305 karma · joined January 9, 2015
I do have some maintainability concerns though about the promulgation of numerous competing home-brew solutions to a near trivial problem throughout a code base.
I do see a need for patents on pharmaceuticals, where the costs of gaining FDA approval is much more significant than the cost of reverse engineering a generic version of a medicine. But software? No.
This seems like an exceptionally silly expense for a device which is designed to carry two pounds of water around!
Just as SpaceX first showed that they could launch a payload to orbit, then showed that they could do it repeatedly; just as they first showed that they could land a booster, then showed they could do so dependably; just as they showed they could reuse a booster, then showed that they could do this rapidly and reliably.
First Tesla showed that they could meet their 5000 cars per week goal, now they have to show that they can do so repeatedly. I have a hunch that they'll do it.
But, the government posts judicial proceedings, which are a matter of public record, but for minor crimes will expunge the record for a small fee. That's a perfectly legal government function.
These two situations seem a bit too close for such disparate legal outcomes.
I can see something like this being a part of the audiophile attraction to these types of components: that every time the owner adds a new set of magic interconnect cables, magic power cables, or whatever, they imaging that they hear an improvement. In the end, they have a lot of themselves invested in their "rig", as they call them, and so find it easy to hear virtues that aren't really there.
Given the bad press that Tesla gets after any Autopilot driven accident, GM seems to have made a safe choice here.
It seems that there's plenty of room for good programs no matter what their country of origin.
A few of the other problems with this increased drive to send people to collage is that now a collage degree is required -- as the article points out -- as a signal of employability even for jobs where a high school education would suffice; a drive away from trade school, even when a job in the trades pays well and is quite secure; and of course the debt load that comes with collage, even for a degree is in a field with little chance of providing a good return on the cost of the degree.
It would also be disappointing if a worthy scientific payload were to be blown up on launch, an event which Musk seems to think is quite likely.