Newt

Yeah. From my reading of the article, it sounded like it was going to be workable on preexisting hardware, which would mean that they would get a lot of not so high end readers. My laptop has a fingerprint scanner, I have never used it, but it is not by any means fancy, high end, or something that I would trust. Maybe I should try to set it up (possibly horribly difficult on linux ), and report back my findings. As for thumb printing, there was a contest a while back, where some people bypassed a reader with something like a wet 3D print of someones thumb print pattern. I should look into that, but I think it fooled a somewhat good scanner.

I just saw this, an blog post by Microsoft about plans to integrate biometric identification in place of passwords between Windows 10 computers. We have had other discussions of biometrics here, and generally the conclusion seems to be that they are silly, inconsistent and difficult to use in normal situations, as the results need to be quick, yet consistent in allowing only one person to access a device. This post is making the assertion that they shall offer 'enterprise-grade security that will meet the requirements of organizations with some of the strictest requirements and regulations', using in some cases existing hardware. That is rather a big thing to pull off. Some of the ideas seem practical, some logical, and some rather, strange: As I am sure can be inferred from what I have here, I am skeptical that it is going to go smoothly, the article seems to skirt the issue of making the actual recognition, and discuss the admittedly nice concept, but without addressing the root of the issues that have plagued biometrics before, actually recognizing the user. Thoughts?

Greetings, Kakarin.

Sketches on paper, in blue fountain pen ink. In the rain (sometimes). This was how I have built many of my craft. I sketch them out, think about what I need, count astronauts and delta v and mass. Then I go build them, test fly parts, and go back to the paper to sketch out improvements and tweaks, and repeat until I get where I want to be. That or I just sort of build something and see how far I can go with it, usually with slight changes along the way. When I was new to the game, I decided to build a commsat. When I got to orbit, I noticed I still had a stage full of fuel, so I flew to Mun (first Mun orbit ever for me). then I still had fuel left, so I shot the stage at the Mun, and had an impactor. Then I went to the VAB, and tweaked it so I could land the whole stage intact. I still had a ton of fuel, so I stuck a second probe on top of that, (ion engine), landed one part of the vehicle on Mun, and flew the ion engined probe to Laythe aerocapture/orbit. That was a pretty fun succession, which was essentially undirected. But I also have fun just playing with ideas in my head for hours, trying to do exactly what I need on the first go.

Well, we did not actually land on the Moon, per se.

Part of the issue here is the sheer scale and complexity of the challenge at hand. Sure, deforestation is big, and it would be good to stop it. But then you get into a heap of economic and political difficulties. Oceanic pollution (like the huge volume of plastic waste floating around the Pacific) also warrants addressing. This is bad, but it is a huge thing to try to repair. Cars use some oil, and they contribute to CO2 pollution, but a bigger problem is the factories and power plants that use coal, and spew more pollution into the air. Of course, many of those have a good deal of wealth and consequently political power, which makes their dismantling difficult, especially in regions where really, it would be difficult to get support for a new, clean power plant. Meanwhile, farms in ''developed' states often use destructive monoculture and pesticide, which is hardly good for many things down the road (or river, as the case may be). At the same time, people can blame the Chinese, or the Indians, or throw their hands in the air and say its all pointless anyway, and there is nothing we can do about it. It is difficult to rally behind some strategy, as a consequence. You cannot really hit all of these targets (and there are more than have I listed), in any practical way, all at once while making an impact of note. The interconnectedness of some issues are interesting. electric cars sound great, and they really could be if everyone who used a car now switched to one. But if your electric car is powered by a coal power plant, we have a problem. Other efforts at geoengineering may sound promising, and may be promising, but most practical proposals that I have seen do not really demonstrate feasibility of doing it at the required scale, and do not adequately demonstrate that they will not cause other problems; if you give me a pistol, I can cure anybody's cancer. In defense of the idea of battling climate change, I think we can well realize that some of the changes that we are forecasting are not that great for humanity. Climate changes all the time, sure. Why can we not take the reins, just because it can run by itself? The problem is the dire forecasts (many of which are justified) which cause huge confusion and convince people that nothing can be done. In a lot of places, that is the case. We probably need to be patient, the changes we are causing are fast, but are not like Venus smashing into the Earth from a retrograde orbit (in two weeks). We need to accept that things are going to happen, and then try to prevent them from getting worse, maybe even make them a bit better. But stopping them, was probably for the seventies.

