Never going to happen. Period. Apple would never sell any product that would either enter them into the race to the bottom market that Dell, HP, et. al., compete in, or lower the high profit margins that they currently enjoy. It's just not going to happen because 1-2 thousand hobbyists are clammering for it.

You should be an analyst. Your predictions are just as accurate as theirs are in forecasting Apple's future.

Steve Squyres of the Mars Rover mission won't be in on this one, but about ten years ago on BBC's The Planets series, he discussed designing a lander/sub mission to Europa. The lander would melt through the ice, turn into a sub, and start exploring the ocean beneath.

While I'm optimistic that this will happen someday, I'm sad that I won't see it in my lifetime.

Yeah I'll give you guys that. Apple's software for Windows SUCKS, and always has. The same problems don't occur in Mac OS X. Why they write shitware versions of their Mac apps and spread forceware to Windows machines is fucking stupid. No excuse, Apple, and I'm what the juvenile labelers of the world would probably call a "fanboy."

Or if you wanted to be truly pedantic, all bodies orbiting other bodies are satellites. You make a good point about the media giving it the name of our satellite, Moon, and attaching "second" to it :)

I replied to your post on the blog and also referenced that reply here on Slashdot when someone else brought up the same point. I've posted the links for the sake of not repeating if you're interested.

BTW, there is reason to believe that even this "asteroid" may be man-made, and merely something that achieved Earth escape velocity and is now merely orbiting the Sun instead, like the Apollo 12 3rd stage engine of the Saturn V. Not all of the objects that went into solar orbit have been tracked, so perhaps this is one coming back home?

Someone had made this same point at Universe Today. I think it would be extremely fascinating to study a returning deep space probe that's in heliocentric orbit, such as the first Luna, Rangers 3 and 5, or one of the Mariner flyby probes. I would be very interested to see what effect 50 years of solar orbit has done to the structure, electronics, etc.

Not being cynical, but I don't think the funds would ever be available for such a mission. But one can dream...

Nathan Explosion would be proud.

Everyone seems to be forgetting that Mars is bombarded by constant radiation from the Sun. It's entirely possible that there's a wee little bit more processing to do :)

I say "possible" due to the fact that I haven't researched the solubility of radioactive materials in water.

Put up or shut up.

Post some cites of your dogmatic propaganda. Until then, I call bullshit.

Of course, if you weren't such a pussy and actually believed the garbage you've spewed, you wouldn't have posted as AC. I can regurgitate vomitous crap that talk radio has fed me as well.

... thy name is hit whore.

Anyway, it is certainly quite annoying that they basically tell people like you, "F you, we don't even want your money." And even more annoyingly, it looks like they really don't need money from people like you.

Funny, but it seems that 26 billion bucks in the bank says that they a lot of money from a lot of people.

Look, I live a very simple live. I work in the restaurant business where I make jack SHIT for cash. My choice. But it's something I'm good at, and I'm never without a job. I rent an apartment, drive a used car, not dumb enough to use credit cards or father money-sucking children, blah blah blah. You get the idea; your typical high school graduate- only loser.

But you know what?

I bought a Macbook Pro, brand new, BY SAVING MY MONEY. And Apple took that money.

It's simple. People want cheap ass Macs. And they aren't going to get them. And somehow, that's Apple's fault.

It's a pathetic entitlement attitude that cheapos have adopted, because they can buy a piece of crap running Windows for $500.

Too bad. Save your money. I did.

That's not for sale except as part of the Wii. But I can buy a copy of OSX in a box at bestbuy for under $200.

For installation on your Apple-branded computer, i.e. a Macintosh. Read the license.

It's simple. Rather than let themselves be nearly destroyed again by clone makers, they'll simply pull the retail version of the OS X upgrade from the market. Bye bye clone market. But this won't affect the already-pirating OSX86 cloners.

Apple wants to be a "boutique" computer maker, where they control the entire widget. They own all of the rights, the code, the hardware, and put all of the R&D into the product. They can sell it however they want to; people who want cheapass Macs be damned.

I still don't get where this entitlement attitude comes from. Apple isn't Microsoft; their OS isn't designed, or licensed, to run on anything but Apple-branded hardware, regardless of the processor it runs. Don't like it? Don't like the price of Mac? Then don't buy one. But don't think that you have some special right to break license agreements.

Lack of argument, thy name is strawman...