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The article references, towards the end, one of the proponents of a competing theory, who is gracious and congratulatory, but somewhat skeptical, as you'd expect from a scientist. He's looking forward to more data that confirms the theory. I found myself thinking about this all night: what an amazing discovery, if it holds. What's the name of that theory where the universe is going to expand out to some point, then collapse, then reemerge like a bubble that inverts itself, constantly rebirthing the universe? I like that theory, because I love the idea of a periodic crash-and-burn.

I don't care what Windows did to OS/2. (Well, yes I do). But here and now, there's potentially hope for app compatibility. I've got a few Samsung Android phones, including the Note 3, which is their flagship (and it's a pretty great phone). But I'm looking seriously at the new Blackberry Q10 with keyboard. Why? I like the hardware, and Blackberry does things that no Samsung Android does today. I can assign shortcuts/hotkeys to the physical keyboard, and launch a call to my wife in a single keypress. On my phablet I've got to unlock the screen, navigate over to the phone icon, hit favorites, and select her from the list (voice control works when I have a wifi connection, but I don't always have one).

Point is just: I wouldn't be considering BB alone because their software ecosystem isn't as good. But getting a Q10 Blackberry hardware with Android app compatability is potentially a sweet spot for a consumer like me! (ironic, since most tech analysts look at Blackberry and tell them to stop making handsets, as their value is increasingly only in their patent portfolio - how stupid).

I think the days of the mass consumed proprietary OS are coming to an end. If you don't give your customers what they want, they aren't going to remain happy. And if the customers aren't happy, and know of an alternative that can be customized to fit their needs, they will leave you for said alternative.

Linux has matured over the past decade. It isn't perfect, but neither is Windows. At least Linux allows more freedoms to its users. Many thanks to Linus and all the kernel developers for their work. Valve and Google have also done a great job leveraging Linux in their technological and commercial offerings. People may finally be waking up to the realization there are other options.

I was watching a program a few weeks ago which talked about inflation being one of the multiple competing theories vying for title of the "current best theory", it's good to see that they have been able to get some solid proof to support it.

I agree with that. But perhaps we'd see a split - due to community demand - for some distros that handle the games and some that remain free/unDRMed? So RedHat would decide they want in on the action and you'd get a RedHat distro knowing what you're getting into. Ubuntu would follow suit. But you'd also have niche distros that specialize in DRM-free kernels and so on, for those that prefer to give up the games than to give up freedom.

I'm hopeful anyway.

Impressive specs, but I wouldn't touch a windows phone with a 10' pole. I give it another year and MS will be backing down and anyone holding one of those will be left in the cold wondering what to do with it. Even if they support Android apps, why wouldn't I just get a frigging Android to support Android apps! It's a losing strategy because it's not like Android phones are in short supply.

MS really screwed themselves when they had win phone 7 and dropped everyone that had already bought into their product when win 8 came out. How do you know they won't do the same when Windows 9 comes out next year? We all know it's coming, and we all know it'll be a complete back peddle on Windows 8.

Same here in Canada, eh. No problems with our health system. Get a little card when you're born, show it off if you ever need to visit a doctor or hospital. Of course you can get insurance if you want extra stuff covered like say rare diseases, or brand name drugs. Generic drugs are normally covered under the national health plan, but most brand name drugs are covered if there's no generic equivalent.

We're not in danger of losing our health care, although King Harper has mentioned creating a two teared system a couple of times. One side is public and is basically what we have now, the other side is private and anyone with money can basically jump the line and get extra care. There are good and bad points to that in theory. For example, you'd take a lot of people out of the public system, which could shorten wait times for things like hip replacements, but we all know how that would really play out. The rich would get first dibs on the best doctors, facilities and equipment. Organs would go to the private system first, because they pay more for them and anyone without money would almost certainly be without hope for anything above a paper cut.

I imagine it wouldn't be too long before we end up in a system like they have in the US, where if you don't have insurance above the standard health card you probably wouldn't be treated.

I have traditionally welcomed all efforts at porting games and software in general to Linux, but recently I have started to be concerned about what effects this will have on the Linux ecosystem. Things like Steam and in general the perceived need for "trusted" computing and DRM raise the possibility of commercial products requiring locked down software/hardware platforms that may run Linux under the hood, but are not anywhere near being as open as they are supposed to be.