All of the Orion launches will be called Orion, as that is what the bulk of people will find interesting. I think that the same will go for most of the other missions, too. If they are interesting enough, the public will care about the thing on the top, not the rocket itself (does Delta-IV have a catchy name?). As was sort of gotten at on the NSF thread (thanks billbobjebkirk), mostly people referred to the Shuttle as the Space Shuttle, essentially the payload, not the name of the whole launch system, STS.

In the Real World, we also would have a team of geologists sitting at control station on Earth picking out the best looking rocks, for less than the manned missions cost. Kibble. I agree. The idea of Mars as the 'Next Logical Step' for manned spaceflight irks me, just as much as any other one track sort of missions. Why go to Mars? There are dozens of reasons. Why go to the Moon, or Venus, or Jupiter? The same. We should send orbiters to the next two large planets, perhaps look into building an orbital space colony/orbital power stations. And build Space Telescopes, and look more seriously into SSTO's, and go build a base on the Moon, and, and.... This has sort of been what we are doing, in unmanned flight. If we could expand it to manned, it would be ideal, but probably costly or very long term. But this overemphasis on Mars seems, silly.

Works Cited Mann, Charles. 1491: New Revelations of Latin America Before Colombus. New York, Vintage Books, 2011. Print.

I had fun when I (another aspergers forum goer is Newt) went to the 'Special Needs' class; I just helped everyone else with their homework. I was diagnosed relatively late compared to many people I know (late in grade 8), and I had learned to get on pretty well on my own. Generally no one suspected my being autistic, except for one friend who figured it out within a month or so. He was also an aspie. I have generally not been harassed for it, partially because I have always gone to sort of weird little schools where most people do not really mind, and partially I fear that I was diagnosed (and so placed in special needs programs) so late that no one really knew to tease me before they already knew me to some degree, and therefore generally felt less inclined to do so. In response to Kipard: It really is hard to tell, for me anyway, how exactly I have been impacted generally; I have always been autistic, and so the attributes that it may contribute are difficult to remove from background qualities of myself as a person, arguably they are the same, but that is for another discussion. However, I think that I have been greatly benefited by the sort of intense interest in particular topics that are usually applied to aspies. I am often able to tie my general interests (especially space travel/exploration) into most of my academics such that they all become interesting, although I may also have just a general interest in school as well. I am often amused by the fact that I, as a student with autism, contribute more in class discussion than do most of my peers, even in topics not related to my specific interests. EdFred: That also I have seen. I certainly know people who I doubt would be able to get by without assistance, and it certainly is interesting to consider exactly what makes a person who would generally have had 'Apsergers' different from others with ASD. It seems like many of the issues you (and other) associate with Autism are generally best manifested in young children with Aspergers. As that person gets older they develop means to mask and get around the issues so as to function 'normally'. Of course, this happens to different degrees and through different means. When I talk to people who I do not know well, I often consciously make an effort to read and to convey facial expressions and intonation between myself and the other. When I do not do this I not infrequently cause confusion by speaking in monotone and appearing angry, while failing to quite get what the other person is intending to mean. This occasionally occurs even with my family when I am distracted. As far as I know, many people who have ASD/Aspergers do this sort of thing, most who are 'normal' do not. By suggesting that generally I am able to function normally and circumvent my Autism related challenges, I by no means intend to suggest that all others with Autism should be able to do the same, and I doubt that is the intention of any of the other people here. Welcome Spacewall! I must say that I myself had a lot of fun with Minecraft, when I was a a senior in highschool (I came to KSP in grade 10), and have quite strongly considered getting back into it more recently. I think that both KSP/Minecraft can cater to similar interests, and both are from my experience, open enough to allow one to engage at many different levels. As for getting your son into KSP, I think that it is entirely practical that they could get into it at thirteen (had I discovered it then I would have been intrigued certainly). But not if your son is not interested in it, and if you try to push something it probably will be more likely to get rejected. That is not an aspie thing as much as it is a thirteen year old thing, but I do not know your son. The best way to teach it would just be to let him at it, if he is interested, there are a plethora of sources for inspiration, here, from NASA, from reddit, the Wiki, ESA, Roskosmos et cetera. I have had a lot of fun sending small vehicles far away, and building stations. And Spaceplanes. And modding a little. If he is interested, he will find his own way to do it. If he is not, then maybe this is not the right game for him.

