Most systems engineers in the space industry know that it's difficult to completely use metric for space missions. There are usually many components and subsystems that are designed by different vendors that have their own paradigms set up. These paradigms are usually kept do a legacy of proven use, and engineers will agree with me that if a product works well on-orbit, why on earth would you want to change a product simply due to unit conversions. You simply take note of the units and move on. I never thought I'd have to deal with microinches, to be honest, but it's no big deal since everyone knows 1 uin = 0.0254 microns.

Do they allow you choose whether the baby will have red irises, pre-painted black fingernails, a perm that needs no hair spray, and "Whitesnake" pre-tattooed on its chest?

I read a great article from National Geographic that helps illustrate some of the effects of light pollution. I'm an amateur astronomer because I find it more stimulating than television, and I feel that attempting to understand the universe we live in is something we ought to do as human beings. But I still have to drive 2 hours to find an astronomically dark sky. Light pollution is fixable and would be a trivial decision when lighting a building if folks think about it. I just simply don't turn on my house lights at night. "Earth Hour" is 24/7 for me.

It's been a while since I've played FFXI, but I always loved the strategies and character building involved in it. The storytelling was better than all the other mainstream MMORPGs I had played. Chains of Promathia, while very difficult, was truly epic when finished. The other expansions since then were less so.

Battle strategies were intricate and were balanced very well, in my opinion. The elements played a big role, like in most FF games, and even weather plays a part. The job/sub-job system was amazing. I loved being able to change my main job from a dark knight one moment to a white mage, and by the end I was using both when I soloed instead of the usual sub jobs. I had perfected my Souleater - Hexa Strike combo with my white mage by the end.

There were some things holding the game back. The biggest problem for a newcomer was the initial learning curve. FFXI, while charming, is hard to get into. If you're more comfortable with a mouse than a keyboard, you'll probably want to stay away. I loved the game because I never had to touch the mouse. Macros are nearly essential to play the game, and even mentioning the word macro to some gamers will turn them off to it. The PC version was limited to what the PS2 was capable of. Even though the PC and Xbox 360 versions deserved updated interfaces and textures, the bottleneck was the PS2.

Even though I don't play MMORPGs anymore, I am looking forward to what FFXIV. I have tried many others in the past, even since having quit FFXI, and I still can't find one with the depth and appeal of FFXI. I miss it, but I think I'll just wait for 14 instead now.

FFXIII looks amazing, especially from the high-def screens that I've seen of the game. I hope they kept some semblance of the gambit system from FFXII in tact. I loved being able to tell the AI how to behave. I'm a control freak when it comes to games, and there's a high level of satisfaction when one constructs a squad that can essentially sustain themselves if you left the room for a few minutes. That said, the boss battles were generally so often and so difficult that gambits + lots of human intervention was necessary. It was a neat spectacle to watch these battles unfold at times. I enjoyed FFXII immensely for the gameplay, and much less for the story.

The EXP loss was shocking to me at first, but after playing WoW and its armor-repair game design, I much prefer the EXP loss. In MMORPGs, gaining wealth is always harder for me than gaining experience points, at least if the game community has a complex economy within.

I've been a PC gamer ever since I loaded Might and Magic II on my AT&T 8088 PC with CGA display and 20 MB hard drive that my dad gave me when he bought his 386 sx. I still have the 5.25" floppies from that game, as a matter of fact, but of course I have it on CD now if I get the urge to indulge in nostalgia.

Over the last couple of years, however, I still have been buying PC games, but my affinity for them has dwindled. I played FFXI for a few years, jumping into WoW and back to FFXI again because WoW wasn't interesting enough for me, especially when I got into the endgame quests. A went back to FFXI for quite some time, and as much as I loved it, I had a hard time giving it the time commitment that so many players did without thinking much about it. Back then I played a lot of games, and I was on the computer after work several hours a day, and often times I would try to squeeze in another offline game while trying to keep up with the MMORPG.

I stopped playing MMORPGs about 2 years ago, and I don't miss the monthly fee and the amount of time I used to spend on gameplay resembling a carrot on a stick. I do miss the teamwork and the deep level of gameplay offered by FFXI. No single-player game that I've come across can match it, but I guess that's what the monthly fee is for.

