adriantc

Don't what to go too off topic, but what makes you think we have been to the moon? As for the fact that Japan is trying to build a space shuttle. Well yeah they are, I don't think 100 years, but 10 or 20 years in front of everyone when it comes to technology. But building a space shuttle requires not only new technology but lots and lots of experience which I'm afraid Japan does not have. Challenger and Columbia may have been disasters for the short term, but they also meant invaluable experience for NASA. Of course building a space shuttle is also a problem of... yeah MONEY! The USA and Russia are huge countries with a huge population which can support the costs of space flight. You'll ask ... but what about China... it has a huge population (1/6 of the world population) and their space program isn't every developed... so it their economy! Bottom line is... I'm glad space is no longer reserved only for the US and Russia. This timid step(s) are very welcome... "To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before"

My country used to have a temperate climate with hot summers and cold winters. We also used to have autumn and spring... We used to... . For a few years the summers are getting hotter every year and winter is no longer what it used to be... almost no more snow and days with a maximum of 15o C. We only have winter for a week or two when it becomes cold as it should be.But the temperature is nothing compared to the disasters that happen every year. In the mountains it rains/snow heavily and since there is no more spring for the snows to gradually melt, the melting usually takes under a week. There are floods everywhere in April and May, lots and lots of people without homes, other people without food because the water has destroyed their crops. In the last three years we had 1 or 2 massive floods every years... As long as my parents can remember there hasn't been such a long period with foods. Some people even joke on the fact that this government is the unluckiest government ever. We weren't prepared for such floods, not to mention more then one.Yeah global climate is a chaos, but I think this is only the beginning. And I'm afraid we have past the no return point. I think we can only watch as the cookie crumbles... We are just as Agent Smith in the Matrix a parasite slowly eating away all the resources and then moving to another host. We are an anomaly of nature... animals do not kill and eat more they can but we do it, for us nothing is too much. I am pessimistic, I don't think society can change so fast, not without us returning to the stone age. Maybe it is time to look for another planet... We have to do something wrong in order to learn from it.As far as the government concerns, I think what they do is only talk. Once they will take measures, this measures might burn our pockets and our prosperity and I'm sure they will not take that risk. We haven't invested much money into environment protection and I don't think we'll start now...

Well I've tested some of the betas in this 5 years, specially the latest ones. I have Vista installed on my computer as my second OS. But it's installed only because the Aero effects are truly wonderful. Without the Aero UI Vista is nothing more then a Windows XP that took more then 5 years to be developed.As for the requirements... on 1GB it runs pretty smooth when almost no other software is installed. It takes somewhere around 47% of the memory just for itself, without any software running in the background. It's not as much as I expected in the first place, but it's more then the 25MB which Windows 98 needed. Yeah the Aero effects are glorious, but it simply isn't worth it. Take the windows for example..... the fade in, fade out effect very nice, but it take half a second to fade in and another half a second to fade out. So just opening and closing a window makes you loose a second, not because your computer is slow or you need more RAM, but because the way the eye-candy is designed. Most of the time people look for efficiency rather then eye-candy. That is why I think XP will surpass Windows 98 when it comes to survival. It will live much more then Windows 98 did when Microsoft released Windows XP. Only future software will make people switch to Vista.It is not the fall of an Empire, but a chance given to Linux in the fight for desktop. Hope their up for the challenge!

It may sound weird but 3000 casualties isn't much if you ask me. Of course considering that Bush declared the war over years ago 3000 casualties is much. If the USA intends to stay for another year or two I'm sure it will hit 5000 very soon.It's kind of off topic but today I've heard on the news that a SOCIALIST has been elected to the USA senate which is a first in history. When the Americans hear about socialism they think of North Korea rather then a democratic regime. But it seems that the recent events, like this unhappy statistic changes everything. Today one, tomorrow more and someday socialists may rule America. The fact that a socialist has been elected in the US Senate shows that the majority of Americans are poor (compared of course to their standards) and they are looking for a change.

