[kurts_mustache]

> When the rover had an issue they actually used the helicoptor's userspace command line GNU utilities to debug and get logs from the rover to send to Earth.

Wow, such a great testament to The Unix Philosophy of building small, modular, focused tools that can be combined together to do all sorts of interesting and more complex tasks. I'm sure no one imagined using these utilities from a helicopter to retrieve rover logs to aid in diagnostics, but here we are. What a cool story.

[rigid]

now if we just teach those tools to kids instead of turning them into spreadsheet office robots, that would be great.

[rajamaka]

I imagine NASA is built and operated on a foundation of thousands of spreadsheets

[TeMPOraL]

Spreadsheets are the best thing in computing since a Lisp REPL. Half of the startups today would be much better (in terms of utility, simplicity and ergonomics) for users and customers if they were served in form of a downloadable Excel sheet.

[zelphirkalt]

Almost agree, 'xcept for the "Excel" part, which I would switch against "spreadsheet".