Not least because if the number of intelligent civilizations capable of communication in our galaxy is greater than 1, then we should
eventually hear from them.
The keyword is eventually. Eventually can be a really really long time. How long have we been listening for? Radios have only been around for how long? 100 years? That's like a nanosecond in the galactic timescale.
The impediment to intergalactic travel isn't finding willing volunteers. It's cost, pure and simple. We'll send out exploration ships only when it's either dirt cheap to do it or the entire population is behind the effort and willing to foot the cost.
Building a generation ship will easily be one of the most expensive and large-scale projects that our species has ever undertaken. A couple of willing colonists can't afford this alone. They need the entire population behind them.
I am behind it! I can think of lots of people I'd like to send on a one way trip into space, starting with Cheney. Maybe we could just all sponsor one or two people each. We can cut costs by limiting the food and oxygen supply onboard.
I mean, I have an uncle who played WoW, and could only play for two hours a night due to work schedule, so instance running was largely impossible -- thus why he stopped playing. However that's pretty unusual circumstances. I'd wager most "casuals" will still put in more than two hours of game time on those occasions that they do play.
Pretty unusual? I stopped playing for the same reason. Maybe you can collect some people for a PUG in 30-45 minutes if you're lucky... counting time for someone to forget stuff and get ganked 30 times. Then the instance takes a few hours. Then you have to grind for another few hours to get gold for supplies and repair.
Maybe I am not the best player, but that was my experience. I found that it took about 4 hours to do all that. And that's not counting the time to research the instance. Sure, it can go faster if you are in a good guild... but joining a guild was like a commitment to play 16 hours a week! Now I had that kind of time in college and in grad school, but I don't anymore. How do adults find the time to put in 4 hours a night (a few times a week) with full time jobs and kids? Do you just lock the kids in the closet with a jar of peanut butter and a pillow?
I really liked WoW, but the time commitment to do anything fun was just too much for me. And don't get me started on that whole PvP tournament BS.
When, exactly, was the last time "the net" was down, anyway? The Morris worm? I personally had the very bad luck to be the duty engineer on call the night the MS SQL blaster worm was released. That was, in fact, a very bad day, but overall "the net" hardly stopped working.
The problem with relying on the internet is that you are counting on having (1) power to your house, (2) power to your service provider, (3) power to every server hosting content you want to access and (4) nothing being hacked in any fashion.
While I agree that is probably true for highly localized attacks on our infrastructure like those that occurred during 9/11, it doesn't seem like a very robust system to me for distributed attacks. Especially if everyone repeatedly tries accessing an already marginalized system.
There is a significant part of the population that uses analog TV as their primary point of communication to the outside world. Think emergency scenarios like tornado warnings, 911-type events, and the Cardinals having a shot to win the SuperBowl.
Interesting. I consider my primary form of communication with the outside world to be my window.
I would think that instead of relying on a TV that needs a large amount of electricity, people would use a battery powered radio for emergencies. Maybe they will rediscover these wonder devices after February 17.
Coal has killed FAR more than is attributed to it. Right now, nearly all the deaths attributed to coal is based on coal mine deaths, which IS much greater than nuclear power deaths (even when including all the uranium mining for weapons). But what is not added in there is the mercury poisoning that we get. Most of the mercury in our water is from coal. Likewise, much of our acid rains, etc are from coal. In a nutshell, Coal is far far worse than nukes.
But we also use more coal than we do nuclear material.
You need to show deaths from coal normalized by energy produced from coal. Then compare that to an equivalent figure for nuclear power.
I'm not trying to be difficult, I want to believe you. But the logic you guys are pushing is flawed. Radioactive waste is some baaaaad shit and we haven't even begin to deal with it in large quantities. Can the human race really keep nuclear waste out of the envrionment for the thousands of years it takes for it to inert itself?
You think a little mercury in our water and food sucks? What's going to happen when radioactive waste starts ending up there?
I don't see why they should pay more for your services when someone is willing to do it for less. The company is the one suffering if they are missing adequate skill sets for what the task demands. I really don't understand why a company should "hire locally" first when its not in its best interest to do so.
I guess the government doesn't want a lot of unhappy people sitting at home without a TV to numb their minds for 4 hours a day.
Imagine if everyone's TV's stopped working at once during the first month Obama is in office? It'd be like the next Katrina for his administration! Plus, then people might start thinking for themselves... it could get ugly.
