Somewhere about 2003 people took attention on these gullies. To many then it became clear that water still FLOWS in Mars. Its origin is clearly linked to certain horizons where pockets or small underground lakes can survive. While it is not clear how they survive there, two things are pretty well known:
1. Regionally these pockets are frequently linked to a few horizons so they come mostly from one and the same levels above local ground. 2. Most of them have a clear feature of bursting, nearly "exploding". The way they formed also suggested that liquid water didn't stay for long. They form and dry up fast not even reaching the bottoms of valleys or ravines.
So there is no big discovery here. What is novel is that someone may have found in laboratory HOW these bursts happen and why they have the features we see. And probably he may be missing a few things. One is why landscape remains "wet" for quite long time. Second - why the dark streaks seem to become bright-grey in time. Third - why this happens seasonally.
Anyway these questions will probably be answered in a few years from now, with fireworks and claims of novelity. This is how Science works in Mars...
SLS may be really The Crap. However, the original post is surely the proof Space is too sweet for the flies to leave the pie in peace...
Whoever thinks "private" soft is more effective than any government funded project is dumber the dumbest ass on the road. He does not know nothing about space travel, specially the fact that there are still lots of unknowns behind the "simplicity" of celestial mechanics. These problems are hard enough to turn a well-planned trajectory into the nightmare of a very fluid situation, specially if there are people inside the crap. Now tell me what commercial venture will risk its head on such things. Or has anyone took off the "Ltd." out of modern business?!
NASA glued stuff? Great! That's exactly what we all do today. We GLUE stuff! We "optimize expenses", cut budgets by the half, mix apples with carrots to sell them in Tetrapacks. Oh! And you don't need to be a government agency for that because EVERYONE does it! That's what we call "Business Processes" without even thinking that there is a first principle voiding everything we do - "No changes/improverment shall stop the work of the current business..." But we are above that! Let Hell freeze over, we make a revolution! We create "the stuff" able to work everywhere for everyone everytime.
The only ooops here is that even before NASA sent people to the Moon, even before USSR sent the Sputnik and the nazis lauched its V-2... There was such stuff! It worked everywhere for everyone everytime. Its name - "snake oil".
Kammler can be linked to every fantastic and most absurd idea on nazi secret projects. However there is a caveat - till now I have never seen his name in any document that can be surely sourced to any atomic project nazis may have had. None, zero, nada, nechego...
The most striking fact that Kammler had nothing to do with nukes is how real nazi nuked scientists tried to survive the last days of the Third Reich. Most interesting was how Heisenberg managed to find food and other essential things for his family - he got help from an old acquaintance working at one of Kammler's key labs! For that, he came to town on a bycicle and the acquaintance was shocked by his shabby looks. So Heisenberg was a lost soul at the end of the war.
Nukes and Kammler, until someone proves the contrary, don't cope. However, this does not mean someone may still find some mega-leftovers of Kammler's Underground Empire. For the sake of what? Well he surely was an early participant of "Amerika Bomber" project, still in a very classical form. He also was the V-2/A-4 boss and there are tons of questions on how deep was his knowledge and participation of such projects like the A-10. He once worked at Luftwaffe and seemed to have been in good relations with Goering, so he could know about such wonders as the Silbervogel. And, at the end he was the last boss of the nazi jet projects (which was the reason why von Braun suddenly stopped at Oberammergau, with this guy breathing at his back). While war demanded some humbleness, it was usual to see many nazi projects exploding into mega-machines. I wouldn't be shocked to see the last of the last of Kammler's projects, the Messerschmidt P.1101, having a megabrother nearby. Or maybe it was just for the P.1101 itself! Once tested, they had to be produced somewhere, in large numbers, in very, very large numbers.
So the huge, nearly empty bunkers. Maybe for one of these bloated conceptions of World Domination. And nukes were just speculation, still without any proof of concept. At the end of the War, nazis still thought that the key to victory was the Very Big, Surely Bad and Really Ugly.
It BOOMS since WWII but that's all it does... It just booms the air with lots of hype. This thing is like the Philosophical Rock of the good Middle Ages. The difference is that, from the early start, someone tries to tell you how hard, heavy and look-alike the rock is.
Which means all these quests are a total failure. For one simple reason - Speed vs. Maneuverability. You can't have both in one basket. Either you sacrifice one for the sake of the other or you get nothing (eeeee, not so straight. You may get something you believe it works but usually it becomes bloody expensive).
Hypersonics are very peculiar on this cost. It's mega-speed, so it means you have near-zero maneuverability. Worse, even miserable deviations to a planned trajectory may be deadly to your mega-cannonball. X-15 and the Shuttle have magnificent examples of such cases, down from the drawing board and up to, somehow, Columbia's tragedy. They all show that hypersonics is not a place to play with fire. Because it's fire all over. Everything burns, even the best alloys and composites we created for this task. And a small deviation of parameters/environment and you are dealling with Sun temperatures in a place you may have not taken into account. In such cases, the result can be nothing but catastrophic.
This does not mean there is nothing to do in hypersonics. Well, nuclear heads and space systems fly on it! So there is something to do there. Maybe even a hypersonic rocket could have a role, if we count all caveats of the field. However, most hypersonic research is linked to the idea of creating a "TOP GUN" system, with Buck Rogers at the helm and even less brainy politicians and generals feeding the whole thing with mega-budgets and napoleonic dreams on World Peace.
To end, let me note that this whole story has a historical scent of sinister. The first idea of an hypersonic mega-weapon was first studied in The Third Reich! Its name - Silbervogel. It was a madness like many things nazis did then but it is not just a crazy idea "floating in the air". In fact, the nazis tried some follow-ups and one of those was pushed by von Braun's boss - general Walter Dornberger. Later, after getting a solid feet in the US, Dornberger will lobby several times for hypersonic mega-weapons. In the end he became the father, forefather and grandfather of the BOMI, X-15, X-20 Dyna-Soar and Space Shuttle.
Really, what Senator Hatch should do first is to take care of its own pirates like McColo, InterCage and alikes, who cost billions of dollars for millions of people all around the world. American Pirates who specially care to attack hundreds of thousands of russian sites stealing resources AND traffic with specialized trojans, semi-automatic robots and unique viruses.
