But you are still using your cash to support the DVD/Bluray model of DRM on plastic disks. I can't see how buying a DVD is any more morally appealing than buying DRM .mp4s off iTunes.

The obvious reply to this argument is that the companies know exactly how much customers are willing to happily pay, and it is less then they have been paying for the last 20 years of cable. So yes, there are plenty of potential business plans out there that appeal to consumers and still bring studios cash, but they are getting killed because they represent an overall decrease in profits.

Domain squatting and name exhaustion has gotten so bad, it is nearly impossible to create a website brand that doesn't use either some crazy portmanteau or a whole sentence strung together. I welcome the idea of adding hundreds of gTLDs, because over time it will make any one of them less important.

No more will I contemplate shelling out $7,000 because the domain I really want is being squatted. Instead, I will just add one of the hundreds of gTLDs, and make that my brand name.

Also, dibs on http://slashdot.dot/

obligatory

I would extend that to Google, Facebook, and really any tech company. The reality is that many of these companies are one-trick ponies, and despite their best efforts, they are unable to expand. Google really went all out to clone Facebook for G+, and a year later it's a ghost town. Similarly; I can remember when Dell and Sony were the epitome of consumer hardware, and now they've been almost completely eclipsed. There is just no room for second place, and no one stays on top for long.

But those examples are only replacing simple machines with more automated machines. What is really interesting, and what the summary hints at, is the possibility of replacing jobs that have traditionally been thought to require critical thinking.

Imagine a day when I can take my medical concerns to a computer with access to far more expertise than any doctor, or rely on a computer as a lawyer with far more knowledge than any human lawyer. Hell, you probably recoil from the idea of electing an AI president simply because you watched 2001: A Space Odyssey or Terminator and then made up your mind. You racist.

NASA tracks space debris the size of a golf ball, why didn't they see this? This is yet another example of how asteroid detection need a higher priority.

"Without piracy, there is no freedom" ~Descartes ~Michael Scott

That and cable news. I would love to get my parents to switch, it kills me to see them sending $100 to Comcast every month. But they are absolutely addicted to the talking heads. I have tried to introduce them to online news, but so far online news is mostly text based with short video clips. Until there is a mainstream site that streams 24 hour news presented by a human, they (and many others) will never give up their precious cable.

No No No, every argument about Solar/Wind energy is so far away from meaningful topics. You are going to get nowhere protesting their ugliness when compared to oil and coal. You will also get nowhere with numbers, as many people stop listening as soon as you quote a figure. This is a proper way to frame your argument:

1. In order to get off the hydrocarbons, we will need to increase our electrical consumption many times.
2. Solar and Wind power will never provide a base load. What if a volcano erupts and you have a decade of bad weather?
3. Solar and Wind suck raw materials at a rate that does not justify their wattage offering. Nobody in their right mind would call intensive mining "green".

This way, you don't get bogged down in arguments about whether Solar/Wind can replace our future need at year X, if they are deployed over area Y, and meet efficiency Z. The three arguments above illustrate to anyone why we should focus on modern nuclear first, and only afterwards be considering Solar/Wind in certain areas for peak demand.

You know what is hilariously ironic about that statement? Slashdot is a corporate controlled social networking platform, and has been since long before Rob left. Only after this community is able to produce an open-source, easily manageable, non-corporate alternative will I begin to pay attention to people who claim that Facebook is replaceable.

I don't really see how IPv6 could help this problem, the government can still just operate a bunch of nodes, and then block anyone who tries to connect using tor. And nothing will ever ease the risk of operating an exit node, where you can get slammed for other people's traffic. The only reason Tor works in other countries is because of legal arguments about Tor operators not being liable for Tor traffic. Outside of a local network or a darknet where all peers know each other personally, there is no such thing as un-censorible network. That is why it is important to take an interest in government.

On an unrelated note, I don't see you point about IPv6 being DOA. In torrent swarms, I usually connect to 1/4 to 1/3 of the users using IPv6. Contrast that to zero this time last year.

I would venture a guess that most of those Chinese tourists are part of the privileged upper class who live (or reside) in one of the economic zones that the Great Firewall doesn't cover anyway. Their lives are relatively good, and they are not going to rock the boat.

The people behind the firewall are in no position to leave, even for a short while.

Because of the nature of piracy, any speculation about its effect on the market is just that, speculation.

So allow me to speculate. From casual conversations with people over the last decade, it seems to me that piracy was far more "mainstream" (and thus common) in the early days than it is now. Services like Napster, KaZaa, and Limewire were popular and easy to use, providing an essentially iTunes-like experience: "type song into box, click download". When people casually spoke of "downloading a song", it was clear they meant these services.

Now, the simplest method in widespread use is torrenting, and for many people that is just too many steps. I have coworkers who used Limewire religiously, but simply can't/won't navigate the world of torrents. Not to mention the fact that many torrent index sites are COVERED in porn, which is a real turn off for the mainstream (especially girl) crowd.

So where did all those former Napster/KaZaa/Limewire users go? They went to iTunes, because even though it costs money, it provides the experience they understand and are used to. So what I'm suggesting is that piracy in numbers of people is less of a problem in 2012 than it was in 1999-2006.

The amount of paper/wood/plastic school supplies my elementary school "required" easily cost more than a budget notebook if spread out over 2-3 years.

Of course, I'm picturing some kind of ARM Linux notebook, a First World OLPC of sorts. But if it was done the way every institution I have seen does it, then you need Dell Core iX desktops with 22" screens and a full copy of Microsoft Everything. Either that or a fleet of 17" Macbook Pros.

I mean, they are buying those with tax money. At that point it becomes a matter of thrift, not of fanboyism.