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Comment Re:Oh BS (Score 1) 141

I'm not even bothering to read TFA. If it's content even closely resembles the title of this topic, it cannot be anything else but bull. Probably about 99% of all current big internet services has started out as a small OSS project on as cheap servers as possible. As soon as you grow big enough, you'll do the hardware in-house. A good friend of mine started by himself two years ago and is now making his living (and paying others) out of selling python-based services on virtual servers. That is in essence what the cloud is about, and the best way to do this kind of stuff is using license-free software. No startup will even think about paying per-cpu license costs for software, let alone have the money for it. Closed source is dying, and they know it.

Comment Re:Geothermal is better (Score 1) 867

Don't worry, absolutely nothing can go wrong.
I lived close by the place and went to see it, most of the old houses have cracks from top to bottom, and seen by the dated marks on the walls the cracks were still getting bigger. According to the building engineers there is no risk of collapsing yet, but it just doesn't look all too safe. And the drills made here were just small-sized testing drills.

Comment Re:Have become more difficult to overcome? (Score 2, Insightful) 173

Hi feepness!

Thanks! You've given the best description of science I've ever read. Disclaimer: I am a scientist.

Seriously. A lot of the fancy topics are interesting because they are like a foggy mountain top, you know that there must be a mountain top, but you don't know the way, and you don't know what you will find up there, and which equipment you need to take along. This makes science different from engineering, where you at least would have a map of the mountain roads and altitudes etc.

As far as funding issues goes: what did the giant banking bailout of 2009 brought us for the future? That has cost us a multi-multitude of the ITER project and that money just disappeared into oblivion. With the ITER, even if it wouldn't work out eventually, we'd still end up with the new technologies and materials that were developed to build it.

Comment Re:Building a website takes time (Score 1) 120

The guy behind http://www.netbooknews.de/ seems to be making a living from his blog, if I remember correctly. He was one of the first to write about them, he goes to all the product introductions, and by writing in good quality he could also convince manufacturers to send him pre-production samples, etc. I tried to look up some info, apparently before he worked on a linux OS specialized for the Via EPIA line. That also means that he was probably used to not earn a lot :)

Comment Re:Just as a point of reference to Japan (Score 1) 232

Hmmm, in Germany I pay 20 euro for a 10 GB HDSPA connection. After 10 GB you will get isdn speeds until the next month. Granted, this is with a dedicated usb stick, not for tethering, but basically, it's the same sim-card anyway. I am thinking of getting an Android phone and use it as both a modem and a smartphone.

Comment Re:Carriers != Manufacturers (Score 1) 234

Actually, it's going even better outside the US. The more fancy phones have been first available in Asia with full functionality for a long time now. And it also works the other way, I can buy for 40 euro or smth an unlocked phone with no fancy options, but that I can use to ... phone! Cool for the consumer, but I guess most US providers are not into the "make your customers happy"-business.

Comment Re:Networking won't solve this (Score 1) 838

"Networking won't solve this". Imagine a second Katrina, you're in the middle of the floods, you still have electricity but mobile phone communication isn't working. You ask for technical help, and the answer you get is "Networking won't solve this. You need to build better dams instead".

As others pointed out, there are technical ways to create ad-hoc wifi networks, I guess similar to the idea of the OLPC networking mode.

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