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Comment Re:Burning air? (Score 1) 91

That was what I assumed it was too, and TFA didn't give any details ("Ride the Light" sounds like a new rollercoaster).
I would imagine, with the amount of use this technology would get (i.e., number of launches) that any ozone created would be tiny as compared with the amount in the upper atmosphere.*

But I dont see how this will get us into space. The higher the craft, the less efficient the push per beam of light.

* This argument may have been made about CFCs, exhaust emission, etc so I may have to eat my words...

Comment Joined up Government (Score 1) 334

This is the same party that vetoed an £80 million loan to Forgemasters, the Sheffield steel company, that would have allowed them to make pieces for nuclear reactors. The loan was cut as a cost saving measure. I guess that saving will be wiped out when we have to buy from overseas. Good thinking!

Comment Re:Similar to life != life (Score 1) 69

I would say that a 'self-sustaining' system of chemical reactions is life, or at least as good a definition as possible that would encompass even the most basic of lifeforms we know of. Whether those lifeforms are selfcontained (cells) or just an amorphous goop of chemicals that can catalyst the formation of themselves (or each other) in such a way as to eventually convert a significant part of their local ecosystem into clones of themselves (a possible/probable starting point for abiogenesis) is not a distinction it is possible to make when defining the origins of life.
Java

After Learning Java Syntax, What Next? 293

Niris writes "I'm currently taking a course called Advanced Java Programming, which is using the text book Absolute Java, 4th edition, by Walter Savitch. As I work at night as a security guard in the middle of nowhere, I've had enough time to read through the entire course part of the book, finish all eleven chapter quizzes, and do all of the assignments within a month, so all that's left is a group assignment that won't be ready until late April. I'm trying to figure out what else to read that's Java related aside from the usual 'This is how to create a tree. This is recursion. This is how to implement an interface and make an anonymous object,' and wanted to see what Slashdotters have to suggest. So far I'm looking at reading Beginning Algorithms, by Simon Harris and James Ross."
Books

Submission + - Kurzweil Takes On Kindle With E-Reader Blio (singularityhub.com)

kkleiner writes: Ray Kurzweil, prolific inventor and Singularity enthusiast, is planning to debut Blio at CES 2010 in January. Blio is an e-reader platform, not hardware, that can be used on PC, MAC, iPhone and iPod touch. Developed by Kurzweil company knfb Reader, Blio preserves the original format of books including typography, and illustrations, in full color. It also takes advantage of knfb’s high quality text to speech capabilities and supports animation and video content. By focusing on the software, and not trying to maintain a hardware device, Kurzweil hopes to provide the most versatile, life-like electronic version of print books and enhance them with multimedia. Best of all, Blio is free.
Games

Whatever Happened To Second Life? 209

Barence writes "It's desolate, dirty, and sex is outcast to a separate island. In this article, PC Pro's Barry Collins returns to Second Life to find out what went wrong, and why it's raking in more cash than ever before. It's a follow-up to a feature written three years ago, in which Collins spent a week living inside Second Life to see what the huge fuss at the time was all about. The difference three years can make is eye-opening."

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