Feeding solar in like that just causes inefficiency, you still need the same level of power generation from other (coal/gas etc) sources on the grid to cope with nights and cloudy days.

No it wouldn't, they would just write that gamble off as a loss and move on to the next... Smaller companies go belly up all the time, and you soon see the same people back running another company.

Something else needs to be done to ensure long term sustainable business, but i have no idea what would work.

Even as more apps are becoming web based, in the short to medium term users will still be accessing them using the same desktops they always have and will still need support for them.

Perhaps long term, users can move to simpler dumb terminals that have less to go wrong and thus require less support. But that's less, not none... Things can still go wrong, one of the primary functions of desktop support is unjamming printers and replacing toner which despite promises of the paperless office won't be going away any time soon.

There will also be a need to debug network level issues, as a dumb terminal is useless without its network...

So sure, desktop support will be reduced but not "wiped out"...

I'll just be over here, you know, warming up the ol' ball shocker. Of course, they might just "accidentally" expose him to sunlight on the way back. Everyone will pretty much just shrug and say "Whoopsie!" after he bursts into flame...

I wish I had mod points. Most libertarians today would not want to live in a utopia of their own creation. The whole premise of libertarianism as it stands today is not only flawed, but also unrealistic and harmful to society.

That's what you were trying to say? You don't need to slow down you just need to say things in a way that makes sense. Yes, the sensors were functioning when it entered orbit and nearly continuously since.

No, it only means that the craft has provided data of unprecedented detail, and that it's about the lunar structure. These aren't Star Trek sensors that just "scan" the moon and somehow directly spit out all the salient details about its composition. Actually going from the raw gravity sensor data to the 3D density map you desire takes a lot of work.

The implication being that they're recording the same data over and over and should have been done after the first 'pass'. Which is hilarious; thank you for clearly explaining. These are gravity probes, not cameras looking at large regions of the surface. Every unique position over the moon is a unique data point.

I think it's perfect that you'd trot out this analogy in an instance where an army of geology majors spending their whole lives with buckets and shovels couldn't get us the data this probe has. It really does put everything you said in perspective.

So you're upset at the lack of progress in manned exploration. Understandable. What's less understandable is how this has turned your thinking on anything related to the subject of space exploration to mush.

They invents a TON of technology, but everyone uses it without licensing. So they are dying.

They actually invent things,
People rip them off,
and on /. THEY are the bad guys.

This has nothing to do with patent trolls. Nothing at all.

The only thing worse then in ignorant post is the person saying it should be modded up.

what 40 year old patent? huh ?
This is about newer stuff.
Technicolor SA was formerly Thomson SA and Thomson Multimedia.

Where you listening to MP3s 40 years ago?

Twit.

They have been developing technology since the 50s. If it was a technology developed in 1950, there wouldn't be a story.