If all of this just ends up requiring a non-free and non-open version of Linux it would be pointless - might as well just use windows then.

Completely socialised, mate. Buried in our tax system.
Has been since Bob Hawke, and will continue to be if we can throw that drongo Abbott to the kerb.

In one of Dr.David Brin's lovely Uplift books (and possibly elsewhere in the SF pantheon) radiative cooling was accomplished by using the energy to power a laser. Mind, it was in a close orbit of the Sun, so there was a *lot* of energy to dump, but it's not completely far-fetched to have coherent radiation as a cooling system.

Sorry about the redundant post; got an error the first time I pressed the magic button.

I think your context can be expanded a bit by adding a few years to the timeline. I can see the cost per kilogram going down considerably across the next few years. They will also only fall from orbit if you're launching them into LEO. A higher orbit would encounter less exospheric drag and could stay up for a very long time.

Not that LEO would be all bad; you could tune the orbit such that older servers would fall and burn out at a targeted time, as a means for disposing of obsolescent gear.

Go a little further out into the future, and there's a **lot** of silicon in the inner Solar system; no need to pick the deepest gravity well for your factory, is there?

Personally, I like the thought of a planetary server network, up where the RF isn't attenuated by atmosphere.

I think your context can be expanded a bit by adding a few years to the timeline. I can see the cost per kilogram going down considerably across the next few years. They will also only fall from orbit if you're launching them into LEO. A higher orbit would encounter less exospheric drag and could stay up for a very long time.

Not that LEO would be all bad; you could tune the orbit such that older servers would fall and burn out at a targeted time, as a means for disposing of obsolescent gear.

Go a little further out into the future, and there's a **lot** of silicon in the inner Solar system; no need to pick the deepest gravity well for your factory, is there?

Personally, I like the thought of a planetary server network, up where the RF isn't attenuated by atmosphere.

If you happen to be in/around New York, the Business and Science Library has knock-off Aeron chairs. I don't know the brand, but they're pretty terrific. It's a nice library too.

Maybe you could add this link/meta-data, to make the feed more accessible?

Added.

Submit stories!

The whole system has been so horribly botched.

I'm in NY and used our state health exchange site. While I was eventually able to get it to work, the user interface is very poorly designed and un-intuitive. I also twice encountered HTTP 500 errors which required me to re-login and start the application process over again.

Why not make this year's Summer of Code all about fixing the recent spate of botched ACA health exchange sites?

I was just wondering about this, too. The approach to moderation here is interesting, I think, and I'm eager to see how it pans out, but there are certain aspects of it that have me wondering "is this a feature, or a bug?" I agree that posters shouldn't be able to mod their own posts. Further, it appears I can mod a given post as often as I like, and I think I would prefer that I be able to mod a post only once (though possibly an "undo moderation" option should be available, since I'm clumsy and might click the wrong moderation option).

And fourthed.

I keep forgetting this site is here, but when I do remember to check in on it I'm always impressed with the progress in development. Great job, bryan. I'm hopeful more people will find this site and contribute comments. Other than remembering to visit and, to the best of my meager ability, contribute meaningful comments, is there anything else I could/should be doing to help the site grow?

Drama-mongers? Have you read your IRC logs? Didn't you get banned due to drama and trolling after repeated warnings? You could be unbanned if you could just chill out instead of shilling out. That is seeming less likely by the day thoug.

Good for you for spreading disinformation. You must feel very accomplished.

"no energy loss" was obviously a poor choice of words, but I'm guessing they're referring to the signals within the detector itself which would be very small distances where the difference in attenuation between optical and metal conductors could be very meaningful.

I think that getting rid of attenuation would be the actual breakthrough here. Probably breaking some fundamental law of physics too.

I agree, no important features are missing. The only thing really missing here is up to date content. If the articles posted were identical to slashdot then more people would migrate here permanently, but as it is I now visit both sites - slashdot for the news, and here in the hope that the same article is posted so I can discuss it.

Don't neural cells use electrical potential (ie electrons) for signalling? Why is this novel?

Agreed. I'm still hopeful that SN comes out of their tribulation ok, but I'm much less optimistic than when it launched. At this point |. looks like the best site in the bunch.

I haven't used Firefox OS, but my understanding is it's aimed at lower end smart phones (modest hardware specifications) in emerging markets where there isn't already necessarily a heavily entrenched Apple/Google bias in phone sales. This page lists the devices with specifications and availability.

