I recently spent a weekend trying to update my internet browser. While it was an educational experience for me (which was a main reason to switch to Linux for me to begin with), it made painfully clear why Linux, and Open Source in general, is still unfit for the average user's home desktop. Do you think Open Source on (almost) every desktop is a reasonable vision, and if so, what needs to be done to make open source projects not only easy to use, but easy to install and maintain?
Although anti-matter sounds cool, proposing a universe/galaxy made entirely of anti-matter really isn't any different than a universe/galaxy of matter. What makes anti-matter anti- is that it's electric charge is reversed (or, if you ask Feynman, it's moving backwards through time--but don't get any funky ideas from that, because the 2nd Law of Thermo still guarantees that even for anti-particles entropy will increase, which is what is really driving time in the direction we call foreward). So, since anti-matter is just oppositely charged matter that means that:
There is no such thing as an anti-photon, since there photons do not carry charge (also, there is no such thing as an anti-neutron).
Anti-particles still have positive mass, so there's no such thing (at least from anti-matter) as anti-gravity (or, for that matter, anti-Catholicism).
An anti-matter galaxy would behave exactly like a regular matter galaxy, you'd just never be able to go there without exploding in a huge puff of pure energy.
If science fiction is based on real science and then extends into the unknown, it's a lot better, because you aren't reading along and suddenly think, that's wrong.
For something very interesting, and sufficiently nerdy, I'd check out Chaos or Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by Gleick. I also enjoyed e: The Story of a Number but don't remember the author. Real dorky.
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Having been reduced to a roving band of minstrels, Metallica is now forced to compete with mechanical musicians which people have downloaded from the internet and printed in 3D.
I recently spent a weekend trying to update my internet browser. While it was an educational experience for me (which was a main reason to switch to Linux for me to begin with), it made painfully clear why Linux, and Open Source in general, is still unfit for the average user's home desktop. Do you think Open Source on (almost) every desktop is a reasonable vision, and if so, what needs to be done to make open source projects not only easy to use, but easy to install and maintain?
- There is no such thing as an anti-photon, since there photons do not carry charge (also, there is no such thing as an anti-neutron).
- Anti-particles still have positive mass, so there's no such thing (at least from anti-matter) as anti-gravity (or, for that matter, anti-Catholicism).
- An anti-matter galaxy would behave exactly like a regular matter galaxy, you'd just never be able to go there without exploding in a huge puff of pure energy.
If science fiction is based on real science and then extends into the unknown, it's a lot better, because you aren't reading along and suddenly think, that's wrong.Good Luck!
I'm still waiting for a helicopter in every garage...
For something very interesting, and sufficiently nerdy, I'd check out Chaos or Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by Gleick. I also enjoyed e: The Story of a Number but don't remember the author. Real dorky.