"The problem is that if you're driving an unsafe vehicle on public roads, you're not just putting your own life at risk, but that of other drivers (and pedestrians) as well. You might be willing to take the risk of not having Electronic Stability Control and anti-lock braking, but why should the other people on the roads have to put up with the unnecessarily increased risk that you'll crash into them?"

You sir are an idiot. An idiot who drives roads with many vehicles which apparently tend to bunch up your pink panties, but you are not clever enough to realize the truth.

Sometimes ABS stops you faster than without. The key word is sometimes.

Not knowing how to drive, like ABS makes people, is unto itself unsafe. Gadgets like ABS makes a good driver less good. Less able to avoid scary crashes in to your minivan or you stumbling into the nearest crosswalk.

Seriously you are an idiot. There are affordable economical automobiles, which do not have stability control, which do not have ABS, and <GASP> have manual transmissions.

You cannot be serious.

Ever heard of heat of formation? Usually it is manifests itself as fire. Check the heat of formation for H and O atoms. It is not a small number.

Since you seem to have skipped or failed HS chemistry I will share this. At room temperatures Hydrogen and Oxygen molecules do not spontaneously form water.

Ever consider condensation from the water vapor in the atmosphere? Like what is inside HDD? It happens.

"The problem with leaking hydrogen inside a computer case when it mixes with oxygen and forms water vapor. Condensation inside a computer would not be pleasant"

Wow. Lots of non-techies reading /., but not reading about how things work.

FYI, standard spinning hard drives fail at altitude. Meaning mountain climbing in places like the Himalayas are a great place to fail a spinning HDD due to lack of what? Atmospheric air pressure!

"If less air resistance is the reasoning for using helium, why not have the drive internals run inside a vacuum? Wouldn't that be less expensive than helium as well?"

Since basically since year one of the hard drive, people learned drives needed an air gap between the head and the platter.

Read "Weld to the platters".

Mr. Bernoulli was on to something. ;)

<quote><p>the heads would crash into the platter.</p></quote>

If you'd do a bit of reading the mystery is gone.

HDD heads require an gas (air) cushion to function properly. Bernoulli principle is what it is called.

<quote><p>I've always wondered why they didn't just use a near vacuum enclosure</p></quote>

<quote><p>The shuttle was neat in a lot of ways but, as the GP said, it was a boondoggle. A re-usable space plane that has to be essentially rebuilt every time isn't worth it. Lots of big dumb rockets would have been a much better investment in space technology.</p>

<quote><p>By the way, without the Shuttle Program, the Hubble Telescope would have died long ago.</p></quote>

<p>Without the Shuttle Program, the Hubble Telescope could have been delivered by a big conventional rocket and the repairs could have been based from a disposable living pod of some kind. With the money saved by not trying to make a shuttle workable and just going with plain rockets, maybe we could have been able to afford three Hubble telescopes.</p></quote>

Bingo!

<quote>

<quote><p>The Shuttle Program, like all of the manned space programs before it, delivered an immense amount of technology development that has advanced our knowledge of materials sciences and engineering in general beyond any level before it.</p></quote>

<p>Sure it did. Can you name an example?</p>

<quote><p>By the way, without the Shuttle Program, the Hubble Telescope would have died long ago.</p></quote>

<p>And they would have been able to afford to launch <b>several</b> replacements for the Hubble in that time. Same goes for the International Space Station, involving the Shuttle drove up the cost a lot.

When I look at what didn't happen because they had an expensive Space Shuttle instead of a space program, I have to say "good riddance" to it.</p></quote>

Thank you!

Frosty Piss says: "By the way, without the Shuttle Program, the Hubble Telescope would have died long ago."

The Hubble telescope sat on the ground for years due to the Shuttle (ahem) explosion. It cost 6 million a month while it while it sat at NASA. Hardly a boost to the concept the shuttle helped the Hubble. It was wholly possible the Hubble telescope was on the first failed shuttle mission. AKA, the Shuttle could have destroyed the beloved Hubble telescope that destroyed a Shuttle in 1986.

1986 was the scheduled year for the Hubble deployment (the Challenger disaster year). It cost 6 million dollars per month for the Hubble to sit on the ground. It cost more than 200 million dollars for the Hubble to sit at NASA from 1986 till 1990. The Shuttle was a boondoggle.

The Hubble, by the way, was wholly designed to be toted to space by the Shuttle. IOW, it would not exist without the Shuttle. Another aside is Sean O'Keefe nixed the final repair of the Hubble telescope, because of what? Another Shuttle was lost. It was almost not repaired for the 5th time. Thank the director following Sean O'Keefe for it. Thank the second Shuttle disaster to what? An unreliable and dangerous delivery system best know as the Space Shuttle. The same reason for the first Shuttle disaster. The Shuttle was a boondoggle.

Science fiction? Clearly you have not done your reading. The Shuttle was to have done far more than it ever delivered. The Shuttle fuel cost to launch was literally astronomical due to its sheer empty mass. It was supposed to deliver, repair, and return satellites to space. How many satellites did it bring to Earth and return? Zero. AKA, the Shuttle was a boondoggle. It was not on budget and it did not deliver what it promised, not even close on either case.

On the whole the shuttle was a boondoggle. It is best that the program is over.

Yeah it had some advantages, but overall it did not deliver what it was promised to deliver. The reasons are many, the reasons have made it to /. many times over the course of the existence of /. (the shuttle predates /. by a year or two ;-) )

If you cannot effectively control something, shut it down. Keep it shut down till you know you can control effectively.

"Stupid is as Stupid does."

"does not provide encryption keys to any government."

Means, "we provide encryption keys to the whim of any government." Guessing this is true.

He is more likable since he was president than when he was president.

Casinos -gun point?
BBQ -kill for JS BBQ? Stay the fuck in TX. Maybe the dude in front of you has some in his passenger seat.
Royals/Chiefs -Jackson County PAYS FOR ALL THE STADIUM UPKEEP. You seem to think it is cool tickets are cheap when the poor in J. County help ticket prices low.
Fountains -cost, electricity, maintenance, water is of little concern as you decided to point out. You'd be more concerned is a single flame on a WWI memorial? There are hundreds of fountains wasting resources on yearly upkeep, on many thousands of kilowatts of electricity pumping water though 208 registered fountains and perhaps a 100 more unregistered ones. Their purpose seems to be so the city of Kansas City can keep a tag line about the city of fountains or comparing it to Rome. Very few KC area fountains are worth a second look.
Boulevard -in 22 states because they have the volume, you gambling dolt. Doug M. fucking runs Boulevard, goddamn.
Drivers -sounds like you are in the right place.
WoF OoF -They drive there because they can. Maybe they also come to the Metro to shop or get an artificially cheap Royal's ticket.

Simple. They have not given enough away yet to attract GF. Read tax abatements. Read up on how KCK became the first choice, why goog was behind on the rollout of the GF service.

To each his own. Lived there for many years, we miss it not.

Music -check
Barbecue -Can get that crap anywhere
Royals / Chiefs -Joke teams for sure. Don't live in Jackson County, AKA Taxation County. They get to pay for the stadium 'improvement' costs, keeping it "fun."
WoF OoF -Are you for real?
Casino's -You must work for the IRS or some other government agency. Huge drain on local businesses, great for the coffers though. :-/
Fountains -Waste of taxpayers dollars. Right to say The only city that has more artistic fountains in it is Rome' wholly makes you sound like an idiot. 5% of them are cool and the rest are either round or square brick and mortar affairs.
Boulevard -They distribute to 22 states. BFD. Doug McDonald is a bore.
Drivers -Plenty of bad ones.