The best of 'Reader Comments': Sci-fi dreams, happy Mondays, and what to do with 10,000 tonnes of garlic

Over the past week, stories we ran about Star Trek's gadgets and gizmos (http://www.silicon.com/a44745), the traditional working week (http://www.silicon.com/a44706 ) and what Samsung should do with a payment it received in garlic (http://www.silicon.com/a44805 ) all brought in a whole host of responses...

Fascinating stuff
From: Greg Martin

How did I guess that this article above all others would generate reader comments? Is it possible that everyone in IT wishes Microsoft would actually produce software that works as well as the Star Trek computer systems (even if you have to press the big toggle switches Spock always uses)?

As far as the reality checks go I'd refer you to the American senator who was appointed just after the telegraph reached all parts of the union to advise the President and congress on the impact of technology. After a year or so he reported that his office was redundant because "everything that can be invented has already been invented". Might be an apocryphal story but it sounds just like some of your reality checks.

Real, I tell you...
From: Rus Yates-Aylott

I'm sure that there was a science fact documentary on TV about a year or so ago about future transport systems where they showed this huge contraption that was able to transport a single atom from one end of the room to another - the first step of its kind. The same prog showed us hover buses and transporters that 'sucked us up' into the body of the crafts. These 'Jetson' style craft were still fantasy but the matter transporter was clearly factual.

Cloaking
From: Nicholas Brans

We also have devices for thermal and night vision. Glasgow University has developed fast optical switches and continues to develop them to be faster. During WW2, the navy used lighting to hide ships in daylight from U-boats.

--Travelling faster than light
From: Karen Challinor

A minor point I would like to clear up. There is nothing in either special or general relativity that forbids travel at speeds faster than light. What is forbidden is travel AT the speed of light. As I remember the equation divides by (c^2 - v^2) so the faster you go the more massive you get tending to infinite mass as you get close to the speed of light. Effectively this provides an impassable barrier, if we can find a way to the other side without actually crossing this barrier, say using something like quantum tunnelling then you would find you had a NEGATIVE mass which decreases the faster you go.

What effect this negative mass would have on a traveller, I have no idea.

--More cloaking - like in Predator
From: Rob Tracey-Bower

I read a story on the BBC website a while back saying that for the US army of the future they are designing body armour that doesn`t cloak fully like a Klingon, but would be more akin to what you saw in Predator, ie light being absorbed on one side, and re-emitted on the other.
If you've seen e-inks' future products, which are flexible TFT type screens, imagine the same in colour, and embedded in clothes. I reckon ten years is not too optimistic to be getting somewhere close.

Tell me why I don't like Mondays. Well, a recent Model Management column from silicon.com contributors FTdynamo tried to (http://www.silicon.com/a44706 ), and these are some of our readers' responses...

Poem madness...
From: Ian Cummins

I love to go to work, it gives me such a thrill,
I love each employee there, and I know I always will,
I've always been on time, and I've never missed a day,
And I even love the men in white who are taking me away!

A little respect
From: John Hogan

I find people only love their work if they have a boss who respects them and who isn`t a control freak. Work is very stressful for those with bad bosses: verbal abuse, lack of respect, and control freak micro-management can get even the biggest optimists down. Only one answer for it: leave.

Why we hate Mondays
From: Ben Nichols

The nobility of labour was invented by bosses to make people feel better about work 60 hours a week at ill paid manual labour. With white-collar work and the move toward involving and valuing people, Monday morning is a myth like mother-in-law jokes. There are days when the weekend is over too soon and Monday comes, but we all want to feel valued and we do like to do something at least at of some worth. If we really hated it that much we would leave.

And finally, we reported from Seoul on a tricky trade situation between China and South Korea that has seen Samsung Electronics buy 10,000 tonnes of garlic (http://www.silicon.com/a44805 ). Here's one creative suggestion...

Only one thing for it...
From: Anon.

There's only one sure thing for Samsung to do with 10,000 tons of garlic: exchange it for one of the spare French 3G licences.