Maybe russian taxpayers don't have billions of dolars to show Senator Hatch the cost of what american pirates do here. But I am pretty sure that many american citizens still can endure tens of billions of dolars, which does not happen to many russian citizens. Because for many of them, the cost of a high-tech McColo attack runs frequently from 1/3 to 5 times their monthly salaries. There are small companies here that went burned from something that originated in USA. Yes, playing absolute numbers is SOOOOOO COOOL. Watch the effects first, before crying wolf.
So many thanks for Senator Hatch to refer Canada, China and Russia as being in the top of US's Piracy watch-list. For us, it is YOU who are in the top!
In your world of "opportunity for everyone" maybe. In the real world shit happens in such way that it may be practically impossible to get a solution. If the whole economy goes through the tubes, how can you guarantee yourself survival? If you didn't have had this chance, you are pretty lucky, I had to pass by the downfall of USSR. It was a TREMENDOUS experience. And not the first and last one. I just refer it because it was a situation where, chances to find work were pretty grim.
Now, guys like the one I described, don't have the experience of running through wars and major crisis. They are good guys, who hope to have a life without serious bumps. This bump going now is pretty bad for such people and don't tell me a anything about opportunities. You didn't even think on what market, country, region or field I or this guy are in. So, drop a bit your shell, be it "conservative" or "liberal", and think for a little that the world is not everywhere the same.
And one note: You claim sysadmins have no excuse for considerable savings. That's consumerism, pal. That's management going nuts, not knowing what they are spending on. Not personally nor at company level. If you don't know how to manage your OWN money, how will you manage the company's money?
I don't get just a salary, I manage budgets and personnel. If I would hear someone claiming such thing as you did here, I wouldn't even take the effort to see his CV. And don't tell me about that "IT ain't cheap". Yes I know it is not cheap. But it shall be rational. Specially, when you have companies burning millions of dollars of debt and you are one of the guys tasked to kick off these companies out of the hole they are in. So when I say - I will not look at such CV, I am pretty sure of what I am talking about.
Unfortunately, I know the reality. Yes, you are among the majority.
You know how many sysadmin CVs I refused to look at? It is not "opportunities". It's a very grim picture that makes me feel horrible.
Microsoft - Windows is the "gloat of the bloat and bloat of the gloat"
User - What is this moat of the goat or...
Microsoft - It is a complex of programs to feel a unique experience on digital information.
User - Can I put something into your?..
Microsoft - No way. Verbotten! It's pure proprietary, closed source, use it or drop it.
Now laws are being broken here. And it's not a question wether this works on PCs or not. It is clear black on white.
Now if...
Microsoft - Windows is an Operating System!
User - Can I put my program?
Microsoft - Eh, uh... No. Use ours or drop dead.
That IS a violation of law. More it is an antitrust violation because in the OS market you have a privileged position and you are misleading everyone AND using that "mislead" to kick out the alternatives.
The antitrust law goes as far as you claim your rights in a specific market. Does DoJ drops the rope on Sony for the software they have on the playstations? And is MS breaking any laws for blocking every other system on their Xboxes? Is anyone going after them for that?
MS claims that Windows has a certain universality under a very specific thing - the Operating System. Read carefully what I wrote. I know I'm pretty freak in english but the text is quite understandable.
Yes, MS is a legal construct. But, while they have to follow the law, they have inherent rights - they are copyright holders. I am not saying that "today" they may scrap Windows or change the EULA. If they did this, probably they would have some pretty bad time with DoJ. However, they can change it "tomorrow". And they can change it ways that no antitrust will go after them. IMHO, if they stop claiming the OS definition for Windows, it will be pretty hard to get them.
But while they claim Windows is an OS or carries certain properties that they really don't make available, they will have to spend a lot of time in the courts. Because, that is where the law is being broken.
Impossible. How do you figure out the budget if people talk only abstractively?
I had a few bad episodes during my lifetime with such abstractions. It doesn't work, what it doesn't work? Eeeeee it doesn't work. Ok, now what do you think or how do you think it should work. Well the computer shall "give me"/"think about"/"show me"...
And you realize that they don't even know how to use a computer.
Now think. Abstractions+"No real tasks"+"Calculate the Budget".
Under this crisis, it will take an Eternity to calculate a budget...
I just remembered an episode that occurred not so long ago.
This comes from third persons but I know the guy who was trying to get the job. An average sysadmin but systematic and hardworking.
When he was about to be layed off, people tried to find him a job on a business partner. The partner was having some pretty bad time with its networks. They are highly critical and shall run non-stop (something related to medicine btw). Now, lately, for several times the servers went down. There was even a hangup that lasted nearly half a day, a catasthrophe in their way of working. Things were so bad that, for some time, it was the company where this guy was working that was supporting their servers.
They naturally "offered" to their partner this guy. The partner refused. The guy went to the street. The problems kept creeping on.
Now, on that company, they were keeping four jerks. They didn't create these servers, they didn't support them and they even didn't know what was running there. Their job? "System Administrator".
I ain't talking about a little company. And this case is not the craziest I have been told of. But that what is happening. Good and average specialists are being sent to the streets while companies burn down departments or keep God knows who doing administration.
So, during this crisis, high-tech geeky homeless and unemployed is pretty natural to occur. More, with management going nuts in some companies, there is a good chance that some of the top experts find themselves on the street.
Why? Because someone offers you a job with absolutely no sense?
I am a infosec expert. So threat shall be something that you can measure. Objectively or subjectively, it doesn't matter. You either consider than under the threat of a breakin - "someone may steal information" or "we can loose a value of 100 million dollars". There is nothing weird on this, right?
Tell me, if someone comes to you and speaks about "threats", just the word "threats". And he keeps on and on with "threats", adding "hackers" or "spies" for a bit of salt. Will you take that job he is offering you? More, if you, as a professional, try to figure out what kind of threats and risks may exist, and this guy can only answer something about the fears going on inside the company? Fears, not dollars, or data inside some server.
Oh, you may think that he didn't want to give some confidential info. The BAD part of the story is that I once worked for them. And every time I tried to push the talk into what I knew they had, the guy was going somewhere else.
