They already do have cameras and microphones that record all the time in many police cars, and many are reportedly tamper-resistant, at least to the officer using it. Yet the videos still seem to suffer from "technical difficulties" anytime they would show police doing something wrong.
I used to set up systems like that, back when I was young, but nobody ever logged in as themselves. It'd always end up being left logged in as somebody and everybody would just use it under that account. I stopped bothering after a while.
This always drives me nuts... why do people think that depleted uranium weapons have anything to do with nuclear technology? The whole point of it is that most of the fissionable stuff has been removed from it. They use it in cannon shells because it's better at penetrating conventional armor than other materials due to its density and self-sharpening and pyrophoric properties. It's probably not a great idea to eat it or breathe vapors of it, just like most of the other stuff they use in cannon shells, but it isn't significantly radioactive (hell, it's used for radiation SHIELDING) and has nothing to do with nuclear explosions (it is used in bombs, mostly as dead weight).
Personally, I say that if a nuke is detonated on US soil and the material was found to have originated in Iran, we level them. Same for any other country that tried to pull something like that. I don't even want to listen to what they say about how it got here; if it's here, they're responsible. I fully expect that's what the US would actually do, and I fully expect that every other nuclear power on the planet would do the same thing if somebody nuked them. I doubt any other nuclear power would object to it either - they all know that though the US is currently number 1 on the radical Islam shit list, they don't exactly love Russia or China either and have attacked them in the past and will attack them in the future.
It isn't about revenge or bloodthirstiness, it's about deterrence of future attacks. Pretty much everything in international relations is really about what message the actions or events send to other nations. It doesn't actually matter what the truth is about how it got there - if a nuclear weapon goes off on your soil and you just take out a couple of terrorists, that sends a message to every other country in the world that if you want to nuke our country, you just have to dummy up a terrorist group, claim you have no control of them, and give them a weapon, and let them do it. Leveling the country sends the message that there's no way you can get out of your responsibility; that if the weapon came out of your labs and ends up on our soil, you will face the consequences, no matter what you say, so you better make damn sure it never actually gets stolen by some group you have no control over.
And none of that really matters in the long term. I think that what so many people don't see yet is that the smartphone market is becoming a lot like the PC market of the 90s. Nobody cares about OS features, what's important is the apps. Once you have a pile of (paid) apps on your iPhone or Android that do what you want to do, there's a tremendous disincentive to switch to another platform and find and configure (and pay for) a whole new pile of apps. The additional lock-in properties of the phone just make the effect stronger - when all of your other stuff is stored in Google or Apple's cloud, that's even more reason not to switch to another platform. You can create a new platform, and it can even be really cool from a technical perspective and be on cool hardware, but it won't ever reach critical mass because of the same chicken-and-egg problem - developers won't create apps without users, and users won't buy devices without apps, and the big competitors with the clouds aren't going to go out of their way to let you sync up to them.
That's why I think that any mobile OS that isn't already locked-in in this way is toast in the long term. Microsoft might possibly be able to leverage their cash and their desktop mindshare into a critical mass for Windows Phone, but that's yet to be seen. Everyone else has no chance, as far as I can see.
Apple's desktop business was just about toast, but they were saved when they went into the mobile device market with the right hardware, software, and online music/app store at the right time. That mobile mindshare plus the growing importance of the cloud for end-users has brought their desktop business back. Blackberry is on the way down in the same way now, but what's going to save them?
Far as I can see, their best chances are to either go Android, spend their software work on some really nice Enterprise add-ons, and hope for the best (think they can make something better than Touchdown though?), or make their own OS with a really first-class web browser and hope that the cloud gets good enough to make up for the lack of native apps. Or make a killer device in some other market like Apple did.
On what world does anybody believe that whatever Blackberry's doing is "the most advanced mobile OS in the industry" or that it matters at all even if it was?
The Android phone market is crowded all right, but I don't think anybody's really went in on a blackberry-style phone with a slate keyboard (I think Moto had one a while back and there was a kinda half-assed Facebook phone like that by HTC I think, but neither company seemed to really take them seriously). Since Blackberry OS and Symbian OS seem to be basically dead in the smartphone OS wars, it'd be kind of interesting to see what happened with Blackberry going Android and Nokia going WP7.
