On a LAN I usually try to go for the most primitive video mode possible (raw UDP frames) and it usually works, even Multicast. It's not efficient, but my LAN is usually way faster than it technically needs to be anyway.

Leon puts his hand in freezing liquid without a problem.

Pris puts her hand in boiling water without a problem.

You can argue whether they are "robots" based upon YOUR definition of "robot". But those are not human hands.

I'd be a little wary of USB/Serial adapaters. I've found a lot of them are really only designed to let you console into a Cisco or something. Start blasting them with Zmodem and they have an obnoxious tendency to lock up or even bluescreen your machine (even a Windows 7 machine). A better solution would be to find a medium-old desktop with a real Serial port on it an use a Null Modem cable there.

PCMCIA Ethernet would be by far the best solution (although good luck on the drivers) if you can find someone who has a dusty old card sitting around on a shelf somewhere, preferably with the still hopefully good driver floppy. Look for cards that don't have the bumps on the top of the connector.

If you watch the original with the understanding that Deckard is a replicant then the unicorn origami and the ending have specific, complex, implications.

Now if the sequel shows Deckard as a human then they piss off everyone who prefers those implications. So, in effect, the sequel ruins the story for some people.

If the sequel shows Deckard as an aged replicant ... robots get old? So replicant Deckard is either killed or kills or runs away again at the end. ALREADY BEEN DONE IN THE FIRST MOVIE!

The Linux fanboys can scream and curse me all they want, but time will prove me right.

Well obviously they're going to curse you. I mean you have just single-handedly ensured the demise of SteamOS by virtue of grumpily posting a pessimistic opinion on a nerdy discussion board. Because that's the way Cause And Effect works, right?

Seriously, a bit of perspective here?

I'm with you there... never mind the story, this layout sucks!

Btw: if you include something to this effect in the subject line, it'll show up in comment pages more often / earlier.

Whew, that means this 2013 Panasonic toughbook that has a 9 pin serial port on it does not exist!

Thanks for clearing that up.

LOW END laptops did away with the serial port, professional laptops still have them because people that do actual work with their laptops still use them,

You could just get yourself one of these adaptors from Amazon then copy the files directly from one HD to another...

If I'm the only one who can unlock your encrypted communications, then it's in my best interest to have everyone encrypt their communications, because then, I'll be the only one with total situation awareness.

It won't be in any of your interests, of course, because you'll be handing me my advantage on a silver platter... but you're all far too shortsighted to pay attention to such things.

Of course Obama and the NSA want you all using strong encryption. Stupid of you to give them what they want, though.

They remind me of an icon set that someone might have designed for an open source file manager 15 years ago. I'm actually ok with them, they seem to convey their meaning just fine, but the look is definitely a bit retro.

This is my #1 complaint with modern UIs: Elements that don't convey any hint of their function in their form. Buttons that are just text with no border. Dropdown menus that are just text or a uselessly generic icon (like Firefox's hamburger icon). Radio buttons and checkboxes that are just text. Invisible dividers that don't do a good job dividing different parts of the screen. It's the box of chocolates style of UI. Just tap everywhere and see what happens. I can't wait for this fad to pass. I'd love to just look at an interface and be able to discern how everything operates immediately like the old days.

Easy: make sure to elect only religious people as politicians. So they won't need to bother with science, and can base laws & regulations on holy books alone. While in the meantime, the rest of society can use actual science to discover how the world around us works (and improve our lives in the process).

Oh wait...

I see that no so much that the i7s were insane as desktop CPUs have hit a wall and per-core performance just doesn't increase much year over year. This is why Intel has been more aggressive about power savings and secondary features than scalar performance.

If you drive near the border you will see Aerostats already flying. The downside of Aerostats is that they're in a more or less fixed position so people can simply go around.

If 95%+ of scientists agree with each other ... and are NOT all paid by the same corporations ...

but the scientists who disagree with them ARE all (100%) paid by the same corporations ...

I think you're implying bias on the wrong side.