Let me change it then...

Why not hand out non-exclusive licenses to multiple companies?

And they are only expecting $250,000 for it??? I wonder how much the purchasing company will make from it? I'm betting a hell of a lot more. Why don't they just license it out, and have a continuous income from it?

I actually believe that they started using the NT scheme after ME, as the consumer version switched to the NT kernel. So Windows XP = 5, Vista was 6, and Windows 7 is, well, 7. But we could argue about this all day long...

They already have. Recent court cases have accepted evidence from GPS systems that have been added secretly to cars by the police when they are on public roads. Gives you more detail then having camera's everywhere.

I've seen the budget rush too many times. It's one of the main reasons for bad spending, and I wish I knew a good way to stop it. If we managed to figure that out, I'm guessing that we would save a huge amount of money.

One thing I learned last year is that the government cannot tell you how much it spends on outsourcing, and if it is getting value for money. It is very possible that they are spending way too much money on contractors and outsourcing then it would cost to have it internal to the government. Another problem with outsourcing is the lack of control you have over the system and the data within.

Contracting and outsourcing only works and saves money when it is held accountable for their results, and many times they are not. Just because the job is outsourced, it doesn't mean "better" or "cheaper".

In the end there is no way to efficiently run a government, no matter what the size. Public scrutiny is about the only way to stop the government from wasting money, but that has some problems. 1) It involves opening up the books to the public, and no administration will do that; and 2) It's a European idea, and we can't do anything in the US that works in Europe, as they are a bunch of Socialists! And 3) Britain does this, but it gets out of hand with people arguing over the cost of an expensed lunch.

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I don't think your an idiot, unless you do rule the world.

It's a sillier name than the Ministry of Silly Walks.
Sorry, but I had to get Python in there somewhere...

It does to me for several reasons. How long before one of the machines is stolen? And why would anyone want the physical gold? It's not like you can purchase anything with pure gold now.

I also don't know why anyone would buy gold at this price. I always thought the mantra was "Buy low, sell high", so I have no idea why anyone would buy gold when it's almost $1300 per ounce, as I don't see it getting much higher (although I could be really wrong).

No. The government isn't distributing anything; they are just keeping the status-quo.

You are assuming the they is a valid alternative which does not filter. Once one company strikes a deal with MS to give them priority over Google, then all the ISP's will be looking for the same (or more) money.
Let me try it another way... Left-leaning socialist pay all ISP's to have the Right-leaning tin-hat crazies website become too slow to view. Sorry Fux News, you paid millions for a website it's useless.

This has nothing to do with the government viewing emails, websites, or following your blog (they do that already). It has everything to do with keeping the level playing field that has existed on the Internet since it was created. This decision will create a situation where the likes of Google and Facebook could not be started, as the cost of entry to the market will be too high.

In other words, only existing players and big companies in the future will be the only ones who can operate on the Internet. All others will be reduced to a sub-par level of service that will wipe them out. Would you wait 10 seconds for a webpage to load on your 10mb/s connection, or will you go with Google's .5 second load time?

When companies became involved and wanted to spoil the golden goose, the government stepped in to save the goose. Now the courts have given the companies the rope to kill the goose.

Netflix also has them, and on their Instant Watch list too.

I agree.

I love the great leap from “It has water” to “helping lay the foundation for life on the planet.” That’s one small step for a sentence; one giant leap in logic.

I’m guessing that any organic material will have problems staying alive in space, plus being able to survive the entry into Earth’s atmosphere, and also withstanding the giant impact when it hits the Earth. That is one tough organism. The most this tells us is that there is / could be other organic life in the universe, which to me is far better.

We will never know how life started on Earth, and romanticizing like this is very unscientific (To me it’s the same as “God created life”).

I was born in the UK and moved to the USA in '95. One of the reasons I do not wish to move back is because of this type of thing. They already have cameras everywhere, and can track you in your car from one end of the country to the other.

When I talk to people in the UK about this, they almost always shrug their shoulders and say that you shouldn't speed, although they do think that it's getting out of hand.

I'm not sure how the people will stop this, as it looks like the Labour party has gone nuts, and an election is years away.

I'm still proud to be British; I'm just glad I'm not living there right now.