Either is certainly possible, and probably both are at least a little true. I'd come down more on the US side on this one, though. I could buy that Iran could jam or maybe spoof GPS, but a fully working attack that will actually cause the targeted drone to land normally at a site of the attacker's choosing without any testing or trial and error on the targeted hardware seems unlikely.
Restaurants POS systems aren't exactly cutting-edge technology. There's gotta be a kazillion commercial systems out there and lots of pros to install and manage them who have set up and maintained hundreds of these systems. There's probably even some sort of restaurant owner's organization that can recommend systems and consultants. Why are you spending time on a tech site wondering about how to roll your own POS infrastructure when it provides no competitive advantage to your business and any screwups could cost big money? Spend your time worrying and working on stuff that will actually help your business compete with all of the other restaurants out there. Not that I know much about the restaurant biz, but I'm going to guess that getting and keeping good cooking staff, waitstaff, etc, getting quality supplies at a good price, and marketing the place and other restaurant-y things belong much higher on the owner's worry list than what hardware and software the POS systems are using.
Not that it really matters now, but in my view, the employers went first. Employers decided that they can lay off good people by the thousands whenever the industry/economy has a rough quarter or the CEO has a bad hair day or whatever. Employees got the message that they were considered expendable loud and clear, and responded by being happy to jump over to their employer's competitors if they offered more money.
Maybe the economy as a whole is better off this way, but it sure looks like there's a problem with people getting their training and first few years experience in the workforce.
I hope not... I have Android, and I think it does this the right way. Exchange contacts and calendar are integrated into the built-in ones, but there's still a separate Google contact list and calendar. I see all of my Exchange contacts and events in the same lists, but my out of work contacts and events are there too, and if I create a new one, it can be either Exchange or Google (or some other account type). What I really like is how it merges contacts - if the same person is in Google and Exchange (and Facebook and whatever else), then the info from all sources is combined into one person in the contact list, and tapping on it shows all of their info from all sources, complete with ability to call, text, or email all numbers and addresses from whichever email account you want.
Exchange is supported well natively, but I use Touchdown anyways because the Exchange admins require password locks and I don't want to password lock my whole phone or try to hack my way around it. Touchdown lets me keep a simple lock on non-work stuff, but you need to enter a password to read Exchange email and events. What's nice is that even though they keep it separate, the contacts still integrate and the events summaries still show up in the agenda widget.
Respect to Apple for doing well with backward-compatibility and all, but seriously, contacts and info are your complaints? I don't know what WinPhone and iOS do, but my Androids back up all of my contact info to the cloud, and it all gets synced to any phone or tablet I use a few minutes after I log into my Google account on it. And pretty much all phones from companies other than Apple have charged with MicroUSB for years.
I'm pretty sure that if these guys had any "muscle" in first-world countries, they'd be able to think of things to do that are a lot more profitable than trying to take advantage of gullible 'net users. You're probably safe as long as you don't go to Nigeria (or wherever they're really from) to brag about how you scammed them.
True. How many kids now want to be artists, writers, musicians, actors, sports players, and other entertainment jobs that mostly add no value to society? How many want to be scientists, engineers, inventors, physicists, mathematicians?
I do have a problem with Iran having nukes, but I'll put that aside for now. Even though I don't like them, complaining because they lied is silly and naive. Every country that has ever existed has done it and will continue to do it. Every country in the world both actually signs treaties and abides by them exactly as long as they think that it is in their best interests to do so, and no longer. International agreements have no meaning in the way that legal contracts within a nation do because there is no court or police force to enforce them (no, the UN/ICC/whatever doesn't count as they have no police/military force). At times, international agreements work well, but this is generally because the country or countries in question think that it's in their best interest for it to appear to be working well, or the issue is basically trivial. If either changes, the country in question will go back to doing whatever it feels like.
Thank you! That's pretty much what I was thinking of writing when I saw that post. At least somebody on Slashdot isn't an insane Blame-America-Firster and has some clue about how foreign relations really work. If I had mod points and you weren't already at +5, you'd have them.
Guys, I know America has done some things that aren't pretty, but every American misdeed combined isn't a tenth as bad as what the Soviet Union and Chinese Communists have done. If you ignore their influence and only pay attention to the things that America did to counter it during the Cold War, then you'll end up looking and sounding like an idiot.
I haven't seen anything to suggest that there's any correlation between programming language/environment and the hours that you are willing to work either. I think that's more about maturity as a person than anything else. I know now that I have and make enough money for the lifestyle I want, and I'm not interested in destroying that lifestyle to make more money. I think that most people who are smart, successful, and have good social skills feel the same way and do the same thing.
