NASA's new manned launch system will use a solid rocket, which means no one-engine-out capability. And if they were really concerned about safety, they'd use robots to construct a lunar habitat before sending people up there.
I think a launch escape system is your best slim chance of living if an engine gives out mid launch.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_spacecraft#Launch_Escape_System_.28LES.29But I know nothing in the reliability of a solid rocket vs liquid fueled. I do whole heartedly agreed that it would be nice to see NASA send up a pre-lander with a self erecting habitat/survey station and a robot to setup a landing zone and secure the habitat. My reasoning for this isn't so much for the Astronaut's good as for NASA's good. This is an ideal opportunity to test run a technology that we will need to have going well if we are to ever put people on Mars.
Re:And this Is Sadder
on
The New Moon Race
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
It's not just a lack of progress. We're going backwards.
I see a few basic, more obvious causes for the slower time table: Higher standards in mission goals and safety, A thickening bureaucracy. Less national pride in the project and more monetary interest. Any of these things would drag out the process of getting the moon again. Higher standards in safety and mission goals has to play at least some part or we could just rebuild the Eagle and launch in early 2008, probably in time for the elections. Thickening bureaucracy is obvious in everything our bloated government does and we don't have a JFK to push through it. Less national pride and more monetary interest is just a reality about people motivations in the here and now. There isn't going to be anyone working overtime off the clock so we can be the first, but there will be plenty of people willing to cash fat government checks for the next 13-30 years. Seriously, when is the last time a project with an open ended budget finished ahead of time?
If by "learn something" you mean "get a college education"
I think the non-class experiences are at least 50% of the value of a college education. The ridiculous games played in the halls of the freshman dorm, living off of dining hall food, being hugely codependent with an entire community that is out of their parents home for the first time. It is a cultural common grounds that is as close to a coming-of-age ritual as we have here in the USA. It's also about the most fun you can hope to have in four years. Online courses may convey the information, but they will not convey the experience.
Old rules say that if you are going to use the public right-of-way, you have to share the lines.
I wonder if a land owner could make a case to receive rent from Verizon of putting private property (fiber) into the public right-of-way access across the his land. I'd imagine that many lawyers would jump at the chance to try for a suit that would be that widespread and lucrative.
I blame the co-eds for not providing something far more interesting for kids in the dorms to do between 8pm and midnight. And I'll blame that University (and others like them when the ISPs point to them to strengthen the case against net neutrality. If the coursework is that time consuming (frequently it is) can't the late night studiers go to the library or computer lab like I did when I was in school?
not an error on the part of the computer vision algorithm.
When I first looked at the illusion I didn't see the spheres so much as one in red light and one in blue light, but though they were two different plaid buttons. The "trick" didn't work so well for me. I went back and looked at the illusion again and this time noticed the "puddles of light" at the bottom of each sphere and my visual cortex reinterpretated and the "trick" worked.(try looking at the illusion with the puddles of light covered up and thinking of them a differently pigmented patterns) Our brain makes a lot of assumptions to fill in information when we look around. I wonder how much of that is worked into having the computer "see like we do".
Because Engineering is hard. Our precious little snowflakes are growing up so pampered from real difficulty or challenge that something like a Masters in Engineering is out of their league. Our school systems can't flunk anyone because it would cause the child to feel bad. They also can't strongly encourage the truly bright students, because then the other children will feel less special. The overall result is that our childhood education doesn't prepare our young students for difficult college majors. This is mostly the parents (as a whole) fault. Students from countries where struggling past difficulty is just part of life have been outshining tender American kids for decades now. The proof from Futurama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recurring_human_characters_from_Futurama#Professor_Ogden_Wernstrom "[Professor] Wernstrom demands and receives tenure, a big research grant, a lab, and five graduate students (at least three of them Chinese by his request)."
It all works, and what it does is pretty cool. However code written over three years, haxxed about, experimented with and cannibalized at times to make utilities does not in fact make a nice release candidate.
