Meant to include a link on the commercial fishing --- it's sobering that there's greater tonnage of ships in the water than there are fish:

http://what-if.xkcd.com/33/7

How are we going to harness tech and knowledge to create a better world for our children and grand-children?

Is it really an improvement to have machines such as the ShapeOko: http://www.shapeoko.com/ rather than teaching children how to use a set of carving gouges, chisels, saws, &c.?

Is it inevitable that we will see the banning of commercial fishing as commercial hunting was out-lawed during our grand-parents' day?

What technologies or organizations are there which offer options for making the world a better place?

  - http://opensourceecology.org/ --- and their ``global village construction kit are one bright light --- arguably the ShapeOko has a place in that though.
  - http://www.heifer.org/ --- teach a man to fish and all that

They lasted longer than that, but there's always the old story of people walking through such computers, watching for the signs of a tube about to fail, waiting until the system was in a state where said tube was switched off and hot-swapping a replacement.

The MacBook Air's form-factor was first exemplified in the NEC Ultralite back in 1988: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_UltraLite --- even was diskless w/ only solid-state storage (I bought a 2MB model....).

Arguably the first ``clamshell'' laptop was the GRiD Compass six years earlier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Compass (my GRiDcase III was one of the best-engineered / made / crafted objects I've ever owned)

If you want to look at changing how people used computers, one company which was missed was Go Corporation w/ their PenPoint OS (which pre-dated the Newton MessagePad) --- see Jerry Kaplan's book _StartUp_ for the insider's take on that (the NCR-3125 I owned was donated by the guy I sold it to to the Smithsonian).

Projects / charities to address that:

  - http://www.heifer.org/ --- give a child powdered milk and they'll drink for a day (if they have clean water), give their parents a breeding pair of cattle and they'll have milk for forever
  - http://opensourceecology.org/ --- provide people with the tools necessary to make the things they need to make their lives better

Had a link for a water filtration system, but not finding it....

Here:

http://www.freetronics.com/blogs/news/6305652-build-your-own-arduino-based-home-thermostat#.UrCCUijNB94

Not in the U.S. in most localities.

Any person who is legally able to purchase and own a firearm may manufacture their own, so long as it is not intended for re-sale --- the BATF has been very stringent on that last point of late, so it's pretty much impossible to transfer a personally-manufactured firearm.

Please note that the BATF is only interested in the last 20% or so of a firearm, so one may make and sell partially-finished (up to 80%) receivers w/o any need for an FFL.

or in gaol or hanging separately:

http://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2013/06/09/using-metadata-to-find-paul-revere/

Financial penalties should be proportional:

  - how many others participated in this DDOS? divide by that number
  - how long were other machines involved in this? divide by that time
  - how fast was his internet connection in comparison to the others? divide by that

He admitted to guilt, but it's not fair to hold him completely financially responsible simply because he was the only person they were able to catch and was honest enough to confess.

The last time I looked at the statistics for this, a bicycle rider involved in a collision w/ a car at highway speeds was a fatality 96% of the time --- I can't think of a single sort of car accident w/ that sort of fatality statistic.

There was a lengthy discussion about this here on Slashdot a while back, but oddly, it's not linked at the bottom of the page at the moment.

If I had mod points, you'd have one.

Our local PBS affiliate (the only channel I watch) switched early and broadcast at full power initially --- I was able to get the signal in my basement w/ rabbit ears --- until the other stations switched over and they also reduced power --- can't pick up the signal in my basement so had to run a line up to the living room and build a digital TV antenna:

http://www.current.org/wp-content/themes/current/archive-site/ptv/ptv0821make.pdf

When the weather is bad I have to pick it up from behind the couch and place it in the window.

If you're in Australia, beat the rush and grab any parts you need before the rush (or go into business making and selling them).

Same here --- I'm still using a Fujitsu Stylistics ST-4121 of the same vintage and can't find a decent replacement at a reasonable price (though apparently some ThinkPad models have an outdoor viewable display now?).

and shares profits equally.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/how-one-company-levels-the-pay-slope-of-executives-and-workers/article15472738/

I never regret spending money w/ them, and the consideration for their workers shows in their customer service which is top-notch.

while performing their duty.

They're expected to fill out a duty log detailing everything which they did.
They're expected to accurately and promptly reply when the dispatcher asks where they are and what they're doing.
If their supervisor shows up on site and asks what's happening they are obligated to comply.
If an elected official whose duties include supervising those in their chain of command shows up, they are obligated to comply w/ reasonable requests for information.