They say talk is cheap. Google thinks it should be free. Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free–anytime, anywhere in the world.

Google reinvents another wheel. They seem to be doing a lot of that. This particular wheel, however, is rather plumbed. If anyone actually tries this thing and can tell me what, if anything, is new about it, I'm curious.

The only point I've heard so far is that it uses Jabber. Hrm... See, the reality is that due to a number of decisions that various players have made, the actual standard for IM is, in fact, AIM. This is not the best outcome in the world, as AIM is not an open standard, but it is a standard. I would prefer that Jabber were the standard, but I'm not going to switch to using something that can't communicate with a number of my friends simply because I've got a chip on my sholder about standards, or because I think Google is cool.

Google Talk

The schedule for the D*C space and science track, headed up by our own jonnyx, is available for your perusal.

Wow, Ralph Merkle is speaking! You'll also find at least 4 MemeStreams regulars presenting both here and in the Electronic Frontiers Forum.

Dragon*Con Space and Science Track Schedule

Rattle wrote:

Krick of Evol Intent offers a firsthand account of the events that took place at a party that he was scheduled to play August 20th in Utah. The event was fully licensed, fully legal, and non-violent. Halfway through the party, authorities arrived in full riot gear and ended the event like a full-scale riot (tear gas, attack dogs, and assault rifles).

This link to the video being shot on the stage at the point the show was shutdown appears too be working.

More details about this are desired...

Google news has some coverage. So does Wikinews. Mostly the police seem to be loosing the early PR battle on this one. I imagine the video is the reason why. Also the blogosphere is putting the information in front of a lot of eyes who wouldn't otherwise see it.

For years police in various communities have played the "tear gas and riot gear" approach to shutting raves down, and mostly the press has ignored the rumor mill of drugged out teenagers in favor of the perspectives of the local soccer moms. This time there is proof and alternative media. Its really hard to say that it makes sense to send people into a party dressed like Marines. The tactic is obviously designed to intimidate people. I hope they find the backlash similarly intimidating.

RE: Post RAVE act, post PATRIOT act America | MetaFilter

Anybody who pumps a barrel out of a reservoir today to sell at $60 could make three times as much money if they just left it in the ground another two years before pumping it out. The same is true for anybody with above-ground storage facilities-- they're throwing away money, and lots of it, for every barrel they sell at $60 that they could have instead stored for two years and sold for $200. If oil producers did respond to these very strong incentives by holding back oil from today's market, the effect would be to drive today's price up.

An really smart analysis of oil futures, with some interesting links to more data. Sure oil prices are going to skyrocket? Well, you can make a hell of a lot of money on that right now if you're right.

Econbrowser: How to talk to an economist about peak oil

Welcome to the Engadget BBS! How’s it going? Sorry if you had a busy signal a bunch, the board’s been growing like crazy—we’re adding a third line next week, so check out the boards to get that number!

Engadget is a prefect example of the booming BBS scene springing to live on America's phone network thanks to the advent of affordable modems (short for modulator-demodulator). Engadget's lines have been busy almost all the time recently, so this fellow was nice enough to dump his scrollback log to one of these Internet Blog things. You can see all the recent posts to the Engadget BBS without having to wait for a line to clear up.. Check out the latest in cellular phones, personal computers, GPS receivers, game console units, and storage media.

This might lead you to believe that the Internet will eventually replace the BBS, but we all know that's a load of horse shit. BBS's Forever!!

Engadget 1985 - Engadget - www.engadget.com

In Canada there are snow festivals in the winter in which people make elaborate scupltures out of ice and snow. Nothing I recall seeing up there in the early 80s came remotely close to this. It might be that technology has improved in the past 20 years. It might be that the Chinese are simply taking this a lot more seriously. In any event, the results are simply amazing. Massive functional buildings made entirely of ice and filled with lights!

R Todd King: China Photos 2005 - Harbin Winter

Suppose a robotic surveyor on Mars has to navigate harsh terrain, looking for rocks that might contain fossils, and then send new photos of them back to Earth—a 10- to 12-minute trip at best. If it were a node on a TCP/IP network, the robot would have to keep a copy of that data in its limited memory banks until it got a confirmation that the data had been received on Earth. Such a notice would take at least 20 minutes to arrive—more if a direct connection weren't available. DTN, on the other hand, would require the surveyor to keep the data only until they were received by the first node—probably a nearby relay satellite.

An interesting article on network protocol design issues in Space. Interestingly, Cerf seems to be backing an alternative that sounds a bit like FidoNet.

I strongly object to the suggestion that IP is going to be easier to secure because security tools are readily available. The last thing you want in space is a worm, and thats exactly what you are going to get if you make it really convenient for people to just plug their everyday laptop into the system and talk to stuff in orbit.

My fear is, however, that IP will win out regardless of being completely unsuited for the task simply because its pervasive and easy.

IP in Space?

It now costs about US $20 000 per kilogram to put objects into orbit. Contrast that rate with the results of a study I recently performed for NASA, which concluded that a single space elevator could reduce the cost of orbiting payloads to a remarkably low $200 a kilogram and that multiple elevators could ultimately push costs down below $10 a kilogram.

This article provides a good summary of the technical challenges involved in building this thing. Its still a bit scifi but its close...

IEEE Spectrum on Space Elevators

"If I pop, you're screwed!"

Mr. Housing Bubble: T-Shirt Humor: The Funny T-Shirt Store

It's time to lower the BAR.

BarCamp