I have seen people work ridiculous hours at various jobs (and even done it myself at times) for some combination of: 1. Money. Either they have huge expenses for some reason (family, medical problems, debts) or they aren't skilled enough to make a good wage, so they close the gap between their wage and the money they need by working more hours. There's also quite a few job types where you can make lots more money than usual by being willing to work long hours and/or in poor conditions. 2. Unhappy home life. I've seen more than a few people work longer hours because they hated their wife/husband/parents/whatever and wanted to stay away from them. Probably some do it because they're lonely too. 3. Bullied/taken advantage of due to poor social skills. Excessive demands, threats to fire the person and maybe blacklist them in the industry if they don't comply, threats to fire them on the spot if caught looking for a new job, etc. Frequently combined with 1. 4. Passion. They're legitimately passionate enough about what they do to slog away at it endlessly. Can be great and tremendously productive, but rarely lasts more than a year or two at the most.
I don't think many people named their networks just Obama (or just Romney for that matter). It'd be interesting to know how many and where are named "Go Obama!" or "Reelect Obama" or something like that vs something like "Fuck Obama". Romney hasn't done enough nationally yet to get that many people to hate him or be enthusiastic about him.
The thing that I wonder about, and have never seen any hard numbers on, is just what it would take to transmit radio signals between stars. Take our current SETI rigs and figure out exactly what a theoretical alien civilization would have to do to stand out from the background on them. I remember reading somewhere, and I wouldn't be surprised, if it would require a multi-gigawatt transmitter with a highly directional antenna pointed at Earth, essentially a transmitter more powerful than anything we had ever built for ordinary terrestrial communication. So basically, you can't see anyone unless they are intentionally trying to be seen.
If that's true, then it raises the question - who would actually want to transmit like that? I always though that it would be a terrible idea for us. We don't know if alien civilizations exist or if interstellar travel is practical, but if both are true then it doesn't seem like such a great idea to send a great big We Are Here beacon to a species so powerful that they could do anything they wanted to us and we would be helpless. And what alien civilization, no matter how high their technological level, wouldn't be afraid of attracting an even more powerful alien species?
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the publicity from being the first commercial company to ferry cargo to the ISS is worth far more to them in future contracts than all of the money that NASA is paying them.
So much whining about the lack of women in technical fields... Anybody worked in or seen the HR department of a medium to large company? How about nursing? Psychology? Child care? When are people going to start complaining about how there is a shortage of men in all of the historically woman-dominated fields, and enacting ham-fisted government laws to try to fix it?
Funny thing about experience... I haven't been programming professionally long enough to have a really good perspective on the overall market, but all of the "old and experienced" programmers I have personally worked with were lousy at it. They're passably good at one small aspect, usually writing C against Win32 or MFC, and refuse to have anything to do with anything else. And typically throw endless hackish patches onto poorly-architectures code until eventually it's basically unmaintainable.
Not to say that all old programmers are bad, but being experienced doesn't necessarily mean that you're any good at it. In my opinion, the world of programming and computer science changes so fast that anybody who isn't constantly trying to learn about new technology will soon be useless. The guys I'm most impressed with are the ones who are always pushing to learn something new, try something new, make their code a little bit better. Of course, that's while not being so inexperienced or starry-eyed to try to do everything in the latest flavor of the week without thinking about whether it really improves the end product.
True, but it all comes back to there just not being much of anything worthwhile to do in space. The only reason we cared enough to actually land men on the moon was to show up the Soviets. Once that was accomplished, there's nothing left to do but science which won't ever get enough money to make manned exploration really work. The budget problems with the shuttle showed it - NASA said that we can make a pretty good reusable shuttle for $10B apparently, but nobody was willing to pay that much for a reusable spacecraft. They had to chase so many funding sources, all of which added extra requirements, and still didn't end up with enough money to do the original mission right.
True, and one of the stranger things about the modern world. I know that on piracy, not only were pirates summarily executed on capture, but if the pirates in general got to be too much of a pain in the ass in general, some country would send a bunch of marines to invade wherever they were based, kill everyone they saw and trash everything they could touch, and then leave. Now, you can't invade anywhere without taking over the whole country, trying to "nation build", bending over backwards not to harm any civilians who might be innocent or destroy any of their stuff without compensating them, having a dozen NGOs up your ass about everything while they ignore what the totalitarian dictator next door does, etc. I'm not saying that either is necessarily better in all cases, but what a difference.
