An unexpected error occurred
I read a terrifying article yesterday.
I came across it completely by accident and my first impression was that it was a joke.
How Bill Gatesâ company TerraPower is building next-generation nuclear power.
What the fuck?
Here is a bloke who monopolised the computer world with an operating system that is unstable and has to be protected by a ring of antivirus stuff and is prone to just collapsing of its own accord, and he is messing around with nuclear power?
I did a simple bit of detective work and sure enough this isn’t a joke. TerraPower does exist and it is playing around with nuclear fission. It seems to me like he wants to populate the planet with a nuclear version of Windows. Even more frightening is the fact that the people in the States seem to be taking him seriously.
Selected by the U.S. federal government to demonstrate the viability of nuclear power through its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), TerraPower aims to build âfully functional advanced nuclear reactor within 7 years of the award,â according to the Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Well at least that gives us seven years to build our fallout shelters?
âThe most important factor is that Bill Gates is behind this,â principal research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology department of nuclear science and engineering Charles Forsberg tells CNBC Make It.
Fuck me! Are these people serious? Really?
âThe most important factors in developing a new reactor are money and very competent people. Bill Gates brings both to the project.â
Well, I suppose he has the money anyway. I just hope they never let him within several miles of the design laboratories.
Just imagine a world where these Gates Reactors populate the planet. Then something goes wrong. An update that was supposed to apply itself automatically fails and crashes.
The Cobalt Blue Scream of Death.
I hate Bill Gates with a passion because of the person he’s become, but let’s face it, Windows was ground breaking software and is still the future. Nobody has been able to do better, even by offering software for free
And I reckon he’ll just be a money man behind nuclear power, if it happens. They’ll take his cash and the competent people will use it. At least I hope so
“Nobody has been able to do better, even by offering software for free”
UBUNTU, far superior, free, stable
Stable and free maybe. I really don’t think it’s superior and it will never be as popular, even though it is free
Hah! I like a good debate…
Windows: Provided “free” in virtually every PC sold since the 80s [the cost was actually added to the price] thereby making the world [and in particular, business] reliant on it as an OS.
Linux: Actually free but it came to the market too late to catch up on Windows.
I have been using Linux now for many years. I don’t ever remember having a situation where the system crashed or locked up. Also I don’t have any anti-virus as there is no need and therefore no irritating updates [or expense] every day. Updates to the OS and nearly all software are regular, take a minute or two, run in the background without irritating popups and never ever force a reboot.
The reason Windows stays dominant is that businesses built their systems around it. Conversion to Linux would entail vast user retraining and software redevelopment so there will always be a resistance to change. Also businesses tend to distrust anything they regard as “free”, seeing it as somehow inferior and therefore untrustworthy.
Was Windows advertised as provided ‘free’, or was it just another part of the machine? The only reason Windows dominated the market was because Windows was all there was, originally
Linux came to the market later, but Android (also free and later) has come to dominate the mobile phone and tablet market, despite efforts by Microsoft.
It could be that Linux only has a small market share, because it simply isn’t as good as Windows
Both systems have their ups and downs, but I find Windows so much more user friendly and compatible than Linux and its derivatives. I have it on my PCs, my tablet and also my phone. Unfortunately the phone is obsolete since Android took over, but as long as it still makes calls, I’ll keep it 🙂
Linux is designed with security in mind. Windows seems to have security tagged on as an afterthought after all the bells, whistles, and other shiny things have been completed.
As with anything from the Gates stable of immature offerings, the old rule still applies – never take a product with a version number ending in ‘.0’.
But I suppose they could always switch it off, then back on again.
I find the concept of rebooting a nuclear power station simultaneously amusing and terrifying……
Is it not Nuclear FUSION? That’s a whole different thing!
No. They’re still playing with fission. Fusion would be the ultimate solution but they haven’t really cracked that yet.
The Cobalt Blue Scream of Death will unfortunately not have a 1800 helpline to call.
Old Bill is a bit blatant.
With his company called Terrapower you cannot say that you were not warned.
He could have called his drug company New Terra Mall.
Remember Terraserver? That was Bill’s attempt to provide satellite images of the planet [a feeble precursor to Goggle Earth]. It bragged that it was the largest server on the planet with a whole Terrabyte of images, Considering that I have about 8 or 9 Terrabytes of various disks in this room?!
I remember Terraserver alright. I even used it once in awhile back then. But then Google came along with their Google Earth program (as you say) and Google Maps and blew Terraserver out of the water–so to speak.
Oh, the days when a Terabyte of storage was an amazing amount of storage…
…I have just come to the realization that I have too much crammed into my wee brain.
Have you considered an external drive for your brain? A 4Tb one is reasonably priced?
Wireless or wired? Either way it would mean a bit of (harmless??) brain surgery. And I suppose I could strap some sticky-back Velcro on the back of the thing and stick it somewhere on my person. I hope it comes with a “wetware to hardware” interface program as well. I wonder if it will copy or move. Good question that.