some jackass got in the way of the door and wouldn't let me walk out.
Diablo? Town killed by someone who thought it was fun to use the cheats to kill people.
On the whole, I tend to like the gamers I know in person and through my writings. But in online games, it seems that there are hordes of people who never learned to act above the age of 12, and need a good kick in the ass - or just never be allowed to play with anyone else online again.
It's probably the #1 reason why Nintendo still hasn't moved into online gaming in a big way (so far, Sega's Phantasy Star Online is their only online experience) - they don't want Jimmy's parents complaining about how their child got ragged on as a "Pikachu-f---er" during Pokemon Online.
The author's right - the penalities for "bad" behavior in an online format might work with some who have a community in the game, but for those who just want to be a dickhead, it's hard to do much other than ban them, since they have little emotionally wrapped up in the game.
Eh - just my opinion, and I could be wrong.
We can only hope that they wont fork Qtopia like Sharp did and upgrade as TrollTech releases new versions. Because of Sharp's fork, the Zaurus users never got the bug fixes from TrollTech and Sharp never gave back their fixes leaded to a very rapid End Of Life for the Zaurus. Ever wonder why Sharp's Qtopia sucked so much? It was a fork of 1.4beta. 1.5 was TrollTech's first stable release and that is debatable as to being stable. 1.7 is much better.
Now for the big question... Will it be compiled with gcc 2.x or gcc 3? If they use 2 they get binary compatibility. If they use 3 they get a much needed speedup, but only have source compatibility. Sharp choose the worse of the two. They broke binary compatibility and kept gcc 2. What stupidity!
For instance, if the federal minimum wage law was amended to allow undocumented workers to be paid $2-3/hour, employers could afford up expand their operations up to 75%! Imagine creating HUNDREDS of thousands of jobs with the stroke of the pen, at NO EXTRA cost to industry! These are numbers George W. Bush could only dream of with his well-intentioned but ultimately ineffective tax cuts. Hopefully the upcoming election will highlight this important issue.
For instance, if the federal minimum wage law was amended to allow undocumented workers to be paid $2-3/hour, employers could afford up expand their operations up to 75%! Imagine creating HUNDREDS of thousands of jobs with the stroke of the pen, at NO EXTRA cost to industry! These are numbers George W. Bush could only dream of with his well-intentioned but ultimately ineffective tax cuts. Hopefully the upcoming election will highlight this important issue.