I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Yeah, just like the suppliers of after-market vehicle parts all went out of business when manufacturers started computerizing cars.

This would be a problem if the Cyanogenmod team were distributed Google Apps. They do not. It is the user's responsibility to load Google Apps onto their phone and ensure that all licensing requirements are met. I believe the official solution from CM is to back up your licensed Google Apps, flash CM, then restore the backed up apps.

Granted, some 3rd party tools like Clockworkmod provide an easy means to download and install Google Apps, but Clockworkmod is not Cyanogenmod.

Okay, so who came up with this idea first? South Africa? Or Terry Pratchett?

Obviously the solution is to give the ruling class powers to impartial robots. What could possibly go wrong?

F5 refreshes the web page in all graphical browsers, which is handy.

F2 renames a file (in Windows, anyway).

I used to tell people about F1 as well, which has meant "help" since the DOS days.

Unfortunately there's a trend among PC and keyboard manufacturers lately to replace the F keys with customized crap like volume controls, launching the browser or email client or putting the computer to sleep. This has been around for years, but lately Dell, HP and even Lenovo have taken to making this crap the default function of the F keys and requiring the user to use a "Fn" key to achieve the normal function rather than vice versa, particularly on laptops.

No, Phoenix, which became Firefox (after briefly experimenting with flight) was born from the idea that if you took all the bloat and tie-in apps out of what was then Mozilla/Navigator, you'd get a really fast browser. It was supposed to be a super-lightweight browser that did one thing and one thing only: browse web pages. That's why the extensions system was written; to keep the cruft out of the core browser.

Somewhere along the way (I'm thinking around the time of the "Awesomebar", though some would argue it was sooner) that philosophy got lost.

This is a really stupid idea.

If the user wants to hide the version number, someone will write an extension to do that. Quit dumbing down Firefox.

If you're avoiding products from manufacturers who try to enforce their patents, you're going to be living in a cave real soon now.

For most of the US there are only 4 cell phone options, period. All 4 are blatantly evil companies that are out to screw every last penny out of you while denying you service whenever possible. In most rural locations there are really only 2 options: AT&T and Verizon. These are the two most evil of the bunch. If you don't like what either one is selling, you do without cell phone service.

Occasionally you get lucky and a small company like, say, Iowa Wireless may provide slightly less rapacious rates, but typically they only cover a small region and offer out-of-date phones.

Why yes, the cell phone service situation in the USA IS absolutely insane.

Actually there is no federal or state law on the book that restricts the use of DPI by service providers. Using DPI to route traffic DOES place at risk their "Safe harbor" status under the DMCA. Unfortunately, since ISPs are now agreeing to be the private police force for copyright holders that no longer matters.

The fact that we can't manage this planet (yet) is an argument for moving beyond it. A permanent off-planet presence is the best thing we can do to avoid extinction.

The "space option" as you put it doesn't imply our planet is disposable. It implies that if we're interested in not being disposable ourselves, we need to get some of our eggs out of this particular basket. Migration off-planet is not and will never be a solution to over-population.

I appreciate the sentiment, believe me. It's really wrenching to think of all that effort, money, and material burning up in reentry, but it's not as simple as "let's send it to the moon". It might -just- be feasible, though, to move it to a higher, more stable orbit and "park" it there until we can do something else with it. We wouldn't be able to shuttle crews to it any more, but I bet we could pack it full of science goodies and remote waldos so it could continue to serve us in some capacity.

Hell, install a small nuclear reactor in it, attach a few more arms and an ion drive and maybe we could use it as a remote repair bay for other satellites.