Passive amplifiers are perpetual motion machines. An echo chamber doesn't amplify, it merely minimizes attenuation.

Do I understand the difference correctly? Transponder = optical receiver, processing equipment and laser which sends a new signal. Amplifier = EDFA?

Well, the electrical and optical conductors are in the same cable, but yes.

Indeed. It seems the word is subject to...

inflation.

But is 95% enough? It reduces the problem for a while, but as long as there are viable mosquitoes left, they'll start breeding again until you're back where you started.

Yes. Categories help, and once I see the name, recognition is usually instant.

In OS X, the Applications folder is one click away. Not ideal, I'd rather have a menu with all of my applications (and I used to have that in OS 9).

You're forgetting that there's not just one Start Menu folder in Windows, there are two: one user-specific and one for all users. So two locations to scan. Are you seriously suggesting this is a good replacement for the Start menu?

Hothardware.com has all of its headlines in English, but using Hebrew script instead of Roman, making the site unreadable. Or is that just me?

Sure, it's faster for the programs you use often enough that you remember their name. That's maybe 20 out of the 200 programs I've installed. Many of those I need twice a year, and searching them by name doesn't work because I can't remember what they're called. I do know I filed them somewhere in Programs->XML tools (or one of a few categories I've set up and that make sense for me). Accessible via one click and a bit of moving the mouse around (in XP or with Classic Start Menu installed), or more clicking and scrolling (in Windows 7). Windows 7 was a regression in this regard, and Windows 8 threw my method under the bus.

Different strokes for different folks. I like the Search option, but for the love of God don't make it the only option.

I, for one, like new things if, and only if, they are an improvement over the old things. That's why I use a computer in the first place: to improve my life and make things easier. Anything that gets in the way of that gets the vitriol poured on.

For something as fundamental as the UI, I have a substantial investment in the old way of doing things. Throwing that away means I have to start learning again, and it'll take a while to get up to the same speed I had with the old UI. This is all wasted time, so the new UI has to be a lot better than the old one to make a switch worthwhile.
Many of the UI changes in Windows have not been improvements at all. Instead MS seemingly randomly moved things around (Control Panel), or they removed functionality (Start screen). So yes, we consider this change for change's sake. I, for one, would welcome some actual improvements instead.

There's also the alienation factor. A new UI feels as if people have broken into my home and rearranged things.

Great: Gb internet. Not so great: provided by Google, who now have even more access to your internet activity. My ISP may be a stodgy old fart incumbent telecoms company, but at least it's not got an advertising agency as its main profit center.

If you backup to an external HD and then stick it in a safe, chances are you won't back up very often: your backup routine contains manuals steps you have to remember/set reminders for.
Also, this HD is used only occasionally, and in my experience that's not a recipe for high reliability: I tried using HDs this way (accessing them only once every few months), and of my limited sample, pretty much every one broke down in a few years. Exacerbating factors: flaky USB enclosures (the tiniest nudge of the connector and it'd interrupt the connection, potentially corrupting the drive) and stiction.
I'd want to carefully monitor the backup drive, reading back what it wrote to make sure the backup matches the source. I'd also want to read the entire drive at regular intervals to pick up signs of trouble at an early stage.
I've got an excellent program (Watchdrives) from a fellow Slashdotter that does this for my main drive: reading the drive using dd in a low-priority process, so that the entire drive gets read once every ~2 months.

The single biggest gripe I have with Windows is that I frequently lose state: I usually have lots of programs and files open. When a Windows update requires a reboot, I lose all of this so I have to spend time reopening apps, finding which files I was working on and reopening them.

Apple has figured this out for OS X, and Microsoft planned it as a feature of Windows 7. I've seen no mention of this for Windows 10. What's keeping them so long?

Will the standard contain provisions for unskippable items? Then I won't buy an UHD player.