I agree. And even better is how the author writes:
That's worthy but flawed. Unfortunately, Abubakr's arrangement means that the table can only be read by rotating it. That's tricky with a textbook and impossible with most computer screens.
Is it really that hard to print the circular table with all the letters in the same upright orientation so it can be read without turning the page? Durrrrr!
So don't walk around... Stay at home and ride the flu out. Problem solved and the rest of your post is just fearmongering BS.
Yeah, don't leave the house for an entire week and make all your family members do the same. Sounds intelligent and very likely to happen. Or be respectful of your neighbors, take advantage of modern medicine and get the flu shot.
Mod me down more if you want, but I find it really disturbing that many slashdot readers disagree with the medical advice of the CDC and mainstream doctors on this topic. In the last 15 years, there have been less than 30,000 adverse reactions to flu shots and most of those have been mild things like hives. Meanwhile more than 30,000 people die each year from the flu and hundreds of thousands more are hospitalized, costing our country millions.
Fearmongering BS is when you are afraid to get the flu shot because you think you will die. This forum is supposed to be a place for people who are up to date on science and technology, not people who are afraid of it. You want to live "naturally?" People used to do that in the 1400's and the average lifespan was 50.
Except, most areas I have been push the flu shot for everyone, not just the weakened.
I'de much prefer they phrase it in such a way as - If you have a weak immune system, get this shot.
Instead, it seems it's presented as a way to prevent a mass outbreak.
Here's the thing dude. If you get the flu, you will probably live since you sound like you think you are young and have a healthy immune system.
But when you are walking around sick and infectious for a few days, you stand the chance of infecting some people who have weakened immune systems... like your elderly grandmother, or your mother, or your old neighbor. So you're really protecting them by getting the shot.
They push flu shots for the whole population to reduce the spread of the flu. Unfortunately, it usually spreads anyway because (1) they don't always predict what virus will become the flu and (2) tough guys like you aren't selfless enough to suck it up for the less well off.
I'm sure it is because you all believe strongly in natural selection. I just hope that everyone you love always has a strong immune system come flu season... and that you survive the swine flu without your shot.
You see people on call (like Sysadmins, Doctors etc...) and people who feel a need to be reached on short notice for personal reasons (parents of small children), no longer saw that theater as an option for dates. This might not be a problem in some places but because of the lower pay scales (and hence higher relative cost of movie tickets) here, those affected were a major proportion of the theater's customer base.
Remember before cell phones? You could watch a whole movie in the theater without interruption? Your 3 year old was with the teenage babysitter, and if they both died or your house burned down, you wouldn't know until you got back home. Sysadmins didn't go to the movies because they would have gotten their asses kicked, and doctors were so fucking rich that they just bought the new releases and watched them at home when they were on call.
Yet somehow everything worked out just fine. If there was an emergency, you had to call the theater and have the attendant go and find the person you wanted to talk to. But that was for real life-or-death emergencies... if you were on call, you weren't at the movies, you were sleeping at the hospital or inside the mainframe.
Ah, the good old days... when it wasn't socially acceptable to be a self-important dipshit with a cell phone.
The Walmart one would probably show horrible images under any magnification. The key giveaway is that they don't list the type of lens in the ad (apo, acromatic... etc). That, coupled with the cost means that it is most likely a single lens, which will show a lot of false color under magnification.
What is nice about this Galileoscope, is that it has been designed by astronomers to provide they best image they can provide in a price range, at the expense of niceties like a tripod, metal construction, a finderscope, etc...
Frankly, I think that while admirable, it will not take off. Most kids just don't have the interest in astronomy to look at the sky on a semi-regular basis. For most people, the sky is boring compared to TV or the computer. It's dark outside and often cold. Big cities have horrendous light pollution and sky obstructions that you can't even find the constellations. And have you ever tried to look at something magnified above 20x without a tripod? It is very difficult, especially with short (child) arms and a long telescope with a sliding focuser. Kids will lose interest very quickly.
