Rilbur

Space is an inherently hostile environment. It's also one with literally limitless boundaries, an untold sea of opportunity. There are difficulties out there, sure, but... well worth the efforts of trying to overcome. I haven't read anything specifically on shielding, but I find it doubtful that they'd be developing a 'balloon based' addon for the station if it wasn't ready for use. What's more, I'm quite certain this isn't your regular everyday balloon. Full details won't be available until tomorrow, but the inflatable material being used is based on Bigelow Aerospace's 'vectran' skin, which is actually more puncture resistant than Nasa's alluminum tin-cans, as well as better shielded against radiation. I'm also willing to bet it won't pop explosively in the event of a puncture, like the balloons you blow up for children. Here is one article with a little information. There's more out there on the net. It's kinda pointless to panic and complain about safety when you don't have any information yet.

37 -- into the 'extreme' range. Then again, I know I'm an Aspie and some of the syndromes, so... I may have accidentally self-knowledge'd myself into a higher score. Also, I'm a trained computer programmer (AKA computer scientist), which may have helped adjust the core slightly. What's interesting, and I didn't think about previously, is that as much as I enjoy facts, they're all 'how' type facts. I don't memorize lists of car types or dates, I find that incredibly boring. On the other hand, if I stretch my memory, I can tell you why blue ray discs can store more than DVDs just by switching the color of the laser used to read them.

Well, the video has a point: if it was a sudden once-off that Batman didn't have time to prepare for... well, Bats would be screwed. Given planning time, the shoe would be on the other foot.

If you're referring to the news about a 'new, cheaper' iPhone, nobody knows how durable it will be compared to current models. I'd say 'hey, at least it's not glass!', but the Gorilla Glass that iPhones use is actually pretty darned tough.

He is definitely a vigilante. But what gets me about him is he's an everyday guy. He's sweated for his fighting abilities. Sure, his fortune helps when it comes time to affording gadgets and widgets, but he makes them himself -- he's smart, and he works hard, and nothing he does is 'superhuman'.

In this case, it's a formatting thing. In the date formatting apple is using, YYYY stands for ISO Week of Year, and yyyy stands for calendar year. Nothing to do with fiscal years.

Yup. Looks like they used ISO week of year rather than actual year in the programming. It's the difference between YYYY (usually wrong) and yyyy (usually right). Small, tiny bug that can only be expressed under very specific circumstances.

I'm going to assume you're referring to my 'valve time' / 'blizzard time' joke. It's actually not MMORPG related; Valve has a habit of missing release dates... consistently. Blizzard calls ten years from now 'soon'.

Just to argue the point here, but in FFVI, the main villian was -- and the point of him was -- being the 'I wanna destroy the world because it's there' types. Kefka was insane, and deliberately so. He made good storytelling precisely because he violated -- ingeniously -- the law that everyone believes themselves good. Kefka is the villian everyone loves to hate -- and that's why he made it into the list of 'top villians' ever. Final Fantasy VII, on the other hand... Sephiroth was never the point of the story. Aeris, Cloud, Tifa, and the rest, they are the story. I don't think Sephiroth ever made 'top villian' -- his insanity (and that's what it is, btw; he discovered the truth about his mother and his mind just snapped... he thinks that by calling meteor down, he's saving the planet and bringing back the Ancients) just isn't that compelling. JRPGs in general have a very nasty 'save the world' trope going on, true. The best of them start with something smaller and work their way up, but... they still have this horrid idea that if it isn't planet-destroying, it isn't worth fighting. Look past that if you want to see the fun.

To the best of my knowledge iOS is Linux based, but you don't in general have access to the file system or terminal commands. OS X is very definitely unix based.

