The A380 is not a competitor or substitute for the 787. The A380 is Airbus's bold bet on hub-and-spoke flight operations, and most closely competes with the Boeing 747 series. The 787 is designed for a smaller number of passengers than the A380 while having long range options, making longer point-to-point routes possible. Airbus's answer to the 787 is the A350, which has been redesigned several times. The A350 has 505 "firm" orders, while the 787 has 840 "firm" orders.

Having managed old infrastructure boxes in the past, I know it's harder than it sounds. The reliability was rock solid, but as demands of the network grew - not only in numbers of nodes but the way the nodes were used - and security concerns mounted, it was no longer feasible to maintain the boxes as-is.

Compiler, library, and package management changes over that time period makes it difficult on *nix boxes and Windows support expirations likewise make it difficult in Windows land. You reach a point where the time invested to patch a system exceeds the cost of replacing the system. Additionally, the downtime from the patch process (good luck finding a decent staging server for something seven years old) offsets the purported reliability of the setup. Lose a major component on one of those machines and you'll get a crash course in starting over and modernization.

Scheduling a credit card payment and mortgage payment for the end of the month, before you leave the country for a month won't show up until they hit the accounts affected. Nor will a check you write and mail to someone who might take anywhere from 5 to 30 days to deposit it. By putting transactions in on the anticipated date, you can see both the current, real bank balance, and the virtual balance at points in the future. This makes it easy to manage your cash flow, especially if you want to maximize your return on cash rather than just keeping large balances in a checking account. It also makes it easy to avoid negative balances, overdraft fees, and late fees.

If you signed your card and reported it stolen immediately (within 48 hours), most banks would give you zero liability and legally the maximum liability is $50. Your liability is $0 if you report its loss/theft before it is used. Carrying a credit/debit cart has less risk potential than carrying any amount of cash over $50.