And for younger kids, the optics will get dirty and wiped clean with a tee-shirt... scratching them. Some retard will convince their friend to look at the sun, even with the warning sticker. They will use the scope as a club or bat... and on it goes...
And I am typing this as someone who has a telescope and looks at the sky on a regular basis. The best thing to do is to put an observatory somewhere and let people go and see sky objects through that. That way, the equipment is top-end and maintained, allowing people to see much higher quality images. Also, there are astronomers there to guide the public and teach them. Sure, they will reach less people that way, but they will also be more likely to inspire them than they would with such a tiny scope.
Heh. Way to illustrate the GP's point. Shakespeare's works are meant to be seen and heard in the theater, not read on some shitty reprint with cliffnotes that you bought from Penguin press for $5.
True calligraphy requires an amazing amount of skill, practice, and artistry to produce consistent and attractive writing... all while focusing on what you want to say. And remember this is done in ink, with a nib that an untrained person would have a hard time writing legible text with, and there is no eraser or "undo" key.
Is it necessary to use calligraphy nowdays? No, but it is a learned skill that some people appreciate. Sounds like the definition of art to me.
And just for the record, Shakespeare submitted his works in handwritten text written with a pen...
Perhaps at 60mph tires make a noise, but at the low speeds on streets they aren't always discernible.
Nissan deems that at 12 mph the tires are loud enough to turn the sound off. Tires are more than audible if you are on the sidewalk of a road where cars are moving at 30 mph. Have you ever had a 60 mph car go by you at close range? It is incredibly loud. Like, so loud you wish it was electric.
But why does the car need to have an audible warning? Think about how much this is going to cost if it is mandatory on every car... Maybe they can make a radar system for disabled people that warns them when they are standing in front of an approaching car-sized object. If they made it small enough, Apple could incorporate it into their iPods. Then all the retards who can hear, but try to cross the street with their headphones might have a chance too!
...then you probably shouldn't be typing. A touch typing class sounds like a gigantic waste of time and money. The students will be bored out of their minds!
Seriously, are we going to start teaching people how to breathe and run properly too? I'd rather learn a programming language or calculus at school and figure out the easy stuff at home by myself.
I learned to type properly out of necessity when I had to write lots of really long reports... the more reports I typed out, the faster and faster I got, until I didn't need to look at the keyboard anymore. I think this is the preferable method, because people who need to type fast will learn how. Those that don't use a computer a lot, won't learn how but probably won't miss it.
I think a more important skill would be really hammering into kids heads how to read and write properly. More and more kids are growing up nowdays in an informal literature atmosphere that primarily involves email, texting, and blogs. Reading formal books or reports is an afterthought that is done while being constantly interrupted by more email, texts and tweets... and as a result, they never really develop the ability to string together a series of articulated, insightful and justified thoughts.
At least, that is my crotchety old man view. And by old I mean 32.
Love is just a chemical reaction in your brain, anyway. It's not magical, or sacred, or even very special. It's your brain [...] shooting you up with natural drugs to make you feel like it's way more than it really is.
Spoken like a true slashdotter!
Although maybe a little too objectively? If you don't think that love is magical, or sacred, special, I am curious to know what you think is special in life?
Would you argue that other animals that mate for life (such as pigeons) also experience love?
That aside, I am afraid that your explanation only explains part of "love," otherwise people wouldn't still be in love after raising children or not being able to have children.
Said it once, and I'll say it again. CDMA is a dead end, the world is moving to LTE. Why would anyone waste their resources on a technology with such a limited lifespan.
Sure, LTE is the future, but some of us need to make phone calls now.
As a company, Verizon decided it was better to upgrade their existing CDMA network for wider coverage than to switch to GSM. You may not agree with the decision, but they have definitely profited from their choice.