'Yet', what a lovely word. 'Soon' is another fun one... (Note: If you aren't familiar with Valve Time / Blizzard Time, ignore that statement)

Don't put too much faith into the 'underground' press; it's filled with 'experts' who don't know as much as they think they do. People who panic over radiation exposure, and then turn around and don't even think about the radiation they get from an airplane flight. I wish I could link some examples of that type of behavior, but my google-fu just isn't strong enough to pull up the examples I remember. One had to do with radiation; another had to do with a compound being moved into a 'potentially carcinogenic' category that also contains things like coffee. In the end, the base issue is that a lot of people overlook that the human body is an incredible machine. Yes, certain things might cause issues, but frankly the 'burden' they place on you just is not that severe. It makes sense to avoid unnecessary exposure, but don't give a fit over minor exposures.

Macbook Pro, iPhone (4S), iPad 3... I have an iTouch, but I actually don't use it anymore. Let the iRevolution begin!

I'm going to share with you one of the best pieces of advice I wish people had shared with me once upon a time. Don't start with a long story, start with short stories. They're harder, not easier, but they teach you so much more. A novelist can get away with wandering sub-plots and throwing in side characters to distract from the core of the story, a short story doesn't let you pull that. The story has to stand on it's own. Second item is that don't worry so much about what you write, just write something. Once you have it written, it's not sacred writ -- it's a rough draft. Free for you to revisit, edit, and rewrite.

Just to give some background, I started with a Palm phone years ago. (Originally an old, old model that my dad gave me when the cell ran out; I used it as a PDA / reader) I upgraded to a dedicated Palm PDA later, and finally merged phone and PDA when I got a Palm Treo. Palm was there before iPhone or Android made smartphones 'sexy', before Blackberry made them 'business friendly'. When my Treo died, I wound up upgrading to Android. Because of my job, when my Android died I wound up upgrading to iPhone. That's the important bit about my history there: I upgraded from Android to iPhone because of business considerations. The thing is, I've never looked back. Superior stability - iOS is much more stable than android is, in general. This is a combination of the underlying software and the higher barrier to access. I like the long review times Apple imposes. Yes, it's a pain when it swings against me, but it means that any App that hits the Appstore is more or less guaranteed to work, and be crash free. (And, honestly, the 99$ developer license is NOT that much of a burden / barrier to entry) Better App Availability -- Yes, you can get apps onto the android 'easier', but speaking as a developer its actually easier to program for iPhone than android -- you have a very limited number of devices, with a very limited set of screens you have to program for. (Originally it was iPhone Vs iPad, now you have the iPhone extra tall in there as well). The term for those that want to do research is 'fragmentation'; this causes both stability issues and developmental issues for Android. Better update reliability -- I don't have to wait for my carrier to decide I should get an update. My phone can have any OS update it wants, up until it can no longer run them (as decided, yes, by Apple). This doesn't sound like a huge deal, but the fundamental issue is that carriers would rather sell you a new phone than update your software. Apple will update your software because it understands that that brings you back. 'It just works' -- The android phone was finicky at times, strange at times, and tricky at times. 99.999% of the time, my iPhone 'just works'. Good design -- Apple has a very strong focus on design, and honestly -- it shows. Their devices and apps look good, and the ecosystem they've built up is filled with apps that look just as good. And it's more than looks; they function in a manner I can only call 'smoothly' -- and it shows. To the point where the one app that managed to sneak through their filters (that I've found so far) is a HUGE annoyance. All because of one button that I can actually hit... if I work at it. As a note, it's completely possible to sync the iPhone contacts / calendar with Google Contacts/Calendar; I've done so. Google maps is also available as an option. Apple very much checks into how apps use your data. They can't verify it 100%, but if an app wants access to anything personal -- contact book, location, etc -- they have to ASK for it. So when in doubt, just say no. Furthermore, if Apple catches someone breaking the rules, they can and will yank the app. (Some apps have tried to use your contacts list for something legitimate, and then 'phone home' with the entire thing... Apple was not amused) And since a lot of people like catching Apple with their hand in the till, those apps are found. After all, it's such fun to embarrass Apple by claiming it's their fault.