Yeah I thought about that too. Aliens as they are commonly depicted seem to look a lot like human in some distant future. They are very skinny because on their planet there is no need for physical labor, they have telepathic powers because their brains are so evolved... They seem a lot like an old person... Not in it's glorious days when he had lots and lots of muscles, but he is old and he saw what life is all about, he has wisdom rather then power, he has brains rather then large muscles.It may very well be an evolved human or the other way around. There are lots of theories about how life appeared on Earth... who knows, maybe we are their very distant forefathers. Life on different planets (if their is any... which I'm sure there is) may very well be related. We may very well have a common root, but they evolved faster then we did. Or maybe if we take other theories the aliens put life on our planet to study evolution. Of course that is very very far fetched...Anyway... aliens being an evolved human species is quite an interesting theorie... I believe that a few hundred years from now we will eventually master time travel. Everything we saw in science fiction 50 years ago came true. What Jules Verne wrote is no longer science-fiction... it is reality. 50 or 100 years from now we might very well master time travel...On the other hand there are some people who don't believe in aliens and use this resemblance to humans as a proof that what aliens don't exist and that they are only in peoples imagination. They say the aliens as people imagine them are only an imagine of what we think humans will someday evolve to be...

I have just read in this month's computer magazine (CHIP) about this technology. It's not anything new and it sure isn't science-fiction. Some guys from a university in Germany have developed a helmet that tracks electrical currents in the users brain. After a few weeks of training (now only a few days because they say the system keeps improving) you can actually use brain activity as a mouse to do pretty complex moving.The technology has been around for years, but it was only used in selecting one object from multiple objects so it wasn't a complex movement in 2 Axes. I also read in that magazine that some guys from the USA are experimenting with a chip that they say will be implanted right in the users brain so it will have a direct link with it which will make response time lower... Bye, bye privacy...

I am so tired of Harry Potter that I can't wait for it to end... A few years ago I was a big fan of Harry Potter now I hate to see him and the news, in the stores... everywhere. Six books are too many already... Long live Lord Of The Rings... true literature, not J.K. bedtime story...

I didn't have any problems with the new Firefox... I isn't much of an improvement if you ask me, but that is because is it almost perfect. I find it great that they release updates so often. OFF TOPIC: I just hate my language is the only one not supported in Firefox 2.0. Hope somebody will translate it soon...

Well I can't say I have used Macs very much... in fact only once when I was in France (off topic: I just hate the fact that they have a keyboard so different from the normal versions... It took me 10 minutes to write a 3 line email ). Yeah I think there are some similarities between Mac OS X and Windows Vista, but I don't think Microsoft has stolen everything.What I can't really understand is the video. Is is supposed to attack the claims that Vista is a copy of Mac OS X or the other way around. Because, in my opinion, the video lets you think the exact opposite of what they say. C'mon the last thing with the chess board was a killer. Yeah as if the main difference in the two operating systems come in the chess game. True journalism... Mac OS X has grass chess board and Vista has marble. Yeah thats really important.Anyway I won't be switching to Vista very soon... at least not as my main operating system. I have it installed as my secondary one and I can say it looks pretty good. As far as the hardware requirements they are high, but not as high as I expected. On my AMD 64 3000+ with 1GB RAM and GeForce 6600 it works decent, even very fast... of course I don't have many software that might slow it down. I don't even have an antivirus on it. So it is still irrelevant. On the other and Vista seems quite unfinished to me. I think Microsoft has rushed it too much... We have waited 5 years I think we could have waited another year. Windows XP is the next Windows 98 x 10.

This is a great idea. I for one have never heard of it. I can't really understand how you can store a movie on a piece of paper in geometric shapes? Could anyone explain that...Other then that... if this is possible it may replace DVD's, even the expensive Blue-Rays. Still 90GB is a huge amount of data, more then many computers have today on their HDD. Well I don't think it is going to be cheap, at least at the beginning. I hope this hits the market very soon...

I have seen the movie Omen 666, but I don't believe in the meaning of the number 666. Some say it is strongly related to the AntiChrist, but so is the number 13 for bad luck. No I don't think evil comes from 666 or bad luck from 13. I'm a science guy, not one who believes in superstitions...

You're right. You don't have to be a brilliant scientist to realize that our world is falling apart due to pollution, over population even a nuclear war is still possible. Th 3rd World War is probable in my opinion and as Einstein said the 4th World War will be fought with bats and stones. Yeah... the world is falling apart and I'm very afraid their is nothing we can do anymore. We have already crossed the final line. The answer is space. Maybe the the world is falling apart, but there is still time to save a part of it.. I think technology related problems are easy to be resolved. I'm sure that in 100 years we will have some sort of warp drive just like in Star Trek. Harder to change are people conceptions. Most of them will not understand why the governments of the world should spend billions and billions of dollars on something they won't see in their lifetime. Take the space race for example. As long as the USSR was in the space race the government gave billions of dollars for space research. When the Cold War ended and there was nothing to prove anymore the funds were cut. There was no more interest to "to boldly go where no man has gone before." So the future for mankind is space. But are we up to the challenge? Only time can tell...