Yes, I do think making a nuclear bomb is ALL ABOUT the fuel cycle. Little Boy wasn't even tested before being dropped in Hiroshima.
Trinity was a implosion-type plutonion bomb, just like Fat Man, while Little Boy was a gun-type uranium bomb. So the gun assembly was not tested before being deployed.
A Little Boy wasn't tested in the supercritical sense, but the critical mass of the material used was verified experimentally in criticality experiments referred to as "tickling the dragon." And you can be damn sure the Little Boy design was tested in an inert fashion to double check the assembly times.
The Fat Man design was tested because it was a far more complicated design, both in theory and in an engineering sense. Ideally, both designs would have been tested for yield prior to use in war, but the US just didn't have any extra Uranium to test a spare Little Boy.
The scientists were under enormous time pressure. At first, it was because they wanted to make sure they beat any competing efforts in Nazi Germany, so that England and the US wouldn't get nuked by a desperate Hitler. Then that part of the war ended. After that, it became clear that the US was eventually going to win against Japan. The Manhattan Project personnel were rushing to finish the bombs in time for them to be relevant to the war. Millions of dollars and resources had been spent rushing the development of the weapons. The government wanted a return on their dollar... they had to nuke Japan before the war was over. Both to "save American lives" and to show the Soviets not to cross the US in the post WWII landscape.
Sure, it's "all about the fuel cycle" if you are a physicist dreaming up ideas on paper. But when you actually start assembling your multi-million dollar weapon and you only have enough explosive to test it once, you suddenly find that there is a lot of engineering and physics experiments involved to make sure that you can get to the point the fuel cycle can do its work. North Korea discovered this firsthand a few years ago.
Or when you lose your wallet. Or when you want to dispute a payment. Or when you buy something over the internet.
Unless you are buying a prostitute or drugs, you should be using a credit card. Preferably one with benefits like cash back or miles. Or maybe you don't want a discount on everything you buy, with all purchasing risk carried by your credit card company. Maybe you don't want to build up your "credit rating" so that you can buy a house. And all for free if you can manage to pay your CC bill on time.
Seriously, the only people I know who use cash are my grandfather who doesn't trust banks and my uncle who doesn't declare his income to the IRS.
The US government does not confirm or deny comments on classified technology. Nuclear weapons are classified. So if you write a book that is full of crap on nuclear bombs, all of the experts will general work for (or have worked for) the government and will not be able to comment on it.
Thus, people who are not in "the know" will read the book and say "Gee, this is really great stuff, very accurate." Meanwhile those who actually work on these weapons and who have security clearances will buy the book, read the book, laugh about the errors with each other... and not talk about it to the general public.
It's easy to be a self-proclaimed expert when all the real experts can't comment and you can't actually demonstrate that your technology works.
And finally, you really think making a bomb is easy if you have the fuel? Do you have personal experience here? Keep in mind you don't get a lot of testing opportunities with these things, and diagnosing what is going on during the explosion is also quite involved. There's a big difference between assembling your nuclear material to generate some nuclear yield and actually generating significant nuclear yield.
Because some idiots thinks buses is a good idea? Personally I hate them, less so for long trips though. But within a city or as commute transport they suck balls, slower than a bike or more expensive than a car...
I am an extensive mass transport system user who, every day, benefits from a multi-modal network that involves bus, suburban train and subway system. I use it to not only cover a 40km trip to work each day but also on my off time. In order to gain access to the local mass transport network I need to pay 47 euros for a montly pass. That is 47 euros for unlimited access to multiple modes of transportation. That ends up costing right under 600 euros a year.
Where exactly can you purchase a car for 600 euros a year? Are you able to run a car for a year with 600 euros worth of gasoline/diesel? Can you even maintain a car (insurance, maintenance, etc...) with 600 euros a year? No, you can't.
Remember that the 47 Euros you pay is only your outright cost. The government heavily subsidizes public transportation with your tax dollars.
You need to also consider that in the US, we don't have as developed a system of public transportation and people travel much further to work than in Europe (especially in the midwest). In these situations public transit can cost more than in Europe and also can 2-3 times longer than driving. When you have 4 hours of time at home, you don't always want to add an extra 2 hours to your commute with public transit.
The real problem is that, in the US at least, all of the carriers are colluding together to create a monopoly that required subsidized phones and two-year contracts. And they lobby congress hard, so that they are able to escape scrutiny and oversight.
