DOS is dead, and good riddance

Your post is a bit over the top, but I share your views. That said, if DOS is truly dead, how do you explain the stink of it that remains in Windows to this day? Writing batch files, for example, is just as common today than it was a decade ago, and it ain't because old habits die hard, and it ain't just backwards compatibility. And those Powershell users, do they ever stop to ask themselves ask why it is they're still relegated to using cmd.exe[1]? Or any number of cruddy old DOS era utilities?

Either way, saying "good riddance" doesn't give me those wasted years back.

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1. For the kids following along at home, open up a command prompt, and type "edit.com".

They sold you a book, which you bought in good faith ... [t]hen they removed it, without consulting you, and it's currently unclear if they even refund you, which is irrefutably THEFT

I guess it was inevitable that someone would use the Magic Word. Amazon's license agreement, explicitly makes clear that digital content is "licensed", not "sold".

1. Digital Content

Use of Digital Content. Upon your download of Digital Content and payment of any applicable fees (including applicable taxes), the Content Provider grants you a non-exclusive right to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Kindle or a Reading Application or as otherwise permitted as part of the Service, solely on the number of Kindles or Other Devices specified in the Kindle Store, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Unless otherwise specified, Digital Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider. The Content Provider may post additional terms for Digital Content in the Kindle Store. Those terms will also apply, but this Agreement will govern in the event of a conflict. Some Digital Content, such as Periodicals, may not be available to you through Reading Applications.

LOL. Good one.

A better discussion, however, would be one that relates to the specific issues before the court (i.e., the basis of the appeal, rather than the results of a Slashdot popularity poll). From the Wall Street Journal:

The high court said it will review a $290 million patent-infringement judgment against Microsoft that barred the company from selling certain versions of its Word software. A key question in the case is whether proving a patent invalid should require "clear and convincing evidence" or merely a preponderance of evidence.

Federal courts use the stricter "clear and convincing" standard. Big high-tech companies and others say that bar is too high, leading courts to uphold dubious patents and making it costly to defend against patent-infringement lawsuits.

On the other hand, digressions in the form of unsolicited snarkiness can be fun. If we're going to go down that route, allow me to start:

Clear and convincing? You can't handle "clear and convincing, Monkeyboy!"

The standard of living is substantially higher - for everyone - than it was 90 years ago. How rich some people is has nothing to do with how much better off everyone is.

I'd suggest you do some reading or research before asserting the above so glibly. The Elizabeth Warren lecture entitled The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class would be a good start, though her research and the focus of what's presented, uses (IIRC) "50 years ago" as a baseline for comparison.

How about

Recognising that "niggardly" and "parsionious" are equally cromulent is the mark of a learned man capable of discriminating.

Did that help, or hurt? ;-)

I know someone from an Eastern European country who did her PhD here and was told if she went back to see her family after finishing she would not be allowed back into the US for 6-9 months minimum. She has spoken English since she was about 3 years old. Why should we punish her for doing her research (and contributing to American science) here?

Going a bit off topic here, but as a FYI ...

My understanding (from personal experience) is that once you open an application, you are not[1] allowed to leave the country until it's finalised. The length of time for the process (whatever form it takes) to run its course is highly variable, and it isn't at all unusual for it to exceed statutory or reasonableness standards (think 15 years for a green card and you'll get the picture). However, one can put through a parole request (yes, the form really does say PAROLE OF AN ALIEN or some such nonsense in all caps and in bold at the very top). If granted, you are allowed to leave for a short duration. IIRC, it's a "once-only for family emergencies" type of thing.

As for fast-tracking those coming to the US for doctoral research, tbat's an excellent idea. In the interim, however, I'd happily settle for not seeing high school honour students detained or deported for immigration violations^H^H^H^H^H^H paperwork errors. The system is rife with inequities, and the climate so political, that I see little hope for any sane merit-based policy to prevail.

