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I still think that a terrestrial space elevator is a decade out, but this year has convinced me that it is coming much faster than a lot of people think.

If we actually return to the moon, might a space elevator be more practical there? Could we do that now?

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lunar_space_elevator

Can anyone here explain why space elevators seem to be the more popular idea among the two?

Launch loops weren't featured in a Gundam series.

If Aether doesn't exist then what's in all that cat5 cable? Admin tears?

Ether.

Launch Loops are indeed far more interesting and practical. Can anyone here explain why space elevators seem to be the more popular idea among the two?

However, Debian GNU/Linux squeeze will not run on 386 or earlier processors. Despite the architecture name "i386", support for actual 80386 processors (and their clones) was dropped with the Sarge (r3.1) release of Debian[2]. (No version of Linux has ever supported the 286 or earlier chips in the series.)

That's not quite true. Despite the 286 lacking a memory management unit (MMU) Linux is available (admittedly without any hardware memory protection) as part of the ELKS project which apparently even supports the 8086 processor.

Now, if you actually meant no version of Debian GNU/Linux ever supported the 80286, then you'd be right on the money.

While ELKS obviously targets embedded platforms nowadays, I have personally installed Linux (can't remember whether it was ELKS) onto a bog-standard 80286 desktop (that had floppies, hard disk and originally ran MS-DOS) about a decade ago (when the original Pentiums were beginning to be obsoleted) as a lark. Beyond basic understanding of Linux and the command-line, absolutely no assembly or hacking required. That said, even back then, it wasn't a terribly productive usage of the machine.

I don't know where you have been buying printers, but most of the low end ones have their own printer language. Samsung uses SPL which is a windows GDI based language. HP uses PCL etc...

Last I checked most of the inkjets were what we used to call "win printers". In that the windows driver does all the rasterization.

You can go to the HP or Samsung site, and "compare" printer models. The language used is listed.

No, that was Unladen Swallow.

You mean like the ones which prevent us from using NiMH batteries in cars?

You're not allowed to 'big' large NiMH batteries, for some definition of the word 'big' defined by the oil companies.

Yes. ORM-D items - which include compressed CO2 cartridges - are prohibited from airplanes. You cannot even ship them via air freight.

Hmm, The article is basically 'Please Invest Here! We want your money to ( thorium is the next big thing technobabble babble babble most people with money aren't nuclear engineers so the naive among them may part with dough yeah that means you, give me your money! )'

What I want to know is how Thorium in cars is doable when Thorium in giant power plants has yet to take off?

What's particularly different than this: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Energy_amplifier

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Assembler_%28computer_programming%29#Related_terminology

Copypasted from Wikipedia:

The High Court's appellate jurisdiction is defined under Section 73 of the Constitution. The High Court can hear appeals from the Supreme Courts of the States, from any federal court or court exercising federal jurisdiction (such as the Federal Court of Australia), and from decisions made by one or more Justices exercising the original jurisdiction of the court.

It seems that the High Court was originally reserved for matters pertaining to the Constitution and Commonwealth offices, but now has a much larger jurisdiction. Of course, IANAL, so can anybody confirm/deny/correct this?

You aren't going to get useful amounts of light to the brain through the ears! Worse, what light you do get will be all dim and orange/reddish, and throw your circadian rhythms for a loop because you think it is sunset all the time. Worthless.

Here, just for my Slashdot friends, is the secret to really showing 'Seasonal Affective Disorder' who is boss:

Simply passing electrons through the cerebrospinal and intracellular fluids of the brain at a speed greater than that of light within those media will bathe the brain in a lovely, broad-spectrum, delicate blue glow. This will stimulate photo-receptors that aural lighting cannot hope to reach.

Unfortunately, due to high costs and a coverup by the alarm-clock/industrial complex, you may have to sneak into a nearby university or DOE laboratory in order to use a linear accelerator of sufficient power. While Cherenkov radiation can also restore vigor to the scalp and reverse balding, you need energy sufficient to pass through the skull in order to see circadian benefits.

Taking a hard line against people just looking to steal TVs though will be effective. If there are similar riots here in the US with similar people involved in it, part of me hopes the police bring out the rubber bullets.

Even the smallest occasion is an opportunity to brutally assert "authority". Collateral damage is of no concern.

Clearly the developers of this web app had to get it to work on Safari, because that's the only vector to get it onto an Apple device.

So, Apple locks out downloading/running any other web browser? How come you didn't say "Clearly the developers had to get it working on IE, because that's the only vector to get it onto a PC"??

Since Firefox works on all computers, and has a higher market share than Safari, it seems that Firefox would have been the better choice.

