You dont seem to be too familiar with vmware, and it's lack of single points of failure when implemented correctly. Sure, something can fai, but everything else should be able to pickup the slack.

Also, when you're paying per CPU 3K for Vmware licenses, another 3k for MS datacenter licenses, and who knows how much for each license on on each virtual server instance.... that extra 30 watts you're worried about is NOTHING if you can cram 2 more virtual servers onto a CPU.

If it were earlier in the year, and given a choice, i feel many people coming from a moderate climate would surely consider death a viable option versus going to somewhere as cold as duluth.

I feel there's little enough to worry about.

If we first world countries wholly adopt and practice these genetic screenings on a hugely wide scale, and all end up dying horribly because we breed out some UNKNOWN DANGER WILL ROBINSON, then at least we'll have also helped to bring 3rd world citizens out of poverty, since they'll get to inherit everything we had.

I really wonder if it'll help reduce genitic diversity or increase it.

I say this because "rare" traits are often considered attractive traits. a perfect example is red-headed hair. Everyone i know finds ginger ladies quite attractive. Or foreigners, if you ever lived in the Midwest monoculture. Whenever there's a foreigner around, a lot of people will acknowledge their attractiveness.

Now, for how much 'superficial' traits as skin/eye/hair color play a role in the core of genetic's. i do not know.

There is one other HUGE upside to this. Imagine if you have a certain genetic condition, causes you lots of problems. Most people wouldnt say "I'm going to do my part to eliminate this disease from the population by choosing not to have children" that's frankly absurd, and most people would still have kids and hope for the best. This is a HUGE thing for helping to eliminate certain diseases from out population, and helping to reduce the suffering of peoples as a whole.

Now, I'm not saying you're flat out wrong...weather some of these 'diseases' are genetic adaptions just half implemented by nature is anyone's guess.

When i hear about this kind of stuff, i often think it would be incredibly neat to just peek into the future and see where humanity ends up in 100,000 years--or if we're around even.

If i were your employer, I'd fire your ars for not backing up "terabytes of data" before attempting to encrypt it.

Regarding Anti-DRM, someone wanting to pirate a game WILL. *No matter if there is DRM or not* SPORE is a prime example of this.

Gamers just want to have fun. No Hassles. None of the flopping CD's, loading a machine full of Trojans you cannot get rid of (SecuROM), or other asinine options. Keep it Simple.

Personally, I find STEAM to be a quite nice trade off between usability, and anti-piracy. I can go to a friends, show them a cool new game (provided the download isn't too terribly long) and when i go home and play it back at my place, the friend cant use the game anymore. This is a good trade off between usability, and anti-piracy.

sometimes being modded up to only +5 just isn't enough.

Nevermind that a company within an industrialized nation is getting huge benefits from the infrastructure, and government resources housed where it's at(military/protection/fire department/the list goes on). I'd like to see how well one of these big companies would hold out with their headquarters in Sudan.

They damn well better pay fair wages for H-1B people (and outsourced people) if their going take advantage of local society's resources.

If there is no time limit to these side odds of Enrico Fermi's--then odds could very well happen if we saw a WW3.

I suppose it'd be pretty hard for man to technically wipe out all life with current technology. However, all of man and most large critters is close enough in my book. Hell, even knocking man back to the stone age is enough in my book.

I wonder--did anyone bet on that one and side with annihilation? what were the odds he gave? :)

I'm convinced that manufacturers should, at the very least, have to print their power consumption (and thus cost per year) on the outside of boxes, and in their specifications. Personally, I would even go so far as to say that all electronics should have to conform to energy star, unless there are very good reasons not to. there's no reason these things shouldn't.

I have an alarm clock, and it draws 10 freaking watts 24/7. Only reason i use it is cause i really like its alarm options. this one, i cant turn because it'll lose programming.

My fancy new zojirushi rice cooker. 10 watts constantly when plugged in. A ridiculous sum just to keep a non-glowing digital clock on all the time. it gets unplugged.

Toaster? Now ask me, why in the HELL does a toaster need to draw ANYTHING when it's just plugged in? This one is 1 watt to be plugged in. I hear an audible, yet mechanical. Click every single time i unplug it.

I could go on, power supply from a computer, not plugged into a mainboard. Draws 20 watts. (albeit older one, i have an 85+ one that draws 3 in the same fashion).

Speakers/Sub, both turned off but plugged in. 20 Watts.

These are not cheap no-name brand electronics either, none of these have a "remote turnon" these are 'reputed' brand items. And they all skimp on the electronics so they can make an additional 89 cents. that pisses me off. Over the course of the products lifetime, their shoddy workmanship will cost me, in electricity, dozens of dollars to significant fractions of the products original cost.

Awesome.

Agreed, people talk like running a business requires this mystical black voodoo magic, and I'm certain it's just not like that in reality. Anyone who tries to convince another of something is likely doing so for their own reasons. Intelligence, Common sense, logic, the ability to listen to others, combined with some long term goals is pretty much all that's needed.

sure, i imagine there's some finesse and talent that would make some more adept at it--as with everything, but I'm sure 5% of the population would be quite good at it. But these monkeys would lead others to believe something silly like .0003% of the population are only capable of working the black magic--and thus their salaries are surely justifiable.

meh. con artists. The whole lot of them.

Yes, let's put it into perspective.

Just because someone can multiply, divide, add, and subtract in an appropriate context doesn't mean their deserving of a salary 10x-30x+ the average employee's.

It's a great marketing strategy, really. Post some blurb about some product no one has heard of--and make it's dilemma known to an audience with a broad interest around such problems, and a potential interest in said products.

sheepishly, the intrigued masses walk into the clutches of the marketers to find out more about this company, and what it does.

I hate marketing.

it's not as simple as you make it out to be. For one, you don't know how many homes in that bond will default. That's a huge landmine, and now the economy's starting to slump, many people can barely afford the homes now, and their rates are only going to go up for a large number of them... Meanwhile, housing prices are slumping 'cause the economy's taking a crap. So what you say, the people default.... the last thing you want is them to default.

You first have to kick the people out,that'll often take 6ish months to go through the courts. In the meantime you'll have to worry about the cost of homes going down further, marketing the home for sale, maintain it until it's sold, Get insurance on it, pay taxes on it, heating it so the pipes do not break, hope it's not vandalized, hope the people you kicked out of it didn't destroy it, and most importantly pay people to handle all the listed items, and god knows what else i missed.

I feel it's quite reasonable that people freaked out when they realized their risk exposure was MUCH higher than they were let to believe, so if anything, there should be more regulation requiring MORE transparency.