We're in a recession that is now early in its 4th year, which would make it a depression by most standards. Recessions are normal, depressions are not. The causes of this recession are not normal economic fluctuations, but have real systemic causes, which is why it has lingered on so long.

Unfortunately, I think you are bang on the money. My phone had one software update 6 months in and then HTC EOL'd it. The touch screen has been replaced twice (and it has broken again). The phone just hit 2 years old.

In Canada, the standard term is 3 years. That is, they price phones like so: $600 w/ no contract, $550 w/ 1 year, $500 w/ 2 year, $50 w/ 3 year. It would still cost me $240 to buy out of my last year of this contract and $120 (!!) just to "upgrade" the phone and renew my contract.

I had one coworker who was upset that people expected her to immediately respond to e-mails (during working hours). To drive home the point that e-mail is NOT an interactive communication medium and it is unreasonable to expect an immediate reponse, she decided to look at her e-mails only twice per day (literally closing her mail client inbetween). She told everyone that anything which needed an immediate response should be communicated in person or on the phone. It worked well!

I should clarify that Paranormality doesn't try to find reasons why, eg. ghosts or mind reading could exists, but rather why we believe they do. So, it focuses on psychology, not the supernatural.

I'd highly recommend Peter Watts. Blindsight is a good start, as it is self contained. The Rifters' Trilogy is fantastic, but then you are committing to 3 books.

I also recently read a short story, Wool, by Hugh Howey that I thought was fantastic. Sometimes I just feel like short and sweet, and it delivered.

I've also been reading a bunch of non-fiction lately. So, some non-technical books recently that I liked:

• Paranormality (Richard Wiseman): it goes over the actual scientific reasons for many common paranormal experiences (near death experiences, mind reading, ghosts, telekinesis, etc.).
• Ghost in the Wires (Kevin Mitnick): This is Kevin Mitnick's autobiography and it is actually quite a nail biter. I stayed up late finishing this book in 1 day, as I couldn't put it down.
• The Design of Everyday Things (Donald Norman): Just a fantastic book about the design of everyday things. You'll never look at a door the same way again!

I think the difference is that copyright infringement is mostly perpetrated by individuals, patent and trade mark is left to businesses. To intimidate a person, you threaten them with jail. To intimidate a business, you threaten them with a lawsuit.

But by that logic, leading a sedentary lifestyle will lead to long life. Everyone is different and some people put on muscle mass way faster than others, just from their natural genetics. Being able to put muscle on easier than average is far from a sure ticket to a heart attack.

Well, you can read it as Seagate being content to fall in line. It could also be that consumers are not willing to pay the extra few bucks for a 5 year warrantied drive. If they were, then Seagate wouldn't have reason to cut it.

Will it be removed from the user's machine, or just (I'm going to guess not-so-sliently) "upgraded" to OpenJDK? I'm suspecting the latter. I'll bet there is a big box that comes up, warns the user Oracle's Java is being replaced, and that if they choose not to upgrade, that no new security updates will be forthcoming. Frankly, the bad press from replacing Java is probably better than the bad press that would've come had they left an insecure, non-updateable version of the JVM on all their releases.

More examples: To soft mod my Wii, I just viewed a JPEG. For my phone I installed an app then clicked the "root" button.

And their insurance company probably requires they have lots of real professionals around for the dangerous experiments.

A good screwdriver should hold up to abuse. I bought a cheap set of screwdrivers when I was in college. I was using one to hammer out a pin and after 2 hits the handle broke in half. All of the tools I've bought since then can handle some misuse from time-to-time.

You can, you just can't do it naively. You'll need to do some research. Usually this involves looking at the product page and a quick google search for what networks your carrier supports. However, if you buy your phone without a plan, then chances are you can choose a carrier that supports your phone, rather than a phone that supports your carrier. My phone is unlocked and works on AT&T when I'm in the states, so I got a prepaid plan with AT&T :-)

The parent was modded funny, but this is quite common.

Then don't try out for an athletic team. I used to skateboard after school (it helped we had a skatepark 100m from our school). You can also join houseleague teams or just do your own thing with a friend (eg. tennis). Even if you do try out, I usually find there is a big difference between perception and reality when you fear you may humiliate yourself. I had a friend decide to try out for the school's rugby team on a whim (he was a "weak" nerd type). Turns out he made a great hooker and had a great time on the team that year and made lots of new friends. Regardless, you don't have to be the best at something, or even good at it, to enjoy doing it. Look at all the hoards of bad golfers out there (including me) for proof.