Because we do invest in materials science, and chemical science, and other such fields, outside of space travel. --deleted-- Boeing is working with titanium and advanced composites on their 787 Dreamliner --deleted--. MIT is talking about liquid cathodes for fuel cells. --deleted-- There are plenty of people interested in things like decent superconductors, or nuclear fusion... don't even get me started on the trendy stuff like solar power. And that's just the easy list.
Will it drop a spacecraft in your lap? Heck no! Are these technologies and those of the future likely materially improve the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of manned spacecraft on multiyear (or even multidecadal) missions? Big time.
But, one can't forget that private industry invests thinking of the monetary return (ROI comes to mind!); only governments can afford th "luxury" of investing on scientific efforts that do not have immediate application or return of what has been spent.
Leaving the advancement of all technology in private hands will just evolve some of it, for the other part (including space exploration, NASA does much more than just send rockets up) the government must have a greater involvement. The bad part is that politicians calculate ROI in votes gained, how many terms of office can I get and such. Sorry!
We could simply defer manned space exploration until such time as it becomes less expensive
What makes you assume such time will come without investing in it?
--deleted--
Most important is also to have in mind that a great deal of current technology has been developed originally for use in the space program/war effort and later applied to "civilian" (or civilized?) use.
One could agree on a significant reduction of the USE of military power for things that could be solved by "just talking it over", but it would require a real commitment from every part of every conflict, a thing that is contrary to the competition for resources that is inherent to every living organism known
The current decrease in money available for space exploration/travel is just because it has lost its highly visible use as a mass marketing/propaganda tool for the politicians that was the norm in the 1950's trough early 1970's
Why would Apple want to have insurance? Getting a single store robbed won't even show on their profit charts and insurance companies have to make a profit so it would by definition be more expensive long term.
Because it's sound business practice to have insurance, and in a country like the US where you can be sued for about anything it is much more advisable.
True, less than US$50K won't show in Apple's charts, but think of a fire that gets the entire store (and there are policies for things like "interruption of operations" and the like) or, worse yet, someone gets harmed in the process of robbing the store.
Insurance *is* mandatory in godd business practice and the world we live in.
/deleted/ Perhaps they will lose this case and have to pony up some dollar but if anyone thinks the sale of Word is going to be impeded for even a day then they are naive in the extreme.
True, all they are fighting about is not paying up unless they have to.
If only the wind turbines were on stationary towers, then they might be able to map them, and use such a map to inform their interpretation of the radar data.
Exactly and then ignore the Doppler readings of that area, and instead take notice when a bunch of turbines suddenly go offline.
Well, maybe not exactly _ignore_ the locations, but just make any adjustmenst necessary to try to determine if it is a wind turbine effect or a tornado. Yes, maybe they will have to redesign parts of the radar system or it's data processing, but it should benefit in other areas from that redesign also.
So, what you are saying is that using up near 50% of the nation's taxes to provide services for the ones that pay those taxes is a bad thing?
R&D is good, especially if it helps improve living conditions. Basic science is a part of that, and I agree it should be better funded, even if it means using defense, EPA or any combination of agencies as a motivator for it, that way it gets funded by it's direct user.
Should you find yourself complled to live in a country (like I do) where the biggest burden on government income is politician's trick ("indelicacies" or "weknesses" as they were calle by our "president") and those figures sound like living in heaven.
I just saw something about on TV today, and it wasn't microscopic nor a small amount, they just used a bucket to get come water and filtered it with some piece of cloth.
And also we should keep in mind that a time ago Oracle used Solaris to develop its database on. Solaris and Oracle once were "the" platform to run a database on.
-deleted content- The FSF aren't telling people Windows 7 ought to be banned; they are trying to warn people that choosing Windows 7 will impact on their choices further down the line.
No, the FSF is telling the millions of people that like using Windows (even if it is because it's the only thing they know to use) that MS is "bad", Windows is like "slavery to MS" and the like. I have used, and still use, both Windows and Linux (and Unix for that matter) and each one has its uses.
