There’s a lot to be said for open source software and products, but will they hold the course against proprietary code? David Louis Edelman, science fiction author and former guest columnist here at Futurismic, weighs up the pros and cons and decides that the paid-for stuff will probably win in the long run, however idealistically attractive the alternative might seem.

At least they’re not quibbling over the definition of a word, but the attendees at the Space 2006 conference are very much at loggerheads. Not over the need to colonise space, either – they’re all pretty much behind that idea. Where the disagreement creeps in is where to set up camp first: in orbit, on the Moon, on Mars? Orbital colonies get my vote, for what it’s worth – I want to be able to visit without taking years out of my hectic blogging schedule…

There are a hell of a lot of copper wires and cables in an airplane, what with all the systems that need controlling and monitoring in realtime. But that means faultfinding can be a real bitch – plus all that metal weighs a fair bit. Research at Texas A&M University could overcome these problems, by developing a special switch that could enable engineers to replace the wires with optical fibres, making for faster operations with less bulk and weight, and easier maintenance.

Celebrations are afoot at the Fermilab, after the conclusion of a twenty year search for a single number – the frequency of oscillation between matter and anti-matter. The details won’t mean much to anyone without a physics degree of one stripe or another, but in broad terms the discovery not only vindicates the ‘Standard Model’ (which describes the theorised relationships between fundamental particles), but narrows down the field for further research into supersymmetry. In other words, they’ve found exactly what they were hoping to find.

There are some jobs where computer use isn’t practical – namely the ones where you have to be on foot a lot, or where there are too many risks to fragile gadgets. Warehouse workers and builders may soon be getting their fix of mobile technology, however, if more ‘ruggedized’ portable devices like the latest from Symbol Technologies make it to market. Give it a few years more, and maybe they’ll be using them to control and command a fleet of robotic machines and plant hardware.