You sure about that? https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/MiG-31_Firefox.jpg

Your nerd card is hereby suspended for 2 weeks. ;)

Your microwave oven will have a cavity magnetron in it, which is a vacuum tube.

Also, if you have an older TV, CRTs are vacuum tubes.

Your microwave oven will have a cavity magnetron in it, which is a vacuum tube.

Also, if you have an older TV, CRTs are vacuum tubes.

Except sometimes it isn't the flu:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepsis
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Group_A_streptococcal_infection

And for that, wait and see usually results in death

according to a pre-release of the 2010 statement of the Verfassungsschutz (German domestic intelligence service) we have a headcount of 5600 neo nazis.

Take this with a grain of salt, like most government agencies the Verfassungsschutz has a political agenda - every publication is announced by the far-(left||right) wing* with "the data is biased"

*) and everyone else...

Because (assuming they're writing it as a desktop app and not a web app), they would have to decide whether to write Quicken for Linux using GTK (the GNOME UI toolkit, which can look sketchy in KDE), Qt (the KDE toolkit, which can look sketchy in GNOME), or some other one entirely (which looks sketchy everywhere).

Because (assuming they're writing it as a desktop app and not a web app), they would have to decide whether to write Quicken for Linux using GTK (the GNOME UI toolkit, which can look sketchy in KDE), Qt (the KDE toolkit, which can look sketchy in GNOME), or some other one entirely (which looks sketchy everywhere).

The Linux kernel is a success story because it's a very well focused project. Because there's one project. If there were two, and people always would prefer Linuxx and not Linuxs because one is in C and the other in C++ and they would debate which one is better, the Linux kernel as we know it would be nowhere.

Yeah it's good thing Linux is the only free open-source kernel.

"A blurry mess" is not what I saw when I played Super Metroid with eg Super2xSAI; I remember it being remarkably sharp. Check out the example picture from Wikipedia, and then tell me the TV on the right (2xSAI) is "blurry".

I suppose if you zoom in 10x, yes, you can see a "blur", but I dont play a game zoomed in to 10x. Scaling from 320x240 to 800x600 will either result in a blocky mess, or if you apply a filter it "sharpens" (that is, makes the image clearer and more understandable) the image through what you are calling "blur".

As this is free software though, there are not winners or losers in the traditional sense. People happy with Thunderbird, Openoffice and KDE can continue using them. It's not like KDE is going away any time soon, even though Unity so dominates the Linux desktop. Unity is still very heavily dependent on the Gnome framework in terms of libraries and applications. Canonical does not have anywhere near the manpower to handle what the Gnome project handles. It's an ecosystem where everything benefits from everything else - Unity benefits from Gnome, KDE benefits from freedesktop.org work by Gnome developers. And vice versa - the fd.o library which handles PDF format is done mostly by KDE-centric developers - only Carlos Garcia Campos is more Gnome-based.

Compared to Windows or MacOS, a Linux desktop/workstation is a dream platform for developers, so it is never going away. The only question is will it break through to the wider public? As Linus says, Linux had done well on the low end with embedded and mobile, and does well on the high end with servers and "cloud" (whatever cloud means). It also is a popular desktop/workstation for IT people. Now, efforts like Ubuntu are trying to make headway into the standard user desktop area. Although they've been more focused on servers, Red Hat and Suse have done a lot of work in the desktop department as well, something which Canonical benefits from.

Apple single-handedly made tablets and smartphones into the products you recognize today. Before Apple, we had products like...

...this. How horrible.

Outcome n+1: A small but dedicated Anonymous raiding squad wearing Guy Fawkes masks is tunneling under Facebook's data center as we speak and planting dozens of barrels of ANFO. Come the 5th of November, Facebook is quite literally destroyed.
Overall: l33t++. Probability: It will definitely happen in my dreams tonight.

"Yet, just as the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass civil disobedience. According to Andrew Roberts, this was the third time that Gandhi had called off a major campaign, "leaving in the lurch more than 15,000 supporters who were jailed for the cause"." Wikipedia

Gandhi might have been all peaceful, but that doesn't mean there was no implied threat of violence.

British anticipated and solved it in 1932 itself.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Communal_Award

How long did it take the Anonymouse script-kiddies to figure this out?
"When a service is "free," it really means they're making money off of you and your information.'"" Hello - that's been the model of free services for as long as services have been free. You guys need to get a refund for that pot you're smoking and go detox somewhere. People consider it an amicable trade. A few are inconvenienced - boo hoo. Grow a pair and move on.

You, "sir", are a stupid git.

I will tell you WHY you are a stupid git:

It is because you believe that everybody else thinks the same way you do. You believe that they have exactly the same education as you do. You believe that they understand economics, finance, and the banking industry.

