Slashdot is dying. Or maybe I'm just dying. Maybe both. We're all dying.

Not until Netcraft confirms it.

There should be no jobs that don't allow for the worker to be self-sufficient.

How about minors? Do they need to be self-sufficient?

It's funny how progressives use percentages when it benefits them. Big Oil has been getting single-digit profit margins for many years, but all the progressives could point out when they wanted to make a money grab was "millions of dollars". Yes, a single-digit percentage of billions in sales is indeed millions.

You really want to hold up Walmart, the leftist's favorite punching bag, as a good example? That's exactly where the ire of the left (mostly for unions, who want in) is focused.

Um, banks are financial institutions that make money with money. The "central banks" you're talking about are instruments of government. They created the problem that progressives like you try to "solve" by doing more of the same.

Please, do sign off from here-- permanently.

Yes, this. Read the article, they are talking about 400Mbps microwave links. That's a drop in the bucket compared with fiber bandwidth. This paper is all about latency above all else. First, I remain unconvinced that RF links are really different than fiber for latency. Second, I'm unconvinced very many people care about the difference of ~5ms in latency (using their numbers) and would consider bandwidth much more important. They point out one particular use case for low-latency, low-bandwidth links like this (high frequency trading) but for anything involving human interaction it seems like a non-issue.

So if someone wants to install a single GUI tool instead of a app compatibility layer and a command line tool, they're an idiot?

What if they installed one of those Heartbleed-vulnerable versions of openssl? Are they smart?

I always smile when passing old long-lines towers on the road (or seeing them on top of central office buildings in large cities). You can get an idea of the size and scope of the network at http://long-lines.net/ which has some excellent maps such as http://i.imgur.com/HI0cMJ1.jpg showing the network.