Your lady won't be happy with that.

There's a lot of talk about wind energy in Germany, but in truth most of our energy stems from coal and natural gas plants. And that's not going to change in the foreseeable future. Check out the up-to-date statistics on power production in Germany that eex provides.

Microsoft has been aware of the patent. It's even referenced in Microsofts own patent on displaying tiles on mobile devices.

No kidding.

Obviously, you don't use a rock, you use a wand. It works - even if it doesn't work - by giving you a justification to search any car you want.

Finally good news for the members of the Church of Scientology, probably the most ridiculed religion on earth.

If the bike lanes are not usable due to snow or ice, you're allowed to use the road in Germany.

Yeah. Space travel was more exciting before I was a kid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bLH11-DbqM

Realistically, the messages are messages to ourselves. It's ok for them to be about what we want to be, to provide inspiration to our descendants and ourselves.

I prefer the Voyager discs. They provide a more positive look on mankind. These photos look more like a guilt trip.

It's dangerous because cars will overlook you. You're often hidden behind parking cars or bushes and cars will turn a right without noticing you. Also when a car exists a driveway, they won't expect anyone fast on the sidewalk. And you can't avoid the car because all escape routes are blocked by walls, fences and parking cars.

1. Bikes don't belong on the sidewalk. That's incredibly dangerous. They belong on the road and in most European countries they are not allowed to use the sidewalk.

2. Two years after Australia made helmets for cyclists mandatory, the number of cyclists was cut in half. The total number of severe accidents involving cyclists stayed the same. The net effect was therefore to make cycling twice as dangerous.

In theory, pure software patents do not exist in Germany as well as the rest of the EU. However, computer implemented inventions are recognized as long as they contain a physical component. An ABS is the prime example of what this regulation was intended for.

The regulation provides a large enough loophole to patent any kind of software and the EU patent office is happy to exploit that. While you can't patent algorithm A, you can patent running algorithm A on a computer (physical device). Sadly, the Landgericht München, which sits close to the EU patent office in Munich, has started to recognize this line of reasoning.

Yeah. I miss the times when web pages were finely crafted for a specific resolution.

Can you introduce us? I'll bring my phone.

The Rift has three advantages over existing affordable headsets:
    1. Large field of view
    2. Low lag when rotating the head
    3. Optics that concentrate the pixel density in the center, where vision is best

However, if you move your viewpoint without moving yourself, there still is a disconnect between what you see and what your inner ear reports. This can cause nausea. Palmer has done some experiments with galvanic stimulation of the inner ear. But this is still far away from being safe enough for public consumption.

Furthermore, your eyes remain focused at infinity, even if you look at closer objects. This might cause eyestrain or headache or just look wrong.

I'm excited about the Rift myself and it seems to be far better than what has been affordable so far. While the immersion will be great, some basic problems remain. Whether VR headsets will appeal to a large enough market outside the military remains to be seen.