My apologies; I didn't really think that my appreciation of how politics works would 'cross the line' into being considered political discussion -- I thought that rule was aimed at avoiding left vs right (liberal/conservative, etc) discussions. I'd like to further apologize for what was an overreaction; as much as I accuse others of thinking with their emotions, sometimes I do it to. The thing is, that type of over generalization really does scare me -- and I react like any typical human being to fear: run in circles, scream and shout. So, my apologies for a little bit of lashing out.

This just in! There appears to be a distinct correlation between Ausperger's Syndrome and being a gay author (or reader)! ... I shouldn't joke, but there are people who really would run with that as if it were 'real' science. (And it's just those types of idiots that scare me the most, to be honest... the ones who don't understand the difference between correlation and causation)

As a high-functioning individual with Asperger's, I crossed the line to 'offended' about the first page of this thread, to be honest. Actually, a few steps past merely 'offended'. I understand where hh5 is coming from, he needs explanations -- he needs something he can point a finger at. And he needs it now. I find that almost -- almost -- as offensive as where he's putting that finger. Whatever his emotional need, his responsibility as a thinking human being is to step past that and recognized that the truth takes time. I can buy it. As others have repeated, Asperger's is a very broad label for a very broad spectrum of difficulties. There's a reason it's called the autistic spectrum: autism really does come in all shapes and sizes. Aspie's may be relatively introverted, but that doesn't mean we aren't just as capable of lashing out at others. That said, you're right: there is confusion. There is contradictory information. That's why I find HH5's need for immediate answers to be offensive... Maybe threatening would be the better word, but both apply. It's as threatening as it is offensive. It's going to take time for the truth to come out. And even with the addition of time, there is no guarantee we'll ever understand this tragedy. People probably don't want to hear that, but it's the unfortunate truth that the human mind is an incredibly complex mechanism that we barely even begin to understand. The only source of sure answers died when he shot himself. Our next best source of information might -- might -- have been his mother. Also dead. Until we have that truth, grasping at vague straws and trying to make it the truth is useless. Dangerous. Threatening. Yes, threatening. What is next on the finger-pointer's list? The fact that I like violent video games? The fact that I like guns? The fact that I like military (read: violent) sci-fi? Perhaps I'm going a bit overboard here, but I've needed to make this point since I saw someone say 'we have to do something to stop these kinds of things in the future'. That's incredibly, incredibly frightening to me, because I share one hell of a lot of the same 'markers' people like to single out as warning signs. I 'suffer' from Asperger's, I like violent video games, I like guns, I like violent movies... the list goes on. Am I going to be locked up because some idiot, some complete and utter moron wanted an easy answer? I reassure myself every day that society can't be quite that stupid, but... that reassurance is thin comfort to someone with even a thin veneer of history education. Not to mention an appreciation for modern politics (and how it really treats science).

Don't worry Hamen, it's only about another month before public release. At which point, my characters won't be capped at level thirteen... And I can progress further than just killing Leoric... And the game is so much fun EVEN WITH those limits... I WANT THE FULL VERSION NOW!

LIbreOffice -- the truly open source fork off OpenOffice. (Mike, you might want to look at upgrading to Libre if you're still using OO; lots of long-standing bugs have been fixed in LO that simply weren't 'important' enough to Sun to allow a fix)

Thank you for posting this. Thank you.

Well, I'm getting a beta code in the near future thanks to relatives working for activision... that count?

I like criticism -- constructive criticism, anyway. It's hard to learn if you don't know what didn't work!

Heh. Coming to an iPad near you this summer! (THey're doing an 'enhanced edition' re-release which may lead to a Baldur's Gate III...)

I like PC, mostly because I"m a mouse and keyboard fanatic for most game types. I will not -- I can not play a FPS with those stupid little analog sticks. A decent mouse and keyboard blows a controller away for that type of game.