Yes, it is schizo season. I had three such proposals. The other two less crazy but also demanded a diagnosis.
Hmmm and you probably know what is being homeless.
I have been homeless btw. Many years ago in a pretty harsh time.
Frankly, you may consider me an idiot. It's your pure and absolute right. But wishing me to be homeless.
Hope you don't become anonymous if you get some pretty bad time on your life. I know many anonymous. Too much of them. Lived two years under war. It's enough to see thousands of anonymous.
And for the guy who "insightfulled" this. Your insight doesn't go much farther than the corner of your house. Go and see the world. Not everyone has a house to sleep in.
Yes, right now it is real hard to find a job. And not just because there are no jobs. Things are even more harsh than just "a job".
When I went down through the tube, I had several proposals being offered. Yes, I don't have too much trouble to find a job, besides, I only once, in my whole life, was searching for a job only on myself.
But what I found this time was... Dali's Universe? Things were so surrealistic that I even closed my communication with very closed friends. Because it was nearly impossible to make a rational, weightened comment on what was coming in. It was something. I cannot even name it "crazy".
For example, someone offers you a new job. Ok, let's see what we need to do. Nothing? Stop, pal, you are offering me a job. What tasks are to be done there? Some wicked picture on security "the aliens are coming!" in the middle of the myst?! Hey, call Spielberg, not me.
Yes I could accept such a job. And playing Spielberg for a while may be funny. But sincerly, I am of the kind of "task or no task". Usually we all fall in abstractions, second thoughts and sillynesses every time you come into a new job. But this time, several proposals and all them... I don't know. Maybe aliens are really coming in?
Well, I had some money on my backpocket. Made my calculations. Hmmm I can live for some time on myself only. Cool, all comms over and out, turn off all systems and deserve the holidays you didn't have for five years. Byeeee.
This crisis is funny. Really. Because, on one side, it is not so bad as it could be. On the other side, people fried their nerves so well, that it is impossible to have something workable out of the barbecue of their thinking.
Anyway, there are lots of people who are not so lucky as me. Sincerly, I have several cases of friends and ex-subordinates who are passing some pretty bad time now. Anyway, their stories are even more horrid than my. They were searching for a job, so they meet more whackos than me.
I'm self-unemployed after a real hard season of playing Blade Runner for a year. I don't have too much money to spend but...
I have a 24 hour permanent link to Internet I can load tens of Gigabytes per month. Have several different channels to reach Internet, from wherever I am, in several possible means. And have a miriad of places to go for info and communication. At home I have also three different ways to reach Internet from several systems around the house. I can freely move with a Internet link
And all this usually costs me some. Let's see... Some 40 dollars per month? Uh!
And to think I paid a 100 dollars for some piece of junky channel just four years ago. Hey and I could load only 2 Gigs! I was robbed!
Microsoft has the full right to do what it wants with Windows.
If the wants to forbid anyone else to bundle, it can do it. If it wants to scrap it into the trashcan, be it.
What Microsoft has no right to do is to claim what Windows is not. They claim it is an Operating System. Cool, I have my little-pretty program here, I want to run it on Windows. No way? Then don't tell me you are selling an operating system. Call it whatever you want - a all-bundled system, an application complex, the bloat of the gloat or the gloat of the bloat...
But "Operating System" is something with a clear definition, with a definite purposefulness and for which Microsoft has no patents, trademarks or special privileges. Stop using it, stop using the OS definitions to describe Windows and be happy. Like Sony and other companies.
However Microsoft does no do it. Why?
Because it is afraid of loosing potential market?
It fears that someone may come with some new bright idea and they will not be able to surrepteously bundle it?
Because this may create independent systems upon which Microsoft will not have a hand on?
Because it will be much harder to asfixiate a concurrent?
And for how long such opportunism will continue? Until all creativism is crushed and the land barren?
"Fascists were not doing anything wrong in the 30's and they are not doing anything wrong now. Yes Fascism sucks and is completely totalitarian, but their aim for the good will of the Nation, without needless democracy is _NOT_ evil or even slightly unpleasant."
Sorry, pal, but I've been so messed on politics that your argumentation just flashed like a mirror on my memories. I pushed up, a little bit, the arguments, but sincerly, it is almost the same wordings.
Have you forget the findings made by DoJ in the 90's?
> "I don't see noise directed against Apple or Linux or BSD, likely because they are {not monopolies | high enough in market share | something else that I can't grok}."
Why you want to see them? Apple is really a monopolistic granitic stubborn deadhead, but which has enough links to Open Source and independent developers to be out of oversight.
Linux? There are no problems here... Where you see a problem? There are tons of projects of every size, form, taste and possible genetic mutation. Even the word "pet" is hard to be used here. Yes, "Welcome to the Jungle". I'm quite happy on it, btw. 11 years on the row.
BSD? There are NO problems there. Absolutely NOT a SINGLE problem. They are not the Jungle. They are The Primordial Matter.
All problems are with one company that clearly and undoubtfully tried to kick every one out of its Empire. And I am not making up things. There are the DoJ and Eurocommission investigations for everyone to see.
Besides, problem is not pet projects. It's hypocrisy to compare OSes to Congressional Pork. Pork is bad because it's budget, real taxpayer money being eaten. However, an OS is something that is supposed to support a miryad of different programs, not matter their purpose, intention and necessity.
If it an OS does not do such a thing, then it is not an OS. It's a gamepad like Gamboy or Playstation. If Microsoft wants to produce gamepads, it shall stop claiming Windows is an Operating System.
Sorry but reminding of Milton Friedman on these days, it would be the same as advocating for Monarchy right after the American Revolution...
Yes, you may bash me that I am remarking that freedoms may be not so free. And you may keep yourself on Milton Friedman, while the Economy slumps under his theories.
But I do prefer a chance to have some other new and real freedoms tomorrow. And not being fed by the abstract, scholastic and spooky "Free to Choose" under the absolute totalitarian rule of Microsoft. Even if that means some lack of universal pluralism today.
Great discussion going on! Some good remarks, some so-so.
Let me note one thing to everyone. This is mostly a reflection on History and how it can apply to what we have here.
