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Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 475

From Wikipedia: Jupiter's upper atmosphere is composed of about 88–92% hydrogen and 8–12% helium by percent volume or fraction of gas molecules (see table to the right).

So, more gravity seems to work. And we can go there and mine helium if we run out of it

Comment Re:Starships have sensors. (Score 1) 47

The comet was only a few kilometres across and plowed into the solid planet at over a dozen kilometres per second, so it pulverised itself out of existence in less than a second, hurling black-grey-brown-red-white spurts of material off from the impact point in arcs, most of them directed in the direction of impact, themselves leaving lines of smaller impacts around the edge of the planet, while a visible black ripple spread out from the origin. FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM was how Jex and Yuo's onboard videoaudio sound effect generator chose to interpret this.

The last but one question by Sam Hughes

Comment Re:No ethical problem at all (Score 1, Redundant) 782

No, this is complete bullshit. It's not the law, it is a license, so stop comparing apples to oranges. If they grant me a license to their code, which explicitly states that I may charge a fee for redistributing it (Section 1 - did you ever read the GPL v2), then they are bound to it. They also expect me as a re-distributor of their code to follow the terms. I suggest that you read this before posting again.

Comment Re:Privacy? Huh? (Score 3, Informative) 574

I saw the documentary "Deep Throat" some time ago, and it said that there were still laws against porn in the US - I couldn't believe it, but it seems to be true. But I am not a lawyer and not from the USA - Can someone with an understanding of the US laws and legal system explain what exactly the crime was? Is producing and distributing porn really a crime for which you can get jail time in the USA?

Comment Re:What I learned (Score 4, Insightful) 461

Yes, exactly. And in the close-up fighting scenes (of which the film has way too much) the camera is shaking so much that you can't see anything. And that scene with the huge predators on the ice planet remided me of Star Wars Episode 1 ("There is always a bigger fish"). Otherwise a nice movie, but not a masterpiece IMHO.

Comment Re:Apache? (Score 1) 188

And, let's not forget, if Microsoft had released this software under the terms and contitions of the GPL they could still create an improved closed source version, but nobody else could. Every other developer would have to develop for them or not be recognized at all (because nobody except geeks would use a fork). Sun is doing exactly this with Java, just google for "Java" and "Walled Garden". With AL2 at least everybody can create a closed source version. I think the AL2 is a good joice by them.

Comment Summary: Flamebait? (Score 5, Insightful) 215

The summary and the linked email from Brad Spengler look very flamebait to me. Linus Thorwalds writes in the quoted mail:

That said, I don't _plan_ messages or obfuscate them, so "overflow" might well be part of the message just because it simply describes the fix. So I'm not claiming that the messages can never help somebody pinpoint interesting commits to look at, I'm just also not at all interested in doing so reliably.

And from the second email:

> by 'cover up' i meant that even when you know better, you quite
> consciously do *not* report the security impact of said bugs
Yes. Because the only place I consider appropriate is the kernel changelogs, and since those get published with the sources, there is no way I can convince myself that it's a good idea to say "Hey script kiddies, try this" unless it's already very public indeed.

Also, someone is not satisfied with an email from Linus Thorwalds and he drags the discussion over here to /. - This certainly will solve the problem... (Sorry for RTFA, I should know better)

Hardware

Melting Microchip Defects May Extend Moore's Law 99

schliz lets us know about research out of Princeton on melting away defects on microchips using a laser. The new technique, termed Self-Perfection by Liquefaction (SPEL), was published in the May 4 issue of Nature Nanotechnology. Researchers have traditionally approached chip defects by trying to improve the microchip fabrication process, but this eventually reaches fundamental physical limits to do with random behavior of electrons and photons. By focussing on fixing defects, the new method enables more precise shaping of microchip components, and engineers expect to dramatically improve chip quality without increasing fabrication cost. The before-and-after images are remarkable. Here's a diagram of how the process works.
The Military

Boeing 12,000lb Chemical Laser Set to Fry Targets 625

coondoggie writes "Boeing this week completed work on and installed a 12,000-pound chemical laser in a C-130H aircraft. Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) which is being developed for the Department of Defense, will destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations."

Comment Symbian C++ experience (Score 1) 276

I had the pleasure to write Symbian C++ programs about 2 years ago. I'm happy that this time is over now. At that time I also did a little example to compared Java-MIDP and Symbian C++. I wrote a program that only downloads a file via http. The Java program had about 100 lines of code, the Symbian C++ program took 1000 lines.

A nice quote also comes to me mind from Oscar Wild: 'Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.'
Sci-Fi

Antimatter Molecule Should Boost Laser Power 211

Laser Lover writes "Molecules made by combining an electron with their anti-particle positron have been created by researchers at the University of California Riverside. The team's long term goal is to use the exotic material to create 'an annihilation gamma ray laser', potentially one million times more powerful than existing lasers. 'An electron can hook up with its antiparticle, the positron, to form a hydrogen-like atom called positronium (Ps). It survives for less than 150 nanoseconds before it is annihilated in a puff of gamma radiation. It was known that two positronium atoms should be able to bind together to form a molecule ... '"
Space

Photonic Laser Thruster Promises Earth to Mars in a Week 413

serutan writes "Using lasers to drive spaceships has been a subject of interest for many years, but making a photonic engine powerful enough for practical use has been elusive. Dr. Young Bae, a California physicist, has built a demonstration photonic laser thruster that produces enough thrust to micro-maneuver a satellite. This would be useful in high-precision formation flying, such as using a fleet of satellites to form a space telescope with a large virtual aperture. Scaled up, a similar engine could speed a spacecraft to Mars in less than a week."

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