Sounds like a good deal. I did opt for a lot more options, tv card, wireless, dual burners, fairly high end card in its day etc., which ate up part of the balance. I know I could have built for a little less, but sometimes it is a matter of putting the risk on someone else, and how much your time is worth at the time. But either way, it shows it pays to buy quality. I'm using that computer right now, on my TV in the bed room :)

I tend to buy boxes with fairly high end parts (not expensive, just high quality), and when I built them I did the same. High end enough that I really didn't have to upgrade until everything was no longer "state of the art", so no parts to recycle in.

My ooold computer has a Q9550 and 8 gigs of ram, just as I ordered it. It is still pretty usable as a daily backup video player, and not bad for midline gaming like Portal 2, Goat Simulator, etc. Upgraded the video 3 years ago, $150-175 for what was then a steal.

5 years old, and the CPU is still on the front page of Passmark, at >4000 pmarks. Not bad. Paid around 1800 without monitor. Upgraded to 7 Pro over Vista, but even the original install is intact. Hard to beat that kind of stability, and not convinced you can build it by hand anymore.

As long as the manufacturing can scale and it does offer the advantages we assume, I would expect in in £300 cameras with 5 years, maybe even cheaper. Look at Gorilla Glass, once they found a market and could scale, now everyone uses it for smartphones.

Generally speaking, anything with lots of parts has more points of failures. Since CFLs all have ballasts, my experience has been that spikes does take a toll, by virtue of them dying after the storm.an incandescent is just a big resister. Yes, it can break but it is fairly tolerant by virtue of being tungsten and having no other parts. This is why I spend the money for the better CFLs. I've been using CFLs for well over a decade now. Been using them since the 90s, so not an expert, but I've owned a lot of them.

"Junior has permission to use this gun, but only at these times"

Are you fucking kidding me? This isn't a toy or an internet device, it is a self defense tool. I think that mandating "smart" guns is stupid, but this is even more stupid. Most people can't even program their DVR, and you want them to program a GUN?

The beautiful thing about a gun is its simplicity: simple point and click interface. Add some basic safety and legal training, and the average person is just fine without any "smarts" to foolishly rely on.

I'm glad to see that even the ACs around here see the benefit of this. I read enough of the article (really) to get a pretty good feel, and wondered if /.ers were going to trash or praise the idea. As a training tool, it is pretty useful, more practical ways than it might seem at first glance, as it is fun enough to keep people's attention when being trained.

And yes, there are some real life parallels to zombies, like the AC said, or rapidly spreading infectious disease. Interesting stuff.

...of bullshit. How this poorly written piece of crap got on Slashdot, I have no idea.

Actually, you are saying that PROFESSIONAL drivers have conversations and don't get into abnormal amounts of wrecks. Ok, I believe that. The bad part is that most drivers are amateurs.

I drive two hours a day on the interstate (not a "professional", just reasonably cautious with phone features built into car and never text and drive). You would be amazed at how many "professional" truck drivers I see crossing the line while fiddling with a phone. Whether they are texting or calling, I don't know. I don't see this daily, but I do see it about once a week. I85 in NC.

Physics.

You've already failed, they don't have magnetic fields. All the oxygen in the world is useless for real habitation without a magnetic field. Not a place I would want to live, with cosmic rays flying through my brain all the time.

In American CIVIL courts, money is king, and often the side with the most money wins. In CRIMINAL court, it is a bit different. One side is always the government, the other is you. There are tons of protections in place.

Where it gets fucked up in the US is Federal criminal law. State criminal law is pretty straight forward, but your protections in Fed cases is greatly reduced. The vast majority of cases are State, not Fed.

Ask Ed Rosenthal, who was convicted of being this mass marijuana producer.....because he wasn't allowed to tell the jury that all the pot was grown only for medical dispensaries. After the case was over, the jury was PISSED OFF and said they would have acquitted. On appeal it was knocked down to "time served" but still. That is the Feds for you, they aren't interested in justice, just notches on their gun barrel.

Guantanamo is a fucked up situation, and it is being used for the wrong reasons in many cases, however, it does prove the fact that if you are on US soil, the government can't do those things to you under the law. Otherwise, Guantanamo wouldn't be used to begin with.

COI isn't against policy, it is simply discouraged. I've participated in a number of policy discussions (as an admin) and tried to initiate a number of policy initiatives on the subject matter, but there is no consensus. Disclosure is a good idea, but in no way, shape or form is it required by policy. Knowingly adding bad material or inaccurate material (regardless of COI) is still prohibited.

Plus the products we sell are the same price they were 10 years ago. We've offset cost increases by increases in productivity, and our margin has actually gone up. I have prime, I would drop it if it goes up. I also have Netflix, which kicks Amazon's ass when it comes to video interface. Amazon is constantly trying to up sell you, making it much harder to find and enjoy videos than Netflix. Right now, I have Prime only for the shipping savings.

I believe utilities have fixed rates, but also charge fuel surcharges, for times when fuel prices go up or down. Even carriers such as UPS, Fedex an long haul truckers do this. Right now, our trucking prices are based on a percentage discount against normal rates, PLUS fuel surcharge, around 22% right now. Power companies do the same. Of course, this varies from state to state.