"Andy Smith".. sounds like a fake name to me

There's a fairly new commercial product called BlueGEN https://www.bluegen.net/ which connects to a domestic natural gas supply; I think they're marketed more toward light industrial use, but if the price comes down (currently ~ $45K Australian) it could be an excellent distributed electricity generation option.

Penny Arcade recently had an interview with Gabe Newell where he talks a bit about Valve's interest in hardware development; worth a read:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/valves-gabe-newell-talks-wearable-computers-rewarding-players-and-whether-w

We can certainly hope!

>>They've managed to get the incumbant telco to agree to seperate their wholesale and retail arms and hand over infrastructure to NBNCo.

This is a gross misrepresentation of the situation. The government is paying Telstra $11 Billion for access to its pits and manholes and the sale of _some_ of its infrastructure - they're certainly not handing over anything.
And private industry has historically been less effective in Australian telecommunications due to the dirty great monopoly of Telstra - which is just being replaced by the dirty great monopoly of the NBN.

Same here.
Hope he was drunk while writing that rant

Was going to say the same thing - these don't sound like viable options for low tech third world situations.

It's small, but probably not as cheap as a Rep Rap which is a fully open-source implementation of a 3D printer that's been around for a few years. They've developed the first iteration into the 'Mendel' which has addrssed some of the issues they came across in initial development.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

--Voltaire

From days of long ago, from uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend; Defender of the Universe, a mighty robot, loved by good, feared by evil.

--Voltron

I'm not so sure that physical vs mental makes long hours any better. There are many days I go home with a ringing head and blurry eyes because I've been staring at a screen for hours and in meetings with people who all want a different outcome (thus no solution is acceptable to all).

One of my first jobs was very physical, and although I went home with tired arms and back and sore hands, there was something numbing about that which I found pleasant.

I think the difference between long hours depends on how hard you're working -- whether physical or mental -- vs those who just get by, whose days come easily to them because they are not challenged or do not challenge themselves.

ALL anti-virus products are equivalent to car insurance, it does not stop an accident from happening. Etc.

MSE does work pretty good, resource and use wise. It does not however protect you from user stupidity, which is the greatest attack vector in these situations.

From what I gather the UK system was rather screwed up and in 1832 they had a huge reform, making it more like the US system with first past the post. Not sure how much the Brits cared about what the Americans did at the time, but it seems they already brought the US system back. Not the best choice, then again there weren't that many great choices in Europe at the time...

There are some VxWorks routers around too. Probably some others.