I like how the site is progressing, but I think what is needed most is more users. I haven't the foggiest idea how that may be implemented through code. We could write an AC Bot! *Kidding* :D As a user, I can start posting pipedot in all my sigs to try and spread the word.

It feels weird always having mod points.

This is awesome. Sounds like this may allow for better detection of exoplanets, or highly accurate mass spectrometry readings of known exoplanet atmospheres. :D Still can't go there though. :(

I think Mozilla made they right decision here. I have heard very few people happy with or actually using the Metro interface.

My favorite comment from the linked article:
Dear Microsoft,

Metro is bad and you should feel bad.

Sincerely,
Damn Near Everyone

Though that makes me wonder why they continue trying to push the Firefox OS. How many people are actually using that? I'm not saying it's bad or I dislike it, but I've never actually seen a device running Firefox OS in person.

Anyone here at |. running Firefox OS? What device do you have?

Sounds like this program is one way Google gives back.

Does it give them a chance to identify future employees as well? If so, its win-win.

I am often envious of the people who get to play in laboratories to figure this kind of effect out.

Thank you for the clarification.

It is not the Windows version that is getting dropped. It is a specialised version that plays better with Metro.

Is between the different corporations who want to control the computing platform whether Microsoft, apple, Google, or any other player.

Application developers have to choose sometimes. Amazing to think that windows is what gets dropped in this choice. Changing times.

Those are some really phenomenal images. I'm just diving into the stereographic images and I'm blown away. Many thanks for the tip.

I think Chrome has a metro interface. I've never seen it though.

Ampersands where disabled until this weekend. They should work now.

If we sucked away the water and atmosphere, it would be easy. Personally I consider a little difficulty in unraveling the geological record a worthwhile tradeoff. ;)

Yeah. I can't get from my comment to the story or thread where the comment was posted.

Leave the search to Google et all- just format the site so that searching is easier with those engines. For example the current format of stories with the line "on YYYY-mm-dd" is likely to work much better than Slashdot's when searching for stories in the past, but could be improved so that story metadata is not confused with comment metadata.

And of course, having posted this, I go back to the main page, and see an article that (1) clarifies any question about this poll's intent, and (2) is really the right place to have posted the above... And it turns out you (bryan) even linked it in the post I replied to.

*hangs head*

I love approval and range voting, think they're generally the best option for choosing a single winner, and am delighted to see pipedot using one of them.

But , in a poll on "which features are the most important", I'm not sure approval's the right answer.

Of course, it depends on what exactly you plan to use the results for -- if the idea is to only implement features that a certain fraction of voters approve, approval's good. But if the idea is that you aim for feature-parity with /, so all these features are to be implemented eventually, but you're seeking to prioritize the order of feature implementation according to community feedback, I think using a rank ballot with Kemeny-Young counting would be better. To me, the poll title suggests the latter, but I could be misinterpreting it...

The thing about approval voting is that (provided the voter is smart about their own threshold of approval) it's good at reflecting the strength of preferences (even though it quantizes them to 1 bit!) -- if you can't stand any but your two favorites, you won't accidentally contribute to the election of the guy you put as number 3. But the flip side is, it loses the order of preference between any two candidates you do approve, and between any two candidates you don't approve. So in a case where all candidates are winning, we just want to sort them, the information of preference order is IMO more important than preference strength.

For example, suppose 60% of voters approve both items A and B (may also approve others, but at least those two), 30% approve neither -- with approval voting, you're letting the remaining 10% decide which order to tackle these two features in (by the difference of (A, !B) vs. (!A,B) votes). But using a rank ballot, you get the priorities of all voters. Of course the 10% with mixed votes will have a known preference, but the 60% block gets to specify which of these two beloved features they find most important, and the 30% block gets to specify which of these useless-to-them features they care least about... end result, Kemeny-Young spits out an order of tackling the features that makes the most people happiest.

Idealized for whom though?

If DNS is so important to the US government, they could quickly fork a replacement system.
As for the rest of us, most content is already fetched via indirection, so a censorfest in DNS may have negligible effect.

Oh, I shouldn't be allowed to upmod my own posts. :)

Because people can't always be on the record. There seems to be a button, but it had no effect.

Okay, that does trump my first suggestion :), rounding debates aside.