Doesn't mean we let you scam other people out of their money in order to help them reach death sooner.

You have to be a serious sociopath to give that little of a shit about your fellow humans.

The only audacity is the balls it takes to scam stupid, credulous people out of their money. Anyone who cannot see that immediately is a weapons grade idiot.

There is no mission. There never will be from this "organization". This is a scam and nothing more.

Are you seriously that clueless? This is either a scam or some profoundly wishful thinking. Given that it has all the trappings of a scam I'm strongly favoring that hypothesis. This "organization" is doing EXACTLY what I would expect from someone who is trying to bilk the ignorant and credulous out of some money.

Lets see:
1) Desirable goal? Check
2) Vaguely worded by reassuring sounding assurances that it will work? Check
3) No clear funding model but asks for donations? Check
4) Lots of press releases but no technology development? Check
5) No credible management team? Check
6) Claims that defy known physics and claim technological advancements to be unnecessary? Check
7) Claims of interest from well known companies but no actual details? Check
8) Claims that they have "visited" various well known aerospace firms without further details? Check

Seriously if you believe ANY of this Mars-One scam then you are a weapons grade imbecile.

Only if we ignore a whole bunch of well established physics and biology. We're hardly ignorant of the technical problems involved and we know for a fact that we haven't conquered several showstoppers including radiation shielding on the trip there.

I know the idea of going to Mars is pretty awesome but this just reeks of scam. They are claiming they will launch the first people by 2024, a mere 9 years from now. You will note that except for a Donate link there is no mention of funding. They even say "No new technology developments are required to establish a human settlement on Mars", which is demonstrably false.

Why is slashdot giving scammers like this the time of day? This is not a real mission to Mars. This is not even a credible attempt at one. There is no funding, no realistic plan, no details, no technology development, and nothing else that should even give the slightest hint that this is anything more than a scam.

First off, your premise is wrong. Computer science is very much a science, specifically one devoted to the study of information, algorithms, storage and other aspects of information processing. Do not confuse the field of computer science with what most people who have computer science degrees actually do to earn a living which is more fairly described as engineering. The mere fact that much of the field (though not all) is abstract in nature does not in any way mean that it is not a scientific pursuit. By your definition chemical engineering is "an arbitrary paradigm" beyond the chemistry and physics required to build processing plants. If you can apply the scientific method to a problem then you are doing science. The level of abstraction is irrelevant to the discussion.

Second, a programmer absolutely can be an engineer as long as he/she fits the definition of doing engineering work. Engineering is the application of science, technology, economics and other practical knowledge to solving problems. Most programmers are involved in engineering work at some level. While it might be socially pretentious to call some of them engineers, strictly speaking it is technically correct if you do.

Yeah we've all see that but HR usually just parrots what the hiring manager tells them.

The problem with having a generalist skill set is that no one at a large enterprise will know what to do with you. Generally a large enterprise will want someone with deep domain expertise in a narrow field. And that makes sense because they have a specific task and it is comparatively easy to evaluate experience versus ability.

I have the skill set of a generalist. I'm have an engineering degree and a business degree and I'm also a certified accountant. I'm rather competent in a variety of skills though if you look hard enough you can usually find someone marginally better at any one of them if you don't need the other talents I possess. I have worked in diverse industries, everything from manufacturing to health care to auctions to retail. I've consulted, owned several businesses and spent many years doing hard core engineering analytics (statistical stuff mostly) for big manufacturing companies. I'm competent in process engineering, product design, production management, statistics, accounting, finance, HR and some areas of IT. When I apply for jobs I generally have little problem convincing the interviewer that I'm pretty smart but they then usually become concerned that I'm either overqualified OR that I will get bored and leave OR they think that I don't have enough experience in the little niche they are hiring for even though I generally could handle it pretty easily.

Generalist skill sets are usually most valuable in smaller companies which cannot afford to have specialists. That's why I run a small manufacturing company rather than working as a minion in a much larger one.

Not anywhere in the US. Just because you don't have a license doesn't mean you are not an engineer. To be an engineer you have to do engineering work. That's it. Doesn't mean you are a competent one, but you can describe yourself as one. While the term does get used inappropriately sometimes it's perfectly fine to call yourself an engineer if you are applying science to practical problems because that is what engineers do. It also doesn't truly matter if you have an engineering degree or not. Some of the best engineers I know don't have a college degree.

There are jobs you cannot get without a certification like a PE (civil engineers and a few others) because of liability concerns but that doesn't mean the people who lack such licensing (including myself) are not engineers.

Speaking as one of those "other engineers" I can safely say that is complete nonsense. You think engineers in other fields do nothing but solve the same problem over and over using nothing but the same tools? If that were true then there wouldn't be much need for engineers at all. I have a job precisely because I have to continually find new solutions and invent new tools to solve problems. If you seriously think that software engineers are forced to be more inventive than other types of engineers then you very clearly have no idea what other types of engineers actually do.

And of course the police always do what they are told... [/sarcasm]

And yet I assure you it will be interpreted as such.

Which only matters if you have enough money in the first place to see the litigation through and happen to win which is by no means guaranteed.

Agreed.

I disagree that I should have to (potentially) incriminate myself by giving access to data that the police would not otherwise have the ability to access if I were not present.

Nor should they have any rights to my fingerprints except for taking ink copies for comparison should prints be relevant to a criminal investigation.

That doesn't mean they should be able to physically force me to enter the passphrase into the device. They can do that bit of work themselves. Forcing you to enter your fingerprint is a functionally identical process to forcing you to enter a passphrase - the only difference is that one doesn't involve my memory. They can take my keys but I see no reason to insert them in the door for them. They can do that without me - or not.

That is EXACTLY how it will be interpreted by the police until they are told very explicitly that doing so is a no-no. In fact odds are they will keep doing it anyway because the cost of fighting them on it is really steep, well beyond what is reasonable for most people. Justice may be done at the end of the day but that doesn't mean that you won't experience a whole bunch of severe inconvenience and civil rights violations along the way.

Obligatory xkcd.

I haven't. In fact I've never consumed any alcohol because the smell makes me nauseous. I've tasted enough beer, wine and spirits (I cook with it) to know that I find the taste repulsive as well. I have no moral issue with responsible alcohol consumption but I never saw the point in trying to get drunk, especially when under-age.

I get a new one. It happens. That's not really a big worry to be honest. I'm more worried about losing the credit cards, medical cards and cash contained in my wallet.

I assure you it will not. That is not how police play that game. Furthermore that requires your phone to be on and then the officer can search the phone because you just gave him access and probable cause. If they want to come up with a system whereby the officer has no physical way to search the phone (not just legal protections) then I might think this is a good idea. As the law stands right now there is no way in hell I would do this.

Some idiot judge apparently recently ruled that while you don't have to give your password you do have to give your fingerprint. How that doesn't violate the 5th amendment involves some mental gymnastics that I'm not really capable of.

Don't know why you are laughing. It's not funny at all. Yes I absolutely think cops are going to sit around and transfer the entire contents. You'd be a fool to presume otherwise. He gets paid to be there no matter how long it takes.