300429
submission
mattnyc99 writes:
Rand Simberg has a report from the Space 2007 conference about a new proposal from Boeing that would upend NASA's expensive plan to return to the moon by building a propellant refueling depot in sub-orbital space—saving tons more time, weight and money for the new lunar base. From the article: "How the propellant would reach such a pitstop in the sky is really the beauty of Boeing's concept. NASA has been seeking ways to involve both international partners and the commercial sector — Michael Griffin, the agency's administrator, said recently that such a 'private/public synergy' was 'crucial for the future' — but NASA has been reluctant to put any partner on the critical path. The good news? Anyone can make propellant, and anyone can deliver it." Sounds like NASA and the space billionaires might finally be able to help each other...
299731
submission
buzzardsbay writes:
In a rollicking interview with eWEEK magazine, Apple guru Steve Wozniak dishes on Jobs, the iPhone and, ultimately, open source, saying: "There's always a group of people that wants to undo the forces of industry that have given us so much in terms of wealth, and there's always people who want things to be free. The open-source movement starts with those sort of people."
Woz does concede that open source has "good points that have nothing to do with whether it's free or not." And he was wearing a nixie-tube watch, so how much can you really dislike him?
299701
submission
LookSharp writes:
After years of negotiations between studios and consumer electronics manufacturers, retailers and individuals can now burn studio movies and TV shows onto a DVD. Biggest beneficiaries are expected to be independent film and library distributors that otherwise have trouble getting their DVDs onto shelves. Could this be the start of widespread availability of "Long Tail" content in retail stores?
90860
submission
Ground Glass writes:
If you've been wondering what games people actually buy, here's a list of the top selling games released in America in 2006. There's plenty of charts in there as well to help make sense of the data, so you can see when people are buying games and who's making the games that are purchased. It even cross-references review scores to check on how discerning the taste of the public is.