Yeah, but like alot of things tha t aren't hard, they are hard to people completely new to it with none of the common knowledge people who do these things have about it.

When I first realized I didn't know how to steer on snow, luckily everyone around me did know how, and no accidents occurred when I went spinning down the freeway. In Atlanta, I've been told, most people aren't experienced with snow driving, one person losing control starts a chain reaction of people suddenly realizing they can't control their vehicles.

Whoah hoah, rich guy! Your welcome to save up whatever amounts you want, but the question really is: if you had what you currently consider to be plenty of money (in your case 5m), would you still be working, or would you put that in your newly created 'jet fund' and continue slaving away?

$1mil invested to grow at 5% per year would give me (and most of the US population) more than my after tax and 401k subtracted salary. I would retire immediately unless you can find me something more fun than drinking margaritas on the beach, which in my case would not be cleaning toilets.

And for people who aren't dead?

I.e. can I get this to replace my long distance X-girlfriend? Or would it also decide I'm getting too creepy and we need to break up?

I can't be the only slashdotter that wants it for this purpose.

No we don't. The longest battleship I know of is 333m long and the worlds longest ship is only 460m long [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world%27s_longest_ships]. These are exceptional, we don't build even these short things these all the time. You are looking for a 500m radius, which means we need something twice that long to make 2 little habitable zones on either end.

Hunks of space debris traveling at relativistic speeds may need to be accounted for. Also radiation shielding is not just for humans, it screws up all your electronics too. Plus there are other design You do need to make this proposed space ship pretty durable as well. Also consider that aircraft carriers need regular servicing, so put that in your budget too.
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We built the worlds longest craft ever and armored it for space; let's launch it:

A fully loaded space shuttle is something like 200,000lbs and the launch weight (e.i. fuel + breakaway boosters) is something like 4,500,000lbs, over twenty times the weight of the craft. Launching the shuttle costs about $450,000,000 per mission [http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttle_faq.html#10]

The seawise giant (1/2 the length we need) with no cargo is 183,408,960lbs. And assuming I we can magically scale our shuttle-scale launch gear up to that size at no additional cost (we'd probably launch the pieces and asseble it in space, though we don't have the tech to do so yet).: its launch weight will be 4,126,701,600lbs and cost $412,670,160,000 to launch. 400billion, which is actually doable, but that is just for the launch assuming everything goes perfectly and we already have all the equipment sitting around.
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So, yes its technically possible and earth could use fewer religious zealots hating science, but this is alot of work to prevent astronauts from getting dizzy on landing.

That is an important fact, but in this case, the lesson is: don't do business with companies that can't deal with social engineering.

The hacker didn't have to guess his passwords and it looks like he didn't even try. The hacker just social engineered paypal and then godaddy to hand over control.

Well, yes, but this has been going on for centuries: We have been automating areas in the work force that means less people employed doing brain numbingly boring tasks over and over and over again. Even Baxter will need human supervisors and teachers, so he it will automate away a few more jobs, but we still haven't gotten to the point where robots run the factories autonomously. The recent economic slumps have not been from technological progress either.

As a geek, wanna-be maker, I've been trying to think how to automate all of my friends out of jobs, and all of them are secure for the time being. I haven't even designed something to effectively dust my house, and I still need to vacuum and mop even after my Roomba goes over the floor a couple times.

One day I hope we have to make the decisions you are worrying about, and get to the Star Trek, "Money? Whats that?" Era, and capitalism can go die in fire while we eat robot-peeled grapes on our robot wheeled chaise lounges in our robot tended gardens, but we aren't close yet. We are getting closer though; for example, we have retirement, complete with government stipend. which was non-existent in the working classes a century ago.

Though it must also be pointed out that other primates have mouths that stick out while human's have theirs set back below their noses, and therefore humans need something to stick out in order to suck on it. Of course, breasts are way to big for that to be the sole driving factor in their development, and I would blame sexual signalling for getting them to the size that they are.

Well, your right; most of the population will settle for nothing less than little green men with anal probes, flying saucers and prescient, liberal advice for our species (Venusians would be all about the greenhouse effect).

