Sure, the tapes themselves may be cheap. But the drives are quite expensive.

Is that before or after first sorting?

Sometimes i wonder of the robots in the Matrix was "evolution" of corporate HR automation...

a few decades and the kid would have been asked to do junior admin stuff after school.

Well Hollywood and Pentagon has a very cozy relationship when it comes to producing movies that put the US military in a good light.

http://www.shodanhq.com/ ?

I would be weary of RH these days. Ever since Oracle forked RHEL they have been trying to shore up their fief.

Dunno about practical.

I seem to recall reading that IBM or some other mainframe company tried to rent terminal time to individuals and companies.

But then the micro-computer happened along with the spreadsheet, and suddenly every accountant wanted a computer on his desk.

Not sure if they are dumb or just act dumb to try to excuse their decision making...

Instead they carry a backup battery that can also charge your mobile devices in the glove compartment.

Not sure what solution will prove more reliable down the road though.

In other words, 1984 didn't work so lets try Brave New World.

Or perhaps overlay Brave New World over the existing 1984 system, thus distracting the masses while making the "threats" easier to pick out as they refuse to indulge.

Not sure i would want to do room cleaning there...

In recent years the big backer of one particular variant of "Linux on the desktop" is the US military.

They seem to finally figure out that using Windows for things like cruisers are a no-go, and has adopted Linux as the replacement as they can then still shop around for hardware.

This is why we are getting all kinds of replacement for working subsystems, because they are not "secure" in the eyes of the military. Funny thing is that their enemy may well be their own troops more than anything else, as seen with Manning and Snowden.

It comes down to people not wanting to do janitorial stuff, but want the glitz and fame of making something new.

This is further compounded by the tech press fawning over changes and "new", resulting in the mentality that a project that is not introducing massive changes or new features constantly is a dead project.

This seems to be a offshot of the eternal growth mentality of Wall Street, where the moment a market segment (say Laptop computers) are not showing some quarterly growth it is all doom, gloom, and rats leaving sinking ships.

Good riddance. The show was a throwback to mentality that humanity should have left for dead with the 70s oil crisis.