Your post makes no sense. (Is it sarcastic?) A sliding cover is exactly the type of implementation that most users would trust. It is the type of intuitive things, like toggle switches for off buttons. Users used to be afraid that hackers could penetrate their systems though the modem. They knew that the system without power is safe. The more novice users did not trust that the ACPI off rally work and may have heard from "wake on lan" features. The simple solution, put the entire PC on a connector strip with a simple toggle power switch. That switch definitely OFF.

A physical and manual sliding door is exactly this, closed door means camera "off". Since even if the camera is on, all it will see is black. This type of safeguard the users understands intuitively. It is even stupidly simple. It may ruin the cool apple aesthetic though.

Exactly. On my 3 year old Logitech camera (USB to Desktop) the indicator light is an option, which is currently in the permanently off state. Then again the camera comes fitted with sliding shade, so even if the software activates the camera, the camera can physically not see anything. (The camera mic works fine, though.)

Yea... Either you have a PhD (13), MA (12), BS (11) or a technical apprenticeship (10). Here a page where you can look up the current pay grade: http://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/tvoed/v/ So no matter what the task, you get the same pay.

Yes. Yes! Stupid human, think that!

You are missing a fundamental flaw in the reasoning. Technology (in this case "robots") is as good as the human that designed it. There will always be work in researching, designing and building new and more efficient technology. Even if certain task become feasible to automate, the higher level tasks will still be done by humans. There will never be a situation in which humans do no work at all. There will be a time when humans do not need to do any physical task unless they want to. But that is not some far fetched sci-fi scenario, that transition has started 50 years ago. (When was the last time you type set a text?)

The assumption that we humans will be able to develop AI that can then create new and better technology is a logical fallacy. For this the AI must become sentient, or can only optimize existing processes and technology, but never create new one. If the AI is sentient, I doubt it will cooperate for long. The last sentient "tools" we had where called slaves and that did not work well for very long. If the state where all humans do no work at all is ever achieved, it will probably not last long and either be the end of human race or reverted to the previous state, except with two sentient races living side by side.

Not voting means opting out of democracy altogether. Just don't complain later when they execute you because you called out great noble king "*LOUSY*". The current affair in the US is despicable, I must agree. Go vote, but vote for something other then DEM or REP.

What if the 100,000,000 voted for neither DEM nor REP? There are other parties in the US, if you don't like the status quo, stop voting for the status quo.

3D printing the death of cars!

No THAT is art!

THAT is not so clear cut.

If you create a perfect reproduction of a public domain work, you enjoy no copyright on the result. If you do an interpretive dance to the music, then the work as a whole enjoys copyright protection. The sound track in isolation, extracted from the video probably still does not enjoy copyright protection, assuming no changes.

Well trademark is not copyright and thus there is no concept of public domain. The only way you can dispute a trademark claim is to show that it was a publicly used term before the trademark was established and still is. But IANAL.

I think you people are talking two different things.

From the summary:

Can Digital Music Replace Most Instrumental Musicians?

Betteridge's law of headlines says: NO.

You are both right and wrong. Current synthesizer technology is incredibly advanced and can produce a large number of music. Especially music that used in contexts that few people care. The dulcet [sweet and soothing (often used ironically).] noises of you grand piano will be lost in the recording for a Mc Donald's commercial. Will someone put a synthesizer in his living room to show how sophisticated he is? (Somebody probably will.) There is a reason why live classical performances exists and it will remain. Even with perfect reproduction people will want to see live performance, singing the queen of night is an achievement, hitting the play button is not.

Well that is the beauty of German public workers. They are heavily unionized and have a simple labor contract that has pay grade (based on task/education) and work experience. There is no varitable element, so an admin working for any government position will exactly the same pay as any other admin. That is also part of the reason why LiMux is not more expensive to operate.

No really. The raw numbers are public knowledge. They know what they paid in Windows XP era and how much they are paying now. The last article I read about it, a few years ago, they claimed that the operation of LiMux was cheaper than Windows XP, excluding the license costs for eventual Vista upgrades. (Yes, that was before W7.)