I for one, would be fascinated to find Venus teaming with wacky crystal structures that display just the right amount of entropic dissipation to give physicists hardons.

Unless someone can prove how intelligent life arises inevitably (and given Earth's long history without anything most of us would find intelligent) I suspect we'll never find anything worth communicating with, which I think is what I think most layman actually mean when they say "life."

I think your trying to be sarcastic, but I'm really liking your ideas here.

Well, you asked:

1) The people scared by this stuff live in a world where God and Satan are omniscient, they pay especial attention to your words and thoughts. So talking about, thinking about, or having art about demons is like saying, "Voldemort." Also remember that all pagan dieties (all good gods in D&D) are masks of Satan just might answer to his name. Better just not to do it, and especially important not to let your kids do it, who might not know what to do when Satan literally shows up to answer some innocent statement a kid said.

2) Many religious rituals, involve talking to spirits who aren't there or re-enacting old events. Christianity talks to God & Jesus, occasionally angels and in most faiths no one pretends to be them, but in pagan (remember to these people this means satanist) religions rituals are almost indistinguishable from live action RPG games. I'd say it's coincidence, but you also have to remember that to a very religious there is no such thing; there are forces of God and forces of the Devil and God only commissioned one book.

3) Violence. Even in the modern, I thought we were done with this kind of BS, age, DnD got blamed for either instilling or showing the violence in the Columbine shooters, and had even my otherwise very progressive mother was a little worried about this aspect.

Of course, the fear mongers go waaay farther than the points I made above into ludicrous territory. "What is the difference between saying 'I cast a fireball' and learning real magic?" Or just completely making up satanist bullshit instead of actuallt looking into what the games are actually about.

Since this is probably the only post I'll make in this thread, let me throw in this real anecdote from my court interpreter stepmom: A prosecutor is telling the court how the defendant has a propensity for violence which you can see because he likes DnD, like the Columbine shooters, and continues to describe the horrible violence in this game. The judge shushes the prosecutor and announces "I know quite a bit about this game, I'm a fifth level elven mage in my gamer group."

BitCoin? There's a whole channel for that linked right from the home page:

http://trove.com/me/channels/1...

Oh no, they'll go read all the junk emails I'm probably getting at Junk123@google.com! And then they'll know every free software website that has username:Junk123 password:Websight123 Then they'll be able to download all the free trial software they want without having to make a new account! The horror!

That's cool, just thought I'd point out some reasons others are still using theaters:

First, either the movie theater in your area is way overpriced or you get components for your home theater really cheap. I don't think I could beat even the fancy theater price for the discount theater experience.

Second, though these points might be lost on slashdotters, often you are either: out with friends, some of whom your not ready (or never will) let run amuck about your house, or in my younger days, you're out on a date and you don't think she's ready to come back to your place for a romantic movie (wink, wink). Or even through my college days, my parents would be home in both of the above cases.

Third, not everyone wants a home theater in their house. I move house quite a bit, and usually end up watching movies while on travel, anyway. I also have a girlfriend who doesn't tolerate anything reminiscent of television around the house.

And of course, if you want to watch new releases without pirating them (let's pretend we do) then you'll have to see them in theater.

Holy-moly, that's alot more reasons than I planned to write; and those are only mine...I guess movie theaters will be sticking around for some time to come. Live theater would be preferable to many in the above points, but I don't think there are any adult troupes left in my area.

You assume everyone has a secure car to put things in.

Some times you don't, because you took a bus, you ride a bike (motorized ones too) or the theater is halfway between your house and work, so you happen to have a bag with a laptop in while you decide to stop in. This is a common thing to do, and it doesn't mean your going to be trying to do work while the movie is playing.

Have you ever tried to change Google-Chrome anything?

I've got a CS degree and 5years development experience with a variety of poorly designed 4th-gen tools and figuring out how to do anything not listed in that minimalist menu is still beyond me.

The majority of users are equally as capable at changing google-chrome's settings: they type into the search bar: "google chrome " follow whatever directions get returned.

Though you have to check how recent those instructions are, it seems every couple days the Google's menus rearrange themselves.