It is better to say "my product is as good or better than Window" that to tell me "Windows is bad". The second one doesn't convince me.
Sorry to those that take offense. This is just my little contribution.
Perhaps that's really the thing with it? I guess that when you read a twit/whatever you know it won't take you more than what it takes to read 150 characters, with email, that's different, you could spend ages reading some message...
Especially whith some people that seem to need to write a novel just to tell you "we need you to do this...."
I mean, it should be SSN, but then they would have to because no private company is allowed to use it; which lowers its value to ID thieves immensely.
In fact, that would halt most wide spread mass ID theft in the US.
As much as people from the United States hate the concept of a unique nation-wide ID card, that is the less cumbersome solution. You can argue until you are blue in the face about privacy and such, but the reality is that most countries have one form or another of this (some times even more than one) and if implemented correctly by law-abidind persons it is useful for solving many of the problems associated with the SSN "reuse/multi-use" the US has.
I can't decide which is worst: crappy hardware with crippled functionality (bluetooth) or slightly better hardware whith an almost regular OS that requires soft/hard resets or battery pulls (WM/BBerry).
It is just a matter of personal taste.
Are these humans lawyers, music industry executives, or Microsoft programmers? Context is key.
Well, I would agree to use some lawyers/politicians or music execs. (almost = rats, but rats do not disguise what they are).
MS Programmers? don't know any, bu one never knows.;)
And how many "human test subjects" would volunteer and how many would be mandated to do it?
Better test in rats and such than MAKE humans do it; the pool of volunteers is really small.
Slashdot Mirror
replacing high-pressure sodium streetlamps with LEDs (decreasing inner-city suicide risks)
Wait...what?
Why do HPS's cause increased suicide risks? People cannot stand the orange flickering?
I don't get it..
I myself can't see the flickering, so it must be subliminal.
;)
Because we do invest in materials science, and chemical science, and other such fields, outside of space travel. --deleted-- Boeing is working with titanium and advanced composites on their 787 Dreamliner --deleted--. MIT is talking about liquid cathodes for fuel cells. --deleted-- There are plenty of people interested in things like decent superconductors, or nuclear fusion... don't even get me started on the trendy stuff like solar power. And that's just the easy list.
Will it drop a spacecraft in your lap? Heck no! Are these technologies and those of the future likely materially improve the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of manned spacecraft on multiyear (or even multidecadal) missions? Big time.
But, one can't forget that private industry invests thinking of the monetary return (ROI comes to mind!); only governments can afford th "luxury" of investing on scientific efforts that do not have immediate application or return of what has been spent.
Leaving the advancement of all technology in private hands will just evolve some of it, for the other part (including space exploration, NASA does much more than just send rockets up) the government must have a greater involvement. The bad part is that politicians calculate ROI in votes gained, how many terms of office can I get and such. Sorry!
We could simply defer manned space exploration until such time as it becomes less expensive
What makes you assume such time will come without investing in it?
--deleted--
Most important is also to have in mind that a great deal of current technology has been developed originally for use in the space program/war effort and later applied to "civilian" (or civilized?) use.
One could agree on a significant reduction of the USE of military power for things that could be solved by "just talking it over", but it would require a real commitment from every part of every conflict, a thing that is contrary to the competition for resources that is inherent to every living organism known
The current decrease in money available for space exploration/travel is just because it has lost its highly visible use as a mass marketing/propaganda tool for the politicians that was the norm in the 1950's trough early 1970's
Decommissioned doesn't necessarily mean EOL.
For what I have seen previously (Mir), decommissioned means "go down and burn!".
Why would Apple want to have insurance? Getting a single store robbed won't even show on their profit charts and insurance companies have to make a profit so it would by definition be more expensive long term.
Because it's sound business practice to have insurance, and in a country like the US where you can be sued for about anything it is much more advisable.
True, less than US$50K won't show in Apple's charts, but think of a fire that gets the entire store (and there are policies for things like "interruption of operations" and the like) or, worse yet, someone gets harmed in the process of robbing the store.
Insurance *is* mandatory in godd business practice and the world we live in.
