For the given purpose, 999 is a very large number.
What sort of firearm requires more than 999 different people to use it regularly?
A rifle for people learning to shoot might be used by thousands of people over its lifetime, but not all of these people need regular access to the firearm. When a person will never use such a farearm again (i.e. he or she passes a course), that person's fingerprints should be erased from the weapon's memory.
If a weapon could conceivable be used by more than 999 people on a regular basis (perhaps a backup weapon for a number of military units), perhaps it shouldn't be fingerprint locked in the first place.

When the human testing starts, should it be old people first? afftected-continent people first? family-receives-high-payment people first?

I think they should be volunteers at the very least.

My experience somewhat mirriors yours:
On the 2nd Tuesday, I connected my Win7 box to the Internet to install the 2nd Tuesday patches.
After reading a Slashdot article, I uninstalled two patches on the bad-patch list.

Yesterday, I connected it to the Internet to install the August 27 patches.
This was a no go. Windows Update was broken and the Windows Update Troubleshooter was no use.
Only a rollback to a mid-July restore point got the machine going properly again.

My Windows box (which is not my main box) is generally off the Internet, so I don't know why I patched it so promptly.
In the future, I'll wait a few weeks longer before applying patches.

Stop the crime before it happens.
Someone should make a movie about this.

I hear these onion routers are all the rage now.

I pass the colour-blindness tests very quickly with each eye. However, colour intensity varies between my eyes. One eye sees a bright world. It's a more faded world with the other eye. I attribute the difference to ageing rods/cones/whatever. I didn't have this problem when I was younger.

Trillion did VoIP
http://help.trillian.im/discus...

Where's the story?

I use an external Silicon Dust Home Run, which picks up OTA signals.

A simple PVR doesn't need the bells and whistles of newer computers. I recently purchased the components and assembled one.

My only streams are from my subscription to MUBI.
If TCM offered me a streaming service, I'd certainly pay for it.

In the game of go, calling Atari is encouraged among novice players.

So what are the value of Bob bucks when Bob dies?

Physician handwriting is as indecipherable as Navajo code talk.