There is simply no way for a new carrier with no two-year-lock-in policy to successfully compete for market share against the current companies without dramatically sacrificing their profits.
it's absolutely appalling to see people feel they have to tie every move which happens on top of the business world to some 'logical and rational market move' or some darwinian bullshit....
they are people. yes, a board of directors, executives CAN feel positive emotions, and CAN move out of goodwill, or a sense of honor, or any other similar emotion.
I disagree. Google is no longer a cute, friendly little startup. It is a massive corporation. And that is the operative word.
Corporations are primarily in business to make money for their shareholders. Sure, the people running the corporation MAY feel positive emotions, but at the end of the day they WILL choose the option that will bring in the most cash or they will be fired.
Part of the board's decision may be to promote a "do no evil" or environmentally friendly mentality. Don't get me wrong, the board may even genuinely believe such propaganda, but the stock holders don't care. They want to see the stock go up or the board members replaced.
At the business level, it is no longer about positive emotions, goodwill or honor. It's about cold hard cash. Business decisions must reflect that in either the short or long term.
In either case, the whole point of the movie is that evolution favours those that breed the most.
So by your definition you eventually wind up with a population full of poor people with badly educated women and no social expectations. Similar net result, different cause.
But then the educated people in power get involved in a war that sends those poor people, who got drafted because they didn't go to college, to die. So who does evolution really favor in the end?
It's like the Matrix. The poor and uneducated are the power supply that makes the country go round. You give them just enough to keep them nonrebellious, but not enough to be free. And above all else, make sure they have more poor, uneducated kids. It's modern day slavery and the rich reap the benefits.
Decide for yourselves what countries use that philosophy to govern.
"THE first Australian 'Google phone' set to go on sale within weeks has been delayed indefinitely, with the manufacturer Kogan forced to refund early buyers. In a statement released this afternoon, the company said the delay was 'due to future interoperability issues.'The Agora reached a very late stage of development, manufacturing had commenced and we were within days of shipping the product to customers,' company founder Ruslan Kogan said in a statement."
Future interoperability issues? What the fuck does that mean? That it won't run Duke Nukem Forever?
Let me translate: We advertised a vaporware product and then took money from a lot of people to build a it. Then we designed the phone. Then we tried to build it and realized we didn't have a clue.
Yes, but no year zero. In the Gregorian calendar, 31st December of 1 BC is followed by 1st January of 1 AD. Therefore the AD period reaches a hundred years old at the end of the year 100, not at the beginning of that year. Same for the millennia: the second millennium ended on the night of 31st December 2000.
Technically, there is a 0 AD. Which is equal to 1 BC. And 0 BC is equal to 1 AD. Deal with it.
Bet let's keep in mind this is one of those discussions geeks have when there are no women around to impress and no useful work to do. It has absolutely no import in our lives.
Hate all you want. Apple doesn't really care and neither do the millions of people enjoying their shiny toys.
Apple's innovation, at a minimum, is to meld technologies into attractive products that work well. And you know what? It's working for them.
Yes, they are more shiny and more expensive. Yes, you can get a cheaper product that will give you the same level of functionality. But some people like to have things that are more than functional. It's why women like diamond rings, men like trophy wives, and people don't eat oatmeal and tofu all the time.
It appears that you failed to read the thread. If you had followed it you would realize that I was talking about metlin's post and not the 9/80 subject.
Oh sorry, my bad. I thought the whole point of/. was to post without reading TFA or threads.
If someone needs to work 80 hours a week on average then I would say that their life doesn't have much quality to begin with. Unless by "maintain our quality of living" you mean "paying off the luxury goods and services you've purchased". But then again, as your work load stops you from benefiting from them, I seriously doubt that they do much good.
Materialism and all that keeping up with the joneses is a bitch, isn't it?
It's not 80 hours a week! It is an average of 40 hours a week. It is called a 9/80 because you work 80 hours over 9 work days and get the 10th day off.
Slashdot Mirror
Not least because if the number of intelligent civilizations capable of communication in our galaxy is greater than 1, then we should eventually hear from them.
The keyword is eventually. Eventually can be a really really long time. How long have we been listening for? Radios have only been around for how long? 100 years? That's like a nanosecond in the galactic timescale.
The impediment to intergalactic travel isn't finding willing volunteers. It's cost, pure and simple. We'll send out exploration ships only when it's either dirt cheap to do it or the entire population is behind the effort and willing to foot the cost.
Building a generation ship will easily be one of the most expensive and large-scale projects that our species has ever undertaken. A couple of willing colonists can't afford this alone. They need the entire population behind them.
