The DSL technology keeps improving. Here in Montreal I'm getting about 8 Mbps on a 7 Mbps connection. I previously had about 2 but I got moved to a new switch that is more effective over copper. I might need fibre if I wanted 60 or something but by the time I seriously need that (1 MB/s is quite OK so far) I expect it will be available over twisted pair though I may have to upgrade my now 5 year old DSL modem.

There is competition here, though, so the cable/telcos can't get away with just leaving people on existing tech until it dies. Though you do have to ask. My bill is the same for 4 times as much bandwidth. A tech visited but ended up not doing anything; the change was in software on the provider's end. Easy decision for anyone here I would think, you just have to call.

In wars/conflicts you get IEDs. You get some poisonings, a few knife attacks, and occasional bombs from random crazies. You get a significant fraction of nutjobs shooting people intsead of using other methods. It's easier, not only physically but morally; you don't have to walk up with someone and stick a knife in them and watch them bleed, but you get to see them fall down. And the people who shoot a number of people and, usually, themselves, must get some sort of enjoyment out of it or they would just kill themselves and leave everyone else alone.

The real problem is that for a lot of people and a seriously unreasonable number of Americans (the gun owners who think they have toys not tools) guns make them feel special and powerful whether they use them or not. There is nothing to prevent people who are known to be crazy from getting guns in many parts of the US (even here in Canada a known nutjob (Fabrikant) was able to get guns through a bureaucratic error and through his wife while he was barred from owning one).

Not a lot of people are crazed mass murderers but the vast majority of crazed mass-murderers use guns.

Or healthier radiation? It's pretty much known that cell-phones are unhealthy.

Why does everyone think making a web site is easy? With multiple feeds using different technologies even a fairly minimal health care web site would be complicated. Add in a whole lot of states that oppose the process and delay finalizing the requirements (client from hell) and you can pretty easily get to a point where the implementers have to choose between being late and being wrong. Think of the length of the requirements document distilled from the laws and negotiations. Think of the army of business analysts needed to get functional requirements and of the timeline they have to meet. Remember that no one ever hires enough business analysts.

This is not an easy thing to do.

Reagan? He started the downward spiral toward total dishonesty and lack of government. Why are some countries rich and others poor? It's not resources, it's government. Germany and Japan had good systems imposed by the US and they are doing fine. Most Western European governments have similar systems, they do well. Most Asian/African/Eastern European have crappy governments and are poor. There are exceptions, Singapore has a repressive but effective government and they are doing just fine economically.

By choosing to starve and neuter the most effective tool for prosperity they have Americans are making themselves, and the countries who follow them poor. Government, and taxes, are a good thing. Corruption is bad, but a little theft is better than selling out the whole system which is what the US has consistently done for the last 3 or 4 decades. Who won each election? The man was bought. Why did Clinton win? He sold out more completely than his opponents. Why did Bush II win? He sold out totally and without reservation. The one exception is Bush I who actually did some positive stuff before being run out of town on a rail for not being bought. Obama was sort of a mistake, it should have been Hilary who was utterly bought, but Obama did the grassroots thing the first election... Too bad he doesn't understand Texan aphorisms like "dance with the one who brung you."

Government is good, Fox news sucks, current conservatism (here in Canada too, Harper is trashing the economy in the typical right wing manner) sucks, propaganda sucks, and going with the gut instead of what works (the economy was better when taxes were high? That can't be right...) sucks.

The odd branches are normally unstable and short term. The 3.3 branch is EOL. Why not use 3.4?

I looked around and I don't see a specific reason. There are references to using 3.4 and problems with 3.6.

On the server side I had a rack where the disks would die if anyone closed the door due to heat. I inherited the rack, hit the issue and removed the door so it would not happen again, but it had happened before (2 disk failures with the door closed, zero over 4 years with the door in storage). I had an AMD that ran hot and almost every component (disk, mainboard, card) died over time (better case and fans would have helped, maybe a better power supply, too). Heat may not always be a problem but it can be a problem. Not everyone has a decent case and power supply (I overreacted and got an Antec with way too many case fans).

It's not trickle up it's flow or flood up. Then off to the Cayman Islands.

There is an existing antispam law that is sufficiently broad as to be difficult for businesses to adhere to. I expect the goal of these changes is to appear to work in the public interest while obtaining lobbying money from spammers to make sure the antispam rules impede normal business, from businesses that don't want to spend money on compliance, and on spammers again once they are free to do as they please. The current Canadian government follows the GWB game plan for fun and personal profit.

If something is wrong with a car and people die the carmaker gets sued. Toyota had some issues recently.

The problem with guns is not rational rural users it is primarily irrational urban users. I don't know (or even know of) anyone who has defended him/herself with a gun. I know friends of friends who have had gun-related accidents or who have committed suicide with guns. Statistically in Canada that is not surprising. Gun-related homicides are pretty much organized criminals killing each other, but lots of people have guns and they are a significant suicide option. Violent crime is pretty low because enforcement pretty much leaves burglary and such to the insurance company but takes home invasions and other violent crime seriously.

Gun ownership without training is completely insane. Why would anyone want this?

Blocklists are not a bad thing. I dealt with a number of them when I inherited an SMTP open relay 10 years ago or so. People tend to hate them because they rant at the (generally unpaid) people running the blocklist instead of taking steps to show they are mailing sanely. I configured my SMTP server and got the IP removed from all (and there are a lot of them) blocklists including a number with a reputation for being unreasonable. Politeness goes a lot further than ranting.

This guy may say what he's doing is normal and reasonable but it sounds as though he's blatantly spamming. If the guy does not want his stuff flagged as spam he should try sending e-mails with the same address people opted in for.

Hmm, the Apple 3, the Lisa (debatable), the Newton, initial iCloud release, near irrelevance before Jobs came back... I'm sure there are others. I expect them to be more frequent now that Steve Jobs is not around to flip out and shred poor designs and implementations. It is definitely not the first major Apple flameout.

I have an iphone and I like my iphone but I expect my next phone to be an android both because rooted linux should improve and because Apple will go downhill without Jobs (great designer, great QA, lousy manager; too bad mediocre managers are using his autobio to control freak for mediocrity).

I was able to earn enough in the summer to pay for college and beer (but not rent, lived at home, bought most of my own food, though) in the early '90s. Of course I'm in Quebec. Maybe you should try massive civil disobedience like students here (they protested school fee increases when they should have protested offshoring, but the government was aiming for the higher loans/higher fees cycle so the kids had a point).

Singapore tried to influence birth rates with some success, some failures. First they tried to lower it, and were successful, then they tried to raise it and were successful. They also tried to get educated and successful people to have more kids and poor uneducated people to have less and did not succeed.

Whether the overall birth rate was high or low the group with the most kids was "women who did not finish high school."

And the levies go to the artists of course. A whole 0% of them. Yup, the artists are totally taken care of.