You did a 3 letter search across a search engine that indexes... pretty much the entire internet... and you're mad that it didn't know exactly what you mean?

At least for me, the first page for a search for nfs on google is mostly about NFS (Network File System), with the top and 1 other link being Need For Speed, and one for Nuclear Fuel Service.

Really? Going to be mad that your ambiguous query didn't return what you wanted as the top result?

I don't use Windows anywhere but at work, so I'm pretty clueless about the situation. My work laptop has Windows 7 on it and I've had to download (myself) .Net Framework 1.1 and 4.0 for different things I run (Parker ACRView and Microsoft Expression Encoder). I don't know if those are included by default, and our IT guys just leave it out for some reason.

I like that model for me, but here's why the ISPs will never adopt it: they would get less revenue from the vast majority of their subscribers.

They already know these people will shell out $50/month for their connection, which they do not use to its full potential. For example, my parents get cable internet and use it for basic stuff, checking email, stocks, basic research on things, maybe the occasional YouTube video that someone forwards to them. They couldn't use more than 10gb a month. Under your plan, they'd spend something like $10/mo. The cable company is never going to go for that when they know they can extract another $40/mo from them.

Now lets say you raise those rates so the basic users pay just about what they pay now. That's going to raise the monthly bills for those of us who use our connections substantially, and possibly price us out of their service. I'm still starting out my professional career, I can afford the monthly bill for my internet service (though I'm still at a promo rate) and I could afford to go somewhat higher than what the real rate is going to be after the promo expires, but there is a point where the price exceeds what I can justify for the value I get from the service. I could use it more like my parents, but that reduces the value to me. So essentially, with your plan, they lost $40/mo and could lose the $50/mo from me, a net loss for the provider.

BTW, you do know that social security is self-funded, right?

While thats true, they bought government bonds with the money we gave them, we used that money to fund all the things the government does, and now we're on the line to pay back the fund. That money has to come from somewhere.

I actually really like this idea, and I'm surprised I haven't heard it before.

But it doesn't solve the problem of what police officers should ticket people for. Exceeding the max speed limit is a real easy thing to prove (radar guns are cheap, and accurate enough). Proving you are driving recklessly is much more subjective and harder to prove with a simple test that can be administered fairly across all drivers.

If they refuse to work, they probably weren't that great of employees to begin with and are probably affecting the morale of your other employees negatively.

I'm not saying that employee retraining shouldn't be considered as part of the transition costs at all. That'd just be insane.

If you're going for code perfection every time. In the real world you have deadlines and have to maintain your code. Writing in assembly is going to make your code harder to port across platforms, should that happen say from PowerPC to x86.

Not saying that its never justified to use assembly. Within reason, of course.

The Diaspora guys' only real talent seems to be marketing that allowed them to raise a boatload of cash on vaporware hype and a catchy name.

I think it's a little early to make that judgement. How fast are you expecting this to be developed?

Both names don't make a lot of sense to me. If I hadn't heard of either, I would have no clue what it is or what it does. Facebook is pretty damn clear. mySpace is pretty clear. Friendster is clear. Hopefully, for Diaspora, a few good hubs will emerge with better names.