nevermind, was comparing outs and strikes

(mod parent up +1 troll)

Q: How many outs are in an inning?
A: 6

so maybe they do know baseball...

It seems more likely the imminent launch of Windows 8 would cause a rush to purchase Windows 7 PCs before you can't (without going custom).

Indeed, because we would likely be at war with China over it. Tensions flare up every time China senses even a hint of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that aren't a result of an ongoing dispute (e.g. solar panels). Frankly I'm surprised the U.S. govt doesn't have bigger balls when it comes to growing trade deficit with China.

I'll start: Steve Jobs is God

Your move.

The govt already backs an anonymous currency -- it's called cash. And before you bring up serial number tracking and fingerprint testing think about the resources required to trace a single bill. For that reason I think the govt might ultimately embrace a digital (at least semi-)anonymous currency. Way easier to track on a large scale than physical cash.

The taxation argument is a farce for the same reason: people get paid under the table in cash each and every day. They can't figure out a way to tax that income, and they certainly don't put forth the expensive effort tracing individual bills to enforce it. The most the IRS ever does is keep an eye on unusual bank deposits. If you don't use a bank, problem solved.

...until The Matrix came out.

Just this morning I read a seemingly unrelated article in which the author, a former Motorola Mobility employee, theorized that a little talked-about possibility for Google wanting to buy MMI centers around set-top boxes.

The Google/Motorola Deal is Done. What Now?
http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/smart-phones/240000845

According to the article linked above, Motorola moved their "home" division, which includes set-top boxes which Motorola manufacturers, over to Motorola Mobility in an attempt to "sweeten the deal" for Google to buy it. If that assertion is correct then one can conclude that Google is the real entity that just got the ITC to impose a ban on the xBox.

While this may look like another garden-variety patent battle I'll bet it has more to do with the upcoming TV battlefield that, rumor has it, already includes Apple and their yet-to-be-officially-announced AppleTV. The folks at Google appear to be well into their plans to compete with Apple (and Microsoft, which already has a set-top box in xBox).

Silicon Valley is betting huge on TV content streaming and gaming.

Porn-friendly monitors?

Responses and clarifications on the CSIRO patent lawsuits:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/04/op-ed.ars

I would say that, in general, sales tax (VAT, etc) caused the need for pennies in the first place. Not because of the need to collect tax on items purchased -- but because of how it's calculated. Most items are advertised with a price before adding tax. There are places like my local Starbucks where all prices include tax and are multiples of $0.05. So they already have zero need to handle pennies.

Get state and local governments to price things with tax included and you'll end up with the ability to price things to come out exactly what you intended. I think you'll also see more pricing set to whole dollars. What a concept -- charge $10.00 instead of trying to convince people that $9.99 is somehow not ten bucks.

TSA is just pissed someone exposed a known design flaw in the hardware they use and now they're trying to minimize public knowledge of it.

How did they manage to screw up date handling when Java supports the Gregorian calendar in its standard library?

This kind of thinking makes me afraid for children. I have 3 kids of my own, ages 8, 5, and 1. Believe me -- I fully understand how tempting it would be to, if I had this tool, turn the volume down on whining, fighting, yelling, etc.

The problem is using this tool against children is open to extreme abuse. Remember that movie Click with Adam Sandler? The concept there is he had a remote that could fast-forward through parts of his life deemed unimportant. Imagine what would happen if parents could "mute" their children whenever they wanted to. I'm sure it would begin with good intentions as Sander's character did in the movie. But it would quickly turn into an addiction.

The worst part is the potential psychological effects it could have on children later in life. They would learn to devalue their own voices and opinions. Self esteem would suffer. The effects would mirror that of other forms of child abuse.

I'm sure this technology can be useful for a lot of things but please don't even suggest the idea of putting into the hands of parents. Most of them wouldn't be able to handle it ethically, and children would surely suffer.

Yes, our federal Congress. But there are other legislative bodies that have taken the career income incentive out of the equation, such as New Hampshire. Their state senators make $100/yr (not a typo -- one hundred dollars per year) and it has been that way for nearly a century. Compare to California where the average salary was over $113k (as of 2007).

If we take the pay incentive away from career politicians you're left with those who actually care about their constituency -- otherwise they have no other reason to be there.

Sources:
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/New_Hampshire_State_Senate#Salaries
http://www.empirecenter.org/html/legislative_salaries.cfm
http://freestateproject.org/