Curmudgeons Corner

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Robot Guy has an analysis of the current space effort entitled "Why Do Space At All." The analysis contains all of the usual complaints about NASA. It is bureaucratic. It wastes money. It is not using the right hardware to go back to the Moon.

The first two complaints are certainly true, but I think irrelevant. The third is debatable (and indeed is being debated ad infinitum, ad nauseum.)

Any government agency tasked with doing anything is going to be bureaucratic and waste money. It is in their nature. Complaining about that fact is sort of like complaining that a Bengal tiger tends to maul and eat other living creatures. The trick is not to wish that NASA did not behave like a government agency, but to find ways to reduce those bureaucratic and wasteful tendencies as much as possible.

Providing focus on a single mission, which the Vision for Space Exploration tries to do is one way. Encouraging innovative programs, such as COTS and the Centennial Challenges is another.

Balancing out NASA's bureaucratic and wasteful ways is that it has access to far more money than any private business could realistically have. A lot can be done with 16, 17, 18 billion a year, even considering NASA's infrastructure needs.

That leads us to the third complaint and there I am in the midst of a puzzlement as to why it persists. Despite the hyper ventilation from certain quarters, there seems to be no evidence that the Orion/Ares approach is so dysfunctional that it is bound to fail. Is it the absolute best way to get back to the Moon? Define "best."

In the best of all possible universes, with no budgetary and political constraints, it probably isn't. But we don't live in that universe; we live in ours. So we have to make do.

And, really, isn't complaining about Orion/Ares sort of like complaining to President Jefferson that Lewis and Clarke were not going to get to the Pacific is the best possible way. It would be inconceivable two hundred years ago to suggest that the best way to cross the Louisiana Purchase would be to walk and paddle about in collapsible boats (which had all sorts of problems that would sound familiar to rocket scientists today.) But the answer would not be to hold Lewis and Clark back while we argue over methods.

The first mass migration to the American West took place using Conestoga wagons. But the really interesting fact is that most people who went west in the 19th Century took the train. Neither technology was directly the result of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But their exploration did show that the West was worth going to, worth settling.

I suspect that is what will happen with VSE. Most people in this century will not migrate to space because of any transportation technology developed by VSE. But because those future astronauts will have explored the Moon, Mars, and asteroids, discovering resources that will enrich our species, those that follow will develop the means to get at those resources cheaply and reliably. A lunar base will serve as a destination, given a lunar COTS program especially, for those inventive folks who want to go back to the Moon on their own dime.

It is therefore not NASA's job to build the rockets (or space elevator) that will get you beyond the Earth. That is your job. I suggest getting to it.

Conference countdown

The New Craft Future Voices conference is due to open in just over one month. It offers the opportunity to hear prominent international keynote speakers that include Paul Greenhalgh, Bruce Metcalf, Joruun Veiteberg, Marie O'Mahony and Sandra Alfoldy.

This will be the first craft conference to fully integrate theory and practice. Alongside a conference programme that includes over 50 papers from academic researchers and practitioners, there is a major international exhibition that showcases 26 exhibit proposals from seven countries, and represents a total of 37 practitioners and over 70 pieces of work. Digital, Radical, Innovative, Fine and Process - the exhibition exposes a diversity of activities within the crafts and takes stock of its fast changing cultural and creative role. Attendees will also receive a fully published set of conference proceedings. There is still the opportunity to register for the conference by visiting the conference website.

If you are attending, we wish to hear from you. Our intention is to develop a rich discourse around the future of craft. So, leave a comment here that addresses one or all of these questions:

• What will you be bringing to the conference?
• What are the key questions on the future of craft you want to raise?
• What are the priorities for the future of craft?
• How can we better develop an international craft research community?

Red Hat crafts new OS for the small and poor

Summit Between 9 a.m. and noon, Red Hat developed a new desktop operating system strategy.

CEO Matthew Szulik and CTO Brain Stevens spent much of their morning time in front of Red Hat Summit attendees here dropping vague hints about a new desktop OS. The executives, however, refused to answer any specific questions. Instead, they talked in lofty terms about shipping a desktop as a service, creating a "new paradigm" in the process.

In reality, Red Hat's latest desktop play isn't new or cutting edge at all. The software maker will work with Intel's white box business to pre-install something called Red Hat Global Desktop on PCs and notebooks. The software/hardware pairing will be aimed at small businesses and governments in developing countries, primarily those in Asia, South America and Africa.