Release it for free use under the name "Ridiculous Gobbledygook" and don't offer support except to someone who's main focus is programming and is trying to clean up the code. It would be nice to see these very specialized sloppy programs rewritten as a learning experience for programmers, I'm sure it won't be the only time they encounter inelegant code and need to streamline it. Sure others in your field can use your program, as is, with zero tech support or write their own program, whereas now they have only the latter choice.
this isn't "censoring" in the common carrier terminology. They are shutting down accounts,
So in an area where they have the only service available they are silencing their critics, how is that not censoring? Isn't part of the common carrier status a requirement to not deny service to someone because of stated ideological/political beliefs? My political beliefs include ideals about how global companies should act, and thus should be protected speech in the common carrier sense.
However, they file a suit anyway to find out who the employee is. Then they drop the suit (since they'd lose it anyway).
So we need a mechanism with which a defendant can demand that the case be seen through to completion. That would seem to be the best whistle-blower protection of all. Finish the trial, complete with discovery and documentation of evidence of the validity of the claims.
I'm a Broadway stagehand. I have a degree in theatrical lighting design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_technician I'll have to add to the Wiki as I see it doesn't cover my job as an automation tech.
I think most of the items you are talking about (VCR, Printer, Cell phone charger) use much less than a fraction of a percent of your total power usage in a normal home. Why focus on making something so trivial a little more efficient?
In the article I linked to it says that TVs and VCRs account for 3.6% of household electrical usage. If 30% of that (23% for TV 50% for VCR) is spent during standby, that accounts that 1% of all household electrical usage. That's 12 billion kWh annually, or the output of three and a half average coal power plants. Not trivial.
I really like to be mobile and move around in my jobs, but I am devoid of needing to do that for this. My main job is to sit down and review/rewrite/create code. I've never done this before, so maybe I'm just not accustomed to needing to look at a computer screen for 8.5+ hours every business day.
I found out after college, that the realities of a full time job in the field of my major, were mentally exhausting and physically unmoving. So I changed career paths about a year after graduation. If sitting in a chair while looking at a computer screen for 8+ hours a day isn't for you, maybe you should find a different line of work. In the course of your life, you will spend more time at work than will spend with your spouse, you job should be something you enjoy.
The problem is not the operating system itself. The problem is with Microsoft's development processes. Its ineffiency bloats the operating system and bogs down the speed and quality of the development. Moving on to a new operating system will result in the 'same' product.
So how does MicroSoft build an entirely new OS and retain compatibility without writing bloatware? Can there be a lean, fast OS that works with everything that worked with Windows-ME and provides the the new bells and whistles that Vista was supposed to deliver? The strength of MicroSoft is the huge mass of software that runs on their OS and the huge mass of people using that software. That compatiblity cannot be sacrificed and it might well require a massive contorted rococo mess of an OS to make that happen.
By how much would our energy use go down if we transitioned to servers and network equipment that use less energy?
The first place I would look to conserve energy is turning things off as opposed to standby. Televisions use 23% of their annual electricity while in standby, for VCRs that jumps to 50%. http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/info/documents/pdfs/lbnl-42393.pdf So if we turned monitors and computers and wireless routers and printers etc, completely off when we were not using them the savings would likely be significant. As an added bonus your computer can't be a zombie spam bot when the power is turned off.
give the thing a boost into a proper orbit. Don't even tell the russians!
But the Russians are the one's with the most likely ability to relocate the ISS to a higher orbit with their space yo-yo. Just because their tether didn't unwind smoothly this time doesn't mean that it won't work in the near future.
Because right now the value of the TexasDollar (oil and military) would be skyrocketing as compared to the value of MichiganDollar (US Automotive Industry) and Detroit would be even more screwed than it already is. Add to this having to exchange money when you crossed state lines and well basically the States can't print there own currency (Federal currency is standard) for the same reasons the the EU adopted he Euro.
the "intelligent" and well-educated male contingent should be taking steps that the "rest" of male culture does not
What makes you think that the rest of culture hasn't already taken that step? "women of all educational levels from 21 to 30 living in New York City and working full time made 117 percent of men's wages, and even more in Dallas, 120 percent."http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/nyregion/03women.html?hp=&pagewanted=print Add to this that most women are promoted faster than men. (They are paid less for the same position but they get the position 5 years earlier, thus earning more than men their same age.) If anything the post gen-X generation (gen-Y?) favors women over men. Men are often portrayed alternatingly as predatory or frivolous in women's literature and television, and are considered extraneous to the family unit by the courts. (except of course for financial support) So when I hear someone bemoaning a patriarchal culture in the US, I think that perhaps want they really want is for women to be superior in the business/tech venues as the overwhelming female superiority in the legal/cultural/family venues is not enough anymore.
