Really poor journalism here

Come on - your own article says that a spin doctor waved his own mobile about (in this case a blackberry) and said John McCain sat on the government committee that pushed through legislation that enabled modern comms technology to happen. That's a far cry from "John McCain invented the Blackberry."

Remove the article - its sensationalist and shoddy journalism and frankly you can do better.

I can't say I'm in favour of McCain or his views, or that modern American comms tech is anything to be bragging about. I'm just complaining about this awful article that will doubtless be all over the tabloids tomorrow because the Register is supposed to be good at technical issues.

Sentence passed

200 hours community service according to the Beeb.

I pity whoever's in charge - hope they get a good battleaxe to look after her service to society.

Time

The opportunity to meet (or be blasted by) exciting new aliens carries not just a space dimension but also a considerable time factor. I suspect that as we haul ourselves out of the gravity well and begin space exploration properly we may uncover long buried remains of civilisation - if it makes any sense to us and if we can be bothered with a dust strewn rock for long enough to investigate.

In turn we will leave behind surprisingly vague clues for civilisations to come after us. What would a race who don't hear and never felt the urge to develop optical media make of a Led Zepplin CD - remastered or otherwise?

Given the rates of change in human innovation over the last 100 years and the last millennium, if we are lucky/unlucky enough to have neighbours sufficiently close in time and space to have any impact on us whatsoever, for there to be an even remotely interesting struggle, we'd need to be on an effective technological par. Otherwise it'd be a bit like like a modern day Para regiment taking on a Cavalry brigade - abrupt and soggy.

Are 'they' out there? They probably are somewhere, and they almost certainly will be or were. For it to be a relevant question for the next 10 generations (to be relatively topical) is an unreasonably remote chance.

just my 2p...

Happy Birthday

Congratulations on 10 years of not taking yourselves too seriously.

I've been a Reg reader since you got hold of the BoFH and thank you for years of reasonably good articles.

Cheers

Alex

let me know where to send the cake and you might get one...

hmmm

Is it just me or would this be the basis for a good pinball machine?

@ TeeCee

quite right - though its hardly relevant I should point out that Play.com have just delivered Matter to me 2 weeks early...