Never said it was claiming to be "free" energy..

I'm saying that getting fusion to happen at low temperatures and pressures is not likely possible because of the physics involved. Fusing two nuclei at low energies is simply not likely due to the laws of physics. Getting measurable energy out if it is even less likely. Getting industrial levels of energy?

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and so far I'm not seeing any kind of reliable proof.

These guys are snake oil sales men and those who accept what they say are rubes.

Spin up the fraudsters and their supporters...

Cold Fusion is *not* likely. Subatomic physics really makes this impossible, at least in an energy positive way.

The same with all the schemes that violate thermodynamic laws and claim "free energy" or other frauds. It all sounds nice, and we wish it was true, but the laws of physics pretty much tell us it's not possible..

Yes, we did go to the moon, 9/11 wasn't an inside job and aliens never existed, even in Area 51 (Sorry Roswell NM..)

Queue up the loud crowd that posts their useless drivel to the internet in 3.... 2.... 1....

Just hide under the cows that just came home... You will be fine..

Yea, but by the time they have a machine built to make the cup of tea, the patent will have expired...

How will the patent trolls go after all the bittorrent client's that download that one or will the existence of a hot cup of Earl Grey be enough to get you sued?

Oh but we *have* that already... Never mind the error rate.... Ever called an IVR based phone tree? Yea, they can recognize speech *just* fine. Personally I go for the DTMF interface, it's usually faster.

Speech recondition that is speaker independent generally has to be vocabulary constrained. It's usually easy to tell the difference between "Yes" and "No" but if the speaker says anything else, it's going to go off the rails pretty quick. The more things you are listening for, the less confidence you are going to have between all the options.... That's why these systems are always prompting you to say certain words and phrases. If you want large vocabularies, you will need to either train the system to be speaker dependent, train the speakers to be consistent or be able to live with incorrect detections.

"He's too far Jim!".. or was that "He's Foo Bar Jim!"? I guess that one doesn't matter..

But it's going to be a *really* long delay involved in getting the data back to Apple's servers when you are a light year away from earth when you try and connect with Siri... (grin) I'm thinking that's going to make Siri system pretty much useless before you get halfway to Mars..

From somebody who spent a few hours working a show with Gene Roddenberry before his ashes got the cosmic brush off... Having run film clips and sound for his famed "lecture" on Star Trek's past and how that changed our future, I thought he was nuts (1987).

Science Fiction has foreseen future events, but it is NOT an accurate representation of what is going to happen. So how on earth (or in space for that matter) can we tell what software will be used in the future for some yet to be designed hardware? Add to this that we are not even sure when or even if such a theoretical machine will ever exist and how can we figure any kind of useful debate will come from this?

Oh yea, this is star trek.. Home to the group that thinks some group of two bit "B" list actors are somehow for tellers of the future

Not exactly fair in this case. Yea, I purchased a Windows 8 Professional upgrade, but I had a good reason and got a great price on the upgrade.

First, I was upgrading a XP Home license that I had just moved to a new (and vastly improved) system for the family to use for their Windows's activities. Simply didn't want to try and force the Linux solution in this situation. They had software that was "windows only" and I didn't have the time to try and port all of it to Wine or something. So I really had no choice but to run Windows.

Second, the upgrade was CHEAP! I got this upgrade to Windows 8 Professional for much less than an upgrade to *ANYTHING* else "Windows" was available for. During the initial launch of Window 8, a local retailer was selling the upgrade for $35 so I snatched up a copy.

So I purchased this because it was CHEAP and I simply had to run Windows, Not because I have a taste for bad things...

Running Windows 8 at home has been an exercise in asking "How did that get though testing?" questions.

I have observed a number of bugs in the current Windows 8 that cause me to seriously doubt Microsoft's Quality control processes. My running favorite issue is how the Parental controls are exceptionally easy to bypass (just a mouse click at the right time and my son has unlimited time despite how the system is configured.. ) Come on Microsoft... Windows 8 was mostly a GUI adjustment to that metro aka touch screen interface... No real kernel changes from Windows 7.. You need to test a bit better kids.

Windows 8 was not properly tested prior to release, I'm guessing because they rushed it to market. Hopefully 8.1 won't be as rushed and they will actually TEST some of this stuff a bit better this time.

Seriously? You do realize that "coins" where invented as a way to make standard sized bits of metal (gold, silver etc) that could be traded with less examination required. Look for Cesar's face on one side and his horse's on the other and you knew you where holding a known quantity of gold... Bitcoin is not even close to that.. (Not that a dollar coin is worth a dollar's worth of gold anymore..)

You mean: "exit(-1);" ?

We've been down this road/runway time and again and while it is possible, it's not going to be practical for a long time. From a licensed private pilot who also holds a class B CDL and could actually LEGALLY drive/fly this thing, here are the reasons why this ain't going to happen....

1. The Car/Plane will need to be certified by TWO authorities, the NHTSA and the FAA (in the USA).

2. It will have to meet the minimum crash standards of the NHTSA, the Emission standards for other vehicles including the OBDII and Cafe mileage standards, yet meet the FAA's technical standard for a commercially produced aircraft (assume you don't build these yourself..)

3. Designing for both authorities will make it a horrible car and a worse airplane. It won't be comfortable and it will be hugely expensive.

4. The driver/pilot will need to be licensed to drive as well as have a suitable pilot's license, ratings, medical certificate, log book endorsements, and be current for the type of flying to be done in order to take passengers. Flying is an expensive hobby and you have to fly regularly to be proficient and safe.

5. ALL maintenance will need to be done by properly certified (by the FAA) mechanics using fully vetted and certified parts, and you thought a brake job was expensive for your car, trust me, you haven't seen anything, and you simply won't be able to do ANY work yourself or buy tires from your local tire store because they won't be able to legally even loosen the lug nuts on your car/airplane thing.

6. Large Cities Usually sit under large areas of restricted airspace where flying these things would require a minimum set of navigational equipment, communications equipment and procedural methods to be followed. This is more than just going through the toll booth or HOV lanes. You will need to have a scheduled transit time and an approved filed flight plan in some cases and be talking to ATC in most cases.

7. VSTOL capable aircraft are usually not fuel efficient being heavy and complicated devices. They have limited useful load for the fuel they burn and suffer from being low range because you simply cannot lift fuel AND people, suitcases, groceries and the like. (The Harrier and V22 don't fix this issue..) You won't be go very far or fly very long.

8. Alcohol in motor fuels is going to be an issue for aircraft operating conditions.

It's simply not a practical idea. Sounds like it would be great, but it's just got some serious problems even before you get to thinking about the physics of the whole it's a car, it's a plane engineering problem.

Actually.... It's because it takes literally YEARS to design, test and manufacture space rated hardware components and then it takes YEARS to design, build, program and test a space platform.

Years + Years works out to a LONG time from a new technology to flight ready hardware... Then you measure mission times in YEARS too, so you end up with a VERY LONG time that passes. THAT is why much of NASA's hardware is based on seemingly old technology.

Yea, My CAR is older than that!

or....

Key turned on... Display says: "No boot sector found, Insert Operating System CD and hit return....."

OR...

When driving though death valley in the summer time it quits running and Display shows BSOD with "Driver not found"