No comments about the countless clerical, finance, and other sorts of people who enter, proofread/correct, analyze, update, and/or look up data stored somewhere: the desktop historically, or the cloud (if one, or one's management, is willing to take a chance that everyone between you and your data will vote unanimously to allow you to get at the data on any given day). These people doubtless outnumber all the AutoCAD and software development people by a huge margin. It seems inconceivable that they could do their jobs with tablets or, even worse, a phone or something like Glass. For them, I imagine a good-sized screen and a keyboard will always be needed. Whether these essential I/O devices are driven by a phone (with still more third-parties getting between you and your work) or something else isn't important. It needn't have the same form factor as a desktop, but it will need much of the same I/O and connectivity as a desktop.

I became annoyed with an employee who received a LOT of cell phone calls during my infrequent, but necessary meetings with operations managers. Finally I placed a bucket of water by the door and as people entered the room and informed them that, as a security precaution, any cell phone brought into the room had to be placed in the bucket during the meeting. Thereafter, cell phones were left outside and out meetings became shorter and were not interrupted. Yes, I'm over 40, and I still think using a device for talking, texting, surfing or anything else when engaged with one or more live people is inexcusably rude.

So, apparently are spelling and grammar (oudated idea's - SIC).

http://www.consumerreports.org/

Too bad Mondelez can't figure out how to package Triscuits without breaking 1/3 or so of every box.

Anyone needing to produce good-looking print-form documents from content that "lives" on the web should check out http://www.princexml.com/.

Prince supports most CSS3 and has a number of CSS extensions that help you control formatting. So getting well-formed and styled HTML to print beautifully is a relatively painless step forward.

We wring our hands at the accursed sellers and buyers of our browsing habits. We glibly ignore what happens when we sit for a few hours in front of a television screen. Knowing our browsing habits gets us targeted ads. Getting our minds in a receptive mood by showing the trash that passes for content on commercial TV, then cramming crafty advertising into those receptive minds impels us to do things we wouldn't be predicted to do, which is manipulation.

Why do Americans lust after 2-ton gas-guzzlers to taxi the kids to school and fetch a couple of bags of groceries from the supermarket? Why does PHaRMA spend untold billions advertising expensive drugs that, in many cases, are no more effective than over-the-counter remedies? Why do so many of our people live in McMansions so expensive they are a paycheck away from foreclosure? Because advertising to minds pried open by "must-see" TV works.

The TV tells them what they want and how to get it - no money down, pennies per week. And this relentless barrage of hard, soft, and subliminal sales messages passes into the TV-watcher's mind with nothing getting in the way like critical thinking, priorities, or social or environmental concerns.

We ought to be more worried about what 10-20 hours watching TV every week is doing to us and our society than whether Google is showing us an ad for suntan lotion after we've booked a trip to the Caribbean.

How many years have drones been flying for DoD? And they are just now getting around to thinking about how to avoid other aircraft? Is that "air superiority" or "air-rogance" or just stupidity?

All flights by all the armed services within the US, and most outside, are "routine" or "routine training" flights. where "routine" means "Hey, we do this all the time! What could possibly go wrong go wrong go wrong..."

Damned lib'rel Democrats.

The rules in the article are as follows:

"Regulators would require drivers to undergo criminal background checks, receive driver training, follow a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and alcohol and carry insurance policies with a minimum of $1 million in liability coverage."

That seems like some pretty heavy lifting that will probably dissuade lots of otherwise good-natured and willing drivers, no?

Another thought crime.

...and then they came for me.

Forgot something:

"...Russia or China" or Big PhaRMA or AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans) or the NRA or...