Probably more in tune to reality (as opposed to YOUR version of reality) is the fact that most people (especially Americans educated through the American tax system that believes that less taxes means greater freedom, and no taxes means Utopia; Tea Party time!).

Unfortunately most people, through their lack of political acumen, and pro-advertisement based reality have cargo-cult belief systems. So they really DO believe they can get things for free, if they worship the right Corporation.

I remember watching a Frontline episode about credit cards where they interviewed some well dressed, middle class office workers about the credit card industry (they all had credit cards). There answers were based in ignorance and mythology. For example, they believed it was to their advantage to pay down the minimum balance on a credit card (rather than paying the credit card debt off as soon as possible). This may seem stupid to YOU. And yes indeed it is stupid, but what is MORE stupid is believing that everybody else has YOUR common sense notion of reality and logic.

And so, (especially in the United States... where FaceBook is most popular), you have children going to school where their sports teams, and TV-funded lessons are sponsored by advertisements. You believe these people have the knowledge, experience, or education to believe that a CORPORATION would INVADE somebody's privacy. I even remember hearing of pupils who where expelled from school because during a class picture they did not hold up the advertisement flag that the school relies on for corporate sponsorship.

So who is the stupid git? Maybe you should stop bad-mouthing pot-smokers, you ignorant, prejudiced snot.

How long did it take the Anonymouse script-kiddies to figure this out?
"When a service is "free," it really means they're making money off of you and your information.'"" Hello - that's been the model of free services for as long as services have been free. You guys need to get a refund for that pot you're smoking and go detox somewhere. People consider it an amicable trade. A few are inconvenienced - boo hoo. Grow a pair and move on.

You, "sir", are a stupid git.

I will tell you WHY you are a stupid git:

It is because you believe that everybody else thinks the same way you do. You believe that they have exactly the same education as you do. You believe that they understand economics, finance, and the banking industry.

Probably more in tune to reality (as opposed to YOUR version of reality) is the fact that most people (especially Americans educated through the American tax system that believes that less taxes means greater freedom, and no taxes means Utopia; Tea Party time!).

Unfortunately most people, through their lack of political acumen, and pro-advertisement based reality have cargo-cult belief systems. So they really DO believe they can get things for free, if they worship the right Corporation.

I remember watching a Frontline episode about credit cards where they interviewed some well dressed, middle class office workers about the credit card industry (they all had credit cards). There answers were based in ignorance and mythology. For example, they believed it was to their advantage to pay down the minimum balance on a credit card (rather than paying the credit card debt off as soon as possible). This may seem stupid to YOU. And yes indeed it is stupid, but what is MORE stupid is believing that everybody else has YOUR common sense notion of reality and logic.

And so, (especially in the United States... where FaceBook is most popular), you have children going to school where their sports teams, and TV-funded lessons are sponsored by advertisements. You believe these people have the knowledge, experience, or education to believe that a CORPORATION would INVADE somebody's privacy. I even remember hearing of pupils who where expelled from school because during a class picture they did not hold up the advertisement flag that the school relies on for corporate sponsorship.

So who is the stupid git? Maybe you should stop bad-mouthing pot-smokers, you ignorant, prejudiced snot.

This http://www.saares.net/verkkokauppa/files/nokia-e7-00.jpg doesn't look like an iPhone :)

Oh crap! Someone thought of something like iPhone before it came out:
http://alypuhelin.nettisivu.org/files/2011/05/nokia.jpg

SUE SUE SUE SUE!
http://www.brighthand.com/assets/4911.jpg
It resembles an iPhone!
How could they allow such devices as this to exist: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/PalmTX.jpg without a myriad of lawsuits!

So apple took a PDA, wanted 24/7 connectivity, added GPRS to it and noticed it could also be used for calling. (Remember, original iPhones were VERY lacking in phone related features and finishing/polishing)

Best smartphone i know was pretty much a prototype which slipped into mass production:
http://blog.dialaphone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/nokia-n900.JPG

Before that there was N810 which actually predates iPhone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N800

Or for some really early work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_770_Internet_Tablet

Clearly Nokia 770 was too early on the market, before technology properly supported what they wanted to do.

In any case, Apple simply took Mac OS X, stripped it down, took something already built, and added a few hippies to dev team (artists), seriously nothing else.

Before you start your fandroid bashing, i've actually never used android before, getting my first android pad from customs tomorrow to see how it is, and i actually am receiving tomorrow my new phone: Nokia E7-00. Sure some iPhone could have been cheaper to buy, but i want something i can actually do whatever i want with AND make phone calls, and i want to make damn sure it will not fail on me for the next couple years :)

Seriously, you need to take a few weeks off from the sunday mass @ your local apple store.