The DUI issue is interesting too. Apparently, we pretty much ignored it for most of the history of motorized transportation, along with stuff like having and actually using seatbelts. Then they decided to start in on it, mostly with publicity and notices. Most of it goes away, but they just keep going after it harder and harder with vaguely fascist tactics like checkpoints, installing breathalyzer interlocks in ALL cars (yes, MADD really wants to do that, it's on their website http://www.madd.org/drunk-driving/campaign/), etc.
I'm not saying I want to go back to the old ways on everything, but damm people, can't we keep a little perspective?
I've wondered about what's really behind it. Seems related to white guilt - rich white people who suddenly decided to feel guilty about being rich and white and feel a sudden desire to atone for supposed past sins by getting involved in things they often don't know anything about. Also the modern 24-hour news cycle - a bazillion news sources have to get eyeballs on them somehow. Something about modern Christianity too - there seem to be a lot of those types that believe that we must spare no expense to keep every single life going for as long as we possibly can, even if it's a week as a vegetable in a hospital whose costs will bankrupt the family, but don't dare have the Government pay for it!
Oh, I agree entirely with the facts and moral judgement, but it doesn't change much. Yeah, Afghanistan isn't at all culturally unified, and there are cultures much more in line with what we would consider to be just and not a threat to us that we are finding and supporting, like any halfway decent COIN effort should do. But the culture that thinks women should remain ignorant, among many other things that I don't like, seems to have a pretty substantial level of popular support in Afghanistan. I support our side and our mission, but I am also aware that the other side thinks of us as destroying their culture (I agree, and think that the Taliban-style culture sucks and deserves to be destroyed).
I was hopeful at the start of the mission that we would be able to create a substantial cultural change there, but it's starting to look pretty bad - everyone seems to want to get out, a lot of the guys who were boosters for the mission initially are now saying that it's hopeless, and we've been there over 10 years and not much has really changed. Sad that the best we can hope for seems to be that after we leave, no terrorist groups will be able to plan major attacks against the western world from there for a while.
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They already do have cameras and microphones that record all the time in many police cars, and many are reportedly tamper-resistant, at least to the officer using it. Yet the videos still seem to suffer from "technical difficulties" anytime they would show police doing something wrong.
I used to set up systems like that, back when I was young, but nobody ever logged in as themselves. It'd always end up being left logged in as somebody and everybody would just use it under that account. I stopped bothering after a while.
This always drives me nuts... why do people think that depleted uranium weapons have anything to do with nuclear technology? The whole point of it is that most of the fissionable stuff has been removed from it. They use it in cannon shells because it's better at penetrating conventional armor than other materials due to its density and self-sharpening and pyrophoric properties. It's probably not a great idea to eat it or breathe vapors of it, just like most of the other stuff they use in cannon shells, but it isn't significantly radioactive (hell, it's used for radiation SHIELDING) and has nothing to do with nuclear explosions (it is used in bombs, mostly as dead weight).
Personally, I say that if a nuke is detonated on US soil and the material was found to have originated in Iran, we level them. Same for any other country that tried to pull something like that. I don't even want to listen to what they say about how it got here; if it's here, they're responsible. I fully expect that's what the US would actually do, and I fully expect that every other nuclear power on the planet would do the same thing if somebody nuked them. I doubt any other nuclear power would object to it either - they all know that though the US is currently number 1 on the radical Islam shit list, they don't exactly love Russia or China either and have attacked them in the past and will attack them in the future.
It isn't about revenge or bloodthirstiness, it's about deterrence of future attacks. Pretty much everything in international relations is really about what message the actions or events send to other nations. It doesn't actually matter what the truth is about how it got there - if a nuclear weapon goes off on your soil and you just take out a couple of terrorists, that sends a message to every other country in the world that if you want to nuke our country, you just have to dummy up a terrorist group, claim you have no control of them, and give them a weapon, and let them do it. Leveling the country sends the message that there's no way you can get out of your responsibility; that if the weapon came out of your labs and ends up on our soil, you will face the consequences, no matter what you say, so you better make damn sure it never actually gets stolen by some group you have no control over.
