> Fact is most users would easily be just as comfortable on a gnu/linux or Mac machine.

OS/X, sure. For me, Mac hardware, not so much. Generally when a new Mac comes out it's already behind the curve... and then the go and cripple them by making them non-upgradable. Hell, aren't they even GLUING the Macbooks together now making them unserviceable? Between that, the chicklet keyboard, and the one-button touchpad (ugh! Don't suggest multitouch as a workaround), and you've completely lost me.

Linux - I work with it all day long, but on my own time it's Windows. Why? Photoshop and Lightroom CC, Adobe CS2 (I still use Illustrator CS2 - haven't had the need to upgrade to Illustrator 2015/CC), my embroidery machine, games, and 3D Vision. What, Steam is on Linux, you say? Well that's just great... how does 3D Vision work on Linux? Yeah I know there are a few different 3D Vision projects going on but I really don't want to spend more time fiddling with and tweaking my PC instead of actually using and enjoying it.

> To extend this discussion - I rarely use my backups. Let's get rid of those!

I did better than that - to save time and also the hassle of cycling through and keeping track of tapes; I just back up to /dev/null now... and you'd be amazed at how quickly the backup job runs!

> The numeric keypad tends to be pretty highly valued by typists that are 10key proficient and type a lot of numbers. It's actually more common than you probably believe

That's because a LOT of us spent days keying in program listings from Compute! Magazine in the '80s

> By the time it gets to where aliens are going to pick it up and listen to it, the copyright will have expired

Not if Disney gets their way, it won't. Remember, "limited duration" = forever, minus one day.

GOOD -- because what else are receptionists supposed to use their computers for?

modern automobile keys...

... and most watches

> In any case you don't "own" the OS on your computer. You have a license to use it, which is different.

False. I wish people would stop believing and repeating this lie.

You actually OWN that COPY. What you do NOT have is the right to redistribute copies of that copy. If you buy it off the shelf, you OWN that copy just as much as you own that copy of the hardcover or paperback book you bought from Barnes & Noble or from Amazon. You can even resell it, providing you do not retain a copy for yourself (legally, any backup copies must be either destroyed or ownership transferred along with the original).

Subscribed/rented software (Adobe CC for example, or Office 365, or SugarCRM SaaS) is a different matter; you're merely renting the software, so in that case you do merely "have a license to use it."

If you read the story it WAS stalling - it was fly^H^H^Hfalling at 152 knots. The SR-71 can't even fly as slow as the first tankers used to refuel it in air; it had to wait for the tanker to climb to its ceiling and hook up in a dive to refuel.

> Analog Cassettes and 8 tracks also kicked streaming's ass,

This is where he proves to be full of shit.
Have you ever listened to an 8-track? AWFUL SHIT.

Cassette? Perfectly fine - if it was encoded with HX Pro and Dolby C, and you have a deck with Dolby C decoding, AND you've aligned the heads properly, AND demagnetized and cleaned them regularly. In that case it would sound near-CD-quality--- the first few times you play it. Cassettes degrade over time. Streaming already sounds way better than 8-Track (even if highly compressed, low bit rate), and as far as cassettes are concerned... I don't miss them.

Neil Young is obviously deranged from the Damage Done.

Yes. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.

Read about the slowest the SR-71 has ever flown.... scary if true!!

It wasn't that; it was quite profitable.. but it depends on how you look at it. When people say it was expensive and unsuccessful, it's because the R&D for it never got amortized over a large production line, so the limited production drove the per-unit and maintenance costs way up.

Had the USA not enacted insanely tight overland supersonic flights laws (no sonic booms over populated areas, no sonic booms below 60,000', etc) then the SST would have been a longer production run and British and French airlines would have expanded to domestic US service. Outlawing sonic booms was done not because of booms generated by the aircraft (for high altitude craft the boom is usually very faint) but as a protectionist/anti-competitive measure.

That is actually partially true; America hadn't yet built a supersonic passenger jet and outlawed overland supersonic flights over populated areas citing sonic booms (at FL600 sonic boom really isn't much of a problem) to protect the American airline system; having foreign airlines' supersonic airliners take business from American airline companies was unacceptable. It was an anti-competitive move. Had we not done that and in response instead developed supersonic airliners, the problem of sonic booms would have been eliminated a couple decades earlier - it wasn't until recently airfoils with wave cancelling properties (essentially creating two opposite-phased sonic booms) have been developed, so there won't be any need to outlaw low-altitiude sonic booms, let alone ones generated below 60,000'.

Windows 7 Pro's/Ultimate's/Enterprise's Windows XP Compatibility Mode actually uses a FULL installation of Windows XP inside a hypervisor... exactly the same as Virtual PC (it's host is Virtual PC) or VirtualBox. It is absolutely 100% Windows XP compatible because it is a full install of Windows XP; you just won't get hardware video acceleration on many systems.