Maybe. Laptops are definitely making inroads into the market, and will continue to do so, but as the article points out, there will always be a place for good, comfortable, cheap machines for people who aren’t road warriors.
I use my laptop a lot when I’m traveling, but it remains a PITA to carry around and continually reboot and renetwork, and I’m always glad to get home to my nineteen-inch screen and ergonomic keyboard. Not to mention my three CPUs and KVM switch. They’ll take away my desktop when they pry my cold, dead fingers off my Logitech.
Apparently Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is now co-blogging with Iowahawk. He’s disappointed in the weekend “morale booster” from Washington, DC:
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of horror in that poor Jordanian kid’s eyes when the camera panned across that fugly forest of hairy vegan Heathers and uberbutch Andrea Dworkin manatees. And can you blame the poor trembling kid? Holy fargin’ Prophet, sometimes I swear the only thing that keeps me motivated is knowing that a restored Caliphate means these hippie bowsers are gonna have their mugs and their bankles safely shielded under a burqqa.
By then the damage was done. I must have spent fifteen minutes trying to calm the boys down, promising them that Paradise is not gonna be a menage-a-72 with a bunch of Unitarian NPR grannies. Luckily, the camera panned to some guy in who was wearing a dynamite belt, which kinda cheered them up momentarily. At that point I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was probably fake.
He also thinks that the “peace protestors” are chickenhawks:
You really want to end the infidel occupation? Put down the ANSWER picket sign and book a group tour to Damascus. Flights leave daily, and Delta is Ready When You Are, Moby. We may be running short of martyrs, but we’ll make sure to have an eastbound bus waiting for you at the airport.
Read the whole thing, though it has some non-family-friendly words in it. But then, consider the source…
Apparently Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is now co-blogging with Iowahawk. He’s disappointed in the weekend “morale booster” from Washington, DC:
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of horror in that poor Jordanian kid’s eyes when the camera panned across that fugly forest of hairy vegan Heathers and uberbutch Andrea Dworkin manatees. And can you blame the poor trembling kid? Holy fargin’ Prophet, sometimes I swear the only thing that keeps me motivated is knowing that a restored Caliphate means these hippie bowsers are gonna have their mugs and their bankles safely shielded under a burqqa.
By then the damage was done. I must have spent fifteen minutes trying to calm the boys down, promising them that Paradise is not gonna be a menage-a-72 with a bunch of Unitarian NPR grannies. Luckily, the camera panned to some guy in who was wearing a dynamite belt, which kinda cheered them up momentarily. At that point I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was probably fake.
He also thinks that the “peace protestors” are chickenhawks:
You really want to end the infidel occupation? Put down the ANSWER picket sign and book a group tour to Damascus. Flights leave daily, and Delta is Ready When You Are, Moby. We may be running short of martyrs, but we’ll make sure to have an eastbound bus waiting for you at the airport.
Read the whole thing, though it has some non-family-friendly words in it. But then, consider the source…
Apparently Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is now co-blogging with Iowahawk. He’s disappointed in the weekend “morale booster” from Washington, DC:
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of horror in that poor Jordanian kid’s eyes when the camera panned across that fugly forest of hairy vegan Heathers and uberbutch Andrea Dworkin manatees. And can you blame the poor trembling kid? Holy fargin’ Prophet, sometimes I swear the only thing that keeps me motivated is knowing that a restored Caliphate means these hippie bowsers are gonna have their mugs and their bankles safely shielded under a burqqa.
By then the damage was done. I must have spent fifteen minutes trying to calm the boys down, promising them that Paradise is not gonna be a menage-a-72 with a bunch of Unitarian NPR grannies. Luckily, the camera panned to some guy in who was wearing a dynamite belt, which kinda cheered them up momentarily. At that point I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was probably fake.
He also thinks that the “peace protestors” are chickenhawks:
You really want to end the infidel occupation? Put down the ANSWER picket sign and book a group tour to Damascus. Flights leave daily, and Delta is Ready When You Are, Moby. We may be running short of martyrs, but we’ll make sure to have an eastbound bus waiting for you at the airport.
Read the whole thing, though it has some non-family-friendly words in it. But then, consider the source…
…and of hurricane reporting. To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of the many murder victims in the Superdome were greatly exaggerated:
“I think 99 percent of it is bulls—,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. “Don’t get me wrong, bad things happened, but I didn’t see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything. … Ninety-nine percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved.”
…Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said authorities had confirmed only four murders in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina – making it a typical week in a city that anticipated more than 200 homicides this year. Jordan expressed outrage at reports from many national media outlets that suffering flood victims had turned into mobs of unchecked savages.
Derek Jeter has gotten hate mail for dating white women, accusing him of being a “traitor to his race.” But he reportedly has a black father and a white mother. So what race is he being a “traitor” to? Who should he date?
Robin Snelson reports on the “losers” of the X-Prize competition. It’s a good survey of what’s going on in the suborbital world right now, and some of them could still end up being winners.
Also at today’s issue of The Space Review, Taylor Dinerman wonders whether NASA will renege on its launch deal with the Air Force (my money’s on “yes”). I think the piece is mistitled. The question isn’t whether NASA can keep up its end of the deal, but whether it will.
Someone over at Free Republic (see comment #11) had an amusing comment on the space elevator concept, which brings up a serious issue:
So this elevator “would crawl up a single cable into space over several days.” How would people be able to not start up conversations for that long? Would they be allowed to make eye contact or would they have to look up at the ceiling? What if there’s a pretty girl on the elevator? And would they pipe in Muzak? These are the things that would have to be worked out.
For this reason, and perhaps safety reasons, even if elevators are built, they may be used primarily for bulk cargo, rather than passengers. Given my acrophobia, I know that I personally wouldn’t want to ride one–I don’t even like elevators in medium-size buildings, and you couldn’t get me into a glass one of more than a story or two on a bet.
I still suspect that there will be a market for reliable space transports to get people quickly to and from LEO. From there, cheap propellants made possible by use of extraterrestrial resources (and perhaps the elevator for more sophisticated equipment) will open up the other “half of the way to anywhere.”