Personally, I "waste" resources on a Verizon CDMA cell phone because it works where I live, GSM technology does not as other providers are still "upgrading" their networks. Having a cool phone would be nice, but having reception when my car breaks down in the middle of the desert is essential.
Ok, I guess I'll speak up for conservatives here...
Whether or not global warming exists isn't a liberal or conservative issue, it is a scientific issue, and one that has not been conclusively resolved.
The opening statement of your comment illustrates the entire problem in the US. The liberals have latched onto global warming as being humanity's Deathstar. The conservatives don't buy it. Your opinion is governed by your political orientation. Neither side is considering the issue from an impartial (much less a scientific) perspective and every corporation is trying to profit from it.
It's turned into one of those hot button topics like gay marriage and abortion... every uninformed retard is now going to have an opinion based solely on their political stance, science be damned. It's sad that most Americans don't possess the intellect or follow through to attempt to understand the science for themselves, nor do they possess the BS filters to understand when their politicians are manipulating them for political or financial gain, but they will spend hours of effort researching the best TV set and car to buy.
Just imagine what could be accomplished if these space agencies were globally integrated, well-funded and properly managed.
Forget space... Just imagine what humanity could do as a race if our governments were globally integrated, well-funded and properly managed. Too bad we will never see it in our lifetime.
Between Obesity and the loss of food in my kitchen.
But seriously - this seems like its leading to a "Overweight people aren't smart enough to care about their health" kind of thing.
Actually, it's leading to a "Overweight people like food and not exercising more than they like their long-term health" kind of thing. This is not exactly new news, but this study is another nail in the coffin... pun intended.
More than 1 in 3 Americans are currently overweight. If we switch to nationalized health care, you fat fuckers better lose some goddamn weight. Because I don't want my tax dollars paying to treat your preventable illnesses because you felt like super-sizing it 3 nights a week without jogging first.
Lipitor does not give you the right to continue drinking a gallon of mayonnaise a day.
Sorry if I sound harsh, but the US is becoming a nation of people with no self-control when it comes to food, money and energy. It's starting to cost us bigtime with all these new socialist (yes, I voted for Obama) government programs getting paid for out of our taxes.
I am with everyone else. Take the money, encrypt your private files... on an external drive if you are not comfortable with them being on "their" drive. Back up your encrypted data at home weekly.
If the company turns on you and takes your computer without letting you remove files from it, they can have the encrypted volume on your laptop but not the password.
Personally, I would encrypt all of your data... personal and company. In addition to being more secure, this gives you leverage in the future.
Who cares, it was originally a white guy that got photoshopped into a black guy anyway. Yay forced diversity!
Seriously! Neither of those pictures looks right. The black guy's head is gigantic relative to his body and his wrist is a different color than his hand. The white guy looks even worse with that thick neck and his head is pointing the wrong way relative to his chest. He looks like Tyrannosaurus Rex.
And don't get me started on the Asian guy and the woman with those crazy smiles.
I mean come on, who smiles at a business meeting (while using Microsoft products at that)!?!?!? As far as I am concerned, those people are all either either child molesters looking at kiddy porn or aliens with people suits on.
This is awesome, because it doesn't involve just one skank ho, but two of them!
I think something fishy is going on here due to the amazingly high level of animosity: They are either closet lesbians who secretly want each other or they are in cahoots and scamming the legal system.
People think that just because they can post things anonymously on the internet, it gives them the right to be an asshole and a toughguy at the same time. It must be upsetting to find that there are repercussions in all areas of life.
I don't support the blogger's identity being revealed and think it is just an unstable model looking for publicity or revenge, but none of this would have happened if the blogger had shown some decency and restraint.
Does that make revealing the blogger's name legal? Probably not. Is it right to go around slandering people on the web anonymously? Probably not. Looks like everyone is getting fucked equally!
Is there any particular reason though why it would need to take until 2015?
Well, they can send you up immediately. They just can't promise that you will return safely until 2013.
