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How fitting, and a great sendoff video before his departure.

5 days ago on Ground control to Commander Hadfield: astronaut records first music video from space

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That was my favorite scene as well.

5 days ago on Ground control to Commander Hadfield: astronaut records first music video from space

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Someone needs to work out a new internet based on mesh wireless networks to avoid centralized control.

10 days ago on India launches monitoring system to track all calls, texts, and online activity

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Thanks for the link, that is really interesting and reminds me I need to pay better attention to the IEEE feeds I view.

15 days ago on Will big utilities kill the distributed grid?

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Batteries are really more of a small scale solution, and worse require conversion between AC and DC meaning you lose a portion of your power during the conversion. Also, that would be a huge shift from our current system; more likely giving the trends we will move to a ‘smart’ distribution grid which allows the grid to measure the amount of power coming from both multiple small power producing installations (such as solar panels on your home) and large scale operations (such as offshore wind farms) and then redirect all of that power generated to locales that aren’t producing due to low wind, low sun, etc. to balance load with supply. In this situation hydroelectric dams would probably be best to fill the need of peak power as they are the easiest to predict and control power output.

15 days ago on Will big utilities kill the distributed grid? 2 replies 1 recommend

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Exactly, if the big utilities aren’t excited about the ‘distributed’ grid because it is that much more difficult to load balance the system and most likely will lead to much more variance of burn levels at power plants. Not that it can’t be done, just that it becomes much more complicated and therefore expensive.

Furthermore, at least in the short term until all power is renewable the grid would rely more on natural gas and other forms power plants that allow for more flexibility in production.

15 days ago on Will big utilities kill the distributed grid? 2 replies

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I don’t see that it’s any different having to know someone’s app username or e-mail than it is to have to know their phone number, it’s still an identifier, and it still could be one of many if people have multiple phones.

From my perspective, XMPP is the standard messaging services should be conforming to so it doesn’t matter what service they are using, you just need to know their username and can use whatever service you want, they don’t need to be the same service.

Honestly, I think SMS v Chat is probably just the first step, eventually I could imagine phone numbers being completely phased out and talk service will only be through VoIP. Obviously that still has a ways to go in improving service and will be fought hard by telecoms but it will move in that direction as time goes on.

15 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all?

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Right, so what is the point of creating more proprietary messaging clients? Just to tie a user into their own ecosystem and hope their clients don’t all jump ship to some other proprietary ecosystem?

16 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all?

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I’m assuming that is re-enabling SMS on a ‘dumb’ phone? On my Razr the Google Voice app doesn’t need SMS enabled to receive texts.

16 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all?

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SMS is the problem, there is no reason for a separate service over the airways specifically for messaging. Plus Google Voice and SMS with messaging apps are the only way to be able to message through a PC using a standard keyboard instead of being limited to mobile only, and in most cases one specific mobile device specifically.

16 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all? 1 reply

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I don’t know about new plans, but Verizon allows you to drop SMS off of your bill and save a few bucks a year. Also, why limit your chats to your phone via SMS rather than a chat protocol that can be accessed through mobile or PC so you don’t have to type on a touchscreen.

However, I agree with your point of not understanding paying for a chat function and convincing others to do so as well. What makes it so special?

16 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all? 1 reply

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ICQ to MSN to GChat/Talk is my messaging history. I don’t think I’ve heard of any of the other services you’ve mentioned (aside from Facebook). And I suppose I’m an old man because I’ve always found SMS distasteful, though Google Voice was at least made it bearable and available for me to use on both mobile devices and PC using an actual keyboard.

I’m not even sure what problem all of these different apps are attempting to solve, doesn’t most everyone have a Gmail account? And if so why are they not just using Gchat? That’s what drove me to stop using MSNMessenger way way back, I already had my e-mail open, so much easier to just have that available as part of the e-mail and not have to have different userIDs. Obviously this doesn’t work for people without smart phones, but I can’t see how any of these other messaging apps would either.

If anything I think the latest stats just show that more and more people have smartphones and are realizing (at least in the US) they no longer need an SMS plan, and SMS can be annoying with it’s character limit at times anyway.

16 days ago on Alone together: will one messaging app rule them all? 1 reply 1 recommend

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So just to be nitpicky, Dune did have plenty of water, it was just kept beneath the surface of the sand by sandtrout.

16 days ago on Life on Venus? Scientists rethink the idea of 'habitable' planets 1 recommend

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Remind me to not visit New York City anytime soon.

22 days ago on Privacy is 'off the table' in a 'post-9/11 world,' says New York City police chief