Yep, and in spite of that police will refuse to accept this technology. Weighed against a gun grab, they'll vote for the weapon that is more likely to work for them when they need it. To combat gun grabs they'll continue to use retention holsters and train to defend their gun.

You may not know, but another technology in this vein (gun grab protection) is already in production and widely available. It's a more sensible and less risky approach... and by and large police officers don't like it. The technology in question is the "magazine safety". It blocks the trigger press unless a magazine is fully inserted. The idea is that if an officer ends up in a wrestling match they can reach down and hit the exposed magazine release, disabling their gun until the magazine is re-inserted. Seems sensible enough, but it still creates a small risk that the gun won't work when they want it to, so by and large police have refused to buy guns with the feature even though it was designed specifically for them.

I can think of two possibilities for why Android apps are more likely to be $0. One was an expectation of free apps arising from early attempts to reach Android Market (now Google Play Store) users in countries where Google had not yet deployed Checkout (now Wallet). Another is that perhaps fewer small-time Android developers feel the need to recoup the minuscule costs of starting out with Android development, compared to iOS which costs $650 (if your primary computer happens to be something other than a Mac) plus $99 per year. True, this cost is a rounding error to a full-time developer at an established company, but it isn't to a hobbyist.

Yes, if you're a pedant. However, a well-maintained modern handgun firing factory ammunition is unlikely to fail, and nearly all failures that do occur are transient and easily fixed. With a bit of practice, even type 3 malfunctions (double-feed) can be cleared in under a second and the gun restored to working order.

What we're talking about here is an additional failure mode, one that is almost certainly not repairable in a second, or even a couple of minutes. In a gunfight, a couple of minutes is likely to be a literal lifetime. Further, it introduces a failure mode which can occur even when everything is working perfectly. If for some reason you need to shoot with your off hand and cannot get your strong-side wrist in range of the gun, you'll be unable to shoot.

Police will absolutely refuse to use these, and civilians should also refuse to allow them to be imposed on us.

Dihydrogen monoxide, hydrogen hydroxide, hydroxylic acid, etc. are all humorous names for the abundant compound oxidane. In solid phase it's also called ice, in liquid phase it's water, and in gas phase it's steam. It doesn't have the same sort of allotropic variation as elemental carbon.

Where does science fiction gray goo get its energy to work?

If I'm contributing to a collaborative database of hotspots, it's far more convenient to log seen SSIDs and their locations with a 4" device than with a 11-17" device. I can put the former in my pocket and hop on my bike; I'd have to secure the latter to the rear rack somehow.

Why should it require a laptop? That would mean someone who gets called to help troubleshoot the wireless network of a friend or relative relative in town would have to 1. buy a laptop if he doesn't already own one, and 2. carry it there.

No, I looked at the diagram.

Too bad that wasn't in the diagram.

As long as you're willing to fire both cylinders at the same time regardless of compression, this should be mitigated by the valves closing at the same time, which is something we already expect in a modern engine. The piston closer to the valve will slow down sooner. Presumably, the engine will refuse to produce maximum output if the system detects that it can't synchronize the cylinders, implying impeded operation.

It would make a lot more sense to kick off a few more Mars missions and learn more about the place before we actually sent humans. Maybe build a better communications infrastructure between the two, first, so that there's always contact. Can't do anything about transmission time, can do something about bandwidth and coverage. A colony on the moon is a really good idea, though. It's nearby, so we could feasibly make a withdrawal plan. Mars is a one-way trip in case of failure. You maybe could bring people back, but not in a hurry, or probably in a timely fashion.

Also, I'd like to see some missions to asteroids which are on the level of this Mars mission, with some kind of rover. Let's get a clearer idea of what asteroid mining is going to look like. If we're really going to get development and exploration of space kicked off, we're going to need to do our heavy manufacturing in space anyway.

Not necessarily, but there's only so much we can do deep in a gravity well. Some technologies will probably require orbital manufacturing.

That's not impossible, but such a culture is probably guaranteed to be wiped out eventually by an impactor if they don't develop their space technology. And if they want to support a large civilization they'll need lots of energy. Unless they strip-mine their atmosphere, putting the generation equipment in space will still be a good way to improve efficiency and safety.

Space will always be valuable to would-be superpowers here on Earth because it is the ultimate high ground. It doesn't matter if the people understand. If the Powers find it desirable to go to space, they will use the media to lead the people in that direction. Again.

Really? So uh, to what will you mount the part that it slides on? Your asshole?

You are making stupid assumptions. That seems stupid.

Right, but you'll still have the combustion. Small, well-balanced engines already don't transmit a lot of vibration to the chassis. A boxer engine, for example, with opposed pistons like I was just talking about.

Right, but now you're trading frictional loss for heat loss, by compressing air. You'll generate more heat in the bottom end than you would even in a normal engine.

The numbers I've read are in the range of 95-98% efficient, but I can't find any links right now. In any case, whether it's 90% or 99%, the net is that a linear generator feeding an electric motor should be at least as efficient as a traditional ICE, as well as being lighter and simpler.

Gaining this financial independence requires first paying your dues, and in a lot of cases, that traditionally happens in a city.

I must not be understanding something. How are apps under a free software license necessarily "a very small niche"?

I don't see how they get away with that given the non-compete (section 4.5) but whatever.

Cost isn't much of a barrier to entry to established firms in the most developed countries because the tools and license for one year cost less than a week's salary for a programmer in a developed country. But it is a barrier for students, part-time developers, and developers in less developed countries that have a lower overall wage level. It causes there to be a smaller proportion of $0 apps on iOS because developers feel they have to recover the cost of entry. (That and Google's early failure to deploy Wallet quickly enough.)