@treytakahashi: Texting: wonderful if you have to send someone an address or phone number...you know, something they might have to SEE and WRITE DOWN. Otherwise? I pretty much hate it.

@KamWrex: As an addendum, it's been shown that (by far) the easiest way to drop birth rates is to educate women. As I once heard, we really don't need 99.999% efficient solar cells, we just need to get 20% efficient ones made cheaply/cleanly and into the hands of the people who can use them; namely the poor and…

Just when y'all thought it was safe again, along comes another *excellent* reason to link this video:

@craigeryjohn: Not to mention the energy cost in designing, producing, shipping, and advertising one of these. I really wouldn't be surprised if it took a two years+ of consistent use to "pay for itself."

@KamWrex: and Metroid Prime :)

@BryanCelyn: I suppose you could pirate it then, though...

@themontage: Introducing, for your Googling pleasure,

@kylynara: Oh yeah, for sure. But I just kind of meant it as more of a general rule. Sure there are exceptions, but the "if you're not 15 minutes early you're late because you didn't plan for the alien abduction" that many are suggesting seems a little excessive to me :)

Late is perfectly fine. Late WITHOUT A PHONE CALL (or any other sort of communication) is unacceptable, in my book anyway.

"To encourage communal listening..."

@Rohit Garewal: Hiking down the uncanny valley instead of trying to climb out of it, I suppose...

@MagicTrackpad: Eggad! Does that mean he has egg on his face?

@[MF]Johnny: :(){:|:&};:

@sean000: I was working one day, and I happened to notice my screen looked *just* like one in an action movie. A *nix command line, a 3D-something spinning, a program's comandliney dump, and some sort of readme/manpage.

I really wish some talented developer would build this into an IM client. A pane on the left for the actual chat, a pane on the right for snippets/LaTeX, and a pane along the bottom for text entry. Text encased in $$ $$ would default to LaTeX style (in the right pane), and perhaps code could be pasted in or set off…

@MrSnuffles: The English also unleashed the term "soccer" upon the world. Just sayin'...

Fall is irrelevant. Portal 2 comes out in spring.

I do believe Apple Mail has a "bounce" feature, making the message appear as though it couldn't be delivered. Dunno where one could find such functionality elsewhere, though...

I know Dan Nocera (also at MIT) is working on a similar device, only for electrolyzing water so that the hydrogen can be used to store energy. It's a self healing cobalt catalyst. Fascinating stuff, and the man is an amazing presenter to boot.

@ChuckBlack: Bill Nye disagrees. It's "the poll...of SCIENCE!"