Sure, it seems simple to just do a little electronics and design work, but then you have to check everything every way possible on the ground. Then you have to flight test it. And if there are any failures, even unmanned, you lose your investor funding...
Personally, I would not want to be one of the early paying customers on any of the commercial space carriers, because people are definitely going to die. The fatality percentages range from 1-4% between NASA and Russia, and you can bet that for-profit organizations are going to be cutting the safety margins a little closer because the investors can always cut and run.
You're using a WOW quotation to demonstrate the time is money.
Yup... ironic, eh?
But really, which would you rather do in your free time? Play a game that makes you happy? Or install new software and then figure out how to configure it properly?
Personally, I would go with sex, but that is just me.
Computers don't get heart attacks or fall asleep at the stick.
Or figure out how to make a successful landing in a river when the engines fill up with birds...
rj
I like how everyone is quoting the few times that human pilots have saved airplanes from crashing. What about the thousands of times that human pilots have made a poor decision and crashed or destroyed their plane? Examples include landing/taking off on the wrong runway, sleeping or not paying attention at the stick, forgetting to follow the checklist, making the poor decision in an emergency situation, giving in to terrorist threats... etc.
Properly programmed computers will always be able to process and respond to a situation faster than a human. Whether or not they respond better than a human is up to the system engineers and programmers who designed the airplane. But don't act like humans are superior beings to have in the cockpit. If they were so amazing on their own, there wouldn't be a whole suite of computers actually driving the plane and giving them instructions, directions and warnings like the autopilot, ILS landing system, stall warning, altitude warning, landing gear warning... etc.
The only reason that humans are still in the cockpit are due to the human inadequacies of aircraft designers and programmers to design a system that does not require them.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. And even better is how the author writes:
That's worthy but flawed. Unfortunately, Abubakr's arrangement means that the table can only be read by rotating it. That's tricky with a textbook and impossible with most computer screens.
Is it really that hard to print the circular table with all the letters in the same upright orientation so it can be read without turning the page? Durrrrr!
So don't walk around... Stay at home and ride the flu out. Problem solved and the rest of your post is just fearmongering BS.
Yeah, don't leave the house for an entire week and make all your family members do the same. Sounds intelligent and very likely to happen. Or be respectful of your neighbors, take advantage of modern medicine and get the flu shot.
Mod me down more if you want, but I find it really disturbing that many slashdot readers disagree with the medical advice of the CDC and mainstream doctors on this topic. In the last 15 years, there have been less than 30,000 adverse reactions to flu shots and most of those have been mild things like hives. Meanwhile more than 30,000 people die each year from the flu and hundreds of thousands more are hospitalized, costing our country millions.
Fearmongering BS is when you are afraid to get the flu shot because you think you will die. This forum is supposed to be a place for people who are up to date on science and technology, not people who are afraid of it. You want to live "naturally?" People used to do that in the 1400's and the average lifespan was 50.
Except, most areas I have been push the flu shot for everyone, not just the weakened. I'de much prefer they phrase it in such a way as - If you have a weak immune system, get this shot. Instead, it seems it's presented as a way to prevent a mass outbreak.
Here's the thing dude. If you get the flu, you will probably live since you sound like you think you are young and have a healthy immune system.
But when you are walking around sick and infectious for a few days, you stand the chance of infecting some people who have weakened immune systems... like your elderly grandmother, or your mother, or your old neighbor. So you're really protecting them by getting the shot.
They push flu shots for the whole population to reduce the spread of the flu. Unfortunately, it usually spreads anyway because (1) they don't always predict what virus will become the flu and (2) tough guys like you aren't selfless enough to suck it up for the less well off.
I'm sure it is because you all believe strongly in natural selection. I just hope that everyone you love always has a strong immune system come flu season... and that you survive the swine flu without your shot.
Absolutely right. What we consider liquid and solid depends on our local environment. In the outer planets of our solar system, water is a rock.
Actually, water is a liquid, while rocks are solid. So water is not a rock.
