I agree that it is mostly pointless. However, we use it in a way that I find very useful, but only occasionally. We have an Iridium equipped aircraft that has very limited data connectivity. When we are flying it over the Arctic or Antarctic for our work, we can update people on what we are doing and seeing using Twitter and our very limited data connection on an hourly basis. That means that mom back at home (or program managers, or interested scientists, students, whatever ) can monitor what we're doing almost while we are doing it. It's an easy solution to updating people and possibly providing some interesting information in semi-real time. However, I have yet to see any other practical use for it. I don't give a rats ass about using Twitter.

This really *is* a big deal. I've been working in a related area since 2001, and every year it seems like the NASA budget is getting worse and worse. We are funded by NASA and collect environmental data (similar to one of the satellites that "just" failed, ICESat) and have often been working on a shoestring when it comes to R&D and hardware. These satellites take years to develop and finally get into orbit. Without funding *now*, we could possibly be years without proper monitoring of our Earth. It's not all about Global Warming, but there are tons of other things that NASA looks at for a better understanding of our earth. OTOH, if a new ICESat weren't being built, that would just be more work for me.

This happened within sight of where I live. I wasn't there at the time, but I'll never forget it. This was totally avoidable on several levels, but the flight controller screwed up. That still doesn't justify revenge murder, but I can only imagine how such a tragedy affects you when your entire family dies like this. It was a pretty crappy situation.

As an expert, maybe you can answer this:

Earlier this year we had a hard drive failure, and we really wanted the data back badly (money isn't important).

So, off it went to a 'professional recovery' service. A couple thousand bucks later, they were able to image some portion of the drive, and handed us the files they had recovered.

The number of files they were able to recover was pitiful. It was as if they imaged the disk and ran a simple undelete program (ext2) or something.

Is this normal? Are there any guys out there that dig a little deeper than this?

I spent 2 weeks writing my own recovery software that carved the data out of the drive image, and saved 10 times the number of files they were able to. If I can do it, why can't they? Are there any recovery experts that actually compare samples of the data to be recovered (in our case, our own format binary data files, not similar to anything else) and make an effort to carve the files out, instead of relying on whatever recoverable filesystem information is available? (yeah, without being able to rely on ext2 filesystem information, you have to make certain assumptions..)

An obligatory link: "How Many Has God Killed" (Complete List and estimated Total)

If you've not seen this, it's worth a look.

I absolutely agree. I download unauthorized versions of some games, and if I like them, then I buy them. It's just too hard to know if a game is a waste of time/money without trying it out. Yeah, you can try a demo. But most of the time demos really just don't cut it when you want to decide about buying a game or not. It's a lot the same for me as if I were to go to a friend's house and play a game they already bought. If I realize it's a piece of crap after a few hours, then there is no way I'd buy it. But if it engages me and I decide I like it, I will buy a legit copy. I don't know why companies would have a problem with this.

I built a system rather cheaply that works great with virtualization. Go for a decent quad core (Q9450/Q9550 for example) and a MB that supports DDR2 instead of DDR3 (or both, like this motherboard)

- The Q9450/Q9550 have large caches and overclock (on air) easily and stably to 3.5GHz+ without any hassle.

- Get reasonably fast DDR2 ram (esp. if you are overclocking). You won't reap much/any benefits from going to DDR3 with this setup, so go the cheaper DDR2 route. Get 4GB (or more).

The rest of the parts will be up to you, but this is what I'd recommend at the moment as the core of your system. Make sure that you get a MB with enough internal SATA ports (or eSATA) - the MB I linked to has only 4xinternal SATA and 2xeSATA ports; if you need more, you'll have to look elsewhere.

As of this moment, Google is working normally again - and there is a link to their new service, Knol : http://knol.google.com/k

If you're concerned about money but still want a screamer, I'd recommend the Xeon 3550 (the exact same as the Q9450, except reputed to run at lower temps, taken from better batches, etc). When I purchased one, it was the same price as the Q9450.

Pair this with decent DDR2 RAM (not DDR3, it's still expensive and not worth the gains) and you'll save a bunch o' money. In my case, the system overclocks reliably to 3.6GHz.

So if you want something better than the cheapest option, but don't want to spend bazillions - this is a decent way to go.

The diesel I mentioned is a BMW, which does 0-60 in about 8.5-9 seconds. That's not bad.

I don't know what kind of car you are driving, but under five seconds is the same (or faster) than a Porsche 911. Certainly not a 'usual' car.

With all the talk about driving more fuel efficient vehicles and people buying hybrids thinking that they're getting the most efficient vehicle out there, I have one question: why aren't diesels being used in the USA?

Of course they can be found very occasionally, but they're certainly not mainstream.

Why a diesel? Well, I drive a 4-year old diesel car. It's a full size car. It uses 5.3L/100km (that means I get 44.38mpg). And I drive like a normal person (or perhaps a little more aggressively). The car tops out at about 140mph.

This is a run of the mill vehicle - except it uses a 2.0L diesel engine. Why don't carmakers sell diesels in the USA? It doesn't seem like rocket science.

Can't get to the article, but - if you haven't heard of this before, it's pretty cool: the Oklo Natural Fission Reactor in Gabon. And while you're at it, you can read about how this natural reactor has scientists rethinking how constant the fine structure constant really is.