IBM 1620 Mod I (CADET -- Can't Add Doesn't Even Try) with 20K of BCD memory. Then a CDC 6400, a Univac SS 90, a 1620 Mod II, and an XDS 940 (supposedly a 930 modded as the 940 prototype). All were great fun, fantastic learning machines.

Glad to know that gravity, Newton's equations, Maxwell's equations, supply and demand curves, the laws of thermodynamics, and so much else is completely worthless.

But wait -- can YOUR statement be applied to anything? Oh my!

"Friendly reminder: Slashdot continues to allow users to post comments and stories anonymously as an "Anonymous Coward." This is something that's been criticized since its inception, but it's something we think is important and plan to continue for the foreseeable future."

I do indeed approve this policy. It is a fine policy.

What if this was planned by Apple all along, and this is how they "prove" to the FBI, NSA, and everybody else that it's a bad idea? What if they left some hints for these hackers?

I don't think Steve Jobs had that kind of devious mind (I could be wrong), but Tim Cook ... now there's a guy who hasn't got Steve Jobs persona but wants to leave his mark, and maybe this is the kind of subterfuge he'd pull.

Thanks for the name. Looked him up on Wikipedia, and ....
"He strongly felt that people working on the programme (notably Williams, script editor Douglas Adams and star Tom Baker) had stopped taking the show seriously: it was parodying science fiction, rather than presenting serious storylines. He also believed that Williams had allowed Baker too much influence on the show's direction, rather than confronting Baker over his increasingly comedic acting style. Nathan-Turner, together with new script editor Christopher H. Bidmead, decided Baker's creative influence needed to be reined in."
Yep, that's the new guy I hated so much.

Goes on to say he was the last producer for the first series. Gosh, I wonder why it got canceled when he was so proud of taking all the fun out.

I sort of want to agree with you, but I gave up on this most recent Doctor after, I think, the second DVD from Netflix; the first was atrocious, I kept opening a book while the shows were playing, and hoped the second DVD would be better. It wasn't. Plot holes, logic holes, and the way-too-woke nonsense (Guns are filthy, it's so much honorable to kill en mass; oh he's just having a bad day and is not really horrible).

I haven't watched one since. So I sort of feel like I have no right to write down my opinion, or agree with yours. But I will anyway :-)

Not the actor's fault. This was down to the producer / writers / somebody in charge. I felt the same way when Tom Baker's last season was handled by a new guy, who bragged about taking all the fun out of it, no more of that! this is a serious show! And bragged about making Tom Baker wear makeup, IIRC. But this one is much worse.

Moore to the point, Moore's law was an observation of a natural trend. This is the opposite, typical of so much legislation.

Moore's law is like having a speedometer needle showing the speed, or a thermometer showing the temperature. Legislation which tries to change society pretends changing the observation will change reality: move the needle to slow down or speed up; move the pointer to raise or lower the temperature. In reality, you need an entirely different device to do that.

"So let it be written, so let it be done" sounds good in movies, but it don't do squat in real life except muck things up.

The Che fanbois are not ironic, they think he was a hero. You are just as naive if you don't recognize the difference.

Another echo of the dubious 99.7. It shouldn't take 2 seconds to realize what nonsense that is. Did you also believe the reports of Fidel's popularity?

99.7, such a believable (and unverifiable) number. I'd like to know who dreamed it up and how they justified it. Was it people who recognized the alphabet?

Any post relying on such a dubious statistic is suspect right off the bat.

Clinton and Trump campaigned in the swing states because that is what the Electoral College encourages. The popular vote "imbalance" is a mirage. If they had been campaigning for the popular vote, if there had been no Electoral College, the campaigns and the results would have been different in ways we can't imagine.

To change the Electoral College process now, after the popular vote is over, is sour grapes.

Hopefully Trump won't renew the economic oppression of the Cuban people.

Unsure how to respond. If you mean is Trump the heir to Fidel, the answer is no. If you mean the stupid embargo, that was the best thing to happen to Castro; he couldn't have asked for a better justification to continue his own oppression of the Cuban people.

If you actually do think Castro was good for Cuba, you are sadly ignorant. Batista's Cuba was famous for literacy and doctors per capita, compared to the rest of Latin America, so Castro's improvements were pretty small, he killed far more people, and destroyed all chances for improvements.

Maybe you are one of the who thinks Che Guevara was heroic and cannot see the irony of selling t-shirts with his picture.

One unit of oil from one thousand units of sewage is not very impressive, and 30 million gallons of oil is not much either.

But everything I have read says the goal is to separate heavy industry and its pollution from humanity and the environment. Server farms contribbute nothing to pollution except energy production (presumably could be beamed down from orbital power stations) and cooling.

Yes, dropping stuff from orbit is easy -- unless you want it to survive. Then you need as much structure as payload. This also doesn't account for the raw materials -- how do you get that to the orbital factories? This is, by definition, heavy industry, not smart watches. Cars, trucks, steel stock, drilling machines -- nothing small and light.

Thus my question about the energy budget.