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Comment Re:Trolls, go back to your bridge! (Score 1) 272

As with any comedy, some of its great and some of it fails, and a lot is in between. But some of the people on Amazon are basically review comedians, and they're really really good. And maybe the best funny-per-word ratio, of uranium ore:

I purchased this product 4.47 Billion Years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty.

Comment Re:And this is how Linux will win. (Score 1) 326

Right. As computing devices with a user-facing operating system become more and more ubiquitous(at least in the short term), Linux will win from the bottom-up. The price of a device will be inversely correlated with the manufacturer's willingness to shell out the money for a Windows license, and the price of computing is continuing to fall (obviously)

Comment my hypothesis (Score 1) 774

In the same way that humans are the only technological civilization on the earth, we're likely the only technological civilization in the universe as well. The time scale of evolution pales versus the time scale of intelligently-directed technology, so as soon as one group develops technology it will near-instantly spread and conquer ever-larger areas of space. In the same way that we've come across other intelligent but non-technological species (primates, whales/dolphins, birds), we'll likely come across other intelligent and non-intelligent species as we conquer the universe in the relatively near future. Maybe even technological civilizations inferior to ours (there's still a small window of opportunity for another civilization to beat us to the punch and take over earth), but we can predict the general shape of those encounters by looking at the history of such encounters on earth (the first being the destruction of neanderthals)

What's funny is this is practically just a restatement of a fermi paradox, except instead of asking "why aren't they here", it takes into account what would likely happen if they were here - we'd be gone

Comment Re:Hmm. (Score 2, Interesting) 307

Does anyone think the web per-se will still exist 25 years from now, much less 100? Clearly to some extent all the major players(Mozilla, Google, MS, Apple) want to push the web in a variety of directions. Can Mozilla give us a vision of what sort of Mozilla product we'd be using say 15 years from now to browse the "web"

That's not sarcasm, I'm genuinely curious. 15 years ago Mosaic had just been released. Today people can message each other online using a wireless network that didn't exist back then, on a tiny iPhone that's an order of magnitude more powerful than desktop computers from 1993. Can Mozilla really write a business plan that looks even 15 years into the future and tells what it's place will be?

Comment market opportunity (Score 5, Insightful) 71

You could use gmail as conduit for other data. e.g. email a URL to gmail, some server-side app checks the mail account, loads the page for you, and sends it back in a reply email. You could presumably also have an Android app that hides the mechanics of this to allow you to just load web pages or other data through gmail, free of charge

Data Storage

Self-Growing Material Opens Chip, Storage Advances 30

coondoggie brings us this NetworkWorld article, which begins: "In the ever-growing desire to produce smaller, less costly, yet more powerful and faster computers and storage devices, researchers today said they are looking at a way to use self-growing fabrics that will let manufacturers build nano-sized high resolution semiconductors and arrays to answer that craving. Researchers at the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) at the University of Wisconsin — Madison have come up with a method that uses existing technology to combine the lithography techniques traditionally used to pattern microelectronics with novel self-assembling materials known as block copolymers, researchers said. When combined with a lithographically patterned surface, the block copolymers' long molecular chains spontaneously assemble into the designated arrangements."
Mozilla

Thunderbird to Leave Mozilla Foundation 239

An anonymous reader writes "MozillaZine is reporting that Mozilla Thunderbird is to move to a 'new separate organizational setting' as the Mozilla Foundation focuses more and more on Mozilla Firefox. Citing a blog post by Chief Lizard Wrangler Mitchell Baker, MozillaZine outlines the three possibilities for Thunderbird that are being considered: 'one is to create a entirely new non-profit, which would offer maximum independence for Thunderbird but is organisationally complex. A second option is to create a new subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation for Thunderbird, which would keep the Mozilla Foundation involved but may mean that Thunderbird continues to be neglected in favour of Firefox. A final option is to recast Thunderbird as community project, similar to SeaMonkey, and set up a small independent services and consulting company to continue development. However, there are concerns over how the Thunderbird product, project and company would interact'. Lead Thunderbird developer Scott MacGregor favours the third option."
Space

Journal Journal: New Evidence of Water on Mars

An article in the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=420833&in_page_id=1770) is reporting newly found evidence of water on the surface of Mars. Pictures taken by the Mars Global Surveyor show new light colored deposits in gullies. Another photo shows gullies in craters that scientists believe were caused by recent flows of w

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