NASA's link says the 777 design flies 10% slower. A pretty good return!

Long, thin wingspans taking off from shorter runways makes me think it's considerably slower.

However, TFA says it could replace the overseas market, so the range must be there. If it carries the same amount of fuel as a 777, it must fly faster than 30% of the speed of a 777 ;-)

Have you tried running DirectX 1 and 2 games on new systems?

It doesn't work. You're at the mercy of hobby fixes. :-)

Failure is relative. THIS is a failure. http://history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/

Those companies already mark-up business-class PCs. What will keep them from continuing to do so in the future?

Compare a business-class graphics card to a gaming card. I have no idea what the differences are (more pipelines, less memory, I have no clue, but I need it for 3D modeling, apparently). 4-year-old cards still go for +$300. Try to pull that off in gamer-land :-)

Basically what I'm trying to say is that businesses have always been willing to pay a premium for a more reliable box, and I don't see that changing in the future. My company did the whole server-run CAD programs a long time ago - my boss refers to his tower of old client boxes his "$40,000 plant stand"

Obligitory link:

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail143.html

Wasn't coming down on Obama either way on this one. I agree that you can't tally promises until after the current administration is out. I was just making the point that numbers can be skewed to make whatever point you want.

I also think saying that he's kept 110/163 = 67% of his promises is also dishonest.

And yes, on his inauguration day, he hadn't done anything, so he hadn't kept any of his promises yet.

Promises kept - 110/504 = 21%

Promises broken - 19/504 = 3.8%

Promises "not kept" - 394/504 = 79%

It's all a matter of perspective - which side of the aisle you're looking from.

The best way to study would be to find the aliens and study directly. Send out the probes!

No wireless card for me. I guess there's one wireless network for my work, but nobody uses it and I'm not sure if it reaches this far back.

More. The answer is almost always more. Even though cars are smaller now, federal crash laws make cars heavier than back in the day.

That 1974 Pontiac would have had 1st generation federal mandate bumpers. Curb weight for a 1974 GTO (350ci V8) was 3486lb.
Smaller 2002 Concorde Curb Weight: 3487lb

Less displacement doing near equivalent work: that's called progress. The 1974 probably has more snot, but you're not looking for snot when you're looking for mpg.

In our business, it's called a "Time and Materials" project. Keep throwing money until the buyer gets a finished project, or they run out of money.

For projects like this, they probably set up contracts to do the engineering and development to manufacture with a promise of a minimum quantity of product ordered once finished. Cutting the contract at this point should just be a simple matter of paying the contractor for the work already accomplished and NASA getting any drawings, models or work produced in exchange (if specified in the original contract).

The sticky question is defining how much work was done and how much will be paid out to these companies.

Maybe if they put a higher curvature on it.

The immersion is supposed to occur because you can see more to the sides. If the side views are not in my periphery, isn't the effect lost?

As long as your game doesn't run the first few versions of DirectX you should be fine :-)

I had FF7 and 8 for the PC. They used weird DirectX drivers that have since been retired. There are hacks available to bring them up to current though.

You mean how my state's governor promised college educations to all of the public school students who maintained a B average? Yeah, and they just reneged.

"Hey Mr. Scott, what you gonna do? What you gonna do to make our dreams come true?"

lol