Ancient Greeks had the knowledge of the steam machine. Yes, we can say that they played with it as a toy and so on... But the problem is that they had not only the steam machine! They had all the basics to build machines, besides they were pretty advanced on using them as we know now. Not so long ago a very complicated machine was found that amazingly modelled the solar system. They were toys, but pretty elaborated toys.
Now we perfectly know that steam machines came up into life only in the XVII century. More, all the machinery stuff was mostly reinvented! We didn't know Greeks went that far until recent time.
Why?
Some people say that they, and Romans afterward, stuck to their "way of things" - slaves do the work, why we shall do something serious out of these machines? Why we need to substitute them for something... Better? Or worser? Or just different?
Now, they kept their society. Where is that society now, we perfectly know.
Is no one afraid, that sticking into the "way of things", we will just build our own doom? Yes, I know that it is hard to see the Future and probably no one of us will see the Avenge of Linux. Most probably there will never be such an avenge but someone will reinvent Linux on its basics. But, sincerly, I would prefer that even the basis for such things will never come into life! Because, if this happens, that will mean that we have choosen the most stupid historical path - no-way street.
Now I leave two questions for everyone here -
On trying to make a wholescale standard on Linux, aren't we burning bridges?
What do you prefer - an imperfect world and a future of Chance, or a perfect system and one-way to nowhere?
That's a pure twisted view of reality. First, the *nix environment was never supposed to go PC. Besides, the forkings were a pure necessity as you were dealing with systems for specific tasks. It was a hardware/software symbiosis and not selling computers to every freak on the street.
Windows came into force not because it was the attractive place to develop but the only one. IBM made a pretty good mess out of its OS/2 to be something workable for the lay user (not without the help of M$ btw).
Linux rose up in the end of the 90's, when Windows had the total and absolute monopoly on everything PC. So, in fact Windows IS loosing its position, not winning it. Yes, it lost 1%. But lost it and Linux is still here.
About binary compatibility... That's pretty heavy one. Frankly, have you ever used Linux in a working basis? I haven't had no binary compatibilities for years and I am a Linux user since 1998 (and admin since 1994). What compatibility are you talking about?
Really I don't use Windows anymore, except for some pretty rare games I play once in a while. But just an year ago I had to deal with a horrible mess on a Windows server. I was pretty amazed to see the same problems, the very old same way, as I saw several years ago - upgrade and we go boom.
I don't know, maybe Microsoft finally solved this 20-year old problem for the last year I have not been touching Windows? Really? I doubt.
The worst will be to excel on one and not be able to say a word on the other eight.
And even worser is not to be able to understand anything else, but only the excellence of the grammar in the language you believe to understand. Usually those who excel are even uncapable to understand dialects. You know how pretty is Jamaican English? Several years ago I could easily understand it. But, many english speakers don't make an idea of what Jamaicans say. Quite sad.
Sincerly, it seems I have been in a time machine for all these years. Quite long ago I was an active./'tter. Some 8-9 years ago. We had lots of FUD, Flood and Flame around here. And you know what is the most strinkgly thing I see now. Entered time machine. BRRRRRRR. Zero... I'm exactly in the same place at the very same time I left.
Back then, there were already tons of people claiming the Hell and the Tartarus for the way Linux is built. Well, apart of remarking that Linux is JUST a kernel, let me mention a few things. Just as 9 years ago.
1. GTK, KDE and alikes are probably not ideal code. But they are two standards well fixed and working on Linux environment. Don't like them, push for YOUR standard. Don't like anything at all, gather your team and MAKE your standard. I AM a KDE fan, I LIKE KDE and have been using it since it was a raw alpha stuff. Now my friends at one work, where I was the all-power BOfH LOVED GTK/Gnome and could not see KDE by 2 thousand miles. And that's what is GREAT on Linux - there is a CHOICE!
2. I use KDE on most of my desktops. But on my Eee PC I use Enlightenment as it is much more economic and has all the resources I need there. I have also a Zaurus (Linux, of course) and a server without graphical BLOAT on it. I also have a router with Linux on it. Now., are you telling me that all this hardware will work perfectly under a "standard"? Aren't you telling me that if I will have ONE desktop, then every dumb programmer will demand that the graphic system shall be EVERYWHERE? Look, I know what programmers are and how many of them think, specially the IDE crowd. If this thing goes this way, I am pretty sure that we end in a all-embedded, full-featured, completely geekish MONOLITH. And then, problems will not be only compatibility. It will be price... And probably my Zaurus will have a few kilos more... Besides, what will be the difference from Windows?
3. Frankly, only a dodo doesn't know that problems exist on the development of many libraries. But, what is a community for? People this stuff works and it will work while there is a community. It is not just a question of volunteerism but self-discipline. While I have been pretty inactive for these last years, still, when something was real wrong, I would knock the bugtrackers and developers. And without this, there is NO Linux. There is a product. Want to use it? Great, consume it. But then, don't blame for the bloat, monolitics and managers believing they are masters of the Universe. If you want to turn Linux systems into pure consumer products, you will have to be bound into what the seller thinks is best for you, not the contrary. You have only two choices - you either accept it or not. Considering what happened in the past, with IBM, Apple and Microsoft, I believe that such environment on Linux will be pretty damaging. And, frankly, it makes me wonder why the whinning is coming from Google.
People, don't give your freedoms. I know it is quite spicy for me to say this, I am in no way an american patriot, but the America's Founding Fathers had some true words about "giving up Freedom".
On which of the languages I know? Sorry, but sincerly, it is pretty hard to remember the grammar of some 9 languages I know. And I am not taking into account programming.
More. It is pain to take into account the grammar of each language, if you are reading almost simoultaneously three or four languages.
Yes, it's a handicap I cannot stick into a specific grammar. But I can read on several languages and write, in a possible comprehensible manner, on them.
Now I know several jerks who are too sticked to grammar, make a whole fuss out of it and are only able to create a complete nonsense out of a text. If I note that I had these cases on juridical documents, which decided will someone go to the gallows or not... I do prefer my horrible grammar.
ModDown offtopic but I get pretty mad when people try to teach grammar not by the error but by playing smarties.
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Just you people tell me when we start injecting cyanide behind grandpa's ears and eating babies at breakfast! ...
