I also got a chance to meet Dr. Ride, at a function for city government officials in the mid-80's, after her flight but before Challenger died. (My father, city manager of Poway at the time, took me.) She signed my copy of The Space Shuttle Operator's Manual.

Now the Shuttle is gone, and so is she. Sigh. Clear skies to you, ma'am.

"Did you hear that?"

"Someone is coming. Quick, tell them you see them."

"Why? I don't see them."

"It scares the hell out of people."

"R-O-F-L! All right. I see you."

"Ask her if the's still there."

"Are you still there?...She didn't say anything."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"What should I say now?"

"Come out, bitch!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz5cl131KTk

It's obvious that Windows RT is going to be extremely different from Windows as we know it, in terms of UI, operating paradigm, openness to outside software (you have to go through Microsoft's app store and give them their cut, plus these new tablets will be locked down to only running WinRT), and so forth.

So why is Microsoft still calling it "Windows"?

Apple doesn't call its OS for iPad/iPhone/etc. "OSX" anything, even though that's what it's derived from. It calls it "iOS."

So can't Microsoft pick another name for this thing, just to eliminate confusion? Like, say, call it "Metro OS," after the visual style it uses?

You can do CM9 as well now. I've done both CM7 and CM9 installs, and done them to MicroSD memory cards, so that I can just reboot without the card in the slot to run the "stock" Nook distribution again at any time.

CM9 feels a bit sluggish on the Nook Color, but it's usable.

Wasn't Edison Carter's portable camera unit (in the old Max Headroom TV series) referred to as a "camera gun"? There's another example of prior art.

Wave Motion Gun, FIRE!!!

Actually, two plus two does equal ten...for sufficiently large values of two.

Now, did they list his full, legal name, "Bender Bending Rodriguez," on the ballot?

There's some other things to keep in mind about Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTRs):

Thorium is a natural impurity found in coal. It has been estimated, in fact, that the thorium in coal would, if used as fuel for LFTRs, generate eleven times the energy that you would get from just burning the coal. And right now, all that thorium is simply wasted in the coal ash, or worse, goes up the smokestack and becomes an environmental pollutant!

Also, due to the higher temperature LFTRs run at, they can directly supply heat to drive the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert the coal that we'll no longer need to burn for electricity into synthetic petroleum. This would allow the U.S. to completely supply all its petroleum needs (especially for transportation fuel) from coal for at least 100 years, and eliminate the need for foreign oil. This, in turn, would allow the defense budget to be cut in at least half, as much of that expenditure is to protect our access to foreign oil. And it also reduces carbon emissions, since, while we're still burning the coal (after it's been transformed into synthetic petroleum), we're not burning the oil it replaced!

None of this requires new technology; we were running LFTRs at Oak Ridge in the 1960's (and they proved their safety by literally cutting power to the reactor systems and going home for the weekend!), and Germany was using Fischer-Tropsch back in World War II. All it requires is some engineering refinements...and, of course, the political will to do it. The latter, sadly, is lacking.

This is true. "Weyr Search," which is basically the first part of Dragonflight, even won the Hugo.

Though she's more famous for The Dragonriders of Pern and The Ship who Sang, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for her Crystal Singer series. Look it up sometime; it's a nice little combination of music, mining, meteorology, and not a little romance.

She has passed for all time between; we accord her a dragon tribute. May she always sing the black, and cut well.

Actually, for me, it cost about $115 just this past weekend. And I needed it.

Actually, now that I look at it, the answer would be "no." No MicroSD slot means no nifty bootable-card hacks like you can pull with the Nook Color, and (possibly) the Nook Tablet as well.

I came here to say that, or at least to ask the question: Has the Fire been rooted yet? Is it as hacker-friendly as, say, the B&N Nook Color?