Most modern digital electronics have a pretty complete operating system on them, including copiers, printers, fax machines. Data storage, especially for very large data sets such as a high resolution digitally scanned image, is pretty much required. Disk storage is the currently used technique for that storage.

Most copiers do more than copy. They can accept a job over the network, they can use forms or other co-created information, and they can be used to adjust an image after it has been accepted. All this requires RAM and mass storage.

This issue is not new, but as we all become more sophisticated, it does become easier to compromise a device holding your data. I don't have a good answer for the problem.

During the founding of the United States, it was religious leaders who were adamant that church and state be separated. Religious freedom was what they wanted. It is ironic that the same people who once sought the separation of church and state are now trying to subvert that precept. If they succeed, it will come back to haunt them when their version of church becomes the minority.

For those who are curious, see the wikipedia article on Seagate. Toward the bottom are references to two different classes of defects that Seagate has had with its drives. It also describes Seagate's attempts to cover up the problems.

For now, I'm going to continue to use Western Digital drives until Seagate reestablishes a history of reliability and honesty.

Seagate used to be the go-to disk drive maker. But in the last few years their quality has slipped and Western Digital became the better manufacturer.

But I seem to detect that quality and reliability is returning to Seagate's devices. Does anybody have any recent experience with Seagate to share?

Are you defending capitalism, or corporatism? In the U.S., consumers are 70% of the economy. Yet the politicians are accommodating the 30% who have the money to buy elections. Short answer to your question - yes, more and more people are hating the excessive intrusion that capitalists are imposing on their lives.

When that 30% is restored to its proper role, the complaining will surely die down. Capitalism will replace corporatism and everybody will prosper.

Microsoft has no incentive to support older operating systems, especially the really good versions of older operating systems. Indeed, they have every reason to be careless about 'updates' to those older operating system and ignore problems caused by those 'updates' because their policy is to recommend their newest product. Obviously, the policy of recommending customers buy their newest product to fix problems with their previous product is a profitable policy.

The reason that this article is newsworthy is because so many corporate customers balked at the Vista upgrade cycle. XP was known to work better with fewer resource requirements. Many of the PC's built that were claimed to be 'Vista Ready' (TM) were dogs with Vista but were perfectly usable with XP. Imagine, an 'upgrade' to a line of operating systems that performs worse than its predecessor. So, corporate customers demanded, en masse, that Microsoft continue to offer XP as an alternative to Vista.

For the first time in my memory Microsoft blinked, and extended its support of the XP revision despite the obvious disadvantage to its profits. Its customers had learned to put their foot down and refuse Microsoft's self-serving upgrade recommendations.

To my mind, XP is the most stable release of an operating system since MS-DOS 5. Everybody hailed it as uncharacteristically stable and usable.

There is a truth to what you said; Sanger promoted a compulsory birth control for people with genetically caused disease.

But, with the availability of low-cost screening of individual genetic makeup, is seems inevitable and advisable that public policy will be created that coerces individuals to avoid parenthood when there is a risk of disease. In a society where health care is becoming an expected socially provided benefit, the impending down-side is that society will act to prevent disease, if only to reduce the burden of health care.

So, eugenics is arriving. We might as well start addressing the issues related to childbirth, such as preventative measures.

Family history can give you the clues of what to look for. But family history does not mean that a person has actually inherited a gene with a defect. That's where this sort of DIY genetic screening can come in handy. If your family has a history of a disease, one that you don't want to transmit to your offspring, then this sort of testing can be a godsend. You might discover that you did not get the gene(s) for the disease.

Are you trolling or was that a serious statement?

We learn more from adversity. Having the perfect child doesn't teach us anything. I would posit that many of those parents who have to deal with children with disabilities learn a lot more about parenting and selflessness than those whose children are considered "normal" by society.

Take a moment to consider life from the disabled child's point of view. Obviously, you didn't think this one through.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was unpopular for her views on eugenics. Too soon after Nazi Germany and their experiments with eugenics. But, to some degree, eugenics might be unavoidable.

We already have genetic counselors. How is that different from eugenics, I don't know. Perhaps a matter of degree. Many of us already deliberately avoid childbearing to avoid transmission of a wide variety of congenital diseases.

This genetics testing helps to improve detection of more subtle defects, and it can give the 'all clear' for other potential issues. Imagine that some dread disease appeared in your family tree and you feared transmitting it. Getting tested could give you the 'all clear' to have children.

I know of a case where a couple had a child that couldn't sweat. It was congenital. They had another child. I don't recall if that additional child also had the issue. But I can assure you that if I knew of this problem in my genetic makeup, I would be seeking donor genetic material to substitute for my evidently dangerous material.

Heat pump. Cold deep water, warm surface water.

Alrighty, crank up those machines after the night air has cooled, stop them before sundown.

What Gates is funding is research. All the hypothetical problems suggested here are valid, but will be tested during the research.

How's about an expected result? It cools the atmosphere as water condenses and forms rain? Do this out at sea and you get cooled zones. Certain cooled zones, part of a process known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), alter the weather over the U.S.

Believe it or not, the concept is based upon observations of ongoing, present-day phenomenon.

I left something off. Do not talk politics or religion. If asked, try to play dumb.

I work with a bunch of rednecks; Rush Limbaugh types. I'm a leftie and proud of it, and it's hard to refrain from pointing out the silliness of many of Rush's rants, repeated verbatim.