One who sells one's abilities, talent, or name for an unworthy purpose.
Ideally, yes you are quite right. Often times in this flawed world the ideas of "worthy" and "profitable" get all jumbled up. Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive but neither are they interchangeable, and they are certainly not universal. What we would like to consider worthy (balanced and carefully researched news) is not as profitable and therefore not as worthy to the publisher calling the shots for the professional journalist. Those publishers have significant sway in what is considered ethical and professional in the field of journalism.
"Hmm. Sounds like there might be another side to this story,"
It's been a while since balanced reporting that explores both sides of an issue outsold a one-sided rant. He's a professional, which basically means he does this to make money, so his first concern is selling the story with some truthiness on the side.
Canada's national police force, has been claiming that counterfeiting costs Canadians $30 billion per year.
Umm no it doesn't cost Canadians anything, they're getting all that counterfeit stuff for free, that's kinda the whole point of piracy. It might be more accurate to say that $30 billion per year worth of wealth is more evenly distributed in Canada, thanks to counterfeiting. (I'm only being partially sarcastic)
Yeah, I don't think Google is hurting for $$$ right now. One share is $535.27. http://www.googlestockquote.com/ I don't think they are actually hemoraging a billion a year, it's more like they are wishing all of those clicks were valid so they would have a billion more in profit. Well in that case, I lost $250,000,000 last week because of a faulty QuickPick in the Lotto.
A person could technically survive living in the woods, gathering berries from the local plant life and things like that... I guess.
Unfortunately even that option is not possible. In what woods would this neo-primative live? I sure hope it's property that he owns, and has a fund setup to pay property taxes in perpetuity. I hope he doesn't ever what to have children, because the state would take them away. I hope never encounters the police, as they may well assume that he is some kind of homeless squatter and haul him away, perhaps after tasering him for resisting arrest. I hope the local county doesn't pass any ordinances on minimum house size, or lawn maintainence. One of the most annoying problems that the modern America has is that they don't know how to leave people alone, even on their own property or concerning their own property.
Living in or even beside society requires a steady stream of money, and that usually means a job, and that increasingly requires a mobile phone, and quasi-fashionable clothes, and transportation. Consumerism isn't entirely optional, and the more you have to deal with society, the less optional it is.
I am writing from the USA. While it is possible with some digging to find out most of what legislation is being considered or passed in the state and federal level, there is the problem of many issues being bundled up in a single bill to be passed (earmarking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmarking) It is common practice here for Senators and Congressmen to hide special projects inside of larger bills. For example, there may be a bill up for vote that is titled "Education Reform Proposal #108" but the actual text of the bill is thousands of pages long. The first few hundred pages might actually have to do with education reform, but there will also likely be the funding for a bridge for one county, a tax break for a very specific company or industry, a regulation exemption for some other industry, and any other special things the politicians promised special interests that would be unable to pass as on their own merit. The result is that it is very difficult to know the entire contents of any bill to be voted on, and it is near impossible to have any bill make it as far as the voting stage without several earmarks being attached. So I do not know that I actually vote any better than my representative.
Yes, much of the democratic world is suffering under the weaknesses of Representative Democracy. Namely too much influence by special interests and too much focus on election issues and almost no focus on deeper problems. Unfortunately one of the other weaknesses of Direct Democracy, is that it doesn't traditionally work well for very large countries. I do have to wonder if the information age would change that though. The internet would in theory allow the voters to have a more robust knowledge of issues that are outside of their hometown or home state. However the internet doesn't seem to have done much for politicians being any better informed on issues, and many American voters are willfully ignorant of anything but their side's propaganda when they get to the voting booth. I fear ultimately that the reason we are having such governmental problems right now is because in a Democracy the People get the Government they deserve. We have lost our national sense of community and pride, and so we vote greedily and selfishly and get greedy selfish government.