And none of that really matters in the long term. I think that what so many people don't see yet is that the smartphone market is becoming a lot like the PC market of the 90s. Nobody cares about OS features, what's important is the apps. Once you have a pile of (paid) apps on your iPhone or Android that do what you want to do, there's a tremendous disincentive to switch to another platform and find and configure (and pay for) a whole new pile of apps. The additional lock-in properties of the phone just make the effect stronger - when all of your other stuff is stored in Google or Apple's cloud, that's even more reason not to switch to another platform. You can create a new platform, and it can even be really cool from a technical perspective and be on cool hardware, but it won't ever reach critical mass because of the same chicken-and-egg problem - developers won't create apps without users, and users won't buy devices without apps, and the big competitors with the clouds aren't going to go out of their way to let you sync up to them.
That's why I think that any mobile OS that isn't already locked-in in this way is toast in the long term. Microsoft might possibly be able to leverage their cash and their desktop mindshare into a critical mass for Windows Phone, but that's yet to be seen. Everyone else has no chance, as far as I can see.
Apple's desktop business was just about toast, but they were saved when they went into the mobile device market with the right hardware, software, and online music/app store at the right time. That mobile mindshare plus the growing importance of the cloud for end-users has brought their desktop business back. Blackberry is on the way down in the same way now, but what's going to save them?
Far as I can see, their best chances are to either go Android, spend their software work on some really nice Enterprise add-ons, and hope for the best (think they can make something better than Touchdown though?), or make their own OS with a really first-class web browser and hope that the cloud gets good enough to make up for the lack of native apps. Or make a killer device in some other market like Apple did.
On what world does anybody believe that whatever Blackberry's doing is "the most advanced mobile OS in the industry" or that it matters at all even if it was?
The Android phone market is crowded all right, but I don't think anybody's really went in on a blackberry-style phone with a slate keyboard (I think Moto had one a while back and there was a kinda half-assed Facebook phone like that by HTC I think, but neither company seemed to really take them seriously). Since Blackberry OS and Symbian OS seem to be basically dead in the smartphone OS wars, it'd be kind of interesting to see what happened with Blackberry going Android and Nokia going WP7.
Either is certainly possible, and probably both are at least a little true. I'd come down more on the US side on this one, though. I could buy that Iran could jam or maybe spoof GPS, but a fully working attack that will actually cause the targeted drone to land normally at a site of the attacker's choosing without any testing or trial and error on the targeted hardware seems unlikely.
Restaurants POS systems aren't exactly cutting-edge technology. There's gotta be a kazillion commercial systems out there and lots of pros to install and manage them who have set up and maintained hundreds of these systems. There's probably even some sort of restaurant owner's organization that can recommend systems and consultants. Why are you spending time on a tech site wondering about how to roll your own POS infrastructure when it provides no competitive advantage to your business and any screwups could cost big money? Spend your time worrying and working on stuff that will actually help your business compete with all of the other restaurants out there. Not that I know much about the restaurant biz, but I'm going to guess that getting and keeping good cooking staff, waitstaff, etc, getting quality supplies at a good price, and marketing the place and other restaurant-y things belong much higher on the owner's worry list than what hardware and software the POS systems are using.
Not that it really matters now, but in my view, the employers went first. Employers decided that they can lay off good people by the thousands whenever the industry/economy has a rough quarter or the CEO has a bad hair day or whatever. Employees got the message that they were considered expendable loud and clear, and responded by being happy to jump over to their employer's competitors if they offered more money.
Maybe the economy as a whole is better off this way, but it sure looks like there's a problem with people getting their training and first few years experience in the workforce.
I hope not... I have Android, and I think it does this the right way. Exchange contacts and calendar are integrated into the built-in ones, but there's still a separate Google contact list and calendar. I see all of my Exchange contacts and events in the same lists, but my out of work contacts and events are there too, and if I create a new one, it can be either Exchange or Google (or some other account type). What I really like is how it merges contacts - if the same person is in Google and Exchange (and Facebook and whatever else), then the info from all sources is combined into one person in the contact list, and tapping on it shows all of their info from all sources, complete with ability to call, text, or email all numbers and addresses from whichever email account you want.
Exchange is supported well natively, but I use Touchdown anyways because the Exchange admins require password locks and I don't want to password lock my whole phone or try to hack my way around it. Touchdown lets me keep a simple lock on non-work stuff, but you need to enter a password to read Exchange email and events. What's nice is that even though they keep it separate, the contacts still integrate and the events summaries still show up in the agenda widget.
