Yeah, you'd think I ran a small datacenter...

(And while I do like to joke that to friends, I don't actually.)

A couple machines running multiple VMs don't help the count, either.

But the Humpty-Dumpty sense is the best sense!

And, of course, you are completely correct. I should have used i.e., not AKA.

It was a dumb Americansism-abused-grammar mistake. I shall claim "it was written half past midnight in a sleepy stupor" as my excuse. :-P I am normally a spelling/grammar pedant; this just shows that even OCD grammarians screw up once in a while. (In general, if my spelling or grammar is incorrect, it's on purpose for humorous effect.)

agora was. I know because I had it. I know because a friend and I convinced Alan Batie (the owner/operator) to install a SLIP daemon in 1987.

Many years later, I worked at Intel, and looked up Alan. I had to introduce myself to the man that, to me, "gave me the Internet." He remembered me. (Or my user name, anyway.) I was more flattered by that at the time than if a sports star or president had told me they remembered me.

If you read, he supplied more computers than Dell and Gateway combined....... Before 1993.

While both Dell and Gateway existed since the '80s, neither were international powerhouses until the mid-90s. I'm sure both HP and IBM were blowing this guy out of the water in Ireland.

I mean, I sold more cell phones worldwide in 2006 than Apple and Google combined, for crying out loud! (AKA: I sold one.)

Portland had "agora" in 1985. PDxs and Teleport joined in 1987.

Yeah, not the first. There were multiple public ISPs in Portland in 1989. PDxs, agora, Teleport...

One is still around, nearly 30 years later - Raindrop Laboratories http://www.rdrop.com/ still has its "vintage" mid '90s web page, too. (It has been around since 1985.)

For both sources.

My most recent have been the new low-cost LEDs. I only bought my first batch about six months ago. I have been replacing CFLs as they fail, so only have four LED bulbs in service at the moment - ranging from about a week to 6 months in service.

The oldest in-service has been on continuously for the full 6 months. (It's the "basement night-light" on a ceiling mount that doesn't have an off switch. It's a 6-watt LED / "40 Watt equivalent".)

My earliest batches of compact fluorescent bulbs were terrible. The newer (2005+) batches are just starting to fail.

I bought a used lamp for $25 that came with two bulbs in it. But previous to that, the last time I acquired a light bulb separate from a device, it was free through my local utility's "order a free package of energy efficiency items!" program. It included two standard-base CFL bulbs, two candelabra base bulbs (ironically between ordering and getting delivery, we had replaced the last candelabra-bulb fixture in the house,) plus a low-flow water faucet attachment, and a couple other things I'm forgetting.

I am now down to just one spare bulb left, and it's a nasty incandescent. Going to have to head to Home Depot for some cheap LED bulbs soon.

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.