It cracks me up when reports like this come out and everyone starts screaming about how Apple's taking over. No they're not. They're not close. They've never been close. They'll never be close. It's not what "everyone wants."
And
The overwhelming majority of people don't need a computer with a general purpose operating system.
The overwhelming majority of people don't need a computer at all.
Can someone explain to me how a comment with this statement in it can be +4 informative? I may be new here but this has to be one of the most idiotic things I've ever read on slashdot--which says a lot.
Not to mention you'd also destroy pretty much every non-military (ie very seriously rad-hardened) satellite which didn't have the Earth between it and the nuclear device.
So, a large area of Earth based elecronics destroyed, and even if you've managed to avoid that, no communications or Earth observation satellites to aid in recovery.
(...and yes, most satellites are built with rad-hard components, but they're not designed to withstand an EMP, which requires substantially more shielding).
Sorry, I just re-read my post and I sounded like a bit of a jerk compared to your completely reasonable post. I had just scrolled through enough posts like "calculus is useless! statistics 4ever!" to be somewhat irritated.
You're quite right that direct computation of derivatives or integrals is rarely done by people nowadays (and it should really be this way in calculus classes as well, but I digress). My poorly phrased point is that the knowledge of what an integral is and how it behaves is of great value when thinking statistically, even if you don't do any integration.
I think many people undervalue the conceptual understanding to their detriment, but I'm going to cut myself off before I start ranting again.
Am I the only one who thinks it's frickin' cool to be captured on one of these street views?
Me: "See that blurry guy there?"
Friend: "Uhh...yeah."
Me: "That's me!" (Portland, OR)
"Experience has proved that some people indeed know everything." -- Russell Baker