Is it getting harder to tell the difference because the bots are getting smarter, or simply because the intellectual level of an average random chat session keeps plummeting?
I can't speak for small hard drives, but a great thing you can do with a 40 GB external hard drive is to install a persistent live linux disk to it. One of the best seems to be portable linux.
That way, you always have a bootable OS around which will work with just about any hardware that can boot from USB, which is really valuable for troubleshooting, etc. I use mine to do things like fix grub problems, or use gparted to resize partitions, etc. With a persistence-capable live distro, you can customize all your settings and install any tools you like which aren't included on the default live disk, and even treat it as a mobile home when you're traveling.
While all this garbage about the LHC causing the end of the world is nonsense, cosmic rays don't really provide the proof.
Yes, ridiculously high energy (in fact, higher energy than our current astrophysical theories can explain; see the GZK paradox ) cosmic rays are constantly striking the atmosphere, and constantly forming micro-black holes. But, these black holes are moving close enough to the speed of light that they pass right through almost instantly.
If a stable black hole were created at the LHC, it would be roughly at rest w.r.t. the earth, and therefore pulled down to the core by the earth's gravity, rather than escaping.
The key phrase is the "if stable", which they won't be
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Is it getting harder to tell the difference because the bots are getting smarter, or simply because the intellectual level of an average random chat session keeps plummeting?
I can't speak for small hard drives, but a great thing you can do with a 40 GB external hard drive is to install a persistent live linux disk to it. One of the best seems to be portable linux. That way, you always have a bootable OS around which will work with just about any hardware that can boot from USB, which is really valuable for troubleshooting, etc. I use mine to do things like fix grub problems, or use gparted to resize partitions, etc. With a persistence-capable live distro, you can customize all your settings and install any tools you like which aren't included on the default live disk, and even treat it as a mobile home when you're traveling.
While all this garbage about the LHC causing the end of the world is nonsense, cosmic rays don't really provide the proof. Yes, ridiculously high energy (in fact, higher energy than our current astrophysical theories can explain; see the GZK paradox ) cosmic rays are constantly striking the atmosphere, and constantly forming micro-black holes. But, these black holes are moving close enough to the speed of light that they pass right through almost instantly. If a stable black hole were created at the LHC, it would be roughly at rest w.r.t. the earth, and therefore pulled down to the core by the earth's gravity, rather than escaping. The key phrase is the "if stable", which they won't be