Referring to your comment about it being reverse engineered, I don't think this is a major issue for the US. According to Wikipedia, the drone is not stealthy black and does not contain stealth design elements (eg. sawtooth shaped gear cover panels) because there is a somewhat higher likelihood that they will fall into enemy hands - due to the single engine design and lack of pilot. So, the drone was designed with failure in mind, and in this way, cutting edge stealth tech cannot be given to the enemy to reverse engineer.

The discussion following this article is focussed on university graduates getting into the private space industry. Fair enough given the author's specific question, but what about experienced engineers? I have 4 years experience in the power industry at a highly reputable international electrical engineering company and would like any tips or advice on moving toward/into the space industry.

The trouble with engineering, particularly electrical, is that it's very faceted and once you have experience in one field, it's difficult to move into another.

Quick, there's doubt by some in the science community about Supersymmetry! Let's get a whole bunch of us together and write articles and blogs about how the whole idea of Supersymmetry is crap! Maybe we can come up with some reasons of our own too!

Hmm, why won't the mums, dads and business people join me this time??

There's doubt!!!

Right from the start I didn't want on G+ because then G will have all my mail history + personal chats, search history, browser tracking history, mobile/cell phone data (Android) PLUS social data. What other personal current data of mine is there?

Glad I have a G Apps account and can't even enable G Profiles nor G+... I won't be joining anytime soon.

I don't want a g+ account, simply because 1) Google is a marketing company, and thus is very interested in my personal data and 2) I own an Android phone, synching all my contacts to my Gmail account, and I do searching using Google (it is the best), and use Google Maps. So, they already store pretty much my life story in emails and chats, and know all my contacts and some addresses. Where does it stop?

I am a believer of not keeping all your data eggs in the one basket. I already feel like I do. And g+ will just be much worse. This is why I don't want a G+ account.

But then again, they could infer all the info which I would put into g+ from my emails and chats and contacts anyway, so what is there to fear?

hmm, someone gimme an invite. :(

Damnit, I posted this without being logged in.

"Shooting beams of electricity" sounds like Ghostbusters, not real world physics.

CAPITALIST America my friend.

And the fallacy that companies actually care about their customers, is just that, a fallacy. They care when sales are going down and that's it.

Could this be a return to the golden days of the 50s where huge oligopolists/monopolies run by statesmen that actually cared about the workers and customers? Pfft.

Don't know about Korea but from what I've heard from Chinese friends, bribery is a regular part of business in China. This will just put IBM at a disadvantage.

Interesting how the US govt doesn't get charged at home for torturing people at prisons it operates in foreign nations, in the same light that IBM is charged here for its conduct offshore.

Anyway I support disciplining businesses who conduct themselves inappropriately, at home or abroad.

Amazing stuff.

The thing with contracts is that they are an agreement between two parties. In this case a large corporation with money and bunches of legal experts, and a teenager who wants the latest iConsumable. In B2B, both parties NEGOTIATE the terms of the contract to an acceptable level for both, but a consumer cannot do this as they don't have the power.

The only real answer is either:
1) Buy a phone outright, or second hand and don't sign one of these draconian contracts (win for you but nobody else), or
2) Somehow get a massive group of consumers together which then have power, and using the media to assist, force the company to amend the terms of the contract. Unfortunately this is difficult to do.

It's really sad that large companies now treat consumers like this.

Not iFLAC?

That is probably one of the most insightful and thought provoking things I've heard anyone say about Facebook, and one with which I entirely agree.

I've already cut down my 'friends' list, to about 50 now. When I did this, I felt relieved in a sense. I now check it once a week but this is dwindling as I make it a personal goal to keep in touch with friends using phone/meetings. I believe Facebook does not improve my life nor bring anything new to it. Reconnecting with old friends, yeah, but I haven't actually made the effort to meet up with them yet. There's been the obligatory 'we should catch up', of course, but no action. Facebook seems to subconsciously deter me from meeting up with people.

I'm currently reading a good book which relates to this topic called Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age by William Powers, about disconnecting from screens and reconnecting with people.

I agree, here in Australia diesel is really picking up. Mostly the European manufacturers are the ones with diesel models and some of the larger Japanese/local SUVs. Of course the 'big 3' still haven't got much out there.

I own an Audi A3 TDI, and I can't speak more highly of the TDI engine. Mine is the 2.0 (older engine) and it has more balls than any other smaller car I've driven (103kW, 320Nm). And I normally get about 800km (497mi) per tank (55L) in city driving.

My only gripe is smoke under high throttle, but the manufacturers have all but eradicated that with the newer (~post 2006?) engines using diesel particulate filters. My colleague has a Tiguan TDI (small SUV) and under full throttle, it doesn't put out a puff. The newer ones again use common-rail, again to make the engine more efficient and reduce noise.