Beyond MMORPGs, the PC gaming has really fallen from grace, in my opinion. I could go on and on about horrible DRM practices, but some of the problem is due to cheap development efforts as well. Most big-name titles feel to me like I'm playing a console game rather than a native PC game, like Fallout 3/Oblivion, Far Cry 2, Gears of War, Bioshock, etc. (What do you mean I can't use "M" for "map?") Once in a while, someone does a good port, like Mass Effect (never mind the DRM issues). I'm wondering why I even bother keeping up with the PC anymore. Nowadays, I reserve it for the few real-time strategies I play on occasion, but even my RPG fix comes from the PS3 now, and I've actually resorted to playing old PS1 games again because the enjoyable RPG games are few and far between without having to pay a monthly fee.

I'm looking forward to FFXIII, whenever that comes along.

Check it out on NASA TV if you haven't had the chance yet. Viewing Hubble the way the astronauts see it is a neat experience.

Wow, 50-101 Angstroms is pretty small! I guess they named it Gameboy Micro for a reason!

My fear with this series at this point is that it may go the way of Frank Herbert or Robert Jordan with the way it's taking so long. As much as I loved Dune, it was unfortunate that the original author could not finish his story. I hope that Martin is able to finish his epic tale with an epic ending, like Asimov was able to do before he passed away. (Although some would say that Second Foundation was already a great stopping point.)

Just a quick note even though you're an AC, a Ritchey-Chretien optical system is a Cassegrain design, so your criticism here is wrong. The TMT is actually an aplanatic variation of the RC design.

FWIW, some of the best mirrors on the consumer market are handmade, but obviously the TMT is far from being this type of mirror.

This was not the case for me. I got my B.A. in mathematics from a small school and was hired by an aerospace company to operations in an entry-level, but well-paying job. I showed some initiative and moved up the ladder and became a satellite engineer within a few years, and I continue to progress. Most of my colleagues have a Master's in aerospace, but I was able to get there without having an undergraduate in engineering, let alone a Master's (my math degree had a completely theoretical emphasis, even). On top of this I have a better understanding of the business now since I moved up the ranks a little bit over the years.

There are a few engineering classes that I wouldn't mind taking at this point for my own enrichment, but I think a Master's would be overkill for me.

Nowadays, I would never say to someone that a Master's degree is essential to arrive at the job he or she wants. It just takes a bit of hard work and a little luck.

The controller has already been released!

Blaming bad sales on piracy seems like a cop-out to me. I own a PSP and I only download demos and movies to my memory stick. I don't pirate anything, and I have purchased several games over the years that I've owned it. I really enjoy using the system now more for playing PS1 games remotely from the PS3 than anything else. That's because PSP games generally aren't very good. I have several of the "big name" titles like Metal Gear Solid Portable, Crisis Core, Vice City Stories, SOCOM, and so on. All of these are scaled-down versions of what the genres were intended to be, although Vice City Stories bares the closest resemblance to its big brother. I thought Crisis Core would finally be the RPG fix I had been waiting for on the PSP, but sadly that void still has yet to be filled as far as I'm concerned.

Why can't we get a Chrono Cross or a Baldur's Gate type of game on the PSP? Cheap knock-offs don't sell well anymore, and Sony must have some expectation here since Nintendo gets away with it many times.

It's kind of ironic that although the DS has inferior hardware, it has better and more substantial games.

This isn't rocket science. Do what I do every time I buy a disc from these places, whether it's new or used: Personally inspect the disc before they bag it up for you. They never mind it when I ask, and I feel good about the purchase afterwards. I don't mind that it's been opened as long as everything is in tact the way I expect it to be.

While the new headphones are not standards compliant, and therefore I wouldn't be able to listen to the new shuffle with my old Grado headphones, I appreciate Apple trying to move forward with design innovations in their screen-less mp3 player. Unfortunately, strictly adhering to standards is often a barrier to innovation. There is nothing stopping 3rd-party vendors from creating headphones now, which will hopefully help perpetuate innovation of this design concept. Perhaps in the future this will help define a standard that has yet to be established. Only time will tell.