USB is the "mainstream, use for anything" connector. USB SS+ with type-C and 100 W power delivery makes it even moreso.

Thunderbolt is external PCI Express. Over long distances with optical cabling. Yes, there are few places in which TB is better than USB SS+, but in those places, USB SS+ can't compete - at all.

Need a 20 Gb/s connection to your storage array in the next room over? USB SS+ can't do that. Need an effectively-zero-latency connection to an external sound/video editing rig? Yeah, PCIe is your format, over Thunderbolt.

And don't expect Thunderbolt to sit still, either. While USB has plans to increase speed, so does TB. TB has PCIe3 coming up, and other improvements.

No, I never expect Thunderbolt to become even as mainstream as FireWire was, but it most certainly won't just go away, either.

First implies an order.

An order implies there is more than one.

Han doesn't shoot *FIRST*, Han shoots.

There is no "first," because there is no "second."

There is no "second" because Greedo doesn't shoot at all.

Stop with "Han shoots first" - start with "Greedo never shoots".

Hell, one of the reasons the Prius is more reliable is its replacement of ultra-complex electronic transmission with an ultra-simple mechanical planetary transmission!

Amazon and iTunes both allow DRM-laden *DOWNLOADED* movies. No, it's not "unlimited watch for a monthly price," but it's not DRM's fault. You're picking a completely different delivery mechanism.

FireWire is a keyed-connector. That doesn't prevent them from being plugged in backward. As I have done on more than one occasion where the socket was "loose", allowing the keying to not work, allowing the plug to be plugged in backward.

Which promptly puts up to 45 Watts of power into the data pins.

Which tends to fry the device.

Cables that can't be plugged in wrong because there IS NO "wrong" are best - just plug it in. Don't worry about how you're plugging it in, if it seems like it will fit, it's good.

VirtualBoy, Sony's head mounted displays from the late '90s/early '00s, Oculus Rift - they all have the problem that they are something that separates you from reality, rather than replacing it.

We won't have "virtual reality" become truly mainstream/big until we have something either "full-immersion dedicated room" like the Star Trek holodeck or "so personal you don't even notice you're wearing it" like VR contact lenses. Until then, it will be the ultimate niche-within-a-niche. And the holodeck idea will be a destination, with only the rare person having one in their house. (See true "home theater" rooms now - they're still really rare.)

I can handle hot (yes, I've tried a Trinidad Moruga Scorpion,) but it's not "enjoyable" to have a hot pepper solely due to hotness, either on its own or in a dish.

The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion wasn't bad - it actually had a nice, almost sweet taste at first before the hotness kicked in. But by and large, "hot for hotness sake" isn't good. I don't like Sriracha, it's "just hot" with no good taste to it. I like mild peppers to just eat plain/raw, and I do like some dishes spicy-hot, but there needs to be *TASTE* with it.

Note that I only tried a small piece of the Scorpion. My wife and a few friends did a "pepper challenge" (eat a whole pepper, chewing thoroughly, then don't drink/eat anything else for at least five minutes.) I knew I picked the right wife. She barely even broke a sweat. The other woman participating was sweating heavily, and obviously working hard to avoid showing pain. The man who participated was hilarious - he kept saying he was dying, turned bright red, saying "kill me, kill me now..." etc. At one point he burped toward one of the bystanders, and the bystander had to go wash his eyes out - saying it felt like he had just been pepper sprayed! (And he would know.)

As others have said, the walled gardens are *EXTREMELY* safe. iOS App Store and Google Play are both *VERY* safe.

Jailbroken iPhones are targets, but most people concerned with open platforms are on Android - and sadly Google has gotten people used to "going off-reservation" for some apps. (Is Kindle Market available to install direct from Google Play yet? Or do you still need to root and side-load?)

Symbian is effectively dead (the former leader of malware,) and Palm is all but buried at this point. Not sure about CrackBerry's ecosystem. Microsoft's is basically as safe as Apple's.

That leaves Android as the only reasonable target for malware. Sort of like how in the '80s, Macintosh was the primary target for viruses, as it was the most likely to be networked - then as Windows got internet-connected, it became the prime target.

I think you need to research how government-mandated insurance works... The government doesn't make a dime off the insurance companies. And socializing would mean the exact OPPOSITE of what you claim - socializing would make the GOVERNMENT own the liabilities, and the PEOPLE own the profits.

Note: I'm not saying that socialism is good - mostly because "pure" socialism has never happened. Nor has "pure" communism. Every country that claimed to be communist ended up as a dictatorship under the veneer of communism. Pure socialism and pure communism are always doomed to fail because people are inherently greedy - corrupting the systems.

Gene Roddenberry's original Star Trek is as close to "pure communism" that has ever been portrayed. And like in Star Trek: we couldn't handle that system at present. (I don't think we ever will.)

WHINE WHINE WHINE I DIDN'T GET ANY WHINE WHINE WHINE

This is news because it is someone giving free stuff to open source developers!

Solely as a thank you for being developers that helped them succeed.

Wow. Troll? No - truth.

Go ahead and play politics - but if your mission is "...to empower a global volunteer community to collect and develop the world's knowledge and to make it available to everyone for free, for any purpose." then to me "make it available to everyone" is primary take away.

"Make available to everyone" means *MAKE AVAILABLE*. They're not the Free Software Foundation. They're not GNU, they're not even Creative Commons. Their mission is to make the information available to as many people as possible. To me, this means that supporting closed FORMATS for open INFORMATION gets to the maximum number of people.

They also specifically call out that they are about "free content" - notably SEPARATING it from "open content". The part of the content they care about is the freedom of the CONTENT itself. Public Domain, CC-licensed, etc. The mission of Wikimedia doesn't mention supporting OPEN content as a priority. And that is as it should be!

Yes - it's called "most people don't care what their computer or mobile phone runs - they just want things to work when they click/tap them."

When a kid in middle school, working on a Windows XP computer that the district can't afford to replace, and can barely afford to (under)pay an IT staff to maintain, accesses Wikipedia to do research for a report, and can't view the video because IE doesn't support Ogg, that kid gives up on Wikipedia.

When a grandma, working on her iPhone, tries to watch a short video about a topic she's interested in, and can't, she gives up on Wikipedia.

You're absolutely right - it is wrong. And Wikimedia stubbornly sticking to "free only!" doesn't fix it. Even a giant "YOU NEED AN OPEN PLATFORM TO VIEW THIS - CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE!" when you try to view a video will only scare people away, not get them to move to open platforms.

If the kerfuffle over this has one positive outcome - it will be the insufferable, ridiculously self-righteous Wikimedia users leaving en masse and making Wikimedia a much nicer place to contribute again...

Y'all are wusses. ROT-1053 or nothing.

You're right, the US Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs,) only affect the USA, and had no impact on the ozone layer (well, except the one banning CFCs, see below.)

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs,) on the other hand, have had a scientifically-demonstrated effect on the ozone layer, and have been banned essentially world-wide since 1994.