You know it's funny the way the USA considers itself a) great, b) rich, and c) free.

Some people are rich. Most are not. Many countries are richer, especially at median wealth.
Most people struggle from day to day, desperately trying to stay employed - and keep their health benefits. Too scared to move jobs and actually give that flexibility so much desired by the right wing ... er, what?
And free? Really? A country that imprisons more of its citizens than anywhere else, starts more wars than anyone else, and bullies other countries in a most unpleasant fashion (FATCA, anyone?). Not mention the institutionalised bribery that seems the only reason for the existence of Washington.

So, so far away from the high ideals in that brilliant document, the US Constitution. ... The "Patriot" Act .. OMG. Washington must be spinning in his grave.
It seems to be a country controlled by fear, with an ever more oppressive set of laws, and a growing (but small) group of mega rich who have little concern for the average Joe.

So sad. I'm glad I don't live there.

So come on Americans - stop living in fear. Stop pushing the world about, start educating your people, start keeping them healthy and educated.
And deliver on those great ideals you started with.
Please.

I don't recall seeing this when I was at the centre of the Bermuda Triangle some time back. Maybe it was hidden in the mysterious mist that is supposed to arise there.

Pay them in iDollars.

Maybe it's a nuclear weapons developer, they are pretty good at clouds.
Too bloody good if you ask me. And where's my free electricity - "too cheap to meter" indeed.

Legal drinking age is 18 in Finland (and much of the civilised world, actually. USA is kinda weird. Mind you, allowing driving and drinking at the same time, does that sound like a good idea? Maybe they are right. No, surely not).

No, wait, Linux first release was 1991, that makes it, um, 22. What the heck is wrong with your arithmetic? What do they teach at school these days? Bah. Get off my lawn. (And yes, I did program PDP 11s back in the day. Why do you ask?)

So, one down 48,999 to go. If they are going to do it one bill at a time, this could take a while.

I was involved in writing part of that radar system, back in 1978. I hope they aren't still running my code. There was a lot of drinking back then.
Mind you, maybe they should, it worked then, didn't it?

This is probably common. I have had a similar thing happen - I wrote a system for a major bank in Java/JSP, and they ran it for a bit. Then they copied it (line for line, I saw the code) into C#/ASP and did some minor updates. They then claimed it as their own, and stopped paying the support fee.

Given they were the biggest customer of the company I worked for, there was nothing to be done. Oh joy.

I share your pain.

In the terminal at Zurich (yes, that's the capital of Switzerland for the geographically impaired), you can buy the entire range of Swiss Army knives. I checked (May 2013), and they told me this was fine unless I was flying to USA.
So I bought two.
And it was indeed fine.

To find out about them google "shanghai electric scooter" - that's what I did!

An interesting link is
http://www.scooteretta.com/v5.html

They really do look most impressive - and in the flesh, as it were, just as good. And they whine along quietly in a most satisfactory way.

Just for your interest, Shanghai scooter riders never wear helmets, never turn their lights on, and hoot a lot. I suspect they have a lot of accidents - but such crashing light vehicles at relatively low speeds must be far less damaging, physically and financially, than crashing cars [especially into pedestrians], especially those horrible SUVs beloved of Americans and [not as much] Australians.

I just came back from China - Shanghai, actually. It's a city of 23 million people (more than Australia's entire population). It has many roads, full of - wait for it - electric scooters. Not those boring little ones, no these are full-on Vespa-like, two person carrying scooters. I would guess they carry half the city's traffic, in people-kms.
They have 400 watts, a top speed around 40kmh, and a range of about 40km. And they are pretty cheap. From 2400 YMB (=$400) these are real bargains. And they look pretty good.

So a Chinese city has moved half its transport to electricity. And nobody has said a word. Amazing.

These scooters looked pretty good to me - I'd buy one without question at that price. But they are banned here (Australia), and many other places. You are allowed up to 250 watts. Above that the regulations get all nasty. Registration, helmets, licenses, etc. So much so that you cannot buy such a thing, just a few rather expensive electric bikes.

For sure they are charged from the mains, sourced from coal fired generating plants - but that is surely far, far more efficient than the nasty engines normal scooters have, and use far less energy. I imagine they are way ahead, carbon-wise.

Maybe we should take a few lessons from the Chinese.

Obvious solution - get a dog.

It's not that hard.

I do the following:
walk to work (30 mins each way)
go to a one hour gym session twice a week
skate for about 5 hours each week
sail a bit
ski in season (season is a bit short in Australia)
don't eat too much
don't drink too much

And guess what - I'm fit.

Oh, and I'm 58 next month. Want to arm wrestle? Or try a coding comp with me? Chess, maybe?
(And yes, I do have a wife and family as well. Scheduling can have challenges, I admit, but you have to get to a state where exercise is the default activity for that time in your week).

I installed Win 8 on a couple of home machines. It was an easy way to upgrade to 64 bit, and upgrade a crapware-ridden Visa laptop. I tried the Win8 Metro interface for while and eventually gave up. (I didn't dare impose Metro on the rest of my family).
I installed Classic Menu and it is now fine - no big deal. Very fast boot, decent shutdown. Managed to put an SSD on my main machine and it's great.

I agree with many of the points made in the video - Microsoft is nuts. To attempt to combine the two interface is beyond stupid. Who, indeed, signed off on this?
We complained bitterly when Microsoft tried to put a desktop interface on a phone - now they are trying to put a phone interface on a desktop. Doesn't work. Apple doesn't do it - Microsoft should have taken the hint.

A major problem the chap had was related to the difference between a touch interface and a mouse interface, and his points are well made. One is relative, one absolute. Very different. Not compatible.

I don't see how this is the death knell for Microsoft, but honestly, what have they done right under Ballmer's watch? Vista - no. Win 7 - yes, Win 8 - no. Was he responsible for the ribbon - not sure. And the Windows/Nokia merge is going oh so well, don't you think?

I never thought I'd say this - but I miss Bill Gates.

All high speed sailboats such as skiffs avoid sailing directly downwind. They 'tack' downwind, first one way, then the other. (Technically a gybe, but what the heck).
Even on my relatively slow cat, dead downwind is not the way to go.