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Apropos the ideal communicator device, I ran across a striking testimonial by a manager today, who reaches for the opposite conclusion from he:

I can't believe how radically the touchscreen phone has changed my computing habits and preferences. When I sit down at my laptop or desktop to do something quickly, I don't want use the keyboard or mouse. I want to point, swipe, and tweak with my fingers. When I'm on the phone, my brain has my speaking and text-processing faculties tied up. To easily multitask while talking, I need to be able to use a different part of my brain: that part involved in motor control.

The thought of a manager who uses his motor control to do his job seems like something out of Dilbert, but the above is reality. Plus, I was already concerned that consumers of touch devices will come out of woodwork and take the market, so my ideal device would not be offered. The example above only scares me more.

I like using the touchscreen so much that I will often use my G1 for tasks that are better suited for my laptop, merely because of the joy I get from using the interface.

Touch, tap, drag, push, swipe. I love it. Can't get enough of it.

This love of super-touch is fortunately not universal. I know people who hate multi-touch with passion. It takes much too precise control. So, there's still hope for keyboard-based devices, but...

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Transterrestrial Musings:

For what it’s worth, I thought that George Bush should have been impeached for signing McCain-Feingold. In doing so, he failed to keep his oath of office to defend the Constitution. It’s politically craven to sign a bill while saying that you think that it’s unconstitutional, and hope that the Supreme Court will fix it (they didn’t, at least not until recently). If a president believes that a bill is unconstitutional, it is his constitutional duty to veto it, and say why. It is the job of all three branches of government to obey and protect it, not just the judiciary. I’ve long given up any hope of Congress giving a damn about it, but I expected more of a Republican president. Silly me.

And now we have people like Larry Lessig throwing a fit when Supreme Court took a dim view of Bush's (and McCain's!) misdeeds.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 03:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Seen a fine Lexus IS-F in Santa Fe a week ago.

If only it was not as hostile to tall drivers.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 12:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What's more, taken to a mental health hospital (for a flight over chocoo's next):

Negotiators and a SWAT team from Medford police safely took a man — whose name wasn't released — into protective custody Monday morning in the 500 block of Effie Street, Medford police said in a news release.

He was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation.

The man recently had been placed on administrative leave from his job and was "very disgruntled," the news release said.

In two days, the man bought a Heckler & Koch .45-caliber universal self-loading handgun, a Walther .380-caliber handgun and an AK-47 assault rifle, Medford police Lt. Bob Hansen said. All of those firearms were purchased legally, with required record checks by the Oregon State Police.

Medford's hostage negotiators and SWAT team were called in at 3 a.m. Monday and arrived on the scene at about 5:45 a.m., he said.

After a phone conversation with negotiators, the man — who was alone in the home — agreed to come out, Hansen said.

Police seized the recently purchased firearms, as well as another .45-caliber Heckler & Koch handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun. Police are holding the weapons for safekeeping, but no criminal charges have been filed.

Let's see: no crime is committed, but the guy is in prison (or mental hospital -- I thought it's what Soviets did, but I guess not). Plus, it seems clear that the guy wanted to shoot someone, he would not need to buy a .380. And yet... Oregon fascists - are they better than Illinois nazi?

The lesson is pretty clear: your asshole boss can put you in prison for an indefinite period as long as she can fabricate a good scare tale for "The Autorities" (e.g. cops).

The night raid was a neat touch too, right from the NKVD playbook. Get the victim disoriented, and less likely to get his lawer to respond to the scene.

(by materials of Mail Tribune of Southern Oregon)

P.S. As we know, Oregon is full of total wackos. Remember how father and son planted a bomb in a bank that killed two cops (who "determined" that the device was a hoax and decided to remove it when it went off)? I can imagine the citizens of Oregon approving of police sending SWAT on a night right to the house of anyone suspictious, but I cannot approve it.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 12:19 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Poor Burt was spun by the MSM as it often happens, so he attempted to fight back with an open letter. The Burt vs. Paparazzi angle to this story was widely reported, but I would like to concentrate on actual point he is trying to make wrt the now-being-cancelled Constellation (via Flight Global):

In short, it is a good idea indeed for the commercial community to compete to re-supply the ISS and to bring about space access for the public to enjoy. I applaud the efforts of SpaceX, Virgin and Orbital in that regard and feel these activities should have been done at least two decades ago. However, I do not see the commercial companies taking Americans to Mars or to the moons of Saturn within my lifetime and I doubt if they will take the true Research risks (technical and financial) to fly new concepts that have low confidence of return on investment. Even NASA, regarded as our prime Research agency has not recently shown a willingness to fly true Research concepts.

