I laugh. And you're correct: I don't know advanced computing.

But Fortran is still no alternative to spreadsheets.

Saying it is, is like saying SAP ABAP is an alternative to Microsoft Basic. Sure, at some deep fundamental level, it is. But you have to migrate environments, and more importantly, migrate the user interface and user skills.

Just saw the price jump on Amazon.com (the price that one seller was charging, out of 3 sellers on Amazon) -- from about $300 to $600 :D

Guess I now know about how much Gigabyte charge the channel for these units.

Nice idea, but check for one thing... these little projectors can be supremely noisy. It would be great if this unit had some sort of quiet cooling mechanism. Even liquid cooling.

I bought a DLP pico projector recently for around $200 (at a Japanese supermarket in Osaka). It has the same resolution, HDMI-in, a tripod socket, a battery, and a built-in Wifi access point that lets PC and tablet clients project content wirelessly. But man, its noisy.

This Gigabyte unit seems to have HDMI-in and a tripod socket too, and the pico projector can power up separately from the NUC unit (the PC). Given Intel HD 4400 graphics that the NUC uses can drive a triple head setup, I think the entire unit can drive two LCD displays, plus the projector separately. It would make a sweet unit to drive an external display or two, with an FTIR-projected touchscreen as the user input interface.

Correct, same thing, but customizable for small batches (custom gizmo, or artwork)

Imagine one amputee (or even an able handed person) controlling hundreds or thousands of these to assemble things in a follow-my-lead manner. Computer vision based verification could compare the state of each of the things or 'gizmo' being assembled, with the 'master gizmo' the human is interactively building. In case of mismatch, gizmos with problems could be put away to sort out later.

Correct. Hippocrates said it best: "first, do no harm..."

I'm with you, but with a narrower interpretation- document the internal integration interfaces, to enable Independent repair of buggy parts. It's like automobile manufacturers being forced to cooperate with aftermarket car part manufacturers (see http://www.righttorepair.org/a... ), especially when the automobile manufacturer stops making the part in question.

Another industry that sharply brings out the need for this is printers -- especially those with microchips that stop third-part ink and toner cartridges working in the printer. What happens when the printer manufactures stops making cartridges for some printer? (reasons could include going out of business).

Dammit, get a *secure* browser!
Go HotJava all the way...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

No shit Sherlock? You've figured her out! She's just one of them agile folks ruining everything.

You are probably under some pressure today, or have some other back story thing going on.

Either way, better things are expected from you. Carry on like this, and on your deathbed you'll be wondering why you wasted the time you had... so angry, so long.

It'll never come, but the year of the Linux Palmtop is upon us.

Institutional memory... hmm.

I once stayed on a farm where livestock is raised for organic pork and beef. The farmer's view was that, in order to eat healthy in this day and age, a relationship is necessary between the consumer and the farmer.

I agree, and think relationships are beneficial in other domains too -- healthcare, education, law advice, between employer and employee, even packaged goods...

All good, except....

> don't borrow money... not for a house
That depends - a home is a *secured* loan. You can always 'give it back' and rent. A *humble* home is better than renting for decades.

> You don't need to drink, to ..., to have a spouse or to have children.
No. (Almost all) people *need* a spouse. For love, for the work of life. On the purely economic side, its efficient to have 2 (or 1.5) incomes to pay one mortgage, two people to share household goods, groceries, cooking, cleaning...

> ... you *wlll* have money unless your health significantly fails.
Your health will (almost certainly) fail if you strike it out without a spouse.

he thinks upto 180% is reasonable

'Better engineered' != 'deserving of patent protection'

A drone-finding unit that combined radar (to detect small airborne objects), with auditory recognition of drone-propeller noise signatures (using microphones distributed over the prison boundary) would be cheap and perform quite well.

The auditory component prevent false positives caused by birds, flying debris, etc.Radar could help detect helium balloon drones, or even the 'ballistic' lobbing of contraband over prison boundaries (either manually, or using catapults). The only thing it'd miss is carrier-pigeons or a new generation of flapping-wing drones in development. However, pigeons are unlikely to land in prison yards. That is, unless a creative prisoner raised pigeons in the prison. Of course, he'd have to arrange to have the pigeons smuggled out or somehow trapped outside so contraband could be 'attached' to them (perhaps by tracking them by radio transmitter foot-band previously smuggled into prison).

The alternative is steel-mesh netting.

Or conscientious prison guards.