Ice could be considered a rock through, depending on the context.
I'm glad it doesn't rain poop.
You see people on call (like Sysadmins, Doctors etc...) and people who feel a need to be reached on short notice for personal reasons (parents of small children), no longer saw that theater as an option for dates. This might not be a problem in some places but because of the lower pay scales (and hence higher relative cost of movie tickets) here, those affected were a major proportion of the theater's customer base.
Remember before cell phones? You could watch a whole movie in the theater without interruption? Your 3 year old was with the teenage babysitter, and if they both died or your house burned down, you wouldn't know until you got back home. Sysadmins didn't go to the movies because they would have gotten their asses kicked, and doctors were so fucking rich that they just bought the new releases and watched them at home when they were on call.
Yet somehow everything worked out just fine. If there was an emergency, you had to call the theater and have the attendant go and find the person you wanted to talk to. But that was for real life-or-death emergencies... if you were on call, you weren't at the movies, you were sleeping at the hospital or inside the mainframe.
Ah, the good old days... when it wasn't socially acceptable to be a self-important dipshit with a cell phone.
The Walmart one would probably show horrible images under any magnification. The key giveaway is that they don't list the type of lens in the ad (apo, acromatic... etc). That, coupled with the cost means that it is most likely a single lens, which will show a lot of false color under magnification.
What is nice about this Galileoscope, is that it has been designed by astronomers to provide they best image they can provide in a price range, at the expense of niceties like a tripod, metal construction, a finderscope, etc...
Frankly, I think that while admirable, it will not take off. Most kids just don't have the interest in astronomy to look at the sky on a semi-regular basis. For most people, the sky is boring compared to TV or the computer. It's dark outside and often cold. Big cities have horrendous light pollution and sky obstructions that you can't even find the constellations. And have you ever tried to look at something magnified above 20x without a tripod? It is very difficult, especially with short (child) arms and a long telescope with a sliding focuser. Kids will lose interest very quickly.
And for younger kids, the optics will get dirty and wiped clean with a tee-shirt... scratching them. Some retard will convince their friend to look at the sun, even with the warning sticker. They will use the scope as a club or bat... and on it goes...
And I am typing this as someone who has a telescope and looks at the sky on a regular basis. The best thing to do is to put an observatory somewhere and let people go and see sky objects through that. That way, the equipment is top-end and maintained, allowing people to see much higher quality images. Also, there are astronomers there to guide the public and teach them. Sure, they will reach less people that way, but they will also be more likely to inspire them than they would with such a tiny scope.
Heh. Way to illustrate the GP's point. Shakespeare's works are meant to be seen and heard in the theater, not read on some shitty reprint with cliffnotes that you bought from Penguin press for $5.
True calligraphy requires an amazing amount of skill, practice, and artistry to produce consistent and attractive writing... all while focusing on what you want to say. And remember this is done in ink, with a nib that an untrained person would have a hard time writing legible text with, and there is no eraser or "undo" key.
Is it necessary to use calligraphy nowdays? No, but it is a learned skill that some people appreciate. Sounds like the definition of art to me.
And just for the record, Shakespeare submitted his works in handwritten text written with a pen...
Perhaps at 60mph tires make a noise, but at the low speeds on streets they aren't always discernible.
Nissan deems that at 12 mph the tires are loud enough to turn the sound off. Tires are more than audible if you are on the sidewalk of a road where cars are moving at 30 mph. Have you ever had a 60 mph car go by you at close range? It is incredibly loud. Like, so loud you wish it was electric.
But why does the car need to have an audible warning? Think about how much this is going to cost if it is mandatory on every car... Maybe they can make a radar system for disabled people that warns them when they are standing in front of an approaching car-sized object. If they made it small enough, Apple could incorporate it into their iPods. Then all the retards who can hear, but try to cross the street with their headphones might have a chance too!
...then you probably shouldn't be typing. A touch typing class sounds like a gigantic waste of time and money. The students will be bored out of their minds!