For years I have stated that a NASA return-to-moon effort must include true Research content, i.e. testing new concepts needed to enable forefront Exploration beyond the moon. The current Ares/Orion does not do that. While I have been critical of Constellation for that reason, I do not think that NASA should 'give up' on manned spaceflight, just that they should be doing it while meeting the 1) or 2) criteria above.

The way Griffin toys ate the rest of NASA was perhaps not widely enough reported (e.g. the closure of NIAC).

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Seen at NMVJC forums:

I always thought the Hummer line was just an over-priced, blinged out Chevy.

Sure they shared a lot of drivetrain components, but you can't get a Chevy with 35s and a selectable rear locker. Or a Chevy with a 4:1 transfer case and lockers front and rear. I might not always like the yuppies that were driving them, but I appreciated what Hummer was bringing to the market.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 06:01 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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An article in an unusual place says things with which I find it difficult to disagree, like so:

For years now, whenever a reporter asked me what I thought about returning to the moon with the country’s existing Constellation technology, I said something along the lines of “It’s like watching a slow motion train wreck. It isn’t going to end well.”

I have an excellent working relationship with the parts of NASA that my company deals with, but honestly, I thought the program was going to drag on for another half decade and piss away several more tens of billions of dollars before being re-scoped due to failure to deliver.

This is a rather important point. NASA fanboys (e.g. Mike Pinto) like to pretend that it was only a question of funding. But in fact NASA demonstrated its impotency, which was impossible to fix with money. A structural reform was needed.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 04:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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New York Post leads the article with this:

The Justice Department's disclosure that nine of President Obama's appointees had either represented or advocated for Guantanamo detainees has touched off a firestorm of criticism.

Representation is not what the problem is about. A lawer ought to be a tool, like a gun. Naturally, some of them represent the most vile terrorist and do their utmost to get him off lightly. The real problem is, these lawers were terror activists, who willingly filed amicus curae briefs and otherwise wielded influence on behalf of terrorists. Naturally there's a concern they will continue doing the same thing as representatives of the government now.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 09:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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According to a blog post:

This is the ONLY WWII Japanese aircraft that is flyable today with an original Japanese WWII engine, the Mitsubishi Sakae 14-cylinder, Model 31 "Prosperity". A very, very unique and historic sound ! And it is very likely that this is the ONLY original WWII Japanese aircraft engine that any of us will ever to be able to hear in person.

Which is a little tautological, since "sakae" means "prosperity", but no matter, enjoy: Youtube://ZuoVlQOO4xc.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 02:16 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Instapundit linked to an article in The Atlantic about the long-term effects of high chronic unemployment. I think we all agree that long-term unemployment was a bad thing, and Clinton's welfare reform was the single biggest accomplishment of this two terms. Unfortunately, the article is bollocks, because it builds upon the foundation of typical liberal lies.

Some of them are explicit and brazen, for example the article recycles the claim that "One big reason that the economy stabilized last summer and fall is the stimulus". But the biggest one is the lie of omission. The key graf about the reasons and remedies is based on an Leo Tilman's article about innovation in Harvard Business Review, and every sin is listed there -- even patents -- except the main one: government spending, supported by mounting debt that inevitably leads to stifling taxation or rampant inflation. Not a word!

The remaining bulk of the article is something I cannot evaluate well. It mostly deals with social context and stuff. But the problem is, if the lead-in is just a pile of lies, I cannot trust as single word of the rest. What if everything they say about the happenings in the minds of "young" is similarly bogus and driven by the liberal agenda? The probability lies in that direction.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 12:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I thought it was a classic quote from bash.org (based on historic events), but a Tea Party website refers to some Hollywood movie. Blasted mainstream, always encroaching on the Internet.

BTW, I did not know what a "teabagger" was either. I suppose you have to be a sophisticated coastal liberal to use that slur. I'm just not that educated!

