While I congratulate them on the outstanding technical achievement of this and other feats of their space program, it is a country where any and all available funds need to be going towards resolving the massive poverity, corruption and inequality issues. Over half of the nation's population is poor, 21% of their diseases are water-related,and only 33% even have access to what would be considered normal sanitation facilities. Charities exist by the dozens to deal with a variety of issues in India in trying to clean up these problems, and here is their government spending millions on space missions. To me, that just seems grossly irresponsible. :/

I mean "here" as in my person. I don't own/have a cell by choice, not due to lack of reception.

No cell here. Too expensive, and no one seems to offer one that's just a phone. Like... that can call people and get calls... and that's it.

The likes and dislikes for this are certainly going to be based on personal tastes and opinions, heh. I think any fan of the original series and cast (of which I am) will appreciate this and other efforts (such as Star Trek New Voyages) to continue the look, feel and messages of the original show.

Star Trek can roughly be divided into two eras - Roddenberry, and post-Roddenberry. As a fan of the original, the first movies and TNG, the Roddenberry era is what works best for me. I think (and bear in mind it's just my opinion) that Roddenberry was a good sort of compass as to how the series should be and where it should go. Except for Start Trek V... that was just... you know what? We'll just omit that one. :P Anyway, post-Roddenberry, the series began to do some weird things to me, it just started on a real downward spiral. The TNG movies seemed to get progressively worse, Deep Space Nine was kind of dark and boring, Voyager was a real roller coaster ride of hits and missed and Enterprise was just awful. The new Abrams reboot takes it so far off the beaten path that it doesn't even seem like Star Trek anymore.... to me, anyway.

So, in a Roddenberry-era sense, this new series is very good - certainly true to that feel, and true to the original cast behaviour and mannerisms. Cast-wise, I think it's fantastic that Dohann's son is playing Scotty, and was surprised to Mythbuster's Grant playing Sulu (though I think he's trying way too hard to be George Takai.... ohhhhh my). It's amazing that they got Michael Forest back to play Apollo, and they did a fantastic job on the various age-based states of health. Heck, even Maria Sirtis signed on to do the computer voice, cool.

One thing I would question though, as has been mentioned, was the choice to use the 5:4 (or 4:3, whatever it is) aspect ratio - that seems a rather bad idea given the year. I hope future episodes will switch up to at least a 16:10 format or wider. I think as the show progresses (if it progresses), the actors will also get a bit more comfortable in their roles and it will seem less strained.

Ultimately, for those of us who like the Roddenberry era, this is a nice tip of the hat and a good alternative to the modern movies. :)

While there are many arguable points that have resulted in Ubuntu declining popularity, I can't help but think the biggest of them by a long shot is the awful Unity desktop. Everyone I know that used Ubuntu has switched specifically because of that desktop. Most have gone to Mint with Cinnamon or MATE, and some to xbuntu or other OS's. Unity, much like the Windows 8 shell, is just too App-centric and confusing.

They've done a lot to make Linux more mainstream, and that's great. Their rise led to many other flavours of Linux which are a more polished product though (like Mint Linux) and people are starting to migrate towards something that suits their tastes. Now with Valve's recent announcement about the SteamOS, I can see more folks moving away from Ubuntu and to a Linux flavour that fits their needs.

Personally, I think it's disgusting on a whole new level to consume insects. Thing is though, food is very much like religion or your personal sense of style; culture and necessity can influence it to a degree, but ultimately it comes down to personal preference. If some people think this is a great idea... good for them; let them eat bugs. My only request (just like religion or fashion) is not to push it on me. I'll eat what -I- want, they can eat what -they- want.

... which is exactly why I don't eat them either. Blech.

As someone already pointed out, it took multiple trips. But even if it were one trip, the point is that it's not practical yet. I agree, it's definitely interesting, just not usable yet, and that's what I mean about how we're not ready to make them yet, as in for general public/practical use. Maybe, hopefully, I'll see that in my life time.

