justfacts is pretty good. We would be a much less ignorant people if people just got a reality check from sites like this after watching the evening news.

But it would also be good if schools made curricula such as 'logical reasoning', 'critical thinking', and 'statistical analysis' mandatory for all students. You don't have to be a math genius to understand these things. Perhaps people would be less gullible to politically motivated dialogs. But I'm not sure if schools are intended to produce critical-thinkers...

I wish more people asked questions like: "why do those stats look cherry-picked, what is the selection criteria?", or "how does the evening news choose stories, do they proportionally represent reality?", "What is the best investment strategy that will actually serve me and not Wall Street?", "Is a vote for politician A or B a false dichotomy?"

The whole concept of live streaming accross the internet has always been a stupid idea for pre-recorded non-live media consumption

Maybe you should look up the definition of the word minimum.

"minimum: 1: the least quantity assignable, admissible, or possible

The whole misdirection to Bitlocker is probably a sarcastic joke pointing to a company far more likely to adhere to NSL's.. Bitlocker isn't even provided on Home editions of Windows, so it really isn't such an obvious alternative. Their directions literally go through steps to change the Windows product key. I would assume to do this legally you pay Microsoft, is that correct? So you are telling me that TrueCrypt as a free alternative for home users isn't still worth developing by someone?

There isn't any way they can give us confidence that they are playing nice either. This is what happens when you violate the trust of the US people and the rest of the world. People used to believe that the US Constitution was the fire-block that was stopping this same nonsense that you would expect from China or other authoritarian governments with no protection of human rights. Now its official, there is no difference.

US corporations have lost major credibility in the world technology market: "We promise this time we won't put secret back doors in our products that we won't tell you about because our government forced us to and we couldn't tell you. We promise this won't happen anymore."

Ah, yes... "If you aren't doing anything wrong, then what do you have to worry about"
Except there are plenty of cases of persecution if you happen to be:
  - Gay,
  - A former member of the communist party,
  - Union organizer,
  - Whistle blower,
  - Protester, objector, not in line with corporate America,
  - Catholic, Jewish, Japanese, or anything else not favorable at the time...
None of these people are terrorists, but clearly lost their liberties, reputation, or assets when they were "outed"

3. ???
4. Profit!!

That sounds about right. I think the corollary to that is: "When a simpler approach is found, at least one person in the group will refuse to give up the needlessly complex bits."

iMessage was a fix to a price issue, a political issue, and a control issue.

If cell phone companies weren't charging so much for something that should be free Apple would have had less incentive to come up with a solution that worked around them.

We should have extended sms/mms to include encryption and for it to be free worldwide. Instead we get a bunch of solutions that don't work with one another.

I think people feel attached to XP because it was comfortable and stable (for the first time) for most people. People were accustomed to the Win95 look and feel, so it wasn't a culture shock. And it worked well in corporate domains and at home with a 'grown-up' security model unlike 95/98.

Everything since then has been a forced upgrade that can break existing applications and infrastructure. Most IT departments and individuals avoided Vista as much as possible. Windows 7 is useable. Windows 8 is confusing and radical for many people.

I feel like I've lost something going from XP to Win7, like the search dialog. The folder structure is re-arranged, but still arbitrary. The Registry is still as arbitrary, and the control panel is more confusing. The document library is good in theory, but most people I've helped with Windows 7 just get lost and try to avoid it, but it still gets in your face. So maybe Windows 7 offered as improvements the UAC security model and IPV6 built-in.

Redmond and Silicon Valley needs to wake up that this isn't 1999 anymore. The fact that Windows 7 and 8 came along 3 years apart is too soon. People don't want to upgrade until something actually breaks. And even then, they don't want to (or can't) spend another capital investment on software for the new OS, especially if it is tied to some type of equipment or machinery . Most businesses expect a 5-10 year amortization on basic equipment. There are even tax and accounting consequences to this if the recovery period doesn't meet expectations. Microsoft could probably make money selling XP (and sell support for critical flaws) for quite some time. I'm not sure why they need to set an arbitrary date to close it out. Does it really cost that much to maintain?

This is often helpful. But other times, programs still do their own checks and refuse to run.

Somebody is making model T parts.

We're about halfway down that list. But it seems spot-on.

You can certainly get prototype parts made on high-end machines from a variety of workshops. 3D-printing for hire is happening right now to make engineering prototypes for a variety of reasons. I've been given prototype housings for electrical actuators so that I could develop firmware. (The electronics were still conventional board fabrications.) It was simply limited in power output, but it could get me through most of the development without waiting for the final metal parts.

So this isn't exactly the local Staples store; that is the big question if that market for consumers will arrive. Will consumers wait for specialized items to be rendered, vs. buying something already in stock? Not everything can or should be 3D-printed. But eventually, there will be some killer apps. It would have to be something that is scarce or customized, and for some reason not worth shipping from a remote fabrication facility. It would resemble the business model for film development. In the old days, you mailed your roll of film to Kodak. Then the local development labs, and finally the 1-Hour photo shops arrived. Now people do the whole process at home digitally.

According to that link, Russia's gun laws are much stricter than most states in the USA, except maybe New York. Only some US states have magazine limits or universal background checks. And no state is tracking the number of (unrestricted) long guns owned in order to impose a limit.

Correction: there do not appear to be published numbers for gun homicide rate in Russia, just total homicide rate in Russia (which is still higher than USA total homicide rate.)