Can't play Astro Chicken without them.

Ok, building a comparable PC will cost nearly the same as what you'd pay for one of these Mac Pro's, give or take a few dollars since you cannot make an exact clone of this thing. The real question, in my opinion, is one more based on cost per performance.

When building out a PC, if you specifically set out to have top of the line, best at the time components you will pay a premium for that. Often, you can get 'the next best' component for a substantially lower price, which would only be a minor decrease in performance. From a performance per dollar perspective, getting the top tier stuff is wasteful.

I suspect that one could build a machine that generally performs 80%-90% in comparison, but cost half of the base model. It would've been nice had Apple offered such an option, but I can see why they wouldn't want to dilute their brand by doing so.

When I first thought of the idea of the printable QR code, I was actually thinking along the lines you are... as an insert to a larger landing zone. I do think you idea is better, having the address information hard coded on the landing zone and having more of an authentication code printout being added per delivery.

Regarding multiple deliveries on a day, or not knowing what day something will deliver, I don't know if such things will be much of an issue when I think of typical uses cases for such a service. I am going to assume that 30 minute deliver will come at a premium price. Perhaps they will end up offering a subscription service like they do with the current Prime accounts. In either case, I imagine that opting to have something delivered that fast would likely mean, or perhaps require, that you are there to actually receive shipment once the drone arrives. I would think if you wanted something that fast, you would already be there in order to make use of said package that fast, otherwise why not just opt for standard 1 or 2 day delivery? As far as knowing what shipment is what, I'd would think its a safe bet to make that drone deliveries would have very accurate, high resolution tracking, perhaps similar to how one can track the location and status of any commercial airliner that you know the flight number of. I don't think there would be a question what is being delivered when. Why not even use its on board camera(s) to stream a private live video of the flight as it approaches your house, assuming there is adequate mobile coverage between point A to point B. That would be fun, at least the first couple times you see it.

As for the bird shit problem, I admit you got me stuck on that one. I suppose there would have to be some sort of backup authentication mechanism in place to handle such incidents. Maybe if primary authentication cannot be made, a photo of your LZ and/or current GPS coordinates on a map are sent to your mobile device app/email for you to approve. It may have to even make an automated call so it gets your immediate attention... I dont know, that is a tough problem to crack.

That's an excellent point, regarding hijacking other people's QR code addressed landing zones. It would be easy to imagine that such an action would be considered theft, or at least can be successfully argued as being so. Putting out a duplicate landing zone with a code that is supposed to be uniquely identifiable is a sort of misrepresentation and fraud I would imagine. It seems it would be the same as if you pried the numbers off your neighbors house and applied them to your own in order to confuse and trick the local UPS delivery man. Doing so also implies the intent to steal. At least, that all seems like common sense to me, but IANAL either. One way I can see to combat this is to have unique QR codes for each delivery that you print out at the time of order... it would be more difficult, though not impossible, to hijack shipments this way. It does create an extra burden on the recipient, as well as on the guys who write the software for the drones, as Im sure reading a code from a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper poses a bit more of a challenge versus something much larger printed on nearly all the surface of a landing zone.

Right, I was thinking the same thing when trying to help explain how this might work to my wife. I suspect that there would be a large landing zone 'card' of some sort, something that can be stored, unfolded and put out on your property. It would probably be provided for free. I'm imagining a black background with Amazon logo, and a large QR code that the drone can use to identify the landing zone. The drone would know how to fly to the general coords of the recipient's shipping address, at which point it would then locate the proper landing zone for delivery.

I don't think it's fair to equate the US's lower life expectancy to the quality of healthcare provided here. There are other factors involved, many which actively make the job of health care providers more difficult. Essentially it comes down to lifestyle. Many of us have very poor diets here, as there is no shortage of unhealthy options to choose from... often these options are the cheapest and most convenient as well. Unless you live in or around a major city center, you're likely getting in a car to do almost any task required outside of your house, so you're not getting around and walking much either. Having regular trips to various spots Europe over the last 10 years, those are two of the main things that I've learned that stand out for me... its unbelievable how better I eat and how much more exercise I get just doing day to day routine type stuff when in an environment that allows for it. Its seems, without any direct intention, I live a healthier life there than I do when I'm back home in the US. I can help but think that such factors significantly affect the life expectancy rate of a populous.

Agree on every point you make, except that I lack your optimism about any savings to be realized by switching to a tablet-only model. The absurd costs of books they would no longer be subject to will likely be offset by the absurd cost of licensing the software/e-book versions of the texts they are replacing.

Desktop developers have handled these issues for 25+ years now just fine. Nothing new.

said no one.

... that you keep the course limited to the 'technical aspects' of the course?

The students would likely be better served if the course focused on the computer science instead of those other sociological and/or political matters.

I remember taking my first similar class in high school. Already being a very limited hobbyist programmer at the time, it was easier for me that most of my classmates. I did learn some better practices, and it was rewarding for me to be able to help out my classmates, some of whom found a few of the concepts fairly alien. The class focused on syntax, logic, and math. That was enough to keeps things moving forward, and by the end of the course, we were all creating simple programs and pleased to see what we can get the computers to do when we put what we had learned into practice.

Looking back at that, I think we'd have been derailed if we were then forced to consider things like digital divide or privacy expectations. I'm not saying that those matters aren't things worth considering, but not in an introductory class. Leave that material for a later elective... let the kids get their hands dirty right out of the gate.

Realizing that having ushers patrol all the screens would both impractical and expensive, I propose each theater complex keep just 1 or 2 people on staff to handle these cases. They can operate out of a central, 'security' type room which has video feeds from each auditorium. The cameras would be positioned near the back of the theater, pointing down at all the patrons. Anytime a phone is operated, its screen is activated and puts out a detectable amount of light. Special software analyzes the incoming video feeds and senses a phone activate by its light output. After a certain configured amount of time (say greater than 5 seconds to rule out any 'accidental' phone usage), an alert can be sent to one of the staff members along with the auditorium and seat number. Staff member will then deal with the problem according to theater policy. The best thing about this is that if people learn about it, they may be able to defeat it by ensuring they don't shine their screens up or back, effectively solving the problem. Of course, this too would probably be too expensive as well.

Actually, best policy ever.

True, but it wont serve the same function as the old start button. I assume those that grumble about its absence are doing so because they used to make heavy use start menu/launcher, which is not returning. The new button will take you to the metro Start screen, which is more or less a full screen replacement of the old start menu that these people miss. So ya, there will be a button there, but I doubt whether the simple addition of a button which is the equivalent of hitting the Win key will make these guys happy.

Get over it. Really, at this point I have to imagine it's not that you're still bothered by this, but just having a reflex where every time Windows 8 is brought up in conversation, you feel the need argue all your perceived weakness of the operating system just out of habit. Please stop, it getting a little old. If removing the start button from windows totally ruined your world, you were doing something wrong.

This has to be the third or fourth story I read in recent weeks where someone made a post or tweet that was either inappropriately worded, or outright incorrect for its purpose, as this one looks to be. In all these cases, the account owners shrug it off as their account being hacked, as if it's something so common it happens to all of us weekly, in order to cover their ass.
It seems 'my account got hacked' is quickly becoming the 21st century 'my dog ate my homework' bullshit excuse. Let's just be sure not to forget the 'bullshit' part of that.