Somewhere about 2003 people took attention on these gullies. To many then it became clear that water still FLOWS in Mars. Its origin is clearly linked to certain horizons where pockets or small underground lakes can survive. While it is not clear how they survive there, two things are pretty well known:
1. Regionally these pockets are frequently linked to a few horizons so they come mostly from one and the same levels above local ground.
2. Most of them have a clear feature of bursting, nearly "exploding". The way they formed also suggested that liquid water didn't stay for long. They form and dry up fast not even reaching the bottoms of valleys or ravines.
So there is no big discovery here. What is novel is that someone may have found in laboratory HOW these bursts happen and why they have the features we see. And probably he may be missing a few things. One is why landscape remains "wet" for quite long time. Second - why the dark streaks seem to become bright-grey in time. Third - why this happens seasonally.
Anyway these questions will probably be answered in a few years from now, with fireworks and claims of novelity. This is how Science works in Mars...
So, after nearly 20 years of trashing and bashing, Windows is finally and officially not ready for prime time...
SLS may be really The Crap. However, the original post is surely the proof Space is too sweet for the flies to leave the pie in peace...
Whoever thinks "private" soft is more effective than any government funded project is dumber the dumbest ass on the road. He does not know nothing about space travel, specially the fact that there are still lots of unknowns behind the "simplicity" of celestial mechanics. These problems are hard enough to turn a well-planned trajectory into the nightmare of a very fluid situation, specially if there are people inside the crap. Now tell me what commercial venture will risk its head on such things. Or has anyone took off the "Ltd." out of modern business?!
NASA glued stuff? Great! That's exactly what we all do today. We GLUE stuff! We "optimize expenses", cut budgets by the half, mix apples with carrots to sell them in Tetrapacks. Oh! And you don't need to be a government agency for that because EVERYONE does it! That's what we call "Business Processes" without even thinking that there is a first principle voiding everything we do - "No changes/improverment shall stop the work of the current business..." But we are above that! Let Hell freeze over, we make a revolution! We create "the stuff" able to work everywhere for everyone everytime.
The only ooops here is that even before NASA sent people to the Moon, even before USSR sent the Sputnik and the nazis lauched its V-2... There was such stuff! It worked everywhere for everyone everytime. Its name - "snake oil".
Kammler can be linked to every fantastic and most absurd idea on nazi secret projects. However there is a caveat - till now I have never seen his name in any document that can be surely sourced to any atomic project nazis may have had. None, zero, nada, nechego...
The most striking fact that Kammler had nothing to do with nukes is how real nazi nuked scientists tried to survive the last days of the Third Reich. Most interesting was how Heisenberg managed to find food and other essential things for his family - he got help from an old acquaintance working at one of Kammler's key labs! For that, he came to town on a bycicle and the acquaintance was shocked by his shabby looks. So Heisenberg was a lost soul at the end of the war.
Nukes and Kammler, until someone proves the contrary, don't cope. However, this does not mean someone may still find some mega-leftovers of Kammler's Underground Empire. For the sake of what? Well he surely was an early participant of "Amerika Bomber" project, still in a very classical form. He also was the V-2/A-4 boss and there are tons of questions on how deep was his knowledge and participation of such projects like the A-10. He once worked at Luftwaffe and seemed to have been in good relations with Goering, so he could know about such wonders as the Silbervogel. And, at the end he was the last boss of the nazi jet projects (which was the reason why von Braun suddenly stopped at Oberammergau, with this guy breathing at his back). While war demanded some humbleness, it was usual to see many nazi projects exploding into mega-machines. I wouldn't be shocked to see the last of the last of Kammler's projects, the Messerschmidt P.1101, having a megabrother nearby. Or maybe it was just for the P.1101 itself! Once tested, they had to be produced somewhere, in large numbers, in very, very large numbers.
So the huge, nearly empty bunkers. Maybe for one of these bloated conceptions of World Domination. And nukes were just speculation, still without any proof of concept. At the end of the War, nazis still thought that the key to victory was the Very Big, Surely Bad and Really Ugly.
It BOOMS since WWII but that's all it does... It just booms the air with lots of hype. This thing is like the Philosophical Rock of the good Middle Ages. The difference is that, from the early start, someone tries to tell you how hard, heavy and look-alike the rock is.
Which means all these quests are a total failure. For one simple reason - Speed vs. Maneuverability. You can't have both in one basket. Either you sacrifice one for the sake of the other or you get nothing (eeeee, not so straight. You may get something you believe it works but usually it becomes bloody expensive).
Hypersonics are very peculiar on this cost. It's mega-speed, so it means you have near-zero maneuverability. Worse, even miserable deviations to a planned trajectory may be deadly to your mega-cannonball. X-15 and the Shuttle have magnificent examples of such cases, down from the drawing board and up to, somehow, Columbia's tragedy. They all show that hypersonics is not a place to play with fire. Because it's fire all over. Everything burns, even the best alloys and composites we created for this task. And a small deviation of parameters/environment and you are dealling with Sun temperatures in a place you may have not taken into account. In such cases, the result can be nothing but catastrophic.
This does not mean there is nothing to do in hypersonics. Well, nuclear heads and space systems fly on it! So there is something to do there. Maybe even a hypersonic rocket could have a role, if we count all caveats of the field. However, most hypersonic research is linked to the idea of creating a "TOP GUN" system, with Buck Rogers at the helm and even less brainy politicians and generals feeding the whole thing with mega-budgets and napoleonic dreams on World Peace.
To end, let me note that this whole story has a historical scent of sinister. The first idea of an hypersonic mega-weapon was first studied in The Third Reich! Its name - Silbervogel. It was a madness like many things nazis did then but it is not just a crazy idea "floating in the air". In fact, the nazis tried some follow-ups and one of those was pushed by von Braun's boss - general Walter Dornberger. Later, after getting a solid feet in the US, Dornberger will lobby several times for hypersonic mega-weapons. In the end he became the father, forefather and grandfather of the BOMI, X-15, X-20 Dyna-Soar and Space Shuttle.
Really, what Senator Hatch should do first is to take care of its own pirates like McColo, InterCage and alikes, who cost billions of dollars for millions of people all around the world. American Pirates who specially care to attack hundreds of thousands of russian sites stealing resources AND traffic with specialized trojans, semi-automatic robots and unique viruses.
