The Aphelion Webzine Lettercolumn
http://aphelion.autographedcat.com/newforum/
http://aphelion.autographedcat.com/newforum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=12464
As opposed to, say, intermittent -- ? And,Your thought processes are persistent.
Wait -- they said the language used would be English . . . looks like they forgot to mention they'll need an editor.This is the foundation upon a mission must be built
Yeh, I caught that too. "*Pffffftt* . . . *choke, cough* . . . here -- hit this again . . . "2A. Skill sets. Notice not one single hard skill was in that list?
Sorry, but has the cost of ordinary automobiles gone down lately? Spacecraft aren't mass-produced like cars or phones, so we don't get the economy of scale working (not that that would help much). It's still, and always will be industrial-scale machinery, like hundred-ton punch-presses, or maybe blast furnaces. With a zero-defect standard mandated for QC, AND some very special designing for environments that we just don't have to think about down here, like the temperature difference between the sunlit and shadowed parts of the equipment. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ . . .While maybe not as fast as Moore, we should have seen X huge decrease in costs making moon vessels.
NO!! Not just ONE -- you need for EVERY SINGLE PERSON to be able to *patch $hit*, because even in a four-person craft, whoever is closest to the problem is gonna have to do something about it, no waiting for a special fix-it guy.but even in a colony ship of 200, you need one awesome freak-of-all-trades who can just *patch $hit*.
"Once you've tried Mars, you'll never go back!"TaoPhoenix wrote:Actually Mark if they're smart Mars, Inc. of the candy bar fame might have the best product placement ad spot ever if they work it right! I can envision the ads now!Mark Edgemon wrote:I hope Mars don't stop making that candy bar...hummmm goooood!
Not really . . . Mars ain't got a whole lot to breathe on it.but the "patch anything" guys would be even more important in transit.)
But breathing isn't your only problem in transit. Actually getting to your destination requires that engines and navigational gear be functional when you need them. Getting there alive requires the literal plumbing and environmental systems to be working pretty well, too (to preserve perishable food, even if the colonists aren't frozen).Lester Curtis wrote:Not really . . . Mars ain't got a whole lot to breathe on it.but the "patch anything" guys would be even more important in transit.)
Actually, I think anyone who'd sign up for this thing would have to be near the top of the Supreme Egotist list to begin with . . . to quote from Men in Black, "The best of the best of the best! Sir!"Robert_Moriyama wrote:
Having everybody effectively sterilized (even if theoretically in a reversible way), with only the "best" earning reproductive rights, would reduce your pool of potential volunteers to those whose egos assured them they would be among The Chosen. And when some of those egotists did not make the (un)cut, you would have the First Martian Revolution on your hands.
In light of the above, maybe a better title would be, Last on Mars.Mark wrote:
Robert,
Why don't you, create a shared universe project using this theme, maybe call it Mars One.
Mark, you seem to have taken my comment the wrong way. The richness of possibilities here is more than obvious, and I'd get a hoot out of seeing it developed. I could happily involve myself in such a story project -- just not in the real mission as it's been presented.Mark Edgemon wrote:Don't poo on this idea yet...let Robert think it over, weigh all the time versus enjoyment value and then, let HIM poo on it.Lester Curtis wrote:In light of the above, maybe a better title would be, Last on Mars.Mark wrote:
Robert,
Why don't you, create a shared universe project using this theme, maybe call it Mars One.
It's doubtful that Mars could sustain a liveable atmosphere. It doesn't have a magnetic field to speak of, thus no magnetosphere to prevent solar radiation from burning off the atmosphere. The level of radiation there is therefor too high for plant life of the sorts needed to generate breathable air. Vicious circle.bottomdweller wrote:It seems to me that humanity needs to first learn to terraform Earth into a livable planet (get rid of the global warming apocolypic thing), then begin to terraform Mars enough to increase the atmosphere...way before we start sending people there forever. Come on, you know they'd be at each other's throats after 5 years, when the other team showed up. It's decades too early for this thing to work.
MARS (candy, number) ONE!!!
