its relational database, SQL Server, and its platform cloud, Windows Azure, an online service for hosting and readily scaling applications

That's wonderful that the summary mentions what "SQL Server" and "Azure" are... but why no mention of wtf "Hadoop" is?
Why do I need to RTFA just to find out what we're talking about here?

Hadoop — an open source platform for crunching epic amounts of a data across an army of dirt-cheap servers

in this case, that $5 difference can also be seen as a 20% increase in cost.

I distinctly recall reading several articles (probably about 10 years ago?) saying how scientists were able to generate large quantities of spider silk ["synthetic" spider silk? call it whatever you want...] by genetically altering cows and just milking them. The silk could then be extracted from the cow milk.

After 10 years, no one has tried to improve on this extraction process? Kinda baffling that they would even start down that path if they weren't really going to follow up on it...

While I understand the general concept of how GPS locating works (your device captures timestamps from 3-or-more various global positioning satellites, then calculates where in the world you are), I've always been curious about how accurrate they can actually be.

If you are going to calculate, down to sub-centimeter distances, where your device is, wouldn't you need to know the EXACT location of these satellites, down to the sub-centimeter level of its altitude/lattitude/longitude? Like, if one of the satellites drifts slightly out of place from where they think it is, couldn't that throw off all calculations?

I always thought GPS could only determine your location down to roughly a 5-meter range because that's as good a guess that anyone could make as to where in orbit they are. No?

All I can think of is that maybe there are ground stations that the satellites use to find THEIR locations in orbit, kind of a GPS-locating that the orbiting satellites use... but I haven't really heard of any of that. Anyone know anything about this? Just curious.

So, you are one of those nerds who likes to feel superior to or at least different from most other nerds by joining a tiny subculture inside of a shitty game and sticking with it. Then you enjoy defending said shitty game, while everyone else just plays games that aren't shitty. Just like people who stuck with Everquest after WoW came out

heh, sounds like you have some issues there buddy.

But to retort:
1. "feel superior" - when did I say anything like that? I just said everyone can have their own opinion and I've only seen negative feedback on those sites, while I know plenty of people that still play the game.
2. "sticking with it" - dude, the game has been out for like 2 weeks. most wouldn't consider "sticking with it" until you at LEAST get out of your initial trial period from when you bought the game.
3. calling FFXIV and EQ "shitty games" and WoW is NOT a shitty game - yeah, you called me "one of those nerds who likes to feel superior" and then you start slinging this. mmmmkay.
4. name-calling - yeah, very mature. (sounds like flame-bait but i'll bite. also, my initial post was marked Troll, and this was marked Insightful. curious.)

Apparently some people feel ripped-off because they paid for something and they ended up not liking it. So they write a bad review.

The rest of us that like it, just play the game. (NO TIME 2 RITE REVIEWZ!!!!! MUST LVL!!111!)

lol Thanks for posting this.
This was actually the first thing that came to mind when I read the poll:
"Rule #6? There is no Rule #6."

Girl: Did you just say "Hello"?
Worm: Noooo, Oi said "Allo"! But tha's close enough.

A good graph has units and numbers, you insensitive clods

Uhhh I don't There's no "graph" here. It's a 2-dimensional picture of a 3-dimensional universe. Closer objects will appear bigger than further away objects. You can't exactly draw a "1 cm = 1,000 light years" bar on this image.

Traditional fishing would be obsolete. Just "recruit" the fish into the net.

Great. So, only the dumb fish that can't distinguish between natural fish and robofish are the ones that will be tricked into our nets. This leaves only the most intelligent fish left in the sea. What, are you trying to speed-along evolution and create a new breed of smart-fish that will probably eventually turn against mankind for abusing/polluting their habitat? ARE YOU MAD?!

In his April speech outlining NASA's future, President Obama said there would be $3.1 billion for the development of a new heavy lift rocket to fly manned and unmanned spaceflights into deep space. Obama said he wanted this technologically advanced rocket to be designed and ready to build by 2015

Funny. I always thought "deep space" was like "other star systems". So I looked it up.

One definition: any region of outer space beyond the system of the earth and moon

And another: space beyond the limits of the solar system

I'm guessing he meant the former definition since it's such a short timeframe.
Just thought I'd share!

So, why have they been rejecting it for so long?

If the religious fanatics say "sex is immoral", well, it's not like there's gonna be any MORE pr0n online. It's just giving them a different web address to use.

And by using .xxx it will make censoring it on your home computer(s) a LOT easier for parents who don't want their kids looking for any of it.

Or has it always been big corporations that have been opposing it, so that no one buys up coca-cola.xxx or something?

Your comment will go over the heads of many, but ...
Dude. Nice one.

Oh, come on now. You must have meant "Nice won."

Grandma not-see

if you'd take a lot of stars and planets, and put them together (but not too close together), then at one point if you make this large enough, it'll also be a black hole: there appears an event horizon around all this matter. But inside of it are still stars with gaps between them, maybe some planets orbiting around them

Are you suggesting gravity doesn't exist inside an event horizon? O.o

All of the matter making up these stars and planets would gravitate towards each other and become one massive object.

And if they are far enough apart that gravity can't pull them all together, you get.... what? a "solar system"? Clearly there's no event horizon around us, because then we wouldn't be able to observer other solar systems. So lets go bigger... galaxies? No, we can see other galaxies too, so no event horizons around them either.

Basically, if your body of matter isn't dense enough, then you're not going to get an event horizon because light should be able to easily move away from your body of matter. I'm sure some physics major could supply you with the appropriate equations (i'm just a lowly comp sci geek... and should be working and not trying to explain this right now! lol) but simply put: gravity gets weaker as you move further away from the center of your body of mass. If you have light moving about freely inside your event horizon... then, um... you're using the wrong definition of "event horizon".

4b) Commenting 'why' has approximately 100% chance of getting a smart-assed response.