Unfortunately, they go up like a road flare when damaged, overcharged, or overdischarged (generally they just puff up, but extreme over discharge or charge will cause them to go off). A good short will do it too.

But that's for RC. What about phones and laptops? The switch from nicd to nimh to li wasn't that hard for them. They make new models all the time with whatever charger and battery they want. It's not like they are focusing on backwards compatibility with laptop batteries or have to contend with people saying "well, I've got 5 of these dell nimh batteries for this old laptop, I won't buy this new laptop with 5 times my old laptop's battery life because I'd be wasting these old nimh batteries" -- every laptop I've ever had basically had a totally new battery profile and if they changed chemistry on me I wouldn't care one bit.

Because it's not AC -- it's DC. There's already voltage stepping in the ESC that provides a lower (6 volts) voltage DC to the radio, servo, etc, but at a much lower current requirement. The drive motors operate, at times, at 120 amps @ 7.2 volts or more, especially in the larger classes such as 1/8 electric. We're talking 800 - 2000 watts. Good luck :)

In the rc car world, the two major types of batteries in use are lipo (lithium polymer) and nimh. Nimh has less energy density, self discharge, and requires some rest after discharge still to retain full capacity when charged. I run nimh due to reasons I won't go into, but I have my eye on lifepo4, or lithium iron phosphate. They are not only more robust than traditional li cells, they go off in much the same fashion as the batteries mentioned in the article. The disadvantage to them, and why they aren't 'the thing' in rc cars is that they have a voltage disadvantage. Given the strict regulation of motors in spec class racing, a voltage disadvantage is a huge issue. In other applications, where you could pick whatever voltage and number of cells to use, these batteries are awesome. In rc, their voltage makes you pick arranging them in series at a voltage level that is a disadvantage or adding another cell and making yourself have a huge advantage -- ie, their acceptance isn't based on technical merit but existing standards in racing.

Generally speaking, FOX is the one who likes to take stories and spin them in the worst possible light to forward their own agenda. I can see now that SLASHDOT does the same thing. How on earth do you equate Microsoft following the rules of the GPL as something bad? How on earth did we get here? Seriously -- there's now going to be a lack of trust?! Are you kidding me? Because they provided a prettified PR statement to go with it? This says *nothing* about their stance on linux -- it says something about their integrity as a company that obeys software licenses. We now have definitive proof that Microsoft at least works within and respects the GPL, but somehow today is a day of mistrust?

Simply amazing. I can only imagine what the folks at MS are thinking right now who see this article. I bet their not thinking "gee, that went well -- let's do it again!"

This like shooting the publishers clearing house folks on your door step when they bring you the big check -- "Thanks, but get the heck off mah properta!"

Game FEATURES and PLAYABILITY.

Here's an example: Battlefield 1942.

BF required me to upgrade my PC when it came out. When I finally got it working decently, I found that the 'revolutionary large maps' and 'revolutionary ability to control vehicles' was no more revolutionary that tribes outside of it's 'many years newer' pc requirements... not to mention its graphics and game play were pretty much sub-par compared to tribes.

Upgrading PC hardware to move from playing something 2d sprite like DOOM to something 3d polygon like QUAKE is perfectly acceptable. Upgrading PC hardware to move from simplistic 3d polygons and textures like QUAKE to something with far more complicated polygons, 3d effects, better textures, revolutionary environment, and new game play like BIOSHOCK is also perfectly acceptable. When games come out, and the only outwardly noticeable difference from everything else on the market is the title's name, yet it requires massive hardware upgrades, then that is failure, and that market deserves to die.

Game titles shouldn't drive hardware requirements. Outside of Portal, something I can play on my xbox 360, and I don't have to upgrade every 6 months to continue to play new titles, I haven't seen anything new from game makers other than new requirements for my machine to somehow be better to play the same dumb first person shooter remakes. Oh, need I mention that now days you even need a pretty kick'n system to play what amounts to MUDS? Yes, please die. While you're at it, make mouse and keyboard style FPS navigation a standard and supported option on consoles -- the claw is not acceptable. That would be gaming Utopia: A supported console that worked for a few years and continued to play the latest titles while also offering a control system that leveraged something other than my fine motor control abilities of the digits that spend 8 hours a day inaccurately whopping the damned space bar.