Or would be better faster: the current version's performance appears to be quite impressive, matching FreeBSD and Linux.

Binaries should, with rare occasion, not be under source control anyway.

Ah, delta RPM turns out to use normal compression, no binary diffing is involved:

$ rpm -q deltarpm --requires
libbz2.so.1()(64bit)
libc.so.6()(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.7)(64bit)
librpm.so.0()(64bit)
librpmio.so.0()(64bit)
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) = 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(FileDigests) = 4.6.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) = 4.0-1
rtld(GNU_HASH)

Ah, that is indeed correct. A bit disappointing, but upon reflection, going binary->assembly code->diff would likely result in a larger patch anyway, even if the diff is then compressed efficiently.

There is no need to weaponize the moon -- anything you launch for there would have to clear the lunar gravitation field, and then travel hundreds of thousands of miles. The goal during Reagan's Star Wars era is to militarize near space -- lasers achieve greater intensities at a nearer distance, projectiles get accelerated "for free" by the earth's gravitational field, and below geostationary orbit, you can position a satellite anywhere on the planet within hours.

The cool thing is, one can easily extend this to other executable formats, as long as the assembler is readily available client-side: Windows users could relate to those pesky, resource-hogging Java updates, and .NET and Mono applications could similarly benefit.

This is, interestingly, the second binary diffing innovation that affects me in the past few months. Fedora just turned on delta updates with Fedora 11, a feature borrowed from the openSUSE folks.

By your definition, OS X is not an operating system. It's specifically not licensed to third-parties.

One possibility is if it's taken up by OS vendors (Linux distributions, Apple) as their remote windowing solution. Red Hat/Fedora is heavily VNC-focused -- with the installation process doable over VNC, and both full desktops (GNOME and KDE) coming with their own VNC servers. Apple's OS X also has a VNC server, AFAIR. Microsoft, naturally, has their own solutions...

Google will most likely use this in some way within Chrome OS -- if it shares many innards with Android, the graphics obviously won't be X11-based, and so if their NeatX can be adapted to that, it will make the OS much more usable than just running web apps.

You mean NoProduct(TM)

Honda also has a hydrogen prototype -- the FCX Clarity. What does that have to do with not developing hybrids? A smart car manufacturer would be developing multiple new technologies, and not tie themselves to one.

German car manufacturers were actually even more hydrogen-fixated than the Detroit 3 for a while, but even they are moving to produce hybrids now (Mercedes Benz has a new S-class hybrid coming out, and BMW has models with regenerative braking).

Don't forget being able to completely shut off the gas engine when idling, and the better torque provided by electric motors when accelerating from standstill. Oh, and regenerative braking.

Now, a diesel engine is still more efficient than gasoline-powered hybrids, but Volkswagen is coming up with an interesting hybrid diesel -- it should get around 100 mpg.

Think about Sudoku for a second. Let's say you never played it before. Someone gives you a board and the rules. The first step you have is to figure out how to solve it. Eventually you develop an algorithm that can solve any sudoku. Once you have developed this algorithm, sudoku is no longer an intellectual exercise. It is no longer a matter of solving a problem, but merely executing an algorithm. It becomes manual labor. Likewise, if someone gives you the algorithm, you can bypass the first part entirely.

An MMO is very similar. In the beginning you don't know what to do. You have to learn the game and solve problems. Many of the rules of the game are hidden or secret. Thus, it can take awhile. However, eventually, you learn it. You know exactly what to press in order to do the maximum damage per unit time in any given situation with any given character. You don't even need to learn this, either. Someone can just tell you.

At some point you switch from developing an algorithm to executing an algorithm. You switch from developing a solution to executing a known solution. You switch from skill to knowledge.

This is why there is such an attraction tïo eurogames like Puerto Rico, Agricola, Caylus, Power Grid, Tigris and Euphrates, etc. These games tend to have little to no randomness, so they aren't games of chance. They are complex enough that it is very difficult to solve them, though perhaps not as complex as Go. They also have a significant theme and other elements that make them more "fun" than a game like Go or Chess.

Even so, many eurogames are solvable. We have a shelf full of games, but we only actually play about half of them. For the other half, everyone already knows the algorithm for optimal play. When we play with each other, it becomes a perfect Nash equilibrium. When we play with anyone else who hasn't solved the game, they are completely crushed.

The answer is to never play a game you have solved, and never play games that are easily solvable.

RPMfusion follows Fedora's policy of only supporting the 2 most recent releases (i.e. 10 and 11). I just looked at their repository and indeed, the packages for Fedora 8 and 9 have been removed.

... or Microsoft. Remember FoxPro?