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1. Actually, you're free to leave at any time, but doing so typically terminates your application, leaving with you no practical hope of obtaining legal residency in the future.

I agree generally with your sentiments, but I think your points are tangential to what the article is about. That said, here is one example of a setup [standard "no affiliation" disclaimer goes here] that doesn't present any of the issues you describe.

Mac OS X is actually based on the mach kernel, which, along with OS X's userland is a certified implementation of UNIX. /pedantic

Yes, but from what I've seen, the userland seems to be mostly FreeBSD. /mildly pendantic

I'll tell you what, I'll mail you a Linux binary and you just go ahead and run it for me.

Silly person. Why would he?

Last I checked, downloading programs from untrusted sources is something that only Windows users do. The relative merits, whys and wherefors aren't nearly as relevant as the recognition that doing so defines (outside of strictly controlled corporate environments) what it means to be a Windows user.

As a cyclist, father, neighbour of wheelchairs users and part time pedestrian I can attest to the problems caused by poor parking (and speeding, red light jumping etc.).

Hell, you don't need to be any of those. Going for a walk (with or without missus, the girfriend, or the dog) should provide ample evidence that most all drivers behave like complete assholes[1].

Not sure that CCTV cameras would help. To the extent they could, however, the focus would be on the most egregious and obviously illegal behaviour, leaving things like terrifying pedestrians unaddressed.

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1. Yes, gentle Slashdot reader, that probably means you. Driving 35 in a 25, for example, may not seem like a big deal, but it's a huge frigging difference to everybody living in the neighbourhood, walking on the street, or simply not in your car. If you think that's an exaggeration, try running a few laps through your office and see how long it is before someone wants to knock your block off, or calls security.

Back in the dinosaur age if something happened to you(passed a test got herpes whatever) you would actually have to phone/write several people saying the exact same thing. You weren't always looking for a response but just wanted to share the news. Thats what twitter is for.

No wonder I can't figure this twitter thing out. I'm out of school and don't have herpes.

If everyone voted in 100% of elections, cared enough to research every candidate and initiative, had access to solid information on the issues and candidates, and was educated enough to navigate through FUD when finding that information, then it would not be possible to "buy" a seat or referendum, because any money used creating FUD would just be poured down a hole and any money spent on GOTV would be useless.

That's one approach, but solid information? The only information out there (short of first-hand knowledge) is provided via the television airwaves. And most of that is in the form of soundbites, superficial coverage, and/or ads. If the cheering that's heard when someone predicts the imminent death of newspapers is any indication, I'd suggest people like it that way.

So if people are going to get their information from the TV, a better approach would be for the networks to meet their obligations to the public and provide free air time for candidates. The high cost of running for office is almost entirely attributable to the high cost of television advertising campaigns. Remove the need to raise that money, and you've removed the corrosive influence of money in politics. From a randomly selected article

Since 2002, the average cost of gaining a House seat has risen 49 percent
and now exceeds $1.36 million. The average cost of attaining a Senate seat
has risen 68 percent and now exceeds $3.03 million, according to the
Campaign Finance Institute.

I wasn't sure what the heck this article was talking about, so I had to read the start of TFA.

You weren't sure? Hell, I thought the article was about Michael Mann, as in the Michael Mann who directed Miami Vice. That's from someone who takes pride in keeping abreast of current events.

But what happens if the system stores those values opaquely, so that you can't ever know what they are, or refer to them as something distinct from the system itself?

The Windows registry.

Apparently, it's fully documented, and much easier to understand, parse, manipulate, backup and restore than those nasty "config files" that need to be "edited manually" using "cryptic commands".

Or so I'm told. ;-)

Your comment on the "rote memorization" aspect of using GUIs I found particularly astute. When I see official documentation that consists of a little other than a series of screenshots, I wonder how it came to be that behaving like a monkey, or more charitably, aspiring to ignorance, became not only widespread, but acceptable.