Re: Free to air TV will suffer the same fate as print media,

"Except that most people are happy with what we've got already"

I was happy with VHS until I watched The Fifth Element on DVD. Vowed never to go back.

I was happy with DVD until I watched Revenge of the Sith on Bluray. Vowed never to go back.

Ditto mono/stereo. Ditto stereo/surround.

3D, however, sucks.

Re: Helium supply

Helium is actually found in natural gas (>1% in many deposits). It gets there from subterranean radioisotopes decaying.

Qatar is now a major player in helium production as a result - but still lags waaay behind the US.

Re: More explanation please

Also interested to hear more. The article wasn't super-informative on that front.

I assume they need to change the shape of the disk heads to maintain the correct float distance in helium, too - presumably by making them bigger, or by giving them teeny-tiny wings (shaped for confidence and comfort, natch).

Re: I'm impressed

That would be "gateau", mon ami.

Re: dedupe

Or chunkify(TM) the data such that, given enough input data, several chunks will match but will decrypt into different data depending on the key. Reassemble files on the fly from a chunk index or chindex(TM).

Re: Love to hate

Agreed. I might not have the same level's of security as a Swiss Bank, but then Mega is not intended for the storage of billions and billions and billions of Francs/Pounds/Euros/Dollars.

As long as the resources required to break in are several orders of magnitude more than the value of the encrypted data, it's good enough. And remember, even if there is some juicy stuff on Mega, it's still swamped by crap by a very large ratio (needle in a haystack, etc).

Re: Just add silicon nano-spheres too

I dunno, now they've got a proven concept the "big money" has the potential to bring a lot of resources to bear on making the spheres cheaply. When you think about it, it's nuts that you can buy a knock-off tablet when for under £100, considering the technology hidden within, not to mention assembly and distribution costs.

Silicon is also marvelously abundant - no danger of it becoming a costly material in its own right.

Re: Play hard to get

"Laid head-to-toe" is also about 0.75m out of the optimum position, which of course involves a 50% overlap...

Re: Lo-tech alternative

I'm guessing you just used paint during Movember, thinking nobody would know the difference. (Hint: they did)

Re: You'd

They might catch on, but they are useless. This is clearly shown by the perfectly clear picture of the boffin in his operational Buck Rogers glasses. Mmmm, Wilma....

Re: Biometrics?

"So, a laptop with a fingerprint scanner is less secure than one with just a password. The attacher can choose which method to attack, there is no protection from a poor password AND there is the opportunity to try a gummy finger cast or other false fingerprint method."

1. Less secure - I don't think so. The typed password should be a back-up, only used in the event of a hardware failure. As it's a backup then usability constraints can be dumped in favour of security: a 30-character random string which you keep on a bit of paper in a locked drawer (or under your mattress if you like). Hopefully you'll never have to use it for the life of the laptop. String length and complexity of backup should IMO be mandatory (again, usability is secondary), to stop the password morons doing their usual thing. Financial losses by password morons hit everyone - you don't think the banks just suck up the loss, do you?

2. Gummy finger casts don't work with the new vein scanners, thankfully, leaving bolt-cutters as the only realistic alternative for a crook. This is still better than a Minority Report or Demolition Man style eye removal.

Re: Oh good, can I have a couple of neighbours arrested.

Ouch!

Re: Anyone Seen Thank You For Smoking ?

+1 for reminding me of a great film

Re: Does it affect the Foxit standalone reader?

Thought I'd switch from Foxit to Sumatra, but the fugly 1998-style website didn't fill me with confidence. All looked a bit two-bit for my taste, although Sumatra's focus on simplicity was good, avoiding all the security pitfalls of over-complication. Hmmm, on second thoughts, there may be a theme here that bears further inspection. To be continued...

In any case, props to Krzysztof Kowalczyk, Sumatra's author, for his vowel-aversion.

Re: Let's face it...

Congrats, you win a shiny new tinfoil hat.

[by which I mean, i really, really, really hope you're wrong]

Re: Uhm....

Why, they didn't upset the important people, of course.

Re: More like...

Er, did you not read the article's title. It's the bit in the big font.

Working fine for me too.

Apple are going to walk away with the laptop of the year, as the voting for the rest of the field will not so much be split as splintered.

Re: Correlation != causation

Indeed. I also note the research was suspiciously paid for by Kenco.

Ok, I made that last bit up.

Re: Adversity breeds ingenuity

"Cheaper to have the meter moved"

Only if you don't put the genny back on ebay at the end, surely.

Hydrogen would be fine

They fill the electrical generators at power stations up with hydrogen which acts as a coolant, and reduces drag. This has been done for decades. 'Course there they have a slight over-pressure, a shed-load of monitoring, and decent extraction systems to prevent a bang, but it goes to show that with a bit of thought and design effort, hydrogen could be a viable alternative.

Wikilink

Re: Hmmm.

You're doing it wrong. They're meant to dispense money, not pleasure. Although to be fair, the former is often a nice way to get the latter...

@oldcoder

"Hydrogen has twice the lifting capability"

Nope, by that logic a vacuum chamber would have an infinite lifting capacity.

The lifting capability if the difference between gas density and air density. The molecular weights are:

i) Air: 29 (approx)

ii) Hydrogen: 2

iii) Helium: 4

So the hydrogen has an advantage of 27/29 to 25/29 (or 8% more). Hydrogen is lovely because it's dirt cheap, not super-floaty.

For mugs only

I also liked their return policy (and remember, you've just forked out $3.5k for 3 feet of cable):

Any custom Locus Design cable may be returned within 30 days for a refund, if for some odd reason it does not perform as expected in your system. A 20% restocking fee (of the the total price) will be charged and any shipping charges incurred will be the responsibility of the buyer.

Nice.

Explosive?

Not really.

Look at footage of the Hindenburg: it burns, sure, but there was no explosion. Hydrogen will only explode if mixed with an oxidiser (air or oxygen, usually) in the right proportion. Without the dodgy paint on the Hindenburg, I reckon than the fire and crash would have been much, much slower and more survivable. A healthy fraction of the passengers and crew survived anyway, albeit somewhat charred in most cases.

most ppl now days don't use hibernate

What do you base that on?

Anecdotally, I'd say a hell of a lot of people still use hibernate, certainly enough to make this a big deal.

"I wonder how they resolved it"

Their HQ is now in Bermuda, on a large yacht anchored just off the beach.

Re: I thought I was smart till I read this

Jet packs, JET PACKS, JET PACKS!! Why do people always forget about the *'#?ing jet packs!

Priority. Number. ONE.

Ahem. I think I need to get our more.

Also...

...how to take a shower very, very quickly.

<<< His face after taking a shower too slowly.