Interesting. This issue seems to have about the same potential to form the subject of a religion war as, say, programming languages, IDEs, editors or OSes. Very interesting.

I use a Blackberry. A BB Bold, to be precise. It makes me look with pity upon iOS / Android / Windows Phone users. Security is tight, the OS is as stable as QNX ever was. Someone here complained about the thing getting hot when used for gaming. Heck - a BB is **not** a toy, you use it for doing business. Apps ? Over more than 2 years, I downloaded exactly 2, for very precisely described needs. All the rest I need ( email, contacts management, evernote, calendar, LinkedIn ) was **already** on the phone when I got it. If BB goes down, I'll have a major problem. If not, I'll be one of their staunchest supportes. But then again - I use NetBeans as an IDE, and drive a Saab :-)

"We were not missed before we came / when we'll be gone, it shan't be different". Anyone who realizes that, can happily set him- or herself such a limit as in TFA. Not a bad idea at all. My limit is the day I will be obliged to admit, honestly and only to myself, that I can't do productive work anymore. Wurscht if that is 60, 75 or 80.

Where are the fucking mod points when you need them... Mod parent up.

Nope. Not on one of my many Linux boxes. But I have it running on my sole, proud Solaris / Intel box :-P

Because Google Maps compares awfully with Open Street Maps and other mapping services. Moreover, Google has gained too much power, way too large a piece of real estate in the town called the Internet, and knows too much about too many of us. Google should be broken down into pieces, just like Bell once was.

I have a self-built server in an Antec tower case. It breathes out of the top ( the main inlets are front, behind the RAID controller, and one of the sides ). It stands on a table, and never has any problem with hair from the three dogs who regularly stalk around here, insects, etc. Only some dust, but that is normal.

that will break the entrenchment of Google Maps, or contributes to breaking it, shoudl get our well-deserved attention.

Nope. Not the western hemisphere, but rather the eastern. Humans came from Africa, which is in the half of the globe that has eastern longitude. From there, they spread to Asia and Europe, and from Asia to the Americas, the latter movement having been a rather recent event in human history ( less than 100.000 years ago ).

Boycot Amazon. I do, and a lot of people here in central Europe do ( although almost all of the boycotters do live in large cities, with easy access to book stores ). It is actually a physical delight to go, in persona, to a a book store, browse, take your time, and buy -- or place an order for something they don't have in stock. In the latter case, getting the phone call that "your book has arrived, Mr. Faustus" is delightful, too,

As a matter of fact, the simplest theories often - but not always - provide the best and most robust explantations. Your theory is the simplest forwarded yet....

This is an old house ( 100 years ) where I simply can't lay ethernet cables everywhere. So my girlfriend, with her laptop, is on WiFi, over a NetGear repeater in a 220V socket in... the bathroom. The rest of the devices which need internet access are on ethernet: the WiFi router is hooked to a 16-port switch ( got it as a gift from the friendly sysadmin when I was kicked out of my last job ), and from there ethernet to my 2 laptops, NAS, workstation and server, all on the patio which is my working place. SSID is actually RunterVonMeinemRasen ( "get off my lawn" in German ) :-)

jan@saturnus ~$ man popcorn

No manual entry for popcorn

I do, in some way. I think of Apollo and, especially, of Pallas Athena as of certain virtues / skills in human shape.

I have a Seiko watch that runs on solar power. It features day of the week, date, a stopwatch, an alarm, and a second time zone. Oh, and yes, I almost forgot: it looks good, too. So - thanks, but no, thanks.