The March of Technology

[deanb]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23529841

 

So it's good that it's got the texture of meat, that was considered something that'd be hard to do given it wouldn't be exercised. Seems the main issue is the lack of fat in it, so lack of juiciness and the taste that comes from fat. No blood either.

[madbassman39]

Did anybody see that episode of Better of Ted where they tried to make lab grown meat? They exercised it by stimulating the meat with electrical shocks and what not, but the episode was rather funny.

 

Every time I see this stem cell meat, I think of that episode.

[TheRevanchist]

Google is going to test out Project Loon in the Central Valley of California.  No word yet as to where in the valley, as it extends a couple hundred miles south to north.  I might be interested in this...

 

https://plus.google.com/+ProjectLoon/posts/B2gv6QNi6mx#+ProjectLoon/posts/B2gv6QNi6mx

[Mister Jack]

[deanb]

Incidentally it won't work. Or at least for it to work in practice it'd be about the size of a brick. Large part of the reason you can have a phone as thin and svelte as you have is because it's built and designed as a single unit, everything crammed into each other.

[TheMightyEthan]

Well notice that even their computer generated mockup isn't very thin or svelte.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

"Every day we throw out millions of electronic devices. Now you can only throw out part of it."

[deanb]

It's thinner than the reality would be. Also another thought: We're all going to have phones that have the same size screen now? It's just another one of those uni projects that's good for a video and such but impractical in reality.

[Thursday Next]

I like the concept, and to answer deans issue, there's no reason you couldn't have different sized bases & screens. But I agree that this is not practical. Not least because companies make way too much money selling things like processors, screens and so forth to each other. Also Samsung and Apple and co's business model is built on the inevitable obsolescence of their products.

[deanb]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24429621

 

Fusion reactor in California produces as much energy as it consumes. Probably only for less than a second, but the fact it did it is enough.

[Thursday Next]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24726071 Update on the phone blocks thing. Google/Motorolla involved. A vanity project for sure. Personally, I'd be happy with replaceable screens and batteries.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

"The days of DIY IT, people building their own desktop PC, are gone due to falling costs of hardware," he said.

 

 

So just how mad are the nerds of the internet about this statement?

[TheMightyEthan]

Wait, falling costs makes people not build their own PC?  What?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I assume that with how well PC games are doing people are building more often. IDK. If people are buying pre-builts more and thus lowering the percentage of PC gamers who are building I think either way in terms of pure "is there more than before" you're pulling ahead in both categories even if the percentages are changing.

[deanb]

Wait, falling costs makes people not build their own PC?  What?

 

If the cost of building a pre-built is less than buying individual parts + your time, then yeah it can do that.

[Thursday Next]

Wait, falling costs makes people not build their own PC?  What?

 

Yeah, filling in the blanks, "The days of DIY IT, people building their own desktop PC, are gone due to falling costs of [pre-built] hardware."

[TheMightyEthan]

Okay, that makes more sense.

[Thursday Next]

That might not be what he meant. The guy could be a total idiot. But it's the only way I can read it and it make any sort of sense.

[madbassman39]

I bought a pre-built PC, it was slightly more expensive than building the PC myself. We are talking less than $100 for the same specs, but this came with liquid cooling vs. my non liquid cooling.

 

Really the biggest factor for me buying the pre-built was mostly because I had no idea what kind of case I should buy.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Steam just announced it has more active users than Xbox Live. Do we really think that DIY is dying? Like I said, it could just be DIY in relation to buying pre-built, but both are seeing more than they were before.

[deanb]

Steam just announced it has more active users than Xbox Live. Do we really think that DIY is dying?

 

Are these two intended to be part of the same statement cos

[TheMightyEthan]

 

*Edit* - To be fair, he didn't say that one was caused by the other, just implied that the two are correlated.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

^I'm simply pointing out that these people are playing on some sort of hardware. It makes sense that total sales of PCs/DIY PCs must be going up.

[deanb]

Not really, you can have increased sales of pre-builts increasing with new steam accounts. If anything it's reasonable to assume that original bulk of steam accounts are the more hardcore PC gamer types that are more likely to build their own, and later accounts are folks rocking whatever desktop or laptop they happen to have that'll run all the cheap and simple games steam is becoming known for. The top two GPUs on the h/w survey are Intel HD Graphics, accounting for over 8% (5.2million accounts) alone.

[TheMightyEthan]

A device that supposedly chills things as quickly as microwaves warm them.  Granted it's all based on the company's own claims about the device, but it's very cool if true.

 

 

*Edit* - Wait, why are they talking about the demand in Europe?  I thought you guys all drank your beers and sodas at room temperature like barbarians.

Edited October 31, 2013 by TheUndeadEthan