There will undoubtedly be niche uses for such devices, but so far I simply don't see anything even remotely resembling the "killer app" that might make anything (that's appeared so far, at least) get widespread adoption; meanwhile, they're simply competing in niches that are already well-populated and quite a bit more mature.. That's not to say it's not possible, but in my book, until and unless something appears that makes these things massively and obviously useful in ways that existing tech isn't, this is just yet another technological "flavour of the month".

Indeed. There's a phrase that goes back many decades - "pushing the analogy too far" - which is what's going on here. The "rubber sheet" picture is still fine for conveying the basic idea of geodesics, so it's still an excellent way of explaining "bent" spacetime to someone who's struggling with the idea. The fact that the analogy may be deeply flawed in other ways is irrelevant.

(As for models versus analogies, though - a model isn't usually perfect either; it's normally a simplification of the way things actually are, that is hopefully a close-enough fit to be useful. The more accurate the predictions you need to make, the better the model needs to be. In that sense the rubber sheet analogy is a model as well; just a very poor one.)

Except the poor beggar on the other end of the line is simply doing a job, and probably for mediocre wages because it's what they could get. There's no reason not to do them the courtesy of staying civil.

Agreed. My response is more terse, along the lines of, "I object on principle to having my potential internet access censored."

Position 2 is not atheism. Atheism is the absence of belief, not the belief in absence.

How someone in the US or UK might pronounce her name in the absence of other information is irrelevant anyway. It's her name, so her answer is definitive - even if she says it's pronounced "Farquharson". Any other pronunciation is plain wrong.

...the old, hoary "science has been at a loss to explain.." hyperbole. Really? In reality, I suspect any number of science students could have made a pretty good guess on that one.

If accepted, this contains the idea (and evidence) that simply measuring a particle results in the observer becoming entangled with it. I've been pointing out for some time that so-called "spooky action at a distance" potentially melts away if the observer becomes entangled with the particle he measures, as follows:

• - One observer measures one of a pair of entangled particles, and becomes entangle with it (and, by implication, with the other particle)
• - At some other, indeterminate time and location, a second observer measures the other particle, becoming entangled with it (and, by implication, with the first particle and the first observer)
• - The two observers now compare their (entangled) results - which, being entangled, cannot help but correlate

Viewed in that way, no "probability wave" collapsed, nor did any signal travel at greater than the speed of light - let alone (as seen from some frames of reference) backwards in time. Entanglement forced, as seen by the entangled observers, two matching results.

Philosophers have nothing of use to say on matters of this sort; all they can do is play elaborate, aggressively argumentative word games, shifting their ground whenever they need to. Personally, I'm still waiting for a clear, SCIENTIFIC definition of "free will". Give me that, and I'll answer the question.**

It's a bit like the old saw about whether a tree falling in a forest makes a noise when there's no-one there to hear it. Define in scientific terms precisely what you mean by "a noise", and you'll find there's nothing to argue about. If a noise is a particular type of vibration in air or another medium, the answer is yes; if your definition's more complex, involving the detection and recognition of those vibrations in a human auditory system, the answer is no. Something inbetween will depend on your precise definition - but it will still be unambiguously answerable. The point is, definition is everything. Fail to define what you're arguing about - such as "free will" - and people will simply swap backwards and forwards all day between two or more conflicting definitions (without admitting or even necessarily recognising that the definitions are indeed conflicting), using each to argue that you're still wrong.

**For my money, by the way, the answer is almost certainly "no". The human brain is a hugely complex mechanism, true, but it's still just a mechanism, and I can't personally think of a definition of "free will" that isn't constrained by that. There's plenty of experimental evidence, for instance, to show that it reaches decisions, and that an observer with the right equipment can even detect those decisions, well before the individual becomes consciously aware of them, No - feed the identical information in under identical circumstances, get the same results from any randomisation mechanisms (such as quantum states) involved along the way (totally undo-able in reality, but we're talking theory here), and you'd get the exact same result out. So, even though I feel like I'm sitting here typing this because I decided "of my own free will" to do so, in fact it's simply a predictable consequence of my current mental state (combined with all my sensory input., etc., right now). Personally, I don't have a problem with that.

Myst was released 20 years ago, and the fact that Cyan feel the need to trade on the reputation of a property that old ought to be at least as much a warning sign as it is a cause for excitement. Yes, Cyan may technically be the company that produced it - but, whilst companies can theoretically live for ever, people move on. It's an absolute certainty that any new property would be produced by different people, under different management, with potentially different attitudes and values (and I've seen at first hand just HOW much of a difference 20 years of change in a company can make), using a different engine, to vastly different market expectations (Myst was good in its day - but if it launched today, I suspect it would barely make the discount shelves).

Good luck to them, by all means - new, quality products in the market are always welcome. And if they get to market, and it's any good, I may buy it. But this is no different to any other company coming along and saying "We plan to develop a new game, and it's going to be great, so give us the money to let us do it".

This isn't a discovery or a proof of anything. At heart, it's simply a (deeply academic) attempt to usefully define "computation". From the abstract: "In this paper we introduce a formal framework that can be used to determine whether or not a physical system is performing a computation." In other words - "We've developed a definition of computation, which we think is useful, under which some physical systems turn out to be performing computation, and others don't." If you subscribe to the view that all physical events involve computation, that's not an ideal way of putting things - but, even if you don't subscribe to it as a definition of what is or is not computation per se, it still provides a way of classifying physical systems, that may be of use.

It's a worrying facet of law in the US, that it doesn't in general recognise territorial limits to its jurisdiction** (and that when the matter has been challenged in court, extraterritorial application of law has found to be perfectly legal). Whether a law is limited is down to a case-by-case examination. So - do anything, anywhere in the world, that's illegal in US criminal law, and the US will, in principle, charge you with it if it gets its hands on you - and will, and has on many occasions, do whatever it can "legally" get away with to get hold of "criminals" in order to bring them to trial (where "legally" is conveniently defined by the US, rather than some tin-pot, third-world country of no consequence, such as, say, China or Russia). Doesn't matter if what you did was perfectly legal in the country in question; US law doesn't care. Which comes down far too often of late to a US "might is right" approach - the US will do whatever it feels it can get away with. But then, no-one needed me to tell them that.

**Read, for example, the following Congressional research document: "Extraterritorial Application of American Criminal Law".

Oh, and spending too much time on line, reading slashDot, playing MMOs and generally chilling.

Two and a half years retired, and it's great. My employer wanted to change my pension plan in ways that would have made me work years longer just to get my money back; I had to retire 6 years earlier than I planned. The money I lost out on by having to go early would have been useful, but I manage OK on what I have, and the lack of stress is wonderful. I potter around keeping physically and mentally active doing what takes my fancy (worthy or frivolous stuff, such as improving my juggling, learning languages and getting to grips with T'ai Chi competition sword form), and generally not giving a toss for what anyone else thinks. I'm healthier and fitter than I was in decades, as well - stopped drinking, got more on top of my diet, and dropped 50 pounds on my work weight. Although like lots of other retirees I know - I have NO idea how I ever found time for work. I'm still FAR too busy now, doing nothing much in particular. It's a hard life.

You missed out the RM "Leave it on the doorstep in plain sight of passers-by, rather than spend 30 seconds finding out whether anyone's in" delivery option. Round here we get that one all the time.