I don't understand why people are expected to buy more software on their phone then on their PC

But they DO! For a majority of PC users software is scary, many worry about installing *anything* as it could "break" their computer. They lack the savvy to recognize fake vendors and malware apps. Also plain software incompatibility is a huge problem for them to understand. Even if they do buy something, many cant even find where their downloads go.

Now compare this to a smartphone App Store. Your CC goes to one place, Apple or Google who they already trust more than random developers. Installs are single click, generally can't mess up th system and are easily removed if you didn't like it.

All stores are MUCH safer and comfortable for general computer users. This is WHY there are millions of apps, finally non-technical folks are empowered to try out and explore software largely without fear. It's been a huge experience for them and finally showing them the potential of computers that WE have been claiming for decades.

So yes, people most definitely do pay more for apps on their phones than their computers, and they like it that way.

I hope you're joking, I've known enough IT guys who intentionally used bad software for job security. Or allowed things known to be broken to catastrophicly fail so they could swoop in and be the "hero".

For those who seriously think that way....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

The same amount of $$ and work would be much better off making things better.

If criminals know their DNA will get a thorough health checkup while they can't personally afford such tests....

Some may feel that committing crimes and leaving DNA samples is the only way to get such quality information.

So then the police, in an effort to stop such medically motivated crimes decide to withhold the information which does not directly relate to identification... Leading said criminals to file Lawsuits demanding their own medical data.

Orrrr... The police just run it through the secret DNA database to identify the person and use parallel construction to explain how they found them.

Ahh, Endoscope
Pass me the tube so I can take a poke
1 push, 2 push, 3 push, 4 push, 5 I'm feelin deep inside
Leaning to the side in my Ophthalmic ride
With the KY gangsta glide
Woo!, hey now ya know
Inhale, exhale with my flow
Breakaway, come again like this
Hey G promise me use two hands don't miss
Cuz if you do, it break you get broke
Me and Mista G and the endoscope

I would really love a list of toys that cause mental/psychological damage.

Off the top of my head...
Hinton's Cubes
Lament Configuration
My First Waterboard Funtime set.

Am I missing any?

I used to really like the Tempest game for that, and the card game wasn't too bad.

I wanted to get Monopoly and Mahjong for it and some other games but by then they stopped selling them on the iTunes store. There was a pirate torrent going around but the apps were encrypted and no way to install them on another device. Finally they just stopped making them.

Apps like that... gone forever.

iOS 3.0 apps that got the App store going... gone forever. I still remember playing the unofficial lights off game, beat all 150 levels. (Wrote a program to solve them)

Unless someone wants to make an emulator for the original iPhone you could do it by downloading the ROMs just like old Apple emulators, but how would you approve the apps without a 3.0 app store around?

In theory someone could crack Apple's old signing keys and have a local "FakeAppStore" program that validates them and allows installation on the emulator.

The "cease and desist" letter would probably arrive less that one minute after putting such project online.

A down on his luck coder finds it impossible to satisfy the requirements of headhunters. 2 years of Swift?? C# AND COBOL??! Besides that, the jobs he CAN get pay less than flipping burgers. It seems there's plenty of jobs being outsourced, and women are being aggressively recruited... why take his chances picking the wrong one... when he can become BOTH??

Working as a tanned, eastern-accented, weight-lifting coder named "Vidya De Milo"... Jim Carrey finds out people start to treat him a little differently in ...

TOOTSIE SOUL!!

As others have pointed out there's various installer programs that will get you a consistent environment to work in.

You really want to keep your development environment and local system separate and VMs are a great way to do it. Just as a quick starting point try using Vagrant with Virtualbox and scotchbox which is a simple LAMP setup ready to go.

Run a headless VM, treat it like a remote server. This is better than using your own system for many reasons. It allows you to configure your test environment as closely as possible to the actual production server. Since its a VM you can easily move it to another system if needed. You can clone it and test updated software versions. Also you can allow automatic system updates without mangling your dev environment.

Just a simple thing like installing a git server (try gitlab) on a VM can really help modularize your workflow and allow you greater flexibility on your actual workstation.

How does one get the initial flat surface to deposit things on?

hypothetical 'Y swap' corrective procedure for X-linked genetic disease

That's a brilliant idea. If only there was some way to conceive a child with some other mans DNA. Fortunately for researchers the techniques have not yet been developed, so they can safely investigate genetic ancestry without worry of this hypothetical 'y swap' procedure. /s

I'm curious, has anyone ran the conversations from FriendlyChemist and Redandwhite through one of those grammar analyzing programs to see the likelihood that they're the same person? It looks fairly likely that DPR may have been scammed by someone wholly unconnected to the trial. $650k is quite a lot to make just sending a few emails around.

Also it should be possible to trace both bitcoin wallets and see if there's any overlap between them.

Let's not forget back in the day when Linux and the GPL was "communist".

Until Google figures out a way to get around carriers on this...

It seems that Android is destined to always have a majority of it's devices vulnerable to known exploits. Even Google Play Services hasn't been a solution for this.

The trick is to have a continuously running project in the previous language or framework while working on the newer one. Send a patch in to an open source project once in a while, or even keep a little toy program for trying experimental stuff on.

That way instead if "5 years C#, 2 years Pascal" you have "7 years C#, 2 years Pascal"

Why is it that 5.3.10 is listed as the last secure PHP 5.3 when there's many more releases after it?