Popcorn.

I was doing a bunch of tests to perfect a small rocket to get to the Mun. I had command modules scattered about the launchpad, plus one vehicle active on the pad itself. An astronaut left the main vehicle, and had landed on the ground, making sure that the ladders were working right, when an attempt was made to climb back onto the vehicle. One instant they were standing at the KSC, a few minutes away from snacks and a bed. Seconds away from more than five other Kerbals. The next second, everything was dark, except the clearly distant Kerbol. It took nineteen days to hit it, and the crewman was going to fast for an intercept to be possible. At the same time, two crew members were killed instantly, and three sitting nearby were launched into Kerbol escape, with the shredded remains of a ship flying after them. It was a sad day at the KSC, and it caused a great bit of inquiry surrounding the use of ladders on spacecraft.

Actually we are moving further away. There was something that adjusted the flight path, and they needed to change the orbital entry path.

Down Hey. It is nice not to have to say 10char, is it not?

Granted. There. You got a Twinkie. But it is the last twinkie on Earth, and a mob quickly beats you up for it. I wish for a heap of old rotten fruit.

I wreck the global economy, by releasing absurd amounts of cash and devaluing the currency. The next poster gets 50 antoniniani. From back when they were really silver.

Another difficulty is communications. Earth bound technicians and engineers can conduct conversations with people on the Moon, with a slightly awkward but easily managed delay. If the People on the Moon have an issue, Earth can know in a second, and immediately start helping to troubleshoot. When the Mars base has a problem, Earth knows in a few minutes at best, and can only start to help troubleshooting after the astronauts should have made some response on their own. Astronauts are well trained people, and they will not do something damaging just because they do not get that help, but having additional guidance and feedback from fellow astronauts, the people who built and designed your vehicle, and the people who operate and monitor it on Earth, would help a lot. Building bases on the Moon would be helpful so that when the 'training wheels' of rapid communications are let off, we will already know better how to deal with astronauts on a ground base, and with fixing problems that can arise there.

So a little like Civilization, but multiplayer web based?

I placed a computer virus in your launch system just this morning, and laugh as your weapons fly harmlessly into interstellar space. The next poster has to deal with the somewhat more destructive computer virus that I sent them.

Gets out a page with two definitions, one for planet, one for moon. Inserts the Oort cloud. erm... I really do not know. Big, I guess. Really, really big?

Go read the book. It is pretty good. I could ship you my copy, but you should already have one, and if you do not, a nearby bookstore/ friend probably does. Here is the full quote, Camcha. I certainly have had fun on that site. I flew out from the sun at warp 1 for about a day, and tried to check back whenever I passed a planet (not particularly successful was I).

Still a nice day on the beach, but farewell airplanes.

Well, Mars Direct forms part of the basics of the current NASA Manned Mars reference mission (modified but similar). So, do they take it seriously? It probably is the current most seriously taken Mars landing proposal from what I can tell. Whatever people may say, NASA is not one for one way missions. Most of the people who are going for those, are not exceptionally serious and capable. EDIT: As for the whole politics thing, they are both the cause of and the end of space exploration programs; politicians support space when it seems strategic, and they support it in the way that seems most strategic and beneficial for them at the time. It looked good to go to the Moon for a while, then it looked expensive, dangerous, and unnecessary. Currently to the US government, private space flight looks good, so we get the CCDev program and NASA support for Spacex and such, but that can all change very easily, just as it did when Apollo was cancelled.

If that is all that this is about, there definitely is plenty of time for Dawn to take and prepare some color images. Currently, the vehicle is not even in orbit, so just give them all some time.

And usually that code is going to make assumptions which may work when dealing with someones face, or a building, where the photo needs to look decent and you sort of know what should be going on anyway, but is hardly a scientific application. In the case of taking an image for scientific research purposes, you cannot make such assumptions without either stating that you are pretty much leaving the realm of evidence, finding good precedent (were I to look at a small mark on a Ceres image, and guess it were a crater, I would be pretty justified, for example) or looking like a fool. We will wait and see these dots in 3D maps with plenty of better understanding before too long. It just takes a bit of time.