I played D3 until I beat the boss. Then I discovered the next round up was the same round around, with different numbers. I'll stick with WoW for the time being.

You don't need natural graphite mines.
http://www.mersen.com/en/focus/article/manufacturing-artificial-graphite.html

I think it's about 15 years off cable for us. We seriously do not miss it one single bit. We declared the money saved each month to be our DVD budget, and we rarely cut into that too deeply. We have half a wall of shelves full of legitimately purchased DVDs and we saved money - rather a lot of it - in the process.

Take that, Rupert Murdoch, you slimy SOB.

Can't these attacks be ah, foiled by a translucent protective coating on the cockpit window? I'm imaging something similar to the gold coloured reflective helmet visors used by the Apollo astronauts.

Completely socialised, mate. Buried in our tax system.
Has been since Bob Hawke, and will continue to be if we can throw that drongo Abbott to the kerb.

In one of Dr.David Brin's lovely Uplift books (and possibly elsewhere in the SF pantheon) radiative cooling was accomplished by using the energy to power a laser. Mind, it was in a close orbit of the Sun, so there was a *lot* of energy to dump, but it's not completely far-fetched to have coherent radiation as a cooling system.

Sorry about the redundant post; got an error the first time I pressed the magic button.

I think your context can be expanded a bit by adding a few years to the timeline. I can see the cost per kilogram going down considerably across the next few years. They will also only fall from orbit if you're launching them into LEO. A higher orbit would encounter less exospheric drag and could stay up for a very long time.

Not that LEO would be all bad; you could tune the orbit such that older servers would fall and burn out at a targeted time, as a means for disposing of obsolescent gear.

Go a little further out into the future, and there's a **lot** of silicon in the inner Solar system; no need to pick the deepest gravity well for your factory, is there?

Personally, I like the thought of a planetary server network, up where the RF isn't attenuated by atmosphere.

I think your context can be expanded a bit by adding a few years to the timeline. I can see the cost per kilogram going down considerably across the next few years. They will also only fall from orbit if you're launching them into LEO. A higher orbit would encounter less exospheric drag and could stay up for a very long time.

Not that LEO would be all bad; you could tune the orbit such that older servers would fall and burn out at a targeted time, as a means for disposing of obsolescent gear.

Go a little further out into the future, and there's a **lot** of silicon in the inner Solar system; no need to pick the deepest gravity well for your factory, is there?

Personally, I like the thought of a planetary server network, up where the RF isn't attenuated by atmosphere.