A few months ago, my Thinkpad R61's GPU died at about 2.5 years. Being of the cheap and miserly sort, I opted not to spend the money to have this fixed or replaced, and rather set it up as a server. I dusted off my old Thinkpad R31, now 7 years old, installed Debian, worked out a few quirks, and started using it as my primary computer--that is, the computer that I use to write papers, check email, browse Slashdot, program, etc. It works reasonably well. All the games I play are even older than the computer (Civilization III, Close Combat, Combat Mission, Nethack, ADOM), and Debian, even with Gnome, is reasonably lightweight. All that old software is still around. You don't need the latest bloatware, for the most part. Mathematica and Matlab, I run via SSH. Flash video is about the only thing that really gives me trouble--it stutters badly. The battery is dead, but the same could be said for the R61.

Replacement parts are promising to be a pain. I considered upgrading the RAM to something more reasonable, but balked at the $70/512MiB price of the obsolete SDRAM sticks it needs.

I thought so too, so I looked into it. Apparently this was the case in the early days of the program, and is still mostly the case for pilot astronauts. "At least 1,000 hours pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Flight test experience is highly desirable." [1] (In practice, they all seem to be test pilots). This is not a requirement for Mission Specialist Astronauts.

I also suggest browsing some of the astronaut bios from the last couple batches. Of the last five pilot astronauts candidates, all five are former military test pilots. Among the twelve Mission Specialists selected during the same period, there is only one that I can confirm as a test pilot. At least four have a military background, and at least three were pilots before entering the program. At least two others were flight surgeons; this may well mean that they qualified as pilots

Really, though, they're all very well qualified in their respective fields. They may lose their jobs, sure, but I doubt they'll have trouble finding others.

Simply removing all math from the curriculum would very probably not produce the same results.

Because it pisses off a wide audience, not just the typical Slashdot reader. This may matter when it comes to selling other games. In particular, the people affected are the people ill-informed enough or naive enough to pay for such software. Once Bitten, Twice Shy.

Also because it kills the argument that this DRM isn't a big deal for anyone who doesn't plan to play the game for years. I know I've been told (by Battlefront.com, when inquiring about their system) that I was more likely to stop playing after years due to compatibility issues than because their DRM servers closed. Ubisoft presumably would have said similar, if asked about the end-of-life of their servers.

This would measure the worth of an uninspired grindfest, obtained for $0.01, to be great, even if it's a waste of time to play.

I was impressed by that as well.

Wikipedia claims

I'm curious to see if their ability to walk will challenge that assertion. Maybe it just makes their ability to walk all the more impressive.

I can't find any sources to back this up. Do you care to provide any, as honestly I suspect you're lying. No offense; it just seems too far-fetched.

It seems also that such an individual would be not guilty by reason of insanity, almost by definition.

From the article:

The 2003 remake, which was reasonably popular in the US, featured a cracker manipulating the LA traffic control system to cause similar chaos.

In Civ II, at least. Additionally, "Theory of Evolution" is a wonder in Civ III.

IANAL, but I don't think it applies because Freenet isn't a "a program, application, or software that is commercially marketed or distributed to the public."

Furthermore, my understanding is that Freenet stores the shared files in a single, encrypted file. Shared files are not stored within the host filesystem, correct? Then it need only notify the user that the encrypted file it uses will be shared, without necessarily notifying the user of the contents. Uploads to Freenet are accomplished with independent software that requires initiation by the user, and is therefore not covered by this law.

So if this stands, anyone else could produce their own sports titles to compete with EA? Sounds good. I suppose EA feels that the end of licensing fees will be more of a boon than any competition they face.

Unfortunately, that's almost exactly the wrong thing to do. Cars rarely catch fire. Rolling over isn't particularly likely to cause a fire, particularly compared to other forms of crash. If there are signs of fire, by all means, get the injured out immediately. But rollovers can cause very serious neck and spine injuries that can be exacerbated by some well meaning individual trying to move you. Leave that to the paramedics.