What's the ratio of negative infinity to negative infinity?

Those 97 million pages didn't review, organize, and where necessary redact themselves. It doesn't matter what technology you use, if you care at all about the content it is expensive to deal with that many pages of written material. It's like proof-reading an early but complete draft of Atlas Shrugged 89,000 times over except with a subtle plot and only slightly better prose. It comes out to only $32.53 per reading of Atlas Shrugged, which is a better price than I would offer.

All joking aside, the answer is to find out if your grandfather is working on these projects because he wants to wire arduino boards or because he enjoys spending time with his grandson. It's probably the latter. Now, if you don't have other things to do together, then keep at it and maybe take others' suggestions to work with tube electronics or something else with relatively large components (warning, though: tube sockets can be just as tedious to wire and solder as IC sockets). But if you do, then try those things instead.

My concern is more with the "like a watch" comparison. Who here affixes his watch to his body with subdermal magnets?

I ran an amortization schedule. The effective interest rate on the Xbox comes out to closer to 25% than 20%. Even on a 20% card, making the payments over a course of 2 years (so long as you actually make those payments, which for the Xbox fees seems to be a little less than most minimum payments but we'll leave that to the side) still beats the $99 Xbox.

There are many forms of entertainment that are arguably better for mental health and demonstrably less expensive than video gaming.

I did it to compare my Chevrolet Silverado to a Prius, based on mileage and leaving out maintenance. With $5/gallon gas it came out to over 400,000 miles of driving before the Prius broke even. That's 20-30 years for my driving habits. Only time will tell if the Prius becomes a mainstay of classic car shows.

It's the same with U.S. Presidents hosting peace talks between Israel and Palestine. They can say "I worked for peace in the Middle East!" without any risk of either making the situation worse or losing that political card for future Presidents. If the United States switched to nuclear power and electric cars, the politicians who pander to the "green" vote would lose a political playing card. Fortunately, there is little to no risk of that happening and any risk that does exist is easy to eliminate by also fighting against nuclear energy.

What I've read about them says that tankless water heaters wear out faster than the traditional kind with a tank, and that the replacement cost eclipses any energy savings in using one. They are also reportedly less convenient and comfortable (due to a cold water "sandwich" effect as they send water down the line and attempt to sense how much heat to apply to the next water coming through). If those articles and reviews are wrong, I have yet to find any reports of it.

For cool water heaters, look at a point-of-use water heater for sinks to get instant hot water, and locate the main water heater directly underneath or next to your shower plumbing. Those will actually improve your lifestyle and save water.

But at the very least, take Tronster's advice and install technology that serves a purpose in your house. If you're on a tight budget, wasting money on things to impress your friends is probably unwise (read: it's beyond stupid).

Almost twelve years ago, Slashdot posted an article about the caffeine gene in coffee plants being isolated. At that time, the Futurama references were fresh, but what we all wanted was caffeinated bacon (and baconated grapefruit). Or at least caffeinated apples. An apple with caffeine would solve 100% of the problems in my life. The future was promising. We all believed that genetic engineering would allow this gene to be spliced into other vegetables, animals, and yes, even minerals by now.

Now, over a decade later, the last great promise of the pre-9/11 world has been broken. We are using science not for good, but for evil. Our only hope is that the scientists committing this blasphemy drink their own creation and fall asleep before they can finish their work.

There was also some discussion of cooling off the reactor with "more cowbell." History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.

Is the number of end-user connections that fiber can carry "almost arbitrary" as in one less than an arbitrary number, or as in only being slightly determined by the actual capacity of the fiber?

Wouldn't it be funnier if I didn't?

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

The problem with that statement is that it is an average. Probably close to zero Americans actually drive 40 miles per day. The point is this: Only rich people can afford a $60,000 car that is worthless other than for everyday commuting along with a second vehicle for longer trips where stopping for several hours after every 2 hours of driving is impractical. The average American may drive 40 miles per day, but the average American probably does make a one-way driving trip of over 160 miles at least a couple times a year (twice per major traveling holiday).