Friday, February 28, 2003
Microsoft Betrays America!
Oh, sure, everyone knows that Microsoft is evil. Those of us who have to write programs for the Windows operating [sic] system are, perhaps, easier to convince than most.
But there's a story today that forces one to conclude that Microsoft are either traitors or liars. (Or both, I suppose.)
See this from the New York Times News from AP feature: "Microsoft to Let China See Windows Code". You say you don't see any problem? You say that Microsoft should be free to show their code to anyone who can stomach it?
Well, that's not the way Jim Allchin, Group Vice President for Platforms at Microsoft, sees it ... or saw it, anyway. Last May, in testimony before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, he said that one of the states' proposed remedies (to force Microsoft to allow competitors to see their code) could compromise national security. Quoting from the account in eWeek: "A senior Microsoft Corp. executive told a federal court last week that sharing information with competitors could damage national security and even threaten the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. He later acknowledged that some Microsoft code was so flawed it could not be safely disclosed."
So, when Microsoft is trying to suppress competition, national security is of paramount importance; but when they're trying to make a sale to a country whose interests are often inimical to those of the United States ... well, anything to make a gigabuck or two!
posted by vepxistqaosani 1:41 PM
Thursday, February 06, 2003
A Reason for Space
Arguments about space exploration usually wind up with the old canard that we should do something about <insert liberal crusade here> first. So the challenge is to demonstrate that space exploration will have some effect on earthbound ills. Weather satellites are too old-hat to do the trick; and spinoffs, it will be argued, mostly benefit the already privileged.
Solar Power
All right-thinking environmentalists are bound to be in favor of solar power -- at least, so long as solar power installations aren't large enough to be noticed; cf. wind power and the objections of those good liberals on Cape Cod. So let's give them solar power! But not inefficient, expensive, earthbound, Sierra Club--style solar cells: I'm talking about giant satellites beaming power down to Earth.
This may not be feasible, as there are substantial technological and economic difficulties. But it's well worth investigating, especially since innovations in computer technology and materials science have not stopped since the problem was last looked at (though research into propulsion systems seems to have lagged a bit).
As a starting point, take a look at this article from space.com and this neat picture of a solar power satellite under construction.
Global Warming
We can even imagine a solution to global warming, should it ever prove to be a problem: A parasol, hundreds or thousands of miles in diameter, orbiting the Earth.
Sound crazy? Sure! But check out Dyson spheres someday ... and Freeman Dyson's a very important, highly credentialed physicist, very unlike your humble blogger.
The best thing about solutions like these is that they drive environmentalists crazy. The last thing they want is a technological solution that enables the spread of the American Way of Life (the supremest of evils) throughout the entire globe. But why shouldn't we want that?
posted by vepxistqaosani 12:13 PM