I am behind it! I can think of lots of people I'd like to send on a one way trip into space, starting with Cheney. Maybe we could just all sponsor one or two people each. We can cut costs by limiting the food and oxygen supply onboard.
The government continues to expand its overarching control under the guise of public safety.
I mean, I have an uncle who played WoW, and could only play for two hours a night due to work schedule, so instance running was largely impossible -- thus why he stopped playing. However that's pretty unusual circumstances. I'd wager most "casuals" will still put in more than two hours of game time on those occasions that they do play.
Pretty unusual? I stopped playing for the same reason. Maybe you can collect some people for a PUG in 30-45 minutes if you're lucky... counting time for someone to forget stuff and get ganked 30 times. Then the instance takes a few hours. Then you have to grind for another few hours to get gold for supplies and repair.
Maybe I am not the best player, but that was my experience. I found that it took about 4 hours to do all that. And that's not counting the time to research the instance. Sure, it can go faster if you are in a good guild... but joining a guild was like a commitment to play 16 hours a week! Now I had that kind of time in college and in grad school, but I don't anymore. How do adults find the time to put in 4 hours a night (a few times a week) with full time jobs and kids? Do you just lock the kids in the closet with a jar of peanut butter and a pillow?
I really liked WoW, but the time commitment to do anything fun was just too much for me. And don't get me started on that whole PvP tournament BS.
When, exactly, was the last time "the net" was down, anyway? The Morris worm? I personally had the very bad luck to be the duty engineer on call the night the MS SQL blaster worm was released. That was, in fact, a very bad day, but overall "the net" hardly stopped working.
The problem with relying on the internet is that you are counting on having (1) power to your house, (2) power to your service provider, (3) power to every server hosting content you want to access and (4) nothing being hacked in any fashion.
While I agree that is probably true for highly localized attacks on our infrastructure like those that occurred during 9/11, it doesn't seem like a very robust system to me for distributed attacks. Especially if everyone repeatedly tries accessing an already marginalized system.
There is a significant part of the population that uses analog TV as their primary point of communication to the outside world. Think emergency scenarios like tornado warnings, 911-type events, and the Cardinals having a shot to win the SuperBowl.
Interesting. I consider my primary form of communication with the outside world to be my window.
I would think that instead of relying on a TV that needs a large amount of electricity, people would use a battery powered radio for emergencies. Maybe they will rediscover these wonder devices after February 17.
I believe it!
Doom taught me that when an imp throws a fireball at your face, you need to dodge the fireball and then kill the imp or it will keep attacking.
Diving out of your chair still results in your character getting hit with the fireball.
Tricky imps.
Coal has killed FAR more than is attributed to it. Right now, nearly all the deaths attributed to coal is based on coal mine deaths, which IS much greater than nuclear power deaths (even when including all the uranium mining for weapons). But what is not added in there is the mercury poisoning that we get. Most of the mercury in our water is from coal. Likewise, much of our acid rains, etc are from coal. In a nutshell, Coal is far far worse than nukes.
But we also use more coal than we do nuclear material.
You need to show deaths from coal normalized by energy produced from coal. Then compare that to an equivalent figure for nuclear power.
I'm not trying to be difficult, I want to believe you. But the logic you guys are pushing is flawed. Radioactive waste is some baaaaad shit and we haven't even begin to deal with it in large quantities. Can the human race really keep nuclear waste out of the envrionment for the thousands of years it takes for it to inert itself?
You think a little mercury in our water and food sucks? What's going to happen when radioactive waste starts ending up there?
I don't see why they should pay more for your services when someone is willing to do it for less. The company is the one suffering if they are missing adequate skill sets for what the task demands. I really don't understand why a company should "hire locally" first when its not in its best interest to do so.
Just curious, are you an illegal immigrant?
I guess the government doesn't want a lot of unhappy people sitting at home without a TV to numb their minds for 4 hours a day.
Imagine if everyone's TV's stopped working at once during the first month Obama is in office? It'd be like the next Katrina for his administration! Plus, then people might start thinking for themselves... it could get ugly.
Yes, I do think making a nuclear bomb is ALL ABOUT the fuel cycle. Little Boy wasn't even tested before being dropped in Hiroshima. Trinity was a implosion-type plutonion bomb, just like Fat Man, while Little Boy was a gun-type uranium bomb. So the gun assembly was not tested before being deployed.
