rm445

36 ms·

331.
by rm445 11y ago
Given the small number of crew needed for an initial programme of missions, it ought to be possible to select from the population of the Earth a number of superbly able and healthy people who simply accept the risk. I sometimes suspect that
332.
by rm445 11y ago
If it were possible to create consistently world-class results in disparate fields by early specialisation and intensive training, could the world afford to ignore it? A decrease in total childhood happiness would be gladly accepted by ever
333.
by rm445 11y ago
But the father's thesis was that hothousing produces geniuses on demand. Not that they're a precious find that needs to be directed to where they can be most use. By using a subject that was well-known, widely available, cheap and
334.
by rm445 11y ago
According to Wikipedia, Mathlab was a computer algebra system (written in Lisp) from the late 60s, whose author went on to write Macsyma, which inspired Mathematica. Like you I'm still not sure whether parent poster meant that, or is c
335.
by rm445 11y ago
Why stop at 50 cm? In the long term, if the children of humanity continue to inhabit physical bodies, there's no need for them to be larger than a millimetre in size. Plenty of room at the bottom. The benefits of reduced resource use d
336.
by rm445 11y ago
Fair point - the author did a lot of things together but they were all incremental - perhaps 'refactoring' would be a better term?
337.
by rm445 11y ago
Even as someone who uses and is fairly happy with ISO week numbers, I think you're quite right. The problem isn't the ISO 8601 calendar - smart people have thought about these things, and it's probably the best decision to le
338.
by rm445 11y ago
That must be the case, right? Software being as diverse as it is, probably a creative individual could sit down and name 700 types of software application, but more likely they were numerous variations of CRUD, shuffling information in an
339.
by rm445 11y ago
This article has much more detail: http://theflyingengineer.com/flightdeck/pw1100g-gtf/ The gearbox is described as the epicyclic type with the compressor driving the sun gear and the carrier of the five planet ge
340.
by rm445 11y ago
It's a little odd, given that Kernighan and Pike have written a couple of excellent programming books together, and with Rob Pike's leadership in the Go project, that this one isn't K&P.
341.
by rm445 11y ago
Clearly this should be automated, tied into the fire alarm system. Once employees are educated that their code is safe in an emergency and not to waste time trying to preserve it, fire safety is improved.
342.
by rm445 11y ago
The aim is to settle the question of whether life exists on Mars, or ever has, before clouding the issue with modern contamination. I say modern just in case of various panspermia-type possibilities. That doesn't preclude eventually sp
343.
by rm445 11y ago
Well it was going to have to be something like that, wasn't it? If they were such a stellar team, they're much less likely to fail to convince anyone to fund them, or make some dreadful legal or accounting mistake that got them sh
344.
by rm445 11y ago
I suspect there are similar incidents with much less overblown outcomes. There's no relative scarcity of ignorant and authoritarian schoolteachers, but consequences are likely to be confined to school, not involve law enforcement, and
345.
by rm445 11y ago
Remember the Boston Lite-Brite thing? (A more legit incident, since apparently quite a few people were spooked by the devices, but still a case where the authorities over-reacted and refused to back down). Sticking to the line that somethin
346.
by rm445 11y ago
That's a fascinating project and it would be wonderful if it succeeds... but it has been rumbling on for over 25 years. Even with a reserve of goodwill for the project, reasonable people might choose not to take too much notice until f
347.
by rm445 11y ago
Yes, it's a computing-themed pastiche of "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche".
348.
by rm445 11y ago
Parent poster's bio link points to https://www.hellotwist.com/ which does multi-room speaker systems. What I was going to say before thinking to check the link, is that there must be a wealth of applications available
349.
by rm445 11y ago
Well said - I agree with you that considering oneself to be a story is dangerous, but I believe the danger is primarily to the people around you. It's important to find the rest of the world real and valid, even more important than on
350.
by rm445 11y ago
There's a specs link at the top of the page, but I'm also not sure what parent poster means. Just confused, I think. The specifications are on a par with low-end consumer-grade NAS products, and it has a USB 3 port, but nothing on
351.
by rm445 11y ago
Again as a casual user, I don't want to state anything too strongly, because some of it could be user error... but a few of the troubles I've had just trying to use and update Python in the last couple of years include packages fr
352.
by rm445 11y ago
Good post, and well done for finding the numbers. However the point of Mars Direct was to avoid some of the endlessly-extrapolating-upwards budget numbers by avoiding big technology developments (building a giant ship in orbit / laun
353.
by rm445 11y ago
As someone who hasn't trained in MMA, but watched some bouts from early in its spate of popularity some years ago (unconditioned and unprepared fighters, people fighting wearing the gi of their martial art and being flung all over th
354.
by rm445 11y ago
Robert Zubrin reckoned the whole Mars Direct programme would cost $55 billion in 1995 dollars. Let's say 'The Case for Mars' is viable but the costings were optimistic, and should be more like $500 billion in 2015 dollars, th
355.
by rm445 11y ago
"Galaxy" quest? I know that authors in print publications generally don't write the headlines, and it seems a perfectly worthy article despite the iffiness of the Mars One project. But I still wonder why writers generally mak
356.
by rm445 11y ago
USENET still exists, so 'ultimate demise' is premature. Still I think OP is closer than many other posts here, most of which are about its long decline rather than demise. When ISPs have stopped stop carrying USENET, it will just
357.
by rm445 11y ago
Not a profitable investment on a 15-year timescale. Potentially profitable over 25 years (according to the linked estimates) - and this is for a project with a 50-year concession, with a 50-year extension allowed for. Perhaps it would be si
358.
by rm445 11y ago
It's a phenomenon we might as well get used to, and I think it has less to do with clever marketing than one might initially think. What it boils down to is that we will interact with interactive characters as though they were people
359.
by rm445 11y ago
So you claim that a many-stranded argument can be reduced only to its "basic argument" and argue against that. The letter SPECIFICALLY states two cases that don't fall within your "basic argument", viz: - Technologi
360.
by rm445 11y ago
Either that or the maps really had that word printed on them, for whatever reason.

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