We're compelled to do this because we're compelled to spread ourselves out to cover as much territory as we can. The reason you don't get it is because you haven't realized that you (and all of us) are merely a vessel for DNA. DNA is looking to replicate and spread out and SURVIVE. Getting off the planet and on to multiple others will help with that a lot. Is there any habitable portion of the Earth left uninhabited? Have we (animals) not found ways (through intelligence and evolution) to inhabit those places previously though uninhabitable? So we have just dug a bit deeper. The question is no longer why go to mars. But why does the DNA care to survive so much?

Neither do my parents archive the entire collection of raw video data of my kid - but I do. Because, to me, it's worth while to watch 3 hours of my infant daughter rolling around on a blanket and chewing on her stuffed animals. It feels good to relive the moments of me playing with her at that age and seeing her react and respond to me. While I could live without that footage... well I'd just plain rather not.
Since this is a home backup solution we're talking about I think most of the data COULD be lost without extreme consequences... and so all of it would fall into that "I could live without it but I'd really rather not."

Do you have kids? If so, then I'm curious as to whether or not you've ever gone back to watch old videos of your children from when they were just days, weeks, months or a few years old. You can't stop watching it. The emotions that come bubbling up are undeniable. You want to hang on to three terabytes of video of your kids for _your own sake_ - not anyone else. Do you not have kids? If not then I recommend you not open your mouth on topics you've got no experience on. To the rest of us (with experience) it just makes it obvious how ignorant you are on the subject and, due to association, casts everything else you say into doubt.

I'm sorry to have to ask but what are you referring to? I did a google search but ... there is still public and free library in philadelphia!

I can't cite the source and I didn't even review the numbers - but I once read an article referencing research that shows most people make most trips of 3 miles or less by car. Perfectly bike-able distance (10 minutes or so). Get a bike. But your statement reminds me of the argument that pay-as-you-go data plans for cell phones are no good because power users would end up floating impossible bills while a lot of others would pay minimal fees every year. Current plans essentially have low-use customers subsidizing those who use more than their "fair share." It sucks either way - someone is going to pay more than they want to. I'm not sure how I feel. The whole problem I've always faced with car insurance is that you are paying knowing you're unlikely to be in an accident. I mean if you were likely to be in an accident they wouldn't insure you. It's a bummer, the whole insurance thing... no matter how you structure the price. Oh well.

...could explain this, at least partially. All things combined and considered I am not suprised that IE is accounting for only 56% of browsers reported. Were we limited to desktop only, that might be different.

I see a lot of you saying things like, "big deal," "this idea sucks," "just use batteries," etc. As though the current implementation is the final version of this technology. I'm surprised that, on /. of all places, you guys aren't thrilled that this implies in the near future you won't even notice this technology... it ought to just work. Instead you're all bashing it and claiming it's a bad/stupid idea and implying they ought to just scrap the whole project. I say - keep working on it, no matter how ugly those coils are, because I know sooner or later, I won't even see the coils anymore.

And therefore, profitable.

I had gotten rid of that IE add-on to quit whatever it was doing countless times, simply by disabling it via MSCONFIG

Off topic but - Wow, great story Scott! Do you have any other recommendations of good scifi on gutenberg? I really enjoyed the read :-)

Schools are _totally_ a business. I was an English tutor at my community college and my job was not to make sure that the other students understood the process of writing a good paper but to make sure they passed. Period. Push them through so the numbers look good.

But - it's gotta be rather trivial for google to add the ability to add equation capabilities - IE =sum(A:A+B:B) ala excel...

Oh well, that's called Web 2.0

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