I research in the related field of memristors. While I agree with skepticism, someone has to first demonstrate that the technology can work. There are typically grants handed out by the government (e.g. SBIR) that spurs interest in first showing that it works over a half a year period, in second developing that idea into more production-worthy product over two or so years, and in finally taking the training wheels off to let people find their own funding to start a small business around a relatively new technology.

My frustration with Slashdot (and no I'm not new here, I'm not really old either, just observing without instantly being pidgeonholed by unfunny nerdy douchebags) is that for actual serious technical matter such as this memristive system, we have idiots making really lame jokes using rehashed memes. You would think people who pride themselves on learning new, esoteric things would also have new, esoteric material.

Bitching aside, this appears to be a GaIn alloy that functions like a fluidic memristor. What is interesting to me is that for the past few years people have been researching flexible substrates so that electronics could fit on the human body (e.g. integrated on a wet suit to control "electropositive shark repellent" when in suspected regions full of sharks [and turned off when not in dangerous territory to maximize battery life]), but I had not heard of actually changing the otherwise solid-state, nanometer-thick, memristive, metal oxide into an amorphous state, organic device to get flexibility as well. The only honest, non-jealous-that-they-thought-of-that-but-i-did-not thought that came to me was: I wonder how durable the devices are...

You non-science, non-engineering types, especially in IT, love to exaggerate and use pontificating language. You clearly don't mean "fucks everything up beyond belief" because it's a meaningless phrase that you picked up from your stupid colleagues in IT. "nothing to keep his ass out of the frying pan" -- is that really necessary? Get to the point and move on.

How hard are backups? rsync, RAID, different storage media, onsite and offsite backups, and cost / benefit analysis to defend the choices. Some of it will be subjective (the "benefit" of something is obviously difficult to gauge and liable to debate). You could suggest some points of reference. That's what every good scientist and every good engineer I've met does -- because they know their worth is not limited to learning some quirks about programs. They design and build stuff. They often debug it. The bad ones constantly overstate their worth and present themselves with a really irritating know-it-all attitude. The bad ones think that by communicating their ideas and helping others out, they are risking job security. The good ones help others learn how to learn. The good ones demonstrate that they know their stuff and understand their worth is not rooted just in knowledge or wisdom, but also in interpersonal skills, often overlooked or downplayed in STEM fields.

I used to be like you in high school. I had worked at a few Fortune 100 companies as a coder / sysadmin type and I didn't realize my douchiness until I left the field in college for computer science, electrical engineering, physics, and chemistry. I know my comments sound a bit harsh, but maybe my tone may make you reevaluate how you behave.

How is that an abuse of data collection?
After all, insurance is a way to spread the risk out over a larger pool of people.
In fact, it's only fair that people who take stupid risks like driving drunk share more of the burden.

I don't think you can get addicted to anti-depressants.

Your last thought intrigues me. What's special about American? I was born in, raised in, and still live in the United States, but I don't understand why you would give blind allegiance or stronger preference for stuff made in your own country. If a product from another country genuinely outperforms a product from the USA on all fronts (cost, efficiency, etc.), why would you stick with the American product? The only conclusion I can make from classical economics (i.e. not behavioral economics) is that you have a higher utility for patriotism than I do.

Why was the epoch chosen to be 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970?
Why didn't we restart it at 2000 amidst the Y2K mess?

The data is somewhat more up-to-date than last year. I disagree with the article in a few points.

First it says: "IronPort Systems estimates that, at its most destructive point in July 2007..."; I'd argue that it was at its most destructive during the September DDoS against multiple sites.