Better not let them play any ball games either, just to be sure. And no contact sports either.

> That, and that originally Linux had a semi-fascist leader in Linus Torvalds.

I am sure he prefers the term benevolent dictator. And I have to say in his favor that his leadership style has evolved noticeable over time, and that is probably what saved Linux.

The advantage of one person being in charge is of course that you get consistent leadership style, and a consistent technical direction. That often helps with open source projects - and it can be the very downfall of commercial software.

OpenOffice is an excellent example of what happens if there is no clear vision. It was elegant and reasonably simple, but not exactly pretty. Now it is neither.

> Instead they allow themselves to be satisfied with the bread and circuses that are so freely handed to them.

Funny, because I thought those cost money. Now in countries with a generous benefit systems, you get lodging, food and cable TV included in your benefits...

> And the amount of "battery research" that resulted in nothing, where we were told they'd be the next big thing in 5-10 years time? Innumerable.

Welcome to research. Many research projects, even really successful ones, just end up with a gain of knowledge, but no commercial value. Research projects that actually change the world are few and far in between. That's why it is called research, and not development.

Just read the history of Lithium batteries. Most of the big steps were made at universities in research projects: the use of Lithium, the intercalation, the reversible chemistry, improved electrolytes, chemistries etc. Some steps came from commercial laboratories. All major improvements were the result of research projects.

> Mitt Rhomney was famously so broke at one point he had to sell the stocks his dad gave him to make ends meet.

Oh, wow, I am really feeling for him. Time for a donation campaign then?

Honestly, studying is an excellent budgeting experience. The expenses are pretty well known, and if they surprise you, that is a problem.

I would argue that fees are too high, but there is a lot of good international competition. So if you want to pay the premium of going to a top US university, well, that is your choice.

There is no 3D modelling involved. And the results are, well, mixed.

Yes, you can get an update for the update of the update to the update.
But there are no longer updates for the update of the update.

The story in the news was particularly "funny".

It starts with "and then the slope collapsed without any warning".

Later it stated that "scientists warned of the risk in a report 15 years ago".

So how is that "without any warning"?

And I hate it when they say "scientists". They don't say "celebrities", "politicians", "football players" - no, they use names. But scientists always remain nameless. Scientists are not amorphous magicians, they are people like you and me.

And that is exactly the reason for not upgrading: it is not possible. Upgrading means throwing away a perfectly fine machine, and that is just not on.

Of course this is a culture clash. A Windows 98 computer can be attacked by a virus, and turned into a virus / spam distribution machine or worse.

To get a car analogy: that is pretty much a were-car. In an engineering world that would just not be imaginable, because physical safety is actually taken seriously. But for some reasons computer scientists keep telling us that "software has bugs, get used to it".

Cars just have bugs, sometimes they will try to run you over, get used to it. Yeah, right.

> Just don't run as an administrator!
> Also don't run IE or OE.
> Don't use Flash, Adobe Reader or Java.

Well, in that case you could just switch to Linux? IE6 is one of the main reasons why XP is still so popular. Many old web applications were targetting IE5.5 or earlier, and IE6 is the last version with a good compatibility mode.

The only other important reason is hardware. If it is just the PC, the scales have tipped now: a new basic PC is cheaper than another year of support for XP.

But there is also specialist hardware, from ATMs to raster electron microscopes, that need XP for the hardware interface. These are the use cases were locking down XP may actually be an option.

That is my experience, too. The step from 230dpi to 300dpi is clearly visible. The step to 350dpi is marginal if visible at all. So 300dpi is my limit. More may still be nice, but it is hardly worth it.

Now I am just waiting for a decent monitor with 300dpi. Even 4k does not reach that.

I second that. Initially Skype did not have a telephone bridge, but now you can call worldwide (from and to) for decent prices - even free for freephone numbers. Google Voice on the other hand is getting more and more difficult to use, and the new hangout is another huge step back (trying to find an SMS is quite a challenge). I wish Google would sometimes focus on the customer experience...

This. The world has changed, OLPC no longer has a credible goal in hardware. Netbooks have come and gone, and that is the end of that.

Now educational software, that is a demand that still has to be met in any serious way.

You call it style, but it also be the fact that the UK is quite tall, but the TV screen is very wide. Unless we want to turn the TV around (or the map), that is going to be a problem any which way you look at it.

That's not what the EU actually said. The answer was that Scotland has to join the queue and go through the regular process. It cannot jump the queue because it already was a member state due to being part of the UK. (And that is really a technicality, but maybe it is also intentionally: they have to prove themselves first.)