Category Archives: Technology and Society

Administrative, General, Technology and Society

Back On The Air

21 Comments

We got back from the funeral in Michigan yesterday morning, and I’m slowly getting my computer functional again. I had to reinstall the OS, and I’m still not sure I’ve solved the problem that I installed a new graphics card for. I’m slowly/painfully restoring the functionality in terms of software, and configuration of things like Thunderbird, Brave, Chrome, which lost all their settings after I reinstalled the OS, despite the fact that /home is on a separate drive that I mount after boot. Anyway, I’ll start posting again soon. There’ve been a lot of interesting developments in space policy…

[Thursday-morning update]

For those curious, I was having difficulty in that the machine was running like molasses, and it was initially diagnosed by Grok as an incompatibility between Wayland and my old GPU. So I replaced the GPU (a hundred-buck RX500 card), but it didn’t solve the problem. I couldn’t get it to boot with Xorg, and long story short, I finally solved it by switching from Gnome to KDE…

[Thursday-morning update]

I’ve finally run down the issue. It wasn’t software; it was hardware. My /home drive is failing. Out to get a new one.

[Friday-the-13th update]

Drove down to Irvine to Microcenter and bought a new Seagate 4T drive. I disconnected the old one, connected it the new one, formatted it ext4, reconnected the old one, mounted both, and I’m doing rsync from the old to the new.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Great Space Policy News

28 Comments

I don’t have time to comment, but it looks like Jared is winning over the Senate.

History, Political Commentary, Technology and Society, War Commentary

The First Day Of The War

68 Comments

The Mullahs (I’m not going to call them “Iran”) are impotent, and just made enemies of everyone in the region.

[Monday-morning update]

Still trying to get my computer straightened out (having issues with X and the new graphics card) but here’s a good recap of the war so far, from Roger Kimball.

[Afternoon update]

Thoughts on Trumps strategy:

[Wednesday-morning update]

When the can finally stops getting kicked down the road.

It’s been far too long.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

A Good First Step

45 Comments

Not as good as a cancellation of SLS, but it’s a redirection toward some semblance of programmatic sanity.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Eric Berger has the story.

And, of course, Boeing continues the lies: ” “The SLS core stage remains the world’s most powerful rocket stage, and the only one that can carry American astronauts directly to the moon and beyond in a single launch.”

[Update a while later]

Business, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Business As Usual

51 Comments

Looks like April now (at best). Also looks like Starship 3 before Artemis II.

[Update a few minutes later]

[Afternoon update]

Sorry, second X post fixed now.

[Sunday-morning update]

Mark Whittington (!) says commercial space to the rescue.

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Brutal

33 Comments

The new NASA administrator’s assessment of both NASA and Boeing’s performance on Commercial Crew:

[Late-afternoon update]

I don’t think that “Yikes!” really covers the waterfront here:

Here‘s Eric Berger’s story.

[Evening update]

Thoughts from Bob Zimmerman.

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Making Space Important

25 Comments

A thought experiment, to which I’ve gotten little response so far.