Fusion projects

Fusion projects hang in limbo - Cosmic Log - msnbc.com

We're not spending nearly enough in this area.... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Use of brain scans in courts

Wow.. this is incredible.... actually it's NOT credible which is the point.
Reminds me of the Star Trek episode where Kirk is convicted based on "infallible" computer evidence. Or a few others where they had a high tech lie detector in trials. But this seems to go further than just detecting a lie. This seems to suggest that a brain scan can read what a person remembers.. chilling....

India's use of brain scans in courts dismays critics - International Herald Tribune [This Post Continues after the jump...]

DVD ripping goes legit with RealDVD

This should have been "legal" years ago... And while this is a good first step, it still has a long ways to go. Paying more money to watch your movies on other PC is silly, only being able to rip the movie "uncompressed" is lame.

And the whole idea of having to pay for the right to copy and watch your own DVD's is just silly....


DVD ripping goes legit with RealDVD | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Apparently, one third of us have been copying DVDs

WOW, one third!

I didn't realize it was so high since there is no legal software for doing it. But a lot of th is has to be legitimate DVD copies of legally owned DVDs. I mean do the studios realize what the expected life time of a DVD is in the hands of a 6 year old? Or when left in a hot car for use on the road.

Not using (and not allowing us to make) homemade backup copies of movies in this case is just silly.

Also, my biggest pet peeve is that my bedroom TV is an old VCR/TV comb. I have a DVD connected but the silly Macrovission analog copy protection makes the color and brightness look awful. (as If I would want a VHS copy of a DVD anyways!!!) So I have to make backup copes just to disable that.

So I hope they don't consider this 1/3 number to just be people that copy DVD's they don't really own. Some of us still buy them and just use copies in certain situations to keep them safe.


Apparently, one third of us have been copying DVDs! | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET [This Post Continues after the jump...]

AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte

Cooperate Greed at it's finest..

(2nd only to Microsoft charging me for a new OS when my computer died and I built my own replacement. I could reuse the hard-drive, monitor, keyboard, and all my other software but not a perfectly good copy of the OS)

AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Digital TV foreshadows erosion of Internet rights

Ahead of the Curve | Tom Yager | InfoWorld | Digital TV foreshadows erosion of Internet rights | June 18, 2008 03:00 AM | Tom Yager [This Post Continues after the jump...]

NBC admits "inadvertent" broadcast flag use

NBC admits "inadvertent" broadcast flag use, still doesn't explain why it actually worked - Engadget HD

This is why this "flag" was a bad idea to begin with. MS should release a patch to disable this.. but they won't... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Did You Know - SHIFT happens

WATCH THIS... take the time to WATCH THIS

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What Will Life Be Like in the Year 2008?

What Will Life Be Like in the Year 2008?

The really interesting part of this is HOW MUCH they were RIGHT... Except for vactiooning in orbit, domed cities and automatic cars, the parts about computers and TV is pretty close to what we actually have (except for the user interface). [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Space: ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Blasts Off Tomorrow

This is going to be neat...
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=27279



Space: ESA's Autonomous Space Truck Blasts Off Tomorrow [This Post Continues after the jump...]

US Satellite Shot - Needed for Safety or a Weapons Test?

Well Russia says it's just a veiled weapons test. But has a NASA engineer that has at least heard the word "hydrazine" before today, I think there is room for concern. I was surprised what survived from Challenger, video tapes with data still on them, science experiment data, and other things all survived. This Satellite failed days after launch, so it's tanks are FULL and reasonably could be a hazard to anyone near an impact site.

But that doesn't mean it won't be a great weapons test also!! And if it really has happened like the US says, it is a great SHORT NOTICE test of a weapons system. An excellent opportunity not to be passed up.

Plus, it is very different from China's recent test. First, we are telling everyone beforehand. Second, this satellite is days away from reentering the atmosphere - therefore it is much lower than other operational satellites and the debris will be in the same low orbit and not harm any other satellite. The debris will also re-enter the atmosphere in a few days or weeks. The Chinese satellite was not functioning but in a normal orbit, it's debris caused lots of problems with other operating satellites.

Russia: US Satellite Shot a Weapons Test

As a side thought, wouldn't it be GREAT if this satellite wasn't a "failed" imaging satellite at all? Maybe it was launched just to be a target. They could even have some control over it and have picked the time for this test. If this becomes a conspiracy theory I want credit for mentioning it first!! (I haven't read this anywhere else, but I'm sure others have thought of it or even written about it, but I should get some credit for starting an unfounded rumor, and my NASA credentials might even give it an unfounded air of plausibility.)

Anyways, I would hope our military could pull something like this off, I mean all the alien technology has to be good for something. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

First U.S. Satellite's Souvenirs Still Circles the Earth

We were a little late, but Explorer I actually did real Science and is STILL in orbit today.

Sputnik just beeped and fell back to earth a few months later (although I don't know the exact length of time)

SPACE.com -- 50 Years Later: First U.S. Satellite's Souvenirs Still Circle the Earth [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?

