This is a tough one for lots of developers.

If it's a bad idea or poorly implemented, let if fail for that reason.

If it fails as a product because the developer or potential distributers feels that their personal safety is being threatened, that is wrong. And yes, I would consider posting the location of her P.O. box as threatening. What else would the intent be?

"I have no qualms with the idea of personally and professionally leveling the life of someone who has attempted to profit from disarming me and my fellow Americans," one commenter wrote."

The constitution doesn't prevent the nation as a whole from deciding which sort of weapons are appropriate for self defense and which aren't. Nor does the constitution restrict anybody from developing a weapon that has safeguards built in designed to prevent it from being fired by anybody other than its owner.

The above quote is a not so veiled threat and yes the poster has a right to question whether the person behind the quote is somebody who should be trusted with a gun, - constitutional rights aside.

One recommended change an auditing company made to us in regards to IT is that each member of the staff take at least 5 consecutive business days off each year without any contact with the organization. That's forces the staff to make sure they can adequately cover for each other.

Will you still have management responsibility for the IT functions of the company? If so, then you need to have regular meetings with this new staff person. Major purchase requests, major network, sever, and backup changes should still be discussed with you. Disaster planning, IT budgeting, information security you should be heavily involved in.

But day to day operations you should keep your nose out of once you are comfortable that they know what they're doing. Let them do their job. At the same time, keep copies of important passwords and contents in a secure place. I'm assuming you will still have to act as this person's backup if they're not available for whatever reason, so you need to maintain a working knowledge of your systems.

I once took a job as a programmer/sys admin for a small organization of about that size. By that point in my career I had lots of experience with both and was much more comfortable with the technology than the management person whose responsibilities I was supposed to be taking on. The thing is he could never quite let go and would second guess even the smallest of changes I wanted to make. Eventually I left. So don't make that mistake. Be aware of what they're doing, but don't micromanage.

That's a real problem, but it's a problem with our economic system and not how we choose to generate electricity. Tobacco farming has taken a huge hit since the 50's, does that mean we shouldn't have discouraged people from smoking?

Personally, I'm all for finding a way to pool some money to help people who are hurt by transitions like this. And I think as much as we want to make villains out of the Koch brothers, I'm sure part of their motivation is taking care of the people employed by their companies. At least I'd like to think so.

Nevertheless we have to look at the bigger picture and set policy that helps the most and harms the least. That is the best you can really do.

That's already an option with our electric utility. In exchange for a reduced summer time rate, we let them cycle our A/C. The don't do it through the thermostat. They have a box directly connected to the compressor. There are limits as to how much time it can be off. There's been times when it's been activated at our house but it's usually on again before there's been very much of an impact on the the temp of the home.

The utility company doesn't know when you go to bed at night, when you get up in the morning, when you leave for the day, and when you get back. The NEST does.

Further the NEST knows how long it takes to warm or cool your home to a given setting as it relates to weather conditions. The NEST knows how quickly your home loses heat in the winter and how fast it heats up in the summer.

;)

Walmart is all about price and Apple isn't.

With regard to Walmart that is very apparent when it comes to things like bikes and sporting goods. What you buy there might be fine for the kids (maybe) or if intended for just occasional use but other than that, it's best to stay away. As far as bikes go, there are some online sources for good bikes at prices lower than what you'd pay at a traditional shop. You're giving up service and test rides but it's a good option for some people.

And for those that are interested, you can get good prices on refurb Apple equipment from Apple's online store. I've bought a few things that way and really the only thing you give up is the fancy packaging and the ability to take it home from the store that day.

I had my son when I was 35 and my daughter when I was 39. My son is 14 now, a bit taller than me and he can beat me playing one on one. But I can still win too and probably would most of the time if I had much in the way of basketball skills. But I'm 5' 8" and I knew early on that it wasn't going to be my sport.

A few years ago he gave me crap about getting old so I challenged him to a race when he's 15 and I'm 50. That will be this coming FALL and he's a little worried. He's insisting on a 40 yard dash because he knows he'd lose any kind of endurance race. He'd better hope I slow down a lot in the next few months because the 40 will not be an easy one for him either.

Sadly enough many Americans in their 20's and 30's are in pretty crappy physical condition and it really doesn't take that much for a 50 year old to be in shape by comparison. Take care of yourself and you'll be fine in your 50's.

The other thing about teenagers that's important to remember is that they'd much rather be doing something with their friends than with you. That's not to say my son minds playing ball with his Dad, - but only if he's got nothing else going on.

I do wish that there was going to be a larger span of time between the time they finish college and the time I retire from work but honestly as far as active playing time goes, my kids got far more time from me that most kids get from their parents, - no matter what their age.

I didn't take it this way. I'm sure most people know that having kids is entirely optional. But there are folks who want both kids AND a career but wanted to focus on the career for awhile before starting a family.

That is one possibility and I do have some real concerns about it. There are all kinds of ways to misuse technology.

On the other hand, have you ever sat at a stoplight and waited... and waited, for the light to change when nobody is coming from any other direction? It not only wastes your time, it's a waste of our resources and contributes to our pollution problems. This is the kind of problem that having better communications between devices or devices and humans can solve.

I've got a rather dumpy house in a nice urban neighborhood. It's paid for and worth a bit over $200,000. Looking at long term trends and the increasing popularity of urban living, it will most likely appreciate a fair amount before I retire.

That alone will get me a good chunk of the way towards being a millionaire in terms of net worth.

Now add in the gobs of money that they recommend you save for retirement and by the time you do retire... well, you've got a lot of money. This assumes of course that you can navigate yourself past the agism that's also part of being a developer and remain a well paid part of the workforce until you retire.

We've actually deployed quite a few tablets in the field to replace laptops that never worked very well for the task. Can't really use them while walking around.

For servers, desktops, thin clients, and laptops we have a number of different combinations of processors and operations systems including Windows 7 and 8, Ubuntu, OS X, debian, and VMWare ESX/ESXi. We also have a PBX, access points, routers, switches, modems, printers, gateways, Raspberry Pis, Arduinos utilizing various processors and OSes (though lots are linux variants). Then there are the company supplied and supported smartphones.

We have about 80 employees. We're not exactly a tech firm but close.

My point is the computing world is much bigger than Wintel even for companies that still rely on that combination. The non Wintel part of the technology world is growing. Intel would be stupid to pin its continued success on the future of Windows.

Fair enough. I can respect that.