I need to be able to hold my finger on a key for pressing on time. I can't imagine how to do this with a "touch"screen. While I generally use a laptop for this, I occasionally use the N900 as a remote (ssh over wlan).

All of my phones have had very erratic latency, even for wifi over LAN. Have yours been consistent enough for this to provide the split-second timing you need?

My N4 is about 3 unobstructed meters from the wifi access point. With 10 samples of each, a laptop at the same distance gets pings to the router ranging from 0.399ms to 0.418ms. The phone's range from 6.89ms to 91.27ms.

The run away inflation scenario you describe would only happen if the money supply grew as exponentially, which no competent central bank will allow to happen.

To be sure, minimum wage will contribute to inflation, but not in any catastrophic sort of way. Earning minimum wage does not mean a person will suddenly be able to afford to pay double for basics such as food, healthcare, transport etc. Earning at that level pretty much just means a person makes just enough to scrap by and not starve or die in the cold.

The goal of minimum wage is not to make anyone rich, rather it is to ensure a minimum standard of living among those who work at the lowest rung and the money for this increased payroll to come from corporate profits.

I think it's because the Roomba is autonomous, where as the Washing Machine is comparable to a Vacuum Cleaner -- a user is required to operate it.

If they made a Washing Machine that would load, sort, dry and fold your laundry all by itself, and all you had to do was sporadically top up the consumables and empty out the trap, i think it would qualify as a robot too.

Did you miss eighth grade civics class or something?

My eighth grade civics teacher was pretty specific about how "free speech" is a construct involving the relationship between individuals and the government. Perhaps yours left that part out.

The government is obliged to let you say what you want, without putting you in jail.

I, however, am not obliged to continue to give you money if you are saying things that annoy me. I have the freedom to spend my money elsewhere.

I think they are overly sensitive about it, but I do see where they're coming from. It is in fact possible to see both sides of an issue, if you open your mind a little.

And, importantly, the straw man that you're arguing against (that RMS wants people to call the kernel GNU/Linux) is way out in left field. If you are confused about GNU's position, it's clearly laid out here: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html

Yeah, none of this addresses my argument.

There are also several systems in my home with large bases of installed GNU tools, that don't run Linux at all.

Linux doesn't need GNU tools. Nobody's arguing with you there.

GNU tools don't need Linux.

But the vast majority of the time, you find them together. Specifically, in all the distributions that some (admittedly persnickety) people like to call GNU/Linux.

The kernel can run without those utilities/libraries. The utilities can not run without some flavor of operating system to run them on, Linux being one example of such.

The kernel can't do anything useful without the userspace stuff, the GNU tools can't do anything without a kernel. They're both dependent on the other, and the "other" is fungible but they are most commonly found in this pairing. It's a fairly equal relationship.

you are among the few people I hate.

Because of this, I am going to stop talking.

Social and/or business consequences, yes. Legal consequences, no, as I've already made clear.

How would you envision a world in which there were no consequences for speaking?

And what would be the point of opening your mouth in such a world?

I didn't know GNU produced a Linux system.

They maintain many of the userspace tools that make it actually, you know, usable.

Linux alone is just the kernel. That's a small part of the actual system that makes the computer do things.

Had you ever heard of this pasta brand before?

Has anyone not? Barilla is pretty much the only pasta brand with worldwide recognition.

A wise man once said, "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." These boycotts run opposite that spirit.

No they don't. They don't take away anyone's right to say anything.

What they may do, however, is affect the consequences of saying things that upset people.

And, critically, they make it possible for people with little or no voice to react in some way to high-profile speakers who have large audiences.

That's an improvement in my book.

Otherwise, under your system, the rich and powerful can say anything they want into their microphones, and everyone else has to just sit there and shut up and listen.