Yeah, a model I quite like. It's a walled garden with a gate that has a 'Here be Dragons' sign.

Proof-of-concept? I think not. This was an actual intrusion. The two satellites are both controlled by the same base station -- there is no real 'concept' to prove.

Ratings are important to many pension funds and the like. Lots of them are precluded, by charter, from obtaining or holding bonds that are not AAA rated. So, the downgrade of US T-Bills could 'lock out' some potential markets.

Not that I think it will make much difference, however...

Maybe we'll finally get the long promised Ender's Game. Here's hoping...

I'm still hoping we get a two or three movie version of Y: The Last Man. Although, it seems unlikely at this point.

A friend and I were discussing the cyclic nature of comics the other day and how it relates to movies today. I was a big comics fan in the 80s and 90s 9less so today). Comics then were generally pretty formulaic until Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns cast aside the status quo. The publisher's seemed to think that 'gritty' was what people wanted and the anti-hero was on the rise. Wolverine became huge as well as grim takes on Green Arrow and Daredevil among others. The grom stories were everywhere. The other big thing in comics then was the grand crossover event, starting with Secret Wars.

Now, in movies, the success of the Dark Knight has forced reboots that are grittier and brooding -- like the new Spiderman and Man of Steel. The movie crossover is coming as The Avengers.

I'm a little concerned about the moves in the film. Batman is compelling as a dark, moody prick. Spiderman is not. Some characters are just not suitable. The crossovers can be great, like Secret Wars, or awful, like any of the DC Crises (except Identity Crisis, that was ok).

I fear that the rush for grittiness will wind up with some really bad movies and this will sour the studios on more super hero movies. They seem to think that if a movie does bad its because the genre is stale when often the movie was a huge misstep. If gritty Spiderman and Man of Steel don't work and the Avengers is a mess (which is a very likely scenario) then comic book movies are is for a rough ride.

IBM then approached Microsoft, which already had a few of years of experience under its belt with M-DOS, BASIC, and other important tools

I think that IBM was 'approached' by MS. Gates' mother had contacts through her role as a high ranking official in the United Way. That got Bill a foot in the door and he made good on the opportunity. Major successes are often a convergence of skill, ambition and blind luck, and the MS fortune is, I think, one of those cases.

Hey! Ever hear of a SPOILER ALERT?

I have a G+ account but can't (as of today) get it to load in Chrome. Weird.

I am a bit in the dark as to the intricacies of Java and Dalvik, so forgive me if this is a daft question...

When you say Google "create[d] a compatible API", is this similar to what WINE did for the WIN32 API? A re-implementation, through new code, that emulates* the functionality of the precursor?

* I know -- WINE is not an emulator, I use the word in a more metaphoric sense.

MC

Invite please. Galenlas(at)gmail

Heh. It would be hilarious if athletes blamed God.

But, no, I don't give a shit when athletes give credit to God...but...they are not scientists and engineers. I hold them to a higher standard. ;)

Nothing, because he doesn't exist.

It irked me immensely that the white room crew held up a 'God Bless America' sign. Is there not corner of civilization where we can escape the idiotic God-bothering horseshit of "mainstream America".

Seriously -- its a space craft! And as Gagarin said "I don't see any God up here."* Can we please just give that sentimental nonsense a miss and focus on the science and engineering?

*Yeah, I know, he never said it, but it fits well.

Agreed. The BB has always been and continues to be very well suited for enterprise use. The foreseeable future has a place for BB and RIM.