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Comment Re:Why are we wasting money on this? (Score 5, Insightful) 109

This is where you're completely wrong. Having a network infrastructure that extends outside of our planet (an extranet if I ever heard one!) is a requirement for being able to do things like set up bases and control robotic devices remotely. What we're doing is setting the groundwork for more than one user or group to both control and receive the telemetry from whatever mechanized device we send outside of our own atmosphere! This is huge!

Consider this: We send a basic construction rover and a 3D printer to Mars. Both are controlled by DTN/BP. We can send the 3D printer blueprints for parts and assembly instructions to the construction rover. That would allow us to build up an infrastructure before we even get there and monitor it by adding parts on an as-needed basis. It would allow us to do so cheaper as well, as things can be sent in smaller chunks, and some of it could be manufactured on the fly on site. Doing this using any of the older protocols or even proprietary mechanisms could make things much more complicated, especially if you decide to handover control or add members to a project you've already started.

Comment Price fixing... (Score 3, Interesting) 507

There should be an investigation for price manipulation for that. They sue people for "copying" music for several hundred times the digital price, yet they pull dick moves like this and expect people to just ignore it as a normal matter of business. If there was going to be a run on resources, like in the production of CDs, I could see increasing the price to help open up a new line or two to produce more to compensate, but its digital. There's ONE master. They produce NOTHING, just data. Outside of bandwidth considerations, there's no significant additional cost to them over what's already being used.

Comment Re:Curiousity. (Score 2) 65

There's a difference between an optical lens, which this is supposed to be, and an electronic lens like what you can find in specialized microscopes. Quoting from Wikipedia:
"An electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a particle beam of electrons to illuminate the specimen and produce a magnified image. Electron microscopes (EM) have a greater resolving power than a light-powered optical microscope, because electrons have wavelengths about 100,000 times shorter than visible light (photons), and can achieve better than 50 pm resolution[1] and magnifications of up to about 10,000,000x, whereas ordinary, non-confocal light microscopes are limited by diffraction to about 200 nm resolution and useful magnifications below 2000x."

Comment Light spectrum beneath 400nm? (Score 2) 65

Wait wait wait... How are you able to get "visible wavelengths" from something that would only be the size of something deep in the Ultraviolet range on the electromagnetic spectrum?

Serious question here, as I'd like to know if this means they're looking at quarterwave light or what...

Comment Re:Hate meets hate? (Score 0) 744

Is it REALLY still free speech if your oppressing others in the process of making it? There has to be a line upon which your rights can't trump the rights of another. That's the problem here, WBC has been exploiting this loophole in the U.S. Constitution by saying that their rights under free speech should trump the family's right to free speech by holding a funeral in the manner they wish.

Wait, how is the funeral free speech? How's the protest free speech. They can speak their mind from a video 100 miles away, they don't have to be at the doorstep of the people that are already suffering the loss of a relative. This flaw needs to be fixed.

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