Maybe russian taxpayers don't have billions of dolars to show Senator Hatch the cost of what american pirates do here. But I am pretty sure that many american citizens still can endure tens of billions of dolars, which does not happen to many russian citizens. Because for many of them, the cost of a high-tech McColo attack runs frequently from 1/3 to 5 times their monthly salaries. There are small companies here that went burned from something that originated in USA. Yes, playing absolute numbers is SOOOOOO COOOL. Watch the effects first, before crying wolf.
So many thanks for Senator Hatch to refer Canada, China and Russia as being in the top of US's Piracy watch-list. For us, it is YOU who are in the top!
In your world of "opportunity for everyone" maybe. In the real world shit happens in such way that it may be practically impossible to get a solution. If the whole economy goes through the tubes, how can you guarantee yourself survival? If you didn't have had this chance, you are pretty lucky, I had to pass by the downfall of USSR. It was a TREMENDOUS experience. And not the first and last one. I just refer it because it was a situation where, chances to find work were pretty grim.
Now, guys like the one I described, don't have the experience of running through wars and major crisis. They are good guys, who hope to have a life without serious bumps. This bump going now is pretty bad for such people and don't tell me a anything about opportunities. You didn't even think on what market, country, region or field I or this guy are in. So, drop a bit your shell, be it "conservative" or "liberal", and think for a little that the world is not everywhere the same.
And one note: You claim sysadmins have no excuse for considerable savings. That's consumerism, pal. That's management going nuts, not knowing what they are spending on. Not personally nor at company level. If you don't know how to manage your OWN money, how will you manage the company's money?
I don't get just a salary, I manage budgets and personnel. If I would hear someone claiming such thing as you did here, I wouldn't even take the effort to see his CV. And don't tell me about that "IT ain't cheap". Yes I know it is not cheap. But it shall be rational. Specially, when you have companies burning millions of dollars of debt and you are one of the guys tasked to kick off these companies out of the hole they are in. So when I say - I will not look at such CV, I am pretty sure of what I am talking about.
Unfortunately, I know the reality. Yes, you are among the majority.
You know how many sysadmin CVs I refused to look at? It is not "opportunities". It's a very grim picture that makes me feel horrible.
Microsoft - Windows is the "gloat of the bloat and bloat of the gloat"
User - What is this moat of the goat or...
Microsoft - It is a complex of programs to feel a unique experience on digital information.
User - Can I put something into your?..
Microsoft - No way. Verbotten! It's pure proprietary, closed source, use it or drop it.
Now laws are being broken here. And it's not a question wether this works on PCs or not. It is clear black on white.
Now if...
Microsoft - Windows is an Operating System!
User - Can I put my program?
Microsoft - Eh, uh... No. Use ours or drop dead.
That IS a violation of law. More it is an antitrust violation because in the OS market you have a privileged position and you are misleading everyone AND using that "mislead" to kick out the alternatives.
The antitrust law goes as far as you claim your rights in a specific market. Does DoJ drops the rope on Sony for the software they have on the playstations? And is MS breaking any laws for blocking every other system on their Xboxes? Is anyone going after them for that?
MS claims that Windows has a certain universality under a very specific thing - the Operating System. Read carefully what I wrote. I know I'm pretty freak in english but the text is quite understandable.
Yes, MS is a legal construct. But, while they have to follow the law, they have inherent rights - they are copyright holders. I am not saying that "today" they may scrap Windows or change the EULA. If they did this, probably they would have some pretty bad time with DoJ. However, they can change it "tomorrow". And they can change it ways that no antitrust will go after them. IMHO, if they stop claiming the OS definition for Windows, it will be pretty hard to get them.
But while they claim Windows is an OS or carries certain properties that they really don't make available, they will have to spend a lot of time in the courts. Because, that is where the law is being broken.
Impossible. How do you figure out the budget if people talk only abstractively?
I had a few bad episodes during my lifetime with such abstractions. It doesn't work, what it doesn't work? Eeeeee it doesn't work. Ok, now what do you think or how do you think it should work. Well the computer shall "give me"/"think about"/"show me"...
And you realize that they don't even know how to use a computer.
Now think. Abstractions+"No real tasks"+"Calculate the Budget".
Under this crisis, it will take an Eternity to calculate a budget...
I just remembered an episode that occurred not so long ago.
This comes from third persons but I know the guy who was trying to get the job. An average sysadmin but systematic and hardworking.
When he was about to be layed off, people tried to find him a job on a business partner. The partner was having some pretty bad time with its networks. They are highly critical and shall run non-stop (something related to medicine btw). Now, lately, for several times the servers went down. There was even a hangup that lasted nearly half a day, a catasthrophe in their way of working. Things were so bad that, for some time, it was the company where this guy was working that was supporting their servers.
They naturally "offered" to their partner this guy. The partner refused. The guy went to the street. The problems kept creeping on.
Now, on that company, they were keeping four jerks. They didn't create these servers, they didn't support them and they even didn't know what was running there. Their job? "System Administrator".
I ain't talking about a little company. And this case is not the craziest I have been told of. But that what is happening. Good and average specialists are being sent to the streets while companies burn down departments or keep God knows who doing administration.
So, during this crisis, high-tech geeky homeless and unemployed is pretty natural to occur. More, with management going nuts in some companies, there is a good chance that some of the top experts find themselves on the street.
Why? Because someone offers you a job with absolutely no sense?
I am a infosec expert. So threat shall be something that you can measure. Objectively or subjectively, it doesn't matter. You either consider than under the threat of a breakin - "someone may steal information" or "we can loose a value of 100 million dollars". There is nothing weird on this, right?
Tell me, if someone comes to you and speaks about "threats", just the word "threats". And he keeps on and on with "threats", adding "hackers" or "spies" for a bit of salt. Will you take that job he is offering you? More, if you, as a professional, try to figure out what kind of threats and risks may exist, and this guy can only answer something about the fears going on inside the company? Fears, not dollars, or data inside some server.
Oh, you may think that he didn't want to give some confidential info. The BAD part of the story is that I once worked for them. And every time I tried to push the talk into what I knew they had, the guy was going somewhere else.