It's an Apple store, not a reseller. Apple is the only one taking a hit here.
And because of thet, the *real* value of the items stolen is much lower, just the cost to Apple, not "street" or selling price.
/deleted/ Perhaps they will lose this case and have to pony up some dollar but if anyone thinks the sale of Word is going to be impeded for even a day then they are naive in the extreme.
True, all they are fighting about is not paying up unless they have to.
add "judges" to that, will you?
Judges ARE lawyers, so no need to add them.
If only the wind turbines were on stationary towers, then they might be able to map them, and use such a map to inform their interpretation of the radar data.
Exactly and then ignore the Doppler readings of that area, and instead take notice when a bunch of turbines suddenly go offline.
Well, maybe not exactly _ignore_ the locations, but just make any adjustmenst necessary to try to determine if it is a wind turbine effect or a tornado. Yes, maybe they will have to redesign parts of the radar system or it's data processing, but it should benefit in other areas from that redesign also.
So, what you are saying is that using up near 50% of the nation's taxes to provide services for the ones that pay those taxes is a bad thing?
R&D is good, especially if it helps improve living conditions. Basic science is a part of that, and I agree it should be better funded, even if it means using defense, EPA or any combination of agencies as a motivator for it, that way it gets funded by it's direct user.
Should you find yourself complled to live in a country (like I do) where the biggest burden on government income is politician's trick ("indelicacies" or "weknesses" as they were calle by our "president") and those figures sound like living in heaven.
I just saw something about on TV today, and it wasn't microscopic nor a small amount, they just used a bucket to get come water and filtered it with some piece of cloth.
And also we should keep in mind that a time ago Oracle used Solaris to develop its database on. Solaris and Oracle once were "the" platform to run a database on.
-deleted content- The FSF aren't telling people Windows 7 ought to be banned; they are trying to warn people that choosing Windows 7 will impact on their choices further down the line.
No, the FSF is telling the millions of people that like using Windows (even if it is because it's the only thing they know to use) that MS is "bad", Windows is like "slavery to MS" and the like. I have used, and still use, both Windows and Linux (and Unix for that matter) and each one has its uses. It is better to say "my product is as good or better than Window" that to tell me "Windows is bad". The second one doesn't convince me. Sorry to those that take offense. This is just my little contribution.
Perhaps that's really the thing with it? I guess that when you read a twit/whatever you know it won't take you more than what it takes to read 150 characters, with email, that's different, you could spend ages reading some message...
Especially whith some people that seem to need to write a novel just to tell you "we need you to do this ...."
It is rather disturbing.
Of course you know what will happen. They'll make it so people need less sleep so they can work longer.
Not like they'll be allowed to spend their new awake time on leisure. "Hurray! We can now work people an extra 20 hours a week!"
Or maybe they will "enhance" several third-world countries' people to not sleep at all and outsource there...
Wat do you suggest they use?
I mean, it should be SSN, but then they would have to because no private company is allowed to use it; which lowers its value to ID thieves immensely.
In fact, that would halt most wide spread mass ID theft in the US.
As much as people from the United States hate the concept of a unique nation-wide ID card, that is the less cumbersome solution. You can argue until you are blue in the face about privacy and such, but the reality is that most countries have one form or another of this (some times even more than one) and if implemented correctly by law-abidind persons it is useful for solving many of the problems associated with the SSN "reuse/multi-use" the US has.
Crappy hardware > Locked Down OS
I can't decide which is worst: crappy hardware with crippled functionality (bluetooth) or slightly better hardware whith an almost regular OS that requires soft/hard resets or battery pulls (WM/BBerry). It is just a matter of personal taste.
Are these humans lawyers, music industry executives, or Microsoft programmers? Context is key.
Well, I would agree to use some lawyers/politicians or music execs. (almost = rats, but rats do not disguise what they are). MS Programmers? don't know any, bu one never knows. ;)
And how many "human test subjects" would volunteer and how many would be mandated to do it? Better test in rats and such than MAKE humans do it; the pool of volunteers is really small.