Free market competition in almost all cases, except for absolutely needed government actions, always results in intense competition and ultimately the lowest cost that a good provider can supply and maintain. Government has no interest in providing the best at the lowest cost if they run a service.

Any time the government gets involved they warp the competition one way or another with politcal ends and increase the overhead cost. Cable TV should have always been open to multiple providers so people could order what they want from whatever carrier or carriers.

The researchers noted that "unfortunately" the nanotube speakers use much higher amounts of power to drive them.

& using near obsolete aircraft to boot at low cost. What is not to like?

You have to be prepared for large changes by being willing to say "This place is going down and I am moving."

Growing up in the Northwest in the 50s & 60s, wood product mills, companies and machinery for them looked great. However access to faster growing wood in the Southeast and stands of virgin large trees put on the market by the British Columbia government wiped out 3 dozen mills of various types in my home area of Columbia County Oregon and decimated the jobs for well over a decade or so.

There is a tendency to think that what we grow up with is what we will have for our & our children's lives. The fact is we have undergone more changes in lifespan, health and technology in 150 years than in the entire previous history of primates and it is likely to continue and that means destruction of "what I grew up with."

GE's Jack Welch said it right "Change before you have to."

Intense radiation levels alone during Solar storms & extra-solar Gamma rays along with normal human frailties in health will doom long extended space voyages in any near term.

Way in the future, extra-long multiple lifespan voyages at super-high speeds will also be futile as "space" is note "empty space" but full, chocked full of ions and molecules which spacecraft will hit at these projected "hyper-velocities". This effect on metals and other surfaces is similar to what is experienced on earth in plasma cutting now: See Wikipedia on "plasma cutting"

People think "space" is automatically 'cold'. That may be true in most places, but if you get into high velocities and run into a string of hot gas, you may find your spacecraft melts surprisingly fast. True, it is not likely as sensors should let spacecraft avoid these areas, but we simply don't know. Our own Sun throws out these super-hot plasmas, so it is not uncommon.

Robotics seems to have great advantages the minute you leave immediate Earth orbit.

no more conscience than EFlops Redmond puppet master, Vladimir Ballmer.

Can't think of any other reason to put out this sort of wacko mission. Let's see, if it costs 20 Billion and I take just a 1% cut in salary and bennies ... my retirement is guaranteed.

Did not see iBeacon noted in the excellent review & the implications for new apps and hardware accessories. I'll ave to read it several times.

I am convinced the guy doesn't read virtually anything of modern life. He stopped with something like Marx & Muhammed as far as I can determine from his actions.

But ... with a fingerprint sensor at a work entry point there is one less union worker checking people in.

And unions want to be just like government work, where no job is ever eliminated.

The whole patent system was designed to encourage building physical things people used. Patents were never intended to cover the thought process or logic or eventual machine readable logic derived from the mind on how a person was to use a product.

New Zealand has just disallowed software patents and maybe that will proceed to other countries.

If you want your product methods & operation choices and commands to be secret, then obfuscate your code.

For us uninformed, please define doping.

The question is if Dell can challenge IBM, SAP, HP, et al at "services" for IT systems?

Then the question is can Michael Dell get the executives with the skills and vision to make it happen in an arena that is cutthroat.

Chaos, when a small perturbation allows a gain for a small action that one player has that others don't see.

It is like playing poker with a card counter near the end of the deck, but you aren't counting. You lose.

Given all the backward compatibility for legacy items and new OS items, how long can it go before it becomes virtually impossible to maintain reliable code?