[chat] Eric, Ray
Eric: You are right about the smoke! I noticed that my last trip a couple years ago, but my initials were carved 20 years before that, before I even started smoking. (I've since quit, but fear I will never mind being downwind of a smoking cigarette--what a habit!)
Ray: Couldn't find my NASA stuff. For years they published a glossy magazine called SPIN-OFF, a haphazard and glossy attempt to show how the space program paid off. My recollection is that the minimum multiplier was a factor of 7, that is, for every dollar spent on NASA, the payback to the civilian world was at least $7. Moreover, this never counted the "unquantifiables," not least of which were entirely new management systems and inventory methods. In my opinion, 7 is a minimum.
By the way, regarding your previous article on Net usage, last month's WIRED magazine had a paragraph indicating that for certain kinds of advertisers, for the first time, evidence was accumulating that Internet ads could pay off.
-- Tom |