Not one of my usual topics, but one I found interesting.

I think we need to realize that there are two classes of computer programmers now, the ones like me that program a small tool to get a specific job done, like analyzing a data stream, or displaying data in human readable formats, and then the programmers that do all the "behind the scenes" work.

It's kind of interesting that as things get EASIER for me, they actually get HARDER for the real programmers developing all the tools.

STSC CrossTalk - Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow? - Jan 2008


*** UPDATE ***

Who Killed the Software Engineer? (Hint: It Happened in College)

To sum up Dewar’s argument: today’s college computer science programs aren’t rigorous enough, and don’t promote in-depth thinking and problem solving. Instead, in an effort to boost enrollment, CS programs focus on easily accessible curricula, and so fail to prepare students to compete with their international peers.

[This Post Continues after the jump...]

The Vista Death Watch

The Vista Death Watch - Columns by PC Magazine


I love this... this is so true. Especially the part about all the "versions". I mean Vista Ultimate is really the true Vista, everything else is just crippled. Why? Unlike a car manufacturer which sells a car with two different engines or fancy wheels, there is no real cost different between the different versions of Vista. A smaller engine costs less to make, so the car cost less to the customer. The cheaper versions of Vista cost the same to make, but Microsoft punishes you for not buying the over priced "ultimate". Why? because they can!!

I know I'll never get Vista until something I can't live without just will not run on XP.

Another few things Microsoft can do to increase sells of Vista is.

1 - Free it someone, allow once license to cover a few home PC's.
2 - Free it some more, allow Vista purchased on a new PC to be transfered to a repaired, rebuilt PC
3 - Free the content. Abandon the DRM features of the OS and the "protected video path" (whatever they call it)

I might actually willing upgrade if they did some of these things. (My previous statement is still valid because I know they will never do any of these things...)
[This Post Continues after the jump...]

The Next Fifty Years in Space

an interesting look at Space Travel 50 years from now..... something that would be right at home see while waiting in line at Space Mountain.... 50 years just doesn't seem long enough for any of this, other than the moon stuff, to happen.

The Next Fifty Years in Space - Associated Content [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Microsoft takes on the Free World

Microsoft claims software like Linux violates its patents - May 28, 2007

I honestly don't see how one should be able to patent "WHAT" a computer does. The whole idea of a programmable computer is that it can be programed to do ANYTHING. To say that I can't program my own computer to do "task A" because you have patented the concept "task A" is silly.

It's like saying I can't use my own typewriter to type a "detective mystery novel" because you have patented the IDEA of the mystery novel. This is very different from copyrighting a specific Sherlock Holmes novel, because patenting it would prevent me from writing any book about a really smart detective and his friend that solve mysteries in 18th century London.

Back to software, at most a software patent could only patent a "specific technique" for doing "task A" and not "task A" itself. But this too can be silly. If task A is calculating the area of a rectantgle, then there is ONLY one way to do that, and it's an open source mathematic formula. To try to patent "multiply height by width" is just silly.

But can you patent something like a "drop down menu bar"? Have you invented anything? Should I not be able to write a different program that does similar things? If my menu is at the bottom of the screen and "pops up" instead of "drop down" have I violated your patent? If you patent both, but only use one in your program, should your 2nd patent be valid, when its purpose isn't to protect what you're actually selling, but just to stop competition?

Finally, if software patents are to be allowed, they're length should be very short and match the speed of change in the software world. If you do patent something, you should have a short window to make some money off of it before it becomes public domain. Nothing about the DOS or Windows 3.1 user interface should still be protected by a patent. This is stuff Jr High kids are playing with now, while learning programming, keeping it patented will stifle their innovation. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

PC Spyware Act (HR 964) Only Protects Vendors and Their DRM

Looks like congress needs to pay off some people in Hollywood..... H.R. 964 "The Spy Act"

InfoWorld GripeLine by Ed Foster | InfoWorld | Spy Act Only Protects Vendors and Their DRM | April 24, 2007 12:09 AM | By Ed Foster

Write Your Representative NOW...
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ [This Post Continues after the jump...]

The Dilbert Blog: Copyright and the Infamous Underpants Analogy

Copyright violations are analogous to borrowing your neighbor’s underpants without asking, then laundering and returning them before he returns home.

Is Copyright Violation Stealing?

a follow up... The Dilbert Blog: The Infamous Underpants Analogy

a 3rd party review.... Pointy Haired Views on Copyright [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Human error and Bad Command doomed Mars Global Surveyor

Human error doomed Mars craft - Los Angeles Times: "Mars Global Surveyor" [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Why cell phones are still grounded

I've heard this many times before, and believe it.
But this sort of foot dragging may be good.
It's very expansive to "prove a negative" as in prove that a given device will NOT interfere with any airplane equipment. It seems to me that the price of just about all gadgets would go up if they had to be tested this way.

Or we could say everything is usable until we proved a certain item DOES cause problems. But most people don't want to take this kind of risk, even though it is more logical.

Why cell phones are still grounded [This Post Continues after the jump...]