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Quoting New York Times:

Much of the launching pad seems like it was assembled during a scavenger hunt. A 125,000-gallon liquid oxygen tank from the Apollo era was bought for $86,000 — the price of scrap metal — and refurbished. SpaceX bought some rusty railroad cars that NASA had used to transport hydrogen and refurbished those, too.

Why would SpaceX store and transport carloads of hydrogen, if their hydrogen stage is 3 years away from flight, if that?

The answer is, Mr. Kenneth Chang confused hydrogen and helium, and the vaunted layers of editors and fact-checkers missed it.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 10:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Washington Post:

To illustrate the point, gun advocates refer to a 2008 incident in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The clamor for gun licenses was so high, according to news media, that officials tried to induce men with large families to participate in a vasectomy program by promising a license in return.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 12:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Saw a brilliant argument for the HLV at NK forums today:

Вы занимаетесь демагогией и пидоризмом. Уж извините так оно и есть.
Двупуск пилотируемого корабля на Луну - Вы все видите. Мое ИМХО - так делать плохо. ПК должен лететь в однопуск.
Советую - вместо злобы подумайтео реальности.

In my approximate translation:

You, Sir are dealing in demagogy and faggotry. Sorry, but that's how it is.
Two-launch of a crewed spaceship to the Mooon, all known to you. My IMHO - it's a bad way. Crewed ship has to fly in one launch.
My suggestion to you - instead of nasty, think about the reality.

One would think this soft of language to be reserved for discussions of merits of feminism, Apple iPad, labor unions, or Brett Favre, not for pondering the tradeoffs between various lunar mission architectures. But hey, it's the Internet.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 10:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The BBC Spaceman discussed today the upcoming launch of Cupola, and neglected to mention that ISS already has a rather big window in the Destiny. Certainly, Cupola is a superior piece of hardware. For one thing, its main window is bigger at 80cm diameter than Destiny's 50cm. For another, Destiny's window sits flush, even somewhat recessed, against the outside mould of the station. Still, it's an evolutionary step.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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LOL:

<bramm> if nobody does anything about this I'm going to go public about it, freenode does NOT want the publicity of me being pissed off

What an ass.

Oh, and this:

Yes I can be blunt. []

Either Bram has no idea that he is being a jerk regardles of politeness, or he builds a politeness strawman on purpose. Not sure which is worse.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Went to Dell.com just now, and found that they only offer Ubuntu on Dell 10 ($299 deal). But a Dell 10v comes with Windows XP for $249. Same specs wrt. screen, RAM & HD.

BTW, ironically, "v" means "no Poulsbo". You'd think it were more amenable to Linux...

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 09:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You know why all the whining about the name "iPad" is dumb? Remember Wii. It was exactly the same thing with all the talk about wee-wee etc. And now? The best-selling console that made Nintendo even richer than they were despite solidly losing in power against its contemporaries.

That said, I am not at all interested in a locked-down device. I am only talking about the retarded laughter I hear across the Internet.

UPDATE: Rodney Sparks commented "You're right, but that doesn't mean chuckling about it now is a retarded thing to do..." Indeed, I only meant expectations for any (negative) correlation with the market success.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:54 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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First of all, Lessig's ugly meltdown did not start yesterday. I noticed it back in September. Still, it's amuzing when this happens:

[in the spam] Lessig tells a heartwarming story about a speech he gave yesterday at the Cato Institute, which he erroneously but tellingly identifies as "a prominent conservative think tank."

What a tool (from Reason).

I share the concerns that Larry can do significant damage by expending his geek cred until his krugmanization becomes too obvious. I own the book that he wrote back when he cared about the freedom and I quoted from it, and I used to assign him a great credit.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 10:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Military-Industrical Courier reports:

Также завершены летные испытания ракеты-носителя «Рокот». В 2010 году комплекс будет принят в эксплуатацию. РН «Рокот» - это, можно сказать, переходное средство выведения легкого класса. «Рокот» будет использоваться до принятия в эксплуатацию перспективных носителей этого класса - РН «Союз-2.1В» и РН «Ангара-1.2».

Oh, brother. Russians and their nomenclature. At least real Soyuz-2.1 and Soyuz-2.1V are going to have more in common than Tu-22 and Tu-22M3 (e.g. Blok I and payload fairing are shared).

P.S. Just to pee into a westerner's soup, there exists Soyuz-2.1b (and it's a real booster that already made flights). Watch those encoding and case, folks.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 12:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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