Windows 8 was just fine after adding ClassicShell and forgetting about Metro. Awesome fast boot times compared to Windows 7, and equally stable.

I just finished upgrading one of my macines to Windows 10. Painless, and so far I like what they've done with the place. Time to desktop is slightly slower but still good.

I did go through the advanced setup options and disabled most of the stuff that shares my data, location and wifi credentials (WTF?!) with MS

This remark is particularly funny:

Right. Of those two companies, only one has pretty much built their entire business model around harvesting your data 6 ways from Sunday, and the other one hasn't.

No. This is innovation because they are using 3d printing (ohhh!); any problems of a practical or fundamental nature will be fixed at a later date. Maybe.

I wonder: how many different drones for different missions would you really need? And can't they achieve the same by building a tested, stable, flyable drone platform, then adding attachments (3d printed or from stock) according to each mission's needs?

I hope he got off on the right foot as well. Did they give him any?

What they also get is every drunk idiot in the area coming to look and pee at that new magic pee repelling wall. Maybe someone will come up with a fun drinking game for it.

Does flying a drone over someone's property constitute criminal trespass (in Kentucky)?

It's kind of the same reaction that Glass wearers got. People object to being filmed in certain places like bars or beaches. If I went round the beach taking pictures of random people, I would be expecting some strongly worded objections as well. And even if the family was clearly flying the drone for fun, those people would still object to the footage being posted to YouTube as "Our outing at Baker beach".

Personally, I don't want to be filmed either... but I don't think it's necessary to be an a-hole about it.

If the the burglar is in your home already, then it's safe to say that several of those requirements for the Castle Doctrine have been met. Blast away...

It's not explicitly mentioned but falls under harassment and privacy laws. There is plenty of case law in various countries that do explicitly mention outing an employee as an actionable offense.

And what do the rest of the Koreans use?

Anyway, MS still reigns supreme on desktops and laptops. The only significant change to that is the fact that tablets and larger smart phones have been eating into the PC market.

Worse: face recognition software is getting better all the time, and it's only a matter of time before search engines and social media start tagging images. Once something or someone puts your name to your likeness online, all (or at least a good many) images with you in it can be found by typing your name into Google.

What legislators can do is to make it very clear that private life stuff should stay out of the workplace, and not affect job applications or performance reviews. Put it on the same level as discrimination, outing a homosexual against their will, etc, for which such laws already exist. These laws have not eradicated discrimination and homophobia from the workplace, and neither will they put an end to employers misusing info gleaned from social media sites, but they have helped.

Cheap ones, yes. They are especially vulnerable to tampering, just like cheap keyed locks and cheap electronic locks. Sometimes these locks can simply be opened by bouncing or hitting the safe just the right way. The more expensive locks can be defeated but it takes more time, patience and skill. You get what you pay for, and high security dial locks go from $100 to over $1000 (just for the lock).

It really depends on what you are keeping in there. Mechanical spin locks take time to open and have an extremely low Wife Acceptance Factor. Good for cash and valuables but not so good for jewelry or shared stuff, or for guns you keep for home security. Keyed locks have the disadvantage of requiring you to carry the key, and like spin locks they are not so good for stuff you may have to get out of there in a hurry, but good for cash, jewels and documents. Electronic locks are great if you need your safe open in a hurry, or where you want convenience: good for guns & car keys you want to keep safe from your kids or an amateur burglar.

The high school level is a recommendation that is based on the teacher's evaluation, not on a test. There is a test, but schools can only adjust their recommendation upwards if a student exceeds expectations on the test, they cannot lower it if the student does badly. Not all schools will let you enroll at a level exceeding the recommendation, but some do if they feel grades and performance are sufficient. Some high schools that teach at multiple levels have a "bridge year" which is the same for everyone, after which they perform their own evaluation. So the system isn't as rigid as it seems. Even so, I do agree that the UK system is better if it can accommodate all those students taking classes at their own level (no idea how that works out in practice).

I'd like to add that I have never heard of anyone being viewed in a negative light for having climbed a level or two, on the contrary. First of all, it's not public knowledge and employers do not need to know. Second: going that route demonstrates perseverance... which is probably why not a single person I have ever met was hesitant to admit that they got a lower recommendation and later made up for it.

In the Netherlands, we have had something like that for a long time now. After elementary school (at 12 years), children receive a recommendation for one of the various levels of high school: from lower vocational education (VMBO, 4 years) to pre-university (VWO, 6 years). It is possible to go from one level to the next, by graduating and then enrolling in the last-but-one year of the next level. That means you lose a year going up each level, which gives you an idea of the difference between the levels. Some schools that teach at multiple levels will allow you to switch during your education, sometimes with some remedial summer school being necessary.

From what I understand, the schools in the UK teach each subject at various levels, and you can sort of decide for yourself to what level you want to take each subject. That could be even better if the class roster is flexible enough: good students could race ahead to the more advanced levels for some subjects, while taking the stuff they have more difficulty with at the regular pace. In a flexible system like that you do need to have strong and continuous guidance: some kids need a lot more structure and hand-holding, and for that age group you need to have some rules in place to ensure that each kid picks the classes and levels that they can cope with, and realises their maximum potential (instead of just coasting on an easy selection of subjects that isn't worth squat).

Another advantage of such a system is that a student does not need fear they'll flunk and are held back an entire year; if they get inadequate scores on a few subjects, they can just repeat those the next year and continue to level up in their other subjects.