The problem comes when a student needs a computer for homework or a hobby, but the parent is unwilling to provide one because "You have an iPad; why aren't you happy with that?" See previous comments by betterunixthanunix and Anonymous Coward.

Both to them and to the cellular carrier. Connecting to them requires a valid subscription to Internet access. Doing so while riding transit requires a separate subscription to cellular Internet access in addition to what you already pay for Internet at home.

Anything that requires multiple windows on screen at once. One example is using a calculator that doesn't fill the screen. Another example is putting a source code window on one half of the screen and the output window on the other half.

Or applications that Apple has not approved. One of them is programming for a class or a hobby. Last time I checked, programming on iOS was limited to a small selection of interpreters for dynamically typed scripting languages such as Codea (a Lua interpreter) and Pythonista (a Python interpreter). On a netbook, on the other hand, if I want to use C++, Java, Fortran, 6502 assembly language, or any other language, usable tools are a sudo apt-get install away.

(For the purposes of this post, I'm treating the ASUS Transformer Book, Surface Pro 3, and other Windows x86 tablets as laptops. My objection is not to the tablet form factor but to the restrictions inherent in iOS.)

Obligatory Henry Ford reference: The Nook Simple Touch can display any color you want, so long as it is black... or grey.

Naive is a version of untrustworthy. Ask your Nigerian Banker.

So what you're saying is that there is old hardware that will only work if you make your system insecure. OK.

FWIW, I don't consider any system that allows remote sessions to be secure. Period. So you need to isolate such systems. (This isn't an argument that you shouldn't run such systems. Just that you should take precautions.)

As an aside, I think that allowing compressed files to be expanded with the execute bit set is also a security hazard...just one that's probably worth the cost. In most circumstances. (And hazard isn't the same as hole. Not quite.)

You are making the assumption that they didn't intend this result. Or at least that they weren't aware that this would be the result. I find that quite dubious. As you say, it was obvious by inspection

OTOH, what would have been the result of disbanding the Iraqi army? You've created a bunch of people trained in violence suddenly out of work. I'm not convinced that it would have resulted in a better situation, though clearly it would be a different situation. And long term occupation would also have tremendous probabilities for disaster.

The real mistake was deciding to invade. After that I don't think there was a decent exit strategy...not if you are counting human cost. But this *must* have been obvious ahead of time, so clearly that wasn't their consideration. Who benefited? Who expected to benefit? How? It strikes me as a clearly political decision with only political gains.

True, there also needs to be a maximum length of any given law which includes in the length all other laws cited by reference.

I also think there needs to be a reasonable test for intelligibility. It's not right that everyone should understand every law, that's an impossibily high bar, but an average high school senior should. And at minimum should be able to. I can't think of a simple way of phrasing that test though that isn't of the form "Take a bunch of average high school seniors and have them write an essay about what the law means, and what it means is the intersection of what they claim it means", and that's also a poor idea, because it would eliminate everything...but I can't think of an objective "average understanding" evaluator.

On this PC (Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell), it's Ctrl+Esc (opens Start), Alt+U (opens Shut Down menu), Down, Down, Enter. It's probably similar for Windows 7. Which operating system is your PC running?

If they can physically do that, then you have a problem. I hear even Windows comes with IPSEC, maybe you could do something about that.

Sure you can, just use an OTG Y-Cable.

Then what's better for people in the middle? They're not "developers" because they are not directly involved in the production of computer programs, but they're not "consumers" because they do not exclusively view works created by others. Besides, schoolchildren are "developers" in training now that "introduction to computer science" has been added to high school curricula.

Hmmm... *skims summary* I know, let's talk systemd!

I'm gonna insert my reply to an earlier comment of yours here to save me time and space, and because it's a good preface to my reply to this comment anyway:

No, these dodges should not exist.

Yes, you have this part right.

And now, my reply to this comment:

No, you have this badly wrong. If you make corporations pay their taxes, then the costs are passed down to the consumers of their products. But if you don't, then the costs are passed down to every citizen.

I think you have to give basically all of the credit to the people who do the interfaces. That's the only place where Apple ever seems to have a clear advantage, the very early G5 era aside.