Right.... cause deregulation worked soooo well for the banking and mortgage industries and the economy... oh, wait...

Industries need a certain amount of regulation to keep them somewhat honest. I agree that regulations and laws have been passed that benefit specific companies but the the way to fix it is to roll back regulations to the basic stuff and get ride of all of the rules that add barriers to entry. However, the biggest barrier to entry in the ISP/cable space is fair access to the infrastructure.

Physical currency will become obsolete when either digital currency can't be tracked or having physical currency is considered a crime, which is coming....

As it is, there have been recent cases in the southern US where people have been stopped on the highway by police, found to have more than $200 in cash, and have had it confiscated on suspicion of being used for the drug trade without any trial, evidence, or judicial process. So, if you plan on buying a used car or boat, don't bring cash with you or you could have it seized by the police...

Looking at the snowflake diagram with the linked to article I'm not seeing any partial loops in the snowflake diagram. In fact, it only shows single connectivity back to one core hub. Maybe it's just a poor drawing or I'm missing something in the translation. Also, there doesn't seem to be any redundancy. By not having access to the full article, maybe I'm not understanding the use-case for this.

Having leftover files and registry entries from apps that have been removed does not slow down Windows. Like any other OS, they just sit there doing nothing.

What does slow down Windows is disk fragmentation and lack of RAM.

Windows tends to have a lot of patches. Over time, these patches spread OS files across the hard disk. This leads to file fragmentation. When you are running a 5400 RPM drive, have a lot of apps installed and removed, and a lot of OS updates load files from the hard-disk slows down as the disk head has to travel a lot. Background disk defragging was first enabled by default in Windows 7. Of course, the ultimate solution for disk fragmentation is to use SSD drives as there is little penalty for fragmentation due to the high random memory access speeds.

Most Windows boxes today have at least 4GB of RAM but older Windows systems ran on 2GB of RAM. Even so, as you install more apps that have background components, they take up memory. When Windows needs more memory than what is available, it will cache unused parts of the OS and idle apps. This was accomplished by storing the cache data in the Windows page file on hard disk. When an idle app is clicked on, the cached data has to be reloaded and the previously active app needs to be cached back to disk. This whole process is really slow.

There are two ways to solve low memory issues:

1. Install additional memory: Windows Vista/7/8 32-bit recognizes a maximum of 4Gb of RAM. To install and use more than 4GB, you need to install the 64bit version of Windows. Most systems sold in the last 5 years run Windows 32-bit with 4GB of RAM or less. Only recently have systems been sold with Windows 64bit and 8GB of RAM. In my opinion, 8GB should be the minimum.

2. SSD: It might, at first, seem weird that I'm mentioning SSD in the memory section. The OS caches memory when it runs out of physical memory. SSD drives are really fast, much faster than physical drives. So, even with a system with low memory you would see a big difference using a SSD for your OS drive.

The point is that a combination of Windows improvements (background defrag on hard drives, 64-bit OS), technical improvements (SSD), and cost improvements (8GB RAM vs 4GB RAM) have contributed to eliminate the gradual performance degradation that we've seen in the past. It could be argued that adding better components to the system is just masking the limitations or design issues of the OS. But, as long as it works do we really care....

In my opinion, a Windows 7 64bit, or higher, system with 8GB of RAM and a SSD OS drive will not experience any performance issues over time for the average user. Windows performance degradation is a thing of the past....

Don't forget the talk show circuit... Also, make sure that we are booked to go on before those #$%#% pan-dimensional mice beings talking about "Life, the Universe and Everything". What ever that is... Next to those guys, Windows 10 will look amazing!!

People spend $$$ because it's a social event for most people who enjoy sports. Getting there early, setting up the BBQ, handing out with existing or new friends, talking about the sport team, etc... On top of that, it's a much more engaging when you are actually experiencing the event. Much like a live concert is a completely different experience than listening to it on Palladium.

There is a difference... Ferrari isn't a "fringe" brand, it's a luxury brand. Ferrari never set out to be a daily driver. Tesla, however, has always stated that they were going to first target the luxury/sports car market and then use profits to develop a commuter vehicle with a much larger mass appeal. Based on their own vision, they are still a fringe brand.

Market cap is nothing but a virtual valuation based on how investors value future revenue. It's basically a bet that the company will continue to grow profitability at an increasing rate. In the case of Tesla, there is a lot of cheer-leading investors in the stock. To maintain that level of growth, Tesla does have to come out with a product that is appealing to a much larger audience than the current product offerings. Today's investors are betting on a mass appeal product, that people will buy the product, and that Tesla will gain a decent share of the overall automobile market.

