Yes. And assuming you have a laser or relativistic weapon, even with an amazing ability to dodge, the first to detect will fire and "simultaneously" (from the target's perspective) obliterate the target before the target notices they are even under attack. I'm assuming near-term space combat would be decided by stealth, not firepower: anybody detected is destroyed. Probably the only way to return fire would be to have drone fleets surrounded by dust, so that somebody survives to see the laser passing through the cloud and get some sense as to the direction it came from.

Also, it's possible that any significant combat in orbit would destroy everybody involved: see Kessler Syndrome/ablation cascade.

I...stand corrected. I had assumed Apple wasn't spending that much on operations. You're right; a bit more Googling shows they're only pocketing about 1%. I was assuming it was closer to 20%.

The instructions say to microwave the water to boiling, let it cool back to room temperature, then use it. I don't know of any cases of infection from people that followed those instructions.

$0.30 of every $1 spent on Apps goes to Apple. Thirty percent. They run the servers and handle the credit card transactions. They pay the server admins. They pay the folks that check code. The rest is profit. The App Store's market value is over $8 BILLION. Citation needed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store_(iOS)

That's business. I'm not saying that makes them evil. But it definitely, definitely, prints money.

I guess my thought is: why wouldn't they? They've proved the approach on iOS prints money like no tomorrow, improves security, and that they can get away with it. And they've proved on Lion that by making little tweaks to convenience they can get major developers to move into the App store. If in every iteration they add another tweak (in Lion only app store apps show up in the launchpad, in Mountain Lion non-apps need special permission to run), soon every application with any sizable userbase will have to move into the app store to not lose sales. And at that point they can launch a new unified OS that runs on every device that is fully walled, and the complainers will be few, since 99.9% of the apps anybody uses are already in the app store.

I don't think it's the end of the world. I don't think we can STOP it. And I'll still probably buy a Mac, because I frankly think they make a better product. But I do think we should notice what's happening.

What worries me is that it will be just user unfriendly enough that low-tech-savvy users won't know what to do. As opposed to immediately prompting you for your password. My assumption is that this is couched in security, but is actually a deliberate inconvenience to make sure that application developers see a sales loss if they don't fall in line. Yes, it will increase security. I'm just connecting the dots between "Apple making 30% off every app transaction" and "Apple being a business first and a secure OS second" and assuming the business interests are going to take us to some interesting places.

Note I said "lockdown coming," not "lockdown here." I'm just pointing out that Apple is very, very smart about social engineering. This is of course very "easy" for technical users to deal with. But many users I support (IT of course, this is Slashdot) don't know how to work System Preferences. A smaller number don't know about control-click. So for those users, applications now have to come from the App Store (or at least be signed). So all commercial application developers will fall in line, not because they have to, but because the incremental cost is small (get a dev key) and the cost of not doing it is huge (grandma can't buy your app).

Once those users are used to the change, Apple will take the next step. By taking baby steps, they can morph OSX into a fully walled garden without much protest, because each step is sooooo difficult that the people that complain are easily shouted down. And then they get 30% of every transaction.

"But what if you want to run an older app, or download a utility that was written by someone who hasn't paid Apple's $99 fee for a developer's license? If you're an administrative user, you can Ctrl-click on the App, choose Open from the pop-up menu, enter your OS X password, and tell Mountain Lion to trust this app in the future."

One step closer to all apps needing to come from the app store.

How so? The S2 was less than 10% faster than the previous generation OMAP 4430 in the Optimus: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/14

With the clock stepping jump alone from the Optimus to the Prime (20% on the core, ~25% in the graphics engine), the Prime should edge out the S2. If there are hardware acceleration advantages to Ice Cream Sandwich, the difference could be dramatic until the S2 gets updated.

1) Galaxy Nexus is on Verizon.
2) The OMAP 4430 at 1GHZ (LG Optimus HD) was already neck and neck with the Exynos in the S2. The Galaxy Nexus has a 1.2 GHZ OMAP 4460, which should be enough to cap out all these charts: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/14
3) The Galaxy Nexus has more pixels. For folks with good vision, that's going to be visible.

There's often a good answer to this: sit down with your boss and tell him about the other offer. If he or she agrees that you are that valuable, he or she may make a substantial counter-offer that lets them keep you and makes everybody happy. Ask for the 7k plus a day or two a week of working at home to compensate for the commute. Ask for everything it would take for you to feel like leaving would be crazy.

The only risk with this is an evil boss that forever holds it against you. If you think that's a situation, leave. Fast.

Synology seconded; I've never had a hiccup and their pro-grade units are fast. For Macs we use ChronoSync to handle the incremental backups.

Huh...I had never noticed that. Thank you.

I've heard a very plausible literal interpretation based on the idea that the Hebrew word used for "world" wouldn't exactly map onto "earth" in a pre-globe worldview. E.G., it's entirely possible the author literally meant "the known world" which literally meant "a chunk of the middle east." In which case the flood would have wiped out a dozen city-states, and the animals in the ark would have been the animals native to that region needed to reestablish Noah's flocks and herds.

It does feel like a bit of a stretch, but certainly plausible.

If it costs more per gigabyte than pocket sized hard drives, it's dead to me.

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it does.