Right, isn't a lot of this stuff done by figuring out how nature does it and then artificially replicating that process? Like gene therapy via retrovirus, for instance.

Maybe William Shatner has started ghostwriting for Slashdot.

Exactly, and that's because Apple treat their customers like shit in the long run. Everything is locked in and locked down.

A piece of hardware where you can't swap out the battery or facilitate easy repairs is an affront to the consumer.

Selling out the last vestiges of their journalistic integrity in exchange for page views.

It hasn't been said yet, but make sure to secure everything as strongly as possible. An amplifier or speakers in the back of your vehicle can quickly turn into a head-crushing projectile in the event of an accident if not properly secured.

Yep, just like how The Pirate Bay got raided that one time and now they're gone forever.

Kim Dotcom has way more money than a bunch of technically literate Swedish dudes. He'll do the same thing TPB did, though. He'll rebuild the site and make it as difficult as possible to take down on a technical level.

I recall Reader's Digest having an article about something similar not too long after 9/11. Basically, they said that if an attack hit Congress while it was in session, the entirety of the Legislative Branch would be paralyzed because, well, the whole country would have to have emergency elections. They advocated electing "backup senators/representatives" who would live in their home state and otherwise work a normal job who could be called up in such a crisis.

"Point of Sale".

But yeah, it can go both ways pretty much.

It'll just turn out to be a massive waste of money.

Hell, you can even take your average user and have them look at a website... almost no one takes .biz, .info, .us seriously. .com, .net, and .org is where it's at.

Is it a bad thing that I read the description and realized I'm basically the opposite of all of those things?

Fuck it, there's probably nothing to this study anyway. Scientists don't know what the fuck they're talking abbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

When I told people that the space shuttles still had stuff like floppy drives and basically were equipped with computers from the 70s-80s, there were very confused. Why isn't NASA running the latest hardware?

It rings true for governments and business alike - reliability and stability are important, and "good enough" is king. There's a pretty decently big local hardware store (7-8 figures of business yearly) that STILL uses the custom cash register and inventory software that they ordered in the 80s. Why? "It works, and unlike Windows PoS our software doesn't really crash or fuck up."

Easy way to put it - if you play the "incoming message" sound from AIM, most people would recognize it. That's significant cultural impact.

Government can't steal the $10,000 in twenties that you have buried in a watertight container under your uncle's barn.

You can't exactly print out Bitcoins and stash them somewhere, now can you?

Cash is the ultimate form of privacy.

It honestly depends on what it's going to be used for. If the end-user is getting their start in video or audio editing, I'd instantly recommend a Mac solely on the software that is only available on Mac. Garageband is fantastic to learn and really easy to pick up, and it's easy to move up to the more professional products when the time comes.

My efforts searching for a Windows equivalent that's as easy to use as Garageband (for my aspiring musician friends) has proven difficult. (Any suggestions would be appreciated.)

What boggles my mind is the missed opportunity at iOs/Android apps.

Have one unit as the "DM". Other people in the same area/LAN can be flagged as players. DM can see everything, players can only see relevant combat data and their own character sheets. You could literally replace all of the paper with a well-written iPad/Android suite and they'd make boatloads of money doing it.

Unfortunately WotC seems content to just re-release the game every five years and clean up on the sourcebooks. It's vile.

As an explanation for the sheer depth there is in 3.5, did you know there's something on the order of 700+ classes and prestige classes in that edition? And that's just in the official sourcebooks.