Hey, why make it human readable at all? We could encode the program in instructions of word each, and limit the no. of available registers so that they could be represented by a simple 6-bit integer. We could even generate such code from the existing, inefficient code using a compiler...

If most of the code is generated, then the language is broken - the generation should be integrated into the compiler, so as to both formalize the rules of generation, and also to reduce the amount of code that needs to be read when debugging. A good example of this is the property syntax in C# - you can just define it as {get; set;} and the compiler fills in the boiler-plate. Even C's macros are superior to the Java approach of just dumping the generated code among the rest of the source.

The tricky part is getting it to understand the old keyboard protocol. If it's a standardized one, it shouldn't be too hard, otherwise you'd need to reverse engineer it (hope you have a logic analyzer or are handy with a 'scope).
Once that's done, the rest should be pretty easy - the standard library* contains functions for simulating a USB keyboard, although I believe the Teensy microcontrollers are more popular for USB HID applications.

* Note that this only works with some of the Arduino devices, and notably not the Uno.

For PC parts, the standard needed for full compatibility can be boiled down a single name, sometimes accompanied by a version number. e.g. RAM is DDR3, CPU socket is AM3+, drives are SATA rev. 3, graphics cards are PCIe x16, USB3, etc. These are easy for consumers to understand because all of the relevant information for inter-compatibility can be stored in a short, memorable string. This can be contrasted with power supplies, where you need to look at the power rating, number of SATA connectors, 6 and 8 pin connectors, motherboard connector, etc. (For power supplies this is largely mitigated by almost all the differences being obvious the moment you take it out of the box, as well as most people only needing a few SATA connectors and maybe one connector for their graphics card.)

Unless there are very clear diagrams on the website to show which models support which features, there will be considerable confusion, and most people will have to assume the minimal feature set to play it safe.

Just because an organization is privately owned, doesn't mean they get a free pass from health and safety regulations. In other words, I'm saying the requirement for vaccinations shouldn't just be a matter of policy (for public schools), it should be a legal requirement for all schools.

Not to mention Gentoo.

Kmail defaults to plain text as well. In fact, a lot of its design seems to indicate that its authors use mailing lists quite heavily...

This is something that all Gentoo users know, either intuitively or from experience. Gentoo is an interesting case study as it's a rolling release distro (so no discrete releases) where updates have a non-trivial cost (compile time), relative to other distros. The result of this is that users delay non-critical updates significantly, which means that the Gentoo community has a fair bit of experience on the trade-offs of different update granularities. (I believe most people follow a weekly cycle.)

The short version is that the more time passes between upgrades, the more likely a bug is to occur and the more difficult it can be to identify and fix. You can upgrade as often as you'd like, but the longer you put those upgrades off the more maintenance debt accumulates, and eventually you might not have a choice if a security fix is only released for newer versions.

Why should private schools get a pass? If kids not being vaccinated is a health risk (to themselves and their peers), then that requirement should be applied to all kids attending school.

Put simply, it's the result of black and white thinking. Pure libertarianism is impractical (consumer protection is a good thing to have), but so are excessively regulated systems (nothing will ever improve). What you really want is a compromise between the two.

The legacy industry is overregulated in that the number of taxis is artificially limited.
Uber is (effectively) underregulated as they are operating without required things like commercial licenses and insurance.

The ideal solution would be if the no. of taxis were unlimited, but the regulations were enforced, such that the legacy industry and Uber were competing on the same playing field.

I think there is a bit of selection bias here. Each course has pre-requisite knowledge, and I suspect a large part of the reason people can struggle with a course (and therefore need a remedial course) is because they don't have a solid grasp of the assumed knowledge. This is especially true for subjects like math, where all the different subdisciplines are inter-connected (e.g. consider how often log and trig laws turn up in calculus).

This problem arises partly because students are not held back a year if they perform poorly in one or two subjects, but are then assumed to have the same knowledge as everyone else in the year. The primary advantage of an online system is that the content can be tailored to each student. e.g. you can force a student to re-do a unit of math until they are able to pass without impacting their ability to take higher level units in other subjects.

Of course, this doesn't in any way negate the need for one-on-one time with remedial students. But by automating the more repetitive parts of the knowledge transfer process, it frees up the educator to spend more one-on-one time with struggling students.

There are also issues with the increased need for students to have self-motivation and drive, but I suspect it would be beneficial to imbue them with those traits from a young age anyway.

Pretty much every distro installer I've used asks whether you want to install the bootloader, and to which drives (usually right after the partitioning step).
The Windows installer doesn't give you a choice - it just overwrites the boot sector on C:, which makes restoring the original bootloader a pain.
The complaint is not that Windows installs a bootloader, it's that there is no way to prevent it from doing so. It's also worth noting it hasn't been just a consumer OS since XP - it's also an enterprise OS and the ability to load things like RAID drivers during the installation reflects that.

Driving a car is not intuitive - there's a reason it takes a while to graduate from a learner's permit to a full license. What is it is familiar - most cars are driven the same way with some minor variations (which side the indicator is on, where the handbrake is, etc.) and only one major one (manual vs. automatic transmission). I'm not convinced that anything is truly intuitive, given that even simple things like handwriting need to be taught.

I agree that there is something to be said for making technology better to use. However, the problem is needs to be approached at both ends - the most powerful programs do require above average ability from their users. e.g. there are scheduling programs on Android that let you perform arbitrary tasks like toggling wifi when multiple conditions are met, but you need to understand basic boolean logic to use them. Coding is probably overkill, but it does encapsulate those concepts in a concrete manner.

We're not talking about creating 'truly great programmers' though, any more than we teach literacy with the expectation of everyone being Pulitzer prize winners, or maths with the expectation that everyone understand complex analysis. I think the desired base level of ability is along the lines of simple Python scripts that do things like resize all the images in a folder.

Of course most people aren't outstanding - the idea they could be is inherently contradictory. The point of this discussion is what skills we want the average person to have in order to maximise productivity.

Also, could you explain the connection between critical thinking and programming? I've been thinking a lot lately about whether they're connected or not, and I'd like to hear your opinion on it.

Depends on your card processor. I know that here in Australia, the Visa debit cards have all of the same protections as their credit cards.