The RTM of windows 7 has been out for 2 months now? 3 by the street date of Oct 22nd.
This time is of course used for manufacturing, marketing, etc.
Meanwhile they should be offering fully updated ISOs directly on the windows site for everyone and anyone to download - the OS itself contains its own validation so there's no harm in letting anyone download it. Then you buy your key digitally with a steam-like system, this would even benefit Microsoft by serving as a key registration system.

Thermal conductivity of the concrete isn't that important, he has more than enough surface area on his copper pipe to spread the relatively small bit of heat from a computer that it should be able to transfer it to the concrete, no matter how inefficently.

Extremely difficult, but it is purely a matter of technical skill. The intent when photographing a painting (in this manner at least) is to capture the original as perfectly as possible, and to NOT add any artistic variation. It takes skill yes, but a display of skill is not by itself art. There was a Star Trek episode about this very thing when Data was painting, or playing music - while I don't recall the details of the episode(s) I do recall there was some implication that he had a perfect technical skill, but lacked artistic ability.
It takes a lot of mathematical skill to solve certain equations, but I wouldn't call the solution art even if it was the solution to a Millennium Prize problem.

That depends on the reader being at or near the geographical location of the painting. When reading an article about the Mona Lisa on Wikipedia, I expect to see a photo of the article in question for purpose of discussion, not "to see this painting, please visit the Louvre in France"
I'd simply go elsewhere to find a picture.

I wasn't too sure whether to mod you up (anyone advocating safe driving certainly should be heard) or reply with a disagreement..

1) Perhaps the bycyclists should start footing that bill?
How about bike registration and insurance if you have >13" wheels and ride on any public bike lane. The insurance would be some $20/year anyways, it's not like there's much potential public liability.

2) while I advocate better and safer driving, if a road is 45 around a bend, I go 45 (I interpret 45 around a corner as being a bend in the road, not a literal street on to avenue corner). No slower, no faster, everyone going the same speed is the safest possible condition, whatever that speed may be.

On a somewhat more serious matter than this poll, I have always thought federal election ballots should always include a "none of the above" option.
This would give us a quantifiable measure of dissatisfaction with the choices. I think it would also increase voter turnout, possibly with "none of the above" gaining some kind of majority as a form of protest.

?tac gniretsam

The 'dimming the desktop' isn't just to catch the users attention. When a UAC prompt comes up it does so on the secure desktop, where mouse and keyboard can not be manipulated by a program. For example, when using synergy http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ I was unable to interact with the UAC prompt without using the local keyboard/mouse.

To my knowledge, it's not adhering the tiles that's so difficult, it's the fact that the tiles are very fragile, and tend to break chunks off themselves (likely leaving the adhesive behind)