Slashdot Mirror
NASA's new manned launch system will use a solid rocket, which means no one-engine-out capability. And if they were really concerned about safety, they'd use robots to construct a lunar habitat before sending people up there.
I think a launch escape system is your best slim chance of living if an engine gives out mid launch.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_spacecraft#Launch_Escape_System_.28LES.29But I know nothing in the reliability of a solid rocket vs liquid fueled. I do whole heartedly agreed that it would be nice to see NASA send up a pre-lander with a self erecting habitat/survey station and a robot to setup a landing zone and secure the habitat. My reasoning for this isn't so much for the Astronaut's good as for NASA's good. This is an ideal opportunity to test run a technology that we will need to have going well if we are to ever put people on Mars.
It's not just a lack of progress. We're going backwards.
I see a few basic, more obvious causes for the slower time table: Higher standards in mission goals and safety, A thickening bureaucracy. Less national pride in the project and more monetary interest. Any of these things would drag out the process of getting the moon again. Higher standards in safety and mission goals has to play at least some part or we could just rebuild the Eagle and launch in early 2008, probably in time for the elections. Thickening bureaucracy is obvious in everything our bloated government does and we don't have a JFK to push through it. Less national pride and more monetary interest is just a reality about people motivations in the here and now. There isn't going to be anyone working overtime off the clock so we can be the first, but there will be plenty of people willing to cash fat government checks for the next 13-30 years. Seriously, when is the last time a project with an open ended budget finished ahead of time?
If by "learn something" you mean "get a college education"
I think the non-class experiences are at least 50% of the value of a college education. The ridiculous games played in the halls of the freshman dorm, living off of dining hall food, being hugely codependent with an entire community that is out of their parents home for the first time. It is a cultural common grounds that is as close to a coming-of-age ritual as we have here in the USA. It's also about the most fun you can hope to have in four years. Online courses may convey the information, but they will not convey the experience.
Old rules say that if you are going to use the public right-of-way, you have to share the lines.
I wonder if a land owner could make a case to receive rent from Verizon of putting private property (fiber) into the public right-of-way access across the his land. I'd imagine that many lawyers would jump at the chance to try for a suit that would be that widespread and lucrative.
I blame the co-eds for not providing something far more interesting for kids in the dorms to do between 8pm and midnight. And I'll blame that University (and others like them when the ISPs point to them to strengthen the case against net neutrality. If the coursework is that time consuming (frequently it is) can't the late night studiers go to the library or computer lab like I did when I was in school?
not an error on the part of the computer vision algorithm.
When I first looked at the illusion I didn't see the spheres so much as one in red light and one in blue light, but though they were two different plaid buttons. The "trick" didn't work so well for me. I went back and looked at the illusion again and this time noticed the "puddles of light" at the bottom of each sphere and my visual cortex reinterpretated and the "trick" worked.(try looking at the illusion with the puddles of light covered up and thinking of them a differently pigmented patterns) Our brain makes a lot of assumptions to fill in information when we look around. I wonder how much of that is worked into having the computer "see like we do".
Because Engineering is hard. Our precious little snowflakes are growing up so pampered from real difficulty or challenge that something like a Masters in Engineering is out of their league. Our school systems can't flunk anyone because it would cause the child to feel bad. They also can't strongly encourage the truly bright students, because then the other children will feel less special. The overall result is that our childhood education doesn't prepare our young students for difficult college majors. This is mostly the parents (as a whole) fault. Students from countries where struggling past difficulty is just part of life have been outshining tender American kids for decades now. The proof from Futurama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recurring_human_characters_from_Futurama#Professor_Ogden_Wernstrom "[Professor] Wernstrom demands and receives tenure, a big research grant, a lab, and five graduate students (at least three of them Chinese by his request)."
It all works, and what it does is pretty cool. However code written over three years, haxxed about, experimented with and cannibalized at times to make utilities does not in fact make a nice release candidate.