I think you mean pre-iphone we had this. Look like anything you've seen before? Pics came out ~6 months before the iPhone was announced. Apple made it "cool", they didn't invent the modern smartphone by a long shot.

Well, if you're talking about the UK , it looks like they were reduced successively in 1903, 1920, 1937, 1968, 1988, 1997, and 2006. But if you live there, why are you asking?

Save the JWT? Why should he want to save an American advertising company?

Pretty sure the fact that there was Android devices before the iPhone (incidentally Google bought Android in 2005... way before the iPhone) shows that Google isn't just copying their design and slapping Linux on it. Oh, and the base Android setup looks nothing like the base iPhone setup. Incidentally, you might want to look up the LG Prada, which had pictures of it released into the wild ~6 months before the iPhone (AFAICT) and looks quite similar. In fact, it's quite likely Apple copied that phone in making the iPhone (LG claimed Apple did, but never actually filed suit). So, Apple is in the right? I doubt it.

Pretty sure the fact that there was Android devices before the iPhone (incidentally Google bought Android in 2005... way before the iPhone) shows that Google isn't just copying their design and slapping Linux on it. Oh, and the base Android setup looks nothing like the base iPhone setup. Incidentally, you might want to look up the LG Prada, which had pictures of it released into the wild ~6 months before the iPhone (AFAICT) and looks quite similar. In fact, it's quite likely Apple copied that phone in making the iPhone (LG claimed Apple did, but never actually filed suit). So, Apple is in the right? I doubt it.

What about Gandhi?

According to Wikipedia, LEO is actually ~7-8 km/s. This goes 13. So, this thing IS at orbital speeds.

You work at NASA?

According to Wikipedia, LEO is actually ~7-8 km/s. This goes 13. So, this thing IS at orbital speeds.

Problem is likely height, since the engines likely require air. And, of course, it's starting at high altitude already using a rocket. Most theoretical ground-orbit planes use multiple engines, since many high-speed engines require you to be supersonic already. Still, this tech could potentially give us much cheaper ground-to-orbit methods.

Also, as to where (besides orbit, and since this is DARPA): it's probably for spy planes. Being able to reach anyplace on earth in an hour or two with higher resolution and longer loiter times than any satellite is a huge advantage. The SR-71 was built for precisely that (but was rather expensive and not quite worth it). Not to mention with that kind of speed no missile created can touch you (the SR-71 standard missile evasion tactic was to simply increase speed, and this is 3-4 times faster).

C) God created Man by throwing rocks at the Earth.

hmm, so the objective of throwing stones in Populous was not based on the scientific facts?

Because the police in London do not have a very good track record for honesty over this kind of thing. If there is a suggestion that the police have acted improperly, people are now inclined to believe it, as they are expected to deny everything and smear the victim either way.

Because the police in London do not have a very good track record for honesty over this kind of thing. If there is a suggestion that the police have acted improperly, people are now inclined to believe it, as they are expected to deny everything and smear the victim either way.

There is actually mass involved. See: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection

Bloomberg wanted to charge tolls to drive in NY during congested time periods...apparently London does something like this.

What kind of drugs are you on, and where can I get some? Wait, I don't want to turn into a drooling functional retard, so never mind. How hard is it to check something before making a complete ass of yourself?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Replica-of-first-transistor.jpg

The wiggly thing is a PAPERCLIP. Kill yourself, NOW.

Perhaps even more interesting is what this artist has done in the past.
Check out the wikipedia entry about his life:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Chris_Burden

It's almost surprising that they let him in the museum.

Actually the cost of the 2 wars combined is about $1.1 trillion

Really, because Wikipedia cites a source saying that the cost is somewhere between $2.4bn and $3bn

Obamacare alone is estimated to have a price tag of $2 trillion.

Once again, wikipedia disputes that, citing a source that says it will cost $143 billion[81] over the first decade and by $1.2 trillion in the second decade. So, not only is two trillion too much, you're talking a figure spread over two decades. Even if it were two trillion, that would be $100bn/year.

Actually the cost of the 2 wars combined is about $1.1 trillion

Really, because Wikipedia cites a source saying that the cost is somewhere between $2.4bn and $3bn

Obamacare alone is estimated to have a price tag of $2 trillion.

Once again, wikipedia disputes that, citing a source that says it will cost $143 billion[81] over the first decade and by $1.2 trillion in the second decade. So, not only is two trillion too much, you're talking a figure spread over two decades. Even if it were two trillion, that would be $100bn/year.