A Little Boy wasn't tested in the supercritical sense, but the critical mass of the material used was verified experimentally in criticality experiments referred to as "tickling the dragon." And you can be damn sure the Little Boy design was tested in an inert fashion to double check the assembly times.
The Fat Man design was tested because it was a far more complicated design, both in theory and in an engineering sense. Ideally, both designs would have been tested for yield prior to use in war, but the US just didn't have any extra Uranium to test a spare Little Boy.
The scientists were under enormous time pressure. At first, it was because they wanted to make sure they beat any competing efforts in Nazi Germany, so that England and the US wouldn't get nuked by a desperate Hitler. Then that part of the war ended. After that, it became clear that the US was eventually going to win against Japan. The Manhattan Project personnel were rushing to finish the bombs in time for them to be relevant to the war. Millions of dollars and resources had been spent rushing the development of the weapons. The government wanted a return on their dollar... they had to nuke Japan before the war was over. Both to "save American lives" and to show the Soviets not to cross the US in the post WWII landscape.
Sure, it's "all about the fuel cycle" if you are a physicist dreaming up ideas on paper. But when you actually start assembling your multi-million dollar weapon and you only have enough explosive to test it once, you suddenly find that there is a lot of engineering and physics experiments involved to make sure that you can get to the point the fuel cycle can do its work. North Korea discovered this firsthand a few years ago.
Cash. Is. King.
Not when you get mugged, it isn't.
Or when you lose your wallet. Or when you want to dispute a payment. Or when you buy something over the internet.
Unless you are buying a prostitute or drugs, you should be using a credit card. Preferably one with benefits like cash back or miles. Or maybe you don't want a discount on everything you buy, with all purchasing risk carried by your credit card company. Maybe you don't want to build up your "credit rating" so that you can buy a house. And all for free if you can manage to pay your CC bill on time.
Seriously, the only people I know who use cash are my grandfather who doesn't trust banks and my uncle who doesn't declare his income to the IRS.
Get it straight.
The US government does not confirm or deny comments on classified technology. Nuclear weapons are classified. So if you write a book that is full of crap on nuclear bombs, all of the experts will general work for (or have worked for) the government and will not be able to comment on it.
Thus, people who are not in "the know" will read the book and say "Gee, this is really great stuff, very accurate." Meanwhile those who actually work on these weapons and who have security clearances will buy the book, read the book, laugh about the errors with each other... and not talk about it to the general public.
It's easy to be a self-proclaimed expert when all the real experts can't comment and you can't actually demonstrate that your technology works.
And finally, you really think making a bomb is easy if you have the fuel? Do you have personal experience here? Keep in mind you don't get a lot of testing opportunities with these things, and diagnosing what is going on during the explosion is also quite involved. There's a big difference between assembling your nuclear material to generate some nuclear yield and actually generating significant nuclear yield.
Because some idiots thinks buses is a good idea? Personally I hate them, less so for long trips though. But within a city or as commute transport they suck balls, slower than a bike or more expensive than a car...
I am an extensive mass transport system user who, every day, benefits from a multi-modal network that involves bus, suburban train and subway system. I use it to not only cover a 40km trip to work each day but also on my off time. In order to gain access to the local mass transport network I need to pay 47 euros for a montly pass. That is 47 euros for unlimited access to multiple modes of transportation. That ends up costing right under 600 euros a year.
Where exactly can you purchase a car for 600 euros a year? Are you able to run a car for a year with 600 euros worth of gasoline/diesel? Can you even maintain a car (insurance, maintenance, etc...) with 600 euros a year? No, you can't.
Remember that the 47 Euros you pay is only your outright cost. The government heavily subsidizes public transportation with your tax dollars.
You need to also consider that in the US, we don't have as developed a system of public transportation and people travel much further to work than in Europe (especially in the midwest). In these situations public transit can cost more than in Europe and also can 2-3 times longer than driving. When you have 4 hours of time at home, you don't always want to add an extra 2 hours to your commute with public transit.
But everything you can do with a microwave you can do better (albeit slower) with traditional methods.
O Rly?
You can't make CD's light up, make raw eggs explode, set grapes on fire or dry off cats with the oven.
Well, maybe you can do the cat part in the oven, but it takes a hell of a lot longer and tastes the same as with the microwave.
The real problem is that, in the US at least, all of the carriers are colluding together to create a monopoly that required subsidized phones and two-year contracts. And they lobby congress hard, so that they are able to escape scrutiny and oversight.