We've already had a shared Mars universe project waiting in the wings for years--literally years--the Bill Warren Aphelion Explorer series (which I call The Aphelion Project), championed through the flash contests. I worked everything into individual entries and a combined story (that would keep getting bigger with each new entry) and made a series Bible. Bill Warren created a Concordance of every bit of detail a human could, and even wrote an original story for the series that no one has ever seen.Mark Edgemon wrote:Robert,
Why don't you, create a shared universe project using this theme, maybe call it Mars One. Layout a writing project plan with a format for how writers contribute. For example, each writer writes one chapter at a time, based on the previous chapters written with you starting it off or each writer participant writes according to an outline given to them etc.
Something interesting to do during low acticity periods.
You've got yourself, Tao, Lester, me, Michele and Sergio to start. You might get Bill, Gino, and other past writers too!
You edit the entire manuscript to bring continuity and a over riding single style and or voice to the project. Maybe I could record and produce an audio version and possibly we could find artists to illustrate...new members!
There already seems to be a lot of interest in this topic.
Mark
I see Mark is whining about how people ignore his suggestions again. His suggestion re: controlling spammers by requiring somebody to review each one individually sounds great, as long as you don't consider that we get HUNDREDS of memberships registered on a daily basis. Mark doesn't see most of them because I purge the inactive and the active registrations several dozen at a time. Suppose somebody had to review each one individually... Still interested in volunteering, Mark?TaoPhoenix wrote:Hi Mark,Mark Edgemon wrote: The Bill Warren's project can be published as is or revamped, renamed, illustrated (a planet of artists ready to submit entries for credit) and voice talent who could be cast in parts, also for resume credit.
Not to edge out Tao's kind offer, I've just been thinking about this for months. With enough support from here, I'd be willing to start calling one another and collaborate on the design as we put the new site up.
I'm quite happy to let this be a "C - Both" situation. I've been reading productivity-problem solving stuff today, and my offer was definitely in the spirit of the fullback in soccer: "Problem - ball headed towards goalie. Solution: Just Get Rid Of It. All the *other* positions jockey for finesse and do sequences, etc. I always liked playing fullback because that position has a kind of ruthless honesty about it: Rip Ball Away From Enemy (with your feet!) Kick To Friend (accurately!) Done. In other words, in a sorta "perfect soccer game" the goalie can stand there and eat a sandwich. (Darnit, Magpie now wants to know if the rules of soccer or maybe baseball actually forbid eating during a game!)
So to use the metaphor, Problem: Languishing brilliance sitting on Nate's HD.
To add a little drama (Magpie wants to know what sound effect you'd use for this Mark!) if it wasn't for minor details such as Nate having a job (bleh real life!), we'd get this:
Solution:
I'd give Nate *my* login password (because I'd have switched it for a day)
He goes RightClick on his local Mars folder/Send To/Zip File
About 5 clicks to get to the admin section of the site
File Manager/Upload/Browser/Click Zipped File
Up goes the nice little bundled package
Server unpacks it all.
I download the original zip file/extract here
Run the Drive Reader
Plunk it into the WebPage Slammer Spreadsheet
Upload the index web page.
Ball Kicked. Files Visible. In an hour.
I *absolutely* agree this has ZERO finesse. So yes, you can do awesome things with it after that over at C&C. I also don't know what the toe-stepping implications are here. But the problem was to Get Files (Ball) *anywhere* to look at. I'm an extreme functionalist fullback that can get the files into view. I pass the baton after that.
Yeah, Mark gets fixated and impatient. Nobody's perfect. Robert, I really doubt that all the registrations would still come through. Seems to me that a hell of a lot of 'em are done by bots, and maybe we'd stop getting those if we shut off self-registration. And maybe the human-delivered ones would slow down a lot too, if the spammers saw that their registrations were being filtered by a real person.Robert_Moriyama wrote:
I see Mark is whining about how people ignore his suggestions again. His suggestion re: controlling spammers by requiring somebody to review each one individually sounds great, as long as you don't consider that we get HUNDREDS of memberships registered on a daily basis. Mark doesn't see most of them because I purge the inactive and the active registrations several dozen at a time. Suppose somebody had to review each one individually... Still interested in volunteering, Mark?
I have a day job... dunno about you. What with the multiple "games" (where you are the most frequent poster), I don't know when you would have the time for one. And please try to choose between "whining" and "whinging" -- "whinning" is something Charlie Sheen would say when on too many meds.Mark Edgemon wrote:Glad to see some signs of life from you, ole' pal.Robert_Moriyama wrote:I see Mark is whining about how people ignore his suggestions again. His suggestion re: controlling spammers by requiring somebody to review each one individually sounds great, as long as you don't consider that we get HUNDREDS of memberships registered on a daily basis. Mark doesn't see most of them because I purge the inactive and the active registrations several dozen at a time. Suppose somebody had to review each one individually... Still interested in volunteering, Mark?
