+1

I'm not sure what interaction benefit the 'click to open parent' gives. If you click a link on an already visible post, it may or may not follow the link. Or it might do some silly un-collapsing thing.

Jean Ward has a compilation of historical references of pen computing. If you're interested in a overview of the past ~100 years of pen computing, check it out.

I think it would be interesting to understand why SpaceX has been able to steadily chug along, and compare that with NASA's recent progress. It could be that SpaceX isn't bound to the political restrictions and other nonsense that prevent NASA from being the beacon of light. I have several friends-of-friends who work at SpaceX, and these are absolutely brilliant people. Presumably these same people could have worked at JPL or something, but since they actually want to put their fancy rocket science know-how to use they went to work for SpaceX, since they are producing inspired results. I imagine it would be hard to find anybody working at SpaceX who isn't brilliant and hard-working. There's a finite supply of top-shelf talent in this area, and my guess is they mostly work for Elon Musk. This is a similar formula that put a man on the moon back in the 60s, though the names and incentives were different.

I predict success. They'll put a man and a woman (we're in the future, and this is how the future rolls) on Mars within 20 years. I'm also skeptical of the 10~15 year goal, but it is better to set absurdly aggressive goals that inspire people to talk about it than it is to be conservative and be ignored. They've proven they can do amazing things already.

In case the reference is lost to some of you, here's what the parent is talking about. The pinko usually given credit for popularizing the phrase "military-industrial" complex is none other than the former five-star general in charge of the allied European theater of WW2 and later a Republican President of the United States. You may call him Ike... and he knew something about the military and its supporting industrial base.

Admittedly, the phrase is bandied about really loosely (some may say liberally) so it has unfortunately been diluted by misuse.

I am the electrono-priest. Please, describe your problems. Each time
you are finished talking, type RET twice.

Forgive me father, for I have sinned.

Tell me something about your family.

They aren't talking to me anymore.

Why do you say they are not talking to you anymore?

Just what I said. They don't speak with me.

What makes you believe that?

Empirical evidence?

Maybe your plans have something to do with this.

What plans are you talking about? I didn't mention plans.

I don't understand.

That makes two of us.

Is it because makes two of us that you came to me?

Hey you're the priest. Who should I go to, Steve Jobs?

Earlier you said makes two of us?

You heard correctly.

Is it because of your life that you are going through all this?

Tautologically speaking, I suppose my life is the reason I'm going
through anything at all.

How do you reconcile the people you hang around with?

I pay them. Can we get to the bit about my sins please?

You mentioned that makes two of us?

Father are you brain damaged?

You seem to dwell on your family.

Who is that back there?

I'll ask the questions, if you don't mind!

Ezra is that you? Oh for Christ's sake.

Lets keep it going. My e-peen needs attention.

34 here. My 3rd grade class had some sort of birthday party going, and they had rolled in one of those antique TV sets from the library, and we were watching the launch live. Ever since then my birthday has been a little subdued.

I do think he was absolutely responsible, because he expertly manipulated people to kill for him. I think the Manson case represents an extreme end of the spectrum of a fairly murky and slippery moral dilemma. On the other end you have talking heads and some (erstwhile) politicians that are manipulating people to hate, appealing to people's animal instincts of fear, and that could lead to similarly horrible outcomes. The question is, at what point (if any) is it morally incumbent for us to say "these are things you can't say" because a lunatic will act on the rhetoric?

Charles Manson was convicted of several murders because he incited others to kill. He wasn't physically there when the murders took place, yet he is generally accepted as being the dominant factor in those murders. He was convicted for conspiracy and had joint responsibility for the murders. This is a really fuzzy area, because Manson manipulated people who did the killing but was convicted as though he was the one with the knife. So whatever Manson said to manipulate the Family appears to have crossed the line from protected free speech to an illegal incitement to violence. Fuzzy fuzzy.

I haven't seen anybody explicitly make the Manson connection, but it seems that the vibe is in the air.

I think the GP was talking about home schooled idiots, but it seems you're talking about home schooled intelligent and well-adjusted people. Two totally different things.

I hope they also remove Romeo and Juliet, since they had sex while Juliet was 14, a clear case of kiddie porn.

And don't forget to ban To Kill a Mockingbird due to incest and rape. Also, Dragon with the Girl Tattoo for lots and lots of rape of a young girl.

Or maybe Amazon's decisions to ban books is a function of how much money they make. Dunno.

I would rather be grilled a Inspector Columbo at a security check, than scanned by a machine operated by some doofus.

Sadly, the only people left to do these jobs are doofuses. TSA could be seen as a welfare-ish jobs program in addition to a fear machine.

(Doofi? How would you pluralize that word?)

I was popping in to ask the same question... who uses paypal? I've found it completely unnecessary, hard to use, and has an unreasonably large potential for fraud/theft. Sometimes I buy something online and I have no choice but to intersect with some form of PayPal money laundering. Invariably I decide I don't need that thing so badly and buy elsewhere.

I totally agree. I've basically had it with cell phone voice quality. Sometimes I use Skype and I usually say something like "Hey this sounds just like phones did back in like 1985" and I get all nostalgic for Star Wars, ALF, and (strangely) the Reagan administration.

I went most of this decade using a cell phone, and after my GF got a landline at her new apartment, I decided to get one at mine as well. I found that roughly 30% of the conversation on cell phones is one party asking the other "can you repeat that" due to the miserable fidelity. We both use VOIP landlines, which I can't directly compare with plain copper, but it is a dramatic improvement over cell phones. (Now our conversations are 30% shorter.)