Respect to Apple for doing well with backward-compatibility and all, but seriously, contacts and info are your complaints? I don't know what WinPhone and iOS do, but my Androids back up all of my contact info to the cloud, and it all gets synced to any phone or tablet I use a few minutes after I log into my Google account on it. And pretty much all phones from companies other than Apple have charged with MicroUSB for years.
I'm pretty sure that if these guys had any "muscle" in first-world countries, they'd be able to think of things to do that are a lot more profitable than trying to take advantage of gullible 'net users. You're probably safe as long as you don't go to Nigeria (or wherever they're really from) to brag about how you scammed them.
True. How many kids now want to be artists, writers, musicians, actors, sports players, and other entertainment jobs that mostly add no value to society? How many want to be scientists, engineers, inventors, physicists, mathematicians?
I do have a problem with Iran having nukes, but I'll put that aside for now. Even though I don't like them, complaining because they lied is silly and naive. Every country that has ever existed has done it and will continue to do it. Every country in the world both actually signs treaties and abides by them exactly as long as they think that it is in their best interests to do so, and no longer. International agreements have no meaning in the way that legal contracts within a nation do because there is no court or police force to enforce them (no, the UN/ICC/whatever doesn't count as they have no police/military force). At times, international agreements work well, but this is generally because the country or countries in question think that it's in their best interest for it to appear to be working well, or the issue is basically trivial. If either changes, the country in question will go back to doing whatever it feels like.
Thank you! That's pretty much what I was thinking of writing when I saw that post. At least somebody on Slashdot isn't an insane Blame-America-Firster and has some clue about how foreign relations really work. If I had mod points and you weren't already at +5, you'd have them.
Guys, I know America has done some things that aren't pretty, but every American misdeed combined isn't a tenth as bad as what the Soviet Union and Chinese Communists have done. If you ignore their influence and only pay attention to the things that America did to counter it during the Cold War, then you'll end up looking and sounding like an idiot.
Please pay no attention to the fact that the more-or-less dominant Android OS is Linux-based.
I haven't seen anything to suggest that there's any correlation between programming language/environment and the hours that you are willing to work either. I think that's more about maturity as a person than anything else. I know now that I have and make enough money for the lifestyle I want, and I'm not interested in destroying that lifestyle to make more money. I think that most people who are smart, successful, and have good social skills feel the same way and do the same thing.
I have seen people work ridiculous hours at various jobs (and even done it myself at times) for some combination of:
1. Money. Either they have huge expenses for some reason (family, medical problems, debts) or they aren't skilled enough to make a good wage, so they close the gap between their wage and the money they need by working more hours. There's also quite a few job types where you can make lots more money than usual by being willing to work long hours and/or in poor conditions.
2. Unhappy home life. I've seen more than a few people work longer hours because they hated their wife/husband/parents/whatever and wanted to stay away from them. Probably some do it because they're lonely too.
3. Bullied/taken advantage of due to poor social skills. Excessive demands, threats to fire the person and maybe blacklist them in the industry if they don't comply, threats to fire them on the spot if caught looking for a new job, etc. Frequently combined with 1.
4. Passion. They're legitimately passionate enough about what they do to slog away at it endlessly. Can be great and tremendously productive, but rarely lasts more than a year or two at the most.
I don't think many people named their networks just Obama (or just Romney for that matter). It'd be interesting to know how many and where are named "Go Obama!" or "Reelect Obama" or something like that vs something like "Fuck Obama". Romney hasn't done enough nationally yet to get that many people to hate him or be enthusiastic about him.
The thing that I wonder about, and have never seen any hard numbers on, is just what it would take to transmit radio signals between stars. Take our current SETI rigs and figure out exactly what a theoretical alien civilization would have to do to stand out from the background on them. I remember reading somewhere, and I wouldn't be surprised, if it would require a multi-gigawatt transmitter with a highly directional antenna pointed at Earth, essentially a transmitter more powerful than anything we had ever built for ordinary terrestrial communication. So basically, you can't see anyone unless they are intentionally trying to be seen.
If that's true, then it raises the question - who would actually want to transmit like that? I always though that it would be a terrible idea for us. We don't know if alien civilizations exist or if interstellar travel is practical, but if both are true then it doesn't seem like such a great idea to send a great big We Are Here beacon to a species so powerful that they could do anything they wanted to us and we would be helpless. And what alien civilization, no matter how high their technological level, wouldn't be afraid of attracting an even more powerful alien species?