Release it for free use under the name "Ridiculous Gobbledygook" and don't offer support except to someone who's main focus is programming and is trying to clean up the code. It would be nice to see these very specialized sloppy programs rewritten as a learning experience for programmers, I'm sure it won't be the only time they encounter inelegant code and need to streamline it. Sure others in your field can use your program, as is, with zero tech support or write their own program, whereas now they have only the latter choice.
this isn't "censoring" in the common carrier terminology. They are shutting down accounts,
So in an area where they have the only service available they are silencing their critics, how is that not censoring? Isn't part of the common carrier status a requirement to not deny service to someone because of stated ideological/political beliefs? My political beliefs include ideals about how global companies should act, and thus should be protected speech in the common carrier sense.
However, they file a suit anyway to find out who the employee is. Then they drop the suit (since they'd lose it anyway).
So we need a mechanism with which a defendant can demand that the case be seen through to completion. That would seem to be the best whistle-blower protection of all. Finish the trial, complete with discovery and documentation of evidence of the validity of the claims.
I'm a Broadway stagehand. I have a degree in theatrical lighting design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatrical_technician I'll have to add to the Wiki as I see it doesn't cover my job as an automation tech.
I think most of the items you are talking about (VCR, Printer, Cell phone charger) use much less than a fraction of a percent of your total power usage in a normal home. Why focus on making something so trivial a little more efficient?
In the article I linked to it says that TVs and VCRs account for 3.6% of household electrical usage. If 30% of that (23% for TV 50% for VCR) is spent during standby, that accounts that 1% of all household electrical usage. That's 12 billion kWh annually, or the output of three and a half average coal power plants. Not trivial.
I really like to be mobile and move around in my jobs, but I am devoid of needing to do that for this. My main job is to sit down and review/rewrite/create code. I've never done this before, so maybe I'm just not accustomed to needing to look at a computer screen for 8.5+ hours every business day.
I found out after college, that the realities of a full time job in the field of my major, were mentally exhausting and physically unmoving. So I changed career paths about a year after graduation. If sitting in a chair while looking at a computer screen for 8+ hours a day isn't for you, maybe you should find a different line of work. In the course of your life, you will spend more time at work than will spend with your spouse, you job should be something you enjoy.
The problem is not the operating system itself. The problem is with Microsoft's development processes. Its ineffiency bloats the operating system and bogs down the speed and quality of the development. Moving on to a new operating system will result in the 'same' product.
So how does MicroSoft build an entirely new OS and retain compatibility without writing bloatware? Can there be a lean, fast OS that works with everything that worked with Windows-ME and provides the the new bells and whistles that Vista was supposed to deliver? The strength of MicroSoft is the huge mass of software that runs on their OS and the huge mass of people using that software. That compatiblity cannot be sacrificed and it might well require a massive contorted rococo mess of an OS to make that happen.
By how much would our energy use go down if we transitioned to servers and network equipment that use less energy?
The first place I would look to conserve energy is turning things off as opposed to standby. Televisions use 23% of their annual electricity while in standby, for VCRs that jumps to 50%. http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/info/documents/pdfs/lbnl-42393.pdf So if we turned monitors and computers and wireless routers and printers etc, completely off when we were not using them the savings would likely be significant. As an added bonus your computer can't be a zombie spam bot when the power is turned off.
give the thing a boost into a proper orbit. Don't even tell the russians!
But the Russians are the one's with the most likely ability to relocate the ISS to a higher orbit with their space yo-yo. Just because their tether didn't unwind smoothly this time doesn't mean that it won't work in the near future.
but why would the states need to be coerced?
Because right now the value of the TexasDollar (oil and military) would be skyrocketing as compared to the value of MichiganDollar (US Automotive Industry) and Detroit would be even more screwed than it already is. Add to this having to exchange money when you crossed state lines and well basically the States can't print there own currency (Federal currency is standard) for the same reasons the the EU adopted he Euro.
the "intelligent" and well-educated male contingent should be taking steps that the "rest" of male culture does not
What makes you think that the rest of culture hasn't already taken that step? "women of all educational levels from 21 to 30 living in New York City and working full time made 117 percent of men's wages, and even more in Dallas, 120 percent." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/nyregion/03women.html?hp=&pagewanted=print Add to this that most women are promoted faster than men. (They are paid less for the same position but they get the position 5 years earlier, thus earning more than men their same age.) If anything the post gen-X generation (gen-Y?) favors women over men. Men are often portrayed alternatingly as predatory or frivolous in women's literature and television, and are considered extraneous to the family unit by the courts. (except of course for financial support) So when I hear someone bemoaning a patriarchal culture in the US, I think that perhaps want they really want is for women to be superior in the business/tech venues as the overwhelming female superiority in the legal/cultural/family venues is not enough anymore.
