I know it's a little impractical but I am still waiting for something like this to be made into reading or prescription lenses for glasses.

I've looked for glasses made from synthetic sapphire but I've not found anything yet. I know nothing about materials but I can't imagine it would be easy to grind such materials into the proper shapes but it would be nice to really not have to worry about scratches.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

I have it on my Windows desktop and laptop and use it all the time. I have no problems with performance or the way it works. I've even used it on the rare occasion I've needed to pull my old PA system out of storage and be a DJ for a friend's party or whatever.

I just don't see the big deal. I'm certainly not a fanboi and I recognize iTunes could be better but couldn't everything?

It seems to be the software that everyone loves to hate but I just don't have any complaints about it and I constantly wonder what all the fuss is about...

It was a bit of an exaggeration.

Wow. I was just getting over loosing Douglas Adams and now we've lost Pratchett as well?

This really does suck (urinating dog...urinating dog).

I'm going to have to reread my library of his books now.

FTFY

I read The Hot Zone many years ago and I keep thinking that I remember reading that the Ebola Reston strain was considered to have been spread by airborne means.
I thought maybe I was wrong but then I found this on Internet Scientific Publications (http://ispub.com/IJPRM/2/1/12768)

"And, indeed researchers discovered that this was a new species of Ebola virus, which they named Ebola-Reston15, 28, 29. The new virus was highly pathogenic in monkeys but apparently not in humans. The researchers also dispelled the idea that filoviruses were found only in Africa, because the monkeys had been imported from the Philippines. The investigators documented a high likelihood of aerosol transmission outside a controlled laboratory setting, because the virus appeared to pass between rooms to infect susceptible monkeys. Specimens from animals that died or were killed to eradicate the outbreak yielded fertile ground for research in new Ebola virus detection and identification techniques and the virological and pathological events associated with infection. "

If they have since determined it was not aerosol transmission, that's interesting.
I shudder to imagine an Ebola strain that spreads via aerosol and affects humans (Ebola Reston does not affect humans).
As you pointed out, it would be a much worse situation.

The book, The Hotzone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone), tells a story about a strain of Ebola that became known as Ebola Reston that was discovered in a research facility in Reston, VA in 1989.

It was an airborne strain that spread from monkey to monkey much like the Flu and was extremely fatal to the monkeys. But while it could (and DID) infect a human, it had no ill effects. The scary thing is that there are other strains of Ebola that are fatal to humans (Ebola Zaire).

Anyway, it's a little bit frightening how close we came here to an easily transmitted airborne virus that is fatal to 50 to 90% of the people who get it within 3 weeks of contraction. Yes, I know it would not wipe out the bulk of the human race...probably. But there are reasons we have pandemic plans in place and while things like the Bird and Swine flu have been blown out of proportion in recent years, the truth is that nature could throw us a curve ball at any moment and everyone who dismissed the bird and swine flu (including me) would be in for a surprise.

Color me strange but I'm looking forward to seeing the tablet that everyone's forgotten about: HP's WebOS based TouchPad.

IMO of the iOS competitors, WebOS is arguably the most polished and I've been looking forward to seeing a tablet based on it for a while.

I agree and while I know it doesn't really do anything to fix it, every time I have to upgrade iTunes or anything that requires the Apple installer, I take a screenshot of the installer with Safari checked and send an email to support@apple.com with a bug report.

I would invite everyone who deals with the apple installer to do this. Maybe one person can't change their mind but if they had to deal with a few thousand emails a week pointing out this problem, maybe someone might listen.

+100 Insightful
+100 Interesting
+500 for being quite possibly the best post I've ever seen on Slashdot.

Bravo

Your post about gas made me think about exploding lakes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_eruption)

Perhaps the fish were killed by some kind of exploding lake and the gas rose and was trapped by the weather and killed the birds.

Exactly! And on the flip side, if the 3D effects are badly done, it can destroy the experience entirely.

Clash of the Titans, for example, wasn't the greatest movie or anything but I absolutely hated it and mostly because of the badly executed 3D. I felt like my eyes were fighting for focus through the whole movie.

I think I am now just as tired of hearing about the iPhone 4 antenna issues as I am hearing about SCO.

Let me summarize so we can PLEASE move on:

iPhone has an antenna problem.

Get a bumper case or a friggin piece of scotch tape or take it back if you're not happy with it. If you don't own one and are just bitching because the rest of the world is, please get a life or at least find something else to gripe about.

Kk thx.

I remember borrowing an old Wyse terminal from work and hooking it up to my Apple IIGS running GNO/ME (GNO Multitasking Environment. Check here: http://www.hypermall.com/companies/procyon/gnome.html).

It's kind of cool that all this still works in current-day Linux. There's not many dumb terminals around any more for sure unless you're using an IBM Mainframe I guess. I suspect they still use 3270's.