Or they have taken Nixon's mad man thesis to the logical endpoint...

Also likely makes it that much harder to use smuggled in hardware to reach the outside world.

The /8 part may be a stretch, but it would not surprise me if they run the nation on the 10.x.x.x range (or at least the public facing stuff).

they can still nest the B and C ranges inside that, and you have to know your stuff to reach the outside world via smuggled in equipment. And such attempts probably sticks out like a sore thumb to the uniforms operating the national firewall.

Complete with giving said mules a one time code over the phone before the cash comes out.

This way they don't get any fancy ideas.

Was not one reason why mainframes was so highly valued that one could hotswap virtually anything without interrupting workflow?

USB has slightly longer contacts on the power pins for much the same reason.

The storage management on 4.4 is a mess, and 5.0 fixes "most" of it. Thought still wish i could give the mediascanner database and the storage access framework the middle finger, as it fixes none of the issues Google claims it fixes...

Echo that. I keep noticing "lifestyle ads" that indicate that to be "a proper person" you should spend half your day at some food market talking to the sellers about the aspects of the perfect head of lettuce etc, then the rest of it cooking up a late evening meal for your friends. Its like work don't exist.

But then it also seems like various upper class people have kids these days to show off how much free time they have to spend with them...

Also, "work" seems to involve hammering numbers into random spreadsheets and chatting up clients via phone calls. something that can be done anywhere with a power outlet and a cell signal.

I guess it could be considered the modern equivalent of the Victorian gentleman ideal of "retire with competence". Meaning the ownership of properties, stocks, or interest on savings, that has enough profits to cover lifestyle expenses.

Nanite deposited titanium weave?

Exoskeleton, no need to install anything.

If only. The whole concept hinges on there being mental tasks that only a human brain can perform.

Except that even the lower rungs of those are now being automated. Things like the task of sorting through the reams of paperwork that is the building block of a lawsuit. Normally a task of a near army of paralegals. These days you can get a computer to do it.

http://singularityhub.com/2011...

That was perhaps the Statute of Anne take. But the version we have now globally is that merged with the French "rights of the author". This is where the whole life+X comes from, as the French worried about the authors social rights. That is, the right to control in what context ones creation is used. Don't want your play or similar be associated with a certain dictator, deny anyone that want to use it in his honor. Never mind that those laws came into being when you were lucky to live past 40 with your health intact.

And therein lies the rub. We are no indoctrinated into the whole "for pay" mentality that we can't see the walls of the cell...

"there are five lights"

Yeah, the modern statistical definition of "unemployed" is "having been actively searching for work in the last week before survey, and is willing to take the first job that they find". If you don't fill those criteria then you are not statistically speaking unemployed, but at the same time you are not employed either. From the point of view of the unemployment statistics, you basically don't exist.

Bingo. The thing now is that paralegals etc can be automated by software. The "knowledge economy" is dud before it got off the ground. And not everyone that can swing a wrench should be allowed anywhere near customer relations...