So, it matters how much radioactive stuff there is? I guess that's why the wikipedia confused me. (Science wikipedias get pretty technical, I think the authors frequently overestimate laymen's ability to decipher jargon.)

We don't really need to get into that level of detail, though. We've just got to explain the difference between becquerels, grays and sieverts insofar as it relates to public health.

Becquerels count how fast decay events are happening, in total, in a bunch of radioactive stuff. If you throw in more radioactive stuff, more events happen.

Grays and Seiverts are quite different, and closely related to each other. Both are concerned not with the radioactive stuff, but the stuff getting hit. They refer to a total dose over time, and both are per mass of stuff getting dosed.

Grays count the energy deposited via radiation. Very simple.

Seiverts adjust each kind of radiation by a factor that incorporates how damaging that kind of radiation is to biological tissue (it makes a difference, even after taking energy into account). For health effects, use Seiverts and ignore Grays. Milliseiverts per hour (mSv/h) would be relevant for judging the intensity of radiation in an irradiating area. Seiverts per year (Sv/a) would be relevant for judging a general occupational dose.

Thanks. That makes more sense in much fewer words than wiki. The pamphlet was even more simplified than that, but it's still useful for me to know.

I've got another unrelated question - has anyone else's computer been pestering them to do Java updates all the bloody time? I feel like I've been installing a lot of these things lately. I install one, and then 3 days later, look another update!

There have been some updates released recently, as far as "Java" is concerned. I'm kind of curious as to what you've been updating though. I'm getting the notifications because I have an old version of the Standard Edition JRE/JDK on my machine. I do need to update, I just haven't gotten around to it.

I used to write Java programs for school and stuff, which is why I have both the JRE and JDK on my machine. If you're not actually writing any Java code, you don't need the JDK. But the JRE is different. Make sure you have the latest version of the JRE. Poking around java.com may shed some more light on your problem.

The notifications are for something called jucheck.exe. No matter how many times I install it, it pops up again a few days later.

Have you looked at java.com? That site will answer questions like, "what is java?", "do I already have java?", and "what do I need to update?"

Jucheck.exe means nothing to me unfortunately. Maybe Google that or something?

I always get the jucheck messages. I don't think it's actually installing an update everytime - it's asking permission to check if there is an update available - I always assumed it stood for 'Java update check'. Either that, or we both have the same malware disguising itself as Java maintenance.

I have noticed that my laptop seems to have Windows updates ready to install almost every day. If I ever do turn it off and let it do the installation, there are always six. It seems a bit suspicious to me.

For Java, check what you currently have installed on the java site. It will tell you if you need to uninstall an old version for the update to take effect. After a point, the updates don't take and you have to uninstall/re-install before it will stop nagging you.

It always asks if I want to install the Ask Toolbar on my computer (stupid useless piece of crap), and I keep clicking the "no" box. I'm wondering whether it's pestering me repeatedly in the hopes that one day I'll forget to.

Ok, I have a lot of StarCon 2 music. But I do not have the hyperspace song and the Precursor remixes are very hit and miss with me. I have an old version of Ur-Quan Masters on my machine, but I do not know how to extract the song as an .mp3 or if that's even possible. Anyone know how I can obtain an .mp3 of the 3DO version of the song?

I think can translate it from ogg. You want the HS track? If you want the HS track, well, you might want the remix that the original composer did that really is just an update of the samples...
http://forum.uqm.stack.nl/index.php?topic=1269.0

Uh, I have no idea what ogg is. And the links in the OP of that thread appear to be dead.

edit: Okay, something that sounds like this would be ideal. However, I just realized that the precursors have two hyperspace remixes and I like the second one much better than the first. So I'd be okay with that one if getting the traditional one is too difficult.

ogg is an open source high quality audio codec.

As it turns out, I only have Re-enter as an AAC (m4a) file. Do you still want it, and if so, will that do?

.m4a is perfectly fine. I'd very much like to hear it.

Also, check out these Star Control II remixes.