Like possibly, a pacemaker?

So you're blaming an economic system for retarding technical development? Odd... I was taught that technical development is a major driver of economic competitiveness. That's why a major indicator of a declining company is if they cut their R&D budget.

I would think that you might assign blame to the individual decision makers. Just because someone is ostensibly playing the same game, doesn't mean that they have the same end-goals. Some people want to build a company to create income for the owner/s, some want to LOSE money as a tax write-off for the parent company, and some are to affect the market in some manner and their individual profit is meaningless.

An improper warrant results in dismissal of the evidence it produces. It's called "fruit of the poisoned tree". I'm not a lawyer, but our lawyer used it in court once to keep my brother out. When police raid a house without a warrant, everyone walks. When police get evidence without a proper warrant, it is removed with prejudice. A proper warrant is a vital requirement for the collection of evidence.

This is basically accepting someone else's word, their records about you, as evidence. It is now legally acceptable for the government to enter "hearsay" as evidence against you. You aren't even allowed to challenge it, like you can any other evidence. It basically boils down to, "You're guilty because we say you are. Now take it like a bitch!"

Did you even read the parent post? He said Physical access to customers is monopolized... by government regulation, paid for by industry through their highly paid lobbyists. You can start an ISP, if you can pony up a couple million to buy a lobbyist, and more millions for equipment, lawyers, employees, and then more millions for finally getting to tap into a backbone for bandwidth...

Artificially imposed monopolies throw a monkey wrench into the theory of free enterprise competition and technology improvement driving down costs of goods.

Wow. For an Anonymous Coward, you sure sound like a paid shill.

Yes.

Wear? As in "strapped or clipped onto their person"? Just about everyone that has a smartphone. What did you think they were?

They were part of my introduction to computers, and almost part of my exit.

I thought those were called "travel trailers", or "mobile homes"?

"Retirement is happiness... plan for it."

Oh. My. God.

It's too bad I can't get full retirement until I'm 72, then. Right? I'll only get to "be happy" for a few years until it's estimated I kick the bucket. I'm 46 now, and if I'm happy doing what I like NOW, then I'll get an estimated extra 26 years of "happiness". I'm sorry, but your point of view is just so depressing that I had to respond. It honestly sounds like you hate your life, and could go suicidal/homicidal at the drop of a hat. If you're equating not having to perform your career anymore as "happiness", then you may be in the wrong career.

Watch Joerg Sprave on the Slingshot Channel on YouTube. He uses high speed cameras to illustrate sailing a ball bearing through a block of ballistic gelatin. Guess your "high power" catapult wasn't that high power, eh? I know I've shattered a windshield with a ball bearing and a LOW POWER catapult. Head injuries kill, even if they aren't a "through and through".

I like your attitude...

But it will get you f*cked in the wallet, or worse. The only attitude a judge likes is his own, and he WILL have the bailiff smack your peepee with a fricken' night stick, before he lays legal financial slavery on your ass for life. It's not funny to see happen to even your worst enemy. It would be a kindness to shoot them in the head in front of their family.

Win 7 ISN'T working fine, for me or a lot of other people. I'm having hell trying to get Win 7 to see SMB shares on my network, mostly a couple of SANS. Some installs will see it fine, some won't see it even if you sacrifice a baby seal to the dark gods. XP, Vista, and Win 8 can all see them. This is the one thing that Win 8 actually has going for it. Otherwise, it sucks balls, too.

Win 98 was the last version where you could actually find the hidden data MS was collecting on the users (mostly username/passwords, IP addresses, and filenames). XP was the last system where you could actually go in and build a custom minimal graphical OS in ~50 MB of drive space. Now, If MS doesn't bless it, you can't have it.

I don't care for Apple Corp. any better, but they do have nice hardware design. They abuse their acolytes just as badly, though.

My newest self-built system goes from power-on to login in about 25 seconds, and nothing is still loading 5 minutes later.

Odd. This panic seems to have lasted several years now, and isn't showing any signs of abating. I haven't been able to get any ammo for well OVER a year. They might want to consider that this isn't so much a "spike" as a baseline increase in market demand. I'm about to the point that I may just go ahead and start making weapon parts to trade for ammo. Having blacksmith and machinist skills is awesome for untraceable barter transactions.

Don't have to go through the trouble and expense of creating a gun (and ammo) that's invisible to x-ray and metal detectors. Just make a cheap, throw away slingshot with a couple of marbles and you have the equivalent of a silenced zip gun that's invisible to detectors, for all of about $10. If you can stash some ball bearings inside an obvious metallic object (metal pen, etc...) now you've got high density rounds that will do a through-and-through on someones head or torso. The people of Okinawa learned during Japanese occupations that effective weapons don't have to be complex.