OK mate, I've read enough of your BS to know there's no point arguing with stupid people: they beat you down to their level and then win from experience.

Have a nice life...

Hey APK, why are you going around misusing my username? I've worked hard on Slashdot to build my reputation and you come along and spout garbage and start flame-wars for no reason at all. Just do a brother a favour, back off and leave me alone. Deal?

Cheers, I'll take a second look. Unfortunately we have multiple people across lots of varied platforms, which is what drew us to Hangouts in the first place.

I realise that Hangouts is still here, it's just the API that's being discontinued. But as others have pointed out, it probably means the site is going to be canned at some point in the near future.

I read the article.

The main problem is that they claim "the problem" with the impact is that we can't find any evidence or residue from Theia. Well, a lot of the models show that the impacter's core (which would have already differentiated and have a metal core) mostly goes into the core of the earth, and the silicate portion mixes with the bulk silicate earth (BSE). The moon is mostly formed from the earth's mantel, not from the impactor, and this is why the moon has the same composition as the BSE. The problem is working out why there is little to no isotopic fractionation between the moon and the earth, since conventional wisdom suggests a hot violent process such as the giant impact would have resulted in such fractionation.

The most useful part of the article is the suggestion that we go to venus. The similarities and differences in isotopic fractionation between the moon and the earth can only really be interpreted with a greater understanding of isotopic variation among the terrestrial planets, and failed planets (e.g. Vesta) in the asteroid belt.

For more information I recommend reading this paper which is fortunately funded to be open access.

This needs more attention.

Unfortunately, the circus has now died down, and most of the enraged posters above will not read this far down to be informed. Sigh :(

I applaud your criticism of management co-processors (Intel vPro, Intel ME, Intel AMT, AMD PSP) as while they may have a place in the enterprise world (assuming those IT techs can secure them properly) they are an anathema to home users. I don't support the idea that we all have to be lumped with these back-doors to our systems and believe we should all be able to either choose CPUs that lack them, or disable them entirely (motherboard jumper anyone?) as we wish. Of course I'm voting with my wallet, but the options are shrinking year by year...

Can you expand on why you think Intel is the lesser of two evils here?

For those unsure of what this is about, there is a discussion here and some really good info here. But look out for Leah Rowe at that last link: that bitch be crazy!! [Citation]

Cam Frog looks bloody awful. I can tell from their tiered service plans, which I can't even copy/paste here since their website is horrendously broken.

Sorry, a few of us use Linux, so it's a no-go anyway...

But for family get togethers they are perfect. My family tried most video conferencing programs and eventually settled on Hangouts as the easiest for the oldies to handle. Google screwed us with the new G+ interface last year, as they dropped (or hid it so well none of us could find it) the Hangouts tools and we had to migrate everyone to hangouts.google.com to get going again.

Anyone able to suggest an alternative?

We need it to be cross platform, as we have a dozen family members on 3 continents using different systems, and "good enough" for us to see the babies, tell some jokes, and just catch up. Suggestions more than welcome!

Databases are piss-easy these days. Any competent programmer can code up a custom web site with DB support, forms, basic customer-service tools, as well as helpful information for the visitors, in about 5 days (max). That's with no 3rd party libraries.

Seconded.

Agree completely. Surely contract law dictates that since the government can't legally break the law they can't circumvent FOI legislation? Hence, the NDA is void?

But what is your point? Yes, Russia invaded Ukraine.

Now let's review the past 50 years: 1966 - 2016 (inclusive) of US vs Russian invasions.

Russian (and USSR) Invasions

2014 invasion of Ukraine
2008 invasion of Georgia
1979 invasion of Afghanistan
1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia

US Invasions

2003 invasion of Iraq
2001 invasion of Afghanistan
1994 invasion of Haiti
1991 invasion of Iraq
1989 invasion of Panama
1983 invasion of Grenada

What about (out of interest) invasions by Israel? Do we count these as US? Israel is the largest beneficiary of US foreign aid, and certainly appears for all intents and purposes to be a US proxy way in the middle east.

2014 invasion of Gaza
2008 invasion of Gaza
2006 invasion of Lebanon
1982 invasion of Lebanon
1978 invasion of Lebanon
1967 invasion of Egypt
1967 invasion Syria
1967 invasion of Jordan

I'm sure the naysayers will say it's convenient that I cut off at 66 and missed some Russian activity in eastern Europe, but the US was active in the DR in 65, Cuba in 61, North Korea in 51 and 50, so actually I didn't go back far enough. Certainly, reviewing the past 100 years then without a doubt the US is a clear antagonist on the global stage. To say otherwise is to be revisionist and to ignore history, which over the ages many smarter than I have advised against doing.

"Kodak did not miss photo boat"

We may be talking at crossed-purposes, but Kodak very much did "miss the boat". Can you buy a "Kodak" brand digital camera today? If so, is it well regarded as a market leader for quality? That's what Kodak used to have in the film industry, and they lost it all due to poor management and market strategy. They even invented the first "digital camera"...what idiots.

"About 50% of them are discarded due to incomplete information or the voter being ineligible."

Well there's your problem right there!! And you call that democracy? Who gets to make those decisions? Sounds absolutely ripe for abuse!!

"Do you really think that the world would be a better place if the US simply disengaged across the board? Should Japan and Korea be the only entities in the front line dealing with China's territorial expansionism?"

Yes I do.