And I wonder how the 2 million hits per month figure for Mark's site was calculated? What percentage of the posts to Mark's pet folders in the Forum are by Mark? If Mark could translate "eyeballs" to revenue, he'd be rich, and wouldn't have to bother with unprofessional peasants like me. Or I could quit and let Mark take over everything I do...
In the first paragraph, you recharacterized my suggestion/advice into a stupid one that has no chance of working.
Reboot.
If you have a sign up rule that state that usernames must be words used in the English language and the prospective member must send to the membership director their desired username and password, then most of the spam would stop stone cold dead.
Why?
01. I doubt spammers would sign up by sending e-mails.
02. If they do, they would have to follow the rules and stop using gibberish usernames.
03. The membership director can check out behind the scene data to validate the sign up is legitimate such as where they are from, the type of e-mail, what Lester has commented on in a few posts. etc.
There is only a few legit members who sign up each month out of the many, many spam who get in. Ignoring the gibberish usernames and deleting them would take almost no time at all because - they are e-mails and "not" on the forum to begin with.
If we change sign up to adminisration only, zero spammers get aboard.
The time invested would be less than a tenth of what is being wasted now.
That's what I have said in previous posts.
You are the one who is whinning with statements like
You are trying to make my job harder (Well then draw from the current members who want to help and distribute the workload)
I'm going to quit one day - oh, I really mean it THIS time (If you are dissatisfied and you are not happy and or no longer enjoy doing the work, get a replacement who wants to do it - such as McCamy, Nate, Lester, Verse and we'll throw you a going away party - online of course!)
I've been offering to help for years and yes Robert, I will help and be glad to do it. I offered it to Lester on more than one occasion and he has but to ask.
In reference to my site, I haven't changed it in over a year, because the site presentation has been working as an example of audio story production, so none of the hits are from me, except to check the stats from time to time. Most of the hits are people downloading either the original literary works as pdf's or the audio story productions as mp3's. (But that was kinda absurd to suggest I am visiting my own site between one and two million times a month.)
Anything else on your mind. You know, if you keep your mind active, you can remain coherent longer in your oncoming years.
MarkMark Edgemon wrote:By the way Robert, I still enjoy your banter, matching my wits with whatever it is that you are using!
Software update can only be done by Doc. I have asked him to update on a few occasions, but haven't been "relentless" enough. I'm not sure if the updated version would be much better, or would allow the things being suggested here. Nobody has updated the Back Issues index in years (something that I could do, but keep putting off), and the Author Index hasn't been updated since 2004 (I think) -- something Tao worked on that was never implemented (and something that authors keep asking about). Send PMs and e-mails to Doc re: the update -- if he gets them from multiple sources, and keeps getting them, he will be more likely to do them.Lester Curtis wrote:Mark -- Robert -- don't make me throw a bucket of cold water on the two of you.
Nate -- you've got two offers to publish the shared Mars project (which I had never heard of before), and enough evident interest to say yes to one of them.
Spam --
We have flood control enabled, set at 30 seconds between posts. I'm sure that isn't working.
We have (mail dot ru) in our banned email list, and we still get about 20 percent or more of our spam from them. THAT isn't working.
Our Captchas don't work.
That's at least three board security features that are broken. Some of the other filters may also be disfunctional; I don't know. To the best of my understanding, they can't be patched until the board software is updated -- and the current version is no longer supported.
JOB ONE: BOARD SOFTWARE UPDATE.
There's a problem with both of the proposals: they're not on Aphelion. The series was proposed on Aphelion and the parts made on Aphelion for publishing on Aphelion, in the zine and in the flash index. I don't own the stories other than those I wrote, and the series is an amalgamation. The rights are not free and clear to just do whatever I want. But... Aphelion doesn't use the content. There is no folder to upload them to and I don't have access to put them there if there was. This is the Catch-22.Lester Curtis wrote:Nate -- you've got two offers to publish the shared Mars project (which I had never heard of before), and enough evident interest to say yes to one of them.