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the publicity from being the first commercial company to ferry cargo to the ISS is worth far more to them in future contracts than all of the money that NASA is paying them.
So much whining about the lack of women in technical fields... Anybody worked in or seen the HR department of a medium to large company? How about nursing? Psychology? Child care? When are people going to start complaining about how there is a shortage of men in all of the historically woman-dominated fields, and enacting ham-fisted government laws to try to fix it?
Funny thing about experience... I haven't been programming professionally long enough to have a really good perspective on the overall market, but all of the "old and experienced" programmers I have personally worked with were lousy at it. They're passably good at one small aspect, usually writing C against Win32 or MFC, and refuse to have anything to do with anything else. And typically throw endless hackish patches onto poorly-architectures code until eventually it's basically unmaintainable.
Not to say that all old programmers are bad, but being experienced doesn't necessarily mean that you're any good at it. In my opinion, the world of programming and computer science changes so fast that anybody who isn't constantly trying to learn about new technology will soon be useless. The guys I'm most impressed with are the ones who are always pushing to learn something new, try something new, make their code a little bit better. Of course, that's while not being so inexperienced or starry-eyed to try to do everything in the latest flavor of the week without thinking about whether it really improves the end product.
True, but it all comes back to there just not being much of anything worthwhile to do in space. The only reason we cared enough to actually land men on the moon was to show up the Soviets. Once that was accomplished, there's nothing left to do but science which won't ever get enough money to make manned exploration really work. The budget problems with the shuttle showed it - NASA said that we can make a pretty good reusable shuttle for $10B apparently, but nobody was willing to pay that much for a reusable spacecraft. They had to chase so many funding sources, all of which added extra requirements, and still didn't end up with enough money to do the original mission right.
True, and one of the stranger things about the modern world. I know that on piracy, not only were pirates summarily executed on capture, but if the pirates in general got to be too much of a pain in the ass in general, some country would send a bunch of marines to invade wherever they were based, kill everyone they saw and trash everything they could touch, and then leave. Now, you can't invade anywhere without taking over the whole country, trying to "nation build", bending over backwards not to harm any civilians who might be innocent or destroy any of their stuff without compensating them, having a dozen NGOs up your ass about everything while they ignore what the totalitarian dictator next door does, etc. I'm not saying that either is necessarily better in all cases, but what a difference.
The DUI issue is interesting too. Apparently, we pretty much ignored it for most of the history of motorized transportation, along with stuff like having and actually using seatbelts. Then they decided to start in on it, mostly with publicity and notices. Most of it goes away, but they just keep going after it harder and harder with vaguely fascist tactics like checkpoints, installing breathalyzer interlocks in ALL cars (yes, MADD really wants to do that, it's on their website http://www.madd.org/drunk-driving/campaign/), etc.
I'm not saying I want to go back to the old ways on everything, but damm people, can't we keep a little perspective?
I've wondered about what's really behind it. Seems related to white guilt - rich white people who suddenly decided to feel guilty about being rich and white and feel a sudden desire to atone for supposed past sins by getting involved in things they often don't know anything about. Also the modern 24-hour news cycle - a bazillion news sources have to get eyeballs on them somehow. Something about modern Christianity too - there seem to be a lot of those types that believe that we must spare no expense to keep every single life going for as long as we possibly can, even if it's a week as a vegetable in a hospital whose costs will bankrupt the family, but don't dare have the Government pay for it!
Oh, I agree entirely with the facts and moral judgement, but it doesn't change much. Yeah, Afghanistan isn't at all culturally unified, and there are cultures much more in line with what we would consider to be just and not a threat to us that we are finding and supporting, like any halfway decent COIN effort should do. But the culture that thinks women should remain ignorant, among many other things that I don't like, seems to have a pretty substantial level of popular support in Afghanistan. I support our side and our mission, but I am also aware that the other side thinks of us as destroying their culture (I agree, and think that the Taliban-style culture sucks and deserves to be destroyed).
I was hopeful at the start of the mission that we would be able to create a substantial cultural change there, but it's starting to look pretty bad - everyone seems to want to get out, a lot of the guys who were boosters for the mission initially are now saying that it's hopeless, and we've been there over 10 years and not much has really changed. Sad that the best we can hope for seems to be that after we leave, no terrorist groups will be able to plan major attacks against the western world from there for a while.