Comment Re:This is a DC problem, not a Google problem (Score 1) 139
Microsoft Outlook 2007 running on Microsoft Windows XP hangs on me all the time in mid email. I'd hardly call that stable.
Microsoft Outlook 2007 running on Microsoft Windows XP hangs on me all the time in mid email. I'd hardly call that stable.
Clearly this was a diversion by the unskilled laborers unions in order to get a ban on construction equipment.
Ya I see how being in control of google.com is so much scarier than a corporation having control over tens of millions of computers with a product that is being mandated in thousands of corporations simply because Microsoft keeps IT departments busy with enough work to justify big salaries.
Reading a bit more, it really sounds like they are saying we just can't afford to go for a manned mission to Mars so let's do some other stuff that we can afford.
There are some interesting parts to these ideas, but what I was trying to get at was that manned exploration is about going places and not about using people as guinea pig test subjects or as a squishy brained guidance system. That part of this set of ideas is what I find half baked. It seems there as more of a political compromise than for any practical reason.
The chance of a mission like that succeeding without any prior experience colonizing a planet is pretty much zero. Better to start closer to home and waste less time travelling and more time learning.
We have plenty of experience colonizing our own planet. If we can find another planet like ours and can get there, then it is a sure bet. We have no idea if Mars really can be colonized and if anyone would really like living there.
The answer is yes.
It's not 10 minutes, it's 10 minutes for every single instruction and response, as opposed to operating in real time. Not only would this speed things up by a massive factor, it allows the possibility of human intervention or control to prevent things going wrong (e.g., a human controlled landing).
Like when the rover sees a shadow, the human controller could quickly swing the camera around to see the Martians...
Those probes cost many millions of dollars to get there (and with a human in orbit it would cost billions more), no one on Earth is going to allow any astronaut to be making split second decisions about rolling over into a ditch or checking out a particularly interesting rock. What we need is better robotics and AI for these missions and more of them not a very expensive human fly by.
To me the only interesting planet in our solar system is our own, so I'd be all for ditching manned exploration altogether and throwing money at solving the issues of getting a probe or even a manned mission to another solar system where there might be habitable worlds and new life. These are completely different problems to solve.
Space is not about science it is about exploration. The science is just a side show.
This panel sounds like just a way to justify cutting spending on NASA without making Obama sound like more of a wimp than Bush.
Putting the study's results more succinctly, robots are preferred for all the jobs that put the other guy out of work.
Other countries should be protecting their own laws against US over reach also.
And the US has a right to decide to protect its citizens and corporations from being snooped on by foreign governments. Beyond the right to privacy, a foreign government is possibly interfering with legal a contract between Yahoo and its customers. I doubt the US government will respond, but it should. Yahoo will likely eventually comply and the US government will likely just ignore this, but they shouldn't.
Think of it the other way around, if suddenly the US courts ordered an EU company to divulge data that was protected by EU law...
Each country doesn't get to decide its own jurisdiction, they have to fight for it.
It's not about "Americaness", it is simply about the rule of law. If you allow another country to impose its laws on Americans on American soil, then you no longer have the rule of law under one democratic system.
Oh then nevermind. I don't use any Yahoo services
This is appears to be a threat to our sovereignty. Time to bring in the State Department.
Can't have foreign governments pushing their laws on US companies operating on our own soil. If this were data collected in their country by a company operating in their country then that is a different story. Otherwise this would be like a foreign government demanding the contents of my underwear drawer just because someone they were interested in had called me on the phone.
Practically speaking, if Google has any finances or offices in that country then they have to make a value judgement because the local government has the ability to impose their penalties, but pulling out of this country rather than complying should also be their option. And if a US company is forced to pull out of the EU, then the US should retaliate in kind.
The big one is clearly headed for us and the planet is doomed and they just don't want people to know and start panicking. So, I would encourage everyone to panic.
Since these particular sensors point towards the Earth, then I don't think we would have time to panic if they glimpsed the "big one".
Cobol programmers are down in the dumps.
