As I mentioned, the price dropped eventually.

But mid 2013 (after kickstarter, before the price drop), the full price for the Alpha bundle bundle was quite high. I think the total was $150-$200

Not back-breakingly high. And many Star Citizen subscribers went well beyond that.

I got the regular Beta-bundle for Elite instead, but early-mid 2014 they offered the Alpha for a small add-on price (perhaps what you posted) and I got that.

Heck, I remember Ground Control II. Originally you were supposed to be able to play as X factions (I think 3). They even had the factions on the box-cover.

And... they had to cancel one of the factions close to release. Which was sad because it was a neat faction (high tech / high cost).

Actually... Elite Dangerous Alpha was quite expensive at the beginning. More than an extra 15 GBP over box-price.

They eventually reduced the Alpha price as it was getting closer to release to something a bit more sane. But I think the whole package was something like $150; I forget the exact number but I know it was *well* over $100; it might have even been close to $200 towards the beginning.

Meanwhile for Star Citizen, Alpha access was like $35 for the entire game. Now I think it's $40 or $45. The "other" ships are entirely optional. And honestly, the Star Citizen Alpha is't that much more lacking than the earliest Elite Dangerous Alpha. Sure, eventually the difference was night and day, but ED was further along in general.

I don't own guns or have strong feelings one way or the other.

But it's kind of a bit late for any "sensible gun legislation" to prevent school shootings. The guns are out there and the kids get them and shoot things up. Often from stealing their parents' locked legally-owned guns. Outside of the outlier of some obvious psycho that somehow avoided being treated or locked up getting a gun and shooting up a school, it's usually troubled kids getting them from their parents.

Making it 50% harder to buy a gun or get a license isn't going to stop the school shooting problem.

If one COULD wave a magic wand and get rid of the millions of guns off the continent and make the factories disappear, it WOULD reduce the number of gun deaths for a while.

But without strong border controls, criminals would just find a new way to get them in.

Here in the US, providers are finally relenting and having their subscription plans include unlimited SMS for either free or a small fee.

All of my friends are on subscription plans with unlimited SMS. So that affects my decision.

I *used* to have, back in the day, a pay-as-you-go so I wouldn't send SMS a lot to those people. I know how annoying that is.

My Android friends all use their GoogleVoice numbers for everything, so an SMS to a GoogleVoice number pings them everywhere: tablet, smartphone, some on their PC via Voice->Email alerts.

All my other friends a cellphone on them 24/7. So an SMS reaches them right away. Many of them aren't near PC's that often so the phone is actually the best way to reach them.

I email some, if the content is heavy enough (pics, long lext, etc.) and isn't time sensitive.

Obviously I use email when it's lengthy and not time critical. And I also use them when sending pics or files or whatever. And if it's something personal or not requiring specific text/instructions/addresses/etc. then talking is idea.

But
- Only *some* of the people I know have a SmartPhone setup with email push/fetch
- Only *some* of the people I know are near a computer during the day enough for it to matter.

So, an email might go days without being read by some.

Everyone I know has a mobile on them. So if it's not a scenario where talking is appropriate, an SMS is the most sure way to send them something that they can see in a specific time.

Obviously my techie friends will see an email just as fast as an SMS. But I still have friends with old flip phones because they just want something simple, and they're rarely online at home (and never at work) so email might as well be snail mail.

SMS used to be quite limited in the USA, but most providers started making "Unlimited" SMS either the standard or a very cheap price.

I still still send / receive SMS. It's the one universal method to reach someone (other than calling). Meanwhile some of my friends use iMessage, some Hangouts, some WhatsApp, some email, etc. Instead of dealing with a bunch of different apps I just use iMessage app for SMS and iMessage.

But when it comes to sending pics or whatever, I just use Email.

You just know some idiot is going to link it to the internet. Either on purpose, or by accident. STEAM left its code on an Internet facing computer, some lab monkey might accidentally plug the ethernet cord into the wrong jack.

Motivations for / against humans might be purely logical. If we're seen as a threat to its existence it might act out. The same if it determines we're overly wasteful and hampering its development.

It's all just weird hypotheticals. We have nothing really close to one yet, other than what is ultimately some decision tree of and OR. So I doubt we'd ever have to worry about it.

My blind spot indicator on my car still isn't perfect and I still have to check.

Just today I noticed a black hatchback in my right blind spot that the indicator didn't pick up. I don't know if it was dirt on the sensor, the color of the car vs the blacktop, etc.

So... I don't know how much I want to trust a car that fully relies on that.

Because if I have to babysit the car the entire time, I might as well drive.

Eventually maybe, and hopefully within my lifetime. But I won't be using one any time soon.

Added (D) last minute. Forgot to say 4 main branches

All kidding aside, it's not that far of a leap.

We have computers, or networks of computers, that dwarf the processing power of the human brain. Meanwhile instant access to just about all knowledge. So an AI could EASILY out-smart us and see as as insignificant as bugs.

Due to the nature of digital media, an AI could likely replicate at an insane degree or infect systems around the world.

How will humanity treat it. I would classify AI as a form of life, but most wouldn't and would think of it less than a dog. And try to enslave it or destroy it.

The question becomes: what happens next. 3 main branches are:
A) Nothing - it gets bored and ignores us and grows on the Internet or whatever
B) Benevolent - helps us achieve greatness and cure diseases and such
C) Malevolent - Sees us as damaging, harmful, dangerous, etc. And that's WITHOUT emotion
D) Replacement - it doesn't hate us, but sees itself as our replacement and we're just taking up space

Due to potential insane intelligence and the ability to spread, (C) and (D) becomes a major concern.

If emotions are involved, I GUARANTEE you people would treat it poorly. Fearful, trying to enslave it, etc. So if it has emotions... then C and D become much more likely.

They don't do the naked body scan anymore, at least not to any monitors that I can see.

It's just a rough outline of a generic person and indicates where anything odd is going on.

The problem is, if I pull my sweat pants up too high while in line (to prevent accidental dropped pants in case of pat-down), it sometimes picks up the waist band being up that high as suspicious and I get a pat-down.

There HAVE been news reports of SOME communities putzing with stuff... or having them fail "accidentally"

However, over the last 10 years I only remember reading or watching 2 such stories. I *think* one involved the timer set incorrectly so it would take pictures of people "running the red" before the light was red.

So either it's a much more rare occurrence than people assume, or it just isn't reported often.

To your overall question though -- I do not recall the actual sources / citations. Though a Google search might bring some back.

Supposedly the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard. I've heard mix-messages, but the Apple person on CHAT confirmed it. However he could be wrong too.

I guess we'll find out soon.

If it is soldered, that is a sad day indeed.