Liquid He antimatter droplets would do just fine.

a) NaCL does not decompose to HF Gas when exposed to moisture, and HydroFluoric Acid is VERY corrosive
b) NaCl is not radioactive

Ain't the same hazard level here.

I cannot say it better than Rands himself: "In Software Engineering, the Process is the Product"

Read Rands in Repose.

Maybe I should have said "his dick grows whenever he uses a command line and a green screen instead of a GUI"

Here is the rule to remember for hackers: Form vs Function is not a zero sum game.

Also read The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers

> The biggest problem most techs face is their own arrogance.

Bingo. Don't look down on your peers. You are not better than them just because you like vi.

I have a hotshot hacker working for me right now who thinks he knows everything, but he is just a stupid little hacker who thinks his dick grows every time he uses vi. Don't be like that.

You are already on the right path: You recognized in yourself that you need to grow professionally and that you need to get away from the little dark screen and see how it fits into the world.

Three points:
* See the first for the trees
* Have the balls to say "I don't know"
* Education, education, education

Here is the most important thing to remember: A hacker sees his own little thing that he hacks on. An engineer see how that thing fits into the world and people who uses it. See the forest that your little tree grows in.

All companies and industries have standards, habits and a culture that it uses and the people are almost always NOT used to or interested in the little details that fascinate a hacker.The people out there will not change their entire culture to fit your hacking needs. The job of any technology and the engineers that build it is to facilitate the and simplify the lives of other people.

Professionality means that you take responsibility for your work. That includes taking responsibility for the interface to the users.

Read this:
The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers (http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/programming/9780132542913)

Number two: You cannot know everything. Accept it.

There is nothing wrong with expanding your horizons and going past your field, but when you are in a terrain where you are uncomfortable make sure your peers know it and make sure you have a mentor and listen to him. Or delegate to an expert. People will have a much higher esteem for you professionally if you have the balls to say "I don't know" instead of lying. It can be hard sometimes, but it beats being known as an arrogant little know-it-all.

Point number three: Education, education, education. Always assume you know nothing. Read up about your industry outside of the computer part. Computers are just a tool to make the gears turn. You will be a much better engineer if you know what the gears look like.

Good luck. You already took the first step and you will make it.

Here is a very fine example of an supernova in another galaxy that is visible from earth, but modulating this to carry information would be somewhat challenging.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/SN1994D.jpg/600px-SN1994D.jpg

That is one beautiful pic though.

No, the Voyager probes transmit at 23 Watts, which is basically nothing. The entire power system on the craft can generate about 250 Watts, which is used for all the systems. The fact that Nasa can track an object transmitting half the power of a lightbulb 11 billion km away to very fine precision is absolutely the most amazing thing they ever did in the space program IMHO.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question431.htm