The point that the ex GM Czar makes is correct. Until Tesla can execute on this vision, they will remain a fringe or niche brand. There is a risk that Tesla will screw up in execution, misunderstand the market, etc. Only time will tell if they can succeed.

I'm a network engineer. All of the reputable network and security vendors list bug fixes and open issues in the release notes. Granted, this information is purely for release versions and not for the intermediate Dev versions. You can tell because the build numbers are non-sequential between releases. So, as an end user I only care about the open bugs and bug fixes in the release versions.

But.. If I were a Dev... For Dev's and Support, access would enable them to solve some problems at a faster pace as it would allow them to narrow down if a problem is related to their work or if it is tied to the ERP software itself. My thought is that if you want to provide access to the bug list, you need put it behind a Dev portal and require some sort of vetting and/or non-disclosure agreement.

Beyond that, you should perform a review of your bug database and make sure that bugs are being categorized properly. For example, you don't want to publicize bugs that are related to a system security vulnerability until it has been fixed, a patch released, and customers notified. You also don't want to publicize bugs that have not been confirmed. You could use these categories to filter the bugs that the Devs and Support can see.

Basically, I agree with the others here. It should not be public, it should be behind a Dev portal, it should have legal protection (i.e. non-disclosure), and it should be filtered access.

In my opinion, there is no reason why a crockpot that also has an app interface or a smart interface cannot run for decades (short of the built-in MBTF of the electronics). After all, some basic standalone functionality has to be provided. Granted, it might be harder to find the apps to run it 10 years down the line, but that doesn't mean that it will stop working.

Like anything else, if it is a popular model, the apps will be archived on the internet. As an example, most manufacturers keep drivers for discontinued products online and sites like Driver Guide fill a niche for old drivers (for example, they have NE2000 ISA drivers listed). I can't help but believe that we will see similar sites for archived apps. I'm willing to bet, though, that only the Android apps will be archived in this manner due to the closed nature of the Apple ecosystem.

As for smart watches.. They will have basic functionality out of the box (i.e. be able to tell time). If the app is lost, does the watch stop working? No. It might be worth less, but that doesn't stop it from being a watch.

But you can buy them on Amazon.... So... they must be mainstream... just because you didn't get one for Christmas... (grin)

Yeah, I have about the same amount into kayaks (3x), jetskis (2x), and a jet boat. I also have about another $2K in downhill skis and about the same amount in golf equipment.

As for anything marked "for ages X to Y", the only things I still have are some LTTO Laser Tag guns and a couple of of the Lego collectors sets (TIE Advanced x1 and Obi-Wans Jedi Starfighter).

Yes, but requiring a cable subscription is purely to receive the content for free. For example, if you want to watch a streaming episode of Game of Thrones you need to verify that you have a cable account to prove that you have already paid for access to the content. It has nothing to do with the CRTC and everything to do with the show owner making sure that they are getting paid. Your subscription, for that show, is your cable bill. Otherwise, you need to pay for the content through iTunes, Amazon, etc.

Netflix is like a monthly subscription to the old Blockbuster video stores. Instead of paying a rental fee per movie or TV show you pay a monthly subscription to take home as many movies as you want. The CRTC had no jurisdiction over video rental stores. It should be the same for Netflix.

The US should be revamping Nuclear reactors for power instead of nuclear weapons. But hey, the stupidity of NIMBY and keeping Yucca Mountain closed continues... Of course, Yucca Mountain funding was cut under President Obama's watch as well.

I get that the Nuclear arsenal needs to be replaced as, like most things, age degrades both the weapons and the systems. Technology moves forward and old parts can no longer be manufactured and old systems no longer interface with current technology. Plus, I'm sure that targeting systems and other electronics have drastically improved.

Like others have commented, I agree that it would be good to continue to see a reduction and an eventual elimination of nuclear arms. However, this isn't going to happen in our lifetimes, so the more practical move is to decommission the old weapons and replace them with more reliable versions. Maybe along the way we see how much is being spent and rethink about whether it's worth the cost.

Right... So, people have stopped buying monitors from Dell simply because they can buy similar Korean monitors direct on eBay? No? Oh, right, because people like to have warranties and have the ability to get stuff replaced in a timely manner when it fails.

Also, you're wrong about Alibaba's business model today. They are the middle men between the manufacturer and the storefront. They do have an eBay style system, but it's used by independents, not Alibaba, to sell products. And yes, they also have a Paypal type service, but it would have to clear a large number of hurdles to become trusted in the US.