You might have missed where it said it could take years to bring the other world sources back online, and the fact that they won't be able to produce enough to meet demand. Yes this very well could be about China helping to grow its own economy, but it is more likely about them thinking long term, great for them, bad for everyone else that needs these resources. The analogy is pretty spot on that this is going to put a crunch on things the same way the gas crisis of the 70's did, especially if fuel efficient cars double in price effectively making them worthless from a cost perspective. Even if the US mine is able to meet our demand, because it will take so long to get up and running there will be a huge crunch in the interim that could set the US and the rest of the world behind in developing new more efficient technologies. Just some food for thought...

Seriously, no sarcasm there. As long as there is some sort of underpinning to the whole thing ensuring that kids are in fact learning what they need to, this sort of structure can be really good. I know I had tons more fun, and probably learned more building houses with lego, putting together erector sets, going out camping, not to mention trips to the library and the local museum than I did most days in school. In fact, even as far as college is concerned I learned more in my internships than I ever did in a lab environment. So long as kids are doing, and there again is some guidance I think this is a great idea.

I'm sure that this is being done with good intentions. Ignoring abuse, consider the possibility of a DDOS attack launched from private compromised computers. My guess is that the intentions here are to be able to go in and shut those systems down mitigating an organized attack. With the growth of both organized crime as well as other nations in the field of computer based warfare, it seems like at least a sensible precaution to be able to defend ones self. The problem herein lies in potential abuse of these powers and if there is any accountability either before or after the fact. Imagine a different situation where post election violence erupted and the government began shutting down all avenues of communication including systems that run programs like twitter that donâ(TM)t need to be accessed directly from a computer. Not say it's fool proof but it could disrupt any sort of wide spread organization.

You mean to tell me the Internet really is a series of tubes?!

They are, while not quite as conclusive, there has been a decline in populations, and resources are being applied to monitor the situation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder#UK_Bee_database

It's going to shoot it to the moon! Or at least low earth orbit...

There's a reason I put it in quotes because I hate the term. What is likely here to stay is an increase in distributed computing, which is a much better phrase IMHO. My big point was more that IT professionals need to stay current to stay employed.

While "Cloud" computing is here to stay, it is a while off, and opens interesting problems with different legal requirements caused by regulations. How does SOX integrate with Cloud computing. As it stands currently, it really doesn't because there is a lack, or at least perceived lack of accountability. While I can agree that we will see more widespread rollouts in the next ten years, for those working at publicly traded companies or in Health Care, you can expect to see a lot of systems still in house, albeit virtualized and distributed, rather than off site. All this article really does, is reiterate the importance for any IT professional to stay current or move into management.

Just goes to show the old adage is true, there's a sucker born every minute...

Haha don't worry they're already gone, as am I for that matter, but still, he got the boot when new people got put at the top.

Title of this reply refers to what an old boss said, not any reality of truth. I worked for a public entity at one point, and the CIO was 110% against any sort of linux or "free" software, based on his notion that these free solutions could offer no support in times of trouble. Despite trying to explain that many larger distro's had enterprise editions that you could in fact get support for, plus a very large community of users that also could help support it, none of this would sway him away from his notion that if you weren't paying through the nose the product just wouldn't be up to standards. What a joke!

Considering how simple by today's terms the computer was, plus the fact that it couldn't handle all the input anyway leaving the astronauts to essentially land the craft without any assistance. Not to say the computers didn't help with all the other extraordinary feats that were accomplished, but it goes to show that relying solely on computers especially in essentially untested conditions can be dangerous and foolish.

As hard as it is to accept censorship, at the same time, do you really want to make a stand over child porn? It's a rough spot, because it does open the door to more censorship, and if it isn't stopped now it won't ever be able to be stopped, but at the same time this is a really sneaky way of doing it because of the subject mater and the general publics view on it.