I don't know much about UFO propulsion... guess nobody really knows ... except maybe the guys in Aria 51. Anyway I think the most important thing in space propulsion is range and speed. That means you have to travel a long way will a small quantity of fuel and fast enough to get you you want in a generation or so.Considering those facts I think the best technology (if you can call it that since it is only in theory) would be Star Trek's warp drive. It may sound weird but the guys at NASA are really taking it serious. If antimatter really exists you could find it everywhere in space, literally everywhere. So you don't have to store it anywhere you just take what you need from space. Once again, if antimatter does exist it is thought to be the next step in energy after nuclear fusion. It gives much much more energy and in theory you can practically use any kind of matter to create the reaction.Matter and antimatter reaction is only a part of the propulsion system. You have a very efficient engine, but how can you make a ship travel near the speed of light and above it (if that is possible of course... which to this day is impossible according to the Einstein's theory... on the other hand there have been some experiments recently with particles that were accelerated beyond the speed of light which may prove it is possible although way out of our present knowledge). Star Trek's warp drive worked on a simple principle. It is hard to make a ship travel beyond the speed of light, so why not compress the very fabric of space in order to fly faster. In theory the engine makes a bubble around the spaceship. In front of the spaceship space is compressed (just like when you have a piece of paper and you want to get from one corner to the other you foil the paper and voila) and behind the spaceship space is expanded.I believe in the UFO phenomenon and I think that if a species lives long enough it can do anything with the help of science. There is no limit when you have millions of years of civilization, of science and knowledge behind you. We have gone so far in the last 100 year, I can only imagine what it will happen in the next 100 years, but even imagination is not enough if you think how the world will look in 5000 or 10000 years. maybe then even the distant stars will not be a limit...

First of all war is kind of good if you think on a large scale. People dying is a necessary evil... of course as long as it isn't you or your family... Food resources are going down so every extra meal may save a starving child in Africa or in some other distant corner of the world. And of course war is necessary for countries like the USA to test there new "toys" and get rid of the old ones. And if you also get oil for that then its Iraq About Israel... well practically jews rule the world. The USA pay billions of dollars (tax-payers money?) every year to Israel as a no-return lawn. Of course the USA does this because 90% of the very rich people in the USA are jews. Not blaming them or anything, but it doesn't seem fair that they get an advantage. Specially when you saw what they are capable of (in Lebanon). Everyone feels guilty for what Hitler did and now they get money and arms etc. for free. PS: I like the quote... Orwell's book is one of the best... Even thought it's not 1984 and we are not under communist rule the book it still suites today's society.

I don't know what you understand by "that long", but there are portable versions of some famous software for over an year now. Besides they were official versions, not cracked or anything. I was looking for the portable version of Firefox and found it here. Check it out... [Click HERE for details] Here is only a small list, but I'm sure you'll find tons of portable software. Notice from truefusion: You must place copied material into the QUOTE bbcode tags. Warning Issued.

Well I'm sure it ain't gonna be the end of software developers. If I had a steady and high income and the prices of some software would be a lot smaller I would certainly pay and buy it. But Windows Vista even in Starter Edition is a months paycheck for a lot of people in my country.I know about the portable versions of software for a long time. I simply can't see any big advantages... Except maybe the fact the chances of getting busted with illegal software are much smaller since you can dispose of the flash drive very fast. Other then that it's the portability, but since I don't have a laptop it's useless...

In my country they just gave up the draft and I don't like that. They say that we are part of NATO now and we don't need such a large army, but a better trained and a better armed army. Of course in the USA reinstated draft means more people in danger in Iraq.I think young people need the training that the army gives. It is one of the reasons why in late years they are becoming so violent, indisciplined.In my country, for over a month now, there hasn't been any conscriptions. I am 18 years old so if this wouldn't have happened so time soon I had to go to the army. I know the army very well and I really think it helps young people learn to obey. And besides I don't like the fact that we relay on other countries for our own defense. I'm sure the NATO pact will someday be history and having a small 75.000 men but professional army won't help taking in consideration that Rusia has more then a million men under arms.Of course my vision is different to most other young people. I think drafts are good... there hasn't been a war to end or wars (in which mankind would survive of course) so we should have large armies for our own defense.

