Not all stars create black holes when they collapse. Ours won't.

  I'm not a astrophysicist but as I understand it:

Black holes are formed when the gravity of the collapsing star is large enough to collapse its matter and information into a singularity. The star doesn't gain gravity in the process(unless other matter or other stars collapses in with it). The black hole has as much sucking power as the star did, except now there's a definitive "event horizon" where, if you get stuck, no amount of energy in the universe will pull you out(previously, the area where the event horizon is currently located, there would have been star).

Many stars are not big enough to have that much gravity. And I seriously doubt a tiny spec being shot at by a superlaser has enough pulling power to suck up a grain of rice, let alone collapse into a singularity. And, even if it did, the singularity would die pretty damn quickly.

The grammar in this review caused me to reread certain sentences and paragraphs...

Seriously, for spending so much time hammering on a book's grammar, a good proofread could have been performed for credibility's sake.

Don't get me wrong. I hardly ever act as grammar Nazi("Me fail English? Unpossible!"). But Mr terrywallwork should have a look at this fine article:

http://www.waylink-english.co.uk/?page=61070

Pfft, I've been using "decahectometers" ever since I saw the term "megagig" on Smallville.

Except that the concept of hyperspace as this shared hallucination whereupon we fly amidst streams of light is outmoded and proven to be highly impractical(why 'fly' to some corporate area when we can simply click a link to it...far less dramatic, yes, but most definitely more practical and responsive).

It works in anime because, well it's anime. We're used to seeing crazy shit in anime. Maybe a Neuromancer anime.

We tried it a couple times on film: Johnny Mnemonic(that one with Gibson's own hand in the pot) and Virtuosity.

Both are fairly goofy by today's standards. And we can't make it look any more 'real' because doing so would effectively remove the VR element they were striving for in the first place(it would be like rendering Reboot photorealistically).

In the sense that the closest you're going to get is Ghost in the Shell(or the S.A.C. derivatives).

The cyberspace reality that Neuromancer relies on is simply outmoded in this day and age. Trying to pass it as modern will simply look silly. The only alternative is to modify it greatly so that it is modern, but then you have Ghost In The Shell again.

Don't get me wrong, I still hold Neuromancer in extremely high regard, it is truly a fantastic book. It just won't translate to film very well without coming across as either a comedy, a confusing mash or as close to the source material as Will Smith's "I,Robot".

Just for context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Flag_Linux

However, Android being an open source Linux based OS, they'll just take it, change it and call it "Red Robot" or something with different PIMs then default(though, being China, likely direct ripoffs with the G logo changed to a Chinese flag). This won't affect its ability to be marketed in China at all.

Where I work at they get around this by installing differing versions of each module into it's own directory and having a core installed module load up the appropriate paths in @INC at compile time. All it requires is the scripter specify which modules they need and what versions of those via the 'use' statement.

It prevents newer versions from breaking older distros until such a time as when it's properly tested and vetted.

I wonder how much of that is due to the massive migration away from original stories and properties towards those horrifically unoriginal and mass produced licensed works.

Seriously, more and more I see people buying the newest Halo, Star Wars, Star Trek or Warcraft book then trying out new, original fiction. Readers tend to gravitate to the comfortable rather then the possibly mind-blowing.

This will only get worse if borrowing books is made tedious by ebook DRM.

Well, typos notwithstanding...

Tell me what, exactly, does Foundation realistically predict? It was a retelling of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire in space with funny maths, glowey nuclear bits and, most importantly, damn good writing.

It was entertaining without being preachy or predictive. Not all sci-fi need tell us what we should develop. In my opinion, that's what's causing so much of the crap sci-fi bulk shit I see in bookstores now: They focus too much on showing us this "cool idea for a toy" the author had instead of trying to tell an engaging story.

Do I need to know how the pocket raygun works? No. Will I be entertained just the same if the author states its use like this:

"Blinded by the flash, [protagonist] waits for his eyes to readjust. 'Dammit....' was the only thing he could think to utter while his mind was tackling the sheer whiteness his eyes continued to show him as well as the hot and cold sensations that followed the initial nova. At last, he could make out a hazy image of his nemesis, still wielding the phasegun and still directing its barrel at what had previously been a quite sturdy wall, the edges of of new hole glowing red hot while frost accumulated on the tip of the pistol."

Presumably.

If you read my comment again, I mention the fact that WinAmp is actively downloading the file as you're listening to it. Some plugins let you keep the file afterwards.

Not saying the Usenet idea isn't also applicable, however.

I distinctly remembered several TV-via-shoutcast stations as well as some radio ones. I listened to the HHG2TG radio play via one of those. If that isn't episodic, I don't know what is.

So:

-Released before 2003
-Allowed episodic media to be downloaded automatically and in order
-Subscriptions often involved whitelisting your IP with the main server for infinite streaming at a small cost.