That's simply not true.

Ubuntu, to name the most obvious distribution, make linux grandma simple. As much as a windows at least.

As for iPad/Android/whatever, if your grandma isn't able to work things out with Windows/Linux/OSX, she probably won't be able to figure that out too.

If people are afraid of technology, they will stay away from complex devices, no matter how "easy to use" they are. If they aren't they can handle Windows or Linux, as long as they don't mess with edgy stuff. Windows has an advantage here, because most people, even some "technology afraid people" have been forced to do stuff with it, have learned the basics and are at least familiar with it. Apple has for him that it's smart things for smart people. Well that's what "they" say anyway. Linux has a rep of being complex and difficult to understand. It's true, as much as Windows or OSX, and it's irrelevant for most user. It's even simpler : to install a software, you launch the app Store and search for it then click install button. To launch a software, you click it's icon in the menu, pretty much like windows anyway. most users don't need to know more. (And grandma certainly doesn't)

If it's works for you, it great. But you can't expect everybody to go with some personal mantra every day just to memorize a few password.

And anyway, this is really unnecessary. For most account, you just need a moderately strong password, a word with a number and 6 signs are more than enough since nobody will bother finding it by brute force.

Facebook games are getting better at the "game" things I guess, but their is still work to do on that. The social aspect is more than often a lure. It has worked pretty well, but it really gets old after a bit. They are good browser based games with good social aspect though, but none that have to thank fb for that.

For Google/Apple's games, they work because they open "video games" to a broader audience. but games you can pick up and put down in a minute aren't what a gamer will look for. Gamers won't disappear just because of casual game on phone. It's just not the same usage.

Wii/Xbox/PS3 have specificities, and it's up to the game designers to figure what support is suited for what kind of game. I really don't enjoy action games on a phone, the command are crappy and most of the time they hide the screen (you know, because of the tactile thing) and I sure won't buy scrabble for my Xbox. As for the networking aspect, things are going in the right direction I think.

PC has the most wide panel of possibilities from controllers to social things and Internet connection, so it gives it an edge. But my guess is no platform is going to disappear, they'll just radicalize.

Like much anything in physics if you want to be pedantic about it...

75 times closer to a Star five times smaller than the sun. I'm not gonna do the math if it's more complex than the apparent 5/4 ratio but it's important to consider the size of the Star if you're gonna talk about wide angle. And there might be a matter of brightness of the star too.

Anyway, the planet apparently does get more light, since its temperature is about 200C

I see that. Obviously, if you don't have the '???', your doing something wrong.

Well, sure, because there isn't anywhere else where trillions are spent on unreasonable stuff.

It's the worse argument ever, being repeated over and over again. Yeah sure, you could do something else with those dollars, but for fuck sake, those dollars aren't lost anyways! To go to Mars we need new medecine, new engeneering, etc... that can be usefull for other thing. But that's not my point. My point is there is enough money to spend on all research if you don't sink your country with military stuffs, because you fear your own shadow.

Well yes, that's what the Soyuz is for... And they used to do so in the USA too.

With a clear goal to achieve, a trillion dollars can be spent on 10 years or more and get somewhere. It would be easy enough, decreasing military founds, but apparently USA is too scared of the rest of the world to do that. Go figure... You can also do lots of thing for the US citizen that way, by the way. No need to be exclusive.

The danger is to think programming is coding. When I program my "Tivo" to record a show, it's programming, not coding.

Programming is basically making the computer do the boring stuff in place of the human, and it's what it is about in TFA. And the whole point of TFA is "people should be able to use there tools better". Scripts are a good example : they can make life easier but nobody use them because they don't know how and are afraid too use them.

That is a physical ability, and it seems genetic have a great deal to do about those.

Mental development is more elastic it seems, so even if there are predisposition, its not a fatality if you start to learn to think one way or the other. You can even start late, but it's a lot more difficult and most people won't bother. ( You need a good reason to do that. Curiosity might be one, if it's strong enough. )

Basically, your starting mental abilities may have some influence, but the way you were taught to think is IMHO far more influent on what you become ultimately.

Different factor leads to geekness. Of course you can became literate on your own. It's just harder, not impossible. But somehow I doubt that there is a "computer friendly" gene. Or even a "geek" gene. But I will admit some people are predisposed at birth for some types of activity. (if only because of not equally physically gifted. )

Programming is just what makes you able to truly work efficiently with your computer. It's not only about good old procedural programming in whatever language. It's as much about automated layout, task management... Or it could be writing scripts to get the work done by itself in some consistences.

You don't need to know all that of course, not now anyway. But those things (and certainly some other exemple I can think of right now) can really improve computer use.

Yes I have. I'm rather fond of science, physic and math, maybe like the average /.er (but that's just a guess). But I had some terrible lecture in physics one year and I never really recover from it. I had some boring teacher in automatics to, and it's quite a shame.

But that's one thing that makes me trust that genetics isn't really what determine what we are. The circumstances builds you too. (I forget that one on my previous post.)

Sound too cool to be done.

Genetic predisposition are overrated. The social context is far more important in this case. A child raised in a family with no computer will take longer to adapt. No computer at home means their will be no one to explain how to work with them, part from school lessons. I can clearly see how it could turn frustrating.

There is also the interests of the child. A child into technology will take more attention and learn faster.

Anyway, computer literacy is important, but you don't have to know much really. What you have to know can be learned in a week, and then you use that knowledge, otherwise it's pointless. There will always be things you occasionally fumble on, meaning you have to search how to do what you want to do from times to times so maybe the most useful thing to know about computing is really how to use a search engine. Then you can learn to code.