Try landing on Gilly in Kerbal Space Program... any sneeze, in the near-zero gravity of a small asteroid/comet, will send you tumbling endlessly.

The Volt has a pressurized fuel compartment, so the gas is good for up to a year, and the computer in the car alerts you when the gas has not been used and to turn on the engine.

On the coldest day last year (sub 0F), my Volt had about 25 miles range. In the spring, with mild temperatures, I can get 40 miles. In the summer, with temps up to 100F, I get about 35-37 miles. It drives fantastic on the snow, as the batteries provide even weight distribution and a low center of gravity.

I am never concerned about range, as I have a tank of gas as backup. I try to avoid using gas, not only to be green, but I am a cheap bastard and do not want to spend 3 the fuel cost for gas.

For many software patents, I'd agree with you.

The problem with video compression is that many of the patents involved do represent real research, the expensive kind. They aren't one-click shopping patents. They're fundamentally pushing forward the state of the art. The people who do that work are expensive and need a lot of time, so, there has to be some way to pay for their efforts. Google's approach of subsidising all research via search ads is perhaps not as robust as one might hope for, even though it's convenient at the moment.

I don't know if DASH specifically is complex enough to deserve patent protection, but if you look at the massive efforts that go into the development of codecs like h.264, h.265 etc, the picture gets more complex. It's not pharmaceutical level research budgets but it's probably the closest the software world gets.

No, the issue is that it's open source and carriers customise the components. Android had a working online update infrastructure since day one, actually since before Apple did. But that's no use when the first thing OEMs do is repoint those mechanisms at their own servers and make huge changes to the code.

The comparisons with Linux are especially strange. Guess what? Upstreams who develop software for Linux and see it get repackaged by distributors are in exactly the same boat as Google. They see their software get packaged up, distributed, bugs possibly introduced and then upgrades may or may not make it to users. Yeah yeah, Debian say they backport security fixes. That's great when it's a popular package and a one liner. When the security fix in question is a major architectural upgrade, like adding a sandbox to an app, then users just get left behind on old versions without the upgrades because that's the "stable" version.

And of course many users are on Linux distros that stop being supported pretty quick. Then you're in the same boat as Android: old versions don't get updates.

Don't worry, NuPlayer is sure to have its own unique collection of buffer overflows!

Governments don't always suck at providing services, you know. The BBC is one of the only major news outlets that does actually try to be unbiased, even if they aren't always perfect at it.

Picture this at a management meeting:

"Our stock is at an all-time low, profits are down, moral is gone, all our good engineers have left. What are we gonna do?"

"I know! We'll ban casual dress, that'll solve the issues."

(Boss) "That's brilliant! Raises for everyone!"

__

Something like that perhaps? H and P must be spinning in their graves...

It would appear that the law can be adapted to be either no or never.

That is why I do it on my tablet and not my phone. Worse case scenario, I have to restore a backup from the week before. The day I give notice is the day I remove the corporate software. The convenience of using the tablet over having to boot up the work laptop all the time outweighs the minor convenience.