One who sells one's abilities, talent, or name for an unworthy purpose.
Ideally, yes you are quite right. Often times in this flawed world the ideas of "worthy" and "profitable" get all jumbled up. Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive but neither are they interchangeable, and they are certainly not universal. What we would like to consider worthy (balanced and carefully researched news) is not as profitable and therefore not as worthy to the publisher calling the shots for the professional journalist. Those publishers have significant sway in what is considered ethical and professional in the field of journalism.
"Hmm. Sounds like there might be another side to this story,"
It's been a while since balanced reporting that explores both sides of an issue outsold a one-sided rant. He's a professional, which basically means he does this to make money, so his first concern is selling the story with some truthiness on the side.
Canada's national police force, has been claiming that counterfeiting costs Canadians $30 billion per year.
Umm no it doesn't cost Canadians anything, they're getting all that counterfeit stuff for free, that's kinda the whole point of piracy. It might be more accurate to say that $30 billion per year worth of wealth is more evenly distributed in Canada, thanks to counterfeiting. (I'm only being partially sarcastic)
Yeah, I don't think Google is hurting for $$$ right now. One share is $535.27. http://www.googlestockquote.com/ I don't think they are actually hemoraging a billion a year, it's more like they are wishing all of those clicks were valid so they would have a billion more in profit. Well in that case, I lost $250,000,000 last week because of a faulty QuickPick in the Lotto.
A person could technically survive living in the woods, gathering berries from the local plant life and things like that... I guess.
Unfortunately even that option is not possible. In what woods would this neo-primative live? I sure hope it's property that he owns, and has a fund setup to pay property taxes in perpetuity. I hope he doesn't ever what to have children, because the state would take them away. I hope never encounters the police, as they may well assume that he is some kind of homeless squatter and haul him away, perhaps after tasering him for resisting arrest. I hope the local county doesn't pass any ordinances on minimum house size, or lawn maintainence. One of the most annoying problems that the modern America has is that they don't know how to leave people alone, even on their own property or concerning their own property.
Living in or even beside society requires a steady stream of money, and that usually means a job, and that increasingly requires a mobile phone, and quasi-fashionable clothes, and transportation. Consumerism isn't entirely optional, and the more you have to deal with society, the less optional it is.
I am writing from the USA. While it is possible with some digging to find out most of what legislation is being considered or passed in the state and federal level, there is the problem of many issues being bundled up in a single bill to be passed (earmarking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmarking) It is common practice here for Senators and Congressmen to hide special projects inside of larger bills. For example, there may be a bill up for vote that is titled "Education Reform Proposal #108" but the actual text of the bill is thousands of pages long. The first few hundred pages might actually have to do with education reform, but there will also likely be the funding for a bridge for one county, a tax break for a very specific company or industry, a regulation exemption for some other industry, and any other special things the politicians promised special interests that would be unable to pass as on their own merit. The result is that it is very difficult to know the entire contents of any bill to be voted on, and it is near impossible to have any bill make it as far as the voting stage without several earmarks being attached. So I do not know that I actually vote any better than my representative.
Yes, much of the democratic world is suffering under the weaknesses of Representative Democracy. Namely too much influence by special interests and too much focus on election issues and almost no focus on deeper problems. Unfortunately one of the other weaknesses of Direct Democracy, is that it doesn't traditionally work well for very large countries. I do have to wonder if the information age would change that though. The internet would in theory allow the voters to have a more robust knowledge of issues that are outside of their hometown or home state. However the internet doesn't seem to have done much for politicians being any better informed on issues, and many American voters are willfully ignorant of anything but their side's propaganda when they get to the voting booth. I fear ultimately that the reason we are having such governmental problems right now is because in a Democracy the People get the Government they deserve. We have lost our national sense of community and pride, and so we vote greedily and selfishly and get greedy selfish government.