So nothing is real or possible before you see it? Why not kill yourself now, then? After all, tomorrow may never come.

People smarter than you (or I) believe that mining asteroids is not only possible but even feasibly. That doesn't mean that it is, of course. It only means that I have no reason to give a shit what you think about asteroid mining.

Typo -- above should read: Martin Luther removed them from his Bible, and also wanted to remove a few other books as well --- James, for example.

So, you've proven my point. The Journal of Vibration and Control caught some improperly refereed articles and retracted them within four years. A system that works.

It took a millennium and a half for the reformation to try to straighten out Scripture. Except, with the Journal, it's an open process that is open for the involvement of the scientific community. With the Bible, it's a handful of people making changes because God told them to.

Science is a self-correcting system that has worked very well since before the first words of the Pentatuch were laid down by a handful of people pulling it out of their ass.

So which would you use to inform your life and society? If you said, "The Bible", then even God thinks you're a moron. Because, way before there was scripture, there was man's ability to reason.

both those declared 'canonical' by the Imperial Roman authorities

So, the Imperial Roman authorities were sort of like the editors of the Journal of Vibration and Control, except they're a lot less likely to admit and correct error.

Why optical? You introduce two extra conversions which are possible causes of error and adds a small amount of latency. Copper S/PDIF works better, and the cable won't break if you bend it or step on it.

How can you say that is most likely?
HIV does not spread easily. The panic times when people wore gloves and masks around the HIV infected are long gone, thankfully. The HIV virus spreading to family members is quite rare.
Diseases staying dormant for a long time is, however, not unusual at all.
So again, on what basis do you draw the conclusion that a re-infection is most likely?

This is a fair question, and perhaps I would think differently in this position. I'm not in this position so my view is not tainted by my greed.

The patent holders often view the public as greedy. These other companies want to capitalize on their invention and not compensate the patent holder their 'fair share' for creating their 'invention'!

(a Mac is a PC too, BTW).

It is now.

No, that's not what I'm saying. Not just recording. If you're trying to mix audio using the onboard audio chip on a PC, you're not going to get good results. It would mean you're plugging a set of headphones into a mini-stereo plug. If you're trying to mix even eight tracks from a DAW, unless you're just just remixing audio samples of already created music (which is fine by the way) you still have to have some way to input the music.

The problem is not the computer's ability to handle the audio data. The problem is the monitoring and if you're inputting control data via MIDI controllers. The audio hardware on a PC is just not able to handle it without horrible lag. You'll end up listening to what your fingers just played a second ago. Try and see what you're Macbook pro's audio subsystem is going to do with 40+ tracks of Kontakt samples in real time.

Why is this hard to understand? You can get pro-quality USB outboard audio for less than $100. You're already going to need some outboard gear (speakers, headphones, midi controllers and control surfaces), why are you freaking over a little 24-bit/96kHz audio interface that can be had for less than the price of your headphones?

Next you're going to tell me that you can create professional music on an iPad without external hardware.

"What the fuck did I do?"

It depends. In space, the eternal truth that a bullet tends to beat the armor will probably apply more than usual. Cue a mass driver or an electrically powered kinetic projectile.

Publisher SAGE announced it was retracting 60 papers from 2010–2014 in the Journal of Vibration and Control, which covers acoustics, all connected to Peter Chen of National Pingtung University of Education, Taiwan.

You will note from the article, that the papers with questionable provenance were retracted in a public way.

What was the last time there was a retraction of inaccurate or harmful material from the Bible?

Heheh

One major difference between cards and onboard is cards get a lot more effort into the tools and drivers. That alone could make the difference in what people are perceiving without requiring any kind of hardware or circuit quality difference.

I just moved an SB X-FI card from my old gaming machine to my work and listen to music machine and it DID make a difference over onboard sound. I did it to take advantage of some tracks that use surround sound and noted a difference in even Youtube (which is strict stereo) music. The card was already paid for and there so I figured why not...

Had I not played the same track on Youtube only a short gap to install the card and basic drivers I probably would not have noticed the difference. Back in "the day" that sound card with "surround sound" headphones gave me tremendous advantage in some games as I could actually hear distinct sets of footfalls in relative spacial position in game. You can't do that with two low-quality channels coming out of the game.

I know more than one producer who uses plain old audio. Most music software has a "Render to audio file" feature that bypasses the audio subsystem completely.

And how would someone producing music that "bypasses the audio subsystem completely" know what music he's making if he cannot hear it? If someone told you that they produce professional-quality music using only the onboard audio hardware on their Mac or PC, they must think you are very gullible.

I believe you're mistaken. If you can point me to one professional music producer who uses only the onboard audio on his PC or Mac, I will refrain from calling you stupid.

OK. Tell that to MPEG-LA. By your definition it's a cartel plus extortion. Have fun with that.

Asteroid mining is the only way we're going to build large structures in space anytime "soon". There's plenty of asteroids, this issue can be revisited later.