I thought even more though provoking was the little alt-text that accompanied the comic:

'The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space -- each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.'

Ohh, that's so cute. I remember when I was young and naive...

Nice example of this way of thinking in the news as well:

This morning they were telling how a 12 year old kid blew himself up in Afghanistan, and how it showed what monsters these terrorists are to recruit a 12-year old.

I was just wondering about the level of desperation people needed to reach before they think blowing themselves up is a good idea.

Actually, you can be fairly sure that by data amount, your DNA still wins over the magnetic disks.
Your neurons might store more, so that's still in the wet-works.

Uhmm... sorry? Isn't that what we have all been buying smartphones for? I didn't plan to carry a tablet around with me to take pictures, and augmented reality works just fine on a smartphone too. Those are applications I want to have when I am moving around. When I have a tablet, I'd prefer to be sitting down, or lying on the couch.

Once again, I don't see myself cramming a 7" tablet in my pocket, just because every possible device was crammed into one. Let alone some brands who don't want to go below 10".
10" is not portable as in, have in your hands and working with it while walking. It's a laptop without the keyboard.

Great closing argument...

Actually, this system is already in place, in Europe. Tomtom has an agreement with a large european mobile phone company, and receives anonymized information about the speed and location of mobile phones of this provider. This enables them to indicate traffic jams even on minor roads.
Their navigation system receives both the official TMC signals, as this data, and uses it to calculate the most efficient route to destination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TomTom#HD_Traffic

I would say it is partly due to their bad OS design (administrator by default), partly due to third party software (doesn't work if user doesn't have administrative rights, often not for valid reasons) and partly due to their success (a massive amount of relatively clueless users, who click on any [OK]/[Yes] button that is presented to them).

If some of these clueless users were to move to Debian and Ubuntu, the same problem might happen there. (Popup to fill in sudo password, user gives admin rights to 'that funny animation' they just got from their uncle they hadn't spoken to in years)

So while Microsoft sure has large part in the problem (user-friendliness over security), much of the problem is also to blame on third party developers and the clueless masses that use Windows.

Fortunately, they do something about it now, although I assume that for every user that is now better protected for free, there will be another anti-virus company that will be complaining about unfair competition.

I hate to break it to you, but more expensive equipment doesn't make you a better photographer.
What will make you a better photographer is getting a sense for composition, light, colours. It is about -what- you put in your picture, not about what equipment you used to do it.
Yes, there might be some technical tricks you can do with a more expensive camera, but that is not the essence of photography.
Ohh, and talking about cell phone vs DSLR:
http://www.16-9.net/lens_tests/k800i/index.html

Lets do a quick calculation:
1000 computers, in 5 years, would average 200 computers a year. Working 5 days a week, holidays and vacations gives you a bit over 200 workable days a year, so on average, you would be building one computer per day.
Let's assume you are very quick, so with ordering parts, unpacking, assembling and all, you have that computer build in an hour. (Building and imaging the system. I'm not even taking into account the work in preparing the correct image, and everything that needs to be done to make this work possible in your office, like workbench and tools. Or the rent of storage to keep all those components you are going to need over five years time)

So now your boss is paying one eight of your year salary, for 5 years, for you to build those machines. Unless you build them during your lunch break or during your own time after office hours (as another poster suggested by saying how he build the office computers during his weekend. Those would be fun weekends, building five computers each weekend, for five years)

Please do not underestimate the cost of labor. There is a reason why all the major computer brands have their boxes assembled in China.

There's a reason they didn't want to have that footage released. Apart from the fact that it hurts their reputation, it also suddenly paints war in a completely different way. If you remember around the first Gulf war, all the people got to see were these 'neat' camera shots made from the nose of a missile.
No dying people, no bodies lying strewn around.
All we saw was a cross-hair on a building that got bigger and bigger, followed by a breakup in communication, and a 'hilarious' comment about not wanting to be the guy in that bunker.

War was changed from a dirty business into something neat, without (at least to the perception of the CNN viewers) the hurt and suffering.
And that's exactly the same way they have been painting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well. When was the last time you saw a firefight with someone getting shot on TV? They have created an image of war that they are desperate to keep.
Because if people start thinking about 'the enemy' as actual human beings, it suddenly becomes a lot more difficult to swear blind obedience to a government that goes overseas to kill people.

If you only focus on the biochemistry part of the process, you are missing out on the biological ones. The fact that two molecules can be nearly indistinguishable from a chemistry point of view does not mean that their biological impact can not be radically different. For a simple example:
Lactic acid comes is present in two stereo-isomer configurations. Chemically, they are identical during an oxidation process. However, the body metabolizes both differently.

That extra step that you mention to break down Fructose can have an impact on where in the body the molecule is being processed. Also, don't forget that before the fructose and glucose enter the metabolic cycle, a large number of processes have already taken place in the body, and those processes might have a different effect on the body. (Reaction to insulin, etc)

So, just because fructose might be (bio)chemically similar, this doesn't mean that biologically it is similar.

The problem with your supposition is that you first create a supernatural world (that which we can not observe) and then label those who do not believe in it.

The fact that you first have to construct a supernatural world, then place beings in it, is what atheists disagree with you on. They do not disagree on your supernatural beings, they disagree with your supernatural world.
If something can be observed there is no reason for belief. If something can not be observed in any way, other than some human being is convinced that something is so, there is no reason for belief. And the only reason someone is labeled an atheist is because the human being who is convinced in the supernatural world wants to put a label on those who do not.

This supernatural world can contain titans, gods, fairies, leprechauns, vampires, magic, etc. Currently, only the people who believe in a supernatural world filled with gods seem to feel a need to label the non-believers. And since this is apparently so important to them, I let them.

If you feel you can not cope with the natural world, and a supernatural one on top of it helps you, you are free to do so. It is when you start asking me to believe in the same supernatural world that you do, that I draw the line. Especially when the asking is done at the point of a sword.

Funny how people keep confusing not believing in something with believing something is not.

Actually, if you look in the situation that caused all this, you'll find that even if you used open source software, you were still raided. Basically they said, no Microsoft license, has computers, raid the office. (Or more accurate, we don't like what they are saying, the 'BSA' people from Microsoft don't tell us no, we go raid their computers and hinder them in their opposition to our points of view.)

This will remove the current blank cheque that the police in Russia is using to raid whoever they don't like, and search the computers 'when they have time for it' afterwards.