[plt-scheme] Re: More pedagogic stuff

On Aug 13, 2008, at 2:14 PM, Michael Schuerig wrote:

> Then there a projects that are just too big to fail, or perceived that
> way at any rate. Consider: NASA has put men on the moon some 40 years
> ago, why is it taking them so incredibly long to repeat that feat?
> Wouldn't you rather expect to be able to book a weekend holiday at the
> edge of crater Tycho by this time?


The people who put men on the moon were hackers in the best sense of  
the term. Today these people are bogged down by bureaucracy. I heard a  
Navy guy at a conference last year reminiscing about some fix for some  
project that they accomplished in one day - to the amazement of the  
Air Force where that would have taken six months - before the next bug  
fix could be approved and committed.

Of course, these hackers knew that people's lives depended on them  
doing their work right (just like the paratroopers know that they  
better learn what to do if they want to live).

-- Viera