Yes, it is schizo season. I had three such proposals. The other two less crazy but also demanded a diagnosis.
Hmmm and you probably know what is being homeless.
I have been homeless btw. Many years ago in a pretty harsh time.
Frankly, you may consider me an idiot. It's your pure and absolute right. But wishing me to be homeless.
Hope you don't become anonymous if you get some pretty bad time on your life. I know many anonymous. Too much of them. Lived two years under war. It's enough to see thousands of anonymous.
And for the guy who "insightfulled" this. Your insight doesn't go much farther than the corner of your house. Go and see the world. Not everyone has a house to sleep in.
Yes, right now it is real hard to find a job. And not just because there are no jobs. Things are even more harsh than just "a job".
When I went down through the tube, I had several proposals being offered. Yes, I don't have too much trouble to find a job, besides, I only once, in my whole life, was searching for a job only on myself.
But what I found this time was... Dali's Universe? Things were so surrealistic that I even closed my communication with very closed friends. Because it was nearly impossible to make a rational, weightened comment on what was coming in. It was something. I cannot even name it "crazy".
For example, someone offers you a new job. Ok, let's see what we need to do. Nothing? Stop, pal, you are offering me a job. What tasks are to be done there? Some wicked picture on security "the aliens are coming!" in the middle of the myst?! Hey, call Spielberg, not me.
Yes I could accept such a job. And playing Spielberg for a while may be funny. But sincerly, I am of the kind of "task or no task". Usually we all fall in abstractions, second thoughts and sillynesses every time you come into a new job. But this time, several proposals and all them... I don't know. Maybe aliens are really coming in?
Well, I had some money on my backpocket. Made my calculations. Hmmm I can live for some time on myself only. Cool, all comms over and out, turn off all systems and deserve the holidays you didn't have for five years. Byeeee.
This crisis is funny. Really. Because, on one side, it is not so bad as it could be. On the other side, people fried their nerves so well, that it is impossible to have something workable out of the barbecue of their thinking.
Anyway, there are lots of people who are not so lucky as me. Sincerly, I have several cases of friends and ex-subordinates who are passing some pretty bad time now. Anyway, their stories are even more horrid than my. They were searching for a job, so they meet more whackos than me.
I'm self-unemployed after a real hard season of playing Blade Runner for a year. I don't have too much money to spend but...
I have a 24 hour permanent link to Internet
I can load tens of Gigabytes per month.
Have several different channels to reach Internet, from wherever I am, in several possible means.
And have a miriad of places to go for info and communication.
At home I have also three different ways to reach Internet from several systems around the house. I can freely move with a Internet link
And all this usually costs me some. Let's see... Some 40 dollars per month? Uh!
And to think I paid a 100 dollars for some piece of junky channel just four years ago. Hey and I could load only 2 Gigs! I was robbed!
It's a great world.
Ok, let's put one thing straight:
Microsoft has the full right to do what it wants with Windows.
If the wants to forbid anyone else to bundle, it can do it. If it wants to scrap it into the trashcan, be it.
What Microsoft has no right to do is to claim what Windows is not. They claim it is an Operating System. Cool, I have my little-pretty program here, I want to run it on Windows. No way? Then don't tell me you are selling an operating system. Call it whatever you want - a all-bundled system, an application complex, the bloat of the gloat or the gloat of the bloat...
But "Operating System" is something with a clear definition, with a definite purposefulness and for which Microsoft has no patents, trademarks or special privileges. Stop using it, stop using the OS definitions to describe Windows and be happy. Like Sony and other companies.
However Microsoft does no do it. Why?
Because it is afraid of loosing potential market?
It fears that someone may come with some new bright idea and they will not be able to surrepteously bundle it?
Because this may create independent systems upon which Microsoft will not have a hand on?
Because it will be much harder to asfixiate a concurrent?
And for how long such opportunism will continue? Until all creativism is crushed and the land barren?
"Fascists were not doing anything wrong in the 30's and they are not doing anything wrong now. Yes Fascism sucks and is completely totalitarian, but their aim for the good will of the Nation, without needless democracy is _NOT_ evil or even slightly unpleasant."
Sorry, pal, but I've been so messed on politics that your argumentation just flashed like a mirror on my memories. I pushed up, a little bit, the arguments, but sincerly, it is almost the same wordings.
Have you forget the findings made by DoJ in the 90's?
> "I don't see noise directed against Apple or Linux or BSD, likely because they are {not monopolies | high enough in market share | something else that I can't grok}."
Why you want to see them? Apple is really a monopolistic granitic stubborn deadhead, but which has enough links to Open Source and independent developers to be out of oversight.
Linux? There are no problems here... Where you see a problem? There are tons of projects of every size, form, taste and possible genetic mutation. Even the word "pet" is hard to be used here. Yes, "Welcome to the Jungle". I'm quite happy on it, btw. 11 years on the row.
BSD? There are NO problems there. Absolutely NOT a SINGLE problem. They are not the Jungle. They are The Primordial Matter.
All problems are with one company that clearly and undoubtfully tried to kick every one out of its Empire. And I am not making up things. There are the DoJ and Eurocommission investigations for everyone to see.
Besides, problem is not pet projects. It's hypocrisy to compare OSes to Congressional Pork. Pork is bad because it's budget, real taxpayer money being eaten. However, an OS is something that is supposed to support a miryad of different programs, not matter their purpose, intention and necessity.
If it an OS does not do such a thing, then it is not an OS. It's a gamepad like Gamboy or Playstation. If Microsoft wants to produce gamepads, it shall stop claiming Windows is an Operating System.
Sorry but reminding of Milton Friedman on these days, it would be the same as advocating for Monarchy right after the American Revolution...
Yes, you may bash me that I am remarking that freedoms may be not so free. And you may keep yourself on Milton Friedman, while the Economy slumps under his theories.
But I do prefer a chance to have some other new and real freedoms tomorrow. And not being fed by the abstract, scholastic and spooky "Free to Choose" under the absolute totalitarian rule of Microsoft. Even if that means some lack of universal pluralism today.
Great discussion going on! Some good remarks, some so-so.
Let me note one thing to everyone. This is mostly a reflection on History and how it can apply to what we have here.