Seriously, are we going to start teaching people how to breathe and run properly too? I'd rather learn a programming language or calculus at school and figure out the easy stuff at home by myself.
I learned to type properly out of necessity when I had to write lots of really long reports... the more reports I typed out, the faster and faster I got, until I didn't need to look at the keyboard anymore. I think this is the preferable method, because people who need to type fast will learn how. Those that don't use a computer a lot, won't learn how but probably won't miss it.
I think a more important skill would be really hammering into kids heads how to read and write properly. More and more kids are growing up nowdays in an informal literature atmosphere that primarily involves email, texting, and blogs. Reading formal books or reports is an afterthought that is done while being constantly interrupted by more email, texts and tweets... and as a result, they never really develop the ability to string together a series of articulated, insightful and justified thoughts.
At least, that is my crotchety old man view. And by old I mean 32.
... always date retards!
Love is just a chemical reaction in your brain, anyway. It's not magical, or sacred, or even very special. It's your brain [...] shooting you up with natural drugs to make you feel like it's way more than it really is.
Spoken like a true slashdotter!
Although maybe a little too objectively? If you don't think that love is magical, or sacred, special, I am curious to know what you think is special in life?
Would you argue that other animals that mate for life (such as pigeons) also experience love?
That aside, I am afraid that your explanation only explains part of "love," otherwise people wouldn't still be in love after raising children or not being able to have children.
Said it once, and I'll say it again. CDMA is a dead end, the world is moving to LTE. Why would anyone waste their resources on a technology with such a limited lifespan.
Sure, LTE is the future, but some of us need to make phone calls now.
As a company, Verizon decided it was better to upgrade their existing CDMA network for wider coverage than to switch to GSM. You may not agree with the decision, but they have definitely profited from their choice.
Personally, I "waste" resources on a Verizon CDMA cell phone because it works where I live, GSM technology does not as other providers are still "upgrading" their networks. Having a cool phone would be nice, but having reception when my car breaks down in the middle of the desert is essential.
Exactly.
How the heck are those astro/cosmo/taikonauts going to find food and drinking water to subsist, let alone colonize?
Excellent point! I say we send every member of congress to Mars immediately!
Ok, I guess I'll speak up for conservatives here...
Whether or not global warming exists isn't a liberal or conservative issue, it is a scientific issue, and one that has not been conclusively resolved.
The opening statement of your comment illustrates the entire problem in the US. The liberals have latched onto global warming as being humanity's Deathstar. The conservatives don't buy it. Your opinion is governed by your political orientation. Neither side is considering the issue from an impartial (much less a scientific) perspective and every corporation is trying to profit from it.
It's turned into one of those hot button topics like gay marriage and abortion... every uninformed retard is now going to have an opinion based solely on their political stance, science be damned. It's sad that most Americans don't possess the intellect or follow through to attempt to understand the science for themselves, nor do they possess the BS filters to understand when their politicians are manipulating them for political or financial gain, but they will spend hours of effort researching the best TV set and car to buy.
Just imagine what could be accomplished if these space agencies were globally integrated, well-funded and properly managed.
Forget space... Just imagine what humanity could do as a race if our governments were globally integrated, well-funded and properly managed. Too bad we will never see it in our lifetime.
Between Obesity and the loss of food in my kitchen.
But seriously - this seems like its leading to a "Overweight people aren't smart enough to care about their health" kind of thing.
Actually, it's leading to a "Overweight people like food and not exercising more than they like their long-term health" kind of thing. This is not exactly new news, but this study is another nail in the coffin... pun intended.
More than 1 in 3 Americans are currently overweight. If we switch to nationalized health care, you fat fuckers better lose some goddamn weight. Because I don't want my tax dollars paying to treat your preventable illnesses because you felt like super-sizing it 3 nights a week without jogging first.
Lipitor does not give you the right to continue drinking a gallon of mayonnaise a day.
