As mentioned below, the requirements for different missions produce many different variables that require specific redesigns. We also learn a great deal from each mission and improve our methods. The purpose of these missions is to get information on specific topics but it is also to improve our ability to travel in space in general. If your thinking was employed 40 years ago would we have ever moved past Voyager?

There is no "dust of those blueprints and plug in the coordinates for Europa" The "blueprints" are a small portion of the overall costs. So to gain as much knowledge and advancement as possible, we need to redesign each time.

In reply to what you say about the Camry, there wouldn't be one if we hadn't reinvented the wheel in wood, metal, then rubber and so on. Something tells me the Camry wouldn't handle well with stone wheels...

I'm sure glad we had the foresight to reinvent the wheel over and over again out of different materials after that first stone one arrived...

They were bigger than this. They really bungled an opportunity for control of a niche that Steam ended up filling. I remember when I used to play Quake 3 through Gamespy. I couldn't help but think "wow, if they add the ability to let me buy and download games through here, provide a single location for access to game mods, and figure out a way to let me order Pizza while in game, they are going to take control of PC gaming."

Instead Steam did it "no you can't order pizza directly but you can open a browser and grubhub."

What Steam and Valve also did well was they gave you a reason to want to be a part of their community. Games like left 4 dead encouraged you to make friends otherwise you'd get stuck with a horrible team. When I was on Gamespy, there was never any incentive to participate in the community.

My data speeds went from 1Mbps to around 16 Mbps when switching from 3G on Verizon. I top out around 22 Mbps. It makes a huge difference. Even a 5 Mbps jump is very significant when your starting point is about 1 Mbps, a pretty normal speed for me on 3G. LTE makes my phone a suitable backup for my landline and for traveling. 3G didn't cut it, too slow in comparison.

So I didn't just pay to download Brave from Amazon last night? The only conclusion is freetard? Seriously,.. the only conclusion?

And referencing your statements above:

I download a movie in about 10 minutes, 30 minutes for full HD. They both can start playing within seconds. It's not a crappy copy, it's HD. No, there is no 50/50 chance of viruses from online movie rental services like Amazon. I have never gotten better advice or curation from a store than I have gotten from an online distributor of movies.

I just have to ask. Why do you want to spread false information? I'm tempted to accuse you of straight out lying but for now I'll just assume total ignorance in the topic...

That was my favorite processor ever. I upgraded from a pentium 4 to the X2 series "actually the opteron 170 I think." It provided a dramatic improvement in performance over the single core P4, and trounced Intel's Pentium D.

Then Intel came out with the Core series, the Core2 providing a dramatic improvement over the X2's.

AMD responded with Barcelona, and it was all down hill from there. I promptly bought a Core2 based system and have been using Intel again ever since, AMD never became truly competitive again "I believe they've had some success competing at the lower-end."

I really loved AMD, they made some great products in the past but have slipped too far. I used to actually check out AMD's new offerings when they debuted, but I haven't done that in the past year. I just have no faith they can ever be competitive with Intel again. Sad really...

Remember the X2...

Ya know, I'm not opposed to that idea. It is possible. I'm not a programmer, I'm an artist and on that account I can say that you really aren't necessarily supposed to be creative at work. It's a very frustrating scenario but true for most artists. You get to be creative outside of work.

On that basis, whatever you want to do outside of work should be your business as long as it doesn't have a negative effect on the hours and effort you put in for work. When I was in college I used to really enjoy going out to the bar then coming home and writing while my buzz wore off. Looking back through some of that writing there is some very good work. The better work is very honest, secure and fluid. In many cases it was rather creative. However, there are also some pieces that make absolutely no sense at all.

We are discouraged as a society from drinking on the job "and in my opinion this is the same as doing drugs on the job, alcohol is a drug," for many important reasons. In my experience the biggest problem with drug use of any kind in relation to performing a task is inconsistency. Too much is a problem, too little wont do anything. For that reason, be sober for at least the hours you spend at your paying job. If you feel drug use improves your creativity, do that at home on your own personal projects and make sure it doesn't take over your life damaging both your personal projects and your employment.

It really comes down to moderation and respecting the expectations of your peers when you are in a situation that could also affect their job performance.

Also encouraging any sort of drug use for creative purposes is very dangerous. Every one is wired differently. Some people are predisposed to abuse, others are not.

maybe I should give a link... http://forums.luxology.com/

The concept is great, mechanics are clever, and anything that helps people particularly kids gain a better understanding of the physical world deserves to be promoted. You might be able to snag some talented artists to work on this. There are many 3D software communities on the web. Blender forums is of course a great place to start. However, I would recommend the Luxology forums. The makers of Modo. Lots of talent over there, great community attitude and I know there are many people there would like to make their name artistically with a project like this. Also, since Unity is used, Modo and Unity work beautifully together, direct import of Modo's native format is already available in Unity.

Check it out!

Holy crap there's more, it also clips off the top of the page if it is too short vertically, but maintains the bottom of the page being just above the statement. They are sacrificing viewing their page navigation to ensure the bottom of the page isn't viewed...

It also returns you to the top of the page if you start in full screen, restore and then maximize the page. You can not maintain your view of that portion of the page if you desire.

Don't worry, they're about to get real specific...

I work with a guy who through the years has slowly shown his beliefs. We often have cigarette breaks together and talk about whatever. He knows that I'm really interested in science and archaeology and one day he says "So did you hear they found Noah's Arc?" My blood boiled at this statement alone. A couple Korean evangelicals had claimed to have found the Arc. There wasn't even strong evidence that this could be the Arc but here he goes claiming it is Noah's freaking arc... I corrected him, probably with some visible agitation. Then he came back with "Yeah, well wouldn't that be cool if it was Noah's Arc?" I replied "not really," that isn't what I believe in so it wouldn't be pretty cool for me. What I will give you is that it would be amazing, not just that they found it but that every animal on earth was in fact put on one boat by God's orders, that would be amazing." My response pissed him off too, he paused and his cheeks flushed.

After a few moments we started talking about his dog, who I agree is probably one of the most awesome dogs around...

So I do think he's pretty loony for believing in a literal interpretation of Noah's Arc. I thought he had a greater capacity for critical thinking but oh well that's my opinion and my belief. What matters is that was the moment he found out what I believe and I found out what he believes. From that point forward we both dropped it, we haven't talked about religion again. That is how you handle situations like this. If the non work-related conversation causes conflict at work, that conversation better not happen again. Why can't more people do this?

3D Artist... Every increase in performance improves my capabilities or efficiency.

Oh, um..., the storming of the bastille. Please continue.