A high-school dropout computer designer who builds retro machines has put a Commodore 64 on a chip. Only in America.

For sounds going extinct. It’s an interesting article, and a little disconcerting that there are many sounds with which a certain generation (mine) is familiar that kids today may have never heard, except in the movies. It brings to mind this post from last summer, when I heard a sound that was familiar to me only from WW II movies, though my father heard much more of it than he ever imagined wanting to.

The New York Times has a story about the explosive growth of Firefox, and how Redmond’s screwed, at least in the short term. There may be only one way out, as Scott Ott amusingly points out.

But another article says that Thunderbird, its email client companion, won’t be able to make as many inroads against Outlook, no matter how insecurity-ridden that program is, because of the energy barrier necessary to change email clients.

Email and Usenet are the biggest things keeping me from switching to Linux for my desktop–I just have too much legacy data in Eudora and Agent, and no obvious way to transition over to things like Thunderbird and Pan. I use Mozilla for browsing, but I’m still using Eudora and Agent, until there’s an open-source solution for this problem.

The New York Times has a story about the explosive growth of Firefox, and how Redmond’s screwed, at least in the short term. There may be only one way out, as Scott Ott amusingly points out.

But another article says that Thunderbird, its email client companion, won’t be able to make as many inroads against Outlook, no matter how insecurity-ridden that program is, because of the energy barrier necessary to change email clients.

Email and Usenet are the biggest things keeping me from switching to Linux for my desktop–I just have too much legacy data in Eudora and Agent, and no obvious way to transition over to things like Thunderbird and Pan. I use Mozilla for browsing, but I’m still using Eudora and Agent, until there’s an open-source solution for this problem.

The New York Times has a story about the explosive growth of Firefox, and how Redmond’s screwed, at least in the short term. There may be only one way out, as Scott Ott amusingly points out.

But another article says that Thunderbird, its email client companion, won’t be able to make as many inroads against Outlook, no matter how insecurity-ridden that program is, because of the energy barrier necessary to change email clients.

Email and Usenet are the biggest things keeping me from switching to Linux for my desktop–I just have too much legacy data in Eudora and Agent, and no obvious way to transition over to things like Thunderbird and Pan. I use Mozilla for browsing, but I’m still using Eudora and Agent, until there’s an open-source solution for this problem.

A hundred and one years ago today, the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight took place. There was a much bigger deal about it last year, centennials being much more newsworthy than hundred and first anniversaries, and it was spiced up by the first supersonic flight of SpaceShipOne on the same day. In fact, looking back now, that’s probably the event that started off a very remarkable year in space–2004, even though it was a couple weeks early. I’ll put together a year-end review of what happened in space this year. In very many ways, it was the most exciting year, and one more filled with hopeful portent, since the 1960s.

I had pieces on the Wright brothers’ accomplishment at National Review, TechCentralStation, and Fox News. Those who didn’t read them then might find them of interest today.

Here’s a debate on aging, and the prospects for eliminating it, between Aubrey De Grey and S. Jay Olshansky.

I find the latter unpersuasive. His argument seems to be “people in the past have predicted it, and it didn’t happen, therefore it won’t now either.”

Philip Chaston reports on a talk in London by Aubrey De Grey, in which he announced that the Methuselah Mouse prize is being extended to another one for best late-onset treatment, for those of us too old to benefit from breakthroughs that must be started early in life.

In seawater. Using techniques developed by abalones.

I suspect that this is a much bigger story than most people realize right now, if it works out.

[Via Virginia]

They’ve developed a mild habanero pepper.

What next? Flying cars?