... so it takes a lot of hardware to make an optimizing programmer worthwhile.

If and only if that programmer does the optimization after coding and has not learned to code in an optimized fashion to begin with.

Oh please. DSL handles movies just fine. I watch them on Amazon, Hulu and wherever I want and have no real problems. I also download gigs of game updates rapidly. There's no high-tech nothing about it.

Or not being able to get members elected to high council in the Klan.

When you have to cite Uganda for an example of Christian atrocity, you know you're reaching for an example.

Sell that to one of the lesser known authors that the trad publisher does little or no promotion for yet retains the copyright for that particular contract.

Hysterical exaggeration. It is explained to small children what multiplication means. After that, rote memorization of the tables increases efficiency.

Earliest Egyptian pyramid 2630 BCE. Earliest verified vehicular use of wheel is Mesopotamia around 3200 BCE and Egypt developed the spoked wheel around 2000 BCE. These are just records, it's rather obvious the wheel goes back much further. So yes, the Egyptians had the wheel when the pyramids were built. Did they use them for that? Probably not, due to weight. We *know* they used sledges, so why come up with more complicated methods based solely on supposition?