As many have already pointed out, it's irrelevant. Different tools do different jobs better, and that's just the way it's always been. I find managing my email in a GUI a hell of a lot easier than a command line for example, but when it comes to managing the Brocade switches at work (I'm at least partly a storage admin) it's a hell of a lot quicker for me to SSH in and type a few commands. Of course, it doesn't help that the Brocade GUI is probably one of the worst out there but my point still stands. Managing the SANs I manage is actually easier with a well designed GUI (primarily Compellent at the moment) because I don't have to use my own brain-cycles to visualize it; I can see it on the screen. But yes, if I'm doing bulk stuff then dropping to a command line is key. Similarly, I also manage vSphere... for day to day management the GUI is pretty good but when doing a lot of repetitive stuff I use PowerCLI which is VMware's PowerShell extensions... they work fantastically well and make me look like a hero.

Now having said that I do see the point of the article a little. My personal feeling is that as a parent it falls to me to make sure my son is familiar with the command line and sees the value in it as well as the GUI. I decided to put my money where my mouth is and bought him a Fuze for Christmas. I was concerned he would hate it because he is used to having a Windows-based laptop and is well familiar with the GUI tools there. But he has really taken to it, learning BASIC programming and fiddling with the command line with a few things I've taught him. In fact this morning I was having a hard time getting out the door and heading to work because he wanted to show off the program he'd written to flash a set of LED's in the breadboard in sequence. I was incredibly proud of him for it and wanted to show my enthusiasm. I was late for work and didn't care.

Honestly the way I see it; my 13 year old boy if he continues on this path will be programming and working with the hardware that goes into satellites, space probes and the like where a BSOD cannot be tolerated. He will have work for life because there will be even more need for the microcontroller programmers in the electronic, wearable and increasingly digital world he will grow up in. Meanwhile his peers will compete to administer Windows computers and maybe write apps for the iPhone 26... and may even struggle to make ends meet as they convince themselves that their app will make them a billionaire. So long as my son continues what he's doing and learning even as I write this, he'll find himself comfortable and in-demand until he retires. Just like his old man (hopefully!)

Despite my working as an administrator of systems, I have a background in programming. The command line taught me how to pipe, how to use variables and so on. I write a surprising number of scripts in a number of languages because they make my job easier and make me look like a hero. I find myself occasionally competing with new kids coming into the workplace with their "Mad GUI Skillz" and their macros. If they go toe-to-toe with me they can rarely compete. The ones who know command line stuff and scripting we tend to keep... the ones who don't, tend not to last.

Glance on my Pebble Smartwatch does this. I think a smartwatch is a much better place for a true "panic button". I mean, in a truly difficult situation you're going to have problems entering a passcode or pattern if you have your device locked... which you should, by the way.

In Glance there's a function that allows me to set a button long press to send an emergency text to the contact of my choice including my longitude and latitude (obviously only as precise as the smartphone itself can manage). Quite a nice feature in my opinion. And it's a lot easier to do a long press on a button on your wrist than fish your phone out of your pocket or purse, enter a passcode, find and launch an app and hit a button on the screen.

A physical panic button is the best solution. If you're in dire need (heart attack, accident etc) then you may not be in a position to use the app on the phone. The old "really dumb phones" like the Firefly had it right.

I don't mind soldered-in RAM so much... but only 4GB of it? Ouch.

Even as an Asimov fan, I liked the movie. It stayed true particularly to later Asimov books that delved into the fundamental flaws of the "Three Laws" and how interpretation would win out with a sufficiently intelligent machine.

No, it wasn't I, Robot... but it was a decently good science fiction romp that I rather enjoyed. I could've done without the ridiculous product placement, but it also didn't really detract from the story to me... just gave me a few eye-rolling moments.

Circuses have CLOWNS, man!!! Of course they're fear!

I'm not quite sure where you're getting the impression that you need to take off and land from an airport in the USA. While I've never done it I have seen a helicopter land and take off from the parking lot of a business here in St. Louis on more than one occasion. With an appropriately equipped plane you can also take off and land in fields without anyone batting an eyelid... so long as you have the permission of the land owner or own the land yourself.

