> So, _every year_ we spend about 6 _APOLLO PROGRAMS_ blowing up people that don't even matter to us. We borrow 9 APOLLO PROGRAMS every _year_.

Ahem. Please keep this kind of generalization to yourself. All humans matter to me, especially those that need blowing up. However, I do appreciate your sentiment that our priorities are severely skewed.

Rockets are easy to refuel. Here's a nice example of plans (well under way, lots of stuff already flying) to make a modern re-usable, re-fuelable rockets:

http://www.space.com/13139-space-fully-reusable-rockets-works.html

I don't believe Apple paid Xerox in an amicable fashion, regardless, it does seem that you acknowledge that Jobs drew from a wellspring of ideas and success that was not entirely his own.

If Stallman and the FSF people didn't believe we could 'steal' ideas, we'd simply all pirate our software. Instead, we've done something that infuriates the likes of Jobs and Mr. Bill even more - we've written our own.

I've made no such assertion about Jobs being a failure. I never said anything about competition, or capitalism being bad. It seems you fail at one argument so you magically craft another.

One of Steve's dying wishes was "to get to know his children." And you are bashing RMS and/or me for not considering the feelings of his family? Methinks you are an angry, profane and confused little fanboi.

The operating systems is GNU - always has been. One possible kernel is Linux. Calling it GNU/Linux is rather appropriate if not speaking of a particular distribution, such as Debian GNU/Linux or Ubuntu GNU/Linux.

GNU/Linux is a bit clumsy - kind of like referring to your car by the engine it has. You could refer to your car as 'Automobile/Rankin Cycle', or 'Automobile/Otto cycle'.

Using your model and the current paradigm, we'd just call your derived OS/Kernel combination "Assfuck" (in your words), which would unfairly mask the entire foundation that allowed your "Assfuck" to exist. Some might even sue you for Libel.

I'll wager that the bits of your personal rant above passed through multiple network devices and servers running GPL'd code to get to Slashdot's server. While you obviously do not like or understand RMS, he's probably contributed more function, both technically and philosophically, to the computing world than Mr. Jobs.

They stole their UI ideas and innovations such a the mouse from Xerox Parc. What Mr. Bill and Stevie J. have demonstrated very clearly is that if you get to market first, by whatever means, you'll have a huge advantage, no matter the origin of the ideas or innovations.

Failure to confront monsters and point them out for what they are leads to bad things. I'm sorry RMS hurt your feelings. I hope someday you are able to think clearly through your grief, or whatever other emotion you may be having.

Despite having never met RMS, I've emailed him and asked for his opinion before, and have had an interesting but brief dialog with him. Perhaps he feels that such exchanges in the past with great numbers of people far more influential that myself, coupled with his significant contributions and connections to the Free Software Foundation, afford him the privilege of trying to counter a populist but irrational fad.

In short, I asked RMS for his opinion, and I'm glad he gave it. I feel Jobs was more of a 'dick' than RMS. I am also fairly certain that you are an apple fanboi. I am only saddened that Job's very successful methods of tax evasion and exploitation put him so far out of reach of more ethical men such as RMS.

Your assertion that Stallman has always hated capitalism is completely false: Stallman sold copies of his Emacs editor on disc for $150. His reasoning for this price is that it's Free as in Speech, not free as in "free beer".

Also, your comparison of Steve Jobs to Henry Ford is way off the mark. Ford never told anybody who bought one of his products that they were not free to take it apart to see how it worked.

Virtucon, perhaps someday you'll realize that walled gardens breed mediocrity, such as your own.

But then some asshat named Marvin would point out, in the most malicious way, how there can be no guarantee of linear separation between joke and troll...

First, read up on Braitenburg Vehicles and The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is something of a deity in the annals of evolutionary biology and is worthy of worship :-p

Then read up on Neural Networks, start simple with a feed-forward with error backprop.

Then try your hand at some Temporal Difference Learning.

Then take a look at genetic algorithms, but it might help you to first understand the classic A* heuristic search algorithm. Genetic algorithms tend to be interesting search algorithms that are inspired by a genetic process, but they have little connection to the actual biological process for which they are named, so I am biased against them. This perception could just be a local cognitive minima that might be avoided with better training.

As for an IA (Inspector), most of the professional aviation mechanic types at small airports that I meet are also inspectors.

Owning and operating a small airplane really isn't that expensive. Getting the training & staying current adds up a bit. Flying for 15 or 20 hours per year isn't enough to operate an aircraft safely in a variety of conditions. If one never leaves the environs of a small airport I suppose 20 hours a year of flying would be a bare minimum.

Honestly tho, my rough estimate is that roughly only 25% of the people I meet are mentally capable of piloting an aircraft or assessing risks & making decisions in a safe manner.