I've been running various *nix since AT&T Version 7 and UC BSD on VAXen. I'm hardly "uninformed". I know the intent and philosophy of systemd and the history of its creator; neither of those is acceptable.

The "change" I am embracing is back to *BSD (OpenBSD, currently).

One thing that Mozilla doesn't get (and engineers in general, I ween) is that changing things imposes a cognitive load on the users.

I'm used to Firefox, it does what I want and doesn't require my attention very much. The major reason I don't switch to Chrome or any of the other browsers is cognitive load: I'd have to learn an entire new way of doing things. Different looks, different icons, different behaviour... it would take hours to figure out the new system, many minor "how can I get it to do this..." moments amortized over the next year.

Every time Firefox changes, it's a distraction. Something to notice, figure out, and get around. For me this time it's the offline cache system - no amount of fiddling with the options or about:config will cause the system to save tabs on program exit and load those tabs anew on start - the weather *has* to show yesterday's page on program startup(*).

The previous issue (for me) was putting the window rendering in an external thread, the upshot was that cascading menus took several seconds to render. Click, count to three, then see the bookmarks... move the cursor, count to three, see the selection bar move down. Setting the about:config option to undo this caused Firefox to crash on every boot, but un-setting "use hardware acceleration" fixed that. (My dad is *totally* going to figure that out and not move to Chrome instead.)

All this "OMGWTF we need to be like Chrome!!!" and "OMGWTF we need a chicklet interface" is driving users away from the system. For every change, a number of users say "screw it, I'm moving to $OtherBrowser".

Changing behaviour at all is stupid, doing it once a month is ridiculously stupid. They're thinking in terms of "how can we add more functionality" instead of "how can we attract and keep users".

Pro tip: adding complexity to every little feature does not necessarily make your software more popular.

(*) To be fair, I've only tried 6 of the 64 possible combinations of options that might affect this (in Options->Privacy and about:config). It might be a simple fix, I just need to uncover the right combination of options to do it.

Remindes me of the time, many moons ago, when I wanted to clear a lot of junk from "/tmp" on System V.

About a half-second after typing "rm -rf /tmp/.*\n", I realized that "/tmp/.." was "/", which was, of course, too late.

I was truly thankful for a rigorous and thorough backup schedule.

You have the Part 15 and ISM services for that. You really can buy a microwave link that's metropolitan-distance and legal to use.

We lost much of our 440 capability to PAVE PAWS in California. Remember, Amateur Radio is not the primary service on many bands. The military is on 440.

If you want that nearly infinite microwave spectrum, you have the Part 15 and ISM services. Absolutely nothing is stopping you. Power is not the issue with those frequencies, it's line of sight and Fresnel zones.

No, I absolutely do not have to prefix my words with anything. You do that by posting as an anonymous coward. I use my real name to indicate that I stand behind my words.

Yes. The usual mechanism here would be WiFi security, with HTTPS or SSL inside of it.

OK, no real technical data and some absurd claims here.

First all-digital transceiver? No. There have been others. Especially if you allow them to have a DAC and an ADC and no other components in the analog domain, but even without that, there are lots of IoT-class radios with direct-to-digital detectors and digital outputs directly to the antenna. You might have one in your car remote (mine is two-way).

And they have to use patented algorithms? Everybody else can get along with well-known technology old enough that any applicable patents are long expired.

It would be nicer if there was some information about what they are actually doing. If they really have patented it, there's no reason to hold back.

In California, it is not legal to surcharge for the use of a credit card, but it is legal to offer a discount for cash. The discounts I get average about as much as the rebates; sometimes they are substantial (an $1800 service fee reduced to $1600, for example).

There's as much knowledge to be gained from a well-designed experiment that fails, as one that succeeds. They should ALREADY have found gravitational waves with the multiple space- and Earth-based experiments that have been run, particularly with all the big number-crunching on old data that is happening now.

What do we learn about the nature of the Universe when THIS experiment also fails to provide evidence of waves of gravitational force propagating through it?

I believe there can be a balance to this.

My belief that Mayer was right IN THE SHORT TERM to curtail telecommuting policies.

If your office is in serious need of re-vamping, then you are correct, there needs to be some storming-forming-norming going on that can't be done via people on phones all the time.

Especially if people believe, as I do, bonding is built over social interaction, such as talking about the game, or people's kids, or the weather, or a game of golf, or going out and smoking cigarettes. Telecommuting is not conducive to any of that, and for better or worse, networking is best done in person.

That said: in the long term telecommuting should be re-instated for a lot of reasons: flexible hours, care of family members, de-stressing commutes, and yes, being able to get away from social interactions in order to get some actual work done.

I admired Mayer for her initial stance on the subject, as she took some harsh criticism for it, but I admit I haven't followed up on it. I hope she re-instated it.

I saw a 'gator right at the edge of the VAB parking lot last month. In a drainage ditch, up to the fence, cars parked right on the other side.

With luck, they'll start incorporating our radio transceivers. I hear that SpaceX flies with several USRPs now, so that's not completely unrealistic. That might be as close as I can get. Anyone who can get me a base invitation, though, would be greatly appreciated and I'd be happy to do some entertaining speeches while there. I need a base invite for Vandenberg, too. I got in to the official viewing site for the first try of the last launch (and that scrubbed too), but this next one is on Pad 6.

I was in Florida to speak at Orlando Hamcation and went to see the DISCOVR launch at Kennedy Space Center. I paid $50 to be at LC-39 for the launch, an observation tower made from a disused gantry on the Nasa Causeway between the pads and the Vehicle Assembly Building. A crawler was parked next door! A hot sandwich buffet, chips, and sodas were served. It was cold and windy! I watched for a few hours and unfortunately the launch scrubbed due to high stratospheric winds.

The next day, Delaware North Corporation, which operates tourism at KSC, decided not to open LC-39 or the Saturn 5 center for the launch. This was the third launch attempt and I guess they decided most people had left. I was annoyed.

The closest beach was going to be closed in the evening, it's a sensitive ecological area. I ended up seeing the launch from Jetty Park. This turned out not to be such a great location, the tower wasn't visible at all and the first 10 seconds of the rocket in flight were obscured before we saw it over a hill.

What's a better viewing location?

This. While Roddenberry continually pushed boundaries, TOS never felt as if he was trying to enforce diversity to protect tender sensibilities. In fact, he was enforcing diversity DESPITE tender sensibilities.

As long as we agree that The Fifth Element was a great movie in and of itself, we shall never be enemies.