Comment: Re:Maybe... (Score 1) 607
. .
To be fair, most of politics is about lube and fecal matter.
Comment: Re:Win win (Score 2) 62
FTFA: "This would not involve compensation from Caltech," said Trent Perrotto, a NASA spokesperson. "It would be a transfer of ownership." What money?
Maybe Caltech will sell naming rights and has to share the money with NASA?
1st Reporter: And in today's science news, Papa John's GALEX satellite completed finally its mission of mapping the sky using ultraviolet light.
2st Reporter: Can you shed a little light on what that means for us "normal folks"?
1st Reporter: It means Papa John's will offering their classic Moon Pie pizza and their Out of this World moon-cheese bread sticks for only $9.99.
2st Reporter: Only $9.99? I Guess Herman Cain was on to something after all.
1st Reporter: Not really. God Father Pizza never had an offer like this.
Comment: Re:Win win (Score 1) 62
Win 3: It gets interested parties, like universities or other research organizations - profit or not - into doing something whose use to the taxpayer is arguable, and which therefore shouldn't be funded by government.
Exactly. This satellite is imaging the entire sky, which clearly is the next logical step for a Google Earth / Google Maps hybrid.
Comment: Re:Can I just say (Score 1) 62
so NASA is considering transfer of ownership under the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act
That's awesome!
Their action has many much more awesomeness than the bill's acronym: SWTIA. Stevenson & Wydler need some lessons from the people who came up with the name of the PATRIOT Act, among others.
Comment: Re:Why don't they just strip him... (Score 1) 578
... of his citizenship send him to a country where apostasy isn't a crime?
Because executing him is a much more effective deterrent than, well, anything else they could do to him.
Comment: Re:Well (Score 1) 369
ARM isn't similar to x86 like Atom is, so this may be a logical starting point.
As someone running Debian on Arm, the end user experience is effectively the same. The only difference is if you require closed source binary software or hardware that requires closed source binary drivers. Other than that, Linux on Arm and Linux on any other architecture are remarkably similar. Just recompile the code...
Yes, the end user experience is no different, but the developer experience is very different. Linux has been multi-architecture from the beginning. Windows has been entrenched in the x86 camp for so long it doesn't have the option to just recompile.
Linux wanted to work on everything, so it was flexible by design. Windows wanted everyone to run on Windows and only Windows, so it was inflexible by design.
Comment: Re:Why is this relevant? (Score 1) 369
Don't know if you're being sarcastic. It is a deal breaker for some. While VB6, VFP etc may not be sexy, a lot of legacy software are written in those.
Semi sarcastic.
One of my clients is still using VB 6 but has finally accepted that they need to transition over to something more current (with a much larger pool of available talent). We're actually interviewing for the position ATM.
Comment: Re:Why is this relevant? (Score 1) 369
Hint: it's the third party apps! Lots of very important legacy business applications are written in languages, tools and technologies that may never be ported to WOA. For example, do you expect Visual Basic 6, Visual FoxPro or Delphi to be on WOA?
No VB 6 & FP emulator on WOA? That's gotta be a deal breaker for some of us.
Comment: Re:Well (Score 5, Interesting) 369
It's possible that this is the first step toward leaving 'Windows legacy applications' behind. They are going to have to do it sometime, and ARM isn't similar to x86 like Atom is, so this may be a logical starting point.
At some point (Windows 9? Windows 10??) Microsoft is going to need to leave older applications behind to fully transition to the 'Metro' platform/paradigm. This probably will include the desktop .Net frameworks and other MS technologies, libraries, etc. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is going to be a significant change and a lot of work for software companies.
At some point (Windows 9? Windows 10??) Microsoft is going to need to leave older applications behind to fully transition to the 'Metro' platform/paradigm. This probably will include the desktop
Comment: Re:Just Might Take Them Up On It (Score 1) 152
... and as far as I can tell, he doesn't give half a shit if I enjoy sucking off goats as long as I do my job.
Your job wouldn't happen to be a goat semen collector, would it?