oops, kind of read that too fast. But if we do ban driver use, then the car cannot be used. If it is not used, then no crashes can occur. OK a silly remark but I'm sure there are some considering this a serious proposal (i.e. self driving cars).

this is the United States, you'd think we'd have great broadband like they have in places like Bulgaria. Maybe I'm getting factious/bitchy but Cringely wrote an article on how Silicon Valley went from the fastest to the slowest in high-speed internet (cannot find link to article right now).

and maybe also give SpaceX a boost.

Excellent description between the two. I would have posted the same. Customers are those you want to please and that is incentive to provide good products/services. Consumers are those you want them to consume regardless.

It's a matter of priorities. Right now only people that want to go to the moon are enthusiasts but they make up a very small portion of the population and almost all lack money and political power. Look at politicos, they are all lawyers and business, the kind of people that would become very bored about discussing technology. If you argue potential to mine the moon for resources that may get their attention. But you better have a very good compelling business plan along with a excellent "elevator speech" that can be delivered in 30 seconds or less.

PBS program last week about struggles of black people from 1960s through today. Near end of program it was mentioned about maybe reason why so many blacks are still living in poverty (inner cities) is because racism has been institutionalized. Also for many white people they don't see blacks except on TV where typically they are seen as sports stars, entertainers, or getting dragged off to jail. There is the President but lately his popularity is not that high. Couple months ago Charlie Bolden, NASA Administrator, said he has experienced walking into a convention (where he is the only black guy) everyone looks at him like he is out of place (or is he one of the waiters?). When someone recognizes and points out he is the NASA Administrator (and former astronaut and Marine general), at an instant he becomes the most brilliant person in the room. (ok, there are many saying Bolden is not effective NASA Administrator but that's another topic for another discussion. Besides there have been white guys that were ineffective administrators).

It seems to me society should encourage math and science but lots of luck as this country is mesmerized by football. Or put resources into inner city schools will be a good start but unfortunately people will cry foul ("that's socialism!") or say we can't afford it (well we sure found plenty of money to pour into Afghanistan and Iraq). But perhaps ask those at these engineering societies, http://www.nsbe.org/ and http://www.ncalifblackengineer... for their suggestions on what they would present at HP.

I'm old enough to remember when The Day After was shown, it was scary. Of course there are some flaws/mistakes but climate at the time was quite heated. Reagan was very aggressive at building up military plus calling them the Evil Empire. I think what the film did get right, and still valid today, is if such war breaks out, it will because a few people in Washington DC and Moscow will decide to go to war. Us commoners have no say in the matter and there really isn't any place to seek refuge.

but how to grow your own food? That's a big one if industrial civilization were to collapse. Food from comes from farms, not supermarkets. And you'd be surprised how many people don't know that.

Now I want to know what components and parts were selected to make it last so long. Especially in terms of robotics having to deal with virtual vacuum (cannot use typical lubricants), dust and dirt didn't stop its gears (was it lunar dust that caused Chinese lunar rover to fail early in mission?). I think this needs continual funding with requirement of "alrighty how many more years will it last until it really bites the dust?"

I remember back in 20th century when F-35 was CALF, Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter, as many planners saw F22 becoming so expensive that not even the Pentagon could afford no more that 100 or so.

Some years ago an article mentioned Scott McNealy noticed amount of data being sent back and forth, and also amount of time people spending on preparing PPT. So he banned Powerpoint and there was noticeable increase in productivity, people actually doing stuff instead of futzing with PPT slides (though I also heard there was zero MS products on desktop computers at Sun so not sure how PPT was originally in place). For me when I do PPT, I typically do it in MS Word with pages in landscape orientation, then save it as PDF. When I gotta do PPT, I try to keep minimal cutesy graphics.

But maybe the whole concept of PPT type slides including old school viewgraphs and charts leads to people making bullet lists that contain contradictions. Like what Feynman pointed out of a slide NASA used for describing Shuttle ops and priorities and he marked two sentences that contradict each other, which was a contributing factor of leading to dangerous situations. I can't remember the details but it was one of those "yeow, we actually made that mistake?!?" moments.

yes, I never upgrade unless I'm forced to do so. But instead of upgrading I get a new computer. For me upgrades is same as tons-of-time-spent-on-computer-doing-crippy-crappy-time-wasting-chores-and-in-the-end-it-ain't-gonna-work-anyways.

from a elementary school teacher in 1990s:

Because it's hard and we have to learn hard things at school. We learn easy stuff at home like manners.
Corrine, Grade K

Because it always comes after reading.
Roger, Grade 1

Because all the calculators might run out of batteries or something.
Thomas, Grade 1

Because it's important. It's a law from President Clinton and it says so in the Bible on the first page.
Jolene, Grade 2

Because you can drown if you don't.
Amy Beth, Grade K

Because what would you do with your check from work when you grow up?
Brad, Grade 1

Because you have to count if you want to be an astronaut. Like 3... 2... 1... blast off!
Michael, Grade 1

Because you could never find the right page.
Maryanne, Grade 1

Because when you grow up, you couldn't tell if you are rich or not.
Raji, Grade 2

Because my teacher could get sued if we don't. That's what she said. Any subject we don't know--wham! She gets sued. And she's already poor.
Corky, Grade 3

that's what teachers call "timed tests." Very popular because easy to prepare, conduct, and grade. But getting into stuff like the number line, proportions, ratios, rates of change, etc. it becomes abstract. However, I wish I was given the number line and also do graphs in elementary school instead of waiting for college. I mean a number line that shows negative numbers. No need to get into complex graphs but can do stuff like plot quantities of stuff compared to other things.

you do realize everyone under 40 has no idea what this means.