Because Linux still is way behind on the desktop, and even when many things have been fixed over the years, the other OS's available have also matured, and right now a Linux desktop is harder and more time consuming to manage than OSX by any metrics. For the average user, unless you need something specific that only Linux supports (i.e. specific hardware), or unless you are a geek type and enjoy upgrading kernels and recompiling device drivers by hand every couple of months, the Linux desktop experience is still frustrating. Disclaimer: I use Linux on my desktop every day.

That is part of the issue. We would be much better off without 'guards'. People already know what to do in case of an emergency in an airplane these days. Stop wasting money in the TSA.

Right. And what is next? Do we stop using Internet because the NSA reads your emails? How about closing the TSA and firing the members of congress that support measures that threaten individual liberties instead?

TSA's "proper procedures" are not only not proper, but abusive, ineffective, and used to keep our own US citizens in a state of fear and uncertainty. I fail to see a difference between the TSA "procedures" and what a police state will do to their own people. But what is even more worrisome, is how easy most people go along with all this nonsense.

My impression is that Java will eventually relegated purely to in-house software, for large companies that are heavily invested in Oracle. Most of the goodness of Java comes from the Java API's, and these are on a legal battle. Most OS's are already not including the platform by default. At the end, for independent software companies, and specially for small shops, it feels too risky to invest one's time in learning or keeping up with a language that is controlled by a suing-happy company. As much as I despise Microsoft's ways of polluting languages (remember J++?), I think they are orders of magnitude more trustworthy than Oracle.

I think your idea is correct. We tend, however, to be biased to only understand people that is as mediocre as we are, and end up making poor choices when picking our political leaders. This is not just my opinion, it has been studied by scientists at Cornell. Google "democracy chooses mediocre leaders" to get the articles. So the leaders are there, but the average citizen is too stupid to make a good choice. And the average politician profits from this.

Don't be so blind. The customer purchased the computer AND an extended warranty from Apple. The GPU manufacturer said to all parties they will foot the bill for the defective hardware. The repair was free for Apple, but they decided to take this customer to court just because. Then, in court, they lied to the judge, saying that the hardware was different, etc. Apple is usually good with warranties, but notoriously for forcing their way on everybody, be it for good or bad. In this case, they were wrong, and behave like morons, and drag one of their customers to court. It is infuriating.

You can just shift to neutral and brake. No need to turn the car off, just let it revving up until you can brake. Or in a manual car, you can just hold the clutch until you regain control and stop the car, then turn it off. They should just add this to the DMV exam, instead of making cars more expensive, complex, and keep bulking the legislation.

In the long term, and if not corrected, the unequal distribution of wealth in the US will be a major factor for our country decline. In a sense, the people with power to decide is playing against our own country, because their personal interests conflict with the common interests. 50 years from now we will look back and wonder how could we have been so blind.

Both of these (static image where one has to find the car and audio-only GPS) will only help to stress the driver and make him/her waste time trying to figure things out. I was thinking that maybe overlapping actual video of the surroundings (like street view on google maps) and limiting the display to mark/tag what is within the visible range of the driver is a better idea, so if the driver is watching the GPS screen, there is information about the actual road in the screen as well. Still, I do not think GPS is as bad as people texting, and I see people texting while driving pretty much every day in my very short commute to work.

Why has the parent been downvoted? He is right. Using the cell phone to pay has been something commonplace in many Asian countries for the last 10-15 years... I do not know what Apple patent is about, but they certainly did not come up with the original idea.

The issue is not lack of qualified people, but lack of good jobs and opportunities for the qualified people. More people will get advanced degrees if that would guarantee a solid financial outcome with a balanced lifestyle. Today, in America, no training can guarantee both of these. If you are lucky, you can make some money, but chances are your life will be your job. Forget about been able to live without stress, or having a balanced family life.

Microsoft is seeing the advantages that Apple has with its tight control on its software ecosystem, and it is trying to emulate it. But it is too late, and it is too detached from their current model of software distribution for it to work. It is the same they tried to do with the Zune. This will work if they spawn a new company for it, and disassociate the project from Windows in the minds of the customers. Then, they may have a chance to do this and to get a better grip at controlling the hardware (both of which are troubling for us power users, tinkerers, and software developers). Sometimes I think Microsoft somehow is stuck 20 years in the past, no matter how much they try. They sure do have the brains and the money, but they do not have anybody with a vision.

It is not only money. There is something else that is remarkable. Our elected officials listen more to their 'friends' that to the people who vote them in power. And we seem to be complacent with this. Somehow we have to find a way in the US to held individuals working for the government accountable for their actions, if we want the land of the free to be so for our children.

I think if we want to fix this, culturally, we need to get out of the "I want to be rich" idea, because it cannot possibly happening to a sizeable percentage of people without extreme social unbalances. Also, the idea that growth can be sustained indefinitely is a dangerous fallacy. You can keep printing money and raising you salary all you want, but the truth is that we have a limited amount of resources on Earth, and once they are gone there is no more. And we cannot eat money. We are not using these resources wisely, nor we are partitioning them in an equitable way among our society. At some point we need to find a system that is sustainable, or we will either deplete everything, or the control of these resources would be so concentrated that for practical purposes it will be as if they are depleted for 99.99% of the population. The idea that something can grow indefinitely on limited resources is not sound, and can only possibly benefit the individuals that are in control of these scarce resources by means of appeasing the rest of the potential consumers. There is a lack of alignment between what we need to do and what we are told is the solution, and the people who is explaining it to us have not necessarily our best interests in mind. So it is up to each of us to listen to it or not. At some point people has to grow up and start thinking on their own.