Well I have to admit, those are some pretty snazzy tricks...

Using tor on a per app basis is pretty cool, I wonder what the security implications are for that? If some, but not all of your traffic is going through tor, I wonder if it's easier to disentangle somehow... Probably it's still secure though.

Are they going to stop hiring hitmen? That would be a positive change. How about following up on safety concerns rather than burying them? That's a pretty good idea too.

It probably doesn't do state taxes.

So you're saying it can't play doom?

Well, basically that whole post is simply incorrect.

SpaceX is definitely 1 company the whole company has the same CEO (Gwynne Shotwell) who oversees the whole operation. And for what it's worth, the highly successful falcon 9 definitely was one of those "Lame brained" ideas once. "Landing an orbital class rocket is ****impossible" that was the prevailing wisdom, because it had never been done before. SpaceX is experimenting, figuring out what's actually possible and redesigning a rocket from the ground up. The falcon 9 was the first phase of redesigning, it proved that you can make a rocket cheaper and you can further optimize a staged combustion cycle rocket engine, more than anyone has in the past, and finally it proved that you can land a booster and reuse it. The starship is phase two of that process, (Reusing the whole thing). They've switched from kerosene to methane, a change that will make engines much more reliable for extended use. They've figured out how to make very large rocket bodies out of sheet metal. And they've figured out how to mass produce the first ever reliable full flow staged combustion engines (That's a very big deal)! In short, nothing about Starship is "Lame brained".

The Boca Chica SpaceX is burning money ... This siphons off money from the Falcon SpaceX which takes away from improving the Falcon 9 launch system,

The boca chica facility is not taking money away from development of falcon 9, there is no development of falcon 9, it's done, the design set in stone. Ever since they started ferrying astronauts NASA needs them to stick with a set design. They got that design (called block 3) approved for crew use by NASA and from this point on they're only allowed to make very minor changes to the rocket.

Musk is an idiot but no one can tell him no at his companies.

I actually agree that Musk has some problems and seriously needs some people who can tell him "no". He needs that in his companies and he needs that at home, I think he's got some addictions he needs to deal with before they ruin him.

What's the advantage over signal?

Yeah, that's a problem with all trucks and SUVs though. Personally I think we should take them off the road. Or require a different license to drive them.

If anything is dumb it's limiting your diet.

Right, but I legitimately love the taste of coffee now. Am I wrong? I know I didn't like it as a kid, but does that mean I was correct to not like it then or correct to like it now?

I don't know, but my instinct is that being able to enjoy the flavor of coffee is a real benefit. For instance, I can taste the nuance of coffee flavor in tiramisu. Without gaining an appreciation for coffee flavor, many foods that use that flavor would just taste bad.

You really think they only have one problem to solve? If that were the case this would be relatively easy.

I'm not sure that's accurate.

Take video for example. Using different algorithms you can get a video down half the file size of the original. But with another algorithm you can get it down to 1/4 another can get it down to 1/10. If appropriate quality settings are used, the highly compressed video can look just as good as the original. The algorithm isn't getting rid of noise, it's finding better ways to express the data. Generally the fancier the algorithm, the more tricks it's using, the smaller you can get the data, but it's also usually harder to unpack.

Neurons work in analogue data, I'm not sure lossless algorithms are necessary.

Isn't this all already possible in Germany? I'm pretty sure I remember a story about valve losing a lawsuit some years back so in Germany people are allowed to transfer their games.

Elon Musk promises a lot of things, but doesn't have a good track record on delivering.

SpaceX has a fantastic track record of delivering. So I'm not sure what you're talking about. Just look at the dragon capsule and compare that to Boeing's Starliner. They got funding to the exact same thing and they started work around the same time. So far dragon has done 10 cargo missions and 13 crew missions without any major problems. The Starliner has done 1 test mission in which there were major problems (including a parachute that didn't deploy... yikes), and only recently, years later, 1 crew mission.

Is the SLS a failure? I guess not... but it's not worth the 30 billion we have already put into it for a technological step backward. Calling it a success is like calling the Concord a success, that vehicle flew too.

But the idea that spaceX is losing the space race is just laughable. They're clearly dominating the space race. They put the Russian commercial launch program completely out of business (the Russian space program actually named SpaceX as the reason they gave up). These days SpaceX launches more rockets than the rest of the world combined. Through the savings they see with reusability they can undercut all their competition and still make a great profit. The starship promises to do that to a much greater extent. They're on track to be able to produce these for something in the area of 100 million a piece, and then be able to reuse them up to 100 times. This could bring launch costs down immensely. Can you imagine launching 100 tons to orbit for $10 million? Think of all the things that would suddenly be possible.

I did a quick Google search for "foodborne illness" it brought up this page from the national library of medicine.

This chapter presents information pertinent to foodborne pathogens (bacteria and bacterial toxins, viruses, parasites) and other biological issues (prions)

The word you're looking for is "parasites".

Yeah, the headphone jack thing has been a major sticking point for me. But it seems like it's becoming increasingly unrealistic to hold that line. Just sucking it up and getting a dongle might be the logical way to go...

That's actually a really good question. The short answer is that we don't remember how to. A lot of the techniques used to actually make the parts were poorly documented. That was partly on purpose, everything was top secret because we didn't want the Russians to know how we were doing it all. And now, all the people who did those jobs have gotten old and left the industry.

My kid will go to summer camp soon and I'll have a little bit of time again. Looking forward to it.

I don't think he was expecting an actual answer...

You've written a whole lot for someone who doesn't seem to know what they're talking about.

It has not made orbit.

It has done a suborbital flight.

The difference between getting to space and getting to orbit is well, an orbit.

These statements are intentionally misleading. The starship was less than 100 dv short of orbit when they decided to cut the engines in order to test another flight regime. It takes at least 8500 dv to make orbit, which means they were already 98.8% of the way there and they still had plenty of propellent to spare. All systems were nominal, they could have continued, but they had already proved their capability to make orbit and were now aiming to accomplish more. The fact is, they did achieve the kind of speed you need to reach orbit, but rockets have been able to reach orbit for a long time, that's not impressive, but rockets have only just begun to start returning to earth.

And remember, this is not private money they are burning every time one of these explodes or burns up in the atmosphere. They were given 3 billion American Tax dollars to develop this thing.

So far, the SLS has spent 23 billion tax payer dollars. They have built 1 rocket. But saying they "built" the rocket isn't even fair, as they salvaged the engines from previous space shuttles, expending engines that had previously been reused. What will they do when they run out of pre-built engines? Prices will go up for sure...

Again, the SLS is attempting to use antique engines and essentially develop nothing new, and it has cost the public $23B. The starship is attempting to develop many ground breaking technologies, is so far achieving more of their goals with every launch. And they've spent 3 billion doing all of that.

At this point it may also be worth noting that the SLS has been in development for 14 years, the starship has been in real development for 5-7 years.

I remain in the position I started, to deny that SpaceX is doing something truly astonishing is plain bonkers.