I am the tech coordinator for a very well known LA Charter School. We recently completed a huge expansion project, and now have over 400 PCs on campus. Rather than paying Microsoft and other vendors thousands of dollars, we decided to transition over to a hybrid "Closed/Open Source" software model. That is, we run Windows XP (which came preinstalled on all of our machines), but primarily use F/OSS software otherwise (OpenOffice, GIMP, Anim8or, WorldWind, Celestia, etc). Doing so resulted in huge savings for the tech portion of our capital campaign, and (as others have mentioned), we're able to freely share all of our application software with our staff and students without worrying about copyright issues. It is with great rarity that anyone "complains" that we're using a non-MS office suite...
You forget that, as another poster mentioned, we have an ample amount of telescopic power on the ground to *match* the capabilities of Hubble. Adaptive optics are able to correct for atmospheric distortion by using a laser "guide star" and computer hardware to modulate a telescope's mirror in realtime. Additionaly, interferometric techniques allow us to use the collective light-gathering capabilities of multiple telescopes to produce results that would otherwise require a massive (or space) telescope.
The only real observational loss that Hubble's absence would cause is in ultraviolet wavelengths. While this would be an unfortunate loss, there is plenty of other science to be done in visible, IR, X-Ray, and radio astronomy to keep astronomers occupied even in the event of the loss of JWST.
So, to answer your post in terms of my systems administration example: "We already have a backup system that is capable of running the enterprise efficiently while we devote our IT energies to developing the upgraded system"
Since the dawn of the web, workarounds and cheat have continually been found to "optimize" search results. The sad result of every web site's quest to appear at the top of search results is that it has prevented search engines from providing "objectively relavent" results.
While Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft continue to develop "search relevance technologies", someone out there needs to develop and bring to market a cognitive search engine that can actually understand the content of a page the way a human does and connect it with the requested search terms. Something similar to the Cyc project that Doug Lenat has been working on since the 80's (and its subsequent OpenCyc F/OSS derivative, only tied into search engines. And, no, I am not talking about Ask Jeeves or other silliness like that. ; )
Otherwise, "relevance" is just going to become a euphamism for "the people with the most money to 'optimize' their results"
Additional Hardware to meet CAIB requirements for non-ISS shuttle flights: $80-100 million
Actual hardware and training to execute the mission: $300-400 million
Potential Cost of Losing an Orbiter in an Accident: $2.2 billion
Potential Cost of Losing Seven Lives in an Accident: Priceless (can you put a price on life?)
If this were a systems administration project like many of us geeks typically work on, we wouldn't be trying to sell the boss on a hugely expensive upgrade when we know damn well that we're going to be rolling out a completely new, cheaper, better system within the next couple of years.
Sentiment aside, it just doesn't make sense to spend national resources and risk lives when we can devote our energies (and dollars) toward further improving ground-based telescopes and getting JWST aloft.
Let Hubble give us the best it's got during its last few years, and then bury it in a blaze of literal glory as it burns up in the atmosphere.
The school district that I work for has been looking for a sub $500 video editing and DVD playback solution (budgets are REALLY tight these days).
How does the Mac Mini stack up (with and without overclocking it)?
Nielsen has an agreement with TiVo to evaluate the viewing habits of DVR users, but they do not factor this data into their ratings system. Statistically speaking, it would be unscientific to use two different measurement mechanisms in the development of the ratings.
I wonder what the data that TiVo collects would show in terms of Enterprise's viewership? It's often been said that the Nielsen ratings are archaic and outmoded in todays world of DVRs and the like. Whether you think it's a good show or not, the viewers MAY be out there. Perhaps UPN just isn't looking in all the right places...
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I am the tech coordinator for a very well known LA Charter School. We recently completed a huge expansion project, and now have over 400 PCs on campus. Rather than paying Microsoft and other vendors thousands of dollars, we decided to transition over to a hybrid "Closed/Open Source" software model. That is, we run Windows XP (which came preinstalled on all of our machines), but primarily use F/OSS software otherwise (OpenOffice, GIMP, Anim8or, WorldWind, Celestia, etc). Doing so resulted in huge savings for the tech portion of our capital campaign, and (as others have mentioned), we're able to freely share all of our application software with our staff and students without worrying about copyright issues. It is with great rarity that anyone "complains" that we're using a non-MS office suite...
You forget that, as another poster mentioned, we have an ample amount of telescopic power on the ground to *match* the capabilities of Hubble. Adaptive optics are able to correct for atmospheric distortion by using a laser "guide star" and computer hardware to modulate a telescope's mirror in realtime. Additionaly, interferometric techniques allow us to use the collective light-gathering capabilities of multiple telescopes to produce results that would otherwise require a massive (or space) telescope.
The only real observational loss that Hubble's absence would cause is in ultraviolet wavelengths. While this would be an unfortunate loss, there is plenty of other science to be done in visible, IR, X-Ray, and radio astronomy to keep astronomers occupied even in the event of the loss of JWST.
So, to answer your post in terms of my systems administration example: "We already have a backup system that is capable of running the enterprise efficiently while we devote our IT energies to developing the upgraded system"
Since the dawn of the web, workarounds and cheat have continually been found to "optimize" search results. The sad result of every web site's quest to appear at the top of search results is that it has prevented search engines from providing "objectively relavent" results.
While Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft continue to develop "search relevance technologies", someone out there needs to develop and bring to market a cognitive search engine that can actually understand the content of a page the way a human does and connect it with the requested search terms. Something similar to the Cyc project that Doug Lenat has been working on since the 80's (and its subsequent OpenCyc F/OSS derivative, only tied into search engines. And, no, I am not talking about Ask Jeeves or other silliness like that. ; )
Otherwise, "relevance" is just going to become a euphamism for "the people with the most money to 'optimize' their results"
- Shuttle Launch: $400-500 million
- Additional Hardware to meet CAIB requirements for non-ISS shuttle flights: $80-100 million
- Actual hardware and training to execute the mission: $300-400 million
- Potential Cost of Losing an Orbiter in an Accident: $2.2 billion
- Potential Cost of Losing Seven Lives in an Accident: Priceless (can you put a price on life?)
If this were a systems administration project like many of us geeks typically work on, we wouldn't be trying to sell the boss on a hugely expensive upgrade when we know damn well that we're going to be rolling out a completely new, cheaper, better system within the next couple of years. Sentiment aside, it just doesn't make sense to spend national resources and risk lives when we can devote our energies (and dollars) toward further improving ground-based telescopes and getting JWST aloft. Let Hubble give us the best it's got during its last few years, and then bury it in a blaze of literal glory as it burns up in the atmosphere.The school district that I work for has been looking for a sub $500 video editing and DVD playback solution (budgets are REALLY tight these days). How does the Mac Mini stack up (with and without overclocking it)?
Nielsen has an agreement with TiVo to evaluate the viewing habits of DVR users, but they do not factor this data into their ratings system. Statistically speaking, it would be unscientific to use two different measurement mechanisms in the development of the ratings.
Did anyone else notice that the Ed. referred to Nelson instead of Nielson in the "Dept" tag? : ) Who the h*** is Nelson?
I wonder what the data that TiVo collects would show in terms of Enterprise's viewership? It's often been said that the Nielsen ratings are archaic and outmoded in todays world of DVRs and the like. Whether you think it's a good show or not, the viewers MAY be out there. Perhaps UPN just isn't looking in all the right places...