Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!sun!halftone!dwight
From: dwight%halftone@Sun.COM (Dwight Wilcox)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: USSR Microcomputers: How far behind US?
Message-ID: <102994@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 4 May 89 16:54:40 GMT
References: <1805@orion.cf.uci.edu> <8013@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <528@laic.UUCP> <1905@etive.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: dwightw@sun.UUCP (Dwightw Wilcox)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 24

(An exchange about US superiority in micro computers)
>
>Well, in Space Research in particular, I get the impression that the USSR
>have some advantages. How come their space shuttle can land itself, but the
>American one can't?
>
>		Nick
>Nick Rothwell,	Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh.
>		nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk    <Atlantic Ocean>!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!nick
>~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
>               Fais que ton reve soit plus long que la nuit.


See Richard Feynman's report on the Shuttle disaster.  The shuttle
can land itself; the only "pilot" actions absolutely necessary
in a normal landing are: 

1)  Push a button to select Edwards or Kennedy.

2)  Push a button to lower the landing gear.

Maybe I'm cynical, but I think that the reason that these buttons are
there is so a NASA publicist can talk about how absolutely 
necessary the man in the machine is.