Let's be very clear here. Most of you reading about Red Hat Global Desktop will not be able to get the software in its refined form. Red Hat has no plans at this time to ship systems with the OS to North America or Europe. Those countries that do receive the OS will only see it on a most limited number of Intel-based systems.

At its core, Red Hat Global Desktop is a trimmed down version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 – a product aimed at corporate workstation users. The thinner OS has close to 700 applications where RHEL D5 has close to 1,500. Red Hat Global Desktop will also run on lower-end, cheaper systems and have a two-year support cycle instead of the seven-year support on RHEL D5.

Red Hat plans to release a new version of Global Desktop every year.

"The whole thing is about speeding new features and innovation," said Gerry Riveros, a marketing manager at Red Hat, during a press conference.

Red Hat will have to work very fast to ship the features it promised earlier in the day.

For example, CTO Stevens talked about shipping Google Docs-style applications for Red Hat that are web- as opposed to client-based. The executive also talked up a revamped GUI for desktop operating systems.

"(Global Desktop) will evolve into all the stuff (Stevens) is talking about," Riveros said.

Red Hat's message, however, is more than confusing.

Time and again, executives derided the notion of "shipping another Windows clone." That old desktop model is dead, they said.

But, when asked about what Global Desktop will look like, Riveros said, "It's the same desktop that you and I are used to."

Red Hat's orchestration of the Global Desktop reveal proved odd as well. As mentioned, company executives refused to answer desktop Linux questions during the morning sessions simply because they wanted to announce Global Desktop at noon. Three hours passed and then the company rolled Stevens out once again – this time giving him permission to respond to reporters' queries.

Red Hat remains cagey about the pricing details for Global Desktop. It won’t say how much OEMs are paying for the software until it ships with products in July.

Red Hat's attack here proves far more limited than, say, Canonical's recent move securing Dell as a distributor of Ubuntu on PCs and laptops. Dell and Canonical seem willing to throw Linux at a broader set of consumers and business customers than Red Hat.

You can, of course, special order Red Hat Linux for Dell boxes. But Red Hat still isn't willing to try and team with a major OEM to mass market a really fantastic version of Linux attractive to a wider audience.

Red Hat has done and abandoned the consumer Linux thing before. This time around, a very limited set of customers will see a trimmed down OS on systems from white box makers. For the rest of us, it's a waiting game.

You'll have to wait to see Red Hat expand the program to other countries, so that the, er, Global Desktop becomes global. You'll also have to wait for Red Hat to craft something that really isn't a traditional desktop clone. ®

Craft in America, Pt. 2

Did you catch it?

I settled into to watch the 3 hour airing of CRAFT IN AMERICA, ready be inspired and educated. I was not disappointed. I love to watch artists working! I love to hear them talk about their process. I want to know what drew them to a specific craft. For three hours I felt like I was sitting at the feet of these artists, drinking in their lives.

It was wonderful.

It is the best part of my job here as CE for hobbies. Many professional craftspersons and artists reject the category when listing their blogs here, yet there are many bloggers who began their craft blogs as hobbyists and have grown to professionals in part because of their blogs. They build community online, support each other and regularly give us glimpses of their process.

And I "have to" read their words to share them with you. I tell ya, sometimes life is hard.

Among my favorite "process sharing" craft bloggers:

Sharon B's In A Minute Ago shares everything one might wish to know about embroidery and bead embellishment.

Melody Johnson's FiberMania. When asked once why she doesn't write a book, she explained she has a blog!!

I have explained how to fuse, how I make patterns, how I dye, how to do the Escape Hatch Finish, how I knit, and how I paint and of course how I party. You don’t get menus and Mexican recipes in a quilt book, do you?

What would I put in a book that I haven’t tried to blog?

Posie Gets Cozy. Gorgeous photos, charming writing and super cute clothes!

Sonji Hunt has wonderfully visual art, a blog full of bubbly run on sentences and tutorials for many of her techniques.

not martha. A fun blog.. a entire catagory of "how to make stuff"!

Whip Up. Brilliant.

While I'm at it, I'm going to add one that's new-to-me and new-to-BlogHer. Noell Hyman produces Paperclipping. It's a Scrapbooking Video Podcast. Hmm.. I normally download podcasts to my chocolate phone and listen to them at the gym. Will have to see if I can watch this in a similar way!

Debra Roby blogs her art at A Stitch in Time and her life at Deb's Daily Distractions .