Can you cite a FAR that shows that you can't fly from anywhere but an airport?

My experience says that if it's an Jaguar, pretty much all of it.

He didn't have a choice. If he didn't then Microsoft would've become irrelevant in no time flat.

Not a silly question at all except if you've been to the US! Amtrak is the only real option here and the passenger rail plays second fiddle to the cargo rail 100% of the time. If you have a 3 mile long cargo train in front of you, you'll be going about the same speed. It also means the rails themselves are beaten to hell and back by the weight of the cargo trains.

I have taken the Amtrak a few times and it's pretty bad. I grew up in the UK and I honestly never thought I'd miss British Rail quite that much...

Honestly, good science rarely makes good entertainment. Have you watched the NASA channel? While I did watch it back when I had cable, I found it tedious and boring... and that's actually pretty much what space is really like. Tedious, boring and procedural. And that's really how you want it to be; if you have "exciting" stuff happen in space then you're quite likely going to die.

I enjoyed the hell out of Gravity. While it was definitely Hollywood, it was less Hollywood than most movies these days. And the story while linear and mostly predictable pretty much had me on the edge of my seat all the way through. There were certainly a few moments where I found the science to be abominable; hell in the first 5 minutes I could pick out at least 5 major oversights and flaws... and that was even before the debris cloud. But the story was good enough and the acting was good enough that I overlooked it and just enjoyed the hell out of the movie.

And while much of it was hinted to be in "our universe", much of it was really "alternate universe" in that the space shuttle program continued and had new ones built... the Tiangong is more than just two or three Soyuz and Salyut rip-offs strung together in LEO... new advances in the MMU-style program have produced a jetpack that's more capable and has a LOT more fuel than the MMU etc. There was little that was really glaringly bad in my opinion and I could point at them as niggles rather than out and out hanging offences!

Let me put it this way; if you enjoyed The Right Stuff (which I did and still do, immensely) then you'll probably enjoy Gravity. They are both about as scientifically and historically accurate as each other!

Because they were rotating (look at the stars in the background). While I'm not going to claim it was scientifically accurate at all, once I realized that the scene made an acceptable amount of sense.

I admit it bugged me at first for a few seconds wondering "WTF?" before I noticed the background. It's not explicit... and not spelled out. This movie really does require a bit more analytical a viewpoint than most. And I believe at least two viewings! I plan to take my girlfriend to see it this week after she gets back from her business trip :)

... like, for example; the movie itself.

I have a NUC (the i7 version) running on my TV at home. I run Windows 8 on it with the Hulu Plus, NetFlix and XBox Video clients... takes care of all of my entertainment needs. Works like a champ actually. I use a combo mini-keyboard/airmouse that's the same size as an iPhone 3G and also have an IR remote attached to it. A 128GB mSATA disk and the damned thing boots in about 15 seconds from cold to Metro. Pretty damned impressive little box and has worked solidly since I got it.

The Minnowboard just really doesn't interest me at all. And this from someone who spent the better part of a year and a half hacking on the original BeagleBoard (which I just recently lost in a move)

Got to wonder; if they put solar panels on the roof and attached them to battery warmers, would that work for at least daytime parking? I know it's just the sitting time that's a problem. Even on a cloudy day, solar panels can still produce SOME power... maybe not quite as much but it might be just enough to stop the cold battery problem. Once the car's moving, I know the batteries generate enough heat in themselves that keeping them warm while running isn't a problem.

Night-time parking... well I expect that'd be much the same as the engine warmers you use now.

Yeah, this was a bad idea. Unfortunately choosing to make such a public statement on this will basically give the highly vocal Conservatives some more ammunition to use against him, basically in their eyes invalidating the stuff she leaked. While we all know that it's got absolutely nothing to do with anything, that's never stopped the highly vocal Conservative minority from making a big deal of this stuff.

The same people who were screaming for him to be hanged will now feel smug in their self-righteousness and will start finding a way to correlate this gender change with an ability and desire to fabricate the leaked information. This will then invalidate this entire process in the eyes of these people... and believe me they make a lot of noise.