That doesn't mean they have to be subject matter experts in everything or even anything. But they need to be competent enough with the basic tools and techniques to understand what is or is not possible and reasonable. Invariably, the worst managers I have worked for have been those who have no idea what the actual job entails, and thus push nonsensical/arbitrary requirements that never work and usually end up costing more time/money in the long run. Now all that being said, that doesn't mean engineering managers ONLY need to know about the technical aspects. Management skills are actual skills, and need to be present as well. :)

Would this allow for more complex satellite design, knowing that in-orbit maintenance is available? Could NASA charge commercial industries and other governments for maintenance service of their satellites? If so, would this be a feasible source of moderate funding? Will companies wanting to send up satellites now have to sit through the "extended warranty" sales pitch too?

Seconded as another Rhode Islander, who grew up in the town where/while he was mayor. If there's a bigger example of name recognition trumping incompetence at governing...well, it's Patrick Kennedy, but Linc comes in a close second.

Something that accepts .STL format (which most CAD type programs let you output now) and G Code (pretty much the standard for CNC machines) as well as their own XYZ format is hardly locked into "proprietary formats." Do you have to use their software? To do the actual printing, sure. But it looks like you can do the design in a number of other tools as well, as long as you can output the aforementioned .STL or G Code. Buying filament from them? Sure, possibly a pain. But then, for the vast majority of printers nowadays, you "have to" buy the ink cartridge from the company. And since it's in a cartridge, it's presumably easier to load - one of the most common complaints I've seen for products like Makerbot is that loading the filament is tricky and you often have to fiddle and do numerous test prints to get it right. Is that solution going to be best for a high-volume printer? Absolutely not. For a hobbyist who wants to print maybe a dozen things every few months? Should be fine.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad MS has reversed course on all those items. They were bad decisions for the consumer. Ultimately though, it's coming in at a $500 price point. That's going to be it's single biggest hurdle when it's put on shelves (physical or virtual) next to its competitors.

Maybe we could program them to scour the internet for comments that take a completely unrelated tangent to the original article, for the purposes of expounding on whatever irrelevant social agenda/issue the commentator has stuck up his behind? And then it could automatically delete them.

Putin his money where his mouth is.

If you can purchase illegal drugs, the odds are that you can purchase an illegal firearm. And I don't doubt that videos and how-to guides would begin circulating on the internet for people to find, the same way that you can find bomb-making instructions today. That said, you're absolutely right about the number of incidents - while mass shootings are horrible, they're also a statistical anomaly. To use the standard "how unlikely" comparison - 543 people have died in US mass shootings since 1982. The US averages about 90 lightning strikes per year. So over those 30 years, that's 2700 lightning deaths. So you're about 5 times more likely to get killed by lightning.

1) Can you develop such a complex system that works in the practical world (ie, it's cost effective and reliable)?

2) Can you develop a system in such a way that it can't be removed or bypassed?

The gun is a fairly simple machine. I can't think of a way to prevent the removal of such a complex system. And if the argument is going to be "it'll be legally mandated that all guns have this," you run into the same problem that gun control laws run into right now. Criminals - especially those who are planning on committing multiple murders and probably killing themselves in the process - really don't give a crap about following the law.

If we outlaw micro-scale weaponry, only mosquitos will have micro-scale weaponry.

Or you make a museum showcasing Tesla and his dedication, make it fun and interesting, and you snag the interest of hundreds of young kids every year, of whom dozens may become researchers themselves.

As important as dollars are to research, so are minds.

To clarify: Agreed that the storage issue sounds odd. Dunno about the rest of your conclusions. :)

Agreed. Even if you want to say that they need the storage network-available and in a RAID, you could buy an entry level commercial NAS for under a thousand dollars plus the cost of drives. So even with say, 6 drives, you're still looking at sub 3 grand for 10TB of usable storage, and that's assuming you probably paid too much for the drives. I would be that cost wise, that is about the equivalent maybe five to ten hours of a government lawyer's time, to say nothing of the investigators, etc, etc.

Obviously, you need to RTFA, and perhaps do some examination of your own thought process.
1) The glasses are not a recording device. The only reason they maintained images was because they were damaged, and new images did not arrive to fill the buffer.
2) Anyone who attempts to rip someone's "recording device" off their head only to find out that it is SCREWED INTO THEIR SKULL is an idiot if they don't realize after that fact that this is not the same situation as some guy with a digital camera. You could make the analogy that while pets are banned from many places, service animals are welcome.
3) Destryoing someone's documentation about their medical device is spiteful and childish at best, and legally questionable at worst.
4) One would not attempt to hide their identity while taking a perfectly legal action in accordance with company policy.
5) Obviously, the gentleman was angry enough to want to go to the top of the food chain (no pun intended). So even if this McDonald's was in France, the corporate HQ is in the US. So yes, attempting to get the corporate information from a US/English Language page makes perfect sense, rather than going to a "french-language" website where he can perhaps try to talk to the manager of that particular store.

He'd already been served his food - if the restaurant wanted him to leave, their best course of action would have been to wait a few minutes and let him finish up. It certainly would have caused less hassle and embarrassment to everyone.

Get back to us when you find a way not just to make everyone play nice, but to make everyone WANT to play nice. Until that happens, Utopia will remain a dream.