Yes, there much chit-chat, but the chit-chat serves a purpose. Socializing with someone and building a relationship with them accelerates your ability to communicate with them when the real work needs to get done. However, time spent building those relationships may not be worth it if you don't end up needing to do real work together all that much.

I actually do this with a laptop. I tilt the top of the stand back so that it is almost flat, then set the laptop in place. It seems to work well.

It also works in evince.

More simple, but processing that way wouldn't plate copper in the holes drilled for vias. It sounds like you're forgetting that step.

Inner layers are processed as you would expect. Etch resist is applied to the areas you want to keep, then copper is etched away. The outerlayers are different. The resist image applied to the board exposes the what you want to keep. It can be considered a "plating resist". The exposed image is then plated with copper (this is where the hole walls get plating) then tin. The resist is then removed. The tin then acts as the etch resist. It's a pain to etch through copper. That is why copper plating is only applied to where it is needed.

I'm surfing slashdot from a PCB shop right now.

I have heard of people dialing their phones with their nose before. In cold weather, a gloved hand can't use the capacitive touchscreen, but you're nose will work just fine. It's not really "Hands Free" if you're still holding it with your hand.

Even if everybody is tracked this information is available to everyone, it still isn't fair to individuals. Everyone can watch and pick apart the lives of an individual, but an individual cannot watch everyone else at the same time to the same degree.