Very well put... I am 18 years old and although I belong to the "new generation" I don't fell I belong to it. I have been raised, or at least I hope so, to love discipline and order (my dad being an army officer). I don't image a world without laws and order. I have the same opinion that todays youths have misunderstood the term "freedom". Yet I think this is only a result of the fact that we did not have to fight for it. Because you see, you can fully appreciate something when you know how it is when you don't have it. In other words, you can only fell happiness after you have suffered. It may be weird what I am saying but I think the parents are to be blamed for this situation. I don't encourage beating of kids, don't get me wrong, but I think the children should one way or another respect their parents. At least in the USA today, if your dad hits you, he can do jail. Of course violence in large quantities can have the opposite effect, but without it the parent will never get respect from his children. I for one haven really been beaten by my dad, but when I was young he would permit me, like the parents of todays children to argue with him and raise my voice. I have a lot of example in my own generation f people going to parties, getting drunk or even taking drugs. Why? Because they have weak parents who couldn't stop them when they were young. A parent should not tell his kids don't do that or that but he should make his kids understand why not to do that. A kid should smoke or take drugs or get drunk not because his parents tell him he should but because he knows they are not good for him. I think todays parents spoil their kids much more often then they used to. I have heard parents saying: What can I do if he wants to go to a party until the morning and get drunk? I can tell you that if that boy where my kid I would have beaten him long ago. I don't know what is happening to the world, but seeing some of my friends I can just wonder what is going to happen to the world if one of them gets some power. No more virtues today, no more respect for laws, no more respect for the parents... And the sad thing is that it doesn't seem to get any better...

Yeah we also have the same system... some 35 channels the base package and another 3 extra packages. One for HBO, another for all Discovery Channels (Travel & Adventure, Science, Civilization) and another one for movies (you guess what kind). It is a good idea, but it would be better if we could pay per channel. I for one have at least 20 channels I never watch... useless and my parents still pay for them.

As they say they will use it - it seems a good idea. But I am sure that once they pass a law they will also start thinking of doing something else with that huge database. Anyway it's possible that they already have access to everything they need without any laws. I'm sure that they can pretty much know you're entire life if they want to ... it is not a matter of if, but of when.It is in my opinion an idea to make legal something that they already do. You have to be stupid to think that an agency (CIA, FBI, ...) with a budget of billions of dollars can't trace an IP right to your house...

I think video games can be a good way to teach young people. First of all because video games have a huge market. There isn't any kid in the developed countries that has never played a video game in his life. Only think how easy it would be to remember a lesson at history, for example a famous battle, if you would virtually take place in it.Of course there is a downside to teaching trough video games. It is somewhat easy for a weak mind to confuse reality with the virtual world. Even ow things like this happen. On other kids video games become like drugs and induce addiction.Bottom line... video games used for teaching are a good idea as long as kids don't play too much.

I had a good laugh reading this thread. I don't find it that strange that someone would dress up like a suicide bomber, isn't the point to scare people... but the police taking that kids props for real... I think it is true what they say about the police... that they are really stupid. I can tell you that in my country you could leave whole bags with TNT in the subway or in the street and no one will notice.And besides who would put a bomb at a Halloween party? I'm pretty sure Bush was there dressed as Bin Laden...

I have saw a documentary on Discovery Channel about the way electrical high voltage cables affect people. They didn't say anything about cancer, but they did mention some side-effects like hearing weird sounds (which actually don't exist). They say it creates a discomfort (depends on the person of course), but as far as they know it does not have any big repercussions on your heath.As far as I have heard antennas for the mobile telephone are much more bad for the health. In my country mobile phone companies pay big $ to people living in flats to pun antennas on top, but after a few months people complain about headaches and other problems. I sure that in more developed countries there are laws to prevents such problems...

I have heard about computer viruses destroying hardware. Thanks god it didn't happen to me... I only heard about viruses damaging the hard drive by spinning it too fast (I wonder even if that is possible)... Some could say viruses destroying hardware has become an urban myth. The Myth Busters should try it... By the way... the only way you be 99.99% sure you won't get a virus is of course by installing Linux. As far as I have heard there are only a few viruses for Linux and most of them are lab made (testing purpose).

Well I said earlier ( 2 days ago) that Firefox seems great. After further testing I can say Firefox 2.0 ( I support FF version since Fx seems pretty stupid... wonder who did they come up with that?) seems more of a release candidate or some software in a pre-release beta state. What annoys me the most is the fact that somehow they managed to screw the password manager. On some websites it simply doesn't what to show the password until you have made a wrong login. I can give one example: Sourceforge.net. Well I used "Report Broken Web Site" to let them know about this problem... hope they will fix it soon.If you ask me will going to have a new release very soon because of the bugs this version has... Nevertheless it beats by miles Internet Explorer even at version 7.