Sorry if I sound harsh, but the US is becoming a nation of people with no self-control when it comes to food, money and energy. It's starting to cost us bigtime with all these new socialist (yes, I voted for Obama) government programs getting paid for out of our taxes.
I am with everyone else. Take the money, encrypt your private files... on an external drive if you are not comfortable with them being on "their" drive. Back up your encrypted data at home weekly.
If the company turns on you and takes your computer without letting you remove files from it, they can have the encrypted volume on your laptop but not the password.
Personally, I would encrypt all of your data... personal and company. In addition to being more secure, this gives you leverage in the future.
Who cares, it was originally a white guy that got photoshopped into a black guy anyway. Yay forced diversity!
Seriously! Neither of those pictures looks right. The black guy's head is gigantic relative to his body and his wrist is a different color than his hand. The white guy looks even worse with that thick neck and his head is pointing the wrong way relative to his chest. He looks like Tyrannosaurus Rex.
And don't get me started on the Asian guy and the woman with those crazy smiles.
I mean come on, who smiles at a business meeting (while using Microsoft products at that)!?!?!? As far as I am concerned, those people are all either either child molesters looking at kiddy porn or aliens with people suits on.
This is awesome, because it doesn't involve just one skank ho, but two of them!
I think something fishy is going on here due to the amazingly high level of animosity: They are either closet lesbians who secretly want each other or they are in cahoots and scamming the legal system.
Either way, I want to see the sex tape.
Karma's a bitch, trolls.
People think that just because they can post things anonymously on the internet, it gives them the right to be an asshole and a toughguy at the same time. It must be upsetting to find that there are repercussions in all areas of life.
I don't support the blogger's identity being revealed and think it is just an unstable model looking for publicity or revenge, but none of this would have happened if the blogger had shown some decency and restraint.
Does that make revealing the blogger's name legal? Probably not. Is it right to go around slandering people on the web anonymously? Probably not. Looks like everyone is getting fucked equally!
Is there any particular reason though why it would need to take until 2015?
Well, they can send you up immediately. They just can't promise that you will return safely until 2013.
Sure, it seems simple to just do a little electronics and design work, but then you have to check everything every way possible on the ground. Then you have to flight test it. And if there are any failures, even unmanned, you lose your investor funding...
Personally, I would not want to be one of the early paying customers on any of the commercial space carriers, because people are definitely going to die. The fatality percentages range from 1-4% between NASA and Russia, and you can bet that for-profit organizations are going to be cutting the safety margins a little closer because the investors can always cut and run.
You're using a WOW quotation to demonstrate the time is money.
Yup... ironic, eh?
But really, which would you rather do in your free time? Play a game that makes you happy? Or install new software and then figure out how to configure it properly?
Personally, I would go with sex, but that is just me.
, so freakin' load it up and see for yourself...what do you have to loose [sic]...?
Time,
and "time is money, friend!"
Computers don't get heart attacks or fall asleep at the stick.
Or figure out how to make a successful landing in a river when the engines fill up with birds...
rj
I like how everyone is quoting the few times that human pilots have saved airplanes from crashing. What about the thousands of times that human pilots have made a poor decision and crashed or destroyed their plane? Examples include landing/taking off on the wrong runway, sleeping or not paying attention at the stick, forgetting to follow the checklist, making the poor decision in an emergency situation, giving in to terrorist threats... etc.
Properly programmed computers will always be able to process and respond to a situation faster than a human. Whether or not they respond better than a human is up to the system engineers and programmers who designed the airplane. But don't act like humans are superior beings to have in the cockpit. If they were so amazing on their own, there wouldn't be a whole suite of computers actually driving the plane and giving them instructions, directions and warnings like the autopilot, ILS landing system, stall warning, altitude warning, landing gear warning... etc.
The only reason that humans are still in the cockpit are due to the human inadequacies of aircraft designers and programmers to design a system that does not require them.