Does the malware run under Linux? Unless they're able to infect Linux software, I really don't care because that's all I run.

None, because I don't use a smartphone. I use an old-style dumb phone and don't even do texting. My phone is for making and receiving phone calls and nothing else.

Let me guess: either you don't have access to a full-length mirror or you never bother to look at yourself in one. Granted, you can't get a good look at your backside that way, but you should have a fairly good idea of what you'd see if you did.

Anyway, since when was it necessary to study brain patterns to establish if someone is a compulsive gambler?

If you have to ask that question, you've not understood what the study was about. It's not about trying to find out if people are compulsive gamblers, it's about why they are.

My connection is on a dynamic IP address. The best any of those services can do is tell you what city my ISP's router is in, and one of the three services tested by iplocation.net (the service pointed to by TFA) managed to get it wrong. And, I'm not the least bit impressed by the claim that the author's location was correct withing 5 miles, as that still leaves anybody looking for you with just over 78.5 square miles to search.

I'm 50 now, which makes me a decrepit old man by Slashdot standards...

I'm 65, and by my standards you're still a kid. I have a number of chronic medical conditions, including osteoporosis, but I still stand straight and don't need a walker, or even a cane. You don't have to be decrepit by the time you're ready to retire unless you don't try to take care of yourself or your health is considerably worse than mine. (Until recently, I was taking 33 pills/day, all but four by prescription.) Yes, it's nice to know that these devices may soon be available for those who need them, but it's even nicer to know that for now, at least, I'm not one of them.

In order to be useful to people using walkers or in wheelchairs, buildings need to have ramps instead of, or along with stairs. I don't know about the rest of Europe, but there's a good reason you don't find ramps in England: until recently, adding ramps meant that the Daleks could get in. Of course, now that Daleks can levitate, that's no longer an issue.

Whenever I see, "You'll never believe what ..." I respond with, "You're right; I wont."

No, Who's on First.

The idea of a chimp, or other primate being intelligent enough to be considered human isn't new. Heinlein covered it back in 1947 in Jerry Was a Man. If you haven't read it yet, you really need to before discussing this article any further.

More monetary penalties, yes. However, if she hits them with Identity Theft, there's a very good chance they'll be spending time in the Graybar Hotel.

Better yet: Identity Theft.

This, of course, assumes that the defending fleet doesn't have any effective anti-missile defenses. Subs would be better, of course, if it weren't for our extensive ASW capability. You don't think that the people in charge of the USN haven't thought about how to protect their ships, do you?

Why was there such an uproar over Metro? Alas, I never used it so I can't say. It's possible that it wasn't easy to customize, which was one of the things that drove me away from Gnome 3. Right now, I'm using Xfce 4.10, and have it set up somewhat like Win98 SE, except that it has four desktops and I can reach the main menu by right-clicking on the desktop because that's how I like it. The important thing is that there's no One True Desktop for Linux and any company considering migrating to it can do a little bit of pre-rollout experimenting to find what works best for their workforce.

You can use X11/Linux, but then you'll have to keep paying the retraining cost for every new employee you hire...

FUD, pure and simple. Most modern Linux DEs look and act very similar to Windows because they're designed to do the same thing. Your typical office worker doesn't need to know more about using Linux than he does about using Windows, meaning that all they need to know is which icon to click on to do what. And, most of the office software for Linux isn't constantly changing the UI, so that once it's learned, it doesn't have to be re-learned every time there's a minor upgrade. And, as far as peripherals go, stay away from the bleeding edge, and the odd are that It Just Works.