Ancient Greeks had the knowledge of the steam machine. Yes, we can say that they played with it as a toy and so on... But the problem is that they had not only the steam machine! They had all the basics to build machines, besides they were pretty advanced on using them as we know now. Not so long ago a very complicated machine was found that amazingly modelled the solar system. They were toys, but pretty elaborated toys.
Now we perfectly know that steam machines came up into life only in the XVII century. More, all the machinery stuff was mostly reinvented! We didn't know Greeks went that far until recent time.
Why?
Some people say that they, and Romans afterward, stuck to their "way of things" - slaves do the work, why we shall do something serious out of these machines? Why we need to substitute them for something... Better? Or worser? Or just different?
Now, they kept their society. Where is that society now, we perfectly know.
Is no one afraid, that sticking into the "way of things", we will just build our own doom? Yes, I know that it is hard to see the Future and probably no one of us will see the Avenge of Linux. Most probably there will never be such an avenge but someone will reinvent Linux on its basics. But, sincerly, I would prefer that even the basis for such things will never come into life! Because, if this happens, that will mean that we have choosen the most stupid historical path - no-way street.
Now I leave two questions for everyone here -
On trying to make a wholescale standard on Linux, aren't we burning bridges?
What do you prefer - an imperfect world and a future of Chance, or a perfect system and one-way to nowhere?
That's a pure twisted view of reality. First, the *nix environment was never supposed to go PC. Besides, the forkings were a pure necessity as you were dealing with systems for specific tasks. It was a hardware/software symbiosis and not selling computers to every freak on the street.
Windows came into force not because it was the attractive place to develop but the only one. IBM made a pretty good mess out of its OS/2 to be something workable for the lay user (not without the help of M$ btw).
Linux rose up in the end of the 90's, when Windows had the total and absolute monopoly on everything PC. So, in fact Windows IS loosing its position, not winning it. Yes, it lost 1%. But lost it and Linux is still here.
About binary compatibility... That's pretty heavy one. Frankly, have you ever used Linux in a working basis? I haven't had no binary compatibilities for years and I am a Linux user since 1998 (and admin since 1994). What compatibility are you talking about?
Really I don't use Windows anymore, except for some pretty rare games I play once in a while. But just an year ago I had to deal with a horrible mess on a Windows server. I was pretty amazed to see the same problems, the very old same way, as I saw several years ago - upgrade and we go boom.
I don't know, maybe Microsoft finally solved this 20-year old problem for the last year I have not been touching Windows? Really? I doubt.
The worst will be to excel on one and not be able to say a word on the other eight.
And even worser is not to be able to understand anything else, but only the excellence of the grammar in the language you believe to understand. Usually those who excel are even uncapable to understand dialects. You know how pretty is Jamaican English? Several years ago I could easily understand it. But, many english speakers don't make an idea of what Jamaicans say. Quite sad.
You living on Earth, not in Nutziland.
Sincerly, it seems I have been in a time machine for all these years. ./'tter. Some 8-9 years ago. We had lots of FUD, Flood and Flame around here.
Quite long ago I was an active
And you know what is the most strinkgly thing I see now. Entered time machine. BRRRRRRR. Zero... I'm exactly in the same place at the very same time I left.
Back then, there were already tons of people claiming the Hell and the Tartarus for the way Linux is built. Well, apart of remarking that Linux is JUST a kernel, let me mention a few things. Just as 9 years ago.
1. GTK, KDE and alikes are probably not ideal code. But they are two standards well fixed and working on Linux environment. Don't like them, push for YOUR standard. Don't like anything at all, gather your team and MAKE your standard. I AM a KDE fan, I LIKE KDE and have been using it since it was a raw alpha stuff. Now my friends at one work, where I was the all-power BOfH LOVED GTK/Gnome and could not see KDE by 2 thousand miles. And that's what is GREAT on Linux - there is a CHOICE!
2. I use KDE on most of my desktops. But on my Eee PC I use Enlightenment as it is much more economic and has all the resources I need there. I have also a Zaurus (Linux, of course) and a server without graphical BLOAT on it. I also have a router with Linux on it. Now., are you telling me that all this hardware will work perfectly under a "standard"? Aren't you telling me that if I will have ONE desktop, then every dumb programmer will demand that the graphic system shall be EVERYWHERE? Look, I know what programmers are and how many of them think, specially the IDE crowd. If this thing goes this way, I am pretty sure that we end in a all-embedded, full-featured, completely geekish MONOLITH. And then, problems will not be only compatibility. It will be price... And probably my Zaurus will have a few kilos more... Besides, what will be the difference from Windows?
3. Frankly, only a dodo doesn't know that problems exist on the development of many libraries. But, what is a community for? People this stuff works and it will work while there is a community. It is not just a question of volunteerism but self-discipline. While I have been pretty inactive for these last years, still, when something was real wrong, I would knock the bugtrackers and developers. And without this, there is NO Linux. There is a product. Want to use it? Great, consume it. But then, don't blame for the bloat, monolitics and managers believing they are masters of the Universe. If you want to turn Linux systems into pure consumer products, you will have to be bound into what the seller thinks is best for you, not the contrary. You have only two choices - you either accept it or not. Considering what happened in the past, with IBM, Apple and Microsoft, I believe that such environment on Linux will be pretty damaging. And, frankly, it makes me wonder why the whinning is coming from Google.
People, don't give your freedoms. I know it is quite spicy for me to say this, I am in no way an american patriot, but the America's Founding Fathers had some true words about "giving up Freedom".
On which of the languages I know?
Sorry, but sincerly, it is pretty hard to remember the grammar of some 9 languages I know. And I am not taking into account programming.
More. It is pain to take into account the grammar of each language, if you are reading almost simoultaneously three or four languages.
Yes, it's a handicap I cannot stick into a specific grammar. But I can read on several languages and write, in a possible comprehensible manner, on them.
Now I know several jerks who are too sticked to grammar, make a whole fuss out of it and are only able to create a complete nonsense out of a text. If I note that I had these cases on juridical documents, which decided will someone go to the gallows or not... I do prefer my horrible grammar.
ModDown offtopic but I get pretty mad when people try to teach grammar not by the error but by playing smarties.