FYI Gmail has SMTP/POP service, and has the added bonus of excellent virus/spam filtering and no rational size limits.

I would suggest a linux system with the main system being on a readonly partition. Then use unionfs/aufs to give them readwrite access. Worst case scenario you can blow away the RW partition and it will be restored to your defaults.

As for Window Manager, I'd give'm IceWM locked down with a Windows Style Start Menu. Put anything they can have access to there. (Maybe even a "Restore To Defaults" script.)

If you need remote access setup SSH to autostart on dialup connection, maybe with a No-IP client. If you set a decent password there is little risk for a mostly offline computer, and it would give you access. If ssh port is not an option you could setup some type of reverse ssh proxy connection.. but that might take up valuable bandwidth unless you give them a button they have to push to initiate the connection.

Is it just me, or does this sound like an ambitious Law Professor looking for a new job as head of a newly minted agency?

Wow I agree! Thanks for sharing this! This is much more interesting.. Maybe someone should write up a summary about the actual article....

Much as I'm not a fan of Bill gates, mistake #1 is not following the rules of automation:

-- Bill Gates

So when they say it is producing 300 stars per year, they are really saying that they are/have been observing about 300 stars completing that process?
How fine is that line between being "almost a star" and actually being a star? Is there a flash point?

In TFA it states that

I'm sure I could find it somewhere, or it is really an unanswerable question, but how fast do stars themselves generally form?

I've been to dozens of AirBnB locations all over Europe. I certainly can say that I've never had a truly bad experience. The only slightly bad experience I've had came from what I think was a hotel trying to sell their services on the wrong site, and that was in Amsterdam. Those that used the site as designed, were generally easy to sift through so we could find some real gems and avoid the cruft.

You get less human rights complaints when you let the children(or entire populations) stave by using robots for your cheap labour instead of paying them a pittance. :(

Reminds me of the Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses :)

Can I program mine to always claim to other vehicles that I have 7 babies on board?

I was ->.- this close to modding you a troll just for the above statement... But then I decided to burn my ability to mod on this article... :P

Yeah, I honestly thought this was what mechanical turk was for....

Sorry buddy, but moving data around internationally can cost as little at $0.

Obligatory: A Bridge To Nowhere

Those would be a great metrics, average $ spent over total usage, and average $ per hour usage, and % of screen per minute that is occupied by advertising.