Agreed. Even if they were to find a remarkable new material or means of producing solar cells that pushed efficiency past 50%, you need better (lighter) batteries, and more efficient (and lighter) electric engines as well. I'm not sure "never" is quite the right way to put it, but it's definitely not something we'll have in the immediate future. I just wonder how long it will take for technology to solve the efficiency problems.

*rubs head* alright.... while I can appreciate that it's a solar-powered, electric plane, this thing has really only served to prove one very important point - we are no where NEAR ready to make solar powered planes yet.

Solar cells are just not efficient enough to make this a viable means of powered flight. The proof is in the stats - 11,628 cells are only enough to provide the plane power to lift itself and a pilot. And that's with a wingspan of 208 feet. It has no on-board luxuries of any kind... including a toilet, and because it's maximum speed is 43mph (often less when dealing with air currents) that makes for a rather uncomfortable ride that lasts a long, long time.

Even though you can drive somewhere faster than you can get there on this thing, the one thing it does at least prove is that a solar plane is possible. Just barely with current technology, but possible. As cell efficiency, weight, and materials continue to improve, so will the solar planes that come from it. Until then... we're stuck with the gas-guzzling current batch of technology. :/

Enough said.

Whether it be religion, lax government regulations, or just plain sexual addiction, we have concocted an endless list of reasons to justify lack of control when it comes to procreation. So... we have a planet with too many humans, and not a lot of food. Until we fix our little willpower problem, "bugs" are not a solution - that's just ignoring the problem with a VERY disgusting fix.

Easy to avoid sending them when you don't have a cell. The Cells and smartphones alone are too expensive to justify, but texts are even worse. So many phone companies charge insane amounts of money to send a minuscule amount of data across their networks because they know they can get away with charging for it.

Even if all that were not true, there are two even bigger reasons I'd not send them;

a) Too damn short. How can you properly articulate something in a mere 160 characters or less? That ridiculous limit to their length is a big reason so many people can't use proper spelling or grammar in written text anymore.

b) Too hard to type. Tiny phone-sized keyboards or even just number keys means typing is a far cry from the 80+ words per minute I'm used to doing, and that makes it a chore. It'd be easier to just call the person (calling people on phones... I know, crazy concept) and finding out what's what quickly and efficiently.

Text'ing was the very reason I cancelled the one cell phone I briefly had. The phone company decided to override the contract and charge me for texts on my plan despite that it was supposed to include 100 free ones a month. Each text was 15 cents - 15 cents for 160 bytes of data! Now... I didn't text, and I had forbidden my friends from bothering me with texts as well, so I didn't think it'd be a problem... until they started texting me daily with Bell ads. Then, they charged me for them. When I asked if they were going to keep charging me for texts from them that I didn't want, they just said "well... yes sir, they're still texts", so I cancelled and never bothered getting a cell again.

Yep - not willing to part with the land-line just yet. I don't have a cell phone (I live in Canada, and we seem to be the only developed country without fair pricing for cell phones), and rarely use the phone anyway 'cause I dislike it. The land-line works regardless of the state of power, and offers vastly better long distance rates. Better still, it doesn't travel with me. Though some might see that as a drawback, I consider being unreachable a wonderful (peaceful) advantage.

In the world of Network Operations, it's impossible to disable Java at this time. Nearly every appliance we operate uses Java in some way in its administration GUI. Many of the home-grown applications here are also Java based. Vendors typically stray 5 to 10 years behind current market practices, so I don't see them abandoning Java any time soon. Heck, we're still waiting for some to abandon only support IE as a browser.

What I'd like to do is limit if not outright block Java outside of our campus, but the open access nature of a Canadian university means that blocking something can be a difficult uphill battle. If just a single professor or scientist has an issue, the block will not fly, and trying to isolate the needs of individuals can be a very long process.

It would be nice if Oracle just fixed all the issues, but I'm pretty sure there's about as much chance of that happening as was the US going ahead with the petition to build the Death Star.