There is simply no way for a new carrier with no two-year-lock-in policy to successfully compete for market share against the current companies without dramatically sacrificing their profits.
Why get a replacement at all?
Just scrap the GSM phone.
When you are around the computer use voip... if not, well, people can send you an email!
And, use the free time you just got with all those useless calls to get a nice warm cup of *whatever*, and relax...
Thanks for the tip. That will work well for me when my car breaks down on my hour long commute through the desert.
If you don't like useless calls, don't answer the damn phone. Then the people you don't want to talk to stop calling you.
it's absolutely appalling to see people feel they have to tie every move which happens on top of the business world to some 'logical and rational market move' or some darwinian bullshit. ...
they are people. yes, a board of directors, executives CAN feel positive emotions, and CAN move out of goodwill, or a sense of honor, or any other similar emotion.
I disagree. Google is no longer a cute, friendly little startup. It is a massive corporation. And that is the operative word.
Corporations are primarily in business to make money for their shareholders. Sure, the people running the corporation MAY feel positive emotions, but at the end of the day they WILL choose the option that will bring in the most cash or they will be fired.
Part of the board's decision may be to promote a "do no evil" or environmentally friendly mentality. Don't get me wrong, the board may even genuinely believe such propaganda, but the stock holders don't care. They want to see the stock go up or the board members replaced.
At the business level, it is no longer about positive emotions, goodwill or honor. It's about cold hard cash. Business decisions must reflect that in either the short or long term.
In either case, the whole point of the movie is that evolution favours those that breed the most.
So by your definition you eventually wind up with a population full of poor people with badly educated women and no social expectations. Similar net result, different cause.
But then the educated people in power get involved in a war that sends those poor people, who got drafted because they didn't go to college, to die. So who does evolution really favor in the end?
It's like the Matrix. The poor and uneducated are the power supply that makes the country go round. You give them just enough to keep them nonrebellious, but not enough to be free. And above all else, make sure they have more poor, uneducated kids. It's modern day slavery and the rich reap the benefits.
Decide for yourselves what countries use that philosophy to govern.
"THE first Australian 'Google phone' set to go on sale within weeks has been delayed indefinitely, with the manufacturer Kogan forced to refund early buyers. In a statement released this afternoon, the company said the delay was 'due to future interoperability issues.'The Agora reached a very late stage of development, manufacturing had commenced and we were within days of shipping the product to customers,' company founder Ruslan Kogan said in a statement."
Future interoperability issues? What the fuck does that mean? That it won't run Duke Nukem Forever?
Let me translate: We advertised a vaporware product and then took money from a lot of people to build a it. Then we designed the phone. Then we tried to build it and realized we didn't have a clue.
Fail.
Yes, but no year zero. In the Gregorian calendar, 31st December of 1 BC is followed by 1st January of 1 AD. Therefore the AD period reaches a hundred years old at the end of the year 100, not at the beginning of that year. Same for the millennia: the second millennium ended on the night of 31st December 2000.
Technically, there is a 0 AD. Which is equal to 1 BC. And 0 BC is equal to 1 AD. Deal with it.
Bet let's keep in mind this is one of those discussions geeks have when there are no women around to impress and no useful work to do. It has absolutely no import in our lives.
Hate all you want. Apple doesn't really care and neither do the millions of people enjoying their shiny toys.
Apple's innovation, at a minimum, is to meld technologies into attractive products that work well. And you know what? It's working for them.
Yes, they are more shiny and more expensive. Yes, you can get a cheaper product that will give you the same level of functionality. But some people like to have things that are more than functional. It's why women like diamond rings, men like trophy wives, and people don't eat oatmeal and tofu all the time.
It appears that you failed to read the thread. If you had followed it you would realize that I was talking about metlin's post and not the 9/80 subject.
Oh sorry, my bad. I thought the whole point of /. was to post without reading TFA or threads.
If you are asking that you clearly haven't upgraded your computer to Vista yet.
If someone needs to work 80 hours a week on average then I would say that their life doesn't have much quality to begin with. Unless by "maintain our quality of living" you mean "paying off the luxury goods and services you've purchased". But then again, as your work load stops you from benefiting from them, I seriously doubt that they do much good.
Materialism and all that keeping up with the joneses is a bitch, isn't it?
It's not 80 hours a week! It is an average of 40 hours a week. It is called a 9/80 because you work 80 hours over 9 work days and get the 10th day off.